The daily Gate City., 1913-04-16
.eNEATSHOPS IN
LONDON CLUBS
Servants Work Like Slaves for Measre
Pay and Very Poor
Food and
Beds.
THE ISLAND OF ACHILL
Queen Mary viii Not Permit suffra.
gettes to Call on Her or At
tend Social
Functions
THE ISLAND OF ACHILL
.lBy Ed L. Keen, London correspond
ent of the United Press

eul OIL the united Press,
LONDON, April 16-"The worst
sweatshops in London This is the
rather startling indictment brought
against the famous and exclusive clubs
of the west end by Percy A. Young,
secretary of the Amalgamated Union
|of Hotel, Club. and Restaurant Work
ers. He has compiled mass of In
formation regarding the ill-treatment
OF hired help in elubdom tina. ap-
pears quite as worthy of governmental
Investigation and remedial legislation
as We're the sweated Industries few
years ago. He hopes, however, that
the mere exposure of the deplorable
conditions existing in the servants
quarters of most of these wealthy and
laristocratic nstitutions-which he
plans soon to make in detail-will
itself be the means of accomplishing
the needed reforms.
ut is likely he said today, dis
cussing the results of his recent re-
searches, that the facts viii prove
a shocking revelation not only to the
public but also to the vast majority of
club members themselves
Here are some of the charges:
The hours of labor required of serv-
ants in most of the clubs in Picca-
dilly, Pail Mall, and ST. James, wary
ing from eleven to fourteen a day,
are not exceeded in some OF the worst
sweating dens. Pantrymen, kitchen
iporters, and house porters in mum
ber of the fashionable clubs work on
an average of eighty-four hours a
week for $500 to $3.50 a week, with
no possibility of supplementing this
amount. No tips is the rule in
practically all London clubs-and it
lis the one rule that is least broken.
! In all the clubs an elaborate sys-
item of fines prevails--fnes for being
late on duty, damage to furniture, or
crockery, mistakes in making out
bills, etc, and employees are bound to
lpay them or leave, with no chance of
getting similar employment elsewhere.
The food supplied to servants in
nearly all the big clubs is declared to
/ be wretched. In recent monthly
Erepcrt the house committee of one OF
/ the largest clubs in Pail Mall con-
graduated itself on having reduced
the cost Of food for 102 servants to
/ tseyenty-tive cents Week per head
Many Of the clubs contract for the
poorest quality of beef and mutton
! for their servants, paying in some in
lstances less than ten cents a pound
The potatoes served are usually black
and rotten, and green vegetables are
allowed only on Sundays. The bed
room space for servants in six of the
principal clubs averages only $50
cubic feet of air per occupant, as
against the recognized hygienic stand.
4 ard of $50.
yet, the degree of luxury for mem
bers that exists in most of these
clubs commented Young, is hardly
possible for the ordinary working
man to realize. Priceless carpets
cover the floors, and statuary and
pictures, the envy of connoisseurs,
ARE scattered about in barbaric CON
/ fusion But it seems that the more
costly the fittings, furniture, and food
4for the members, the worse are con
i ditions for the men and women serv-
ants. Probably in no empire of the
worlds history have such glaring
contrasts been found so closely side
/ by side, Nowhere today is luxury be-
ing purchased at such terrible cost in
Y T11iS ~,
heartless struggles to live, and their
wives are reduced to despair iith-
erto the clubs have been ignored by
the government. Why should they be
any longer?"
Pay no rent, take no bail,
Remember Dayitt and 80 to jail
This was the motto displayed on
one of the banners when 1000 inhab-
itants of Achill Island held big dem
onstration the other day in sympathy
with four of their number who were
being prosecuted on a charge of init
4 midation
Achill Island, with its 1000 people
squatting on 1,1Oo small holdings,
stands we'll out in the Atlantic on the
extreme west of Ireland. and is a
favorite resort of poets, noyelis.s, and
painters.
In the period known in Ireland as
The Famine Years" the island was
purchased by the Church Missionary
society in the hope of inducing the
inhabitants to join the Protestant
church of Ireland. But this proved
futile. as nearly all the converts have
reverted, and the island is now inhab
tied by a Roman Catholic population
| When Irish Secretary Birrell some
years ago passed his bill for the com
pulsory acquisition of land in the west
of Ireland by the congested districts