CHAPTER III. DESTRUCTION OF HOME. "Whoever handles the subject of Massachusetts industry, is dealing not only with potentialities of wealth, but of civilization, of popular happiness and virtue, beyond the dreams of philosophers."-F. B. SANBORN. POLITICAL ECONOMY grieves over a loss of fourteen per cent. in production, and the Messrs. Ames have a private grief and a personal loss from the annoyance and injury they suffer from the disorganization of labor following an increase of drinking. But this typical fact has far sadder significance when we trace its relation to the home of the laborer. Such an average percentage of diminished production means to the individual laborer whose intemperance causes it, a variable diminution of earnings, running from a small percentage to nearly or quite a hundred of loss. But how disastrous the loss of even a small portion of customary wages to the laborer is, will be impressively shown by the conclusions drawn by the "Massachusetts Bureau of Statistics of Labor," from very carefully collected and tabulated returns. In their Sixth Annual Report (1875), they state as among their established conclusions (p. 384): "First. That in the majority of cases, workingmen in this Commonwealth do not support their families by their individual earnings alone." "Third. That fathers rely, or are forced to depend, upon their children for from one-quarter to one-third of the entire family earnings. "Fourth. That children under fifteen years of age supply, by their labor, from one-eighth to one-sixth of the total family earnings. “Fifth. That more than one-half of the families save money; less than one-tenth are in debt, and the remainder make both ends meet. "Sixth. That without children's assistance, other things remaining equal, the majority of families would be in poverty or debt." "Ninth. That the average saving is about three per cent. of the earnings." The report of the same bureau for 1876 contains tabulated returns from about 50,000 workingmen, obtained in connection with the decennial State census of 1875. From these it appears "that the average annual income derived from usual daily wages, other earnings, earnings of wife and children, and garden-crops, was $534.99. The average annual cost of living was $488.96. This leaves a possible saving of $46.03 yearly, or 8 per cent." The Report goes on to say: "The returns from 1875 were entirely from married men having families dependent upon them, while the returns of 1876 are, in a great many instances, from single men. This fact may account, in part, for the increase in percentage of possible surplus or saving" (p. 342). The average saving possible, then, to the home which avails itself of the labor of wife and child, is somewhere between three and eight per cent., perhaps we ought to say nearer the latter than the former. I suppose no one will doubt that Massachusetts will compare favorably in this respect with her sister States.* Accepting, then, these results as approximatively correct as to the condition of the mere "wage laborer," we are the better prepared to see how the loss of an appreciable per cent. of wages or the gain, becomes a matter of life or death, figuratively, and sometimes literally, in the homes of these people. It is well to look more closely than many of us are accustomed to do at the connection of the industrial prosperity with the higher life of a community. Wendell Phillips has said that the civilization of a people often *Gov. Tilden did hardly more than call public attention to an accepted truism, when he said in his letter of acceptance of the Presidential nomination: "Even in prosperous times, the daily wants of industrious communities press closely upon their daily earnings. The margin of possible national saving is, at best, a small per cent. of national earnings." depends on the use made of the surplus dollar. A related truth is that the home of the laborer rises or falls as you add a dollar of surplus or a dollar of debt. And it is to be borne in mind that the drinker is losing doubly: by a wasteful expenditure and by diminished earnings. Let us look into contrasted homes, where the only variable element is the drinking habit of the head. The full wages of the temperate man brings from year to year better food, better clothing, and better shelter. Improved sanitary arrangements tell on the health of father, wife, and children. The house becomes more and more a home. The passer-by notices the vines that cluster about the doorway, and the little flowers that peep through the windows. Upon the inside walls the picture speaks of a dawning taste, and the piano or some simpler musical instrument, shows that the daughter is adding a charm and refinement to the family circle. Books and periodicals show the surplus dollar. Every influence is elevating. Introduce the element of drinking, and you reverse the picture. Year by year the physical comforts of the house lessen. The tenement must narrow to the means,* and locate itself in noi * A decent home is needed for a decent life. Says Mr. Brace, in the Report on Juvenile Crime: "The source of juvenile crime and misery in New York, which is the most formidable, and at some neighborhoods. The wife first pinches herself in food and clothing, but the time soon comes when the children, too, must suffer. The scanty clothing becomes ragged. The church and the school know the children no longer.* No flowers of beauty adorn, no sound of music cheers such a dwelling. The fire goes out upon the hearth, and the light of hope fades from the heart. Soon the very form of a family is broken up, and public charity cares for the scattered fragments. An American home has been blotted out. Now, it is not with the private misery that we are here concerned, but with the effect upon the State. If the chief interest of the State is in the character of its citizens, then no agency is more destructive to its interests than the dram-shop, because the dram-shop is the great enemy of the home, and it is the character of the home which is not only the test, but the efficient factor in an advancing or a falling civilization. the same time the most difficult to remove, is the overcrowding of our population. Overcrowding is the one great misfortune of New York. Without it we should be the healthiest. large city in the world, and a great proportion of the crimes which disgrace our civilization be nipped in the bud."-Proceedings of International Congress at London, 1872, p. 232. * It is very curious and suggestive to observe in the detailed report upon the individual homes of hundreds of laborers in the Statistics of Labor in Massachusetts, to which I have heretofore alluded, how frequently occurs this sentence: "Family dresses well, and attends church." |