Report of the Royal Commission on the Poor Laws and Relief of Distress. : Appendix Volume XIX. Report by Mr. Cyril Jackson and Rev. J.C. Pringle on the effects of employment or assistance given to the "unemployed" since 1886 as a means of relieving distress outside the Poor Law.

  • Royal Commission on the Poor Laws and Relief of Distress 1905-09
Date:
1909
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Report of the Royal Commission on the Poor Laws and Relief of Distress. : Appendix Volume XIX. Report by Mr. Cyril Jackson and Rev. J.C. Pringle on the effects of employment or assistance given to the "unemployed" since 1886 as a means of relieving distress outside the Poor Law. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service. The original may be consulted at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service.

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    PAGE (b.)—In exceptional years public worka may be put in hand, etc.—continued. It is economically indefensible to give work to inexperienced or incapable unemployed if it throws the capable ordinary workmen out of work - 103 [110] Not only regular municipal employee^, but those men who are accustomed to be taken on for additional municipal work must be considered - - - - 103 [119] Attempts to relieve the labour market by sprea iing work over slack season - - 103 [119] Battersea—Number employed in winter and in summer - - 103-101 [119-l;iO] Southwark— „ „ „ „ 104 [120] Woolwich—Endeavours to push on work in exceptionally bad years which would otherwise have stood over 104-105 [120-121] 1. (c)—References to past employers of the unemployed may encourage them to discharge hands whom they might otherwise retain 105 [J21] Generally, business considerations alone count, and only such men are retained as can be fully employed renumeratively 105 [121] Employers who discharge men expect to get them back again somehow - - 105 [121] Irregular employment not necessarily paid more highly - - - - - 106 [122] Special employment relief not hitherto sufficiently regular to enable employers to count on it to keep their men going 106 [122] Workmen are kept from moving by chance of relief works . . - . 106 [122] J. {(T)—Too early yet to get adequate statistics as to men who, after receiving employment relief, subsequently became paupers 106 [122] Laborious to trace cases 106 [122] Returns have been extracted from guardians and distress committee's registers in various places 106 [122'] Camborwell 107 [123]., Stepney 107 [123], Woolwich 107 [123]^ Blackburn 107 [123]^ Newcastle 107 [123] Nottingham 107 [123]- Sheffield 107 [123] Sunderland 108 [124] West Ham 108 [124] Opinion of competent judges that any form of relief makes men more ready to apply for more 108 [124] Poor Law medical and hospital relief not very dissimilar .... 108 [124], 2, —Relief work has generally been normal municipal work and of public utility ... 108 [124\< Possible exceptions—land cultivation by unemployed ; hand labour - - - 108 [124]- Manchester—Cultivation of Chat moss—since abandoned - - - - 108 [124]^ Oldham—A few acres of moor planted and not likely to be continued - 108 [124] Croydon—Unremunerative potato growing 109 [125] Southampton— ,, „ 109 [125] g.— Work done by ' unemployed' generally is more costly than by ordinary labour - - - 109 [125] , Examples - Stepney—Road work 109 [125] St. Pancras—Painting 109 [125]:: Wandsworth—Levelling 109 [125] Woolwich—25 per cent more costly even when men carefully selected - 110 [126] Acton—' Unemployed' work below contractor's tender ; some reasons for this 110 [126] Tottenham—Swimming bath 110 [126] Croydon—Digging land compared with similar work by plough - - 111 [127] Willesden - - - - 111 [127] Barking—Piecework adopted to reduce excessive cost first incurred - - 11] [127] East Ham—Inefficiency of men Ill [127] Enfield—Loss though men paid less than standard wage - - - - 111 [127] Leyton—Work said to be only slightly more costly Ill [127] Penge—Work ' much more ' expensive Ill [127] Birkenhead—LTnemployed oidy earn half wages paid - - - - 111 [127] Birmingham—In picked cases, with continuous work, only slight excess of cost Ill [127] Blackburn—Demoralise permanent men Ill [7??J Bournemouth—Contribution to make up value 112 [12<S]