The National tribune., 1883-11-08
INDUSTRIAL TOPICS.
Plans for Improving the Condition Of
the British Working People
special Correspondence NAr1osAI TnrnuxE:


vantage over the other w0rkmen OF Great
Britain, and included among these causes cheap
capital, a vast assemblage of the finest ma
chinery, and an early occupation of the mar
kets of the world. / should, perhaps, have add
ed to this list mention of the careful legisla-
tion framed by Parliament and vigorously
administered for the protection of the health,
education, and property of workmen in mills
of the KIND which compose Manchester. First
of the provisions of this sort are the hmita-
tions of hours of work. Fifty-six hours per
week the master may exact, !. e., ten hours on
Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and
Friday, and six hours on Saturday, but not five
| minutes more. Saturday is a legal half-holi-
day, and for infringing upon that, or for work
ing five minutes of an eleventh hour on any OF
the other days the employer is liable to be fined
| forty shilIings for every man found employed.
| And the maximum of hours applies only 10
| adult workers. For young people the hours are
| less, and for children the half-time law is en-
| forced, factory schools, under government in
| spection, being supplied in many cases. Safety
| OF life and limb is insured for mill hands by
| compelling masters to fence all dangerous ma
! chimes, and to enforce the utmost cleanliness Of
| their premises, fines being imposed, for in
stance upon such masters as neglect TO carefully
| whitewaSh walls The working maa's prop
| erty is secured in so far that he must be paid
/ every week in money of the realm; store or
/ ders, notes, and all other substitutes for cash
| payments being rigidly excluded. Such pro-
| visions well enforced, taken in connection with
| the good municipal government which supple
ments this parliamentary care of the working
man by securing him good water, wholesome
/ drainage, clean streets surrounding his home,
and efficient police to protect it-all this care for
| his welfare necessarily puts the Manchester
| workman upon good plane among the work
| men Of the kingdom. Nevertheless, there are,
| as pointed out in my last letter, grave draw
backs TO his prosperity.
soRDID SURROUNDINGS.
For yet more complete idea of the sordid-
ness of the surroundings of the Manchester
| working people it is needful only to turn to
| another part of the Prospectus of the Man.
chester Art Museum, from which | quoted
somewhat at length in my last letter. On
page of the Prospectus, find eorroboration
of my description of Aneoats, and justification
| for sympathy with and pity for the British work
man, if, as is undoubtedly the case, Manchester
| and the towns of Lancashire and Yorkshire are
! the g Paradise Of the British workman" The
statement is as follows: f A very large number
of children IN Manchester and SalfOrd are
living in places where they never, or very
| rarely, see anything which is beautiful. They
| know nothing of birds and flowers, of trees
and grass and ferns. Probably most chill
dren go sometimes into the country, where
such things are to be seen, but those who do
not see them habitually have their eyes
sealed to their beauty. 1t is unqueStiOnably a
great misfortune that children should be ign0-
rant of natural beauty,-a misfortune both for
the children themselves and for the community
of which they form part; for the conception
of the world and of human life which is
formed in childhood can never be wholly
got rid OF, and those who, from being
surrounded in childhood by hideOus and
filthy things, have gained the impression
that all that is in the word and IN their own
nature is low and mean, are not likely ever to
attain high moral or mental qualities. More
over. children brought up in places where they
rarely see natural beauty, necessarily lack
qualities the commonneSs Of which Is very
necessary to the prosperity OF English COM
merce,-the qualities needed by good designers .
THE WORKING MANS DEPENDENCE.
Tt should be born in mind that Manchester,
as / have said before, grows every year more
dependent upon the refinement of her textile
workers by reason of the close competition OF
France and the United States. In view of the
money value TO the workmen themselves of
taste and refinement, the destructive nature of
their surroundings is the more conspicuous.
On this subject / fad still further testimony IN
pamphlet by Mr.. Horsfall, entitled The
Study Of Beauty and Art in Large Towns" pub
lished in the current year by Macmillan & Co.,
a pamphlet which would be Invaluable II
| republished In America and scattered In
the length and breath of the country. OF
| this essay Mr. Ruskin says: Indeed, the prin-
ciples on which Mr.. Horsfall is working are al
together true and sound and the definitions
and defense of them, in this pamphlet, are among
the most important pieces OF art teaching which
have ever met with in recent hteratare,-in
i. past art literature there cannot, Of course, be
anything parallel TO them, since the difficulties
TO be met with and the mischlefs 10 be dealt
| with are wholly OF to-day. And in all the prae-
tical suggestions and recommendations given, |
not only concur, but am myself much aided as
/ read them in giving form TO my own plans
for the museum at Sheffield" One page % OF
this admirable pamphlet find the following
vigorous statement: The conditions under
which the majority of the people even OF
the middle and higher classes in England
are living are not favorable 70 the aequisi-
tion of much knowledge and strong love OF
beauty, and the conditions under which the
working classes are living in those large
towns which already contain more than half
our population and seem destined to contain at
least five-sixths of it, are more unfayofable to
the acquisition of fasense of beauty than, Ibeleye
t any conditions which affect elsewhere, or ever
| have affected, the life of human beings" Here
: is some evidence as to the ignorance of nature
i prevailing amongst children in parts of Man
chester. Doubtless ignorance as complete pre-
walls in similar districts IN ali our large towns
IGNORANCE OF NATURE.
2 Mr. H E. Oakeley. Her Majesty's inspector
of schools, says: 81 have often found in places
like Ancoats and Bradford, that children scarcely
4 | know what flower is, and have seldom, if ever
seen q violet or primrose. A short time ago
I young lady, daughter of clergyman, came
: from the country to school IN Aneoats 70 give
. a lesson before me as preliminary step towards
" becoming a certified mistress She selected Il
+ her subject The Bee,' and commenced hel
lesson by placing picture of a bee before the
class The children looked blanker and dullel
| as she went on, and after few minutes gseeins
], tears in the poor girls eyes, who felt she wa
: failing,) | interposed, and found by speaking
to the children that they had never seen bee
5 and had no idea what i5 was like Or where i
! might be found" Ignorance of what bee i
like and of where it may be found may not a
: first seem to be very serious evils But reInem
| Der that ignorance OF what bee Is like involves
ignorance complete, or almost complete, of al
g natural objects, of the beauty of grass anC
q flowers, and birds and trees-in short, OF al
that natural beauty, recollection of which, is
b as it were, background to nearly everything
which passes over the stage of our conscious
: ness. And remember, too, that peoples mind
: and feelings will nave, must have, thought
g and sensations which must be in great measur
u the result of what their eyes and ears are ia
y miliar with, and, then, if you viii also remem
Der that these children, while they are forming
their views Of life, their hopes and desires, ar
: quite familiar with the sights and sounds o
the lowest parts OF our town. the fact of thei
y =