Why did Attitudes Toward Poverty Change? The surveys of Booth and Rowntree

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Why did Attitudes Toward Poverty Change? The
surveys of Booth and Rowntree
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So far.

• Britain at end of 19th C
• - How was it governed?
• - Poverty worries?
• The Poor Law system
• - outdoor and indoor relief?
• - poorhouses/workhouses?
• - conditions, was it effective?
• Self Help
• - theory and thinker (Who?, what did he think?)
• - friendly societies, savings banks, cooperative
  movement problems?
• Voluntary Aid
• - range of help from charities
• - run by middle-class for a number of reasons
  (fear, concern, opportunity, desire to help and
  religion)

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The Surveys of Booth and Rowntree

• Two men became well-known as a result of the work
  they did studying poverty in Britain.
• Charles Booth and Seebohm Rowntree were both
  wealthy men who studied the poor.

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contd

• At first Booth believed that the level of poverty
  in Britain was limited and could be dealt with by
  charity.
• In common with most people in his class, he
  originally believed that if people were poor it
  was their own fault.
• He wanted to know how much hardship there really
  was in Britain.
• Between 1889 and 1903 Booth studied the life of
  the poor in London and published his findings in
  a book called Life and Labour of the People in
  London.
• COPY ABOVE BULLET POINT
• These finding were very important as they changed
  his opinion about the limited levels of poverty
  in London.
• Booth concluded that 30 of Londons population
  was living in poverty.

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Booths work

• Charles Booths work was very important for a
  number of reasons
• His method of working was important he used
  scientific methods to put people into
  recognisable social classes.
• He worked out a poverty line (a level of income
  that was needed in order for a family to stay
  just beyond a life of starvation).
• He provided statistics that showed how widespread
  poverty was.
• The scale of the poverty he uncovered could not
  be met by charitable aid alone.
• COPY ABOVE

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Population Classification
A The lowest class occasional layabouts, semi-criminals
B The very poor casual labour, hand-to-mouth existence, chronic want
C and D The poor including those whose earnings are small because of irregularity of employment and those are paid low wages
E and F The regularly employed and fairly-paid working class of all grades
G and H Lower and upper middle class and all above these levels
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.contd

• Booths findings were supported by another person
  investigating poverty Seebohm Rowntree
• Rowntree was a member of a wealthy chocolate
  manufacturing family from York.
• A committed Christian, Rowntree read Booths work
  and decided to see if the level of poverty in
  York was different to that in London.

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Rowntree

• In 1901 he published his book Poverty, a Study
  of Town Life.
• His findings were similar to those of Booth.
• Rowntree was important because
• - He showed that poverty was not just a problem
  in London. The York study proved that poverty
  was widespread. One third of the population
  living in towns lived in poverty.
• - His study was also important because of the
  methods he used to carry out his study. Rowntree
  identified two different types of poverty.
  Primary poverty was used to describe those whose
  earnings were so low they could not survive on
  them alone. Secondary poverty was used to
  describe those whose earnings were enough to live
  on but who spent money in a wasteful way.
• - He put a figure on the amount of money a
  worker needed to earn in order to maintain a
  family in a minimum standard of living.
• TAKE NOTES FROM ABOVE

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A family must never purchase a halfpenny
newspaper, or spend a penny to buy a ticket for a
popular concert. They must never contribute
anything to their church or chapel or give any
help to a neighbourThey cannot save, nor can
they join sick club or Trade Union because they
cannot pay the necessary subscriptions. The
children must have no pocket moneyThe father
must smoke no tobacco and must drink no beer.
The mother must never buy any clothes for herself
or her children. Should a child fall ill, it
must be attended by the parish doctor should it
die it must be buried by the parishThe wage
earners must never be absent from his work for a
single day.
Source A From Poverty, A Study of Town Life by
B.S Rowntree
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What else was happening?

• Around time of Rowntrees survey, Britain was
  involved in the Boer War in South Africa.
• In 1900, 222 out of every 1000 recruits had to be
  turned down because they were unfit due to
  illnesses associated with being poor in
  childhood.
• If this continued it would be disastrous if
  Britain became involved in a European war and had
  to fight someone like Germany

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Conclusions

• These investigators of social conditions found
  that poverty was not always the fault of the
  person who was poor.
• Many of the elderly, the ill and those without
  work lived poor lives.
• However, many workers were paid wages so low or
  were not paid regularly enough that they could
  not afford lifes basic needs.
• The poverty of these people was not their fault.
• Booth and Rowntree had changed the way poverty
  was studied they were very important men!
• Thus, POVERTY IN BRITAIN BAD WIDESPREAD
• CAUSE OUTSIDE CONTROL OF PEOPLE