WCP597

[1]

[in ARW’s hand] Answd

108, Greenwich Rd.,

London, S.E.

Jan. 6. 1913.

To Dr. Alfred Russell [sic] Wallace

Dear Sir,

I have just read "Levelling Up" in the D. N.¹ I have been saying, for years, that salaries are so high that people who get them don’t know what to do with them so they give whatever is asked [2] 2 by the Fruiterer (the chief purveyor of natural food) and there is nothing left us with small means but the rotton [sic] & stale.

I have lived in the Port of London for 60 years and have watched how things go & find the alcohol delusion, our absurd drinking customs are stopping all openings towards progress— the publican & brewer & [3] 3 the high salaried official gets the pick of all that is going— the poor have the flaring open pub & the fried fish shop.

While staying in the Garden City (Letchworth) I noticed in the local paper I noticed how Mr Craske² the secretary of the Garden City Company had omitted in his letter one of the causes of a lower death rate &c. and had the pleasure of seeing my correction [4] in the following week’s issue.

I enclose the cuttings & hope they will be of interest to you & if you will kindly return them I will look up the current figures get the two letters printed on one leaflet for my own distribution in letters &c. If you have any small pamphlet on Natural Selection I should be glad if you could send it me.

Yours Faithfully | Alfred Hall Waters³ [signature]