Morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven [Conn.]) 1848-1894, 1892-09-22
PAUPERISM In ENGLAND.

PAUPERISM IN ENGLAND.
Condition of London's Poor-Lack OF
Employment and Widespread Pau
perism - Dark Prospects for the
Coming Winter-Low General Aver
age of Wages-what Policemen Get
Light on the Low Rent Theory.
LONDON, Sept. z.
To the Editor OF the JOURNAL AND COURIER:
1t often happens in the art of photogra-
ply that the most characteristic present
ments are taken by the instantaneous pro.
cess when the victim is off his guard, and
on the same principle it has occurred to us
that We could give American readers no
truer idea of the situation of the working
classes in England than by presenting to
them few "snap shots" taken casually as
the English papers have passed under our
notice. Robert Burns seems to think that
the highest wisdom was in seeing ourselves
as others see US; but the people of Great
Britain will surely penetrate quite far
enough into their appalling social problems
if they totally ignore what others say, and
consider only the facts which are daily
spread before them by their own country
men.
Here, for instance, is the last quarterly
report of the registrar general, which
shows that the average number of PAU
pers, exclusive of vagrants and of those
confined in lunatic asylums, on the last
day of each week in the quarter was $685.
299, and which points out that this means
proportion of 1927 per one thousand of
the population. Then, simultaneously
with this exhibit, Keir Hardie, NJ. p, the
new Parliamentary leader of the labor
forces of the land, comes forward and
tells us in the New Review that, basing
his estimate upon the returns from the
board of trade, there are at least six hun
dred and fifty Thousand men out of work
in this country, and without the visible
means of earning living. "This," he
adds, sis grisly fact in our social system
which we cannot for ever go on ignoring" !"
and surely he speaks timely truth in this
ominous reminder.
What the situation is in this city the
public has Just been informed by a letter
from Mr. William Crooks, an influential
member of the London county council.
We give only brief extract. 81 shall
perhaps be forgiven" he says, "for daring
to call the attention of our statesmen to the
fact that notwithstanding the election the
people are still in want, misery and squal-
or. The outlook for them is distinctly
dark and dreary; already the pinchings of
forthcoming commercial depression have
been felt, and every month during the
winter will, unless something is done, tell
it's horrible tale. I should like to know,
therefore, what our Liberal, Tory, Social
list and Labor hobby riders are going to do,
or suggest should be done, to find employ
ment for the eighty thousand men who
will in oil probability be out of work in
London. Don't let us morslizs over the
causes of poverty, but as practical men
see what can be done to prevent actual
starvation" at looks ugly, does it not, 1"
he asks, "to speak of actual starvation
but unless steps are taken to meet the ter
rible trouble Ii is inevitable" This is the
picture Mr.. Crooks draws for Us, and sure
ly, being an influential Londoner, 1t is not
conceivable he would exsggerate or would
set down aught in malice.
Perhaps, too, in an advertisement which
is paraded before them at all railway sta
tions aud on almost every bus anu tram
ticket they get, the people over hore may
find suggested to them one of the causes
of this lack of employment and wide
sure, however, because anything that Ia
distinctly political is little out of our
line. But the advertisement is headed,
;,, II anlnn nd
what it says is, that last year the British
people laid out more than a million and q
half of dollars upon foreign matches,
whereas, if all consumers would only pat
ronizs the home firm who thus makes its
appeal to them, that firm would be able to
pay out five thousand dollars a week more
than it is now doing in wages. As to
what wages amount to in this country, we
have an inkling afforded us in a leading
article have just read in the Daily Chron-
icle. This most progressive of the Lon
don dsilies, in commenting upon a Blue
book which gives the statistics of labor in
few special lines, is arrested at once by
the London policeman; that is, it is struck
by the showing made as to his pay. Il is
surprised to note that the wages paid to
policemen in London (three hundred and
ninety dollars year, are only thirty five
dollars more than the general average for
the country at large. But We venture to
think that what will still more surprise
Americans will bs to find the general aver
age SO low. "We cannot think that we
pay too highly for quiet life" it contin-
ues. "when We give q police constable
twenty seven shillings and ten pence, a
sergeant thirty y-eight shillings, and an in
spector of police fifty-fve shillings and
nine pence a week." and we quite sgree
with this obsaryation.
Having waded through the figures of
this Blue book, the Chronicle further OBJ
serves: "Without being drawn into de-
tails, we may remark that most of the po-
lice are paid twenty to thirty shillings,
most of the roadmen fifteen to twenty five
shillings, most of the men at the water
works from twenty to twenty-five shil-
lings, and in the case of the gas workers
the mems wages are mainly distributed
within the limits of twenty to thirty-fv
shillings per week" Counting a dollar to
be worth only four shillings, the highest
wage given in this last summary is eight
dollars and seventy five cents, and the low
est three dollars and seyenty-hve cents.
"But it is not to be forgotten" Gays this
paper, "that there lies grave danger of
fsllscy in the application of average fig
ures, and that there may be keen pinches
of want in the lower ranges that contrib
ute to very respecta BILE average" Which
caution we emphatically endorse, though
where the respectable average" lies in the
case in question is another matter; posi-
bly, it is the implication that lies. And
all these things, barring, of course, the
feeble pleasantly just attempted, are thing
which the English are constantly saying Of
| themselves.
And here are few more snap shots o.
the same tell-tale kind. Vestry employe,
are those who are engaged in various ca
| pscities upon the London streets and thu
public works going forward here, ant
scarcely week passes that the papers d.
not report some big demonstration of thes
workers In behalf of an increase in tn
pitiful wages doled out to them. We Civ
two samples. At one the men in the EN-
ploy of the Greenwich board of work
protest that they are getting only twent
shillings week, and have been refuses
any addition to that sum. The other wa
an open air meeting ''to call attention." a
the bills said, ''to the miserable rate O
wages paid by the Marylebone, Padding
ton and Hampstead vestries." AT thi
meeting it was proclaimed-so the paper
inform us-that the wages paid at Pad