An article on Irish Poor Law Reform written within the limits assigned
to me can only be constructive in the broadest sense. It is a serious
and tangled problem: the existing system has developed in a haphazard
fashion; there is about it hardly anything that is logical, much that is
anomalous, some things that are tragic. The present conditions of the
Irish Poor Law system are set forth in the reports of various Royal and
Viceregal Commissions. The most important are those of the Viceregal
Commission on Poor Law Reform in Ireland (1906), the Departmental
Commission on Vagrancy, the Royal Commission on the Care and Control of
the Feeble-minded, and the Royal Commission on the Poor Laws (Majority
Report). The study of all these reports is a rather distracting
business. They establish between them an urgent need for reform; on the
methods, and even principles, of reform there are wide differences of
opinion. I propose to set out here, so far as may be possible, a summary
of those reforms on which the various reports and Irish public opinion
are nearly, or quite, unanimous. Such a summary may at least help to
acquaint the rank and file of the Unionist Party with the primary
conditions and necessities of a work which, for historical, moral,
social and political reasons, must receive the Party's early and
practical attention when it returns to power.
The Unionist Party, as representing the best elements in British
Government, owes in this matter a great act of reparation to Ireland.
The present Poor Law system is based on the most fatal of all
blunders--the deliberate disregard of educated opinion in Ireland. The
story, a very remarkable and suggestive one, is told in the Viceregal
Commission's report. The Royal Commission of 1836 came to the conclusion
that the English workhouse system would be unsuitable for Ireland. The
Irish Royal Commissioners, including the famous Archbishop Whately, made
two sets of recommendations. One set involved a compulsory provision for
the sick, aged, lunatic and infirm. The other proposed to attack poverty
at the root by instituting a large series of measures for the general
development of Ireland. Looking back over nearly eighty years of Irish
history, we must be both humbled and astonished by the almost inspired
precision and statesmanship of these proposals. They included
reclamation of waste land and the enforcement of drainage; an increased
grant to the Board of Works; healthy houses for the labouring classes;
local instruction in agriculture; the enlargement of leasing powers with
the object of encouraging land improvement, and the transfer of the
fiscal powers of Grand Juries to County Boards. Here we have in embryo
the Irish Labourers Acts from 1860 to 1906, the Department of
Agriculture and Technical Instruction, the Irish Land Acts from 1860 to
1903, the Local Government Act of 1898--reforms which Ireland owes
almost entirely to the statesmanship (though it seems a rather belated
statesmanship) of Unionist Governments. These Irish recommendations were
ignored by the Government of the day. It sent an English Poor Law
Commissioner (Mr. Nicholls) to Ireland. He spent six weeks in the
country. On his return he recommended the establishment of the English
Poor Law system there, and it was accordingly established.
The first Poor Law Act for Ireland was passed on July 31, 1838. Between
that year and 1851 one hundred and sixty-three Poor Law Unions were
created. The number is at present one hundred and fifty-nine, and they
are administered by elected and co-opted Poor Law Guardians to the
number of more than eight thousand. In every Union there is a workhouse,
and in that workhouse all the various classes of destitute and poor
persons are maintained. They include sick, aged and infirm, legitimate
and illegitimate children, insane of all classes, sane epileptics,
mothers of illegitimate children, able-bodied male paupers, and the
importunate army of tramps. The mean number of such inmates in all the
workhouses on any day is about 40,000, of whom about one-third are sick,
one-third aged and infirm, one-seventh children, one-twentieth mothers
of illegitimate children, and one-twelfth insane and epileptic. This
awful confusion of infirmity and vice, this Purgatory perpetuating
itself to the exclusion of all hope of Paradise, presents the vital
problem of Irish Poor Law Reform.
A radical solution must be found for it. On that point the reports of
all the Commissions are unanimous. They differ, where they do differ,
only as regards means to the end.
The supreme reform which must be undertaken by any Government that seeks
to remove this great blot on Irish administration is the abolition of
the present workhouse system on some basis which, while effective, will
make no addition to the rates. The two chief reports (those of the
Viceregal Commission and the Royal Commission on the Poor Laws) are in
agreement, not merely as to this necessity, but as to the guiding
principles of reform. They recommend classification, by institutions, of
all the present inmates of the workhouses--the sick in hospitals, the
aged and infirm in almshouses, the mentally defective in asylums.
Appalling evidence was given before the Viceregal Commission and the
Royal Commission on the Care and Control of the Feeble-minded with
regard to the present association of lunatics, epileptics, and imbeciles
with sane women and children in the workhouse wards. The latter
Commission recommended the creation of a strong central authority for
the general protection and supervision of mentally defective persons.
The reforms do not contemplate the amalgamation of Unions and the
complete closing of only a certain number of workhouses. They suggest
rather the bringing together into one institution of all the inmates of
one class from a number of neighbouring workhouses, and the closing of
all workhouses as such. The sick should be sent to existing Poor Law or
County Hospitals, strengthened by the addition of Cottage Hospitals in
certain districts. Children should be boarded out. The bulk of the
remaining inmates, classified with regard to their defects and
infirmities, should be segregated according to counties or other
suitable areas. On the treatment of able-bodied paupers there are
different opinions. It is suggested by the Philanthropic Reform
Association, which includes some of the most earnest and disinterested
philanthropists in Ireland, that the well-conducted of this class should
be placed in labour colonies, and the ill-conducted in detention
colonies--both classes of institutions to be maintained and controlled
by the State, and not by the County authorities.
The areas and resources of the existing Unions are in most cases too
limited, and the numbers of necessitous persons too small, to warrant
the present Boards of Guardians in erecting as many types of
institutions as there are classes of inmates. The break-up of the
workhouse system involves, of necessity, the establishment of larger
areas of administration. It is clear that the County must be substituted
for the Union in any radical scheme of reform. On this point the Royal
Commissioners and the Viceregal Commissioners are agreed. County rating
must take the place of Union rating, since the inmates of the different
institutions would be drawn from all parts of each County or County
Borough. Substantial economies in administration might be expected from
this plan. Hospitals should be brought into a County Hospital System,
with the County Infirmary as the central institution, and nurses should
be trained there for the County District Hospitals (now Workhouse
Infirmaries).
About such a general scheme of decentralised reform there is little or
no disagreement. There is, however, a good deal of disagreement
concerning the control of the new institutions. The Viceregal Commission
advocates the retention by the Poor Law Guardians of many of their
existing functions. It suggests, for instance, that County Hospitals
should be managed by a Committee consisting of all members of the
present District Hospital Committees, strengthened by nine members
appointed by the County Council; and that the Chairman of the Board of
Guardians should be the Chairman of the District Hospital Committee. The
Royal Commission, on the other hand, votes boldly for the abolition of
the Boards of Guardians. It argues that, if we are to have a County
system of institutions maintained by a County rate, we must adopt the
logical consequence that the County Council which strikes and collects
the rate should have the direct or indirect management of the
institutions. It proposes that the Council should appoint a statutory
Committee (one-half to be taken from outside its own members), to be
called the Public Assistance Authority, and that this Authority should
manage and control all the institutions in the County. The Philanthropic
Reform Association, which has given much study to this question,
suggests a _via media_ between the two official schemes. It recommends
that all the institutions should be controlled by the County Council,
through Committees directly responsible to it, to which persons of
experience from outside should be added. Such committees need not be
elected by the Poor Law Guardians, as recommended by the Viceregal
Commission, or by the Statutory Committee of the County Council, as
recommended by the Royal Commission. The Association desires, and it has
a large volume of Irish opinion behind it in this, to minimise the
existing powers, and reduce the numbers, of the Poor Law Guardians. It
is also very earnestly impressed with the need of bringing women into
the Poor Law administration. In this it is absolutely right. The Women's
National Health Association and the United Irishwomen have demonstrated
triumphantly the value of women's services in improving the social,
economic, and sanitary conditions of rural life in Ireland. A recent Act
of Parliament qualifies women for election to the Irish County and
Borough Councils. No great reform of the Poor Law system can be
effective without their aid. The Unionist Party will only be acting
consistently with its social ideals if it encourages, by every means
within its power, an Irish feminist movement, full of hope for the
country and wholly dissociated from party politics.
Any thorough reform of the Irish Poor Law system will demand an
increased expenditure of Imperial funds. The growing severity of Irish
taxation under recent Radical budgets forbids the possibility of
addition to the ratepayer's burdens. The anomalous distribution of the
grants in aid of Irish local taxation has done much to complicate the
Poor Law question. The Royal Commission reported that "no account
whatever is taken of the burden of pauperism, the magnitude of the local
rates, or the circumstances of the ratepayers and their ability to pay
rates in the different areas." Under this system the minimum of relief
is extended to the districts in which the weight of taxation is most
oppressive. The Commission proposed a scheme by which the old Union
grants within each county would be pooled and credited to the common
fund in aid of the poor rate in that county. The Viceregal Commission
also complained of inequality of expenditure, and advised a
reapportionment of the grants in aid of local taxation, on the basis of
the recommendations of the minority of the Royal Commission on Local
Taxation (1902). That Commission was unanimous in recommending increased
grants for Poor Law service in Ireland. The distribution of such new
grants would be a matter for discussion; of the necessity for them there
is no doubt. The Unionist Party must not rest content with reforming the
Irish Poor Law system; it must help the reformed system to pay its own
way. No fair-minded Englishman who reads Sir George O'Farrell's evidence
as to the distribution of the Irish Church surplus (Report of the Royal
Commission on the Care and Control of the Feeble-minded, page 468) will
dispute his country's obligations in this matter. The cost of Irish Poor
Law Reform is one of the strongest arguments against Home Rule. The
Unionist Party's full and generous recognition of its duty to Ireland in
this respect will establish a new argument for the Union.
One vital factor in Poor Law Reform remains to be considered--the Poor
Law Medical service. The 740 Dispensary districts of Ireland are now
administered by a little more than 800 Medical Officers. The salaries of
these doctors, amounting in all to nearly £100,000 per annum, are paid
as to one half by the Poor Law Guardians, and as to the other half out
of the Local Taxation (Ireland) account. Most of the doctors, in
addition to their public duties as servants of the poor, engage in
private practice, of which, in most of the rural areas, their official
position gives them a monopoly. A large--perhaps, a surprisingly
large--number of the Dispensary doctors are earnest and self-sacrificing
men; but the system is corrupted by one radical defect. Owing to the
security of private practice involved, there is a fierceness of
competition for these appointments out of all proportion to their
financial value. The elections are made by the Guardians, and it is a
fact so notorious as even to be acknowledged by Mr. Birrell that
flagrant canvassing and bribery are a common feature of these elections.
Candidates have been known to distribute sums of £400 or £500 to
Guardians, in order to secure appointments of £150 or £160 a year.
Another serious and extending feature of the present system is the
boycotting by the Guardians of all candidates who have not graduated at
the new Roman Catholic University. The most highly qualified men from
the University of Dublin have now practically abandoned competition for
these Dispensary offices outside the Protestant counties of Ulster.
Moreover, throughout the whole country local candidates are consistently
preferred to superior men from outside. Both the Viceregal and Royal
Commissions recognise the necessity of radical reform in this system,
but they suggest different remedies. The Royal Commission proposes that
the election and control of all the Dispensary Medical Officers of a
County shall be vested in the Public Assistance Authority for that
County; and that little or no change be made in the present financial
basis of the payment of salaries. The Viceregal Commission suggests a
bolder and more drastic remedy. It advocates the establishment of a
State Medical service on the lines of the existing services in Egypt and
India. This would require the payment by the State of the whole, instead
of half, of the salaries of Medical Officers. The Commission regards it
as proper and equitable that such a service should be, in the beginning,
at any rate, restricted to candidates educated in Ireland. A
representative Medical Council should elect the candidates by
competitive examination, and deal with all important questions of
promotion, removal and superannuation. The Commission maintains that the
creation of a State Medical service in Ireland would mean a very small
increase in the Parliamentary grant in comparison with the benefits
involved. This I believe to be the ideal system, but one must recognise
that its accomplishment is confronted with many difficulties. The Irish
Local Authorities would not willingly relinquish a privilege which is a
primary element in their influence and prestige. Irish medical opinion
is acutely divided on the question, which is now further complicated by
the prospect that the medical benefits under the National Insurance Act
may soon be extended to Ireland. It would be outrageous to expect the
Dispensary Officers to add the heavy medical duties under the Act to
their present responsibilities without adequate payment. Indeed, the
extension of the medical benefits to Ireland would make inevitable an
early reform of the whole Poor Law system. This is one reason why the
Unionist Party, when it returns to office, should be ready to tackle the
subject without delay. To no department of the work will it be asked to
apply greater sympathy, knowledge, tact and firmness, than to the
problems of the Poor Law Medical service.
During the last three years the Irish Unionist Party has made three vain
attempts to bring the reform of the Irish Poor Law before Parliament.
Its Bill, which now stands in the name of Sir John Lonsdale, asks for
the appointment (as recommended by the Viceregal Commission) of a body
of five persons with executive powers to carry out the recommendations
made by that Commission. These temporary Commissioners would have
authority to draft all necessary schemes, to consolidate or divide
existing institutions, and generally to reform the whole administration
of the Irish Poor Law service. The Bill assigns to them an executive
lifetime of five years--hardly, perhaps, an adequate time for the
establishment of reforms which, in their making, must affect nearly
every aspect of Irish life, and, in their operation, may reconstitute
the basis of Irish society. It is to be supposed that, when the whole
Unionist Party addresses itself seriously to the question, it will give
further and careful attention to the principles of reform before setting
up this, or some other, executive machinery. I can think of no more
thirsty or fruitful field in Ireland for the exercise of the highest
constructive statesmanship that the Party may possess. The need is
urgent, the time is ripe, all the circumstances are favourable. The Old
Age Pensions Act and the Insurance Act, if not vitiated by further
increases in Irish taxation, will greatly simplify the task of Poor Law
Reform. The former Act has reduced the number of old inmates in the
workhouses; the Insurance Act should lead to a reduction in expenditure
on outdoor relief. Moreover, it may be hoped that the infirm and pauper
classes will be henceforward, like the old age pensioners, a diminishing
fraction of the population of Ireland. They are, to a large extent,
flotsam and jetsam over the sea of Ireland's political troubles. Land
agitation, with its attendant vices of restlessness and idleness, the
emigration of wage-earners, the discouragement of industry under
Governments indifferent to the administration of law and the development
of national resources, have all contributed to the Dantean horrors of
the Irish workhouse system. These poor people are an excrescence on the
body of Ireland which good government, if it does not wholly remove, may
reduce nearly to vanishing point. Hitherto the chief rewards and
blessings of British administration in Ireland have gone to the hard
voters and to the strong agitators. It is time for the Unionist Party to
think of the hapless, the helpless, the voteless, and, therefore
voiceless, elements in Irish life. Ireland, as she becomes better
educated, gives more thought and truer thought than formerly to her
social and economic problems. Her gratitude and loyalty will go in
abundant measure to those who take counsel with her about these problems
and help her to solve them. The Government which cleans up many sad
relics of the past by a complete reform of the Irish Poor Law system
will put all Irishmen and Irishwomen under a deep sense of obligation to
it. Policy, not less than duty, should give this reform a place in the
forefront of the Unionist Party's constructive programme for Ireland.