94 ADMINISTRATIVE SECTION 



town of Bristol, and help to improve the health conditions 

 of that particular town. He believed that some readjust- 

 ment on those lines would give encouragement to the local 

 authorities who were anxious to improve the conditions 

 existing, but who at present were crippled through the 

 financial position in which they were. 



Mr. JOSEPH PLUMMER (Bermondsey Guardians) hoped 

 the Conference would forgive him if he was not so fluent 

 as he would wish, but there were one or two observations 

 he wished to make. At the time the President of the Local 

 Government Board was making his opening speech he (Mr. 

 Plummer) would have liked to have asked him this question 

 why is it that the local authorities had no power to 

 administer relief, only in kind, while men were out on 

 strike ? On the occasion of the last strike at the water-side 

 there were numerous cases of poor women, with seven and 

 eight children, who had to be dependent on what they got 

 from private sources, such as from the Daily Mail, the Daily 

 Chronicle, the Daily Graphic, and several other newspapers 

 which collected money and distributed it by agents amongst 

 the poor who were suffering through the strike. Now he 

 thought it was a very wrong thing indeed that the people 

 should have to rely upon public charity. As a guardian 

 he thought that the guardians ought to have power to be 

 able to administer relief to women and children. They 

 could not do that now unless the men would go into the 

 workhouse. If the men would go into the workhouse they 

 could give the children and the wife Poor Law outdoor 

 relief, but the men would not go into the workhouse because 

 they wanted to be about amongst their fellows. In all 

 strikes there were a great many men who were unwilling 

 to come out but they were obliged to do so, and there 

 was very great hardship amongst the women and children, 

 who were deprived of the necessities of life. It was a very 

 hard thing if they could not relieve such women and children 

 by money unless the husband went into the workhouse. 

 There was another point he wished to mention. If a man 

 took care to insure his life and belonged to a society and 

 he died and the wife was left she had to give a good account 

 of the money which she received from the insurance com- 

 pany. She had to give an account of how she spent that 

 money, and when there were seven or eight children, and 

 she had a paltry sum of i or 305., she had to tell the 

 guardians how she had expended it. He had a case only 

 a short time ago where a poor woman had 305. from a 

 society. As the guardians were on holiday they could not 

 give her anything the only thing they could do was to 



