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Page 33
These figures are important; they demonstrate the fact that although
there was not a single destitute person in the whole of England and
Wales, the annual amount of crime would not be thereby appreciably
diminished. At the present day it is a very common practice to pick
out a case of undoubted hardship here and there, and to assume that
such a case is typical of the whole criminal population. It is, of
course, well to point out such cases, and to emphasise them as much as
possible till we reach such a pitch of excellence in our administration
of the law as will render all unmerited hardship exceedingly rare. As
it is, such cases are becoming less frequent year by year, and it is
an entire mistake to suppose, as is too often done, that a serious
amount of the crime perpetrated in England is committed by men and
women who are willing to work but cannot get it to do. An opinion of
that kind has an alarming tendency to encourage crime; it creates a
false sentiment of compassion for the utterly worthless; it prevents
them from being dealt with according to their deserts, and worst of
all, it is apt to make the working population imagine that there is a
community of interest between them and the criminal classes which does
not in reality exist. From the point of view of public policy nothing
can be more pernicious than to propagate such an idea; and no artisan
who values his own dignity should ever allow any man, whether on
platforms or in newspapers, to identify him in any way whatever with
the common criminal.
Before finally leaving the question of the relations between
destitution and crime, we shall now briefly inquire whether anything
further can be accomplished in the matter of raising our legal and
poor law administration to such a pitch of excellence, that not even
five per cent. of our incriminated population can, with justice, bring
forward any economic pretext whatever for violating the law. As far as
legal administration is concerned, it must be remembered that mistakes
will sometimes occur, no matter how numerous the precautions may be
with which justice is surrounded.
To be certain of justice in all circumstances you must have not only
an infallible law, but also an infallible judge and an infallible
method of criminal administration. It is a truism to say that this is
an impossibility, and every now and again society will have to submit
to be shocked by the revelation of a palpable miscarriage of justice.
At the same time it is important to take every possible precaution
against the occurrence of such distressing accidents. This can only
be effected by placing the administration of the law in all its
departments, from the policeman to the Home Secretary, in the hands of
thoroughly competent officials who have not only their heart, but what
is equally important, their head in the work. When this is done, and
if these officials are not embarrassed by public clamour in the
performance of their duties (honest criticism will do them good), all
will have been accomplished which it is possible to get in the way of
effective and enlightened administration of the law.
In the next place it may be possible to mitigate the operation of our
present poor law system in all cases of destitution through
misadventure. Some prominent politicians--and I believe among them Mr.
Morley--appear to be in favour of this course; and at a recent meeting
of the British Association, Professor Alfred Marshall was inclined to
the belief that a much larger discrimination might be allowed than now
exists in the administration of out-door relief in cases of actual
want; and also that separate and graduated workhouses might be
established for the deserving poor. It will be admitted on all hands
that proposals of this character land us on very delicate ground, and
require the most mature consideration. Even now the inmate of a
workhouse is often better supplied with food, clothing, and shelter
than the poor labourer, who has to pay taxes to support him. If the
condition of that inmate is made still more comfortable, will it be
possible to prevent hundreds and thousands of the very poor, who now
keep outside these institutions, from immediately crowding into them
as soon as the slightest economic difficulties arise? Almost all
philanthropic schemes, and especially all such schemes when supported
by the public purse, have a tendency to be administered with more and
more laxity as time goes on; and a scheme of this kind, if carried
into law, would require to be managed with the utmost circumspection
in order to avoid pauperising great masses of the community.
A scheme of this character will, however, have to be tried if the
manifesto of the Executive Council of the Dockers' Union, issued in
September last, is to be acted upon by Trade-Unionists in general.
According to the doctrine laid down in this manifesto, the idea of a
Trade-Union, as a free and open combination, which every workman may
enter, provided he pays his subscription and conforms to the rules, is
an idea which must for the future be abandoned. Henceforth, a
Trade-Union is to be a close corporation to be worked for the benefit
of persons who have succeeded in getting inside it. The Dockers'
Union, to do them justice, see that this policy is bound to increase
the numbers of the destitute, but they propose to remedy this
condition of things by establishing "in each municipality factories
and workshops where all those who cannot get work under ordinary
conditions shall have an opportunity afforded them by the community."
If these State establishments are to be started for the unemployed,
the workers in them must work at something, and it will have to be
something which the unskilled labourer will not require a great deal
of time to learn. What would the dockers say if one of these
establishments was instituted by the municipality for the loading and
unloading of ships? Hardly a Trade-Union Congress meets in which the
complaint is not made that prison labour interferes with free labour;
but what sort of outcry would there be if State labour, on an
extensive scale, were to enter into serious competition with the
individual workman?
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