Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-08-02
LOWLY OF LIVERPOOL.
Capital There Has Found the Limit
on Which Labor Can Live.
NO HOPE FOR THE WAGEWORKERS.
More Squalor and Woe There Than In ANY
Ten American Cities.
PURCHASING POWER OF THE WAGES

CORRESPONDENTS OF THE DIsPATcH.1
LIVERPOOL, July 31.-With its outlying
boroughs and suburbs, Liverpool houses
well nigh 1, ,000, 900 souls. Its maritime in
terests are enormous, and commercially 1t
no doubt ranks as the second city in the
empire. 1t is a hard, practical city. Its
business men and factors are grim, severe
fellows, stern of decision as New York mill
ionaires, and restless, diligent and uncon-
querable as the men who have set the kill
| ing pace in Chicago.
There is little room for pleasant things in
Liverpool. Its chief and almost sole gal
lery of paintings was given to the city by
graduated rumseller, whom Victoria, out OF
| surprise and wonder, no doubt, made q bar
onet. Although one of the worlds greatest
depots for the book collector, it has but one
library of note available to the public
Charities are done in perfunctory, petu-
liant manner, as though the helpless were
most ill-mannered in selecting busy Liver
pool to starve in. And its hundreds of
thousands of working men and women are
treated with less consideration than cattle.
GROUND BETWEEN MILLsToNEs.
With few shining examples, it is city
of commercial Gradgrinds on the one hand,
and public house devil-fish on the other
The lowly have sad lot between them.
Nobody here wants it that way. Nobody
here believes it is that way. A few men,
like Sir James Poole, are endeayoring to
help the masses to better things and are
finding a little time from business affairs
to do something practical and good
But as rule the men who own great fleets,
who exchange half the English-speaking
worlds raw and manufactured products,
push forward in their money-grabbing
career like automatons of stone, and their
fellow humans are counted as coal, iron or
cotton are computed in loss or gain.
In studying the condition of the lowly Of
any great city, the demand for labor, wages
paid, and the cost of living, are the first
things to be considered. These things indi-
cate how the people might live, if possessed
of all prudence and sobriety. How they
really live, and why, is another matter.
There is seldom dearth of labor in any
great seaport. Liverpool has always stood
high in percentage OF labor demand. The
city has never been subject to the relentless
overcrowding of manufacturing towns like
Leeds, Manchester and Birmingham, or the
destructive greed of tremendous and endless
immigration, as at New York.
Fifty thousand men are alone constantly
required in the various forms of dock labor.
This fact will sufficiently indicate the
almost measureless business ramifcations
requiring uninterrupted service. Steady
labor and plenty of it is the rule. The
least possible wages upon which the work
ers may exist also prevail. The best paid
men among the $4,000 laborers employed
upon the docks are the stevedores who load
and unload the ps-''lumpers" they are
called-who get shillings per day, and the
dock porters or goods" handlers, who re-
ceive sixpence less 'Lorrymen" or cart
meu with two horses tandem earn 80 shill-
ings, and, with one horse, 26 shillings. The
police are paid from 20 to 80 shillings,
with corresponding deductions to event
ually pay for their own pen
sioning when too old for further
service. A gateman at the Exchange Rail-
way station told me he had been in the
same service 16 years and had never re-
ceived above 10 shillings per week; and no
manner of employe about these great sta
tions is paid upward of 20 shillings. All
grades of clerks, porters and statesmen and
women about the markets receive from to
IS shillings. Tramcar drivers get as high as
"a shillings, but conductors never above q.
BARRIERS, caretakers or janitors and watch
men, mi1kmen, bakers men, grocery and
market trap drivers, express and railway
package and freight collectors receive only
from 10 to 1s shillings; while corporation
day laborers are paid from 16 to 20 shil1ings
per week.
PAID Low BECAUSE THEY STEAL
Liverpool cabmen are the most woebe-
gone lot of their kind in the world. Cab
owners occasionally rent hanson or
brougham to a trustworthy fellow at
stated sum, but there are not so out of
nearly 5000 that have arrived at this dig
nifty in their calling. The remainder get
from IL to Is shillings per week. One pities
these fellows. They are lame, halt, blind,
veinous-nosed and palsied. without suffi-
cient spirit for genuine viciousness. had
thought the Havana cocheros the most beg
carly set of these fellows on earth. But if
you wish to observe at one study all that
could be seen in all the British workhouses,
reformatories and hospitals for incurables,
station yourself anywhere on Crosshall
street opposite the municipal buildings,
near St. Georges Hall, or at the landings
on any steamer arrival day, and cast
glance down along line of waiting Liver
pool cabmen. have asked several cab
owners why, in the name of human
existence, such mockery of wages is paid.
'sW'y, blow their bloody h'eyes! they rob
us juss so much hany ow," is the universal
rejoinder.
"Couldn't you book them for each trip
and fare2"
go aye, some hon N dooes that VERY
thing. Then they rob the fare Cpassenger)
at th' hend O. the journey, an picks oop a
back fare hon US beside. Theys a passel O.
pirates, is they!"
HELD BY HOPE OF ADVANCEMENT.
The clerks of Liverpool are not to be en-
wed. Male clerks employed in the great
warehouses, refneries, insurance offices, in |
the gigantic cotton trade, and in the myriad |
shipping Offices, are the victims of most |
iniquitous system. It is true that few |
head clerks, accountants and Office managers |
receive from 20 to 40 shillings per week, |
and manage to lead comparatively comfort
able lives. But fully 80 per cent give
their best years, from 16 and IS to
30, at from 6 to Is and 20 shil-
ings per week. They are deluded in
to this sort of slavery by the glittering
hope of advancement Tremendous
wealth and its power are all about them.
They slave like beasts and dream of ulti-
mate place among the money kings of Liv-
erpool. After years of faithful service, and
at time of life when no new career is pos
sible, they are met by the stonewal of in
difference on the part of their employers;
helplessly see the posts of trust about and