Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-08-21
TlLLERS OF THE SOIL.
How the Farm Laborers of England
Earn So a Week.
ALMOST IN THE PAUPER CLASS.
Since Honest Hodge Got . Vote He Is
Faring = Little Better.
WHAT he HAS TO PAY FOR HIS LIVING
rooRREs poNpENcE OF THE prsrArcR.,

(coRREs PoNDENCE OF THE pIsPArcRI
LONDON, Aug. 12-"Honest Hodge" is
what the townsfolk call him, and this
quaint parsonage has shot recently into a
remarkable degree of prominence over here.
For long years the agricultural laborers of
Great Britain occupied position not far re-
moved from absolute serfdom. To-day, how
| ever, his situation is quite different The
last half century has been period of re-
markable progress in England, and it was
only natural, while the country generally
was receiving such floods of enlightenment,
that a few struggling beams should find
| their way into the obscure abode of the
agricultural laborer.
"a A little knowledge creates thirst for
more, and in 1870 this was met by uni
versal diffusion throughout town and coun-
try alike of the advantages flowing from
the common school. Then, after Is years
more, when Parliament, having enfran-
chised every other class of British labor,
could brook no longer the scandal OF refus-
ing the ballot to only this class, Honest
Hodge was exalted at last to the full dignity
Of voting citizen. This occurred in 1885.
since which time, as a matter of course, he
has been much thought of by many of those
who formerly held him to be beneath no.
tice. The truth is, indeed, that this mod
ern arbiter of elections, who has twice
turned the scale against his former masters,
is just now one Of the greatest personages
in the realm. None are too rich to do him
homage, so lar as fattering expressions
may serve that end, and so wisely, from the
standpoint of Number One, has he used
his newly-acquired privileges as voter,
that it has become serious questionable
real question of the hour with the Liberals
if some additional sop must not be thrown
to this cunning old whale before the Irish
question can be safely tackled.
Very Little Better Than Paupers.
Politically the agricultural laborers are
on top in this country and we may we'll be-
lieve that it is only question of time until
justice will be done to them in other re-
CARDS. How much room there is for i'm
provement in the social and material situa-
tion of this worthy, but down-trodden class
of Her Majesty's subjects, is SO fagrantly
apparent on all hands that one who is
familiar with the better conditions of
American life hardly knows, while study
ing the problem, which of two feelings Is
the stronger within him, a sense of compass
sion towards those SO odiously Disseminated
against, or a sensation of utter disgust with
the institutions and people which make
such things possible.
To saw that the agricultural laborers of
England, as class, are in a state of abject
dependence does not express the whole
sad truth of the case. They are, generally
speaking, little better than out and out
paupers. Their meager pay has never suf-
feed to meet even the most rudimentary of
their wants, and the result has been that |
they have had to depend in large measure |
upon the aims doled out to them by public |
and private benevolence. 1t does not re- |
ieve this dark picture to say that their |
masters and so-called superiors have been |
willing to help them when the pinch has |
come. Those who have lived luxuriously |
upon the fruits of their toll could we'll |
afford to do this, and considering how |
poorly they have requited their hirelings in
wages, it would have been worse than |
heathenism in these leisured classes to have |
acted otherwise. But charity which is given |
to supplement inadequate wages is only a |
wicked sham, and as to its effect upon the |
recipients, while it may be efectual enough |
in allaying hunger, its final influence upon |
the manhood of those relieved by it could |
only be corrupting and debasing one.
Charity That Amounts to Bribery.
1t has been repeatedly alleged since the
election that the agricultural vote was won |
over to the Liberals by species of bribery. |
In division where happen to be we'll ac
quainted, and where the Liberal candidate |
was reelected by largely-increased ma
jority, the charge is made that this gentle |
man for six years past had been making |
himself "solid" with the laborers by judici- |
Gus gifts of money in answer to begging |
letters. There is hardly a villager, they |
say. who in that time has not brought to
this gentleman's notice some real or imagi- |
nary crisis calling for help, and hardly any,
they tell me, have appealed in vain. Ali |
this I can readily believe. I am not in
clined to doubt the iudlcious benevolence
of the average candidate for Parliament,
and as for discounting what is implied in re
gard to the begging propensities of the rura
laborera know too much of the prevail
ence of this tendency, from my own ac-
quaintance in various constituencies, to |
thing of doing such thing. But granting
that the laborer generally is not above ask
ing aims, and that kindness to him along
this line may influence his vote somewhat
granting this and what, after all, does it
suggest? Upon whom does the blame fall
for such things? If Honest Hodge has had
largely developed within him the instincts
of a pauper, where is the responsibility
for such q sad result2 If the rare
sight of sovereign, put into his
toll hardened hand to be all his own
has the pernicious effect upon him which 1t
is alleged to have, who can be surprised at
such phenomenon when it is remembered
that he has never received that much-per-
haps never more than three-ffths of that
amount-for hard weeks work in all his
life? And "a to bribea the naked fact Ia |
that he has been bribed continually to good
behavior, to proper respect for his supe-
riors and to due estimate of his own social
by the aims which it has been
necessary to dole out to him q the only
means Of enabling him to keep body and
soul together upon his beggarly wages
Wages OF Three Dollars Week.
It Is the old story of sowing to the wind
and reaping the whirlwind I know per-
sonally of vast districts Of the best agri-
cultral land in England where the wage
rate is IS 3 week, and in some
possibly find few places in England
where shilling or two moro is paid, but
laborer getting above $3 you would
have no trouble at all In finding
dozens who fall below that figure. In tho
to which have referred the uni
form wage year ago was 30 30. At that
time, grain having gone up, the farmers
granted rise. But this most unstable of
.he staples. Sowing to the blooming imports
from Yankeedom and elsewhere" as the
ncensed Britisher put 1t, has now fallen
again, and what the result will be, unless
Hodge shall rise up million strong to pre-
rent 1t, can be easily imagined. Out Of
he wages indicated above the farm laborer
)ver here has to nav houae rant. and what