LONDON:
W. H. REYNOLDS, NEW CROSS, S.E.
4th Edition.—1898.
[3]
Introduction.
In every civilised State the problem of poverty is one which presses for solution.In some European countries it has, at times, locally assumed a critical and menacingform, threatening the very foundations upon which society is based. Revolutions havesprung from the fact that people needed food and could not obtain it; and, even inour own “highly favored” land, honest, industrious men are often driven to despairbecause they can neither get work nor food.
Occasional outbreaks and demonstrations, however, are by no means the true measureof national poverty. Beneath the glittering surface of society there lies a seethingmass of want and misery. The victims suffer in silence and make no sign, but theirexistence constitutes a permanent danger to the general welfare. Destitution is innumberless instances the parent of crime and prostitution, with their chain of disastrousconsequences; overcrowding, semi-starvation and squalor are the fruitful sources ofdisease which scruples not to travel beyond its birthplace and to infect the homesof the wealthy. Modern society may be fitly compared to a magnificent palace rearedin a miasmatic swamp, which fills the air with its death-dealing exhalations. No cunningartifices of builders or engineers can afford protection in such a case. In like manner,society cannot hope to escape from the influences which make for corruption and ultimatedissolution whilst it suffers poverty to remain in its midst.
It is, indeed, unnecessary to insist upon the evils and the national dangers arisingfrom poverty; for they are admitted upon all hands. The problem is: How can [4]poverty be abolished? Upon this vital point opinions differ widely. The evil is so complex and many-sidedthat observers are apt to be misled by a partial view of the symptoms. For example,a total abstainer, concentrating his attention upon instances in which poverty hasbeen brought about by excessive indulgence in alcoholic liquors, urges that drinkis the “cause of poverty.” The Socialist asks “Why are the many poor?” and answersthat the remedy consists in the nationalisation of land and the instruments of production,the abolition of competition, etc. Others attribute the existence of poverty to idlenessor to want of thrift amongst the workers. In no case, however, is the alleged causeequal to the palpable effe