Anas 
57 
Organization of labour, in all its branches, would do much to 
relieve the terrible congestion common to all huge centres of 
population. At one time, when the employer ‘“ dwelt amongst 
his own people,” and knew each worker by sight if not by name, 
a kindly feeling often manifested itself between employer and 
employed. But now, the exodus of heads of firms and managers 
to suburban residences, and the formation of huge Corporations 
intent only upon six-monthly dividends, have made combination 
amongst workpeople a crying necessity. Whether we are to 
continue to allow wholesale and unquestioned immigration in 
order to revel in cheap, badly-made, and fever-laden clothing, 
the production of ‘‘sweated’’ labour, is a problem requiring a 
firm and speedy answer; and it may be necessary shortly to 
demand a substantial port registration fee from immigrants. A 
close study of the relief returns of Manchester, Liverpool, and 
the Hast-end of London, together with the fearful conditions 
under which human life therein exists, makes a hopeful solution 
impossible nnder present conditions. It is as absurd to educate 
the youth of the country at immense cost, and then to open 
wide the flood-gates for the influx of ignorant, hopeless, and 
unsanitary immigrants, as to filter carefully the head of a stream 
and afterwards allow free access to garbage. 
It will be time enough to indulge in the fond dream, so 
flattering to our national vanity, and so very far removed from 
actual fact, in which England is pictured as offering a home to 
all who.are oppressed, when we can make the conditions of life 
for these poor creatures humanly bearable, and what is more, 
have brought our native-born population out of the clutches of 
chronic poverty. A friend has drawn my attention to a fact 
well known to Poor Law Guardians. While our own poor, 
under the Settlement and Removal Clauses, are liable to be 
transferred as far as from Kent to County Galway upon 
becoming chargeable to a Poor Law Union, England, saddled 
with the offscourings of Europe, quietly submits to the process, 
under the Pharisaic notion that she is the heaven-appointed 
guardian of the suffering and down-trodden, harrying her own 
children from parish to parish, while receiving with open arms 
aliens and nondescripts. Turning to the question of pauperism 
in purely agricultural districts, we come across quite other 
reasons for its persistence. Here the vicious system so long in 
vogue throughout England of granting relief in aid of wages has 
never been thoroughly eradicated. When English agricultural 
labourers, following the example of artizans and factory workers, 
have sufficient intelligence to effectually combine, courage to 
demand a fair day’s wage, and energy enough to earn it, the 
cloud of poverty that has so long enveloped them will rapidly 
disperse. Returning from this review of the present position 
Il 
