POVERTY NOT A NECESSITY 31 



Denmark, witli a population of 2,588,919, spends about 

 £464,000. 



Italy, with a population of 32,966,307, spends about 

 £1,240,000, although, strictly speaking, there is no pauper rate 

 and no pauperism. 



Leaving the Western States of Europe and going across 

 the Atlantic, we find that, although the United States of 

 America have Poor Laws, they are not bothered with poverty ; 

 in fact, the whole question over there is of such insignificance 

 as to be hardly worth recording. The expenses of the Alms- 

 houses is given at something over 2,409,000 dollars or about 

 £481,000 annually. The population is about 80,000,000. 



Foreign States regard Pauperism as Unnecessary 



If we then turn to the other side of the Western world and 

 seek for comparison in the United States of America, for 

 example, we still fail to find anything like a parallel to our 

 own case, or the least justification for the belief that poverty, 

 as it exists in our country, is an inevitable result of human 

 life, and therefore a Necessity. On the contrary, both in 

 Eui'ope and America, the general belief is that, although there 

 is bound to be a certain proportion of necessitous people, chiefiy 

 consisting of the old and infirm, the sick and young children — 

 orphans principally — anything like widespread poverty is an 

 anomalous condition, and therefore unnecessary — an accident, in 

 short. 



It is interesting to note in this connection that in Holland 

 mendicity and vagabondage are treated as a crime, and persons 

 convicted of it can be placed in a State work establishment. 

 The Dutch, at all events, are no believers in poverty being a 

 oicccssary result of human life. And we notice that there is 

 very little pauperism in those countries where mendicity and 

 vagabondage are criminal, and treated as such ! 



The first great lesson to be derived from these statistics is 

 that ours is tlie only country in the world which has set up an 

 elaborate and costly system of pauper administration, whereby, 

 by legalising unlimited pauperism, we actually increase poverty 

 by encouraging improvidence, thriftlessness, and a careless dis- 

 regard of individual responsibility. The feeling that has been 

 engendered in a very large section of the British working classes 

 by this legislation of wholesale pauperism is this : 



" I'll do what I can to get a living, but if I don't succeed — 

 well, there's always the ' House ' to fall back upon, which is a 

 blessing. At any rate there's always State aid for the asking." 



