Volume 1

Labour and life of the people / edited by Charles Booth.

Date:
1889-
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Labour and life of the people / edited by Charles Booth. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    been recalled by the open pages of his own schedules—and doubt the genuine character of the information and its truth. Of the wealth of my material I have no doubt. I am indeed embarrassed by its mass, and by my resolution to make use of no fact to which I cannot give a quantitative value. The materials for sensational stories lie plentifully in every book of our notes; but, even if I had the skill to use my material in this way—that gift of the imagination wick is called “realistic”—I should not wish to use it here. There is struggling poverty, there is destitution, there is hunger, drunkenness, brutality, and crime; no one doubts that it is so. My object has been to attempt to show the numerical relation which poverty, misery, and depravity bear to regular earnings and comparative com- fort, and to describe the general conditions under which each class lives. For the trade inquiries and special subjects, I have been fortunate in obtaining the aid of others, and their work will speak eloquently for itself. If the facts thus stated are of use in helping social reformers to find remedies for the evils which exist, or do anything to prevent the adoption of false remedies, my purpose is answered. It was not my intention to bring forward any suggestions of my own, and if I have ventured here and there, and especially in the concluding chapters, to go beyond my programme, it has been with much hesitation. With regard to the disadvantages under which the poor Jabour, and the evils of poverty, there is a great sense of helplessness: the wage earners are helpless to regulate their work and cannot obtain a fair equivalent for the labour they are willing to give; the manufacturer or dealer can only work within the limits of competition ; the rich are helpless to relieve want without stimulating its sources. ‘T'o relieve this helplessness a better stating of the problems involved is the first step. “ We are a long way
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