The Liberal Reforms

Why were the Liberal Reforms introduced?Because of two men called Charles Booth and Seebohm Rowntree, who exposed the truth behind poverty and helped to get rid of the Victorian mindset that poverty was solely the fault of those in poverty, i.e. if you were poor that was because you weren't trying and working hard enough. There was no government help for the elderly, the sick or the unemployed. The only help for people in poverty was either help from other family members or alternativley workhouses ran by local councils. These provided basic food and shelter in exchange for long hours of labour in horrendous conditions. Seeing as there was no state pension for elderly pension, often the only option for them too was the workhouse.Also, the Boer war helped to highlight to politicians the state of a lot of people in Britain. It was found that approximately 1/3 of British troops were physically too unfit and malnourished for war. This brought about the fear of decreasing national efficiency.In addition, the reforms united the Liberal party more and helped the Liberal party stay in power, seeing as the Boer war and the research of reformers such as Booth and Rowntree highlighted the problems so in order to stay in power, the Liberal Party had to take action and introduce reforms so that people would carry on to vote them in. You could also mention how Rowntree and Lloyd George

Charles BoothCharles Booth was a successful business man born in Liverpool on the 30th of March, 1840. When Booth was 22, his father died so Booth took over the running of the Lamport & Holt Steamship Company. Booth was an energetic leader and soon added a glve manufacturing concern to his expanding shipping interests.In the 1860's, Booth became interested in social issues as a result of his wife's friendship with the socialist Beatrice Webb. He had informed himself about the reports of poverty in London and had a suspicion that the claims made were exaggerated, so decided to investigate it himself with a small team of researchers. He expected the percentages to be lower than the claimed 25% (of people living in poverty in London), however over 19 years in which he collected data on the poverty situation in London and published in total 17 volumes of Life and Labour of the People of London in which he uncovered the truth about poverty in London and found that actually, not 25% but around 33% of people in London lived below what he called the poverty line (meaning unable to afford decent food, clothing and accomodation).Most importantly he showed that it wasn't down to indolence (laziness) that people were poor, but most often due to low wage, casual work, trade depressions and old age and illness.

Seebohm Rowntree (Benjamin Seebohm Rowntree)Rowntree was the head of a famous confectionary company in York and also a committed social reformer. He was born in York on the 7th of July 1871 as the third child of Joseph Rowntree and Emma Seebohm. Like his father, Rowntree also believed that it was his duty to help the poor and disadvantaged people and on Sundays he taught at the York Adult School and also visited the homes of his students in order to obtain first hand knowledge and understanding of the problems they faced. Inspired by his father's work and also the work of Charles Booth, Rowntree decided to carry out his own studies in York and after having spent two years on the project he published Poverty, A Study of Town Life in 1901. In his study, Rowntree distiguished between families living in primary and secondary poverty, primary poverty meaning families which couldn't afford even minimum necessities to life, whereas families suffering from secondary poverty had the sufficient income but were however spending that money on other things, some of them being "useful" and others - such as spending on alcohol - was "wasteful". His study provided a lot of statistics on wages and work hours, nutritional needs and food consumation, health and also housing. His book showed the failings of the capitalist system at the time and how change had to come about in order to solve or better the problems of unemployment, old-age and illness. Rowntree was a strong supporter of the Liberal party and hoped that the conclusions to be drawn from his study were to be adapted as a party policy. In 1907, Lloyd George (at the time President of the Board of Trade) met Rowntree and the two became close friends. The following year, Lloyd George became Chancellor of the Exchequer and introduced a series of reforms that were introduced by Rowntree

including the Old Age Pensions Act (1908) and the National Insurance Act (1911).Lloyd George asked Rowntree to carry out a study on the rural conditions in Britain. In 1913, Rowntree published his study, The Land, in which he argued that an increase in small landholdings would make agriculture more efficient and productive. That same year, Rowntree also pulished How The Labourer Lives, a detailed study of 52 farming families.Rowntree continued his work and published many more of his studies, such as Progress and Poverty (1941) and Poverty and the Welfare State (1951). IMPORTANT TO GCSE: Rowntrees main conclusions of his first study:- Poverty was generally caused by old age, sickness or similar factors, not generally the result of being lazy or careless with money- The poor often suffered from the ups and downs in Britain's trade cycle. Clearly, ordinary people could not be blamed for these changing circumstances that were putting them out of work and into poverty.- In York, 27% of the population lived below the poverty line.- The state should introduce policies that were to protect the very young, the old, the sick and the unemployed.

John GaltNot an as well known reformer as Rowntree or Booth, however, John Galt also played an important role in raising awareness as the

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