The people of Manchester built a ship canal from their own city to Liverpool, so that they could get cotton and other supplies more directly. This canal is thirty-five miles long, and large enough for ocean steamers. What effect does this have on the cost of carrying American cotton to Manchester? 423. Other of Lancashire is Yorkshire. It is as famous for its woolens as Lancashire is for its cottons. Leeds, Bradford, Huddersfield, and York are full of mills making woolen cloth which tailors will tell you is as fine as any in the world.
Each year the town of Dundee, on the east coast of Scotland, imports ship loads of jute fiber from India (Sec. 693) and weaves from it millions of yards of gunny sacking or burlap.
In the northeastern part of Ireland is a great linen m anufacturing center. Damp climate has helped to make Irish linen famous. If the air is dry the linen thread may break, but Irish climate is damp and the thread does not break; so the weaving can be smooth and even. A hundred years ago linen was made by hand in almost every Irish home, but when the power-loom came, weaving was done in factories. The city of Belfast then became the leader, and now much fine linen is made there. Most of the flax fiber, the raw material for linen, is imported from Poland.
424. Iron, machinery, and mingham and surrounding towns stand near the central coal fields of England. This region, like that between Pittsburgh and Detroit, makes iron and steel. From these are manufactured automobiles and many other kinds of heavy goods. Sheffield, farther north, is the great center for the manufacture of cutlery and fine steel articles.
England is the greatest ship Ibuilding country in the world. As ships mud: Ltd :ivhere %they can slide into the water, England, having many bays, rivers, and harbors, as well as coal and iron, is an excellent place for this industry. On her northeastern coast, the towns of Newcastle, Tynemouth, Sunder land, Hartlepool, and Middlesbrough have coal at their very doors, and docks where ships can unload iron ore from Sweden, Norway, and Spain. Thus these towns can supply the iron for ships, and dig coal to run the machinery of the shipyard. When a ship is built, it can slide into the water, take a load of coal, and sail away to a foreign land. Glasgow and the other towns on the Clyde have the same advantage. The Clyde is
the greatest shipbuilding river in the world. Another great shipbuilding center is Belfast, in northwest Ireland, to which coal can easily be brought across the narrow waters from Glasgow.
British coal also feeds the smelting in dustry, for many ores of copper and silver are shipped from other lands to places like Cardiff for final smelting.
425. Living in cities.—In England and Scotland there is so much manufacturing, and so many people are living by trade, that most of the people live in cities. No other place, except parts of our own New England (Sec. 238), has so large a part of its popula tion living in cities. Many of these factory towns are so crowded and un wholesome that many young men have been found to be unfit when examined for army service. Helpful people are now trying to change these conditions, and already one small English factory town called Garden City (Letchworth), near London, is the best-planned town in the world. (Fig. 347.) It was started by a stenog rapher, who had a vision of a city that for living might be like the country and for business like the city. His dream came to pass, because he worked and per suaded others to help him. Every house in this town is near to the factories, near to the playgrounds, and near to the fields where food is grown. The men who work in the factories can all have gardens, can play out door games if they want to, and can walk about in the country. There should be more such towns; then factory workers would have better health and more recreation and pleasure in their lives.
426. is played all winter in Great Britain, for their oceanic climate (Sec. 409) does not have frost enough to stop it. A hundred thousand people sometimes go to see a football game, and teams from neighboring factories often play matches on Saturday afternoons. The summer is cool enough for active games in the warmest Months. Many athletic sports are played all the year, and you may see people of all ages cheer fully tramping about the country, even on rainy days. The English love to take walks and to. row boats, and when, on holidays, the crews of Oxford and Cambridge, the two oldest English universities, meet for their annual boat race on the Thames above London, the river is so full of boats that they can hardly pass each other.