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TRACDs?U{N-IgCr,apPh>tAc*.U'fYLdOrNesDsOM. t eleph on e V I CTO RI A 6A JO -9820 92I *3% Tr ades Union Congr ess Gener al Council Ceners/ S^or^tary. Wa l t er m c i t r i n e f To tvhotv cosnm onrc f / oas shouf c & ddr * sssd) 'ebur Raf ur R ef Departmen t TRANSPORT HOUSE (SOUTH BLO CK) SMITH SQ U A R E , LO N D O N . S.W .l. Ya l 4^ - i / x t Jx ^ ; 7 f . / / S, V C, y/^U; Z-* ^ Jx S ~ o , t/ . V^ l ., / , z ,.pu-'/<' g S 4_ - V SL~- /*p / n/ p r / /y * s t yJ n ` ^ ,y & y / / y- Y, z r ^y / 2^ A4L~. - ' ' &.y*. y s) Y> y ^L ' . - a ^ / y Y^_ ^ /y * .& Y . 0 / ' /yC < *~ ,; y yf 4 ^r -p C b? ^Y Y 9rr - *; .a PCy' y * ^ t y-. w * Y /y y *y~ /r * A ^yyy y^` ^ A J ' ' y _ , y^yzz^*- y&y y' y * ^ ,, . . ^ 2 jt ` yy~ Y> y~ jZ zt TM /S " Y ^ Y ^ Y Y y y yy ' / / K a y / - <-` / y -y y ~ 00933 THE LABOUR MAGAZINE I ncorporating The 'Br it ish T r a des Union R eview a n d the La bou r Pa r t y Bulletin Vol . I X MARCH, 1931 No. *i The Trades Union Congress and the Labour Pa r t y do not accept responsibility f o r the views expressed in signed articles appearing ix the " Labour M a ga zin e' CONTENTS Frontispiece . . . . . . . . . The Trade Guild Windows at Chartres. By Sir Thomas Legge Twenty-five Eventful Years. By Herbert Tracey . . A Defeat for Commonsense. By Arthur Henderson, B.A ., LL.B., M J Civil Service Unions and the Trade Disputes Bill. . By J. W . Bowen, M J How I Won East Islington. By Leah Manning, J P,,VM.P. H ow Women Won the Vote. By E. Pethick-Lawrence . Need Lancashire Fear Machinery ? By T. Harold Richardson Editorial Notes . . . . . . . No Surrender of the Right to Strike. By Charles Dukes, J.P M. P Armament Waste in Belgium. By Emile Vandervelde The Miners' Welfare Fund. By R. B. Suthers . . Debate on Unemployment ..... National Economy . . . . . . . Book of the Month . . . . . . . Book Reviews . . . ., .4 Industrial Developments . . . . ' . . International Trade Union Notes and Labour Abroad . International Labour Office Notes . . ; . Co-operative Activities . . . . . . A Who's Who of Contributors to this issue appears in page $28 Pag * 482 483 487 491 4?6494 50 502 5 4 508 5 1* 5 i3 51S 20 522 523 524 525 526 527 N 22359.01 T h e Trade Guild W indows at Chartres* By SIR THOMAS LEGGE C H A RT RES Cathedra], with its popula tion of nearly to,ooo statues and fig'ures painted on the windows, was the outcome of religious enthusiasm even to-day is felt to creat e a sense of exalt a tion such as no other place or atmosphere can gi ve. An astonishing fact which is brought home for church building among the people of the to one nowhere else in such force is that t i t h, 12th, and i j t h centuries. And in the literally in their gi ft s of windows the mer rase of Chartres, chants, s h o p fires, which des t r o y e (I t h e church in the k eeper s, traders, workm e n , an d 11th and again l a b o u r e r s-- in the i ath cen in other words, tury, only made business a n d the people the commerce -- are more eager to on an ex ac t see it rise again, equality with the a great er wonder highest in the than before. Xo land -- Ki ngs, sacrifice was too noblemen. and great -- among Church digni the people in taries. Fort y- yoking them two windows selves to draw were gi ven by the w a g o n s the Tr ade which bore the Guilds, 46 by stones, among the kings of the canons in F r a n c e (St. sacrificing their L o u i s) and stipends f o r nobles, and four three years, and teen by Church a m o n g ever;.' dignit aries. And class in bring while the kings ing gifts. and churchmen A tremendous in their capacity idea caught hold of their minds, TH E BU TCH ER. as d o n o r s appear always ' partly through the call of St. Bernard and on their bended knees. It is far otherwise with .Pet er the Hermit telling them what those the traders, who are al ways shown ext ra who did not join up for the Crusades could ordinarily alert and ah', e in furtherance of their do at home in service, and of the stores they would lav up for themselves in heaven by so doing, but mostly it must have been due to their own desire to raise the finest monument thev could to Mary and her Son. As there were no books, statues and painted windows telling the stories of the Bible and the lives of the Saint s were the natural form it took, and they achieved their object in a setting which jobs. It is almost as though they became sated with the marvellous stories of apostle and saint told in the windows and wanted to show that there was another >ide to the picture. The medallions in which they thus si gn them selves really belong -herefore to domestic rather than ecclesiast .. al glass. Only twice or thrice does one find them on their knees, and then only when they are presenting, * Rmne part nf a l ect ur e del i ver ed in t he Gr eat Hal l of St . Bar t hol om ew's H ospi t al i a aid of t he r ebui l di ng Appeal Fun d on Feb r uar y 24, 1931. through their canon, their window (of which an effigy is always shown) to the bishop. I 00937 484 T h e La b o u r Ma g a z in e Flic bakers and cun feerioners gave fi'e windows. indeed, they hold the place *of honour, being shown with iheir baskets of loaves in the two central window s of the apse, one of which is surmounted by Our Lady with the Infant Christ in tier lap. In them you can see the prc>cesses of firing the furnace, kneadmg the dough in a bowl or moulding- the wafers, removing the loaves from the oven. SH O EM AK ER FI T T I N G A CU ST O M ER . and then carrying the pile in a basket so heavy as to require it to be siting between the shoulders of two of them, or standing behind the counter and selling loaves to cust omer s. The butchers .gave two windows. Nothing more realistic could be depicted than the butcher in the bottom panel of an npsida! window (showing Kzeohial, David, and a Seraph) with axe raised about to fell a calf, the head of which is veiled and steadied !>v a shortened rope from its horns to its feet. The dressed carcase of a pig hangs on the wall, and the whole operation is being anxiouslv watched bv a white fox-terrier. 1he masons and carpenters figure naturally in one window, testing whether the wall is plumb or not using a level .and compass, carrying the stones, carving the statues to be placed in the porches, and placing in one medallion their coat of arms--a level, a square, and asblared stones---showing pride in their work- Above to a height of cy feet rise tiers of graceful treading in ruby gl ass, alternate^- round and pointed, which they alone could shape. The carpenters (who, as is to be expected, gi ve the window of Xoah and the building of the Ark) are seen at their bench or constructing the wooden framework of a house. The cooper is busy binding round the cask the withies shown in green gl ass. The turner seated behind his footlathe with hands placed on the piece of wood must have been seen at work by the st ained-glass artist, because the cord by which the piece of wood is made to revolve is dis tinctly seen, one end fixed to the pedal and the other to a pulley in the ceiling. Their patron saint was St . Bart holomew, a great seated effigy of whom, presented by them, , is seen in a clerestory window. The choice of a patron saint seems to have been determined by fortuitous circumstances. Thus St Bart holo mew displays as his emblem theknife with which he achieved martyrdom by being flayed dive. That was enough-- the turners used knives and chisels and cutting tools, and t here fore thev chose St. Bart holomew. No stretch of imagination is required to understand how the great London hospital comes to bear his name. Similarly, St. Blaise, who carries as his emblem two hand cards, was chosen by the woolworkers as their patron saint because he achieved martyrdom bv being torn in much the same way as a card combs wool. All the scones which are depicted in the St. Blaise window are known, but the window, al as 1 along with six others was callously removed in 1788--a period of st range lack of art ist ic appreciation--to let more light into the choir. The extraordinarily decorative effect of the markings on fur in the heraldic adaptation as vair was at once seized on bv the artist as the T h e La b o u r Ma g a z in e 485 cent ral point of interest in showing the again he is seen drawing wine from a turners, who, with the drapers, were the barrel. donors of five windows, among' them the verv These workmen are clad in their workaday beautifully told story of St . Eust ace, another blouses, fastened by a belt, but cap, blouse, that of the strange battles of Charlemagne st ockings and shoes are ns bright and gay with the Saracens, and a third Daniel, in colour as can be--rubv, emerald, moss Jeremiah and a Seraph in one of the apsidal green, amethyst, yellow---and nearly ail are windows in glorification of the Vi rgin. These set in a background of deep sky blue. medallions bringing in the furriers are to my mind easily the most beaut i f ul . The weaver sealed at his loom and the winder come into three win dows. Agai n, the five windows of the Guild of Leat her-workers--shoe makers, curriers, and feilmongers-- might serve to-day as illustrations of their work when carried on without machinery. The scenes are lifelike pictures of industrious application. Who has not felt this to-day when watching the shoemaker at his last behind the shop window? The piles of shoes, one fitted into another, are there, the shoemaker is seen fitting a customer and the fellmonger is either beaming or wringing out the lye from the skin. , Parchment, even then of most beautiful texture, was the only ^vailablej material for the scribes and illuminators in the monasteries. The banners indeed gave the window describing the life and murder of our St. Thomas of Cant erbury and the shoemakers that of the Good Samarit an and the death and obsequies of the Virgin. But for al that, as for t hemsel ves, thev appear absolutely engrossed in their work. FU R R I ER SH O W I N G H I S W AR ES. W H I CH AN A P P R EN T I CE I S REM O VI N G FRO M A CO FFER , TO TW O CU ST O M ER S. Space does not allow of more than mention Why are there no such Trade Guild windows of the farriers busy shoeing a horse, armourers of the 13th century in Engl and? It is not finishing a shield and polishing stirrups, the that the Guilds did not exist. They flourished. fishmonger, the grocer selling his goods, and Xor to my mind is it sufficient to say that we the apothecary pounding drugs in a mortar. have too few windows of the 13th century The bankers or money-changers, as the remaining after centuries of destruction and wealthiest guild no doubt, gave five windows, decay. As a matter of fact Canterbury in ail of which they are seen with scales weigh Cathedral has seven windows as good as the ing out money. 7'he publican is shown in a windows in Chart res and probably made by homely scene leaving the Hoop Inn and the same craftsmen. In Lincoln there is much car ryi ng a drink to a seated man. And 13th century gl ass, and it is seen scattered 486 T h e La b o u r Ma g a z in e about in Beverley Minster and elsewhere. It may be that they took a different form, because at Cant erbury in the beautiful windows illus trat ing the miracles worked at St. Thomas' Shrine the workman comes in frequently in a series of panels, first as the carpenter who accidentally chops his leg instead of the plank and is miraculously healed, or again as the navvy who in digging- a trench is overwhelmed by a fall of earth, and. is eventually dug out by labourers with picks and shovels through the guidance of St . Thomas. But we have one window a hundred years later which is perhaps even more charming in picture. The background is blue gl ass, richly diapered, and above, at the sides and beloware bells, bells, bells. No trace of th names of any of the stained gl ass craftsmen is to be found in Chart res, and all one can sav about the failure of a monument is to remember what is said as to the similar absence of one to Sir Christ opher Wren in St. Paul 's Cathedral : " If you wish for a monument, look around you ! " Cannot the spirit of these decorative Trade Guild panels be recaptured? Assuredly it can. Stained gl ass is no lost art ; gl ass as beautiful as any in the Middle Ages is being ST O N EM ASO N S AN D SCU LP T O R S. its expression of the joy in work taken by the mediteval craftsmen than any that are found in Continental churches. It is the bellfounders' window in the nave of Vork Minster dat ing from the fourteenth century. In the centre panel the donor, Richard Tunnoc, is present ing the window to the Archbishop. In the right the core of the mould is being shaped. One figure is t urning it with a handle like a grindstone, while another with a long crooked tool (which he holds firmly with both hands, one end being placed under his right armpit) is moulding the clay to the proper form, gi vi ng his whole mind to the task. In the left panel the metal is being poured, with the furnace, bellows, and apprentices ail brought into the made to-day and artist craftsmen survive. Unity House in the Euston Road is an example. On the st aircase windows of fine slab gl ass are let in coloured panels showing a plate layer at work on the track, a shunt er uncoupling, a driver and fireman in their engine cab, the mysterious approach to a tunnel, the " Rocket ," and the latest design in engines. Crowning all are the insignia of office clustered together, on the one side a hand-lamp, a plat elayer's shovel and loose coupling links, on the other a spanner, a plat elayer's pick and screw coupling l i nks. The spirit (if not the glass) of Chart res is t her e.