DARK SHE OF LIFE IN U.S.

Evening Star, Issue 20255, 16 August 1929, Page 1

DARK SHE OF LIFE IN U.S.

RURAL DESTITUTION C ft UNEMPLOYMENT IN NEW YORK.American prosperity is not a myth, and it is incontestably true that for years remarkable industrial strides have been made in the United States. It i* equally true, however, that in wide areas, chiefly, though not exclusively, agricultural, there is poverty and much hardship. In the face of surface conditions and published statistics such a statement may appear preposterous. It is certainly a fact that the level of wellbeing in the United States is on * higher level than ever before. In many cities' wages are high and the margin for saving —if one lives somewhat below the high standard established by custom—generous. Bricklayers, for instance, earn £3 a day. Thos who speak of the country’s px-os-perity can point to such things as ilia possession of a car by one man in every live. There is also the larger fact that America has one-third of the world’s gold supply. Amid all this it is difficult to discern the darker side. Yet it exists. The bricklayers’ high wages are not representative of the average scale, and in some cases the figures descend very low. ' . In the mining and manufacturing centres throughout the country the average wage ranges from £2 to £3 per week—a sum which, considering ths high cost of living, gives the American mine and factory worker not the least advantage over his European counterpart. DEPRESSED INDUSTRIES; In vast areas of the country “prosperity” is really a name only. _ In the big cities the problem of “making both ends meet ” is as difficult for the majority as it ever was, and perhaps a little more so, because of the high cost of such things as entertainment, medical attention, food, and rent. Unemployment figures are unobtainable, because of the absence of the machinery for collection. From stick material as is available it may be said that, taking the country as a whole, unemployment has been much better and has also been very much worse than it is to-day. Jn New York, , which is. perhaps, the most prosperous city in the country, unemployment is sufficient to keep the municipal lodging houses “crowded and to tax* the resources of charitable organisations to their limit. Further, prosperity can hardly bo considered national when, during 1925, many industries —particularly those having to do with textiles, coal, leather, sugar, shipping, paper, fertilisers, and raiinvay equipment—werc f sluggish or Vjislinctiy depre-'asd., f In'''many of’ the rural communities there is widespread and desperate destitution. In a village within ten miles of Album-, the capital of .New York Stale, the'cottages are falling to pieces for lack of repairs, and in some of the mining centres of Pennsylvania the struggle to live is as familiar a problem as in*any of the mining towns of England. r FARMERS’ PROBLEM. In the fanning districts of the Wed and Middle West dire poverty is absent, but the general state is very tar from prosperity, and may more trutlifullv bo described as very poor. The cause of the American farmer s trouble lies in the fact that he ha* over-expanded at inflated values. land, m consequence, is mortgaged to the hilt, and the profits beyond hm overhead expenses and interest paymerits are barely sufficient for mmg expenses. The great difficulty of farm relief constitutes a serious problem. A special session of Congress has been called to deal with it. . , Prosperity in America, ono may ]uag« from a careful survey, is real and tangible for many, but for millions of others it is non-existent. - Spotty probably best describes it.