THE SOCIAL QUAGMIRE 399 



" Shocking Destitution," " Destitution and Death," proving 

 that the official records, terrible though they are, only 

 show us a portion, perhaps only a small portion, of the 

 wretchedness and poverty culminating in actual death 

 from want of food, fire, and clothing, in the midst of the 

 wealthiest city the world has ever seen. 1 



But if any real doubt can exist as to the actual increase 

 of poverty in England, we have in America an object 

 lesson in which the fact is demonstrated with a clearness 

 and fulness that admits of no dispute. Fifty years ago 

 there was, practically, no poverty, as we now understand 

 the word, in the sense of men willing to work being unable 

 to earn enough to support their families. Now these exist 

 by tens of thousands, culminating in all the great cities, 

 in actual death caused or accelerated by want of the 

 barest necessaries of life. That the wealth of the 

 community has increased enormously in this period, there 

 is also no doubt. According to Mr. Mulhall, the great 

 English statistician, the total wealth of the United States 

 increased nearly seven-fold from 1850 to 1888, while the 

 population had increased less than two and three-fourths 

 fold. Here, then, we have a clear and palpable " increase 

 of want with increase of wealth ; " and as the causes which 

 have been at work in the production of this increased 

 wealth are of exactly the same nature in America and in 

 England, only that they have acted with more intensity 

 in America, we are supported in the conclusion that the 

 coincident increase of want has occurred also, though with 

 less intensity, in England. The causes of the enormous 

 wealth-increase are simple arid indisputable. First, steam 

 power has increased in America seven-fold (and probably 

 as much in England), and its application to ever-improv- 

 ing labour-saving machinery has given it an effective 

 productive power of perhaps twenty- fold or even more ; 

 secondly, railways have spread over the country, enabling 

 the varied products of the whole land to be more and 



1 Fuller and much later details on these points are given in my 

 Wonderful Century, Chapter XX., proving that poverty and its attend- 

 ant evils have gone on increasing at an increasing ratio, to close on 

 the end of the century. 



