Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1901-05-17
EnaIish and American Workmen.

English and American workmen.
A well known American student of
sociology, Eltwcrd Pomeroy. has been
making careful study of the condi-
tions of the working classes of Eng
land and comparing them with our
American waEe-carneIs. He has
written, with p3instaking care and I'M
questioned fairness. Il series of articles
on the subject for the Boston Trans
script which are of much interest. He
starts out by declaring that as to
physique the English of the working
classes are markedly inferior. Even
the soldiers show it. The troops gath
cred at Warwick. ready to depart for
the South African war. were under
sized. puny. ,scrawny. with hardly
physically fine man among them"
OF course. in the leisure classes there
are well-groomed, we'll set up men and
women, but such are rare among
the masses in England. You would see
strong faces, faces that expressed
character and ability, but the we'll
formed bodies We're far rarer than
with us. The British race has either
deteriorated physically or else it was
not a good race to begin with. And
this last 1 do not believe"
Yet the hours of labor of the Eng
lish work people are generally less
than in America. The Saturday
half-holiday is far more prevalent.
But this observer insists. as SO many
others have testified, that the Eng
lish workmen do not accomplish so
much in given time as do the work.
ers of this country. Nor is this larger
amount of achievement necessarily
taken out of Americans. as an
English labor leader has suggested. for
our people are better paid. better
housed and better fed. Their superior
physical condition enables them to do
more work in less time with less
fatigue. All these now familiar eco
nomic truths Mr.. Pomeroy unhesitat-
ingly corroborates.
English workmen's houses Mr..
Pomeroy describes as sometimes pic
turesque at a distance, but uninviting
Rents are higher in England for the
same accommodations, but usually
the American workman spends more
on rent because he wants more
commodious and better home" AS to
food, Mr.. Pomcroy pronounces the
English diet far less varied than our
own. Scotch oatmeal is used. but the
great variety of our wholesome cereals
is yet undiscovered. Meat is a little
higher: flour about the same. Alto
getber food in England seems to be a
little more expensive, and although it
is sold in smaller quantities. which
make it easier for the man with
small income, yet "as the British work
man has a smaller income than his
American compeer he has less to
spend on his food, and on the whole l
do not think he lives so we'll
In one point and one alone could
Mr.. Pomcroy see that the English
workmcn had a real advantage. ana
that was in the lower cost of wooden
clothing. But the rcady-made clothing
business has not been developed i'll
England as it has in America, and it is
not so easy for the workman to procure
suitable garments. One result, ac-
cording to this observer, is that good
WOODEN clothes were worn much lon
ger, until almost thrcadbare."
MIR. Pomeroy sums up as follows:
"To sum up, the British workman is
not so fine a man physically as his
American fellow: he probably works a
short time less in a week. receives
about two thirds or three fourths the
weekly wage takes less interest in his
labor and has an easier time at it.
does not turn out the quantity of work,
so that his labor though it is paid less
per week Is inOTe COStly. Ills houoiib
is ugly. crampcd, and with discom-
forts that the American would not put
with, and costs him for less COM
Portable accommodations as much or
more. His clothing has less shoddy in
it than the Americans and for the
same quality costs him less. His food
costs him as much or more and is less
varied. His general expenses are
probably much less, and certainly his
cooperative methods of buying and
of insuring himself are away ahead of
ours" All this throws much light upon
the fact that England is gravely handi-
capped in her industrial conflict with
this land of freedom.
The news that Mrs. McKinleys ILL
ness in San Francisco is considered