396 



The Review of Reviews. 



best of those who have, would suggest to those who 

 have not the possibility of compelling the unwilling 

 wealthy to qualify themselves for passing through the 

 eye of a needle by renouncing their worldly goods and 

 embracing the lo\ely bride Poverty. 



11. — The Definition of Poverty. 



Last month I noticed a letter in one of the news- 

 papers suggesting that the State, in the interest of the 

 whole community, should limit the maximum, as well 

 as define the minimum, of the wages paid to human 

 beings for the service that they rendered to their fellow- 

 men. What with progressive income tax, death duties, 

 and other fiscal methods of modern times, there seems 

 to be a reasonable prospect that most of those who 

 have will be compelled to practise the doctrine of 

 renunciation. 



THE ROWNTREE MINIMUM. 



But it is the minimum which most imperatively 

 needs definition, for on it depends what we are to 

 understand by poverty. Mr. Seebohm Rowntree in 

 his book on poverty in York, following along the road 

 opened up by Mr. Charles Booth, has supplied for 

 Great Britain this long-felt desideratum. His con- 

 clusions may be thus summarised : — 



Physical life requires certain supplies of air, food, clothing 

 and shelter. Hctisivi; includes air and shelter. So the lowest 

 limit of consumption must include the proper feeding, clothing 

 and housing of the human animal. 



According to the experts quoted by .Seebohm Rowntree in his 

 book on poverty in York, the lowest quantity of air required is 

 that " each person should have as a minimum Soo cubic feet of 

 space for himself,'' that is, nearly a cube of lo feet. 



Of foot/, a man is declared by experts to require daily 125 

 grammes, or 4*4 ounces of protein (stuff which goes to form 

 muscle and tissue) ; and 3,500 calories of energy value — that is, 

 the amount of potential energy required to raise 35 kilogrammes 

 of water from zero to 100 degrees Centigrade — that is, nearly 

 ^ cwt. of water from freezing to boiling point. Of this le>west 

 limit of daily food for a man, a woman requires eight-tenths, a 

 boy fourteen to sixteen eight-tenths, a girl fourteen to sixteen 

 seven-tenths, a child ten to thirteen six-tenths, a child six to 

 nine five-tenths, a child two to five four-tenths, under two 

 three-tenths. 



Clothivg Q3Xi hardly be computed with equal success. 



Mr. kowntree's conclusion as to the minimum necessary 

 expenditure at York was in 1901 as follows : — 



Cloliies and 

 Food. Rent. Houscliold Sundries. Total, 



s. d. 6. d. 5. d. s. d. 



One man 3 o ... I 6 ... 2 6 ... 7 o 



One woman ... 3 o ... I 6 ... 2 6 ... 7 o 

 One man, I 



One woman, J... 12 9 ... 4 o ... 4 11 ... 21 8 

 Three children) 



In October, 191 1, Mr. Rowntree says that 23s. 8d. is llie 

 absolute limit on which a family of five, paying 55. for rent, can 

 be maintained in a state of physical efficiency. 



This then may be taken as the lowest limit of weekly expen- 

 diture necessary to maintain merely physical efficiency in the 

 United Kingdom. 



Poverty may be defined as the consumption of less than the 

 irreducible minimum of wealth required by the Imperative 

 Standard for the maintenance of elfieiency in the human animal ; 

 or, more explicitly, the consumption of less than the eiuantities 

 of air, food, clothes, houseroom necessary to maintam unim- 

 paired the animal vitality of man — which in the case of a man, 

 hiswifeand three youngchildren can barely l)e obtained, according 

 to Mr. Rowntrcc's estimate, by an outlay of 23s. Sd. per week. 



III. — The Mi.xtMUM Wage. | 



The attitude of the Unionist Party towards thd 

 demand for a minimum wage is discussed in thq 

 Forlnighlly Review by " Curio," who writes on " The 

 Unionist Programme." According to him, that proi 

 gramme consists of (i) Tariff Reform, (2) Reform oC 

 the House of Lords, (3) Housing Reform, and (4) al 

 minimum wage. The workers, "Curio" truly saysj 

 are convinced that the profits of Tariff Reform willl 

 never reach their pockets. Therefore he plumps for 

 a minimum wage secured by Act of Parliament. He^ 

 says : — 



The only proof which can be given is the establishment of a 

 minimum wage in all those industries which the Tariff aft'ects. 

 It is obvious that the establishment of such a system must be a 

 matter of time and experience — of a great deal of experience and 

 of a very long time too. ]3ut in the long run Toryism w il] 

 commit itself, and must commit itself, to the view that a decent 

 wage, say of 24s. a week and upwards, must be secured to every 

 industrial worker, in the interests of national health, economy, 

 efficiency and security. 



."THE TRUE PATH TO HEAVEN!" 



Mr. H.welock Ellis, in a thoughtful e.ssay in 

 the Contemporary Review on " Individualism and 

 Socialism," says : — 



There can be no Socialism without Individualism ; there can 

 be no Individualism without Socialism. Only a very line 

 development of personal character and individual responsibility 

 can bear up any highly elaborate social organisation. 



Which explains and justifies the reluctance of most 

 men to adopt the Socialist nostrums. We are not 

 sufficiently individualised to be satisfactory Socialists. 

 The true path to the kingdom of Heaven, Mr. Ellis 

 tells us, is labelled " Eugenics " : — 



If the entry into life is conceded more freely to the weak, the 

 incompetent and the defective than to the strong, the efticient 

 and the sane, then a Sisyphean task is imposed on society ; foi 

 every burden lifted two more burdens appear. But as individual 

 responsibility becomes developed, as we approach the time to 

 which Galton looked forward, when the eugenic care for the 

 race may become a religion, then social control over life 

 becomes possible. Through the slow growth of knowledgi 

 concerning hereditary conditions, by voluntary self-restraint, I); 

 the final disappearance of the lingering prejudice against th 

 control of procreation, by sterilisation in special cases, b; 

 methods of pressure which need not amount to actual compul 

 sion, it will be possible to attain an increasingly firm grip on the 

 evil elements of heredity. Not until such measures as these, 1 

 under the guiding inlluence of a sense of personal responsibility! 

 extending to every member of the community have long beenj 

 put into practice, can we hope to ^ec Man, no longer embodied 

 in sweltering heaps that arc forced to prey on one another, but 

 risen to his full stature, healthy in body, noble in spirit, 

 beautiful in both alike, moving spaciously and harmoniously 

 among his fellowsin the great world of Nature. 



I 



The art of Dante Gabriel Rossetti, as reviewed by 

 Austin Chester, forms the feature of the April number 

 of Windsor. The frontispiece is a coloured reprodue 

 tion of Rossetti's " Dante's Dream." There are sixteen 

 other reproductions of the painter's work. Mr. S. L 

 Bensusan sketches with portrait the chief stars ol 

 London's musical season. 



