Project Gutenberg surfs with a modem donated by Supra.
T >>
Thomas Holmes >> Project Gutenberg surfs with a modem donated by Supra.
Pages:
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
7 |
8 |
9 |
10 |
11 |
12 |
13 | 14 |
15
I want my reader's imagination to dwell for a moment on these
four thousand defectives that leave our special schools every
five years; I want them to ask themselves what becomes of these
children, and to remember that what holds good with London's
special schools, holds good with regard to all other special
schools our country over.
These young people grow into manhood and womanhood without the
possibility of growing in wisdom or skill. Few, very few of
them, have the slightest chance of becoming self-reliant or self-
supporting; ultimately they form a not inconsiderable proportion
of the hopeless.
Philanthropic societies receive some of them, workhouses receive
others, but these institutions have not, nor do they wish to
have, any power of permanent detention, the cost would be too
great. Sooner or later the greater part of them become a costly
burden upon the community, and an eyesore to humanity. Many of
them live nomadic lives, and make occasional use of workhouses
and similar institutions when the weather is bad, after which
they return to their uncontrolled existence. Feeble-minded and
defective women return again and again to the maternity wards to
deposit other burdens upon the ratepayers and to add to the
number of their kind.
But the nation has begun to realise this costly absurdity of
leaving this army of irresponsibles in possession of uncontrolled
liberty. The Royal Commission on the Care and Control of the
Feeble-minded, after sitting for four years, has made its report.
This report is a terrible document and an awful indictment of our
neglect.
The commissioners tell us that on January 1st, 1906, there were
in England and Wales 149,628 idiots, imbeciles, and feeble-
minded; in addition there were on the same date 121,079 persons
suffering from some kind of insanity or dementia. So that the
total number of those who came within the scope of the inquiry
was no less than 271,607, or 1 in every 120 of the whole
population.
Of the persons suffering from mental defect, i.e. feeble-minded,
imbeciles, etc., one-third were supported entirely at the public
cost in workhouses, asylums, prisons, etc.
The report does not tell us much about the remaining two-thirds;
but those of us who have experience know only too well what
becomes of them, and are painfully acquainted with the
hopelessness of their lives.
Here, then, is my first suggestion--a national plan for the
permanent detention, segregation and control of all persons who
are indisputably feeble-minded. Surely this must be the duty of
the State, for it is impossible that philanthropic societies can
deal permanently with them.
We must catch them young; we must make them happy, for they have
capabilities for childlike happiness, and we must make their
lives as useful as possible. But we must no longer allow them
the curse of uncontrolled liberty.
Again, no boy should be discharged from reformatory or industrial
schools as "unfit for training" unless passed on to some
institution suitable to his age and condition. If we have no
such institutions, as of course we have not, then the State must
provide them. And the magistrates must have the power to commit
boys and girls who are charged before them to suitable industrial
schools or reformatories as freely, as certainly, as
unquestioned, and as definitely as they now commit them to
prison.
At present magistrates have not this power, for though, as a
matter of course, these institutions receive numbers of boys and
girls from police-courts, the institutions have the power to
Refuse, to grant "licences" or to "discharge." So it happens
that the meshes of the net are large enough to allow those that
ought to be detained to go free.
No one can possibly doubt that a provision of this character
would largely diminish the number of those that become homeless
vagrants.
But I proceed to my second suggestion--the detention and
segregation of all professional tramps. If it is intolerable
that an army of poor afflicted human beings should live homeless
and nomadic lives, it is still more intolerable that an army of
men and women who are not deficient in intelligence, and who are
possessed of fairly healthy bodies should, in these days, be
allowed to live as our professional tramps live.
I have already spoken of the fascination attached to a life of
irresponsible liberty. The wind on the heath, the field and
meadow glistening with dew or sparkling with flowers, the singing
of the bird, the joy of life, and no rent day coming round, who
would not be a tramp! Perhaps our professional tramps think
nothing of these things, for to eat, to sleep, to be free of
work, to be uncontrolled, to have no anxieties, save the
gratification of animal demands and animal passions, is the
perfection of life for thousands of our fellow men and women.
Is this kind of life to be permitted? Every sensible person will
surely say that it ought not to be permitted. Yet the number of
people who attach themselves to this life continually increases,
for year by year the prison commissioners tell us that the number
of persons imprisoned for vagrancy, sleeping out, indecency,
etc., continues to increase, and that short terms of imprisonment
only serve as periods of recuperation for them, for in prison
they are healed of their sores and cleansed from their vermin.
With every decent fellow who tramps in search of work we must
have the greatest sympathy, but for professional tramps we must
provide very simply. Most of these men, women and children find
their way into prison, workhouses and casual wards at some time
or other. When the man gets into prison, the woman and children
go into the nearest workhouse. When the man is released from
prison he finds the woman and children waiting for him, and away
they go refreshed and cleansed by prison and workhouse treatment.
We must stop for ever this costly and disastrous course of life.
How? By establishing in every county and under county
authorities, or, if necessary, by a combination of counties,
special colonies for vagrants, one for males and another for
females. Every vagrant who could not give proof that he had some
definite object in tramping must be committed to these colonies
and detained, till such time as definite occupation or home be
found for him.
Here they should live and work, practically earning their food
and clothing; their lives should be made clean and decent, and
certainly economical. For these colonies there must be of course
State aid.
The children must be adopted by the board of guardians or
education authorities and trained in small homes outside the
workhouse gates this should be compulsory.
These two plans would certainly clear away the worst and most
hopeless tribes of nomads, and though for a short time they would
impose considerable pecuniary obligations upon us, yet we should
profit even financially in the near future, and, best of all,
should prevent a second generation arising to fill the place of
those detained.
The same methods should be adopted with the wretched mass of
humanity that crowds nightly on the Thames Embankment.
Philanthropy is worse than useless with the great majority of
these people. Hot soup in the small hours of a cold morning is
doubtless comforting to them, and if the night is wet, foggy,
etc., a cover for a few hours is doubtless a luxury. They drink
the soup, they take advantage of the cover, and go away, to
return at night for more soup and still another cover. Oh, the
folly of it all!
We must have shelters for them, but the County Council must
provide them. Large, clean and healthy places into which, night
by night, the human derelicts from the streets should be taken by
special police.
But there should be no release with the morning light, but
detention while full inquiries are made regarding them. Friends
would doubtless come forward to help many, but the remainder
should be classified according to age and physical and mental
condition, and released only when some satisfactory place or
occupation is forthcoming for them.
The nightly condition of the Embankment is not only disgraceful,
but it is dangerous to the health and wellbeing of the community.
It is almost inconceivable that we should allow those parts of
London which are specially adapted for the convenience of the
public to be monopolised by a mass of diseased and unclean
humanity. If we would but act sensibly with these classes, I am
sure we could then deal in an effectual manner with that portion
of the nomads for whom there is hope.
If the vast amount of money that is poured out in the vain effort
to help those whom it is impossible to help was devoted to those
that are helpable, the difficulty would be solved,
So I would suggest, and it is no new suggestion, that all
philanthropic societies that deal with the submerged should unite
and co-ordinate with the authorities. That private individuals
who have money, time or ability at their command should unite
with them. That one great all-embracing organisation, empowered
and aided by the State, should be formed, to which the man, woman
or family that is overtaken or overwhelmed by misfortune could
turn in time of their need with the assurance that their needs
would be sympathetically considered and their requirements wisely
attended to.
An organisation of this description would prevent tens of
thousands from becoming vagrants, and a world of misery and
unspeakable squalor would be prevented.
The recent Report on the Poor Law foreshadows an effort of this
description, and in Germany this method is tried with undoubted
success.
Some day we shall try it, but that day will not come till we have
realised how futile, how expensive our present methods are. The
Poor Law system needs recasting. Charity must be divorced from
religion. Philanthropic and semi-religious organisations must be
separated from their commercial instincts and commercial greed.
The workhouse, the prison, the Church Army and the Salvation
Army's shelters and labour homes must no longer form the circle
round which so many hopelessly wander.
No man or set of men must be considered the saviour of the poor,
and though much knowledge will be required, it perhaps will be
well not to have too much.
Above all, the desire to prevent, rather than the desire to
restore, must be the aim of the organisation which should embrace
every parish in our land.
Finally, and in a few words, my methods would be detention and
protective care for the afflicted or defective, detention and
segregation for the tramps, and a great charitable State-aided
organisation to deal with the unfortunate.
Tramps we shall continue to have, but there need be nothing
degrading about them, if only the professional element can be
eliminated.
Labour exchanges are doing a splendid work for the genuine
working man whose labour must often be migratory. But every
labour exchange should have its clean lodging-house, in which the
decent fellows who want work, and are fitted for work, may stay
for a night, and thus avoid the contamination attending the
common lodging-houses or the degradation and detention attending
casual wards.
There exists, I am sure, great possibilities for good in labour
exchanges, if, and if only, their services can be devoted to the
genuinely unemployed.
Already I have said they are doing much, and one of the most
useful things they do is the advancement of rail-fares to men
when work is obtained at a distance. A development in this
direction will do much to end the disasters that attend decent
fellows when they go on tramp. Migratory labour is unfortunately
an absolute necessity, for our industrial and commercial life
demand it, and almost depend upon it. The men who supply that
want are quite as useful citizens as the men who have permanent
and settled work. But their lives are subject to many dangers,
temptations, and privations from which they ought to be
delivered.
The more I reflect upon the present methods for dealing with
professional tramps, the more I am persuaded that these methods
are foolish and extravagant. But the more I reflect on the life
of the genuinely unemployed that earnestly desire work and are
compelled to tramp in search of it, the more I am persuaded that
such life is attended by many dangers. The probability being
that if the tramp and search be often repeated or long-continued,
the desire for, and the ability to undergo, regular work will
disappear.
But physical and mental inferiority, together with the absence of
moral purpose, have a great deal to say with regard to the number
of our unemployed.
If you ask me the source of this stunted manhood, I point you to
the narrow streets of the underworld. Thence they issue, and
thence alone.
Do you ask the cause? The causes are many! First and foremost
stands that all-pervading cause--the housing of the poor. Who
can enumerate the thousands that have breathed the fetid air of
the miserable dwelling-places in our slums? Who dare picture how
they live and sleep, as they lie, unripe sex with sex, for mutual
taint? I dare not, and if I did no publisher could print it.
Who dare describe the life of a mother-wife, whose husband and
children have become dependent upon her earnings! I dare not!
Who dare describe the exact life and doings of four families
living in a little house intended for one family? Who can
describe the life, speech, actions and atmosphere of such places?
I cannot, for the task would be too disgusting!
For tens of thousands of people are allowed, or compelled, to
live and die under those conditions. How can vigorous manhood or
pure womanhood come out of them? Ought we to expect, have we any
right to expect, manhood and womanhood born and bred under such
conditions to be other than blighted?
Whether we expect it or not matters but little, for we have this
mass of blighted humanity with us, and, like an old man of the
sea, it is a burden upon our back, a burden that is not easily
got rid of.
What are we doing with this burden in the present? How are we
going to prevent it in the future? are two serious questions
that must be answered, and quickly, too, or something worse will
happen to us.
The authorities must see to it at once that children shall have
as much air and breathing space in their homes by night as they
have in the schools by day.
What sense can there be in demanding and compelling a certain
amount of air space in places where children are detained for
five and a half hours, and then allow those children to stew in
apologies for rooms, where the atmosphere is vile beyond
description, and where they are crowded indiscriminately for the
remaining hours?
This is the question of the day and the hour. Drink, foreign
invasion, the House of Lords or the House of Commons, Tariff
Reform or Free Trade, none of these questions, no, nor the whole
lot of them combined, compare for one moment in importance with
this one awful question.
Give the poor good airy housing at a reasonable rent, and half
the difficulties against which our nation runs its thick head
would disappear. Hospitals and prisons would disappear too as if
by magic, for it is to these places that the smitten manhood
finds its way.
I know it is a big question! But it is a question that has got
to be solved, and in solving it some of our famous and cherished
notions will have to go. Every house, no matter to whom it
belongs, or who holds the lease, who lets or sub-lets, every
inhabited house must be licensed by the local authorities for a
certain number of inmates, so many and no more; a maximum, but no
minimum.
Local authorities even now have great powers concerning
construction, drains, etc. Let them now be empowered to make
stringent rules about habitations other than their municipal
houses. The piggeries misnamed lodging-houses, the common
shelters, etc., are inspected and licensed for a certain number
of inmates; it is high time that this was done with the wretched
houses in which the poor live.
Oh, the irony of it! Idle tramps must not be crowded, but the
children of the poor may be crowded to suffocation. This must
surely stop; if not, it will stop us! Again I say, that local
authorities must have the power to decide the number of
inhabitants that any house shall accommodate, and license it
accordingly, and of course have legal power to enforce their
decision.
The time has come for a thorough investigation. I would have
every room in every house visited by properly appointed officers.
I would have every detail as to size of room, number of persons
and children, rent paid, etc., etc.; I would have its conditions
and fitness for human habitation inquired into and reported upon.
I would miss no house, I would excuse none. A standard should be
set as to the condition and position of every house, and the
number it might be allowed to accommodate. This would bring many
dark things into the light of day, and I am afraid the reputation
of many respectable people would suffer, and their pockets too,
although they tell us that they "have but a life-interest" in the
pestiferous places. But if we drive people out of these places,
where will they go?
Well, out they must go! and it is certain that there is at
present no place for them!
Places must be prepared for them, and local authorities must
prepare them. Let them address themselves to this matter and no
longer shirk their duty with regard to the housing of the poor.
Let them stop for ever the miserable pretence of housing the poor
that they at present pursue. For be it known that they house
"respectable" people only, those that have limited families and
can pay a high rental.
If local authorities cannot do it, then the State must step in
and help them, for it must be done. It seems little use waiting
for private speculation or philanthropic trusts to show us the
way in this matter, for both want and expect too high an interest
for their outlay. But a good return will assuredly be
forthcoming if the evil be tackled in a sensible way.
Let no one be downhearted about new schemes for housing the poor
not paying! Why, everything connected with the poor from the
cradle to the grave is a source of good profit to some one, if
not to themselves.
Let a housing plan be big enough and simple enough, and I am
certain that it will pay even when it provides for the very poor.
But old ideals will have to be forsaken and new ones substituted.
I have for many years considered this question very deeply, and
from the side of the very poor. I think that I know how the
difficulty can be met, and I am prepared to place my suggestions
for housing the poor before any responsible person or authority
who would care to consider the matter.
Perhaps it is due to the public to say here that one of the
greatest sorrows of my life was my inability to make good a
scheme that a rich friend and myself formulated some years ago.
This failure was due to the serious illness of my friend, and I
hope that it will yet materialise.
But, in addition to the housing, there are other matters which
affect the vigour and virility of the poor. School days must be
extended till the age of sixteen. Municipal playgrounds open in
the evening must be established. If boys and girls are kept at
school till sixteen, older and weaker people will be able to get
work which these boys have, but ought not to have. The nation
demands a vigorous manhood, but the nation cannot have it without
some sacrifice, which means doing without child labour, for child
labour is the destruction of virile manhood.
Emigration is often looked upon as the great specific. But the
multiplication of agencies for exporting the young, the healthy,
and the strong to the colonies causes me some alarm. For
emigration as at present conducted certainly does not lessen the
number of the unfit and the helpless.
It must be apparent to any one who thinks seriously upon this
matter that a continuance of the present methods is bound to
entail disastrous consequences, and to promote racial decay at
home. The problem of the degenerates, the physical and mental
weaklings is already a pressing national question. But serious
as the question is at the present moment, it is but light in its
intensity compared with what it must be in the near future,
unless we change our methods. One fact ought to be definitely
understood and seriously pondered, and it is this: no emigration
agency, no board of guardians, no church organisation and no
human salvage organisation emigrates or assists to emigrate young
people of either sex who cannot pass a severe medical examination
and be declared mentally and physically sound. This demands
serious thought; for the puny, the weak and the unfit are
ineligible; our colonies will have none of them, and perhaps our
colonies are wise, so the unfit remain at home to be our despair
and affliction.
But our colonies demand not only physical and mental health, but
moral health also, for boys and girls from reformatory and
industrial schools are not acceptable; though the training given
in these institutions ought to make the young people valuable
assets in a new country.
The serious fact that only the best are exported and that all the
afflicted and the weak remain at home is, I say, worthy of
profound attention.
Thousands of healthy working men with a little money and abundant
grit emigrate of their own choice and endeavour. Fine fellows
they generally are, and good fortune attends them! Thousands of
others with no money but plenty of strength are assisted "out,"
and they are equally good, while thousands of healthy young women
are assisted "out" also. All through the piece the strong and
healthy leave our shores, and the weaklings are left at home.
It is always with mixed feelings that I read of boys and girls
being sent to Canada, for while I feel hopeful regarding their
future, I know that the matter does not end with them; for I
appreciate some of the evils that result to the old country from
the method of selection.
Emigration, then, as at present conducted, is no cure for the
evil it is supposed to remedy. Nay, it increases the evil, for
it secures to our country an ever-increasing number of those who
are absolutely unfitted to fulfil the duties of citizenship.
Yet emigration might be a beneficent thing if it were wisely
conducted on a comprehensive basis, which should include a fair
proportion of those that are now excluded because of their
unfitness.
Are we to go on far ever with our present method of dealing with
those who have been denied wisdom and stature? Who are what they
are, but whose disabilities cannot be charged upon themselves,
and for whom there is no place other than prison or workhouse?
Yet many of them have wits, if not brains, and are clever in
little ways of their own. At home we refuse them the advantages
that are solicitously pressed upon their bigger and stronger
brothers. Abroad every door is locked against them. What are
they to do? The Army and Navy will have none of them! and
industrial life has no place for them. So prison, workhouse and
common lodging-houses are their only homes.
Wise emigration methods would include many of them, and decent
fellows they would make if given a chance. Oxygen and new
environment, with plenty of food, etc., would make an alteration
in their physique, and regular work would prove their salvation.
But this matter should, and must be, undertaken by the State, for
philanthropy cannot deal with it; and when the State does
undertake it, consequences unthought-of will follow, for the
State will be able to close one-half of its prisons.
It is the helplessness of weaklings that provides the State with
more than half its prisoners. Is it impossible, I would ask, for
a Government like ours, with all its resources of wealth, power
and influence to devise and carry out some large scheme of
emigration? If colonial governments wisely refuse our inferior
youths, is it not unwise for our own Government to neglect them?
In the British Empire is there no idle land that calls for men
and culture? Here we in England have thousands of young fellows
who, because of their helplessness, are living lives of idleness
and wrongdoing.
Time after time these young men find their way into prison, and
every short sentence they undergo sends them back to liberty more
hopeless and helpless. Many of them are not bad fellows; they
have some qualities that are estimable, but they are
undisciplined and helpless. Not all the discharged prisoners'
aid societies in the land, even with Government assistance, can
procure reasonable and progressive employment for them.
Pages:
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
7 |
8 |
9 |
10 |
11 |
12 |
13 | 14 |
15