H. Quelcli (Social Democratic Party) was of opinion that 
everybody in the gathering would agree with almost every 
thing that had been said by Mr. Lansbury in condemnation 
of the present Poor Law administration. The real question 
to consider was what steps were to be taken to remedy the 
existing state of affairs. The proposals, so far as they went, 
proposed the abolition of destitution, but you did not abolish 
destitution by curing disease. There was no reason why you 
should not cure disease, which was of course a very good thing 
to do, but you must not suppose that by curing' disease you 
would cure distress or abolish destitution. The cause of 
* destitution was poverty, and the cause of poverty was the 
robbery of the poor, and therefore you could not abolish 
destitution until you stopped the robbery of the poor. Another 
point was that they must remember that out of all their pro 
posals the portions that would be adopted by the Government 
would not be the best but the worse. 
A. It. Turner (Scottish Trades Union Congress Parlia 
mentary Committee) gave some details of the work of the 
Glasgow Health Council. One point he thought was being 
overlooked was that if you gave five guineas a week outdoor 
relief in some cases it would effect no improvement. Relief 
was often given without the necessary knowledge of what was 
required. 
Dr. M. D. Eder (Committee for Promoting the Physical 
Welfare of Children) said they had to consider very carefully 
whether the proposals that were now being made would be 
any improvement on the old methods. He saw no reason at 
all for assuming that the different bodies it was proposed to 
create were going to be any better than Hoards of Guardians. 
When it was seen how Liberal and Tory members of Par 
liament tumbled over one another in their endorsement of the 
Minority Report Bill he asked the Conference to consider very 
seriously whether this measure was worthy of support. 
J. W. Taylor (Anchor Boot and Shoe Productive Society, 
Leicester) said that all of what Mr. Lansbury had told the 
Conference was true to the letter throughout nearly all 
England and Wales to-day. In Leicester great improvement 
had been effected since the advent of 15 Labour men and 
women to the Board of Guardians. Whatever authorities 
there were, the most important thing of all was to insure that 
labour was adequately represented upon them. 
W. R. Jackson (Edmonton Co-operative Society) agreed 
with the proposal to remove the care of destitute sick persons 
from Boards of Guardians to Public Health Authorities, but 
it was no good Boards of Guardians being abolished unless 
they realised that it was necessary, whatever authorities were 
set up, that these authorities should be adequately manned by 
representatives from the working class. 
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