This Labour Department has grown imperceptibly." "What _is_ this Labour Department ?" asked Graham.
"In the old times, how did you manage with starving people ?" "There was the workhouse--which the parishes maintained." "Workhouse! Yes--there was something.

In our history lessons.

I remember now.

The Labour Department ousted the workhouse.

It grew--partly--out of something--you, perhaps, may remember it--an emotional religious organisation called the Salvation Army--that became a business company.
In the first place it was almost a charity.