So, then, we see that the new Socialism, so far as it has gone at present, is carrying us back in the direction of the old Poor Law, which is the one great Socialist measure which has been enacted in this country. We all know its history, and that of the ruin to which it led. Then came the new Poor Law, which laid it down that the position of the pauper should be less eligible than that of the independent labourer. Now once more we are making it more eligible to be a pauper, but the recipient of State relief is no longer to be called by that name. Thoughtful people who have studied the question, both in the past and the present, are, not unnaturally, alarmed at the outlook. It is true that we call things by grander names nowadays than they used to a hundred years ago. The word pauperism offends our ears, and much of what is really the purest materialism masquerades under the name of "idealism." Some here may think that I have gone outside the scope of a Poor Law Conference, but these are really the vital issues which are before the country, and I do not think that Guardians can afford to ignore them because it pleases people to make believe that they are not Poor Law questions. The great need of the moment is to clear the issues, and to call things by their right names.
Let me, then, recapitulate shortly the main points that I wish to place before you. First of all, public opinion upon these questions is divided roughly into three heads. We have the section of "Individualist" opinion, as it is called, which holds that the solution of the social problem is to be found in the strengthening of the individual, and that this must be an essential condition of true social reform, and that everything else leads to social disorganisation. At the other extreme we have the academic Socialist opinion; this again
