THE PROBLEM OF PAUPERISM j^q 



there would be hope for them, — their only hope, 

 indeed, for this world. 



(b) Overcrowding. — Overcrowding, partially 

 consequent on the rush to the cities, partially 

 the result of the greed of the landlords, par- 

 tially due to the fact that labourers must be near 

 the places of work, is a chief cause of evil envi- 

 ronment. What tongue or pen can describe its 

 distressing and disgusting features .-' Read the 

 testimonies of Lord Shaftesbury and of Mr. H. C. 

 Meyer, an American engineer, before the Royal 

 Commission in London in 1884, on the Housing 

 of the Working Classes, published in the "Blue 

 Book " of the following year. They show that 

 most of the poor are rarely paupers at first. They 

 must be near their work, and are therefore com- 

 pelled to take such accommodations as are avail- 

 able. Few such families in the densely populated 

 districts can afford more than one room ; and con- 

 cerning life in a single room a part of Lord 

 Shaftesbury's testimony — most of which is too 

 terrible to repeat — is as follows: "The effect 

 of the one-room system is physically and morally 

 beyond all description. In the first place, the 

 one-room system always leads, so far as I have 

 seen, to the one-bed system. If you go into these 

 single rooms you may sometimes find two beds, 



