From Workhouse to Westminster Part 28

The reply was that since the Council worked under Free Trade conditions, no such a.s.surance could be given.

"Will not trade union conditions be observed?" inquired another Moderate member.

"Yes."

"Do you call that acting on a Free Trade basis?"

"Some members," interposed Crooks, "seem to identify trade union conditions with Protection."

"Quite right too," shouted the Moderate.

"Yes," came Crooks's retort; "but the one kind of Protection is the protection of the workers against the sweater, and the other kind is the protection of the sweater against the workers."

CHAPTER XXVI

PREPARING FOR THE UNEMPLOYED ACT

Principles for dealing with Unemployed--Twenty-four Per Cent. of Poplar's Wage-earners out of Work--Folly of Stone-breaking and Oak.u.m-picking--Public Warning by Crooks and Canon Barnett--How Crooks used a Gift of 1,000.

Crooks's three years in Mr. Balfour's Parliament had a remarkable triumph in the Unemployed Act. No one needs reminding that the measure was introduced by the Government; but as the sequel will show, it is doubtful whether it would have seen the light, and it is certain it would never have been pa.s.sed but for his untiring advocacy.

This was so far recognised at the time that one of the bitterest opponents of the measure, Sir William Chance, a stern disciple of the Charity Organisation Society, described it as "a Poplar Bill framed to meet Poplar's needs."

So it was. For Poplar's needs just then were the needs of the unemployed. And the unemployed's needs were the same all the country over. The Bill was introduced about the time the Poplar Guardians took a census of the unemployed in typical working-cla.s.s streets in the district, revealing over twenty-four per cent. of the wage-earners out of work.

The Bill was based on the principle which had guided Crooks in all his dealings with the unemployed. The only sound way to help an unemployed man, he maintains, is by work rather than by relief. The condition he imposes on the provision of such work is that it must be useful. He will have nothing to do with "works" provided only as "relief." Work that is not useful can never relieve.

His agitation in Parliament put the crown on fifteen years of laborious striving to make the State admit a duty to its unemployed citizens.

As far back as September, 1893, he was appealing in the _Daily Chronicle_ to the Board of Trade and the Thames Conservancy to help in allaying the threatened distress of the coming winter by reclaiming foresh.o.r.es. His appeal was taken up at the time by other papers, which complimented him upon the practical common-sense character of his proposals.

Somewhere in the archives of the Board of Trade that scheme of his doubtless lies buried to this day. He is still confident it will be carried out some time. He is fond of saying that it takes Parliament seven years to grasp a new idea and seven more to carry it out.

Compressed into a few lines in his own words, the story of his effort runs in this way:--"It was in the November of 1893 that in consequence of what I had been saying at public meetings and in the Press, I was urged to lay the scheme before Mr. Mundella, who was President of the Board of Trade at the time. There was great suffering that winter, and the Local Government Board advised all the local authorities to put in hand as much public work as possible. Well and good, I said, but let the Government do the same. I pointed out that under the Foresh.o.r.es Act of 1866 the Board of Trade had power to reclaim land. Again, under an Act of 1857 the Thames Conservancy could reclaim miles of foresh.o.r.e in and below London. I showed that this was just the kind of work to absorb unskilled labour, and supplied examples of the success of reclaiming land on the banks of the Forth and the Tay and on the Lincolnshire coast."

As his Poor Law duties crowded heavily upon him he had opportunities as a Guardian of carrying out in his own district his guiding principle in regard to the provision of useful work. He found the usual "task" work going on in the workhouse. He saw its degrading uselessness and abolished it. In place of oak.u.m-picking and stone-breaking he subst.i.tuted useful and profitable work like clothes-making, laundry work, bread-baking, wood-chopping, painting, and cleaning.

For every ton of oak.u.m picked in the workhouse the ratepayers were involved in an expenditure of 10. The Guardians were often glad to get rid of the oak.u.m when picked by returning it free to the firm supplying it. At the best they got 2s. 6d. per ton for it.

To a man like Crooks, holding firmly to Ruskin's theory that the employment of persons on a useless business cannot relieve ultimate distress, all work of that kind was wicked as well as wasteful.

He told his own Board so very plainly in 1895. It was a bitter winter.

River and docks were frozen for weeks, closing the door against work to half the men in Poplar. The Guardians were besieged by starving families. Well-nigh in despair the Board arranged that the relieving officers should send the out-of-work men to break stones at three stoneyards specially opened in different parts of the district.

"It's a mistake," he argued. "You are putting men to break stones which n.o.body wants. You are wasting men and money by inventing work which is utterly useless. Plenty of useful work can be found with care and organisation."

After six disastrous weeks the Guardians admitted he was right. Only the worst cla.s.s of men went into the stoneyards. He showed that this work of breaking stones was costing 3 2s. 6d. per yard, whereas the work could be done outside at trade union rate of wages for 2s. 6d. per yard.

When the stoneyards were closed and it became known to the loafers thriving under the system that Crooks was responsible, they threatened his life. These men knew they had been sent to the stoneyard simply to justify the Guardians in paying them wages. They grumbled and idled most of the time. Self-respecting men out of work refused to mix with them.

Some time later Crooks joined with Canon Barnett, George Lansbury, and others in a letter to the _Times_ and the Press generally, uttering a note of warning to munic.i.p.al authorities against "made work" for the unemployed. This joint letter stated:--

Made work tends to be regarded as a source of relief rather than of earnings. It is often as tempting to the idler as it is repugnant to the self-respecting workman....

We would therefore submit that the munic.i.p.alities which may decide to take part in meeting present needs could best do so by leaving distinctively "relief" duties to Guardians and other agencies; by starting and carrying on, as good employers, works which have a definite public advantage, and by requiring of each worker the best work during a continuous period under thorough supervision.

The most successful scheme for relieving distress with which Crooks was a.s.sociated in the severe winters of the early 'nineties was one on which a dozen years later the Unemployed Act was based. It represented co-operation between a committee of citizens and the local authorities.

The Committee was formed in the first instance as a relief committee by the Rector of Poplar. When Crooks joined at the rector's request and found himself sitting among none but parsons, representing every denomination in the district, he told them their first duty was to widen their ranks.

"You will never do anything so long as your committee is confined to gentlemen like these," he told the clerical chairman. "What you need is to get hold of trade union secretaries and the secretaries of the friendly and temperance societies and members of working men's clubs.

They will soon discriminate between the waster and the deserving man.

The waster is always boasting that parsons are so easily deceived."

Besides the Labour men, representatives of other cla.s.ses were invited to join the committee. The Bishop of London and Canon Scott Holland backed up the Committee's appeal to the public for funds, and about 5,000 was raised to meet Poplar's needs.

It was amusing to see how often the working men members had to undeceive the parsons. One good vicar tearfully brought forward several cases which the Labour men proved had been manufactured for him by professional cadgers.

"I have never known a distress committee to equal that one," was Crooks's verdict.

It taught him that a shilling given to an unemployed man for work done was better than a sovereign given simply as charity.

Ever since he has steadily worked for the unemployed under that conviction. He changed that committee from a relief committee into a committee for providing work.

In its second winter he received an offer for the unemployed of 1,000 from Mr. A. F. Hills, of the Thames Ironworks, on condition that he should raise a similar sum. He took the offer at once to the Poplar District Board, the precursor of the Borough Council. They agreed to vote another 1,000, and to put men to work on repaving roads and lime-whiting courts and alleys. So far was the local authority satisfied with the way the work was done that, after spending Mr.

Hills's 1,000 in wages and the second 1,000 they themselves had promised, they voted another 3,000 during the prevalence of the distress.

Meanwhile, Crooks had brought about co-operation between the rector's Distress Committee and the local authority. The Committee went on as usual investigating the condition of families, with the great advantage of now being able to offer a job rather than relief to the out-of-work husband.

"When we came to starving families, as we did very often, we fed them up until the man was able to go to work. As soon as a man was able to work we sent him to the local authority. If he failed to turn up for the work, but came round later for relief, he got this answer: 'We can't afford to play the fool in this business. If you won't turn up to work you can't be in distress. All we can do for you now is to put you at the bottom of our list. When we reach your name again we'll give you one more chance. If you don't take the work then, don't come here any more.'

"Of course, the cost of the labour to the District Board was somewhat higher than it would have been in the hands of skilled road-makers. You must always allow for a loss due to the want of experience (as well as the want of food) when you engage unemployed men. But remember we had a free gift of 1,000 from Mr. Hills, which more than met the extra expense, so that the ratepayers lost nothing. On the other hand, the community got something that it needed. How much better, then, to pay this little difference in price by employing out-of-work men on public works than by giving them relief under the guise of stone-breaking, which costs the community over 3 per ton when it can be done in the open market for 2s. 6d. a ton."

The winter that witnessed this scheme was described as "a red-letter one in the history of the unemployed difficulty in the East End of London."

The words appear in the report of the Poplar District Board. In summing up what had been done, the Board further stated that "on every ground much good has been accomplished and a valuable lesson learned." The Board also thanked the local Relief Committee and Mr. Hills and Crooks personally for their co-operation.

The lesson that had been learned saw fruit in the Unemployed Act a dozen years later.

CHAPTER XXVII