In Darkest England and the Way Out Part 34

NOTICE.

A Free Registry, for all kinds of unemployed labour, has been opened at the above address. If you want work, call and make yourself and your wants known. Enter your name and address and wants on the Registers, or fill up form below, and hand it in at above address. Look over the advertising pages of the papers provided. Tables with pens and ink are provided for you to write for situations. If you live at a distance, fill up this form giving all particulars, or references, and forward to Commissioner Smith, care of the Labour Bureau.

Name.......................................................

Address....................................................

Kind of work wanted........................................

Wages you ask..............................................

--------------------------------------------------------------------- I Name I I --------------------------------------------------------------------- I Age I I --------------------------------------------------------------------- I During past 10 years have I you had regular employment? I I --------------------------------------------------------------------- I How long for? I I --------------------------------------------------------------------- I What kind of work? I I --------------------------------------------------------------------- I What work can you do? I I --------------------------------------------------------------------- I What have you worked at I at odd times? I I --------------------------------------------------------------------- I How much did you earn when I regularly employed? I I --------------------------------------------------------------------- I How much did you earn when I irregularly employed? I I --------------------------------------------------------------------- I Are you married? I I --------------------------------------------------------------------- I Is wife living? I I --------------------------------------------------------------------- I How many children and ages? I I --------------------------------------------------------------------- If you were put on a farm to I work at anything you could do, I and were supplied with food, I lodging, and clothes, with a I view to getting you on your feet, I would you do all you could? I ---------------------------------------------------------------------

HOW BEGGARY WAS ABOLISHED IN BAVARIA BY COUNT RUMFORD.

Count Rumford was an American officer who served with considerable distinction in the Revolutionary War in that country, and afterwards settled in England. From thence he went to Bavaria, where he was promoted to the chief command of its army, and also was energetically employed in the Civil Government. Bavaria at this time literally swarmed with beggars, who were not only an eyesore and discredit to the nation, but a positive injury to the State. The Count resolved upon the extinction of this miserable profession, and the following extracts from his writings describe the method by which he accomplished it: --

"Bavaria, by the neglect of the Government, and the abuse of the kindness and charity of its amiable people, had become infested with beggars, with whom mingled vagabonds and thieves. They were to the body politic what parasites and vermin are to people and dwellings-- breeding by the same lazy neglect."--(Page 14.)

"In Bavaria there were laws which made provision for the poor, but they suffered them to fall into neglect. Beggary had become general."-- (Page 15.)

"In short," says Count Rumford, "these detestable vermin swarmed everywhere; and not only their impudence and clamorous importunity were boundless, but they had recourse to the most diabolical arts and the most horrid crimes in the prosecution of their infamous trade.

They exposed and tortured their own children, and those they stole for the purpose, to extort contributions from the charitable."--(Page 15.)

"In the large towns beggary was an organised imposture, with a sort of government and police of its own. Each beggar had his beat, with orderly successions and promotions, as with other governments.

There were battles to decide conflicting claims, and a good beat was not unfreguently a marriage portion or a thumping legacy."--(Page 16.)

"He saw that it was not enough to forbid beggary by law or to punish it by imprisonment. The beggars cared for neither. The energetic Yankee Statesman attacked the question as he did problems in physical science.

He studied beggary and beggars. How would he deal with one individual beggar? Send him for a month to prison to beg again as soon as he came out? That is no remedy. The evident course was to forbid him to beg, but at the same time to give him the opportunity to labor; to teach him to work, to encourage him to honest industry. And the wise ruler sets himself to provide food, comfort, and work for every beggar and vagabond in Bavaria, and did it."--(Page 17.)

"Count Rumford, wise and just, sets himself to reform the whole cla.s.s of beggars and vagabonds, and convert them into useful citizens, even those who had sunk into vice and crime.

"'What,' he asked himself, 'is, after the necessaries of life, the first condition of comfort?' Cleanliness, which animals and insects prize, which in man affects his moral character, and which is akin to G.o.dliness. The idea that the soul is defiled and depraved by what is unclean has long prevailed in all ages. Virtue never dwelt long with filth. Our bodies are at war with everything that defiles them.

"His first step, after a thorough study and consideration of the subject, was to provide in Munich, and at all necessary points, large, airy, and even elegant Houses of Industry, and store them with the tools and materials of such manufactures as were most needed, and would be most useful. Each house was provided with a large dining-room and a cooking apparatus sufficient to furnish an economical dinner to every worker. Teachers were engaged for each kind of labour. Warmth, light, comfort, neatness, and order, in and around these houses, made them attractive. The dinner every day was gratis, provided at first by the Government, later by the contributions of the citizens. Bakers brought stale bread; butchers, refuse meat; citizens, their broken victuals-- all rejoicing in being freed from the nuisance of beggary. The teachers of handicrafts were provided by the Government. And while all this was free, everyone was paid the full value for his labour. You shall not beg; but here is comfort, food, work, pay. There was no ill-usage, no harsh language; in five years not a blow was given even to a child by his instructor.

"When the preparations for this great experiment had been silently completed, the army--the right arm of the governing power, which had been prepared tor the work by its own thorough reformation--was called into action in aid of the police and the civil magistrates.

Regiments of cavalry were so disposed as to furnish every town with a detachment, with patrols on every highway, and squads in the villages, keeping the strictest order and discipline, paying the utmost deference to the civil authorities, and avoiding all offence to the people; instructed when the order was given to arrest every beggar, vagrant, and deserter and bring them before the magistrates. This military police cost nothing extra to the country beyond a few cantonments, and this expense to the whole country was less than #3,000 a-year.

"The 1st of January, 1790--New Year's Day, from time immemorial the beggars' holiday, when they swarmed in the streets, expecting everyone to give--the commissioned and non-commissioned officers of three regiments of infantry were distributed early in the morning at different points of Munich to wait for orders. Lieutenant-General Count Rumford a.s.sembled at his residence the chief officers of the army and princ.i.p.al magistrates of the city, and communicated to them his plans for the campaign. Then, dressed in the uniform of his rank, with his orders and decorations glittering on his breast, setting an example to the humblest soldier, he led them into the street, and had scarcely reached it before a beggar approached wished him a 'Happy New Year,'

and waited for the expected aims. 'I went up to him, says Count Rumford, 'and laying my hand gently on his shoulder, told him that henceforth begging would not be permitted in Munich; that if he was in need, a.s.sistance would be given him; and if detected begging again, he would be severely punished.' He was then sent to the Town Hall, his name and residence inscribed upon the register, and he was directed to repair to the Military House of Industry next morning, where he would find dinner, work, and wages. Every officer, every magistrate, every soldier, followed the example set them; every beggar was arrested, and in one day a stop was put to beggary in Bavaria. It was banished out of the kingdom.

"And now let us see what was the progress and success of this experiment. It seemed a risk to trust the raw materials of industry-- wool, flax, hemp, etc.--to the hands of common beggars; to render debauched and depraved cla.s.s orderly and useful, was an arduous enterprise. Of course the greater number made bad work at the beginning. For months they cost more than they came to. They spoiled more horns than they made spoons. Employed first in the coa.r.s.er and ruder manufactures, they were advanced as they improved, and were for some time paid more than they earned--paid to encourage good will, effort, and perseverance. These were worth any sum. The poor people saw that they were treated with more than justice--with kindness. It was very evident that it was all for their good. At first there was confusion, but no insubordination. They were awkward, but not insensible to kindness. The aged, the weak, and the children were put to the easiest tasks. The younger children were paid simply to look on until they begged to join in the work, which seemed to them like play.

Everything around them was made clean, quiet, orderly, and pleasant.

Living at their own homes, they came at a fixed hour in the morning.

They had at noon a hot, nouris.h.i.+ng dinner of soup and bread. Provisions were either contributed or bought wholesale, and the economies of cookery were carried to the last point of perfection. Count Rumford had so planned the cooking apparatus that three women cooked a dinner for one thousand persons at a cost though wood was used, of 4 1/2d. for fuel; and the entire cost of the dinner for 1,200 was only #1 7s 6 1/2d., or about one-third of a penny for each person! Perfect order was kept --at work, at meals, and everywhere. As soon as a company took its place at table, the food having been previously served, all repeated a short prayer. 'Perhaps,' says Count Rumford, 'I ought to ask pardon for mentioning so old-fas.h.i.+oned a custom, but I own I am old-fas.h.i.+oned enough myself to like such things.'

"These poor people were generously paid for their labour, but something more than cash payment was necessary. There was needed the feeling of emulation, the desire to excel, the sense of honour, the love of glory.

Not only pay, but rewards, prizes, distinctions, were given to the more deserving. Peculiar care was taken with the children. They were first paid simply for being present, idle lookers-on, until they begged with tears to be allowed to work. 'How sweet those tears were to me,' says Count Rumford, 'can easily be imagined.' Certain hours were spent by them in a school, for which teachers were provided.

"The effect of these measures was very remarkable. Awkward as the people were, they were not stupid, and learned to work with unexpected rapidity. More wonderful was the change in their manners, appearances and the very expression of their countenances. Cheerfulness and grat.i.tude replaced the gloom of misery and the sullenness of despair.

Their hearts were softened; they were most grateful to their benefactor for themselves, still more for their children. These worked with their parents, forming little industrial groups, whose affection excited the interest of every visitor. Parents were happy in the industry and growing intelligence of their children, and the children were proud of their own achievements.

"The great experiment was a complete and triumphant success. When Count Rumford wrote his account of it, it had been five years in operation; it was, financially, a paying speculation, and had not only banished beggary, but had wrought an entire change in the manners, habits, and very appearance of the most abandoned and degraded people in the kingdom."--("Count Rumford," pages 18-24.)

"Are the poor ungrateful? Count Rumford did not find them so. When, from the exhaustion of his great labours, he fell dangerously ill, these poor people whom he had rescued from lives of shame and misery, spontaneously a.s.sembled, formed a procession, and went in a body to the Cathedral to offer their united prayers for his recovery. When he was absent in Italy, and supposed to be dangerously ill in Naples, they set apart a certain time every day, after work hours, to pray for their benefactor. After an absence of fifteen months, Count Rumford returned with renewed health to Munich--a city where there was work for everyone, and not one person whose wants were not provided for. When he visited the military workhouse, the reception given him by these poor people drew tears from the eyes of all present. A few days after he entertained eighteen hundred of them in the English garden--a festival at which 30,000 of the citizens of Munich a.s.sisted."

("Count Rumford," pages 24-25.)

THE CO-OPERATIVE EXPERIMENT AT RALAHINE,

"The outrages of the 'Whitefeet,' 'Lady Clare Boys,' and 'Terry Alts'

(labourers) far exceeded those of recent occurrence; yet no remedy but force was attempted, except by one Irish landlord, Mr. John Scott Vandeleur, of Ralahine, county Clare, late high sheriff of his county.

Early in 1831 his family had been obliged to take flight, in charge of an armed police force, and his steward had been murdered by one of the labourers, having been chosen by lot at a meeting held to decide who should perpetrate the deed. Mr. Vandeleur came to England to seek someone who would aid him in organising the labourers into an agricultural and manufacturing a.s.sociation, to be conducted on co-operative principles, and he was recommended to Mr. Craig, who, at great sacrifice of his position and prospects, consented to give his services.

"No one but a man of rare zeal and courage would have attempted so apparently hopeless a task as that which Mr. Craig undertook. Both the men whom he had to manage--the Terry Alts who had murdered their master's steward--and their surroundings were as little calculated to give confidence in the success of the scheme as they well could be.

The men spoke generally the Irish language, which Mr. Craig did not understand, and they looked upon him with suspicion as one sent to worm out of them the secret of the murder recently committed. He was consequently treated with coldness, and worse than that. On one occasion the outline of his grave was cut out of the pasture near his dwelling, and he carried his life in his hand. After a time, however, he won the confidence of these men, rendered savage as they had been by ill-treatment.

"The farm was let by Mr. Vandeleur at a fixed rent, to be paid in fixed quant.i.ties of farm produce, which, at the prices ruling in 1830-31, would bring in #900, which included interest on buildings, machinery, and live stock provided by Mr. Vandeleur. The rent alone was #700.

As the farm consisted of 618 acres, only 268 of which were under tillage, this rent was a very high one--a fact which was acknowledged by the landlord. All profits after payment of rent and interest belonged to the members, divisible at the end of the year if desired.

They started a co-operative store to supply themselves with food and clothing, and the estate was managed by a committee of the members, who paid every male and female member wages for their labour in labour notes which were exchangeable at the store for goods or cash.

Intoxicating drink or tobacco were prohibited. The committee each day allotted each man his duties. The members worked the land partly as kitchen garden and fruit orchards, and partly as dairy farm, stall feeding being encouraged and root crops grown for the cattle. Pigs, poultry, &c., were reared. Wages at the time were only 8d per day for men and 5d. for women, and the members were paid at these rates.

Yet, as they lived chiefly on potatoes and milk produced on the farm, which, as well as mutton and pork, were sold to them at extremely low prices, they saved money or rather notes. Their health and appearance quickly improved, so much so that, with disease raging round them, there was no case of death or serious illness among them while the experiment lasted. The single men lived together in a large building, and the families in cottages. a.s.sisted by Mrs. Craig, the secretary carried out the most enlightened system of education for the young, those old enough being alternately employed on the farm and in the school. Sanitary arrangements were in a high state of perfection, and physical and moral training were most carefully attended to. In respect of these and other social arrangements, Mr. Craig was a man much before his time, and he has since made himself a name in connection with their application in various parts of the country.

"The 'New System,' as the Ralahine experiment was called, though at first regarded with suspicion and derision, quickly gained favour in the district, so that before long outsiders were extremely anxious to become members of the a.s.sociation. In January, 1832, the community consisted of fifty adults and seventeen children. The total number afterwards increased to eighty-one. Everything was prosperous, and the members of the a.s.sociation were not only benefitted themselves, but their improvement exercised a beneficent influence upon the people in their neighbourhood. It was hoped that other landlords would imitate the excellent example of Mr. Vandeleur, especially as his experiment was one profitable to himself, as well as calculated to produce peace and contentment in disturbed Ireland. Just when these hopes were raised to their highest degree of expectancy, the happy community at Ralahine was broken up through the ruin and flight of Mr. Vandeleur, who had lost his property by gambling. Everything was sold off, and the labour notes saved by the members would have been worthless had not Mr. Craig, with n.o.ble self-sacrifice, redeemed them out of his own pocket.

"We have given but a very scanty description of the system pursued at Ralahine. The arrangements were in most respects admirable, and reflected the greatest credit upon Mr. Craig as an organiser and administrator. To his wisdom, energy, tact, and forbearance the success of his experiment was in great measure due, and it is greatly to be regretted that he was not in a position to repeat the attempt under more favourable circ.u.mstances." ("History of a Co-operative Farm.")

CARLYLE ON THE SOCIAL OBLIGATIONS OF THE NATION

FORTY-FIVE YEARS AGO. Inserted at the earnest request of a friend, who was struck by the coincidence of some ideas, similar to those of this volume, set forth so long ago, but as yet remaining unrealised, and which I had never read.

EXTRACTS FROM "PAST AND PRESENT."

"A Prime Minister, even here in England, who shall dare believe the heavenly omens, and address himself like a man and hero to the great dumb-struggling heart of England, and speak out for it, and act out for it, the G.o.d's-justice it is writhing to get uttered and peris.h.i.+ng for want of--yes, he too will see awaken round him, in pa.s.sionate, burning, all-defiant loyalty, the heart of England, and such a 'support' as no Division-List or Parliamentary Majority was ever yet known to yield a man! Here as there, now as then, he who can and dare trust the heavenly Immensities, all earthly Localities are subject to him. We will pray for such a man and First-Lord;--yes, and far better, we will strive and incessantly make ready, each of us, to be worthy to serve and second such a First-Lord! We shall then be as good as sure of his arriving; sure of many things, let him arrive or not.

"Who can despair of Governments that pa.s.ses a Soldier's Guard-house, or meets a red-coated man on the streets? That a body of men could be got together to kill other men when you bade them: this, a priori, does it not seem one of the impossiblest things? Yet look, behold it: in the stolidest of Do-nothing Governments, that impossibility is a thing done."--(Carlyle, "Past and Present," page 223.)

"Strange, interesting, and yet most mournful to reflect on. Was this, then, of all the things mankind had some talent for, the one thing important to learn well, and bring to perfection; this of successfully killing one another? Truly, you have learned it well, and carried the business to a high perfection. It is incalculable what, by arranging, commanding, and regimenting you can make of men. These thousand straight-standing, firm-set individuals, who shoulder arms, who march, wheel, advance, retreat; and are, for your behoof a magazine charged with fiery death, in the most perfect condition of potential activity.

Few months ago, till the persuasive sergeant came, what were they?