CHAPTER XI 



NATIONAL PAUPERISM AND TAXATION — COLOSSAL AMOUNT 

 OF PRIVATE CHARITIES — HOW PHILANTHROPISTS 

 UNCONSCIOUSLY BOLSTER UP FREE-TRADE 



Anti-Free-teaders are no longer inclined to ignore the im- 

 portance of private philanthropy as a factor in the Free- trade 

 movement. 



The Free-trade system should, they contend, now be put to 

 a moral test to show how largely it depends upon private 

 charity for its maintenance, and how it has been unconsciously 

 bolstered up by millions of philanthropists of all ages and 

 degrees of society. This is a view of the position that has 

 hitherto been ignored, but those who are opposed to the present 

 economical conditions are inclined to regard it as an important 

 factor in the case. The question of National Pauperism which, 

 apart from State aid, requires stupendous sums annually from 

 private charities, should now be considered by all classes of 

 people from this point of view, particularly by that section of 

 the community which is especially benefited by this constant 

 outpouring of spontaneous philanthropy. 



The Public familiarised with Pauperism 



We, as a nation, have become so familiar with this wide- 

 spread poverty and its dire results, that the heavy imposts of 

 Government and the stupendous efforts of the philanthropic 

 public in aid of the poor are regarded as a necessary item in 

 the economy of life ; while the poor themselves look upon the 

 prodigious charities, to which we shall presently refer, as a 

 matter of course, indeed, as a right. 



It is shown elsewhere to what extent tax-payers are called 

 upon by the State to assist in relieving our pauper population 

 by direct taxation ; let us no\\' form some estimate of the extent 

 to which the well-to-do people of our country help the poor in 

 a more general, thouErh in a less direct manner. 



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