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W. CUNNINGHAM, D.D., ARCHDEACON OF ELY, ON 



with, and almost at random: (1) the fierce and immoderate com- 

 petition which rules at present quite unnecessarily embitters the 

 existence and probably shortens the life of most who have to do 

 with it. But its special weight falls upon the industrial community. 

 Unreasonable hours, inconsiderate arrangements, and insufficient 

 pay press a large proportion of them down. The conditions of a 

 contract which keep men working in a pit with exhausted air for 

 thirty consecutive hours just outside my door so that they can 

 scarcely crawl ought, for instance, to be amended. There is no 

 one to blame. The conditions are stupid, but perhaps less stupid 

 ior those at the top. It is the system as a whole that is a failure ; 

 (2) wages are reduced by competition of aliens ; sweating is as bad 

 as ever. If the Christian intellect cannot find a way out, the 

 unchristian will, with danger to the State ; (3) rent in the centre 

 of large towns is out of proportion to possible wages. Eent in the 

 suburbs is rising, with insanitary conditions. Living at a distance 

 from work results in the insanitary crowding of every available 

 •conveyance morning and evening, and the bringing up of working 

 people to the centre, hours before they are needed, with insufficient 

 breakfasts. The effect of this on great numbers of anaemic girls 

 and boys is a danger to the State and to the future generation. 

 (4) Unemployment is at present heartrending — not the unemploy- 

 ment of the worthless, but of the worthy. Things come from 

 abroad that our own people could make better, and are often 

 dumped down at a price which defies honest competition. (5) There 

 is at present a most lamentable wastage in boy and girl life. 

 Industrial conditions make it essential that they should swiftly 

 earn something. In large numbers they take the first little place 

 which opens. By eighteen years of age they are no longer wanted. 

 They are turned into the street without any career to swell the 

 ranks of the unemployed, or even, as I know very painfully, to 

 learn how to steal. 



I am convinced that with regard to our own kith and kin, oui 

 nearest neighbours, the restoration of the idea of Christian brother- 

 hood, not as a sentiment, but as a practice, is a crying need. It is 

 to such things as these that the highest powers of Christian 

 philosophers, divines and statesmen should be patiently directed. 

 They menace, as it is, much that we all hold dear. If a Christian 

 way out cannot be found an unchristian will, to ultimate disaster. 



