mediately before the magistrate, as the inspector of nuisances must do, and compelling the removal of this cause of pauperism. Does not the wretched, degenerate, puny population of Bethnal Green, Shoreditch, and other parishes cry aloud for this?[1]
The English maxim, 'Every man for himself' means, Let every man have as much wages as will just keep soul and body together; and, when he can't get them, be taken care of by the community.
It was a kind of savage communism; meant to keep down wages.
Suppose for a moment a thoroughly prosperous and well ordered community. In such a one, as we have said, every man ought to be able to earn as much as he requires for his own sustenance and for that of his family, besides laying up sufficient for illness, temporary want of work, and old age. But as this state of things does not exist we act as follows:—The law takes it for granted that all employers of labour will get the labour done at as cheap a rate as possible. The law takes it for granted that this rate is not sufficient to do more than supply, and that barely, the present necessities of the worker. The law hence levies a tax on the whole community, whether employers of labour or not, for the purpose of supplementing the want of wages, want of foresight, or want of self-control, as the case may be.
It has now to be considered how the evil can be met.
Beginning with the political economy of the question: in all trade and great mercantile and manufacturing enterprise there is an element of uncertainty, an irregular element not existing to the same degree in land and agricultural enterprise. There are times when there is a great deal too much to do, and times when there is a great deal too little; in other words, times when there is too much labour for the market, and times when there is not enough.
There is a wicked element here, and this is:—that, whenever emigration of the surplus population—the population which the land, according to the law of Elizabeth, did find work for, and can no longer find work for, and which now overflows into the large towns—by a rush of blood as it were to the head—whenever, we say, emigration on any large scale has been proposed, the answer has been: No, we can't afford to part with our surplus population, because then we shall not be able to undersell every other country by having more hands than we can employ at all times.
As the Times says: 'There is an obvious convenience in the possession of a vast industrial army, ready for any work, and chargeable on the public when its work is no longer wanted.' While, on the other hand, the old political economists, the Poor Law administrators, consider that starvation is the proper stimulus to work (as if starvation were a quickener of the wits) and make no provision for finding work for those who don't know how to find it, but who would do it if they had it to do.
Private subscriptions and almsgiving then step in to supply the obvious defect in this mode of dealing with the poor, and the practical result is an increase of the evil.
A French 'administrateur' once said: 'We cannot understand your English laws—you have a Poor Law—you pay rates for your child-paupers to be educated—for your sick paupers to be housed and
- ↑ Alderman Waterlow, M.P., has shown that healthy dwellings for the poor can be built to pay 5 per cent. (actually 7 per cent., but the company have kept 2 per cent. in hand for extending their operations.)
