River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1884-01-24
OVER POPULATION.
Star ling Views on Protrusive Pro.
blem.
Fromthe London News.

fFO0buS IL )uuOu ANuNcs
Whichever way we look at the subject,
it is fraught with difficulties, and if we
are challenged to find a remedy we have
to go into question which thousands
of excellent people refuse altogether to
discuss The deserving, poor could be
better housed now without a single
brick being laid or single act OF parlia-
ment passed if they had fewer children
Even in the slums the rents are lower
and the rooms for couples who have on
" two children. In dozens OF instances
where | have asked the denizcns OF
these novels why they pay four and i've
shillings for such vile accommodation the
answer is: "They wons take Us in a de
cent place because of the children"
l know case now of a man who took
a house for himself and family, and
found he had two rooms to spare. The
house was clean and healthy, and he
had dozens of applications from would
be dodgers. But though he was poor
and the extra rent would have been a
godsend to him-they remained uDlet
for four months because all the appll-
cants had three or four children. His
case is the case of hundreds of people
who have decent rooms to let for the
laboring poor.
The large families thes people in
variahly have, not only kept them IN
grinding poverty all their lives, but the
over-ponulation floods the market and
keeps the scale of wages down to starya-
ton point. While supply so enormously
exceeds demand, how can any market
be in healthy condctioE?
Men and women, and boys and girls,
all eager for something TO do, are TO DC
had by thousands, and labor is at dis
count. If the supply diminished, and
the hands were more III proportion 10
the work TO be done, labor would be at
a premium.
We have reached point when it is
absolutely mischieyous to ignore this
side of the question. 1t is not only Ia
Dor that j affected by the rapid increase
in the population; half of the vice and
half the crime we deplore in these dis
tricts is traceable to the same cause.
Did | wish to initiate the French writer
and plunge the reader to his eyes In
horror, | might tell how the lack of em-
ploymcnt brings more children in these
districts into the streets; how girls OF
Ii and II are forced into sin by their
wretched parents as the last desperate
means Of that self-preservation which
we are told is the first law Of nature.
And as the girls in evil times sin at first
for bread TO eat, so the boys begin to
THE e; and we have in our midst vast
human warrens which are simply places
where thieves and wantons are bred,
and poverty and crime increase and
multiply together.
/ have TO desire TO argue Yexed
question or engage In controversy on
the subject which requires the most del
icate handling, but no one who has act
ual experience of outcast London can
keep this one great cause of the tenn
ing misery and vice entirely out OF sight.
What the remedy for it may be 10 no
part of my purpose 10 discuss, but here
again | believe that the great hope is in
the new race that is coming to replace
the old. The next generation will be
more cultured more intellectual and
more refined mental facult es will be
more exercised which have been dor
mant in the poor of to-day, and as we in
crease in civilization 50 shall we de-
crease in numbers. Educ ,tion will
make even the lowest Of our citizens
something better tnan thev are at pres
ezt-mere animal reproducers OF their
species.
California wine makers estimate their
production last year at 5000, 900 gallons,