The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1875-08-21 00:00:00

THE LABOURING CLASSES IN FRANCE.

The substance of a report just published by the com-
mittee appointed by the Assembly to consider the mate-
rial and economical condition of the labouring classes
has been published by The Times. (It was sent over by
telegraph).—lt is said the abuse of alcoholic liquors
and other excesses, even with young people from fifteen
to eighteen years of age, account for premature decay
too often remarked in manufacturing districts, and the
law on drunkenness, it is urged, ought to be stringently
enforced. As to the housing of artisans, great im-
provements have been effected by the law of 1851.
Wherever it has been applied the unhealthy
cellars, so numerous in the north, are no longer
inhabited. Whole courts have been purified, and
the frightful courts, where filth and vicious construc-
tion made cholera almost permanent, have dis-
appeared. The legislation, tempering by the in-
tervention of municipal authorities its otherwise too
severe infringement on the rights of property, has
effected the happiest transformation, but being de-
pendent on the option of the municipality, is not
everywhere carried out. The Government, it is urged,
shonlil use its influence on local authorities for the ap-
pointment of commissions wherever such measures are
requisite to recall to domestic life those who often take
refuge in the public-house only to avoid an uninhabit-
able dwelling, The results obtained by these commis-
sions at Paris, Mulhouse, and Lille may serve as models
for imitation. Even before 1851 public and private or-
ganisations, impelled by humanity or speculation, had
considered the erection of workmen's dwellings. After
referring to the isolated cottages, often with small
gardens attached, to be met with in mining districts,
and other cases where there is no confined space, the
report ikientions that many employers, not satisfied
with providing for the workmen cheap and healthy
dwellings, have sought to make them their own land-
lords, the sense of property being extremely beneficial.
The result, however, has only been fortunate in excep-
tional cases. The most generous vendor must require
certain guarantees, and payments by small instalments
being necessitated by the purchaser's moderate wages,
the latter is afraid of being too dependent on a master
to whom he owes money for his house. He may more-
over re-dispose of it, thus thwarting the benevolent
intentions of the muter. Thus, a mining company at
Decize sold its workmen for 2,4001. houses costing 3,000 f.,
but twenty years afterwards only eight remained in the
workmen's hands, five being converted into public-
houses and shops, and others sold at a profit tu
speculators. In a few cases, however, this problem
has been solved, and powerful companies, vith nume-
rous shareholders, have shown the most generosity'
on this head. In the north 18 out of 23 mining com-
panies expended 18,000,000 f. on 7,000 houses occupied
by 31,500 persons, the rent being 30 per cent. lower
than the average of the district. The Creusot Com-
pany let its workmen a house entirely fitted up for 36f.,
which scarcely covers the taxes, insurance, repairs, and
street paving. The Anzin Company devoted 25 per
cent, of its profits in 1868 to the material and moral
improvement of its men, and other companies have
similarly expended a sum equal to 22 per cent, of the
total wages. The report commends the system of
weavers working at home, family ties being thus pre-
served and the dangers of common workshops being
avoided. The transformation of the large Lyons
factories into small workshops scattered over the sur-
rounding country has had the happiest results, this
employment requiring much air and cleanliness, and
each family having a web-built and healthy house. In
the north, however, the rural dwellings are low and
small, and the humidity of the soil, mot e dangerous than
the heat of forges and glassworks, encountered without
penl. by young children, impairs the general health.
Passi.n g on to the question of food, the report remarks that
the higher wages have enabled the artisan class to obtain
the meat necessary for them, but dispensed with by the
peasantry; the increased price threatens to place it
out of their reach. It comments on the cost to the
workman of buying small quantities, and especially
the credit he requires when ill or unemployed, or
when he wants to make some exceptional purchase,
and on his inadequate sense of numerous instal-
ments of future payments, Certain pawnshops, it