Union County courier. [volume] (Elk Point, Union County, D.T. [S.D.]) 187?-1913, 1895-06-06
OUR LONDON LETTER.
THE UNEMPLOYED PROBLEM
PRESSED ON PARLIAMENT.
A Free Trade Country with More than
a Million Idle Men-Where Cheap.
mes, and Poverty Go Hand in Hand
The Cost of Sugar.
Five Millions Need Food.

nc AOot OK sugar.
Five Millions Need Food,
London correspondence:
The unemployed question has now be-
come so pressing In this country that q
special Parliamentary committee has
just been appointed to deal with the
problem. 1t Is not expected that the re.
port OF the committee will have any
particular salutary effect for the simple
reason that the whole difficulty is in
our economic heresy of free imports
including prison made German goods
American citizens have just had an
object lesson which has shown them
very clearly what free-trade means
will now tell them what it has done for
the working classes In the United King.
dom. have called them the work.
ing classes, but If matters 60 on at
the present rate we shall eventually
have no work left for our people to do.
The prospect seems to consist of dy.
ing agriculture and a decaying system
of manufactures.
Will 1t be believed that in England
and Wales alone there were 134,OOO
persons relieved at the several poor
houses in one week in February last
This was merely outdoor relief and
does not convey an adequate idea of
the prevailing distress.
Mr.. Kerr Hardie, labor member Of
Parliament, stated in the House of
h0t Full
lion non-trade unionist workmen out Of
employment, or, counting 10000 trade
unionists out of work, grand total of
1885, 900 men unemployed. If we reck-
on that each one of these workmen has
family depending upon him, we may
safely say that about five millions of
people are directly affected by want of
work in England. In one part of Lon
don. with a population of workers of
A. $50 in the district, there are 10000
unemployed. In the London building
trade only 3 per cent of the men are at
present in work. There are 10000 I'M
employed in Bradford, the great textile
district. In the tin plate district the
men have offered to return to work Mt
a reduction of 121a per cent, but the
masters have no work for them.
The condition of workers, even in the
Government service, is often deplora-
BILE. The postoffice is always sup
posed to be splendid institution, but 1t
generally starves its employees Many
of the mail cart drivers work sixteen
hours day for $3.50 to S. week.
There are to-day in the central post
Office in London no fewer than $50 men
sorters who earn less than s. per week.
1t is generally thought that we are re-
ducing our number of paupers. That
is quite fallacious. Taking 1857. the
earliest date available, we find that
in a population of 100000, the num-
Der of indoor paupers in the first week
of December was $4,000, while in Jan
uary. 1894, in Il population of 3O.OGO.-
600. the number was 173, 10. Follow
ing the statistics year by year. we find
a continuous advance in the number Of
indoor paupers nearly keeping pace
with the growth of population. The
case Of male able-bodied paupers Is still
more startling. Between January, 1851,
and January. 1894. the number had in
creased from $4,000 to 391 .319.
In London itself the question of in
door pauperism is phenomenal. 1t has
risen year after year, increasing from
%, 45S in 1857 to 66.614 in 1894, and yet
amid all this starvation, want Of work
and distress our free-trade Govern
mnt admits prison made German
goods free into this country. And it
goes farther yet and sends British con-
tracts for soldiers clothes, arms, ETC.,
to foreign makers because the labor is
cheaper on the continent. This is the
essence of free trade. To get manufac-
lures at the cheapest possible rate, IRE
spective Of any consideration about the
maker.