THE GERMAN PAUPER QUESTION 79 

 life, and you will give him just what he expects, what he 

 is hoping for, and what he is perfectly willing to sub- 

 scribe to. But the scheme must be sound and efficient 

 all along the Hue, or he will have nothing to do with it. 



Now apart from the gross injustice to tax-payers, a Legalised 

 scheme of the kind contemplated by the present Govern- charity 

 ment would be nothing more or less than another 

 Legalised State Charity. 



It has been shown in these pages how disastrously the 

 great State Pauper charity has affected the people, 

 and is there a statesman, politician, tradesman, or work- 

 ing man in the country who honestly believes that the 

 colossal Charity now being hatched by a weak-kneed 

 Government would result in universal good? 



Is there an honest Britisher in this realm who be- 

 lieves in his heart that a pusillanimous measure of this 

 nature can do aught but harm to those it professes to 

 serve? 



Does he really believe that our pauper laws, which, 

 after all, are of a kindred nature to this "Old Age Pen- 

 sion " scheme of the Government now in ofhce, will do 

 anything more than emasculate the manhood of the 

 nation and deprive a man of those characteristics which 

 are the pride and glory of his sex — the right and privi- 

 lege of providing for and protecting his wife and httle 

 ones with his own strong right arm and — in his own way? 



The British working-man is individually and collec- 

 tively a power in the State, and a power to be reckoned 

 with. He is an honest man and a stalwart champion for 

 his own rights and privileges, and that he can well look 

 after his own interests is proved by his trade unions, 



