The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1869-10-13
Wealth and Labor.


1t is stated by intelligent British authori-
ties that of the twenty millions inhabit-
ants of England and Wales, nine millions
are in the receipt of an average yearly in
come of e35, which is little less than TWO
shillings day, or, if we count one other
person rs dependent on each of the persons
with a two-shilling daily income, we have
eighteen millions out ofthe twenty millions OF
English and Welsh living on a shilling day.
What fearful disparity in the number OF the
rich and the poor. And the disproportion
between their incomes is as striking as their
enormous disparity in numbers. The class
who, with their dependents, possess yearly in
comes gilmore than e3OO, have feE their sup
port f633 apiece, or about thirty-fve shil-
lings daily. and number only four hundred
thousand. What this means, says one wri-
ter, is constantly increasing pauperism; MIL
'lons of money spent, yet without satisfac-
'.tion, and, infinitely worse, millions OF hui
''man beings whose very name implies de-
';gradation in their own eyes" One writer
says of the farm laborer in Herefordshire:
''His ordinary wages are nine shillinSs q
"week; his ordinary house is two small
s.rooms, through the thatched roof Of which
s'the rain drops on to floor half mud and
''half broken stones; his daily food dry
"bread and rough cider; his normal condi-
''tion one of ignorance and squallor. "
Things can be but little better off in Corn
wall, Devon Somerset and Dorset, where
the weekly wages are only shilling and six
pence more than in Herefordshire. "Mod-
'esty," says one writer, ''must be an un-
'.known virtue; decency an unimaginable
ching, where, in one small bedchamber,
"with the beds lying as thickly Us they can
''be packed, father, mother, young men,
'lads, grown and growing-up grls-two and
sometimes three generations herded
"proniiscuously."
Another writer says that every few labor
''ers over forty can read and write" def
cheney, however, which, in the want OF the
means of bare subsistence, can scarcely be
considered as aggravating the horrors OF the
situation. The town laborer is said to be
somewhat better of, though not much. In
the two years from 1866 to 1868 there was
an addition Of twenty per cent. to the army
Of metropolitan paupers. An example is
given by one writer Of heroism in resisting
outward circumstances almost incredible,
but which can scarcely be expected to be
otherwise than exceptional: 1.-THE wife OF
shepherd earning ten shillings week, be-
"sides what he got at lambing time out OF
(which sum there had to be paid sixty-three
"shillings annual house rent, brought up a
"family of eight girls and six boys, never
chad penny from the parish, and never let
''their girls 60 out into the field to become
''demoralized. The girls were taught to
''read and write but the boys are less edu-
''cated, as three Of them began to go out to
''work at six years of age, and one has on
'this account never been able to learn his
"letters" Such weight Of destitution and
misery as is indicated by these facts, while
the great bulk of the wealth of the country
is consolidated in comparatively few hands,
willtask to the utmost the resources Of the
statesman and the philanthropist. The dis
ease is plainly seen, but the remedy is not
easy to be found-even in ruinous rev.
olution.
Thore is a moral in this state of things
which we may take to ourselves. The Amer
lean laborer is we'll paid and is protected in
all his rights. The contrast between his po-
sition and that of the English peasant is as
pleasant as it is startling. And if the labor
ing people appreciate as they should the adj
vantages OF their situation, they will strenu-
ously oppose class legislation, which tends
to bring about the state Of things we most
desire to avoid.