What,then,is the standard towards which we may venture to aim with some prospect of realisation in our time?It is a very humble one,but if realised it would solve the worst problems of modern Society.It is the standard of the London Cab Horse.When in the streets of London a Cab Horse,weary or careless or stupid,trips and falls and lies stretched out in the midst of the traffic there is no question of debating how he came to stumble before we try to get him on his legs again.The Cab Horse is a very real illustration of poor broken-down humanity;he usually falls down because of overwork and underfeeding.
If you put him on his feet without altering his conditions,it would only be to give him another dose of agony;but first of all you'll have to pick him up again.It may have been through overwork or underfeeding,or it may have been all his own fault that he has broken his knees and smashed the shafts,but that does not matter.If not for his own sake,then merely in order to prevent an obstruction of the traffic,all attention is concentrated upon the question of how we are to get him on his legs again.Tin load is taken off,the harness is unbuckled,or,if need be,cut,and everything is done to help him up.
Then he is put in the shafts again and once more restored to his regular round of work.That is the first point.The second is that every Cab Horse in London has three things;a shelter for the night,food for its stomach,and work allotted to it by which it can earn its corn.
These are the two points of the Cab Horse's Charter.When he is down he is helped up,and while he lives he has food,shelter and work.
That,although a humble standard,is at present absolutely unattainable by millions--literally by millions--of our fellow-men and women in this country.Can the Cab Horse Charter be gained for human beings?
I answer,yes.The Cab Horse standard can be attained on the Cab Horse terms.If you get your fallen fellow on his feet again,Docility and Discipline will enable you to reach the Cab Horse ideal,otherwise it will remain unattainable.But Docility seldom fails where Discipline is intelligently maintained.Intelligence is more frequently lacking to direct than obedience to follow direction.At any rate it is not for those who possess the intelligence to despair of obedience,until they have done their part.Some,no doubt,like the bucking horse that will never be broken in,will always refuse to submit to any guidance but their own lawless will.They will remain either the Ishmaels or the Sloths of Society.But man is naturally neither an Ishmael nor a Sloth.
The first question,then,which confronts us is,what are the dimensions of the Evil?How many of our fellow-men dwell in this Darkest England?How can we take the census of those who have fallen below the Cab Horse standard to which it is our aim to elevate the most wretched of our countrymen?
The moment you attempt to answer this question,you are confronted by the fact that the Social Problem has scarcely been studied at all scientifically.Go to Mudie's and ask for all the books that have been written on the subject,and you will be surprised to find how few there are.There are probably more scientific books treating of diabetes or of gout than there are dealing with the great social malady which eats out the vitals of such numbers of our people.Of late there has been a change for the better.The Report of the Royal Commission on the Housing of the Poor,and the Report of the Committee of the House of Lords on Sweating,represent an attempt at least to ascertain the facts which bear upon the Condition of the People question.But,after all,more minute,patient,intelligent observation has been devoted to the study of Earthworms,than to the evolution,or rather the degradation,of the Sunken Section of our people.Here and there in the immense field individual workers make notes,and occasionally emit a wail of despair,but where is there any attempt even so much as to take the first preliminary step of counting those who have gone under?One book there is,and so far as I know at present,only one,which even attempts to enumerate the destitute.In his "Life and Labour in the East of London,"Mr.Charles Booth attempts to form some kind of an idea as to the numbers of those with whom we have to deal.With a large staff of assistants,and provided with all the facts in possession of the School Board Visitors,Mr.Booth took an industrial census of East London.This district,which comprises Tower Hamlets,Shoreditch,Bethnal Green and Hackney,contains a population of 908,000;that is to say,less than one-fourth of the population of London.How do his statistics work out?If we estimate the number of the poorest class in the rest of London as being twice as numerous as those in the Eastern District,instead of being thrice as numerous,as they would be if they were calculated according to the population in the same proportion,the following is the result:
