ABSTRACT
No one denies the existence of working class poverty and distress and this is obviously one of the gravest problems to be faced in our present turbulent age. Today every government tries to check the growth and to ameliorate the evil consequences of this distress. If these efforts are to achieve success it is of vital importance that the causes and nature of social distress should be examined, particularly when it occurs in an acute form. England undoubtedly possesses the largest industrial working class and we must examine conditions there in order to appreciate the obstacles to be surmounted if a country is to achieve power and success without suffering the social evils and dangers that have afflicted the British nation. The history of events in England is for us Germans a textbook of practical experience in which we can study the growth of poverty and the degradation of the proletariat. The seeds of these evils – their fundamental causes – already exist in Germany. Fortunately our social structure rests upon a broader basis than that of England and the strong sense of social responsibility of our governments provides a stronger defence against the evil of poverty than exists in England. Nevertheless the danger is there and so the causes of social distress should be thoroughly examined.
