background. Meanwhile Socialist managers of schools are doing their utmost to magnify the numbers of the children reported to be "underfed," and are straining every nerve to bring about a breakdown of the voluntary system. But of course much wider issues are involved; the question of the feeding of the children is really a minor one. The question of clothing, proper housing, and medical attendance is of more than equal importance. Meanwhile we have taken the first step upon an inclined plane leading towards the acceptance of the full Socialist demand for the State maintenance of children.
So much for these developments of the "new Socialism " which have already been or are about to be realised. We have now to consider the relation of the old Poor Law to the new Socialism. I am aware, of course, that the old Poor Law has been frequently discussed at these Conferences, and that there is always some impatience when it is mentioned. When I referred to it at a recent Conference there was a general cry, "Oh, we have heard all that before," and one of my critics facetiously said, "As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be," etc. Well, I submit that criticism of that kind is not real criticism at all. These critics have one thing in common, namely, that though they denounce your arguments as obsolete they never attempt to answer them. The only course, then, is to repeat them until we either get an answer or become convinced that there is no answer. The plain fact is that the old Poor Law and the new Socialism are for all practical purposes one and the same.
The first purpose of the old Poor Law was that of setting the able-bodied to work, and the new Socialism has just accepted a similar responsibility. For some 230 years the old Poor Law was engaged
