Scope and Contents

Printed circular on the administration of out-door relief from the secretary of the Local Government Board to Boards of Guardians. 8p.

Scope and Contents

"The out of work and old age pensions considered. A simple solution." Manuscript copy of a pamphlet.

Scope and Contents

Printed circular from the majority of the Royal Commission on the Poor Laws and Relief of Distress to parliamentary candidates criticising the proposals for the break-up of the Poor Law made by the minority of the Commission.

Scope and Contents

Letter from George Barnes (House of Commons) to WSC asking him to use his influence to get a day set apart for the introduction of the Unemployment Insurance Bill.

Scope and Contents

Letter from Samuel Smethurst, president of the National Federation of Building Trades Employers of Great Britain and Ireland (Koh-i-noor House, Kingsway, London) to WSC (Home Office) complaining on the heavy financial burden imposed on the building industry by unnecessary claims under the Workmen's Compensation Act and expressing the wish that similar abuses should be guarded against under the proposed scheme of unemployment insurance. Signed typescript. Sent with CHAR 2/46/56.

Scope and Contents

Letter from C P Scott (The Firs, Fallowfield, Manchester) to WSC asserting that only if social reform were financed from taxation would people appreciate its true cost.

Scope and Contents

Letter from Robert Harcourt (House of Commons) to WSC suggesting that Sir Robert Price present the Minority Report on the Poor Law as a private member's bill. Annotated that WSC thinks a debate on the report could be a good thing.

Scope and Contents

6 Jan 1910 15 Jan 1910 Cuttings from the Dundee Advertiser [Angus, Scotland]: remarks and speeches by WSC in Dundee [Angus, Scotland] on women's suffrage and old age pensions. With covering note. 8 pieces.

Scope and Contents

Letter from William Royle (Elmwood, Rusholme, [Manchester]) to WSC on the satisfaction of WSC's friends in the Manchester area over his appointment as Home Secretary. Hopes WSC will still be able to pursue the schemes for invalidity and unemployment insurance.

Scope and Contents

Letter from Robert Harcourt (Malwood, Lyndhurst, [Hampshire]) to WSC congratulating him on his appointment [as Home Secretary] but adding that he could have produced a "Poor Law Revolution" had he stayed at the Board of Trade. Thanks him for helping with his campaign in Arbroath [Forfarshire, Scotland].

Scope and Contents Letter from 2nd Lord Hamilton of Dalzell to WSC regretting WSC's move from the Board of Trade but expressing pleasure at his promotion [to the office of Home Secretary]. Hamilton has found it interesting to represent the Board of Trade in the House of Commons and is particularly proud of helping to pass the Trade Boards and Labour Exchanges Bills. Refers to his grandfather's involvement in the foundation of Robert Owen's Orbiston Community near Glasgow [Scotland] [in 1825] and sends a book...

Scope and Contents Letter from WSC to Herbert Asquith [later Lord Oxford and Asquith] praising him for his leadership during the general election campaign and considering the present political situation. He asserts that the restriction of the House of Lords' veto must be the pre-requisite for any co-operation between the Government and the Tories on reform of the Lords and any other issue, and that the Government should have no hesitation in creating 500 new peers if necessary. After the veto has been...

Scope and Contents Letter from W H Shaw, port steward of the British Yukon Navigation Company (White Horse, Yukon Territory, Canada) to WSC praising him, David Lloyd-George and the Government generally for their measures "for the benefit of the struggling masses." He describes: the poor living conditions he experienced in Huddersfield [Yorkshire] before leaving about 27 years earlier and their bad effects on morality and on the fitness of men enlisting for the Army; his approval of the Government's land reform...

Scope and Contents

Letter from Robert Chalmers (Board of Inland Revenue) to Edward Marsh reporting that the Chancellor of the Exchequer [David Lloyd George] did not in 1909 favour the exemption of estates from estate duty for 25 years because the loss of revenue could not be afforded "in these spacious days of social reform.".

Scope and Contents Letter from William Beveridge [later Lord Beveridge] (Labour Exchanges, Central Office, Caxton House, Westminster, [London]) to WSC on: the effect of the Workmen's Compensation Act on unemployment; the scheme of registering at the Labour Exchange boys employed as golf caddies to ensure that they move into more suitable jobs when they become available; the general function of Labour Exchanges of ensuring that light work is done by aged or injured workers rather than by fitter ones; the recent...

Scope and Contents

Letter from Robert Harcourt (House of Commons) to WSC enclosing a programme of the forthcoming National Conference on the Prevention of Destitution [see CHAR 2/51/41] and inviting WSC to come and speak at it on the broad issues of social reform.

Scope and Contents

Proof programme of the National Conference on the Prevention of Destitution. Printed. 15,[1p. Sent with CHAR 2/51/40.].

Scope and Contents

Letter from WSC (Home Office) to [Robert] Harcourt stating that he is attracted by the idea of speaking at the National Conference on the Prevention of Destitution but that he wishes to talk to Harcourt first. Initialled typescript copy.

Scope and Contents Letter from Samuel Smethurst [president of the National Federation of Building Trades Employers of Great Britain and Ireland] (Coldhurst House, Longsight, Oldham, [Lancashire]) to WSC referring to his forthcoming meeting with WSC and enclosing and commenting on three documents on unemployment insurance [see CHAR 2/51/64-73]. Mentions his letter to the Chancellor of the Exchequer [David Lloyd George] before the general election on amendments to the land tax clauses in the Finance Bill in...

Scope and Contents

Letter from W J Sutherland (National Association of Master House Painters and Decorators of England and Wales Incorporated, 26 Oxford Road, Manchester) to J W White urging that representations be made to the Government in favour of the merger of workers' compensation with unemployment and invalidity insurance. Sent with CHAR 2/51/63.

Scope and Contents

Letter from Samuel Smethurst [president of the National Federation of Building Trades Employers of Great Britain and Ireland] (Koh-i-Noor House, Kingsway, London) to WSC (Home Office) transmitting his committee's resolution that the building trade is in urgent need of relief from the rapidly increasing premiums for workers' compensation insurance. Typescript copy. Sent with CHAR 2/51/63.

Scope and Contents

'Extract from a paper entitled "national insurance against sickness, invalidity and unemployment." Read by Mr G H Wright, (secretary, Birmingham Master Builders Association) at the Midland Centre Conference of Secretaries, held at Birmingham'. Annotated typescript.

Scope and Contents Letter from Sir Hubert Llewellyn Smith ([Permanent Secretary to the] Board of Trade) to WSC commenting on the syllabus [?of the National Conference on the Prevention of Destitution] and stressing that nothing should be said to throw doubt on the Government's assurances that labour exchanges are voluntary. He does not think that the conference will be a suitable place to expound the Government's unemployment insurance scheme in detail. Reports that labour exchanges are thriving in...

Scope and Contents

Letter from WSC to Baron de Forest wishing him luck in his electoral contest in West Ham [London] and explaining the value of the National Insurance Bill. Pledges that the Government will not give up its struggle with the House of Lords now that it has reached "the last round." Typescript copy annotated and signed by Edward Marsh.

Scope and Contents

Notes by WSC for a message referring to Land Reform and National Insurance in support of the candidature of Cecil Harmsworth for the Luton Division of Bedfordshire.