PROBLEM FOR THE BRITISH TAX-PAYERS 79 



rather than the rottenness of tlio entire system of wliich these 

 bodies are but an outgrowth. 



Public Attitude towards Pauperism 



The people rarely think aljout the matter at all. Pauperism 

 was a recognised State institution before they were born, and 

 they accept it at that ; if it is wrong, " Show us how to put it 

 right," is what they say. 



This, in a nutshell, is the attitude adopted towards pauperism 

 by the people, the tax-payers, and the Government, and a more 

 sickly, unhealthy, harmful attitude cannot be conceived. 



The whole nation has somehow contrived to set up a sort of 

 lelief in the Necessity for this plague spot on our civilisation, 

 and this weak, flabby spirit of acquiescence in a positive evil 

 has wrought incalculable harm in every direction. 



The enormous pauper liomes all over the country, many of 

 them of costly architectural design and palatial aspect, with 

 elaborate and luxurious fittings which will hardly be found 

 even in the homes of the wealthy classes, only serve to show 

 that bumbledom, at all events, has set pauperism up as a 

 Fetish, while the scandalous waste of public money which has 

 been and is going on, proves that poor law guardians freely 

 offer up the tax-payer's gold on the altar of their god. 



These newspaper extracts put the case very clearly and in a 

 manner that will appeal, not only to the tax-payer, but to 

 every section of the British people, save that comparatively 

 small body of wastrels who will not work. 



Worst Poor Laws in Europe 



There is no getting away from the fact that our Poor Laws, 

 taken all round, are the worst and most unsuitable that could 

 possibly be devised. They are the worst in Europe, in the 

 world, and so long as the people of this country submit to them, 

 so long will the poor continue to be pauperised, degraded, and 

 brutalised. 



The philanthropists of three-quarters of a century ago 

 meant well by urging upon Government the necessity of 

 amending the Poor Laws, but their efforts have resulted in 

 disaster to the cause they championed, and pauperism of a 

 monstrous and degrading type has grown out of that mild 

 indulgence which the Governments of the past threw over 

 their legislative measures when dealing with this question, 



lu legalising pauperism we have given every able-bodied 

 man flud wnmaxi in the country the constitutional right to put 



