Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Benton County, Or.) 1900-1909, 1905-04-14
LIVING IN ENGLAND.
It Is Really No Cheaper than In This
Couufrv

Country.
The accuracy of an official statement
made by United States Consul Hal
stead at Birmingham. that living was
no cheaper in England than in the
United States, having been questioned
by certain authorities in this country.
he has made supplementary report
on the subject to the state depart
ment. From this it appears that the
original statement was based on the
experience OF certain American tube
welders working in the Birmingham
district. The statement caused much
surprise, as it was contrary to the
general understanding. One newspa-
per urged that If living in Great Brit
ain was not appreciahiy cheaper than
In the United States there was no rea-
son for protecting the highly paid
American workman. Consul Hal
stead says that that Is not matter
for him to decide He adds that that
papers proposition to lower the scale
of living of the American workingman
had better be addressed to the Ameri-
can workingman direct.
II only state very plain fact" says
Mr.. Halstead, "that if the English
workingman nvtd as well as his Amer
lean brother workingman his living
expenses would be as great or great
er than the living expenses Of the
American. Surely there Is nothing OBJ
jectonable in stating fact SO plain
and SO easily verified. Everybody
knows that the American workman is,
by comparison, highly paid. I can
only state the fact that the English
workman cannot and does not live as
my knowledge that the majority OF
people in the United States believe
that living is much cheaper abroad
than at home, and it seems to me
therefore that might well supplement
the statement Of those American work
lived here a number of years, and
knew the condition of the Unitei
States before they came here, and are
therefore better qualified to express
an opinion than tourists, whether they
be Americans in England Or English
men in America, even if they are spe
cial commissioners, investigating liv
ing conditions.
'In the American factories also
and in the factories where orders TO.
American world contra ctors have bee1
executed, when our manufacturers hat
more work than they could attend to
there are often a number of Americana
employed. Those in the better pait
positions find their situations, on tn
whole, comfortable and agreeable; ye
practically all these, and nearly al
other working Americans living her
whom I have met, have claimed tina
they did not find the cost Of living, a
they had expected it, low.
: "Many Of the working Americans il
England, including those Americana
ing factories and those selling ou
manufactures here, accepted their for
eign positions at the same lin som
cases lower) salaries than they ha
been receiving at home, persuaded an,
believing that they were obtaining Al
increase because they would be able
live more cheaply than at home. L
the lower wage grades the stay Of tn
: imported American workman is seldom
one Of great duration. In one factor
where there were nearly fifty men
few years ago there is only one, a fore
man, remaining. A few are still i
, Great Britain Most Of them returne
, to the United States. They were, som
Of them told me, disappointed in FIND
3 ing the cost of living higher than the
anticipated"