316 



POOR-LAWS 



five years' payment, the old age pension after thirty 

 years' payment and after the age of sixty. Where 

 the wages are below 350 marks the emit dilution is 

 14 pfennige per week. The disability pension 

 starts from a minimum of 60 marks, to which the 

 state adds 50 marks, the balance depending on the 

 number of weekly contributions made. The old 

 age pension is only 106 '40 marks, or about 5, 10s. 

 for the lowest class of salary. The grave diffi- 

 culties of this scheme ( which came into operation 

 on 1st January 1891 ) are snlliciently obvious : 

 ( 1 ) the workman has to keep a card-register all 

 through life; (2) the employer has to submit to 

 inspection, and to contribute a fixed mini for all 

 wages under a certain figure; (3) the aim mil 

 charge to the state is expected to exceed 4,000,000 

 sterling. 



A comparison of the statistics of poor-law admin- 

 istration for England and Wales in 1872 and 1889 is 

 interesting and encouraging. In 1872, the popula- 

 tion ( 1871 ) of England and Wales being 22,712,266, 

 there were 977,200 paupers, of whom 150,930 were 

 able-bodied adults. The total cost of poor relief 

 was 8,007,403, while the rateable value of pro- 

 perty assessed was 107,398,242. In 1889, the 

 population ( 1891 ) being 29,001,018, the correspond- 

 ing figures were : paupers, 817,190, of whom 104,817 

 were able-bodied adults ; cost, 8,232,472 ; pro- 

 perty assessed, 139,636,307. The burden had 

 diminished from Is. 5Jd. to Is. Hd. per 1 (see 

 VAGRANTS). 



In Scotland in 1890, the population ( 1891 ) being 

 4,033,103, the paupers were 92,324; the expend i- 

 ture, including buildings, was 874,389, contributed 

 to the extent of 76*8 by assessment, and grants 

 in .aid 17 "6, being at the rate of 4s. 4d. per head of 

 population, anil Is. 6d. lower than in England. 

 The cost of the lunatic poor rapidly increases. In 

 Ireland, the population in 1891 lieing 4,706,162, the 

 average daily number, in 1890, of paupers in the 

 workhouses was 43,536, and on outdoor relief 

 62,286, together 105,822. In 1889 the total expendi- 

 ture on poor relief was 853,912. It would be mis- 

 leading to draw inferences from these figures with 

 respect to the condition of the respective countries, 

 as the practical details of poor relief vary greatly. 



In America the system is on the whole similar to 

 the British. Every man is entitled by law to relief 

 from the town of his settlement, the rate being 

 assessed on whole towns, and not on parishes. 

 The states have their own poor-laws, but paupers 

 are removable from one state to another. Thus, in 

 Massachusetts the unit of poor-law administration 

 is the town or city, comprising in each case the 

 surrounding rural district ; while in New York the 

 unit, generally speaking, is the county. These 

 areas bear the burden of the settled poor ; the 

 unsettled poor (including Indians) are a charge 

 upon the state. In New York one year's residence 

 is sufficient to constitute a settlement. The policy 

 in Massachusetts has been to encourage outdoor 

 i lief as being more economical, and for this reason 

 to facilitate settlement. Anv American Ix-onm- 

 ing a pauiwr loses his state rights. The acts eon 

 cerning Workhouses and Paupers in the Revised 

 Code of Massachusetts maybe taken to represent 

 generally the state of the law throughout the 

 Union. The former provides ' that any town may 

 erect or provide a workhouse for the employment 

 anil -iiji|H>rt of all poor and indigent persons thnt 

 are maintained by, or receive alms from, the 

 town ; all |>orMons who, Ix-ing able to work, and 

 not having moans to maintain themselM 

 or neglect to work; all persons who live a disso- 

 lute vagrant life, and exercise no ordinary calling 

 or lawful business ; and all such persons as spend 

 their time and property in public-houses, to the 

 neglect of their proper business, or by otherwise mis- 



spending what they earn, to the impoverishment of 

 themselves and their families, are likely to become 

 r/niryeable to the town or tin OMHMMHMOlM.' The 

 idle and the vagrant may lie com mil ted to the work- 

 house, and kept to labour, as in a house of correc- 

 tion. There are provisions for enforcing the claims 

 of kindred and for the immediate relief of strangers. 

 The administration is in the hands of overseers, but 

 the counties elect superintendents, holding office 

 for three years, who are again responsible to a 

 Board of Supervisors. The New York State Board 

 of Charities contracts with the counties for the 

 housingin almshonses of certain classes of the state 

 poor. The State Boards have large general pov 

 of supervising the whole charitable, reformatory, 

 and correctional system of the commonwealth, and 

 report annually to the legislature on such questions. 

 These hoards are mainly nominated by the gover- 

 nor. Their functions and the results achieved are 

 descrilted in Mr Sanborn's Report to the Massa- 

 chusetts Centennial Commission, 1st February 1876, 

 and in the Iteport by Mr Henley to the Local 

 Government Board in June 1877 (Parliamentary 

 Papers, vol. xxxvii.), on the Poor-laws of certain of 

 the Uniteci States, and on the combination there 

 of private charity with otlicial relief. The Massa- 

 chusetts state workhouse and almshouse arc at 

 Bridgewater and Tcwksbury respectively ; the most 

 important establishment in New York state is 

 on Black well's Island, (lenerally the American 

 system is marked by a high decree of classification, 

 variety of work, special educational methods, and 

 liberal treatment in this matter of diet. In the 

 city of Boston, under special statutes, the author- 

 ity of overseers is large! v superseded by a 'Board 

 of Directors for Public Institutions." The former 

 practice of levying a small poll-tax on poor immi- 

 grants was decided by the case of Henderson <. 

 Wickham (1876) to IK-' illegal. With reference to 

 the efforts made by voluntary associations to assist 

 and develop the working of the poor-law in 

 America, Mr Henley reports that this cannot 

 properly be done except under a well-considered 

 regulation having the force of law, and a paid stall' 

 of otlicers acting under the orders of representative 

 and responsible administrators, controlled by in- 

 dependent auditors. 



There is no poor-law in the Australian colonies, 

 but benevolent asylums for the intirm and destitute 

 have become general, and hospitals are numerous 

 in all the rising towns. 



See Sir F. M. Eden, The State of the Poor (1797); 

 Bockh'a Public Economy of Athrnt, translated by Sir G. 

 C. Lewis (2d ed. 1842) ; Sir (Jcn^e Nicholla, History of 

 the J'oor-lata ( 1854-66 ); Knuningham, Dai Armenwaen 

 vrut die Armniiinetzpebunii in den turopaitehen Staatrn 

 (licrl. 1870) ; Poor Relief in different partt of Europe, 

 revised by E. R Eastwic'k (1873); Fowle, The Poor-law 

 ( 1882 ; new ed. 1890 ) ; Glen, The Poor-law Statute? ( 1873- 

 79), and General Ordert of the Poor-late Committionert 

 (10th ed. 1KH7) : Archbold," Tin I'uw-l.nr i n, w c,l. IKN; | ; 

 for Scotland, the IHyetti of Smith (IssO) and Kcid 

 ( 1JWO); Mills, Porcrt.v vftheSta te( IKs7);. I. -*.<),\<. AW/.H 

 (1887); Awjhrott <A ]',u,r-i 



in,'/ /'.' , nl (trans. 1SS8); (Win. '/'.'. i /V, r-Imm nf tin 

 Hut, o/JVrw York (Albany, ISs"); work- <M tlu jor- 

 law of France by I{citxenntcin (U-ip. 1.V1 ), of Germany 

 by Munntcrberg ( 18*7 ), and of Aimtna by Miaohler ( 1890); 

 Pint and Sixth Report* of the Poor-law Commission 

 (1834 and IK'C.I), Annual KenorU of Poor-law and Ixxal 

 Government Hoards; Reports on Poor-laws in Foreign 

 Countries in Parliamentary Papera, 1875 ; the work* on 

 the poor by Mr Charlen Booth (18111-97); Gertrude 

 I.nbWk. .Vo'm. 1'iior/lilirf QumliiiH- ' ; 906 : W. < hi 

 I'h' llilhr Administration of tin l;*,r - // ( 189<>) ; nml 

 in regard to old age pensions, the majority and minority 

 ii(1895)of the commission appointed in IS!*. 1 !; and 

 (J.I )rage, The ProUen of the Agrd Poor ( 1896 ) ; also the 

 article* on CHARITT, INSANITY, INSUHANCK, MKMII- 

 <-.\VY, VAGRANTS, WOHKIIOCHK. 



