New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1883-07-05
INDUSTRIAL ENGLAND.
BY ROBERT p PORTER MEMBER OF TIE LATE
TARIFF COMMISSION.
YYYII
LIFE. LABOR AND WAGES IN MANCHESTER.

| LIFE, LABOh AND WAVES IN MANCHESIEh.
IFRoM SPECIAL coRaEsr, THE rRIBUSE.l
| MANCHESTER. England June D..
In former letter from this place gave Drlef
| outline of the old-timo Manchester-the cotton
centre Of the eighteenth century. Its rapid progress
in the first five decades of the present century
pointed out and then its gradual decline in popu-
ation during the last thirty years. OF course this
decline may be in part due to the growth of the
| thriving towns surrounding It, and it is
| in those towns that are found the finest
| mills, the best machinery, the most thrifty
operatives. At Bolton was taken over Sunny
side" mill by Me-. Lee, one of the propretors, and
| found 1t one of the finest mills had ever visited.
presume there is nothing at home. even at Lowell,
| to excelit. The buildings were new aud arranged
| on the most approved plans The machinery en-
braced every Improvement. The speed attained
| was the highest Everything, from the top to the
bottom of these spacious mills, seemed to move
along the line of least resistance, all the finer
points which have to be looked after in the cotton
| district in order to make small profit were care
fully watched. and expense all directions
duced to minimum. Again at Oldham where most
of the mills for spinning located found by fol-
| lowing this speciality they had attained a lead in
spinning the lower counts of yarn. In the way
at Blackburn and Burnley they have special ad-
vantages in weaving cottons. In all of these places
earned better wages than the operatives In
the cities of Manchester and Stafford,
| for the reason that In some Of tho
Manchester and Stafford districts tho mills
/ and machinery old and worn out and poor. Al
though the wages paid by piece the slow motion
| of the machinery is such that operatives do not
earn so much as they do in outside places like Boil
| ton, Oldham, Blackburn, and Burnley, where the
mills are new and run at greater speed
| For example, at Bolton spent afternoon with
| United States Consul Albert d. Shaw and Mr.. Lee
of the Sunnyside mills, among the operatives We
| found them housed i'm comfortable cottage homes
| many OF which had bean built by
Mr.. Lee. and all of which were let
to the operatives at fair rent The mill IL located
Just outside Bolton, and the houses seem almost IN
the country the air is good and the homes cheerful
| and comfortable-sim In many respects to
Paisley. A school-room and tuition are provided
for the hslftirners and also for the young children
| of the operatives. Temperate and thrifty habits
are encouraged and the operatives treated with
| some consideration. But unfortunately all the
mills are not Sunnyslde mills a good many Of
| them, especially in Manchester and Stafford. are
| rather " gloomy side mills and tho operatives
live In narrow, smoky streets and breath the fetid
atmosphere of wretched homes into which not one
ray OF sunshine ever penetrates and where there is
NO future for the inmates but the workhouse and
| the grave.
| Take map of Manchester and divide the city
into five districts; the centre district, ex-
tending east Of the river Irwell. cay TO London
Road sta<ion, north a little beyond Market-st
and south few blocks below Liverpool road and
Great Bridge-st. and you have what may be termed
the commercial part of the city. the handsome
blocks OF shops the tall warehouses and the magni
fcent public buildings, for which the town is so
Justly famous. Further south you come to district
OF which Stratford New road Cavendish-st and
Grosvenor-st may be considered the centre. and
here is tho residence of well-to-d0 mechanics and
persons Of small means. On the east
and the west OF this, extending beyond the bounda-
ries of the town. the handsome villas and resi-
dences Of the merchants and the wealthy classes OF
| Manchester Coming from end of the social
scale to the other and in doing from the extreme
south TO the extreme north of the city, one finds q
uuarter bounded on the northeast. by the Oldham
road with George road for a centre, in which reside
the thieves the low Irish, the man who has no visit
| BILE means OF support. In this district the public
houses are of tho lowest order the brothes Of the
ves, and the people that inhabitit the worst, and
| II any one doubts what l say. let him take walk
after O'Clock some evening through Angel, Char
| ter. Goulden and Abel sts Crown lane Crownst,
| Ashley lane Longmigato and Rochdaie road. This
| district In the lowest quarter of Manchester.
| have been thus explicit, because in some of my
| former letters. though / have never confused the
| industrial with the low quarter of a city, have
| been accused of doing by persons who, for va
| rious reasons did not relish reading the
| truth about Industrial England. Having thus
| in a general way outlined four districts of
| Manchester will attempt to describe the largest
and most important, the industrial quarter OF the
| city, where the great mills are located and where
the operatives live. This district has for its north
western boundary Oldham road. On the east it
| extends to the boundary of the city, its southern
ox tremity is the Manchester and Sheffield Railway
track. and IL runs northwest until it almost touches
London road and Pccadllly, aud comprises an area
| of three square miles of closely built dwelling
houses and tall. unplcturesque mills. | walked
through this entire district and visited more than
| a hundred and fifty of the operatives homes, TAX
| ing ten or q dozen each street. The names OF
some OF the principal streets so visited were az fol-
| lows: Great Ancoat-st, union-st. Bcswick-st..
| Butler-st., George Leigh-st Gunn-st, Benga-st..
Primrose-st Elizabeth-st Boslam-st.. Canning st,
Thompson-st, Chadderton-st., Woodward-st..
Bach-st, and number OF others the names of
| which failed to take down.
l was accompanied by United States Consul
Shaw and Inspector p. II. Gillespie, especially de-
tailed by Chief Constable Wood to show
| me the Industrial quarter of Manchester
that might DO enabled to fairly Judge OF the social
| condition of tho working classes of the cotton
metropolis
There were miles Of narrow streets aud thousands
NJ houses Some had bare wooden
floors some had red-b brick floors. some
had bare nag-stone floors. Hardly one had a
vesge of carpet. The rents for these houses, con-
tanning two or three little rooms, varied from as
low as b. 3D. go cents) TO as high as Us Sl 44l per
week. The landlords never do anything for their
| tenements but they are allowed to crumbe gradu-
ally to pieces until they become uninhabtabe.
| Tho rent collectors were like the ever-steaming
Pancks and | have no doubt that the owners OF