Agricultural colonies; Poor -- Great Britain; Salvation Army; Unemployed -- Great Britain
Objections must be expected. They are a necessity with regard to any
Scheme that has not yet been reduced to practice, and simply signify
foreseen difficulties in the working of it. We freely admit that there
are abundance of difficulties in the way of working out the plan
smoothly and successfully that has been laid down. But many of these
we imagine will vanish when we come to close quarters, and the
remainder will be surmounted by courage and patience. Should, however,
this plan prove the success we predict, it must eventually
revolutionise the condition of the starving sections of Society,
not only in this great metropolis, but throughout the whole range of
civilisation. It must therefore be worthy not only of a careful
consideration but of persevering trial.
Some of these difficulties at first sight appear rather serious.
Let us look at them.
Objection I.--It is suggested that the class of people for whose
benefit the Scheme is designed would not avail themselves of it.
When the feast was prepared and the invitation had gone forth,
it is said that the starving multitudes would not come; that though
labour was offered them in the City, or prepared for them on the Farm,
they would prefer to rot in their present miseries rather than avail
themselves of the benefit provided.
In order to gather the opinions of those most concerned, we consulted
one evening, by a Census in our London Shelters, two hundred and fifty
men out of work, and all suffering severely in consequence.
We furnished a set of questions, and obtained answers from the whole.
Now, it must be borne in mind that these men were under no obligation
whatever to make any reply to our enquiries, much less to answer them
favourably to our plan, of which they knew next to nothing.
These two hundred and fifty men were mostly in the prime of life,
the greater portion of them being skilled workmen; an examination of
the return papers showing that out of the entire number two hundred and
seven were able to work at their trades had they the opportunity.
The number of trades naturally varied. There were some of all kinds:
Engineers, Custom House Officers, Schoolmasters, Watch and Clockmakers,
Sailors, and men of the different branches of the Building trade;
also a number of men who have been in business on their own account.
The average amount of wages earned by the skilled mechanics when
regularly employed was 33s. per week; the money earned by the
unskilled averaged 22s. per week.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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