412 STUDIES, SCIENTIFIC AND SOCIAL 



George thus refers to the condition of one of the richest 

 states of the Union, Illinois : 



"In their last report the Illinois Commissioners of Labour 

 Statistics say, that, their tables of wages and cost of living are repre- 

 sentative only of intelligent working men who make the most of 

 their advantages, and do not reach ' the confines of that world of 

 helpless ignorance and destitution in which multitudes in all large 

 cities continually live, and whose only statistics are those of 

 epidemics, pauperism, and crime.' Nevertheless, they go on to say, 

 an examination of these tables will demonstrate that one half of these 

 intelligent working men of Illinois ' are not even able to earn enough 

 for their daily bread, and have to depend upon the labour of women 

 and children to eke out their miserable existence.' " 



Dr. Edward Aveling in his book on the Working Class 

 Movement in America, quotes from the same reports for 

 other States as follows : 



' ' In Massachusetts a physician gives evidence as to the condition 

 of Fall River : ' Every mill in the city is making money, . . . Ijut 

 the operatives travel in the same old path — sickness, suffering, and 

 small pay,' " 



In Pennsylvania the Commissioners say : 



" The rich and poor are further apart than ever." 



In New Jersey : 



''The struggle for existence is daily becoming keener, and the 

 average wage-labourer must practise the strictest economy, or he 

 will find himself behind at the end of the season." 



In Kansas : 



"The condition of the labouring classes is too bad for utter- 

 ance. ... It is useless to disguise the fact that out of this . . . en- 

 forced idleness grows much of the discontent amd dissatisfaction 

 now pervading the country, and which has obtained a strong footing 

 now ui)on the soil of Kansas, where only the other day her pioneers 

 were staking out homesteads almost within sight of her capital 

 city." 



In Michigan : 



" Labour to-day is poorer paid than ever before ; more discontent 

 exists, more men in despair ; and if a change is not soon devised, 

 trouble must come." 



