CHAPTER VII.

THE SUSTENANCE AND ABILITY OF THE INDIVIDUAL WORKMAN.

THE inhabitants of different countries are extremely dissimilar, and one of the most striking dissimilarities consists in their relative working power. As a whole, the people who dwell in temperate climates are able as labourers to work most energetically and successfully. In the same country, however, particularly before the construction of railways, striking dissimilarity in the working powers of individuals must always exist.

The degree of prosperity which the labourer enjoys must be measured not so much by the position he occupies relatively to other labourers in his own or in another country, with whom he has probably no immediate connection, as by the fact of progress or retrogression having taken place in his own condition. If the fact of gradual progress be not ensured, then he is in a miserable position indeed; where the individual energy he possesses has not a fair field for its exercise, then individual prosperity cannot result, and stagnation or retrogression ensues. When, however, the exercise of labour is constantly stimulated by an enlightened self-interest, there will be an accumulative progress in everything which can benefit the labourer. And if the labourer be benefited, everyone around him with whom he has to deal must ,also be benefited, and moreover contentment and security reigns.

Where war and violence frequently disturb what

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peace a people enjoys, there will be continually a certain degree of insecurity felt, and there will, therefore, be the less inducement presented to the labourer, for he can never be sure that the fruits of his toil can be perfectly safe; he may fear that, when violence breaks out, the fruits of his life of toil will be relentlessly swept away. In consequence of this, there will be a tendency to work only to supply the immediate necessities of life, but not to lay up for the future. There may thus be little capital accumulated, and all those helps to labour which capital supplies will be afforded in the smallest degree. The labourer will apply himself to his labour with only the rudest instruments, and the consequence will be that with hard toil he will be able to produce only a small result. The disinclination, therefore, to work so as to lay up savings for a future period that arises from insecurity, causes ultimately a necessity for a disproportionate degree of toil in order to provide mere daily subsistence. It is, therefore, apparent that where a country is secure from spoliation, there ought to be, cæteris paribus, the greatest accumulation of savings, and, therefore, the greatest facility in producing a livelihood and something more; and conversely, where lands are apt to be ravaged by wars, the people will have a harder lot, their toil being comparatively unproductive.

And since this must be the case, it is equally plain that where wars and violence burst out periodically, the people will be relatively poorly fed, and also relatively incapable of active and prolonged muscular exertion.

There appear to be important and striking differences between the physical capabilities of men in different parts of the globe. In India, the labourer works feebly, but he spreads such energies as he possesses over a very long day of work. In Eastern Europe the product of a day's labour is not so great as it is in Western Europe, though

upon an average the hours of labour are more prolonged. In Britain and America, the labourer applies himself with energy, and produces more work in a nine or ten hours day than his competitor in Western Europe does in one of eleven or perhaps even twelve hours. But in each of the quarters referred to there exist minor differences, for men have not even within the same country the same ability to work effectively; and this difference is seen even in England at the present time, the agricultural labourers of the south being not so robust and energetic as those of the north.

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With man, indeed, it is as with the horse and the ox: powers of enduring exertion depend upon the amount and kind of food he assimilates. There is a great gap between the position of the civilized man and of the savage; and while the latter necessarily possesses a disproportionately large alimentary system in consequence of the crude character of the food he eats, and the irregular intervals at which he secures it, the former enjoys a system developed to give a maximum amount of external strength. The latter inevitably consumes a large portion of his physical energy in digesting food taken when secured in enormous quantities, and wastes the most part of the remainder by enforced fasts; the former possesses at short and regular intervals a food already cooked, and, therefore, easily digested, so that there is no unnecessary loss of strength in assimilating it. But while there exists this great distance between the physical construction of the savage and of the civilized man, the latter is not by any means uniformly the same as regards his capacity to assimilate food and to produce work.

In Europe generally the common labourer subsists upon a vegetable diet, or where animal food is added, it is of a crude and cheap kind. Thus, in Belgium,

we find that very many have for their entire subsistence but potatoes with a little grease, brown or black bread, often bad, and for their drink the tincture of chicory.' 'Sugar is seldom seen, and milk is a luxury afforded by only the better class of workmen.' 'The hucksters constantly adulterate everything they sell, thereby undermining the health as well as the pocket of the unfortunate workman.' . . "When the wife has

to work she has not time to attend to the cooking of the food, such as it is, nor can she mind the children, who, therefore, grow up in a state of misery both physical and moral.1

In the four large sewing-thread factories of Alost, wages are 40 cents and 50 cents to 2 francs for men, and 40 cents and 50 cents to 1 francs for women; children are employed from six to seven years. The factory operatives here live wretchedly; their chief food consists of potatoes and dry bread. They inhabit small huts, many of them unfloored, and sleep on sacks filled with straw, with a sort of blanket made of coarse tow for bed covering. . . . All mill hands wear blouses and wooden shoes, and clothing costs a spinner an average of 50 francs per year.' 'At Ninove ignorance and misery prevail; the food is the same as at Alost.' 'The position of the operative is perhaps worse here (in Alost, Ninove, and Termonde) than elsewhere in Belgium. A firstclass hand earns on an average about 281. a year, whilst the smallest expenditure on which a man can exist involves an expenditure of about 20l. a year.

Indeed, the possibility of existence on such wages is only to be explained by the large proportion of children employed, who add to the resources of their families, and

1 Reports from H.M. Diplomatic and Consular Agents Abroad respecting the Condition of the Industrial Classes, &c. Report by Mr. Pakenham. Brussels, 1871.

also in the country and smaller manufacturing towns, by the possession of a small garden, where vegetables, chiefly turnips and carrots, and sometimes potatoes, are raised.'1

The cheapest thing in Belgium appears to be gin, which is entirely free from taxation, and costs about ad. per glass.

"In the Netherlands, the artisan can live comfortably and contentedly on what would ill suffice to satisfy the wants of an English labourer. A carpenter, joiner, or plumber gets 168. a week in the larger towns, his wife adds 38. or 48. by washing, and the man by working out of hours on odd jobs often adds another one or two shillings. In the smaller towns, artisans may have only ros. a week, yet the country holds by protection and things are dear.' 'Breakfast consists of a sandwich made of a thin slice of a peculiar highly-flavoured but not unpalatable black bread between two thicker pieces of brown or white bread and butter, and coffee with milk and sugar. Dinner always begins with potatoes, after which comes a mess of carrots, turnips, or other vegetables, boiled together in a liberal allowance of fat; fish when in season: and it is followed by a cup of tea. Beer is not drunk at meals as with us; there is plenty of water, and the gin-shop, if at a convenient distance, is doubtless occasionally visited before returning to work. The evening meal resembles the morning one. .. Meat is rarely tasted by the working classes in Holland. If ever indulged in, it is at the Sunday meal, when the whole household share the delicacy.' Each has his own house, which is sometimes very small, not wider than the length of a good-sized bed.' 2

1 Reports on the Condition of the Industrial Classes, &c. Report by Mr. J. G. Kennedy, November, 1872.

2 Ibid. 1870. Report by Mr. Sidney Locock. The Hague, December 10, 1869.