Show LETTER FROM TURKEY something quite strange to this country and indeed it may be said for the whole of turkey has happened it is nothing more nor less than a strike among the weavers the poor fellows have been reduced to a really pitiable condition as will be seem by the following figures for the past year their wages hilve have been reduced to about one third of their former pay so that at the present time they receive from about 25 to 50 paras per roll for weaving gingham or cotton goods each roll containing about five yards single breadth this price per roll would make from about 2 21 cents to 5 cents united states currency 10 para 1 cent 40 para pam 1 I piastre if piastre 5 cents and 25 piastre I 1 dol dollar letus let us now examine into the co condition nd I 1 of the labo laboring aft g men according to this scale after er having made some little inquiry among the people of Ain tab your correspondent finds that the various tradesmen are working for about the same wages so that the employed emp loyes in the different handicrafts hamdi crafts are in much the same position so far as a livelihood is concerned therefore we will leave the weaver and speak of the trades mans general condition and mention only that the weavers struck for an increase of 20 paras per roll and obtained about 10 paras thus their wages are liable to be increased from 8 3 pias pins tres a day to 4 pias tres their case is an almost hopeless one because they have no DO means to continue any prolonged effort the employed emp loyes earn about 4 res per day on the average now admitting that they are favored with health they will work about days each year and earn 1200 pias tres during that atme me these 1200 pias tres ha have veto to cover the following lowin bill of imperative expenses food for for two persons not counting children one year elustres pits Plus tres ban som tax for each male one year 42 pias tres government tax on the earnings one year 50 pias tres government tax on furniture one year 25 pias tres house rent one year pias tres total for one year pias tres extract pias tres from a mans earnings of 1200 pias tres and it will leave him the sum of the other matters six hundred pias tres only cover bread for hun bun band and wife and if they should be favored with a family of children the common heritage of the poor it will be seen at once that the earnings would be absorbed in bread alone nothing else as a rule can be thought of this state of earnings accounts for the following facts the poor peoples peopled clothes are as a rule very inferior consisting of rags and patches poverty prevents them from paying their taxes and house rent and keeps them in constant beggary they are therefore always in need of assistance when they trade they will bicker for a mite mite 2 21 paras and daily there are man many y transactions for a mite with a position like this in the world where could a mans amans ho hope be what is there to inspire him to look for days of comfort when age will demand rest nothing whatever the result is that the poor feel quite hopeless and look only for fate to assist them knowing that nothing awaits them but poverty and abid the prison to take their respective turns in making life a burden prison life here in turkey is not so much a disgrace after all the poor man goes to prison for several reasons which he calls persecution in the place of prosecution for instance he claims the turks impose an almost impossible tax and I 1 have no doubt that we would term a similar tax persecution A poor man is supposed to pay fifty pias tres on 1000 pias tres earnings compare this with american institutions suppose jo a man earns 1000 and that he has to pay fifty dollars income tax besides his property tax as he does here then if be be a christian he pays pay forty two pias tres in addition for a ransom tax for not serving as a soldier would we not bon consider sider it an imposition without doubt we would the poor man not having this tax money goes to prison until some friend helps him out either by paying the tax or becoming his security for some portion of it hence he be starts off again with a promise upon his bis lips that he be knows circumstances have already decreed that he must break in this way many here break their promises and obligations with impunity so that few are believed even in the smallest matters but sympathy for the poor has a great claim upon a man in this country and to be kind to the poor is considered considered a great virtue hence they have a way of paying this ransom tax which is quite praiseworthy every man must be a member of some religious denomination or other and each denomination in this neighborhood has contracted with the government to pay the ransom tax for each male member of its congregation therefore io 10 meet this tax the congregation has a tax committee which levies a tax on each urian man according to his ability and thus a well to do man may pay y a ransom tax for js several everal men besides his already personally heavy property and income taxes As the system of registering births and deaths in turkey is very imperfect all manner of tricks are resorted to to swindle the government of its man this is practiced praet iced alike by christian and turk the christjan christian purposely forgets to have his bis boy recorded to save the ransom tax and the turk screens his son sometimes till he reaches twenty years of age before he tells telis that he has a male increase in the family this accounts for so BO many grey headed soldiers in the ottoman army the turk of course claims a double chance by his trick first the chance of life at home while his life is worth the most and should be the die before being drafted so much enuch the better if note not he considers the loss or of less importance anyway it is very doubtful if anyone born bom and brought up in a land of plenty like america an really comprehend the we true condition ot of this people when they see an officer of the government they hide like prairie dogs and only come to daylight when they feel that the storm is fairly pat many times only to find that they have been swindled by some impostor in the name of the sultan frus asia minor june 1889 coq |