THE EVOLUTION OF INDUSTRY

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2386, 16 February 1915, Page 7

THE EVOLUTION OF INDUSTRY

, AN HISTORICAL tECTDRE

GROWTH OP FACTORY STBTEK

The last of Lis series of popular 100. tures was delivered List night by Mr. Meredith organiser of the a•• 'Workers' Educational Aisociation. The title of;the lecture was "The Industrial -Eevolution,'' and Mr. Atkinson contrived in very small compass to inform his audienceof inuch_ of importance and interest in. the growth and development of our groat industrial and commercial : system. ' .

Mr. Atkinson said that tho snbjeci Of his lecturo, "The Industrial Revolution, 11 was ono about which everybody had some ideas, but surprisingly fow . had clear ideas. The lecturer took his • ,audience back to .the days of '.'Good - Queen Bess," when the great seafarers ■ great ago laid the, foundations °[ our colonial expansion, l from whioh ■»the British. Empire evolved. The significance of the Elizabethan era, was'largely economic. Already England wasvrich, .and growing richer by the' trade ijcTeloped by our fighting merchants, whose argosies were even then on every sea. . In those days also developed the ' knowledge, possessed in such a high de- ■ gree by English financiers of these days, of foreign eschangas, nnd also the expansion of trade led to the development bf. the company system. In the 18th fcentury England was'vastly richer than ftny other nation. ' In '1G94 the Bank pf England, the foundation of our bank.'ng sys-tem, was established. < The beginning of the Industrial Revolution was really in agriculture. The .°W open-fields system 1 of cultivation | which had come down from' Saxon days became too" cumbrous for more modern, more scientific, methods of agriculture, and ifc had to go. Then; camo what was .known as .the "enclosure"''system, by • which the landlords simply appropriated the land hitherto cultivated inoomrnon by villagers for generations, the greatest crime' in - British history, a crime which in '00 years destroyed our yeoman population. This was tie beginning of the greatness of the; urban populations, and- the decadence of ; the rural population. The real beginning of the industrial revolution dated from the discovery of the process of smelting'iron the use.ot coal, Next in order of ..ccinenco, and greater in ' importance, was . the gradual' improvement of our transport facilities,-by /the cutting of canals and the making of' better roads.' • He Sketched tie growth of. the tex-' tile industries irom the cTays.whenevery cottage' ; had its spinning wheel, and perhaps its. hand-loom, until the invention of machinery made 1 the factory a neces- • sity. Much more was ,the capitalistic I system rendered- necessary by the application of steam power to the new inventions in industry, and also to land o.ud water transport. But this imiense expansion of English' manu;tures : and Englinh commerce 3 horrible for the, British jrkcrs._ Tho transition.; stages caused .uconvenience, and hardships, and the aature and.causes of the disorders were not understood at the. time. Thus arose 'he social problem. ' In the early days the growth, of the factory system : re .were grave''abuses in the,.- em-, ymerit. under unbelievably cruel conlons of wom«n and little children, .is went on for at least : 30 years bei*e .the British conscience was fully roused/ - He sufferings of the English' /orking classes were increased by the Napoleonic' wars, and the war of American Independence. ; Mr. Atkinson went on to'speak of the .rrowth of economic' thought. First of -11, ~ following upon ,the /publication of Se writings of Adam Smith, grew up >Laissez Faire school. It was from/ b spread and general/acceptance ol -ir ideas that laws were passed profiting combinations among workers or Sployers to fix or increase, wages. Last of all he spoko'of' Lord Shaftesbury and the vigorous movement-, he sot afoot for factory reform. The task • of the future, he concluded; was'the removal of the evils which had grown up in 140 years of industrialism. He con- " eluded with a'etrong appeal, on behalf of the Workers' Educational' Associa- ' tion,_ the object of which was to.produce a highly educated democracy, which would make a wiso judgment, and choose a'"jrise course in • the development o£ the commonwealth of the future. -. ,