The States and Union. [volume] (Ashland, Ohio) 1868-1872, 1869-10-13
LABOR N WEALTH.

1t is stated byintelligent British an
thorities that of the twenty millions
Inhabitants of England and Wales,
nine millions are in the receipt2of an
average yearly income Of ESQ, which
is a little less than two shilliags a day,
or, if we count one. other person rs
dependent on each of the other per-
sons with a,two-shilling daily income,
we wave eighteen millions out of
twenty millions of English and Welsh
living on a shilling a day. What an
immense disparity in1the number of
the rich and the poor 1.-The dispro~
portion between their incomes is said
to be as striking as their enormous
disparity in numbers. The class who,
with their dependents, possess yearly
incomes of mare THAI 939U have for
their support 1888 apiece, or about
thirty-five shillings daily, and number
100000. What this means, says one
writer, is Constantly increasing pau
perism millions of money spent, yet
without satisfaction; and, infinitely
worse, millions of human beings whose
very name implies q degradation in
their own eyes" One writer says of
the farm laborer IN Herefordsiiir. s:
His ordinary wages are nine shl i
ings a week +; his ordinary house is tv o
small rooms, through the matched
roof of which the rain drops to aiodr
| naif mud and half broken stopes !; his
laily food dry bread and rough cider;
his normal condition one of ignorance
md squalor." Things can be but lit
tie better off in Cornwall, Devon, Som
'rset and Dorset, where the weekly
wares are only a Shilling antlsix7Fente
.nore than in He-eferdshire. "Mod,
.sty," says one writer, ''must be an I'M
anown virtue 1e.ency an uninae ne
thing, where, in one small bed chant
; + wi h the beds'lying rs thickly as
,iicv can he packed, father, mother.
eolng men, lads. grown and growing
up girls-two, AMI sometimes three
| genorations-are herded proa;scIons-
~" q
Another writer saYs that very few
labo1ers over forty can rea rand writPs.'
a deficiency, h " veF, which. III the
want Of the means bf b re subsist, nti
an scarcely t.. c.;nsit!ered as agsra-
vttp~ the. horrors al the s:tnation.-
rae iowa io!ror.. - sad to be better
| otf, t!iuug!!i ut nu Il. III the tive
| years from 1856 l. 1868 there was IN
| addition OF twenty per cent to the
army OF metropolitan paupers. An
example is given by one writer Of q
heroism in resisting outward circum
stances almost incredible, but which
can scarcely be expected to be other
wise than exceptional: The wife OF
a shepherd earning ten shillings a week,
beside what he got a j amb:ng time,
out Of which sum there had tn be raid
sixty-three shiliings annual house rent
brought up a family of eight girls and
six boys, never had a penny from the
| parish, and never let the girls go OUT
into the field to bacon 9 d~emoralized
| The girls were learned TO read and
write, but tie hoys ere less cdurated,
as three Of t,i,la 5agtn / 50 cUt tt
work 1T SIX Yeurs o. age, and oic ha-
| on this account n been able 10
| learn his letters. S,g,h a weight di
| dest:tuiioa and m;sc.-r as i; indicated
By these Has, willie tfogreHt bulk o
| of the wealth oi.t,.e ,pu"irY is conSos
dated in comparatively feS hands, vii.
ultimately subgert the British Empire,
unless the outlet presented by emigra'
ton prevents a RECOURSE to revolution
airy reforms. There is a moral in Thu
| dep!orable state of things for Ameri-
can consideration. Laborcrs in Amer
ca may find cause for congratulation
in the contrast presented by their own
condition to that which exists among
their brethren in Great Britain, and
the ten6ency.o of class legislation to pro.
duce a similar state OF things in the
United. States can not be too carefully
guarded against and resisted g.