380 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. 



perhaps not. But if it must be so, better a hundred loafers than a 

 thousand starving; and if my main proposal or something equally 

 effective is adopted, the loafers will soon be disposed of. I have 

 thought over this plan of free bread for a couple of years, and I now 

 believe that all the difficulties may be easily overcome. In the first 

 place, all who want it, all who have not money to buy wholesome 

 food, must be enabled to get this bread with the minimum of trouble. 

 There must be no tests, like those for poor-law relief. A decent 

 home with good furniture and good clothes must be no bar; neither 

 must the possession of money, if that money is required for 

 rent, for coals, or for any other necessaries of life. The bread 

 must be given to prevent injurious penury, not merely to alleviate it. 

 Whenever a man (or woman) is out of work from no fault of his 

 own, however good wages he earns when in work, he must have a 

 claim to bread. The bread is not to be charity, not poor-relief; but 

 a rightful claim upon society for its neglect to so organize itself that 

 all, without exception, who have worked, and are willing to work, 

 or are unable to work, may at the very least have food to support 

 life. 



Now for the mode of obtaining this bread. All local authorities 

 shall be required to prepare bread tickets, duly stamped and num- 

 bered, of a convenient form, with coupons to be detached, each rep- 

 resenting a four-pound loaf. These tickets are to be issued in suitable 

 quantities to every policeman, to all the clergy of every denomina- 

 tion, to all medical men, and to such other persons as may be willing 

 to undertake their distribution and are considered to be trustworthy. 

 Any person in want of food, on applying to any of these distributors, 

 is to be given a coupon for one loaf (initialled or signed by the giver) 

 without any question whatever. If the person wants more than one loaf, 

 or wishes to have one or more loaves a day for a week or a month, 

 he or she must give name and address. The distributor, or some 

 deputy, will then pay a visit during the day, ascertain the facts, give 

 a suitable number of bread tickets, and, if needful, as in case of sick- 

 ness or delicate health, obtain further relief from charitable persons 

 or from any funds available for the purpose. 



Now there are only two possible objections to this method of tem- 

 porarily stopping starvation while more permanent measures are 

 preparing. The first is that it would pauperize; the next, that, as 

 wages tend to sink to the minimum for bare subsistence, it would 

 still further lower wages, so that it would then become needful to 

 give coals free, and a little later rent free, till wages were reduced 

 to the Scriptural penny a day, and the whole of the unskilled 



