IjÕ  THE  PROBLEM  OF  THE  UNEMPLOYED

§  8.  Practical  Difficulties  of  “Social  Drainage.''''
Such  a  proposal  differs  radically  from  the  penal  or
pauper  colonies  in  two  ways,  first  because  it  assumes  the
voluntary  presence  of  the  members  of  a  colony  and
therefore  dispenses  with  the  severe  disciplinary  methods
needed  where  the  draft  to  the  colony  is  compulsory,
secondly  because  it  preserves  the  family  as  the  social
unit  and  endeavours  to  secure  the  continuance  of  the
motives  which  operate  in  a  free  community  so  far  as  is
consistent  with  the  conditions  of  the  experiment.
The  difficulties  which  the  large  effective  application  of
such  a  scheme  would  involve  are  very  great,  perhaps  insuperable ­
  in  such  a  country  as  England.  The  chief  of
these  difficulties  would  be:
1.  The  unwillingness  of  city  families  of  the  “  very
poor”  to  leave  the  customary  slum  environment  and  to
undertake  a  more  orderly  life  necessitating  any  degree  of
regularity  of  work.
2.  The  inability  of  the  members  of  such  a  community
to  submit  to  the  most  humane  and  thoughtful  discipline
required  to  keep  the  “  colonies  ”  from  contact  with  the
outside  world.  The  population  of  such  volunteer  colonies
would  be  constantly  shifting.
3.  The  expense  to  the  public  purse  which  would  of
course  be  much  greater  where  whole  families  are  maintained ­
  than  upon  colonics  for  single  men,  and  which
would  be  enhanced  by  the  “shifting”  character  of  the
population  and  the  consequent  ineffectiveness  of  the
labour  that  was  done.
The  voluntary  basis  of  such  colonies  would  in  effect  be
a  far  more  fatal  obstacle  than  the  public  expense  when