Detroit evening times. (Detroit, Mich) 1921-1958, 1944-09-02
FAIR :,
ENOUGH T,s.}
BY Westbrook
PeeIer

sp W iIlc llbi OIL w iO
one subject and get lost in an
other.
l never did get what ! went
for and almost forgot what n
was l wanted. digging into old
debates on Negro slavery.
These wrangles were only .
hundred years ago, which y
only twice your age when you
are so, and not such a forrnid-
able stretch OF time as il seems
when you are younger, and yet.
in England. there was great
agitation for the abolition ~
the slave trade from Africa and
of slavery in the United States
by men who were. in a practi-
cal manner Of speaking. slave
holders. themselves, in their own
country.
This point was brought out in
one document by man who
was interested in the preserva-
ton Of slavery and though I
tried 10 chase il down ! never
found the reply, much less a
refutatlon.
IIa ca,d n CONTAIN .okIo I1.1
who was agitating himself with
humane tremors over a problem
which many Americans held 10
he strictly our own affair. was
actually holding white English
workers IN bondage in his coal
mines. while living on the fat Of
the land himself.
The mines then. al least. were
not equipped for ventilation or
fire-prevention and the occupA
tlonal risk OF the miners "
great, what with asphyxla tiOf.
explosions and fires.
MOREOVER. the men worked
AVA a l2-hour day. which meant
that for about eight months Of
the year they never did see day
light, except on Sunday. and
were becoming purbyd like the
ponies they worked with, or a
deep-Water fish.
Their wages were peanuts al
though there might by some
margin in the fact that. even
down 10 1914 a shot Of Scotch
In an ordinary London bar cost
only cents, and other neCeS-
sites Of life were proportion
ately cheap. and il seems that
they Couldn' lay UP cent for
depression periods which came
Unexpectedly
My Uncle George. who seems
70 have been a Methodist clergy
man and aboItionlSt OF some I'M
portance IN this country along
toward The COS. related in MS
life and times. published by the
W @ Sley Methodist Publishing
House OF Syracuse IN 1873. that
MS 90 man had two wives
conSeeuiiveiy OF cour>eb and IS
Children. Of whom Incle George
never saw more than - Al
time and that he went 10 work
helping ms mother SPIN hemp
IN his dads ropeWalk IN London
when he vas only years old.
Then he ran away 70 sea al
the age OF s and he tells of some
prOdiglous swimming round
bermuda when small boat
broke loose and he had to 20
after II so / have sometimes
suspected that Uncle George
was A biz Of liar around the
edges because you don't learn
swimming in ropewalk -
working as ships boy ] Id
mean he actually was my nnI1.
but. with THAT name. he couldn't
have been far removed
WIS Englishman in the slav-
cry debate insisted that the
slaves IN Jamaica, where ms In
tereStS were, were better off
than the white men in this noble
lords mines because they were
fed enough 10 keep them IN fair
shape as property. whereas the
miner had TO feed himself and.
when he went on relief in slack
times, got only cents a day.
j gather that this 4 cents was
for the whole family. not per
head. and moreover, this mine
owner didn't pay it, nor the gov
eminent, but the parish or
church.
Then. he said. this lord had
the gall 10 propose that during
depreSSions the husbands should
be sent elsewhere, away from
their wives, so that they
wouldn't beget more children 10
grow up and compliCate the
problems Of unemployment and
overpopulation: and even 10 try
10 impose rule forbidding men
10 marry before the age of IS.
for the same reason. II a man
did marry prematurely. he was
blackballed from the mines.
OF COURSE, this was strictly