Chapter LXV: Section 30: , Title 3, of the CONSTITUTION OF NORWAY (7)

As for expenditure, it was some £8,000,000 in the year
1871-1872, and £14,000,000 in the year 1905-1906. Summing up
the general situation with regard to this expenditure, the
Commission says: "We find that, whilst the expenditure per
inhabitant has increased from 7s. ¼d. to 8s. 2£d. since
1871-1872, and is only 7£d. less than it was in 1834, the
expenditure per pauper has increased from £7 12s. 1d. to £15
12s. 6d. in the same period. The country is maintaining a
multitude of paupers not far short of the numbers maintained
in 1871-1902, and is spending more than double the amount upon
each individual. The increased expenditure has done little
towards diminishing the extent of pauperism. Such advance as
the nation has made has been accomplished at an enormous cost,
and absorbs an annual amount which is now equivalent to nearly
one-half of the present expenditure upon the Army. It may be
urged that the rate of pauperism has diminished from 31.2 per
1,000 in 1871-1879 to 22.2 per 1,000 in 1896-1905, and this is
certainly a matter for congratulation, but it has been the
result of the large increase in the population rather than of
any considerable reduction in the number of paupers."

{512}

This discouraging result has occurred notwithstanding the fact
that the nation is spending £20,000,000 more in education than
in 1831, and £13,000,000 more in sanitation and the prevention
of disease than in 1841; notwithstanding the fact "that money
wages in the nineties were 10 per cent. above those of the
eighties, and 30 per cent, above those of the sixties," and
notwithstanding the fact that "there has been a considerable
flow of the working classes from the lower paid occupations to
the higher paid industries."

The recommendations of the Commission include a scheme for a
permanent system of public assistance for the able-bodied,
which contemplates the establishment in every district of four
coöperating organizations:

(a) An organization for insurance against unemployment, to
develop and secure (with contributions from public funds) the
greatest possible benefits to the workmen from coöperative
insurance against unemployment;

(b) a labor exchange established and maintained by the Board
of Trade to provide efficient machinery for putting those
requiring work and those requiring workers into prompt
communication;

(c) a voluntary aid committee to give advice and aid out of
voluntary funds especially to the better class of workmen
reduced to want through unemployment;

(d) a public assistance authority representing the county or
county borough and acting locally through a public assistance
committee to assist necessitous workmen under specified
conditions at the public expense. The report adds that it must
be a fundamental principle of the system of public assistance
that the responsibility for the due and effective assistance
of all necessitous persons at the public expense shall be in
the hands of one, and only one, authority in each county and
county borough—viz., the public assistance authority.

POVERTY AND UNEMPLOYMENT:
Small Holdings Act of Great Britain.

See (in this Volume)
ENGLAND: A. D. 1907-1908.

POVERTY AND UNEMPLOYMENT:
Starvation Poverty in India.

See (in this Volume)
INDIA: A. D. 1905-1908.

POVERTY AND UNEMPLOYMENT:
Underfed School Children:
Provision for Meals to them.
How it is done in Various Cities.

In March, 1905, the British Foreign Office undertook, at the
request of the Board of Education, to obtain information
regarding the methods adopted in the great Continental and
American cities for dealing with ill-fed school children. The
facts collected were tabulated and published subsequently in a
Parliamentary Paper (Cd. 2926-1906) from which the following
statements are derived:

Generally, in the larger cities of Western Europe, some system
was found to be in operation for feeding ill-fed children in
the schools. Commonly this is conducted unofficially, by
private charitable organizations, but sometimes in indirect
connection with the municipality, and frequently with help
from municipal funds. In Berlin, however, the municipality
takes on itself the responsibility of not only feeding but
clothing properly the necessitous children attending its
elementary schools. This made one of the functions of a
municipal department, the Städtisrhe Schuldeputation, which is
assisted by a "Society for Feeding Poor Children" in the
supplying of meals at the elementary school buildings of the
city. The committee which conducts the work of that auxiliary
society is appointed by the Government. As a rule, breakfasts
only are given in Berlin, and only during the winter months;
but four meals are supplied to such children as are thought by
the head-masters of the schools to require them. No steps are
taken to collect from parents any part of the cost of meals
furnished in the schools.

In Paris the organization which installs and conducts cantines
scolaires in schools belonging to the city, called the
_Caisse des Écoles,_ is privately constituted, but
presided over by the mayor. This connects it with the
municipality, and in 1905 it had been receiving a municipal
subvention of 1,000,000 francs yearly for three years, but
this was not to be depended on as a permanent grant. It was
necessary for the _Caisse des Écoles_ to seek voluntary
contributions. The City, however, undertakes to supply the
necessary accommodations and all utensils for the school
canteens, which are in operation throughout the year, every
day of the week, but generally for a noon meal only; though
soup is distributed in some arrondissements at the opening and
closing of school. All children are entitled to feed at the
canteen, but the meals are supplied gratis only to the
children of poor families. The others pay a small sum which
does not exceed 15 centimes (about 2 cents). In 1904 the total
cost of meals furnished at the school canteens was 1,461,305
francs, of which 359,093 francs was paid by parents, who buy
tickets for the purpose. All meals are supplied on the
presentation of tickets, and nothing shows whether the tickets
have been bought or received as gifts.

In Vienna meals for poor school children are provided by a
central Association, indirectly connected with the
municipality, the Burgomaster being its president, and
financial assistance being given to it from both imperial and
municipal funds. Dinners only are provided, on every week day
from November 16 to March 31, partly in the school buildings,
partly in certain restaurants and kitchens. As in Paris,
parents can buy tickets for these meals, but it is said to be
rarely done. The total cost is about $23,000 per year. Once a
year, in the autumn, the Association makes an appeal for
funds, and all classes of people respond, the Emperor giving
4,000 crowns and the Town Council voting 8,000.

Information on the subject was obtained by the British Foreign
Office from thirty-eight cities, in all, of Austria, Belgium,
Denmark, France, Germany, Holland, Italy, Norway, Sweden,
Spain, Switzerland, and the United States. Some systematic
provision, more or less adequate, for securing proper food to
the children of the schools by private or public organization,
was reported from more than thirty. The reports from New York,
Philadelphia, and Chicago, in the United States, showed less
undertakings in this direction than in any other cities of
considerable size.

{513}

POVERTY AND UNEMPLOYMENT: In England:
Provision of Meals Act.

An order from the English Local Government Board on the
subject of providing food for underfed school children was
published on the 29th of April, 1905. It applied only to
children under sixteen who were neither blind, deaf or dumb,
and who were living with a father not in receipt of relief.
Application in each case must be made by school managers, or
by a teacher empowered by the managers, or by an officer
empowered by the education authorities. The relief might be
granted in the ordinary way or as a loan, the father being
allowed the opportunity of making the needful provision
himself. If he failed to do so, the poor-law guardians were
empowered to make it and to recover the cost, as if it were a
loan. In no case could the relief be given in money, or
continued on a single application for more than a month. Where
possible, arrangements should be made with local charitable
organizations for the issue of tickets for meals.

The above mentioned tentative order was followed, in the next
year, by the passage of an Act which authorizes any "local
education authority" in England and Wales to "take such steps
as they think fit for the provision of meals for children" at
any public elementary school, and for that purpose to
"associate with themselves any committee on which the
authority are represented, who will undertake to provide food
for those children." Such education authority may aid the
committee by furnishing necessary land, buildings, furniture
and apparatus, and necessary officers and servants; but, "save
as hereinafter provided, the authority shall not incur any
expense in respect of the purchase of food to be supplied at
such meals."

POVERTY AND UNEMPLOYMENT: Unemployment: Belgium: A. D. 1900-1904.
Municipal Organizations of Insurance against Unemployment.
The Ghent System.

The following is abridged from a report on "Agencies and
Methods for Dealing with the Unemployed in certain Foreign
Countries," made to the British Board of Trade, in 1904, by
Mr. David F. Schloss:

During the last few years the Public Authorities of certain
Belgian towns and Provinces have organised a system, to which
the name of Insurance against Unemployment is given, and under
which the efforts of workmen to secure for themselves the
means of tiding over periods of unemployment are assisted by
the grant of subsidies provided out of public moneys, which
form a supplement to the sums derived from the contributions
of these work-people. This system is now in force at Ghent,
Brussels, Antwerp, Bruges, Liege, Malines, and Louvain, and in
the Provinces of Liege and Antwerp. In details it has been
varied somewhat in different places, but the general scheme is
the same, and it will be sufficient to give some account of it
as organized in Ghent, where it was first worked out.

The Unemployed Fund at Ghent was initiated as the result of
the recommendations made by a Special Commission on the
question of unemployment, which on April 10, 1900, presented a
Report, advising the creation of a Municipal Unemployed Fund
under the conditions specified in a set of rules, which they
submitted for consideration. The annual subvention to the Fund
by the City was fixed, for three years, at $4000. Expenses of
the administration of the Fund to be borne by the City.
Administration of the Fund to be entrusted to a committee of
ten citizens named by the municipal authority, but one half of
whom must be members of those organizations of workmen which
affiliate themselves with the Fund. The Fund may be augmented
by subscriptions, donations, moneys collected by fêtes, etc.
"The intervention of the Special Fund shall consist either

(_a_.) in providing a supplement to sums paid to their
members as unemployed benefit by workmen’s organisations, or

(_b_.) in supplementing any provision made by individual
thrift for the specific case of unemployment. The Special Fund
will supplement the unemployed benefits paid by workmen's
organisations by the payment of a subsidy, which may be equal
to, but shall not be greater than, the amount of such
benefits."

"Strikes and lock-outs, or the results attendant upon such
disputes, sickness and physical incapacity for labour shall in
no case give rise to the payment of an indemnity out of the
monies of the Unemployed Fund."

"All workmen’s organisations desiring that their members shall
participate in the subsidies provided by the Fund will be
required to send in each month a return showing the number and
amount of all payments on account of benefits made by them,
and to furnish every year their balance-sheet, also their
rules and regulations."

"Workmen not being members of any Trade Union which enjoys
participation in the Fund, are at liberty to join a Thrift
Fund specifically constituted to meet the case of
unemployment." By this rule, it will be seen, the scheme
provides, under distinct branches, for Trade Unionists and
non-Unionists.

POVERTY AND UNEMPLOYMENT: England: A. D. 1905-1909.
Unemployed Workmen Act, and its operation.

In the summer of 1905 a Bill brought into Parliament by the
President of the Local Government Board, to provide for an
organization to assist unemployed workmen, was carried through
both houses with little opposition. It sought to bring about a
careful discrimination between workmen who were accustomed to
regular employment in ordinary circumstances, but temporarily
unemployed through circumstances beyond their control, and the
needy, on the other hand, who were proper objects of ordinary
Poor Law relief. Its provisions were for the former entirely,
and their purpose was to establish both local and central
bodies, which should organize and maintain labor exchanges and
employment bureaus, assist migration and emigration, and
acquire, equip, and maintain farm colonies; the latter to
operate continuously, for the training of persons to
agricultural pursuits, preparing them for emigration or for
permanent transfer from city to country life. The local bodies
contemplated were not empowered to provide work at public
expense. That power was entrusted discretionally to the
central bodies, which could draw on the rates for the purpose
to a limited extent. Voluntary contributions were to be looked
to in part for the necessary funds. The measure was decidedly
conservative and tentative.

A report on the applications for relief and the relief given
in England and Wales under this Act during the year ending
March 81, 1909, compared with the previous year, shows as
follows: The total number of applications received was
196,757, of which 49,239 were made to 29 committees in London,
and 147,518 to 95 committees in other parts of the country.

{514}

The applicants belonging to the general or casual labour class
(64,773) formed as in previous years by far the largest
section—47.4 per cent.—of the whole number. The building trade
ranked second with 23,047, or 16.9 per cent. of the total. The
engineering, shipbuilding, and metal trades accounted for
17,028, or 12.5 per cent., as compared with only 8.6 per cent,
in the previous year.

A Bill known as the "Right to Work" Bill came before the House
of Commons in April, 1909, with the endorsement of the trade
unions and the Labor Party. It was opposed by John Burns, the
former labor leader, but now speaking as President of the
Local Government Board and member of the Cabinet, who said:
"For three and a half years he had had intimate experience of
relief works, and he could not exaggerate the degradation of
the workmen, the demoralization of the honest labourer, the
extent to which money had been wasted and character impaired
by the relief works which he had had in the name of Parliament
to administer. Any member had only to take up the report of
any one of the distress committees to see that what the
minority report said had happened would increasingly happen so
long as these means of meeting unemployment were resorted to.
The amount of work would be disproportionate to the wages
paid, the wrong men would get the right work, and the best men
would be excluded, because modesty was a characteristic of
good workmanship and craftsmanship, and the worst men were
always in the front line when relief works were set on foot."

POVERTY AND UNEMPLOYMENT: A. D. 1909.
Report of a Royal Commission.

The Royal Commission on the working of the English Poor Laws,
whose general report is referred to above, issued, in
September, 1909, a supplementary report on Unemployment. The
main ultimate conclusions of the Commission are the following:

"When we consider the remedies proposed for unemployment we
are convinced that they do not lie on the lines proposed by
the Unemployed Workmen’s Act, which has done nothing but
systematize Relief Works. These, whether national or
municipal, appear to us merely to intensify the evil as far as
the ordinary workmen are concerned. The great thing necessary,
we believe, is to obtain a general agreement as to the need of
regularizing labour. In this the Government and municipalities
ought to set a good example.

"It might be better, if any rate or State funds are to be
spent on the unemployed, that such aid should take the form of
supplementing trade union funds and give thereby a bonus on
thrift. Any such supplementation of trade union funds would
involve a Local Government Board audit, the control of the
expenses of management, and a separation of the war and
benefit funds. It is very doubtful whether it would be wise
for trade unions to accept State aid if it involved loss of
independence and an interference with their efforts to improve
wages. There is little doubt, however, that grants of this
kind would enormously increase their membership.

"In order to prevent the spread of the unemployed as a class
it is probable that drastic measures ought to be taken, such
as those recommended to check vagrancy. For the idle and
worthless who now form the noisy section of the unemployed it
might be necessary to establish semi-penal colonies. …

"The solution lies in a better organization of the workers and
more consideration from the employers. Better organization of
industry might at once relieve the workers and render trade
crises less acute by steadying the supply of labour.

"Differentiation of the unemployable from the willing workers
and better classification of paupers would enable us to
understand the extent of the problem and how far
reorganization of labour must be carried. Raising the
condition of the whole working class by better housing and
better wages will help to keep decent but unskilled workmen
from sinking.

"Every effort must be made to cut off the supply of unskilled
and unintelligent labour by training boys to enter regular and
permanent work."

POVERTY AND UNEMPLOYMENT: ENGLAND: A. D. 1909.
The Labor Exchanges Act.

One of the most important of the recent enactments of the
British Parliament is the Labor Exchanges Act, which
encountered no serious opposition in either House. On
introducing the Bill in the House of Commons, May 19, 1909,
and in subsequent debate, Mr. Winston Churchill, President of
the Board of Trade, gave explanations of which the following
is a summary: It would divide the country into ten districts,
which would have among them between 30 and 40 first-class
labour exchanges, 45 second-class, and about 150 third-class
for the smaller centres. The central control would be
exercised by the Board of Trade, but it is intended that,
following the German example, there shall be in each principal
centre a local advisory committee composed of representatives
of workmen and of employers in equal numbers, with a permanent
official as chairman. It is hoped that, when permanent
buildings are secured, and the whole scheme is in working
order, the labour exchanges will become centres of industrial
life, in which employers and employed will learn to know one
another better, and to discuss in common questions now too
much regarded from different standpoints. These exchanges
cannot make work, they can only distribute what work is to be
had. They can hardly be expected to make head against the
large fluctuations of trade, which must be met by some
insurance scheme, which Mr. Churchill announced as being under
contemplation. But there are many irregularities of
distribution which labour exchanges can correct, and many
seasonal fluctuations producing much distress which they can
deal with to the great advantage alike of employers and
employed.

It was not contemplated that fees should be charged to men
applying to the labour bureaux, which were to be national
institutions. They would strive to find men for jobs and jobs
for men, and attention would be paid to the interests of the
men who had been waiting longest for work. For the present
domestic servants would not be brought within the operation of
the Bill. No compulsion would be exercised to induce
applicants to give evidence as to character, but of course a
man would have a greater chance of obtaining work if he could
give references and testimonials. In a strike the exchanges
would be absolutely neutral as between capital and labour, and
it would be clearly notified to all working men that there was
a dispute and they would be left to act as they thought fit.

{515}

The Bill became law in September. A highly favorable report of
its operation was made six months later by the Consul-General
of the United States at London, who stated that "on the
opening day nearly eighty exchanges were in operation and
thousands of applications for work were received. The
applicants mainly represented the better class of labor. On
the first day of the opening in Nottingham 557 workers and 120
employing firms registered. These were followed on the second
day by 580 workers and 87 firms. One of the employers alone
applied for sixty skilled hands, and though most of the
skilled hands were placed, the registered firms were not able
to fill all their vacancies."

POVERTY AND UNEMPLOYMENT: Germany: A. D. 1909.
Experiments of Insurance.

Representatives from the municipal authorities of fifteen
German cities held a joint conference at Cologne in September,
1909, to discuss the best methods of combating unemployment.
One or two speakers advocated compulsory insurance against
unemployment; but the divergencies of opinion were so wide
that no conclusion was reached. Annual conferences on the
subject are to be held. A Press correspondent who reported the
meeting remarked that it confirms "the German official view
that the problem of insurance against unemployment is not ripe
for systematic solution. Upon the strength of the experience,
for example, of Strassburg and of Frankfurt, where the Ghent
system of subsidies is in operation, demands are frequently
made for the inauguration of an Imperial system of insurance.
Apart, however, from the fact that other problems—especially
widows and orphans insurance—have precedence, the Government
maintains that Imperial legislation is impossible because no
satisfactory scheme has been discovered."

Some account of the Ghent system, here referred to, will be
found above, under the subheading Belgium. Besides the German
cities mentioned as having introduced that measure of
insurance against unemployment, Cologne and Leipsic have been
operating an organization of similar insurance for some years.
As described in a report made in 1904 to the British Board of
Trade by Mr. David F. Schloss, on "Agencies and Methods for
Dealing with the Unemployed in certain Foreign Countries," the
organization in Cologne is as follows:

"The ‘City of Cologne Office for Insurance against
Unemployment in Winter’ was established in 1896. The object of
the Office is to provide, with the assistance of the Cologne
Labour Registry, an insurance against Unemployment during the
winter (December to March) for the benefit of male workpeople
in the Cologne district. In order to insure with the Office, a
man must be at least 18 years of age, must have lived for at
least a year in Cologne, and must not suffer from permanent
incapacity to work. He is required to pay a weekly premium,
payment of which must commence as from April 1, and must
continue for 34 weeks. The amount of the premium was
originally 3d. per week for both skilled and unskilled
workmen; in 1901 the rate of premium was fixed at 3d. for
unskilled and 4½d. for skilled men; in 1903 the rate was
raised to 3½d. per week for unskilled and 4¾d. per week for
skilled workmen. …

"In return for these payments the insured workman, if and when
out of work in the period named above, receives, for not more
than eight weeks in all, a daily amount, which is 2s. for each
of the first 20 days (nothing being paid for Sundays), and
then 1s. on each subsequent day. These payments begin on the
third weekday after the date on which the man has reported
himself as out of work. …

"No money is paid in respect of unemployment caused by illness
or infirmity, or by the man’s own fault, or by a trade
dispute."

At Leipsic the institution of insurance against unemployment
is on much the same lines, but differing in some details of
its rules. "The Leipsic Insurance Office was founded in April,
1903, with a guarantee fund of about £5000, provided by
benevolent persons, in addition to which it proposed to
receive annual subscriptions from members of the public. The
town authorities granted accommodation for the Office rent
free for three years. The system adopted was as follows: The
right to insure with this Office is confined to men of 16 but
not over 60 years of age, who have lived at Leipsic for at
least two years; the general meeting may, however, allow
residents in the suburbs of Leipsic to insure."

POVERTY AND UNEMPLOYMENT:
Employers’ Labor Exchanges.

The Collieries Union, of colliery owners, in the Rhenish
Westphalian coal district, was reported, in October, 1909, to
have "decided to institute for the benefit of its members a
system of centralized labour exchanges modelled upon the
system which has existed for many years in the Hamburg iron
industry. The principal objects in view are to secure a steady
supply of permanent labour, to equalize a possible surplus of
labour in certain districts and a corresponding deficit in
others, and to prevent the habit on the part of miners of
applying for employment at several collieries simultaneously.
On the other hand, it is hoped that miners will be spared the
frequently fruitless search for work."

----------POVERTY AND UNEMPLOYMENT: End--------

PRAIRIE OIL AND GAS COMPANY.

See (in this Volume)
COMBINATIONS, INDUSTRIAL, &C.:
UNITED STATES: A. D. 1904-1909.

PREFERENTIAL TRADE:
Discussed at the Imperial Conferences of 1902 and 1907
in London.

See (in this Volume)
BRITISH EMPIRE: A. D. 1902 and 1907.

PRESS, The:
Revived Censorship in Russia.

See (in this Volume)
RUSSIA: A. D. 1909.

PRESS CONFERENCE, The British Imperial.

See (in this Volume)
BRITISH EMPIRE: A. D. 1909 (JUNE).

PRETORIA:
Peace Negotiations.

See (in this Volume)
SOUTH AFRICA: A. D. 1901-1902.

PREVENTION OF CORRUPTION ACT.

See (in this Volume)
CRIME AND CRIMINOLOGY.

PREVENTION OF CRIMES ACT, BRITISH.

See (in this Volume)
CRIME AND CRIMINOLOGY.

PRIMARY, DIRECT.

See (in this Volume)
ELECTIVE FRANCHISE: UNITED STATES.

PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND: A. D. 1901-1902.
Census.
Reduced Representation in Parliament.

See (in this Volume)
CANADA: A. D. 1901-1902.

PRITCHETT, Henry S.:
President of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement
of Teaching.

See (in this Volume)
EDUCATION: UNITED STATES: A. D. 1905-1908.

{516}

PRIZE COURT, CONTEMPLATED INTERNATIONAL.

See (in this Volume)
WAR, THE REVOLT AGAINST: A. D. 1907
(appended to account of Second Peace Conference
at The Hague).

PROBATION SYSTEM, THE.

See (in this Volume)
CRIME AND CRIMINOLOGY: PROBATION.

PROBLEMS OF THE TIME:
Of Crime.

See (in this Volume)
CRIME AND CRIMINOLOGY.

PROBLEMS OF THE TIME:
Of the Intoxicants.

See (in this Volume)

PROBLEMS OF THE TIME:
Of Labor and Capital.

See (in this Volume)
LABOR ORGANIZATION, LABOR PROTECTION,
AND LABOR REMUNERATION.

PROBLEMS OF THE TIME:
Of Municipal Government.

See (in this Volume)
MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT.

PROBLEMS OF THE TIME:
Of Poverty and Unemployment.

See (in this Volume)
POVERTY.

PROBLEMS OF THE TIME:
Of Race.

See (in this Volume)
RACE PROBLEMS.

PROBLEMS OF THE TIME:
Of Railway Regulation.

See (in this Volume)
RAILWAYS.

PROBLEMS OF THE TIME:
Of the Trusts (so-called).

See (in this Volume)
COMBINATIONS, INDUSTRIAL AND COMMERCIAL.

PROBLEMS OF THE TIME:
Of War and Peace.

See (in this Volume)
WAR: PREPARATIONS FOR, AND REVOLT AGAINST.

PROBLEMS OF THE TIME:
Of Wealth.

See (in this Volume)
WEALTH.

PROFIT-SHARING.

See (in this Volume)
LABOR REMUNERATION.

PROGRESISTAS.

See (in this Volume)
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1907; also
PORTUGAL: A. D. 1906-1909.

PROGRESSIVES.

See (in this Volume)
SOUTH AFRICA: A. D. 1902-1904.

PROHIBITION.

See (in this Volume)
ALCOHOL PROBLEM.

PROPORTIONAL REPRESENTATION.

See (in this Volume)
ELECTIVE FRANCHISE.

PROTECTION, THE NEW.

See (in this Volume)
LABOR REMUNERATION: THE NEW PROTECTION.

PROTECTORATES, SOUTH AFRICAN.

See (in this Volume)
SOUTH AFRICA: A. D. 1909.

PRUSSIA: A. D. 1902.
Measures for Germanizing the Polish Provinces.

See (in this Volume)
GERMANY: A. D. 1902 (March-May), and 1908 (January).

PRUSSIA: A. D. 1904.
Denominational Education restored.

See (in this Volume)
EDUCATION: PRUSSIA: A. D. 1904.

PRUSSIA: A. D. 1905.
Creation of a Government Bureau of Charities.

See (in this Volume)
SOCIAL BETTERMENT: PRUSSIA.

PRUSSIA: A. D. 1906.
Defiance of Popular Demands for Suffrage Reform.

See (in this Volume)
GERMANY: A. D. 1906-1907.

PRUSSIA: A. D. 1906.
A Comedy of Election Reform.

See (in this Volume)
ELECTIVE FRANCHISE: GERMANY: A. D. 1906.

PRUSSIA: A. D. 1907.
Statistics of Population.
Birth Rate and Death Rate.

See (in this Volume)
GERMANY: A. D. 1907.

PRUSSIA: A. D. 1908.
Disappointing Statement by Prince Bülow about Suffrage Reform.
Socialist Successes.
A surprising word from the King.

In January, Prince Bülow, as Minister-President of Prussia,
made a statement about suffrage reform which deeply
disappointed all friends of that movement. It was therefore
expected, when the Diet elections approached in June, that the
Prussian people would be awakened by a violent agitation in
favor of more liberal election laws, but nothing of the kind
happened. The Socialists, indeed, made this their chief issue,
and they carried a half-dozen districts, thus securing for the
first time a foothold in the Diet; and the Radicals, too, gave
out manhood suffrage as their watchword, but pressed it so
feebly as to awaken the suspicion that their demand was not
seriously meant.

"Nevertheless, the King’s speech from the throne in October
surprised the country by announcing that a reform of the
election laws was a fundamental necessity and would be
undertaken during the present session. This announcement
affected the country-squire element like tapping on a hornet’s
nest. The Conservative party immediately gave it to be plainly
understood that it would brook no tampering with the election
laws, the stronghold of its power."

_W. C. Dreher,
The Year in Germany
(Atlantic Monthly, January, 1909)_.

PRUSSIA: A. D. 1908 (January).
More vigorous Germanizing of the Polish Provinces.

See (in this Volume)
GERMANY: A. D. 1908.

PRUSSIA: A. D. 1909-1910.
Rejection of proposed Reforms of the Elective Franchise.
The Offensive Bill of the following year.

See (in this Volume)
ELECTIVE FRANCHISE: PRUSSIA.

----------PUBLIC HEALTH: Start--------

PUBLIC HEALTH: AMERICA: A. D. 1901-1902.
Proposals of the Second International Conference of
American Republics.

See (in this Volume)
AMERICAN REPUBLICS.

PUBLIC HEALTH: Army Sanitation:
By the Japanese.

See (in this Volume)
JAPAN: A. D. 1904-1905—at the end.

PUBLIC HEALTH: BUBONIC PLAGUE:
In India.

The bubonic plague, which began to terrorize the eastern
world, especially India, in the late years of the last century
(see PLAGUE, in Volume VI.), showed signs of abating in India
in 1900, but regained virulence in the following years, the
mortality from it in all India rising to about 560,000 in
1902, exceeding 842,000 in 1903, going beyond a million in
1904, and rising to 1,125,652 in the year from October 1,
1904, to September 30, 1905. Its worst ravages were in the
Presidency of Bombay and in the Punjab. In the Bombay
Presidency the victims of 1903 numbered 343,904; in the Punjab
they counted 210,493.

See (in this Volume)
PUBLIC HEALTH: INDIA.

PUBLIC HEALTH: BUBONIC PLAGUE:
In the Philippines: How it was stamped out.

Full accounts of the successful campaign against bubonic
plague in the Philippines, in 1900-1902, are given in the
annual reports of the Philippine Commission. From that source
the main facts were summarized in the May number of the
National Geographic Magazine, 1903, as follows:

Bubonic plague was discovered at Manila on December 26, 1899,
and slowly but steadily increased in its ravages up to
December, 1901. "The deaths in 1900 numbered 199, and in 1901
reached a total of 432. The disease was at its worst each year
during the hot, dry months of March, April, and May, nearly or
quite disappearing during September, October, November, and
December. …

{517}

"On account of the important part which house rats are known
to play in the distribution of bubonic plague, a systematic
campaign was inaugurated against these rodents in Manila.
Policemen, sanitary inspectors, and specially appointed
rat-catchers were furnished with traps and poison, and both
traps and poison were distributed to private individuals under
proper restrictions. A bounty was paid for all rats turned
over to the health authorities, and stations were established
at convenient points throughout the city where they could be
received. Each rat was tagged with the street and number of
the building or lot from which it came, was dropped into a
strong antiseptic solution, and eventually sent to the
Biological Laboratory, where it was subjected to a
bacteriological examination for plague. During the first two
weeks, 1.8 per cent. of the rats examined were found to be
infected. This proportion steadily increased, reaching the
alarming maximum of 2.3 per cent. in October. At this time
numerous rats were found dead of plague in the infected
districts, and, in view of the fact that epidemics of plague
among the rats of a city in the past have been uniformly
followed by epidemics among human beings, the gravest
apprehension was felt, the rapid spread of the disease among
the rats after the weather had become comparatively dry being
a particularly unfavorable symptom.

"It was deemed necessary to prepare to deal with a severe
epidemic, and a permanent detention camp, capable of
accommodating fifteen hundred persons, was accordingly
established on the grounds of the San Lazaro Hospital. Hoping
against hope, the board of health redoubled its efforts to
combat the disease. The force of sanitary inspectors was
greatly increased, and under the able supervision of Dr.
Meacham their work was brought to a high degree of efficiency.
Frequent house-to-house inspections were made in all parts of
the city where the disease was known to exist. The sick were
removed to the hospital if practicable; otherwise they were
cared for where found and the spread of infection guarded
against.

"Plague houses were thoroughly disinfected, and their owners
were compelled, under the direction of the assistant sanitary
engineer, to make necessary alterations. Cement ground-floors
were laid; double walls and double ceilings, affording a
refuge for rats, were removed; defects in plumbing were
remedied; whitewash was liberally used, and, in general,
nothing was left undone that could render buildings where
plague had occurred safe for human occupancy. Buildings
incapable of thorough disinfection and renovation were
destroyed. Buildings in which plague rats were taken were
treated exactly as were those where the disease attacked the
human occupants. The bacteriological examination of rats
enabled the board of health to follow the pest into its most
secret haunts and fight it there, and was the most important
factor in the winning of the great success which was
ultimately achieved.

"With very few exceptions, there was no recurrence of plague
in buildings which had been disinfected and renovated. As
center after center of infection was found and destroyed, the
percentage of diseased rats began to decrease, and in January,
1902, when, judging from the history of previous years, plague
should have again begun to spread among human beings, there
was not a single case. In February, one case occurred. In
March, there were two cases, as against 63 in March of the
preceding year, and before April the disease had completely
disappeared. This result, brought about at a time when the
epidemic would, if unchecked, have reached its height for the
year, marked the end of a fight begun by the board of health
on the day of its organization and prosecuted unremittingly
under adverse conditions for seven months, with a degree of
success which has not been equaled under similar conditions in
the history of bubonic plague.

"During 1901, plague appeared at several points in the
provinces near Manila. Agents of the board of health were
promptly dispatched to the infected municipalities, and
radical remedial measures were adopted, including, in several
instances, the burning of infected buildings, the result being
the complete disappearance of plague in the provinces as well
as in Manila."

PUBLIC HEALTH: CANCER RESEARCH:
Mr. Barnato’s Bequest.

"We are reminded to-day that the late Mr. Harry Barnato
bequeathed a sum of money amounting to a quarter of a million
sterling for the establishment of a charity in memory of his
brother, Mr. Barney Barnato, and of his nephew, Mr. Woolf
Joel, both of whom died before him. We are now officially
informed that the trustees under Mr. Harry Barnato’s will have
determined to apply the bequest to the building and endowment
of an institution for the reception of cancer patients, and to
place its management under the control of the authorities of
the Middlesex Hospital, where special wards for cancer
patients have long been in operation, and where much has been
done in devising means for the alleviation of their
sufferings."

_London Times,
August 9, 1909._

Mr. George Crocker, of California, who died in December, 1909,
bequeathed a fund amounting to about $1,500,000 to Columbia
University for the prosecution of researches into the cause,
prevention, and cure of cancer. Mr. Crocker, his wife, and his
father, Charles Crocker of California, all died of the
disease. Mr. Crocker had given $50,000 to Columbia for the
same purpose before his death. Mr. Crocker provided that,
should a cure for the disease be discovered, the money should
be devoted to other medical investigations, "with a view to
preventing and curing diseases and alleviating human
suffering." He stipulated further that no part of the fund
should be used for the erection of a building.

{518}

PUBLIC HEALTH:
The Committee of One Hundred.
Movement for a National Department or Bureau of Health.

A convincing paper read by Professor J. P. Norton, of Yale,
before the economic section of the American Association for
the Advancement of Science at its meeting in 1906, on the
economic advisability of a national regulation of public
health, led to the formation in 1907 of the Committee of One
Hundred, which has labored since that time to bring about the
creation of a Department or a Bureau of Public Health in the
Federal administration of Government. Under the presidency of
Mr. Irving Fisher, and with Mr. Edward T. Devine for its
secretary, the Committee, which includes many of the most
eminent men and women in the country, has awakened wide
interest in the proposition, enlisting a public support which
seems certain to give it success. When the subject came under
discussion in the American Association for the Advancement of
Science at its meeting of 1908, Professor William H. Welch,
the retiring President of the Association, described the
existing neglect of health as shameful, and pointed out that,
if existing hygienic knowledge were fully applied, the death
rate might be cut in two. As examples of what a Federal Health
Bureau might do he cited the work of Pasteur and Koch, whose
best work was done for the national governments of France and
Germany, though the benefits have been shared by all nations.
In America we lack even the statistics of disease except in a
limited area.

In his Message to Congress, December 6, 1909, President Taft
urged the institution of the proposed National Bureau of
Health very cogently, in these words: "For a very considerable
period a movement has been gathering strength, especially
among the members of the medical profession, in favor of a
concentration of the instruments of the national government,
which have to do with the promotion of public health. In the
nature of things, the Medical Department of the army and the
Medical Department of the navy must be kept separate. But
there seems to be no reason why all the other bureaus and
offices in the general government which have to do with the
public health or subjects akin thereto should not be united in
a bureau to be called the ‘Bureau of Public Health.’ This
would necessitate the transfer of the Marine Hospital Service
to such a bureau. I am aware that there is a wide field in
respect to the public health committed to the States in which
the Federal government cannot exercise jurisdiction, but we
have seen in the Agricultural Department the expansion into
widest usefulness of a department giving attention to
agriculture when that subject is plainly one over which the
States properly exercise direct jurisdiction. The
opportunities offered for useful research and the spread of
useful information in regard to the cultivation of the soil
and the breeding of stock and the solution of many of the
intricate problems in progressive agriculture have
demonstrated the wisdom of establishing that department.
Similar reasons, of equal force, can be given for the
establishment of a bureau of health that shall not only
exercise the police jurisdiction of the Federal government
respecting quarantine, but which shall also afford an
opportunity for investigation and research by competent
experts into questions of health affecting the whole country,
or important sections thereof, questions which, in the absence
of Federal governmental work, are not likely to be promptly
solved."

PUBLIC HEALTH:
The Hookworm Disease in the United States.

"In the Old World, hookworm disease was probably known to the
Egyptians nearly three thousand five hundred years ago, but
its cause was not understood until about the middle of the
nineteenth century, when it was shown to be due to an
intestinal parasite, _Agchylostoma duodenale._ Until 1893
no authentic cases of this disease were recognized as such in
the United States, but between 1893 and 1902 about 35 cases
were diagnosed. In 1902 it was shown that a distinct hookworm,
_Ucinaria americana,_ infests man in this country, and
this indicated very strongly that the disease must be present
although not generally recognized. It is now established that
in addition to the few cases of Old World hookworm disease
imported into the United States we have in the South an
endemic uncinariasis due to a distinct cause, _Uncinaria
americana._ This disease has been known for years in the
South and can be traced in medical writings as far back as
1808, but its nature was not understood. Some cases have been
confused with malaria, others have been attributed to
dirt-eating.

"The hookworms are about half an inch long. They live in the
small intestine, where they suck blood, produce minute
hemorrhages, and in all probability also produce a substance
which acts as a poison. They lay eggs which cannot develop to
maturity in the intestine. These ova escape with the feces and
hatch in about twenty-four hours; the young worm sheds its
skin twice and then is ready to infect man. Infection takes
place through the mouth, either by the hands soiled with
larvae or by infected food. Infection through the drinking
water may possibly occur. Finally, the larvae may enter the
body through the skin and eventually reach the small
intestine.

"Patients may be divided into light cases, in which the
symptoms are very obscure; medium cases, in which the anemia
is more or less marked, and severe cases, represented by the
dwarfed, edematous, anemic dirt-eater. Infection occurs
chiefly in rural sand districts. … Economically, uncinariasis
is very important. It keeps children from school, decreases
capacity for both physical and mental labor, and is one of the
most important factors in determining the present condition of
the poorer whites of the sand and pine districts of the South.

"The disease is carried from the farms to the cotton mills by
the mill hands, but does not spread much in the mills;
nevertheless, it causes a considerable amount of anemia among
the operatives."-

_Ch. Wardell Stiles, Ph. D.,
Report upon the Prevalence and Geographic Distribution
of Hookworm Disease
(Public Health and Marine Hospital Service of the
United States: Hygienic Laboratory, Bulletin No. 10)._

In the autumn of 1909 Mr. John D. Rockefeller placed a fund of
$1,000,000 under the control of a Commission, to be used for
the eradication of the hookworm disease in the United States.
The fund is allotted in annual instalments of $200,000 each.

PUBLIC HEALTH: India: A. D. 1907-1908.
Mortality Statistics and Birth Rate.

According to statistics given in the "Statement Exhibiting the
Moral and Material Progress and Condition of India during the
year 1907-1908," in most provinces the birth-rates exceeded the
death-rates, but in the Punjab the death-rate exceeded the
birth-rate by no less than 21.3 per mille, mainly as a result
of the persistence of plague and the unusual prevalence of
other epidemics. The total number of deaths registered in the
Dependency was 8,399,623, compared with 7,852,330 in 1906.
This constituted a rise of the rate from 34.73 per mille to
37.18. The mean mortality per 1,000 for the quinquennium
ending 1906 was 33.96. The rate in the Punjab was no less than
62.1.

{519}

Throughout the country as a whole cholera was responsible for
1.81 deaths per mille, smallpox for 0.46, fevers for 19.76,
dysentery and diarrhoea for 1.25, and plague for 5.16. In the
previous year (1906) there was a most welcome decline in the
plague death-rate, which fell from 4.17 in 1905 to 1.33. But
in the year under review this malignant disease (which first
appeared in Bombay in 1896) was responsible for the record
number of 1,315,892 deaths. Happily in 1908 there was again a
very rapid decline of mortality, and the preliminary figures
for the year give a total of less than 150,000 deaths, this
being lower than in any year since 1900. The report shows that
plague has been curiously partial in its distribution, many
parts of the Dependency having almost entirely escaped its
ravages. It is shown that the civil hospitals and dispensaries
in India (2,514 in number) treated 412,425 indoor and no fewer
than 24,469,548 outdoor patients.

PUBLIC HEALTH: Japan: A. D. 1904-1905.
Army Sanitation in the War with Russia.

See (in this Volume)
JAPAN: A. D. 1904-1905--at the end.

PUBLIC HEALTH: Malaria:
A Lesson in Practical Hygiene from Italy.
Slowness in using the knowledge gained.

The following is from a letter by Dr. William Osier to the
London _Times_, dated at Rome, March, 3, 1909: "We owe
much to the Italians for their contributions to our knowledge
of the cause of malaria. Laveran’s great discovery was
promptly fathered by Marchiafava and Celli and Golgi, and it
was through their writings that we obtained the fullest
details of the nature and structure of the malarial parasite.
As an old student of the disease and deeply interested in the
practical problems of its prevention, one of my first visits
in Rome was to the Laboratories of Pathology and of Hygiene to
find out from the Directors, Marchiafava and Celli, the
progress of the battle. It was not enough to know the cause;
we had to know how it worked before effective measures could
be taken, and the demonstration by Ross of the transmission of
the disease by the mosquito at once put malaria on the list of
easily preventable infections. Just ten years ago the Italian
Society for the Study of Malaria was founded, and I was able
to get a full report of the work.

"In Professor Celli’s lecture-room hangs the mortality chart
of Italy for the past 20 years. In 1887 malaria ranked with
tuberculosis, pneumonia, and the intestinal disorders of
children as one of the great infections, killing in that year
21,033 persons. The chart shows a gradual reduction in the
death-rate, and in 1906 only 4,871 persons died of the
disease, and in 1907 4,160. This remarkable result has been
very largely due to the sanitary measures introduced by the
society. It has long been known that malaria disappears
‘spontaneously.’ The Fen country is now healthy; parts of
Canada, about Lakes Ontario and Erie, which were formerly
hotbeds of the disease, are now free. This cannot be
attributed altogether to cultivation and drainage. I know
places on the shores of the lakes just mentioned in which the
conditions today are identical with those which I remember as
a boy. The Desjardin Canal Marsh at the extreme western end of
Lake Ontario was a well-known focus of the disease. The marsh
remains, the mosquitoes are there; but a case of malaria is
almost as rare as in England. The disappearance is largely due
to the free use of quinine. The settlers early recognized the
important fact that malaria was a disease liable to recur, and
it became a common practice to take Peruvian bark every spring
and autumn for a year or two after an attack. This is a point
in prophylaxis which the work of the Italian Society has
brought into prominence. From the summary of the decennial
report just issued, the following paragraphs are of interest:

"‘The society has improved the prophylaxis of malaria, and has
introduced into practice the new mechanical measures based on
the defence of the habitation and the individual from the
bites of mosquitoes. This being a relatively expensive
procedure, the society has occupied itself chiefly with the
improvement of the anti-plasmodic prophylaxis—the
administration of quinine. For this purpose it has promoted
and defended legislation for the gratuitous distribution of
quinine to the poor and to all workers in malarial localities.
…

"‘The results have been that since 1902, when the law on State
quinine was promulgated, while the consumption of quinine has
been yearly increasing, the mortality from malaria has
diminished from about 16,000 to about 4,000 yearly; and in the
army, Custom House Offices, and in some communes where the new
laws have been better applied, the morbidity from malaria has
greatly diminished.’

"By these measures, and ‘by means of the agricultural and
agrarian transformation of the land and colonization, rather
than by the destruction of mosquitoes (a thing impossible to
be done by us on a large scale),’ Italy may be freed from the
scourge."

In a lecture at the Royal Institution, London, in May, 1909,
Major Ronald Ross, one of the most notable workers in this
field of sanitary science, spoke discouragingly of the
progress made in applying the knowledge gained. He said:

"The immediate success hoped for ten years ago had not been
attained. The battle still raged along the whole line, but it
was no longer a battle against malaria but against human
stupidity. Those who had taken part in it had reasoned and
been ridiculed; had given the most stringent experimental
proofs and had been disbelieved; had protested and been called
charlatans. … The few persons who had fought the fight and
failed were scarcely able to continue it, and if no stronger
influences could be excited the future of malaria prevention
in British dominions would certainly be as barren as the past
had been."

{520}

PUBLIC HEALTH: Panama Canal:
The Sanitation of the Canal Zone.
Extirpation of Malaria and Yellow Fever.
Report of Secretary Taft.

In the fall of 1905 Secretary Taft made a visit of inspection
to the Canal, and gave, on his return, an interesting account
of the conditions he found, in an address before the St. Louis
Commercial Club. On the work of Sanitation in progress, under
the direction of Dr. W. C. Gorgas, U. S. A., he gave the
following description: "When Judge Magoon [appointed Governor
of the Canal Zone] arrived upon the Isthmus, he found Dr.
Gorgas battling manfully against the yellow fever, but the
cases seemed to be increasing. Judge Magoon conceived the idea
that the fumigation which had been confined to two or three
houses might well be extended to all the houses in Panama, and
at considerable expense, and after procuring a large amount of
material, every house in Panama was fumigated once every two
weeks. To secure increased vigilance and popular assistance he
employed all [the respectable Panamanian physicians of Panama
as inspectors of the districts of that city, at annual
salaries of $1,200 a year. He also offered $50 reward for the
discovery of any case of yellow fever not reported. By methods
of this kind the native apathy, usually so great an obstacle
to successful sanitation in Spanish countries, was
neutralized.