Los Angeles herald., 1908-03-29
NOT SUBMERGED

| any of the conditions which are gen.
orally talked about. No amount of So
cial reconstruction and regeneration
can reconstruct or regenerate the unit
and this class, which may be called the
wreckage of national life, is becoming
greater in the English-speaking coun-
tries than in lands that are less de-
pendent on manufactures and COM
merce, and therefore closer to the soil.
In the English countries
naturally and logically 1t is becoming
greater In the big cities than In the
rural districts. London and New YORK
present problems which would stagger
humanity IL humanity thought of them
seriously or allowed itself to be wor-
ried by them.
The so-calied submerged tenth of civ
ilization consists of paupers, lunatics.
criminals, tramps, habitual drunkards
and the inefficient. The somewhat
rhetorical title has been outworn. Far
from being submerged, 1t is painfully In
evidence, and 1t is no longer tenth
Recent statistics show that 1t is much
more nearly a sixth. 1t was tenth
forty years ago, when the expression
was first used. But civilization has
been travelling apace, and in the race
between progress and poverty progress
has not been able to maintain the open
distance between it and its lean pur-
suer that existed when Henry George
wrote his book. The gap is gradually
being closed. The average salary In
the United States has been markedly
decreased, even in the last ten years
In Britain there has not been marked
decrease, but rather an appreciation.
This by some has been mistaken for
a sign that there has been more pros
perity in Britain than in the United
States. 1t is, however, merely a sign
that employers are more afraid or So
cialism IN the island of Britain than
in the United States. The right to
work" bill has been beaten in parlia-
ment, but a similar bill will be pre-
sented soon. The fright to work" bill is
an attempt to embody in statute form
the assertion that every human oeing
who cannot be included with the dis
honest or the disqualified is entitled to
the opportunity to earn money with
which to support himself and family, |
and the corollary that civilized govern
ments must find work for the workless
who are willing to work.
In the United States the difficulties
with which intelligent and humane
patriotism must cope at no remote
date are much greater than those which
exist in Britain, where the crux OF the
problem is not in the existence or an
irksome, stupid, ludicrous relic OF saw
agery called a titled class, but is In
overcrowding In the congested districts.
The British government controls vast
acreage of land surface and Is always
ready and willing to help emigrants to
settle in any of the unoccupied or
sparsely populated regions of the en-
pire. but the Englishman does not care
to leave home. The history of English
emigration has been largely a history
of deportation. Even the pilgrim
fathers were practically English out
laws and fugitives who were allowed
to settle in a remote part of the en-
pire the value of which was not appre-
ciated by the London red tape bureaus:
Other English-speaking lands that
were once dependent colonies but are
now self-governing countries were pop
ulated by English convicts, transported
and banished men. The Scotch and the
Irish, however. have moved freely
from country to country with such
ease that it has been sggested that
when interplanetary ship service is es-
tablished st. Patrick's day will be
celebrated in Mars and the close OF a
st. Andrews day festivity in Jupiter
will find a number of Caledonian immi-
grants bewildered by the multiplication
of the plural moons. But the problem
of the man of English blood or of
American blood who is city dweller
by inclination cannot be dismissed with
banter.
Along with increasing congestion in
the crowded regions there is constant
tendency to lowering of wages to
which we have referred. According to
reliable statistics, for which the gov
ernment at Washington is responsible,
the average wage Garner in the United
States today cannot make much more
than $3.50 a year, no matter how hard
or how willing a worker he may be.
The era of low wages against which
we were warned during the full dinner
nail campaign is upon us. In some oc-
cunations the workers earn only about
half what they received before a para
doxical prosperity" emptied their din
ner pals.