The Saint Paul globe., 1905-01-22
HERE Are 2oo,-
] 900 Persons in
the Metropolis
Alone Who Are
on the Verge Of.
Starvation
While MaHitudes
Are claInoring for
Food le,oOo,oeo
Acres Of Land Lie
Waste and Idle


! Mr.. Balfour declined. He replied, in ef-
/ feet, that he favored the continuation of
i the palliative treatment. He had a
very high opinion of parliament and of
the value of parliamentary discussion
but parliament was hardly capable of
framing constructive policy" Which
seems to justify the contemptuous com
ment Of Mr.. Crooks, member of par
Lament himself, that parliament is all
/ gas
| Taking the latest board of trade fig
ureS on unemployment as basis, on a
| very moderate estimate there were in
November-there are many more thou
sands now-750, 600 out of work. AS
suming that only one half of these are
married men with families, that means
100000 men, women and children in
England in the coils of hunger, cold and
| despair!
The amount Of suffering and moral
and physical deterioration which such
hgures represent is beyond the power
of the imaginat ton to realize And this,
too, in year of trade expansion-of
what is called national prosperity! Yet
the government calmly declines to treat
1t as a national question or to summon
parliament to consider 1T. 1t is one of
those mountainous problems that inev-
itably grows bigger the longer an ef-
fort to solve it is postponed Mean
while the unemployed are strainina at
the leash.
1t is hardly realized in America what
abnormal social conditions have re-
suited from the ever-increasing separa-
ton of the people from the land and the
sacrifice of agricultural to manufacture
ing interests.
Since 1850 the number of people en-
ployed in cultivating the land has de-
creased by 1924, 900, while the popuIa-
tion has in the same period vastly in
creased. Every year thousands of
acres pass out Of cultivation and an
increasing stream of people swarm to
the overcrowded cities. Enaland-the
land of Engiand-is owned by an in
finitesimai residue of the population
which is cramned within its borders.
II has passed from the people. a few
thousand individuals hold it all.
The Bitter Cry for Food.
What has been the result?
According to report made by par
lIamentary committee in 1902 there are
II 100000 acres of land lying waste in
Great Britaini
More than two and quarter million
OF people are in sore straits to keep
hunger at bay, and land in abundance
on which they might themselves, or
many of them, at least, produce the
lOOG they ilSSO-IlOW- yiSluS IiOlulLS!
The cry that now resounds throughout
Londen-throughout England-is for
food-money to buy food for the work.
less.
Every unemployed man, be he duke
or docker," says Sir John Gorst.
should be set to work producing food"
But, say the advocates of this method
of making the unemployed self-sup-
porting, land necessary for the estab-
tcIa1
acquired by government aid and gov
ernment machinery. Private philan-
thropy is unequal TO the task. What
Harold Begbie characterizes as think
ing ineptitude" turns deaf ear to such
appeals.
Last year England's butter bacon,
cheese and egg bill. paid to foreign
producers, amounted to $244,000, 900. It
is confidently asserted that under
proper management England herself
could supply the greater part of such
foods. Anyhow, it is urged, it would be
far better to set unemployed applicants
for relief at such work instead of re-
strieting them to picking oakunn, break
ing stones or chopping kindling wood.
another scheme which has been put
forward for relieving the strain on an
overstocked labor market and provid-
ing a profitable national investment is
the reforestation Of waste ilrftf5ss-ffss K
finds many able supporters, who point
to the example of Germany, where the
forest Industries are Under state COR