rominent of
electioneering tests. Rival candidates would be competing for the
votes of a wage-earning electorate who had a direct pecuniary interest
in increasing or extending pensions and in relaxing the conditions on
which they are given. Can it be doubted that in many cases their first
object would be to outbid one another, and that national and party
politics would soon be forced into a demoralising race of
extravagance?

I cannot conclude without protesting against the supposition that
those who think with me are indifferent to the great evil of old-age
destitution and propose nothing for its relief. The committees which
have most clearly pointed out the dangers of old-age pensions have
also urged, that within the lines of our present poor-law system it is
quite possible to do much, by an improved classification, to
distinguish among the recipients of poor-law relief between the
respectable and the worthless. Much has already been done, and in the
most important unions the guardians have introduced a large amount of
classification by merit. As I have already said, the immense majority
of the respectable aged poor are now relieved only in their own homes
or in comfortable infirmaries. The severe test of absolute destitution
has in practice been greatly relaxed; there is a legal provision
preventing those who are receiving help from Friendly Societies from
being disqualified for relief; husbands and wives are no longer
separated in the workhouse; and in some unions of which we had
evidence much more has been done. This, however, depends too much on
the will of particular Boards of Guardians, and there are in
consequence great inequalities of treatment. The condition of the
deserving poor may be greatly improved by relaxation in points of
hours, discipline, and visitors, and by workhouse arrangements
securing more universally that paupers who have lived respectable
lives should not be obliged to mix with the drunken, the disreputable,
and the hopelessly idle. And, though extensions of outdoor relief
should be carefully watched, and entail great dangers, yet under wise
and strict administration something more may be done in this
direction.

But all this should be regarded as essentially poor-law relief, and
not as the recognition of a claim of right for services supposed to
have been rendered to the community. No form of State Socialism is
more dangerous than the doctrine which has been countenanced by Prince
Bisma