The Oregon daily journal., December 20, 1908, Page 30, Image 30

OREGON SUNDAY JOURNAL, PORTLAND, . SUNDAY HORNING, - DECEMBER
1908
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Toiling Women and Un
empioyea lvien naveLitu
Cause for Joy
HOVSANDS of unemployed men,
tramping wearily from place to place
Jn vain search for work; thousand!
"'of despairing women in desolate homes, en
deavoring to soothe their starving children or
toiling at occupations much too severe for
their physical endurance, and at miserable
xvageL-such is the shadow that poverty casts
t over England? s Christmas,
nt ;'' In all the ensuing twelve months Eng
' land has not forgotten the bitter words of
taStewart Gray, uttered last Yule time in Man
' Chester Cathedral: "You can have no Christ
inas in England while the land echoes the
ihoUow groans of its millions who are perish
Viing of the misery and starvation which society
r does not relieve."
Today that condition is . worse than a
, year ago.
A sad Christmas for the great army of
the unemployed; a poor Christmas for the
"'thousands of women who toil at tasks that
- men should do, and yet receive but a part of
man's wage. Poverty's sting is in the English
' Christmas.
The work Is hard and the surroundings dismal.
"TUa whole of the Cradley Heath district, where
the greater part of these Industries Is carried on. Is
one hideous, blighted waste." recently wrote Sylvia
rankliurst, the noted suffragist advocate.
"The numbers of little, straggling villages which
join together and make one
large disjointed town, are sur
rounded on every side by low,
desolate hills, dotted with pit
banks, smouldering cinder
heaps and tall factory chim
neys pouring out volumes of
tlr
FEW weeks ago, while the Christian world was
making ready for the coming of Christmas
lme, London's Board of Education appropri
ated 26,0OO for the purpose of feeding hungry
i. achool children.
The board estimated that 60,000 children were going
t school ach morning without breakfast.
Only a short time before, Manchester unveiled a
costly monument commemorating an act of bravery
Jn the Boer war, for which Corporal Pitts received
the coveted Victoria cross.
Almost at ,the moment of the unveiling, when sll-
i -ver-tongued orators were extolling his deed, Corporal
vj,Pltts, overlooked or forgotten, battered Into surrender
.JrtoJT the blows of an unkind fate, was applying tor
(vAdmiseion into the Blackburn almshouse.
Recent investigations made by Lord Northcllffe's
-newspapers show an appalling state of affairs. In
, Glasgow alone 25,000 heads of families are unem
ployed, unable to get work. Similar csndltlons' art
revealed in other cities.
f Official atatistlcs show that there are 786,237 regls
" tered paupers In London; it is estimated that there are
60,000 empty dwelling houses there.
London Is a city of sharp contrasts. It Is put
down as probably the wealthiest city In the world
;Xor example, lis property is insured against nre for
t ver 15.200,000.000. At the same time, according to
atatUtlca of the County Council, of the 7,000,000 or so
people in city and suburbs, "one person in every
thirty-three is a pauper; twenty persons in every 100
CI In a workhouse or workhouse infirmary. Poor
relief expenditure has grown to the annual amount
t $70,000.00."
' Unhappy as Is the condition that confronts the
. Englishman out of work this Christmas, the woman
who toil in any one of the trades or occupations
open to her is but little better off.
- Vit,lU lLnble(l l keP bdy aDd uI ,0Setker,
' Take the women who work In the manufacture of
boot and shoes. Leicester is a center of this busi
" ness. and many Leicester women have labored ,i
uoemaking: since their childhood days.
Some make shoes in their homes, others work in
the factories. The nome toiler uses an ordlnarv
f treadle sewing machine and, as a rule, carries thi
work right through, from the time the different Darti
. have been cut out until the shoes are ready to k
blocked and have the soles fastened on.
There are many divisions of work in the factory
however, each stage of progress being attended to by
a pciat set of tollers.
one woman may place the vamps, another the toe
. caps and so on. Steam power drives all the sewlnc
and other machines; the various parts of the shoes
are cut out by men cutters and then passed alona- to
tLe women, ...
The wag- seals Is based upon piece work; worsen
fitters and machine workers earn, usually, from 12 TS
a 14.75 a wk, but recently, because of short time
la" the factories, compensation has rarged from SL?$
' to (2.50 a week.
A. very large proportion of the women of Leicester
..take home work or go into the factories to supple
ment the wag-k of the men of the families.
In th so-cllled "black country" of Staffordshire,
many women are employed in nail and chain making.
M A i IN CHINA
P : 1 . S -v $l0$m&
. Y - rv V WtWilNli
(WTs
black smoke.
"It must be remembered, too, that many of these
women who toll all day at chalnmaking or nallmak
Ing, have domestic duties to attend to when tnelr other
work is done."
Skilled women In the chalnmaklng Industry rarely
earn more tnan 91.75 to 12.50 a week, and out of this
pitiful wage must pay from 60 cents to 65 cents a week
for fuel for their forges.
Women nail-makers earn even less than their sis
ters in the chain-making trade, as they average omy
about 11.25 a week.
it . tiiuicuii. Plough," says Sylvia Panjthurst, ror
a woman who has only herself to keep to subsist upon
such wages, but for those who have others dependent
upon them it seems well nigh impossible.
"I know one honest, hardworking woman chain
maker, a widow with two children, who earns $1.60 a
week, gets 76 cents aadxtlonal from the Poor Guar
dians and pays over 90 cents in rent. This leaves ner
something like 11.30 to live upon.
"There are others Wi even worse case. One of these
Is a woman who has three children one of them in
arms and whose husband has deserted her.
"She earns 11.25 a week. She can not get relief
from the Guardians unleks she consents to enter the
workhouse. She has no relatives who can help her.'
Thousands of women are employed in the British
mines most of them are known as pit brow lassies."
A man and a woman will stand all day beside
the shaft waiting- to drag the heavy tubs of coal, each
holding 700 pounds, from the upcoming cage. Often
one will see this work done by two women.
Women on the "pit brow" begin work at 5 o'olock
In the morning; and continue at their labor until 5
in the afternoon, with half hour intermissions at 8.30
and 12.30, and a fifteen-minute breathing spell In the
afternoon for tea. These arduous labors give them
hardened muscles and great strength.
Their wages? Pay ranges from 37 cents to 63
rents a day. The man doing the same work gets from
1.12 to 11.26 a day.
In the picture above is shown a "pit brow lassie
who has worked at the same colliery and at the same
task for over twenty years.
She pushes the heavy cars, each holding: 700 pounds
of coal, from the ascending cage to the sorting screens.
Great numbers of women are employed in British
cotton mills. While much of the work Is not arduous,
it requires a light, quick touch, flying fingers and
keen sight. A great deal of practice is needed before
the operator becomes expert.
This work would be more endurable If mill condi
tions were different. As It Is, the women toll In op
pressive heat and amidst an almost deafening noise
of machinery. Cotton will not spin, the mill operators
assert, if the windows are open and the fresh air la
.allowed to come in. . 1
Women mill tollers In Scotland-who do much of
the work that is done by men In England receive
wages ranging from 11.50 to 64.25 a week. In the
Lancashire, mill district of England the pay Is some
what higher.
w
iiiiJN the world was informed, not long
since, oi the illness and death of
China's emperor a weak, unfortunate
creature who had "jeen ruler only in
name it was also told of hia closing days: "The
physicians of foreign education who had been at
tending his majesty were dismissed from the pal
ace and the old-style practitioners reinstated."
Tbward the end of his life the emperor had
turned again to the remarkable mixture of super
stition, charlatanism and quackery that still char
acterizes the practice of medicine throughout
most of the Chinese empire.
T
(HERE is, for Instance, the curious existing be-
iiei in mo connection oeiween certain internal
organs and the thoughts and passions.
Source of all Ideas and della-hta is locate. !
not in the brain, but in the heart and pit of the stom
achin tact, the brain is ignored.
Without the barber the aVerage Chinaman would
be In a dilemma. Once a week, as a general thing, be
visits that Important personage, actuated by the mo
tive that causes an American to send his trousers at
regular intervals to the tailor for pressing.
First of all, the barber shaves the head and face
of his customer, scrapes and cleanses his ears and the
Inside of the eyelids and applies a salt solution to the
eyes with a brush of fine hair, one cause of the
great extent of eye trouble and blindness In China If
believed to be jhls method of treatment,
. To complete the renovating process the customer's
back is thoroughly massaged; he pays his fee of three
cents' and departs feeling that he has been well
cleansed externally. . .
There are Internal ills, however, to be remedied of
Buarumi against, ana ror this purpose the physician is
tns donor mane an
deemed
. medietas
consulted next. Verv r.iv
examination., and hands out the
necessary. ' r
One evil must always be guarded against Inuring
.the examination a devil is liable to jump down the
Treatment - .
patient's throat. In such case treatment is suspended,
the patient goes away under Instructions to set off one
hundred firecrackers, in order to frighten away the
Intruder, and to make dally visits to the josshouse for
five day.
Then the patient returns to the doctor, and prob
ably receives a box of pills. Remarkable is the list
of Ingredients from which pills are made. Those ot
- spotted TDlnoceros horn are a specific lor intestinal
troubles. A splendid -blood tonic, It Is believed. Is" .
made by grinding tiger bones to powder and mixing
with win. -- ... '
Chinese dentists, as a rule, have great strength of
arm, wrist and nngers, as most of the extracting Is
done with the flngera If the patient wishes a whole
sale extraction of teeth, the dentist will pull two
without charge and will then make a bargain as to
the price of completing the Job. .The charge Is usually
bout I cents a tooth.
v - - - Vi.y : : - yO.Y--,.-
STATESMEN ALARMED
Conditions In England, as relating to the great and
constantly Increasing army of the unemployed, are
causing the statesmen of that country much concern.
For some years the condition of the British working
roan nas been growing steadily worse, and the beat
minds of the land have been unable to devise an ade
quate remedy.
There is not enough work to give employment to
all who seek or need it either skilled or unskilled
workers. Great Britain has only about 100,000 manu
factories and the number is not sufficient to absorb
all, the skilled laborers seeking employment.
"Here," said the Rev. Mr. Massey, missionary at
the Worship atreet police- court In London, recently,
"Is a man, a French polisher, who earns good pay
when work is to be had. He has not had a Job since
last Christmas. ' He has nine children, and only one
of them, the eldest girl, who Is beginning as a ma
chinist, is able yet to earn anything.
"A laborer on my list has been' unable to obtain
regular work for five months; his wife, a strong, hard
working woman who formerly helped swell the family
income, now gets about one day's work a week.
"A widow, with a young family to support, has
not had a full day's work as a charwoman for thir
teen weeks. Here Is a boot finisher who has been un
able to find a Job for four months, although he Is an
industrious, careful man.
"And so the dreary record might go on Indefinitely."
"For the first time In history," a prominent Eng
lishman declared the other day, "statesmen of the first
rank have recognised the gravity of the problem of
the unemployed, and are treating it as a national
.question. jor reite( j,ave t,een engaging the attention
of cabinet ministers and Parliament. The poor-relief
expenditure, as has been stated, has grown to 1 70.0O0,
O0U a year, while expenditures for old-age pensions,
recently authorised, will raise the amount in the near
future $60,000,000 more.
Municipal expenditure in behalf of the unemployed
has. reached considerably over 65,000,000, and more
thtro $25,000,000 la expended annually in private char-
lty. ' -' : ' " '
.. It Is a heavy tax to pay, and yet what the English
unemployed demand work Is not forthcoming. Pov
erty's sting In Britain's Christmas is rapidly becom-
lug a festering sore, an alarming crisis. that threatens
the foundations of the nation. ' .
There will be few Christmas trees this week where
many were in the more prosperous years of the past;
thousands of little stockings will remain unfilled, thou
sands of little hearts may lose their faith In Santa
Claus. That is one ot the aaaaest tnougms oi sad
dened, chastened '