NO MORE POVERTY.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 50, 22 November 1907, Page 3

NO MORE POVERTY.

There is a league is Elberfold, a town in Germany, which pledged itself to wipe out absolute poverty. It has accomplished what it set out to do. It resolved there should bo no more starvation and no more rags. Elborfold is a manufacturing town, where great riches and. groat poverty existed side by side. So wonderful was tho success of the league that Leipsic followed tho example of Elberfeld, and established one like it. Agents have now been sent from Liverpool to investigate the workings of tho league, with a view to having such societies all over England.

One or two philanthropic women are considering the practicability of starting a league in Sydney. The main requisite is persons of sufficient public spirit to undertake tho work. All the work is voluntary. The plan adopted is the one suggested in the Bible by Jcthro to " Moses —to divido the people into companies, of fifty, twenty, and ton, with a captain over each. In Elberfeld 500 captains are appointed. They pick out ten poor families, and mako themselves responsible for their welfare. They do not give their attention to the absolutely destitute. If a man is not receiving a living wago they get him better employment. The funds are received by taxation. The captains are taken from all classes of society. Doctors, lawyers, bakers, and men of leisure meet on a common platform, and work for the public good. They pledge themselves to their gratuitous labours for three years. Most of them become so attached to the work that they prefer not to give it up at the end of that period." The difficulty, that will arise in trying to adopt the Elberfeld plan in England or Australia is on account of ono rule—that if a man not earning enough to support himself or family will not do work that is provided for him, he can be removed from his family and placed in an industrial colony. Thore he has to work. It is owing to being able to force habits of industry on the citizens that poverty has .been stamped out in the German towns, but it is totally opposed to English ideas, as it interferes with tho liberty of the subject.