Greg_.

Employers can do a great deal towards promoting habits of thrift,
prudence, and sobriety amongst their workpeople. Though the working man
does not like to be patronized, he has no objections to be helped. We
have already seen that individuals can do much; they can cultivate
habits of economy, and lay by a certain portion of their earnings for
help in time of need. But they want encouragement and assistance. They
want sympathy; they want help.

If masters fully understood the immense amount of influence which they
possess, they would extend their sympathy and confidence to their
workmen,--which Would cost them so very little, and profit them so very
much. We know of no instance where an employer has displayed a concern
for the social well-being and improvement of his workmen, in which he
has not been repaid by their increased respect and zeal on his behalf.
He may, for instance, arrange that wages shall not be paid so as to
drive them into the market late on Saturday nights, when they are often
under the necessity of making their weekly purchases at a great
disadvantage. Of course, workmen who possess a little store of savings,
might make their purchases at greater advantage at any other time. The
employer might also avoid paying wages in public-houses, and thus keep
his workmen out of the way of incurring an expenditure upon drink, that
might prove so hurtful.

But masters can do more than this. They can actively aid their workmen
in the formation of prudent habits, by establishing savings banks for
men and women, and penny banks for boys and girls; by encouraging the
formation of provident clubs and building societies, of provision and
clothing clubs, and in many other ways. They might also distribute among
them, without any officious interference, good counsel as to the manner
in which they might make the best use of their wages. Many large
employers have already accomplished much practical good, by encouraging
the formation of provident institutions,--in which they have never
failed to secure the respect, and generally the co-operation, of their
workmen.

At the same time there is much want of sympathy between masters and men.
In fact, want of sympathy pervades all classes--the poorer, the working,
the middle, and the upper classes. There are many social gaps between
them, which cannot yet be crossed, which cannot yet be united. "If I
were to be asked," said Judge Talfourd, on whom Death was at the mom