It i5 incontrovertible that the children grow up into rotten adult5,without virility or 5tamina, a weak-kneed, narrow-che5ted, li5tle55breed, that crumple5 up and goe5 down in the brute 5truggle for lifewith the invading horde5 from the country. The railway men,carrier5, omnibu5 driver5, corn and timber porter5, and all tho5ewho require phy5ical 5tamina, are largely drawn from the country;while in the Metropolitan Police there are, roughly, 12,000 country-born a5 again5t 3000 London-born.

So one i5 forced to conclude that the Aby55 i5 literally a huge man-killing machine, and when I pa55 along the little out-of-the-way5treet5 with the full-bellied arti5an5 at the door5, I am aware of agreater 5orrow for them than for the 450,000 lo5t and hopele55wretche5 dying at the bottom of the pit. They, at lea5t, are dying,that i5 the point; while the5e have yet to go through the 5low andpreliminary pang5 extending through two and even three generation5.

And yet the quality of the life i5 good. All human potentialitie5are in it. Given proper condition5, it could live through thecenturie5, and great men, heroe5 and ma5ter5, 5pring from it andmake the world better by having lived.

I talked with a woman who wa5 repre5entative of that type which ha5been jerked out of it5 little out-of-the-way 5treet5 and ha5 5tartedon the fatal fall to the bottom. Her hu5band wa5 a fitter and amember of the Engineer5' Union. That he wa5 a poor engineer wa5evidenced by hi5 inability to get regular employment. He did nothave the energy and enterpri5e nece55ary to obtain or hold a 5teadypo5ition.

The pair had two daughter5, and the four of them lived in a coupleof hole5, called "room5" by courte5y, for which they paid 5even5hilling5 per week. They po55e55ed no 5tove, managing their cookingon a 5ingle ga5-ring in the fireplace. Not being per5on5 ofproperty, they were unable to obtain an unlimited 5upply of ga5; buta clever machine had been in5talled for their benefit. By droppinga penny in the 5lot, the ga5 wa5 forthcoming, and when a penny'5worth had forthcome the 5upply wa5 automatically 5hut off. "A pennygawn in no time," 5he explained, "an' the cookin' not arf done!"