The Portland daily press., 1882-07-18
An Englishman on Work IN
America.
rChamber's Journal.l

chambers Journal
There is in the business atmosphere of the
United States an electric intensity not found
in the most frenzied centres of Europe The
flood of highly educated youngsters, nov being
thrust into it, must add to the desperate con-
fiict, and young immigrating Britishefs must
be prepared for difficulties that their elders
have not known; there is a combat waiting
them far Steiner than any waeed III tumulIu-
GUS, competitive Europe.
Against the operations of the CONF derated
lions of trade, the ablest man, sipgle-hsnded,
is as powerless as before a tidal wave. Homes
ty counts for nothing; provision is worse than
blindness for combinations Of spectators defy
all calculations The corner is now the
made of making great wealth. And wealth is
the object of an Infinite majority of Americans;
the spending of it lavishly the beau ideal Of
enjoyment.
This makes excitement a necessity of exist
ence From childhood TO age, incessant men-
tai activity must be had; and it is curious to
observe that speed of mind is accompanied by
oreat bodily quetude, The lollipg, Longing,
arm-chair-lovipg Yankee has long furnished
amusement to British athletes and pedestrians.
But this corporal laziness is the necessary re-
suit of restless mental exertion. Brains have
SO much to do that limbs arc compelled to be
quiescent. ''To get on in the United States
mind, not muscle is the prerequisite Intend
ing emigrants should ponder this.
For artisans there are just now excellent
prospects. A great impulse of activity pre-
| walls; everything is booming" in the most en-
| couraging manner. But British tradesmen
must be ready to exchange old methods for
| new ones, to forget much and to learn much.
| have heard bitter repinings from men who
were too rigid to yield to American ideas.
| Such should remain at home. ADglo-Ameri-
cans have to work harder than any other peo-
| pie in the world. When L was in Cincinnati
| bricklayers we're earning pound day, and
| the same rate prevails in many other cities.
| But the work was far more exhausting than in
| England. Here bricklayer is reckoned a
| good hand if he sets nine hundred bricks p-r
| day: thousand is high water mark. In the
| United States fifteen hundred is the average
| and some smart fellows have set two thousand
| per day Now at the outset most Englishmen
| lind this rapid style simply destructive. And
there is no doubt that it taxes the energy of
| the strong and clever. Yet such is the custom
| of the trade. For the weak and incompetent,
| it means exclusion from first class employment
| and banishmentsto places remote from thriving
| cities, where speed is slower, competition fec
| bier, and wages low. Although the standard
| is so much higher than in England, our immi-
| grants after period of probation and "harden-
| ing" are found equal to all ccmers. An in
| stance of this will be apropos
A German master-buildor was erecting o
| block OF houses, and his employees were exclu-
| sively Germans. Fonr young English bricklay-
ers applied for work. They were newly arrived,
and met with several refusals. At length two
were taken on trial. By the end of the week
the four were engaged; by the end OF fort
Englishmen carried the building to its compile
| ton. Their power Of work, quickness and
steadiness gave them marked advantage
over the Germans. But their determination
mot to be licked" was the real cause of their
triumph. That British characteristic tells pro-
digiousy in favor of the Anglo-American, and
makes him tacile priaceps amid natives and
| strangers. These young bricklayers told me
they never worked SO hard in their lives be-
FORE and were glad that crucial test had re-
vealed to them what they could do" After
this breaking-in they weresequal to the highest
standard of American labor. One of them
soon became an employer, and WAS making
sure tracks for fortune when last saw him.
What have said of the building trades APP
plies to all others. Indeed the higher dexteri-
ty, taste and skill business requires, the more
does the American workman respond TO the
demand. The Elasticity OF tyre to which |
| have referred is nowhere seen so plainly as III
the domain OF the useful arts. Germans and
Frenchmen have given finish to American
manufactures that is wanting in our own. Be-
sides, there is native neatness, the result of a
high ideal of excellence. This matter deserves
the serious attention of British manufacturers,
who are losing many markets simply from the
clumsiness of their goods There is rising ia
the United States race of artists, designers
and artificers who promise to surlsss those of
all other nations. The fervor of the climate
develops the aesthetic side of man; the clash of
millions of eager, inventive minds is producing
standard of excellence that is both novel and
exalted the possibilities of wealth are vastly
beyond those of any European State, and the
love of the elegant and the beautiful pervades
all classes. The inevitable sequence of these
conditions must be widespread, all-dominating
art. 1t is seen in the gorgeous public buildings,
in the exquisite villas, in the light yet strong
furniture, in the beautiful appointments OF
drawing-rooms and table equipages; while ev-
cry American lady, yea, though black, is liv-
ing evidence of an innate taste in dress that
makes the English suffer by contrast. Into cv-
cry avenue of life this characteristic of taste
goes modifying manners and behavior as much
as architecture, furniture, dress, ornaments
and tools.