standing all this help, the great mass of the Preston operatives rapidly gravitated towards absolute destitution. Homes were broken up, furniture was sold to the very last stick, and women even disposed of their marriage-rings to buy food for their children. Then the union collapsed; the workpeople went back to their employment, but without the ten per cent. All their sacrifices had been in vain, and the only results of their worse than fruitless heroism were broken hearts, ruined homes, and moral and physical desolation. The loss in wages by the operatives during the strike was a quarter of a million sterling, and the total amount of the loss to all parties involved in the struggle was upwards of half a million ! The Glasgow strikes have been accompanied with much greater violence than those of Preston, probably because of the greater infusion of the Irish element in the operative population there. Impulse and passion, which are the leading features in so many strikes, are congenial to the Irishman's nature; and it is certainly remarkable to observe the number of persons from the sister isle, if we may judge of their nation by their names, who appear among the leaders of strikes in all our large towns. The most formidable Glasgow strike which has occurred of late years was that of 1836, when, during an almost total cessation of trade, the masters, who had but recently raised the spinners' wages one-sixth, proposed to reduce them again to their former standard, in order that they might keep the mills running. The workmen refused to comply. They struck work, formed themselves into committees, and hired assassins and vitriol-throwers to deal with the 'nobs' or new hands, taken on by the masters. More than one murder was committed, several mills were burnt, and many deeds of violence were done; but after the strike had lasted for seventeen weeks, the men finally went back to their work on the masters' terms. Shortly before this period, while trade was still brisk, the colliers of Lanarkshire had obtained a considerable advance of wages, and the proposal being made that they should return to the old rates during the commercial depression of the period, they likewise refused. They stood out for about four months, until the iron-masters introduced a number of the starved-out weavers of Glasgow into the collieries, who were only too glad to earn 58. a day. Many of the old colliers found in consequence their occupation gone, and had to seek for employment elsewhere. The invention of new machines for the purpose of cheapening the cost of production has always caused alarm amongst artisans, and proved a fertile source of strikes. The first to rebel against these contrivances of working men have been the working men themselves. Hargreaves, the inventor of the machine for spinning more threads than one at the same time, and Kay, the inventor of the fly-shuttle, were glad to escape from Lancashire with their lives, after their machines had been destroyed by mobs. When the fashion of wig wearing ceased, and distress fell upon the wigmakers, Richard Arkwright occupied his spare hours in inventing his spinning-frame; but, like Kay and Hargreaves, he was forced to run from his native country, carrying the model of his machine with him. When at last his jenny was introduced, it was everywhere encountered by riots and machine-breaking mobs. The operatives then believed that every kind of work not executed by their own hands was so much loss to them, and resisted the employment alike of horses, water, and steam-power. Yet amidst all the obstructions which ignorance and violence could employ, machines were introduced, and steam-power steadily increased. With every extension of both there was a far larger amount of money disbursed as wages among the manufacturing population. Nevertheless, each fresh improvement caused serious riots among the operatives, who almost universally regarded new inventions as their enemy. The Luddites scoured many counties on their machine-breaking mission, and were everywhere regarded with terror; masters were accustomed occasionally to sleep in their mills, guarded by soldiers and yeomanry, and several lives were lost in their defence. Still the extension of machinery went on, and still, wherever the handworker was superseded, production was greatly augmented, employment increased, and capital multiplied. Partial evil and suffering were unquestionably caused by the displacement of the old hands, who were compelled to change their avocation; but a far more general good was gained by the increased demand for labour and the multiplication of useful commodities. We have but to look at Lancashire, Yorkshire, Lanarkshire, and the northern manufacturing counties, to see at a glance how mistaken the notion is, that improvements in machinery diminish employment. These districts are enabled to maintain their vast populations of well-paid artisans almost entirely by the perfection of their tools and the extraordinary power and amount of their machinery. Even in the operations of agriculture, machinery is every day becoming more general, though not many years since its use was regarded with the greatest aversion by the rural labourers. In 1830 and 1844 strikes were frequent in the southern counties, and bands of labourers went about breaking drill-ploughs, winnowing, threshing, and other machines, down even to the common drills. Suppose agriculture reduced again to flails and dibbersand even these are tools or machines of a sort- what would be the effect but to send us back a full century, and to rob the country of that large part of its means of subsistence which is the result of improved implements? It is the same in agriculture as in manufactures. In whatever counties machinery is the most perfect, there production is the greatest, and the remuneration paid for labour is the highest. A machine employed in any trade is but an organized tool: abolish tools and we are reduced at once to our teeth and nails; and such would be the consistent conclusion of those who oppose the employment of machinery as an agent in human industry. The printing-press, the steam-engine, the locomotive, the threshing-machine, down to the common spade and hoe, are all tools devised for facilitating labour; and so long as men are civilized they will continue to go on improving their tools, as the most effective means of increasing, production. Without the aid of machinery there would neither be the means of subsistence nor of clothing for a single year; and to pause in the invention of mechanism, unless all the world agree to pause also, would be equivalent to abandoning our position in the scale of nations. It is singular enough that the last strike against machinery was that of the Amalgamated Engineers, a class of highly-paid workmen, who live by the manufacture of machinery. In 1853 the Engineers' Union commenced an agitation throughout the country to put an end to overtime and piecework, and to procure a reduction of the hours of labour, and the abandonment of machine-making machines. Among other things, the men required of the masters the unconditional discharge of all labourers, or such class of persons engaged in working planing-machines, or tools of a similar character, and the employment in their stead of mechanics, members of the union,' This proposal was similar to that of the. Millwrights' Union in 1824, when they prohibited even a grindstone being turned save by a regular journeyman millwright, at two guineas a week. To the demands made by the Amalgamat ed Engineers, the masters replied by insisting on the mechanics and others in their employment signing a document repudiating any connexion with the union. A turnout was the consequence. The masters saw before them the prospect of a heavy. loss; but as both their capital and profits were at stake, and as it was necessary to determine whether they or their men were to govern in the engineers' shops, they fought the battle out. Steam was set to work to do its utmost, new labour-saving machines were invented, and many workmen not belonging to the union came in, some of them unskilled, who thus gained a footing in the trade. The result was, that after fifteen weeks' idleness, and a loss of some 43,000l., the men consented to go back to work at the old wages, but under considerably more stringent conditions than before. This was all that the engi neers gained by their strike. Strikes arising out of the introduction of new machinery have, however, generally been of a much more partial character than those for advances of wages, and have usually affected merely the particular manufactory in which the novelties have been introduced. The workmen employed on the new machinery never willingly engage in strikes against it, and when they have done so, it has been al most invariably owing to the threats or persuasions of others. The reason is, that more money can usually be earned with the improved than with the disbanded machine. It is also worthy of remark, that in strikes against machinery the workmen have often been supported and encouraged by the masters. The injury to the workmen by the introduction of inventions is commonly either remote or partial, whereas all those masters whose machinery is inferior to that newly introduced suffer an immediate and often total loss. Unless they give up their old machinery, and expend their capital in purchasing fresh, they are thrown behind in the race, and before long are thrust out of the market. The quantity of labour apportioned to a particular trade may be gradually lessened as the improvement becomes, generally adopted; but as production is thus cheapened, the demand is soon. so much increased that the great body of the operatives are not losers but gainers, The hand-loom weavers form almost the only exception to this rule. An unquestionable result of strikes has. been the stimulus which they have given from time to time to the ingenuity of our mechanics. Employers have been content to jog on in the old paths, until, thwarted in the conduct of their business by the trades' unions, they have been forced to call the inventor to their aid for the purpose of helping them in their difficulty. It was a strike of the spinners at Preston about the year 1830 which gave rise to the invention of Roberts's self-acting mule. The spinners, being the best paid workmen, were always the most difficult to deal with, and when they struck, though comparatively few in number, the whole operations of the factory were brought to a standstill. The masters accordingly applied in their dilemma to the firm of Sharpe, Roberts, and Co., of Manchester, for a machine which should enable them to conduct their operations chiefly by means of women; and the result was the self-acting mule, which rolls the spindle carriage out and in at the proper speed without a hand touching it, the only manual labour required being that which is necessary to join the broken threads. This machine was not, however, generally adopted for some time, even at Preston, and it was not until the formidable strike in 1836 that it was largely introduced into the mills of that town. The mule was also extensively adopted at Glasgow for the purpose of getting rid of the combinations among the spinners; although the necessary changes involved a very large and otherwise unnecessary outlay of capital. The invention of the wool-combing machine was in like manner almost entirely attributable to the repeated strikes of the Bradford wool-combers, a most refractory class of workmen. The wool-combers' union had existed for a century, and several Acts of Parliament had been passed with the object of suppressing the power which they had exercised with the usual bad consequences. The operations of trade in Yorkshire were frequently entirely suspended through their strikes. In 1833, when the whole of the combers in a large factory turned out, the proprietors applied their capital and skill to the improvement of a wool-combing machine, and in a short time brought it to such perfection as completely to supersede the employment of wool-combers. It may be added that the trade of Bradford has never prospered so steadily, nor maintained so large a number of well-paid operatives, as since these strikes of the wool-combers have been stopped. The wool-combers, like the hand-loom weavers, have been superseded, but the general standard of remuneration, paid to a much greater number of workpeople, has been increased. Where machines displace labour, they render it disposable for other work, and at the same time render disposable the-food and wages which for merly maintained it; for machines, though they may work hard, do not eat. The general result is, that there are more products, and a larger amount of remuneration for division among the workmen. Steam-power and machinery create an immense demand for labour; and we consequently find their introduction followed by an addition to the number of miners, iron-workers, mechanics, and engineers,— classes of workmen who are paid the highest average rates of wages. Since, however, the sudden introduction of machinery has sometimes caused severe distress to particular classes of artisans, it would be desirable to establish a fund whereby the dispossessed operatives might be enabled to betake themselves to other occupations without passing through the severe suffering to which they have occasionally to submit. The building trades, united in a powerful union, have made repeated attempts to keep up the rate of wages by strikes. For instance, in 1833, the building trades of Manchester served a requisition on the masters calling upon them to abandon the practice of erecting buildings on the system of sub-contracts. The masters complied, but the concession only led to fresh demands on the part of the workmen, who proceeded to issue a series of regulations requiring the masters to abide by certain rules respecting the equalization of wages, the machinery they were to employ, the number of apprentices they were to take, &c. &c. The masters again complied; but the workmen proceeded to even more dictatorial measures, such as levying fines upon their employers when they had violated any regulation of the Union, ordering the masters to appear before them at their meetings, and commanding them to dismiss or to take back such and such workmen, and obey such and such rules. Non-compliance with these tyrannical decrees was, in several instances, followed by an immediate strike of all the hands in the shop. The employers at length formed themselves into an Association for mutual defence, being unable longer to endure restrictions which threatened to involve them in ultimate ruin. They accordingly determined to employ no workman unless to a customer who employed men unconnected with a trades' union; and the result was, that the master introduced an entirely new set of colliers from a distance, and had them protected against the violence of the unionists by a military force. In another colliery the men insisted that the master should discharge two workmen who were not members of a union. On the master refusing, the men struck, and again there was an entire change of hands, when a large number of the old gang were thrown he signed a declaration that he did not belong to a trades' union. A general turn-out was the consequence, and it lasted six months, during which the vast building operations carried on in Liverpool and Manchester were almost entirely suspended. No attempt whatever had been made by the masters to reduce the wages of their workmen, or to interfere with any one of their usual practices or privileges. The pay of the bricklayers had even been increased three shillings weekly a short time before the strike took place; for the build-out of employment. The pitmen of During trade was brisk, and the masters desired to attract workmen into their employment. Good hands were enabled to earn as much as thirty-five shillings a week during the summer months. The men were well supported during their strike, their brethren in the building trades all over England forwarding liberal contributions. Not less than 18,000l. was received in this way. The sacrifice which the operatives made in wages during the six months they remained idle was at least 72,000l.; and as there was no prospect of the masters acceding to their proposals, the combination was voted a nuisance, and the men went back, entreating to be employed upon the old terms. But many of the buildings formerly in progress had by this time been discontinued; a considerable number of fresh labourers had been brought from distant parts of the country, and machinery had been introduced to perform certain parts of labour to which it could be applied. Thus only a proportion of the former hands could be taken on; and many of them never recovered from the misery into which they had sunk, or from the habits of idleness and dissipation which they had acquired, during the period of the strike. Colliers have also had their strikes, which, though sometimes temporarily successful, have ended in the usual calamitous results. One of the least disastrous strikes was that of the colliers of Lancashire, who, in 1830, obtained an advance of wages after a protracted struggle. The price of coal was raised forty per cent., large quantities from other districts were brought into Lancashire by sea and canal, stocks accumulated on the hands of the masters, the colliers were accordingly required to do less work, and their earnings were in many cases reduced below what they had been before the strike. The men, however, had felt their power, and they proceeded to assist other combinations among neighbouring workmen. In one case the colliers required that their master should not supply coal ham and Northumberland have also had Such have been the results of the most important strikes which have taken place in England down to the present day; and men in such a country as England, that the enterprise, the energy, and the capital of our middle class, if left free and untrammelled, are constantly opening up new fields. they afford an effectual answer to the question-Have strikes tended to raise the rate of wages? Indeed there is not an instance of any extensive strike, no matter how well organized and supported, having ended otherwise than in suffering and de- Whilst trades' unions are eulogized by feat to the workmen. The waste incurred their orators as the 'protectors of labour has been frightful. The loss to the nation against the tyranny of capital,' they are may be reckoned by millions; for property by no means so friendly to the general which might have been produced, but was mass of the working classes as they would not, is as much lost as though it had been have us believe. They, in fact, constitute first made and afterwards destroyed. an exclusive body, whose principal object These struggles of peace have proved as is to keep as many as possible out of their costly as many campaigns; and some particular trades, and especially to shut strikes have presented horrors scarcely out the poor and unskilled from participatsurpassed by those of physical warfare.ing in their peculiar advantages. Some of If blood is not shed, life is sacrificed, as well as the energies on which life depends, spreading misery and breeding strife. In many cases the moral character of the workmen and their families has been completely broken down; and they have never again recovered from the ruin inflicted upon them. It may be said that the fear of a strike acts as a powerful inducement on the part of the master to maintain the rate of wages, and to grant an increase when demanded by the united body of workmen. Doubtless this is an influence which has its effect, and it will always operate, independently of trades' unions, where there is an intelligent body of skilled artisans to be dealt with. The highest paid mechanics have no unions, nor do they need them. They have the power of declining to work for what they consider insufficient wages; and if it be the master's interest to keep them, he will not fail to offer the inducement of increased pay. Trades' unions did not create industry nor the demand for skilled labour, nor have they regulated wages, which will always necessarily depend upon the numbers seeking work. Hence the unemployed have even more to do than the employed with the determination of the rate of wages. There is a natural level of remuneration for every kind of labour which the power of all the trades' unions cannot alter. If there be a scarcity of workmen, the tendency will be to a rise of wages, perhaps above the ordinary standard; but even then the attraction of increased numbers into that particular trade will quickly restore the rate to its former average. If there be an excessive number of workmen in proportion to the work to be done, no power of combination will maintain the rate until the surplus hands have betaken themselves to other employments. And there is this advantage for skilled work the most important strikes have occurred because of the employment of labourers and mechanics not belonging to the trades' combinations. The unions do not for one moment take into consideration the interests of the people outside their associations; they are as monopolising, if we may judge by their rules, as any of the ancient guilds; and it is well known that any attempt on the part of non-unionists (who constitute the great body of the labouring classes) to obtain employment in their trades, is met by unceasing annoyance, and in many cases by actual persecution and violence. Indeed the main action of these associations-however it may be attempted to be disguised-is not so much directed against the tyranny of capital as against the unfettered industry of the working people themselves; and it might even be said that the average rate of wages is kept depressed in order that the wages of the unionists may be maintained. It is not the free disposal of labour that the trades' combinations seek, but its restriction and monopoly. They stand between the man who wishes to work and the man who is willing to employ him. They insist that the community shall pay the rate which they arbitrarily set upon their peculiar labour and skill, and not its fair market value. If the free labourer is willing to give us ten hours' work for ten hours' pay, and the unionist will give us only nine hours' work for the same, what is this but exacting money for an imperfect equivalent, and taking an hour's idleness at the general expense? For it is a mistake to suppose that it is the employer who suffers. The employer only looks for a reasonable profit on his investment of capital, skill, and industry; and whether the workman gives nine or ten hours' work, the result will be nearly equal to him. It is the public who are unjustly deprived of their money. |
