142  THE  PROBLEM  OF  THE  UNEMPLOYED

other  cropping,  for  which  manual  labour  is  largely  available. ­
  Auxiliary  industries  which  require  small  capital  and
can  be  carried  on  by  intermittent  labour  are  to  be
attached  as  a  means  of  utilising  that  part  of  the  working
time  which  cannot  be  occupied  upon  the  land.  To  such
a  colony  the  Poor  Law  Authorities  should  send  men  of
the  “  unemployed  ”  class  who  seek  relief  through  employment ­
  only  and  who  have  not  hitherto  been  in  receipt  of
Poor  Law  relief.  While  the  colony  is  to  be  managed
by  the  County  Council,  the  deficit,  if  any,  is  to  be  borne
by  the  Poor  Law  Authorities.
“  The  advantages  of  this  system  of  dealing  with  the
well-conducted  members  of  the  unemployed  working  classes
would  be  threefold.  In  the  first  place  the  money  earned
would  come  largely  out  of  the  land  which  the  labour  of
the  men  had  rendered  more  productive,  thus  adding  to
the  material  wealth  without  detracting  from  the  productive
labour  of  any  other  individual  in  the  nation.  Secondly,
the  man  and  his  family  would  be  wholly  or  almost
entirely  sustained  by  the  work  of  his  own  hand.  Thirdly,
no  taint  of  pauperism  could  attach  to  this  system  and  no
disfranchisement  be  connected  therewith.”  *
For  a  comprehensive  scheme  upon  these  lines  there  is
much  to  be  said:  the  difficulties  of  administration  by  the
County  Council  and  of  the  relations  which  would  subsist
between  the  Local  Government  Board,  the  County  Council,
and  the  Poor  Law  Authorities,  might  quite  conceivably
be  settled  on  a  satisfactory  basis  of  adjustment.  But  the
financial  results  which  Mr.  Mather  claims  to  be  reasonably
expected  cannot  for  one  moment  be  admitted.  He  pro-*
  “Draft  Scheme  to  provide  Work  for  the  Unemployed  Working
Classes,”  p.  5.