Problems of a Great City

White, Arnold

1887

CHAPTER XI: The Unemployed

CHAPTER XI: The Unemployed

 

THE one feature of the permanent distress ruling amongst the working classes, to which public notice is most forcibly drawn, is the existence of a large and destitute class, outside the poor-houses, without employment or visible means of existence. This plant of evil growth ripens in the winter; not only because the building trades cease, and the summer occupations of casual labourers come to a standstill, but because the physical contrast presented between the lives of capitalists and of labourers, at this season of the year, is too vivid to be wholly ignored. The customary method of expressing a sense of

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sympathy with labour in distress is the performance of a winter masquerade at the Mansion House, by which pauperization of the people is rubbed into their lives a little more deeply, and the flames of hatred between the Haves and the Not-haves fanned a little higher. Opinion is divided as to the real effect of these hurriedly obtained funds. Optimists hold that, by collecting in panic and distributing in haste, society has nobly done its duty to the poor. Pessimists contend that the wrong people manage to obtain the bulk of the money, and that so far as the administration of such a fund has any effect at all, the effect is wholly and indisputably evil. It is probable that the truth lies midway between the optimist and the pessimist point of view-that neither real good nor immediate harm accrues from the distribution of a few shillings to families in a chronic state of misery and degradation. It is difficult to understand how either immediate good or immediate harm can result from the distribution of a few pence or shillings to people who, after consuming the charity, are neither better nor worse for having enjoyed it. A moderate

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estimate places the number of souls in London who are at hand-grips with necessity at half a million. Seventy thousand pounds divided among this multitude amounts to two shillings and sevenpence each. It is probable that the only permanent effect of a Mansion House fund is to burden the next generation with a few hundreds of the unfit, who, but for the existence of the fund, would either never have entered the world, or would have gone out of it under the irresistible operation of natural law. The fecundity of starving people is notorious, and has again and again been exemplified in famine districts in India. A policy based on relief from funds collected in a hurry, and administered by machinery raised in a night, can be but a temporary policy. The evil grows by what it feeds on. We may therefore look forward with some certainty to the final discredit and breakdown of the system of meeting the unemployed problem by cheque charity. The one justification for a Mansion House emergency fund is the patient and contemporaneous construction of machinery for permanently dealing with the question.

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The saddest side of the unemployed problem is the existence of a large and growing class of persons who refuse to be driven by any privation to seek assistance from the Poor Law. The independence and resolve evinced by such a spirit deserve the support of the community. Governments bent on maintaining a sense of manly independence in the people would, in the long days of summer, prepare for the inevitable strain of winter troubles. Any relaxation of the rule which requires as a condition of relief to able-bodied male persons the entry to the workhouse, or the performance of an adequate task of work as a labour test, would be disastrous. Such relaxation would tend to restore the vicious state of things before the reform of the Poor Laws, when the independence of the labouring classes had practically ceased to exist, and the poor-rates were increased so as to become an insupportable burden.

Distress in London is not the distress of a great city-it is the distress of a great Empire. If a Yorkshire yokel is dismissed from employment because machinery performs work formerly effected by men, he is as likely

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to come to London as to Leeds. Distressed British seamen from all parts of the world make for the Port of London. If I am right in contending that the imperial character of metropolitan distress destroys any just comparison between it and the distress of provincial towns, the conclusion is inevitable that exceptional-because imperial distress-can be met only by exceptional-that is, by imperial measures.

There are two considerations which lend support to the view now advanced, upon which some detailed examination will not be out of place.

The Government of the City of London glories in a great historic position, and in the possession of privileges more extended than those of any town in the Empire. It shares the administration of the province of houses from which it derives its name, with the , , , , the Local Government Board, and . The only municipality in London is the Corporation of the City, and although it enjoys a complete power of internal reform,

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it retains customs inconsistent with the principles of the Municipal Corporations Act. As a matter of fact, and possibly in consequence of clinging to the forms of other days, the Corporation of London is out of touch with the main body of the citizens; and its place, as the leader and mouthpiece of the capital of the Empire, is not filled either by or any of the vestries or boards who, by a fiction of the law, are credited with exercising the functions of the local authorities. The net result of the confusion and rivalry existing between the various bodies charged with the administration of the affairs of London, is the administrative impotence of the Capital in such matters as providing for the unemployed, but which is done with complete success in , , and other great cities in the United Kingdom.

Since there is no municipality to whom the unemployed can address themselves, it follows that, pending the creation of a London Government, the Queen's Minister is, whether he likes it or not, in loco parentis to the unmanageable masses of unemployed gathered on the poor man's side of the .

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The other argument for invoking temporarily the action of the Government under the special and exceptional circumstances of the case, is the fact that the provision of a Mansion House fund, which averts civil war for the time being, not only falls on a few generous, patriotic, and public-spirited citizens whose names are found in every good work, but it relieves the Vestries and the Boards of Guardians from duties thrown on them by the law, and which they are only too anxious and willing to evade. The guardians of the poor, in guarding the rates, become the guardians of the rich rather than of the poor.

Before entering into the consideration of what can be done for the permanent benefit of the unemployed, it will be well to analyse the materials from which the army of unemployed is created. The analysis I am about to give is the result of personal examination into the circumstances of about six thousand men, who, presumably unable to afford fourpence for shelter in a common lodging-house, were found wandering throughout the winter nights foodless and without a place to lay their heads. I do not pretend

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that this analysis is exhaustive, or that more value should be attached to the opinion of a mere individual than is deserved by an effort to arrive at truth at the cost of many all-night wanderings in the streets of London during the winter season.

Forty per cent. of these night nomads were, in a national sense, hopelessly submerged. They were often affected with disease, infected with lice, and bore the marks of Cain upon their countenance. They are the pariahs of civilization. Irregular meals, uncleanly habits, and the loathly environment in which they live, render them physically incapable of doing an honest day's work. Petty crimes are perpetrated by people of this class as one means of existence, and they are partly maintained by the system of bat-eyed benevolence which gratifies its own selfish emotions at the cost of generations to come. The casual wards always contain specimens of this class. They are the unfittest of the unfit, and are to be dealt with permanently only by sterilization. For this purpose they must be regarded as the enemies of society, and, as in the case of repeatedly convicted

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criminals, should be segregated for life, or until such time as the danger to posterity from the perpetuation of their species had passed away.

The next 40 per cent. have not fallen to so low a level. Emaciated with want, they retain some moral sense of the dignity of manhood. They are capable of performing two or three hours' work of descriptions not demanding the exercise of skill. But their labour does not possess such competitive value as would enable them to assume a serious part in the work of the world. Intimate relations seem to exist between the physical and moral states of this class of the unemployed. Fed and clothed into fitness and decency, they quickly become as other men are, and resume the cheery demeanour and alertness characteristic of the Londoner when relieved from the pressure of immediate want. There is not much that can be done by public means for the benefit of the majority of the class now under review. The function of the State is not primarily to save the lives of the unfit-from whatsoever cause unfitness may arise. They are proper subjects for

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the personal friendship of those with whom fortune has been more kindly. A cheque from an unknown hand, absorbed in the maalström of a central fund, dispensed under ironclad rules by scientific hands, excites neither gratitude nor surprise. Let every man and woman who can do so seek out and save, by personal contact and patient sympathy, some poor soul blighted by hereditary taint, or maimed by the cold steel of the Manchester school cheapnessworship. Sharing will be found far more effectual than doling, and more seemly as between friends. There is a house in , full of art and beauty, where the harvest of the eye is full and rich. From time to time this house is opened to the poor men and poor women, whose usual lot is to be wedged in the hopeless dulness of . Not served below stairs with condescending patronage, but welcomed as honoured guests in beautiful reception-rooms, among the palms and the orchids, the tazze, and the paintings, many a poor man has first dimly learned the lesson that, after all, the true brotherhood is not inconsistent with

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orders and rank in society; and that differences in birth, culture, and intelligence, are no bars to a common faith in the Teacher of the Mount, and to the practice of His teachings.

The larger portion of the remaining 20 per cent. consists of soldiers. Large numbers of men who have served the Queen in recent campaigns are compelled on wet and snowy nights to tramp the streets because they have nowhere to get a crust or a shelter. Trades are not learned in the army so as to enable ex-soldiers to compete with skilled and energetic men engaged for the whole of their lifetime in the practice of one employment. Trades acquired in the services do not, except in special cases, enable the learners to obtain a subsequent livelihood. Many men leaving the army are practically homeless, and as the scanty store of money taken with them melts away, they gravitate to the banks of the Thames, and become rivals for work, which only one in three can succeed in obtaining.

It would be impertinent to express an opinion as to the military effect of the short-service

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system. The effect, however, on the condition of the lives of the poor has been disastrous, from all points of view. A man who is fit to serve the Queen must be physically and morally superior to the vast proportion of the urban population into which he sinks when discharged from his regiment. His discharge is attended, in the majority of instances, by relapse into hopeless poverty. The number of soldiers among the unemployed is appalling. They crowd the casual wards, and are found in every employment where skill is not required. The efforts of these poor fellows to obtain work are as gallant as their active service; but they are weighted with the burden of a career, which, however honourable on the lips of festive speakers after dinner, disables them in their search for employment. If a man is borne on the roll of the first or second class of the , his chance of employment is lessened; for, since every petty éneute abroad has involved calling up the second line of defence-as much as though we were menaced with grave national danger -employers naturally refrain from engaging men who at any moment are liable to be with have

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drawn from positions of more or less trust and importance. Sometimes the anguish of mind following the hopelss search for work induces men who have faithfully served Queen and country, and who have been turned on to the world with a good character and with enough to retard quick starvation, to end their troubles by self destruction. In the suicide of an ex-soldier was reported in a brief newspaper paragraph between a description of the escapade of a fashionable actress and a list of the winning mounts of a fashionable jockey. In the pocket of the corpse was a paper, and written on it wer these words: "Died of a broken heart; unable to get work."

So long as England is able to buy for seventy thousand pounds a picture, considered by some critics not of the highest class or to defend one Irish landlord at a cost to the country of three thousand pounds a year, the needless death of a one man who has served his country, and the general condition of the whole class of ex-soldiers, is a stain on the character of the country. I do not believe it is the will fo the English people that men who

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served the Queen, especially those who have faced danger of foreign foe in battle, or of a pestilential climate, should be cast out like drafted hounds. If any man be entitled to employment by the State, surely it is he who has served the State, in danger to himself, both well and faithfully. The minor posts in the civil service should be reserved for competent men of good character discharged from the army, and should no longer be dealt with by the patronage of ministers, or wholly in conformity with the teachings of the Manchester school.

Another component portion of the twenty per cent. of the unemployed now being considered is the class of men who have been artizans earning their living by skill in the use of tools. Too large a family, illness, or depression of trade, and the compulsory sale of tools, have forcedthem to relinquish the exercise of skill, and sink into the ranks of mere labourers. The sufferings of these men are acute: and their pluck and patience is most pathetic. Unaccustomed, as agricultural labourers are accustomed, to hard and grinding toil, they quickly become submerged,

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never to regain their former position. Often they are men whose minds are equipped with some measure of education, and they are proudly resolute not to taint their mouths with workhouse bread. Alms are sometimes offered to this class, and the hand that offers it is cursed, while the proffered gift is refused with scorn. These are the men who form the most effective material in the manufacture of the . Failure only partly attributable to the community is by them placed wholly on the shoulders of Society-and nothing short of industrial revolution is held by them to be a satisfactory or adequate solution of the problems of their bitter lives.

Then come the agricultural labourers from all parts of the kingdom, who in entering London exchange a hard lot for one that is hopeless. The whisper of a Mansion House fund blackens the North Road with swarms of these poor fellows, who, aimlessly and unprevented, swell the ranks of the competitive army of the soldiers of unskilled labour. In three months their rural characteristics have disappeared, and in six they

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are permanently absorbed into the floating population of the great city.

The only method of dealing with the agricultural classes who flock to the towns, attracted by the magnetism of a great mass, is to divert them from the country to the Colonies. Emigration is practically at a standstill. Colonization, therefore, is the only method of dealing with the surplus rural population, and there is perhaps no method by which the permanent good of all classes of the community is more effectually secured, than by the organization of settlements such as that dealt with in the chapter on Colonization.

This analysis of a few thousands of night nomads shows that besides the soldiers and the agricultural labourers, to be dealt with by colonization and State employment respectively, there is a large body of men who have drifted to London as much from thoughtlessness as from design. These people being rooted in the Metropolis, are those upon whom the punishment of a cold winter and general depression tells with the most unerring certainty. The labour test usually

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imposed by the parish authorities is stonebreaking or oakum-picking. This work is selected as offering but little competition with other labour. But it presses hardly on skilled artizans, and impairs their proficiency in their own trades. Spade labour is less open to objection, but it is not often that Guardians are either able or willing to supply the unemployed with the opportunity of working with the spade or shovel. What is required is work that all able-bodied men can perform; which does not compete with other employments; and which is not likely to interfere with the resumption of regular employment in their own trades by those who are compelled by necessity to seek for aid. As regards parishes, it is not reasonable to expect that ratepayers should bear the burden of providing relief works for men who, as has been shown, flock in from all parts of the Empire. East End rates are normally higher than the rates of other parts of London. Pending the equalization of the rates for the whole of the metropolis, it is not likely that local authorities will willingly embark in schemes for the relief of distress

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accidentally falling within the area of their own administration. The belated advice of the Local Government Board, from time to time distributed with ineffectual wisdom, is naturally ignored. The Board has no power of constraint.

It is difficult to resist the conclusion that under the special circumstances of the case, i.e., the absence of a Municipality for London, the impotence of the local authorities, and the grave evils attending the helterskelter administration of charitable fundsthe Government must accept a responsibility in London which they do not seek to evade in India. Plans for the employment of Indian labour in districts liable to famine are in readiness throughout the three Presidencies. I fail to see why provisions held to be necessary in the case of our Hindoo and Mahometan fellow-subjects should be superfluous or unwise when dealing with Englishmen and their families. Irish distress is articulate through the voices of Irish Members of Parliament, and measures for the relief of distress in the sister island receive the approval of all parties and of all creeds. What

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is done for Ireland and for India should not be left undone for London.

If, on reviewing all the circumstances of the case, spade labour be considered most suitable to the needs of a starving population, the defences of London would appear the most appropriate object for the expenditure of funds intended to be applied to the relief of distress. It cannot be pretended that relief works of this nature would be pecuniarily remunerative. It is undesirable that they should be directly remunerative. The erection of forts and earth-works would compete with no other employment; would not involve the possession of skill; and would be carried out beyond the confines of the metropolitan area. Payment should be made largely in kind, and, if necessary, should be modified with this object. No Act of Parliament would be needed for the erection of forts on land already in possession of the War Office, and preparations for the camp of labour to be employed can be organized in a few weeks. Ministries have again and again incurred expenditure on wars, and preparations for war, for which they were subsequently obliged to

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obtain an indemnity from Parliament. There appear to be no fundamental objections to the plan of temporarily providing for the able-bodied unemployed by completing the defences of London. The rates of wages paid, either in money or in kind, should be so arranged as not to attract labourers from other employments, and idlers refusing the honourable work thus provided should be allowed to take the consequences of their idleness. The habit of idleness is so rooted in the nature of a small portion of the population that they will incur privation, resort to malingering, steal-in short, do anything rather than apply themselves to win their bread by the sweat of their brow.

It is probable that the organization of relief works on some such plan as this would reduce the distress of able-bodied men to manageable dimensions. The wives and families of the men employed would no doubt need assistance, which could be rendered by arranging for the payment to the wives of a portion of the wages earned by the men on the same system of deposit notes and remittances as is adopted on behalf of seamen

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in the navy and mercantile marine. The work would be of so hard and disagreeable a nature that none would resort to it except in extremity. On the other hand the taint of the poor-law and workhouse relief would be abolished, and men employed would preserve their independence in reflecting that the work on which they were engaged was one of national importance and of the highest necessity.

Some military authorities are of opinion that the creation of a system of defence for the metropolis and its approaches is by itself a matter that should no longer be postponed, and that without reference to the state of the labour market the accessibility of London to hostile forces constitutes a grave and national danger. Whether or not this view of the case be correct, it is clear that there is an opportunity of ensuring the safety of London and of its prodigious wealth under circumstances exceptionally favourable to the National Exchequer, and at the same time of reducing the proportions of a calamity with which we are menaced from within.

To recapitulate some of the measures

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needed to solve the problem of the unemployed, the following steps may be among those to be adopted with advantage:-

(1). The institution under War Office management of a system of metropolitan defences.

(2). The organization of agricultural settlements in the Colonies for labourers driven from the soil.

(3) The employment of ex-soldiers in the petty offices of the civil service.

(4). The administration of charity, whenever practicable, by the givers themselves or their agents, and under no circumstances resort to centralized funds, care being taken by organization to prevent " over-lapping."