The policy of the English poor law and its proposed medical reform / by Major Greenwood.

  • Greenwood, Major, 1880-1949.
Date:
[1910?]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The policy of the English poor law and its proposed medical reform / by Major Greenwood. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    community the responsibility of educating its children; next, it transferred liability in the case of accident to the employer; in 1905 it secured from the State, through the Unemployed Act, the right to employment under certain conditions; in igo6 the responsibility of feeding children was partly tranferred from the parent to the community ; in 1909 ‘ industry ’ transferred the maintenance of its aged parents to the State through the Pensions Act.” The policy of the Central Authority since 1834, as expounded by Mr. and Mrs. Webb, so far as it is founded on fact, is open to the objections I have urged against retrograde legislation. For particular cases, and under 'political pressure, important and long-established legal principles have been lost sight of and ignored. The legal changes recommended by the Minority Com- missioners are equally revolutionary, but they go much further. They recommend the repeal of all Poor Law Statutes except 43 Eliz. c. 2—i.e., a complete break-up of the whole Poor Law. Their scheme abolishes destitution authorities by turning the sanitary and other authorities into destitution authorities, and proposes to get rid of our present classified paupers by concealing them in the ranks of the ordinary poor of the community. Thus, by a general diffusion of the stigma of pauperism, and by putting it on the shoulders of a much larger class, it is hoped to remove it from our social system. No doubt its force as a deterrent would be very considerably lessened in this way, but it might be the means of making many more actual paupers. Mr. Sidney Webb, in a letter to the Observer of March 20th, describes the policy of the Minority Report as one of “ enforcing parental responsibility at the price of an in- creased supervision and increased security of oppor- tunity at the hands of the State.” The general policy of the Minority recommendations as opposed to our present system is the abolition of any special class of indigents, the granting a legal right to all poor persons to claim State relief without test, or deterrent, beyond the possibility of the cost of the same being re- covered, if the recipient can be proved able to pay. The “ increased securing of opportunity ” would seem to be a euphemism for a widely extended incentive to all poor persons to get something for nothing. How are parental responsibilities likely to be enforced in this manner ? With all resp>ect to Mr. Sidney Webb, I should think that de- terioration in parental responsibilities would be the in- evitable result. With regard to the recommendations of the Majority Commissioners, some are justly open to the adverse criticism of the Minority. When Mr. and Mrs. Sidney Webb insist that if the present Poor Law policy is carried out, “ the community cannot, without grave financial danger, and still graver danger to character, depart from the principles of 1834” (“English Poor Law Policy”), I quite agree with them, only I go further, and consider these e^■ils are just