On this page
- Departments (2)
-
Text (5)
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
-
THE HIGH PKICE 01^ BREAD AND MEAT. of
-
THE POST-OFFICE AND THE LAJ3OUK MAEIOEIV
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
-
-
Transcript
-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Untitled Article
shop . The workmen arc no sooner let loose from , the factory than they rush , in a mass , ; to the cabaret , while a crowd or weeping- wives may be seen waiting for them , for weary hours , ' outride the doors . ' . The apprentices , at the early ag-e of twelve , may be seeu clri hidng- the coarse brandy , which they very aptly call the " cruel , " As a body these workmenand their families are feeble and sickly . They die at a terrible rate . " Drunkenness , " says M . ¦ Si mon , "is the beginning and the end of French industrial life ; '' it is the offspring of squalid homes huddled together in narrow ill-drained streets . The homes of the French artizans , in all the great " manufacturing towns , are even more miserable than the very lirorst hovels of St . Giles ' s ; We doixbt if there is anything which can compare with them for
¦ wretchedness in Manchester or Birmingham . The cellars and rourettes of Lille , the forts of Roubaix , and the convents of St . Gfcuentin , are one ancL all foul , cramped , undrained holes , where men , and women , arid children live , . heaped pell-mell togetherapart from the commonest decencies of life . In Rheims men and women lead miserable lives in houses where the roof and walls are no protection either from the wind or the rain . At Tharm there are lodgings where a father and mother , a daughter and son-inlaw , with " several children are packed , the entrance frequently being through a pigsty . The consequence of this is the same in France as it is hero , and as it must be everywhere—the early and complete demoralisation of the children of both sexes . The girls
Who work in the -factories are the children of a drunken father , and probably of a mother lost to the sense of shame which belongs to a woman by nature . They mix with dissolute apprentices , and their ruin is almost a matter of course . French philanthropists and social reformers , like those of our own country , have exerted themselves to cut down this evil tree , but they have struck at the branches not at the root . The mayors , like our teetotalers and Maine Liquor Law advocates , have cried out , " Shut up the wine , shops . " i 3 ut says M . Simox , most truly , the evil lies deeper than the art of a locksmith can reach . Tb . e root of it lies m the absence of virtuous homes , —comfortable homes—where a poor man ' s Tamil v can live harmoniously , cheerfully , and decently .
We would most earnestly direct the attention of those who labour with so much zeal and devotion in the cause of social im ^ provement , to these facts . . If they will enquire for themselves they will find that the testimony of M . SiMoN applies to England as weli as Prance , and that the squalid uncomfortable home is the cause of all the evils of drunkeaness and immorality which our regenerators are vainly attempting to cure by means of the teetotal pledge , public libraries , drinking fountains , and religious tracts . If the improvement of the dwellings of the poor were noeossarilv a charitable movement , we would say to the religious
community who subscribe such vast sums annually for promoting a variety of foreign mi ssions , which- yield no adequate result , give us the money which you subscribe to these objects , and we will show you some thousands of happy homes , where now there is nothing-but misery squalor , and crime . We will , show - you not only bodies saved from degradation and disease , but souls saved also—souls as precious , as much in need of salvation as any in tho Sandwich Islands or Timbuotoo . But there is no need of charity Tho wretched hovels of which we have been speaking yield a profit of ten aad fifteen per cent . Are there no philanthropic speculators in this country willing to build better houses and bo content with half the profit ?
Untitled Article
npHE overstocked condition of tho labour-market ia exempliued in a JL deplorable way by what the Times qalls the " chronic disaffection of tho' rost-offioo employes . The over-crowded state of the labourmarket must indeed be desperate , " when , " ( to use the language of the Times on Wednesday ) « we ape assured by Sir Rowland Hill in the last Pqst-oirtoo Report , and by Mr . Tuck , at the Mansion-house , that hundreds of applicants are ready and anxious to accept on the some terms , 10 s . a week , the situations of wliioh the remonstrants \ i . <> . the diasatisitod employes ] complain . " Tho public , " ; continues , tho Z «« e . v , " ia as muoh entitled tp the benefit of competition as any other employer of labour , and whoro 10 a . a week is proved by experiment to he a tmflloiout stipond , that amount is all that nood bo givtui . WitJi ryferoneo to tho " general question of pay and wprk , " tho Times epitoncli boars
misos tho established doctrine of politioal economy , wl upon this point , in tho following words : " it must of course be acknowledged that tho uamo rulos whioh apply to all other services , apply to the sorvioe of tho public . Tho value of a thing is what it will bring . If work can bo hnd for sixpence it i « folly to oiror a shilling for it , and that oooiiomicml axiom retains its Jbroo in St . Martin ' s-lo-G-rand as completely m olrtowhbro . " The word " benefit " in tho above extract , wo havo inurkod with italics ourselves . Such •« benefits' to one- party , are nothing short of destruction to tho othor . Tho lower the wages , the higher tlio profit . And this is tho reason why employers like an overstocked labour mortals ( the neooesary oonsoquenoe of a relatively ovororowded population )—it brings down wages , and it proportionably
raises profits . " Tho boneflt of competition" in this rospoct is cheap labour to tho employer—tho result aa regards tho employed is starvation wages . Olttssos , and oven individuals , generally lanoy thomsolvos tho nation , just us uiuoli as Louis XIV ., when ho exolaimed « I am the State . ' Hence what tho omploying class oulls prosperity , nlay bo interpreted to moan utter ruin bv tho employed . In the present » ystom of individual acquisition for Indivlduul emolument , in whio v every ono from lUo landlord poor who lives on Mb rents down to 110 unskilled labourer , has to livo by making us much out pf othuw in his dealings with thorn as ho can , and would ooaBO to live at a 1 , if ho followed auy other course ; tho inexorable " law of enpply and dorutmd , " oompolB man in pvftotioo , whatever doctrine they ^ nay
hold in theory , to adopt " that economical axiom" which the Times truly tells us " retains its forcein St . Martin ' s-le-Grand as completely as elsewhere . " They inay perhaps hold in theory , as some of bur most advanced modem sociologists are said to hold , that the present system of society is founded upon radically wrong principles , that it amounts to a conspiracy in which " every man ' s hand is against every other man , and every other mac ' s hand is against him , " that it is impossible to enrich oneself without impoverishing others , that its practical operation upon each individual is just as it" the whole community , save him , were combined for the express purpose of preventing his advancement in the world , that it is a general , scramble in which the weakest in mind or in purse are virtually rim down and devoured as the weakest of body would literally be among cannibals ; that the results of this system are seen in the fact * that in this country , the wealthiest and most prosperous on earth , one human being on the average , dies _ of want every twenty-four hours , that the predatory class in . London alone musters neai-ly 50000 strong or three to every one policeman ; that there
; is a class , which we dare not name , consisting entirely of females , variously reckoned at from the same , to double the same number ; that it is computed that every morning that dawns there are to be found not far short of 200 , 000 persons with no means of obtaining food through the day except by some chance job or crime , that instead of the direct immediate interest of eaoh member of the community being made antagonistic to that of every other member , by reason of each having to live by getting as much out of others as he can , society ought to be a vast system of mutual assurance , in which self interest , and the benevolent sympathies would at once find their maximum gratification in the fact that the well being of each was secured by the reciprocal co-operation of all ; that individual acquisition for individual emolument should be replaced by joint aggregate production for joint aggregate benefit—by common exertion' for the common good of all ; that the proposed system would offer the maximum of inducement for the miniam of exertion , instead of the minimum of reward for the maximum of labour , inasmuch as there would be no idle class engrossing to itself , and
excluding the rest of the vorld from thousands of times as much as it can consume or enjoy , whQe multitudes are famishing , houseless , and in rags ; but the whole population , wisely regulated to be in proportion to the amount of food and work accessible for the time beings and trained under the best education and formative influences , would labour during shorter ho-iirs , at vocations divested as much as possible of whatever renders them repulsive , instead of the productive classes toiling as now from ten to sixteen hours a-day for . a mere pittan . ee oi the coarsest necessaries , without anything being done to mitigate the circumstances that make their work repugnant ; that inshort the value of work ou-ht not to be merely " what it will fetch , but ought to be proportionate to the cost of-subsistence , There may be philanthropic employers , we admit * who hold these vie \ YS ; , but the rigorous operation of circumstances" utterly , precludes tlieir adopting any other course in practice than paying-for labour as materials , " just . what it will fetch ; " and no more ; and were they to attempt adopting any other course they would soon find themselves bankrupt and insolvent .
What then is to becoine , it may naturally enough be asked , ot the surplus labour in themarlet ? What are we . to do with the multitudes crying out for work and finding none , and slipping slowly , but purely , over the precipic 3 , into the yawning abyss of mendicancy , prostitution , and crime ? To this the xesponses will be various . One answer is to the effect , that there are fifteen millions ot cultivable land in the country , which would give employment , and yield iood , sufficient lor a large proportion of our present population . We roply , the wort and the foot are not accessible . Will the landowners break up thoir parks and pleasure-grounds . Can you induce them to- do this ? lhe proverb which tells us , that while the provender is in course of production the animal is starving , is not restricted to quadru ^ ds . Another oracle points to tho colonies , and recommends " emigration as its panacea , but as we are increasing at the rate of near halt a raiUion yearly , it would require a deportation to that impossible extent , even to keep things no worse than they are ; moreover , this would be but a L „ £ . „„ tiinf . According to the teaching of another school , this
sort of misery is very good , and just what it ought to be ; i ' ™\ lwttto itself ; eitlier it will reach a state in which tho advent of a bad harvest will kill off a few millions by famine , and ma Ice elbow and bi-oathing room , as happened in Ireland , during the last dreadful scarcity , or else there will be a revolution which will , for the tamo being , turn everythinff topsy-turvy , but inalce everything bettor afterwards , just us the grouufl is kept in proper order by a turning up rx new surlaoo now and then oit wm - ch remedy ' wo have nothing to remark , except , UM > hko the last , it would o nly ftH ' ord a temporary rol . oi . Some ot the most oi liKhtened of tho modern political ooonom . ste , as Mr . John Stuart Mil aro of opinion , that ah improved intolloctupl and moral dovelopmon is gradually producing a degree of providence and urooast , which will have the effect of cheeking , by wiso and benovolont moans , Se too rapid increas e of population . J 3 ut wo must deier the discussio . of tl ° s fliSjoot for the present . Sufllce it to say now , that if tberaarc 100 persons , and only accessible food and work for BO , not only will wages bo reduced to the starvation minimum by competition , but a W « m-onovtion of tho 100 will be without food and work altogether
and that to increase tho 100 to 110 is simply to maw a oorraspoiiamii addition to the misery and destitution—to the mendicancy , paupenam , and orimo that already exist .
Untitled Article
LA . ST wook our " record" slipwott iziau xno pviw < . « . « ..- « X MllutZ 24 . to 4 , d . per 8 tono , > vhilo wheatj hud bojonu ohoupor by from 8 s . to 4 s . pop quarter . The V onili ; u " ithor ooS " uulma corfainly not tolled to iuuho tho 'prioo j i oit : lu i ^ SfefiSSEjssgcSSS
Untitled Article
Sept . 15 , 1860 ] The Saturday Analyst and Leader , 799
The High Pkice 01^ Bread And Meat. Of
THE HIGH PBIOE 01 ^ BREAD AND MEAT .
The Post-Office And The Laj3ouk Maeioeiv
THE POST-OFFICE AND THE LAJ 3 OUK MAEliET .
-
-
Citation
-
Leader (1850-1860), Sept. 15, 1860, page 799, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2365/page/7/
-