POVERTY NOT A NECESSITY 39 



cisely! but why not create such conditions! It would be 

 easy enough to do so, if the people would only give 

 Government the mandate ; but if they will not do so, if 

 they are content to do nothing but grumble, then they 

 must abide by the consequences of their own supineness. 



As matters now stand, these Poor Laws constitute one 

 of the gravest scandals of modem times. 



Herein lies an injustice so palpable and widespread as 

 to need no demonstrating here. Every rate-payer and 

 tax-payer in the country has been fully cognisant of it 

 for years, and has chafed under the soreness which this 

 shameful and yet altogether unnecessary burden causes. 

 But nothing of any practical value has been done. The 

 recent victory of Reform over Progressive Socialism in 

 the London County Council, and amongst Poor Law 

 Guardians, may check reckless expenditure in certain 

 directions, and thus give some relief, but the great 

 scandal of poor law expenditure has not been 

 touched, and millions of the taxpayers' money are, in 

 the meantime, being squandered annually. 



Why is it, in spite of the fact that the Government 

 and all classes of the community are fully aware of this 

 gross scandal, that it is allowed to go on year after year, 

 and decade after decade, unchanged? Why is it that 

 each successive Government finds the necessity of pro- 

 viding, in their budget, the prodigious sums that are 

 spent annually on pauperism? 



There is only one reply: Because in sacrificing The 

 its greatest industry — agriculture — the greatest trad- A^gricuhure 

 ing and manufacturing country in the world, with its 

 mighty Empire stretching to the confines of the earth, 



