Meeting, but with its consent the limit is sixpence in the . but the cost of lighting the roads, maintaining a library or baths, and one or two other things are not included in this limit. For important undertakings the Parish Council may borrow money with the consent of the Parish Meeting, the County Council, and the Local Government Board, but not any sum exceeding half the rateable value of the parish. The cost of Parish Meetings and elections to the Parish Council must be paid out of the threepenny rate. Powers of the Rural District Council. Many of these powers have been referred to in the paragraphs dealing with Parish Councils, especially those connected with allotments, right of way, commons and wayside wastes, and water supply. The two chief concerns of the Council are: 1. THE MANAGEMENT OF HIGHWAYS. The Council has the control of all the roads, bridges, &c., in the district, except the main roads, which the County Council manages, and it has the power to make new ones. It appoints the surveyor and employs the laborers required to keep the roads in repair. 2. THE CARE OF PUBLIC HEALTH. This includes an enormous variety of matters of ever-increasing importance. It is the duty of the Council to undertake : (a) The drainage of every village and hamlet in the district. (b) Scavenging and removal of dust and refuse wherever required. (c) Provision of a proper supply of good water. (d) Supervision of cellar-dwellings and inspection of lodging-houses. (e) The closing of all dwellings unfit for human habitation, and compelling the owners of all insanitary cottages and houses to put and keep them in proper repair. Inspection of shops of butchers and others. to prevent the (g) The notification of infectious diseases. The regulation of canal boats. (k) The provision (subject to stringent regulations) of cottages with gardens, where needed, or of lodging-houses, under the Housing of the Working Class Act, 1890, Part III. The Council will also have the duty of licensing gang-masters, pawnbrokers, game-dealers, knackers' yards, and baby-farms, and controlling the sale of petroleum. And it has various powers and duties in regard to the control and regulation of commons. To carry out these and other duties, the Council must employ a medical officer, and a sufficient staff of sanitary inspectors. The Council, by a vote, or ratepayers rated to one-tenth of the rateable value of the district, can apply to the Local Government Board for the additional powers possessed by Urban Sanitary Authorities, which will enable it to deal with offensive trades, streets, new buildings, lighting, public pleasure grounds, cabs, and slaughter-houses. Powers of the Urban District Councils. These Councils have (1) all the rights and duties of the Rural District Councils except those which are exercised by a Rural District Council in connection with the Parish Councils of its district. As there are no Parish Councils in an Urban District, these precise powers and duties cannot exist. It is the Sanitary Authority, and therefore exercises all the duties connected with the management of highways, and the care of the Public Health set out on page 13, and further, as an Urban Authority, it already has those powers enumerated on page 13, which a Rural District Council can obtain by application to the Local Government Board. It has nearly all the powers and duties of a Town Council, except the regulation of the police. In an Urban District these powers and duties are usually more important and urgent than in a Rural District, because the population is denser, and often consists almost exclusively of the working class, living in long, dismal streets of small houses. The Council has all the powers enumerated on pages 10 and II which are possessed by Rural District Councils for buying or hiring land for allotments. It can obtain, by application to the Local Government Board, all the other powers of a Parish Council, in particular those relating to charities, to the use of rooms, and to appointment of overseers and assistant overseers. It becomes the authority for all the adoptive Acts, as for instance those for providing Free Libraries, Baths and Washhouses, and for Housing. It has the power, without the restrictions imposed on Rural Districts, to build artizans' dwellings, and provide cottages with half an acre of garden whenever there is a demand for them. It can obtain powers, by private Acts of Parliament and otherwise, to erect, or buy and to manage gas works, electric light works, water works, tramways, markets, and parks. Powers of the Board of Guardians. By far the most important duties and powers of the Board of Guardians are the administration of the Poor Laws and the control of Poor Law relief. This is too large a question to be dealt with in this tract. Information on the subject will be found in Fabian Tract No. 54, "The Humanizing of the Poor Law." The powers and duties of Guardians which are not directly connected with the relief of the poor can alone be touched upon here. They are as follows: (1) To determine the total sum required from each parish for relief of the poor of the Union, to hear and determine appeals against any assessment made by any overseer, and generally to be the Rating Authority. (2) To register births and deaths. (3) To enforce the Vaccination Acts. (4) To appoint overseers where the Parish Authority fails to appoint them for three weeks after April 15th in each year. (5) To act upon any special powers or duties imposed on them by any Act of Parliament. POSTSCRIPT. The earlier pages of this tract have been reprinted (with a few verbal alterations only) from stereo plates, although in a few points the law has been altered since they were written. The corrections and additions are: Page 5, line 32. Demand for a poll.-By existing rules a poll must be demanded by five electors or one-third of the electors present (whichever number is the lesser), or by one elector with the consent of the chairman. HOUSING. Hitherto the Housing of the Working Classes Act, 1890, under which cottages can be built wherever needed, has been of very little use to rural parishes, partly because Parish Councils have had no power to act themselves and partly because Rural District Councils have been hampered by absurd legal conditions which made the building of cottages almost impossible. By the Amendment Acts passed in 1900 and 1903 these difficulties have been considerably reduced. Much of the old cumbrous procedure is abolished. Rural District Councils have now only to satisfy the County Council that cottages are wanted in any parish, and that they can be built to pay expenses, and the County Council can at once give the necessary permission. In addition to this, a new and most valuable power is given to Parish Councils. If the Rural District Council refuse to attend to resolutions adopted by the Parish Council requesting them to build cottages, the Parish Council can complain to the County Council, and the County Council can then order the cottages to be built. Here, then, is an opportunity for vigorous action. For the first time the right of the Parish Council to take steps for obtaining proper houses for the villagers is recognized by the law. In the past, Rural District Councils might fairly say that Parish Councils had nothing to do with building new cottages. Now it has been made their business, and they should see that it is attended to. EDUCATION. The Ar of 1902 gave Parish Councils and, where there is no Council, Parish Meetings th...ght to appoint one of the managers to any public elementary schools in their area, and they can arrange with their County Council for continuation classes in technical education in the schools. Urban District Councils have these and other rights, and when their population exceeds 20,000 they become the Education Authority and have large powers and duties. In view of the probable alteration of the law and the complexity of the subject, full details cannot be given here. MEALS FOR SCHOOL CHILDREN. By the Education (Provision of Meals) Act, 1906, the Education Authority (the County or in some cases the Urban District Council) can (1) authorize any committee to provide meals for school children, and may pay for buildings, furniture, apparatus, service, etc., but not for food; (2) where children are underfed the Education Authority may pay for the food. In many parishes there is a great need for hot meals at midday for children coming from a distance, and the parents willingly pay the necessary penny. Parish Councils are the proper bodies to organize such canteens, under the Act, if the County Council consents, or outside it, by voluntary committees, if there is a difficulty in getting legal authority. The Parish Council delegate to the Managing Committee of the Parish School should be instructed by the Council to move in this matter. NOTE.-Women as well as men are referred to in most places in this tract where the words he, his, him only are used. Full details of the Housing of the Working Classes Act and the use that has been made of it are given in Fabian Tract No. 76, "Houses for the People." A summary of the powers of local authorities under the Housing Acts, 1890-1903, and the use which has been and can be made of them. Revised 1906. id. Fabian Tract No. 109, "Cottage Plans and Common Sense." Id. Fabian Tract No. 63, "Parish Council Cottages, and how to get them." A leaflet, 6 for Id., or Is. per 100. For advertisement of other Tracts see next page. Secretary, at the Fabian Office, 3 Clement's Inn, London, W.C. Tracts, each 16 to 52 pp., price 1d., or 9d. per dos., unless otherwise stated. Leaflets, 4 pp. each, price 1d. for six copies, 1s. per 100, or 8/6 per 1000. The Set of 88, 3s.; post free 3 5. Bound in Buckram, 4/6; post free for 55. I.-General Socialism in its various aspects. TRACTS.-121. Public Service versus Private Expenditure. By Sir OLIVER LODGE. 113. Communism. By WM. MORRIS. 107. Socialism for Millionaires. By BERNARD SHAW. 78. Socialism and the Teaching of Christ. By Dr. JOHN CLIFFORD. 87. The same in Welsh. 42. Christian Socialism. By Rev. S. D. HEADLAM. 79. A Word of Remembrance and Caution to the Rich. By JOHN WOOLMAN. 75. Labor in the Longest Reign By SIDNEY WEBB. 72. The Moral Aspects of Socialism. By SIDNEY BALL. 69. Difficulties of Individualism. By SIDNEY WEBB. 51. Socialism: True and False. By S. WEBB. 45. The Impossibilities of Anarchism. By BERNARD SHAW (price 2d.). 15. English Progress towards Social Democracy. By S. WEBB. 7. Capital and Land (6th edn. revised 1904). 5. Facts for Socialists (10th edn., revised 1906). LEAFLETS-13. What Socialism Is. 1. Why are the Many Poor? 38. The same in Welsh. II.-Applications of Socialism to Particular Problems. TRACTS.-130. Home Work and Sweating. By Miss B. L. HUTCHINS. 128. The Case for a Legal Minimum Wage. 126. The Abolition_of Poor Law Guardians. 122. Municipal Milk and Public Health. By Dr. F. LAWSON DODD. 120. "After Bread, Education." 125. Municipalization by Provinces. 119. Public Control of Electrical Power and Transit. 123. The Revival of Agriculture. 118. The Secret of Rural Depopulation. 115. State Aid to Agriculture: an Example. 112. Life in the Laundry. 110. Problems of Indian Poverty. 98: State Railways for Ireland. 124. State Control of Trusts. 86. Municipal Drink Traffic. 85. Liquor Licensing at Home and Abroad. 84. Economics of Direct Employment. 83. State Arbitration and the Living Wage. 73. Case for State Pensions in Old Age. 48. Eight Hours by Law. 23. Case for an Eight Hours Bill. 47. The Unemployed. By JOHN BURNS, M.P. LEAFLETS.-19. What the Farm Laborer Wants. 104. How Trade Unions benefit Workmen. III.-Local Government Powers: How to use them. TRACTS.-117. The London Education Act, 1903: how to make the best of it. 111. Reform of Reformatories and Industrial Schools. By H. T. HOLMES. 109. Cottage Plans and Common Sense. By RAYMOND UNWIN. 103. Overcrowding in London and its Remedy By W. C. STEADMAN, L.C.C. 76. Houses for the People. 100. Metropolitan Borough Councils. 99. Local Government in Ireland 82. Workmen's Compensation Act. 62. Parish and District Councils 61. The London County Council. 54. The Humanizing of the Poor Law. By J. F. OAKESHOTT. LEAFLETS.— 68 The Tenant's Sanitary Catechism. 71. Same for London. 63. Parish Council Cottages and how to get them. 58. Allotments and how to get them. FABIAN MUNICIPAL PROGRAM, FIRST SERIES (Nos. 32, 36, 37). Municipalization of the Gas Supply. The Scandal of London's Markets. A Labor Policy for Public Authorities. SECOND SERIES (Nos. 90 to 97). Municipalization of Milk Supply. Municipal Pawnshops. Municipal Slaughterhouses. Women as Councillors. Municipal Bakeries. Municipal Hospitals. Municipal Fire Insurance. Municipal Steamboats.- Second Series in a red cover for 1d. (9d. per doz.); separate leaflets, 1/- per 100. IV.-Books. 29. What to Read on social and economic subjects. 6d. net, 129. More Books to Read. Supplement to October, 1906. V.-General Politics and Fabian Policy. 127. Socialism and Labor Policy. 116. Fabianism and_the_Fiscal Question: an alternative policy. 108. Twentieth Century Politics. By SIDNEY WEBB. 70. Report on Fabian Policy. 41. The Fabian Society: its Early History. By BERNARD SHAW. VI. Question Leaflets. Questions for Candidates: 20, Poor Law Guardians. 24, Parliament. 28, County Councils, Rural. 102, Metropolitan Borough Councils. BOOK BOXES lent to Societies. Clubs, Trade Unions, for 6s. a year, or 2/6 a quarter Printed by G. Standring, 7 Finsbury St.. London, E.C., and published by the Fabian Society, 3 Clement's Inn, Strand, London W.C. How to Lose and How to Win an Election. THERE is now enough Socialist opinion and sympathy in the country to return some avowed Socialists to the House of Commons if Socialist bodies would take the trouble to work elections as they must be worked if they are to be won. How to Lose an Election 13 very simple. You will be sure to lose if you devote your energies to 1. Shouting at meetings; 2. Alienating all sympathizers who don't yet call themselves Socialists; 3. Spending all your time talking in the committee-rooms; 4. Betting that you will win; and if at the same time you NEGLECT ALL ORGANIZATION. HOW TO WIN AN ELECTION The first is a more difficult matter. But it can be done with work. thing to do is to ORGANIZE YOURSELVES. Long before the election, committees and secretaries must be appointed in every polling-ward; streets and parts of streets must be allotted to canvassers, who undertake to leave literature at every house, to get to know every elector, and to try to secure his support for the candidate. The canvasser should also make a note of removals, and report all the information he can gather to the Secretary, who should enter it in A MARKED REGISTER. When the election day comes, you will then know who are your friends and who are your foes. Every man's energy should be bent upon getting an efficient marked register. The election often depends upon it. Take every opportunity of making your candidate's name known. throughout the constituency. He should be asked to speak at all sorts of meetings, not only at those called for political purposes. Plenty of political meetings should be held; but don't trust to these to win an election. The candidate who has the biggest and most enthusiastic meetings is often at the bottom of the poll. Meetings are necessary to educate and stir up the people, but Canvassing gets Votes. The work that tells is the buttonholing of voters in the streets and workshop and club. Always remember that, even if you cannot convert a man to Socialism, YOU MAY GET HIS VOTE ALL THE SAME. |