National Republican. (Washington City (D.C.)) 1872-1888, 1884-09-09


trios may be taken as fairly typical in
making comparisons between the United
states and England, and fair study of
all that Is implied in the foregoing table,
the accuracy Of which is beyond question,
shows a difference in favor Of the Ameri-
can laboring man that is simply startling,
the average percentage in his favor being
20. This difference of rs per cent in favor
Of the American worker is really tho
difference between comfort, good food and
| clothing, means Of education and mental
Improvement, and grinding poverty,
scanty food, and enforced ignorance.
In England everything is bent toward
cheap production. Her metals and tex
tile fabrics crowd and sway the worlds
markets, but this result is attained at the
cost Of her ill-paid and suffering workers.
Her industrial system is the creation of
500 years, at the end Of which her labor
is bound hand and foot, with no hope of
rising out Of their present hard condi-
tion, other than the hope held out by this
land of promise. In Manchester, Brad
ford, and other oenters of manufacturing,
the wages earned are barely sufficient to
support life, and leave nothing for rocre-
alton and home comforts 'The agricul-
tural laborer looks with envy upon the
beasts of burden" says high English
authority. His condition il hopeless;
once peasant always peasant. From
pamphlet published in London few
months ago the following extracts graph
ically show the condition of humble labor
in London:
We ask woman who Is making tweed trous.
| ers how much she can earn In a day, and are
told one shilling But what does day mean
to this poor soul? Seventeen hours From d
in the morning to 10 ut nighttime pause for
meals. She eats her crust and drinks little
tea as she works, making in very truth with
her needle and thread not her living only hut
her shroud. For making mems shirts these
women are paid l0d, dozen; lawn tennis
aprons Sd. a dozen, and babies hoods, from
Is Cd to 2s, Cd. q dozen. In st. Georges.
the-East large numbers of women and chill.
dren, some of the latter only years old are EN-.
ploycd in sack making, for which they get a
iathing each. In one house was found q
widow and her halfidiot daughter making
phiiAuonua uk i/lu iitIt 10 u NDIllHit VIM
has Il sick husband and little child to look
aitor She is employed at shirt finishing at ID
n dozen, and by the utmost effort can only
earn Cd. a day, out of which she has to find
her own thread. Another with crippled
hand, maintains herself and Il blind husband
by matchbox making, for which she is remu
ncrated on the liberal scale mentioned above
and out of her 2l4d. II gross she has to pay
girl penny gross TO help her. Others obtnir
at Coyent Garden in the season Id, or ID.
peck for shclling peas, or Cd. basket for wal
nuts; and they do well II their labor bring
them l0d. or shilling day. With men IL is
comparatively speaking no better.
my MASTER" says one man visited by a re
cent writer in the Fortnighly Review, "gels
pound for what he gives me Ss. for making.
And this II is easy to believe, when we know
that for pair of fishing boots which will b
sold at three guineas the poor workman re
ccivcs bs sd. If they are made TO order, or dS
Cd. If made for stock, An old tailor and hi
wife are employed In making policemen
overcoats. They have to make, finish, hot
press, put on tho buttons, and find their owl
thread, and for all this they receive 2s. lOd
for each coat. This old couple work from 63
In the morning until 10 at night, and betweel
them can just manage to make u coat in tw
days, Here Is a mother who has taken ava
whatever articles OF clothing she can str
from her four little children without leavin
them absolutely naked. She has pawne
them not for drink, but for Goals aud food.
shilling is all she can procure, and with thi
, she has bought seven pounds Of Goals and
loaf of bread.
This is tho result Of FREQ trade to th
poor in England, and Is the feast to whicl
/ democracy invites the workingmen O
, America.
: The condition of labor in England 4
: tho logical outcome OF system tha
1 makes the results Of mans toll of NOR,
) consequence than the man himself. TIL
republican policy of protection is exactl,
| opposed to this idea, and enables Amori
, can manufactures and industries to pay
wages that give the workingman not onl,
q subsistence, but the prospect Of HON
: Of his own Of recreation and comfort 70
a himself and his family, and of education
= for his children. Tho beneficial result
r of the republican idea arc shown prsotl
4 cally in the tables Of wages referred to.