Great Britain. Royal Commission on Poor Laws and Relief of Distress; Poor -- Great Britain; Poor laws -- Great Britain
Finally, the third of the "Principles of 1907"--that of Universal
Provision--far from meeting with objection, receives repeated
endorsement. The Majority accept, without a word of criticism, the
provision of national pensions for all the persons over seventy years of
age below a certain income-limit, and they do not even suggest the
maintenance of the present temporary disqualification of those who have
received parochial relief since January 1, 1908. They endorse the
universal provision by the Local Education Authority of medical
inspection and diagnosis for all children in attendance at the public
elementary schools; though they think that the contemplated provision of
medical treatment for these children should not be a function of the
Local Education Authority. They even recommend the universal provision
of medical attendance for every sick person who applies for it, with
free choice of doctors; though it is urged that inquiry should be
subsequently made as to the applicants' means, and that such as may be
found to be able to pay for the service rendered to them should be
required to do so. Hospital accommodation and treatment is, moreover, to
be provided at the public expense, without charge and without
disfranchisement wherever it is deemed to be required, including
whatever is necessary for the proper treatment of phthisis. Finally, the
National Government is to undertake an entirely new service; to be
available without charge to every one who cares to use it, irrespective
of his affluence; and to be as ubiquitous and as universal as the Post
Office. By a national system of Labour Exchanges, the present disjointed
efforts of innumerable seekers after jobs are to be replaced by a public
organisation, the business of which will be to know all the vacancies
and all the applicants, and to find a man for every job, if not a job
for every man. All this represents, not only the endorsement of the
Principle of Universal Provision so far as it has already gone, but also
a considerable further increase of the communistic activity of the
State.
_The Plea for a Single Destitution Authority_
When, however, we study the detailed recommendations of the Majority
Report, and consider the probable working of the machinery that they
would set up, we discover, notwithstanding all the elaborately
sympathetic phrases, a very definite trend backward to the "Principles
of 1834," in a manner which seems to us calculated ingeniously to
nullify the apparent repudiation, and in reality to leave the situation
more confused than before.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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