Another considerable item in the expenditure of the society was the rent of the offices - a house in a back street.The landlord of this place was another very deserving case.
There were numerous other expenses: stationery and stamps, printing, and so on, and what was left of the money was used for the purpose for which it had been given - a reasonable amount being kept in hand for future expenses.All the details were of course duly set forth in the Report and Balance Sheet at the annual meetings.No copy of this document was ever handed to the reporters for publication; it was read to the meeting by the Secretary; the representatives of the Press took notes, and in the reports of the meeting that subsequently appeared in the local papers the thing was so mixed up and garbled together that the few people who read it could not make head or tail of it.The only thing that was clear was that the society had been doing a great deal of good to someone or other, and that more money was urgently needed to carry on the work.It usually appeared something like this:
HELPING THE NEEDY
Mugsborough Organized Benevolence Society Annual Meeting at the Town Hall A Splendid record of Miscellaneous and Valuable Work.
The annual meeting of the above Society was held yesterday at the Town Hall.The Mayor, Alderman Sweater, presided, and amongst those present were Sir Graball D'Encloseland, Lady D'Encloseland, Lady Slumrent.Rev.Mr Bosher, Mr Cheeseman, Mrs Bilder, Mrs Grosare, Mrs Daree, Mrs Butcher, Mrs Taylor, Mrs Baker, Mrs Starvem, Mrs Slodging, Mrs M.B.Sile, Mrs Knobrane, Mrs M.T.
Head, Mr Rushton, Mr Didlum, Mr Grinder and (here followed about a quarter of a column of names of other charitable persons, all subscribers to the Society).
The Secretary read the annual report which contained the following amongst other interesting items:
During the year, 1,972 applications for assistance have been received, and of this number 1,302 have been assisted as follows:
Bread or grocery orders, 273.Coal or coke orders, 57.
Nourishment 579.(Applause.) Pairs of boots granted, 29.
Clothing, 105.Crutch granted to poor man, 1.Nurses provided, 2.Hospital tickets, 26.Sent to Consumption Sanatorium, 1.
Twenty-nine persons, whose cases being chronic, were referred to the Poor Law Guardians.Work found for 19 persons.(Cheers.)Pedlar's licences, 4.Dispensary tickets, 24.Bedding redeemed, 1.Loans granted to people to enable them to pay their rent, 8.
(Loud cheers.) Dental tickets, 2.Railway fares for men who were going away from the town to employment elsewhere, 12.(Great cheering.) Loans granted, 5.Advertisements for employment, 4 -and so on.
There was about another quarter of a column of these details, the reading of which was punctuated with applause and concluded with:
`Leaving 670 cases which for various reasons the Society was unable to assist'.The report then went on to explain that the work of inquiring into the genuineness of the applications entailed a lot of labour on the part of the Secretary, some cases taking several days.
No fewer than 649 letters had been sent out from the office, and 97postcards.(Applause.) Very few cash gifts were granted, as it was most necessary to guard against the Charity being abused.(Hear, hear.)Then followed a most remarkable paragraph headed `The Balance Sheet', which - as it was put - `included the following'.`The following' was a jumbled list of items of expenditure, subscriptions, donations, legacies, and collections, winding up with `the general summary showed a balance in hand of ?78.4.6'.(They always kept a good balance in hand because of the Secretary's salary and the rent of the offices.)After this very explicit financial statement came the most important part of the report: `Thanks are expressed to Sir Graball D'Encloseland for a donation of 2 guineas.Mrs Grosare, 1 guinea.Mrs Starvem, Hospital tickets.Lady Slumrent, letter of admission to Convalescent Home.Mrs Knobrane, 1 guinea.Mrs M.B.Sile, 1 guinea.Mrs M.T.
Head, 1 guinea.Mrs Sledging, gifts of clothing - and so on for another quarter of a column, the whole concluding with a vote of thanks to the Secretary and an urgent appeal to the charitable public for more funds to enable the Society to continue its noble work.
Meantime, in spite of this and kindred organizations the conditions of the under-paid poverty stricken and unemployed workers remained the same.Although the people who got the grocery and coal orders, the `Nourishment', and the cast-off clothes and boots, were very glad to have them, yet these things did far more harm than good.They humiliated, degraded and pauperized those who received them, and the existence of the societies prevented the problem being grappled with in a sane and practical manner.The people lacked the necessaries of life: the necessaries of life are produced by Work: these people were willing to work, but were prevented from doing so by the idiotic system of society which these `charitable' people are determined to do their best to perpetuate.
If the people who expect to be praised and glorified for being charitable were never to give another farthing it would be far better for the industrious poor, because then the community as a whole would be compelled to deal with the absurd and unnecessary state of affairs that exists today - millions of people living and dying in wretchedness and poverty in an age when science and machinery have made it possible to produce such an abundance of everything that everyone might enjoy plenty and comfort.It if were not for all this so-called charity the starving unemployed men all over the country would demand to be allowed to work and produce the things they are perishing for want of, instead of being - as they are now - content to wear their masters' cast-off clothing and to eat the crumbs that fall from his table.
