The Daily News. FRIDAY, JANUARY 5, 1912. THE EDGE OF POVERTY.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 100, 5 January 1912, Page 4

The Daily News. FRIDAY, JANUARY 5, 1912. THE EDGE OF POVERTY.

Optimists at Home nave lately stated that it is possible that in time the great mass of working people who are Britain's wealth will not be for ever on the verge of poverty. Hopeful persons have alleged that some day the workers themselves, their wives and children, will not be habitually underfed. . Tory papers at this moment in the Old Country are using every real and alleged argument to show that what has been in the past should continue to be in the future. The argument, in pl'iin, cold' English, is this: "It is necessary, in order that the wealthy shall become more wealthy and for Britain to show bigger trade returns, that the underdog shall be kept carefully under; that there shall be no margin on his wages after the weekly bill has been paid; that he shall live on the cheapest possible fare; that his wife shall continue to be a slave; that he shall in reality starve, if for any reason he is unable to get constant work." Of the millions of British wage earners 2,500,000 earn from fifteen to twenty-five shillings per week. , This probably means that most of these peo- 1 pie are casually employed, and that should the fates be unkind oi the weather unpropitious there can be no wages, ho.wever mean, for many days ot even weeks. Those people are Britain's most real problem. They are indispensible to the income of the capitalist, and their voluntary cessation from work would mean loss to the employers. It is as axiom with some successful employers that the lowest price that can be paid for a given task is the fair value of it. ■ Because that idea is grafted deep into the bone and blood of the hereditary employers, and is eagerly copied by the exalted peasant who becomes an employer, Britain finds it necessary to make provision for a huge army of unemployables, who, because of the nation's absolute apathy in regard to their physical condition, they at last possets neither the spirit nor the physique* to toil. In a recent argument, Mr. S. Rowntree has shown by selected cases that the industrial disturbances in the Old Country have been due to the revolt of folk living on the edge of poverty. The idea of toiling day after day for the barest possible means of existence at last make; a rebel of any person who has not had the last spark of feeling crushed out of him by the juggernaut of commerce. The riders in t' ie juggernaut make it their special business to see that the margin between existence and starvation is very fine. A huge concern owned and controlled by millionaires blanches with horror at the thought that it may have to pay out a few thousands in order to keep British children from starving. A Tory paper of the most virulent type has lately been printing fine photographs of crowd.-: of

Englishmen and women leaving the Old Country for the new onea. It wails that this sort of thing will not do, that manual work is the lifeblood of the country, that man power is the greatest' power behind any Industry, and so on. But in the same number it talks of the "generosity" of his Grace the Duke of Something or other in handing. Over to the farm laborers on his estate the "shoot" for one day! A paper published two days later shows that his Grace has married men with large families living on his estate and working for ten shillings a week! Ungrateful brutes they would be, wouldn't they, if they—supposing they had the money—left the country? Mr. Rowntree, in his article, forsees the time when it will not be considered a favor for Capital to employ Labor, seeing that tne one is necessary to the other. The gentleman, however, who had it in his power to keep the children of his slaves stunted and underfed, willi fight strenuously to prevent these people getting a full meal, for that is what it amounts to. The point is that Labor can get its due if it can starve long .enough to bring Capital to its knees. In this last upheaval at Home the infant mortality trebled in some places and quadrupled in others. This is a potent weapon in the hands of the hereditary slave owners. It is the weapon that has always been held—, and used. There is no evidence at the moment that there is likely to be more, humanity in the dealings between great employers and the people who are the reason of their greatness. Human greed takes no notice of the cry of the starving. Every day there die in Britain more people who might be saved by food than the Italian troops kill in a week ' in Tripoli. Every year the wealth of Britain grows vaster, the number of drones and parasites increasing. Wtiat's to be done ? Labor will revolt of course. Whon Labor revolts, what then?. Troops with ball cartridge, of course. And then? Same old story all over again..