Agricultural colonies; Poor -- Great Britain; Salvation Army; Unemployed -- Great Britain
Remember this is no fancy sketch--it is a typical case. There are
hundreds and thousands of such applicants. Any one who is at all
familiar with life in London and our other large towns, will recognise
that gaunt figure standing there asking for bread and shelter or for
work by which he can obtain both. What can we do with him? Before him
Society stands paralysed, quieting its conscience every now and then by
an occasional dole of bread and soup, varied with the semi-criminal
treatment of the Casual Ward, until the manhood is crushed out of the
man and you have in your hands a reckless, despairing, spirit-broken
creature, with not even an aspiration to rise above his miserable
circumstances, covered with vermin and filth, sinking ever lower and
lower, until at last he is hurried out of sight in the rough shell
which carries him to a pauper's grave.
I propose to take that man, put a strong arm round him, and extricate
him from the mire in which he is all but suffocated. As a first step we
will say to him, "You are hungry, here is food; you are homeless, here
is a shelter for your head; but remember you must work for your
rations. This is not charity; it is work for the workless, help for
those who cannot help themselves. There is the labour shed, go and earn
your fourpence, and then come in out of the cold and the wet into the
warm shelter; here is your mug of coffee and your great chunk of bread,
and after you have finished these there is a meeting going on in full
swing with its joyful music and hearty human intercourse. There are
those who pray for you and with you, and will make you feel yourself a
brother among men. There is your shake-down on the floor, where you
will have your warm, quiet bed, undisturbed by the ribaldry and curses
with which you have been familiar too long. There is the wash-house,
where you can have a thorough wash-up at last, after all these days of
unwashedness. There is plenty of soap and warm water and clean towels;
there, too, you can wash your shirt and have it dried while you sleep.
In the morning when you get up there will be breakfast for you,
and your shirt will be dry and clean. Then when you are washed and
rested, and are no longer faint with hunger, you can go and seek a job,
or go back to the Labour shop until something better turns up."
But where and how?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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