Britain at Work
A Pictorial Description of Our National Industries

CLERKS. better, and generally live according to a more pretentious scale, than persons who earn at least as much and often considerably more. The poorer members of the craft are in this way called upon to make sacrifices and endure deprivations calculated to break the finest spirit. No city in the world presents such heart-rending extremes of luxury and poverty as London. And amongst the class whom we are now considering are to be found, perhaps, the most painful con- trasts. Any day one may notice in the City the shabbily attired clerk munching furtively the sandwich which he has brought from his home in the suburbs to serve as luncheon. He is very possibly married, and has to support a family on twenty-seven or thirty shillings a week. To him every penny counts. His single brother, earning only the same salary, or even a little less, can always afford a substantial luncheon at a respect- able restaurant, and manage to keep himself attired smartly. Travelling to and from business necessarily imposes a heavy drain upon the pocket of the metropolitan married clerk whose income approximates to that just mentioned. It is practically impossible for him to obtain cheap and suitable living accommodation within walking distance of his Work. He is therefore almost com- pelled to take up his residence in a suburb. The charges for season may appear trifling well-to-do, but the clerk with a family dependent on him cannot always afford to become a railway tickets to the humble Photo: Cassell & Co., Ltd. TOWN CLERK (BATTERSEA^. holder. He en- deavours to effect the needful economy by travelling by the workmen’s trains, a course which involves leaving home much earlier in the morning than would other- wise be necessary. In the wear and tear of metropolitan life every hour added on to the working day counts. In this respect the provincial clerk enjoys a distinct advantage over his London brethren. It is noteworthy, too, that the salaries paid to the rank and file of clerks in the provinces are substantially the same as those paid in London, notwithstanding the difference in the cost of living. But, of course, opportunities for advancement are clearly proportionate to the importance of a town as a centre of trade and industry. The Stock Exchange articled clerk belongs to the aristocracy of City clerks. He makes anything from a hundred a year to five hundred, and by-and-by will probably de- velop into a full-fledged stockbroker. All grades of Stock Exchange clerks are in the satisfactory position of possessing special knowledge of a highly technical branch of commercial life. This in itself tends to limit competition, which is a distinct gain from the employee’s point of view. Rail- way clerks also enjoy agreeable immunity from the difficulties which beset the ordinary mercantile clerk. Appointments in most of the railways are made from the ranks of