in the end must always be defeated, to sustain a vast body of workmen and
their families, when not in the receipt of wages, that the wire-pullers
of the trades unions will best serve the interests of their clients, or
enhance their personal influence among them. But there is a wide field
of usefulness open to these captains of our great hosts of workmen, in
which success is to be attained, not by war, but by diplomacy. The state
of the trades, in which their clients are employed, should be carefully
watched, and every variation in the prices quoted, every fluctuation in
the cost of the raw materials should be noted. And here I may frankly
admit that the proposal of the International for a universal strike
contained a few grains of wisdom; for it is clear that, if the cost of
producing an article in England were so much enhanced by an advance of
wages, that the foreign manufacturer would be enabled to undersell us in
every market, it would be an act of self-destruction for English workmen
to insist upon a rise, which would have the inevitable effect of
depriving them of employment.
In such a case, unless the workmen in the competing countries can agree
to act in concert, an advance is impossible; unless by superior skill or
machinery the more highly paid workman is able to turn out a larger
amount of work.
Foreign competition.
It has been already pointed out that in England we have to contend
against competition of two kinds—against the cheaper labour of the
Continent on the one side, and against the superior natural resources of
America on the other. While we occupy at the present time a highly
favoured position, which has been attained not merely by the skill of our
workmen, but by the administrative skill of their employers, and the
gradual accumulation of an ample capital in their hands, the race with
other great manufacturing countries is very close. The Swiss have
entered into competition with our own manufacturers, both in the home and
foreign trades. The exports of textile fabrics from Switzerland, as we
learn from Mr. Gosling’s report, have risen from £12,485,000 in 1860, to
£26,464,000 in 1871, an advance of 112½ per cent. In this total the
exports to the United States have risen from £509,000 in 1862, to
£2,159,000 in 1872, in other words, over 324 per cent. In cheap silks
and ribbons the Swiss are able to compete with the British producer in
the English market; and, to sum up the case in the words of Mr. Gosling,
‘The advantages of Switzerland in competition with Great Britain are the
use of water power as a substitute for steam power to the extent of
upwards of 80 per cent., low wages, long hours of labour, and a minimum
expenditure for management.’ On the other hand, as an inland country,
Switzerland has to pay heavy freights, the workmen are inferior in
activity to our own, buildings for machinery are more costly, and from
want of capital, production is on a smaller scale than here. The
balance, however, seems to be greatly in favour of Switzerland, and
cannot fail to become greater from day to day.
Such being the case as regards textile industry, Mr. Lothian Bell has
recently pointed out, that, in ores of the finer descriptions, the
resources of the United States are unlimited, while in coal our own
wealth is, in comparison, poverty. There is but one bar to the boundless
production of minerals in the New World, that is to say, the want of
hands to manufacture them.
Communism in Germany.
A large number of the working class in Germany have been fascinated by
the fanciful theories of Lassalle. His system is founded entirely upon
the pernicious principle that the State is to do everything, and the
people nothing for themselves. Karl Marx, as the successor of Lassalle,
is the ruling spirit of the German socialists, and has become a prominent
figure from his connection with the International. The socialist
journals in Germany delight to reproduce the programme and doctrines of
that society. They make noisy professions of atheism. They applauded
the insurrection of the Commune in Paris. They have a collection of
songs of their own. They disavow the warlike policy of Germany, and have
endeavoured to substitute the community of class interests for the
community of race, language, and country. It must not, however, be
supposed that the number of these unpractical visionaries is
proportionate to the noise, which they make in the world. The influence
of socialistic doctrines is not so great in England as on the Continent,
and it is weaker in America than in England. I hope, therefore, that no
disposition may be manifested here to abandon the hopeful work of social,
moral, and material progress for the pursuit of visionary and impossible
schemes.
The amelioration of the condition of the poor is not to be brought about
by destroying the ancient fabric and foundations of our social and
political system. It is easy to destroy but most difficult to restore
the institutions created by past generations, in which there lived men
not less great, and wise, and good than the most gifted of our own
contemporaries. Mr. Ruskin, a devoted friend of the working classes, in
a passage of more than ordinary eloquence, has truly said, ‘This is the
thing, which I know, and which, if you labour faithfully, you shall know
also,—that in Reverence is the chief power and joy of life;—Reverence,
for what is pure and bright in your own youth; for what is true and tried
in the age of others; for all that is gracious among the living, great
among the dead, and marvellous in the Powers that cannot die.’
Co-operation.
Our artisans may believe that the profits of former days were so large
that employers can afford to pay the present rates of wages, without
raising their charges to the consumers. There is but one means, by which
this fallacy can be exposed. The workmen must become to a certain extent
their own employers. In a co-operative establishment, created in part by
his own hardly-earned savings, the handicraftsman will find himself
called upon to apportion equitably the earnings of his business between
labour and capital. In this double relation he will learn how great are
the difficulties, which beset the employment of capital in productive
industry in a country, in which competition is so keen as it is in
England. In no other country does capital command so low a rate of
interest; and, if large accumulations of capital have been made, and
money is therefore cheap, it should not be inferred that the rate of
profit has been high by comparison with other countries, but rather that
our employers of labour, as a class, have been distinguished by their
frugality, their perseverance, and their enterprise. I am grateful,
therefore, to Mr. Holyoake, for his vindication of their claims at the
recent Co-operative Congress. He justly said that capital was the enemy
of nobody, but rather the nursing mother of production.
The co-operative principle, in its application to the business of
distribution, has been already most successfully developed. My desire is
to encourage working men to create co-operative establishments for the
purposes of production. The accumulation of the necessary capital is an
obvious difficulty; but as wages were never so high as at present, so
this obstacle can be more easily surmounted now than at any former time.
Some men may object to recognise the special responsibilities of a
fellow-workman holding the office of manager of a large business, by
giving a proportionate salary. It is because the recognition of
authority is essential, whenever anything practical is to be done, that
the International Society has shown such uncompromising hostility to the
co-operative principle. The denial of a proportionate reward for
superior intelligence or industry is the first article of its catechism.
The absurdity of attempting to combine the energies of the men for any
definite object, without placing a competent chief at their head, has
been humorously exposed by Mr. Carlyle. ‘Ships,’ he said, ‘did not use
the ballot-box at all, and they rejected the phantasm species of
captains. Phantasm captains with unanimous votings! These are
considered to be all the law and prophets at present. If a man shake out
of his mind the universal noise of political doctors in this generation,
and in the last generation or two, and consider the matter face to face
with his own sincere intelligence looking at it, I venture to say he
would find this a very extraordinary method of navigating, whether in the
Straits of Magellan, or the undiscovered sea of time.’
English workmen are less easily deluded by tall talk and sophistry than
the more excitable populations of the Latin race; and I would earnestly
invite them to apply their practical sagacity to the difficult yet
hopeful experiment of co-operative industry.
Demand and supply determine wages.
I must once more repeat the familiar axiom, that the price of labour,
like that of every other commodity, must mainly depend upon the relation
between supply and demand. The wages of skilled workmen have risen,
because skilled workmen are scarce. How shall we increase their number,
and improve their skill? My answer is, by bringing recruits into our
industrial army from a class of society, which has hitherto exhibited too
strong a prejudice against manual labour. The same aversion to
handicraft of every kind exists in the United States and Canada. In
America a skilled workman earns 30 dollars, a clerk only 15 dollars a
week; and, while it is almost as difficult for a clerk to obtain a
situation in New York as in London, a skilled workman can always command
employment. It is unnecessary to dwell on the evils that must ensue from
a disproportionate increase in the non-productive classes of the
community. Lord Bacon has truly said, that a population is not to be
reckoned only by numbers, for a smaller number that spend more and earn
less do wear out a greater number that live lower and get more. My
father’s advice was often sought by parents anxious for the future of
their sons. His counsel always was, that a young man, whose destiny it
must be to make his way, unaided, through the world, should begin by
learning a trade. It is a laudable ambition in a parent to endeavour to
raise his family to a better station in life. He cannot bestow on his
children too high an education. But a wise man will be on his guard,
lest the enjoyment of such advantages should render those occupations
distasteful, which afford the most secure and ample livelihood to those
whose lot it is to labour. When justly appreciated, the condition of the
skilled artisan should be as much esteemed as that of any other class of
the community. He whose life is passed in performing such needed
services for his fellow-men, whatever his special calling, holds an
honorable station, and social dignity will ever be most effectually
maintained by those who are the least dependent upon the favours of
others.
Forethought.
In conclusion, I would tender a few words of advice to my
fellow-countrymen of the so-called working classes, for whose welfare I
am bound to feel the deepest solicitude. Their just claim to share in
the benefits arising from a thriving industry has of late been liberally
recognised. The earnings in many trades have been unprecedented. It
should not be forgotten that forethought is an especial duty in a time of
prosperity. At no distant period, the progress of our commerce may
sustain at least a temporary check. It will be sad indeed if the
receding tide leaves behind it multitudes of our highly-paid workmen
without the slightest provision to meet a period of adversity.
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_Spottiswoode & Co._, _Printers_, _New-street Square_, _London_.