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About The Sunday Oregonian. (Portland, Ore.) 1881-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 22, 1905)
32 DESPERATE SITUATION OF r. . . . . . . . --------------------t 1 rurso and say 'No' to. the appeals ot East I ures than In the previous Novem- IBSPilHxO I J London. If for three wjeeks all the splen- ( ber. Trade has expanded simulta- vvtMWstCT i! ffFJ? 4J?JE. THE GIGAHTIO PBOBLEM OP THE UNEMPLOYED. The problem of the hour in England is that of the unemployed. The distress throughout the United Kingdom is declared to be the worst on record. The severe weather in the early -weeks of the Winter, the generally bad state of trade and the crop famine in Ireland are tbe causes of the present terrible condition. The estimate of the unemployed and starving of about two and one-half millions is con servative. Some estimates have declared the figures nearer six millions. Premier Balfour, appealed to call an extra session of Parlia ment in order to pass remedial measures, has refused. In all the 28 boroughs of London the ilayors and Councils have started extra works. In other cities the municipality is doing its utmost to supply work of some kind. Many are giving away free meals. In Leeds 23,000 meals per day are given. Newspapers in the provinces have started penny subscription funds. Important cities such as Liverpool and Manchester have declared in public meeting that a special session of Parliament is urgently needed. Other sections are sending in petitions and enough pressure may be given to force an extra sessionv Daily the newspapers contain stories of death from starvation and as the result of t .posure. The Queen is about to institute a fund for the relief which will be of a national character. Mr. Keir Hardie, M. P., deals in an article with a solution of the problem and the American Duchess of Marlborough tells of a way to relieve immediate wants in a local way. LONDON, Jan. 5. (Special Correspond ence of The Sunday Oregonlan.) "If you had. any pluck In you, you wouldn't stand it; you'd revolt. D n Balfour and all his class of politicians. They'd revolt to 24 hours If they were In your position. Don't hido yourselves in your garrets. Bring terror Into the West End, and they'll listen to you then." So spoke a demagogue, Jack Williams, to some 2000 or 3000 forlorn wretches gath ered around the base of Nelson's monu ment In Trafalgar Square the other after noon. Policemen heard him and grinned. Scotland Yard had made its preparations to deal with anything that went beyond that most cherished of an Englishman's privileges free speech. The mob cheered the speaker, scowled at the stalwart guardians of the law and dispersed to their garrets, convinced that broken heads would' not alleviate the pangs ot hunger. Tct had John Burns. Will Crooke. Keir Hardie and other leaders of labor in and out ot Parliament, who ignored the meet ing, attended It, and brought with them their followers, and appealed to them In the same Incendiary strain. It would have required more than the police of London to hold in check the thousands of the un employed who would have flocked to them. The West End would have been for worse terrorized then than it was In $5, when, starting front the same Square, & Socialistic mob went rioting through the streets of swelldom. It is hardly an exaggeration to cay sober-minded Eng lishmen who know the English temper well have said it that it is the restrain ing influence exercised by men in whom the suffering poor have confidence which stands this Winter between law and rev olution in London. On the Verge of Starvation. At the present time London presents the most amazing and appalling spectacle in all Christendom. In the richest, the most populous and most charitable city In the world 200,000 people are out of work and living on the verge of starvation. Every night some 3000 shivering and destitute wretches wander through the streets hun gry and shelrerlesfe. These statements are not based on the wild figures of some Irresponsible alarmist. They appeared in a plain presentation of facts made by Colin X. Campbell, social secretary of the Church Army, at a meeting of wealthy titled folk held by invitation of the Duke of Westminster richest of London s land lords at Grosvenor House. It resulted in eliciting two checks for $300 each, two for $250 each, a number for minor amounts, and a lot of orders for kindling wood, by the chopping of which, for two hours. penniless men earn a meal and a night's lodging. Scant charity this, considering the resources of those appealed to, but had the contributions been ten-fold larger the result would have been hardly appre ciable in diminishing the present suffering of the vast army ot the unemployed, and tho3 dependent -on theai. The best that charity can do can furnish only temporary palliatives .and postpone the application of somo remedy that will strike at the root of the evlrr "I could almost wlah.'r writes Harold Begble, "that charity would shut up its THE SUNDAY QKEGONIAN, PORTLAB, JASUABY 22, 305. J did agencies tor succoring the poor were j neously with a great increase of the bk: PV ff v I I J wholly paralyzed If every philanthropic ' unemployed. Simultaneously appear XNPBBrJP'? tr&i? rf?& I I I door at which they are now accustomed I loud proclamations to the world at j 'BBSGhS- ILVciX J.,rjifJCSC l j did agencies for succoring the poor were wholly paralyzed If every philanthropic door at which they are now accustomed to knock were fast shut against the sick, the hungry and homeless then, r think, swiftly and finally, a storm would break over Westminster which would shatter and destroy the reign of thinking Inepti tude. The need of the hour is a states man." Charity's Doles. Bead between the lines, there Is not much difference between this address of the polished man ot letters to cul tured Intelligence and the speech of the demagogue to the victims of hard times and .social conditions. Both re gard the present ministry with con tempt. Both are in agreement that it Is eminently desirable somothing should happen which would compel a serious effort to prevent such stupen dous misery and destitution, instead ot resting content with the doling out of charity that thus far has barely sufficed to stave off actual starvation among thousands. Winter in London is always accom panied by heartrending scenes ot mis ery and distress, but not for long years has there been anything ap proaching the present destitution. Many of the leaders of the various agencies predict .that matters will .be come much worse before the Winter ends. Already all the workhouses are filled. Thousands are in receipt of out door relief. Every charitable organ ization is straining its resources to the utmost and issuing pitiable ap peals for funds to enable them to meet the increasing demands upon them. The Salvation Army and the Church Army keep a legion of poor wretches from famishing. The several Metro politan Borough Councils have started relief works. A Mansion House fund has been opened, to which the King has contributed S7G2.50; Lord Iveagh, the rich brewer, $25,000, and the Messrs. Rothschild $15,000. All that charity can be Induced to do is being., done. And yet withal, according to one authority, Dr. Horton. 120,000 ill clad and -under-fed children appear dally at the free schools to wrestle simultaneously with elementary edu cation and hunger. Trade Expands While Destitution In creases. The destitution is not confined to London. It Is spread all over the United Kingdom. It has been est! mated that at tho present time there are over 500,000 men out ot work In what are termed the provinces. In an other column of the Sdtea paper which published these figures appeared the Board ot Trade returns for -the last 11 months, .gleefully paraded as proof that all was well economically with- England. The figures for these months show that Imports have Increased by nearly $40,000,000. and exports by nearly $S2, 000.000, with a similar period for 1903. The expansion in trade has not been confined to a few months; It Is spread over all of them. The figures lor No vember, when the black clouds of flis tress had cast a gloom over the land, show better trade conditions as finan ciers ere aecufitosaed to Interpret fig' ENGLAND'S. POOR neously with a great increase of the unemployed. Simultaneously appear loud proclamations to the world at large, based on statistics, that Eng land Is prosperous and holding her own , with commercial rivals, and frantic appeals . to charitable folk at home to succor the multitude who are on the verge of starvation for help to stave off the hunger madness and bread riots. Obviously, it would seem that there is something horribly wrong, in the in dustrial system which brings prosper ity to a few and hunger to" the multi tude. Anyhow, that is bow it strikes the latter and many others in England who are opposed to the policy of Just letting things drift. 2,500,000 in the Coils of Hunger. It certainly lent point to the appeal made by several M. P.'s to the Premier to summon a special session of Parlia ment .to consider the matter, to treat it as a national question and strive to devise some remedy for It other than mere temporary' stop-gap measures. Mr. Balfour declined. He replied, In effect, that he favored the continua tion, ot the. palliative treatment. He had a very high opinion of Parliament and of the value of Parliamentary dis cussion, but Parliament was hardly capable of "framing a constructive policy." Which seems to Justify the contemptuous comment ot Mr. Crooks, a Member of Parliament himself, that "Parliament is all gas." Taking the latest Board of Trade figures on unemployed as -a basis on a very mod erate estimate, there were in November there are many more thousands now 750,000 out of work. Assuming that only one-half ot these ore married men with families, that means 2,500,000 men, women and children In England In the coils of hunger, cold and despair. The amount of suffering and moral and physical deterior ation which such figures represent is be yond the power of imagination to realize. And this, too, in a year of trade expan sionof what Is called national prosper ity! Yet the government calmly declines to treat It as a national question, or to summon Parliament to consider it. It is one of' those mountainous problems that inevitably grows bigger the longer an ef fort to solve it Is postponed. Meanwhile the unemployed Are straining at the leash. It Is hardly realized In America what abnormal social conditions h&va resulted from the ever-increasing separation of the pecple from the land, and the sacrifice of agricultural to manufacturing interests. Since 1S50 the number of people employed In cultivating the land has decreased by 2.234.000, while the population has in the same period vastly Increased. They lie huddled together in. gross lumps with. hardly room to turn round. Every year thousands of acres pass out of cultivation. and an Increasing stream of people swarm to inc. overcrowaea ciues. .cngiana uie land ot England is owned-by an Infini tesimal residue of the population which Is crammed within its borders. It has passed from the people. A few thousand individuals hold It filL The Bitter Cry fer Food. What has been the result? According to" x "report made by a Parliamentary committee In 1S02 there are 21.0CO,O8Q acres ot !e4 lyter-waate In Great Britain. Over two and a quarter millions of people are In sore straits to keep hunger at bay. and land in abundance, on which they might themselves or many of tbcm at least produce tho food they need, now yields nothing. The cry that now re sounds throughout London throughout England Is for food money to buy food for the workless. "Every unemployed man, be he Duke or docker," says Sir John Gorst, "should be set to work pro ducing food." But, say the advocates of tms metned of making tnc uncmpioyeu self-supporting, land necessary for the establishment of such a system can only be acquired by government aid and gov ernment machinery. Private philanthropy is unequal to the task. What Harold Beg ble characterizes as "thinking Ineptitude" turns a deaf ear to such appeals. Last year England's butter, bacon, cheese and egg bill, paid to foreign producers, amounted to $214,000,000. It Is confidently asserted that under proper management England herself cculd supply the greater ESTIMATED UNEMPLOYED LS UNITED KINGDOM. London "59,660 England (oataide of London) 1,109,660 Scotland 568.666 Ireland 159.GW Wales o,eeo In the cities 2,266,066 In the country 349,666 Death from a tar-ration aad wapt 100 per week part of such foods. Anyhow, It Is urged. It would be far better to set unemployed applicants for relief at such work Instead of "restricting them to picking oakum, breaking stones or chopping kindling wood. Another scheme which has been put forward for relieving the strain ot on overstocked labor market arid providing a- profitable national investment is the afforestation ot waste lands. It finds many able supporters who point to the ex ample of Germany, where the forest In- dustries are under state- -control, and Vteld a. uroflt to the SOVCrnmeilt Of $90,000.- tCO annually besides supporting 400.000 workmen and their families. England Im- ported last year SISO.000,000 worth, of tim ber, of which S105.CiOO.000 went for firewood. The latter, at least. It Is stated by com petent authorities, could, all be raised on land now lying waste. In 1SSS, a Parliamentary committee re ported in favor of such a scheme, but nothing came of it, as usual. And noth ing is likely to ome of It now. unless the leash gives way. But the cry of tke More Than Two Millions of the Lack idle lands for the idle hands will have to- be heeded some day. Some means will have to be found for checking the depopu lation of the land and repopulating it, and making it productive. Of the scenes, of misery and suffering ByJ. K. Hardie, Member Parliament THE difficulty ot dealing with the prob lem of the unemployed In England is two-fold. 0) The community has not yet accepted the idea that the state is responsible for putting useful work at remunerative wages within the reach of every compe tent citizen. (2) There is a. tendency to deal with the unemployed problem, as if it referred to wastrels and looters. These, however, are the products of unemployment. Before we can get .rid of their presence we must tap the source whence they come. I would leave them to be dealt with by the poor-law authori ties, conferring upon the latter such pow ers as might be necessary. I am mainly concerned with, the capable and willing worker who is deprived of on opportunity of working for 'his living. If we con deal with him, tne tramp and the loafer problem will very soon assume very small dimensions: The question must be regarded from two points: (a) Immediate relief for those who ore on the verge of starvation; and (b) some permanent and systematic attempt to grapple with the whole ques tion. The educational authorities should provide meals for children attending schools In all the poor districts. Those who can pay should be charged; those who cannot should have free tickets. Salaries to Mayors a Solution. Another way to provide funds, and one which has been adopted in Bradford, Yorkshire, is for tho borough council to vote a salary to its Mayor on the under standing that he devotes the money to this purpose. Next the government, acting through ! h Pimmll(m,ro of Wnni! ani VnrMtK. j or the Commissioners of Crown Lands, should acquire three large estates one. say. In Wales, one In the Midlands and one in Scotland and at once employ men In the preparation of these for the pur poses ot afforestation. Had the Prime Minister acceded to the request for a. special session to 'consider the question oS the unemployed, this would have been among the proposals submitted to Parliament. Without waiting tor Parliament to meet People Are Suffering From of Food. In London, pages might be written and still they would convey only z faint idea of the reality. In one district alone. West Ham. the authorities report 50.000 are in the direst want. Many of the houses are bare, not merely ot furniture, but of food, and in such circumstances as these starving women, lying upon the boards ot an empty room, have brought infants Into a world unwilling to receive them. Shoeless and in rags, hundreds ot chil dren go hungry to morning school. In the playgrounds they do not Indulge in the healthy rough-and-tumble games that characterize the pastimes of the well nourished child. They stand shivering In the cold arid damp, dragging their miser able clothing closer around them for warmth. The cosy schoolrooms are ver itable heavens for them, for many have no fires at home, and they make up for their restless, comfortless tossing at nlsht by falling asleep in school- "I have not the heart to wake him." said one teacher, indicating a little bare footed fellow fast asleep at 10 in the morning. "Poor, little chap, he has a. rough time of it! He goes to, the dock gates in the afternoons and begs food from the men fortunate enough to be re turning from work." Most ot the pawnshops are full and re fuse to accept more pledges, so that this last resource of the destitute; is denied them. Many empty houses have btcn broken into by homeless wretches that they might at least find shelter, and pos sibly sleep, on bare floors and wooden j benches. Les3 fortunate than these, on ! bitter nights when the spectacle of a. homeless dog would awaken pity, scores of human derelicts may be seen huddled together for warmth on the seats and benches, or stretched out on the bare grounds In the parks. The law requires the police to keep them moving, but they have not the heart to do it- They look the other f&y and pass them, by- In all of the slum districts similar scenes are witnessed. Cases of actual starvation are frequent, and In many others, to which officialdom gives an other name, lack of nourishment has been the accelerating cause of death. One poor woman, leaving her starving husband In the empty, desolate house, sought all day in vain for work. Convinced that when she returned home her husband would be dead, she decided to seek re union with him in another world by plunging into the Thames. One hesi tates to describe her rescue as merciful. When she was taken to her home it was to find a. corpse on the garret floor. Such is life in London in the opening days ot the year of our Lord. 1905. (Copyright. 1SC5.) E. LISLE SNELL. however, the Commissioners referred to above have large areas at their disposal upon which many hundreds of men might be usefully employed. In like manner the London City Coun cil has vacant land in -various parts of the metropolis, and this could be put to use at once on the same lines as have been so successfully tried in Philadelphia and other large American cities. American Plan Good. The American plan is for a committee of citizens to -obtain the right to use such vacant land without paying rent. There are now over 1000 men, most of them married, at work in Philadelphia cultivating these vacant lots. The committee provides them with maintenance and with Implements, eeed3 and plants. The produce, when It ripens, is sold and the value handed over to those who did the work. Mr. Joseph Fels, one of the promoters of this Idea in America, has offered some thing of the kind in London, and the Central Unemployed Committee is tak ing this up as one branch of Its under takings. Mr. Fels has bought 1000 acres of land in Essex for the Committee. When Parliament assembles I hope to have more proposals ready to be sub mitted, not only in regard to tho affor estation scheme, but also for doubling the number of families engaged In the cultivation of the soil. If 1,000.000 workers could be added to those already engaged upon tho land, with Incomes averaging 55 a week, we should thereby increase the purchasing power of the people by $23,00O,O0O a year, which would go a long way toward re lieving trade depression. Since 1300 tho Incomes of the working classes, by reduction in wages, unemploy ment and short time, have been reduced by $23,000000 a year, to which fact much of the depression In trade may be traced. Want More Philanthropists. I would there were more men like Mr, Fels to -help solve England's hardest prob lem, and I would like to see them Eng lishmen. It Is a crying shame that in thie dire hour of need an American should lead the way. It Is some eight years since Mr. Fels came to England. Success on both sides Coacluel on Fage 37.)