FABIAN TRACT No. 57· QUESTIONS FOR CANDIDATES FOR Rural District Councils. (A Rural Dz'strz"ct Cozmczllor z's a member of the Samtary ana Highway Authority and of the B oard of Guardia1zs.) SrR, or MADAM, In connection with your Candidature for the office of District Councillor, I should be obliged if you would be good enough to answer the following questions, and return the paper to me. I am, yours faithfully, Name ~~ Elector.·-------------------------------------···---------------------------- Address of Elector-------------------------------------------------------------------- QUESTIONS. ALLOTMENTS. L Will you do your utmost to ensure that all the powers of the District Council about allotments are put into operation wheneYer required, so that every working-man who desires to have an allotment shall be provided with one in a convenient situation and at a reasonable rent ? 2. Will you urge the Council to use their powers under the Housing of the Vlor kingClasses Act, 1890, for the erection of cottageswith gardens, or of lodging-houses, wherever they are wanted ? ANSWERS. PUBLIC HEALTH_ 3-Will you vote for the appointment of a medical officer who shall give his whole time to his public work ? 4· Will you insist upon everycottage in the District, no matter by whom owned, being put and kept in a thoroughly healthy state ? QUESTIONS. ANSWERS. 5· Will you press for additional SanitaryInspectors being appointed to prevent nuisances anywhere in the District ? 6. Will you vote for the provision of an improved water supply in the parish of •••.•••.••....•.•••.••.• ? 7. Will you vote for a scheme for the drainage of the parish of ........................? 8. Will you take steps to secure the immediate repair of the road between ......... . ••••••••..••. •. .•. .. ? 9· Will you vote for the provision of a new road from ............... to ..................? ro. Will you use all the powers of the Council to oppose any attempt to enclose : Common Land or Roadside Wastes or stop up any FootpJth or Right of Way, anywhere within the District ? A DEMOCRATIC POLICY. rI. Ifit is proposed to elect a Chairma:1 or Vice-Chairman from outside the Council, or to add to its number two non-elected members (as the Local Government .Act, 1894, renders possible), will you offer the scheme your strenuous opposition? 12. Will you advocate the meetings of the District Council, the Board of Guardians, and their Committees being held at such times as will enable working men and women when elected to attend withuut difficulty ? 13. Will you direct the paid officers of the District Council and Board of Guardians to render freely whatever help they can to the Parish Councils, if this is asked for ? 14· vVill you insist that no laborer employed by the District Council and Board of Guardians shall be paid a wage less than...... shillings a week for a working day of. ....... . hours, and that all skilled workmen in their employ shall recciYe the current Trade Union wages, and work not more than the current Trade Union hours? rs. Will you \'Ote for the direct employment of labor by the Di~trict Council or Board wherever JJOssible, in order to do away with the contrJctor or middlemJn ? QUESTIONS. ANSWERS. 16. Wherever a contractor cannot be dispemed with, will you insist on the insertion, in all contracts for supplies as well as for works, of clauses stipulating (a) against subcontracting or sweating; (b) for payment of Trade Union wages and obserYance of Trade Union hours and other conditions; and (c), in the case of clothing contracts, that all work be done in the contractor's factory, and none be given out? 17. Are you in favor of every working man (including those in the employ of the District Council or Board of Guardians) beingfree to join a Trade or Laborers' Union? 18. Will you support any effort made in times of depression to proYide, as far as practicable, work on local improvements for the genuine unemployed? 19. \Vill you endeavor to have any work undertaken by the District Council or Board of Guardians so arranged as to emloy labor during the winter? RELIEF OF THE POOR. 20. Are you in favor of substituting a system ofadequate pensions out of the taxes, instead of Poor Law relief for the aged poor? 2 I. Meanwhile, will you vote for adequateoutdoor relief being freely given to the agedpoor, in no case less than ss. a week? 22 . Will you oppose any attempt to obtain from any laborer earning less than I 5/-a week, a contribution to the support of his parents who may be on the parish? 23. Are you in favor of such an administration of Poor Law Infirmaries, Dispensaries, and Sick Asylums as shall remoye all stigma of pauperisn'l from the public treatment of sickness or accident ? 24. Are you in favor of housing the different classes of indoor poor (aged, able-bodied, &c.). whenever possible, in separate buildings? QUESTIONS. 2 s.Will you insist that where aged married people, both owr sixty), are in the workhouse, a separate apartment shall be provided for them, as directed by the Law [10 and II Viet. c. 109, s. 23], and report to the Local Government Board any infraction of the same? 26. Will you see that the aged poor in the workhouse are (a) provided with books and newspapers, (b) allowed to smoke, (c) to interest themselves in some occupation, (d) not forced to wear a distinctive dress, and (e) allowed to go out on every fine day? 27. Will you take care that all children whose charge devolves upon the community, in consequence of the death, desertion, or pauperism of their parents, (a) shall not in any way be made to fe r_". that their dependence is eith~r criminal or disgraceful ? (b) shall not be marked out by dress or treatment from their fellows ? (c) shall receive such general education, in the public elementary schools, and special teaching of a skilled trade, as shall counteract any hereditary tendency to lapse into pauperism? (d) shall be removed from the contact with pauperism which is inevitable in workhouses, by beingboarded-out and sent to efficient public schools ? ANSWERS. Sig1zature of Candz"date -------------------------------------------------------------· See Fabian Tract No. 53, "The Parish Councils Act: What it is and how to work it," Id. Post free fro111 the Fabia11 Society, 276 Strand, London, W.C., for I~. For list and particulars of other Trac!ts like this, write to the Secretaryof the Fabian Society, 276 Strand, W.C. Printed lists of questions to be put to candidates for the Parish or County Councils, or Parliament, will be sent free to any laborer. Complete set of 53 Trac!ts, price 2s. 3d. post free; or, bound in buckram, JS. gd. post free. Published by the FABIAN SOCIETY, 276 Strand, London, W.C.-Aug. 1894·