'Charity that Heals': The Scottish Labour Colony Association and Attitudes to the Able-bodied Unemployed in Glasgow, 1890–1914

Abstract

Almost a hundred years ago a labour colony came into being at Mid Locharwoods near Dumfries. It lasted for eighteen years. During this time over a thousand men volunteered to live and work there, seeing it as a temporary escape from urban destitution. The idea of using labour colonies as a solution to the problem of vagrants, inebriates and the unemployed was part of an important shift in social policy that saw paternalistic notions of charity provision typified by the work of the Charity Organisation Society eroded by the idea that individuals had a right to social welfare. This shift in focus would eventually result in the introduction of labour exchanges, a system of national insurance and an intense debate over the Poor Law. However, as Professor Ian Levitt has observed, in the pre-1914 period the debate still centred on the questions of to what extent the state should intervene in welfare provision, and to what degree it should determine the social behaviour of those it assisted. It was not until the inter-war period that tensions created by class interests and the strong voluntary tradition of Scottish poor relief were reconciled.1 The labour colony movement was important in this transitional period, and can be seen as a response to two inter connected problems: how to deal with the cyclically unemployed; and what to do with those who would not, or could not, work. In its examination of the labour colony question in central Scotland, this article deals with two important matters neglected by Levitt. The first is the significance of the Mid-Locharwoods labour colony, which receives only a footnote reference in Levitt's book.2 It will be argued that, although one of the prime functions of Scotland's first labour colony was to maintain the work ethic and prevent able-bodied men from slipping into pauperism, it was also part of a grand scheme to establish compulsory labour colonies for Clydeside's 'undesirables' thus addressing both social problems highlighted above. The orientation of the colony also highlights the ideological standpoint of the Charity Organisation Society which is examined in some detail and its role of determining who were the deserving poor. The article also touches upon the labour