A workman’s working life begins at a very early age. In some places boys start work at thirteen or fourteen years of age, or even earlier, and set out to face the world and all its hardships and dangers with very little training, except such as may be given them by mother and father. Once they have started, there is seldom anything between them and the necessity for sticking at work, except the Poor Law and its wretched institutions, until earth covers them in the grave. On the boy’s ability to keep himself in health and strength depends his ability to earn his bread and make a place for himself in the world. Once having attained the age of manhood, the average workman reaches the highest point in material wealth that he will ever reach. I do not believe this factor of life is ever really grasped by most of those who talk and write so glibly about the working classes. The skilled artisan, who has served an apprenticeship in a given trade, knows that he will earn so much an hour. As a rule he will marry on that wage, which often amounts to only 30s. or £2 per week, and this will be his standard for the remainder of his working life. As things go, considering the standard set for the working class, this may appear a reasonable and satisfactory condition of life. It is obvious, though, that the coming of each new baby must lower the standard of life, owing to the fact that the family income is fixed. Even that is not quite true, for the income is fixed only while there is work for the man to do. Often there are long periods of unemployment which bring down the average of a man’s earnings, and often long periods of sickness when--in the case of a workman--wages stop altogether. This is the great difference between the wage-earner and the salaried person; a clerk or manager generally continues to draw salary if away from business owing to sickness, but an engineer or labourer finds his wages stopped the moment he leaves work, from whatever cause--with the exception of absence due to accident, in which case, under the Workmen’s Compensation Act, certain payments are made, though even these are often evaded and the men left penniless. There are some few employers who treat their workers a little better than this during times of sickness; such are Government departments, municipalities, and a few large employers; but none of them treat the wage-earner on the same terms as the salaried man or woman, and wherever sick pay is granted it is granted for a strictly limited period, and, after the first week or two, is cut down to vanishing point.