The daily morning journal and courier., 1902-02-28
ENGLAND,s RICH AND POOR.

POverty-SociaI AgitatiOn-The Gov.
 ernmenrs Long Range Telescopes
 Plans for Relief.
 London, Feb. 19,
 To the Editor of the Journal and Courier;
 King Edward seems as strongly bent upon arouslng England to a proper sense of her needs in view of the com merclal rivalry of America, as does the Prince of Wales, and it is evident that one of his Majesty's pet methods for doing this is to receive in private audi ence, for familiar confab on trade se- crets-to pump them, presumably, of all they know-the commercial magnates of the United States. Since his recep- ton last summer of delegation from the New York chamber of commerce, those favored with the private hand shake, and all the other overpoWering condescensions of royal interview, have been MT. J. Pierpont Morgan and MT. Charles M Schwab, the latter of whom was in audience with his Majesty so recently that he will hardly yet, though he has since crossed the ocean, have divested himself altogether of the elation of spirits consequent upon such an interview. If reports in newspapers are correct MT. SchWab was certainly under the spell of his Majesty's recep- tion when he was last heard from in London, and the remark he is said to 1 have made at that time shows how careful one ought to be, in hob nobbing with kings, not to be blinded by the glamours of royalty to the hard facts of work-a day life.
 The scene was at Waterloo station, when MT. Schwab was en route to the steamship St. Paul at Southampton. The president of the United States Steel corporation had been separated, in the process of saying goodbye to friends, from his better half. Suddenly Mrs. Schwab grabs at the steel magnate's arm and says, in a tone of mingled playfulness and reproach, You've left me without any money, and I want some at once to give to beggar,' when up speaks her liege lord, with memories of Sir Thomas LiptonS country palace and his Majesty's town house full and strong upon him, eXclaiming, Why, you surprise me. I had no idea there was anybody in England who needed money" In a playful tone was this re- mark made, of course, for there is no doubt that even millionaires find it po- lite to be as pleasant as possible when their wives hold them up for money But, as Shakespeare says, "One may smile and smile and"-still be very sar- castle or even very serious, and the question is, had MT. Schwab seen only one side of English life, that which rolls in affiuence and disports itself in pal aces, reaching the conclusion from this one-sided view that he had seen the whole of it. or had he seen both sides the sumptuousness of the rich and titled and the squalor of the poor? In the latter case his remark would have to be taken as parting dab at the shocking and shameful contrasts afforded in English life; an instance of the revolt, ironically expressed, of an American soul, of even rich American, against the appalling fact that in England, where money is so plentiful, there are so many who have to beg for their bread and that, to offset the palaces of royalty and the country seats of the ti tied and rich, there is such vast pro- portion of the working classes who are necessarily without any of the comforts of life while they still toll hard, and without any prospect but the poor house as they look forward to old age.
 10 do justice to England it must be frankly admitted that the conditions of inc o1a n fn h i,,an a1 cta fly in the last twenty five years. Ex- cepting only amongst her two million of farm laborers, wages are higher than they were in every line of employment Notwithstanding the recent statement by the Bishop of Stepney that in Lon don alone eight hundred thousand per sons are living in dwellings, not fit for human habitation, there has been, also, and there is still going forward, a great improvement in the housing of the working classes. In education, too, the opportunities of the masses have of late greatly increased and multiplied. But in neither of these respects is England even yet fin the running" with the Uni ted States, while the contrasts of life are still so enormous, the gulf between
  so acute and the lot of the common la borer so hard and hopeless, that Eng lishmen themselves, in moments of so- Der reflection, stand aghast at the stu- ation, and many of the more thought ful of them are amazed that the work ing classes, who have the voting power in their hands, do not use this fran chise to bring about a complete revolu- tion.
 Not very long is it since MT. Charles Booth, one of the most careful statisti- clans in England, demonstrated in his book, ''The Life and Labor of the Peo- pie of London," that in this wealthiest of the worlds capitals thirty per cent. of the population were living below the poverty line, in houses that are insani- tary and with incomes insufficient for necessary food and clothing. MT. Booths conclusions were backed up by facts and figures so cold blooded in their accuracy that no one dared to challenge them. All that the nation could do was to plead guilty and hide its blushes under purposes of reform At that time, however, there was gen eral conviction that amongst the cities of England London was an exception and that in the other urban centers the population living below the poverty line could not be so great. Imagine, there fore, with what sadness and even shame the people of England have been made to realize by another social investiga- tor, MT. Seebohm Rowntree, that the C1Uitel ri+v 0f tho eunira is fully