THE PREVENTION OF DESTITUTION

Demy 8vo (1911). Price 6s. net.

In this volume the authors propound a constructive policy, worked out in considerable detail, by the adoption of which they believe that the nation could, within a very few years, progressively get rid of the great bulk of the involuntary destitution in which so large a proportion of our population is now plunged. They analyse the several causes of this destitution, and show how these can severally be arrested in their operation. The extensive ravages of preventable sickness are shown to be productive, directly and indirectly, of probably half the whole mass of destitution; and the authors give us the outlines of a national campaign against sickness. The evil effects of child neglect, from infancy to adolescence, are traced in their resulting adult destitution; and the authors describe the methods of securing, from one end of the kingdom to the other, what may be called a "National Minimum" of child nurture. The dependence of destitution on feeble-mindedness and mental deficiency leads to an examination of the bearing, upon the problem, of the doctrines of Eugenics. The effects of "Sweating" and Unemployment in producing destitution are specially dealt with; and a full exposition is given of the striking plan for actually preventing the great bulk of unemployment, and for maintaining under training those whose unemployment cannot be prevented, with which the authors' names are associated. The experiments and proposals in Insurance, whether voluntary or compulsory, against sickness or against unemployment, receive elaborate analysis and criticism; and the experience both of the Friendly Societies and of the German Government is invoked to indicate in what way Insurance may safely be made use of as part of the provision for Old Age, Invalidity, Industrial Accidents, Sickness, and Involuntary Unemployment. The proper sphere of voluntary agencies in connection with the action of the public authorities, and as a part of the national campaign against destitution, is described at length. The grave social evil of the "overlapping" and duplication of relief at present resulting from the multiplicity of unco-ordinated authorities and agencies is described at some length; and proposals are made for preventing it by a Common Register. Finally, an elaborate chapter is devoted to "the Moral Factor," and a full examination is made of the direct and indirect effects on personal character and on family life, both of the present system of dealing with those who are in need, and of the proposed campaign of prevention. "The universal maintenance of a definite standard of civilised life is the joint obligation of an indissoluble partnership between the individual and the community."

In order to keep the page free from footnotes and references these are relegated to an appendix following each chapter.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER
		Preface
I.		Destitution as a Disease of Society.
II.		How to Prevent the Destitution that arises from Sickness.
III.		Destitution and Eugenics.
IV.		How to prevent the Destitution arising from Child Neglect.
V.		Sweating and Unemployment as Causes of Destitution.
VI.		How to prevent Unemployment and Under-employment.
VII.		Insurance.
VIII.		The Enlarged Sphere of Voluntary Agencies in a Preventive Campaign against Destitution.
IX.		The Need for a Common Register and a Registrar of Public Assistance.
X.		The Moral Factor.
		index

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WORKS BY SIDNEY AND BEATRICE WEBB