The Fairmont West Virginian. (Fairmont, W. Va.) 1904-1914, 1914-11-17

by tfifs estImate are placed in COM
fort in the fourth and fifth classes
and 81 in poverty in the first three
classes.
This condition is not peculiar to
London. 1t may be seen by even the
most casual traveller who goes out of
the narrow beaten track of the per
sonally conducted" tourist in Liver
pool, Birmingham, Dublin, Glasgow,
Manchester. Leeds, in any OF the moro
populous cities OF the United King
dom. Nor is the presence OF drink the
primary cause of this distress but the
absence OF food. Poverty, with the
great majority, is not result of
drunkenness, but drunkenness is a
result of poverty. Low wages and
unemployment-this is the universal
testimony by those who have studied
the question at first-hand in these dis
tricts we are now traversing- the
primary cause of slums.
"Home" on $3.50 Per Week.
| A visit to an East London home Is a
revelation to the most hardened slum-
worker-if the term home" may be
applied to the ill-furnished single
crowded room on a back alley. But
how do these people live?" is the in
voluntary inquiry. A single budget
of expenses in this room will answer
for many. 1t is the actual budget of
a mother who, working at home In
this single room-which is dining
room, kitchen, sleeping room, work
shop, all-for the pitiful wage OF
$50 week, is the sole support of
herself and little daughter. For rent
of the room she paid 80 cents a week
and for her other housekeeping ex-
penses for the week: tea, one.quarter
pound, four cents; sugar, two pounds.
six cents; flour, three cents; oatmeal.
three cents; margarine, substitute for
butter, one-half pound, seven cents;
six eggs, Clipped, seven cents; ham,
FIVE cents; Goals, six cents; vege-.
tables, three cents; bread nine
cents: sundries, six cents The
weekly total came to about S1.20,
leaving 80 cents week for clothing
and other expenses.
And this is a sample budget OF the
poor who, among the less well paid,
are fairly well.to-do! No word pic
ture could more wildly present the
poverty of the working woman in the
Stun districts of Great Britain's great
cities.
In the United Kingdom the SysteEa
of death duties, or inheritance taxes,
as they are termed in the United
f-k. leo ~
all who die passes under the state
review. Every estate OF $500 and up
wards comes within the tax limit.
In the last reported year 699,58S per-
sons died, of whom no less than $780,
900 were too poor to be taxed.
Laborers Flee Farms.
Let US look into the lot Of the rural
laborer. 1t might almost be said
there are no rural lakorers. In every
small village, on every farm we hear
the complaint that the labore-s are
leaving the land. Harvests are un-
gathered this month at the proper
time because Of scarcity of farm
hands" The rural cottages We see
are the homes OF old people. In a
half.dozen visited in oxfordshire there
was not man under sixty years OF
age. The young fee to the towns, to
Canada, to the British colonies or to.
the United States. No farm laborer
wishes his son to remain on the land.
Houses are difficult to obtain. Low
wages and the dearth of cottages dis
courage young people from marriage.
The young laborer may get only $3.50
a week in the big town, which is the
ordinary wage in this locality, but he
has the chance OF a home for his
young wife, society and the oppor-
tunity of being something more than
a farm laborer.
$3.50 Weekly for Family Of Five.
AS a working woman's weekly bud
get of housekeeping expenses has
been given, let US examine some
specimen budgets of the living Of the
rural laborer. For this am indebted
to Mr.. Seebohm Rowntree. The bud
get is from oxfordshire, where the
historic beautiful university city
OF o.! j the county.town. 1t Is
the \ Of a family of five, farm
labor. IS wife and three children.
The total weekly earnings are $3.50.
The rent OF the cottage and garden
is SIS year The man is "a thor
oughly sober fellow, who neither
drinks nor smokes and who bears a
good character for industry" The
wife trusts to charity for the chill:
dren's clothes and makes and remakes
anything given to her with great
skill" She has not had new dress
herself in the thirteen years OF her
married life. In times when work is
not to be had the family is forced
on the parish poor fund. Condensed
milk is used. I'VE haven't had any
new milk in the house for seven
years," said the wife.
This Ia mt nm exceptionRl case.