The Daily state journal. [volume] (Alexandria, Va.) 1868-1874, 1872-08-14
The Poor or England. ,

I. /
\ The Poor OF England.
Strikes are becoming rather the rule than
the exception in England, and their spread
among all the classes of work people excites
comment bordering on alarm. In the build
ing interest the discomfort spread from the
carpenters and masons to the plasterers,
the smiths and the painters, the question in
dispute being, there as here, as to the same
compensation for less work. The example
of these more prosperous and mechanical
trades, who have, after long struggle, re-
duced their hours of labor while their pay
is still at as living a rate as formerly, is
having its natural effect upon other labor
ing men who wish to share in those advant-
ages. aiF 'tA ''AH @is iHi.+
4 So long as strikes were confined to the
trades they did not so much as interest the
general public, but as the movement
spreads among those on whom most we'll
te-do persons depend for their personal
comfort, it attracts more attention, and
suggests, like the rise in coal, private dis
1 treSS. ..u -tl sal q -.'fl..Iu & 20 -a
! Among those who havellately threatened
ito strike are the London police Their
chief demand was an increase of wages and
a pension after twenty-five years. service,
! be content with promise that the latter
demand should be granted, it would, we
doubt not, be given with the utmost alac-
rity.
| Nevertheless, it means something in
London, where length of seryice.dependso on
good behavior and not upon how we'll a
man can ''run the machine" in his ward.
The demands of the London policemen will
probably be granted as both reasonable
and just, and the city people not be left, as
they began to fear they might be, without
protection. a m n.-
n The postmen propose to follow the police
mems example, their complaint being the
same, of too much work and too little pay.
They may find it hard, however, to get a
i favorable hearing. A policeman must be
an able bodied man a postmSn need not
necessarily have the qualification of great
strength and courage, if he is only a good
4 walker. The fact stands in the way of
their being listened to patiently, that boys
can be and are hired as letter-carriers at
u low wages. Not so with the omnibus
drivers; it requires large power of endur-
ance to sit, as the London omnibus drivers
are said to do, fourteen or fifteen hours o
day on their boxes, in all weathers, with
only fifteen minutes intermisson the while
for hasty meal. These men are propos-
ing to combine for their own protection,
but as their labor, severe as it is, can hard
ly be called skilled labor, they wiilspro-
badly encounter difficulties.
Il Harder still is the case of the seamstress-
es and the milliners. They work as many
hours, if not mere; their labor is far more
wearing, and they are far more poorly paid
than the omnibus drivers. A feeble cry
comes from them now and then and they
appeal to the men of their class to include
them in the demand for some relaxation
from toll. But it is only feeble cry they
can do nothing by combination, for they
are too issolated and too spiritiess to COM
| bine. So their case is passed by in Eng
land as it is here, as that of the class most
pitied, most neglected, and most HOPELESS
of all others. The sewing women is to be
content that we listen to 1.-The Song OF
the Shirt, and sing and say other
pretty and sentimental things about her.
But the most remarkable movements Of
. all are those which have been made in
Yorkshire and Lancashire. They should
rather be called lockouts than strikes, as
: their object is to compel compliance with
: terms III those who receive pay. They
seem to be in the hands of woman exclu.
siyely, and began with the determination
, to put down the price of milk. That was
? successful. Next they tried the butchers
! in some places refraining from eating meal
altogether, unless it could be bought at 8
T. certain price, and IN others using the pre-
= served meats brought from Australia ii
|. place Of fresh meat.
: The women are determined, and hold or
4 with admirable courage, and the butchers
e are obstinate. In one place, Hudderlield
the position is complicated by a new NOV
OF the butchers, who, protesting against tn
r high price of cattle and the exclusion o
f healthy foreign stock from the Englisl
g market, have had all their shops closed b,
agreement for about fortnight. So tn
women of Hudderfeld are obliged to g
It without fresh meat whether they will 0
it no. 1t was, no doubt, their own act, how
& ever, which compelled this practical rotor
Z of the butchers, and so far the movement
e for cheaper meat is successful.
IS This sort of evidence of determinatio
1t on the part of the poor people of England t
:. improve their condition is shown by the Ia
j. borers of all classes all over the country
re including even farm laborers and railwa
III porters. If England were filled with ths
4, pauper labor we have heard so much abou
1e there could be no general movement Of thi
kind, which shows the existence of mean
to fall back upon. 1t shows, besides,
of growing intelligence in the people, who al
Or not content with bare subsistence,
es Clumsy and mistaken as their way of evinC
J. ing it, it is nevertheless the evidence
2, thrift, and thrift that thinks.-N. ]
ID Ereni,ig Post.