Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-05-06
THE M0SELY REPORT
Praises Methods of American
Workmen.
IT AWAKES ENGLAND
MAY RESULT IN AN EXODUS
THITHER.
Primrose Day a Great Surprise to
Foreigners-London News
and Gossip.

while 1t confirms the informal reports made
during the past few years, British newspa-
pers by British travellers regarding Ameri-
can working methods, goes further than
any Of the latter in approving the chief
conditions under which the workman in
the United States lives and carries on his
employment.
1t will be an eyeopener to most work
people here who have always shut their
eyes to anything better than could be found
in England and who have gone on year
after year eating their beef (when they
could get IT. and fuddling their brains with
beer, doing little work as they could
for their masters, who resent any intelli-
gence on the part of their employees, and
clinging to the old cry of British made
foods are the best in the world"
L nave seen great changes in English
opinion during the years l have lived in
London. 1 well remember the time when
the origin of everything American land
many American productions were used
was concealed under British name and
the very shop assistants often did not know
that the English goods they praised
came from the United States The law
compelling goods to be marked with their
place of origin changed all this and Ameri-
can commodities grew in favor as soon as
they became known. Now. of course. the
1eellng has gone very far in direction
and American articles are in great de-
mand
The last to be convinced however, even
Il he Is ever changed. is the stiff-necked
WOrkfngman, who is the most conserya tive
of all British. The Mosely report should
go far to convince him. as it is written by
his own comrades who were sent to spy out
the land across the sea. OF course, the re-
port is not a wholesale approval of Amer
lea or condemnation of Britain, but enoug h
remains to the favor Of the former to swing
the balance that way surely.
IL would not be surprising if the report
had the result of sending a good many
skilled workmen to the United States espe-
claily those who have ideas.
Three Puzzled Priests.
Three apparently puzzled foreigners were on
Westminster bridge on Primrose day. They
were priests, and, far as one could guess
their nationality, Frenchmen. They gazed
with obvious admiration on the Thames
though the tide was out and on the houses
of parliament, with their two great towers
and their innumerable pinnacles. They con-
suited their guide books to identify Lam
beth Palace, and paused critically before
the Boadlcea group-perhaps wondering
why the British warrior queen, when she
went out to repel the Roman invader at
tired herself like Greek beauty and posed
In an attitude of placid benediction. But
what most puzzled them was the bewilder-
Ing tramp and rustic of countless feet
Where were all the people coming from.
and where were they all going 20 From the
river and its surroundings, always their
eyes returned to that mystifying multitude
with Its ceaseless movement. What could
1t mean? The guide books made no men
ton Of Primrose day.
Ordinarily all these people ought to have
been going sedately home from church. or
taking a breath of fresh air in the coun-
try, or reading good literature. But they
either were going toward the Beaconsfield
statue in Parliament square or coming
away from it. The Primrose pilgrimage
had began with daylight, and not even
with shutdown would the alluring shrine be
deserted. Through the forenoon the peo-
pie OF London of all ages and conditions
mad poured into Westminster, and the pa
tient policemen in the square-with their
half-dazed eyes and their hollow mechan-
1cal cry of Move ON, please''-knew that
thousands and thousands more were COM
Ing, and that as the day wore on they
themselves would grow more and more
dizzy, looking at the ceaseless stream.
From north and south, from east and west,
they came. Every omnibus and tramcar
brought Its load, and as soon as one lot OF
people were deposited another charged the
empty vehicle for the return Journey and
the drivers cracked their primrose -decked
whips in gaiety Of heart, and the conduc-
tors cried out, Full hup! All full!''
Decorations Were Beautiful.
am not going to describe the decora tons
Of the Beaconsfield statue, which were very
similar to those seen for many years on
the 10th of April. They We're pretty and
characteristic and effective. A better dis
play might be seen any day in West End
florists windows, and nineteen people out
of twenty would pass them by without a
thought. 1t is no zeal for flowers, there
fore, that brings these thousands of people
out to stare to dandelions,' as Sydney
Smith would no doubt pleasantly have put
it, The superior person turns aside with
a do inf and n,ly col
calculation on the Carlylean basis Of the
number of people in London who clutch at
the skirts of Folly. But, deride or shut
your eyes to 1t. there it Is! Primrose day
is the great, unauthorized, spontaneous hol-
iday of the capital of the empire, and is
honored in manner that puts the superior
person and the sullen philosopher to con-
fusion
The Beaconsfeld statue is one of several
monuments to great English statesmen in
Parliament square But where is the cock
ney who throws flowers at the feet of Pal
merston, or betrays annual excess Of emo
ton on account of the great Lord Derby?
l have pictured the scene at o'clock in the
afternoon. Then the crowd was reaching
its ebb, for those who had come out in the
morning were rushing home to the Sunday
dinner and the afternoon crowd was a
thing still in prospect Even so, however,
there was a close line of people, momentar-
lily recruited passing round the rallied gar
dens with their beds Of nipped spring
ure of the triumphant mystery man" By
3 o'clock the confusing morning scene was
being enacted over again, and by pm. the
square was in state of congestion; the
footways on Westminster bridge were al
most impossible. and the fights for the
tramcars would have gladdened the heart
Of any proprietary county council. Per-
haps by that time the three French priests
had discovered Primrose day.
Brains Necessary to the Soldier.
One of the lessons Of the South African
war was that men with brains were more
valuable for fighting purposes than men
with money. The government, with view
to making it easier for poor man to ac-
cept commission in the army, has wisely
resolved to provide officers with furnished
quarters Today the mothers. the cousins
and the aunts of the officer 'in posse had
an opportunity of seeing how a paternal
government provides for him. Truth to tell,
the first impression which a view of furni-
ture gives Is one of disappointment. It
would require veritable Spartan to make
himself comfortable. although Mark Tap
ley perhaps would think it great achieve
ment to be jolly, or to persuade himself
that, he was living in the lap of luxury.
The officer has only one room, but that
will save him the trouble Of going from one
cubicle to another. This one room contains
bed Today without bedclothes), wash
ing stand, with towel rails without towels),