Our present poor law practically fails to relieve the bulk of the really destitute.

Even were it successful it would be doing nothing to prevent destitution.

Since neither existing legislation nor the forces of private charity are competent to cope with the evils of "sweating," engendered by an excess of low-class labour, it is probable that the pressure of democratic government will make more and more in favour of some large new experiment of social drainage.

In view of this it may not be out of place to describe briefly two schemes proposed by private students of the problem of poverty.
Mr.Charles Booth, recognizing that the superfluity of cheap inefficient labour lies at the root of the matter, suggests the removal of the most helpless and degraded class from the strain of a struggle which is fatal not merely to themselves, but to the class immediately above them.

The reason for this removal is given as follows-- "To effectually deal with the whole of class B--for the State to nurse the helpless and incompetent as we in our own families nurse the old, the young, and the sick, and provide for those who are not competent to provide for themselves--may seem an impossible undertaking; but nothing less than this will enable self-respecting labour to obtain its full remuneration, and the nation its raised standard of life.