The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1874-10-10 00:00:00

"THE WORKING MAN'S NIGHT."

In connection with the Social Science Congress a large
meeting of the operative claw was held In the City-hall,
Glasgow, last Friday evening On the platform were as-
sembled the more prominent members of the Social Science
Congress. On the motion of Mr. John limns, the Lord
Provost, Sir James Watson took the chair. Ile said -

-
The members of the Social Science Congress had
honoured the city of Glasgow by their present visit.
They had come to consider and discuss the beet
means of securing and extending the trade and com-
merce of this country, to improve the public health, to
recluse the death-rate, to promote the cause of educa-
tion, to repress crime and promote amendment of the
law. They were all interested in the subject; Whig
and Tory might all agree upon this. It was, there-
fore, their first duty to give them a most cordial wel-
come. (Cheers.) He begged to introduce to them a
nobleman whose honoured name was a watchword for
all good in Scotland, and was held in the highest esti-
mation and love by every one he addressed—the Earl
of Shaftesbury.
"

The Earl of Shaftesbury, who was loudly cheered,
said this was especially the working-man's night,
when that high and noble class of the working men
met with strangers from a distance to exchange their
sympathies and reciprocate their advice. They did
not come there for controversy relating to labour and
capital, but all he could say was that employers and em-
ployed had their rights and their duties on both sides.
Let them regard their duties and lie would say to the
working man he never appeared as great as when
he acknowledged his duty and did his best to dis-
charge it. With reference to co-operation in produc-
tion and distribution, he trusted they would seriously
consider their importance with respect to the future
welfare of the people. That subject had been ad-
anirably handled by Mr. Braesey, and he would only
venture to give them one counsel from his inmost
heart and from some experience. Whatever their
imagined wrongs, whatever their presumed rights, let
them not attempt to carry their purposes into effect
by resorting to a strike, which would only end in ruin
to both parties, and in sorrow and dissatisfaction.
The great struggle on the factory question had been
carried on without a single strike and without any
discord between master and men. There were some
matters of primary importance worthy of their atten-
tion. The two great subjects were education and sani-
tary arrangements. These questions were so inter-
mingled that it was difficult to know the precise dis-
tinction between them, but his own experience was
that sanitary measures mud, if possible, precede all
attempts at education. Education could not lead to
sanitary matters, but sanitary matters would necessarily
lead to education. A very large proportion of the
evils that desolated society was remediable by the
energy of man. The working man's home was the
scene of all virtue; it was the great secret of his
rigour, his happiness, and the grand foundation of his
moral dignity. The improvements of the dwellings
of the working man was therefore, of the first im-
portance. The noble lord referred at some length
to what had been effected in Shaftesbury Park,
where before the end of the year there would be
1,400 dwellings inhabited by the working class - by
men who in a few years would be the owners of
those dwellings; all constructed on the most recent
plans of ventilation and drainage, with grounds in
front and everything to contribute to decency
and enjoyment. This was one of the greatest
efforts ever made by the economy and thrift
of the working classes. (Cheers.) He wanted
to see in all the dwellings of the working classes
a better system of cooking. This would lead to
economy in fuel and food; it would double the amount
of their wages and introduce thrift, which lay at the
foundation of a great deal that was excellent and com-
fortable in domestic life. The noble lord then referred
to the importance of an adequate supply of water, in
reference to which Glasgow was most advantageously
situated; to Mr. Corbet's dining-rooms in the city,
where good and cheap dinners were provided without
alcohol; to education, which would give true dignity
to labour, and concluded by telling the working men
that, whatever difficulties they had to contend with,
one thing happily was attainable by all--that they
should so conduct themselves that when they came to
lay their heads on their dying pillows they might each
be able in gratitude and joy to say, " I have done my
duty in that state of life to which it has pleased God to
call me." (Cheers.)
The Lord Provost next introduced a right hon. gentleman
who was lately Postmaster, and to whom they were Indebted
for a recent extension of the Glasgow Post Office
Dr. Lyon Playf air, M.P., remarked that the Health
Section, over which he presided, came home to every
one, for public health was the sum total of the health
of all the individuals of a community, so that what-
ever affected our own health and that of our neighbour
affected also that of the city or district in which he
lived. Our neighbour's health in this way became
nearly as important as our own, so that the first law of
public health was the common Christian Law—" Thou
shalt love thy neighbour as thyself." This law was
little regarded in great cities. In this very city of
Glasgow the rate of mortality among the working
population was exceedingly unsatisfactory. Notwith-
standing the temperate climate, the citizens of Glasgow
died as fast BA the citizens of Calcutta and Bombay, in
spite of their tropical climates. More than 30 out of
every thousand died annually, while in huge London
only 23 in 1,000 died, and it was on the labouring
classes that this excessive mortality fed. Among the
middle and well-to-do classes of this country the
annual rate of mortality was only about 104 per 1,010,
while among the working classes in Glasgow it was
nearly three times as much. He desired, first, to tell
these terrible truths, and then to show they held it in
their own hands to alter the state for one more hope-
ful to them and their children. Not Glasgow alone,
but all Scotland, was implicated in the low state of
its public health. England and Ireland were im-
proving in their rate of mortality year by year, but
Scotland year by year was becoming worse. Her
crowded cities, her villages her rural districts were
all deteriorating, n their mortality. This very serious
fact, upon whin he would dilate in his address on
Monday, but now he stated the broad fact. Why
should Glasgon lose nearly 4,000 of her citizens every
year by death more than she should under the ordinary
conditions of public health? Why should she have
annually 120,000 cases of serious sickness above that
which she would have under good civil arrangements?
They were too enlightened to be fatalists, and to fold
their hands and to throw all their shortcomings, as
Mahomedans would do, upon their Allah. In the
whole kingdom at least 150,000 annually died who
ought not to die, and 4i millions of • were
grievously sick who r -
laws of health had
be learnt by the

trated in the one

persons, clean houses,
air, clean water,

tic conditions of individual and public health.
Sluch they could do as individuals by attending to the
essential condition of cleanliness, aml for the rest they
must depend on the enlightenment of the community.
In Glasgow one of their greatest evils was overcrowd-
ing. The civic authorities were making noble efforts
to mitigate this evil, but much also might be done by
individuals. A working man especially depended for
his health and working efficiency on breathing pure
air. In his sleeping apartment and in his workshop
he ought to have from 2,000 to 3,000 cubic feet of air
for each person and for every hour for each person,
not stagnant air, but new and freshly flowing in.
How few ever thought of this or pros ided for it ! But
if they did not get this abundant quantity of fresh
air they would certainly pine as a tree did in an over-
crowded forest. Air, free and abounding air, was the
great disinfectant of nature for foulness, and was
the ultimate source of health and power of work.
If a working family with a four-roomed house
chose to crowd, in addition to themselves, other
working men as lodgers, how were they to share
the air of small rooms among such a Closely.
packed household? The little gain in money was
lost ten times over in the defective health and di-
minished working power of its occupants. Next to
clean air, clean water was of all things important;
with that they were blessed in Glasgow, unless it
were allowed to stand in receptacles in which it must
absorb foulness. The old Jews used to think and to
teach that all evil spirits dwelt amid filth and ordure.
Whenever a disease or a plague struck them, it was
the evil spirit coming out of the filthy place and show-
ing his malicious character. He wished them to
believe that still there were certainly evil spirits resid-
ing in all foul places and in every dirty house and dirty
person, ready to do them harm, only they now knew
they were not demons, !but malignant vapours which
attacked and diseased the blood. Each man created
the evil spirits if he permitted filth to be near him.
Ile created and could destt oy them. Every one MU
responsible for his own and his neighbours' health and
could not shake off the responsibility of his own
acts :

If the working-men of Glasgow began by putting their
own houses is order, depend upon it the civic authori-
ties would second their efforts by attending to the
surroundings, which CAM, rather within the duty of
the community than of an individual. Surely the
working man, who had to use the forces whi la were
being continually brought to bear as a substitute for
for manual labour, ought to be taught the principles
of science involved in their applica,ion ? For his know-
ledge he would be a better because a more complete
man, both for himself and for his employer, for he
could better take his part in the competition of the
world, which was daily becoming more and more a
competition of intellect. They must not in the
new organization of schools be content with mere
elementary instruction. The position of Scotland
had not been gained by her barren hills or heetlis,
but by the superior intelligence of her people. If she
was to retain her position she must keep the advance
in intelligence which had distinguished her. This
city had produced many remarkable men on account
of the facilities which she had long afforded for ad.
vanced instruction. He did not speak of James
Watt, for he was beyond their memories: but he him-
self had enjoyed the friendship of working men in
Glasgow who were fellow students with him, and
who raised themselves by their increased know-
ledge. One of them was his dear friend Livingstone,
who now lay in Westminster Abbey. Another friend
was alive and doing good among them—James
Young, who out of his riches had given many
thousand pounds for extending in the Aislemmian
University those facilities for scientific education which
led to his fortune. They could not all be discoverers,
like Watt and Livingstone, or eminent manufac-
turers, like James Young, hut there was not one that
should not be in a position to &Notre that knowledge
which led them to be so useful to the world. If all in
their several vocations received that education which
enabled them to discharge their ordinary work with
intelligence and understanding, the result on the in-
dividual and on the community would amply justify
the increased expenditure for bringing technical train-
ing within the reach of working men; for, though it
was true that education was the great arm of de-
mocrcy, no country need fear the growth of a de-
mocracy founded on knowledge and intelligence,
Lord Alonereiff then addressed the meeting. He
referred to the meeting of the working-classes which
he attended fourteen years ago in connexion with the
Social Science Congress, and the first thing that struck
him was a sense of progress which had been made in
the interval. He did not say how it had been accom-
plished, but this, at least, he would say—that the
working men themselves had borne an important part
in it. (Cheers.) The Social Science Congress might do
much to stimulate and even to instruct, but Social
Science, to be carried out in its integrity, must depend
on the working men themselves. They must be the
Apostles of Social Science to the great masses among
1 whom they lived. (Cheers.) S cial science must begin
at home, and it was by the cultivation of tastes and
habits of a higher kind and that the progress of man-
kind was secured. (Cheers.)
The Lord Provost said the next speaker would he a
gentleman who hail recently returned from India,
and who was well known from the great exertions he
had made to alleviate like pressure of famine in that
country.

Sir George Campbell then briefly and effectively ad-
dressed the meeting.
Lord Houghton admitted the great importance of all
those social requisites to which his right hon. friend,
Dr. Lyon Playf air, had alluded, but there was some-
thing still more important—the character of the
individual man—that something which lay in the heart
and hand of every one present, and which would enable
him in special cases to rise above the class of society
in which he lived, but, what was infinitely more, would
enable him to do his full duty, and enjoy all the capa-
cities of happiness within that rank; he would urge
them to cultivate and develope their individual charac-
ter and intelligence, and, above all things, beware of
democratic tyrannies. (Cheers.)

The Earl of Itosebery was next called upon to say a few
words as the President of the Congress. The noble lord
said :

He was somewhat in the condition of one of those
exhausted volcanoes which had been referred to by a
celebrated author. (A laugh.) As president of the
Congress, he felt like the fly on the cart wheel that
said, " How merrily I make the wheel go round."
(Cheers.) A nation, like a house, would not stand if
divided against itself. What they wanted was co-
operation in trade and co-operation of sympathy and
interests. That v.,as the problem which the Social
Science Congress had to solve. The upper clans was
often represented as selfish, luxuriant, and extravagant,
on the other hand, the working classes were sometimes
represented as dark, as debauched conspirators, trying
to restrain production and increase the consumption of
alcohol. If what both sides said were true, the sooner
we ceased to exist the better (a laugh), but if the prin-
ciples he advocated were carried out government would
become easier and life happier. (Cheers.)
Mr. Anderson, M.P., in moving a vote of thanks to
the members of the Social Science Congress, expressed
his warm and cordial approbation of Principal Caird's
sermon, and the inaligural address of the noble Presi-
dent.

The motion was carried with acclamation.
A vote of thanks was also given to the Lord Pro-
vost for presiding over the umetin4.

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