IMPROVEMENT OF POOR LAWS.

Evening Star, Issue 9125, 4 May 1893, Page 4

IMPROVEMENT OF POOR LAWS.

A HINT FROM AUSTRIA. Mr J. R. Crawford, in an article entitled 'Our Poor Law on First Principles,’ in the ‘ Newbury House Magazine,’ presses strongly for the adoption of a system similar to that of the Austrian poor law. Mr Crawford gives the following account of the Austrian system : The principle—anil we are ehielly concerned with principles —upon which the Viennese act in their dealing with the poor is the very opposite to that which wo in England have adopted. As the starting point, a very decided dill’erenoe is made between the treatment of men reduced to want through no fault of their own and that of men whoso poverty is the direct outcome of their own lazy or extravagant habits. “ The former arc fellow-citizens to lie. helped, the latter almost criminals to be punished.” Suppose a man be suddenly reduced to destitution, lie is provided with board and lodging in the casual ward—a very different place this to that which bears the same name amongst us. Then he is informed where best lie can procure work, and if (for lie is carefully watched) lie shows himself in earnest in seeking employment, ids board and lodging are continued until he finds it. No disgrace or reflection whatever is attached to a visit to the casual ward, or even to the workhouse. It is an unfortunate and inconvenient little episode, and that is all. And then the workhouse itself is altogether free from that touch of gaol-like monotony which renders life in an English union so depressing. This is the way the industrious are treated. The hopelessly lazy ami utterly corrupt are sent to the Zirauyurbdt //«(«, a very different place, with very different discipline. The chief contrast between Austrian and English systems is in the treatment of old men and women and of children. Where we deal to all of these alike a somewhat similar law, in Austria the nicest discrimination is exercised. But, further, admirable as are the arrangements made for the temporary destitute, as also for the young, the sick, and the infirm, it is, above all, by the system it pursues with regard to the aged poor that Austria has gained its reputation for wise humanitarianism. After seventy, or if feeble at an earlier age, the Austrian poor are freed from work, and can claim, as a right, admittance into the municipal almshouses, where they enjoy the fullest liberty, together with the comforts of a home. This, then (in its barest outline), is the Austrian system, and it is quoted to show how a poor law can 'oe based on the truest principles; how, in fact, whilst it relieves distress it avoids pauperising the people; and whilst it cultivates individual and national virtues, it tends to cheek their corresponding vices. Surely what the efforts of Austrian legislators have so successfully accomplished need prove no insurmountable task for the combined wisdom of our own law-makers to undertake.

OLD ACIE PENSIONS.

In ‘ Macmillan ’ another writer describes the Austrian Poor Law with more detail under the title of ‘ A Humane Poor Law,’ and certainly it seems to demand attention, not merely because of the great care which it takes to prevent the children being pauperised, but because of the able and successful efforts made to provide for the temporarily destitute and aged poor. In dealing with the aged poor the Emperor Joseph 11. settled the question of old age pensions in a very decided fashion. He decided that at sixty a man shopld have the right to

claim from his native town or commune a pension equal to one-third of the average daily wage he had received during his working years. This pension was to be regarded in exactly the same light as a soldiers pension, not as charity, but as the reward for past services. This is still the guiding principle of the Austrian Poor Law, for although its legislators have often disagreed on the amount of the pension all recognised the right of the old and feeble to be supported by the young and vigorous. AN AUSTRIAN CASUAL WARD. The Austrian casual ward seems to be a great improvement upon.that in England. Anyone between eighteen and sixty who ia.infl, state of destitution pan claim admittance to an myl— a place corresponding to our casual ward, though managed on a very different principle. These asyh are, in reality, workmen’s boarding-houses, where a bath, supper, bed, and breakfast are supplied free of charge. They are the greatest boon to industrious working men whom illness or some sudden misfortune has reduced to want, for they afford them a shelter at night after a day spent in a fruitless search for work. THE CHILDREN OF THE DESTITUTE. The chief superiority, however, of the Austrian system is in the way in which the children are dealt with. No child is there, in any circumstance, sent to a workhouse. If it have neither parents, nor other relative who can provide for it, it ia'adopted by the town, and placed under the care of a iraiseiimutter if it be a girl, or of a waixeiirater if a boy. Considerable trouble is taken to prevent any stigma being attached to these children on account of their destitute condition. They are neither called paupers nor are they regarded in the light of paupers. Many of them attend the national schools (Volkssehule), where they mix with their companions upon terms of the most perfect equality. In these schools they are supplied with books free of charge ; special scholarships are offered for their competition, and any child who shows signs of unusual talent is given the opportunity of cultivating it. The University even is in full sympathy with public opinion upon this point, .and in its Statute Book there stands a decree admitting the sons of pauper parents to all lectures and examinations without the payment of any fees. Scholarships and lectures are, however, only for the very special eases, for the city has no intention of training students. What it aims at, rather, is making its prote;/r.i sober, industrious working men and women. The boys are carefully taught some handicraft, while the girls are prepared for domestic service, laundry work, or any suitable calling for winch they may manifest an aptitude.