"What,"it will be said,"do you think that you can create agricultural pioneers out of the scum of Cockneydom?"Let us look for a moment at the ingredients which make up what you call "the scum of Cockneydom."After careful examination and close cross-questioning of the Out-of-Works,whom we have already registered at our Labour Bureau,we find that at least sixty per cent.are country folk,men,women,boys,and girls,who have left their homes in the counties to come up to town in the hope of bettering themselves.They are in no sense of the word Cockneys,and they represent not the dregs of the country but rather its brighter and more adventurous spirits who have boldly tried to make their way in new and uncongenial spheres and have terribly come to grief.Of thirty cases,selected haphazard,in the various Shelters during the week ending July 5th,1890,twenty-two were country-born,sixteen were men who had come up a long time ago,but did not ever seem to have settled to regular employ,and four were old military men.
Of sixty cases examined into at the Bureau and Shelters during the fortnight ending August 2nd,forty-two were country people;twenty-six men who had been in London for various periods;ranging from six months to four years;nine were lads under eighteen,who had run away from home and come up to town;while four were ex-military.Of eighty-five cases of dossers who were spoken to at night when they slept in the streets,sixty-three were country people.A very small proportion of the genuine homeless Out-of-Works are Londoners bred and born.
There is another element in the matter,the existence of which will be news to most people,and that is the large proportion of ex-military men who are among the helpless,hopeless destitute.Mr.Arnold White,after spending many months in the streets of London interrogating more than four thousand men whom he found in the course of one bleak winter sleeping out of doors like animals returns it as his conviction that at least 20per cent.are Army Reserve men.Twenty per cent!That is to say one man in every five with whom we shall have to deal has served Her Majesty the Queen under the colours.This is the resource to which these poor fellows come after they have given the prime of their lives to the service of their country.Although this may be largely brought about by their own thriftless and evil conduct,it is a scandal and disgrace which may well make the cheek of the patriot tingle.