EDITORIAL – YMCA Early closing Redcar and Coatham

Accreditation The Redcar and Saltburn-by-the-Sea Gazette 18/04/1878.

EARLY CLOSING – Y. M. C. A.
(editorial)

            On Monday evening last (08/04), a meeting of assistants and apprentices was held in the Y. M. C. A. Reading-room, to consider the question of early closing, and to take some steps to further the object of closing earlier than has hitherto been the custom in Redcar and Coatham during the summer months. The meeting was of a good – humoured character, and the conclusion it came to was to adjourn until Wednesday (10/04) and invite the masters to meet their subordinates. At this second meeting there was a very good attendance, and considerable discussion took place. There was such evident good feeling on the part of the masters present that we hope the movement will lead to a successful result. That there are difficulties in the way of early closing in a watering-place such as do not exist in other towns was plainly expressed, but the disposition to look facts in the face with a spirit of fairness is a good augury. It is one thing to wish to accommodate visitors and inhabitants as much as possible within reasonable limits; it is another to yield to the bad habits of procrastinating people who would impart their own idle and desultory habits to all with whom they have to deal. The hours of labourers and artisans have been much shortened of late years, and it is reasonable that falls who are confined in shops from 8 a.m.., without intermission, till evening, with only a very short space for meals, should wish to have a little open air recreation on fine some evenings, when all nature rejoices, and the air is redolent with health and freedom. The result of Wednesday’s meeting, was favourable to shortening the hours as much as is practicable under the circumstances, and a deputation was formed to call upon the Masters inviting them to meet together at the Reading-room, next Wednesday (24/04), at 8.30 p.m., to consider the matter fully. Mr. Hudson, the ironmonger, strongly advocated closing at seven all the year round, and he has the greatest right to urge this, for he advocates on principle what he carries out in practice – his own shop being closed regularly at seven o’clock winter and summer alike. It is significant that Mr. Hudson says he does not believe that his customers are inconvenienced, nor that he himself suffers loss: the rule is known, and people come in time. We believe that a concerted movement, which would fix an early and general hour for closing would earn for the masters the gratitude of their employees, that a better feeling would be the result, and that in the end, the pastors would enjoy the freedom as much as those on whose immediate behalf the movement has been made. We are also of the opinion that the public will aid in this undertaking by shopping earlier when their attention is fully called to the hardship entailed on assistants and apprentices by over long hours, and the advantages which resolved from reasonable hours of business being kept.

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