have separate sleeping quarters [a casual's abhorrence], and will find the accommodation much superior in decency and cleanliness to anything he could get at a lodging-house.' 'We most earnestly entreat,' they continue, all into whose hands this Report may fall never to give without inquiry to anyone, whether it be to the beggar in the streets, or the plausible gentleman in temporary want of money. If it is a case of genuine distress, the person in difficulties will not object to the inquiry necessary to ascertain that the distress really exists. It is very discouraging to those earnestly and devotedly engaged in relieving deserving and unmerited distress to find that pounds are forthcoming for anyone who, on a first visit, and without any proof, tells a thrilling tale; while they have serious difficulty in raising money for the really distressed, who would fain hide their trouble from everyone, and whom a timely gift might effectually help. 'As to beggars in the street, we find it necessary again to repeat that, especially where children are brought forward to excite sympathy, there can be no more cruel kindness than making such a trade-for trade it is a profitable one. We could give many instances of the beggars who earn more than an honest hard-working man. Only the other day, a boy begging was found by the police to have 30s. in his pocket; and on another occasion a member of this Committee gave 2s. 6d. to a respectably-dressed boy of 17, whom she met on the Underground Railway, and who, with all apparent sincerity, gave full particulars of the difficulties in which he alleged himself to be placed. These particulars turned out to be entirely false, and the boy has since been placed by the parochial authorities in an industrial home ; but he is only one of many who trade on the best and kindliest feelings of the wealthy inhabitants of such a district as Kensington, and induce them to give money which is not only doing harm instead of good, but also encouraging a large number of people to pursue the remunerative profession of begging instead of working to support their families.' RELIEF FROM LARGE FUNDS THE LATE MANSION HOUSE FUND. The known results of the administration of large Relief Funds lead to the same conclusion. The Kensington Committee last year formed Sub-Committees for the administration of the Mansion House Fund. They determined to relieve, as a rule, only those applicants who were usually able to support themselves, and whose present distress was due to the long depression of trade, and to the exceptional severity of the weather.' They made inquiries in each case, as carefully and thoroughly as the suddenness of the emergency admitted; and although possibly many persons received assistance whom sa more PADDINGTON. careful and more prolonged investigation might have shown to be unfit objects of charitable relief, they have no doubt that many deserving persons were enabled to tide over a period of unusual distress, and that the greater portion of the money which was placed at their disposal was expended as the givers would have wished.' Yet their conclusion is : 'Looking back on the past, we do not think the distress of last winter was so severe in this district as to require the creation of a Special Metropolitan Fund for its relief. The creation of such a fund, however necessary at times, can hardly fail to be attended with many evils. The persons whom the charitable are most anxious to help are seldom willing to apply. Most of those who do apply are sure to be disappointed, and consequently to feel considerable bitterness towards both givers and receivers, while the very existence of the Fund has a tendency to discourage habits of forethought. A much smaller amount of money quietly placed in the hands of recognised local charities would in most cases do as much good without carrying the same ill-feeling and disappointment.' At Paddington, the Committee formed a Special Representative Committee, which was eminently successful in dealing promptly and judiciously with nearly a thousand cases in the space of a few weeks. ST. GEORGE'S, The St. George's, Hanover Square, Committee congratulate themselves HANOVER SQUARE. HAMISTEAD. Some resulst of the fuud. ISLINGTON. 66 that, in spite of the plan of a labour test being upset by the Central Committee, they were able to do as well as they did.' But they add : 'We still hold that there was not last spring, nor is there at the present time, in this district, any exceptional distress." There is, no doubt, "recurrent distress winter after winter"; and it is the object of the Society "to look into the causes of this and bring about a better state of things."" At Hampstead also the administration was entrusted to the Committee. They'invited the ministers and others acquainted with the poor to help them in their difficult task. Fortunately a large number of the applicants were already known to the Committee, and they were thus able to prevent the relief being thrown away upon worthless characters. Between £80 and £90 was received for distribution, and for this there were 136 applicants. Of these more than half had to be refused help. Naturally enough, as soon as it became known that money was to be given away, all the ne'er-do-weels in the place came to see what they could get. Some demanded their share of the Fund and expressed a great deal of dissatisfaction when their demands were refused.' With hardly an exception the Reports of the District Committees refer to the Mansion House Fund. Islington write: 'Hardly an idler, spendthrift, or drunkard that came before us in the spring and summer but had been "relieved" by the Mansion House Fund; and many, who could otherwise have met their own needs, had applied because "they did not see why they should not have some of the money going as well as their neighbours." The quiet work of years in the promotion of thrift and independence may be undone in a few weeks, and charitable help is thus surely brought into disrepute with the respectable poor. The number of our cases this year has largely increased, but the number we have been able to help has not increased proportionately; and this we trace to a great extent to the beggars that were encouraged by the Mansion House Fund.' As soon as it was known that money was being given away,' the BETHNAL GREN Committee of the Bethnal Green district report, a perfect epidemic of begging set in, the effects of which were felt in our office as well as elsewhere.' 'A good deal of the Mansion House Fund money, especially towards the end of the distribution, was devoted to replacing' the stock of hawkers, and doubtless did much good.' "In Bethnal Green a belief was entertained--and not exclusively among the working classes-that the subscriptions were the result of terror caused by the riots of February 8.' St. George-in-the-East write : 'As a consequence of the large amount of relief which was being given in other quarters, the poor felt considerable pressure put on them to make known wants which, in former times, they would have borne in silence. The Committee are a good deal at the mercy of their applicants. The respectable poor are, as a rule, reticent as to their wants, and too independent to apply for charity, except under a strong necessity; but for this admirable moderation on the part of the poor the Committee feel that there is practically no limit to the money which might be spent. If this spirit is destroyed or weakened by ostentatious invitations to the poor to accept assistance from public charity, the task of administering charitable funds, already very difficult, will be tenfold increased.' Lambeth report: 'Perhaps one of the most satisfactory forms of assistance given to the unemployed out of this Fund was the payment of club arrears, and in such cases this timely aid saved working men from sacrificing the thrift of years. Passing to some of the evil results, they write: 'At the present time there is "a spirit of expectancy which sometimes finds open expression"; e.g., "We cannot pay our rent now, but when the Fund comes, &c." was recently said to a lady visitor; and what is still more to be regretted, there is the attraction of ST. GEORGE- LAMBETH. The fund brought the Society into contact with new workers. STEPNEY. The lesson of the fund. Society at large the pauperiser. SOUTH ST. PANCRAS. country people to London, with the declared object of sharing in any future distribution.' But the fund was in one respect very advantageous to the Society. It was an opportunity of making acquaintance with experienced workers in other fields of labour among the poor.' Distributors who had previously been very hostile to the Society, when at the end of the distribution' they found that the vast majority of the applicants would be in exactly the same plight as they were at the beginning,' 'saw the force of the Society's doctrine, that relief, to be worthy of the name, must be adequate, and became, as one said, "converted sinners as regards the Charity Organisation Society." And this fact was clearly proved, that those who had been trained in the Society's work very often had, after a short time, a chief part in the administration thrust upon them, because they were trained in poor law or charitable work, and others were not. 'The Volunteer system,' write the Stepney Committee, 'enabled us to cope, with some degree of success, with the great flood of applications, induced by the advertisement and distribution of the Mansion House Fund. In no previous year could our organisation have pretended to respond to such a call as was made on it last winter. It came with overwhelming force upon a handful of voluntary workers, many of whom were new to the work, and upon machinery that was in the course of being adapted to their efforts.' In many parts of London the members of the Committees bore the brunt of the storm which they had done nothing to create, and worked very long hours every day, to utilise the Fund to the best advantage, and to mitigate its evils. Here, then, Society at large, with a purse of £78,000 in its hand, became a panic-stricken pauperiser, able everywhere to do great mischief, and to undo in a few weeks, where unchecked, 'the quiet work, of years.' Against the recurrence of such outbreaks the only safeguard is steady personal labour in the discharge of personal responsibilities,' and a previous education in the administration of relief. Then, if some very severe depression of trade or famine come upon us, there will be large bands of trusty workers to meet the emergency. Meantime the fact is patent, as the Mansion House Fund has shown, that there is a huge population in London living from hand to mouth, and ready to give up work for begging on the smallest pretext or encouragement. New excuses, which make a pretence of checking pauperism, have accordingly to be invented by irresponsible almsgivers and the benevolent distributors of soup and free food. RELIEF WITH AND WITHOUT RELIEF FUNDS.' As a contrast to the way in which a Special or other Relief Fund like the Mansion House Fund has often to be administered, the fol lowing summary of amounts raised and expended in relief (exclusive of pension cases) by the South St. Pancras Committee may be studied : : 'The amount expended by the Committee in relief has been applied in assisting 397 cases in the manner shown in the following table: 'The number of cases in which the total expenditure has been under £1 is 189 "Of the sums under £1, many were fares paid by the Committee to enable applicants to go to Convalescent Homes. The expenses of their stay were defrayed by this Society, through the Convalescent Sub-Committee, and do not therefore appear, as a rule, in the accounts of this Committee. Amount directly expended in relief of the above* £631 7 9 . 13 0 0 36 11 0 Invalid Dinner-Tickets, supplied to various applicants 'N.B.-The total amount expended on convalescent and surgical aid is much more than these amounts, as the Central Council has paid much of the expense.'† Before passing from the question of Mansion House and other Relief Funds it should be mentioned that the Council, in April last, This did not consist of grants made out of any large Relief Fund, but was raised entirely from charitable persons and institutions in connection with individual cases of distress. † Convalescent accommodation for 122 persons, at the cost, approximately, of £181 19s. 8d., was provided by the Convalescent Sub-Committee (see p. 48) to the South St. Pancras Committee. Surgical apparatus in 61 cases to the value of £57 10s. 1d, was provided through the Medical Committee. |