Document qmeww7oQwOqxK6Y61LbE94nEj

She{<+*p^opA>c -V'/d'rrss TRADUNIC, PAPL. LQRDOM. telephone VICTORIA 6AI0 -9820 9821 Tr a d e s Un io n Co n g r e s s Ge n e r a l Co u n c il Genera' Se-cmtaQ'. Wa l t e r m c it r in e . f To whom 3J! oommunma t/ons should he addressed) 'four fief Q`jr Ref Departmer t f 7/ / 7/ : C; /y Lt ^4^ / /'^r / o/ .i s JL,<7 / /Q t.s l r /?7/ ^ > ^-- *-***. // y 7 rt * &Jz A* fc.. sp- TRANSPORT HOUSE (SOUTH BLOCK) SMITH SQUARE, LONDON. S.W.l. ' f ?1. y / ./ 4_X: /-W^L X ^ /" jy*---- * ,;/ ^ i -Tt , ' '') 7, -sa /. 7^*7 </ 43 .. ; ',. t~e. j zG"'-f^' 7^ y ^ 7^ 7 Z' 7 GLi*-j~ 7"~ !' Lu O /i 4^-* 777 7- /2vsv'. 5fc LG */ s*> -. Zr-Ls TM ^ c . z/ - s- ,\ THE LABOUR MAGAZINE Incorporating Tht 'British Trades Union Review and the Labour Party Bulletin Vo l . IX MARCH, 1931 No. *,* The Trades Union Congress and the Labour Party do not accept responsibility far the views expressed in signed articles appearing in the " Labour Magazine " 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. P Civil Service Unions and the Trade Disputes Bill. By J. W. Bowen, M.P How I Won East Islington. By Leah Manning, J P^.M.P. How 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 Armament Waste in Belgium. By Emile Vandervelde The Miners' Welfare Fund. By R. B. Suthers . M.P Debate on Unemployment ..... National Economy ....... Book of the Month . . . .. Book Reviews . . . . ..z 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 528 Pa g * 482 483 487 491 494 SP 502 504 508 5l 1 513 518 520 522 523 524 525 526 527 N22359.01 fes 00936 The Trade Guild Windows at Chartres* By SIR THOMAS LEGGE HARTRES Cathedral, with its popula even to-day is felt to create a sense of exalta C tion of nearly to,ooo statues and figures painted on the windows, was the outcome of religious enthusiasm tion such as no other place or atmosphere can give. An astonishing fact which is brought home for church building among the people otfo thoene nowhere else in such force is that i ith, iath, and 13th centuries. And in the literally in their gifts of windows the mer case of Chartres, fires, which dest r o y e (I t h e church in the 1 nh and again in the 12th cen tury, only made chants, shop keepers, traders, workm e n , and labourer s-- in other words, business and the people the commerce -- are more eager to on an exact see it rise again, equality with the a greater wonder highest in the than before. Xo land -- Kings, sacrifice was too noblemen. and great -- among Church digni the people in taries. Fortv- yoking them two windows selves to draw were given by ^ the w a g o n s the Trade which bore the Guilds, 46 by stones, among the kings of the canons in France (St. sacrificing their Louis) and stipends for nobles, and four three years, and teen by Church a m o n g everv dignitaries. And class in bring while the kings ing gifts. and churchmen A tremendous in their capacity idea caught hold of their minds, THE BUTCHER. as donors appear always partly through the call of St. Bernard and on their bended knees, it is far otherwise with .Peter the Hermit telling them what those the traders, who are always shown extra who did not join up for the Crusades could ordinarily alert and alb. e in furtherance of their do at home in service, and of the stores they jobs. It is almost as though they became sated would lay up for themselves in heaven by so doing, but mostly it must have been due to their own desire to raise the finest monument they 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 Saints were the natural form it took, and with the marvellous -Tories of apostle and saint told in the windows and wanted to show that there was another >;de to the picture. The medallions in which they thus sign them selves really belong -herefore to domestic rather than ecclesiasti.al glass. Only twice they achieved their object in a setting which or thrice does one fir.d them on their knees, and then only when they are presenting, * Rpinfj part of i lecture delivered in ihe Great Hall of St. Bartholomew's Hospital ia aid of the rebuilding Appeal Fund o q February 24, 1931. through Their canon, their window (of which an effigy is always shown) to the bishop. 484 Th e La b o u r Ma c a z in e The bakers and confectioners gave live windows. Indeed, they hold ibe place "of honour, being shown with iheir baskets of loaves in the two central windows of the apse, one of which is surmounted by Our Lady with the Infant Christ in her lap. In them you can see the processes of firing the furnace, knead ing the dough in a bowl or moulding- the wafers, removing the loaves from the oven. SHOEMAKER FITTING A CUSTOMER. and then carrying the pile in a basket so heavy as to require it to be slung between the shoulders of two of them, or standing behind the counter and selling loaves to customers. The butchers gave two windows. Nothing more realistic could be depicted than the butcher in the bottom panel of an apsidal window (showing Kzechial, David, and a Seraph) with axe raised about to fell a calf, the head of which is veiled and steadied by a shortened rope from its horns to its feet. The dresser! carcase of a pig hangs on the wall. and the whole operation is being anxiouslv w.ttched bv a white fox-terrier. 1 he 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 ashlared stones.--showing pride in their work. Above to a height of jy feet rise tiers of graceful nrcading in ruby glass, alternately- round and pointed, which they alone could shape. The carpenters (who, as is to be expected, give the window of Noah and the building of the Ark) are seen at their bench or constructing the wooden framework of a house. The cooper is busv binding round the cask the withies shown in green glass. The turner seated behind his footlathe with hands placed on the piece of wood must have been seen at work by the stained-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. Bartholomew, 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 Bartholo mew displays as his emblem the knife with which he achieved martyrdom by being flayed alive. That was enough--the turners used knives and chisels and cutting tools, and there fore they chose St. Bartholomew. No stretch of imagination is required to understand how the great London hospital comes to bear his name. Similarly, St. Blaise, who carries ns his emblem two hand cards, was chosen by the wool workers as their patron saint because he achieved martyrdom by 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, alas 1 along with six others was callously removed in 1788--a period of strange lack of artistic 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 0938 Th e La b o u r Ma g a z in e 485 central point of interest in showing' the again he is seen drawing wine from a furriers, who, with the drapers, were the barrel. donors of five windows, among them the very These workmen are clad in their workaday beautifully told story of St. Eustace, another blouses, fastened by a belt, but cap, blouse, that of the strange battles of Charlemagne stockings and shoes are as bright and gay with the Saracens, and a third Daniel, in colour as can be--ruby, emerald, moss Jeremiah and a Seraph in one of the apsidal green, amethyst, yellow--and nearly ail are windows in glorification of the Virgin. These set in a background of deep sky blue. medallions bringing in the furriers are to my mind easily the most beautiful. The weaver sealed at his loom and the w inder come into three win dows. Again, the fine windows of the Guild of Leather-workers--shoe makers, curriers, and fellmongers-- 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 Available? material for the scribes and illuminators in the monasteries. The 'tanners indeed gave the window describing the life and murder of our St. Thomas of Canterbury and the shoemakers that of the Good Samaritan and the death and obsequies of the Virgin. But for al that, as for themseh'cs, they appear absolutely engrossed in their work. FURRIER SHOWING HIS WARES. WHICH AN APPRENTICE IS REMOVING FROM A COFFER, TO TWO CUSTOMERS. 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 England? 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 Nor 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 all of which they are seen with scales weigh Cathedral has seven windows as good as the ing out money. The publican is shown in a windows in Chartres and probable made by homely scene leaving the Hoop Inn and the same craftsmen. In Lincoln there is much carrying a drink to a seated man. And 13th century glass, and it is seen scattered 00939 486 about in Beverley Minster and elsewhere. It may be that they took a different form, because at Canterbury in the beautiful windows illus trating 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 Th e La b o u r MI a g a z in e picture. The background is blue glass, richlydiapered, and above, at the sides and below are bells, bells, bells. No trace of the names of any of the stained glass craftsmen is to be found in Chartres, and all one can say about the failure of a monument is to remember what is said as to the similar absence of one to Sir Christopher 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 glass is no lost art; glass as beautiful as any in the Middle Ages is being STONEMASONS AND SCULPTORS. its expression of the joy in work taken by the medieval craftsmen than any that are found in Continental churches. It is the bellfounders' window in the nave of York Minster dating from the fourteenth century. In the centre panel the donor, Richard Tunnoc, is presenting the window to the Archbishop. In the right the core of the mould is being shaped. One figure is turning 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, giving his whole mind to the task. In the left panel the metal is being poured, with the furnace, bellows, and apprentices all brought into the made to-day and artist craftsmen survive. Unity House in the Euston Road is an example. On the staircase windows of fine slab glass are let in coloured panels showing a plate layer at work on the track, a shunter 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 platelayer's shovel and loose coupling links, on the other a spanner, a platelayer's pick and screw coupling links. The spirit (if not the glass) of Chartres is there. 00940