ADDRESSED TO 
 
 PARENTS, EMPLOYERS, AND EMPLOYED, 
 
 BY 
 
 CHARLES EDWARD PARSONS. 
 
 “ So ’tis in books tbe chief 
 Of all perfections, to be plain and brief.” 
 
 Butler. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 PROVOST & CO., 36, HENRIETTA STREET, 
 
 COVENT GARDEN. 
 
 PRICE ONE SHILLING. 
 
PRINTED TOR 
 
 PROVOST AND CO., 36 , HENRIETTA STREET, COVENT GARDEN, 
 
 LONDON. 
 
<kvdu±- $4 i v WlO*, 
 
 37 
 
 The scheme for the classification and registration 
 of Clerks, as proposed in the following pages, is ori¬ 
 ginal, and was first suggested by me in a brief letter 
 signed “ Quill,” and published a short time ago in 
 the Western Mail , a daily paper haying a very 
 large circulation in Cardiff and throughout South 
 Wales. 
 
 Some alterations have since been made, and I 
 now earnestly solicit its impartial consideration by 
 parents, employers, and clerks. 
 
 C. E. PARSONS. 
 
 43, White Ladies Load, Clifton, Bristol. 
 
 October , 1876. 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2019 with funding from 
 
 University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Alternates 
 
 https://archive.org/details/clerkstheirpositOOpars 
 
CLERKS: 
 
 THEIR POSITION AND ADVANCEMENT. 
 
 It needs but a glance at the export and import 
 returns of the United Kingdom for the last few 
 years to convince the most sceptical among us of 
 the enormous development of trade which has, in 
 spite of “ croakers ” and others who delight in 
 gloomy forebodings, benefited the inhabitants of 
 Great Britain within that period; and to show 
 plainly that although there have been frequent and 
 unfortunate suspensions of labour, chiefly arising 
 from disputes between employer and employed, 
 England has good cause to congratulate herself 
 upon her rapidly increasing wealth and commercial 
 importance. The average value of her imports 
 amounts to nearly 365 millions of pounds per annum, 
 and her exports reach an average of upward of 250 
 millions per annum. The condition of the national 
 revenue is most gratifying—nearly every branch of 
 it improving annually—and supplying another proof 
 how prosperous have been our commercial under¬ 
 takings. An almost uninterrupted run of high prices 
 has prevailed to an extent which has fallen little 
 short of universal, and many vast fortunes have been 
 
6 
 
 CLERKS. 
 
 acquired by merchants and speculators who, a few 
 years hack, were hut small capitalists struggling 
 against adverse markets, a scarcity of orders, and 
 the high rate of money. The demands, speaking 
 with reference to our staple products and manu¬ 
 factures, have, until the last few months, consider¬ 
 ably exceeded the facilities for supply, and have thus 
 tended to counteract in a marked manner the usual 
 equalising effect of competition, by first creating, 
 and afterwards continuing to maintain advanced 
 quotations until, through a temporary lull in foreign 
 trade, the resources of supply rose once more equal 
 to the demand. 
 
 During the fivq years ending with December, no 
 less than 586 millions of tons of coal were raised in 
 England and Wales ; these figures representing one- 
 half the total out-put of the world, and showing 
 an average of 117,200,000 tons per annum, which 
 quantity was exceeded in 1872 by upwards of six 
 millions, and in 1878 by nearly ten millions of tons. 
 Upwards of fifty millions of tons were exported in 
 1873; exporters clearing from six to eighteen 
 shillings per ton upon their shipments, and their 
 transactions being curtailed solely for the want of 
 efficient shipping accommodation at the ports 
 adjacent to the coal-fields. Iron works and collieries 
 which awhile back were accounted but of trifling value 
 as such concerns go, have recently realised almost fabu¬ 
 lous prices. It has been a time of unprecedented pros¬ 
 perity—teeming with enterprising activity—notwith¬ 
 standing which commercial failures have been com¬ 
 paratively rare, and have affected the general trade but 
 
CLERKS. 
 
 7 
 
 slightly ; excepting in a few instances where reckless 
 dealing or gross mismanagement in former years 
 have brought about crises in concerns which had 
 too long lived a rotten life. 
 
 Amidst all this success and prosperity there is one 
 large section of the community whose claim to pro¬ 
 portionate participation has been utterly ignored, 
 partly perhaps for the want of advocacy, but chiefly 
 because its members have done nothing as a body 
 to make the general public acquainted with the ano¬ 
 malies of its actual condition as compared with the 
 advantages which it should be enjoying. Insepa¬ 
 rably connected with the advancement of commercial 
 enterprise and with the interest^ of those who 
 directly benefit by increased trade, it has patiently 
 and hopefully waited for the time when it would be 
 recompensed for the patience displayed, and uncom¬ 
 plainingly has the section I allude to seen almost 
 every other class of employes gaining and enjoying 
 benefits arising from increased remuneration ; but 
 still it has been passed without recognition, and is 
 at the present time in a worse position than it occu¬ 
 pied ten or twenty years ago ! I need scarcely say 
 that the section I refer to is composed of commercial 
 and other clerks, for it is very well known that— 
 save in a few instances—they have derived no 
 advantages from the general prosperity which they 
 have assisted so materially to produce ; but on the 
 contrary, their salaries being virtually the same now 
 as they were ten years ago, with the present cost of 
 living very nearly forty per cent, more than at that 
 period, they have been, as it were, selected by fate 
 
8 
 
 CLERKS. 
 
 to suffer for tlieir connection with the welfare of 
 others. Skilled and unskilled workmen and labourers 
 have, by the general adjustment of their wage-scales, 
 derived pecuniary, social, educational, recreative, 
 and sanitary advantages—the value of which to the 
 nation it would be well-nigh impossible to exagge¬ 
 rate, but consideration for the case of the clerk (having 
 a middle-class position to maintain, and compelled 
 to appear respectably attired if he hopes to retain 
 his situation), has ever been deferred until “ a more 
 convenient season.” Surely this is shortsighted 
 policy on the part of those interested in Mercantile 
 and Social questions; for when it is remembered 
 how much employers have to rely upon the inte¬ 
 grity of their clerks—the extent to which their busi¬ 
 nesses may (and occasionally do) suffer through the 
 ivant of that integrity, laxity in duty, and careless¬ 
 ness of the employers’ interests—when these points, 
 in addition to the many responsibilities undertaken 
 by clerks, are borne in mind, it will, I think, be con¬ 
 ceded that employers are very gravely concerned in 
 raising the social status of their assistants, and in 
 encouraging them in every course which may tend 
 to add to their self-respect and improve their mora¬ 
 lity ; knowing that in the case of a conscientious 
 clerk every benefit he receives begets increased inte¬ 
 rest in his master’s welfare. The disposition to do 
 this unfortunately rarely characterises employers, 
 and is especially rare amongst those who have a 
 large number of clerks in their service. The too 
 general practice has been, and still is, for an em¬ 
 ployer to secure office assistance of the best descrip- 
 
 
CLERKS. 
 
 9 
 
 tion possible for tlie very lowest salary that the 
 applicant can be induced to accept. 
 
 There are thousands of instances showing how 
 this system militates against the true welfare of the 
 clerk, and the result is nothing but what we should 
 naturally expect. Underpaid, with a great deal of 
 very laborious and monotonous work, in addition to 
 heavy responsibilities and anxieties as his position 
 gradually “ improves,” his constitution frequently 
 impaired (often ruined) by sedentary duties and 
 confinement in ill-ventilated back offices, without 
 either time or means to enjoy the recreation neces¬ 
 sary to everyone so employed, he grows up an 
 unhealthy, dissatisfied man—oppressed by a con¬ 
 sciousness that he would have done better had he 
 but had opportunities—his nervous susceptibilities 
 highly wrought upon by the worries of business, the 
 fear of losing his precarious situation, and, lastly, 
 the anxieties of a home-life often destitute, as he 
 increases in years, of the comforts which render 
 middle-age enjoyable to other classes. He com¬ 
 mences life as an ill-paid clerk, his ambitions are 
 never encouraged, all the hopes of his manhood are 
 thwarted, his employer can get numberless others 
 to replace him at even less than he earns; and so he 
 continues at the only calling he is capable of follow¬ 
 ing, and with nearly every feeling soured by adver¬ 
 sity—he dies: a hard-worked, ill-paid clerk from 
 beginning to end. 
 
 This is how the cheap-labour system affects the 
 clerk ; we shall consider how it affects the employer 
 later on. I am well aware the foregoing description 
 
10 
 
 CLERKS. 
 
 does not apply to all, or nearly all, of the class under 
 consideration. Many rise superior to tlieir circum¬ 
 stances and surroundings in every walk in life, and 
 in clerkship as in other callings ; but this fairly re¬ 
 presents the existence at the present time of so 
 very large a body of poorly-paid clerks, that it de¬ 
 mands the most serious and earnest contemplation 
 of every parent and guardian in Great Britain—of 
 every clerk, either in or out of a situation—of all 
 who possess one spark of true philanthropy—of all 
 who seek the social improvement of their species— 
 and of those whose interest in the subject goes not 
 beyond curiosity on the question of cheap labour, 
 or the labour which is erroneously regarded as cheap 
 because it cannot demand a high price. 
 
 The aim of this pamphlet is to prove that, by 
 the adoption of the system about to be submitted, 
 employers and employed may meet each other on 
 a fair and clearly-defined basis, and to show how 
 each may be considerably benefited by a mutual 
 understanding. The employer will be able to ascer¬ 
 tain accurately the qualifications of a clerk before 
 he engages him, and will have the certificate of a 
 committee of examiners that these qualifications 
 really exist, and are not unwarrantably assumed by 
 the candidate, and will be enabled to procure almost 
 any number of clerks at the shortest notice, and at 
 a less cost than advertising for them. 
 
 On the other hand, the clerk will be shown that 
 his salary may be made to depend solely and entirely 
 upon his abilities and perseverance; that he may not 
 suffer (as he now does) from the competition of un- 
 
CLERKS. 
 
 11 
 
 qualified candidates who have “ influential friends ; ” 
 that his laudable ambitions will he fostered; and 
 (chief of all encouragements) that higher remunera¬ 
 tion must follow his successful efforts. He will 
 know exactly his present value and future prospects, 
 and he and all his fellows will find their proper level, 
 —a piece of justice every good clerk will welcome 
 in these days of somewhat undue influence and 
 patronage. 
 
 But before consideration of this part of my pro¬ 
 posed system, let me briefly review the present 
 condition of commercial and other clerks. In my 
 allusion to the small amount of salary paid by most 
 employers, I do not seek to throw the blame upon 
 this point wholly upon their shoulders. Far from 
 it. Without doubt it is their duty to exhibit more 
 interest than they usually do in the social advance¬ 
 ment of those with whom they are brought so 
 immediately and constantly in contact, yet there is 
 probably no class of the employed under the control 
 of employers more habitually or more easily “ put 
 off” than clerks, and the explanation is simple. 
 Like other members of the bread-winning com¬ 
 munity, clerks are usually unable to afford the 
 luxury of individual independence, and [unlike other 
 large bodies of the bread-winners) having no funded 
 association amongst themselves, they are neither 
 desirous or prepared to hazard the disasters of what 
 would in their case he a futile “strike,” and the 
 fact of their making no effort to establish a union 
 should he accepted as evidence of the strongest 
 character that they have through many suffering 
 
12 
 
 CLERKS. 
 
 years buoyed themselves with hopes of ultimately 
 receiving long delayed and tardy justice from their 
 employers. This justice, albeit occasionally acknow¬ 
 ledged, is far more frequently withheld indefinitely ; 
 but I repeat that the fault does not rest wholly and 
 exclusively upon the employers. It will be my 
 endeavour, in the course of a short and truthful 
 account of the present position of the average clerk, 
 to show wherein this difficulty originates, and to offer 
 suggestions with a view of improving the existing 
 relationship between employers and their clerks. 
 
 I have said that clerks as a class are easily “put 
 off” when they venture upon any reference to the 
 smallness of their salaries, and it is not surprising 
 that in a general way the granting of a clerk’s 
 application should be indefinitely postponed, even if 
 entertained at all. The fact of there being many 
 hundreds of unemployed clerks anxious to accept 
 situations for very inadequate salaries, actuates many 
 employers in their indifferent treatment of their 
 assistants; but even where this is not the case, and 
 the employer is more humane in his notions and 
 willing to pay a reasonable salary for efficient work, 
 this postponement of a clerk’s application need create 
 no surprise considering the (collective) character of 
 the clerk class. Clerks are, as a rule, of decent 
 address and gentlemanly habits, patient and long- 
 suffering, not given to noisily “ insisting upon their 
 rights,” and are possessed of some delicacy (tempo¬ 
 rarily overcome, it may be, by the exigencies of 
 circumstances) when requesting an advance of salary, 
 not unnaturally believing that their employers ought 
 
CLERKS. 
 
 to recognise tlieir merits ancl reward their careful 
 guardianship of trade secrets and the valuable in¬ 
 formation they frequently obtain, without requiring 
 somewhat humiliating personal reminders; or, as is 
 so frequently the case, they stand in dread that they 
 will be told with more or less courtesy to “ go else¬ 
 where if they are discontented, as there are many 
 who would be glad of their situations.” This, really, 
 is the key-note of the whole question—the existence 
 of the “many” who are in want of situations as 
 clerks and are at once ready to fill a vacancy. 
 
 So far as concerns clerkship, brains are less highly 
 valued than muscles are in other employments, for 
 the average clerk’s salary is much below in amount 
 the wage of an ordinary mechanic. Many an artizan 
 can earn from two to four guineas per week, and is 
 not called upon to keep up an external appearance 
 for the purpose of impressing his neighbours that 
 his circumstances are much better than they really 
 are, and, though well able to afford it, is not expected 
 to assume a show of great respectability; but there 
 are many thousands of clerks whose salaries (keen 
 satire has termed them ‘‘salaries,” not “wages”) 
 range from <£60 to £150 per annum, and who—to 
 render the slight tenure of their occupations a little 
 more safe—have to maintain the semblance of well- 
 to-do gentlemen by expending a very large proportion 
 of their incomes upon dress and other adjuncts; it 
 being—as I have liinted-^-requisite in the insecurity 
 of their prospects that they should support an out¬ 
 ward show of satisfied opulence which has little in 
 harmony with their numerous obligatory household 
 
14 
 
 CLERKS. 
 
 economies. It may be urged that there are many 
 clerks who are not deserving of even the small 
 salaries they receive, that they lack commercial 
 qualifications, are given to careless and dissolute 
 habits, or are constitutionally unfit for the strain; 
 but I set that class of clerks aside altogether, and 
 throughout these pages will confine myself solely to 
 those who stand well in their masters’ opinions, and 
 who, though trustworthy and valued assistants, are 
 paid salaries quite insufficient to maintain them in 
 respectability. The real explanation of the difficul¬ 
 ties represented by this underpayment for competent 
 assistance—the inability to procure remunerative em¬ 
 ployment, the diffidence of the clerk when applying 
 for an advance, the binding duty of economising for 
 the sake of appearances, and the anxiety to secure 
 a situation in which the pay is usually insufficient 
 for the services to be rendered (followed oftentimes 
 by almost abject servility towards the employer when 
 the berth is secured)—is that the market is, and has 
 been for years, oversupplied with clerks and with 
 the needy many who dub themselves by the dubious 
 title. 
 
 All who now look to any reliance upon clerkship 
 as the means of earning a respectable living, are 
 suffering from the effects of the inexorable laws of 
 supply and demand—for no matter the demand and 
 actual value of the commodity, excessive supply will 
 cheapen it; and who can 'find much fault with the 
 employer of labour who procures his assistance in a 
 cheap market, while hundreds and thousands are 
 daily offering to do the work he requires for mere 
 
CLERKS. 
 
 15 
 
 miserable pittances ? The ranks of the competitive 
 unemployed “ clerks ” are daily augmenting, owing 
 to the false feeling that too frequently exists anent 
 manual labour being degrading (and it exists largely 
 amongst those born in the sphere of manual labour), 
 and the consequence of this false assumption is that 
 the salaries paid for office work are fast becoming totally 
 inadequate for the provision of every-day necessaries. 
 
 A moderate competition must always be beneficial 
 in any trade or calling, tending as it does to counter¬ 
 act unreasonable exclusiveness, and to keep the 
 market value of labour within bounds; but in the 
 face of the vast army of unemployed and nearly 
 starving clerks, each one of whom is only too anxious 
 for an opportunity of earning the smallest wage, 
 what chance of keeping his appointment at a fair 
 salary does the experienced clerk possess—even 
 though he is far more capable than the cheaper 
 article ? The result is inevitable—his wages fall in 
 proportion to the pittances accepted by those who 
 constitute the “ supply.” Excessive, immoderate 
 supply is a curse in any market, especially it is a 
 curse in a labour market. 
 
 Without doubt 1 there are far too many brought up 
 with no career open to them but that of clerkship, 
 and until the supply of raw material is sensibly 
 diminished, it follows that the highly unnecessary 
 additions to its ranks by the importation of needy 
 foreigners and our own countrymen without legiti¬ 
 mate callings in trade or skilled labour, must produce 
 a large body of unemployed which will, “ Micawber " 
 like, be “ waiting for something to turn up.” To 
 
16 
 
 CLERKS. 
 
 obtain a situation—to get wliat is termed “ a start," 
 the unemployed frequently—indeed, usually —consent 
 to accept the most paltry wages in return for services: 
 underbidding one another in eagerness to secure a 
 berth until remuneration is reduced to a figure for 
 which “ salary ” is a misnomer, and the word 
 “ charity ” is alone applicable. 
 
 The lower and middle-class German and Scotch 
 people are particularly addicted to these under¬ 
 bidding propensities, and this is especially the case 
 in connection with the inferior classes of clerkship. 
 Their youth receive from the institutions of their 
 respective countries free—or almost free—educa¬ 
 tion ; and it is the rule, even in families who by no 
 means belong to the humblest class, to accept these 
 gratuitous advantages. In Germany, to exemplify 
 my meaning, the educational system is technical, 
 each youth learning thoroughly the business or 
 trade chosen for him. Those destined for commerce 
 acquire a sound knowledge of office routine and ac¬ 
 counts, together with the documents relating to 
 shipping and insurance—English and French cor¬ 
 respondence, &c. Thus prepared by their schools for 
 commercial life they swarm to England and France 
 in thousands, accepting duties at any salary they are 
 offered, for the purposes of gaining practical experi¬ 
 ence, and of forming connections with a view to ulti¬ 
 mate trading on their own account. They are thorough 
 clerks so long as they are kept to the work they are 
 familiar with, but they have not a grain of the versa¬ 
 tility, or the adaptable capacity—in short, the genuine 
 all-round ability, the English clerk possesses. 
 
CLERKS. 83 
 
 relation in which he stands to his employer, and his 
 prospects (as School Board education increases the 
 number of competitors for beggarly salaries) are 
 upon a shifting and insecure basis, consequently 
 highly unsatisfactory, and it is with the sincere 
 desire of improving this state of things and of 
 inducing parents to reflect upon clerkship in all its 
 bearings before placing such a career before their 
 sons, that I have—after vainly waiting for an abler 
 hand to undertake the task—resolved to make an 
 effort for the benefit of the class of which I write, by 
 suggesting a plan, the adoption of which, I believe, 
 will operate to the mutual advantage of employer 
 and employed. 
 
 It is absolutely necessary that clerks should keep 
 pace with the requirements of their employers, who, 
 year by year, as trade connections extend, need 
 assistance of a more advanced and comprehensive 
 kind; and it is equally necessary that employers 
 should seek that assistance with more fairness than 
 they do at present, and offer a salary sufficient to 
 secure a conscientious and careful clerk, in lieu of 
 entertaining the delusion that by giving miserable 
 wages they will obtain the able assistance which 
 their undertakings require. The interest of the one 
 class is so thoroughly the interest of the other, that 
 some system for the general classification of clerks 
 has become one of the wants of the age, in order 
 that an employer may know to a nicety before 
 engaging an assistant, what his certified qualifications 
 are. 
 
 To effect this, and to render it a simple instead of 
 
 D 
 
34 
 
 CLERKS. 
 
 ail extremely difficult matter for employers to select 
 clerks exactly suited to tlieir respective require¬ 
 ments, I will assume that those most interested in 
 the employment of efficient assistants will he induced 
 by the exigencies of present circumstances to sub¬ 
 scribe or advance the moderate sum of money neces¬ 
 sary to establish an Institution for the Classification 
 and Registration of Clerks, presided over by a 
 Managing Director and an Examining Committee, 
 wherein all applicants for certificates shall he classi¬ 
 fied into distinct grades in accordance with the 
 qualifications of such candidates. I propose these 
 grades be eight in number, and arranged as follows, 
 commencing with the lowest:— 
 
 6 rVCtdc ?S0. 1, 
 
 to comprise juveniles of but scant education, who 
 would he useful merely in copying letters, register¬ 
 ing and filing correspondence, and the performance 
 of other similar and simple duties in offices. Salary 
 to commence at (say) 5s. per week, advancing 2s. 
 per week per annum until it reaches 9s. per week, 
 at which remuneration tliev should remain until 
 
 V 
 
 they pass an examination for one of the higher 
 standards. 
 
 Grade No. 2, 
 
 should be composed of juveniles grounded in the 
 simple rules of arithmetic, writing a decent hand, 
 and able to render assistance in various ways to 
 other clerks in their offices. Salary to commence at 
 (say) 9s. per week, advancing 2s. 6d. per week per 
 annum, to 14s. per week. 
 
CLERKS. 
 
 Q K 
 O') 
 
 (bade No. 8, 
 
 to comprise clerks capable of undertaking corre¬ 
 spondence of minor importance, together with the 
 registration of received and forwarded letters, and 
 with greater proficiency in writing and arithmetic 
 than those in the preceding grades (the degree of 
 proficiency which qualifies them for this and other 
 grades being decided and certified by the Examining 
 Committee of the Institution). Salary to commence 
 at (say) 15s. per week, with an annual advance of 
 8s. per week, to 21s. per week. 
 
 Grade No. 4, 
 
 for clerks capable of keeping a set of account books, 
 where the business is not of a complicated nature, 
 conducting ordinary correspondence, being good pen¬ 
 men, and acquainted with the more advanced rules 
 of arithmetic. Salary commencing at 25s. per week, 
 and advancing 4s. per week per annum to 83s. 
 
 Grade No. 5, 
 
 should be composed of clerks who are fairly good 
 correspondents, book-keepers, penmen, and arithme¬ 
 ticians, writing shorthand with moderate rapidity. 
 Salary to commence at (say) £90 per annum, ad¬ 
 vancing at the rate of £15 per annum to £135. 
 
 Grade No. 6, 
 
 to comprise clerks who are first-class penmen, Eng¬ 
 lish correspondents, arithmeticians, and shorthand 
 writers, capable of keeping the account books of a 
 more complicated business. Salary to commence at 
 
36 
 
 CLERKS. 
 
 (say) £150 per annum, advancing £15 per annum to 
 £195. 
 
 Grade No. 7, 
 
 for confidential clerks, whose qualifications are those 
 of Grade No. 6, and who are appointed (upon satis¬ 
 factory references) to positions of trust, such as 
 cashiers, or private secretaries, and who possess 
 another qualification in addition to shorthand. 
 
 Or, clerks with the qualifications mentioned who 
 are not required to fill offices of trust, hut who have 
 the knowledge of one foreign language in which they 
 can correspond. 
 
 Salary to commence at (say) £210 per annum, 
 increasing £20 per annum to £310. 
 
 Grade No. 8, 
 
 for clerks who are thoroughly conversant with two 
 or more foreign languages, with figures, shorthand, 
 correspondence, and general office management. 
 
 Or, those who, through the confidence reposed in 
 them by their employers, are raised to positions of 
 greater responsibility and trust. 
 
 Salary not to he less than £850 per annum. 
 
 It is unnecessary to provide for grades beyond this 
 point, as £350 per annum is as much as most clerks 
 can expect to receive whilst they are simply clerks, un¬ 
 less they possess some valuable qualification or special 
 knowledge which may render them of exceptional 
 service in certain undertakings. Under existing 
 conditions such a salary is regarded hv clerks as a far- 
 off opulence to which scarcely one in five hundred 
 may attain. 
 
 V 
 
CLERKS. 
 
 37 
 
 This scale does not apply to Government appoint¬ 
 ments, with which I have no desire to interfere, 
 being well satisfied to leave them in the hands of 
 the Civil Service Examining Commissioners ; in fact 
 it is the adoption of some competitive system similar 
 to the open examinations for many of the Govern¬ 
 ment clerkships that I am anxious to see extended 
 to commercial clerks. Competition in ability and 
 commercial qualifications will be highly beneficial to 
 all concerned, but competition in what may fairly be 
 termed the arts of accepting and being content with 
 miserably low salaries can only result in dissatisfac¬ 
 tion on the part of the clerk, and worry and perplexity 
 to the employer. 
 
 I believe there are merits in my proposal, and 
 hope they are apparent to those of my readers 
 interested in the well-being of clerks, and in the 
 improvement of their positions with employers. 
 There would be nothing in the working of my 
 scheme to prevent a clerk now in receipt of T150 
 per annum presenting himself for examination in 
 the qualifications of the 6th, 7tli, or 8th Grade, and 
 so improving his prospects without undergoing ex¬ 
 amination in all the earlier stages ; nor would it be 
 requisite for every clerk to commence at Grade 1, 
 and work up through the intermediate grades to the 
 level of his attainments. When first examined by 
 the Committee I would propose that his grade be 
 determined for him, and a certificate given him 
 without his starting afresh as an office-boy. 
 
 It will be seen from the scale that if a youth com¬ 
 menced by passing the examination for Grade 2, he 
 
38 
 
 CLERKS. 
 
 would, iii tlie opinion of the Examining Committee 
 of the Institute, he entitled to receive 9s. per week 
 for the first year of his service, 11s. fid. for the 
 second, and 14s. per week for the third; for I 
 assume that he will he worth more to his employer 
 after a year’s service than when first engaged, although 
 he may have failed to qualify himself for a higher 
 grade. If, through slothfulness or mental incapacity, 
 he does not before the expiration of three years 
 fit himself for passing the examination of a higher 
 standard, then let him remain at 14s. per week. On 
 the other hand, if he commendably employs his 
 spare time by application to studies which will 
 qualify him for the certificate of a superior class, 
 let him, upon passing the necessary examination, 
 have the benefit of a higher rate of salary. He will 
 be worth it to his employer, and if not to the one 
 who engaged him as a junior (and who only requires 
 the assistance of a junior), then to others who may 
 apply at the Institute for clerks of higher qualifi¬ 
 cations. 
 
 It must be understood that in explaining my 
 theory I would draw no hard and fast line in respect 
 to salaries; my propositions could be revised by 
 those persons of experience entrusted with the prac¬ 
 tical working of my scheme in the event of its being- 
 adopted. 
 
 It is part of my plan that the Institute should 
 contain a record of all clerks who have passed ex¬ 
 aminations before the Committee, and are waiting— 
 either in or out of situations—for employment in 
 the higher grades for which their certificates qualify 
 
CLERKS. 
 
 39 
 
 them; as well as a register (compiled from the ap¬ 
 plications of employers) of all vacancies for clerks in 
 commercial circles. 
 
 For example : An employer having a vacancy for a 
 clerk sees, on reference to the scale, that the duties 
 he wishes fulfilled are those which could be best at¬ 
 tended to by a clerk whose qualifications are those 
 (say) of Grade 5. He accordingly applies to the Secre¬ 
 tary of the Institute, who ascertains from his books the 
 name and address of the clerk who has waited longest 
 for employment in that grade—of course being duly 
 qualified and certified. It would be quite immaterial 
 whether this clerk wanted a situation or held one of 
 an inferior class whilst waiting his chance of ad¬ 
 vancement. The employer and clerk are at once 
 placed in communication, and if the former were not 
 satisfied with the private character of the candidate 
 (the Institute only guaranteeing his qualifications as 
 a clerk), he applies again until he is suited. 
 
 The adoption of this plan would not in any way 
 interfere with apprentices, who would be engaged as 
 at present, qualifying themselves on completion of 
 their terms of services for the highest grades they 
 could reach, and rising to superior appointments in 
 turn, to be regulated in accordance with the require¬ 
 ments of employers. In cases where the special 
 knowledge of any subject is necessary (as with tele¬ 
 graph clerks) special provision could be made. 
 
 In the event of a clerk preferring to remain with 
 his employer for a year or two after having qualified 
 for a higher grade than that answering to the salary 
 he is receiving—the employer being desirous of 
 
40 
 
 CLERKS. 
 
 retaining liis services, but having no vacancy lie can 
 promote him to—it should be understood that the 
 employer, when a vacancy did occur, should start the 
 clerk at a salary somewhat higher than that regulated 
 by the scale ; as compensation for the loss which the 
 clerk would otherwise have sustained by remaining 
 in his service in lieu of accepting an appointment 
 where he would have earned more money. This 
 arrangement would meet hundreds of cases in which 
 employer and clerk are not desirous of parting 
 company. 
 
 The expenses of the Institute could be defrayed 
 by a scale of fees chargeable to each clerk as 
 follows :— 
 
 On presentation for examination in 
 
 Grade 
 
 1 
 
 i«t * 
 
 3s. 
 
 Grade 
 
 2 
 
 • • • • 
 
 5s. 
 
 Grade 
 
 3 
 
 • • • • 
 
 10s. 
 
 Grade 
 
 4 
 
 • • • • 
 
 15s. 
 
 Grade 
 
 5 
 
 
 20s. 
 
 Grade 
 
 G 
 
 • • • • 
 
 30s. 
 
 Grade 
 
 7 
 
 • • • • 
 
 40s. 
 
 Grade 
 
 8 
 
 
 60s. 
 
 with a charge of (say) one-half these amounts for a 
 certificate of grade if the candidate passed. If this 
 were found insufficient to meet the outlay, a charge 
 of half or three-fourths of this scale could be made 
 to an employer upon his being suited with an assist¬ 
 ant through the medium of the Institute. 
 
 Branch Institutes could be established in the 
 principal provincial towns, so that all clerks might 
 
CLERKS. 
 
 17 
 
 Neither in Germany nor in Scotland is cheap 
 education looked upon with the contempt it is usually 
 viewed in England; and as parents are called upon 
 to expend little or nothing in the tuition of their 
 children, they can the better afford to place them in 
 situations where their services either connhence 
 without salary, or at sums miserably inadequate. 
 
 In the daily papers of any of our large cities and 
 towns can he found, for the trouble of perusal, a 
 dozen or more advertisements by clerks offering their 
 services without salary for the first three or six 
 months, and many by employers seeking unremune¬ 
 rated assistance. This is stretching competition to 
 its limit, hut there is nothing, except an innate sense 
 of justice, to prevent an employer making a mean 
 bargain, and, taking exceptional advantage of the 
 excessive supply, procure a clerk for the wages of 
 an errand-boy. 
 
 Tf the boast of the chairman of one of our largest 
 English railways is true as reported, that, by inser¬ 
 tion of advertisements in Edinburgh and Glasgow 
 papers he can procure any number of Scotch clerks 
 at a guinea a-week, the “ land o’ cakes” has not 
 been behind-hand in supplying its quota towards 
 overstocking the market for ill-paid commercial and 
 solicitors’ clerks ; and whilst writing this an apposite 
 story occurs to me of the Scotchman in London 
 in receipt of 20s. per week, who wrote to his friend 
 across the Border that he “ could save 14s. per week, 
 and if it were not for his appetite he could save the 
 other six.” But why Scotland should have distin¬ 
 guished herself in this particular is a matter for 
 
 c 
 
18 
 
 clerks. 
 
 wonder, for the Scotchmen, taken as a body, are far 
 better penmen than Englishmen; their style of cor¬ 
 respondence, though more stilted and formal, is quite 
 as correct as our own ; they are fair accountants, and 
 undeniably steady and plodding. Probably their 
 deep-rooted love of underbidding and bargaining 
 debars them from commanding wages as high (in 
 their lowness) as genuine English clerks are now 
 
 receiving. 
 
 I have already remarked that there exists no 
 funded association to which clerks can attach them¬ 
 selves in such a manner as to insure uniformity of 
 action, and my experience leads me to believe that it 
 would not benefit them in the least even if it existed 
 upon the most comprehensive scale. Several attempts 
 have been made by those engaged in railway and 
 other large offices to form minor and purely local 
 combinations, with the object of bringing grievances 
 before their respective employers, and for obtaining 
 an improvement in salary, or the abolition of 
 some objectionable system; but, success has been 
 hitherto very indifferent. Occasionally their peti¬ 
 tions have been granted; but more frequently the 
 leading spirits of each movement have received 
 summary dismissal as the reward of their exertions. 
 But I fear a combination of clerks for legitimate 
 purposes upon a basis similar to that of the Trade 
 Unions can never succeed; and this because the 
 vast army of clerks is recruited not from one, but 
 from nearly every grade of society. The humblest 
 working-man cherishing a hope of establishing his 
 son in a better social position than that in which lie 
 
CLERKS. 
 
 10 
 
 himself moves, sees in the calling of clerkship what 
 he not unfrequently believes to he the royal road to 
 wealth and social advancement; and the so-called 
 ts advantages ” of the career appear to him infinitely 
 superior to any other for which his son is more 
 properly fitted. The tradesman, desirous of com¬ 
 mercial training for his youth, scruples not to force 
 him upon an already over-crowded market, and his 
 action is proportionately detrimental to thousands 
 compelled to embrace clerkship as the only means of 
 livelihood open to them. Still higher and higher up 
 the divided and sub-divided social scale is found 
 positive evidence that clerkship of some kind is to¬ 
 day considered part of the training necessary for all 
 who are to have connection with commerce ; the one 
 fortunate step from which is to follow the fame very 
 occasion all v recorded in the annals of successful 
 
 t j 
 
 individual enterprise. True it is that with reference 
 to a merchant prince, or a fortunate trader, we oc¬ 
 casionally hear the remark : u He commenced life as 
 a clerk with Mr. Makemoney, and his career has 
 been a prosperous one.” It is good for England 
 and for individual example that bright instances of 
 rewarded perseverance should be made familiar to 
 us, but in proportion to the many who adopt the 
 vocation there are few, very few , who prosper in 
 their situations, or who realise, even after years of 
 toil, a moderate independence. Clerkship has come 
 to be looked upon as one of the readiest modes of 
 earning a living which can be adopted by those lacking 
 education, or whose peculiar circumstances preclude 
 them from entering other walks in life far more con- 
 
20 
 
 CLERKS. 
 
 genial and promising in their adoption ; blit, alas! 
 the plain patent fact that in clerkship the number 
 attaining partial success is out of ah proportion to 
 the number striving for it, is generally too frequently 
 disregarded. Think for a moment what false en¬ 
 couragement a few brilliant examples have afforded 
 to parents whose sons are commencing commercial 
 life in a manner similar to one whose rare and 
 fortunate lot it has been “ to point a moral ” for his 
 contemporaries. Sanguine in their reflection on the 
 prosperity of the “ example ”—foolishly filled with 
 anxious enthusiasm when placing a child to really a 
 life of ill-paid in significance,how apt are they to forget 
 
 “ The many fail, the one succeeds.” 
 
 But from the humblest classes let us pass over 
 all the intermediate grades of society, and look for 
 a moment to the youths who, by the aid of patronage 
 or family influence—the crowning curses of clerk¬ 
 ship—monopolise most if not all of the best appoint¬ 
 ments to which clerks aspire. These are usually the 
 fortunate sons of parents who move in the upper mid¬ 
 dle class of society, and they are capable of display¬ 
 ing much greater energy in the perusal of the daily 
 paper or in tossing (with a lordly grandiose air) for 
 their sundry preprandial “ bitters,” than in showing 
 any genuine honest attention to their employers’ 
 interests. With a few worthy exceptions these are 
 youths who lack either brains or taste for the course 
 of study necessary to fit them for professional or 
 scientific pursuits ; and they serve no other purpose 
 than that of debarring less fortunate but more able 
 clerks from attaining to the better paid appointments ; 
 
 > 
 
CLERKS. 21 
 
 » 
 
 and perhaps, to a reflective mind, showing how 
 indiscriminately the market for clerks is crowded. 
 These lucky gentlemen are to he met with in almost 
 every town, and may easily be distinguished by the 
 observant as, early in the afternoon, they saunter 
 homewards, weary and languishing, thoroughly con¬ 
 vincing the on-looker that they consider work “ a 
 horrid bore, you know.” Influence and favour do the 
 ordinary clerk serious harm, hut in the end the 
 employer of an inefficient discontented “ friend of 
 the family ” is the chief sufferer. 
 
 It is scarcely likely that with all these distinctions 
 and differences amongst clerks a successful union 
 could he established. Class prejudice is as deeply 
 rooted in this as in any other mixed body, hut 
 though this spirit of clannishness cannot he eradi¬ 
 cated, yet it may he utilised and improved; its 
 objects may he raised and its ambitions fostered by 
 the adoption of such a scheme as I intend detailing 
 in these pages. 
 
 There are, it is almost needless to remark, a large 
 number of offices where upwards of twenty clerks are 
 engaged, and some where there are more than two 
 hundred—nearly all performing similar duties ; and 
 amongst the number are frequently found highly 
 intelligent and studious youths—steady, thoughtful, 
 and industrious. These are thrown in company 
 with others thoroughly dissipated, lazy, and careless ; 
 the good, indifferent, and bad being paid equal sala¬ 
 ries, except in cases where length of service may 
 create a slight difference. It would be very difficult 
 to exaggerate the ill-effects of this compulsory com- 
 
go 
 
 J-i -I 
 
 CLERKS. 
 
 panionsliip upon the more respectable and worthy of 
 these young men, for, beyond their own self-esteem 
 (easily undermined by “ evil communications ”), they 
 are bereft of every inducement to retain the respecta¬ 
 bility and integrity they possess. I fear there are 
 very many who can corroborate this from their per¬ 
 sonal observation. How often, too, one can pick 
 out from a group of clerks individuals evidently 
 undertaking thoroughly uncongenial employment, 
 with not the slightest taste for clerkship, and 
 who, hut for adverse circumstances, would he very 
 differently engaged. All these, waifs and strays 
 cling to clerkship as the raft which will float them, 
 and the bona-fide clerks are the sufferers. 
 
 It must he evident to all employers that their 
 businesses are injured materially by being entrusted 
 to persons taking no genuine interest in their duties, 
 and the ill-effects of this clashed-togetjier system 
 cannot he seen in any offices within my knowledge 
 more plainly than at the Railway Depots in our large 
 cities and towns, where may be found young men 
 of good associations, sons of professional men and 
 others of the upper middle classes, and the lowest 
 class of clerks working in the closest proximity. 
 This is an evil which no system short of education 
 in its widest sense can cope, but its consequences 
 should receive more consideration from parents when 
 deciding upon a career for their sons. 
 
 Having referred once or twice to Railway Com¬ 
 panies, I may here allude to the miserable salaries 
 they, as employers of clerks in particular, are accus¬ 
 tomed to pay to competent men. For instance, the 
 
CLERKS. 
 
 o g 
 
 applicant for a clerkship on one of the railways in 
 the South of England is required to answer upon 
 the Company’s “ form of application/' a multitude 
 of questions so insulting and impertinent that no 
 youth of spirit would condescend to entertain them ; 
 and to fulfil a host of conditions quite out of keeping 
 with his salary or position. The following are but 
 a few taken from a long list of these questions and 
 regulations:— 
 
 o 
 
 “ Are you in debt ? if so, to what amount ? ” 
 
 Are you married, or single? If any children, how many?” 
 
 c ' Are you engaged in any business or partnership?” &c. &c. 
 
 After these come the “ conditions of accepting 
 service,” which, under Section I., comprise forty-five 
 separate rules. Some of these are so unique that 
 I give a few par example :— 
 
 Applicant must send doctor’s certificate that 
 he is free from illness, lameness, &c., &c., and 
 a declaration that he is of steady and sober 
 habits. 
 
 If appointed to the service he must strictly 
 observe every regulation issued by the Com¬ 
 pany, and may be required to carry a book or 
 copy of such regulations about his person when 
 not on duty. 
 
 Must devote himsel f exclusively to the Company’s 
 service and interest, not only during regular 
 hours, but at all other times when required. 
 Must reside very near to his customary place 
 of duty. 
 
 Must agree to forego a fortnight’s pay, to be 
 kept in hand “ as a security for good conduct.” 
 
21 
 
 CLERKS. 
 
 Must provide security to the extent of £200 
 or over, for liis faithful service. Is required, 
 “ when not on duty, to avoid the risk of impairing 
 his strength or efficiency by fatigue, exertion, or 
 exposure of any kind” (the “ fatigue, exertion, 
 or exposure ” apparently being condoned if 
 incurred while on duty). 
 
 Is enjoined to reserve the right of relinquish¬ 
 ing his dwelling at short notice, as he is liable 
 to he transferred to different parts of the line. 
 
 Must have a good watch, and always keep it 
 in use when on duty. 
 
 Must enter in the attendance books the exact 
 time on each occasion of his coming on or going 
 off duty. 
 
 Is expected, “ whether off or on duty, to he 
 at all times neat and cleanly in his person and 
 dress; to avoid all foppishness and affectation of 
 singularity (!) in dress, in person, or in manner.” 
 
 Must he ready, obliging and courteously atten¬ 
 tive to all persons; making full, true and satisfac¬ 
 tory answers to every passenger or other person 
 with whom the Company may have business, 
 
 “ Is particularly required to he thoroughly 
 acquainted with the use and observance of the 
 signals ; if connected with a station must learn 
 to work the electric telegraph, and make himself 
 thoroughly conversant with the regulations 
 respecting it.” 
 
 Must behave “decorously” when off duty, 
 “on pain of instant dismissal from the service ; ” 
 and must have led a blameless life before enter- 
 
CLERKS. 
 
 25 
 
 ing the service, otherwise, “ although the offender 
 has not been convicted' of the misdemeanour laid to 
 his charge , he is subject to instant dismissal, 
 with forfeiture of all back pay and other 
 emoluments !” 
 
 For a model youth in full possession of all these 
 qualifications, for such an embodiment of simplicity, 
 amiability, virtue, and business capacity, “the 
 Directors are accustomed to allow T a salary at the 
 
 rate of-” how much think you? What would 
 
 such a clerk be fairly worth to any firm or company? 
 Bear in mind the various attainments and observ¬ 
 ances which are demanded, and you will scarcely be 
 prepared to be told that the remuneration offered is 
 —$60 per annum for the first six months, “ when it 
 will be raised or loivered in proportion to the then 
 ascertained value of the services and general aptitude 
 of the clerk.” Out of this mean pittance the wages 
 of all who are paid weekly are stopped during absence 
 from duty, “whether arising from sickness, leave of 
 absence, or other cause.” All the Company’s servants 
 are recommended to become members of the Provi¬ 
 dent Society in connection with that particular 
 Railway, and are further advised to insure their 
 lives in it! 
 
 It is unnecessary to make any more lengthy quo¬ 
 tation from the volumes of absurd rules and unreason¬ 
 able regulations published by the Railway Company 
 in question—humbug is always intolerable; but 
 what I wish to call attention to is the fact that it is 
 an easy matter for the Company in question, and 
 many other Railway Companies nearly all equally 
 
CLERKS. 
 
 26 
 
 exacting, to procure clerks who will give tlieir 
 services upon such conditions and for such remune¬ 
 ration. Slight indeed must be the estimation in 
 which the clerk is held by the employer who, for 
 the fulfilment of duties embracing obligations such 
 as those I have quoted, can offer a salary of £60, or 
 even less, per annum ! 
 
 A corporate body is said to have “ no soul to be 
 saved and no body to kick/' and the saying receives 
 daily verification,—for Boards of Directors apparently 
 sink all individuality, and frequently engage their 
 clerks with less discrimination and with less humanity 
 than is displayed by an individual, knowing how 
 many unemployed there are who are willing to do 
 the work for the money offered; and the reason we 
 hear comparatively few complaints from underpaid 
 clerks is —not that they are indifferent to their cir¬ 
 cumstances, but that they are rendered well-nigh 
 powerless to appeal against the existing scales of 
 pay, because of the vast numbers who are waiting to 
 step into their places (should they be vacated) for 
 even less than they are receiving. At every turn 
 they are confronted by that competition which has 
 been their chief enemy throughout. Their utter 
 helplessness is due solely to the indiscriminate over¬ 
 crowding of that particular labour market in which 
 clerks can alone expect to find employment, and 
 when carried to the fearful extent with which the 
 advertisements in the daily papers have made us 
 familiar, this competition is fraught with ruin to 
 the prospects of those who are legitimate clerks ; for, 
 as the necessaries of life increase in price, the eager 
 
CLERKS. 
 
 27 
 
 crowd of employment-seekers is augmented, and, 
 owing to their fatal—but, alas, to some extent, un¬ 
 avoidable—propensity for undertaking office duties 
 at the minimum wage, they contrive to lower the 
 market value of clerks’ labour far beneath a just 
 standard, and almost compel employers to select 
 assistants willing to accept salaries totally inadequate 
 to the responsibilities they undertake, and out of all 
 proportion to the current cost of living. 
 
 I do not, of course, affirm that salaries should be 
 continually advancing in the same ratio as the cost 
 of every-day requirements, for every increase in 
 retail prices must affect the purse of the employer 
 as well as of the employed ; but I wish to remind my 
 readers of the difficulty which the recipient of a 
 small salary encounters when he endeavours to meet 
 and obviate by retrenchment and economy any ad¬ 
 vance in the market value of articles which are to 
 him, and those depending upon him, absolute neces¬ 
 saries ; simply because he has never indulged in 
 extravagant and unnecessary purchases. Retrench¬ 
 ment would only mean to him the giving up of one 
 necessary or another, no matter whether it take the 
 form of clothing, of furniture, or of diet; or else it 
 means that he will no longer find it possible to lay 
 aside the small weekly sum to form a fund to be 
 expended hereafter in the education of his children, 
 or other hopes that have been cherished, as well 
 as enjoyment of a season of recreation, or of pro¬ 
 viding against the proverbial “ rainy day ” which is 
 inevitable in clerkship. In short, an advance in the 
 price of commodities necessary to life means, to 
 
28 
 
 CLERKS. 
 
 the poorly paid of every calling, exactly wliat a 
 Strike or Lock-out means to the labouring classes— 
 namely, a withdrawal of the means of procuring 
 proper subsistence, generally resulting in resort to 
 unsuitable diet. 
 
 These considerations should weigh with the em¬ 
 ployer more than they usually do, and induce him 
 to inquire a little more closely into the actual cir¬ 
 cumstances of those who depend upon him and the 
 salary he pays. His moral and social obligations 
 extend beyond the weekly payment of his clerks’ 
 wages, and a little genuine interest in this direction 
 would he 
 
 “ Time and trouble well applied.” 
 
 Occasional ingratitude would he encountered of 
 course, hut, as a general rule, the more the employer 
 does to advance the welfare of his clerks, the more 
 will they exert themselves in liis interests. A 
 moment’s reflection must convince him that he 
 would be the chief gainer by treating his assistants 
 as though they w T ere his fellow-creatures, with hopes 
 and aspirations above their present conditions. 
 
 Insurance, so often urged upon the poorer classes, 
 has undoubtedly its benefits, if only that it stimu¬ 
 lates the habit of saving, and provides something 
 for the assistance of the widow and children of the 
 insurer at his death ; hut it must he remembered 
 that it is the relatives alone who derive any benefit, 
 while, instead of the insurer procuring an advantage, 
 the payment of premiums still further cripples him 
 in his struggle to maintain a respectable appearance. 
 
 The supposition that small salaries command good 
 
CLERKS. 
 
 29 
 
 and faithful work is thoroughly erroneous; indeed 
 a greater fallacy could scarcely exist; and though 
 here and there an underpaid clerk may be found 
 doing his best in the hope that his efforts may be 
 appreciated and his salary raised, yet by far the 
 greater number of those engaged at paltry salaries 
 do paltry work. Better paid, they would work 
 better; hut being doled out a meagre pittance they 
 cannot do their duties in a manner satisfactory even 
 to themselves. They lose interest and become dis¬ 
 heartened in their work; grow discontented and 
 unsettled, and are continually on the look-out for 
 better-paid employment. What can be more detri¬ 
 mental to the interests of employers than this state 
 of continual come-and-go uncertainty on the part of 
 his office staff ? It militates directly against his 
 chief interests. In addition to the many evils arising 
 from this cause, the employer of cheap labour has 
 to put up with a large proportion of the defalcations 
 of dishonest assistants. How can a clerk’s incen¬ 
 tives to honesty and faithful service receive support 
 by the payment of a salary which must keep him in 
 straitened circumstances ? The Pall Mall Gazette , 
 recently alluding to the morality of clerks and the 
 numerous cases of petty embezzlements which have of 
 late formed the subject of proceedings in our police 
 courts, calls upon mercantile men and traders gene¬ 
 rally to “ consider whether in many instances a 
 more liberal scale of salaries might not in the end 
 prove an economy.” It is part of no one’s plan that a 
 man should slave and drudge all his life for the sole 
 purpose of earning the bare necessaries which main- 
 
30 
 
 CLERKS. 
 
 tain it. Society, commerce, and national prospe¬ 
 rity, are alike interested in our living lives of which 
 luxury, mental culture, and ultimate personal ad¬ 
 vancement, form a part; and yet how many there 
 are in our midst who, by reason of the competition 
 keeping them in needy circumstances, have no 
 choice but to 
 
 “ ^Nourish a blind life within the brain.” 
 
 Given the means of improving the condition of a class 
 of intelligent people and the result will speedily be 
 observed ; and it is narrow-minded and prejudiced to 
 suppose that when a clerk asks for a higher salary 
 he has in view no nobler object than indulgence in 
 extra eating or drinking. To him increased salary 
 spells improvement in his mental condition, the 
 means of gratifying his intellectual tastes. Liberal 
 wages, when the condition of a nation is prosperous, 
 become the mainspring of industry and greater pros¬ 
 perity, raising the tastes of all classes, and creating 
 a demand for luxuries, tending to the promotion of 
 line arts, and encouraging refinement generally in 
 ever-spreading circles; and clerks, if paid salaries 
 commensurate with the character of their duties, 
 would be enabled to participate in these benefits to a 
 greater extent than they can at present; for clerks 
 (except when compelled by their narrow circum¬ 
 stances) are no more addicted to living from hand 
 to mouth than any other section of the community. 
 They recognise, quite as fully as the better paid 
 classes, the necessity of making -provision against 
 illness or loss of employment, but with the salaries 
 now in vogue (partially justified by the unreasonable 
 
CLERKS. 
 
 31 
 
 competition and tlie state of their labour market) 
 such providence is impossible. 
 
 Speaking generally, clerks have at present no 
 definite knowledge of what their prospects are ; their 
 future is a matter of pure speculation, and likely to 
 he governed by chance at all times. However well 
 conducted in their respective situations, they are 
 liable to be thrown out of employment at short 
 notice by the death or failure of their employers, to 
 take their sorry chances with others who may be 
 more or less competent than they are, but who are 
 quite prepared to under-bid them in the struggle for 
 re-engagement; or they are in the greater danger of 
 losing their appointments solely by reason of the 
 cheap competition alluded to. The consequence of 
 these frequent and sudden dismissals is that clerks 
 are often compelled to accept duties very different 
 and salaries far inferior to those they have been 
 accustomed to, even when fortunate enough to obtain 
 another situation readily. Surely where the interests 
 of so vast a body of our fellow-beings are concerned 
 some endeavour should be made to obtain a tangible 
 security, and the prospects of a youth receive more 
 careful consideration by his parents or guardians. 
 
 I speak with moderation when I say that nowa¬ 
 days parents are far too prone to think a youth’s good 
 fortune certain from the moment his legs dangle 
 from the stool in a mercantile office. “ A good clerk 
 is always sure of being employed ” is their consoling 
 and frequent reflection. It is a mistake. The belief 
 alleviates anxiety and generally brings comfort to 
 those whose young friends are apparently doing well 
 
32 CLERKS. 
 
 in tlieir respective offices; but it is thoroughly erro¬ 
 neous to lay to heart the flattering unction that a clerk, 
 even of proved efficiency and integrity, can secure 
 constant employment. A large proportion of those 
 who are at this present time seeking situations are 
 thoroughly qualified by commercial training and by 
 uprightness of character to accept employment invol¬ 
 ving the greatest care and responsibility, and are 
 willing to do so for salaries somewhere about <£1 per 
 week ! I have seen sober, well-educated, well-recom¬ 
 mended clerks, possessed of first-rate business 
 qualifications, and conversant with one or two 
 foreign languages, walking the streets of London 
 almost barefoot, reduced to the lowest depths of 
 genteel poverty, and have known such men calling 
 at upwards of sixty offices a day in the hope of 
 obtaining employment, but without success. 
 
 Others I have known to have systematically walked 
 some thirty miles of pavement a day in search of the 
 employment they had been brought up to, and, after 
 seven or eight weeks spent in fruitless inquiry, con¬ 
 sidered themselves fortunate —so severe was the 
 competition—when they succeeded in obtaining 
 berths as night invoicing clerks at 15s. or IBs. per 
 week at a Metropolitan Goods Station. These are 
 not rare instances, and are by no means the worst 
 which can be placed on record as evidencing how 
 the cheaply-educated and brainless macliine-like 
 youths have supplanted the bonde fid clerks. Anyone 
 familiar with our principal towns may, with a little 
 inquiry, meet with similar experiences. 
 
 The present condition of the average clerk, the 
 
CLERKS. 
 
 41 
 
 have convenient opportunity for obtaining additional 
 qualifications. 
 
 The scale of salaries I have proposed is computed 
 upon the basis of an average of eight hours office - 
 work per day. If the employer's office hours are 
 longer, he should pay a trifle more to his assistants; 
 if. they are shorter, the clerk can afford to accept 
 something less, for he gains the additional time in 
 which to prepare himself for future advantages. 
 
 That there are difficulties in the way of the 
 general adoption and application of my scheme I 
 am well aware; but they are not insurmountable ; 
 and in competent hands such a plan would, I believe, 
 work very successfully, and be of advantage to all 
 parties concerned. The commercial value of the 
 clerk would be more clearly defined, his advancement 
 would depend solely upon his individual exertions, 
 the best clerks would secure the best-paid appoint¬ 
 ments, and the whole class would be actuated by 
 motives arising from emulation, self-esteem, example, 
 and encouragement of friends, to strive for the cer¬ 
 tificate of the highest grade—obtaining which, they 
 would be upon a commercial equality with others 
 who had toiled and won. A fair field would be open 
 to the intelligent and deserving (who, under this 
 system, would find it much easier than at present 
 to obtain situations suited to their individual abili¬ 
 ties)—the undeserving and unqualified would remain 
 or he placed in the lowest grades, and every clerk 
 would find his level, increasing his remuneration 
 only as he improved his abilities for business, while 
 
42 
 
 CLERKS. 
 
 the anomalies which frequently characterise appoint¬ 
 ments now would, I firmly believe, be swept entirely 
 away. 
 
 By recognising the Institute and its rules em¬ 
 ployers would procure the best possible guarantee 
 of the business qualifications of their assistants; 
 they would know exactly what remuneration each 
 one was worth; they would have a far more diligent 
 and studious class of assistants ; and, lastly (but not 
 of less importance), they would know where to obtain 
 one or one hundred clerks of the grades most suited 
 to their respective wants or purses. 
 
 Parents would be enabled to see plainly in what 
 grades were ranked the surplus of unemployed clerks, 
 and would educate those of their children that they 
 intended to devote to a commercial life in strict 
 accordance with the immutable laws of supply and 
 demand. 
 
 Further than this, should the project be tried, it 
 would in all probability have the effect of opening up 
 schools for thorough technical commercial training, 
 and most employers will readily admit that the want 
 of such establishments is often very severely felt. 
 
 I do not anticipate that the least deserving of 
 clerks will agree with any scheme based for its suc¬ 
 cess upon competitive examination and advancement 
 by merit, because such a reformation would probably 
 lower their present salaries and touch them in their 
 tenderest point; but all who are anxious to advance 
 by their own exertions, and by careful studious 
 attention to the requirements of their calling, would 
 undoubtedly benefit by such a plan. 
 
CLERKS. 
 
 48 
 
 In concluding my observations upon the subject, 
 I would have it remembered that all innovations 
 upon recognised institutions must, in the nature of 
 things, meet with opposition; but I trust that what¬ 
 ever may be the ultimate fate of my scheme— 
 whether it be taken up and elaborated by abler pens 
 than mine, or meet with the neglect occasionally 
 awarded to theorists even when theorising upon 
 matters of universal benefit—there may remain to 
 me, in the opinion of my readers, the residuum of 
 satisfaction that I have caused attention to be drawn 
 to the condition and prospects of an ill-paid class, 
 and perhaps induced many to consider the career 
 open to them ere entering or being entered by 
 others in already overcrowded ranks. Especially 
 would I ask parents of all classes to ponder well 
 over the existing conditions before placing their 
 children to a life of drudgery inadequately remune¬ 
 rated and already swarming with underbidding com¬ 
 petitors. 
 
 Printed for Provost & Co., 3G, Henrietta Street, London, W.C, 
 
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 When the author paints from nature or delineates character, he is nearly always 
 successful, and sometimes remarkably so. Clergymen figure prominently. The book 
 has very considerable merits, is very readable, and in happy contrast, by its vigorous, 
 manly style, with the ordinary run of novels.”— Western Morning Neivs. 
 
 In paper wrapper, price Is. Illustrated. 
 
 THE VISIT TO THE CELLS. 
 
 Yk HUMOROUS TALE BY EBUSTST ECKSTEIN. 
 
 (Translated from the Fifteenth German Edition.) 
 
 “ The original is very popular in Germany, and it will certainly be welcome here, 
 for it is truly comic in its nature and is written with a great deal of genuine 
 fun .”—Public Opinion. 
 
 “A very humorous story of school-life .”—City Press. 
 
 “Amusing without being childish, and highly humorous without being coarse.”— 
 
 Figaro. 
 
 “ This little sketch will be sure to evoke much laughter from the reader, as he 
 proceeds with the sketch. The comic effect is simply irresistible .”—Gloucester 
 Mercury. 
 
 “ Will delight young readers, to say nothing of their elders.”— Lloyd*s Paper. 
 
 Crown 8vo, cloth, price 5s. 
 
 THE SISTER’S YEAR. 
 
 “ The scene of the ‘ Sister’s Year ’ is laid in Ireland, and it is to its complete and 
 yet not exaggerated nationality that it owes its chief charm. It is evidently 
 written by an Irish author, at home with, but not showing up, the people. Instead 
 of feeling (as so often is the case with an Irish tale) as if we had been seeing a 
 farce, we feel much more as if we had been staying with Irish friends, and amused 
 in due measure by their surroundings. To add to this feeling, there are some 
 capital descriptions of the wild, beautiful, yet desolate scenery. We hope our 
 readers will conspire to order the book from their several libraries, for it is quite 
 worth reading .”—Literary Churchman. 
 
 LONDON: PROVOST & 00 , 36 , HENRIETTA STREET, COVENT GARDEN.