176 THE MURDER OF AGRICULTURE 



prits will clear out the Augean stable and serve to afford 

 the necessary protection of public moneys. 



But do not let us indulge in such fond delusions : there 

 is more here than meets the eye. 



The fact is the whole pauper administration stands on 

 an unsound basis, and is rotten to the core. 



The attitude of Government, and that of the munici- 

 pal administrations, the tax-payers and the people is as 

 wrong-headed as it possibly can be, and unless we, as a 

 nation, assume a sensible, practical and healthy attitude 

 towards this unsatisfactory and eminently unsavoury 

 question, no help will be forthcoming. 



Government will do nothing so long as the country 

 does not give them what they call a mandate. They 

 may well contend that pauperism has to be provided for 

 according to the laws of the land, and in raising millions 

 in rates and taxes, they are simply obeying the mandate 

 of the country. If y(.u want something different, you 

 must give us another mandate, say they. 



The municipal administrations, poor law guardians 

 and the rest of the spending official bodies, simply follow 

 the lead of the Imperial Government, their duty is to 

 spend the millions subscribed by the tax-payers, and 

 recent disclosures show how they do it. 



The tax-payers, not as yet fully realising that pauper- 

 ism in our country is no more a natural result of econo- 

 mic laws than drunkenness is, have hitherto yielded up 

 their millions with certain misgivings that something 

 was wrong, but what that something was they couldn't 

 quite make out. They have recently learnt that vast 

 sums of their money have been shamelessly squandered 



