ARTISAN LIFE IN BIRMINGHAM.

Otago Witness, Issue 2612, 6 April 1904, Page 66

ARTISAN LIFE IN BIRMINGHAM.

By a Birmingham Max.

A cynic once said in hir wrath that Birmingham consisted of "two decent streets and an "aggregation of slums"' ; but the observation was rather witty than just. Yet it must be confessed that Birmingham is nofc particularly notable for spacious streets and stately buildings ; but then Birmingham is a great, manufacturing centre ; she makes no pretensions- to beauty. From the centre of the city it_ is hardly possible to walk in any direction for five minutes without the eye resting on some tall, sooty-topp-ad factory chimney. The Birmingham slums, too, where thousands of her artisan families find 1 shelter, are extensive, and by no means creditable to the reputation, of "the best-governed city in the world."

— Artisan Life. —

The manufactures of Birmingham embrace almost every article in the metal line, from the pen. and cheap trinket to the costly dinner service, from the cheap mechanical toy to the latest types of steam and gas engines ; and her artisans range from the papier-mache "worker to that latest recruit in the industrial army, the electrician. The conditions of artisan life in Birmingham, as elsewhere, have greatly changed during~the last century, cr even half-century. Most of the processes in every trade are now mechanical. This, of course, results in ai reduction of the cost of production ; but it also entails a lack of individuality in the work ; while the artisan, the old hand-worker of former days, who usually had his own little shop, has in most cases degenerated into little more than a machine tender. Still, machinery is a necessity of -the age, and one can realise the superiority of the machine to hand labour in such an instance as when, standing in one of the great forges, we watch the ponderous steam hammer pounding, banging, and thumping a huge mass of white-hot, glowing steel, while the ground trembles beneath our feet at every blow. Our admiration is increased when we observe 4hat the mighty engine is controlled by a youth, who, grasping a small lever, can by slight movements of his none too brawny arm compel the powerful but obedient giant to strike blows that would shiver the hardest rock, or to lightly pat a walnut without breaking the shell. — The Mecca of Reformers. — In these days of big combines; the small employer, wlio in the past worked with or personally superintended his men, knew them all by name, and felt a personal interest in their welfare, has given place to the limited -company, with directors, shareholders, and a works manager, under whom the employees are merely so many "hands," to be increased or reduced in number as the exigencies of trade demand. Under these large companies the work is specialised and divided into sections and sub-sections, with foremen and heads of departments, whose main concern with the workmen is to see that not less than a stated quantity of finished work of a certain standard of quality is turned Cut. Certainly we have a few employers of the old type, who manifest an interest in their workers beyond the mere payment of wages — the "cash-nexus," as Oariyle termed it. A wellknown firm of cocoa manufacturers are employers of this class. The physical and mental welfare of their employees is catered for by the provision of a library, institute, cricket and football ground, etc. The firm has- also built cottages on healthy and artistic lines for their married workmen, so that Bournville, as the pretty village which has sprung up round the cocoa factory is named, has become almost the Mecca of housing reformers.

— The Factory Girl. —

A circumstance that would surprise a visitor unacquainted "with modern industrial conditions is the large number of women and girls engaged' in factory work in Birmingham. They are employed in the jewellery, pen, bedstead, screw, furniture, and cycle factories ; . in fact A there is hardly a trade in Birmingham and' district in which women are not engaged. Between the hours of 7 and 9 a.m. there is a constant stream of women and girls flowing from the working-class districts to the great factories around the centre of the town : girls who have lately left school, and young, unmarried women, irresponsibly chattering and laughing, exchanging badinage with passing omnibus drivers and tram conductors; the young married woman, not yet chained, to her home by the care of children, and the middle-aged', careworn woman who is compelled to -work to maintain a, fatherless family, or by her own earnings to eke out the insufficient income of her husband. On they pass — some welldressed and some poorly clad ; some rosy and noisy, and others pale and quiet — and disappear into the huge, unlovely buildings, which have stood silent and grim during tlie <>aiiy hours of the morning, but which now begin to be stirred by the bustle and hum of industry. In the outlying districts

many of the factories" start work at 6 a.m. — an unconscionably early hour for women, young or old. — M. 'A. P.