Chapter XIV The People Who Are Out of Work
There is a large class of people who get less than 18s. a week, because they get irregular work. There is also a class of people who get a regular wage which does not rise above 18s. They get 14s., or 15s., and are generally supposed to be doing a boy’s job. Men sometimes answer an advertisement for a boy’s place and take it rather then go unemployed altogether. The firms who pay by the day often have men receiving 3s. or 3s. 6d. a day and doing three days a week. In many ways it is possible for a man to get less than 18s. a week. He need not be a drunkard or a slacker. He may have been ill and lost his regular job. His employer may have sold the business. The works on which he was employed may suddenly finish. He finds himself out of work and, having no money in hand, he is forced to take anything he can get in order to keep his children from the workhouse. It has been possible to follow the fortunes of a certain number of cases who, for one or other of these reasons, fell out of work. Their subsequent struggles afford material with which to probe the mystery of how such people manage.
Mr. Q., a carter out of work through illness, got an odd job once or twice in the week. His wages had been 24s. Six children were born, of whom five were alive.
July 7, 1910, had earned 5s. 5d.
| s. | d. | |
|---|---|---|
| Rent | goes unpaid | |
| Insurance | lapsed | |
| Coal | 0 | 2 |
| Soap, soda | 0 | 4 |
| Gas | 0 | 6 |
| Matches | 0 | 1 |
| Blacklead | 0 | 0½ |
| 1 | 1½ | |
Leaving for Food, 4s. 3½d.
| s. | d. | |
|---|---|---|
| 9 loaves | 2 | 0¾ |
| Meat | 0 | 9 |
| Potatoes | 0 | 3 |
| Vegetables | 0 | 1 |
| Margarine | 0 | 1¾ |
| 3 ozs. tea | 0 | 3 |
| Tinned milk | none | |
| 1½ lbs. sugar | 0 | 3 |
| Dripping | 0 | 6 |
| 4 | 3½ | |
Or an average per head for food of 7¼d. a week, or 1d. a day.
July 14, had earned 15s. 10d.
| s. | d. | |
|---|---|---|
| Rent (two weeks) | 11 | 0 |
| Insurance | lapsed | |
| Coal | 0 | 2 |
| Gas | 0 | 5 |
| Soap, soda, blue | 0 | 4½ |
| Wood | 0 | 0½ |
| 12 | 0 | |
Leaving for Food, 3s. 10d.
| s. | d. | |
|---|---|---|
| 7 loaves | 1 | 7¼ |
| Meat | 0 | 6 |
| Potatoes | 0 | 3½ |
| Vegetables | 0 | 1 |
| Margarine | — | |
| 4 ozs. tea | 0 | 4 |
| Tinned milk | — | |
| 1½ lbs. sugar | 0 | 3 |
| Dripping | 0 | 6 |
| 1 lb. jam | 0 | 3¼ |
| 3 | 10 | |
Or an average per head for food of 6½d. a week, or less than 1d. a day.
Mr. I., bottle washer, out of work through illness, wife earned what she could. Wages 18s. when in work. One child born, one alive.
August 10, 1910, Mrs. I. had earned 2s. 6d.
| Rent | Went unpaid. |
| Insurance | Lapsed. |
| Coal | — |
| Lamp oil | — |
| Soap, soda | — |
| Nothing. |
Mrs. I. was told by infirmary doctor to feed her husband up.
| s. | d. | |
|---|---|---|
| 3 loaves | 0 | 8¼ |
| Meat | 1 | 1 |
| Potatoes | 0 | 3 |
| Vegetables | 0 | 0¾ |
| 3 ozs. tea | 0 | 3 |
| 1 lb. sugar | 0 | 2 |
| 2 | 6 |
Average per head for food 10d., or 1½d. a day.
August 17, Mrs. I. had earned 3s. 6d.
| s. | d. | |
|---|---|---|
| Rent | Went unpaid. | |
| Insurance | — | |
| Coal | 0 | 4 |
| Lamp oil | 0 | 2 |
| Soap | 0 | 2 |
| Firewood | 0 | 1 |
| 0 | 9 | |
Mrs. I. still feeding her husband up.
| s. | d. | |
|---|---|---|
| 4 loaves | 0 | 11 |
| Meat | 1 | 0 |
| Potatoes | 0 | 2 |
| Vegetables | 0 | 1 |
| 1 oz. tea | 0 | 1 |
| 1½ lbs. sugar | 0 | 3 |
| Margarine | 0 | 3 |
| 2 | 9 |
Average per head for food 11d., or 1-4/7d. per day.
When Mr. I. could earn again, his back rent amounted to 15s. He found work in the north of London, he living south of Kennington Park. He walked to and from his work every day, refusing to move because he and his wife were known in Kennington, and rather than see them go into the “house,” their friends would help them through a bad spell.
Mr. J., carter out of work through illness, took out an organ when well enough to push it. Wages 18s. when in work. Six children born, six alive.
January 26, 1910, Mr. and Mrs. J. had earned between them 9s.
February 2, 1910, Mr. and Mrs. J. had earned between them 7s.
February 9, 1910, Mr. and Mrs. J. had earned between them 8s. 10d.
February 16, 1910, Mr. and Mrs. J. had earned between them 9s.
February 23, 1910, Mr. and Mrs. J. had earned between them 7s. 6d.
| Jan. 26. | Feb. 2. | Feb. 9. | Feb. 16. | Feb. 23. | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| s. | d. | s. | d. | s. | d. | s. | d. | s. | d. | |
| Rent | 5 | 6 | 3 | 0 | 5 | 6 | 5 | 6 | 3 | 6 |
| Coal | 0 | 6 | 0 | 6 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 6 | 0 | 6 |
| Wood | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1½ |
| Lamp oil | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1½ |
| Soap, soda | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 4 |
| 6 | 4 | 3 | 10 | 6 | 2 | 6 | 4 | 4 | 7 | |
| Leaving for food | 2 | 8 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 8 | 2 | 8 | 2 | 11 |
| Average for food per head a week in holidays | 0 | 4 | almost 5d. | 0 | 4 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 4½ | |
Those children who were of school age in these three families were fed once a day for five days a week during term-time. None of the children were earning. The three women were extremely clean, and, as far as their wretched means would allow, were good managers. It is impossible to lay out to advantage money which comes in spasmodically and belated, so that some urgent need must be attended to with each penny as it is earned. After a certain point of starvation food must come first, though before that point is reached it is extraordinary how often rent seems to be made a first charge on wages.
Mr. V. worked for a relative who was in business in a very small way. For driving a little one-horse cart his usual wage was only 18s., and when the business fell off Mr. V. found himself getting three days a week instead of six. Later on he got half days and odd days, which only produced a few shillings all told. He tried on off days to get odd jobs of any sort. Four children had been born, of whom two were living.
January 12, 1910, to January 19, he earned 8s. 2½d.
| s. | d. | |
|---|---|---|
| Rent (one room at a weekly rental of 3s. 9d.) | 2 | 9 |
| Coal | 1 | 4 |
| Wood | 0 | 1 |
| Lamp oil | 0 | 3 |
| Soap, soda | 0 | 2 |
| 4 | 7 |
Leaving 3s. 7½d. for food, which is nearly 11d. a head per week, or 1½d. a day all round the family.
Between January 19 and 26 Mr. V. earned 4s. 8d.
| s. | d. | |
|---|---|---|
| Rent | 2 | 3 |
| Coal | 0 | 6 |
| Wood | 0 | 1 |
| Lamp oil | 0 | 1½ |
| Soap, soda | 0 | 1½ |
| 3 | 1 |
Leaving 1s. 7d. for food.
Friendly neighbours gave a little bread and Mr. V. had some meals at a cabman’s shelter in return for calling drivers when fares wanted them.
On January 27 he opened the cab-door for a lady, who gave him 2d. The police were watching him and he was arrested for begging. The visitor was enabled to see the charge sheet and speak in his favour. He was a week on remand, and three days in prison. His wife borrowed 5s. from sympathetic neighbours.
| s. | d. | |
|---|---|---|
| Rent (of which 2s. 6d. was back rent) | 3 | 9 |
| Wood | 0 | 1 |
| Coal | 0 | 4 |
| 4 | 2 |
Leaving 10d. for food for three people. Again neighbours came to the rescue, and Mrs. V. received broken bread and several cups of tea. She spent the 10d. thus:
| s. | d. | |
|---|---|---|
| Bread | 0 | 7¾ |
| Sugar | 0 | 1 |
| Butter | 0 | 1 |
| 2 potatoes | 0 | 0¼ |
| 0 | 10 |
When Mr. V. came out of prison he managed to earn 7s. 10½d.
| s. | d. | |
|---|---|---|
| Rent | 3 | 0 |
| Coal | 1 | 4 |
| Lamp oil | 0 | 3 |
| Wood | 0 | 1 |
| Soap | 0 | 1½ |
| 4 | 9½ |
Leaving for food 3s. 1d., which gives an average of 9¼d. per head a week, or between 1¼d. and 1½d. a day.
The following four weeks the money earned was 8s. 1d., 7s. 1½d., 6s. 9d., and 10s. 7d. The averages per head a week for food were 9¼d., 8d., 7d., and 1s. 2½d. respectively. The rent had fallen 4s. into arrears, and Mrs. V. still owed the 5s. borrowed when her husband went to prison.
Mr. O., a carpenter working in a theatre and earning 30s., lost his job because his foreman quarrelled with the management and went out, taking all his men. Mr. O. got taken on as extra hand in another theatre and was paid 2s. a performance. Out of his 14s. he allowed his wife 13s. Mrs. O., being landlady of their house, was responsible for 16s. a week in rent. Two lodgers paid 6s. and 4s. for two rooms and one room respectively. Three children had been born, of whom two were alive.
January 25, 1911.
| s. | d. | |
|---|---|---|
| Rent | 6 | 0 |
| Coal (very cold weather) | 0 | 8½ |
| Burial insurance | 0 | 7 |
| Gas | 0 | 6 |
| Wood and matches | 0 | 3 |
| 8 | 0½ |
Leaving for food 4s. 11½d. Mr. O. had to manage on 2s. 6d. a week for food, which left his wife and the two boys just under 2s. 6d. between them, or 10d. a week each.
February 1.
| s. | d. | |
|---|---|---|
| Rent | 6 | 0 |
| Coal | 0 | 8½ |
| Burial insurance | 0 | 7 |
| Gas | 0 | 9 |
| Soap, soda | 0 | 2 |
| Coke | 0 | 2 |
| 8 | 4½ |
Leaving for food 4s. 7½d., which meant 2s. 1½d. for the wife and children, an average for them of 8½d. a week per head, or 1¼d. a day.
February 8.
| s. | d. | |
|---|---|---|
| Rent | 6 | 0 |
| Coal | 0 | 8½ |
| Burial insurance | 0 | 7 |
| Gas | 1 | 0 |
| Wood, matches | 0 | 2 |
| Soap, soda | 0 | 3½ |
| 8 | 9 |
Leaving for food 4s. 3d. This week Mrs. O. was prematurely confined of twins. Both died, and the case was automatically concluded. When Mrs. O. recovered she found a place as assistant “dresser” in a theatre. Her two boys were taken care of by their grandmother, and the household struggled back to something like its previous income.
Mr. U., who lost his work because his employer wound up the business, was a steady, well-educated man. He was obliged to do odd jobs between long tramps to find a fresh billet. There were five children born, all living, but very delicate. Mrs. U. had managed by dint of extraordinary and penurious thrift to save £1 19s. 8¼d. when the crash came.
July 6, 1910, money earned 23s. 7d.
| s. | d. | |
|---|---|---|
| Rent | 7 | 6 |
| Burial insurance | 0 | 7 |
| Coal | 0 | 7½ |
| Gas | 1 | 0 |
| Soap, soda | 0 | 4¼ |
| Boots repaired | 2 | 6 |
| Hat | 1 | 0¾ |
| 13 | 7½ |
Mrs. U. managed to do on 22s. 9¾d., whereby she saved 9¼d. and spent 9s. 2¼d. upon food, which means an average all round the family of 1s. 3¾d. per week, or 2¼d. a day. Mr. U. took no fixed sum for his food. His wife did the best she could for him and thought it cost her about 4d. a day, but was not sure.
The savings had now mounted to £2 0s. 5½d., but the next week the amount brought in was only 12s. 7d.
July 13.
| s. | d. | |
|---|---|---|
| Rent | 7 | 6 |
| Burial insurance | 0 | 7 |
| Soap, soda | 0 | 3½ |
| Blacking | 0 | 0½ |
| Gas (no coal) | 1 | 0 |
| 9 | 5 |
Mrs. U. managed on 17s. 6¾d. for the week, which left 8s. 1¾d. for food, or a weekly average all round the family of almost 1s. 2d., or 2d. a day, and depleted the savings to the amount of 4s. 11¾d. The reserve fund now stood at £1 15s. 5¾d.
Next week Mr. U. made 19s. 7d., but one of the children won a prize of 2s., which gives 21s. 7d.
July 20.
| s. | d. | |
|---|---|---|
| Rent | 7 | 6 |
| Burial insurance | 0 | 7 |
| Soap, soda | 0 | 3 |
| Gas (still no coal) | 1 | 0 |
| Boy’s boots | 2 | 6½ |
| 11 | 10½ |
Mrs. U. managed on £1 0s. 9d., which allowed 8s. 10½d. for food, an average all round of almost 1s. 3¼d., or just over 2d. a day. Tenpence was saved and the reserve fund went up to £1 16s. 3¾d.
July 27, 15s. 7d. was earned, and 18s. 3¼d. was spent, of which 8s. 11d. went on food, an average all round of 1s. 3¼d., or slightly over 2d. a day. The fund went down to £1 13s. 7½d.
August 3rd, 17s. 1d. was earned, and 18s. 2½d. was spent, of which 8s. 9¼d. was spent on food, an average all round of 1s. 3d., or just over 2d. a day. The fund sank to £1 12s. 6d.
August 10, only 8s. 7d. was earned and 16s. 11¾d. was spent, of which 7s. 1¼d. went on food, an average all round of 1s. 0¼d. or 1¾d. a day. The fund was reduced to £1 4s. 1¼d.
August 17, 13s. 7d. was earned, and 16s. 0½d. was spent, of which 6s. 9½d. was spent on food, an average all round of between 11½d. and 11¾d., or less than 1¾d. a day. The fund sank to £1 1s. 7¾d.
August 24, the food average all round was 10¾d., or 1½d. a day, and the fund sank to 19s. 6d.
August 31. The food average all round was just under 1s., or 1¾d. a day, and the fund sank to 17s. 11½d.
Terror of using up the fund completely kept Mrs. U. spending an average, all round the family, of under 1s. a week for many weeks, though the earnings increased again slowly, and the fund mounted by pennies and sixpences to £1 6s. 0d. Then the baby was a year old, and the case came to an end. Mr. U. eventually got work again at a very low but regular wage. During this time of unemployment two of the three children of school age were fed at school for one term. The care committee of the school to which the other child went did not consider the case bad enough, and the two who did get fed were only received after weeks of application. The mother’s very virtues told against her. Her rooms were spotless, the decent furniture, the tidy clothes of better days inclined the school visitor to believe that food could be forthcoming did the mother choose.
Mrs. X., a deserted wife with three children, fell out of work owing to a dangerous illness after the birth of her baby. When she recovered sufficiently to work again, the parish relief, which she had been receiving in kind during her illness, stopped. She took in sewing and did days’ washing and cleaned doorsteps.
October 11, 1911, received 5s. 6d.
| Rent (4s. a week) | Went unpaid. | |
| s. | d. | |
|---|---|---|
| Coal | 0 | 5½ |
| Gas | 0 | 3 |
| Fares to work | 0 | 1 |
| Soap, soda, blue (she supplied her own blue and soap when she did washing) | 0 | 4 |
| 1 | 1½ | |
| Food. | ||
| 5 loaves | 1 | 0½ |
| Meat | 0 | 11½ |
| Margarine | 0 | 4 |
| Potatoes | 0 | 3½ |
| Greens | 0 | 1 |
| Sugar | 0 | 2¾ |
| Quaker oats | 0 | 7½ |
| Tea | 0 | 3 |
| Fish | 0 | 4½ |
| 1 tin milk | 0 | 2 |
| Salt | 0 | 0¼ |
| 4 | 4½ | |
The baby was receiving six quarts of milk a week from friends, so we have 4s. 4½d. left to feed three persons—an average of 1s. 5½d., or 2½d. a day.
October 18, amount received 7s. 6d.
| s. | d. | |
|---|---|---|
| Rent | 4 | 0 |
| Gas | 0 | 3 |
| Coal | 0 | 7 |
| Matches | 0 | 0½ |
| Soap, soda, etc. | 0 | 3 |
| Camphorated oil (child with a cough) | 0 | 2 |
| 5 | 3½ | |
| Food. | ||
| 4 loaves | 0 | 10 |
| Sugar | 0 | 2¾ |
| Dripping | 0 | 2 |
| Meat | 0 | 4 |
| Potatoes | 0 | 3 |
| Fish | 0 | 1¾ |
| Tea | 0 | 1 |
| 1 tin milk | 0 | 2 |
| 2 | 2½ | |
We have here 2s. 2½d. left between three persons—an average of 8¾d. a week or 1¼d. a day.
November 1, 10s. was received. The rent was one week behind.
| s. | d. | |
|---|---|---|
| Rent (two weeks; the landlady downstairs was pressing) | 8 | 0 |
| Hat and socks | 0 | 2 |
| Soap, soda, etc. | 0 | 2½ |
| 8 | 4½ |
No coal, no gas. The great bargain of hat and socks for 2d. could not be passed by.
| s. | d. | |
|---|---|---|
| 3 loaves | 0 | 7½ |
| 1 tin of milk | 0 | 1 |
| Potatoes | 0 | 2 |
| Dripping | 0 | 3 |
| Tea | 0 | 1 |
| Meat | 0 | 4 |
| Fish | 0 | 2 |
| Onions | 0 | 2 |
| Sugar | 0 | 2 |
| Salt and pepper | 0 | 1 |
| 2 | 1½ |
In this instance we have 2s. 1½d. to divide between three persons—an average of 8½d. a week, or 1¼d. a day.
This woman eventually became an office cleaner at 12s. a week, and her case is referred to in a previous chapter.
However steady a man may be, however good a worker, he is never exempt from the fear of losing his job from ill-health or from other causes which are out of his control. His difficulty in getting into new work is often very great, because new work in his own trade requires time and patience to find. He may have to tramp from one place of business to another day after day, and week after week. His trouble is that if he spends the whole of his time doing this no money is coming in, and he and his must live. He is therefore forced to take odd jobs which bring in something, but which spoil his chances of regular work. Numbers of men who have a trade lose it, because they cannot afford the time necessary to find a new job of the same kind as the one they have lost. They are forced to take anything that turns up in order to keep afloat at all. So the friendly foreman who says, “You turn up every morning at seven o’clock, and I’ll call for you when I want a hand,” finds when he does call several days later that the man is not there. No amount of explaining next day that in order to keep his family he did a day’s work unloading a barge or sweeping snow is of avail against the fact that another man has got the job. Meantime, his clothes and his very muscles are depreciating, and work in his own trade becomes almost an impossibility to find. In some employments, where it is a common custom to give a man two, or three, or four days’ work a week and pay him by the day, it is demanded that he should turn up every day of the week and wait for his work, or lose the few days he has the chance of getting. The carters in certain well-known West End firms are employed on these terms. In many employments there are a number of extra men who take duty when the regular man has a holiday or fails to appear. These extra men live a life of great poverty and great uncertainty. The work they do may be skilled, and they are bound to keep their hand in, and bound to appear daily in order to secure a few days a week for a wage which would be barely sufficient did they get six full days. The lives of the children of the poor are shortened, and the bodies of the children of the poor are stunted and starved on a low wage. And to the insufficiency of a low wage is added the horror that it is never secure.