The Birmingham age-herald., 1917-05-27
War Has Given Everyone Work, and at Wages Far
 Above Average
PREDICTED RUIN OF
 NATION IS NOT YET
While Great Conflict Still Rages the Government Is Making Plans for Problems Which Will
 Arise at End

in July and August, 1914 immediately preceding Englands entry into the war, the strongest argument used by the pro fessional pacifists was that war would near ruin. We were told that ill few months the factories would be idle, the people starving and the warehouses hlled to overflowing. Everyone knows now how sntrue that prediction was The factories sf Britain were never buster than they gre at present, the working people were never better paid and in spite of the rise in the cost of living were never. on the whole, better off, and the annual survey of pauperism in the United Kingdom, which has just been published shows that the warehouses are almost empty and that many of them, now no longer needed for housing the destitute poor, have been turned into hospitals for wounded soldiers, asylums for Belgian refugees, and internment camps for pris- oners of war and alien enemies.
 The figures of paupersm prove better than anything else the real prosperity or England today. On November p last. the date on which the official census or the legal poor was taken, there were In the United Kingdom 43S, l36 persons Tn re- ceipt of poor law relief. The number on the corresponding date in 1913, year be- fore the war, was 627,691, so that the decline in paupersm is something over 90 per cent. More remarkable still is the fact that of the remaining paupers Tn l9lb the greater proportion were old people. the sick, and children. Of the total o1 4ss. .736, 214,472, or nearly half, were ehil- dren, 554 per cent of the whole number of paupers including children, were SICK and in receipt of medical relief either in their own homes or in the workhouse in firmaries,s and 5453S were men and women over 70 years of age.
 NO CASUAL TRAMPS
 Another striking feature of the return is the practical disappearance of the s'casuaT' or able-bodied tramp. He IS the man who seeks refuge on cold and stormy nights in the casual wards of the warehouses and in the morning takes to the road again. Usually he is the most difficult type of pauper to deal with, for while his ranks contain a certain propor- tion of men who are honestly on tramp looking for jobs, the great majority of the casuals are genuine trarnps who are on the, road to dodge work and not to seek it. Even these, however have been gathered in by the army or by the work shops It is usual to take a census Of the ca suafs two or three times year on ss~ cold and stormy night when most of them are to be found in the casual wards. Of course. this census is not complete, for there are always some tramps who nave found the money to sleep in common lodging houses or who have discovered a warm and comfortable barn, which IS preferable to the workhouse because there is no task to be performed before taking the road again in the morning. It is useful, however, for purposes or comparison and affords very fair in- fdex of the number actually on the road. On January 1. 1913 the number of cas- uals admitted to the wards was SSS2 and on the same date in 1916 it was 3ol6 On November 24, last, the number had gone down further to 2S32. and most remark able of all, only S2 of these were in Lon don which used to be the happy hunt ing ground of the tramp, as soon as the rain and cold made the countryside un- 4 attractive. It is stated that only p per cent of those who are left are able to earn their own living and may be classed as incorrigible tramps who prefer the road in any circumstances to work.
 DECLINE OF THE UNFIT
 Another surprising feature of the eff feet of the war on pauperism is the de- cline in the number of the absolutely un- . fit. One would expect that the strain and stfess of war would add to the ranks of the mentally unbalanced, but apparently the strain and stress of hopeless pow erty are far more unsettling to the mind than war Whatever the req son may be it is fact that the number of pauper lu- natics and imbecies has declined from 102. .975 in 1914 to 1Oo,lS2 last year.
 Taking the figures as whole pauperism in the United Kingdom has reached the low est point since 1872, the first year In which an accurate record was made and it is probable that the figures are the lowest in proportion to the population Cia first poor law institutions to take the place of the suppressed monasteries in re- lievng the poor.
 CONDITIONS EXPECTED
 One of the features of the condi- tions following wars in the past has been great increase in the tramp class Discharged soldiers have taken tho road on the hunt for jobs and starting with genuine desire for work have gradually become demora1- ized and fascinated by the free life. The authorities are determined that nothing of the sort shall happen this time and a scheme is now being worked out for the distribution of the men released from the army to the places where their labor is needed. It will no longer be necessary for the man in want of work to tramp from town to town. All he will have to do Will be to step into the nearest branch or the national labor exchange and state his requirements. If there is a job for, him anywhere in the country the exchange will know of it and will supply him with free transportation to the place. If with these facilities at lis command he takes to the road he will be treated as a wilful vagrant and punished for refusing to accept the chance to reform and go to work. Local poor law authorities will be asked to cooperate with the labor exchanges in thus controlling any ten dency toward the revival of vagrancy anG as a rule they will be very glad vagrancy means reduction in the To- cal poor law taxation
 ELIMINATING OLD PAUPERS
 The ideal of the poor law reform CTS in England now is to reach point when only the old and helpless and the young and helpless will be de- pendent on the public for support. and as a matter of fact the old are grad ually being eliminated from the list of paupers by the extension of the principle of old age pensions. The sick arc being cared for more or less eff ficien1y under the national insurance law and there is every likelihood o' great extension of public medical service which shall be every mans right and not charity after the war The orphaned children and the chill dren of criminal and vicious or even unfortunate parents will still remain 4f he look ed afterl bi.t of fafe xears