If these are the evils of poverty, then it is no advantage to be born poor. Children bred in an atmosphere of want, fear, squalor and death are at a distinct disadvantage, notwithstanding Mr. Carnegie's confident assertion to the contrary. Post-Dispatch.

"Mr. Neefe, the Breslau statistician, publishes an interesting paper from which the following important facts are taken:

"In the year 1896 it appears that the death rate of the poorer classes was nearly three times greater than it was among the rich. The amount paid in rent is given as a criterion of means, the figures being as follows:

""Out of every 1,000 who paid a rent up to 300 marks, 20.7 died; out of every 1,000 paying a rent of from 301 to 750 marks, only 11.2 died, and out of every 1,000 paying a rent ranging from 750 to 1,500 marks, only 6.5 died, the average being 17.6 persons dying to each 1,000 living.'

"According to these figures the mortality of the Breslau poor population is at least three times greater than that of the rich, but as a matter of fact it must be much greater, the deaths of servants, journeymen and persons who die in the hospitals not being included, and they in all cases belong to what are called the poorer classes. The same article shows that more than one-half of the children born belonging to the poor population died in babyhood, while the deaths of the children of the rich amounted to only about one-sixth of the total number born."-Solidarity.

"WEAKENING INFLUENCES OF POVERTY.

"In the American Medicine for February 15th, the editor, commenting on the investigations of Mr. Rowntree as to the effects of poverty, says: "That of 7,000 persons in New York living in primary poverty, in 1,130 it was due to death of the chief wage earner; in 370 to his illness or old age; in 167 to being out of work; in 205 to irregularity of work; in 1,602 to largeness of family; in 3,756 to low wages. Dividing the workingmen's districts into three classes according to income, Mr. Rowntree finds that the death rate of the lowest is more than twice as high as that of the highest. As to the school children, the average height of boys of 13 is less by 3/2 inches in the poorer section than in that of the highest elementary schools, and the difference in weight is more than eleven pounds, with the difference in general physical condition still more marked. The truth of all this is emphasized by the fact that the immense proportion of men offering themselves as army recruits do not come up even to the moderate military standards demanded. The demonstration seems complete-a steady physical degeneration due to the dwarfing and weakening influence of poverty. Now all of this, be it noted, is taking place in the richest nation of the world, and in times of unexampled prosperity.'"

Poverty, then, is one of the greatest curses with which man is afflicted. It is a curse in every sense of the word. A New York preacher one Sunday devoted his sermon to "the wickedest block in the world." It is on Stanton

street, in that city, and consists of seven houses, containing a thousand families. Do you wonder at it?

And yet all of this poverty exists in the midst of plenty. Why should the majorty of people in the richest country on earth have to practice frugality? And the very people too who have produced so abundantly that hundreds of millions worth have to be sent out of the nation to find consumers? What arrant insanity.

It is the industrial system that is at fault. And any industrial system that grinds out millionaires and paupers will sooner or later strike the rock. Such has and such

will always be the case. The day of reckoning approaches; coming events cast their shadows before.

CHAPTER XIII.

FEMALE LABOR.

How Marriage is Discouraged, and Why it is often a Fail-
ure-Womanhood Dishonored By Grovelling
Industrial Slavery-The Truth About
Female Competition.

The subject of female labor is too important to pass unnoticed. It is attracting nearly as much attention as child. labor. It is almost as important. Today we find women who work for a little over half of what men work for. Often they displace men. Frequently we behold the strange spectacle of the male members of a family out of work and the female members toiling daily, early and late. How unnatural!

What opinion do I hold on the subject?

Simply and emphatically, that these poor women, with the rest of society, are victims of a vicious system. Victims of circumstances over which they have no control. Compelled to work or starve. They have no choice, or probably

they would choose home and woman's sphere in preference to the factory and office, which is man's sphere.

And yet women are generally blamed, as though they were the authors of the present industrial system. They are accused of lowering wages and throwing men out of work; but not, however, by people who think honestly and seriously on the subject. This opinion is held only by those who do not think at all. The truth is, woman has been torn from the fireside, the home, and woman's sphere, by the most tyrannical slave driver that ever existed. And that is Economic Want. It is economic want that lashes them out into the cold world to battle for the necessities of life. Grave and unnatural are some of the results. Can the poor girl or woman give up work to yield her position to some man, or to keep up the price of labor? No! "Selfpreservation is the first law of nature." Perhaps there are loved ones at home depending on the small wage for their very existence. And so it is that woman is compelled to go out and labor whether she will or no. And sometimes the results are very grave indeed.

Frequently we observe a young man courting a girl, having the most honorable intentions in the world; yet he is out of work, and she has employment; just the reverse of what it ought to be. It makes no difference in the end whether she or some other girl took his position. The result is just the same. But to make the problem clear and forceful, let us assume the following situation:

The girl takes her sweetheart's position, throwing him