New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1912-11-17
FEAR FAMINE IN LONDON
Poverty Rampant as Result Of
Dock Strike.
STARVING IN THE EAST END
Local Authorities Call on Gov.
eminent to Take Means to
Alleviate Suffering.
fBy Cable to The Tribune.l

10y NSVAN w Aht liiOSH'sl
London. Nov. l6.--As a result of the
dock strike poverty is rampant in the
poorer quarters OF London. Thousands
Of ablebodied worknen and their de.
pendents are starving. Local authori-
ties, with the end in view to relieve
the distress, are calling on the govern
ment to take action to alleviate the
sufferings Of the men, women and chill
dren.
Meanwhile politicians are telling the
people they are living in days Of ex-
ceptional prosperity and the govern
ment blue books contain glowing &C.
counts Of booming trade. but poll
ticians and blue hooks do not coincide
with facts. There are thousands "
men in London. skilled artisans and
laborers, who are vainly searching for
work that is not there for them TO do
From the East End come narrowing
stories Of starvation and misery, and
the local authorities in the West Ham
area alone--a district peopled with
families of laboring classes and quite
distinct from the foreign element that
inhablts the Whitechapel and Mile-End
Road quarters-estimate that there are
at least five thousand breadwinners
out Of employment. The resources Of
the local poor law relief authorities
and charitable organizations are over
taxed, and in whole blocks Of densely
populated buildings there are women
and children on the verge of starva-
ton and haggard men filled with de-
spair.
Industrial UpheavaIs Blamed.
Not even in days when industrial
conditions were at low ebb were the
poverty and misery in London greater
than they are to-day. and on all hands
il Is agreed that this deplorable state OF
things is the direct outcome OF the In
dustrial upheavals Of the last two years
Dock, transport and railway strikes
have brought nothing but desolation for
the workers and It is a striking COM
mentary on the modern tendency 10 at
tempt TO redress supposed industrial
inequalities by striking that the net
result should be so much widespread
poverty. In the districts referred 10 il
Is n common experience TO see pale
faced. barefooted children dragging at
skirts Of despairing women. The physl-
clans are working at top pressure, but
babies are dying in alarming numbers
in homes Of hopeless poverty.
Hundreds Of men loaf around the
dock gates hour after hour, day after
day, YEARLY hoping to get a chance fob.
When the CANCERS come through the
gates jingling little brass disks, which
tell Of work for mere handful Of the
hundreds who are clamoring for II, the
detected crowd suddenly becomes alert
with a tension of hope and expectancy
Quickly the disks are distributed, and
the lucky ones disappear through the
gates, while the rejected turn away,
sad eyed and woebegone, the losers in
this tragic gamble for work. Scenes
similar to this are enacted daily, and It
Is stated that only the government can
tackle the problem, which has gone be-
yond the power Of all local authorities.
organizations and voluntary helpers,
Not Case for Soup Kitchens.
at is not case for soup kitchens or
for public doles," said an alderman OF
the local Municipal Council" the gov
eminent must do something. The re-
lieving officers have exhausted their
grants and the warehouses; are full"
One man tried to organize relief work
by getting men to clear the waste lands
around the docks. Five thousand men
applied for this employment, and thou
sands have their names on the books
of the local branch of the government
labor exchange. Meteorologists tell US
that we are 10 have a severe winter
here, and II their prophecies are full
filed, it is a moral certainty that the
East End of this great city will know
the r.gors of famine and pestilence, I'M
less government aid is forthcoming.