THE AMERICAN WORKING MENS' EXPEDITION.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 2710, 23 November 1889, Page 6 (Supplement)

THE AMERICAN WORKING MENS' EXPEDITION.

What, I asked Mr Hawthorne in the first place, was the origin of the expedition in question? "The credit of the expedition belongs," lie replied, "to Mr Rdward Scripps, the president of a League of six newspapers. When congress failed to take any steps for having the American workmen represented at the Paris Exhibition, Mr Scripps undertook the tiling at his own expense, Forty representative workiug men and women were selected, and these have been despatched—with a complete organisation of 001 respondents, photographers, couriers, &c.—to see the Paris Exhibition and to ' do' England on the way. A good deal of newspaper ' copy'—in the form of cable messages, letters, &c.—will be made out of the expedition ; but the expenses, as you will readily understand, are very heavy, and the thing will certainly not pay—at any rate only in the long run ; so that the scheme i* really a piece of large-minded philanthrophy." It was certainly, I thought, a remarkable instance of newspaper enterprise, this pacific expedition of working men on a scale and with an organisation which would not disgrace an expeditionary corps in war time. " Each one of them will in some sort become a centre of international amity."

THE AMERICAN WORKING MAN AND THE KNGLISII LORD.

"And. 10 that the cpirit," I asked, "in which you have been received by working men and manufacturers over here ?" "Yes," replied Mr Hawthorne, "it is entirely. Nothing could exceed the kindness with which we have been received, and the cordiality which has sprung up on both sides. I will take our visit to Sheffield as an instance, Mr Rodgers, the great cutler, had, for the moment, some natural misgivings about lettiug us into his secrets ; but in the end he showed us everything, and at the conclusion of the visit begged each of the men at to accept one of his best knives, each with the man's name on the blade. Another remarkable courtesy was shown us by Lord Ripon. He met the party in person the entrance to his park, acted as cicerone through the grounds and Fountaine Abboy, and finally took ua into the old refectory, where a snmptuous luncheon was served, Lord Ripon himself presiding, and making a most felicitous little speech. ' You have much,' he said, •in America which we have not in England ; but I have been privileged to show you one thing which you have not, and with all your enterprise will I fear never have ; that is an abbey dating from the twelfth century.' But Mr Hawthorne was inclined to think that Lord Ripon himself was an even more surprising ' sight.' 'None of our party,' he said, 'had, I suppose, ever seen an English noble before and they were immensely struck at finding him so courteous and sincere a friend of the people as our host at Studley Royal. I may say generally that to me personally the trip has been of the greatest possible interest. Here are forty men, none of whom have ever been on this side before. They come with perfectly fresh minds, and it has beeu deeply interesting to watch the effect that England has made on what I

may call this body of passive material. The result has, I think, been equally satisfactory to your country-men and mine. They have gone," he said, "wonderfully straight to the point, and have expressed themselves with great precision." "We have nothing like this in America,'' or "We can do better than you here" they will say both with equally frank candour." A ROSE-COLOURED VIEW OF WORKING ENGLAND. Some further conversation on these lines brought Mr Hawthorne to the other side of the picture. " Our party have been immensely impressed," he said, " with the solidity and substance of England ; it has been quite a revelation to them. The skill of the English working man, too, acquired in each trade by hereditary transmission from generation togoueration, has struck them very much, We were particularly interested at Sheffield to notice how little the excellence of English cutlery was due to any secret process, and huw much to raaaual skill." In reply to further questions Mr Hawthorne stated that the American working 1 men had found the dwellings of our working men very comfortable, and had also been struck by the sobriety of the people. At Sheffield they had gone to see a popular fair, and during several hours had not noticed a single case of drunkenness; this seemed to them very remarkable. Upon political questions Mr Hawthorne did not know that any impressions had been formulated; but indirectly he thought this visit would be favourable to the spread of Free Trade ideas. On the whole the visit to England has been a great success. The only difficulty was that their time was so limited, and that all the party was so reluctant to move on. Mr Hawthorne expected there would be terrible weeping and gnashing of teeth when they had finally to leave London.—l'all Mall Budget.