will not be possible for the coal industry, if given time, to
accommodate itself to the new conditions. It is only two years ago
that I was invited from the benches opposite to contemplate the
approaching ruin of the gold mines of the Rand through the change
introduced in the methods of working. That change has been enforced,
with the result that working expenses have been reduced, and the
standard of production has increased. In making that transition, if
time had not been allowed to tide over the period of change, then,
indeed, you might have had that disaster which hon. gentlemen opposite
have always been ready to apprehend. But there is here to be a gradual
process of adaptation, for which not less than five years is
permitted.
We are told that positive reasons, and not negative reasons, ought to
be given in support of a measure which regulates the hours of adult
labour--that you ought to show, not that it will do no harm, but that
good will come from it. There are, of course, such reasons in support
of this Bill, but they are so obvious that they have not been dwelt
upon as much as they might have been. The reasons are social reasons.
We believe that the well-being of the mining population, numbering
some 900,000 persons, will be sensibly advanced in respect of health,
industrial efficiency, habits of temperance, education, culture, and
the general standard of life. We have seen that in the past the
shortening of hours has produced beneficial effects in these respects,
and we notice that in those parts of the country where the hours of
coal-mining are shortest, the University Extension lecturers find that
the miners take an intelligent interest in their lectures--and it is
among the miners of Fifeshire that a considerable development in
gardening and also of saving to enable them to own their own houses,
has followed on a longer period of leisure.
But the general march of industrial democracy is not towards
inadequate hours of work, but towards sufficient hours of leisure.
That is the movement among the working people all over the country.
They are not content that their lives should remain mere alternations
between bed and the factory. They demand time to look about them, time
to see their homes by daylight, to see their children, time to think
and read and cultivate their gardens--time, in short, to live. That is
very strange, perhaps, but that is the request they have made and are
making with increasing force and reason as years pass by.
No one is to be pitied for having to work hard, for nature has
contrived a special reward for the man who works hard. It gives him an
extra relish, which enables him to gather in a brief space from simple
pleasures a satisfaction in search of which the social idler wanders
vainly through the twenty-four hours. But this reward, so precious in
itself, is snatched away from the man who has won it, if the hours of
his labour are too long or the conditions of his labour too severe to
leave any time for him to enjoy what he has won.
Professor Marshall, in his "Principles of Economics," says:
"The influence which the standard of hours of work exerts on economic
activities is partially obscured by the fact that the earnings of a
human being are commonly counted gross; no special reckoning being
made for his wear-and-tear, of which he is himself rather careless.
Further, very little account is taken of the evil effects of the
overwork of men on the well-being of the next generation.... When the
hours and the general conditions of labour are such as to cause great
wear-and-tear of body or mind or both, and to lead to a low standard
of living; when there has been a want of that leisure, rest, and
repose which are among the necessaries for efficiency, then the labour
has been extravagant from the point of view of society at large....
And, since material wealth exists for the sake of man, and not man for
the sake of material wealth, the replacement of inefficient and
stunted human lives by more efficient and fuller lives would be a gain
of a higher order than any temporary material loss that might have
been occasioned on the way."
If it be said that these arguments are general, is it not true that
special circumstances differentiate the case of coal-miners from that
of many other industries in this country? Others have spoken of the
heat of the mine, the danger of fire-damp, of the cramped position, of
the muscular exertions of the miner, at work in moist galleries
perhaps a mile under the ground. I select the single fact of
deprivation of natural light. That alone is enough to justify
Parliament in directing upon the industry of coal-mining a specially
severe scrutiny and introducing regulations of a different character
from those elsewhere.
The hon. Member for Windsor[10] who moved the rejection of this Bill
described it as a reckless and foolhardy experiment. I see the miner
emerging from the pit after eight hours' work with the assertion on
his lips that he, at any rate, has paid his daily debt to his fellow
men. Is the House of Commons now going to say to him, "You have no
right to be here. You have only worked eight hours. Your appearance on
the surface of the earth after eight hours' work is, to quote the hon.
Member, 'a reckless and foolhardy experiment'"? I do not wonder at the
miners' demand. I cannot find it in my heart to feel the slightest
surprise, or indignation, or mental disturbance at it. My capacity for
wonder is entirely absorbed, not by the miners' demand, but by the
gentleman in the silk hat and white waistcoat who has the composure
and the complacency to deny that demand and dispute it with him.
The hon. Member for Dulwich[11]--himself a convinced protectionist,
with a tariff with 1,200 articles in its schedules in his coat-tail
pocket--has given us a delightful lecture on the importance of
cheapness of production. Think of the poor consumer! Think of the
importance to our industries of cheapness of production! We on this
side are great admirers of cheapness of production. We have reminded
the hon. gentleman of it often; but why should cheapness of production
always be achieved at the expense of the human factor? The hon.
gentleman spoke with anxiety of the possibility of a rise in miners'
wages as a consequence of this Bill. Has he considered the relation of
miners' wages to the selling prices of coal? At the pit's mouth the
underground-workers' wages are only 60 per cent. of the selling price
of coal. Free on board on the Tyne, the proportion is only 38 per
cent. As coal is sold here in the south of England the proportion of
wages is less than one-fifth of the whole price. Is it not clear that
there are other factors at least which require consideration before
you decide to deal with the human factor, which first attracts the
attention of the hon. gentleman?
What about mining royalties? In all this talk about the importance of
cheap coal to our industries and to the poor consumer we have had no
mention of mining royalties. No. We never mention that. Yet, will the
House believe it, it is estimated that mining royalties impose a toll
of 6 per cent., calculated on the price of coal at the pit's mouth, or
considerably more than half the total diminished production which
could result from this humane Act of labour legislation.
But we are asked: "Why stop here? Why don't your arguments apply
elsewhere?" and we are told of people whose conditions of life are
worse than some of those of coal-miners. Why stop here? Who ever said
we would stop here? I welcome and support this measure, not only for
its own sake, but much more because it is, I believe, simply the
precursor of the general movement which is in progress all over the
world, and in other industries besides this, towards reconciling the
conditions of labour with the well-ascertained laws of science and
health. If we are told that because we support this measure we shall
be inflicting an injury or injustice on other classes of the
population, I say there is a great solidarity among all classes of
manual labourers. I believe that when they consider this matter they
will see that all legitimate interests are in harmony, that no one
class can obtain permanent advantage by undue strain on another, and
that in the end their turn will come for shorter hours, and will come
the sooner because they have aided others to obtain that which they
desire themselves.
When the House is asked to contemplate gloomy pictures of what will
follow on this Bill, let them recur to the example of Parliaments gone
by. When the Ten Hours Bill was introduced in 1847, a Bill which
affected the hours of adult males inferentially, the same lugubrious
prophecies were indulged in from both sides of the House.
Distinguished economists came forward to prove that the whole profit
of the textile industry was reaped after the eleventh hour. Famous
statesmen on both sides spoke strongly against the measure. The
Parliament, in 1847, was in the same sort of position as we are to-day
in this respect, but how differently circumstanced in other respects.
That Parliament did not enjoy the wide and accurate statistical
information in every branch of labour which enables us to-day to move
forward with discretion and prudence. They were not able to look to
the general evidences of commercial security and expansion on which
modern politicians can rely. They could not show, as we can show,
overwhelming examples of owlish prophets dazzlingly disproved; they
could not point, as we can point, to scores of cases where not only
increased efficiency, but a positive increase in output has followed
the reduction of the hours of labour. The principle was new, the
future was vague. But the Parliament of those days did not quail. They
trusted to broad, generous instincts of common sense; they drew a
good, bold line; and we to-day enjoy in a more gentle, more humane,
more skilful, more sober, and more civilised population the blessings
which have followed their acts. Now it is our turn. Let us vote for
the Second Reading of this Bill, and in so doing establish a claim
upon the respect of Parliaments to come, such as we ourselves owe to
Parliaments of the past.[12]
FOOTNOTES:
[10] Mr. J.F. Mason.
[11] Mr. Bonar Law.
[12] This concluded the debate, and the Second Reading was carried by
390 to 120.
UNEMPLOYMENT
KINNAIRD HALL, DUNDEE, _October 10, 1908_
(From _The Times_, by permission.)
What is the political situation which unfolds itself to our
reflections to-night? I present it to you without misgivings or
reserve. For nearly three years a Liberal Administration, more
democratic in its character, more widely selected in its _personnel_,
more Radical in the general complexion of its policy, than any that
has previously been known to British history, has occupied the place
of power. During the whole of that period no single serious
administrative mistake, either at home or abroad, has embarrassed or
discredited the conduct of public affairs. Three Parliamentary
Sessions, fruitful beyond precedent in important legislation, have
been surmounted with dignity and dispatch. The authority and influence
of Great Britain among foreign Powers have been prudently guarded, and
are now appreciably augmented, and that authority and influence have
been consistently employed, and will be in the future employed, in
soothing international rivalries and suspicion, in asserting a proper
respect for public law, in preserving a just and harmonious balance
amongst great Powers, and in forwarding as opportunities have served,
whether in the Near East or in the Congo, causes of a generous and
disinterested humanitarianism.
The British Empire itself has enjoyed under Liberal rule a period of
prosperous tranquillity, favourable both to development and
consolidation; and it is no exaggeration to say that it was never more
strong or more peacefully united than at the present moment. The
confidence which the whole country, irrespective of party, feels in
Sir Edward Grey in the present European crisis, is the measure of our
success in foreign affairs. The gathering of the Convention of a
United South Africa is in itself a vindication of colonial policy.
Each year for which we have been responsible has been marked by some
great and beneficent event which has commanded the acquiescence--or at
least silenced the dissent--of many of our professed opponents. In
1906 the charter of trade unions; in 1907, the conciliation and
settlement of South Africa; in 1908, the establishment of old-age
pensions. These are large matters; they will take their place in the
history book; and on them alone, if necessary, I would confidently
base the claims of his Majesty's Government to respect, if not to
renown, in future times.
But although we do not meet to-night in any atmosphere of crisis, nor
in any expectation of a general election, nevertheless I feel, and I
dare say you feel too, that we have reached a climacteric in the life
of this Parliament. The next six months will probably determine the
whole remaining fortunes of the Government, and decide whether a
gradual but progressive decline will slowly carry the Administration
in the natural course to the grave where so many others are peacefully
slumbering, or whether, deriving fresh vigour from its exertions, it
will march forward conquering and to conquer.
I said a few minutes ago that this session had been marked by a
measure of great and cardinal importance. Surely no one will deny the
magnitude and significance of the step which has been taken in the
establishment of a system of old-age pensions. It marks the assertion
in our social system of an entirely new principle in regard to
poverty, and that principle, once asserted, cannot possibly be
confined within its existing limits. Old-age pensions will carry us
all a very long way. They have opened a door which will not soon or
easily be closed. The members of both Houses of Parliament have been
led to the verge of the cruel abyss of poverty, and have been in
solemn session assembled to contemplate its depths and its gloom. All
alike have come to gaze; none have remained unmoved. There are some
distinguished and eminent men, men whose power and experience I cannot
impugn, who have started back appalled by what they have seen, and
whose only idea is to slam the door on the grim and painful prospect
which has been revealed to their eyes.
But that is not the only spirit which has been awakened in our
country; there are others, not less powerful, and a greater number,
who will never allow that door to be closed; they have got their feet
in it, they are resolved that it shall be kept open. Nay, more, they
are prepared to descend into the abyss, and grapple with its evils--as
sometimes you see after an explosion at a coal mine a rescue party
advancing undaunted into the smoke and steam. Now there is the issue
on which the future of this Parliament hangs--"Forward or back?"
Voices sound loud and conflicting in our ears; the issue, the sharpest
and simplest, the most tremendous that can be put to a generation of
men--"Forward or backward?"--is the issue which confronts us at the
present time, and on it the future of the Government is staked. There
are faint-hearted friends behind; there are loud-voiced foes in front.
The brewer's dray has been pulled across the road, and behind it are
embattled a formidable confederation of vested interests. A
mountainous obstacle of indifference and apathy bars our advance. What
is your counsel? Forward or Back?
Let it be remembered that aged poverty is not the only evil with
which, so far as our means allow, we have to grapple. What is the
problem of the hour? It can be comprised in one word--Unemployment.
After two years of unexampled trade expansion, we have entered upon a
period of decline. We are not alone in this. A reaction from
overtrading is general all over the world. Both Germany and the United
States are suffering from a similar commercial contraction, and in
both countries, in spite of their high and elaborate protective
tariffs, a trade set-back has been accompanied by severe industrial
dislocation and unemployment. In the United States of America,
particularly, I am informed that unemployment has recently been more
general than in this country. Indeed the financial collapse in the
United States last autumn has been the most clearly marked of all the
causes to which the present trade depression may be assigned.
It is not yet possible to say that the end of that period of
depression is in sight; but there are some significant indications
which I think justify the hope that it will be less severe and less
prolonged than has been known in other trade cycles, or than some
people were at first inclined to believe. But the problem of
unemployment is not confined to periods of trade depression, and will
not be solved by trade revival; and it is to that problem in its
larger and more permanent aspects that I desire to draw your attention
for a short time to-night.
There is no evidence that the population of Great Britain has
increased beyond the means of subsistence. On the contrary, our wealth
is increasing faster than our numbers. Production is active; industry
grows, and grows with astonishing vigour and rapidity. Enterprise in
this country requires no artificial stimulant; if it errs at all, it
is from time to time upon the side of overtrading and overproduction.
There is no ground for believing that this country is not capable of
supporting an increasing population in a condition of expanding
prosperity.
It must, however, be remembered that the British people are more than
any other people in the world a manufacturing people. It is certain
that our population could never have attained its present vast
numbers, nor our country have achieved its position in the world,
without an altogether unusual reliance upon manufacture as opposed to
simple agriculture. The ordinary changes and transitions inseparable
from the active life and growth of modern industry, therefore, operate
here with greater relative intensity than in other countries. An
industrial disturbance is more serious in Great Britain than in other
countries, for it affects a far larger proportion of the people, and
in their distresses the urban democracy are not sustained by the same
solid backing of country-folk and peasant cultivators that we see in
other lands. It has, therefore, become a paramount necessity for us to
make scientific provision against the fluctuations and set-backs
which are inevitable in world commerce and in national industry.
We have lately seen how the backwash of an American monetary
disturbance or a crisis in the Near East or in the Far East, or some
other cause influencing world trade, and as independent of our control
as are the phases of the moon, may easily have the effect of letting
loose upon thousands of humble families and households all the horrors
of a state of siege or a warlike blockade. Then there are strikes and
trade disputes of all kinds which affect vast numbers of people
altogether unconcerned in the quarrel. Now, I am not going to-night to
proclaim the principle of the "right to work." There is not much use
in proclaiming a right apart from its enforcement; and when it is
enforced there is no need to proclaim it. But what I am here to
assert, and to assert most emphatically, is the responsibility of
Government towards honest and law-abiding citizens; and I am surprised
that that responsibility should ever be challenged or denied.
When there is a famine in India, when owing to some unusual course of
nature the sky refuses its rains and the earth its fruits, relief
works are provided in the provinces affected, trains of provisions are
poured in from all parts of that great Empire, aid and assistance are
given to the population involved, not merely to enable them to survive
the period of famine, but to resume their occupations at its close. An
industrial disturbance in the manufacturing districts and the great
cities of this country presents itself to the ordinary artisan in
exactly the same way as the failure of crops in a large province in
India presents itself to the Hindu cultivator. The means by which he
lives are suddenly removed, and ruin in a form more or less swift and
terrible stares him instantly in the face. That is a contingency which
seems to fall within the most primary and fundamental obligations of
any organisation of Government. I do not know whether in all countries
or in all ages that responsibility could be maintained, but I do say
that here and now in this wealthy country and in this scientific age
it does in my opinion exist, is not discharged, ought to be
discharged, and will have to be discharged.
The social machinery at the basis of our industrial life is deficient,
ill-organised, and incomplete. While large numbers of persons enjoy
great wealth, while the mass of the artisan classes are abreast of and
in advance of their fellows in other lands, there is a minority,
considerable in numbers, whose condition is a disgrace to a scientific
and professedly Christian civilisation, and constitutes a grave and
increasing peril to the State. Yes, in this famous land of ours, so
often envied by foreigners, where the grace and ease of life have been
carried to such perfection, where there is so little class hatred and
jealousy, where there is such a wide store of political experience and
knowledge, where there are such enormous moral forces available, so
much wisdom, so much virtue, so much power, we have not yet succeeded
in providing that necessary apparatus of insurance and security,
without which our industrial system is not merely incomplete, but
actually inhumane.
I said that disturbances of our industrial system are often started
from outside this country by causes utterly beyond our control. When
there is an epidemic of cholera, or typhoid, or diphtheria, a healthy
person runs less risk than one whose constitution is prepared to
receive the microbes of disease, and even if himself struck down, he
stands a far greater chance of making a speedy recovery. The social
and industrial conditions in Great Britain at this present time cannot
be described as healthy. I discern in the present industrial system of
our country three vicious conditions which make us peculiarly
susceptible to any outside disturbance of international trade. First,
the lack of any central organisation of industry, or any general and
concerted control either of ordinary Government work, or of any
extraordinary relief works. It would be possible for the Board of
Trade to foretell with a certain amount of accuracy the degree of
unemployment likely to be reached in any winter. It ought to be
possible for some authority in some Government office--which I do not
care--to view the whole situation in advance, and within certain
limits to exert a powerful influence over the general distribution of
Government contracts.
There is nothing economically unsound in increasing temporarily and
artificially the demand for labour during a period of temporary and
artificial contraction. There is a plain need of some averaging
machinery to regulate and even-up the general course of the labour
market, in the same way as the Bank of England, by its bank rate,
regulates and corrects the flow of business enterprise. When the
extent of the depression is foreseen, the extent of the relief should
also be determined. There ought to be in permanent existence certain
recognised industries of a useful, but uncompetitive character, like,
we will say, afforestation, managed by public departments, and capable
of being expanded or contracted according to the needs of the labour
market, just as easily as you can pull out the stops or work the
pedals of an organ. In this way, you would not eliminate unemployment,
you certainly would not prevent the creation of unemployables; but you
would considerably limit the scale of unemployment, you would reduce
the oscillation of the industrial system, you would increase its
stability, and by every step that you took in that direction you would
free thousands of your fellow-countrymen from undeserved agony and
ruin, and a far greater number from the haunting dread of ruin. That
is the first point--a gap, a hiatus in our social organisation--to
which I direct your attention to-night, and upon which the
intelligence of this country ought to be concentrated.