The daily morning journal and courier., 1902-02-28

| led in the same way, would make
 showing equally lamentable. So tha
 the facts in regard to poverty in Yorl are of far reaching significance, wei
 worth studying even by Americans MT. RoWntree chooses as his basis tht diet allowed to paupers-so much bread so much meat, Sc. This he takes al
 the minimum necessary to physical ef l fciency." He certainly has not put hi
 standard very high, and after averaging
 the families as to the stomachs to b' filled and backs to be vlothed &c., hi: estimate is that each family, to meet 1t: minimum needs in these directions must have weekly income of not less than twenty-one shillings and eight
 pence, just trifie over five dollars But he finds in York six hundred anc forty families of laborers whose income is five shillings week below that sun who, in other words lack regularly about one-fourth of the amount neces- sary to give them enough to eat and te | keep them decently sheltered and clothed. Altogether the number of peo' pie MT. Rowntree found in York who l enough to keep the wolf from the door or could only have by never spending a penny for anything save the barest ne- cessaries, were about twenty weight per 1 cent. of the total population, and if one accepts the English view that York is only typical in this matter of the other towns of England, one can see at once, from such cold -blooded figures, that poverty is at present the normal condi- tion of more than one- fourth of the in- habtants of the British Islands.
 Scarcely fair is it to compare the con- ditions of English life with those ob- taining in the United States, unless one bears in mind that Great Britain start ed long before we did, and under an en- tirely different system. She has not the affluent resources of America. She has been handicapped, too, by the class spirit and is to-day hide-bound by hQary traditions. Given in England the sense of individualism and the personal ambition which are the birth right of the American. with the same chance for workmen to become masters and with a government as responsive as ours to
  tered, tradition cursed old country would soon give better account of her self. But as things are, to talk of Amerieanizing England is largely non- sense, because it would involve such sweeping changes. And the fact that you cannot Americanize it thoroughly is what makes so difficult and absurd the present craze for Americanizing It along the lines of trade and commerce.
 The inconsistency of this endeavor is glaringly apparent to the British work man at the present moment because ot the demand of his employers that, with no increase of pay to spur him on, he shall still help them to compete with the foreign invader by turning out more work. Upon this point Mir R. Bell, labor member of parliament, said the other day that If English employers wanted to Americanize English work men they must introduce some other American methods, such as the three square meals a day which American workmen demanded--not novels to live in and meals of cheese and bloaters." He himself, Mir Bell went on to say,
 
 thing, but he hardly thought it right for employers to try to Americanize the English workman in regard to his out put until they were ready also to Amer icanize him in his wages.
 In reference to all these blots and blurs on the social and economic es- cutcheon of old England the facts which give hope are that the masses are beginning to see them in their true light and that social agitators are viz orously striving, by books, pamphlets, lectures and increasing pressure upon parliament to remove these disfiguring and disgraceful stains. Should Eng land fail to lift herself by and bye out of the old ruts and to lift her workmen out of their present state of semi pover- ty, it will certainly not be for lack of plans having this object in view nor of parliamentary bills warranted by their authors to accomplish this desirable ob- iect. But sad is it to think that parlia- ment for some time past has been al- most wholly occupied with affairs to come. The cry for home reform is drowned III LHp SCIGdIleS lOI tiIipiiS' Thus, the extremities are having the care which ought to be given to the heart, which in every notion is, after all, the seat of life and the power by which alone it's greatness can be maintained. Striking, indeed, was the truth uttered the other day by an English workman on the platform. "The government tel escopes," he said, "are of too long range I should like to see them broken and other telescopes supplied through which the government might see more of Great Britain ana less of India and Africa"
 But all things come to those who wait, providing they do enough pulling and humping and kicking while they wait and undoubtedly the cry of the poor and suffering in this land will bring it's response in the course of years, if not immediately. Before the present session of parliament there are, or will be, two measures of reform which, if they should pass, would im- prove the social condition and add to