Great Britain. Royal Commission on Poor Laws and Relief of Distress; Poor -- Great Britain; Poor laws -- Great Britain
Registrar of Public Assistance whom the Minority Report
proposes--to see (_a_) that these Authorities do not overlap,
(_b_) that they are all consulted as regards such members of the
family as come within their respective spheres of treatment. We
see no need for any general Poor Law or "Public Assistance
Committee" at all; unless, indeed, merely for registration and
co-ordination.
At present the Local Education Authorities, the Local Health
Authorities, and the Local Lunacy Authorities only feebly and
imperfectly grapple with their task of arresting the causes of
destitution in the child, the sick person, or the person of unsound
mind, partly because they have only lately begun this part of their
work, but principally because they have not been legally empowered and
legally required to do it. Moreover, they do not yet have forced on
their attention, as they would if they had to maintain those who needed
to be cured, _the extent to which they fail to prevent_. If the Health
Committee knew that it would have eventually to maintain the sick men
whom it allowed to sink gradually into phthisis, as it has now
practically to maintain persons who contract small-pox, it would look
with a different eye upon the Medical Officer of Health's desire to
"search out" every case of incipient phthisis whilst it is yet curable,
to press upon the ignorant sufferer the best hygienic advice, and to do
what is necessary in order to enable the insidious progress of the
disease to be arrested. This does not entail that all diseases shall be
treated free, any more than the Public Health supervision of sanitation
entails that bad landlords shall have their house drainage provided at
the public cost. All the increased activity of the Public Health
Authorities in searching out and treating sickness may coincide with a
systematic enforcement of personal responsibility in respect to personal
hygiene, and with regard to the maintenance in health of dependents,
which we, in fact, recommend. The break-up of the Poor Law implies, in
short, not only the adoption of a systematic crusade against the several
preventable causes of destitution, but also a far more effective
enforcement of parental responsibility than is at present practicable.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account