Morning journal and courier., 1892-09-05

| tnat the puDllcatlon mas QOne Boou. NO
only has popular interest been awakened
but in few instances concessions hav
been made by some of the larger of tn
employers, and the movement has beeI
accorded little help even at the hand
of Parliament.
| But the lot of the English shop-sssis
tant is anything but a happy one eve.
| yet In London there are about a hun
dred Thousand of these, and to find out
exactly what their wages and hours are
| at the present time we concluded to sup
| plement our personal observations upor
these points by visit to the Shop-Assist
ants union. Our appointment was with
the acting secretary, Mr.. A. G. Arnold
but that gentleman had arranged to have
us taken in hand by one of the leading
| platform men of the union, an unusually
| bright fellow, Mr.. ]. Turner, and, If the
play upon words may bs pardoned, II
| turned out better than was promised by
even such an arrangement as that, for we
| met and conversed altogether with ten OIL
| a dozen of these Young fellows. They had
| gathered for a committee meeting upor
plans of work, and happening in theil
| midst just in the nick of time, we enjoyed
| the rare privilege of sort of round tablt
conference with them upon matters In
which each man was in some sense an ex
pert. Not only had each a personal expe
| rience to speak about, but almost every
experience was in different line of trade
and every man, moreover, seemed to have
given time and thought to the study oi
this subject in its general aspects.
The first observation of the secretary
was 80 strong putting of the wage ques-
ton that we were quite prepared for the
details which came later on. What he
said was that the wages of shop. assistants,
who always had to be well dressed and
docker's wages-that, in fact, there were
not hundred out of every thousand who
earned more than four and one-half pence
an hour" In proceeding to particulars ii
was necessary, our friends said, that GER
tain facts should be emphasized. These
are the facts which differentiats the situa-
ton of the English shop assistant from
that of his brother in the United States,
and it is Just as needful that they have an
early statement in this letter as that the
first place should have been given to them
in our interview. The frat is that in this
country a very large proportion of those
engacsd in retail stores live on the premis-
es, their board and lodging. with what lit
tie home life they may enjoy, being af-
forded them by their employers. In small
establishments they associate more or less
with the family, but in larger concerns
their domestic life is modelled, to use the
same word which is often used here, upon
the barracks" principle. Scores and
even hundreds of young men, or young
women, as the case may be, will be board
ed and lodged in a single building, and of
course their accommodation and keep will
form large element in their play. This
'Hndoor" system is exceedingly popular
with English shop keepers, and the rea-
sons, as the employees state them, are that
it keeps the workman more fully under
his masters thumb and makes his labor
less costly. One of the most lamentable
of its effects from a moral point of view
is that it puts premium on single bles-
sedness. We are credibly assured that
some of the largest retail merchants in
London make it point to get rid of men
after they enter the welded state, and
what the Shop-Assistants' union says of
this is that it leads to numerous secret
marriages and to some proceedings which
are much worse. To quote the language
used at our round table, this system is
''one of the biggest props of prostitution
in this town."
The system of apprenticeship is another
English institution which affects shop as
sistants. 1t is held over here that before
girl can sell goods to advantage behind
the counter she must pass long period as
learner. In the drspery and millinery
lines two or three years are required, and
what makes this arrangement exceedingly
remuners tive to the shop keeper Is that
these girls will work long hours during all
this time for nothing beyond their board
and lodging Let it be noted, too, that at
the end they will not know how to trim
hats or to make dresses. We are speaking
now only of what is necessary to become
a waiter behind the counter. This appren-
ticeship is not a legal one; it is simply a
mutual agresment which either party can
terminate at will. But custom may be
just as oppressive as law, and this custom,
we are assured, is all but universal. Upon
males, however, it bears less heavily than
upon females, as the former, while learn
ing, not only get their keep, but receive a
little pocket money, which increases from
year to year.
Another very rigid, and really oppres-
sive, custom in this country is that which
exacts from every applicant for position
as shop assistant written "chaI acter"
from his last employer. Here custom is at
variance with law, for there is no compul-
sion in the matter of giving character,
ana YET WlI0OuG one IQ0I6 Is no Cnhnc0 OF
employment. So rigidly is this rule en-
forced that we have heard of numerous in
stances in which it has been brought to
bear against persons applying for a place
under firms in whose service they had been
for years. AS, however, they had been
working elsewhere for few months, the
reply was-"Yes, we will engage you II
you bring a character from your last place u
This custom places the shop assistants
completely at the mercy of those in whose
service they may happen to be. Some
| times a character extending over ten years
Is e1scted, and that the effect upon those
! interested is oppressive is shown by the
| fact that various attempts have been made
to cure the evil by Legislation. In the
book already quoted Mr. Sutherst says of
| this system that it ''militates against the
assertion of manly qualities, and, a re,
suit, q servile spirit is engendered, which
| tends to make the assistant complaisan;
nonentity, ready to submit to anything
because there seems no way of escape"
| Where so much is required you would
naturally expect much to be given. Bu
| what is it to which these aspiring young
people, after long rs1iod of virtual ap
premiership, and aftsr the sacrifice on the
| part of 30 many of them of sll home life
| with the exchange, AS Mr.. Sutherst puts it
| of much that is manly for that which i;
| servile-after ali this, to what sort of 6
position do they fall heirl As to hours
about the only change since the publics
ton of death and Disease Behind tn,
Counter is that in more instances thar
before the shops close and the assistant:
get off a little earlier than usual one day
in the week. This is a great boon as fsl
| as it goes, but to call it a ''hslf holiday" il
very much in the nature of half mock
/ cry. Some of the largest establishments
do really give half holiday on Saturday
but the so called half holidays, occurring
in different parts of London on Wednes
days and Thursdays. bsgin, as a rule, a
five O'Clock, hardly ever before foul
o'clock, and as q matter of course the as
sistant has very nearly rendered by tha
time what ought 10 be considered a rea
sonable days work. But both as regard,
hours and play, We will now put befort
the reader the facts which transpired a
our shop assistants 'iround table" Al
that interview there was perfect freedom
of expression and yet a remarkable agree
ment We were very careful, too, in the
notes we made. Upon every point of i'm
portance all hands were appealed to, and
we iotted down those statements only tc
which unanimous assent was given.
The secretary WAS In the clothing trade
and 1t was generally thought, he said, tina
shop-assistants were better off in that lin,
of trade than in any other. Their hour
would vary in different localities. Ii
large West End shops they would be from
eight to eight, but in others, and psrticu
larly in the East End, assistants would b
employed as late as ten on ordinary nights
| lat fi11 tura1ra 4ff