New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1883-04-17
STRUCTURES on MIR. PORTERS LETTERS.

STRUCTURES ON MR.. PORTERS LETTERS.
In the course of his recent investigation OF
the industrial condition of Leeds, Mr.. Porter
wished to see with his own eyes how the mill
operatives and artisans lived. He placed him
self in communication with MIR. Bower, the
Chief Constable, and asked to have special
officer who was familiar with the quarter
tenanted by the working people detailed TO
accompany him. The Chief Constable cOur-
teously granted the request and gave him
most excellent guide, Mr. Wheatley, who had
been connected with the police force for eighteen
years, and whose duty it had been for eight years.
as Inspector of Industrial and Reformatory
Schools, to ascertain the wages OF operatives
for the use of the courts in making assessments.
Inspector Wheatley conducted him first through
the worst quarter of the city, Klrkgate and the
East Ward, and subsequently through the
manufacturing districts of higher class After
their return to the Inspectors office the district
records were produced, and MIR. Porter was
allowed to copy at random sample entries
showing the wages received and rents PAID by
oneratiyes in various trades. These entries,
with the main points of the Inspectors talk and
descriptive notes Of their informal visit to the
workingmen's quarter, were reproduced in due
time in the series of papers on Industrial
England which have appeared in The IRIB-
UNE.
Here was painstaking effort 10 tell the ex-
act truth about the Leeds working classes-thclr
wages, their homes and their manner oil HE.
We regret to observe that The Leeds Mercury
does not appreciate our correspondent honesty
and candor, but is inclined to disparage his or
DERBY and thorough methods OF investigation.
Ii complains of his innocence III accepting the
statements of an Inspector OF eighteen years
experience who had been recommended to HIM
as guide by the Chief Constable OF the city !!
1t intImates that he ought To have known that
the Inspectors experience had been gained IN
the lower strata of the working classes, ana
consequently that no importance was To De
placed on his statements that thlrty-slx shli-
lines a week with house free were the highest
average wages paid to any skilled artisan IN
the city during the past eight years, and, fur
tbermorc. that so far as the Inspectors knowl-
edge went, there was not workingman IN the
boroucb who owned the house in which he
lived. II accuses him, moreover, of gross I'M
fairness in describing the worst quarter OF the
CITY and representing it to be the average
working district. 1t makes these charges IN
reckless disregard of the Inspector 5 protracted
experience and the recommendation oil the
city authorities, the entries from the Official
records. and Mr.. Porters explicit declara-
ton that Kirk gate and the East Ward were
the worst part of Leeds and his subsequent
Dissertation of the manufacturing quarter with
its improvcd homes for working people. 1t
dismisses the whole recital with its authorize
tive statistics from the manufacturers DOCKS
and its duly authenticated passages from The
INSPECTORS Official records as ." an amusing
illustration of the habit of wandering tourists
10 ceneralize from insufficient data"
Apparently, Mr. Porter has been telling
too much that is true about the great indus
trial communities of England. Sturdy John
Bright has an awkward habit of hurting
ont the facts about the wrctchedness
| of the working classes, but nc is an eccentric
| Quaker who is a law unto himself. The
| London journals sometimes contain narrowing
accounts of life in the Black Country, but
these only serve to illustrate the desperate
| straits to which they are reduced To ill their
| columns in dull times when Parliament IS out
| or session. Such episodes are unpleasant, but
Enclsbmen have learned to endure them as
inevitable. But when an American Tariff
COMMISSIONER who is making a special study
Of industrial questions visits one of their cities,
snepds week there in laborious invcstiga-
| tious. and takes the local English officials al
their word when they tell him the results OF
! their protracted experience among the working
classes, English journals struggle to find words
in which to express their Indignation 1t is
gross impertnence, reckless calumny. stupid
( generalization