New-York tribune., 1879-01-02
HARD TIMES IN ENGLAND.

HARD TIMES IN ENGLAND.
The English papers OF late date are full OF
speculative articles on the causes and remedies
| for the coming financial crisis in that cOun-
try. They regard it usually with character
| isiC national phleGm, which, under the clr-
| crmstances is not so heroic after all, IA the
writer's Of leading articles do not usually
belong to the starving classes in Sheffield or
Manchester. The remedy suggested is, as a
rule, emigration. That Is to right all evils
England" says The Pail Mall Gazette as
well as America, has plenty of waste lands
"and scope for her spare population. Eng
lishmen, individually, show no signs OF de-
{" cay, and the capacity and energy which
"once put them at the head OF the world
"may yet suffice to keep them there" 1t
concludes long and labored article by say
ing that " az it is foo probable that no speedy
change for the better may be expected, we
"must look matters in the face as the Ameri-
"cans did IN 1873"
There are one or two errors in this view Of
the case which will materially alter the result,
and alter it for the worse. In the first place,
it is not true that Englishmen are as well pre-
pared to look hard times in the face and to
battle them down successfully as Americans
did five years ago. Hard times came to Amer
leans because they were too well-fed and we'll
clothed, and in consequence cxtrayagant.
Like the pampercd beast of old, the nation
waxed fat and kicked. When depression be,
gan. the only thing necessary for the mass of
the people t. do was to economic, and they
have done it thoroughly and energetIcally.
But in fact the economy of poor man in
America in the very hardest Of these
later years would he regarded by n
Yorkshire laborcr as lavish extravaganza.
This continent, be it remembered, is a
vast granary and drOveyard. Our people
are the best and most cheaply fed
nation on the earth and after all, when you
| talk of hard times, the question of food is
| the basis of all argument There has not
been, and cannot be, in spite of all financial
| depression, any question of real starvation in
| this country.
| But England, or to be exact, the classes in
| England who suffer from hard times, cannot
I" face them as we did in 1873" simply be-
| cause they come to meet them already half
starved. The lack of substantial fool for the
agricultural aborers i'll England and Scotland
has been a matter of statistics for twenty
years. A farm iabOrer with three or four
children does not see fresh meat on his table
| twice in the year; his food is bread and
bacon, such vegetables rs he can raise,
lard on Sundays instead of butter, tea and
coffee, and beer when he can get it. The
effect of such undertaking has been marked
in the rapid deterioration of the lower classes
| during the last two decades both in bodily
strength and in character. The British peas
ant well fed and decently housed in America
or Australia shows to-day all the obstinate
| grit, the domestic virtues and endurance be-
| longing to his Saxon blood Bat at home, in
the novels of York shire OF the slums Of Lon
don, there is not, we venture to say, more
stupid, unable, drunken animal counted as
civilized than he. God forbid that We should
point out these vital points Of difference be-
tween the two nations with any boastfunesS
The instinct of blood is us strong between us
As brothers. The fault of the English work
ingman Is his poverty. Ont OF that has grown
all his ignorance and his Inefiicency. Another
fatal effect of it has been that, being poorly
paid Tor his work, he has made his work Door
He has learned naturally TO give as little AS pos
sihe for the LITTLE money paid. American cot
| tons are pushing the English out of the English
market because the latter "arc thin and highly
dressed" This is but an individual sign of a
general condition. Nobody who lives in Eng
land will fail to perceive that ii is the rule with
the English mechanic or laborer to slight, or
as they call it, oliiml his work of every sort
or degree. to give as little genuine labor as pos
sible.
These are not the people who will succeed
when shipped off to her waste lands, "in bring
- ing England again to the front of the world"
Ii would DE as well for the English press to look
facts squarely in the face, especially when a
season of lrightful deStitution Is apparently but
just beginning. 1t will not be met either by
phlegmatic indifference or vague bOastings.
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ELETATED RAILUIr SCANDILS
When the East Side Elevated Railway was
first opened there were loud complaints of
the crOWding OF the cars, the dangerous