Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-10-22


gong on after dinner. you will See
representatives of every race seated
around the tables slipping their coffee
and beer. The Arab. the Turk the PEI
sian, the Hindu. the Egyptian, the Chi
neSe the Japanese and other repreSen-
tatlVes of other Asiatic and African
races: the Russian. the Bulgarian, the
magyar and representatives of the
strange European populations are fire.
quently met on the streets and around
the cotton exchange in their native cos
tunes. They come here to order stocks
OF goods at the mills. made of patterns
ana lengths especially adapted to the
requirements of their native markets.
ana TO have the goods packed in forms
nnost conveniently handled by the ma
I'VE means of transportation. Some
tlmes the packages have to be carried
on the backs of men: sometimes on car
dNanS OF camels: sometimes on llamaS
ana donkeys. for Manchester cotton
goes into the most remote sections of
the earth, even into the hermit king
dom and the mountains of Tibet
ne other day the Armenian residents
or Manchester held Il celebration at the
Midland Hotel to express their joy over
recent events in Turkey and to send con-
sratulations to their ellow-countrymen
at nome upon the PRONUNCIATION of the
constitution. You would have been sur
prlsed to see the number and the appear
ance or the members of this race in Man
chester. The Greeks residing here had a
similar convention, and | presume it
would be possible To get together a group
OF nearly every race mentioned in the
Gazetteer.
Car Fares Regulated by Zones.
There is a good deal of municipal own
ership in Manchester, although not as
much as at Glasgow. The city govern
ment owns all of the public utilities. in
Guiding the street car line. and Judging
from the annual reports which have been
recently presented for the last fiscal year
they are all fairly profitable The street
car line. for example. carried 1J1 All. 13S
passengers in 19O1-0S at a gross profit of
9269.O4a. or about s1.34J 600 over and
above expenses. From this must be de-
Quoted the interest upon the investment
at 4 per cent. But that leaves consider
able surplus and nearly half million dol
lars was paid into the public treasury of
the city to reduce taxation. Fares are
low and are arranged upon Il system of
distance zones averaging cents a mile.
Cab Fares Very Low.
Cab fares are lower in Manchester than
in any city l have ever been. and the
rates are painted on the outside of the
cab SO that a passenger cannot possibly
be imposed upon. An ordinary one-horse
hanson or wheeler is permitted to
charge only Is cents mile for one or
two passengers, % cents a mile for three
or four passengers, 30 cents an hour for
one or two passengers and 67h cents an
hour for four passengers. The driver eX-
poets pour bOire of a few pennies, but
is lab TO Il heavy fine or Imprisonment
if he charges more than the lawful fares. |
The city government maintains public
library. an art gallery, A museum of great
interest, an atheneum. which is a kind
of clubhouse and reading room with even
ing classes deba ting societies, clubs and
other social and educational organizations
iYr1jl IN bn A in n
LAS Oldest Circulating Library.
The library is the oldest circulating Ii
brary in Europe and probably the oldest
in the world. 1t dates from the reign of
Henry " O422), seventy years before the
discovery of America. The art gal
lery has an unusually good collection OF
pictures and the museum Is fine build
ing, we'll filled with natural history, arcn-
Biological and chronological specimens.
Manchester also supports university
with about loo students and eighty pro-
fessors. with faculties of arts, science,
law and medicine, which was rounded IN
1874 and receives an annual grant from
the city. There are several technical
schools, especially intended for the train
ing of machinists and cotton mill men,
numerous parks and other pubic places
for the amusement and physical develop
ment of the people, gymnaSlumS, SWIM
ming pools, free bathhouse, athletic
grounds etc There are several hospitals
of a very high class. and asylums for the
Door and the sick. Orchestral and vocal
concerts are given regularly under the
auspices of the municipality, for which a
nominal admission fee is charged, and
paternalism is carried to an extreme
Home of Cooperative Trading.
Cooperative trading is the fashion here.
the town of Rochdale, where co-opera-
tive stores were invented in 1874, being
one of the suburbs of Manchester. Roch-
dale has about $1,000 Inhabitants, with
more than a hundred mills. 1t produces
more cotton flannel than any other town.
John Bright lived at ROchdale and was
| buried there in 1889. The original CO.
operative society, known as the Equlta-
BILE Pioneer which was organized by
| twenty-eight weavers, with capital of
less than 500, is still doing business
with a membership of 11.344 and capt.
tai of nearly $2.0OOOOO.
The biggest cooperative organization in
the world, known as the 'Wholesale So
ciety, Limited. has its headquarters at.
Manchester, with 1,139 branches. MEM
bership of 100000, and sales amounting
to more than s10O.0OO,OOO year. Last
year the profits were more than $S,OOO,OOO.
1t carries on the business of merchant,
manufacturer, banker. steamship COM
pany, farmer and stockbreeder. and has
agencies and buyers in nearly every coun-
try or Europe ana III lnuld, SeyIoii, -AuS-
tralia. Canada and the United States.
Since it's organization forty-four years
ago the Wholesale Society has done buSi-
ness aggregating f333. 7S5,025. or about
81 ,56S, go. OOO and has distributed 95.2
1T, or more than 100000, among its
shareholders.
Immense Business Conducted.
1t is managed by committee of thirty
two members, elected by ballot, and they
in turn select the managers and superin-
tendentS There are more than 1000 |