The Labor enquirer., 1886-05-29
here, in a never successful search for

aces and castles for the accommodation
of a snob aristocracy; corporations fast
becoming veritable industrial devil
fishes, and throwing their tenacious
arms around the body polite until it is
becoming too weak even to resist; and a
race of landlords sucking out the life
blood of the wage slave. Between these
two extremes are bourgeois class, grad.
ually lessening in number, few OF
whom by luck and roguery steal into the
class above them, but the greater num-
ber of whom are being reduced to the
ranks of wage slavery.
The New York Star recently gave the
names of twenty New York, Boston and
Philadelphia millionaires whose aggre-
gate wealth amounts to $750.O000 1000
most OF which has been accum ulated
during the past twenty years.
Ex-Mayor Powderly, of Scranton,
Pennsylvania, thus describes the women
who work in the coke regions of Penn
svlvania: "The woman stood in the
doorway and was dressed in rough,
loose fitting outer garment and an apron.
Her person from the waist up was ex-
posed. When she stopped over to han
die the coke she caught her hair between
her teeth in order to keep it out of her
Wav. Her feet were encased in a pair of
heavy shoes, and her legs were exposed
from the knees down. Her babe, which
she brought to the works with her, lay
in front of the car, with scarcely any
covering except the shade of a wheel
barrow, which was turned up in order to
protect the child from the rays of the
SUM-"
The Sanitary Aid society of New York
in their report last March, speaking of
1900 tenement houses, says; The in
yestigations reveal state of affairs than
which nothing more horrible can be In
agined TO get into these pestllential
human rookeries you have to penetrate
courts and alleys reeking with poison
GUS gases, arising from accumulation of
sewage and refuse scattered IN all direc-
tions and often flowing beneath your
feet. Walls and ceilings are
black with secret ons of filth. II is
oozing through cracks in the boards
overhead, 1t is running Gown the walls ;
it is everywhere. The rooms are crowded
With sick and dirty children. Often
several families occupy the same apart
ment.'
For one very rich man there must
be at least 500 poor, and the afluenCe Of
the few supposes the indulgence Of the
many" says Adam Smith in Wealth Of
Nations" volume three.
The census reports tel this story more
eloquently than can. and from its
pages we shall learn who has reaped
the harvest of science Mr.. Blaine told
US during the campaign that during the
last twenty years the wealth Of this
country had increased from $l4 .00O,OO0,-
900 to S44, ,OOO,O 100000 $50, ,OOO,OOO,OOO in
twenty years
From page 7O3 volume one, of the
census report, we find that there are en-
gagged in agriculture, professional SER
vices, trade AID transportation, and
manufacturing and mining, nearly H.
100000 persons OF his number there
are engaged in manufactures only-male
and female above fifteen years., $780,
674 and lSl 1921 children. making total
of 2,732,595. These workers we're set to
work on $3.396,823,5 $40 worth of raw
material. They performed an amount
of labor on it that made it produce, as
net value to the operators, (deducting
5 per cent on capital invested for wear
and tear of machinery, 81 ,296, 1928. 600,
making difference in value of about
$1,000, O,0O0,000 of this sum the laborer
deceived $947, ,954 900, thus leaving as
surplus over 81 ,O52,OOO,OOO. 1t will be
observed that the surplus amounts to
more than the wages. Now it matters
not to me as laborer how the surplus
is divided up" among the landlords
usurers, profit mongers. tax mongers,
bond holders, etc. The shifting of the
burden from the usufer to the profit
monger, or from the pro6tmonger to
the rent-monger, makes no difference tC
me. 9 NV share of the wages amount tc
les than $3.50, or just about $ll3 day
for 3l2 days year.
INoTE.-The we'll paid and regularly
employed skilled worker in the city may
be inclined to doubt these figures. He
must bear IN mind that this ls the aver.
age wage. If he gets more it is clear
that somebody gets less. 1tincludes the
wage of women and children, who in
many cases are the chief support of the
family, the parent being displaced bV
the child. Itincludes also the yearly
earnings of those who perchance may
only work six or eight months in the
year.
Whether these census figures are reli
able is not for me to say. They have
been compiled by the capitalistic class,
and have cost millions of dollars. They
are confirmed by the reports of the DIFF
ferent states. The Massachusetts, bureau
of labor statistics gives tho average
earnings as 81 %, or yearly average oi
S35S.2O. Colonel John S. Lord, in th'