PROBLEM FOR THE BRITISH TAX-PAYER 157 



most galling and humiliating feature of this wretched 

 business is the consciousness that every penny of the 

 hundreds of millions that have been wrung from rate- 

 payers has been spent in vain. The greedy pauper maw is 

 always wide open to swallow up the hard earnings of 

 many a poor rate-payer, who can hardly support himself ; 

 and that he should be compelled to contribute yearly to 

 support this foul growth on our civilisation is nothing 

 but a monstrous injustice. 



Another alarming feature that must be added to this- ^"'^[^^s^ 

 ° of Able- 



tale of wrong-headed administration is the significant bodied 



and ever-growing increase in the number of able-bodied ^"p^""^ 



paupers who prey upon the easily rendered millions of 



the complaisant British tax-payer. 



Here is an extract from The Daily Express of May 28, 



last. 



"And here let me point to an alarming feature in this 

 expansion of organised pauperism. It is the increase of 

 the able-bodied pauper. He and she are thronging into 

 the workhouses in ever-increasing numbers, for while the 

 paupers who are described as temporarily disabled have 

 increased 28.6 per cent. ; thosejwho are described as being 

 actually in good health have increased 49.6 per cent, in 

 number. Their own temporary illness or accident has 

 brought less than half of the whole to the workhouse, and 

 the illness of members of their family, and drink, idleness 

 and want of work have reduced the rest to pauperism. 

 What an illustration of the need for thrift." 



So far as we have gone, the results are significantly 

 disappointing, but let us carry our investigation further. 



