Daily capital journal. (Salem, Oregon) 1903-1919, 1916-07-31
Wars Effects in England.
BY Ed L. Keen.

from the purely financial angle. L
would be hopeless task to measure tn,
toll of blood aud tears that both paid
British aristocraey and British proletar
lat have both contributed generously
to their young manhood, and doubles!
on this second anniversary of the wal
there are proportionately as many broa
en- homes among the wage.earners a.
among the nobility. The war so far ha,
made in Great Britain 39,042 widow.
and deprived S3,3S9 children of theil
fathers. The Jutland naval battle alone
added 1850 widows to the roll.
In the material things of life never ~
IS history have the rich beer
poorer, or the poor richer than today
Under the new sliding scale of income
duties, devised to help pay the nation ,.
war bill of $4,000, 100000 day, the
capitalists whose yearly income is 500,
600 turns nearly 40 per cent of it into
the treasury, whereas the thousand dol
lar wage-earner is let off with six pei
cent. Before the war the 100000 mar
was making perhaps twice as muck
while the present thousand dollar labor
er was earning only $500 or 5000.
With the exception of those directly
in the munitions industry, the
revenues of England IS wealthiest fam
lilies generally have been materially i'm.
paired, even before McKenna' IS tax col
lector comes round. The war reduced
their rentals and business; also very pa.
triotically they have transferred large
well-paying investments into smaller.
paying investments into smaller paying
government securities.
Labor is Prosperous. ..
On the other hand, the manual labor.
er and his family are prospering as
they never could have hoped to in peace
time, even though he has gone to the
war; for in that event the chances are
that his wife and his daughters and his
sons are working in munitions
factories or elsewhere at wages he him
self would have been glad to get in
other days.
The war has temporarily remedied
two of England IS greatest social evils
and pauperism The 9th.
er evening the writer strolling down
Fleet street and the Strand and return.
ing to the United Press office by way
of the Embankment, encountered only
two beggars-both old men and blind
Two years ago he would have been ac.
costed by 80 or more most of them able.
bodied men eager to work.
A good deal has been said about the
increased cost of living here as q result
of the war. Recent Figures from the
Board of Trade Gazette, place the
average advance. in the price of food
stuffs in the last two years at 50 pei
cent, including the increased duties on
tea and sugar as compared with an esti
mated similar increase in Germany OF
l20 per cent. This steadily diminishing
power of the pound sterling
has been more than compensated by the
higher wages and increased opportuni
ties for steady employment for men and
Workmen Living Better.
A visit to one of London IS great de
partment stores any afternoon would
convince even a casual investigator that
the standard of living among the work
ing classes has improved. The smaller
customers that pay cas- hhave increased
in numbers, especially in the last year;
former big credit accounts have dwin
dlde. Particularly in muntion-making
districts have tradesmen been profiting
Wage earning families who previously
had scarcely enough to keep the wolf
at bay now buy expensive wearing ap
parel, jewelry, etc, in such quantities
that the National War Savings commit
tee is frantically flooding the coun
try with posters and pamphlets, and in
dependent organizations are sending out
lecturers beseeching the people tC
" work hard, spend little and save
much' for post days.
There are scalawags in England to
day just as there are in Germany; grasp
ing employers, extortionate middle
men, unscrupulous retailers, taking per
sonal advantage of this abnormal situa,
ton. Somewhere between the farmer
and the housewife the price of milk
jumps from six cents to ~ cents O
quart. In the matter of bacon, in the
first five months of 1916 England i'm
ported nearly a million and half hun
dred-weight more than in the cores
ponding period of 1915; yet the gov
ernment qeturns show an increase in
price TO the consumer Of 80 per cent
a total increase since the war began
Of more than so per cent. The govern
ment is making a real effort to locate
the particular eulprits.
100000 Women Workers.
Nearly two million English women
are filling the places in industrial life
vacated by their husbands, fathers, sons
and brothers. From driving street cars
TO making shells, switching railroad
trains to ploughing fields, there is
scarcely an avenue Of labor in Great
Britain not subject to the feminine in.
yasion. Most of them are making mems
wages and some of them wearing men =
clothes. The London underground rail
ways and omnibus systems are employing
l ,S32 women and girls. There are 1000
street car conductors IN Glas
gov. The Great Central railway has
filled the places of 1,7s6 of its 5,92s
men with women. Fifty thousand wo.
men have registered with the board OF
agriculture to get out this years crops
Suffragettes who used TO smash win
dows are washing them. Instead of shy
ing brickbats at cabinet ministers OF
defacing golf links, they are nursing
soldiers or painting ships. Cultured wo-
men who never before turned Their
hands TO labor are milking cows, NOW
ing hay, or operating wireless keys.
When the war is over and the general