of existence, they would still be hopelessly, miserably
poor.

The Massachusetts Bureau of Statistics showed a few years ago, when
the cost of living was less than now, that a family of five could not
live decently and in health upon less than $754 a year, but more than
half of the unskilled workers in the shoe-making industry of that
State got less than $300 a year. Of course, some were single and not a
few were women, but the figures go far to show that the New York
conditions are prevalent in New England also. Mr. John Mitchell said
that in the anthracite district of Pennsylvania it was impossible to
maintain a family of five in decency on less than $600 a year, but
according to Dr. Peter Roberts, who is one of the most conservative of
living authorities upon the conditions of industry in the coal mines
of Pennsylvania, the _average_ wage in the anthracite district is
less than $500 and that about 60 per cent. receive less than $450 a
year.

I am not going to bother you with more statistics, Jonathan, for I
know you do not like them, and they are hard to remember. What I want
you to see is that, for many thousands of workers, poverty is an
inevitable condition. If they do not spend a cent on drink; never give
a cent to the Church or for charity; never buy a newspaper; never see
a play or hear a concert; never lose a day's wages through sickness or
accident; never make a present of a ribbon to their wives or a toy to
their children--in a word, if they live as galley slaves, working
without a single break in the monotony and drudgery of their lives,
they must still be poor and endure hunger, unless they can get other
sources of income. The mother must go out to work and neglect her baby
to help out; the little boys and girls must go to work in the days
when they ought to be in school or in the fields at play, to help out
the beggars' pittance which is their portion. The greatest cause of
poverty is low wages.

Then think of the accidents which occur to the wage-earners, making
them incapable of earning anything for long periods, or even
permanently. At the same meeting of the New York State Conference of
Charities and Corrections as that already referred to, there were
reports presented by many of the charitable organizations of the state
which showed that this cause of poverty is a very serious one, and one
that is constantly increasing. In only about twenty per cent. of the
accidents of a serious nature investiga