John Young Stratton

“ There is no difficulty in proving that, wherever farm labourers form and maintain benefit societies of the common order, their wages are sufficient to secure to them over and above their present maintenance an independence, provided only they had the means of safe insurances, and would turn them to a right account. It is, we admit, an independence of an humble kind, but still sufficient to raise those who gain it above pauperism, unless under extraordinary pressure and trial, when help from the poor-rate may be honestly claimed, and received without social or moral degradation. ”

“ We cannot, however, insure sickness pay for the breaking up of the constitution in old age. "The days of our age are threescore years and ten, and though men be so strong that they come to fourscore years, yet is their strength then but labour and sorrow." The insurance against sickness must cease at the common limit, and those who survive it should be provided with the superannuation allowance. ”

“ The education of the labourer, and the best way to give it, the wages and food, are questions of great importance. But, second to religion alone, and before all others, come those which we have endeavoured, however imperfectly, to deal with in these pages—the bearing of the Poor Law, and the friendly societies of the labourer. Let him be encouraged to form habits of self-reliance; let him clearly see the way by which he may secure his independence without any danger of his savings being made to benefit the ratepayers and not himself ”

“ How can we look for moral and social advancement among the poor so long as the Creator's regulations for the comfort and happiness of mankind are thus invaded by those of the Poor Law? The mischief extends far beyond the immediate victims; it affects the mass of the labourers by degrading in their eyes the bond of matrimony, and impairing the influences of family affection and of reciprocal duties. ”

“ Diverted by the provisions of the Poor Law from attempts to save, where they can save, the labourers have thus resorted to the ingenious contrivance by which their presumed rights to relief are not brought into jeopardy, while, at the same time, all the advantages of social and kindly influences arising from friendly co-operation are preserved to them. The benefit society of the farm labourer is thus adapted to his requirements. ”

“ She ends the honeymoon with a confinement, and has parish doctor and nurse, and within six months of matrimony you may see her a wretched, half-starved, and ragged woman, with a black eye, and a puny child, which cries piteously and unceasingly. He has the common luck of idle men, an accident, which gives him a right to the sick-fund of his club. He applies for union relief, and then discovers that instead of receiving as large a share of "his rights" as a former companion, who had been turned out of the club for cheating, he obtains only half, and that not in cash, but in flour. ”

“ He will then begin to improve, and, by prudence and industry, will be enabled to spend his days on the spot which is endeared to him by early and intimate associations, and by the ties of family: in lieu of submitting to the dreary reality of being parted from home, and wife and children, in his old age, and dragging out an enfeebled existence as an indoors' pauper. All the human influences which promote his happiness will thus be strengthened and preserved. Strength will be gained in that part of our social system which is at present weak, and the cause of weakness in the community. ”

“ But while we claim on behalf of the rural poor some assistance, not of a pecuniary kind, by which they may be aided in the duty of securing provision for themselves in sickness and old age, alterations of great importance are at the same time equally needed in the administration of relief, in order to stop the demoralising habits of improvidence and waste which it does at present encourage among the rural poor. ”

“ It is not possible either to improve their benefit societies to any great extent or to induce labourers in any considerable number to join safe and well managed friendly societies, so long as the vicious notion is not eradicated from their minds that the provision of a pauper is one which they must on no account forfeit by any effort on their part to obtain support for themselves. ”

“ The grumbling and dishonest old man, who has fixed himself on the funds of the society, and compels his friends to carry him with a tenacity of hold like that of the Old Man of the Mountain, is shaken off, once and for all, on the club-day. "They gave me two shillings and sent me my dinner, and said the union might do all the rest, and was better able than they were." The poor-rate is, indeed, the virtual superannuation fund of the farm labourers' societies, and the annual election is the trap-door by which the member is transferred to the rate. ”

“ No society ought ever to be in want of a single sixpence from subscriptions, and, unless there is evidence of financial soundness and good management, encouragement of any kind should be refused. Where moral and pecuniary aid are given to a pauperising sharing-out club, evil is done, however excellent the intentions of those who bestow it. By entirely withdrawing support from such institutions, and encouraging and infiuencing labourers to form or join safe and solvent societies, the clergyman and squire may render valuable help to many of their poor and deserving neighbours. ”

“ Once in the union, he parts from his wife, to meet her but for a short half-hour in each week of the brief term remaining to them before they turn "to the unremembered and unremembering dust." She soon pines away of no disease in particular, and he remains a desolate old man, so far as desolation consists in the destruction of home and family associations and sympathies, and the want of every human kindness, but the conventional kindness contracted for and paid by the poor-rate. ”

“ It is most surprising that the question which yields to no other in importance—What is the best way of administering out-door relief so as to give encouragement to provident habits?— is not only not answered by an authoritative interpretation of the principle which should govern such cases but is actually left to be answered by each board of guardians for itself. ”

“ Some shaft from the quiver of divine truth may strike home, and the chance listener, who came merely as a part of the rustic pageant, may return in possession of something of more consequence to him than the provision of a sick and burial club. But inasmuch as the public act of worship is oftentimes regarded by the managers and members merely as a means of consolidating and strengthening the position of the club, caution is needed in opening the church for special service and sermon. ”

“ It is simply hopeless to work for any permanent material improvement in the social condition of the agricultural labourer so long as he considers the poor-rate to be his rent-charge in lieu of the portion of soil which he cultivates for another, and in part payment for his labour. ”

“ Further than this, and reaching to permanent provision, the society must not, in his opinion go, unless he would jeopardise his presumed right to a share of the poor-rate. His society exacted the cost of his independence, so far as money goes, and the natural and unavoidable consequence was his gradual fall in social position, till he became a permanent pauper. Under auspicious legislation the man might have saved not only himself, but, by example and influence, others from such a fate. ”

“ The custom is that the club is satisfied of the correctness of the claim if the board of guardians admit it and afford relief. It may be noted that the board, in its turn, attach importance to the fact of a member being in receipt of sickness pay; and in societies which give no allowance for anything but "total and undisputed incapacity by reason of illness to do any work whatever," the man who is too ill to earn his living, but not sufficiently ill to claim money from the sickness fund, may receive, and occasionally does receive, hard treatment from the board. ”

“ The managers of the better class of societies are, however, beginning to learn the difference between capital and surplus capital, but it is still no uncommon case to find that a society which has accumulated a few hundreds is considered able to divide among its members a considerable portion of its capital, which is the store from which coming liabilities can alone be met. After such a dissipation of the funds, which have been possibly increased owing to one or two healthy seasons, there comes a down-rush of claims for sickness pay and for burial money, and there is nothing to pay. ”

“ We would destroy or alter nothing in the Poor Law, or its administration, which is good and serviceable, but would amend it in those points in which it is working mischief to the labouring classes and loss and injury to the community. ”

“ The weak point in a club of the parochial kind (which has, however, much to recommend it to the notice of readers, especially among the clergy, who are interested in benefit societies) is that the real management is, and must be, in the hands of one or two persons. So long as the founder is spared to take the chief part, all may be well, but sooner or later a change comes. The management, which requires some skill and considerable labour, is thrown into the hands of a new officer, with whom the committee do not work with the ease and efficiency to which they have been accustomed. ”

“ My specimen therefore considers himself an ill-used man, and as the stewards of the club stop his pay before he considers himself well, he thence-forward takes up his parable against self-help and benefit societies, and in the long run will have cost the ratepayers a little fortune in maintaining him and his family. When he comes permanently into the house, he has the same care and attention as the most respectable poor man in it, who, indeed, occupies the next bed in the ward in which my specimen sleeps. ”

“ The regulations which break up families, which separate husband and wife, parent and child, perpetuate greater evil than that inflicted on those who are thus parted. Results of this unnatural law are plainly and sadly traceable in the brutality of husbands towards their wives and families, the relaxation of family ties, or in the unnatural coolness with which an only son will leave a widowed mother to end her days in the workhouse, and will refuse, unless compelled by the magistrates, to contribute one farthing of his ample wages towards her maintenance. ”

“ No wonder that an intelligent cottager considers such an arrangement [7] an injustice for which he has no means of redress, excepting that of obtaining as much as he can from the funds of the rate. Again, if the man was compelled to pay his share of the rate as it became due, he would have one reason supplied him for uniting in the effort to make two rates in the year sufficient, and save the third, whereas he is now utterly indifferent whether there are two or half a dozen, so long if as he can make good his claim for relief. ”

“ Why then does not the labourer avail himself of his opportunities and walk in one of the avenues to independence opened to his very door by a beneficent legislation? He prefers to walk in no such ways, but in view of the provision of the poor-rate, refuses to save one farthing beyond that which he contracts with his club. He spends his money as he receives it, and for these reasons. With a sum in the Savings Bank he cannot claim relief from the rate. In case of need, the money must go, before the board will help him ”

“ With certain exceptions, by no means numerous, he is unwilling to exchange the dole provided for him by others for an honestly earned independence of his own winning. And inasmuch as he has framed the benefit society in such wise that it will meet his requirements, and is thereby injuring himself morally and socially, and at the same time unjustly burdening the ratepayer, the conditions which have induced him to this downward and mischievous course must be taken into account before remedial measures can be applied. ”

“ With respect to the former, if there is good reason why a man, crushed by adversity and not by vice, should desire the consolation of his wife, instead of being compelled to separate at the time when mutual support is most strongly needed; if it is true that the anguish of being parted is but keener in the female mind, then let us not continue, for the sake of a neat system of regulating the inmates of the union house, to augment the distress of the poor by such forced separation. ”

“ In truth, the endowment ought to have been granted at the Post Office before any other insurance, and had it been practicable, it should even have had precedence over the establishment of Post Office Savings Banks.
When a person wishes to become an "endowment" member of the society, the agent gives him a blank declaration paper, which he fills up with his name, age, occupation, residence, and the amount for which he wishes to join, and further states in writing the amount of the monthly contribution (for which he refers to the society's tables) , to be paid for the same. ”

“ The benevolent founder states that, "while the poor themselves are benefited by the club, the ratepayer is also benefited to a greater extent than is generally supposed;" and he institutes a comparison from the point of view taken by the poor, of the effect of the friendly society in lessening the rate, between the cost of applicants for relief who are members of the society and applicants in the same parish who belong to no society, from which he shows that the saving is large. ”

“ But in the case of those whose want arises not from their fault but misfortune, the care of the local board of guardians may properly be exercised with kindness, and even some indulgence, often, be it remembered, shown by them at present on the worthless as well as the deserving poor. There is a class of able-bodied paupers whose necessities arise not from their idleness or other vice, but their incapacity in districts where there is some competition for farm labour to keep their employment. ”

“ The cost of their maintenance and clothing should be exacted from the male pauper of this class. We have labour tests, useful in some cases, useless in others, but no organisation which would secure to these encumbrances of the community the strict necessity of earning their bread. Retaining the power of dealing with refractory and disorderly paupers according to the law, the guardians of the poor might be empowered to draft able-bodied paupers of bad character from among the inmates of their union, and send them for a term to an establishment where work was exacted in return for maintenance. ”