(A Letter to The Times, March, 1914.)
I am moved to speak out what, I am sure, many are feeling. We are a so-called civilized country; we have a so-called Christian religion; we profess humanity. We have an elected Parliament, to each member of which we pay £400 a year; so that we have at least some right to say: “Please do our business, and that quickly!”
And yet we sit and suffer such barbarities and mean cruelties to go on amongst us as must dry the heart of God. I cite at random a few only of the abhorrent things done daily, daily left undone—done and left undone, without a shadow of a doubt, against the conscience and general will of the community: —
(1) Sweating of women workers.
(2) Insufficient feeding of children.
(3) Employment of boys on work that to all intents ruins their chances in after-life.
(4) Foul housing of those who have as much right as you and I to the first decencies of life.
(5) Consignment of paupers (that is, those without money or friends) to lunatic asylums on the certificate of one doctor—the certificate of two doctors being essential in the case of a person who has money or friends.
(6) Export of horses worn out in work. Export that, for a few pieces of blood-money, delivers up old and faithful servants to wretchedness.
(7) Mutilation of horses by docking, so that they suffer, offend the eye, and are defenceless against the attacks of flies.