Part 14 (1/2)
”If business is more pressing than usual, give additional time, that your own accounts may not fall into confusion, and that you may not be the means of causing delay and trouble to others. It often happens that the negligence of individuals throws additional labour upon those who are anxious for regularity.
”Hiding or screening the faults or errors of others, is a system that has prevailed and caused much loss and injury,--frequently to the offending party, always to the employer.
”Late occurrences lead me to draw your attention to this subject: it is important in every sense, both as regards your public and private stations. There is nothing more worthy of a man than truth: nothing makes him feel himself so despicable as a lie. Recollect that men act lies without speaking them, and that all false appearances are lies.
”He, therefore, who, seeing his employer injured, neglects to make it known, is equally guilty--with this addition, that he is practising a lie. Want of punctuality is a lie.
”Speak and act openly on all occasions. Errors will be fewer, and labour will be decreased.
”It seldom happens that we can do any important services, but small services are always in use. Take, therefore, every opportunity of a.s.sisting each other,--you are then most effectually serving your employers, as well as keeping up a spirit of cordiality and goodwill amongst yourselves.
”A good Christian must be a good servant. Whatever your lot in life may be above all things remember that 'The fear of G.o.d is the beginning of wisdom.'”
CHAPTER X.
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 acc.u.mulation of capital, is already in the power of the better-paid working cla.s.s; 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 a.s.sistance. 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 Sat.u.r.day 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 establis.h.i.+ng 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 inst.i.tutions,--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 cla.s.ses--the poorer, the working, the middle, and the upper cla.s.ses. 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 cla.s.s with cla.s.s--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 cla.s.ses, 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 b.r.e.a.s.t.s.
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 cla.s.s consider their interests to be quite distinct from those of the master cla.s.s. 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 cla.s.ses,--but only money considerations,--collisions are frequent, and strikes occur. Both cla.s.ses--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 fellows.h.i.+p 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 Compet.i.tion. 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. Compet.i.tion has a broad back, and can bear any amount of burdens.
And yet there is something to be said for compet.i.tion, as well as against it. It is a struggle,--that must be admitted. All life is a struggle. Amongst workmen, compet.i.tion 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 cla.s.ses of men prosper more than others, they leave other cla.s.ses of men behind them. Not that they leave those others worse, but that they themselves advance.