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This article gratefully copied from
The Informal Education Archives
http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~infed/index.htm
PROSPECTUS FOR CLUB AND INSTITUTE UNION
This Union is formed for the purpose of helping
Working Men to establish Clubs or Institutes where they can meet for
conversation, business, and mental improvement, with the means of recreation
and refreshment, free from intoxicating drinks; these Clubs, at the same time,
constituting Societies for mutual helpfulness in various ways.
It will be the aim of the Council of the Union to assist in
extending or improving existing Associations which have in view objects of a
kindred nature with the above, as well as to promote the establishment of Clubs
or Institutes where no such Associations may now be found. In order to
consolidate and strengthen the action and mutual fellowship of these various
Associations, Clubs, or Institutes, the Council will invite them to become
Registered Members of the Union. (In reference to the use of intoxicating drinks
on the premises, the Council are strongly of the opinion that their introduction
would be dangerous to the interests of these Societies, and earnestly recommend
their exclusion. They make this recommendation simply on prudential grounds, the
reasonableness of which, it is believed, the Working Classes will be the first
to acknowledge. The Council also recommend that at least one-half of the
managing body should be bona-fide Working Men.
The Council propose to carry out the objects of the Union:
1.
By correspondence with the Officers of existing Associations throughout
the kingdom.
2.
By personal visits, by their own Officers and by honorary deputations,
to such places as may seem to require to be visited. At these visits conferences
will be held with the Working Classes, and with others in the locality who may
be interested in the object.
3.
By the dissemination of tracts, or special papers, on subjects lying
within the sphere of the Society’s operations.
4.
By supplying instructions for the guidance of persons who may wish to
establish Clubs or Institutes; together with rules to define their objects, and
to regulate their proceedings.
5.
By grants or loans of Books for Club Libraries, Apparatus, Diagrams,
etc., to Societies in membership with the Union, in cases where local
circumstances may seem to call for such aid.
6.
By grants of money in special cases, by way of loan or otherwise, towards
the building, enlarging, or altering Club Houses, or procuring recreation
grounds, for Societies in the Union.
As soon as a sufficient number of Clubs shall have joined the
Union within a given district, the Council will combine them in local
organisations, under specified conditions. Half-yearly, or sometimes quarterly,
meetings of Delegates from the various Clubs will be held in each district,
for the consideration of matters of local interest, and for the discussion of
social questions; while an annual conference of District Representatives will be
held at various large towns in succession, to consider matters of a more general
character.
The council will be glad to receive communications addressed
to their Secretary, from persons desirous of promoting these objects either in
their own locality or generally. Information and assistance will be gladly given
and received.
Donations and subscriptions for the Union will be thankfully
received by the Secretary, or they can be paid at the London and Westminster
Bank (St James’s Square, S.W.), or any of its Branches.
An Annual Subscription of not less than [??], or a Donation
of not less than £10, constitutes the contributor a member of the Union.
Notwithstanding all the efforts made to improve the character
and condition of the Working Classes in this country, intemperance, ignorance,
improvidence, and religious indifference still abound among them to a deplorable
extent. One main reason of the want of more complete success is probably to be
found in the incompleteness of the measures adopted. Vast good, for instance,
has been accomplished by the Temperance Reform, but it often fails to retain
those whom it has reclaimed from intemperance, in not supplying something to
occupy the leisure hours formerly spent at the public-house. Mechanics’
Institutes, also, with efforts of a kindred character, have done a great work;
but they, too, generally fail in not providing recreation and amusement.
Their aims have been too high for the great majority of Working Men; hence,
while they have attracted and benefited many, the inducements held out have
failed to withdraw the multitude from habits and indulgences which all alike
deplore. As a result, we find such Institutions now generally given up to the
trading and middle classes. Working Men’s Colleges, admirable as they are,
require some such intermediate step between them and the public-house as the
Societies above described.
Recreation must go hand in hand with Education and Temperance
if we would have real and permanent improvement; while efforts should be
specially made to awaken or cherish a brotherly spirit of mutual helpfulness
among men themselves, as well as between them and the classes socially above
then. The best hope of success is in thus binding people together for worthy
ends in a true brotherhood, so that each may be led to give as well as to
receive, striving to contribute to the common good. Higher results will follow
as these preparatory measures are successful; and when the temptations to
debasing indulgence are removed the way is open for good influences of every
kind.
The aim of the Union in all cases would be to help Working
Men to help themselves, rather than to establish or manage Institutions for them
— this being as essential for the moral usefulness as for the permanent
success of our endeavours. Local and Working Class efforts may frequently be
fostered and developed by external help with the happiest result, when the
establishment of entirely new institutions, managed by the higher classes in the
neighbourhood or by a central Society, would be viewed with jealousy or
indifference. The very first step towards forming a Club or Institute would be
to interest the Working Men of the district in the undertaking, and to make them
feel that, when once started, its management and success must depend mainly on
themselves.
The next point in forming these Societies would be to procure
suitable premises for the accommodation of the members, containing rooms to be
used for conversation, refreshments, recreation, etc., and others for classes,
reading, lectures, and music. A library of entertaining and instructive books,
scientific apparatus, diagrams, etc., a supply of newspapers, and some works
of art, should be aimed at. The services of efficient teachers, paid and unpaid,
should be procured; Discussion Classes, to awaken thought and a desire for
knowledge, should be established; readings from amusing and eloquent writers,
interspersed with music and recitations, should be given periodically; and,
generally, any similar measures adopted for effecting the objects in view. Women
should have the privilege, on a small payment, of taking books out of the
library, and of admission to the lectures and concerts of the Institute; also to
classes, when efficient female superintendence could be procured. The very
valuable influence of educated women has of late years shown itself in various
schemes to improve the condition of the Labouring Classes. A much wider field
for this influence may be afforded by Societies such as those now advocated.
The Club Rooms in every locality will form the strongest
counteraction to the allurements of the Public House. The desire for social
enjoyment and the love of excitement are the impulses that habitually drive the
Working Classes to visit the Beer Shop. These instincts also form a great
temptation of reclaimed drunkards. They remain as strong as ever in their nature
after they have become abstainers, and the Public House stands before them as
the most available means for their gratification. Music, also, which ought to
purify and refine, is now extensively employed as a temptation to drinking and
other vices. Until there shall be established in every locality an institution
that shall meet these instincts with superior attractions, but without
temptations to evil, it is unreasonable to expect a great diminution in the
drinking customs of the working population. This want the proposed Clubs will
supply. Here the Working Man will obtain, at a charge within his reach, social
intercourse and healthy mental excitement — the refreshment he requires or the
improvement he seeks.
The extent to which Working Men suffer from their dependence
upon the Public House merely for business purposes is also an immense
evil, and one that is still inadequately appreciated. (See Mr Tidd Pratt’s
last Report where he remarks, ‘The holding of these Societies at a Public
House is also another ground of their failure . . . in the course of last year
the Registrar found that in Herefordshire, since 1793 the number of Societies
enrolled and certified were 136; of this number 123 were held at Public Houses
and 13 at schools or private rooms. Of those held at Public Houses no less than
42 had broken up, but of those held at schools or private rooms only one had
been dissolved.’ Even where no drinking is allowed during business hours a
considerable sum is often spent afterwards, especially by the younger men.)
Gradually, however, the proposed Clubs and Institutes will become the Houses of
Call for men in search of work and will be the centres of various Working
Men’s Societies, such as Friendly Societies, Freehold and Building
Associations, Co-operative Societies, Circulating Libraries for the district,
Temperance Societies, and of any similar agencies calculated to improve the
condition of the Working Classes.
These are no mere visionary ideas. They have been already
reduced to practice with most beneficial results in Westminster, Notting Hill,
Clare Market, Brighton, Norwood, Manchester, Shrewsbury, Leeds, Farringdon,
Liverpool, Carlisle, Southampton, Scarborough, and many other places. THE
WORKING MEN’S CLUB AND INSTITUTE UNION aims at multiplying such results by stimulating
and assisting local effort.
The time is evidently ripe for this movement. In all
directions earnest and benevolent people are groping after the means of making
isolated efforts for elevating the Working Classes above debasing vice and
ignorance; but these efforts often need judicious guidance or timely support,
and would be greatly assisted by united counsels and organised power. Our
hard-working brethren can seldom find time to initiate, or can rarely obtain
adequate support among their own class for local enterprises of this nature.
Those best acquainted with them, however, know that they thankfully welcome such
help as it is now proposed to afford.
In conclusion, it will be seen that, while the Working
Men’s Club and Institute Union may be useful with the smallest, it will be
able to make efficient application of the largest means that may be placed at
its disposal — beginning with selected localities, and widening its sphere of
action in proportion to the public support it may receive. The council earnestly
solicit the assistance, personal and pecuniary, of all who approve their
objects; and, sincerely praying that the Divine blessing may rest upon this
undertaking, they commend it to the support of all who desire the true welfare
of the Working Classes of this country.
Henry Solly, Prospectus for the Club and Institute Union, 1862