The workingman's advocate. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1864-1877, 1871-05-13


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To-day | shall give you the following
extracts from DR.. Michaelis' PamPhlst
on the. sanitary state Of the industrial
population of Saxony:
afhe food Of our Saxonian working
meas families consists Of potatoes,
bread, butter, so-ealled cofee, and
somstimes little sausage and eheSse ;
| in (Pruss;an) Silesia they drink less
coffee, snd have water boiled with
bread, -four or potatoes, instead of sea-
soned only with salt-slse the food 10
the same. Meat IL served only ON feast
days, and then not regularly. These
kinds Of noarishment which In them
selves are not unwholesome, produce a
psrnicious effect BY their exclusive use.
With the exception Of the sausage,
cheese and butter, the common food Of
the working classes ID Of vegetable or
igin but on vegetable produce alone
man cannot live, and the sausage, cheese
and butter, which are eaten i'm very
small quantities. are not BY far sufficient
to make up for the want of n nitroge-
neous meat diet. Il ID very difficult to
discover the average quantity of meat
consumed by the different classes and
groups Of tie population. However
there exists no doubt that In our isdus-
trial districts the quantity il much
smaller than i'm the townss and agricul-
tural districts. According to my OBJ
servstions and researches the annual
consumption of food in the industrial
districs (of the Erys6trys-the Ore
Mouatains) il for each grown person
as follows: Potatoes 10000 pounds /;
bread $500 pounds meat from
So pounds. In Silesia the quantity
Of potatoes consumed annually In still
larger (about TOO pounds) while that
Of meat 10 less BY two pounds CD,
the consumption of bread being pretty
equal. With regard to the so-called
coffee it must be mentioned that it In a
compound of adulterated ingredients,
containing very little real coffee. and
having q tendency to weaken the d.
gestive faculties. 1t il obvious that
with such scanty diet the state Of
health cannot be favorable one. The
mortality amongst the children Of the
Iindust .ial poor is something frightfnl
general statistical numbers the author
10 unable to give, but from the fact
that the average length Of life OF these
classes 10 but halt of the average
length for the whole Of Germany, il
must be concluded that the major
ity of the children die short
" after their birth. The lodgings ore
unwholesome, the families are crowdet
together, and there Ii no proper VENT
lation, especially in winter when, Il
save the warmth, no window il opened
and the contrast between the hot mir o
the rooms and the cold air OF the at
, mosphere 10 apt to lay the seed Of nj
kinds of diseases, of the respirator
} organs, Rheumatism, etc.
} The wages are very low; the lao
J makers are happy if they get thale
: 10 groschen 81 or A shillings Eng
lish) q week often they have less, an
} every year has its bad time, when the
have nothing nj all. The weavers hav
when timessare good from thaler
groschen to 2 thalers ($1-elf or A.
shillings); in bad times, which are b.
4 coming the rule more and more, the
. starve downright like the lace maker
+ The miners are somewhat better sitn
. ated their wages are not much highe
D than those Of the wesvers, from
. tn Ter 20 groschen-2 thalers 10 Ut
/. tl4 or 5 shillngs to shillings) b.
then their work il more regular. Tn
, poorer q man is,the better an object {
: prey il he. Our Saxonian weavers ~
: chiefly beset by the parasitical race {
4 middlemen (Factors il their local de
, nomination. who advance the workin
men the yarn to weave with, and tax
a the finished cloth from them to the mer
chants. Not satisfied with poeketing
pxrt Of the wretched wages paid by ID
merchants as q remuneration for th
trouble and risk they have in advanG
. ing the raw material and i'm deliverin
the manufac .ured article these middle
men contrive TO extort large sums owe
' and above, by imposing exorbitan
fines for real or imaginary faults In th
work done, which 6nes must be pai
= unless the poor victims choose to los
their work altogether and be starve'
to death. Lately some associations q
weavers have been founded in th
Ergebirge, who are in direct communi
! cation with the merchants and % avoi'
the middlemen. But the merchants a
. body look unfavorably on these asso
Citations and prefer employing the mid
dlemen, and from that reason the bene
&c derived Ia out Of proportion with tn
magnitude Of the evil, the associate
: workmen being o trifing minority CON
pared to those who are forced to kee
and enrich the middlemen I? Beside
4 1t must not be forgotten that even
the associations became general, n rad
. ical improvement would not be effectet
l the wages would soon fall to the lev,
) of the rate actually paid TO the worn
\ men now, and the sole change would b
that the difference, instead of goin
!. into the pockets of the middlemer
would find its way into the pockets &
the merchants. The whole trade
doomed; the handloom cannot stan
against the powerloom. In England
has been driven out Of the field already
i'm Germany il 10 how undergoing th
same tate. The process 10 . slow one
of oil creatures, man has the greai
; est powers Of endurance. 1t il impo
!, sible to say exactly where the starvin
point ID For one man it is Q little higl
: or, and for the other little lower; an
I with our surplus population there al
J always plenty Of tough people. dificu
: to be starved to death. I'm Englan
!, the process lasted for fully three gene
atoms and still some solitary handloo
wesvers are struggling there. In Ger
l many the war was begun more tina
}. thirty wears ago. and il in the aeoon