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writers-except to the author of Essay 5, in the "Prize" pamphlet; and one cannot but wonder that such a farrago of mere snatches of sense, mingled with rambling nonsense and pragmatical conceit, should have been deemed worthy of publication by a body of intelligent men. Essay 1, is the most perfect composition in the "Prize" pamphlet, both as it regards the style and the consistency of the writer's arguments with each other. There are also to be found in this essay some free, outspoken sentiments-such as those on the pages where it is argued, that the operative who is thrown out of employ by the introduction of machinery has a right to be compensated for loss, as well as the landlord for the land he surrenders to a railway company. Essays 2, 4, and 6, in the same pamphlet, manifest less independence, and some sentences in Essay 6, read as if the writer was apologising for Political Economy, rather than defending it from principle.

Essay 3, in the "Prize" pamphlet, involuntarily awakens within one some dubiety as to the real oneness of the writer. Is it the composition of two Thomas Goddards,' the Elder and the Younger? The following passage might, under such a hypothesis, be taken for the belief of the elder Goddard -an octogenarian filled with timid remembrances of the alarms he felt during the first French Revolution, and retaining his orthodox attachment to Adam Smith:

"SUPPLY AND DEMAND. The causes which make the market value of things depend on supply and demand, are that the whole of the goods in the market compose the demand for money; and so the whole of the money constitutes the demand for goods. The demand and supply of goods, or supply and demand, for money, are therefore equivalent expressions. The revenue of all men must consist of rents, profits, or wages; and they must exchange it for serviceable commodities. Some say that revolutions and the "organization of labour" would set this country to rights; but I am of a different opinion. I believe that security of property in any country is the first principle in developing improvement, civilizing society, increasing reproductive labour, and raising mankind to a moral and intellectual state. Who are the greatest sufferers by revolutions? I answer, the labouring class of people, because if fixed capital is destroyed, such as machinery, warehouses, factories, and working tools of every description-this not only reduces the wages of labour, but stops employment altogether; and confidence being destroyed, the capitalist locks up his floating capital until confidence is restored, and even then he begins very cautiously. This must be one of the greatest calamities that can befall working men.

"As regards the organization of labour, I might refer to the operations of the fraternal association of Tailors in the Rue de Clichy, which have proved a miserable failure; and so will all others unless we could give all men the same development, and the same intelligence. I believe that the organization of labour in an old country in particular would reduce it to a state of beggary, without machinery were improved to the greatest perfection, so as to perform all the labour of the country; and that being the case, we should be enjoying the principle. But that not being the case, the labour, management, and direction of society, would devolve upon the few, and ultimately man would go backward, and be reduced to semi-barbarism, as there would not be any stimulant to individual exertion."

And the following extract, on the same supposition of a duality of authorship, might be set down as the writing of the Younger Goddard-an intelligent English workingman, who, born in the nineteenth century, perceives that Fraternity, Equality, and Progress are not mere French hyberboles, but European watchwords that indicate the coming of a better state of things than worn-out and miserable Competition can ever ensure for the mass of humankind :

"There is one remedial measure that I had thought of writing upon, which I named at a meeting of working men at the time the trades unions were in active operation, and which I have advocated many times since-which would give great satisfaction to labourers if it could be carried out, and which I have always preferred to throwing money away upon strikes. What I mean is Joint-stock Companies. As I have met

with an article upon the subject, I will quote it verbatim, seeing that it accords with my views :

Labour is the best remunerated upon the joint-stock principle. In the American ships trading to China, it has long been a custom for every sailor to have an interest in the profits of the voyage; and to this has been ascribed the general good conduct of those seamen, and the extreme rarity of any collision between them and the government or people of the country, &c.'

This extract is from the prize essay on "the Causes and Remedies of National Distress," by Mr. Samuel Laing.

"Under a partnership concern, as labourers taken into partnership with their employer, bringing nothing into the concern but their labour, whilst he brings not only his labour of direction and superintendence, but his capital also, they have justly a smaller share of the profits. This, however, is a matter of private arrangement in all partnerships; one partner has a large, and another a small share according to agreement, grounded on the equivalent which is given by each. The essence, however, of a partnership is obtained, since each benefits by everything that is beneficial to the concern, and loses by everything which is injurious. It is in the fullest sense, the common concern of all. The value of this organization of industry, where once extended, will heal the embittered feelings that exist between the labourer and the capitalist, and the result of these more proper arrangements would be:

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First, that every person engaged in the association or factory would have a direct interest in its prosperity; since the effect of any success, or falling off, would almost immediately produce a corresponding change in his own weekly receipts.

"Secondly, every person concerned in the factory would have an immediate interest in preventing any waste or mismanagement in all the departments.

"Thirdly, the talents of all connected with it would be strongly directed to improvement in every department.

"Fourthly, none but workmen of high character and qualification could find admission into such establishments, because when any additional hands were required, it would be the common interest to admit only the most respectable and skilful workmen ; and it would be far less easy to impose upon a dozen workmen, than upon a single proprietor of a factory.

"Fifthly, when any circumstances produced a glut in the market, more skill would be directed to diminish the cost of production, and a portion of the time of the men might then be occupied in repairing and improving their tools, for which a reserved fund would pay-thus checking present, and facilitating future, production.

"Sixthly, another advantage of no small importance would be the total removal of all real or imaginary causes for combinations. The workmen and the capitalist would so shade into each other-would so evidently have a common interest-and their difficulties and distresses would be mutually so well understood, that instead of combining to oppress each other, the only combination would be a most powerful union between both parties to overcome their common difficulties.

"It may be thought that by the above, I am departing from individualism, but I think that so far it might be carried with safety and advantage."

The last timid period, however, destroys the dual theory. It is one Thomas Goddard, after all, who has written this Essay; but when he has struck out the golden suggestion in the pamphlet-he is frightened at it, or fears it will displease the adjudicators'-which shall be said?

Does not this writer see that he has here suggested the very “organization of labour" which he has before deprecated? He merely alters one term, and calls it an "organisation of industry:"-substituting a synonym-as if Louis Blanc's term had 'revolution,' and 'destruction of fixed capital,' and 'reduction of an old country to a state of beggary,' all horribly concentred in its two syllables, in his belief. True, his suggestion does not embody all the features of Louis Blanc's scheme; but Thomas Goddard does propose an "Organisation of Labour," notwithstanding. "I believe"-("We think, my lord, he goes too much upon I believe," said the foreman of a jury the other day, while a witness was giving his 'evidence'),-I believe that the organization of labour would not be any stimulant to individual exertion"! And yet, in his First,' Secondly,' and 'Thirdly,' Thomas Goddard has shewn us, with most admirable clearness, that the 'organisation of labour' would be a most omnipotent stimulus to individual exertion! And

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his Sixthly the total abolition of strife, and the shading of the workmen and capitalist so into each other, what is it all but the real Fraternity which enlightened thinkers are devising, that Thomas Goddard has here devised? His Fourthly' may be deficient in philanthropy; but it is a recommendatory item that will have great weight with English workingmen generally-for few, in this country, regard Louis Blanc's proposition for an equality of wages, with much favour.

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Did the adjudicators of these prizes, do the members of the Leicester Chamber of Commerce, regard this proposal for Joint-stock Companies'-'Organisation of Industry Organisation of Labour'-call it what you will!-as worthy of deep consideration, and have any of them resolved to try it? If one could hear of that, it might be exultingly proclaimed that the days of misery for the poor Leicester stockinger were near their close, and happiness about to dawn upon him and his children. Let Thomas Goddard's proposition be once adopted, and it would open the way for an association of interests still more philanthropic, and still more consistent with the promptings of man's higher nature.

The evils of the present system, Mr. Black points out with an earnestness which has long marked his character, in the estimation of Leicester working. men. Both he and Mr. Emery contend that the parrot words, (for they have become such,) Supply and Demand,' do not solve this question of the Regulation of Wages, without some modification-especially that arising from the intelligence and dispositions, both of employers and employed. Speaking of the increase of poverty, and the frequent reductions of wages, in our seats of manufacture, Mr. Black has this energetic passage :—

"If we enquire into the causes of this poverty and reduction of wages, we are met on every side by complaints of over-population,' 'redundancy of labour,' want of demand,' the_labour-market over-handed,' gluts,' 'panics,' &c., and, notwithstanding, that overpopulation and over-production are relative questions, they are practically carried out in the most abstracted sense of the term. The means used as remedies for the alleged evil of over-population, are to place the unemployed in Union-houses, keep them upon scanty fare, separating man and wife, to prevent further increase, and the recommending and encouraging national emigration. The remedy for over-production is to suspend labour and diminish wealth, while the people's wants are unsupplied.

"Speaking on the question of population, and the means of subsistence, Bishop Watson says, that 'Great Britain is capable of maintaining thirty millions of inhabitants;' Dr. Hall says, it would support with ease ninety millions; while the Earl of Lauderdale, one of the modern Political Economist school, declares, that it might support one hundred and eighty millions." Sheriff Alison, in his Principles of Population,' says, that on the most moderate calculation, Great Britain and Ireland are capable of maintaining, in ease and affluence, one hundred and twenty millions of inhabitants.' He says

England will maintain
Ireland.
Scotland;

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60,000,000

48,000,000

15,000,000

123,000,000

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"In support, of the above views, the Parliamentary Reports and Statistics shew, that 'the land of Great Britain and Ireland is highly susceptible of further improvement,' and that we have fifteen million acres of cultivatable land lying waste.' We have to combine with these, agricultural resources, a mechanical power such as no country ever before possessed, and the world before us for an extensive exchange of commodities. With all these means for subsistence, it must be a fatal error to deal with the question of over-population, in the abstracted sense of the term; and to stop production, and diminish wealth, while the people are in want, can only be attributed to the same cause.

"What a ruinous and painful state of things! Millions of acres of cultivatable land lying waste, and so many able hands unemployed! The means of producing food in abundance, and people craving with hunger! A super-abundance of clothing, and those who produce it literally naked!

"Over-population and over-production at the same time is a monstrous absurdity; and

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the system which makes a glut while the people are starving, and provides no better remedy than Bastiles and emigration, or than suspending production and diminishing wealth, while the people are in want, deserves not the countenance or support of any rational or saneminded human being. Over-population and over-production are not abstract, but relative questions. Population relates to the means of subsistence, and production to the wants of the people, and their ability to purchase. In the present state of things there is more produced in a given time, than those who have the means to purchase require for their own consumption; and more who require the commodities for consumption than have the means to purchase them. In plain language, the great body of the people require more commodities, but cannot buy them; and their remaining unsold causes the supply to exceed the demand, and, under the present system, is a pre-disposing cause in regulating the wages of labour downwards. In anything approaching to a natural or just state of society, the supply and demand would be regulated by the actual or real wants of the people. But when wo have a superabundance of commodities on one hand, and a starving people on the otherwhen wages are reduced, because the supply exceeds, not the natural demand, but the purse -when, because the people have not the pecuniary means to purchase and supply their wants, a portion of the little means they have is taken from them by further reductions, -then one reduction clearly becomes the cause of another; but the primary cause is the error in the system of distribution.

"As in nature, so in commerce, there are three mighty links in the immutable chainproduction, distribution, and consumption. The former and the latter are in good working condition, but the distributive link is defective, and incapable of performing its proper functions, which is, to bind the car of consumption firmly to the engine of production, in order to keep these two powers properly balanced, until the wants of the whole people are fully supplied. But while we are continually inventing, constructing, and improving machinery to increase production on one hand, and display a niggardliness in the distribution of the commodities on the other, the supply must exceed the demand, competition will most assuredly diminish the wages of labour, and thus make the difference between the supply and the demand greater."

The whole argument of Mr. Emery's pamphlet should be read, to be properly estimated. He is a young man of no ordinary powers of mind; and I am much mistaken in my estimate of him, or he will yet produce much to correct some unfounded theories, and to aid in ameliorating the condition of his order. I select the following sentences-though they are not consecutive in the pamphlet-in lieu of abridging Mr. E.'s argument :

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“In a tract, published by the Messrs. Chambers, Mr. James Smith, a factory millowner, is made to say: Let me assure you that nothing is more certain than that, taking the working classes in the entire mass, that they get a fair share of the proceeds of the national industry.' And this assumed employer also tells us, that before commencing business for himself, he realized in seven years the sum of twenty thousand pounds by investing in trade the sum of seven hundred pounds, and his savings from a salary of two hundred and fifty pounds per annum. An average of two thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven pounds a year was Mr. Smith's fair share of the proceeds of the national industry,' while Mr. Jackson, the operative, would receive his fifty or sixty pounds. I am not disposed to question that these respective sums are the fair share of the proceeds to each party in the conventional language of the trade-which means that that is fair' which each party can get in striking a bargain. Neither do I suppose that had the assumed persons changed places the result would have been different. But that Mr. Smith, the millowner, and Mr. Jackson, the operative, had equal advantage in making their bargains, I emphatically deny. Freedom of arrangement between capital and labour! The idea is preposterous. Nine-tenths of labourers are no more free to state terms to capitalists than they are to fly. The arrangement' is all on one side. The labourer says Give me work, or I perish.' He has no other alternative. The capitalist can bide his time,' and enforce his own terms. With the employer it is a matter of time and convenience: with the employed it is a question of life and death.

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The capitalist and labourer act from opposing points. One is for buying cheap, the other for selling dear; and it is the tendency of capital to make the labour cheap it desires to purchase. The ever-increasing powers of production, through improvements in machinery, tend to drive the living labourer trom the market. The price of labour is in a great measure determined by hunger and destitution; and the labourer's difficulty is the capitalist's opportunity."

When the working classes shall be in the position necessary to make their present unions nerally successful, they will see that the wages system they are now agitating for is

rotten and ruinous. Wages! the very term implies dependence and poverty. It proclaims the fact that the labourer has been necessitated to pawn his labour, aye, and to sell the duplicate! He has been compelled to seek for an advance of the means of living and working, from those who desire to get an interest from the deposit of his labour. Trades' unions, designed merely to regulate and protect such advances, by passively withholding labour, may have the effect of checking, for a time, isolated cases of rapacity; but let us rest assured that such means will never avert that utter prostration of condition which awaits the working classes, unless some interposing intelligence and organization shall make that capital their servant which is now their tyrant."

The

"Our political and social economy contain the elements of their own destruction. necessities of the age as well as the attractiveness of truth will impel a change. An extreme wealth-class, and an extreme poverty-class cannot go on to perpetuity. That capital which has elevated mankind from a state of barbarism, must not now annihilate its producers by retrogade processes of refined starvation and modernized cruelty. The public mind is awakening to the fact, that as the well-being of humanity is dependent upon the development and employment of its several faculties; so must labour minister to these ends, and become a recognized element in the social state;-for-in the language of Thomas Carlyle this that they call organising of labour is, if well understood, the problem of the whole future for all who will in future pretend to govern men.'"

Notice.-The Purchasers of "Cooper's Journal"

Are respectfully informed that with No. 9, (the number for the week ending March 2nd,) Will be GIVEN AWAY, No. I. of

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OR

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