The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1871-06-24 00:00:00

MR. BRUCE AND WORKING MEWS
CLUB&

On Saturday afternoon a deputation ti,sited 111.03
Mr. Brow at the Home Office, in London, with a view
of ascertaining from him the course to be adopted in
Co establishing working llPan.4 clubs that they may Pfl-
H, the privileges enjoyed by other clubs, such as
bffording their niembere the means of obtainkg ex-
ciseable liquors without msgist,rial interventhoi.

Lord Lyttelton, the President of the Social Working
Heide Club Association introduced the depntation,
and stated that it was not suggested that the merely
colourable publioans' clubs should have open to them
the privileges claimed for real bond fide clubs, of which
there were now a large number spread about the
country; and between the two eine.. of club., the
chain and the real, there was • very wide distinction.
The real working men'. clubs ought, he considered, to
have the same facil.tiee fur carrying on their operations
an the higher clam of clubs, and he held that the
Government might give these clubs protection, either
by moons of a claire in any bill Mr. Bruce might have
to lay before Parliament, or by initzuctious to the
Inland Revenue Dopartment.
The Rev. Henry Sully, a well-known promoter of
the working moo's club,', stated that the association
hod two objtcts in view in waiting upon the Houm
Secretary—one to urge that the bond fide club of the
humbler clays olionlel not be subject to vexations prose.
maims at the hands of the Revenue Department ; and
also to draw • distinction between three clubs and the
merely sham clubs got up for the benefit of unicensed
pnb'icone es tre:uie of evading the licensing law,. lie
stated that the real clubs did not Sunfish anywhere so
well as where the working man could obtain hie irises
of le fre..hniont, end the etfact of allowing the clubs
to supply the liquor had Ikun the means of lersien.
Mg the evil, of drinking habits, fur the working
man was not canvassed for orders and urged to
drink in the club as in the publichouse ; tint, on
the other hand, all excess wee discountenanced
and disconragsd, and they were content with a
very ino‘'erate amount of drink. He urge d, teen that
proprietary wolking.ruen's chile, where the members
psi I a oubscription and the proprietor took the sub.
scriplions and his KAM on the sale of refreebenents
as hie remuneration, might worthily take the piece ef
many publichonses, and co boon a coy of the difli•
culties attending a change in the licensing nystotn, as
rimy public:ire would be willing to turn their henries
into clubs if distinct principles were laid down upon
whieh they could act. Sir Harcourt Johnstone Mg,
addieseed Mr. Bruce, and be wok' the club principle
had the aduantroge over the publichonee system that all
the in, mbers had to guerd against excess, for if they so
miebehaveel by drinking to exceed they were excluded.
Ile regard-d this club movement as one calculated to
do enorenoue eervice to the came of the moral and
social advancement of the working classes.

°Hoe gentlemen spoke, and Mr. Bruce agreed that
no inAitution was more deserving recognition than
bona We clubs for working men ; and he said that
attention was beim; given te the anti ict, with the
view that the ft:tenement should suppress what was
misehievions witht ut interfering with what 1/../1 good.
He would not utdertake to ray what means would be
adopted, but the matter should not be or,
The depatation then withdrew.

Gunmenting on the foregoing, the Daily Nora re-
marks
The individb us conduct of the Pollee Commissioners In
prosecuting the Times Working Man'. (lob" for doing
precisely what sonaproprletry Cubs in the West-end hose
done for many yeti'. with Impunity has led to le deputation
from "The Social Working MOWS Club Association • reeking
en Mimics,. whh Mr. Bruce, in order to call Its a.-
tentien to the statue of working met,', chew. Toe
enures. dion which wowed between Mr. Bruce aid the
•putatlon eon, resolved into • dispersion as to whet
ernstlieted a bone fide club. It we howevsr, barren.
Thu legal posittm of we king men's Oohs remains where it
vr es before hf.. truce et•mopted to deems It. 7he Depute.
lien retired wr ha general areurance that the Waled: should
r:00005 very careful attention; tots soy conitort which it
may %aye intivrte from this till lel ntterewn most have
been by the parting rec a k of the (lone Secretary,
that he could not "then say by what means effect conl4 be
hest given to their wlehes." We sincerely trust that Mr.
Bruce—if he COLnders it necessary to mike my changes
to the law Low regulating chair —will put an en I to the
7,resubt overran/factory system whi, le allows a db Unction to
hoe. Ce by the P.dans between poor men's clots end rich
Hi' Co cos', lilt has he:sl that, orlito pereme unite true:her
by boy excisable 'Anon wholesale, nod lop 750 them resell
as they see drunk, they ought to ohla,u a licence, tin n est
Brooke's and White's, as well as the" Times Working MI .n's
Cleb," be suit ets4 to the Impost I'll nactanld that, In eh.,
In crest of m.bria mJrnie, spies and liII,AOIO/3 are t. lie VIA
by the Pollee Into nothing men's cluti, LI order to discover
whether their merobers sets. or aamitle, then let spies and
hammers also lo sent to the Wett-enti clut-honses. A late
that makee a sifielorit ii tot '"en a ge,),,,lnK rf peer Dion
end a gathering of rich men Is unjust- and invidieus; and
partiality On the par. of the l• lice lu the application of exist-
ing lace cannel Do tolerated.