Statistics regarding conditions of unemployment and destitution are derived mainly from the following sources :— Sources of (a) Trade union returns. These are valuable only to a certain extent as the trade union movement does not include all the wage-earners in the country, women workers especially being but partly organised. As the movement increases its membership, however, the returns will become more representative of general conditions. But these statistics do not correctly indicate the degree of distress, partly because of the variation in the benefits and subventions, partly because distress among home-workers, juveniles, and the aged does not figure in the returns, and also because the figures do not cover under-employment where a system of short time is practised. (b) Unemployment insurance returns. Since the extension of unemployment insurance in 1920 to twelve million wage-earners, most useful information has been afforded by the official reports. The statistics are not complete, however, for certain occupations are not covered by the scheme.* (c) Employment exchanges. These provide a fairly good index, especially in connection with the casual trades. The returns show that about 50 per cent. of the applicants for employment come from (i) occupations designated under the heading of "roads, seas and rivers," (ii) general labourers and (iii) commercial classes (mainly clerks). It is among these occupations that most distress is as a rule to be found. According to the 1911 Census, out of 11 million workers, about 1 million were found in these three classes, i.e. 86 per cent. of the workers were in the comparatively regular * See Ch. XIII. SOC. ECON. 19 occupations, 14 per cent. yielding about a half of the employment exchange figures. Most of the casual labourers were found in urban districts, especially at the ports. London, out of 1,404,000 male workers, had over 20 per cent. among the casual workers, Liverpool 34 per cent., and Bristol 22 per cent. Casual employment is a serious problem, not confining its influence to the workers immediately concerned, but tending to depress conditions of employment in many other trades. Booth stated that the casual worker was the crux of the whole problem, and Beveridge writing nearly thirty years later confirmed his view.* (d) Distress committees.† A certain amount of information is supplied from this source, but, as the activities of these bodies are very limited, the data are not altogether representative. These committees appear to have been more common in London than elsewhere. With the development of other and more useful agencies during the last few years, the relative importance of distress committees has declined. (e) Pauperism returns. Statistics as to relief afforded under the Poor Law are very useful, so long as conclusions are not too hastily made. Thus, as shown in Ch. II., there was a decline during the fifty years before the war of over 50 per cent. in the number of paupers receiving outdoor relief, but this drop is explained very largely by the increased stringency of the regulations and the provision of new forms of relief outside the Poor Law, such as old age pensions and the feeding of necessitous schoolchildren. The statistics on the opposite page, especially those in columns (5) and (6), are significant. * Beveridge, Unemployment, Ch. V. Set up in accordance with the Unemployed Workmen's Act, PERSONS IN RECEIPT OF POOR-LAW RELIEF IN It is seen from this table that the total number of persons in receipt of public relief declined between 1883 and 1920, following which the heavy depression caused an abnormal amount of destitution. Until the war the proportion receiving institutional relief was increasing, but after the war there was a decline in proportion (though the actual number remained fairly constant). The statistics of domiciliary relief do not, of course, include benefits, covenanted or uncovenanted, under the Unemployment Insurance Scheme. * Quarterly Statement, December 1924. 2. DEVELOPMENT OF THE POOR LAW.* A knowledge of the history of the Poor Law is essential to a thorough comprehension of the present position of public aid. The record of Poor Law administration gives the social student an insight, not only into the practice of poor relief, but also into the social conditions and experiments of the periods under review. It is true that economic conditions are constantly changing and that programmes that are applicable to one period might be altogether inapplicable to another. Nevertheless, three centuries' experience of the Poor Law is very instructive to the present day reformer, in telling him not merely what to do, but also (which is just as important) what not to do. The history of the Poor Law is, like all histories, a record of good and bad. Especially does it warn us of the fallacies as to the nature of poverty and the method of poor relief. These fallacies have been responsible for much harshness and abuse in past administration. Many reforms have been carried out in the last few decades, but the stage has been reached when a more vital decision has to be made The question now is not so much whether the Poor Law should be further reformed, but whether it should not be entirely abolished. Poor Relief before 1601: Dependence Inquiry into the practice of poor relief can be carried, if necessary, as far back as Saxon times, when landless men were expected to be provided for by their kinsmen or master. While on the Church. the manorial system existed, however, the poverty question was not important, for it was comparatively easy for a man to obtain land or to * It is only possible here to give the barest outline of the history of the Poor Law. For a full account see Nicholls and Mackay, A History of the English Poor Law, (1912), and Webb, English Poor Law Policy, (1910). secure employment on the land. With the break-up of the manorial system many men lost their holdings, while those who threw off the yoke of villeinage were not always in an enviable position, for freedom was often accompanied by destitution. The substitution of "contract" for "status" did not in all cases mean an improved economic condition. The wage-earners were often as badly off, so far as their material income was concerned, as when they had been in serfdom; sometimes they were even in a worse position. In the towns, a certain amount of poor relief was afforded by the gilds to those members who had fallen on evil times. In 1348 the Black Death swept away about a third of the population. The workers who were left took advantage of the shortage of labour and demanded better wages. The Statute of Labourers of 1349 was one of the earliest enactments dealing with labour conditions. It ordered the workers to serve under any master who might require them, and to be paid at the rate customary in the year before the Black Death (though prices had risen in the meantime). Severe penalties were to be imposed on workers who, in the opinion of the legislators, took unfair advantage of their position. The Statute was not successful, however, partly because the landlords were so anxious to obtain labour that they themselves were willing to pay more than the prescribed rates, but mainly because the workers, in spite of the penalties, refused to bend under the repressive policy. Many other Statutes were passed in a vain attempt to settle the problem. The Act of 1388 is specially notable in that for the first time" the poor are referred to as a distinct class, and that the "valiant beggar" is separated from the "beggar impotent to serve.' The townspeople were expected to provide for the needy poor. During the next two centuries |