The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1897-09-10
POVERTY NOT INCREASING.
ON the Providence Journal.

From the Providence Journal.
No form of pessimism seems more firm
ly lodged in the minds of certain classes
of people than that which holds that
under the operation of modern civiliza-
tion, with its industrial system. poverty
is ever increasing in extent and in depth.
There are of course many available facts
to refute such belief; some of them that
have just been grouped together by Col
onel Carroll ID. Wright were the other
day considered in these columns. But
none of these facts seem to make much
impression on some people; with utter
Indifference to the evidence presented TO
them, they go right on believing that the
poor are constantly growing in numbers
and sinking farther in misery. Nor Is the
belief altogether confined to ignorant
people or voiced wholly by political and
social agitators.
Here, for example, is Mr.. Woolworth
of Omaha, enough of lawyer to have Sc
cured an opportunity to deliver an ad-
dress before the American Bar associa-
ton, who seems to be about as thorough
going a pessimist on this subject as one
could hope to find. In the course of his
address he made this sweeping state
ment: at cannot be denied that great
accumulations of wealth in the hands of
a few go along with the process by which
the poor are crowded down in deeper
depths of poverty and more and more
the multitude on the brink is precipitated
into the abyss of hopeless misery, while
their places are in turn filed by the in
dustrious who beg for work and not for
bread" This is a serious charge indeed
against our boasted modern civilization
If it were true 1t would mean nothing
less than the ultimate, and perhaps not
remote, undermining and collapse, of the
whole social struggle that has been built
up through many centuries of labor and
experiment.
But Of course it is not true: and here
are a couple of new facts that. so far
as our country is concerned, go very far
toward disproving it. They are brought
to notice by Mr.. William c.. Hunt in the
July Bulletin of the Department of La
bor, under the head of workers at
Gainful Occupations" He shows us that
the number of children employed for
wages decreased nearly one-half during
the period covered by the last Federal
census. The number of children in gain
full occupations In 1870 was 739 164, in 1890
It was 1,11S,356 and in 1890 it was only
603.0 .0l3 In part, no doubt, this change Is
due to legislation restricting child en-
ployment and to the discovery by en-
ployers that after all child labor is not
| really cheap. But in so large a de-
crease in the number of working children
| at the same time that the population has
| been rapidly increasing we have pretty
| good evidence that the condition of the
poorer classes is at least growing no
| worse, that the struggle for subsistence
| is not growing more severe, that the ne
| cessity of putting every possible working
| member of the family at work is not be-
| coming greater.
Bearing on this same point Mr.. Hunt
| also invites attention to the census fig
ures which show the number of each of
four general classes out of every hun
dred engaged in gainful occupations at
| appears that the number of professional
men, capitalists, business men and farm
ers working for themselves increased
| from 1880 in each hundred workers in
| 1870 to 1874 in 1880 and to 1854 in 1890;
| that the proportion of clerks, salesmen,
| agents, etc, increased from 294 in 1870
10 3.H in 1880 and to $50 in 1890: that
| the proportion of more or less skilled la
| borers increased from 17.41 in 1870 TO 1915
In 1880 and to 2167 in 1890; while the pro-
| portion of unskilled labor, farm labor,
| etc, decreased from 46.15 in 1870 to A. 2G
| In 1850 and to 3629 in 1890 As will be
seen we have here an increase in the
proportion OF men engaged in the better
! paid occupations and a decrease in the
proportion of those working at more
poorly paid tasks. And surely when a
larger proportion of us work for higher
pay than used to be the fact 1t cannot
be said that poverty is increasing in
| either extent or intensity.