RICH AND POOR.
[To THE EDITOR or THE "Sreornou.."] SIR,—The interesting and suggestive letter signed " C. H. N." in your issue of March 30th (which I have only just seen) has set me, who am aged, thinking on some of the changes time has wrought within my memory in regard to the bearing of the rich towards the poor. It has been my lot to have personal acquaintance, more or less intimate, with many classes, from royalty down to paupers and ragged school children—except- ing the "smart people," with whom I have bad nothing to do, and who, though somewhat conspicuous, are actually few in number. I believe I may safely aver that friendly intercourse between the " classes " has greatly advanced during the last sixty or seventy years owing partly to the spread of educa- tion, but also to the growing recognition of the duty of the inheritors of wealth to use it liberally, but with wise caution, for the benefit of the unendowed ; and, more especially among the. creators of wealth, to the recognition that it imposes responsibility towards those who have contributed to their own brain-work the bodily labour which combined to produce success. Witness to the latter fact is afforded, among other evidence, by the already large and increasing number of business firms who devote thought and money on a very large scale to the benefit of their employees, supplying them with means of study, recreation, and rest in addition to healthy surroundings. Again, in rural districts the same growing recognition of duty to one's neighbour brings the classes into friendly intercourse. Reading-rooms, choral societies, and opportunities for dancing, acting, &c., brighten the intercourse of village life. In the vast field of domestic service no one whose memory goes back several decades can fail to notice the great improve- ment in the social position as well as in the payment and personal treatment of servants.
The growth, too, of home-like intercourse between the classes, beneficial on both sides, of which Toynbee Hall is the noble exemplar and the University and other settlements in the East End its worthy followers, is altering the very character of the localities in which they spring up. Who, too, can reflect on the blessed results of Miss Octavia Hill's 'work during fifty years to improve the homes of the necessitous London poor, and thereby raise them to a position of comfort and self-respect, without deepest gratitude P And one does not wonder that the desire to follow in her footsteps is producing like improvement in our lesser cities. Mechanics' institutes were among the first means in the last century adopted for carrying knowledge among the working classes, while public libraries and reading-rooms now satisfy the appetite thus created. It may be objected that they are not always available on the only day when the industrial classes can use them. This ought to be remedied. In some the aid volunteered by those who have leisure them- selves on week days overcomes the difficulty, neighbouring ladies and gentlemen taking the place of the librarians who need their weekly rest. It may be well to consider in what way the contents of the greatest public library the nation possesses—that of the British Museum—can bo brought within reach of by very far the largest ges portion of the nation itself—namely, its six-day working population—and the just aspiration of —and satisfy " 0. H. N." in behalf of the working classes for some of the refinements of life, and that their faculties may not become more and more blunted for want of exercise.
The institutes developed other forms of educational and social improvement adapted to both sexes and all ages, while a curious instance from a somewhat opposite source is found in the College for Men and Women which has arisen under the fostering care of Miss Cons and her fellow-workers on the site, south of the Thames, of the theatre familiarly known for many years as "the Vie."
In another direction have germinated the valuable Christian Associations for young men and women. The really magni- ficent building completed lately for young men in London is a living witness to the sympathy and generous aid of wealthy supporters, and in many of our large towns there is excellent provision for the same class.
Surely the facts I have related are not in accordance with the belief of " C. H. N." that " the present age is one of intense materialism and ostentation." These records and many others I could cite prove that though much has been done the very doers themselves feel how much remains to do. But they feel also how much those they strive to help may themselves effect if both parties joined band in hand. The labours of love I have touched upon could not be devised and bestowed without deep thought, self-denial, and the resolution to succeed at all costs. Will the recipients accept them in the like spirit P Waste of material and opportunity exists among all classes. Foreign critics regard us as criminally wasteful in domestic matters, and not without reason ; but the comparative amount of waste of food, for instance, is disastrously greater among the poor than the better-to-do. Want of teaching, sometimes want of desire for teaching, are a cause ; but though the well-to-do as a class err less than the poor, there are many among them who set those below an evil example. Thrift is not widely honoured among us, rich or poor. Let us show our neighbours abroad that we desire to mend our ways. To one well-known cause of poverty I must more specially allude. Our national yearly drink bill recently amounted to 160 millions sterling. In this there has been some reduction, I believe; but think what it would have been to our working classes and those below them if only half that vast sum had been for one year devoted to the necessaries of life—whole- some food, healthy dwellings, good clothing, and something in the savings bank. And is there not another, if possible, even worse drain upon the moans of the poor and of the rich it has made poor P Betting—the curse of our people !—I am, Sir, [The talk of the " growing " callousness of the rich and allegations that they habitually express the belief that the proper way to deal with the poor is to shoot them down are altogether untrue, but they are doing much harm. Curiously enough, the only man in a rather large circle of acquaintances ever heard by the present writer to express approval of the shooting-down method of settling labour unrest was a person who by his dress and dialect appeared to be an agricultural labourer, but was possibly a Welsh small- holder. We encountered him in the early morning in the Market Place at Ludlow during the railway strike. He insisted with the utmost vehemence that "the only way to treat 'em is to shoot 'em—shoot 'em down!" When doubts as to his fulminatory panacea were expressed he became even more vehement. Possibly he had been prevented selling his pigs by the traffic troubles. In any ease, it would not be fair to judge all the propertied classes by this example.—En. Spectator:I
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