Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-07-19
THE
BRITISH
CRISIS

advantage or the English land system is
shown in the agricultural depression
which is impoverishinG the country.
! Sixty years ago, when there was popu-
lation of 26SOO.OOO, the domestic fields
! furnished breadstuffs and vegetable food
| for q, 100000 of the population. Now
| only 100000 of the ~ OO0, 900 British
| people live upon breadstuffs grown in
| the kingdom. In the last twenty-five
| years more than 1000, 900 acres of pro-
ductive farm land have been abandoned
! to pasturage or converted into game pre-
serves.
| In 1851, with population of $4,000, 600,
there were more than a million and
quarter farm workers in England alone;
| in 1901 there were only three-quarters
| of million people working on the land
| in England. The census next year is
certain to Sh0H a still further startling
decrease in the number of people living
on the land. Scotland and Ireland do not
| show such a rapid decrease but it must
| be remembered that Ireland has lost
| more than half of it's total population
in the past sixty years, and in Scotland
more than half million acres of farm
! ing land have been turned into game
preserves in the last ten years. The de-
preston is most marked in England.
especially in the southern and eastern
portions, which are the citadels of the
country aristocracy.
While much is made of the Conserva-
tiSm of the British people, it is not true
that the son of
Cost of Living Severe the chimney
on Landed Gentry. v~1up " TO fol-
low his fathers footsteps and be nothing
but a chimney-sweep. 1t is certain that
the sons of English peasant farmers
have not been willing to remain on the
land which their fathers rented, but
which the landlords refused to sell upon
any condition whatsoever The cost of
living has increased in England just as
it has in other countries. and the burden
of this increase has been felt severely
by the landed gentry. The result has
been that the landlords have increased
rents, while the tenants have been I'M
able to increase their income. The utter
hopelesshess of the future for peasant
farmer has operated TO stimulate what
seems to be universal movement
toward the cities, and the sons of the
farmers have emigrated to the industrial
centers, swelling not only the army of
factory workers, but also the vast and
ever-increasing army of unemployed.
In these days, when back to the
ldnu is the slogan OF d crusade DelnS
preached even in the United States.
where so per cent Of the population is
rural, it is not strange that thinking
Englishmen of all parties are crying
for cessation of the rural migration
in a country where II per cent of the
population already is urban.
That the condition Of the English
people in the towns, as we'll as in the
great cities. is pitiab1e is proved by the
house to house inquiry made in York,
not be suspected. OF the whole labor
| ing population of York. $50 families.
| it was found that 1890 people were
| living in state of primary poverty
| or. in other words. they failed to OBJ
| tain sufficient food and other neces-
| saries of life to maintain their physical
| efficiency, and this, too. on the assump-
| ton that every penny earned was prop
erly spent. AS a matter of fact much
was spent for drink. OF the remainder,
| 1902 persons were living in a state of
secondary poverty" which means that
| their earnings would be sufficient to
provide for bare physical sustenance,
if portion, often large portion. were
not absorbed in other ways, sometimes
useful, more often wasteful.
Government statistics show that what
applies to York applies to the entire
So"h pOpuld tlOIl
Millions OF of Great Britain
Underfed People. d d. ~"1 tns+ ia %
| per cent of the people do not earn
enough to provide for their physical
support That these 1000 900 under
fed people are morally affected by their
| poverty cannot be doubted. and careful
| inquiries have shown that in the sec
ond generation the town and city dwell
erS are from one to two inches shorter
and from fifteen to twenty-five pounds
| lighter than their fellows in the rural
districts.
City life, in other countries as well
as in Great Britain. offers allurements
which tempt many people to leave the
farm, where they would be better off,
| to go to the city and suffer in poverty
But in the United States, in Canada and
| in many other countries there is an in
dependence connected with farm life
which restraints to some extent the dis
position to migrate to the city In
| Great Britain there is no such restrain
| ing influence because the farmer in
nnety-nine cases out of hundred does
| not and cannot own even an acre of
| ground. and he has no independence. In
| more dependent upon his superiors than
| is the industrial worker Of the city, or