MASTERS AND MEN.
"The sweat of industry would dry, and die,
But for the end it workrt to." _Shakspeare_.
"Man is a shop of rules, a well-trussed pack,
Whose every parcel underwrites a law,"--_George Herbert_.
"Care preserves what Industry gains. He who attends to his business
diligently but _not_ carefully, throws away with one hand what he
gathers with the other."--_Colton_.
"The acquisition of property, the accumulation of capital, is already in
the power of the better-paid working class; and legislation has but few
further facilities to give, or obstacles to remove. Their savings are
now so large that only soberer habits and rounder sense are needed to
make them independent capitalists in less than half a lifetime."--_W.R.
Greg_.
Employers can do a great deal towards promoting habits of thrift,
prudence, and sobriety amongst their workpeople. Though the working man
does not like to be patronized, he has no objections to be helped. We
have already seen that individuals can do much; they can cultivate
habits of economy, and lay by a certain portion of their earnings for
help in time of need. But they want encouragement and assistance. They
want sympathy; they want help.
If masters fully understood the immense amount of influence which they
possess, they would extend their sympathy and confidence to their
workmen,--which Would cost them so very little, and profit them so very
much. We know of no instance where an employer has displayed a concern
for the social well-being and improvement of his workmen, in which he
has not been repaid by their increased respect and zeal on his behalf.
He may, for instance, arrange that wages shall not be paid so as to
drive them into the market late on Saturday nights, when they are often
under the necessity of making their weekly purchases at a great
disadvantage. Of course, workmen who possess a little store of savings,
might make their purchases at greater advantage at any other time. The
employer might also avoid paying wages in public-houses, and thus keep
his workmen out of the way of incurring an expenditure upon drink, that
might prove so hurtful.
But masters can do more than this. They can actively aid their workmen
in the formation of prudent habits, by establishing savings banks for
men and women, and penny banks for boys and girls; by encouraging the
formation of provident clubs and building societies, of provision and
clothing clubs, and in many other ways. They might also distribute among
them, without any officious interference, good counsel as to the manner
in which they might make the best use of their wages. Many large
employers have already accomplished much practical good, by encouraging
the formation of provident institutions,--in which they have never
failed to secure the respect, and generally the co-operation, of their
workmen.
At the same time there is much want of sympathy between masters and men.
In fact, want of sympathy pervades all classes--the poorer, the working,
the middle, and the upper classes. There are many social gaps between
them, which cannot yet be crossed, which cannot yet be united. "If I
were to be asked," said Judge Talfourd, on whom Death was at the moment
laying his hand, "what is the great want of English society--to mingle
class with class--I would say, in one word, the want is _the want of
sympathy_." A great truth, but not yet appreciated. It is the old truth,
on which Christianity is based, of "Love one another"--simple saying,
but containing within it a gospel sufficient to renovate the world. But
where men are so split and divided into classes, and are so far removed
that they can scarcely be said to know one another, they cannot have a
due social regard and consideration, much less a genuine sympathy and
affection, for each other?
Charity cannot remedy the evil. Giving money, blankets, coals, and
such-like, to the poor--where the spirit of sympathy is wanting,--does
not amount to much. The charity of most of the Lord and Lady Bountifuls
begins with money, and ends there. The fellow-feeling is absent. The
poor are not dealt with as if they belonged to the same common family of
man, or as if the same human heart beat in their breasts.
Masters and servants live in the same unsympathetic state. "Each for
himself" is their motto. "I don't care who sinks, so that I swim." A man
at an inn was roused from his slumber; "There is a fire at the bottom of
the street," said the waiter. "Don't disturb _me_" said the traveller,
"until the next house is burning." An employer said to his hands, "You
try to get all you can out of me; and I try to get all I can out of
you." But this will never do. The man who has any sympathy in him cannot
allow such considerations to overrule his better nature. He must see the
brighter side of humanity ever turned towards him. "Always to think the
worst," said Lord Bolingbroke, "I have ever found the mark of a mean
spirit and a base soul."
On the other hand, the operative class consider their interests to be
quite distinct from those of the master class. They want to get as much
for their labour as possible. They want labour to be dear that they may
secure high wages. Thus, there being no mutual sympathy nor friendly
feeling between the two classes,--but only money
considerations,--collisions are frequent, and strikes occur. Both
classes--backed by their fellows determined to "fight it out," and hence
we have such destructive strikes as those of Preston, Newcastle, London,
and South Wales.
The great end of both is gain, worldly gain, which sometimes involves a
terrible final loss. A general suspicion of each other spreads, and
society becomes cankered to the core. The remedy is only to be found in
the cherishment of a larger Christian sympathy and more genuine
benevolence. Thus only can the breath of society be sweetened and
purified. Money gifts avail nothing, as between rich and poor. Unless
there is a soul of goodness, and a real human fellowship between them,
the mischief and the curse which the excellent Judge Talfourd lamented
with his dying breath will never be overcome.
Some allege that this want of sympathy arises, for the most part, from
the evils of Competition. It is "heartless," "selfish," "mischievous,"
"ruinous," and so on. It is said to produce misery and poverty to the
million. It is charged with lowering prices, or almost in the same
breath with raising them. Competition has a broad back, and can bear any
amount of burdens.
And yet there is something to be said for competition, as well as
against it. It is a struggle,--that must be admitted. All life is a
struggle. Amongst workmen, competition is a struggle to advance towards
higher wages. Amongst masters, to make the highest profits. Amongst
writers, preachers, and politicians, it is a straggle to succeed,--to
gain glory, reputation, or income. Like everything human, it has a
mixture of evil in it. If one man prospers more than others, or if some
classes of men prosper more than others, they leave other classes of men
behind them. Not that they leave those others worse, but that they
themselves advance.
Put a stop to competition, and you merely check the progress of
individuals and of classes. You preserve a dead uniform level. You
stereotype society, and its several orders and conditions. The motive
for emulation is taken away, and Caste, with all its mischiefs, is
perpetuated. Stop competition, and you stop the struggle of
individualism. You also stop the advancement of individualism, and
through that of society at large.
Under competition, the lazy man is put under the necessity of exerting
himself; and if he will not exert himself, he must fall behind. If he do
not work, neither shall he eat. My lazy friend, you must not look to me
to do my share of the world's work, and yours too! You must do your own
fair share of work, save your own money, and not look to me and to
others to keep you out of the poor-house. There is enough for all; but
do your own share of work you must.
Success grows out of struggles to overcome difficulties. If there were
no difficulties, there would be no success. If there were nothing to
struggle or compete for, there would be nothing achieved. It is well,
therefore, that men should be under the necessity of exerting
themselves. In this necessity for exertion, we find the chief source of
human advancement--the advancement of individuals as of nations. It has
led to most of the splendid mechanical inventions and improvements of
the age. It has stimulated the shipbuilder, the merchant, the
manufacturer, the machinist, the tradesman, the skilled workman. In all
departments of productive industry, it has been the moving power. Is has
developed the resources of this and of other countries,--the resources
of the soil, and the character and qualities of the men who dwell upon
it. It seems to be absolutely necessary for the purpose of stimulating
the growth and culture of every individual. It is deeply rooted in man,
leading him ever to seek after, and endeavour to realize, something
better and higher than he has yet attained.
Of course, man is much more than a competing being. That is only one of
his characteristics, and not the highest or noblest. He has
sensibilities, sympathies, and aspirations, which should induce him to
unite and cooperate with others in works for the common good. With
unfettered individualism, there may, and there ought to be, beneficent
cooperation for the general happiness. Men may unite to labour, to
produce, and to share with each other the fruits of their corporate
industry. But under any circumstances, there will be the instinct of
competition, the opportunities for competition, and, though mixed with
necessary evil, there will be the ultimate advantages of competition.
One of the results of industry and thrift is the accumulation of
Capital. Capital represents the self-denial, the providence, and the
enterprise of the past. The most successful accumulators of capital have
in all times risen from the ranks of labour itself; they are working men
who have shot ahead of their fellows, and who now give employment
instead of receiving it. These persons,--who are not the less working
men because they have ceased to be manual labourers,--by creating and
extending the sphere of productive industry, must be regarded as amongst
the most effective benefactors of the people, as they unquestionably are
among the principal sources of the power and wealth of any nation.
Without the capital accumulated by their thrift during many generations,
the lot of the artizan would be most precarious.
There is not a mechanic but has the use of the money of the master who
employs him. When the unskilled labourer lays down his spade, he leaves
idle a capital worth eighteen-pence; but when a skilled artizan or
mechanic leaves his mill or his workshop, he leaves idle a capital of
from a hundred to two hundred pounds per man. Nor does the skilled
workman run any risk whatever as regards the sums invested, though he
virtually shares the profits in the shape of the wages paid for his
labour. The profit which remains is the master's return for his
management and his risks. It is well known, however, that the risks are
not always covered, as the _Gazette_ in bad times abundantly
demonstrates.
The workman in good employment is not liable to losses by bad debts; he
has no obsolete machinery from time to time left useless on his hands;
and he has no anxiety about finding a market for his goods, nor fears
respecting fluctuations in the price of the raw material. These are
important advantages in his favour, which he does not usually take into
account. It is true he suffers if trade is bad, but he earns high wages
if it be good: he can then save money if he chooses to do so. He may be
said to participate in the adversity or prosperity of his firm, but
without incurring any of the liabilities of partnership.
Mr. Carlyle has given a curious account of the great English
manufacturer. "Plugson, of St. Dolly Undershot, buccaneer-like, says to
his men, 'Noble spinners, this is the hundred thousand we have gained,
wherein I mean to dwell and plant my vineyards. The hundred thousand is
mine, the three-and-sixpence daily was yours. Adieu, noble spinners!
drink my health with this groat each, which I give you over and above!'"
This account of the manufacturing buccaneer is a picture drawn by a man
of genius from his imagination. There are probably many readers who
believe the picture to be drawn from fact. There may, of course, be
masters who are buccaneers; but there are also masters who are not
buccaneers. There are dishonest manufacturers, as there are dishonest
literary men, dishonest publicans, dishonest tradesmen. But we must
believe that in all occupations honesty is the rule, and dishonesty the
exception. At all events, it is better that we should know what the
manufacturers really are,--from fact rather than from fiction.
Let us first take a large manufacturing firm, or rather series of firms,
well known in South Lancashire. We mean the cotton-spinning mills of the
Messrs. Ashworth at Egerton and New Eagley. They have been in existence
for more than seventy years. They have been repeatedly enlarged, and
increasing numbers of workpeople have been employed at the uniform wages
paid throughout the district. Workmen earn from seventeen shillings to
two pounds a week. Women-weavers can earn as much as twenty-one
shillings a week. Where the parents have children, the united earnings
of families amount to as much as from £150 to £200 a year.
Then, as to what the Ashworths have done for the benefit of their
workpeople. Schooling, by means of mutual instruction classes, was in
operation from the first; but about the year 1825, when the works were
greatly enlarged, and the population was considerably increased, a day
school was opened for children, which was used as an evening school for
young men, as well as for a Sunday-school. The continued extension of
the works led to an enlargement of the school accommodation; and while
this was being provided, arrangements were made for a news-room,
library, and for the performance of divine worship on Sundays. A
cricket-ground was also provided for the use of young people.
Misgivings were not unfrequently expressed that the zeal and expenditure
incurred by the Messrs. Ashworth might one day be turned against them,
to their annoyance and pecuniary loss. The prediction was realized in
only a single instance. A young man of considerable talent, who when a
child had been removed to the factory from a neighbouring workhouse,
made very rapid progress at school, especially in arithmetic; and when a
strike of the workpeople occurred in 1830, one of the great strike
years, he became very officious as a leader. The strike was defeated by
the employment of new hands, and it was attributed to the influence of
this young man that the employed were brutally assailed by an infuriated
mob, and that the windows of the schoolroom were smashed, and other
works of destruction committed.
The employers, nevertheless, pursued their original design. They
repaired the school-house, and endeavoured to increase the efficacy of
the teaching. They believed that nothing was better calculated to remove
ignorant infatuation than increased schooling. In a great many
instances, the heads of the families had previously been engaged as
hand-loom weavers, or in some pastoral pursuit; and it became evident
that in course of time the exercise of their minds in the details of a
new pursuit awakened their intelligence, and their general demeanour
indicated marks of a higher cultivation.
The New Eagley Mills being situated in a narrow valley, several miles
from Bolton, and the property being in the possession of the owners,
they forbade the opening of any tavern or beerhouse on the estate; so
that the district became distinguished for the order and sobriety of the
inhabitants. A man of intemperate habits has little chance of remaining
in the Ashworth villages. He is expelled, not by the employers, but by
the men themselves. He must conform to the sober habits of the place, or
decamp to some larger town, where his vices may be hidden in the crowd.
Many of the parents have expressed how much gratification they have
felt, that by reason of the isolated situation they enjoyed as a
community, they had become so completely separated from the corrupt
influences of music saloons and drink-shops.
The masters have added to their other obligations to the workpeople, the
erection of comfortable cottages for their accommodation. They are built
of stone, and are two-storied; some have two upper bedrooms, and others
have three. On the ground floor there is a sitting-room, a living-room,
and a scullery, with a walled courtyard enclosing the whole premises.
The proprietor pays the poor-rates and other local charges, and the
rentals of the houses vary from 2_s_. 4_d_. to 4_s_. 3_d_. a week.
The regularity of their employment, accompanied with the payment of
wages on Friday night, doubtless promoted their local attachment to the
place. Many of the descendants of the first comers remain on the spot;
their social relations have been promoted; intermarriages have been
frequent; and during the whole period there has not been a single
prosecution for theft. The working people have also thriven as well as
their masters. Great numbers of them are known to possess reserved funds
in savings banks and other depositories for savings; and there are
others of them who have invested their money in cottage buildings, and
in various other ways.
But have not the men risen above their lot of labouring spinners? They
have. Such of them as possessed skill, ability, and the faculty of
organization, have been promoted from the ranks of labourers, and have
become mill managers. "About _thirty_ of these," says Mr. Henry
Ashworth, "have been reckoned on the spur of the moment, and _ten_ of
them have become business partners or proprietors of mills.... Many
manufacturers," adds Mr. Ashworth, "are to be found who have done a
great deal to ameliorate the condition of those they have employed; and
no one will doubt that they have been prompted, not by hopes of gain,
but by emotions of goodwill."[1]
[Footnote 1: The greater part of the above information is contained in
the statement by Mr. Henry Ashworth, in the Reports on the Paris
Universal Exhibition, 1867, vol. vi., pp. 161-163.]
Manufacturers such as these do not, like Plugson of St. Dolly Undershot,
gather up their fortunes and run away, leaving a groat each to their
workpeople to drink their healths. They remain with them from generation
to generation. The best and the noblest amongst them--the Ashworths of
Turton, the Strutts of Derby, the Marshalls of Leeds, the Akroyds of
Halifax, the Brooks of Huddersfield, and many others,--have continued to
superintend their works for several generations. The Strutts were the
partners of Arkwright, who was almost the beginner of English
manufacture. In fact, it is only since Arkwright took out his patent for
the spinning machine, and Watt took out his patent for the steam engine,
that England has become a manufacturing country.
Where would England have been now, but for the energy, enterprise, and
public spirit of our manufacturers? Could agriculture have supported the
continuous increase of population? Is it not more probable that this
country would have become overrun by beggars,--or that property would
have been assailed and the constitution upset, as was the case in
France,--but for the extensive and remunerative employment afforded to
the labouring classes in the manufacturing districts? The steam engine
has indeed proved the safety-valve of England. It enabled the kingdom to
hold its ground firmly during the continental wars; and but for it, and
the industries which it has established, England would probably by this
time have sunk to the condition of a third or fourth-rate power.
It is true, the great manufacturers have become wealthy. But it would
certainly have been singular if, with their industry, energy, and powers
of organization, they had become poor! Men of the stamp of the Strutts,
Ashworths, Marshalls, and others, do not work for wealth merely, though
wealth comes to them. They have not become great because they were rich,
but they have become rich because they were great. Accumulations of
wealth are the result of exceptional industry, organization, and thrift,
rather than of exceptional gain. Adam Smith has said: "It seldom happens
that great fortunes are made by any one regularly-established and
well-known branch of business, but in consequence of a long life of
industry, frugality, and attention."
But it is not always so. For instance, Mr. Lister, of Bradford, after
inventing the combing machine,--or at least combining the inventions of
others into a complete combing machine of his own,--proceeded to invent
a machine for using up silk waste (then cast away as useless), spinning
it into silk of the finest kind, and by means of the power-loom to weave
it into velvet of the best quality. The attempt had never before been
made by any inventor; and it seemed to be of insuperable difficulty. Mr.
Lister had already made a fortune by the success of his combing machine,
such as to enable him to retire from business, and live in comfort for
the rest of his life. But, urged by the irrepressible spirit of the
inventor, he went onward with his silk machine. As he himself said, at a
recent meeting at Bradford,[1]--"They might judge how hard he had worked
to conquer the difficulties which beset him, when he told them that for
twenty years he had never been in bed at half-past five in the morning;
in fact, he did not think there was a man in England who had worked
harder than he had." The most remarkable thing was, that he threw away
an immense fortune before there was any probability of his succeeding.
"He had almost brought himself to ruin, for he was £360,000 out of
pocket before he even made a shilling by his machine; indeed, he wrote
off a quarter of a million as entirely lost, before he began to make up
his books again. Since then, his patent for the manufacture of silk had
turned out one of the most successful of the day."
[Footnote 1: The meeting was held to receive the transfer of Mr.
Lister's fine Park at Manningham, which he had presented to the
Corporation of Bradford, "to be a People's Park for ever."]
In the Park presented by Mr. Lister to the people of Bradford, a statue
was recently erected by public subscription. It was unveiled by the
Right Hon. W.E. Forster, who, in closing his speech, observed: "I doubt,
after all, whether we are come here to do honour to Mr. Lister, so much
as to do honour to ourselves. We wish to do honour to those working
faculties which have made our country of England a practical, and
therefore a great and prosperous, and a powerful country. It is this
untiring, unresting industry which Mr. Lister possesses, this practical
understanding, this determination to carry out any object which he is
convinced ought to be carried out, and his determination to fear no
opposition and to care for no obstacle--it is these practical faculties
that have made England what she is. What is it especially that we are
honouring? It is the pluck which this man has shown; it is the feeling
that, having to do with the worsted trade, he said to himself, 'Here is
something which ought to be done; I will not rest until I have found out
how it can be done; and having found out how it can be done, where is
the man who shall stop my doing it?' Now it was upon that principle that
he fought his long struggle; and so when we read the story of his
struggles, ever since 1842, in those two great inventions, we raise this
statue to the man who has successfully fought the battle, and hope that
our sons and the sons of all, rich and poor together, will come in
after-days to admire it, not merely because it gives them the form and
features of a rich and successful man, but because it gives them the
form and features of a man who was endowed with industry, with
intellect, with energy, with courage, with perseverance,--who spared
himself no pains in first ascertaining the conditions of the problems he
had to solve,--and then whose heart never fainted, whose will never
relaxed, in determining to carry out those conditions."
Great men are wise savers and wise spenders. Montesquieu has said of
Alexander: "He found the first means of his prosperity and power in the
greatness of his genius; the second, in his frugality and private
economy; and the third, in his immense liberality to accomplish great
objects. He spent but little on himself; but for public purposes his
hand was always open." It was also said of the first Napoleon, that he
was economical like Charlemagne, because he was great like Charlemagne.
Napoleon was by no means a spendthrift, except in war; but he spent
largely in accomplishing great public undertakings. In cases such as
these, economy and generosity are well combined. And so it is in the
cases of all men possessed of energy, industry, and great powers of
organization.
It may seem out of keeping to compare great producers with great
commanders. Yet the manufacturer often requires as much courage, as much
genius, as much organizing power, as the warrior. The one considers how
he shall keep his operatives in working order; the other how he shall
keep his soldiers in fighting order. Both must be men of enterprize, of
boldness, of keen observation, and close attention to details. And the
manufacturer, from his position, needs to be the most benevolent man of
the two. Viewed in this light, we regard Sir Titus Salt not only as a
Captain of Industry, but as a Field-Marshal of Industry. He has been
called the Prince of Manufacturers.
Titus Salt is a son of a Yorkshire wool-stapler. In the early part of
his life he was a farmer near Bradford, and his inclination for
agricultural pursuits was such, that it was thought he would continue to
pursue this vocation. Being, however, a partner with his father in the
wool business, and observing that manufactures were rapidly extending in
the neighbourhood, he withdrew from the partnership, and commenced
business at Bradford as a wool-spinner. He was one of the first to
observe the uses of Alpaca wool. Large quantities of that material were
stored at Liverpool,--imported from the Brazils. But the wool found no
purchasers, until at length Mr. Salt bought a quantity, and spun it into
an entirely new fabric. He then proceeded to buy up all the Alpaca that
was to be found at Liverpool; made arrangements for purchasing all that
came into the market; went on spinning Alpaca; and eventually
established the manufacture. This was the foundation of Mr. Salt's
fortune.
At length, after about twenty years' labour as a manufacturer, Mr. Salt
thought of retiring from business, and again betaking himself to his
favourite agricultural pursuits. He intended to retire on his fiftieth
birthday, but before that time had arrived (having five sons to provide
for) he reversed his decision, and resolved to continue in business a
little longer, and to remain at the head of the firm. Having come to
this determination, he made up his mind to leave Bradford. The borough
was already overcrowded, and he did not like to be a party to increasing
the population. He looked about for a site suitable for a manufacturing
establishment, and at length fixed upon a large piece of ground in the
beautiful valley of the Aire. An extension of the Leeds and Bradford
Railway was in front, and the Leeds and Liverpool Canal behind it, so
that there was every convenience for bringing up the raw materials, and
of sending away the manufactured goods. On that spot Saltaire was
erected--a noble monument of private enterprise, liberality, and wisdom.
It is not necessary to describe Saltaire. The buildings connected with
the new works cover six and a half acres. The principal room is five
hundred and fifty feet long. The weaving shed covers two acres. The
combing shed occupies one acre. Everything is large, roomy, and
substantial. The cost of constructing the factory, and the dwellings for
the workpeople, amounted to more than a hundred and forty thousand
pounds.
On the opening day, Mr. Salt dined three thousand five hundred persons
in the combing shed. At the dinner, he said: "I cannot look around me,
and see this vast assemblage of friends and workpeople, without being
moved. I feel greatly honoured by the presence of the nobleman at my
side. I am especially delighted at the presence of my workpeople.... I
hope to draw around me a population that will enjoy the beauties of this
neighbourhood,--a population of well-paid, contented, happy operatives.
I have given instructions to my architects that nothing is to be spared
to render the dwellings of the operatives a pattern to the country; and
if my life is spared by Divine Providence, I hope to see satisfaction,
contentment, and happiness around me."
This promise has been amply fulfilled. Mr. Salt has been influenced
throughout by his sense of duty and responsibility. When he was applied
to by the French Government for information as to his factory, he
replied: "What has been attempted at Saltaire arose from my own private
feeling and judgment, without the most remote idea that it would be made
the subject of public interest and inquiry." With respect to the factory
itself, little need be said. The object of its construction is to save
time in the process of production. Not a minute is lost in pushing the
material from one department to another. Every horse-power of steam is
made to do its utmost, every moment of time is economized, and the
productive capabilities of the factory are thus greatly increased.
We prefer to speak of the immense improvement which Mr. Salt, or rather
Sir Titus Salt, has effected in the physical and moral condition of his
workpeople. The plan of the works shows that Saltaire has been provided
with a church, a Wesleyan chapel, and a Literary and Philosophical
Institution. Large schools have been provided for boys, girls, and
infants, with abundance of play-ground. For young men as well as old,
there is a cricket-ground, bowling-green, and croquet-lawn, surrounded
by pleasure-grounds. There is also a large dining-hall, baths and
washhouses, a dispensary, and almshouses for pensioners.
About three thousand persons are employed in the works; and seven
hundred and fifty-six houses have been erected for their accommodation.
The rents run from two and fourpence to seven and sixpence a week,
according to the accommodation. Some of the houses are used as
boarding-houses. The rents include rates and water supply, and gas is
sold at a low price. The cottages are built of stone, lined with
brickwork. They contain a parlour or long room, a kitchen or scullery, a
pantry and cellar, and three bedrooms. Each house has a separate yard,
with the usual offices. The workpeople are well able to pay the rents.
Single workmen earn from twenty-four to thirty-five shillings a week. A
family, consisting of a father and six children, earn four pounds four
shillings a week, or equal to a united income of over two hundred and
twenty pounds a year.
The comfortable houses provided for the workpeople have awakened in them
that home feeling which has led them to decorate their dwellings neatly
and tastefully,--a sure sign of social happiness. Every visitor among
the poor knows how such things combine to prevent vice and disease, to
elevate the moral tone of working people, and to develope their
intellectual powers. A man in a dirty house, says Mr. Rhind, the medical
attendant at Saltaire, is like a beggar in miserable clothing. He soon
ceases to have self-respect, and when that is gone there is but little
hope.
Great attention is paid in Saltaire to education, even of the higher
sort. There are day schools, night schools, mutual improvement classes,
lectures, and discussions. Music--one of the most humanizing of
pleasures--is one of the most favourite studies. "In almost every house
in the town some form of musical instrument is found; and indeed, the
choral and glee societies, together with the bands, have become
household names." There is one full brass band for men, and another
drum-and-fife band for boys; and concerts, vocal and instrumental, are
regularly given by the workpeople in the dining-hall. The bands have
instructors provided by the firm.
Besides taking part in the musical performances, a large number of the
skilled workmen devote their leisure hours to various scientific
amusements,--such as natural history, taxidermy, the making of
philosophical instruments, such as air-pumps, models of working
machinery, steam-engines, and articles of domestic comfort,--while some
have even manufactured organs and other musical instruments.
There is no drinking-house in Saltaire, so that the vices and diseases
associated with drunkenness are excluded from the locality. The diseases
peculiar to poverty are also unknown in Saltaire. Everything is attended
to--drainage, cleansing, and ventilation. There are baths of all
kinds--plunge baths, warm baths, Turkish baths, and douche baths; and
the wash-house, to enable the women to wash their clothes away from
their cottages, is a great accommodation,--inasmuch as indoor washing is
most pernicious, and a fruitful source of disease, especially to the
young.
The workpeople are also thrifty. They invest their savings in the Penny
Bank and Saving's Bank; whilst others invest in various building
societies, gas companies, and other lucrative undertakings. In fact,
they seem to be among the most favoured of human beings. With every
convenience and necessity, as well as every proper pleasure provided for
them,--with comfortable homes, and every inducement to stay at
home,--with fishing clubs, boating clubs, and cricket clubs,--with
schoolrooms, literary institutions, lecture-hall, museum, and
class-rooms, established in their midst; and to crown all, with a
beautiful temple for the worship of God,--there is no wonder that
Saltaire has obtained a name, and that Sir Titus Salt has established a
reputation among his fellow-men.
There are large numbers of employers who treat their workpeople quite as
generously, though not in such a princely manner, as Sir Titus Salt.
They pay the uniform rate of wages; help and encourage the employed to
economize their surplus earnings; establish Savings Banks and Penny
Banks for their use; assist them in the formation of co-operative
associations for the purchase of pure food at a cheaper rate; build
healthy cottages for their accommodation; erect schools for the
education of their children; and assist them in every method that is
calculated to promote their moral and, social improvement.
Mr. Edward Akroyd, formerly M.P. for Halifax, is another manufacturer
who has exercised great influence throughout Yorkshire, by his
encouragement of habits of thrift amongst working people. In his own
district, at Copley and Haley Hill, near Halifax, he has built numerous
excellent cottages for his workmen, and encouraged them to build their
own houses by investing their spare earnings in building clubs. He has
established co-operative clubs, to enable the men to purchase food and
clothing at cost price. He has built excellent schools at his own
expense, and provided them with a paid staff of teachers. He has built
and endowed the very fine church of "All Souls" (Sir Gilbert Scott,
architect), to which a large district, inclusive of the works, has been
assigned. He has provided for his workpeople, both at Haley Hill and
Copley, a Literary and Scientific Society, a Mutual Improvement Society,
a Working Men's Library (to which he has presented more than five
thousand books), a Working Men's Club and Newsroom, a Choral Society,
supplied with an excellent library of music; a Recreation Club, provided
with a bowling green; and a cricket ground, with quoits, and gymnastic
apparatus, Mr. Akroyd has also allotted a large field to his workmen,
dividing it into small gardens varying from a hundred to two hundred and
forty square yards each. The small rent charged for each plot is
distributed in prizes given at an annual flower-show held in his
grounds, for the best growers of flowers, plants, and vegetables. Hence
the Haley Hill Horticultural and Floral Society, one of the most
thriving institutions of the kind in the neighbourhood. In short, Mr.
Akroyd has done everything that a wise and conscientious master could
have done, for the purpose of promoting the moral and spiritual welfare
of the four thousand persons employed in his manufactories, who have
been virtually committed to his charge.
But although Mr. Akroyd has done so much as a master for the men and
women employed by him, he has perhaps done still more as a public
benefactor by establishing the Yorkshire Penny Bank for Savings. As
early as the year 1852, Mr. Akroyd instituted a Savings Bank to enable
his workpeople to deposit sums of from one penny upwards. The system was
found to work so well, and to have such a beneficial effect in making
people provident, that he conceived the idea of extending its operations
throughout the West Riding of Yorkshire. Having obtained the
co-operation of several influential gentlemen, the scheme was started in
1856, and an Act of Parliament was obtained for constituting the
Yorkshire Penny Savings Bank as it now exists.
Mr. Akroyd has recently furnished an Introduction to the narrative of
the Yorkshire Penny Bank, from which we extract the following passage:--
"The way by which thoughts, or chance suggestions, enter into the minds
of men, is sometimes passing strange! They may be the offspring of
wayward fancy; or they may be the whisperings from a higher source. To
the latter cause I am willing to attribute the idea which flashed across
my mind during the present year to give to the public something beyond
the bare outline of the scheme, in which, for years, many of them have
taken a warm personal interest.
"It occurred in this wise. When in town, I occasionally attended, during
Lent, the services at Whitehall Chapel, for the sake of hearing a Lenten
sermon preached by one of Her Majesty's chaplains. One remarkable sermon
of the series was delivered by the Rev. Charles Kingsley, on the 12th of
March, on behalf of the Supplemental Ladies' Association of the London
Society of Parochial Mission Women. In the sketch which the preacher
gave of this excellent institution, he referred to a book entitled 'East
and West,' in which the benefits derived by the London poor from the
association are clearly set forth; but he dwelt chiefly on the wide
separation which divides rich from poor, class from class, in London;
and on the dangers which threaten Society from this cause, as was
recently exemplified in France. Such was the impression made upon me by
the sermon, that, before many days had elapsed, I had purchased 'East
and West,' and given the book a careful perusal.
"From previous observation I had been struck with the sad contrast
between the luxurious lives of those who reside at the West End of
London, and the struggle for a hard, wretched existence which the
crowded poor at the East, or in close purlieus elsewhere, are obliged to
maintain until death closes the scene. How to bridge over the wide chasm
intervening between the extremes of high and low in society, without
injury to self-respect on either side, was the puzzling question, the
problem to be solved. Yet, from the admirable introduction to this most
useful little work, by the Countess Spencer, it appeared that a lady of
high rank, and her noble-minded associates, had in some measure solved
the problem, and bridged over the chasm.
"Hence I was led to reflect how much easier it is to discharge our duty
to our neighbours, and to fulfil the leading object of the Parochial
Mission Women Association, to 'help the poor to help themselves,' in
provincial towns and in the country, where we are personally acquainted
with each other, than in London, where we do not know our next-door
neighbour. _To help the poor to help themselves_ is the cardinal
principle of the Yorkshire Penny Bank."[1]
[Footnote 1 e Yorkshire Penny Bank, a Narrative; with an Introduction by
Edward Akroyd, M.P.]
The business of the bank commenced on the 1st of May, 1859. At the end
of the year, when the bank had been in operation seven months,
twenty-four branches had been opened. It went on increasing in the
number of branches and depositors, and in the amounts deposited. In
1874, about two hundred and fifty branches had been established, and the
amount of investments in the names of trustees had reached nearly four
hundred thousand pounds.
The Yorkshire Penny Bank does not interfere with the Post Office Savings
Bank. It has a special function, that of teaching the young of either
sex _the habit of saving_. It is also convenient to the adult worker as
a convenient receptacle for his savings. Many have been induced to save,
in consequence of the banks having been brought almost to their very
doors. One of the most remarkable facts connected with the history of
Penny Banks is the sympathetic influence of juvenile thrift upon
paternal recklessness and intemperance. The fact is well worthy the
consideration of Temperance advocates, who would probably effect much
greater practical good by enabling working people to save their money in
the Penny Banks, than by any speech-making agency. Take, for instance,
the following illustrations from Mr. Akroyd's narrative:--
An actuary says: "All the juvenile depositors seem inclined to take care
of their pence by depositing them in the bank; and the grown-up people
have become of the same turn of mind,--rather than carry their loose
money to the public-house, or spend it foolishly. Some factory
operatives have saved sufficient to buy stock and commence farming."
Another actuary says: "A drunken father being shamed out of his
drunkenness by the deposits of his children, now deposits half-a-crown a
week in the bank. A notoriously bad man, a collier, became a regular
depositor himself, as well as depositing money in the name of his child;
all his spare money having previously been spent in drink. From the date
of his beginning to save, a perceptible improvement took place in his
conduct and character. In another case, two boys prevailed upon their
father, also a collier, to allow them to deposit a shilling a week,
until they had saved sufficient to buy themselves each a suit of new
clothes. Before then, all their father's earnings, as well as their own,
had been spent in drink."
An actuary of another branch says he has seen fathers and mothers, who
have been drunkards, send their children with money to the bank, He
says: "My heart was made to rejoice when I saw a boy, who never had a
suit of new clothes in his life, draw out his money, and in less than
two hours return well clad, to take his place in the school to practise
singing for Good Friday. At the meeting of the Band of Hope on Good
Friday, he asked the parents and children to signify by holding up their
hands whether or not the bank had been beneficial to them; when many
hands were instantly raised,--one poor mother exclaiming, 'I will put up
both my hands for my two bairns!'"
"A miner, the father of a family, reclaimed from drunkenness, saved his
money in the bank until, with the aid of a loan from a building society,
he built two houses at a cost of four hundred pounds. The bank has been
to many people what the hive is to the bee--a kind of repository; and
when the wintry days of sickness or adversity befall them, they have
then the bank to flee to for succour."
A missionary says: "I met a man and his wife about two years ago--both
drunk. I got them to sign the pledge, and since then to invest their
money in our bank. The pawnbroker had got the greater part of their
goods; but I am happy to say that they have got all the articles out of
pawn, and can bring a little money almost every week to the bank; and
when putting in the money, the man says that it is better than taking it
to the public-house. Their home is now a very comfortable one."
A drunkard one night came to the bank, and flinging down a shilling for
a start, said, "There! that is the price of six pints of beer; but I
promise the landlords that they shan't have as much of my money as they
have had." This man has become sober; and continues a regular depositor.
In another bank, a man who had been a reckless and desperate fellow was
induced by his wife to deposit a few coppers in the bank. He did so, and
his weekly deposits increased; while at the same time his visits to the
public-house decreased. In the course of a short time he had a
respectable balance to his credit; and this induced him to take a share
in a building society, and then a second share. After continuing to pay
upon these shares for some time, he purchased a piece of land, upon
which he built two houses. One of these he occupies himself, and the
other he lets. Besides this, he is now a respectable tradesman, having
two or three journeymen and an apprentice working for him. He is sober
and steady, and much respected by his friends and neighbours.
Many other cases of the same kind might be mentioned. In one case a boy
saved sufficient money to buy a suit of clothes for his father, who had
spent all his earnings in drink, and reduced himself and his family to
poverty; in other cases, sons and daughters maintain their infirm
parents without resorting to the parochial Board for assistance. Some
save for one thing; some for another. Some save to emigrate; some to buy
clothes; some to buy a watch; but in all cases frugality is trained,
until saving becomes habitual.
One of the Yorkshire actuaries of the Penny Bank tells the following
anecdote as conveying a lesson of perseverance and encouragement to
branch managers. "Mr. Smith was one of our first managers, but after
attending two or three times he left us, saying it was 'childish work.'
My answer was, 'It is with children we have to do.' A short time after,
I met him, and in the course of conversation I observed that I sometimes
got _down in the mouth_, and did not know whether we were doing any
good, and felt disposed to give up the bank; on which he warmly replied,
'For God's sake, you must not let such an idea get into your head; you
little know the good you are doing; we have not a man about our place
but either himself or some members of his family are depositors.'" The
actuary adds, "If Colonel Akroyd ever despairs, I give him the above
answer."
Savings banks have thus been the means of doing an immense amount of
good. They have brought peace, happiness, and comfort into many
thousands of families. The example of Mr. Akroyd should be largely
imitated, and there ought not to be a county in the kingdom without its
organized system of Penny Banks.