The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1880-03-20 00:00:00

tHE STOIIRBRIDG-E OBSERVtIL

greatest interest to the original and suggestive reflec-
tions of Mr. Blackley, I cannot go the whole length
to which I understand him to go. I share the vulgar
prejudice—if it is a prejudice—that, apart from the
question of humanity, the existence of our Poor Law
has been a very considerable safeguard against what
we call Socialist doctrines. (Hear, hear.) That in a
country where the rich are very rich, and where
large fortunes are commoner ' than in any other,
there should be absolutely no Socialist party is
what one could not expect beforehand; and I be.
here the explanation is mainly
to be found in that
provision which English law makes for the sub-
sistence of every one, whether he can earn his living
or not. (Hear, hear.) Compulsory insurance is an
idea now to the public, and which, at any rate will
take considerable time to make way. At the present
time, and with the little reflection I have been able to
give to the proposal, I do not pronounce for it or
against it ; but I remember that 30 years ago the idea
of compulsory education would have seemed quite as
impracticable as that of compulsory insurance. (Hear,
hear.) Remember, however, that any schemes of this
kind will take much time and thought to work them
into shape, and in the meantime we cannot let people
die of hunger. (Hear, hear.) But while we admit
the benefits which the Poor LAW confers, we need not
conceal from ourselves the price we pay for it. The
rustic is apt to say, in an inarticulate manner, " What
should I save for? The parish is bound to keep me;
and if I keep myself when I am past work, it is only
so much more in the pockets of the farmers. • I won't
lose my poteof beer for them." (Laughter.) And,
no doubt, in that philosophy of the pothouse there
is a certain admixture of truth, But whether I am
right or not in the cause which I have tried
to assign, I am sure that in this generalization
I am correct, The upper and lower classes do not,
as a rule, economize; the middle class, as a rule, do;
and what we aim at mainly, of course, in regard to
the less instructive part of the community, is to im-
press the duty of increased forethought and providence
as a matter both of personal and of national oblige-
tion. (Hear, hear.) Do not let us conceal from our-
selves that in this endeavour we have a certain amount
of prejudice to encounter. Reason and feeling are very
decidedly not at one about these matters. Prudence
Is never popular, partly, I suppose, because it "is its
own reward" (laughter) but chiefly for the reason I
hinted at before, that while nearly every form of ex-
penditure indulged in by A brings immediate advant-
age to B, C, and D, the only visible gainers by the
frugality of A are his children, who do not know
what he has done for them till his death, and per-
haps do not thank him then. (Cheers and laughter.)
But the supposed connexion between frugality and
selfishness—a oonnexion which I fancy exists in the
minds of most people who have not troubled them-
selves to this* on the subject—is really a mere delu-
sion of the imagination. You praise a man for open-
handedness and his liberal way of living—very good
things within due bounds. He dies; he leaves a
family of daughters or young children with a bare
subsistence, or possibly with none, and every relative
and friend of his who has put by-anything is taxed in
conseqtaenoe to do what he ought to have done for
himself. (Hear, hear.) The fact is just this: Some
economists may be selfish, but every spendthrift must
be se, We are sometimes, I think, misled by phrases
and sentiments which have come down to us from
different ages, When a man wholaid by money simply
put it into a box and kept it idle, no doubt it did
nobody any good, and if he indulged the habit on a
large scale and in a poor community he was rightly
considered a social nuisance. But nobody does that
now. Whether he works or not, his money is made
to work. It builds railways it drains the soil, it does
a hundred useful and desirable things; and you may
put it roughly that every thousand pounds laid by
finds employment for an additional labourer for all
time to come. Therefore, the man who saves, even
if he is selfish in intention, is not so in act. He is
doing more good than he possibly means or knows.
( 'Hear, hear," and cheers.) But the truth is that
most men save for others, and not for themselves—for
children, for relatives, or, it may be, in order that the
burden of supporting their old age may fall on them-
selves and not on others. Now I come to the second
part of the question, and I shall deal with it much
more • briefly. Are we doing anything useful and
practical in meethig here to talk over this subject? I
I think we are, and I will tell you why. In the first
place, where you want to operate on individual
minds you must get people to listen to you, and
you can only do that, I am afraid, by the rather weari-
some reiteration of things already familiar. It is
much that the public should know that the subject
which we are talking over here has attracted general
attention. Then we have before us a very wide field
for discussion as to the best means of increasing the
habit of rational frugality. Ido not think it is an
exaggeration to say that a penny bank in every work-
shop would add millions yearly to the wealth of the
country. The shilling that is set aside from weekly
wages should not have to pass the publichonse door if it
can be helped; it should be put by at once. (Hear,
hear.) We want the Poet-offiee banks increased in
number; that is something to go for. We want them
(or some of us do) empowered to sec 'ire and hold
larger deposits than they can at present—that is
another proposal to be considered. We ought, I
think, to have means provided by which the small sums
could be at once, and without needless cost, invested
in the Funds. (Hear, hear.) In France, as I have
been told, every peasant who has a village within
reach can put a few francs into G )vernment securities,.
In England it is hardly possible, at least out of
London, to do the same thing without the interven-
tion of a banker. I should not know how to set
about it myself, and I ant sure no working man or small
tradesman does. Then I think we want many matters
explained and popularised which the mass of the public
do not in the least understand (hear, hear)—insurs
anoes and deferred annuities to provide for old age, '
and the like, The very idea of such arrangements is
hardly taken in by a large part of the clan to whom
they would be most useful. House-building societies,
again, and land societies may play a very important
part in the business of promoting financial prudence.
I would any the same of provident dispensaries, which
are only now being introduced, and that but slowly,
in the great towns; so you see it is not subjects for
debate that will fail us. (Hear, hear.) We do not
ask for much interference from Parliament. Ex-
cept in the matter of savings banks, I do not know
that we require legislation at all; the other matters
to which I have referred are simply administrative.
But communities are governed by custom far more
than by law, and some of the most important
changes that have affected the English nation have
hardly given rise to as single debate in Parliament.
Therefore, if you are asked, "What does all this lead
to ? " you may answer with perfect truth that it may
lead a good deal further than you new expect. We
hear a great deal, in these days about "national
honour." I feel fort as strongly as anyone, and I only
wish we were more sensitive on that point. (Cheers.)
Pauperism is, to my mind, national 'dishonour, seers
drunkenness, so is preventible disease, so is the
miserable squalor in which our poorer classes in the
large towns live even when they escape the workhouse.
(Loud applause.) These are the most real and formid-
able enemies we have to contend with, and depend
upon it, if we attack them seriously we shall have
fighting enough at home to last our time. (Loud and
continuous cheering.) - In conclusion. his Lordship
moved," That this meeting, impressed by the address on
thrift which it has now heard, and the various ways of
promoting it, is of opinion that it is expedient to hold
an annual conference at which persons interested in
the subject may come together to communicate
publicly the regains of their experience and ooserva-
Lion.'
The resolution was seconded by Colonel Harcourt,
M.P., who recommended increased facilities for Post
Office depositors, and was carried unanimously.
Cardinal Manning, in moving a resolution in favour
of holding the annual conference at the Mansion
House, spoke strongly against the custom of wives and
mothers leaving homes to work in factories, He con-
sidered that no practice was more unfavourable to the
cultivation of domestic thtift,
The resolution was seconded by Mr. Portal, and
carried unanimously.
Among the other speakers were Lord Cottesloe, the
Rev, Mr. Stratton, Canon Basil Wilberforce, and Sir
Charles Trevelyan, and a standing committee to carry
out the objects of the meeting having been appointed t
the proceedings closed with a hearty vote of thanks o
the Lord Mayor for presiding.

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House
saallaeatdheerre rceafenrrbien gnotodotuhbet
sadly neglected virtue The working classes—and we might go
much higher—will never be persuaded that ills really neces-
sary to save. No appeals to their common sense, their selfish-
ness
that,
improvidence
pt
rhoevi
dself-respect that in
thriftalth:
seldomavail p6guainatetdi,eoerv, idaetilltetaasctii,
much punished, in this country. They see a vast number of
in-Muttons and societies, all framed on purely benevolent
principles, and for the relief of every kind of want. Many of
them would feel they bad not availed themselves of their
full rights if they had not claimed the benefit of some
eleemosynary institution or other. Improvidence, though a
blot on the national character and fatal to the formation of
the higher virtues, is one secret of our national power.
Beiow a certain class we have comparatively few persons of
Independent means. There is no more remarkable feature
of English society in comparison with the French than the
number of persons who continue in harnees, doing a fair
amount of work the whole of their lives, when by the paost
moderate exercise of prudence and self- denial they might have
wit:tired a competency at forty or fifty. The result is that
they are serving their country to the very last, and no doubt
the country is the better for the active service of every
citizen. Our common labourers. when not disabled by
accident or disease, go on working until seventy and
after, and much as we may regret that they have not
provided a rest from their labour, we cannot deny that their
country is a gainer so ler. Ass rule, however, improvidence
is a loss to the country. It avails itself of the plea of
humanity to extort from the country that which it ought to
have made for itself. It throws the aged, the orphan, and
the widow upon the hands of a society that has not the
heart to repudiate them. Industry is continually clogged
and burdened with such encumbrances. If riches increase,
increased are they that eat them, and the consumers are
non-effective as well as effective. Almost every private
gentleman has his private poor law in operation for the relief
of those who have thrown themselves on his hands. It is
the way of the nation, and it is reckoned on; but in this, as
in some other respects, England May find she has to mend.
her ways.