The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-02-28

aione iast week. l select London because
 In the first place, the figures there are
 more carefully kept than in other parts Of the country and also because all of the out-of-works in the country drift to London. where there is always chance of picking up odd jobs and where the arrangements for the relief of distress are more complete than anywhere else. Last weeks reports show that pauperism in London is lower in actual figures than at any time since 1892 and in percentage of the population it is lower than at any time since 1873. This applies both to indoor and outdoor paupeTs Indoor paupers are the inmates of the work houses. and many of these have been enabled to find employment because of the withdrawal of more efficient labor
 caused by the organization of Kitchener's s new million army. Outdoor paupers are chiefly women and children who receive a weekly allowance in money atd food from the boards of guardians to supple ment the earnings of themselves or their men folk. In their case many of their men have enlisted and their families are drawing the army separation allowance while there is plenty of work for the boys of the family owing to the shortage of men.
 The same story is told by the Sal vation Army. which deals with an even more miserable class, the down and
 out" who are struggling to keep out of the workhouse and sleeping the
 Thames embankment, under railway arches or anywhere else they can find
 shelter and begging food or relying
 on an occasional odd job for the money to buy it. Before the war the Salva- tion Army used to gather about 2O00 of these outcasts every night into it's free shelters. Now the number is usu- ally less than a hundred. This Is ex { ,latr A.- 1~- -.x l,t ..[ l. casually employed youths have Joined the army, leaving the odd job labor fields open to the old and broken men. who usually filled the free shelters.
 Many of them indeed have reported to
 the army that they have secured steady
 jobs at light work which they hope
 to keep after the war.
 Indeed so great has been the boom
 in employment in England and the con
 sequent prosperity of the working class that the managers of the Prince
 of Wales fund are hard put to it to find a way of disposing of the money. So far, less than s5.000.00O has been distributed and most of this has gone to the relief of the Belgian refugees. Many of these are now being absorbed
 by the British labor market and num- Der of British manufacturers have even sent agents to Holland to search the Belgian refugee camps there for skilled
 workmen to fill the vacant places in their factories. Metal workers, ship
 builders and skilled engineers are es- pecially in demand. for the great arma- ment firms are working night and day preparing arms and ammunition for the armies of the allies.
 In spite of all this prosperity, how
 ever, life fake charity worker is flour
 ishing, for people have not got over
 the idea that there must be distress
 op of iS
 ready to open his purse to such an ap- peal. The Charity Organization so- ciety is busy Investigating organiza- tions and individuals who are asking the public for money and an official of this society told me the other day that he had never, in the 30 years that he has been connected with the society, come across more fraudulent begging which at the same time was so cleverly done that it was almost impossible to bring 1t within the letter of the law.
 One of the commonest forms of beg ging now in vogue is conducted by man who has been notorious for years as the manager of "charities' in which the expenses of administration amount ed to nearly 75 per cent of the total takings. He got his idea from the per fectly innocent practice of a number of French and Belgian newspapers which were compelled by the German llNdSlOH IO tTduSIeT lHelnSelFeS tO I1On- don and which brought with them the custom of employing women to sell the papers in the streets. Most of these women were the same individuals who had sold the papers in Brussels and Paris and they confined themselves to the districts where their compatriots were living. Technically their selling in the streets without a license was 9 violation of the London ordinances. but the police under the circumstances winked at it and thus made it harder for themselves when the time came to deal with the falxirs. The man in ques- tion saw his chance and he printed q little sheet which cost next to nothing to produce and announced that the profits from it's sale would be used for the relief of the Belgian refugees. He employed lot of attractive girls many of them milliners and dress makers. who had been thrown out of work by the contraction in the luxury trades at the beginning of the war, and put them on the streets to sell papers They haunted the West End and even entered the barrooms, imploring men of all classes to "buy a paper to help the poor Belgians."
 Apart from the danger of the thing to the girls it was a public nuisance for, as their living depended on it, the girls were most importunate. I have seen them buttonhole men who tried to pass them and hang on until the man produced his penny. The police arrested number of them for "obstruction" and brought them before the magistrate. but unless they were able to prove actual obstruc- tion the magistrates had to let the girls so, for their employer, by calling his scheme charity, had placed himself out side the law prohibiting unlicensed ped ding. It was found in the police court investigations that the organizer of the scheme took 50 per cent of all the money obtained. the girls got 25 per cent of their takings, and nearly half the ball. ance was eaten up in administration ex- penses A little of the money did reach the Belgian relief committee, and this the promoter no doubt regarded as a pre- mium of Insurance against unpleasant ccnsearences.