Evening star., 1934-11-03
BY LOUIS M. LYONS.

BY LOUIS M. LYONS.
England, feeling that she is putting
depression behind her. counts as one
of its results the abolition of her an
cient poor law system in favor OF
national scheme of unemployment re-
lief.
The British had much the same ex-
perience with their local welfare prob
lem under depression as most Amer
lean communities. Never organized
to meet the strain Of supporting from
a fifth to third Of the population
as many local boards had to do-the
local system broke down under the
vast burden laid upon it and finally
disappeared under weight Of bank
ruptcy and inadequacy.
The national government has taken
over the load. as here. Indeed. there
is great similarity in the pattern
of Britains new centralized plan Of
unemployment assistance and the
American E. r. A. Both are based
on the principle that men able and
willing to work shall not be treated
as paupers because of the breakdown
of industry. Both seek uniform treat
ment of those in need and both seek
the rescue of overwhelmed local COM
munities An essential difference is
that the British method does not seek
to afford work to the men on relief
Instead of undertaking vast public
employment at relief rates, England
had applied huge subsidies to housing
and to shipping partly for the sake
of the stimulus to employment in the
building trades, partly for the sake
of cheap houses for her working
people and an easier path in world
competition for her carrying trade
She has undertaken to protect the
jobs and profits Of those in farming
and industry by such indirect taxes
upon consumers as the tariff and the
processing tax. to which American
consumers have become accustomed.
Able Bodied Cut on.
England's poor law goes back to
Henry the Eighth. After the Refor-
nation the church was no longer equal
to the task Of relieving the poor. The
social and economic upheaval Of the
fifteenth and sixteenth centuries null
tiplied the idle and vagrant. These
troubles of the TudorS led to codifi-
cation under Elizabeth in a system
whose end results Of work house and
pauper were brought to America with
the Puritans. The social attitude that
crystalliZed in the old poor law is re-
flected in the title of the similar
Scottish act dated 1879: For punish
ment of strong and idle beggars and
relief of the poor and impotent." In
Scotland until the present depression
able-bodied persons had no resource
to public relief Of any kind.
1t has been an even 100 years from
the breakdown Of England's "old poor
law" in 1884 to the supplanting of the
new poor law" by the national as
sistance act of 1884. England knew
before the depression that her local
poor law administration was not max
ing the grade. BY 1909 a royal COM
mission had found the system break
ing down all over Britain. But the
World War stopped the talk.
The country was pitched from the
war so Immediately into depression
in 1920 that the old local boards of
guardians remained the only bulwark
against the vast want that engulfed
the industrial towns. Recipients of
local relief increased from 5OO,00 in
1920 to nearly 100000 by the end
OF 1921 and kept on increasing. In
some localities one in five of the
population were ION the town." and
after the great coal strike of 1926
there were great mining areas where
more than half the population were
being cared for at public expense.
Local rates went up in some places
by 900 per cent. Neither the Eliza
bethan nor the nineteenth century
poor law had been framed to deal
with widespread unemployment Now
the local relief boards had to fill in
the gaps not covered by the unem-
ployment insurance. When the local
relief system broke down the govern
ment attempted to load the impossible
burden onto the unemployment in
surance fund, and that in turn fell
into bankruptcy. forcing an over
hauling of. the whole national policy.
National Responsibility.
Reorganization has been under way
for several years, to reach completion
in the unemployment assistance
scheme of this year, which is made an
integral part of the unemployment
act. This act of 1894 now recog-
nizes national responsibility for relief
of unemployed industrial workers out
side the scope of unemployment in
surance. Administration comes under
a central independent board, respon-
sible in policy to the minister of labor.
The present British attitude, in sep
arating unemployment relief from the
care Of the chronic dependent, is
found in this statement of Sir Henry
Betterton, minister of labor, while the
1884 act was before Parliament:
When an unemployed man has re-
ceived all the benefit to which he is
entitled under the terms of an insur-
ance scheme, he has to fall back upon
Vic SCIiCIdl pIONlSlOl IudOc Dy LQe
community out of ordinary taxation.
1t would be unfair to those in employ
ment If payments were made to unem-
ployed persons out of taxation without
considering whether payment is
needed. A test Of need is essential.
But the old conception of the poor
law, that only the elementery needs
of destitute person should be pro-
vided for. Is no longer tenable"
Unemployment figures in Britain
show a substantial reduction from the
100000 of 1882 to 2,195, 900 in the
recovery Summer of 1894. But the
accumulated destitution of the long
depression still piles up the relief bur-
den. This July found 1925 ,207 per-
sons on relief, more by 100000 than
the year before. The relief cost for
the last year available, 1928, was
approximately s200,000,0O0. or just
about what the C. w. A. spent in six
months in New England. Four hun
dred and twenty-five thousand Of
those on relief we're unemployed
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