The Problem of Poverty and How to Deal with it.
By the late Samuel Soutar. (Waterlow and Sons. 1d.)—Mr. Soutar's criticism of present arrangements will meet with more approval than will be accorded to his proposals. These proposals, put briefly, are old-age pensions, supplemented by State asylums ; State work- shops ; starvation. It is thus that he would deal with the cases of the superannuated and infirm, of the unemployed (truly so- called), and of the idler. The subject, as far as the first and second of these suggestions are concerned, has been treated recently in these columns. As to the third, we need the necessary details. Are the vagrant wards simply to be closed P As a matter of fact, there is a percentage of genuine unemployed among the tramps. The writer of this notice finds that about one in four of
hose who ask for relief are willing to work. He has, indeed, never seen a case of "the righteous begging his bread." But there are many degrees of merit and demerit. A labouring man "goes under" from the pressure of circumstances from which equally culpable persona in the classes above him recover without great difficulty. As to the Poor Law, it must never be forgotten that its provisions, hostile as they may be to thrift, are a great insurance against class hatreds. The man who feels that in the last resort he can get food never becomes desperate. We fear that Mr. Soutar's starvation remedy would lead to many crimes of violence.
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