"As they stood there in long, silent rows, cutting, cutting, CUTTING, they looked like the priestesses of some ancient and frightful ceremonial. We were glad to escape, to exchange the dust, the grime, the wan faces, and the burning eyes for the breath of cool wind, the full glow of the sunlight, and the face of nature herself, so many of whose human children have no time to know or learn her ways.
"It gave a tragic significance to the memory of those silent workers to know that they have but a few years to live."
The same unfortunate condition of things is complained of in Manchester, England, one of the greatest manufacturing centers in the world. "The heated air of the mills, the dust, lack of light, the employment of children," says the London Lancet, "are causing vast deterioration and a most disastrous effect on the morals of the people. Football is popular, but all the players are imported from Scotland. The natives simply look on and shout. If they want men for policemen or constables, they go to Scotland or Ireland for them. The women and girls are equally stunted and feeble." In the manufacturing towns the prospect for a strong, healthy race from such material is poor indeed.
Co-operation: an Example.—It is difficult to see the remedy for this state of things. Probably the evolution of a higher standard of ethics, a higher sense of justice, and a more thorough belief that health is a duty, may do something. Meantime it is important that the working man should do all he can for himself; and perhaps I can do no better than to give here a picture of what some of them have done under the inspiration of co-operation, not only for their health but for their pockets.
It is a picture of a great manufacturing establishment of the Scottish Co-operative Wholesale Society, at Shieldhall, near Glasgow, on the Clyde. This society is a federation of all the retail societies of Scotland, 238 in number, with a membership of over 150,000 persons. The society began on a moderate scale many years ago, but its development has been marvelous. In 1887 it started out on a career which has since continued, owing to the indomitable energy of one of its members, himself a working man. The buildings stand in a very healthy locality, the health of the working force being considered of the first importance. They seem to have learned that sickness is loss—loss of time, of productive energy—and that it is a costly matter. As Mr. Beecher once said, "it is the one burden that bends, almost breaks, the back of society."
These Scotchmen are realizing, just as far as is possible, the condition of a sound mind in a sound body. They recognize the rights of the laborer to health, and place him in a position while working, so that his body may not deteriorate any more than is natural for it to do as age advances. The living machine must not be harmed more than the dead machinery. The land consists of 12 acres, and cost $2,500 an acre; nearly all of it is covered with fine buildings, in which 19 different industries are carried on, many of them on a large scale. Every one of these buildings is constructed after modern methods, with every requirement, not only for convenience but for health. The workrooms are cosy and spacious, well ventilated, warmed in cold weather by steam, and lighted by electricity. The best sanitary arrangements known have been introduced, and the excellent health of the workmen and workwomen, of whom there are over 1,000 of each, tells the story of sanitation.
Two large dining-rooms, one for men and one for women, are provided; also two large reading-rooms with all necessary papers, periodicals, books and means of amusement. Its only lack is a gymnasium and a field for athletic sports, but these may in time be added. Food of the best quality is supplied for all who desire it at cost. A dish of oatmeal and milk costs three cents; a large scone with tea or coffee, the same; Scotch broth or soup, two cents; stewed meat and potatoes, eight cents; roast beef or mutton, with potatoes, ten cents; a good and sufficient meal need not cost over twelve cents. Standard wages are paid, and two and one-half hours less time demanded than in private shops.
Men work fifty-three hours weekly, women forty-four. Most of the latter work in the shirt factory, but they do not need to sing Hood's Song of the Shirt. Sweating is unknown; every worker, from the youngest to the oldest, receives his or her share of the profits, which amount to about $15,000 yearly.
Here we have an almost ideal manufacturing establishment, and if all were such we should have higher hopes for human health in the immediate future for our workers in factories. It was the outgrowth, the effort of the Scotch, a highly intellectual race, to adjust itself to its environment. Necessity and competition acting on them forced them to new and better adjustments. Such a result could hardly have been achieved by a less hard-headed and practical people, a race on which evolution has for ages produced some of its best effects.
Hygiene.—But I fancy you ask me, Is there any hope that in the future evolution, and with it adjustment to environment, will carry man so far that an ideal state of health will be the lot of all? This is what hygiene promises. Is it a vain hope? If we look at what older sciences have done for man we find much to encourage us. In astronomy, by the aid of mathematics, we can calculate with certitude the date of future eclipses. In many other sciences we can make accurate predictions and accomplish results of the greatest importance. Indeed, science has become almost our only authority. Imperfect as it yet is, we trust it, perhaps, too implicitly. The science of hygiene is the youngest of all the sciences. Not that the Greeks, the Hebrews, the Hindoos and Chinese did not have some practical knowledge on the subject, but it was rude and empirical. With the discoveries of micro-organisms as the cause of a series of the worst diseases, we have begun to place hygiene alongside mathematics and chemistry.
