The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1874-06-04
White Slavery.

In times past the philsnthropists, of
England used to expend great deal OF
sympathy upon the negro slaves in the
Southern States. With them, as is gener-
ally the case with philanthropists who go
about to find objects of sympathy and
commiseratien, chaity should have begun
at home. The white slavery of England
is worse in almost every aspect than was
the negro slavery Of the South at any time.
True, the white slaves of England cannot
be sold. but their condition is generally
worse than the plantation negroes of 6f-
teen years ago.
These assertions are fully borne out by
the statements officially in the English
Blue Book for 1878. We will take sin
gle class OF the English working people
the brick makers--as an example. One
of tie inspectors says he found to be "a
mos barbarous, semi-ciYiliZsd, Ignorant
set Men and boys look like red Indians;
the sand used in brick making being burnt
red their bodies are covered with it. they
work bare-headed, bare footed, with ex-
posed breasts, and with wild looks. DRINK
| ing all day Sunday; Monday and Tuesday
dog fighting and man fighting, They re-
sumo work on Wednesdays, when the poor
| little unfortunates, (that is the children Of
both sexes, who are made to do the hard
est part of the labor), are made to toll
away stamping and carrying, and press
ing, and pressing good fortnights work
| into three or four days. One man who
last week earned in four days % shillings
($6, so in gold) took his wife home q loaf
of bread and six pence"
The rest of the money had been absorbed
in beer and dog fights and SIMILAR smuse-
ments Under the law children less than
twelve years of age are not allowed to be
employed in manual labor, but this stat
ute is constantly being violated. especially
in the region known as the Black Country
An instance is given III the Blue Book
where one man who earned by his OWE
work 5000 year, made his son Of twelve
years oldwork allnight-every night from
six p. N. to six a. m. During the day the
boy had to 90 to school, and out Of the
twenty-four hours he had only seven fol
meals and sleep.
The condition of the brick makers i
dWelt on at length, until one is lead Z
believe that Oriental slavery would be
paradise in comparison; and yet it is no
to be compared with the condition of tn
laborers in the salt mines of DroItwitch
Both sexes work together during the night
and intense heat Of the works causes a.
evaporation which seon spoils clothing an
reduces it to shreds, so that both men ant
women, boys and girls, work together in
= state bordering upon nudity. The scene
' inthese mines are described as being sim
+ ply too horrible to be dWelt upon, an
chastity and all the decencies and propri
/ cites of life are wholly oblitsrated froI
e the laborers of both sexes, and they al
e reduced to a state of brutality compare
: with which the social life of the forme
o plantation hands Of the South, wss th
= most exalted refinement.
r What applies to the brick makers an
salt miners is true to greater or less o.
d tent with every class of the poor laborel
q of the kingdom. The Blue Book read
- like some Wierd romance, and the produ
d ton of a crazed brain, and yet it Is the 81
d ber statistics of government officials, wh
e hardly seem to appreciate the true signit
eance of the facts that are too startling
n be prosy, even under the mechanical ms
( nipulation Of official automatons. An
II these conditions are not the result of
a system a few months or few years oil
e They date back decades and centuries, an
ar are part of the economies OF the matte
a itseff-if such term is allowable, Wi
d all her boasted civilization and hberalit
v England regards her working men as siI
ply beasts of burden, intended by ratu
IS to feed and nurture the extravsgence
r. her blue-bIooded aristocracy. The nj
9 spent sympathies of England which
Ie daily and hourly waited TO our shore
r should be applied at home, for the m
,e lions of brutalized human beings at
o- own doors are not the victims of me
40 poverty and accident, but the inevitaE
outgrowth of system.-E'Tehange.