The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1873-05-17 00:00:00

FRIENDLY COUNSELS TO WORKING-

MEN.

In connection with Lord Derby's able, interesting, and
practical opeech'on '' Thrift," Ihe rilitCB of Monday also has
the following Leader:—
Upon several points rf the great question moved
by Lord Drrby and the Provident Knowledge Society
there cannot be a difference of opinion. Drunkenness
is the national vice, an inexcusable scandal, and a hor-
rible evil; it produces iwpr .vidence, perpetual des
dendenc-e, recklessness, degradation, and deliberate
pauperism. It has increased in spite of immense
efforts, and is now at least as bad as ever; if there is
any change, worse than ever. The various provisions
for making small savings easy and secure have not had
• success at all proportionate to the requirements of
the cum or the annual aggregate of wages and indus-
trial profits. It is plain that the working classes alone
spend every year in drink snore than the entire capi-
tal they have in all the Ssvings Banks; and if they
would only drink moderately for one year, they would
be able thereby to double their total deposits. Such
people, it is too evident, will not take due care of
themselves or their families. Every kind of improve-
ment stops and breaks down because it has to be forced
on those who are indifferent to it, and are hardly con-
scious of the want. Drunkenness is debt, and it breeds
a debtor clan like that of old Rome who were virtually
slaves. In this country they fail into the hands of
traders who repay themselves for the delays and bad
faith of their customers by compelling them to take
articles of food, drink, and clothing adulterated for the
very purpose. The drunkard's wife and children pay his
debt by milk half water, by iron filings, sand, and poison-
ous dyee in their tea, by meat unfit for human food, and
by lodgings which are nests of disease. Whatever
may be said about the necessity or the harmlessness
of strong drink in moderation, it must be admitted
that the actual indulgence is excessive and enormous.
On these points we seem all agreed; and he certainly
must be either very bold or very paradoxical who can
view the results of such systematic indulgence without
some degree of fear. It is impossible to regard ourown
as the normal or healthy condition of a community.
And when vs know, as we mast, that the greater part
of our working people never have a shilling to call
really their own, and that accident, eicknees, or old
age will throw them and their families upon public
relief, we seem like a party of philanthropists as-
sembled to interchange sympathies, for once, on some
objects of pity and sources of solicitude, upon which all
are agreed to the extent that these things ought not to
be, and that, if they go on as they are, worse things are
at hand.

When, however, we come to the ways and means,
the arts and devices, by which we may persuade our
working people to act like reasonable men in the
matters of present indulgence and wise forethought,
we Recur at the mercy of Impulses that will not be com-
manded and circumstances beyond our control. Our
national virtues as well as our faults, our strength as
well as our weakness, seem alike adverse to vulgar
economy and to a cautions estimate of our future
prospects. The British battle of life is fought to-day,
and as fiercely often as if there were no morrow. The
conquerors do sot always secure their victory; the
vanquished can ften retrieve their fortune.. Hence
there are but few who sight for the long range at all,
or attempt to guess how they will stand twenty years
hence, if England stand as long. It really is only
a small fraction of itay class that lays by for old
age. The middle clasees—they who have to We
their brains as well as their muscles—have their mate.
eel ach•evemente and acquisitions which supply the
place of forethought. A commercial business, or a
growing estate in house and land, is a provision for
the future; but when we come to the working classes,
we have a natural improvidence aggravated by the
scarcity of opportunities and inducements. Not more
than one working Englishman in twenty will sponta-
neously save a shilling a week for the love of saving,
or because it is a duty to save. That one in twenty
will save generally for some object of domestic neces-
sity. There in a want of more captivating objects. A
Frenchman will save that he may give an exorbitant
price for a bit of land to which he may root himself.
Our corresponding opportunity is in towns. To a cer-
tain claw of mind, not English of the English, and by
no means thoroughly at home with the working man, a
shop is the opportunity of rising and the inducement
to save, Freehold land and building societies and co-
operative shope have a limited success, not without
sow, failure.. But, as a general rule, what is a
working man to do witiit his money, supposing him
capable of self denial and thrift? If it lain hard cash,
it is at the mercy of the first needy friend who smells
the secret hoard. Once lent, it ie no more. What is
the man to purchase or to make with his money—
what child of fancy, what long-cherished idea ? A
sensible man of education can hardly spend his money
without turning it to some account, and at least having
his money's worth, though without interest accruing.
Even if he collect pictures, books, or curiosities, he
may find them one day worth more than he gave for
them. The dulled and idlest property will eometimes
grow in value or acquire a new one. But few indeed
are the objects interesting enough for the present, or
promising enough for the future, to prevail against the
certain and known pleasure of present self-unittlgence
of the poor man. The present indulgence ia combined
with society; the distant object compels solitude, or
that strictly domestic life which is both eager and
sweeter to the middle than to the working class.

What is wanted is to give to thrift a material and
attractive form, if possible, varied to suit various
characters and circumstances. As this is not easy, and
can only be done impeafectly, the next best thing, and
the more possible, is to carry the Provident Association
to every man's door, and adapt it to the various con.
tingencies of his position. A working man in the
receipt of good wager, and in his ordinary health,
ought to pay in for half-a-dozen objects, and be
armed against misfortune at all pointy. But in one way
or another, thrift moot not be left to the barren ac-
cumulation of *figures and the contemplation of •
sum total. It mu.t be ree mmended, embodied,
adorned, and made a living interest. It is thus
that all the duties of life and all the ob-
jects of existence are put before us in some
winning form. Economy is not to be taught or learnt
by itself. It must be in goodly company, with a cor-
responding grcwth of the social charities. Thrift has
unkindly aspects, and must, therefore, be mated and
consorted with a wiser and truer kindness than that
of boon fellows. Thrift is chilly, and must be warmed.
How shall this be done? It is a work, no doubt, aud
one worthy of heroes; but it has to be done. A vast
population has Ploughed off into • condition that seems
to have put them out of toe human nomenclature.
What are they, in reality, who live only for the day
or the hour? That swamp has to be drained. Sun and
air have to be forced into it. There is no good in talk-
ing to it or about it, The Englishman has a constitu-
tional right to do what he likes with his own money and
time, within limits of common propriety. We cannot put
him in bed like a child, or drench him with water when
he wants beer, or put him under the charge of his
more reasonable but meddling neighbours. We
cannot make him lock up the twopences that
burn in his pocket. Nobody has yet become good
or wise by law. The best chance for this poor
fellow, the rough basis of our great Empire, is
that a good many men of heart and sense are doing
their best for him. It is something new for a public
Department to come forward in the interest of moral
improvement. What if the Poet Office should win
a triumph where the Home Office has failed, and
where the Education Department still beholds a
battle with varying fortunes and unknown results?
Find the poor man something better to do with
his bard-earned money; take it in charge if he
will give it up, that he may not run to the
shop like the youngest village urchin and satisfy the
craving of his gullet. We know there are those who
say it is best the working man should drown his facul-
ties in drink, and become a sotting beast instead of a
rival or an antagonist. If he chooses to commit moral
suicide, and make himself a helpless slave, let him, say
there. But this is neither an honourable speculation
nor a safe one. We are proud to have abolished slavery.
We have now to abolish the worse elavery of those
who make it their very plan of life to be always paupers
and self sold ',lavas.