Page images
PDF
EPUB

LABOUR VERSUS CAPITAL IN BRITAIN.

A FORECAST BY A WORKING MAN.

[THE author of this article writes thus: "I am no writer, having been a working man-now, I rejoice to say, able to live in retirement on my saved earnings. Beginning life very low down, I have had three or four hundred workmen at times at work under me, so know them pretty well. My schooling terminated at twelve years old." We trust his fellow-workmen will weigh the thoughtful and temperate views of so creditable a member of their own class, against the wild suggestions of the agitating demagogues whose exploitation of the interests of labour is producing such wholesale misery and trouble.ED. B. M.]

ALL men are cognisant of the everyday disputes now prevalent between employers and employed. These quarrels are not new-they have a long pedigree in this free country; and the fact that such disquieting incidents occur, while it testifies to the exercise of freedom on its broadest basis, exposes also one of the inseparable drawbacks thereto, and is but one of the perils which beset the course of a free self-governing people. At present these differences are notable by reason of their increasing magnitude and frequency, as well as for their widespreading significance. The old bone of contention-wages -has fallen into the background, though this is only temporarily and for the moment. Now, the power of control has come to the front. Hours of labour and details concerning regulations form but secondary subjects now, and always the vital and formidable question emerges at last-viz., power of control. New leaders of confederated societies of workers have arisen, who conceive and foresee that (success in the past having been obtained only by power) they can get power fully developed only by a universal enrolment of workers in their ranks; so their design

is to compel all and every individual workman, skilled and unskilled alike, to become a fellowmember with them, and, all acting together, to become irresistible; and in order to carry out this new system of conscription, they are boycotting non-society men by putting pressure on employers to abstain from employing such men in selected places, by withdrawing from employment all the society hands at those places, then establishing a system of picketing, or, plainly speaking, annoying, molesting, or anyhow terrorising over the men remaining at work, to whom they apply the disgusting appellation of "blacklegs." This is the scheme which succeeded in the London Dock strike in 1889. It has been tried and failed since at Southampton, at the South London gasworks, at the gas-works at Manchester, and recently on the Scottish railways. The success at London Docks came about from sympathy and outside support: the true springs of action have there been since exposed, and the experience of similar attempts at domination in Australia, which our colonial cousins overcame easily, precludes the possibility of outside help from that quarter in future.

[graphic]

Disputes have often been carried to the extremity of a strike or lock-out by the respective parties, with varying results. Sometimes one, sometimes the other, has given way, under the pressure of loss and suffering entailed. But with few exceptions (of which the Sheffield outrages a quarter of a century ago was the most flagrant case) these contests have been waged and settled within legal bounds, and without violating the established customs of fair dealing which characterise the British nation. Latterly, alas! we get very noisy demonstrations, as they are called, and ebullitions of clamorous impatience of the laws of the land, acting under which the police do-as they are bound to do keep a watchful eye on exhibitions of brute force, and check illegal domination. Men in all public spheres are too apt to forget that freedom cannot thrive in an atmosphere of impatience. Irritability engenders a perpetual growth of insubordination, and that is the weed which chokes the growth of freedom. The adjustment of the rights of controlled and controller in this country is the eternal problem of the legislator of each succeeding age and generation. To abandon the peaceful study and reasonable solution of the difficulty, and to resort to force, is for a free people to despair of the special gifts bestowed by freedom, and to plunge into revolution.

The growing power of workmen, resulting from and appertaining to larger combinations of them; the diffusion of information and broadening of scope; the quickening of their apprehension of their own interests; the stimulated taste for and enjoyment of luxuries; the holiday and leisure times established by law and custom; the first- fruits of national education among the younger men, shown

in their especial excitability, and, it must be confessed, frequently exhibited self-conceit; more common association and discussion; the cheap press, of which they are the great supporters, all these new conditions of life and environment have transformed artisan society, giving to it a fermenting ingredient which must work itself out in some way or other. Let us hope that out of the seething in this huge body will evolve suitable heads or leaders. Such leaders as have from time to time in the past arisen, have on the whole been no discredit to their origin or to the body of British workmen; and this warrants the belief that suitable men will arise in due time, gifted as heretofore and duly recognised, who will lead their fellows with a true instinct in a right course. But just now we must expect to have to do with movements and aims of a rough, crude, and even rashly ambitious kind. Such are the natural excesses of youth and inexperience. The majority in every walk of life is always the younger members, but somehow the wisdom of the elders maintains its sway.

Turning now to the capitalists, which is the proper term for employers to-day, we contemplate a race of giants. Gigantic are the proportions to which the establishments or concerns have grown in mining, manufacturing, carrying by rail or ship, docks and warehouses, and all the various modes of industrial enterprise; and the small ones are constantly merging into larger ones. Each enterprise is thus becoming more and more a concentration under one head of wealth, power, scientific and mechanical skill, and a mastery over all the obstacles arising in a freetrade competition with all the human race. At the service of

these powers electricity throbs every second of time its messages, conveying their commands to every part of the world, obliterating the old barriers of time and space. No wonder, then, that wielders of such powers grow despotic!

Bearing in mind, then, the new resources and characteristics, such as these, of both employers and employed, one realises the nature of the contest impending; and if it come in earnest, how like it may be to real modern war -short, sharp, and terribly destructive! Yes; let us carry on this comparison, and venture to hope that industrial chiefs, learning from the national chiefs a studied carefulness of the maintenance of peace by all possible means of compromise and forbearance, because of the awfully terrible horrors of modern warfare,

let these men also, we say, as guides and counsellors among masters and men, forecasting the horrors of strife, by dwelling wisely upon it, realise its misery and horror, and the barrenness of any victory they can gain for either side in comparison thereof. Thus they will fertilise their minds for the raising up therein of peaceful suggestion and compromise.

In aid of such reflections, it will be profitable to analyse the forces on both sides. to examine into their systems of organisation and the extent of their powers, either for aggression or resistance, keeping in mind always the certainty that the result of any possible contest which may be waged will depend most likely-nay, surelyupon the capability for endurance. The side which is strongest in this sense will in the upshot win.

WORKMEN: Forces.-It is estimated there are 40 millions of us in Great Britain and Ireland, and that 5 millions are

about the number of skilled and unskilled working men. Of these about 1 million belong to trade societies of all kinds. Up to now it has been impossible to get a quarter of these to act together. It may shortly be shown that half a million can and will do so, therefore we must reckon that to be the number as an active force. Now, taking roughly these men to be heads of families, and five as the average family number, we get 2 millions of persons who would be involved in a strike directly by this body of workmen. workmen. Large enough in all conscience, but not so big as appears to be wished for; and we may infer that to rule and direct so large a body will prove a difficult task, when it is remembered how long and persistently the best organised men, the miners, have worked at their system, which yet greatly lacks cohesion, splitting up, as it does, at critical moments, not from inefficient generalship-for it has produced and is led by really able men. The fact that these veterans deprecate the new departure shows that if these ideas prevail among enlightened unionists, the four-fifths of the gross number, the non-society men who hold aloof, may be considered wholly out of active sympathy, and standing as armed non-combatants, ready and willing to serve the other side.

Organisation. Workmen's societies are voluntary memberships under simple rules, based on payment of periodical subscriptions, and of special strike levies, for the purpose of mutually aiding and sustaining the members in certain cases of strife; and there are rules to be observed for furthering the interests of members. Some unite sick pay and benefit to this pri mary work. Non-payment of calls or dues results in dismissal.

[ocr errors]

So the combination is a loose one, easily dissolved. An examination of some of the books of these societies would tell a tale of extreme fluctuation in number of members. Public lamentations by leaders on this score occasionally throw a gleam of light on this inherent weakness, especially among the unskilled workers. The discipline of such an army must necessarily be of the mildest. Influence can only be exerted by appeals to self-interest, to fears, or to some of the many allurements held out in the relaxation of toil or the supposed increase of happiness from higher wages. Now, if it could be supposed possible for the societies to desire to get by law some greater hold over their members—say, that a man should be bound to continue a member, or that, in default, his goods and chattels became liable for his dues one can conceive how quickly such a move would extinguish them altogether. The forfeiture of interests therein is at present the only sacrifice entailed, and is so often undergone as to show that it is lightly esteemed. It must be remembered that these societies have been created by the working men themselves, and the fundamental looseness of the bond may be expressive of the ineradicable hold which freedom has on the mind and instincts of the men. So we must perforce admit that Liberty herself takes care that her sons shall not easily be beguiled back into a self-imposed bondage. Societies such as these, therefore, for purposes either of aggression or resistance, are inherently weak in their organisation; and hence it follows there cannot be sufficient financial preparation for a widely extended movement.

Resources. The powers for aggression and endurance possessed

by working men cannot be contemplated without a feeling of pain and sorrow. The earnings of artisan and labourer, it is too well known, are needed week by week. Each recurring strike or lock-out, fresh in the mind of the observer during many years, has left its record of want and destitution. The 5 millions of our workmen compose, with their families, quite 25 millions of our population. Statisticians tell us that the wages earned and expended amount to 400 million pounds annually; and our temperance friends aver that 100 millions at the very least of this sum goes in drink and tobacco, which, again, say the hygienic economists, is purely wasted. The Savings Banks reports, on the other hand, have a modest tale of a little sum put by yearly, and this little increases. So a short study shows us that our workmen have a propensity for wasting their resources, and that they virtually live from hand to mouth. Strikes hitherto have depended for success on the fund available for paying the strikers, and their organisation precludes the accumulation of sufficient funds for large operations. Levies on men at work have been utilised in aid of these funds; but the voluntary nature of this impost shows how little it can be depended on, and at a very critical time an act of a hostile kind by employers can cut it off. The sympathies of public feeling have added to the funds on some occasions, as when the dockers struck; but in the case of the gas-workers, which followed immediately, the way in which this support dries up was rapidly shown. Therefore, in case of half a million striking, the weekly pay of even 10s. a-head-which is the very smallest sum possible to maintain five persons alive-requires £250,000 a-week; and two weeks of this would entirely exhaust all

accumulated funds. None but those who know by experience can thoroughly realise the strain of a strike when it has gone on for weeks. If the end is gained, the effects of the struggle which remain on the character and resources of the men, are in no way estimable; but if failure follows, a sullen despair is added to the miseries undergone in vain. Enlarging the numbers and the area is only widening one or the other of these inevitable evil consequences.

EMPLOYERS: Forces and Organisation. The employers as a body cannot be first weighed in the scale as single individuals like the workman, nor as having voluntary associations loosely held together, but for the most part have to be viewed as legally constituted companies, whose members are held together in legal bonds as COpartners, having mutual claims legally on each other in the support of, and liability for, their undertakings. This forms a fundamental union, vitally active and sustaining, which has no counterpart among the workmen.

The

modern expansive joint-stock principle has laid hold of every branch of industry and enterprise, bringing into its ranks, one might say individually as shareholders, almost the entire nation by membership under the limited liability system. It is a small step indeed for such a very mutually interested community of capitalist employers to advance to federation of interests for self-protective purposes. Such a movement must naturally evolve under threat of danger or hostility. Indeed we see it in progress in the shipping trade, and its extension and universality is as certain as the next sunrise to-morrow. General sympathy and support thereto from such as may be disinterested

is to be expected, because of a universal dread of a breakdown of the only system yet found to answer to most people's wants in this imperfectly self-governing world-a system that is rooted in all our laws and customs, and which is identified with the rise and progress of civilisation.

Working men find themselves massed into large concerns by employers. One of our railway companies employs 60,000 persons. It owns 110 millions in value of capital invested by 34,000 shareholders. But look at the figures and you find each individual holder of shares does not seem much of an employer, for there are not two men to each shareholder. Yet how much closer and firmer is the tie betwixt the 34,000 than that which binds the 60,000! The payday for the smaller body comes only twice a-year; could the others subsist at all under such a pay system? A gas company employing 10,000 hands is no matter for surprise, and concerns which command 5000 are common affairs. The amalgamation of smaller into large combinations proceeds now, as a matter of course, under the operation of recognised economical laws. Working men of all others experience this most, and do not apparently grasp all its effects upon themselves. It congregates them in masses, and appears to promise strength from mere numbers when thus they are brought together, but with their loose associations there is an absence of real strength. No army stands allpowerful by reason of its countless host of combatants; on the contrary, its very numbers constitute its special weakness in warfare, if its discipline, organisation, and commissariat are anywise imperfect or unequal to its require ments; and the genius of good generalship is always manifested

[graphic]
« PreviousContinue »