On This Day, 9 April 1918

Birmingham Daily Post

Tuesday 9 April 1918

POOR-LAW WORK IN BIRMINGHAM

BOARD OF GUARDIANS JUSTIFIED

A strong plea for the retention of Boards of Guardians was made yesterday by Mr. William Darby, chairman of the Birmingham Guardians, who gave an address at the weekly luncheon of the Rotary Club.

Poor-law administration, said Mr. Darby, was now a great constructive social effort. There had been changes in the spirit and scope of the work during the last fifty years, and there had been changes even since 1905, when the report of the Poor-Law Commission was framed. Boards of Guardians had done splendid work in Birmingham since 1905. Last year, for instance, they had to deal with 927 babies, of whom only nine died- (applause)- and it must be remembered that those children were largely of the class known as unwanted. Then there had been a great improvement in the treatment of maternity cases. Again, their workhouses were entirely misnamed. They were not now workhouses; it was impossible for Guardians to get much work done by inmates; and that was one reason why the expenditure had gone up. With pressure from the Local Government Board, what had been done in some unions could be done in others.

It was gratifying to know, added Mr. Darby, that Birmingham led the way in regard to cottage home administration, and that they still had with them the two public men who were largely instrumental in regard to this departure- Sir Henry Manton and Alderman Clayton. The removal of the disenfranchisement penalty under certain conditions of poor-law relief had done something to remove popular prejudice and the fact that 70,000 beds had been provided in their infirmaries for wounded soldiers would go a long way in the same direction. No hospital in the city available for wounded at the opening of the war was so complete and well equipped as their Dudley Road Infirmary. (Hear, hear.)