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Nathaniel McKay Tells of His fcr 'Through British Manufac­ turing Center?, HEP AT POVERTY IN LONDON, Working Wornen at Mascufine Labor --Stem 'Facts for Our Wage Earners. Free-trade slavery still exists in €be British empire notwithstanding the re­ daction of the America® tariff, wfaieh benefits the English manufacturer, but 4oes artst reach the British workman Eight years ago I Msiied England for •tfee purpose of studying the condition of This "court" was horseshoe patteM* alid contained 0 bouses--18 dwellings --5 on one side and 4 on the other, «nd these three closets were all there was for tliis whole ""court." Board and JLodfrlnj;. These hovels are inspected by the po­ lice. I found a certificate in tin? hall of one of them dated March 22, 189& and signed "A. T. Wood, chief police super­ intendent." These certificates are signed at his office, and probably he never vis­ its the places. -One wantfililmehehftd for his bm\k- fast bread and butter and tea--no meat --and for his dinner brtnd and bacon. Lmt meat was a luxury "he could not af­ ford. The tenants flocked around me by the dozen in Miller'*? <i-ourt. I would haw been glad t® have taken some pho­ tographs of these scenes and "Vouits," but the weather was "too cloudy for any satisfactory results. 1 passed froiw this court to another, •a*ad. going t© -a doer, I asked, "What 'So you do 5or » Irving?" The main there •answered, "1 take in lodgers.1" "What do you 'cfcarge?" ""Foerpenera (8 cents) petr night or sevenpenee (14 cents) a" •couple." <The inasi -saw there we're • two of tis.)\ .;• - " V •: Passing on, we <came to the ilsrgeSt of its kind, containing 395 beds. On X'he r I Chain makers of Cr-sidleY Heath earning from $1.20--LEO';psr week, working ten1 bcurs per day. Taken August 26,1896, by K.'McKay. the working people and comparing their "Wages with those of Americans. Four years ago I made a second visit for the same purpose and on August 12. 1896, I left New York, for the third time, to piake another investigation. I arrived in Manchester on August 20 and there began my investigation. where I found more destitution than I had • ever seen in any other city. The "Cesspool" of Manchester. • Standing, looking un Angel meadow, « graveyard on the left and behind one of the worst "courts" in Great Britain, tpublic houses of •eourse. and all around a population struggling in the ocean of moral and social degradation, it has been called the "cesspool of Manches­ ter." Its history :is a history of dirt, vile crime, drunkenness, riot, cruelty and robbery. The houses are Jow and dilapidated, and many are villainous holes, unventilated, undrained, -corrupt, reeking with smells, utterly infamous and sickening both to body and mind-- all this within a few minutes' walk of -the Queen's hotel, -the Exchange and railway stations. There are scores -of rooms furnished ground floor of this JoQgiaghouse ie a. large r&otu for the mew rto sit in. The1 kitchen below contained a • large closed' cookiqg i range, which was-red hot, andi the odor- of the cooking going on made it£ anything but enviable to 'beiln. The lodg-j ers a21 .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- same ;pot. We went upstairs and saw i 395 beds, vwhich are let-at three differ­ ent prices-Mi, 8 and 12 cants per night. The 12-cent lodger has a place boarded off to himself--no water, no: towel. Wealth and Poverty Mixed Manchester, with her 500,000 popula-: tion, boasts of her wealth and manufac-J turing resources and one would suppose! that all of the people alike: lived in pal­ aces; but to.examine into ffae exact con­ dition I find quite the reverse. Thou­ sands of these people live on alcohol. When they earn any money, i 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 w U ciA^»TVTr5H~f«'i l£r«. Eliza Head, age 23 a^chainmaker of Cradley Heath. The background shows on tie left the blacksmith shop and on the right fee home. Bfae wkes *2.16 a Taken August 26,1S96, by N. McKay. a table, a chair., a thing called a and a few pots. These rooms are suffiet for 18 cents a night for two-- sizi 12 by 10--where people eat, cook andH sleep. I entered some of these houses--if ssich a name could be given to the hovels I saw--and in one I asked of a woman: "Do you rent this?" *"Ses,M was the reply. "What do yoa pay for it?' "Four and six ($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; we sleeps, eats, cooks and everything here." "You have a room above--tip the etairs?" "No, sir: that's another par­ ty's." "Can I go up?" "Yes, I dare say he will let you." "Before I go up I would like to ask, 'What do you do for a living?' " "My husband sells sandstone, sand and blue taole, or he gives the stone and gets rags, bottles, bones or old iron for them." y "What does he earn ia a week?" At this question the woman smiled. "Well, it depends--sometimes more, sometimes less. One day perhaps a shil­ ling (24 cents), another day 1 and 6 (36 cents) and so on." I should say here that the agent finds the pots, pans, bed and fire, such as they are, for I will not attempt to de­ scribe them. This I will say--no dog of mine should ever be allowed to sleep on what is called a bed in those places. The whole outfit was not worth 10 cents. "Have you a back yard?" "No, sir." "Where is your closet, then?" "There, sir," pointing to three closets |s the street. are occupied ifey poor peopJe fpcm the slums. I was informed that many sat there the whole night, so I .arose early the next morning and went across ito the seats and found that 39, 12 of -vhom were women, one with a child, had sat there all night because they had not the aecetsary 6 cents for a bed. The trade of Manchester is very much depressed at present--awaiting the pres­ idential election in the United States. The merchants of lb- United States axe making very small purchases now, be­ muse they fear a new tariff bill and because American consumption is less- CI1^ ,£1,?)uPh t.1?? idleness of the people and their inability to buy. The manu­ facturers and shippers here do not want 6fJn present American tenff. But they say they would rather have Mckinley for President than Bry­ an, 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 tor, as the London Times stated a few dayfc 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- d®t of the United States, to know whether herwill be a free trader or a pro­ tectionist. The merchants are very much agitated on this account--for they can get but few orders from the United States. I said to one of them: "You have now the whole British empire (in­ cluding India), with a population of al­ most 35O,OOO,O0O controlled by her majes­ ty, to supply; why are you not satisfied tot manufacture your goods and supply your own people?" . tjis answer was: "We want the. Amer­ ican market. It is the greatest market in the world and during the time the McKinley bill was a law our manufac­ turers were quite paralyzed," There was exported from Bradford during the last nine months of the ex­ istence -of the McKinley law $4.47S.000 worth of goods. This was from January 1. 1S94, to September 30. 1894. During the corresponding poiiod of the following yea'*-(from-January T|, 1895. to Septem­ ber 30, 1895,), under the Wilson bill, the exports from Bradford amounted to ^21,171.000. Five times as much under the Wilson'bill a« under the McKinley l>i\l. The total exports for the year 1895 'from Bradford amounted to $27,745,000. These exports include thirty-seven items, but ̂ consist chiefly of card clothing, cot­ ton goods, iron and steel, machinery, hosiery, sttvflfed goods, worsted goods, yarns, silks. <etc. Mr. Meekpr, United States consul at Bradford, furnished me these statistics, which were taken from his ve^M'ts to the state •department. We manufacture similar goods in America, but on account -of the Wilson tariff biH we liaye. been-def/rived of the chance ,3o manufacture them, and the money which should haw been paid to out -own working people has been paid to the laboring people of Great Britain. OUT >c4iimneys have •ceased smoking, while theirs are in fiili blast. Our working people are idle und deprived of a living on account of this iniquitous, free'ti-ade, Wilson tariff. v' U»isiiies» Thriws in Birmingham. T'k'.ft Bradford on August 24 for Bir- imingham, passing through Leeds and Sheffield, whose i^n and steel works are 5n fall blast. No't 'oiily in these places, hilt all over England, this line of in- •duetry is prospering. And the factories •are running full time, and the greater .•part of their product is shipped to the ESJuited States. And while their works two) and he told me it was his wife, who was very sick. All around were signs of poverty. It was not fit for hu­ man beings. It made me chill with pity as I looked on this terrible scene. uohig through a little Court about lOx 10 feet, in the rear of* this house, I came to the shop where one of his daughters makes chain with another woman. I asked her name and she told me Clara Boxley. Her age is 22 years. She has been making chain for five years and--receives .froni $1.75 to $2.16- a week for her work. She makes three- eighths inch fchain and is paid $1.02 for 112 pounds. For breakfast she has bread and butter and tea and sometimes a piece of bacon. She told ine she. worked from 7 o'clock in the morning until 7 in the evening; thjit the only rea­ son she staid th,ere was because she could not save enough money to pay her fare away from the town. The buildings look at? if they had stood for centuries, and as I passed through the little court leading into the house and which is walled on every side by houses I counted fifteen little children from 2 to (5 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 ^as making chain. "She is married, has one child and makes $2,10 per week. ' She has been imaking chain for twenty years, having commenced when she was 12 years old. Her husband, a chain- maker also, earns from $3 tc $4.50 a week. '"; • Mrs. Potty Fowkes has four daugh­ ters making -chain. She is 54 years old and has made chain since she was 7 years of age, but 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 Rve in the same room all huddled together. The girls are very smart at the forge. I set five girls to work in One paupe* to every 87 persons. Twenty- eight paupers to every 1000 persons. Cost to maintain these paupers annually $57;825,475 Cost to maintain the queen and the royal family $2,903,770 Cost to maintain the president and his secretaries ?85,000 The population of the British empire, including India and the colonies, is 346.- 000.000. There are 59 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 There are 519 friendly societies «| trades unions in Great Britain with* • membership of 1,048,000 (taken from ifcf port of House of Commons). Sever!) of these societies are located in . London and include some of the trades enumer­ ated in the Booth table. The societies control the wages of their various tradefe, and were it not for the stand they, take their wages would be reduced by the manufacturer to a lower standard than "they are at present. Which is less than ouerhalf of what is paid in America. Higher Wages in America. Our last census report of 1890 gave us 4,712,622 people employed in manfi» factoring, the average yearly earning of each person being $488. The average ia Vt, W" Fw • ciarkCT^H Daughters of Mrs. Fowkes, chainm8kers of Cradley Heath, earn $1.20--1.50 a week. Work ten hours a day. Taken August 26,18%, by N. McKay. -nily Parsons, age 32, Cradley Heatk, Eng..20i*caM a chainmaker. Works 1en<!i«Hirs per day and earns a week. • Vhe building is lier blacksmith shop. Taken Aug. 26,1896, by N. McKay. men. His name is Wildemouth. He lodges 391 persons in his house every night. His rooms are 6 by 6 feet and he 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 even ask the price of it. I 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 I went to a public institution known as a casual ward, the same one I visited eight years ago. I found it just as it was in 1888. The keeper, or guardian, told tne 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 Kas no money, he can go there and apply for admittance, which he^TPts 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 .mblished by Parliament) is about $280. a difference in favor of America of $208 per capita. Now there are thou­ sands of people in England who do not receive one-half this $280. 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. 95 per cent, more; our carpenters. 165 per cent, more; our con­ ductors (on express trains), 349 per cent, more; our locomotive engineers. 191 per cent, more; our police. 260 per cent, more; our telegraph operators. 103 per celit. more; our train dispatchers, 318- per cent. more, and our common labor­ ers, 158 per cent. more. The difference iu all classes of labor is the same afl these examples I mention. , The engineers who run the fastest ex­ press trains on the road in England get but $10.80 per week for ten hours per day. The firemen get $5.92 per week or 98 cents per day. The guards (who correspond with our conductors) get from $4.80.to $6.72 per week. The por­ ters (we cull 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, OUK. conductors $26 and our brakeman $13. We pay more than double the wages paid in England. 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 Deme«> cratic party and Cannot be disputed: are runningifoSiL tima our people fcre idle. Today the goo6s that are being made in ' Leeds and in Sheffield would, were it not •'dor the Wilson bill, be made iin the' '.•United States. 'I spent &• day'in. Birmingham, .Which i4s another driving and prosperous .manu- 'facturing .aenter. Here also the people .a^e very <&esireus that no change be rinade in She present American 'tariff •stsiiedule nv'hieli-wOtildrresult in depriving •them of Qur:maiket ifr their goods. Ttie .British Chain Gang. .\A-fter laa<viH!g ; liere I went to Oradiey !Henth--among the women chainmakers :aad women fclaekir.mitb*--to witness sthe inlise ry there uWhie h I i t ad visited iin JOLoe Worn by\W{gan Wcmen. t 188*1 and in 1891?- Ha ere aire women there by-.the thoiaeunds who Eeake chain for a living in old, low .buildings adjoin­ ing their houses. One man, Wiljiasiu ;Baxley, said he was 56 .years old scud earned GSt cents a day aa a laborer, when be conld work. He has five daughters ;and fi*e sons. Three of this daugWers^e chasamakers and one wauks in a ^brickyard, carrying brick. I wect info ftis .house. Ctn the lower floor was a artiom -with a stone the blacksmith shop. They worked SO • minutes and made ine 14 ;pounds cf three-eighths chain. 5EJa-ih 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 thev • -all came into the room, and I asked -them how long it wouiifl 'take to earn that amount. They replied, "It would take more than a day" (to earn 25 oants). I thought. "Miserable England!" Women Coal %ner.s. I did net visit Wigan tfhie-time (as T i have done twice before), but-there is no; change in labor there; the poorhouses1 which I described and reproduced in 1892; •still stand. It is a pitiful sight to wit-' mess the poor women there, ihA.lf starved and half clad, wheeling ooal on the top °f the_ pits for the small pittance of 40 to 50 cents for ten hours' work. I reproduce here a cut of the -fchoes that are worn by the women in these dis? tricts, heavy clogs with big .nails in the bottom. The situatkn has not changed yet. As ilong as there is coal in the pit there will be women to «wheel it. At one time this class '.lived and had their families jn the coal . mines, but Parliament prohibited fhis, . and now they do the wheeling on ;fhe-top of th« pits. With this cheap labor DO wondar coal is efeeap iin this .country. This icoal is used >on the very steamew and vessels which carry Eng­ land's free trade labor product to Ameri­ ca to compete wath our labor and .auanu- •factfures. tCiharlefi L. Soowden of Brownsville. Pa„ writes me: "We pay our miners 70 <eent*i per .ton, or $2.60 per 100 bushels f76:pounds to the bushel). One jnnn can put from 150 to 200 bushels per day and taneasn from;$8 to $4 daily. Ttere •"-j - /a H /\ rvTT iwin mWlllHI .. If ' % • • t e r n <1! Mrs. Fosskes'.daughters work ten hours per dav, earn from 81.20--1.50 per week. Taken at Cradley Heath, August 26,1896. m M/J-M is. A snap shot taken in Whitechapel, Taken August 28, floor,, and an old-fashioned fireplace with! ovens on each side and a place for coal in the middle. Back of this was a little space for a washroom where there is room for only one person. In the front room all the cooking is done and it is also used for a living room and dining room. Upstairs is a room 8x12 feet. As 1 entered here I noticed a woman lying on one of the beds (there were showing how the poor get their rest. 1896, by N. McKay. are no poorhouses in Brownsville staring these working people in the face. They make from six to eisrht times the wage's of the poor people at Wigan, and there are no women at work wheeling coal in the United States. Paupers *fn the British Kmpire. Population of Great Britain and Ireland, ... 37.732,02" Paupers 1,018,028 t>ti the expiratiosi of which time they are •ilirs.'harged. '.•Nobody is allowed to come to these ;;ikiees more than once a month, and he «oan stay no longer than the time pre- scfitoed. The ward I visited aecom- vnofdnted fifty-five men and thirty-two w.osuen. The beds consist of a narrow MU'in of cauvas stretched like a hammock biet'ween two iron isods obout a foot from • 1u<or. The applicants are admitted iafter<6 p. m. In the summer time and after 4 p. m. in the winter tim§. As *o<*n *as they are admitted they are given a bath in one of the six baths in the wai-d -and their clothes are fumigated :uiol disinfected. After the bath they bawe their supper of rsix ounces of bread and a:pint of grueL Tor their bed they are giveu three blanket. For breakfast they receive the lame food as for sup­ per. For-Sinner, in. avf|{lttion t*> the bread and gruC'J- they are tthv&n 1% .ounces of cheese. TLe total oost for earing for these people during the period of their confinement, including the five jneals, is 9 cents «ooh. A(ht:ce to Am^raea-ns. Mv advice ic. every Aaoerican working- man is, as 1 itave saW before, fco pro­ tect his own rights and' the rights and privileges of 1«* family and not to fol­ low the whims., ories and falsehoods of the free-trade politician who seeks to have goods imported into the United Steles which are wiade by cheap pauper ia'bsr because he itinks the goods can be' sold cheaper than if they were made in America. ' . Tf ithe wages of the* American working- men are not reduced to the standard of those sn England, and the goods are not iiiade in America, In* 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 LosMion. The follwing statistics are taken from Booth's "Life aud Labor of the People of London/* showing the lttUPiber of peo­ ple employed in the various.' lines in the city of I^ondou: Tailors -v • lVw>t and shoemakers Hatters •••• - Dressmakers and milliners........ Shirt makers. Machinists. Drapers and hosiers Clerks, • Cabmen, coachmen, busmen, etc.... Railway service, labor, etc Seamen Dock service, labor, coal heavers, porters, gasworkers, etc General labor, factory labor 215,465 Engine drivers and artisans 45,390 TAKEN FROM OFFICIAL SOURCES. Gs. 91.876 96,614 9.827 43,704 17,326 6,715 34,377 181,589 261,496 92,828 15,833 88,201 Alible Iron smiths... Boilermakers, Blacksmiths Bricklayers. Bollershop helpers.. Calkers Carpenters, house. Carpenters, ship Conductors, express. Car drivers. Eng 12 hrs.. Amer. ?2.' Engineers, London and Northwestern and N Y. Central Firemen, express. ...... Hodcarrlers Holders on, boiler shops. Joiners, house, Liverpool Laborers in streets, Lon­ don. ^Longshoremen, N. Y. docks 22 to vi)c per hr; Loudon docks 12c per tor. Machinists, 1st class. Machinists, 2d class.. Masons, 8 hours Mohters, iron Painters Plasterere Plumbers.. Platers Printers, job " Policemen. Pavers. Riveters. *" Riggers •Stage drivers (same as horse car drivers') Telegraph operators England- Average flrst year's serv­ ice. ............ j Average ten years' serv­ ice ' Train dispatcher. Common laborer.. Mortar makers. . Per Week. •0 3" 2 ® ̂a n 2 $13.50 98.16 14.52 9.84 16.02 7.92 27.00 12.00 7.02 3.60 19.50 8.16 21.00 7.92 21.00 8.40 26.40 5.88 14.00 10.08 31.50 10.80 17.10 5.92 16.50 4.50 10.50 5.04 10.50 7.9L' 10.50 7.20 * ibIo2 <172 12.00 6.T2 27.00 11.40 13.50 8.16 12.00 7.92 24.00 11.40 21.00 8,04' 12.00 8.88 18.00 7.92 2.-..00 6.96 27.00 9.72 13.50 9.72 10.02 7.08 14.00| 10.08 16.00 20.00| ...... { 1.88 7.48 . 21.00 [ 5.04 10.501 4.06 10.80 7.20 .53 .47 1.02 1.25 .95 1.26 1.65 1.50 3.49 .38 1.91 1.88 2.07 1.08 .33 ;n LS8 .79 1.37, .53 .61 1.11 1.43: •35< 1.21 2.60- 1.77 .39- AT .38* 1.03 1.54 •:<i6 Total •" 1,201,241 All other classified labor not Ip- cluded above. 711,249 Grand total In London. ....1,912,490 •English stage drivers work 12 to 15 hours a day; Auie^iean, 10. Cheapness will be still more dearly bought by the American wage-earner if we continue a free-trade policv in Amer­ ica. I present this statement to the Repub* lican national committee, free of charge and trust they will attend to the dii- tnbution of it. r a a a. * Nathaniel McKay. London, Sept. 4, 1896. SEVEN.