The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1880-01-24 00:00:00

THE REVIVAL OF TRADE.

The following are extracts from a leader in The Tines on
the revival of trade :

There seems little room for doubt that the revival of
trade, long looked for in vain, has at last come. Signs
of it are to be seen in every direction. The metal
market has been advancing steadily, and prices have
probably not yet reached the highest point at which
they will stand. The charge for freights between this
country and the United States has gone up, and the
demand nevertheless continues to be in excess of the
supply. Activity is the rule in every branch.
The only complaint is that orders cannot be eats.
cuted rapidly enough for the wants of merchants
and manufacturers. . . . . We have been
wsrned,. it • is true, that all this may be
nothing but a flash in the pan, but, at least, it
is a very welcome flash; and we can hardly see in
what other way the early signs of a genuine trade
revival could display themselves than by such facts as
we have stated. The promise is good, and the per-
formance has been good, too, as far as there has as
yet been time for it. The matter is one which
concerns the working classes of the country almost
as much as it concerns any others. When profits
rise, wages may be expected to rise with them;
and higher prices will be more than made up for
by an increased supply of regular and remunerative
work. . . • Those who best know the condition and
the habits of the working classes of this country can
hardly fail to be struck by the vast improvement there
has been of late years in both of them. Good wages
are now almost certainly to be obtained in exchange
for good work. But men must not therefore expect
that work will necessarily come to them if they wait
for it. They must go in search of it, they must show
themselves deserving of it, and they must keep steadily
to it when they have got it. Every department of in-
dnstry, however, has its stragglers and outsiders, who
are of leas value than the genuine working hands. In
rood times there is work enough and to spare for all.
In bad times, when labour is less in demand, the in.
rerior and less trustworthy workmen are, of course, the
first to be thrown overboard. How they contrive to
shuffle on afterwards is a mystery to all but them-
selves, . . . The improvements in the habits of the
working classes has been less marked, perhaps, than
the improvement in their material state, but it has
been very real and sensible. The savings-banks
returns may be appealed to in proof of it. These,
however, are only one sign out of many. There
are also the friendly societies, the benefit dubs,
and the various °the" forms \oo.tnaehinery by

which working men make a joint effort to provide
against accidents and to keep themselves out
of pauperism. Waste and recklessness and improvi-
dence there are, and they are only too common. But
we do not believe that they are the rule, and though
they may never disappear, we see good grounds for
hoping that they may become even more exceptional
than they are. Arevival of trade willbring with it, along
with more material prosperity, a better opportunity
for the exercise of the prudential virtues. A genera-
tion which has been better taught than its fathers
were may be expected to go beyond its fathers
in these, and it will not easily be excused if it proves
by and by not to have satisfied BO just a require-
ment. . . .