Page:The Building News and Engineering Journal, Volume 22, 1872.djvu/527

 JunE 21, 1872. THE “BRITISH ARCHITECTS.” ROM the day when one of the leaders of the Gothic School of Architects under- took to forsake his party at the dictation of a popular minister, the pleasant idea of brotherly association in the profession has declined. It may be a very proper and a righteous thing to do to attempt to revive this idea by talking about esprit de corps, self-made critics, &c., but in the com- mon nature of things the attempt can hardly help proving a failure. It is the essential point of difference between the architectural and all other liberal professions that the first has no corps at all, and therefore no esprit, If we take the profession at large it would be difficult to find half-a-dozen men who would be in accord on any given subject. It is almost proverbial that architects not only do not support or back up one another as the members of other professions do, but they seem to delight in frustrating each other whenever they have the chance. The history of architectural competitions and law cases affords abundant proofs of this. Nor is it very surprising, considering the absence of anything like an effective system of organisation. In fact, we have no body representing the pro- fession. There is, it is true, the Institute of British Architects, which is entitled to speak with such authority as may be established on a royal charter. But against this authority there is arrayed a very formidable majority —for it is as well to remember that there are over 1,700 practising architects who are not members of the Institute, and that amongst them are many of the most accomplished architects of our time—Butter- field, Bodley, Shaw, Webb, Nesfield, &c. Some have always held aloof —some have tried it and found it wanting, but the majority see plainly enough that there is as much jealousy, and opposition, and unbrotherliness within the family circle of this society as there is without. They see the kind of sup- port Mr. Scott’s confréres gave him in the matter of the Foreign Office; they see the sort of brotherly backing given to Mr. Street when he was assailed by one of the Institute s Gold Medallists. They can read the law reports, and learn the value of Institute documents and Institute desires in the evi- dence of distinguished Fellows, and they can appreciate the kind of gratitude exhibited by the members for long years of gratuitous services rendered by hard-worked officials. Moreover, the great practical service which was supposed by many would have arisen from the establishment of a professional practice committee has proved to be a delusion. ‘Toa question of doubtful practice, a definite answer was indeed rare; its opinion was often kept back; its authority when expressed was mostly rendered futile by the guarded or ‘“‘less accurate” terms which shrouded it. The President and his sup- porters flatter themselves, no doubt, that this isan unwarrantable sketch of a very valu- able and worthy society: we only wish it it was. We wish, too, that the President’s view of the manner in which other countries look on our works was as correct as he thinks itis. We have every desire to believe well of the profession, but we must find some- thing more assuring than the President’s ad- dress before we can have anchorage for such a faith. Itis too surely a sign of decay and feebleness when the chief of a chartered society finds it necessary to deprecate public criticism. If the art and the profession flourish better by virtue of such association, and if the practice of architecture esthetically and economically suffers by non-association, we should like to have the example pointed out to us. If, too, a modern design is the genuine work of the man who fathers it, what has he to fear from adverse critics? Either his design is bad, in which case he may reap benefit from the condemnation, and should be thankful, or itis good, and he can punish the critic by publishing it. Modern architects, especially those of the semi-Palladian school, THE BUILDING NEWS. 505 always appear to have felt strongly on this there is no fact more fixed in its character, subject, and we fear that in this very shyness | and more unmistakable in its tendency, thar of criticism the President’s address is suffi- ciently answered. There is another point. We have not the exact statistics by us; but we venture to say that the Fellows of the Institute of British Architects do not number one- seventh of the profession. And in the face of this numerical weakness they yet think it to the interests of the profession to discuss, and, for all we know, settle schemes of general practice with closed doors. What guarantee have the outsiders that arrangements and understandings have not been made in the discussion of this last document which will never appear on the face of it? Is it not well known that its predecessor was looked on as nothing more than a foolscap sheet of sug- gestions even by those who drew it up? Is it not too well known that many members never paid the slightest attention to it ; and that those who, in their esprit de corps, as it is called, were fools enough to sail according to its instructions, were only laughed at for their pains? It is verily surprising that even in the simple matter of a schedule of charges unanimity of action is impossible! Let us hear no more of comparisons between the architectural and other professions, for until some ground of unanimity is discovered by the ‘ British Architects’ such talk is but presumption. EB. W. G. —<—<—_—_5—————_ THE BUILDING TRADES’ DISPUTE. X7HAT we feared and deprecated has taken place. The partial strike of the men has been replied to by a general lock- out. The question is now who will be victorious. ‘There is no misunderstanding as to the conditions. The men demand nine- pence an hour for nine hours’ work daily, and they make this demand with no faltering voice. As we intimated last week, other terms would have been acceptable three or four weeks since. But the lock-out has evoked something like an enthusiastic an- tagonism. The men will not consent to the questions of time and wages being submitted to arbitration. No doubt the men are exact- ing. They think that time and circumstances are in their favour, and they are determined to turn them to the best account. Their success, however, will depend on the sym- pathy they may meet with in the country generally. As a matter of course, the trade throughout the country will be appealed to, meetings will be held, manifestoes issued, and inflammatory language used. All the appliances of strike warfare will, in all probability, be called into requisition. We do not advocate this, we merely indicate probabilities, so that we may measure the probable extent and duration of the struggle. It will, as all such struggles are, be attended with enforced idleness, waste, and the for- mation to some extent of drinking and other demoralising habits. If the contest be a pro- longed one, the whole public will suffer with the building trades. ‘There is no preventing itnow. A few weeks since—ay, a few days since—the bitterissue might, withan exercise of more wisdom, have been prevented. Now it is a trial of strength. The men, who gave the first blow, cannot in reason blame the masters for giving one inreturn. The lock- out was just as legitimate as the strike. The masters are not in a position to find much fault with the men, as they refused in the first place to see the representatives of the men in friendly conference. ‘This initiatory error diverted the discussion into a disturbed channel, and imported into it a feeling of bitterness. It may be said it is useless to cry over spilt milk. We, however, allude to it not to reflect on the shortsightedness of the masters, but as a warning for the future. Other disputes will arise, and possibly other painful collisions will take place. If the men are unsuccessful in their demands now, they will most assuredly reassert them on the first favourable opportunity. To our minds, that of the mass of the artisan class in Eng- land working shorter hours. The demand is in harmony with the gradual spread of education, the more equal distribution of political power, the more extended use of machinery for the augmentation of wealth, and the inextinguishable and prevalent longings for improved social conditions. The demand is, in fact, a part and parcel of the gradual and universal uprising of humanity in Europe and America. Our desire is that employers should steadily fix their eyes on this fact and acknowledge its force. If they will do so they will more easily and readily adapt themselves to victorious circumstances. It must not be thought that we are prejudiced or one-sidedin ourcomments. In what we have said for weeks past and in what we say now, we have only endeavoured to interpret facts. Our interests are the interests of all. We wish to avoid as much as possible wasting and exasperating conflicts; and, now we are ir the thick of one, we wish to see it limited to the narrowest area and the shortest duration ; and to this end we suggest, not arbitration by disinterested and well-to-do outsiders, but a conference. Let the men select (say) six delegates, and the masters an equal number, and let the delegates meet each other on absolutely equal terms and talk over the matter. If they cannot bridge over the gulf, or, at all events, narrow it by such means, the struggle must continue until the weaker of the disputants yields from exhaustion. A prolonged contest should at all events be obviated if possible, and to our minds, the most effectual way of doing it is to submit the disputed points to the arbitrament of reason. J.P.E. ee NOTES ON EARTHWORK.—IX. WHE policy of driving headings for pipe sewers is questionable, to say the most: for it. Many accidents have happened from headings not having been solidly filled back over the sewers. When a heading in which a sewer is laid is not solidly filled back (and it is difficult to do this, even with close atten- tion on the part of the superintendents of the work), and where the ground is sand or at all sandy, the settling of the material by the lapse of time and presence of water causes a gradual withdrawal of the particles from those shafts which are filled up again, to fill the vacant spaces, until—and this may be years after the sewer has been made—the crust of the surface over the former shaft has nothing left to support it, but hangs together over the hollow space by reason of its transverse strength only, and on the passage of a heavy load, or more often by a horse planting his foot right over the hollow, the crust is broken in, and probably the horse breaks his leg, and sometimes more serious accidents have oc- curred. So far as we know, sand has the greatest tendency to cause such accidents, but gravel, clay, or any other filling except broken rock, has a similar tendency. Nevertheless, in some situations short head- ings for sewers are admissible ; for instance, in driving under foot pavements or crossings ; and when the depth of the sewer is great, tunnelling becomes a necessity, not only as being less costly than an open cutting, but because of the impossibility of finding room for the stuff excavated. Therefore, the neces- sity for tunnelling for sewers cannot be wholly ignored. It remains, however, true that the policy of executing sewers by that method is bad where it is not absolutely necessary. We lately had occasion to call attention to some important sewerage works at Norwich, where the ground is chalk, and the depth from 20ft. to 80ft. from the surface. There tunnelling was adopted of necessity. In the London Main Drainage, also, tunnelling, at consider- able depths, was had recourse to; but, in other instances, we have known tunnelling done quite unnecessarily. Brick and pipe