Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1892-10-22
MODERN SLAVERY.
WHAT FREE TRADE MEANS IN ssMERRIE
ENGLAND"--woRKIEe IN THE SHADOW
OF THE POOR HoUsE-woMEN TOLL

Tree trade poilcy, went to England TO
learn with my own eyes what free trade
had done for the wage earners of Tat
country and to report to you the facts as
they existed there. Many years of my
life have been spent toiling as mechanic
and l know from my experience what
fair days pay means 20 the workingman.
If every workingman in America could
go where l have gone the last two months
and see what | have seen among the work
ing classes of England-could take with
him the picture of the comfortable and
contented homes of our industrial classes,
well fed and we'll clothed, and contrast
them with the wretched places called
homes in "Merrie England"-if, say,
all of you could have Travelled around
among England's workers as l did, there
would not be one among you who would
not denounce as traitor to the Nation
the man or the party that advocated q
free trade policy for America.
FACTS NEVER coNTRADIcTED.
Though my report to you four years
ago went into every city and village in
this country, and was mailed abroad as
we'll, l have yet to hear the facts therein
stated contradicted or my deductions
challenged. The free trade press has at.
tempted to dispute the truth of my state,
nents. have taken the same care thi,
summer to have my data as to wages and
ways of living indisputably established,
and l undertake to prove to the satisfac'
ton of any unprejudiced man the truth
of every line in this document.
PIIIABLE PICTURE REPRODUCED.
l left New York last July and returned
/ to it two weeks ago. In that time Travelled
the Black country, as it is called, of Eng
/ land, visited many of the same places
and saw many of the same faces as four
years ago. Time had not dealt kindly
with them, especially the women, the
/ sound of whose hammering on the anvil,
the clank Of the chains at which they
work and the noise OF the pit upon which
they shovel and wheel coal, were still all
| too horrible 10 the ear OF one accustomed
/ to seeing the mothers, wives and sweet.
hearts of his fellow workmen comfort
ably housed and spared the terrible bur-
| dens which these unfortunates have to
bear.
Where throughout our broad land are
our women made to slave like beasts OF
burden--ill paid, poorly fed and c!al,
and looking only to death to relieve
them from the toll to which in life there
is no ending2
Free trade! mol Slave trade! And
even worse than that it is, aud the eye
that can witness the spectacle undimme1,
or the heart that does not go out
IN sympathy, has no place for humanity.
But free trade is the cause of it,and for
that reason is the curse of England.
ENGLAND's ARMY OF rAUPERs.
On the steamer gong over picked up
Whittaker's Almanac, and found from
its pages that there were 977. 42l pau
pers in Great Britain in population of
80, 246 562. That is l to every SO peo-
pie. According to our last Federal cen
sus we have only 1926 paupers among
the IS, 900. 000 in the United States, or
1 in every CAB of population. One per-
son in every IL in the United Kingdom
needs parish relief to keep HIM from
starvation. 1t cost $43, 467, 345 last
year to support England's paupers.
In London, out of 9 persons who die,
2 die in a workhouse, hospital or other
public institution: in Manchester 1t is
about 1 out of every 5, and in Liverpool
and Birmingham, l out of every s. A
couple of years ago return was issued
by the Glasgow medical officer of health
IN which he showed that in every 100
houses in Glasgow, 30 consisted of only
room, A Of 2 rooms, IA of rooms, Z
of rooms, 5 of 5 rooms and upward.
is IT PROTECTION VS.. FREE TRADER
What commentary on the condition
OF the people of the two countries! The
one the greatest protectlonist Nation in
the world and the other the leading ex-
ponent of tree trade. The one having
its people contented and well fed, and
the other starving or paupers. Remem-
Der also in making this comparison that
our country is annually adding to its
population hundreds of thousands OF
immigrants made up of the poorer
classes from foreign Nations, and that
they form the larger part of our pau
pers.
PAY OF ENGLISH RAILWAY MEN.
Liverpool reached, my next move was
to get to Wigan, sixteen miles distant,
at the entrance to the "Black Country, :"
where IS, 900 people are said to live but
really only exist. At the railway station
of the London and Northwestern road I
learned from the engineer in charge Of
the train that he got $1.3S per day of ten
hours. On express trains the pay is
$3.50 for ten hours; fremen get 81. 81.
The conductor told me he had 81. 80
per day; that trackmen had eighty four
cents; track layers, $4.S6 per week
laborers, $4.20; machlnists, first class,
S7.6S, and second class, $6.72. Talking
further with this engineer, learned from
him that he had two children at work re.
ceiving 81 68 each a week, while his wife
worked in factory for $3.50. He lived
in three rooms, for which he paid 81. 80
rent ger week. Let railway employees in
America compare these wages with their
! own-more than twice as large!
Wigan again, and Bailey's Court
What picture of hopeless misery and
/ despair it is. The sunshine of life shut
out by clouds darker and thicker than
those hanging over the town. From
tall chimney tops columns of black
smoke shoot upward; from great build
ings, SCOT covered and begrinued with
the dust of ages, are heard the hum of
turning wheels and the roar of busy ma
chinerv; trucks laden with stuffs more
precious to England than human life
the tokens of her boosted commercial
supremacy over land aud sea-fill the
streets with deafening noise, while long
rows of low brick tenements, tive stories
high, with stone floors, with little win
dows, stfording scarce breath OF pure,
fresh air or a ray of bright sunshine,
stand as mute reminders that the pass
ing throng of poorly dressed men aud
women have places they call home, how
ever little of home there is in them to
an American eve.
food cost as follows: Butter, IS cents
per pound; flour, Is cents per pound;
beef, s to % cents per pound; pork, IL
to IL cents per pound: sugar, As; rice,
s to 16 cents; cheese, II to L. cents;
milk, cents per quart; chickens, 40 to
90 cents each; potatoes, 20 pounds for
2i ceuts.
THE STORY OF TWO BUTCHERS.
Two butchers who live there told me
something of their existence, One has