or provide for them light and nominal work by, as Mr Charles Booth says, "a kindly social usage." On the other hand, when a large amount of outdoor relief is given, they often, as a matter of course, send them off for the usual parish half-a-crown. Though there may be difficulties in some districts, I cannot believe but that in many it would be possible to carry out the principles of the Circular much more generally than is now the case.
Finally, we have the question of the effect that the enormous increase in the burden of public relief is likely to have upon the working classes themselves. Mr Morley has told us that "the burden of taxation, however disguised, falls at last most heavily upon the shoulders of the industrial classes." We have heard lately of the removal of Messrs Yarrow's works from London owing to the incidence of the rates; whether that was the real cause or not it is unnecessary to ask, but it is sufficiently obvious that industry will tend to leave districts where it is heavily burdened, and we may ask whether the large amount of unemployment prevailing, especially in those districts where the burden of taxation is heaviest, is not due to some extent to this cause. Then, again, there is the increase in the cost of living, and especially of house-room, which is the direct result of heavy taxation. It has of late been denied that this falls upon the occupier. It may at once be granted that in the long run, when the demand for houses declines, it falls upon the landlord, but it is equally undeniable that the landlord will shift the burden on to the occupier as long as he is able to do so. There have already been many cases in which the increased rates have been added to the rents. Speaking generally, heavy taxation cannot fail to hamper the industry by which the working classes are supported, and to increase the cost of living.
I will now try to summarise and make clear the points that I wish to bring before the Conference. The first of them is that unrestricted State relief has had a trial of
