| PER 1,000 | |
|---|---|
| Deptford, East Ward (poor) | 197 |
| Deptford, West Ward (rich) | 68 |
| Bournville Garden Village | 65 |
| St. Mary's Ward, Birmingham | 331 |
Such facts exist all over the kingdom. They have been talked about and deplored for the last half-century at least. Who has murdered the 100,000 children who die annually before they are one year old? Who has robbed the millions that just survive of all that makes childhood
happy—pure food, fresh air, play, rest, sleep, and proper nurture and teaching? Again we must answer, our Parliament, which occupies itself with anything rather than the immediate saving of human life and abolishing widespread human misery, the whole of which is remediable. And all for fear of offending the rich and powerful by some diminution of their ever-increasing accumulations of wealth. No thinking man or woman can believe that this state of things is absolutely irremediable; and the persistent acquiescence in it while loudly boasting of our civilisation, of our science, of our national prosperity, and of our Christianity, is the proof of a hypocritical lack of national morality that has never been surpassed in any former age.
A new set of evils has grown up in the various so-called "unhealthy trades"—the lead glaze in the china manufacture, the steel dust in cutlery work, and the endless variety of poisonous liquids and vapours in the numerous chemical works or processes, by which so many fortunes have been made. These, together, are the cause of a large direct loss of life, and a much larger amount of
permanent injury, together with a terrible reduction in the duration of life of all the workers in such trades. Yet in one case only—that of phosphorus matches—has any such injurious process of manufacture been put an end to. Wealth has been deliberately preferred to human life and happiness.[51:A]
[51:A] An account of some deadly trades is given in Mr. R. H. Sherard's book, The White Slaves of England.
One of the most deadly of trades seems to have remained unnoticed till it has been brought to light by the new Labour paper, The Daily Citizen, in a series of articles by Mr. Keighley Snowden, entitled The Broken Women. Never was a title better deserved, since large numbers of girls and young women are employed at Lye and Cradley Heath, in what is commonly named the "Hollow Ware" works. This is the tinning, or galvanising, as it is usually termed, of buckets and other domestic utensils, in which lead is used; and it produces one of the most virulent forms of lead-poisoning. The symptoms are, among other more painful ones, the loss of hair and the loosening and ultimate loss of teeth, culminating either in chronic illness or
death, sometimes in a few months or years. Five years ago there was a Home Office inquiry, which, after full examination, reported that the process used was dangerous to life, that no precautions could render it harmless, and that it should be totally discontinued.
An order was then issued by the Home Office that after a time-limit (two years) the process should be no longer used; but that order has not been obeyed (except by a few employers) to this day. The deadly nature of this work was accompanied by miserably low wages, as shown by the fact that the women workers have at length struck to obtain a minimum of 10s. a week! Helped by some humane friends, they have at length succeeded in obtaining this miserable wage, and for the present are in a state of comparative happiness! How long it will be before the Government abolishes this deadly process we cannot tell. The following is a brief statement of what these poor women have to suffer, extracted from The Daily Citizen of November 20th, 1912:—
"They had, without power to resist them, suffered repeated and ruthless reductions of wages. They