The San Francisco call., 1905-01-22

pluck in you. you wouldn't stand 1t,
you'd revolt. D Balfour and all
his class of politicians. They'd revolt
/ In twenty-four hours II they were in
your position. Don't hide yourselves
| III your garrets. Bring terror into the
| West End and they'll listen to you
them
! So spoke demagogue, Jack" VIII
| liams, to some two or three thousand
forlorn wretches gathered around the
base of Nelson's monument in Trafal-
gar Square the other afternoon. Po-
! licemen heard him and grinned. Scot
land Yard had made its preparations
! to deal with anything that went be-
! yond that most cherished of an Eng
! lishman's privileges, free speech. The
{ mob cheered the speaker, scowled at
the stalwart guardians of the law and
dispersed to their garrets, convinced
/ that broken heads would not alleviate
| the pangS of hunger.
Yet had John Burns, Will Crooks,
Keir Hardie and other lea ders of labor
/ in and out of Parliament, who ignored
the meeting. attended 1t and brousnt
/ with them their followers and ap-
pealed to them in the SAME lincendiary
strain, 1t would have required more
than the police of London to have
! held in check the thousands OF the
unemployed who would have hocked
| to them. The West End would have
| been far worse terroriZed then than
1t was in 'S6, when. starting from the
same square, a Socialist mob went riot
! ing through the streets of swelldom.
| 1t is hardly an exaggeration to say
sober-minded Englishmen who know
| the English temper we'll have said 1t
| that it is the restraining influence
exercised by men in whom the suf-
fering poor have confidence which
stands this winter between law and
revolution in London.
VERGE OF STARVATION.
At the present time London presents
| the most amazing and appalling spec
tacle in all Christendom. In the rich
est, the most populous and most charl-
| table city in the world, 100000 people
are out of work and living on the verge
of starvation. Every night some 5000
! shivering and destitute wretches wan
der through the streets hungry and
/ shelterless. These statements are not
based on the wild figures of some ire
sponsible alarmist. They appeared in
plain presentation of facts mede py
| Colin n. Campbell, social secretary OF
! the church army, at a meet. of
wealthy titled folk held by invit. IN
| of the Duke of Westminster-richest of
| London's landlords-at GroSvenor
House. 1t resulted in eliciting two
checks for $500 each, two for $3.50 each,
a number for minor amounts and
lot of orders for kindling wood, by the
chopping of which, for two hours, pen
niless men earn a meal and nights
| lodging. Scant charity this, consider
| ing the resources of those appealed to,
| but had the contributions been tenfold
| larger the result would have been hard
| ly appreciable in diminishing the pres
| ent suffering of the vast army of the
unemployed and those dependent on
, them. The best that charity can do
can furnish only temporary palliatives
and postpone the application of some
| remedy that will strike at the root of
the evil.
"I could almost WISH" writes Harold
Begbie, that charity would shut up it's
purse and say mo- to the appeals of
| East London. If for three weeks all
! the splendid agencies for succoring the
/ poor were wholly paralyzed-if every
! philanthropic door at which they are
! now accustomed to knock were fast
| shut against the sick, the hungry and
/ the homeless, then, I think swiftly and
| finally, storm would break over West
| minister which would shatter and de-
stroy the reilgn of thinking inaptitude.
| The need of the hour is statesman"
| HEAt4fSlftfLND1N1 SSEN ES,
| Winter in London is always accom-
panied by hearth ending scenes Of mis-
/ cry and distress, but not for long
years has there been anything ap-
| preaching the present destitution. The
/ figures for November, when the black
clouds of distress had cast a gloom
over the land, show better trade con-
ditions-as financiers are accustomed
! to interpret figures-than in the pre-
l VII hnr Tra hos
ed simultaneously with q great in
crease of the unemployed. Simulta-
neously appear loud proclamations to
/ the world at large, based on statistics,
! that England is prosperous and hold
! ing her own with commercial rivals
and frantic appeals to charitable folk
at home to succor the multitude who
/ are on the verge of starvation--for
/ help to stave off the hunger madness
and bread riots. Obviously it would
seem that there is something horribly
wrong in the industrial system which
| brings prosperity to the few and hum
ger to the multitude. Anyhow, that
| is how it strikes the latter and many
/ others in England who are opposed
| to the policy of just letting things
| drift
1t certainly lent point to the appeal
| made by several M. P.s to the Pre-
] mier to summon q special session of
| Parliament to consider the matter
| to treat it as national question and
| strive to devise some remedy for it
other than mere temporary stop-gap
| measures. Balfour declined. He re-
piled, In effect, that he favored the
| continuation Of the palliative treat
ment. He had a very high opinion
| of Parliament and of the value of
Parliamentary discussion, but Parlia-
ment was hardly capable of framing
a constructive policy" Which seems
/ to justify the contemptuous comment
| of Mr.. Crooks, a member of Parlia-
ment himself, that Parliament Is all
gas
Taking the latest Board of Trade fig
ures on unemployment as basis, on a
| November--there are many more thou
sands now-750,000 men out of work.
/ Assuming that only one-half of these
! are married men with families, that
/ means 100000 men, women and chill
/ dren in England in the coils of hunger,
cold and despair. The amount of suf-
/ fering and moral and physical dete-
| rioration which such figures represent
| is beyond the power of the imagination
| to realize. And this, too, in a year OF
/ trade expansion--of what is called ma
| tional prosperity. Yet the Government
| calmly declines to treat 1t as national
question or to summon Parliament to
| consider 1T. It is one Of those noun
| tainous problems that inevitably grows
bigger the logger an effort to solve it is