The National tribune., 1882-07-01
Pauperism in England.

Pauperism in England.
Mr.. Robert P. Porter, the eminent statis-
tician, whose work in connection with the
last census has received the highest praise,
and whose appointment as one of the mem
bers of the Tariff Commission is a conspicu-
Gus proof of President Arthur's good judg-
ment has lately been making tour of the
leading British poorhouses, and in letter
to the Chicago Inter Ocean he gives some
very interesting facts concerning the extent
and growth of pauperism in the paradise of
free trade. It may seem incredible, but it is
nevertheless the case, as the official figures
show, that the total annual cost of pauper-
ism and outdoor relief in Great Britain and
Ireland is very nearly $5O,OOOOOO.
1t is not possible to give the exact number
of paupers, but the maximum recorded in
the Government blue book is about one
million, in a population of but twenty-five
millions, or about four per cent. To care
Tor this immense army Of paupers there are,
in a territory about one million acres larger
than the State of Illinois, in the neighbOr-
hood of seven hundred almshouses, varying
a capacity from fifty persons each-as in
the rural districts-to four thousand, which
is the number that can be accommodated ID
the great London poorhOuse Of St Pancras,
whilea corps of seven thousand officials Is re-
quired to conduct them. The salaries of these
officials, as might be expected, aggregate
nearly one half of the total cost of the pauper
establishment. 1t is only the invalid paupers,
as a rule, however, who are lodged In these
houses; the able-bodied are the recipients
IF what is called outdoor relief-that is to
say, they are served with food, in return for
which they are required to do certain
amount Of work Attached to the Birming-
ham almshOuse, for instance, is building
called the "Test House," where the casual
applicant for relief-the equivalent of the
American tramp-is provided with a supper,
bed, and breakfast but forced in considera-
tion thereof to pick a certain number Of
pounds of oakum before taking his depart
IRE. In fact the whole tendency of the
present system of poorhouse management in
England is to discourage able-bodied pau
perism by requiring applicants for relief to
pay for it in work of one kind or another.
Time was when a system directly the reverse
of this was pursued. The inmates of aims
houses were served with meat four times
week. as well as beer and ale, and as mat
ter of fact were better off than One-half of
the rate-payers. The effect of this naturally
was to encourage pauperism to a startling
extent, so that in selfdefense the govern
ment was forced to limit the diet of its pau
Ders and establish workshops in connection
With the almshouses. Says Mr.. Porter,
writing from Birmingham:
at NAV also be of interest to some of our
readers 70 know that the fare for paupers is
| regulated by law, and that to guard against
any Injustice on the part of the work-hOuse
| management every inmate is empowered to
| call upon the master to weigh the food por-
vided for him in his own presence and that
| of witnesses"
We have gone into this subject at some
length chiefly with view to showing what
is the actual prevalence of pauperism in a
country which the Free Traders would have
us believe is a very paradise of labor. If all
they say of the iniquity of protective tariff
were true, we should expect to see pauper-
sm rapidly increasing in the United States
and steadily diminishing in England, but
as q matter of fact the statistics OF every
census reveal our own industries In more
prosperous condition and those OF our rival
in more languishing state In the face OF
| this fact the advocates of a tariff for reVe-
nue. only" only waste their eloquence when
they attempt to convince the American work
inpman that protection is a curse rather than
4 blessing. They might just as well try to
persuade him that he would improve his
| > - br a,oi1ratin0 to England.