The total number of tenements in England and Wales was, in 1901, according to the returns, 7,036,868, which gives, with a population of 32,527,843, an average of 46 persons to each tenement. The six great towns in which the percentage of overcrowded persons was the highest were as follows: Speaking generally, it would appear that the coal-bearing counties are those where the crowding of dwellings is most severe. OVERCROWDING IN LONDON REGISTRATION COUNTY. 830,182 persons living more than two in a room = 1971 per cent. to total population. (General Report, 1891 Census, p. 118.) "This figure of nearly 20 per cent., however, is based on the population of the whole town, which in 1891 was 4,211,743. To ascertain the real nature of the overcrowding problem, it is essential to look more closely into the details of the different districts of London. It will then be found that in such central parts as Holborn, Clerkenwell, St. Luke's, Whitechapel, and St. George-inthe-East, the overcrowding exceeds 35 per cent. Look more closely into selected areas in these districts and the problem appears even more serious. The average number of persons per acre for all London is 56. In the Old Artillery Ground it is 427, in Spitalfields it is 322, in Mile End Old Town it is 269. These three districts are in Whitechapel" (London Government, by Frederick Whelen, p. 67). In 1901 the figures were about 719,293 persons, or 15.88 per cent. *The figures for 1901 have been calculated from the material given in the Preliminary Report, and though approximately correct, must not be taken as exactly accurate. MORTALITY AND OVERCROWDING (LONDON). Proportion of Total Population living Districts with under 15 per cent. Death-rate, "All Causes," 1885-92. 17.51 Later returns show some improvement : METROPOLITAN BOROUGHS. Proportion of Total Population living more than 1. Boroughs with under 15 per cent. Corrected 1901-3. 16.6 2. from 15 to 20 per cent. 18.8 Class I comprises City, Battersea, Camberwell, Chelsea, Deptford, Fulham, Greenwich, Hackney, Hammersmith, Hampstead, Kensington, Lambeth, Lewisham, Paddington, Stoke Newington, Wandsworth, Westminster, Woolwich. Class 2 comprises Bermondsey, Islington, Poplar. Marylebone, St. Pancras, Southwark. Finsbury. (Abstracted from the Annual Reports of the Medical Officer of Health to the London County Council for 1901 and 1904.) We clog our public poor relief with irksome and degrading conditions, so that the honest poor often die lingering deaths rather than accept it. Mr. Charles Booth states that "as regards entering the workhouse, it is the one point on which no difference of opinion exists among the poor. The aversion to the 'house' is absolutely universal, and almost any suffering and privation will be endured by people rather than go into it" (The Aged Poor in England and Wales). Yet the paupers in actual receipt of public relief on one day number more than a million : England and Wales, 1st January, 1906 ... 926,741 cost £14,035,888 1,406,489 1,209,286 £16,651,663 (Statistical Abstract for the United Kingdom, Cd-3691). But the relief is not usually given permanently; to obtain the number of different individuals who receive relief during a year we must multiply the daily number by 2.3. (This is the computation given in Mr. Charles Booth's paper before the Statistical Society, December, 1891. See also his Pauperism, a Picture; and the Endowment of Old Age, an Argument.) This gives a pauper class during any one year of about 2,627,000 persons, or 1 in 6 of the manual-labor class. In some rural districts every aged laborer is a pauper. The maintenance of these paupers cost £16,651,663 for a year. But in addition to this public expenditure, the various charitable societies spend 10,040,000 annually (Mr. Mulhall, Dictionary of Statistics, p. 112), and the charity of individuals is known to be enormous. The numbers of the destitute class must therefore be largely increased. Sir R. Giffen talks of the class of five millions "whose existence is a stain on our civilization" (Essays in Finance, vol. ii., p. 350). It is the lot of at least one in five of the manual labor class of 16 in every 100 of the whole population-to belong to this class. "To me, at least, it would be enough to condemn modern society as hardly an advance on slavery or serfdom, if the permanent condition of industry were to be that which we behold, that 90 per cent. of the actual producers of wealth have no home that they can call their own beyond the end of the week; have no bit of soil. or of so much as a room that belongs to them; have nothing of value of any kind except as much old furniture as will go in a cart; have the precarious chance of weekly wages which barely suffice to keep them in health; are housed for the most part in places that no man thinks fit for his horse; are separated by so narrow a margin from destitution, that a month of bad trade, sickness, or unexpected loss brings them face to face with hunger and pauperism. This is the normal state of the average workman in town or country" (Mr. Frederick Harrison, p. 429, Report of Industrial Remuneration Conference, 1886). The normal state of the "average workman" is the average normal state of four out of five of the whole population (Prof. Leone Levi, Times, 13th January, 1885). XII. The Evil and the Remedy. "The deepest root of the evils and iniquities which fill the industrial world is not competition, but the subjection of labor to capital, and the enormous share which the possessors of the instruments of industry are able to take from the produce" (J. S. Mill quoting Feugueray, Principles of Political Economy, p. 447, edition of 1865). "We have been suffering for a century from an acute outbreak of individualism, unchecked by the old restraints, and invested with almost a religious sanction by a certain soul-less school of writers" (Prof. H. S. Foxwell, University College, London, p. 249 of essay in The Claims of Labor, 1886). "It is, indeed, certain that industrial society will not permanently remain without a systematic organization. The mere conflict of private interests will never produce a well-ordered commonwealth of labor" (article on "Political Economy" in Encyclopædia Britannica, vol. xix., 1886, p. 382, since published as the History of Political Economy, by J. K. Ingram, LL.D., Trinity College, Dublin). Socialists affirm that the evil can never be remedied until the "two nations" are united by the restitution to public purposes of rent and interest of every kind, and by the growth of social sympathy promoted by the accompanying cessation of class distinctions. It will be seen by the above quotations that this position is based on the facts of the case as ascertained and declared by the recognized authorities in statistics, and is in entire harmony with the doctrines of Political Economy. XIII. Some Steps already taken towards Socialism. The restitution to public purposes of rent and interest of every kind cannot be effected by revolution, or by one or a dozen Acts of Parliament. Legislative reforms are needed, but they must be supplemented by a thoroughly organized exercise by all local authorities, from Parish to County Councils, of the powers they already possess, as well as by the acquisition of new and more far-reaching powers. The supply of water, milk, gas, and electric light; the establishment of markets, slaughter-houses, tramways, steamboats, baths, wash-houses, cemeteries, harbors, libraries, Bands, art galleries, museums, open spaces, gymnasia, allotments; the building of workmen's dwellings and municipal lodging-houses, are being carried on by municipal authorities for the common good. They might be extended to every urban community in the kingdom if public opinion and public enterprise were sufficiently alert to their opportunities. The following figures show the influence of Socialistic principles in our municipal administration. A House of Commons Return, issued in December, 1902, gives a summary of the reproductive undertakings carried on by 299 out of the 317 municipal boroughs in England and Wales: total capital, 121,172,372; balance outstanding, 31st March, 1902, 104,925,853; average annual income for four years to 31st March, 1902, 13,368,702; average annual working expenses for the same period, 8,228,706; average annual net profit for the same period, 4,812,005 (H. C.308, 16th December, 1902). No later returns have been made. The establishment of Works Departments and the direct employment of labor are municipal developments which are yearly transforming hundreds of workers into State servants. The transfer of rent and interest from private pockets to public purposes will be mainly brought about by means of progressive taxation in the shape of graduated death duties, a graduated differentiated income tax, and the rating of land values. The budgets of 1904, 1905, and 1907 have not only cleared the way for the application of Socialist principles to taxation, but have brought a largely increased revenue into the national exchequer. An estate duty, varying from 1 per cent. on estates of £500 to 10 per cent. on those of 1,000,000 and over, with an additional percentage from II to 15 per cent. on the amount of the estate in excess of £1,000,000, is now exacted. The income tax is not only graduated, but also differentiated as between earned and unearned incomes. During the year 1906-7 the revenue from the death duties was £18,958,763. In the period 1894-5 to 1906-7 no less than 212,488,604 was collected from the death duties, an average of 17.707,383 a year, as against £9,979,691 in 1893-4 (Cd.—3,686). The extension of these means by the Socialist Chancellors of the Exchequer of the future will extinguish unearned incomes and, so far as taxation can do it, bring about the emancipation of the people from private monopoly. during any one year of about 2,627,000 persons, or 1 in 6 of the manual-labor class. In some rural districts every aged laborer is a pauper. The maintenance of these paupers cost £16,651,663 for a year. But in addition to this public expenditure, the various charitable societies spend 10,040,000 annually (Mr. Mulhall, Dictionary of Statistics, p. 112), and the charity of individuals is known to be enormous. The numbers of the destitute class must therefore be largely increased. Sir R. Giffen talks of the class of five millions "whose existence is a stain on our civilization" (Essays in Finance, vol. ii., p. 350). It is the lot of at least one in five of the manual labor class of 16 in every 100 of the whole population-to belong to this class. "To me, at least, it would be enough to condemn modern society as hardly an advance on slavery or serfdom, if the permanent condition of industry were to be that which we behold, that 90 per cent. of the actual producers of wealth have no home that they can call their own beyond the end of the week; have no bit of soil, or of so much as a room that belongs to them; have nothing of value of any kind except as much old furniture as will go in a cart; have the precarious chance of weekly wages which barely suffice to keep them in health; are housed for the most part in places that no man thinks fit for his horse; are separated by so narrow a margin from destitution, that a month of bad trade, sickness, or unexpected loss brings them face to face with hunger and pauperism. This is the normal state of the average workman in town or country" (Mr. Frederick Harrison, p. 429, Report of Industrial Remuneration Conference, 1886). The normal state of the "average workman" is the average normal state of four out of five of the whole population (Prof. Leone Levi, Times, 13th January, 1885). XII. The Evil and the Remedy. "The deepest root of the evils and iniquities which fill the industrial world is not competition, but the subjection of labor to capital, and the enormous share which the possessors of the instruments of industry are able to take from the produce" (J. S. Mill quoting Feugueray, Principles of Political Economy, p. 447, edition of 1865). "We have been suffering for a century from an acute outbreak of individualism, unchecked by the old restraints, and invested with almost a religious sanction by a certain soul-less school of writers" (Prof. H. S. Foxwell, University College, London, p. 249 of essay in The Claims of Labor, 1886). "It is, indeed, certain that industrial society will not permanently remain without a systematic organization. The mere conflict of private interests will never produce a well-ordered commonwealth of labor" (article on "Political Economy" in Encyclopædia Britannica, vol. xix., 1886, p. 382, since published as the History of Political Economy, by J. K. Ingram, LL.D., Trinity College, Dublin). Socialists affirm that the evil can never be remedied until the "two nations" are united by the restitution to public purposes of rent and interest of every kind, and by the growth of social sympathy promoted by the accompanying cessation of class distinctions. It will be seen by the above quotations that this position is based on the facts of the case as ascertained and declared by the recognized authorities in statistics, and is in entire harmony with the doctrines of Political Economy. |