The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1914-11-15
LORD ROTHSCHILD

ment of this great fund will be the most
skillful possible, while a third is John
Burns, who has had more experience in
the relief of distress, first as a labor lead
er and then as president of the local
government board, than any man in Eng
land.
One principle has been definitely laid
down from the FIRST and that is that no
part of the fund is to be capitalized. 1t
is all to be expended as required in the
relief of distress, and IL there Is any
money over when the demands created by
the war are satisfied. there will be time
enough then to consider and decide what
shall be done with it. Already about 49,
$4,000 have been expended, and machin-
cry has been perfected by which every de-
mand on the fund is now instantly in
vestigated and either supplied or refused.
In the working OF the fund, distress
caused by the war falls naturally into two
classes, military and civil. In the military
class. which so far is immensely the
greater, are the families OF soldiers who
have been called to the colors and of the
dead and wounded in the war. Had 1t
not been for the fund great hardships
would have been inflicted on the families
of the reservists called to the colors.
Many thousands of these men were in ex-
celient employment, earning in some cases
| SIS or $50 week and in most cases 81
and $40. Although the army separation
allowance was increased ar the beginning
| of the war, 1t only amounts to little
| over g a week for a wife with soc extra
| for each child and small extra allow
| ance II the family lived In London, to
make up for the higher rent in the
metropolis. The policy adopted by the
, Prince of Wales fund is to make the
| family income up to what II was before
the breadwinner went to the war. In the
| early days, too, it undertook the care OF
| the women and children who needed inn
mediate help. The practice at the war
office was to pay separation allowances
| monthly and at first it had too much
business of more pressing Importance to
| think of changing the system. Now the
| allowances are paid weekly, but if it had
| not been for the fund there would have
been lot of suffering among the SOL
diers wives and children, for few of the
| families were in a position to live for a
| whole month without money coming in
| 1t was in these early days that the
| ''regrettable Incidents occurred. The
| fund had not then perfected its own
machinery of investigation, and 1t had to
fall back on what it found ready made
] This consisted of the poor law Officers
and the charity workers, neither of them
fitted by experience to deal with self.
respecting and self-supporting people, sud
! denly faced with a great emergency, and
/ while some of them did their work very
well others did 1t just about as badly
| as possible.
| 1t is hard to say which made the most
blun6ers, the poor law officials accus-
toned to. regarding all applicants for res
| lief as paupers, or the charity workers,
most of them entirely estimable Ladder
with more time than brains. who felt II
their duty to inquire into the moral char
/ acter thrift and sobriety Of the appli-
cants for what they were entitled to. I
will quote couple of typical cases which
| came under my own experience.
| Case number one was that of the wife
| of drug clerk. Her husband had been
a sergeant dispenser in the royal army
medical corps. and when the war started
he was called up at once. The man had
been earning about $12 a week and he
| had a nice little flat of three rooms.
| tastefuly furnished. His wife applied to
the war office for her separation allow
ance and was told that arrangements
/ had been made with the local relieving
| officer-the poor law official-to pay the
| money to such soldiers families as re-
CURED it, until arrangements could be
made to pay weekly. She was also told