The Bennington banner. [volume] (Bennington, Vt.) 1858-1894, 1892-04-01
ENGLISH LIFE AND LABOR.
AN ENGLISH-AMERICAN VISITS HIS
OLD HOME AND COMPARES PRO
TECTED AND FREE TRADE LABOR.

The English Laborer Poorly Paid and his
Living Expenses Greater Than Those
OF His American Brother.
Mr.. William Backwards, of the firm of
Stevens & Be 1wards, plumbers and con-
tractors, has just returned fromia sever
al weeks visit in England. Mr.. Bed
wards is an Englishman by birth and
has large number of friends and rela-
tives in England. BY his own efforts in
this country he has risen to partner
ship in one of the largest establishments
in the West. He came to the United
States when eight years of age, and at
the age of fourteen was apprenticed to a
plumber at Fort Wayne, Ind. His knowl-
enge of men and mechanics enabled him
to look about him when abroad, and his
relationships afforded him additional
advantages. Naturally he was most in
terested in the comparison of English
mechanic and labor with that of the
United States, and his account of his
minute and careful Investigation is very
interesting. A journal representative
yesterday interviewed Mr.. Backwards
about his trip, and his observations are
here given. 1t should be explained that
Mr. Backwards has always been identi-
fed with the Democratic party, though
he has never taken any part in politics or
political discussion, and that his views
are not political views, but those of an
observant and practical business man
who for years was a wage-worker him
self. His trip has made Republican
out of him. The interview was read to
Mr. Backwards, and is just as he correct
ed it.
England is great Nation, and all
Englishmen are proud of it, whether
they live in this country or in England,
but Americans" said Mr.. Backwards,
"learn little of the true condition of the
English laborers. The press, ever boast
full, admits nothing, and even the work
ingman himself has become so imbued
with the idea of England's greatness and
so accustomed to slow going that he
does not fully realize his condition.
Briefly stated, English workingmen get
40 to 300 per cent. less wages than
Americans, and it costs them more to
live. This is not generally understood
in this country, because the cheapness
of their mechanical products has given
the impression that the cost of living
there is less. 1t is only the wealthy who
live cheaper than those of the same
class do in America. English working
men get little more than food, clothing,
and shelter, and the greatest of these is
food. | tried all classes of hotels and
restaurants, and in no case did | get
special orders or meals as good or as
cheap as could in America. The fare
of an English workingman of the mid
die class is almost the same the year
around. In the morning he gets a cup
OF tea and bread and butter, which is
really blu terine, for genuine butter costs
40 cents pound. At o'clock he has
lunch of bread and butter, with cup of
tea or cocoa. At noon he has really the
only meal of the day, beef roast, with
a dish of potatoes, and bread and but
ter. Ate o'clock he has a cup of tea
and a bun OF roll. On Sunday for din
ner he adds plum pudding Beef costs
him from 16 to 80 cents per pound, &C
cording to grade, but he can get the best
American beef there for 16 to 20 cents;
-four costs him 20 per cent. more per bar
rel than it does Americans; eggs 81 to
cents apiece. He gets not much food,
nor much variety, and the cost of his
food alone takes almost his entire earn
ings. AS to shelter, he pays less rent,
only because he uses less room. Not one
labOrer in thousand owns his home,
and in most cases families live in from
one to three rooms on second and third
floors in the cities and in similar quar-
tiers on ground rows in town. For these
they pay more than we do in America
for similar accommodations, and their
rent is less, not cheaper. The rooms
are poorly lighted and poorly ventilated
and in many of them an American work
man would not live if the rent was
free.
81 talked with one man, good tailor,
who had wife and six grown up daugh-
tiers. His wife and daughters had all
learned the tailoring trade, and they all
worked at it and were kept busy. They
lived in three rooms. about by 10 feet
in size each. In one of the rooms-the
kitchen-was an open fire place, where
the cooking was done-the poorer class
have no stoves. In the same room, across
one end of it, was the tailor's bench, and
at the other side of the room was plain
square table, at which four could be
seated. On this table they ate their
meals, the remaining members of the
family sitting on the bench to eat, or
waiting their turn at the table, One of
the other looms was used as bedroom.
and the third was called the parlor. This
was the best life eight hard working
people earned. l called on printer
with work, who was a relative OF an
American friend, and found him, his
wife and child living in one room. These
cases are not selected, but are so usual
as to cause no comment. In fact, that is
the way the majority live. My friend
and invited the printer out to dinner,
which cost us $3.50 for the three. We
had turkey and other dishes, and it
actually made me feel good to see that
man eat. He had probably never before
been able to sit down to that kind of
meal.
Clothing alone is cheaper, but the
additional cost of food and shelter over
that in America, of the same kind, will
amount in two months to what is saved
in year by cheaper clothing. Clothing
is cheaper because the work is done
almost wholly by women and children.
From the back of the sheep to the back
of the wearer the wool is seldom out of
woman's hands. Women clip it, weave
it, dye it and make it up into clothing.
Their highest wages are less than S. per
week, and the lowest about 50 a week.
bought suit of clothes in London and
asked the tailor why it was so cheap,
about one-third less than it would have
cost me in the United States. He told
me this fact about women doing the
work, and told me he had work making
up clothing in the upper floor sixty girls,
and that the foreman received about
$40 per week and the girls from S4.25
down to 81.
GA man about forty who was one of