ON But apart from the work of the Poor Law adminisdtrators and charitable effort, there was an even more ch remarkable result of the work of the Poor Law Comy missioners, and that was the revival of the spirit of independence in the working classes. This took shape d in the form of organisations which dealt with every fraction of the social problem. The Friendly Societies for (descendants of the old Guilds) provided against sickness, ha accident, burial expenses, and in some cases, old age; sh building societies enabled workmen to become proprietors of their own houses; co-operative societies pro!vided them with the necessaries of life, such as food and clothing, of good quality at reasonable prices; while Trade Unions not only enabled them to negotiate on equal terms with their employers to maintain a proper standard of life, but insured them against sickness, accident, unemployment, and old age. These associaestions did more, they educated the working classes in business and public affairs and enabled them to understand the functions of capital, for they became capitalists on a large scale. At the end of the century the funds at the disposal of these societies amounted to not less than 126,000,000l., and the total assets of the wage-earning classes were reckoned to amount in savings' banks, etc., to not less than 300,000,000.

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The value of depauperisation which strict administration of the Poor Law had produced, for instance, in the Bradfield union, and the contemporaneous increase of friendly society membership, formed a text on which Mr T. Shelley, one of the heads of the Ancient Order of Foresters, delivered an address in 1898.

'What a boon to the worker! What an immense step towards independence of the true calibre! I would venture to urge upon you the duties of all who have at heart the best interests of friendly societies, to do all in their power to improve the local administration of the Poor Law, to remember you can have just as many paupers as you choose to pay for, and that to assist from the rates when application is made, just because it is made, may mean the damning of an individual's whole life to the recipient, and instead of an independent self-restrained man, you may make him a rate-dependent creature.'

After pointing to the fact that members of Friendly

Societies rarely come upon the rates, he bluntly asks, 'What sent up Friendly Society funds by leaps and bounds?-Fear of the Poor Law. What has kept it down in recent years ?-The discovery of a lax and easily satisfied administration.' A few years before, in 1894, Mr John Burns had been equally outspoken:

'Every loafer at the street corner who lives on it, says, Three Cheers for out relief. I have always been against it except when administered with the greatest rigidity and given to the right people. It [out relief] means the complete prostitution and degradation of those whom we ought to raise and educate by better means.'

In the same year (1894) the Royal Commission on Labour brought its vast inquiry to an end. Its evidence not only showed the fallacies of the highly educated Socialist leaders by cross-examining them on their evidence, but it also demonstrated how the beneficent movement of thrift and self-help already embraced all the skilled and was bringing in also the unskilled into its ranks. Mr Ludlow, the famous registrar of the Friendly Societies, could say in his evidence, 'Now the black spots in the country may I think almost be counted on the fingers. In former days it was nearly all black but with few white spots.'

What was it intervened to prevent the further development in the right direction? Two things. Socialism, and that mixture of socialism and water which is known to politicians as Social Reform. The Socialist doctrines were for the time exploded owing to the poor figure cut by their witnesses before the Labour Commission, but unexpected allies were already at work among the politicians who saw in Socialist programmes a means of winning elections.

The first breach in the edifice erected by the Poor Law report of 1834 was effected by the transfer of some of the able-bodied poor in the shape of the unemployed from the Guardians to other authorities in 1886. The second was the remission of school fees by the Education Act of 1890, which was carried to give the poor more money to feed and clothe their children. Then came a halt, but at the beginning of the century, from 1905, the new views prevailed. In 1905 the Unemployed

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Workmen's Act was carried, in 1906 the Provision of Meals (Children) Act, in 1907 the Education Administrative Provisions Act, in 1908 the Old-Age Pensions nde Act, in 1911 the National Health Insurance Act, which was followed by the National Unemployment Insurance Act. Then came the War with its vast and inevitable outpouring of public money on the just and unjust, it and the subsequent development of the Housing Acts ag and the Uncovenanted and Extended Unemployment dity Benefit which amounted to outdoor relief under another Co name, often without inquiry and hardly ever with anyong thing like a proper case paper system.

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In January 1913, when the outlines of the new Gospel had become clear, I pointed out the enormous growth of public expenditure on direct public assistance, and adverted to the fact that it was taking place under different and entirely unconnected public departments without any systematic and complete control which would present the whole in a form intelligible to the general public. Moreover, the total expenditure appeared not to be always appreciated, and certainly was not exactly known either to the heads of the great departments or the leading statesmen of either party. Consequently, I suggested an annual return, and eventually obtained it from Parliament by the help of members of all shades of political opinion. It was a first step towards efficiency and the elimination of waste.

From that return and from other public documents and statements, the following figures emerge as to the expenditure of the United Kingdom on public assistance: 1890, 25,000,000Z.; 1906, 39,000,000Z.; 1911, 69,000,000Z.; 1921, 332,000,000l., including 99,000,000l. for War Pensions and 97,300,000 for Education; 1924, 458,000,000l. On the top of this, in 1924 a Housing Act was passed which, according to the calculation of the 'Times,' involved the country in a capital liability of more than 600,000,000%. sterling, and in 1925 a further Bill granting larger Old-Age Pensions and making special provision for Widows was passed. This last Bill, according to the Statist,' involves the country in an ultimate liability of 754,000,000l., and employers and employed in an ultimate liability of 346,000,000. That is, in 1924 and 1925 the credit of the country was pledged to a total of 1,700,000,000l., in

addition to all the previous expenditure. The actual annual expenditure owing to these last liabilities has not begun to develop, but as the public has become accustomed to thinking in millions, it is desirable to point out that the total National Debt before the War only amounted to 660,000,000l. From the armistice till Nov. 13, 1926, 62,443,000l. were paid in out-of-work donation and 275,157,0007. in unemployed benefit.

The point with which we are next concerned is the effect of all this vast outpouring of money on public relief on expenditure under the Poor Law, for we were led to believe at each step that pauperism was to be abolished and with it destitution. It turned out that the Poor Law was the crutch on which the new system had to depend at every step. Overlapping was universal. The expenditure on the Poor Law in 1913-14 was 12,060,000l. and in the last recorded year ending March 31, 1926, 39,500,000l. Outdoor relief alone cost 15,326,7427. in the year ending March 31, 1926, and 46,000,000l. from the armistice to Sept. 25, 1926.

The most striking figures are those with regard to London. The expenditure on out relief alone for the year ending March 31, 1914, was 206,9561.; for the year ending March 31, 1921, it was 639,9037.; and for the year ending March 31, 1926, 3,120,3787.; the actual rise in the last year exceeding the total amount spent under this head in 1921. The number of outdoor paupers in March 1913 was 30,898; in March 1921, 74,636; and in March 1926, 177,012; in October 1926, 177,227. It is largely a matter of administration, for Fulham and Poplar are both riparian unions with the same population and rateable value, yet on March 27, 1926, Fulham had 1816 persons receiving out relief and Poplar 28,709.* It is interesting, by the way, to compare Poplar and West Ham. On March 27, 1926, one person in five was receiving relief in Poplar, and one in eleven in West Ham. The administration of Poplar has been a scandal for the last

* If in addition to the population and rateable value of the two unions an examination is made of the occupations, the Factory Returns, the mortality, the indoor relief, housing, etc., it will be found that on the whole the economic and social position is rather worse in Fulham than in Poplar, though in housing the result is slightly to the advantage of Fulham. The figures are before me, but are too elaborate for this article.

twenty years, but no Minister has yet dared to bell the cat.' The new system of Public Assistance is now inextricably involved with the Poor Law and has taken a line distinct from the Poor Law in its administration, for while a very large proportion of the population of the metropolitan area receive public assistance in some form or another, it is the exception and not the rule for such assistance to be given by a directly elected authority. For example:

1. The baby before and after birth may be aided either by officers of voluntary associations or of the local sanitary authority.

2. The school child is aided by the officers of the county authority and by voluntary workers who are appointed by that authority to serve on its care committee, or as its school managers.

3. If a child becomes tubercular he comes under a mixed committee of persons elected to the local sanitary authority and voluntary workers appointed to the committee.

4.* After he leaves school his guidance into industry may be entrusted to a juvenile employment committee appointed by the Ministry of Labour or the Education Committee working through a juvenile employment committee which it appoints.

5. After sixteen he receives National Health Insurance benefit through the approved societies and partly provided by public funds.

6. Unemployment benefit comes from a committee appointed by the Ministry of Labour.

7. The important work of dealing with infectious diseases is undertaken by an indirectly elected body, the Metropolitan Asylums Board.

8. Victims of a street accident are usually succoured by a voluntary institution, the hospital.

9. War pensions are administered by an appointed committee.

10. The treatment of lunatics is undertaken by a committee of the County Authority.

11. Mental defectives come under a voluntary associa

* Cf. Report of the Committee on Education published in December 1926. Taking England and Wales 376,700 juveniles appear to be under the Local Education Authorities and 465,000 under the Ministry of Labour.

Vol. 248.-No. 491.