The frontier. (O'Neill City, Holt County, Neb.) 1880-1965, October 22, 1896, SUPPLEMENT, Image 6
ME TRADE MISERY. Mathaniel McKay Tells of His Tour Through British Manufac turing Centers. PEEP AT POVERTY JN LONDON. Working Women at Masculine Labor —Stern Facts for Our Wage Earners. "Free-trade slavery still exist* in the British empire notwithstanding the re daction of the American tariff, which benefits the English manufacturer, but does not reach the British workman. Fight years ago I visited England for the purpose of studying the condition of This “court" was horseshoe pattern and contained 9 houses—-18 dwellings —5 on one side and -1 on the other, and those three closets were all there was for this whole "court.” ltoui-cl and Lodging. These hovels are inspected by the po lice. I found a certificate in the hall of one of them dated March 22, 1.893, and signed “A. T. Wood, chief police super intendent.” These eertiticates are signed at his office, and probably he never vis its the places. One man told me he had for his break fast bread and butter and tea—no meat —and for his dinner bread and bacon, hut meat was a luxury he could not af ford. The tenants flocked around me by the dozen in Miller's conrt. I would have been glad to have taken some pho 1 tographs of these sceneit and “courts,” but the weather was too cloudy for any satisfactory results. ' I passed from this court to another, and, going to a door, I asked. "Wbat do you do for a living?” ■ The man there answered, "1 take in lodgers.” j "What do you charge?” “Fourpence (.8 cents) per night or sevenpence (14 cents) a couple.” (The man saw there were two of us.) Passing on, we came to the largest of its kind, containing 395 beds. On the II CMiwitei cf Ondlej Heath earning from $1.20—1.60 per week, working ten hours per day. 1 Taken August 26, 1896, by N; McKay. working people and comonring their with those of Americans. Four ■go 1 made a second visit for the mm purpose and on August 12, 18SW, I I New York, for the third time, to Ae another investigation. I arrived Manchester on August 20 and there tan my investigation, where I found re destitution than I had ever seen ■ay ether city. ®s •‘Oesipssr* m€ Msndmnr. ■trading, leaking up Angel meadow, • V*1regard an the lent and behind one *ha worst ‘'courts" in Great Britain, i of eoaree. and all around • palliation struggling in the ocean of ■ WV.TBU ui -- - social degradation, it has ■mb called the “cesspool mf Manchee *“ Its history is a hlsTbry of dirt, rime, drunkenness, riot, cruelty jobbery. The houses are low and -Mated, and many are villainous mventilited. niMlrdned, corrupt. - with swells, atterly infamous kenlng both to body and mind— srithla a few minutes* walk of hotel, the Exchange and stations. are scores of rooms funds bed ground floor of this lodginghouse is a large room for the men to sit in. The kitchen below contained a large closed cooking range, which was red hot, and the odor of the cooking going on made it anything but enviable to be in. The lodg ers all cook for themselves and have a variety of things to cook and they are not very particular as to how many dif ferent things are cooked together in the "®me P°t. We went upstairs and saw 395 beds, which are let at three differ ent prices—0, 8 and 12 cents per night, ■the 12-cent lodger has a place boarded •off to himself—no water, no towel. Wealth and Feverty Mixed. Manchester, with her 500,000 popula tion, boasts of her wealth and manufac turing resources and one would suppose that all of the people alike lived in' pal aces; but to examine into the exact con dition I find quite the reverse. Thou sands of these people live on alcohol. When they earn any money, it goes for alcohol chiefly. Coming back to my hotel, the Queen’s, facing one of the finest streets in Man chester, is the Royal infirmary, all along the front of which there are seats which L h**nm*j OT HeMh, The background shows on the left the blacksmith shop snd on the right the home. She makes 12.16 a week. Taken August 26,1866, by N. McKay. a table, a cnair, a thing called a ' and a few pots. These rooms are ‘et for 18 cents a night for two 12 by 10—where people eat, cook sleep. 1 entered some of these *—If such a name could be given to the hovels 1 saw—and in one I asked f a woman: “Do you rent this?” “Yes,” was the st do you pay for it?" “Four and ate ($1.08) a week.” “Have you the whole house?” “No, •ir: only this room.” (Size 12 by 10.) “Do you sleep in here?” “Yes. sir: W» ^ sleeps, eats, cooks and everything “You have a room above—up the •tain?” “No, sir; that’s another par ity's.” i “Gan I go up?" “Yes, 1 dare say he twill let you.” 1 “Before 1 go up I would like to ask, “What do you do for a living?’ ” “My husband sells sandstone, sand and blue "e, or he gives the stone and gets bottles, bones or old iron for “What does be earn in a week?” At this question the woman smiled. •Well, it depends—sometimes more, •ssaetimes less. One day perhaps a shil Hac (24 cents), another day 1 and 41 (Mcents) and so on.” 1 should say here that the agent finds puts, pans, bed and fire, sucly as are, for I will not attempt to de e them. This I will say—no dog mt aaine should ever be allowed to sleep « what la called a bed in those places. TM whole outfit was not worth 10 . “Have you a back yard?” “No, sir.” * “Where la your closet, then?" “Where, air.” painting to three closets 4a the street are occupied by poor people from the mums. I was informed that many sat tnAVA ^ -_1- A. -_w . * ■ there the whole night, so I arose early the next morning and went across to the seats and found that 30, 12 of whom were women, one with a child, had sat there all night because they had not the necessary 6 cents for a bed. The trade of Manchester is Tery much depressed at present—awaiting the pres idential election in the United States The merchants of the United States are making very small purchases now, be cause they fear a new tariff bill and because American consumption is less ened through the idleness of the people and their inability to buy. The manu facturers and shippers here do not want any change in the present American tariff. Hut they say they would rather have McKinley for President than Bry au» for if Bryan is elected and a silver standard declared in the United States they cannot sell their goods at all to America. Yet they despise McKinlev for, as the London Times stated a few days ago, “his infamous tariff bill.” Trade Paralysis In Bradford. Leaving Manchester, I visited Brad ford, which is the largest woolen and shoddy manufatcuring district in the world. Trade is paralyzed there as far as United States shipments are con cerned at present. The manufacturers are awaiting the election of the Presi dent of the United States, to know whether he will be a free trader or a pro tectionist. The merchants are very much agitated on this account—for they can gar but few orders from the United States. } said to one of them: “You have now the whole British empire (in cluding India), with n population of al most 350,099,000 controlled by her majes ty, to supply; why are von not satisfied to mncnfnctmc imir goods anil supply your * . ]■ people His answer was: “Wo want the Amnr ioan market. It is tin* greatest market in the world and during the time the MoKinloy bill was a law our nmuufac turors wore quite paralyzed.” There was exported from Bradford during the last nine mouths of the cx istenee of the McKinley law $4.478.000 worth of goods. This was from January 1. 1894. to September 30, 1804. During the eorresponding period of the following year (from January 1, 1895, to Septem ber 30. 1895.), under the Wilson hill, the exports from Bradford amounted to .821.171.000. Dive times ns mueh under the Wilson bill as under the McKinley bill. The total exports for the year 1895 from Bradford nmounteil to $27,745,000. These exports include thirty-seven items, but consist chiefly of card clothing, cot ton goods, iron and steel, machinery, hosiery, stuffed goods, worsted goods, yarns, silks, etc. Mr. Meeker, United States consul at Bradford, furnished me these statistics, which were taken from his reports to the state department. We manufacture similar goods in America, but on account of the Wilson tariff bill we have been deprived of the chance to manufacture them, and the money which should have been paid to our own working people has been pnid to the laboring people of Great Brituin. Our chimneys have censed smoking, while theirs are in full blast. Our working people are idle and deprived of a living on account of this iniquitous, free trade, Wilson tariff. llualneitfl Thrives in Birmingham. I left Brudford on August 24 for Bir mingham, passing through Leeds and Sheffield, whose iron and steel works are in full blast. Not only in these places, but all over Knglnnd, this line of in dustry is prospering. And the factories are running full time, and the greater part of their product is shipped to the United States. And while their works ;nvri an'i ne told me it was his tv up, who v.as very sick. -VII around wore signs of poverty. It was not lit for hu man beings. It made me chill with pitv as I looked on this terrible scene. Going through a little court about lOx 10 feet, in the rear of t It in house, I ramc to the shop where one of his daughters makes chain with another woman. I asked iter name and she told me Clara Boxley. Her age is 112 years. She has been making chain for five years and receives from $1.75 to $2.10 a w eek for her work. She makes three eight h.s inch chain and is paid $1.02 for 112 pounds. For breakfast she has bread and butter and tea arid sometimes a piece of bacon. She told me she worked from 7 o’clock in the morning until 7 in the evening; that the only rea son she staid there was because she could not save enough money to pay her fare away from the town. The buildings look ns if they had stood for centuries, and ns I passed through the little court lending into the house and which is walled on every side by houses I counted fifteen little children from 2 to 0 years of age playing to gether in all the filth that could sur round a blacksmith shop in this district. Across the alley was another shop where another daughter was making chain. She is married, has one child and makes $2.1 (i per week. She has been making chain for twenty years, having commenced when she was 12 years old. Her husband, a chain maker also, earns from $3 to $4.50 a week. Mrs. Polly Fowkes has four daugh ters making chain. She is 54 years old and has made chain since she was 7 years of age, blit is now too old to work at it any more. Each of the daughters makes from $1.20 to $1.50 per week. They live in a little old house, with stone flooring. Here they cook and eat and live in the same room all huddled together. The girls are very smart at the forge. I set five girls to work in Emily Panona, age S2, Cradley Heath, Ena., earn* *2. 16 a week. The building la her bl 20 yean a chalnmaker. Work! ten houn per day and ■ ackemllh shop. Taken Ang. 26,1896, by N. McKay. are running full time our people are idle. Today the goods that are being made in Leeds and in Sheffield would, were it not for the Wilson bill, be made in the United States. I spent a day in Birmingham, which is another thriving and prosperous manu facturing center. Here also the people ore very desirous that no change be made in the present American tariff schedule which would result in depriving them of our market for their goods. The British Chain Gang. After leaving here I went to Cradley Heath—among the women chainmakers and women blacksmiths—to witness the misery there which I had visited in Shoe Worn by Wigan Women. 1888 and In 1892. There are women there by the thousands who make chain for a living in old, low buildings adjoin ing their houses. One man, lVillinm Bosley, said he was 50 years old and earned CO cents a day as a laborer, when he could work. He has five daughters and five sons. Three of this daughters are chainmakers and one works in a brickyard, carrying brick. I went into his house. On the lower floor was a room with a stone the blacksmith shop. They worked 30 minutes and made me 14 pounds of three-eighths chain. Each piece was over two feet long, and they worked like beavers to see who could make the long est piece. They work ten hours a day. I gave them a shilling apiece when they nil came into the room, and I asked them how long it would take to earn that amount. They replied, “It would take more than a day" (to earn 25 cents). I thought. “Miserable England!” Women Coal Miners. . I did not visit Wigan this time (as I have done twice before), but there is no change in labor there; the poorhoases which I described and reproduced iu 1892 still stand. It is a pitiful sight to wit ness the poor women there, half starved and half clad, wheeling coni on the top of the pits for the small pittance of 40 to 50 cents for ten hours’ work. I reproduce here a cut of the shoes that are worn by the women in these dis tricts, heavy clogs with big nails in the bottom. The situation has not changed yet. As long as there is coal in the pit there will be women to wheel it. At one time this class lived and hnd their families ,’n the coal mines, but Parliament prohibited this, and now they do the wheeling on the top of the pits. With this cheap labor no wonder coal is cheap in this country. This coal is used on the very steamers and vessels which carry Eng land’s free trade labor product to Ameri ca to compete with our labor and manu factures. Charles L. Snowden of Brownsville. Pa„ writes me: “We pay our miners 70 cents per ton, or $2.60 per 100 bushels (76 pounds to the bushel). One man can put from 150 to 200 bushels per day and can earn from $3 to $4 daily. There A enapshot Uken In Whitechapel, showing how the poor get their rest. Taken Auguit 28,1896, by N. McKay. Boor and an old-fashioned fireplace with orena on each aide and a place for coal in the middle. Back of this was a little space for a washroom where there la room for only one person. In the front room all the cooking la done and it la also need for a living room and dining room. Upstairs ia a room 8x12 feet. As I entered here I noticed a woman lying on ana of the beds (there wars are no poorhouses in BrownsTille staring these working people in the face. They make from six to eight times the wages of the poor people at Wigan, and there are no women at work wheeling coal in the United States. Paapers la the British Empire. Population of Great Britain and Ireland. . 37.732.822 Paupers. 1,018,028 '•'**« (u rvtrr *•“' pe.iMins. Twenty - eijrlit paupers to every 1000 persons. Cost to maintain these paupers annually.5:.7,S23,4T5 Lost to iiinliirniii the queen n:nl the royal family. *2,IK)3,770 Cost to maintain the president ami his secretaries. $35,000 • population* of the British empire, including India and the colonies, is 848. (KK).OOO. There are 50 colonies and 40 distinct governments. Life in London. I arrived in London August 28, and made a visit to Whitechapel. I visited a lodging house on Osborne street. I asked for the proprietor and was intro duced to him. They call him “the gov ernor’* to distinguish him from other r There are 519 friendly scetcties ofj trades mioss in Croat Britain with membership of 1.043.000 (taken from port of House of Commons). Scve of these societies are located in Loiui, and include some of the trades enume ated in the Booth table. The societi control the wages of their varions trade? and were it not for the stand they take their wages would be reduced by the manufacturer to a lower standard than 'ncy are at present, which is less than one-half of what is paid in America. Higher Wages In America. Our last census report of 1890 gave \ ns 4,712,(122 tfeople employed in mann- ) factoring, the average yearly earning of j each person being $4S8. The average in Daughters of Mrs. Fowkes, chslnmskers of Cradley Heath, earn $1.20—1 50 a week a day. Taken August 20, 1896, by N. McKay. Work ten hours i I men. His name is Wildemouth. ne lodges 391 persons in his house every night. His rooms are 6 by 6 feet and ho receives 12 cents per night for each of these rooms. I went from there to Commercial street (in Whitechapel) where I saw a place called the Victoria home (kept in the same manner as the one on Osborne street), where the roomers pay from 6 to 12 cents per night. Then I went through the thickest part of Whitechapel —an alley called Petticoat lane. The meat hanging in the stores and on the sidewalks was so filthy that it sickened me and I could not tarry long enough to oven ask the price of it. 1 asked the price of herrings—1 cent each. Bread was 1 cent a loaf, and it was hard look ing bread; potatoes one-half cent ' a pound; onions one-half cent a pound; 3 pounds of carrots for 2 cents. Such a filthy trading market would disgust a stoic. . They live in filth, breed in filth and die in filth, knowing nothing else. The “Casual Ward.” Then 1 went to a pubiic institution known as n casual ward, the same one I visited eight years ago. I found it just as it was in 1S88. The keeper, or guardian, told me this ward had been in existence for more than thirty years and that there were thirty such places in London at present. These institutions are kept as public places and are really poorhouses. If a man has no money, he can go there and apply for admittance, which he^gets if the place is not already filled. When received, they are kept in confinement for two nights and one day, England for each person (taken from reports published by Parliament) is about $280, a difference in favor of America! of $208 per capita. Now there are tbou-j sands of people in England who do not! receive one-half this $2S0. We pay our angle iron smiths 53 per cent, more than they are paid in England; our black smiths, 102 per cent.' more; our boiler makers, 47 per cent, more; our brick layers, 125 per cent, more; our boiler shop helpers. 05 per cent, more; our; carpenters, 105 per cent> more; our con-: ductors (on express trains), 340 per cent.. more; our locomotive engineers, 101 per cent, more; our police, 200 per cent. I more; our telegraph operators, 103 per \ cent, more; our train dispatchers, 316 per cent, more, and our common labor ers, 158 per cent. more. The difference in all classes of labor is the same as these examples I mention. The engineers who run the fastest ex- . i press trains on the road in England get, but $10.80 per week for ten hours per day. The firemen get $5.02 per week or, 98 cents per day. The guards (who correspond with our conductors) get from $4.80 to $0.72 per week. The por ters (we call them brakemen) get $4.56 per week. This is a sample of the pay of English labor." Our engineers in America on the express trains receive’ $31.50 per week, our conductors $26 and our brakeman $13. We pay more , than double the wages paid in England, J where railroad fare is higher and the coal cheaper than in America. The following table of wages answers all the free-trade fallacies of the Demo cratic party and cannot be disputed: V* Mrs. Fowkes’ daughters work ten hours per day. earn from *1.20—1.50 per week, laken at Cradlcy Heath, August 20, 1890. at the expiration of which time they aro discharged. Nobody is allowed to come to these places more than once a month, and he can stay no longer than the time pre scribed. The ward I .visited accom modated fifty-five men and thirty-two women. The beds consist of a narrow strip of canvas stretched like a hammock between two iron rods about a foot from the floor. The applicants nre admitted after 6 p. m. in the summer time and after 4 p. m. in the winter time. As soon as they are admitted they are given a bath in one of the six baths in the ward and their clothes are fumigated and disinfected. After the bath they have their supper of six ounces of bread and a pint of gruel. For their bed they are given three blankets. Fofc breakfast they receive the same food as for sup per. For dinner, in addition to the bread and gruel, they are given 1% ounces of cheese. The total cost for caring for these people during the period of their confinement, including the five meals, is 9 cents each. Advice to Americans. My advice to every American working man is, as I have said before, to pro tect his own rights and the rights and firivileges of his family and not to fol ow the whims, cries and falsehoods of the free-trade politician who seeks to have goods imported into the United Stntes which are made by cheap pauper labor because he thinks the goods can be sold cheaper than if they were made in America. If the wages of the American working men are not reduced to the standard of those in England, and the goods are not made in America, he has no money to purchase these cheap goods with. Be ing deprived of work, where are they to get their money to make their purchases with? Labor In London. The following statistics are taken from Booth’s “Life and Labor of the People of London,” showing the number of peo ple employed in the various lines in the citv of London: Tailors. 01,876 Boot aud shoemakers.•>.. 06,614 Hatters.. ••••.. 0.827 Dressmakers and milliners. 43.704 Shlrtmakers. 17,326 Machinists... 6,715 Drapers and hosiers. 31,377 Clerks. 181.589 Cabmen, coachmen, busmen, etc_ 261,406 Railway service, labor, etc. 02.828 Seamen.. • .... 15,833 Dock service, labor, • coal heavers, porters, gasworkers, etc. 88,201 General labor, factory labor. 215,465 Engine driven and artisans. 45,300 Total.1,201,241 All other classified labor not in cluded above. 711,240 Grand total In London, 1,912,490 TAKEN FROM OFFICIAL SOURCES. Per Week. K D « Angle Iron smiths. ... Boilermakers. .. Blacksmiths. Bricklayers.. ’ Boilershop helpers.. 4 C nlkers. Carpenters, house. Carpenters, ship.. Conductors, express.. Car drivers, Eng. 6s. 12 hrs., Amer. $2.. Engineers, Loudon and Northwestern and N. Y. Central. Firemen, express. ... Hodcarriers. Holders on, boiler shops. Joiners, house, Liverpool Laborers in streets, Lon don. ’Longshoremen, N. Y. docks 22 to 40c per hr; London docks 12c per hr... Machinists, 1st class.. Machinists, 2d class... Masons, 8 hours. Molders, iron. ........ Painters. Plasterers. Plumbers... Platers. Printers, job. Policemen. Pavers. Riveters. Riggers. *&tage drivers (same as horse car drivers). Telegraph operators. ►d ** to ** < n c n * a © r* ►s a 3 2 B ® n England Average first year's serv ice. Average ten years’ serv ice. Train dispatcher. Common laborer.. Mortar makers. 8i3.no 14.52 16.02 27.00 7.02 19.50 21.00 21.00 2G.40 14.00 31.50 17.10 16.50 10.50 10.50 10.50 16.02 12.00 27.1(0 13.50 12.00 24.00 21.00 12.00 18.00 25.00 27.00 13.50 10.02 14.00 10.00 20.00 $8.16 9.841 7.92 12.00 3.60 8.16 7.92 8.40 5.88 10.08 10.80 5.92 4.50 5.04 7.92 7.20 1 .53 .47 1.02 1.25 .95 1.26.. 1.65 1.50 3.49 .38 1.01 1.88 2.67 1.08 .33 .48 21.00 10.50 10.80 6.72 6.7 11.40 8.16 7.92 11.40 8.04 8.8S( 7.92 6.96 9.72 0.7 7.08 10.08 1.88 7.48 5.04 4.06 7.201 1.38 .79 1.37 .53 .51 1.11 1.43 .35 • 1.21 2.00 1.77 .39 .41 .39 1.03 1.54 3.18 1.58 _.50 ♦English stage drivers work 12 to 15 hours a day; American, 10. Cheapness will be still more dearly J bought by the American wage-earner if—1 we continue a free-trade policy in Amer- " ica. I present this statement to the Repub lican nntional committee, free of charge, and trust they will attend to the dia tribution of it. _ _ Nathaniel McKay. London, Sept, 4, 1896. ■EVEN.