Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-07-24
LIVING IN ENGLAND.
Pr0digi0us Efforts of British Editors
to Pacify the Workers.
CURIOUS REPORT FROM CHICAGO.
Actual Prices Paid in London by q Corre-
spondent of The Dispatch.
WAGES LOW AND NECESSARIES HIGH
rconxEsrospxscr or THE DISPATCH. ]

ing interest on both sides of the Atlantic is
the relative cost of living in England and
the United SIates.s The English press, al
ways ready with an opinion on this subject,
has been discussing it for some days with an
assiduity which, in view of the pending
campaign, is somewhat suspicious. There
has been published recently report from
the British Consul at Chicago on wages and
the cost of living in the States of what we
know az the Middle West. Whether this
report was timed by tha authorities here so
as to make its appearance just before the
election do not know, but it has unques-
tionably been used for election pur-
poses. 1t is held forth as
sort of soothing syrup for the
disturbed spirits of those classes who have
come but lately into their political heritage,
and who, from the recklessness of new
found freedom and the desperation engen-
dered by long years of oppression, have
threatened to upset things in this staid, old
land, both politically and socially.
To adapt such report to a purpose like
this has not been easy, and can hardly be.
lieve the undertaking has been successful.
Not having read the report In full, re-
frain from adverse criticism upon it. But
to the conclusions drawn from it in British
newspapers can do no otherwise than dis
sent in the most emphatic terms. I cannot
believe, in the first place, that such infer
ences are warranted by the report ITSELF
Indeed, from what have read of it, know
they ale not; and even though, by any pos
sibility, the statement of British Consul
should be found to justify them, I am posi-
lively certain that these opinions would
find no countenance in the facts Of the case.
They Concede the Higher Wages.
1t is admitted in the comments of the
press that wages in the United States are
far, very far, in advance of what is paid in
England. 1t is even conceded that in some
branches of industry the average earnings
of the American worker will amount per
week to double the sum pocketed by work
ers in the same lines over here. But the
cost of living-there's the rub, they tell us,
and their assumption is that the relative
difference in this respect is fully enough, if
not more than enough, to make up in Eng
lands favor for the relative difference
shown in the wage sheets of the two coun-
tries. This position is taken and strenu-
ously maintained by every English paper
that has fallen under my notice
since the matter came up for
special discussion, and it will certainly
be through no want of pleading on the part
of ponderous British editors if the notion is
not crammed down the throats of the
British public One paper, an influential
London daily, warns those who are thinking
of emigrating to the United States to look
before they leap, and its warnings are
emphasized by the astounding observation
that "bad as is the condition of the British
workman, we think that he is much better
off than his brother in America
Now, what propose to combat in this
letter is the assumption, which hold to be
altogether baseless, that living in England Is
so much cheaper than it is with us: and, dis
carding details for the present, shall offer
only few cursory observations upon this
point. If workmen can buy their neces-
saries at so low cost as is claimed, it will
surely transpire that living in general can
be conducted at a low rate, for it is incon-
ceivable that the general public would put
tion altogether to those paid for the same
articles BY the daily laborer. What, then,
are the facts?
As regards the cost of things to the aver
age resident one sees at once how far
fetched is this idea of cheapness if he only
looks at the two items of railway and hotel
rates. To travel OH the English railways in
a style at all comparable with that afforded
on ordinary American cars, you must travel
frst-class Even then YOU will get no con-
venience, beyond that of :airly comfort
able seat, and the rate will be cents a
mile. Second-class costs about the same as
the American first class, that is, 8 cents a
mile. Of course you can take third-class
ticket if you like, which will cost cent per
mile less than this. But your standing is
impeached by riding third while others are
riding 6rst-class on the same train. You
will 'tget there" Just as soon, but you will
neither be go comfortable in body nor so
happy in mind.
At frst-class hotels in large towns you
will be entertained, of course, on tine Euro
pean plan. The lowest price for iairly
good room will be four-and-six, with one
and-six for attendance. This means 81 80,
and if afterward you fee the many persons
for whose attentions you are supposed to
have paid, but have not, in the extra one
and six, it will mean s. Your meals you
can take where you please. But it will be
a poor meal of any kind, and poorly served,
which you will get for less than so cents,
barring, of course, the English tea,
and here again you will have to
drop twopence for the waiter each time. So
you will be running closely upon the Ameri-
can So so a day rate. But it is common,
and little humiliating, to have to get
meals, for economy's sake, outside the
hostelry where you are putting up; and yet,
if you take them at these cheap English
hotels, look at the cost. Seventy-fve cents
for breakfast, 81 25 for dinner, so cents for
tea, and if you take the regulation "fourth"
meal, be it lunch or supper, about IS cents
more which foots up for the day, including
room, hotel rate of something over S..
That's how cheap living is in England-if
you put up at fairly good hotel.
English Workers Do Not Travel.
To weaken the force of these observations,
it may be said that the ordinary run of peo-
pie do not trouble hotels, and that those
who do patronize them can afford to pay
we'll for their entertainment. Which may
be quite true, but business men and those
who travel, whether in England or Amer
lea, are compelled to patronize such places.
Not only, therefore, may we properly bring
them into account when the cost of living is
under treatment, but they may surely be
held, in the scale Of charges they maintain,
to express in some measure the current
value OF at least the comforts and luxuries
of life, if not OF its ordinary necessaries.
AS to railway travel, here the case is much
stronger, for the poor man has to use the
train as well as the rich. He does not
travel so much as his fellow toiler in Amer
lea, because he cannot xtord to do so. He
would probably travel more, and, in conse-
quence, know more and enjoy more, if his
wages were better, and he might do it even