Here let it be observed, there is no allowance for a single day in the whole year, lost by accident, by sickness, or by want of employment—no allowance for expense arising from sickness of wife or children—no allowance for the contingency stated by Mr. M'Ilvaine, of working, during the winter months, for board alone. It is assumed that no unfavourable circumstance has taken place—that every thing has "run on with a smooth current;" and yet the man's earnings and those of his wife fall short of their support $30.21!
But we will present the case in another point of view. Suppose him to have $12 per month for ten months; and $5 for two; that his wife earns half a dollar per week; and let us see the result.
| 10 | months, | at $12 each, | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | $120 | |||||||||
| 2 | do. | at $5 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 10 | ||||||||
| Wife's earnings per week, 50 cents, | - | - | - | - | - | 26 | [1] | ||||||||||||
| $156 | |||||||||||||||||||
| Expenditure as before, | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | $166.21 | |||||||||||
Even on this supposition he falls short about ten dollars a year of a meagre support, without, let me repeat, the loss of a single hour in the year by sickness or want of employment. What a hideous view of the situation of an industrious man, burdened with a family, and contributing largely to advance the best interests of society! what an overwhelming commentary on the idle and vapid declamations against the improvidence of the poor! and what an irresistible argument in favour of benevolent societies![2]
The allowance for food and drink is probably too low. The rations in prisons and almshouses are from 5 to 8 cents per day. In those cases, the supplies are furnished by contract, under the influence of eager competition. The articles are all purchased by wholesale, and on a large scale. How immense the difference between this case and that of the poor, who purchase all in the small way, and generally on credit, at a price enhanced by the risk incurred by the sellers. The difference in the price of wood may afford a tolerable specimen of the disadvantage under which the poor labour in their purchases. By the measurement of some wood recently purchased on a small scale, it appears that oak wood, sold out by three or four cents worth at a time (the mode in which it is too generally purchased by the poor), produced about ten dollars per cord, when the price at the wharf was only five or six dollars!
Philadelphia, June 24, 1833.
ESSAY III.
I have too good an opinion of human nature, although by no means a believer in its perfection or perfectibility, to doubt that those speculative citizens who have for years employed their time and their talents in denouncing the idle-
- ↑ Although I have allowed 50 cents per week for the earnings of a wife, it must be obvious that a woman with two or three small children to attend, and making shirts for 6, 8, 10, or even 1212 cents each, can contribute little to the support of a family
- ↑ So far as regards canal labourers, the sickness and mortality among them form a painful drawback on the benefits mankind derive from their labours. It is not at all improbable, indeed it is almost certain, that among the whole number employed, five per cent. return to their families in the winter, with broken constitutions, by fevers and agues, one half of whom are carried off to an untimely grave. Those that escape this state often linger for years in a state of debility, subject to occasional returns of their painful and enervating disorder.
