From Workhouse to Westminster Part 23

"That is what I mean when I say that the present Poor Law, as b.u.mbledom would administer it, has nothing better to prescribe than scientific starvation to old people who refuse the House. If one is foolish enough to grow old without being artful enough to get rich, this world is the wrong place to be in.

"When old age comes to working people, both thrifty and unthrifty have in most instances to turn to one of two things--precarious charity or the Poor Law. Charity is a splendid exercise for many people, but no law or custom exists compelling its practice. Now the Poor Law can be enforced; only it has been used to terrorise the poor. The State sets up a system to save old people from starvation, and then allows it to be used to perpetuate starvation.

"It won't do. So long as we have this system, I'm going to make not the worst use of it, but the best use of it. And I believe in paying old-age pensions through the Poor Law. The Poor Law ought not to degrade any more than the Rich Law degrades under which Ministers and officers of the State receive their pensions. Why do I say pay pensions through the Poor Law? Because it is here. It is something to begin with at once. It is the thin edge of the wedge of a system of universal old-age pensions, free and adequate."

Pending the adoption of some national system, he practises in Poplar the policy he urges in public, that of paying a living pension through the Poor Law.

His policy received unexpected endors.e.m.e.nt in a letter sent to him by an old woman of eighty-three in a provincial town. She wrote to him in the summer of 1906 at the time others were attacking him for his policy.

Your n.o.ble efforts on behalf of penniless old people like me I see are being condemned in some of the papers. They can't know the facts. I was managing very comfortably until the Liberator crash took away my income. I started a small school and maintained myself until I was seventy. After that I was no good for work. What I should have done I don't know had it not been for a few friends who, like yourself, believe in out-relief grants of sufficient amount to keep a person living; and they persuaded the Guardians to help me. I thank you for the fight you are making on behalf of hundreds of helpless old people like myself. May the King soon call you Sir Will Crooks.

He was examined at some length on his Living Pension policy at the Local Government Board Inquiry into the Poplar Guardians' administration. He admitted that old people over sixty receiving out-relief in Poplar were costing the borough a sixpenny rate.

"I say it is wicked to compel us," he stated in evidence, "to maintain out of our local rates these old people who ought to be a charge--as I have said hundreds of times, and repeat--for the whole metropolis or for the nation rather than the locality. These industrial veterans are thrust upon us in Poplar to maintain, notwithstanding that most of the wealth they created has been enjoyed by people who live elsewhere, and thus escape their share of the burden of maintaining their old workers in old age. But because this unjust state of things exists, are we, with a full sense of our responsibility, to tell these broken-down old workers that we refuse to bear the burden ourselves, and that they must do the best they can?"

Then followed a rapid fire of questions and answers between himself and the legal representative of the Poplar Munic.i.p.al Alliance.

_Q._--Is not that rather a dangerous doctrine? If local authorities generally allowed their sympathies to carry them into acts not contemplated by their const.i.tution and their powers, what do you think the general result would be?

_A._--It _is_ contemplated by our const.i.tution. We are here to relieve distress. We are created for that purpose.

_Q._--Do you say there is any machinery or power in the Poor Law which authorises you to give allowances which are, in fact, old age pensions to these people?

_A._--It allows us to give out-door relief. You can call it what you like.... We cannot refuse to give people help and a.s.sistance in old age.

_Q._--I am not quarrelling for a moment with the proposition in the abstract; I am quarrelling with your method of carrying it out in your local machinery.

_A._--Tell me what you would do--leave them to starve on the streets?

_Q._--I suggest, is it not a dangerous doctrine for local authorities to exceed their statutory powers?

_A._--I a.s.sure you we have never done anything of the kind, and I challenge you to prove it.

_Q._--I ask you to show me any authority for a grant continuously of, say, ten s.h.i.+llings a week to these old people?

_A._--The Local Government Board issued an order dealing with the matter.

The Inspector:--You rely on Mr. Chaplin's circular?

_A._--Yes, with regard to the treatment of the aged and deserving poor.

That circular reads:--

It has been felt that persons who have habitually led decent and deserving lives should, if they require relief in their old age, receive different treatment from those whose previous habits and character have been unsatisfactory, and who have failed to exercise thrift in bringing up their families or otherwise. The Local Government Board consider that aged and deserving persons should not be urged to enter the workhouse at all unless there is some cause which renders such a course necessary, such as infirmity of mind or body, the absence of house accommodation, or of a suitable person to care for them, or some similar cause; but think they should be relieved by giving adequate outdoor relief. The Board are happy to think it is commonly the practice of Boards of Guardians to grant outdoor relief in such cases, but they are afraid that too frequently such relief is not adequate in amount. They are desirous of pressing upon the Boards of Guardians that such relief should, when granted, be always adequate.

That is our authority for what we are doing.... For once in a way one can say this Inquiry at least will be an enlightening one.

_Q._--I hope it will, Mr. Crooks.

_A._--I am sure it will.

_Q._--To other places than Poplar?

_A._--I hope so indeed. Poplar will be a s.h.i.+ning light in the days to come.

CHAPTER XXII

ELECTION TO PARLIAMENT

Labour Candidate for Woolwich--Lord Charles Beresford describes Crooks as a Fair and Square Opponent--How the Election Fund was Raised--Crooks recommended by John Burns as "Wise on Poor Law"--Half-loaf and Whole Loaf--"Greatest By-election Victory of Modern Times."

On the morning of February 19th, 1903, the Press stated that considerable excitement was created in London on the previous day by the announcement that Lord Charles Beresford had been offered the command of the Channel squadron, and that he was about to resign his Parliamentary seat in Woolwich.

A few days later the genial admiral, from a public platform, was bidding good-bye to his const.i.tuents and introducing to them the Conservative candidate in the person of Mr. Geoffrey Drage. He took occasion to throw out the warning that the opposition candidate was a strong man, whom he knew to be a fair and square opponent.

The reference was to Crooks. He had been adopted as Labour candidate some few weeks previously. The invitation sent to him by the Woolwich Labour Representation a.s.sociation was a unanimous one. It surprised him to receive it, since his a.s.sociation with Woolwich--on the other side of the Thames two miles below Poplar--was a very slight one. When he accepted the invitation it was believed there would be at least two years to prepare for the General Election. The Labour candidate had barely made his _debut_ before the by-election was announced.

n.o.body but the little band of Labour men in the const.i.tuency believed in Crooks's chances. The honours had fallen so easily hitherto to the Conservatives. Lord Charles Beresford got the seat without a contest.

Sir Edwin Hughes before him was returned unopposed in 1900, while for sixteen years previously he held the seat by majorities averaging more than two thousand. The majority at the previous contest (which took place in 1895) reached 2,805.

Faced with this formidable figure, Crooks entered upon the contest with all his usual zeal and good humour. There was first the difficulty of the election expenses. The Labour a.s.sociation quickly raised 200 from among its members. It soon became evident, however, that before the Labour Party could get in touch with the sixteen thousand voters on the register and meet the returning officer's fees, a sum four or five times as large as that would be needed.

An appeal to the public was sent out by the a.s.sociation, signed by S. H.

Grinling, M.A. (chairman), W. Barefoot (treasurer), and A. Hall (secretary). The appeal was taken up by the _Daily News_, which opened a Woolwich Election Fund. In about a fortnight that paper raised 1,000.

Contributions poured in from all cla.s.ses, in every part of the kingdom, accompanied by a chorus of well-wishes of which any public man might indeed be proud.

As from day to day the amounts were acknowledged in the _Daily News_, one saw side by side with the modest two s.h.i.+llings from "Four workers"

10 from Lord Portsmouth. Among the s.h.i.+llings and sixpences from working women and girls appeared 5 from Lady Trevelyan, and a list of subscriptions from Father Adderley, containing one "From a lady in lieu of a new hat." The day "Two Chalfont lads" sent "a bob each," two sums of 50 were acknowledged from the Right Hon. Sydney Buxton and Mr.

George Cadbury. The authors of "The Heart of the Empire," with a gift of 25, shared the same spirit with "A Leominster working-man," who forwarded three s.h.i.+llings, and "Four working men of Cirencester," who sent four s.h.i.+llings between them. Dr. Clifford, the Rev. Stopford Brooke, and Canon Scott Holland swelled the list, together with old Labour Members of Parliament like Mr. T. Burt and Mr. H. Broadhurst.

"A fellow worker of Mr. Crooks on the Asylums Board" was responsible for 10, while colleagues of his on the London County Council contributed about 100 between them.

From Porchester Square came a substantial cheque with an unsigned note written in the third person, to this effect:--

The lady who sends the enclosed is nearly eighty-four, and therefore cannot offer any help in person, but she most heartily wishes Mr. Crooks success in his brave fight, as she has for a long time past desired to see more Labour representatives in the House of Commons.

The campaign went on merrily. The magnetic personality of the Labour candidate drew to his side every Progressive section in the const.i.tuency. It was not only that working-men threw themselves into the fight with Herculean energy, but the temperance societies and the churches of nearly every denomination became enthusiastic in his support.

They seemed to share the same estimate of the candidate as Mr. Keir Hardie, who wrote to the electors describing Crooks as "a first-cla.s.s fighting man, and the best of good fellows, who would, if returned, bring credit and honour to the const.i.tuency."