"AT THE WORKS."

Timaru Herald, Volume XC, Issue 13316, 19 June 1907, Page 2

"AT THE WORKS."

AND OTHER WORXs. The following review, by Hubert island, of a recently published work by Lady 'BclJ —.(Mrs. Hugh Bell) —indicates t-hiifc the authoress hah' taken up a point of view which ib not often occupied by wrujia on industrial iiubjects : The book is at once an analysis and a synthesis of life in Middleebrough, and, as eveiybody knows, who says Middlesbrough say.-f Iron Trade. But lie who" says iron tradd docs not- always know what lu means 1 when he i.ays it; and lie does not know all that lie means. He probab'y means a good deal about metal and v ;y ;ittle about men, women and childr-tn. For the future, those who have read Lady Bell's book, when tlioy hear the Iron Trade mentioned vrill think a good deal about ram. women and children, and very little about in-real. As Lady Bell says, for most of us the iron trade is " n liugh measuring-gauge of the national prosp.rity": here we lave the iron Irade " translated into ienno-of humanbeings." We ;n\: apt to take it for granted, most of us. that when a tade flourishes, men, wonun and children ilouri: h wi. h it. Some men, women and children do, of couifje, but iliry are- not nece-'-sari'v tho° men and lb; wives and children of the men. who are wagi-workers in the industry. A study of Middlesbrough has made that di>tuibing fact quite clear to Lady Bell, as she has made -it equally clear to ua iSays she in her introduction : " Wo are apt to believe that deterioration is likely to be lessened as prosperity incresxks." But «~xperic-nce does not always b:ar out this theory. It may be open to question whether what is called pro.perity is more likely to prevent deterioration or actually to promote it, whether the very { conditions, indeed, arbing 'from "good times" in commerce, the increasing numbers of workers who rush to a given place and struggle to live within a given area, do hot inevitably make for deterioration at the same time. The conditions of' prosperity are no more necessarily benefical or agreeable to the people whose work is promoting it, than the long sea voyage prescribed for the refit and enjoyment of the man who is wd!-eo-do, is nece&varily beneficial and agreeable to the stoker who is toiling and panting below. When we' are told that in a given year the iron trade. was by so maiiy millions of tons more successful than the year before, aacl that so many more thousands of people therefore found a means of livelihood, we rejoice, and rightly, over the commercial acdyity of the country. But, while we rejoice, it is well toi inquire, how uwny of these thousands ar-a actually made happy by such prosperity; how many of, the increasing number of those, through the work of whose hands thiu great output is effected, are learning in practice to know the splendid opportunities \hat life has to offer, not only for the body but for the soul." The impression left upon one from this book is Uiat- liie in Middlesbrough lias disastrously few opportunities, to offer either fcr boay or soul. It does, in most case:;, offer a swtitiency' of food, cipUiiug a:ia shelter to Iceep body and soul together, but til-re tile offer ends. I he work is hard, unp.e.ijaxit and dangerous; the food (of •Jit women and children) lacks- in quantity, and quality; this cloth as (again of the womeii ami children) are slop-made and shoddyish; the shelter is expensive and exiguous; of recreation there is none worth .aenviomng. i t is a dreary, a depressing, a lamentable life that Lady Bill here, presents to i's; a life not worth living; a life that would not bei lived were the will to live an intelligent and not a blind will. Here is a glimpse of the work on which . the prosperity of the iron trade" is) • builded : •' ' v • ' - "The p;itht)f the iron worker is literally strewn with danger, for no ho walks along, the innocent-looking fragment,, no -longer: glowing, may be a piece of hot iron of i'.hich the touch, if he stepped (upon it, is enough to cripple him; one ispiash of the molten stream may blind him ; if he. were to stumble as he walks along the edge of that tandy platform where the iron i:j bubbling and rushing into the moulds lie would never get up again." There is work in the world which is perilous but healthy; the work in the iron trade is fraught wiili peril and with illness too. lir- poisorii with gases, it chokes' with dust, it subjects the body to violent alternation? of heat-and cold; and the result iy that the workman often wakes up in the inoranig feeling not quite well. But : * " The well-to-do nun may waive up one morning, it may be, not feeling as well as usual, simply remain in bed, take his own temperature, perhaps, and telephone for-his doctor to come and see him. He is then advised to stay at home and have a day or two's rest, warmth and quiet, at the end of which he is probably well. But the workman has no telephone, and, needless to say, no thermometer . . . lie does not know where to lay his hand on :])"< doctor, and in many cases his idea. <J finding him is to wait until he casually meets him in the t'trcet. He goo> out, therefore, as usual, no matter what the weather or how he . is' feeling, in order not to less a day's pay, and when he com::; home it is not surprising if lie is worse. Then, finally the doctor is perforce called in, and his"'verdict is accepted in a helpless, bewildered manner, often without understanding it, without information, experience, or i'cn'.rance enough \o question it or to suggest anything else. And then follows an illness in which mental suffering is bound to be added to all the rest; a time in which physical discomfort and wretchedness, Iho inconvenience of having daily life interrupted, so keenly felt and complained of by the man who can afford to be idle, are intensified tenfold in the case of the workman by anxiety at his pay being stopped at a moment, when hs nesdj it mcirt." As for the food and clothing, Lady Bell goes very thoroughly into those matters. devotes several pge« to the ana vsi:", of weekly accounts cf sev.ral typical families. Here is a week's expenditure of a family of three; the wages 21s a week : R;nt, 5s 6d ; insurance, 7d; coals and coke. 2s 5 2e1; lioi;i:e, Is 3-£ d; food, 7s 7jd; clothing, Is 6d: tobacco, 9d; debt, Is; firewood, 4d. £1 Is- Oj. Even so, you see. that family is a half-penny to the bad. In contrasting the circumstances of a woman of the middle classes with those of a woman of the iron trade at the hour of child-birth. Lady Bell gives us incidentally some sort of idea of the quality of shelter th::b Ess 6d a week for rent provides: " Tin confinement often takes p'ace in th.'s room, unventilated in winter too hot in summer, because it is next to the kitchen, and with the air charged with all the impuritiey that the works send forth, constantly blowing in. In houses that have not' this extra little room on the ground floor the mother is often lying in the front one that ferve.-j as kitchen and living room. It is impossible that the house should be kept quiet; it is too accessible to noise fiom outside, and it is ra small that every sound inside it ia heard." 'lh.i valuable-, let me say the invaluable, quality of Lady Bell's work is in the spirit in which it is undertaken, a spirit of sympathetic detachment. The book is like "Paradise Lc-.;t," in this, that it provesnothing; or at any rate that it seeks to, prove nothing. Lady Bell is not a fddist, she is not even a theorist. She has set hj: rself just- to fee lift' aiomid her here at Middle.-dji'i.ugh as it is, and she ha- feen it clearly and with comprehension. Her vision i:; never for a moment- obfuscated by

sentimentalism. She is alive to the defects and deficiencies of the workers as she ia to their merits, their courage, their industry, their h.-lpfulness. She recognises that the differences between them and all other classes of the community are differences of condition, not of essential humanity. She recognises that we are " pretty much all alike"; it is the pathways of our lives that diverge. In her own words, " The path the ironworker daily treads at the edge of the sandy platform,' that narrow path that lies between running streams of fire on the ony hand and a sheer dmn on the other, is but an emblem of the Road of Life along which lie must walk."