The Cincinnati daily star. [volume] ([Cincinnati, Ohio]) 1875-1880, 1877-08-25

BY the whole human race before the
utilization of the powers OF steam. And
yet, how the British laborers have been
profted by the services Of this vast in
dustrial army Of non-consVming labor
ers, will appear from paragraph from
the pen Of Mr.. RuskiD, an eminent Brit
ish writer, which says: "Ihough Eng
land is deafened with spinnlng-wheels,
her people have no clothes; though she
is black with digging of fuel, they die
of cold; and though she has sold her
soul for grain, they die of hunger"
GAS in the reigns Of the Tpdors Eng
land became an oligarchy Of landlord
ism, now it has become an ollgarchy OF
wealth." These are the words of Gold
win Smith in 1872. This oligarchy oil
Mammou has been raised to- power Dy
this lnnumerable host of non-consuming
laborers to which we have referred.
Meanwhile, the real laborers, those who
consume as we'll as earn, have been left
to compete with these millions of nom
consuming laborers; left to abide the
strife OF muscle against machinery. In
his conflict, the British laborer has be-
come serf Of the loom, as his ancestor
was a sert of the castle; and from this
vassalage there lis no possible emanel-
patton by any forms of law. Wealth Is
now the oligarch, and labor is its vas
sal.
OF all forms of oligarchy, that OF Nam,
mon is the meanest. There is no pow er
so oppressive and unrelenting as the
power, Of wealth. Other tyrants may
have intellect, wealth has none; it is
merely material. Other autocrats may
have moments of compassion, wealth
| has not; it is utterly unsympathetic and
selfish. To "buy cheap and sell DEAR y
s the sum total of its creed and cate
chism. Under this oligarchy OF wealth
as affirmed of England by Goldwir
smith, one of Eugland's foremost
writer's, British labor has been reduced
to helpless and hopeless svassalage-
helpless, because crushed under the jug.
gernaut of poverty; hopeless, because
The oligarch enacts its laws. Under
! such a combination of circumstances
1proletariat becomes inevitable.
II is under this system that, as statet
by Sir Robert Peel, the Lancashire chill
dren were compelled TO labor one hun
| dred hours of each week, including si1
hours on Sunday for cleaning their ma
| chinery. Under this oligarchy, as the
| London Spectator aftirms, it Is that chill
| dren of both sexes, from five years o
age up to sixteen, are actually sold b.
their wretched parents to gang-master
at pitiful sum, out of the direst poV
erty: and that these children are com
pelled to walk from five to seven mile
OUT and the same back, besides ten hour
of continuous labor per day. And th
same authority proceeds to say, tina
"amoEg these poor wretches ctvjtlzdtt0
disQDpeayS; and the most infamous az
ions are boasted of with a shameless
ness rarely found among savages." Th
| }
1872, says: "The condition OF the agr
cultural laborer in most districts is
!, opprobrium and calamity to the nS
ION. The thing is Disgrace and d01
1er, The wages these laborers obtain
a shame. The condition of their hove
is shame. The general and inescapab
prospect of the poer-house tor their oil
age is a shame. They are in conditio
, differing from slavery only because 1t
infinitely worse"
Another British writer, DunckleJ
Y says of the manufacturing districts
i Lancashire: ""Only one-third Of the Pc
Pile were employed, and the poor-ta
;. had been trlpled in five years. The nj
earnings of 1908 families averaged on
: Is. I'd. (28 cents) a head per wee
Il Among these thousand families thel
, we're found only 466 blankets, not qui
q one to every ten persons. In Wiga
o the whole receipts of 1000 families,
O all laid out for bread, would furnish on
- % ounces to each person day."
o. Kirk, in his "Social Politics in Gre
n B itain," 1870, says: "There are nc
!. 70, 900 persons in the east end of Londt
II who mnst emigrate speedily or die
! Smith, in his account Of the brick-ya
Il work Of England, says: "Children, mai
m of them girls, are engaged for thirte
.c nours day in carrying on their hea
IS Jumps Of clay, weighing 40 pounds, frc
in the clay heap to the table where t
II. bricks are made" This rate requir
10 hem to carry, each day, nine tons
70 clay distance Of SO yards, tor 35 Ger
y wages. The Contemporary Review
ot March, 1872, says: "Our laborers' DIVE
ings are a national disgrace"
,o These are British authorities that
ot are quoting. And when such con
rs tion as they describe obtains, how C
to anything but degradation be expecte
ct In this regard we quote Mr.. Milps
at proval OF a German writer, who sa.
ot whilst in respect to the work
% which the British workmen have be
N. specially trained, they are most skillt
"a they are In conduct the most disord
,,o IlY. debauched, and unruly, and least