many places elections will turn solely on political grounds.
Already there are signs of this. If that be so, I think that
half measures will hardly meet with acquiescence from



264 ASPECTS OF THE SOCIAL PROBLEM xiv

either party. And it is at least quite possible that many
will support a system the benefits of which will, I believe,
be quickly understood by most Friendly Societies' men.
If this year's elections on the new qualification be taken as
a test, I do not think that there is any reason for alarm.
The common sense of the people will "worry through." ^

Statement VII.

" I propose that they [the Charity Organisation Societies]
should continue their work as semi-official bodies ; that
their authority and resources should be increased by their
receiving from the Government a distinct mandate to aid
the Guardians ; perhaps receiving on their Committees
some working men and women representatives of the Local
Authority ; and having in return the power to nominate
some Poor Law ^Guardians. They would then pass on
simple cases of undeserving people to be sent to the
ordinary workhouse ; and simple cases of deserving and
thrifty people with recommendations for outdoor relief, or
for indoor relief in special houses where there would be
more material comfort and freedom, and much greater
moral cleanliness than in an ordinary workhouse. On
these recommendations the Guardians would take their
own course, with or without special inquiry of their own as
they chose. Complex cases, as I have already said, would
remain to be dealt with as now."

Colquhoun, writing in 1806, adopted the distinction
between indigence and poverty, which the Poor Law
Commissioners employed. And indigence he divided
into — (i) " utter inability to procure subsistence " ; and (2)
" inadequate ability." The problem of relief has always
been how to push the second of these classes into adequate
ability to procure subsistence. The Commissioners (for
as the main attack is upon them I again refer to them)
decided that provident arrangements should be entirely
independent of Poor Law arrangements. They would not
have parochial benefit societies on behalf of whose members

^ See note on p. 267,



XIV CONTROVERTED POINTS IN POOR RELIEF 265

the Poor Law was to pay contributions, but independent
Friendly Societies. And they have been justified by the
event. Similarly, they wished to introduce personal charity
and kindness into the workhouses, as workhouse visitors
now do, but they wished the administration of charity to
be separate. And, again, they have been justified by the
event. There is no doubt that the clearer the line has
been drawn between charity and the Poor Law, the more
has charity risen up to its responsibilities and undertaken
tasks which it would not before have attempted. And
these forces, acting according to their different methods,
have been powerful means of raising to a higher level
persons of " inadequate ability." Charity must be volun-
tary. It should be in the highest degree adaptable to the
individual case. It deals with a limited number of applicants.
The Poor Law is open to all, and all come to it as of
right, if they be destitute. It must therefore work by
"fixed rules and tests." This conclusion may be argued
both on the ground of theory and experience. If the Poor
Law be made charitable, we shall lose the protection of
the Poor Law rules and tests without gaining the adapt-
ability of voluntary charity. Applicants will be multiplied,
while our means of so dealing with them, as to keep them
in the way of self-support, are reduced. Whenever outdoor
relief is given as a charity, there is a tendency in this
direction. If this be true, a semi-official connection between
charity and the Poor Law is not wanted. Charity organisa-
tion will get as much influence in furtherance of co-opera-
tion as it deserves. Government patronage will hinder
rather than help it. There is no difficulty as to passing
cases on to the Poor Law. It is not suggested that we
should compel people to go into the Workhouse ; and now,
if unsuitable for charitable relief, they are left to make their
own application to the Poor Law. To classification in
workhouses much attention is being paid, and since 1866
there has been a continual advance in this matter. The
proposed connection between charity and the Poor Law
would probably lead to friction and misunderstanding, and
interfere with that better co-operation between them that



266 ASPECTS OF THE SOCIAL PROBLEM xiv

is steadily growing. And there is good ground for fearing
that charity, in receipt of subventions from the State,
would soon degenerate into another form of outdoor relief.
As to this, the administration in France is to the point.
There outdoor relief is partly voluntary, and is granted
from funds which are in part made up of subventions from
the town or commune, in part from various voluntary
sources. It is true that there is investigation, but it is, I
venture to think, very insufficient as a means of ascertain-
ing in what manner thorough assistance may best be given ;
and the relief usually consists of very small allowances or
doles. I should conclude (and I speak from personal
inquiry) that in France a plan of combination similar to
that proposed above is not satisfactory.

Our position at the present time is not unlike that in
1834. Some Unions have shown that if the principles of
the Poor Law Commissioners be applied slowly, cautiously,
and tentatively, pauperism — even old-age pauperism — may
cease out of their, areas. Apparently, to many people this
is a most objectionable result. They say that the Unions
are exceptional : that they have had exceptional chairmen,
etc. etc. Well, if it be so, it is only right that exceptional
men should lead the way. Let the others follow and pay
honour where honour is due. But if Bradfield and Brix-
worth, St. George's-in-the-East, Stepney, and Whitechapel
are to be set aside, there are many other examples.
Suggestions may be gleaned from Atcham, Wallingford,
Reading, Oxford, Liverpool, the West Derby Union, Bir-
mingham, Manchester, Paddington, and many other places;
indeed, from a whole series of Unions of every grade and
character. Their methods vary ; but the principles of
their administration are the same. As Mr. Becher said of
Southwell, with lessened outdoor relief inquiry becomes more
efificient, and in these circumstances varying weight is given
to character in regulating the form in which relief shall be
provided. Some give more outdoor relief, some less, some
hardly any : and, so far as the evidence goes, it proves that
their administration is, in different degrees, producing the
same result — the reduction of old-age pauperism. We



XIV CONTROVERTED POINTS IN POOR RELIEF 267

may conclude then that, as in 1834, the pre-eminent
administration of a few parishes showed the country the
way out of the bondage of able-bodied pauperism, so in
1893 the pre-eminent administration of a few Unions and
the careful system of reUef adopted in others will show the
country the way of escape from old-age pauperism, if we
are content " in the present condition of the country" to
remain on "the firm ground of experience."

Note. — Since the above was written, a complete change has been made
in the Poor Law electorate, and in the qualification of candidates for
Boards of Guardians. Mr. Fowler, in 1892, reduced the rating qualifica-
tion of candidates to a minimum. To this change reference is made in
the text. Last year the Poor Law clauses were included in the Local
Government Act, 1894, and what was little short of a revolution in Poor
Law administration was thus effected. The constitution of the Boards of
Guardians was one of the fundamental questions settled by the new Poor
Law of 1834 ; and it is remarkable that it was altered without any parlia-
mentary or other inquiry, and with the distinct avowal on the part of the
late President of the Local Government Board that it entailed no change
in the Poor Law itself, but only a change in the method of electing the
administrators of the law. Last year a further alteration was made, also
without investigation. By the Outdoor Relief Friendly Societies Act, 1894,
permission was given to Boards of Guardians to grant relief to members of
Friendly Societies, without taking into account any allowances that they
might receive from their societies. Thus, while other applicants may
have only "necessary relief," members of Friendly Societies may have
more relief than is necessary. The injustice of singling out one form of
thrift (for which there are no stronger advocates than members of the
Charity Organisation Society) as the object of State bounty is obvious.
The result of such alterations, each adopted without regard to Poor Law
administration as a whole, and without previous investigation, must be
to weaken little by little the chief principle of the Poor Law, referred to on
p. 233, on the application of which the great progress made since 1834
has chiefly depended. And now it is proposed (also without previous in-
quiry) to enable able-bodied men in receipt of relief to retain their parlia-
mentary and even other franchises, when during two months in any one
year a union has been declared "distressed" on the recommendation of a
Board of Guardians, approved by the Local Government Board. It is
clear that if such changes as these are made piecemeal, and sentiment
rather than justice is introduced as the ruling factor in Poor Law adminis-
tration, a consideral)le increase of pauperism must be expected ; and, if it
.should arise, it will be no indication of greater poverty or destitution
among the people, but will be the manifest consequence of the neglect of
well-tried and successful principles of administration.



XV

RETURNS AS AN INSTRUMENT IN SOCIAL
SCIENCE!
By C. S. Loch

" Must we quote figures on a point in which the evidence
is so complete and in which every one is convinced by their
personal observation ? Certainly, for in our day figures
only are considered a decisive and conclusive argument."
So writes M. Leroy Beaulieu, and proceeds to illustrate by
figures the fall in the price of articles of general use during
the present century. He is right, and no one now can
turn to any book or article on what are called social ques-
tions without finding figures used as sticks, staves, and
missiles, or as professors' pointers — as means of agitation
or of instruction, as decisive and conclusive arguments
for the slaughter of opponents or for the information of
students.

Here we have to do with figures in the form of parlia-
mentary returns only. Of the legitimate use of returns
many instances will occur to you. I will refer to some
examples of what appears to me to be their abuse.
In considering these we shall pass from criticism to
suggestions.

The following two paragraphs are taken from a pamphlet
entitled Facts for Lofidoners, and published by the Fabian
Society : —

^ A paper read to the Economic Section of the British Association,
Edinburgh, 1892. Reprinted from C. O. Review.



XV RETURNS IN SOCIAL SCIENCE 269

In London, one person in every five will die in the work-
house, hospital, or lunatic asylum. In 1887 out of 82,545
deaths in London, 43,507 being over twenty, 9399 were in
workhouses, 7201 in hospitals, and 400 in lunatic asylums, or
altogether 17,000 in public institutions. (Registrar-General's
Report, 1888, C — 5, 138, pp. 2 and 7^.) Considering that
comparatively few of these are children, it is probable that one
in every three London adults will be driven into these refuges
to die, and the proportion in the case of the manual labour
class must, of course, be much greater.

One in eleven of the whole metropolitan population is driven
to accept Poor Law relief during any one year (see p. 20), and
that notwithstanding the existence of organised metropolitan
charities estimated to disburse over ^4,000,000 annually
{Encyclopedia Britannica, vol. xiv. p. 833), and that in
Middlesex and Surrey there were in 1888, 1,152,189 Post
Office savings bank accounts open, with an aggregate balance
of ^15,410,541 (H. C. 177 of 1889). In spite of all, twenty-
nine deaths were referred, in 1888, to direct and obvious
starvation (H. C. Return, No. 136, 1889).

These are some of the facts and figures without "which,"
it is stated, "the Londoner can neither understand his
position nor discharge his duties as a citizen." They,
amongst others, are cited to show the necessity of moving
towards the "_common end — the emancipation of land and
industrial capital from individual and class ownership, and
the vesting of them in the community for the general
benefit." With this end I am not here concerned. I
quote the words only by way of explanation, to show that
the returns are used as means of agitation. I take them
as a notable example, but it is only fair to say that I could
give other instances of a similar use of some of these figures
in quarters where I certainly have been much surprised to
find them.

Deaths in Public Listitiitioiis.

In dealing with the question of deaths in public institu-
tions in London, I have taken the figures for 1888, the



270



ASPECTS OF THE SOCIAL PROBLEM



year to which other returns in the paragraph refer. The
figures in the text are taken from the Report (1887) of the
Registrar-General for 1886.

The following are the figures for 1888 : —



'bB ,r.

s °

ll
â– >

5



ll

H


"3
c ^

-S-2

V 3



H


Workhouses.


Hospitals.


Lunatic
Asylums.


I,

II
=> ft




u .0

2,5




u- 1},
a
^-.2

â– S 3


380


Divisions.
No. I. — London


186


17,663


61


10,170


117


7II3


8



We will analyse these figures in reference to the first
few sentences of the paragraph we have quoted.

First, it will be noted that "workhouse," "hospital,"
and " lunatic asylum " are taken as equivalent terms, as
institutions into which London adults "are driven." But
the word "workhouse," as the return itself shows, includes
the Poor Law infirmaries and the district hospitals of the
Metropolitan Asylums Board for infectious diseases. A
workhouse and an infirmary are very different institutions ;
and still more different is a hospital of the Asylums Board.
Since 1867, when the MetropoUtan Poor Act was passed,
there have been created separate Poor Law infirmaries and
sick asylums, to a very large extent taking the place of the
old sick wards of the workhouses. These new institutions
are good hospitals, well built, sometimes very well nursed,
and in many respects as good as, or sometimes better than,
many voluntary hospitals. The following is Dr. Gross's
evidence in regard to the new St. Saviour's Infirmary, of
which he is medical superintendent (p. 626, Second Report
of the Select Committee of the House of Lords on Metro-
politan Hospitals, etc.): —



XY RETURNS IN SOCIAL SCIENCE 271

2 3,553- Do the poor object to going into the Poor
Law infirmary in the same degree as they do to going
into the Workhouse? — Oh, dear no. They look upon it
now as going into the infinnary ; the word " workhouse "
is never mentioned. " I am going to the infirmary," they
say. . . .

23,557. Then they do not necessarily pass through the
Workhouse at all ? — No ; I suppose, perhaps, 40 per cent come
through the Workhouse. . . .

23.577. In effect, according to your evidence, the tend-
ency of these infirmaries, however good it may be with
regard to the poor, is greatly a tendency to pauperise them ? —
Certainly. A man comes and looks round the infirmary,
and says that, if he has such a place to come to, he is not
going to save money to provide for himself. We have that
said constantly.

23.578. And you have said also that it undoubtedly prevents
them going into provident clubs ? — I think so. A man says :
" I have nothing to gain by going into a provident club ; I am
very well treated in the infirmary." They all come in if they
have a chance.

2 3,579- But, legally, does he not become a pauper by going
to the infirmary ? — Yes, but I do not think he takes notice of
that. . . .

23.584. Then, with reg^ard to the infirmary, you do not
think that there is the same deterrent effect in offering the
relief there in all cases as the offer of the Workhouse had ? —
No, not at all.

23.585. In the case of the Workhouse their coming in is a
test really whether they are genuine cases ? — Yes.

23.586. In the case of the infirmary they come in because
they find it so good and comfortable, and they do not consider
it to be the same thing in effect as going to the Workhouse ? —
Certainly not.

23.587. And you think there are a great many cases of
people who refuse to go to the Workhouse and come to you ?
— Yes.

I will not point the moral of this evidence. It is suffi-
cient to show that the Workhouse and the infirmary should
not be considered as equivalent ; that the former may be



272 ASPECTS OF THE SOCIAL PROBLEM xv

deterrent, but that to the latter Londoners certainly are
not " driven " but extremely well content to go.^

Still less should the Workhouse and the district hospital
be taken as equivalent. The district asylums are fever
hospitals established on sanitary grounds for the benefit of
the whole community. That lunatic asylums should not
be included in the same category with workhouses and
the rest is equally obvious. The whole implication of the'
passage, "the driving into these refuges to die," etc., is
thus plainly misleading.

And as to voluntary and endowed hospitals, this is
equally the case. If we run through the list of hospitals
we see this at a glance. To a cancer hospital are regis-
tered 1 02 deaths; to a consumption hospital, 229; to a
home for incurables, 6 ; while also amongst hospitals are
included the Herbert Hospital (military) with 42 deaths,
and the Royal Arsenal Infirmary with 2. Are such differ-
ent institutions as these to be put under one hat, as in-
stitutions to which the poor are driven to die ? This view
of hospitals reminds me of Mark Twain's statistical con-
clusions. After buying many railway insurance tickets
and never meeting with an accident he found out the
reason why. " Thirteen thousand of New York's millions
die in their beds ! ' This is appalling ! ' I said. ' The
danger isn't in travelling by rail, but in trusting to those
deadly beds. I will never sleep in a bed again.'" So
here, by the process of argument which is used, the social
inquirer apparently concludes that the evil which he is
considering may be judged not by the character and

1 The following figures show the change that has taken place in regard
to the number of deaths in workhouses since Gathorne Hardy's Act (1867).
Only institutions in the London Division are included : —

Deaths in Separate ^^f '^^ '" Hospitals

Year. Deaths in Workhouses. Infirmaries or Sick ,?", Asylums ot the

''^'"^' A<„l„m= Metropolitan Asylums

Asylums. g^^^^,_

1869 7130 9 o

f The figures for the workhouse and infir- "l
1879 -! maries are in the return for this year usually V 489

(^ given in one sum. J

1889 2451 6480 1226



XV RETURNS IN SOCIAL SCIENCE 273

occurrence of the sickness and accidents of life, but by the
number of deaths in those deadly public institution beds.

Other evidence shows that artisans who probably earn
good wages are in long and difificult illness, quite rightly,
admitted to and nursed in hospitals. Thus, a list of
patients at the Royal Free Hospital made at the time of
the last census shows that amongst the men were an engine-
driver, engine-firemen, carpenters, and joiners, a brass-
worker, compositors, and so on. The list of occupations
published, for instance, by the St. George's Hospital points
to the same conclusion. Other evidence is given in the
lists of the Hospital Saturday Fund ; lodges of Foresters
and Odd Fellows and other societies subscribe to the
hospitals through it, and so do the employees at many
important firms. The hospitals are not institutions to
which they are driven, but from which they acknowledge
that they derive benefit. Further, at some hospitals a
large number of the cases are accidents. The Report of
the Charing Cross Hospital for 1888 states that the accident
room cases were 9735, of which 1722 were made in-
patients. The total number of the in-patients in that year
was 1870.

The better the provision made for the sick, the larger
the number that make use of it. The larger, therefore,
the number who prefer the hospital or infirmary to their
home, or who, suffering from infectious disease, are taken
to a hospital, and the larger in consequence the number of
deaths in institutions — quite apart from any question of
medical treatment or hospital sanitation. The argument
of the paragraph, on the other hand, amounts to this :
the greater the number of the poor treated in hospitals and
infirmaries, the worse the condition of the poor — which is
manifestly absurd. As a matter of fact, as the hospitals
and infirmaries have increased in number and improved,
to a much greater extent have they been used, and relatively
— as one would expect — the number of deaths in them
has increased. This is clearly shown by reference to
previous returns of the Registrar-General.

Another point. Though the figures in the Facts for
T



274 ASPECTS OF THE SOCIAL PROBLEM xv

Londoners are quoted correctly, if the deaths that took
place in the Metropolitan Division only be summed up,
yet as a statement of the total number of deaths of
Londoners in London institutions they are incorrect ; and
this for two reasons. It is estimated that from 1400 to
1500 non-Londoners die annually in London institutions.
Of this no account is taken in The Facts. And there
are many London Poor Law institutions and lunatic asylums
outside the Metropolitan Division; all these are overlooked.
Thus, at the London County Asylum, Wanstead, there
were in 188S, 321 deaths; at Cane Hill, 112. At the
Metropolitan Asylum for Imbeciles, near Dartford, there
were 107 deaths; at the Strand Workhouse and Infant
Establishment at Edmonton, 79 deaths. And there are
many other entries which should be brought into the
account, if the number of deaths in London institutions is
to be correctly stated.

Lastly, the return is misapplied. To enumerate the
deaths in institutions is necessary for two purposes. The
numeration shows what allowance is to be made for such
deaths in the totals of local mortality, and whether from
year to year, and in the comparison of one hospital with
another, there is a rise or fall in what may possibly be
preventable hospital mortality. As has been said of parables,
returns must be interpreted in reference to the purposes
for which they were compiled. Then, with regard to the
words "considering that comparatively few of these are
children," it may be pointed out that in 1890 — and the
same would hold good of 1888 — children's hospitals alone
account for nearly 900 of the 7600 deaths in hospitals;
and to these would have to be added deaths of children in
general hospital wards, infirmaries, etc. Of the rest of the
paragraph, depending, as it does, on a return so entirely
misused, I need say nothing.^



1 It is interesting to note tliat at the recent election of the London
County Council, the argument of one in every four (it is now four, not
three) being driven to die in a public institution was revived. And it
formed the subject of a graphic picture — the fourth person, a ragged, miser-
able old woman, standing within the walls of her captivity, and the three



RETURNS IN SOCIAL SCIENCE 275



The " Starvation " Returns.

I will now pass to the words : —

"In spite of all, 29 deaths were referred in 1888 to
direct and obvious starvation." The "in spite of" refers
to the large number of paupers, the large amount of charity,
and the large amount held in savings banks. Of the last
it is only right to remark that, thrown in, in order, as it
would seem, to show the hopelessness of thrift as a means
of deliverance, it is an altogether insufficient statement ;
and as to the second, it is worth while to set the words of
the Encyclopcedia side by side with those in the paragraph,
for there is not a little difference between them. The
words in the paragraph are : " Notwithstanding the exist-
ence of organised metropolitan charities estimated to dis-
burse over ^4,000,000 annually." The words in the
Encyclopcedia are : " The annual income of the various
charitable institutions in London is now over ;^4,ooo,ooo,
of which at least three-fourths is spent in London.'''' This

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30