Comparison 



34 THE MURDER OF AGRICULTURE 



Denmark, with a population of 2,588,919, spends 

 about £464,000. 



Italy, with a population of 32,966,307, spends about 

 £1,240,000, although, strictly speaking, there is no 

 pauper rate and no pauperism. 



Leaving the Western States of Europe and going 

 across the Atlantic, we find that, although the United 

 States of America have Poor Laws, they are not bothered 

 with poverty; in fact, the whole question over there is 

 of such insignificance as to be hardly worth recording. 

 The expenses of the Almshouses is given at something 

 over 2,409,000 dollars, or about £481,000 annually. The 

 population is about 80,000,000. 

 Effect of If we then turn to the other side of the Western world 

 and seek for comparison in the United States of America 

 for example, we still fail to find anything like a parallel 

 to our own case, or the least justification for the belief 

 that poverty, as it exists in our country, is an inevitable 

 result of human life and therefore a necessity. On 

 the contrary, both in Europe and America, the general 

 belief is that, although there is bound to be a certain 

 proportion of necessitous people, chiefly consisting of 

 the old and infirm, the sick and young children — 

 orphans principally — anything like widespread poverty 

 is an anomalous condition and therefore unnecessary — 

 an accident, in short. 



It is interesting to note in this connexion that in 

 Holland mendicity and vagabondage are treated as a 

 crime, and persons convicted of it can be placed in a 

 State work establishment. The Dutch, at all events, are 

 no believers in poverty being a necessary result of hu- 

 man life. 



