|K D i ' 3310 i Z9 I, D68 >|1911 MAIN UC-NRLF A COMMENT ON The Poor Law Proposals of the Executive Committee of the County Councils Association Postscript to Memorandum BY SIR ARTHUR DOWNES, M.D. Written for the new edition of the RIGHT HON. CHAS. BOOTH'S VOLUME ON POOR LAW REFORM S^35oBiSS POSTSCRIPT The advent of the scheme of the Executive Committee of the County Councils Association adds to the danger that, in the contentions of rival plans for new machinery, the fundamental question may be overlooked. Is it necessary, beyond doubt, that the existing machinery of the Poor Law should be broken up and replaced by a revolutionary embarkation on untried experiment ; or, can it be reformed on lines of actual experience ? There are many, whose practical knowledge of these difficult problems entitles them to a hearing, who hold that this question of necessity has not been proved, and, indeed, has not yet been impartially considered. For my own part, I have no hesitation in my conviction that by reform, as opposed to revolution, we should not only advance more surely and safely, but in the end we should arrive at a more perfect advance- ment. I trust, therefore, that those, and there must be many such, who desire to make a beginning may not be tempted to accept too hastily the new scheme of the County Councils Association, a scheme which has yet to be endorsed by the Councils themselves. Whether they will welcome a system modelled on the costly and laborious machinery of the Education Act of 1902 remains to be seen. As presented to the public this scheme is marked by great gaps which will need to be filled in before any final opinion of its practicability in detail could be given. But, dealing only with its salient proposals, I think 1 may fairly say that " it does not solve the problem of the great urban populations where need for reform is greatest, while it threatens a maximum of disturbance 4 POOR LAW PROPOSALS to the rural districts where need is least pressing." By the proposed distribution of some classes to the Govern- ment, some to the Education Committee, and some to the Medical Officer of Health, it advances far on the road of those whose object is the " break-up of the Poor Law." But in thus following the lead of the Minority Report, the scheme would deteat its own object of classification. My experience has taught me that there are hardly any definite lines of cleavage between the classes dealt with in the administration of public relief; the able-bodied and the disabled, the sick and the healthy, the feeble-minded and the imbecile on the one hand or the sane on the other, blend imperceptibly. Classification can only be effectually carried out in the hands of a single authority. The alternatives of the Minority Report and of the County Councils Association are in reality a classification of Authorities which would tend only to complicate the sorting out of the persons dealt with by them. And when the question involves the incidence of cost — whether it shall fall on the Imperial Exchequer or on local rates — where will the line be drawn in allocating the abJe-bodied, the unemployed and the vagrant } This is altogether apart from the proposal that a Department of Government should undertake the treat- ment of these classes. What local machinery such a Department could set up for such a purpose does not appear, but it is difficult to believe that with full knowledge of the possibilities of political embarrass- ment involved, the Legislature would consent to thus entangle the Imperial Government in these obligations of local administration. So also with the sick : these are to be placed under the " medical officers of health." And here, as in the Minority Report, the principles and services of a Sanitary Police seem to be confused with those of Public Assistance. These services are and can be well defined : POOR LAW PROPOSALS 5 their fusion would be detrimental to the efficiency of both and to the public welfare. The signatories of the Minority Report, however, are so far consistent that they would apparently enforce their assistance or public relief on the unwilling by searching them out. Turning to Mr. Booth's Memoranda, now reprinted, it appears to have been assumed by some that these, originally submitted by Mr. Booth to his fellow Com- missioners as tentative suggestions for discussion, repre- sent a hard-and-fast scheme of settled detail. Mr. Booth has already warned his readers against such a conclusion, and it is well that this should be borne in mind. The essence of his proposals is that we should con- tinue the policy of grouping units of administrative areas for such general or special purposes as local needs may require. Those who have any doubt of the advantage of this over the county or county borough schemes of area should study Mr. Booth's maps. The problem of Lancashire and of the West Riding may be specially commended to them. The principle adopted was the keynote of the Metro- politan Poor Act of 1867, and it is to be hoped that no final decision as to future legislation will be arrived at without a careful examination of the more than forty years' experience of the departure then taken by Mr. Gathorne Hardy. It may not be generally known that — taking only a sub-division of their work — the Metro- politan Asylums Board have now under admirable care, and with infinite classification, approximately four thou- sand poor-law children (exclusive of those certified of unsound mind) ; that during the last five years, although this work has doubled, they have not raised a loan for any purpose. So satisfactory, indeed, is their present financial position that within the same period they have 6 POOR LAW PROPOSALS paid ofF nearly one million pounds of their outstanding debt, and within eleven years from now will have cleared the remaining 2^^ millions if no new obligations are put upon them. I attribute this achievement firstly to the advantage which a single authority for various classes of public assistance has in adapting its accommodation to special needs as the occasion may require, thereby avoid- ing the waste which must attend a multiplication of authorities to take the different classes. Secondly, to a recognition of the fact that a great administrative body must depend on its own constitution for an effectual financial control. The idea that such a control could be applied by another body or by an independent com- mittee, as contemplated by the County Councils Asso- ciation, would be found in practice both ineffective and productive of friction. I give this illustration of work within my own know- ledge, because the recent history of the Metropolitan Asylums Board is not generally well known, and because it affords an actual example of the principle which underlies Mr. Booth's suggestions. Whether the precise details of the machinery set up by the legislation of 1867 should be followed is a secondary matter on which I express no opinion : the degree of its elaboration would certainly depend on the areas to which it was applied. The point which I desire to emphasize, and which Mr. Booth can fairly claim, is that the framework which he has designed is one which might be adjusted and filled in to any desired degree. ARTHUR DOWNES. February i;^th, 191 1. '^.J