Author of "The Master", "How to deal with the Unemployed"
The author has conducted social research for a number of years on anoriginal plan.
Securing a lodging where a destitute woman could be accommodated, andproviding cleansing and dress, she has steadily taken in through aperiod of six years every case of complete destitution that came to her,willing to undergo remedial treatment. The work grew; accommodation forfour was provided, with two paid helpers. The small cottage used acts asa social microscope, every case being personally investigated as to pastlife, history, and present need, and dealt with accordingly. The writer,as Secretary to the Ladies' Committee of Oldham Workhouse, next becamepersonally acquainted with the working of the Poor-law and studied it bymeans of books also. By degrees the Rescue work came to cover[Pg vi]Police-court and Lodging-house work, and, as there was no other Shelterin Oldham, cases of all sorts came under her notice. She thus studiedpersonally the microbes of social disorder.
By degrees she came to understand the existence of certain "classes"(classifying them much as observation led her to classify objectsobserved in physical studies). Also, she clearly perceived that causeswere at work leading to rapid degeneration, and was led to pre-supposecurrents working for social destruction.
She then commenced investigating remedial agencies and interrogatingsocial observers. She found among them a similar experience of greatwaste and lack of salvage through defects not to be remedied by privateaction.
This led her more and more to consider national aspects of the question.She visited personally Hadleigh Farm Colony, questioned experts at WestHam, visited and interrogated Police, Prevention of Cruelty to Childrenofficers, Vigilance officers, and[Pg vii] others; and by degrees obtained amass of information. But still the root problems of poverty remaineddark to her, and she became convinced that nothing but accurate andscientific exploration of the depths would reveal the currents leadingto degradation.
After the idea dawned upon her, some months elapsed before she felt ableto arrange to face the ordeal, but during this time proofs accumulatedof the uselessness of any other methods. She reflected that explorationwas the method of science, and became herself an explorer of "DarkestEngland." The results amply justified the experiment. She has nowcarried through the following explorations, each time with increasingknowledge:—
(a) A tour through West Yorkshire, embracing one municipal, one commonlodging-house, two tramp wards, and a women's shelter.
(b) An investigation into a Lancashire tramp ward.
(c) Investigation of a Salvation Army Women's Shelter.
(d) An investigation into the lodging-house conditions in aneighbouring town.
(e) An investigation into conditions in women's lodging-houses in aLancashire centre.
(f) Investigation into a London casual ward; also enquiry andinvestigation as to women's lodging-houses in London.
These investigations have placed her in possession of facts which formthe basis of the introductory essay.
In addition, however, her possession of experience and knowledge haveopened to her many sources