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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/10710-0.txt b/10710-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b2c177c --- /dev/null +++ b/10710-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6693 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 10710 *** + +Transcriber's note: Footnotes have been renumbered and moved + to the end of the text. + + + +Problems of Poverty + +An Inquiry into the Industrial Condition of The Poor + +By + +John A. Hobson, M.A. + +Author of "The Problem of The Unemployed," +"International Trade," Etc. + +Sixth Edition + + + + + + +First Published April 1891 +Second Edition November 1894 +Third Edition July 1896 +Fourth Edition July 1899 +Fifth Edition May 1905 +Sixth Edition 1906 + + + + + + +Preface + + + +The object of this volume is to collect, arrange, and examine some of +the leading facts and forces in modern industrial life which have a +direct bearing upon Poverty, and to set in the light they afford some of +the suggested palliatives and remedies. Although much remains to be done +in order to establish on a scientific basis the study of "the condition +of the people," it is possible that the brief setting forth of carefully +ascertained facts and figures in this little book may be of some service +in furnishing a stimulus to the fuller systematic study of the important +social questions with which it deals. + +The treatment is designed to be adapted to the focus of the citizen- +student who brings to his task not merely the intellectual interest of +the collector of knowledge, but the moral interest which belongs to one +who is a part of all he sees, and a sharer in the social responsibility +for the present and the future of industrial society. + +For the statements of fact contained in these chapters I am largely +indebted to the valuable studies presented in the first volume of Mr. +Charles Booth's _Labour and Life of the People_, a work which, when +completed, will place the study of problems of poverty upon a solid +scientific basis which has hitherto been wanting. A large portion of +this book is engaged in relating the facts drawn from this and other +sources to the leading industrial forces of the age. + +In dealing with suggested remedies for poverty, I have selected certain +representative schemes which claim to possess a present practical +importance, and endeavoured to set forth briefly some of the economic +considerations which bear upon their competency to achieve their aim. In +doing this my object has been not to pronounce judgment, but rather to +direct enquiry. Certain larger proposals of Land Nationalization and +State Socialism, etc., I have left untouched, partly because it was +impossible to deal, however briefly, even with the main issues involved +in these questions, and partly because it seemed better to confine our +enquiry to measures claiming a direct and present applicability. + +In setting forth such facts as may give some measurement of the evils of +Poverty, no attempt is made to suppress the statement of extreme cases +which rest on sufficient evidence, for the nature of industrial poverty +and the forces at work are often most clearly discerned and most rightly +measured by instances which mark the severest pressure. So likewise +there is no endeavour to exclude such human emotions as are "just, +measured, and continuous," from the treatment of a subject where true +feeling is constantly required for a proper realization of the facts. + +In conclusion, I wish to offer my sincere thanks to Mr. Llewellyn Smith, +Mr. William Clarke, and other friends who have been kind enough to +render me valuable assistance in collecting the material and revising +the proof-sheets of portions of this book. + + + + +Contents + + + + I. The Measure of Poverty + II. The Effects of Machinery on the Condition of the Working-Classes + III. The Influx of Population into Large Towns + IV. "The Sweating System" + V. The Causes of Sweating + VI. Remedies for Sweating + VII. Over-Supply of Low-Skilled Labour +VIII. The Industrial Condition of Women Workers + IX. Moral Aspects of Poverty + X. "Socialistic Legislation" + XI. The Industrial Outlook of Low-Skilled Labour + +List of Authorities + + + + + +Problems of Poverty + + + + +Chapter I. + +The Measure of Poverty. + + + +§ 1. The National Income, and the Share of the Wage-earners.--To give a +clear meaning and a measure of poverty is the first requisite. Who are +the poor? The "poor law," on the one hand, assigns a meaning too narrow +for our purpose, confining the application of the name to "the +destitute," who alone are recognized as fit subjects of legal relief. +The common speech of the comfortable classes, on the other hand, not +infrequently includes the whole of the wage-earning class under the +title of "the poor." As it is our purpose to deal with the pressure of +poverty as a painful social disease, it is evident that the latter +meaning is unduly wide. The "poor," whose condition is forcing "the +social problem" upon the reluctant minds of the "educated" classes, +include only the lower strata of the vast wage-earning class. + +But since dependence upon wages for the support of life will be found +closely related to the question of poverty, it is convenient to throw +some preliminary light on the measure of poverty, by figures bearing on +the general industrial condition of the wage-earning class. To measure +poverty we must first measure wealth. What is the national income, and +how is it divided? will naturally arise as the first questions. Now +although the data for accurate measurement of the national income are +somewhat slender, there is no very wide discrepancy in the results +reached by the most skilful statisticians. For practical purposes we may +regard the sum of £1,800,000,000 as fairly representing the national +income. But when we put the further question, "How is this income +divided among the various classes of the community?" we have to face +wider discrepancies of judgment. The difficulties which beset a fair +calculation of interest and profits, have introduced unconsciously a +partisan element into the discussion. Certain authorities, evidently +swayed by a desire to make the best of the present condition of the +working-classes, have reached a low estimate of interest and profits, +and a high estimate of wages; while others, actuated by a desire to +emphasize the power of the capitalist classes, have minimized the share +which goes as wages. At the outset of our inquiry, it might seem well to +avoid such debatable ground. But the importance of the subject will not +permit it to be thus shirked. The following calculation presents what +is, in fact, a compromise of various views, and can only claim to be a +rough approximation to the truth. + +Taking the four ordinary divisions: Rent, as payment for the use of +land, for agriculture, housing, mines, etc.; Interest for the use of +business capital; Profit as wages of management and superintendence; and +Wages, the weekly earnings of the working-classes, we find that the +national income can be thus fairly apportioned-- + + Rent £200,000,000. + Interest £450,000,000. + Profits £450,000,000. + Wages £650,000,000.[1] + Total £1750,000,000. + +Professor Leone Levi reckoned the number of working-class families as +5,600,000, and their total income £470,000,000 in the year 1884.[2] If +we now divide the larger money, minus £650,000,000, among a number of +families proportionate to the increase of the population, viz. +6,900,000, we shall find that the average yearly income of a working- +class family comes to about £94, or a weekly earnings of about 36s. This +figure is of necessity a speculative one, and is probably in excess of +the actual average income of a working family. + +This, then, we may regard as the first halting-place in our inquiry. But +in looking at the average money income of a wage-earning family, there +are several further considerations which vitally affect the measurement +of the pressure of poverty. + +First, there is the fact, that out of an estimated population of some +42,000,000, only 12,000,000, or about three out of every ten persons in +the richest country of Europe, belong to a class which is able to live +in decent comfort, free from the pressing cares of a close economy. The +other seven are of necessity confined to a standard of life little, if +at all, above the line of bare necessaries. + +Secondly, the careful figures collected by these statisticians show that +the national income equally divided throughout the community would yield +an average income, per family, of about £182 per annum. A comparison of +this sum with the average working-class income of £94, brings home the +extent of inequality in the distribution of the national income. While +it indicates that any approximation towards equality of incomes would +not bring affluence, at anyrate on the present scale of national +productivity, it serves also to refute the frequent assertions that +poverty is unavoidable because Great Britain is not rich enough to +furnish a comfortable livelihood for everyone. + +§ 2. Gradations of Working-class Incomes.--But though it is true that an +income of 36s. a week for an ordinary family leaves but a small margin +for "superfluities," it will be evident that if every family possessed +this sum, we should have little of the worst evils of poverty. If we +would understand the extent of the disease, we must seek it in the +inequality of incomes among the labouring classes themselves. No family +need be reduced to suffering on 36s. a week. But unfortunately the +differences of income among the working-classes are proportionately +nearly as great as among the well-to-do classes. It is not merely the +difference between the wages of skilled and unskilled labour; the 50s. +per week of the high-class engineer, or typographer, and the 1s. 2d. per +diem of the sandwich-man, or the difference between the wages of men and +women workers. There is a more important cause of difference than these. +When the average income of a working family is named, it must not be +supposed that this represents the wage of the father of the family +alone. Each family contains about 2¼ workers on an average. This is a +fact, the significance of which is obvious. In some families, the father +and mother, and one or two of the children, will be contributors to the +weekly income; in other cases, the burden of maintaining a large family +may be thrown entirely on the shoulders of a single worker, perhaps the +widowed mother. If we reckon that the average wage of a working man is +about 24s., that of a working woman 15s., we realize the strain which +the loss of the male bread-winner throws on the survivor. + +In looking at the gradations of income among the working-classes, it +must be borne in mind that as you go lower down in the standard of +living, each drop in money income represents a far more than +proportionate increase of the pressure of poverty. Halve the income of a +rich man, you oblige him to retrench; he must give up his yacht, his +carriage, or other luxuries; but such retrenchment, though it may wound +his pride, will not cause him great personal discomfort. But halve the +income of a well-paid mechanic, and you reduce him and his family at +once to the verge of starvation. A drop from 25s. to 12s. 6d. a week +involves a vastly greater sacrifice than a drop from £500 to £250 a +year. A working-class family, however comfortably it may live with a +full contingent of regular workers, is almost always liable, by +sickness, death, or loss of employment, to be reduced in a few weeks to +a position of penury. + +§ 3. Measurement of East London Poverty.--This brief account of the +inequality of incomes has brought us by successive steps down to the +real object of our inquiry, the amount and the intensity of poverty. For +it is not inequality of income, but actual suffering, which moves the +heart of humanity. What do we know of the numbers and the life of those +who lie below the average, and form the lower orders of the working- +classes? + +Some years ago the civilized world was startled by the _Bitter Cry of +Outcast London_, and much trouble has been taken of late to gauge the +poverty of London. A host of active missionaries are now at work, +engaged in religious, moral, and sanitary teaching, in charitable +relief, or in industrial organization. But perhaps the most valuable +work has been that which has had no such directly practical object in +view, but has engaged itself in the collection of trustworthy +information. Mr Charles Booth's book, _The Labour and Life of the +People_, has an importance far in advance of that considerable attention +which it has received. Its essential value is not merely that it +supplies, for the first time, a large and carefully collected fund of +facts for the formation of sound opinions and the explosion of +fallacies, but that it lays down lines of a new branch of social study, +in the pursuit of which the most delicate intellectual interests will be +identified with a close and absorbing devotion to the practical issues +of life. + +In the study of poverty, the work of Mr. Booth and his collaborators may +truly rank as an epoch-making work. + +For the purpose we have immediately before us, the measurement of +poverty, the figures supplied in this book are invaluable. +Considerations of space will compel us to confine our attention to such +figures as will serve to mark the extent and meaning of city poverty in +London. But though, as will be seen, the industrial causes of London +poverty are in some respects peculiar, there is every reason to believe +that the extent and nature of poverty does not widely differ in all +large centres of population. + +The area which Mr. Booth places under microscopic observation covers +Shoreditch, Bethnal Green, Whitechapel, St. George's in the East, +Stepney, Mile End, Old Town, Poplar, Hackney, and comprises a population +891,539. Of these no less than 316,000, or 35 per cent, belong to +families whose weekly earnings amount to less than 21s. This 35 per +cent, compose the "poor," according to the estimate of Mr. Booth, and it +will be worth while to note the social elements which constitute this +class. The "poor" are divided into four classes or strata, marked A, B, +C, D. At the bottom comes A, a body of some 11,000, or 1¼ per cent, of +hopeless, helpless city savages, who can only be said by courtesy to +belong to the "working-classes" "Their life is the life of savages, with +vicissitudes of extreme hardship and occasional excess. Their food is of +the coarsest description, and their only luxury is drink. It is not easy +to say how they live; the living is picked up, and what is got is +frequently shared; when they cannot find 3d. for their night's lodging, +unless favourably known to the deputy, they are turned out at night into +the street, to return to the common kitchen in the morning. From these +come the battered figures who slouch through the streets, and play the +beggar or the bully, or help to foul the record of the unemployed; these +are the worst class of corner-men, who hang round the doors of public- +houses, the young men who spring forward on any chance to earn a copper, +the ready materials for disorder when occasion serves. They render no +useful service; they create no wealth; more often they destroy it."[3] + +Next comes B, a thicker stratum of some 100,000, or 11½ per cent., +largely composed of shiftless, broken-down men, widows, deserted women, +and their families, dependent upon casual earnings, less than 18s. per +week, and most of them incapable of regular, effective work. Most of the +social wreckage of city life is deposited in this stratum, which +presents the problem of poverty in its most perplexed and darkest form. +For this class hangs as a burden on the shoulders of the more capable +classes which stand just above it. Mr. Booth writes of it-- + +"It may not be too much to say that if the whole of class B were swept +out of existence, all the work they do could be done, together with +their own work, by the men, women, and children of classes C and D; that +all they earn and spend might be earned, and could very easily be spent, +by the classes above them; that these classes, and especially class C, +would be immensely better off, while no class, nor any industry, would +suffer in the least." Class C consists of 75,000, or 8 per cent., +subsisting on intermittent earnings of from 18s. to 21s. for a moderate- +sized family. Low-skilled labourers, poorer artizans, street-sellers, +small shopkeepers, largely constitute this class, the curse of whose +life is not so much low wages as irregularity of employment, and the +moral and physical degradation caused thereby. Above these, forming the +top stratum of "poor," comes a large class, numbering 129,000, or 14½ +per cent., dependent upon small regular earnings of from 18s. to 21s., +including many dock-and water-side labourers, factory and warehouse +hands, car-men, messengers, porters, &c. "What they have comes in +regularly, and except in times of sickness in the family, actual want +rarely presses, unless the wife drinks." + +"As a general rule these men have a hard struggle, but they are, as a +body, decent, steady men, paying their way and bringing up their +children respectably" (p. 50). + +Mr Booth, in confining the title "poor" to this 35 per cent. of the +population of East London, takes, perhaps for sufficient reasons, a +somewhat narrow interpretation of the term. For in the same district no +less than 377,000, or over 42 per cent. of the inhabitants, live upon +earnings varying from 21s. to 30s. per week. So long as the father is in +regular work, and his family is not too large, a fair amount of material +comfort may doubtless be secured by those who approach the maximum. But +such an income leaves little margin for saving, and innumerable forms of +mishaps will bring such families down beneath the line of poverty. +Though the East End contains more poverty than some other parts of +London the difference is less than commonly supposed. Mr Booth estimated +that of the total population of the metropolis 30.7 per cent. were +living in poverty. The figure for York is placed by Mr Seebohm +Rowntree[4] at the slightly lower figure of 27.84. These figures (in +both cases exclusive of the population of the workhouses and other +public or private institutions) may be taken as fairly representative of +life in English industrial cities. A recent investigation of an ordinary +agricultural village in Bedfordshire[5] discloses a larger amount of +poverty--no less than 34.3 per cent. of the population falling below the +income necessary for physical efficiency. + +§ 4. Prices for the Poor.--These figures relating to money income do not +bring home to us the evil of poverty. It is not enough to know what the +weekly earnings of a poor family are, we must inquire what they can buy +with them. Among the city poor, the evil of low wages is intensified by +high prices. In general, the poorer the family the higher the prices it +must pay for the necessaries of life. Rent is naturally the first item +in the poor man's budget. Here it is evident that the poor pay in +proportion to their poverty. The average rent in many large districts of +East London is 4s. for one room, 7s. for two. In the crowded parts of +Central London the figures stand still higher; 6s. is said to be a +moderate price for a single room.[6] Mr. Marchant Williams, an Inspector +of Schools for the London School Board, finds that 86 per cent. of the +dwellers in certain poor districts of London pay more than one-fifth of +their income in rent; 46 per cent. paying from one-half to one-quarter; +42 per cent. paying from one-quarter to one-fifth; and only 12 per cent. +paying less than one-fifth of their weekly wage.[7] The poor from their +circumstances cannot pay wholesale prices for their shelter, but must +buy at high retail prices by the week; they are forced to live near +their work (workmen's trains are for the aristocracy of labour), and +thus compete keenly for rooms in the centres of industry; more important +still, the value of central ground for factories, shops, and ware-houses +raises to famine price the habitable premises. It is notorious that +overcrowded, insanitary "slum" property is the most paying form of house +property to its owners. The part played by rent in the problems of +poverty can scarcely be over-estimated. Attempts to mitigate the evil by +erecting model dwellings have scarcely touched the lower classes of +wage-earners. The labourer prefers a room in a small house to an +intrinsically better accommodation in a barrack-like building. Other +than pecuniary motives enter in. The "touchiness of the lower class" +causes them to be offended by the very sanitary regulations designed for +their benefit. + +But "shelter" is not the only thing for which the poor pay high. +Astounding facts are adduced as to the prices paid by the poor for +common articles of consumption, especially for vegetables, dairy +produce, groceries, and coal. The price of fresh vegetables, such as +carrots, parsnips, &c., in East London is not infrequently ten times the +price at which the same articles can be purchased wholesale from the +growers.[8] + +Hence arises the popular cry against the wicked middleman who stands +between producer and consumer, and takes the bulk of the profit. There +is much want of thought shown in this railing against the iniquities of +the middleman. It is true that a large portion of the price paid by the +poor goes to the retail distributor, but we should remember that the +labour of distribution under present conditions and with existing +machinery is very great. We have no reason to believe that the small +retailers who sell to the poor die millionaires. The poor, partly of +necessity, partly by habit, make their purchases in minute quantities. A +single family has been known to make seventy-two distinct purchases of +tea within seven weeks, and the average purchases of a number of poor +families for the same period amounted to twenty-seven. Their groceries +are bought largely by the ounce, their meat or fish by the half- +penn'orth, their coal by the cwt., or even by the lb. Undoubtedly they +pay for these morsels a price which, if duly multiplied, represents a +much higher sum than their wealthier neighbours pay for a much better +article. But the small shopkeeper has a high rent to pay; he has a large +number of competitors, so that the total of his business is not great; +the actual labour of dispensing many minute portions is large; he is +often himself a poor man, and must make a large profit on a small turn- +over in order to keep going; he is not infrequently kept waiting for his +money, for the amount of credit small shopkeepers will give to regular +customers is astonishing. For all these, and many other reasons, it is +easy to see that the poor man must pay high prices. Even his luxuries, +his beer and tobacco, he purchases at exorbitant rates. + +It is sometimes held sufficient to reply that the poor are thoughtless +and extravagant. And no doubt this is so. But it must also be remembered +that the industrial conditions under which these people live, +necessitate a hand-to-mouth existence, and themselves furnish an +education in improvidence. + +§ 5. Housing and Food Supply of the Poor.--Once more, out of a low +income the poor pay high prices for a bad article. The low physical +condition of the poorest city workers, the high rate of mortality, +especially among children, is due largely to the _quality_ of the food, +drink, and shelter which they buy. On the quality of the rooms for which +they pay high rent it is unnecessary to dwell. Ill-constructed, +unrepaired, overcrowded, destitute of ventilation and of proper sanitary +arrangements, the mass of low class city tenements finds few apologists. +The Royal Commission on Housing of the Working Classes thus deals with +the question of overcrowding-- + +"The evils of overcrowding, especially in London, are still a public +scandal, and are becoming in certain localities a worse scandal than +they ever were. Among adults, overcrowding causes a vast amount of +suffering which could be calculated by no bills of mortality, however +accurate. The general deterioration in the health of the people is a +worse feature of overcrowding even than the encouragement by it of +infectious disease. It has the effect of reducing their stamina, and +thus producing consumption and diseases arising from general debility of +the system whereby life is shortened." "In Liverpool, nearly one-fifth +of the squalid houses where the poor live in the closest quarters are +reported to be always infected, that is to say, the seat of infectious +diseases." + +To apply the name of "home" to these dens is a sheer abuse of words. +What grateful memories of tender childhood, what healthy durable +associations, what sound habits of life can grow among these unwholesome +and insecure shelters? + +The city poor are a wandering tribe. The lack of fixed local habitation +is an evil common to all classes of city dwellers. But among the lower +working-classes "flitting" is a chronic condition. The School Board +visitor's book showed that in a representative district of Bethnal +Green, out of 1204 families, no less than 530 had removed within a +twelvemonth, although such an account would not include the lowest and +most "shifty" class of all. Between November 1885 and July 1886 it was +found that 20 per cent. of the London electorate had changed residence. +To what extent the uncertain conditions of employment impose upon the +poor this changing habitation cannot be yet determined; but the absence +of the educative influence of a fixed abode is one of the most +demoralizing influences in the life of the poor. The reversion to a +nomad condition is a retrograde step in civilization the importance of +which can hardly be exaggerated. When we bear in mind that these houses +are also the workshop of large numbers of the poor, and know how the +work done in the crowded, tainted air of these dens brings as an +inevitable portion of its wage, physical feebleness, disease, and an +early death, we recognize the paramount importance of that aspect of the +problem of poverty which is termed "The Housing of the Poor." + +So much for the quality of the shelter for which the poor pay high +prices. Turn to their food. In the poorest parts of London it is +scarcely possible for the poor to buy pure food. Unfortunately the prime +necessaries of life are the very things which lend themselves most +easily to successful adulteration. Bread, sugar, tea, oil are notorious +subjects of deception. Butter, in spite of the Margarine Act, it is +believed, the poor can seldom get. But the systematic poisoning of +alcoholic liquors permitted under a licensing System is the most +flagrant example of the evil. There is some evidence to show that the +poorer class of workmen do not consume a very large quantity of strong +drink. But the vile character of the liquor sold to them acts on an ill- +fed, unwholesome body as a poisonous irritant. We are told that "the +East End dram-drinker has developed a new taste; it is for fusil-oil. It +has even been said that ripe old whisky ten years old, drank in equal +quantities, would probably import a tone of sobriety to the densely- +populated quarters of East London."[9] + +§ 6. Irregularity of work.--One more aspect of city poverty demands a +word. Low wages are responsible in large measure for the evils with +which we have dealt. In the life of the lower grades of labour there is +a worse thing than low wages--that is irregular employment. The causes +of such irregularity, partly inherent in the nature of the work, partly +the results of trade fluctuations, will appear later. In gauging poverty +we are only concerned with the fact. This irregularity of work is not in +its first aspect so much a deficiency of work, but rather a +maladjustment While on the one hand we see large classes of workers who +are habitually overworked, men and women, tailors or shirt-makers in +Whitechapel, 'bus men, shop-assistants, even railway-servants, toiling +twelve, fourteen, fifteen, or even in some cases eighteen hours a day, +we see at the same time and in the same place numbers of men and women +seeking work and finding none. Thus are linked together the twin +maladies of over-work and the unemployed. It is possible that among the +comfortable classes there are still to be found those who believe that +the unemployed consist only of the wilfully idle and worthless residuum +parading a false grievance to secure sympathy and pecuniary aid, and who +hold that if a man really wants to work he can always do so. This idle +theory is contradicted by abundant facts. The official figures published +by the Board of Trade gives the average percentage of unemployed in the +Trade Unions of the skilled trades as follows. To the general average we +have appended for comparison the average for the shipbuilding and +boiler-making trades, so as to illustrate the violence of the +oscillations in a fluctuating trade:-- + + General per cent. Ship-building, etc. + + 1884 7.15 20.8 + 1885 8.55 22.2 + 1886 9.55 21.6 + 1887 7.15 16.7 + 1888 4.15 7.3 + 1889 2.05 2.0 + 1890 2.10 3.4 + 1891 3.40 5.7 + 1892 6.20 10.9 + 1893 7.70 17.0 + 1894 7.70 16.2 + 1895 6.05 13.0 + 1896 3.50 9.5 + 1897 3.65 8.6 + 1898 3.15 4.7 + 1899 2.40 2.1 + 1900 2.85 2.3 + 1901 3.80 3.6 + 1902 4.60 8.3 + 1903 5.30 11.7 + +These figures make it quite evident that the permanent causes of +irregular employment, e.g., weather in the building and riverside +trades, season in the dressmaking and confectionery trades, and the +other factors of leakage and displacement which throw out of work from +time to time numbers of workers, are, taken in the aggregate, +responsible only for a small proportion of the unemployment in the +staple trades of the country. + +The significance of such figures as these can scarcely be over- +estimated. Although it might fairly be urged that the lowest dip in +trade depression truly represented the injury inflicted on the +labouring-classes by trade fluctuations, we will omit the year 1886, and +take 1887 as a representative period of ordinary trade depression. The +figures quoted above are supported by Trade Union statistics, which show +that in that year among the strongest Trade Unions in the country, +consisting of the picked men in each trade, no less than 71 in every +1000, or over 7 per cent., were continuously out of work. That this was +due to their inability to get work, and not to their unwillingness to do +it, is placed beyond doubt by the fact that they were, during this +period of enforced idleness, supported by allowances paid by their +comrades. Indeed, the fact that in 1890 the mass of unemployed was +almost absorbed, disposes once for all of the allegation that the +unemployed in times of depression consist of idlers who do not choose to +work. Turning to the year 1887, there is every reason to believe that +where 7 per cent, are unemployed in the picked, skilled industries of a +country, where the normal supply of labour is actually limited by Union +regulations, the proportion in unskilled or less organized industries is +much larger. It is probable that 12 per cent, is not an excessive figure +to take as the representative of the average proportion of unemployed. +In the recent official returns of wages in textile industries, it is +admitted that 10 per cent, should be taken off from the nominal wages +for irregularity of employment. Moreover, it is true (with certain +exceptions) that the lower you go down in the ranks of labour and of +wages, the more irregular is the employment. To the pressure of this +evil among the very poor in East London notice has already been drawn. +We have seen how Mr. Booth finds one whole stratum of 100,000 people, +who from an industrial point of view are worse than worthless. We have +no reason to conclude that East London is much worse in this respect +than other centres of population, and the irregularity of country +employment is increasing every year. Are we to conclude then that of the +thirteen millions composing the "working-classes" in this country, +nearly two millions are liable at any time to figure as waste or surplus +labour? It looks like it. We are told that the movements of modern +industry necessitate the existence of a considerable margin supply of +labour. The figures quoted above bear out this statement. But a +knowledge of the cause does not make the fact more tolerable. We are not +at present concerned with the requirements of the industrial machine, +but with the quantity of hopeless, helpless misery these requirements +indicate. The fact that under existing conditions the unemployed seem +inevitable should afford the strongest motive for a change in these +conditions. Modern life has no more tragical figure than the gaunt, +hungry labourer wandering about the crowded centres of industry and +wealth, begging in vain for permission to share in that industry, and to +contribute to that wealth; asking in return not the comforts and +luxuries of civilized life, but the rough food and shelter for himself +and family, which would be practically secured to him in the rudest form +of savage society. + +Occasionally one of these sensational stories breaks into the light of +day, through the public press, and shocks society at large, until it +relapses into the consoling thought that such cases are exceptional. But +those acquainted closely with the condition of our great cities know +that there are thousands of such silent tragedies being played around +us. In England the recorded deaths from starvation are vastly more +numerous than in any other country. In 1880 the number for England is +given as 101. In 1902 the number for London alone is 34. This is, of +course, no adequate measure of the facts. For every recorded case there +will be a hundred unrecorded cases where starvation is the practical +immediate cause of death. The death-rate of children in the poorer +districts of London is found to be nearly three times that which obtains +among the richer neighbourhoods. Contemporary history has no darker page +than that which records not the death-rate of children, but the +conditions of child-life in our great cities. In setting down such facts +and figures as may assist readers to adequately realize the nature and +extent of poverty, it has seemed best to deal exclusively with the +material aspects of poverty, which admit of some exactitude of +measurement. The ugly and degrading surroundings of a life of poverty, +the brutalizing influences of the unceasing struggle for bare +subsistence, the utter absence of reasonable hope of improvement; in +short, the whole subjective side of poverty is not less terrible because +it defies statistics. + +§ 7. Figures and Facts of Pauperism.--Since destitution is the lowest +form of poverty, it is right to append to this statement of the facts of +poverty some account of pauperism. Although chiefly owing to a stricter +and wiser administration of the Poor Law in relation to outdoor relief, +the number of paupers has steadily and considerably decreased, both in +proportion to the population and absolutely, the number of those unable +to support themselves is still deplorably large. In 1881 no less than +one in ten of the total recorded deaths took place in workhouses, public +hospitals, and lunatic asylums. In London the proportion is much greater +and has increased during recent years. In 1901 out of 78,229 deaths in +London, 13,009 took place in workhouses, 10,643 in public hospitals, and +349 in public asylums, making a total of 24,001. Comparing these figures +with the total number of deaths, we find that in the richest city of the +world 32.5 per cent., or one in three of the inhabitants, dies dependent +on public charity. This estimate does not include those in receipt of +outdoor relief. Moreover, it is an estimate which includes all classes. +The proportion, taking the working-classes alone, must be even higher. + +Turning from pauper deaths to pauper lives, the condition of the poor, +though improved, is far from satisfactory. The agricultural labourer in +many parts of England still looks to the poorhouse as a natural and +necessary asylum for old age. Even the diminution effected in outdoor +relief is not evidence of a corresponding decrease in the pressure of +want. The diminution is chiefly due to increased strictness in the +application of the Poor Law, a policy which in a few cases such as +Whitechapel, Stepney, St. George-in-the-East, has succeeded in the +practical extermination of the outdoor pauper. This is doubtless a wise +policy, but it supplies no evidence of decrease in poverty. It would be +possible by increased strictness of conditions to annihilate outdoor +pauperism throughout the country at a single blow, and to reduce the +number of indoor paupers by making workhouse life unendurable. But such +a course would obviously furnish no satisfactory evidence of the decline +of poverty, or even of destitution. Moreover, in regarding the decline +of pauperism, we must not forget to take into account the enormous +recent growth of charitable institutions and funds which now perform +more effectually and more humanely much of the relief work which +formerly devolved upon the Poor Law. The income of charitable London +institutions engaged in promoting the physical well-being of the people +amounted in 1902-3 to about four and a half millions. The relief +afforded by Friendly Societies and Trade Unions to sick and out-of-work +members, furnishes a more satisfactory evidence of the growth of +providence and independence among all but the lowest classes of workers. + +The improvement exhibited in figures of pauperism is entirely confined +to outdoor relief. The number of workers who, by reason of old age or +other infirmity, are compelled to take refuge in the poorhouses, bears a +larger proportion to the total population than it did a generation ago. +In 1876-7 the mean number of indoor paupers for England and Wales was +130,337, or 5.4 per 1000 of the population; in 1902-3 the number had +risen to 203,604, or 6.2 per 1000 of the population. This rise of indoor +pauperism has indeed been coincident with a larger decline of outdoor +pauperism through this same period. But the growth of thrift in the +working-classes, the increase of the machinery of charity, the rise of +the average of wages--these causes have been wholly inoperative to check +the growth of indoor pauperism. Nor, if one may trust so competent an +authority as Mr Fowle, is this explained by any tendency of increased +strictness in the administration of outdoor relief, to drive would-be +recipients of outdoor relief into the workhouse. + +The figures of London pauperism yield still more strange results. Here, +though the percentage of paupers to population has shown a steady +decline, the process has been so much slower than in the country that +there has been no actual fall in the number of paupers. Throughout the +whole period from 1861 to 1896 the numbers have remained about +stationary, after which they show a considerable rise. The alarming +feature in this table is the rapid rise of indoor pauperism, far more +rapid than the growth of London's population. From 1861-2 the number of +indoor paupers has grown by steady increase from 26,667 to 61,432 in +1902-3, or from a ratio of 9.5 to one of 13.4 per 1000. While the +proportion of outdoor paupers per 1000 is little more than half that of +the country as a whole, the proportion of indoor paupers is more than +twice as great. Roughly speaking, London, with less than one-sixth of +the population of the country, contains nearly one-third of the indoor +pauperism. This fact alone throws some light upon the nature of city +life. A close analysis of metropolitan workhouses discloses the fact +that the aged, infirm, and children composed the vast majority of +inmates. A very small percentage was found to be capable of actual work. +About one-third of the paupers are children, about one-tenth lunatics, +about one-half are aged, infirm, or sick. This leaves one-fifteenth as +the proportion of able-bodied male and female adults. As a commentary on +the administration of the Poor Law, these figures are eminently +satisfactory, for they prove that people who can support themselves do +not in fact obtain from public relief. But the picture has its dark +side. It shows that a very large proportion of our workers, when their +labour-power has been drained out of them, instead of obtaining a well- +earned honourable rest, are obliged to seek refuge in that asylum which +they and their class hate and despise. Whereas only 5 per cent of the +population under 60 years are paupers, the proportion is 40 per cent in +the case of those over 70. Taking the working-class only out of a +population of 952,000 above the age of 65, no fewer than 402,000, or +over 42 per cent, obtained relief in 1892. In London 22½ per cent of the +aged poor are indoor paupers. The hardness of the battle of life is +attested by this number of old men, and old women, who in spite of a +hard-working life are compelled to end their days as the recipients of +public charity. + +§ 8. The Diminution of Poverty in the last half century.--In order to +realize the true importance of our subject, it is necessary not only to +have some measurement of the extent and nature of poverty, but to +furnish ourselves with some answer to the question, Is this poverty +increasing or diminishing? Until a few years ago it was customary not +only for platform agitators, but for thoughtful writers on the subject, +to assume that "the rich are getting richer, and the poor are getting +poorer." This formula was ripening into a popular creed when a number of +statistical inquiries choked it. Prof. Leone Levi, Mr. Giffen, and a +number of careful investigators, showed a vast improvement in the +industrial condition of the working-classes during the last half +century. It was pointed out that money wages had risen considerably in +all kinds of employment; that prices had generally fallen, so that the +rise in real wages was even greater; that they worked shorter hours; +consumed more and better food; lived longer lives; committed fewer +crimes; and lastly, saved more money. The general accuracy of these +statements is beyond question. The industrial conditions of the working- +classes as a whole shows a great advance during the last half century. +Although the evidence upon this point is by no means conclusive, it +seems probable that the income of the wage-earning classes as an +aggregate is growing even more rapidly than that of the capitalist +classes. Income-tax returns indicate that the proportion of the +population living on an acknowledged income of more than £150 a year is +much larger than it was a generation ago. In 1851 the income-tax-paying +population amounted to 1,500,000; in 1879-80 the number had risen to +4,700,000. At the same time the average of these incomes showed a +considerable fall, for while in 1851 the gross income assessed was +£272,000,000, in 1879-80 it had only risen to £577,000,000. + +Though the method of assessing companies as if they were single persons +renders it impossible to obtain accurate information in recent years as +to the number of persons enjoying incomes of various sizes, a comparison +made by Mr Mulhall of incomes in 1867 and 1895 indicates that, while the +lower middle-class is growing rapidly, the number of the rich is growing +still more rapidly. While incomes of £100 to £300 have grown by a little +more than 50 per cent., those from £300 to £1000 have nearly doubled, +those between £1000 and £5000 have more than doubled, and incomes over +£5000 have more than trebled. + +But though such comparisons justify the conclusion that the upper grades +of skilled labour have made considerable advances, and that the lower +grades of regular unskilled labourers have to a less degree shared in +this advance, they do not warrant the optimist conclusion often drawn +from them, that poverty is a disease which left alone will cure itself, +and which, in point of fact, is curing itself rapidly. Before we consent +to accept the evidence of improvement in the average condition of the +labouring classes during the last half century as sufficient evidence to +justify this opinion we ought to pay regard to the following +considerations-- + +1. It should be remembered that a comparison between England of the +present day with England in the decade 1830-1840 is eminently favourable +to a theory of progress. The period from 1790 to 1840 was the most +miserable epoch in the history of the English working-classes. Much of +the gain must be rightly regarded rather as a recovery from sickness, +than as a growth in normal health. If the decade 1730-1740, for example, +were to be taken instead, the progress of the wage-earner, especially in +southern England, would be by no means so obvious. The southern +agricultural labourer and the whole body of low-skilled workers were +probably in most respects as well off a century and a half ago as they +are to-day. + +2. The great fall of prices, due to cheapening of production and of +transport during the last twenty years, benefits the poor far less than +the rich. For, while the prices of most comforts and luxuries have +fallen very greatly, the same is not true of most necessaries. The gain +to the workers is chiefly confined to food prices, which have fallen +some 40 per cent since 1880. Taking the retail prices of foods consumed +by London working-class families we find that since 1880 the price of +flour has fallen about 60 per cent., bread falling a little more than +half that amount; the prices of beef and mutton have fallen nearly to +the same extent as flour, though bacon stands in 1903 just about where +it stood in 1880. Sugar exhibits a deep drop until 1898, rising +afterwards in consequence of the war tax and the Sugar Convention; tea +shows a not considerable drop. Other groceries, such as coffee and +cocoa, and certain vegetables are cheaper. A careful inquiry into +clothing shows a trifling fall of price for articles of the same +quality, while the introduction of cheaper qualities has enabled workers +to effect some saving here. Against these must be set a slight rise in +price of dairy produce, a considerable rise in fuel, and a large rise in +rent. A recent estimate of the Board of Trade, having regard to food, +rent, clothing, fuel, and lighting as chief ingredients of working-class +expenditure, indicates that 100 shillings will in 1900 do the work for +which 120 shillings were required in 1880. The great fall of prices has +been in the period 1880-1895, since then prices all round (except in +clothing) show a considerable rise. + +In turning from the working-classes as a whole to the poor, it becomes +evident that the most substantial benefit they have received from +falling prices is cheap bread. Cheap groceries and lighting are also +gains, though it must be remembered that the modes of purchase to which +the very poor are driven to have recourse minimize these gains. On +clothes the poor spend a very small proportion of their incomes, the +very poor virtually nothing. In the case of the lowest classes of the +towns, it is probable that the rise in rents offsets all the advantages +of cheapened prices for other commodities. + +The importance of the bearing of this fact is obvious. Even were it +clearly proved that the wages of the working-classes were increasing +faster in proportion than the incomes of the wealthier classes, it would +not be thereby shown that the standard of comfort in the former was +rising as fast as the standard of comfort in the latter. If we confine +the term "poor" to the lower grades of wage-earners, it would probably +be correct to say that the riches of the rich had increased at a more +rapid rate than that at which the poverty of the poor had diminished. +Thus the width of the gap between riches and poverty would be absolutely +greater than before. But, after all, such absolute measurements as these +are uncertain, and have little other than a rhetorical value. What is +important to recognize is this, that though the proportion of the very +poor to the whole population has somewhat diminished, never in the whole +history of England, excepting during the disastrous period at the +beginning of this century, has the absolute number of the very poor been +so great as it is now. Moreover, the massing of the poor in large +centres of population, producing larger areas of solid poverty, presents +new dangers and new difficulties in the application of remedial +measures. + +However we may estimate progress, one fact we must recognize, that the +bulk of our low-skilled workers do not yet possess a secure supply of +the necessaries of life. Few will feel inclined to dispute what +Professor Marshall says on this point-- + +"The necessaries for the efficiency of an ordinary agricultural or of an +unskilled town labourer and his family, in England, in this generation, +may be said to consist of a well-drained dwelling with several rooms, +warm clothing, with some changes of underclothing, pure water, a +plentiful supply of cereal food, with a moderate allowance of meat and +milk, and a little tea, &c.; some education, and some recreation; and +lastly, sufficient freedom for his wife from other work to enable her to +perform properly her maternal and her household duties. If in any +district unskilled labour is deprived of any of these things, its +efficiency will suffer in the same way as that of a horse which is not +properly tended, or a steam-engine which has an inadequate supply of +coals."[10] + +There is one final point of deep significance. So far we have +endeavoured to measure poverty by the application of a standard of +actual material comfort. But this, while furnishing a fair gauge of the +deprivation suffered by the poor, does not enable us to measure it as a +social danger. There is a depth of poverty, of misery, of ignorance, +which is not dangerous because it has no outlook, and is void of hope. +Abate the extreme stress of poverty, give the poor a glimpse of a more +prosperous life, teach them to know their power, and the danger of +poverty increases. This is what De Tocqueville meant when writing of +France, before the Revolution, he said, "According as prosperity began +to dawn in France, men's minds appeared to become more unquiet and +disturbed; public discontent was sharpened, hatred of all ancient +institutions went on increasing, till the nation was visibly on the +verge of a revolution. One might almost say that the French found their +condition all the more intolerable according as it became better."[11] + +So in England the change of industrial conditions which has massed the +poor in great cities, the spread of knowledge by compulsory education, +cheap newspapers, libraries, and a thousand other vehicles of knowledge, +the possession and growing appreciation of political power, have made +poverty more self-conscious and the poor more discontented. By striving +to educate, intellectually, morally, sanitarily, the poor, we have made +them half-conscious of many needs they never recognized before. They +were once naked, and not ashamed, but we have taught them better. We +have raised the standard of the requirements of a decent human life, but +we have not increased to a corresponding degree their power to attain +them. If by poverty is meant the difference between felt wants and the +power to satisfy them, there is more poverty than ever. The income of +the poor has grown, but their desires and needs have grown more rapidly. +Hence the growth of a conscious class hatred, the "growing animosity of +the poor against the rich," which Mr. Barnett notes in the slums of +Whitechapel. The poor were once too stupid and too sodden for vigorous +discontent, now though their poverty may be less intense, it is more +alive, and more militant. The rate of improvement in the condition of +the poor is not quick enough to stem the current of popular discontent. + +Nor is it the poor alone who are stricken with discontent. Clearer +thought and saner feelings are beginning to make it evident that in the +march of true civilization no one class can remain hopelessly behind. +Hence the problems of poverty are ever pressing more and more upon the +better-hearted, keener-sighted men and women of the more fortunate +classes; they feel that _they_ have no right to be contented with the +condition of the poor. The demand that a life worth living shall be made +possible for all, and that the knowledge, wealth, and energy of a nation +shall be rightly devoted to no other end than this, is the true measure +of the moral growth of a civilized community. The following picture +drawn a few years ago by Mr. Frederick Harrison shows how far we yet +fall short of such a realization--"To me at least, it would be enough to +condemn modern society as hardly an advance on slavery or serfdom, if +the permanent condition of industry were to be that which we now behold; +that 90 per cent, of the actual producers of wealth have no home that +they can call their own beyond the end of a week; have no bit of soil, +or so much as a room that belongs to them; have nothing of value of any +kind except as much as will go in a cart; have the precarious chance of +weekly wages which barely suffice to keep them in health; are housed for +the most part in places that no man thinks fit for his horse; are +separated by so narrow a margin from destitution that a month of bad +trade, sickness, or unexpected loss brings them face to face with hunger +and pauperism."[12] + + + + +Chapter II. + +The Effects of Machinery on the Condition of the Working-Classes. + + + +§ 1. Centralizing-Influence of Machinery.--In seeking to understand the +nature and causes of the poverty of the lower working-classes, it is +impossible to avoid some discussion of the influence of machinery. For +the rapid and continuous growth of machinery is at once the outward +visible sign and the material agent of the great revolution which has +changed the whole face of the industrial world during the last century. +With the detailed history of this vast change we are not concerned, but +only with its effects on the industrial condition of the poor in the +present day. + +Those who have studied in books of history the industrial and +educational condition of the mass of the working populace at the +beginning of this century, or have read such novels as _Shirley_, _Mary +Barton_, and _Alton Locke_, will not be surprised at the mingled +mistrust and hatred with which the working-classes regarded each new +introduction of machinery into the manufacturing arts. These people, +having only a short life to live, naturally took a short-sighted view of +the case; having a specialized form of skill as their only means of +getting bread, they did not greet with joy the triumphs of inventive +skill which robbed this skill of its market value. Even the more +educated champions of the interests of working-classes have often viewed +with grave suspicion the rapid substitution of machinery for hand-labour +in the industrial arts. The enormous increase of wealth-producing power +given by the new machinery can scarcely be realized. It is reckoned that +fifty men with modern machinery could do all the cotton-spinning of the +whole of Lancashire a century ago. Mr. Leone Levi has calculated that to +make by hand all the yarn spun in England in one year by the use of the +self-acting mule, would take 100,000,000 men. The instruments which work +this wonderful change are called "labour-saving" machinery. From this +title it may be deemed that their first object, or at any rate their +chief effect, would be to lighten labour. It seems at first sight +therefore strange to find so reasonable a writer as John Stuart Mill +declaring, "It is questionable if all the mechanical inventions yet made +have lightened the day's toil of any human being." Yet if we confine our +attention to the direct effects of machinery, we shall acknowledge that +Mill's doubt is, upon the whole, a well founded one. + +According to the evidence of existing poverty adduced in the last +chapter, it would appear that the lowest classes of workers have not +shared to any considerable degree the enormous gain of wealth-producing +power bestowed by machinery. It is not our object here to discuss the +right of the poorer workers to profit by inventions due to others, but +merely to indicate the effects which the growth of machinery actually +produce in this economic condition. Let us examine the industrial +effects of the growth of machinery, so as to understand how they affect +the social and economic welfare of the working-classes. + +§ 2. Class Separation of Employer and Workmen.--The first effect of +machinery is to give a new and powerful impulse to the centralizing +tendency in industry. "Civilization is economy of power, and English +power is coal," said the materialistic Baron Liebig. Coal as a generator +of steam-power demands that manufactures shall be conducted on a large +scale in particular localities. Before the day of large, expensive +steam-driven machinery, manufacture was done in scattered houses by +workers who were the owners of their simple tools, and often of the +material on which they worked; or in small workshops, where a master +worked with a few journeymen and apprentices. Machinery changed all +this. It drove the workers into large factories, and obliged them to +live in concentrated masses near their work. They no longer owned the +material in which their labour was stored, or the tools with which they +worked; they had to use the material belonging to their employer; the +machinery which made their tools valueless was also the property of the +capitalist employer. Instead of selling the products of their capital +and labour to merchants or consumers, they were compelled to sell their +labour-power to the employer as the only means of earning a livelihood. +Again, the social relations between the wealthy employer and his "hands" +were quite different from those intimate personal relations which had +subsisted between the small master and his assistants. The very size of +the factory made such a social change inevitable, the personal relation +which marked medieval industry was no longer possible. Machinery then +did two things. On the one hand, it destroyed the position of the +workman as a self-sufficing industrial unit, and made him dependent on a +capitalist for employment and the means of supporting life. On the other +hand, it weakened the sense of responsibility in the employer towards +his workmen in proportion as the dependence of the latter became more +absolute. + +With each step in the growth of the factory system the workman became +more dependent, and the employer more irresponsible. Thus we note the +first industrial effect of machinery in the formation of two definite +industrial classes--the dependent workman, and the irresponsible +employer. The term "irresponsible" is not designed to convey any moral +stigma. The industrial employer can no more be blamed for being +irresponsible than the workman for being dependent. The terms merely +express the nature of the schism which naturally followed the triumph of +machinery. Prophets like Carlyle and Ruskin, slighting the economic +causes of the change, clamoured for "Captains of Industry," employers +who should realize a moral responsibility, and reviving a dead feudalism +should assume unasked the protectorate of their employés. The whole army +of theoretic and practical reformers might indeed be divided into two +classes, according as they seek to impose responsibility on employers, +or to establish a larger independence in the employed. But this is not +the place to discuss methods of reform. It is sufficient to note the +testimony borne by all alike to the disintegrating influence of +machinery. + +Again, the growth of machinery makes industry more intricate. +Manufacturers no longer produce for a small known market, the +fluctuations of which are slight, and easily calculable. The element of +speculation enters into manufacture at every pore--size of market, +competitors, and price are all unknown. Machinery works at random like +the blind giant it is. Every improvement in communication, and each +application of labour-saving invention adds to the delicacy and +difficulty of trade calculations. Hence in the productive force of +machinery we see the material cause of the violent oscillations, the +quiver of which never has time to pass out of modern trade. The periodic +over-production and subsequent depression are thus closely related to +machinery. It is the result upon the workman of these fluctuations that +alone concerns us. + +The effect of machinery upon the regularity of employment is both a +difficult and a serious subject. Its precise importance cannot be +measured. Before the era of machinery there often arose from other +reasons, especially war or failure of crops, fluctuations which worked +most disastrously on the English labourer. But in modern times we must +look to more distinctively industrial causes for an explanation of +unsteadiness of employment, and here the close competition of steam- +driven machinery plays the leading part. + +It must not, however, be supposed that machinery is essentially related +to unsteadiness of work. The contrary is obviously the case. Cheap tools +can be kept idle without great loss to their owner, but every stoppage +in the work of expensive machinery means a heavy loss to the capitalist. +Thus the larger the part played by expensive machinery, the stronger the +personal motive in the individual capitalist to give full regular +employment to his workmen. It is the competition of other machinery over +which he has no control that operates as the immediate cause of +instability of work. Thus the growth of machinery has a double and +conflicting influence upon regularity of employment; it punishes capital +more severely for each irregularity or stoppage, while at the same time +it makes such fluctuations more violent. + +§ 3. Displacement of Labour.--But the result of machinery which has +drawn most attention is the displacement of labour. In every branch of +productive work, agriculture as well as manufacture, the conflict +between manual skill and machine skill has been waged incessantly during +the last century. Step by step all along the line the machine has ousted +the skilled manual worker, either rendering his office superfluous, or +retaining him to play the part of servant to the new machine. A good +deal of thoughtless rhetoric has been consumed upon the subject of this +new serfdom of the worker to machinery. There is no reason in the nature +of things why the work of attendance on machinery should not be more +dignified, more pleasant, and more remunerative to the working-man than +the work it displaces. To shift on to the shoulders of brute nature the +most difficult and exhausting kinds of work has been in large measure +the actual effect of machinery. There is also every reason to believe +that the large body of workers whose work consists in the regular +attendance on and manipulation of machinery have shared largely in the +results of the increased production which machinery has brought about. +The present "aristocracy of labour" is the direct creation of the +machine. But our concern lies chiefly with the weaker portion of the +working-classes. How does the constant advance of labour-saving +machinery affect these? What is the effect of machinery upon the demand +for labour? In answering these questions we have to carefully +distinguish the ultimate effect upon the labour-market as a whole, and +the immediate effect upon certain portions of the labour-supply. + +It is generally urged that machinery employs as many men as it +displaces. This has in fact been the earlier effect of the introduction +of machinery into the great staple industries of the country. The first +effect of mechanical production in the spinning and weaving industries +was to displace the hand-worker. But the enormous increase in demand for +textile wares caused by the fall of price, has provided work for more +hands than were employed before, especially when we bear in mind the +subsidiary work in construction of machinery, and enlarged mechanism of +conveyance and distribution. Taking a purely historical view of the +question, one would say that the labour displaced by machinery found +employment in other occupations, directly or indirectly, due to the +machinery itself. Provided the aggregate volume of commerce grows at a +corresponding pace with the labour-saving power of new machinery, the +classes dependent on the use of their labour have nothing in the long +run to fear. + +A machine is invented which will enable one man to make as many boots as +four men made formerly, displacing the labour of three men. If the +cheapening of boots thus brought about doubles the sale of boots, one of +the three "displaced" men can find employment at the machine. If it +takes the labour of one man to keep up the production of the new +machinery, and another to assist in the distribution of the increased +boot-supply, it will be evident that the aggregate of labour has not +suffered. It is, however, clear that this exactly balanced effect by no +means necessarily happens. The expansion of consumption of commodities +produced by machinery is not necessarily such as to provide employment +for the displaced labour in the same trade or its subsidiary trades. The +result of the introduction of machinery may be a displacement of human +by mechanical labour, so far as the entire trade is concerned. The +bearing of this tendency is of great significance. Analysis of recent +census returns shows that not only is agriculture rapidly declining in +the amount of employment it affords, but that the same tendency occurs +in the staple processes of manufacture: either there is an absolute +decline in employment, as in the textile and dress trades, or the rate +of increase is considerably slower than that of the occupied class as a +whole, indicating a relative decline of importance. This tendency is +greatest where machinery is most highly developed--that is to say, +machinery has kept out of these industries a number of workers who in +the ordinary condition of affairs would have been required to assist in +turning out the increased supply. The recent increase of population has +been shut out of the staple industries. They are not therefore compelled +to be idle. Employment for these has been found chiefly in satisfying +new wants. But industries engaged in supplying new wants, i.e. new +comforts or new luxuries, are obviously less steady than those engaged +in supplying the prime necessaries of ordinary life. + +Thus while it may be true that the ultimate effect of the introduction +of machinery is not to diminish the demand for labour, it would seem to +operate in driving a larger and larger proportion of labour to find +employment in those industries which from their nature furnish a less +steady employment. Again, though the demand for labour may in the long +run always keep pace with the growth of machinery, it is obvious that +the workers whose skill loses its value by the introduction of machinery +must always be injured. The process of displacement in particular trades +has been responsible for a large amount of actual hardship and suffering +among the working-classes. + +It is little comfort to the hand-worker, driven out to seek unskilled +labour by the competition of new machinery, that the world will be a +gainer in the long run. "The short run, if the expression may be used, +is often quite long enough to make the difference between a happy and a +miserable life."[13] Philosophers may reckon this evil as a part of the +inevitable price of progress, but it is none the less deplorable for +that. Society as a whole gains largely by each step; a small number of +those who can least afford to lose, are the only losers. + +The following quotation from an address given at the Industrial +Remuneration Congress in 1886, puts the case with admirable +clearness--"The citizens of England are too intelligent to contend +against such cheapening of production, as they know the result has been +beneficial to mankind; but many of them think it is a hardship and +injustice which deserves more attention that those whose skilled labour +is often superseded by machinery, should have to bear all the loss and +poverty through their means to earn a living being taken away from them. +If there is a real vested interest in existence which entitles to +compensation in some form when it is interfered with, it is that of a +skilled producer in his trade; for that skill has not only given him a +living, but has added to the wealth and prosperity of the +community."[14] The quantity of labour displaced by machinery and +seeking new employment, forms a large section of the margin of +unemployed, and will form an important factor in the problem of poverty. + +§ 4. Effect of Machinery upon the Character of Labour. Next, what is the +general effect of machinery upon the character of the work done? The +economic gain attending all division of labour is of course based on the +improved quality and quantity of work obtained by confining each worker +to a narrow range of activity. If no great inventions in machinery took +place, we might therefore expect a constant narrowing of the activity of +each worker, which would make his work constantly more simple, and more +monotonous, and himself more and more dependent on the regular co- +operation of an increasing number of other persons over whom he had no +direct control. Without the growth of modern machinery, mere subdivision +of labour would constantly make for the slavery and the intellectual +degradation of labour. Independently of the mighty and ever-new +applications of mechanical forces, this process of subdivision or +specialization would take place, though at a slower pace. How far does +machinery degrade, demoralize, dementalize the worker? + +The constantly growing specialization of machinery is the most striking +industrial phenomenon of modern times. Since the worker is more and more +the attendant of machinery, does not this mean a corresponding +specialization of the worker? It would seem so at first sight, yet if we +look closer it becomes less obvious. So far as mere manual activity is +concerned, it seems probable that the general effect of machinery has +been both to narrow the range of that activity, and to take over that +dexterity which consisted in the incessant repetition of a single +uniform process. Very delicately specialized manipulation is precisely +the work it pays best to do by machinery, so that, as Professor Marshall +says, "machinery can make uniform actions more accurately and +effectively than man can; and most of the work which was done by those +who were specially skilful with the fingers a few generations ago, is +now done by machinery."[15] He illustrates from the wood and metal +industries, where the process is constantly going on. + +"The chief difficulty to be overcome is that of getting the machinery to +hold the material firmly in exactly the position in which the machine- +tool can be brought to bear on it in the right way, and without wasting +meanwhile too much time in taking grip of it. But this can generally be +contrived when it is worth while to spend some labour and expense on it; +and then the whole operations can often be controlled by a worker, who, +sitting before the machine, takes with the left hand a piece of wood or +metal from a heap, and puts it in a socket, while with the right he +draws down a lever, or in some other way sets the machine-tool at work, +and finally with his left hand throws on to another heap the material +which has been cut, or punched, or drilled, or planed exactly after a +given pattern." + +Professor Marshall summarizes the tendency in the following words--"We +are thus led to a general rule, the action of which is more prominent in +some branches of manufacture than others, but which applies to all. It +is, that any manufacturing operation that can be reduced to uniformity, +so that the same thing has to be done over and over again in the same +way, is sure to be taken over sooner or later by machinery. There may be +delays and difficulties; but if the work to be done by it is on a +sufficient scale, money and inventive power will be spent without stint +on the task till it is achieved. There still remains the responsibility +for seeing that the machinery is in good order and working smoothly; but +even this task is often made light of by the introduction of an +automatic movement which brings the machine to a stop the instant +anything goes wrong."[16] + +Since the economy of production constantly induces machinery to take +over all work capable of being reduced to routine, it would seem to +follow by a logical necessity that the work left for the human worker +was that which was less capable of being subjected to close uniformity; +that is work requiring discretion and intelligence to be applied to each +separate action. Although the process described by Professor Marshall +assigns a constantly diminishing proportion of each productive work to +the effort of man, of that portion which remains for him to do a +constantly increasing proportion will be work of judgment and specific +calculation applied to particular cases. And this is the conclusion +which Professor Marshall himself asserts-- + +"Since machinery does not encroach much upon that manual work which +requires judgment, while the management of machinery does require +judgment, there is a much greater demand now than formerly for +intelligence and resource. Those qualities which enable men to decide +rightly and quickly in new and difficult cases, are the common property +of the better class of workmen in almost every trade, and a person who +has acquired them in one trade can easily transfer them to another." + +If this is true, it signifies that the formal specialization of the +worker, which comes from his attendance on a more and more specialized +piece of machinery, does not really narrow and degrade his industrial +life, but supplies a certain education of the judgment and intelligence +which has a general value that more than compensates the apparent +specialization of manual functions. The very fact that the worker's +services are still required is a proof that his work is less automatic +(i.e. more intelligent) than that of the most delicate machinery in use; +and since the work which requires less intelligence is continually being +taken over by machinery, the work which remains would seem to require a +constantly higher average of intelligence. It is, of course, true that +there are certain kinds of work which can never be done by machinery, +because they require a little care and a little judgment, while that +care and judgment is so slight as to supply no real food for thought, or +education for the judgment. No doubt a good deal of the less responsible +work connected with machinery is of this order. Moreover, there are +certain other influences to be taken into account which affect the net +resuit of the growth of machinery upon the condition of the workers. The +physical and moral evils connected with the close confinement of large +bodies of workers, especially in the case of young persons, within the +narrow unwholesome limits of the factory or mill, though considerably +mitigated by the operation of factory legislation, are still no light +offset against the advantages which have been mentioned. The weakly, +ill-formed bodies, the unhealthy lives lived by the factory-workers in +our great manufacturing centres are facts which have an intimate +connection with the growth of machinery. But though our agricultural +population, in spite of their poverty and hard work, live longer and +enjoy better physical health than our town-workers, there are few who +would deny that the town-workers are both better educated and more +intelligent. This intelligence must in a large measure be attributed to +the influences of machinery, and of those social conditions which +machinery has assisted to establish. This intelligence must be reckoned +as an adequate offset against the formal specialization of machine- +labour, and must be regarded as an emancipative influence, giving to its +possessor a larger choice in the forms of employment. So far as a man's +labour-power consists in the mere knowledge how to tend a particular +piece of machinery he may appear to be more "enslaved" with each +specialization of machinery; but so far as his labour-power consists in +the practice of discretion and intelligence, these are qualities which +render him more free. + +Moreover, as regards the specialization of machinery, there is one point +to be noticed which modifies to some considerable extent the effects of +subdivision upon labour. On the one hand, the tendency to split up the +manufacture of a commodity into several distinct branches, often +undertaken in different localities and with wholly different machinery, +prevents the skilled worker in one branch from passing into another, and +thus limits his practical freedom as an industrial worker. On the other +hand, this has its compensating advantage in the tendency of different +trades to adopt analogous kinds of machinery and similar processes. +Thus, while a machinist engaged in a screw manufactory is so specialized +that he cannot easily pass from one process to another process in the +screw trade, he will find himself able to obtain employment in other +hardware manufactures which employ the same or similar processes. + +§ 5. Are all Men equal before the Machine?--It is sometimes said that +"all men become equal before the machine." This is only true in the +sense that there are certain large classes of machine-work which require +in the worker such attention, care, endurance, and skill as are within +the power of most persons possessed of ordinary capacities of mind and +body. In such forms of machine-work it is sometimes possible for women +and children to compete with men, and even to take their places by their +ability to offer their work at a cheaper price. The effect of machinery +development in thus throwing on the labour-market a large quantity of +women and children competitors is one of those serious questions which +will occupy our attention in a later chapter. It is here sufficient to +remember that it was this effect which led to a general recognition of +the fact that machinery and the factory system could not be trusted to +an unfettered system of _laissez faire_. The Factory Acts, and the whole +body of legislative enactments, interfering with "freedom of contract" +between employer and employed, resulted from the fact that machinery +enabled women and children to be employed in many branches of productive +work from which their physical weakness precluded them before. + +§ 6. Summary of Effects of Machinery on the Condition of the Poor.--To +sum up with any degree of precision the net advantages and disadvantages +of the growth of machinery upon the working classes is impossible. If we +look not merely at the growth of money incomes, but at the character of +those products which have been most cheapened by the introduction of +machinery, we shall incline to the opinion that the net gain in wealth- +producing power due to machinery has not been equally shared by all +classes in the community.[17] + +The capitalist classes, so far as they can be properly severed from the +rest of the community, have gained most, as was inevitable in a change +which increased the part played by capital in production. A short-timed +monopoly of the abnormal profits of each new invention, and an enormous +expansion of the field of investment for capital must be set against the +gradual fall in the interest paid for the use of each piece of capital. +But as the advantage of each new invention has by the competition of +machinery-owners been passed on to the consumer, all other classes of +the community have gained in proportion to their consumption of +machinery-produced commodities. As machinery plays a smaller part in the +production of necessaries of life than in the production of comforts and +luxuries, it will be evident that each class gain as consumers in +proportion to its income. The poorest classes, whose consumption of +machine-productions is smallest, gain least. It cannot, however, be +said, that there is any class of regular workers who, as consumers, have +been injured by machinery. All have gained. The skilled workmen, the +aristocracy of labour, have, as has been shown, gained very +considerably. Even the poor classes of regular unskilled workmen have +raised their standard of comfort. + +It is in its bearing on the industrial condition of the very poor, and +those who are unable to get regular work at decent wages, that the +influence of machinery is most questionable. Violent trade fluctuations, +and a continuous displacement of hand-labour by new mechanical +inventions, keep in perpetual existence a large margin of unemployed or +half-employed, who form the most hopeless and degraded section of the +city poor, and furnish a body of reckless, starving competitors for +work, who keep down the standard of wages and of life for the lower +grades of regular workers affected by this competition. + + + + +Chapter III. + +The Influx of Population into Large Towns. + + + +§ 1. Movements of Population between City and Country. The growth of +large cities is so closely related to the problems of poverty as to +deserve a separate treatment. The movements of population form a group +of facts more open than most others to precise measurement, and from +them much light is thrown on the condition of the working classes. That +the towns are growing at the expense of the country, is a commonplace to +which we ought to seek to attach a more definite meaning. + +We may trace the inflow of country-born people into the towns by looking +either at the statistics of towns, or of rural districts. But first we +ought to bear in mind one fact. Quite apart from any change in +proportion of population, there is an enormous interchange constantly +taking place between adjoining counties and districts. The general +fluidity of population has been of course vastly increased by new +facilities of communication and migration; persons are less and less +bound down to the village or county in which they were born. So we find +that in England and Wales, only 739 out of each 1000 persons were living +in their native county in 1901. In some London districts it is reckoned +that more than one quarter of the inhabitants change their address each +year. So that when we are told that in seven large Scotch towns only 524 +out of each 1000 are natives, and that in Middlesex only 35 per cent. of +the male adult population are Middlesex by birth, we are not thereby +enabled to form any conclusion as to the growth of towns. + +To arrive at any useful result we must compare the inflow with the +outflow. Most of the valuable information we possess on this point +applies directly to London but the same forces which are operating in +London, will be found to be at work with more or less intensity in other +centres of population in proportion to their size. Comparing the inflow +of London with its outflow, we find that in 1881 nearly twice as many +strangers were living in London as Londoners were living outside; in +other words, that London was gaining from the country at the rate of +more than 10,000 per annum. So far as London itself is concerned, the +last two censuses show a cessation of the flow, but the enormous growth +of Middlesex outside the metropolitan boundaries indicates a continuance +of the centripetal tendency. + +Now what does London do with this increase? Is it spread evenly over the +surface of the great city? + +Certainly not. And here we reach a point which has a great significance +for those interested in East London. It is clearly shown that none of +this gain goes to swell the numbers of East London. Many individual +strangers of course go there, but the outflow from East London towards +the suburban parts more than compensates the inflow. By comparing the +population of East London in 1901 with that in 1881, it is found that +the increase is far less than it ought to be, if we add the excess of +births over deaths. How is this? The answer is not far to seek, and +stamps with fatal significance one aspect of Poverty, namely, +overcrowding. East London does not gain so fast as other parts, because +it will not hold any more people. It has reached what is termed +"saturation point." Introduce strangers, and they can only stay on +condition that they push out, and take the place of, earlier residents. + +So we find in all districts of large towns, where poverty lies thickest, +the inflow is less than the outflow. The great stream of incomers goes +to swell the population of parts not hitherto overcrowded, thus ever +increasing the area of dense city population. Districts like Bethnal +Green and Mile End are found to show the smallest increase, while +outlying districts like West Ham grow at a prodigious pace. + +§ 2. Rate of Migration from Rural Districts.--But perhaps the most +instructive point of view from which to regard the absorption of country +population by the towns is not from inside but from outside. + +Confining our attention for the present to migration from the country to +the town, and leaving the foreign immigration for separate treatment, we +find that the large majority of incomers to London are from agricultural +counties, such as Kent, Bucks, Herts, Devon, Lincoln, and not from +counties with large manufacturing centres of their own, like Yorkshire, +Lancashire, and Cheshire. The great manufacturing counties contribute +very slightly to the growth of London. While twelve representative +agricultural counties furnished sixteen per 1000 of the population of +London in 1881, twelve representative manufacturing counties supplied no +more than two-and-a-half per 1000. + +Respecting the rate of the decline of agricultural population +exaggerated statements are often made. If we take the inhabitants of +rural sanitary districts, and of urban districts below 10,000 as the +rural population, we shall find that between 1891 and 1901 the growth in +the rural districts is 5.3 per cent. as compared with 15.8 per cent. for +the centres of population. Even if the urban standard be placed at a +lower point, 5000, there is still an increase of 3.5 per cent. in the +rural population. If, however, we eliminate the "home" counties and +other rural districts round the large centres of population, largely +used for residential purposes, and turn to agricultural England, we +shall find that it shows a positive decline in rural population. In the +period 1891-1901 no fewer than 18 English and Welsh counties show a +decrease of rural inhabitants, taking the higher limit of urban +population. This has been going on with increasing rapidity during the +last forty years. Whereas, in 1861, 37.7 per cent. of the population +were living in the country, in 1901 the proportion has sunk to 23 per +cent. + +What these figures mean is that almost the whole of the natural increase +in country population is being gradually sucked into city life. Not +London alone, of course, but all the large cities have been engaged in +this work of absorption. Everywhere the centripetal forces are at work. +The larger the town the stronger the power of suction, and the wider the +area over which the attraction extends. There are three chief +considerations which affect the force with which the attraction of a +large city acts upon rural districts. The first is distance. By far the +largest quantity of new-comers into London are natives of Middlesex, +Kent, Bucks, and what are known as "the home counties." As we pass +further North and West, the per-centage gradually though not quite +regularly declines. The numbers from Durham and Northumberland on the +one hand, and from Devon and Somerset on the other are much larger than +those from certain nearer counties, such as Stafford, Yorkshire, and +Lancaster. The chief determinate of the force of attraction, distance +from the centre, is in these cases qualified by two other +considerations. In the case of Durham and Northumberland a large +navigable seaboard affords greater facility and cheapness of transport, +an important factor in the mobility of labour. In the case of Devon and +Somerset the absence of the counter-attraction of large provincial +cities drives almost the whole of its migratory folk to London, whereas +in Yorkshire and Lancashire and the chief Midland manufacturing counties +the attraction of their own industrial centres acts more powerfully in +their immediate neighbourhood than the magic of London itself. Thus, if +we were to take the map of England and mark it so as to represent the +gravitation towards cities, we should find that every remotest village +was subject to a number of weaker or stronger, nearer or more distant, +forces, which were helping to draw off its rising population into the +eddy of city life. If we examined in detail a typical agricultural +county, we should probably find that while its one or two considerable +towns of 40,000 or 50,000 inhabitants were growing at something above +the average rate for the whole country, the smaller towns of 5000 to +10,000 were only just managing to hold their own, the smallest towns and +large villages were steadily declining, while the scattered agricultural +population remained almost stationary. For it is the small towns and the +villages that suffer most, for reasons which will shortly appear. + +§ 3. Effects of Agricultural Depression.--We have next to ask what is +the nature of this attractive force which drains the country to feed the +city population? What has hitherto been spoken of as a single force will +be seen to be a complex of several forces, different in kind, acting +conjointly to produce the same result. + +The first readily suggests itself couched under the familiar phrase, +Agricultural Depression. It is needless here to enlarge on this big and +melancholy theme. It is evident that what is called the law of +Diminishing Return to Labour in Agriculture, the fact that every +additional labourer, upon a given surface, beyond a certain sufficient +number, will be less and less profitably employed, while the indefinite +expansion of manufacture will permit every additional hand to be +utilized so as to increase the average product of each worker, would of +itself suffice to explain why in a fairly thickly populated country like +England, young labourers would find it to their interest to leave the +land and seek manufacturing work in the cities. This would of itself +explain why the country population might stand still while the city +grew. When to this natural tendency we add the influence of the vast +tracts of virgin, or cheaply cultivated soil, brought into active +competition with English agriculture by the railways and steamships +which link us with distant lands in America, Australia, and Asia, we +have a fully adequate explanation of the main force of the tide in the +movement of population. After a country has reached a certain stage in +the development of its resources, the commercial population must grow +more quickly than the agricultural, and the larger the outside area open +to supply agricultural imports the faster the change thus brought about +in the relation of city and rural population. + +§ 4. Nature of the Decline of Rural Population.--It has been shown that +the absolute reduction in the number of those living in rural districts +is very small. If, however, we take the statistics of farmers and farm- +labourers in these same districts we often find a very considerable +decline. The real extent of the decline of agriculture is somewhat +concealed by the habit of including in the agricultural population a +good many people not engaged in work of agriculture. The number of +retail shopkeepers, railway men and others concerned with the transport +of goods, domestic servants, teachers, and others not directly occupied +in the production of material wealth, has considerably increased of late +years. So too, not every form of agriculture has declined. While farmers +and labourers show a decrease, market-gardeners show a large increase, +and there seem to be many more persons living in towns who cultivate a +bit of land in the country as a subsidiary employment. + +Taken as a whole the absolute fall off in the number of those working +upon the soil is not large. The decline of small country industries is +much more considerable. Here another law of industrial motion comes in, +the rapid tendency of manufacture towards centralization in the towns, +which we have discussed in the last chapter. Here we are concerned only +with its effect in stamping out small rural industries. The growth of +the railway has been the chief agent in the work. Wherever the railroad +has penetrated a country it has withered the ancient cottage industries +of our land. It is true that even before the time of railways the +development of machinery had in large measure destroyed the spinning and +weaving trades, which in Lancashire, Yorkshire, and elsewhere had given +employment to large numbers of country families. The railway, and the +constant application of new machinery have completed this work of +destruction, and have likewise abolished a number of small handicrafts, +such as hand-stitched boots, and lace, which flourished in western and +midland districts, Nor is this all. The same potent forces have +transferred to towns many branches of work connected indirectly with +agricultural pursuits; country smiths, brickmakers, sawyers, turners, +coopers, wheelwrights, are rapidly vanishing from the face of the +country. + +§ 5. Attractions of the Town, Economic and Social. The concrete form in +which the industrial forces, which we have described, appeal to the +dull-headed rustic is the attraction of higher wages. An elaborate +comparison of towns and country wages is not required. It is enough to +say that labourer's wages in London and other large cities are some 50 +per cent, higher than the wages of agricultural labourers in most parts +of England, and the wages of skilled labour show a similar relation. +Besides the actual difficulty of getting agricultural employment in many +parts, improved means of knowledge, and of cheap transport, constantly +flaunt this offer of higher wages before the eyes of the more +discontented among agricultural workers. It is true that if wages are +higher in London, the cost of living is also higher, and the conditions +of life and work are generally more detrimental to health and happiness; +but these drawbacks are more often realized after the fatal step has +been taken than before. + +Along with the concrete motive of higher wages there come other inherent +attractions of town life. + +"The contagion of numbers, the sense of something going on, the theatres +and music-halls, the brilliantly-lighted streets and busy crowds"[18] +have a very powerful effect on the dawning intelligence of the rustic. +The growing accessibility of towns brings these temptations within the +reach of all. These social attractions probably contain more evil than +good, and act with growing force on the restless and reckless among our +country population. The tramp and the beggar find more comfort and more +gain in the towns. The action of indiscriminate and spasmodic charity, +which still prevails in London and other large centres of riches, is +responsible in no small measure for the poverty and degradation of city +slums. + +"The far-reaching advertisement of irresponsible charity acts as a +powerful magnet. Whole sections of the population are demoralized, men +and women throwing down their work right and left in order to qualify +for relief; while the conclusion of the whole matter is intensified +congestion of the labour market--angry bitter feeling for the +insufficiency of the pittance, or rejection of the claim." So writes +Miss Potter of the famous Mansion House Relief Funds. + +It is easy to see how the worthless element from our villages, the +loafer, the shiftless, the drunkard, the criminal, naturally gravitates +towards its proper place as part of the "social wreckage" of our cities. +But the size of this element must not be exaggerated. It forms a +comparatively small fraction of the whole. Our city criminal, our city +loafer, is generally home-grown, and is not supplied directly from the +country. If it were true that only the worthless portion of our country +population passed into our cities to perish in the struggle for +existence, which is so fatal in city life, we should on the whole have +reason to congratulate ourselves. But this is not so. The main body of +those who pass into city life are in fact the cream of the native +population of the country, drawn by advantages chiefly economic. They +consist of large numbers of vigorous young men, mostly between the age +of twenty and twenty-five, who leave agriculture for manufacture, or +move into towns owing to displacement of handicrafts by wholesale +manufacture. + +§ 6. Effect of the Change on National Health.--This decay of country +life, however much we may regret it, seems under present industrial +conditions inevitable. Nor is it altogether to be regretted or +condemned. The movement indisputably represents a certain equalization +of advantages economic, educational, and social. The steady workman who +moves into the town generally betters himself from the point of view of +immediate material advantages. + +But in regarding the movement as a whole a much more serious question +confronts us. What is the net result upon the physical well-being of the +nation of this drafting of the abler and better country folk into the +towns? Let the death-rate first testify. In 1902 the death-rate for the +whole rural population was 13.7 per 1000, that of the whole urban +population 17.8. Now it is not the case that town life is necessarily +more unhealthy than country life to any considerable extent. There are +well-to-do districts of London, whole boroughs, such as Hampstead, where +the death-rate is considerably lower than the ordinary rural rate. The +weight of city mortality falls upon the poor. + +Careful statistics justify the conclusion that the death-rate of an +average poor district in London, Liverpool, or Glasgow, is quite double +that of the average country district which is being drained to feed the +city. We now see what the growth of town population, and the decay of +the country really means. It means in the first place that each year +brings a larger proportion of the nation within reach of the higher rate +of mortality, by taking them from more healthy and placing them under +less healthy conditions. In the case of the lower classes of workers who +gravitate to London, it means putting them in a place where the chance +of death in a given year is doubled for them. And remember, this higher +death-rate is applied not indiscriminately, but to selected subjects. It +is the young, healthy, vigorous blood of the country which is exposed to +these unhealthy conditions. A pure Londoner of the third generation, +that is, one whose grandparents as well as his parents were born in +London, is very seldom found. It is certain that nearly all the most +effective vital energy given out in London work, physical and +intellectual alike, belongs to men whose fathers were country bred, if +they were not country born themselves. In kinds of work where pure +physical vigour play an important part, this is most strikingly +apparent. The following statistics bearing on the London police force +were obtained by Mr. Llewellyn Smith in 1888-- + + London born. Country born. Total. + + Metropolitan Police 2,716 10,908 13,624 + City " 194 698 892 + +Railway men, carriers, omnibus-drivers, corn and timber porters, and +those in whose work physique tells most, are all largely drawn from the +country. Nor is the physical deterioration of city life to be merely +measured by death-rates. Many town influences, which do not appreciably +affect mortality, distinctly lower the vitality, which must be taken as +the physical measure of the value of life. The denizens of city slums +not only die twice as fast as their country cousins, but their health +and vigour is less during the time they live. + +A fair consideration of these facts discloses something much more +important than a mere change in social and industrial conditions. Linked +with this change we see a deterioration of the physique of the race as a +distinct factor in the problem of city poverty. This is no vague +speculation, but a strongly-supported hypothesis, which deserves most +serious attention. Dr. Ogle, who has done much work in elucidation of +this point, sums up in the following striking language-- + +"The combined effect of this constantly higher mortality in the towns, +and of the constant immigration into it of the pick of the rural +population, must clearly be a gradual deterioration of the whole, +inasmuch as the more energetic and vigorous members of the community are +consumed more rapidly than the rest of the population. The system is one +which leads to the survival of the unfittest." + +Thus the city figures as a mighty vampire, continually sucking the +strongest blood of the country to keep up the abnormal supply of energy +it has to give out in the excitement of a too fast and unwholesome life. +Whether the science of the future may not supply some decentralizing +agency, which shall reverse the centralizing force of modern industry, +is not a wholly frivolous speculation to suggest. Some sanguine +imaginations already foresee the time when those great natural forces, +the economical use of which has compelled men and women to crowd into +factories in great cities, may be distributable with such ease and +cheapness over the whole surface of the land as no longer to require +that close local relation which means overcrowding in work and in home +life. If science could do this it would confer upon humanity an +advantage far less equivocal than that which belongs to the present +reign of iron and steam. + +§ 7. The Extent of Foreign Immigration.--So much for the inflow from the +country districts. But there is another inflow which is drawing close +attention, the inflow of cheap foreign labour into our towns. Here again +we have first to guard against some exaggeration. It is not true that +German, Polish, and Russian Jews are coming over in large battalions to +steal all the employment of the English working-man, by under-selling +him in the labour-market. In the first place, it should be noted that +the foreigners of England, as a whole, bear a smaller proportion to the +total population than in any other first-class European state. In 1901 +the foreigners were 76 in 10,000 of the population; that is a good deal +less than one per cent. Our numbers as a nation are not increased by +immigration. On the contrary, between 1871 and 1901 we lost considerably +by emigration.[19] Even London, the centre of attraction to foreigners, +does not contain nearly so large a per-centage of foreigners as any +other great capital. The census gave 3 per cent. as the proportion of +foreigners, excluding those born in England of foreign parents. Though +this figure is perhaps too low, the true proportion cannot be very +large. It is not the number, but the distribution and occupation of the +foreign immigrants, that make them an object of so much solicitude. The +borough of Stepney contains no less than 40 per cent. of the foreign- +born population of London, the foreigners increasing from 15,998 in 1881 +to 54,310 in 1901. At present 182 out of every 1000 in this district are +foreigners. The proportion is also very high in Holborn, Westminster, +Marylebone, Bethnal Green, and St Pancras. The Report of the Royal +Commission on Alien Immigration, 1902, states "that the greatest evils +produced by the Alien Immigrants here are the overcrowding caused by +them in certain districts of London, and the consequent displacement of +the native population." The concentration of the immigrant question is +attested by the fact that in 1901 no less than 48 per cent. of the total +foreign population were resident in six metropolitan boroughs, and in +the three cities of Manchester, Liverpool, and Leeds. While a +considerable number of them are Germans, French, and Italians, attracted +here by better industrial conditions in trades for which they have some +special aptitude, a greatly increasing proportion are Russian and Polish +Jews, driven to immigrate partly by political and religious persecution, +partly for industrial ends, and feeding the unskilled labour-market in +certain manufactures of our great cities. + +§ 8. The Jew as an Industrial Competitor.--Looking at these foreigners +as individuals, there is much to be said in their favour. They do not +introduce a lower morality into the quarters where they settle, as the +Chinese are said to do; nor are they quarrelsome and law-breaking, like +the low-class Italians who swarm into America. Their habits, so far as +cleanliness is concerned, are perhaps not desirable, but the standard of +the native population of Whitechapel is not sensitively high. For the +most part, and this is true especially of the Jews, they are steady, +industrious, quiet, sober, thrifty, quick to learn, and tolerably +honest. From the point of view of the old Political Economy, they are +the very people to be encouraged, for they turn out the largest quantity +of wealth at the lowest cost of production. If it is the chief end for a +nation to accumulate the largest possible stock of material wealth, it +is evident that these are the very people we require to enable us to +achieve our object. + +But if we consider it is sound national policy to pay regard to the +welfare of all classes engaged in producing this wealth, we may regard +this foreign immigration in quite another light. The very virtues just +enumerated are the chief faults we have to find with the foreign Jew. +Just because he is willing and able to work so hard for so little pay, +willing to undertake any kind of work out of which he can make a living, +because he can surpass in skill, industry, and adaptability the native +Londoner, the foreign Jew is such a terrible competitor. He is the +nearest approach to the ideal "economic" man, the "fittest" person to +survive in trade competition. Admirable in domestic morality, and an +orderly citizen, he is almost void of social morality. No compunction or +consideration for his fellow-worker will keep him from underselling and +overreaching them; he acquires a thorough mastery of all the +dishonourable tricks of trade which are difficult to restrain by law; +the superior calculating intellect, which is a national heritage, is +used unsparingly to enable him to take advantage of every weakness, +folly, and vice of the society in which he lives. + +§ 9. Effect of Foreign Competition.--One other quality he has in common +with the mass of poor foreigners who compete in the London labour +market--he can live on less than the Englishman. What Mrs Webb says of +the Polish Jew, is in large measure true of all cheap foreign +labour--"As industrial competitor, the Polish Jew is fettered by no +definite standard of life; it rises and falls with his opportunities; he +is not depressed by penury, and he is not demoralized by gain." The +fatal significance of this is evident. We have seen that notwithstanding +a general rise in the standard of comfort of the mass of labourers, +there still remains in all our cities a body of labouring men and women +engaged in doing ill-paid and irregular work for wages which keep them +always on the verge of starvation. Now consider what it means for these +people to have brought into their midst a number of competitors who can +live even more cheaply than they can live, and who will consent to toil +from morning to night for whatever they can get. These new-comers are +obviously able, in their eagerness for work, to drive down the rate of +wages even below what represents starvation-point for the native worker. +The insistence of the poorer working-classes, under the stimulus of new- +felt wants, the growing enlightenment of public opinion, have slowly and +gradually won, even for the poorer workers in English cities, some small +advance in material comfort, some slight expansion in the meaning of the +term "necessaries of life." Turn a few shiploads of Polish Jews upon any +of these districts, and they will and must in the struggle for life +destroy the whole of this. Remember it is not merely the struggle of too +many workers competing on equal terms for an insufficient quantity of +work. That is terrible enough. But when the struggle is between those +accustomed to a higher, and those accustomed to a lower, standard of +life, the latter can obviously oust the former, and take their work. +Just as a base currency drives out of circulation a pure currency, so +does a lower standard of comfort drive out a higher one. This is the +vital question regarding foreign immigration which has to be faced. + +Nor is it merely a question of the number of these foreigners. The +inflow of a comparatively small number into a neighbourhood where much +of the work is low-skilled and irregular, will often produce an effect +which seems quite out of proportion to the actual number of the +invaders. Where work is slack and difficult to get, a very small +addition of low-living foreigners will cause a perceptible fall in the +entire wages of the neighbourhood in the employments which their +competition affects. It is true that the Jew does not remain a low- +skilled labourer for starvation wages. Beginning at the bottom of the +ladder, he rises by his industry and skill, until he gets into the rank +of skilled workers, or more frequently becomes a sub-contractor, or a +small shopkeeper. It might appear that as he thus rose, the effect of +his competition in the low skilled labour market would disappear. And +this would be so were it not for the persistent arrival of new-comers to +take the place of those who rise. It is the continuity in the flow of +foreign emigration which constitutes the real danger. + +Economic considerations do not justify us in expecting any speedy check +upon this flow. The growing means of communication among nations, the +cheapening of transport, the breaking down of international prejudices, +must, if they are left free to operate, induce the labourer to seek the +best market for his labour, and thus tend to equalize the condition of +labour in the various communities, raising the level of the lower paid +and lower lived at the expense of the higher paid and higher lived. + +§ 10. The Water-tight Compartment Theory.--One point remains to be +mentioned. It is sometimes urged that the foreign Jews who come to our +shores do not injure our low skilled workers to any considerable extent, +because they do not often enter native trades, but introduce new trades +which would not have existed at all were it not for their presence. They +work, it is said, in water-tight compartments, competing among +themselves, but not directly competing with English workers. Now if it +were the case that these foreigners really introduced new branches of +production designed to stimulate and supply new wants this contention +would have much weight. The Flemings who in Edward III.'s reign +introduced the finer kinds of weaving into England, and the Huguenot +refugees who established new branches of the silk, glass, and paper +manufactures, conferred a direct service upon English commerce, and +their presence in the labour market was probably an indirect service to +the English workers. But this is not the case with the modern Jew +immigrants. They have not stimulated or supplied new wants. It is not +even correct to say that most of them do not directly compete with +native labour. It is true that certain branches of the cheap clothing +trade have been their creation. The cheap coat trade, which they almost +monopolize, seems due to their presence. But even here they have +established no new _kind_ of trade. To their cheap labour perhaps is due +in some cases the large export trade in cheap clothing, but even then it +is doubtful whether the work would not otherwise have been done by +machinery under healthier conditions, and have furnished work and wages +for English workers. During the last decade they have been entering more +and more into direct competition with British labour in the cabinet- +making, shoemaking, baking, hair-dressing, and domestic service +occupations. Lastly, they enter into direct competition of the worst +form with English female labour, which is driven in these very clothing +trades to accept work and wages which are even too low to tempt the Jews +of Whitechapel. The constant infiltration of cheap immigrant labour is +in large measure responsible for the existence of the "sweating +workshops," and the survival of low forms of industrial development +which form a factor in the problem of poverty. + + + + +Chapter IV. + +"The Sweating System." + + + +§ 1. Origin of the Term "Sweating."--Having gained insight into some of +the leading industrial forces of the age, we can approach more hopefully +the study of that aspect of City poverty, commonly known as the +"Sweating System." + +The first thing is to get a definite meaning to the term. Since the +examination of experts before the recent "Lords' Committee" elicited +more than twenty widely divergent definitions of this "Sweating System," +some care is required at the outset of our inquiry. The common use of +the term "Sweating System" is itself responsible for much ambiguity, for +the term "system" presupposes a more or less distinct form of +organization of industry identified with the evils of sweating. Now as +it should be one of the objects of inquiry to ascertain whether there +exists any one such definite form, it will be better at the outset to +confine ourselves to the question, "What is Sweating?" + +As an industrial term the word seems to have been first used among +journeymen tailors. The tailoring houses which once executed all orders +on their own premises, by degrees came to recognize the convenience of +giving out work to tailors who would work at their own homes. The long +hours which the home workers were induced to work in order to increase +their pay, caused the term "Sweater" to be applied to them by the men +who worked for fixed hours on the tailors' premises, and who found their +work passing more and more into the hands of the home workers. Thus we +learn that originally it was long hours and not low wages which +constituted "sweating." School-boy slang still uses the word in this +same sense. Moreover, the first sweater was one who "sweated" himself, +not others. But soon when more and more tailoring work was "put out," +the home worker, finding he could undertake more than he could execute, +employed his family and also outsiders to help him. This makes the +second stage in the evolution of the term; the sweater now "sweated" +others as well as himself, and he figured as a "middleman" between the +tailoring firm which employed him, and the assistants whom he employed +for fixed wages. Other clothing trades have passed through the same +process of development, and have produced a sub-contracting middleman. +The term "sweater" has thus by the outside world, and sometimes by the +workers themselves, come to be generally applied to sub-contractors in +small City trades. But the fact of the special application has not +prevented the growth of a wider signification of "sweating" and +"sweater." As the long hours worked in the tailors' garrets were +attended with other evils--a low rate of wages, unsanitary conditions, +irregularity of employment, and occasional tyranny in all the forms +which attend industrial authority--all these evils became attached to +the notion of sweating. The word has thus grown into a generic term to +express this disease of City poverty from its purely industrial side. +Though "long hours" was the gist of the original complaint, low wages +have come to be recognized as equally belonging to the essence of +"sweating." In some cases, indeed, low wages have become the leading +idea, so that employers are classed as sweaters who pay low wages, +without consideration of hours or other conditions of employment. Trade +Unions, for example, use the term "sweating" specifically to express the +conduct of employers who pay less than the "standard" rate of wages. The +abominable sanitary condition of many of the small workshops, or private +dwellings of workers, is to many reformers the most essential element in +sweating. + +§ 2. Present Applications of the Name.--When the connotation of the term +"sweating" had become extended so as to include along with excessive +hours of labour, low wages, unsanitary conditions of work, and other +evils, which commonly belong to the method of sub-contract employment, +it was only natural that the same word should come to be applied to the +same evils when they were found outside the sub-contract system. For +though it has been, and still is, true, that where the method of sub- +contract is used the workers are frequently "sweated," and though to the +popular mind the sub-contractor still figures as the typical sweater, it +is not right to regard "sub-contract" as the real cause of sweating. For +it is found-- + +Firstly, that in some trades sub-contract is used without the evils of +sweating being present. Mr. Burnett, labour correspondent to the Board +of Trade, in his evidence before the Lords' Committee, maintains that +where Trade Unions are strong, as in the engineering trade, sub-contract +is sometimes employed under conditions which are entirely +"unobjectionable." So too in the building trades, sub-contract is not +always attended by "sweating." + +Secondly, much of the worst "sweating" is found where the element of +sub-contract is entirely wanting, and where there is no trace of a +ravenous middleman. This will be found especially in women's +employments. Miss Potter, after a close investigation of this point, +arrives at the conclusion that "undoubtedly the worst paid work is made +under the direction of East End retail slop-shops, or for tally-men--a +business from which contact, even in the equivocal form of wholesale +trading, has been eliminated."[20] The term "sweating" must be deemed as +applicable to the case of the women employed in the large steam- +laundries, who on Friday and Saturday work for fifteen or sixteen hours +a day, to the overworked and under-paid waitresses in restaurants and +shops, to the men who, as Mr. Burleigh testified, "are employed in some +of the wealthiest houses of business, and received for an average +working week of ninety-five hours, board, lodging, and £15 a year," as +it is to the tailoress who works fourteen hours a day for Whitechapel +sub-contractors. + +The terms "sweating" and "sweating System," then, after originating in a +narrow application to the practice of over-work under sub-contractors in +the lower branches of the tailoring trade, has expanded into a large +generic term, to express the condition of all overworked, ill-paid, +badly-housed workers in our cities. It sums up the industrial or +economic aspects of the problem of city poverty. Scarcely any trade in +its lowest grades is free from it; in nearly all we find the wretched +"fag end" where the workers are miserably oppressed. This is true not +only of the poorest manual labour, that of the sandwich-man, with his +wage of 1s. 2d. per diem, and of the lowest class of each manufacturing +trade in East and Central London. It is true of the relatively unskilled +labour in every form of employment; the miserable writing-clerk, who on +25s. a week or less has to support a wife and children and an appearance +of respectability; the usher, who grinds out low-class instruction +through the whole tedious day for less than the wage of a plain cook; +the condition of these and many other kinds of low-class brain-workers +is only a shade less pitiable than the "sweating" of manual labourers, +and the causes, as we shall see, are much the same. If our investigation +of "sweating" is chiefly confined to the condition of the manual +labourer, it is only because the malady there touches more directly and +obviously the prime conditions of physical life, not because the nature +of the industrial disease is different. + +§ 3. Leading "Sweating" Trades.--It is next desirable to have some clear +knowledge of the particular trades in which the worst forms of +"sweating" are found, and the extent to which it prevails in each. The +following brief summary is in a large measure drawn from evidence +furnished to the recent Lords' Committee on the Sweating System. Since +the sweating in women's industries is so important a subject as to +demand a separate treatment, the facts stated here will chiefly apply to +male industries. + +Tailoring.--In the tailoring trade the best kind of clothes are still +made by highly-skilled and well-paid workmen, but the bulk of the cheap +clothing is in the hands of "sweaters," who are sometimes skilled +tailors, sometimes not, and who superintend the work of cheap unskilled +hands. In London the coat trade should be distinguished from the vest +and trousers trade. The coat-making trade in East London is a closely- +defined district, with an area of one square mile, including the whole +of Whitechapel and parts of two adjoining parishes. The trade is almost +entirely in the hands of Jews, who number from thirty to forty thousand +persons. Recent investigations disclosed 906 workshops, which, in the +quality and conditions of the work done in them, may be graded according +to the number of hands employed. The larger workshops, employing from +ten to twenty-five hands or more, generally pay fair wages, and are free +from symptoms of sweating. But in the small workshops, which form about +80 per cent of the whole number, the common evils of the sweating system +assert themselves--overcrowding, bad sanitation, and excessive hours of +labour. Thirteen and fourteen hours are the nominal day's work for men; +and those workshops which do not escape the Factory Inspector assign a +nominal factory day for women; but "among the imperfectly taught workers +in the slop and stock trade, and more especially in the domestic +workshops, under-pressers, plain machinists, and fellers are in many +instances expected to 'convenience' their masters, i.e. to work for +twelve or fifteen hours in return for ten or thirteen hours' wage."[21] +The better class workers, who require some skill, get comparatively high +wages even in the smaller workshops, though the work is irregular; but +the general hands engaged in making 1s. coats, generally women, get a +maximum of _1s. 6d._, and a minimum which is indefinitely below 1s. for +a twelve hours' day. This low-class work is also hopeless. The raw hand, +or "greener" as he is called, will often work through his apprenticeship +for nominal wages; but he has the prospect of becoming a machinist, and +earning from 6s. to 10s. a day, or of becoming in his turn a sweater. +The general hand has no such hope. The lowest kind of coat-making, +however, is refused by the Jew contractor, and falls to Gentile women. +These women also undertake most of the low-class vest and trousers +making, generally take their work direct from a wholesale house, and +execute it at home, or in small workshops. The price for this work is +miserably low, partly by reason of the competition of provincial +factories, partly for reasons to be discussed in a later chapter. Women +will work for twelve or fifteen hours a day throughout the week as +"trousers finishers," for a net-earning of as little as 4s. or 5s. Such +is the condition of inferior unskilled labour in the tailoring trade. It +should however be understood that in "tailoring," as in other "sweating" +trades, the lowest figures quoted must be received with caution. The +wages of a "greener," a beginner or apprentice, should not be taken as +evidence of a low wage in the trade, for though it is a lamentable thing +that the learner should have to live upon the value of his prentice +work, it is evident that under no commercial condition could he support +himself in comfort during this period. It is the normal starvation wage +of the low-class experienced hand which is the true measure of +"sweating" in these trades. Two facts serve to give prominence to the +growth of "sweating" in the tailoring trades. During the last few years +there has been a fall of some 30 per cent, in the prices paid for the +same class of work. During the same period the irregularity of work has +increased. Even in fairly large shops the work for ordinary labour only +averages some three days in the week, while we must reckon two and a +half days for unskilled workers in smaller workshops, or working at +home. + +Among provincial towns Liverpool, Manchester, and Leeds show a rapid +growth of sweating in the clothing trade. In each case the evil is +imputed to "an influx of foreigners, chiefly Jews." In each town the +same conditions appear--irregular work and wages, unsanitary conditions, +over-crowding, evasion of inspection. The growth in Leeds is remarkable. +"There are now ninety-seven Jewish workshops in the city, whereas five +years ago there were scarcely a dozen. The number of Jews engaged in the +tailoring trade is about three thousand. The whole Jewish population of +Leeds is about five thousand."[22] + +Boot-making.--The hand-sewn trade, which constitutes the upper stratum +of this industry, is executed for the most part by skilled workers, who +get good wages for somewhat irregular employment. There are several +strong trade organizations, and though the hours are long, extending +occasionally to thirteen or fourteen hours, the worst forms of sweating +are not found. So too in the upper branches of machine-sewn boots, the +skilled hands get fairly high wages. But the lower grades of machine- +made boots, and the "sew-rounds," i.e. fancy shoes and slippers, which +form a large part of the industry in London, present some of the worst +features of the "sweating system." The "sweating master" plays a large +part here. "In a busy week a comparatively competent 'sweater' may earn +from 18s. to 25s. less skilful hands may get 15s. or 16s. but boys and +newly-arrived foreigners take 10s., 8s., 7s., or less; while the +masters, after paying all expenses, would, according to their own +estimates, make not less than 30s., and must, in many cases, net much +higher sums. Owing, however, to the irregularity of their employment, +the average weekly earnings of both masters and men throughout the year +fall very greatly below the amount which they can earn when in full +work."[23] For the lowest kinds of work an ordinary male hand appears to +be able to earn not more than 15s. per week. A slow worker, it is said, +would earn an average of some 10s. to 12s. per week. The hours of labour +for sweating work appear to be from fifteen to eighteen per diem, and +"greeners" not infrequently work eighteen to twenty hours a day. Women, +who are largely used in making "felt and carpet uppers," cannot, if they +work their hardest, make more than 1s. 3d. a day. In the lowest class of +work wages fall even lower. Mr. Schloss gives the wages of five men +working in a small workshop, whose average is less than 11s. a week. +These wages do not of course represent skilled work at all. Machinery +has taken over all the skilled work, and left a dull laborious monotony +of operations which a very few weeks' practice enable a completely +unskilled worker to undertake. Probably the bulk of the cheapest work is +executed by foreigners, although from figures taken in 1887, of four +typical London parishes, it appeared that only 16 per cent, of the whole +trade were foreigners. In the lower classes of goods a considerable fall +of price has occurred during the fast few years, and perhaps the most +degraded conditions of male labour are to be found in the boot trade. A +large proportion of the work throughout the trade is out-work, and +therefore escapes the operation of the Factory Act. The competition +among small employers is greatly accentuated by the existence of a form +of middleman known as the "factor," who is an agent who gets his profit +by playing off one small manufacturer against another, keeping down +prices, and consequently wages, to a minimum. A large number of the +small producers are extremely poor, and owing to the System which +enables them to obtain material from leather-merchants on short credit, +are constantly obliged to sell at a disadvantage to meet their bills. +The "factor," as a speculator, takes advantage of this to accumulate +large stocks at low prices, and throwing them on the market in large +quantities when wholesale prices rise, causes much irregularity in the +trade. + +The following quotation from the Report of the Lords' Committee sums up +the chief industrial forces which are at work, and likewise illustrates +the confusion of causes with symptoms, and casual concomitants, which +marks the "common sense" investigations of intricate social phenomena. +"It will be seen from the foregoing epitome of the evidence, that +sweating in the boot trade is mainly traced by the witnesses to the +introduction of machinery, and a more complete system of subdivision of +labour, coupled with immigration from abroad and foreign competition. +Some witnesses have traced it in a great measure, if not principally, to +the action of factors; some to excessive competition among small masters +as well as men; others have accused the Trades Unions of a course of +action which has defeated the end they have in view, namely, effectual +combination, by driving work, owing to their arbitrary conduct, out of +the factory into the house of the worker, and of handicapping England in +the race with foreign countries, by setting their faces against the use +of the best machinery."[24] + +Shirt-making.--Perhaps no other branch of the clothing trade shows so +large an area of utter misery as shirt-making, which is carried on, +chiefly by women, in East London. The complete absence of adequate +organization, arising from the fact that the work is entirely out-work, +done not even by clusters of women in workshops, but almost altogether +by scattered workers in their own homes, makes this perhaps the +completest example of the evils of sweating. The commoner shirts are +sold wholesale at 10s. 6d. per dozen. Of this sum, it appears that the +worker gets 2s. 1½d., and the sweater sometimes as much as 4s. The +competition of married women enters here, for shirt-making requires +little skill and no capital; hence it can be undertaken, and often is, +by married women, anxious to increase the little and irregular earnings +of their husbands, and willing to work all day for whatever they can +get. Some of the worst cases brought before the Lords' Committee showed +that a week's work of this kind brings in a net gain of from 3s. to 5s. +It appears likely that few unmarried women or widows can undertake this +work, because it does not suffice to afford a subsistence wage. But if +this is so, it must be remembered that the competition of married women +has succeeded in underselling the unmarried women, who might otherwise +have been able to obtain this work at a wage which would have supported +life. The fact that those who work at shirt-making do not depend +entirely on it for a livelihood, is an aggravation rather than an +extenuation of the sweating character of this employment. + +§ 4. Some minor "Sweating" Trades.--Mantle-making is also a woman's +industry. The wages are just sufficiently higher than in shirt-making to +admit the introduction of the lowest grades of unsupported female +workers. From 1s. 3d. to 1s. 6d. a day can be made at this work. + +Furring employs large numbers of foreign males, and some thousands of +both native and foreign females. It is almost entirely conducted in +small workshops, under the conduct of middlemen, who receive the +expensive furs from manufacturers, and hire "hands" to sew and work them +up. Wages have fallen during the last few years to the barest +subsistence point, and even below. Wages for men are put at 10s. or +12s., and in the case of girls and young women, fall as low as 4s.; a +sum which is in itself insufficient to support life, and must therefore +be only paid to women and girls who are partly subsisted by the efforts +of relatives with whom they live, or by the wages of vice. + +In cabinet-making and upholstery, the same disintegrating influences +have been at work which we noted in tailoring. Many firms which formerly +executed all orders on their own premises, now buy from small factors, +and much of the lowest and least skilled work is undertaken by small +"garret-masters," or even by single workmen who hawk round their wares +for sale on their own account. The higher and skilled branches are +protected by trade organizations, and there is no evidence that wages +have fallen; but in the less skilled work, owing perhaps in part to the +competition of machinery, prices have fallen, and wages are low. There +is evidence that the sub-contract system here is sometimes carried +through several stages, much to the detriment of the workman who +actually executes the orders. + +One of the most degraded among the sweating industries in the country is +chain and nail-making. The condition of the chain-makers of Cradley +Heath has called forth much public attention. The system of employment +is a somewhat complicated one. A middleman, called a "fogger," acts as a +go-between, receiving the material from the master, distributing it +among the workers, and collecting the finished product. Evidence before +the Committee shows that an accumulation of intricate forms of abuse of +power existed, including in some cases systematic evasion of the Truck +Act. Much of the work is extremely laborious, hours are long, twelve +hours forming an ordinary day, and the wage paid is the barest +subsistence wage. Much of the work done by women is quite unfit for +them. + +§ 5. Who is the Sweater? The Sub-contractor?--These facts relating to a +few of the principal trades in the lower branches of which "sweating" +thrives, must suffice as a general indication of the character of the +disease as it infests the inferior strata of almost all industries. + +Having learnt what "sweating" means, our next question naturally takes +the form, Who is the sweater? Who is the person responsible for this +state of things? John Bull is concrete, materialistic in his feeling and +his reasoning. He wants to find an individual, or a class embodiment of +sweating. If he can find the sweater, he is prepared to loathe and +abolish him. Our indignation and humanitarianism requires a scape-goat. +As we saw, many of the cases of sweating were found where there was a +sub-contractor. To our hasty vision, here seems to be the responsible +party. Forty years ago _Alton Locke_ gave us a powerful picture of the +wicked sub-contracting tailor, who, spider-like, lured into his web the +unfortunate victim, and sucked his blood for gain. The indignation of +tender-hearted but loose-thinking philanthropists, short-visioned +working-class orators, assisted by the satire of the comic journal, has +firmly planted in the imagination of the public an ideal of an East +London sweater; an idle, bloated middleman, whose expansive waistcoat is +decorated with resplendent seals and watch-chains, who drinks his +Champagne, and smokes his perfumed cigar, as he watches complacently the +sunken faces and cowering forms of the wretched creatures whose +happiness, health, and very life are sacrificed to his heartless greed. + +Now a fair study of facts show this creature to be little else than a +myth. The miseries of the sweating den are no exaggeration, they are +attested by a thousand reliable witnesses; but this monster human spider +is not found there. Though opinions differ considerably as to the +precise status of the sweating middleman, it is evident that in the +worst "sweating" trades he is not idle, and he is not rich. In cases +where the well-to-do, comfortable sub-contractor is found, he generally +pays fair wages, and does not grossly abuse his power. When the worst +features of sweating are present, the master sweater is nearly always +poor, his profits driven down by competition, so that he barely makes a +living. It is, indeed, evident that in many of the worst Whitechapel +sweating-dens the master does not on the average make a larger income +than the more highly paid of his machinists. So, too, most of these +"sweaters" work along with their hands, and work just as hard. Some, +indeed, have represented this sweating middleman as one who thrusts +himself between the proper employer and the working man in order to make +a gain for himself without performing any service. But the bulk of +evidence goes to show that the sweater, even when he does not occupy +himself in detailed manual labour, performs a useful work of +superintendence and management. "The sweater in the vast majority of +cases is the one man in the workshop who can, and does, perform each and +any branch of the trade." + +For the old adage, which made a tailor the ninth part of a man, has been +completely reversed by the subdivision of work in modern industry. It +now takes more than nine men to make a tailor. We have foremen or +cutters, basters, machinists, fellers, button-holers, pressers, general +workers, &c. No fewer than twenty-five such subdivisions have been +marked in the trade. Since the so-called tailor is no tailor at all, but +a "button-holer" or "baster," it is obvious that the working of such a +system requires some one capable of general direction. + +This opinion is not, however, inconsistent with the belief that such +work of "direction" or "organization" may be paid on a scale wholly out +of proportion to the real worth of the services performed. Extremely +strong evidence has been tendered to show that in many large towns, +especially in Leeds and Liverpool, the "sweating" tailor has frequently +"no practical knowledge of his trade." The ignorance and incompetence of +the working tailors enables a Jew with a business mind, by bribing +managers, to obtain a contract for work which he makes no pretence to +execute himself. His ability consists simply in the fact that he can get +more work at a cheaper rate out of the poorer workmen than the manager +of a large firm. In his capacity of middleman he is a "convenience," and +for his work, which is nominally that of master tailor, really that of +sweating manager, he gets his pay. + +Part of the "service" thus rendered by the sweater is doubtless that he +acts as a screen to the employing firm. Public opinion, and "the +reputation of the firm," would not permit a well-known business to +employ the workers _directly_ under their own roof upon the terms which +the secrecy of the sweater's den enables them to pay. But in spite of +this, whether the "Jew sweater" is really a competent tailor or is a +mere "organizer" of poor labour, it should be distinctly understood that +he is paid for the performance of real work, which under the present +industrial system has a use. + +§ 6. Different Species of Middlemen.--It may be well here to say +something on the general position of the "middleman" in commerce. The +popular notion that the "middleman" is a useless being, and that if he +could be abolished all would go well, arises from a confusion of thought +which deserves notice. This confusion springs from a failure to +understand that the "middleman" is a part of a commercial System. He is +not a mere intruder, a parasitic party, who forces his way between +employer and worker, or between producer and consumer, and without +conferring any service, extracts for himself a profit which involves a +loss to the worker or the consumer, or to both. If we examine this +notion, either by reference to facts, or from _à priori_ consideration, +we shall find it based on a superstition. "Middleman" is a broad generic +term used to describe a man through whose hands goods pass on their way +to the consuming public, but who does not appear to add any value to the +goods he handles. At any stage in the production of these goods, +previous to their final distribution, the middleman may come in and take +his profit for no visible work done. He may be a speculator, buying up +grain or timber, and holding or manipulating it in the large markets; or +he may be a wholesale merchant, who, buying directly from the fisherman, +and selling to the retail fishmonger, is supposed to be responsible for +the high price of fish; he may be the retailer who in East London is +supposed to cause the high price of vegetables. + +With these species of middlemen we are not now concerned, except to say +that their work, which is that of distribution, i.e. the more convenient +disposal of forms of material wealth, may be equally important with the +work of the farmer, the fisherman, or the market-gardener, though the +latter produce changes in the shape and appearance of the goods, while +the former do not. The middleman who stands between the employing firm +and the worker is of three forms. He may undertake a piece of work for a +wholesale house, and taking the material home, execute it with the aid +of his family or outside assistants. This is the chamber-master proper, +or "sweater" in the tailoring trade. Or he may act as distributor, +receive the material, and undertake to find workers who will execute it +at their own homes, he undertaking the responsibility of collection. +Where the workers are scattered over a large city area, or over a number +of villages, this work of distribution, and its responsibility, may be +considerable. Lastly, there may be the "sub-contractor" proper, who +undertakes to do a portion of a work already contracted for, and either +finds materials and tools, and pays workers to work for him, or sublets +parts of his contract to workers who provide their own materials and +tools. The mining and building trades contain various examples of such +sub-contracts. Now in none of these cases is the middleman a mere +parasite. In every case he does work, which, though as a rule it does +not alter the material form of the goods with which it deals, adds +distinct value to them, and is under present industrial conditions +equally necessary, and equally entitled to fair remuneration with the +work of the other producers. The old maxim "nihil ex nihilo fit" is as +true in commerce as in chemistry. In a competitive society a man can get +nothing for nothing. If the middleman is a capitalist he may get +something for use of his capital; but that too implies that his capital +is put to some useful work. + +§ 7. Work and Pay of the Middleman.--The complaint that the middleman +confers no service, and deserves no pay, is the result of two fallacies. +The first, to which allusion has been made already, consists in the +failure to recognize the work of distribution done by the middleman. The +second and more important is the confusion of mind which leads people to +conclude that because under different circumstances a particular class +of work might be dispensed with, therefore that work is under present +circumstances useless and undeserving of reward. Lawyers might be +useless if there were no dishonesty or crime, but we do not therefore +feel justified in describing as useless the present work they do. With +every progress of new inventions we are constantly rendering useless +some class or other of undoubted "workers." So the middleman in his +various capacities may be dispensed with, if the organization of +industrial society is so changed that he is no longer required; but +until such changes are affected he must get, and deserves, his pay. It +may indeed be true that certain classes of middlemen are enabled by the +position they hold to extract either from their employers or from the +public a profit which seems out of proportion to the services they +render. But this is by no means generally the case with the middleman in +his capacity of "sweater." Even where a middleman does make large +profits, we are not justified in describing such gain as excessive or +unfair, unless we are prepared to challenge the claim of "free +competition" to determine the respective money values of industrial +services. The "sweating" middleman does work which is at present +necessary; he gets pay; if we think he gets too much, are we prepared +with any rule to determine even approximately how much he ought to get? + +§ 8. The Employer as "Sweater."--Since it appears that the middleman +often sweats others of necessity because he is himself "sweated," in the +low terms of the contract he makes, and since much of the worst +"sweating" takes place where firms of employers deal directly with the +"workers," it may seem that the blame is shifted on to the employer, and +that the real responsibility rests with him. Now is this so? When we see +an important firm representing a large capital and employing many hands, +paying a wage barely sufficient for the maintenance of life, we are apt +to accuse the employers of meanness and extortion: we say this firm +could afford to pay higher wages, but they prefer to take higher +profits; the necessity of the poor is their opportunity. Now this +accusation ought to be fairly faced. It will then be found to fall with +very different force according as it is addressed to one or other of two +classes of employers. Firms which are shielded from the full force of +the competition of capital by the possession of some patent or trade +secret, some special advantage in natural resources, locality, or +command of markets, are generally in a position which will enable them +to reap a rate of profit, the excess of which beyond the ordinary rate +of profit measures the value of the practical monopoly they possess. The +owners of a coal-mine, or a gas-works, a special brand of soap or +biscuits, or a ring of capitalists who have secured control of a market, +are often able to pay wages above the market level without endangering +their commercial position. Even in a trade like the Lancashire cotton +trade, where there is free competition among the various firms, a rapid +change in the produce market may often raise the profits of the trade, +so that all or nearly all the employing firms could afford to pay higher +wages without running any risk of failure. Now employers who are in a +position like this are morally responsible for the hardship and +degradation they inflict if they pay wages insufficient for decent +maintenance. Their excuse that they are paying the market rate of wages, +and that if their men do not choose to work for this rate there are +plenty of others who will, is no exoneration of their conduct unless it +be distinctly admitted that "moral considerations" have no place in +commerce. Employers who in the enjoyment of this superior position pay +bare subsistance wages, and defend themselves by the plea that they pay +the "market rate," are "sweaters," and the blame of sweating will +rightly attach to them. + +But this is not to be regarded as the normal position of employers. +Among firms unsheltered by a monopoly, and exposed to the full force of +capitalist competition, the rate of profit is also at "the minimum of +subsistence," that is to say, if higher wages were paid to the employés, +the rate of profit would either become a negative quantity, or would be +so low that capital could no longer be obtained for investment in such a +trade. Generally it may be said that a joint-stock company and a private +firm, trading as most firms do chiefly on borrowed capital, could not +pay higher wages and stand its ground in the competition with other +firms. If a benevolent employer engaged in a manufacture exposed to open +competition undertook to raise the wages of his men twenty per cent, in +order to lift them to a level of comfort which satisfied his +benevolence, he must first sacrifice the whole of his "wage of +superintendence," and he will then find that he can only pay the +necessary interest on his borrowed capital out of his own pocket: in +fact he would find he had essayed to do what in the long run was +impossible. The individual employer under normal circumstances is no +more to blame for the low wages, long hours, &c., than is the middleman. +He could not greatly improve the industrial condition of his employés, +however much he might wish. + +§ 9. The Purchaser as "Sweater." A third view, a little longer-sighted +than the others, casts the blame upon the purchasing public. Wages must +be low, we are told, because the purchaser insists on low prices. It is +the rage for "cheapness" which is the real cause, according to this line +of thought. Formerly the customer was content to pay a fair price for an +article to a tradesman with whom he dealt regularly, and whose interest +it was to sell him a fair article. The tradesman could thus afford to +pay the manufacturer a price which would enable him to pay decent wages, +and in return for this price he insisted upon good work being put into +the goods he bought. Thus there was no demand for bad work. Skilled work +alone could find a market, and skilled work requires the payment of +decent wages. The growth of modern competition has changed all this. +Regular custom has given way to touting and advertising, the bond of +interest between consumer and shopkeeper is broken, the latter seeks +merely to sell the largest quantity of wares to any one who will buy, +the former to pay the lowest price to any one who will sell him what he +thinks he wants. Hence a deterioration in the quality of many goods. It +is no longer the interest of many tradesmen to sell sound wares; the +consumer can no longer rely upon the recommendation of the retailer as a +skilled judge of the quality of a particular line of goods; he is thrown +back upon his own discrimination, and as an amateur he is apt to be +worsted in a bargain with a specialist. There is no reason to suppose +that customers are meaner than they used to be. They always bought +things as cheaply as they knew how to get them. The real point is that +they are less able to detect false cheapness than they used to be. Not +merely do they no longer rely upon a known and trusted retailer to +protect them from the deceits of the manufacturer, but the facilities +for deception are continually increasing. The greater complexity of +trade, the larger variety of commodities, the increased specialization +in production and distribution, the growth of "a science of +adulteration" have immensely increased the advantage which the +professional salesman possesses over the amateur customer. Hence the +growth of goods meant not for use but for sale--jerry-built houses, +adulterated food, sham cloth and leather, botched work of every sort, +designed merely to pass muster in a hurried act of sale. To such a +degree of refinement have the arts of deception been carried that the +customer is liable to be tricked and duped at every turn. It is not that +he foolishly prefers to buy a bad article at a low price, but that he +cannot rely upon his judgment to discriminate good from bad quality; he +therefore prefers to pay a low price because he has no guarantee that by +paying more he will get a better article. It is this fact, and not a +mania for cheapness, which explains the flooding of the market with bad +qualities of wares. This effectual demand for bad workmanship on the +part of the consuming public is no doubt directly responsible for many +of the worst phases of "sweating." Slop clothes and cheap boots are +turned out in large quantities by workers who have no claim to be called +tailors or shoemakers. A few weeks' practice suffices to furnish the +quantum of clumsy skill or deceit required for this work. That is to +say, the whole field of unskilled labour is a recruiting-ground for the +"sweater" or small employer in these and other clothing trades. If the +public insisted on buying good articles, and paid the price requisite +for their production, these "sweating" trades would be impossible. But +before we saddle the consuming public with the blame, we must bear in +mind the following extenuating circumstances. + +§ 10. What the Purchaser can do.--The payment of a higher price is no +guarantee that the workers who produce the goods are not "sweated." If I +am competent to discriminate well-made goods from badly-made goods, I +shall find it to my interest to abstain from purchasing the latter, and +shall be likewise doing what I can to discourage "sweating." But by +merely paying a higher price for goods of the same quality as those +which I could buy at a lower price, I may be only putting a larger +profit in the hands of the employers of this low-skilled labour, and am +certainly doing nothing to decrease that demand for badly-made goods +which appears to be the root of the evil. The purchaser who wishes to +discourage sweating should look first to the quality of the goods he +buys, rather than to the price. Skilled labour is seldom sweated to the +same degree as unskilled labour, and a high class of workmanship will +generally be a guarantee of decent wages. In so far as the purchaser +lacks ability to accurately gauge quality, he has little security that +by paying a higher price he is securing better wages for the workers. +The so-called respectability of a well-known house is a poor guarantee +that its employés are getting decent wages, and no guarantee at all that +the workers in the various factories with which the firm deals are well +paid. It is impossible for a private customer to know that by dealing +with a given shop he is not directly or indirectly encouraging +"sweating." It might, however, be feasible for the consuming public to +appoint committees, whose special work it should be to ascertain that +goods offered in shops were produced by firms who paid decent wages. If +a "white list" of firms who paid good wages, and dealt only with +manufacturers who paid good wages, were formed, purchasers who desired +to discourage sweating would be able to feel a certain security, so far, +at any rate, as the later stages of production are concerned, which +ordinary knowledge of the world and business will not at present enable +them to obtain. The force of an organized public opinion, even that of a +respectable minority, brought to bear upon notorious "sweating" firms, +would doubtless be of great avail, if carefully applied. + +At the same time, it must not for a moment be imagined that the problem +of poverty would be solved if we could insure, by the payment of higher +prices for better qualities of goods, the extermination of the sweating +trades. This low, degraded and degrading work enables large numbers of +poor inefficient workers to eke out a bare subsistence. If it were taken +away, the direct result would be an accession of poverty and misery. The +demand for skilled labour would be greater, but the unskilled labourer +cannot pass the barrier and compete for this; the overflow of helpless, +hopeless, feeble, unskilled labour would be greater than ever. Whatever +the ultimate effects of decreasing the demand for unskilled labour might +be, the misery of the immediate effects could not be lightly set aside. +This contradiction of the present certain effect and the probable future +effects confronts the philanthropist at every turn. The condition of the +London match-girls may serve as an illustration of this. Their miserable +life has rightly roused the indignation of all kind-hearted people. The +wretched earnings they take have provoked people to suggest that we +should put an end to the trade by refusing to buy from them. But since +the earnings of these girls depend entirely on the amount they sell, +this direct result of your action, prompted by humane sentiment, will be +to reduce still further these miserable earnings; that is to say, you +increase the suffering of the very persons whose lot you desire to +alleviate. You may say that you buy your matches all the same, but you +buy them at a shop where you may or may not have reason to believe that +the attendants are well paid. But that will not benefit the girls, whose +business you have destroyed; they will not be employed in the shops, for +they belong to a different grade of labour. This dilemma meets the +social reformer at each step; the complexity of industrial relations +appears to turn the chariot of progress into a Juggernaut's car, to +crush a number of innocent victims with each advance it makes. One thing +is evident, that if the consuming public were to regulate its acts of +purchase with every possible regard to the condition of the workers, +they could not ensure that every worker should have good regular work +for decent wages. + +In arriving at this conclusion, we are far from maintaining that the +public even in its private capacity as a body of consumers could do +nothing. A certain portion of responsibility rests on the public, as we +saw it rested on employers and on middlemen. But the malady is rightly +traceable in its full force neither to the action of individuals nor of +industrial classes, but to the relation which subsists between these +individuals and classes; that is, to the nature and character of the +industrial system in its present working. This may seem a vague +statement, but it is correct; the desire to be prematurely definite has +led to a narrow conception of the "sweating" malady, which more than +anything else has impeded efforts at reform. + + + + +Chapter V. + +The Causes of Sweating. + + + +§ 1. The excessive Supply of Low-skilled Labour.--Turning to the +industrial system for an explanation of the evils of "Sweating," we +shall find three chief factors in the problem; three dominant aspects +from which the question may be regarded. They are sometimes spoken of as +the causes of sweating, but they are better described as conditions, and +even as such are not separate, but closely related at various points. + +The first condition of "sweating" is an abundant and excessive supply of +low-skilled and inefficient labour. It needs no parade of economic +reasoning to show that where there are more persons willing to do a +particular kind of work than are required, the wages for that work, if +free competition is permitted, cannot be more than what is just +sufficient to induce the required number to accept the work. In other +words, where there exists any quantity of unemployed competitors for +low-skilled work, wages, hours of labour, and other conditions of +employment are so regulated, as to present an attraction which just +outweighs the alternatives open to the unemployed, viz. odd jobs, +stealing, starving, and the poor-house. In countries where access to +unused land is free, the productiveness of labour applied to such land +marks the minimum of wages possible; in countries where no such access +is possible, the minimum wages of unskilled labour, whenever the supply +exceeds the demand, is determined by the attractiveness of the +alternatives named above. + +A margin of unemployed labour means a bare subsistence wage for low- +skilled labour, and it means this wage earned under industrial +conditions, such as we find under the "sweating system." In order to +keep the wage of low-skilled labour down to this minimum, which can only +rise with an improvement in the alternatives, it is not required that +there should at any time exist a large number of unemployed. A very +small number, in effective competition with those employed, will be +quite as effectual in keeping down the rate of wages. The same applies +to all grades of skilled labour, with this important difference, that +the minimum wage can never fall below what is required to induce less +skilled workers to acquire and apply the extra skill which will enable +them to furnish the requisite supply of highly-skilled workers. Trade +Unions have instinctively directed all their efforts to preventing the +competition of unemployed workers in their respective trades from +pulling down to its minimum the rate of wages. The strongest of those +have succeeded in establishing a standard wage less than which no one +shall accept; unemployed men, who in free competition would accept less +than this standard wage, are supported by the funds of the Union, that +they may not underbid. Unions of comparatively unskilled workers, who +are never free from the competition of unemployed, and who cannot +undertake permanently to buy off all competitors ready to underbid, +endeavour to limit the numbers of their members, and to prevent +outsiders from effectively competing with them in the labour market, in +order that by restricting the supply of labour, they may prevent a fall +of wages. The importance of these movements for us consists in their +firm but tacit recognition of the fact, that an excessive supply of +unskilled labour lies at the root of the industrial disease of +"sweating." + +§ 2. The Contributing Causes of excessive Supply.--The last two chapters +have dealt with the principal large industrial movements which bear on +this supply of excessive low-skilled labour; but to make the question +clear, it will be well to enumerate the various contributing causes. + +[Greek: a]. The influx of rural population into the towns constantly +swells the supply of raw unskilled labour. The better quality of this +agricultural labour, as we saw, does not continue to form part of this +glut, but rises into more skilled and higher paid strata of labour. The +worse quality forms a permanent addition to the mass of inefficient +labour competing for bare subsistence wages. + +[Greek: b]. The steady flow of cheap unskilled foreign labour into our +large cities, especially into London, swollen by occasional floods of +compulsory exiles, adds an element whose competition as a part of the +mass of unskilled labour is injurious out of proportion to its numerical +amount. + +[Greek: g]. Since this foreign immigration weakens the industrial +condition of our low-skilled native labour by increasing the supply, it +will be evident that any cause which decreases the demand for such +labour will operate in the same way. The free importation from abroad of +goods which compete in our markets with the goods which "sweated" labour +is applied to make, has the same effect upon the workers in "sweating" +trades as the introduction of cheap foreign labour. The one diminishes +the demand, the other increases the supply of unskilled or low-skilled +labour. The import of quantities of German-made cheap clothing into East +London shops, to compete with native manufacture of the same goods, will +have precisely the same force in maintaining "sweating," as will the +introduction of German workers, who shall make these same clothes in +East London itself. In each case, the purchasing public reaps the +advantage of cheap labour in low prices, while the workers suffer in low +wages. The contention that English goods made at home must be exported +to pay for the cheap German goods, furnishes no answer from the point of +view of the low-skilled worker, unless these exports embody the kind of +labour of which he is capable. + +[Greek: d]. The constant introduction of new machinery, as a substitute +for skilled hand-labour, by robbing of its value the skill of certain +classes of workers, adds these to the supply of low-skilled labour. + +[Greek: e]. The growth of machinery and of education, by placing women +and young persons more upon an equality with male adult labour, swells +the supply of low-skilled labour in certain branches of work. Women and +young persons either take the places once occupied by men, or undertake +new work (e.g. in post-office or telegraph-office), which would once +have been open only to the competition of men. This growth of the direct +or indirect competition of women and young persons, must be considered +as operating to swell the general supply of unskilled labour. + +[Greek: z]. In London another temporary, but important, factor must be +noted. The competition of provincial factories has proved too strong for +London factories in many industries. Hence of late years a gradual +transfer of manufacture from London to the provinces. A large number of +workers in London factories have found themselves out of work. The +break-up of the London factories has furnished "sweating trades" with a +large quantity of unemployed and starving people from whom to draw. + +Regarded from the widest economic point of view, the existence of an +excessive supply of labour seeking employments open to free competition +must be regarded as the most important aspect of the "sweating system." +The recent condition of the competition for casual dock-labour brought +dramatically to the foreground this factor in the labour question. The +struggle for livelihood was there reduced to its lowest and most brutal +terms. "There is a place at the London Docks called the cage, a sort of +pen fenced off by iron railings. I have seen three hundred half-starved +dockers crowded round this cage, when perhaps a ganger would appear +wanting three hands, and the awful struggle of these three hundred +famished wretches fighting for that opportunity to get two or three +hours' work has left an impression upon me that can never be effaced. +Why, I have actually seen them clambering over each other's backs to +reach the coveted ticket. I have frequently seen men emerge bleeding and +breathless, with their clothes pretty well torn off their backs." The +competition described in this picture only differs from other +competitions for low-skilled town labour in as much as the conditions of +tender gave a tragical concentration to the display of industrial +forces. This picture, exaggerated as it will appear to those who have +not seen it, brings home to us the essential character of free +competition for low-skilled labour where the normal supply is in excess +of the demand. If other forms of low-skilled labour were put up to be +scrambled for in the same public manner, the scene would be repeated _ad +nauseam_. But because the competition of seamstresses, tailors, shirt- +finishers, fur-sewers, &c., is conducted more quietly and privately, it +is not less intense, not less miserable, and not less degrading. This +struggle for life in the shape of work for bare subsistence wages, is +the true logical and necessary outcome of free competition among an over +supply of low-skilled labourers. + +§ 3. The Multiplication of "Small Masters."--Having made so much +progress in our analysis, we shall approach more intelligently another +important aspect of the "sweating system." Mr. Booth and other +investigators find the tap-root of the disease to consist in the +multiplication of small masters. The leading industrial forces of the +age, as we have seen, make for the concentration of labour in larger and +larger masses, and its employment in larger and larger factories. Yet in +London and in certain other large centres of population, we find certain +trades which are still conducted on a small scale in little workshops or +private houses, and those trades furnish a very large proportion of the +worst examples of "sweating." Here is a case of arrested development in +the evolution of industry. It is even worse than that; for some trades +which had been subject to the concentrating force of the factory system, +have fallen into a sort of back-wash of the industrial current, and +broken up again into smaller units. The increased proportion of the +clothing industries conducted in private houses and small workshops is +the most notorious example. This applies not only to East London, but to +Liverpool, Leeds, Sheffield, and other large cities, especially where +foreign labour has penetrated. For a large proportion of the sweating +workshops, especially in clothing trades, are supported by foreign +labour. In Liverpool during the last ten years the substitution of home- +workers for workers in tailors' shops has been marked, and in particular +does this growth of home-workers apply to women. + +A credible witness before the Lords' Committee stated that "at the +present moment it would be safe to say that two-thirds of the sweaters +in Liverpool are foreigners," coming chiefly from Germany and Russian +Poland. In Leeds sixteen years ago there were only twelve Jewish +workshops; there are now some hundreds. + +Since a very large proportion of the worst sweating occurs in trades +where the work is given out, either directly or by the medium of sub- +contract, to home-workers, it is natural that stress should be laid upon +the small private workshops as the centre of the disease. If the work +could only be got away from the home and the small workshop, where +inspection is impracticable, and done in the factory or large workshop, +where limitations of hours of labour and sanitary conditions could be +enforced, where the force of public opinion could secure the payment of +decent wages, and where organization among workers would be possible, +the worst phases of the malady would disappear. The abolition of the +small workshop is the great object of a large number of practical +reformers who have studied the sweating system. The following opinion of +an expert witness is endorsed by many students of the question--"If the +employers were compelled to obtain workshops, and the goods were made +under a factory system, we believe that they could be made quite as +cheaply under that system, with greater comfort to the workers, in +shorter hours; and that the profits would then be distributed among the +workers, so that the public would obtain their goods at the same +price."[25] It is maintained that the inferior qualities of shoes are +produced and sold more cheaply in the United States by a larger use of +machinery under the factory system, than in London under a sweating +system, though wages are, of course, much higher in America. Moreover, +many of the products of the London sweating trades are competing on +almost equal terms with the products of provincial factories, where +machines are used instead of hand-labour. + +§ 4. Economic Advantages of "Small Workshops."--The question we have to +answer is this--Why has the small workshop survived and grown up in +London and other large cities, in direct antagonism to the prevalent +industrial movement of the age? It is evident that the small workshop +system must possess some industrial advantages which enable it to hold +its own. The following considerations throw light upon this subject. + +1. A larger proportion of the work in sweating trades is work for which +there is a very irregular demand. Irregularity of employment, or, more +accurately speaking, insufficiency of employment--for the "irregularity" +is itself regular--forms one of the most terrible phases of the sweating +system. The lower you descend in the ranks of labour the worse it is. A +large number of the trades, especially where women are employed, are +trades where the elements of "season" and fashion enter in. But even +those which, like tailoring, shirtmaking, shoemaking, furniture and +upholstery, would seem less subject to periodic or purely capricious +changes, are liable in fact to grave and frequent fluctuations of the +market. The average employment in sweating trades is roughly estimated +at three or four days in the week. There are two busy seasons lasting +some six weeks each, when these miserable creatures are habitually +overworked. "The remaining nine months," says Mr. Burnett, "do not +average more than half time, especially among the lower grade workers." + +This gives us one clue to the ability of the small workshop to survive-- +its superior flexibility from the point of view of the employer. + +"High organization makes for regularity; low organization lends itself +to the opposite. A large factory cannot stop at all without serious +loss; a full-sized workshop will make great efforts to keep going; but +the man who employs only two or three others in his own house can, if +work fails, send them all adrift to pick up a living as best they +can."[26] + +Since a smaller sweating-master can set up business on some £2 capital, +and does not expect to make much more profit as employer than as +workman, he is able to change from one capacity to the other with great +facility. + +2. The high rent for large business premises, especially in London, +makes for the small workshop or home-work system. The payment of rent is +thus avoided by the business firm which is the real employer, and thrown +upon the sub-contractor or the workers themselves, to be by them in +their turn generally evaded by using the dwelling-room for a workshop. +Thus one of the most glaring evils of the sweating system is seen to +form a distinct economic advantage in the workshop, as compared with the +large factory. The element of rent is practically eliminated as an +industrial charge. + +3. The evasion of the restrictions of the Factory Act must be regarded +as another economic advantage. Excessive hours of labour when +convenient, overcrowding in order to avoid rent, absence of proper +sanitary conditions, are essential to the cheapest forms of production +under present conditions. It does not pay either the employing firm or +the sub-contractor to consider the health or even the life of the +workers, provided that the state of the labour market is such that they +can easily replace spent lives. + +4. The inability to combine for their mutual protection and advantage of +scattered employés working in small bodies, living apart, and +unacquainted even with the existence of one another, is another +"cheapness" of the workshop system. + +5. The fact that so large a proportion of master-sweaters are Jews has a +special significance. It seems to imply that the poorer class of +immigrant Jews possess a natural aptitude for the position, and that +their presence in our large cities furnishes the corner-stone of the +vicious system. Independence and mastery are conditions which have a +market value for all men, but especially for the timid and often down- +trodden Jew. Most men will contentedly receive less as master than as +servant, but especially the Jew. We saw that the immigrant Jew, by his +capacities and inclinations, was induced to make special efforts to +substitute work of management for manual labour, and to become a profit- +maker instead of a wage-earner. The Jew craves the position of a +sweating-master, because that is the lowest step in a ladder which may +lead to a life of magnificence, supported out of usury. The Jewish Board +of Guardians in London, though its philanthropic action is on the whole +more enlightened than that of most wealthy public bodies, has been +responsible in no small measure for this artificial multiplication of +small masters. A very large proportion of the funds which they dispensed +was given or lent in small sums in order to enable poor Jews "to set up +for themselves." The effect of this was twofold. It first assisted to +draw to London numbers of continental Jews, who struggled as "greeners" +under sweaters for six months, until they were qualified for assistance +from the Jewish Board of Guardians. It then enabled them to set up as +small masters, and sweat other "greeners" as they themselves were +sweated. It was quite true that the object of such charity was the most +useful which any society could undertake; namely, that of assisting the +industrially weak to stand on their own legs. But it was unfortunately +true that this early stage of independence was built upon the miserable +dependence of other workers. + +6. But while, as we see, there are many special conditions which, in +London especially, favour the small workshop, the most important will be +found to consist in the large supply of cheap unskilled labour. This is +the real material out of which the small workshop system is built. In +dealing with the other conditions, we shall find that they all +presuppose this abundant supply of labour. If labour were more scarce, +and wages therefore higher, the small workshop would be impossible, for +the absolute economy of labour, effected by the factory organization +with its larger use of machinery, would far outweigh the number of small +economies which, as we have seen, at present in certain trades, favour +and make possible the small workshop. Every limitation in the supply of +this low-skilled labour, every expansion of the alternatives offered by +emigration, access to free land, &c., will be effectual in crushing a +number of the sweating workshops, and favouring the large factory at +their expense. + +§ 5. Irresponsibility of Employers.--The third view of the sweating +System lays stress upon its moral aspect, and finds its chief cause in +the irresponsibility of the employer. Now we have already seen that this +severance of the personal relation between employer and employed is a +necessary result of the establishment of the large factory as the +industrial unit, and of the ever-growing complexity of modern commerce. +It is not merely that the widening gap of social position between +employer and employed, and the increased number of the latter, make the +previous close relation impossible. Quite as important is the fact that +the real employer in modern industry is growing more "impersonal." What +we mean is this. The nominal employer or manager is not the real +employer. The real employer of labour is capital, and it is to the +owners of the capital in any business that we must chiefly look for the +exercise of such responsibility as rightly subsists between employer and +employed. Now, while it is calculated that one-eighth of the business of +England is in the hands of joint-stock companies, constituting far more +than one-eighth of the large businesses, in the great majority of other +cases, where business is conducted on a large scale, the head of the +business is to a great extent a mere manager of other people's capital. +Thus while the manager's sense of personal responsibility is weakened by +the number of "hands" whom he employs, his freedom of action is likewise +crippled by his obligation to subserve the interests of a body of +capitalists who are in ignorance of the very names and number of the +human beings whose destiny they are controlling. The severance of the +real "employer" from his "hands" is thus far more complete than would +appear from mere attention to the growth in the size of the average +business. Now it must not be supposed that this severance of the +personal relation between employer and employed is of necessity a loss +to the latter. There is no reason to suppose that the close relation +subsisting in the old days between the master and his journeymen and +apprentices was as a rule idyllically beautiful. No doubt the control of +the master was often vexatious and despotic. The tyranny of a heartless +employer under the old system was probably much more injurious than the +apathy of the most vulgar plutocrat of to-day. The employé under the +modern system is less subject to petty spite and unjust interference on +the part of his employer. In this sense he is more free. But on the +other hand, he has lost that guarantee against utter destitution and +degradation afforded by the humanity of the better class of masters. He +has exchanged a human nexus for a "cash nexus." The nominal freedom of +this cash relationship is in the case of the upper strata of workmen +probably a real freedom; the irresponsibility of their employers has +educated them to more self-reliance, and strengthened a healthy +personality in them. It is the lower class of workers who suffer. More +and more they need the humanity of the responsible employer to protect +them against the rigours of the labour-market. The worst miseries of the +early factory times were due directly to the break-up of the +responsibility of employers. This was slowly recognized by the people of +England, and the series of Factory Acts, Employers' Liability Acts, and +other measures for the protection of labour, must be regarded as a +national attempt to build up a compulsory legal responsibility to be +imposed upon employers in place of a natural responsibility based on +moral feeling. We draft legislation and appoint inspectors to teach +employers their duty towards employés, and to ensure that they do it. +Thus in certain industries we have patched up an artificial mechanism of +responsibility. + +Wherever this legal responsibility is not enforced in the case of low- +skilled workers, we have, or are liable to have, "sweating." Glancing +superficially at the small workshop or sweating-den, it might seem that +this being a mere survival of the old system, the legal enforcement of +responsibility would be unnecessary. But it is not a mere survival. In +the small workshop of the old system the master was the real employer. +In the modern "sweating" den he is not the real employer, but a mere +link between the employing firm and the worker. From this point of view +we must assign as the true cause of sweating, the evasion of the legal +responsibility of the Factory Act rendered possible to firms which +employ outside workers either directly or indirectly through the agency +of "sweaters." Although it might be prudent as a means of breaking up +the small workshop to attempt to impose upon the "middleman" the legal +responsibility, genuine reform directed to this aspect of "sweating," +can only operate by making the real employing firm directly responsible +for the industrial condition of its outdoor direct or indirect employés. + +This responsibility imposed by law has been strengthened as an effective +safeguard of the interests of the workers by combination among the +latter. In skilled industries where strong trade organization exists, +the practical value of such combination exceeds the value of restrictive +legislation. + +"In their essence Trade Unions are voluntary associations of workmen, +for mutual protection and assistance in securing the most favourable +conditions of labour." "This is their primary and fundamental object, +and includes all efforts to raise wages or prevent a reduction of wages; +to diminish the hours of labour or resist attempts to increase the +working hours; and to regulate all matters pertaining to methods of +employment or discharge, and modes of working."[27] Engineers, boiler- +makers, cotton-spinners, printers, would more readily give up the +assistance given them by legislative restriction than the power which +they have secured for themselves by combination. It is in proportion as +trade combination is weak that the actual protection afforded by Factory +and Employers' Liability Acts become important. Just as we saw that +sweating trades were those which escaped the legislative eye; so we see +that they are also the trades where effective combination does not +exist. Where Trade Unions are strong, sweating cannot make any way. The +State aid of restrictive legislation, and the self help of private +combination are alike wanting to the "sweated" workers. + + + + +Chapter VI. + +Remedies for Sweating. + + + +§ 1. Factory Legislation. What it can do.--Having now set forth the +three aspects of the industrial disease of "Sweating"--the excessive +supply of unskilled labour, the multiplication of small employers, the +irresponsibility of capital--we have next to ask, What is the nature of +the proposed remedies? Since any full discussion of the different +remedies is here impossible, it must suffice if we briefly indicate the +application of the chief proposed remedies to the different aspects of +the disease. These remedies will fairly fall into three classes. + +The first class aim at attacking by legislative means, the small +workshop system, and the evils of long hours and unsanitary conditions +from which the "sweated" workers suffer. Briefly, it may be said that +they seek to increase and to enforce the legal responsibility of +employers, and indirectly to crush the small workshop system by turning +upon it the wholesome light of publicity, and imposing certain irksome +and expensive conditions which will make its survival in its worst and +ugliest shapes impossible. The most practical recommendation of the +Report of the Lords' Committee is an extension of the sanitary clauses +of the Factory Act, so as to reach all workshops. + +We have seen that the unrestricted use of cheap labour is the essence of +"sweating." If the wholesome restrictions of our Factory Legislation +were in fact extended so as to cover all forms of employment, they would +so increase the expenses of the sweating houses, that they would fall +before the competition of the large factory system. Karl Marx writing a +generation ago saw this most clearly. "But as regards labour in the so- +called domestic industries, and the intermediate forms between this and +manufacture, so soon as limits are put to the working day and to the +employment of children, these industries go to the wall. Unlimited +exploitation of cheap labour power is the sole foundation of their power +to compete."[28] + +The effectiveness of the existing Factory Act, so far as relates to +small workshops, is impaired by the following considerations-- + +1. The difficulty in finding small workshops. There is no effectual +registration of workshops, and the number of inspectors is inadequate to +the elaborate and tedious method of search imposed by the present +system. + +2. The limitation as to right of entry. The power of inspectors to +"enter, inspect, and examine at all reasonable times by day or night, a +factory or a workshop, and every part thereof, when he has reason to +believe that any person is employed therein, and to enter by day any +place he has reasonable cause to believe to be a factory or workshop," +is in fact not applicable in the case of dwelling-rooms used for +workshops. In a large number of cases of the worst form of "sweating," +the inspector has no right of entrance but by consent of the occupant, +and the time which elapses before such consent is given suffices to +enable the "sweater" to adjust matters so as to remove all evidence of +infringements of the law. + +3. The restricted power in reference to sanitation. A factory inspector +has no sanitary powers; he cannot act save through the sanitary officer. +The machinery of sanitary reform thus loses effectiveness. + +Compulsory registration of workshops, adequate inspection, and reform of +machinery of sanitary reform, would be of material value in dealing with +some of the evils of the small workshop. But it would by no means put an +end to "sweating." So far as it admitted the continuance of the small +workshop, it would neither directly nor indirectly abate the evil of low +wages. It is even possible that any rapid extension of the Factory Act +might, by limiting the amount of employment in small workshops, increase +for a time the misery of those low-skilled workers, who might be +incapable of undertaking regular work in the larger factory. It is, at +any rate, not evident that such legislative reform would assist low- +class workers to obtain decent wages and regular employment, though it +would improve the other conditions under which they worked. + +Again, existing factory legislation by no means covers even +theoretically the whole field of "sweating." Public-houses, restaurants, +all shops and places of amusement, laundries, and certain other +important forms of employment, which escape the present factory +legislation, are in their lower branches liable to the evils of +"sweating," and should be included under such factory legislation as +seeks to remedy these evils. + +§ 2. Co-operative Production.--The organization of labour is the second +form of remedy. It is urged that wherever effective organization exists +in any trade, there is no danger of sweating. We have therefore, it is +maintained, only to organize the lower grades of labour, and "sweating" +will cease to exist. There are two forms of organization commonly +advocated, Co-operation and Trade Unionism. + +The suggestion that the poorer grades of workers should by co-operative +production seek to relieve themselves from the stress of poverty and the +tyranny of the "sweating system," is a counsel of perfection far removed +from the possibility of present attainment. No one who has closely +studied the growth of productive co-operation in England will regard it +as a practicable remedy for poverty. Productive co-operation is +successful at present only in rare cases among skilled workmen of +exceptional morale and education. It is impossible that it should be +practised by low-skilled, low-waged workers, under industrial conditions +like those of to-day. It is surprising to find that the Lords' Committee +in its final report should have given prominence to schemes of co- +operation as a cure for the disease. The following paragraph correctly +sums up experience upon the subject-- + +"Productive societies have been from time to time started in East +London, but their career has been neither long nor brilliant. They have +often had a semi-philanthropic basis, and have been well-meant but +hopeless attempts to supersede 'sweating' by co-operation. None now +working are of sufficient importance to be mentioned."[29] + +The place which productive and distributive co-operation is destined to +occupy in the history of the industrial freedom and elevation of the +masses doubtless will be of the first importance. To look forward to a +time when the workers of the community may be grouped in co-operative +bodies, either competing with one another, or related by some bond which +shall minimize the friction of competition, while not impairing the +freedom and integrity of each several group, is not perhaps a wild +utopian vision. To students of English industrial history the transition +to such a state will not appear more marked than the transition through +which industry passed under the Industrial Revolution to the present +capitalist system. But the recognition of this possible future does not +justify us in suggesting productive co-operation as a present remedy for +the poverty of low-skilled city workers. These latter must rise several +steps on the industrial and moral ladder before they are brought within +the reach of the co-operative remedy. It is with the cost and labour of +these early steps that the students of the problem of present poverty +must concern themselves. + +§ 3. Trade Unionism. Ability of Workers to combine. Trade Unionism is a +more hopeful remedy. Large bodies of workers have by this means helped +to raise themselves from a condition of industrial weakness to one of +industrial strength. Why should not close combination among workers in +low-paid and sweating industries be attended with like results? Why +should not the men and women working in "sweating" trades combine, and +insist upon higher wages, shorter hours, more regular employment, and +better sanitary conditions? Well, it may be regarded as an axiom in +practical economies, that any concerted action, however weak and +desultory, has its value. Union is always strength. An employer who can +easily resist any number of individual claims for higher wages by his +power to replace each worker by an outsider, can less easily resist the +united pressure of a large body of his workmen, because the +inconvenience of replacing them all at once by a body of outsiders, is +far greater than the added difficulty of replacing each of them at +separate intervals of time. This is the basis of the power of concerted +action among workers. But the measure of this power depends in the main +upon two considerations. + +First comes the degree of effectiveness in combination. The prime +requisites for effective combination are a spirit of comradeship and +mutual trust, knowledge and self-restraint in the disposition of united +force. Education and free and frequent intercourse can alone establish +these elements of effective combination. And here the first difficulty +for workers in "sweating" trades appears. Low-skilled work implies a low +degree of intelligence and education. The sweating industries, as we +have seen, are as a rule those which escape the centralizing influence +of the factory System, and where the employés work, either singly or in +small groups, unknown to one another, and with few opportunities of +forming a close mutual understanding. In some employments this local +severance belongs to the essence of the work, as, for example, in the +case of cab-drivers, omnibus-drivers, and generally in shop-work, where, +in spite of the growth of large stores, small masters still predominate; +in other employments the disunion of workers forms a distinct commercial +advantage which enables such low-class industries to survive, as in the +small workshop and the home-labour, which form the central crux of our +sweating problem. The very lack of leisure, and the incessant strain +upon the physique which belong to "sweating," contribute to retard +education, and to render mutual acquaintanceship and the formation of a +distinct trade interest extremely difficult. How to overcome these grave +difficulties which stand in the way of effective combination among +unskilled workers is a consideration of the first importance. The rapid +and momentarily successful action of organized dock labourers must not +be taken as conclusive evidence that combination in all other branches +of low-class labour can proceed at the same pace. The public and +localized character of the competition for casual dock labour rendered +effective combination here possible, in spite of the low intellectual +and moral calibre of the average labourer. It is the absence of such +public and localized competition which is the kernel of the difficulty +in most "sweating" trades. It may be safely said that the measure of +progress in organization of low class labour will be the comparative +size and localization of the industrial unit. Where "sweating" exists in +large factories or large shops, effective combination even among workers +of low education may be tolerably rapid; among workers engaged by some +large firm whose work brings them only into occasional contact, the +progress will be not so fast; among workers in small unrelated workshops +who have no opportunities of direct intercourse with one another, the +progress will be extremely slow. The most urgent need of organization is +precisely in those industries where it is most difficult to organize. It +is, on the whole, not reasonable to expect that this remedy, unless +aided by other forces working against the small workshops, will enable +the "hands" in the small sweater's den to materially improve their +condition. + +§ 4. Trade Union Methods of limiting Competition.--So far we have +regarded the value of combination as dependent on the ability of workers +to combine. There is another side which cannot be neglected. Two +societies of workmen equally strong in the moral qualities of successful +union may differ widely in the influence they can exert to secure and +improve their position. We saw that the real value of organization to a +body of workmen lay in the power it gave them to make it inconvenient +for an employer to dispense with their services in favour of outsiders. +Now the degree of this inconvenience will obviously depend in great +measure upon the number of outsiders qualified by strength and skill to +take their place without delay. The whole force of Unionism hangs on +"the unemployed." The strongest and most effective Unions are in trades +where there are the smallest number of unemployed competitors; the +weakest Unions are in trades which are beset by crowds of outsiders able +and willing to undertake the work, and if necessary to underbid those +who are employed. + +Close attention to the composition and working of our Trade Unions +discloses the fact that their chief object is to limit the competition +for work in their respective trades. Since their methods are sometimes +indirect, this is sometimes denied, but the following statement of Trade +Union methods makes it clear. The minimum or standard rate of wages +plays a prominent part in Unionism. It is arbitrarily fixed by the +Union, which in its estimate takes into account, [Greek: a]. prices paid +for articles produced; [Greek: b]. a reasonable standard of comfort; +[Greek: g]. and remuneration for time spent in acquiring necessary +skill.[30] This is an estimate, it must be remembered, of a "fair wage," +based upon calculations as to what is just and reasonable, and does not +necessarily correspond to the economic wage obtainable in a +neighbourhood by the free competition of labour and capital. Now this +standard wage, which may or may not be the wage actually paid, plays a +very prominent part in Unionism. The point of importance here is its +bearing on the admission of new members. The candidate for membership +has, as his principal qualification, to show that he is capable of +earning the standard rate of wages. It is evident, however, that the +effect of any large new accession to the ranks of any trade must, unless +there is a corresponding growth of employment, bring down the rate of +wages, whether these be fixed by a Trade Union standard or not. Hence it +is evident that any Trade Union would be bound to refuse admission to +new applicants who, though they might be in other respects competent +workmen, could not find work without under-bidding those who were at +present occupied. This they would do by reason of their standard wage +qualification, for they would be able to show that the new applicants +would not be competent to earn standard wages under the circumstances. +How far Trade Unions actually have conscious recourse to this method of +limiting their numbers, may be doubted; but no one acquainted with the +spirit of Trades Unions would believe that if a sudden growth of +technical schools enabled large numbers of duly qualified youths to +apply for admission into the various Unions so as to compete for the +same quantity of work with the body of existing members, the Unions of +the latter would freely and cheerfully admit them. To do so would be +suicidal, for no standard rate of wages could stand against the pressure +of an increased supply of labour upon a fixed demand. But it is not +necessary to suppose that any considerable number of actually qualified +workmen are refused admission to Trade Unions of skilled workers. For +the possession of the requisite skill, implying as it does a certain +natural capacity, and an expenditure of time and money not within the +power of the poorest classes, forms a practical limit to the number of +applicants. Moreover, in many trades, though by no means in all, +restrictions are placed by the Unions upon the number of apprentices, +with the object of limiting the number of those who should from year to +year be qualified to compete for work. In other trades where no rigid +rule to this effect exists, there is an understanding which is equally +effective. Certain trades, such as the engineers, boiler-makers, and +other branches of iron trade, place no restrictions, and in certain +other trades the restrictions are not closely applied. But most of the +strong Trades Unions protect themselves in another way against the +competition of unemployed. By a System of "out of work" pay, they bribe +those of their body, who from time to time are thrown out of work, not +to underbid those in work, so as to bring down the rate of wages. +Several of the most important Unions pay large sums every year to "out +of work" members. By these three means, the "minimum wage" qualification +for membership, the limitation of the number of apprentices, and the +"out of work" fund, the Trade Unions strengthen the power of organized +labour in skilled industries by restricting the competition of +unemployed outsiders. + +It is true that some of the leading exponents of Trade Unionism deny +that the chief object of the Unions is to limit competition. Mr. Howell +considers that the "standard wage" qualification for membership is +designed in order to ensure a high standard of workmanship, and regards +the "out of work" fund merely as belonging to the insurance or +prudential side of Trade Unionism. But though it may readily be admitted +that one effect of these measures may be to maintain good workmanship +and to relieve distress, it is reasonable to regard the most important +result actually attained as being the object chiefly sought. It is fair +to suppose, therefore, that while Unionists may not be indifferent to +the honour of their craft, their principal object is to strengthen their +economic position. At any rate, whatever the intention of Trade Unions +may be, the principal effect of their regulations is to limit the +effective supply of competing labour in their respective branches of +industry. + +§ 5. Can Low-skilled Workers successfully combine?--Now the question +which concerns our inquiry may be stated thus. Supposing that the +workers in "sweating" industries were able to combine, would they be +able to secure themselves against outside competition as the skilled +worker does? Will their combination practically increase the difficulty +in replacing them by outsiders? Now it will be evident that the +unskilled or low-skilled workers cannot depend upon the methods which +are adopted by Unions of skilled workers, to limit the number of +competitors for work. A test of physical fitness, such as was recently +proposed as a qualification for admission to the Dock-labourers Union, +will not, unless raised far above the average fitness of present +members, limit the number of applicants to anything like the same extent +as the test of workmanship in skilled industries. Neither could rules of +apprenticeship act where the special skill required was very small. Nor +again is it easy to see how funds raised by the contribution of the +poorest classes of workers, could suffice to support unemployed members +when temporarily "out of work," or to buy off the active competition of +outsiders, or "black-legs," to use the term in vogue. The constant +influx of unskilled labour from the rural districts and from abroad, +swollen by the numbers of skilled workmen whose skill has been robbed of +its value by machinery, keeps a large continual margin of unemployed, +able and willing to undertake any kind of unskilled or low-skilled +labour, which will provide a minimum subsistence wage. The very success +which attends the efforts of skilled workers to limit the effective +supply of their labour by making it more difficult for unskilled workers +to enter their ranks, increases the competition for low-skilled work, +and makes effective combination among low-skilled workers more +difficult. Though we may not be inclined to agree with Prof. Jevons, +that "it is quite impossible for Trade Unions in general to effect any +permanent increase of wages," there is much force in his conclusion, +that "every rise of wages which one body secures by mere exclusive +combination, represents a certain extent, sometimes a large extent, of +injury to the other bodies of workmen."[31] In so far as Unions of +skilled workers limit their numbers, they increase the number of +competitors for unskilled work; and since wages cannot rise when the +supply of labour obtainable at the present rate exceeds the demand, +their action helps to maintain that "bare subsistence wage," which forms +a leading feature in "sweating." + +Are we then to regard Unions of low-skilled workers as quite impotent so +long as they are beset by the competition of innumerable outsiders? Can +combination contribute nothing to a solution of the sweating problem? +There are two ways in which close combination might seem to avail low- +skilled workers in their endeavours to secure better industrial +conditions. + +In the first place, close united action of a large body of men engaged +in any employment gives them, as we saw, a certain power dependent on +the inconvenience and expense they can cause to their employers by a +sudden withdrawal. This power is, of course, in part measured by the +number of unemployed easily procurable to take their place. But granted +the largest possible margin of unemployed, there will always be a +certain difficulty and loss in replacing a united body of employés by a +body of outsiders, though the working capacity of each new-comer may be +equal to that of each member of the former gang. This power belonging +inherently to those in possession, and largely dependent for its +practical utility on close unity of action, may always be worked by a +trade organization to push the interests of its members independently of +the supply of free outside labour, and used by slow degrees may be made +a means of gaining piece by piece a considerable industrial gain. Care +must, however, be taken, never to press for a larger gain than is +covered by the difficulty of replacing the body of present employés by +outside labour. Miscalculations of the amount of this inherent power of +Union are the chief causes of "lock-outs" and failures in strikes. + +Another weapon in the hands of unskilled combination, less calculable in +its effectiveness, is the force of public opinion aided by "picketing," +and the other machinery of persuasion or coercion used to prevent the +effective competition of "free" labour. In certain crises, as for +example in the Dock strike of 1889, these forces may operate so +powerfully as to strictly limit the supply of labour, and to shut out +the competition of unemployed. There can be no reason to doubt that if +public authority had not winked at illegal coercion of outside labour, +and public opinion touched by sentiment condoned the winking, the Dock +strike would have failed as other movements of low-skilled labour have +generally failed. The success of the Dockers is no measure of the power +of combination among low-skilled labourers. It is possible, however, +that a growing sense of comradeship, aided by a general recognition of +the justice of a claim, may be generally relied upon to furnish a +certain force which shall restrict the competition of free labour in +critical junctures of the labour movement. If public opinion, especially +among workmen, becomes strongly set in favour of letting capital and +labour "fight it out" in cases of trade disputes, and vigorously resents +all interference of outsiders offering to replace the contending +labourers, it seems likely that this practical elimination of outside +competition may enable combinations of unskilled workmen to materially +improve their condition in spite of the existence of a large supply of +outside labour able to replace them. + +§ 6. Can Trade Unionism crush out "Sweating"?--But here again it must be +recognized that each movement of public opinion in this direction is +really making for the establishment of new trade monopolies, which tend +to aggravate the condition of free unemployed labour. Unions of low- +skilled labour can only be successful at the expanse of outsiders, who +will find it increasingly difficult to get employment. The success of +combinations of low-skilled workers will close one by one every avenue +of regular employment to the unemployed, who will tend to become even +more nomadic and predatory in their habits, and more irregular and +miserable in their lives, affording continually a larger field of +operation for the small "sweater," and other forms of "arrested +development" in commerce. It must always be an absorbing interest to a +Trades Union to maintain the industrial welfare of its members by +preventing what it must regard as an "over-supply" of labour. No +organization of labour can effect very much unless it takes measures to +restrict the competition of "free labour"; each Union, by limiting the +number of competitors for its work, increases the competition in trades +not similarly protected. So with every growth of Trade Unionism the +pressure on unprotected bodies of workmen grows greater. Thus it would +seem that while organization of labour may become a real remedy for +"sweating" in any industry to which it is vigorously applied, it cannot +be relied upon ever entirely to crash out the evil. It can only drive it +into a smaller compass, where its intenser character may secure for it +that close and vigorous public attention which, in spite of recent +revelations, has not been yet secured, and compel society to clearly +face the problem of a residue of labour-power which is rotting in the +miserable and degraded bodies of its owners, because all the material on +which it might be productively employed is otherwise engaged. + +§ 7. Public Workshops.--Those who are most active in the spread of +Unionism among the low-skilled branches of industry, are quite aware +that their action, by fencing off section after section of labour from +the fierce competition of outsiders, is rendering the struggle more +intense for the unprotected residuum. So far as they indulge any wider +view than the interest of their special trades, it may be taken that +they design to force the public to provide in some way for the +unemployed or casually employed workers, against whom the gates of each +Union have been successively closed. There can be little doubt that if +Unionism is able to establish itself firmly among the low-skilled +industries, we shall find this margin of unemployed low-skilled labour +growing larger and more desperate, in proportion to the growing +difficulty of finding occupation. Trade Union leaders have boldly avowed +that they will thus compel the State to recognize the "right to +employment," and to provide that employment by means of national or +municipal workshops. With questions of abstract "right" we are not here +concerned, but it may be well to indicate certain economic difficulties +involved in the establishment of public works as a solution of the +"unemployed" problem. Since the "unemployed" will, under the closer +restrictions of growing Trade Unionism, consist more and more of low- +skilled labourers, the public works on which they must be employed must +be branches of low-skilled labour. But the Unions of low-skilled workers +will have been organized with the view of monopolizing all the low- +skilled work which the present needs of the community require to be +done. How then will the public provide low-skilled work for the +unemployed? One of two courses seems inevitable. Either the public must +employ them in work similar to that which is being done by Union men for +private firms, in which case they will enter into competition with the +latter, and either undersell them in the market and take their trade, or +by increasing the aggregate supply of the produce, bring down the price, +and with it the wage of the Union men. Or else if they are not to +compete with the labour of Union men, they must be employed in relief +works, undertaken not to satisfy a public need or to produce a commodity +with a market value, but in order that those employed may, by a wholly +or partially idle expenditure of effort, appear to be contributing to +their own support, whereas they are really just as much recipients of +public charity as if they were kept in actual idleness. This is the +dilemma which has to be faced by advocates of public workshops. Nor can +it be eluded by supposing that the public may use the unemployed labour +either in producing some new utility for the public use, such as +improved street-paving, or a municipal hot-water supply. For if such +undertakings are of a character which a private company would regard as +commercially sound, they ought to be, and will be, undertaken by wise +public bodies independently of the consideration of providing work for +unemployed. If they are not such as would be considered commercially +sound, then in so far as they fall short of commercial soundness, they +will be "charity" pure and simple, given as relief is now given to able- +bodied paupers, on condition of an expenditure of mere effort which is +not a commercial _quid pro quo_. + +If the State or municipality were permitted to conduct business on +ordinary commercial principles, it might indeed be expected to seize the +opportunity afforded by a large supply of unemployed labour, to +undertake new public works at a lower cost than usual. But to take this +advantage of the cheapness of labour is held to be "sweating." Public +bodies are called upon to disregard the rise and fall of market wages, +and to pay "a fair wage," which practically means a wage which is the +same whether labour is plentiful or scarce. This refusal to permit the +ordinary commercial inducement to operate in the case of public bodies, +cuts off what might be regarded as a natural check to the accumulation +of unemployed labour. If public bodies are to employ more labour, when +labour is excessive, and pay a wage which shall be above the market +price, it must be clearly understood that the portion of the wages which +represents the "uncommercial" aspect of the contract is just as much +public charity as the half-crown paid as out-door relief under the +present Poor Law. Lastly, the establishment of State or municipal +workshops for the "unemployed" has no economic connection with the +"socialist" policy, by which the State or municipality should assume +control and management of railways, mines, gas-works, tramways, and +other works into which the element of monopoly enters. Such a +"socialist" policy, if carried out, would not directly afford any relief +to the unemployed. For, in the first place, the labour employed in these +new public departments would be chiefly skilled, and not unskilled. +Moreover, so far as the condition of the "workers" was concerned, the +nationalization, or municipalization of these works would not imply any +increased demand for labour, but merely the transfer of a number of +employés from private to the public service. The public control of +departments of industry, which are now in private hands, would not, so +long as it was conducted on a commercial footing in the public interest, +furnish either direct, or indirect, relief to "the unemployed." A +reduction of hours of labour in the case of workers transferred to the +public service, might afford employment to an increased number of +skilled labourers, and might indirectly operate in reducing the number +of unemployed. But such reduction of hours of labour, like the payment +of wages above the market rate, forms no essential part of a "socialist" +policy, but is rather a charitable appendage. + +§ 8. State Business on uncommercial terms.--It cannot be too clearly +recognized that the payment by a public body of wages which are above +the market price, the payment of pensions, the reduction of hours of +labour, and any other advantages freely conferred, which place public +servants in a better position than private servants, stand on precisely +the same economic footing with the establishment of public workshops for +the relief of the unemployed, in which wages are paid for work which is +deficient in commercial value. In each case the work done has some +value, unless the unemployed are used to dig holes in the ground and +fill them up again; in each case the wages paid for that work are in +excess of the market rate. + +If it were established as a general rule, that public bodies should +always add a "bonus" to the market wage of their employés to bring it up +to "fairness," and take off a portion of the usual "working-day" to +bring it down to "fairness," it would follow quite consistently that a +wage equal to, or exceeding, the minimum market rate might be paid to +"unemployed" for work, the value of which would be somewhat less than +that produced by the lowest class of "employed" workers. The policy +throughout is one and the same, and is based upon a repudiation of +competition as a test of the value of labour, and the substitution of +some other standard derived from moral or prudential considerations. + +So far as the State or Municipality chooses to regulate by an +"uncommercial" or moral standard the conditions of labour for the +limited number of employés required for the services which are a public +monopoly, it is able to do so, provided the public is willing to pay the +price. There is much to be said in favour of such a course, for the +public example might lend invaluable aid in forming a strong public +opinion which should successfully demand decent conditions of life and +work, for the whole body of workers. But if the State or Municipality +were to undertake to provide work and wages for an indefinite number of +men who failed to obtain work in the competition market, the effect +would be to offer a premium upon "unemployment." Thus, it would appear +that as fast as the public works drew off the unemployed, so fast would +men leave the low-paid, irregular occupations, and by placing themselves +in a state of "unemployment" qualify for public service. There would of +course be a natural check to this flow. As the State drained off all +surplus labour, the market value of labour would rise, greater +regularity of employment would be secured, and the general improvement +of industrial conditions would check the tendency of workers to flow +towards the public workshops. This consideration has led many of the +leaders of labour movements to favour a scheme of public workshops, +which would practically mean that the State or Municipality undertook to +limit the supply of labour in the open market, by providing for any +surplus which might exist, at the public expense. The effect of such a +policy would be of course to enormously strengthen the effective power +of labour-organizations. But while the advocates of public workshops are +fully alive to these economic effects, they have not worked out with +equal clearness the question relating to the disposal of the labour in +public workshops. How can the "protected" labour of the public workshops +be so occupied, that its produce may not, by direct or indirect +competition with the produce of outside labour, outweigh the advantage +conferred upon the latter by the removal of the "unemployed" from the +field of competition, in digging holes and filling them up again, or +other useless work, the problem is a simple one. In that case the State +provides maintenance for the weaker members in order that their presence +as competitors for work may not injure the stronger members. But if the +public workmen produce anything of value, by what means can it be kept +from competing with and underselling the goods produced under ordinary +commercial conditions? Without alleging that the difficulties involved +in these questions are necessarily fatal to all schemes of public works, +we maintain that they require to be clearly faced. + +Even if it be held that public workshops can furnish no economic remedy +for poverty, this judgment would of course be by no means conclusive +against public emergency works undertaken on charitable grounds to tide +over a crisis. Every form of charity, public or private, discriminate or +indiscriminate, entails some evil consequences. But this consideration +is not final. A charitable palliative is defensible and useful when the +net advantages outweigh the net disadvantages. This might seem self- +evident, but it requires to be stated, because there are not wanting +individuals and societies which imagine they have disposed of the claim +of charitable remedies by pointing out the evil consequences they +entail. It is evident that circumstances might arise which would compel +the wisest and steadiest Government to adopt public relief works as a +temporary expedient for meeting exceptional distress. + +§ 9. Restriction of Foreign Emigration.--Two further proposals for +keeping down the supply of low-skilled labour deserve notice, and the +more so because they are forcing their way rapidly toward the arena of +practical politics. + +The first is the question of an Alien law limiting or prohibiting the +migration of foreign labourers into England. The power of the German, +Polish, or Russian Jew, accustomed to a lower standard of life, to +undersell the English worker in the English labour market, has already +been admitted as a cause of "sweating" in several city industries. The +importance of this factor in the problem of poverty is, however, a much +disputed point. To some extent these foreign labourers are said to make +new industries, and not to enter into direct and disastrous competition +with native workers. In most cases, however, direct competition between +foreign and native workers does exist, and, as we see, the comparatively +small number of the foreign immigrants compared with the aggregate of +native workers, is no true criterion of the harm their competition does +to low-waged workers. Whether this country will find it wise to reverse +its national policy of free admission to outside labour, it is not easy +to predict. The point should not be misunderstood. Free admission of +cheap foreign labour must be admitted _primâ facie_ to be conducive to +the greatest production of wealth in this country. Those who seek to +restrict or prohibit this admission, do so on the ground that the damage +inflicted upon that class of workers, brought directly or indirectly +into competition for employment with these foreigners, overbalances the +net gain in the aggregate of national wealth. It is this consideration +which has chiefly operated in inducing the United States, Canada, and +Australia to prohibit the admission of Chinese or Coolie labour, and to +place close restrictions upon cheap European labour. Sir Charles Dilke, +in a general summary of colonial policy on this matter, writes, +"Colonial labour seeks protection by legislative means, not only against +the cheap labour of the dark-skinned or of the yellow man, but also +against white paupers, and against the artificial supply of labour by +State-aided white immigration. Most of the countries of the world, +indeed, have laws against the admission of destitute aliens, and the +United Kingdom is in practice almost the only exception."[32] + +The greater contrast between the customary standard of living of the +immigrants and that of the native workers with whom they would compete, +has naturally made the question seem a more vital one for our colonies, +and for the United States than for us. There can, however, be little +doubt that if a few shiploads of Chinese labourers were emptied into the +wharves of East London, whatever Government chanced to be in power would +be compelled to adopt immediate measures of restraint on immigration, so +terrible would the effect be upon the low class European labourers in +our midst. Whether any such Alien legislation will be adopted to meet +the inroad of continental labour depends in large measure on the course +of continental history. It is, however, not improbable that if the +organization of the workers proceeds along the present lines, when they +come to realize their ability to use political power for securing their +industrial position, they may decide that it will be advisable to limit +the supply of labour by excluding foreigners. Those, however, who are +already prepared to adopt such a step, do not always realize as clearly +as they should, that the exclusion of cheap foreigners from our labour- +market will be in all probability accompanied by an exclusion from our +markets of the cheap goods made by these foreigners in their own +country, the admission of which, while it increases the aggregate wealth +of England, inflicts a direct injury on those particular workers, the +demand for whose labour is diminished by the introduction of foreign +goods which can undersell them. If an Alien law is passed, it will bring +both logically and historically in its wake such protective measures as +will constitute a reversal of our present Free Trade policy. Whether +such new and hazardous changes in our national policy are likely to be +made, depends in large measure upon the success of other schemes for +treating the condition of over-supply of low-skilled labour. If no +relief is found from these, it seems not unlikely that a democratic +government will some day decide that such artificial prohibition of +foreign labour, and the foreign goods which compete with the goods +produced by low-skilled English labour, will benefit the low-skilled +workers in their capacity as wage-earners, more than the consequent rise +of prices will injure them in their capacity as consumers. + +§ 10. The "Eight Hours Day" Argument.--The last proposal which deserves +attention, is that which seeks to shorten the average working-day. The +attempt to secure by legislation or by combination an eight hours day, +or its equivalent, might seem to affect the "sweating system" most +directly, as a restriction on excessive hours of labour. But so far as +it claims to strike a blow at the industrial oppression of low-skilled +labour, its importance will depend upon its effect on the demand and +supply of that low-skilled labour. The result which the advocates of an +eight hours day claim for their measure, may be stated as follows-- + +Assuming that low-skilled workers now work on an average twelve hours a +day, a compulsory reduction to eight hours would mean that one-third +more men were required to perform the same amount of work, leaving out +for convenience the question whether an eight hours day would be more +productive than the first eight hours of a twelve hours day. Since the +same quantity of low-skilled work would require to be done, employment +would now be provided for a large number of those who would otherwise +have been unemployed. In fact, if the shorter day is accompanied by an +absolute prohibition of over-time, it seems possible that work would +thus be found for the whole army of "unemployed." Nor is this all. The +existence of a constant standing "pool" of unemployed was, as we saw, +responsible for keeping the wages of low-skilled labour down to a bare +subsistence wage. Let this "pool" be once drained off, wages will +rapidly rise, since the combined action of workers will no longer be +able to be defeated by the eagerness of "outsiders" to take their work +and wages. Thus an eight hours day would at once solve the problem of +the "work-less," and raise the wages of low-skilled labour. The effect +would be precisely the same as if the number of competitors for work +were suddenly reduced. For the price of labour, as of all else, depends +on the relation between the demand for it and the supply, and the price +will rise if the demand is increased while the supply remains the same, +or if the supply is decreased while the demand remains the same. A +compulsory eight hours day would practically mean a shrinkage in the +supply of labour offered in the market, and the first effect would +indisputably be a rise in the price of labour. To reduce by one-third at +a single blow the amount of labour put forth in a day by any class of +workers, is precisely equivalent to a sudden removal of one-third of +these workers from the field of labour. We know from history that the +result of a disastrous epidemic, like the Black Plague, has been to +raise the wages and improve the general condition of the labourer even +in the teeth of legal attempts to keep down wages. The advocates of an +Eight Hours Act assert that the same effect would follow from that +measure. + +Setting aside as foreign to our discussion all consideration of the +difficulties in passing and enforcing an Eight Hours Act, or in applying +it to certain industries, the following economic objection is raised by +opponents to the eight hours movement-- + +The larger aggregate of wages, which must be paid under an eight hours +day, will increase the expanses of production in each industry. For the +increased wage cannot in general be obtained by reducing profits, for +any such reduction will drive freshly-accumulated capital more and more +to seek foreign investments, and managing ability will in some measure +tend to follow it. The higher aggregate of wages must therefore be +represented in a general rise of prices. This rise of prices will have +two effects. In the first place it will tend to largely negative the +higher aggregate of money wages. Or if organized labour, free from the +competition of unemployed, is able to maintain a higher rate of real +wages, the general rise in prices will enable foreign producers to +undersell us in our own market (unless we adopted a Protective Tariff), +and will disable us from competing in foreign markets. This constitutes +the pith of the economic objection raised against an eight hours day. +The eight hours advocates meet the objection in the following ways-- +First, they deny that prices will rise in consequence of the increased +aggregate of wages. A reduction in interest and in wages of +superintendence will take place in many branches of industry, without +any appreciable tendency to diminish the application of capital, or to +drive it out of the country. + +Secondly, the result of an increased expenditure in wages will be to +crush the small factories and workshops, which are the backbone of the +sweating System, and to assist the industrial evolution which makes in +favour of large well-organized factories working with the newest +machinery. + +Thirdly, it is claimed that we shall not be ousted either from our own +or from foreign markets by foreign competition, because the eight hours +movement in England must be regarded as part of a larger industrial +movement which is proceeding _pari passu_ among the competing nations. +If the wages of German, French, and American workers are advancing at +the same rate as English wages, or if other industrial restrictions in +those countries are otherwise increasing the expenses of production at a +corresponding rate, the argument of foreign competition falls to the +ground. + +These leading arguments of the advocates of an eight hours day are of +very unequal value. The first argument is really based upon the +supposition that the increased aggregate of wages can be "got out of +capital" by lowering interest and profits. The general validity of this +argument may be questioned. In its application a distinction must be +drawn between those businesses which by means of the possession of some +monopoly, patent, or other trade advantage are screened from the full +force of competition, and are thus enabled to earn profits above the +average, and those businesses where the constant stress of close +competition keeps interest and profits down to the lowest point which +suffices to induce the continued application of capital and organizing +ability. In the former cases the "cost" of an Eight Hours Day might be +got out of capital, assuming an effective organization of labour, in the +latter cases it could not. + +As to the second argument, it is probable enough that the legal eight +hours day would accelerate the industrial evolution, which is enabling +the large well-equipped factory to crush out the smaller factory. As we +have seen that the worst evils of "sweating" are associated with a lower +order of industrial organization, any cause which assisted to destroy +the small workshop and the out-work system, would be a benefit. But as +the economic motive of such improved organization with increased use of +machinery, would be to save human labour, it is doubtful whether a +quickening of this process would not act as a continual feeder to the +band of unemployed, by enabling employers to dispense with the services +of even this or that body of workers whose work is taken over by brute +machinery. + +The net value of these two eight hours arguments is doubtful. The real +weight of the discussion seems to rest on the third. + +If the movement for improving the industrial condition of the working +classes does proceed as rapidly in other industrial countries as in our +own, we shall have nothing to fear from foreign competition, since +expenses of production and prices will be rising equally among our own. +If there is no such equal progress in other nations, then the industrial +gain sought for the working classes of this country by a shorter day +cannot be obtained, though any special class or classes of workers may +be relieved of excessive toil at the expense of the community as a +whole. Government employés, and that large number of workers who cannot +be brought into direct competition with foreign labour, can receive the +same wages for shorter hours, provided the public is willing to pay a +higher price for their protected labour. + +In conclusion, it may be well to add that the economic difficulties +which beset this question cannot be lightly set aside by an assertion +that the same difficulties were raised by economists against earlier +factory legislation, and that experience has shown that they may be +safely disregarded. It is impossible to say how far the introduction of +humane restrictions upon the exploitation of cheap human labour has +affected the aggregate production of wealth in England. It has not +prevented the growth of our trade, but very possibly it has checked the +rate of growth. If the mere accumulation of material wealth, regardless +alike of the mode of production or of the distribution, be regarded as +the industrial goal, it is quite conceivable that a policy of utter +_laissez faire_ might be the best means of securing that end. Although +healthy and happy workers are more efficient than the half-starved and +wholly degraded beings who slaved in the uninspected factories and mines +during the earlier period of the factory system, and still slave in the +sweater's den, it may still be to the interest of employers to pay +starvation wages for relatively inefficient work, rather than pay high +wages for a shorter day's work to more efficient workers. It is to the +capitalist a mere sum in arithmetic; and we cannot predict that the +result will always turn in favour of humanity and justice. + +At the same time, even if it is uncertain whether a shorter working day +could be secured without a fall of wages, it is still open to advocates +of a shorter working day to urge that it is worth while to purchase +leisure at such a price. If a shorter working day could cure or abate +the evil of "the unemployed," and help to raise the industrial condition +of the low-skilled workers, the community might well afford to pay the +cost. + + + + +Chapter VII. + +Over-Supply of Low-Skilled Labour. + + + +§ 1. Restatement of the "Low-skilled Labour" Question.--Our inquiry into +Factory Legislation and Trade Unionism as cures for sweating have served +to emphasize the economic nature of the disease, the over-supply of low- +skilled labour. Factory legislation, while it may abate many of the +symptoms of the disease, cannot directly touch the centre of the malady, +low wages, though by securing publicity it may be of indirect assistance +in preventing the payment of wages which public opinion would condemn as +insufficient for a decent livelihood. Trade Unionism as an effective +agent in securing the industrial welfare of workers, is seen to rest +upon the basis of restriction of labour supply, and its total +effectiveness is limited by the fact that each exercise of this +restriction in the interest of a class of workers weakens the position +of the unemployed who are seeking work. The industrial degradation of +the "sweated" workers arises from the fact that they are working +surrounded by a pool of unemployed or superfluous supply of labour. So +long as there remains this standing pool of excessive labour, it is +difficult to see how the wages of low unskilled workers can be +materially raised. The most intelligent social reformers are naturally +directing their attention to the question, how to drain these lowlands +of labour of the superfluous supply, or in other words to keep down the +population of the low-skilled working class. Among the many population +drainage schemes, the following deserve close attention-- + +§ 2. Checks on growth of population.--We need not discuss in its wider +aspect the question whether our population tends to increase faster than +the means of subsistence. Disciples of Malthus, who urge the growing +pressure of population on the food supply, are sometimes told that so +far as this argument applies to England, the growth of wealth is faster +than the growth of population, and that as modern facilities for +exchange enable any quantity of this wealth to be transferred into food +and other necessaries, their alarm is groundless. Now these rival +contentions have no concern for us. We are interested not in the +pressure of the whole population upon an actual or possible food supply, +but with the pressure of a certain portion of that population upon a +relatively fixed supply of work. It is approximately true to say that at +any given time there exists a certain quality of unskilled or low- +skilled work to be done. If there are at hand just enough workers to do +it, the wages will be sufficiently high to allow a decent standard of +living. If, on the other hand, there are present more than enough +workers willing to do the work, a number of them must remain without +work and wages, while those who are employed get the lowest wages they +will consent to take. Thus it will seem of prime importance to keep down +the population of low-skilled workers to the point which leaves a merely +nominal margin of superfluous labour. The Malthusian question has in its +modern practical aspect narrowed down to this. The working classes by +abstinence from early or improvident marriages, or by the exercise of +moral restraints after marriage can, it is urged, check that tendency of +the working population to outgrow the increase of the work for which +they compete. There can be no doubt that the more intelligent classes of +skilled labourers have already profited by this consideration, and as +education and intelligence are more widely diffused, we may expect these +prudential checks on "over-population" will operate with increased +effect among the whole body of workers. But precisely because these +checks are moral and reasonable, they must be of very slow acceptance +among that class whose industrial condition forms a stubborn barrier to +moral and intellectual progress. Those who would gain most by the +practice of prudential checks, are least capable of practising them. The +ordinary "labourer" earns full wages as soon as he attains manhood's +strength; he is as able to support a wife and family at twenty as he +will ever be; indeed he is more so, for while he is young his work is +more regular, and less liable to interruption by ill-health. The +reflection that an early marriage means the probability of a larger +family, and that a large family helps to keep wages low, cannot at +present be expected to make a deep impression upon the young unskilled +labourer. The value of restraint after marriage could probably be +inculcated with more effect, because it would appeal more intelligibly +to the immediate interest of the labourer. But it is to the growing +education and intelligence of women, rather than to that of men, that we +must look for a recognition of the importance of restraint on early +marriages and large families. + +§ 3. The "Emigration" Remedy.--The most direct and obvious drainage +scheme is by emigration. If there are more workers than there is work +for them to do, why not remove those who are not wanted, and put them +where there is work to do? The thing sounds very simple, but the +simplicity is somewhat delusive. The old _laissez faire_ political +economist would ask, "Why, since labour is always moving towards the +place where it can be most profitably employed, is it necessary to do +anything but let it flow? Why should the State or philanthropic people +busy themselves about the matter? If labour is not wanted in one place, +and is wanted in another, it will and must leave the one place and go to +the other. If you assist the process by compulsion, or by any artificial +aid, you may be removing the wrong people, or you may be removing them +to the wrong place." Now the reply to the main _laissez faire_ position +is conclusive. Just as water, though always tending to find its own +level, does not actually find it when it is dammed up in some pool by +natural or artificial earthworks, so labour stored in the persons of +poor and ignorant men and women is not in fact free to seek the place of +most profitable employment. The highlands of labour are drained by this +natural flow; even the strain of competition in skilled hand-labour +finds sensible relief by the voluntary emigration of the more +adventurous artisans, but the poor low-skilled workers suffer here again +by reason of their poverty: no natural movement can relieve the plethora +of labour-power in low-class employments. The fluidity of low-skilled +labour seldom exceeds the power of moving from one town to a +neighbouring town, or from a country district to the nearest market +towns, or to London in search of work. If the lowlands are to be drained +at all, it must be done by an artificial system. Now all such systems +are in fact open to the mistakes mentioned above. If we look too +exclusively to the requirements of new colonies, and the opportunities +of work they present, we may be induced to remove from England a class +of men and women whose services we can ill afford to lose, and who are +not in any true sense superfluous labour. To assist sturdy and shrewd +Scotch farmers, or a body of skilled artisans thrown out of work by a +temporary trade depression, to transfer themselves and their families to +America or Australia, is a policy the net advantage of which is open to +grave doubt. Of course by removing any body of workers you make room for +others, but this fact does not make it a matter of indifference which +class is removed. On the other hand, if we look exclusively to the +interests of the whole mass of labour in England, we should probably be +led to assist the emigration of large bodies of the lowest and least +competent workers. This course, though doubtless for the advantage of +the low class labour, directly relieved, is detrimental to the interest +of the new country, which is flooded with inefficient workers, and +confers little benefit upon these workers themselves, since they are +totally incapable of making their way in a new country. The reckless +drafting off of our social failures into new lands is a criminal policy, +which has been only too rife in the State-aided emigration of the past, +and which is now rendered more and more difficult each year by the +refusal of foreign lands to receive our "wreckage." Here, then, is the +crux of emigration. The class we can best afford to lose, is the class +our colonies and foreign nations can least afford to take, and if they +consent to receive them they only assume the burden we escape. The age +of loose promiscuous pauper emigration has gone by. If we are to use +foreign emigration as a mode of relief for our congested population in +the future, it will be on condition that we select or educate our +colonists before we send them out. Whether the State or private +organizations undertake the work, our colonizing process must begin at +home. The necessity of dealing directly with our weak surplus population +of low-skilled workers is gaining more clear recognition every year, as +the reluctance to interfere with the supposed freedom of the subject +even where the subject is "unfree" is giving way before the urgency of +the situation. + +§ 4. Mr. Charles Booth's "Drainage Scheme."--The terrible examples our +history presents to us of the effects of unwise poor law administration, +rightly enjoin the strictest caution in contemplating new experiments. +But the growing recognition of the duty of the State to protect its +members who are unable to protect themselves, and to secure fair +opportunities of self-support and self-improvement, as well as the +danger of handing over their protection to the conflicting claims of +private and often misguided philanthropy, is rapidly gaining ground +against the advocates of _laissez faire_. It is beginning to be felt +that the State cannot afford to allow the right of private social +experiment on the part of charitable organizations. The relief of +destitution has for centuries been recognized as the proper business of +the State. Our present poor law practically fails to relieve the bulk of +the really destitute. Even were it successful it would be doing nothing +to prevent destitution. Since neither existing legislation nor the +forces of private charity are competent to cope with the evils of +"sweating," engendered by an excess of low-class labour, it is probable +that the pressure of democratic government will make more and more in +favour of some large new experiment of social drainage. In view of this +it may not be out of place to describe briefly two schemes proposed by +private students of the problem of poverty. + +Mr. Charles Booth, recognizing that the superfluity of cheap inefficient +labour lies at the root of the matter, suggests the removal of the most +helpless and degraded class from the strain of a struggle which is fatal +not merely to themselves, but to the class immediately above them. The +reason for this removal is given as follows-- + +"To effectually deal with the whole of class B--for the State to nurse +the helpless and incompetent as we in our own families nurse the old, +the young, and the sick, and provide for those who are not competent to +provide for themselves--may seem an impossible undertaking; but nothing +less than this will enable self-respecting labour to obtain its full +remuneration, and the nation its raised standard of life. The +difficulties, which are certainly great, do not consist in the cost. As +it is, these unfortunate people cost the community one way or another +considerably more than they contribute. I do not refer solely to the +fact that they cost the State more than they pay directly or indirectly +in taxes. I mean that altogether, ill-paid and half-starved as they are, +they consume, or waste, or have expended on them, more wealth than they +produce." + +Mr. Booth would remove the "very poor," and plant them in industrial +communities under proper government supervision. + +"Put practically, my idea is that these people should be allowed to live +as families in industrial groups, planted wherever land and building +materials were cheap; being well-housed and well-warmed, and taught, +trained, and employed from morning to night on work, indoors or out, for +themselves, or on Government account." + +The Government should provide material and tools, and having the people +entirely on its hands, get out of them what it can. Wages should be paid +at a "fair proportionate rate," so as to admit comparison of earnings of +the different communities, and of individuals. The commercial deficit +involved in the scheme should be borne by the State. This expansion of +our poor law policy, for it is nothing more, aims less at the +reformation and improvement of the class taken under its charge, than at +the relief which would be afforded to the classes who suffered from +their competition in the industrial struggle. What it amounts to is the +removal of the mass of unemployed. The difficulties involved in such a +scheme are, as Mr. Booth admits, very grave. + +The following points especially deserve attention-- + +1. Since it is not conceivable that compulsion should be brought to bear +in the selection and removal out of the ordinary industrial community of +those weaker members whose continued struggle is considered undesirable, +it is evident that the industrial colonies must be recruited out of +volunteers. It will thus become a large expansion of the present +workhouse system. The eternal dilemma of the poor law will be present +there. On the one hand, if, as seems likely, the degradation and +disgrace attaching to the workhouse is extended to the industrial +colony, it will fail to attract the more honest and deserving among the +"very poor," and to this extent will fail to relieve the struggling +workers of their competition. On the other hand, if the condition of the +"industrial colonist" is recognized as preferable to that of the +struggling free competitor, it must in some measure act as a premium +upon industrial failure, checking the output of energy and the growth of +self-reliance in the lower ranks of the working classes. No scheme for +the relief of poverty is wholly free from this difficulty; but there is +danger that the State colony of Mr. Booth would, if it were successful +as a mode of "drainage," be open to it in no ordinary degree. + +2. Closely related to this first difficulty is the fact that Mr. Booth +provides no real suggestion for a process of discrimination in the +treatment of our social failures, which shall distinguish the failure +due directly to deep-seated vice of character and habit, from the +failure due to unhappy chance or the fault of others. Difficult, almost +impossible, as such discrimination between deserving and undeserving is, +it is felt that any genuine reform of our present poor law system +demands that some attempt in this direction should be made. We must try +to distinguish curable from incurable cases, and we must try to cure the +former while we preserve society from the contamination of the latter. +The mere removal of a class of "very poor" will not suffice. + +Since however the scheme of Mr. C. Booth does not proceed beyond the +stage of a suggested outline of treatment, it is not fair or profitable +to press close criticism. It is, however, a fact of some significance +that one who has brought such close study to bear upon the problem of +poverty should arrive at the conclusion that "Thorough interference on +the part of the State with the lives of a small fraction of the +population, would tend to make it possible, ultimately, to dispense with +any Socialistic interference in the lives of all the rest."[33] + +§ 5. Proposed remedies for "Unemployment."--In discussing methods of +dealing with "the unemployed," who represent an "over-supply" of labour +at a given time, it is often found convenient to distinguish the +temporary "unemployment" due to fluctuations rising from the nature of +certain trades, and the permanent unemployment or half employment of +large numbers of the least efficient town workers. The fluctuations in +employment due to changes of season, as in the building trades, and many +branches of dock labour, or to changes of fashion, as in the silk and +"fancy" woollen trade, or to temporary changes in the field of +employment caused by a transformation of industrial processes, are +direct causes of a considerable quantity of temporary unemployment. To +these must be added the unemployment represented by the interval between +the termination of one job and the beginning of another, as in the +building trades. Lastly, the wider fluctuations of general trade seem to +impose a character of irregularity upon trade, so that the modern System +of industry will not work without some unemployed margin, some reserve +of labour. + +These irregularities and leakages seem to explain why, at any given +time, a certain considerable number of fairly efficient and willing +workmen may be out of work. It is often urged that this class of +"unemployed" must be regarded as quite distinct from the superfluity of +low-skilled and inefficient workers found in our towns, and that the two +classes present different problems for solution. The character of the +"chronic" class of unemployed makes the problem appear to be, not one of +economic readjustment, but rather of training and education. But this +appearance is deceptive. The connection between the two kinds of +"unemployment" is much closer than is supposed. The irregularity of the +"season" and "fashion" trades, the periodic spells of bad trade, are +continually engaged in degrading and deteriorating the physique, the +morale, and the industrial efficiency of the weaker members of each +trade: these weaklings are unable to maintain a steady and healthy +standard of life under economic conditions which make work and wages +irregular, and are constantly dropping out of the more skilled trades to +swell the already congested low-skilled labour market. Every period of +"depressed trade" feeds the pool of low-skilled labour from a hundred +different channels. The connection between the two classes of +"unemployed" is, therefore, a close and vital one. To drain off this +pool would, in fact, be of little permanent use unless those +irregularities of trade, which are constantly feeding it, are also +checked. + +Still less serviceable are those schemes of rescuing "the unemployed," +which, in the very work of rescue, engender an economic force whose +operation causes as much unemployment as it cures. A signal example of +this futile system of social drainage has been afforded by certain +experiments of the Salvation Army in their City Works and Farm Colony. +The original draft of the scheme contained in the volume, _In Darkest +England_, clearly recognized the advisability of keeping the bounty-fed +products of the Salvation Colonies from competition in the market with +the products of outside labour. The design was to withdraw from the +competitive labour market certain members of "the unemployed," to train +and educate them in efficient labour, and to apply this labour to +capital provided out of charitable funds: the produce of this labour was +to be consumed by the colonists themselves, who would thus become as far +as possible self-supporting; in no case was it to be thrown upon the +open market. As a matter of fact these sound, economic conditions of +social experiment have been utterly ignored. Matches, firewood, +furniture, etc. produced in the City factories have been thrown upon the +open market. The Hadleigh Farm Colony, originally designed to give a +thorough training in the arts of agriculture so as to educate its +members for the Over Sea Colony, has devoted more and more attention to +shoemaking, carpentering, and other special mechanical crafts, and less +and less to the efficient cultivation of the soil; the boots, chairs, +etc. being thrown in large quantities upon the open market. Moreover, +the fruit and vegetables raised upon the Farm have been systematically +placed upon the outside market. The result of such a line of conduct is +evident. Suppose A is a carpenter thrown out of work because there are +more carpenters than are required to turn out the current supply of +chairs and tables at a profitable price; the Salvation Army takes A in +hand, and provides him with capital upon which no interest need be paid. +A's chairs, now thrown on the market, can undersell the chairs provided +by B, C, D, his former trade competitors. Unless we suppose an increased +demand for chairs, the result is that A's chairs displace those of B in +the market, and B is thrown out of employment. Thus A, assisted by the +Salvation Army, has simply taken B's work. If the Salvation Army now +takes B in hand, it can engage him in useful work on condition that he +takes away the work of C. If match-makers are thrown out of work by +trade conditions, and the Salvation Army places them in a factory, and +sells in the open market the matches which they make, the public which +buys these matches abstains from buying the matches made by other firms, +and these firms are thus prevented from employing as much labour as they +would otherwise have done. No net increase of employment is caused by +this action of the Salvation Army, and therefore they have done nothing +towards the solution of the unemployed problem. They have provided +employment for certain known persons at the expense of throwing out of +employment certain other unknown persons. Since those who are thrown out +of work in the labour market are, on the average, inferior in character +and industry to those who are kept in work, the effect of the Salvation +Army policy is to substitute inferior for superior workers. The blind +philanthropist may perhaps be excused for not seeing beyond his nose, +and for ignoring "unseen" in favour of "seen" results. But General Booth +was advised of the sound economic conditions of his experiment, and +seemed to recognize the value of the advice. The defence of his action +sometimes takes the form of a denial that the Salvation Army undersells +outside produce in the market. Salvation matches are sold, it is said, +rather above than below the ordinary price of matches. If this be true, +it affords no answer to the objection raised above. The Salvation +matches are bought by persons who would have bought other matches if +they had not bought these, and if they choose to pay 3d. for Salvation +matches instead of 2½d. for others, the effect of this action is still +to take away employment from the 2½d. firm and give it to the Salvation +firm. Indeed, it might be urged that a larger amount of unemployment is +caused in this case, for persons who now pay 3d. for matches which they +formerly bought for 2½d., will diminish their expenditure upon other +commodities, and the result will be to diminish employment in those +industries engaged in supplying these commodities. Here is another +"unseen" result of fallacious philanthropy. + +The inevitable result of the Salvation Army placing goods in the open +market is to increase the supply relatively to the demand; in order that +the larger supply may be sold prices must fall, and it makes no +difference whether or no the Salvation Army takes the lead in reducing +the price. If the fall of price enables the whole of the increased +supply to be taken off at the lower price, then an increase of +employment has been obtained in this trade, though, in this case, it +should be remembered that in all probability the lower level of prices +means a reduction of wages in the outside labour market. If the +increased supply is not taken off at the lower prices, then the +Salvation goods can only be sold on condition that some others remain +unsold, employment of Salvationists thus displacing employment of other +workers. The roundabout nature of much of this competition does not +impair one whit the inevitability of this result. + +This objection is applicable not only to the method of the Salvation +Army, but to many other industrial experiments conducted on a +philanthropic basis. Directly or indirectly bounty-fed labour is brought +into competition with self-supporting labour to the detriment of the +latter. It is sometimes sought to evade the difficulty by confining the +produce which the assisted labour puts upon the open market to classes +of articles which are not for the most part produced in this country, +but which are largely imported from abroad. It is urged that although +shoes and furniture and matches ought not to be produced by assisted +labour for the outside market, it is permissible for an agricultural +colony to replace by home products the large imports in the shape of +cheese, fruit, bacon, poultry, etc., which we now receive from abroad. +Those who maintain this position commonly fail to take into +consideration the exports which go out from this country to pay for +these imports. If this export trade is diminished the trades engaged in +manufacturing the exported goods will suffer, and labour employed in +these trades may be thrown out of employment. This objection may be met +by showing that the goods formerly exported, or an equivalent quantity +of other goods, will be demanded for the increased consumption of the +labourers in the agricultural colony. This is a valid answer if the home +consumption rises sufficiently to absorb the goods formerly exported to +pay for agricultural imports. But even where this just balance is +maintained, allowance must be made for some disturbance of established +trades owing to the fact that the new demand created at home will +probably be for different classes of articles from those which formed +the exports now displaced. The safest use of assisted labour, where the +products are designed for the open market, is in the production of +articles for which there is a steadily growing demand within this +country. Even in this case the utmost care should be exercised to +prevent the products of assisted labour from so depressing prices as to +injure the wages of outside labour engaged in similar productions. + +Since the existence of an unemployed class who are unemployed because +they are unable, not because they are unwilling, to get work, is proof +of an insufficiency of employment, it is apparent that nothing is of +real assistance which does not increase the net amount of employment. +Since the amount of employment is determined by, and varies with, the +consumption of the community, the only sure method of increasing the +amount of employment is by raising the standard of consumption for the +community. Where, as is common in times of trade depression, +unemployment of labour is attended by unemployment of capital, this +joint excess of the two requisites of production is only to be explained +by the low standard of consumption of the community. Since the working- +classes form a vast majority of the community, and their standard of +consumption is low compared with that of the upper classes, it is to a +progressive standard of comfort among the workers that we must look for +a guarantee of increasing employment. It may be urged that the luxurious +expenditure of the rich provides as much employment as the more +necessary expenditure of the poor. But, setting aside all considerations +of the inutility or noxious character of luxury, there is one vital +difference between the employment afforded in the two cases. The demand +for luxuries is essentially capricious and irregular, and this +irregularity must always be reflected in the employment of the trades +which supply them. On the other hand, a general rise in the standard of +comfort of the workers creates an increased demand of a steady and +habitual kind, the new elements of consumption belonging to the order of +necessaries or primary comforts become ingrained in the habits of large +classes of consumers, and the employment they afford is regular and +reliable. When this simple principle is once clearly grasped by social +reformers, it will enable them to see that the only effective remedy for +unemployment lies in a general policy of social and economic reform, +which aims at placing a larger and larger proportion of the "consuming +power" of the community in the hands of those who, having received it as +the earnings of their effort, will learn to use it in building up a +higher standard of wholesome consumption. + + + + +Chapter VIII. + +The Industrial Condition of Women-Workers. + + + +§ 1. The Number of Women engaged in Industrial Work.--The evils of +"sweating" press more heavily on women workers than on men. It is not +merely that women as "the weaker sex" suffer more under the same burden, +but that their industrial burden is absolutely heavier than that of men. +The causes and the meaning of this demand a special treatment. + +The census returns for 1901 showed that out of 4,171,751 females engaged +in occupations about 40½ per cent. were in domestic or other service, +38½ per cent. in manufactures, 7 per cent. in commerce, chiefly as shop- +assistants, 4 per cent. in teaching, 3 per cent. in hotels, boarding- +houses, etc., and 7 per cent. in other occupations. + +The following table gives the groups of occupations in which more +females are employed than males:-- + + Occupational Groups Males Females + Sick nurses, midwives, etc. 1,092 67,269 + Teaching 61,897 172,873 + Domestic service 124,263 1,690,686 + Bookbinding: paper and stationery manufactures 42,644 64,210 + Textile manufactures 492,175 663,222 + Dress manufactures 336,186 689,956 + -------------------- + 1,058,257 3,348,216 + All other occupations 9,098,717 823,535 + -------------------- + All occupations 10,156,974 4,171,751 + +The manufactures in which women have been gaining upon men are the +textile and clothing trades in almost all branches, tobacco, printing, +stationery, brushes, india-rubber, and foods. + +§ 2. Women's Wages.--Turning now to women engaged in city industries, +let us gauge their industrial condition by the tests of wages, hours of +labour, sanitary conditions, regularity of employment + +The following is a list of the average wages paid for different kinds of +factory work in London. + + Artificial flowers 8 to 12 shillings. + Bookbinding 9 " 11 " + Boxmaking 8 " 16 " + Brushes 8 " 15 " + Caps 8 " 16 " + Collars 11 " 15 " + Confectionery 8 " 14 " + Corsets 8 " 16 " + Fur-sewing 7 " 14 " + Fur-sewing in winter 4 " 7 " + Matches 8 " 13 " + Rope 8 " 11 " + Umbrellas 10 " 18 " + +These are ordinary wages. Very good or industrious workers are said to +get in some cases 20 per cent, more; unskilful or idle workers less. + +It must be borne in mind that these sums represent a full week's work. +The importance of this qualification will appear presently. + +It is obvious at a glance that these wages are for the most part +considerably lower than those paid for any regular form of male labour. +But there is another fact which adds to the significance of this. +Skilled labour among men is much more highly paid than unskilled labour. +Among women's industries this is not the case to any great extent. +Skilled work like that of book-folding is paid no higher than the almost +unskilled work of the jam or match girl. This is said to be due partly +to the fact that the lower kinds of work are done by girls and women who +are compelled to support themselves, while the higher class is done by +women partly kept by husband or father, partly to the pride taken in the +performance of more skilled work, and the reluctance to mingle with +women belonging to a lower stratum of society, which prevents the wages +of the various kinds of work from being determined by free economic +competition. A bookbinding girl would sooner take lower wages than +engage in an inferior class of work which happened to rise in the market +price of its labour. But whatever the causes may be, the fact cannot be +disputed that the lower rates of wages extend over a larger proportion +of women workers. + +Again, the wages quoted above refer to workers in factories. But only +three women's trades of any importance are managed entirely in +factories, the cigar, confectionery, and match-making[34] trades. In +many of the other trades part of the work is done in factories, part is +let out to sweaters, or to women who work at their own homes. Many of +the clothing trades come under this class, as for example, the tie- +making, trimmings, corset-making trades. The employers in these trades +are able to play the out-doors workers against the indoors workers, so +as to keep down the wages of both to a minimum. The "corset" manufacture +is fairly representative of these trades. The following list gives the +per-centage of workers receiving various sums for "indoors" i.e. +"factory" work. + + s. s. s. s. s. s. s. s. s. s. + Under 4 3--6 8--10 10--12 12--15 Over 15 + 2.94 p.c. 50 p.c. 2.94 p.c. 5.9 p.c. 14.7 p.c. 22.52 p.c. + +Outdoor workers earn from 6s. to 12s., but where more than 10s. is +earned, the woman is generally assisted by one or more of her children. +Generally speaking, the most miserably paid work is that in trades where +most of the work is done by out-door workers. Such is the lowest stratum +of the "vest and trousers" trade, where English women undertake work +rejected by the lowest class of Jew workers, and the shirt-making trade, +which, in the opinion of the Lords' Committee, "does not appear to +afford subsistence to those who have no other employment." In these and +other trades of the lowest order, 6s. a week is a tolerably common wage +for a work-woman of fair skill to net after a hard week's work, and +there are many individual cases where the wage falls far below this +mark. + +It is true that the work for which the lowest wages are paid is often +that of learners, or of inefficient work-women; but while this may be a +satisfactory "economic" explanation, it does not mitigate the terrible +significance of the fact that many women are dependent on such work as +their sole opportunity of earning an honest livelihood. + +§ 3. Irregularity of Employment.--As the wages of women are lower than +those of men, so they suffer more from irregularity of employment. There +are two special reasons for this. + +[Greek: a]. Many trades in which women are employed, depend largely upon +the element of Season. The confectionery trade, one of the most +important, employs twice as many hands in the busy season as in the +slack season. Match-makers have a slack season, in which many of them +sell flowers, or go "hopping." Laundry work is largely "season" work. +Fur-sewing is perhaps the worst example of the terrible effect of +irregular work taken with low wages. "For several months in the year the +fur-sewers have either no work, or earn about 3s. or 4s. a week, and +many of these work in overcrowded insanitary workshops in the season. +Fur-sewing is the worst paid industry in the East End, with absolutely +no exceptions."[35] + +[Greek: b]. Fluctuations in fashion affect many women's trades; in +particular, the "ornamental" clothing trades, e.g. furs, feathers, +trimmings, etc. + +Employers in these slack times prefer generally to keep on the better +hands (on lower wages), and to dismiss the inferior hands. + +These "natural" fluctuations, added to ordinary trade irregularities, +favour the employment of "outdoor" workers in sweaters' dens or at home, +and require in these trades, as conducted at present, the existence of +an enormous margin of "casual" workers. These two chief factors in the +"sweating" problem, sub-contract and irregular home-work, are far more +prevalent in female industries than in male. + +§ 4. Hours of Labour in Women's Trades.--The Factory Act is supposed to +protect women engaged in industrial work from excessive hours of labour, +by setting a limit of twelve hours to the working day, including an +interval of two hours for meals. + +But passing over the fact that a dispensation is granted, enabling women +to be employed for fourteen hours during certain times, there is the far +more important consideration that most employments of women wholly +escape the operation of the Factory Act. In part this is due to the +difficulty of enforcing the Act in the case of sweating workshops, many +of which are unknown to inspectors, while others habitually break the +law and escape the penalty. Again, the Act does not and cannot be made +to apply to a large class of small domestic workshops. When the +dwelling-room is also the work-room, it is impossible to enforce by any +machinery of law, close limitation of hours of labour. Something may be +done to extend the arm of the law over small workshops; but the worst +form of out-work, that voluntarily undertaken by women in their own +homes, cannot be thus put down. Nothing short of a total prohibition of +outwork imposed on employers would be effectual here. Lastly, there are +many large employments not subject to the Factory Act, where the +economic power of the employer over weak employees is grossly abused. +One of the worst instances is that of the large laundries, where women +work enormously long hours during the season, and are often engaged for +fifteen or sixteen hours on Fridays and Saturdays. The whole class of +shop-assistants are worked excessive hours. Twelve and fourteen hours +are a common shop day, and frequently the figure rises to sixteen hours. +Restaurants and public-houses are perhaps the greatest offenders. The +case of shop-assistants is most aggravated, for these excessive hours of +labour are wholly waste time; a reduction of 25 or even of 50 per cent +in the shopping-day, reasonably adjusted to the requirements of classes +and localities, would cause no diminution in the quantity of sales +effected, nor would it cause any appreciable inconvenience to the +consuming public. + +§ 5. Sanitary Conditions.--Seeing that a larger proportion of women +workers are occupied in the small workshops or in their own overcrowded +homes, it is obvious that the fourth count of the "sweating" charge, +that of unsanitary conditions of work, applies more cruelly to them than +to men. Their more sedentary occupations, and the longer hours they work +in many cases outside the operation of the Factory Act, makes the evils +of overcrowding, bad ventilation, bad drainage, etc., more detrimental +to the health of women than of men workers. + +§ 6. Special Burdens incident on Women.--We have now applied the four +chief heads of the "sweating" disease--low wages, long hours, irregular +employment, unsanitary conditions--to women's work, and have seen that +the absolute pressure in each case is heavier on the weaker sex. + +But in estimating the industrial condition of women, there are certain +other considerations which must not be left out of sight. + +To many women-workers, the duties of maternity and the care of children, +which in a civilized human society ought to secure for them some +remission from the burden, of the industrial fight, are a positive +handicap in the struggle for a livelihood. When a married woman or a +widow is compelled to support herself and her family, the home ties +which preclude her from the acceptance of regular factory work, tell +fatally against her in the effort to earn a living. Married women, and +others with home duties which cannot be neglected, furnish an almost +illimitable field of casual or irregular labour. Not only is this +irregular work worse paid than regular factory work, but its existence +helps to keep up the pernicious system of "out-work" under which +"sweating" thrives. The commercial competition of to-day positively +trades upon the maternity of women-workers. + +In estimating the quantity of work which falls to the lot of industrial +women-workers, we must not forget to add to the wage-work that domestic +work which few of them can wholly avoid, and which is represented by no +wages. Looking at the problem in a broad human light, it is difficult to +say which is the graver evil, the additional burden of the domestic +work, so far as it is done, or the habitual neglect of it, where it is +evaded. Here perhaps the former point of view is more pertinent. To the +long hours of the factory-worker, or the shopwoman, we must often add +the irksome duties which to a weary wife must make the return home a +pain rather than a pleasure. When the industrial work is carried on at +home the worries and interruptions of family life must always contribute +to the difficulty and intensity of the toil, and tell upon the nervous +system and the general health of the women-workers. + +Other evils, incident on woman's industrial work, do not require +elaboration, though their cumulative effect is often very real. Many +women-workers, the locality of whose home depends on the work of their +husband or father, are obliged to travel every day long distances to and +from their work. The waste of time, the weariness, and sometimes the +expense of 'bus or train thus imposed on them, is in thousands of cases +a heavy tax upon their industrial life. Women working in factories, or +taking work home, suffer also many wrongs by reason of their "weaker +sex," and their general lack of trade organization. Unjust and arbitrary +fines are imposed by harsh employers so as to filch a portion of their +scanty earnings; their time is wasted by unnecessary delay in the giving +out of work, or its inspection when finished; the brutality and +insolence of male overseers is a common incident in their career. In a +score of different ways the weakness of women injures them as +competitors in the free fight for industrial work. + +§ 7. Causes of the Industrial Weakness of Women.--This brief summary of +the industrial condition of low-skilled women-workers will suffice to +bring out the fact that the "sweating" question is even more a woman's +question than a man's. The question which rises next is, Why do women as +industrial workers suffer more than men? + +In the first place, as the physically weaker sex, they do on the average +a smaller quantity of work, and therefore receive lower wages. In +certain kinds of work, where women do piece-work along with men, it is +found that they get as high wages as men for the same quantity of work. +The recent report upon Textile Industries establishes this fact so far +as those trades are concerned. But this is not always, perhaps not in +the majority of instances, the case. Women-workers do not, in many +cases, receive the same wages which would be paid to men for doing the +same work. Why is this? It is sometimes described as an unfair advantage +taken of women because they are women. There is a male prejudice, it is +urged, against women-workers, which prevents employers from paying them +the wages they could and would pay to men. + +Now this contention, so far as it refers to a sentimental bias, is not +tenable. A body of women-workers, equally skilled with male workers, and +as strongly organized, would be able to extract the same rate of wages +in any trade. Everything depends upon the words "_as strongly +organized_." It is the general industrial weakness of the condition of +most women-workers, and not a sex prejudice, which prevents them from +receiving the wages which men might get, if the work the women do were +left for male competition alone. An employer, as a rule, pays the lowest +wages he can get the work done at. The real question we have to meet is +this. Why can he get women who will consent to work at a lower rate than +he could get men to work at? What peculiar conditions are there +affecting women which will oblige them to accept work on lower terms +than men? + +Well, in the first place, the wage of a man can never fall much lower +than will suffice to maintain at the minimum standard of comfort both +himself and the average family he has to support. The minimum wage of +the man, it is true, need not cover the full support of his family, +because the wife or children will on the average contribute something to +their maintenance. But the wage of the man must cover his own support, +and part of the support of his family. This marks a rigid minimum wage +for male labour; if competition tends to drive wages lower, the supply +of labour is limited to unmarried males. + +The case of woman is different. If she is a free woman her minimum wage +will be what is required to support herself alone, and since a woman +appears able to keep alive and in working condition on a lower scale of +expenditure than man, the possible minimum wage for independent women- +workers will be less than a single man would consent to work for, and +considerably less than what a married man would require. But there are +other economic causes more important than this which drag down women's +wages. + +Single women, working to support themselves, are subject to the constant +competition of other women who are not dependent for their full +livelihood on the wages they get, and who, if necessary, are often +willing to take wages which would not keep them alive if they had no +other source of income. The minimum wages which can be obtained for +certain kinds of work may by this competition of "bounty-fed" labour be +driven considerably below starvation point. This is no mere hypothesis. +It will be obvious that the class of fur-sewers who, as we saw, earned +while in full work from 4s. to 7s. in the winter months, and the lower +grades of brush-makers and match-makers, to say nothing of the casual +"out-workers," who often take for a whole week's work 3s. or 2s. 6d., +cannot, and do not, live upon these earnings. They must either die upon +them, as many in fact do, or else they must be assisted by other funds. + +There are, at least, three classes of female workers whose competition +helps to keep wages below the point of bare subsistence in the +employments which they enter. + +First, there are married women who in their eagerness to increase the +family income, or to procure special comforts for themselves, are +willing to work at what must be regarded as "uncommercial rates"; that +is to say, for lower wages than they would be willing to accept if they +were working for full maintenance. It is sometimes asserted that since +these married women have not so strong a motive to secure work, they +will not, and in fact do not, undersell, and bring down the rate of +wages. But it must be admitted, firstly, that the very addition of their +number to the total of competitors for low-skilled work, forces down, +and keeps down, the price paid for that work; and secondly, that if they +choose, they are enabled to underbid at any time the labour of women +entirely dependent on themselves for support. The existence of this +competition of married women must be regarded as one of the reasons why +wages are low in women's employments. + +Secondly, a large proportion of unmarried women live at home. Even if +they pay their parents the full cost of their keep, they can live more +cheaply than if they had to find a home for themselves. A large +proportion, however, of the younger women are partly supported at the +expense of their family, and work largely to provide luxuries in the +shape of dress, and other ornamental articles. Many of them will consent +to work long hours all week, for an incredibly low sum to spend on +superfluities. + +Thirdly, there is the competition of women assisted by charity, or in +receipt of out-door poor relief. Sums paid by Boards of Guardians to +widows with young children, or assistance given by charitable persons to +aid women in distressed circumstances to earn a livelihood, will enable +these women to get work by accepting wages which would have been +impossible if they had not outside assistance to depend upon. It is thus +possible that by assisting a thoroughly deserving case, you may be +helping to drive down below starvation-point the wages of a class of +workers. + +Probably a large majority of women-workers are to some extent bounty-fed +in one of these ways. In so far as they do receive assistance from one +of these sources, enabling them to accept lower wages than they could +otherwise have done, it should be clearly understood that they are +presenting the difference between the commercial and the uncommercial +price as a free gift to their employer, or in so far as competition will +oblige him to lower his prices, to the public, which purchases the +results of their work. But the most terrible effect of this uncommercial +competition falls on that miserable minority of their sisters who have +no such extra source of income, and who have to make the lower wages +find clothes, and shelter for themselves, and perhaps a family of +children. We hear a good deal about the jealousy of men, and the +difficulties male Trade Unions have sometimes thrown in the way of women +obtaining employment, which may seem to affect male interests. But +though there is doubtless some ground for these complaints, it should be +acknowledged that it is women who are the real enemies of women. Women's +wages in the "sweating" trades are almost incredibly low, because there +is an artificially large supply of women able and willing to take work +at these low rates. + +It will be possible to raise the wages in these low-paid employments +only on condition that women will agree to refuse to undersell one +another beyond a certain point. A restriction in what is called "freedom +of competition" is the only direct remedy which can be applied by women +themselves. If women could be induced to refuse to avail themselves of +the terrible power conferred by these different forms of "bounty," their +wages could not fall below that 9s. or 10s. which would be required to +keep them alive, and would probably rise higher. + +§ 8. What Trade Unionism can do for them.--A question which naturally +rises now is, how far combination in the form of Trade Unionism can +assist to raise the industrial condition of these women. The practical +power wielded by male Unions we saw was twofold. Firstly, by restricting +the supply of labour in their respective trades they raised its market +price, i.e. wages. Secondly, they could extract better conditions from +employers, by obliging the latter to deal with them as a single large +body instead of dealing with them as a number of individuals. How far +can women-workers effect these same ends by these same means? + +Trade Unionism, so far as women are concerned, is yet in its infancy. In +1874, Mrs. Paterson established a society, now named the Women's Trades +Union Provident League, to try and establish combination among women in +their several trades. The first Union was that of women engaged in book- +binding, formed in September 1874. Since then a considerable number of +Unions have been formed among match-makers, dressmakers, milliners, +mantle-makers, upholstresses, rope-makers, confectioners, box-makers, +shirt-makers, umbrella-makers, brush-makers and others. Many of these +have been formed to remedy some pressing grievance, or to secure some +definite advance of wage, and in certain cases of skilled factory work +where the women have maintained a steady front, as among the match- +makers and the confectioners, considerable concessions have been won +from employers. But the small scale and tentative character of most of +these organizations do not yet afford any adequate test of what Unionism +can achieve. The workers in a few factories here and there have formed a +Union of, at the most, a few hundred workers. No large women's trade has +yet been organized with anything approaching the size and completeness +of the stronger men's Unions. Women Trade Unionists numbered 120,178 in +1901, and of these no less than 89.9 per cent were textile workers, +whose Unions are mostly organized by and associated with male Unions. + +There are several reasons why the growth of effective organization among +women-workers must be slow. In the first place, as we have seen, a large +proportion of their work is "out work" done at home or in small domestic +workshops. Now labour organizations are necessarily strong and +effective, in proportion as the labourers are thrown together constantly +both in their work and in their leisure, have free and frequent +opportunities of meeting and discussion, of educating a sense of +comradeship and mutual confidence, which shall form a moral basis of +unity for common industrial action. But to the majority of women-workers +no such opportunities are open. Even the factory workers are for the +most part employed in small groups, and are dispersed in their homes. +Combination among the mass of home-workers or workers in small sweating +establishments is almost impossible. The women's Unions have hitherto +been successful in proportion as the trades are factory trades. Where +endeavours have been made to organize East End shirt-makers, milliners, +and others who work at home, very little has been achieved. In those +trades where it is possible to give out an indefinite amount of the work +to sub-contractors, or to workers to do at home, it seems impossible +that any great results can be thus attained. Even in trades where part +of the work is done in factories, the existence of reckless competition +among unorganized out-workers can be utilized by unprincipled employers +to destroy attempts at effective combination among their factory hands. +The force of public opinion which may support an organization of factory +workers by preventing outsiders from underselling, can have no effect +upon the competition of home-workers, who bid in ignorance of their +competitors, and bid often for the means of keeping life in themselves +and their children. The very poverty of the mass of women-workers, the +low industrial conditions, which Unionism seeks to relieve, form cruel +barriers to the success of their attempts. The low physical condition, +the chronic exhaustion produced by the long hours and fetid atmosphere +in which the poorer workers live, crush out the human energy required +for effective protest and combination. Moreover, the power to strike, +and, if necessary, to hold out for a long period of time, is an +essential to a strong Trade Union. Almost all the advantages won by +women's Unions have been won by their proved capacity for holding out +against employers. This is largely a matter of funds. It is almost +impossible for the poorest classes of women-workers to raise by their +own abstinence a fund which shall make their Union formidable. Their +efforts where successful have been always backed by outside assistance. +Even were there a close federation of Unions of various women's trades-- +a distant dream at present--the larger proportion of recipients of low +wages among women-workers as compared with men would render their +success more difficult. + +§ 9. Legislative Restriction and the force of Public Opinion.--If Trade +Unionism among women is destined to achieve any large result, it would +appear that it will require to be supported by two extra-Union forces. + +The first of these forces must consist of legislative restriction of +"out-work." If all employers of women were compelled to provide +factories, and to employ them there in doing that work at present done +at home or in small and practically unapproachable workshops, several +wholesome results would follow. The conditions of effective combination +would be secured, public opinion would assist in securing decent wages, +factory inspection would provide shorter hours and fair sanitary +conditions, and last, not least, women whose home duties precluded them +from full factory work would be taken out of the field of competition. +Whether it would be possible to successfully crush the whole system of +industrial "out-work" may be open to question; but it is certain that so +long as, and in proportion as "out-work" is permitted, attempts on the +part of women to raise their industrial condition by combination will be +weak and unsuccessful. So long as "out-work" continues to be largely +practised and unrestrained, competition sharpened by the action of +married women and other irregular and "bounty-fed" labour, must keep +down the price of women's work, not only for the out-workers themselves, +but also for the factory workers. Nor is it possible to see how the +system of "out-work" can be repressed or even restricted by any other +force than legislation. So long as home-workers are "free" to offer, and +employers to accept, this labour, it will continue to exist so long as +it pays; it will pay so long as it is offered cheap enough; and it will +be offered cheaply so long as the supply continues to bear the present +relation to the demand. + +But there is another force required to give any full effect to such +extensions of the Factory Act as will crush private workshops, and +either directly or indirectly prohibit out-work. The real reason, as we +saw, why woman's wages were proportionately lower than man's, was the +competition of a mass of women, able and willing to work at indefinitely +low rates, because they were wholly or partly supported from other +sources. Now legislation can hardly interfere to prevent this +competition, but public opinion can. If the greater part of the +industrial work now done by women at home were done in factories, this +fact in itself would offer some restrictions to the competition of +married women, which is so fatal to those who depend entirely upon their +wages for a livelihood. But the gradual growth of a strong public +opinion, fed by a clear perception of the harm married women do to their +unsupported sisters by their competition, and directed towards the +establishment of a healthy social feeling against the wage-earning +proclivities of married women, would be a far more wholesome as well as +a more potent method of interference than the passing of any law. + +To interfere with the work of young women living at home, and supported +in large part by their parents, would be impracticable even if it were +desirable, although the competition of these conduces to the same +lowering of women's wages. But the education of a strong popular +sentiment against the propriety of the industrial labour of married +women, would be not only practicable, but highly desirable. Such a +public sentiment would not at first operate so stringently as to +interfere in those exceptional cases where it seems an absolute +necessity that the wife should aid by her home or factory work the +family income. But a steady pressure of public opinion, making for the +closer restriction of the wage-work of married women, would be of +incomparable value to the movement to secure better industrial +conditions for those women who are obliged to work for a living. A +fuller, clearer realization of the importance of this subject is much +needed at the present time. The industrial emancipation of women, +favoured by the liberal sentiments of the age, has been eagerly utilized +by enterprising managers of businesses in search of the cheapest labour. +Not only women, but also children are enabled, owing to the nature of +recent mechanical inventions which relieve the physical strain, but +increase the monotony of labour, to make themselves useful in factories +or home-work. Each year sees a large growth in the ranks of women- +workers. Eager to earn each what she can, girls and wives alike rush +into factory work, reckless of the fact that their very readiness to +work tells against them in the amount of their weekly wages, and only +goes to swell the dividends of the capitalist, or perhaps eventually to +lower prices. The improving mechanism of our State School System assists +this movement, by turning out every year a larger percentage of half- +timers, crammed to qualify for wage-earners at the earliest possible +period. Already in Lancashire and elsewhere, the labour of these +thirteen-year-olders is competing with the labour of their fathers. The +substitution of the "ring" for the "mule" in Lancashire mills, is +responsible for the sight which may now be seen, of strong men lounging +about the streets, supported by the earnings of their own children, who +have undersold them in the labour market. The "ring" machine can be +worked by a child, and can be learned in half an hour; that is the sole +explanation of this deplorable phenomenon. + +In the case of child-work, with its degrading consequences on the +physical and mental health of the victim thus prematurely thrust into +the struggle of life, legislation can doubtless do much. By raising the +standard of education, and, if necessary, by an absolute prohibition of +child-work, the State would be keeping well within the powers which the +strictest individualist would assign to it, as it would be merely +protecting the rising generation against the cupidity of parents and the +encroachments of industrial competition. + +The case of married women-workers is different. Better education of +women in domestic work and the requirements of wifehood and motherhood; +the growth of a juster and more wholesome feeling in the man, that he +may refuse to demand that his wife add wage-work to her domestic +drudgery; and above all, a clearer and more generally diffused +perception in society of the value of healthy and careful provision for +the children of our race, should build up a bulwark of public opinion, +which shall offer stronger and stronger obstruction to the employment of +married women, either outside or inside the home, in the capacity of +industrial wage-earners. The satisfaction rightly felt in the ever wider +opportunities afforded to unmarried women of earning an independent +livelihood, and of using their abilities and energies in socially useful +work, is considerably qualified by our perception of the injury which +these new opportunities inflict upon our offspring and our homes. +Surely, from the large standpoint of true national economy, no wiser use +could be made of the vast expansion of the wealth-producing power of the +nation under the reign of machinery, than to secure for every woman +destined to be a wife and a mother, that relief from the physical strain +of industrial toil which shall enable her to bring forth healthy +offspring, and to employ her time and attention in their nurture, and in +the ordering of a cleanly, wholesome, peaceful home life. So long as +public opinion permits or even encourages women, who either are or will +be mothers, to neglect the preparation for, and the performance of, the +duties of domestic life and of maternity, by engaging in laborious and +unhealthy industrial occupations, so long shall we pay the penalty in +that physical and moral deterioration of the race which we have traced +in low city life. How can the women of Cradley Heath engaged in wielding +huge sledge-hammers, or carrying on their neck a hundredweight of chain +for twelve or fourteen hours a day, in order to earn five or seven +shillings a week, bear or rear healthy children? What "hope of our race" +can we expect from the average London factory hand? What "home" is she +capable of making for her husband and her children? The high death-rate +of the "slum" children must be largely attributed to the fact that the +women are factory workers first and mothers afterwards. Roscher, the +German economist, assigns as the reason why the Jewish population of +Prussia increases so much faster than the Christian, the fact that the +Jewish mothers seldom go out of their own homes to work.[36] One of the +chief social dangers of the age is the effect of industrial work upon +the motherhood of the race. Surely, the first duty of society should be +to secure healthy conditions for the lives of the young, so as to lay a +firm physical foundation for the progress of the race. + +This we neglect to do when we look with indifference or complacency upon +the present phase of unrestricted competition in industrial work amongst +women. So long as we refuse to insist, as a nation, that along with the +growth of national wealth there shall be secured those conditions of +healthy home life requisite for the sound, physical, moral, and +intellectual growth of the young, at whatever cost of interference with +so-called private liberty of action, we are rendering ourselves as a +nation deliberately responsible for the continuance of that creature +whose appearance gives a loud lie to our claim of civilization--the +gutter child of our city streets. Thousands of these children, as we +well know, the direct product of economic maladjustment, grow up every +year--in our great cities to pass from babyhood into the street arab, +afterwards to become what they may, tramp, pauper, criminal, casual +labourer, feeble-bodied, weak-minded, desolate creatures, incapable of +strong, continuous effort at any useful work. These are the children who +have never known a healthy home. With that poverty which compels mothers +to be wage-earners, lies no small share of the responsibility of this +sin against society and moral progress. It is true that no sudden +general prohibition of married woman's work would be feasible. But it is +surely to be hoped that with every future rise in the wages and +industrial position of male wage-earners, there may be a growing +sentiment in favour of a restriction of industrial work among married +women. + + + + +Chapter IX. + +Moral Aspects of Poverty. + + + +§ 1. "Moral" View of the Causes of Poverty.--Our diagnosis of "sweating" +has regarded poverty as an industrial disease, and we have therefore +concerned ourselves with the examination of industrial remedies, factory +legislation, Trade Unionism, and restrictions of the supply of unskilled +labour. It may seem that in doing this we have ignored certain important +moral factors in the problem, which, in the opinion of many, are all +important. Until quite recently the vast majority of those philanthropic +persons who interested themselves in the miserable conditions of the +poor, paid very slight attention to the economic aspect of poverty, and +never dreamed of the application of economic remedies. It is not +unnatural that religions and moral teachers engaged in active detailed +work among the poor should be so strongly impressed by the moral +symptoms of the disease as to mistake them for the prime causes. "It is +a fact apparent to every thoughtful man that the larger portion of the +misery that constitutes our Social Question arises from idleness, +gluttony, drink, waste, indulgence, profligacy, betting, and +dissipation." These words of Mr. Arnold White express the common view of +those philanthropists who do not understand what is meant by "the +industrial system," and of the bulk of the comfortable classes when they +are confronted with the evils of poverty as disclosed in "the sweating +system." Intemperance, unthrift, idleness, and inefficiency are indeed +common vices of the poor. If therefore we could teach the poor to be +temperate, thrifty, industrious, and efficient, would not the problem of +poverty be solved? Is not a moral remedy instead of an economic remedy +the one to be desired? The question at issue here is a vital one to all +who earnestly desire to secure a better life for the poor. This "moral +view" has much to recommend it at first sight. In the first place, it is +a "moral" view, and as morality is admittedly the truest and most real +end of man, it would seem that a moral cure must be more radical and +efficient than any merely industrial cure. Again, these "vices" of the +poor, drink, dirt, gambling, prostitution, &c., are very definite and +concrete maladies attaching to large numbers of individual cases, and +visibly responsible for the misery and degradation of the vicious and +their families. Last, not least, this aspect of poverty, by representing +the condition of the poor to be chiefly "their own fault," lightens the +sense of responsibility for the "well to do." It is decidedly the more +comfortable view, for it at once flatters the pride of the rich by +representing poverty as an evidence of incompetency, salves his +conscience when pricked by the contrast of the misery around him, and +assists him to secure his material interests by adopting an attitude of +stern repression towards large industrial or political agitations in the +interests of labour, on the ground that "these are wrong ways of +tackling the question." + +§ 2. "Unemployment" and the Vices of the Poor.--The question is this, +Can the poor be moralized, and will that cure Poverty? To discuss this +question with the fullness it deserves is here impossible, but the +following considerations will furnish some data for an answer-- + +In the first place, it is very difficult to ascertain to what extent +drink, vice, idleness, and other personal defects are actually +responsible for poverty in individual cases. There is, however, reason +to believe that the bulk of cases of extreme poverty and destitution +cannot be traced to these personal vices, but, on the other hand, that +they are attributable to industrial causes for which the sufferer is not +responsible. The following is the result of a careful analysis of 4000 +cases of "very poor" undertaken by Mr. Charles Booth. These are grouped +as follows according to the apparent causes of distress-- + + 4 per cent, are "loafers." + 14 " " are attributed to drink and thriftlessness. + 27 " " are due to illness, large families, or other misfortunes. + 55 " " are assigned to "questions of employment." + +Here, in the lowest class of city poor, moral defects are the direct +cause of distress in only 18 per cent. of the cases, though doubtless +they may have acted as contributory or indirect causes in a larger +number. + +In the classes just above the "very poor," 68 per cent. of poverty is +attributed to "questions of employment," and only 13 per cent. to drink +and thriftlessness. In the lowest parts of Whitechapel drink figures +very slightly, affecting only 4 per cent. of the very poor, and 1 per +cent. of the poor, according to Mr. Booth. Even applied to a higher +grade of labour, a close investigation of facts discloses a grossly +exaggerated notion of the sums spent in drink by city workers in receipt +of good wages. A careful inquiry into the expenditure of a body of three +hundred Amalgamated Engineers during a period of two years, yielded an +average of 1s. 9d. per week spent on drink. + +So, too, in the cases brought to the notice of the Lords' Committee, +drink and personal vices do not play the most important part. The Rev. +S. A. Barnett, who knows East London so well, does not find the origin +of poverty in the vices of the poor. Terrible as are the results of +drunkenness, impurity, unthrift, idleness, disregard of sanitary rules, +it is not possible, looking fairly at the facts, to regard these as the +main sources of poverty. If we are not carried away by the spirit of +some special fanaticism, we shall look upon these evils as the natural +and necessary accessories of the struggle for a livelihood, carried on +under the industrial conditions of our age and country. Even supposing +it were demonstrable that a much larger proportion of the cases of +poverty and misery were the direct consequence of these moral and +sanitary vices of the poor, we should not be justified in concluding +that moral influence and education were the most effectual cures, +capable of direct application. It is indeed highly probable that the +"unemployed" worker is on the average morally and industrially inferior +to the "employed," and from the individual point of view this +inferiority is often responsible for his non-employment. But this only +means that differences of moral and industrial character determine what +particular individuals shall succeed or fail in the fight for work and +wages. It by no means follows that if by education we could improve all +these moral and industrial weaklings they could obtain steady employment +without displacing others. Where an over-supply of labour exists, no +remedy which does not operate either by restricting the supply or +increasing the demand for labour can be effectual. + +§ 3. Civilization ascends from Material to Moral.--The life of the +poorest and most degraded classes is impenetrable to the highest +influences of civilization. So long as the bare struggle for continuance +of physical existence absorbs all their energies, they cannot be +civilized. The consideration of the greater intrinsic worth of the moral +life than the merely physical life, must not be allowed to mislead us. +That which has the precedence in value has not the precedence in time. +We must begin with the lower life before we can ascend to the higher. As +in the individual the _corpus sanum_ is rightly an object of earlier +solicitude in education than the _mens sana_, though the latter may be +of higher importance; so with the progress of a class. We cannot go to +the lowest of our slum population and teach them to be clean, thrifty, +industrious, steady, moral, intellectual, and religious, until we have +first taught them how to secure for themselves the industrial conditions +of healthy physical life. Our poorest classes have neither the time, the +energy, or the desire to be clean, thrifty, intellectual, moral, or +religious. In our haste we forget that there is a proper and necessary +order in the awakening of desires. At present our "slum" population do +not desire to be moral and intellectual, or even to be particularly +clean. Therefore these higher goods must wait, so far as they are +dependent on the voluntary action of the poor. What these people do want +is better food, and more of it; warmer clothes; better and surer +shelter; and greater security of permanent employment on decent wages. +Until we can assist them to gratify these "lower" desires, we shall try +in vain to awaken "higher" ones. We must prepare the soil of a healthy +physical existence before we can hope to sow the moral seed so as to +bring forth fruit. Upon a sound physical foundation alone can we build a +high moral and spiritual civilization. + +Moral and sanitary reformers have their proper sphere of action among +those portions of the working classes who have climbed the first rounds +in the ladder of civilization, and stand on tolerably firm conditions of +material comfort and security. They cannot hope at present to achieve +any great success among the poorest workers. The fact must not be +shirked that in preaching thrift, hygiene, morality, and religion to the +dwellers in the courts and alleys of our great cities, we are sowing +seed upon a barren ground. Certain isolated cases of success must not +blind us to this truth. Take, for example, thrift. It is not possible to +expect that large class of workers who depend upon irregular earnings of +less than 18s. a week to set by anything for a rainy day. The essence of +thrift is regularity, and regularity is to them impossible. Even +supposing their scant wage was regular, it is questionable whether they +would be justified in stinting the bodily necessities of their families +by setting aside a portion which could not in the long run suffice to +provide even a bare maintenance for old age or disablement. To say this +is not to impugn the value of thrift in maintaining a character of +dignity and independence in the worker; it is simply to recognize that +valuable as these qualities are, they must be subordinated to the first +demands of physical life. Those who can save without encroaching on the +prime necessaries of life ought to save; but there are still many who +cannot save, and these are they whom the problem of poverty especially +concerns. The saying of Aristotle, that "it is needful first to have a +maintenance, and then to practise virtue," does not indeed imply that we +_ought_ to postpone practising the moral virtues until we have secured +ourselves against want, but rather means that before we can live well we +_must_ first be able to live at all. + +Precisely the same is true of the "inefficiency" of the poor. Nothing is +more common than to hear men and women, often incapable themselves of +earning by work the money which they spend, assigning as the root of +poverty the inefficiency of the poor. It is quite true that the "poor" +consist for the most part of inefficient workers. It would be strange if +it were not so. How shall a child of the slums, ill-fed in body and +mind, brought up in the industrial and moral degradation of low city +life, without a chance of learning how to use hands or head, and to +acquire habits of steady industry, become an efficient workman? The +conditions under which they grow up to manhood and womanhood preclude +the possibility of efficiency. It is the bitterest portion of the lot of +the poor that they are deprived of the opportunity of learning to work +well. To taunt them with their incapacity, and to regard it as the cause +of poverty, is nothing else than a piece of blind insolence. Here and +there an individual may be to blame for neglected opportunities; but the +"poor" as a class have no more chance under present conditions of +acquiring "efficiency" than of attaining to refined artistic taste, or +the culminating Christian virtue of holiness. Inefficiency is one of the +worst and most degrading aspects of poverty; but to regard it as the +leading cause is an error fatal to a true understanding of the problem. + +We now see why it is impossible to seriously entertain the claim of Co- +operative Production as a direct remedy for poverty. The success of Co- +operative schemes depends almost entirely upon the presence of high +moral and intellectual qualities in those co-operating--trust, patience, +self restraint, and obedience combined with power of organization, +skill, and business enterprise. These qualities are not yet possessed by +our skilled artisan class to the extent requisite to enable them to +readily succeed in productive co-operation; how can it be expected then +that low-skilled inefficient labour should exhibit them? The +enthusiastic co-operator says we must educate them up to the requisite +moral and intellectual level. The answer is, that it is impossible to +apply such educating influences effectually, until we have first placed +them on a sound physical basis of existence; that is to say, until we +have already cured the worst form of the malady. From whatever point we +approach this question we are driven to the conclusion that as the true +cause of the disease is an industrial one, so the earliest remedies must +be rather industrial than moral or educational. + +§ 4. Effects of Temperance and Technical Education.--Again, we are by no +means justified in leaping to the conclusion that if we could induce +workers to become more sober, more industrious, or more skilful, their +industrial condition would of necessity be improved to a corresponding +extent. If we can induce an odd farm-labourer here and there to give up +his "beer," he and his family are no doubt better off to the extent of +this saving, and can employ the money in some much more profitable way. +But if the whole class of farm-labourers could be persuaded to become +teetotalers without substituting some new craving of equal force in the +place of drink, it is extremely probable that in all places where there +was an abundant supply of farm-labourers, the wage of a farm-labourer +would gradually fall to the extent of the sum of money formerly spent in +beer. For the lowest paid classes of labourers get, roughly speaking, no +more wages than will just suffice to provide them with what they insist +on regarding as necessaries of life. To an ordinary labourer "beer" is a +part of the minimum subsistence for less than which he will not consent +to work at all. Where there is an abundance of labour, as is generally +the case in low-skilled employments, this minimum subsistence or lowest +standard of comfort practically determines wages. If you were merely to +take something away from this recognized minimum without putting +something else to take its place, you would actually lower the rate of +wages. If, by a crusade of temperance pure and simple, you made +teetotalers of the mass of low-skilled workers, their wages would +indisputably fall, although they might be more competent workers than +before. If, on the other hand, following the true line of temperance +reform, you expelled intemperance by substituting for drink some +healthier, higher, and equally strong desire which cost as much or more +to attain its satisfaction; if in giving up drink they insisted on +providing against sickness and old age, or upon better houses and more +recreation and enjoyment, then their wages would not fall, and might +even rise in proportion as their new wants, as a class, were more +expensive than the craving for drink which they had abandoned. + +Or, again, take the case of technical or general education. In so far as +technical education enabled a number of men who would otherwise have +been unskilled labourers, to compete for skilled work, it will no doubt +enable these men to raise themselves in the industrial sense; but the +addition of their number to the ranks of skilled labour will imply an +increase in supply of skilled labour, and a decrease in supply of +unskilled labour; the price or wage for unskilled labour will rise, but +the wage for skilled labour will fall assuming the relationship between +the demand for skilled and unskilled labour to remain as before. A mere +increase in the efficiency of labour, though it would increase the +quantity of wealth produced, and render a rise of wages possible, would +of itself have no economic force to bring about a rise. No improvement +in the character of labour will be effectual in raising wages unless it +causes a rise in the standard of comfort, which he demands as a +condition of the use of his labour. If we merely increased the +efficiency of labour without a corresponding stimulation of new wants, +we should be simply increasing the mass of labour-power offered for +sale, and the price of each portion would fall correspondingly. It would +confer no more _direct_ benefit upon the worker as such, than does the +introduction of some new machine which has the same effect of adding to +the average efficiency of the worker. Those who would advocate technical +and general education, with a view to the material improvement of the +masses, must see that this education be applied in such a way as to +assist in implanting and strengthening new wholesome demands in those +educated, so as to effectively raise this standard of living. There can +be little doubt but that such education would create new desires, and so +would indirectly secure the industrial elevation of the masses. But it +ought to be clearly recognized that the industrial force which operates +_directly_ to raise the wages of the workers, is not technical skill, or +increased efficiency of labour, but the elevated standard of comfort +required by the working-classes. It is at the same time true, that if we +could merely stimulate the workers to new wants requiring higher wages, +they could not necessarily satisfy all these new wants. If it were +possible to induce all labourers to demand such increase of wages as +sufficed to enable them to lay by savings, it is difficult to say +whether they could in all cases press this claim successfully. But if at +the same time their efficiency as labourers likewise grew, it will be +evident that they both can and would raise that standard of living. + +In so far as the results of technical education upon the class of low- +skilled labourers alone is concerned, it is evident that it would +relieve the constant pressure of an excessive supply. Whatever the +effect of this might be upon the industrial condition of the skilled +industries subjected to the increased competition, there can be no doubt +that the wages of low-skilled labour would rise. Since the condition of +unskilled or low-skilled workers forms the chief ingredient in poverty, +such a "levelling up" may be regarded as a valuable contribution towards +a cure of the worst phase of the disease. + +This brief investigation of the working of moral and educational cures +for industrial diseases shows us that these remedies can only operate in +improving the material condition of the poorest classes, in so far as +they conduce to raise the standard of living among the poor. Since a +higher standard of comfort means economically a restriction in the +number of persons willing to undertake work for a lower rate of wage +than will support this standard of comfort, it may be said that moral +remedies can be only effectual in so far as they limit the supply of +low-skilled, low-paid labour. Thus we are brought round again to the one +central point in the problem of poverty, the existence of an excessive +supply of cheap labour. + +§ 5. The False Dilemma which impedes Progress.--There are those who seek +to retard all social progress by a false and mischievous dilemma which +takes the following shape. No radical improvement in industrial +organization, no work of social reconstruction, can be of any real avail +unless it is preceded by such moral and intellectual improvement in the +condition of the mass of workers as shall render the new machinery +effective; unless the change in human nature comes first, a change in +external conditions will be useless. On the other hand, it is evident +that no moral or intellectual education can be brought effectively to +bear upon the mass of human beings, whose whole energies are necessarily +absorbed by the effort to secure the means of bare physical support. +Thus it is made to appear as if industrial and moral progress must each +precede the other, a thing which is impossible. Those who urge that the +two forms of improvement must proceed _pari passu, _do not precisely +understand what they propose. + +The falsehood of the above dilemma consists in the assumption that +industrial reformers wish to proceed by a sudden leap from an old +industrial order to a new one. Such sudden movements are not in +accordance with the gradual growth which nature insists upon as the +condition of wise change. But it is equally in accordance with nature +that the material growth precedes the moral. Not that the work of moral +reconstruction can lag far behind. Each step in this industrial +advancement of the poor should, and must, if the gain is to be +permanent, be followed closely and secured by a corresponding advance in +moral and intellectual character and habits. But the moral and religious +reformer should never forget that in order of time material reform comes +first, and that unless proper precedence be yielded to it, the higher +ends of humanity are unattainable. + + + + +Chapter X. + +"Socialistic Legislation." + + + +§ 1. Legislation in restraint of "Free" Contract.--The direct pressure +of certain tangible and painful forms of industrial grievance and of +poverty has forced upon us a large mass of legislation which is +sometimes called by the name of Socialistic Legislation. It is necessary +to enter on a brief examination of the character of the various +enactments included under this vague term, in order to ascertain the +real nature of the remedy they seek to apply. + +Perhaps the most typical form of this socialistic legislation is +contained in the Factory Acts, embodying as they do a series of direct +interferences in the interests of the labouring classes with freedom of +contract between capital and labour. + +The first of these Factory Acts, the Health and Morals Act, was passed +in 1802, and was designed for the protection of children apprenticed in +the rising manufacturing towns of the north, engaged in the cotton and +woollen trades. Large numbers of children apprenticed by poor-law +overseers in the southern counties were sent as "slaves" to the northern +manufacturer, to be kept in overcrowded buildings adjoining the factory, +and to be worked day and night, with an utter disregard to all +considerations of physical or moral health. There is no page in the +history of our nation so infamous as that which tells the details of the +unbridled greed of these pioneers of modern commercialism, feeding on +the misery and degradation of English children. This Act of 1802, +enforcing some small sanitary reforms, prohibited night work, and +limited the working-day of apprenticed children to twelve hours. In +1819, another Act was passed for the benefit of unapprenticed child +workers in cotton mills, prohibiting the employment of children under +nine years, and limiting the working-day to twelve hours for children +between nine and sixteen. Sir John Cam Hobhouse in 1825 passed an Act +further restricting the labour of children under sixteen years, +requiring a register of children employed in mills, and shortening the +work on Saturdays. Then came the agitation of Richard Oastler for a Ten +Hours Bill. But Parliament was not ripe for this, and Hobhouse, +attempting to redeem the hours in textile industries, was defeated by +the northern manufacturers. Public feeling, however, formed chiefly by +Tories like Oastler, Sadler, Ashley, and Fielden, drove the Whig leader, +Lord Althorp, to pass the important Factory Act of 1833. This Act drew +the distinction between children admitted to work below the age of +thirteen, and "young persons" of ages from thirteen to eighteen; +enforced in the case of the former attendance at school, and a maximum +working week of forty-eight hours; in the case of the latter prohibited +night work, and limited the hours of work to sixty-nine a week. The next +step of importance was Peel's consolidating Factory Act of 1844, +reducing the working-day for children to six and a half hours, and +increasing the compulsory school attendance from two hours to three, and +strengthening in various ways the machinery of inspection. In 1845 Lord +Ashley passed a measure prohibiting the night work of women. In 1848, by +the Act of Mr. Fielden, ten hours was assigned as a working-day for +women and young persons, and further restrictions in favour of women and +children were made in 1850 and 1853. + +It must, however, be remembered that all the Factory legislation +previous to 1860 was confined to textile factories--cotton, woollen, +silk, or linen. In 1860, bleaching and dyeing works were brought within +the Factory Acts, and several other detailed extensions were made +between 1861 and 1864, in the direction of lace manufacture, pottery, +chimney-sweeping, and other employments. But not until 1867 were +manufactories in general brought under Factory legislation. This was +achieved by the Factory Acts Extension Act, and the Workshops Regulation +Act. For several years, however, the beneficial effects of this +legislation was grievously impaired by the fact that local authorities +were left to enforce it. Not until 1871, when the regulation and +enforcement was restored to State inspectors, was the legislation really +effectual. The Factory and Workshop Act of 1878, modified by a few more +recent restrictions, is still in force. It makes an advance on the +earlier legislation in the following directions. It prohibits the +employment in any factory or workshop of children under the age of +eleven, and requires a certificate of fitness for factory labour under +the age of sixteen. It imposes the half-time system on all children, +admitting, however, two methods, either of passing half the day in +school, and half at work, or of giving alternate days to work and +school. It recognizes a distinction between the severity of work in +textile factories and in non-textile factories, assigning a working week +of about fifty-six and a half hours to the former, and sixty hours to +the latter. The exceptions of domestic workshops, and of many other +forms of female and child employment, the permission of over-time within +certain limitations, and the inadequate provision of inspection, +considerably diminish the beneficial effects of these restrictive +measures. + +In 1842 Lord Ashley secured a Mining Act, which prohibited the +underground employment of women, and of boys under ten years. In 1850 +mine inspectors were provided, and a number of precautions enforced to +secure the safety of miners. In 1864 several minor industries, dangerous +in their nature, such as the manufacture of lucifer-matches, cartridges, +etc., were brought under special regulations. To these restrictive +pieces of legislation should be added the Employers' Liability Act, +enforcing the liability of employers for injuries sustained by workers +through no fault of their own, and the "Truck" legislation, compelling +the payment of wages in cash, and at suitable places. + +This slight sketch will suffice to mark the leading features of a large +class of laws which must be regarded as a growth of State socialism. + +The following points deserve special attention-- + +1. These measures are all forced on Parliament by the recognition of +actual grievances, and all are testimony to the failure of a system of +complete _laissez faire_. + +2. They all imply a direct interference of the State with individual +freedom--i.e. the worker cannot sell his labour as he likes; the +capitalist cannot make what contracts he likes. + +3. Though the protection of children and women is the strongest motive +force in this legislative action, many of these measures interfere +directly or indirectly with adult male labour--e.g. the limit on the +factory hours of women and children practically limits the factory day +for men, where the latter work with women or children. The clauses of +recent Factory Acts requiring the "fencing of machinery" and other +precautions, apply to men as well as to children and women. The Truck +Act and Employers' Liability Act apply to male adult labour. + +§ 2. Theory of this Legislation.--Under such legislation as the +foregoing it is evident that the theory that a worker should be free to +sell his labour as he likes has given way before the following +considerations-- + +(1) That this supposed "freedom to work as one likes" often means only a +freedom to work as another person likes, whether that other person be a +parent, as in the case of children, or an employer, as in the case of +adult workers. + +(2) That a worker in a modern industrial community is not a detached +unit, whose contract to work only concerns himself and his employer. The +fellow-workers in the same trade and society at large have a distinct +and recognizable interest in the conditions of the work of one another. +A, by keeping his shop open on Sundays, or for long hours on week-days, +is able to compel B, C, D, and all the rest of his trade competitors to +do the same. A minority of workmen by accepting low wages, or working +over-time, are often able to compel the majority to do the same. There +is no labour-contract or other commercial act which merely regards the +interest of the parties directly concerned. How far a society acting for +the protection of itself, or of a number of its members, is justified in +interfering between employer and workman, or between competing +tradesmen, is a question of expediency. General considerations of the +theoretic "freedom of contract," and the supposed "self-regarding" +quality of the actions, are thus liable to be set aside by this +socialistic legislation. + +(3) These interferences with "free contract" of labour are not traceable +to the policy of any one political party. The most valuable portions of +the factory measures were passed by nominally Conservative governments, +and though supported by a section of the Radical party, were strenuously +opposed by the bulk of the Liberals, including another section of +Radicals and political economists. + +These measures signify a slow but steady growth of national sentiment in +favour of securing for the poor a better life. The keynote of the whole +movement is the protection of the weak. This appears especially in a +recognition of the growing claims of children. Not only is this seen in +the history of factory legislation, but in the long line of educational +legislation, happily not ended yet. These taken together form a chain of +measures for the protection of the young against the tyranny, greed, or +carelessness of employers or parents. The strongest public sentiment is +still working in this same direction. Recent agitation on the subject of +prevention of cruelty to children, free dinners for school-children, +adoption of children, child insurance, attest the growing strength of +this feeling. + +§ 3. General extension of Paternal Government.--The class of measures +with which we have dealt recognizes that children, women, and in some +cases men, are unable to look after their own interests as industrial +workers, and require the aid of paternal legislation. But it must not be +forgotten that the century has seen the growth of another long series of +legislative Acts based also on the industrial weakness of the +individual, and designed to protect society in general, adult or young, +educated or uneducated, rich or poor. Among these come Adulteration +Acts, Vaccination Acts, Contagious Diseases Acts, and the network of +sanitary legislation, Acts for the regulation of weights and measures, +and for the inspection of various commodities, licenses for doctors, +chemists, hawkers, &c. Many of these are based on ancient historic +precedents; we have grown so accustomed to them, and so thoroughly +recognize the value of most of them, that it seems almost unnecessary to +speak of them as socialistic measures. Yet such they are, and all of +them are objected to upon this very ground by men of the political +school of Mr. Herbert Spencer and Mr. Auberon Herbert. For it should be +noted-- + +1. Each of these Acts interferes with the freedom of the individual. It +compels him to do certain things--e.g. vaccinate his children, admit +inspectors on his premises--and it forbids him to do certain other +things. + +2. Most of these Acts limit the utility to the individual of his +capital, by forbidding him to employ it in certain ways, and hampering +him with various restrictions and expenses. The State, or municipality, +in certain cases--e.g. railways and cabs--even goes so far as to fix +prices. + +§ 4. State and Municipal Undertakings.--But the State does not confine +itself to these restrictive or prohibitive measures, interfering with +the free individual application of capital and labour, in the interests +of other individuals, or of society at large. The State and the +municipality is constantly engaged in undertaking new branches of +productive work, thus limiting the industrial area left open to the +application of private capitalist enterprise. + +In some cases these public works exist side by side in competition with +private enterprise; as, for example, in the carriage of parcels, life +insurance, banking, and the various minor branches of post-office work, +in medical attendance, and the maintenance of national education, and of +places of amusement and recreation. In other cases it claims an absolute +monopoly, and shuts off entirely private enterprise, as in the +conveyance of letters and telegrams, and the local industries connected +with the production and distribution of gas and water. The extent and +complexity of that portion of our State and municipal machinery which is +engaged in productive work will be understood from the following +description-- + +"Besides our international relations, and the army, navy, police, and +the courts of justice, the community now carries on for itself, in some +part or another of these islands, the post-office, telegraphs, carriage +of small commodities, coinage, surveys the regulation of the currency +and note issue, the provision of weights and measures, the making, +sweeping, lighting, and repairing of streets, roads, and bridges, life +insurance, the grant of annuities, shipbuilding, stockbroking, banking, +farming, and money-lending. It provides for many of us from birth to +burial--midwifery, nursery, education, board and lodging, vaccination, +medical attendance, medicine, public worship, amusements, and interment. +It furnishes and maintains its own museums, parks, art galleries, +libraries, concert-halls, roads, bridges, markets, slaughterhouses, +fire-engines, lighthouses, pilots, ferries, surf-boats, steam-tugs, +life-boats, cemeteries, public baths, washhouses, pounds, harbours, +piers, wharves, hospitals, dispensaries, gas-works, water-works, +tramways, telegraph-cables, allotments, cow-meadows, artisans' +dwellings, schools, churches, and reading-rooms. It carries on and +publishes its own researches in geology, meteorology, statistics, +zoology, geography, and even theology. In our colonies the English +Government further allows and encourages the communities to provide for +themselves railways, canals, pawnbroking, theatres, forestry, cinchona +farms, irrigation, leper villages, casinos, bathing establishments, and +immigration, and to deal in ballast, guano, quinine, opium, salt, and +what not. Every one of these functions, with those of the army, navy, +police, and courts of justice, were at one time left to private +enterprise, and were a source of legitimate individual investment of +capital."[37] + +Some of the utilities and conveniences thus supplied by public capital +and public labour are old-established wants, but many are new wants, and +the marked tendency of public bodies to undertake the provision of the +new necessaries and conveniences which grow up with civilization is a +phenomenon which deserves close attention. + +§ 5. Motives of "Socialistic Legislation."--Stated in general terms, +this socialistic tendency may be described as a movement for the control +and administration by the public of all works engaged in satisfying +common general needs of life, which are liable, if trusted to private +enterprise, to become monopolies. + +Articles which everybody needs, the consumption or use of which is +fairly regular, and where there is danger of insufficient or injurious +competition, if the provision be left to private firms, are constantly +passing, and will pass more and more quickly, under public control. The +work of protection against direct injuries to person and property has in +all civilized countries been recognized as a dangerous monoply if left +to private enterprise. Hence military, naval, police, and judicial work +is first "socialized," and in modern life a large number of subsidiary +works for the protection of the life and wealth of the community are +added to these first public duties. Roads, bridges, and a large part of +the machinery of communication or conveyance are soon found to be +capable of abuse if left to private ownership; hence the post and +telegraph is generally State-owned, and in most countries the railways. +There is for the same reason a strong movement towards the municipal +ownership of tramways, gas-and water-works, and all such works as are +associated with monopoly of land, and are not open to adequate +competition. In England everywhere these works are subject to public +control, and the tendency is for this control, which implies part +ownership, to develop into full ownership. Nearly half the gas-consumers +in this country are already supplied by public works. One hundred and +two municipalities own electric plant, forty-five own their tramway +systems, one hundred and ninety-three their water supplies, at the close +of 1902. + +The receipts of local authorities from rates and other sources, +including productive undertakings, had increased from seventy millions +sterling to one hundred and forty-five millions between 1890-1 and +1901-2. Art galleries, free libraries, schools of technical education, +are beginning to spring up on all sides. Municipal lodging-houses are in +working at London, Glasgow, and several other large towns. + +In every one of these cases, two forces are at work together, the +pressure of an urgent public need, and the perception that private +enterprise cannot be trusted to satisfy their need on account of the +danger of monopoly. How far or how fast this State or municipal +limitation of private enterprise and assumption of public enterprise +will proceed, it is not possible to predict. Everything depends on the +two following considerations-- + +First, the tendency of present private industries concerned with the +supply of common wants of life to develop into dangerous monopolies by +the decay of effective competition. If the forces at work in the United +States for the establishment of syndicates, trusts, and other forms of +monopoly, show themselves equally strong in England, the inevitable +result will be an acceleration of State and municipal socialism. + +Secondly, the capacity shown by our municipal and other public bodies +for the effective management of such commercial enterprises as they are +at present engaged in. + +Reviewing then the mass of restrictive, regulative, and prohibitive +legislation, largely the growth of the last half century, and the +application of the State and municipal machinery to various kinds of +commercial undertakings in the interest of the community, we find it +implies a considerable and growing restriction of the sphere of private +enterprise. + +§ 6. The "Socialism" of Taxation--But there is another form of State +interference which is more direct and significant than any of these. One +of the largest State works is that of public education. Now the cost of +this is in large measure defrayed by rate and tax, the bulk of which, in +this case, is paid by those who do not get for themselves or for their +children any direct return. The State-assisted education is said to tax +A for the benefit of B. Nor is this a solitary instance; it belongs to +the very essence of the modern socialistic movement. There is a strong +movement, independent too of political partisanship, to cast, or to +appear to cast, the burden of taxation more heavily upon the wealthier +classes in order to relieve the poor. It is enough to allude to the +income tax and the Poor Law. These are socialistic measures of the +purest kind, and are directly open to that objection which is commonly +raised against theoretic socialism, that it designs "to take from the +rich in order to give to the poor." The growing public opinion in favour +of graduated income tax, and the higher duty upon legacies and rich +man's luxuries, are based on a direct approval of this simple policy of +taking from the rich and giving to the poor. + +The advocates of these measures urge this claim on grounds of public +expediency, and those whose money is taken for the benefit of their +poorer brethren, though they grumble, do not seriously impugn the right +of the State to levy taxes in what way seems best. Whether we regard the +whole movement from the taxation standpoint, or from the standpoint of +benefits received, we shall perceive that it really means a direct and +growing pressure brought to bear upon the rich for the benefit of the +poor. A consideration of all the various classes of socialistic +legislation and taxation to which we have referred, will show that we +are constantly engaged more and more in the practical assertion and +embodiment of the three following principles-- + +1. That the individual is often too weak or ignorant to protect himself +in contract or bargain, and requires public protection. + +2. That considerations of public interest are held to justify a growing +interference with "rights of property." + +3. That the State or municipality may enlarge their functions in any +direction and to any extent, provided a clear public interest is +subserved. + +§ 7. Relation of Theoretic Socialism to Socialistic Legislation.--Now it +has been convenient in speaking of this growth of State and municipal +action to use the term Socialism. But we ought to be clear as to the +application of this term. Although Sir William Harcourt declared, "We +are all socialists to-day," the sober, practical man who is responsible +for these "socialistic" measures, smiles at the saying, and regards it +as a rhetorical exaggeration. He knows well enough that he and his +fellow-workers are guided by no theory of the proper limits of +government, and are animated by no desire to curtail the use of private +property. The practical politician in this country is beckoned forward +by no large, bright ideal; no abstract consideration of justice or +social expediency supplies him with any motive force. The presence of +close detailed circumstance, some local, concrete want to be supplied, +some distinct tangible grievance to be redressed, some calculable +immediate economy to be effected, such are the only conscious motives +which push him forward along the path we have described. An alarming +outbreak of disease registered in a high local death-rate presses the +question of sanitary reform, and gives prominence to the housing of the +working-classes. The bad quality of gas, and the knowledge that the +local gas company, having reached the limit of their legal dividend, are +squandering the surplus on high salaries and expensive offices, leads to +the municipalization of the gas-works. The demand made upon the +ratepayers of Bury to expend; £60,000 on sewage-works, a large +proportion of which would go to increase the ground value of Lord +Derby's property, leads them to realize the justice and expediency of a +system of taxation of ground values which shall prevent the rich +landlord from pocketing the contribution of the poor ratepayer. So too +among those directly responsible for State legislation, it is the force +of public opinion built out of small local concrete grievances acting in +coalition with a growing sentiment in favour of securing better material +conditions for the poor, that drafts these socialistic bills, and gets +them registered as Acts of Parliament. + +But the student of history must not be deceived into thinking that +principles and abstract theories are not operative forces because they +appear to be subordinated to the pressure of small local or temporal +expediencies. Underneath these detailed actions, which seem in large +measure the product of chance, or of the selfish or sentimental effort +of some individual or party, the historian is able to trace the +underworking of some large principle which furnishes the key to the real +logic of events. The spirit of democracy has played a very small part in +the conscious effort of the democratic workers. But the inductive study +of modern history shows it as a force dominating the course of events, +directing and "operating" the _minor_ forces which worked unconsciously +in the fulfilment of its purpose. So it is with this spirit of +socialism. The professed socialist is a rare, perhaps an unnecessary, +person, who wishes to instruct and generally succeeds in scaring +humanity by bringing out into the light of conscious day the dim +principle which is working at the back of the course of events. Since +this conscious socialism is not an industrial force of any great +influence in England, it is not here necessary to discuss the claim of +the theoretic socialist to provide a solution for the problem of +poverty. But it is of importance for us to recognize clearly the nature +of the interpretation theoretic socialists place upon the order of +events set forth in this chapter, for this interpretation throws +considerable light on the industrial condition of labour. + +We see that the land nationalizer claims to remove, and the land +reformer in general to abate, the evil of poverty by securing for those +dependent on the fluctuating value and uncertain tenure of wage-labour +an equal share in those land-values, the product of nature and social +activity, which are at present monopolized by a few. Now the quality of +monopoly which the land nationalizer finds in land, the professed +socialist finds also in all forms of capital. The more discreet and +thoughtful socialist in England at least does not deny that the special +material forms of capital, and the services they render, may be in part +due to the former activity of their present owners, or of those from +whom their present owners have legitimately acquired them; but he +affirms that a large part of the value of these forms of capital, and of +the interest obtained for their use, is due to a monopoly of certain +opportunities and powers which are social property just as much as land +is. The following statement by one of the ablest exponents of this +doctrine will explain what this claim signifies-- + +"We claim an equal right to this 'inheritance of mankind,' which by our +institutions a minority is at present enabled to monopolize, and which +it does monopolize and use in order to extort thereby an unearned +increment; and this inheritance is true capital. We mean thereby the +principle, potentiality, embodied in the axe, the spade, the plough, the +steam-engine, tools of all kinds, books or pictures, bequeathed by +thinkers, writers, inventors, discoverers, and other labourers of the +past, a social growth to which all individual claims have lapsed by +death, but from the advantages of which the masses are virtually shut +out for lack of means. The very best definition of government, even that +of to-day, is that it is the agency of society which procures title to +this treasure, stores it up, guards and gives access to it to every one, +and of which all must make the best use, first and foremost by +education." + +The conscious socialist is he who, recognizing in theory the nature of +this social property inherent in all forms of capital, aims consciously +at getting possession or control of it for society, in order to solve +the problem of poverty by making the wage-earner not only a joint-owner +of the social property in land but also in capital. + +In other words, it signifies that the community refuses to sanction any +absolute property on the part of any of its members, recognizing that a +large portion of the value of each individual's work is due, not to his +solitary efforts, but to the assistance lent by the community, which has +educated and secured for the individual the skill which he puts in his +work; has allowed him to make use of certain pieces of the material +universe which belongs to society; has protected him in the performance +of his work; and lastly, by providing him a market of exchange, has +given a social value to his product which cannot be attributed to his +individual efforts. In recognition of the co-operation of society in all +production of wealth, the community claims the right to impose such +conditions upon the individual as may secure for it a share in that +social value it has by its presence and activity assisted to create. The +claim of the theoretic socialist is that society by taxing or placing +other conditions upon the individual as capitalist or workman is only +interfering to secure her own. Since it is not possible to make any +satisfactory estimate of the proportion of any value produced which is +due to the individual efforts, and to society respectively, there can be +no limit assigned to the right of society to increase its claim save the +limit imposed by expediency. It will not be for the interest of society +to make so large a claim by way of regulation, restriction, or taxation, +as shall prevent the individual from applying his best efforts to the +work of production, whether his function consists in the application of +capital or of labour. The claims of many theoretic socialists transcend +this statement, and claim for society a full control of all the +instruments of production. But it is not necessary to discuss this wider +claim, for the narrower one is held sufficient to justify and explain +those slow legislative movements which come under the head of practical +socialism, as illustrated in modern English history. + +Now while this conscious socialism has no large hold in England, it is +necessary to admit that the doctrine just quoted does furnish in some +measure an explanation of the unconscious socialism traceable in much of +the legislation of this century. When it is said that "we are all +socialists to-day," what is meant is, that we are all engaged in the +active promotion or approval of legislation which can only be explained +as a gradual unconscious recognition of the existence of a social +property in capital which it is held politic to secure for the public +use. + +The increasing restrictions on free use of capital, the monopoly of +certain branches of industry by the State and the municipality, the +growing tendency to take money from the rich by taxation, can be +explained, reconciled, and justified on no other principle than the +recognition that a certain share of the value of these forms of wealth +is due to the community which has assisted and co-operated with the +individual owner in its creation. Whether the socialistic legislation +which, stronger than all traditions of party politics, is constantly +imposing new limitations upon the private use of capital, is desirable +or not, is not the question with which we are concerned. It is the fact +that is important. Society is constantly engaged in endeavouring, +feebly, slowly, and blindly, to relieve the stress of poverty, and the +industrial weakness of low-skilled labour, by laying hands upon certain +functions and certain portions of wealth formerly left to private +individuals, and claiming them as social functions and social wealth to +be administered for the social welfare. This is the past and present +contribution of "socialistic legislation" towards a solution of the +problem of poverty, and it seems not unlikely that the claims of society +upon these forms of social property will be larger and more +systematically enforced in the future. + + + + +Chapter XI. + +The Industrial Outlook of Low-Skilled Labour. + + + +§ 1. The Concentration of Capital.--It must be remembered that we have +been concerned with what is only a portion of the great industrial +movement of to-day. Perhaps it may serve to make the industrial position +of the poor low-skilled workers more distinct if we attempt to set this +portion in its true relation to the larger Labour Problem, by giving a +brief outline of the size and relation of the main industrial forces of +the day. + +If we look at the two great industrial factors, Capital and Labour, we +see a corresponding change taking place in each. This change signifies a +constant endeavour to escape the rigour of competition by a co-operation +which grows ever closer towards fusion of interests previously separate. + +Look first at Capital. We saw how the application of machinery and +mechanical power to productive industries replaced the independent +citizen, or small capitalist, who worked with a handful of assistants, +by the mill and factory owner with his numerous "hands." The economic +use of machinery led to production on a larger scale. But new, complex, +and expensive machinery is continually being invented, which, for those +who can afford to purchase and use it, represents a fresh economy in +production, and enables them both to produce larger quantities of goods +more rapidly, and to get rid of them by underselling those of their +trade competitors who are working with old-fashioned and less effective +machinery. As this process is continually going on, it signifies a +constant advantage which the owner of a large business capital has over +the owner of a smaller capital. In earlier times, when trade was more +localized, and the small manufacturer or merchant had his steady +customers, and stood on a slowly and carefully acquired reputation, it +was not so easy for a new competitor to take his trade by the offer of +some small additional advantage. But the opening up of wider +communication by cheap postage, the newspaper, the railway, the +telegraph, the general and rapid knowledge of prices, the enormous +growth of touting and advertising, have broken up the local and personal +character of commerce, and tend to make the whole world one complete and +even arena of competition. Thus the fortunate possessor of some +commercial advantage, however trifling, which enables him to produce +more cheaply or sell more effectively than his fellows, can rapidly +acquire their trade, unless they are able to avail themselves of the new +machinery, or special skill, or other economy which he possesses. This +consideration enables the large capitalist in all businesses where large +capital contains these advantages, or the owner of some large natural +monopoly, who can most cheaply extract large quantities of raw material, +to crush in free competition the smaller businesses. In proportion as +business is becoming wider and more cosmopolitan, these natural +advantages of large capital over small are able to assert themselves +more and more effectively. In certain branches of trade, which have not +yet been taken over by elaborate machinery, or where everything depends +upon the personal activity and intelligence, and the detailed +supervision of a fully interested owner, the small capitalist may still +hold his own, as in certain branches of retail trade. But the general +movement is in favour of large businesses. Everywhere the big business +is swallowing up the smaller, and in its turn is liable to be swallowed +by a bigger one. In manufacture, where the cosmopolitan character is +strongest, and where machinery plays so large a part, the movement +towards vast businesses is most marked; each year makes it more rapid, +and more general. But in wholesale and retail distribution, though +somewhat slower, the tendency is the same. Even in agriculture, where +close personal care and the limitations of a local market temper the +larger tendency, the recent annals of Western America and Australia +supply startling evidence of the concentrative force of machinery. The +meaning of this movement in capital must not be mistaken. It is not +merely that among competing businesses, the larger showing themselves +the stronger survive, and the smaller, out-competed disappear. This of +course often happens. The big screw-manufacturer able to provide some +new labour-saving machinery, to advertise more effectively, or even to +sell at a loss for a period of time, can drown his weaker competitors +and take their trade. The small tradesman can no longer hold his own in +the fight with the universal provider, or the co-operative store. + +But this destruction of the small business, though an essential factor +in the movement, is not perhaps the most important aspect. The +industrial superiority of the large business over the small makes for +the concentration both of small capitals and of business ability. The +monster millionaire, who owns the whole or the bulk of his great +business, is after all a very rare specimen. The typical business form +of to-day is the joint stock company. This simply means that a number of +capitalists, who might otherwise have been competing with one another on +a small scale of business, recognizing the advantage of size, agree to +mass their capital into one large lump, and to entrust its manipulation +to the best business ability they can muster among them, or procure from +outside. This process in its simplest form is seen in the amalgamation +of existing and competing businesses, notable examples of which have +recently occurred in the London publishing trade. But the ordinary +Company, whether it grows by the expansion of some large existent +business, or, like most railways or other new enterprises, is formed out +of money subscribed in order to form a business, represents the same +concentrating tendency. These share-owners put their capital together +into one concern, in order to reap some advantage which they think they +would not reap if they placed the capital in small competing businesses. +But though it has been calculated that about one-third of English +commerce is now in the hands of joint stock companies, this by no means +exhausts the significance of the centralizing force in capital. Almost +all large businesses, and many small businesses, are recognized to be +conducted largely with borrowed capitals. The owners of these debentures +are in fact joint capitalists with the nominal owner of the business. +They prefer to lend their capital, because they hope to enjoy a portion +of the gain and security which belongs to a large business as compared +with a small one. Along with this coming together of small capitals to +make a large capital, there is a constant centralization and +organization of business ability. It is not uncommon for the owner of a +small and therefore failing business to accept a salaried post in the +office of some great business firm. So too we find the son of a small +tradesman, recognizing the hopelessness of maintaining his father's +business, takes his place behind the counter of some monster house. + +§ 2. How Competition affects Capital.--Now the force which brings about +all these movements is the force of competition. Every increase of +knowledge, every improvement of communication, every breakdown of +international or local barriers, increases the advantage of the big +business, and makes the struggle for existence among small businesses +more keen and more hopeless. It is the desire to escape from the heavy +and harassing strain of trade competition, which practically drives +small businesses to suspend their mutual hostilities, and to combine. It +is true that most of the large private businesses or joint stock +companies are not formed by this direct process of pacification. But for +all that, their _raison d'être_ is found in the desire to escape the +friction and waste of competition which would take place if each +shareholder set up business separately on his own account. We shall not +be surprised that the competition of small businesses has given way +before co-operation, when we perceive the force and fierceness of the +competition between the larger consolidated masses of capital. With the +development of the arts of advertising, touting, adulteration, political +jobbery, and speculation, acting over an ever-widening area of +competition, the fight between the large joint stock businesses grows +always more cruel and complex. Business failures tend to become more +frequent and more disastrous. A recent French economist reckons that ten +out of every hundred who enter business succeed, fifty vegetate, and +forty go into bankruptcy. In America, where internal competition is +still keener and speculation more rife, it has been lately calculated +that ninety-five per cent, of those who enter business "fail of +success." Just as in the growth of political society the private +individual has given up the right of private war to the State, with the +result that as States grow stronger and better organized, the war +between them becomes fiercer and more destructive, so is it with the +concentration of capital. The small capitalist, seeking to avoid the +strain of personal competition, amalgamates with others, and the +competition between these masses of capital waxes every day fiercer. We +have no accurate data for measuring the diminution of the number of +separate competitors which has attended the growing concentration of +capital, but we know that the average magnitude of a successful business +is continually increasing. The following figures illustrate the meaning +of this movement from the American cotton trade, which is not one of the +industries most susceptible to the concentrative pressure. "It will be +seen that in 756 large establishments in 1880, in which the aggregate +capital invested was five times as great as that in the 801 +establishments in 1830, the capital invested per spindle was one-third +less, the number of spindles operated by each labourer nearly three +times as large, the product per spindle one-fourth greater, the product +per dollar invested twice as large, the price of the cotton cloth nearly +sixty per cent, less, the consumption _per capita _of the population +over one hundred per cent greater, and the wages more than double. What +is true of this industry is true of all industries where the +concentration of capital has taken place."[38] + +It is needless to add that these large works are conducted, not by +single owners, but in nearly all cases by the managers of associated +capitals. Regarded from the large standpoint of industrial development, +all these phenomena denote a change in the sphere of competition. From +the competition of private capitals owned by individuals we have passed +to the competition of associated capitals. The question now arises, +"Will not the same forces, which, in order to avoid the waste and +destruction of ever keener competition, compelled the private +capitalists to suspension of hostility and to combination, act upon the +larger masses of associated capital?" The answer is already working +itself clearly out in industrial history. The concentrative adhesive +forces are everywhere driving the competing masses of capital to seek +safety, and escape waste and destruction, by welding themselves into +still larger masses, renouncing the competition with one another in +order to compete more successfully with other large bodies. Thus, +wherever these forces are in free operation, the number of competing +firms is continually growing less; the surviving competitors have +crushed or absorbed their weaker rivals, and have grown big by feeding +on their carcases. + +But the struggle between these few big survivors becomes more fierce +than ever. Fitted out with enormous capital, provided with the latest, +most complex, and most expensive machinery, producing with a reckless +disregard for one another or the wants of the consuming public, +advertising on a prodigious scale in order to force new markets, or +steal the markets of one another, they are constantly driven to lower +their prices in order to effect sales; profits are driven to a minimum; +all the business energy at their command is absorbed by the strain of +the fight; any unforeseen fluctuations in the market brings on a crisis, +ruins the weaker combatants, and causes heavy losses all round. In +trades where the concentrative process has proceeded furthest this +warfare is naturally fiercest. But as the number of competing units +grows smaller, arbitration or union becomes more feasible. Close and +successful united action among a large number of scattered competitors +of different scales of importance, such as exist during the earlier +stage of capitalism, would be impossible. But where the number is small, +combination presents itself as possible, and in so much as the +competition is fiercer, the direct motive to such combination is +stronger. Hence we find that attempts are made to relieve the strain +among the largest businesses. The fiercest combatants weary of incessant +war and patch up treaties. The weapon of capitalist warfare is the power +of under-selling--"cutting prices." The most powerful firms consent to +sheathe this weapon, i.e. agree not to undersell one another, but to +adopt a common scale of prices. This action, in direct restraint of +competition, corresponds to the action of a trades union, and is +attained by many trades whose capital is not large or business highly +developed. Neither does it imply close union of friendly relations +between the combining parties. It is a policy dictated by the barest +instinct of self-preservation. We see it regularly applied in certain +local trades, especially in the production and distribution of +perishable commodities. Our bakers, butchers, dairy-men, are everywhere +in a constant state of suspended hostility, each endeavouring indeed to +get the largest trade for himself, but abiding generally by a common +scale of prices. Wherever the local merchants are not easily able to be +interfered with by outsiders, as in the coal-trade, they form a more or +less closely compacted ring for the maintenance of common terms, raising +and lowering prices by agreement. The possibility of successfully +maintaining these compacts depends on the ability to resist outside +pressure, the element of monopoly in the trade. When this power is +strong, a local ring of competing tradesmen may succeed in maintaining +enormous prices. To take a humble example--In many a remote Swiss +village, rapidly grown into a fashionable resort, the local washerwomen +are able to charge prices twice as high as those paid in London, +probably four times as high as the normal price of the neighbourhood. + +Grocers or clothiers are not able to combine with the same effect, for +the consumer is far less dependent on local distribution for these +wares. But wherever such retail combinations are possible they are +found. Among large producers and large distributing agencies the same +tendency prevails, especially in cases where the market is largely +local. Free competition of prices among coal-owners or iron-masters +gives way under the pressure of common interests, to a schedule of +prices; competing railways come to terms. Even among large businesses +which enjoy no local monopoly, there are constant endeavours to maintain +a common scale of prices. This condition of loose, irregular, and +partial co-operation among competing industrial units is the +characteristic condition of trade in such a commercial country as +England to-day. Competitors give up the combat _à outrance_, and fight +with blunted lances. + +§ 3. Syndicates and Trusts.--But it is of course extremely difficult to +maintain these loose agreements among merchants and producers engaged in +intricate and far-reaching trades. A big opportunity is constantly +tempting one of them to undersell; new firms are constantly springing up +with new machinery, willing to trade upon the artificially raised +prices, by under-selling so as to secure a business; over-production and +a glut of goods tempts weaker firms to "cut rates," and this breaks down +the compact. A score of different causes interfere with these delicate +combinations, and plunge the different firms into the full heat and +waste of the conflict. The renewed "free competition" proves once more +fatal to the smaller businesses; the waste inflicted on the "leviathans" +who survive forms a fresh motive to a closer combination. + +These new closer combinations are known by the names of Syndicate and +Trust. This marks another stage in the evolution of capital. In the +United States, where the growth is most clearly marked, the Standard Oil +Trust forms the leading example of a successful Trust. In 1881, this +Standard Oil Company having maintained for some ten years tolerably +close informal relations with its leading competitors in the Eastern +States, and having crushed out the smaller companies, entered into a +close arrangement with the remaining competitors, with the view of a +practical consolidation of the businesses into one, though the formal +identity of the several firms was still maintained. The various +companies which entered into this union, comprising nearly all the chief +oil-mills, submitted their businesses to valuation, and placed +themselves in the hands of a board of trustees, with an absolute power +to regulate the quantity of production, and if necessary to close mills, +to raise and lower prices, and to work the whole number as a joint +concern. Each company gave up its shares to the Trust, receiving notes +of acknowledgment for the worth of the shares, and the total profits +were to be divided as dividend each half-year. This Trust has continued +to exist, and has now a practical monopoly of the oil trade in America, +controlling, it is reckoned, more than 90 per cent. of the whole market, +and regulating production and prices. + +Everywhere this process is at work. Competing firms are in every trade, +where their small numbers permit, striving to come to closer terms than +formerly, and either secretly or openly joining forces so as to get full +control over the production or distribution of some product, in order to +manipulate prices for their own profit. From railways and corn-stores +down to slate-pencils, coffins, and sticking-plaster, everything is +tending to fall under the power of a Trust. Many of these Trusts fail to +secure the union of a sufficient proportion of the large competitors, or +quarrels spring up among the combining firms, or some new firms enter +into competition too strong to be fought or bought over. In these ways a +large number of the Trusts have hitherto broken down, and will doubtless +continue to break down. In England, this step in capitalist evolution is +only beginning to be taken. In glass, paper, salt, coal, and a few other +commodities, combinations more permanent than the mere Ring or Corner, +and closer than the ordinary masters' unions, have been formed. But Free +Trade, which leaves us open to the less calculable and controllable +element of foreign competition, and the fact that the earlier stages of +concentration of capital are not yet completed here in most trades, have +hitherto retarded the growth of the successful Trust in England. Even in +America there is no case where the monopoly of a Trust reigns absolute +through the whole country, though many of them enjoy a local control of +production and prices which is practically unrestricted. Excepting in +the case of the Standard Oil Trust, and a few less important bodies +which enjoy the control of some local monopoly, such as anthracite coal, +the supremacy of the leading Trust or Syndicate is brought in certain +places into direct conflict with other more or less independent +competing bodies. In other words, the evolution of capital, which tends +ever to the establishment of competition between a smaller number of +larger masses, has nowhere worked out the logical conclusion which means +the condensation of the few large competing bodies into a single mass. +This final step, which presents a completely organized trade with the +element of competition utterly eliminated under the control of a single +body of mere joint-owners of the capital engaged, must be regarded as +the goal, the ideal culmination of the concentrative movement of modern +capital. It is said that more than one-third of the business in the +United States is already controlled by Trusts. But most of them have +only in part succeeded in their effort to escape from competition by +integrating their personal interests into a single homogeneous mass. +Even in cases where they do rule the market untrammelled by the direct +interference of any competitors, they are still deterred from a free use +of their control over prices by the possibility of competition which any +full use of this control might give rise to. For it does not follow that +even where a Trust holds an absolute monopoly of the market of a +locality, that it will be able to maintain that monopoly were it to +raise its prices beyond a certain point. In proportion, however, as +experience yields a greater skill in the management of Trusts, and their +growing strength enables them to more successfully defy outside attempts +at competition, their power to raise prices and increase their rates of +profit would rise accordingly. + +Regarding, then, the development of the capitalist system from the first +establishment of the capitalist-employer as a distinct industrial class, +we trace the massing of capital in larger and larger competing forms, +the number of which represents a pyramid growing narrower as it ascends +towards an ideal apex, represented by the absolute unity or identity of +interests of the capital in a given trade. In so far as the interests of +different trades may clash, we might carry on this movement further, and +trace the gradual agreement, integration, and fusion of the capitals +represented in various trades. There is, in fact, an ever-growing +understanding and union between the various forms of capital in a +country. The recognition of this ultimate identity of interest must be +regarded as a constant force making for the unification of the whole +capital of a country, in the same way as the common interests of +directly competing capitals in the same trade leads to a union for +mutual support and ultimate identification. + +§ 4. Uses and Abuses of the Trust.--This, however, carries us beyond the +immediate industrial outlook. The successful formation of the Trust +represents the highest reach of capitalistic evolution. Although the +subject is too involved for any lengthy discussion here, a few points +bearing on the nature of the Trust deserve attention. + +The Trust is clearly seen to be a natural step in the evolution of +capital. It belongs to the industrial progress of the day, and must not +be condemned as if it were a retrograde or evil thing. It is distinctly +an attempt to introduce order into chaos, to save the waste of war, to +organize an industry. The Trust-makers often claim that their line of +action is both necessary and socially beneficial, and urge the following +points-- + +The low rates of profit, owing to the miscalculation of competitors who +establish too many factories and glut the market; the waste of energy in +the work of competition; the adulteration of goods induced by the desire +to undersell; the enormous royalties which must be paid to a competitor +who has secured some new invention--these and other causes necessitate +some common action. By the united action of the Trust the following +economic advantages are gained-- + + a. The saving of the labour and the waste of competition. + + b. Economy in buying and selling, in discovering and establishing new + markets. + + c. The maintenance of a good quality of wares without fear of being + undersold. + + d. Mutual guarantee and insurance against losses. + + e. The closing of works which are disadvantageously placed or are + otherwise unnecessary to furnish the requisite supply at profitable + prices. + + f. The raising of prices to a level which will give a living basis of + steady production and profit. + +That all these economies are useful to the capitalists who form Trusts +will be obvious. How far they are socially useful is a more difficult +question. Reflection, however, will make one thing evident, viz. that +though the public may share that part of the advantage derived from the +more economical use of large capitals, it cannot share that portion +which is derived from the absence of competition. If two or more Trusts +or aggregations of capital are still in actual or even in potential +competition, the public will be enabled to reap what gain belongs to +larger efficient production, for it will be for the interest of each +severally to sell at the lowest prices; but if a single Trust rule the +market, though the economic advantage of the Trust will be greater in so +far as it escapes the labour of all competition, there will be no force +to secure for the public any share in this advantage. The advantageous +position enjoyed by a Trust will certainly enable its owners at the same +time to pay high profits, give high wages, and sell at low prices. But +while the force of self-interest will secure the first result, there is +nothing to guarantee the second and third. There is no adequate security +that in the culminating product of capitalistic growth, the single +dominant Trust or Syndicate self-interest will keep down prices, as is +often urged by the advocates of Trust. It is true that "they have a +direct interest in keeping prices at least sufficiently low not to +invite the organization of counter-enterprises which may destroy their +existing profits."[39] But this consideration is qualified in two +ways:--_a_. Where Trust is formed or assisted by the possession of a +natural monopoly, i.e. land, or some content of land, absolutely limited +in quality, such potential competition does not exist, and nothing, save +the possibility of substituting another commodity, places a limit on the +rise of price which a Trust may impose on the public.. Although the fear +of potential competition will prevent the maintenance of an indefinitely +high price it will not necessarily prevent such a rise of price as will +yield enormous profits, and form a grievous burden on consumers. For a +strongly-constituted Trust will be able to crush any competing +combination of ordinary size and strength by a temporary lowering of its +prices below the margin of profitable production, the weapon which a +strong rich company can always use successfully against a weaker new +competitor. + +But though a Trust with a really strong monopoly, and rid of all +effective competition, will be able to impose exorbitant and oppressive +prices on consumers, it must be observed that it is not necessarily to +its interest to do so. Every rise of price implies a fall off in +quantity sold; and it may therefore pay a Trust better to sell a large +quantity at a moderate profit than a smaller quantity at an enormous +profit. The exercise of the power possessed by the owners of a monopoly +depends upon the proportionate effect a rise of price will have upon the +sale. This again depends upon the nature and uses of the commodity in +which the Trust deals. In proportion as an article belongs to the +"necessaries" of life, a rise of price will have a small effect on the +purchase of it, as compared with the effect of a similar rise of price +on articles which belong to the "comforts" or "luxuries" of life, or +which may be readily replaced by some cheaper substitute. Thus it will +appear that the power of a Trust or monopoly of capital is liable to be +detrimental to the public interest--1st. In proportion as there is a +want of effective existing competition, and a difficulty of potential +competition. 2nd. In proportion as the commodity dealt in by the Trust +belongs to the necessaries of life. + +§ 5. Steps in the Organization of labour.--The movements of labour show +an order closely correspondent with those of capital. As the units of +capital seek relief from the strain and waste of competition by uniting +into masses, and as the fiercer competition of these masses force them +into ever larger and closer aggregates, until they are enabled to obtain +partial or total relief from the competitive strife, so is it with +labour. The formation of individual units of labour-power into Trades +Unions, the amalgamation of these Unions on a larger scale and in closer +co-operation, are movements analogous to the concentration of small +units of capital traced above. It is not necessary to follow in detail +the concentrative process which is gradually welding labour into larger +units of competition. The uneven pace at which this process works in +different places and in various trades has prevented a clear recognition +of the law of the movement. The following steps, not always taken +however in precisely the same order, mark the progress-- + +1. Workers in the same trade in a town or locality form a "Union," or +limited co-operative society, the economic essence of which consists in +the fact that in regard to the price and other conditions of their +labour they act as a complex unit. Where such unions are strongly +formed, the employer or body of employers deals not with individual +workmen, but with the Union of workmen, in matters which the Union +considers to be of common interest. + +2. Next comes the establishment of provincial or national relations +between these local Unions. The Northumberland and Durham miners will +connect their various branches, and will, if necessary, enter into +relations with the Unions of other mining districts. The local Unions of +engineers, of carpenters, &c., are related closely by means of elected +representatives in national Unions. In the strongest Unions the central +control is absolute in reference to the more important objects of union, +the pressure for higher wages, shorter hours, and other industrial +advantages, or the resistance of attempts to impose reductions of wages, +&c. + +3. Along with the movement towards a national organization of the +workers in a trade, or in some cases prior to it, is the growth of +combined action between allied industries, that is to say, trades which +are closely related in work and interests. In the building trades, for +example, bricklayers, masons, carpenters, plasterers, plumbers, painters +and decorators, find that their respective trade interests meet, and are +interwoven at a score of different points. The sympathetic action thus +set up is beginning to find its way to the establishment of closer co- +operation between the Unions of these several trades. The different +industries engaged in river-side work are rapidly forming into closer +union. So also the various mining classes, the railway workers, civil +servants, are moving gradually but surely towards a recognition of +common interests, and of the advantage of close common action. + +4. The fact of the innumerable delicate but important relations which +subsist among classes of workers, whose work appears on the surface but +distantly related, is leading to Trade Councils representative of all +the Trade Unions in a district. In the midland counties and in London +these general Trade Councils are engaged in the gigantic task of welding +into some single unity the complex conflicting interests of large bodies +of workmen. + +5. An allusion to the attempts to establish international relations +between the Unions of English workmen and those of foreign countries is +important, more as indicating the probable line of future labour +movement, than as indicating the early probability of effective +international union of labour. Though slight spasmodic international co- +operation of workers may even now be possible, especially among members +of English-speaking races, the divergent immediate interests, the +different stages of industrial development reached in the various +industrial countries, seem likely for a long time at any rate to +preclude the possibility of close co-operation between the united +workers of different nations. + +§ 6. Parallelism of the Movements in Capital and Labour.--Now this +movement in labour, irregular, partial, and incomplete as it is, is +strictly parallel with the movement of capital. In both, the smaller +units become merged and concentrated into larger units, driven by self- +interest to combine for more effective competition in larger masses. The +fact that in the case of capital the concentration is more complete, +does not really impair the accuracy of the analogy. Small capitals, when +they have co-operated or formed a union, are absolutely merged, and +cease to exist or act as individual units at all. A "share" in a +business has no separate existence so long as it is kept in that +business. But the small units of labour cannot so absolutely merge their +individuality. The capital-unit being impersonal can be absolutely +merged for common action with like units. The labour-unit being personal +only surrenders part of his freedom of action and competition to the +Union, which henceforth represents the social side of his industrial +self. How far the necessity of close social action between labour-units +in the future may compel the labourer to merge more of his industrial +individuality in the Union, is an open question which the future history +of labour-movements will decide. + +The slow, intermittent, and fragmentary manner in which labour-unions +have been hitherto conducted even in the stronger trades, is a fact +which has perhaps done more to hide the true parallelism in the +evolution of capital and labour. The path traced above has not yet been +traversed by the bulk of English working men, while, as has been shown, +working women have hardly begun to contemplate the first step. But the +uneven rate of development, in the case of capital and labour, should +not blind us to the law which is operating in both movements. The +representative relation between capital and labour is no longer that +between a single employer and a number of individual working men, each +of the latter making his own terms with the former for the sale of his +labour, but between a large company or union of employers on the one +hand, and a union of workmen on the other. The last few years have +consolidated and secured this relation in the case of such powerful +staple industries in England as mining, ship-building, iron-work, and +even in the weaker low-skilled industries the relation is gradually +winning recognition. + +§ 7. Probabilities of Industrial Peace.--This concentrative process at +work in both capital and labour, consolidating the smaller industrial +units into larger ones, and tending to a unification of the masses of +capital and of labour engaged respectively in the several industries, is +at the present time by far the most important factor of industrial +history. How far these two movements in capital and in labour react on +one another for peace or for strife is a delicate and difficult +question. Consideration of the common interest of capital and labour +dependent on their necessary co-operation in industry might lead us to +suppose that along with the growing organization of the two forces there +would come an increased recognition of this community of interest which +would make constantly and rapidly for industrial peace. But we must not +be misled by the stress which is rightly laid on the identity of +interest between capital and labour. The identity which is based on the +general consideration that capital and labour are both required in the +conduct of a given business, is no effective guarantee against a genuine +clash of interests between the actual forms of capital and the labourers +engaged at a given time in that particular business. To a body of +employés who are seeking to extract a rise of wages from their +employers, or to resist a reduction of wages, it is no argument to point +out that if they gain their point the fall of profit in their employers' +business will have some effect in lowering the average interest on +invested capital, and will thus prevent the accumulation of some capital +which would have helped to find employment for some more working men. +The immediate direct interests of a particular body of workmen and a +particular company of employers may, and frequently will, impel them to +a course directly opposed to the wider interests of their fellow- +capitalists or fellow-workers. But it is evident that the smaller the +industrial unit, the more frequent will these conflicts between the +immediate special interest and the wider class interest be. Since this +is so, it would follow that the establishment of larger industrial +units, such as workmen's unions and employers' unions, based on a +cancelling of minor conflicting interests, will diminish the aggregate +quantity of friction between capital and labour. If there were a close +union between all the river-side and carrying trades of the country, it +is far less likely that a particular local body of dock-labourers would, +in order to seize some temporary advantage for themselves, be allowed to +take a course which might throw out of work, or otherwise injure, the +other workers concerned in the industries allied to theirs. One of the +important educative effects of labour organizations will be a growing +recognition of the intricate _rapport_ which subsists not only between +the interests of different classes of workers, but between capital and +labour in its more general aspect. This lesson again is driven home by +the dramatic scale of the terrible though less frequent conflicts which +still occur between capital and labour. Industrial war seems to follow +the same law of change as military war. As the incessant bickering of +private guerilla warfare has given way in modern times to occasional, +large, organized, brief, and terribly destructive campaigns, so it is in +trade. In both cases the aggregate of friction and waste is probably +much less under the modern _régime_, but the dread of these dramatic +lessons is growing ever greater, and the tendency to postponement and +conciliation grows apace. But just as the fact of a growing identity in +the interest of different nations, the growing recognition of that fact, +and the growing horror of war, potent factors as they seem to reasonable +men, make very slow progress towards the substitution of international +arbitration for appeals to the sword, so in industry we cannot presume +that the existence of reasonable grounds for conciliation will speedily +rid us of the terror and waste of industrial conflicts. It is even +possible that just as the speedy formation of a strong national unity, +like that of Prussia under Frederick the Great, out of weak, disordered, +smaller units, may engender for a time a bellicose spirit which works +itself out in strife, so the rapid rise and union of weak and oppressed +bodies of poorer labourers make for a shortsighted policy of blind +aggression. Such considerations as this must, at any rate, temper the +hopes of speedy industrial pacification we may form from dwelling on the +more reasonable effects and teaching of organization. Although the very +growth and existence of the larger industrial units implies, as we saw, +a laying aside of smaller conflicts, we cannot assume that the forces at +present working directly for the pacification of capital and labour, and +for their ultimate fusion, are at all commensurate in importance with +the concentrative forces operating in the two industrial elements +respectively. It is indisputably true that the recent development of +organization, especially of labour unions, acts as a direct restraint of +industrial warfare, and a facilitation of peaceable settlements of trade +disputes. Mr. Burnett, in his Report to the Board of Trade, on Strikes +and Lock-outs in 1888, remarks _à propos_ of the various modes of +arbitration, that "these methods of arranging difficulties have only +been made possible by organization of the forces on both sides, and +have, as it were, been gradually evolved from the general progress of +the combination movement."[40] + +Speaking of Trade Unions, he sums up--"In fact the executive committees +of all the chief Unions are to a very large extent hostile to strikes, +and exercise a restraining influence"--a judgment the truth of which has +been largely exemplified during the last two or three years. But our +hopes and desires must not lead us to exaggerate the size of these +peaceable factors. _Conseils de prud'hommes_ on the continent, boards of +arbitration and conciliation in this country, profit-sharing schemes in +Europe and America, are laudable attempts to bridge over the antagonism +which exists between separate concrete masses of capital and labour. The +growth of piecework and of sliding scales has effected something. But +the success of the Board of Conciliation and Arbitration in the +manufactured iron trade of the north of England has not yet led to much +successful imitation in other industries. Recent experience of formal +methods of conciliation and of sliding scales, especially in the mining, +engineering, and metal industries, as well as the failure of some of the +most important profit-sharing experiments, shows that we must be +satisfied with slow progress in these direct endeavours after +arbitration. The difficulty of finding an enduring scale of values which +will retain the adherence of both interests amidst industrial movements +which continually tend to upset the previously accepted "fair rates," is +the deeper economic cause which breaks down many of these attempts. The +direct fusion of the interests of employers and employed, and in some +measure of capital and labour, which is the object of the co-operative +movement, is a steadily growing force, whose successes may serve perhaps +better than any other landmark as a measure of the improving _morale_ of +the several grades of workers who show themselves able to adopt its +methods. But while co-operative distribution has thriven, the success of +co-operative workshops and mills has hitherto been extremely slow. A +considerable expansion of the productive work of the co-operative +wholesale societies within the last few years offers indeed more +encouragement. But at present only about 2¼ per cent. of English +industry and commerce, as tested by profits, is under the conduct of co- +operative societies. Hence, while it seems possible that the slow growth +in productive co-operation, and the more rapid progress of distributive +co-operation, may serve to point the true line of successful advance in +the future, the present condition of the co-operative movement does not +entitle it to rank as one of the most powerful and prominent industrial +forces. Though it may be hoped and even predicted that each movement in +the agglomerative development of capital and labour which presents the +two agents in larger and more organized shape, will render the work of +conciliation more peremptory and more feasible, it must be admitted that +all these conciliatory movements making for the direct fusion of capital +and labour, are of an importance subordinate to the larger evolutionary +force on which we have laid stress. + +We see then the multitudinous units of capital and labour crystallizing +ever into larger and larger masses, moving towards an ideal goal which +would present a single body of organized capital and a single body of +organized labour. The process in each case is stimulated by the similar +process in the other. Each step in the organization of labour forces a +corresponding move towards organization of capital, and _vice versâ_. +Striking examples of this imitative strategic movement have been +presented by the rapid temporary organization of Australian capital, and +by the effect of Dock Labourers' Unions in England in promoting the +closer co-operation of the capital of shipowners. By this interaction of +the two forces, the development in the organization of capital and +labour presents itself as a _pari passu_ progress; or perhaps more +strictly it goes by the analogy of a game of draughts; the normal state +is a series of alternate moves; but when one side has gained a victory, +that is, taken a piece, it can make another move. + +§ 8. Relation of Low-skilled Labour to the wider Movement.--The relation +in which this large industrial evolution stands to our problem of the +poor low-skilled worker is not obscure. In comparing the movement of +capital with that of labour we saw that in one respect the former was +clearer and more perfect. The weaker capitalist, he who fails to keep +pace with industrial progress, and will not avail himself of the +advantage which union gives to contending pieces of capital, is simply +snuffed out; that is, he ceases to have an independent existence as a +capitalist when he can no longer make profit. The laggard, ill-managed +piece of capital is swept off the board. This is possible, for the +capital is a property separable from its owner. The case of labour is +different. The labour-power is not separable from the person of the +labourer. So the labourer left behind in the evolution of labour +organization does not at once perish, but continues to struggle on in a +position which is ever becoming weaker. "Organize or starve," is the law +of modern labour movements. The mass of low-skilled workers find +themselves fighting the industrial battle for existence, each for +himself, in the old-fashioned way, without any of the advantages which +organization gives their more prosperous brothers. They represent the +survival of an earlier industrial stage. If the crudest form of the +struggle were permitted to rage with unabated force, large numbers of +them would be swept out of life, thereby rendering successful +organization and industrial advance more possible to the survivors. But +modern notions of humanity insist upon the retention of these +superfluous, low-skilled workers, while at the same time failing to +recognize, and making no real attempt to provide against, the inevitable +result of that retention. By allowing the continuance of the crude +struggle for existence which is the form industrial competition takes +when applied to the low-skilled workers, and at the same time forbidding +the proved "unfittest" to be cleared out of the world, we seem to +perpetuate and intensify the struggle. The elimination of the "unfit" is +the necessary means of progress enforced by the law of competition. An +insistence on the survival, and a permission of continued struggle to +the unfit, cuts off the natural avenue of progress for their more fit +competitors. So long as the crude industrial struggle is permitted on +these unnatural terms, the effective organization and progress of the +main body of low-skilled workers seems a logical impossibility. If the +upper strata of low-class workers are enabled to organize, and, what is +more difficult, to protect themselves against incursions of outsiders, +the position of the lower strata will become even more hopeless and +helpless. If one by one all the avenues of regular low-skilled labour +are closed by securing a practical monopoly of this and that work for +the members of a Union, the superfluous body of labourers will be driven +more and more to depend on irregular jobs, and forced more and more into +concentrated masses of city dwellers, will present an ever-growing +difficulty and danger to national order and national health. +Consideration of the general progress of the working-classes has no +force to set aside this problem. It seems not unlikely that we are +entering on a new phase of the poverty question. The upper strata of +low-skilled labour are learning to organize. If they succeed in forming +and maintaining strong Unions, that is to say, in lifting themselves +from the chaotic struggle of an earlier industrial epoch, so as to get +fairly on the road of modern industrial progress, the condition of those +left behind will press the illogicality of our present national economy +upon us with a dramatic force which will be more convincing than logic, +for it will appeal to a growing national sentiment of pity and humanity +which will take no denial, and will find itself driven for the first +time to a serious recognition of poverty as a national, industrial +disease, requiring a national, industrial remedy. + +The great problem of poverty thus resides in the conditions of the low- +skilled workman. To live industrially under the new order he must +organize. He cannot organize because he is so poor, so ignorant, so +weak. Because he is not organized he continues to be poor, ignorant, +weak. Here is a great dilemma, of which whoever shall have found the key +will have done much to solve the problem of poverty. + + + + +List of Authorities. + + + +By far the most valuable general work of reference upon _Problems of +Poverty_ is Charles Booth's _Labour and Life of the People_ (Williams & +Norgate). By the side of this work on London may be set Mr Rowntree's +_Poverty: A Story of Town Life_ (Macmillan). A large quantity of +valuable material exists in _The Report of the Industrial Remuneration +Conference_, and in the _Reports of the Lords' Committee on the Sweating +System_ and of the _Labour Commission_. Among shorter and more +accessible works dealing with the industrial causes of poverty and the +application of industrial remedies, Toynbee's _Industrial Revolution_ +(Rivington); Gibbins' _Industrial History of England (University +Extension Series_, Methuen & Co.); and Jevons'_The State in Relation to +Labour (English Citizen Series)_, will be found most useful. For a clear +understanding of the relation of economic theory to the facts of labour +and poverty, J.E. Symes' _Political Economy_ (Rivington), and Marshall's +_Economies of Industry_are specially recommended. + +Among the large mass of books and pamphlets bearing on special subjects +connected with _Problems of Poverty_, the following are most useful. An +asterisk is placed against the names of those which deserve special +attention, and which are easily accessible. + + + +Sweating and Its Causes. + + +* Booth, _Labour and Life of the People_. + +* _Final Report of Lords' Committee on the Sweating System._ + +Marx, "Capital," chap. xv., _Machinery and Modern Industry_ +(Sonnenschein). + +Burnett, _Report to the Board of Trade on Sweating_ (Blue-Book, 1887). + +"Socialism," _Fabian Essays_ (Walter Scott). + +Booth, _Pauperism and the Endowment of Old Age_ (Macmillan). + +J. A. Spender, _The State and Pensions in Old Age_ (Sonnenschein). + +J. T. Arlidge, _Hygiene of Occupations_ (Rivington). + + + +Co-Operation and Labour Organization. + + +* Webb, _History of Trade Unionism_ (Longman). + +* Howell, _Conflicts of Capital and Labour_ (Chatto & Windus). + +* Burnett, _Report of Trade Unions_ (Blue-Book). + +Brentano, _Gilds and Trade Unions_ (Trübner). + +* Baernreither, _Associations of English Working-men_. + +Acland and Jones, _Working-men Co-operators_. + +Gilman, _Profit-sharing between Employer and Employed_ (Macmillan). + +_Co-operative Wholesale Society's Annual_. + +Potter, _Co-operative Movement in Great Britain_ (Sonnenschein). + +* Webb, _Industrial Democracy_ (Longman). + +* Schloss, _Methods of Industrial Remuneration_ (Williams & Norgate). + + + +Chartiable Work and Poor Law, &c. + + +* Aschrott, _The English Poor Law System_ (Knight). + +H. Bosanquet, _The Strength of the People_ (Macmillan). + +P. Alden, _The Unemployed_. + +Fowle, _The Poor Law_ (_English Citizen Series_). + +Booth, _In Darkest England_. + +Blackley, _Thrift and Independence_ (People's Library, S.P.C.K.). + +* Mackay, _The English Poor_ (Murray). + +* _Report on Pauperism in England and Wales_ (Blue-Book, 1889). + +Rev. S.A. Barnett, _Practicable Socialism_. + +Loch, _Charity Organization_ (Sonnenschein). + +_Report of Committee on National Provident Insurance_ (Blue-Book, 1887). + + + +Socialistic Legislation. + + +Ensor, _Modern Socialism_ (Harpers). + +* Jevons, _The State in Relation to Labour_. + +Webb, _Socialism in England_ (Swan Sonnenschein). + +Hyndman, _Historical Basis of Socialism in England_ (Kegan Paul). + +* "Socialism" (_Fabian Essays_). + +* Toynbee, _Industrial Revolution_ (Rivington). + +Kirkup, _An Inquiry into Socialism_ (Longman). + + + +Movements of Capital. + + +* Marx, "Capital," vol. ii., ch. xv. + +* Baker, _Monopolies and the People_ (Putnams). + +"Socialism," _Fabian Essays_. + +Macrosty, _Trust and the State_ (Grant Richards). + +Ely, _Monopolies and Trusts_ (Macmillan). + + + +The Measure of Poverty. + + +*Giffen, _Economic Inquiries and Studies _(Bell). + +Mulhall, _Dictionary of Statistics_ (Routledge). + +Bowley, _National Progress in Wealth and Trade_(King). + +* Board of Trade Memoranda, _British and Foreign Trade and Industrial +Conditions_ [cd. 1761 and 2237]. + +_Statistical Abstract of the United Kingdom_ [cd. 1727]. + +* _Census of England and Wales: General Report_, 1901 [cd. 2174]. + +* Leone Levi, _Wages and Earnings of the Working-Classes_ (Murray). + +* _Report of the Industrial Remuneration Conference_ (Cassell). + +Giffen, _Growth of Capital_ (Bell). + +Valpy, _An Inquiry into the Conditions and Occupations of the People in +Central London_. + + + + +Footnotes + + + +[1] This sum includes an allowance for the part of the wage of domestic +servants, shop-attendants, &c. paid in kind. + +[2] Leone Levi's _Wages and Earnings of the Working-Classes_, p. II. + +[3] _Labour and Life of the People_, vol. i. p. 38. + +[4] _Poverty: A Study of Town Life_. (Macmillan & Co.) + +[5] By Mr P.H. Mann in _Sociological Papers_. (Macmillan.) + +[6] Cf. _An Inquiry into the Conditions and Occupations of the People in +Central London_, R. A. Valpy. + +[7] This statement is borne out by _A Return of Expenditure of Working- +Men_, for 1889, published by the Labour Department of the Board of +Trade. + +[8] See two interesting papers, "Our Farmers in Chains," by the Rev. +Harry Jones (_National Review_, April and July, 1890). + +[9] Arnold White: _The Problems of a Great City_, p. 159. + +[10] Marshall's _Principles of Economics_, II. ch. iv. §2. + +[11] De Tocqueville, _Ancient Régime_, ch. xvi. + +[12] _Report of the Industrial Remuneration Conference_, 1886, p. 429. + +[13] Cannan's _Elementary Political Economy_, part ii. § 15. + +[14] _Industrial Remuneration Congress Report_, p. 153. Mr. W. Owen. + +[15] _Economics of Industry_, p. 111. + +[16] _Principles of Economics_, pp. 314, 316. + +[17] Kirkup, _Inquiry into Socialism_, p. 72. + +[18] Booth's _Labour and Life of the People, _vol. i. Part. III. ch. ii. +_Influx of Population, _by H. Llewellyn Smith. A most valuable paper, +from which many of the facts here stated have been drawn. + +[19] The official estimate is not precise, since our statistics of +emigration refer only to non-European countries. + +[20] _Labour and Life of the People_, vol. i. p. 237. + +[21] _Labour and Life of East London_, vol. i. p. 224. + +[22] _Report on the Sweating System_, p. 14. + +[23] _Labour and Life of the People_, p. 271. + +[24] _Final Report on the Sweating System, _§ 68. + +[25] _Lords' Committee on the Sweating System; Last Report, _ p. 184. + +[26] _Labour and Life in London_, vol. i. p. 489. + +[27] Howell, _Conflicts of Capital and Labour, _p. 128. Second Edition, +Macmillan & Co. + +[28] Karl Marx, _Capital_, vol. ii. p. 480. + +[29] _Labour and Life in East London, _vol. i. p. 112. + +[30] Cf. Howell's _Conflicts of Capital and Labour_, p. 207. + +[31] _The State in Relation to Labour_, p. 106. + +[32] _Problems of Greater Britain_, vol. ii. p. 314. + +[33] _Labour and Life of the People_, vol. i, p. 167. + +[34] The match-box trade, however, is chiefly in the hands of +home-workers. + +[35] _Labour and Life of the People_, vol, i p. 427. + +[36] Roscher's _Political Economy_, § 242. + +[37] Fabian Essays in Socialism, p. 48. + +[38] Quoted by G. Gunton: _Political Science Quarterly_, Sept. 1880. + +[39] G. Gunton: _Political Science Quarterly, _Sept. 1888. + +[40] p. 17. + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 10710 *** diff --git a/10710-h/10710-h.htm b/10710-h/10710-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..82008f9 --- /dev/null +++ b/10710-h/10710-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,6664 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"> +<html> +<head> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" /> +<title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of Problems of Poverty, by John A. 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Hobson</h1> + +</pre> + +<center><b>E-text prepared by Project Gutenberg Distributed Proofreaders</b></center> +<br /> +<br /> + +<div class="note"><p><strong>Transcriber's note:</strong> Footnotes have been renumbered and moved to the end +of the text.</p></div> + +<hr /> + +<h1 class="title">Problems of Poverty</h1> + +<h2 class="subtitle">An Inquiry into the Industrial Condition of The Poor</h2> + + + + +<p class="smallcaps" align="center">By</p> +<h2 class="author">John A. Hobson, M.A.</h2> + +<h3>Author of "The Problem of The Unemployed,"<br /> +"International Trade," Etc.</h3> + +<h4>Sixth Edition</h4> + + +<table summary="Publication history"> +<tr><td>First Published April</td><td>1891</td></tr> +<tr><td>Second Edition November</td><td>1894</td></tr> +<tr><td>Third Edition July</td><td>1896</td></tr> +<tr><td>Fourth Edition July</td><td>1899</td></tr> +<tr><td>Fifth Edition May</td><td>1905</td></tr> +<tr><td>Sixth Edition</td><td>1906</td></tr> +</table> + + +<div class="chapter" id="preface"> +<h2>Preface</h2> + + + +<p>The object of this volume is to collect, arrange, and examine some of the +leading facts and forces in modern industrial life which have a direct +bearing upon Poverty, and to set in the light they afford some of the +suggested palliatives and remedies. Although much remains to be done in +order to establish on a scientific basis the study of "the condition of +the people," it is possible that the brief setting forth of carefully +ascertained facts and figures in this little book may be of some service +in furnishing a stimulus to the fuller systematic study of the important +social questions with which it deals.</p> + +<p>The treatment is designed to be adapted to the focus of the +citizen-student who brings to his task not merely the intellectual +interest of the collector of knowledge, but the moral interest which +belongs to one who is a part of all he sees, and a sharer in the social +responsibility for the present and the future of industrial society.</p> + +<p>For the statements of fact contained in these chapters I am largely +indebted to the valuable studies presented in the first volume of Mr. +Charles Booth's <i>Labour and Life of the People</i>, a work which, when +completed, will place the study of problems of poverty upon a solid +scientific basis which has hitherto been wanting. A large portion of this +book is engaged in relating the facts drawn from this and other sources +to the leading industrial forces of the age.</p> + +<p>In dealing with suggested remedies for poverty, I have selected certain +representative schemes which claim to possess a present practical +importance, and endeavoured to set forth briefly some of the economic +considerations which bear upon their competency to achieve their aim. In +doing this my object has been not to pronounce judgment, but rather to +direct enquiry. Certain larger proposals of Land Nationalization and State +Socialism, etc., I have left untouched, partly because it was impossible +to deal, however briefly, even with the main issues involved in these +questions, and partly because it seemed better to confine our enquiry to +measures claiming a direct and present applicability.</p> + +<p>In setting forth such facts as may give some measurement of the evils of +Poverty, no attempt is made to suppress the statement of extreme cases +which rest on sufficient evidence, for the nature of industrial poverty +and the forces at work are often most clearly discerned and most rightly +measured by instances which mark the severest pressure. So likewise there +is no endeavour to exclude such human emotions as are "just, measured, and +continuous," from the treatment of a subject where true feeling is +constantly required for a proper realization of the facts.</p> + +<p>In conclusion, I wish to offer my sincere thanks to Mr. Llewellyn Smith, +Mr. William Clarke, and other friends who have been kind enough to render +me valuable assistance in collecting the material and revising the +proof-sheets of portions of this book.</p> +</div> + + +<div class="chapter" id="toc"> +<h2>Contents</h2> + + +<ol> + <li><a href="#ch01">The Measure of Poverty</a></li> + <li><a href="#ch02">The Effects of Machinery on the Condition of the Working-Classes</a></li> + <li><a href="#ch03">The Influx of Population into Large Towns</a></li> + <li><a href="#ch04">"The Sweating System"</a></li> + <li><a href="#ch05">The Causes of Sweating</a></li> + <li><a href="#ch06">Remedies for Sweating</a></li> + <li><a href="#ch07">Over-Supply of Low-Skilled Labour</a></li> + <li><a href="#ch08">The Industrial Condition of Women Workers</a></li> + <li><a href="#ch09">Moral Aspects of Poverty</a></li> + <li><a href="#ch10">"Socialistic Legislation"</a></li> + <li><a href="#ch11">The Industrial Outlook of Low-Skilled Labour</a></li> +</ol> + +<p><a href="#authorities">List of Authorities</a></p> +</div> + + + + +<h1 class="title">Problems of Poverty</h1> + + + +<div class="chapter" id="ch01"> +<h2>Chapter I.</h2> + +<h3>The Measure of Poverty.</h3> + + + +<p><b>§ 1.The National Income, and the Share of the Wage-earners.</b>--To give +a clear meaning and a measure of poverty is the first requisite. Who are +the poor? The "poor law," on the one hand, assigns a meaning too narrow +for our purpose, confining the application of the name to "the destitute," +who alone are recognized as fit subjects of legal relief. The common +speech of the comfortable classes, on the other hand, not infrequently +includes the whole of the wage-earning class under the title of "the +poor." As it is our purpose to deal with the pressure of poverty as a +painful social disease, it is evident that the latter meaning is unduly +wide. The "poor," whose condition is forcing "the social problem" upon the +reluctant minds of the "educated" classes, include only the lower strata +of the vast wage-earning class.</p> + +<p>But since dependence upon wages for the support of life will be found +closely related to the question of poverty, it is convenient to throw some +preliminary light on the measure of poverty, by figures bearing on the +general industrial condition of the wage-earning class. To measure poverty +we must first measure wealth. What is the national income, and how is it +divided? will naturally arise as the first questions. Now although the +data for accurate measurement of the national income are somewhat slender, +there is no very wide discrepancy in the results reached by the most +skilful statisticians. For practical purposes we may regard the sum of +£1,800,000,000 as fairly representing the national income. But when we put +the further question, "How is this income divided among the various +classes of the community?" we have to face wider discrepancies of +judgment. The difficulties which beset a fair calculation of interest and +profits, have introduced unconsciously a partisan element into the +discussion. Certain authorities, evidently swayed by a desire to make the +best of the present condition of the working-classes, have reached a low +estimate of interest and profits, and a high estimate of wages; while +others, actuated by a desire to emphasize the power of the capitalist +classes, have minimized the share which goes as wages. At the outset of +our inquiry, it might seem well to avoid such debatable ground. But the +importance of the subject will not permit it to be thus shirked. The +following calculation presents what is, in fact, a compromise of various +views, and can only claim to be a rough approximation to the truth.</p> + +<p>Taking the four ordinary divisions: Rent, as payment for the use of land, +for agriculture, housing, mines, etc.; Interest for the use of business +capital; Profit as wages of management and superintendence; and Wages, the +weekly earnings of the working-classes, we find that the national income +can be thus fairly apportioned--</p> +<table summary="apportioned income"> +<tr><td> Rent </td><td>£200,000,000.</td></tr> +<tr><td> Interest </td><td>£450,000,000. </td></tr> +<tr><td> Profits </td><td>£450,000,000. </td></tr> +<tr><td> Wages </td><td>£650,000,000.[<a href="#fn1">1</a>] </td></tr> +<tr><td> Total </td><td>£1750,000,000. </td></tr> +</table> +<p>Professor Leone Levi reckoned the number of working-class families as +5,600,000, and their total income £470,000,000 in the year 1884.[<a href="#fn2">2</a>] If we +now divide the larger money, minus £650,000,000, among a number of +families proportionate to the increase of the population, viz. 6,900,000, +we shall find that the average yearly income of a working-class family +comes to about £94, or a weekly earnings of about 36s. This figure is of +necessity a speculative one, and is probably in excess of the actual +average income of a working family.</p> + +<p>This, then, we may regard as the first halting-place in our inquiry. But +in looking at the average money income of a wage-earning family, there are +several further considerations which vitally affect the measurement of the +pressure of poverty.</p> + +<p>First, there is the fact, that out of an estimated population of some +42,000,000, only 12,000,000, or about three out of every ten persons in +the richest country of Europe, belong to a class which is able to live in +decent comfort, free from the pressing cares of a close economy. The other +seven are of necessity confined to a standard of life little, if at all, +above the line of bare necessaries.</p> + +<p>Secondly, the careful figures collected by these statisticians show that +the national income equally divided throughout the community would yield +an average income, per family, of about £182 per annum. A comparison of +this sum with the average working-class income of £94, brings home the +extent of inequality in the distribution of the national income. While it +indicates that any approximation towards equality of incomes would not +bring affluence, at anyrate on the present scale of national productivity, +it serves also to refute the frequent assertions that poverty is +unavoidable because Great Britain is not rich enough to furnish a +comfortable livelihood for everyone.</p> + +<p><b>§ 2. Gradations of Working-class Incomes.</b>--But though it is true that +an income of 36s. a week for an ordinary family leaves but a small margin +for "superfluities," it will be evident that if every family possessed +this sum, we should have little of the worst evils of poverty. If we would +understand the extent of the disease, we must seek it in the inequality of +incomes among the labouring classes themselves. No family need be reduced +to suffering on 36s. a week. But unfortunately the differences of income +among the working-classes are proportionately nearly as great as among the +well-to-do classes. It is not merely the difference between the wages of +skilled and unskilled labour; the 50s. per week of the high-class +engineer, or typographer, and the 1s. 2d. per diem of the sandwich-man, or +the difference between the wages of men and women workers. There is a more +important cause of difference than these. When the average income of a +working family is named, it must not be supposed that this represents the +wage of the father of the family alone. Each family contains about 21/4 +workers on an average. This is a fact, the significance of which is +obvious. In some families, the father and mother, and one or two of the +children, will be contributors to the weekly income; in other cases, the +burden of maintaining a large family may be thrown entirely on the +shoulders of a single worker, perhaps the widowed mother. If we reckon +that the average wage of a working man is about 24s., that of a working +woman 15s., we realize the strain which the loss of the male bread-winner +throws on the survivor.</p> + +<p>In looking at the gradations of income among the working-classes, it must +be borne in mind that as you go lower down in the standard of living, each +drop in money income represents a far more than proportionate increase of +the pressure of poverty. Halve the income of a rich man, you oblige him to +retrench; he must give up his yacht, his carriage, or other luxuries; but +such retrenchment, though it may wound his pride, will not cause him great +personal discomfort. But halve the income of a well-paid mechanic, and you +reduce him and his family at once to the verge of starvation. A drop from +25s. to 12s. 6d. a week involves a vastly greater sacrifice than a drop +from £500 to £250 a year. A working-class family, however comfortably it +may live with a full contingent of regular workers, is almost always +liable, by sickness, death, or loss of employment, to be reduced in a few +weeks to a position of penury.</p> + +<p><b>§ 3. Measurement of East London Poverty.</b>--This brief account of the +inequality of incomes has brought us by successive steps down to the real +object of our inquiry, the amount and the intensity of poverty. For it is +not inequality of income, but actual suffering, which moves the heart of +humanity. What do we know of the numbers and the life of those who lie +below the average, and form the lower orders of the working-classes?</p> + +<p>Some years ago the civilized world was startled by the <i>Bitter Cry of +Outcast London</i>, and much trouble has been taken of late to gauge the +poverty of London. A host of active missionaries are now at work, engaged +in religious, moral, and sanitary teaching, in charitable relief, or in +industrial organization. But perhaps the most valuable work has been that +which has had no such directly practical object in view, but has engaged +itself in the collection of trustworthy information. Mr Charles Booth's +book, <i>The Labour and Life of the People</i>, has an importance far in +advance of that considerable attention which it has received. Its +essential value is not merely that it supplies, for the first time, a +large and carefully collected fund of facts for the formation of sound +opinions and the explosion of fallacies, but that it lays down lines of a +new branch of social study, in the pursuit of which the most delicate +intellectual interests will be identified with a close and absorbing +devotion to the practical issues of life.</p> + +<p>In the study of poverty, the work of Mr. Booth and his collaborators may +truly rank as an epoch-making work.</p> + +<p>For the purpose we have immediately before us, the measurement of poverty, +the figures supplied in this book are invaluable. Considerations of space +will compel us to confine our attention to such figures as will serve to +mark the extent and meaning of city poverty in London. But though, as will +be seen, the industrial causes of London poverty are in some respects +peculiar, there is every reason to believe that the extent and nature of +poverty does not widely differ in all large centres of population.</p> + +<p>The area which Mr. Booth places under microscopic observation covers +Shoreditch, Bethnal Green, Whitechapel, St. George's in the East, Stepney, +Mile End, Old Town, Poplar, Hackney, and comprises a population 891,539. +Of these no less than 316,000, or 35 per cent, belong to families whose +weekly earnings amount to less than 21s. This 35 per cent, compose the +"poor," according to the estimate of Mr. Booth, and it will be worth while +to note the social elements which constitute this class. The "poor" are +divided into four classes or strata, marked A, B, C, D. At the bottom +comes A, a body of some 11,000, or 11/4 per cent, of hopeless, helpless city +savages, who can only be said by courtesy to belong to the +"working-classes" "Their life is the life of savages, with vicissitudes of +extreme hardship and occasional excess. Their food is of the coarsest +description, and their only luxury is drink. It is not easy to say how +they live; the living is picked up, and what is got is frequently shared; +when they cannot find 3d. for their night's lodging, unless favourably +known to the deputy, they are turned out at night into the street, to +return to the common kitchen in the morning. From these come the battered +figures who slouch through the streets, and play the beggar or the bully, +or help to foul the record of the unemployed; these are the worst class of +corner-men, who hang round the doors of public-houses, the young men who +spring forward on any chance to earn a copper, the ready materials for +disorder when occasion serves. They render no useful service; they create +no wealth; more often they destroy it."[<a href="#fn3">3</a>]</p> + +<p>Next comes B, a thicker stratum of some 100,000, or 11½ per cent., largely +composed of shiftless, broken-down men, widows, deserted women, and their +families, dependent upon casual earnings, less than 18s. per week, and +most of them incapable of regular, effective work. Most of the social +wreckage of city life is deposited in this stratum, which presents the +problem of poverty in its most perplexed and darkest form. For this class +hangs as a burden on the shoulders of the more capable classes which stand +just above it. Mr. Booth writes of it--</p> + +<p>"It may not be too much to say that if the whole of class B were swept out +of existence, all the work they do could be done, together with their own +work, by the men, women, and children of classes C and D; that all they +earn and spend might be earned, and could very easily be spent, by the +classes above them; that these classes, and especially class C, would be +immensely better off, while no class, nor any industry, would suffer in +the least." Class C consists of 75,000, or 8 per cent., subsisting on +intermittent earnings of from 18s. to 21s. for a moderate-sized family. +Low-skilled labourers, poorer artizans, street-sellers, small shopkeepers, +largely constitute this class, the curse of whose life is not so much low +wages as irregularity of employment, and the moral and physical +degradation caused thereby. Above these, forming the top stratum of +"poor," comes a large class, numbering 129,000, or 14½ per cent., +dependent upon small regular earnings of from 18s. to 21s., including many +dock-and water-side labourers, factory and warehouse hands, car-men, +messengers, porters, &c. "What they have comes in regularly, and except in +times of sickness in the family, actual want rarely presses, unless the +wife drinks."</p> + +<p>"As a general rule these men have a hard struggle, but they are, as a +body, decent, steady men, paying their way and bringing up their children +respectably" (p. 50).</p> + +<p>Mr Booth, in confining the title "poor" to this 35 per cent. of the +population of East London, takes, perhaps for sufficient reasons, a +somewhat narrow interpretation of the term. For in the same district no +less than 377,000, or over 42 per cent. of the inhabitants, live upon +earnings varying from 21s. to 30s. per week. So long as the father is in +regular work, and his family is not too large, a fair amount of material +comfort may doubtless be secured by those who approach the maximum. But +such an income leaves little margin for saving, and innumerable forms of +mishaps will bring such families down beneath the line of poverty. Though +the East End contains more poverty than some other parts of London the +difference is less than commonly supposed. Mr Booth estimated that of the +total population of the metropolis 30.7 per cent. were living in poverty. +The figure for York is placed by Mr Seebohm Rowntree[<a href="#fn4">4</a>] at the slightly +lower figure of 27.84. These figures (in both cases exclusive of the +population of the workhouses and other public or private institutions) may +be taken as fairly representative of life in English industrial cities. A +recent investigation of an ordinary agricultural village in +Bedfordshire[<a href="#fn5">5</a>] discloses a larger amount of poverty--no less than 34.3 +per cent. of the population falling below the income necessary for +physical efficiency.</p> + +<p><b>§ 4. Prices for the Poor.</b>--These figures relating to money income do +not bring home to us the evil of poverty. It is not enough to know what +the weekly earnings of a poor family are, we must inquire what they can +buy with them. Among the city poor, the evil of low wages is intensified +by high prices. In general, the poorer the family the higher the prices it +must pay for the necessaries of life. Rent is naturally the first item in +the poor man's budget. Here it is evident that the poor pay in proportion +to their poverty. The average rent in many large districts of East London +is 4s. for one room, 7s. for two. In the crowded parts of Central London +the figures stand still higher; 6s. is said to be a moderate price for a +single room.[<a href="#fn6">6</a>] Mr. Marchant Williams, an Inspector of Schools for the +London School Board, finds that 86 per cent. of the dwellers in certain +poor districts of London pay more than one-fifth of their income in rent; +46 per cent. paying from one-half to one-quarter; 42 per cent. paying from +one-quarter to one-fifth; and only 12 per cent. paying less than one-fifth +of their weekly wage.[<a href="#fn7">7</a>] The poor from their circumstances cannot pay +wholesale prices for their shelter, but must buy at high retail prices by +the week; they are forced to live near their work (workmen's trains are +for the aristocracy of labour), and thus compete keenly for rooms in the +centres of industry; more important still, the value of central ground for +factories, shops, and ware-houses raises to famine price the habitable +premises. It is notorious that overcrowded, insanitary "slum" property is +the most paying form of house property to its owners. The part played by +rent in the problems of poverty can scarcely be over-estimated. Attempts +to mitigate the evil by erecting model dwellings have scarcely touched the +lower classes of wage-earners. The labourer prefers a room in a small +house to an intrinsically better accommodation in a barrack-like building. +Other than pecuniary motives enter in. The "touchiness of the lower class" +causes them to be offended by the very sanitary regulations designed for +their benefit.</p> + +<p>But "shelter" is not the only thing for which the poor pay high. +Astounding facts are adduced as to the prices paid by the poor for common +articles of consumption, especially for vegetables, dairy produce, +groceries, and coal. The price of fresh vegetables, such as carrots, +parsnips, &c., in East London is not infrequently ten times the price at +which the same articles can be purchased wholesale from the growers.[<a href="#fn8">8</a>]</p> + +<p>Hence arises the popular cry against the wicked middleman who stands +between producer and consumer, and takes the bulk of the profit. There is +much want of thought shown in this railing against the iniquities of the +middleman. It is true that a large portion of the price paid by the poor +goes to the retail distributor, but we should remember that the labour of +distribution under present conditions and with existing machinery is very +great. We have no reason to believe that the small retailers who sell to +the poor die millionaires. The poor, partly of necessity, partly by habit, +make their purchases in minute quantities. A single family has been known +to make seventy-two distinct purchases of tea within seven weeks, and the +average purchases of a number of poor families for the same period +amounted to twenty-seven. Their groceries are bought largely by the ounce, +their meat or fish by the half-penn'orth, their coal by the cwt., or even +by the lb. Undoubtedly they pay for these morsels a price which, if duly +multiplied, represents a much higher sum than their wealthier neighbours +pay for a much better article. But the small shopkeeper has a high rent to +pay; he has a large number of competitors, so that the total of his +business is not great; the actual labour of dispensing many minute +portions is large; he is often himself a poor man, and must make a large +profit on a small turn-over in order to keep going; he is not infrequently +kept waiting for his money, for the amount of credit small shopkeepers +will give to regular customers is astonishing. For all these, and many +other reasons, it is easy to see that the poor man must pay high prices. +Even his luxuries, his beer and tobacco, he purchases at exorbitant rates.</p> + +<p>It is sometimes held sufficient to reply that the poor are thoughtless and +extravagant. And no doubt this is so. But it must also be remembered that +the industrial conditions under which these people live, necessitate a +hand-to-mouth existence, and themselves furnish an education in +improvidence.</p> + +<p><b>§ 5. Housing and Food Supply of the Poor.</b>--Once more, out of a low +income the poor pay high prices for a bad article. The low physical +condition of the poorest city workers, the high rate of mortality, +especially among children, is due largely to the <i>quality</i> of the food, +drink, and shelter which they buy. On the quality of the rooms for which +they pay high rent it is unnecessary to dwell. Ill-constructed, +unrepaired, overcrowded, destitute of ventilation and of proper sanitary +arrangements, the mass of low class city tenements finds few apologists. +The Royal Commission on Housing of the Working Classes thus deals with the +question of overcrowding--</p> + +<p>"The evils of overcrowding, especially in London, are still a public +scandal, and are becoming in certain localities a worse scandal than they +ever were. Among adults, overcrowding causes a vast amount of suffering +which could be calculated by no bills of mortality, however accurate. The +general deterioration in the health of the people is a worse feature of +overcrowding even than the encouragement by it of infectious disease. It +has the effect of reducing their stamina, and thus producing consumption +and diseases arising from general debility of the system whereby life is +shortened." "In Liverpool, nearly one-fifth of the squalid houses where +the poor live in the closest quarters are reported to be always infected, +that is to say, the seat of infectious diseases."</p> + +<p>To apply the name of "home" to these dens is a sheer abuse of words. What +grateful memories of tender childhood, what healthy durable associations, +what sound habits of life can grow among these unwholesome and insecure +shelters?</p> + +<p>The city poor are a wandering tribe. The lack of fixed local habitation is +an evil common to all classes of city dwellers. But among the lower +working-classes "flitting" is a chronic condition. The School Board +visitor's book showed that in a representative district of Bethnal Green, +out of 1204 families, no less than 530 had removed within a twelvemonth, +although such an account would not include the lowest and most "shifty" +class of all. Between November 1885 and July 1886 it was found that 20 per +cent. of the London electorate had changed residence. To what extent the +uncertain conditions of employment impose upon the poor this changing +habitation cannot be yet determined; but the absence of the educative +influence of a fixed abode is one of the most demoralizing influences in +the life of the poor. The reversion to a nomad condition is a retrograde +step in civilization the importance of which can hardly be exaggerated. +When we bear in mind that these houses are also the workshop of large +numbers of the poor, and know how the work done in the crowded, tainted +air of these dens brings as an inevitable portion of its wage, physical +feebleness, disease, and an early death, we recognize the paramount +importance of that aspect of the problem of poverty which is termed "The +Housing of the Poor."</p> + +<p>So much for the quality of the shelter for which the poor pay high +prices. Turn to their food. In the poorest parts of London it is scarcely +possible for the poor to buy pure food. Unfortunately the prime +necessaries of life are the very things which lend themselves most easily +to successful adulteration. Bread, sugar, tea, oil are notorious subjects +of deception. Butter, in spite of the Margarine Act, it is believed, the +poor can seldom get. But the systematic poisoning of alcoholic liquors +permitted under a licensing System is the most flagrant example of the +evil. There is some evidence to show that the poorer class of workmen do +not consume a very large quantity of strong drink. But the vile character +of the liquor sold to them acts on an ill-fed, unwholesome body as a +poisonous irritant. We are told that "the East End dram-drinker has +developed a new taste; it is for fusil-oil. It has even been said that +ripe old whisky ten years old, drank in equal quantities, would probably +import a tone of sobriety to the densely-populated quarters of East +London."[<a href="#fn9">9</a>]</p> + +<p><b>§ 6. Irregularity of work.</b>--One more aspect of city poverty demands a +word. Low wages are responsible in large measure for the evils with which +we have dealt. In the life of the lower grades of labour there is a worse +thing than low wages--that is irregular employment. The causes of such +irregularity, partly inherent in the nature of the work, partly the +results of trade fluctuations, will appear later. In gauging poverty we +are only concerned with the fact. This irregularity of work is not in its +first aspect so much a deficiency of work, but rather a maladjustment +While on the one hand we see large classes of workers who are habitually +overworked, men and women, tailors or shirt-makers in Whitechapel, 'bus +men, shop-assistants, even railway-servants, toiling twelve, fourteen, +fifteen, or even in some cases eighteen hours a day, we see at the same +time and in the same place numbers of men and women seeking work and +finding none. Thus are linked together the twin maladies of over-work and +the unemployed. It is possible that among the comfortable classes there +are still to be found those who believe that the unemployed consist only +of the wilfully idle and worthless residuum parading a false grievance to +secure sympathy and pecuniary aid, and who hold that if a man really wants +to work he can always do so. This idle theory is contradicted by abundant +facts. The official figures published by the Board of Trade gives the +average percentage of unemployed in the Trade Unions of the skilled trades +as follows. To the general average we have appended for comparison the +average for the shipbuilding and boiler-making trades, so as to illustrate +the violence of the oscillations in a fluctuating trade:--</p> +<table summary="average percentage of unemployed in the Trade Unions"> +<tr><th></th><th> General per cent. </th><th>Ship-building, etc.</th></tr> + +<tr><td>1884</td><td style="text-align:center">7.15</td><td style="text-align:center">20.8</td></tr> +<tr><td>1885</td><td style="text-align:center">8.55</td><td style="text-align:center">22.2</td></tr> +<tr><td>1886</td><td style="text-align:center">9.55</td><td style="text-align:center">21.6</td></tr> +<tr><td>1887</td><td style="text-align:center">7.15</td><td style="text-align:center">16.7</td></tr> +<tr><td>1888</td><td style="text-align:center">4.15</td><td style="text-align:center"> 7.3</td></tr> +<tr><td>1889</td><td style="text-align:center">2.05</td><td style="text-align:center"> 2.0</td></tr> +<tr><td>1890</td><td style="text-align:center">2.10</td><td style="text-align:center"> 3.4</td></tr> +<tr><td>1891</td><td style="text-align:center">3.40</td><td style="text-align:center"> 5.7</td></tr> +<tr><td>1892</td><td style="text-align:center">6.20</td><td style="text-align:center">10.9</td></tr> +<tr><td>1893</td><td style="text-align:center">7.70</td><td style="text-align:center">17.0</td></tr> +<tr><td>1894</td><td style="text-align:center">7.70</td><td style="text-align:center">16.2</td></tr> +<tr><td>1895</td><td style="text-align:center">6.05</td><td style="text-align:center">13.0</td></tr> +<tr><td>1896</td><td style="text-align:center">3.50</td><td style="text-align:center"> 9.5</td></tr> +<tr><td>1897</td><td style="text-align:center">3.65</td><td style="text-align:center"> 8.6</td></tr> +<tr><td>1898</td><td style="text-align:center">3.15</td><td style="text-align:center"> 4.7</td></tr> +<tr><td>1899</td><td style="text-align:center">2.40</td><td style="text-align:center"> 2.1</td></tr> +<tr><td>1900</td><td style="text-align:center">2.85</td><td style="text-align:center"> 2.3</td></tr> +<tr><td>1901</td><td style="text-align:center">3.80</td><td style="text-align:center"> 3.6</td></tr> +<tr><td>1902</td><td style="text-align:center">4.60</td><td style="text-align:center"> 8.3</td></tr> +<tr><td>1903</td><td style="text-align:center">5.30</td><td style="text-align:center">11.7</td></tr> +</table> +<p>These figures make it quite evident that the permanent causes of irregular +employment, e.g., weather in the building and riverside trades, season in +the dressmaking and confectionery trades, and the other factors of leakage +and displacement which throw out of work from time to time numbers of +workers, are, taken in the aggregate, responsible only for a small +proportion of the unemployment in the staple trades of the country.</p> + +<p>The significance of such figures as these can scarcely be over-estimated. +Although it might fairly be urged that the lowest dip in trade depression +truly represented the injury inflicted on the labouring-classes by trade +fluctuations, we will omit the year 1886, and take 1887 as a +representative period of ordinary trade depression. The figures quoted +above are supported by Trade Union statistics, which show that in that +year among the strongest Trade Unions in the country, consisting of the +picked men in each trade, no less than 71 in every 1000, or over 7 per +cent., were continuously out of work. That this was due to their inability +to get work, and not to their unwillingness to do it, is placed beyond +doubt by the fact that they were, during this period of enforced idleness, +supported by allowances paid by their comrades. Indeed, the fact that in +1890 the mass of unemployed was almost absorbed, disposes once for all of +the allegation that the unemployed in times of depression consist of +idlers who do not choose to work. Turning to the year 1887, there is every +reason to believe that where 7 per cent, are unemployed in the picked, +skilled industries of a country, where the normal supply of labour is +actually limited by Union regulations, the proportion in unskilled or less +organized industries is much larger. It is probable that 12 per cent, is +not an excessive figure to take as the representative of the average +proportion of unemployed. In the recent official returns of wages in +textile industries, it is admitted that 10 per cent, should be taken off +from the nominal wages for irregularity of employment. Moreover, it is +true (with certain exceptions) that the lower you go down in the ranks of +labour and of wages, the more irregular is the employment. To the pressure +of this evil among the very poor in East London notice has already been +drawn. We have seen how Mr. Booth finds one whole stratum of 100,000 +people, who from an industrial point of view are worse than worthless. We +have no reason to conclude that East London is much worse in this respect +than other centres of population, and the irregularity of country +employment is increasing every year. Are we to conclude then that of the +thirteen millions composing the "working-classes" in this country, nearly +two millions are liable at any time to figure as waste or surplus labour? +It looks like it. We are told that the movements of modern industry +necessitate the existence of a considerable margin supply of labour. The +figures quoted above bear out this statement. But a knowledge of the cause +does not make the fact more tolerable. We are not at present concerned +with the requirements of the industrial machine, but with the quantity of +hopeless, helpless misery these requirements indicate. The fact that under +existing conditions the unemployed seem inevitable should afford the +strongest motive for a change in these conditions. Modern life has no more +tragical figure than the gaunt, hungry labourer wandering about the +crowded centres of industry and wealth, begging in vain for permission to +share in that industry, and to contribute to that wealth; asking in return +not the comforts and luxuries of civilized life, but the rough food and +shelter for himself and family, which would be practically secured to him +in the rudest form of savage society.</p> + +<p>Occasionally one of these sensational stories breaks into the light of +day, through the public press, and shocks society at large, until it +relapses into the consoling thought that such cases are exceptional. But +those acquainted closely with the condition of our great cities know that +there are thousands of such silent tragedies being played around us. In +England the recorded deaths from starvation are vastly more numerous than +in any other country. In 1880 the number for England is given as 101. In +1902 the number for London alone is 34. This is, of course, no adequate +measure of the facts. For every recorded case there will be a hundred +unrecorded cases where starvation is the practical immediate cause of +death. The death-rate of children in the poorer districts of London is +found to be nearly three times that which obtains among the richer +neighbourhoods. Contemporary history has no darker page than that which +records not the death-rate of children, but the conditions of child-life +in our great cities. In setting down such facts and figures as may assist +readers to adequately realize the nature and extent of poverty, it has +seemed best to deal exclusively with the material aspects of poverty, +which admit of some exactitude of measurement. The ugly and degrading +surroundings of a life of poverty, the brutalizing influences of the +unceasing struggle for bare subsistence, the utter absence of reasonable +hope of improvement; in short, the whole subjective side of poverty is not +less terrible because it defies statistics.</p> + +<p><b>§ 7. Figures and Facts of Pauperism.</b>--Since destitution is the lowest +form of poverty, it is right to append to this statement of the facts of +poverty some account of pauperism. Although chiefly owing to a stricter +and wiser administration of the Poor Law in relation to outdoor relief, +the number of paupers has steadily and considerably decreased, both in +proportion to the population and absolutely, the number of those unable to +support themselves is still deplorably large. In 1881 no less than one in +ten of the total recorded deaths took place in workhouses, public +hospitals, and lunatic asylums. In London the proportion is much greater +and has increased during recent years. In 1901 out of 78,229 deaths in +London, 13,009 took place in workhouses, 10,643 in public hospitals, and +349 in public asylums, making a total of 24,001. Comparing these figures +with the total number of deaths, we find that in the richest city of the +world 32.5 per cent., or one in three of the inhabitants, dies dependent +on public charity. This estimate does not include those in receipt of +outdoor relief. Moreover, it is an estimate which includes all classes. +The proportion, taking the working-classes alone, must be even higher.</p> + +<p>Turning from pauper deaths to pauper lives, the condition of the poor, +though improved, is far from satisfactory. The agricultural labourer in +many parts of England still looks to the poorhouse as a natural and +necessary asylum for old age. Even the diminution effected in outdoor +relief is not evidence of a corresponding decrease in the pressure of +want. The diminution is chiefly due to increased strictness in the +application of the Poor Law, a policy which in a few cases such as +Whitechapel, Stepney, St. George-in-the-East, has succeeded in the +practical extermination of the outdoor pauper. This is doubtless a wise +policy, but it supplies no evidence of decrease in poverty. It would be +possible by increased strictness of conditions to annihilate outdoor +pauperism throughout the country at a single blow, and to reduce the +number of indoor paupers by making workhouse life unendurable. But such a +course would obviously furnish no satisfactory evidence of the decline of +poverty, or even of destitution. Moreover, in regarding the decline of +pauperism, we must not forget to take into account the enormous recent +growth of charitable institutions and funds which now perform more +effectually and more humanely much of the relief work which formerly +devolved upon the Poor Law. The income of charitable London institutions +engaged in promoting the physical well-being of the people amounted in +1902-3 to about four and a half millions. The relief afforded by Friendly +Societies and Trade Unions to sick and out-of-work members, furnishes a +more satisfactory evidence of the growth of providence and independence +among all but the lowest classes of workers.</p> + +<p>The improvement exhibited in figures of pauperism is entirely confined to +outdoor relief. The number of workers who, by reason of old age or other +infirmity, are compelled to take refuge in the poorhouses, bears a larger +proportion to the total population than it did a generation ago. In 1876-7 +the mean number of indoor paupers for England and Wales was 130,337, or +5.4 per 1000 of the population; in 1902-3 the number had risen to 203,604, +or 6.2 per 1000 of the population. This rise of indoor pauperism has +indeed been coincident with a larger decline of outdoor pauperism through +this same period. But the growth of thrift in the working-classes, the +increase of the machinery of charity, the rise of the average of +wages--these causes have been wholly inoperative to check the growth of +indoor pauperism. Nor, if one may trust so competent an authority as Mr +Fowle, is this explained by any tendency of increased strictness in the +administration of outdoor relief, to drive would-be recipients of outdoor +relief into the workhouse.</p> + +<p>The figures of London pauperism yield still more strange results. Here, +though the percentage of paupers to population has shown a steady decline, +the process has been so much slower than in the country that there has +been no actual fall in the number of paupers. Throughout the whole period +from 1861 to 1896 the numbers have remained about stationary, after which +they show a considerable rise. The alarming feature in this table is the +rapid rise of indoor pauperism, far more rapid than the growth of London's +population. From 1861-2 the number of indoor paupers has grown by steady +increase from 26,667 to 61,432 in 1902-3, or from a ratio of 9.5 to one of +13.4 per 1000. While the proportion of outdoor paupers per 1000 is little +more than half that of the country as a whole, the proportion of indoor +paupers is more than twice as great. Roughly speaking, London, with less +than one-sixth of the population of the country, contains nearly one-third +of the indoor pauperism. This fact alone throws some light upon the nature +of city life. A close analysis of metropolitan workhouses discloses the +fact that the aged, infirm, and children composed the vast majority of +inmates. A very small percentage was found to be capable of actual work. +About one-third of the paupers are children, about one-tenth lunatics, +about one-half are aged, infirm, or sick. This leaves one-fifteenth as the +proportion of able-bodied male and female adults. As a commentary on the +administration of the Poor Law, these figures are eminently satisfactory, +for they prove that people who can support themselves do not in fact +obtain from public relief. But the picture has its dark side. It shows +that a very large proportion of our workers, when their labour-power has +been drained out of them, instead of obtaining a well-earned honourable +rest, are obliged to seek refuge in that asylum which they and their class +hate and despise. Whereas only 5 per cent of the population under 60 years +are paupers, the proportion is 40 per cent in the case of those over 70. +Taking the working-class only out of a population of 952,000 above the age +of 65, no fewer than 402,000, or over 42 per cent, obtained relief in +1892. In London 22½ per cent of the aged poor are indoor paupers. The +hardness of the battle of life is attested by this number of old men, and +old women, who in spite of a hard-working life are compelled to end their +days as the recipients of public charity.</p> + +<p><b>§ 8. The Diminution of Poverty in the last half century.</b>--In order to +realize the true importance of our subject, it is necessary not only to +have some measurement of the extent and nature of poverty, but to furnish +ourselves with some answer to the question, Is this poverty increasing or +diminishing? Until a few years ago it was customary not only for platform +agitators, but for thoughtful writers on the subject, to assume that "the +rich are getting richer, and the poor are getting poorer." This formula +was ripening into a popular creed when a number of statistical inquiries +choked it. Prof. Leone Levi, Mr. Giffen, and a number of careful +investigators, showed a vast improvement in the industrial condition of +the working-classes during the last half century. It was pointed out that +money wages had risen considerably in all kinds of employment; that prices +had generally fallen, so that the rise in real wages was even greater; +that they worked shorter hours; consumed more and better food; lived +longer lives; committed fewer crimes; and lastly, saved more money. The +general accuracy of these statements is beyond question. The industrial +conditions of the working-classes as a whole shows a great advance during +the last half century. Although the evidence upon this point is by no +means conclusive, it seems probable that the income of the wage-earning +classes as an aggregate is growing even more rapidly than that of the +capitalist classes. Income-tax returns indicate that the proportion of the +population living on an acknowledged income of more than £150 a year is +much larger than it was a generation ago. In 1851 the income-tax-paying +population amounted to 1,500,000; in 1879-80 the number had risen to +4,700,000. At the same time the average of these incomes showed a +considerable fall, for while in 1851 the gross income assessed was +£272,000,000, in 1879-80 it had only risen to £577,000,000.</p> + +<p>Though the method of assessing companies as if they were single persons +renders it impossible to obtain accurate information in recent years as to +the number of persons enjoying incomes of various sizes, a comparison made +by Mr Mulhall of incomes in 1867 and 1895 indicates that, while the lower +middle-class is growing rapidly, the number of the rich is growing still +more rapidly. While incomes of £100 to £300 have grown by a little more +than 50 per cent., those from £300 to £1000 have nearly doubled, those +between £1000 and £5000 have more than doubled, and incomes over £5000 +have more than trebled.</p> + +<p>But though such comparisons justify the conclusion that the upper grades +of skilled labour have made considerable advances, and that the lower +grades of regular unskilled labourers have to a less degree shared in this +advance, they do not warrant the optimist conclusion often drawn from +them, that poverty is a disease which left alone will cure itself, and +which, in point of fact, is curing itself rapidly. Before we consent to +accept the evidence of improvement in the average condition of the +labouring classes during the last half century as sufficient evidence to +justify this opinion we ought to pay regard to the following +considerations--</p> + +<p>1. It should be remembered that a comparison between England of the +present day with England in the decade 1830-1840 is eminently favourable +to a theory of progress. The period from 1790 to 1840 was the most +miserable epoch in the history of the English working-classes. Much of the +gain must be rightly regarded rather as a recovery from sickness, than as +a growth in normal health. If the decade 1730-1740, for example, were to +be taken instead, the progress of the wage-earner, especially in southern +England, would be by no means so obvious. The southern agricultural +labourer and the whole body of low-skilled workers were probably in most +respects as well off a century and a half ago as they are to-day.</p> + +<p>2. The great fall of prices, due to cheapening of production and of +transport during the last twenty years, benefits the poor far less than +the rich. For, while the prices of most comforts and luxuries have fallen +very greatly, the same is not true of most necessaries. The gain to the +workers is chiefly confined to food prices, which have fallen some 40 per +cent since 1880. Taking the retail prices of foods consumed by London +working-class families we find that since 1880 the price of flour has +fallen about 60 per cent., bread falling a little more than half that +amount; the prices of beef and mutton have fallen nearly to the same +extent as flour, though bacon stands in 1903 just about where it stood in +1880. Sugar exhibits a deep drop until 1898, rising afterwards in +consequence of the war tax and the Sugar Convention; tea shows a not +considerable drop. Other groceries, such as coffee and cocoa, and certain +vegetables are cheaper. A careful inquiry into clothing shows a trifling +fall of price for articles of the same quality, while the introduction of +cheaper qualities has enabled workers to effect some saving here. Against +these must be set a slight rise in price of dairy produce, a considerable +rise in fuel, and a large rise in rent. A recent estimate of the Board of +Trade, having regard to food, rent, clothing, fuel, and lighting as chief +ingredients of working-class expenditure, indicates that 100 shillings +will in 1900 do the work for which 120 shillings were required in 1880. +The great fall of prices has been in the period 1880-1895, since then +prices all round (except in clothing) show a considerable rise.</p> + +<p>In turning from the working-classes as a whole to the poor, it becomes +evident that the most substantial benefit they have received from falling +prices is cheap bread. Cheap groceries and lighting are also gains, though +it must be remembered that the modes of purchase to which the very poor +are driven to have recourse minimize these gains. On clothes the poor +spend a very small proportion of their incomes, the very poor virtually +nothing. In the case of the lowest classes of the towns, it is probable +that the rise in rents offsets all the advantages of cheapened prices for +other commodities.</p> + +<p>The importance of the bearing of this fact is obvious. Even were it +clearly proved that the wages of the working-classes were increasing +faster in proportion than the incomes of the wealthier classes, it would +not be thereby shown that the standard of comfort in the former was rising +as fast as the standard of comfort in the latter. If we confine the term +"poor" to the lower grades of wage-earners, it would probably be correct +to say that the riches of the rich had increased at a more rapid rate than +that at which the poverty of the poor had diminished. Thus the width of +the gap between riches and poverty would be absolutely greater than +before. But, after all, such absolute measurements as these are uncertain, +and have little other than a rhetorical value. What is important to +recognize is this, that though the proportion of the very poor to the +whole population has somewhat diminished, never in the whole history of +England, excepting during the disastrous period at the beginning of this +century, has the absolute number of the very poor been so great as it is +now. Moreover, the massing of the poor in large centres of population, +producing larger areas of solid poverty, presents new dangers and new +difficulties in the application of remedial measures.</p> + +<p>However we may estimate progress, one fact we must recognize, that the +bulk of our low-skilled workers do not yet possess a secure supply of the +necessaries of life. Few will feel inclined to dispute what Professor +Marshall says on this point--</p> + +<p>"The necessaries for the efficiency of an ordinary agricultural or of an +unskilled town labourer and his family, in England, in this generation, +may be said to consist of a well-drained dwelling with several rooms, warm +clothing, with some changes of underclothing, pure water, a plentiful +supply of cereal food, with a moderate allowance of meat and milk, and a +little tea, &c.; some education, and some recreation; and lastly, +sufficient freedom for his wife from other work to enable her to perform +properly her maternal and her household duties. If in any district +unskilled labour is deprived of any of these things, its efficiency will +suffer in the same way as that of a horse which is not properly tended, or +a steam-engine which has an inadequate supply of coals."[<a href="#fn10">10</a>]</p> + +<p>There is one final point of deep significance. So far we have endeavoured +to measure poverty by the application of a standard of actual material +comfort. But this, while furnishing a fair gauge of the deprivation +suffered by the poor, does not enable us to measure it as a social danger. +There is a depth of poverty, of misery, of ignorance, which is not +dangerous because it has no outlook, and is void of hope. Abate the +extreme stress of poverty, give the poor a glimpse of a more prosperous +life, teach them to know their power, and the danger of poverty increases. +This is what De Tocqueville meant when writing of France, before the +Revolution, he said, "According as prosperity began to dawn in France, +men's minds appeared to become more unquiet and disturbed; public +discontent was sharpened, hatred of all ancient institutions went on +increasing, till the nation was visibly on the verge of a revolution. One +might almost say that the French found their condition all the more +intolerable according as it became better."[<a href="#fn11">11</a>]</p> + +<p>So in England the change of industrial conditions which has massed the +poor in great cities, the spread of knowledge by compulsory education, +cheap newspapers, libraries, and a thousand other vehicles of knowledge, +the possession and growing appreciation of political power, have made +poverty more self-conscious and the poor more discontented. By striving to +educate, intellectually, morally, sanitarily, the poor, we have made them +half-conscious of many needs they never recognized before. They were once +naked, and not ashamed, but we have taught them better. We have raised the +standard of the requirements of a decent human life, but we have not +increased to a corresponding degree their power to attain them. If by +poverty is meant the difference between felt wants and the power to +satisfy them, there is more poverty than ever. The income of the poor has +grown, but their desires and needs have grown more rapidly. Hence the +growth of a conscious class hatred, the "growing animosity of the poor +against the rich," which Mr. Barnett notes in the slums of Whitechapel. +The poor were once too stupid and too sodden for vigorous discontent, now +though their poverty may be less intense, it is more alive, and more +militant. The rate of improvement in the condition of the poor is not +quick enough to stem the current of popular discontent.</p> + +<p>Nor is it the poor alone who are stricken with discontent. Clearer thought +and saner feelings are beginning to make it evident that in the march of +true civilization no one class can remain hopelessly behind. Hence the +problems of poverty are ever pressing more and more upon the +better-hearted, keener-sighted men and women of the more fortunate +classes; they feel that <i>they</i> have no right to be contented with the +condition of the poor. The demand that a life worth living shall be made +possible for all, and that the knowledge, wealth, and energy of a nation +shall be rightly devoted to no other end than this, is the true measure +of the moral growth of a civilized community. The following picture drawn +a few years ago by Mr. Frederick Harrison shows how far we yet fall short +of such a realization--"To me at least, it would be enough to condemn +modern society as hardly an advance on slavery or serfdom, if the +permanent condition of industry were to be that which we now behold; that +90 per cent, of the actual producers of wealth have no home that they can +call their own beyond the end of a week; have no bit of soil, or so much +as a room that belongs to them; have nothing of value of any kind except +as much as will go in a cart; have the precarious chance of weekly wages +which barely suffice to keep them in health; are housed for the most part +in places that no man thinks fit for his horse; are separated by so narrow +a margin from destitution that a month of bad trade, sickness, or +unexpected loss brings them face to face with hunger and pauperism."[<a href="#fn12">12</a>]</p> +</div> + + +<div class="chapter" id="ch02"> +<h2>Chapter II.</h2> + +<h3>The Effects of Machinery on the Condition of the Working-Classes.</h3> + + + +<p><b>§ 1.Centralizing-Influence of Machinery.</b>--In seeking to understand +the nature and causes of the poverty of the lower working-classes, it is +impossible to avoid some discussion of the influence of machinery. For the +rapid and continuous growth of machinery is at once the outward visible +sign and the material agent of the great revolution which has changed the +whole face of the industrial world during the last century. With the +detailed history of this vast change we are not concerned, but only with +its effects on the industrial condition of the poor in the present day.</p> + +<p>Those who have studied in books of history the industrial and educational +condition of the mass of the working populace at the beginning of this +century, or have read such novels as <i>Shirley</i>, <i>Mary Barton</i>, and <i>Alton +Locke</i>, will not be surprised at the mingled mistrust and hatred with +which the working-classes regarded each new introduction of machinery into +the manufacturing arts. These people, having only a short life to live, +naturally took a short-sighted view of the case; having a specialized form +of skill as their only means of getting bread, they did not greet with +joy the triumphs of inventive skill which robbed this skill of its market +value. Even the more educated champions of the interests of +working-classes have often viewed with grave suspicion the rapid +substitution of machinery for hand-labour in the industrial arts. The +enormous increase of wealth-producing power given by the new machinery can +scarcely be realized. It is reckoned that fifty men with modern machinery +could do all the cotton-spinning of the whole of Lancashire a century ago. +Mr. Leone Levi has calculated that to make by hand all the yarn spun in +England in one year by the use of the self-acting mule, would take +100,000,000 men. The instruments which work this wonderful change are +called "labour-saving" machinery. From this title it may be deemed that +their first object, or at any rate their chief effect, would be to lighten +labour. It seems at first sight therefore strange to find so reasonable a +writer as John Stuart Mill declaring, "It is questionable if all the +mechanical inventions yet made have lightened the day's toil of any human +being." Yet if we confine our attention to the direct effects of +machinery, we shall acknowledge that Mill's doubt is, upon the whole, a +well founded one.</p> + +<p>According to the evidence of existing poverty adduced in the last chapter, +it would appear that the lowest classes of workers have not shared to any +considerable degree the enormous gain of wealth-producing power bestowed +by machinery. It is not our object here to discuss the right of the poorer +workers to profit by inventions due to others, but merely to indicate the +effects which the growth of machinery actually produce in this economic +condition. Let us examine the industrial effects of the growth of +machinery, so as to understand how they affect the social and economic +welfare of the working-classes.</p> + +<p><b>§ 2. Class Separation of Employer and Workmen.</b>--The first effect of +machinery is to give a new and powerful impulse to the centralizing +tendency in industry. "Civilization is economy of power, and English power +is coal," said the materialistic Baron Liebig. Coal as a generator of +steam-power demands that manufactures shall be conducted on a large scale +in particular localities. Before the day of large, expensive steam-driven +machinery, manufacture was done in scattered houses by workers who were +the owners of their simple tools, and often of the material on which they +worked; or in small workshops, where a master worked with a few journeymen +and apprentices. Machinery changed all this. It drove the workers into +large factories, and obliged them to live in concentrated masses near +their work. They no longer owned the material in which their labour was +stored, or the tools with which they worked; they had to use the material +belonging to their employer; the machinery which made their tools +valueless was also the property of the capitalist employer. Instead of +selling the products of their capital and labour to merchants or +consumers, they were compelled to sell their labour-power to the employer +as the only means of earning a livelihood. Again, the social relations +between the wealthy employer and his "hands" were quite different from +those intimate personal relations which had subsisted between the small +master and his assistants. The very size of the factory made such a social +change inevitable, the personal relation which marked medieval industry +was no longer possible. Machinery then did two things. On the one hand, it +destroyed the position of the workman as a self-sufficing industrial unit, +and made him dependent on a capitalist for employment and the means of +supporting life. On the other hand, it weakened the sense of +responsibility in the employer towards his workmen in proportion as the +dependence of the latter became more absolute.</p> + +<p>With each step in the growth of the factory system the workman became more +dependent, and the employer more irresponsible. Thus we note the first +industrial effect of machinery in the formation of two definite industrial +classes--the dependent workman, and the irresponsible employer. The term +"irresponsible" is not designed to convey any moral stigma. The industrial +employer can no more be blamed for being irresponsible than the workman +for being dependent. The terms merely express the nature of the schism +which naturally followed the triumph of machinery. Prophets like Carlyle +and Ruskin, slighting the economic causes of the change, clamoured for +"Captains of Industry," employers who should realize a moral +responsibility, and reviving a dead feudalism should assume unasked the +protectorate of their employés. The whole army of theoretic and practical +reformers might indeed be divided into two classes, according as they seek +to impose responsibility on employers, or to establish a larger +independence in the employed. But this is not the place to discuss methods +of reform. It is sufficient to note the testimony borne by all alike to +the disintegrating influence of machinery.</p> + +<p>Again, the growth of machinery makes industry more intricate. +Manufacturers no longer produce for a small known market, the fluctuations +of which are slight, and easily calculable. The element of speculation +enters into manufacture at every pore--size of market, competitors, and +price are all unknown. Machinery works at random like the blind giant it +is. Every improvement in communication, and each application of +labour-saving invention adds to the delicacy and difficulty of trade +calculations. Hence in the productive force of machinery we see the +material cause of the violent oscillations, the quiver of which never has +time to pass out of modern trade. The periodic over-production and +subsequent depression are thus closely related to machinery. It is the +result upon the workman of these fluctuations that alone concerns us.</p> + +<p>The effect of machinery upon the regularity of employment is both a +difficult and a serious subject. Its precise importance cannot be +measured. Before the era of machinery there often arose from other +reasons, especially war or failure of crops, fluctuations which worked +most disastrously on the English labourer. But in modern times we must +look to more distinctively industrial causes for an explanation of +unsteadiness of employment, and here the close competition of steam-driven +machinery plays the leading part.</p> + +<p>It must not, however, be supposed that machinery is essentially related to +unsteadiness of work. The contrary is obviously the case. Cheap tools can +be kept idle without great loss to their owner, but every stoppage in the +work of expensive machinery means a heavy loss to the capitalist. Thus the +larger the part played by expensive machinery, the stronger the personal +motive in the individual capitalist to give full regular employment to his +workmen. It is the competition of other machinery over which he has no +control that operates as the immediate cause of instability of work. Thus +the growth of machinery has a double and conflicting influence upon +regularity of employment; it punishes capital more severely for each +irregularity or stoppage, while at the same time it makes such +fluctuations more violent.</p> + +<p><b>§ 3. Displacement of Labour.</b>--But the result of machinery which has +drawn most attention is the displacement of labour. In every branch of +productive work, agriculture as well as manufacture, the conflict between +manual skill and machine skill has been waged incessantly during the last +century. Step by step all along the line the machine has ousted the +skilled manual worker, either rendering his office superfluous, or +retaining him to play the part of servant to the new machine. A good deal +of thoughtless rhetoric has been consumed upon the subject of this new +serfdom of the worker to machinery. There is no reason in the nature of +things why the work of attendance on machinery should not be more +dignified, more pleasant, and more remunerative to the working-man than +the work it displaces. To shift on to the shoulders of brute nature the +most difficult and exhausting kinds of work has been in large measure the +actual effect of machinery. There is also every reason to believe that the +large body of workers whose work consists in the regular attendance on and +manipulation of machinery have shared largely in the results of the +increased production which machinery has brought about. The present +"aristocracy of labour" is the direct creation of the machine. But our +concern lies chiefly with the weaker portion of the working-classes. How +does the constant advance of labour-saving machinery affect these? What is +the effect of machinery upon the demand for labour? In answering these +questions we have to carefully distinguish the ultimate effect upon the +labour-market as a whole, and the immediate effect upon certain portions +of the labour-supply.</p> + +<p>It is generally urged that machinery employs as many men as it displaces. +This has in fact been the earlier effect of the introduction of machinery +into the great staple industries of the country. The first effect of +mechanical production in the spinning and weaving industries was to +displace the hand-worker. But the enormous increase in demand for textile +wares caused by the fall of price, has provided work for more hands than +were employed before, especially when we bear in mind the subsidiary work +in construction of machinery, and enlarged mechanism of conveyance and +distribution. Taking a purely historical view of the question, one would +say that the labour displaced by machinery found employment in other +occupations, directly or indirectly, due to the machinery itself. Provided +the aggregate volume of commerce grows at a corresponding pace with the +labour-saving power of new machinery, the classes dependent on the use of +their labour have nothing in the long run to fear.</p> + +<p>A machine is invented which will enable one man to make as many boots as +four men made formerly, displacing the labour of three men. If the +cheapening of boots thus brought about doubles the sale of boots, one of +the three "displaced" men can find employment at the machine. If it takes +the labour of one man to keep up the production of the new machinery, and +another to assist in the distribution of the increased boot-supply, it +will be evident that the aggregate of labour has not suffered. It is, +however, clear that this exactly balanced effect by no means necessarily +happens. The expansion of consumption of commodities produced by machinery +is not necessarily such as to provide employment for the displaced labour +in the same trade or its subsidiary trades. The result of the introduction +of machinery may be a displacement of human by mechanical labour, so far +as the entire trade is concerned. The bearing of this tendency is of great +significance. Analysis of recent census returns shows that not only is +agriculture rapidly declining in the amount of employment it affords, but +that the same tendency occurs in the staple processes of manufacture: +either there is an absolute decline in employment, as in the textile and +dress trades, or the rate of increase is considerably slower than that of +the occupied class as a whole, indicating a relative decline of +importance. This tendency is greatest where machinery is most highly +developed--that is to say, machinery has kept out of these industries a +number of workers who in the ordinary condition of affairs would have been +required to assist in turning out the increased supply. The recent +increase of population has been shut out of the staple industries. They +are not therefore compelled to be idle. Employment for these has been +found chiefly in satisfying new wants. But industries engaged in supplying +new wants, i.e. new comforts or new luxuries, are obviously less steady +than those engaged in supplying the prime necessaries of ordinary life.</p> + +<p>Thus while it may be true that the ultimate effect of the introduction of +machinery is not to diminish the demand for labour, it would seem to +operate in driving a larger and larger proportion of labour to find +employment in those industries which from their nature furnish a less +steady employment. Again, though the demand for labour may in the long run +always keep pace with the growth of machinery, it is obvious that the +workers whose skill loses its value by the introduction of machinery must +always be injured. The process of displacement in particular trades has +been responsible for a large amount of actual hardship and suffering among +the working-classes.</p> + +<p>It is little comfort to the hand-worker, driven out to seek unskilled +labour by the competition of new machinery, that the world will be a +gainer in the long run. "The short run, if the expression may be used, is +often quite long enough to make the difference between a happy and a +miserable life."[<a href="#fn13">13</a>] Philosophers may reckon this evil as a part of the +inevitable price of progress, but it is none the less deplorable for that. +Society as a whole gains largely by each step; a small number of those who +can least afford to lose, are the only losers.</p> + +<p>The following quotation from an address given at the Industrial +Remuneration Congress in 1886, puts the case with admirable +clearness--"The citizens of England are too intelligent to contend against +such cheapening of production, as they know the result has been beneficial +to mankind; but many of them think it is a hardship and injustice which +deserves more attention that those whose skilled labour is often +superseded by machinery, should have to bear all the loss and poverty +through their means to earn a living being taken away from them. If there +is a real vested interest in existence which entitles to compensation in +some form when it is interfered with, it is that of a skilled producer in +his trade; for that skill has not only given him a living, but has added +to the wealth and prosperity of the community."[<a href="#fn14">14</a>] The quantity of labour +displaced by machinery and seeking new employment, forms a large section +of the margin of unemployed, and will form an important factor in the +problem of poverty.</p> + +<p><b>§ 4. Effect of Machinery upon the Character of Labour.</b> Next, what is +the general effect of machinery upon the character of the work done? The +economic gain attending all division of labour is of course based on the +improved quality and quantity of work obtained by confining each worker to +a narrow range of activity. If no great inventions in machinery took +place, we might therefore expect a constant narrowing of the activity of +each worker, which would make his work constantly more simple, and more +monotonous, and himself more and more dependent on the regular +co-operation of an increasing number of other persons over whom he had no +direct control. Without the growth of modern machinery, mere subdivision +of labour would constantly make for the slavery and the intellectual +degradation of labour. Independently of the mighty and ever-new +applications of mechanical forces, this process of subdivision or +specialization would take place, though at a slower pace. How far does +machinery degrade, demoralize, dementalize the worker?</p> + +<p>The constantly growing specialization of machinery is the most striking +industrial phenomenon of modern times. Since the worker is more and more +the attendant of machinery, does not this mean a corresponding +specialization of the worker? It would seem so at first sight, yet if we +look closer it becomes less obvious. So far as mere manual activity is +concerned, it seems probable that the general effect of machinery has been +both to narrow the range of that activity, and to take over that dexterity +which consisted in the incessant repetition of a single uniform process. +Very delicately specialized manipulation is precisely the work it pays +best to do by machinery, so that, as Professor Marshall says, "machinery +can make uniform actions more accurately and effectively than man can; and +most of the work which was done by those who were specially skilful with +the fingers a few generations ago, is now done by machinery."[<a href="#fn15">15</a>] He +illustrates from the wood and metal industries, where the process is +constantly going on.</p> + +<p>"The chief difficulty to be overcome is that of getting the machinery to +hold the material firmly in exactly the position in which the machine-tool +can be brought to bear on it in the right way, and without wasting +meanwhile too much time in taking grip of it. But this can generally be +contrived when it is worth while to spend some labour and expense on it; +and then the whole operations can often be controlled by a worker, who, +sitting before the machine, takes with the left hand a piece of wood or +metal from a heap, and puts it in a socket, while with the right he draws +down a lever, or in some other way sets the machine-tool at work, and +finally with his left hand throws on to another heap the material which +has been cut, or punched, or drilled, or planed exactly after a given +pattern."</p> + +<p>Professor Marshall summarizes the tendency in the following words--"We are +thus led to a general rule, the action of which is more prominent in some +branches of manufacture than others, but which applies to all. It is, that +any manufacturing operation that can be reduced to uniformity, so that the +same thing has to be done over and over again in the same way, is sure to +be taken over sooner or later by machinery. There may be delays and +difficulties; but if the work to be done by it is on a sufficient scale, +money and inventive power will be spent without stint on the task till it +is achieved. There still remains the responsibility for seeing that the +machinery is in good order and working smoothly; but even this task is +often made light of by the introduction of an automatic movement which +brings the machine to a stop the instant anything goes wrong."[<a href="#fn16">16</a>]</p> + +<p>Since the economy of production constantly induces machinery to take over +all work capable of being reduced to routine, it would seem to follow by a +logical necessity that the work left for the human worker was that which +was less capable of being subjected to close uniformity; that is work +requiring discretion and intelligence to be applied to each separate +action. Although the process described by Professor Marshall assigns a +constantly diminishing proportion of each productive work to the effort of +man, of that portion which remains for him to do a constantly increasing +proportion will be work of judgment and specific calculation applied to +particular cases. And this is the conclusion which Professor Marshall +himself asserts--</p> + +<p>"Since machinery does not encroach much upon that manual work which +requires judgment, while the management of machinery does require +judgment, there is a much greater demand now than formerly for +intelligence and resource. Those qualities which enable men to decide +rightly and quickly in new and difficult cases, are the common property of +the better class of workmen in almost every trade, and a person who has +acquired them in one trade can easily transfer them to another."</p> + +<p>If this is true, it signifies that the formal specialization of the +worker, which comes from his attendance on a more and more specialized +piece of machinery, does not really narrow and degrade his industrial +life, but supplies a certain education of the judgment and intelligence +which has a general value that more than compensates the apparent +specialization of manual functions. The very fact that the worker's +services are still required is a proof that his work is less automatic +(i.e. more intelligent) than that of the most delicate machinery in use; +and since the work which requires less intelligence is continually being +taken over by machinery, the work which remains would seem to require a +constantly higher average of intelligence. It is, of course, true that +there are certain kinds of work which can never be done by machinery, +because they require a little care and a little judgment, while that care +and judgment is so slight as to supply no real food for thought, or +education for the judgment. No doubt a good deal of the less responsible +work connected with machinery is of this order. Moreover, there are +certain other influences to be taken into account which affect the net +resuit of the growth of machinery upon the condition of the workers. The +physical and moral evils connected with the close confinement of large +bodies of workers, especially in the case of young persons, within the +narrow unwholesome limits of the factory or mill, though considerably +mitigated by the operation of factory legislation, are still no light +offset against the advantages which have been mentioned. The weakly, +ill-formed bodies, the unhealthy lives lived by the factory-workers in our +great manufacturing centres are facts which have an intimate connection +with the growth of machinery. But though our agricultural population, in +spite of their poverty and hard work, live longer and enjoy better +physical health than our town-workers, there are few who would deny that +the town-workers are both better educated and more intelligent. This +intelligence must in a large measure be attributed to the influences of +machinery, and of those social conditions which machinery has assisted to +establish. This intelligence must be reckoned as an adequate offset +against the formal specialization of machine-labour, and must be regarded +as an emancipative influence, giving to its possessor a larger choice in +the forms of employment. So far as a man's labour-power consists in the +mere knowledge how to tend a particular piece of machinery he may appear +to be more "enslaved" with each specialization of machinery; but so far as +his labour-power consists in the practice of discretion and intelligence, +these are qualities which render him more free.</p> + +<p>Moreover, as regards the specialization of machinery, there is one point +to be noticed which modifies to some considerable extent the effects of +subdivision upon labour. On the one hand, the tendency to split up the +manufacture of a commodity into several distinct branches, often +undertaken in different localities and with wholly different machinery, +prevents the skilled worker in one branch from passing into another, and +thus limits his practical freedom as an industrial worker. On the other +hand, this has its compensating advantage in the tendency of different +trades to adopt analogous kinds of machinery and similar processes. Thus, +while a machinist engaged in a screw manufactory is so specialized that he +cannot easily pass from one process to another process in the screw trade, +he will find himself able to obtain employment in other hardware +manufactures which employ the same or similar processes.</p> + +<p><b>§ 5. Are all Men equal before the Machine?</b>--It is sometimes said that +"all men become equal before the machine." This is only true in the sense +that there are certain large classes of machine-work which require in the +worker such attention, care, endurance, and skill as are within the power +of most persons possessed of ordinary capacities of mind and body. In such +forms of machine-work it is sometimes possible for women and children to +compete with men, and even to take their places by their ability to offer +their work at a cheaper price. The effect of machinery development in thus +throwing on the labour-market a large quantity of women and children +competitors is one of those serious questions which will occupy our +attention in a later chapter. It is here sufficient to remember that it +was this effect which led to a general recognition of the fact that +machinery and the factory system could not be trusted to an unfettered +system of <i>laissez faire</i>. The Factory Acts, and the whole body of +legislative enactments, interfering with "freedom of contract" between +employer and employed, resulted from the fact that machinery enabled women +and children to be employed in many branches of productive work from which +their physical weakness precluded them before.</p> + +<p><b>§ 6. Summary of Effects of Machinery on the Condition of the +Poor.</b>--To sum up with any degree of precision the net advantages and +disadvantages of the growth of machinery upon the working classes is +impossible. If we look not merely at the growth of money incomes, but at +the character of those products which have been most cheapened by the +introduction of machinery, we shall incline to the opinion that the net +gain in wealth-producing power due to machinery has not been equally +shared by all classes in the community.[<a href="#fn17">17</a>]</p> + +<p>The capitalist classes, so far as they can be properly severed from the +rest of the community, have gained most, as was inevitable in a change +which increased the part played by capital in production. A short-timed +monopoly of the abnormal profits of each new invention, and an enormous +expansion of the field of investment for capital must be set against the +gradual fall in the interest paid for the use of each piece of capital. +But as the advantage of each new invention has by the competition of +machinery-owners been passed on to the consumer, all other classes of the +community have gained in proportion to their consumption of +machinery-produced commodities. As machinery plays a smaller part in the +production of necessaries of life than in the production of comforts and +luxuries, it will be evident that each class gain as consumers in +proportion to its income. The poorest classes, whose consumption of +machine-productions is smallest, gain least. It cannot, however, be said, +that there is any class of regular workers who, as consumers, have been +injured by machinery. All have gained. The skilled workmen, the +aristocracy of labour, have, as has been shown, gained very considerably. +Even the poor classes of regular unskilled workmen have raised their +standard of comfort.</p> + +<p>It is in its bearing on the industrial condition of the very poor, and +those who are unable to get regular work at decent wages, that the +influence of machinery is most questionable. Violent trade fluctuations, +and a continuous displacement of hand-labour by new mechanical inventions, +keep in perpetual existence a large margin of unemployed or half-employed, +who form the most hopeless and degraded section of the city poor, and +furnish a body of reckless, starving competitors for work, who keep down +the standard of wages and of life for the lower grades of regular workers +affected by this competition.</p> +</div> + + +<div class="chapter" id="ch03"> +<h2>Chapter III.</h2> + +<h3>The Influx of Population into Large Towns.</h3> + + + +<p><b>§ 1.Movements of Population between City and Country.</b> The growth of +large cities is so closely related to the problems of poverty as to +deserve a separate treatment. The movements of population form a group of +facts more open than most others to precise measurement, and from them +much light is thrown on the condition of the working classes. That the +towns are growing at the expense of the country, is a commonplace to which +we ought to seek to attach a more definite meaning.</p> + +<p>We may trace the inflow of country-born people into the towns by looking +either at the statistics of towns, or of rural districts. But first we +ought to bear in mind one fact. Quite apart from any change in proportion +of population, there is an enormous interchange constantly taking place +between adjoining counties and districts. The general fluidity of +population has been of course vastly increased by new facilities of +communication and migration; persons are less and less bound down to the +village or county in which they were born. So we find that in England and +Wales, only 739 out of each 1000 persons were living in their native +county in 1901. In some London districts it is reckoned that more than one +quarter of the inhabitants change their address each year. So that when we +are told that in seven large Scotch towns only 524 out of each 1000 are +natives, and that in Middlesex only 35 per cent. of the male adult +population are Middlesex by birth, we are not thereby enabled to form any +conclusion as to the growth of towns.</p> + +<p>To arrive at any useful result we must compare the inflow with the +outflow. Most of the valuable information we possess on this point applies +directly to London but the same forces which are operating in London, will +be found to be at work with more or less intensity in other centres of +population in proportion to their size. Comparing the inflow of London +with its outflow, we find that in 1881 nearly twice as many strangers were +living in London as Londoners were living outside; in other words, that +London was gaining from the country at the rate of more than 10,000 per +annum. So far as London itself is concerned, the last two censuses show a +cessation of the flow, but the enormous growth of Middlesex outside the +metropolitan boundaries indicates a continuance of the centripetal +tendency.</p> + +<p>Now what does London do with this increase? Is it spread evenly over the +surface of the great city?</p> + +<p>Certainly not. And here we reach a point which has a great significance +for those interested in East London. It is clearly shown that none of this +gain goes to swell the numbers of East London. Many individual strangers +of course go there, but the outflow from East London towards the suburban +parts more than compensates the inflow. By comparing the population of +East London in 1901 with that in 1881, it is found that the increase is +far less than it ought to be, if we add the excess of births over deaths. +How is this? The answer is not far to seek, and stamps with fatal +significance one aspect of Poverty, namely, overcrowding. East London does +not gain so fast as other parts, because it will not hold any more people. +It has reached what is termed "saturation point." Introduce strangers, +and they can only stay on condition that they push out, and take the place +of, earlier residents.</p> + +<p>So we find in all districts of large towns, where poverty lies thickest, +the inflow is less than the outflow. The great stream of incomers goes to +swell the population of parts not hitherto overcrowded, thus ever +increasing the area of dense city population. Districts like Bethnal Green +and Mile End are found to show the smallest increase, while outlying +districts like West Ham grow at a prodigious pace.</p> + +<p><b>§ 2. Rate of Migration from Rural Districts.</b>--But perhaps the most +instructive point of view from which to regard the absorption of country +population by the towns is not from inside but from outside.</p> + +<p>Confining our attention for the present to migration from the country to +the town, and leaving the foreign immigration for separate treatment, we +find that the large majority of incomers to London are from agricultural +counties, such as Kent, Bucks, Herts, Devon, Lincoln, and not from +counties with large manufacturing centres of their own, like Yorkshire, +Lancashire, and Cheshire. The great manufacturing counties contribute very +slightly to the growth of London. While twelve representative agricultural +counties furnished sixteen per 1000 of the population of London in 1881, +twelve representative manufacturing counties supplied no more than +two-and-a-half per 1000.</p> + +<p>Respecting the rate of the decline of agricultural population exaggerated +statements are often made. If we take the inhabitants of rural sanitary +districts, and of urban districts below 10,000 as the rural population, we +shall find that between 1891 and 1901 the growth in the rural districts is +5.3 per cent. as compared with 15.8 per cent. for the centres of +population. Even if the urban standard be placed at a lower point, 5000, +there is still an increase of 3.5 per cent. in the rural population. If, +however, we eliminate the "home" counties and other rural districts round +the large centres of population, largely used for residential purposes, +and turn to agricultural England, we shall find that it shows a positive +decline in rural population. In the period 1891-1901 no fewer than 18 +English and Welsh counties show a decrease of rural inhabitants, taking +the higher limit of urban population. This has been going on with +increasing rapidity during the last forty years. Whereas, in 1861, 37.7 +per cent. of the population were living in the country, in 1901 the +proportion has sunk to 23 per cent.</p> + +<p>What these figures mean is that almost the whole of the natural increase +in country population is being gradually sucked into city life. Not London +alone, of course, but all the large cities have been engaged in this work +of absorption. Everywhere the centripetal forces are at work. The larger +the town the stronger the power of suction, and the wider the area over +which the attraction extends. There are three chief considerations which +affect the force with which the attraction of a large city acts upon rural +districts. The first is distance. By far the largest quantity of +new-comers into London are natives of Middlesex, Kent, Bucks, and what are +known as "the home counties." As we pass further North and West, the +per-centage gradually though not quite regularly declines. The numbers +from Durham and Northumberland on the one hand, and from Devon and +Somerset on the other are much larger than those from certain nearer +counties, such as Stafford, Yorkshire, and Lancaster. The chief +determinate of the force of attraction, distance from the centre, is in +these cases qualified by two other considerations. In the case of Durham +and Northumberland a large navigable seaboard affords greater facility and +cheapness of transport, an important factor in the mobility of labour. In +the case of Devon and Somerset the absence of the counter-attraction of +large provincial cities drives almost the whole of its migratory folk to +London, whereas in Yorkshire and Lancashire and the chief Midland +manufacturing counties the attraction of their own industrial centres acts +more powerfully in their immediate neighbourhood than the magic of London +itself. Thus, if we were to take the map of England and mark it so as to +represent the gravitation towards cities, we should find that every +remotest village was subject to a number of weaker or stronger, nearer or +more distant, forces, which were helping to draw off its rising population +into the eddy of city life. If we examined in detail a typical +agricultural county, we should probably find that while its one or two +considerable towns of 40,000 or 50,000 inhabitants were growing at +something above the average rate for the whole country, the smaller towns +of 5000 to 10,000 were only just managing to hold their own, the smallest +towns and large villages were steadily declining, while the scattered +agricultural population remained almost stationary. For it is the small +towns and the villages that suffer most, for reasons which will shortly +appear.</p> + +<p><b>§ 3. Effects of Agricultural Depression.</b>--We have next to ask what is +the nature of this attractive force which drains the country to feed the +city population? What has hitherto been spoken of as a single force will +be seen to be a complex of several forces, different in kind, acting +conjointly to produce the same result.</p> + +<p>The first readily suggests itself couched under the familiar phrase, +Agricultural Depression. It is needless here to enlarge on this big and +melancholy theme. It is evident that what is called the law of Diminishing +Return to Labour in Agriculture, the fact that every additional labourer, +upon a given surface, beyond a certain sufficient number, will be less and +less profitably employed, while the indefinite expansion of manufacture +will permit every additional hand to be utilized so as to increase the +average product of each worker, would of itself suffice to explain why in +a fairly thickly populated country like England, young labourers would +find it to their interest to leave the land and seek manufacturing work in +the cities. This would of itself explain why the country population might +stand still while the city grew. When to this natural tendency we add the +influence of the vast tracts of virgin, or cheaply cultivated soil, +brought into active competition with English agriculture by the railways +and steamships which link us with distant lands in America, Australia, and +Asia, we have a fully adequate explanation of the main force of the tide +in the movement of population. After a country has reached a certain stage +in the development of its resources, the commercial population must grow +more quickly than the agricultural, and the larger the outside area open +to supply agricultural imports the faster the change thus brought about in +the relation of city and rural population.</p> + +<p><b>§ 4. Nature of the Decline of Rural Population.</b>--It has been shown +that the absolute reduction in the number of those living in rural +districts is very small. If, however, we take the statistics of farmers +and farm-labourers in these same districts we often find a very +considerable decline. The real extent of the decline of agriculture is +somewhat concealed by the habit of including in the agricultural +population a good many people not engaged in work of agriculture. The +number of retail shopkeepers, railway men and others concerned with the +transport of goods, domestic servants, teachers, and others not directly +occupied in the production of material wealth, has considerably increased +of late years. So too, not every form of agriculture has declined. While +farmers and labourers show a decrease, market-gardeners show a large +increase, and there seem to be many more persons living in towns who +cultivate a bit of land in the country as a subsidiary employment.</p> + +<p>Taken as a whole the absolute fall off in the number of those working upon +the soil is not large. The decline of small country industries is much +more considerable. Here another law of industrial motion comes in, the +rapid tendency of manufacture towards centralization in the towns, which +we have discussed in the last chapter. Here we are concerned only with its +effect in stamping out small rural industries. The growth of the railway +has been the chief agent in the work. Wherever the railroad has penetrated +a country it has withered the ancient cottage industries of our land. It +is true that even before the time of railways the development of machinery +had in large measure destroyed the spinning and weaving trades, which in +Lancashire, Yorkshire, and elsewhere had given employment to large numbers +of country families. The railway, and the constant application of new +machinery have completed this work of destruction, and have likewise +abolished a number of small handicrafts, such as hand-stitched boots, and +lace, which flourished in western and midland districts, Nor is this all. +The same potent forces have transferred to towns many branches of work +connected indirectly with agricultural pursuits; country smiths, +brickmakers, sawyers, turners, coopers, wheelwrights, are rapidly +vanishing from the face of the country.</p> + +<p><b>§ 5. Attractions of the Town, Economic and Social.</b> The concrete form +in which the industrial forces, which we have described, appeal to the +dull-headed rustic is the attraction of higher wages. An elaborate +comparison of towns and country wages is not required. It is enough to say +that labourer's wages in London and other large cities are some 50 per +cent, higher than the wages of agricultural labourers in most parts of +England, and the wages of skilled labour show a similar relation. Besides +the actual difficulty of getting agricultural employment in many parts, +improved means of knowledge, and of cheap transport, constantly flaunt +this offer of higher wages before the eyes of the more discontented among +agricultural workers. It is true that if wages are higher in London, the +cost of living is also higher, and the conditions of life and work are +generally more detrimental to health and happiness; but these drawbacks +are more often realized after the fatal step has been taken than before.</p> + +<p>Along with the concrete motive of higher wages there come other inherent +attractions of town life.</p> + +<p>"The contagion of numbers, the sense of something going on, the theatres +and music-halls, the brilliantly-lighted streets and busy crowds"[<a href="#fn18">18</a>] have +a very powerful effect on the dawning intelligence of the rustic. The +growing accessibility of towns brings these temptations within the reach +of all. These social attractions probably contain more evil than good, and +act with growing force on the restless and reckless among our country +population. The tramp and the beggar find more comfort and more gain in +the towns. The action of indiscriminate and spasmodic charity, which still +prevails in London and other large centres of riches, is responsible in no +small measure for the poverty and degradation of city slums.</p> + +<p>"The far-reaching advertisement of irresponsible charity acts as a +powerful magnet. Whole sections of the population are demoralized, men and +women throwing down their work right and left in order to qualify for +relief; while the conclusion of the whole matter is intensified congestion +of the labour market--angry bitter feeling for the insufficiency of the +pittance, or rejection of the claim." So writes Miss Potter of the famous +Mansion House Relief Funds.</p> + +<p>It is easy to see how the worthless element from our villages, the loafer, +the shiftless, the drunkard, the criminal, naturally gravitates towards +its proper place as part of the "social wreckage" of our cities. But the +size of this element must not be exaggerated. It forms a comparatively +small fraction of the whole. Our city criminal, our city loafer, is +generally home-grown, and is not supplied directly from the country. If it +were true that only the worthless portion of our country population passed +into our cities to perish in the struggle for existence, which is so fatal +in city life, we should on the whole have reason to congratulate +ourselves. But this is not so. The main body of those who pass into city +life are in fact the cream of the native population of the country, drawn +by advantages chiefly economic. They consist of large numbers of vigorous +young men, mostly between the age of twenty and twenty-five, who leave +agriculture for manufacture, or move into towns owing to displacement of +handicrafts by wholesale manufacture.</p> + +<p><b>§ 6. Effect of the Change on National Health.</b>--This decay of country +life, however much we may regret it, seems under present industrial +conditions inevitable. Nor is it altogether to be regretted or condemned. +The movement indisputably represents a certain equalization of advantages +economic, educational, and social. The steady workman who moves into the +town generally betters himself from the point of view of immediate +material advantages.</p> + +<p>But in regarding the movement as a whole a much more serious question +confronts us. What is the net result upon the physical well-being of the +nation of this drafting of the abler and better country folk into the +towns? Let the death-rate first testify. In 1902 the death-rate for the +whole rural population was 13.7 per 1000, that of the whole urban +population 17.8. Now it is not the case that town life is necessarily more +unhealthy than country life to any considerable extent. There are +well-to-do districts of London, whole boroughs, such as Hampstead, where +the death-rate is considerably lower than the ordinary rural rate. The +weight of city mortality falls upon the poor.</p> + +<p>Careful statistics justify the conclusion that the death-rate of an +average poor district in London, Liverpool, or Glasgow, is quite double +that of the average country district which is being drained to feed the +city. We now see what the growth of town population, and the decay of the +country really means. It means in the first place that each year brings a +larger proportion of the nation within reach of the higher rate of +mortality, by taking them from more healthy and placing them under less +healthy conditions. In the case of the lower classes of workers who +gravitate to London, it means putting them in a place where the chance of +death in a given year is doubled for them. And remember, this higher +death-rate is applied not indiscriminately, but to selected subjects. It +is the young, healthy, vigorous blood of the country which is exposed to +these unhealthy conditions. A pure Londoner of the third generation, that +is, one whose grandparents as well as his parents were born in London, is +very seldom found. It is certain that nearly all the most effective vital +energy given out in London work, physical and intellectual alike, belongs +to men whose fathers were country bred, if they were not country born +themselves. In kinds of work where pure physical vigour play an important +part, this is most strikingly apparent. The following statistics bearing +on the London police force were obtained by Mr. Llewellyn Smith in 1888--</p> +<table summary="London police force"> +<tr><th></th><th> London born.</th><th> Country born. </th><th>Total.</th></tr> + +<tr><td> Metropolitan Police</td><td style="text-align:center"> 2,716 </td><td style="text-align:center"> 10,908 </td><td style="text-align:center">13,624</td></tr> +<tr><td> City " </td><td style="text-align:center"> 194 </td><td style="text-align:center"> 698 </td><td style="text-align:center">892</td></tr> +</table> +<p>Railway men, carriers, omnibus-drivers, corn and timber porters, and those +in whose work physique tells most, are all largely drawn from the country. +Nor is the physical deterioration of city life to be merely measured by +death-rates. Many town influences, which do not appreciably affect +mortality, distinctly lower the vitality, which must be taken as the +physical measure of the value of life. The denizens of city slums not only +die twice as fast as their country cousins, but their health and vigour is +less during the time they live.</p> + +<p>A fair consideration of these facts discloses something much more +important than a mere change in social and industrial conditions. Linked +with this change we see a deterioration of the physique of the race as a +distinct factor in the problem of city poverty. This is no vague +speculation, but a strongly-supported hypothesis, which deserves most +serious attention. Dr. Ogle, who has done much work in elucidation of this +point, sums up in the following striking language--</p> + +<p>"The combined effect of this constantly higher mortality in the towns, and +of the constant immigration into it of the pick of the rural population, +must clearly be a gradual deterioration of the whole, inasmuch as the more +energetic and vigorous members of the community are consumed more rapidly +than the rest of the population. The system is one which leads to the +survival of the unfittest."</p> + +<p>Thus the city figures as a mighty vampire, continually sucking the +strongest blood of the country to keep up the abnormal supply of energy it +has to give out in the excitement of a too fast and unwholesome life. +Whether the science of the future may not supply some decentralizing +agency, which shall reverse the centralizing force of modern industry, is +not a wholly frivolous speculation to suggest. Some sanguine imaginations +already foresee the time when those great natural forces, the economical +use of which has compelled men and women to crowd into factories in great +cities, may be distributable with such ease and cheapness over the whole +surface of the land as no longer to require that close local relation +which means overcrowding in work and in home life. If science could do +this it would confer upon humanity an advantage far less equivocal than +that which belongs to the present reign of iron and steam.</p> + +<p><b>§ 7. The Extent of Foreign Immigration.</b>--So much for the inflow from +the country districts. But there is another inflow which is drawing close +attention, the inflow of cheap foreign labour into our towns. Here again +we have first to guard against some exaggeration. It is not true that +German, Polish, and Russian Jews are coming over in large battalions to +steal all the employment of the English working-man, by under-selling him +in the labour-market. In the first place, it should be noted that the +foreigners of England, as a whole, bear a smaller proportion to the total +population than in any other first-class European state. In 1901 the +foreigners were 76 in 10,000 of the population; that is a good deal less +than one per cent. Our numbers as a nation are not increased by +immigration. On the contrary, between 1871 and 1901 we lost considerably +by emigration.[<a href="#fn19">19</a>] Even London, the centre of attraction to foreigners, +does not contain nearly so large a per-centage of foreigners as any other +great capital. The census gave 3 per cent. as the proportion of +foreigners, excluding those born in England of foreign parents. Though +this figure is perhaps too low, the true proportion cannot be very large. +It is not the number, but the distribution and occupation of the foreign +immigrants, that make them an object of so much solicitude. The borough of +Stepney contains no less than 40 per cent. of the foreign-born population +of London, the foreigners increasing from 15,998 in 1881 to 54,310 in +1901. At present 182 out of every 1000 in this district are foreigners. +The proportion is also very high in Holborn, Westminster, Marylebone, +Bethnal Green, and St Pancras. The Report of the Royal Commission on Alien +Immigration, 1902, states "that the greatest evils produced by the Alien +Immigrants here are the overcrowding caused by them in certain districts +of London, and the consequent displacement of the native population." The +concentration of the immigrant question is attested by the fact that in +1901 no less than 48 per cent. of the total foreign population were +resident in six metropolitan boroughs, and in the three cities of +Manchester, Liverpool, and Leeds. While a considerable number of them are +Germans, French, and Italians, attracted here by better industrial +conditions in trades for which they have some special aptitude, a greatly +increasing proportion are Russian and Polish Jews, driven to immigrate +partly by political and religious persecution, partly for industrial ends, +and feeding the unskilled labour-market in certain manufactures of our +great cities.</p> + +<p><b>§ 8. The Jew as an Industrial Competitor.</b>--Looking at these +foreigners as individuals, there is much to be said in their favour. They +do not introduce a lower morality into the quarters where they settle, as +the Chinese are said to do; nor are they quarrelsome and law-breaking, +like the low-class Italians who swarm into America. Their habits, so far +as cleanliness is concerned, are perhaps not desirable, but the standard +of the native population of Whitechapel is not sensitively high. For the +most part, and this is true especially of the Jews, they are steady, +industrious, quiet, sober, thrifty, quick to learn, and tolerably honest. +From the point of view of the old Political Economy, they are the very +people to be encouraged, for they turn out the largest quantity of wealth +at the lowest cost of production. If it is the chief end for a nation to +accumulate the largest possible stock of material wealth, it is evident +that these are the very people we require to enable us to achieve our +object.</p> + +<p>But if we consider it is sound national policy to pay regard to the +welfare of all classes engaged in producing this wealth, we may regard +this foreign immigration in quite another light. The very virtues just +enumerated are the chief faults we have to find with the foreign Jew. Just +because he is willing and able to work so hard for so little pay, willing +to undertake any kind of work out of which he can make a living, because +he can surpass in skill, industry, and adaptability the native Londoner, +the foreign Jew is such a terrible competitor. He is the nearest approach +to the ideal "economic" man, the "fittest" person to survive in trade +competition. Admirable in domestic morality, and an orderly citizen, he is +almost void of social morality. No compunction or consideration for his +fellow-worker will keep him from underselling and overreaching them; he +acquires a thorough mastery of all the dishonourable tricks of trade which +are difficult to restrain by law; the superior calculating intellect, +which is a national heritage, is used unsparingly to enable him to take +advantage of every weakness, folly, and vice of the society in which he +lives.</p> + +<p><b>§ 9. Effect of Foreign Competition.</b>--One other quality he has in +common with the mass of poor foreigners who compete in the London labour +market--he can live on less than the Englishman. What Mrs Webb says of the +Polish Jew, is in large measure true of all cheap foreign labour--"As +industrial competitor, the Polish Jew is fettered by no definite standard +of life; it rises and falls with his opportunities; he is not depressed by +penury, and he is not demoralized by gain." The fatal significance of this +is evident. We have seen that notwithstanding a general rise in the +standard of comfort of the mass of labourers, there still remains in all +our cities a body of labouring men and women engaged in doing ill-paid and +irregular work for wages which keep them always on the verge of +starvation. Now consider what it means for these people to have brought +into their midst a number of competitors who can live even more cheaply +than they can live, and who will consent to toil from morning to night for +whatever they can get. These new-comers are obviously able, in their +eagerness for work, to drive down the rate of wages even below what +represents starvation-point for the native worker. The insistence of the +poorer working-classes, under the stimulus of new-felt wants, the growing +enlightenment of public opinion, have slowly and gradually won, even for +the poorer workers in English cities, some small advance in material +comfort, some slight expansion in the meaning of the term "necessaries of +life." Turn a few shiploads of Polish Jews upon any of these districts, +and they will and must in the struggle for life destroy the whole of this. +Remember it is not merely the struggle of too many workers competing on +equal terms for an insufficient quantity of work. That is terrible enough. +But when the struggle is between those accustomed to a higher, and those +accustomed to a lower, standard of life, the latter can obviously oust the +former, and take their work. Just as a base currency drives out of +circulation a pure currency, so does a lower standard of comfort drive out +a higher one. This is the vital question regarding foreign immigration +which has to be faced.</p> + +<p>Nor is it merely a question of the number of these foreigners. The inflow +of a comparatively small number into a neighbourhood where much of the +work is low-skilled and irregular, will often produce an effect which +seems quite out of proportion to the actual number of the invaders. Where +work is slack and difficult to get, a very small addition of low-living +foreigners will cause a perceptible fall in the entire wages of the +neighbourhood in the employments which their competition affects. It is +true that the Jew does not remain a low-skilled labourer for starvation +wages. Beginning at the bottom of the ladder, he rises by his industry and +skill, until he gets into the rank of skilled workers, or more frequently +becomes a sub-contractor, or a small shopkeeper. It might appear that as +he thus rose, the effect of his competition in the low skilled labour +market would disappear. And this would be so were it not for the +persistent arrival of new-comers to take the place of those who rise. It +is the continuity in the flow of foreign emigration which constitutes the +real danger.</p> + +<p>Economic considerations do not justify us in expecting any speedy check +upon this flow. The growing means of communication among nations, the +cheapening of transport, the breaking down of international prejudices, +must, if they are left free to operate, induce the labourer to seek the +best market for his labour, and thus tend to equalize the condition of +labour in the various communities, raising the level of the lower paid and +lower lived at the expense of the higher paid and higher lived.</p> + +<p><b>§ 10. The Water-tight Compartment Theory.</b>--One point remains to be +mentioned. It is sometimes urged that the foreign Jews who come to our +shores do not injure our low skilled workers to any considerable extent, +because they do not often enter native trades, but introduce new trades +which would not have existed at all were it not for their presence. They +work, it is said, in water-tight compartments, competing among themselves, +but not directly competing with English workers. Now if it were the case +that these foreigners really introduced new branches of production +designed to stimulate and supply new wants this contention would have much +weight. The Flemings who in Edward III.'s reign introduced the finer kinds +of weaving into England, and the Huguenot refugees who established new +branches of the silk, glass, and paper manufactures, conferred a direct +service upon English commerce, and their presence in the labour market was +probably an indirect service to the English workers. But this is not the +case with the modern Jew immigrants. They have not stimulated or supplied +new wants. It is not even correct to say that most of them do not directly +compete with native labour. It is true that certain branches of the cheap +clothing trade have been their creation. The cheap coat trade, which they +almost monopolize, seems due to their presence. But even here they have +established no new <i>kind</i> of trade. To their cheap labour perhaps is due +in some cases the large export trade in cheap clothing, but even then it +is doubtful whether the work would not otherwise have been done by +machinery under healthier conditions, and have furnished work and wages +for English workers. During the last decade they have been entering more +and more into direct competition with British labour in the +cabinet-making, shoemaking, baking, hair-dressing, and domestic service +occupations. Lastly, they enter into direct competition of the worst form +with English female labour, which is driven in these very clothing trades +to accept work and wages which are even too low to tempt the Jews of +Whitechapel. The constant infiltration of cheap immigrant labour is in +large measure responsible for the existence of the "sweating workshops," +and the survival of low forms of industrial development which form a +factor in the problem of poverty.</p> +</div> + + +<div class="chapter" id="ch04"> +<h2>Chapter IV.</h2> + +<h3>"The Sweating System."</h3> + + + +<p><b>§ 1.Origin of the Term "Sweating."</b>--Having gained insight into some +of the leading industrial forces of the age, we can approach more +hopefully the study of that aspect of City poverty, commonly known as the +"Sweating System."</p> + +<p>The first thing is to get a definite meaning to the term. Since the +examination of experts before the recent "Lords' Committee" elicited more +than twenty widely divergent definitions of this "Sweating System," some +care is required at the outset of our inquiry. The common use of the term +"Sweating System" is itself responsible for much ambiguity, for the term +"system" presupposes a more or less distinct form of organization of +industry identified with the evils of sweating. Now as it should be one of +the objects of inquiry to ascertain whether there exists any one such +definite form, it will be better at the outset to confine ourselves to the +question, "What is Sweating?"</p> + +<p>As an industrial term the word seems to have been first used among +journeymen tailors. The tailoring houses which once executed all orders on +their own premises, by degrees came to recognize the convenience of giving +out work to tailors who would work at their own homes. The long hours +which the home workers were induced to work in order to increase their +pay, caused the term "Sweater" to be applied to them by the men who worked +for fixed hours on the tailors' premises, and who found their work passing +more and more into the hands of the home workers. Thus we learn that +originally it was long hours and not low wages which constituted +"sweating." School-boy slang still uses the word in this same sense. +Moreover, the first sweater was one who "sweated" himself, not others. But +soon when more and more tailoring work was "put out," the home worker, +finding he could undertake more than he could execute, employed his family +and also outsiders to help him. This makes the second stage in the +evolution of the term; the sweater now "sweated" others as well as +himself, and he figured as a "middleman" between the tailoring firm which +employed him, and the assistants whom he employed for fixed wages. Other +clothing trades have passed through the same process of development, and +have produced a sub-contracting middleman. The term "sweater" has thus by +the outside world, and sometimes by the workers themselves, come to be +generally applied to sub-contractors in small City trades. But the fact of +the special application has not prevented the growth of a wider +signification of "sweating" and "sweater." As the long hours worked in the +tailors' garrets were attended with other evils--a low rate of wages, +unsanitary conditions, irregularity of employment, and occasional tyranny +in all the forms which attend industrial authority--all these evils became +attached to the notion of sweating. The word has thus grown into a generic +term to express this disease of City poverty from its purely industrial +side. Though "long hours" was the gist of the original complaint, low +wages have come to be recognized as equally belonging to the essence of +"sweating." In some cases, indeed, low wages have become the leading +idea, so that employers are classed as sweaters who pay low wages, without +consideration of hours or other conditions of employment. Trade Unions, +for example, use the term "sweating" specifically to express the conduct +of employers who pay less than the "standard" rate of wages. The +abominable sanitary condition of many of the small workshops, or private +dwellings of workers, is to many reformers the most essential element in +sweating.</p> + +<p><b>§ 2. Present Applications of the Name.</b>--When the connotation of the +term "sweating" had become extended so as to include along with excessive +hours of labour, low wages, unsanitary conditions of work, and other +evils, which commonly belong to the method of sub-contract employment, it +was only natural that the same word should come to be applied to the same +evils when they were found outside the sub-contract system. For though it +has been, and still is, true, that where the method of sub-contract is +used the workers are frequently "sweated," and though to the popular mind +the sub-contractor still figures as the typical sweater, it is not right +to regard "sub-contract" as the real cause of sweating. For it is found--</p> + +<p>Firstly, that in some trades sub-contract is used without the evils of +sweating being present. Mr. Burnett, labour correspondent to the Board of +Trade, in his evidence before the Lords' Committee, maintains that where +Trade Unions are strong, as in the engineering trade, sub-contract is +sometimes employed under conditions which are entirely "unobjectionable." +So too in the building trades, sub-contract is not always attended by +"sweating."</p> + +<p>Secondly, much of the worst "sweating" is found where the element of +sub-contract is entirely wanting, and where there is no trace of a +ravenous middleman. This will be found especially in women's employments. +Miss Potter, after a close investigation of this point, arrives at the +conclusion that "undoubtedly the worst paid work is made under the +direction of East End retail slop-shops, or for tally-men--a business from +which contact, even in the equivocal form of wholesale trading, has been +eliminated."[<a href="#fn20">20</a>] The term "sweating" must be deemed as applicable to the +case of the women employed in the large steam-laundries, who on Friday and +Saturday work for fifteen or sixteen hours a day, to the overworked and +under-paid waitresses in restaurants and shops, to the men who, as Mr. +Burleigh testified, "are employed in some of the wealthiest houses of +business, and received for an average working week of ninety-five hours, +board, lodging, and £15 a year," as it is to the tailoress who works +fourteen hours a day for Whitechapel sub-contractors.</p> + +<p>The terms "sweating" and "sweating System," then, after originating in a +narrow application to the practice of over-work under sub-contractors in +the lower branches of the tailoring trade, has expanded into a large +generic term, to express the condition of all overworked, ill-paid, +badly-housed workers in our cities. It sums up the industrial or economic +aspects of the problem of city poverty. Scarcely any trade in its lowest +grades is free from it; in nearly all we find the wretched "fag end" where +the workers are miserably oppressed. This is true not only of the poorest +manual labour, that of the sandwich-man, with his wage of 1s. 2d. per +diem, and of the lowest class of each manufacturing trade in East and +Central London. It is true of the relatively unskilled labour in every +form of employment; the miserable writing-clerk, who on 25s. a week or +less has to support a wife and children and an appearance of +respectability; the usher, who grinds out low-class instruction through +the whole tedious day for less than the wage of a plain cook; the +condition of these and many other kinds of low-class brain-workers is only +a shade less pitiable than the "sweating" of manual labourers, and the +causes, as we shall see, are much the same. If our investigation of +"sweating" is chiefly confined to the condition of the manual labourer, it +is only because the malady there touches more directly and obviously the +prime conditions of physical life, not because the nature of the +industrial disease is different.</p> + +<p><b>§ 3. Leading "Sweating" Trades.</b>--It is next desirable to have some +clear knowledge of the particular trades in which the worst forms of +"sweating" are found, and the extent to which it prevails in each. The +following brief summary is in a large measure drawn from evidence +furnished to the recent Lords' Committee on the Sweating System. Since the +sweating in women's industries is so important a subject as to demand a +separate treatment, the facts stated here will chiefly apply to male +industries.</p> + +<p><b>Tailoring.</b>--In the tailoring trade the best kind of clothes are still +made by highly-skilled and well-paid workmen, but the bulk of the cheap +clothing is in the hands of "sweaters," who are sometimes skilled tailors, +sometimes not, and who superintend the work of cheap unskilled hands. In +London the coat trade should be distinguished from the vest and trousers +trade. The coat-making trade in East London is a closely-defined district, +with an area of one square mile, including the whole of Whitechapel and +parts of two adjoining parishes. The trade is almost entirely in the hands +of Jews, who number from thirty to forty thousand persons. Recent +investigations disclosed 906 workshops, which, in the quality and +conditions of the work done in them, may be graded according to the number +of hands employed. The larger workshops, employing from ten to twenty-five +hands or more, generally pay fair wages, and are free from symptoms of +sweating. But in the small workshops, which form about 80 per cent of the +whole number, the common evils of the sweating system assert +themselves--overcrowding, bad sanitation, and excessive hours of labour. +Thirteen and fourteen hours are the nominal day's work for men; and those +workshops which do not escape the Factory Inspector assign a nominal +factory day for women; but "among the imperfectly taught workers in the +slop and stock trade, and more especially in the domestic workshops, +under-pressers, plain machinists, and fellers are in many instances +expected to 'convenience' their masters, i.e. to work for twelve or +fifteen hours in return for ten or thirteen hours' wage."[<a href="#fn21">21</a>] The better +class workers, who require some skill, get comparatively high wages even +in the smaller workshops, though the work is irregular; but the general +hands engaged in making 1s. coats, generally women, get a maximum of <i>1s. +6d.</i>, and a minimum which is indefinitely below 1s. for a twelve hours' +day. This low-class work is also hopeless. The raw hand, or "greener" as +he is called, will often work through his apprenticeship for nominal +wages; but he has the prospect of becoming a machinist, and earning from +6s. to 10s. a day, or of becoming in his turn a sweater. The general hand +has no such hope. The lowest kind of coat-making, however, is refused by +the Jew contractor, and falls to Gentile women. These women also undertake +most of the low-class vest and trousers making, generally take their work +direct from a wholesale house, and execute it at home, or in small +workshops. The price for this work is miserably low, partly by reason of +the competition of provincial factories, partly for reasons to be +discussed in a later chapter. Women will work for twelve or fifteen hours +a day throughout the week as "trousers finishers," for a net-earning of as +little as 4s. or 5s. Such is the condition of inferior unskilled labour in +the tailoring trade. It should however be understood that in "tailoring," +as in other "sweating" trades, the lowest figures quoted must be received +with caution. The wages of a "greener," a beginner or apprentice, should +not be taken as evidence of a low wage in the trade, for though it is a +lamentable thing that the learner should have to live upon the value of +his prentice work, it is evident that under no commercial condition could +he support himself in comfort during this period. It is the normal +starvation wage of the low-class experienced hand which is the true +measure of "sweating" in these trades. Two facts serve to give prominence +to the growth of "sweating" in the tailoring trades. During the last few +years there has been a fall of some 30 per cent, in the prices paid for +the same class of work. During the same period the irregularity of work +has increased. Even in fairly large shops the work for ordinary labour +only averages some three days in the week, while we must reckon two and a +half days for unskilled workers in smaller workshops, or working at home.</p> + +<p>Among provincial towns Liverpool, Manchester, and Leeds show a rapid +growth of sweating in the clothing trade. In each case the evil is imputed +to "an influx of foreigners, chiefly Jews." In each town the same +conditions appear--irregular work and wages, unsanitary conditions, +over-crowding, evasion of inspection. The growth in Leeds is remarkable. +"There are now ninety-seven Jewish workshops in the city, whereas five +years ago there were scarcely a dozen. The number of Jews engaged in the +tailoring trade is about three thousand. The whole Jewish population of +Leeds is about five thousand."[<a href="#fn22">22</a>]</p> + +<p><b>Boot-making.</b>--The hand-sewn trade, which constitutes the upper +stratum of this industry, is executed for the most part by skilled +workers, who get good wages for somewhat irregular employment. There are +several strong trade organizations, and though the hours are long, +extending occasionally to thirteen or fourteen hours, the worst forms of +sweating are not found. So too in the upper branches of machine-sewn +boots, the skilled hands get fairly high wages. But the lower grades of +machine-made boots, and the "sew-rounds," i.e. fancy shoes and slippers, +which form a large part of the industry in London, present some of the +worst features of the "sweating system." The "sweating master" plays a +large part here. "In a busy week a comparatively competent 'sweater' may +earn from 18s. to 25s. less skilful hands may get 15s. or 16s. but boys +and newly-arrived foreigners take 10s., 8s., 7s., or less; while the +masters, after paying all expenses, would, according to their own +estimates, make not less than 30s., and must, in many cases, net much +higher sums. Owing, however, to the irregularity of their employment, the +average weekly earnings of both masters and men throughout the year fall +very greatly below the amount which they can earn when in full work."[<a href="#fn23">23</a>] +For the lowest kinds of work an ordinary male hand appears to be able to +earn not more than 15s. per week. A slow worker, it is said, would earn an +average of some 10s. to 12s. per week. The hours of labour for sweating +work appear to be from fifteen to eighteen per diem, and "greeners" not +infrequently work eighteen to twenty hours a day. Women, who are largely +used in making "felt and carpet uppers," cannot, if they work their +hardest, make more than 1s. 3d. a day. In the lowest class of work wages +fall even lower. Mr. Schloss gives the wages of five men working in a +small workshop, whose average is less than 11s. a week. These wages do not +of course represent skilled work at all. Machinery has taken over all the +skilled work, and left a dull laborious monotony of operations which a +very few weeks' practice enable a completely unskilled worker to +undertake. Probably the bulk of the cheapest work is executed by +foreigners, although from figures taken in 1887, of four typical London +parishes, it appeared that only 16 per cent, of the whole trade were +foreigners. In the lower classes of goods a considerable fall of price has +occurred during the fast few years, and perhaps the most degraded +conditions of male labour are to be found in the boot trade. A large +proportion of the work throughout the trade is out-work, and therefore +escapes the operation of the Factory Act. The competition among small +employers is greatly accentuated by the existence of a form of middleman +known as the "factor," who is an agent who gets his profit by playing off +one small manufacturer against another, keeping down prices, and +consequently wages, to a minimum. A large number of the small producers +are extremely poor, and owing to the System which enables them to obtain +material from leather-merchants on short credit, are constantly obliged to +sell at a disadvantage to meet their bills. The "factor," as a speculator, +takes advantage of this to accumulate large stocks at low prices, and +throwing them on the market in large quantities when wholesale prices +rise, causes much irregularity in the trade.</p> + +<p>The following quotation from the Report of the Lords' Committee sums up +the chief industrial forces which are at work, and likewise illustrates +the confusion of causes with symptoms, and casual concomitants, which +marks the "common sense" investigations of intricate social phenomena. "It +will be seen from the foregoing epitome of the evidence, that sweating in +the boot trade is mainly traced by the witnesses to the introduction of +machinery, and a more complete system of subdivision of labour, coupled +with immigration from abroad and foreign competition. Some witnesses have +traced it in a great measure, if not principally, to the action of +factors; some to excessive competition among small masters as well as men; +others have accused the Trades Unions of a course of action which has +defeated the end they have in view, namely, effectual combination, by +driving work, owing to their arbitrary conduct, out of the factory into +the house of the worker, and of handicapping England in the race with +foreign countries, by setting their faces against the use of the best +machinery."[<a href="#fn24">24</a>]</p> + +<p><b>Shirt-making.</b>--Perhaps no other branch of the clothing trade shows so +large an area of utter misery as shirt-making, which is carried on, +chiefly by women, in East London. The complete absence of adequate +organization, arising from the fact that the work is entirely out-work, +done not even by clusters of women in workshops, but almost altogether by +scattered workers in their own homes, makes this perhaps the completest +example of the evils of sweating. The commoner shirts are sold wholesale +at 10s. 6d. per dozen. Of this sum, it appears that the worker gets 2s. +1½d., and the sweater sometimes as much as 4s. The competition of married +women enters here, for shirt-making requires little skill and no capital; +hence it can be undertaken, and often is, by married women, anxious to +increase the little and irregular earnings of their husbands, and willing +to work all day for whatever they can get. Some of the worst cases brought +before the Lords' Committee showed that a week's work of this kind brings +in a net gain of from 3s. to 5s. It appears likely that few unmarried +women or widows can undertake this work, because it does not suffice to +afford a subsistence wage. But if this is so, it must be remembered that +the competition of married women has succeeded in underselling the +unmarried women, who might otherwise have been able to obtain this work at +a wage which would have supported life. The fact that those who work at +shirt-making do not depend entirely on it for a livelihood, is an +aggravation rather than an extenuation of the sweating character of this +employment.</p> + +<p><b>§ 4. Some minor "Sweating" Trades.</b>--Mantle-making is also a woman's +industry. The wages are just sufficiently higher than in shirt-making to +admit the introduction of the lowest grades of unsupported female workers. +From 1s. 3d. to 1s. 6d. a day can be made at this work.</p> + +<p>Furring employs large numbers of foreign males, and some thousands of both +native and foreign females. It is almost entirely conducted in small +workshops, under the conduct of middlemen, who receive the expensive furs +from manufacturers, and hire "hands" to sew and work them up. Wages have +fallen during the last few years to the barest subsistence point, and even +below. Wages for men are put at 10s. or 12s., and in the case of girls and +young women, fall as low as 4s.; a sum which is in itself insufficient to +support life, and must therefore be only paid to women and girls who are +partly subsisted by the efforts of relatives with whom they live, or by +the wages of vice.</p> + +<p>In cabinet-making and upholstery, the same disintegrating influences have +been at work which we noted in tailoring. Many firms which formerly +executed all orders on their own premises, now buy from small factors, and +much of the lowest and least skilled work is undertaken by small +"garret-masters," or even by single workmen who hawk round their wares for +sale on their own account. The higher and skilled branches are protected +by trade organizations, and there is no evidence that wages have fallen; +but in the less skilled work, owing perhaps in part to the competition of +machinery, prices have fallen, and wages are low. There is evidence that +the sub-contract system here is sometimes carried through several stages, +much to the detriment of the workman who actually executes the orders.</p> + +<p>One of the most degraded among the sweating industries in the country is +chain and nail-making. The condition of the chain-makers of Cradley Heath +has called forth much public attention. The system of employment is a +somewhat complicated one. A middleman, called a "fogger," acts as a +go-between, receiving the material from the master, distributing it among +the workers, and collecting the finished product. Evidence before the +Committee shows that an accumulation of intricate forms of abuse of power +existed, including in some cases systematic evasion of the Truck Act. Much +of the work is extremely laborious, hours are long, twelve hours forming +an ordinary day, and the wage paid is the barest subsistence wage. Much of +the work done by women is quite unfit for them.</p> + +<p><b>§ 5. Who is the Sweater? The Sub-contractor?</b>--These facts relating +to a few of the principal trades in the lower branches of which "sweating" +thrives, must suffice as a general indication of the character of the +disease as it infests the inferior strata of almost all industries.</p> + +<p>Having learnt what "sweating" means, our next question naturally takes the +form, Who is the sweater? Who is the person responsible for this state of +things? John Bull is concrete, materialistic in his feeling and his +reasoning. He wants to find an individual, or a class embodiment of +sweating. If he can find the sweater, he is prepared to loathe and abolish +him. Our indignation and humanitarianism requires a scape-goat. As we saw, +many of the cases of sweating were found where there was a sub-contractor. +To our hasty vision, here seems to be the responsible party. Forty years +ago <i>Alton Locke</i> gave us a powerful picture of the wicked sub-contracting +tailor, who, spider-like, lured into his web the unfortunate victim, and +sucked his blood for gain. The indignation of tender-hearted but +loose-thinking philanthropists, short-visioned working-class orators, +assisted by the satire of the comic journal, has firmly planted in the +imagination of the public an ideal of an East London sweater; an idle, +bloated middleman, whose expansive waistcoat is decorated with resplendent +seals and watch-chains, who drinks his Champagne, and smokes his perfumed +cigar, as he watches complacently the sunken faces and cowering forms of +the wretched creatures whose happiness, health, and very life are +sacrificed to his heartless greed.</p> + +<p>Now a fair study of facts show this creature to be little else than a +myth. The miseries of the sweating den are no exaggeration, they are +attested by a thousand reliable witnesses; but this monster human spider +is not found there. Though opinions differ considerably as to the precise +status of the sweating middleman, it is evident that in the worst +"sweating" trades he is not idle, and he is not rich. In cases where the +well-to-do, comfortable sub-contractor is found, he generally pays fair +wages, and does not grossly abuse his power. When the worst features of +sweating are present, the master sweater is nearly always poor, his +profits driven down by competition, so that he barely makes a living. It +is, indeed, evident that in many of the worst Whitechapel sweating-dens +the master does not on the average make a larger income than the more +highly paid of his machinists. So, too, most of these "sweaters" work +along with their hands, and work just as hard. Some, indeed, have +represented this sweating middleman as one who thrusts himself between the +proper employer and the working man in order to make a gain for himself +without performing any service. But the bulk of evidence goes to show that +the sweater, even when he does not occupy himself in detailed manual +labour, performs a useful work of superintendence and management. "The +sweater in the vast majority of cases is the one man in the workshop who +can, and does, perform each and any branch of the trade."</p> + +<p>For the old adage, which made a tailor the ninth part of a man, has been +completely reversed by the subdivision of work in modern industry. It now +takes more than nine men to make a tailor. We have foremen or cutters, +basters, machinists, fellers, button-holers, pressers, general workers, +&c. No fewer than twenty-five such subdivisions have been marked in the +trade. Since the so-called tailor is no tailor at all, but a +"button-holer" or "baster," it is obvious that the working of such a +system requires some one capable of general direction.</p> + +<p>This opinion is not, however, inconsistent with the belief that such work +of "direction" or "organization" may be paid on a scale wholly out of +proportion to the real worth of the services performed. Extremely strong +evidence has been tendered to show that in many large towns, especially in +Leeds and Liverpool, the "sweating" tailor has frequently "no practical +knowledge of his trade." The ignorance and incompetence of the working +tailors enables a Jew with a business mind, by bribing managers, to obtain +a contract for work which he makes no pretence to execute himself. His +ability consists simply in the fact that he can get more work at a cheaper +rate out of the poorer workmen than the manager of a large firm. In his +capacity of middleman he is a "convenience," and for his work, which is +nominally that of master tailor, really that of sweating manager, he gets +his pay.</p> + +<p>Part of the "service" thus rendered by the sweater is doubtless that he +acts as a screen to the employing firm. Public opinion, and "the +reputation of the firm," would not permit a well-known business to employ +the workers <i>directly</i> under their own roof upon the terms which the +secrecy of the sweater's den enables them to pay. But in spite of this, +whether the "Jew sweater" is really a competent tailor or is a mere +"organizer" of poor labour, it should be distinctly understood that he is +paid for the performance of real work, which under the present industrial +system has a use.</p> + +<p><b>§ 6. Different Species of Middlemen.</b>--It may be well here to say +something on the general position of the "middleman" in commerce. The +popular notion that the "middleman" is a useless being, and that if he +could be abolished all would go well, arises from a confusion of thought +which deserves notice. This confusion springs from a failure to +understand that the "middleman" is a part of a commercial System. He is +not a mere intruder, a parasitic party, who forces his way between +employer and worker, or between producer and consumer, and without +conferring any service, extracts for himself a profit which involves a +loss to the worker or the consumer, or to both. If we examine this notion, +either by reference to facts, or from <i>à priori</i> consideration, we shall +find it based on a superstition. "Middleman" is a broad generic term used +to describe a man through whose hands goods pass on their way to the +consuming public, but who does not appear to add any value to the goods he +handles. At any stage in the production of these goods, previous to their +final distribution, the middleman may come in and take his profit for no +visible work done. He may be a speculator, buying up grain or timber, and +holding or manipulating it in the large markets; or he may be a wholesale +merchant, who, buying directly from the fisherman, and selling to the +retail fishmonger, is supposed to be responsible for the high price of +fish; he may be the retailer who in East London is supposed to cause the +high price of vegetables.</p> + +<p>With these species of middlemen we are not now concerned, except to say +that their work, which is that of distribution, i.e. the more convenient +disposal of forms of material wealth, may be equally important with the +work of the farmer, the fisherman, or the market-gardener, though the +latter produce changes in the shape and appearance of the goods, while the +former do not. The middleman who stands between the employing firm and the +worker is of three forms. He may undertake a piece of work for a wholesale +house, and taking the material home, execute it with the aid of his family +or outside assistants. This is the chamber-master proper, or "sweater" in +the tailoring trade. Or he may act as distributor, receive the material, +and undertake to find workers who will execute it at their own homes, he +undertaking the responsibility of collection. Where the workers are +scattered over a large city area, or over a number of villages, this work +of distribution, and its responsibility, may be considerable. Lastly, +there may be the "sub-contractor" proper, who undertakes to do a portion +of a work already contracted for, and either finds materials and tools, +and pays workers to work for him, or sublets parts of his contract to +workers who provide their own materials and tools. The mining and building +trades contain various examples of such sub-contracts. Now in none of +these cases is the middleman a mere parasite. In every case he does work, +which, though as a rule it does not alter the material form of the goods +with which it deals, adds distinct value to them, and is under present +industrial conditions equally necessary, and equally entitled to fair +remuneration with the work of the other producers. The old maxim "nihil ex +nihilo fit" is as true in commerce as in chemistry. In a competitive +society a man can get nothing for nothing. If the middleman is a +capitalist he may get something for use of his capital; but that too +implies that his capital is put to some useful work.</p> + +<p><b>§ 7. Work and Pay of the Middleman.</b>--The complaint that the middleman +confers no service, and deserves no pay, is the result of two fallacies. +The first, to which allusion has been made already, consists in the +failure to recognize the work of distribution done by the middleman. The +second and more important is the confusion of mind which leads people to +conclude that because under different circumstances a particular class of +work might be dispensed with, therefore that work is under present +circumstances useless and undeserving of reward. Lawyers might be useless +if there were no dishonesty or crime, but we do not therefore feel +justified in describing as useless the present work they do. With every +progress of new inventions we are constantly rendering useless some class +or other of undoubted "workers." So the middleman in his various +capacities may be dispensed with, if the organization of industrial +society is so changed that he is no longer required; but until such +changes are affected he must get, and deserves, his pay. It may indeed be +true that certain classes of middlemen are enabled by the position they +hold to extract either from their employers or from the public a profit +which seems out of proportion to the services they render. But this is by +no means generally the case with the middleman in his capacity of +"sweater." Even where a middleman does make large profits, we are not +justified in describing such gain as excessive or unfair, unless we are +prepared to challenge the claim of "free competition" to determine the +respective money values of industrial services. The "sweating" middleman +does work which is at present necessary; he gets pay; if we think he gets +too much, are we prepared with any rule to determine even approximately +how much he ought to get?</p> + +<p><b>§ 8. The Employer as "Sweater."</b>--Since it appears that the middleman +often sweats others of necessity because he is himself "sweated," in the +low terms of the contract he makes, and since much of the worst "sweating" +takes place where firms of employers deal directly with the "workers," it +may seem that the blame is shifted on to the employer, and that the real +responsibility rests with him. Now is this so? When we see an important +firm representing a large capital and employing many hands, paying a wage +barely sufficient for the maintenance of life, we are apt to accuse the +employers of meanness and extortion: we say this firm could afford to pay +higher wages, but they prefer to take higher profits; the necessity of the +poor is their opportunity. Now this accusation ought to be fairly faced. +It will then be found to fall with very different force according as it is +addressed to one or other of two classes of employers. Firms which are +shielded from the full force of the competition of capital by the +possession of some patent or trade secret, some special advantage in +natural resources, locality, or command of markets, are generally in a +position which will enable them to reap a rate of profit, the excess of +which beyond the ordinary rate of profit measures the value of the +practical monopoly they possess. The owners of a coal-mine, or a +gas-works, a special brand of soap or biscuits, or a ring of capitalists +who have secured control of a market, are often able to pay wages above +the market level without endangering their commercial position. Even in a +trade like the Lancashire cotton trade, where there is free competition +among the various firms, a rapid change in the produce market may often +raise the profits of the trade, so that all or nearly all the employing +firms could afford to pay higher wages without running any risk of +failure. Now employers who are in a position like this are morally +responsible for the hardship and degradation they inflict if they pay +wages insufficient for decent maintenance. Their excuse that they are +paying the market rate of wages, and that if their men do not choose to +work for this rate there are plenty of others who will, is no exoneration +of their conduct unless it be distinctly admitted that "moral +considerations" have no place in commerce. Employers who in the enjoyment +of this superior position pay bare subsistance wages, and defend +themselves by the plea that they pay the "market rate," are "sweaters," +and the blame of sweating will rightly attach to them.</p> + +<p>But this is not to be regarded as the normal position of employers. Among +firms unsheltered by a monopoly, and exposed to the full force of +capitalist competition, the rate of profit is also at "the minimum of +subsistence," that is to say, if higher wages were paid to the employés, +the rate of profit would either become a negative quantity, or would be so +low that capital could no longer be obtained for investment in such a +trade. Generally it may be said that a joint-stock company and a private +firm, trading as most firms do chiefly on borrowed capital, could not pay +higher wages and stand its ground in the competition with other firms. If +a benevolent employer engaged in a manufacture exposed to open competition +undertook to raise the wages of his men twenty per cent, in order to lift +them to a level of comfort which satisfied his benevolence, he must first +sacrifice the whole of his "wage of superintendence," and he will then +find that he can only pay the necessary interest on his borrowed capital +out of his own pocket: in fact he would find he had essayed to do what in +the long run was impossible. The individual employer under normal +circumstances is no more to blame for the low wages, long hours, &c., than +is the middleman. He could not greatly improve the industrial condition of +his employés, however much he might wish.</p> + +<p><b>§ 9. The Purchaser as "Sweater."</b> A third view, a little +longer-sighted than the others, casts the blame upon the purchasing +public. Wages must be low, we are told, because the purchaser insists on +low prices. It is the rage for "cheapness" which is the real cause, +according to this line of thought. Formerly the customer was content to +pay a fair price for an article to a tradesman with whom he dealt +regularly, and whose interest it was to sell him a fair article. The +tradesman could thus afford to pay the manufacturer a price which would +enable him to pay decent wages, and in return for this price he insisted +upon good work being put into the goods he bought. Thus there was no +demand for bad work. Skilled work alone could find a market, and skilled +work requires the payment of decent wages. The growth of modern +competition has changed all this. Regular custom has given way to touting +and advertising, the bond of interest between consumer and shopkeeper is +broken, the latter seeks merely to sell the largest quantity of wares to +any one who will buy, the former to pay the lowest price to any one who +will sell him what he thinks he wants. Hence a deterioration in the +quality of many goods. It is no longer the interest of many tradesmen to +sell sound wares; the consumer can no longer rely upon the recommendation +of the retailer as a skilled judge of the quality of a particular line of +goods; he is thrown back upon his own discrimination, and as an amateur he +is apt to be worsted in a bargain with a specialist. There is no reason to +suppose that customers are meaner than they used to be. They always bought +things as cheaply as they knew how to get them. The real point is that +they are less able to detect false cheapness than they used to be. Not +merely do they no longer rely upon a known and trusted retailer to protect +them from the deceits of the manufacturer, but the facilities for +deception are continually increasing. The greater complexity of trade, the +larger variety of commodities, the increased specialization in production +and distribution, the growth of "a science of adulteration" have +immensely increased the advantage which the professional salesman +possesses over the amateur customer. Hence the growth of goods meant not +for use but for sale--jerry-built houses, adulterated food, sham cloth and +leather, botched work of every sort, designed merely to pass muster in a +hurried act of sale. To such a degree of refinement have the arts of +deception been carried that the customer is liable to be tricked and duped +at every turn. It is not that he foolishly prefers to buy a bad article at +a low price, but that he cannot rely upon his judgment to discriminate +good from bad quality; he therefore prefers to pay a low price because he +has no guarantee that by paying more he will get a better article. It is +this fact, and not a mania for cheapness, which explains the flooding of +the market with bad qualities of wares. This effectual demand for bad +workmanship on the part of the consuming public is no doubt directly +responsible for many of the worst phases of "sweating." Slop clothes and +cheap boots are turned out in large quantities by workers who have no +claim to be called tailors or shoemakers. A few weeks' practice suffices +to furnish the quantum of clumsy skill or deceit required for this work. +That is to say, the whole field of unskilled labour is a recruiting-ground +for the "sweater" or small employer in these and other clothing trades. If +the public insisted on buying good articles, and paid the price requisite +for their production, these "sweating" trades would be impossible. But +before we saddle the consuming public with the blame, we must bear in mind +the following extenuating circumstances.</p> + +<p><b>§ 10. What the Purchaser can do.</b>--The payment of a higher price is no +guarantee that the workers who produce the goods are not "sweated." If I +am competent to discriminate well-made goods from badly-made goods, I +shall find it to my interest to abstain from purchasing the latter, and +shall be likewise doing what I can to discourage "sweating." But by merely +paying a higher price for goods of the same quality as those which I could +buy at a lower price, I may be only putting a larger profit in the hands +of the employers of this low-skilled labour, and am certainly doing +nothing to decrease that demand for badly-made goods which appears to be +the root of the evil. The purchaser who wishes to discourage sweating +should look first to the quality of the goods he buys, rather than to the +price. Skilled labour is seldom sweated to the same degree as unskilled +labour, and a high class of workmanship will generally be a guarantee of +decent wages. In so far as the purchaser lacks ability to accurately gauge +quality, he has little security that by paying a higher price he is +securing better wages for the workers. The so-called respectability of a +well-known house is a poor guarantee that its employés are getting decent +wages, and no guarantee at all that the workers in the various factories +with which the firm deals are well paid. It is impossible for a private +customer to know that by dealing with a given shop he is not directly or +indirectly encouraging "sweating." It might, however, be feasible for the +consuming public to appoint committees, whose special work it should be to +ascertain that goods offered in shops were produced by firms who paid +decent wages. If a "white list" of firms who paid good wages, and dealt +only with manufacturers who paid good wages, were formed, purchasers who +desired to discourage sweating would be able to feel a certain security, +so far, at any rate, as the later stages of production are concerned, +which ordinary knowledge of the world and business will not at present +enable them to obtain. The force of an organized public opinion, even +that of a respectable minority, brought to bear upon notorious "sweating" +firms, would doubtless be of great avail, if carefully applied.</p> + +<p>At the same time, it must not for a moment be imagined that the problem of +poverty would be solved if we could insure, by the payment of higher +prices for better qualities of goods, the extermination of the sweating +trades. This low, degraded and degrading work enables large numbers of +poor inefficient workers to eke out a bare subsistence. If it were taken +away, the direct result would be an accession of poverty and misery. The +demand for skilled labour would be greater, but the unskilled labourer +cannot pass the barrier and compete for this; the overflow of helpless, +hopeless, feeble, unskilled labour would be greater than ever. Whatever +the ultimate effects of decreasing the demand for unskilled labour might +be, the misery of the immediate effects could not be lightly set aside. +This contradiction of the present certain effect and the probable future +effects confronts the philanthropist at every turn. The condition of the +London match-girls may serve as an illustration of this. Their miserable +life has rightly roused the indignation of all kind-hearted people. The +wretched earnings they take have provoked people to suggest that we should +put an end to the trade by refusing to buy from them. But since the +earnings of these girls depend entirely on the amount they sell, this +direct result of your action, prompted by humane sentiment, will be to +reduce still further these miserable earnings; that is to say, you +increase the suffering of the very persons whose lot you desire to +alleviate. You may say that you buy your matches all the same, but you buy +them at a shop where you may or may not have reason to believe that the +attendants are well paid. But that will not benefit the girls, whose +business you have destroyed; they will not be employed in the shops, for +they belong to a different grade of labour. This dilemma meets the social +reformer at each step; the complexity of industrial relations appears to +turn the chariot of progress into a Juggernaut's car, to crush a number of +innocent victims with each advance it makes. One thing is evident, that if +the consuming public were to regulate its acts of purchase with every +possible regard to the condition of the workers, they could not ensure +that every worker should have good regular work for decent wages.</p> + +<p>In arriving at this conclusion, we are far from maintaining that the +public even in its private capacity as a body of consumers could do +nothing. A certain portion of responsibility rests on the public, as we +saw it rested on employers and on middlemen. But the malady is rightly +traceable in its full force neither to the action of individuals nor of +industrial classes, but to the relation which subsists between these +individuals and classes; that is, to the nature and character of the +industrial system in its present working. This may seem a vague statement, +but it is correct; the desire to be prematurely definite has led to a +narrow conception of the "sweating" malady, which more than anything else +has impeded efforts at reform.</p> +</div> + + +<div class="chapter" id="ch05"> +<h2>Chapter V.</h2> + +<h3>The Causes of Sweating.</h3> + + + +<p><b>§ 1.The excessive Supply of Low-skilled Labour.</b>--Turning to the +industrial system for an explanation of the evils of "Sweating," we shall +find three chief factors in the problem; three dominant aspects from which +the question may be regarded. They are sometimes spoken of as the causes +of sweating, but they are better described as conditions, and even as such +are not separate, but closely related at various points.</p> + +<p>The first condition of "sweating" is an abundant and excessive supply of +low-skilled and inefficient labour. It needs no parade of economic +reasoning to show that where there are more persons willing to do a +particular kind of work than are required, the wages for that work, if +free competition is permitted, cannot be more than what is just sufficient +to induce the required number to accept the work. In other words, where +there exists any quantity of unemployed competitors for low-skilled work, +wages, hours of labour, and other conditions of employment are so +regulated, as to present an attraction which just outweighs the +alternatives open to the unemployed, viz. odd jobs, stealing, starving, +and the poor-house. In countries where access to unused land is free, the +productiveness of labour applied to such land marks the minimum of wages +possible; in countries where no such access is possible, the minimum +wages of unskilled labour, whenever the supply exceeds the demand, is +determined by the attractiveness of the alternatives named above.</p> + +<p>A margin of unemployed labour means a bare subsistence wage for +low-skilled labour, and it means this wage earned under industrial +conditions, such as we find under the "sweating system." In order to keep +the wage of low-skilled labour down to this minimum, which can only rise +with an improvement in the alternatives, it is not required that there +should at any time exist a large number of unemployed. A very small +number, in effective competition with those employed, will be quite as +effectual in keeping down the rate of wages. The same applies to all +grades of skilled labour, with this important difference, that the minimum +wage can never fall below what is required to induce less skilled workers +to acquire and apply the extra skill which will enable them to furnish the +requisite supply of highly-skilled workers. Trade Unions have +instinctively directed all their efforts to preventing the competition of +unemployed workers in their respective trades from pulling down to its +minimum the rate of wages. The strongest of those have succeeded in +establishing a standard wage less than which no one shall accept; +unemployed men, who in free competition would accept less than this +standard wage, are supported by the funds of the Union, that they may not +underbid. Unions of comparatively unskilled workers, who are never free +from the competition of unemployed, and who cannot undertake permanently +to buy off all competitors ready to underbid, endeavour to limit the +numbers of their members, and to prevent outsiders from effectively +competing with them in the labour market, in order that by restricting +the supply of labour, they may prevent a fall of wages. The importance of +these movements for us consists in their firm but tacit recognition of the +fact, that an excessive supply of unskilled labour lies at the root of the +industrial disease of "sweating."</p> + +<p><b>§ 2. The Contributing Causes of excessive Supply.</b>--The last two +chapters have dealt with the principal large industrial movements which +bear on this supply of excessive low-skilled labour; but to make the +question clear, it will be well to enumerate the various contributing +causes.</p> + +<p>α. The influx of rural population into the towns constantly +swells the supply of raw unskilled labour. The better quality of this +agricultural labour, as we saw, does not continue to form part of this +glut, but rises into more skilled and higher paid strata of labour. The +worse quality forms a permanent addition to the mass of inefficient labour +competing for bare subsistence wages.</p> + +<p>β. The steady flow of cheap unskilled foreign labour into our +large cities, especially into London, swollen by occasional floods of +compulsory exiles, adds an element whose competition as a part of the mass +of unskilled labour is injurious out of proportion to its numerical +amount.</p> + +<p>γ. Since this foreign immigration weakens the industrial +condition of our low-skilled native labour by increasing the supply, it +will be evident that any cause which decreases the demand for such labour +will operate in the same way. The free importation from abroad of goods +which compete in our markets with the goods which "sweated" labour is +applied to make, has the same effect upon the workers in "sweating" trades +as the introduction of cheap foreign labour. The one diminishes the +demand, the other increases the supply of unskilled or low-skilled labour. +The import of quantities of German-made cheap clothing into East London +shops, to compete with native manufacture of the same goods, will have +precisely the same force in maintaining "sweating," as will the +introduction of German workers, who shall make these same clothes in East +London itself. In each case, the purchasing public reaps the advantage of +cheap labour in low prices, while the workers suffer in low wages. The +contention that English goods made at home must be exported to pay for the +cheap German goods, furnishes no answer from the point of view of the +low-skilled worker, unless these exports embody the kind of labour of +which he is capable.</p> + +<p>δ. The constant introduction of new machinery, as a substitute for +skilled hand-labour, by robbing of its value the skill of certain classes +of workers, adds these to the supply of low-skilled labour.</p> + +<p>ε. The growth of machinery and of education, by placing women and +young persons more upon an equality with male adult labour, swells the +supply of low-skilled labour in certain branches of work. Women and young +persons either take the places once occupied by men, or undertake new work +(e.g. in post-office or telegraph-office), which would once have been open +only to the competition of men. This growth of the direct or indirect +competition of women and young persons, must be considered as operating to +swell the general supply of unskilled labour.</p> + +<p>ζ. In London another temporary, but important, factor must be +noted. The competition of provincial factories has proved too strong for +London factories in many industries. Hence of late years a gradual +transfer of manufacture from London to the provinces. A large number of +workers in London factories have found themselves out of work. The +break-up of the London factories has furnished "sweating trades" with a +large quantity of unemployed and starving people from whom to draw.</p> + +<p>Regarded from the widest economic point of view, the existence of an +excessive supply of labour seeking employments open to free competition +must be regarded as the most important aspect of the "sweating system." +The recent condition of the competition for casual dock-labour brought +dramatically to the foreground this factor in the labour question. The +struggle for livelihood was there reduced to its lowest and most brutal +terms. "There is a place at the London Docks called the cage, a sort of +pen fenced off by iron railings. I have seen three hundred half-starved +dockers crowded round this cage, when perhaps a ganger would appear +wanting three hands, and the awful struggle of these three hundred +famished wretches fighting for that opportunity to get two or three hours' +work has left an impression upon me that can never be effaced. Why, I have +actually seen them clambering over each other's backs to reach the coveted +ticket. I have frequently seen men emerge bleeding and breathless, with +their clothes pretty well torn off their backs." The competition described +in this picture only differs from other competitions for low-skilled town +labour in as much as the conditions of tender gave a tragical +concentration to the display of industrial forces. This picture, +exaggerated as it will appear to those who have not seen it, brings home +to us the essential character of free competition for low-skilled labour +where the normal supply is in excess of the demand. If other forms of +low-skilled labour were put up to be scrambled for in the same public +manner, the scene would be repeated <i>ad nauseam</i>. But because the +competition of seamstresses, tailors, shirt-finishers, fur-sewers, &c., is +conducted more quietly and privately, it is not less intense, not less +miserable, and not less degrading. This struggle for life in the shape of +work for bare subsistence wages, is the true logical and necessary outcome +of free competition among an over supply of low-skilled labourers.</p> + +<p><b>§ 3. The Multiplication of "Small Masters."</b>--Having made so much +progress in our analysis, we shall approach more intelligently another +important aspect of the "sweating system." Mr. Booth and other +investigators find the tap-root of the disease to consist in the +multiplication of small masters. The leading industrial forces of the age, +as we have seen, make for the concentration of labour in larger and larger +masses, and its employment in larger and larger factories. Yet in London +and in certain other large centres of population, we find certain trades +which are still conducted on a small scale in little workshops or private +houses, and those trades furnish a very large proportion of the worst +examples of "sweating." Here is a case of arrested development in the +evolution of industry. It is even worse than that; for some trades which +had been subject to the concentrating force of the factory system, have +fallen into a sort of back-wash of the industrial current, and broken up +again into smaller units. The increased proportion of the clothing +industries conducted in private houses and small workshops is the most +notorious example. This applies not only to East London, but to Liverpool, +Leeds, Sheffield, and other large cities, especially where foreign labour +has penetrated. For a large proportion of the sweating workshops, +especially in clothing trades, are supported by foreign labour. In +Liverpool during the last ten years the substitution of home-workers for +workers in tailors' shops has been marked, and in particular does this +growth of home-workers apply to women.</p> + +<p>A credible witness before the Lords' Committee stated that "at the +present moment it would be safe to say that two-thirds of the sweaters in +Liverpool are foreigners," coming chiefly from Germany and Russian Poland. +In Leeds sixteen years ago there were only twelve Jewish workshops; there +are now some hundreds.</p> + +<p>Since a very large proportion of the worst sweating occurs in trades where +the work is given out, either directly or by the medium of sub-contract, +to home-workers, it is natural that stress should be laid upon the small +private workshops as the centre of the disease. If the work could only be +got away from the home and the small workshop, where inspection is +impracticable, and done in the factory or large workshop, where +limitations of hours of labour and sanitary conditions could be enforced, +where the force of public opinion could secure the payment of decent +wages, and where organization among workers would be possible, the worst +phases of the malady would disappear. The abolition of the small workshop +is the great object of a large number of practical reformers who have +studied the sweating system. The following opinion of an expert witness is +endorsed by many students of the question--"If the employers were +compelled to obtain workshops, and the goods were made under a factory +system, we believe that they could be made quite as cheaply under that +system, with greater comfort to the workers, in shorter hours; and that +the profits would then be distributed among the workers, so that the +public would obtain their goods at the same price."[<a href="#fn25">25</a>] It is maintained +that the inferior qualities of shoes are produced and sold more cheaply in +the United States by a larger use of machinery under the factory system, +than in London under a sweating system, though wages are, of course, much +higher in America. Moreover, many of the products of the London sweating +trades are competing on almost equal terms with the products of provincial +factories, where machines are used instead of hand-labour.</p> + +<p><b>§ 4. Economic Advantages of "Small Workshops."</b>--The question we have +to answer is this--Why has the small workshop survived and grown up in +London and other large cities, in direct antagonism to the prevalent +industrial movement of the age? It is evident that the small workshop +system must possess some industrial advantages which enable it to hold its +own. The following considerations throw light upon this subject.</p> + +<p>1. A larger proportion of the work in sweating trades is work for which +there is a very irregular demand. Irregularity of employment, or, more +accurately speaking, insufficiency of employment--for the "irregularity" +is itself regular--forms one of the most terrible phases of the sweating +system. The lower you descend in the ranks of labour the worse it is. A +large number of the trades, especially where women are employed, are +trades where the elements of "season" and fashion enter in. But even those +which, like tailoring, shirtmaking, shoemaking, furniture and upholstery, +would seem less subject to periodic or purely capricious changes, are +liable in fact to grave and frequent fluctuations of the market. The +average employment in sweating trades is roughly estimated at three or +four days in the week. There are two busy seasons lasting some six weeks +each, when these miserable creatures are habitually overworked. "The +remaining nine months," says Mr. Burnett, "do not average more than half +time, especially among the lower grade workers."</p> + +<p>This gives us one clue to the ability of the small workshop to +survive--its superior flexibility from the point of view of the employer.</p> + +<p>"High organization makes for regularity; low organization lends itself to +the opposite. A large factory cannot stop at all without serious loss; a +full-sized workshop will make great efforts to keep going; but the man who +employs only two or three others in his own house can, if work fails, send +them all adrift to pick up a living as best they can."[<a href="#fn26">26</a>]</p> + +<p>Since a smaller sweating-master can set up business on some £2 capital, +and does not expect to make much more profit as employer than as workman, +he is able to change from one capacity to the other with great facility.</p> + +<p>2. The high rent for large business premises, especially in London, makes +for the small workshop or home-work system. The payment of rent is thus +avoided by the business firm which is the real employer, and thrown upon +the sub-contractor or the workers themselves, to be by them in their turn +generally evaded by using the dwelling-room for a workshop. Thus one of +the most glaring evils of the sweating system is seen to form a distinct +economic advantage in the workshop, as compared with the large factory. +The element of rent is practically eliminated as an industrial charge.</p> + +<p>3. The evasion of the restrictions of the Factory Act must be regarded as +another economic advantage. Excessive hours of labour when convenient, +overcrowding in order to avoid rent, absence of proper sanitary +conditions, are essential to the cheapest forms of production under +present conditions. It does not pay either the employing firm or the +sub-contractor to consider the health or even the life of the workers, +provided that the state of the labour market is such that they can easily +replace spent lives.</p> + +<p>4. The inability to combine for their mutual protection and advantage of +scattered employés working in small bodies, living apart, and unacquainted +even with the existence of one another, is another "cheapness" of the +workshop system.</p> + +<p>5. The fact that so large a proportion of master-sweaters are Jews has a +special significance. It seems to imply that the poorer class of immigrant +Jews possess a natural aptitude for the position, and that their presence +in our large cities furnishes the corner-stone of the vicious system. +Independence and mastery are conditions which have a market value for all +men, but especially for the timid and often down-trodden Jew. Most men +will contentedly receive less as master than as servant, but especially +the Jew. We saw that the immigrant Jew, by his capacities and +inclinations, was induced to make special efforts to substitute work of +management for manual labour, and to become a profit-maker instead of a +wage-earner. The Jew craves the position of a sweating-master, because +that is the lowest step in a ladder which may lead to a life of +magnificence, supported out of usury. The Jewish Board of Guardians in +London, though its philanthropic action is on the whole more enlightened +than that of most wealthy public bodies, has been responsible in no small +measure for this artificial multiplication of small masters. A very large +proportion of the funds which they dispensed was given or lent in small +sums in order to enable poor Jews "to set up for themselves." The effect +of this was twofold. It first assisted to draw to London numbers of +continental Jews, who struggled as "greeners" under sweaters for six +months, until they were qualified for assistance from the Jewish Board of +Guardians. It then enabled them to set up as small masters, and sweat +other "greeners" as they themselves were sweated. It was quite true that +the object of such charity was the most useful which any society could +undertake; namely, that of assisting the industrially weak to stand on +their own legs. But it was unfortunately true that this early stage of +independence was built upon the miserable dependence of other workers.</p> + +<p>6. But while, as we see, there are many special conditions which, in +London especially, favour the small workshop, the most important will be +found to consist in the large supply of cheap unskilled labour. This is +the real material out of which the small workshop system is built. In +dealing with the other conditions, we shall find that they all presuppose +this abundant supply of labour. If labour were more scarce, and wages +therefore higher, the small workshop would be impossible, for the absolute +economy of labour, effected by the factory organization with its larger +use of machinery, would far outweigh the number of small economies which, +as we have seen, at present in certain trades, favour and make possible +the small workshop. Every limitation in the supply of this low-skilled +labour, every expansion of the alternatives offered by emigration, access +to free land, &c., will be effectual in crushing a number of the sweating +workshops, and favouring the large factory at their expense.</p> + +<p><b>§ 5. Irresponsibility of Employers.</b>--The third view of the sweating +System lays stress upon its moral aspect, and finds its chief cause in the +irresponsibility of the employer. Now we have already seen that this +severance of the personal relation between employer and employed is a +necessary result of the establishment of the large factory as the +industrial unit, and of the ever-growing complexity of modern commerce. +It is not merely that the widening gap of social position between employer +and employed, and the increased number of the latter, make the previous +close relation impossible. Quite as important is the fact that the real +employer in modern industry is growing more "impersonal." What we mean is +this. The nominal employer or manager is not the real employer. The real +employer of labour is capital, and it is to the owners of the capital in +any business that we must chiefly look for the exercise of such +responsibility as rightly subsists between employer and employed. Now, +while it is calculated that one-eighth of the business of England is in +the hands of joint-stock companies, constituting far more than one-eighth +of the large businesses, in the great majority of other cases, where +business is conducted on a large scale, the head of the business is to a +great extent a mere manager of other people's capital. Thus while the +manager's sense of personal responsibility is weakened by the number of +"hands" whom he employs, his freedom of action is likewise crippled by his +obligation to subserve the interests of a body of capitalists who are in +ignorance of the very names and number of the human beings whose destiny +they are controlling. The severance of the real "employer" from his +"hands" is thus far more complete than would appear from mere attention to +the growth in the size of the average business. Now it must not be +supposed that this severance of the personal relation between employer and +employed is of necessity a loss to the latter. There is no reason to +suppose that the close relation subsisting in the old days between the +master and his journeymen and apprentices was as a rule idyllically +beautiful. No doubt the control of the master was often vexatious and +despotic. The tyranny of a heartless employer under the old system was +probably much more injurious than the apathy of the most vulgar plutocrat +of to-day. The employé under the modern system is less subject to petty +spite and unjust interference on the part of his employer. In this sense +he is more free. But on the other hand, he has lost that guarantee against +utter destitution and degradation afforded by the humanity of the better +class of masters. He has exchanged a human nexus for a "cash nexus." The +nominal freedom of this cash relationship is in the case of the upper +strata of workmen probably a real freedom; the irresponsibility of their +employers has educated them to more self-reliance, and strengthened a +healthy personality in them. It is the lower class of workers who suffer. +More and more they need the humanity of the responsible employer to +protect them against the rigours of the labour-market. The worst miseries +of the early factory times were due directly to the break-up of the +responsibility of employers. This was slowly recognized by the people of +England, and the series of Factory Acts, Employers' Liability Acts, and +other measures for the protection of labour, must be regarded as a +national attempt to build up a compulsory legal responsibility to be +imposed upon employers in place of a natural responsibility based on moral +feeling. We draft legislation and appoint inspectors to teach employers +their duty towards employés, and to ensure that they do it. Thus in +certain industries we have patched up an artificial mechanism of +responsibility.</p> + +<p>Wherever this legal responsibility is not enforced in the case of +low-skilled workers, we have, or are liable to have, "sweating." Glancing +superficially at the small workshop or sweating-den, it might seem that +this being a mere survival of the old system, the legal enforcement of +responsibility would be unnecessary. But it is not a mere survival. In the +small workshop of the old system the master was the real employer. In the +modern "sweating" den he is not the real employer, but a mere link between +the employing firm and the worker. From this point of view we must assign +as the true cause of sweating, the evasion of the legal responsibility of +the Factory Act rendered possible to firms which employ outside workers +either directly or indirectly through the agency of "sweaters." Although +it might be prudent as a means of breaking up the small workshop to +attempt to impose upon the "middleman" the legal responsibility, genuine +reform directed to this aspect of "sweating," can only operate by making +the real employing firm directly responsible for the industrial condition +of its outdoor direct or indirect employés.</p> + +<p>This responsibility imposed by law has been strengthened as an effective +safeguard of the interests of the workers by combination among the latter. +In skilled industries where strong trade organization exists, the +practical value of such combination exceeds the value of restrictive +legislation.</p> + +<p>"In their essence Trade Unions are voluntary associations of workmen, for +mutual protection and assistance in securing the most favourable +conditions of labour." "This is their primary and fundamental object, and +includes all efforts to raise wages or prevent a reduction of wages; to +diminish the hours of labour or resist attempts to increase the working +hours; and to regulate all matters pertaining to methods of employment or +discharge, and modes of working."[<a href="#fn27">27</a>] Engineers, boiler-makers, +cotton-spinners, printers, would more readily give up the assistance given +them by legislative restriction than the power which they have secured for +themselves by combination. It is in proportion as trade combination is +weak that the actual protection afforded by Factory and Employers' +Liability Acts become important. Just as we saw that sweating trades were +those which escaped the legislative eye; so we see that they are also the +trades where effective combination does not exist. Where Trade Unions are +strong, sweating cannot make any way. The State aid of restrictive +legislation, and the self help of private combination are alike wanting to +the "sweated" workers.</p> +</div> + + +<div class="chapter" id="ch06"> +<h2>Chapter VI.</h2> + +<h3>Remedies for Sweating.</h3> + + + +<p><b>§ 1.Factory Legislation. What it can do.</b>--Having now set forth the +three aspects of the industrial disease of "Sweating"--the excessive +supply of unskilled labour, the multiplication of small employers, the +irresponsibility of capital--we have next to ask, What is the nature of +the proposed remedies? Since any full discussion of the different remedies +is here impossible, it must suffice if we briefly indicate the application +of the chief proposed remedies to the different aspects of the disease. +These remedies will fairly fall into three classes.</p> + +<p>The first class aim at attacking by legislative means, the small workshop +system, and the evils of long hours and unsanitary conditions from which +the "sweated" workers suffer. Briefly, it may be said that they seek to +increase and to enforce the legal responsibility of employers, and +indirectly to crush the small workshop system by turning upon it the +wholesome light of publicity, and imposing certain irksome and expensive +conditions which will make its survival in its worst and ugliest shapes +impossible. The most practical recommendation of the Report of the Lords' +Committee is an extension of the sanitary clauses of the Factory Act, so +as to reach all workshops.</p> + +<p>We have seen that the unrestricted use of cheap labour is the essence of +"sweating." If the wholesome restrictions of our Factory Legislation were +in fact extended so as to cover all forms of employment, they would so +increase the expenses of the sweating houses, that they would fall before +the competition of the large factory system. Karl Marx writing a +generation ago saw this most clearly. "But as regards labour in the +so-called domestic industries, and the intermediate forms between this and +manufacture, so soon as limits are put to the working day and to the +employment of children, these industries go to the wall. Unlimited +exploitation of cheap labour power is the sole foundation of their power +to compete."[<a href="#fn28">28</a>]</p> + +<p>The effectiveness of the existing Factory Act, so far as relates to small +workshops, is impaired by the following considerations--</p> + +<p>1. The difficulty in finding small workshops. There is no effectual +registration of workshops, and the number of inspectors is inadequate to +the elaborate and tedious method of search imposed by the present system.</p> + +<p>2. The limitation as to right of entry. The power of inspectors to "enter, +inspect, and examine at all reasonable times by day or night, a factory or +a workshop, and every part thereof, when he has reason to believe that any +person is employed therein, and to enter by day any place he has +reasonable cause to believe to be a factory or workshop," is in fact not +applicable in the case of dwelling-rooms used for workshops. In a large +number of cases of the worst form of "sweating," the inspector has no +right of entrance but by consent of the occupant, and the time which +elapses before such consent is given suffices to enable the "sweater" to +adjust matters so as to remove all evidence of infringements of the law.</p> + +<p>3. The restricted power in reference to sanitation. A factory inspector +has no sanitary powers; he cannot act save through the sanitary officer. +The machinery of sanitary reform thus loses effectiveness.</p> + +<p>Compulsory registration of workshops, adequate inspection, and reform of +machinery of sanitary reform, would be of material value in dealing with +some of the evils of the small workshop. But it would by no means put an +end to "sweating." So far as it admitted the continuance of the small +workshop, it would neither directly nor indirectly abate the evil of low +wages. It is even possible that any rapid extension of the Factory Act +might, by limiting the amount of employment in small workshops, increase +for a time the misery of those low-skilled workers, who might be incapable +of undertaking regular work in the larger factory. It is, at any rate, not +evident that such legislative reform would assist low-class workers to +obtain decent wages and regular employment, though it would improve the +other conditions under which they worked.</p> + +<p>Again, existing factory legislation by no means covers even theoretically +the whole field of "sweating." Public-houses, restaurants, all shops and +places of amusement, laundries, and certain other important forms of +employment, which escape the present factory legislation, are in their +lower branches liable to the evils of "sweating," and should be included +under such factory legislation as seeks to remedy these evils.</p> + +<p><b>§ 2. Co-operative Production.</b>--The organization of labour is the +second form of remedy. It is urged that wherever effective organization +exists in any trade, there is no danger of sweating. We have therefore, it +is maintained, only to organize the lower grades of labour, and +"sweating" will cease to exist. There are two forms of organization +commonly advocated, Co-operation and Trade Unionism.</p> + +<p>The suggestion that the poorer grades of workers should by co-operative +production seek to relieve themselves from the stress of poverty and the +tyranny of the "sweating system," is a counsel of perfection far removed +from the possibility of present attainment. No one who has closely studied +the growth of productive co-operation in England will regard it as a +practicable remedy for poverty. Productive co-operation is successful at +present only in rare cases among skilled workmen of exceptional morale and +education. It is impossible that it should be practised by low-skilled, +low-waged workers, under industrial conditions like those of to-day. It is +surprising to find that the Lords' Committee in its final report should +have given prominence to schemes of co-operation as a cure for the +disease. The following paragraph correctly sums up experience upon the +subject--</p> + +<p>"Productive societies have been from time to time started in East London, +but their career has been neither long nor brilliant. They have often had +a semi-philanthropic basis, and have been well-meant but hopeless attempts +to supersede "sweating" by co-operation. None now working are of +sufficient importance to be mentioned."[<a href="#fn29">29</a>]</p> + +<p>The place which productive and distributive co-operation is destined to +occupy in the history of the industrial freedom and elevation of the +masses doubtless will be of the first importance. To look forward to a +time when the workers of the community may be grouped in co-operative +bodies, either competing with one another, or related by some bond which +shall minimize the friction of competition, while not impairing the +freedom and integrity of each several group, is not perhaps a wild utopian +vision. To students of English industrial history the transition to such a +state will not appear more marked than the transition through which +industry passed under the Industrial Revolution to the present capitalist +system. But the recognition of this possible future does not justify us in +suggesting productive co-operation as a present remedy for the poverty of +low-skilled city workers. These latter must rise several steps on the +industrial and moral ladder before they are brought within the reach of +the co-operative remedy. It is with the cost and labour of these early +steps that the students of the problem of present poverty must concern +themselves.</p> + +<p><b>§ 3. Trade Unionism. Ability of Workers to combine.</b> Trade Unionism is +a more hopeful remedy. Large bodies of workers have by this means helped +to raise themselves from a condition of industrial weakness to one of +industrial strength. Why should not close combination among workers in +low-paid and sweating industries be attended with like results? Why should +not the men and women working in "sweating" trades combine, and insist +upon higher wages, shorter hours, more regular employment, and better +sanitary conditions? Well, it may be regarded as an axiom in practical +economies, that any concerted action, however weak and desultory, has its +value. Union is always strength. An employer who can easily resist any +number of individual claims for higher wages by his power to replace each +worker by an outsider, can less easily resist the united pressure of a +large body of his workmen, because the inconvenience of replacing them all +at once by a body of outsiders, is far greater than the added difficulty +of replacing each of them at separate intervals of time. This is the +basis of the power of concerted action among workers. But the measure of +this power depends in the main upon two considerations.</p> + +<p>First comes the degree of effectiveness in combination. The prime +requisites for effective combination are a spirit of comradeship and +mutual trust, knowledge and self-restraint in the disposition of united +force. Education and free and frequent intercourse can alone establish +these elements of effective combination. And here the first difficulty for +workers in "sweating" trades appears. Low-skilled work implies a low +degree of intelligence and education. The sweating industries, as we have +seen, are as a rule those which escape the centralizing influence of the +factory System, and where the employés work, either singly or in small +groups, unknown to one another, and with few opportunities of forming a +close mutual understanding. In some employments this local severance +belongs to the essence of the work, as, for example, in the case of +cab-drivers, omnibus-drivers, and generally in shop-work, where, in spite +of the growth of large stores, small masters still predominate; in other +employments the disunion of workers forms a distinct commercial advantage +which enables such low-class industries to survive, as in the small +workshop and the home-labour, which form the central crux of our sweating +problem. The very lack of leisure, and the incessant strain upon the +physique which belong to "sweating," contribute to retard education, and +to render mutual acquaintanceship and the formation of a distinct trade +interest extremely difficult. How to overcome these grave difficulties +which stand in the way of effective combination among unskilled workers is +a consideration of the first importance. The rapid and momentarily +successful action of organized dock labourers must not be taken as +conclusive evidence that combination in all other branches of low-class +labour can proceed at the same pace. The public and localized character of +the competition for casual dock labour rendered effective combination here +possible, in spite of the low intellectual and moral calibre of the +average labourer. It is the absence of such public and localized +competition which is the kernel of the difficulty in most "sweating" +trades. It may be safely said that the measure of progress in organization +of low class labour will be the comparative size and localization of the +industrial unit. Where "sweating" exists in large factories or large +shops, effective combination even among workers of low education may be +tolerably rapid; among workers engaged by some large firm whose work +brings them only into occasional contact, the progress will be not so +fast; among workers in small unrelated workshops who have no opportunities +of direct intercourse with one another, the progress will be extremely +slow. The most urgent need of organization is precisely in those +industries where it is most difficult to organize. It is, on the whole, +not reasonable to expect that this remedy, unless aided by other forces +working against the small workshops, will enable the "hands" in the small +sweater's den to materially improve their condition.</p> + +<p><b>§ 4. Trade Union Methods of limiting Competition.</b>--So far we have +regarded the value of combination as dependent on the ability of workers +to combine. There is another side which cannot be neglected. Two societies +of workmen equally strong in the moral qualities of successful union may +differ widely in the influence they can exert to secure and improve their +position. We saw that the real value of organization to a body of workmen +lay in the power it gave them to make it inconvenient for an employer to +dispense with their services in favour of outsiders. Now the degree of +this inconvenience will obviously depend in great measure upon the number +of outsiders qualified by strength and skill to take their place without +delay. The whole force of Unionism hangs on "the unemployed." The +strongest and most effective Unions are in trades where there are the +smallest number of unemployed competitors; the weakest Unions are in +trades which are beset by crowds of outsiders able and willing to +undertake the work, and if necessary to underbid those who are employed.</p> + +<p>Close attention to the composition and working of our Trade Unions +discloses the fact that their chief object is to limit the competition for +work in their respective trades. Since their methods are sometimes +indirect, this is sometimes denied, but the following statement of Trade +Union methods makes it clear. The minimum or standard rate of wages plays +a prominent part in Unionism. It is arbitrarily fixed by the Union, which +in its estimate takes into account, α. prices paid for articles +produced; β. a reasonable standard of comfort; γ. and +remuneration for time spent in acquiring necessary skill.[<a href="#fn30">30</a>] This is an +estimate, it must be remembered, of a "fair wage," based upon calculations +as to what is just and reasonable, and does not necessarily correspond to +the economic wage obtainable in a neighbourhood by the free competition of +labour and capital. Now this standard wage, which may or may not be the +wage actually paid, plays a very prominent part in Unionism. The point of +importance here is its bearing on the admission of new members. The +candidate for membership has, as his principal qualification, to show that +he is capable of earning the standard rate of wages. It is evident, +however, that the effect of any large new accession to the ranks of any +trade must, unless there is a corresponding growth of employment, bring +down the rate of wages, whether these be fixed by a Trade Union standard +or not. Hence it is evident that any Trade Union would be bound to refuse +admission to new applicants who, though they might be in other respects +competent workmen, could not find work without under-bidding those who +were at present occupied. This they would do by reason of their standard +wage qualification, for they would be able to show that the new applicants +would not be competent to earn standard wages under the circumstances. How +far Trade Unions actually have conscious recourse to this method of +limiting their numbers, may be doubted; but no one acquainted with the +spirit of Trades Unions would believe that if a sudden growth of technical +schools enabled large numbers of duly qualified youths to apply for +admission into the various Unions so as to compete for the same quantity +of work with the body of existing members, the Unions of the latter would +freely and cheerfully admit them. To do so would be suicidal, for no +standard rate of wages could stand against the pressure of an increased +supply of labour upon a fixed demand. But it is not necessary to suppose +that any considerable number of actually qualified workmen are refused +admission to Trade Unions of skilled workers. For the possession of the +requisite skill, implying as it does a certain natural capacity, and an +expenditure of time and money not within the power of the poorest classes, +forms a practical limit to the number of applicants. Moreover, in many +trades, though by no means in all, restrictions are placed by the Unions +upon the number of apprentices, with the object of limiting the number of +those who should from year to year be qualified to compete for work. In +other trades where no rigid rule to this effect exists, there is an +understanding which is equally effective. Certain trades, such as the +engineers, boiler-makers, and other branches of iron trade, place no +restrictions, and in certain other trades the restrictions are not closely +applied. But most of the strong Trades Unions protect themselves in +another way against the competition of unemployed. By a System of "out of +work" pay, they bribe those of their body, who from time to time are +thrown out of work, not to underbid those in work, so as to bring down the +rate of wages. Several of the most important Unions pay large sums every +year to "out of work" members. By these three means, the "minimum wage" +qualification for membership, the limitation of the number of apprentices, +and the "out of work" fund, the Trade Unions strengthen the power of +organized labour in skilled industries by restricting the competition of +unemployed outsiders.</p> + +<p>It is true that some of the leading exponents of Trade Unionism deny that +the chief object of the Unions is to limit competition. Mr. Howell +considers that the "standard wage" qualification for membership is +designed in order to ensure a high standard of workmanship, and regards +the "out of work" fund merely as belonging to the insurance or prudential +side of Trade Unionism. But though it may readily be admitted that one +effect of these measures may be to maintain good workmanship and to +relieve distress, it is reasonable to regard the most important result +actually attained as being the object chiefly sought. It is fair to +suppose, therefore, that while Unionists may not be indifferent to the +honour of their craft, their principal object is to strengthen their +economic position. At any rate, whatever the intention of Trade Unions +may be, the principal effect of their regulations is to limit the +effective supply of competing labour in their respective branches of +industry.</p> + +<p><b>§ 5. Can Low-skilled Workers successfully combine?</b>--Now the question +which concerns our inquiry may be stated thus. Supposing that the workers +in "sweating" industries were able to combine, would they be able to +secure themselves against outside competition as the skilled worker does? +Will their combination practically increase the difficulty in replacing +them by outsiders? Now it will be evident that the unskilled or +low-skilled workers cannot depend upon the methods which are adopted by +Unions of skilled workers, to limit the number of competitors for work. A +test of physical fitness, such as was recently proposed as a qualification +for admission to the Dock-labourers Union, will not, unless raised far +above the average fitness of present members, limit the number of +applicants to anything like the same extent as the test of workmanship in +skilled industries. Neither could rules of apprenticeship act where the +special skill required was very small. Nor again is it easy to see how +funds raised by the contribution of the poorest classes of workers, could +suffice to support unemployed members when temporarily "out of work," or +to buy off the active competition of outsiders, or "black-legs," to use +the term in vogue. The constant influx of unskilled labour from the rural +districts and from abroad, swollen by the numbers of skilled workmen whose +skill has been robbed of its value by machinery, keeps a large continual +margin of unemployed, able and willing to undertake any kind of unskilled +or low-skilled labour, which will provide a minimum subsistence wage. The +very success which attends the efforts of skilled workers to limit the +effective supply of their labour by making it more difficult for unskilled +workers to enter their ranks, increases the competition for low-skilled +work, and makes effective combination among low-skilled workers more +difficult. Though we may not be inclined to agree with Prof. Jevons, that +"it is quite impossible for Trade Unions in general to effect any +permanent increase of wages," there is much force in his conclusion, that +"every rise of wages which one body secures by mere exclusive combination, +represents a certain extent, sometimes a large extent, of injury to the +other bodies of workmen."[<a href="#fn31">31</a>] In so far as Unions of skilled workers limit +their numbers, they increase the number of competitors for unskilled work; +and since wages cannot rise when the supply of labour obtainable at the +present rate exceeds the demand, their action helps to maintain that "bare +subsistence wage," which forms a leading feature in "sweating."</p> + +<p>Are we then to regard Unions of low-skilled workers as quite impotent so +long as they are beset by the competition of innumerable outsiders? Can +combination contribute nothing to a solution of the sweating problem? +There are two ways in which close combination might seem to avail +low-skilled workers in their endeavours to secure better industrial +conditions.</p> + +<p>In the first place, close united action of a large body of men engaged in +any employment gives them, as we saw, a certain power dependent on the +inconvenience and expense they can cause to their employers by a sudden +withdrawal. This power is, of course, in part measured by the number of +unemployed easily procurable to take their place. But granted the largest +possible margin of unemployed, there will always be a certain difficulty +and loss in replacing a united body of employés by a body of outsiders, +though the working capacity of each new-comer may be equal to that of each +member of the former gang. This power belonging inherently to those in +possession, and largely dependent for its practical utility on close unity +of action, may always be worked by a trade organization to push the +interests of its members independently of the supply of free outside +labour, and used by slow degrees may be made a means of gaining piece by +piece a considerable industrial gain. Care must, however, be taken, never +to press for a larger gain than is covered by the difficulty of replacing +the body of present employés by outside labour. Miscalculations of the +amount of this inherent power of Union are the chief causes of "lock-outs" +and failures in strikes.</p> + +<p>Another weapon in the hands of unskilled combination, less calculable in +its effectiveness, is the force of public opinion aided by "picketing," +and the other machinery of persuasion or coercion used to prevent the +effective competition of "free" labour. In certain crises, as for example +in the Dock strike of 1889, these forces may operate so powerfully as to +strictly limit the supply of labour, and to shut out the competition of +unemployed. There can be no reason to doubt that if public authority had +not winked at illegal coercion of outside labour, and public opinion +touched by sentiment condoned the winking, the Dock strike would have +failed as other movements of low-skilled labour have generally failed. The +success of the Dockers is no measure of the power of combination among +low-skilled labourers. It is possible, however, that a growing sense of +comradeship, aided by a general recognition of the justice of a claim, +may be generally relied upon to furnish a certain force which shall +restrict the competition of free labour in critical junctures of the +labour movement. If public opinion, especially among workmen, becomes +strongly set in favour of letting capital and labour "fight it out" in +cases of trade disputes, and vigorously resents all interference of +outsiders offering to replace the contending labourers, it seems likely +that this practical elimination of outside competition may enable +combinations of unskilled workmen to materially improve their condition in +spite of the existence of a large supply of outside labour able to replace +them.</p> + +<p><b>§ 6. Can Trade Unionism crush out "Sweating"?</b>--But here again it must +be recognized that each movement of public opinion in this direction is +really making for the establishment of new trade monopolies, which tend to +aggravate the condition of free unemployed labour. Unions of low-skilled +labour can only be successful at the expanse of outsiders, who will find +it increasingly difficult to get employment. The success of combinations +of low-skilled workers will close one by one every avenue of regular +employment to the unemployed, who will tend to become even more nomadic +and predatory in their habits, and more irregular and miserable in their +lives, affording continually a larger field of operation for the small +"sweater," and other forms of "arrested development" in commerce. It must +always be an absorbing interest to a Trades Union to maintain the +industrial welfare of its members by preventing what it must regard as an +"over-supply" of labour. No organization of labour can effect very much +unless it takes measures to restrict the competition of "free labour"; +each Union, by limiting the number of competitors for its work, increases +the competition in trades not similarly protected. So with every growth +of Trade Unionism the pressure on unprotected bodies of workmen grows +greater. Thus it would seem that while organization of labour may become a +real remedy for "sweating" in any industry to which it is vigorously +applied, it cannot be relied upon ever entirely to crash out the evil. It +can only drive it into a smaller compass, where its intenser character may +secure for it that close and vigorous public attention which, in spite of +recent revelations, has not been yet secured, and compel society to +clearly face the problem of a residue of labour-power which is rotting in +the miserable and degraded bodies of its owners, because all the material +on which it might be productively employed is otherwise engaged.</p> + +<p><b>§ 7. Public Workshops.</b>--Those who are most active in the spread of +Unionism among the low-skilled branches of industry, are quite aware that +their action, by fencing off section after section of labour from the +fierce competition of outsiders, is rendering the struggle more intense +for the unprotected residuum. So far as they indulge any wider view than +the interest of their special trades, it may be taken that they design to +force the public to provide in some way for the unemployed or casually +employed workers, against whom the gates of each Union have been +successively closed. There can be little doubt that if Unionism is able to +establish itself firmly among the low-skilled industries, we shall find +this margin of unemployed low-skilled labour growing larger and more +desperate, in proportion to the growing difficulty of finding occupation. +Trade Union leaders have boldly avowed that they will thus compel the +State to recognize the "right to employment," and to provide that +employment by means of national or municipal workshops. With questions of +abstract "right" we are not here concerned, but it may be well to +indicate certain economic difficulties involved in the establishment of +public works as a solution of the "unemployed" problem. Since the +"unemployed" will, under the closer restrictions of growing Trade +Unionism, consist more and more of low-skilled labourers, the public works +on which they must be employed must be branches of low-skilled labour. But +the Unions of low-skilled workers will have been organized with the view +of monopolizing all the low-skilled work which the present needs of the +community require to be done. How then will the public provide low-skilled +work for the unemployed? One of two courses seems inevitable. Either the +public must employ them in work similar to that which is being done by +Union men for private firms, in which case they will enter into +competition with the latter, and either undersell them in the market and +take their trade, or by increasing the aggregate supply of the produce, +bring down the price, and with it the wage of the Union men. Or else if +they are not to compete with the labour of Union men, they must be +employed in relief works, undertaken not to satisfy a public need or to +produce a commodity with a market value, but in order that those employed +may, by a wholly or partially idle expenditure of effort, appear to be +contributing to their own support, whereas they are really just as much +recipients of public charity as if they were kept in actual idleness. This +is the dilemma which has to be faced by advocates of public workshops. Nor +can it be eluded by supposing that the public may use the unemployed +labour either in producing some new utility for the public use, such as +improved street-paving, or a municipal hot-water supply. For if such +undertakings are of a character which a private company would regard as +commercially sound, they ought to be, and will be, undertaken by wise +public bodies independently of the consideration of providing work for +unemployed. If they are not such as would be considered commercially +sound, then in so far as they fall short of commercial soundness, they +will be "charity" pure and simple, given as relief is now given to +able-bodied paupers, on condition of an expenditure of mere effort which +is not a commercial <i>quid pro quo</i>.</p> + +<p>If the State or municipality were permitted to conduct business on +ordinary commercial principles, it might indeed be expected to seize the +opportunity afforded by a large supply of unemployed labour, to undertake +new public works at a lower cost than usual. But to take this advantage of +the cheapness of labour is held to be "sweating." Public bodies are called +upon to disregard the rise and fall of market wages, and to pay "a fair +wage," which practically means a wage which is the same whether labour is +plentiful or scarce. This refusal to permit the ordinary commercial +inducement to operate in the case of public bodies, cuts off what might be +regarded as a natural check to the accumulation of unemployed labour. If +public bodies are to employ more labour, when labour is excessive, and pay +a wage which shall be above the market price, it must be clearly +understood that the portion of the wages which represents the +"uncommercial" aspect of the contract is just as much public charity as +the half-crown paid as out-door relief under the present Poor Law. Lastly, +the establishment of State or municipal workshops for the "unemployed" has +no economic connection with the "socialist" policy, by which the State or +municipality should assume control and management of railways, mines, +gas-works, tramways, and other works into which the element of monopoly +enters. Such a "socialist" policy, if carried out, would not directly +afford any relief to the unemployed. For, in the first place, the labour +employed in these new public departments would be chiefly skilled, and not +unskilled. Moreover, so far as the condition of the "workers" was +concerned, the nationalization, or municipalization of these works would +not imply any increased demand for labour, but merely the transfer of a +number of employés from private to the public service. The public control +of departments of industry, which are now in private hands, would not, so +long as it was conducted on a commercial footing in the public interest, +furnish either direct, or indirect, relief to "the unemployed." A +reduction of hours of labour in the case of workers transferred to the +public service, might afford employment to an increased number of skilled +labourers, and might indirectly operate in reducing the number of +unemployed. But such reduction of hours of labour, like the payment of +wages above the market rate, forms no essential part of a "socialist" +policy, but is rather a charitable appendage.</p> + +<p><b>§ 8. State Business on uncommercial terms.</b>--It cannot be too clearly +recognized that the payment by a public body of wages which are above the +market price, the payment of pensions, the reduction of hours of labour, +and any other advantages freely conferred, which place public servants in +a better position than private servants, stand on precisely the same +economic footing with the establishment of public workshops for the relief +of the unemployed, in which wages are paid for work which is deficient in +commercial value. In each case the work done has some value, unless the +unemployed are used to dig holes in the ground and fill them up again; in +each case the wages paid for that work are in excess of the market rate.</p> + +<p>If it were established as a general rule, that public bodies should always +add a "bonus" to the market wage of their employés to bring it up to +"fairness," and take off a portion of the usual "working-day" to bring it +down to "fairness," it would follow quite consistently that a wage equal +to, or exceeding, the minimum market rate might be paid to "unemployed" +for work, the value of which would be somewhat less than that produced by +the lowest class of "employed" workers. The policy throughout is one and +the same, and is based upon a repudiation of competition as a test of the +value of labour, and the substitution of some other standard derived from +moral or prudential considerations.</p> + +<p>So far as the State or Municipality chooses to regulate by an +"uncommercial" or moral standard the conditions of labour for the limited +number of employés required for the services which are a public monopoly, +it is able to do so, provided the public is willing to pay the price. +There is much to be said in favour of such a course, for the public +example might lend invaluable aid in forming a strong public opinion which +should successfully demand decent conditions of life and work, for the +whole body of workers. But if the State or Municipality were to undertake +to provide work and wages for an indefinite number of men who failed to +obtain work in the competition market, the effect would be to offer a +premium upon "unemployment." Thus, it would appear that as fast as the +public works drew off the unemployed, so fast would men leave the +low-paid, irregular occupations, and by placing themselves in a state of +"unemployment" qualify for public service. There would of course be a +natural check to this flow. As the State drained off all surplus labour, +the market value of labour would rise, greater regularity of employment +would be secured, and the general improvement of industrial conditions +would check the tendency of workers to flow towards the public workshops. +This consideration has led many of the leaders of labour movements to +favour a scheme of public workshops, which would practically mean that the +State or Municipality undertook to limit the supply of labour in the open +market, by providing for any surplus which might exist, at the public +expense. The effect of such a policy would be of course to enormously +strengthen the effective power of labour-organizations. But while the +advocates of public workshops are fully alive to these economic effects, +they have not worked out with equal clearness the question relating to the +disposal of the labour in public workshops. How can the "protected" labour +of the public workshops be so occupied, that its produce may not, by +direct or indirect competition with the produce of outside labour, +outweigh the advantage conferred upon the latter by the removal of the +"unemployed" from the field of competition, in digging holes and filling +them up again, or other useless work, the problem is a simple one. In that +case the State provides maintenance for the weaker members in order that +their presence as competitors for work may not injure the stronger +members. But if the public workmen produce anything of value, by what +means can it be kept from competing with and underselling the goods +produced under ordinary commercial conditions? Without alleging that the +difficulties involved in these questions are necessarily fatal to all +schemes of public works, we maintain that they require to be clearly +faced.</p> + +<p>Even if it be held that public workshops can furnish no economic remedy +for poverty, this judgment would of course be by no means conclusive +against public emergency works undertaken on charitable grounds to tide +over a crisis. Every form of charity, public or private, discriminate or +indiscriminate, entails some evil consequences. But this consideration is +not final. A charitable palliative is defensible and useful when the net +advantages outweigh the net disadvantages. This might seem self-evident, +but it requires to be stated, because there are not wanting individuals +and societies which imagine they have disposed of the claim of charitable +remedies by pointing out the evil consequences they entail. It is evident +that circumstances might arise which would compel the wisest and steadiest +Government to adopt public relief works as a temporary expedient for +meeting exceptional distress.</p> + +<p><b>§ 9. Restriction of Foreign Emigration.</b>--Two further proposals for +keeping down the supply of low-skilled labour deserve notice, and the more +so because they are forcing their way rapidly toward the arena of +practical politics.</p> + +<p>The first is the question of an Alien law limiting or prohibiting the +migration of foreign labourers into England. The power of the German, +Polish, or Russian Jew, accustomed to a lower standard of life, to +undersell the English worker in the English labour market, has already +been admitted as a cause of "sweating" in several city industries. The +importance of this factor in the problem of poverty is, however, a much +disputed point. To some extent these foreign labourers are said to make +new industries, and not to enter into direct and disastrous competition +with native workers. In most cases, however, direct competition between +foreign and native workers does exist, and, as we see, the comparatively +small number of the foreign immigrants compared with the aggregate of +native workers, is no true criterion of the harm their competition does to +low-waged workers. Whether this country will find it wise to reverse its +national policy of free admission to outside labour, it is not easy to +predict. The point should not be misunderstood. Free admission of cheap +foreign labour must be admitted <i>primâ facie</i> to be conducive to the +greatest production of wealth in this country. Those who seek to restrict +or prohibit this admission, do so on the ground that the damage inflicted +upon that class of workers, brought directly or indirectly into +competition for employment with these foreigners, overbalances the net +gain in the aggregate of national wealth. It is this consideration which +has chiefly operated in inducing the United States, Canada, and Australia +to prohibit the admission of Chinese or Coolie labour, and to place close +restrictions upon cheap European labour. Sir Charles Dilke, in a general +summary of colonial policy on this matter, writes, "Colonial labour seeks +protection by legislative means, not only against the cheap labour of the +dark-skinned or of the yellow man, but also against white paupers, and +against the artificial supply of labour by State-aided white immigration. +Most of the countries of the world, indeed, have laws against the +admission of destitute aliens, and the United Kingdom is in practice +almost the only exception."[<a href="#fn32">32</a>]</p> + +<p>The greater contrast between the customary standard of living of the +immigrants and that of the native workers with whom they would compete, +has naturally made the question seem a more vital one for our colonies, +and for the United States than for us. There can, however, be little +doubt that if a few shiploads of Chinese labourers were emptied into the +wharves of East London, whatever Government chanced to be in power would +be compelled to adopt immediate measures of restraint on immigration, so +terrible would the effect be upon the low class European labourers in our +midst. Whether any such Alien legislation will be adopted to meet the +inroad of continental labour depends in large measure on the course of +continental history. It is, however, not improbable that if the +organization of the workers proceeds along the present lines, when they +come to realize their ability to use political power for securing their +industrial position, they may decide that it will be advisable to limit +the supply of labour by excluding foreigners. Those, however, who are +already prepared to adopt such a step, do not always realize as clearly as +they should, that the exclusion of cheap foreigners from our labour-market +will be in all probability accompanied by an exclusion from our markets of +the cheap goods made by these foreigners in their own country, the +admission of which, while it increases the aggregate wealth of England, +inflicts a direct injury on those particular workers, the demand for whose +labour is diminished by the introduction of foreign goods which can +undersell them. If an Alien law is passed, it will bring both logically +and historically in its wake such protective measures as will constitute a +reversal of our present Free Trade policy. Whether such new and hazardous +changes in our national policy are likely to be made, depends in large +measure upon the success of other schemes for treating the condition of +over-supply of low-skilled labour. If no relief is found from these, it +seems not unlikely that a democratic government will some day decide that +such artificial prohibition of foreign labour, and the foreign goods which +compete with the goods produced by low-skilled English labour, will +benefit the low-skilled workers in their capacity as wage-earners, more +than the consequent rise of prices will injure them in their capacity as +consumers.</p> + +<p><b>§ 10. The "Eight Hours Day" Argument.</b>--The last proposal which +deserves attention, is that which seeks to shorten the average +working-day. The attempt to secure by legislation or by combination an +eight hours day, or its equivalent, might seem to affect the "sweating +system" most directly, as a restriction on excessive hours of labour. But +so far as it claims to strike a blow at the industrial oppression of +low-skilled labour, its importance will depend upon its effect on the +demand and supply of that low-skilled labour. The result which the +advocates of an eight hours day claim for their measure, may be stated as +follows--</p> + +<p>Assuming that low-skilled workers now work on an average twelve hours a +day, a compulsory reduction to eight hours would mean that one-third more +men were required to perform the same amount of work, leaving out for +convenience the question whether an eight hours day would be more +productive than the first eight hours of a twelve hours day. Since the +same quantity of low-skilled work would require to be done, employment +would now be provided for a large number of those who would otherwise have +been unemployed. In fact, if the shorter day is accompanied by an absolute +prohibition of over-time, it seems possible that work would thus be found +for the whole army of "unemployed." Nor is this all. The existence of a +constant standing "pool" of unemployed was, as we saw, responsible for +keeping the wages of low-skilled labour down to a bare subsistence wage. +Let this "pool" be once drained off, wages will rapidly rise, since the +combined action of workers will no longer be able to be defeated by the +eagerness of "outsiders" to take their work and wages. Thus an eight hours +day would at once solve the problem of the "work-less," and raise the +wages of low-skilled labour. The effect would be precisely the same as if +the number of competitors for work were suddenly reduced. For the price of +labour, as of all else, depends on the relation between the demand for it +and the supply, and the price will rise if the demand is increased while +the supply remains the same, or if the supply is decreased while the +demand remains the same. A compulsory eight hours day would practically +mean a shrinkage in the supply of labour offered in the market, and the +first effect would indisputably be a rise in the price of labour. To +reduce by one-third at a single blow the amount of labour put forth in a +day by any class of workers, is precisely equivalent to a sudden removal +of one-third of these workers from the field of labour. We know from +history that the result of a disastrous epidemic, like the Black Plague, +has been to raise the wages and improve the general condition of the +labourer even in the teeth of legal attempts to keep down wages. The +advocates of an Eight Hours Act assert that the same effect would follow +from that measure.</p> + +<p>Setting aside as foreign to our discussion all consideration of the +difficulties in passing and enforcing an Eight Hours Act, or in applying +it to certain industries, the following economic objection is raised by +opponents to the eight hours movement--</p> + +<p>The larger aggregate of wages, which must be paid under an eight hours +day, will increase the expanses of production in each industry. For the +increased wage cannot in general be obtained by reducing profits, for any +such reduction will drive freshly-accumulated capital more and more to +seek foreign investments, and managing ability will in some measure tend +to follow it. The higher aggregate of wages must therefore be represented +in a general rise of prices. This rise of prices will have two effects. In +the first place it will tend to largely negative the higher aggregate of +money wages. Or if organized labour, free from the competition of +unemployed, is able to maintain a higher rate of real wages, the general +rise in prices will enable foreign producers to undersell us in our own +market (unless we adopted a Protective Tariff), and will disable us from +competing in foreign markets. This constitutes the pith of the economic +objection raised against an eight hours day. The eight hours advocates +meet the objection in the following ways--First, they deny that prices +will rise in consequence of the increased aggregate of wages. A reduction +in interest and in wages of superintendence will take place in many +branches of industry, without any appreciable tendency to diminish the +application of capital, or to drive it out of the country.</p> + +<p>Secondly, the result of an increased expenditure in wages will be to crush +the small factories and workshops, which are the backbone of the sweating +System, and to assist the industrial evolution which makes in favour of +large well-organized factories working with the newest machinery.</p> + +<p>Thirdly, it is claimed that we shall not be ousted either from our own or +from foreign markets by foreign competition, because the eight hours +movement in England must be regarded as part of a larger industrial +movement which is proceeding <i>pari passu</i> among the competing nations. If +the wages of German, French, and American workers are advancing at the +same rate as English wages, or if other industrial restrictions in those +countries are otherwise increasing the expenses of production at a +corresponding rate, the argument of foreign competition falls to the +ground.</p> + +<p>These leading arguments of the advocates of an eight hours day are of very +unequal value. The first argument is really based upon the supposition +that the increased aggregate of wages can be "got out of capital" by +lowering interest and profits. The general validity of this argument may +be questioned. In its application a distinction must be drawn between +those businesses which by means of the possession of some monopoly, +patent, or other trade advantage are screened from the full force of +competition, and are thus enabled to earn profits above the average, and +those businesses where the constant stress of close competition keeps +interest and profits down to the lowest point which suffices to induce the +continued application of capital and organizing ability. In the former +cases the "cost" of an Eight Hours Day might be got out of capital, +assuming an effective organization of labour, in the latter cases it could +not.</p> + +<p>As to the second argument, it is probable enough that the legal eight +hours day would accelerate the industrial evolution, which is enabling the +large well-equipped factory to crush out the smaller factory. As we have +seen that the worst evils of "sweating" are associated with a lower order +of industrial organization, any cause which assisted to destroy the small +workshop and the out-work system, would be a benefit. But as the economic +motive of such improved organization with increased use of machinery, +would be to save human labour, it is doubtful whether a quickening of this +process would not act as a continual feeder to the band of unemployed, by +enabling employers to dispense with the services of even this or that body +of workers whose work is taken over by brute machinery.</p> + +<p>The net value of these two eight hours arguments is doubtful. The real +weight of the discussion seems to rest on the third.</p> + +<p>If the movement for improving the industrial condition of the working +classes does proceed as rapidly in other industrial countries as in our +own, we shall have nothing to fear from foreign competition, since +expenses of production and prices will be rising equally among our own. If +there is no such equal progress in other nations, then the industrial gain +sought for the working classes of this country by a shorter day cannot be +obtained, though any special class or classes of workers may be relieved +of excessive toil at the expense of the community as a whole. Government +employés, and that large number of workers who cannot be brought into +direct competition with foreign labour, can receive the same wages for +shorter hours, provided the public is willing to pay a higher price for +their protected labour.</p> + +<p>In conclusion, it may be well to add that the economic difficulties which +beset this question cannot be lightly set aside by an assertion that the +same difficulties were raised by economists against earlier factory +legislation, and that experience has shown that they may be safely +disregarded. It is impossible to say how far the introduction of humane +restrictions upon the exploitation of cheap human labour has affected the +aggregate production of wealth in England. It has not prevented the +growth of our trade, but very possibly it has checked the rate of growth. +If the mere accumulation of material wealth, regardless alike of the mode +of production or of the distribution, be regarded as the industrial goal, +it is quite conceivable that a policy of utter <i>laissez faire</i> might be +the best means of securing that end. Although healthy and happy workers +are more efficient than the half-starved and wholly degraded beings who +slaved in the uninspected factories and mines during the earlier period of +the factory system, and still slave in the sweater's den, it may still be +to the interest of employers to pay starvation wages for relatively +inefficient work, rather than pay high wages for a shorter day's work to +more efficient workers. It is to the capitalist a mere sum in arithmetic; +and we cannot predict that the result will always turn in favour of +humanity and justice.</p> + +<p>At the same time, even if it is uncertain whether a shorter working day +could be secured without a fall of wages, it is still open to advocates of +a shorter working day to urge that it is worth while to purchase leisure +at such a price. If a shorter working day could cure or abate the evil of +"the unemployed," and help to raise the industrial condition of the +low-skilled workers, the community might well afford to pay the cost.</p> +</div> + + +<div class="chapter" id="ch07"> +<h2>Chapter VII.</h2> + +<h3>Over-Supply of Low-Skilled Labour.</h3> + + + +<p><b>§ 1.Restatement of the "Low-skilled Labour" Question.</b>--Our inquiry +into Factory Legislation and Trade Unionism as cures for sweating have +served to emphasize the economic nature of the disease, the over-supply of +low-skilled labour. Factory legislation, while it may abate many of the +symptoms of the disease, cannot directly touch the centre of the malady, +low wages, though by securing publicity it may be of indirect assistance +in preventing the payment of wages which public opinion would condemn as +insufficient for a decent livelihood. Trade Unionism as an effective agent +in securing the industrial welfare of workers, is seen to rest upon the +basis of restriction of labour supply, and its total effectiveness is +limited by the fact that each exercise of this restriction in the interest +of a class of workers weakens the position of the unemployed who are +seeking work. The industrial degradation of the "sweated" workers arises +from the fact that they are working surrounded by a pool of unemployed or +superfluous supply of labour. So long as there remains this standing pool +of excessive labour, it is difficult to see how the wages of low unskilled +workers can be materially raised. The most intelligent social reformers +are naturally directing their attention to the question, how to drain +these lowlands of labour of the superfluous supply, or in other words to +keep down the population of the low-skilled working class. Among the many +population drainage schemes, the following deserve close attention--</p> + +<p><b>§ 2. Checks on growth of population.</b>--We need not discuss in its +wider aspect the question whether our population tends to increase faster +than the means of subsistence. Disciples of Malthus, who urge the growing +pressure of population on the food supply, are sometimes told that so far +as this argument applies to England, the growth of wealth is faster than +the growth of population, and that as modern facilities for exchange +enable any quantity of this wealth to be transferred into food and other +necessaries, their alarm is groundless. Now these rival contentions have +no concern for us. We are interested not in the pressure of the whole +population upon an actual or possible food supply, but with the pressure +of a certain portion of that population upon a relatively fixed supply of +work. It is approximately true to say that at any given time there exists +a certain quality of unskilled or low-skilled work to be done. If there +are at hand just enough workers to do it, the wages will be sufficiently +high to allow a decent standard of living. If, on the other hand, there +are present more than enough workers willing to do the work, a number of +them must remain without work and wages, while those who are employed get +the lowest wages they will consent to take. Thus it will seem of prime +importance to keep down the population of low-skilled workers to the point +which leaves a merely nominal margin of superfluous labour. The Malthusian +question has in its modern practical aspect narrowed down to this. The +working classes by abstinence from early or improvident marriages, or by +the exercise of moral restraints after marriage can, it is urged, check +that tendency of the working population to outgrow the increase of the +work for which they compete. There can be no doubt that the more +intelligent classes of skilled labourers have already profited by this +consideration, and as education and intelligence are more widely diffused, +we may expect these prudential checks on "over-population" will operate +with increased effect among the whole body of workers. But precisely +because these checks are moral and reasonable, they must be of very slow +acceptance among that class whose industrial condition forms a stubborn +barrier to moral and intellectual progress. Those who would gain most by +the practice of prudential checks, are least capable of practising them. +The ordinary "labourer" earns full wages as soon as he attains manhood's +strength; he is as able to support a wife and family at twenty as he will +ever be; indeed he is more so, for while he is young his work is more +regular, and less liable to interruption by ill-health. The reflection +that an early marriage means the probability of a larger family, and that +a large family helps to keep wages low, cannot at present be expected to +make a deep impression upon the young unskilled labourer. The value of +restraint after marriage could probably be inculcated with more effect, +because it would appeal more intelligibly to the immediate interest of the +labourer. But it is to the growing education and intelligence of women, +rather than to that of men, that we must look for a recognition of the +importance of restraint on early marriages and large families.</p> + +<p><b>§ 3. The "Emigration" Remedy.</b>--The most direct and obvious drainage +scheme is by emigration. If there are more workers than there is work for +them to do, why not remove those who are not wanted, and put them where +there is work to do? The thing sounds very simple, but the simplicity is +somewhat delusive. The old <i>laissez faire</i> political economist would ask, +"Why, since labour is always moving towards the place where it can be most +profitably employed, is it necessary to do anything but let it flow? Why +should the State or philanthropic people busy themselves about the matter? +If labour is not wanted in one place, and is wanted in another, it will +and must leave the one place and go to the other. If you assist the +process by compulsion, or by any artificial aid, you may be removing the +wrong people, or you may be removing them to the wrong place." Now the +reply to the main <i>laissez faire</i> position is conclusive. Just as water, +though always tending to find its own level, does not actually find it +when it is dammed up in some pool by natural or artificial earthworks, so +labour stored in the persons of poor and ignorant men and women is not in +fact free to seek the place of most profitable employment. The highlands +of labour are drained by this natural flow; even the strain of competition +in skilled hand-labour finds sensible relief by the voluntary emigration +of the more adventurous artisans, but the poor low-skilled workers suffer +here again by reason of their poverty: no natural movement can relieve the +plethora of labour-power in low-class employments. The fluidity of +low-skilled labour seldom exceeds the power of moving from one town to a +neighbouring town, or from a country district to the nearest market towns, +or to London in search of work. If the lowlands are to be drained at all, +it must be done by an artificial system. Now all such systems are in fact +open to the mistakes mentioned above. If we look too exclusively to the +requirements of new colonies, and the opportunities of work they present, +we may be induced to remove from England a class of men and women whose +services we can ill afford to lose, and who are not in any true sense +superfluous labour. To assist sturdy and shrewd Scotch farmers, or a body +of skilled artisans thrown out of work by a temporary trade depression, to +transfer themselves and their families to America or Australia, is a +policy the net advantage of which is open to grave doubt. Of course by +removing any body of workers you make room for others, but this fact does +not make it a matter of indifference which class is removed. On the other +hand, if we look exclusively to the interests of the whole mass of labour +in England, we should probably be led to assist the emigration of large +bodies of the lowest and least competent workers. This course, though +doubtless for the advantage of the low class labour, directly relieved, is +detrimental to the interest of the new country, which is flooded with +inefficient workers, and confers little benefit upon these workers +themselves, since they are totally incapable of making their way in a new +country. The reckless drafting off of our social failures into new lands +is a criminal policy, which has been only too rife in the State-aided +emigration of the past, and which is now rendered more and more difficult +each year by the refusal of foreign lands to receive our "wreckage." Here, +then, is the crux of emigration. The class we can best afford to lose, is +the class our colonies and foreign nations can least afford to take, and +if they consent to receive them they only assume the burden we escape. The +age of loose promiscuous pauper emigration has gone by. If we are to use +foreign emigration as a mode of relief for our congested population in the +future, it will be on condition that we select or educate our colonists +before we send them out. Whether the State or private organizations +undertake the work, our colonizing process must begin at home. The +necessity of dealing directly with our weak surplus population of +low-skilled workers is gaining more clear recognition every year, as the +reluctance to interfere with the supposed freedom of the subject even +where the subject is "unfree" is giving way before the urgency of the +situation.</p> + +<p><b>§ 4. Mr. Charles Booth's "Drainage Scheme."</b>--The terrible examples +our history presents to us of the effects of unwise poor law +administration, rightly enjoin the strictest caution in contemplating new +experiments. But the growing recognition of the duty of the State to +protect its members who are unable to protect themselves, and to secure +fair opportunities of self-support and self-improvement, as well as the +danger of handing over their protection to the conflicting claims of +private and often misguided philanthropy, is rapidly gaining ground +against the advocates of <i>laissez faire</i>. It is beginning to be felt that +the State cannot afford to allow the right of private social experiment on +the part of charitable organizations. The relief of destitution has for +centuries been recognized as the proper business of the State. Our present +poor law practically fails to relieve the bulk of the really destitute. +Even were it successful it would be doing nothing to prevent destitution. +Since neither existing legislation nor the forces of private charity are +competent to cope with the evils of "sweating," engendered by an excess of +low-class labour, it is probable that the pressure of democratic +government will make more and more in favour of some large new experiment +of social drainage. In view of this it may not be out of place to describe +briefly two schemes proposed by private students of the problem of +poverty.</p> + +<p>Mr. Charles Booth, recognizing that the superfluity of cheap inefficient +labour lies at the root of the matter, suggests the removal of the most +helpless and degraded class from the strain of a struggle which is fatal +not merely to themselves, but to the class immediately above them. The +reason for this removal is given as follows--</p> + +<p>"To effectually deal with the whole of class B--for the State to nurse the +helpless and incompetent as we in our own families nurse the old, the +young, and the sick, and provide for those who are not competent to +provide for themselves--may seem an impossible undertaking; but nothing +less than this will enable self-respecting labour to obtain its full +remuneration, and the nation its raised standard of life. The +difficulties, which are certainly great, do not consist in the cost. As it +is, these unfortunate people cost the community one way or another +considerably more than they contribute. I do not refer solely to the fact +that they cost the State more than they pay directly or indirectly in +taxes. I mean that altogether, ill-paid and half-starved as they are, they +consume, or waste, or have expended on them, more wealth than they +produce."</p> + +<p>Mr. Booth would remove the "very poor," and plant them in industrial +communities under proper government supervision.</p> + +<p>"Put practically, my idea is that these people should be allowed to live +as families in industrial groups, planted wherever land and building +materials were cheap; being well-housed and well-warmed, and taught, +trained, and employed from morning to night on work, indoors or out, for +themselves, or on Government account."</p> + +<p>The Government should provide material and tools, and having the people +entirely on its hands, get out of them what it can. Wages should be paid +at a "fair proportionate rate," so as to admit comparison of earnings of +the different communities, and of individuals. The commercial deficit +involved in the scheme should be borne by the State. This expansion of our +poor law policy, for it is nothing more, aims less at the reformation and +improvement of the class taken under its charge, than at the relief which +would be afforded to the classes who suffered from their competition in +the industrial struggle. What it amounts to is the removal of the mass of +unemployed. The difficulties involved in such a scheme are, as Mr. Booth +admits, very grave.</p> + +<p>The following points especially deserve attention--</p> + +<p>1. Since it is not conceivable that compulsion should be brought to bear +in the selection and removal out of the ordinary industrial community of +those weaker members whose continued struggle is considered undesirable, +it is evident that the industrial colonies must be recruited out of +volunteers. It will thus become a large expansion of the present workhouse +system. The eternal dilemma of the poor law will be present there. On the +one hand, if, as seems likely, the degradation and disgrace attaching to +the workhouse is extended to the industrial colony, it will fail to +attract the more honest and deserving among the "very poor," and to this +extent will fail to relieve the struggling workers of their competition. +On the other hand, if the condition of the "industrial colonist" is +recognized as preferable to that of the struggling free competitor, it +must in some measure act as a premium upon industrial failure, checking +the output of energy and the growth of self-reliance in the lower ranks of +the working classes. No scheme for the relief of poverty is wholly free +from this difficulty; but there is danger that the State colony of Mr. +Booth would, if it were successful as a mode of "drainage," be open to it +in no ordinary degree.</p> + +<p>2. Closely related to this first difficulty is the fact that Mr. Booth +provides no real suggestion for a process of discrimination in the +treatment of our social failures, which shall distinguish the failure due +directly to deep-seated vice of character and habit, from the failure due +to unhappy chance or the fault of others. Difficult, almost impossible, as +such discrimination between deserving and undeserving is, it is felt that +any genuine reform of our present poor law system demands that some +attempt in this direction should be made. We must try to distinguish +curable from incurable cases, and we must try to cure the former while we +preserve society from the contamination of the latter. The mere removal of +a class of "very poor" will not suffice.</p> + +<p>Since however the scheme of Mr. C. Booth does not proceed beyond the stage +of a suggested outline of treatment, it is not fair or profitable to press +close criticism. It is, however, a fact of some significance that one who +has brought such close study to bear upon the problem of poverty should +arrive at the conclusion that "Thorough interference on the part of the +State with the lives of a small fraction of the population, would tend to +make it possible, ultimately, to dispense with any Socialistic +interference in the lives of all the rest."[<a href="#fn33">33</a>]</p> + +<p><b>§ 5. Proposed remedies for "Unemployment."</b>--In discussing methods of +dealing with "the unemployed," who represent an "over-supply" of labour at +a given time, it is often found convenient to distinguish the temporary +"unemployment" due to fluctuations rising from the nature of certain +trades, and the permanent unemployment or half employment of large +numbers of the least efficient town workers. The fluctuations in +employment due to changes of season, as in the building trades, and many +branches of dock labour, or to changes of fashion, as in the silk and +"fancy" woollen trade, or to temporary changes in the field of employment +caused by a transformation of industrial processes, are direct causes of a +considerable quantity of temporary unemployment. To these must be added +the unemployment represented by the interval between the termination of +one job and the beginning of another, as in the building trades. Lastly, +the wider fluctuations of general trade seem to impose a character of +irregularity upon trade, so that the modern System of industry will not +work without some unemployed margin, some reserve of labour.</p> + +<p>These irregularities and leakages seem to explain why, at any given time, +a certain considerable number of fairly efficient and willing workmen may +be out of work. It is often urged that this class of "unemployed" must be +regarded as quite distinct from the superfluity of low-skilled and +inefficient workers found in our towns, and that the two classes present +different problems for solution. The character of the "chronic" class of +unemployed makes the problem appear to be, not one of economic +readjustment, but rather of training and education. But this appearance is +deceptive. The connection between the two kinds of "unemployment" is much +closer than is supposed. The irregularity of the "season" and "fashion" +trades, the periodic spells of bad trade, are continually engaged in +degrading and deteriorating the physique, the morale, and the industrial +efficiency of the weaker members of each trade: these weaklings are unable +to maintain a steady and healthy standard of life under economic +conditions which make work and wages irregular, and are constantly +dropping out of the more skilled trades to swell the already congested +low-skilled labour market. Every period of "depressed trade" feeds the +pool of low-skilled labour from a hundred different channels. The +connection between the two classes of "unemployed" is, therefore, a close +and vital one. To drain off this pool would, in fact, be of little +permanent use unless those irregularities of trade, which are constantly +feeding it, are also checked.</p> + +<p>Still less serviceable are those schemes of rescuing "the unemployed," +which, in the very work of rescue, engender an economic force whose +operation causes as much unemployment as it cures. A signal example of +this futile system of social drainage has been afforded by certain +experiments of the Salvation Army in their City Works and Farm Colony. The +original draft of the scheme contained in the volume, <i>In Darkest +England</i>, clearly recognized the advisability of keeping the bounty-fed +products of the Salvation Colonies from competition in the market with the +products of outside labour. The design was to withdraw from the +competitive labour market certain members of "the unemployed," to train +and educate them in efficient labour, and to apply this labour to capital +provided out of charitable funds: the produce of this labour was to be +consumed by the colonists themselves, who would thus become as far as +possible self-supporting; in no case was it to be thrown upon the open +market. As a matter of fact these sound, economic conditions of social +experiment have been utterly ignored. Matches, firewood, furniture, etc. +produced in the City factories have been thrown upon the open market. The +Hadleigh Farm Colony, originally designed to give a thorough training in +the arts of agriculture so as to educate its members for the Over Sea +Colony, has devoted more and more attention to shoemaking, carpentering, +and other special mechanical crafts, and less and less to the efficient +cultivation of the soil; the boots, chairs, etc. being thrown in large +quantities upon the open market. Moreover, the fruit and vegetables raised +upon the Farm have been systematically placed upon the outside market. The +result of such a line of conduct is evident. Suppose A is a carpenter +thrown out of work because there are more carpenters than are required to +turn out the current supply of chairs and tables at a profitable price; +the Salvation Army takes A in hand, and provides him with capital upon +which no interest need be paid. A's chairs, now thrown on the market, can +undersell the chairs provided by B, C, D, his former trade competitors. +Unless we suppose an increased demand for chairs, the result is that A's +chairs displace those of B in the market, and B is thrown out of +employment. Thus A, assisted by the Salvation Army, has simply taken B's +work. If the Salvation Army now takes B in hand, it can engage him in +useful work on condition that he takes away the work of C. If match-makers +are thrown out of work by trade conditions, and the Salvation Army places +them in a factory, and sells in the open market the matches which they +make, the public which buys these matches abstains from buying the matches +made by other firms, and these firms are thus prevented from employing as +much labour as they would otherwise have done. No net increase of +employment is caused by this action of the Salvation Army, and therefore +they have done nothing towards the solution of the unemployed problem. +They have provided employment for certain known persons at the expense of +throwing out of employment certain other unknown persons. Since those who +are thrown out of work in the labour market are, on the average, inferior +in character and industry to those who are kept in work, the effect of the +Salvation Army policy is to substitute inferior for superior workers. The +blind philanthropist may perhaps be excused for not seeing beyond his +nose, and for ignoring "unseen" in favour of "seen" results. But General +Booth was advised of the sound economic conditions of his experiment, and +seemed to recognize the value of the advice. The defence of his action +sometimes takes the form of a denial that the Salvation Army undersells +outside produce in the market. Salvation matches are sold, it is said, +rather above than below the ordinary price of matches. If this be true, it +affords no answer to the objection raised above. The Salvation matches are +bought by persons who would have bought other matches if they had not +bought these, and if they choose to pay 3d. for Salvation matches instead +of 2½d. for others, the effect of this action is still to take away +employment from the 2½d. firm and give it to the Salvation firm. Indeed, +it might be urged that a larger amount of unemployment is caused in this +case, for persons who now pay 3d. for matches which they formerly bought +for 2½d., will diminish their expenditure upon other commodities, and the +result will be to diminish employment in those industries engaged in +supplying these commodities. Here is another "unseen" result of fallacious +philanthropy.</p> + +<p>The inevitable result of the Salvation Army placing goods in the open +market is to increase the supply relatively to the demand; in order that +the larger supply may be sold prices must fall, and it makes no difference +whether or no the Salvation Army takes the lead in reducing the price. If +the fall of price enables the whole of the increased supply to be taken +off at the lower price, then an increase of employment has been obtained +in this trade, though, in this case, it should be remembered that in all +probability the lower level of prices means a reduction of wages in the +outside labour market. If the increased supply is not taken off at the +lower prices, then the Salvation goods can only be sold on condition that +some others remain unsold, employment of Salvationists thus displacing +employment of other workers. The roundabout nature of much of this +competition does not impair one whit the inevitability of this result.</p> + +<p>This objection is applicable not only to the method of the Salvation Army, +but to many other industrial experiments conducted on a philanthropic +basis. Directly or indirectly bounty-fed labour is brought into +competition with self-supporting labour to the detriment of the latter. It +is sometimes sought to evade the difficulty by confining the produce which +the assisted labour puts upon the open market to classes of articles which +are not for the most part produced in this country, but which are largely +imported from abroad. It is urged that although shoes and furniture and +matches ought not to be produced by assisted labour for the outside +market, it is permissible for an agricultural colony to replace by home +products the large imports in the shape of cheese, fruit, bacon, poultry, +etc., which we now receive from abroad. Those who maintain this position +commonly fail to take into consideration the exports which go out from +this country to pay for these imports. If this export trade is diminished +the trades engaged in manufacturing the exported goods will suffer, and +labour employed in these trades may be thrown out of employment. This +objection may be met by showing that the goods formerly exported, or an +equivalent quantity of other goods, will be demanded for the increased +consumption of the labourers in the agricultural colony. This is a valid +answer if the home consumption rises sufficiently to absorb the goods +formerly exported to pay for agricultural imports. But even where this +just balance is maintained, allowance must be made for some disturbance of +established trades owing to the fact that the new demand created at home +will probably be for different classes of articles from those which formed +the exports now displaced. The safest use of assisted labour, where the +products are designed for the open market, is in the production of +articles for which there is a steadily growing demand within this country. +Even in this case the utmost care should be exercised to prevent the +products of assisted labour from so depressing prices as to injure the +wages of outside labour engaged in similar productions.</p> + +<p>Since the existence of an unemployed class who are unemployed because they +are unable, not because they are unwilling, to get work, is proof of an +insufficiency of employment, it is apparent that nothing is of real +assistance which does not increase the net amount of employment. Since the +amount of employment is determined by, and varies with, the consumption of +the community, the only sure method of increasing the amount of employment +is by raising the standard of consumption for the community. Where, as is +common in times of trade depression, unemployment of labour is attended by +unemployment of capital, this joint excess of the two requisites of +production is only to be explained by the low standard of consumption of +the community. Since the working-classes form a vast majority of the +community, and their standard of consumption is low compared with that of +the upper classes, it is to a progressive standard of comfort among the +workers that we must look for a guarantee of increasing employment. It may +be urged that the luxurious expenditure of the rich provides as much +employment as the more necessary expenditure of the poor. But, setting +aside all considerations of the inutility or noxious character of luxury, +there is one vital difference between the employment afforded in the two +cases. The demand for luxuries is essentially capricious and irregular, +and this irregularity must always be reflected in the employment of the +trades which supply them. On the other hand, a general rise in the +standard of comfort of the workers creates an increased demand of a steady +and habitual kind, the new elements of consumption belonging to the order +of necessaries or primary comforts become ingrained in the habits of large +classes of consumers, and the employment they afford is regular and +reliable. When this simple principle is once clearly grasped by social +reformers, it will enable them to see that the only effective remedy for +unemployment lies in a general policy of social and economic reform, which +aims at placing a larger and larger proportion of the "consuming power" of +the community in the hands of those who, having received it as the +earnings of their effort, will learn to use it in building up a higher +standard of wholesome consumption.</p> +</div> + + +<div class="chapter" id="ch08"> +<h2>Chapter VIII.</h2> + +<h3>The Industrial Condition of Women-Workers.</h3> + + + +<p><b>§ 1.The Number of Women engaged in Industrial Work.</b>--The evils of +"sweating" press more heavily on women workers than on men. It is not +merely that women as "the weaker sex" suffer more under the same burden, +but that their industrial burden is absolutely heavier than that of men. +The causes and the meaning of this demand a special treatment.</p> + +<p>The census returns for 1901 showed that out of 4,171,751 females engaged +in occupations about 40½ per cent. were in domestic or other service, 38½ +per cent. in manufactures, 7 per cent. in commerce, chiefly as +shop-assistants, 4 per cent. in teaching, 3 per cent. in hotels, +boarding-houses, etc., and 7 per cent. in other occupations.</p> + +<p>The following table gives the groups of occupations in which more females +are employed than males:--</p> +<table summary="groups of occupations in which more females are employed than males"> +<tr><th> Occupational Groups </th><th>Males </th><th>Females</th></tr> +<tr><td> Sick nurses, midwives, etc.</td><td style="text-align:right">1,092</td><td style="text-align:right">67,269</td></tr> +<tr><td> Teaching</td><td style="text-align:right">61,897</td><td style="text-align:right">172,873</td></tr> +<tr><td> Domestic service</td><td style="text-align:right">124,263</td><td style="text-align:right">1,690,686</td></tr> +<tr><td> Bookbinding: paper and stationery manufactures</td><td style="text-align:right">42,644</td><td style="text-align:right">64,210</td></tr> +<tr><td> Textile manufactures</td><td style="text-align:right">492,175</td><td style="text-align:right">663,222</td></tr> +<tr><td> Dress manufactures</td><td style="text-align:right">336,186</td><td style="text-align:right">689,956</td></tr> +<tr><td></td><td colspan="2">--------------------</td></tr> +<tr><td></td><td style="text-align:right">1,058,257</td><td style="text-align:right">3,348,216</td></tr> +<tr><td> All other occupations</td><td style="text-align:right">9,098,717</td><td style="text-align:right">823,535</td></tr> +<tr><td></td><td style="text-align:right" colspan="2">--------------------</td></tr> +<tr><td> All occupations</td><td style="text-align:right">10,156,974</td><td style="text-align:right">4,171,751</td></tr> +</table> +<p>The manufactures in which women have been gaining upon men are the +textile and clothing trades in almost all branches, tobacco, printing, +stationery, brushes, india-rubber, and foods.</p> + +<p><b>§ 2. Women's Wages.</b>--Turning now to women engaged in city industries, +let us gauge their industrial condition by the tests of wages, hours of +labour, sanitary conditions, regularity of employment</p> + +<p>The following is a list of the average wages paid for different kinds of +factory work in London.</p> +<table summary="list of the average wages paid for different kinds of +factory work in London"> +<tr><td>Artificial flowers</td><td>8 to</td><td>12 shillings.</td></tr> +<tr><td>Bookbinding</td><td>9 "</td><td>11 "</td></tr> +<tr><td>Boxmaking</td><td>8 "</td><td>16 "</td></tr> +<tr><td>Brushes</td><td>8 "</td><td>15 "</td></tr> +<tr><td>Caps</td><td>8 "</td><td>16 "</td></tr> +<tr><td>Collars</td><td>11 "</td><td>15 "</td></tr> +<tr><td>Confectionery</td><td>8 "</td><td>14 "</td></tr> +<tr><td>Corsets</td><td>8 "</td><td>16 "</td></tr> +<tr><td>Fur-sewing</td><td>7 "</td><td>14 "</td></tr> +<tr><td>Fur-sewing in winter</td><td>4 "</td><td>7 "</td></tr> +<tr><td>Matches</td><td>8 "</td><td>13 "</td></tr> +<tr><td>Rope</td><td>8 "</td><td>11 "</td></tr> +<tr><td>Umbrellas</td><td>10 "</td><td>18 "</td></tr> +</table> +<p>These are ordinary wages. Very good or industrious workers are said to get +in some cases 20 per cent, more; unskilful or idle workers less.</p> + +<p>It must be borne in mind that these sums represent a full week's work. The +importance of this qualification will appear presently.</p> + +<p>It is obvious at a glance that these wages are for the most part +considerably lower than those paid for any regular form of male labour. +But there is another fact which adds to the significance of this. Skilled +labour among men is much more highly paid than unskilled labour. Among +women's industries this is not the case to any great extent. Skilled work +like that of book-folding is paid no higher than the almost unskilled work +of the jam or match girl. This is said to be due partly to the fact that +the lower kinds of work are done by girls and women who are compelled to +support themselves, while the higher class is done by women partly kept by +husband or father, partly to the pride taken in the performance of more +skilled work, and the reluctance to mingle with women belonging to a lower +stratum of society, which prevents the wages of the various kinds of work +from being determined by free economic competition. A bookbinding girl +would sooner take lower wages than engage in an inferior class of work +which happened to rise in the market price of its labour. But whatever the +causes may be, the fact cannot be disputed that the lower rates of wages +extend over a larger proportion of women workers.</p> + +<p>Again, the wages quoted above refer to workers in factories. But only +three women's trades of any importance are managed entirely in factories, +the cigar, confectionery, and match-making[<a href="#fn34">34</a>] trades. In many of the +other trades part of the work is done in factories, part is let out to +sweaters, or to women who work at their own homes. Many of the clothing +trades come under this class, as for example, the tie-making, trimmings, +corset-making trades. The employers in these trades are able to play the +out-doors workers against the indoors workers, so as to keep down the +wages of both to a minimum. The "corset" manufacture is fairly +representative of these trades. The following list gives the per-centage +of workers receiving various sums for "indoors" i.e. "factory" work.</p> +<pre> + s. s. s. s. s. s. s. s. s. s. + Under 4 3--6 8--10 10--12 12--15 Over 15 + 2.94 p.c. 50 p.c. 2.94 p.c. 5.9 p.c. 14.7 p.c. 22.52 p.c. +</pre> +<p>Outdoor workers earn from 6s. to 12s., but where more than 10s. is earned, +the woman is generally assisted by one or more of her children. Generally +speaking, the most miserably paid work is that in trades where most of the +work is done by out-door workers. Such is the lowest stratum of the "vest +and trousers" trade, where English women undertake work rejected by the +lowest class of Jew workers, and the shirt-making trade, which, in the +opinion of the Lords' Committee, "does not appear to afford subsistence to +those who have no other employment." In these and other trades of the +lowest order, 6s. a week is a tolerably common wage for a work-woman of +fair skill to net after a hard week's work, and there are many individual +cases where the wage falls far below this mark.</p> + +<p>It is true that the work for which the lowest wages are paid is often that +of learners, or of inefficient work-women; but while this may be a +satisfactory "economic" explanation, it does not mitigate the terrible +significance of the fact that many women are dependent on such work as +their sole opportunity of earning an honest livelihood.</p> + +<p><b>§ 3. Irregularity of Employment.</b>--As the wages of women are lower +than those of men, so they suffer more from irregularity of employment. +There are two special reasons for this.</p> + +<p>α. Many trades in which women are employed, depend largely +upon the element of Season. The confectionery trade, one of the most +important, employs twice as many hands in the busy season as in the slack +season. Match-makers have a slack season, in which many of them sell +flowers, or go "hopping." Laundry work is largely "season" work. +Fur-sewing is perhaps the worst example of the terrible effect of +irregular work taken with low wages. "For several months in the year the +fur-sewers have either no work, or earn about 3s. or 4s. a week, and many +of these work in overcrowded insanitary workshops in the season. +Fur-sewing is the worst paid industry in the East End, with absolutely no +exceptions."[<a href="#fn35">35</a>]</p> + +<p>β. Fluctuations in fashion affect many women's trades; in +particular, the "ornamental" clothing trades, e.g. furs, feathers, +trimmings, etc.</p> + +<p>Employers in these slack times prefer generally to keep on the better +hands (on lower wages), and to dismiss the inferior hands.</p> + +<p>These "natural" fluctuations, added to ordinary trade irregularities, +favour the employment of "outdoor" workers in sweaters' dens or at home, +and require in these trades, as conducted at present, the existence of an +enormous margin of "casual" workers. These two chief factors in the +"sweating" problem, sub-contract and irregular home-work, are far more +prevalent in female industries than in male.</p> + +<p><b>§ 4. Hours of Labour in Women's Trades.</b>--The Factory Act is supposed +to protect women engaged in industrial work from excessive hours of +labour, by setting a limit of twelve hours to the working day, including +an interval of two hours for meals.</p> + +<p>But passing over the fact that a dispensation is granted, enabling women +to be employed for fourteen hours during certain times, there is the far +more important consideration that most employments of women wholly escape +the operation of the Factory Act. In part this is due to the difficulty of +enforcing the Act in the case of sweating workshops, many of which are +unknown to inspectors, while others habitually break the law and escape +the penalty. Again, the Act does not and cannot be made to apply to a +large class of small domestic workshops. When the dwelling-room is also +the work-room, it is impossible to enforce by any machinery of law, close +limitation of hours of labour. Something may be done to extend the arm of +the law over small workshops; but the worst form of out-work, that +voluntarily undertaken by women in their own homes, cannot be thus put +down. Nothing short of a total prohibition of outwork imposed on employers +would be effectual here. Lastly, there are many large employments not +subject to the Factory Act, where the economic power of the employer over +weak employees is grossly abused. One of the worst instances is that of +the large laundries, where women work enormously long hours during the +season, and are often engaged for fifteen or sixteen hours on Fridays and +Saturdays. The whole class of shop-assistants are worked excessive hours. +Twelve and fourteen hours are a common shop day, and frequently the figure +rises to sixteen hours. Restaurants and public-houses are perhaps the +greatest offenders. The case of shop-assistants is most aggravated, for +these excessive hours of labour are wholly waste time; a reduction of 25 +or even of 50 per cent in the shopping-day, reasonably adjusted to the +requirements of classes and localities, would cause no diminution in the +quantity of sales effected, nor would it cause any appreciable +inconvenience to the consuming public.</p> + +<p><b>§ 5. Sanitary Conditions.</b>--Seeing that a larger proportion of women +workers are occupied in the small workshops or in their own overcrowded +homes, it is obvious that the fourth count of the "sweating" charge, that +of unsanitary conditions of work, applies more cruelly to them than to +men. Their more sedentary occupations, and the longer hours they work in +many cases outside the operation of the Factory Act, makes the evils of +overcrowding, bad ventilation, bad drainage, etc., more detrimental to the +health of women than of men workers.</p> + +<p><b>§ 6. Special Burdens incident on Women.</b>--We have now applied the four +chief heads of the "sweating" disease--low wages, long hours, irregular +employment, unsanitary conditions--to women's work, and have seen that the +absolute pressure in each case is heavier on the weaker sex.</p> + +<p>But in estimating the industrial condition of women, there are certain +other considerations which must not be left out of sight.</p> + +<p>To many women-workers, the duties of maternity and the care of children, +which in a civilized human society ought to secure for them some remission +from the burden, of the industrial fight, are a positive handicap in the +struggle for a livelihood. When a married woman or a widow is compelled to +support herself and her family, the home ties which preclude her from the +acceptance of regular factory work, tell fatally against her in the effort +to earn a living. Married women, and others with home duties which cannot +be neglected, furnish an almost illimitable field of casual or irregular +labour. Not only is this irregular work worse paid than regular factory +work, but its existence helps to keep up the pernicious system of +"out-work" under which "sweating" thrives. The commercial competition of +to-day positively trades upon the maternity of women-workers.</p> + +<p>In estimating the quantity of work which falls to the lot of industrial +women-workers, we must not forget to add to the wage-work that domestic +work which few of them can wholly avoid, and which is represented by no +wages. Looking at the problem in a broad human light, it is difficult to +say which is the graver evil, the additional burden of the domestic work, +so far as it is done, or the habitual neglect of it, where it is evaded. +Here perhaps the former point of view is more pertinent. To the long hours +of the factory-worker, or the shopwoman, we must often add the irksome +duties which to a weary wife must make the return home a pain rather than +a pleasure. When the industrial work is carried on at home the worries and +interruptions of family life must always contribute to the difficulty and +intensity of the toil, and tell upon the nervous system and the general +health of the women-workers.</p> + +<p>Other evils, incident on woman's industrial work, do not require +elaboration, though their cumulative effect is often very real. Many +women-workers, the locality of whose home depends on the work of their +husband or father, are obliged to travel every day long distances to and +from their work. The waste of time, the weariness, and sometimes the +expense of 'bus or train thus imposed on them, is in thousands of cases a +heavy tax upon their industrial life. Women working in factories, or +taking work home, suffer also many wrongs by reason of their "weaker sex," +and their general lack of trade organization. Unjust and arbitrary fines +are imposed by harsh employers so as to filch a portion of their scanty +earnings; their time is wasted by unnecessary delay in the giving out of +work, or its inspection when finished; the brutality and insolence of male +overseers is a common incident in their career. In a score of different +ways the weakness of women injures them as competitors in the free fight +for industrial work.</p> + +<p><b>§ 7. Causes of the Industrial Weakness of Women.</b>--This brief summary +of the industrial condition of low-skilled women-workers will suffice to +bring out the fact that the "sweating" question is even more a woman's +question than a man's. The question which rises next is, Why do women as +industrial workers suffer more than men?</p> + +<p>In the first place, as the physically weaker sex, they do on the average a +smaller quantity of work, and therefore receive lower wages. In certain +kinds of work, where women do piece-work along with men, it is found that +they get as high wages as men for the same quantity of work. The recent +report upon Textile Industries establishes this fact so far as those +trades are concerned. But this is not always, perhaps not in the majority +of instances, the case. Women-workers do not, in many cases, receive the +same wages which would be paid to men for doing the same work. Why is +this? It is sometimes described as an unfair advantage taken of women +because they are women. There is a male prejudice, it is urged, against +women-workers, which prevents employers from paying them the wages they +could and would pay to men.</p> + +<p>Now this contention, so far as it refers to a sentimental bias, is not +tenable. A body of women-workers, equally skilled with male workers, and +as strongly organized, would be able to extract the same rate of wages in +any trade. Everything depends upon the words "<i>as strongly organized</i>." +It is the general industrial weakness of the condition of most +women-workers, and not a sex prejudice, which prevents them from receiving +the wages which men might get, if the work the women do were left for male +competition alone. An employer, as a rule, pays the lowest wages he can +get the work done at. The real question we have to meet is this. Why can +he get women who will consent to work at a lower rate than he could get +men to work at? What peculiar conditions are there affecting women which +will oblige them to accept work on lower terms than men?</p> + +<p>Well, in the first place, the wage of a man can never fall much lower than +will suffice to maintain at the minimum standard of comfort both himself +and the average family he has to support. The minimum wage of the man, it +is true, need not cover the full support of his family, because the wife +or children will on the average contribute something to their maintenance. +But the wage of the man must cover his own support, and part of the +support of his family. This marks a rigid minimum wage for male labour; if +competition tends to drive wages lower, the supply of labour is limited to +unmarried males.</p> + +<p>The case of woman is different. If she is a free woman her minimum wage +will be what is required to support herself alone, and since a woman +appears able to keep alive and in working condition on a lower scale of +expenditure than man, the possible minimum wage for independent +women-workers will be less than a single man would consent to work for, +and considerably less than what a married man would require. But there are +other economic causes more important than this which drag down women's +wages.</p> + +<p>Single women, working to support themselves, are subject to the constant +competition of other women who are not dependent for their full livelihood +on the wages they get, and who, if necessary, are often willing to take +wages which would not keep them alive if they had no other source of +income. The minimum wages which can be obtained for certain kinds of work +may by this competition of "bounty-fed" labour be driven considerably +below starvation point. This is no mere hypothesis. It will be obvious +that the class of fur-sewers who, as we saw, earned while in full work +from 4s. to 7s. in the winter months, and the lower grades of brush-makers +and match-makers, to say nothing of the casual "out-workers," who often +take for a whole week's work 3s. or 2s. 6d., cannot, and do not, live upon +these earnings. They must either die upon them, as many in fact do, or +else they must be assisted by other funds.</p> + +<p>There are, at least, three classes of female workers whose competition +helps to keep wages below the point of bare subsistence in the employments +which they enter.</p> + +<p>First, there are married women who in their eagerness to increase the +family income, or to procure special comforts for themselves, are willing +to work at what must be regarded as "uncommercial rates"; that is to say, +for lower wages than they would be willing to accept if they were working +for full maintenance. It is sometimes asserted that since these married +women have not so strong a motive to secure work, they will not, and in +fact do not, undersell, and bring down the rate of wages. But it must be +admitted, firstly, that the very addition of their number to the total of +competitors for low-skilled work, forces down, and keeps down, the price +paid for that work; and secondly, that if they choose, they are enabled to +underbid at any time the labour of women entirely dependent on themselves +for support. The existence of this competition of married women must be +regarded as one of the reasons why wages are low in women's employments.</p> + +<p>Secondly, a large proportion of unmarried women live at home. Even if they +pay their parents the full cost of their keep, they can live more cheaply +than if they had to find a home for themselves. A large proportion, +however, of the younger women are partly supported at the expense of their +family, and work largely to provide luxuries in the shape of dress, and +other ornamental articles. Many of them will consent to work long hours +all week, for an incredibly low sum to spend on superfluities.</p> + +<p>Thirdly, there is the competition of women assisted by charity, or in +receipt of out-door poor relief. Sums paid by Boards of Guardians to +widows with young children, or assistance given by charitable persons to +aid women in distressed circumstances to earn a livelihood, will enable +these women to get work by accepting wages which would have been +impossible if they had not outside assistance to depend upon. It is thus +possible that by assisting a thoroughly deserving case, you may be helping +to drive down below starvation-point the wages of a class of workers.</p> + +<p>Probably a large majority of women-workers are to some extent bounty-fed +in one of these ways. In so far as they do receive assistance from one of +these sources, enabling them to accept lower wages than they could +otherwise have done, it should be clearly understood that they are +presenting the difference between the commercial and the uncommercial +price as a free gift to their employer, or in so far as competition will +oblige him to lower his prices, to the public, which purchases the results +of their work. But the most terrible effect of this uncommercial +competition falls on that miserable minority of their sisters who have no +such extra source of income, and who have to make the lower wages find +clothes, and shelter for themselves, and perhaps a family of children. We +hear a good deal about the jealousy of men, and the difficulties male +Trade Unions have sometimes thrown in the way of women obtaining +employment, which may seem to affect male interests. But though there is +doubtless some ground for these complaints, it should be acknowledged that +it is women who are the real enemies of women. Women's wages in the +"sweating" trades are almost incredibly low, because there is an +artificially large supply of women able and willing to take work at these +low rates.</p> + +<p>It will be possible to raise the wages in these low-paid employments only +on condition that women will agree to refuse to undersell one another +beyond a certain point. A restriction in what is called "freedom of +competition" is the only direct remedy which can be applied by women +themselves. If women could be induced to refuse to avail themselves of the +terrible power conferred by these different forms of "bounty," their wages +could not fall below that 9s. or 10s. which would be required to keep them +alive, and would probably rise higher.</p> + +<p><b>§ 8. What Trade Unionism can do for them.</b>--A question which naturally +rises now is, how far combination in the form of Trade Unionism can assist +to raise the industrial condition of these women. The practical power +wielded by male Unions we saw was twofold. Firstly, by restricting the +supply of labour in their respective trades they raised its market price, +i.e. wages. Secondly, they could extract better conditions from employers, +by obliging the latter to deal with them as a single large body instead +of dealing with them as a number of individuals. How far can women-workers +effect these same ends by these same means?</p> + +<p>Trade Unionism, so far as women are concerned, is yet in its infancy. In +1874, Mrs. Paterson established a society, now named the Women's Trades +Union Provident League, to try and establish combination among women in +their several trades. The first Union was that of women engaged in +book-binding, formed in September 1874. Since then a considerable number +of Unions have been formed among match-makers, dressmakers, milliners, +mantle-makers, upholstresses, rope-makers, confectioners, box-makers, +shirt-makers, umbrella-makers, brush-makers and others. Many of these have +been formed to remedy some pressing grievance, or to secure some definite +advance of wage, and in certain cases of skilled factory work where the +women have maintained a steady front, as among the match-makers and the +confectioners, considerable concessions have been won from employers. But +the small scale and tentative character of most of these organizations do +not yet afford any adequate test of what Unionism can achieve. The workers +in a few factories here and there have formed a Union of, at the most, a +few hundred workers. No large women's trade has yet been organized with +anything approaching the size and completeness of the stronger men's +Unions. Women Trade Unionists numbered 120,178 in 1901, and of these no +less than 89.9 per cent were textile workers, whose Unions are mostly +organized by and associated with male Unions.</p> + +<p>There are several reasons why the growth of effective organization among +women-workers must be slow. In the first place, as we have seen, a large +proportion of their work is "out work" done at home or in small domestic +workshops. Now labour organizations are necessarily strong and effective, +in proportion as the labourers are thrown together constantly both in +their work and in their leisure, have free and frequent opportunities of +meeting and discussion, of educating a sense of comradeship and mutual +confidence, which shall form a moral basis of unity for common industrial +action. But to the majority of women-workers no such opportunities are +open. Even the factory workers are for the most part employed in small +groups, and are dispersed in their homes. Combination among the mass of +home-workers or workers in small sweating establishments is almost +impossible. The women's Unions have hitherto been successful in proportion +as the trades are factory trades. Where endeavours have been made to +organize East End shirt-makers, milliners, and others who work at home, +very little has been achieved. In those trades where it is possible to +give out an indefinite amount of the work to sub-contractors, or to +workers to do at home, it seems impossible that any great results can be +thus attained. Even in trades where part of the work is done in factories, +the existence of reckless competition among unorganized out-workers can be +utilized by unprincipled employers to destroy attempts at effective +combination among their factory hands. The force of public opinion which +may support an organization of factory workers by preventing outsiders +from underselling, can have no effect upon the competition of +home-workers, who bid in ignorance of their competitors, and bid often for +the means of keeping life in themselves and their children. The very +poverty of the mass of women-workers, the low industrial conditions, +which Unionism seeks to relieve, form cruel barriers to the success of +their attempts. The low physical condition, the chronic exhaustion +produced by the long hours and fetid atmosphere in which the poorer +workers live, crush out the human energy required for effective protest +and combination. Moreover, the power to strike, and, if necessary, to hold +out for a long period of time, is an essential to a strong Trade Union. +Almost all the advantages won by women's Unions have been won by their +proved capacity for holding out against employers. This is largely a +matter of funds. It is almost impossible for the poorest classes of +women-workers to raise by their own abstinence a fund which shall make +their Union formidable. Their efforts where successful have been always +backed by outside assistance. Even were there a close federation of Unions +of various women's trades--a distant dream at present--the larger +proportion of recipients of low wages among women-workers as compared with +men would render their success more difficult.</p> + +<p><b>§ 9. Legislative Restriction and the force of Public Opinion.</b>--If +Trade Unionism among women is destined to achieve any large result, it +would appear that it will require to be supported by two extra-Union +forces.</p> + +<p>The first of these forces must consist of legislative restriction of +"out-work." If all employers of women were compelled to provide factories, +and to employ them there in doing that work at present done at home or in +small and practically unapproachable workshops, several wholesome results +would follow. The conditions of effective combination would be secured, +public opinion would assist in securing decent wages, factory inspection +would provide shorter hours and fair sanitary conditions, and last, not +least, women whose home duties precluded them from full factory work +would be taken out of the field of competition. Whether it would be +possible to successfully crush the whole system of industrial "out-work" +may be open to question; but it is certain that so long as, and in +proportion as "out-work" is permitted, attempts on the part of women to +raise their industrial condition by combination will be weak and +unsuccessful. So long as "out-work" continues to be largely practised and +unrestrained, competition sharpened by the action of married women and +other irregular and "bounty-fed" labour, must keep down the price of +women's work, not only for the out-workers themselves, but also for the +factory workers. Nor is it possible to see how the system of "out-work" +can be repressed or even restricted by any other force than legislation. +So long as home-workers are "free" to offer, and employers to accept, this +labour, it will continue to exist so long as it pays; it will pay so long +as it is offered cheap enough; and it will be offered cheaply so long as +the supply continues to bear the present relation to the demand.</p> + +<p>But there is another force required to give any full effect to such +extensions of the Factory Act as will crush private workshops, and either +directly or indirectly prohibit out-work. The real reason, as we saw, why +woman's wages were proportionately lower than man's, was the competition +of a mass of women, able and willing to work at indefinitely low rates, +because they were wholly or partly supported from other sources. Now +legislation can hardly interfere to prevent this competition, but public +opinion can. If the greater part of the industrial work now done by women +at home were done in factories, this fact in itself would offer some +restrictions to the competition of married women, which is so fatal to +those who depend entirely upon their wages for a livelihood. But the +gradual growth of a strong public opinion, fed by a clear perception of +the harm married women do to their unsupported sisters by their +competition, and directed towards the establishment of a healthy social +feeling against the wage-earning proclivities of married women, would be a +far more wholesome as well as a more potent method of interference than +the passing of any law.</p> + +<p>To interfere with the work of young women living at home, and supported in +large part by their parents, would be impracticable even if it were +desirable, although the competition of these conduces to the same lowering +of women's wages. But the education of a strong popular sentiment against +the propriety of the industrial labour of married women, would be not only +practicable, but highly desirable. Such a public sentiment would not at +first operate so stringently as to interfere in those exceptional cases +where it seems an absolute necessity that the wife should aid by her home +or factory work the family income. But a steady pressure of public +opinion, making for the closer restriction of the wage-work of married +women, would be of incomparable value to the movement to secure better +industrial conditions for those women who are obliged to work for a +living. A fuller, clearer realization of the importance of this subject is +much needed at the present time. The industrial emancipation of women, +favoured by the liberal sentiments of the age, has been eagerly utilized +by enterprising managers of businesses in search of the cheapest labour. +Not only women, but also children are enabled, owing to the nature of +recent mechanical inventions which relieve the physical strain, but +increase the monotony of labour, to make themselves useful in factories or +home-work. Each year sees a large growth in the ranks of women-workers. +Eager to earn each what she can, girls and wives alike rush into factory +work, reckless of the fact that their very readiness to work tells against +them in the amount of their weekly wages, and only goes to swell the +dividends of the capitalist, or perhaps eventually to lower prices. The +improving mechanism of our State School System assists this movement, by +turning out every year a larger percentage of half-timers, crammed to +qualify for wage-earners at the earliest possible period. Already in +Lancashire and elsewhere, the labour of these thirteen-year-olders is +competing with the labour of their fathers. The substitution of the "ring" +for the "mule" in Lancashire mills, is responsible for the sight which may +now be seen, of strong men lounging about the streets, supported by the +earnings of their own children, who have undersold them in the labour +market. The "ring" machine can be worked by a child, and can be learned in +half an hour; that is the sole explanation of this deplorable phenomenon.</p> + +<p>In the case of child-work, with its degrading consequences on the physical +and mental health of the victim thus prematurely thrust into the struggle +of life, legislation can doubtless do much. By raising the standard of +education, and, if necessary, by an absolute prohibition of child-work, +the State would be keeping well within the powers which the strictest +individualist would assign to it, as it would be merely protecting the +rising generation against the cupidity of parents and the encroachments of +industrial competition.</p> + +<p>The case of married women-workers is different. Better education of women +in domestic work and the requirements of wifehood and motherhood; the +growth of a juster and more wholesome feeling in the man, that he may +refuse to demand that his wife add wage-work to her domestic drudgery; +and above all, a clearer and more generally diffused perception in society +of the value of healthy and careful provision for the children of our +race, should build up a bulwark of public opinion, which shall offer +stronger and stronger obstruction to the employment of married women, +either outside or inside the home, in the capacity of industrial +wage-earners. The satisfaction rightly felt in the ever wider +opportunities afforded to unmarried women of earning an independent +livelihood, and of using their abilities and energies in socially useful +work, is considerably qualified by our perception of the injury which +these new opportunities inflict upon our offspring and our homes. Surely, +from the large standpoint of true national economy, no wiser use could be +made of the vast expansion of the wealth-producing power of the nation +under the reign of machinery, than to secure for every woman destined to +be a wife and a mother, that relief from the physical strain of industrial +toil which shall enable her to bring forth healthy offspring, and to +employ her time and attention in their nurture, and in the ordering of a +cleanly, wholesome, peaceful home life. So long as public opinion permits +or even encourages women, who either are or will be mothers, to neglect +the preparation for, and the performance of, the duties of domestic life +and of maternity, by engaging in laborious and unhealthy industrial +occupations, so long shall we pay the penalty in that physical and moral +deterioration of the race which we have traced in low city life. How can +the women of Cradley Heath engaged in wielding huge sledge-hammers, or +carrying on their neck a hundredweight of chain for twelve or fourteen +hours a day, in order to earn five or seven shillings a week, bear or rear +healthy children? What "hope of our race" can we expect from the average +London factory hand? What "home" is she capable of making for her husband +and her children? The high death-rate of the "slum" children must be +largely attributed to the fact that the women are factory workers first +and mothers afterwards. Roscher, the German economist, assigns as the +reason why the Jewish population of Prussia increases so much faster than +the Christian, the fact that the Jewish mothers seldom go out of their own +homes to work.[<a href="#fn36">36</a>] One of the chief social dangers of the age is the +effect of industrial work upon the motherhood of the race. Surely, the +first duty of society should be to secure healthy conditions for the lives +of the young, so as to lay a firm physical foundation for the progress of +the race.</p> + +<p>This we neglect to do when we look with indifference or complacency upon +the present phase of unrestricted competition in industrial work amongst +women. So long as we refuse to insist, as a nation, that along with the +growth of national wealth there shall be secured those conditions of +healthy home life requisite for the sound, physical, moral, and +intellectual growth of the young, at whatever cost of interference with +so-called private liberty of action, we are rendering ourselves as a +nation deliberately responsible for the continuance of that creature whose +appearance gives a loud lie to our claim of civilization--the gutter child +of our city streets. Thousands of these children, as we well know, the +direct product of economic maladjustment, grow up every year--in our great +cities to pass from babyhood into the street arab, afterwards to become +what they may, tramp, pauper, criminal, casual labourer, feeble-bodied, +weak-minded, desolate creatures, incapable of strong, continuous effort +at any useful work. These are the children who have never known a healthy +home. With that poverty which compels mothers to be wage-earners, lies no +small share of the responsibility of this sin against society and moral +progress. It is true that no sudden general prohibition of married woman's +work would be feasible. But it is surely to be hoped that with every +future rise in the wages and industrial position of male wage-earners, +there may be a growing sentiment in favour of a restriction of industrial +work among married women.</p> +</div> + + +<div class="chapter" id="ch09"> +<h2>Chapter IX.</h2> + +<h3>Moral Aspects of Poverty.</h3> + + + +<p><b>§ 1."Moral" View of the Causes of Poverty.</b>--Our diagnosis of +"sweating" has regarded poverty as an industrial disease, and we have +therefore concerned ourselves with the examination of industrial remedies, +factory legislation, Trade Unionism, and restrictions of the supply of +unskilled labour. It may seem that in doing this we have ignored certain +important moral factors in the problem, which, in the opinion of many, are +all important. Until quite recently the vast majority of those +philanthropic persons who interested themselves in the miserable +conditions of the poor, paid very slight attention to the economic aspect +of poverty, and never dreamed of the application of economic remedies. It +is not unnatural that religions and moral teachers engaged in active +detailed work among the poor should be so strongly impressed by the moral +symptoms of the disease as to mistake them for the prime causes. "It is a +fact apparent to every thoughtful man that the larger portion of the +misery that constitutes our Social Question arises from idleness, +gluttony, drink, waste, indulgence, profligacy, betting, and dissipation." +These words of Mr. Arnold White express the common view of those +philanthropists who do not understand what is meant by "the industrial +system," and of the bulk of the comfortable classes when they are +confronted with the evils of poverty as disclosed in "the sweating +system." Intemperance, unthrift, idleness, and inefficiency are indeed +common vices of the poor. If therefore we could teach the poor to be +temperate, thrifty, industrious, and efficient, would not the problem of +poverty be solved? Is not a moral remedy instead of an economic remedy the +one to be desired? The question at issue here is a vital one to all who +earnestly desire to secure a better life for the poor. This "moral view" +has much to recommend it at first sight. In the first place, it is a +"moral" view, and as morality is admittedly the truest and most real end +of man, it would seem that a moral cure must be more radical and efficient +than any merely industrial cure. Again, these "vices" of the poor, drink, +dirt, gambling, prostitution, &c., are very definite and concrete maladies +attaching to large numbers of individual cases, and visibly responsible +for the misery and degradation of the vicious and their families. Last, +not least, this aspect of poverty, by representing the condition of the +poor to be chiefly "their own fault," lightens the sense of responsibility +for the "well to do." It is decidedly the more comfortable view, for it at +once flatters the pride of the rich by representing poverty as an evidence +of incompetency, salves his conscience when pricked by the contrast of the +misery around him, and assists him to secure his material interests by +adopting an attitude of stern repression towards large industrial or +political agitations in the interests of labour, on the ground that "these +are wrong ways of tackling the question."</p> + +<p><b>§ 2. "Unemployment" and the Vices of the Poor.</b>--The question is this, +Can the poor be moralized, and will that cure Poverty? To discuss this +question with the fullness it deserves is here impossible, but the +following considerations will furnish some data for an answer--</p> + +<p>In the first place, it is very difficult to ascertain to what extent +drink, vice, idleness, and other personal defects are actually responsible +for poverty in individual cases. There is, however, reason to believe that +the bulk of cases of extreme poverty and destitution cannot be traced to +these personal vices, but, on the other hand, that they are attributable +to industrial causes for which the sufferer is not responsible. The +following is the result of a careful analysis of 4000 cases of "very poor" +undertaken by Mr. Charles Booth. These are grouped as follows according to +the apparent causes of distress--</p> +<ul> +<li> 4 per cent, are "loafers."</li> +<li> 14 " " are attributed to drink and thriftlessness. </li> +<li> 27 " " are due to illness, large families, or other misfortunes. </li> +<li> 55 " " are assigned to "questions of employment."</li> +</ul> +<p>Here, in the lowest class of city poor, moral defects are the direct cause +of distress in only 18 per cent. of the cases, though doubtless they may +have acted as contributory or indirect causes in a larger number.</p> + +<p>In the classes just above the "very poor," 68 per cent. of poverty is +attributed to "questions of employment," and only 13 per cent. to drink +and thriftlessness. In the lowest parts of Whitechapel drink figures very +slightly, affecting only 4 per cent. of the very poor, and 1 per cent. of +the poor, according to Mr. Booth. Even applied to a higher grade of +labour, a close investigation of facts discloses a grossly exaggerated +notion of the sums spent in drink by city workers in receipt of good +wages. A careful inquiry into the expenditure of a body of three hundred +Amalgamated Engineers during a period of two years, yielded an average of +1s. 9d. per week spent on drink.</p> + +<p>So, too, in the cases brought to the notice of the Lords' Committee, drink +and personal vices do not play the most important part. The Rev. S. A. +Barnett, who knows East London so well, does not find the origin of +poverty in the vices of the poor. Terrible as are the results of +drunkenness, impurity, unthrift, idleness, disregard of sanitary rules, it +is not possible, looking fairly at the facts, to regard these as the main +sources of poverty. If we are not carried away by the spirit of some +special fanaticism, we shall look upon these evils as the natural and +necessary accessories of the struggle for a livelihood, carried on under +the industrial conditions of our age and country. Even supposing it were +demonstrable that a much larger proportion of the cases of poverty and +misery were the direct consequence of these moral and sanitary vices of +the poor, we should not be justified in concluding that moral influence +and education were the most effectual cures, capable of direct +application. It is indeed highly probable that the "unemployed" worker is +on the average morally and industrially inferior to the "employed," and +from the individual point of view this inferiority is often responsible +for his non-employment. But this only means that differences of moral and +industrial character determine what particular individuals shall succeed +or fail in the fight for work and wages. It by no means follows that if by +education we could improve all these moral and industrial weaklings they +could obtain steady employment without displacing others. Where an +over-supply of labour exists, no remedy which does not operate either by +restricting the supply or increasing the demand for labour can be +effectual.</p> + +<p><b>§ 3. Civilization ascends from Material to Moral.</b>--The life of the +poorest and most degraded classes is impenetrable to the highest +influences of civilization. So long as the bare struggle for continuance +of physical existence absorbs all their energies, they cannot be +civilized. The consideration of the greater intrinsic worth of the moral +life than the merely physical life, must not be allowed to mislead us. +That which has the precedence in value has not the precedence in time. We +must begin with the lower life before we can ascend to the higher. As in +the individual the <i>corpus sanum</i> is rightly an object of earlier +solicitude in education than the <i>mens sana</i>, though the latter may be of +higher importance; so with the progress of a class. We cannot go to the +lowest of our slum population and teach them to be clean, thrifty, +industrious, steady, moral, intellectual, and religious, until we have +first taught them how to secure for themselves the industrial conditions +of healthy physical life. Our poorest classes have neither the time, the +energy, or the desire to be clean, thrifty, intellectual, moral, or +religious. In our haste we forget that there is a proper and necessary +order in the awakening of desires. At present our "slum" population do not +desire to be moral and intellectual, or even to be particularly clean. +Therefore these higher goods must wait, so far as they are dependent on +the voluntary action of the poor. What these people do want is better +food, and more of it; warmer clothes; better and surer shelter; and +greater security of permanent employment on decent wages. Until we can +assist them to gratify these "lower" desires, we shall try in vain to +awaken "higher" ones. We must prepare the soil of a healthy physical +existence before we can hope to sow the moral seed so as to bring forth +fruit. Upon a sound physical foundation alone can we build a high moral +and spiritual civilization.</p> + +<p>Moral and sanitary reformers have their proper sphere of action among +those portions of the working classes who have climbed the first rounds in +the ladder of civilization, and stand on tolerably firm conditions of +material comfort and security. They cannot hope at present to achieve any +great success among the poorest workers. The fact must not be shirked that +in preaching thrift, hygiene, morality, and religion to the dwellers in +the courts and alleys of our great cities, we are sowing seed upon a +barren ground. Certain isolated cases of success must not blind us to this +truth. Take, for example, thrift. It is not possible to expect that large +class of workers who depend upon irregular earnings of less than 18s. a +week to set by anything for a rainy day. The essence of thrift is +regularity, and regularity is to them impossible. Even supposing their +scant wage was regular, it is questionable whether they would be justified +in stinting the bodily necessities of their families by setting aside a +portion which could not in the long run suffice to provide even a bare +maintenance for old age or disablement. To say this is not to impugn the +value of thrift in maintaining a character of dignity and independence in +the worker; it is simply to recognize that valuable as these qualities +are, they must be subordinated to the first demands of physical life. +Those who can save without encroaching on the prime necessaries of life +ought to save; but there are still many who cannot save, and these are +they whom the problem of poverty especially concerns. The saying of +Aristotle, that "it is needful first to have a maintenance, and then to +practise virtue," does not indeed imply that we <i>ought</i> to postpone +practising the moral virtues until we have secured ourselves against want, +but rather means that before we can live well we <i>must</i> first be able to +live at all.</p> + +<p>Precisely the same is true of the "inefficiency" of the poor. Nothing is +more common than to hear men and women, often incapable themselves of +earning by work the money which they spend, assigning as the root of +poverty the inefficiency of the poor. It is quite true that the "poor" +consist for the most part of inefficient workers. It would be strange if +it were not so. How shall a child of the slums, ill-fed in body and mind, +brought up in the industrial and moral degradation of low city life, +without a chance of learning how to use hands or head, and to acquire +habits of steady industry, become an efficient workman? The conditions +under which they grow up to manhood and womanhood preclude the possibility +of efficiency. It is the bitterest portion of the lot of the poor that +they are deprived of the opportunity of learning to work well. To taunt +them with their incapacity, and to regard it as the cause of poverty, is +nothing else than a piece of blind insolence. Here and there an individual +may be to blame for neglected opportunities; but the "poor" as a class +have no more chance under present conditions of acquiring "efficiency" +than of attaining to refined artistic taste, or the culminating Christian +virtue of holiness. Inefficiency is one of the worst and most degrading +aspects of poverty; but to regard it as the leading cause is an error +fatal to a true understanding of the problem.</p> + +<p>We now see why it is impossible to seriously entertain the claim of +Co-operative Production as a direct remedy for poverty. The success of +Co-operative schemes depends almost entirely upon the presence of high +moral and intellectual qualities in those co-operating--trust, patience, +self restraint, and obedience combined with power of organization, skill, +and business enterprise. These qualities are not yet possessed by our +skilled artisan class to the extent requisite to enable them to readily +succeed in productive co-operation; how can it be expected then that +low-skilled inefficient labour should exhibit them? The enthusiastic +co-operator says we must educate them up to the requisite moral and +intellectual level. The answer is, that it is impossible to apply such +educating influences effectually, until we have first placed them on a +sound physical basis of existence; that is to say, until we have already +cured the worst form of the malady. From whatever point we approach this +question we are driven to the conclusion that as the true cause of the +disease is an industrial one, so the earliest remedies must be rather +industrial than moral or educational.</p> + +<p><b>§ 4. Effects of Temperance and Technical Education.</b>--Again, we are +by no means justified in leaping to the conclusion that if we could induce +workers to become more sober, more industrious, or more skilful, their +industrial condition would of necessity be improved to a corresponding +extent. If we can induce an odd farm-labourer here and there to give up +his "beer," he and his family are no doubt better off to the extent of +this saving, and can employ the money in some much more profitable way. +But if the whole class of farm-labourers could be persuaded to become +teetotalers without substituting some new craving of equal force in the +place of drink, it is extremely probable that in all places where there +was an abundant supply of farm-labourers, the wage of a farm-labourer +would gradually fall to the extent of the sum of money formerly spent in +beer. For the lowest paid classes of labourers get, roughly speaking, no +more wages than will just suffice to provide them with what they insist on +regarding as necessaries of life. To an ordinary labourer "beer" is a part +of the minimum subsistence for less than which he will not consent to work +at all. Where there is an abundance of labour, as is generally the case in +low-skilled employments, this minimum subsistence or lowest standard of +comfort practically determines wages. If you were merely to take something +away from this recognized minimum without putting something else to take +its place, you would actually lower the rate of wages. If, by a crusade of +temperance pure and simple, you made teetotalers of the mass of +low-skilled workers, their wages would indisputably fall, although they +might be more competent workers than before. If, on the other hand, +following the true line of temperance reform, you expelled intemperance by +substituting for drink some healthier, higher, and equally strong desire +which cost as much or more to attain its satisfaction; if in giving up +drink they insisted on providing against sickness and old age, or upon +better houses and more recreation and enjoyment, then their wages would +not fall, and might even rise in proportion as their new wants, as a +class, were more expensive than the craving for drink which they had +abandoned.</p> + +<p>Or, again, take the case of technical or general education. In so far as +technical education enabled a number of men who would otherwise have been +unskilled labourers, to compete for skilled work, it will no doubt enable +these men to raise themselves in the industrial sense; but the addition of +their number to the ranks of skilled labour will imply an increase in +supply of skilled labour, and a decrease in supply of unskilled labour; +the price or wage for unskilled labour will rise, but the wage for skilled +labour will fall assuming the relationship between the demand for skilled +and unskilled labour to remain as before. A mere increase in the +efficiency of labour, though it would increase the quantity of wealth +produced, and render a rise of wages possible, would of itself have no +economic force to bring about a rise. No improvement in the character of +labour will be effectual in raising wages unless it causes a rise in the +standard of comfort, which he demands as a condition of the use of his +labour. If we merely increased the efficiency of labour without a +corresponding stimulation of new wants, we should be simply increasing the +mass of labour-power offered for sale, and the price of each portion would +fall correspondingly. It would confer no more <i>direct</i> benefit upon the +worker as such, than does the introduction of some new machine which has +the same effect of adding to the average efficiency of the worker. Those +who would advocate technical and general education, with a view to the +material improvement of the masses, must see that this education be +applied in such a way as to assist in implanting and strengthening new +wholesome demands in those educated, so as to effectively raise this +standard of living. There can be little doubt but that such education +would create new desires, and so would indirectly secure the industrial +elevation of the masses. But it ought to be clearly recognized that the +industrial force which operates <i>directly</i> to raise the wages of the +workers, is not technical skill, or increased efficiency of labour, but +the elevated standard of comfort required by the working-classes. It is at +the same time true, that if we could merely stimulate the workers to new +wants requiring higher wages, they could not necessarily satisfy all +these new wants. If it were possible to induce all labourers to demand +such increase of wages as sufficed to enable them to lay by savings, it is +difficult to say whether they could in all cases press this claim +successfully. But if at the same time their efficiency as labourers +likewise grew, it will be evident that they both can and would raise that +standard of living.</p> + +<p>In so far as the results of technical education upon the class of +low-skilled labourers alone is concerned, it is evident that it would +relieve the constant pressure of an excessive supply. Whatever the effect +of this might be upon the industrial condition of the skilled industries +subjected to the increased competition, there can be no doubt that the +wages of low-skilled labour would rise. Since the condition of unskilled +or low-skilled workers forms the chief ingredient in poverty, such a +"levelling up" may be regarded as a valuable contribution towards a cure +of the worst phase of the disease.</p> + +<p>This brief investigation of the working of moral and educational cures for +industrial diseases shows us that these remedies can only operate in +improving the material condition of the poorest classes, in so far as they +conduce to raise the standard of living among the poor. Since a higher +standard of comfort means economically a restriction in the number of +persons willing to undertake work for a lower rate of wage than will +support this standard of comfort, it may be said that moral remedies can +be only effectual in so far as they limit the supply of low-skilled, +low-paid labour. Thus we are brought round again to the one central point +in the problem of poverty, the existence of an excessive supply of cheap +labour.</p> + +<p><b>§ 5. The False Dilemma which impedes Progress.</b>--There are those who +seek to retard all social progress by a false and mischievous dilemma +which takes the following shape. No radical improvement in industrial +organization, no work of social reconstruction, can be of any real avail +unless it is preceded by such moral and intellectual improvement in the +condition of the mass of workers as shall render the new machinery +effective; unless the change in human nature comes first, a change in +external conditions will be useless. On the other hand, it is evident that +no moral or intellectual education can be brought effectively to bear upon +the mass of human beings, whose whole energies are necessarily absorbed by +the effort to secure the means of bare physical support. Thus it is made +to appear as if industrial and moral progress must each precede the other, +a thing which is impossible. Those who urge that the two forms of +improvement must proceed <i>pari passu, </i>do not precisely understand what +they propose.</p> + +<p>The falsehood of the above dilemma consists in the assumption that +industrial reformers wish to proceed by a sudden leap from an old +industrial order to a new one. Such sudden movements are not in accordance +with the gradual growth which nature insists upon as the condition of wise +change. But it is equally in accordance with nature that the material +growth precedes the moral. Not that the work of moral reconstruction can +lag far behind. Each step in this industrial advancement of the poor +should, and must, if the gain is to be permanent, be followed closely and +secured by a corresponding advance in moral and intellectual character and +habits. But the moral and religious reformer should never forget that in +order of time material reform comes first, and that unless proper +precedence be yielded to it, the higher ends of humanity are unattainable.</p> +</div> + + +<div class="chapter" id="ch10"> +<h2>Chapter X.</h2> + +<h3>"Socialistic Legislation."</h3> + + + +<p><b>§ 1.Legislation in restraint of "Free" Contract.</b>--The direct +pressure of certain tangible and painful forms of industrial grievance and +of poverty has forced upon us a large mass of legislation which is +sometimes called by the name of Socialistic Legislation. It is necessary +to enter on a brief examination of the character of the various enactments +included under this vague term, in order to ascertain the real nature of +the remedy they seek to apply.</p> + +<p>Perhaps the most typical form of this socialistic legislation is contained +in the Factory Acts, embodying as they do a series of direct interferences +in the interests of the labouring classes with freedom of contract between +capital and labour.</p> + +<p>The first of these Factory Acts, the Health and Morals Act, was passed in +1802, and was designed for the protection of children apprenticed in the +rising manufacturing towns of the north, engaged in the cotton and woollen +trades. Large numbers of children apprenticed by poor-law overseers in the +southern counties were sent as "slaves" to the northern manufacturer, to +be kept in overcrowded buildings adjoining the factory, and to be worked +day and night, with an utter disregard to all considerations of physical +or moral health. There is no page in the history of our nation so +infamous as that which tells the details of the unbridled greed of these +pioneers of modern commercialism, feeding on the misery and degradation of +English children. This Act of 1802, enforcing some small sanitary reforms, +prohibited night work, and limited the working-day of apprenticed children +to twelve hours. In 1819, another Act was passed for the benefit of +unapprenticed child workers in cotton mills, prohibiting the employment of +children under nine years, and limiting the working-day to twelve hours +for children between nine and sixteen. Sir John Cam Hobhouse in 1825 +passed an Act further restricting the labour of children under sixteen +years, requiring a register of children employed in mills, and shortening +the work on Saturdays. Then came the agitation of Richard Oastler for a +Ten Hours Bill. But Parliament was not ripe for this, and Hobhouse, +attempting to redeem the hours in textile industries, was defeated by the +northern manufacturers. Public feeling, however, formed chiefly by Tories +like Oastler, Sadler, Ashley, and Fielden, drove the Whig leader, Lord +Althorp, to pass the important Factory Act of 1833. This Act drew the +distinction between children admitted to work below the age of thirteen, +and "young persons" of ages from thirteen to eighteen; enforced in the +case of the former attendance at school, and a maximum working week of +forty-eight hours; in the case of the latter prohibited night work, and +limited the hours of work to sixty-nine a week. The next step of +importance was Peel's consolidating Factory Act of 1844, reducing the +working-day for children to six and a half hours, and increasing the +compulsory school attendance from two hours to three, and strengthening in +various ways the machinery of inspection. In 1845 Lord Ashley passed a +measure prohibiting the night work of women. In 1848, by the Act of Mr. +Fielden, ten hours was assigned as a working-day for women and young +persons, and further restrictions in favour of women and children were +made in 1850 and 1853.</p> + +<p>It must, however, be remembered that all the Factory legislation previous +to 1860 was confined to textile factories--cotton, woollen, silk, or +linen. In 1860, bleaching and dyeing works were brought within the Factory +Acts, and several other detailed extensions were made between 1861 and +1864, in the direction of lace manufacture, pottery, chimney-sweeping, and +other employments. But not until 1867 were manufactories in general +brought under Factory legislation. This was achieved by the Factory Acts +Extension Act, and the Workshops Regulation Act. For several years, +however, the beneficial effects of this legislation was grievously +impaired by the fact that local authorities were left to enforce it. Not +until 1871, when the regulation and enforcement was restored to State +inspectors, was the legislation really effectual. The Factory and Workshop +Act of 1878, modified by a few more recent restrictions, is still in +force. It makes an advance on the earlier legislation in the following +directions. It prohibits the employment in any factory or workshop of +children under the age of eleven, and requires a certificate of fitness +for factory labour under the age of sixteen. It imposes the half-time +system on all children, admitting, however, two methods, either of passing +half the day in school, and half at work, or of giving alternate days to +work and school. It recognizes a distinction between the severity of work +in textile factories and in non-textile factories, assigning a working +week of about fifty-six and a half hours to the former, and sixty hours +to the latter. The exceptions of domestic workshops, and of many other +forms of female and child employment, the permission of over-time within +certain limitations, and the inadequate provision of inspection, +considerably diminish the beneficial effects of these restrictive +measures.</p> + +<p>In 1842 Lord Ashley secured a Mining Act, which prohibited the underground +employment of women, and of boys under ten years. In 1850 mine inspectors +were provided, and a number of precautions enforced to secure the safety +of miners. In 1864 several minor industries, dangerous in their nature, +such as the manufacture of lucifer-matches, cartridges, etc., were brought +under special regulations. To these restrictive pieces of legislation +should be added the Employers' Liability Act, enforcing the liability of +employers for injuries sustained by workers through no fault of their own, +and the "Truck" legislation, compelling the payment of wages in cash, and +at suitable places.</p> + +<p>This slight sketch will suffice to mark the leading features of a large +class of laws which must be regarded as a growth of State socialism.</p> + +<p>The following points deserve special attention--</p> + +<p>1. These measures are all forced on Parliament by the recognition of +actual grievances, and all are testimony to the failure of a system of +complete <i>laissez faire</i>.</p> + +<p>2. They all imply a direct interference of the State with individual +freedom--i.e. the worker cannot sell his labour as he likes; the +capitalist cannot make what contracts he likes.</p> + +<p>3. Though the protection of children and women is the strongest motive +force in this legislative action, many of these measures interfere +directly or indirectly with adult male labour--e.g. the limit on the +factory hours of women and children practically limits the factory day for +men, where the latter work with women or children. The clauses of recent +Factory Acts requiring the "fencing of machinery" and other precautions, +apply to men as well as to children and women. The Truck Act and +Employers' Liability Act apply to male adult labour.</p> + +<p><b>§ 2. Theory of this Legislation.</b>--Under such legislation as the +foregoing it is evident that the theory that a worker should be free to +sell his labour as he likes has given way before the following +considerations--</p> + +<p>(1) That this supposed "freedom to work as one likes" often means only a +freedom to work as another person likes, whether that other person be a +parent, as in the case of children, or an employer, as in the case of +adult workers.</p> + +<p>(2) That a worker in a modern industrial community is not a detached unit, +whose contract to work only concerns himself and his employer. The +fellow-workers in the same trade and society at large have a distinct and +recognizable interest in the conditions of the work of one another. A, by +keeping his shop open on Sundays, or for long hours on week-days, is able +to compel B, C, D, and all the rest of his trade competitors to do the +same. A minority of workmen by accepting low wages, or working over-time, +are often able to compel the majority to do the same. There is no +labour-contract or other commercial act which merely regards the interest +of the parties directly concerned. How far a society acting for the +protection of itself, or of a number of its members, is justified in +interfering between employer and workman, or between competing tradesmen, +is a question of expediency. General considerations of the theoretic +"freedom of contract," and the supposed "self-regarding" quality of the +actions, are thus liable to be set aside by this socialistic legislation.</p> + +<p>(3) These interferences with "free contract" of labour are not traceable +to the policy of any one political party. The most valuable portions of +the factory measures were passed by nominally Conservative governments, +and though supported by a section of the Radical party, were strenuously +opposed by the bulk of the Liberals, including another section of Radicals +and political economists.</p> + +<p>These measures signify a slow but steady growth of national sentiment in +favour of securing for the poor a better life. The keynote of the whole +movement is the protection of the weak. This appears especially in a +recognition of the growing claims of children. Not only is this seen in +the history of factory legislation, but in the long line of educational +legislation, happily not ended yet. These taken together form a chain of +measures for the protection of the young against the tyranny, greed, or +carelessness of employers or parents. The strongest public sentiment is +still working in this same direction. Recent agitation on the subject of +prevention of cruelty to children, free dinners for school-children, +adoption of children, child insurance, attest the growing strength of this +feeling.</p> + +<p><b>§ 3. General extension of Paternal Government.</b>--The class of measures +with which we have dealt recognizes that children, women, and in some +cases men, are unable to look after their own interests as industrial +workers, and require the aid of paternal legislation. But it must not be +forgotten that the century has seen the growth of another long series of +legislative Acts based also on the industrial weakness of the individual, +and designed to protect society in general, adult or young, educated or +uneducated, rich or poor. Among these come Adulteration Acts, Vaccination +Acts, Contagious Diseases Acts, and the network of sanitary legislation, +Acts for the regulation of weights and measures, and for the inspection of +various commodities, licenses for doctors, chemists, hawkers, &c. Many of +these are based on ancient historic precedents; we have grown so +accustomed to them, and so thoroughly recognize the value of most of them, +that it seems almost unnecessary to speak of them as socialistic measures. +Yet such they are, and all of them are objected to upon this very ground +by men of the political school of Mr. Herbert Spencer and Mr. Auberon +Herbert. For it should be noted--</p> + +<p>1. Each of these Acts interferes with the freedom of the individual. It +compels him to do certain things--e.g. vaccinate his children, admit +inspectors on his premises--and it forbids him to do certain other things.</p> + +<p>2. Most of these Acts limit the utility to the individual of his capital, +by forbidding him to employ it in certain ways, and hampering him with +various restrictions and expenses. The State, or municipality, in certain +cases--e.g. railways and cabs--even goes so far as to fix prices.</p> + +<p><b>§ 4. State and Municipal Undertakings.</b>--But the State does not +confine itself to these restrictive or prohibitive measures, interfering +with the free individual application of capital and labour, in the +interests of other individuals, or of society at large. The State and the +municipality is constantly engaged in undertaking new branches of +productive work, thus limiting the industrial area left open to the +application of private capitalist enterprise.</p> + +<p>In some cases these public works exist side by side in competition with +private enterprise; as, for example, in the carriage of parcels, life +insurance, banking, and the various minor branches of post-office work, in +medical attendance, and the maintenance of national education, and of +places of amusement and recreation. In other cases it claims an absolute +monopoly, and shuts off entirely private enterprise, as in the conveyance +of letters and telegrams, and the local industries connected with the +production and distribution of gas and water. The extent and complexity of +that portion of our State and municipal machinery which is engaged in +productive work will be understood from the following description--</p> + +<p>"Besides our international relations, and the army, navy, police, and the +courts of justice, the community now carries on for itself, in some part +or another of these islands, the post-office, telegraphs, carriage of +small commodities, coinage, surveys the regulation of the currency and +note issue, the provision of weights and measures, the making, sweeping, +lighting, and repairing of streets, roads, and bridges, life insurance, +the grant of annuities, shipbuilding, stockbroking, banking, farming, and +money-lending. It provides for many of us from birth to burial--midwifery, +nursery, education, board and lodging, vaccination, medical attendance, +medicine, public worship, amusements, and interment. It furnishes and +maintains its own museums, parks, art galleries, libraries, concert-halls, +roads, bridges, markets, slaughterhouses, fire-engines, lighthouses, +pilots, ferries, surf-boats, steam-tugs, life-boats, cemeteries, public +baths, washhouses, pounds, harbours, piers, wharves, hospitals, +dispensaries, gas-works, water-works, tramways, telegraph-cables, +allotments, cow-meadows, artisans' dwellings, schools, churches, and +reading-rooms. It carries on and publishes its own researches in geology, +meteorology, statistics, zoology, geography, and even theology. In our +colonies the English Government further allows and encourages the +communities to provide for themselves railways, canals, pawnbroking, +theatres, forestry, cinchona farms, irrigation, leper villages, casinos, +bathing establishments, and immigration, and to deal in ballast, guano, +quinine, opium, salt, and what not. Every one of these functions, with +those of the army, navy, police, and courts of justice, were at one time +left to private enterprise, and were a source of legitimate individual +investment of capital."[<a href="#fn37">37</a>]</p> + +<p>Some of the utilities and conveniences thus supplied by public capital and +public labour are old-established wants, but many are new wants, and the +marked tendency of public bodies to undertake the provision of the new +necessaries and conveniences which grow up with civilization is a +phenomenon which deserves close attention.</p> + +<p><b>§ 5. Motives of "Socialistic Legislation."</b>--Stated in general terms, +this socialistic tendency may be described as a movement for the control +and administration by the public of all works engaged in satisfying common +general needs of life, which are liable, if trusted to private enterprise, +to become monopolies.</p> + +<p>Articles which everybody needs, the consumption or use of which is fairly +regular, and where there is danger of insufficient or injurious +competition, if the provision be left to private firms, are constantly +passing, and will pass more and more quickly, under public control. The +work of protection against direct injuries to person and property has in +all civilized countries been recognized as a dangerous monoply if left to +private enterprise. Hence military, naval, police, and judicial work is +first "socialized," and in modern life a large number of subsidiary works +for the protection of the life and wealth of the community are added to +these first public duties. Roads, bridges, and a large part of the +machinery of communication or conveyance are soon found to be capable of +abuse if left to private ownership; hence the post and telegraph is +generally State-owned, and in most countries the railways. There is for +the same reason a strong movement towards the municipal ownership of +tramways, gas-and water-works, and all such works as are associated with +monopoly of land, and are not open to adequate competition. In England +everywhere these works are subject to public control, and the tendency is +for this control, which implies part ownership, to develop into full +ownership. Nearly half the gas-consumers in this country are already +supplied by public works. One hundred and two municipalities own electric +plant, forty-five own their tramway systems, one hundred and ninety-three +their water supplies, at the close of 1902.</p> + +<p>The receipts of local authorities from rates and other sources, including +productive undertakings, had increased from seventy millions sterling to +one hundred and forty-five millions between 1890-1 and 1901-2. Art +galleries, free libraries, schools of technical education, are beginning +to spring up on all sides. Municipal lodging-houses are in working at +London, Glasgow, and several other large towns.</p> + +<p>In every one of these cases, two forces are at work together, the pressure +of an urgent public need, and the perception that private enterprise +cannot be trusted to satisfy their need on account of the danger of +monopoly. How far or how fast this State or municipal limitation of +private enterprise and assumption of public enterprise will proceed, it +is not possible to predict. Everything depends on the two following +considerations--</p> + +<p>First, the tendency of present private industries concerned with the +supply of common wants of life to develop into dangerous monopolies by the +decay of effective competition. If the forces at work in the United States +for the establishment of syndicates, trusts, and other forms of monopoly, +show themselves equally strong in England, the inevitable result will be +an acceleration of State and municipal socialism.</p> + +<p>Secondly, the capacity shown by our municipal and other public bodies for +the effective management of such commercial enterprises as they are at +present engaged in.</p> + +<p>Reviewing then the mass of restrictive, regulative, and prohibitive +legislation, largely the growth of the last half century, and the +application of the State and municipal machinery to various kinds of +commercial undertakings in the interest of the community, we find it +implies a considerable and growing restriction of the sphere of private +enterprise.</p> + +<p><b>§ 6. The "Socialism" of Taxation</b>--But there is another form of State +interference which is more direct and significant than any of these. One +of the largest State works is that of public education. Now the cost of +this is in large measure defrayed by rate and tax, the bulk of which, in +this case, is paid by those who do not get for themselves or for their +children any direct return. The State-assisted education is said to tax A +for the benefit of B. Nor is this a solitary instance; it belongs to the +very essence of the modern socialistic movement. There is a strong +movement, independent too of political partisanship, to cast, or to appear +to cast, the burden of taxation more heavily upon the wealthier classes in +order to relieve the poor. It is enough to allude to the income tax and +the Poor Law. These are socialistic measures of the purest kind, and are +directly open to that objection which is commonly raised against theoretic +socialism, that it designs "to take from the rich in order to give to the +poor." The growing public opinion in favour of graduated income tax, and +the higher duty upon legacies and rich man's luxuries, are based on a +direct approval of this simple policy of taking from the rich and giving +to the poor.</p> + +<p>The advocates of these measures urge this claim on grounds of public +expediency, and those whose money is taken for the benefit of their poorer +brethren, though they grumble, do not seriously impugn the right of the +State to levy taxes in what way seems best. Whether we regard the whole +movement from the taxation standpoint, or from the standpoint of benefits +received, we shall perceive that it really means a direct and growing +pressure brought to bear upon the rich for the benefit of the poor. A +consideration of all the various classes of socialistic legislation and +taxation to which we have referred, will show that we are constantly +engaged more and more in the practical assertion and embodiment of the +three following principles--</p> + +<p>1. That the individual is often too weak or ignorant to protect himself in +contract or bargain, and requires public protection.</p> + +<p>2. That considerations of public interest are held to justify a growing +interference with "rights of property."</p> + +<p>3. That the State or municipality may enlarge their functions in any +direction and to any extent, provided a clear public interest is +subserved.</p> + +<p><b>§ 7. Relation of Theoretic Socialism to Socialistic Legislation.</b>--Now +it has been convenient in speaking of this growth of State and municipal +action to use the term Socialism. But we ought to be clear as to the +application of this term. Although Sir William Harcourt declared, "We are +all socialists to-day," the sober, practical man who is responsible for +these "socialistic" measures, smiles at the saying, and regards it as a +rhetorical exaggeration. He knows well enough that he and his +fellow-workers are guided by no theory of the proper limits of government, +and are animated by no desire to curtail the use of private property. The +practical politician in this country is beckoned forward by no large, +bright ideal; no abstract consideration of justice or social expediency +supplies him with any motive force. The presence of close detailed +circumstance, some local, concrete want to be supplied, some distinct +tangible grievance to be redressed, some calculable immediate economy to +be effected, such are the only conscious motives which push him forward +along the path we have described. An alarming outbreak of disease +registered in a high local death-rate presses the question of sanitary +reform, and gives prominence to the housing of the working-classes. The +bad quality of gas, and the knowledge that the local gas company, having +reached the limit of their legal dividend, are squandering the surplus on +high salaries and expensive offices, leads to the municipalization of the +gas-works. The demand made upon the ratepayers of Bury to expend; £60,000 +on sewage-works, a large proportion of which would go to increase the +ground value of Lord Derby's property, leads them to realize the justice +and expediency of a system of taxation of ground values which shall +prevent the rich landlord from pocketing the contribution of the poor +ratepayer. So too among those directly responsible for State legislation, +it is the force of public opinion built out of small local concrete +grievances acting in coalition with a growing sentiment in favour of +securing better material conditions for the poor, that drafts these +socialistic bills, and gets them registered as Acts of Parliament.</p> + +<p>But the student of history must not be deceived into thinking that +principles and abstract theories are not operative forces because they +appear to be subordinated to the pressure of small local or temporal +expediencies. Underneath these detailed actions, which seem in large +measure the product of chance, or of the selfish or sentimental effort of +some individual or party, the historian is able to trace the underworking +of some large principle which furnishes the key to the real logic of +events. The spirit of democracy has played a very small part in the +conscious effort of the democratic workers. But the inductive study of +modern history shows it as a force dominating the course of events, +directing and "operating" the <i>minor</i> forces which worked unconsciously +in the fulfilment of its purpose. So it is with this spirit of socialism. +The professed socialist is a rare, perhaps an unnecessary, person, who +wishes to instruct and generally succeeds in scaring humanity by bringing +out into the light of conscious day the dim principle which is working at +the back of the course of events. Since this conscious socialism is not an +industrial force of any great influence in England, it is not here +necessary to discuss the claim of the theoretic socialist to provide a +solution for the problem of poverty. But it is of importance for us to +recognize clearly the nature of the interpretation theoretic socialists +place upon the order of events set forth in this chapter, for this +interpretation throws considerable light on the industrial condition of +labour.</p> + +<p>We see that the land nationalizer claims to remove, and the land reformer +in general to abate, the evil of poverty by securing for those dependent +on the fluctuating value and uncertain tenure of wage-labour an equal +share in those land-values, the product of nature and social activity, +which are at present monopolized by a few. Now the quality of monopoly +which the land nationalizer finds in land, the professed socialist finds +also in all forms of capital. The more discreet and thoughtful socialist +in England at least does not deny that the special material forms of +capital, and the services they render, may be in part due to the former +activity of their present owners, or of those from whom their present +owners have legitimately acquired them; but he affirms that a large part +of the value of these forms of capital, and of the interest obtained for +their use, is due to a monopoly of certain opportunities and powers which +are social property just as much as land is. The following statement by +one of the ablest exponents of this doctrine will explain what this claim +signifies--</p> + +<p>"We claim an equal right to this 'inheritance of mankind,' which by our +institutions a minority is at present enabled to monopolize, and which it +does monopolize and use in order to extort thereby an unearned increment; +and this inheritance is true capital. We mean thereby the principle, +potentiality, embodied in the axe, the spade, the plough, the +steam-engine, tools of all kinds, books or pictures, bequeathed by +thinkers, writers, inventors, discoverers, and other labourers of the +past, a social growth to which all individual claims have lapsed by death, +but from the advantages of which the masses are virtually shut out for +lack of means. The very best definition of government, even that of +to-day, is that it is the agency of society which procures title to this +treasure, stores it up, guards and gives access to it to every one, and +of which all must make the best use, first and foremost by education."</p> + +<p>The conscious socialist is he who, recognizing in theory the nature of +this social property inherent in all forms of capital, aims consciously at +getting possession or control of it for society, in order to solve the +problem of poverty by making the wage-earner not only a joint-owner of the +social property in land but also in capital.</p> + +<p>In other words, it signifies that the community refuses to sanction any +absolute property on the part of any of its members, recognizing that a +large portion of the value of each individual's work is due, not to his +solitary efforts, but to the assistance lent by the community, which has +educated and secured for the individual the skill which he puts in his +work; has allowed him to make use of certain pieces of the material +universe which belongs to society; has protected him in the performance of +his work; and lastly, by providing him a market of exchange, has given a +social value to his product which cannot be attributed to his individual +efforts. In recognition of the co-operation of society in all production +of wealth, the community claims the right to impose such conditions upon +the individual as may secure for it a share in that social value it has by +its presence and activity assisted to create. The claim of the theoretic +socialist is that society by taxing or placing other conditions upon the +individual as capitalist or workman is only interfering to secure her own. +Since it is not possible to make any satisfactory estimate of the +proportion of any value produced which is due to the individual efforts, +and to society respectively, there can be no limit assigned to the right +of society to increase its claim save the limit imposed by expediency. It +will not be for the interest of society to make so large a claim by way +of regulation, restriction, or taxation, as shall prevent the individual +from applying his best efforts to the work of production, whether his +function consists in the application of capital or of labour. The claims +of many theoretic socialists transcend this statement, and claim for +society a full control of all the instruments of production. But it is not +necessary to discuss this wider claim, for the narrower one is held +sufficient to justify and explain those slow legislative movements which +come under the head of practical socialism, as illustrated in modern +English history.</p> + +<p>Now while this conscious socialism has no large hold in England, it is +necessary to admit that the doctrine just quoted does furnish in some +measure an explanation of the unconscious socialism traceable in much of +the legislation of this century. When it is said that "we are all +socialists to-day," what is meant is, that we are all engaged in the +active promotion or approval of legislation which can only be explained as +a gradual unconscious recognition of the existence of a social property in +capital which it is held politic to secure for the public use.</p> + +<p>The increasing restrictions on free use of capital, the monopoly of +certain branches of industry by the State and the municipality, the +growing tendency to take money from the rich by taxation, can be +explained, reconciled, and justified on no other principle than the +recognition that a certain share of the value of these forms of wealth is +due to the community which has assisted and co-operated with the +individual owner in its creation. Whether the socialistic legislation +which, stronger than all traditions of party politics, is constantly +imposing new limitations upon the private use of capital, is desirable or +not, is not the question with which we are concerned. It is the fact that +is important. Society is constantly engaged in endeavouring, feebly, +slowly, and blindly, to relieve the stress of poverty, and the industrial +weakness of low-skilled labour, by laying hands upon certain functions and +certain portions of wealth formerly left to private individuals, and +claiming them as social functions and social wealth to be administered for +the social welfare. This is the past and present contribution of +"socialistic legislation" towards a solution of the problem of poverty, +and it seems not unlikely that the claims of society upon these forms of +social property will be larger and more systematically enforced in the +future.</p> +</div> + + +<div class="chapter" id="ch11"> +<h2>Chapter XI.</h2> + +<h3>The Industrial Outlook of Low-Skilled Labour.</h3> + + + +<p><b>§ 1.The Concentration of Capital.</b>--It must be remembered that we +have been concerned with what is only a portion of the great industrial +movement of to-day. Perhaps it may serve to make the industrial position +of the poor low-skilled workers more distinct if we attempt to set this +portion in its true relation to the larger Labour Problem, by giving a +brief outline of the size and relation of the main industrial forces of +the day.</p> + +<p>If we look at the two great industrial factors, Capital and Labour, we see +a corresponding change taking place in each. This change signifies a +constant endeavour to escape the rigour of competition by a co-operation +which grows ever closer towards fusion of interests previously separate.</p> + +<p>Look first at Capital. We saw how the application of machinery and +mechanical power to productive industries replaced the independent +citizen, or small capitalist, who worked with a handful of assistants, by +the mill and factory owner with his numerous "hands." The economic use of +machinery led to production on a larger scale. But new, complex, and +expensive machinery is continually being invented, which, for those who +can afford to purchase and use it, represents a fresh economy in +production, and enables them both to produce larger quantities of goods +more rapidly, and to get rid of them by underselling those of their trade +competitors who are working with old-fashioned and less effective +machinery. As this process is continually going on, it signifies a +constant advantage which the owner of a large business capital has over +the owner of a smaller capital. In earlier times, when trade was more +localized, and the small manufacturer or merchant had his steady +customers, and stood on a slowly and carefully acquired reputation, it was +not so easy for a new competitor to take his trade by the offer of some +small additional advantage. But the opening up of wider communication by +cheap postage, the newspaper, the railway, the telegraph, the general and +rapid knowledge of prices, the enormous growth of touting and advertising, +have broken up the local and personal character of commerce, and tend to +make the whole world one complete and even arena of competition. Thus the +fortunate possessor of some commercial advantage, however trifling, which +enables him to produce more cheaply or sell more effectively than his +fellows, can rapidly acquire their trade, unless they are able to avail +themselves of the new machinery, or special skill, or other economy which +he possesses. This consideration enables the large capitalist in all +businesses where large capital contains these advantages, or the owner of +some large natural monopoly, who can most cheaply extract large quantities +of raw material, to crush in free competition the smaller businesses. In +proportion as business is becoming wider and more cosmopolitan, these +natural advantages of large capital over small are able to assert +themselves more and more effectively. In certain branches of trade, which +have not yet been taken over by elaborate machinery, or where everything +depends upon the personal activity and intelligence, and the detailed +supervision of a fully interested owner, the small capitalist may still +hold his own, as in certain branches of retail trade. But the general +movement is in favour of large businesses. Everywhere the big business is +swallowing up the smaller, and in its turn is liable to be swallowed by a +bigger one. In manufacture, where the cosmopolitan character is strongest, +and where machinery plays so large a part, the movement towards vast +businesses is most marked; each year makes it more rapid, and more +general. But in wholesale and retail distribution, though somewhat slower, +the tendency is the same. Even in agriculture, where close personal care +and the limitations of a local market temper the larger tendency, the +recent annals of Western America and Australia supply startling evidence +of the concentrative force of machinery. The meaning of this movement in +capital must not be mistaken. It is not merely that among competing +businesses, the larger showing themselves the stronger survive, and the +smaller, out-competed disappear. This of course often happens. The big +screw-manufacturer able to provide some new labour-saving machinery, to +advertise more effectively, or even to sell at a loss for a period of +time, can drown his weaker competitors and take their trade. The small +tradesman can no longer hold his own in the fight with the universal +provider, or the co-operative store.</p> + +<p>But this destruction of the small business, though an essential factor in +the movement, is not perhaps the most important aspect. The industrial +superiority of the large business over the small makes for the +concentration both of small capitals and of business ability. The monster +millionaire, who owns the whole or the bulk of his great business, is +after all a very rare specimen. The typical business form of to-day is +the joint stock company. This simply means that a number of capitalists, +who might otherwise have been competing with one another on a small scale +of business, recognizing the advantage of size, agree to mass their +capital into one large lump, and to entrust its manipulation to the best +business ability they can muster among them, or procure from outside. This +process in its simplest form is seen in the amalgamation of existing and +competing businesses, notable examples of which have recently occurred in +the London publishing trade. But the ordinary Company, whether it grows by +the expansion of some large existent business, or, like most railways or +other new enterprises, is formed out of money subscribed in order to form +a business, represents the same concentrating tendency. These share-owners +put their capital together into one concern, in order to reap some +advantage which they think they would not reap if they placed the capital +in small competing businesses. But though it has been calculated that +about one-third of English commerce is now in the hands of joint stock +companies, this by no means exhausts the significance of the centralizing +force in capital. Almost all large businesses, and many small businesses, +are recognized to be conducted largely with borrowed capitals. The owners +of these debentures are in fact joint capitalists with the nominal owner +of the business. They prefer to lend their capital, because they hope to +enjoy a portion of the gain and security which belongs to a large business +as compared with a small one. Along with this coming together of small +capitals to make a large capital, there is a constant centralization and +organization of business ability. It is not uncommon for the owner of a +small and therefore failing business to accept a salaried post in the +office of some great business firm. So too we find the son of a small +tradesman, recognizing the hopelessness of maintaining his father's +business, takes his place behind the counter of some monster house.</p> + +<p><b>§ 2. How Competition affects Capital.</b>--Now the force which brings +about all these movements is the force of competition. Every increase of +knowledge, every improvement of communication, every breakdown of +international or local barriers, increases the advantage of the big +business, and makes the struggle for existence among small businesses more +keen and more hopeless. It is the desire to escape from the heavy and +harassing strain of trade competition, which practically drives small +businesses to suspend their mutual hostilities, and to combine. It is true +that most of the large private businesses or joint stock companies are not +formed by this direct process of pacification. But for all that, their +<i>raison d'être</i> is found in the desire to escape the friction and waste of +competition which would take place if each shareholder set up business +separately on his own account. We shall not be surprised that the +competition of small businesses has given way before co-operation, when we +perceive the force and fierceness of the competition between the larger +consolidated masses of capital. With the development of the arts of +advertising, touting, adulteration, political jobbery, and speculation, +acting over an ever-widening area of competition, the fight between the +large joint stock businesses grows always more cruel and complex. Business +failures tend to become more frequent and more disastrous. A recent French +economist reckons that ten out of every hundred who enter business +succeed, fifty vegetate, and forty go into bankruptcy. In America, where +internal competition is still keener and speculation more rife, it has +been lately calculated that ninety-five per cent, of those who enter +business "fail of success." Just as in the growth of political society the +private individual has given up the right of private war to the State, +with the result that as States grow stronger and better organized, the war +between them becomes fiercer and more destructive, so is it with the +concentration of capital. The small capitalist, seeking to avoid the +strain of personal competition, amalgamates with others, and the +competition between these masses of capital waxes every day fiercer. We +have no accurate data for measuring the diminution of the number of +separate competitors which has attended the growing concentration of +capital, but we know that the average magnitude of a successful business +is continually increasing. The following figures illustrate the meaning of +this movement from the American cotton trade, which is not one of the +industries most susceptible to the concentrative pressure. "It will be +seen that in 756 large establishments in 1880, in which the aggregate +capital invested was five times as great as that in the 801 establishments +in 1830, the capital invested per spindle was one-third less, the number +of spindles operated by each labourer nearly three times as large, the +product per spindle one-fourth greater, the product per dollar invested +twice as large, the price of the cotton cloth nearly sixty per cent, less, +the consumption <i>per capita </i>of the population over one hundred per cent +greater, and the wages more than double. What is true of this industry is +true of all industries where the concentration of capital has taken +place."[<a href="#fn38">38</a>]</p> + +<p>It is needless to add that these large works are conducted, not by single +owners, but in nearly all cases by the managers of associated capitals. +Regarded from the large standpoint of industrial development, all these +phenomena denote a change in the sphere of competition. From the +competition of private capitals owned by individuals we have passed to the +competition of associated capitals. The question now arises, "Will not the +same forces, which, in order to avoid the waste and destruction of ever +keener competition, compelled the private capitalists to suspension of +hostility and to combination, act upon the larger masses of associated +capital?" The answer is already working itself clearly out in industrial +history. The concentrative adhesive forces are everywhere driving the +competing masses of capital to seek safety, and escape waste and +destruction, by welding themselves into still larger masses, renouncing +the competition with one another in order to compete more successfully +with other large bodies. Thus, wherever these forces are in free +operation, the number of competing firms is continually growing less; the +surviving competitors have crushed or absorbed their weaker rivals, and +have grown big by feeding on their carcases.</p> + +<p>But the struggle between these few big survivors becomes more fierce than +ever. Fitted out with enormous capital, provided with the latest, most +complex, and most expensive machinery, producing with a reckless disregard +for one another or the wants of the consuming public, advertising on a +prodigious scale in order to force new markets, or steal the markets of +one another, they are constantly driven to lower their prices in order to +effect sales; profits are driven to a minimum; all the business energy at +their command is absorbed by the strain of the fight; any unforeseen +fluctuations in the market brings on a crisis, ruins the weaker +combatants, and causes heavy losses all round. In trades where the +concentrative process has proceeded furthest this warfare is naturally +fiercest. But as the number of competing units grows smaller, arbitration +or union becomes more feasible. Close and successful united action among a +large number of scattered competitors of different scales of importance, +such as exist during the earlier stage of capitalism, would be impossible. +But where the number is small, combination presents itself as possible, +and in so much as the competition is fiercer, the direct motive to such +combination is stronger. Hence we find that attempts are made to relieve +the strain among the largest businesses. The fiercest combatants weary of +incessant war and patch up treaties. The weapon of capitalist warfare is +the power of under-selling--"cutting prices." The most powerful firms +consent to sheathe this weapon, i.e. agree not to undersell one another, +but to adopt a common scale of prices. This action, in direct restraint of +competition, corresponds to the action of a trades union, and is attained +by many trades whose capital is not large or business highly developed. +Neither does it imply close union of friendly relations between the +combining parties. It is a policy dictated by the barest instinct of +self-preservation. We see it regularly applied in certain local trades, +especially in the production and distribution of perishable commodities. +Our bakers, butchers, dairy-men, are everywhere in a constant state of +suspended hostility, each endeavouring indeed to get the largest trade for +himself, but abiding generally by a common scale of prices. Wherever the +local merchants are not easily able to be interfered with by outsiders, as +in the coal-trade, they form a more or less closely compacted ring for the +maintenance of common terms, raising and lowering prices by agreement. The +possibility of successfully maintaining these compacts depends on the +ability to resist outside pressure, the element of monopoly in the trade. +When this power is strong, a local ring of competing tradesmen may succeed +in maintaining enormous prices. To take a humble example--In many a remote +Swiss village, rapidly grown into a fashionable resort, the local +washerwomen are able to charge prices twice as high as those paid in +London, probably four times as high as the normal price of the +neighbourhood.</p> + +<p>Grocers or clothiers are not able to combine with the same effect, for the +consumer is far less dependent on local distribution for these wares. But +wherever such retail combinations are possible they are found. Among large +producers and large distributing agencies the same tendency prevails, +especially in cases where the market is largely local. Free competition of +prices among coal-owners or iron-masters gives way under the pressure of +common interests, to a schedule of prices; competing railways come to +terms. Even among large businesses which enjoy no local monopoly, there +are constant endeavours to maintain a common scale of prices. This +condition of loose, irregular, and partial co-operation among competing +industrial units is the characteristic condition of trade in such a +commercial country as England to-day. Competitors give up the combat <i>à +outrance</i>, and fight with blunted lances.</p> + +<p><b>§ 3. Syndicates and Trusts.</b>--But it is of course extremely difficult +to maintain these loose agreements among merchants and producers engaged +in intricate and far-reaching trades. A big opportunity is constantly +tempting one of them to undersell; new firms are constantly springing up +with new machinery, willing to trade upon the artificially raised prices, +by under-selling so as to secure a business; over-production and a glut of +goods tempts weaker firms to "cut rates," and this breaks down the +compact. A score of different causes interfere with these delicate +combinations, and plunge the different firms into the full heat and waste +of the conflict. The renewed "free competition" proves once more fatal to +the smaller businesses; the waste inflicted on the "leviathans" who +survive forms a fresh motive to a closer combination.</p> + +<p>These new closer combinations are known by the names of Syndicate and +Trust. This marks another stage in the evolution of capital. In the United +States, where the growth is most clearly marked, the Standard Oil Trust +forms the leading example of a successful Trust. In 1881, this Standard +Oil Company having maintained for some ten years tolerably close informal +relations with its leading competitors in the Eastern States, and having +crushed out the smaller companies, entered into a close arrangement with +the remaining competitors, with the view of a practical consolidation of +the businesses into one, though the formal identity of the several firms +was still maintained. The various companies which entered into this union, +comprising nearly all the chief oil-mills, submitted their businesses to +valuation, and placed themselves in the hands of a board of trustees, with +an absolute power to regulate the quantity of production, and if necessary +to close mills, to raise and lower prices, and to work the whole number as +a joint concern. Each company gave up its shares to the Trust, receiving +notes of acknowledgment for the worth of the shares, and the total profits +were to be divided as dividend each half-year. This Trust has continued to +exist, and has now a practical monopoly of the oil trade in America, +controlling, it is reckoned, more than 90 per cent. of the whole market, +and regulating production and prices.</p> + +<p>Everywhere this process is at work. Competing firms are in every trade, +where their small numbers permit, striving to come to closer terms than +formerly, and either secretly or openly joining forces so as to get full +control over the production or distribution of some product, in order to +manipulate prices for their own profit. From railways and corn-stores down +to slate-pencils, coffins, and sticking-plaster, everything is tending to +fall under the power of a Trust. Many of these Trusts fail to secure the +union of a sufficient proportion of the large competitors, or quarrels +spring up among the combining firms, or some new firms enter into +competition too strong to be fought or bought over. In these ways a large +number of the Trusts have hitherto broken down, and will doubtless +continue to break down. In England, this step in capitalist evolution is +only beginning to be taken. In glass, paper, salt, coal, and a few other +commodities, combinations more permanent than the mere Ring or Corner, and +closer than the ordinary masters' unions, have been formed. But Free +Trade, which leaves us open to the less calculable and controllable +element of foreign competition, and the fact that the earlier stages of +concentration of capital are not yet completed here in most trades, have +hitherto retarded the growth of the successful Trust in England. Even in +America there is no case where the monopoly of a Trust reigns absolute +through the whole country, though many of them enjoy a local control of +production and prices which is practically unrestricted. Excepting in the +case of the Standard Oil Trust, and a few less important bodies which +enjoy the control of some local monopoly, such as anthracite coal, the +supremacy of the leading Trust or Syndicate is brought in certain places +into direct conflict with other more or less independent competing bodies. +In other words, the evolution of capital, which tends ever to the +establishment of competition between a smaller number of larger masses, +has nowhere worked out the logical conclusion which means the condensation +of the few large competing bodies into a single mass. This final step, +which presents a completely organized trade with the element of +competition utterly eliminated under the control of a single body of mere +joint-owners of the capital engaged, must be regarded as the goal, the +ideal culmination of the concentrative movement of modern capital. It is +said that more than one-third of the business in the United States is +already controlled by Trusts. But most of them have only in part succeeded +in their effort to escape from competition by integrating their personal +interests into a single homogeneous mass. Even in cases where they do rule +the market untrammelled by the direct interference of any competitors, +they are still deterred from a free use of their control over prices by +the possibility of competition which any full use of this control might +give rise to. For it does not follow that even where a Trust holds an +absolute monopoly of the market of a locality, that it will be able to +maintain that monopoly were it to raise its prices beyond a certain point. +In proportion, however, as experience yields a greater skill in the +management of Trusts, and their growing strength enables them to more +successfully defy outside attempts at competition, their power to raise +prices and increase their rates of profit would rise accordingly.</p> + +<p>Regarding, then, the development of the capitalist system from the first +establishment of the capitalist-employer as a distinct industrial class, +we trace the massing of capital in larger and larger competing forms, the +number of which represents a pyramid growing narrower as it ascends +towards an ideal apex, represented by the absolute unity or identity of +interests of the capital in a given trade. In so far as the interests of +different trades may clash, we might carry on this movement further, and +trace the gradual agreement, integration, and fusion of the capitals +represented in various trades. There is, in fact, an ever-growing +understanding and union between the various forms of capital in a country. +The recognition of this ultimate identity of interest must be regarded as +a constant force making for the unification of the whole capital of a +country, in the same way as the common interests of directly competing +capitals in the same trade leads to a union for mutual support and +ultimate identification.</p> + +<p><b>§ 4. Uses and Abuses of the Trust.</b>--This, however, carries us beyond +the immediate industrial outlook. The successful formation of the Trust +represents the highest reach of capitalistic evolution. Although the +subject is too involved for any lengthy discussion here, a few points +bearing on the nature of the Trust deserve attention.</p> + +<p>The Trust is clearly seen to be a natural step in the evolution of +capital. It belongs to the industrial progress of the day, and must not be +condemned as if it were a retrograde or evil thing. It is distinctly an +attempt to introduce order into chaos, to save the waste of war, to +organize an industry. The Trust-makers often claim that their line of +action is both necessary and socially beneficial, and urge the following +points--</p> + +<p>The low rates of profit, owing to the miscalculation of competitors who +establish too many factories and glut the market; the waste of energy in +the work of competition; the adulteration of goods induced by the desire +to undersell; the enormous royalties which must be paid to a competitor +who has secured some new invention--these and other causes necessitate +some common action. By the united action of the Trust the following +economic advantages are gained--</p> +<ol style="list-style-type: lower-alpha"> +<li>The saving of the labour and the waste of competition.</li> + +<li>Economy in buying and selling, in discovering and establishing new + markets. </li> + +<li>The maintenance of a good quality of wares without fear of being + undersold. </li> + +<li>Mutual guarantee and insurance against losses. </li> + +<li>The closing of works which are disadvantageously placed or are + otherwise unnecessary to furnish the requisite supply at profitable + prices. </li> + +<li>The raising of prices to a level which will give a living basis of + steady production and profit.</li> +</ol> +<p>That all these economies are useful to the capitalists who form Trusts +will be obvious. How far they are socially useful is a more difficult +question. Reflection, however, will make one thing evident, viz. that +though the public may share that part of the advantage derived from the +more economical use of large capitals, it cannot share that portion which +is derived from the absence of competition. If two or more Trusts or +aggregations of capital are still in actual or even in potential +competition, the public will be enabled to reap what gain belongs to +larger efficient production, for it will be for the interest of each +severally to sell at the lowest prices; but if a single Trust rule the +market, though the economic advantage of the Trust will be greater in so +far as it escapes the labour of all competition, there will be no force to +secure for the public any share in this advantage. The advantageous +position enjoyed by a Trust will certainly enable its owners at the same +time to pay high profits, give high wages, and sell at low prices. But +while the force of self-interest will secure the first result, there is +nothing to guarantee the second and third. There is no adequate security +that in the culminating product of capitalistic growth, the single +dominant Trust or Syndicate self-interest will keep down prices, as is +often urged by the advocates of Trust. It is true that "they have a direct +interest in keeping prices at least sufficiently low not to invite the +organization of counter-enterprises which may destroy their existing +profits."[<a href="#fn39">39</a>] But this consideration is qualified in two ways:--<i>a</i>. Where +Trust is formed or assisted by the possession of a natural monopoly, i.e. +land, or some content of land, absolutely limited in quality, such +potential competition does not exist, and nothing, save the possibility of +substituting another commodity, places a limit on the rise of price which +a Trust may impose on the public.. Although the fear of potential +competition will prevent the maintenance of an indefinitely high price it +will not necessarily prevent such a rise of price as will yield enormous +profits, and form a grievous burden on consumers. For a +strongly-constituted Trust will be able to crush any competing combination +of ordinary size and strength by a temporary lowering of its prices below +the margin of profitable production, the weapon which a strong rich +company can always use successfully against a weaker new competitor.</p> + +<p>But though a Trust with a really strong monopoly, and rid of all effective +competition, will be able to impose exorbitant and oppressive prices on +consumers, it must be observed that it is not necessarily to its interest +to do so. Every rise of price implies a fall off in quantity sold; and it +may therefore pay a Trust better to sell a large quantity at a moderate +profit than a smaller quantity at an enormous profit. The exercise of the +power possessed by the owners of a monopoly depends upon the +proportionate effect a rise of price will have upon the sale. This again +depends upon the nature and uses of the commodity in which the Trust +deals. In proportion as an article belongs to the "necessaries" of life, a +rise of price will have a small effect on the purchase of it, as compared +with the effect of a similar rise of price on articles which belong to the +"comforts" or "luxuries" of life, or which may be readily replaced by some +cheaper substitute. Thus it will appear that the power of a Trust or +monopoly of capital is liable to be detrimental to the public +interest--1st. In proportion as there is a want of effective existing +competition, and a difficulty of potential competition. 2nd. In proportion +as the commodity dealt in by the Trust belongs to the necessaries of life.</p> + +<p><b>§ 5. Steps in the Organization of labour.</b>--The movements of labour +show an order closely correspondent with those of capital. As the units of +capital seek relief from the strain and waste of competition by uniting +into masses, and as the fiercer competition of these masses force them +into ever larger and closer aggregates, until they are enabled to obtain +partial or total relief from the competitive strife, so is it with labour. +The formation of individual units of labour-power into Trades Unions, the +amalgamation of these Unions on a larger scale and in closer co-operation, +are movements analogous to the concentration of small units of capital +traced above. It is not necessary to follow in detail the concentrative +process which is gradually welding labour into larger units of +competition. The uneven pace at which this process works in different +places and in various trades has prevented a clear recognition of the law +of the movement. The following steps, not always taken however in +precisely the same order, mark the progress--</p> + +<p>1. Workers in the same trade in a town or locality form a "Union," or +limited co-operative society, the economic essence of which consists in +the fact that in regard to the price and other conditions of their labour +they act as a complex unit. Where such unions are strongly formed, the +employer or body of employers deals not with individual workmen, but with +the Union of workmen, in matters which the Union considers to be of common +interest.</p> + +<p>2. Next comes the establishment of provincial or national relations +between these local Unions. The Northumberland and Durham miners will +connect their various branches, and will, if necessary, enter into +relations with the Unions of other mining districts. The local Unions of +engineers, of carpenters, &c., are related closely by means of elected +representatives in national Unions. In the strongest Unions the central +control is absolute in reference to the more important objects of union, +the pressure for higher wages, shorter hours, and other industrial +advantages, or the resistance of attempts to impose reductions of wages, +&c.</p> + +<p>3. Along with the movement towards a national organization of the workers +in a trade, or in some cases prior to it, is the growth of combined action +between allied industries, that is to say, trades which are closely +related in work and interests. In the building trades, for example, +bricklayers, masons, carpenters, plasterers, plumbers, painters and +decorators, find that their respective trade interests meet, and are +interwoven at a score of different points. The sympathetic action thus set +up is beginning to find its way to the establishment of closer +co-operation between the Unions of these several trades. The different +industries engaged in river-side work are rapidly forming into closer +union. So also the various mining classes, the railway workers, civil +servants, are moving gradually but surely towards a recognition of common +interests, and of the advantage of close common action.</p> + +<p>4. The fact of the innumerable delicate but important relations which +subsist among classes of workers, whose work appears on the surface but +distantly related, is leading to Trade Councils representative of all the +Trade Unions in a district. In the midland counties and in London these +general Trade Councils are engaged in the gigantic task of welding into +some single unity the complex conflicting interests of large bodies of +workmen.</p> + +<p>5. An allusion to the attempts to establish international relations +between the Unions of English workmen and those of foreign countries is +important, more as indicating the probable line of future labour movement, +than as indicating the early probability of effective international union +of labour. Though slight spasmodic international co-operation of workers +may even now be possible, especially among members of English-speaking +races, the divergent immediate interests, the different stages of +industrial development reached in the various industrial countries, seem +likely for a long time at any rate to preclude the possibility of close +co-operation between the united workers of different nations.</p> + +<p><b>§ 6. Parallelism of the Movements in Capital and Labour.</b>--Now this +movement in labour, irregular, partial, and incomplete as it is, is +strictly parallel with the movement of capital. In both, the smaller units +become merged and concentrated into larger units, driven by self-interest +to combine for more effective competition in larger masses. The fact that +in the case of capital the concentration is more complete, does not really +impair the accuracy of the analogy. Small capitals, when they have +co-operated or formed a union, are absolutely merged, and cease to exist +or act as individual units at all. A "share" in a business has no separate +existence so long as it is kept in that business. But the small units of +labour cannot so absolutely merge their individuality. The capital-unit +being impersonal can be absolutely merged for common action with like +units. The labour-unit being personal only surrenders part of his freedom +of action and competition to the Union, which henceforth represents the +social side of his industrial self. How far the necessity of close social +action between labour-units in the future may compel the labourer to merge +more of his industrial individuality in the Union, is an open question +which the future history of labour-movements will decide.</p> + +<p>The slow, intermittent, and fragmentary manner in which labour-unions have +been hitherto conducted even in the stronger trades, is a fact which has +perhaps done more to hide the true parallelism in the evolution of capital +and labour. The path traced above has not yet been traversed by the bulk +of English working men, while, as has been shown, working women have +hardly begun to contemplate the first step. But the uneven rate of +development, in the case of capital and labour, should not blind us to the +law which is operating in both movements. The representative relation +between capital and labour is no longer that between a single employer and +a number of individual working men, each of the latter making his own +terms with the former for the sale of his labour, but between a large +company or union of employers on the one hand, and a union of workmen on +the other. The last few years have consolidated and secured this relation +in the case of such powerful staple industries in England as mining, +ship-building, iron-work, and even in the weaker low-skilled industries +the relation is gradually winning recognition.</p> + +<p><b>§ 7. Probabilities of Industrial Peace.</b>--This concentrative process +at work in both capital and labour, consolidating the smaller industrial +units into larger ones, and tending to a unification of the masses of +capital and of labour engaged respectively in the several industries, is +at the present time by far the most important factor of industrial +history. How far these two movements in capital and in labour react on one +another for peace or for strife is a delicate and difficult question. +Consideration of the common interest of capital and labour dependent on +their necessary co-operation in industry might lead us to suppose that +along with the growing organization of the two forces there would come an +increased recognition of this community of interest which would make +constantly and rapidly for industrial peace. But we must not be misled by +the stress which is rightly laid on the identity of interest between +capital and labour. The identity which is based on the general +consideration that capital and labour are both required in the conduct of +a given business, is no effective guarantee against a genuine clash of +interests between the actual forms of capital and the labourers engaged at +a given time in that particular business. To a body of employés who are +seeking to extract a rise of wages from their employers, or to resist a +reduction of wages, it is no argument to point out that if they gain their +point the fall of profit in their employers' business will have some +effect in lowering the average interest on invested capital, and will thus +prevent the accumulation of some capital which would have helped to find +employment for some more working men. The immediate direct interests of a +particular body of workmen and a particular company of employers may, and +frequently will, impel them to a course directly opposed to the wider +interests of their fellow-capitalists or fellow-workers. But it is evident +that the smaller the industrial unit, the more frequent will these +conflicts between the immediate special interest and the wider class +interest be. Since this is so, it would follow that the establishment of +larger industrial units, such as workmen's unions and employers' unions, +based on a cancelling of minor conflicting interests, will diminish the +aggregate quantity of friction between capital and labour. If there were a +close union between all the river-side and carrying trades of the country, +it is far less likely that a particular local body of dock-labourers +would, in order to seize some temporary advantage for themselves, be +allowed to take a course which might throw out of work, or otherwise +injure, the other workers concerned in the industries allied to theirs. +One of the important educative effects of labour organizations will be a +growing recognition of the intricate <i>rapport</i> which subsists not only +between the interests of different classes of workers, but between capital +and labour in its more general aspect. This lesson again is driven home by +the dramatic scale of the terrible though less frequent conflicts which +still occur between capital and labour. Industrial war seems to follow the +same law of change as military war. As the incessant bickering of private +guerilla warfare has given way in modern times to occasional, large, +organized, brief, and terribly destructive campaigns, so it is in trade. +In both cases the aggregate of friction and waste is probably much less +under the modern <i>régime</i>, but the dread of these dramatic lessons is +growing ever greater, and the tendency to postponement and conciliation +grows apace. But just as the fact of a growing identity in the interest of +different nations, the growing recognition of that fact, and the growing +horror of war, potent factors as they seem to reasonable men, make very +slow progress towards the substitution of international arbitration for +appeals to the sword, so in industry we cannot presume that the existence +of reasonable grounds for conciliation will speedily rid us of the terror +and waste of industrial conflicts. It is even possible that just as the +speedy formation of a strong national unity, like that of Prussia under +Frederick the Great, out of weak, disordered, smaller units, may engender +for a time a bellicose spirit which works itself out in strife, so the +rapid rise and union of weak and oppressed bodies of poorer labourers make +for a shortsighted policy of blind aggression. Such considerations as this +must, at any rate, temper the hopes of speedy industrial pacification we +may form from dwelling on the more reasonable effects and teaching of +organization. Although the very growth and existence of the larger +industrial units implies, as we saw, a laying aside of smaller conflicts, +we cannot assume that the forces at present working directly for the +pacification of capital and labour, and for their ultimate fusion, are at +all commensurate in importance with the concentrative forces operating in +the two industrial elements respectively. It is indisputably true that the +recent development of organization, especially of labour unions, acts as a +direct restraint of industrial warfare, and a facilitation of peaceable +settlements of trade disputes. Mr. Burnett, in his Report to the Board of +Trade, on Strikes and Lock-outs in 1888, remarks <i>à propos</i> of the various +modes of arbitration, that "these methods of arranging difficulties have +only been made possible by organization of the forces on both sides, and +have, as it were, been gradually evolved from the general progress of the +combination movement."[<a href="#fn40">40</a>]</p> + +<p>Speaking of Trade Unions, he sums up--"In fact the executive committees of +all the chief Unions are to a very large extent hostile to strikes, and +exercise a restraining influence"--a judgment the truth of which has been +largely exemplified during the last two or three years. But our hopes and +desires must not lead us to exaggerate the size of these peaceable +factors. <i>Conseils de prud'hommes</i> on the continent, boards of arbitration +and conciliation in this country, profit-sharing schemes in Europe and +America, are laudable attempts to bridge over the antagonism which exists +between separate concrete masses of capital and labour. The growth of +piecework and of sliding scales has effected something. But the success of +the Board of Conciliation and Arbitration in the manufactured iron trade +of the north of England has not yet led to much successful imitation in +other industries. Recent experience of formal methods of conciliation and +of sliding scales, especially in the mining, engineering, and metal +industries, as well as the failure of some of the most important +profit-sharing experiments, shows that we must be satisfied with slow +progress in these direct endeavours after arbitration. The difficulty of +finding an enduring scale of values which will retain the adherence of +both interests amidst industrial movements which continually tend to upset +the previously accepted "fair rates," is the deeper economic cause which +breaks down many of these attempts. The direct fusion of the interests of +employers and employed, and in some measure of capital and labour, which +is the object of the co-operative movement, is a steadily growing force, +whose successes may serve perhaps better than any other landmark as a +measure of the improving <i>morale</i> of the several grades of workers who +show themselves able to adopt its methods. But while co-operative +distribution has thriven, the success of co-operative workshops and mills +has hitherto been extremely slow. A considerable expansion of the +productive work of the co-operative wholesale societies within the last +few years offers indeed more encouragement. But at present only about 21/4 +per cent. of English industry and commerce, as tested by profits, is under +the conduct of co-operative societies. Hence, while it seems possible that +the slow growth in productive co-operation, and the more rapid progress of +distributive co-operation, may serve to point the true line of successful +advance in the future, the present condition of the co-operative movement +does not entitle it to rank as one of the most powerful and prominent +industrial forces. Though it may be hoped and even predicted that each +movement in the agglomerative development of capital and labour which +presents the two agents in larger and more organized shape, will render +the work of conciliation more peremptory and more feasible, it must be +admitted that all these conciliatory movements making for the direct +fusion of capital and labour, are of an importance subordinate to the +larger evolutionary force on which we have laid stress.</p> + +<p>We see then the multitudinous units of capital and labour crystallizing +ever into larger and larger masses, moving towards an ideal goal which +would present a single body of organized capital and a single body of +organized labour. The process in each case is stimulated by the similar +process in the other. Each step in the organization of labour forces a +corresponding move towards organization of capital, and <i>vice versâ</i>. +Striking examples of this imitative strategic movement have been presented +by the rapid temporary organization of Australian capital, and by the +effect of Dock Labourers' Unions in England in promoting the closer +co-operation of the capital of shipowners. By this interaction of the two +forces, the development in the organization of capital and labour presents +itself as a <i>pari passu</i> progress; or perhaps more strictly it goes by the +analogy of a game of draughts; the normal state is a series of alternate +moves; but when one side has gained a victory, that is, taken a piece, it +can make another move.</p> + +<p><b>§ 8. Relation of Low-skilled Labour to the wider Movement.</b>--The +relation in which this large industrial evolution stands to our problem of +the poor low-skilled worker is not obscure. In comparing the movement of +capital with that of labour we saw that in one respect the former was +clearer and more perfect. The weaker capitalist, he who fails to keep pace +with industrial progress, and will not avail himself of the advantage +which union gives to contending pieces of capital, is simply snuffed out; +that is, he ceases to have an independent existence as a capitalist when +he can no longer make profit. The laggard, ill-managed piece of capital is +swept off the board. This is possible, for the capital is a property +separable from its owner. The case of labour is different. The +labour-power is not separable from the person of the labourer. So the +labourer left behind in the evolution of labour organization does not at +once perish, but continues to struggle on in a position which is ever +becoming weaker. "Organize or starve," is the law of modern labour +movements. The mass of low-skilled workers find themselves fighting the +industrial battle for existence, each for himself, in the old-fashioned +way, without any of the advantages which organization gives their more +prosperous brothers. They represent the survival of an earlier industrial +stage. If the crudest form of the struggle were permitted to rage with +unabated force, large numbers of them would be swept out of life, thereby +rendering successful organization and industrial advance more possible to +the survivors. But modern notions of humanity insist upon the retention of +these superfluous, low-skilled workers, while at the same time failing to +recognize, and making no real attempt to provide against, the inevitable +result of that retention. By allowing the continuance of the crude +struggle for existence which is the form industrial competition takes when +applied to the low-skilled workers, and at the same time forbidding the +proved "unfittest" to be cleared out of the world, we seem to perpetuate +and intensify the struggle. The elimination of the "unfit" is the +necessary means of progress enforced by the law of competition. An +insistence on the survival, and a permission of continued struggle to the +unfit, cuts off the natural avenue of progress for their more fit +competitors. So long as the crude industrial struggle is permitted on +these unnatural terms, the effective organization and progress of the main +body of low-skilled workers seems a logical impossibility. If the upper +strata of low-class workers are enabled to organize, and, what is more +difficult, to protect themselves against incursions of outsiders, the +position of the lower strata will become even more hopeless and helpless. +If one by one all the avenues of regular low-skilled labour are closed by +securing a practical monopoly of this and that work for the members of a +Union, the superfluous body of labourers will be driven more and more to +depend on irregular jobs, and forced more and more into concentrated +masses of city dwellers, will present an ever-growing difficulty and +danger to national order and national health. Consideration of the general +progress of the working-classes has no force to set aside this problem. It +seems not unlikely that we are entering on a new phase of the poverty +question. The upper strata of low-skilled labour are learning to organize. +If they succeed in forming and maintaining strong Unions, that is to say, +in lifting themselves from the chaotic struggle of an earlier industrial +epoch, so as to get fairly on the road of modern industrial progress, the +condition of those left behind will press the illogicality of our present +national economy upon us with a dramatic force which will be more +convincing than logic, for it will appeal to a growing national sentiment +of pity and humanity which will take no denial, and will find itself +driven for the first time to a serious recognition of poverty as a +national, industrial disease, requiring a national, industrial remedy.</p> + +<p>The great problem of poverty thus resides in the conditions of the +low-skilled workman. To live industrially under the new order he must +organize. He cannot organize because he is so poor, so ignorant, so weak. +Because he is not organized he continues to be poor, ignorant, weak. Here +is a great dilemma, of which whoever shall have found the key will have +done much to solve the problem of poverty.</p> +</div> + + +<div class="chapter" id="authorities"> +<h2>List of Authorities.</h2> + + + +<p>By far the most valuable general work of reference upon <i>Problems of +Poverty</i> is Charles Booth's <i>Labour and Life of the People</i> (Williams & +Norgate). By the side of this work on London may be set Mr Rowntree's +<i>Poverty: A Story of Town Life</i> (Macmillan). A large quantity of valuable +material exists in <i>The Report of the Industrial Remuneration Conference</i>, +and in the <i>Reports of the Lords' Committee on the Sweating System</i> and of +the <i>Labour Commission</i>. Among shorter and more accessible works dealing +with the industrial causes of poverty and the application of industrial +remedies, Toynbee's <i>Industrial Revolution</i> (Rivington); Gibbins' +<i>Industrial History of England (University Extension Series</i>, Methuen & +Co.); and Jevons'<i>The State in Relation to Labour (English Citizen +Series)</i>, will be found most useful. For a clear understanding of the +relation of economic theory to the facts of labour and poverty, J.E. +Symes' <i>Political Economy</i> (Rivington), and Marshall's <i>Economies of +Industry</i>are specially recommended.</p> + +<p>Among the large mass of books and pamphlets bearing on special subjects +connected with <i>Problems of Poverty</i>, the following are most useful. An +asterisk is placed against the names of those which deserve special +attention, and which are easily accessible.</p> + + + +<h3>Sweating and Its Causes.</h3> + + +<p>* Booth, <i>Labour and Life of the People</i>.</p> + +<p>* <i>Final Report of Lords' Committee on the Sweating System.</i></p> + +<p>Marx, "Capital," chap. xv., <i>Machinery and Modern Industry</i> +(Sonnenschein).</p> + +<p>Burnett, <i>Report to the Board of Trade on Sweating</i> (Blue-Book, 1887).</p> + +<p>"Socialism," <i>Fabian Essays</i> (Walter Scott).</p> + +<p>Booth, <i>Pauperism and the Endowment of Old Age</i> (Macmillan).</p> + +<p>J. A. Spender, <i>The State and Pensions in Old Age</i> (Sonnenschein).</p> + +<p>J. T. Arlidge, <i>Hygiene of Occupations</i> (Rivington).</p> + + + +<h3>Co-Operation and Labour Organization.</h3> + + +<p>* Webb, <i>History of Trade Unionism</i> (Longman).</p> + +<p>* Howell, <i>Conflicts of Capital and Labour</i> (Chatto & Windus).</p> + +<p>* Burnett, <i>Report of Trade Unions</i> (Blue-Book).</p> + +<p>Brentano, <i>Gilds and Trade Unions</i> (Trübner).</p> + +<p>* Baernreither, <i>Associations of English Working-men</i>.</p> + +<p>Acland and Jones, <i>Working-men Co-operators</i>.</p> + +<p>Gilman, <i>Profit-sharing between Employer and Employed</i> (Macmillan).</p> + +<p><i>Co-operative Wholesale Society's Annual</i>.</p> + +<p>Potter, <i>Co-operative Movement in Great Britain</i> (Sonnenschein).</p> + +<p>* Webb, <i>Industrial Democracy</i> (Longman).</p> + +<p>* Schloss, <i>Methods of Industrial Remuneration</i> (Williams & Norgate).</p> + + + +<h3>Chartiable Work and Poor Law, &c.</h3> + + +<p>* Aschrott, <i>The English Poor Law System</i> (Knight).</p> + +<p>H. Bosanquet, <i>The Strength of the People</i> (Macmillan).</p> + +<p>P. Alden, <i>The Unemployed</i>.</p> + +<p>Fowle, <i>The Poor Law</i> (<i>English Citizen Series</i>).</p> + +<p>Booth, <i>In Darkest England</i>.</p> + +<p>Blackley, <i>Thrift and Independence</i> (People's Library, S.P.C.K.).</p> + +<p>* Mackay, <i>The English Poor</i> (Murray).</p> + +<p>* <i>Report on Pauperism in England and Wales</i> (Blue-Book, 1889).</p> + +<p>Rev. S.A. Barnett, <i>Practicable Socialism</i>.</p> + +<p>Loch, <i>Charity Organization</i> (Sonnenschein).</p> + +<p><i>Report of Committee on National Provident Insurance</i> (Blue-Book, 1887).</p> + + + +<h3>Socialistic Legislation.</h3> + + +<p>Ensor, <i>Modern Socialism</i> (Harpers).</p> + +<p>* Jevons, <i>The State in Relation to Labour</i>.</p> + +<p>Webb, <i>Socialism in England</i> (Swan Sonnenschein).</p> + +<p>Hyndman, <i>Historical Basis of Socialism in England</i> (Kegan Paul).</p> + +<p>* "Socialism" (<i>Fabian Essays</i>).</p> + +<p>* Toynbee, <i>Industrial Revolution</i> (Rivington).</p> + +<p>Kirkup, <i>An Inquiry into Socialism</i> (Longman).</p> + + + +<h3>Movements of Capital.</h3> + + +<p>* Marx, "Capital," vol. ii., ch. xv.</p> + +<p>* Baker, <i>Monopolies and the People</i> (Putnams).</p> + +<p>"Socialism," <i>Fabian Essays</i>.</p> + +<p>Macrosty, <i>Trust and the State</i> (Grant Richards). + +Ely, <i>Monopolies and Trusts</i> (Macmillan).</p> + + + +<h3>The Measure of Poverty.</h3> + + +<p>*Giffen, <i>Economic Inquiries and Studies </i>(Bell).</p> + +<p>Mulhall, <i>Dictionary of Statistics</i> (Routledge).</p> + +<p>Bowley, <i>National Progress in Wealth and Trade</i>(King).</p> + +<p>* Board of Trade Memoranda, <i>British and Foreign Trade and Industrial +Conditions</i> [cd. 1761 and 2237].</p> + +<p><i>Statistical Abstract of the United Kingdom</i> [cd. 1727].</p> + +<p>* <i>Census of England and Wales: General Report</i>, 1901 [cd. 2174]. + +* Leone Levi, <i>Wages and Earnings of the Working-Classes</i> (Murray).</p> + +<p>* <i>Report of the Industrial Remuneration Conference</i> (Cassell).</p> + +<p>Giffen, <i>Growth of Capital</i> (Bell).</p> + +<p>Valpy, <i>An Inquiry into the Conditions and Occupations of the People in +Central London</i>.</p> +</div> + + +<div class="chapter" id="footnotes"> +<h2>Footnotes</h2> + + + +<p id="fn1">1. This sum includes an allowance for the part of the wage of domestic +servants, shop-attendants, &c. paid in kind.</p> + +<p id="fn2">2. Leone Levi's <i>Wages and Earnings of the Working-Classes</i>, p. II.</p> + +<p id="fn3">3. <i>Labour and Life of the People</i>, vol. i. p. 38.</p> + +<p id="fn4">4. <i>Poverty: A Study of Town Life</i>. (Macmillan & Co.)</p> + +<p id="fn5">5. By Mr P.H. Mann in <i>Sociological Papers</i>. (Macmillan.)</p> + +<p id="fn6">6. Cf. <i>An Inquiry into the Conditions and Occupations of the People in +Central London</i>, R. A. Valpy.</p> + +<p id="fn7">7. This statement is borne out by <i>A Return of Expenditure of +Working-Men</i>, for 1889, published by the Labour Department of the Board of +Trade.</p> + +<p id="fn8">8. See two interesting papers, "Our Farmers in Chains," by the Rev. Harry +Jones (<i>National Review</i>, April and July, 1890).</p> + +<p id="fn9">9. Arnold White: <i>The Problems of a Great City</i>, p. 159.</p> + +<p id="fn10">10. Marshall's <i>Principles of Economics</i>, II. ch. iv. §2.</p> + +<p id="fn11">11. De Tocqueville, <i>Ancient Régime</i>, ch. xvi.</p> + +<p id="fn12">12. <i>Report of the Industrial Remuneration Conference</i>, 1886, p. 429.</p> + +<p id="fn13">13. Cannan's <i>Elementary Political Economy</i>, part ii. § 15.</p> + +<p id="fn14">14. <i>Industrial Remuneration Congress Report</i>, p. 153. Mr. W. Owen.</p> + +<p id="fn15">15. <i>Economics of Industry</i>, p. 111.</p> + +<p id="fn16">16. <i>Principles of Economics</i>, pp. 314, 316.</p> + +<p id="fn17">17. Kirkup, <i>Inquiry into Socialism</i>, p. 72.</p> + +<p id="fn18">18. Booth's <i>Labour and Life of the People, </i>vol. i. Part. III. ch. ii. +<i>Influx of Population, </i>by H. Llewellyn Smith. A most valuable paper, from +which many of the facts here stated have been drawn.</p> + +<p id="fn19">19. The official estimate is not precise, since our statistics of +emigration refer only to non-European countries.</p> + +<p id="fn20">20. <i>Labour and Life of the People</i>, vol. i. p. 237.</p> + +<p id="fn21">21. <i>Labour and Life of East London</i>, vol. i. p. 224.</p> + +<p id="fn22">22. <i>Report on the Sweating System</i>, p. 14.</p> + +<p id="fn23">23. <i>Labour and Life of the People</i>, p. 271.</p> + +<p id="fn24">24. <i>Final Report on the Sweating System, </i>§ 68.</p> + +<p id="fn25">25. <i>Lords' Committee on the Sweating System; Last Report, </i> p. 184.</p> + +<p id="fn26">26. <i>Labour and Life in London</i>, vol. i. p. 489.</p> + +<p id="fn27">27. Howell, <i>Conflicts of Capital and Labour, </i>p. 128. Second Edition, +Macmillan & Co.</p> + +<p id="fn28">28. Karl Marx, <i>Capital</i>, vol. ii. p. 480.</p> + +<p id="fn29">29. <i>Labour and Life in East London, </i>vol. i. p. 112.</p> + +<p id="fn30">30. Cf. Howell's <i>Conflicts of Capital and Labour</i>, p. 207.</p> + +<p id="fn31">31. <i>The State in Relation to Labour</i>, p. 106.</p> + +<p id="fn32">32. <i>Problems of Greater Britain</i>, vol. ii. p. 314.</p> + +<p id="fn33">33. <i>Labour and Life of the People</i>, vol. i, p. 167.</p> + +<p id="fn34">34. The match-box trade, however, is chiefly in the hands of +home-workers.</p> + +<p id="fn35">35. <i>Labour and Life of the People</i>, vol, i p. 427.</p> + +<p id="fn36">36. Roscher's <i>Political Economy</i>, § 242.</p> + +<p id="fn37">37. Fabian Essays in Socialism, p. 48.</p> + +<p id="fn38">38. Quoted by G. Gunton: <i>Political Science Quarterly</i>, Sept. 1880.</p> + +<p id="fn39">39. G. Gunton: <i>Political Science Quarterly, </i>Sept. 1888.</p> + +<p id="fn40">40. p. 17.</p> +</div> +<hr /> +<pre> + + +<div>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 10710 ***</div> +</body> +</html> diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..51f97ef --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #10710 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/10710) diff --git a/old/10710-8.txt b/old/10710-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..87b4a36 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/10710-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7120 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, Problems of Poverty, by John A. Hobson + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + + + + +Title: Problems of Poverty + +Author: John A. Hobson + +Release Date: January 13, 2004 [eBook #10710] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PROBLEMS OF POVERTY*** + + +E-text prepared by Project Gutenberg Distributed Proofreaders + + + +Transcriber's note: Footnotes have been renumbered and moved + to the end of the text. + + + +Problems of Poverty + +An Inquiry into the Industrial Condition of The Poor + +By + +John A. Hobson, M.A. + +Author of "The Problem of The Unemployed," +"International Trade," Etc. + +Sixth Edition + + + + + + +First Published April 1891 +Second Edition November 1894 +Third Edition July 1896 +Fourth Edition July 1899 +Fifth Edition May 1905 +Sixth Edition 1906 + + + + + + +Preface + + + +The object of this volume is to collect, arrange, and examine some of +the leading facts and forces in modern industrial life which have a +direct bearing upon Poverty, and to set in the light they afford some of +the suggested palliatives and remedies. Although much remains to be done +in order to establish on a scientific basis the study of "the condition +of the people," it is possible that the brief setting forth of carefully +ascertained facts and figures in this little book may be of some service +in furnishing a stimulus to the fuller systematic study of the important +social questions with which it deals. + +The treatment is designed to be adapted to the focus of the citizen- +student who brings to his task not merely the intellectual interest of +the collector of knowledge, but the moral interest which belongs to one +who is a part of all he sees, and a sharer in the social responsibility +for the present and the future of industrial society. + +For the statements of fact contained in these chapters I am largely +indebted to the valuable studies presented in the first volume of Mr. +Charles Booth's _Labour and Life of the People_, a work which, when +completed, will place the study of problems of poverty upon a solid +scientific basis which has hitherto been wanting. A large portion of +this book is engaged in relating the facts drawn from this and other +sources to the leading industrial forces of the age. + +In dealing with suggested remedies for poverty, I have selected certain +representative schemes which claim to possess a present practical +importance, and endeavoured to set forth briefly some of the economic +considerations which bear upon their competency to achieve their aim. In +doing this my object has been not to pronounce judgment, but rather to +direct enquiry. Certain larger proposals of Land Nationalization and +State Socialism, etc., I have left untouched, partly because it was +impossible to deal, however briefly, even with the main issues involved +in these questions, and partly because it seemed better to confine our +enquiry to measures claiming a direct and present applicability. + +In setting forth such facts as may give some measurement of the evils of +Poverty, no attempt is made to suppress the statement of extreme cases +which rest on sufficient evidence, for the nature of industrial poverty +and the forces at work are often most clearly discerned and most rightly +measured by instances which mark the severest pressure. So likewise +there is no endeavour to exclude such human emotions as are "just, +measured, and continuous," from the treatment of a subject where true +feeling is constantly required for a proper realization of the facts. + +In conclusion, I wish to offer my sincere thanks to Mr. Llewellyn Smith, +Mr. William Clarke, and other friends who have been kind enough to +render me valuable assistance in collecting the material and revising +the proof-sheets of portions of this book. + + + + +Contents + + + + I. The Measure of Poverty + II. The Effects of Machinery on the Condition of the Working-Classes + III. The Influx of Population into Large Towns + IV. "The Sweating System" + V. The Causes of Sweating + VI. Remedies for Sweating + VII. Over-Supply of Low-Skilled Labour +VIII. The Industrial Condition of Women Workers + IX. Moral Aspects of Poverty + X. "Socialistic Legislation" + XI. The Industrial Outlook of Low-Skilled Labour + +List of Authorities + + + + + +Problems of Poverty + + + + +Chapter I. + +The Measure of Poverty. + + + +§ 1. The National Income, and the Share of the Wage-earners.--To give a +clear meaning and a measure of poverty is the first requisite. Who are +the poor? The "poor law," on the one hand, assigns a meaning too narrow +for our purpose, confining the application of the name to "the +destitute," who alone are recognized as fit subjects of legal relief. +The common speech of the comfortable classes, on the other hand, not +infrequently includes the whole of the wage-earning class under the +title of "the poor." As it is our purpose to deal with the pressure of +poverty as a painful social disease, it is evident that the latter +meaning is unduly wide. The "poor," whose condition is forcing "the +social problem" upon the reluctant minds of the "educated" classes, +include only the lower strata of the vast wage-earning class. + +But since dependence upon wages for the support of life will be found +closely related to the question of poverty, it is convenient to throw +some preliminary light on the measure of poverty, by figures bearing on +the general industrial condition of the wage-earning class. To measure +poverty we must first measure wealth. What is the national income, and +how is it divided? will naturally arise as the first questions. Now +although the data for accurate measurement of the national income are +somewhat slender, there is no very wide discrepancy in the results +reached by the most skilful statisticians. For practical purposes we may +regard the sum of £1,800,000,000 as fairly representing the national +income. But when we put the further question, "How is this income +divided among the various classes of the community?" we have to face +wider discrepancies of judgment. The difficulties which beset a fair +calculation of interest and profits, have introduced unconsciously a +partisan element into the discussion. Certain authorities, evidently +swayed by a desire to make the best of the present condition of the +working-classes, have reached a low estimate of interest and profits, +and a high estimate of wages; while others, actuated by a desire to +emphasize the power of the capitalist classes, have minimized the share +which goes as wages. At the outset of our inquiry, it might seem well to +avoid such debatable ground. But the importance of the subject will not +permit it to be thus shirked. The following calculation presents what +is, in fact, a compromise of various views, and can only claim to be a +rough approximation to the truth. + +Taking the four ordinary divisions: Rent, as payment for the use of +land, for agriculture, housing, mines, etc.; Interest for the use of +business capital; Profit as wages of management and superintendence; and +Wages, the weekly earnings of the working-classes, we find that the +national income can be thus fairly apportioned-- + + Rent £200,000,000. + Interest £450,000,000. + Profits £450,000,000. + Wages £650,000,000.[1] + Total £1750,000,000. + +Professor Leone Levi reckoned the number of working-class families as +5,600,000, and their total income £470,000,000 in the year 1884.[2] If +we now divide the larger money, minus £650,000,000, among a number of +families proportionate to the increase of the population, viz. +6,900,000, we shall find that the average yearly income of a working- +class family comes to about £94, or a weekly earnings of about 36s. This +figure is of necessity a speculative one, and is probably in excess of +the actual average income of a working family. + +This, then, we may regard as the first halting-place in our inquiry. But +in looking at the average money income of a wage-earning family, there +are several further considerations which vitally affect the measurement +of the pressure of poverty. + +First, there is the fact, that out of an estimated population of some +42,000,000, only 12,000,000, or about three out of every ten persons in +the richest country of Europe, belong to a class which is able to live +in decent comfort, free from the pressing cares of a close economy. The +other seven are of necessity confined to a standard of life little, if +at all, above the line of bare necessaries. + +Secondly, the careful figures collected by these statisticians show that +the national income equally divided throughout the community would yield +an average income, per family, of about £182 per annum. A comparison of +this sum with the average working-class income of £94, brings home the +extent of inequality in the distribution of the national income. While +it indicates that any approximation towards equality of incomes would +not bring affluence, at anyrate on the present scale of national +productivity, it serves also to refute the frequent assertions that +poverty is unavoidable because Great Britain is not rich enough to +furnish a comfortable livelihood for everyone. + +§ 2. Gradations of Working-class Incomes.--But though it is true that an +income of 36s. a week for an ordinary family leaves but a small margin +for "superfluities," it will be evident that if every family possessed +this sum, we should have little of the worst evils of poverty. If we +would understand the extent of the disease, we must seek it in the +inequality of incomes among the labouring classes themselves. No family +need be reduced to suffering on 36s. a week. But unfortunately the +differences of income among the working-classes are proportionately +nearly as great as among the well-to-do classes. It is not merely the +difference between the wages of skilled and unskilled labour; the 50s. +per week of the high-class engineer, or typographer, and the 1s. 2d. per +diem of the sandwich-man, or the difference between the wages of men and +women workers. There is a more important cause of difference than these. +When the average income of a working family is named, it must not be +supposed that this represents the wage of the father of the family +alone. Each family contains about 2¼ workers on an average. This is a +fact, the significance of which is obvious. In some families, the father +and mother, and one or two of the children, will be contributors to the +weekly income; in other cases, the burden of maintaining a large family +may be thrown entirely on the shoulders of a single worker, perhaps the +widowed mother. If we reckon that the average wage of a working man is +about 24s., that of a working woman 15s., we realize the strain which +the loss of the male bread-winner throws on the survivor. + +In looking at the gradations of income among the working-classes, it +must be borne in mind that as you go lower down in the standard of +living, each drop in money income represents a far more than +proportionate increase of the pressure of poverty. Halve the income of a +rich man, you oblige him to retrench; he must give up his yacht, his +carriage, or other luxuries; but such retrenchment, though it may wound +his pride, will not cause him great personal discomfort. But halve the +income of a well-paid mechanic, and you reduce him and his family at +once to the verge of starvation. A drop from 25s. to 12s. 6d. a week +involves a vastly greater sacrifice than a drop from £500 to £250 a +year. A working-class family, however comfortably it may live with a +full contingent of regular workers, is almost always liable, by +sickness, death, or loss of employment, to be reduced in a few weeks to +a position of penury. + +§ 3. Measurement of East London Poverty.--This brief account of the +inequality of incomes has brought us by successive steps down to the +real object of our inquiry, the amount and the intensity of poverty. For +it is not inequality of income, but actual suffering, which moves the +heart of humanity. What do we know of the numbers and the life of those +who lie below the average, and form the lower orders of the working- +classes? + +Some years ago the civilized world was startled by the _Bitter Cry of +Outcast London_, and much trouble has been taken of late to gauge the +poverty of London. A host of active missionaries are now at work, +engaged in religious, moral, and sanitary teaching, in charitable +relief, or in industrial organization. But perhaps the most valuable +work has been that which has had no such directly practical object in +view, but has engaged itself in the collection of trustworthy +information. Mr Charles Booth's book, _The Labour and Life of the +People_, has an importance far in advance of that considerable attention +which it has received. Its essential value is not merely that it +supplies, for the first time, a large and carefully collected fund of +facts for the formation of sound opinions and the explosion of +fallacies, but that it lays down lines of a new branch of social study, +in the pursuit of which the most delicate intellectual interests will be +identified with a close and absorbing devotion to the practical issues +of life. + +In the study of poverty, the work of Mr. Booth and his collaborators may +truly rank as an epoch-making work. + +For the purpose we have immediately before us, the measurement of +poverty, the figures supplied in this book are invaluable. +Considerations of space will compel us to confine our attention to such +figures as will serve to mark the extent and meaning of city poverty in +London. But though, as will be seen, the industrial causes of London +poverty are in some respects peculiar, there is every reason to believe +that the extent and nature of poverty does not widely differ in all +large centres of population. + +The area which Mr. Booth places under microscopic observation covers +Shoreditch, Bethnal Green, Whitechapel, St. George's in the East, +Stepney, Mile End, Old Town, Poplar, Hackney, and comprises a population +891,539. Of these no less than 316,000, or 35 per cent, belong to +families whose weekly earnings amount to less than 21s. This 35 per +cent, compose the "poor," according to the estimate of Mr. Booth, and it +will be worth while to note the social elements which constitute this +class. The "poor" are divided into four classes or strata, marked A, B, +C, D. At the bottom comes A, a body of some 11,000, or 1¼ per cent, of +hopeless, helpless city savages, who can only be said by courtesy to +belong to the "working-classes" "Their life is the life of savages, with +vicissitudes of extreme hardship and occasional excess. Their food is of +the coarsest description, and their only luxury is drink. It is not easy +to say how they live; the living is picked up, and what is got is +frequently shared; when they cannot find 3d. for their night's lodging, +unless favourably known to the deputy, they are turned out at night into +the street, to return to the common kitchen in the morning. From these +come the battered figures who slouch through the streets, and play the +beggar or the bully, or help to foul the record of the unemployed; these +are the worst class of corner-men, who hang round the doors of public- +houses, the young men who spring forward on any chance to earn a copper, +the ready materials for disorder when occasion serves. They render no +useful service; they create no wealth; more often they destroy it."[3] + +Next comes B, a thicker stratum of some 100,000, or 11½ per cent., +largely composed of shiftless, broken-down men, widows, deserted women, +and their families, dependent upon casual earnings, less than 18s. per +week, and most of them incapable of regular, effective work. Most of the +social wreckage of city life is deposited in this stratum, which +presents the problem of poverty in its most perplexed and darkest form. +For this class hangs as a burden on the shoulders of the more capable +classes which stand just above it. Mr. Booth writes of it-- + +"It may not be too much to say that if the whole of class B were swept +out of existence, all the work they do could be done, together with +their own work, by the men, women, and children of classes C and D; that +all they earn and spend might be earned, and could very easily be spent, +by the classes above them; that these classes, and especially class C, +would be immensely better off, while no class, nor any industry, would +suffer in the least." Class C consists of 75,000, or 8 per cent., +subsisting on intermittent earnings of from 18s. to 21s. for a moderate- +sized family. Low-skilled labourers, poorer artizans, street-sellers, +small shopkeepers, largely constitute this class, the curse of whose +life is not so much low wages as irregularity of employment, and the +moral and physical degradation caused thereby. Above these, forming the +top stratum of "poor," comes a large class, numbering 129,000, or 14½ +per cent., dependent upon small regular earnings of from 18s. to 21s., +including many dock-and water-side labourers, factory and warehouse +hands, car-men, messengers, porters, &c. "What they have comes in +regularly, and except in times of sickness in the family, actual want +rarely presses, unless the wife drinks." + +"As a general rule these men have a hard struggle, but they are, as a +body, decent, steady men, paying their way and bringing up their +children respectably" (p. 50). + +Mr Booth, in confining the title "poor" to this 35 per cent. of the +population of East London, takes, perhaps for sufficient reasons, a +somewhat narrow interpretation of the term. For in the same district no +less than 377,000, or over 42 per cent. of the inhabitants, live upon +earnings varying from 21s. to 30s. per week. So long as the father is in +regular work, and his family is not too large, a fair amount of material +comfort may doubtless be secured by those who approach the maximum. But +such an income leaves little margin for saving, and innumerable forms of +mishaps will bring such families down beneath the line of poverty. +Though the East End contains more poverty than some other parts of +London the difference is less than commonly supposed. Mr Booth estimated +that of the total population of the metropolis 30.7 per cent. were +living in poverty. The figure for York is placed by Mr Seebohm +Rowntree[4] at the slightly lower figure of 27.84. These figures (in +both cases exclusive of the population of the workhouses and other +public or private institutions) may be taken as fairly representative of +life in English industrial cities. A recent investigation of an ordinary +agricultural village in Bedfordshire[5] discloses a larger amount of +poverty--no less than 34.3 per cent. of the population falling below the +income necessary for physical efficiency. + +§ 4. Prices for the Poor.--These figures relating to money income do not +bring home to us the evil of poverty. It is not enough to know what the +weekly earnings of a poor family are, we must inquire what they can buy +with them. Among the city poor, the evil of low wages is intensified by +high prices. In general, the poorer the family the higher the prices it +must pay for the necessaries of life. Rent is naturally the first item +in the poor man's budget. Here it is evident that the poor pay in +proportion to their poverty. The average rent in many large districts of +East London is 4s. for one room, 7s. for two. In the crowded parts of +Central London the figures stand still higher; 6s. is said to be a +moderate price for a single room.[6] Mr. Marchant Williams, an Inspector +of Schools for the London School Board, finds that 86 per cent. of the +dwellers in certain poor districts of London pay more than one-fifth of +their income in rent; 46 per cent. paying from one-half to one-quarter; +42 per cent. paying from one-quarter to one-fifth; and only 12 per cent. +paying less than one-fifth of their weekly wage.[7] The poor from their +circumstances cannot pay wholesale prices for their shelter, but must +buy at high retail prices by the week; they are forced to live near +their work (workmen's trains are for the aristocracy of labour), and +thus compete keenly for rooms in the centres of industry; more important +still, the value of central ground for factories, shops, and ware-houses +raises to famine price the habitable premises. It is notorious that +overcrowded, insanitary "slum" property is the most paying form of house +property to its owners. The part played by rent in the problems of +poverty can scarcely be over-estimated. Attempts to mitigate the evil by +erecting model dwellings have scarcely touched the lower classes of +wage-earners. The labourer prefers a room in a small house to an +intrinsically better accommodation in a barrack-like building. Other +than pecuniary motives enter in. The "touchiness of the lower class" +causes them to be offended by the very sanitary regulations designed for +their benefit. + +But "shelter" is not the only thing for which the poor pay high. +Astounding facts are adduced as to the prices paid by the poor for +common articles of consumption, especially for vegetables, dairy +produce, groceries, and coal. The price of fresh vegetables, such as +carrots, parsnips, &c., in East London is not infrequently ten times the +price at which the same articles can be purchased wholesale from the +growers.[8] + +Hence arises the popular cry against the wicked middleman who stands +between producer and consumer, and takes the bulk of the profit. There +is much want of thought shown in this railing against the iniquities of +the middleman. It is true that a large portion of the price paid by the +poor goes to the retail distributor, but we should remember that the +labour of distribution under present conditions and with existing +machinery is very great. We have no reason to believe that the small +retailers who sell to the poor die millionaires. The poor, partly of +necessity, partly by habit, make their purchases in minute quantities. A +single family has been known to make seventy-two distinct purchases of +tea within seven weeks, and the average purchases of a number of poor +families for the same period amounted to twenty-seven. Their groceries +are bought largely by the ounce, their meat or fish by the half- +penn'orth, their coal by the cwt., or even by the lb. Undoubtedly they +pay for these morsels a price which, if duly multiplied, represents a +much higher sum than their wealthier neighbours pay for a much better +article. But the small shopkeeper has a high rent to pay; he has a large +number of competitors, so that the total of his business is not great; +the actual labour of dispensing many minute portions is large; he is +often himself a poor man, and must make a large profit on a small turn- +over in order to keep going; he is not infrequently kept waiting for his +money, for the amount of credit small shopkeepers will give to regular +customers is astonishing. For all these, and many other reasons, it is +easy to see that the poor man must pay high prices. Even his luxuries, +his beer and tobacco, he purchases at exorbitant rates. + +It is sometimes held sufficient to reply that the poor are thoughtless +and extravagant. And no doubt this is so. But it must also be remembered +that the industrial conditions under which these people live, +necessitate a hand-to-mouth existence, and themselves furnish an +education in improvidence. + +§ 5. Housing and Food Supply of the Poor.--Once more, out of a low +income the poor pay high prices for a bad article. The low physical +condition of the poorest city workers, the high rate of mortality, +especially among children, is due largely to the _quality_ of the food, +drink, and shelter which they buy. On the quality of the rooms for which +they pay high rent it is unnecessary to dwell. Ill-constructed, +unrepaired, overcrowded, destitute of ventilation and of proper sanitary +arrangements, the mass of low class city tenements finds few apologists. +The Royal Commission on Housing of the Working Classes thus deals with +the question of overcrowding-- + +"The evils of overcrowding, especially in London, are still a public +scandal, and are becoming in certain localities a worse scandal than +they ever were. Among adults, overcrowding causes a vast amount of +suffering which could be calculated by no bills of mortality, however +accurate. The general deterioration in the health of the people is a +worse feature of overcrowding even than the encouragement by it of +infectious disease. It has the effect of reducing their stamina, and +thus producing consumption and diseases arising from general debility of +the system whereby life is shortened." "In Liverpool, nearly one-fifth +of the squalid houses where the poor live in the closest quarters are +reported to be always infected, that is to say, the seat of infectious +diseases." + +To apply the name of "home" to these dens is a sheer abuse of words. +What grateful memories of tender childhood, what healthy durable +associations, what sound habits of life can grow among these unwholesome +and insecure shelters? + +The city poor are a wandering tribe. The lack of fixed local habitation +is an evil common to all classes of city dwellers. But among the lower +working-classes "flitting" is a chronic condition. The School Board +visitor's book showed that in a representative district of Bethnal +Green, out of 1204 families, no less than 530 had removed within a +twelvemonth, although such an account would not include the lowest and +most "shifty" class of all. Between November 1885 and July 1886 it was +found that 20 per cent. of the London electorate had changed residence. +To what extent the uncertain conditions of employment impose upon the +poor this changing habitation cannot be yet determined; but the absence +of the educative influence of a fixed abode is one of the most +demoralizing influences in the life of the poor. The reversion to a +nomad condition is a retrograde step in civilization the importance of +which can hardly be exaggerated. When we bear in mind that these houses +are also the workshop of large numbers of the poor, and know how the +work done in the crowded, tainted air of these dens brings as an +inevitable portion of its wage, physical feebleness, disease, and an +early death, we recognize the paramount importance of that aspect of the +problem of poverty which is termed "The Housing of the Poor." + +So much for the quality of the shelter for which the poor pay high +prices. Turn to their food. In the poorest parts of London it is +scarcely possible for the poor to buy pure food. Unfortunately the prime +necessaries of life are the very things which lend themselves most +easily to successful adulteration. Bread, sugar, tea, oil are notorious +subjects of deception. Butter, in spite of the Margarine Act, it is +believed, the poor can seldom get. But the systematic poisoning of +alcoholic liquors permitted under a licensing System is the most +flagrant example of the evil. There is some evidence to show that the +poorer class of workmen do not consume a very large quantity of strong +drink. But the vile character of the liquor sold to them acts on an ill- +fed, unwholesome body as a poisonous irritant. We are told that "the +East End dram-drinker has developed a new taste; it is for fusil-oil. It +has even been said that ripe old whisky ten years old, drank in equal +quantities, would probably import a tone of sobriety to the densely- +populated quarters of East London."[9] + +§ 6. Irregularity of work.--One more aspect of city poverty demands a +word. Low wages are responsible in large measure for the evils with +which we have dealt. In the life of the lower grades of labour there is +a worse thing than low wages--that is irregular employment. The causes +of such irregularity, partly inherent in the nature of the work, partly +the results of trade fluctuations, will appear later. In gauging poverty +we are only concerned with the fact. This irregularity of work is not in +its first aspect so much a deficiency of work, but rather a +maladjustment While on the one hand we see large classes of workers who +are habitually overworked, men and women, tailors or shirt-makers in +Whitechapel, 'bus men, shop-assistants, even railway-servants, toiling +twelve, fourteen, fifteen, or even in some cases eighteen hours a day, +we see at the same time and in the same place numbers of men and women +seeking work and finding none. Thus are linked together the twin +maladies of over-work and the unemployed. It is possible that among the +comfortable classes there are still to be found those who believe that +the unemployed consist only of the wilfully idle and worthless residuum +parading a false grievance to secure sympathy and pecuniary aid, and who +hold that if a man really wants to work he can always do so. This idle +theory is contradicted by abundant facts. The official figures published +by the Board of Trade gives the average percentage of unemployed in the +Trade Unions of the skilled trades as follows. To the general average we +have appended for comparison the average for the shipbuilding and +boiler-making trades, so as to illustrate the violence of the +oscillations in a fluctuating trade:-- + + General per cent. Ship-building, etc. + + 1884 7.15 20.8 + 1885 8.55 22.2 + 1886 9.55 21.6 + 1887 7.15 16.7 + 1888 4.15 7.3 + 1889 2.05 2.0 + 1890 2.10 3.4 + 1891 3.40 5.7 + 1892 6.20 10.9 + 1893 7.70 17.0 + 1894 7.70 16.2 + 1895 6.05 13.0 + 1896 3.50 9.5 + 1897 3.65 8.6 + 1898 3.15 4.7 + 1899 2.40 2.1 + 1900 2.85 2.3 + 1901 3.80 3.6 + 1902 4.60 8.3 + 1903 5.30 11.7 + +These figures make it quite evident that the permanent causes of +irregular employment, e.g., weather in the building and riverside +trades, season in the dressmaking and confectionery trades, and the +other factors of leakage and displacement which throw out of work from +time to time numbers of workers, are, taken in the aggregate, +responsible only for a small proportion of the unemployment in the +staple trades of the country. + +The significance of such figures as these can scarcely be over- +estimated. Although it might fairly be urged that the lowest dip in +trade depression truly represented the injury inflicted on the +labouring-classes by trade fluctuations, we will omit the year 1886, and +take 1887 as a representative period of ordinary trade depression. The +figures quoted above are supported by Trade Union statistics, which show +that in that year among the strongest Trade Unions in the country, +consisting of the picked men in each trade, no less than 71 in every +1000, or over 7 per cent., were continuously out of work. That this was +due to their inability to get work, and not to their unwillingness to do +it, is placed beyond doubt by the fact that they were, during this +period of enforced idleness, supported by allowances paid by their +comrades. Indeed, the fact that in 1890 the mass of unemployed was +almost absorbed, disposes once for all of the allegation that the +unemployed in times of depression consist of idlers who do not choose to +work. Turning to the year 1887, there is every reason to believe that +where 7 per cent, are unemployed in the picked, skilled industries of a +country, where the normal supply of labour is actually limited by Union +regulations, the proportion in unskilled or less organized industries is +much larger. It is probable that 12 per cent, is not an excessive figure +to take as the representative of the average proportion of unemployed. +In the recent official returns of wages in textile industries, it is +admitted that 10 per cent, should be taken off from the nominal wages +for irregularity of employment. Moreover, it is true (with certain +exceptions) that the lower you go down in the ranks of labour and of +wages, the more irregular is the employment. To the pressure of this +evil among the very poor in East London notice has already been drawn. +We have seen how Mr. Booth finds one whole stratum of 100,000 people, +who from an industrial point of view are worse than worthless. We have +no reason to conclude that East London is much worse in this respect +than other centres of population, and the irregularity of country +employment is increasing every year. Are we to conclude then that of the +thirteen millions composing the "working-classes" in this country, +nearly two millions are liable at any time to figure as waste or surplus +labour? It looks like it. We are told that the movements of modern +industry necessitate the existence of a considerable margin supply of +labour. The figures quoted above bear out this statement. But a +knowledge of the cause does not make the fact more tolerable. We are not +at present concerned with the requirements of the industrial machine, +but with the quantity of hopeless, helpless misery these requirements +indicate. The fact that under existing conditions the unemployed seem +inevitable should afford the strongest motive for a change in these +conditions. Modern life has no more tragical figure than the gaunt, +hungry labourer wandering about the crowded centres of industry and +wealth, begging in vain for permission to share in that industry, and to +contribute to that wealth; asking in return not the comforts and +luxuries of civilized life, but the rough food and shelter for himself +and family, which would be practically secured to him in the rudest form +of savage society. + +Occasionally one of these sensational stories breaks into the light of +day, through the public press, and shocks society at large, until it +relapses into the consoling thought that such cases are exceptional. But +those acquainted closely with the condition of our great cities know +that there are thousands of such silent tragedies being played around +us. In England the recorded deaths from starvation are vastly more +numerous than in any other country. In 1880 the number for England is +given as 101. In 1902 the number for London alone is 34. This is, of +course, no adequate measure of the facts. For every recorded case there +will be a hundred unrecorded cases where starvation is the practical +immediate cause of death. The death-rate of children in the poorer +districts of London is found to be nearly three times that which obtains +among the richer neighbourhoods. Contemporary history has no darker page +than that which records not the death-rate of children, but the +conditions of child-life in our great cities. In setting down such facts +and figures as may assist readers to adequately realize the nature and +extent of poverty, it has seemed best to deal exclusively with the +material aspects of poverty, which admit of some exactitude of +measurement. The ugly and degrading surroundings of a life of poverty, +the brutalizing influences of the unceasing struggle for bare +subsistence, the utter absence of reasonable hope of improvement; in +short, the whole subjective side of poverty is not less terrible because +it defies statistics. + +§ 7. Figures and Facts of Pauperism.--Since destitution is the lowest +form of poverty, it is right to append to this statement of the facts of +poverty some account of pauperism. Although chiefly owing to a stricter +and wiser administration of the Poor Law in relation to outdoor relief, +the number of paupers has steadily and considerably decreased, both in +proportion to the population and absolutely, the number of those unable +to support themselves is still deplorably large. In 1881 no less than +one in ten of the total recorded deaths took place in workhouses, public +hospitals, and lunatic asylums. In London the proportion is much greater +and has increased during recent years. In 1901 out of 78,229 deaths in +London, 13,009 took place in workhouses, 10,643 in public hospitals, and +349 in public asylums, making a total of 24,001. Comparing these figures +with the total number of deaths, we find that in the richest city of the +world 32.5 per cent., or one in three of the inhabitants, dies dependent +on public charity. This estimate does not include those in receipt of +outdoor relief. Moreover, it is an estimate which includes all classes. +The proportion, taking the working-classes alone, must be even higher. + +Turning from pauper deaths to pauper lives, the condition of the poor, +though improved, is far from satisfactory. The agricultural labourer in +many parts of England still looks to the poorhouse as a natural and +necessary asylum for old age. Even the diminution effected in outdoor +relief is not evidence of a corresponding decrease in the pressure of +want. The diminution is chiefly due to increased strictness in the +application of the Poor Law, a policy which in a few cases such as +Whitechapel, Stepney, St. George-in-the-East, has succeeded in the +practical extermination of the outdoor pauper. This is doubtless a wise +policy, but it supplies no evidence of decrease in poverty. It would be +possible by increased strictness of conditions to annihilate outdoor +pauperism throughout the country at a single blow, and to reduce the +number of indoor paupers by making workhouse life unendurable. But such +a course would obviously furnish no satisfactory evidence of the decline +of poverty, or even of destitution. Moreover, in regarding the decline +of pauperism, we must not forget to take into account the enormous +recent growth of charitable institutions and funds which now perform +more effectually and more humanely much of the relief work which +formerly devolved upon the Poor Law. The income of charitable London +institutions engaged in promoting the physical well-being of the people +amounted in 1902-3 to about four and a half millions. The relief +afforded by Friendly Societies and Trade Unions to sick and out-of-work +members, furnishes a more satisfactory evidence of the growth of +providence and independence among all but the lowest classes of workers. + +The improvement exhibited in figures of pauperism is entirely confined +to outdoor relief. The number of workers who, by reason of old age or +other infirmity, are compelled to take refuge in the poorhouses, bears a +larger proportion to the total population than it did a generation ago. +In 1876-7 the mean number of indoor paupers for England and Wales was +130,337, or 5.4 per 1000 of the population; in 1902-3 the number had +risen to 203,604, or 6.2 per 1000 of the population. This rise of indoor +pauperism has indeed been coincident with a larger decline of outdoor +pauperism through this same period. But the growth of thrift in the +working-classes, the increase of the machinery of charity, the rise of +the average of wages--these causes have been wholly inoperative to check +the growth of indoor pauperism. Nor, if one may trust so competent an +authority as Mr Fowle, is this explained by any tendency of increased +strictness in the administration of outdoor relief, to drive would-be +recipients of outdoor relief into the workhouse. + +The figures of London pauperism yield still more strange results. Here, +though the percentage of paupers to population has shown a steady +decline, the process has been so much slower than in the country that +there has been no actual fall in the number of paupers. Throughout the +whole period from 1861 to 1896 the numbers have remained about +stationary, after which they show a considerable rise. The alarming +feature in this table is the rapid rise of indoor pauperism, far more +rapid than the growth of London's population. From 1861-2 the number of +indoor paupers has grown by steady increase from 26,667 to 61,432 in +1902-3, or from a ratio of 9.5 to one of 13.4 per 1000. While the +proportion of outdoor paupers per 1000 is little more than half that of +the country as a whole, the proportion of indoor paupers is more than +twice as great. Roughly speaking, London, with less than one-sixth of +the population of the country, contains nearly one-third of the indoor +pauperism. This fact alone throws some light upon the nature of city +life. A close analysis of metropolitan workhouses discloses the fact +that the aged, infirm, and children composed the vast majority of +inmates. A very small percentage was found to be capable of actual work. +About one-third of the paupers are children, about one-tenth lunatics, +about one-half are aged, infirm, or sick. This leaves one-fifteenth as +the proportion of able-bodied male and female adults. As a commentary on +the administration of the Poor Law, these figures are eminently +satisfactory, for they prove that people who can support themselves do +not in fact obtain from public relief. But the picture has its dark +side. It shows that a very large proportion of our workers, when their +labour-power has been drained out of them, instead of obtaining a well- +earned honourable rest, are obliged to seek refuge in that asylum which +they and their class hate and despise. Whereas only 5 per cent of the +population under 60 years are paupers, the proportion is 40 per cent in +the case of those over 70. Taking the working-class only out of a +population of 952,000 above the age of 65, no fewer than 402,000, or +over 42 per cent, obtained relief in 1892. In London 22½ per cent of the +aged poor are indoor paupers. The hardness of the battle of life is +attested by this number of old men, and old women, who in spite of a +hard-working life are compelled to end their days as the recipients of +public charity. + +§ 8. The Diminution of Poverty in the last half century.--In order to +realize the true importance of our subject, it is necessary not only to +have some measurement of the extent and nature of poverty, but to +furnish ourselves with some answer to the question, Is this poverty +increasing or diminishing? Until a few years ago it was customary not +only for platform agitators, but for thoughtful writers on the subject, +to assume that "the rich are getting richer, and the poor are getting +poorer." This formula was ripening into a popular creed when a number of +statistical inquiries choked it. Prof. Leone Levi, Mr. Giffen, and a +number of careful investigators, showed a vast improvement in the +industrial condition of the working-classes during the last half +century. It was pointed out that money wages had risen considerably in +all kinds of employment; that prices had generally fallen, so that the +rise in real wages was even greater; that they worked shorter hours; +consumed more and better food; lived longer lives; committed fewer +crimes; and lastly, saved more money. The general accuracy of these +statements is beyond question. The industrial conditions of the working- +classes as a whole shows a great advance during the last half century. +Although the evidence upon this point is by no means conclusive, it +seems probable that the income of the wage-earning classes as an +aggregate is growing even more rapidly than that of the capitalist +classes. Income-tax returns indicate that the proportion of the +population living on an acknowledged income of more than £150 a year is +much larger than it was a generation ago. In 1851 the income-tax-paying +population amounted to 1,500,000; in 1879-80 the number had risen to +4,700,000. At the same time the average of these incomes showed a +considerable fall, for while in 1851 the gross income assessed was +£272,000,000, in 1879-80 it had only risen to £577,000,000. + +Though the method of assessing companies as if they were single persons +renders it impossible to obtain accurate information in recent years as +to the number of persons enjoying incomes of various sizes, a comparison +made by Mr Mulhall of incomes in 1867 and 1895 indicates that, while the +lower middle-class is growing rapidly, the number of the rich is growing +still more rapidly. While incomes of £100 to £300 have grown by a little +more than 50 per cent., those from £300 to £1000 have nearly doubled, +those between £1000 and £5000 have more than doubled, and incomes over +£5000 have more than trebled. + +But though such comparisons justify the conclusion that the upper grades +of skilled labour have made considerable advances, and that the lower +grades of regular unskilled labourers have to a less degree shared in +this advance, they do not warrant the optimist conclusion often drawn +from them, that poverty is a disease which left alone will cure itself, +and which, in point of fact, is curing itself rapidly. Before we consent +to accept the evidence of improvement in the average condition of the +labouring classes during the last half century as sufficient evidence to +justify this opinion we ought to pay regard to the following +considerations-- + +1. It should be remembered that a comparison between England of the +present day with England in the decade 1830-1840 is eminently favourable +to a theory of progress. The period from 1790 to 1840 was the most +miserable epoch in the history of the English working-classes. Much of +the gain must be rightly regarded rather as a recovery from sickness, +than as a growth in normal health. If the decade 1730-1740, for example, +were to be taken instead, the progress of the wage-earner, especially in +southern England, would be by no means so obvious. The southern +agricultural labourer and the whole body of low-skilled workers were +probably in most respects as well off a century and a half ago as they +are to-day. + +2. The great fall of prices, due to cheapening of production and of +transport during the last twenty years, benefits the poor far less than +the rich. For, while the prices of most comforts and luxuries have +fallen very greatly, the same is not true of most necessaries. The gain +to the workers is chiefly confined to food prices, which have fallen +some 40 per cent since 1880. Taking the retail prices of foods consumed +by London working-class families we find that since 1880 the price of +flour has fallen about 60 per cent., bread falling a little more than +half that amount; the prices of beef and mutton have fallen nearly to +the same extent as flour, though bacon stands in 1903 just about where +it stood in 1880. Sugar exhibits a deep drop until 1898, rising +afterwards in consequence of the war tax and the Sugar Convention; tea +shows a not considerable drop. Other groceries, such as coffee and +cocoa, and certain vegetables are cheaper. A careful inquiry into +clothing shows a trifling fall of price for articles of the same +quality, while the introduction of cheaper qualities has enabled workers +to effect some saving here. Against these must be set a slight rise in +price of dairy produce, a considerable rise in fuel, and a large rise in +rent. A recent estimate of the Board of Trade, having regard to food, +rent, clothing, fuel, and lighting as chief ingredients of working-class +expenditure, indicates that 100 shillings will in 1900 do the work for +which 120 shillings were required in 1880. The great fall of prices has +been in the period 1880-1895, since then prices all round (except in +clothing) show a considerable rise. + +In turning from the working-classes as a whole to the poor, it becomes +evident that the most substantial benefit they have received from +falling prices is cheap bread. Cheap groceries and lighting are also +gains, though it must be remembered that the modes of purchase to which +the very poor are driven to have recourse minimize these gains. On +clothes the poor spend a very small proportion of their incomes, the +very poor virtually nothing. In the case of the lowest classes of the +towns, it is probable that the rise in rents offsets all the advantages +of cheapened prices for other commodities. + +The importance of the bearing of this fact is obvious. Even were it +clearly proved that the wages of the working-classes were increasing +faster in proportion than the incomes of the wealthier classes, it would +not be thereby shown that the standard of comfort in the former was +rising as fast as the standard of comfort in the latter. If we confine +the term "poor" to the lower grades of wage-earners, it would probably +be correct to say that the riches of the rich had increased at a more +rapid rate than that at which the poverty of the poor had diminished. +Thus the width of the gap between riches and poverty would be absolutely +greater than before. But, after all, such absolute measurements as these +are uncertain, and have little other than a rhetorical value. What is +important to recognize is this, that though the proportion of the very +poor to the whole population has somewhat diminished, never in the whole +history of England, excepting during the disastrous period at the +beginning of this century, has the absolute number of the very poor been +so great as it is now. Moreover, the massing of the poor in large +centres of population, producing larger areas of solid poverty, presents +new dangers and new difficulties in the application of remedial +measures. + +However we may estimate progress, one fact we must recognize, that the +bulk of our low-skilled workers do not yet possess a secure supply of +the necessaries of life. Few will feel inclined to dispute what +Professor Marshall says on this point-- + +"The necessaries for the efficiency of an ordinary agricultural or of an +unskilled town labourer and his family, in England, in this generation, +may be said to consist of a well-drained dwelling with several rooms, +warm clothing, with some changes of underclothing, pure water, a +plentiful supply of cereal food, with a moderate allowance of meat and +milk, and a little tea, &c.; some education, and some recreation; and +lastly, sufficient freedom for his wife from other work to enable her to +perform properly her maternal and her household duties. If in any +district unskilled labour is deprived of any of these things, its +efficiency will suffer in the same way as that of a horse which is not +properly tended, or a steam-engine which has an inadequate supply of +coals."[10] + +There is one final point of deep significance. So far we have +endeavoured to measure poverty by the application of a standard of +actual material comfort. But this, while furnishing a fair gauge of the +deprivation suffered by the poor, does not enable us to measure it as a +social danger. There is a depth of poverty, of misery, of ignorance, +which is not dangerous because it has no outlook, and is void of hope. +Abate the extreme stress of poverty, give the poor a glimpse of a more +prosperous life, teach them to know their power, and the danger of +poverty increases. This is what De Tocqueville meant when writing of +France, before the Revolution, he said, "According as prosperity began +to dawn in France, men's minds appeared to become more unquiet and +disturbed; public discontent was sharpened, hatred of all ancient +institutions went on increasing, till the nation was visibly on the +verge of a revolution. One might almost say that the French found their +condition all the more intolerable according as it became better."[11] + +So in England the change of industrial conditions which has massed the +poor in great cities, the spread of knowledge by compulsory education, +cheap newspapers, libraries, and a thousand other vehicles of knowledge, +the possession and growing appreciation of political power, have made +poverty more self-conscious and the poor more discontented. By striving +to educate, intellectually, morally, sanitarily, the poor, we have made +them half-conscious of many needs they never recognized before. They +were once naked, and not ashamed, but we have taught them better. We +have raised the standard of the requirements of a decent human life, but +we have not increased to a corresponding degree their power to attain +them. If by poverty is meant the difference between felt wants and the +power to satisfy them, there is more poverty than ever. The income of +the poor has grown, but their desires and needs have grown more rapidly. +Hence the growth of a conscious class hatred, the "growing animosity of +the poor against the rich," which Mr. Barnett notes in the slums of +Whitechapel. The poor were once too stupid and too sodden for vigorous +discontent, now though their poverty may be less intense, it is more +alive, and more militant. The rate of improvement in the condition of +the poor is not quick enough to stem the current of popular discontent. + +Nor is it the poor alone who are stricken with discontent. Clearer +thought and saner feelings are beginning to make it evident that in the +march of true civilization no one class can remain hopelessly behind. +Hence the problems of poverty are ever pressing more and more upon the +better-hearted, keener-sighted men and women of the more fortunate +classes; they feel that _they_ have no right to be contented with the +condition of the poor. The demand that a life worth living shall be made +possible for all, and that the knowledge, wealth, and energy of a nation +shall be rightly devoted to no other end than this, is the true measure +of the moral growth of a civilized community. The following picture +drawn a few years ago by Mr. Frederick Harrison shows how far we yet +fall short of such a realization--"To me at least, it would be enough to +condemn modern society as hardly an advance on slavery or serfdom, if +the permanent condition of industry were to be that which we now behold; +that 90 per cent, of the actual producers of wealth have no home that +they can call their own beyond the end of a week; have no bit of soil, +or so much as a room that belongs to them; have nothing of value of any +kind except as much as will go in a cart; have the precarious chance of +weekly wages which barely suffice to keep them in health; are housed for +the most part in places that no man thinks fit for his horse; are +separated by so narrow a margin from destitution that a month of bad +trade, sickness, or unexpected loss brings them face to face with hunger +and pauperism."[12] + + + + +Chapter II. + +The Effects of Machinery on the Condition of the Working-Classes. + + + +§ 1. Centralizing-Influence of Machinery.--In seeking to understand the +nature and causes of the poverty of the lower working-classes, it is +impossible to avoid some discussion of the influence of machinery. For +the rapid and continuous growth of machinery is at once the outward +visible sign and the material agent of the great revolution which has +changed the whole face of the industrial world during the last century. +With the detailed history of this vast change we are not concerned, but +only with its effects on the industrial condition of the poor in the +present day. + +Those who have studied in books of history the industrial and +educational condition of the mass of the working populace at the +beginning of this century, or have read such novels as _Shirley_, _Mary +Barton_, and _Alton Locke_, will not be surprised at the mingled +mistrust and hatred with which the working-classes regarded each new +introduction of machinery into the manufacturing arts. These people, +having only a short life to live, naturally took a short-sighted view of +the case; having a specialized form of skill as their only means of +getting bread, they did not greet with joy the triumphs of inventive +skill which robbed this skill of its market value. Even the more +educated champions of the interests of working-classes have often viewed +with grave suspicion the rapid substitution of machinery for hand-labour +in the industrial arts. The enormous increase of wealth-producing power +given by the new machinery can scarcely be realized. It is reckoned that +fifty men with modern machinery could do all the cotton-spinning of the +whole of Lancashire a century ago. Mr. Leone Levi has calculated that to +make by hand all the yarn spun in England in one year by the use of the +self-acting mule, would take 100,000,000 men. The instruments which work +this wonderful change are called "labour-saving" machinery. From this +title it may be deemed that their first object, or at any rate their +chief effect, would be to lighten labour. It seems at first sight +therefore strange to find so reasonable a writer as John Stuart Mill +declaring, "It is questionable if all the mechanical inventions yet made +have lightened the day's toil of any human being." Yet if we confine our +attention to the direct effects of machinery, we shall acknowledge that +Mill's doubt is, upon the whole, a well founded one. + +According to the evidence of existing poverty adduced in the last +chapter, it would appear that the lowest classes of workers have not +shared to any considerable degree the enormous gain of wealth-producing +power bestowed by machinery. It is not our object here to discuss the +right of the poorer workers to profit by inventions due to others, but +merely to indicate the effects which the growth of machinery actually +produce in this economic condition. Let us examine the industrial +effects of the growth of machinery, so as to understand how they affect +the social and economic welfare of the working-classes. + +§ 2. Class Separation of Employer and Workmen.--The first effect of +machinery is to give a new and powerful impulse to the centralizing +tendency in industry. "Civilization is economy of power, and English +power is coal," said the materialistic Baron Liebig. Coal as a generator +of steam-power demands that manufactures shall be conducted on a large +scale in particular localities. Before the day of large, expensive +steam-driven machinery, manufacture was done in scattered houses by +workers who were the owners of their simple tools, and often of the +material on which they worked; or in small workshops, where a master +worked with a few journeymen and apprentices. Machinery changed all +this. It drove the workers into large factories, and obliged them to +live in concentrated masses near their work. They no longer owned the +material in which their labour was stored, or the tools with which they +worked; they had to use the material belonging to their employer; the +machinery which made their tools valueless was also the property of the +capitalist employer. Instead of selling the products of their capital +and labour to merchants or consumers, they were compelled to sell their +labour-power to the employer as the only means of earning a livelihood. +Again, the social relations between the wealthy employer and his "hands" +were quite different from those intimate personal relations which had +subsisted between the small master and his assistants. The very size of +the factory made such a social change inevitable, the personal relation +which marked medieval industry was no longer possible. Machinery then +did two things. On the one hand, it destroyed the position of the +workman as a self-sufficing industrial unit, and made him dependent on a +capitalist for employment and the means of supporting life. On the other +hand, it weakened the sense of responsibility in the employer towards +his workmen in proportion as the dependence of the latter became more +absolute. + +With each step in the growth of the factory system the workman became +more dependent, and the employer more irresponsible. Thus we note the +first industrial effect of machinery in the formation of two definite +industrial classes--the dependent workman, and the irresponsible +employer. The term "irresponsible" is not designed to convey any moral +stigma. The industrial employer can no more be blamed for being +irresponsible than the workman for being dependent. The terms merely +express the nature of the schism which naturally followed the triumph of +machinery. Prophets like Carlyle and Ruskin, slighting the economic +causes of the change, clamoured for "Captains of Industry," employers +who should realize a moral responsibility, and reviving a dead feudalism +should assume unasked the protectorate of their employés. The whole army +of theoretic and practical reformers might indeed be divided into two +classes, according as they seek to impose responsibility on employers, +or to establish a larger independence in the employed. But this is not +the place to discuss methods of reform. It is sufficient to note the +testimony borne by all alike to the disintegrating influence of +machinery. + +Again, the growth of machinery makes industry more intricate. +Manufacturers no longer produce for a small known market, the +fluctuations of which are slight, and easily calculable. The element of +speculation enters into manufacture at every pore--size of market, +competitors, and price are all unknown. Machinery works at random like +the blind giant it is. Every improvement in communication, and each +application of labour-saving invention adds to the delicacy and +difficulty of trade calculations. Hence in the productive force of +machinery we see the material cause of the violent oscillations, the +quiver of which never has time to pass out of modern trade. The periodic +over-production and subsequent depression are thus closely related to +machinery. It is the result upon the workman of these fluctuations that +alone concerns us. + +The effect of machinery upon the regularity of employment is both a +difficult and a serious subject. Its precise importance cannot be +measured. Before the era of machinery there often arose from other +reasons, especially war or failure of crops, fluctuations which worked +most disastrously on the English labourer. But in modern times we must +look to more distinctively industrial causes for an explanation of +unsteadiness of employment, and here the close competition of steam- +driven machinery plays the leading part. + +It must not, however, be supposed that machinery is essentially related +to unsteadiness of work. The contrary is obviously the case. Cheap tools +can be kept idle without great loss to their owner, but every stoppage +in the work of expensive machinery means a heavy loss to the capitalist. +Thus the larger the part played by expensive machinery, the stronger the +personal motive in the individual capitalist to give full regular +employment to his workmen. It is the competition of other machinery over +which he has no control that operates as the immediate cause of +instability of work. Thus the growth of machinery has a double and +conflicting influence upon regularity of employment; it punishes capital +more severely for each irregularity or stoppage, while at the same time +it makes such fluctuations more violent. + +§ 3. Displacement of Labour.--But the result of machinery which has +drawn most attention is the displacement of labour. In every branch of +productive work, agriculture as well as manufacture, the conflict +between manual skill and machine skill has been waged incessantly during +the last century. Step by step all along the line the machine has ousted +the skilled manual worker, either rendering his office superfluous, or +retaining him to play the part of servant to the new machine. A good +deal of thoughtless rhetoric has been consumed upon the subject of this +new serfdom of the worker to machinery. There is no reason in the nature +of things why the work of attendance on machinery should not be more +dignified, more pleasant, and more remunerative to the working-man than +the work it displaces. To shift on to the shoulders of brute nature the +most difficult and exhausting kinds of work has been in large measure +the actual effect of machinery. There is also every reason to believe +that the large body of workers whose work consists in the regular +attendance on and manipulation of machinery have shared largely in the +results of the increased production which machinery has brought about. +The present "aristocracy of labour" is the direct creation of the +machine. But our concern lies chiefly with the weaker portion of the +working-classes. How does the constant advance of labour-saving +machinery affect these? What is the effect of machinery upon the demand +for labour? In answering these questions we have to carefully +distinguish the ultimate effect upon the labour-market as a whole, and +the immediate effect upon certain portions of the labour-supply. + +It is generally urged that machinery employs as many men as it +displaces. This has in fact been the earlier effect of the introduction +of machinery into the great staple industries of the country. The first +effect of mechanical production in the spinning and weaving industries +was to displace the hand-worker. But the enormous increase in demand for +textile wares caused by the fall of price, has provided work for more +hands than were employed before, especially when we bear in mind the +subsidiary work in construction of machinery, and enlarged mechanism of +conveyance and distribution. Taking a purely historical view of the +question, one would say that the labour displaced by machinery found +employment in other occupations, directly or indirectly, due to the +machinery itself. Provided the aggregate volume of commerce grows at a +corresponding pace with the labour-saving power of new machinery, the +classes dependent on the use of their labour have nothing in the long +run to fear. + +A machine is invented which will enable one man to make as many boots as +four men made formerly, displacing the labour of three men. If the +cheapening of boots thus brought about doubles the sale of boots, one of +the three "displaced" men can find employment at the machine. If it +takes the labour of one man to keep up the production of the new +machinery, and another to assist in the distribution of the increased +boot-supply, it will be evident that the aggregate of labour has not +suffered. It is, however, clear that this exactly balanced effect by no +means necessarily happens. The expansion of consumption of commodities +produced by machinery is not necessarily such as to provide employment +for the displaced labour in the same trade or its subsidiary trades. The +result of the introduction of machinery may be a displacement of human +by mechanical labour, so far as the entire trade is concerned. The +bearing of this tendency is of great significance. Analysis of recent +census returns shows that not only is agriculture rapidly declining in +the amount of employment it affords, but that the same tendency occurs +in the staple processes of manufacture: either there is an absolute +decline in employment, as in the textile and dress trades, or the rate +of increase is considerably slower than that of the occupied class as a +whole, indicating a relative decline of importance. This tendency is +greatest where machinery is most highly developed--that is to say, +machinery has kept out of these industries a number of workers who in +the ordinary condition of affairs would have been required to assist in +turning out the increased supply. The recent increase of population has +been shut out of the staple industries. They are not therefore compelled +to be idle. Employment for these has been found chiefly in satisfying +new wants. But industries engaged in supplying new wants, i.e. new +comforts or new luxuries, are obviously less steady than those engaged +in supplying the prime necessaries of ordinary life. + +Thus while it may be true that the ultimate effect of the introduction +of machinery is not to diminish the demand for labour, it would seem to +operate in driving a larger and larger proportion of labour to find +employment in those industries which from their nature furnish a less +steady employment. Again, though the demand for labour may in the long +run always keep pace with the growth of machinery, it is obvious that +the workers whose skill loses its value by the introduction of machinery +must always be injured. The process of displacement in particular trades +has been responsible for a large amount of actual hardship and suffering +among the working-classes. + +It is little comfort to the hand-worker, driven out to seek unskilled +labour by the competition of new machinery, that the world will be a +gainer in the long run. "The short run, if the expression may be used, +is often quite long enough to make the difference between a happy and a +miserable life."[13] Philosophers may reckon this evil as a part of the +inevitable price of progress, but it is none the less deplorable for +that. Society as a whole gains largely by each step; a small number of +those who can least afford to lose, are the only losers. + +The following quotation from an address given at the Industrial +Remuneration Congress in 1886, puts the case with admirable +clearness--"The citizens of England are too intelligent to contend +against such cheapening of production, as they know the result has been +beneficial to mankind; but many of them think it is a hardship and +injustice which deserves more attention that those whose skilled labour +is often superseded by machinery, should have to bear all the loss and +poverty through their means to earn a living being taken away from them. +If there is a real vested interest in existence which entitles to +compensation in some form when it is interfered with, it is that of a +skilled producer in his trade; for that skill has not only given him a +living, but has added to the wealth and prosperity of the +community."[14] The quantity of labour displaced by machinery and +seeking new employment, forms a large section of the margin of +unemployed, and will form an important factor in the problem of poverty. + +§ 4. Effect of Machinery upon the Character of Labour. Next, what is the +general effect of machinery upon the character of the work done? The +economic gain attending all division of labour is of course based on the +improved quality and quantity of work obtained by confining each worker +to a narrow range of activity. If no great inventions in machinery took +place, we might therefore expect a constant narrowing of the activity of +each worker, which would make his work constantly more simple, and more +monotonous, and himself more and more dependent on the regular co- +operation of an increasing number of other persons over whom he had no +direct control. Without the growth of modern machinery, mere subdivision +of labour would constantly make for the slavery and the intellectual +degradation of labour. Independently of the mighty and ever-new +applications of mechanical forces, this process of subdivision or +specialization would take place, though at a slower pace. How far does +machinery degrade, demoralize, dementalize the worker? + +The constantly growing specialization of machinery is the most striking +industrial phenomenon of modern times. Since the worker is more and more +the attendant of machinery, does not this mean a corresponding +specialization of the worker? It would seem so at first sight, yet if we +look closer it becomes less obvious. So far as mere manual activity is +concerned, it seems probable that the general effect of machinery has +been both to narrow the range of that activity, and to take over that +dexterity which consisted in the incessant repetition of a single +uniform process. Very delicately specialized manipulation is precisely +the work it pays best to do by machinery, so that, as Professor Marshall +says, "machinery can make uniform actions more accurately and +effectively than man can; and most of the work which was done by those +who were specially skilful with the fingers a few generations ago, is +now done by machinery."[15] He illustrates from the wood and metal +industries, where the process is constantly going on. + +"The chief difficulty to be overcome is that of getting the machinery to +hold the material firmly in exactly the position in which the machine- +tool can be brought to bear on it in the right way, and without wasting +meanwhile too much time in taking grip of it. But this can generally be +contrived when it is worth while to spend some labour and expense on it; +and then the whole operations can often be controlled by a worker, who, +sitting before the machine, takes with the left hand a piece of wood or +metal from a heap, and puts it in a socket, while with the right he +draws down a lever, or in some other way sets the machine-tool at work, +and finally with his left hand throws on to another heap the material +which has been cut, or punched, or drilled, or planed exactly after a +given pattern." + +Professor Marshall summarizes the tendency in the following words--"We +are thus led to a general rule, the action of which is more prominent in +some branches of manufacture than others, but which applies to all. It +is, that any manufacturing operation that can be reduced to uniformity, +so that the same thing has to be done over and over again in the same +way, is sure to be taken over sooner or later by machinery. There may be +delays and difficulties; but if the work to be done by it is on a +sufficient scale, money and inventive power will be spent without stint +on the task till it is achieved. There still remains the responsibility +for seeing that the machinery is in good order and working smoothly; but +even this task is often made light of by the introduction of an +automatic movement which brings the machine to a stop the instant +anything goes wrong."[16] + +Since the economy of production constantly induces machinery to take +over all work capable of being reduced to routine, it would seem to +follow by a logical necessity that the work left for the human worker +was that which was less capable of being subjected to close uniformity; +that is work requiring discretion and intelligence to be applied to each +separate action. Although the process described by Professor Marshall +assigns a constantly diminishing proportion of each productive work to +the effort of man, of that portion which remains for him to do a +constantly increasing proportion will be work of judgment and specific +calculation applied to particular cases. And this is the conclusion +which Professor Marshall himself asserts-- + +"Since machinery does not encroach much upon that manual work which +requires judgment, while the management of machinery does require +judgment, there is a much greater demand now than formerly for +intelligence and resource. Those qualities which enable men to decide +rightly and quickly in new and difficult cases, are the common property +of the better class of workmen in almost every trade, and a person who +has acquired them in one trade can easily transfer them to another." + +If this is true, it signifies that the formal specialization of the +worker, which comes from his attendance on a more and more specialized +piece of machinery, does not really narrow and degrade his industrial +life, but supplies a certain education of the judgment and intelligence +which has a general value that more than compensates the apparent +specialization of manual functions. The very fact that the worker's +services are still required is a proof that his work is less automatic +(i.e. more intelligent) than that of the most delicate machinery in use; +and since the work which requires less intelligence is continually being +taken over by machinery, the work which remains would seem to require a +constantly higher average of intelligence. It is, of course, true that +there are certain kinds of work which can never be done by machinery, +because they require a little care and a little judgment, while that +care and judgment is so slight as to supply no real food for thought, or +education for the judgment. No doubt a good deal of the less responsible +work connected with machinery is of this order. Moreover, there are +certain other influences to be taken into account which affect the net +resuit of the growth of machinery upon the condition of the workers. The +physical and moral evils connected with the close confinement of large +bodies of workers, especially in the case of young persons, within the +narrow unwholesome limits of the factory or mill, though considerably +mitigated by the operation of factory legislation, are still no light +offset against the advantages which have been mentioned. The weakly, +ill-formed bodies, the unhealthy lives lived by the factory-workers in +our great manufacturing centres are facts which have an intimate +connection with the growth of machinery. But though our agricultural +population, in spite of their poverty and hard work, live longer and +enjoy better physical health than our town-workers, there are few who +would deny that the town-workers are both better educated and more +intelligent. This intelligence must in a large measure be attributed to +the influences of machinery, and of those social conditions which +machinery has assisted to establish. This intelligence must be reckoned +as an adequate offset against the formal specialization of machine- +labour, and must be regarded as an emancipative influence, giving to its +possessor a larger choice in the forms of employment. So far as a man's +labour-power consists in the mere knowledge how to tend a particular +piece of machinery he may appear to be more "enslaved" with each +specialization of machinery; but so far as his labour-power consists in +the practice of discretion and intelligence, these are qualities which +render him more free. + +Moreover, as regards the specialization of machinery, there is one point +to be noticed which modifies to some considerable extent the effects of +subdivision upon labour. On the one hand, the tendency to split up the +manufacture of a commodity into several distinct branches, often +undertaken in different localities and with wholly different machinery, +prevents the skilled worker in one branch from passing into another, and +thus limits his practical freedom as an industrial worker. On the other +hand, this has its compensating advantage in the tendency of different +trades to adopt analogous kinds of machinery and similar processes. +Thus, while a machinist engaged in a screw manufactory is so specialized +that he cannot easily pass from one process to another process in the +screw trade, he will find himself able to obtain employment in other +hardware manufactures which employ the same or similar processes. + +§ 5. Are all Men equal before the Machine?--It is sometimes said that +"all men become equal before the machine." This is only true in the +sense that there are certain large classes of machine-work which require +in the worker such attention, care, endurance, and skill as are within +the power of most persons possessed of ordinary capacities of mind and +body. In such forms of machine-work it is sometimes possible for women +and children to compete with men, and even to take their places by their +ability to offer their work at a cheaper price. The effect of machinery +development in thus throwing on the labour-market a large quantity of +women and children competitors is one of those serious questions which +will occupy our attention in a later chapter. It is here sufficient to +remember that it was this effect which led to a general recognition of +the fact that machinery and the factory system could not be trusted to +an unfettered system of _laissez faire_. The Factory Acts, and the whole +body of legislative enactments, interfering with "freedom of contract" +between employer and employed, resulted from the fact that machinery +enabled women and children to be employed in many branches of productive +work from which their physical weakness precluded them before. + +§ 6. Summary of Effects of Machinery on the Condition of the Poor.--To +sum up with any degree of precision the net advantages and disadvantages +of the growth of machinery upon the working classes is impossible. If we +look not merely at the growth of money incomes, but at the character of +those products which have been most cheapened by the introduction of +machinery, we shall incline to the opinion that the net gain in wealth- +producing power due to machinery has not been equally shared by all +classes in the community.[17] + +The capitalist classes, so far as they can be properly severed from the +rest of the community, have gained most, as was inevitable in a change +which increased the part played by capital in production. A short-timed +monopoly of the abnormal profits of each new invention, and an enormous +expansion of the field of investment for capital must be set against the +gradual fall in the interest paid for the use of each piece of capital. +But as the advantage of each new invention has by the competition of +machinery-owners been passed on to the consumer, all other classes of +the community have gained in proportion to their consumption of +machinery-produced commodities. As machinery plays a smaller part in the +production of necessaries of life than in the production of comforts and +luxuries, it will be evident that each class gain as consumers in +proportion to its income. The poorest classes, whose consumption of +machine-productions is smallest, gain least. It cannot, however, be +said, that there is any class of regular workers who, as consumers, have +been injured by machinery. All have gained. The skilled workmen, the +aristocracy of labour, have, as has been shown, gained very +considerably. Even the poor classes of regular unskilled workmen have +raised their standard of comfort. + +It is in its bearing on the industrial condition of the very poor, and +those who are unable to get regular work at decent wages, that the +influence of machinery is most questionable. Violent trade fluctuations, +and a continuous displacement of hand-labour by new mechanical +inventions, keep in perpetual existence a large margin of unemployed or +half-employed, who form the most hopeless and degraded section of the +city poor, and furnish a body of reckless, starving competitors for +work, who keep down the standard of wages and of life for the lower +grades of regular workers affected by this competition. + + + + +Chapter III. + +The Influx of Population into Large Towns. + + + +§ 1. Movements of Population between City and Country. The growth of +large cities is so closely related to the problems of poverty as to +deserve a separate treatment. The movements of population form a group +of facts more open than most others to precise measurement, and from +them much light is thrown on the condition of the working classes. That +the towns are growing at the expense of the country, is a commonplace to +which we ought to seek to attach a more definite meaning. + +We may trace the inflow of country-born people into the towns by looking +either at the statistics of towns, or of rural districts. But first we +ought to bear in mind one fact. Quite apart from any change in +proportion of population, there is an enormous interchange constantly +taking place between adjoining counties and districts. The general +fluidity of population has been of course vastly increased by new +facilities of communication and migration; persons are less and less +bound down to the village or county in which they were born. So we find +that in England and Wales, only 739 out of each 1000 persons were living +in their native county in 1901. In some London districts it is reckoned +that more than one quarter of the inhabitants change their address each +year. So that when we are told that in seven large Scotch towns only 524 +out of each 1000 are natives, and that in Middlesex only 35 per cent. of +the male adult population are Middlesex by birth, we are not thereby +enabled to form any conclusion as to the growth of towns. + +To arrive at any useful result we must compare the inflow with the +outflow. Most of the valuable information we possess on this point +applies directly to London but the same forces which are operating in +London, will be found to be at work with more or less intensity in other +centres of population in proportion to their size. Comparing the inflow +of London with its outflow, we find that in 1881 nearly twice as many +strangers were living in London as Londoners were living outside; in +other words, that London was gaining from the country at the rate of +more than 10,000 per annum. So far as London itself is concerned, the +last two censuses show a cessation of the flow, but the enormous growth +of Middlesex outside the metropolitan boundaries indicates a continuance +of the centripetal tendency. + +Now what does London do with this increase? Is it spread evenly over the +surface of the great city? + +Certainly not. And here we reach a point which has a great significance +for those interested in East London. It is clearly shown that none of +this gain goes to swell the numbers of East London. Many individual +strangers of course go there, but the outflow from East London towards +the suburban parts more than compensates the inflow. By comparing the +population of East London in 1901 with that in 1881, it is found that +the increase is far less than it ought to be, if we add the excess of +births over deaths. How is this? The answer is not far to seek, and +stamps with fatal significance one aspect of Poverty, namely, +overcrowding. East London does not gain so fast as other parts, because +it will not hold any more people. It has reached what is termed +"saturation point." Introduce strangers, and they can only stay on +condition that they push out, and take the place of, earlier residents. + +So we find in all districts of large towns, where poverty lies thickest, +the inflow is less than the outflow. The great stream of incomers goes +to swell the population of parts not hitherto overcrowded, thus ever +increasing the area of dense city population. Districts like Bethnal +Green and Mile End are found to show the smallest increase, while +outlying districts like West Ham grow at a prodigious pace. + +§ 2. Rate of Migration from Rural Districts.--But perhaps the most +instructive point of view from which to regard the absorption of country +population by the towns is not from inside but from outside. + +Confining our attention for the present to migration from the country to +the town, and leaving the foreign immigration for separate treatment, we +find that the large majority of incomers to London are from agricultural +counties, such as Kent, Bucks, Herts, Devon, Lincoln, and not from +counties with large manufacturing centres of their own, like Yorkshire, +Lancashire, and Cheshire. The great manufacturing counties contribute +very slightly to the growth of London. While twelve representative +agricultural counties furnished sixteen per 1000 of the population of +London in 1881, twelve representative manufacturing counties supplied no +more than two-and-a-half per 1000. + +Respecting the rate of the decline of agricultural population +exaggerated statements are often made. If we take the inhabitants of +rural sanitary districts, and of urban districts below 10,000 as the +rural population, we shall find that between 1891 and 1901 the growth in +the rural districts is 5.3 per cent. as compared with 15.8 per cent. for +the centres of population. Even if the urban standard be placed at a +lower point, 5000, there is still an increase of 3.5 per cent. in the +rural population. If, however, we eliminate the "home" counties and +other rural districts round the large centres of population, largely +used for residential purposes, and turn to agricultural England, we +shall find that it shows a positive decline in rural population. In the +period 1891-1901 no fewer than 18 English and Welsh counties show a +decrease of rural inhabitants, taking the higher limit of urban +population. This has been going on with increasing rapidity during the +last forty years. Whereas, in 1861, 37.7 per cent. of the population +were living in the country, in 1901 the proportion has sunk to 23 per +cent. + +What these figures mean is that almost the whole of the natural increase +in country population is being gradually sucked into city life. Not +London alone, of course, but all the large cities have been engaged in +this work of absorption. Everywhere the centripetal forces are at work. +The larger the town the stronger the power of suction, and the wider the +area over which the attraction extends. There are three chief +considerations which affect the force with which the attraction of a +large city acts upon rural districts. The first is distance. By far the +largest quantity of new-comers into London are natives of Middlesex, +Kent, Bucks, and what are known as "the home counties." As we pass +further North and West, the per-centage gradually though not quite +regularly declines. The numbers from Durham and Northumberland on the +one hand, and from Devon and Somerset on the other are much larger than +those from certain nearer counties, such as Stafford, Yorkshire, and +Lancaster. The chief determinate of the force of attraction, distance +from the centre, is in these cases qualified by two other +considerations. In the case of Durham and Northumberland a large +navigable seaboard affords greater facility and cheapness of transport, +an important factor in the mobility of labour. In the case of Devon and +Somerset the absence of the counter-attraction of large provincial +cities drives almost the whole of its migratory folk to London, whereas +in Yorkshire and Lancashire and the chief Midland manufacturing counties +the attraction of their own industrial centres acts more powerfully in +their immediate neighbourhood than the magic of London itself. Thus, if +we were to take the map of England and mark it so as to represent the +gravitation towards cities, we should find that every remotest village +was subject to a number of weaker or stronger, nearer or more distant, +forces, which were helping to draw off its rising population into the +eddy of city life. If we examined in detail a typical agricultural +county, we should probably find that while its one or two considerable +towns of 40,000 or 50,000 inhabitants were growing at something above +the average rate for the whole country, the smaller towns of 5000 to +10,000 were only just managing to hold their own, the smallest towns and +large villages were steadily declining, while the scattered agricultural +population remained almost stationary. For it is the small towns and the +villages that suffer most, for reasons which will shortly appear. + +§ 3. Effects of Agricultural Depression.--We have next to ask what is +the nature of this attractive force which drains the country to feed the +city population? What has hitherto been spoken of as a single force will +be seen to be a complex of several forces, different in kind, acting +conjointly to produce the same result. + +The first readily suggests itself couched under the familiar phrase, +Agricultural Depression. It is needless here to enlarge on this big and +melancholy theme. It is evident that what is called the law of +Diminishing Return to Labour in Agriculture, the fact that every +additional labourer, upon a given surface, beyond a certain sufficient +number, will be less and less profitably employed, while the indefinite +expansion of manufacture will permit every additional hand to be +utilized so as to increase the average product of each worker, would of +itself suffice to explain why in a fairly thickly populated country like +England, young labourers would find it to their interest to leave the +land and seek manufacturing work in the cities. This would of itself +explain why the country population might stand still while the city +grew. When to this natural tendency we add the influence of the vast +tracts of virgin, or cheaply cultivated soil, brought into active +competition with English agriculture by the railways and steamships +which link us with distant lands in America, Australia, and Asia, we +have a fully adequate explanation of the main force of the tide in the +movement of population. After a country has reached a certain stage in +the development of its resources, the commercial population must grow +more quickly than the agricultural, and the larger the outside area open +to supply agricultural imports the faster the change thus brought about +in the relation of city and rural population. + +§ 4. Nature of the Decline of Rural Population.--It has been shown that +the absolute reduction in the number of those living in rural districts +is very small. If, however, we take the statistics of farmers and farm- +labourers in these same districts we often find a very considerable +decline. The real extent of the decline of agriculture is somewhat +concealed by the habit of including in the agricultural population a +good many people not engaged in work of agriculture. The number of +retail shopkeepers, railway men and others concerned with the transport +of goods, domestic servants, teachers, and others not directly occupied +in the production of material wealth, has considerably increased of late +years. So too, not every form of agriculture has declined. While farmers +and labourers show a decrease, market-gardeners show a large increase, +and there seem to be many more persons living in towns who cultivate a +bit of land in the country as a subsidiary employment. + +Taken as a whole the absolute fall off in the number of those working +upon the soil is not large. The decline of small country industries is +much more considerable. Here another law of industrial motion comes in, +the rapid tendency of manufacture towards centralization in the towns, +which we have discussed in the last chapter. Here we are concerned only +with its effect in stamping out small rural industries. The growth of +the railway has been the chief agent in the work. Wherever the railroad +has penetrated a country it has withered the ancient cottage industries +of our land. It is true that even before the time of railways the +development of machinery had in large measure destroyed the spinning and +weaving trades, which in Lancashire, Yorkshire, and elsewhere had given +employment to large numbers of country families. The railway, and the +constant application of new machinery have completed this work of +destruction, and have likewise abolished a number of small handicrafts, +such as hand-stitched boots, and lace, which flourished in western and +midland districts, Nor is this all. The same potent forces have +transferred to towns many branches of work connected indirectly with +agricultural pursuits; country smiths, brickmakers, sawyers, turners, +coopers, wheelwrights, are rapidly vanishing from the face of the +country. + +§ 5. Attractions of the Town, Economic and Social. The concrete form in +which the industrial forces, which we have described, appeal to the +dull-headed rustic is the attraction of higher wages. An elaborate +comparison of towns and country wages is not required. It is enough to +say that labourer's wages in London and other large cities are some 50 +per cent, higher than the wages of agricultural labourers in most parts +of England, and the wages of skilled labour show a similar relation. +Besides the actual difficulty of getting agricultural employment in many +parts, improved means of knowledge, and of cheap transport, constantly +flaunt this offer of higher wages before the eyes of the more +discontented among agricultural workers. It is true that if wages are +higher in London, the cost of living is also higher, and the conditions +of life and work are generally more detrimental to health and happiness; +but these drawbacks are more often realized after the fatal step has +been taken than before. + +Along with the concrete motive of higher wages there come other inherent +attractions of town life. + +"The contagion of numbers, the sense of something going on, the theatres +and music-halls, the brilliantly-lighted streets and busy crowds"[18] +have a very powerful effect on the dawning intelligence of the rustic. +The growing accessibility of towns brings these temptations within the +reach of all. These social attractions probably contain more evil than +good, and act with growing force on the restless and reckless among our +country population. The tramp and the beggar find more comfort and more +gain in the towns. The action of indiscriminate and spasmodic charity, +which still prevails in London and other large centres of riches, is +responsible in no small measure for the poverty and degradation of city +slums. + +"The far-reaching advertisement of irresponsible charity acts as a +powerful magnet. Whole sections of the population are demoralized, men +and women throwing down their work right and left in order to qualify +for relief; while the conclusion of the whole matter is intensified +congestion of the labour market--angry bitter feeling for the +insufficiency of the pittance, or rejection of the claim." So writes +Miss Potter of the famous Mansion House Relief Funds. + +It is easy to see how the worthless element from our villages, the +loafer, the shiftless, the drunkard, the criminal, naturally gravitates +towards its proper place as part of the "social wreckage" of our cities. +But the size of this element must not be exaggerated. It forms a +comparatively small fraction of the whole. Our city criminal, our city +loafer, is generally home-grown, and is not supplied directly from the +country. If it were true that only the worthless portion of our country +population passed into our cities to perish in the struggle for +existence, which is so fatal in city life, we should on the whole have +reason to congratulate ourselves. But this is not so. The main body of +those who pass into city life are in fact the cream of the native +population of the country, drawn by advantages chiefly economic. They +consist of large numbers of vigorous young men, mostly between the age +of twenty and twenty-five, who leave agriculture for manufacture, or +move into towns owing to displacement of handicrafts by wholesale +manufacture. + +§ 6. Effect of the Change on National Health.--This decay of country +life, however much we may regret it, seems under present industrial +conditions inevitable. Nor is it altogether to be regretted or +condemned. The movement indisputably represents a certain equalization +of advantages economic, educational, and social. The steady workman who +moves into the town generally betters himself from the point of view of +immediate material advantages. + +But in regarding the movement as a whole a much more serious question +confronts us. What is the net result upon the physical well-being of the +nation of this drafting of the abler and better country folk into the +towns? Let the death-rate first testify. In 1902 the death-rate for the +whole rural population was 13.7 per 1000, that of the whole urban +population 17.8. Now it is not the case that town life is necessarily +more unhealthy than country life to any considerable extent. There are +well-to-do districts of London, whole boroughs, such as Hampstead, where +the death-rate is considerably lower than the ordinary rural rate. The +weight of city mortality falls upon the poor. + +Careful statistics justify the conclusion that the death-rate of an +average poor district in London, Liverpool, or Glasgow, is quite double +that of the average country district which is being drained to feed the +city. We now see what the growth of town population, and the decay of +the country really means. It means in the first place that each year +brings a larger proportion of the nation within reach of the higher rate +of mortality, by taking them from more healthy and placing them under +less healthy conditions. In the case of the lower classes of workers who +gravitate to London, it means putting them in a place where the chance +of death in a given year is doubled for them. And remember, this higher +death-rate is applied not indiscriminately, but to selected subjects. It +is the young, healthy, vigorous blood of the country which is exposed to +these unhealthy conditions. A pure Londoner of the third generation, +that is, one whose grandparents as well as his parents were born in +London, is very seldom found. It is certain that nearly all the most +effective vital energy given out in London work, physical and +intellectual alike, belongs to men whose fathers were country bred, if +they were not country born themselves. In kinds of work where pure +physical vigour play an important part, this is most strikingly +apparent. The following statistics bearing on the London police force +were obtained by Mr. Llewellyn Smith in 1888-- + + London born. Country born. Total. + + Metropolitan Police 2,716 10,908 13,624 + City " 194 698 892 + +Railway men, carriers, omnibus-drivers, corn and timber porters, and +those in whose work physique tells most, are all largely drawn from the +country. Nor is the physical deterioration of city life to be merely +measured by death-rates. Many town influences, which do not appreciably +affect mortality, distinctly lower the vitality, which must be taken as +the physical measure of the value of life. The denizens of city slums +not only die twice as fast as their country cousins, but their health +and vigour is less during the time they live. + +A fair consideration of these facts discloses something much more +important than a mere change in social and industrial conditions. Linked +with this change we see a deterioration of the physique of the race as a +distinct factor in the problem of city poverty. This is no vague +speculation, but a strongly-supported hypothesis, which deserves most +serious attention. Dr. Ogle, who has done much work in elucidation of +this point, sums up in the following striking language-- + +"The combined effect of this constantly higher mortality in the towns, +and of the constant immigration into it of the pick of the rural +population, must clearly be a gradual deterioration of the whole, +inasmuch as the more energetic and vigorous members of the community are +consumed more rapidly than the rest of the population. The system is one +which leads to the survival of the unfittest." + +Thus the city figures as a mighty vampire, continually sucking the +strongest blood of the country to keep up the abnormal supply of energy +it has to give out in the excitement of a too fast and unwholesome life. +Whether the science of the future may not supply some decentralizing +agency, which shall reverse the centralizing force of modern industry, +is not a wholly frivolous speculation to suggest. Some sanguine +imaginations already foresee the time when those great natural forces, +the economical use of which has compelled men and women to crowd into +factories in great cities, may be distributable with such ease and +cheapness over the whole surface of the land as no longer to require +that close local relation which means overcrowding in work and in home +life. If science could do this it would confer upon humanity an +advantage far less equivocal than that which belongs to the present +reign of iron and steam. + +§ 7. The Extent of Foreign Immigration.--So much for the inflow from the +country districts. But there is another inflow which is drawing close +attention, the inflow of cheap foreign labour into our towns. Here again +we have first to guard against some exaggeration. It is not true that +German, Polish, and Russian Jews are coming over in large battalions to +steal all the employment of the English working-man, by under-selling +him in the labour-market. In the first place, it should be noted that +the foreigners of England, as a whole, bear a smaller proportion to the +total population than in any other first-class European state. In 1901 +the foreigners were 76 in 10,000 of the population; that is a good deal +less than one per cent. Our numbers as a nation are not increased by +immigration. On the contrary, between 1871 and 1901 we lost considerably +by emigration.[19] Even London, the centre of attraction to foreigners, +does not contain nearly so large a per-centage of foreigners as any +other great capital. The census gave 3 per cent. as the proportion of +foreigners, excluding those born in England of foreign parents. Though +this figure is perhaps too low, the true proportion cannot be very +large. It is not the number, but the distribution and occupation of the +foreign immigrants, that make them an object of so much solicitude. The +borough of Stepney contains no less than 40 per cent. of the foreign- +born population of London, the foreigners increasing from 15,998 in 1881 +to 54,310 in 1901. At present 182 out of every 1000 in this district are +foreigners. The proportion is also very high in Holborn, Westminster, +Marylebone, Bethnal Green, and St Pancras. The Report of the Royal +Commission on Alien Immigration, 1902, states "that the greatest evils +produced by the Alien Immigrants here are the overcrowding caused by +them in certain districts of London, and the consequent displacement of +the native population." The concentration of the immigrant question is +attested by the fact that in 1901 no less than 48 per cent. of the total +foreign population were resident in six metropolitan boroughs, and in +the three cities of Manchester, Liverpool, and Leeds. While a +considerable number of them are Germans, French, and Italians, attracted +here by better industrial conditions in trades for which they have some +special aptitude, a greatly increasing proportion are Russian and Polish +Jews, driven to immigrate partly by political and religious persecution, +partly for industrial ends, and feeding the unskilled labour-market in +certain manufactures of our great cities. + +§ 8. The Jew as an Industrial Competitor.--Looking at these foreigners +as individuals, there is much to be said in their favour. They do not +introduce a lower morality into the quarters where they settle, as the +Chinese are said to do; nor are they quarrelsome and law-breaking, like +the low-class Italians who swarm into America. Their habits, so far as +cleanliness is concerned, are perhaps not desirable, but the standard of +the native population of Whitechapel is not sensitively high. For the +most part, and this is true especially of the Jews, they are steady, +industrious, quiet, sober, thrifty, quick to learn, and tolerably +honest. From the point of view of the old Political Economy, they are +the very people to be encouraged, for they turn out the largest quantity +of wealth at the lowest cost of production. If it is the chief end for a +nation to accumulate the largest possible stock of material wealth, it +is evident that these are the very people we require to enable us to +achieve our object. + +But if we consider it is sound national policy to pay regard to the +welfare of all classes engaged in producing this wealth, we may regard +this foreign immigration in quite another light. The very virtues just +enumerated are the chief faults we have to find with the foreign Jew. +Just because he is willing and able to work so hard for so little pay, +willing to undertake any kind of work out of which he can make a living, +because he can surpass in skill, industry, and adaptability the native +Londoner, the foreign Jew is such a terrible competitor. He is the +nearest approach to the ideal "economic" man, the "fittest" person to +survive in trade competition. Admirable in domestic morality, and an +orderly citizen, he is almost void of social morality. No compunction or +consideration for his fellow-worker will keep him from underselling and +overreaching them; he acquires a thorough mastery of all the +dishonourable tricks of trade which are difficult to restrain by law; +the superior calculating intellect, which is a national heritage, is +used unsparingly to enable him to take advantage of every weakness, +folly, and vice of the society in which he lives. + +§ 9. Effect of Foreign Competition.--One other quality he has in common +with the mass of poor foreigners who compete in the London labour +market--he can live on less than the Englishman. What Mrs Webb says of +the Polish Jew, is in large measure true of all cheap foreign +labour--"As industrial competitor, the Polish Jew is fettered by no +definite standard of life; it rises and falls with his opportunities; he +is not depressed by penury, and he is not demoralized by gain." The +fatal significance of this is evident. We have seen that notwithstanding +a general rise in the standard of comfort of the mass of labourers, +there still remains in all our cities a body of labouring men and women +engaged in doing ill-paid and irregular work for wages which keep them +always on the verge of starvation. Now consider what it means for these +people to have brought into their midst a number of competitors who can +live even more cheaply than they can live, and who will consent to toil +from morning to night for whatever they can get. These new-comers are +obviously able, in their eagerness for work, to drive down the rate of +wages even below what represents starvation-point for the native worker. +The insistence of the poorer working-classes, under the stimulus of new- +felt wants, the growing enlightenment of public opinion, have slowly and +gradually won, even for the poorer workers in English cities, some small +advance in material comfort, some slight expansion in the meaning of the +term "necessaries of life." Turn a few shiploads of Polish Jews upon any +of these districts, and they will and must in the struggle for life +destroy the whole of this. Remember it is not merely the struggle of too +many workers competing on equal terms for an insufficient quantity of +work. That is terrible enough. But when the struggle is between those +accustomed to a higher, and those accustomed to a lower, standard of +life, the latter can obviously oust the former, and take their work. +Just as a base currency drives out of circulation a pure currency, so +does a lower standard of comfort drive out a higher one. This is the +vital question regarding foreign immigration which has to be faced. + +Nor is it merely a question of the number of these foreigners. The +inflow of a comparatively small number into a neighbourhood where much +of the work is low-skilled and irregular, will often produce an effect +which seems quite out of proportion to the actual number of the +invaders. Where work is slack and difficult to get, a very small +addition of low-living foreigners will cause a perceptible fall in the +entire wages of the neighbourhood in the employments which their +competition affects. It is true that the Jew does not remain a low- +skilled labourer for starvation wages. Beginning at the bottom of the +ladder, he rises by his industry and skill, until he gets into the rank +of skilled workers, or more frequently becomes a sub-contractor, or a +small shopkeeper. It might appear that as he thus rose, the effect of +his competition in the low skilled labour market would disappear. And +this would be so were it not for the persistent arrival of new-comers to +take the place of those who rise. It is the continuity in the flow of +foreign emigration which constitutes the real danger. + +Economic considerations do not justify us in expecting any speedy check +upon this flow. The growing means of communication among nations, the +cheapening of transport, the breaking down of international prejudices, +must, if they are left free to operate, induce the labourer to seek the +best market for his labour, and thus tend to equalize the condition of +labour in the various communities, raising the level of the lower paid +and lower lived at the expense of the higher paid and higher lived. + +§ 10. The Water-tight Compartment Theory.--One point remains to be +mentioned. It is sometimes urged that the foreign Jews who come to our +shores do not injure our low skilled workers to any considerable extent, +because they do not often enter native trades, but introduce new trades +which would not have existed at all were it not for their presence. They +work, it is said, in water-tight compartments, competing among +themselves, but not directly competing with English workers. Now if it +were the case that these foreigners really introduced new branches of +production designed to stimulate and supply new wants this contention +would have much weight. The Flemings who in Edward III.'s reign +introduced the finer kinds of weaving into England, and the Huguenot +refugees who established new branches of the silk, glass, and paper +manufactures, conferred a direct service upon English commerce, and +their presence in the labour market was probably an indirect service to +the English workers. But this is not the case with the modern Jew +immigrants. They have not stimulated or supplied new wants. It is not +even correct to say that most of them do not directly compete with +native labour. It is true that certain branches of the cheap clothing +trade have been their creation. The cheap coat trade, which they almost +monopolize, seems due to their presence. But even here they have +established no new _kind_ of trade. To their cheap labour perhaps is due +in some cases the large export trade in cheap clothing, but even then it +is doubtful whether the work would not otherwise have been done by +machinery under healthier conditions, and have furnished work and wages +for English workers. During the last decade they have been entering more +and more into direct competition with British labour in the cabinet- +making, shoemaking, baking, hair-dressing, and domestic service +occupations. Lastly, they enter into direct competition of the worst +form with English female labour, which is driven in these very clothing +trades to accept work and wages which are even too low to tempt the Jews +of Whitechapel. The constant infiltration of cheap immigrant labour is +in large measure responsible for the existence of the "sweating +workshops," and the survival of low forms of industrial development +which form a factor in the problem of poverty. + + + + +Chapter IV. + +"The Sweating System." + + + +§ 1. Origin of the Term "Sweating."--Having gained insight into some of +the leading industrial forces of the age, we can approach more hopefully +the study of that aspect of City poverty, commonly known as the +"Sweating System." + +The first thing is to get a definite meaning to the term. Since the +examination of experts before the recent "Lords' Committee" elicited +more than twenty widely divergent definitions of this "Sweating System," +some care is required at the outset of our inquiry. The common use of +the term "Sweating System" is itself responsible for much ambiguity, for +the term "system" presupposes a more or less distinct form of +organization of industry identified with the evils of sweating. Now as +it should be one of the objects of inquiry to ascertain whether there +exists any one such definite form, it will be better at the outset to +confine ourselves to the question, "What is Sweating?" + +As an industrial term the word seems to have been first used among +journeymen tailors. The tailoring houses which once executed all orders +on their own premises, by degrees came to recognize the convenience of +giving out work to tailors who would work at their own homes. The long +hours which the home workers were induced to work in order to increase +their pay, caused the term "Sweater" to be applied to them by the men +who worked for fixed hours on the tailors' premises, and who found their +work passing more and more into the hands of the home workers. Thus we +learn that originally it was long hours and not low wages which +constituted "sweating." School-boy slang still uses the word in this +same sense. Moreover, the first sweater was one who "sweated" himself, +not others. But soon when more and more tailoring work was "put out," +the home worker, finding he could undertake more than he could execute, +employed his family and also outsiders to help him. This makes the +second stage in the evolution of the term; the sweater now "sweated" +others as well as himself, and he figured as a "middleman" between the +tailoring firm which employed him, and the assistants whom he employed +for fixed wages. Other clothing trades have passed through the same +process of development, and have produced a sub-contracting middleman. +The term "sweater" has thus by the outside world, and sometimes by the +workers themselves, come to be generally applied to sub-contractors in +small City trades. But the fact of the special application has not +prevented the growth of a wider signification of "sweating" and +"sweater." As the long hours worked in the tailors' garrets were +attended with other evils--a low rate of wages, unsanitary conditions, +irregularity of employment, and occasional tyranny in all the forms +which attend industrial authority--all these evils became attached to +the notion of sweating. The word has thus grown into a generic term to +express this disease of City poverty from its purely industrial side. +Though "long hours" was the gist of the original complaint, low wages +have come to be recognized as equally belonging to the essence of +"sweating." In some cases, indeed, low wages have become the leading +idea, so that employers are classed as sweaters who pay low wages, +without consideration of hours or other conditions of employment. Trade +Unions, for example, use the term "sweating" specifically to express the +conduct of employers who pay less than the "standard" rate of wages. The +abominable sanitary condition of many of the small workshops, or private +dwellings of workers, is to many reformers the most essential element in +sweating. + +§ 2. Present Applications of the Name.--When the connotation of the term +"sweating" had become extended so as to include along with excessive +hours of labour, low wages, unsanitary conditions of work, and other +evils, which commonly belong to the method of sub-contract employment, +it was only natural that the same word should come to be applied to the +same evils when they were found outside the sub-contract system. For +though it has been, and still is, true, that where the method of sub- +contract is used the workers are frequently "sweated," and though to the +popular mind the sub-contractor still figures as the typical sweater, it +is not right to regard "sub-contract" as the real cause of sweating. For +it is found-- + +Firstly, that in some trades sub-contract is used without the evils of +sweating being present. Mr. Burnett, labour correspondent to the Board +of Trade, in his evidence before the Lords' Committee, maintains that +where Trade Unions are strong, as in the engineering trade, sub-contract +is sometimes employed under conditions which are entirely +"unobjectionable." So too in the building trades, sub-contract is not +always attended by "sweating." + +Secondly, much of the worst "sweating" is found where the element of +sub-contract is entirely wanting, and where there is no trace of a +ravenous middleman. This will be found especially in women's +employments. Miss Potter, after a close investigation of this point, +arrives at the conclusion that "undoubtedly the worst paid work is made +under the direction of East End retail slop-shops, or for tally-men--a +business from which contact, even in the equivocal form of wholesale +trading, has been eliminated."[20] The term "sweating" must be deemed as +applicable to the case of the women employed in the large steam- +laundries, who on Friday and Saturday work for fifteen or sixteen hours +a day, to the overworked and under-paid waitresses in restaurants and +shops, to the men who, as Mr. Burleigh testified, "are employed in some +of the wealthiest houses of business, and received for an average +working week of ninety-five hours, board, lodging, and £15 a year," as +it is to the tailoress who works fourteen hours a day for Whitechapel +sub-contractors. + +The terms "sweating" and "sweating System," then, after originating in a +narrow application to the practice of over-work under sub-contractors in +the lower branches of the tailoring trade, has expanded into a large +generic term, to express the condition of all overworked, ill-paid, +badly-housed workers in our cities. It sums up the industrial or +economic aspects of the problem of city poverty. Scarcely any trade in +its lowest grades is free from it; in nearly all we find the wretched +"fag end" where the workers are miserably oppressed. This is true not +only of the poorest manual labour, that of the sandwich-man, with his +wage of 1s. 2d. per diem, and of the lowest class of each manufacturing +trade in East and Central London. It is true of the relatively unskilled +labour in every form of employment; the miserable writing-clerk, who on +25s. a week or less has to support a wife and children and an appearance +of respectability; the usher, who grinds out low-class instruction +through the whole tedious day for less than the wage of a plain cook; +the condition of these and many other kinds of low-class brain-workers +is only a shade less pitiable than the "sweating" of manual labourers, +and the causes, as we shall see, are much the same. If our investigation +of "sweating" is chiefly confined to the condition of the manual +labourer, it is only because the malady there touches more directly and +obviously the prime conditions of physical life, not because the nature +of the industrial disease is different. + +§ 3. Leading "Sweating" Trades.--It is next desirable to have some clear +knowledge of the particular trades in which the worst forms of +"sweating" are found, and the extent to which it prevails in each. The +following brief summary is in a large measure drawn from evidence +furnished to the recent Lords' Committee on the Sweating System. Since +the sweating in women's industries is so important a subject as to +demand a separate treatment, the facts stated here will chiefly apply to +male industries. + +Tailoring.--In the tailoring trade the best kind of clothes are still +made by highly-skilled and well-paid workmen, but the bulk of the cheap +clothing is in the hands of "sweaters," who are sometimes skilled +tailors, sometimes not, and who superintend the work of cheap unskilled +hands. In London the coat trade should be distinguished from the vest +and trousers trade. The coat-making trade in East London is a closely- +defined district, with an area of one square mile, including the whole +of Whitechapel and parts of two adjoining parishes. The trade is almost +entirely in the hands of Jews, who number from thirty to forty thousand +persons. Recent investigations disclosed 906 workshops, which, in the +quality and conditions of the work done in them, may be graded according +to the number of hands employed. The larger workshops, employing from +ten to twenty-five hands or more, generally pay fair wages, and are free +from symptoms of sweating. But in the small workshops, which form about +80 per cent of the whole number, the common evils of the sweating system +assert themselves--overcrowding, bad sanitation, and excessive hours of +labour. Thirteen and fourteen hours are the nominal day's work for men; +and those workshops which do not escape the Factory Inspector assign a +nominal factory day for women; but "among the imperfectly taught workers +in the slop and stock trade, and more especially in the domestic +workshops, under-pressers, plain machinists, and fellers are in many +instances expected to 'convenience' their masters, i.e. to work for +twelve or fifteen hours in return for ten or thirteen hours' wage."[21] +The better class workers, who require some skill, get comparatively high +wages even in the smaller workshops, though the work is irregular; but +the general hands engaged in making 1s. coats, generally women, get a +maximum of _1s. 6d._, and a minimum which is indefinitely below 1s. for +a twelve hours' day. This low-class work is also hopeless. The raw hand, +or "greener" as he is called, will often work through his apprenticeship +for nominal wages; but he has the prospect of becoming a machinist, and +earning from 6s. to 10s. a day, or of becoming in his turn a sweater. +The general hand has no such hope. The lowest kind of coat-making, +however, is refused by the Jew contractor, and falls to Gentile women. +These women also undertake most of the low-class vest and trousers +making, generally take their work direct from a wholesale house, and +execute it at home, or in small workshops. The price for this work is +miserably low, partly by reason of the competition of provincial +factories, partly for reasons to be discussed in a later chapter. Women +will work for twelve or fifteen hours a day throughout the week as +"trousers finishers," for a net-earning of as little as 4s. or 5s. Such +is the condition of inferior unskilled labour in the tailoring trade. It +should however be understood that in "tailoring," as in other "sweating" +trades, the lowest figures quoted must be received with caution. The +wages of a "greener," a beginner or apprentice, should not be taken as +evidence of a low wage in the trade, for though it is a lamentable thing +that the learner should have to live upon the value of his prentice +work, it is evident that under no commercial condition could he support +himself in comfort during this period. It is the normal starvation wage +of the low-class experienced hand which is the true measure of +"sweating" in these trades. Two facts serve to give prominence to the +growth of "sweating" in the tailoring trades. During the last few years +there has been a fall of some 30 per cent, in the prices paid for the +same class of work. During the same period the irregularity of work has +increased. Even in fairly large shops the work for ordinary labour only +averages some three days in the week, while we must reckon two and a +half days for unskilled workers in smaller workshops, or working at +home. + +Among provincial towns Liverpool, Manchester, and Leeds show a rapid +growth of sweating in the clothing trade. In each case the evil is +imputed to "an influx of foreigners, chiefly Jews." In each town the +same conditions appear--irregular work and wages, unsanitary conditions, +over-crowding, evasion of inspection. The growth in Leeds is remarkable. +"There are now ninety-seven Jewish workshops in the city, whereas five +years ago there were scarcely a dozen. The number of Jews engaged in the +tailoring trade is about three thousand. The whole Jewish population of +Leeds is about five thousand."[22] + +Boot-making.--The hand-sewn trade, which constitutes the upper stratum +of this industry, is executed for the most part by skilled workers, who +get good wages for somewhat irregular employment. There are several +strong trade organizations, and though the hours are long, extending +occasionally to thirteen or fourteen hours, the worst forms of sweating +are not found. So too in the upper branches of machine-sewn boots, the +skilled hands get fairly high wages. But the lower grades of machine- +made boots, and the "sew-rounds," i.e. fancy shoes and slippers, which +form a large part of the industry in London, present some of the worst +features of the "sweating system." The "sweating master" plays a large +part here. "In a busy week a comparatively competent 'sweater' may earn +from 18s. to 25s. less skilful hands may get 15s. or 16s. but boys and +newly-arrived foreigners take 10s., 8s., 7s., or less; while the +masters, after paying all expenses, would, according to their own +estimates, make not less than 30s., and must, in many cases, net much +higher sums. Owing, however, to the irregularity of their employment, +the average weekly earnings of both masters and men throughout the year +fall very greatly below the amount which they can earn when in full +work."[23] For the lowest kinds of work an ordinary male hand appears to +be able to earn not more than 15s. per week. A slow worker, it is said, +would earn an average of some 10s. to 12s. per week. The hours of labour +for sweating work appear to be from fifteen to eighteen per diem, and +"greeners" not infrequently work eighteen to twenty hours a day. Women, +who are largely used in making "felt and carpet uppers," cannot, if they +work their hardest, make more than 1s. 3d. a day. In the lowest class of +work wages fall even lower. Mr. Schloss gives the wages of five men +working in a small workshop, whose average is less than 11s. a week. +These wages do not of course represent skilled work at all. Machinery +has taken over all the skilled work, and left a dull laborious monotony +of operations which a very few weeks' practice enable a completely +unskilled worker to undertake. Probably the bulk of the cheapest work is +executed by foreigners, although from figures taken in 1887, of four +typical London parishes, it appeared that only 16 per cent, of the whole +trade were foreigners. In the lower classes of goods a considerable fall +of price has occurred during the fast few years, and perhaps the most +degraded conditions of male labour are to be found in the boot trade. A +large proportion of the work throughout the trade is out-work, and +therefore escapes the operation of the Factory Act. The competition +among small employers is greatly accentuated by the existence of a form +of middleman known as the "factor," who is an agent who gets his profit +by playing off one small manufacturer against another, keeping down +prices, and consequently wages, to a minimum. A large number of the +small producers are extremely poor, and owing to the System which +enables them to obtain material from leather-merchants on short credit, +are constantly obliged to sell at a disadvantage to meet their bills. +The "factor," as a speculator, takes advantage of this to accumulate +large stocks at low prices, and throwing them on the market in large +quantities when wholesale prices rise, causes much irregularity in the +trade. + +The following quotation from the Report of the Lords' Committee sums up +the chief industrial forces which are at work, and likewise illustrates +the confusion of causes with symptoms, and casual concomitants, which +marks the "common sense" investigations of intricate social phenomena. +"It will be seen from the foregoing epitome of the evidence, that +sweating in the boot trade is mainly traced by the witnesses to the +introduction of machinery, and a more complete system of subdivision of +labour, coupled with immigration from abroad and foreign competition. +Some witnesses have traced it in a great measure, if not principally, to +the action of factors; some to excessive competition among small masters +as well as men; others have accused the Trades Unions of a course of +action which has defeated the end they have in view, namely, effectual +combination, by driving work, owing to their arbitrary conduct, out of +the factory into the house of the worker, and of handicapping England in +the race with foreign countries, by setting their faces against the use +of the best machinery."[24] + +Shirt-making.--Perhaps no other branch of the clothing trade shows so +large an area of utter misery as shirt-making, which is carried on, +chiefly by women, in East London. The complete absence of adequate +organization, arising from the fact that the work is entirely out-work, +done not even by clusters of women in workshops, but almost altogether +by scattered workers in their own homes, makes this perhaps the +completest example of the evils of sweating. The commoner shirts are +sold wholesale at 10s. 6d. per dozen. Of this sum, it appears that the +worker gets 2s. 1½d., and the sweater sometimes as much as 4s. The +competition of married women enters here, for shirt-making requires +little skill and no capital; hence it can be undertaken, and often is, +by married women, anxious to increase the little and irregular earnings +of their husbands, and willing to work all day for whatever they can +get. Some of the worst cases brought before the Lords' Committee showed +that a week's work of this kind brings in a net gain of from 3s. to 5s. +It appears likely that few unmarried women or widows can undertake this +work, because it does not suffice to afford a subsistence wage. But if +this is so, it must be remembered that the competition of married women +has succeeded in underselling the unmarried women, who might otherwise +have been able to obtain this work at a wage which would have supported +life. The fact that those who work at shirt-making do not depend +entirely on it for a livelihood, is an aggravation rather than an +extenuation of the sweating character of this employment. + +§ 4. Some minor "Sweating" Trades.--Mantle-making is also a woman's +industry. The wages are just sufficiently higher than in shirt-making to +admit the introduction of the lowest grades of unsupported female +workers. From 1s. 3d. to 1s. 6d. a day can be made at this work. + +Furring employs large numbers of foreign males, and some thousands of +both native and foreign females. It is almost entirely conducted in +small workshops, under the conduct of middlemen, who receive the +expensive furs from manufacturers, and hire "hands" to sew and work them +up. Wages have fallen during the last few years to the barest +subsistence point, and even below. Wages for men are put at 10s. or +12s., and in the case of girls and young women, fall as low as 4s.; a +sum which is in itself insufficient to support life, and must therefore +be only paid to women and girls who are partly subsisted by the efforts +of relatives with whom they live, or by the wages of vice. + +In cabinet-making and upholstery, the same disintegrating influences +have been at work which we noted in tailoring. Many firms which formerly +executed all orders on their own premises, now buy from small factors, +and much of the lowest and least skilled work is undertaken by small +"garret-masters," or even by single workmen who hawk round their wares +for sale on their own account. The higher and skilled branches are +protected by trade organizations, and there is no evidence that wages +have fallen; but in the less skilled work, owing perhaps in part to the +competition of machinery, prices have fallen, and wages are low. There +is evidence that the sub-contract system here is sometimes carried +through several stages, much to the detriment of the workman who +actually executes the orders. + +One of the most degraded among the sweating industries in the country is +chain and nail-making. The condition of the chain-makers of Cradley +Heath has called forth much public attention. The system of employment +is a somewhat complicated one. A middleman, called a "fogger," acts as a +go-between, receiving the material from the master, distributing it +among the workers, and collecting the finished product. Evidence before +the Committee shows that an accumulation of intricate forms of abuse of +power existed, including in some cases systematic evasion of the Truck +Act. Much of the work is extremely laborious, hours are long, twelve +hours forming an ordinary day, and the wage paid is the barest +subsistence wage. Much of the work done by women is quite unfit for +them. + +§ 5. Who is the Sweater? The Sub-contractor?--These facts relating to a +few of the principal trades in the lower branches of which "sweating" +thrives, must suffice as a general indication of the character of the +disease as it infests the inferior strata of almost all industries. + +Having learnt what "sweating" means, our next question naturally takes +the form, Who is the sweater? Who is the person responsible for this +state of things? John Bull is concrete, materialistic in his feeling and +his reasoning. He wants to find an individual, or a class embodiment of +sweating. If he can find the sweater, he is prepared to loathe and +abolish him. Our indignation and humanitarianism requires a scape-goat. +As we saw, many of the cases of sweating were found where there was a +sub-contractor. To our hasty vision, here seems to be the responsible +party. Forty years ago _Alton Locke_ gave us a powerful picture of the +wicked sub-contracting tailor, who, spider-like, lured into his web the +unfortunate victim, and sucked his blood for gain. The indignation of +tender-hearted but loose-thinking philanthropists, short-visioned +working-class orators, assisted by the satire of the comic journal, has +firmly planted in the imagination of the public an ideal of an East +London sweater; an idle, bloated middleman, whose expansive waistcoat is +decorated with resplendent seals and watch-chains, who drinks his +Champagne, and smokes his perfumed cigar, as he watches complacently the +sunken faces and cowering forms of the wretched creatures whose +happiness, health, and very life are sacrificed to his heartless greed. + +Now a fair study of facts show this creature to be little else than a +myth. The miseries of the sweating den are no exaggeration, they are +attested by a thousand reliable witnesses; but this monster human spider +is not found there. Though opinions differ considerably as to the +precise status of the sweating middleman, it is evident that in the +worst "sweating" trades he is not idle, and he is not rich. In cases +where the well-to-do, comfortable sub-contractor is found, he generally +pays fair wages, and does not grossly abuse his power. When the worst +features of sweating are present, the master sweater is nearly always +poor, his profits driven down by competition, so that he barely makes a +living. It is, indeed, evident that in many of the worst Whitechapel +sweating-dens the master does not on the average make a larger income +than the more highly paid of his machinists. So, too, most of these +"sweaters" work along with their hands, and work just as hard. Some, +indeed, have represented this sweating middleman as one who thrusts +himself between the proper employer and the working man in order to make +a gain for himself without performing any service. But the bulk of +evidence goes to show that the sweater, even when he does not occupy +himself in detailed manual labour, performs a useful work of +superintendence and management. "The sweater in the vast majority of +cases is the one man in the workshop who can, and does, perform each and +any branch of the trade." + +For the old adage, which made a tailor the ninth part of a man, has been +completely reversed by the subdivision of work in modern industry. It +now takes more than nine men to make a tailor. We have foremen or +cutters, basters, machinists, fellers, button-holers, pressers, general +workers, &c. No fewer than twenty-five such subdivisions have been +marked in the trade. Since the so-called tailor is no tailor at all, but +a "button-holer" or "baster," it is obvious that the working of such a +system requires some one capable of general direction. + +This opinion is not, however, inconsistent with the belief that such +work of "direction" or "organization" may be paid on a scale wholly out +of proportion to the real worth of the services performed. Extremely +strong evidence has been tendered to show that in many large towns, +especially in Leeds and Liverpool, the "sweating" tailor has frequently +"no practical knowledge of his trade." The ignorance and incompetence of +the working tailors enables a Jew with a business mind, by bribing +managers, to obtain a contract for work which he makes no pretence to +execute himself. His ability consists simply in the fact that he can get +more work at a cheaper rate out of the poorer workmen than the manager +of a large firm. In his capacity of middleman he is a "convenience," and +for his work, which is nominally that of master tailor, really that of +sweating manager, he gets his pay. + +Part of the "service" thus rendered by the sweater is doubtless that he +acts as a screen to the employing firm. Public opinion, and "the +reputation of the firm," would not permit a well-known business to +employ the workers _directly_ under their own roof upon the terms which +the secrecy of the sweater's den enables them to pay. But in spite of +this, whether the "Jew sweater" is really a competent tailor or is a +mere "organizer" of poor labour, it should be distinctly understood that +he is paid for the performance of real work, which under the present +industrial system has a use. + +§ 6. Different Species of Middlemen.--It may be well here to say +something on the general position of the "middleman" in commerce. The +popular notion that the "middleman" is a useless being, and that if he +could be abolished all would go well, arises from a confusion of thought +which deserves notice. This confusion springs from a failure to +understand that the "middleman" is a part of a commercial System. He is +not a mere intruder, a parasitic party, who forces his way between +employer and worker, or between producer and consumer, and without +conferring any service, extracts for himself a profit which involves a +loss to the worker or the consumer, or to both. If we examine this +notion, either by reference to facts, or from _à priori_ consideration, +we shall find it based on a superstition. "Middleman" is a broad generic +term used to describe a man through whose hands goods pass on their way +to the consuming public, but who does not appear to add any value to the +goods he handles. At any stage in the production of these goods, +previous to their final distribution, the middleman may come in and take +his profit for no visible work done. He may be a speculator, buying up +grain or timber, and holding or manipulating it in the large markets; or +he may be a wholesale merchant, who, buying directly from the fisherman, +and selling to the retail fishmonger, is supposed to be responsible for +the high price of fish; he may be the retailer who in East London is +supposed to cause the high price of vegetables. + +With these species of middlemen we are not now concerned, except to say +that their work, which is that of distribution, i.e. the more convenient +disposal of forms of material wealth, may be equally important with the +work of the farmer, the fisherman, or the market-gardener, though the +latter produce changes in the shape and appearance of the goods, while +the former do not. The middleman who stands between the employing firm +and the worker is of three forms. He may undertake a piece of work for a +wholesale house, and taking the material home, execute it with the aid +of his family or outside assistants. This is the chamber-master proper, +or "sweater" in the tailoring trade. Or he may act as distributor, +receive the material, and undertake to find workers who will execute it +at their own homes, he undertaking the responsibility of collection. +Where the workers are scattered over a large city area, or over a number +of villages, this work of distribution, and its responsibility, may be +considerable. Lastly, there may be the "sub-contractor" proper, who +undertakes to do a portion of a work already contracted for, and either +finds materials and tools, and pays workers to work for him, or sublets +parts of his contract to workers who provide their own materials and +tools. The mining and building trades contain various examples of such +sub-contracts. Now in none of these cases is the middleman a mere +parasite. In every case he does work, which, though as a rule it does +not alter the material form of the goods with which it deals, adds +distinct value to them, and is under present industrial conditions +equally necessary, and equally entitled to fair remuneration with the +work of the other producers. The old maxim "nihil ex nihilo fit" is as +true in commerce as in chemistry. In a competitive society a man can get +nothing for nothing. If the middleman is a capitalist he may get +something for use of his capital; but that too implies that his capital +is put to some useful work. + +§ 7. Work and Pay of the Middleman.--The complaint that the middleman +confers no service, and deserves no pay, is the result of two fallacies. +The first, to which allusion has been made already, consists in the +failure to recognize the work of distribution done by the middleman. The +second and more important is the confusion of mind which leads people to +conclude that because under different circumstances a particular class +of work might be dispensed with, therefore that work is under present +circumstances useless and undeserving of reward. Lawyers might be +useless if there were no dishonesty or crime, but we do not therefore +feel justified in describing as useless the present work they do. With +every progress of new inventions we are constantly rendering useless +some class or other of undoubted "workers." So the middleman in his +various capacities may be dispensed with, if the organization of +industrial society is so changed that he is no longer required; but +until such changes are affected he must get, and deserves, his pay. It +may indeed be true that certain classes of middlemen are enabled by the +position they hold to extract either from their employers or from the +public a profit which seems out of proportion to the services they +render. But this is by no means generally the case with the middleman in +his capacity of "sweater." Even where a middleman does make large +profits, we are not justified in describing such gain as excessive or +unfair, unless we are prepared to challenge the claim of "free +competition" to determine the respective money values of industrial +services. The "sweating" middleman does work which is at present +necessary; he gets pay; if we think he gets too much, are we prepared +with any rule to determine even approximately how much he ought to get? + +§ 8. The Employer as "Sweater."--Since it appears that the middleman +often sweats others of necessity because he is himself "sweated," in the +low terms of the contract he makes, and since much of the worst +"sweating" takes place where firms of employers deal directly with the +"workers," it may seem that the blame is shifted on to the employer, and +that the real responsibility rests with him. Now is this so? When we see +an important firm representing a large capital and employing many hands, +paying a wage barely sufficient for the maintenance of life, we are apt +to accuse the employers of meanness and extortion: we say this firm +could afford to pay higher wages, but they prefer to take higher +profits; the necessity of the poor is their opportunity. Now this +accusation ought to be fairly faced. It will then be found to fall with +very different force according as it is addressed to one or other of two +classes of employers. Firms which are shielded from the full force of +the competition of capital by the possession of some patent or trade +secret, some special advantage in natural resources, locality, or +command of markets, are generally in a position which will enable them +to reap a rate of profit, the excess of which beyond the ordinary rate +of profit measures the value of the practical monopoly they possess. The +owners of a coal-mine, or a gas-works, a special brand of soap or +biscuits, or a ring of capitalists who have secured control of a market, +are often able to pay wages above the market level without endangering +their commercial position. Even in a trade like the Lancashire cotton +trade, where there is free competition among the various firms, a rapid +change in the produce market may often raise the profits of the trade, +so that all or nearly all the employing firms could afford to pay higher +wages without running any risk of failure. Now employers who are in a +position like this are morally responsible for the hardship and +degradation they inflict if they pay wages insufficient for decent +maintenance. Their excuse that they are paying the market rate of wages, +and that if their men do not choose to work for this rate there are +plenty of others who will, is no exoneration of their conduct unless it +be distinctly admitted that "moral considerations" have no place in +commerce. Employers who in the enjoyment of this superior position pay +bare subsistance wages, and defend themselves by the plea that they pay +the "market rate," are "sweaters," and the blame of sweating will +rightly attach to them. + +But this is not to be regarded as the normal position of employers. +Among firms unsheltered by a monopoly, and exposed to the full force of +capitalist competition, the rate of profit is also at "the minimum of +subsistence," that is to say, if higher wages were paid to the employés, +the rate of profit would either become a negative quantity, or would be +so low that capital could no longer be obtained for investment in such a +trade. Generally it may be said that a joint-stock company and a private +firm, trading as most firms do chiefly on borrowed capital, could not +pay higher wages and stand its ground in the competition with other +firms. If a benevolent employer engaged in a manufacture exposed to open +competition undertook to raise the wages of his men twenty per cent, in +order to lift them to a level of comfort which satisfied his +benevolence, he must first sacrifice the whole of his "wage of +superintendence," and he will then find that he can only pay the +necessary interest on his borrowed capital out of his own pocket: in +fact he would find he had essayed to do what in the long run was +impossible. The individual employer under normal circumstances is no +more to blame for the low wages, long hours, &c., than is the middleman. +He could not greatly improve the industrial condition of his employés, +however much he might wish. + +§ 9. The Purchaser as "Sweater." A third view, a little longer-sighted +than the others, casts the blame upon the purchasing public. Wages must +be low, we are told, because the purchaser insists on low prices. It is +the rage for "cheapness" which is the real cause, according to this line +of thought. Formerly the customer was content to pay a fair price for an +article to a tradesman with whom he dealt regularly, and whose interest +it was to sell him a fair article. The tradesman could thus afford to +pay the manufacturer a price which would enable him to pay decent wages, +and in return for this price he insisted upon good work being put into +the goods he bought. Thus there was no demand for bad work. Skilled work +alone could find a market, and skilled work requires the payment of +decent wages. The growth of modern competition has changed all this. +Regular custom has given way to touting and advertising, the bond of +interest between consumer and shopkeeper is broken, the latter seeks +merely to sell the largest quantity of wares to any one who will buy, +the former to pay the lowest price to any one who will sell him what he +thinks he wants. Hence a deterioration in the quality of many goods. It +is no longer the interest of many tradesmen to sell sound wares; the +consumer can no longer rely upon the recommendation of the retailer as a +skilled judge of the quality of a particular line of goods; he is thrown +back upon his own discrimination, and as an amateur he is apt to be +worsted in a bargain with a specialist. There is no reason to suppose +that customers are meaner than they used to be. They always bought +things as cheaply as they knew how to get them. The real point is that +they are less able to detect false cheapness than they used to be. Not +merely do they no longer rely upon a known and trusted retailer to +protect them from the deceits of the manufacturer, but the facilities +for deception are continually increasing. The greater complexity of +trade, the larger variety of commodities, the increased specialization +in production and distribution, the growth of "a science of +adulteration" have immensely increased the advantage which the +professional salesman possesses over the amateur customer. Hence the +growth of goods meant not for use but for sale--jerry-built houses, +adulterated food, sham cloth and leather, botched work of every sort, +designed merely to pass muster in a hurried act of sale. To such a +degree of refinement have the arts of deception been carried that the +customer is liable to be tricked and duped at every turn. It is not that +he foolishly prefers to buy a bad article at a low price, but that he +cannot rely upon his judgment to discriminate good from bad quality; he +therefore prefers to pay a low price because he has no guarantee that by +paying more he will get a better article. It is this fact, and not a +mania for cheapness, which explains the flooding of the market with bad +qualities of wares. This effectual demand for bad workmanship on the +part of the consuming public is no doubt directly responsible for many +of the worst phases of "sweating." Slop clothes and cheap boots are +turned out in large quantities by workers who have no claim to be called +tailors or shoemakers. A few weeks' practice suffices to furnish the +quantum of clumsy skill or deceit required for this work. That is to +say, the whole field of unskilled labour is a recruiting-ground for the +"sweater" or small employer in these and other clothing trades. If the +public insisted on buying good articles, and paid the price requisite +for their production, these "sweating" trades would be impossible. But +before we saddle the consuming public with the blame, we must bear in +mind the following extenuating circumstances. + +§ 10. What the Purchaser can do.--The payment of a higher price is no +guarantee that the workers who produce the goods are not "sweated." If I +am competent to discriminate well-made goods from badly-made goods, I +shall find it to my interest to abstain from purchasing the latter, and +shall be likewise doing what I can to discourage "sweating." But by +merely paying a higher price for goods of the same quality as those +which I could buy at a lower price, I may be only putting a larger +profit in the hands of the employers of this low-skilled labour, and am +certainly doing nothing to decrease that demand for badly-made goods +which appears to be the root of the evil. The purchaser who wishes to +discourage sweating should look first to the quality of the goods he +buys, rather than to the price. Skilled labour is seldom sweated to the +same degree as unskilled labour, and a high class of workmanship will +generally be a guarantee of decent wages. In so far as the purchaser +lacks ability to accurately gauge quality, he has little security that +by paying a higher price he is securing better wages for the workers. +The so-called respectability of a well-known house is a poor guarantee +that its employés are getting decent wages, and no guarantee at all that +the workers in the various factories with which the firm deals are well +paid. It is impossible for a private customer to know that by dealing +with a given shop he is not directly or indirectly encouraging +"sweating." It might, however, be feasible for the consuming public to +appoint committees, whose special work it should be to ascertain that +goods offered in shops were produced by firms who paid decent wages. If +a "white list" of firms who paid good wages, and dealt only with +manufacturers who paid good wages, were formed, purchasers who desired +to discourage sweating would be able to feel a certain security, so far, +at any rate, as the later stages of production are concerned, which +ordinary knowledge of the world and business will not at present enable +them to obtain. The force of an organized public opinion, even that of a +respectable minority, brought to bear upon notorious "sweating" firms, +would doubtless be of great avail, if carefully applied. + +At the same time, it must not for a moment be imagined that the problem +of poverty would be solved if we could insure, by the payment of higher +prices for better qualities of goods, the extermination of the sweating +trades. This low, degraded and degrading work enables large numbers of +poor inefficient workers to eke out a bare subsistence. If it were taken +away, the direct result would be an accession of poverty and misery. The +demand for skilled labour would be greater, but the unskilled labourer +cannot pass the barrier and compete for this; the overflow of helpless, +hopeless, feeble, unskilled labour would be greater than ever. Whatever +the ultimate effects of decreasing the demand for unskilled labour might +be, the misery of the immediate effects could not be lightly set aside. +This contradiction of the present certain effect and the probable future +effects confronts the philanthropist at every turn. The condition of the +London match-girls may serve as an illustration of this. Their miserable +life has rightly roused the indignation of all kind-hearted people. The +wretched earnings they take have provoked people to suggest that we +should put an end to the trade by refusing to buy from them. But since +the earnings of these girls depend entirely on the amount they sell, +this direct result of your action, prompted by humane sentiment, will be +to reduce still further these miserable earnings; that is to say, you +increase the suffering of the very persons whose lot you desire to +alleviate. You may say that you buy your matches all the same, but you +buy them at a shop where you may or may not have reason to believe that +the attendants are well paid. But that will not benefit the girls, whose +business you have destroyed; they will not be employed in the shops, for +they belong to a different grade of labour. This dilemma meets the +social reformer at each step; the complexity of industrial relations +appears to turn the chariot of progress into a Juggernaut's car, to +crush a number of innocent victims with each advance it makes. One thing +is evident, that if the consuming public were to regulate its acts of +purchase with every possible regard to the condition of the workers, +they could not ensure that every worker should have good regular work +for decent wages. + +In arriving at this conclusion, we are far from maintaining that the +public even in its private capacity as a body of consumers could do +nothing. A certain portion of responsibility rests on the public, as we +saw it rested on employers and on middlemen. But the malady is rightly +traceable in its full force neither to the action of individuals nor of +industrial classes, but to the relation which subsists between these +individuals and classes; that is, to the nature and character of the +industrial system in its present working. This may seem a vague +statement, but it is correct; the desire to be prematurely definite has +led to a narrow conception of the "sweating" malady, which more than +anything else has impeded efforts at reform. + + + + +Chapter V. + +The Causes of Sweating. + + + +§ 1. The excessive Supply of Low-skilled Labour.--Turning to the +industrial system for an explanation of the evils of "Sweating," we +shall find three chief factors in the problem; three dominant aspects +from which the question may be regarded. They are sometimes spoken of as +the causes of sweating, but they are better described as conditions, and +even as such are not separate, but closely related at various points. + +The first condition of "sweating" is an abundant and excessive supply of +low-skilled and inefficient labour. It needs no parade of economic +reasoning to show that where there are more persons willing to do a +particular kind of work than are required, the wages for that work, if +free competition is permitted, cannot be more than what is just +sufficient to induce the required number to accept the work. In other +words, where there exists any quantity of unemployed competitors for +low-skilled work, wages, hours of labour, and other conditions of +employment are so regulated, as to present an attraction which just +outweighs the alternatives open to the unemployed, viz. odd jobs, +stealing, starving, and the poor-house. In countries where access to +unused land is free, the productiveness of labour applied to such land +marks the minimum of wages possible; in countries where no such access +is possible, the minimum wages of unskilled labour, whenever the supply +exceeds the demand, is determined by the attractiveness of the +alternatives named above. + +A margin of unemployed labour means a bare subsistence wage for low- +skilled labour, and it means this wage earned under industrial +conditions, such as we find under the "sweating system." In order to +keep the wage of low-skilled labour down to this minimum, which can only +rise with an improvement in the alternatives, it is not required that +there should at any time exist a large number of unemployed. A very +small number, in effective competition with those employed, will be +quite as effectual in keeping down the rate of wages. The same applies +to all grades of skilled labour, with this important difference, that +the minimum wage can never fall below what is required to induce less +skilled workers to acquire and apply the extra skill which will enable +them to furnish the requisite supply of highly-skilled workers. Trade +Unions have instinctively directed all their efforts to preventing the +competition of unemployed workers in their respective trades from +pulling down to its minimum the rate of wages. The strongest of those +have succeeded in establishing a standard wage less than which no one +shall accept; unemployed men, who in free competition would accept less +than this standard wage, are supported by the funds of the Union, that +they may not underbid. Unions of comparatively unskilled workers, who +are never free from the competition of unemployed, and who cannot +undertake permanently to buy off all competitors ready to underbid, +endeavour to limit the numbers of their members, and to prevent +outsiders from effectively competing with them in the labour market, in +order that by restricting the supply of labour, they may prevent a fall +of wages. The importance of these movements for us consists in their +firm but tacit recognition of the fact, that an excessive supply of +unskilled labour lies at the root of the industrial disease of +"sweating." + +§ 2. The Contributing Causes of excessive Supply.--The last two chapters +have dealt with the principal large industrial movements which bear on +this supply of excessive low-skilled labour; but to make the question +clear, it will be well to enumerate the various contributing causes. + +[Greek: a]. The influx of rural population into the towns constantly +swells the supply of raw unskilled labour. The better quality of this +agricultural labour, as we saw, does not continue to form part of this +glut, but rises into more skilled and higher paid strata of labour. The +worse quality forms a permanent addition to the mass of inefficient +labour competing for bare subsistence wages. + +[Greek: b]. The steady flow of cheap unskilled foreign labour into our +large cities, especially into London, swollen by occasional floods of +compulsory exiles, adds an element whose competition as a part of the +mass of unskilled labour is injurious out of proportion to its numerical +amount. + +[Greek: g]. Since this foreign immigration weakens the industrial +condition of our low-skilled native labour by increasing the supply, it +will be evident that any cause which decreases the demand for such +labour will operate in the same way. The free importation from abroad of +goods which compete in our markets with the goods which "sweated" labour +is applied to make, has the same effect upon the workers in "sweating" +trades as the introduction of cheap foreign labour. The one diminishes +the demand, the other increases the supply of unskilled or low-skilled +labour. The import of quantities of German-made cheap clothing into East +London shops, to compete with native manufacture of the same goods, will +have precisely the same force in maintaining "sweating," as will the +introduction of German workers, who shall make these same clothes in +East London itself. In each case, the purchasing public reaps the +advantage of cheap labour in low prices, while the workers suffer in low +wages. The contention that English goods made at home must be exported +to pay for the cheap German goods, furnishes no answer from the point of +view of the low-skilled worker, unless these exports embody the kind of +labour of which he is capable. + +[Greek: d]. The constant introduction of new machinery, as a substitute +for skilled hand-labour, by robbing of its value the skill of certain +classes of workers, adds these to the supply of low-skilled labour. + +[Greek: e]. The growth of machinery and of education, by placing women +and young persons more upon an equality with male adult labour, swells +the supply of low-skilled labour in certain branches of work. Women and +young persons either take the places once occupied by men, or undertake +new work (e.g. in post-office or telegraph-office), which would once +have been open only to the competition of men. This growth of the direct +or indirect competition of women and young persons, must be considered +as operating to swell the general supply of unskilled labour. + +[Greek: z]. In London another temporary, but important, factor must be +noted. The competition of provincial factories has proved too strong for +London factories in many industries. Hence of late years a gradual +transfer of manufacture from London to the provinces. A large number of +workers in London factories have found themselves out of work. The +break-up of the London factories has furnished "sweating trades" with a +large quantity of unemployed and starving people from whom to draw. + +Regarded from the widest economic point of view, the existence of an +excessive supply of labour seeking employments open to free competition +must be regarded as the most important aspect of the "sweating system." +The recent condition of the competition for casual dock-labour brought +dramatically to the foreground this factor in the labour question. The +struggle for livelihood was there reduced to its lowest and most brutal +terms. "There is a place at the London Docks called the cage, a sort of +pen fenced off by iron railings. I have seen three hundred half-starved +dockers crowded round this cage, when perhaps a ganger would appear +wanting three hands, and the awful struggle of these three hundred +famished wretches fighting for that opportunity to get two or three +hours' work has left an impression upon me that can never be effaced. +Why, I have actually seen them clambering over each other's backs to +reach the coveted ticket. I have frequently seen men emerge bleeding and +breathless, with their clothes pretty well torn off their backs." The +competition described in this picture only differs from other +competitions for low-skilled town labour in as much as the conditions of +tender gave a tragical concentration to the display of industrial +forces. This picture, exaggerated as it will appear to those who have +not seen it, brings home to us the essential character of free +competition for low-skilled labour where the normal supply is in excess +of the demand. If other forms of low-skilled labour were put up to be +scrambled for in the same public manner, the scene would be repeated _ad +nauseam_. But because the competition of seamstresses, tailors, shirt- +finishers, fur-sewers, &c., is conducted more quietly and privately, it +is not less intense, not less miserable, and not less degrading. This +struggle for life in the shape of work for bare subsistence wages, is +the true logical and necessary outcome of free competition among an over +supply of low-skilled labourers. + +§ 3. The Multiplication of "Small Masters."--Having made so much +progress in our analysis, we shall approach more intelligently another +important aspect of the "sweating system." Mr. Booth and other +investigators find the tap-root of the disease to consist in the +multiplication of small masters. The leading industrial forces of the +age, as we have seen, make for the concentration of labour in larger and +larger masses, and its employment in larger and larger factories. Yet in +London and in certain other large centres of population, we find certain +trades which are still conducted on a small scale in little workshops or +private houses, and those trades furnish a very large proportion of the +worst examples of "sweating." Here is a case of arrested development in +the evolution of industry. It is even worse than that; for some trades +which had been subject to the concentrating force of the factory system, +have fallen into a sort of back-wash of the industrial current, and +broken up again into smaller units. The increased proportion of the +clothing industries conducted in private houses and small workshops is +the most notorious example. This applies not only to East London, but to +Liverpool, Leeds, Sheffield, and other large cities, especially where +foreign labour has penetrated. For a large proportion of the sweating +workshops, especially in clothing trades, are supported by foreign +labour. In Liverpool during the last ten years the substitution of home- +workers for workers in tailors' shops has been marked, and in particular +does this growth of home-workers apply to women. + +A credible witness before the Lords' Committee stated that "at the +present moment it would be safe to say that two-thirds of the sweaters +in Liverpool are foreigners," coming chiefly from Germany and Russian +Poland. In Leeds sixteen years ago there were only twelve Jewish +workshops; there are now some hundreds. + +Since a very large proportion of the worst sweating occurs in trades +where the work is given out, either directly or by the medium of sub- +contract, to home-workers, it is natural that stress should be laid upon +the small private workshops as the centre of the disease. If the work +could only be got away from the home and the small workshop, where +inspection is impracticable, and done in the factory or large workshop, +where limitations of hours of labour and sanitary conditions could be +enforced, where the force of public opinion could secure the payment of +decent wages, and where organization among workers would be possible, +the worst phases of the malady would disappear. The abolition of the +small workshop is the great object of a large number of practical +reformers who have studied the sweating system. The following opinion of +an expert witness is endorsed by many students of the question--"If the +employers were compelled to obtain workshops, and the goods were made +under a factory system, we believe that they could be made quite as +cheaply under that system, with greater comfort to the workers, in +shorter hours; and that the profits would then be distributed among the +workers, so that the public would obtain their goods at the same +price."[25] It is maintained that the inferior qualities of shoes are +produced and sold more cheaply in the United States by a larger use of +machinery under the factory system, than in London under a sweating +system, though wages are, of course, much higher in America. Moreover, +many of the products of the London sweating trades are competing on +almost equal terms with the products of provincial factories, where +machines are used instead of hand-labour. + +§ 4. Economic Advantages of "Small Workshops."--The question we have to +answer is this--Why has the small workshop survived and grown up in +London and other large cities, in direct antagonism to the prevalent +industrial movement of the age? It is evident that the small workshop +system must possess some industrial advantages which enable it to hold +its own. The following considerations throw light upon this subject. + +1. A larger proportion of the work in sweating trades is work for which +there is a very irregular demand. Irregularity of employment, or, more +accurately speaking, insufficiency of employment--for the "irregularity" +is itself regular--forms one of the most terrible phases of the sweating +system. The lower you descend in the ranks of labour the worse it is. A +large number of the trades, especially where women are employed, are +trades where the elements of "season" and fashion enter in. But even +those which, like tailoring, shirtmaking, shoemaking, furniture and +upholstery, would seem less subject to periodic or purely capricious +changes, are liable in fact to grave and frequent fluctuations of the +market. The average employment in sweating trades is roughly estimated +at three or four days in the week. There are two busy seasons lasting +some six weeks each, when these miserable creatures are habitually +overworked. "The remaining nine months," says Mr. Burnett, "do not +average more than half time, especially among the lower grade workers." + +This gives us one clue to the ability of the small workshop to survive-- +its superior flexibility from the point of view of the employer. + +"High organization makes for regularity; low organization lends itself +to the opposite. A large factory cannot stop at all without serious +loss; a full-sized workshop will make great efforts to keep going; but +the man who employs only two or three others in his own house can, if +work fails, send them all adrift to pick up a living as best they +can."[26] + +Since a smaller sweating-master can set up business on some £2 capital, +and does not expect to make much more profit as employer than as +workman, he is able to change from one capacity to the other with great +facility. + +2. The high rent for large business premises, especially in London, +makes for the small workshop or home-work system. The payment of rent is +thus avoided by the business firm which is the real employer, and thrown +upon the sub-contractor or the workers themselves, to be by them in +their turn generally evaded by using the dwelling-room for a workshop. +Thus one of the most glaring evils of the sweating system is seen to +form a distinct economic advantage in the workshop, as compared with the +large factory. The element of rent is practically eliminated as an +industrial charge. + +3. The evasion of the restrictions of the Factory Act must be regarded +as another economic advantage. Excessive hours of labour when +convenient, overcrowding in order to avoid rent, absence of proper +sanitary conditions, are essential to the cheapest forms of production +under present conditions. It does not pay either the employing firm or +the sub-contractor to consider the health or even the life of the +workers, provided that the state of the labour market is such that they +can easily replace spent lives. + +4. The inability to combine for their mutual protection and advantage of +scattered employés working in small bodies, living apart, and +unacquainted even with the existence of one another, is another +"cheapness" of the workshop system. + +5. The fact that so large a proportion of master-sweaters are Jews has a +special significance. It seems to imply that the poorer class of +immigrant Jews possess a natural aptitude for the position, and that +their presence in our large cities furnishes the corner-stone of the +vicious system. Independence and mastery are conditions which have a +market value for all men, but especially for the timid and often down- +trodden Jew. Most men will contentedly receive less as master than as +servant, but especially the Jew. We saw that the immigrant Jew, by his +capacities and inclinations, was induced to make special efforts to +substitute work of management for manual labour, and to become a profit- +maker instead of a wage-earner. The Jew craves the position of a +sweating-master, because that is the lowest step in a ladder which may +lead to a life of magnificence, supported out of usury. The Jewish Board +of Guardians in London, though its philanthropic action is on the whole +more enlightened than that of most wealthy public bodies, has been +responsible in no small measure for this artificial multiplication of +small masters. A very large proportion of the funds which they dispensed +was given or lent in small sums in order to enable poor Jews "to set up +for themselves." The effect of this was twofold. It first assisted to +draw to London numbers of continental Jews, who struggled as "greeners" +under sweaters for six months, until they were qualified for assistance +from the Jewish Board of Guardians. It then enabled them to set up as +small masters, and sweat other "greeners" as they themselves were +sweated. It was quite true that the object of such charity was the most +useful which any society could undertake; namely, that of assisting the +industrially weak to stand on their own legs. But it was unfortunately +true that this early stage of independence was built upon the miserable +dependence of other workers. + +6. But while, as we see, there are many special conditions which, in +London especially, favour the small workshop, the most important will be +found to consist in the large supply of cheap unskilled labour. This is +the real material out of which the small workshop system is built. In +dealing with the other conditions, we shall find that they all +presuppose this abundant supply of labour. If labour were more scarce, +and wages therefore higher, the small workshop would be impossible, for +the absolute economy of labour, effected by the factory organization +with its larger use of machinery, would far outweigh the number of small +economies which, as we have seen, at present in certain trades, favour +and make possible the small workshop. Every limitation in the supply of +this low-skilled labour, every expansion of the alternatives offered by +emigration, access to free land, &c., will be effectual in crushing a +number of the sweating workshops, and favouring the large factory at +their expense. + +§ 5. Irresponsibility of Employers.--The third view of the sweating +System lays stress upon its moral aspect, and finds its chief cause in +the irresponsibility of the employer. Now we have already seen that this +severance of the personal relation between employer and employed is a +necessary result of the establishment of the large factory as the +industrial unit, and of the ever-growing complexity of modern commerce. +It is not merely that the widening gap of social position between +employer and employed, and the increased number of the latter, make the +previous close relation impossible. Quite as important is the fact that +the real employer in modern industry is growing more "impersonal." What +we mean is this. The nominal employer or manager is not the real +employer. The real employer of labour is capital, and it is to the +owners of the capital in any business that we must chiefly look for the +exercise of such responsibility as rightly subsists between employer and +employed. Now, while it is calculated that one-eighth of the business of +England is in the hands of joint-stock companies, constituting far more +than one-eighth of the large businesses, in the great majority of other +cases, where business is conducted on a large scale, the head of the +business is to a great extent a mere manager of other people's capital. +Thus while the manager's sense of personal responsibility is weakened by +the number of "hands" whom he employs, his freedom of action is likewise +crippled by his obligation to subserve the interests of a body of +capitalists who are in ignorance of the very names and number of the +human beings whose destiny they are controlling. The severance of the +real "employer" from his "hands" is thus far more complete than would +appear from mere attention to the growth in the size of the average +business. Now it must not be supposed that this severance of the +personal relation between employer and employed is of necessity a loss +to the latter. There is no reason to suppose that the close relation +subsisting in the old days between the master and his journeymen and +apprentices was as a rule idyllically beautiful. No doubt the control of +the master was often vexatious and despotic. The tyranny of a heartless +employer under the old system was probably much more injurious than the +apathy of the most vulgar plutocrat of to-day. The employé under the +modern system is less subject to petty spite and unjust interference on +the part of his employer. In this sense he is more free. But on the +other hand, he has lost that guarantee against utter destitution and +degradation afforded by the humanity of the better class of masters. He +has exchanged a human nexus for a "cash nexus." The nominal freedom of +this cash relationship is in the case of the upper strata of workmen +probably a real freedom; the irresponsibility of their employers has +educated them to more self-reliance, and strengthened a healthy +personality in them. It is the lower class of workers who suffer. More +and more they need the humanity of the responsible employer to protect +them against the rigours of the labour-market. The worst miseries of the +early factory times were due directly to the break-up of the +responsibility of employers. This was slowly recognized by the people of +England, and the series of Factory Acts, Employers' Liability Acts, and +other measures for the protection of labour, must be regarded as a +national attempt to build up a compulsory legal responsibility to be +imposed upon employers in place of a natural responsibility based on +moral feeling. We draft legislation and appoint inspectors to teach +employers their duty towards employés, and to ensure that they do it. +Thus in certain industries we have patched up an artificial mechanism of +responsibility. + +Wherever this legal responsibility is not enforced in the case of low- +skilled workers, we have, or are liable to have, "sweating." Glancing +superficially at the small workshop or sweating-den, it might seem that +this being a mere survival of the old system, the legal enforcement of +responsibility would be unnecessary. But it is not a mere survival. In +the small workshop of the old system the master was the real employer. +In the modern "sweating" den he is not the real employer, but a mere +link between the employing firm and the worker. From this point of view +we must assign as the true cause of sweating, the evasion of the legal +responsibility of the Factory Act rendered possible to firms which +employ outside workers either directly or indirectly through the agency +of "sweaters." Although it might be prudent as a means of breaking up +the small workshop to attempt to impose upon the "middleman" the legal +responsibility, genuine reform directed to this aspect of "sweating," +can only operate by making the real employing firm directly responsible +for the industrial condition of its outdoor direct or indirect employés. + +This responsibility imposed by law has been strengthened as an effective +safeguard of the interests of the workers by combination among the +latter. In skilled industries where strong trade organization exists, +the practical value of such combination exceeds the value of restrictive +legislation. + +"In their essence Trade Unions are voluntary associations of workmen, +for mutual protection and assistance in securing the most favourable +conditions of labour." "This is their primary and fundamental object, +and includes all efforts to raise wages or prevent a reduction of wages; +to diminish the hours of labour or resist attempts to increase the +working hours; and to regulate all matters pertaining to methods of +employment or discharge, and modes of working."[27] Engineers, boiler- +makers, cotton-spinners, printers, would more readily give up the +assistance given them by legislative restriction than the power which +they have secured for themselves by combination. It is in proportion as +trade combination is weak that the actual protection afforded by Factory +and Employers' Liability Acts become important. Just as we saw that +sweating trades were those which escaped the legislative eye; so we see +that they are also the trades where effective combination does not +exist. Where Trade Unions are strong, sweating cannot make any way. The +State aid of restrictive legislation, and the self help of private +combination are alike wanting to the "sweated" workers. + + + + +Chapter VI. + +Remedies for Sweating. + + + +§ 1. Factory Legislation. What it can do.--Having now set forth the +three aspects of the industrial disease of "Sweating"--the excessive +supply of unskilled labour, the multiplication of small employers, the +irresponsibility of capital--we have next to ask, What is the nature of +the proposed remedies? Since any full discussion of the different +remedies is here impossible, it must suffice if we briefly indicate the +application of the chief proposed remedies to the different aspects of +the disease. These remedies will fairly fall into three classes. + +The first class aim at attacking by legislative means, the small +workshop system, and the evils of long hours and unsanitary conditions +from which the "sweated" workers suffer. Briefly, it may be said that +they seek to increase and to enforce the legal responsibility of +employers, and indirectly to crush the small workshop system by turning +upon it the wholesome light of publicity, and imposing certain irksome +and expensive conditions which will make its survival in its worst and +ugliest shapes impossible. The most practical recommendation of the +Report of the Lords' Committee is an extension of the sanitary clauses +of the Factory Act, so as to reach all workshops. + +We have seen that the unrestricted use of cheap labour is the essence of +"sweating." If the wholesome restrictions of our Factory Legislation +were in fact extended so as to cover all forms of employment, they would +so increase the expenses of the sweating houses, that they would fall +before the competition of the large factory system. Karl Marx writing a +generation ago saw this most clearly. "But as regards labour in the so- +called domestic industries, and the intermediate forms between this and +manufacture, so soon as limits are put to the working day and to the +employment of children, these industries go to the wall. Unlimited +exploitation of cheap labour power is the sole foundation of their power +to compete."[28] + +The effectiveness of the existing Factory Act, so far as relates to +small workshops, is impaired by the following considerations-- + +1. The difficulty in finding small workshops. There is no effectual +registration of workshops, and the number of inspectors is inadequate to +the elaborate and tedious method of search imposed by the present +system. + +2. The limitation as to right of entry. The power of inspectors to +"enter, inspect, and examine at all reasonable times by day or night, a +factory or a workshop, and every part thereof, when he has reason to +believe that any person is employed therein, and to enter by day any +place he has reasonable cause to believe to be a factory or workshop," +is in fact not applicable in the case of dwelling-rooms used for +workshops. In a large number of cases of the worst form of "sweating," +the inspector has no right of entrance but by consent of the occupant, +and the time which elapses before such consent is given suffices to +enable the "sweater" to adjust matters so as to remove all evidence of +infringements of the law. + +3. The restricted power in reference to sanitation. A factory inspector +has no sanitary powers; he cannot act save through the sanitary officer. +The machinery of sanitary reform thus loses effectiveness. + +Compulsory registration of workshops, adequate inspection, and reform of +machinery of sanitary reform, would be of material value in dealing with +some of the evils of the small workshop. But it would by no means put an +end to "sweating." So far as it admitted the continuance of the small +workshop, it would neither directly nor indirectly abate the evil of low +wages. It is even possible that any rapid extension of the Factory Act +might, by limiting the amount of employment in small workshops, increase +for a time the misery of those low-skilled workers, who might be +incapable of undertaking regular work in the larger factory. It is, at +any rate, not evident that such legislative reform would assist low- +class workers to obtain decent wages and regular employment, though it +would improve the other conditions under which they worked. + +Again, existing factory legislation by no means covers even +theoretically the whole field of "sweating." Public-houses, restaurants, +all shops and places of amusement, laundries, and certain other +important forms of employment, which escape the present factory +legislation, are in their lower branches liable to the evils of +"sweating," and should be included under such factory legislation as +seeks to remedy these evils. + +§ 2. Co-operative Production.--The organization of labour is the second +form of remedy. It is urged that wherever effective organization exists +in any trade, there is no danger of sweating. We have therefore, it is +maintained, only to organize the lower grades of labour, and "sweating" +will cease to exist. There are two forms of organization commonly +advocated, Co-operation and Trade Unionism. + +The suggestion that the poorer grades of workers should by co-operative +production seek to relieve themselves from the stress of poverty and the +tyranny of the "sweating system," is a counsel of perfection far removed +from the possibility of present attainment. No one who has closely +studied the growth of productive co-operation in England will regard it +as a practicable remedy for poverty. Productive co-operation is +successful at present only in rare cases among skilled workmen of +exceptional morale and education. It is impossible that it should be +practised by low-skilled, low-waged workers, under industrial conditions +like those of to-day. It is surprising to find that the Lords' Committee +in its final report should have given prominence to schemes of co- +operation as a cure for the disease. The following paragraph correctly +sums up experience upon the subject-- + +"Productive societies have been from time to time started in East +London, but their career has been neither long nor brilliant. They have +often had a semi-philanthropic basis, and have been well-meant but +hopeless attempts to supersede 'sweating' by co-operation. None now +working are of sufficient importance to be mentioned."[29] + +The place which productive and distributive co-operation is destined to +occupy in the history of the industrial freedom and elevation of the +masses doubtless will be of the first importance. To look forward to a +time when the workers of the community may be grouped in co-operative +bodies, either competing with one another, or related by some bond which +shall minimize the friction of competition, while not impairing the +freedom and integrity of each several group, is not perhaps a wild +utopian vision. To students of English industrial history the transition +to such a state will not appear more marked than the transition through +which industry passed under the Industrial Revolution to the present +capitalist system. But the recognition of this possible future does not +justify us in suggesting productive co-operation as a present remedy for +the poverty of low-skilled city workers. These latter must rise several +steps on the industrial and moral ladder before they are brought within +the reach of the co-operative remedy. It is with the cost and labour of +these early steps that the students of the problem of present poverty +must concern themselves. + +§ 3. Trade Unionism. Ability of Workers to combine. Trade Unionism is a +more hopeful remedy. Large bodies of workers have by this means helped +to raise themselves from a condition of industrial weakness to one of +industrial strength. Why should not close combination among workers in +low-paid and sweating industries be attended with like results? Why +should not the men and women working in "sweating" trades combine, and +insist upon higher wages, shorter hours, more regular employment, and +better sanitary conditions? Well, it may be regarded as an axiom in +practical economies, that any concerted action, however weak and +desultory, has its value. Union is always strength. An employer who can +easily resist any number of individual claims for higher wages by his +power to replace each worker by an outsider, can less easily resist the +united pressure of a large body of his workmen, because the +inconvenience of replacing them all at once by a body of outsiders, is +far greater than the added difficulty of replacing each of them at +separate intervals of time. This is the basis of the power of concerted +action among workers. But the measure of this power depends in the main +upon two considerations. + +First comes the degree of effectiveness in combination. The prime +requisites for effective combination are a spirit of comradeship and +mutual trust, knowledge and self-restraint in the disposition of united +force. Education and free and frequent intercourse can alone establish +these elements of effective combination. And here the first difficulty +for workers in "sweating" trades appears. Low-skilled work implies a low +degree of intelligence and education. The sweating industries, as we +have seen, are as a rule those which escape the centralizing influence +of the factory System, and where the employés work, either singly or in +small groups, unknown to one another, and with few opportunities of +forming a close mutual understanding. In some employments this local +severance belongs to the essence of the work, as, for example, in the +case of cab-drivers, omnibus-drivers, and generally in shop-work, where, +in spite of the growth of large stores, small masters still predominate; +in other employments the disunion of workers forms a distinct commercial +advantage which enables such low-class industries to survive, as in the +small workshop and the home-labour, which form the central crux of our +sweating problem. The very lack of leisure, and the incessant strain +upon the physique which belong to "sweating," contribute to retard +education, and to render mutual acquaintanceship and the formation of a +distinct trade interest extremely difficult. How to overcome these grave +difficulties which stand in the way of effective combination among +unskilled workers is a consideration of the first importance. The rapid +and momentarily successful action of organized dock labourers must not +be taken as conclusive evidence that combination in all other branches +of low-class labour can proceed at the same pace. The public and +localized character of the competition for casual dock labour rendered +effective combination here possible, in spite of the low intellectual +and moral calibre of the average labourer. It is the absence of such +public and localized competition which is the kernel of the difficulty +in most "sweating" trades. It may be safely said that the measure of +progress in organization of low class labour will be the comparative +size and localization of the industrial unit. Where "sweating" exists in +large factories or large shops, effective combination even among workers +of low education may be tolerably rapid; among workers engaged by some +large firm whose work brings them only into occasional contact, the +progress will be not so fast; among workers in small unrelated workshops +who have no opportunities of direct intercourse with one another, the +progress will be extremely slow. The most urgent need of organization is +precisely in those industries where it is most difficult to organize. It +is, on the whole, not reasonable to expect that this remedy, unless +aided by other forces working against the small workshops, will enable +the "hands" in the small sweater's den to materially improve their +condition. + +§ 4. Trade Union Methods of limiting Competition.--So far we have +regarded the value of combination as dependent on the ability of workers +to combine. There is another side which cannot be neglected. Two +societies of workmen equally strong in the moral qualities of successful +union may differ widely in the influence they can exert to secure and +improve their position. We saw that the real value of organization to a +body of workmen lay in the power it gave them to make it inconvenient +for an employer to dispense with their services in favour of outsiders. +Now the degree of this inconvenience will obviously depend in great +measure upon the number of outsiders qualified by strength and skill to +take their place without delay. The whole force of Unionism hangs on +"the unemployed." The strongest and most effective Unions are in trades +where there are the smallest number of unemployed competitors; the +weakest Unions are in trades which are beset by crowds of outsiders able +and willing to undertake the work, and if necessary to underbid those +who are employed. + +Close attention to the composition and working of our Trade Unions +discloses the fact that their chief object is to limit the competition +for work in their respective trades. Since their methods are sometimes +indirect, this is sometimes denied, but the following statement of Trade +Union methods makes it clear. The minimum or standard rate of wages +plays a prominent part in Unionism. It is arbitrarily fixed by the +Union, which in its estimate takes into account, [Greek: a]. prices paid +for articles produced; [Greek: b]. a reasonable standard of comfort; +[Greek: g]. and remuneration for time spent in acquiring necessary +skill.[30] This is an estimate, it must be remembered, of a "fair wage," +based upon calculations as to what is just and reasonable, and does not +necessarily correspond to the economic wage obtainable in a +neighbourhood by the free competition of labour and capital. Now this +standard wage, which may or may not be the wage actually paid, plays a +very prominent part in Unionism. The point of importance here is its +bearing on the admission of new members. The candidate for membership +has, as his principal qualification, to show that he is capable of +earning the standard rate of wages. It is evident, however, that the +effect of any large new accession to the ranks of any trade must, unless +there is a corresponding growth of employment, bring down the rate of +wages, whether these be fixed by a Trade Union standard or not. Hence it +is evident that any Trade Union would be bound to refuse admission to +new applicants who, though they might be in other respects competent +workmen, could not find work without under-bidding those who were at +present occupied. This they would do by reason of their standard wage +qualification, for they would be able to show that the new applicants +would not be competent to earn standard wages under the circumstances. +How far Trade Unions actually have conscious recourse to this method of +limiting their numbers, may be doubted; but no one acquainted with the +spirit of Trades Unions would believe that if a sudden growth of +technical schools enabled large numbers of duly qualified youths to +apply for admission into the various Unions so as to compete for the +same quantity of work with the body of existing members, the Unions of +the latter would freely and cheerfully admit them. To do so would be +suicidal, for no standard rate of wages could stand against the pressure +of an increased supply of labour upon a fixed demand. But it is not +necessary to suppose that any considerable number of actually qualified +workmen are refused admission to Trade Unions of skilled workers. For +the possession of the requisite skill, implying as it does a certain +natural capacity, and an expenditure of time and money not within the +power of the poorest classes, forms a practical limit to the number of +applicants. Moreover, in many trades, though by no means in all, +restrictions are placed by the Unions upon the number of apprentices, +with the object of limiting the number of those who should from year to +year be qualified to compete for work. In other trades where no rigid +rule to this effect exists, there is an understanding which is equally +effective. Certain trades, such as the engineers, boiler-makers, and +other branches of iron trade, place no restrictions, and in certain +other trades the restrictions are not closely applied. But most of the +strong Trades Unions protect themselves in another way against the +competition of unemployed. By a System of "out of work" pay, they bribe +those of their body, who from time to time are thrown out of work, not +to underbid those in work, so as to bring down the rate of wages. +Several of the most important Unions pay large sums every year to "out +of work" members. By these three means, the "minimum wage" qualification +for membership, the limitation of the number of apprentices, and the +"out of work" fund, the Trade Unions strengthen the power of organized +labour in skilled industries by restricting the competition of +unemployed outsiders. + +It is true that some of the leading exponents of Trade Unionism deny +that the chief object of the Unions is to limit competition. Mr. Howell +considers that the "standard wage" qualification for membership is +designed in order to ensure a high standard of workmanship, and regards +the "out of work" fund merely as belonging to the insurance or +prudential side of Trade Unionism. But though it may readily be admitted +that one effect of these measures may be to maintain good workmanship +and to relieve distress, it is reasonable to regard the most important +result actually attained as being the object chiefly sought. It is fair +to suppose, therefore, that while Unionists may not be indifferent to +the honour of their craft, their principal object is to strengthen their +economic position. At any rate, whatever the intention of Trade Unions +may be, the principal effect of their regulations is to limit the +effective supply of competing labour in their respective branches of +industry. + +§ 5. Can Low-skilled Workers successfully combine?--Now the question +which concerns our inquiry may be stated thus. Supposing that the +workers in "sweating" industries were able to combine, would they be +able to secure themselves against outside competition as the skilled +worker does? Will their combination practically increase the difficulty +in replacing them by outsiders? Now it will be evident that the +unskilled or low-skilled workers cannot depend upon the methods which +are adopted by Unions of skilled workers, to limit the number of +competitors for work. A test of physical fitness, such as was recently +proposed as a qualification for admission to the Dock-labourers Union, +will not, unless raised far above the average fitness of present +members, limit the number of applicants to anything like the same extent +as the test of workmanship in skilled industries. Neither could rules of +apprenticeship act where the special skill required was very small. Nor +again is it easy to see how funds raised by the contribution of the +poorest classes of workers, could suffice to support unemployed members +when temporarily "out of work," or to buy off the active competition of +outsiders, or "black-legs," to use the term in vogue. The constant +influx of unskilled labour from the rural districts and from abroad, +swollen by the numbers of skilled workmen whose skill has been robbed of +its value by machinery, keeps a large continual margin of unemployed, +able and willing to undertake any kind of unskilled or low-skilled +labour, which will provide a minimum subsistence wage. The very success +which attends the efforts of skilled workers to limit the effective +supply of their labour by making it more difficult for unskilled workers +to enter their ranks, increases the competition for low-skilled work, +and makes effective combination among low-skilled workers more +difficult. Though we may not be inclined to agree with Prof. Jevons, +that "it is quite impossible for Trade Unions in general to effect any +permanent increase of wages," there is much force in his conclusion, +that "every rise of wages which one body secures by mere exclusive +combination, represents a certain extent, sometimes a large extent, of +injury to the other bodies of workmen."[31] In so far as Unions of +skilled workers limit their numbers, they increase the number of +competitors for unskilled work; and since wages cannot rise when the +supply of labour obtainable at the present rate exceeds the demand, +their action helps to maintain that "bare subsistence wage," which forms +a leading feature in "sweating." + +Are we then to regard Unions of low-skilled workers as quite impotent so +long as they are beset by the competition of innumerable outsiders? Can +combination contribute nothing to a solution of the sweating problem? +There are two ways in which close combination might seem to avail low- +skilled workers in their endeavours to secure better industrial +conditions. + +In the first place, close united action of a large body of men engaged +in any employment gives them, as we saw, a certain power dependent on +the inconvenience and expense they can cause to their employers by a +sudden withdrawal. This power is, of course, in part measured by the +number of unemployed easily procurable to take their place. But granted +the largest possible margin of unemployed, there will always be a +certain difficulty and loss in replacing a united body of employés by a +body of outsiders, though the working capacity of each new-comer may be +equal to that of each member of the former gang. This power belonging +inherently to those in possession, and largely dependent for its +practical utility on close unity of action, may always be worked by a +trade organization to push the interests of its members independently of +the supply of free outside labour, and used by slow degrees may be made +a means of gaining piece by piece a considerable industrial gain. Care +must, however, be taken, never to press for a larger gain than is +covered by the difficulty of replacing the body of present employés by +outside labour. Miscalculations of the amount of this inherent power of +Union are the chief causes of "lock-outs" and failures in strikes. + +Another weapon in the hands of unskilled combination, less calculable in +its effectiveness, is the force of public opinion aided by "picketing," +and the other machinery of persuasion or coercion used to prevent the +effective competition of "free" labour. In certain crises, as for +example in the Dock strike of 1889, these forces may operate so +powerfully as to strictly limit the supply of labour, and to shut out +the competition of unemployed. There can be no reason to doubt that if +public authority had not winked at illegal coercion of outside labour, +and public opinion touched by sentiment condoned the winking, the Dock +strike would have failed as other movements of low-skilled labour have +generally failed. The success of the Dockers is no measure of the power +of combination among low-skilled labourers. It is possible, however, +that a growing sense of comradeship, aided by a general recognition of +the justice of a claim, may be generally relied upon to furnish a +certain force which shall restrict the competition of free labour in +critical junctures of the labour movement. If public opinion, especially +among workmen, becomes strongly set in favour of letting capital and +labour "fight it out" in cases of trade disputes, and vigorously resents +all interference of outsiders offering to replace the contending +labourers, it seems likely that this practical elimination of outside +competition may enable combinations of unskilled workmen to materially +improve their condition in spite of the existence of a large supply of +outside labour able to replace them. + +§ 6. Can Trade Unionism crush out "Sweating"?--But here again it must be +recognized that each movement of public opinion in this direction is +really making for the establishment of new trade monopolies, which tend +to aggravate the condition of free unemployed labour. Unions of low- +skilled labour can only be successful at the expanse of outsiders, who +will find it increasingly difficult to get employment. The success of +combinations of low-skilled workers will close one by one every avenue +of regular employment to the unemployed, who will tend to become even +more nomadic and predatory in their habits, and more irregular and +miserable in their lives, affording continually a larger field of +operation for the small "sweater," and other forms of "arrested +development" in commerce. It must always be an absorbing interest to a +Trades Union to maintain the industrial welfare of its members by +preventing what it must regard as an "over-supply" of labour. No +organization of labour can effect very much unless it takes measures to +restrict the competition of "free labour"; each Union, by limiting the +number of competitors for its work, increases the competition in trades +not similarly protected. So with every growth of Trade Unionism the +pressure on unprotected bodies of workmen grows greater. Thus it would +seem that while organization of labour may become a real remedy for +"sweating" in any industry to which it is vigorously applied, it cannot +be relied upon ever entirely to crash out the evil. It can only drive it +into a smaller compass, where its intenser character may secure for it +that close and vigorous public attention which, in spite of recent +revelations, has not been yet secured, and compel society to clearly +face the problem of a residue of labour-power which is rotting in the +miserable and degraded bodies of its owners, because all the material on +which it might be productively employed is otherwise engaged. + +§ 7. Public Workshops.--Those who are most active in the spread of +Unionism among the low-skilled branches of industry, are quite aware +that their action, by fencing off section after section of labour from +the fierce competition of outsiders, is rendering the struggle more +intense for the unprotected residuum. So far as they indulge any wider +view than the interest of their special trades, it may be taken that +they design to force the public to provide in some way for the +unemployed or casually employed workers, against whom the gates of each +Union have been successively closed. There can be little doubt that if +Unionism is able to establish itself firmly among the low-skilled +industries, we shall find this margin of unemployed low-skilled labour +growing larger and more desperate, in proportion to the growing +difficulty of finding occupation. Trade Union leaders have boldly avowed +that they will thus compel the State to recognize the "right to +employment," and to provide that employment by means of national or +municipal workshops. With questions of abstract "right" we are not here +concerned, but it may be well to indicate certain economic difficulties +involved in the establishment of public works as a solution of the +"unemployed" problem. Since the "unemployed" will, under the closer +restrictions of growing Trade Unionism, consist more and more of low- +skilled labourers, the public works on which they must be employed must +be branches of low-skilled labour. But the Unions of low-skilled workers +will have been organized with the view of monopolizing all the low- +skilled work which the present needs of the community require to be +done. How then will the public provide low-skilled work for the +unemployed? One of two courses seems inevitable. Either the public must +employ them in work similar to that which is being done by Union men for +private firms, in which case they will enter into competition with the +latter, and either undersell them in the market and take their trade, or +by increasing the aggregate supply of the produce, bring down the price, +and with it the wage of the Union men. Or else if they are not to +compete with the labour of Union men, they must be employed in relief +works, undertaken not to satisfy a public need or to produce a commodity +with a market value, but in order that those employed may, by a wholly +or partially idle expenditure of effort, appear to be contributing to +their own support, whereas they are really just as much recipients of +public charity as if they were kept in actual idleness. This is the +dilemma which has to be faced by advocates of public workshops. Nor can +it be eluded by supposing that the public may use the unemployed labour +either in producing some new utility for the public use, such as +improved street-paving, or a municipal hot-water supply. For if such +undertakings are of a character which a private company would regard as +commercially sound, they ought to be, and will be, undertaken by wise +public bodies independently of the consideration of providing work for +unemployed. If they are not such as would be considered commercially +sound, then in so far as they fall short of commercial soundness, they +will be "charity" pure and simple, given as relief is now given to able- +bodied paupers, on condition of an expenditure of mere effort which is +not a commercial _quid pro quo_. + +If the State or municipality were permitted to conduct business on +ordinary commercial principles, it might indeed be expected to seize the +opportunity afforded by a large supply of unemployed labour, to +undertake new public works at a lower cost than usual. But to take this +advantage of the cheapness of labour is held to be "sweating." Public +bodies are called upon to disregard the rise and fall of market wages, +and to pay "a fair wage," which practically means a wage which is the +same whether labour is plentiful or scarce. This refusal to permit the +ordinary commercial inducement to operate in the case of public bodies, +cuts off what might be regarded as a natural check to the accumulation +of unemployed labour. If public bodies are to employ more labour, when +labour is excessive, and pay a wage which shall be above the market +price, it must be clearly understood that the portion of the wages which +represents the "uncommercial" aspect of the contract is just as much +public charity as the half-crown paid as out-door relief under the +present Poor Law. Lastly, the establishment of State or municipal +workshops for the "unemployed" has no economic connection with the +"socialist" policy, by which the State or municipality should assume +control and management of railways, mines, gas-works, tramways, and +other works into which the element of monopoly enters. Such a +"socialist" policy, if carried out, would not directly afford any relief +to the unemployed. For, in the first place, the labour employed in these +new public departments would be chiefly skilled, and not unskilled. +Moreover, so far as the condition of the "workers" was concerned, the +nationalization, or municipalization of these works would not imply any +increased demand for labour, but merely the transfer of a number of +employés from private to the public service. The public control of +departments of industry, which are now in private hands, would not, so +long as it was conducted on a commercial footing in the public interest, +furnish either direct, or indirect, relief to "the unemployed." A +reduction of hours of labour in the case of workers transferred to the +public service, might afford employment to an increased number of +skilled labourers, and might indirectly operate in reducing the number +of unemployed. But such reduction of hours of labour, like the payment +of wages above the market rate, forms no essential part of a "socialist" +policy, but is rather a charitable appendage. + +§ 8. State Business on uncommercial terms.--It cannot be too clearly +recognized that the payment by a public body of wages which are above +the market price, the payment of pensions, the reduction of hours of +labour, and any other advantages freely conferred, which place public +servants in a better position than private servants, stand on precisely +the same economic footing with the establishment of public workshops for +the relief of the unemployed, in which wages are paid for work which is +deficient in commercial value. In each case the work done has some +value, unless the unemployed are used to dig holes in the ground and +fill them up again; in each case the wages paid for that work are in +excess of the market rate. + +If it were established as a general rule, that public bodies should +always add a "bonus" to the market wage of their employés to bring it up +to "fairness," and take off a portion of the usual "working-day" to +bring it down to "fairness," it would follow quite consistently that a +wage equal to, or exceeding, the minimum market rate might be paid to +"unemployed" for work, the value of which would be somewhat less than +that produced by the lowest class of "employed" workers. The policy +throughout is one and the same, and is based upon a repudiation of +competition as a test of the value of labour, and the substitution of +some other standard derived from moral or prudential considerations. + +So far as the State or Municipality chooses to regulate by an +"uncommercial" or moral standard the conditions of labour for the +limited number of employés required for the services which are a public +monopoly, it is able to do so, provided the public is willing to pay the +price. There is much to be said in favour of such a course, for the +public example might lend invaluable aid in forming a strong public +opinion which should successfully demand decent conditions of life and +work, for the whole body of workers. But if the State or Municipality +were to undertake to provide work and wages for an indefinite number of +men who failed to obtain work in the competition market, the effect +would be to offer a premium upon "unemployment." Thus, it would appear +that as fast as the public works drew off the unemployed, so fast would +men leave the low-paid, irregular occupations, and by placing themselves +in a state of "unemployment" qualify for public service. There would of +course be a natural check to this flow. As the State drained off all +surplus labour, the market value of labour would rise, greater +regularity of employment would be secured, and the general improvement +of industrial conditions would check the tendency of workers to flow +towards the public workshops. This consideration has led many of the +leaders of labour movements to favour a scheme of public workshops, +which would practically mean that the State or Municipality undertook to +limit the supply of labour in the open market, by providing for any +surplus which might exist, at the public expense. The effect of such a +policy would be of course to enormously strengthen the effective power +of labour-organizations. But while the advocates of public workshops are +fully alive to these economic effects, they have not worked out with +equal clearness the question relating to the disposal of the labour in +public workshops. How can the "protected" labour of the public workshops +be so occupied, that its produce may not, by direct or indirect +competition with the produce of outside labour, outweigh the advantage +conferred upon the latter by the removal of the "unemployed" from the +field of competition, in digging holes and filling them up again, or +other useless work, the problem is a simple one. In that case the State +provides maintenance for the weaker members in order that their presence +as competitors for work may not injure the stronger members. But if the +public workmen produce anything of value, by what means can it be kept +from competing with and underselling the goods produced under ordinary +commercial conditions? Without alleging that the difficulties involved +in these questions are necessarily fatal to all schemes of public works, +we maintain that they require to be clearly faced. + +Even if it be held that public workshops can furnish no economic remedy +for poverty, this judgment would of course be by no means conclusive +against public emergency works undertaken on charitable grounds to tide +over a crisis. Every form of charity, public or private, discriminate or +indiscriminate, entails some evil consequences. But this consideration +is not final. A charitable palliative is defensible and useful when the +net advantages outweigh the net disadvantages. This might seem self- +evident, but it requires to be stated, because there are not wanting +individuals and societies which imagine they have disposed of the claim +of charitable remedies by pointing out the evil consequences they +entail. It is evident that circumstances might arise which would compel +the wisest and steadiest Government to adopt public relief works as a +temporary expedient for meeting exceptional distress. + +§ 9. Restriction of Foreign Emigration.--Two further proposals for +keeping down the supply of low-skilled labour deserve notice, and the +more so because they are forcing their way rapidly toward the arena of +practical politics. + +The first is the question of an Alien law limiting or prohibiting the +migration of foreign labourers into England. The power of the German, +Polish, or Russian Jew, accustomed to a lower standard of life, to +undersell the English worker in the English labour market, has already +been admitted as a cause of "sweating" in several city industries. The +importance of this factor in the problem of poverty is, however, a much +disputed point. To some extent these foreign labourers are said to make +new industries, and not to enter into direct and disastrous competition +with native workers. In most cases, however, direct competition between +foreign and native workers does exist, and, as we see, the comparatively +small number of the foreign immigrants compared with the aggregate of +native workers, is no true criterion of the harm their competition does +to low-waged workers. Whether this country will find it wise to reverse +its national policy of free admission to outside labour, it is not easy +to predict. The point should not be misunderstood. Free admission of +cheap foreign labour must be admitted _primâ facie_ to be conducive to +the greatest production of wealth in this country. Those who seek to +restrict or prohibit this admission, do so on the ground that the damage +inflicted upon that class of workers, brought directly or indirectly +into competition for employment with these foreigners, overbalances the +net gain in the aggregate of national wealth. It is this consideration +which has chiefly operated in inducing the United States, Canada, and +Australia to prohibit the admission of Chinese or Coolie labour, and to +place close restrictions upon cheap European labour. Sir Charles Dilke, +in a general summary of colonial policy on this matter, writes, +"Colonial labour seeks protection by legislative means, not only against +the cheap labour of the dark-skinned or of the yellow man, but also +against white paupers, and against the artificial supply of labour by +State-aided white immigration. Most of the countries of the world, +indeed, have laws against the admission of destitute aliens, and the +United Kingdom is in practice almost the only exception."[32] + +The greater contrast between the customary standard of living of the +immigrants and that of the native workers with whom they would compete, +has naturally made the question seem a more vital one for our colonies, +and for the United States than for us. There can, however, be little +doubt that if a few shiploads of Chinese labourers were emptied into the +wharves of East London, whatever Government chanced to be in power would +be compelled to adopt immediate measures of restraint on immigration, so +terrible would the effect be upon the low class European labourers in +our midst. Whether any such Alien legislation will be adopted to meet +the inroad of continental labour depends in large measure on the course +of continental history. It is, however, not improbable that if the +organization of the workers proceeds along the present lines, when they +come to realize their ability to use political power for securing their +industrial position, they may decide that it will be advisable to limit +the supply of labour by excluding foreigners. Those, however, who are +already prepared to adopt such a step, do not always realize as clearly +as they should, that the exclusion of cheap foreigners from our labour- +market will be in all probability accompanied by an exclusion from our +markets of the cheap goods made by these foreigners in their own +country, the admission of which, while it increases the aggregate wealth +of England, inflicts a direct injury on those particular workers, the +demand for whose labour is diminished by the introduction of foreign +goods which can undersell them. If an Alien law is passed, it will bring +both logically and historically in its wake such protective measures as +will constitute a reversal of our present Free Trade policy. Whether +such new and hazardous changes in our national policy are likely to be +made, depends in large measure upon the success of other schemes for +treating the condition of over-supply of low-skilled labour. If no +relief is found from these, it seems not unlikely that a democratic +government will some day decide that such artificial prohibition of +foreign labour, and the foreign goods which compete with the goods +produced by low-skilled English labour, will benefit the low-skilled +workers in their capacity as wage-earners, more than the consequent rise +of prices will injure them in their capacity as consumers. + +§ 10. The "Eight Hours Day" Argument.--The last proposal which deserves +attention, is that which seeks to shorten the average working-day. The +attempt to secure by legislation or by combination an eight hours day, +or its equivalent, might seem to affect the "sweating system" most +directly, as a restriction on excessive hours of labour. But so far as +it claims to strike a blow at the industrial oppression of low-skilled +labour, its importance will depend upon its effect on the demand and +supply of that low-skilled labour. The result which the advocates of an +eight hours day claim for their measure, may be stated as follows-- + +Assuming that low-skilled workers now work on an average twelve hours a +day, a compulsory reduction to eight hours would mean that one-third +more men were required to perform the same amount of work, leaving out +for convenience the question whether an eight hours day would be more +productive than the first eight hours of a twelve hours day. Since the +same quantity of low-skilled work would require to be done, employment +would now be provided for a large number of those who would otherwise +have been unemployed. In fact, if the shorter day is accompanied by an +absolute prohibition of over-time, it seems possible that work would +thus be found for the whole army of "unemployed." Nor is this all. The +existence of a constant standing "pool" of unemployed was, as we saw, +responsible for keeping the wages of low-skilled labour down to a bare +subsistence wage. Let this "pool" be once drained off, wages will +rapidly rise, since the combined action of workers will no longer be +able to be defeated by the eagerness of "outsiders" to take their work +and wages. Thus an eight hours day would at once solve the problem of +the "work-less," and raise the wages of low-skilled labour. The effect +would be precisely the same as if the number of competitors for work +were suddenly reduced. For the price of labour, as of all else, depends +on the relation between the demand for it and the supply, and the price +will rise if the demand is increased while the supply remains the same, +or if the supply is decreased while the demand remains the same. A +compulsory eight hours day would practically mean a shrinkage in the +supply of labour offered in the market, and the first effect would +indisputably be a rise in the price of labour. To reduce by one-third at +a single blow the amount of labour put forth in a day by any class of +workers, is precisely equivalent to a sudden removal of one-third of +these workers from the field of labour. We know from history that the +result of a disastrous epidemic, like the Black Plague, has been to +raise the wages and improve the general condition of the labourer even +in the teeth of legal attempts to keep down wages. The advocates of an +Eight Hours Act assert that the same effect would follow from that +measure. + +Setting aside as foreign to our discussion all consideration of the +difficulties in passing and enforcing an Eight Hours Act, or in applying +it to certain industries, the following economic objection is raised by +opponents to the eight hours movement-- + +The larger aggregate of wages, which must be paid under an eight hours +day, will increase the expanses of production in each industry. For the +increased wage cannot in general be obtained by reducing profits, for +any such reduction will drive freshly-accumulated capital more and more +to seek foreign investments, and managing ability will in some measure +tend to follow it. The higher aggregate of wages must therefore be +represented in a general rise of prices. This rise of prices will have +two effects. In the first place it will tend to largely negative the +higher aggregate of money wages. Or if organized labour, free from the +competition of unemployed, is able to maintain a higher rate of real +wages, the general rise in prices will enable foreign producers to +undersell us in our own market (unless we adopted a Protective Tariff), +and will disable us from competing in foreign markets. This constitutes +the pith of the economic objection raised against an eight hours day. +The eight hours advocates meet the objection in the following ways-- +First, they deny that prices will rise in consequence of the increased +aggregate of wages. A reduction in interest and in wages of +superintendence will take place in many branches of industry, without +any appreciable tendency to diminish the application of capital, or to +drive it out of the country. + +Secondly, the result of an increased expenditure in wages will be to +crush the small factories and workshops, which are the backbone of the +sweating System, and to assist the industrial evolution which makes in +favour of large well-organized factories working with the newest +machinery. + +Thirdly, it is claimed that we shall not be ousted either from our own +or from foreign markets by foreign competition, because the eight hours +movement in England must be regarded as part of a larger industrial +movement which is proceeding _pari passu_ among the competing nations. +If the wages of German, French, and American workers are advancing at +the same rate as English wages, or if other industrial restrictions in +those countries are otherwise increasing the expenses of production at a +corresponding rate, the argument of foreign competition falls to the +ground. + +These leading arguments of the advocates of an eight hours day are of +very unequal value. The first argument is really based upon the +supposition that the increased aggregate of wages can be "got out of +capital" by lowering interest and profits. The general validity of this +argument may be questioned. In its application a distinction must be +drawn between those businesses which by means of the possession of some +monopoly, patent, or other trade advantage are screened from the full +force of competition, and are thus enabled to earn profits above the +average, and those businesses where the constant stress of close +competition keeps interest and profits down to the lowest point which +suffices to induce the continued application of capital and organizing +ability. In the former cases the "cost" of an Eight Hours Day might be +got out of capital, assuming an effective organization of labour, in the +latter cases it could not. + +As to the second argument, it is probable enough that the legal eight +hours day would accelerate the industrial evolution, which is enabling +the large well-equipped factory to crush out the smaller factory. As we +have seen that the worst evils of "sweating" are associated with a lower +order of industrial organization, any cause which assisted to destroy +the small workshop and the out-work system, would be a benefit. But as +the economic motive of such improved organization with increased use of +machinery, would be to save human labour, it is doubtful whether a +quickening of this process would not act as a continual feeder to the +band of unemployed, by enabling employers to dispense with the services +of even this or that body of workers whose work is taken over by brute +machinery. + +The net value of these two eight hours arguments is doubtful. The real +weight of the discussion seems to rest on the third. + +If the movement for improving the industrial condition of the working +classes does proceed as rapidly in other industrial countries as in our +own, we shall have nothing to fear from foreign competition, since +expenses of production and prices will be rising equally among our own. +If there is no such equal progress in other nations, then the industrial +gain sought for the working classes of this country by a shorter day +cannot be obtained, though any special class or classes of workers may +be relieved of excessive toil at the expense of the community as a +whole. Government employés, and that large number of workers who cannot +be brought into direct competition with foreign labour, can receive the +same wages for shorter hours, provided the public is willing to pay a +higher price for their protected labour. + +In conclusion, it may be well to add that the economic difficulties +which beset this question cannot be lightly set aside by an assertion +that the same difficulties were raised by economists against earlier +factory legislation, and that experience has shown that they may be +safely disregarded. It is impossible to say how far the introduction of +humane restrictions upon the exploitation of cheap human labour has +affected the aggregate production of wealth in England. It has not +prevented the growth of our trade, but very possibly it has checked the +rate of growth. If the mere accumulation of material wealth, regardless +alike of the mode of production or of the distribution, be regarded as +the industrial goal, it is quite conceivable that a policy of utter +_laissez faire_ might be the best means of securing that end. Although +healthy and happy workers are more efficient than the half-starved and +wholly degraded beings who slaved in the uninspected factories and mines +during the earlier period of the factory system, and still slave in the +sweater's den, it may still be to the interest of employers to pay +starvation wages for relatively inefficient work, rather than pay high +wages for a shorter day's work to more efficient workers. It is to the +capitalist a mere sum in arithmetic; and we cannot predict that the +result will always turn in favour of humanity and justice. + +At the same time, even if it is uncertain whether a shorter working day +could be secured without a fall of wages, it is still open to advocates +of a shorter working day to urge that it is worth while to purchase +leisure at such a price. If a shorter working day could cure or abate +the evil of "the unemployed," and help to raise the industrial condition +of the low-skilled workers, the community might well afford to pay the +cost. + + + + +Chapter VII. + +Over-Supply of Low-Skilled Labour. + + + +§ 1. Restatement of the "Low-skilled Labour" Question.--Our inquiry into +Factory Legislation and Trade Unionism as cures for sweating have served +to emphasize the economic nature of the disease, the over-supply of low- +skilled labour. Factory legislation, while it may abate many of the +symptoms of the disease, cannot directly touch the centre of the malady, +low wages, though by securing publicity it may be of indirect assistance +in preventing the payment of wages which public opinion would condemn as +insufficient for a decent livelihood. Trade Unionism as an effective +agent in securing the industrial welfare of workers, is seen to rest +upon the basis of restriction of labour supply, and its total +effectiveness is limited by the fact that each exercise of this +restriction in the interest of a class of workers weakens the position +of the unemployed who are seeking work. The industrial degradation of +the "sweated" workers arises from the fact that they are working +surrounded by a pool of unemployed or superfluous supply of labour. So +long as there remains this standing pool of excessive labour, it is +difficult to see how the wages of low unskilled workers can be +materially raised. The most intelligent social reformers are naturally +directing their attention to the question, how to drain these lowlands +of labour of the superfluous supply, or in other words to keep down the +population of the low-skilled working class. Among the many population +drainage schemes, the following deserve close attention-- + +§ 2. Checks on growth of population.--We need not discuss in its wider +aspect the question whether our population tends to increase faster than +the means of subsistence. Disciples of Malthus, who urge the growing +pressure of population on the food supply, are sometimes told that so +far as this argument applies to England, the growth of wealth is faster +than the growth of population, and that as modern facilities for +exchange enable any quantity of this wealth to be transferred into food +and other necessaries, their alarm is groundless. Now these rival +contentions have no concern for us. We are interested not in the +pressure of the whole population upon an actual or possible food supply, +but with the pressure of a certain portion of that population upon a +relatively fixed supply of work. It is approximately true to say that at +any given time there exists a certain quality of unskilled or low- +skilled work to be done. If there are at hand just enough workers to do +it, the wages will be sufficiently high to allow a decent standard of +living. If, on the other hand, there are present more than enough +workers willing to do the work, a number of them must remain without +work and wages, while those who are employed get the lowest wages they +will consent to take. Thus it will seem of prime importance to keep down +the population of low-skilled workers to the point which leaves a merely +nominal margin of superfluous labour. The Malthusian question has in its +modern practical aspect narrowed down to this. The working classes by +abstinence from early or improvident marriages, or by the exercise of +moral restraints after marriage can, it is urged, check that tendency of +the working population to outgrow the increase of the work for which +they compete. There can be no doubt that the more intelligent classes of +skilled labourers have already profited by this consideration, and as +education and intelligence are more widely diffused, we may expect these +prudential checks on "over-population" will operate with increased +effect among the whole body of workers. But precisely because these +checks are moral and reasonable, they must be of very slow acceptance +among that class whose industrial condition forms a stubborn barrier to +moral and intellectual progress. Those who would gain most by the +practice of prudential checks, are least capable of practising them. The +ordinary "labourer" earns full wages as soon as he attains manhood's +strength; he is as able to support a wife and family at twenty as he +will ever be; indeed he is more so, for while he is young his work is +more regular, and less liable to interruption by ill-health. The +reflection that an early marriage means the probability of a larger +family, and that a large family helps to keep wages low, cannot at +present be expected to make a deep impression upon the young unskilled +labourer. The value of restraint after marriage could probably be +inculcated with more effect, because it would appeal more intelligibly +to the immediate interest of the labourer. But it is to the growing +education and intelligence of women, rather than to that of men, that we +must look for a recognition of the importance of restraint on early +marriages and large families. + +§ 3. The "Emigration" Remedy.--The most direct and obvious drainage +scheme is by emigration. If there are more workers than there is work +for them to do, why not remove those who are not wanted, and put them +where there is work to do? The thing sounds very simple, but the +simplicity is somewhat delusive. The old _laissez faire_ political +economist would ask, "Why, since labour is always moving towards the +place where it can be most profitably employed, is it necessary to do +anything but let it flow? Why should the State or philanthropic people +busy themselves about the matter? If labour is not wanted in one place, +and is wanted in another, it will and must leave the one place and go to +the other. If you assist the process by compulsion, or by any artificial +aid, you may be removing the wrong people, or you may be removing them +to the wrong place." Now the reply to the main _laissez faire_ position +is conclusive. Just as water, though always tending to find its own +level, does not actually find it when it is dammed up in some pool by +natural or artificial earthworks, so labour stored in the persons of +poor and ignorant men and women is not in fact free to seek the place of +most profitable employment. The highlands of labour are drained by this +natural flow; even the strain of competition in skilled hand-labour +finds sensible relief by the voluntary emigration of the more +adventurous artisans, but the poor low-skilled workers suffer here again +by reason of their poverty: no natural movement can relieve the plethora +of labour-power in low-class employments. The fluidity of low-skilled +labour seldom exceeds the power of moving from one town to a +neighbouring town, or from a country district to the nearest market +towns, or to London in search of work. If the lowlands are to be drained +at all, it must be done by an artificial system. Now all such systems +are in fact open to the mistakes mentioned above. If we look too +exclusively to the requirements of new colonies, and the opportunities +of work they present, we may be induced to remove from England a class +of men and women whose services we can ill afford to lose, and who are +not in any true sense superfluous labour. To assist sturdy and shrewd +Scotch farmers, or a body of skilled artisans thrown out of work by a +temporary trade depression, to transfer themselves and their families to +America or Australia, is a policy the net advantage of which is open to +grave doubt. Of course by removing any body of workers you make room for +others, but this fact does not make it a matter of indifference which +class is removed. On the other hand, if we look exclusively to the +interests of the whole mass of labour in England, we should probably be +led to assist the emigration of large bodies of the lowest and least +competent workers. This course, though doubtless for the advantage of +the low class labour, directly relieved, is detrimental to the interest +of the new country, which is flooded with inefficient workers, and +confers little benefit upon these workers themselves, since they are +totally incapable of making their way in a new country. The reckless +drafting off of our social failures into new lands is a criminal policy, +which has been only too rife in the State-aided emigration of the past, +and which is now rendered more and more difficult each year by the +refusal of foreign lands to receive our "wreckage." Here, then, is the +crux of emigration. The class we can best afford to lose, is the class +our colonies and foreign nations can least afford to take, and if they +consent to receive them they only assume the burden we escape. The age +of loose promiscuous pauper emigration has gone by. If we are to use +foreign emigration as a mode of relief for our congested population in +the future, it will be on condition that we select or educate our +colonists before we send them out. Whether the State or private +organizations undertake the work, our colonizing process must begin at +home. The necessity of dealing directly with our weak surplus population +of low-skilled workers is gaining more clear recognition every year, as +the reluctance to interfere with the supposed freedom of the subject +even where the subject is "unfree" is giving way before the urgency of +the situation. + +§ 4. Mr. Charles Booth's "Drainage Scheme."--The terrible examples our +history presents to us of the effects of unwise poor law administration, +rightly enjoin the strictest caution in contemplating new experiments. +But the growing recognition of the duty of the State to protect its +members who are unable to protect themselves, and to secure fair +opportunities of self-support and self-improvement, as well as the +danger of handing over their protection to the conflicting claims of +private and often misguided philanthropy, is rapidly gaining ground +against the advocates of _laissez faire_. It is beginning to be felt +that the State cannot afford to allow the right of private social +experiment on the part of charitable organizations. The relief of +destitution has for centuries been recognized as the proper business of +the State. Our present poor law practically fails to relieve the bulk of +the really destitute. Even were it successful it would be doing nothing +to prevent destitution. Since neither existing legislation nor the +forces of private charity are competent to cope with the evils of +"sweating," engendered by an excess of low-class labour, it is probable +that the pressure of democratic government will make more and more in +favour of some large new experiment of social drainage. In view of this +it may not be out of place to describe briefly two schemes proposed by +private students of the problem of poverty. + +Mr. Charles Booth, recognizing that the superfluity of cheap inefficient +labour lies at the root of the matter, suggests the removal of the most +helpless and degraded class from the strain of a struggle which is fatal +not merely to themselves, but to the class immediately above them. The +reason for this removal is given as follows-- + +"To effectually deal with the whole of class B--for the State to nurse +the helpless and incompetent as we in our own families nurse the old, +the young, and the sick, and provide for those who are not competent to +provide for themselves--may seem an impossible undertaking; but nothing +less than this will enable self-respecting labour to obtain its full +remuneration, and the nation its raised standard of life. The +difficulties, which are certainly great, do not consist in the cost. As +it is, these unfortunate people cost the community one way or another +considerably more than they contribute. I do not refer solely to the +fact that they cost the State more than they pay directly or indirectly +in taxes. I mean that altogether, ill-paid and half-starved as they are, +they consume, or waste, or have expended on them, more wealth than they +produce." + +Mr. Booth would remove the "very poor," and plant them in industrial +communities under proper government supervision. + +"Put practically, my idea is that these people should be allowed to live +as families in industrial groups, planted wherever land and building +materials were cheap; being well-housed and well-warmed, and taught, +trained, and employed from morning to night on work, indoors or out, for +themselves, or on Government account." + +The Government should provide material and tools, and having the people +entirely on its hands, get out of them what it can. Wages should be paid +at a "fair proportionate rate," so as to admit comparison of earnings of +the different communities, and of individuals. The commercial deficit +involved in the scheme should be borne by the State. This expansion of +our poor law policy, for it is nothing more, aims less at the +reformation and improvement of the class taken under its charge, than at +the relief which would be afforded to the classes who suffered from +their competition in the industrial struggle. What it amounts to is the +removal of the mass of unemployed. The difficulties involved in such a +scheme are, as Mr. Booth admits, very grave. + +The following points especially deserve attention-- + +1. Since it is not conceivable that compulsion should be brought to bear +in the selection and removal out of the ordinary industrial community of +those weaker members whose continued struggle is considered undesirable, +it is evident that the industrial colonies must be recruited out of +volunteers. It will thus become a large expansion of the present +workhouse system. The eternal dilemma of the poor law will be present +there. On the one hand, if, as seems likely, the degradation and +disgrace attaching to the workhouse is extended to the industrial +colony, it will fail to attract the more honest and deserving among the +"very poor," and to this extent will fail to relieve the struggling +workers of their competition. On the other hand, if the condition of the +"industrial colonist" is recognized as preferable to that of the +struggling free competitor, it must in some measure act as a premium +upon industrial failure, checking the output of energy and the growth of +self-reliance in the lower ranks of the working classes. No scheme for +the relief of poverty is wholly free from this difficulty; but there is +danger that the State colony of Mr. Booth would, if it were successful +as a mode of "drainage," be open to it in no ordinary degree. + +2. Closely related to this first difficulty is the fact that Mr. Booth +provides no real suggestion for a process of discrimination in the +treatment of our social failures, which shall distinguish the failure +due directly to deep-seated vice of character and habit, from the +failure due to unhappy chance or the fault of others. Difficult, almost +impossible, as such discrimination between deserving and undeserving is, +it is felt that any genuine reform of our present poor law system +demands that some attempt in this direction should be made. We must try +to distinguish curable from incurable cases, and we must try to cure the +former while we preserve society from the contamination of the latter. +The mere removal of a class of "very poor" will not suffice. + +Since however the scheme of Mr. C. Booth does not proceed beyond the +stage of a suggested outline of treatment, it is not fair or profitable +to press close criticism. It is, however, a fact of some significance +that one who has brought such close study to bear upon the problem of +poverty should arrive at the conclusion that "Thorough interference on +the part of the State with the lives of a small fraction of the +population, would tend to make it possible, ultimately, to dispense with +any Socialistic interference in the lives of all the rest."[33] + +§ 5. Proposed remedies for "Unemployment."--In discussing methods of +dealing with "the unemployed," who represent an "over-supply" of labour +at a given time, it is often found convenient to distinguish the +temporary "unemployment" due to fluctuations rising from the nature of +certain trades, and the permanent unemployment or half employment of +large numbers of the least efficient town workers. The fluctuations in +employment due to changes of season, as in the building trades, and many +branches of dock labour, or to changes of fashion, as in the silk and +"fancy" woollen trade, or to temporary changes in the field of +employment caused by a transformation of industrial processes, are +direct causes of a considerable quantity of temporary unemployment. To +these must be added the unemployment represented by the interval between +the termination of one job and the beginning of another, as in the +building trades. Lastly, the wider fluctuations of general trade seem to +impose a character of irregularity upon trade, so that the modern System +of industry will not work without some unemployed margin, some reserve +of labour. + +These irregularities and leakages seem to explain why, at any given +time, a certain considerable number of fairly efficient and willing +workmen may be out of work. It is often urged that this class of +"unemployed" must be regarded as quite distinct from the superfluity of +low-skilled and inefficient workers found in our towns, and that the two +classes present different problems for solution. The character of the +"chronic" class of unemployed makes the problem appear to be, not one of +economic readjustment, but rather of training and education. But this +appearance is deceptive. The connection between the two kinds of +"unemployment" is much closer than is supposed. The irregularity of the +"season" and "fashion" trades, the periodic spells of bad trade, are +continually engaged in degrading and deteriorating the physique, the +morale, and the industrial efficiency of the weaker members of each +trade: these weaklings are unable to maintain a steady and healthy +standard of life under economic conditions which make work and wages +irregular, and are constantly dropping out of the more skilled trades to +swell the already congested low-skilled labour market. Every period of +"depressed trade" feeds the pool of low-skilled labour from a hundred +different channels. The connection between the two classes of +"unemployed" is, therefore, a close and vital one. To drain off this +pool would, in fact, be of little permanent use unless those +irregularities of trade, which are constantly feeding it, are also +checked. + +Still less serviceable are those schemes of rescuing "the unemployed," +which, in the very work of rescue, engender an economic force whose +operation causes as much unemployment as it cures. A signal example of +this futile system of social drainage has been afforded by certain +experiments of the Salvation Army in their City Works and Farm Colony. +The original draft of the scheme contained in the volume, _In Darkest +England_, clearly recognized the advisability of keeping the bounty-fed +products of the Salvation Colonies from competition in the market with +the products of outside labour. The design was to withdraw from the +competitive labour market certain members of "the unemployed," to train +and educate them in efficient labour, and to apply this labour to +capital provided out of charitable funds: the produce of this labour was +to be consumed by the colonists themselves, who would thus become as far +as possible self-supporting; in no case was it to be thrown upon the +open market. As a matter of fact these sound, economic conditions of +social experiment have been utterly ignored. Matches, firewood, +furniture, etc. produced in the City factories have been thrown upon the +open market. The Hadleigh Farm Colony, originally designed to give a +thorough training in the arts of agriculture so as to educate its +members for the Over Sea Colony, has devoted more and more attention to +shoemaking, carpentering, and other special mechanical crafts, and less +and less to the efficient cultivation of the soil; the boots, chairs, +etc. being thrown in large quantities upon the open market. Moreover, +the fruit and vegetables raised upon the Farm have been systematically +placed upon the outside market. The result of such a line of conduct is +evident. Suppose A is a carpenter thrown out of work because there are +more carpenters than are required to turn out the current supply of +chairs and tables at a profitable price; the Salvation Army takes A in +hand, and provides him with capital upon which no interest need be paid. +A's chairs, now thrown on the market, can undersell the chairs provided +by B, C, D, his former trade competitors. Unless we suppose an increased +demand for chairs, the result is that A's chairs displace those of B in +the market, and B is thrown out of employment. Thus A, assisted by the +Salvation Army, has simply taken B's work. If the Salvation Army now +takes B in hand, it can engage him in useful work on condition that he +takes away the work of C. If match-makers are thrown out of work by +trade conditions, and the Salvation Army places them in a factory, and +sells in the open market the matches which they make, the public which +buys these matches abstains from buying the matches made by other firms, +and these firms are thus prevented from employing as much labour as they +would otherwise have done. No net increase of employment is caused by +this action of the Salvation Army, and therefore they have done nothing +towards the solution of the unemployed problem. They have provided +employment for certain known persons at the expense of throwing out of +employment certain other unknown persons. Since those who are thrown out +of work in the labour market are, on the average, inferior in character +and industry to those who are kept in work, the effect of the Salvation +Army policy is to substitute inferior for superior workers. The blind +philanthropist may perhaps be excused for not seeing beyond his nose, +and for ignoring "unseen" in favour of "seen" results. But General Booth +was advised of the sound economic conditions of his experiment, and +seemed to recognize the value of the advice. The defence of his action +sometimes takes the form of a denial that the Salvation Army undersells +outside produce in the market. Salvation matches are sold, it is said, +rather above than below the ordinary price of matches. If this be true, +it affords no answer to the objection raised above. The Salvation +matches are bought by persons who would have bought other matches if +they had not bought these, and if they choose to pay 3d. for Salvation +matches instead of 2½d. for others, the effect of this action is still +to take away employment from the 2½d. firm and give it to the Salvation +firm. Indeed, it might be urged that a larger amount of unemployment is +caused in this case, for persons who now pay 3d. for matches which they +formerly bought for 2½d., will diminish their expenditure upon other +commodities, and the result will be to diminish employment in those +industries engaged in supplying these commodities. Here is another +"unseen" result of fallacious philanthropy. + +The inevitable result of the Salvation Army placing goods in the open +market is to increase the supply relatively to the demand; in order that +the larger supply may be sold prices must fall, and it makes no +difference whether or no the Salvation Army takes the lead in reducing +the price. If the fall of price enables the whole of the increased +supply to be taken off at the lower price, then an increase of +employment has been obtained in this trade, though, in this case, it +should be remembered that in all probability the lower level of prices +means a reduction of wages in the outside labour market. If the +increased supply is not taken off at the lower prices, then the +Salvation goods can only be sold on condition that some others remain +unsold, employment of Salvationists thus displacing employment of other +workers. The roundabout nature of much of this competition does not +impair one whit the inevitability of this result. + +This objection is applicable not only to the method of the Salvation +Army, but to many other industrial experiments conducted on a +philanthropic basis. Directly or indirectly bounty-fed labour is brought +into competition with self-supporting labour to the detriment of the +latter. It is sometimes sought to evade the difficulty by confining the +produce which the assisted labour puts upon the open market to classes +of articles which are not for the most part produced in this country, +but which are largely imported from abroad. It is urged that although +shoes and furniture and matches ought not to be produced by assisted +labour for the outside market, it is permissible for an agricultural +colony to replace by home products the large imports in the shape of +cheese, fruit, bacon, poultry, etc., which we now receive from abroad. +Those who maintain this position commonly fail to take into +consideration the exports which go out from this country to pay for +these imports. If this export trade is diminished the trades engaged in +manufacturing the exported goods will suffer, and labour employed in +these trades may be thrown out of employment. This objection may be met +by showing that the goods formerly exported, or an equivalent quantity +of other goods, will be demanded for the increased consumption of the +labourers in the agricultural colony. This is a valid answer if the home +consumption rises sufficiently to absorb the goods formerly exported to +pay for agricultural imports. But even where this just balance is +maintained, allowance must be made for some disturbance of established +trades owing to the fact that the new demand created at home will +probably be for different classes of articles from those which formed +the exports now displaced. The safest use of assisted labour, where the +products are designed for the open market, is in the production of +articles for which there is a steadily growing demand within this +country. Even in this case the utmost care should be exercised to +prevent the products of assisted labour from so depressing prices as to +injure the wages of outside labour engaged in similar productions. + +Since the existence of an unemployed class who are unemployed because +they are unable, not because they are unwilling, to get work, is proof +of an insufficiency of employment, it is apparent that nothing is of +real assistance which does not increase the net amount of employment. +Since the amount of employment is determined by, and varies with, the +consumption of the community, the only sure method of increasing the +amount of employment is by raising the standard of consumption for the +community. Where, as is common in times of trade depression, +unemployment of labour is attended by unemployment of capital, this +joint excess of the two requisites of production is only to be explained +by the low standard of consumption of the community. Since the working- +classes form a vast majority of the community, and their standard of +consumption is low compared with that of the upper classes, it is to a +progressive standard of comfort among the workers that we must look for +a guarantee of increasing employment. It may be urged that the luxurious +expenditure of the rich provides as much employment as the more +necessary expenditure of the poor. But, setting aside all considerations +of the inutility or noxious character of luxury, there is one vital +difference between the employment afforded in the two cases. The demand +for luxuries is essentially capricious and irregular, and this +irregularity must always be reflected in the employment of the trades +which supply them. On the other hand, a general rise in the standard of +comfort of the workers creates an increased demand of a steady and +habitual kind, the new elements of consumption belonging to the order of +necessaries or primary comforts become ingrained in the habits of large +classes of consumers, and the employment they afford is regular and +reliable. When this simple principle is once clearly grasped by social +reformers, it will enable them to see that the only effective remedy for +unemployment lies in a general policy of social and economic reform, +which aims at placing a larger and larger proportion of the "consuming +power" of the community in the hands of those who, having received it as +the earnings of their effort, will learn to use it in building up a +higher standard of wholesome consumption. + + + + +Chapter VIII. + +The Industrial Condition of Women-Workers. + + + +§ 1. The Number of Women engaged in Industrial Work.--The evils of +"sweating" press more heavily on women workers than on men. It is not +merely that women as "the weaker sex" suffer more under the same burden, +but that their industrial burden is absolutely heavier than that of men. +The causes and the meaning of this demand a special treatment. + +The census returns for 1901 showed that out of 4,171,751 females engaged +in occupations about 40½ per cent. were in domestic or other service, +38½ per cent. in manufactures, 7 per cent. in commerce, chiefly as shop- +assistants, 4 per cent. in teaching, 3 per cent. in hotels, boarding- +houses, etc., and 7 per cent. in other occupations. + +The following table gives the groups of occupations in which more +females are employed than males:-- + + Occupational Groups Males Females + Sick nurses, midwives, etc. 1,092 67,269 + Teaching 61,897 172,873 + Domestic service 124,263 1,690,686 + Bookbinding: paper and stationery manufactures 42,644 64,210 + Textile manufactures 492,175 663,222 + Dress manufactures 336,186 689,956 + -------------------- + 1,058,257 3,348,216 + All other occupations 9,098,717 823,535 + -------------------- + All occupations 10,156,974 4,171,751 + +The manufactures in which women have been gaining upon men are the +textile and clothing trades in almost all branches, tobacco, printing, +stationery, brushes, india-rubber, and foods. + +§ 2. Women's Wages.--Turning now to women engaged in city industries, +let us gauge their industrial condition by the tests of wages, hours of +labour, sanitary conditions, regularity of employment + +The following is a list of the average wages paid for different kinds of +factory work in London. + + Artificial flowers 8 to 12 shillings. + Bookbinding 9 " 11 " + Boxmaking 8 " 16 " + Brushes 8 " 15 " + Caps 8 " 16 " + Collars 11 " 15 " + Confectionery 8 " 14 " + Corsets 8 " 16 " + Fur-sewing 7 " 14 " + Fur-sewing in winter 4 " 7 " + Matches 8 " 13 " + Rope 8 " 11 " + Umbrellas 10 " 18 " + +These are ordinary wages. Very good or industrious workers are said to +get in some cases 20 per cent, more; unskilful or idle workers less. + +It must be borne in mind that these sums represent a full week's work. +The importance of this qualification will appear presently. + +It is obvious at a glance that these wages are for the most part +considerably lower than those paid for any regular form of male labour. +But there is another fact which adds to the significance of this. +Skilled labour among men is much more highly paid than unskilled labour. +Among women's industries this is not the case to any great extent. +Skilled work like that of book-folding is paid no higher than the almost +unskilled work of the jam or match girl. This is said to be due partly +to the fact that the lower kinds of work are done by girls and women who +are compelled to support themselves, while the higher class is done by +women partly kept by husband or father, partly to the pride taken in the +performance of more skilled work, and the reluctance to mingle with +women belonging to a lower stratum of society, which prevents the wages +of the various kinds of work from being determined by free economic +competition. A bookbinding girl would sooner take lower wages than +engage in an inferior class of work which happened to rise in the market +price of its labour. But whatever the causes may be, the fact cannot be +disputed that the lower rates of wages extend over a larger proportion +of women workers. + +Again, the wages quoted above refer to workers in factories. But only +three women's trades of any importance are managed entirely in +factories, the cigar, confectionery, and match-making[34] trades. In +many of the other trades part of the work is done in factories, part is +let out to sweaters, or to women who work at their own homes. Many of +the clothing trades come under this class, as for example, the tie- +making, trimmings, corset-making trades. The employers in these trades +are able to play the out-doors workers against the indoors workers, so +as to keep down the wages of both to a minimum. The "corset" manufacture +is fairly representative of these trades. The following list gives the +per-centage of workers receiving various sums for "indoors" i.e. +"factory" work. + + s. s. s. s. s. s. s. s. s. s. + Under 4 3--6 8--10 10--12 12--15 Over 15 + 2.94 p.c. 50 p.c. 2.94 p.c. 5.9 p.c. 14.7 p.c. 22.52 p.c. + +Outdoor workers earn from 6s. to 12s., but where more than 10s. is +earned, the woman is generally assisted by one or more of her children. +Generally speaking, the most miserably paid work is that in trades where +most of the work is done by out-door workers. Such is the lowest stratum +of the "vest and trousers" trade, where English women undertake work +rejected by the lowest class of Jew workers, and the shirt-making trade, +which, in the opinion of the Lords' Committee, "does not appear to +afford subsistence to those who have no other employment." In these and +other trades of the lowest order, 6s. a week is a tolerably common wage +for a work-woman of fair skill to net after a hard week's work, and +there are many individual cases where the wage falls far below this +mark. + +It is true that the work for which the lowest wages are paid is often +that of learners, or of inefficient work-women; but while this may be a +satisfactory "economic" explanation, it does not mitigate the terrible +significance of the fact that many women are dependent on such work as +their sole opportunity of earning an honest livelihood. + +§ 3. Irregularity of Employment.--As the wages of women are lower than +those of men, so they suffer more from irregularity of employment. There +are two special reasons for this. + +[Greek: a]. Many trades in which women are employed, depend largely upon +the element of Season. The confectionery trade, one of the most +important, employs twice as many hands in the busy season as in the +slack season. Match-makers have a slack season, in which many of them +sell flowers, or go "hopping." Laundry work is largely "season" work. +Fur-sewing is perhaps the worst example of the terrible effect of +irregular work taken with low wages. "For several months in the year the +fur-sewers have either no work, or earn about 3s. or 4s. a week, and +many of these work in overcrowded insanitary workshops in the season. +Fur-sewing is the worst paid industry in the East End, with absolutely +no exceptions."[35] + +[Greek: b]. Fluctuations in fashion affect many women's trades; in +particular, the "ornamental" clothing trades, e.g. furs, feathers, +trimmings, etc. + +Employers in these slack times prefer generally to keep on the better +hands (on lower wages), and to dismiss the inferior hands. + +These "natural" fluctuations, added to ordinary trade irregularities, +favour the employment of "outdoor" workers in sweaters' dens or at home, +and require in these trades, as conducted at present, the existence of +an enormous margin of "casual" workers. These two chief factors in the +"sweating" problem, sub-contract and irregular home-work, are far more +prevalent in female industries than in male. + +§ 4. Hours of Labour in Women's Trades.--The Factory Act is supposed to +protect women engaged in industrial work from excessive hours of labour, +by setting a limit of twelve hours to the working day, including an +interval of two hours for meals. + +But passing over the fact that a dispensation is granted, enabling women +to be employed for fourteen hours during certain times, there is the far +more important consideration that most employments of women wholly +escape the operation of the Factory Act. In part this is due to the +difficulty of enforcing the Act in the case of sweating workshops, many +of which are unknown to inspectors, while others habitually break the +law and escape the penalty. Again, the Act does not and cannot be made +to apply to a large class of small domestic workshops. When the +dwelling-room is also the work-room, it is impossible to enforce by any +machinery of law, close limitation of hours of labour. Something may be +done to extend the arm of the law over small workshops; but the worst +form of out-work, that voluntarily undertaken by women in their own +homes, cannot be thus put down. Nothing short of a total prohibition of +outwork imposed on employers would be effectual here. Lastly, there are +many large employments not subject to the Factory Act, where the +economic power of the employer over weak employees is grossly abused. +One of the worst instances is that of the large laundries, where women +work enormously long hours during the season, and are often engaged for +fifteen or sixteen hours on Fridays and Saturdays. The whole class of +shop-assistants are worked excessive hours. Twelve and fourteen hours +are a common shop day, and frequently the figure rises to sixteen hours. +Restaurants and public-houses are perhaps the greatest offenders. The +case of shop-assistants is most aggravated, for these excessive hours of +labour are wholly waste time; a reduction of 25 or even of 50 per cent +in the shopping-day, reasonably adjusted to the requirements of classes +and localities, would cause no diminution in the quantity of sales +effected, nor would it cause any appreciable inconvenience to the +consuming public. + +§ 5. Sanitary Conditions.--Seeing that a larger proportion of women +workers are occupied in the small workshops or in their own overcrowded +homes, it is obvious that the fourth count of the "sweating" charge, +that of unsanitary conditions of work, applies more cruelly to them than +to men. Their more sedentary occupations, and the longer hours they work +in many cases outside the operation of the Factory Act, makes the evils +of overcrowding, bad ventilation, bad drainage, etc., more detrimental +to the health of women than of men workers. + +§ 6. Special Burdens incident on Women.--We have now applied the four +chief heads of the "sweating" disease--low wages, long hours, irregular +employment, unsanitary conditions--to women's work, and have seen that +the absolute pressure in each case is heavier on the weaker sex. + +But in estimating the industrial condition of women, there are certain +other considerations which must not be left out of sight. + +To many women-workers, the duties of maternity and the care of children, +which in a civilized human society ought to secure for them some +remission from the burden, of the industrial fight, are a positive +handicap in the struggle for a livelihood. When a married woman or a +widow is compelled to support herself and her family, the home ties +which preclude her from the acceptance of regular factory work, tell +fatally against her in the effort to earn a living. Married women, and +others with home duties which cannot be neglected, furnish an almost +illimitable field of casual or irregular labour. Not only is this +irregular work worse paid than regular factory work, but its existence +helps to keep up the pernicious system of "out-work" under which +"sweating" thrives. The commercial competition of to-day positively +trades upon the maternity of women-workers. + +In estimating the quantity of work which falls to the lot of industrial +women-workers, we must not forget to add to the wage-work that domestic +work which few of them can wholly avoid, and which is represented by no +wages. Looking at the problem in a broad human light, it is difficult to +say which is the graver evil, the additional burden of the domestic +work, so far as it is done, or the habitual neglect of it, where it is +evaded. Here perhaps the former point of view is more pertinent. To the +long hours of the factory-worker, or the shopwoman, we must often add +the irksome duties which to a weary wife must make the return home a +pain rather than a pleasure. When the industrial work is carried on at +home the worries and interruptions of family life must always contribute +to the difficulty and intensity of the toil, and tell upon the nervous +system and the general health of the women-workers. + +Other evils, incident on woman's industrial work, do not require +elaboration, though their cumulative effect is often very real. Many +women-workers, the locality of whose home depends on the work of their +husband or father, are obliged to travel every day long distances to and +from their work. The waste of time, the weariness, and sometimes the +expense of 'bus or train thus imposed on them, is in thousands of cases +a heavy tax upon their industrial life. Women working in factories, or +taking work home, suffer also many wrongs by reason of their "weaker +sex," and their general lack of trade organization. Unjust and arbitrary +fines are imposed by harsh employers so as to filch a portion of their +scanty earnings; their time is wasted by unnecessary delay in the giving +out of work, or its inspection when finished; the brutality and +insolence of male overseers is a common incident in their career. In a +score of different ways the weakness of women injures them as +competitors in the free fight for industrial work. + +§ 7. Causes of the Industrial Weakness of Women.--This brief summary of +the industrial condition of low-skilled women-workers will suffice to +bring out the fact that the "sweating" question is even more a woman's +question than a man's. The question which rises next is, Why do women as +industrial workers suffer more than men? + +In the first place, as the physically weaker sex, they do on the average +a smaller quantity of work, and therefore receive lower wages. In +certain kinds of work, where women do piece-work along with men, it is +found that they get as high wages as men for the same quantity of work. +The recent report upon Textile Industries establishes this fact so far +as those trades are concerned. But this is not always, perhaps not in +the majority of instances, the case. Women-workers do not, in many +cases, receive the same wages which would be paid to men for doing the +same work. Why is this? It is sometimes described as an unfair advantage +taken of women because they are women. There is a male prejudice, it is +urged, against women-workers, which prevents employers from paying them +the wages they could and would pay to men. + +Now this contention, so far as it refers to a sentimental bias, is not +tenable. A body of women-workers, equally skilled with male workers, and +as strongly organized, would be able to extract the same rate of wages +in any trade. Everything depends upon the words "_as strongly +organized_." It is the general industrial weakness of the condition of +most women-workers, and not a sex prejudice, which prevents them from +receiving the wages which men might get, if the work the women do were +left for male competition alone. An employer, as a rule, pays the lowest +wages he can get the work done at. The real question we have to meet is +this. Why can he get women who will consent to work at a lower rate than +he could get men to work at? What peculiar conditions are there +affecting women which will oblige them to accept work on lower terms +than men? + +Well, in the first place, the wage of a man can never fall much lower +than will suffice to maintain at the minimum standard of comfort both +himself and the average family he has to support. The minimum wage of +the man, it is true, need not cover the full support of his family, +because the wife or children will on the average contribute something to +their maintenance. But the wage of the man must cover his own support, +and part of the support of his family. This marks a rigid minimum wage +for male labour; if competition tends to drive wages lower, the supply +of labour is limited to unmarried males. + +The case of woman is different. If she is a free woman her minimum wage +will be what is required to support herself alone, and since a woman +appears able to keep alive and in working condition on a lower scale of +expenditure than man, the possible minimum wage for independent women- +workers will be less than a single man would consent to work for, and +considerably less than what a married man would require. But there are +other economic causes more important than this which drag down women's +wages. + +Single women, working to support themselves, are subject to the constant +competition of other women who are not dependent for their full +livelihood on the wages they get, and who, if necessary, are often +willing to take wages which would not keep them alive if they had no +other source of income. The minimum wages which can be obtained for +certain kinds of work may by this competition of "bounty-fed" labour be +driven considerably below starvation point. This is no mere hypothesis. +It will be obvious that the class of fur-sewers who, as we saw, earned +while in full work from 4s. to 7s. in the winter months, and the lower +grades of brush-makers and match-makers, to say nothing of the casual +"out-workers," who often take for a whole week's work 3s. or 2s. 6d., +cannot, and do not, live upon these earnings. They must either die upon +them, as many in fact do, or else they must be assisted by other funds. + +There are, at least, three classes of female workers whose competition +helps to keep wages below the point of bare subsistence in the +employments which they enter. + +First, there are married women who in their eagerness to increase the +family income, or to procure special comforts for themselves, are +willing to work at what must be regarded as "uncommercial rates"; that +is to say, for lower wages than they would be willing to accept if they +were working for full maintenance. It is sometimes asserted that since +these married women have not so strong a motive to secure work, they +will not, and in fact do not, undersell, and bring down the rate of +wages. But it must be admitted, firstly, that the very addition of their +number to the total of competitors for low-skilled work, forces down, +and keeps down, the price paid for that work; and secondly, that if they +choose, they are enabled to underbid at any time the labour of women +entirely dependent on themselves for support. The existence of this +competition of married women must be regarded as one of the reasons why +wages are low in women's employments. + +Secondly, a large proportion of unmarried women live at home. Even if +they pay their parents the full cost of their keep, they can live more +cheaply than if they had to find a home for themselves. A large +proportion, however, of the younger women are partly supported at the +expense of their family, and work largely to provide luxuries in the +shape of dress, and other ornamental articles. Many of them will consent +to work long hours all week, for an incredibly low sum to spend on +superfluities. + +Thirdly, there is the competition of women assisted by charity, or in +receipt of out-door poor relief. Sums paid by Boards of Guardians to +widows with young children, or assistance given by charitable persons to +aid women in distressed circumstances to earn a livelihood, will enable +these women to get work by accepting wages which would have been +impossible if they had not outside assistance to depend upon. It is thus +possible that by assisting a thoroughly deserving case, you may be +helping to drive down below starvation-point the wages of a class of +workers. + +Probably a large majority of women-workers are to some extent bounty-fed +in one of these ways. In so far as they do receive assistance from one +of these sources, enabling them to accept lower wages than they could +otherwise have done, it should be clearly understood that they are +presenting the difference between the commercial and the uncommercial +price as a free gift to their employer, or in so far as competition will +oblige him to lower his prices, to the public, which purchases the +results of their work. But the most terrible effect of this uncommercial +competition falls on that miserable minority of their sisters who have +no such extra source of income, and who have to make the lower wages +find clothes, and shelter for themselves, and perhaps a family of +children. We hear a good deal about the jealousy of men, and the +difficulties male Trade Unions have sometimes thrown in the way of women +obtaining employment, which may seem to affect male interests. But +though there is doubtless some ground for these complaints, it should be +acknowledged that it is women who are the real enemies of women. Women's +wages in the "sweating" trades are almost incredibly low, because there +is an artificially large supply of women able and willing to take work +at these low rates. + +It will be possible to raise the wages in these low-paid employments +only on condition that women will agree to refuse to undersell one +another beyond a certain point. A restriction in what is called "freedom +of competition" is the only direct remedy which can be applied by women +themselves. If women could be induced to refuse to avail themselves of +the terrible power conferred by these different forms of "bounty," their +wages could not fall below that 9s. or 10s. which would be required to +keep them alive, and would probably rise higher. + +§ 8. What Trade Unionism can do for them.--A question which naturally +rises now is, how far combination in the form of Trade Unionism can +assist to raise the industrial condition of these women. The practical +power wielded by male Unions we saw was twofold. Firstly, by restricting +the supply of labour in their respective trades they raised its market +price, i.e. wages. Secondly, they could extract better conditions from +employers, by obliging the latter to deal with them as a single large +body instead of dealing with them as a number of individuals. How far +can women-workers effect these same ends by these same means? + +Trade Unionism, so far as women are concerned, is yet in its infancy. In +1874, Mrs. Paterson established a society, now named the Women's Trades +Union Provident League, to try and establish combination among women in +their several trades. The first Union was that of women engaged in book- +binding, formed in September 1874. Since then a considerable number of +Unions have been formed among match-makers, dressmakers, milliners, +mantle-makers, upholstresses, rope-makers, confectioners, box-makers, +shirt-makers, umbrella-makers, brush-makers and others. Many of these +have been formed to remedy some pressing grievance, or to secure some +definite advance of wage, and in certain cases of skilled factory work +where the women have maintained a steady front, as among the match- +makers and the confectioners, considerable concessions have been won +from employers. But the small scale and tentative character of most of +these organizations do not yet afford any adequate test of what Unionism +can achieve. The workers in a few factories here and there have formed a +Union of, at the most, a few hundred workers. No large women's trade has +yet been organized with anything approaching the size and completeness +of the stronger men's Unions. Women Trade Unionists numbered 120,178 in +1901, and of these no less than 89.9 per cent were textile workers, +whose Unions are mostly organized by and associated with male Unions. + +There are several reasons why the growth of effective organization among +women-workers must be slow. In the first place, as we have seen, a large +proportion of their work is "out work" done at home or in small domestic +workshops. Now labour organizations are necessarily strong and +effective, in proportion as the labourers are thrown together constantly +both in their work and in their leisure, have free and frequent +opportunities of meeting and discussion, of educating a sense of +comradeship and mutual confidence, which shall form a moral basis of +unity for common industrial action. But to the majority of women-workers +no such opportunities are open. Even the factory workers are for the +most part employed in small groups, and are dispersed in their homes. +Combination among the mass of home-workers or workers in small sweating +establishments is almost impossible. The women's Unions have hitherto +been successful in proportion as the trades are factory trades. Where +endeavours have been made to organize East End shirt-makers, milliners, +and others who work at home, very little has been achieved. In those +trades where it is possible to give out an indefinite amount of the work +to sub-contractors, or to workers to do at home, it seems impossible +that any great results can be thus attained. Even in trades where part +of the work is done in factories, the existence of reckless competition +among unorganized out-workers can be utilized by unprincipled employers +to destroy attempts at effective combination among their factory hands. +The force of public opinion which may support an organization of factory +workers by preventing outsiders from underselling, can have no effect +upon the competition of home-workers, who bid in ignorance of their +competitors, and bid often for the means of keeping life in themselves +and their children. The very poverty of the mass of women-workers, the +low industrial conditions, which Unionism seeks to relieve, form cruel +barriers to the success of their attempts. The low physical condition, +the chronic exhaustion produced by the long hours and fetid atmosphere +in which the poorer workers live, crush out the human energy required +for effective protest and combination. Moreover, the power to strike, +and, if necessary, to hold out for a long period of time, is an +essential to a strong Trade Union. Almost all the advantages won by +women's Unions have been won by their proved capacity for holding out +against employers. This is largely a matter of funds. It is almost +impossible for the poorest classes of women-workers to raise by their +own abstinence a fund which shall make their Union formidable. Their +efforts where successful have been always backed by outside assistance. +Even were there a close federation of Unions of various women's trades-- +a distant dream at present--the larger proportion of recipients of low +wages among women-workers as compared with men would render their +success more difficult. + +§ 9. Legislative Restriction and the force of Public Opinion.--If Trade +Unionism among women is destined to achieve any large result, it would +appear that it will require to be supported by two extra-Union forces. + +The first of these forces must consist of legislative restriction of +"out-work." If all employers of women were compelled to provide +factories, and to employ them there in doing that work at present done +at home or in small and practically unapproachable workshops, several +wholesome results would follow. The conditions of effective combination +would be secured, public opinion would assist in securing decent wages, +factory inspection would provide shorter hours and fair sanitary +conditions, and last, not least, women whose home duties precluded them +from full factory work would be taken out of the field of competition. +Whether it would be possible to successfully crush the whole system of +industrial "out-work" may be open to question; but it is certain that so +long as, and in proportion as "out-work" is permitted, attempts on the +part of women to raise their industrial condition by combination will be +weak and unsuccessful. So long as "out-work" continues to be largely +practised and unrestrained, competition sharpened by the action of +married women and other irregular and "bounty-fed" labour, must keep +down the price of women's work, not only for the out-workers themselves, +but also for the factory workers. Nor is it possible to see how the +system of "out-work" can be repressed or even restricted by any other +force than legislation. So long as home-workers are "free" to offer, and +employers to accept, this labour, it will continue to exist so long as +it pays; it will pay so long as it is offered cheap enough; and it will +be offered cheaply so long as the supply continues to bear the present +relation to the demand. + +But there is another force required to give any full effect to such +extensions of the Factory Act as will crush private workshops, and +either directly or indirectly prohibit out-work. The real reason, as we +saw, why woman's wages were proportionately lower than man's, was the +competition of a mass of women, able and willing to work at indefinitely +low rates, because they were wholly or partly supported from other +sources. Now legislation can hardly interfere to prevent this +competition, but public opinion can. If the greater part of the +industrial work now done by women at home were done in factories, this +fact in itself would offer some restrictions to the competition of +married women, which is so fatal to those who depend entirely upon their +wages for a livelihood. But the gradual growth of a strong public +opinion, fed by a clear perception of the harm married women do to their +unsupported sisters by their competition, and directed towards the +establishment of a healthy social feeling against the wage-earning +proclivities of married women, would be a far more wholesome as well as +a more potent method of interference than the passing of any law. + +To interfere with the work of young women living at home, and supported +in large part by their parents, would be impracticable even if it were +desirable, although the competition of these conduces to the same +lowering of women's wages. But the education of a strong popular +sentiment against the propriety of the industrial labour of married +women, would be not only practicable, but highly desirable. Such a +public sentiment would not at first operate so stringently as to +interfere in those exceptional cases where it seems an absolute +necessity that the wife should aid by her home or factory work the +family income. But a steady pressure of public opinion, making for the +closer restriction of the wage-work of married women, would be of +incomparable value to the movement to secure better industrial +conditions for those women who are obliged to work for a living. A +fuller, clearer realization of the importance of this subject is much +needed at the present time. The industrial emancipation of women, +favoured by the liberal sentiments of the age, has been eagerly utilized +by enterprising managers of businesses in search of the cheapest labour. +Not only women, but also children are enabled, owing to the nature of +recent mechanical inventions which relieve the physical strain, but +increase the monotony of labour, to make themselves useful in factories +or home-work. Each year sees a large growth in the ranks of women- +workers. Eager to earn each what she can, girls and wives alike rush +into factory work, reckless of the fact that their very readiness to +work tells against them in the amount of their weekly wages, and only +goes to swell the dividends of the capitalist, or perhaps eventually to +lower prices. The improving mechanism of our State School System assists +this movement, by turning out every year a larger percentage of half- +timers, crammed to qualify for wage-earners at the earliest possible +period. Already in Lancashire and elsewhere, the labour of these +thirteen-year-olders is competing with the labour of their fathers. The +substitution of the "ring" for the "mule" in Lancashire mills, is +responsible for the sight which may now be seen, of strong men lounging +about the streets, supported by the earnings of their own children, who +have undersold them in the labour market. The "ring" machine can be +worked by a child, and can be learned in half an hour; that is the sole +explanation of this deplorable phenomenon. + +In the case of child-work, with its degrading consequences on the +physical and mental health of the victim thus prematurely thrust into +the struggle of life, legislation can doubtless do much. By raising the +standard of education, and, if necessary, by an absolute prohibition of +child-work, the State would be keeping well within the powers which the +strictest individualist would assign to it, as it would be merely +protecting the rising generation against the cupidity of parents and the +encroachments of industrial competition. + +The case of married women-workers is different. Better education of +women in domestic work and the requirements of wifehood and motherhood; +the growth of a juster and more wholesome feeling in the man, that he +may refuse to demand that his wife add wage-work to her domestic +drudgery; and above all, a clearer and more generally diffused +perception in society of the value of healthy and careful provision for +the children of our race, should build up a bulwark of public opinion, +which shall offer stronger and stronger obstruction to the employment of +married women, either outside or inside the home, in the capacity of +industrial wage-earners. The satisfaction rightly felt in the ever wider +opportunities afforded to unmarried women of earning an independent +livelihood, and of using their abilities and energies in socially useful +work, is considerably qualified by our perception of the injury which +these new opportunities inflict upon our offspring and our homes. +Surely, from the large standpoint of true national economy, no wiser use +could be made of the vast expansion of the wealth-producing power of the +nation under the reign of machinery, than to secure for every woman +destined to be a wife and a mother, that relief from the physical strain +of industrial toil which shall enable her to bring forth healthy +offspring, and to employ her time and attention in their nurture, and in +the ordering of a cleanly, wholesome, peaceful home life. So long as +public opinion permits or even encourages women, who either are or will +be mothers, to neglect the preparation for, and the performance of, the +duties of domestic life and of maternity, by engaging in laborious and +unhealthy industrial occupations, so long shall we pay the penalty in +that physical and moral deterioration of the race which we have traced +in low city life. How can the women of Cradley Heath engaged in wielding +huge sledge-hammers, or carrying on their neck a hundredweight of chain +for twelve or fourteen hours a day, in order to earn five or seven +shillings a week, bear or rear healthy children? What "hope of our race" +can we expect from the average London factory hand? What "home" is she +capable of making for her husband and her children? The high death-rate +of the "slum" children must be largely attributed to the fact that the +women are factory workers first and mothers afterwards. Roscher, the +German economist, assigns as the reason why the Jewish population of +Prussia increases so much faster than the Christian, the fact that the +Jewish mothers seldom go out of their own homes to work.[36] One of the +chief social dangers of the age is the effect of industrial work upon +the motherhood of the race. Surely, the first duty of society should be +to secure healthy conditions for the lives of the young, so as to lay a +firm physical foundation for the progress of the race. + +This we neglect to do when we look with indifference or complacency upon +the present phase of unrestricted competition in industrial work amongst +women. So long as we refuse to insist, as a nation, that along with the +growth of national wealth there shall be secured those conditions of +healthy home life requisite for the sound, physical, moral, and +intellectual growth of the young, at whatever cost of interference with +so-called private liberty of action, we are rendering ourselves as a +nation deliberately responsible for the continuance of that creature +whose appearance gives a loud lie to our claim of civilization--the +gutter child of our city streets. Thousands of these children, as we +well know, the direct product of economic maladjustment, grow up every +year--in our great cities to pass from babyhood into the street arab, +afterwards to become what they may, tramp, pauper, criminal, casual +labourer, feeble-bodied, weak-minded, desolate creatures, incapable of +strong, continuous effort at any useful work. These are the children who +have never known a healthy home. With that poverty which compels mothers +to be wage-earners, lies no small share of the responsibility of this +sin against society and moral progress. It is true that no sudden +general prohibition of married woman's work would be feasible. But it is +surely to be hoped that with every future rise in the wages and +industrial position of male wage-earners, there may be a growing +sentiment in favour of a restriction of industrial work among married +women. + + + + +Chapter IX. + +Moral Aspects of Poverty. + + + +§ 1. "Moral" View of the Causes of Poverty.--Our diagnosis of "sweating" +has regarded poverty as an industrial disease, and we have therefore +concerned ourselves with the examination of industrial remedies, factory +legislation, Trade Unionism, and restrictions of the supply of unskilled +labour. It may seem that in doing this we have ignored certain important +moral factors in the problem, which, in the opinion of many, are all +important. Until quite recently the vast majority of those philanthropic +persons who interested themselves in the miserable conditions of the +poor, paid very slight attention to the economic aspect of poverty, and +never dreamed of the application of economic remedies. It is not +unnatural that religions and moral teachers engaged in active detailed +work among the poor should be so strongly impressed by the moral +symptoms of the disease as to mistake them for the prime causes. "It is +a fact apparent to every thoughtful man that the larger portion of the +misery that constitutes our Social Question arises from idleness, +gluttony, drink, waste, indulgence, profligacy, betting, and +dissipation." These words of Mr. Arnold White express the common view of +those philanthropists who do not understand what is meant by "the +industrial system," and of the bulk of the comfortable classes when they +are confronted with the evils of poverty as disclosed in "the sweating +system." Intemperance, unthrift, idleness, and inefficiency are indeed +common vices of the poor. If therefore we could teach the poor to be +temperate, thrifty, industrious, and efficient, would not the problem of +poverty be solved? Is not a moral remedy instead of an economic remedy +the one to be desired? The question at issue here is a vital one to all +who earnestly desire to secure a better life for the poor. This "moral +view" has much to recommend it at first sight. In the first place, it is +a "moral" view, and as morality is admittedly the truest and most real +end of man, it would seem that a moral cure must be more radical and +efficient than any merely industrial cure. Again, these "vices" of the +poor, drink, dirt, gambling, prostitution, &c., are very definite and +concrete maladies attaching to large numbers of individual cases, and +visibly responsible for the misery and degradation of the vicious and +their families. Last, not least, this aspect of poverty, by representing +the condition of the poor to be chiefly "their own fault," lightens the +sense of responsibility for the "well to do." It is decidedly the more +comfortable view, for it at once flatters the pride of the rich by +representing poverty as an evidence of incompetency, salves his +conscience when pricked by the contrast of the misery around him, and +assists him to secure his material interests by adopting an attitude of +stern repression towards large industrial or political agitations in the +interests of labour, on the ground that "these are wrong ways of +tackling the question." + +§ 2. "Unemployment" and the Vices of the Poor.--The question is this, +Can the poor be moralized, and will that cure Poverty? To discuss this +question with the fullness it deserves is here impossible, but the +following considerations will furnish some data for an answer-- + +In the first place, it is very difficult to ascertain to what extent +drink, vice, idleness, and other personal defects are actually +responsible for poverty in individual cases. There is, however, reason +to believe that the bulk of cases of extreme poverty and destitution +cannot be traced to these personal vices, but, on the other hand, that +they are attributable to industrial causes for which the sufferer is not +responsible. The following is the result of a careful analysis of 4000 +cases of "very poor" undertaken by Mr. Charles Booth. These are grouped +as follows according to the apparent causes of distress-- + + 4 per cent, are "loafers." + 14 " " are attributed to drink and thriftlessness. + 27 " " are due to illness, large families, or other misfortunes. + 55 " " are assigned to "questions of employment." + +Here, in the lowest class of city poor, moral defects are the direct +cause of distress in only 18 per cent. of the cases, though doubtless +they may have acted as contributory or indirect causes in a larger +number. + +In the classes just above the "very poor," 68 per cent. of poverty is +attributed to "questions of employment," and only 13 per cent. to drink +and thriftlessness. In the lowest parts of Whitechapel drink figures +very slightly, affecting only 4 per cent. of the very poor, and 1 per +cent. of the poor, according to Mr. Booth. Even applied to a higher +grade of labour, a close investigation of facts discloses a grossly +exaggerated notion of the sums spent in drink by city workers in receipt +of good wages. A careful inquiry into the expenditure of a body of three +hundred Amalgamated Engineers during a period of two years, yielded an +average of 1s. 9d. per week spent on drink. + +So, too, in the cases brought to the notice of the Lords' Committee, +drink and personal vices do not play the most important part. The Rev. +S. A. Barnett, who knows East London so well, does not find the origin +of poverty in the vices of the poor. Terrible as are the results of +drunkenness, impurity, unthrift, idleness, disregard of sanitary rules, +it is not possible, looking fairly at the facts, to regard these as the +main sources of poverty. If we are not carried away by the spirit of +some special fanaticism, we shall look upon these evils as the natural +and necessary accessories of the struggle for a livelihood, carried on +under the industrial conditions of our age and country. Even supposing +it were demonstrable that a much larger proportion of the cases of +poverty and misery were the direct consequence of these moral and +sanitary vices of the poor, we should not be justified in concluding +that moral influence and education were the most effectual cures, +capable of direct application. It is indeed highly probable that the +"unemployed" worker is on the average morally and industrially inferior +to the "employed," and from the individual point of view this +inferiority is often responsible for his non-employment. But this only +means that differences of moral and industrial character determine what +particular individuals shall succeed or fail in the fight for work and +wages. It by no means follows that if by education we could improve all +these moral and industrial weaklings they could obtain steady employment +without displacing others. Where an over-supply of labour exists, no +remedy which does not operate either by restricting the supply or +increasing the demand for labour can be effectual. + +§ 3. Civilization ascends from Material to Moral.--The life of the +poorest and most degraded classes is impenetrable to the highest +influences of civilization. So long as the bare struggle for continuance +of physical existence absorbs all their energies, they cannot be +civilized. The consideration of the greater intrinsic worth of the moral +life than the merely physical life, must not be allowed to mislead us. +That which has the precedence in value has not the precedence in time. +We must begin with the lower life before we can ascend to the higher. As +in the individual the _corpus sanum_ is rightly an object of earlier +solicitude in education than the _mens sana_, though the latter may be +of higher importance; so with the progress of a class. We cannot go to +the lowest of our slum population and teach them to be clean, thrifty, +industrious, steady, moral, intellectual, and religious, until we have +first taught them how to secure for themselves the industrial conditions +of healthy physical life. Our poorest classes have neither the time, the +energy, or the desire to be clean, thrifty, intellectual, moral, or +religious. In our haste we forget that there is a proper and necessary +order in the awakening of desires. At present our "slum" population do +not desire to be moral and intellectual, or even to be particularly +clean. Therefore these higher goods must wait, so far as they are +dependent on the voluntary action of the poor. What these people do want +is better food, and more of it; warmer clothes; better and surer +shelter; and greater security of permanent employment on decent wages. +Until we can assist them to gratify these "lower" desires, we shall try +in vain to awaken "higher" ones. We must prepare the soil of a healthy +physical existence before we can hope to sow the moral seed so as to +bring forth fruit. Upon a sound physical foundation alone can we build a +high moral and spiritual civilization. + +Moral and sanitary reformers have their proper sphere of action among +those portions of the working classes who have climbed the first rounds +in the ladder of civilization, and stand on tolerably firm conditions of +material comfort and security. They cannot hope at present to achieve +any great success among the poorest workers. The fact must not be +shirked that in preaching thrift, hygiene, morality, and religion to the +dwellers in the courts and alleys of our great cities, we are sowing +seed upon a barren ground. Certain isolated cases of success must not +blind us to this truth. Take, for example, thrift. It is not possible to +expect that large class of workers who depend upon irregular earnings of +less than 18s. a week to set by anything for a rainy day. The essence of +thrift is regularity, and regularity is to them impossible. Even +supposing their scant wage was regular, it is questionable whether they +would be justified in stinting the bodily necessities of their families +by setting aside a portion which could not in the long run suffice to +provide even a bare maintenance for old age or disablement. To say this +is not to impugn the value of thrift in maintaining a character of +dignity and independence in the worker; it is simply to recognize that +valuable as these qualities are, they must be subordinated to the first +demands of physical life. Those who can save without encroaching on the +prime necessaries of life ought to save; but there are still many who +cannot save, and these are they whom the problem of poverty especially +concerns. The saying of Aristotle, that "it is needful first to have a +maintenance, and then to practise virtue," does not indeed imply that we +_ought_ to postpone practising the moral virtues until we have secured +ourselves against want, but rather means that before we can live well we +_must_ first be able to live at all. + +Precisely the same is true of the "inefficiency" of the poor. Nothing is +more common than to hear men and women, often incapable themselves of +earning by work the money which they spend, assigning as the root of +poverty the inefficiency of the poor. It is quite true that the "poor" +consist for the most part of inefficient workers. It would be strange if +it were not so. How shall a child of the slums, ill-fed in body and +mind, brought up in the industrial and moral degradation of low city +life, without a chance of learning how to use hands or head, and to +acquire habits of steady industry, become an efficient workman? The +conditions under which they grow up to manhood and womanhood preclude +the possibility of efficiency. It is the bitterest portion of the lot of +the poor that they are deprived of the opportunity of learning to work +well. To taunt them with their incapacity, and to regard it as the cause +of poverty, is nothing else than a piece of blind insolence. Here and +there an individual may be to blame for neglected opportunities; but the +"poor" as a class have no more chance under present conditions of +acquiring "efficiency" than of attaining to refined artistic taste, or +the culminating Christian virtue of holiness. Inefficiency is one of the +worst and most degrading aspects of poverty; but to regard it as the +leading cause is an error fatal to a true understanding of the problem. + +We now see why it is impossible to seriously entertain the claim of Co- +operative Production as a direct remedy for poverty. The success of Co- +operative schemes depends almost entirely upon the presence of high +moral and intellectual qualities in those co-operating--trust, patience, +self restraint, and obedience combined with power of organization, +skill, and business enterprise. These qualities are not yet possessed by +our skilled artisan class to the extent requisite to enable them to +readily succeed in productive co-operation; how can it be expected then +that low-skilled inefficient labour should exhibit them? The +enthusiastic co-operator says we must educate them up to the requisite +moral and intellectual level. The answer is, that it is impossible to +apply such educating influences effectually, until we have first placed +them on a sound physical basis of existence; that is to say, until we +have already cured the worst form of the malady. From whatever point we +approach this question we are driven to the conclusion that as the true +cause of the disease is an industrial one, so the earliest remedies must +be rather industrial than moral or educational. + +§ 4. Effects of Temperance and Technical Education.--Again, we are by no +means justified in leaping to the conclusion that if we could induce +workers to become more sober, more industrious, or more skilful, their +industrial condition would of necessity be improved to a corresponding +extent. If we can induce an odd farm-labourer here and there to give up +his "beer," he and his family are no doubt better off to the extent of +this saving, and can employ the money in some much more profitable way. +But if the whole class of farm-labourers could be persuaded to become +teetotalers without substituting some new craving of equal force in the +place of drink, it is extremely probable that in all places where there +was an abundant supply of farm-labourers, the wage of a farm-labourer +would gradually fall to the extent of the sum of money formerly spent in +beer. For the lowest paid classes of labourers get, roughly speaking, no +more wages than will just suffice to provide them with what they insist +on regarding as necessaries of life. To an ordinary labourer "beer" is a +part of the minimum subsistence for less than which he will not consent +to work at all. Where there is an abundance of labour, as is generally +the case in low-skilled employments, this minimum subsistence or lowest +standard of comfort practically determines wages. If you were merely to +take something away from this recognized minimum without putting +something else to take its place, you would actually lower the rate of +wages. If, by a crusade of temperance pure and simple, you made +teetotalers of the mass of low-skilled workers, their wages would +indisputably fall, although they might be more competent workers than +before. If, on the other hand, following the true line of temperance +reform, you expelled intemperance by substituting for drink some +healthier, higher, and equally strong desire which cost as much or more +to attain its satisfaction; if in giving up drink they insisted on +providing against sickness and old age, or upon better houses and more +recreation and enjoyment, then their wages would not fall, and might +even rise in proportion as their new wants, as a class, were more +expensive than the craving for drink which they had abandoned. + +Or, again, take the case of technical or general education. In so far as +technical education enabled a number of men who would otherwise have +been unskilled labourers, to compete for skilled work, it will no doubt +enable these men to raise themselves in the industrial sense; but the +addition of their number to the ranks of skilled labour will imply an +increase in supply of skilled labour, and a decrease in supply of +unskilled labour; the price or wage for unskilled labour will rise, but +the wage for skilled labour will fall assuming the relationship between +the demand for skilled and unskilled labour to remain as before. A mere +increase in the efficiency of labour, though it would increase the +quantity of wealth produced, and render a rise of wages possible, would +of itself have no economic force to bring about a rise. No improvement +in the character of labour will be effectual in raising wages unless it +causes a rise in the standard of comfort, which he demands as a +condition of the use of his labour. If we merely increased the +efficiency of labour without a corresponding stimulation of new wants, +we should be simply increasing the mass of labour-power offered for +sale, and the price of each portion would fall correspondingly. It would +confer no more _direct_ benefit upon the worker as such, than does the +introduction of some new machine which has the same effect of adding to +the average efficiency of the worker. Those who would advocate technical +and general education, with a view to the material improvement of the +masses, must see that this education be applied in such a way as to +assist in implanting and strengthening new wholesome demands in those +educated, so as to effectively raise this standard of living. There can +be little doubt but that such education would create new desires, and so +would indirectly secure the industrial elevation of the masses. But it +ought to be clearly recognized that the industrial force which operates +_directly_ to raise the wages of the workers, is not technical skill, or +increased efficiency of labour, but the elevated standard of comfort +required by the working-classes. It is at the same time true, that if we +could merely stimulate the workers to new wants requiring higher wages, +they could not necessarily satisfy all these new wants. If it were +possible to induce all labourers to demand such increase of wages as +sufficed to enable them to lay by savings, it is difficult to say +whether they could in all cases press this claim successfully. But if at +the same time their efficiency as labourers likewise grew, it will be +evident that they both can and would raise that standard of living. + +In so far as the results of technical education upon the class of low- +skilled labourers alone is concerned, it is evident that it would +relieve the constant pressure of an excessive supply. Whatever the +effect of this might be upon the industrial condition of the skilled +industries subjected to the increased competition, there can be no doubt +that the wages of low-skilled labour would rise. Since the condition of +unskilled or low-skilled workers forms the chief ingredient in poverty, +such a "levelling up" may be regarded as a valuable contribution towards +a cure of the worst phase of the disease. + +This brief investigation of the working of moral and educational cures +for industrial diseases shows us that these remedies can only operate in +improving the material condition of the poorest classes, in so far as +they conduce to raise the standard of living among the poor. Since a +higher standard of comfort means economically a restriction in the +number of persons willing to undertake work for a lower rate of wage +than will support this standard of comfort, it may be said that moral +remedies can be only effectual in so far as they limit the supply of +low-skilled, low-paid labour. Thus we are brought round again to the one +central point in the problem of poverty, the existence of an excessive +supply of cheap labour. + +§ 5. The False Dilemma which impedes Progress.--There are those who seek +to retard all social progress by a false and mischievous dilemma which +takes the following shape. No radical improvement in industrial +organization, no work of social reconstruction, can be of any real avail +unless it is preceded by such moral and intellectual improvement in the +condition of the mass of workers as shall render the new machinery +effective; unless the change in human nature comes first, a change in +external conditions will be useless. On the other hand, it is evident +that no moral or intellectual education can be brought effectively to +bear upon the mass of human beings, whose whole energies are necessarily +absorbed by the effort to secure the means of bare physical support. +Thus it is made to appear as if industrial and moral progress must each +precede the other, a thing which is impossible. Those who urge that the +two forms of improvement must proceed _pari passu, _do not precisely +understand what they propose. + +The falsehood of the above dilemma consists in the assumption that +industrial reformers wish to proceed by a sudden leap from an old +industrial order to a new one. Such sudden movements are not in +accordance with the gradual growth which nature insists upon as the +condition of wise change. But it is equally in accordance with nature +that the material growth precedes the moral. Not that the work of moral +reconstruction can lag far behind. Each step in this industrial +advancement of the poor should, and must, if the gain is to be +permanent, be followed closely and secured by a corresponding advance in +moral and intellectual character and habits. But the moral and religious +reformer should never forget that in order of time material reform comes +first, and that unless proper precedence be yielded to it, the higher +ends of humanity are unattainable. + + + + +Chapter X. + +"Socialistic Legislation." + + + +§ 1. Legislation in restraint of "Free" Contract.--The direct pressure +of certain tangible and painful forms of industrial grievance and of +poverty has forced upon us a large mass of legislation which is +sometimes called by the name of Socialistic Legislation. It is necessary +to enter on a brief examination of the character of the various +enactments included under this vague term, in order to ascertain the +real nature of the remedy they seek to apply. + +Perhaps the most typical form of this socialistic legislation is +contained in the Factory Acts, embodying as they do a series of direct +interferences in the interests of the labouring classes with freedom of +contract between capital and labour. + +The first of these Factory Acts, the Health and Morals Act, was passed +in 1802, and was designed for the protection of children apprenticed in +the rising manufacturing towns of the north, engaged in the cotton and +woollen trades. Large numbers of children apprenticed by poor-law +overseers in the southern counties were sent as "slaves" to the northern +manufacturer, to be kept in overcrowded buildings adjoining the factory, +and to be worked day and night, with an utter disregard to all +considerations of physical or moral health. There is no page in the +history of our nation so infamous as that which tells the details of the +unbridled greed of these pioneers of modern commercialism, feeding on +the misery and degradation of English children. This Act of 1802, +enforcing some small sanitary reforms, prohibited night work, and +limited the working-day of apprenticed children to twelve hours. In +1819, another Act was passed for the benefit of unapprenticed child +workers in cotton mills, prohibiting the employment of children under +nine years, and limiting the working-day to twelve hours for children +between nine and sixteen. Sir John Cam Hobhouse in 1825 passed an Act +further restricting the labour of children under sixteen years, +requiring a register of children employed in mills, and shortening the +work on Saturdays. Then came the agitation of Richard Oastler for a Ten +Hours Bill. But Parliament was not ripe for this, and Hobhouse, +attempting to redeem the hours in textile industries, was defeated by +the northern manufacturers. Public feeling, however, formed chiefly by +Tories like Oastler, Sadler, Ashley, and Fielden, drove the Whig leader, +Lord Althorp, to pass the important Factory Act of 1833. This Act drew +the distinction between children admitted to work below the age of +thirteen, and "young persons" of ages from thirteen to eighteen; +enforced in the case of the former attendance at school, and a maximum +working week of forty-eight hours; in the case of the latter prohibited +night work, and limited the hours of work to sixty-nine a week. The next +step of importance was Peel's consolidating Factory Act of 1844, +reducing the working-day for children to six and a half hours, and +increasing the compulsory school attendance from two hours to three, and +strengthening in various ways the machinery of inspection. In 1845 Lord +Ashley passed a measure prohibiting the night work of women. In 1848, by +the Act of Mr. Fielden, ten hours was assigned as a working-day for +women and young persons, and further restrictions in favour of women and +children were made in 1850 and 1853. + +It must, however, be remembered that all the Factory legislation +previous to 1860 was confined to textile factories--cotton, woollen, +silk, or linen. In 1860, bleaching and dyeing works were brought within +the Factory Acts, and several other detailed extensions were made +between 1861 and 1864, in the direction of lace manufacture, pottery, +chimney-sweeping, and other employments. But not until 1867 were +manufactories in general brought under Factory legislation. This was +achieved by the Factory Acts Extension Act, and the Workshops Regulation +Act. For several years, however, the beneficial effects of this +legislation was grievously impaired by the fact that local authorities +were left to enforce it. Not until 1871, when the regulation and +enforcement was restored to State inspectors, was the legislation really +effectual. The Factory and Workshop Act of 1878, modified by a few more +recent restrictions, is still in force. It makes an advance on the +earlier legislation in the following directions. It prohibits the +employment in any factory or workshop of children under the age of +eleven, and requires a certificate of fitness for factory labour under +the age of sixteen. It imposes the half-time system on all children, +admitting, however, two methods, either of passing half the day in +school, and half at work, or of giving alternate days to work and +school. It recognizes a distinction between the severity of work in +textile factories and in non-textile factories, assigning a working week +of about fifty-six and a half hours to the former, and sixty hours to +the latter. The exceptions of domestic workshops, and of many other +forms of female and child employment, the permission of over-time within +certain limitations, and the inadequate provision of inspection, +considerably diminish the beneficial effects of these restrictive +measures. + +In 1842 Lord Ashley secured a Mining Act, which prohibited the +underground employment of women, and of boys under ten years. In 1850 +mine inspectors were provided, and a number of precautions enforced to +secure the safety of miners. In 1864 several minor industries, dangerous +in their nature, such as the manufacture of lucifer-matches, cartridges, +etc., were brought under special regulations. To these restrictive +pieces of legislation should be added the Employers' Liability Act, +enforcing the liability of employers for injuries sustained by workers +through no fault of their own, and the "Truck" legislation, compelling +the payment of wages in cash, and at suitable places. + +This slight sketch will suffice to mark the leading features of a large +class of laws which must be regarded as a growth of State socialism. + +The following points deserve special attention-- + +1. These measures are all forced on Parliament by the recognition of +actual grievances, and all are testimony to the failure of a system of +complete _laissez faire_. + +2. They all imply a direct interference of the State with individual +freedom--i.e. the worker cannot sell his labour as he likes; the +capitalist cannot make what contracts he likes. + +3. Though the protection of children and women is the strongest motive +force in this legislative action, many of these measures interfere +directly or indirectly with adult male labour--e.g. the limit on the +factory hours of women and children practically limits the factory day +for men, where the latter work with women or children. The clauses of +recent Factory Acts requiring the "fencing of machinery" and other +precautions, apply to men as well as to children and women. The Truck +Act and Employers' Liability Act apply to male adult labour. + +§ 2. Theory of this Legislation.--Under such legislation as the +foregoing it is evident that the theory that a worker should be free to +sell his labour as he likes has given way before the following +considerations-- + +(1) That this supposed "freedom to work as one likes" often means only a +freedom to work as another person likes, whether that other person be a +parent, as in the case of children, or an employer, as in the case of +adult workers. + +(2) That a worker in a modern industrial community is not a detached +unit, whose contract to work only concerns himself and his employer. The +fellow-workers in the same trade and society at large have a distinct +and recognizable interest in the conditions of the work of one another. +A, by keeping his shop open on Sundays, or for long hours on week-days, +is able to compel B, C, D, and all the rest of his trade competitors to +do the same. A minority of workmen by accepting low wages, or working +over-time, are often able to compel the majority to do the same. There +is no labour-contract or other commercial act which merely regards the +interest of the parties directly concerned. How far a society acting for +the protection of itself, or of a number of its members, is justified in +interfering between employer and workman, or between competing +tradesmen, is a question of expediency. General considerations of the +theoretic "freedom of contract," and the supposed "self-regarding" +quality of the actions, are thus liable to be set aside by this +socialistic legislation. + +(3) These interferences with "free contract" of labour are not traceable +to the policy of any one political party. The most valuable portions of +the factory measures were passed by nominally Conservative governments, +and though supported by a section of the Radical party, were strenuously +opposed by the bulk of the Liberals, including another section of +Radicals and political economists. + +These measures signify a slow but steady growth of national sentiment in +favour of securing for the poor a better life. The keynote of the whole +movement is the protection of the weak. This appears especially in a +recognition of the growing claims of children. Not only is this seen in +the history of factory legislation, but in the long line of educational +legislation, happily not ended yet. These taken together form a chain of +measures for the protection of the young against the tyranny, greed, or +carelessness of employers or parents. The strongest public sentiment is +still working in this same direction. Recent agitation on the subject of +prevention of cruelty to children, free dinners for school-children, +adoption of children, child insurance, attest the growing strength of +this feeling. + +§ 3. General extension of Paternal Government.--The class of measures +with which we have dealt recognizes that children, women, and in some +cases men, are unable to look after their own interests as industrial +workers, and require the aid of paternal legislation. But it must not be +forgotten that the century has seen the growth of another long series of +legislative Acts based also on the industrial weakness of the +individual, and designed to protect society in general, adult or young, +educated or uneducated, rich or poor. Among these come Adulteration +Acts, Vaccination Acts, Contagious Diseases Acts, and the network of +sanitary legislation, Acts for the regulation of weights and measures, +and for the inspection of various commodities, licenses for doctors, +chemists, hawkers, &c. Many of these are based on ancient historic +precedents; we have grown so accustomed to them, and so thoroughly +recognize the value of most of them, that it seems almost unnecessary to +speak of them as socialistic measures. Yet such they are, and all of +them are objected to upon this very ground by men of the political +school of Mr. Herbert Spencer and Mr. Auberon Herbert. For it should be +noted-- + +1. Each of these Acts interferes with the freedom of the individual. It +compels him to do certain things--e.g. vaccinate his children, admit +inspectors on his premises--and it forbids him to do certain other +things. + +2. Most of these Acts limit the utility to the individual of his +capital, by forbidding him to employ it in certain ways, and hampering +him with various restrictions and expenses. The State, or municipality, +in certain cases--e.g. railways and cabs--even goes so far as to fix +prices. + +§ 4. State and Municipal Undertakings.--But the State does not confine +itself to these restrictive or prohibitive measures, interfering with +the free individual application of capital and labour, in the interests +of other individuals, or of society at large. The State and the +municipality is constantly engaged in undertaking new branches of +productive work, thus limiting the industrial area left open to the +application of private capitalist enterprise. + +In some cases these public works exist side by side in competition with +private enterprise; as, for example, in the carriage of parcels, life +insurance, banking, and the various minor branches of post-office work, +in medical attendance, and the maintenance of national education, and of +places of amusement and recreation. In other cases it claims an absolute +monopoly, and shuts off entirely private enterprise, as in the +conveyance of letters and telegrams, and the local industries connected +with the production and distribution of gas and water. The extent and +complexity of that portion of our State and municipal machinery which is +engaged in productive work will be understood from the following +description-- + +"Besides our international relations, and the army, navy, police, and +the courts of justice, the community now carries on for itself, in some +part or another of these islands, the post-office, telegraphs, carriage +of small commodities, coinage, surveys the regulation of the currency +and note issue, the provision of weights and measures, the making, +sweeping, lighting, and repairing of streets, roads, and bridges, life +insurance, the grant of annuities, shipbuilding, stockbroking, banking, +farming, and money-lending. It provides for many of us from birth to +burial--midwifery, nursery, education, board and lodging, vaccination, +medical attendance, medicine, public worship, amusements, and interment. +It furnishes and maintains its own museums, parks, art galleries, +libraries, concert-halls, roads, bridges, markets, slaughterhouses, +fire-engines, lighthouses, pilots, ferries, surf-boats, steam-tugs, +life-boats, cemeteries, public baths, washhouses, pounds, harbours, +piers, wharves, hospitals, dispensaries, gas-works, water-works, +tramways, telegraph-cables, allotments, cow-meadows, artisans' +dwellings, schools, churches, and reading-rooms. It carries on and +publishes its own researches in geology, meteorology, statistics, +zoology, geography, and even theology. In our colonies the English +Government further allows and encourages the communities to provide for +themselves railways, canals, pawnbroking, theatres, forestry, cinchona +farms, irrigation, leper villages, casinos, bathing establishments, and +immigration, and to deal in ballast, guano, quinine, opium, salt, and +what not. Every one of these functions, with those of the army, navy, +police, and courts of justice, were at one time left to private +enterprise, and were a source of legitimate individual investment of +capital."[37] + +Some of the utilities and conveniences thus supplied by public capital +and public labour are old-established wants, but many are new wants, and +the marked tendency of public bodies to undertake the provision of the +new necessaries and conveniences which grow up with civilization is a +phenomenon which deserves close attention. + +§ 5. Motives of "Socialistic Legislation."--Stated in general terms, +this socialistic tendency may be described as a movement for the control +and administration by the public of all works engaged in satisfying +common general needs of life, which are liable, if trusted to private +enterprise, to become monopolies. + +Articles which everybody needs, the consumption or use of which is +fairly regular, and where there is danger of insufficient or injurious +competition, if the provision be left to private firms, are constantly +passing, and will pass more and more quickly, under public control. The +work of protection against direct injuries to person and property has in +all civilized countries been recognized as a dangerous monoply if left +to private enterprise. Hence military, naval, police, and judicial work +is first "socialized," and in modern life a large number of subsidiary +works for the protection of the life and wealth of the community are +added to these first public duties. Roads, bridges, and a large part of +the machinery of communication or conveyance are soon found to be +capable of abuse if left to private ownership; hence the post and +telegraph is generally State-owned, and in most countries the railways. +There is for the same reason a strong movement towards the municipal +ownership of tramways, gas-and water-works, and all such works as are +associated with monopoly of land, and are not open to adequate +competition. In England everywhere these works are subject to public +control, and the tendency is for this control, which implies part +ownership, to develop into full ownership. Nearly half the gas-consumers +in this country are already supplied by public works. One hundred and +two municipalities own electric plant, forty-five own their tramway +systems, one hundred and ninety-three their water supplies, at the close +of 1902. + +The receipts of local authorities from rates and other sources, +including productive undertakings, had increased from seventy millions +sterling to one hundred and forty-five millions between 1890-1 and +1901-2. Art galleries, free libraries, schools of technical education, +are beginning to spring up on all sides. Municipal lodging-houses are in +working at London, Glasgow, and several other large towns. + +In every one of these cases, two forces are at work together, the +pressure of an urgent public need, and the perception that private +enterprise cannot be trusted to satisfy their need on account of the +danger of monopoly. How far or how fast this State or municipal +limitation of private enterprise and assumption of public enterprise +will proceed, it is not possible to predict. Everything depends on the +two following considerations-- + +First, the tendency of present private industries concerned with the +supply of common wants of life to develop into dangerous monopolies by +the decay of effective competition. If the forces at work in the United +States for the establishment of syndicates, trusts, and other forms of +monopoly, show themselves equally strong in England, the inevitable +result will be an acceleration of State and municipal socialism. + +Secondly, the capacity shown by our municipal and other public bodies +for the effective management of such commercial enterprises as they are +at present engaged in. + +Reviewing then the mass of restrictive, regulative, and prohibitive +legislation, largely the growth of the last half century, and the +application of the State and municipal machinery to various kinds of +commercial undertakings in the interest of the community, we find it +implies a considerable and growing restriction of the sphere of private +enterprise. + +§ 6. The "Socialism" of Taxation--But there is another form of State +interference which is more direct and significant than any of these. One +of the largest State works is that of public education. Now the cost of +this is in large measure defrayed by rate and tax, the bulk of which, in +this case, is paid by those who do not get for themselves or for their +children any direct return. The State-assisted education is said to tax +A for the benefit of B. Nor is this a solitary instance; it belongs to +the very essence of the modern socialistic movement. There is a strong +movement, independent too of political partisanship, to cast, or to +appear to cast, the burden of taxation more heavily upon the wealthier +classes in order to relieve the poor. It is enough to allude to the +income tax and the Poor Law. These are socialistic measures of the +purest kind, and are directly open to that objection which is commonly +raised against theoretic socialism, that it designs "to take from the +rich in order to give to the poor." The growing public opinion in favour +of graduated income tax, and the higher duty upon legacies and rich +man's luxuries, are based on a direct approval of this simple policy of +taking from the rich and giving to the poor. + +The advocates of these measures urge this claim on grounds of public +expediency, and those whose money is taken for the benefit of their +poorer brethren, though they grumble, do not seriously impugn the right +of the State to levy taxes in what way seems best. Whether we regard the +whole movement from the taxation standpoint, or from the standpoint of +benefits received, we shall perceive that it really means a direct and +growing pressure brought to bear upon the rich for the benefit of the +poor. A consideration of all the various classes of socialistic +legislation and taxation to which we have referred, will show that we +are constantly engaged more and more in the practical assertion and +embodiment of the three following principles-- + +1. That the individual is often too weak or ignorant to protect himself +in contract or bargain, and requires public protection. + +2. That considerations of public interest are held to justify a growing +interference with "rights of property." + +3. That the State or municipality may enlarge their functions in any +direction and to any extent, provided a clear public interest is +subserved. + +§ 7. Relation of Theoretic Socialism to Socialistic Legislation.--Now it +has been convenient in speaking of this growth of State and municipal +action to use the term Socialism. But we ought to be clear as to the +application of this term. Although Sir William Harcourt declared, "We +are all socialists to-day," the sober, practical man who is responsible +for these "socialistic" measures, smiles at the saying, and regards it +as a rhetorical exaggeration. He knows well enough that he and his +fellow-workers are guided by no theory of the proper limits of +government, and are animated by no desire to curtail the use of private +property. The practical politician in this country is beckoned forward +by no large, bright ideal; no abstract consideration of justice or +social expediency supplies him with any motive force. The presence of +close detailed circumstance, some local, concrete want to be supplied, +some distinct tangible grievance to be redressed, some calculable +immediate economy to be effected, such are the only conscious motives +which push him forward along the path we have described. An alarming +outbreak of disease registered in a high local death-rate presses the +question of sanitary reform, and gives prominence to the housing of the +working-classes. The bad quality of gas, and the knowledge that the +local gas company, having reached the limit of their legal dividend, are +squandering the surplus on high salaries and expensive offices, leads to +the municipalization of the gas-works. The demand made upon the +ratepayers of Bury to expend; £60,000 on sewage-works, a large +proportion of which would go to increase the ground value of Lord +Derby's property, leads them to realize the justice and expediency of a +system of taxation of ground values which shall prevent the rich +landlord from pocketing the contribution of the poor ratepayer. So too +among those directly responsible for State legislation, it is the force +of public opinion built out of small local concrete grievances acting in +coalition with a growing sentiment in favour of securing better material +conditions for the poor, that drafts these socialistic bills, and gets +them registered as Acts of Parliament. + +But the student of history must not be deceived into thinking that +principles and abstract theories are not operative forces because they +appear to be subordinated to the pressure of small local or temporal +expediencies. Underneath these detailed actions, which seem in large +measure the product of chance, or of the selfish or sentimental effort +of some individual or party, the historian is able to trace the +underworking of some large principle which furnishes the key to the real +logic of events. The spirit of democracy has played a very small part in +the conscious effort of the democratic workers. But the inductive study +of modern history shows it as a force dominating the course of events, +directing and "operating" the _minor_ forces which worked unconsciously +in the fulfilment of its purpose. So it is with this spirit of +socialism. The professed socialist is a rare, perhaps an unnecessary, +person, who wishes to instruct and generally succeeds in scaring +humanity by bringing out into the light of conscious day the dim +principle which is working at the back of the course of events. Since +this conscious socialism is not an industrial force of any great +influence in England, it is not here necessary to discuss the claim of +the theoretic socialist to provide a solution for the problem of +poverty. But it is of importance for us to recognize clearly the nature +of the interpretation theoretic socialists place upon the order of +events set forth in this chapter, for this interpretation throws +considerable light on the industrial condition of labour. + +We see that the land nationalizer claims to remove, and the land +reformer in general to abate, the evil of poverty by securing for those +dependent on the fluctuating value and uncertain tenure of wage-labour +an equal share in those land-values, the product of nature and social +activity, which are at present monopolized by a few. Now the quality of +monopoly which the land nationalizer finds in land, the professed +socialist finds also in all forms of capital. The more discreet and +thoughtful socialist in England at least does not deny that the special +material forms of capital, and the services they render, may be in part +due to the former activity of their present owners, or of those from +whom their present owners have legitimately acquired them; but he +affirms that a large part of the value of these forms of capital, and of +the interest obtained for their use, is due to a monopoly of certain +opportunities and powers which are social property just as much as land +is. The following statement by one of the ablest exponents of this +doctrine will explain what this claim signifies-- + +"We claim an equal right to this 'inheritance of mankind,' which by our +institutions a minority is at present enabled to monopolize, and which +it does monopolize and use in order to extort thereby an unearned +increment; and this inheritance is true capital. We mean thereby the +principle, potentiality, embodied in the axe, the spade, the plough, the +steam-engine, tools of all kinds, books or pictures, bequeathed by +thinkers, writers, inventors, discoverers, and other labourers of the +past, a social growth to which all individual claims have lapsed by +death, but from the advantages of which the masses are virtually shut +out for lack of means. The very best definition of government, even that +of to-day, is that it is the agency of society which procures title to +this treasure, stores it up, guards and gives access to it to every one, +and of which all must make the best use, first and foremost by +education." + +The conscious socialist is he who, recognizing in theory the nature of +this social property inherent in all forms of capital, aims consciously +at getting possession or control of it for society, in order to solve +the problem of poverty by making the wage-earner not only a joint-owner +of the social property in land but also in capital. + +In other words, it signifies that the community refuses to sanction any +absolute property on the part of any of its members, recognizing that a +large portion of the value of each individual's work is due, not to his +solitary efforts, but to the assistance lent by the community, which has +educated and secured for the individual the skill which he puts in his +work; has allowed him to make use of certain pieces of the material +universe which belongs to society; has protected him in the performance +of his work; and lastly, by providing him a market of exchange, has +given a social value to his product which cannot be attributed to his +individual efforts. In recognition of the co-operation of society in all +production of wealth, the community claims the right to impose such +conditions upon the individual as may secure for it a share in that +social value it has by its presence and activity assisted to create. The +claim of the theoretic socialist is that society by taxing or placing +other conditions upon the individual as capitalist or workman is only +interfering to secure her own. Since it is not possible to make any +satisfactory estimate of the proportion of any value produced which is +due to the individual efforts, and to society respectively, there can be +no limit assigned to the right of society to increase its claim save the +limit imposed by expediency. It will not be for the interest of society +to make so large a claim by way of regulation, restriction, or taxation, +as shall prevent the individual from applying his best efforts to the +work of production, whether his function consists in the application of +capital or of labour. The claims of many theoretic socialists transcend +this statement, and claim for society a full control of all the +instruments of production. But it is not necessary to discuss this wider +claim, for the narrower one is held sufficient to justify and explain +those slow legislative movements which come under the head of practical +socialism, as illustrated in modern English history. + +Now while this conscious socialism has no large hold in England, it is +necessary to admit that the doctrine just quoted does furnish in some +measure an explanation of the unconscious socialism traceable in much of +the legislation of this century. When it is said that "we are all +socialists to-day," what is meant is, that we are all engaged in the +active promotion or approval of legislation which can only be explained +as a gradual unconscious recognition of the existence of a social +property in capital which it is held politic to secure for the public +use. + +The increasing restrictions on free use of capital, the monopoly of +certain branches of industry by the State and the municipality, the +growing tendency to take money from the rich by taxation, can be +explained, reconciled, and justified on no other principle than the +recognition that a certain share of the value of these forms of wealth +is due to the community which has assisted and co-operated with the +individual owner in its creation. Whether the socialistic legislation +which, stronger than all traditions of party politics, is constantly +imposing new limitations upon the private use of capital, is desirable +or not, is not the question with which we are concerned. It is the fact +that is important. Society is constantly engaged in endeavouring, +feebly, slowly, and blindly, to relieve the stress of poverty, and the +industrial weakness of low-skilled labour, by laying hands upon certain +functions and certain portions of wealth formerly left to private +individuals, and claiming them as social functions and social wealth to +be administered for the social welfare. This is the past and present +contribution of "socialistic legislation" towards a solution of the +problem of poverty, and it seems not unlikely that the claims of society +upon these forms of social property will be larger and more +systematically enforced in the future. + + + + +Chapter XI. + +The Industrial Outlook of Low-Skilled Labour. + + + +§ 1. The Concentration of Capital.--It must be remembered that we have +been concerned with what is only a portion of the great industrial +movement of to-day. Perhaps it may serve to make the industrial position +of the poor low-skilled workers more distinct if we attempt to set this +portion in its true relation to the larger Labour Problem, by giving a +brief outline of the size and relation of the main industrial forces of +the day. + +If we look at the two great industrial factors, Capital and Labour, we +see a corresponding change taking place in each. This change signifies a +constant endeavour to escape the rigour of competition by a co-operation +which grows ever closer towards fusion of interests previously separate. + +Look first at Capital. We saw how the application of machinery and +mechanical power to productive industries replaced the independent +citizen, or small capitalist, who worked with a handful of assistants, +by the mill and factory owner with his numerous "hands." The economic +use of machinery led to production on a larger scale. But new, complex, +and expensive machinery is continually being invented, which, for those +who can afford to purchase and use it, represents a fresh economy in +production, and enables them both to produce larger quantities of goods +more rapidly, and to get rid of them by underselling those of their +trade competitors who are working with old-fashioned and less effective +machinery. As this process is continually going on, it signifies a +constant advantage which the owner of a large business capital has over +the owner of a smaller capital. In earlier times, when trade was more +localized, and the small manufacturer or merchant had his steady +customers, and stood on a slowly and carefully acquired reputation, it +was not so easy for a new competitor to take his trade by the offer of +some small additional advantage. But the opening up of wider +communication by cheap postage, the newspaper, the railway, the +telegraph, the general and rapid knowledge of prices, the enormous +growth of touting and advertising, have broken up the local and personal +character of commerce, and tend to make the whole world one complete and +even arena of competition. Thus the fortunate possessor of some +commercial advantage, however trifling, which enables him to produce +more cheaply or sell more effectively than his fellows, can rapidly +acquire their trade, unless they are able to avail themselves of the new +machinery, or special skill, or other economy which he possesses. This +consideration enables the large capitalist in all businesses where large +capital contains these advantages, or the owner of some large natural +monopoly, who can most cheaply extract large quantities of raw material, +to crush in free competition the smaller businesses. In proportion as +business is becoming wider and more cosmopolitan, these natural +advantages of large capital over small are able to assert themselves +more and more effectively. In certain branches of trade, which have not +yet been taken over by elaborate machinery, or where everything depends +upon the personal activity and intelligence, and the detailed +supervision of a fully interested owner, the small capitalist may still +hold his own, as in certain branches of retail trade. But the general +movement is in favour of large businesses. Everywhere the big business +is swallowing up the smaller, and in its turn is liable to be swallowed +by a bigger one. In manufacture, where the cosmopolitan character is +strongest, and where machinery plays so large a part, the movement +towards vast businesses is most marked; each year makes it more rapid, +and more general. But in wholesale and retail distribution, though +somewhat slower, the tendency is the same. Even in agriculture, where +close personal care and the limitations of a local market temper the +larger tendency, the recent annals of Western America and Australia +supply startling evidence of the concentrative force of machinery. The +meaning of this movement in capital must not be mistaken. It is not +merely that among competing businesses, the larger showing themselves +the stronger survive, and the smaller, out-competed disappear. This of +course often happens. The big screw-manufacturer able to provide some +new labour-saving machinery, to advertise more effectively, or even to +sell at a loss for a period of time, can drown his weaker competitors +and take their trade. The small tradesman can no longer hold his own in +the fight with the universal provider, or the co-operative store. + +But this destruction of the small business, though an essential factor +in the movement, is not perhaps the most important aspect. The +industrial superiority of the large business over the small makes for +the concentration both of small capitals and of business ability. The +monster millionaire, who owns the whole or the bulk of his great +business, is after all a very rare specimen. The typical business form +of to-day is the joint stock company. This simply means that a number of +capitalists, who might otherwise have been competing with one another on +a small scale of business, recognizing the advantage of size, agree to +mass their capital into one large lump, and to entrust its manipulation +to the best business ability they can muster among them, or procure from +outside. This process in its simplest form is seen in the amalgamation +of existing and competing businesses, notable examples of which have +recently occurred in the London publishing trade. But the ordinary +Company, whether it grows by the expansion of some large existent +business, or, like most railways or other new enterprises, is formed out +of money subscribed in order to form a business, represents the same +concentrating tendency. These share-owners put their capital together +into one concern, in order to reap some advantage which they think they +would not reap if they placed the capital in small competing businesses. +But though it has been calculated that about one-third of English +commerce is now in the hands of joint stock companies, this by no means +exhausts the significance of the centralizing force in capital. Almost +all large businesses, and many small businesses, are recognized to be +conducted largely with borrowed capitals. The owners of these debentures +are in fact joint capitalists with the nominal owner of the business. +They prefer to lend their capital, because they hope to enjoy a portion +of the gain and security which belongs to a large business as compared +with a small one. Along with this coming together of small capitals to +make a large capital, there is a constant centralization and +organization of business ability. It is not uncommon for the owner of a +small and therefore failing business to accept a salaried post in the +office of some great business firm. So too we find the son of a small +tradesman, recognizing the hopelessness of maintaining his father's +business, takes his place behind the counter of some monster house. + +§ 2. How Competition affects Capital.--Now the force which brings about +all these movements is the force of competition. Every increase of +knowledge, every improvement of communication, every breakdown of +international or local barriers, increases the advantage of the big +business, and makes the struggle for existence among small businesses +more keen and more hopeless. It is the desire to escape from the heavy +and harassing strain of trade competition, which practically drives +small businesses to suspend their mutual hostilities, and to combine. It +is true that most of the large private businesses or joint stock +companies are not formed by this direct process of pacification. But for +all that, their _raison d'être_ is found in the desire to escape the +friction and waste of competition which would take place if each +shareholder set up business separately on his own account. We shall not +be surprised that the competition of small businesses has given way +before co-operation, when we perceive the force and fierceness of the +competition between the larger consolidated masses of capital. With the +development of the arts of advertising, touting, adulteration, political +jobbery, and speculation, acting over an ever-widening area of +competition, the fight between the large joint stock businesses grows +always more cruel and complex. Business failures tend to become more +frequent and more disastrous. A recent French economist reckons that ten +out of every hundred who enter business succeed, fifty vegetate, and +forty go into bankruptcy. In America, where internal competition is +still keener and speculation more rife, it has been lately calculated +that ninety-five per cent, of those who enter business "fail of +success." Just as in the growth of political society the private +individual has given up the right of private war to the State, with the +result that as States grow stronger and better organized, the war +between them becomes fiercer and more destructive, so is it with the +concentration of capital. The small capitalist, seeking to avoid the +strain of personal competition, amalgamates with others, and the +competition between these masses of capital waxes every day fiercer. We +have no accurate data for measuring the diminution of the number of +separate competitors which has attended the growing concentration of +capital, but we know that the average magnitude of a successful business +is continually increasing. The following figures illustrate the meaning +of this movement from the American cotton trade, which is not one of the +industries most susceptible to the concentrative pressure. "It will be +seen that in 756 large establishments in 1880, in which the aggregate +capital invested was five times as great as that in the 801 +establishments in 1830, the capital invested per spindle was one-third +less, the number of spindles operated by each labourer nearly three +times as large, the product per spindle one-fourth greater, the product +per dollar invested twice as large, the price of the cotton cloth nearly +sixty per cent, less, the consumption _per capita _of the population +over one hundred per cent greater, and the wages more than double. What +is true of this industry is true of all industries where the +concentration of capital has taken place."[38] + +It is needless to add that these large works are conducted, not by +single owners, but in nearly all cases by the managers of associated +capitals. Regarded from the large standpoint of industrial development, +all these phenomena denote a change in the sphere of competition. From +the competition of private capitals owned by individuals we have passed +to the competition of associated capitals. The question now arises, +"Will not the same forces, which, in order to avoid the waste and +destruction of ever keener competition, compelled the private +capitalists to suspension of hostility and to combination, act upon the +larger masses of associated capital?" The answer is already working +itself clearly out in industrial history. The concentrative adhesive +forces are everywhere driving the competing masses of capital to seek +safety, and escape waste and destruction, by welding themselves into +still larger masses, renouncing the competition with one another in +order to compete more successfully with other large bodies. Thus, +wherever these forces are in free operation, the number of competing +firms is continually growing less; the surviving competitors have +crushed or absorbed their weaker rivals, and have grown big by feeding +on their carcases. + +But the struggle between these few big survivors becomes more fierce +than ever. Fitted out with enormous capital, provided with the latest, +most complex, and most expensive machinery, producing with a reckless +disregard for one another or the wants of the consuming public, +advertising on a prodigious scale in order to force new markets, or +steal the markets of one another, they are constantly driven to lower +their prices in order to effect sales; profits are driven to a minimum; +all the business energy at their command is absorbed by the strain of +the fight; any unforeseen fluctuations in the market brings on a crisis, +ruins the weaker combatants, and causes heavy losses all round. In +trades where the concentrative process has proceeded furthest this +warfare is naturally fiercest. But as the number of competing units +grows smaller, arbitration or union becomes more feasible. Close and +successful united action among a large number of scattered competitors +of different scales of importance, such as exist during the earlier +stage of capitalism, would be impossible. But where the number is small, +combination presents itself as possible, and in so much as the +competition is fiercer, the direct motive to such combination is +stronger. Hence we find that attempts are made to relieve the strain +among the largest businesses. The fiercest combatants weary of incessant +war and patch up treaties. The weapon of capitalist warfare is the power +of under-selling--"cutting prices." The most powerful firms consent to +sheathe this weapon, i.e. agree not to undersell one another, but to +adopt a common scale of prices. This action, in direct restraint of +competition, corresponds to the action of a trades union, and is +attained by many trades whose capital is not large or business highly +developed. Neither does it imply close union of friendly relations +between the combining parties. It is a policy dictated by the barest +instinct of self-preservation. We see it regularly applied in certain +local trades, especially in the production and distribution of +perishable commodities. Our bakers, butchers, dairy-men, are everywhere +in a constant state of suspended hostility, each endeavouring indeed to +get the largest trade for himself, but abiding generally by a common +scale of prices. Wherever the local merchants are not easily able to be +interfered with by outsiders, as in the coal-trade, they form a more or +less closely compacted ring for the maintenance of common terms, raising +and lowering prices by agreement. The possibility of successfully +maintaining these compacts depends on the ability to resist outside +pressure, the element of monopoly in the trade. When this power is +strong, a local ring of competing tradesmen may succeed in maintaining +enormous prices. To take a humble example--In many a remote Swiss +village, rapidly grown into a fashionable resort, the local washerwomen +are able to charge prices twice as high as those paid in London, +probably four times as high as the normal price of the neighbourhood. + +Grocers or clothiers are not able to combine with the same effect, for +the consumer is far less dependent on local distribution for these +wares. But wherever such retail combinations are possible they are +found. Among large producers and large distributing agencies the same +tendency prevails, especially in cases where the market is largely +local. Free competition of prices among coal-owners or iron-masters +gives way under the pressure of common interests, to a schedule of +prices; competing railways come to terms. Even among large businesses +which enjoy no local monopoly, there are constant endeavours to maintain +a common scale of prices. This condition of loose, irregular, and +partial co-operation among competing industrial units is the +characteristic condition of trade in such a commercial country as +England to-day. Competitors give up the combat _à outrance_, and fight +with blunted lances. + +§ 3. Syndicates and Trusts.--But it is of course extremely difficult to +maintain these loose agreements among merchants and producers engaged in +intricate and far-reaching trades. A big opportunity is constantly +tempting one of them to undersell; new firms are constantly springing up +with new machinery, willing to trade upon the artificially raised +prices, by under-selling so as to secure a business; over-production and +a glut of goods tempts weaker firms to "cut rates," and this breaks down +the compact. A score of different causes interfere with these delicate +combinations, and plunge the different firms into the full heat and +waste of the conflict. The renewed "free competition" proves once more +fatal to the smaller businesses; the waste inflicted on the "leviathans" +who survive forms a fresh motive to a closer combination. + +These new closer combinations are known by the names of Syndicate and +Trust. This marks another stage in the evolution of capital. In the +United States, where the growth is most clearly marked, the Standard Oil +Trust forms the leading example of a successful Trust. In 1881, this +Standard Oil Company having maintained for some ten years tolerably +close informal relations with its leading competitors in the Eastern +States, and having crushed out the smaller companies, entered into a +close arrangement with the remaining competitors, with the view of a +practical consolidation of the businesses into one, though the formal +identity of the several firms was still maintained. The various +companies which entered into this union, comprising nearly all the chief +oil-mills, submitted their businesses to valuation, and placed +themselves in the hands of a board of trustees, with an absolute power +to regulate the quantity of production, and if necessary to close mills, +to raise and lower prices, and to work the whole number as a joint +concern. Each company gave up its shares to the Trust, receiving notes +of acknowledgment for the worth of the shares, and the total profits +were to be divided as dividend each half-year. This Trust has continued +to exist, and has now a practical monopoly of the oil trade in America, +controlling, it is reckoned, more than 90 per cent. of the whole market, +and regulating production and prices. + +Everywhere this process is at work. Competing firms are in every trade, +where their small numbers permit, striving to come to closer terms than +formerly, and either secretly or openly joining forces so as to get full +control over the production or distribution of some product, in order to +manipulate prices for their own profit. From railways and corn-stores +down to slate-pencils, coffins, and sticking-plaster, everything is +tending to fall under the power of a Trust. Many of these Trusts fail to +secure the union of a sufficient proportion of the large competitors, or +quarrels spring up among the combining firms, or some new firms enter +into competition too strong to be fought or bought over. In these ways a +large number of the Trusts have hitherto broken down, and will doubtless +continue to break down. In England, this step in capitalist evolution is +only beginning to be taken. In glass, paper, salt, coal, and a few other +commodities, combinations more permanent than the mere Ring or Corner, +and closer than the ordinary masters' unions, have been formed. But Free +Trade, which leaves us open to the less calculable and controllable +element of foreign competition, and the fact that the earlier stages of +concentration of capital are not yet completed here in most trades, have +hitherto retarded the growth of the successful Trust in England. Even in +America there is no case where the monopoly of a Trust reigns absolute +through the whole country, though many of them enjoy a local control of +production and prices which is practically unrestricted. Excepting in +the case of the Standard Oil Trust, and a few less important bodies +which enjoy the control of some local monopoly, such as anthracite coal, +the supremacy of the leading Trust or Syndicate is brought in certain +places into direct conflict with other more or less independent +competing bodies. In other words, the evolution of capital, which tends +ever to the establishment of competition between a smaller number of +larger masses, has nowhere worked out the logical conclusion which means +the condensation of the few large competing bodies into a single mass. +This final step, which presents a completely organized trade with the +element of competition utterly eliminated under the control of a single +body of mere joint-owners of the capital engaged, must be regarded as +the goal, the ideal culmination of the concentrative movement of modern +capital. It is said that more than one-third of the business in the +United States is already controlled by Trusts. But most of them have +only in part succeeded in their effort to escape from competition by +integrating their personal interests into a single homogeneous mass. +Even in cases where they do rule the market untrammelled by the direct +interference of any competitors, they are still deterred from a free use +of their control over prices by the possibility of competition which any +full use of this control might give rise to. For it does not follow that +even where a Trust holds an absolute monopoly of the market of a +locality, that it will be able to maintain that monopoly were it to +raise its prices beyond a certain point. In proportion, however, as +experience yields a greater skill in the management of Trusts, and their +growing strength enables them to more successfully defy outside attempts +at competition, their power to raise prices and increase their rates of +profit would rise accordingly. + +Regarding, then, the development of the capitalist system from the first +establishment of the capitalist-employer as a distinct industrial class, +we trace the massing of capital in larger and larger competing forms, +the number of which represents a pyramid growing narrower as it ascends +towards an ideal apex, represented by the absolute unity or identity of +interests of the capital in a given trade. In so far as the interests of +different trades may clash, we might carry on this movement further, and +trace the gradual agreement, integration, and fusion of the capitals +represented in various trades. There is, in fact, an ever-growing +understanding and union between the various forms of capital in a +country. The recognition of this ultimate identity of interest must be +regarded as a constant force making for the unification of the whole +capital of a country, in the same way as the common interests of +directly competing capitals in the same trade leads to a union for +mutual support and ultimate identification. + +§ 4. Uses and Abuses of the Trust.--This, however, carries us beyond the +immediate industrial outlook. The successful formation of the Trust +represents the highest reach of capitalistic evolution. Although the +subject is too involved for any lengthy discussion here, a few points +bearing on the nature of the Trust deserve attention. + +The Trust is clearly seen to be a natural step in the evolution of +capital. It belongs to the industrial progress of the day, and must not +be condemned as if it were a retrograde or evil thing. It is distinctly +an attempt to introduce order into chaos, to save the waste of war, to +organize an industry. The Trust-makers often claim that their line of +action is both necessary and socially beneficial, and urge the following +points-- + +The low rates of profit, owing to the miscalculation of competitors who +establish too many factories and glut the market; the waste of energy in +the work of competition; the adulteration of goods induced by the desire +to undersell; the enormous royalties which must be paid to a competitor +who has secured some new invention--these and other causes necessitate +some common action. By the united action of the Trust the following +economic advantages are gained-- + + a. The saving of the labour and the waste of competition. + + b. Economy in buying and selling, in discovering and establishing new + markets. + + c. The maintenance of a good quality of wares without fear of being + undersold. + + d. Mutual guarantee and insurance against losses. + + e. The closing of works which are disadvantageously placed or are + otherwise unnecessary to furnish the requisite supply at profitable + prices. + + f. The raising of prices to a level which will give a living basis of + steady production and profit. + +That all these economies are useful to the capitalists who form Trusts +will be obvious. How far they are socially useful is a more difficult +question. Reflection, however, will make one thing evident, viz. that +though the public may share that part of the advantage derived from the +more economical use of large capitals, it cannot share that portion +which is derived from the absence of competition. If two or more Trusts +or aggregations of capital are still in actual or even in potential +competition, the public will be enabled to reap what gain belongs to +larger efficient production, for it will be for the interest of each +severally to sell at the lowest prices; but if a single Trust rule the +market, though the economic advantage of the Trust will be greater in so +far as it escapes the labour of all competition, there will be no force +to secure for the public any share in this advantage. The advantageous +position enjoyed by a Trust will certainly enable its owners at the same +time to pay high profits, give high wages, and sell at low prices. But +while the force of self-interest will secure the first result, there is +nothing to guarantee the second and third. There is no adequate security +that in the culminating product of capitalistic growth, the single +dominant Trust or Syndicate self-interest will keep down prices, as is +often urged by the advocates of Trust. It is true that "they have a +direct interest in keeping prices at least sufficiently low not to +invite the organization of counter-enterprises which may destroy their +existing profits."[39] But this consideration is qualified in two +ways:--_a_. Where Trust is formed or assisted by the possession of a +natural monopoly, i.e. land, or some content of land, absolutely limited +in quality, such potential competition does not exist, and nothing, save +the possibility of substituting another commodity, places a limit on the +rise of price which a Trust may impose on the public.. Although the fear +of potential competition will prevent the maintenance of an indefinitely +high price it will not necessarily prevent such a rise of price as will +yield enormous profits, and form a grievous burden on consumers. For a +strongly-constituted Trust will be able to crush any competing +combination of ordinary size and strength by a temporary lowering of its +prices below the margin of profitable production, the weapon which a +strong rich company can always use successfully against a weaker new +competitor. + +But though a Trust with a really strong monopoly, and rid of all +effective competition, will be able to impose exorbitant and oppressive +prices on consumers, it must be observed that it is not necessarily to +its interest to do so. Every rise of price implies a fall off in +quantity sold; and it may therefore pay a Trust better to sell a large +quantity at a moderate profit than a smaller quantity at an enormous +profit. The exercise of the power possessed by the owners of a monopoly +depends upon the proportionate effect a rise of price will have upon the +sale. This again depends upon the nature and uses of the commodity in +which the Trust deals. In proportion as an article belongs to the +"necessaries" of life, a rise of price will have a small effect on the +purchase of it, as compared with the effect of a similar rise of price +on articles which belong to the "comforts" or "luxuries" of life, or +which may be readily replaced by some cheaper substitute. Thus it will +appear that the power of a Trust or monopoly of capital is liable to be +detrimental to the public interest--1st. In proportion as there is a +want of effective existing competition, and a difficulty of potential +competition. 2nd. In proportion as the commodity dealt in by the Trust +belongs to the necessaries of life. + +§ 5. Steps in the Organization of labour.--The movements of labour show +an order closely correspondent with those of capital. As the units of +capital seek relief from the strain and waste of competition by uniting +into masses, and as the fiercer competition of these masses force them +into ever larger and closer aggregates, until they are enabled to obtain +partial or total relief from the competitive strife, so is it with +labour. The formation of individual units of labour-power into Trades +Unions, the amalgamation of these Unions on a larger scale and in closer +co-operation, are movements analogous to the concentration of small +units of capital traced above. It is not necessary to follow in detail +the concentrative process which is gradually welding labour into larger +units of competition. The uneven pace at which this process works in +different places and in various trades has prevented a clear recognition +of the law of the movement. The following steps, not always taken +however in precisely the same order, mark the progress-- + +1. Workers in the same trade in a town or locality form a "Union," or +limited co-operative society, the economic essence of which consists in +the fact that in regard to the price and other conditions of their +labour they act as a complex unit. Where such unions are strongly +formed, the employer or body of employers deals not with individual +workmen, but with the Union of workmen, in matters which the Union +considers to be of common interest. + +2. Next comes the establishment of provincial or national relations +between these local Unions. The Northumberland and Durham miners will +connect their various branches, and will, if necessary, enter into +relations with the Unions of other mining districts. The local Unions of +engineers, of carpenters, &c., are related closely by means of elected +representatives in national Unions. In the strongest Unions the central +control is absolute in reference to the more important objects of union, +the pressure for higher wages, shorter hours, and other industrial +advantages, or the resistance of attempts to impose reductions of wages, +&c. + +3. Along with the movement towards a national organization of the +workers in a trade, or in some cases prior to it, is the growth of +combined action between allied industries, that is to say, trades which +are closely related in work and interests. In the building trades, for +example, bricklayers, masons, carpenters, plasterers, plumbers, painters +and decorators, find that their respective trade interests meet, and are +interwoven at a score of different points. The sympathetic action thus +set up is beginning to find its way to the establishment of closer co- +operation between the Unions of these several trades. The different +industries engaged in river-side work are rapidly forming into closer +union. So also the various mining classes, the railway workers, civil +servants, are moving gradually but surely towards a recognition of +common interests, and of the advantage of close common action. + +4. The fact of the innumerable delicate but important relations which +subsist among classes of workers, whose work appears on the surface but +distantly related, is leading to Trade Councils representative of all +the Trade Unions in a district. In the midland counties and in London +these general Trade Councils are engaged in the gigantic task of welding +into some single unity the complex conflicting interests of large bodies +of workmen. + +5. An allusion to the attempts to establish international relations +between the Unions of English workmen and those of foreign countries is +important, more as indicating the probable line of future labour +movement, than as indicating the early probability of effective +international union of labour. Though slight spasmodic international co- +operation of workers may even now be possible, especially among members +of English-speaking races, the divergent immediate interests, the +different stages of industrial development reached in the various +industrial countries, seem likely for a long time at any rate to +preclude the possibility of close co-operation between the united +workers of different nations. + +§ 6. Parallelism of the Movements in Capital and Labour.--Now this +movement in labour, irregular, partial, and incomplete as it is, is +strictly parallel with the movement of capital. In both, the smaller +units become merged and concentrated into larger units, driven by self- +interest to combine for more effective competition in larger masses. The +fact that in the case of capital the concentration is more complete, +does not really impair the accuracy of the analogy. Small capitals, when +they have co-operated or formed a union, are absolutely merged, and +cease to exist or act as individual units at all. A "share" in a +business has no separate existence so long as it is kept in that +business. But the small units of labour cannot so absolutely merge their +individuality. The capital-unit being impersonal can be absolutely +merged for common action with like units. The labour-unit being personal +only surrenders part of his freedom of action and competition to the +Union, which henceforth represents the social side of his industrial +self. How far the necessity of close social action between labour-units +in the future may compel the labourer to merge more of his industrial +individuality in the Union, is an open question which the future history +of labour-movements will decide. + +The slow, intermittent, and fragmentary manner in which labour-unions +have been hitherto conducted even in the stronger trades, is a fact +which has perhaps done more to hide the true parallelism in the +evolution of capital and labour. The path traced above has not yet been +traversed by the bulk of English working men, while, as has been shown, +working women have hardly begun to contemplate the first step. But the +uneven rate of development, in the case of capital and labour, should +not blind us to the law which is operating in both movements. The +representative relation between capital and labour is no longer that +between a single employer and a number of individual working men, each +of the latter making his own terms with the former for the sale of his +labour, but between a large company or union of employers on the one +hand, and a union of workmen on the other. The last few years have +consolidated and secured this relation in the case of such powerful +staple industries in England as mining, ship-building, iron-work, and +even in the weaker low-skilled industries the relation is gradually +winning recognition. + +§ 7. Probabilities of Industrial Peace.--This concentrative process at +work in both capital and labour, consolidating the smaller industrial +units into larger ones, and tending to a unification of the masses of +capital and of labour engaged respectively in the several industries, is +at the present time by far the most important factor of industrial +history. How far these two movements in capital and in labour react on +one another for peace or for strife is a delicate and difficult +question. Consideration of the common interest of capital and labour +dependent on their necessary co-operation in industry might lead us to +suppose that along with the growing organization of the two forces there +would come an increased recognition of this community of interest which +would make constantly and rapidly for industrial peace. But we must not +be misled by the stress which is rightly laid on the identity of +interest between capital and labour. The identity which is based on the +general consideration that capital and labour are both required in the +conduct of a given business, is no effective guarantee against a genuine +clash of interests between the actual forms of capital and the labourers +engaged at a given time in that particular business. To a body of +employés who are seeking to extract a rise of wages from their +employers, or to resist a reduction of wages, it is no argument to point +out that if they gain their point the fall of profit in their employers' +business will have some effect in lowering the average interest on +invested capital, and will thus prevent the accumulation of some capital +which would have helped to find employment for some more working men. +The immediate direct interests of a particular body of workmen and a +particular company of employers may, and frequently will, impel them to +a course directly opposed to the wider interests of their fellow- +capitalists or fellow-workers. But it is evident that the smaller the +industrial unit, the more frequent will these conflicts between the +immediate special interest and the wider class interest be. Since this +is so, it would follow that the establishment of larger industrial +units, such as workmen's unions and employers' unions, based on a +cancelling of minor conflicting interests, will diminish the aggregate +quantity of friction between capital and labour. If there were a close +union between all the river-side and carrying trades of the country, it +is far less likely that a particular local body of dock-labourers would, +in order to seize some temporary advantage for themselves, be allowed to +take a course which might throw out of work, or otherwise injure, the +other workers concerned in the industries allied to theirs. One of the +important educative effects of labour organizations will be a growing +recognition of the intricate _rapport_ which subsists not only between +the interests of different classes of workers, but between capital and +labour in its more general aspect. This lesson again is driven home by +the dramatic scale of the terrible though less frequent conflicts which +still occur between capital and labour. Industrial war seems to follow +the same law of change as military war. As the incessant bickering of +private guerilla warfare has given way in modern times to occasional, +large, organized, brief, and terribly destructive campaigns, so it is in +trade. In both cases the aggregate of friction and waste is probably +much less under the modern _régime_, but the dread of these dramatic +lessons is growing ever greater, and the tendency to postponement and +conciliation grows apace. But just as the fact of a growing identity in +the interest of different nations, the growing recognition of that fact, +and the growing horror of war, potent factors as they seem to reasonable +men, make very slow progress towards the substitution of international +arbitration for appeals to the sword, so in industry we cannot presume +that the existence of reasonable grounds for conciliation will speedily +rid us of the terror and waste of industrial conflicts. It is even +possible that just as the speedy formation of a strong national unity, +like that of Prussia under Frederick the Great, out of weak, disordered, +smaller units, may engender for a time a bellicose spirit which works +itself out in strife, so the rapid rise and union of weak and oppressed +bodies of poorer labourers make for a shortsighted policy of blind +aggression. Such considerations as this must, at any rate, temper the +hopes of speedy industrial pacification we may form from dwelling on the +more reasonable effects and teaching of organization. Although the very +growth and existence of the larger industrial units implies, as we saw, +a laying aside of smaller conflicts, we cannot assume that the forces at +present working directly for the pacification of capital and labour, and +for their ultimate fusion, are at all commensurate in importance with +the concentrative forces operating in the two industrial elements +respectively. It is indisputably true that the recent development of +organization, especially of labour unions, acts as a direct restraint of +industrial warfare, and a facilitation of peaceable settlements of trade +disputes. Mr. Burnett, in his Report to the Board of Trade, on Strikes +and Lock-outs in 1888, remarks _à propos_ of the various modes of +arbitration, that "these methods of arranging difficulties have only +been made possible by organization of the forces on both sides, and +have, as it were, been gradually evolved from the general progress of +the combination movement."[40] + +Speaking of Trade Unions, he sums up--"In fact the executive committees +of all the chief Unions are to a very large extent hostile to strikes, +and exercise a restraining influence"--a judgment the truth of which has +been largely exemplified during the last two or three years. But our +hopes and desires must not lead us to exaggerate the size of these +peaceable factors. _Conseils de prud'hommes_ on the continent, boards of +arbitration and conciliation in this country, profit-sharing schemes in +Europe and America, are laudable attempts to bridge over the antagonism +which exists between separate concrete masses of capital and labour. The +growth of piecework and of sliding scales has effected something. But +the success of the Board of Conciliation and Arbitration in the +manufactured iron trade of the north of England has not yet led to much +successful imitation in other industries. Recent experience of formal +methods of conciliation and of sliding scales, especially in the mining, +engineering, and metal industries, as well as the failure of some of the +most important profit-sharing experiments, shows that we must be +satisfied with slow progress in these direct endeavours after +arbitration. The difficulty of finding an enduring scale of values which +will retain the adherence of both interests amidst industrial movements +which continually tend to upset the previously accepted "fair rates," is +the deeper economic cause which breaks down many of these attempts. The +direct fusion of the interests of employers and employed, and in some +measure of capital and labour, which is the object of the co-operative +movement, is a steadily growing force, whose successes may serve perhaps +better than any other landmark as a measure of the improving _morale_ of +the several grades of workers who show themselves able to adopt its +methods. But while co-operative distribution has thriven, the success of +co-operative workshops and mills has hitherto been extremely slow. A +considerable expansion of the productive work of the co-operative +wholesale societies within the last few years offers indeed more +encouragement. But at present only about 2¼ per cent. of English +industry and commerce, as tested by profits, is under the conduct of co- +operative societies. Hence, while it seems possible that the slow growth +in productive co-operation, and the more rapid progress of distributive +co-operation, may serve to point the true line of successful advance in +the future, the present condition of the co-operative movement does not +entitle it to rank as one of the most powerful and prominent industrial +forces. Though it may be hoped and even predicted that each movement in +the agglomerative development of capital and labour which presents the +two agents in larger and more organized shape, will render the work of +conciliation more peremptory and more feasible, it must be admitted that +all these conciliatory movements making for the direct fusion of capital +and labour, are of an importance subordinate to the larger evolutionary +force on which we have laid stress. + +We see then the multitudinous units of capital and labour crystallizing +ever into larger and larger masses, moving towards an ideal goal which +would present a single body of organized capital and a single body of +organized labour. The process in each case is stimulated by the similar +process in the other. Each step in the organization of labour forces a +corresponding move towards organization of capital, and _vice versâ_. +Striking examples of this imitative strategic movement have been +presented by the rapid temporary organization of Australian capital, and +by the effect of Dock Labourers' Unions in England in promoting the +closer co-operation of the capital of shipowners. By this interaction of +the two forces, the development in the organization of capital and +labour presents itself as a _pari passu_ progress; or perhaps more +strictly it goes by the analogy of a game of draughts; the normal state +is a series of alternate moves; but when one side has gained a victory, +that is, taken a piece, it can make another move. + +§ 8. Relation of Low-skilled Labour to the wider Movement.--The relation +in which this large industrial evolution stands to our problem of the +poor low-skilled worker is not obscure. In comparing the movement of +capital with that of labour we saw that in one respect the former was +clearer and more perfect. The weaker capitalist, he who fails to keep +pace with industrial progress, and will not avail himself of the +advantage which union gives to contending pieces of capital, is simply +snuffed out; that is, he ceases to have an independent existence as a +capitalist when he can no longer make profit. The laggard, ill-managed +piece of capital is swept off the board. This is possible, for the +capital is a property separable from its owner. The case of labour is +different. The labour-power is not separable from the person of the +labourer. So the labourer left behind in the evolution of labour +organization does not at once perish, but continues to struggle on in a +position which is ever becoming weaker. "Organize or starve," is the law +of modern labour movements. The mass of low-skilled workers find +themselves fighting the industrial battle for existence, each for +himself, in the old-fashioned way, without any of the advantages which +organization gives their more prosperous brothers. They represent the +survival of an earlier industrial stage. If the crudest form of the +struggle were permitted to rage with unabated force, large numbers of +them would be swept out of life, thereby rendering successful +organization and industrial advance more possible to the survivors. But +modern notions of humanity insist upon the retention of these +superfluous, low-skilled workers, while at the same time failing to +recognize, and making no real attempt to provide against, the inevitable +result of that retention. By allowing the continuance of the crude +struggle for existence which is the form industrial competition takes +when applied to the low-skilled workers, and at the same time forbidding +the proved "unfittest" to be cleared out of the world, we seem to +perpetuate and intensify the struggle. The elimination of the "unfit" is +the necessary means of progress enforced by the law of competition. An +insistence on the survival, and a permission of continued struggle to +the unfit, cuts off the natural avenue of progress for their more fit +competitors. So long as the crude industrial struggle is permitted on +these unnatural terms, the effective organization and progress of the +main body of low-skilled workers seems a logical impossibility. If the +upper strata of low-class workers are enabled to organize, and, what is +more difficult, to protect themselves against incursions of outsiders, +the position of the lower strata will become even more hopeless and +helpless. If one by one all the avenues of regular low-skilled labour +are closed by securing a practical monopoly of this and that work for +the members of a Union, the superfluous body of labourers will be driven +more and more to depend on irregular jobs, and forced more and more into +concentrated masses of city dwellers, will present an ever-growing +difficulty and danger to national order and national health. +Consideration of the general progress of the working-classes has no +force to set aside this problem. It seems not unlikely that we are +entering on a new phase of the poverty question. The upper strata of +low-skilled labour are learning to organize. If they succeed in forming +and maintaining strong Unions, that is to say, in lifting themselves +from the chaotic struggle of an earlier industrial epoch, so as to get +fairly on the road of modern industrial progress, the condition of those +left behind will press the illogicality of our present national economy +upon us with a dramatic force which will be more convincing than logic, +for it will appeal to a growing national sentiment of pity and humanity +which will take no denial, and will find itself driven for the first +time to a serious recognition of poverty as a national, industrial +disease, requiring a national, industrial remedy. + +The great problem of poverty thus resides in the conditions of the low- +skilled workman. To live industrially under the new order he must +organize. He cannot organize because he is so poor, so ignorant, so +weak. Because he is not organized he continues to be poor, ignorant, +weak. Here is a great dilemma, of which whoever shall have found the key +will have done much to solve the problem of poverty. + + + + +List of Authorities. + + + +By far the most valuable general work of reference upon _Problems of +Poverty_ is Charles Booth's _Labour and Life of the People_ (Williams & +Norgate). By the side of this work on London may be set Mr Rowntree's +_Poverty: A Story of Town Life_ (Macmillan). A large quantity of +valuable material exists in _The Report of the Industrial Remuneration +Conference_, and in the _Reports of the Lords' Committee on the Sweating +System_ and of the _Labour Commission_. Among shorter and more +accessible works dealing with the industrial causes of poverty and the +application of industrial remedies, Toynbee's _Industrial Revolution_ +(Rivington); Gibbins' _Industrial History of England (University +Extension Series_, Methuen & Co.); and Jevons'_The State in Relation to +Labour (English Citizen Series)_, will be found most useful. For a clear +understanding of the relation of economic theory to the facts of labour +and poverty, J.E. Symes' _Political Economy_ (Rivington), and Marshall's +_Economies of Industry_are specially recommended. + +Among the large mass of books and pamphlets bearing on special subjects +connected with _Problems of Poverty_, the following are most useful. An +asterisk is placed against the names of those which deserve special +attention, and which are easily accessible. + + + +Sweating and Its Causes. + + +* Booth, _Labour and Life of the People_. + +* _Final Report of Lords' Committee on the Sweating System._ + +Marx, "Capital," chap. xv., _Machinery and Modern Industry_ +(Sonnenschein). + +Burnett, _Report to the Board of Trade on Sweating_ (Blue-Book, 1887). + +"Socialism," _Fabian Essays_ (Walter Scott). + +Booth, _Pauperism and the Endowment of Old Age_ (Macmillan). + +J. A. Spender, _The State and Pensions in Old Age_ (Sonnenschein). + +J. T. Arlidge, _Hygiene of Occupations_ (Rivington). + + + +Co-Operation and Labour Organization. + + +* Webb, _History of Trade Unionism_ (Longman). + +* Howell, _Conflicts of Capital and Labour_ (Chatto & Windus). + +* Burnett, _Report of Trade Unions_ (Blue-Book). + +Brentano, _Gilds and Trade Unions_ (Trübner). + +* Baernreither, _Associations of English Working-men_. + +Acland and Jones, _Working-men Co-operators_. + +Gilman, _Profit-sharing between Employer and Employed_ (Macmillan). + +_Co-operative Wholesale Society's Annual_. + +Potter, _Co-operative Movement in Great Britain_ (Sonnenschein). + +* Webb, _Industrial Democracy_ (Longman). + +* Schloss, _Methods of Industrial Remuneration_ (Williams & Norgate). + + + +Chartiable Work and Poor Law, &c. + + +* Aschrott, _The English Poor Law System_ (Knight). + +H. Bosanquet, _The Strength of the People_ (Macmillan). + +P. Alden, _The Unemployed_. + +Fowle, _The Poor Law_ (_English Citizen Series_). + +Booth, _In Darkest England_. + +Blackley, _Thrift and Independence_ (People's Library, S.P.C.K.). + +* Mackay, _The English Poor_ (Murray). + +* _Report on Pauperism in England and Wales_ (Blue-Book, 1889). + +Rev. S.A. Barnett, _Practicable Socialism_. + +Loch, _Charity Organization_ (Sonnenschein). + +_Report of Committee on National Provident Insurance_ (Blue-Book, 1887). + + + +Socialistic Legislation. + + +Ensor, _Modern Socialism_ (Harpers). + +* Jevons, _The State in Relation to Labour_. + +Webb, _Socialism in England_ (Swan Sonnenschein). + +Hyndman, _Historical Basis of Socialism in England_ (Kegan Paul). + +* "Socialism" (_Fabian Essays_). + +* Toynbee, _Industrial Revolution_ (Rivington). + +Kirkup, _An Inquiry into Socialism_ (Longman). + + + +Movements of Capital. + + +* Marx, "Capital," vol. ii., ch. xv. + +* Baker, _Monopolies and the People_ (Putnams). + +"Socialism," _Fabian Essays_. + +Macrosty, _Trust and the State_ (Grant Richards). + +Ely, _Monopolies and Trusts_ (Macmillan). + + + +The Measure of Poverty. + + +*Giffen, _Economic Inquiries and Studies _(Bell). + +Mulhall, _Dictionary of Statistics_ (Routledge). + +Bowley, _National Progress in Wealth and Trade_(King). + +* Board of Trade Memoranda, _British and Foreign Trade and Industrial +Conditions_ [cd. 1761 and 2237]. + +_Statistical Abstract of the United Kingdom_ [cd. 1727]. + +* _Census of England and Wales: General Report_, 1901 [cd. 2174]. + +* Leone Levi, _Wages and Earnings of the Working-Classes_ (Murray). + +* _Report of the Industrial Remuneration Conference_ (Cassell). + +Giffen, _Growth of Capital_ (Bell). + +Valpy, _An Inquiry into the Conditions and Occupations of the People in +Central London_. + + + + +Footnotes + + + +[1] This sum includes an allowance for the part of the wage of domestic +servants, shop-attendants, &c. paid in kind. + +[2] Leone Levi's _Wages and Earnings of the Working-Classes_, p. II. + +[3] _Labour and Life of the People_, vol. i. p. 38. + +[4] _Poverty: A Study of Town Life_. (Macmillan & Co.) + +[5] By Mr P.H. Mann in _Sociological Papers_. (Macmillan.) + +[6] Cf. _An Inquiry into the Conditions and Occupations of the People in +Central London_, R. A. Valpy. + +[7] This statement is borne out by _A Return of Expenditure of Working- +Men_, for 1889, published by the Labour Department of the Board of +Trade. + +[8] See two interesting papers, "Our Farmers in Chains," by the Rev. +Harry Jones (_National Review_, April and July, 1890). + +[9] Arnold White: _The Problems of a Great City_, p. 159. + +[10] Marshall's _Principles of Economics_, II. ch. iv. §2. + +[11] De Tocqueville, _Ancient Régime_, ch. xvi. + +[12] _Report of the Industrial Remuneration Conference_, 1886, p. 429. + +[13] Cannan's _Elementary Political Economy_, part ii. § 15. + +[14] _Industrial Remuneration Congress Report_, p. 153. Mr. W. Owen. + +[15] _Economics of Industry_, p. 111. + +[16] _Principles of Economics_, pp. 314, 316. + +[17] Kirkup, _Inquiry into Socialism_, p. 72. + +[18] Booth's _Labour and Life of the People, _vol. i. Part. III. ch. ii. +_Influx of Population, _by H. Llewellyn Smith. A most valuable paper, +from which many of the facts here stated have been drawn. + +[19] The official estimate is not precise, since our statistics of +emigration refer only to non-European countries. + +[20] _Labour and Life of the People_, vol. i. p. 237. + +[21] _Labour and Life of East London_, vol. i. p. 224. + +[22] _Report on the Sweating System_, p. 14. + +[23] _Labour and Life of the People_, p. 271. + +[24] _Final Report on the Sweating System, _§ 68. + +[25] _Lords' Committee on the Sweating System; Last Report, _ p. 184. + +[26] _Labour and Life in London_, vol. i. p. 489. + +[27] Howell, _Conflicts of Capital and Labour, _p. 128. Second Edition, +Macmillan & Co. + +[28] Karl Marx, _Capital_, vol. ii. p. 480. + +[29] _Labour and Life in East London, _vol. i. p. 112. + +[30] Cf. Howell's _Conflicts of Capital and Labour_, p. 207. + +[31] _The State in Relation to Labour_, p. 106. + +[32] _Problems of Greater Britain_, vol. ii. p. 314. + +[33] _Labour and Life of the People_, vol. i, p. 167. + +[34] The match-box trade, however, is chiefly in the hands of +home-workers. + +[35] _Labour and Life of the People_, vol, i p. 427. + +[36] Roscher's _Political Economy_, § 242. + +[37] Fabian Essays in Socialism, p. 48. + +[38] Quoted by G. Gunton: _Political Science Quarterly_, Sept. 1880. + +[39] G. Gunton: _Political Science Quarterly, _Sept. 1888. + +[40] p. 17. + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PROBLEMS OF POVERTY*** + + +******* This file should be named 10710-8.txt or 10710-8.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/1/0/7/1/10710 + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. 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Hobson</title> + <style type="text/css"> + <!-- + + body { + margin .5em; + font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; + } + + h1,h2,h3,h4 { + text-align: center; + font-weight: bold; + font-variant: small-caps + } + + .smallcaps { font-variant: small-caps } + + a:link {color:blue; + text-decoration:none} + link {color:blue; + text-decoration:none} + a:visited {color:blue; + text-decoration:none} + a:hover {color:red} + + div.chapter { + margin-top: 4em; + } + + div.sec { + margin-top: 1.5em; + } + + div.note { + border-style: dashed; + border-width: 1px; + border-color: #000000; + background-color: #ccffcc; + font-size: .8em; + margin: 10px; + } + + div.sec div.note { + width: 40%; + float: right; + clear: right; + } + + div.note p { + margin: 10px 10px 10px 10px; + } + + table { + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + max-width: 100%; + } + + table caption { + margin: .5em 0 .5em 0; + text-align: center; + font-size: 1.2em; + } + + td p { + margin: auto; + } + + td { + vertical-align: top; + } + + td.decimal { + text-align: center; + text-align: "."; + } + + ul { + list-style-type: none; + } + + ol { + list-style-type: decimal; + } + + hr { + height: 1px; + } +--> +</style> +</head> +<body> +<h1>The Project Gutenberg eBook, Problems of Poverty, by John A. Hobson</h1> +<pre> +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at <a href = "https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a> + +Title: Problems of Poverty + +Author: John A. Hobson + +Release Date: January 13, 2004 [eBook #10710] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PROBLEMS OF POVERTY*** + +</pre> + +<center><b>E-text prepared by Project Gutenberg Distributed Proofreaders</b></center> +<br /> +<br /> + +<div class="note"><p><strong>Transcriber's note:</strong> Footnotes have been renumbered and moved to the end +of the text.</p></div> + +<hr /> + +<h1 class="title">Problems of Poverty</h1> + +<h2 class="subtitle">An Inquiry into the Industrial Condition of The Poor</h2> + + + + +<p class="smallcaps" align="center">By</p> +<h2 class="author">John A. Hobson, M.A.</h2> + +<h3>Author of "The Problem of The Unemployed,"<br /> +"International Trade," Etc.</h3> + +<h4>Sixth Edition</h4> + + +<table summary="Publication history"> +<tr><td>First Published April</td><td>1891</td></tr> +<tr><td>Second Edition November</td><td>1894</td></tr> +<tr><td>Third Edition July</td><td>1896</td></tr> +<tr><td>Fourth Edition July</td><td>1899</td></tr> +<tr><td>Fifth Edition May</td><td>1905</td></tr> +<tr><td>Sixth Edition</td><td>1906</td></tr> +</table> + + +<div class="chapter" id="preface"> +<h2>Preface</h2> + + + +<p>The object of this volume is to collect, arrange, and examine some of the +leading facts and forces in modern industrial life which have a direct +bearing upon Poverty, and to set in the light they afford some of the +suggested palliatives and remedies. Although much remains to be done in +order to establish on a scientific basis the study of "the condition of +the people," it is possible that the brief setting forth of carefully +ascertained facts and figures in this little book may be of some service +in furnishing a stimulus to the fuller systematic study of the important +social questions with which it deals.</p> + +<p>The treatment is designed to be adapted to the focus of the +citizen-student who brings to his task not merely the intellectual +interest of the collector of knowledge, but the moral interest which +belongs to one who is a part of all he sees, and a sharer in the social +responsibility for the present and the future of industrial society.</p> + +<p>For the statements of fact contained in these chapters I am largely +indebted to the valuable studies presented in the first volume of Mr. +Charles Booth's <i>Labour and Life of the People</i>, a work which, when +completed, will place the study of problems of poverty upon a solid +scientific basis which has hitherto been wanting. A large portion of this +book is engaged in relating the facts drawn from this and other sources +to the leading industrial forces of the age.</p> + +<p>In dealing with suggested remedies for poverty, I have selected certain +representative schemes which claim to possess a present practical +importance, and endeavoured to set forth briefly some of the economic +considerations which bear upon their competency to achieve their aim. In +doing this my object has been not to pronounce judgment, but rather to +direct enquiry. Certain larger proposals of Land Nationalization and State +Socialism, etc., I have left untouched, partly because it was impossible +to deal, however briefly, even with the main issues involved in these +questions, and partly because it seemed better to confine our enquiry to +measures claiming a direct and present applicability.</p> + +<p>In setting forth such facts as may give some measurement of the evils of +Poverty, no attempt is made to suppress the statement of extreme cases +which rest on sufficient evidence, for the nature of industrial poverty +and the forces at work are often most clearly discerned and most rightly +measured by instances which mark the severest pressure. So likewise there +is no endeavour to exclude such human emotions as are "just, measured, and +continuous," from the treatment of a subject where true feeling is +constantly required for a proper realization of the facts.</p> + +<p>In conclusion, I wish to offer my sincere thanks to Mr. Llewellyn Smith, +Mr. William Clarke, and other friends who have been kind enough to render +me valuable assistance in collecting the material and revising the +proof-sheets of portions of this book.</p> +</div> + + +<div class="chapter" id="toc"> +<h2>Contents</h2> + + +<ol> + <li><a href="#ch01">The Measure of Poverty</a></li> + <li><a href="#ch02">The Effects of Machinery on the Condition of the Working-Classes</a></li> + <li><a href="#ch03">The Influx of Population into Large Towns</a></li> + <li><a href="#ch04">"The Sweating System"</a></li> + <li><a href="#ch05">The Causes of Sweating</a></li> + <li><a href="#ch06">Remedies for Sweating</a></li> + <li><a href="#ch07">Over-Supply of Low-Skilled Labour</a></li> + <li><a href="#ch08">The Industrial Condition of Women Workers</a></li> + <li><a href="#ch09">Moral Aspects of Poverty</a></li> + <li><a href="#ch10">"Socialistic Legislation"</a></li> + <li><a href="#ch11">The Industrial Outlook of Low-Skilled Labour</a></li> +</ol> + +<p><a href="#authorities">List of Authorities</a></p> +</div> + + + + +<h1 class="title">Problems of Poverty</h1> + + + +<div class="chapter" id="ch01"> +<h2>Chapter I.</h2> + +<h3>The Measure of Poverty.</h3> + + + +<p><b>§ 1.The National Income, and the Share of the Wage-earners.</b>--To give +a clear meaning and a measure of poverty is the first requisite. Who are +the poor? The "poor law," on the one hand, assigns a meaning too narrow +for our purpose, confining the application of the name to "the destitute," +who alone are recognized as fit subjects of legal relief. The common +speech of the comfortable classes, on the other hand, not infrequently +includes the whole of the wage-earning class under the title of "the +poor." As it is our purpose to deal with the pressure of poverty as a +painful social disease, it is evident that the latter meaning is unduly +wide. The "poor," whose condition is forcing "the social problem" upon the +reluctant minds of the "educated" classes, include only the lower strata +of the vast wage-earning class.</p> + +<p>But since dependence upon wages for the support of life will be found +closely related to the question of poverty, it is convenient to throw some +preliminary light on the measure of poverty, by figures bearing on the +general industrial condition of the wage-earning class. To measure poverty +we must first measure wealth. What is the national income, and how is it +divided? will naturally arise as the first questions. Now although the +data for accurate measurement of the national income are somewhat slender, +there is no very wide discrepancy in the results reached by the most +skilful statisticians. For practical purposes we may regard the sum of +£1,800,000,000 as fairly representing the national income. But when we put +the further question, "How is this income divided among the various +classes of the community?" we have to face wider discrepancies of +judgment. The difficulties which beset a fair calculation of interest and +profits, have introduced unconsciously a partisan element into the +discussion. Certain authorities, evidently swayed by a desire to make the +best of the present condition of the working-classes, have reached a low +estimate of interest and profits, and a high estimate of wages; while +others, actuated by a desire to emphasize the power of the capitalist +classes, have minimized the share which goes as wages. At the outset of +our inquiry, it might seem well to avoid such debatable ground. But the +importance of the subject will not permit it to be thus shirked. The +following calculation presents what is, in fact, a compromise of various +views, and can only claim to be a rough approximation to the truth.</p> + +<p>Taking the four ordinary divisions: Rent, as payment for the use of land, +for agriculture, housing, mines, etc.; Interest for the use of business +capital; Profit as wages of management and superintendence; and Wages, the +weekly earnings of the working-classes, we find that the national income +can be thus fairly apportioned--</p> +<table summary="apportioned income"> +<tr><td> Rent </td><td>£200,000,000.</td></tr> +<tr><td> Interest </td><td>£450,000,000. </td></tr> +<tr><td> Profits </td><td>£450,000,000. </td></tr> +<tr><td> Wages </td><td>£650,000,000.[<a href="#fn1">1</a>] </td></tr> +<tr><td> Total </td><td>£1750,000,000. </td></tr> +</table> +<p>Professor Leone Levi reckoned the number of working-class families as +5,600,000, and their total income £470,000,000 in the year 1884.[<a href="#fn2">2</a>] If we +now divide the larger money, minus £650,000,000, among a number of +families proportionate to the increase of the population, viz. 6,900,000, +we shall find that the average yearly income of a working-class family +comes to about £94, or a weekly earnings of about 36s. This figure is of +necessity a speculative one, and is probably in excess of the actual +average income of a working family.</p> + +<p>This, then, we may regard as the first halting-place in our inquiry. But +in looking at the average money income of a wage-earning family, there are +several further considerations which vitally affect the measurement of the +pressure of poverty.</p> + +<p>First, there is the fact, that out of an estimated population of some +42,000,000, only 12,000,000, or about three out of every ten persons in +the richest country of Europe, belong to a class which is able to live in +decent comfort, free from the pressing cares of a close economy. The other +seven are of necessity confined to a standard of life little, if at all, +above the line of bare necessaries.</p> + +<p>Secondly, the careful figures collected by these statisticians show that +the national income equally divided throughout the community would yield +an average income, per family, of about £182 per annum. A comparison of +this sum with the average working-class income of £94, brings home the +extent of inequality in the distribution of the national income. While it +indicates that any approximation towards equality of incomes would not +bring affluence, at anyrate on the present scale of national productivity, +it serves also to refute the frequent assertions that poverty is +unavoidable because Great Britain is not rich enough to furnish a +comfortable livelihood for everyone.</p> + +<p><b>§ 2. Gradations of Working-class Incomes.</b>--But though it is true that +an income of 36s. a week for an ordinary family leaves but a small margin +for "superfluities," it will be evident that if every family possessed +this sum, we should have little of the worst evils of poverty. If we would +understand the extent of the disease, we must seek it in the inequality of +incomes among the labouring classes themselves. No family need be reduced +to suffering on 36s. a week. But unfortunately the differences of income +among the working-classes are proportionately nearly as great as among the +well-to-do classes. It is not merely the difference between the wages of +skilled and unskilled labour; the 50s. per week of the high-class +engineer, or typographer, and the 1s. 2d. per diem of the sandwich-man, or +the difference between the wages of men and women workers. There is a more +important cause of difference than these. When the average income of a +working family is named, it must not be supposed that this represents the +wage of the father of the family alone. Each family contains about 21/4 +workers on an average. This is a fact, the significance of which is +obvious. In some families, the father and mother, and one or two of the +children, will be contributors to the weekly income; in other cases, the +burden of maintaining a large family may be thrown entirely on the +shoulders of a single worker, perhaps the widowed mother. If we reckon +that the average wage of a working man is about 24s., that of a working +woman 15s., we realize the strain which the loss of the male bread-winner +throws on the survivor.</p> + +<p>In looking at the gradations of income among the working-classes, it must +be borne in mind that as you go lower down in the standard of living, each +drop in money income represents a far more than proportionate increase of +the pressure of poverty. Halve the income of a rich man, you oblige him to +retrench; he must give up his yacht, his carriage, or other luxuries; but +such retrenchment, though it may wound his pride, will not cause him great +personal discomfort. But halve the income of a well-paid mechanic, and you +reduce him and his family at once to the verge of starvation. A drop from +25s. to 12s. 6d. a week involves a vastly greater sacrifice than a drop +from £500 to £250 a year. A working-class family, however comfortably it +may live with a full contingent of regular workers, is almost always +liable, by sickness, death, or loss of employment, to be reduced in a few +weeks to a position of penury.</p> + +<p><b>§ 3. Measurement of East London Poverty.</b>--This brief account of the +inequality of incomes has brought us by successive steps down to the real +object of our inquiry, the amount and the intensity of poverty. For it is +not inequality of income, but actual suffering, which moves the heart of +humanity. What do we know of the numbers and the life of those who lie +below the average, and form the lower orders of the working-classes?</p> + +<p>Some years ago the civilized world was startled by the <i>Bitter Cry of +Outcast London</i>, and much trouble has been taken of late to gauge the +poverty of London. A host of active missionaries are now at work, engaged +in religious, moral, and sanitary teaching, in charitable relief, or in +industrial organization. But perhaps the most valuable work has been that +which has had no such directly practical object in view, but has engaged +itself in the collection of trustworthy information. Mr Charles Booth's +book, <i>The Labour and Life of the People</i>, has an importance far in +advance of that considerable attention which it has received. Its +essential value is not merely that it supplies, for the first time, a +large and carefully collected fund of facts for the formation of sound +opinions and the explosion of fallacies, but that it lays down lines of a +new branch of social study, in the pursuit of which the most delicate +intellectual interests will be identified with a close and absorbing +devotion to the practical issues of life.</p> + +<p>In the study of poverty, the work of Mr. Booth and his collaborators may +truly rank as an epoch-making work.</p> + +<p>For the purpose we have immediately before us, the measurement of poverty, +the figures supplied in this book are invaluable. Considerations of space +will compel us to confine our attention to such figures as will serve to +mark the extent and meaning of city poverty in London. But though, as will +be seen, the industrial causes of London poverty are in some respects +peculiar, there is every reason to believe that the extent and nature of +poverty does not widely differ in all large centres of population.</p> + +<p>The area which Mr. Booth places under microscopic observation covers +Shoreditch, Bethnal Green, Whitechapel, St. George's in the East, Stepney, +Mile End, Old Town, Poplar, Hackney, and comprises a population 891,539. +Of these no less than 316,000, or 35 per cent, belong to families whose +weekly earnings amount to less than 21s. This 35 per cent, compose the +"poor," according to the estimate of Mr. Booth, and it will be worth while +to note the social elements which constitute this class. The "poor" are +divided into four classes or strata, marked A, B, C, D. At the bottom +comes A, a body of some 11,000, or 11/4 per cent, of hopeless, helpless city +savages, who can only be said by courtesy to belong to the +"working-classes" "Their life is the life of savages, with vicissitudes of +extreme hardship and occasional excess. Their food is of the coarsest +description, and their only luxury is drink. It is not easy to say how +they live; the living is picked up, and what is got is frequently shared; +when they cannot find 3d. for their night's lodging, unless favourably +known to the deputy, they are turned out at night into the street, to +return to the common kitchen in the morning. From these come the battered +figures who slouch through the streets, and play the beggar or the bully, +or help to foul the record of the unemployed; these are the worst class of +corner-men, who hang round the doors of public-houses, the young men who +spring forward on any chance to earn a copper, the ready materials for +disorder when occasion serves. They render no useful service; they create +no wealth; more often they destroy it."[<a href="#fn3">3</a>]</p> + +<p>Next comes B, a thicker stratum of some 100,000, or 11½ per cent., largely +composed of shiftless, broken-down men, widows, deserted women, and their +families, dependent upon casual earnings, less than 18s. per week, and +most of them incapable of regular, effective work. Most of the social +wreckage of city life is deposited in this stratum, which presents the +problem of poverty in its most perplexed and darkest form. For this class +hangs as a burden on the shoulders of the more capable classes which stand +just above it. Mr. Booth writes of it--</p> + +<p>"It may not be too much to say that if the whole of class B were swept out +of existence, all the work they do could be done, together with their own +work, by the men, women, and children of classes C and D; that all they +earn and spend might be earned, and could very easily be spent, by the +classes above them; that these classes, and especially class C, would be +immensely better off, while no class, nor any industry, would suffer in +the least." Class C consists of 75,000, or 8 per cent., subsisting on +intermittent earnings of from 18s. to 21s. for a moderate-sized family. +Low-skilled labourers, poorer artizans, street-sellers, small shopkeepers, +largely constitute this class, the curse of whose life is not so much low +wages as irregularity of employment, and the moral and physical +degradation caused thereby. Above these, forming the top stratum of +"poor," comes a large class, numbering 129,000, or 14½ per cent., +dependent upon small regular earnings of from 18s. to 21s., including many +dock-and water-side labourers, factory and warehouse hands, car-men, +messengers, porters, &c. "What they have comes in regularly, and except in +times of sickness in the family, actual want rarely presses, unless the +wife drinks."</p> + +<p>"As a general rule these men have a hard struggle, but they are, as a +body, decent, steady men, paying their way and bringing up their children +respectably" (p. 50).</p> + +<p>Mr Booth, in confining the title "poor" to this 35 per cent. of the +population of East London, takes, perhaps for sufficient reasons, a +somewhat narrow interpretation of the term. For in the same district no +less than 377,000, or over 42 per cent. of the inhabitants, live upon +earnings varying from 21s. to 30s. per week. So long as the father is in +regular work, and his family is not too large, a fair amount of material +comfort may doubtless be secured by those who approach the maximum. But +such an income leaves little margin for saving, and innumerable forms of +mishaps will bring such families down beneath the line of poverty. Though +the East End contains more poverty than some other parts of London the +difference is less than commonly supposed. Mr Booth estimated that of the +total population of the metropolis 30.7 per cent. were living in poverty. +The figure for York is placed by Mr Seebohm Rowntree[<a href="#fn4">4</a>] at the slightly +lower figure of 27.84. These figures (in both cases exclusive of the +population of the workhouses and other public or private institutions) may +be taken as fairly representative of life in English industrial cities. A +recent investigation of an ordinary agricultural village in +Bedfordshire[<a href="#fn5">5</a>] discloses a larger amount of poverty--no less than 34.3 +per cent. of the population falling below the income necessary for +physical efficiency.</p> + +<p><b>§ 4. Prices for the Poor.</b>--These figures relating to money income do +not bring home to us the evil of poverty. It is not enough to know what +the weekly earnings of a poor family are, we must inquire what they can +buy with them. Among the city poor, the evil of low wages is intensified +by high prices. In general, the poorer the family the higher the prices it +must pay for the necessaries of life. Rent is naturally the first item in +the poor man's budget. Here it is evident that the poor pay in proportion +to their poverty. The average rent in many large districts of East London +is 4s. for one room, 7s. for two. In the crowded parts of Central London +the figures stand still higher; 6s. is said to be a moderate price for a +single room.[<a href="#fn6">6</a>] Mr. Marchant Williams, an Inspector of Schools for the +London School Board, finds that 86 per cent. of the dwellers in certain +poor districts of London pay more than one-fifth of their income in rent; +46 per cent. paying from one-half to one-quarter; 42 per cent. paying from +one-quarter to one-fifth; and only 12 per cent. paying less than one-fifth +of their weekly wage.[<a href="#fn7">7</a>] The poor from their circumstances cannot pay +wholesale prices for their shelter, but must buy at high retail prices by +the week; they are forced to live near their work (workmen's trains are +for the aristocracy of labour), and thus compete keenly for rooms in the +centres of industry; more important still, the value of central ground for +factories, shops, and ware-houses raises to famine price the habitable +premises. It is notorious that overcrowded, insanitary "slum" property is +the most paying form of house property to its owners. The part played by +rent in the problems of poverty can scarcely be over-estimated. Attempts +to mitigate the evil by erecting model dwellings have scarcely touched the +lower classes of wage-earners. The labourer prefers a room in a small +house to an intrinsically better accommodation in a barrack-like building. +Other than pecuniary motives enter in. The "touchiness of the lower class" +causes them to be offended by the very sanitary regulations designed for +their benefit.</p> + +<p>But "shelter" is not the only thing for which the poor pay high. +Astounding facts are adduced as to the prices paid by the poor for common +articles of consumption, especially for vegetables, dairy produce, +groceries, and coal. The price of fresh vegetables, such as carrots, +parsnips, &c., in East London is not infrequently ten times the price at +which the same articles can be purchased wholesale from the growers.[<a href="#fn8">8</a>]</p> + +<p>Hence arises the popular cry against the wicked middleman who stands +between producer and consumer, and takes the bulk of the profit. There is +much want of thought shown in this railing against the iniquities of the +middleman. It is true that a large portion of the price paid by the poor +goes to the retail distributor, but we should remember that the labour of +distribution under present conditions and with existing machinery is very +great. We have no reason to believe that the small retailers who sell to +the poor die millionaires. The poor, partly of necessity, partly by habit, +make their purchases in minute quantities. A single family has been known +to make seventy-two distinct purchases of tea within seven weeks, and the +average purchases of a number of poor families for the same period +amounted to twenty-seven. Their groceries are bought largely by the ounce, +their meat or fish by the half-penn'orth, their coal by the cwt., or even +by the lb. Undoubtedly they pay for these morsels a price which, if duly +multiplied, represents a much higher sum than their wealthier neighbours +pay for a much better article. But the small shopkeeper has a high rent to +pay; he has a large number of competitors, so that the total of his +business is not great; the actual labour of dispensing many minute +portions is large; he is often himself a poor man, and must make a large +profit on a small turn-over in order to keep going; he is not infrequently +kept waiting for his money, for the amount of credit small shopkeepers +will give to regular customers is astonishing. For all these, and many +other reasons, it is easy to see that the poor man must pay high prices. +Even his luxuries, his beer and tobacco, he purchases at exorbitant rates.</p> + +<p>It is sometimes held sufficient to reply that the poor are thoughtless and +extravagant. And no doubt this is so. But it must also be remembered that +the industrial conditions under which these people live, necessitate a +hand-to-mouth existence, and themselves furnish an education in +improvidence.</p> + +<p><b>§ 5. Housing and Food Supply of the Poor.</b>--Once more, out of a low +income the poor pay high prices for a bad article. The low physical +condition of the poorest city workers, the high rate of mortality, +especially among children, is due largely to the <i>quality</i> of the food, +drink, and shelter which they buy. On the quality of the rooms for which +they pay high rent it is unnecessary to dwell. Ill-constructed, +unrepaired, overcrowded, destitute of ventilation and of proper sanitary +arrangements, the mass of low class city tenements finds few apologists. +The Royal Commission on Housing of the Working Classes thus deals with the +question of overcrowding--</p> + +<p>"The evils of overcrowding, especially in London, are still a public +scandal, and are becoming in certain localities a worse scandal than they +ever were. Among adults, overcrowding causes a vast amount of suffering +which could be calculated by no bills of mortality, however accurate. The +general deterioration in the health of the people is a worse feature of +overcrowding even than the encouragement by it of infectious disease. It +has the effect of reducing their stamina, and thus producing consumption +and diseases arising from general debility of the system whereby life is +shortened." "In Liverpool, nearly one-fifth of the squalid houses where +the poor live in the closest quarters are reported to be always infected, +that is to say, the seat of infectious diseases."</p> + +<p>To apply the name of "home" to these dens is a sheer abuse of words. What +grateful memories of tender childhood, what healthy durable associations, +what sound habits of life can grow among these unwholesome and insecure +shelters?</p> + +<p>The city poor are a wandering tribe. The lack of fixed local habitation is +an evil common to all classes of city dwellers. But among the lower +working-classes "flitting" is a chronic condition. The School Board +visitor's book showed that in a representative district of Bethnal Green, +out of 1204 families, no less than 530 had removed within a twelvemonth, +although such an account would not include the lowest and most "shifty" +class of all. Between November 1885 and July 1886 it was found that 20 per +cent. of the London electorate had changed residence. To what extent the +uncertain conditions of employment impose upon the poor this changing +habitation cannot be yet determined; but the absence of the educative +influence of a fixed abode is one of the most demoralizing influences in +the life of the poor. The reversion to a nomad condition is a retrograde +step in civilization the importance of which can hardly be exaggerated. +When we bear in mind that these houses are also the workshop of large +numbers of the poor, and know how the work done in the crowded, tainted +air of these dens brings as an inevitable portion of its wage, physical +feebleness, disease, and an early death, we recognize the paramount +importance of that aspect of the problem of poverty which is termed "The +Housing of the Poor."</p> + +<p>So much for the quality of the shelter for which the poor pay high +prices. Turn to their food. In the poorest parts of London it is scarcely +possible for the poor to buy pure food. Unfortunately the prime +necessaries of life are the very things which lend themselves most easily +to successful adulteration. Bread, sugar, tea, oil are notorious subjects +of deception. Butter, in spite of the Margarine Act, it is believed, the +poor can seldom get. But the systematic poisoning of alcoholic liquors +permitted under a licensing System is the most flagrant example of the +evil. There is some evidence to show that the poorer class of workmen do +not consume a very large quantity of strong drink. But the vile character +of the liquor sold to them acts on an ill-fed, unwholesome body as a +poisonous irritant. We are told that "the East End dram-drinker has +developed a new taste; it is for fusil-oil. It has even been said that +ripe old whisky ten years old, drank in equal quantities, would probably +import a tone of sobriety to the densely-populated quarters of East +London."[<a href="#fn9">9</a>]</p> + +<p><b>§ 6. Irregularity of work.</b>--One more aspect of city poverty demands a +word. Low wages are responsible in large measure for the evils with which +we have dealt. In the life of the lower grades of labour there is a worse +thing than low wages--that is irregular employment. The causes of such +irregularity, partly inherent in the nature of the work, partly the +results of trade fluctuations, will appear later. In gauging poverty we +are only concerned with the fact. This irregularity of work is not in its +first aspect so much a deficiency of work, but rather a maladjustment +While on the one hand we see large classes of workers who are habitually +overworked, men and women, tailors or shirt-makers in Whitechapel, 'bus +men, shop-assistants, even railway-servants, toiling twelve, fourteen, +fifteen, or even in some cases eighteen hours a day, we see at the same +time and in the same place numbers of men and women seeking work and +finding none. Thus are linked together the twin maladies of over-work and +the unemployed. It is possible that among the comfortable classes there +are still to be found those who believe that the unemployed consist only +of the wilfully idle and worthless residuum parading a false grievance to +secure sympathy and pecuniary aid, and who hold that if a man really wants +to work he can always do so. This idle theory is contradicted by abundant +facts. The official figures published by the Board of Trade gives the +average percentage of unemployed in the Trade Unions of the skilled trades +as follows. To the general average we have appended for comparison the +average for the shipbuilding and boiler-making trades, so as to illustrate +the violence of the oscillations in a fluctuating trade:--</p> +<table summary="average percentage of unemployed in the Trade Unions"> +<tr><th></th><th> General per cent. </th><th>Ship-building, etc.</th></tr> + +<tr><td>1884</td><td style="text-align:center">7.15</td><td style="text-align:center">20.8</td></tr> +<tr><td>1885</td><td style="text-align:center">8.55</td><td style="text-align:center">22.2</td></tr> +<tr><td>1886</td><td style="text-align:center">9.55</td><td style="text-align:center">21.6</td></tr> +<tr><td>1887</td><td style="text-align:center">7.15</td><td style="text-align:center">16.7</td></tr> +<tr><td>1888</td><td style="text-align:center">4.15</td><td style="text-align:center"> 7.3</td></tr> +<tr><td>1889</td><td style="text-align:center">2.05</td><td style="text-align:center"> 2.0</td></tr> +<tr><td>1890</td><td style="text-align:center">2.10</td><td style="text-align:center"> 3.4</td></tr> +<tr><td>1891</td><td style="text-align:center">3.40</td><td style="text-align:center"> 5.7</td></tr> +<tr><td>1892</td><td style="text-align:center">6.20</td><td style="text-align:center">10.9</td></tr> +<tr><td>1893</td><td style="text-align:center">7.70</td><td style="text-align:center">17.0</td></tr> +<tr><td>1894</td><td style="text-align:center">7.70</td><td style="text-align:center">16.2</td></tr> +<tr><td>1895</td><td style="text-align:center">6.05</td><td style="text-align:center">13.0</td></tr> +<tr><td>1896</td><td style="text-align:center">3.50</td><td style="text-align:center"> 9.5</td></tr> +<tr><td>1897</td><td style="text-align:center">3.65</td><td style="text-align:center"> 8.6</td></tr> +<tr><td>1898</td><td style="text-align:center">3.15</td><td style="text-align:center"> 4.7</td></tr> +<tr><td>1899</td><td style="text-align:center">2.40</td><td style="text-align:center"> 2.1</td></tr> +<tr><td>1900</td><td style="text-align:center">2.85</td><td style="text-align:center"> 2.3</td></tr> +<tr><td>1901</td><td style="text-align:center">3.80</td><td style="text-align:center"> 3.6</td></tr> +<tr><td>1902</td><td style="text-align:center">4.60</td><td style="text-align:center"> 8.3</td></tr> +<tr><td>1903</td><td style="text-align:center">5.30</td><td style="text-align:center">11.7</td></tr> +</table> +<p>These figures make it quite evident that the permanent causes of irregular +employment, e.g., weather in the building and riverside trades, season in +the dressmaking and confectionery trades, and the other factors of leakage +and displacement which throw out of work from time to time numbers of +workers, are, taken in the aggregate, responsible only for a small +proportion of the unemployment in the staple trades of the country.</p> + +<p>The significance of such figures as these can scarcely be over-estimated. +Although it might fairly be urged that the lowest dip in trade depression +truly represented the injury inflicted on the labouring-classes by trade +fluctuations, we will omit the year 1886, and take 1887 as a +representative period of ordinary trade depression. The figures quoted +above are supported by Trade Union statistics, which show that in that +year among the strongest Trade Unions in the country, consisting of the +picked men in each trade, no less than 71 in every 1000, or over 7 per +cent., were continuously out of work. That this was due to their inability +to get work, and not to their unwillingness to do it, is placed beyond +doubt by the fact that they were, during this period of enforced idleness, +supported by allowances paid by their comrades. Indeed, the fact that in +1890 the mass of unemployed was almost absorbed, disposes once for all of +the allegation that the unemployed in times of depression consist of +idlers who do not choose to work. Turning to the year 1887, there is every +reason to believe that where 7 per cent, are unemployed in the picked, +skilled industries of a country, where the normal supply of labour is +actually limited by Union regulations, the proportion in unskilled or less +organized industries is much larger. It is probable that 12 per cent, is +not an excessive figure to take as the representative of the average +proportion of unemployed. In the recent official returns of wages in +textile industries, it is admitted that 10 per cent, should be taken off +from the nominal wages for irregularity of employment. Moreover, it is +true (with certain exceptions) that the lower you go down in the ranks of +labour and of wages, the more irregular is the employment. To the pressure +of this evil among the very poor in East London notice has already been +drawn. We have seen how Mr. Booth finds one whole stratum of 100,000 +people, who from an industrial point of view are worse than worthless. We +have no reason to conclude that East London is much worse in this respect +than other centres of population, and the irregularity of country +employment is increasing every year. Are we to conclude then that of the +thirteen millions composing the "working-classes" in this country, nearly +two millions are liable at any time to figure as waste or surplus labour? +It looks like it. We are told that the movements of modern industry +necessitate the existence of a considerable margin supply of labour. The +figures quoted above bear out this statement. But a knowledge of the cause +does not make the fact more tolerable. We are not at present concerned +with the requirements of the industrial machine, but with the quantity of +hopeless, helpless misery these requirements indicate. The fact that under +existing conditions the unemployed seem inevitable should afford the +strongest motive for a change in these conditions. Modern life has no more +tragical figure than the gaunt, hungry labourer wandering about the +crowded centres of industry and wealth, begging in vain for permission to +share in that industry, and to contribute to that wealth; asking in return +not the comforts and luxuries of civilized life, but the rough food and +shelter for himself and family, which would be practically secured to him +in the rudest form of savage society.</p> + +<p>Occasionally one of these sensational stories breaks into the light of +day, through the public press, and shocks society at large, until it +relapses into the consoling thought that such cases are exceptional. But +those acquainted closely with the condition of our great cities know that +there are thousands of such silent tragedies being played around us. In +England the recorded deaths from starvation are vastly more numerous than +in any other country. In 1880 the number for England is given as 101. In +1902 the number for London alone is 34. This is, of course, no adequate +measure of the facts. For every recorded case there will be a hundred +unrecorded cases where starvation is the practical immediate cause of +death. The death-rate of children in the poorer districts of London is +found to be nearly three times that which obtains among the richer +neighbourhoods. Contemporary history has no darker page than that which +records not the death-rate of children, but the conditions of child-life +in our great cities. In setting down such facts and figures as may assist +readers to adequately realize the nature and extent of poverty, it has +seemed best to deal exclusively with the material aspects of poverty, +which admit of some exactitude of measurement. The ugly and degrading +surroundings of a life of poverty, the brutalizing influences of the +unceasing struggle for bare subsistence, the utter absence of reasonable +hope of improvement; in short, the whole subjective side of poverty is not +less terrible because it defies statistics.</p> + +<p><b>§ 7. Figures and Facts of Pauperism.</b>--Since destitution is the lowest +form of poverty, it is right to append to this statement of the facts of +poverty some account of pauperism. Although chiefly owing to a stricter +and wiser administration of the Poor Law in relation to outdoor relief, +the number of paupers has steadily and considerably decreased, both in +proportion to the population and absolutely, the number of those unable to +support themselves is still deplorably large. In 1881 no less than one in +ten of the total recorded deaths took place in workhouses, public +hospitals, and lunatic asylums. In London the proportion is much greater +and has increased during recent years. In 1901 out of 78,229 deaths in +London, 13,009 took place in workhouses, 10,643 in public hospitals, and +349 in public asylums, making a total of 24,001. Comparing these figures +with the total number of deaths, we find that in the richest city of the +world 32.5 per cent., or one in three of the inhabitants, dies dependent +on public charity. This estimate does not include those in receipt of +outdoor relief. Moreover, it is an estimate which includes all classes. +The proportion, taking the working-classes alone, must be even higher.</p> + +<p>Turning from pauper deaths to pauper lives, the condition of the poor, +though improved, is far from satisfactory. The agricultural labourer in +many parts of England still looks to the poorhouse as a natural and +necessary asylum for old age. Even the diminution effected in outdoor +relief is not evidence of a corresponding decrease in the pressure of +want. The diminution is chiefly due to increased strictness in the +application of the Poor Law, a policy which in a few cases such as +Whitechapel, Stepney, St. George-in-the-East, has succeeded in the +practical extermination of the outdoor pauper. This is doubtless a wise +policy, but it supplies no evidence of decrease in poverty. It would be +possible by increased strictness of conditions to annihilate outdoor +pauperism throughout the country at a single blow, and to reduce the +number of indoor paupers by making workhouse life unendurable. But such a +course would obviously furnish no satisfactory evidence of the decline of +poverty, or even of destitution. Moreover, in regarding the decline of +pauperism, we must not forget to take into account the enormous recent +growth of charitable institutions and funds which now perform more +effectually and more humanely much of the relief work which formerly +devolved upon the Poor Law. The income of charitable London institutions +engaged in promoting the physical well-being of the people amounted in +1902-3 to about four and a half millions. The relief afforded by Friendly +Societies and Trade Unions to sick and out-of-work members, furnishes a +more satisfactory evidence of the growth of providence and independence +among all but the lowest classes of workers.</p> + +<p>The improvement exhibited in figures of pauperism is entirely confined to +outdoor relief. The number of workers who, by reason of old age or other +infirmity, are compelled to take refuge in the poorhouses, bears a larger +proportion to the total population than it did a generation ago. In 1876-7 +the mean number of indoor paupers for England and Wales was 130,337, or +5.4 per 1000 of the population; in 1902-3 the number had risen to 203,604, +or 6.2 per 1000 of the population. This rise of indoor pauperism has +indeed been coincident with a larger decline of outdoor pauperism through +this same period. But the growth of thrift in the working-classes, the +increase of the machinery of charity, the rise of the average of +wages--these causes have been wholly inoperative to check the growth of +indoor pauperism. Nor, if one may trust so competent an authority as Mr +Fowle, is this explained by any tendency of increased strictness in the +administration of outdoor relief, to drive would-be recipients of outdoor +relief into the workhouse.</p> + +<p>The figures of London pauperism yield still more strange results. Here, +though the percentage of paupers to population has shown a steady decline, +the process has been so much slower than in the country that there has +been no actual fall in the number of paupers. Throughout the whole period +from 1861 to 1896 the numbers have remained about stationary, after which +they show a considerable rise. The alarming feature in this table is the +rapid rise of indoor pauperism, far more rapid than the growth of London's +population. From 1861-2 the number of indoor paupers has grown by steady +increase from 26,667 to 61,432 in 1902-3, or from a ratio of 9.5 to one of +13.4 per 1000. While the proportion of outdoor paupers per 1000 is little +more than half that of the country as a whole, the proportion of indoor +paupers is more than twice as great. Roughly speaking, London, with less +than one-sixth of the population of the country, contains nearly one-third +of the indoor pauperism. This fact alone throws some light upon the nature +of city life. A close analysis of metropolitan workhouses discloses the +fact that the aged, infirm, and children composed the vast majority of +inmates. A very small percentage was found to be capable of actual work. +About one-third of the paupers are children, about one-tenth lunatics, +about one-half are aged, infirm, or sick. This leaves one-fifteenth as the +proportion of able-bodied male and female adults. As a commentary on the +administration of the Poor Law, these figures are eminently satisfactory, +for they prove that people who can support themselves do not in fact +obtain from public relief. But the picture has its dark side. It shows +that a very large proportion of our workers, when their labour-power has +been drained out of them, instead of obtaining a well-earned honourable +rest, are obliged to seek refuge in that asylum which they and their class +hate and despise. Whereas only 5 per cent of the population under 60 years +are paupers, the proportion is 40 per cent in the case of those over 70. +Taking the working-class only out of a population of 952,000 above the age +of 65, no fewer than 402,000, or over 42 per cent, obtained relief in +1892. In London 22½ per cent of the aged poor are indoor paupers. The +hardness of the battle of life is attested by this number of old men, and +old women, who in spite of a hard-working life are compelled to end their +days as the recipients of public charity.</p> + +<p><b>§ 8. The Diminution of Poverty in the last half century.</b>--In order to +realize the true importance of our subject, it is necessary not only to +have some measurement of the extent and nature of poverty, but to furnish +ourselves with some answer to the question, Is this poverty increasing or +diminishing? Until a few years ago it was customary not only for platform +agitators, but for thoughtful writers on the subject, to assume that "the +rich are getting richer, and the poor are getting poorer." This formula +was ripening into a popular creed when a number of statistical inquiries +choked it. Prof. Leone Levi, Mr. Giffen, and a number of careful +investigators, showed a vast improvement in the industrial condition of +the working-classes during the last half century. It was pointed out that +money wages had risen considerably in all kinds of employment; that prices +had generally fallen, so that the rise in real wages was even greater; +that they worked shorter hours; consumed more and better food; lived +longer lives; committed fewer crimes; and lastly, saved more money. The +general accuracy of these statements is beyond question. The industrial +conditions of the working-classes as a whole shows a great advance during +the last half century. Although the evidence upon this point is by no +means conclusive, it seems probable that the income of the wage-earning +classes as an aggregate is growing even more rapidly than that of the +capitalist classes. Income-tax returns indicate that the proportion of the +population living on an acknowledged income of more than £150 a year is +much larger than it was a generation ago. In 1851 the income-tax-paying +population amounted to 1,500,000; in 1879-80 the number had risen to +4,700,000. At the same time the average of these incomes showed a +considerable fall, for while in 1851 the gross income assessed was +£272,000,000, in 1879-80 it had only risen to £577,000,000.</p> + +<p>Though the method of assessing companies as if they were single persons +renders it impossible to obtain accurate information in recent years as to +the number of persons enjoying incomes of various sizes, a comparison made +by Mr Mulhall of incomes in 1867 and 1895 indicates that, while the lower +middle-class is growing rapidly, the number of the rich is growing still +more rapidly. While incomes of £100 to £300 have grown by a little more +than 50 per cent., those from £300 to £1000 have nearly doubled, those +between £1000 and £5000 have more than doubled, and incomes over £5000 +have more than trebled.</p> + +<p>But though such comparisons justify the conclusion that the upper grades +of skilled labour have made considerable advances, and that the lower +grades of regular unskilled labourers have to a less degree shared in this +advance, they do not warrant the optimist conclusion often drawn from +them, that poverty is a disease which left alone will cure itself, and +which, in point of fact, is curing itself rapidly. Before we consent to +accept the evidence of improvement in the average condition of the +labouring classes during the last half century as sufficient evidence to +justify this opinion we ought to pay regard to the following +considerations--</p> + +<p>1. It should be remembered that a comparison between England of the +present day with England in the decade 1830-1840 is eminently favourable +to a theory of progress. The period from 1790 to 1840 was the most +miserable epoch in the history of the English working-classes. Much of the +gain must be rightly regarded rather as a recovery from sickness, than as +a growth in normal health. If the decade 1730-1740, for example, were to +be taken instead, the progress of the wage-earner, especially in southern +England, would be by no means so obvious. The southern agricultural +labourer and the whole body of low-skilled workers were probably in most +respects as well off a century and a half ago as they are to-day.</p> + +<p>2. The great fall of prices, due to cheapening of production and of +transport during the last twenty years, benefits the poor far less than +the rich. For, while the prices of most comforts and luxuries have fallen +very greatly, the same is not true of most necessaries. The gain to the +workers is chiefly confined to food prices, which have fallen some 40 per +cent since 1880. Taking the retail prices of foods consumed by London +working-class families we find that since 1880 the price of flour has +fallen about 60 per cent., bread falling a little more than half that +amount; the prices of beef and mutton have fallen nearly to the same +extent as flour, though bacon stands in 1903 just about where it stood in +1880. Sugar exhibits a deep drop until 1898, rising afterwards in +consequence of the war tax and the Sugar Convention; tea shows a not +considerable drop. Other groceries, such as coffee and cocoa, and certain +vegetables are cheaper. A careful inquiry into clothing shows a trifling +fall of price for articles of the same quality, while the introduction of +cheaper qualities has enabled workers to effect some saving here. Against +these must be set a slight rise in price of dairy produce, a considerable +rise in fuel, and a large rise in rent. A recent estimate of the Board of +Trade, having regard to food, rent, clothing, fuel, and lighting as chief +ingredients of working-class expenditure, indicates that 100 shillings +will in 1900 do the work for which 120 shillings were required in 1880. +The great fall of prices has been in the period 1880-1895, since then +prices all round (except in clothing) show a considerable rise.</p> + +<p>In turning from the working-classes as a whole to the poor, it becomes +evident that the most substantial benefit they have received from falling +prices is cheap bread. Cheap groceries and lighting are also gains, though +it must be remembered that the modes of purchase to which the very poor +are driven to have recourse minimize these gains. On clothes the poor +spend a very small proportion of their incomes, the very poor virtually +nothing. In the case of the lowest classes of the towns, it is probable +that the rise in rents offsets all the advantages of cheapened prices for +other commodities.</p> + +<p>The importance of the bearing of this fact is obvious. Even were it +clearly proved that the wages of the working-classes were increasing +faster in proportion than the incomes of the wealthier classes, it would +not be thereby shown that the standard of comfort in the former was rising +as fast as the standard of comfort in the latter. If we confine the term +"poor" to the lower grades of wage-earners, it would probably be correct +to say that the riches of the rich had increased at a more rapid rate than +that at which the poverty of the poor had diminished. Thus the width of +the gap between riches and poverty would be absolutely greater than +before. But, after all, such absolute measurements as these are uncertain, +and have little other than a rhetorical value. What is important to +recognize is this, that though the proportion of the very poor to the +whole population has somewhat diminished, never in the whole history of +England, excepting during the disastrous period at the beginning of this +century, has the absolute number of the very poor been so great as it is +now. Moreover, the massing of the poor in large centres of population, +producing larger areas of solid poverty, presents new dangers and new +difficulties in the application of remedial measures.</p> + +<p>However we may estimate progress, one fact we must recognize, that the +bulk of our low-skilled workers do not yet possess a secure supply of the +necessaries of life. Few will feel inclined to dispute what Professor +Marshall says on this point--</p> + +<p>"The necessaries for the efficiency of an ordinary agricultural or of an +unskilled town labourer and his family, in England, in this generation, +may be said to consist of a well-drained dwelling with several rooms, warm +clothing, with some changes of underclothing, pure water, a plentiful +supply of cereal food, with a moderate allowance of meat and milk, and a +little tea, &c.; some education, and some recreation; and lastly, +sufficient freedom for his wife from other work to enable her to perform +properly her maternal and her household duties. If in any district +unskilled labour is deprived of any of these things, its efficiency will +suffer in the same way as that of a horse which is not properly tended, or +a steam-engine which has an inadequate supply of coals."[<a href="#fn10">10</a>]</p> + +<p>There is one final point of deep significance. So far we have endeavoured +to measure poverty by the application of a standard of actual material +comfort. But this, while furnishing a fair gauge of the deprivation +suffered by the poor, does not enable us to measure it as a social danger. +There is a depth of poverty, of misery, of ignorance, which is not +dangerous because it has no outlook, and is void of hope. Abate the +extreme stress of poverty, give the poor a glimpse of a more prosperous +life, teach them to know their power, and the danger of poverty increases. +This is what De Tocqueville meant when writing of France, before the +Revolution, he said, "According as prosperity began to dawn in France, +men's minds appeared to become more unquiet and disturbed; public +discontent was sharpened, hatred of all ancient institutions went on +increasing, till the nation was visibly on the verge of a revolution. One +might almost say that the French found their condition all the more +intolerable according as it became better."[<a href="#fn11">11</a>]</p> + +<p>So in England the change of industrial conditions which has massed the +poor in great cities, the spread of knowledge by compulsory education, +cheap newspapers, libraries, and a thousand other vehicles of knowledge, +the possession and growing appreciation of political power, have made +poverty more self-conscious and the poor more discontented. By striving to +educate, intellectually, morally, sanitarily, the poor, we have made them +half-conscious of many needs they never recognized before. They were once +naked, and not ashamed, but we have taught them better. We have raised the +standard of the requirements of a decent human life, but we have not +increased to a corresponding degree their power to attain them. If by +poverty is meant the difference between felt wants and the power to +satisfy them, there is more poverty than ever. The income of the poor has +grown, but their desires and needs have grown more rapidly. Hence the +growth of a conscious class hatred, the "growing animosity of the poor +against the rich," which Mr. Barnett notes in the slums of Whitechapel. +The poor were once too stupid and too sodden for vigorous discontent, now +though their poverty may be less intense, it is more alive, and more +militant. The rate of improvement in the condition of the poor is not +quick enough to stem the current of popular discontent.</p> + +<p>Nor is it the poor alone who are stricken with discontent. Clearer thought +and saner feelings are beginning to make it evident that in the march of +true civilization no one class can remain hopelessly behind. Hence the +problems of poverty are ever pressing more and more upon the +better-hearted, keener-sighted men and women of the more fortunate +classes; they feel that <i>they</i> have no right to be contented with the +condition of the poor. The demand that a life worth living shall be made +possible for all, and that the knowledge, wealth, and energy of a nation +shall be rightly devoted to no other end than this, is the true measure +of the moral growth of a civilized community. The following picture drawn +a few years ago by Mr. Frederick Harrison shows how far we yet fall short +of such a realization--"To me at least, it would be enough to condemn +modern society as hardly an advance on slavery or serfdom, if the +permanent condition of industry were to be that which we now behold; that +90 per cent, of the actual producers of wealth have no home that they can +call their own beyond the end of a week; have no bit of soil, or so much +as a room that belongs to them; have nothing of value of any kind except +as much as will go in a cart; have the precarious chance of weekly wages +which barely suffice to keep them in health; are housed for the most part +in places that no man thinks fit for his horse; are separated by so narrow +a margin from destitution that a month of bad trade, sickness, or +unexpected loss brings them face to face with hunger and pauperism."[<a href="#fn12">12</a>]</p> +</div> + + +<div class="chapter" id="ch02"> +<h2>Chapter II.</h2> + +<h3>The Effects of Machinery on the Condition of the Working-Classes.</h3> + + + +<p><b>§ 1.Centralizing-Influence of Machinery.</b>--In seeking to understand +the nature and causes of the poverty of the lower working-classes, it is +impossible to avoid some discussion of the influence of machinery. For the +rapid and continuous growth of machinery is at once the outward visible +sign and the material agent of the great revolution which has changed the +whole face of the industrial world during the last century. With the +detailed history of this vast change we are not concerned, but only with +its effects on the industrial condition of the poor in the present day.</p> + +<p>Those who have studied in books of history the industrial and educational +condition of the mass of the working populace at the beginning of this +century, or have read such novels as <i>Shirley</i>, <i>Mary Barton</i>, and <i>Alton +Locke</i>, will not be surprised at the mingled mistrust and hatred with +which the working-classes regarded each new introduction of machinery into +the manufacturing arts. These people, having only a short life to live, +naturally took a short-sighted view of the case; having a specialized form +of skill as their only means of getting bread, they did not greet with +joy the triumphs of inventive skill which robbed this skill of its market +value. Even the more educated champions of the interests of +working-classes have often viewed with grave suspicion the rapid +substitution of machinery for hand-labour in the industrial arts. The +enormous increase of wealth-producing power given by the new machinery can +scarcely be realized. It is reckoned that fifty men with modern machinery +could do all the cotton-spinning of the whole of Lancashire a century ago. +Mr. Leone Levi has calculated that to make by hand all the yarn spun in +England in one year by the use of the self-acting mule, would take +100,000,000 men. The instruments which work this wonderful change are +called "labour-saving" machinery. From this title it may be deemed that +their first object, or at any rate their chief effect, would be to lighten +labour. It seems at first sight therefore strange to find so reasonable a +writer as John Stuart Mill declaring, "It is questionable if all the +mechanical inventions yet made have lightened the day's toil of any human +being." Yet if we confine our attention to the direct effects of +machinery, we shall acknowledge that Mill's doubt is, upon the whole, a +well founded one.</p> + +<p>According to the evidence of existing poverty adduced in the last chapter, +it would appear that the lowest classes of workers have not shared to any +considerable degree the enormous gain of wealth-producing power bestowed +by machinery. It is not our object here to discuss the right of the poorer +workers to profit by inventions due to others, but merely to indicate the +effects which the growth of machinery actually produce in this economic +condition. Let us examine the industrial effects of the growth of +machinery, so as to understand how they affect the social and economic +welfare of the working-classes.</p> + +<p><b>§ 2. Class Separation of Employer and Workmen.</b>--The first effect of +machinery is to give a new and powerful impulse to the centralizing +tendency in industry. "Civilization is economy of power, and English power +is coal," said the materialistic Baron Liebig. Coal as a generator of +steam-power demands that manufactures shall be conducted on a large scale +in particular localities. Before the day of large, expensive steam-driven +machinery, manufacture was done in scattered houses by workers who were +the owners of their simple tools, and often of the material on which they +worked; or in small workshops, where a master worked with a few journeymen +and apprentices. Machinery changed all this. It drove the workers into +large factories, and obliged them to live in concentrated masses near +their work. They no longer owned the material in which their labour was +stored, or the tools with which they worked; they had to use the material +belonging to their employer; the machinery which made their tools +valueless was also the property of the capitalist employer. Instead of +selling the products of their capital and labour to merchants or +consumers, they were compelled to sell their labour-power to the employer +as the only means of earning a livelihood. Again, the social relations +between the wealthy employer and his "hands" were quite different from +those intimate personal relations which had subsisted between the small +master and his assistants. The very size of the factory made such a social +change inevitable, the personal relation which marked medieval industry +was no longer possible. Machinery then did two things. On the one hand, it +destroyed the position of the workman as a self-sufficing industrial unit, +and made him dependent on a capitalist for employment and the means of +supporting life. On the other hand, it weakened the sense of +responsibility in the employer towards his workmen in proportion as the +dependence of the latter became more absolute.</p> + +<p>With each step in the growth of the factory system the workman became more +dependent, and the employer more irresponsible. Thus we note the first +industrial effect of machinery in the formation of two definite industrial +classes--the dependent workman, and the irresponsible employer. The term +"irresponsible" is not designed to convey any moral stigma. The industrial +employer can no more be blamed for being irresponsible than the workman +for being dependent. The terms merely express the nature of the schism +which naturally followed the triumph of machinery. Prophets like Carlyle +and Ruskin, slighting the economic causes of the change, clamoured for +"Captains of Industry," employers who should realize a moral +responsibility, and reviving a dead feudalism should assume unasked the +protectorate of their employés. The whole army of theoretic and practical +reformers might indeed be divided into two classes, according as they seek +to impose responsibility on employers, or to establish a larger +independence in the employed. But this is not the place to discuss methods +of reform. It is sufficient to note the testimony borne by all alike to +the disintegrating influence of machinery.</p> + +<p>Again, the growth of machinery makes industry more intricate. +Manufacturers no longer produce for a small known market, the fluctuations +of which are slight, and easily calculable. The element of speculation +enters into manufacture at every pore--size of market, competitors, and +price are all unknown. Machinery works at random like the blind giant it +is. Every improvement in communication, and each application of +labour-saving invention adds to the delicacy and difficulty of trade +calculations. Hence in the productive force of machinery we see the +material cause of the violent oscillations, the quiver of which never has +time to pass out of modern trade. The periodic over-production and +subsequent depression are thus closely related to machinery. It is the +result upon the workman of these fluctuations that alone concerns us.</p> + +<p>The effect of machinery upon the regularity of employment is both a +difficult and a serious subject. Its precise importance cannot be +measured. Before the era of machinery there often arose from other +reasons, especially war or failure of crops, fluctuations which worked +most disastrously on the English labourer. But in modern times we must +look to more distinctively industrial causes for an explanation of +unsteadiness of employment, and here the close competition of steam-driven +machinery plays the leading part.</p> + +<p>It must not, however, be supposed that machinery is essentially related to +unsteadiness of work. The contrary is obviously the case. Cheap tools can +be kept idle without great loss to their owner, but every stoppage in the +work of expensive machinery means a heavy loss to the capitalist. Thus the +larger the part played by expensive machinery, the stronger the personal +motive in the individual capitalist to give full regular employment to his +workmen. It is the competition of other machinery over which he has no +control that operates as the immediate cause of instability of work. Thus +the growth of machinery has a double and conflicting influence upon +regularity of employment; it punishes capital more severely for each +irregularity or stoppage, while at the same time it makes such +fluctuations more violent.</p> + +<p><b>§ 3. Displacement of Labour.</b>--But the result of machinery which has +drawn most attention is the displacement of labour. In every branch of +productive work, agriculture as well as manufacture, the conflict between +manual skill and machine skill has been waged incessantly during the last +century. Step by step all along the line the machine has ousted the +skilled manual worker, either rendering his office superfluous, or +retaining him to play the part of servant to the new machine. A good deal +of thoughtless rhetoric has been consumed upon the subject of this new +serfdom of the worker to machinery. There is no reason in the nature of +things why the work of attendance on machinery should not be more +dignified, more pleasant, and more remunerative to the working-man than +the work it displaces. To shift on to the shoulders of brute nature the +most difficult and exhausting kinds of work has been in large measure the +actual effect of machinery. There is also every reason to believe that the +large body of workers whose work consists in the regular attendance on and +manipulation of machinery have shared largely in the results of the +increased production which machinery has brought about. The present +"aristocracy of labour" is the direct creation of the machine. But our +concern lies chiefly with the weaker portion of the working-classes. How +does the constant advance of labour-saving machinery affect these? What is +the effect of machinery upon the demand for labour? In answering these +questions we have to carefully distinguish the ultimate effect upon the +labour-market as a whole, and the immediate effect upon certain portions +of the labour-supply.</p> + +<p>It is generally urged that machinery employs as many men as it displaces. +This has in fact been the earlier effect of the introduction of machinery +into the great staple industries of the country. The first effect of +mechanical production in the spinning and weaving industries was to +displace the hand-worker. But the enormous increase in demand for textile +wares caused by the fall of price, has provided work for more hands than +were employed before, especially when we bear in mind the subsidiary work +in construction of machinery, and enlarged mechanism of conveyance and +distribution. Taking a purely historical view of the question, one would +say that the labour displaced by machinery found employment in other +occupations, directly or indirectly, due to the machinery itself. Provided +the aggregate volume of commerce grows at a corresponding pace with the +labour-saving power of new machinery, the classes dependent on the use of +their labour have nothing in the long run to fear.</p> + +<p>A machine is invented which will enable one man to make as many boots as +four men made formerly, displacing the labour of three men. If the +cheapening of boots thus brought about doubles the sale of boots, one of +the three "displaced" men can find employment at the machine. If it takes +the labour of one man to keep up the production of the new machinery, and +another to assist in the distribution of the increased boot-supply, it +will be evident that the aggregate of labour has not suffered. It is, +however, clear that this exactly balanced effect by no means necessarily +happens. The expansion of consumption of commodities produced by machinery +is not necessarily such as to provide employment for the displaced labour +in the same trade or its subsidiary trades. The result of the introduction +of machinery may be a displacement of human by mechanical labour, so far +as the entire trade is concerned. The bearing of this tendency is of great +significance. Analysis of recent census returns shows that not only is +agriculture rapidly declining in the amount of employment it affords, but +that the same tendency occurs in the staple processes of manufacture: +either there is an absolute decline in employment, as in the textile and +dress trades, or the rate of increase is considerably slower than that of +the occupied class as a whole, indicating a relative decline of +importance. This tendency is greatest where machinery is most highly +developed--that is to say, machinery has kept out of these industries a +number of workers who in the ordinary condition of affairs would have been +required to assist in turning out the increased supply. The recent +increase of population has been shut out of the staple industries. They +are not therefore compelled to be idle. Employment for these has been +found chiefly in satisfying new wants. But industries engaged in supplying +new wants, i.e. new comforts or new luxuries, are obviously less steady +than those engaged in supplying the prime necessaries of ordinary life.</p> + +<p>Thus while it may be true that the ultimate effect of the introduction of +machinery is not to diminish the demand for labour, it would seem to +operate in driving a larger and larger proportion of labour to find +employment in those industries which from their nature furnish a less +steady employment. Again, though the demand for labour may in the long run +always keep pace with the growth of machinery, it is obvious that the +workers whose skill loses its value by the introduction of machinery must +always be injured. The process of displacement in particular trades has +been responsible for a large amount of actual hardship and suffering among +the working-classes.</p> + +<p>It is little comfort to the hand-worker, driven out to seek unskilled +labour by the competition of new machinery, that the world will be a +gainer in the long run. "The short run, if the expression may be used, is +often quite long enough to make the difference between a happy and a +miserable life."[<a href="#fn13">13</a>] Philosophers may reckon this evil as a part of the +inevitable price of progress, but it is none the less deplorable for that. +Society as a whole gains largely by each step; a small number of those who +can least afford to lose, are the only losers.</p> + +<p>The following quotation from an address given at the Industrial +Remuneration Congress in 1886, puts the case with admirable +clearness--"The citizens of England are too intelligent to contend against +such cheapening of production, as they know the result has been beneficial +to mankind; but many of them think it is a hardship and injustice which +deserves more attention that those whose skilled labour is often +superseded by machinery, should have to bear all the loss and poverty +through their means to earn a living being taken away from them. If there +is a real vested interest in existence which entitles to compensation in +some form when it is interfered with, it is that of a skilled producer in +his trade; for that skill has not only given him a living, but has added +to the wealth and prosperity of the community."[<a href="#fn14">14</a>] The quantity of labour +displaced by machinery and seeking new employment, forms a large section +of the margin of unemployed, and will form an important factor in the +problem of poverty.</p> + +<p><b>§ 4. Effect of Machinery upon the Character of Labour.</b> Next, what is +the general effect of machinery upon the character of the work done? The +economic gain attending all division of labour is of course based on the +improved quality and quantity of work obtained by confining each worker to +a narrow range of activity. If no great inventions in machinery took +place, we might therefore expect a constant narrowing of the activity of +each worker, which would make his work constantly more simple, and more +monotonous, and himself more and more dependent on the regular +co-operation of an increasing number of other persons over whom he had no +direct control. Without the growth of modern machinery, mere subdivision +of labour would constantly make for the slavery and the intellectual +degradation of labour. Independently of the mighty and ever-new +applications of mechanical forces, this process of subdivision or +specialization would take place, though at a slower pace. How far does +machinery degrade, demoralize, dementalize the worker?</p> + +<p>The constantly growing specialization of machinery is the most striking +industrial phenomenon of modern times. Since the worker is more and more +the attendant of machinery, does not this mean a corresponding +specialization of the worker? It would seem so at first sight, yet if we +look closer it becomes less obvious. So far as mere manual activity is +concerned, it seems probable that the general effect of machinery has been +both to narrow the range of that activity, and to take over that dexterity +which consisted in the incessant repetition of a single uniform process. +Very delicately specialized manipulation is precisely the work it pays +best to do by machinery, so that, as Professor Marshall says, "machinery +can make uniform actions more accurately and effectively than man can; and +most of the work which was done by those who were specially skilful with +the fingers a few generations ago, is now done by machinery."[<a href="#fn15">15</a>] He +illustrates from the wood and metal industries, where the process is +constantly going on.</p> + +<p>"The chief difficulty to be overcome is that of getting the machinery to +hold the material firmly in exactly the position in which the machine-tool +can be brought to bear on it in the right way, and without wasting +meanwhile too much time in taking grip of it. But this can generally be +contrived when it is worth while to spend some labour and expense on it; +and then the whole operations can often be controlled by a worker, who, +sitting before the machine, takes with the left hand a piece of wood or +metal from a heap, and puts it in a socket, while with the right he draws +down a lever, or in some other way sets the machine-tool at work, and +finally with his left hand throws on to another heap the material which +has been cut, or punched, or drilled, or planed exactly after a given +pattern."</p> + +<p>Professor Marshall summarizes the tendency in the following words--"We are +thus led to a general rule, the action of which is more prominent in some +branches of manufacture than others, but which applies to all. It is, that +any manufacturing operation that can be reduced to uniformity, so that the +same thing has to be done over and over again in the same way, is sure to +be taken over sooner or later by machinery. There may be delays and +difficulties; but if the work to be done by it is on a sufficient scale, +money and inventive power will be spent without stint on the task till it +is achieved. There still remains the responsibility for seeing that the +machinery is in good order and working smoothly; but even this task is +often made light of by the introduction of an automatic movement which +brings the machine to a stop the instant anything goes wrong."[<a href="#fn16">16</a>]</p> + +<p>Since the economy of production constantly induces machinery to take over +all work capable of being reduced to routine, it would seem to follow by a +logical necessity that the work left for the human worker was that which +was less capable of being subjected to close uniformity; that is work +requiring discretion and intelligence to be applied to each separate +action. Although the process described by Professor Marshall assigns a +constantly diminishing proportion of each productive work to the effort of +man, of that portion which remains for him to do a constantly increasing +proportion will be work of judgment and specific calculation applied to +particular cases. And this is the conclusion which Professor Marshall +himself asserts--</p> + +<p>"Since machinery does not encroach much upon that manual work which +requires judgment, while the management of machinery does require +judgment, there is a much greater demand now than formerly for +intelligence and resource. Those qualities which enable men to decide +rightly and quickly in new and difficult cases, are the common property of +the better class of workmen in almost every trade, and a person who has +acquired them in one trade can easily transfer them to another."</p> + +<p>If this is true, it signifies that the formal specialization of the +worker, which comes from his attendance on a more and more specialized +piece of machinery, does not really narrow and degrade his industrial +life, but supplies a certain education of the judgment and intelligence +which has a general value that more than compensates the apparent +specialization of manual functions. The very fact that the worker's +services are still required is a proof that his work is less automatic +(i.e. more intelligent) than that of the most delicate machinery in use; +and since the work which requires less intelligence is continually being +taken over by machinery, the work which remains would seem to require a +constantly higher average of intelligence. It is, of course, true that +there are certain kinds of work which can never be done by machinery, +because they require a little care and a little judgment, while that care +and judgment is so slight as to supply no real food for thought, or +education for the judgment. No doubt a good deal of the less responsible +work connected with machinery is of this order. Moreover, there are +certain other influences to be taken into account which affect the net +resuit of the growth of machinery upon the condition of the workers. The +physical and moral evils connected with the close confinement of large +bodies of workers, especially in the case of young persons, within the +narrow unwholesome limits of the factory or mill, though considerably +mitigated by the operation of factory legislation, are still no light +offset against the advantages which have been mentioned. The weakly, +ill-formed bodies, the unhealthy lives lived by the factory-workers in our +great manufacturing centres are facts which have an intimate connection +with the growth of machinery. But though our agricultural population, in +spite of their poverty and hard work, live longer and enjoy better +physical health than our town-workers, there are few who would deny that +the town-workers are both better educated and more intelligent. This +intelligence must in a large measure be attributed to the influences of +machinery, and of those social conditions which machinery has assisted to +establish. This intelligence must be reckoned as an adequate offset +against the formal specialization of machine-labour, and must be regarded +as an emancipative influence, giving to its possessor a larger choice in +the forms of employment. So far as a man's labour-power consists in the +mere knowledge how to tend a particular piece of machinery he may appear +to be more "enslaved" with each specialization of machinery; but so far as +his labour-power consists in the practice of discretion and intelligence, +these are qualities which render him more free.</p> + +<p>Moreover, as regards the specialization of machinery, there is one point +to be noticed which modifies to some considerable extent the effects of +subdivision upon labour. On the one hand, the tendency to split up the +manufacture of a commodity into several distinct branches, often +undertaken in different localities and with wholly different machinery, +prevents the skilled worker in one branch from passing into another, and +thus limits his practical freedom as an industrial worker. On the other +hand, this has its compensating advantage in the tendency of different +trades to adopt analogous kinds of machinery and similar processes. Thus, +while a machinist engaged in a screw manufactory is so specialized that he +cannot easily pass from one process to another process in the screw trade, +he will find himself able to obtain employment in other hardware +manufactures which employ the same or similar processes.</p> + +<p><b>§ 5. Are all Men equal before the Machine?</b>--It is sometimes said that +"all men become equal before the machine." This is only true in the sense +that there are certain large classes of machine-work which require in the +worker such attention, care, endurance, and skill as are within the power +of most persons possessed of ordinary capacities of mind and body. In such +forms of machine-work it is sometimes possible for women and children to +compete with men, and even to take their places by their ability to offer +their work at a cheaper price. The effect of machinery development in thus +throwing on the labour-market a large quantity of women and children +competitors is one of those serious questions which will occupy our +attention in a later chapter. It is here sufficient to remember that it +was this effect which led to a general recognition of the fact that +machinery and the factory system could not be trusted to an unfettered +system of <i>laissez faire</i>. The Factory Acts, and the whole body of +legislative enactments, interfering with "freedom of contract" between +employer and employed, resulted from the fact that machinery enabled women +and children to be employed in many branches of productive work from which +their physical weakness precluded them before.</p> + +<p><b>§ 6. Summary of Effects of Machinery on the Condition of the +Poor.</b>--To sum up with any degree of precision the net advantages and +disadvantages of the growth of machinery upon the working classes is +impossible. If we look not merely at the growth of money incomes, but at +the character of those products which have been most cheapened by the +introduction of machinery, we shall incline to the opinion that the net +gain in wealth-producing power due to machinery has not been equally +shared by all classes in the community.[<a href="#fn17">17</a>]</p> + +<p>The capitalist classes, so far as they can be properly severed from the +rest of the community, have gained most, as was inevitable in a change +which increased the part played by capital in production. A short-timed +monopoly of the abnormal profits of each new invention, and an enormous +expansion of the field of investment for capital must be set against the +gradual fall in the interest paid for the use of each piece of capital. +But as the advantage of each new invention has by the competition of +machinery-owners been passed on to the consumer, all other classes of the +community have gained in proportion to their consumption of +machinery-produced commodities. As machinery plays a smaller part in the +production of necessaries of life than in the production of comforts and +luxuries, it will be evident that each class gain as consumers in +proportion to its income. The poorest classes, whose consumption of +machine-productions is smallest, gain least. It cannot, however, be said, +that there is any class of regular workers who, as consumers, have been +injured by machinery. All have gained. The skilled workmen, the +aristocracy of labour, have, as has been shown, gained very considerably. +Even the poor classes of regular unskilled workmen have raised their +standard of comfort.</p> + +<p>It is in its bearing on the industrial condition of the very poor, and +those who are unable to get regular work at decent wages, that the +influence of machinery is most questionable. Violent trade fluctuations, +and a continuous displacement of hand-labour by new mechanical inventions, +keep in perpetual existence a large margin of unemployed or half-employed, +who form the most hopeless and degraded section of the city poor, and +furnish a body of reckless, starving competitors for work, who keep down +the standard of wages and of life for the lower grades of regular workers +affected by this competition.</p> +</div> + + +<div class="chapter" id="ch03"> +<h2>Chapter III.</h2> + +<h3>The Influx of Population into Large Towns.</h3> + + + +<p><b>§ 1.Movements of Population between City and Country.</b> The growth of +large cities is so closely related to the problems of poverty as to +deserve a separate treatment. The movements of population form a group of +facts more open than most others to precise measurement, and from them +much light is thrown on the condition of the working classes. That the +towns are growing at the expense of the country, is a commonplace to which +we ought to seek to attach a more definite meaning.</p> + +<p>We may trace the inflow of country-born people into the towns by looking +either at the statistics of towns, or of rural districts. But first we +ought to bear in mind one fact. Quite apart from any change in proportion +of population, there is an enormous interchange constantly taking place +between adjoining counties and districts. The general fluidity of +population has been of course vastly increased by new facilities of +communication and migration; persons are less and less bound down to the +village or county in which they were born. So we find that in England and +Wales, only 739 out of each 1000 persons were living in their native +county in 1901. In some London districts it is reckoned that more than one +quarter of the inhabitants change their address each year. So that when we +are told that in seven large Scotch towns only 524 out of each 1000 are +natives, and that in Middlesex only 35 per cent. of the male adult +population are Middlesex by birth, we are not thereby enabled to form any +conclusion as to the growth of towns.</p> + +<p>To arrive at any useful result we must compare the inflow with the +outflow. Most of the valuable information we possess on this point applies +directly to London but the same forces which are operating in London, will +be found to be at work with more or less intensity in other centres of +population in proportion to their size. Comparing the inflow of London +with its outflow, we find that in 1881 nearly twice as many strangers were +living in London as Londoners were living outside; in other words, that +London was gaining from the country at the rate of more than 10,000 per +annum. So far as London itself is concerned, the last two censuses show a +cessation of the flow, but the enormous growth of Middlesex outside the +metropolitan boundaries indicates a continuance of the centripetal +tendency.</p> + +<p>Now what does London do with this increase? Is it spread evenly over the +surface of the great city?</p> + +<p>Certainly not. And here we reach a point which has a great significance +for those interested in East London. It is clearly shown that none of this +gain goes to swell the numbers of East London. Many individual strangers +of course go there, but the outflow from East London towards the suburban +parts more than compensates the inflow. By comparing the population of +East London in 1901 with that in 1881, it is found that the increase is +far less than it ought to be, if we add the excess of births over deaths. +How is this? The answer is not far to seek, and stamps with fatal +significance one aspect of Poverty, namely, overcrowding. East London does +not gain so fast as other parts, because it will not hold any more people. +It has reached what is termed "saturation point." Introduce strangers, +and they can only stay on condition that they push out, and take the place +of, earlier residents.</p> + +<p>So we find in all districts of large towns, where poverty lies thickest, +the inflow is less than the outflow. The great stream of incomers goes to +swell the population of parts not hitherto overcrowded, thus ever +increasing the area of dense city population. Districts like Bethnal Green +and Mile End are found to show the smallest increase, while outlying +districts like West Ham grow at a prodigious pace.</p> + +<p><b>§ 2. Rate of Migration from Rural Districts.</b>--But perhaps the most +instructive point of view from which to regard the absorption of country +population by the towns is not from inside but from outside.</p> + +<p>Confining our attention for the present to migration from the country to +the town, and leaving the foreign immigration for separate treatment, we +find that the large majority of incomers to London are from agricultural +counties, such as Kent, Bucks, Herts, Devon, Lincoln, and not from +counties with large manufacturing centres of their own, like Yorkshire, +Lancashire, and Cheshire. The great manufacturing counties contribute very +slightly to the growth of London. While twelve representative agricultural +counties furnished sixteen per 1000 of the population of London in 1881, +twelve representative manufacturing counties supplied no more than +two-and-a-half per 1000.</p> + +<p>Respecting the rate of the decline of agricultural population exaggerated +statements are often made. If we take the inhabitants of rural sanitary +districts, and of urban districts below 10,000 as the rural population, we +shall find that between 1891 and 1901 the growth in the rural districts is +5.3 per cent. as compared with 15.8 per cent. for the centres of +population. Even if the urban standard be placed at a lower point, 5000, +there is still an increase of 3.5 per cent. in the rural population. If, +however, we eliminate the "home" counties and other rural districts round +the large centres of population, largely used for residential purposes, +and turn to agricultural England, we shall find that it shows a positive +decline in rural population. In the period 1891-1901 no fewer than 18 +English and Welsh counties show a decrease of rural inhabitants, taking +the higher limit of urban population. This has been going on with +increasing rapidity during the last forty years. Whereas, in 1861, 37.7 +per cent. of the population were living in the country, in 1901 the +proportion has sunk to 23 per cent.</p> + +<p>What these figures mean is that almost the whole of the natural increase +in country population is being gradually sucked into city life. Not London +alone, of course, but all the large cities have been engaged in this work +of absorption. Everywhere the centripetal forces are at work. The larger +the town the stronger the power of suction, and the wider the area over +which the attraction extends. There are three chief considerations which +affect the force with which the attraction of a large city acts upon rural +districts. The first is distance. By far the largest quantity of +new-comers into London are natives of Middlesex, Kent, Bucks, and what are +known as "the home counties." As we pass further North and West, the +per-centage gradually though not quite regularly declines. The numbers +from Durham and Northumberland on the one hand, and from Devon and +Somerset on the other are much larger than those from certain nearer +counties, such as Stafford, Yorkshire, and Lancaster. The chief +determinate of the force of attraction, distance from the centre, is in +these cases qualified by two other considerations. In the case of Durham +and Northumberland a large navigable seaboard affords greater facility and +cheapness of transport, an important factor in the mobility of labour. In +the case of Devon and Somerset the absence of the counter-attraction of +large provincial cities drives almost the whole of its migratory folk to +London, whereas in Yorkshire and Lancashire and the chief Midland +manufacturing counties the attraction of their own industrial centres acts +more powerfully in their immediate neighbourhood than the magic of London +itself. Thus, if we were to take the map of England and mark it so as to +represent the gravitation towards cities, we should find that every +remotest village was subject to a number of weaker or stronger, nearer or +more distant, forces, which were helping to draw off its rising population +into the eddy of city life. If we examined in detail a typical +agricultural county, we should probably find that while its one or two +considerable towns of 40,000 or 50,000 inhabitants were growing at +something above the average rate for the whole country, the smaller towns +of 5000 to 10,000 were only just managing to hold their own, the smallest +towns and large villages were steadily declining, while the scattered +agricultural population remained almost stationary. For it is the small +towns and the villages that suffer most, for reasons which will shortly +appear.</p> + +<p><b>§ 3. Effects of Agricultural Depression.</b>--We have next to ask what is +the nature of this attractive force which drains the country to feed the +city population? What has hitherto been spoken of as a single force will +be seen to be a complex of several forces, different in kind, acting +conjointly to produce the same result.</p> + +<p>The first readily suggests itself couched under the familiar phrase, +Agricultural Depression. It is needless here to enlarge on this big and +melancholy theme. It is evident that what is called the law of Diminishing +Return to Labour in Agriculture, the fact that every additional labourer, +upon a given surface, beyond a certain sufficient number, will be less and +less profitably employed, while the indefinite expansion of manufacture +will permit every additional hand to be utilized so as to increase the +average product of each worker, would of itself suffice to explain why in +a fairly thickly populated country like England, young labourers would +find it to their interest to leave the land and seek manufacturing work in +the cities. This would of itself explain why the country population might +stand still while the city grew. When to this natural tendency we add the +influence of the vast tracts of virgin, or cheaply cultivated soil, +brought into active competition with English agriculture by the railways +and steamships which link us with distant lands in America, Australia, and +Asia, we have a fully adequate explanation of the main force of the tide +in the movement of population. After a country has reached a certain stage +in the development of its resources, the commercial population must grow +more quickly than the agricultural, and the larger the outside area open +to supply agricultural imports the faster the change thus brought about in +the relation of city and rural population.</p> + +<p><b>§ 4. Nature of the Decline of Rural Population.</b>--It has been shown +that the absolute reduction in the number of those living in rural +districts is very small. If, however, we take the statistics of farmers +and farm-labourers in these same districts we often find a very +considerable decline. The real extent of the decline of agriculture is +somewhat concealed by the habit of including in the agricultural +population a good many people not engaged in work of agriculture. The +number of retail shopkeepers, railway men and others concerned with the +transport of goods, domestic servants, teachers, and others not directly +occupied in the production of material wealth, has considerably increased +of late years. So too, not every form of agriculture has declined. While +farmers and labourers show a decrease, market-gardeners show a large +increase, and there seem to be many more persons living in towns who +cultivate a bit of land in the country as a subsidiary employment.</p> + +<p>Taken as a whole the absolute fall off in the number of those working upon +the soil is not large. The decline of small country industries is much +more considerable. Here another law of industrial motion comes in, the +rapid tendency of manufacture towards centralization in the towns, which +we have discussed in the last chapter. Here we are concerned only with its +effect in stamping out small rural industries. The growth of the railway +has been the chief agent in the work. Wherever the railroad has penetrated +a country it has withered the ancient cottage industries of our land. It +is true that even before the time of railways the development of machinery +had in large measure destroyed the spinning and weaving trades, which in +Lancashire, Yorkshire, and elsewhere had given employment to large numbers +of country families. The railway, and the constant application of new +machinery have completed this work of destruction, and have likewise +abolished a number of small handicrafts, such as hand-stitched boots, and +lace, which flourished in western and midland districts, Nor is this all. +The same potent forces have transferred to towns many branches of work +connected indirectly with agricultural pursuits; country smiths, +brickmakers, sawyers, turners, coopers, wheelwrights, are rapidly +vanishing from the face of the country.</p> + +<p><b>§ 5. Attractions of the Town, Economic and Social.</b> The concrete form +in which the industrial forces, which we have described, appeal to the +dull-headed rustic is the attraction of higher wages. An elaborate +comparison of towns and country wages is not required. It is enough to say +that labourer's wages in London and other large cities are some 50 per +cent, higher than the wages of agricultural labourers in most parts of +England, and the wages of skilled labour show a similar relation. Besides +the actual difficulty of getting agricultural employment in many parts, +improved means of knowledge, and of cheap transport, constantly flaunt +this offer of higher wages before the eyes of the more discontented among +agricultural workers. It is true that if wages are higher in London, the +cost of living is also higher, and the conditions of life and work are +generally more detrimental to health and happiness; but these drawbacks +are more often realized after the fatal step has been taken than before.</p> + +<p>Along with the concrete motive of higher wages there come other inherent +attractions of town life.</p> + +<p>"The contagion of numbers, the sense of something going on, the theatres +and music-halls, the brilliantly-lighted streets and busy crowds"[<a href="#fn18">18</a>] have +a very powerful effect on the dawning intelligence of the rustic. The +growing accessibility of towns brings these temptations within the reach +of all. These social attractions probably contain more evil than good, and +act with growing force on the restless and reckless among our country +population. The tramp and the beggar find more comfort and more gain in +the towns. The action of indiscriminate and spasmodic charity, which still +prevails in London and other large centres of riches, is responsible in no +small measure for the poverty and degradation of city slums.</p> + +<p>"The far-reaching advertisement of irresponsible charity acts as a +powerful magnet. Whole sections of the population are demoralized, men and +women throwing down their work right and left in order to qualify for +relief; while the conclusion of the whole matter is intensified congestion +of the labour market--angry bitter feeling for the insufficiency of the +pittance, or rejection of the claim." So writes Miss Potter of the famous +Mansion House Relief Funds.</p> + +<p>It is easy to see how the worthless element from our villages, the loafer, +the shiftless, the drunkard, the criminal, naturally gravitates towards +its proper place as part of the "social wreckage" of our cities. But the +size of this element must not be exaggerated. It forms a comparatively +small fraction of the whole. Our city criminal, our city loafer, is +generally home-grown, and is not supplied directly from the country. If it +were true that only the worthless portion of our country population passed +into our cities to perish in the struggle for existence, which is so fatal +in city life, we should on the whole have reason to congratulate +ourselves. But this is not so. The main body of those who pass into city +life are in fact the cream of the native population of the country, drawn +by advantages chiefly economic. They consist of large numbers of vigorous +young men, mostly between the age of twenty and twenty-five, who leave +agriculture for manufacture, or move into towns owing to displacement of +handicrafts by wholesale manufacture.</p> + +<p><b>§ 6. Effect of the Change on National Health.</b>--This decay of country +life, however much we may regret it, seems under present industrial +conditions inevitable. Nor is it altogether to be regretted or condemned. +The movement indisputably represents a certain equalization of advantages +economic, educational, and social. The steady workman who moves into the +town generally betters himself from the point of view of immediate +material advantages.</p> + +<p>But in regarding the movement as a whole a much more serious question +confronts us. What is the net result upon the physical well-being of the +nation of this drafting of the abler and better country folk into the +towns? Let the death-rate first testify. In 1902 the death-rate for the +whole rural population was 13.7 per 1000, that of the whole urban +population 17.8. Now it is not the case that town life is necessarily more +unhealthy than country life to any considerable extent. There are +well-to-do districts of London, whole boroughs, such as Hampstead, where +the death-rate is considerably lower than the ordinary rural rate. The +weight of city mortality falls upon the poor.</p> + +<p>Careful statistics justify the conclusion that the death-rate of an +average poor district in London, Liverpool, or Glasgow, is quite double +that of the average country district which is being drained to feed the +city. We now see what the growth of town population, and the decay of the +country really means. It means in the first place that each year brings a +larger proportion of the nation within reach of the higher rate of +mortality, by taking them from more healthy and placing them under less +healthy conditions. In the case of the lower classes of workers who +gravitate to London, it means putting them in a place where the chance of +death in a given year is doubled for them. And remember, this higher +death-rate is applied not indiscriminately, but to selected subjects. It +is the young, healthy, vigorous blood of the country which is exposed to +these unhealthy conditions. A pure Londoner of the third generation, that +is, one whose grandparents as well as his parents were born in London, is +very seldom found. It is certain that nearly all the most effective vital +energy given out in London work, physical and intellectual alike, belongs +to men whose fathers were country bred, if they were not country born +themselves. In kinds of work where pure physical vigour play an important +part, this is most strikingly apparent. The following statistics bearing +on the London police force were obtained by Mr. Llewellyn Smith in 1888--</p> +<table summary="London police force"> +<tr><th></th><th> London born.</th><th> Country born. </th><th>Total.</th></tr> + +<tr><td> Metropolitan Police</td><td style="text-align:center"> 2,716 </td><td style="text-align:center"> 10,908 </td><td style="text-align:center">13,624</td></tr> +<tr><td> City " </td><td style="text-align:center"> 194 </td><td style="text-align:center"> 698 </td><td style="text-align:center">892</td></tr> +</table> +<p>Railway men, carriers, omnibus-drivers, corn and timber porters, and those +in whose work physique tells most, are all largely drawn from the country. +Nor is the physical deterioration of city life to be merely measured by +death-rates. Many town influences, which do not appreciably affect +mortality, distinctly lower the vitality, which must be taken as the +physical measure of the value of life. The denizens of city slums not only +die twice as fast as their country cousins, but their health and vigour is +less during the time they live.</p> + +<p>A fair consideration of these facts discloses something much more +important than a mere change in social and industrial conditions. Linked +with this change we see a deterioration of the physique of the race as a +distinct factor in the problem of city poverty. This is no vague +speculation, but a strongly-supported hypothesis, which deserves most +serious attention. Dr. Ogle, who has done much work in elucidation of this +point, sums up in the following striking language--</p> + +<p>"The combined effect of this constantly higher mortality in the towns, and +of the constant immigration into it of the pick of the rural population, +must clearly be a gradual deterioration of the whole, inasmuch as the more +energetic and vigorous members of the community are consumed more rapidly +than the rest of the population. The system is one which leads to the +survival of the unfittest."</p> + +<p>Thus the city figures as a mighty vampire, continually sucking the +strongest blood of the country to keep up the abnormal supply of energy it +has to give out in the excitement of a too fast and unwholesome life. +Whether the science of the future may not supply some decentralizing +agency, which shall reverse the centralizing force of modern industry, is +not a wholly frivolous speculation to suggest. Some sanguine imaginations +already foresee the time when those great natural forces, the economical +use of which has compelled men and women to crowd into factories in great +cities, may be distributable with such ease and cheapness over the whole +surface of the land as no longer to require that close local relation +which means overcrowding in work and in home life. If science could do +this it would confer upon humanity an advantage far less equivocal than +that which belongs to the present reign of iron and steam.</p> + +<p><b>§ 7. The Extent of Foreign Immigration.</b>--So much for the inflow from +the country districts. But there is another inflow which is drawing close +attention, the inflow of cheap foreign labour into our towns. Here again +we have first to guard against some exaggeration. It is not true that +German, Polish, and Russian Jews are coming over in large battalions to +steal all the employment of the English working-man, by under-selling him +in the labour-market. In the first place, it should be noted that the +foreigners of England, as a whole, bear a smaller proportion to the total +population than in any other first-class European state. In 1901 the +foreigners were 76 in 10,000 of the population; that is a good deal less +than one per cent. Our numbers as a nation are not increased by +immigration. On the contrary, between 1871 and 1901 we lost considerably +by emigration.[<a href="#fn19">19</a>] Even London, the centre of attraction to foreigners, +does not contain nearly so large a per-centage of foreigners as any other +great capital. The census gave 3 per cent. as the proportion of +foreigners, excluding those born in England of foreign parents. Though +this figure is perhaps too low, the true proportion cannot be very large. +It is not the number, but the distribution and occupation of the foreign +immigrants, that make them an object of so much solicitude. The borough of +Stepney contains no less than 40 per cent. of the foreign-born population +of London, the foreigners increasing from 15,998 in 1881 to 54,310 in +1901. At present 182 out of every 1000 in this district are foreigners. +The proportion is also very high in Holborn, Westminster, Marylebone, +Bethnal Green, and St Pancras. The Report of the Royal Commission on Alien +Immigration, 1902, states "that the greatest evils produced by the Alien +Immigrants here are the overcrowding caused by them in certain districts +of London, and the consequent displacement of the native population." The +concentration of the immigrant question is attested by the fact that in +1901 no less than 48 per cent. of the total foreign population were +resident in six metropolitan boroughs, and in the three cities of +Manchester, Liverpool, and Leeds. While a considerable number of them are +Germans, French, and Italians, attracted here by better industrial +conditions in trades for which they have some special aptitude, a greatly +increasing proportion are Russian and Polish Jews, driven to immigrate +partly by political and religious persecution, partly for industrial ends, +and feeding the unskilled labour-market in certain manufactures of our +great cities.</p> + +<p><b>§ 8. The Jew as an Industrial Competitor.</b>--Looking at these +foreigners as individuals, there is much to be said in their favour. They +do not introduce a lower morality into the quarters where they settle, as +the Chinese are said to do; nor are they quarrelsome and law-breaking, +like the low-class Italians who swarm into America. Their habits, so far +as cleanliness is concerned, are perhaps not desirable, but the standard +of the native population of Whitechapel is not sensitively high. For the +most part, and this is true especially of the Jews, they are steady, +industrious, quiet, sober, thrifty, quick to learn, and tolerably honest. +From the point of view of the old Political Economy, they are the very +people to be encouraged, for they turn out the largest quantity of wealth +at the lowest cost of production. If it is the chief end for a nation to +accumulate the largest possible stock of material wealth, it is evident +that these are the very people we require to enable us to achieve our +object.</p> + +<p>But if we consider it is sound national policy to pay regard to the +welfare of all classes engaged in producing this wealth, we may regard +this foreign immigration in quite another light. The very virtues just +enumerated are the chief faults we have to find with the foreign Jew. Just +because he is willing and able to work so hard for so little pay, willing +to undertake any kind of work out of which he can make a living, because +he can surpass in skill, industry, and adaptability the native Londoner, +the foreign Jew is such a terrible competitor. He is the nearest approach +to the ideal "economic" man, the "fittest" person to survive in trade +competition. Admirable in domestic morality, and an orderly citizen, he is +almost void of social morality. No compunction or consideration for his +fellow-worker will keep him from underselling and overreaching them; he +acquires a thorough mastery of all the dishonourable tricks of trade which +are difficult to restrain by law; the superior calculating intellect, +which is a national heritage, is used unsparingly to enable him to take +advantage of every weakness, folly, and vice of the society in which he +lives.</p> + +<p><b>§ 9. Effect of Foreign Competition.</b>--One other quality he has in +common with the mass of poor foreigners who compete in the London labour +market--he can live on less than the Englishman. What Mrs Webb says of the +Polish Jew, is in large measure true of all cheap foreign labour--"As +industrial competitor, the Polish Jew is fettered by no definite standard +of life; it rises and falls with his opportunities; he is not depressed by +penury, and he is not demoralized by gain." The fatal significance of this +is evident. We have seen that notwithstanding a general rise in the +standard of comfort of the mass of labourers, there still remains in all +our cities a body of labouring men and women engaged in doing ill-paid and +irregular work for wages which keep them always on the verge of +starvation. Now consider what it means for these people to have brought +into their midst a number of competitors who can live even more cheaply +than they can live, and who will consent to toil from morning to night for +whatever they can get. These new-comers are obviously able, in their +eagerness for work, to drive down the rate of wages even below what +represents starvation-point for the native worker. The insistence of the +poorer working-classes, under the stimulus of new-felt wants, the growing +enlightenment of public opinion, have slowly and gradually won, even for +the poorer workers in English cities, some small advance in material +comfort, some slight expansion in the meaning of the term "necessaries of +life." Turn a few shiploads of Polish Jews upon any of these districts, +and they will and must in the struggle for life destroy the whole of this. +Remember it is not merely the struggle of too many workers competing on +equal terms for an insufficient quantity of work. That is terrible enough. +But when the struggle is between those accustomed to a higher, and those +accustomed to a lower, standard of life, the latter can obviously oust the +former, and take their work. Just as a base currency drives out of +circulation a pure currency, so does a lower standard of comfort drive out +a higher one. This is the vital question regarding foreign immigration +which has to be faced.</p> + +<p>Nor is it merely a question of the number of these foreigners. The inflow +of a comparatively small number into a neighbourhood where much of the +work is low-skilled and irregular, will often produce an effect which +seems quite out of proportion to the actual number of the invaders. Where +work is slack and difficult to get, a very small addition of low-living +foreigners will cause a perceptible fall in the entire wages of the +neighbourhood in the employments which their competition affects. It is +true that the Jew does not remain a low-skilled labourer for starvation +wages. Beginning at the bottom of the ladder, he rises by his industry and +skill, until he gets into the rank of skilled workers, or more frequently +becomes a sub-contractor, or a small shopkeeper. It might appear that as +he thus rose, the effect of his competition in the low skilled labour +market would disappear. And this would be so were it not for the +persistent arrival of new-comers to take the place of those who rise. It +is the continuity in the flow of foreign emigration which constitutes the +real danger.</p> + +<p>Economic considerations do not justify us in expecting any speedy check +upon this flow. The growing means of communication among nations, the +cheapening of transport, the breaking down of international prejudices, +must, if they are left free to operate, induce the labourer to seek the +best market for his labour, and thus tend to equalize the condition of +labour in the various communities, raising the level of the lower paid and +lower lived at the expense of the higher paid and higher lived.</p> + +<p><b>§ 10. The Water-tight Compartment Theory.</b>--One point remains to be +mentioned. It is sometimes urged that the foreign Jews who come to our +shores do not injure our low skilled workers to any considerable extent, +because they do not often enter native trades, but introduce new trades +which would not have existed at all were it not for their presence. They +work, it is said, in water-tight compartments, competing among themselves, +but not directly competing with English workers. Now if it were the case +that these foreigners really introduced new branches of production +designed to stimulate and supply new wants this contention would have much +weight. The Flemings who in Edward III.'s reign introduced the finer kinds +of weaving into England, and the Huguenot refugees who established new +branches of the silk, glass, and paper manufactures, conferred a direct +service upon English commerce, and their presence in the labour market was +probably an indirect service to the English workers. But this is not the +case with the modern Jew immigrants. They have not stimulated or supplied +new wants. It is not even correct to say that most of them do not directly +compete with native labour. It is true that certain branches of the cheap +clothing trade have been their creation. The cheap coat trade, which they +almost monopolize, seems due to their presence. But even here they have +established no new <i>kind</i> of trade. To their cheap labour perhaps is due +in some cases the large export trade in cheap clothing, but even then it +is doubtful whether the work would not otherwise have been done by +machinery under healthier conditions, and have furnished work and wages +for English workers. During the last decade they have been entering more +and more into direct competition with British labour in the +cabinet-making, shoemaking, baking, hair-dressing, and domestic service +occupations. Lastly, they enter into direct competition of the worst form +with English female labour, which is driven in these very clothing trades +to accept work and wages which are even too low to tempt the Jews of +Whitechapel. The constant infiltration of cheap immigrant labour is in +large measure responsible for the existence of the "sweating workshops," +and the survival of low forms of industrial development which form a +factor in the problem of poverty.</p> +</div> + + +<div class="chapter" id="ch04"> +<h2>Chapter IV.</h2> + +<h3>"The Sweating System."</h3> + + + +<p><b>§ 1.Origin of the Term "Sweating."</b>--Having gained insight into some +of the leading industrial forces of the age, we can approach more +hopefully the study of that aspect of City poverty, commonly known as the +"Sweating System."</p> + +<p>The first thing is to get a definite meaning to the term. Since the +examination of experts before the recent "Lords' Committee" elicited more +than twenty widely divergent definitions of this "Sweating System," some +care is required at the outset of our inquiry. The common use of the term +"Sweating System" is itself responsible for much ambiguity, for the term +"system" presupposes a more or less distinct form of organization of +industry identified with the evils of sweating. Now as it should be one of +the objects of inquiry to ascertain whether there exists any one such +definite form, it will be better at the outset to confine ourselves to the +question, "What is Sweating?"</p> + +<p>As an industrial term the word seems to have been first used among +journeymen tailors. The tailoring houses which once executed all orders on +their own premises, by degrees came to recognize the convenience of giving +out work to tailors who would work at their own homes. The long hours +which the home workers were induced to work in order to increase their +pay, caused the term "Sweater" to be applied to them by the men who worked +for fixed hours on the tailors' premises, and who found their work passing +more and more into the hands of the home workers. Thus we learn that +originally it was long hours and not low wages which constituted +"sweating." School-boy slang still uses the word in this same sense. +Moreover, the first sweater was one who "sweated" himself, not others. But +soon when more and more tailoring work was "put out," the home worker, +finding he could undertake more than he could execute, employed his family +and also outsiders to help him. This makes the second stage in the +evolution of the term; the sweater now "sweated" others as well as +himself, and he figured as a "middleman" between the tailoring firm which +employed him, and the assistants whom he employed for fixed wages. Other +clothing trades have passed through the same process of development, and +have produced a sub-contracting middleman. The term "sweater" has thus by +the outside world, and sometimes by the workers themselves, come to be +generally applied to sub-contractors in small City trades. But the fact of +the special application has not prevented the growth of a wider +signification of "sweating" and "sweater." As the long hours worked in the +tailors' garrets were attended with other evils--a low rate of wages, +unsanitary conditions, irregularity of employment, and occasional tyranny +in all the forms which attend industrial authority--all these evils became +attached to the notion of sweating. The word has thus grown into a generic +term to express this disease of City poverty from its purely industrial +side. Though "long hours" was the gist of the original complaint, low +wages have come to be recognized as equally belonging to the essence of +"sweating." In some cases, indeed, low wages have become the leading +idea, so that employers are classed as sweaters who pay low wages, without +consideration of hours or other conditions of employment. Trade Unions, +for example, use the term "sweating" specifically to express the conduct +of employers who pay less than the "standard" rate of wages. The +abominable sanitary condition of many of the small workshops, or private +dwellings of workers, is to many reformers the most essential element in +sweating.</p> + +<p><b>§ 2. Present Applications of the Name.</b>--When the connotation of the +term "sweating" had become extended so as to include along with excessive +hours of labour, low wages, unsanitary conditions of work, and other +evils, which commonly belong to the method of sub-contract employment, it +was only natural that the same word should come to be applied to the same +evils when they were found outside the sub-contract system. For though it +has been, and still is, true, that where the method of sub-contract is +used the workers are frequently "sweated," and though to the popular mind +the sub-contractor still figures as the typical sweater, it is not right +to regard "sub-contract" as the real cause of sweating. For it is found--</p> + +<p>Firstly, that in some trades sub-contract is used without the evils of +sweating being present. Mr. Burnett, labour correspondent to the Board of +Trade, in his evidence before the Lords' Committee, maintains that where +Trade Unions are strong, as in the engineering trade, sub-contract is +sometimes employed under conditions which are entirely "unobjectionable." +So too in the building trades, sub-contract is not always attended by +"sweating."</p> + +<p>Secondly, much of the worst "sweating" is found where the element of +sub-contract is entirely wanting, and where there is no trace of a +ravenous middleman. This will be found especially in women's employments. +Miss Potter, after a close investigation of this point, arrives at the +conclusion that "undoubtedly the worst paid work is made under the +direction of East End retail slop-shops, or for tally-men--a business from +which contact, even in the equivocal form of wholesale trading, has been +eliminated."[<a href="#fn20">20</a>] The term "sweating" must be deemed as applicable to the +case of the women employed in the large steam-laundries, who on Friday and +Saturday work for fifteen or sixteen hours a day, to the overworked and +under-paid waitresses in restaurants and shops, to the men who, as Mr. +Burleigh testified, "are employed in some of the wealthiest houses of +business, and received for an average working week of ninety-five hours, +board, lodging, and £15 a year," as it is to the tailoress who works +fourteen hours a day for Whitechapel sub-contractors.</p> + +<p>The terms "sweating" and "sweating System," then, after originating in a +narrow application to the practice of over-work under sub-contractors in +the lower branches of the tailoring trade, has expanded into a large +generic term, to express the condition of all overworked, ill-paid, +badly-housed workers in our cities. It sums up the industrial or economic +aspects of the problem of city poverty. Scarcely any trade in its lowest +grades is free from it; in nearly all we find the wretched "fag end" where +the workers are miserably oppressed. This is true not only of the poorest +manual labour, that of the sandwich-man, with his wage of 1s. 2d. per +diem, and of the lowest class of each manufacturing trade in East and +Central London. It is true of the relatively unskilled labour in every +form of employment; the miserable writing-clerk, who on 25s. a week or +less has to support a wife and children and an appearance of +respectability; the usher, who grinds out low-class instruction through +the whole tedious day for less than the wage of a plain cook; the +condition of these and many other kinds of low-class brain-workers is only +a shade less pitiable than the "sweating" of manual labourers, and the +causes, as we shall see, are much the same. If our investigation of +"sweating" is chiefly confined to the condition of the manual labourer, it +is only because the malady there touches more directly and obviously the +prime conditions of physical life, not because the nature of the +industrial disease is different.</p> + +<p><b>§ 3. Leading "Sweating" Trades.</b>--It is next desirable to have some +clear knowledge of the particular trades in which the worst forms of +"sweating" are found, and the extent to which it prevails in each. The +following brief summary is in a large measure drawn from evidence +furnished to the recent Lords' Committee on the Sweating System. Since the +sweating in women's industries is so important a subject as to demand a +separate treatment, the facts stated here will chiefly apply to male +industries.</p> + +<p><b>Tailoring.</b>--In the tailoring trade the best kind of clothes are still +made by highly-skilled and well-paid workmen, but the bulk of the cheap +clothing is in the hands of "sweaters," who are sometimes skilled tailors, +sometimes not, and who superintend the work of cheap unskilled hands. In +London the coat trade should be distinguished from the vest and trousers +trade. The coat-making trade in East London is a closely-defined district, +with an area of one square mile, including the whole of Whitechapel and +parts of two adjoining parishes. The trade is almost entirely in the hands +of Jews, who number from thirty to forty thousand persons. Recent +investigations disclosed 906 workshops, which, in the quality and +conditions of the work done in them, may be graded according to the number +of hands employed. The larger workshops, employing from ten to twenty-five +hands or more, generally pay fair wages, and are free from symptoms of +sweating. But in the small workshops, which form about 80 per cent of the +whole number, the common evils of the sweating system assert +themselves--overcrowding, bad sanitation, and excessive hours of labour. +Thirteen and fourteen hours are the nominal day's work for men; and those +workshops which do not escape the Factory Inspector assign a nominal +factory day for women; but "among the imperfectly taught workers in the +slop and stock trade, and more especially in the domestic workshops, +under-pressers, plain machinists, and fellers are in many instances +expected to 'convenience' their masters, i.e. to work for twelve or +fifteen hours in return for ten or thirteen hours' wage."[<a href="#fn21">21</a>] The better +class workers, who require some skill, get comparatively high wages even +in the smaller workshops, though the work is irregular; but the general +hands engaged in making 1s. coats, generally women, get a maximum of <i>1s. +6d.</i>, and a minimum which is indefinitely below 1s. for a twelve hours' +day. This low-class work is also hopeless. The raw hand, or "greener" as +he is called, will often work through his apprenticeship for nominal +wages; but he has the prospect of becoming a machinist, and earning from +6s. to 10s. a day, or of becoming in his turn a sweater. The general hand +has no such hope. The lowest kind of coat-making, however, is refused by +the Jew contractor, and falls to Gentile women. These women also undertake +most of the low-class vest and trousers making, generally take their work +direct from a wholesale house, and execute it at home, or in small +workshops. The price for this work is miserably low, partly by reason of +the competition of provincial factories, partly for reasons to be +discussed in a later chapter. Women will work for twelve or fifteen hours +a day throughout the week as "trousers finishers," for a net-earning of as +little as 4s. or 5s. Such is the condition of inferior unskilled labour in +the tailoring trade. It should however be understood that in "tailoring," +as in other "sweating" trades, the lowest figures quoted must be received +with caution. The wages of a "greener," a beginner or apprentice, should +not be taken as evidence of a low wage in the trade, for though it is a +lamentable thing that the learner should have to live upon the value of +his prentice work, it is evident that under no commercial condition could +he support himself in comfort during this period. It is the normal +starvation wage of the low-class experienced hand which is the true +measure of "sweating" in these trades. Two facts serve to give prominence +to the growth of "sweating" in the tailoring trades. During the last few +years there has been a fall of some 30 per cent, in the prices paid for +the same class of work. During the same period the irregularity of work +has increased. Even in fairly large shops the work for ordinary labour +only averages some three days in the week, while we must reckon two and a +half days for unskilled workers in smaller workshops, or working at home.</p> + +<p>Among provincial towns Liverpool, Manchester, and Leeds show a rapid +growth of sweating in the clothing trade. In each case the evil is imputed +to "an influx of foreigners, chiefly Jews." In each town the same +conditions appear--irregular work and wages, unsanitary conditions, +over-crowding, evasion of inspection. The growth in Leeds is remarkable. +"There are now ninety-seven Jewish workshops in the city, whereas five +years ago there were scarcely a dozen. The number of Jews engaged in the +tailoring trade is about three thousand. The whole Jewish population of +Leeds is about five thousand."[<a href="#fn22">22</a>]</p> + +<p><b>Boot-making.</b>--The hand-sewn trade, which constitutes the upper +stratum of this industry, is executed for the most part by skilled +workers, who get good wages for somewhat irregular employment. There are +several strong trade organizations, and though the hours are long, +extending occasionally to thirteen or fourteen hours, the worst forms of +sweating are not found. So too in the upper branches of machine-sewn +boots, the skilled hands get fairly high wages. But the lower grades of +machine-made boots, and the "sew-rounds," i.e. fancy shoes and slippers, +which form a large part of the industry in London, present some of the +worst features of the "sweating system." The "sweating master" plays a +large part here. "In a busy week a comparatively competent 'sweater' may +earn from 18s. to 25s. less skilful hands may get 15s. or 16s. but boys +and newly-arrived foreigners take 10s., 8s., 7s., or less; while the +masters, after paying all expenses, would, according to their own +estimates, make not less than 30s., and must, in many cases, net much +higher sums. Owing, however, to the irregularity of their employment, the +average weekly earnings of both masters and men throughout the year fall +very greatly below the amount which they can earn when in full work."[<a href="#fn23">23</a>] +For the lowest kinds of work an ordinary male hand appears to be able to +earn not more than 15s. per week. A slow worker, it is said, would earn an +average of some 10s. to 12s. per week. The hours of labour for sweating +work appear to be from fifteen to eighteen per diem, and "greeners" not +infrequently work eighteen to twenty hours a day. Women, who are largely +used in making "felt and carpet uppers," cannot, if they work their +hardest, make more than 1s. 3d. a day. In the lowest class of work wages +fall even lower. Mr. Schloss gives the wages of five men working in a +small workshop, whose average is less than 11s. a week. These wages do not +of course represent skilled work at all. Machinery has taken over all the +skilled work, and left a dull laborious monotony of operations which a +very few weeks' practice enable a completely unskilled worker to +undertake. Probably the bulk of the cheapest work is executed by +foreigners, although from figures taken in 1887, of four typical London +parishes, it appeared that only 16 per cent, of the whole trade were +foreigners. In the lower classes of goods a considerable fall of price has +occurred during the fast few years, and perhaps the most degraded +conditions of male labour are to be found in the boot trade. A large +proportion of the work throughout the trade is out-work, and therefore +escapes the operation of the Factory Act. The competition among small +employers is greatly accentuated by the existence of a form of middleman +known as the "factor," who is an agent who gets his profit by playing off +one small manufacturer against another, keeping down prices, and +consequently wages, to a minimum. A large number of the small producers +are extremely poor, and owing to the System which enables them to obtain +material from leather-merchants on short credit, are constantly obliged to +sell at a disadvantage to meet their bills. The "factor," as a speculator, +takes advantage of this to accumulate large stocks at low prices, and +throwing them on the market in large quantities when wholesale prices +rise, causes much irregularity in the trade.</p> + +<p>The following quotation from the Report of the Lords' Committee sums up +the chief industrial forces which are at work, and likewise illustrates +the confusion of causes with symptoms, and casual concomitants, which +marks the "common sense" investigations of intricate social phenomena. "It +will be seen from the foregoing epitome of the evidence, that sweating in +the boot trade is mainly traced by the witnesses to the introduction of +machinery, and a more complete system of subdivision of labour, coupled +with immigration from abroad and foreign competition. Some witnesses have +traced it in a great measure, if not principally, to the action of +factors; some to excessive competition among small masters as well as men; +others have accused the Trades Unions of a course of action which has +defeated the end they have in view, namely, effectual combination, by +driving work, owing to their arbitrary conduct, out of the factory into +the house of the worker, and of handicapping England in the race with +foreign countries, by setting their faces against the use of the best +machinery."[<a href="#fn24">24</a>]</p> + +<p><b>Shirt-making.</b>--Perhaps no other branch of the clothing trade shows so +large an area of utter misery as shirt-making, which is carried on, +chiefly by women, in East London. The complete absence of adequate +organization, arising from the fact that the work is entirely out-work, +done not even by clusters of women in workshops, but almost altogether by +scattered workers in their own homes, makes this perhaps the completest +example of the evils of sweating. The commoner shirts are sold wholesale +at 10s. 6d. per dozen. Of this sum, it appears that the worker gets 2s. +1½d., and the sweater sometimes as much as 4s. The competition of married +women enters here, for shirt-making requires little skill and no capital; +hence it can be undertaken, and often is, by married women, anxious to +increase the little and irregular earnings of their husbands, and willing +to work all day for whatever they can get. Some of the worst cases brought +before the Lords' Committee showed that a week's work of this kind brings +in a net gain of from 3s. to 5s. It appears likely that few unmarried +women or widows can undertake this work, because it does not suffice to +afford a subsistence wage. But if this is so, it must be remembered that +the competition of married women has succeeded in underselling the +unmarried women, who might otherwise have been able to obtain this work at +a wage which would have supported life. The fact that those who work at +shirt-making do not depend entirely on it for a livelihood, is an +aggravation rather than an extenuation of the sweating character of this +employment.</p> + +<p><b>§ 4. Some minor "Sweating" Trades.</b>--Mantle-making is also a woman's +industry. The wages are just sufficiently higher than in shirt-making to +admit the introduction of the lowest grades of unsupported female workers. +From 1s. 3d. to 1s. 6d. a day can be made at this work.</p> + +<p>Furring employs large numbers of foreign males, and some thousands of both +native and foreign females. It is almost entirely conducted in small +workshops, under the conduct of middlemen, who receive the expensive furs +from manufacturers, and hire "hands" to sew and work them up. Wages have +fallen during the last few years to the barest subsistence point, and even +below. Wages for men are put at 10s. or 12s., and in the case of girls and +young women, fall as low as 4s.; a sum which is in itself insufficient to +support life, and must therefore be only paid to women and girls who are +partly subsisted by the efforts of relatives with whom they live, or by +the wages of vice.</p> + +<p>In cabinet-making and upholstery, the same disintegrating influences have +been at work which we noted in tailoring. Many firms which formerly +executed all orders on their own premises, now buy from small factors, and +much of the lowest and least skilled work is undertaken by small +"garret-masters," or even by single workmen who hawk round their wares for +sale on their own account. The higher and skilled branches are protected +by trade organizations, and there is no evidence that wages have fallen; +but in the less skilled work, owing perhaps in part to the competition of +machinery, prices have fallen, and wages are low. There is evidence that +the sub-contract system here is sometimes carried through several stages, +much to the detriment of the workman who actually executes the orders.</p> + +<p>One of the most degraded among the sweating industries in the country is +chain and nail-making. The condition of the chain-makers of Cradley Heath +has called forth much public attention. The system of employment is a +somewhat complicated one. A middleman, called a "fogger," acts as a +go-between, receiving the material from the master, distributing it among +the workers, and collecting the finished product. Evidence before the +Committee shows that an accumulation of intricate forms of abuse of power +existed, including in some cases systematic evasion of the Truck Act. Much +of the work is extremely laborious, hours are long, twelve hours forming +an ordinary day, and the wage paid is the barest subsistence wage. Much of +the work done by women is quite unfit for them.</p> + +<p><b>§ 5. Who is the Sweater? The Sub-contractor?</b>--These facts relating +to a few of the principal trades in the lower branches of which "sweating" +thrives, must suffice as a general indication of the character of the +disease as it infests the inferior strata of almost all industries.</p> + +<p>Having learnt what "sweating" means, our next question naturally takes the +form, Who is the sweater? Who is the person responsible for this state of +things? John Bull is concrete, materialistic in his feeling and his +reasoning. He wants to find an individual, or a class embodiment of +sweating. If he can find the sweater, he is prepared to loathe and abolish +him. Our indignation and humanitarianism requires a scape-goat. As we saw, +many of the cases of sweating were found where there was a sub-contractor. +To our hasty vision, here seems to be the responsible party. Forty years +ago <i>Alton Locke</i> gave us a powerful picture of the wicked sub-contracting +tailor, who, spider-like, lured into his web the unfortunate victim, and +sucked his blood for gain. The indignation of tender-hearted but +loose-thinking philanthropists, short-visioned working-class orators, +assisted by the satire of the comic journal, has firmly planted in the +imagination of the public an ideal of an East London sweater; an idle, +bloated middleman, whose expansive waistcoat is decorated with resplendent +seals and watch-chains, who drinks his Champagne, and smokes his perfumed +cigar, as he watches complacently the sunken faces and cowering forms of +the wretched creatures whose happiness, health, and very life are +sacrificed to his heartless greed.</p> + +<p>Now a fair study of facts show this creature to be little else than a +myth. The miseries of the sweating den are no exaggeration, they are +attested by a thousand reliable witnesses; but this monster human spider +is not found there. Though opinions differ considerably as to the precise +status of the sweating middleman, it is evident that in the worst +"sweating" trades he is not idle, and he is not rich. In cases where the +well-to-do, comfortable sub-contractor is found, he generally pays fair +wages, and does not grossly abuse his power. When the worst features of +sweating are present, the master sweater is nearly always poor, his +profits driven down by competition, so that he barely makes a living. It +is, indeed, evident that in many of the worst Whitechapel sweating-dens +the master does not on the average make a larger income than the more +highly paid of his machinists. So, too, most of these "sweaters" work +along with their hands, and work just as hard. Some, indeed, have +represented this sweating middleman as one who thrusts himself between the +proper employer and the working man in order to make a gain for himself +without performing any service. But the bulk of evidence goes to show that +the sweater, even when he does not occupy himself in detailed manual +labour, performs a useful work of superintendence and management. "The +sweater in the vast majority of cases is the one man in the workshop who +can, and does, perform each and any branch of the trade."</p> + +<p>For the old adage, which made a tailor the ninth part of a man, has been +completely reversed by the subdivision of work in modern industry. It now +takes more than nine men to make a tailor. We have foremen or cutters, +basters, machinists, fellers, button-holers, pressers, general workers, +&c. No fewer than twenty-five such subdivisions have been marked in the +trade. Since the so-called tailor is no tailor at all, but a +"button-holer" or "baster," it is obvious that the working of such a +system requires some one capable of general direction.</p> + +<p>This opinion is not, however, inconsistent with the belief that such work +of "direction" or "organization" may be paid on a scale wholly out of +proportion to the real worth of the services performed. Extremely strong +evidence has been tendered to show that in many large towns, especially in +Leeds and Liverpool, the "sweating" tailor has frequently "no practical +knowledge of his trade." The ignorance and incompetence of the working +tailors enables a Jew with a business mind, by bribing managers, to obtain +a contract for work which he makes no pretence to execute himself. His +ability consists simply in the fact that he can get more work at a cheaper +rate out of the poorer workmen than the manager of a large firm. In his +capacity of middleman he is a "convenience," and for his work, which is +nominally that of master tailor, really that of sweating manager, he gets +his pay.</p> + +<p>Part of the "service" thus rendered by the sweater is doubtless that he +acts as a screen to the employing firm. Public opinion, and "the +reputation of the firm," would not permit a well-known business to employ +the workers <i>directly</i> under their own roof upon the terms which the +secrecy of the sweater's den enables them to pay. But in spite of this, +whether the "Jew sweater" is really a competent tailor or is a mere +"organizer" of poor labour, it should be distinctly understood that he is +paid for the performance of real work, which under the present industrial +system has a use.</p> + +<p><b>§ 6. Different Species of Middlemen.</b>--It may be well here to say +something on the general position of the "middleman" in commerce. The +popular notion that the "middleman" is a useless being, and that if he +could be abolished all would go well, arises from a confusion of thought +which deserves notice. This confusion springs from a failure to +understand that the "middleman" is a part of a commercial System. He is +not a mere intruder, a parasitic party, who forces his way between +employer and worker, or between producer and consumer, and without +conferring any service, extracts for himself a profit which involves a +loss to the worker or the consumer, or to both. If we examine this notion, +either by reference to facts, or from <i>à priori</i> consideration, we shall +find it based on a superstition. "Middleman" is a broad generic term used +to describe a man through whose hands goods pass on their way to the +consuming public, but who does not appear to add any value to the goods he +handles. At any stage in the production of these goods, previous to their +final distribution, the middleman may come in and take his profit for no +visible work done. He may be a speculator, buying up grain or timber, and +holding or manipulating it in the large markets; or he may be a wholesale +merchant, who, buying directly from the fisherman, and selling to the +retail fishmonger, is supposed to be responsible for the high price of +fish; he may be the retailer who in East London is supposed to cause the +high price of vegetables.</p> + +<p>With these species of middlemen we are not now concerned, except to say +that their work, which is that of distribution, i.e. the more convenient +disposal of forms of material wealth, may be equally important with the +work of the farmer, the fisherman, or the market-gardener, though the +latter produce changes in the shape and appearance of the goods, while the +former do not. The middleman who stands between the employing firm and the +worker is of three forms. He may undertake a piece of work for a wholesale +house, and taking the material home, execute it with the aid of his family +or outside assistants. This is the chamber-master proper, or "sweater" in +the tailoring trade. Or he may act as distributor, receive the material, +and undertake to find workers who will execute it at their own homes, he +undertaking the responsibility of collection. Where the workers are +scattered over a large city area, or over a number of villages, this work +of distribution, and its responsibility, may be considerable. Lastly, +there may be the "sub-contractor" proper, who undertakes to do a portion +of a work already contracted for, and either finds materials and tools, +and pays workers to work for him, or sublets parts of his contract to +workers who provide their own materials and tools. The mining and building +trades contain various examples of such sub-contracts. Now in none of +these cases is the middleman a mere parasite. In every case he does work, +which, though as a rule it does not alter the material form of the goods +with which it deals, adds distinct value to them, and is under present +industrial conditions equally necessary, and equally entitled to fair +remuneration with the work of the other producers. The old maxim "nihil ex +nihilo fit" is as true in commerce as in chemistry. In a competitive +society a man can get nothing for nothing. If the middleman is a +capitalist he may get something for use of his capital; but that too +implies that his capital is put to some useful work.</p> + +<p><b>§ 7. Work and Pay of the Middleman.</b>--The complaint that the middleman +confers no service, and deserves no pay, is the result of two fallacies. +The first, to which allusion has been made already, consists in the +failure to recognize the work of distribution done by the middleman. The +second and more important is the confusion of mind which leads people to +conclude that because under different circumstances a particular class of +work might be dispensed with, therefore that work is under present +circumstances useless and undeserving of reward. Lawyers might be useless +if there were no dishonesty or crime, but we do not therefore feel +justified in describing as useless the present work they do. With every +progress of new inventions we are constantly rendering useless some class +or other of undoubted "workers." So the middleman in his various +capacities may be dispensed with, if the organization of industrial +society is so changed that he is no longer required; but until such +changes are affected he must get, and deserves, his pay. It may indeed be +true that certain classes of middlemen are enabled by the position they +hold to extract either from their employers or from the public a profit +which seems out of proportion to the services they render. But this is by +no means generally the case with the middleman in his capacity of +"sweater." Even where a middleman does make large profits, we are not +justified in describing such gain as excessive or unfair, unless we are +prepared to challenge the claim of "free competition" to determine the +respective money values of industrial services. The "sweating" middleman +does work which is at present necessary; he gets pay; if we think he gets +too much, are we prepared with any rule to determine even approximately +how much he ought to get?</p> + +<p><b>§ 8. The Employer as "Sweater."</b>--Since it appears that the middleman +often sweats others of necessity because he is himself "sweated," in the +low terms of the contract he makes, and since much of the worst "sweating" +takes place where firms of employers deal directly with the "workers," it +may seem that the blame is shifted on to the employer, and that the real +responsibility rests with him. Now is this so? When we see an important +firm representing a large capital and employing many hands, paying a wage +barely sufficient for the maintenance of life, we are apt to accuse the +employers of meanness and extortion: we say this firm could afford to pay +higher wages, but they prefer to take higher profits; the necessity of the +poor is their opportunity. Now this accusation ought to be fairly faced. +It will then be found to fall with very different force according as it is +addressed to one or other of two classes of employers. Firms which are +shielded from the full force of the competition of capital by the +possession of some patent or trade secret, some special advantage in +natural resources, locality, or command of markets, are generally in a +position which will enable them to reap a rate of profit, the excess of +which beyond the ordinary rate of profit measures the value of the +practical monopoly they possess. The owners of a coal-mine, or a +gas-works, a special brand of soap or biscuits, or a ring of capitalists +who have secured control of a market, are often able to pay wages above +the market level without endangering their commercial position. Even in a +trade like the Lancashire cotton trade, where there is free competition +among the various firms, a rapid change in the produce market may often +raise the profits of the trade, so that all or nearly all the employing +firms could afford to pay higher wages without running any risk of +failure. Now employers who are in a position like this are morally +responsible for the hardship and degradation they inflict if they pay +wages insufficient for decent maintenance. Their excuse that they are +paying the market rate of wages, and that if their men do not choose to +work for this rate there are plenty of others who will, is no exoneration +of their conduct unless it be distinctly admitted that "moral +considerations" have no place in commerce. Employers who in the enjoyment +of this superior position pay bare subsistance wages, and defend +themselves by the plea that they pay the "market rate," are "sweaters," +and the blame of sweating will rightly attach to them.</p> + +<p>But this is not to be regarded as the normal position of employers. Among +firms unsheltered by a monopoly, and exposed to the full force of +capitalist competition, the rate of profit is also at "the minimum of +subsistence," that is to say, if higher wages were paid to the employés, +the rate of profit would either become a negative quantity, or would be so +low that capital could no longer be obtained for investment in such a +trade. Generally it may be said that a joint-stock company and a private +firm, trading as most firms do chiefly on borrowed capital, could not pay +higher wages and stand its ground in the competition with other firms. If +a benevolent employer engaged in a manufacture exposed to open competition +undertook to raise the wages of his men twenty per cent, in order to lift +them to a level of comfort which satisfied his benevolence, he must first +sacrifice the whole of his "wage of superintendence," and he will then +find that he can only pay the necessary interest on his borrowed capital +out of his own pocket: in fact he would find he had essayed to do what in +the long run was impossible. The individual employer under normal +circumstances is no more to blame for the low wages, long hours, &c., than +is the middleman. He could not greatly improve the industrial condition of +his employés, however much he might wish.</p> + +<p><b>§ 9. The Purchaser as "Sweater."</b> A third view, a little +longer-sighted than the others, casts the blame upon the purchasing +public. Wages must be low, we are told, because the purchaser insists on +low prices. It is the rage for "cheapness" which is the real cause, +according to this line of thought. Formerly the customer was content to +pay a fair price for an article to a tradesman with whom he dealt +regularly, and whose interest it was to sell him a fair article. The +tradesman could thus afford to pay the manufacturer a price which would +enable him to pay decent wages, and in return for this price he insisted +upon good work being put into the goods he bought. Thus there was no +demand for bad work. Skilled work alone could find a market, and skilled +work requires the payment of decent wages. The growth of modern +competition has changed all this. Regular custom has given way to touting +and advertising, the bond of interest between consumer and shopkeeper is +broken, the latter seeks merely to sell the largest quantity of wares to +any one who will buy, the former to pay the lowest price to any one who +will sell him what he thinks he wants. Hence a deterioration in the +quality of many goods. It is no longer the interest of many tradesmen to +sell sound wares; the consumer can no longer rely upon the recommendation +of the retailer as a skilled judge of the quality of a particular line of +goods; he is thrown back upon his own discrimination, and as an amateur he +is apt to be worsted in a bargain with a specialist. There is no reason to +suppose that customers are meaner than they used to be. They always bought +things as cheaply as they knew how to get them. The real point is that +they are less able to detect false cheapness than they used to be. Not +merely do they no longer rely upon a known and trusted retailer to protect +them from the deceits of the manufacturer, but the facilities for +deception are continually increasing. The greater complexity of trade, the +larger variety of commodities, the increased specialization in production +and distribution, the growth of "a science of adulteration" have +immensely increased the advantage which the professional salesman +possesses over the amateur customer. Hence the growth of goods meant not +for use but for sale--jerry-built houses, adulterated food, sham cloth and +leather, botched work of every sort, designed merely to pass muster in a +hurried act of sale. To such a degree of refinement have the arts of +deception been carried that the customer is liable to be tricked and duped +at every turn. It is not that he foolishly prefers to buy a bad article at +a low price, but that he cannot rely upon his judgment to discriminate +good from bad quality; he therefore prefers to pay a low price because he +has no guarantee that by paying more he will get a better article. It is +this fact, and not a mania for cheapness, which explains the flooding of +the market with bad qualities of wares. This effectual demand for bad +workmanship on the part of the consuming public is no doubt directly +responsible for many of the worst phases of "sweating." Slop clothes and +cheap boots are turned out in large quantities by workers who have no +claim to be called tailors or shoemakers. A few weeks' practice suffices +to furnish the quantum of clumsy skill or deceit required for this work. +That is to say, the whole field of unskilled labour is a recruiting-ground +for the "sweater" or small employer in these and other clothing trades. If +the public insisted on buying good articles, and paid the price requisite +for their production, these "sweating" trades would be impossible. But +before we saddle the consuming public with the blame, we must bear in mind +the following extenuating circumstances.</p> + +<p><b>§ 10. What the Purchaser can do.</b>--The payment of a higher price is no +guarantee that the workers who produce the goods are not "sweated." If I +am competent to discriminate well-made goods from badly-made goods, I +shall find it to my interest to abstain from purchasing the latter, and +shall be likewise doing what I can to discourage "sweating." But by merely +paying a higher price for goods of the same quality as those which I could +buy at a lower price, I may be only putting a larger profit in the hands +of the employers of this low-skilled labour, and am certainly doing +nothing to decrease that demand for badly-made goods which appears to be +the root of the evil. The purchaser who wishes to discourage sweating +should look first to the quality of the goods he buys, rather than to the +price. Skilled labour is seldom sweated to the same degree as unskilled +labour, and a high class of workmanship will generally be a guarantee of +decent wages. In so far as the purchaser lacks ability to accurately gauge +quality, he has little security that by paying a higher price he is +securing better wages for the workers. The so-called respectability of a +well-known house is a poor guarantee that its employés are getting decent +wages, and no guarantee at all that the workers in the various factories +with which the firm deals are well paid. It is impossible for a private +customer to know that by dealing with a given shop he is not directly or +indirectly encouraging "sweating." It might, however, be feasible for the +consuming public to appoint committees, whose special work it should be to +ascertain that goods offered in shops were produced by firms who paid +decent wages. If a "white list" of firms who paid good wages, and dealt +only with manufacturers who paid good wages, were formed, purchasers who +desired to discourage sweating would be able to feel a certain security, +so far, at any rate, as the later stages of production are concerned, +which ordinary knowledge of the world and business will not at present +enable them to obtain. The force of an organized public opinion, even +that of a respectable minority, brought to bear upon notorious "sweating" +firms, would doubtless be of great avail, if carefully applied.</p> + +<p>At the same time, it must not for a moment be imagined that the problem of +poverty would be solved if we could insure, by the payment of higher +prices for better qualities of goods, the extermination of the sweating +trades. This low, degraded and degrading work enables large numbers of +poor inefficient workers to eke out a bare subsistence. If it were taken +away, the direct result would be an accession of poverty and misery. The +demand for skilled labour would be greater, but the unskilled labourer +cannot pass the barrier and compete for this; the overflow of helpless, +hopeless, feeble, unskilled labour would be greater than ever. Whatever +the ultimate effects of decreasing the demand for unskilled labour might +be, the misery of the immediate effects could not be lightly set aside. +This contradiction of the present certain effect and the probable future +effects confronts the philanthropist at every turn. The condition of the +London match-girls may serve as an illustration of this. Their miserable +life has rightly roused the indignation of all kind-hearted people. The +wretched earnings they take have provoked people to suggest that we should +put an end to the trade by refusing to buy from them. But since the +earnings of these girls depend entirely on the amount they sell, this +direct result of your action, prompted by humane sentiment, will be to +reduce still further these miserable earnings; that is to say, you +increase the suffering of the very persons whose lot you desire to +alleviate. You may say that you buy your matches all the same, but you buy +them at a shop where you may or may not have reason to believe that the +attendants are well paid. But that will not benefit the girls, whose +business you have destroyed; they will not be employed in the shops, for +they belong to a different grade of labour. This dilemma meets the social +reformer at each step; the complexity of industrial relations appears to +turn the chariot of progress into a Juggernaut's car, to crush a number of +innocent victims with each advance it makes. One thing is evident, that if +the consuming public were to regulate its acts of purchase with every +possible regard to the condition of the workers, they could not ensure +that every worker should have good regular work for decent wages.</p> + +<p>In arriving at this conclusion, we are far from maintaining that the +public even in its private capacity as a body of consumers could do +nothing. A certain portion of responsibility rests on the public, as we +saw it rested on employers and on middlemen. But the malady is rightly +traceable in its full force neither to the action of individuals nor of +industrial classes, but to the relation which subsists between these +individuals and classes; that is, to the nature and character of the +industrial system in its present working. This may seem a vague statement, +but it is correct; the desire to be prematurely definite has led to a +narrow conception of the "sweating" malady, which more than anything else +has impeded efforts at reform.</p> +</div> + + +<div class="chapter" id="ch05"> +<h2>Chapter V.</h2> + +<h3>The Causes of Sweating.</h3> + + + +<p><b>§ 1.The excessive Supply of Low-skilled Labour.</b>--Turning to the +industrial system for an explanation of the evils of "Sweating," we shall +find three chief factors in the problem; three dominant aspects from which +the question may be regarded. They are sometimes spoken of as the causes +of sweating, but they are better described as conditions, and even as such +are not separate, but closely related at various points.</p> + +<p>The first condition of "sweating" is an abundant and excessive supply of +low-skilled and inefficient labour. It needs no parade of economic +reasoning to show that where there are more persons willing to do a +particular kind of work than are required, the wages for that work, if +free competition is permitted, cannot be more than what is just sufficient +to induce the required number to accept the work. In other words, where +there exists any quantity of unemployed competitors for low-skilled work, +wages, hours of labour, and other conditions of employment are so +regulated, as to present an attraction which just outweighs the +alternatives open to the unemployed, viz. odd jobs, stealing, starving, +and the poor-house. In countries where access to unused land is free, the +productiveness of labour applied to such land marks the minimum of wages +possible; in countries where no such access is possible, the minimum +wages of unskilled labour, whenever the supply exceeds the demand, is +determined by the attractiveness of the alternatives named above.</p> + +<p>A margin of unemployed labour means a bare subsistence wage for +low-skilled labour, and it means this wage earned under industrial +conditions, such as we find under the "sweating system." In order to keep +the wage of low-skilled labour down to this minimum, which can only rise +with an improvement in the alternatives, it is not required that there +should at any time exist a large number of unemployed. A very small +number, in effective competition with those employed, will be quite as +effectual in keeping down the rate of wages. The same applies to all +grades of skilled labour, with this important difference, that the minimum +wage can never fall below what is required to induce less skilled workers +to acquire and apply the extra skill which will enable them to furnish the +requisite supply of highly-skilled workers. Trade Unions have +instinctively directed all their efforts to preventing the competition of +unemployed workers in their respective trades from pulling down to its +minimum the rate of wages. The strongest of those have succeeded in +establishing a standard wage less than which no one shall accept; +unemployed men, who in free competition would accept less than this +standard wage, are supported by the funds of the Union, that they may not +underbid. Unions of comparatively unskilled workers, who are never free +from the competition of unemployed, and who cannot undertake permanently +to buy off all competitors ready to underbid, endeavour to limit the +numbers of their members, and to prevent outsiders from effectively +competing with them in the labour market, in order that by restricting +the supply of labour, they may prevent a fall of wages. The importance of +these movements for us consists in their firm but tacit recognition of the +fact, that an excessive supply of unskilled labour lies at the root of the +industrial disease of "sweating."</p> + +<p><b>§ 2. The Contributing Causes of excessive Supply.</b>--The last two +chapters have dealt with the principal large industrial movements which +bear on this supply of excessive low-skilled labour; but to make the +question clear, it will be well to enumerate the various contributing +causes.</p> + +<p>α. The influx of rural population into the towns constantly +swells the supply of raw unskilled labour. The better quality of this +agricultural labour, as we saw, does not continue to form part of this +glut, but rises into more skilled and higher paid strata of labour. The +worse quality forms a permanent addition to the mass of inefficient labour +competing for bare subsistence wages.</p> + +<p>β. The steady flow of cheap unskilled foreign labour into our +large cities, especially into London, swollen by occasional floods of +compulsory exiles, adds an element whose competition as a part of the mass +of unskilled labour is injurious out of proportion to its numerical +amount.</p> + +<p>γ. Since this foreign immigration weakens the industrial +condition of our low-skilled native labour by increasing the supply, it +will be evident that any cause which decreases the demand for such labour +will operate in the same way. The free importation from abroad of goods +which compete in our markets with the goods which "sweated" labour is +applied to make, has the same effect upon the workers in "sweating" trades +as the introduction of cheap foreign labour. The one diminishes the +demand, the other increases the supply of unskilled or low-skilled labour. +The import of quantities of German-made cheap clothing into East London +shops, to compete with native manufacture of the same goods, will have +precisely the same force in maintaining "sweating," as will the +introduction of German workers, who shall make these same clothes in East +London itself. In each case, the purchasing public reaps the advantage of +cheap labour in low prices, while the workers suffer in low wages. The +contention that English goods made at home must be exported to pay for the +cheap German goods, furnishes no answer from the point of view of the +low-skilled worker, unless these exports embody the kind of labour of +which he is capable.</p> + +<p>δ. The constant introduction of new machinery, as a substitute for +skilled hand-labour, by robbing of its value the skill of certain classes +of workers, adds these to the supply of low-skilled labour.</p> + +<p>ε. The growth of machinery and of education, by placing women and +young persons more upon an equality with male adult labour, swells the +supply of low-skilled labour in certain branches of work. Women and young +persons either take the places once occupied by men, or undertake new work +(e.g. in post-office or telegraph-office), which would once have been open +only to the competition of men. This growth of the direct or indirect +competition of women and young persons, must be considered as operating to +swell the general supply of unskilled labour.</p> + +<p>ζ. In London another temporary, but important, factor must be +noted. The competition of provincial factories has proved too strong for +London factories in many industries. Hence of late years a gradual +transfer of manufacture from London to the provinces. A large number of +workers in London factories have found themselves out of work. The +break-up of the London factories has furnished "sweating trades" with a +large quantity of unemployed and starving people from whom to draw.</p> + +<p>Regarded from the widest economic point of view, the existence of an +excessive supply of labour seeking employments open to free competition +must be regarded as the most important aspect of the "sweating system." +The recent condition of the competition for casual dock-labour brought +dramatically to the foreground this factor in the labour question. The +struggle for livelihood was there reduced to its lowest and most brutal +terms. "There is a place at the London Docks called the cage, a sort of +pen fenced off by iron railings. I have seen three hundred half-starved +dockers crowded round this cage, when perhaps a ganger would appear +wanting three hands, and the awful struggle of these three hundred +famished wretches fighting for that opportunity to get two or three hours' +work has left an impression upon me that can never be effaced. Why, I have +actually seen them clambering over each other's backs to reach the coveted +ticket. I have frequently seen men emerge bleeding and breathless, with +their clothes pretty well torn off their backs." The competition described +in this picture only differs from other competitions for low-skilled town +labour in as much as the conditions of tender gave a tragical +concentration to the display of industrial forces. This picture, +exaggerated as it will appear to those who have not seen it, brings home +to us the essential character of free competition for low-skilled labour +where the normal supply is in excess of the demand. If other forms of +low-skilled labour were put up to be scrambled for in the same public +manner, the scene would be repeated <i>ad nauseam</i>. But because the +competition of seamstresses, tailors, shirt-finishers, fur-sewers, &c., is +conducted more quietly and privately, it is not less intense, not less +miserable, and not less degrading. This struggle for life in the shape of +work for bare subsistence wages, is the true logical and necessary outcome +of free competition among an over supply of low-skilled labourers.</p> + +<p><b>§ 3. The Multiplication of "Small Masters."</b>--Having made so much +progress in our analysis, we shall approach more intelligently another +important aspect of the "sweating system." Mr. Booth and other +investigators find the tap-root of the disease to consist in the +multiplication of small masters. The leading industrial forces of the age, +as we have seen, make for the concentration of labour in larger and larger +masses, and its employment in larger and larger factories. Yet in London +and in certain other large centres of population, we find certain trades +which are still conducted on a small scale in little workshops or private +houses, and those trades furnish a very large proportion of the worst +examples of "sweating." Here is a case of arrested development in the +evolution of industry. It is even worse than that; for some trades which +had been subject to the concentrating force of the factory system, have +fallen into a sort of back-wash of the industrial current, and broken up +again into smaller units. The increased proportion of the clothing +industries conducted in private houses and small workshops is the most +notorious example. This applies not only to East London, but to Liverpool, +Leeds, Sheffield, and other large cities, especially where foreign labour +has penetrated. For a large proportion of the sweating workshops, +especially in clothing trades, are supported by foreign labour. In +Liverpool during the last ten years the substitution of home-workers for +workers in tailors' shops has been marked, and in particular does this +growth of home-workers apply to women.</p> + +<p>A credible witness before the Lords' Committee stated that "at the +present moment it would be safe to say that two-thirds of the sweaters in +Liverpool are foreigners," coming chiefly from Germany and Russian Poland. +In Leeds sixteen years ago there were only twelve Jewish workshops; there +are now some hundreds.</p> + +<p>Since a very large proportion of the worst sweating occurs in trades where +the work is given out, either directly or by the medium of sub-contract, +to home-workers, it is natural that stress should be laid upon the small +private workshops as the centre of the disease. If the work could only be +got away from the home and the small workshop, where inspection is +impracticable, and done in the factory or large workshop, where +limitations of hours of labour and sanitary conditions could be enforced, +where the force of public opinion could secure the payment of decent +wages, and where organization among workers would be possible, the worst +phases of the malady would disappear. The abolition of the small workshop +is the great object of a large number of practical reformers who have +studied the sweating system. The following opinion of an expert witness is +endorsed by many students of the question--"If the employers were +compelled to obtain workshops, and the goods were made under a factory +system, we believe that they could be made quite as cheaply under that +system, with greater comfort to the workers, in shorter hours; and that +the profits would then be distributed among the workers, so that the +public would obtain their goods at the same price."[<a href="#fn25">25</a>] It is maintained +that the inferior qualities of shoes are produced and sold more cheaply in +the United States by a larger use of machinery under the factory system, +than in London under a sweating system, though wages are, of course, much +higher in America. Moreover, many of the products of the London sweating +trades are competing on almost equal terms with the products of provincial +factories, where machines are used instead of hand-labour.</p> + +<p><b>§ 4. Economic Advantages of "Small Workshops."</b>--The question we have +to answer is this--Why has the small workshop survived and grown up in +London and other large cities, in direct antagonism to the prevalent +industrial movement of the age? It is evident that the small workshop +system must possess some industrial advantages which enable it to hold its +own. The following considerations throw light upon this subject.</p> + +<p>1. A larger proportion of the work in sweating trades is work for which +there is a very irregular demand. Irregularity of employment, or, more +accurately speaking, insufficiency of employment--for the "irregularity" +is itself regular--forms one of the most terrible phases of the sweating +system. The lower you descend in the ranks of labour the worse it is. A +large number of the trades, especially where women are employed, are +trades where the elements of "season" and fashion enter in. But even those +which, like tailoring, shirtmaking, shoemaking, furniture and upholstery, +would seem less subject to periodic or purely capricious changes, are +liable in fact to grave and frequent fluctuations of the market. The +average employment in sweating trades is roughly estimated at three or +four days in the week. There are two busy seasons lasting some six weeks +each, when these miserable creatures are habitually overworked. "The +remaining nine months," says Mr. Burnett, "do not average more than half +time, especially among the lower grade workers."</p> + +<p>This gives us one clue to the ability of the small workshop to +survive--its superior flexibility from the point of view of the employer.</p> + +<p>"High organization makes for regularity; low organization lends itself to +the opposite. A large factory cannot stop at all without serious loss; a +full-sized workshop will make great efforts to keep going; but the man who +employs only two or three others in his own house can, if work fails, send +them all adrift to pick up a living as best they can."[<a href="#fn26">26</a>]</p> + +<p>Since a smaller sweating-master can set up business on some £2 capital, +and does not expect to make much more profit as employer than as workman, +he is able to change from one capacity to the other with great facility.</p> + +<p>2. The high rent for large business premises, especially in London, makes +for the small workshop or home-work system. The payment of rent is thus +avoided by the business firm which is the real employer, and thrown upon +the sub-contractor or the workers themselves, to be by them in their turn +generally evaded by using the dwelling-room for a workshop. Thus one of +the most glaring evils of the sweating system is seen to form a distinct +economic advantage in the workshop, as compared with the large factory. +The element of rent is practically eliminated as an industrial charge.</p> + +<p>3. The evasion of the restrictions of the Factory Act must be regarded as +another economic advantage. Excessive hours of labour when convenient, +overcrowding in order to avoid rent, absence of proper sanitary +conditions, are essential to the cheapest forms of production under +present conditions. It does not pay either the employing firm or the +sub-contractor to consider the health or even the life of the workers, +provided that the state of the labour market is such that they can easily +replace spent lives.</p> + +<p>4. The inability to combine for their mutual protection and advantage of +scattered employés working in small bodies, living apart, and unacquainted +even with the existence of one another, is another "cheapness" of the +workshop system.</p> + +<p>5. The fact that so large a proportion of master-sweaters are Jews has a +special significance. It seems to imply that the poorer class of immigrant +Jews possess a natural aptitude for the position, and that their presence +in our large cities furnishes the corner-stone of the vicious system. +Independence and mastery are conditions which have a market value for all +men, but especially for the timid and often down-trodden Jew. Most men +will contentedly receive less as master than as servant, but especially +the Jew. We saw that the immigrant Jew, by his capacities and +inclinations, was induced to make special efforts to substitute work of +management for manual labour, and to become a profit-maker instead of a +wage-earner. The Jew craves the position of a sweating-master, because +that is the lowest step in a ladder which may lead to a life of +magnificence, supported out of usury. The Jewish Board of Guardians in +London, though its philanthropic action is on the whole more enlightened +than that of most wealthy public bodies, has been responsible in no small +measure for this artificial multiplication of small masters. A very large +proportion of the funds which they dispensed was given or lent in small +sums in order to enable poor Jews "to set up for themselves." The effect +of this was twofold. It first assisted to draw to London numbers of +continental Jews, who struggled as "greeners" under sweaters for six +months, until they were qualified for assistance from the Jewish Board of +Guardians. It then enabled them to set up as small masters, and sweat +other "greeners" as they themselves were sweated. It was quite true that +the object of such charity was the most useful which any society could +undertake; namely, that of assisting the industrially weak to stand on +their own legs. But it was unfortunately true that this early stage of +independence was built upon the miserable dependence of other workers.</p> + +<p>6. But while, as we see, there are many special conditions which, in +London especially, favour the small workshop, the most important will be +found to consist in the large supply of cheap unskilled labour. This is +the real material out of which the small workshop system is built. In +dealing with the other conditions, we shall find that they all presuppose +this abundant supply of labour. If labour were more scarce, and wages +therefore higher, the small workshop would be impossible, for the absolute +economy of labour, effected by the factory organization with its larger +use of machinery, would far outweigh the number of small economies which, +as we have seen, at present in certain trades, favour and make possible +the small workshop. Every limitation in the supply of this low-skilled +labour, every expansion of the alternatives offered by emigration, access +to free land, &c., will be effectual in crushing a number of the sweating +workshops, and favouring the large factory at their expense.</p> + +<p><b>§ 5. Irresponsibility of Employers.</b>--The third view of the sweating +System lays stress upon its moral aspect, and finds its chief cause in the +irresponsibility of the employer. Now we have already seen that this +severance of the personal relation between employer and employed is a +necessary result of the establishment of the large factory as the +industrial unit, and of the ever-growing complexity of modern commerce. +It is not merely that the widening gap of social position between employer +and employed, and the increased number of the latter, make the previous +close relation impossible. Quite as important is the fact that the real +employer in modern industry is growing more "impersonal." What we mean is +this. The nominal employer or manager is not the real employer. The real +employer of labour is capital, and it is to the owners of the capital in +any business that we must chiefly look for the exercise of such +responsibility as rightly subsists between employer and employed. Now, +while it is calculated that one-eighth of the business of England is in +the hands of joint-stock companies, constituting far more than one-eighth +of the large businesses, in the great majority of other cases, where +business is conducted on a large scale, the head of the business is to a +great extent a mere manager of other people's capital. Thus while the +manager's sense of personal responsibility is weakened by the number of +"hands" whom he employs, his freedom of action is likewise crippled by his +obligation to subserve the interests of a body of capitalists who are in +ignorance of the very names and number of the human beings whose destiny +they are controlling. The severance of the real "employer" from his +"hands" is thus far more complete than would appear from mere attention to +the growth in the size of the average business. Now it must not be +supposed that this severance of the personal relation between employer and +employed is of necessity a loss to the latter. There is no reason to +suppose that the close relation subsisting in the old days between the +master and his journeymen and apprentices was as a rule idyllically +beautiful. No doubt the control of the master was often vexatious and +despotic. The tyranny of a heartless employer under the old system was +probably much more injurious than the apathy of the most vulgar plutocrat +of to-day. The employé under the modern system is less subject to petty +spite and unjust interference on the part of his employer. In this sense +he is more free. But on the other hand, he has lost that guarantee against +utter destitution and degradation afforded by the humanity of the better +class of masters. He has exchanged a human nexus for a "cash nexus." The +nominal freedom of this cash relationship is in the case of the upper +strata of workmen probably a real freedom; the irresponsibility of their +employers has educated them to more self-reliance, and strengthened a +healthy personality in them. It is the lower class of workers who suffer. +More and more they need the humanity of the responsible employer to +protect them against the rigours of the labour-market. The worst miseries +of the early factory times were due directly to the break-up of the +responsibility of employers. This was slowly recognized by the people of +England, and the series of Factory Acts, Employers' Liability Acts, and +other measures for the protection of labour, must be regarded as a +national attempt to build up a compulsory legal responsibility to be +imposed upon employers in place of a natural responsibility based on moral +feeling. We draft legislation and appoint inspectors to teach employers +their duty towards employés, and to ensure that they do it. Thus in +certain industries we have patched up an artificial mechanism of +responsibility.</p> + +<p>Wherever this legal responsibility is not enforced in the case of +low-skilled workers, we have, or are liable to have, "sweating." Glancing +superficially at the small workshop or sweating-den, it might seem that +this being a mere survival of the old system, the legal enforcement of +responsibility would be unnecessary. But it is not a mere survival. In the +small workshop of the old system the master was the real employer. In the +modern "sweating" den he is not the real employer, but a mere link between +the employing firm and the worker. From this point of view we must assign +as the true cause of sweating, the evasion of the legal responsibility of +the Factory Act rendered possible to firms which employ outside workers +either directly or indirectly through the agency of "sweaters." Although +it might be prudent as a means of breaking up the small workshop to +attempt to impose upon the "middleman" the legal responsibility, genuine +reform directed to this aspect of "sweating," can only operate by making +the real employing firm directly responsible for the industrial condition +of its outdoor direct or indirect employés.</p> + +<p>This responsibility imposed by law has been strengthened as an effective +safeguard of the interests of the workers by combination among the latter. +In skilled industries where strong trade organization exists, the +practical value of such combination exceeds the value of restrictive +legislation.</p> + +<p>"In their essence Trade Unions are voluntary associations of workmen, for +mutual protection and assistance in securing the most favourable +conditions of labour." "This is their primary and fundamental object, and +includes all efforts to raise wages or prevent a reduction of wages; to +diminish the hours of labour or resist attempts to increase the working +hours; and to regulate all matters pertaining to methods of employment or +discharge, and modes of working."[<a href="#fn27">27</a>] Engineers, boiler-makers, +cotton-spinners, printers, would more readily give up the assistance given +them by legislative restriction than the power which they have secured for +themselves by combination. It is in proportion as trade combination is +weak that the actual protection afforded by Factory and Employers' +Liability Acts become important. Just as we saw that sweating trades were +those which escaped the legislative eye; so we see that they are also the +trades where effective combination does not exist. Where Trade Unions are +strong, sweating cannot make any way. The State aid of restrictive +legislation, and the self help of private combination are alike wanting to +the "sweated" workers.</p> +</div> + + +<div class="chapter" id="ch06"> +<h2>Chapter VI.</h2> + +<h3>Remedies for Sweating.</h3> + + + +<p><b>§ 1.Factory Legislation. What it can do.</b>--Having now set forth the +three aspects of the industrial disease of "Sweating"--the excessive +supply of unskilled labour, the multiplication of small employers, the +irresponsibility of capital--we have next to ask, What is the nature of +the proposed remedies? Since any full discussion of the different remedies +is here impossible, it must suffice if we briefly indicate the application +of the chief proposed remedies to the different aspects of the disease. +These remedies will fairly fall into three classes.</p> + +<p>The first class aim at attacking by legislative means, the small workshop +system, and the evils of long hours and unsanitary conditions from which +the "sweated" workers suffer. Briefly, it may be said that they seek to +increase and to enforce the legal responsibility of employers, and +indirectly to crush the small workshop system by turning upon it the +wholesome light of publicity, and imposing certain irksome and expensive +conditions which will make its survival in its worst and ugliest shapes +impossible. The most practical recommendation of the Report of the Lords' +Committee is an extension of the sanitary clauses of the Factory Act, so +as to reach all workshops.</p> + +<p>We have seen that the unrestricted use of cheap labour is the essence of +"sweating." If the wholesome restrictions of our Factory Legislation were +in fact extended so as to cover all forms of employment, they would so +increase the expenses of the sweating houses, that they would fall before +the competition of the large factory system. Karl Marx writing a +generation ago saw this most clearly. "But as regards labour in the +so-called domestic industries, and the intermediate forms between this and +manufacture, so soon as limits are put to the working day and to the +employment of children, these industries go to the wall. Unlimited +exploitation of cheap labour power is the sole foundation of their power +to compete."[<a href="#fn28">28</a>]</p> + +<p>The effectiveness of the existing Factory Act, so far as relates to small +workshops, is impaired by the following considerations--</p> + +<p>1. The difficulty in finding small workshops. There is no effectual +registration of workshops, and the number of inspectors is inadequate to +the elaborate and tedious method of search imposed by the present system.</p> + +<p>2. The limitation as to right of entry. The power of inspectors to "enter, +inspect, and examine at all reasonable times by day or night, a factory or +a workshop, and every part thereof, when he has reason to believe that any +person is employed therein, and to enter by day any place he has +reasonable cause to believe to be a factory or workshop," is in fact not +applicable in the case of dwelling-rooms used for workshops. In a large +number of cases of the worst form of "sweating," the inspector has no +right of entrance but by consent of the occupant, and the time which +elapses before such consent is given suffices to enable the "sweater" to +adjust matters so as to remove all evidence of infringements of the law.</p> + +<p>3. The restricted power in reference to sanitation. A factory inspector +has no sanitary powers; he cannot act save through the sanitary officer. +The machinery of sanitary reform thus loses effectiveness.</p> + +<p>Compulsory registration of workshops, adequate inspection, and reform of +machinery of sanitary reform, would be of material value in dealing with +some of the evils of the small workshop. But it would by no means put an +end to "sweating." So far as it admitted the continuance of the small +workshop, it would neither directly nor indirectly abate the evil of low +wages. It is even possible that any rapid extension of the Factory Act +might, by limiting the amount of employment in small workshops, increase +for a time the misery of those low-skilled workers, who might be incapable +of undertaking regular work in the larger factory. It is, at any rate, not +evident that such legislative reform would assist low-class workers to +obtain decent wages and regular employment, though it would improve the +other conditions under which they worked.</p> + +<p>Again, existing factory legislation by no means covers even theoretically +the whole field of "sweating." Public-houses, restaurants, all shops and +places of amusement, laundries, and certain other important forms of +employment, which escape the present factory legislation, are in their +lower branches liable to the evils of "sweating," and should be included +under such factory legislation as seeks to remedy these evils.</p> + +<p><b>§ 2. Co-operative Production.</b>--The organization of labour is the +second form of remedy. It is urged that wherever effective organization +exists in any trade, there is no danger of sweating. We have therefore, it +is maintained, only to organize the lower grades of labour, and +"sweating" will cease to exist. There are two forms of organization +commonly advocated, Co-operation and Trade Unionism.</p> + +<p>The suggestion that the poorer grades of workers should by co-operative +production seek to relieve themselves from the stress of poverty and the +tyranny of the "sweating system," is a counsel of perfection far removed +from the possibility of present attainment. No one who has closely studied +the growth of productive co-operation in England will regard it as a +practicable remedy for poverty. Productive co-operation is successful at +present only in rare cases among skilled workmen of exceptional morale and +education. It is impossible that it should be practised by low-skilled, +low-waged workers, under industrial conditions like those of to-day. It is +surprising to find that the Lords' Committee in its final report should +have given prominence to schemes of co-operation as a cure for the +disease. The following paragraph correctly sums up experience upon the +subject--</p> + +<p>"Productive societies have been from time to time started in East London, +but their career has been neither long nor brilliant. They have often had +a semi-philanthropic basis, and have been well-meant but hopeless attempts +to supersede "sweating" by co-operation. None now working are of +sufficient importance to be mentioned."[<a href="#fn29">29</a>]</p> + +<p>The place which productive and distributive co-operation is destined to +occupy in the history of the industrial freedom and elevation of the +masses doubtless will be of the first importance. To look forward to a +time when the workers of the community may be grouped in co-operative +bodies, either competing with one another, or related by some bond which +shall minimize the friction of competition, while not impairing the +freedom and integrity of each several group, is not perhaps a wild utopian +vision. To students of English industrial history the transition to such a +state will not appear more marked than the transition through which +industry passed under the Industrial Revolution to the present capitalist +system. But the recognition of this possible future does not justify us in +suggesting productive co-operation as a present remedy for the poverty of +low-skilled city workers. These latter must rise several steps on the +industrial and moral ladder before they are brought within the reach of +the co-operative remedy. It is with the cost and labour of these early +steps that the students of the problem of present poverty must concern +themselves.</p> + +<p><b>§ 3. Trade Unionism. Ability of Workers to combine.</b> Trade Unionism is +a more hopeful remedy. Large bodies of workers have by this means helped +to raise themselves from a condition of industrial weakness to one of +industrial strength. Why should not close combination among workers in +low-paid and sweating industries be attended with like results? Why should +not the men and women working in "sweating" trades combine, and insist +upon higher wages, shorter hours, more regular employment, and better +sanitary conditions? Well, it may be regarded as an axiom in practical +economies, that any concerted action, however weak and desultory, has its +value. Union is always strength. An employer who can easily resist any +number of individual claims for higher wages by his power to replace each +worker by an outsider, can less easily resist the united pressure of a +large body of his workmen, because the inconvenience of replacing them all +at once by a body of outsiders, is far greater than the added difficulty +of replacing each of them at separate intervals of time. This is the +basis of the power of concerted action among workers. But the measure of +this power depends in the main upon two considerations.</p> + +<p>First comes the degree of effectiveness in combination. The prime +requisites for effective combination are a spirit of comradeship and +mutual trust, knowledge and self-restraint in the disposition of united +force. Education and free and frequent intercourse can alone establish +these elements of effective combination. And here the first difficulty for +workers in "sweating" trades appears. Low-skilled work implies a low +degree of intelligence and education. The sweating industries, as we have +seen, are as a rule those which escape the centralizing influence of the +factory System, and where the employés work, either singly or in small +groups, unknown to one another, and with few opportunities of forming a +close mutual understanding. In some employments this local severance +belongs to the essence of the work, as, for example, in the case of +cab-drivers, omnibus-drivers, and generally in shop-work, where, in spite +of the growth of large stores, small masters still predominate; in other +employments the disunion of workers forms a distinct commercial advantage +which enables such low-class industries to survive, as in the small +workshop and the home-labour, which form the central crux of our sweating +problem. The very lack of leisure, and the incessant strain upon the +physique which belong to "sweating," contribute to retard education, and +to render mutual acquaintanceship and the formation of a distinct trade +interest extremely difficult. How to overcome these grave difficulties +which stand in the way of effective combination among unskilled workers is +a consideration of the first importance. The rapid and momentarily +successful action of organized dock labourers must not be taken as +conclusive evidence that combination in all other branches of low-class +labour can proceed at the same pace. The public and localized character of +the competition for casual dock labour rendered effective combination here +possible, in spite of the low intellectual and moral calibre of the +average labourer. It is the absence of such public and localized +competition which is the kernel of the difficulty in most "sweating" +trades. It may be safely said that the measure of progress in organization +of low class labour will be the comparative size and localization of the +industrial unit. Where "sweating" exists in large factories or large +shops, effective combination even among workers of low education may be +tolerably rapid; among workers engaged by some large firm whose work +brings them only into occasional contact, the progress will be not so +fast; among workers in small unrelated workshops who have no opportunities +of direct intercourse with one another, the progress will be extremely +slow. The most urgent need of organization is precisely in those +industries where it is most difficult to organize. It is, on the whole, +not reasonable to expect that this remedy, unless aided by other forces +working against the small workshops, will enable the "hands" in the small +sweater's den to materially improve their condition.</p> + +<p><b>§ 4. Trade Union Methods of limiting Competition.</b>--So far we have +regarded the value of combination as dependent on the ability of workers +to combine. There is another side which cannot be neglected. Two societies +of workmen equally strong in the moral qualities of successful union may +differ widely in the influence they can exert to secure and improve their +position. We saw that the real value of organization to a body of workmen +lay in the power it gave them to make it inconvenient for an employer to +dispense with their services in favour of outsiders. Now the degree of +this inconvenience will obviously depend in great measure upon the number +of outsiders qualified by strength and skill to take their place without +delay. The whole force of Unionism hangs on "the unemployed." The +strongest and most effective Unions are in trades where there are the +smallest number of unemployed competitors; the weakest Unions are in +trades which are beset by crowds of outsiders able and willing to +undertake the work, and if necessary to underbid those who are employed.</p> + +<p>Close attention to the composition and working of our Trade Unions +discloses the fact that their chief object is to limit the competition for +work in their respective trades. Since their methods are sometimes +indirect, this is sometimes denied, but the following statement of Trade +Union methods makes it clear. The minimum or standard rate of wages plays +a prominent part in Unionism. It is arbitrarily fixed by the Union, which +in its estimate takes into account, α. prices paid for articles +produced; β. a reasonable standard of comfort; γ. and +remuneration for time spent in acquiring necessary skill.[<a href="#fn30">30</a>] This is an +estimate, it must be remembered, of a "fair wage," based upon calculations +as to what is just and reasonable, and does not necessarily correspond to +the economic wage obtainable in a neighbourhood by the free competition of +labour and capital. Now this standard wage, which may or may not be the +wage actually paid, plays a very prominent part in Unionism. The point of +importance here is its bearing on the admission of new members. The +candidate for membership has, as his principal qualification, to show that +he is capable of earning the standard rate of wages. It is evident, +however, that the effect of any large new accession to the ranks of any +trade must, unless there is a corresponding growth of employment, bring +down the rate of wages, whether these be fixed by a Trade Union standard +or not. Hence it is evident that any Trade Union would be bound to refuse +admission to new applicants who, though they might be in other respects +competent workmen, could not find work without under-bidding those who +were at present occupied. This they would do by reason of their standard +wage qualification, for they would be able to show that the new applicants +would not be competent to earn standard wages under the circumstances. How +far Trade Unions actually have conscious recourse to this method of +limiting their numbers, may be doubted; but no one acquainted with the +spirit of Trades Unions would believe that if a sudden growth of technical +schools enabled large numbers of duly qualified youths to apply for +admission into the various Unions so as to compete for the same quantity +of work with the body of existing members, the Unions of the latter would +freely and cheerfully admit them. To do so would be suicidal, for no +standard rate of wages could stand against the pressure of an increased +supply of labour upon a fixed demand. But it is not necessary to suppose +that any considerable number of actually qualified workmen are refused +admission to Trade Unions of skilled workers. For the possession of the +requisite skill, implying as it does a certain natural capacity, and an +expenditure of time and money not within the power of the poorest classes, +forms a practical limit to the number of applicants. Moreover, in many +trades, though by no means in all, restrictions are placed by the Unions +upon the number of apprentices, with the object of limiting the number of +those who should from year to year be qualified to compete for work. In +other trades where no rigid rule to this effect exists, there is an +understanding which is equally effective. Certain trades, such as the +engineers, boiler-makers, and other branches of iron trade, place no +restrictions, and in certain other trades the restrictions are not closely +applied. But most of the strong Trades Unions protect themselves in +another way against the competition of unemployed. By a System of "out of +work" pay, they bribe those of their body, who from time to time are +thrown out of work, not to underbid those in work, so as to bring down the +rate of wages. Several of the most important Unions pay large sums every +year to "out of work" members. By these three means, the "minimum wage" +qualification for membership, the limitation of the number of apprentices, +and the "out of work" fund, the Trade Unions strengthen the power of +organized labour in skilled industries by restricting the competition of +unemployed outsiders.</p> + +<p>It is true that some of the leading exponents of Trade Unionism deny that +the chief object of the Unions is to limit competition. Mr. Howell +considers that the "standard wage" qualification for membership is +designed in order to ensure a high standard of workmanship, and regards +the "out of work" fund merely as belonging to the insurance or prudential +side of Trade Unionism. But though it may readily be admitted that one +effect of these measures may be to maintain good workmanship and to +relieve distress, it is reasonable to regard the most important result +actually attained as being the object chiefly sought. It is fair to +suppose, therefore, that while Unionists may not be indifferent to the +honour of their craft, their principal object is to strengthen their +economic position. At any rate, whatever the intention of Trade Unions +may be, the principal effect of their regulations is to limit the +effective supply of competing labour in their respective branches of +industry.</p> + +<p><b>§ 5. Can Low-skilled Workers successfully combine?</b>--Now the question +which concerns our inquiry may be stated thus. Supposing that the workers +in "sweating" industries were able to combine, would they be able to +secure themselves against outside competition as the skilled worker does? +Will their combination practically increase the difficulty in replacing +them by outsiders? Now it will be evident that the unskilled or +low-skilled workers cannot depend upon the methods which are adopted by +Unions of skilled workers, to limit the number of competitors for work. A +test of physical fitness, such as was recently proposed as a qualification +for admission to the Dock-labourers Union, will not, unless raised far +above the average fitness of present members, limit the number of +applicants to anything like the same extent as the test of workmanship in +skilled industries. Neither could rules of apprenticeship act where the +special skill required was very small. Nor again is it easy to see how +funds raised by the contribution of the poorest classes of workers, could +suffice to support unemployed members when temporarily "out of work," or +to buy off the active competition of outsiders, or "black-legs," to use +the term in vogue. The constant influx of unskilled labour from the rural +districts and from abroad, swollen by the numbers of skilled workmen whose +skill has been robbed of its value by machinery, keeps a large continual +margin of unemployed, able and willing to undertake any kind of unskilled +or low-skilled labour, which will provide a minimum subsistence wage. The +very success which attends the efforts of skilled workers to limit the +effective supply of their labour by making it more difficult for unskilled +workers to enter their ranks, increases the competition for low-skilled +work, and makes effective combination among low-skilled workers more +difficult. Though we may not be inclined to agree with Prof. Jevons, that +"it is quite impossible for Trade Unions in general to effect any +permanent increase of wages," there is much force in his conclusion, that +"every rise of wages which one body secures by mere exclusive combination, +represents a certain extent, sometimes a large extent, of injury to the +other bodies of workmen."[<a href="#fn31">31</a>] In so far as Unions of skilled workers limit +their numbers, they increase the number of competitors for unskilled work; +and since wages cannot rise when the supply of labour obtainable at the +present rate exceeds the demand, their action helps to maintain that "bare +subsistence wage," which forms a leading feature in "sweating."</p> + +<p>Are we then to regard Unions of low-skilled workers as quite impotent so +long as they are beset by the competition of innumerable outsiders? Can +combination contribute nothing to a solution of the sweating problem? +There are two ways in which close combination might seem to avail +low-skilled workers in their endeavours to secure better industrial +conditions.</p> + +<p>In the first place, close united action of a large body of men engaged in +any employment gives them, as we saw, a certain power dependent on the +inconvenience and expense they can cause to their employers by a sudden +withdrawal. This power is, of course, in part measured by the number of +unemployed easily procurable to take their place. But granted the largest +possible margin of unemployed, there will always be a certain difficulty +and loss in replacing a united body of employés by a body of outsiders, +though the working capacity of each new-comer may be equal to that of each +member of the former gang. This power belonging inherently to those in +possession, and largely dependent for its practical utility on close unity +of action, may always be worked by a trade organization to push the +interests of its members independently of the supply of free outside +labour, and used by slow degrees may be made a means of gaining piece by +piece a considerable industrial gain. Care must, however, be taken, never +to press for a larger gain than is covered by the difficulty of replacing +the body of present employés by outside labour. Miscalculations of the +amount of this inherent power of Union are the chief causes of "lock-outs" +and failures in strikes.</p> + +<p>Another weapon in the hands of unskilled combination, less calculable in +its effectiveness, is the force of public opinion aided by "picketing," +and the other machinery of persuasion or coercion used to prevent the +effective competition of "free" labour. In certain crises, as for example +in the Dock strike of 1889, these forces may operate so powerfully as to +strictly limit the supply of labour, and to shut out the competition of +unemployed. There can be no reason to doubt that if public authority had +not winked at illegal coercion of outside labour, and public opinion +touched by sentiment condoned the winking, the Dock strike would have +failed as other movements of low-skilled labour have generally failed. The +success of the Dockers is no measure of the power of combination among +low-skilled labourers. It is possible, however, that a growing sense of +comradeship, aided by a general recognition of the justice of a claim, +may be generally relied upon to furnish a certain force which shall +restrict the competition of free labour in critical junctures of the +labour movement. If public opinion, especially among workmen, becomes +strongly set in favour of letting capital and labour "fight it out" in +cases of trade disputes, and vigorously resents all interference of +outsiders offering to replace the contending labourers, it seems likely +that this practical elimination of outside competition may enable +combinations of unskilled workmen to materially improve their condition in +spite of the existence of a large supply of outside labour able to replace +them.</p> + +<p><b>§ 6. Can Trade Unionism crush out "Sweating"?</b>--But here again it must +be recognized that each movement of public opinion in this direction is +really making for the establishment of new trade monopolies, which tend to +aggravate the condition of free unemployed labour. Unions of low-skilled +labour can only be successful at the expanse of outsiders, who will find +it increasingly difficult to get employment. The success of combinations +of low-skilled workers will close one by one every avenue of regular +employment to the unemployed, who will tend to become even more nomadic +and predatory in their habits, and more irregular and miserable in their +lives, affording continually a larger field of operation for the small +"sweater," and other forms of "arrested development" in commerce. It must +always be an absorbing interest to a Trades Union to maintain the +industrial welfare of its members by preventing what it must regard as an +"over-supply" of labour. No organization of labour can effect very much +unless it takes measures to restrict the competition of "free labour"; +each Union, by limiting the number of competitors for its work, increases +the competition in trades not similarly protected. So with every growth +of Trade Unionism the pressure on unprotected bodies of workmen grows +greater. Thus it would seem that while organization of labour may become a +real remedy for "sweating" in any industry to which it is vigorously +applied, it cannot be relied upon ever entirely to crash out the evil. It +can only drive it into a smaller compass, where its intenser character may +secure for it that close and vigorous public attention which, in spite of +recent revelations, has not been yet secured, and compel society to +clearly face the problem of a residue of labour-power which is rotting in +the miserable and degraded bodies of its owners, because all the material +on which it might be productively employed is otherwise engaged.</p> + +<p><b>§ 7. Public Workshops.</b>--Those who are most active in the spread of +Unionism among the low-skilled branches of industry, are quite aware that +their action, by fencing off section after section of labour from the +fierce competition of outsiders, is rendering the struggle more intense +for the unprotected residuum. So far as they indulge any wider view than +the interest of their special trades, it may be taken that they design to +force the public to provide in some way for the unemployed or casually +employed workers, against whom the gates of each Union have been +successively closed. There can be little doubt that if Unionism is able to +establish itself firmly among the low-skilled industries, we shall find +this margin of unemployed low-skilled labour growing larger and more +desperate, in proportion to the growing difficulty of finding occupation. +Trade Union leaders have boldly avowed that they will thus compel the +State to recognize the "right to employment," and to provide that +employment by means of national or municipal workshops. With questions of +abstract "right" we are not here concerned, but it may be well to +indicate certain economic difficulties involved in the establishment of +public works as a solution of the "unemployed" problem. Since the +"unemployed" will, under the closer restrictions of growing Trade +Unionism, consist more and more of low-skilled labourers, the public works +on which they must be employed must be branches of low-skilled labour. But +the Unions of low-skilled workers will have been organized with the view +of monopolizing all the low-skilled work which the present needs of the +community require to be done. How then will the public provide low-skilled +work for the unemployed? One of two courses seems inevitable. Either the +public must employ them in work similar to that which is being done by +Union men for private firms, in which case they will enter into +competition with the latter, and either undersell them in the market and +take their trade, or by increasing the aggregate supply of the produce, +bring down the price, and with it the wage of the Union men. Or else if +they are not to compete with the labour of Union men, they must be +employed in relief works, undertaken not to satisfy a public need or to +produce a commodity with a market value, but in order that those employed +may, by a wholly or partially idle expenditure of effort, appear to be +contributing to their own support, whereas they are really just as much +recipients of public charity as if they were kept in actual idleness. This +is the dilemma which has to be faced by advocates of public workshops. Nor +can it be eluded by supposing that the public may use the unemployed +labour either in producing some new utility for the public use, such as +improved street-paving, or a municipal hot-water supply. For if such +undertakings are of a character which a private company would regard as +commercially sound, they ought to be, and will be, undertaken by wise +public bodies independently of the consideration of providing work for +unemployed. If they are not such as would be considered commercially +sound, then in so far as they fall short of commercial soundness, they +will be "charity" pure and simple, given as relief is now given to +able-bodied paupers, on condition of an expenditure of mere effort which +is not a commercial <i>quid pro quo</i>.</p> + +<p>If the State or municipality were permitted to conduct business on +ordinary commercial principles, it might indeed be expected to seize the +opportunity afforded by a large supply of unemployed labour, to undertake +new public works at a lower cost than usual. But to take this advantage of +the cheapness of labour is held to be "sweating." Public bodies are called +upon to disregard the rise and fall of market wages, and to pay "a fair +wage," which practically means a wage which is the same whether labour is +plentiful or scarce. This refusal to permit the ordinary commercial +inducement to operate in the case of public bodies, cuts off what might be +regarded as a natural check to the accumulation of unemployed labour. If +public bodies are to employ more labour, when labour is excessive, and pay +a wage which shall be above the market price, it must be clearly +understood that the portion of the wages which represents the +"uncommercial" aspect of the contract is just as much public charity as +the half-crown paid as out-door relief under the present Poor Law. Lastly, +the establishment of State or municipal workshops for the "unemployed" has +no economic connection with the "socialist" policy, by which the State or +municipality should assume control and management of railways, mines, +gas-works, tramways, and other works into which the element of monopoly +enters. Such a "socialist" policy, if carried out, would not directly +afford any relief to the unemployed. For, in the first place, the labour +employed in these new public departments would be chiefly skilled, and not +unskilled. Moreover, so far as the condition of the "workers" was +concerned, the nationalization, or municipalization of these works would +not imply any increased demand for labour, but merely the transfer of a +number of employés from private to the public service. The public control +of departments of industry, which are now in private hands, would not, so +long as it was conducted on a commercial footing in the public interest, +furnish either direct, or indirect, relief to "the unemployed." A +reduction of hours of labour in the case of workers transferred to the +public service, might afford employment to an increased number of skilled +labourers, and might indirectly operate in reducing the number of +unemployed. But such reduction of hours of labour, like the payment of +wages above the market rate, forms no essential part of a "socialist" +policy, but is rather a charitable appendage.</p> + +<p><b>§ 8. State Business on uncommercial terms.</b>--It cannot be too clearly +recognized that the payment by a public body of wages which are above the +market price, the payment of pensions, the reduction of hours of labour, +and any other advantages freely conferred, which place public servants in +a better position than private servants, stand on precisely the same +economic footing with the establishment of public workshops for the relief +of the unemployed, in which wages are paid for work which is deficient in +commercial value. In each case the work done has some value, unless the +unemployed are used to dig holes in the ground and fill them up again; in +each case the wages paid for that work are in excess of the market rate.</p> + +<p>If it were established as a general rule, that public bodies should always +add a "bonus" to the market wage of their employés to bring it up to +"fairness," and take off a portion of the usual "working-day" to bring it +down to "fairness," it would follow quite consistently that a wage equal +to, or exceeding, the minimum market rate might be paid to "unemployed" +for work, the value of which would be somewhat less than that produced by +the lowest class of "employed" workers. The policy throughout is one and +the same, and is based upon a repudiation of competition as a test of the +value of labour, and the substitution of some other standard derived from +moral or prudential considerations.</p> + +<p>So far as the State or Municipality chooses to regulate by an +"uncommercial" or moral standard the conditions of labour for the limited +number of employés required for the services which are a public monopoly, +it is able to do so, provided the public is willing to pay the price. +There is much to be said in favour of such a course, for the public +example might lend invaluable aid in forming a strong public opinion which +should successfully demand decent conditions of life and work, for the +whole body of workers. But if the State or Municipality were to undertake +to provide work and wages for an indefinite number of men who failed to +obtain work in the competition market, the effect would be to offer a +premium upon "unemployment." Thus, it would appear that as fast as the +public works drew off the unemployed, so fast would men leave the +low-paid, irregular occupations, and by placing themselves in a state of +"unemployment" qualify for public service. There would of course be a +natural check to this flow. As the State drained off all surplus labour, +the market value of labour would rise, greater regularity of employment +would be secured, and the general improvement of industrial conditions +would check the tendency of workers to flow towards the public workshops. +This consideration has led many of the leaders of labour movements to +favour a scheme of public workshops, which would practically mean that the +State or Municipality undertook to limit the supply of labour in the open +market, by providing for any surplus which might exist, at the public +expense. The effect of such a policy would be of course to enormously +strengthen the effective power of labour-organizations. But while the +advocates of public workshops are fully alive to these economic effects, +they have not worked out with equal clearness the question relating to the +disposal of the labour in public workshops. How can the "protected" labour +of the public workshops be so occupied, that its produce may not, by +direct or indirect competition with the produce of outside labour, +outweigh the advantage conferred upon the latter by the removal of the +"unemployed" from the field of competition, in digging holes and filling +them up again, or other useless work, the problem is a simple one. In that +case the State provides maintenance for the weaker members in order that +their presence as competitors for work may not injure the stronger +members. But if the public workmen produce anything of value, by what +means can it be kept from competing with and underselling the goods +produced under ordinary commercial conditions? Without alleging that the +difficulties involved in these questions are necessarily fatal to all +schemes of public works, we maintain that they require to be clearly +faced.</p> + +<p>Even if it be held that public workshops can furnish no economic remedy +for poverty, this judgment would of course be by no means conclusive +against public emergency works undertaken on charitable grounds to tide +over a crisis. Every form of charity, public or private, discriminate or +indiscriminate, entails some evil consequences. But this consideration is +not final. A charitable palliative is defensible and useful when the net +advantages outweigh the net disadvantages. This might seem self-evident, +but it requires to be stated, because there are not wanting individuals +and societies which imagine they have disposed of the claim of charitable +remedies by pointing out the evil consequences they entail. It is evident +that circumstances might arise which would compel the wisest and steadiest +Government to adopt public relief works as a temporary expedient for +meeting exceptional distress.</p> + +<p><b>§ 9. Restriction of Foreign Emigration.</b>--Two further proposals for +keeping down the supply of low-skilled labour deserve notice, and the more +so because they are forcing their way rapidly toward the arena of +practical politics.</p> + +<p>The first is the question of an Alien law limiting or prohibiting the +migration of foreign labourers into England. The power of the German, +Polish, or Russian Jew, accustomed to a lower standard of life, to +undersell the English worker in the English labour market, has already +been admitted as a cause of "sweating" in several city industries. The +importance of this factor in the problem of poverty is, however, a much +disputed point. To some extent these foreign labourers are said to make +new industries, and not to enter into direct and disastrous competition +with native workers. In most cases, however, direct competition between +foreign and native workers does exist, and, as we see, the comparatively +small number of the foreign immigrants compared with the aggregate of +native workers, is no true criterion of the harm their competition does to +low-waged workers. Whether this country will find it wise to reverse its +national policy of free admission to outside labour, it is not easy to +predict. The point should not be misunderstood. Free admission of cheap +foreign labour must be admitted <i>primâ facie</i> to be conducive to the +greatest production of wealth in this country. Those who seek to restrict +or prohibit this admission, do so on the ground that the damage inflicted +upon that class of workers, brought directly or indirectly into +competition for employment with these foreigners, overbalances the net +gain in the aggregate of national wealth. It is this consideration which +has chiefly operated in inducing the United States, Canada, and Australia +to prohibit the admission of Chinese or Coolie labour, and to place close +restrictions upon cheap European labour. Sir Charles Dilke, in a general +summary of colonial policy on this matter, writes, "Colonial labour seeks +protection by legislative means, not only against the cheap labour of the +dark-skinned or of the yellow man, but also against white paupers, and +against the artificial supply of labour by State-aided white immigration. +Most of the countries of the world, indeed, have laws against the +admission of destitute aliens, and the United Kingdom is in practice +almost the only exception."[<a href="#fn32">32</a>]</p> + +<p>The greater contrast between the customary standard of living of the +immigrants and that of the native workers with whom they would compete, +has naturally made the question seem a more vital one for our colonies, +and for the United States than for us. There can, however, be little +doubt that if a few shiploads of Chinese labourers were emptied into the +wharves of East London, whatever Government chanced to be in power would +be compelled to adopt immediate measures of restraint on immigration, so +terrible would the effect be upon the low class European labourers in our +midst. Whether any such Alien legislation will be adopted to meet the +inroad of continental labour depends in large measure on the course of +continental history. It is, however, not improbable that if the +organization of the workers proceeds along the present lines, when they +come to realize their ability to use political power for securing their +industrial position, they may decide that it will be advisable to limit +the supply of labour by excluding foreigners. Those, however, who are +already prepared to adopt such a step, do not always realize as clearly as +they should, that the exclusion of cheap foreigners from our labour-market +will be in all probability accompanied by an exclusion from our markets of +the cheap goods made by these foreigners in their own country, the +admission of which, while it increases the aggregate wealth of England, +inflicts a direct injury on those particular workers, the demand for whose +labour is diminished by the introduction of foreign goods which can +undersell them. If an Alien law is passed, it will bring both logically +and historically in its wake such protective measures as will constitute a +reversal of our present Free Trade policy. Whether such new and hazardous +changes in our national policy are likely to be made, depends in large +measure upon the success of other schemes for treating the condition of +over-supply of low-skilled labour. If no relief is found from these, it +seems not unlikely that a democratic government will some day decide that +such artificial prohibition of foreign labour, and the foreign goods which +compete with the goods produced by low-skilled English labour, will +benefit the low-skilled workers in their capacity as wage-earners, more +than the consequent rise of prices will injure them in their capacity as +consumers.</p> + +<p><b>§ 10. The "Eight Hours Day" Argument.</b>--The last proposal which +deserves attention, is that which seeks to shorten the average +working-day. The attempt to secure by legislation or by combination an +eight hours day, or its equivalent, might seem to affect the "sweating +system" most directly, as a restriction on excessive hours of labour. But +so far as it claims to strike a blow at the industrial oppression of +low-skilled labour, its importance will depend upon its effect on the +demand and supply of that low-skilled labour. The result which the +advocates of an eight hours day claim for their measure, may be stated as +follows--</p> + +<p>Assuming that low-skilled workers now work on an average twelve hours a +day, a compulsory reduction to eight hours would mean that one-third more +men were required to perform the same amount of work, leaving out for +convenience the question whether an eight hours day would be more +productive than the first eight hours of a twelve hours day. Since the +same quantity of low-skilled work would require to be done, employment +would now be provided for a large number of those who would otherwise have +been unemployed. In fact, if the shorter day is accompanied by an absolute +prohibition of over-time, it seems possible that work would thus be found +for the whole army of "unemployed." Nor is this all. The existence of a +constant standing "pool" of unemployed was, as we saw, responsible for +keeping the wages of low-skilled labour down to a bare subsistence wage. +Let this "pool" be once drained off, wages will rapidly rise, since the +combined action of workers will no longer be able to be defeated by the +eagerness of "outsiders" to take their work and wages. Thus an eight hours +day would at once solve the problem of the "work-less," and raise the +wages of low-skilled labour. The effect would be precisely the same as if +the number of competitors for work were suddenly reduced. For the price of +labour, as of all else, depends on the relation between the demand for it +and the supply, and the price will rise if the demand is increased while +the supply remains the same, or if the supply is decreased while the +demand remains the same. A compulsory eight hours day would practically +mean a shrinkage in the supply of labour offered in the market, and the +first effect would indisputably be a rise in the price of labour. To +reduce by one-third at a single blow the amount of labour put forth in a +day by any class of workers, is precisely equivalent to a sudden removal +of one-third of these workers from the field of labour. We know from +history that the result of a disastrous epidemic, like the Black Plague, +has been to raise the wages and improve the general condition of the +labourer even in the teeth of legal attempts to keep down wages. The +advocates of an Eight Hours Act assert that the same effect would follow +from that measure.</p> + +<p>Setting aside as foreign to our discussion all consideration of the +difficulties in passing and enforcing an Eight Hours Act, or in applying +it to certain industries, the following economic objection is raised by +opponents to the eight hours movement--</p> + +<p>The larger aggregate of wages, which must be paid under an eight hours +day, will increase the expanses of production in each industry. For the +increased wage cannot in general be obtained by reducing profits, for any +such reduction will drive freshly-accumulated capital more and more to +seek foreign investments, and managing ability will in some measure tend +to follow it. The higher aggregate of wages must therefore be represented +in a general rise of prices. This rise of prices will have two effects. In +the first place it will tend to largely negative the higher aggregate of +money wages. Or if organized labour, free from the competition of +unemployed, is able to maintain a higher rate of real wages, the general +rise in prices will enable foreign producers to undersell us in our own +market (unless we adopted a Protective Tariff), and will disable us from +competing in foreign markets. This constitutes the pith of the economic +objection raised against an eight hours day. The eight hours advocates +meet the objection in the following ways--First, they deny that prices +will rise in consequence of the increased aggregate of wages. A reduction +in interest and in wages of superintendence will take place in many +branches of industry, without any appreciable tendency to diminish the +application of capital, or to drive it out of the country.</p> + +<p>Secondly, the result of an increased expenditure in wages will be to crush +the small factories and workshops, which are the backbone of the sweating +System, and to assist the industrial evolution which makes in favour of +large well-organized factories working with the newest machinery.</p> + +<p>Thirdly, it is claimed that we shall not be ousted either from our own or +from foreign markets by foreign competition, because the eight hours +movement in England must be regarded as part of a larger industrial +movement which is proceeding <i>pari passu</i> among the competing nations. If +the wages of German, French, and American workers are advancing at the +same rate as English wages, or if other industrial restrictions in those +countries are otherwise increasing the expenses of production at a +corresponding rate, the argument of foreign competition falls to the +ground.</p> + +<p>These leading arguments of the advocates of an eight hours day are of very +unequal value. The first argument is really based upon the supposition +that the increased aggregate of wages can be "got out of capital" by +lowering interest and profits. The general validity of this argument may +be questioned. In its application a distinction must be drawn between +those businesses which by means of the possession of some monopoly, +patent, or other trade advantage are screened from the full force of +competition, and are thus enabled to earn profits above the average, and +those businesses where the constant stress of close competition keeps +interest and profits down to the lowest point which suffices to induce the +continued application of capital and organizing ability. In the former +cases the "cost" of an Eight Hours Day might be got out of capital, +assuming an effective organization of labour, in the latter cases it could +not.</p> + +<p>As to the second argument, it is probable enough that the legal eight +hours day would accelerate the industrial evolution, which is enabling the +large well-equipped factory to crush out the smaller factory. As we have +seen that the worst evils of "sweating" are associated with a lower order +of industrial organization, any cause which assisted to destroy the small +workshop and the out-work system, would be a benefit. But as the economic +motive of such improved organization with increased use of machinery, +would be to save human labour, it is doubtful whether a quickening of this +process would not act as a continual feeder to the band of unemployed, by +enabling employers to dispense with the services of even this or that body +of workers whose work is taken over by brute machinery.</p> + +<p>The net value of these two eight hours arguments is doubtful. The real +weight of the discussion seems to rest on the third.</p> + +<p>If the movement for improving the industrial condition of the working +classes does proceed as rapidly in other industrial countries as in our +own, we shall have nothing to fear from foreign competition, since +expenses of production and prices will be rising equally among our own. If +there is no such equal progress in other nations, then the industrial gain +sought for the working classes of this country by a shorter day cannot be +obtained, though any special class or classes of workers may be relieved +of excessive toil at the expense of the community as a whole. Government +employés, and that large number of workers who cannot be brought into +direct competition with foreign labour, can receive the same wages for +shorter hours, provided the public is willing to pay a higher price for +their protected labour.</p> + +<p>In conclusion, it may be well to add that the economic difficulties which +beset this question cannot be lightly set aside by an assertion that the +same difficulties were raised by economists against earlier factory +legislation, and that experience has shown that they may be safely +disregarded. It is impossible to say how far the introduction of humane +restrictions upon the exploitation of cheap human labour has affected the +aggregate production of wealth in England. It has not prevented the +growth of our trade, but very possibly it has checked the rate of growth. +If the mere accumulation of material wealth, regardless alike of the mode +of production or of the distribution, be regarded as the industrial goal, +it is quite conceivable that a policy of utter <i>laissez faire</i> might be +the best means of securing that end. Although healthy and happy workers +are more efficient than the half-starved and wholly degraded beings who +slaved in the uninspected factories and mines during the earlier period of +the factory system, and still slave in the sweater's den, it may still be +to the interest of employers to pay starvation wages for relatively +inefficient work, rather than pay high wages for a shorter day's work to +more efficient workers. It is to the capitalist a mere sum in arithmetic; +and we cannot predict that the result will always turn in favour of +humanity and justice.</p> + +<p>At the same time, even if it is uncertain whether a shorter working day +could be secured without a fall of wages, it is still open to advocates of +a shorter working day to urge that it is worth while to purchase leisure +at such a price. If a shorter working day could cure or abate the evil of +"the unemployed," and help to raise the industrial condition of the +low-skilled workers, the community might well afford to pay the cost.</p> +</div> + + +<div class="chapter" id="ch07"> +<h2>Chapter VII.</h2> + +<h3>Over-Supply of Low-Skilled Labour.</h3> + + + +<p><b>§ 1.Restatement of the "Low-skilled Labour" Question.</b>--Our inquiry +into Factory Legislation and Trade Unionism as cures for sweating have +served to emphasize the economic nature of the disease, the over-supply of +low-skilled labour. Factory legislation, while it may abate many of the +symptoms of the disease, cannot directly touch the centre of the malady, +low wages, though by securing publicity it may be of indirect assistance +in preventing the payment of wages which public opinion would condemn as +insufficient for a decent livelihood. Trade Unionism as an effective agent +in securing the industrial welfare of workers, is seen to rest upon the +basis of restriction of labour supply, and its total effectiveness is +limited by the fact that each exercise of this restriction in the interest +of a class of workers weakens the position of the unemployed who are +seeking work. The industrial degradation of the "sweated" workers arises +from the fact that they are working surrounded by a pool of unemployed or +superfluous supply of labour. So long as there remains this standing pool +of excessive labour, it is difficult to see how the wages of low unskilled +workers can be materially raised. The most intelligent social reformers +are naturally directing their attention to the question, how to drain +these lowlands of labour of the superfluous supply, or in other words to +keep down the population of the low-skilled working class. Among the many +population drainage schemes, the following deserve close attention--</p> + +<p><b>§ 2. Checks on growth of population.</b>--We need not discuss in its +wider aspect the question whether our population tends to increase faster +than the means of subsistence. Disciples of Malthus, who urge the growing +pressure of population on the food supply, are sometimes told that so far +as this argument applies to England, the growth of wealth is faster than +the growth of population, and that as modern facilities for exchange +enable any quantity of this wealth to be transferred into food and other +necessaries, their alarm is groundless. Now these rival contentions have +no concern for us. We are interested not in the pressure of the whole +population upon an actual or possible food supply, but with the pressure +of a certain portion of that population upon a relatively fixed supply of +work. It is approximately true to say that at any given time there exists +a certain quality of unskilled or low-skilled work to be done. If there +are at hand just enough workers to do it, the wages will be sufficiently +high to allow a decent standard of living. If, on the other hand, there +are present more than enough workers willing to do the work, a number of +them must remain without work and wages, while those who are employed get +the lowest wages they will consent to take. Thus it will seem of prime +importance to keep down the population of low-skilled workers to the point +which leaves a merely nominal margin of superfluous labour. The Malthusian +question has in its modern practical aspect narrowed down to this. The +working classes by abstinence from early or improvident marriages, or by +the exercise of moral restraints after marriage can, it is urged, check +that tendency of the working population to outgrow the increase of the +work for which they compete. There can be no doubt that the more +intelligent classes of skilled labourers have already profited by this +consideration, and as education and intelligence are more widely diffused, +we may expect these prudential checks on "over-population" will operate +with increased effect among the whole body of workers. But precisely +because these checks are moral and reasonable, they must be of very slow +acceptance among that class whose industrial condition forms a stubborn +barrier to moral and intellectual progress. Those who would gain most by +the practice of prudential checks, are least capable of practising them. +The ordinary "labourer" earns full wages as soon as he attains manhood's +strength; he is as able to support a wife and family at twenty as he will +ever be; indeed he is more so, for while he is young his work is more +regular, and less liable to interruption by ill-health. The reflection +that an early marriage means the probability of a larger family, and that +a large family helps to keep wages low, cannot at present be expected to +make a deep impression upon the young unskilled labourer. The value of +restraint after marriage could probably be inculcated with more effect, +because it would appeal more intelligibly to the immediate interest of the +labourer. But it is to the growing education and intelligence of women, +rather than to that of men, that we must look for a recognition of the +importance of restraint on early marriages and large families.</p> + +<p><b>§ 3. The "Emigration" Remedy.</b>--The most direct and obvious drainage +scheme is by emigration. If there are more workers than there is work for +them to do, why not remove those who are not wanted, and put them where +there is work to do? The thing sounds very simple, but the simplicity is +somewhat delusive. The old <i>laissez faire</i> political economist would ask, +"Why, since labour is always moving towards the place where it can be most +profitably employed, is it necessary to do anything but let it flow? Why +should the State or philanthropic people busy themselves about the matter? +If labour is not wanted in one place, and is wanted in another, it will +and must leave the one place and go to the other. If you assist the +process by compulsion, or by any artificial aid, you may be removing the +wrong people, or you may be removing them to the wrong place." Now the +reply to the main <i>laissez faire</i> position is conclusive. Just as water, +though always tending to find its own level, does not actually find it +when it is dammed up in some pool by natural or artificial earthworks, so +labour stored in the persons of poor and ignorant men and women is not in +fact free to seek the place of most profitable employment. The highlands +of labour are drained by this natural flow; even the strain of competition +in skilled hand-labour finds sensible relief by the voluntary emigration +of the more adventurous artisans, but the poor low-skilled workers suffer +here again by reason of their poverty: no natural movement can relieve the +plethora of labour-power in low-class employments. The fluidity of +low-skilled labour seldom exceeds the power of moving from one town to a +neighbouring town, or from a country district to the nearest market towns, +or to London in search of work. If the lowlands are to be drained at all, +it must be done by an artificial system. Now all such systems are in fact +open to the mistakes mentioned above. If we look too exclusively to the +requirements of new colonies, and the opportunities of work they present, +we may be induced to remove from England a class of men and women whose +services we can ill afford to lose, and who are not in any true sense +superfluous labour. To assist sturdy and shrewd Scotch farmers, or a body +of skilled artisans thrown out of work by a temporary trade depression, to +transfer themselves and their families to America or Australia, is a +policy the net advantage of which is open to grave doubt. Of course by +removing any body of workers you make room for others, but this fact does +not make it a matter of indifference which class is removed. On the other +hand, if we look exclusively to the interests of the whole mass of labour +in England, we should probably be led to assist the emigration of large +bodies of the lowest and least competent workers. This course, though +doubtless for the advantage of the low class labour, directly relieved, is +detrimental to the interest of the new country, which is flooded with +inefficient workers, and confers little benefit upon these workers +themselves, since they are totally incapable of making their way in a new +country. The reckless drafting off of our social failures into new lands +is a criminal policy, which has been only too rife in the State-aided +emigration of the past, and which is now rendered more and more difficult +each year by the refusal of foreign lands to receive our "wreckage." Here, +then, is the crux of emigration. The class we can best afford to lose, is +the class our colonies and foreign nations can least afford to take, and +if they consent to receive them they only assume the burden we escape. The +age of loose promiscuous pauper emigration has gone by. If we are to use +foreign emigration as a mode of relief for our congested population in the +future, it will be on condition that we select or educate our colonists +before we send them out. Whether the State or private organizations +undertake the work, our colonizing process must begin at home. The +necessity of dealing directly with our weak surplus population of +low-skilled workers is gaining more clear recognition every year, as the +reluctance to interfere with the supposed freedom of the subject even +where the subject is "unfree" is giving way before the urgency of the +situation.</p> + +<p><b>§ 4. Mr. Charles Booth's "Drainage Scheme."</b>--The terrible examples +our history presents to us of the effects of unwise poor law +administration, rightly enjoin the strictest caution in contemplating new +experiments. But the growing recognition of the duty of the State to +protect its members who are unable to protect themselves, and to secure +fair opportunities of self-support and self-improvement, as well as the +danger of handing over their protection to the conflicting claims of +private and often misguided philanthropy, is rapidly gaining ground +against the advocates of <i>laissez faire</i>. It is beginning to be felt that +the State cannot afford to allow the right of private social experiment on +the part of charitable organizations. The relief of destitution has for +centuries been recognized as the proper business of the State. Our present +poor law practically fails to relieve the bulk of the really destitute. +Even were it successful it would be doing nothing to prevent destitution. +Since neither existing legislation nor the forces of private charity are +competent to cope with the evils of "sweating," engendered by an excess of +low-class labour, it is probable that the pressure of democratic +government will make more and more in favour of some large new experiment +of social drainage. In view of this it may not be out of place to describe +briefly two schemes proposed by private students of the problem of +poverty.</p> + +<p>Mr. Charles Booth, recognizing that the superfluity of cheap inefficient +labour lies at the root of the matter, suggests the removal of the most +helpless and degraded class from the strain of a struggle which is fatal +not merely to themselves, but to the class immediately above them. The +reason for this removal is given as follows--</p> + +<p>"To effectually deal with the whole of class B--for the State to nurse the +helpless and incompetent as we in our own families nurse the old, the +young, and the sick, and provide for those who are not competent to +provide for themselves--may seem an impossible undertaking; but nothing +less than this will enable self-respecting labour to obtain its full +remuneration, and the nation its raised standard of life. The +difficulties, which are certainly great, do not consist in the cost. As it +is, these unfortunate people cost the community one way or another +considerably more than they contribute. I do not refer solely to the fact +that they cost the State more than they pay directly or indirectly in +taxes. I mean that altogether, ill-paid and half-starved as they are, they +consume, or waste, or have expended on them, more wealth than they +produce."</p> + +<p>Mr. Booth would remove the "very poor," and plant them in industrial +communities under proper government supervision.</p> + +<p>"Put practically, my idea is that these people should be allowed to live +as families in industrial groups, planted wherever land and building +materials were cheap; being well-housed and well-warmed, and taught, +trained, and employed from morning to night on work, indoors or out, for +themselves, or on Government account."</p> + +<p>The Government should provide material and tools, and having the people +entirely on its hands, get out of them what it can. Wages should be paid +at a "fair proportionate rate," so as to admit comparison of earnings of +the different communities, and of individuals. The commercial deficit +involved in the scheme should be borne by the State. This expansion of our +poor law policy, for it is nothing more, aims less at the reformation and +improvement of the class taken under its charge, than at the relief which +would be afforded to the classes who suffered from their competition in +the industrial struggle. What it amounts to is the removal of the mass of +unemployed. The difficulties involved in such a scheme are, as Mr. Booth +admits, very grave.</p> + +<p>The following points especially deserve attention--</p> + +<p>1. Since it is not conceivable that compulsion should be brought to bear +in the selection and removal out of the ordinary industrial community of +those weaker members whose continued struggle is considered undesirable, +it is evident that the industrial colonies must be recruited out of +volunteers. It will thus become a large expansion of the present workhouse +system. The eternal dilemma of the poor law will be present there. On the +one hand, if, as seems likely, the degradation and disgrace attaching to +the workhouse is extended to the industrial colony, it will fail to +attract the more honest and deserving among the "very poor," and to this +extent will fail to relieve the struggling workers of their competition. +On the other hand, if the condition of the "industrial colonist" is +recognized as preferable to that of the struggling free competitor, it +must in some measure act as a premium upon industrial failure, checking +the output of energy and the growth of self-reliance in the lower ranks of +the working classes. No scheme for the relief of poverty is wholly free +from this difficulty; but there is danger that the State colony of Mr. +Booth would, if it were successful as a mode of "drainage," be open to it +in no ordinary degree.</p> + +<p>2. Closely related to this first difficulty is the fact that Mr. Booth +provides no real suggestion for a process of discrimination in the +treatment of our social failures, which shall distinguish the failure due +directly to deep-seated vice of character and habit, from the failure due +to unhappy chance or the fault of others. Difficult, almost impossible, as +such discrimination between deserving and undeserving is, it is felt that +any genuine reform of our present poor law system demands that some +attempt in this direction should be made. We must try to distinguish +curable from incurable cases, and we must try to cure the former while we +preserve society from the contamination of the latter. The mere removal of +a class of "very poor" will not suffice.</p> + +<p>Since however the scheme of Mr. C. Booth does not proceed beyond the stage +of a suggested outline of treatment, it is not fair or profitable to press +close criticism. It is, however, a fact of some significance that one who +has brought such close study to bear upon the problem of poverty should +arrive at the conclusion that "Thorough interference on the part of the +State with the lives of a small fraction of the population, would tend to +make it possible, ultimately, to dispense with any Socialistic +interference in the lives of all the rest."[<a href="#fn33">33</a>]</p> + +<p><b>§ 5. Proposed remedies for "Unemployment."</b>--In discussing methods of +dealing with "the unemployed," who represent an "over-supply" of labour at +a given time, it is often found convenient to distinguish the temporary +"unemployment" due to fluctuations rising from the nature of certain +trades, and the permanent unemployment or half employment of large +numbers of the least efficient town workers. The fluctuations in +employment due to changes of season, as in the building trades, and many +branches of dock labour, or to changes of fashion, as in the silk and +"fancy" woollen trade, or to temporary changes in the field of employment +caused by a transformation of industrial processes, are direct causes of a +considerable quantity of temporary unemployment. To these must be added +the unemployment represented by the interval between the termination of +one job and the beginning of another, as in the building trades. Lastly, +the wider fluctuations of general trade seem to impose a character of +irregularity upon trade, so that the modern System of industry will not +work without some unemployed margin, some reserve of labour.</p> + +<p>These irregularities and leakages seem to explain why, at any given time, +a certain considerable number of fairly efficient and willing workmen may +be out of work. It is often urged that this class of "unemployed" must be +regarded as quite distinct from the superfluity of low-skilled and +inefficient workers found in our towns, and that the two classes present +different problems for solution. The character of the "chronic" class of +unemployed makes the problem appear to be, not one of economic +readjustment, but rather of training and education. But this appearance is +deceptive. The connection between the two kinds of "unemployment" is much +closer than is supposed. The irregularity of the "season" and "fashion" +trades, the periodic spells of bad trade, are continually engaged in +degrading and deteriorating the physique, the morale, and the industrial +efficiency of the weaker members of each trade: these weaklings are unable +to maintain a steady and healthy standard of life under economic +conditions which make work and wages irregular, and are constantly +dropping out of the more skilled trades to swell the already congested +low-skilled labour market. Every period of "depressed trade" feeds the +pool of low-skilled labour from a hundred different channels. The +connection between the two classes of "unemployed" is, therefore, a close +and vital one. To drain off this pool would, in fact, be of little +permanent use unless those irregularities of trade, which are constantly +feeding it, are also checked.</p> + +<p>Still less serviceable are those schemes of rescuing "the unemployed," +which, in the very work of rescue, engender an economic force whose +operation causes as much unemployment as it cures. A signal example of +this futile system of social drainage has been afforded by certain +experiments of the Salvation Army in their City Works and Farm Colony. The +original draft of the scheme contained in the volume, <i>In Darkest +England</i>, clearly recognized the advisability of keeping the bounty-fed +products of the Salvation Colonies from competition in the market with the +products of outside labour. The design was to withdraw from the +competitive labour market certain members of "the unemployed," to train +and educate them in efficient labour, and to apply this labour to capital +provided out of charitable funds: the produce of this labour was to be +consumed by the colonists themselves, who would thus become as far as +possible self-supporting; in no case was it to be thrown upon the open +market. As a matter of fact these sound, economic conditions of social +experiment have been utterly ignored. Matches, firewood, furniture, etc. +produced in the City factories have been thrown upon the open market. The +Hadleigh Farm Colony, originally designed to give a thorough training in +the arts of agriculture so as to educate its members for the Over Sea +Colony, has devoted more and more attention to shoemaking, carpentering, +and other special mechanical crafts, and less and less to the efficient +cultivation of the soil; the boots, chairs, etc. being thrown in large +quantities upon the open market. Moreover, the fruit and vegetables raised +upon the Farm have been systematically placed upon the outside market. The +result of such a line of conduct is evident. Suppose A is a carpenter +thrown out of work because there are more carpenters than are required to +turn out the current supply of chairs and tables at a profitable price; +the Salvation Army takes A in hand, and provides him with capital upon +which no interest need be paid. A's chairs, now thrown on the market, can +undersell the chairs provided by B, C, D, his former trade competitors. +Unless we suppose an increased demand for chairs, the result is that A's +chairs displace those of B in the market, and B is thrown out of +employment. Thus A, assisted by the Salvation Army, has simply taken B's +work. If the Salvation Army now takes B in hand, it can engage him in +useful work on condition that he takes away the work of C. If match-makers +are thrown out of work by trade conditions, and the Salvation Army places +them in a factory, and sells in the open market the matches which they +make, the public which buys these matches abstains from buying the matches +made by other firms, and these firms are thus prevented from employing as +much labour as they would otherwise have done. No net increase of +employment is caused by this action of the Salvation Army, and therefore +they have done nothing towards the solution of the unemployed problem. +They have provided employment for certain known persons at the expense of +throwing out of employment certain other unknown persons. Since those who +are thrown out of work in the labour market are, on the average, inferior +in character and industry to those who are kept in work, the effect of the +Salvation Army policy is to substitute inferior for superior workers. The +blind philanthropist may perhaps be excused for not seeing beyond his +nose, and for ignoring "unseen" in favour of "seen" results. But General +Booth was advised of the sound economic conditions of his experiment, and +seemed to recognize the value of the advice. The defence of his action +sometimes takes the form of a denial that the Salvation Army undersells +outside produce in the market. Salvation matches are sold, it is said, +rather above than below the ordinary price of matches. If this be true, it +affords no answer to the objection raised above. The Salvation matches are +bought by persons who would have bought other matches if they had not +bought these, and if they choose to pay 3d. for Salvation matches instead +of 2½d. for others, the effect of this action is still to take away +employment from the 2½d. firm and give it to the Salvation firm. Indeed, +it might be urged that a larger amount of unemployment is caused in this +case, for persons who now pay 3d. for matches which they formerly bought +for 2½d., will diminish their expenditure upon other commodities, and the +result will be to diminish employment in those industries engaged in +supplying these commodities. Here is another "unseen" result of fallacious +philanthropy.</p> + +<p>The inevitable result of the Salvation Army placing goods in the open +market is to increase the supply relatively to the demand; in order that +the larger supply may be sold prices must fall, and it makes no difference +whether or no the Salvation Army takes the lead in reducing the price. If +the fall of price enables the whole of the increased supply to be taken +off at the lower price, then an increase of employment has been obtained +in this trade, though, in this case, it should be remembered that in all +probability the lower level of prices means a reduction of wages in the +outside labour market. If the increased supply is not taken off at the +lower prices, then the Salvation goods can only be sold on condition that +some others remain unsold, employment of Salvationists thus displacing +employment of other workers. The roundabout nature of much of this +competition does not impair one whit the inevitability of this result.</p> + +<p>This objection is applicable not only to the method of the Salvation Army, +but to many other industrial experiments conducted on a philanthropic +basis. Directly or indirectly bounty-fed labour is brought into +competition with self-supporting labour to the detriment of the latter. It +is sometimes sought to evade the difficulty by confining the produce which +the assisted labour puts upon the open market to classes of articles which +are not for the most part produced in this country, but which are largely +imported from abroad. It is urged that although shoes and furniture and +matches ought not to be produced by assisted labour for the outside +market, it is permissible for an agricultural colony to replace by home +products the large imports in the shape of cheese, fruit, bacon, poultry, +etc., which we now receive from abroad. Those who maintain this position +commonly fail to take into consideration the exports which go out from +this country to pay for these imports. If this export trade is diminished +the trades engaged in manufacturing the exported goods will suffer, and +labour employed in these trades may be thrown out of employment. This +objection may be met by showing that the goods formerly exported, or an +equivalent quantity of other goods, will be demanded for the increased +consumption of the labourers in the agricultural colony. This is a valid +answer if the home consumption rises sufficiently to absorb the goods +formerly exported to pay for agricultural imports. But even where this +just balance is maintained, allowance must be made for some disturbance of +established trades owing to the fact that the new demand created at home +will probably be for different classes of articles from those which formed +the exports now displaced. The safest use of assisted labour, where the +products are designed for the open market, is in the production of +articles for which there is a steadily growing demand within this country. +Even in this case the utmost care should be exercised to prevent the +products of assisted labour from so depressing prices as to injure the +wages of outside labour engaged in similar productions.</p> + +<p>Since the existence of an unemployed class who are unemployed because they +are unable, not because they are unwilling, to get work, is proof of an +insufficiency of employment, it is apparent that nothing is of real +assistance which does not increase the net amount of employment. Since the +amount of employment is determined by, and varies with, the consumption of +the community, the only sure method of increasing the amount of employment +is by raising the standard of consumption for the community. Where, as is +common in times of trade depression, unemployment of labour is attended by +unemployment of capital, this joint excess of the two requisites of +production is only to be explained by the low standard of consumption of +the community. Since the working-classes form a vast majority of the +community, and their standard of consumption is low compared with that of +the upper classes, it is to a progressive standard of comfort among the +workers that we must look for a guarantee of increasing employment. It may +be urged that the luxurious expenditure of the rich provides as much +employment as the more necessary expenditure of the poor. But, setting +aside all considerations of the inutility or noxious character of luxury, +there is one vital difference between the employment afforded in the two +cases. The demand for luxuries is essentially capricious and irregular, +and this irregularity must always be reflected in the employment of the +trades which supply them. On the other hand, a general rise in the +standard of comfort of the workers creates an increased demand of a steady +and habitual kind, the new elements of consumption belonging to the order +of necessaries or primary comforts become ingrained in the habits of large +classes of consumers, and the employment they afford is regular and +reliable. When this simple principle is once clearly grasped by social +reformers, it will enable them to see that the only effective remedy for +unemployment lies in a general policy of social and economic reform, which +aims at placing a larger and larger proportion of the "consuming power" of +the community in the hands of those who, having received it as the +earnings of their effort, will learn to use it in building up a higher +standard of wholesome consumption.</p> +</div> + + +<div class="chapter" id="ch08"> +<h2>Chapter VIII.</h2> + +<h3>The Industrial Condition of Women-Workers.</h3> + + + +<p><b>§ 1.The Number of Women engaged in Industrial Work.</b>--The evils of +"sweating" press more heavily on women workers than on men. It is not +merely that women as "the weaker sex" suffer more under the same burden, +but that their industrial burden is absolutely heavier than that of men. +The causes and the meaning of this demand a special treatment.</p> + +<p>The census returns for 1901 showed that out of 4,171,751 females engaged +in occupations about 40½ per cent. were in domestic or other service, 38½ +per cent. in manufactures, 7 per cent. in commerce, chiefly as +shop-assistants, 4 per cent. in teaching, 3 per cent. in hotels, +boarding-houses, etc., and 7 per cent. in other occupations.</p> + +<p>The following table gives the groups of occupations in which more females +are employed than males:--</p> +<table summary="groups of occupations in which more females are employed than males"> +<tr><th> Occupational Groups </th><th>Males </th><th>Females</th></tr> +<tr><td> Sick nurses, midwives, etc.</td><td style="text-align:right">1,092</td><td style="text-align:right">67,269</td></tr> +<tr><td> Teaching</td><td style="text-align:right">61,897</td><td style="text-align:right">172,873</td></tr> +<tr><td> Domestic service</td><td style="text-align:right">124,263</td><td style="text-align:right">1,690,686</td></tr> +<tr><td> Bookbinding: paper and stationery manufactures</td><td style="text-align:right">42,644</td><td style="text-align:right">64,210</td></tr> +<tr><td> Textile manufactures</td><td style="text-align:right">492,175</td><td style="text-align:right">663,222</td></tr> +<tr><td> Dress manufactures</td><td style="text-align:right">336,186</td><td style="text-align:right">689,956</td></tr> +<tr><td></td><td colspan="2">--------------------</td></tr> +<tr><td></td><td style="text-align:right">1,058,257</td><td style="text-align:right">3,348,216</td></tr> +<tr><td> All other occupations</td><td style="text-align:right">9,098,717</td><td style="text-align:right">823,535</td></tr> +<tr><td></td><td style="text-align:right" colspan="2">--------------------</td></tr> +<tr><td> All occupations</td><td style="text-align:right">10,156,974</td><td style="text-align:right">4,171,751</td></tr> +</table> +<p>The manufactures in which women have been gaining upon men are the +textile and clothing trades in almost all branches, tobacco, printing, +stationery, brushes, india-rubber, and foods.</p> + +<p><b>§ 2. Women's Wages.</b>--Turning now to women engaged in city industries, +let us gauge their industrial condition by the tests of wages, hours of +labour, sanitary conditions, regularity of employment</p> + +<p>The following is a list of the average wages paid for different kinds of +factory work in London.</p> +<table summary="list of the average wages paid for different kinds of +factory work in London"> +<tr><td>Artificial flowers</td><td>8 to</td><td>12 shillings.</td></tr> +<tr><td>Bookbinding</td><td>9 "</td><td>11 "</td></tr> +<tr><td>Boxmaking</td><td>8 "</td><td>16 "</td></tr> +<tr><td>Brushes</td><td>8 "</td><td>15 "</td></tr> +<tr><td>Caps</td><td>8 "</td><td>16 "</td></tr> +<tr><td>Collars</td><td>11 "</td><td>15 "</td></tr> +<tr><td>Confectionery</td><td>8 "</td><td>14 "</td></tr> +<tr><td>Corsets</td><td>8 "</td><td>16 "</td></tr> +<tr><td>Fur-sewing</td><td>7 "</td><td>14 "</td></tr> +<tr><td>Fur-sewing in winter</td><td>4 "</td><td>7 "</td></tr> +<tr><td>Matches</td><td>8 "</td><td>13 "</td></tr> +<tr><td>Rope</td><td>8 "</td><td>11 "</td></tr> +<tr><td>Umbrellas</td><td>10 "</td><td>18 "</td></tr> +</table> +<p>These are ordinary wages. Very good or industrious workers are said to get +in some cases 20 per cent, more; unskilful or idle workers less.</p> + +<p>It must be borne in mind that these sums represent a full week's work. The +importance of this qualification will appear presently.</p> + +<p>It is obvious at a glance that these wages are for the most part +considerably lower than those paid for any regular form of male labour. +But there is another fact which adds to the significance of this. Skilled +labour among men is much more highly paid than unskilled labour. Among +women's industries this is not the case to any great extent. Skilled work +like that of book-folding is paid no higher than the almost unskilled work +of the jam or match girl. This is said to be due partly to the fact that +the lower kinds of work are done by girls and women who are compelled to +support themselves, while the higher class is done by women partly kept by +husband or father, partly to the pride taken in the performance of more +skilled work, and the reluctance to mingle with women belonging to a lower +stratum of society, which prevents the wages of the various kinds of work +from being determined by free economic competition. A bookbinding girl +would sooner take lower wages than engage in an inferior class of work +which happened to rise in the market price of its labour. But whatever the +causes may be, the fact cannot be disputed that the lower rates of wages +extend over a larger proportion of women workers.</p> + +<p>Again, the wages quoted above refer to workers in factories. But only +three women's trades of any importance are managed entirely in factories, +the cigar, confectionery, and match-making[<a href="#fn34">34</a>] trades. In many of the +other trades part of the work is done in factories, part is let out to +sweaters, or to women who work at their own homes. Many of the clothing +trades come under this class, as for example, the tie-making, trimmings, +corset-making trades. The employers in these trades are able to play the +out-doors workers against the indoors workers, so as to keep down the +wages of both to a minimum. The "corset" manufacture is fairly +representative of these trades. The following list gives the per-centage +of workers receiving various sums for "indoors" i.e. "factory" work.</p> +<pre> + s. s. s. s. s. s. s. s. s. s. + Under 4 3--6 8--10 10--12 12--15 Over 15 + 2.94 p.c. 50 p.c. 2.94 p.c. 5.9 p.c. 14.7 p.c. 22.52 p.c. +</pre> +<p>Outdoor workers earn from 6s. to 12s., but where more than 10s. is earned, +the woman is generally assisted by one or more of her children. Generally +speaking, the most miserably paid work is that in trades where most of the +work is done by out-door workers. Such is the lowest stratum of the "vest +and trousers" trade, where English women undertake work rejected by the +lowest class of Jew workers, and the shirt-making trade, which, in the +opinion of the Lords' Committee, "does not appear to afford subsistence to +those who have no other employment." In these and other trades of the +lowest order, 6s. a week is a tolerably common wage for a work-woman of +fair skill to net after a hard week's work, and there are many individual +cases where the wage falls far below this mark.</p> + +<p>It is true that the work for which the lowest wages are paid is often that +of learners, or of inefficient work-women; but while this may be a +satisfactory "economic" explanation, it does not mitigate the terrible +significance of the fact that many women are dependent on such work as +their sole opportunity of earning an honest livelihood.</p> + +<p><b>§ 3. Irregularity of Employment.</b>--As the wages of women are lower +than those of men, so they suffer more from irregularity of employment. +There are two special reasons for this.</p> + +<p>α. Many trades in which women are employed, depend largely +upon the element of Season. The confectionery trade, one of the most +important, employs twice as many hands in the busy season as in the slack +season. Match-makers have a slack season, in which many of them sell +flowers, or go "hopping." Laundry work is largely "season" work. +Fur-sewing is perhaps the worst example of the terrible effect of +irregular work taken with low wages. "For several months in the year the +fur-sewers have either no work, or earn about 3s. or 4s. a week, and many +of these work in overcrowded insanitary workshops in the season. +Fur-sewing is the worst paid industry in the East End, with absolutely no +exceptions."[<a href="#fn35">35</a>]</p> + +<p>β. Fluctuations in fashion affect many women's trades; in +particular, the "ornamental" clothing trades, e.g. furs, feathers, +trimmings, etc.</p> + +<p>Employers in these slack times prefer generally to keep on the better +hands (on lower wages), and to dismiss the inferior hands.</p> + +<p>These "natural" fluctuations, added to ordinary trade irregularities, +favour the employment of "outdoor" workers in sweaters' dens or at home, +and require in these trades, as conducted at present, the existence of an +enormous margin of "casual" workers. These two chief factors in the +"sweating" problem, sub-contract and irregular home-work, are far more +prevalent in female industries than in male.</p> + +<p><b>§ 4. Hours of Labour in Women's Trades.</b>--The Factory Act is supposed +to protect women engaged in industrial work from excessive hours of +labour, by setting a limit of twelve hours to the working day, including +an interval of two hours for meals.</p> + +<p>But passing over the fact that a dispensation is granted, enabling women +to be employed for fourteen hours during certain times, there is the far +more important consideration that most employments of women wholly escape +the operation of the Factory Act. In part this is due to the difficulty of +enforcing the Act in the case of sweating workshops, many of which are +unknown to inspectors, while others habitually break the law and escape +the penalty. Again, the Act does not and cannot be made to apply to a +large class of small domestic workshops. When the dwelling-room is also +the work-room, it is impossible to enforce by any machinery of law, close +limitation of hours of labour. Something may be done to extend the arm of +the law over small workshops; but the worst form of out-work, that +voluntarily undertaken by women in their own homes, cannot be thus put +down. Nothing short of a total prohibition of outwork imposed on employers +would be effectual here. Lastly, there are many large employments not +subject to the Factory Act, where the economic power of the employer over +weak employees is grossly abused. One of the worst instances is that of +the large laundries, where women work enormously long hours during the +season, and are often engaged for fifteen or sixteen hours on Fridays and +Saturdays. The whole class of shop-assistants are worked excessive hours. +Twelve and fourteen hours are a common shop day, and frequently the figure +rises to sixteen hours. Restaurants and public-houses are perhaps the +greatest offenders. The case of shop-assistants is most aggravated, for +these excessive hours of labour are wholly waste time; a reduction of 25 +or even of 50 per cent in the shopping-day, reasonably adjusted to the +requirements of classes and localities, would cause no diminution in the +quantity of sales effected, nor would it cause any appreciable +inconvenience to the consuming public.</p> + +<p><b>§ 5. Sanitary Conditions.</b>--Seeing that a larger proportion of women +workers are occupied in the small workshops or in their own overcrowded +homes, it is obvious that the fourth count of the "sweating" charge, that +of unsanitary conditions of work, applies more cruelly to them than to +men. Their more sedentary occupations, and the longer hours they work in +many cases outside the operation of the Factory Act, makes the evils of +overcrowding, bad ventilation, bad drainage, etc., more detrimental to the +health of women than of men workers.</p> + +<p><b>§ 6. Special Burdens incident on Women.</b>--We have now applied the four +chief heads of the "sweating" disease--low wages, long hours, irregular +employment, unsanitary conditions--to women's work, and have seen that the +absolute pressure in each case is heavier on the weaker sex.</p> + +<p>But in estimating the industrial condition of women, there are certain +other considerations which must not be left out of sight.</p> + +<p>To many women-workers, the duties of maternity and the care of children, +which in a civilized human society ought to secure for them some remission +from the burden, of the industrial fight, are a positive handicap in the +struggle for a livelihood. When a married woman or a widow is compelled to +support herself and her family, the home ties which preclude her from the +acceptance of regular factory work, tell fatally against her in the effort +to earn a living. Married women, and others with home duties which cannot +be neglected, furnish an almost illimitable field of casual or irregular +labour. Not only is this irregular work worse paid than regular factory +work, but its existence helps to keep up the pernicious system of +"out-work" under which "sweating" thrives. The commercial competition of +to-day positively trades upon the maternity of women-workers.</p> + +<p>In estimating the quantity of work which falls to the lot of industrial +women-workers, we must not forget to add to the wage-work that domestic +work which few of them can wholly avoid, and which is represented by no +wages. Looking at the problem in a broad human light, it is difficult to +say which is the graver evil, the additional burden of the domestic work, +so far as it is done, or the habitual neglect of it, where it is evaded. +Here perhaps the former point of view is more pertinent. To the long hours +of the factory-worker, or the shopwoman, we must often add the irksome +duties which to a weary wife must make the return home a pain rather than +a pleasure. When the industrial work is carried on at home the worries and +interruptions of family life must always contribute to the difficulty and +intensity of the toil, and tell upon the nervous system and the general +health of the women-workers.</p> + +<p>Other evils, incident on woman's industrial work, do not require +elaboration, though their cumulative effect is often very real. Many +women-workers, the locality of whose home depends on the work of their +husband or father, are obliged to travel every day long distances to and +from their work. The waste of time, the weariness, and sometimes the +expense of 'bus or train thus imposed on them, is in thousands of cases a +heavy tax upon their industrial life. Women working in factories, or +taking work home, suffer also many wrongs by reason of their "weaker sex," +and their general lack of trade organization. Unjust and arbitrary fines +are imposed by harsh employers so as to filch a portion of their scanty +earnings; their time is wasted by unnecessary delay in the giving out of +work, or its inspection when finished; the brutality and insolence of male +overseers is a common incident in their career. In a score of different +ways the weakness of women injures them as competitors in the free fight +for industrial work.</p> + +<p><b>§ 7. Causes of the Industrial Weakness of Women.</b>--This brief summary +of the industrial condition of low-skilled women-workers will suffice to +bring out the fact that the "sweating" question is even more a woman's +question than a man's. The question which rises next is, Why do women as +industrial workers suffer more than men?</p> + +<p>In the first place, as the physically weaker sex, they do on the average a +smaller quantity of work, and therefore receive lower wages. In certain +kinds of work, where women do piece-work along with men, it is found that +they get as high wages as men for the same quantity of work. The recent +report upon Textile Industries establishes this fact so far as those +trades are concerned. But this is not always, perhaps not in the majority +of instances, the case. Women-workers do not, in many cases, receive the +same wages which would be paid to men for doing the same work. Why is +this? It is sometimes described as an unfair advantage taken of women +because they are women. There is a male prejudice, it is urged, against +women-workers, which prevents employers from paying them the wages they +could and would pay to men.</p> + +<p>Now this contention, so far as it refers to a sentimental bias, is not +tenable. A body of women-workers, equally skilled with male workers, and +as strongly organized, would be able to extract the same rate of wages in +any trade. Everything depends upon the words "<i>as strongly organized</i>." +It is the general industrial weakness of the condition of most +women-workers, and not a sex prejudice, which prevents them from receiving +the wages which men might get, if the work the women do were left for male +competition alone. An employer, as a rule, pays the lowest wages he can +get the work done at. The real question we have to meet is this. Why can +he get women who will consent to work at a lower rate than he could get +men to work at? What peculiar conditions are there affecting women which +will oblige them to accept work on lower terms than men?</p> + +<p>Well, in the first place, the wage of a man can never fall much lower than +will suffice to maintain at the minimum standard of comfort both himself +and the average family he has to support. The minimum wage of the man, it +is true, need not cover the full support of his family, because the wife +or children will on the average contribute something to their maintenance. +But the wage of the man must cover his own support, and part of the +support of his family. This marks a rigid minimum wage for male labour; if +competition tends to drive wages lower, the supply of labour is limited to +unmarried males.</p> + +<p>The case of woman is different. If she is a free woman her minimum wage +will be what is required to support herself alone, and since a woman +appears able to keep alive and in working condition on a lower scale of +expenditure than man, the possible minimum wage for independent +women-workers will be less than a single man would consent to work for, +and considerably less than what a married man would require. But there are +other economic causes more important than this which drag down women's +wages.</p> + +<p>Single women, working to support themselves, are subject to the constant +competition of other women who are not dependent for their full livelihood +on the wages they get, and who, if necessary, are often willing to take +wages which would not keep them alive if they had no other source of +income. The minimum wages which can be obtained for certain kinds of work +may by this competition of "bounty-fed" labour be driven considerably +below starvation point. This is no mere hypothesis. It will be obvious +that the class of fur-sewers who, as we saw, earned while in full work +from 4s. to 7s. in the winter months, and the lower grades of brush-makers +and match-makers, to say nothing of the casual "out-workers," who often +take for a whole week's work 3s. or 2s. 6d., cannot, and do not, live upon +these earnings. They must either die upon them, as many in fact do, or +else they must be assisted by other funds.</p> + +<p>There are, at least, three classes of female workers whose competition +helps to keep wages below the point of bare subsistence in the employments +which they enter.</p> + +<p>First, there are married women who in their eagerness to increase the +family income, or to procure special comforts for themselves, are willing +to work at what must be regarded as "uncommercial rates"; that is to say, +for lower wages than they would be willing to accept if they were working +for full maintenance. It is sometimes asserted that since these married +women have not so strong a motive to secure work, they will not, and in +fact do not, undersell, and bring down the rate of wages. But it must be +admitted, firstly, that the very addition of their number to the total of +competitors for low-skilled work, forces down, and keeps down, the price +paid for that work; and secondly, that if they choose, they are enabled to +underbid at any time the labour of women entirely dependent on themselves +for support. The existence of this competition of married women must be +regarded as one of the reasons why wages are low in women's employments.</p> + +<p>Secondly, a large proportion of unmarried women live at home. Even if they +pay their parents the full cost of their keep, they can live more cheaply +than if they had to find a home for themselves. A large proportion, +however, of the younger women are partly supported at the expense of their +family, and work largely to provide luxuries in the shape of dress, and +other ornamental articles. Many of them will consent to work long hours +all week, for an incredibly low sum to spend on superfluities.</p> + +<p>Thirdly, there is the competition of women assisted by charity, or in +receipt of out-door poor relief. Sums paid by Boards of Guardians to +widows with young children, or assistance given by charitable persons to +aid women in distressed circumstances to earn a livelihood, will enable +these women to get work by accepting wages which would have been +impossible if they had not outside assistance to depend upon. It is thus +possible that by assisting a thoroughly deserving case, you may be helping +to drive down below starvation-point the wages of a class of workers.</p> + +<p>Probably a large majority of women-workers are to some extent bounty-fed +in one of these ways. In so far as they do receive assistance from one of +these sources, enabling them to accept lower wages than they could +otherwise have done, it should be clearly understood that they are +presenting the difference between the commercial and the uncommercial +price as a free gift to their employer, or in so far as competition will +oblige him to lower his prices, to the public, which purchases the results +of their work. But the most terrible effect of this uncommercial +competition falls on that miserable minority of their sisters who have no +such extra source of income, and who have to make the lower wages find +clothes, and shelter for themselves, and perhaps a family of children. We +hear a good deal about the jealousy of men, and the difficulties male +Trade Unions have sometimes thrown in the way of women obtaining +employment, which may seem to affect male interests. But though there is +doubtless some ground for these complaints, it should be acknowledged that +it is women who are the real enemies of women. Women's wages in the +"sweating" trades are almost incredibly low, because there is an +artificially large supply of women able and willing to take work at these +low rates.</p> + +<p>It will be possible to raise the wages in these low-paid employments only +on condition that women will agree to refuse to undersell one another +beyond a certain point. A restriction in what is called "freedom of +competition" is the only direct remedy which can be applied by women +themselves. If women could be induced to refuse to avail themselves of the +terrible power conferred by these different forms of "bounty," their wages +could not fall below that 9s. or 10s. which would be required to keep them +alive, and would probably rise higher.</p> + +<p><b>§ 8. What Trade Unionism can do for them.</b>--A question which naturally +rises now is, how far combination in the form of Trade Unionism can assist +to raise the industrial condition of these women. The practical power +wielded by male Unions we saw was twofold. Firstly, by restricting the +supply of labour in their respective trades they raised its market price, +i.e. wages. Secondly, they could extract better conditions from employers, +by obliging the latter to deal with them as a single large body instead +of dealing with them as a number of individuals. How far can women-workers +effect these same ends by these same means?</p> + +<p>Trade Unionism, so far as women are concerned, is yet in its infancy. In +1874, Mrs. Paterson established a society, now named the Women's Trades +Union Provident League, to try and establish combination among women in +their several trades. The first Union was that of women engaged in +book-binding, formed in September 1874. Since then a considerable number +of Unions have been formed among match-makers, dressmakers, milliners, +mantle-makers, upholstresses, rope-makers, confectioners, box-makers, +shirt-makers, umbrella-makers, brush-makers and others. Many of these have +been formed to remedy some pressing grievance, or to secure some definite +advance of wage, and in certain cases of skilled factory work where the +women have maintained a steady front, as among the match-makers and the +confectioners, considerable concessions have been won from employers. But +the small scale and tentative character of most of these organizations do +not yet afford any adequate test of what Unionism can achieve. The workers +in a few factories here and there have formed a Union of, at the most, a +few hundred workers. No large women's trade has yet been organized with +anything approaching the size and completeness of the stronger men's +Unions. Women Trade Unionists numbered 120,178 in 1901, and of these no +less than 89.9 per cent were textile workers, whose Unions are mostly +organized by and associated with male Unions.</p> + +<p>There are several reasons why the growth of effective organization among +women-workers must be slow. In the first place, as we have seen, a large +proportion of their work is "out work" done at home or in small domestic +workshops. Now labour organizations are necessarily strong and effective, +in proportion as the labourers are thrown together constantly both in +their work and in their leisure, have free and frequent opportunities of +meeting and discussion, of educating a sense of comradeship and mutual +confidence, which shall form a moral basis of unity for common industrial +action. But to the majority of women-workers no such opportunities are +open. Even the factory workers are for the most part employed in small +groups, and are dispersed in their homes. Combination among the mass of +home-workers or workers in small sweating establishments is almost +impossible. The women's Unions have hitherto been successful in proportion +as the trades are factory trades. Where endeavours have been made to +organize East End shirt-makers, milliners, and others who work at home, +very little has been achieved. In those trades where it is possible to +give out an indefinite amount of the work to sub-contractors, or to +workers to do at home, it seems impossible that any great results can be +thus attained. Even in trades where part of the work is done in factories, +the existence of reckless competition among unorganized out-workers can be +utilized by unprincipled employers to destroy attempts at effective +combination among their factory hands. The force of public opinion which +may support an organization of factory workers by preventing outsiders +from underselling, can have no effect upon the competition of +home-workers, who bid in ignorance of their competitors, and bid often for +the means of keeping life in themselves and their children. The very +poverty of the mass of women-workers, the low industrial conditions, +which Unionism seeks to relieve, form cruel barriers to the success of +their attempts. The low physical condition, the chronic exhaustion +produced by the long hours and fetid atmosphere in which the poorer +workers live, crush out the human energy required for effective protest +and combination. Moreover, the power to strike, and, if necessary, to hold +out for a long period of time, is an essential to a strong Trade Union. +Almost all the advantages won by women's Unions have been won by their +proved capacity for holding out against employers. This is largely a +matter of funds. It is almost impossible for the poorest classes of +women-workers to raise by their own abstinence a fund which shall make +their Union formidable. Their efforts where successful have been always +backed by outside assistance. Even were there a close federation of Unions +of various women's trades--a distant dream at present--the larger +proportion of recipients of low wages among women-workers as compared with +men would render their success more difficult.</p> + +<p><b>§ 9. Legislative Restriction and the force of Public Opinion.</b>--If +Trade Unionism among women is destined to achieve any large result, it +would appear that it will require to be supported by two extra-Union +forces.</p> + +<p>The first of these forces must consist of legislative restriction of +"out-work." If all employers of women were compelled to provide factories, +and to employ them there in doing that work at present done at home or in +small and practically unapproachable workshops, several wholesome results +would follow. The conditions of effective combination would be secured, +public opinion would assist in securing decent wages, factory inspection +would provide shorter hours and fair sanitary conditions, and last, not +least, women whose home duties precluded them from full factory work +would be taken out of the field of competition. Whether it would be +possible to successfully crush the whole system of industrial "out-work" +may be open to question; but it is certain that so long as, and in +proportion as "out-work" is permitted, attempts on the part of women to +raise their industrial condition by combination will be weak and +unsuccessful. So long as "out-work" continues to be largely practised and +unrestrained, competition sharpened by the action of married women and +other irregular and "bounty-fed" labour, must keep down the price of +women's work, not only for the out-workers themselves, but also for the +factory workers. Nor is it possible to see how the system of "out-work" +can be repressed or even restricted by any other force than legislation. +So long as home-workers are "free" to offer, and employers to accept, this +labour, it will continue to exist so long as it pays; it will pay so long +as it is offered cheap enough; and it will be offered cheaply so long as +the supply continues to bear the present relation to the demand.</p> + +<p>But there is another force required to give any full effect to such +extensions of the Factory Act as will crush private workshops, and either +directly or indirectly prohibit out-work. The real reason, as we saw, why +woman's wages were proportionately lower than man's, was the competition +of a mass of women, able and willing to work at indefinitely low rates, +because they were wholly or partly supported from other sources. Now +legislation can hardly interfere to prevent this competition, but public +opinion can. If the greater part of the industrial work now done by women +at home were done in factories, this fact in itself would offer some +restrictions to the competition of married women, which is so fatal to +those who depend entirely upon their wages for a livelihood. But the +gradual growth of a strong public opinion, fed by a clear perception of +the harm married women do to their unsupported sisters by their +competition, and directed towards the establishment of a healthy social +feeling against the wage-earning proclivities of married women, would be a +far more wholesome as well as a more potent method of interference than +the passing of any law.</p> + +<p>To interfere with the work of young women living at home, and supported in +large part by their parents, would be impracticable even if it were +desirable, although the competition of these conduces to the same lowering +of women's wages. But the education of a strong popular sentiment against +the propriety of the industrial labour of married women, would be not only +practicable, but highly desirable. Such a public sentiment would not at +first operate so stringently as to interfere in those exceptional cases +where it seems an absolute necessity that the wife should aid by her home +or factory work the family income. But a steady pressure of public +opinion, making for the closer restriction of the wage-work of married +women, would be of incomparable value to the movement to secure better +industrial conditions for those women who are obliged to work for a +living. A fuller, clearer realization of the importance of this subject is +much needed at the present time. The industrial emancipation of women, +favoured by the liberal sentiments of the age, has been eagerly utilized +by enterprising managers of businesses in search of the cheapest labour. +Not only women, but also children are enabled, owing to the nature of +recent mechanical inventions which relieve the physical strain, but +increase the monotony of labour, to make themselves useful in factories or +home-work. Each year sees a large growth in the ranks of women-workers. +Eager to earn each what she can, girls and wives alike rush into factory +work, reckless of the fact that their very readiness to work tells against +them in the amount of their weekly wages, and only goes to swell the +dividends of the capitalist, or perhaps eventually to lower prices. The +improving mechanism of our State School System assists this movement, by +turning out every year a larger percentage of half-timers, crammed to +qualify for wage-earners at the earliest possible period. Already in +Lancashire and elsewhere, the labour of these thirteen-year-olders is +competing with the labour of their fathers. The substitution of the "ring" +for the "mule" in Lancashire mills, is responsible for the sight which may +now be seen, of strong men lounging about the streets, supported by the +earnings of their own children, who have undersold them in the labour +market. The "ring" machine can be worked by a child, and can be learned in +half an hour; that is the sole explanation of this deplorable phenomenon.</p> + +<p>In the case of child-work, with its degrading consequences on the physical +and mental health of the victim thus prematurely thrust into the struggle +of life, legislation can doubtless do much. By raising the standard of +education, and, if necessary, by an absolute prohibition of child-work, +the State would be keeping well within the powers which the strictest +individualist would assign to it, as it would be merely protecting the +rising generation against the cupidity of parents and the encroachments of +industrial competition.</p> + +<p>The case of married women-workers is different. Better education of women +in domestic work and the requirements of wifehood and motherhood; the +growth of a juster and more wholesome feeling in the man, that he may +refuse to demand that his wife add wage-work to her domestic drudgery; +and above all, a clearer and more generally diffused perception in society +of the value of healthy and careful provision for the children of our +race, should build up a bulwark of public opinion, which shall offer +stronger and stronger obstruction to the employment of married women, +either outside or inside the home, in the capacity of industrial +wage-earners. The satisfaction rightly felt in the ever wider +opportunities afforded to unmarried women of earning an independent +livelihood, and of using their abilities and energies in socially useful +work, is considerably qualified by our perception of the injury which +these new opportunities inflict upon our offspring and our homes. Surely, +from the large standpoint of true national economy, no wiser use could be +made of the vast expansion of the wealth-producing power of the nation +under the reign of machinery, than to secure for every woman destined to +be a wife and a mother, that relief from the physical strain of industrial +toil which shall enable her to bring forth healthy offspring, and to +employ her time and attention in their nurture, and in the ordering of a +cleanly, wholesome, peaceful home life. So long as public opinion permits +or even encourages women, who either are or will be mothers, to neglect +the preparation for, and the performance of, the duties of domestic life +and of maternity, by engaging in laborious and unhealthy industrial +occupations, so long shall we pay the penalty in that physical and moral +deterioration of the race which we have traced in low city life. How can +the women of Cradley Heath engaged in wielding huge sledge-hammers, or +carrying on their neck a hundredweight of chain for twelve or fourteen +hours a day, in order to earn five or seven shillings a week, bear or rear +healthy children? What "hope of our race" can we expect from the average +London factory hand? What "home" is she capable of making for her husband +and her children? The high death-rate of the "slum" children must be +largely attributed to the fact that the women are factory workers first +and mothers afterwards. Roscher, the German economist, assigns as the +reason why the Jewish population of Prussia increases so much faster than +the Christian, the fact that the Jewish mothers seldom go out of their own +homes to work.[<a href="#fn36">36</a>] One of the chief social dangers of the age is the +effect of industrial work upon the motherhood of the race. Surely, the +first duty of society should be to secure healthy conditions for the lives +of the young, so as to lay a firm physical foundation for the progress of +the race.</p> + +<p>This we neglect to do when we look with indifference or complacency upon +the present phase of unrestricted competition in industrial work amongst +women. So long as we refuse to insist, as a nation, that along with the +growth of national wealth there shall be secured those conditions of +healthy home life requisite for the sound, physical, moral, and +intellectual growth of the young, at whatever cost of interference with +so-called private liberty of action, we are rendering ourselves as a +nation deliberately responsible for the continuance of that creature whose +appearance gives a loud lie to our claim of civilization--the gutter child +of our city streets. Thousands of these children, as we well know, the +direct product of economic maladjustment, grow up every year--in our great +cities to pass from babyhood into the street arab, afterwards to become +what they may, tramp, pauper, criminal, casual labourer, feeble-bodied, +weak-minded, desolate creatures, incapable of strong, continuous effort +at any useful work. These are the children who have never known a healthy +home. With that poverty which compels mothers to be wage-earners, lies no +small share of the responsibility of this sin against society and moral +progress. It is true that no sudden general prohibition of married woman's +work would be feasible. But it is surely to be hoped that with every +future rise in the wages and industrial position of male wage-earners, +there may be a growing sentiment in favour of a restriction of industrial +work among married women.</p> +</div> + + +<div class="chapter" id="ch09"> +<h2>Chapter IX.</h2> + +<h3>Moral Aspects of Poverty.</h3> + + + +<p><b>§ 1."Moral" View of the Causes of Poverty.</b>--Our diagnosis of +"sweating" has regarded poverty as an industrial disease, and we have +therefore concerned ourselves with the examination of industrial remedies, +factory legislation, Trade Unionism, and restrictions of the supply of +unskilled labour. It may seem that in doing this we have ignored certain +important moral factors in the problem, which, in the opinion of many, are +all important. Until quite recently the vast majority of those +philanthropic persons who interested themselves in the miserable +conditions of the poor, paid very slight attention to the economic aspect +of poverty, and never dreamed of the application of economic remedies. It +is not unnatural that religions and moral teachers engaged in active +detailed work among the poor should be so strongly impressed by the moral +symptoms of the disease as to mistake them for the prime causes. "It is a +fact apparent to every thoughtful man that the larger portion of the +misery that constitutes our Social Question arises from idleness, +gluttony, drink, waste, indulgence, profligacy, betting, and dissipation." +These words of Mr. Arnold White express the common view of those +philanthropists who do not understand what is meant by "the industrial +system," and of the bulk of the comfortable classes when they are +confronted with the evils of poverty as disclosed in "the sweating +system." Intemperance, unthrift, idleness, and inefficiency are indeed +common vices of the poor. If therefore we could teach the poor to be +temperate, thrifty, industrious, and efficient, would not the problem of +poverty be solved? Is not a moral remedy instead of an economic remedy the +one to be desired? The question at issue here is a vital one to all who +earnestly desire to secure a better life for the poor. This "moral view" +has much to recommend it at first sight. In the first place, it is a +"moral" view, and as morality is admittedly the truest and most real end +of man, it would seem that a moral cure must be more radical and efficient +than any merely industrial cure. Again, these "vices" of the poor, drink, +dirt, gambling, prostitution, &c., are very definite and concrete maladies +attaching to large numbers of individual cases, and visibly responsible +for the misery and degradation of the vicious and their families. Last, +not least, this aspect of poverty, by representing the condition of the +poor to be chiefly "their own fault," lightens the sense of responsibility +for the "well to do." It is decidedly the more comfortable view, for it at +once flatters the pride of the rich by representing poverty as an evidence +of incompetency, salves his conscience when pricked by the contrast of the +misery around him, and assists him to secure his material interests by +adopting an attitude of stern repression towards large industrial or +political agitations in the interests of labour, on the ground that "these +are wrong ways of tackling the question."</p> + +<p><b>§ 2. "Unemployment" and the Vices of the Poor.</b>--The question is this, +Can the poor be moralized, and will that cure Poverty? To discuss this +question with the fullness it deserves is here impossible, but the +following considerations will furnish some data for an answer--</p> + +<p>In the first place, it is very difficult to ascertain to what extent +drink, vice, idleness, and other personal defects are actually responsible +for poverty in individual cases. There is, however, reason to believe that +the bulk of cases of extreme poverty and destitution cannot be traced to +these personal vices, but, on the other hand, that they are attributable +to industrial causes for which the sufferer is not responsible. The +following is the result of a careful analysis of 4000 cases of "very poor" +undertaken by Mr. Charles Booth. These are grouped as follows according to +the apparent causes of distress--</p> +<ul> +<li> 4 per cent, are "loafers."</li> +<li> 14 " " are attributed to drink and thriftlessness. </li> +<li> 27 " " are due to illness, large families, or other misfortunes. </li> +<li> 55 " " are assigned to "questions of employment."</li> +</ul> +<p>Here, in the lowest class of city poor, moral defects are the direct cause +of distress in only 18 per cent. of the cases, though doubtless they may +have acted as contributory or indirect causes in a larger number.</p> + +<p>In the classes just above the "very poor," 68 per cent. of poverty is +attributed to "questions of employment," and only 13 per cent. to drink +and thriftlessness. In the lowest parts of Whitechapel drink figures very +slightly, affecting only 4 per cent. of the very poor, and 1 per cent. of +the poor, according to Mr. Booth. Even applied to a higher grade of +labour, a close investigation of facts discloses a grossly exaggerated +notion of the sums spent in drink by city workers in receipt of good +wages. A careful inquiry into the expenditure of a body of three hundred +Amalgamated Engineers during a period of two years, yielded an average of +1s. 9d. per week spent on drink.</p> + +<p>So, too, in the cases brought to the notice of the Lords' Committee, drink +and personal vices do not play the most important part. The Rev. S. A. +Barnett, who knows East London so well, does not find the origin of +poverty in the vices of the poor. Terrible as are the results of +drunkenness, impurity, unthrift, idleness, disregard of sanitary rules, it +is not possible, looking fairly at the facts, to regard these as the main +sources of poverty. If we are not carried away by the spirit of some +special fanaticism, we shall look upon these evils as the natural and +necessary accessories of the struggle for a livelihood, carried on under +the industrial conditions of our age and country. Even supposing it were +demonstrable that a much larger proportion of the cases of poverty and +misery were the direct consequence of these moral and sanitary vices of +the poor, we should not be justified in concluding that moral influence +and education were the most effectual cures, capable of direct +application. It is indeed highly probable that the "unemployed" worker is +on the average morally and industrially inferior to the "employed," and +from the individual point of view this inferiority is often responsible +for his non-employment. But this only means that differences of moral and +industrial character determine what particular individuals shall succeed +or fail in the fight for work and wages. It by no means follows that if by +education we could improve all these moral and industrial weaklings they +could obtain steady employment without displacing others. Where an +over-supply of labour exists, no remedy which does not operate either by +restricting the supply or increasing the demand for labour can be +effectual.</p> + +<p><b>§ 3. Civilization ascends from Material to Moral.</b>--The life of the +poorest and most degraded classes is impenetrable to the highest +influences of civilization. So long as the bare struggle for continuance +of physical existence absorbs all their energies, they cannot be +civilized. The consideration of the greater intrinsic worth of the moral +life than the merely physical life, must not be allowed to mislead us. +That which has the precedence in value has not the precedence in time. We +must begin with the lower life before we can ascend to the higher. As in +the individual the <i>corpus sanum</i> is rightly an object of earlier +solicitude in education than the <i>mens sana</i>, though the latter may be of +higher importance; so with the progress of a class. We cannot go to the +lowest of our slum population and teach them to be clean, thrifty, +industrious, steady, moral, intellectual, and religious, until we have +first taught them how to secure for themselves the industrial conditions +of healthy physical life. Our poorest classes have neither the time, the +energy, or the desire to be clean, thrifty, intellectual, moral, or +religious. In our haste we forget that there is a proper and necessary +order in the awakening of desires. At present our "slum" population do not +desire to be moral and intellectual, or even to be particularly clean. +Therefore these higher goods must wait, so far as they are dependent on +the voluntary action of the poor. What these people do want is better +food, and more of it; warmer clothes; better and surer shelter; and +greater security of permanent employment on decent wages. Until we can +assist them to gratify these "lower" desires, we shall try in vain to +awaken "higher" ones. We must prepare the soil of a healthy physical +existence before we can hope to sow the moral seed so as to bring forth +fruit. Upon a sound physical foundation alone can we build a high moral +and spiritual civilization.</p> + +<p>Moral and sanitary reformers have their proper sphere of action among +those portions of the working classes who have climbed the first rounds in +the ladder of civilization, and stand on tolerably firm conditions of +material comfort and security. They cannot hope at present to achieve any +great success among the poorest workers. The fact must not be shirked that +in preaching thrift, hygiene, morality, and religion to the dwellers in +the courts and alleys of our great cities, we are sowing seed upon a +barren ground. Certain isolated cases of success must not blind us to this +truth. Take, for example, thrift. It is not possible to expect that large +class of workers who depend upon irregular earnings of less than 18s. a +week to set by anything for a rainy day. The essence of thrift is +regularity, and regularity is to them impossible. Even supposing their +scant wage was regular, it is questionable whether they would be justified +in stinting the bodily necessities of their families by setting aside a +portion which could not in the long run suffice to provide even a bare +maintenance for old age or disablement. To say this is not to impugn the +value of thrift in maintaining a character of dignity and independence in +the worker; it is simply to recognize that valuable as these qualities +are, they must be subordinated to the first demands of physical life. +Those who can save without encroaching on the prime necessaries of life +ought to save; but there are still many who cannot save, and these are +they whom the problem of poverty especially concerns. The saying of +Aristotle, that "it is needful first to have a maintenance, and then to +practise virtue," does not indeed imply that we <i>ought</i> to postpone +practising the moral virtues until we have secured ourselves against want, +but rather means that before we can live well we <i>must</i> first be able to +live at all.</p> + +<p>Precisely the same is true of the "inefficiency" of the poor. Nothing is +more common than to hear men and women, often incapable themselves of +earning by work the money which they spend, assigning as the root of +poverty the inefficiency of the poor. It is quite true that the "poor" +consist for the most part of inefficient workers. It would be strange if +it were not so. How shall a child of the slums, ill-fed in body and mind, +brought up in the industrial and moral degradation of low city life, +without a chance of learning how to use hands or head, and to acquire +habits of steady industry, become an efficient workman? The conditions +under which they grow up to manhood and womanhood preclude the possibility +of efficiency. It is the bitterest portion of the lot of the poor that +they are deprived of the opportunity of learning to work well. To taunt +them with their incapacity, and to regard it as the cause of poverty, is +nothing else than a piece of blind insolence. Here and there an individual +may be to blame for neglected opportunities; but the "poor" as a class +have no more chance under present conditions of acquiring "efficiency" +than of attaining to refined artistic taste, or the culminating Christian +virtue of holiness. Inefficiency is one of the worst and most degrading +aspects of poverty; but to regard it as the leading cause is an error +fatal to a true understanding of the problem.</p> + +<p>We now see why it is impossible to seriously entertain the claim of +Co-operative Production as a direct remedy for poverty. The success of +Co-operative schemes depends almost entirely upon the presence of high +moral and intellectual qualities in those co-operating--trust, patience, +self restraint, and obedience combined with power of organization, skill, +and business enterprise. These qualities are not yet possessed by our +skilled artisan class to the extent requisite to enable them to readily +succeed in productive co-operation; how can it be expected then that +low-skilled inefficient labour should exhibit them? The enthusiastic +co-operator says we must educate them up to the requisite moral and +intellectual level. The answer is, that it is impossible to apply such +educating influences effectually, until we have first placed them on a +sound physical basis of existence; that is to say, until we have already +cured the worst form of the malady. From whatever point we approach this +question we are driven to the conclusion that as the true cause of the +disease is an industrial one, so the earliest remedies must be rather +industrial than moral or educational.</p> + +<p><b>§ 4. Effects of Temperance and Technical Education.</b>--Again, we are +by no means justified in leaping to the conclusion that if we could induce +workers to become more sober, more industrious, or more skilful, their +industrial condition would of necessity be improved to a corresponding +extent. If we can induce an odd farm-labourer here and there to give up +his "beer," he and his family are no doubt better off to the extent of +this saving, and can employ the money in some much more profitable way. +But if the whole class of farm-labourers could be persuaded to become +teetotalers without substituting some new craving of equal force in the +place of drink, it is extremely probable that in all places where there +was an abundant supply of farm-labourers, the wage of a farm-labourer +would gradually fall to the extent of the sum of money formerly spent in +beer. For the lowest paid classes of labourers get, roughly speaking, no +more wages than will just suffice to provide them with what they insist on +regarding as necessaries of life. To an ordinary labourer "beer" is a part +of the minimum subsistence for less than which he will not consent to work +at all. Where there is an abundance of labour, as is generally the case in +low-skilled employments, this minimum subsistence or lowest standard of +comfort practically determines wages. If you were merely to take something +away from this recognized minimum without putting something else to take +its place, you would actually lower the rate of wages. If, by a crusade of +temperance pure and simple, you made teetotalers of the mass of +low-skilled workers, their wages would indisputably fall, although they +might be more competent workers than before. If, on the other hand, +following the true line of temperance reform, you expelled intemperance by +substituting for drink some healthier, higher, and equally strong desire +which cost as much or more to attain its satisfaction; if in giving up +drink they insisted on providing against sickness and old age, or upon +better houses and more recreation and enjoyment, then their wages would +not fall, and might even rise in proportion as their new wants, as a +class, were more expensive than the craving for drink which they had +abandoned.</p> + +<p>Or, again, take the case of technical or general education. In so far as +technical education enabled a number of men who would otherwise have been +unskilled labourers, to compete for skilled work, it will no doubt enable +these men to raise themselves in the industrial sense; but the addition of +their number to the ranks of skilled labour will imply an increase in +supply of skilled labour, and a decrease in supply of unskilled labour; +the price or wage for unskilled labour will rise, but the wage for skilled +labour will fall assuming the relationship between the demand for skilled +and unskilled labour to remain as before. A mere increase in the +efficiency of labour, though it would increase the quantity of wealth +produced, and render a rise of wages possible, would of itself have no +economic force to bring about a rise. No improvement in the character of +labour will be effectual in raising wages unless it causes a rise in the +standard of comfort, which he demands as a condition of the use of his +labour. If we merely increased the efficiency of labour without a +corresponding stimulation of new wants, we should be simply increasing the +mass of labour-power offered for sale, and the price of each portion would +fall correspondingly. It would confer no more <i>direct</i> benefit upon the +worker as such, than does the introduction of some new machine which has +the same effect of adding to the average efficiency of the worker. Those +who would advocate technical and general education, with a view to the +material improvement of the masses, must see that this education be +applied in such a way as to assist in implanting and strengthening new +wholesome demands in those educated, so as to effectively raise this +standard of living. There can be little doubt but that such education +would create new desires, and so would indirectly secure the industrial +elevation of the masses. But it ought to be clearly recognized that the +industrial force which operates <i>directly</i> to raise the wages of the +workers, is not technical skill, or increased efficiency of labour, but +the elevated standard of comfort required by the working-classes. It is at +the same time true, that if we could merely stimulate the workers to new +wants requiring higher wages, they could not necessarily satisfy all +these new wants. If it were possible to induce all labourers to demand +such increase of wages as sufficed to enable them to lay by savings, it is +difficult to say whether they could in all cases press this claim +successfully. But if at the same time their efficiency as labourers +likewise grew, it will be evident that they both can and would raise that +standard of living.</p> + +<p>In so far as the results of technical education upon the class of +low-skilled labourers alone is concerned, it is evident that it would +relieve the constant pressure of an excessive supply. Whatever the effect +of this might be upon the industrial condition of the skilled industries +subjected to the increased competition, there can be no doubt that the +wages of low-skilled labour would rise. Since the condition of unskilled +or low-skilled workers forms the chief ingredient in poverty, such a +"levelling up" may be regarded as a valuable contribution towards a cure +of the worst phase of the disease.</p> + +<p>This brief investigation of the working of moral and educational cures for +industrial diseases shows us that these remedies can only operate in +improving the material condition of the poorest classes, in so far as they +conduce to raise the standard of living among the poor. Since a higher +standard of comfort means economically a restriction in the number of +persons willing to undertake work for a lower rate of wage than will +support this standard of comfort, it may be said that moral remedies can +be only effectual in so far as they limit the supply of low-skilled, +low-paid labour. Thus we are brought round again to the one central point +in the problem of poverty, the existence of an excessive supply of cheap +labour.</p> + +<p><b>§ 5. The False Dilemma which impedes Progress.</b>--There are those who +seek to retard all social progress by a false and mischievous dilemma +which takes the following shape. No radical improvement in industrial +organization, no work of social reconstruction, can be of any real avail +unless it is preceded by such moral and intellectual improvement in the +condition of the mass of workers as shall render the new machinery +effective; unless the change in human nature comes first, a change in +external conditions will be useless. On the other hand, it is evident that +no moral or intellectual education can be brought effectively to bear upon +the mass of human beings, whose whole energies are necessarily absorbed by +the effort to secure the means of bare physical support. Thus it is made +to appear as if industrial and moral progress must each precede the other, +a thing which is impossible. Those who urge that the two forms of +improvement must proceed <i>pari passu, </i>do not precisely understand what +they propose.</p> + +<p>The falsehood of the above dilemma consists in the assumption that +industrial reformers wish to proceed by a sudden leap from an old +industrial order to a new one. Such sudden movements are not in accordance +with the gradual growth which nature insists upon as the condition of wise +change. But it is equally in accordance with nature that the material +growth precedes the moral. Not that the work of moral reconstruction can +lag far behind. Each step in this industrial advancement of the poor +should, and must, if the gain is to be permanent, be followed closely and +secured by a corresponding advance in moral and intellectual character and +habits. But the moral and religious reformer should never forget that in +order of time material reform comes first, and that unless proper +precedence be yielded to it, the higher ends of humanity are unattainable.</p> +</div> + + +<div class="chapter" id="ch10"> +<h2>Chapter X.</h2> + +<h3>"Socialistic Legislation."</h3> + + + +<p><b>§ 1.Legislation in restraint of "Free" Contract.</b>--The direct +pressure of certain tangible and painful forms of industrial grievance and +of poverty has forced upon us a large mass of legislation which is +sometimes called by the name of Socialistic Legislation. It is necessary +to enter on a brief examination of the character of the various enactments +included under this vague term, in order to ascertain the real nature of +the remedy they seek to apply.</p> + +<p>Perhaps the most typical form of this socialistic legislation is contained +in the Factory Acts, embodying as they do a series of direct interferences +in the interests of the labouring classes with freedom of contract between +capital and labour.</p> + +<p>The first of these Factory Acts, the Health and Morals Act, was passed in +1802, and was designed for the protection of children apprenticed in the +rising manufacturing towns of the north, engaged in the cotton and woollen +trades. Large numbers of children apprenticed by poor-law overseers in the +southern counties were sent as "slaves" to the northern manufacturer, to +be kept in overcrowded buildings adjoining the factory, and to be worked +day and night, with an utter disregard to all considerations of physical +or moral health. There is no page in the history of our nation so +infamous as that which tells the details of the unbridled greed of these +pioneers of modern commercialism, feeding on the misery and degradation of +English children. This Act of 1802, enforcing some small sanitary reforms, +prohibited night work, and limited the working-day of apprenticed children +to twelve hours. In 1819, another Act was passed for the benefit of +unapprenticed child workers in cotton mills, prohibiting the employment of +children under nine years, and limiting the working-day to twelve hours +for children between nine and sixteen. Sir John Cam Hobhouse in 1825 +passed an Act further restricting the labour of children under sixteen +years, requiring a register of children employed in mills, and shortening +the work on Saturdays. Then came the agitation of Richard Oastler for a +Ten Hours Bill. But Parliament was not ripe for this, and Hobhouse, +attempting to redeem the hours in textile industries, was defeated by the +northern manufacturers. Public feeling, however, formed chiefly by Tories +like Oastler, Sadler, Ashley, and Fielden, drove the Whig leader, Lord +Althorp, to pass the important Factory Act of 1833. This Act drew the +distinction between children admitted to work below the age of thirteen, +and "young persons" of ages from thirteen to eighteen; enforced in the +case of the former attendance at school, and a maximum working week of +forty-eight hours; in the case of the latter prohibited night work, and +limited the hours of work to sixty-nine a week. The next step of +importance was Peel's consolidating Factory Act of 1844, reducing the +working-day for children to six and a half hours, and increasing the +compulsory school attendance from two hours to three, and strengthening in +various ways the machinery of inspection. In 1845 Lord Ashley passed a +measure prohibiting the night work of women. In 1848, by the Act of Mr. +Fielden, ten hours was assigned as a working-day for women and young +persons, and further restrictions in favour of women and children were +made in 1850 and 1853.</p> + +<p>It must, however, be remembered that all the Factory legislation previous +to 1860 was confined to textile factories--cotton, woollen, silk, or +linen. In 1860, bleaching and dyeing works were brought within the Factory +Acts, and several other detailed extensions were made between 1861 and +1864, in the direction of lace manufacture, pottery, chimney-sweeping, and +other employments. But not until 1867 were manufactories in general +brought under Factory legislation. This was achieved by the Factory Acts +Extension Act, and the Workshops Regulation Act. For several years, +however, the beneficial effects of this legislation was grievously +impaired by the fact that local authorities were left to enforce it. Not +until 1871, when the regulation and enforcement was restored to State +inspectors, was the legislation really effectual. The Factory and Workshop +Act of 1878, modified by a few more recent restrictions, is still in +force. It makes an advance on the earlier legislation in the following +directions. It prohibits the employment in any factory or workshop of +children under the age of eleven, and requires a certificate of fitness +for factory labour under the age of sixteen. It imposes the half-time +system on all children, admitting, however, two methods, either of passing +half the day in school, and half at work, or of giving alternate days to +work and school. It recognizes a distinction between the severity of work +in textile factories and in non-textile factories, assigning a working +week of about fifty-six and a half hours to the former, and sixty hours +to the latter. The exceptions of domestic workshops, and of many other +forms of female and child employment, the permission of over-time within +certain limitations, and the inadequate provision of inspection, +considerably diminish the beneficial effects of these restrictive +measures.</p> + +<p>In 1842 Lord Ashley secured a Mining Act, which prohibited the underground +employment of women, and of boys under ten years. In 1850 mine inspectors +were provided, and a number of precautions enforced to secure the safety +of miners. In 1864 several minor industries, dangerous in their nature, +such as the manufacture of lucifer-matches, cartridges, etc., were brought +under special regulations. To these restrictive pieces of legislation +should be added the Employers' Liability Act, enforcing the liability of +employers for injuries sustained by workers through no fault of their own, +and the "Truck" legislation, compelling the payment of wages in cash, and +at suitable places.</p> + +<p>This slight sketch will suffice to mark the leading features of a large +class of laws which must be regarded as a growth of State socialism.</p> + +<p>The following points deserve special attention--</p> + +<p>1. These measures are all forced on Parliament by the recognition of +actual grievances, and all are testimony to the failure of a system of +complete <i>laissez faire</i>.</p> + +<p>2. They all imply a direct interference of the State with individual +freedom--i.e. the worker cannot sell his labour as he likes; the +capitalist cannot make what contracts he likes.</p> + +<p>3. Though the protection of children and women is the strongest motive +force in this legislative action, many of these measures interfere +directly or indirectly with adult male labour--e.g. the limit on the +factory hours of women and children practically limits the factory day for +men, where the latter work with women or children. The clauses of recent +Factory Acts requiring the "fencing of machinery" and other precautions, +apply to men as well as to children and women. The Truck Act and +Employers' Liability Act apply to male adult labour.</p> + +<p><b>§ 2. Theory of this Legislation.</b>--Under such legislation as the +foregoing it is evident that the theory that a worker should be free to +sell his labour as he likes has given way before the following +considerations--</p> + +<p>(1) That this supposed "freedom to work as one likes" often means only a +freedom to work as another person likes, whether that other person be a +parent, as in the case of children, or an employer, as in the case of +adult workers.</p> + +<p>(2) That a worker in a modern industrial community is not a detached unit, +whose contract to work only concerns himself and his employer. The +fellow-workers in the same trade and society at large have a distinct and +recognizable interest in the conditions of the work of one another. A, by +keeping his shop open on Sundays, or for long hours on week-days, is able +to compel B, C, D, and all the rest of his trade competitors to do the +same. A minority of workmen by accepting low wages, or working over-time, +are often able to compel the majority to do the same. There is no +labour-contract or other commercial act which merely regards the interest +of the parties directly concerned. How far a society acting for the +protection of itself, or of a number of its members, is justified in +interfering between employer and workman, or between competing tradesmen, +is a question of expediency. General considerations of the theoretic +"freedom of contract," and the supposed "self-regarding" quality of the +actions, are thus liable to be set aside by this socialistic legislation.</p> + +<p>(3) These interferences with "free contract" of labour are not traceable +to the policy of any one political party. The most valuable portions of +the factory measures were passed by nominally Conservative governments, +and though supported by a section of the Radical party, were strenuously +opposed by the bulk of the Liberals, including another section of Radicals +and political economists.</p> + +<p>These measures signify a slow but steady growth of national sentiment in +favour of securing for the poor a better life. The keynote of the whole +movement is the protection of the weak. This appears especially in a +recognition of the growing claims of children. Not only is this seen in +the history of factory legislation, but in the long line of educational +legislation, happily not ended yet. These taken together form a chain of +measures for the protection of the young against the tyranny, greed, or +carelessness of employers or parents. The strongest public sentiment is +still working in this same direction. Recent agitation on the subject of +prevention of cruelty to children, free dinners for school-children, +adoption of children, child insurance, attest the growing strength of this +feeling.</p> + +<p><b>§ 3. General extension of Paternal Government.</b>--The class of measures +with which we have dealt recognizes that children, women, and in some +cases men, are unable to look after their own interests as industrial +workers, and require the aid of paternal legislation. But it must not be +forgotten that the century has seen the growth of another long series of +legislative Acts based also on the industrial weakness of the individual, +and designed to protect society in general, adult or young, educated or +uneducated, rich or poor. Among these come Adulteration Acts, Vaccination +Acts, Contagious Diseases Acts, and the network of sanitary legislation, +Acts for the regulation of weights and measures, and for the inspection of +various commodities, licenses for doctors, chemists, hawkers, &c. Many of +these are based on ancient historic precedents; we have grown so +accustomed to them, and so thoroughly recognize the value of most of them, +that it seems almost unnecessary to speak of them as socialistic measures. +Yet such they are, and all of them are objected to upon this very ground +by men of the political school of Mr. Herbert Spencer and Mr. Auberon +Herbert. For it should be noted--</p> + +<p>1. Each of these Acts interferes with the freedom of the individual. It +compels him to do certain things--e.g. vaccinate his children, admit +inspectors on his premises--and it forbids him to do certain other things.</p> + +<p>2. Most of these Acts limit the utility to the individual of his capital, +by forbidding him to employ it in certain ways, and hampering him with +various restrictions and expenses. The State, or municipality, in certain +cases--e.g. railways and cabs--even goes so far as to fix prices.</p> + +<p><b>§ 4. State and Municipal Undertakings.</b>--But the State does not +confine itself to these restrictive or prohibitive measures, interfering +with the free individual application of capital and labour, in the +interests of other individuals, or of society at large. The State and the +municipality is constantly engaged in undertaking new branches of +productive work, thus limiting the industrial area left open to the +application of private capitalist enterprise.</p> + +<p>In some cases these public works exist side by side in competition with +private enterprise; as, for example, in the carriage of parcels, life +insurance, banking, and the various minor branches of post-office work, in +medical attendance, and the maintenance of national education, and of +places of amusement and recreation. In other cases it claims an absolute +monopoly, and shuts off entirely private enterprise, as in the conveyance +of letters and telegrams, and the local industries connected with the +production and distribution of gas and water. The extent and complexity of +that portion of our State and municipal machinery which is engaged in +productive work will be understood from the following description--</p> + +<p>"Besides our international relations, and the army, navy, police, and the +courts of justice, the community now carries on for itself, in some part +or another of these islands, the post-office, telegraphs, carriage of +small commodities, coinage, surveys the regulation of the currency and +note issue, the provision of weights and measures, the making, sweeping, +lighting, and repairing of streets, roads, and bridges, life insurance, +the grant of annuities, shipbuilding, stockbroking, banking, farming, and +money-lending. It provides for many of us from birth to burial--midwifery, +nursery, education, board and lodging, vaccination, medical attendance, +medicine, public worship, amusements, and interment. It furnishes and +maintains its own museums, parks, art galleries, libraries, concert-halls, +roads, bridges, markets, slaughterhouses, fire-engines, lighthouses, +pilots, ferries, surf-boats, steam-tugs, life-boats, cemeteries, public +baths, washhouses, pounds, harbours, piers, wharves, hospitals, +dispensaries, gas-works, water-works, tramways, telegraph-cables, +allotments, cow-meadows, artisans' dwellings, schools, churches, and +reading-rooms. It carries on and publishes its own researches in geology, +meteorology, statistics, zoology, geography, and even theology. In our +colonies the English Government further allows and encourages the +communities to provide for themselves railways, canals, pawnbroking, +theatres, forestry, cinchona farms, irrigation, leper villages, casinos, +bathing establishments, and immigration, and to deal in ballast, guano, +quinine, opium, salt, and what not. Every one of these functions, with +those of the army, navy, police, and courts of justice, were at one time +left to private enterprise, and were a source of legitimate individual +investment of capital."[<a href="#fn37">37</a>]</p> + +<p>Some of the utilities and conveniences thus supplied by public capital and +public labour are old-established wants, but many are new wants, and the +marked tendency of public bodies to undertake the provision of the new +necessaries and conveniences which grow up with civilization is a +phenomenon which deserves close attention.</p> + +<p><b>§ 5. Motives of "Socialistic Legislation."</b>--Stated in general terms, +this socialistic tendency may be described as a movement for the control +and administration by the public of all works engaged in satisfying common +general needs of life, which are liable, if trusted to private enterprise, +to become monopolies.</p> + +<p>Articles which everybody needs, the consumption or use of which is fairly +regular, and where there is danger of insufficient or injurious +competition, if the provision be left to private firms, are constantly +passing, and will pass more and more quickly, under public control. The +work of protection against direct injuries to person and property has in +all civilized countries been recognized as a dangerous monoply if left to +private enterprise. Hence military, naval, police, and judicial work is +first "socialized," and in modern life a large number of subsidiary works +for the protection of the life and wealth of the community are added to +these first public duties. Roads, bridges, and a large part of the +machinery of communication or conveyance are soon found to be capable of +abuse if left to private ownership; hence the post and telegraph is +generally State-owned, and in most countries the railways. There is for +the same reason a strong movement towards the municipal ownership of +tramways, gas-and water-works, and all such works as are associated with +monopoly of land, and are not open to adequate competition. In England +everywhere these works are subject to public control, and the tendency is +for this control, which implies part ownership, to develop into full +ownership. Nearly half the gas-consumers in this country are already +supplied by public works. One hundred and two municipalities own electric +plant, forty-five own their tramway systems, one hundred and ninety-three +their water supplies, at the close of 1902.</p> + +<p>The receipts of local authorities from rates and other sources, including +productive undertakings, had increased from seventy millions sterling to +one hundred and forty-five millions between 1890-1 and 1901-2. Art +galleries, free libraries, schools of technical education, are beginning +to spring up on all sides. Municipal lodging-houses are in working at +London, Glasgow, and several other large towns.</p> + +<p>In every one of these cases, two forces are at work together, the pressure +of an urgent public need, and the perception that private enterprise +cannot be trusted to satisfy their need on account of the danger of +monopoly. How far or how fast this State or municipal limitation of +private enterprise and assumption of public enterprise will proceed, it +is not possible to predict. Everything depends on the two following +considerations--</p> + +<p>First, the tendency of present private industries concerned with the +supply of common wants of life to develop into dangerous monopolies by the +decay of effective competition. If the forces at work in the United States +for the establishment of syndicates, trusts, and other forms of monopoly, +show themselves equally strong in England, the inevitable result will be +an acceleration of State and municipal socialism.</p> + +<p>Secondly, the capacity shown by our municipal and other public bodies for +the effective management of such commercial enterprises as they are at +present engaged in.</p> + +<p>Reviewing then the mass of restrictive, regulative, and prohibitive +legislation, largely the growth of the last half century, and the +application of the State and municipal machinery to various kinds of +commercial undertakings in the interest of the community, we find it +implies a considerable and growing restriction of the sphere of private +enterprise.</p> + +<p><b>§ 6. The "Socialism" of Taxation</b>--But there is another form of State +interference which is more direct and significant than any of these. One +of the largest State works is that of public education. Now the cost of +this is in large measure defrayed by rate and tax, the bulk of which, in +this case, is paid by those who do not get for themselves or for their +children any direct return. The State-assisted education is said to tax A +for the benefit of B. Nor is this a solitary instance; it belongs to the +very essence of the modern socialistic movement. There is a strong +movement, independent too of political partisanship, to cast, or to appear +to cast, the burden of taxation more heavily upon the wealthier classes in +order to relieve the poor. It is enough to allude to the income tax and +the Poor Law. These are socialistic measures of the purest kind, and are +directly open to that objection which is commonly raised against theoretic +socialism, that it designs "to take from the rich in order to give to the +poor." The growing public opinion in favour of graduated income tax, and +the higher duty upon legacies and rich man's luxuries, are based on a +direct approval of this simple policy of taking from the rich and giving +to the poor.</p> + +<p>The advocates of these measures urge this claim on grounds of public +expediency, and those whose money is taken for the benefit of their poorer +brethren, though they grumble, do not seriously impugn the right of the +State to levy taxes in what way seems best. Whether we regard the whole +movement from the taxation standpoint, or from the standpoint of benefits +received, we shall perceive that it really means a direct and growing +pressure brought to bear upon the rich for the benefit of the poor. A +consideration of all the various classes of socialistic legislation and +taxation to which we have referred, will show that we are constantly +engaged more and more in the practical assertion and embodiment of the +three following principles--</p> + +<p>1. That the individual is often too weak or ignorant to protect himself in +contract or bargain, and requires public protection.</p> + +<p>2. That considerations of public interest are held to justify a growing +interference with "rights of property."</p> + +<p>3. That the State or municipality may enlarge their functions in any +direction and to any extent, provided a clear public interest is +subserved.</p> + +<p><b>§ 7. Relation of Theoretic Socialism to Socialistic Legislation.</b>--Now +it has been convenient in speaking of this growth of State and municipal +action to use the term Socialism. But we ought to be clear as to the +application of this term. Although Sir William Harcourt declared, "We are +all socialists to-day," the sober, practical man who is responsible for +these "socialistic" measures, smiles at the saying, and regards it as a +rhetorical exaggeration. He knows well enough that he and his +fellow-workers are guided by no theory of the proper limits of government, +and are animated by no desire to curtail the use of private property. The +practical politician in this country is beckoned forward by no large, +bright ideal; no abstract consideration of justice or social expediency +supplies him with any motive force. The presence of close detailed +circumstance, some local, concrete want to be supplied, some distinct +tangible grievance to be redressed, some calculable immediate economy to +be effected, such are the only conscious motives which push him forward +along the path we have described. An alarming outbreak of disease +registered in a high local death-rate presses the question of sanitary +reform, and gives prominence to the housing of the working-classes. The +bad quality of gas, and the knowledge that the local gas company, having +reached the limit of their legal dividend, are squandering the surplus on +high salaries and expensive offices, leads to the municipalization of the +gas-works. The demand made upon the ratepayers of Bury to expend; £60,000 +on sewage-works, a large proportion of which would go to increase the +ground value of Lord Derby's property, leads them to realize the justice +and expediency of a system of taxation of ground values which shall +prevent the rich landlord from pocketing the contribution of the poor +ratepayer. So too among those directly responsible for State legislation, +it is the force of public opinion built out of small local concrete +grievances acting in coalition with a growing sentiment in favour of +securing better material conditions for the poor, that drafts these +socialistic bills, and gets them registered as Acts of Parliament.</p> + +<p>But the student of history must not be deceived into thinking that +principles and abstract theories are not operative forces because they +appear to be subordinated to the pressure of small local or temporal +expediencies. Underneath these detailed actions, which seem in large +measure the product of chance, or of the selfish or sentimental effort of +some individual or party, the historian is able to trace the underworking +of some large principle which furnishes the key to the real logic of +events. The spirit of democracy has played a very small part in the +conscious effort of the democratic workers. But the inductive study of +modern history shows it as a force dominating the course of events, +directing and "operating" the <i>minor</i> forces which worked unconsciously +in the fulfilment of its purpose. So it is with this spirit of socialism. +The professed socialist is a rare, perhaps an unnecessary, person, who +wishes to instruct and generally succeeds in scaring humanity by bringing +out into the light of conscious day the dim principle which is working at +the back of the course of events. Since this conscious socialism is not an +industrial force of any great influence in England, it is not here +necessary to discuss the claim of the theoretic socialist to provide a +solution for the problem of poverty. But it is of importance for us to +recognize clearly the nature of the interpretation theoretic socialists +place upon the order of events set forth in this chapter, for this +interpretation throws considerable light on the industrial condition of +labour.</p> + +<p>We see that the land nationalizer claims to remove, and the land reformer +in general to abate, the evil of poverty by securing for those dependent +on the fluctuating value and uncertain tenure of wage-labour an equal +share in those land-values, the product of nature and social activity, +which are at present monopolized by a few. Now the quality of monopoly +which the land nationalizer finds in land, the professed socialist finds +also in all forms of capital. The more discreet and thoughtful socialist +in England at least does not deny that the special material forms of +capital, and the services they render, may be in part due to the former +activity of their present owners, or of those from whom their present +owners have legitimately acquired them; but he affirms that a large part +of the value of these forms of capital, and of the interest obtained for +their use, is due to a monopoly of certain opportunities and powers which +are social property just as much as land is. The following statement by +one of the ablest exponents of this doctrine will explain what this claim +signifies--</p> + +<p>"We claim an equal right to this 'inheritance of mankind,' which by our +institutions a minority is at present enabled to monopolize, and which it +does monopolize and use in order to extort thereby an unearned increment; +and this inheritance is true capital. We mean thereby the principle, +potentiality, embodied in the axe, the spade, the plough, the +steam-engine, tools of all kinds, books or pictures, bequeathed by +thinkers, writers, inventors, discoverers, and other labourers of the +past, a social growth to which all individual claims have lapsed by death, +but from the advantages of which the masses are virtually shut out for +lack of means. The very best definition of government, even that of +to-day, is that it is the agency of society which procures title to this +treasure, stores it up, guards and gives access to it to every one, and +of which all must make the best use, first and foremost by education."</p> + +<p>The conscious socialist is he who, recognizing in theory the nature of +this social property inherent in all forms of capital, aims consciously at +getting possession or control of it for society, in order to solve the +problem of poverty by making the wage-earner not only a joint-owner of the +social property in land but also in capital.</p> + +<p>In other words, it signifies that the community refuses to sanction any +absolute property on the part of any of its members, recognizing that a +large portion of the value of each individual's work is due, not to his +solitary efforts, but to the assistance lent by the community, which has +educated and secured for the individual the skill which he puts in his +work; has allowed him to make use of certain pieces of the material +universe which belongs to society; has protected him in the performance of +his work; and lastly, by providing him a market of exchange, has given a +social value to his product which cannot be attributed to his individual +efforts. In recognition of the co-operation of society in all production +of wealth, the community claims the right to impose such conditions upon +the individual as may secure for it a share in that social value it has by +its presence and activity assisted to create. The claim of the theoretic +socialist is that society by taxing or placing other conditions upon the +individual as capitalist or workman is only interfering to secure her own. +Since it is not possible to make any satisfactory estimate of the +proportion of any value produced which is due to the individual efforts, +and to society respectively, there can be no limit assigned to the right +of society to increase its claim save the limit imposed by expediency. It +will not be for the interest of society to make so large a claim by way +of regulation, restriction, or taxation, as shall prevent the individual +from applying his best efforts to the work of production, whether his +function consists in the application of capital or of labour. The claims +of many theoretic socialists transcend this statement, and claim for +society a full control of all the instruments of production. But it is not +necessary to discuss this wider claim, for the narrower one is held +sufficient to justify and explain those slow legislative movements which +come under the head of practical socialism, as illustrated in modern +English history.</p> + +<p>Now while this conscious socialism has no large hold in England, it is +necessary to admit that the doctrine just quoted does furnish in some +measure an explanation of the unconscious socialism traceable in much of +the legislation of this century. When it is said that "we are all +socialists to-day," what is meant is, that we are all engaged in the +active promotion or approval of legislation which can only be explained as +a gradual unconscious recognition of the existence of a social property in +capital which it is held politic to secure for the public use.</p> + +<p>The increasing restrictions on free use of capital, the monopoly of +certain branches of industry by the State and the municipality, the +growing tendency to take money from the rich by taxation, can be +explained, reconciled, and justified on no other principle than the +recognition that a certain share of the value of these forms of wealth is +due to the community which has assisted and co-operated with the +individual owner in its creation. Whether the socialistic legislation +which, stronger than all traditions of party politics, is constantly +imposing new limitations upon the private use of capital, is desirable or +not, is not the question with which we are concerned. It is the fact that +is important. Society is constantly engaged in endeavouring, feebly, +slowly, and blindly, to relieve the stress of poverty, and the industrial +weakness of low-skilled labour, by laying hands upon certain functions and +certain portions of wealth formerly left to private individuals, and +claiming them as social functions and social wealth to be administered for +the social welfare. This is the past and present contribution of +"socialistic legislation" towards a solution of the problem of poverty, +and it seems not unlikely that the claims of society upon these forms of +social property will be larger and more systematically enforced in the +future.</p> +</div> + + +<div class="chapter" id="ch11"> +<h2>Chapter XI.</h2> + +<h3>The Industrial Outlook of Low-Skilled Labour.</h3> + + + +<p><b>§ 1.The Concentration of Capital.</b>--It must be remembered that we +have been concerned with what is only a portion of the great industrial +movement of to-day. Perhaps it may serve to make the industrial position +of the poor low-skilled workers more distinct if we attempt to set this +portion in its true relation to the larger Labour Problem, by giving a +brief outline of the size and relation of the main industrial forces of +the day.</p> + +<p>If we look at the two great industrial factors, Capital and Labour, we see +a corresponding change taking place in each. This change signifies a +constant endeavour to escape the rigour of competition by a co-operation +which grows ever closer towards fusion of interests previously separate.</p> + +<p>Look first at Capital. We saw how the application of machinery and +mechanical power to productive industries replaced the independent +citizen, or small capitalist, who worked with a handful of assistants, by +the mill and factory owner with his numerous "hands." The economic use of +machinery led to production on a larger scale. But new, complex, and +expensive machinery is continually being invented, which, for those who +can afford to purchase and use it, represents a fresh economy in +production, and enables them both to produce larger quantities of goods +more rapidly, and to get rid of them by underselling those of their trade +competitors who are working with old-fashioned and less effective +machinery. As this process is continually going on, it signifies a +constant advantage which the owner of a large business capital has over +the owner of a smaller capital. In earlier times, when trade was more +localized, and the small manufacturer or merchant had his steady +customers, and stood on a slowly and carefully acquired reputation, it was +not so easy for a new competitor to take his trade by the offer of some +small additional advantage. But the opening up of wider communication by +cheap postage, the newspaper, the railway, the telegraph, the general and +rapid knowledge of prices, the enormous growth of touting and advertising, +have broken up the local and personal character of commerce, and tend to +make the whole world one complete and even arena of competition. Thus the +fortunate possessor of some commercial advantage, however trifling, which +enables him to produce more cheaply or sell more effectively than his +fellows, can rapidly acquire their trade, unless they are able to avail +themselves of the new machinery, or special skill, or other economy which +he possesses. This consideration enables the large capitalist in all +businesses where large capital contains these advantages, or the owner of +some large natural monopoly, who can most cheaply extract large quantities +of raw material, to crush in free competition the smaller businesses. In +proportion as business is becoming wider and more cosmopolitan, these +natural advantages of large capital over small are able to assert +themselves more and more effectively. In certain branches of trade, which +have not yet been taken over by elaborate machinery, or where everything +depends upon the personal activity and intelligence, and the detailed +supervision of a fully interested owner, the small capitalist may still +hold his own, as in certain branches of retail trade. But the general +movement is in favour of large businesses. Everywhere the big business is +swallowing up the smaller, and in its turn is liable to be swallowed by a +bigger one. In manufacture, where the cosmopolitan character is strongest, +and where machinery plays so large a part, the movement towards vast +businesses is most marked; each year makes it more rapid, and more +general. But in wholesale and retail distribution, though somewhat slower, +the tendency is the same. Even in agriculture, where close personal care +and the limitations of a local market temper the larger tendency, the +recent annals of Western America and Australia supply startling evidence +of the concentrative force of machinery. The meaning of this movement in +capital must not be mistaken. It is not merely that among competing +businesses, the larger showing themselves the stronger survive, and the +smaller, out-competed disappear. This of course often happens. The big +screw-manufacturer able to provide some new labour-saving machinery, to +advertise more effectively, or even to sell at a loss for a period of +time, can drown his weaker competitors and take their trade. The small +tradesman can no longer hold his own in the fight with the universal +provider, or the co-operative store.</p> + +<p>But this destruction of the small business, though an essential factor in +the movement, is not perhaps the most important aspect. The industrial +superiority of the large business over the small makes for the +concentration both of small capitals and of business ability. The monster +millionaire, who owns the whole or the bulk of his great business, is +after all a very rare specimen. The typical business form of to-day is +the joint stock company. This simply means that a number of capitalists, +who might otherwise have been competing with one another on a small scale +of business, recognizing the advantage of size, agree to mass their +capital into one large lump, and to entrust its manipulation to the best +business ability they can muster among them, or procure from outside. This +process in its simplest form is seen in the amalgamation of existing and +competing businesses, notable examples of which have recently occurred in +the London publishing trade. But the ordinary Company, whether it grows by +the expansion of some large existent business, or, like most railways or +other new enterprises, is formed out of money subscribed in order to form +a business, represents the same concentrating tendency. These share-owners +put their capital together into one concern, in order to reap some +advantage which they think they would not reap if they placed the capital +in small competing businesses. But though it has been calculated that +about one-third of English commerce is now in the hands of joint stock +companies, this by no means exhausts the significance of the centralizing +force in capital. Almost all large businesses, and many small businesses, +are recognized to be conducted largely with borrowed capitals. The owners +of these debentures are in fact joint capitalists with the nominal owner +of the business. They prefer to lend their capital, because they hope to +enjoy a portion of the gain and security which belongs to a large business +as compared with a small one. Along with this coming together of small +capitals to make a large capital, there is a constant centralization and +organization of business ability. It is not uncommon for the owner of a +small and therefore failing business to accept a salaried post in the +office of some great business firm. So too we find the son of a small +tradesman, recognizing the hopelessness of maintaining his father's +business, takes his place behind the counter of some monster house.</p> + +<p><b>§ 2. How Competition affects Capital.</b>--Now the force which brings +about all these movements is the force of competition. Every increase of +knowledge, every improvement of communication, every breakdown of +international or local barriers, increases the advantage of the big +business, and makes the struggle for existence among small businesses more +keen and more hopeless. It is the desire to escape from the heavy and +harassing strain of trade competition, which practically drives small +businesses to suspend their mutual hostilities, and to combine. It is true +that most of the large private businesses or joint stock companies are not +formed by this direct process of pacification. But for all that, their +<i>raison d'être</i> is found in the desire to escape the friction and waste of +competition which would take place if each shareholder set up business +separately on his own account. We shall not be surprised that the +competition of small businesses has given way before co-operation, when we +perceive the force and fierceness of the competition between the larger +consolidated masses of capital. With the development of the arts of +advertising, touting, adulteration, political jobbery, and speculation, +acting over an ever-widening area of competition, the fight between the +large joint stock businesses grows always more cruel and complex. Business +failures tend to become more frequent and more disastrous. A recent French +economist reckons that ten out of every hundred who enter business +succeed, fifty vegetate, and forty go into bankruptcy. In America, where +internal competition is still keener and speculation more rife, it has +been lately calculated that ninety-five per cent, of those who enter +business "fail of success." Just as in the growth of political society the +private individual has given up the right of private war to the State, +with the result that as States grow stronger and better organized, the war +between them becomes fiercer and more destructive, so is it with the +concentration of capital. The small capitalist, seeking to avoid the +strain of personal competition, amalgamates with others, and the +competition between these masses of capital waxes every day fiercer. We +have no accurate data for measuring the diminution of the number of +separate competitors which has attended the growing concentration of +capital, but we know that the average magnitude of a successful business +is continually increasing. The following figures illustrate the meaning of +this movement from the American cotton trade, which is not one of the +industries most susceptible to the concentrative pressure. "It will be +seen that in 756 large establishments in 1880, in which the aggregate +capital invested was five times as great as that in the 801 establishments +in 1830, the capital invested per spindle was one-third less, the number +of spindles operated by each labourer nearly three times as large, the +product per spindle one-fourth greater, the product per dollar invested +twice as large, the price of the cotton cloth nearly sixty per cent, less, +the consumption <i>per capita </i>of the population over one hundred per cent +greater, and the wages more than double. What is true of this industry is +true of all industries where the concentration of capital has taken +place."[<a href="#fn38">38</a>]</p> + +<p>It is needless to add that these large works are conducted, not by single +owners, but in nearly all cases by the managers of associated capitals. +Regarded from the large standpoint of industrial development, all these +phenomena denote a change in the sphere of competition. From the +competition of private capitals owned by individuals we have passed to the +competition of associated capitals. The question now arises, "Will not the +same forces, which, in order to avoid the waste and destruction of ever +keener competition, compelled the private capitalists to suspension of +hostility and to combination, act upon the larger masses of associated +capital?" The answer is already working itself clearly out in industrial +history. The concentrative adhesive forces are everywhere driving the +competing masses of capital to seek safety, and escape waste and +destruction, by welding themselves into still larger masses, renouncing +the competition with one another in order to compete more successfully +with other large bodies. Thus, wherever these forces are in free +operation, the number of competing firms is continually growing less; the +surviving competitors have crushed or absorbed their weaker rivals, and +have grown big by feeding on their carcases.</p> + +<p>But the struggle between these few big survivors becomes more fierce than +ever. Fitted out with enormous capital, provided with the latest, most +complex, and most expensive machinery, producing with a reckless disregard +for one another or the wants of the consuming public, advertising on a +prodigious scale in order to force new markets, or steal the markets of +one another, they are constantly driven to lower their prices in order to +effect sales; profits are driven to a minimum; all the business energy at +their command is absorbed by the strain of the fight; any unforeseen +fluctuations in the market brings on a crisis, ruins the weaker +combatants, and causes heavy losses all round. In trades where the +concentrative process has proceeded furthest this warfare is naturally +fiercest. But as the number of competing units grows smaller, arbitration +or union becomes more feasible. Close and successful united action among a +large number of scattered competitors of different scales of importance, +such as exist during the earlier stage of capitalism, would be impossible. +But where the number is small, combination presents itself as possible, +and in so much as the competition is fiercer, the direct motive to such +combination is stronger. Hence we find that attempts are made to relieve +the strain among the largest businesses. The fiercest combatants weary of +incessant war and patch up treaties. The weapon of capitalist warfare is +the power of under-selling--"cutting prices." The most powerful firms +consent to sheathe this weapon, i.e. agree not to undersell one another, +but to adopt a common scale of prices. This action, in direct restraint of +competition, corresponds to the action of a trades union, and is attained +by many trades whose capital is not large or business highly developed. +Neither does it imply close union of friendly relations between the +combining parties. It is a policy dictated by the barest instinct of +self-preservation. We see it regularly applied in certain local trades, +especially in the production and distribution of perishable commodities. +Our bakers, butchers, dairy-men, are everywhere in a constant state of +suspended hostility, each endeavouring indeed to get the largest trade for +himself, but abiding generally by a common scale of prices. Wherever the +local merchants are not easily able to be interfered with by outsiders, as +in the coal-trade, they form a more or less closely compacted ring for the +maintenance of common terms, raising and lowering prices by agreement. The +possibility of successfully maintaining these compacts depends on the +ability to resist outside pressure, the element of monopoly in the trade. +When this power is strong, a local ring of competing tradesmen may succeed +in maintaining enormous prices. To take a humble example--In many a remote +Swiss village, rapidly grown into a fashionable resort, the local +washerwomen are able to charge prices twice as high as those paid in +London, probably four times as high as the normal price of the +neighbourhood.</p> + +<p>Grocers or clothiers are not able to combine with the same effect, for the +consumer is far less dependent on local distribution for these wares. But +wherever such retail combinations are possible they are found. Among large +producers and large distributing agencies the same tendency prevails, +especially in cases where the market is largely local. Free competition of +prices among coal-owners or iron-masters gives way under the pressure of +common interests, to a schedule of prices; competing railways come to +terms. Even among large businesses which enjoy no local monopoly, there +are constant endeavours to maintain a common scale of prices. This +condition of loose, irregular, and partial co-operation among competing +industrial units is the characteristic condition of trade in such a +commercial country as England to-day. Competitors give up the combat <i>à +outrance</i>, and fight with blunted lances.</p> + +<p><b>§ 3. Syndicates and Trusts.</b>--But it is of course extremely difficult +to maintain these loose agreements among merchants and producers engaged +in intricate and far-reaching trades. A big opportunity is constantly +tempting one of them to undersell; new firms are constantly springing up +with new machinery, willing to trade upon the artificially raised prices, +by under-selling so as to secure a business; over-production and a glut of +goods tempts weaker firms to "cut rates," and this breaks down the +compact. A score of different causes interfere with these delicate +combinations, and plunge the different firms into the full heat and waste +of the conflict. The renewed "free competition" proves once more fatal to +the smaller businesses; the waste inflicted on the "leviathans" who +survive forms a fresh motive to a closer combination.</p> + +<p>These new closer combinations are known by the names of Syndicate and +Trust. This marks another stage in the evolution of capital. In the United +States, where the growth is most clearly marked, the Standard Oil Trust +forms the leading example of a successful Trust. In 1881, this Standard +Oil Company having maintained for some ten years tolerably close informal +relations with its leading competitors in the Eastern States, and having +crushed out the smaller companies, entered into a close arrangement with +the remaining competitors, with the view of a practical consolidation of +the businesses into one, though the formal identity of the several firms +was still maintained. The various companies which entered into this union, +comprising nearly all the chief oil-mills, submitted their businesses to +valuation, and placed themselves in the hands of a board of trustees, with +an absolute power to regulate the quantity of production, and if necessary +to close mills, to raise and lower prices, and to work the whole number as +a joint concern. Each company gave up its shares to the Trust, receiving +notes of acknowledgment for the worth of the shares, and the total profits +were to be divided as dividend each half-year. This Trust has continued to +exist, and has now a practical monopoly of the oil trade in America, +controlling, it is reckoned, more than 90 per cent. of the whole market, +and regulating production and prices.</p> + +<p>Everywhere this process is at work. Competing firms are in every trade, +where their small numbers permit, striving to come to closer terms than +formerly, and either secretly or openly joining forces so as to get full +control over the production or distribution of some product, in order to +manipulate prices for their own profit. From railways and corn-stores down +to slate-pencils, coffins, and sticking-plaster, everything is tending to +fall under the power of a Trust. Many of these Trusts fail to secure the +union of a sufficient proportion of the large competitors, or quarrels +spring up among the combining firms, or some new firms enter into +competition too strong to be fought or bought over. In these ways a large +number of the Trusts have hitherto broken down, and will doubtless +continue to break down. In England, this step in capitalist evolution is +only beginning to be taken. In glass, paper, salt, coal, and a few other +commodities, combinations more permanent than the mere Ring or Corner, and +closer than the ordinary masters' unions, have been formed. But Free +Trade, which leaves us open to the less calculable and controllable +element of foreign competition, and the fact that the earlier stages of +concentration of capital are not yet completed here in most trades, have +hitherto retarded the growth of the successful Trust in England. Even in +America there is no case where the monopoly of a Trust reigns absolute +through the whole country, though many of them enjoy a local control of +production and prices which is practically unrestricted. Excepting in the +case of the Standard Oil Trust, and a few less important bodies which +enjoy the control of some local monopoly, such as anthracite coal, the +supremacy of the leading Trust or Syndicate is brought in certain places +into direct conflict with other more or less independent competing bodies. +In other words, the evolution of capital, which tends ever to the +establishment of competition between a smaller number of larger masses, +has nowhere worked out the logical conclusion which means the condensation +of the few large competing bodies into a single mass. This final step, +which presents a completely organized trade with the element of +competition utterly eliminated under the control of a single body of mere +joint-owners of the capital engaged, must be regarded as the goal, the +ideal culmination of the concentrative movement of modern capital. It is +said that more than one-third of the business in the United States is +already controlled by Trusts. But most of them have only in part succeeded +in their effort to escape from competition by integrating their personal +interests into a single homogeneous mass. Even in cases where they do rule +the market untrammelled by the direct interference of any competitors, +they are still deterred from a free use of their control over prices by +the possibility of competition which any full use of this control might +give rise to. For it does not follow that even where a Trust holds an +absolute monopoly of the market of a locality, that it will be able to +maintain that monopoly were it to raise its prices beyond a certain point. +In proportion, however, as experience yields a greater skill in the +management of Trusts, and their growing strength enables them to more +successfully defy outside attempts at competition, their power to raise +prices and increase their rates of profit would rise accordingly.</p> + +<p>Regarding, then, the development of the capitalist system from the first +establishment of the capitalist-employer as a distinct industrial class, +we trace the massing of capital in larger and larger competing forms, the +number of which represents a pyramid growing narrower as it ascends +towards an ideal apex, represented by the absolute unity or identity of +interests of the capital in a given trade. In so far as the interests of +different trades may clash, we might carry on this movement further, and +trace the gradual agreement, integration, and fusion of the capitals +represented in various trades. There is, in fact, an ever-growing +understanding and union between the various forms of capital in a country. +The recognition of this ultimate identity of interest must be regarded as +a constant force making for the unification of the whole capital of a +country, in the same way as the common interests of directly competing +capitals in the same trade leads to a union for mutual support and +ultimate identification.</p> + +<p><b>§ 4. Uses and Abuses of the Trust.</b>--This, however, carries us beyond +the immediate industrial outlook. The successful formation of the Trust +represents the highest reach of capitalistic evolution. Although the +subject is too involved for any lengthy discussion here, a few points +bearing on the nature of the Trust deserve attention.</p> + +<p>The Trust is clearly seen to be a natural step in the evolution of +capital. It belongs to the industrial progress of the day, and must not be +condemned as if it were a retrograde or evil thing. It is distinctly an +attempt to introduce order into chaos, to save the waste of war, to +organize an industry. The Trust-makers often claim that their line of +action is both necessary and socially beneficial, and urge the following +points--</p> + +<p>The low rates of profit, owing to the miscalculation of competitors who +establish too many factories and glut the market; the waste of energy in +the work of competition; the adulteration of goods induced by the desire +to undersell; the enormous royalties which must be paid to a competitor +who has secured some new invention--these and other causes necessitate +some common action. By the united action of the Trust the following +economic advantages are gained--</p> +<ol style="list-style-type: lower-alpha"> +<li>The saving of the labour and the waste of competition.</li> + +<li>Economy in buying and selling, in discovering and establishing new + markets. </li> + +<li>The maintenance of a good quality of wares without fear of being + undersold. </li> + +<li>Mutual guarantee and insurance against losses. </li> + +<li>The closing of works which are disadvantageously placed or are + otherwise unnecessary to furnish the requisite supply at profitable + prices. </li> + +<li>The raising of prices to a level which will give a living basis of + steady production and profit.</li> +</ol> +<p>That all these economies are useful to the capitalists who form Trusts +will be obvious. How far they are socially useful is a more difficult +question. Reflection, however, will make one thing evident, viz. that +though the public may share that part of the advantage derived from the +more economical use of large capitals, it cannot share that portion which +is derived from the absence of competition. If two or more Trusts or +aggregations of capital are still in actual or even in potential +competition, the public will be enabled to reap what gain belongs to +larger efficient production, for it will be for the interest of each +severally to sell at the lowest prices; but if a single Trust rule the +market, though the economic advantage of the Trust will be greater in so +far as it escapes the labour of all competition, there will be no force to +secure for the public any share in this advantage. The advantageous +position enjoyed by a Trust will certainly enable its owners at the same +time to pay high profits, give high wages, and sell at low prices. But +while the force of self-interest will secure the first result, there is +nothing to guarantee the second and third. There is no adequate security +that in the culminating product of capitalistic growth, the single +dominant Trust or Syndicate self-interest will keep down prices, as is +often urged by the advocates of Trust. It is true that "they have a direct +interest in keeping prices at least sufficiently low not to invite the +organization of counter-enterprises which may destroy their existing +profits."[<a href="#fn39">39</a>] But this consideration is qualified in two ways:--<i>a</i>. Where +Trust is formed or assisted by the possession of a natural monopoly, i.e. +land, or some content of land, absolutely limited in quality, such +potential competition does not exist, and nothing, save the possibility of +substituting another commodity, places a limit on the rise of price which +a Trust may impose on the public.. Although the fear of potential +competition will prevent the maintenance of an indefinitely high price it +will not necessarily prevent such a rise of price as will yield enormous +profits, and form a grievous burden on consumers. For a +strongly-constituted Trust will be able to crush any competing combination +of ordinary size and strength by a temporary lowering of its prices below +the margin of profitable production, the weapon which a strong rich +company can always use successfully against a weaker new competitor.</p> + +<p>But though a Trust with a really strong monopoly, and rid of all effective +competition, will be able to impose exorbitant and oppressive prices on +consumers, it must be observed that it is not necessarily to its interest +to do so. Every rise of price implies a fall off in quantity sold; and it +may therefore pay a Trust better to sell a large quantity at a moderate +profit than a smaller quantity at an enormous profit. The exercise of the +power possessed by the owners of a monopoly depends upon the +proportionate effect a rise of price will have upon the sale. This again +depends upon the nature and uses of the commodity in which the Trust +deals. In proportion as an article belongs to the "necessaries" of life, a +rise of price will have a small effect on the purchase of it, as compared +with the effect of a similar rise of price on articles which belong to the +"comforts" or "luxuries" of life, or which may be readily replaced by some +cheaper substitute. Thus it will appear that the power of a Trust or +monopoly of capital is liable to be detrimental to the public +interest--1st. In proportion as there is a want of effective existing +competition, and a difficulty of potential competition. 2nd. In proportion +as the commodity dealt in by the Trust belongs to the necessaries of life.</p> + +<p><b>§ 5. Steps in the Organization of labour.</b>--The movements of labour +show an order closely correspondent with those of capital. As the units of +capital seek relief from the strain and waste of competition by uniting +into masses, and as the fiercer competition of these masses force them +into ever larger and closer aggregates, until they are enabled to obtain +partial or total relief from the competitive strife, so is it with labour. +The formation of individual units of labour-power into Trades Unions, the +amalgamation of these Unions on a larger scale and in closer co-operation, +are movements analogous to the concentration of small units of capital +traced above. It is not necessary to follow in detail the concentrative +process which is gradually welding labour into larger units of +competition. The uneven pace at which this process works in different +places and in various trades has prevented a clear recognition of the law +of the movement. The following steps, not always taken however in +precisely the same order, mark the progress--</p> + +<p>1. Workers in the same trade in a town or locality form a "Union," or +limited co-operative society, the economic essence of which consists in +the fact that in regard to the price and other conditions of their labour +they act as a complex unit. Where such unions are strongly formed, the +employer or body of employers deals not with individual workmen, but with +the Union of workmen, in matters which the Union considers to be of common +interest.</p> + +<p>2. Next comes the establishment of provincial or national relations +between these local Unions. The Northumberland and Durham miners will +connect their various branches, and will, if necessary, enter into +relations with the Unions of other mining districts. The local Unions of +engineers, of carpenters, &c., are related closely by means of elected +representatives in national Unions. In the strongest Unions the central +control is absolute in reference to the more important objects of union, +the pressure for higher wages, shorter hours, and other industrial +advantages, or the resistance of attempts to impose reductions of wages, +&c.</p> + +<p>3. Along with the movement towards a national organization of the workers +in a trade, or in some cases prior to it, is the growth of combined action +between allied industries, that is to say, trades which are closely +related in work and interests. In the building trades, for example, +bricklayers, masons, carpenters, plasterers, plumbers, painters and +decorators, find that their respective trade interests meet, and are +interwoven at a score of different points. The sympathetic action thus set +up is beginning to find its way to the establishment of closer +co-operation between the Unions of these several trades. The different +industries engaged in river-side work are rapidly forming into closer +union. So also the various mining classes, the railway workers, civil +servants, are moving gradually but surely towards a recognition of common +interests, and of the advantage of close common action.</p> + +<p>4. The fact of the innumerable delicate but important relations which +subsist among classes of workers, whose work appears on the surface but +distantly related, is leading to Trade Councils representative of all the +Trade Unions in a district. In the midland counties and in London these +general Trade Councils are engaged in the gigantic task of welding into +some single unity the complex conflicting interests of large bodies of +workmen.</p> + +<p>5. An allusion to the attempts to establish international relations +between the Unions of English workmen and those of foreign countries is +important, more as indicating the probable line of future labour movement, +than as indicating the early probability of effective international union +of labour. Though slight spasmodic international co-operation of workers +may even now be possible, especially among members of English-speaking +races, the divergent immediate interests, the different stages of +industrial development reached in the various industrial countries, seem +likely for a long time at any rate to preclude the possibility of close +co-operation between the united workers of different nations.</p> + +<p><b>§ 6. Parallelism of the Movements in Capital and Labour.</b>--Now this +movement in labour, irregular, partial, and incomplete as it is, is +strictly parallel with the movement of capital. In both, the smaller units +become merged and concentrated into larger units, driven by self-interest +to combine for more effective competition in larger masses. The fact that +in the case of capital the concentration is more complete, does not really +impair the accuracy of the analogy. Small capitals, when they have +co-operated or formed a union, are absolutely merged, and cease to exist +or act as individual units at all. A "share" in a business has no separate +existence so long as it is kept in that business. But the small units of +labour cannot so absolutely merge their individuality. The capital-unit +being impersonal can be absolutely merged for common action with like +units. The labour-unit being personal only surrenders part of his freedom +of action and competition to the Union, which henceforth represents the +social side of his industrial self. How far the necessity of close social +action between labour-units in the future may compel the labourer to merge +more of his industrial individuality in the Union, is an open question +which the future history of labour-movements will decide.</p> + +<p>The slow, intermittent, and fragmentary manner in which labour-unions have +been hitherto conducted even in the stronger trades, is a fact which has +perhaps done more to hide the true parallelism in the evolution of capital +and labour. The path traced above has not yet been traversed by the bulk +of English working men, while, as has been shown, working women have +hardly begun to contemplate the first step. But the uneven rate of +development, in the case of capital and labour, should not blind us to the +law which is operating in both movements. The representative relation +between capital and labour is no longer that between a single employer and +a number of individual working men, each of the latter making his own +terms with the former for the sale of his labour, but between a large +company or union of employers on the one hand, and a union of workmen on +the other. The last few years have consolidated and secured this relation +in the case of such powerful staple industries in England as mining, +ship-building, iron-work, and even in the weaker low-skilled industries +the relation is gradually winning recognition.</p> + +<p><b>§ 7. Probabilities of Industrial Peace.</b>--This concentrative process +at work in both capital and labour, consolidating the smaller industrial +units into larger ones, and tending to a unification of the masses of +capital and of labour engaged respectively in the several industries, is +at the present time by far the most important factor of industrial +history. How far these two movements in capital and in labour react on one +another for peace or for strife is a delicate and difficult question. +Consideration of the common interest of capital and labour dependent on +their necessary co-operation in industry might lead us to suppose that +along with the growing organization of the two forces there would come an +increased recognition of this community of interest which would make +constantly and rapidly for industrial peace. But we must not be misled by +the stress which is rightly laid on the identity of interest between +capital and labour. The identity which is based on the general +consideration that capital and labour are both required in the conduct of +a given business, is no effective guarantee against a genuine clash of +interests between the actual forms of capital and the labourers engaged at +a given time in that particular business. To a body of employés who are +seeking to extract a rise of wages from their employers, or to resist a +reduction of wages, it is no argument to point out that if they gain their +point the fall of profit in their employers' business will have some +effect in lowering the average interest on invested capital, and will thus +prevent the accumulation of some capital which would have helped to find +employment for some more working men. The immediate direct interests of a +particular body of workmen and a particular company of employers may, and +frequently will, impel them to a course directly opposed to the wider +interests of their fellow-capitalists or fellow-workers. But it is evident +that the smaller the industrial unit, the more frequent will these +conflicts between the immediate special interest and the wider class +interest be. Since this is so, it would follow that the establishment of +larger industrial units, such as workmen's unions and employers' unions, +based on a cancelling of minor conflicting interests, will diminish the +aggregate quantity of friction between capital and labour. If there were a +close union between all the river-side and carrying trades of the country, +it is far less likely that a particular local body of dock-labourers +would, in order to seize some temporary advantage for themselves, be +allowed to take a course which might throw out of work, or otherwise +injure, the other workers concerned in the industries allied to theirs. +One of the important educative effects of labour organizations will be a +growing recognition of the intricate <i>rapport</i> which subsists not only +between the interests of different classes of workers, but between capital +and labour in its more general aspect. This lesson again is driven home by +the dramatic scale of the terrible though less frequent conflicts which +still occur between capital and labour. Industrial war seems to follow the +same law of change as military war. As the incessant bickering of private +guerilla warfare has given way in modern times to occasional, large, +organized, brief, and terribly destructive campaigns, so it is in trade. +In both cases the aggregate of friction and waste is probably much less +under the modern <i>régime</i>, but the dread of these dramatic lessons is +growing ever greater, and the tendency to postponement and conciliation +grows apace. But just as the fact of a growing identity in the interest of +different nations, the growing recognition of that fact, and the growing +horror of war, potent factors as they seem to reasonable men, make very +slow progress towards the substitution of international arbitration for +appeals to the sword, so in industry we cannot presume that the existence +of reasonable grounds for conciliation will speedily rid us of the terror +and waste of industrial conflicts. It is even possible that just as the +speedy formation of a strong national unity, like that of Prussia under +Frederick the Great, out of weak, disordered, smaller units, may engender +for a time a bellicose spirit which works itself out in strife, so the +rapid rise and union of weak and oppressed bodies of poorer labourers make +for a shortsighted policy of blind aggression. Such considerations as this +must, at any rate, temper the hopes of speedy industrial pacification we +may form from dwelling on the more reasonable effects and teaching of +organization. Although the very growth and existence of the larger +industrial units implies, as we saw, a laying aside of smaller conflicts, +we cannot assume that the forces at present working directly for the +pacification of capital and labour, and for their ultimate fusion, are at +all commensurate in importance with the concentrative forces operating in +the two industrial elements respectively. It is indisputably true that the +recent development of organization, especially of labour unions, acts as a +direct restraint of industrial warfare, and a facilitation of peaceable +settlements of trade disputes. Mr. Burnett, in his Report to the Board of +Trade, on Strikes and Lock-outs in 1888, remarks <i>à propos</i> of the various +modes of arbitration, that "these methods of arranging difficulties have +only been made possible by organization of the forces on both sides, and +have, as it were, been gradually evolved from the general progress of the +combination movement."[<a href="#fn40">40</a>]</p> + +<p>Speaking of Trade Unions, he sums up--"In fact the executive committees of +all the chief Unions are to a very large extent hostile to strikes, and +exercise a restraining influence"--a judgment the truth of which has been +largely exemplified during the last two or three years. But our hopes and +desires must not lead us to exaggerate the size of these peaceable +factors. <i>Conseils de prud'hommes</i> on the continent, boards of arbitration +and conciliation in this country, profit-sharing schemes in Europe and +America, are laudable attempts to bridge over the antagonism which exists +between separate concrete masses of capital and labour. The growth of +piecework and of sliding scales has effected something. But the success of +the Board of Conciliation and Arbitration in the manufactured iron trade +of the north of England has not yet led to much successful imitation in +other industries. Recent experience of formal methods of conciliation and +of sliding scales, especially in the mining, engineering, and metal +industries, as well as the failure of some of the most important +profit-sharing experiments, shows that we must be satisfied with slow +progress in these direct endeavours after arbitration. The difficulty of +finding an enduring scale of values which will retain the adherence of +both interests amidst industrial movements which continually tend to upset +the previously accepted "fair rates," is the deeper economic cause which +breaks down many of these attempts. The direct fusion of the interests of +employers and employed, and in some measure of capital and labour, which +is the object of the co-operative movement, is a steadily growing force, +whose successes may serve perhaps better than any other landmark as a +measure of the improving <i>morale</i> of the several grades of workers who +show themselves able to adopt its methods. But while co-operative +distribution has thriven, the success of co-operative workshops and mills +has hitherto been extremely slow. A considerable expansion of the +productive work of the co-operative wholesale societies within the last +few years offers indeed more encouragement. But at present only about 21/4 +per cent. of English industry and commerce, as tested by profits, is under +the conduct of co-operative societies. Hence, while it seems possible that +the slow growth in productive co-operation, and the more rapid progress of +distributive co-operation, may serve to point the true line of successful +advance in the future, the present condition of the co-operative movement +does not entitle it to rank as one of the most powerful and prominent +industrial forces. Though it may be hoped and even predicted that each +movement in the agglomerative development of capital and labour which +presents the two agents in larger and more organized shape, will render +the work of conciliation more peremptory and more feasible, it must be +admitted that all these conciliatory movements making for the direct +fusion of capital and labour, are of an importance subordinate to the +larger evolutionary force on which we have laid stress.</p> + +<p>We see then the multitudinous units of capital and labour crystallizing +ever into larger and larger masses, moving towards an ideal goal which +would present a single body of organized capital and a single body of +organized labour. The process in each case is stimulated by the similar +process in the other. Each step in the organization of labour forces a +corresponding move towards organization of capital, and <i>vice versâ</i>. +Striking examples of this imitative strategic movement have been presented +by the rapid temporary organization of Australian capital, and by the +effect of Dock Labourers' Unions in England in promoting the closer +co-operation of the capital of shipowners. By this interaction of the two +forces, the development in the organization of capital and labour presents +itself as a <i>pari passu</i> progress; or perhaps more strictly it goes by the +analogy of a game of draughts; the normal state is a series of alternate +moves; but when one side has gained a victory, that is, taken a piece, it +can make another move.</p> + +<p><b>§ 8. Relation of Low-skilled Labour to the wider Movement.</b>--The +relation in which this large industrial evolution stands to our problem of +the poor low-skilled worker is not obscure. In comparing the movement of +capital with that of labour we saw that in one respect the former was +clearer and more perfect. The weaker capitalist, he who fails to keep pace +with industrial progress, and will not avail himself of the advantage +which union gives to contending pieces of capital, is simply snuffed out; +that is, he ceases to have an independent existence as a capitalist when +he can no longer make profit. The laggard, ill-managed piece of capital is +swept off the board. This is possible, for the capital is a property +separable from its owner. The case of labour is different. The +labour-power is not separable from the person of the labourer. So the +labourer left behind in the evolution of labour organization does not at +once perish, but continues to struggle on in a position which is ever +becoming weaker. "Organize or starve," is the law of modern labour +movements. The mass of low-skilled workers find themselves fighting the +industrial battle for existence, each for himself, in the old-fashioned +way, without any of the advantages which organization gives their more +prosperous brothers. They represent the survival of an earlier industrial +stage. If the crudest form of the struggle were permitted to rage with +unabated force, large numbers of them would be swept out of life, thereby +rendering successful organization and industrial advance more possible to +the survivors. But modern notions of humanity insist upon the retention of +these superfluous, low-skilled workers, while at the same time failing to +recognize, and making no real attempt to provide against, the inevitable +result of that retention. By allowing the continuance of the crude +struggle for existence which is the form industrial competition takes when +applied to the low-skilled workers, and at the same time forbidding the +proved "unfittest" to be cleared out of the world, we seem to perpetuate +and intensify the struggle. The elimination of the "unfit" is the +necessary means of progress enforced by the law of competition. An +insistence on the survival, and a permission of continued struggle to the +unfit, cuts off the natural avenue of progress for their more fit +competitors. So long as the crude industrial struggle is permitted on +these unnatural terms, the effective organization and progress of the main +body of low-skilled workers seems a logical impossibility. If the upper +strata of low-class workers are enabled to organize, and, what is more +difficult, to protect themselves against incursions of outsiders, the +position of the lower strata will become even more hopeless and helpless. +If one by one all the avenues of regular low-skilled labour are closed by +securing a practical monopoly of this and that work for the members of a +Union, the superfluous body of labourers will be driven more and more to +depend on irregular jobs, and forced more and more into concentrated +masses of city dwellers, will present an ever-growing difficulty and +danger to national order and national health. Consideration of the general +progress of the working-classes has no force to set aside this problem. It +seems not unlikely that we are entering on a new phase of the poverty +question. The upper strata of low-skilled labour are learning to organize. +If they succeed in forming and maintaining strong Unions, that is to say, +in lifting themselves from the chaotic struggle of an earlier industrial +epoch, so as to get fairly on the road of modern industrial progress, the +condition of those left behind will press the illogicality of our present +national economy upon us with a dramatic force which will be more +convincing than logic, for it will appeal to a growing national sentiment +of pity and humanity which will take no denial, and will find itself +driven for the first time to a serious recognition of poverty as a +national, industrial disease, requiring a national, industrial remedy.</p> + +<p>The great problem of poverty thus resides in the conditions of the +low-skilled workman. To live industrially under the new order he must +organize. He cannot organize because he is so poor, so ignorant, so weak. +Because he is not organized he continues to be poor, ignorant, weak. Here +is a great dilemma, of which whoever shall have found the key will have +done much to solve the problem of poverty.</p> +</div> + + +<div class="chapter" id="authorities"> +<h2>List of Authorities.</h2> + + + +<p>By far the most valuable general work of reference upon <i>Problems of +Poverty</i> is Charles Booth's <i>Labour and Life of the People</i> (Williams & +Norgate). By the side of this work on London may be set Mr Rowntree's +<i>Poverty: A Story of Town Life</i> (Macmillan). A large quantity of valuable +material exists in <i>The Report of the Industrial Remuneration Conference</i>, +and in the <i>Reports of the Lords' Committee on the Sweating System</i> and of +the <i>Labour Commission</i>. Among shorter and more accessible works dealing +with the industrial causes of poverty and the application of industrial +remedies, Toynbee's <i>Industrial Revolution</i> (Rivington); Gibbins' +<i>Industrial History of England (University Extension Series</i>, Methuen & +Co.); and Jevons'<i>The State in Relation to Labour (English Citizen +Series)</i>, will be found most useful. For a clear understanding of the +relation of economic theory to the facts of labour and poverty, J.E. +Symes' <i>Political Economy</i> (Rivington), and Marshall's <i>Economies of +Industry</i>are specially recommended.</p> + +<p>Among the large mass of books and pamphlets bearing on special subjects +connected with <i>Problems of Poverty</i>, the following are most useful. An +asterisk is placed against the names of those which deserve special +attention, and which are easily accessible.</p> + + + +<h3>Sweating and Its Causes.</h3> + + +<p>* Booth, <i>Labour and Life of the People</i>.</p> + +<p>* <i>Final Report of Lords' Committee on the Sweating System.</i></p> + +<p>Marx, "Capital," chap. xv., <i>Machinery and Modern Industry</i> +(Sonnenschein).</p> + +<p>Burnett, <i>Report to the Board of Trade on Sweating</i> (Blue-Book, 1887).</p> + +<p>"Socialism," <i>Fabian Essays</i> (Walter Scott).</p> + +<p>Booth, <i>Pauperism and the Endowment of Old Age</i> (Macmillan).</p> + +<p>J. A. Spender, <i>The State and Pensions in Old Age</i> (Sonnenschein).</p> + +<p>J. T. Arlidge, <i>Hygiene of Occupations</i> (Rivington).</p> + + + +<h3>Co-Operation and Labour Organization.</h3> + + +<p>* Webb, <i>History of Trade Unionism</i> (Longman).</p> + +<p>* Howell, <i>Conflicts of Capital and Labour</i> (Chatto & Windus).</p> + +<p>* Burnett, <i>Report of Trade Unions</i> (Blue-Book).</p> + +<p>Brentano, <i>Gilds and Trade Unions</i> (Trübner).</p> + +<p>* Baernreither, <i>Associations of English Working-men</i>.</p> + +<p>Acland and Jones, <i>Working-men Co-operators</i>.</p> + +<p>Gilman, <i>Profit-sharing between Employer and Employed</i> (Macmillan).</p> + +<p><i>Co-operative Wholesale Society's Annual</i>.</p> + +<p>Potter, <i>Co-operative Movement in Great Britain</i> (Sonnenschein).</p> + +<p>* Webb, <i>Industrial Democracy</i> (Longman).</p> + +<p>* Schloss, <i>Methods of Industrial Remuneration</i> (Williams & Norgate).</p> + + + +<h3>Chartiable Work and Poor Law, &c.</h3> + + +<p>* Aschrott, <i>The English Poor Law System</i> (Knight).</p> + +<p>H. Bosanquet, <i>The Strength of the People</i> (Macmillan).</p> + +<p>P. Alden, <i>The Unemployed</i>.</p> + +<p>Fowle, <i>The Poor Law</i> (<i>English Citizen Series</i>).</p> + +<p>Booth, <i>In Darkest England</i>.</p> + +<p>Blackley, <i>Thrift and Independence</i> (People's Library, S.P.C.K.).</p> + +<p>* Mackay, <i>The English Poor</i> (Murray).</p> + +<p>* <i>Report on Pauperism in England and Wales</i> (Blue-Book, 1889).</p> + +<p>Rev. S.A. Barnett, <i>Practicable Socialism</i>.</p> + +<p>Loch, <i>Charity Organization</i> (Sonnenschein).</p> + +<p><i>Report of Committee on National Provident Insurance</i> (Blue-Book, 1887).</p> + + + +<h3>Socialistic Legislation.</h3> + + +<p>Ensor, <i>Modern Socialism</i> (Harpers).</p> + +<p>* Jevons, <i>The State in Relation to Labour</i>.</p> + +<p>Webb, <i>Socialism in England</i> (Swan Sonnenschein).</p> + +<p>Hyndman, <i>Historical Basis of Socialism in England</i> (Kegan Paul).</p> + +<p>* "Socialism" (<i>Fabian Essays</i>).</p> + +<p>* Toynbee, <i>Industrial Revolution</i> (Rivington).</p> + +<p>Kirkup, <i>An Inquiry into Socialism</i> (Longman).</p> + + + +<h3>Movements of Capital.</h3> + + +<p>* Marx, "Capital," vol. ii., ch. xv.</p> + +<p>* Baker, <i>Monopolies and the People</i> (Putnams).</p> + +<p>"Socialism," <i>Fabian Essays</i>.</p> + +<p>Macrosty, <i>Trust and the State</i> (Grant Richards). + +Ely, <i>Monopolies and Trusts</i> (Macmillan).</p> + + + +<h3>The Measure of Poverty.</h3> + + +<p>*Giffen, <i>Economic Inquiries and Studies </i>(Bell).</p> + +<p>Mulhall, <i>Dictionary of Statistics</i> (Routledge).</p> + +<p>Bowley, <i>National Progress in Wealth and Trade</i>(King).</p> + +<p>* Board of Trade Memoranda, <i>British and Foreign Trade and Industrial +Conditions</i> [cd. 1761 and 2237].</p> + +<p><i>Statistical Abstract of the United Kingdom</i> [cd. 1727].</p> + +<p>* <i>Census of England and Wales: General Report</i>, 1901 [cd. 2174]. + +* Leone Levi, <i>Wages and Earnings of the Working-Classes</i> (Murray).</p> + +<p>* <i>Report of the Industrial Remuneration Conference</i> (Cassell).</p> + +<p>Giffen, <i>Growth of Capital</i> (Bell).</p> + +<p>Valpy, <i>An Inquiry into the Conditions and Occupations of the People in +Central London</i>.</p> +</div> + + +<div class="chapter" id="footnotes"> +<h2>Footnotes</h2> + + + +<p id="fn1">1. This sum includes an allowance for the part of the wage of domestic +servants, shop-attendants, &c. paid in kind.</p> + +<p id="fn2">2. Leone Levi's <i>Wages and Earnings of the Working-Classes</i>, p. II.</p> + +<p id="fn3">3. <i>Labour and Life of the People</i>, vol. i. p. 38.</p> + +<p id="fn4">4. <i>Poverty: A Study of Town Life</i>. (Macmillan & Co.)</p> + +<p id="fn5">5. By Mr P.H. Mann in <i>Sociological Papers</i>. (Macmillan.)</p> + +<p id="fn6">6. Cf. <i>An Inquiry into the Conditions and Occupations of the People in +Central London</i>, R. A. Valpy.</p> + +<p id="fn7">7. This statement is borne out by <i>A Return of Expenditure of +Working-Men</i>, for 1889, published by the Labour Department of the Board of +Trade.</p> + +<p id="fn8">8. See two interesting papers, "Our Farmers in Chains," by the Rev. Harry +Jones (<i>National Review</i>, April and July, 1890).</p> + +<p id="fn9">9. Arnold White: <i>The Problems of a Great City</i>, p. 159.</p> + +<p id="fn10">10. Marshall's <i>Principles of Economics</i>, II. ch. iv. §2.</p> + +<p id="fn11">11. De Tocqueville, <i>Ancient Régime</i>, ch. xvi.</p> + +<p id="fn12">12. <i>Report of the Industrial Remuneration Conference</i>, 1886, p. 429.</p> + +<p id="fn13">13. Cannan's <i>Elementary Political Economy</i>, part ii. § 15.</p> + +<p id="fn14">14. <i>Industrial Remuneration Congress Report</i>, p. 153. Mr. W. Owen.</p> + +<p id="fn15">15. <i>Economics of Industry</i>, p. 111.</p> + +<p id="fn16">16. <i>Principles of Economics</i>, pp. 314, 316.</p> + +<p id="fn17">17. Kirkup, <i>Inquiry into Socialism</i>, p. 72.</p> + +<p id="fn18">18. Booth's <i>Labour and Life of the People, </i>vol. i. Part. III. ch. ii. +<i>Influx of Population, </i>by H. Llewellyn Smith. A most valuable paper, from +which many of the facts here stated have been drawn.</p> + +<p id="fn19">19. The official estimate is not precise, since our statistics of +emigration refer only to non-European countries.</p> + +<p id="fn20">20. <i>Labour and Life of the People</i>, vol. i. p. 237.</p> + +<p id="fn21">21. <i>Labour and Life of East London</i>, vol. i. p. 224.</p> + +<p id="fn22">22. <i>Report on the Sweating System</i>, p. 14.</p> + +<p id="fn23">23. <i>Labour and Life of the People</i>, p. 271.</p> + +<p id="fn24">24. <i>Final Report on the Sweating System, </i>§ 68.</p> + +<p id="fn25">25. <i>Lords' Committee on the Sweating System; Last Report, </i> p. 184.</p> + +<p id="fn26">26. <i>Labour and Life in London</i>, vol. i. p. 489.</p> + +<p id="fn27">27. Howell, <i>Conflicts of Capital and Labour, </i>p. 128. Second Edition, +Macmillan & Co.</p> + +<p id="fn28">28. Karl Marx, <i>Capital</i>, vol. ii. p. 480.</p> + +<p id="fn29">29. <i>Labour and Life in East London, </i>vol. i. p. 112.</p> + +<p id="fn30">30. Cf. Howell's <i>Conflicts of Capital and Labour</i>, p. 207.</p> + +<p id="fn31">31. <i>The State in Relation to Labour</i>, p. 106.</p> + +<p id="fn32">32. <i>Problems of Greater Britain</i>, vol. ii. p. 314.</p> + +<p id="fn33">33. <i>Labour and Life of the People</i>, vol. i, p. 167.</p> + +<p id="fn34">34. The match-box trade, however, is chiefly in the hands of +home-workers.</p> + +<p id="fn35">35. <i>Labour and Life of the People</i>, vol, i p. 427.</p> + +<p id="fn36">36. Roscher's <i>Political Economy</i>, § 242.</p> + +<p id="fn37">37. Fabian Essays in Socialism, p. 48.</p> + +<p id="fn38">38. Quoted by G. Gunton: <i>Political Science Quarterly</i>, Sept. 1880.</p> + +<p id="fn39">39. G. Gunton: <i>Political Science Quarterly, </i>Sept. 1888.</p> + +<p id="fn40">40. p. 17.</p> +</div> +<hr /> +<pre> + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PROBLEMS OF POVERTY*** + +******* This file should be named 10710-h.txt or 10710-h.zip ******* + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:<br /> +<a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/1/0/7/1/10710">https://www.gutenberg.org/1/0/7/1/10710</a> + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. 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Hobson + +Release Date: January 13, 2004 [eBook #10710] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: US-ASCII + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PROBLEMS OF POVERTY*** + + +E-text prepared by Project Gutenberg Distributed Proofreaders + + + +Transcriber's note: Footnotes have been renumbered and moved + to the end of the text. + + + +Problems of Poverty + +An Inquiry into the Industrial Condition of The Poor + +By + +John A. Hobson, M.A. + +Author of "The Problem of The Unemployed," +"International Trade," Etc. + +Sixth Edition + + + + + + +First Published April 1891 +Second Edition November 1894 +Third Edition July 1896 +Fourth Edition July 1899 +Fifth Edition May 1905 +Sixth Edition 1906 + + + + + + +Preface + + + +The object of this volume is to collect, arrange, and examine some of +the leading facts and forces in modern industrial life which have a +direct bearing upon Poverty, and to set in the light they afford some of +the suggested palliatives and remedies. Although much remains to be done +in order to establish on a scientific basis the study of "the condition +of the people," it is possible that the brief setting forth of carefully +ascertained facts and figures in this little book may be of some service +in furnishing a stimulus to the fuller systematic study of the important +social questions with which it deals. + +The treatment is designed to be adapted to the focus of the citizen- +student who brings to his task not merely the intellectual interest of +the collector of knowledge, but the moral interest which belongs to one +who is a part of all he sees, and a sharer in the social responsibility +for the present and the future of industrial society. + +For the statements of fact contained in these chapters I am largely +indebted to the valuable studies presented in the first volume of Mr. +Charles Booth's _Labour and Life of the People_, a work which, when +completed, will place the study of problems of poverty upon a solid +scientific basis which has hitherto been wanting. A large portion of +this book is engaged in relating the facts drawn from this and other +sources to the leading industrial forces of the age. + +In dealing with suggested remedies for poverty, I have selected certain +representative schemes which claim to possess a present practical +importance, and endeavoured to set forth briefly some of the economic +considerations which bear upon their competency to achieve their aim. In +doing this my object has been not to pronounce judgment, but rather to +direct enquiry. Certain larger proposals of Land Nationalization and +State Socialism, etc., I have left untouched, partly because it was +impossible to deal, however briefly, even with the main issues involved +in these questions, and partly because it seemed better to confine our +enquiry to measures claiming a direct and present applicability. + +In setting forth such facts as may give some measurement of the evils of +Poverty, no attempt is made to suppress the statement of extreme cases +which rest on sufficient evidence, for the nature of industrial poverty +and the forces at work are often most clearly discerned and most rightly +measured by instances which mark the severest pressure. So likewise +there is no endeavour to exclude such human emotions as are "just, +measured, and continuous," from the treatment of a subject where true +feeling is constantly required for a proper realization of the facts. + +In conclusion, I wish to offer my sincere thanks to Mr. Llewellyn Smith, +Mr. William Clarke, and other friends who have been kind enough to +render me valuable assistance in collecting the material and revising +the proof-sheets of portions of this book. + + + + +Contents + + + + I. The Measure of Poverty + II. The Effects of Machinery on the Condition of the Working-Classes + III. The Influx of Population into Large Towns + IV. "The Sweating System" + V. The Causes of Sweating + VI. Remedies for Sweating + VII. Over-Supply of Low-Skilled Labour +VIII. The Industrial Condition of Women Workers + IX. Moral Aspects of Poverty + X. "Socialistic Legislation" + XI. The Industrial Outlook of Low-Skilled Labour + +List of Authorities + + + + + +Problems of Poverty + + + + +Chapter I. + +The Measure of Poverty. + + + +Sec. 1. The National Income, and the Share of the Wage-earners.--To give a +clear meaning and a measure of poverty is the first requisite. Who are +the poor? The "poor law," on the one hand, assigns a meaning too narrow +for our purpose, confining the application of the name to "the +destitute," who alone are recognized as fit subjects of legal relief. +The common speech of the comfortable classes, on the other hand, not +infrequently includes the whole of the wage-earning class under the +title of "the poor." As it is our purpose to deal with the pressure of +poverty as a painful social disease, it is evident that the latter +meaning is unduly wide. The "poor," whose condition is forcing "the +social problem" upon the reluctant minds of the "educated" classes, +include only the lower strata of the vast wage-earning class. + +But since dependence upon wages for the support of life will be found +closely related to the question of poverty, it is convenient to throw +some preliminary light on the measure of poverty, by figures bearing on +the general industrial condition of the wage-earning class. To measure +poverty we must first measure wealth. What is the national income, and +how is it divided? will naturally arise as the first questions. Now +although the data for accurate measurement of the national income are +somewhat slender, there is no very wide discrepancy in the results +reached by the most skilful statisticians. For practical purposes we may +regard the sum of L1,800,000,000 as fairly representing the national +income. But when we put the further question, "How is this income +divided among the various classes of the community?" we have to face +wider discrepancies of judgment. The difficulties which beset a fair +calculation of interest and profits, have introduced unconsciously a +partisan element into the discussion. Certain authorities, evidently +swayed by a desire to make the best of the present condition of the +working-classes, have reached a low estimate of interest and profits, +and a high estimate of wages; while others, actuated by a desire to +emphasize the power of the capitalist classes, have minimized the share +which goes as wages. At the outset of our inquiry, it might seem well to +avoid such debatable ground. But the importance of the subject will not +permit it to be thus shirked. The following calculation presents what +is, in fact, a compromise of various views, and can only claim to be a +rough approximation to the truth. + +Taking the four ordinary divisions: Rent, as payment for the use of +land, for agriculture, housing, mines, etc.; Interest for the use of +business capital; Profit as wages of management and superintendence; and +Wages, the weekly earnings of the working-classes, we find that the +national income can be thus fairly apportioned-- + + Rent L200,000,000. + Interest L450,000,000. + Profits L450,000,000. + Wages L650,000,000.[1] + Total L1750,000,000. + +Professor Leone Levi reckoned the number of working-class families as +5,600,000, and their total income L470,000,000 in the year 1884.[2] If +we now divide the larger money, minus L650,000,000, among a number of +families proportionate to the increase of the population, viz. +6,900,000, we shall find that the average yearly income of a working- +class family comes to about L94, or a weekly earnings of about 36s. This +figure is of necessity a speculative one, and is probably in excess of +the actual average income of a working family. + +This, then, we may regard as the first halting-place in our inquiry. But +in looking at the average money income of a wage-earning family, there +are several further considerations which vitally affect the measurement +of the pressure of poverty. + +First, there is the fact, that out of an estimated population of some +42,000,000, only 12,000,000, or about three out of every ten persons in +the richest country of Europe, belong to a class which is able to live +in decent comfort, free from the pressing cares of a close economy. The +other seven are of necessity confined to a standard of life little, if +at all, above the line of bare necessaries. + +Secondly, the careful figures collected by these statisticians show that +the national income equally divided throughout the community would yield +an average income, per family, of about L182 per annum. A comparison of +this sum with the average working-class income of L94, brings home the +extent of inequality in the distribution of the national income. While +it indicates that any approximation towards equality of incomes would +not bring affluence, at anyrate on the present scale of national +productivity, it serves also to refute the frequent assertions that +poverty is unavoidable because Great Britain is not rich enough to +furnish a comfortable livelihood for everyone. + +Sec. 2. Gradations of Working-class Incomes.--But though it is true that an +income of 36s. a week for an ordinary family leaves but a small margin +for "superfluities," it will be evident that if every family possessed +this sum, we should have little of the worst evils of poverty. If we +would understand the extent of the disease, we must seek it in the +inequality of incomes among the labouring classes themselves. No family +need be reduced to suffering on 36s. a week. But unfortunately the +differences of income among the working-classes are proportionately +nearly as great as among the well-to-do classes. It is not merely the +difference between the wages of skilled and unskilled labour; the 50s. +per week of the high-class engineer, or typographer, and the 1s. 2d. per +diem of the sandwich-man, or the difference between the wages of men and +women workers. There is a more important cause of difference than these. +When the average income of a working family is named, it must not be +supposed that this represents the wage of the father of the family +alone. Each family contains about 21/4 workers on an average. This is a +fact, the significance of which is obvious. In some families, the father +and mother, and one or two of the children, will be contributors to the +weekly income; in other cases, the burden of maintaining a large family +may be thrown entirely on the shoulders of a single worker, perhaps the +widowed mother. If we reckon that the average wage of a working man is +about 24s., that of a working woman 15s., we realize the strain which +the loss of the male bread-winner throws on the survivor. + +In looking at the gradations of income among the working-classes, it +must be borne in mind that as you go lower down in the standard of +living, each drop in money income represents a far more than +proportionate increase of the pressure of poverty. Halve the income of a +rich man, you oblige him to retrench; he must give up his yacht, his +carriage, or other luxuries; but such retrenchment, though it may wound +his pride, will not cause him great personal discomfort. But halve the +income of a well-paid mechanic, and you reduce him and his family at +once to the verge of starvation. A drop from 25s. to 12s. 6d. a week +involves a vastly greater sacrifice than a drop from L500 to L250 a +year. A working-class family, however comfortably it may live with a +full contingent of regular workers, is almost always liable, by +sickness, death, or loss of employment, to be reduced in a few weeks to +a position of penury. + +Sec. 3. Measurement of East London Poverty.--This brief account of the +inequality of incomes has brought us by successive steps down to the +real object of our inquiry, the amount and the intensity of poverty. For +it is not inequality of income, but actual suffering, which moves the +heart of humanity. What do we know of the numbers and the life of those +who lie below the average, and form the lower orders of the working- +classes? + +Some years ago the civilized world was startled by the _Bitter Cry of +Outcast London_, and much trouble has been taken of late to gauge the +poverty of London. A host of active missionaries are now at work, +engaged in religious, moral, and sanitary teaching, in charitable +relief, or in industrial organization. But perhaps the most valuable +work has been that which has had no such directly practical object in +view, but has engaged itself in the collection of trustworthy +information. Mr Charles Booth's book, _The Labour and Life of the +People_, has an importance far in advance of that considerable attention +which it has received. Its essential value is not merely that it +supplies, for the first time, a large and carefully collected fund of +facts for the formation of sound opinions and the explosion of +fallacies, but that it lays down lines of a new branch of social study, +in the pursuit of which the most delicate intellectual interests will be +identified with a close and absorbing devotion to the practical issues +of life. + +In the study of poverty, the work of Mr. Booth and his collaborators may +truly rank as an epoch-making work. + +For the purpose we have immediately before us, the measurement of +poverty, the figures supplied in this book are invaluable. +Considerations of space will compel us to confine our attention to such +figures as will serve to mark the extent and meaning of city poverty in +London. But though, as will be seen, the industrial causes of London +poverty are in some respects peculiar, there is every reason to believe +that the extent and nature of poverty does not widely differ in all +large centres of population. + +The area which Mr. Booth places under microscopic observation covers +Shoreditch, Bethnal Green, Whitechapel, St. George's in the East, +Stepney, Mile End, Old Town, Poplar, Hackney, and comprises a population +891,539. Of these no less than 316,000, or 35 per cent, belong to +families whose weekly earnings amount to less than 21s. This 35 per +cent, compose the "poor," according to the estimate of Mr. Booth, and it +will be worth while to note the social elements which constitute this +class. The "poor" are divided into four classes or strata, marked A, B, +C, D. At the bottom comes A, a body of some 11,000, or 11/4 per cent, of +hopeless, helpless city savages, who can only be said by courtesy to +belong to the "working-classes" "Their life is the life of savages, with +vicissitudes of extreme hardship and occasional excess. Their food is of +the coarsest description, and their only luxury is drink. It is not easy +to say how they live; the living is picked up, and what is got is +frequently shared; when they cannot find 3d. for their night's lodging, +unless favourably known to the deputy, they are turned out at night into +the street, to return to the common kitchen in the morning. From these +come the battered figures who slouch through the streets, and play the +beggar or the bully, or help to foul the record of the unemployed; these +are the worst class of corner-men, who hang round the doors of public- +houses, the young men who spring forward on any chance to earn a copper, +the ready materials for disorder when occasion serves. They render no +useful service; they create no wealth; more often they destroy it."[3] + +Next comes B, a thicker stratum of some 100,000, or 111/2 per cent., +largely composed of shiftless, broken-down men, widows, deserted women, +and their families, dependent upon casual earnings, less than 18s. per +week, and most of them incapable of regular, effective work. Most of the +social wreckage of city life is deposited in this stratum, which +presents the problem of poverty in its most perplexed and darkest form. +For this class hangs as a burden on the shoulders of the more capable +classes which stand just above it. Mr. Booth writes of it-- + +"It may not be too much to say that if the whole of class B were swept +out of existence, all the work they do could be done, together with +their own work, by the men, women, and children of classes C and D; that +all they earn and spend might be earned, and could very easily be spent, +by the classes above them; that these classes, and especially class C, +would be immensely better off, while no class, nor any industry, would +suffer in the least." Class C consists of 75,000, or 8 per cent., +subsisting on intermittent earnings of from 18s. to 21s. for a moderate- +sized family. Low-skilled labourers, poorer artizans, street-sellers, +small shopkeepers, largely constitute this class, the curse of whose +life is not so much low wages as irregularity of employment, and the +moral and physical degradation caused thereby. Above these, forming the +top stratum of "poor," comes a large class, numbering 129,000, or 141/2 +per cent., dependent upon small regular earnings of from 18s. to 21s., +including many dock-and water-side labourers, factory and warehouse +hands, car-men, messengers, porters, &c. "What they have comes in +regularly, and except in times of sickness in the family, actual want +rarely presses, unless the wife drinks." + +"As a general rule these men have a hard struggle, but they are, as a +body, decent, steady men, paying their way and bringing up their +children respectably" (p. 50). + +Mr Booth, in confining the title "poor" to this 35 per cent. of the +population of East London, takes, perhaps for sufficient reasons, a +somewhat narrow interpretation of the term. For in the same district no +less than 377,000, or over 42 per cent. of the inhabitants, live upon +earnings varying from 21s. to 30s. per week. So long as the father is in +regular work, and his family is not too large, a fair amount of material +comfort may doubtless be secured by those who approach the maximum. But +such an income leaves little margin for saving, and innumerable forms of +mishaps will bring such families down beneath the line of poverty. +Though the East End contains more poverty than some other parts of +London the difference is less than commonly supposed. Mr Booth estimated +that of the total population of the metropolis 30.7 per cent. were +living in poverty. The figure for York is placed by Mr Seebohm +Rowntree[4] at the slightly lower figure of 27.84. These figures (in +both cases exclusive of the population of the workhouses and other +public or private institutions) may be taken as fairly representative of +life in English industrial cities. A recent investigation of an ordinary +agricultural village in Bedfordshire[5] discloses a larger amount of +poverty--no less than 34.3 per cent. of the population falling below the +income necessary for physical efficiency. + +Sec. 4. Prices for the Poor.--These figures relating to money income do not +bring home to us the evil of poverty. It is not enough to know what the +weekly earnings of a poor family are, we must inquire what they can buy +with them. Among the city poor, the evil of low wages is intensified by +high prices. In general, the poorer the family the higher the prices it +must pay for the necessaries of life. Rent is naturally the first item +in the poor man's budget. Here it is evident that the poor pay in +proportion to their poverty. The average rent in many large districts of +East London is 4s. for one room, 7s. for two. In the crowded parts of +Central London the figures stand still higher; 6s. is said to be a +moderate price for a single room.[6] Mr. Marchant Williams, an Inspector +of Schools for the London School Board, finds that 86 per cent. of the +dwellers in certain poor districts of London pay more than one-fifth of +their income in rent; 46 per cent. paying from one-half to one-quarter; +42 per cent. paying from one-quarter to one-fifth; and only 12 per cent. +paying less than one-fifth of their weekly wage.[7] The poor from their +circumstances cannot pay wholesale prices for their shelter, but must +buy at high retail prices by the week; they are forced to live near +their work (workmen's trains are for the aristocracy of labour), and +thus compete keenly for rooms in the centres of industry; more important +still, the value of central ground for factories, shops, and ware-houses +raises to famine price the habitable premises. It is notorious that +overcrowded, insanitary "slum" property is the most paying form of house +property to its owners. The part played by rent in the problems of +poverty can scarcely be over-estimated. Attempts to mitigate the evil by +erecting model dwellings have scarcely touched the lower classes of +wage-earners. The labourer prefers a room in a small house to an +intrinsically better accommodation in a barrack-like building. Other +than pecuniary motives enter in. The "touchiness of the lower class" +causes them to be offended by the very sanitary regulations designed for +their benefit. + +But "shelter" is not the only thing for which the poor pay high. +Astounding facts are adduced as to the prices paid by the poor for +common articles of consumption, especially for vegetables, dairy +produce, groceries, and coal. The price of fresh vegetables, such as +carrots, parsnips, &c., in East London is not infrequently ten times the +price at which the same articles can be purchased wholesale from the +growers.[8] + +Hence arises the popular cry against the wicked middleman who stands +between producer and consumer, and takes the bulk of the profit. There +is much want of thought shown in this railing against the iniquities of +the middleman. It is true that a large portion of the price paid by the +poor goes to the retail distributor, but we should remember that the +labour of distribution under present conditions and with existing +machinery is very great. We have no reason to believe that the small +retailers who sell to the poor die millionaires. The poor, partly of +necessity, partly by habit, make their purchases in minute quantities. A +single family has been known to make seventy-two distinct purchases of +tea within seven weeks, and the average purchases of a number of poor +families for the same period amounted to twenty-seven. Their groceries +are bought largely by the ounce, their meat or fish by the half- +penn'orth, their coal by the cwt., or even by the lb. Undoubtedly they +pay for these morsels a price which, if duly multiplied, represents a +much higher sum than their wealthier neighbours pay for a much better +article. But the small shopkeeper has a high rent to pay; he has a large +number of competitors, so that the total of his business is not great; +the actual labour of dispensing many minute portions is large; he is +often himself a poor man, and must make a large profit on a small turn- +over in order to keep going; he is not infrequently kept waiting for his +money, for the amount of credit small shopkeepers will give to regular +customers is astonishing. For all these, and many other reasons, it is +easy to see that the poor man must pay high prices. Even his luxuries, +his beer and tobacco, he purchases at exorbitant rates. + +It is sometimes held sufficient to reply that the poor are thoughtless +and extravagant. And no doubt this is so. But it must also be remembered +that the industrial conditions under which these people live, +necessitate a hand-to-mouth existence, and themselves furnish an +education in improvidence. + +Sec. 5. Housing and Food Supply of the Poor.--Once more, out of a low +income the poor pay high prices for a bad article. The low physical +condition of the poorest city workers, the high rate of mortality, +especially among children, is due largely to the _quality_ of the food, +drink, and shelter which they buy. On the quality of the rooms for which +they pay high rent it is unnecessary to dwell. Ill-constructed, +unrepaired, overcrowded, destitute of ventilation and of proper sanitary +arrangements, the mass of low class city tenements finds few apologists. +The Royal Commission on Housing of the Working Classes thus deals with +the question of overcrowding-- + +"The evils of overcrowding, especially in London, are still a public +scandal, and are becoming in certain localities a worse scandal than +they ever were. Among adults, overcrowding causes a vast amount of +suffering which could be calculated by no bills of mortality, however +accurate. The general deterioration in the health of the people is a +worse feature of overcrowding even than the encouragement by it of +infectious disease. It has the effect of reducing their stamina, and +thus producing consumption and diseases arising from general debility of +the system whereby life is shortened." "In Liverpool, nearly one-fifth +of the squalid houses where the poor live in the closest quarters are +reported to be always infected, that is to say, the seat of infectious +diseases." + +To apply the name of "home" to these dens is a sheer abuse of words. +What grateful memories of tender childhood, what healthy durable +associations, what sound habits of life can grow among these unwholesome +and insecure shelters? + +The city poor are a wandering tribe. The lack of fixed local habitation +is an evil common to all classes of city dwellers. But among the lower +working-classes "flitting" is a chronic condition. The School Board +visitor's book showed that in a representative district of Bethnal +Green, out of 1204 families, no less than 530 had removed within a +twelvemonth, although such an account would not include the lowest and +most "shifty" class of all. Between November 1885 and July 1886 it was +found that 20 per cent. of the London electorate had changed residence. +To what extent the uncertain conditions of employment impose upon the +poor this changing habitation cannot be yet determined; but the absence +of the educative influence of a fixed abode is one of the most +demoralizing influences in the life of the poor. The reversion to a +nomad condition is a retrograde step in civilization the importance of +which can hardly be exaggerated. When we bear in mind that these houses +are also the workshop of large numbers of the poor, and know how the +work done in the crowded, tainted air of these dens brings as an +inevitable portion of its wage, physical feebleness, disease, and an +early death, we recognize the paramount importance of that aspect of the +problem of poverty which is termed "The Housing of the Poor." + +So much for the quality of the shelter for which the poor pay high +prices. Turn to their food. In the poorest parts of London it is +scarcely possible for the poor to buy pure food. Unfortunately the prime +necessaries of life are the very things which lend themselves most +easily to successful adulteration. Bread, sugar, tea, oil are notorious +subjects of deception. Butter, in spite of the Margarine Act, it is +believed, the poor can seldom get. But the systematic poisoning of +alcoholic liquors permitted under a licensing System is the most +flagrant example of the evil. There is some evidence to show that the +poorer class of workmen do not consume a very large quantity of strong +drink. But the vile character of the liquor sold to them acts on an ill- +fed, unwholesome body as a poisonous irritant. We are told that "the +East End dram-drinker has developed a new taste; it is for fusil-oil. It +has even been said that ripe old whisky ten years old, drank in equal +quantities, would probably import a tone of sobriety to the densely- +populated quarters of East London."[9] + +Sec. 6. Irregularity of work.--One more aspect of city poverty demands a +word. Low wages are responsible in large measure for the evils with +which we have dealt. In the life of the lower grades of labour there is +a worse thing than low wages--that is irregular employment. The causes +of such irregularity, partly inherent in the nature of the work, partly +the results of trade fluctuations, will appear later. In gauging poverty +we are only concerned with the fact. This irregularity of work is not in +its first aspect so much a deficiency of work, but rather a +maladjustment While on the one hand we see large classes of workers who +are habitually overworked, men and women, tailors or shirt-makers in +Whitechapel, 'bus men, shop-assistants, even railway-servants, toiling +twelve, fourteen, fifteen, or even in some cases eighteen hours a day, +we see at the same time and in the same place numbers of men and women +seeking work and finding none. Thus are linked together the twin +maladies of over-work and the unemployed. It is possible that among the +comfortable classes there are still to be found those who believe that +the unemployed consist only of the wilfully idle and worthless residuum +parading a false grievance to secure sympathy and pecuniary aid, and who +hold that if a man really wants to work he can always do so. This idle +theory is contradicted by abundant facts. The official figures published +by the Board of Trade gives the average percentage of unemployed in the +Trade Unions of the skilled trades as follows. To the general average we +have appended for comparison the average for the shipbuilding and +boiler-making trades, so as to illustrate the violence of the +oscillations in a fluctuating trade:-- + + General per cent. Ship-building, etc. + + 1884 7.15 20.8 + 1885 8.55 22.2 + 1886 9.55 21.6 + 1887 7.15 16.7 + 1888 4.15 7.3 + 1889 2.05 2.0 + 1890 2.10 3.4 + 1891 3.40 5.7 + 1892 6.20 10.9 + 1893 7.70 17.0 + 1894 7.70 16.2 + 1895 6.05 13.0 + 1896 3.50 9.5 + 1897 3.65 8.6 + 1898 3.15 4.7 + 1899 2.40 2.1 + 1900 2.85 2.3 + 1901 3.80 3.6 + 1902 4.60 8.3 + 1903 5.30 11.7 + +These figures make it quite evident that the permanent causes of +irregular employment, e.g., weather in the building and riverside +trades, season in the dressmaking and confectionery trades, and the +other factors of leakage and displacement which throw out of work from +time to time numbers of workers, are, taken in the aggregate, +responsible only for a small proportion of the unemployment in the +staple trades of the country. + +The significance of such figures as these can scarcely be over- +estimated. Although it might fairly be urged that the lowest dip in +trade depression truly represented the injury inflicted on the +labouring-classes by trade fluctuations, we will omit the year 1886, and +take 1887 as a representative period of ordinary trade depression. The +figures quoted above are supported by Trade Union statistics, which show +that in that year among the strongest Trade Unions in the country, +consisting of the picked men in each trade, no less than 71 in every +1000, or over 7 per cent., were continuously out of work. That this was +due to their inability to get work, and not to their unwillingness to do +it, is placed beyond doubt by the fact that they were, during this +period of enforced idleness, supported by allowances paid by their +comrades. Indeed, the fact that in 1890 the mass of unemployed was +almost absorbed, disposes once for all of the allegation that the +unemployed in times of depression consist of idlers who do not choose to +work. Turning to the year 1887, there is every reason to believe that +where 7 per cent, are unemployed in the picked, skilled industries of a +country, where the normal supply of labour is actually limited by Union +regulations, the proportion in unskilled or less organized industries is +much larger. It is probable that 12 per cent, is not an excessive figure +to take as the representative of the average proportion of unemployed. +In the recent official returns of wages in textile industries, it is +admitted that 10 per cent, should be taken off from the nominal wages +for irregularity of employment. Moreover, it is true (with certain +exceptions) that the lower you go down in the ranks of labour and of +wages, the more irregular is the employment. To the pressure of this +evil among the very poor in East London notice has already been drawn. +We have seen how Mr. Booth finds one whole stratum of 100,000 people, +who from an industrial point of view are worse than worthless. We have +no reason to conclude that East London is much worse in this respect +than other centres of population, and the irregularity of country +employment is increasing every year. Are we to conclude then that of the +thirteen millions composing the "working-classes" in this country, +nearly two millions are liable at any time to figure as waste or surplus +labour? It looks like it. We are told that the movements of modern +industry necessitate the existence of a considerable margin supply of +labour. The figures quoted above bear out this statement. But a +knowledge of the cause does not make the fact more tolerable. We are not +at present concerned with the requirements of the industrial machine, +but with the quantity of hopeless, helpless misery these requirements +indicate. The fact that under existing conditions the unemployed seem +inevitable should afford the strongest motive for a change in these +conditions. Modern life has no more tragical figure than the gaunt, +hungry labourer wandering about the crowded centres of industry and +wealth, begging in vain for permission to share in that industry, and to +contribute to that wealth; asking in return not the comforts and +luxuries of civilized life, but the rough food and shelter for himself +and family, which would be practically secured to him in the rudest form +of savage society. + +Occasionally one of these sensational stories breaks into the light of +day, through the public press, and shocks society at large, until it +relapses into the consoling thought that such cases are exceptional. But +those acquainted closely with the condition of our great cities know +that there are thousands of such silent tragedies being played around +us. In England the recorded deaths from starvation are vastly more +numerous than in any other country. In 1880 the number for England is +given as 101. In 1902 the number for London alone is 34. This is, of +course, no adequate measure of the facts. For every recorded case there +will be a hundred unrecorded cases where starvation is the practical +immediate cause of death. The death-rate of children in the poorer +districts of London is found to be nearly three times that which obtains +among the richer neighbourhoods. Contemporary history has no darker page +than that which records not the death-rate of children, but the +conditions of child-life in our great cities. In setting down such facts +and figures as may assist readers to adequately realize the nature and +extent of poverty, it has seemed best to deal exclusively with the +material aspects of poverty, which admit of some exactitude of +measurement. The ugly and degrading surroundings of a life of poverty, +the brutalizing influences of the unceasing struggle for bare +subsistence, the utter absence of reasonable hope of improvement; in +short, the whole subjective side of poverty is not less terrible because +it defies statistics. + +Sec. 7. Figures and Facts of Pauperism.--Since destitution is the lowest +form of poverty, it is right to append to this statement of the facts of +poverty some account of pauperism. Although chiefly owing to a stricter +and wiser administration of the Poor Law in relation to outdoor relief, +the number of paupers has steadily and considerably decreased, both in +proportion to the population and absolutely, the number of those unable +to support themselves is still deplorably large. In 1881 no less than +one in ten of the total recorded deaths took place in workhouses, public +hospitals, and lunatic asylums. In London the proportion is much greater +and has increased during recent years. In 1901 out of 78,229 deaths in +London, 13,009 took place in workhouses, 10,643 in public hospitals, and +349 in public asylums, making a total of 24,001. Comparing these figures +with the total number of deaths, we find that in the richest city of the +world 32.5 per cent., or one in three of the inhabitants, dies dependent +on public charity. This estimate does not include those in receipt of +outdoor relief. Moreover, it is an estimate which includes all classes. +The proportion, taking the working-classes alone, must be even higher. + +Turning from pauper deaths to pauper lives, the condition of the poor, +though improved, is far from satisfactory. The agricultural labourer in +many parts of England still looks to the poorhouse as a natural and +necessary asylum for old age. Even the diminution effected in outdoor +relief is not evidence of a corresponding decrease in the pressure of +want. The diminution is chiefly due to increased strictness in the +application of the Poor Law, a policy which in a few cases such as +Whitechapel, Stepney, St. George-in-the-East, has succeeded in the +practical extermination of the outdoor pauper. This is doubtless a wise +policy, but it supplies no evidence of decrease in poverty. It would be +possible by increased strictness of conditions to annihilate outdoor +pauperism throughout the country at a single blow, and to reduce the +number of indoor paupers by making workhouse life unendurable. But such +a course would obviously furnish no satisfactory evidence of the decline +of poverty, or even of destitution. Moreover, in regarding the decline +of pauperism, we must not forget to take into account the enormous +recent growth of charitable institutions and funds which now perform +more effectually and more humanely much of the relief work which +formerly devolved upon the Poor Law. The income of charitable London +institutions engaged in promoting the physical well-being of the people +amounted in 1902-3 to about four and a half millions. The relief +afforded by Friendly Societies and Trade Unions to sick and out-of-work +members, furnishes a more satisfactory evidence of the growth of +providence and independence among all but the lowest classes of workers. + +The improvement exhibited in figures of pauperism is entirely confined +to outdoor relief. The number of workers who, by reason of old age or +other infirmity, are compelled to take refuge in the poorhouses, bears a +larger proportion to the total population than it did a generation ago. +In 1876-7 the mean number of indoor paupers for England and Wales was +130,337, or 5.4 per 1000 of the population; in 1902-3 the number had +risen to 203,604, or 6.2 per 1000 of the population. This rise of indoor +pauperism has indeed been coincident with a larger decline of outdoor +pauperism through this same period. But the growth of thrift in the +working-classes, the increase of the machinery of charity, the rise of +the average of wages--these causes have been wholly inoperative to check +the growth of indoor pauperism. Nor, if one may trust so competent an +authority as Mr Fowle, is this explained by any tendency of increased +strictness in the administration of outdoor relief, to drive would-be +recipients of outdoor relief into the workhouse. + +The figures of London pauperism yield still more strange results. Here, +though the percentage of paupers to population has shown a steady +decline, the process has been so much slower than in the country that +there has been no actual fall in the number of paupers. Throughout the +whole period from 1861 to 1896 the numbers have remained about +stationary, after which they show a considerable rise. The alarming +feature in this table is the rapid rise of indoor pauperism, far more +rapid than the growth of London's population. From 1861-2 the number of +indoor paupers has grown by steady increase from 26,667 to 61,432 in +1902-3, or from a ratio of 9.5 to one of 13.4 per 1000. While the +proportion of outdoor paupers per 1000 is little more than half that of +the country as a whole, the proportion of indoor paupers is more than +twice as great. Roughly speaking, London, with less than one-sixth of +the population of the country, contains nearly one-third of the indoor +pauperism. This fact alone throws some light upon the nature of city +life. A close analysis of metropolitan workhouses discloses the fact +that the aged, infirm, and children composed the vast majority of +inmates. A very small percentage was found to be capable of actual work. +About one-third of the paupers are children, about one-tenth lunatics, +about one-half are aged, infirm, or sick. This leaves one-fifteenth as +the proportion of able-bodied male and female adults. As a commentary on +the administration of the Poor Law, these figures are eminently +satisfactory, for they prove that people who can support themselves do +not in fact obtain from public relief. But the picture has its dark +side. It shows that a very large proportion of our workers, when their +labour-power has been drained out of them, instead of obtaining a well- +earned honourable rest, are obliged to seek refuge in that asylum which +they and their class hate and despise. Whereas only 5 per cent of the +population under 60 years are paupers, the proportion is 40 per cent in +the case of those over 70. Taking the working-class only out of a +population of 952,000 above the age of 65, no fewer than 402,000, or +over 42 per cent, obtained relief in 1892. In London 221/2 per cent of the +aged poor are indoor paupers. The hardness of the battle of life is +attested by this number of old men, and old women, who in spite of a +hard-working life are compelled to end their days as the recipients of +public charity. + +Sec. 8. The Diminution of Poverty in the last half century.--In order to +realize the true importance of our subject, it is necessary not only to +have some measurement of the extent and nature of poverty, but to +furnish ourselves with some answer to the question, Is this poverty +increasing or diminishing? Until a few years ago it was customary not +only for platform agitators, but for thoughtful writers on the subject, +to assume that "the rich are getting richer, and the poor are getting +poorer." This formula was ripening into a popular creed when a number of +statistical inquiries choked it. Prof. Leone Levi, Mr. Giffen, and a +number of careful investigators, showed a vast improvement in the +industrial condition of the working-classes during the last half +century. It was pointed out that money wages had risen considerably in +all kinds of employment; that prices had generally fallen, so that the +rise in real wages was even greater; that they worked shorter hours; +consumed more and better food; lived longer lives; committed fewer +crimes; and lastly, saved more money. The general accuracy of these +statements is beyond question. The industrial conditions of the working- +classes as a whole shows a great advance during the last half century. +Although the evidence upon this point is by no means conclusive, it +seems probable that the income of the wage-earning classes as an +aggregate is growing even more rapidly than that of the capitalist +classes. Income-tax returns indicate that the proportion of the +population living on an acknowledged income of more than L150 a year is +much larger than it was a generation ago. In 1851 the income-tax-paying +population amounted to 1,500,000; in 1879-80 the number had risen to +4,700,000. At the same time the average of these incomes showed a +considerable fall, for while in 1851 the gross income assessed was +L272,000,000, in 1879-80 it had only risen to L577,000,000. + +Though the method of assessing companies as if they were single persons +renders it impossible to obtain accurate information in recent years as +to the number of persons enjoying incomes of various sizes, a comparison +made by Mr Mulhall of incomes in 1867 and 1895 indicates that, while the +lower middle-class is growing rapidly, the number of the rich is growing +still more rapidly. While incomes of L100 to L300 have grown by a little +more than 50 per cent., those from L300 to L1000 have nearly doubled, +those between L1000 and L5000 have more than doubled, and incomes over +L5000 have more than trebled. + +But though such comparisons justify the conclusion that the upper grades +of skilled labour have made considerable advances, and that the lower +grades of regular unskilled labourers have to a less degree shared in +this advance, they do not warrant the optimist conclusion often drawn +from them, that poverty is a disease which left alone will cure itself, +and which, in point of fact, is curing itself rapidly. Before we consent +to accept the evidence of improvement in the average condition of the +labouring classes during the last half century as sufficient evidence to +justify this opinion we ought to pay regard to the following +considerations-- + +1. It should be remembered that a comparison between England of the +present day with England in the decade 1830-1840 is eminently favourable +to a theory of progress. The period from 1790 to 1840 was the most +miserable epoch in the history of the English working-classes. Much of +the gain must be rightly regarded rather as a recovery from sickness, +than as a growth in normal health. If the decade 1730-1740, for example, +were to be taken instead, the progress of the wage-earner, especially in +southern England, would be by no means so obvious. The southern +agricultural labourer and the whole body of low-skilled workers were +probably in most respects as well off a century and a half ago as they +are to-day. + +2. The great fall of prices, due to cheapening of production and of +transport during the last twenty years, benefits the poor far less than +the rich. For, while the prices of most comforts and luxuries have +fallen very greatly, the same is not true of most necessaries. The gain +to the workers is chiefly confined to food prices, which have fallen +some 40 per cent since 1880. Taking the retail prices of foods consumed +by London working-class families we find that since 1880 the price of +flour has fallen about 60 per cent., bread falling a little more than +half that amount; the prices of beef and mutton have fallen nearly to +the same extent as flour, though bacon stands in 1903 just about where +it stood in 1880. Sugar exhibits a deep drop until 1898, rising +afterwards in consequence of the war tax and the Sugar Convention; tea +shows a not considerable drop. Other groceries, such as coffee and +cocoa, and certain vegetables are cheaper. A careful inquiry into +clothing shows a trifling fall of price for articles of the same +quality, while the introduction of cheaper qualities has enabled workers +to effect some saving here. Against these must be set a slight rise in +price of dairy produce, a considerable rise in fuel, and a large rise in +rent. A recent estimate of the Board of Trade, having regard to food, +rent, clothing, fuel, and lighting as chief ingredients of working-class +expenditure, indicates that 100 shillings will in 1900 do the work for +which 120 shillings were required in 1880. The great fall of prices has +been in the period 1880-1895, since then prices all round (except in +clothing) show a considerable rise. + +In turning from the working-classes as a whole to the poor, it becomes +evident that the most substantial benefit they have received from +falling prices is cheap bread. Cheap groceries and lighting are also +gains, though it must be remembered that the modes of purchase to which +the very poor are driven to have recourse minimize these gains. On +clothes the poor spend a very small proportion of their incomes, the +very poor virtually nothing. In the case of the lowest classes of the +towns, it is probable that the rise in rents offsets all the advantages +of cheapened prices for other commodities. + +The importance of the bearing of this fact is obvious. Even were it +clearly proved that the wages of the working-classes were increasing +faster in proportion than the incomes of the wealthier classes, it would +not be thereby shown that the standard of comfort in the former was +rising as fast as the standard of comfort in the latter. If we confine +the term "poor" to the lower grades of wage-earners, it would probably +be correct to say that the riches of the rich had increased at a more +rapid rate than that at which the poverty of the poor had diminished. +Thus the width of the gap between riches and poverty would be absolutely +greater than before. But, after all, such absolute measurements as these +are uncertain, and have little other than a rhetorical value. What is +important to recognize is this, that though the proportion of the very +poor to the whole population has somewhat diminished, never in the whole +history of England, excepting during the disastrous period at the +beginning of this century, has the absolute number of the very poor been +so great as it is now. Moreover, the massing of the poor in large +centres of population, producing larger areas of solid poverty, presents +new dangers and new difficulties in the application of remedial +measures. + +However we may estimate progress, one fact we must recognize, that the +bulk of our low-skilled workers do not yet possess a secure supply of +the necessaries of life. Few will feel inclined to dispute what +Professor Marshall says on this point-- + +"The necessaries for the efficiency of an ordinary agricultural or of an +unskilled town labourer and his family, in England, in this generation, +may be said to consist of a well-drained dwelling with several rooms, +warm clothing, with some changes of underclothing, pure water, a +plentiful supply of cereal food, with a moderate allowance of meat and +milk, and a little tea, &c.; some education, and some recreation; and +lastly, sufficient freedom for his wife from other work to enable her to +perform properly her maternal and her household duties. If in any +district unskilled labour is deprived of any of these things, its +efficiency will suffer in the same way as that of a horse which is not +properly tended, or a steam-engine which has an inadequate supply of +coals."[10] + +There is one final point of deep significance. So far we have +endeavoured to measure poverty by the application of a standard of +actual material comfort. But this, while furnishing a fair gauge of the +deprivation suffered by the poor, does not enable us to measure it as a +social danger. There is a depth of poverty, of misery, of ignorance, +which is not dangerous because it has no outlook, and is void of hope. +Abate the extreme stress of poverty, give the poor a glimpse of a more +prosperous life, teach them to know their power, and the danger of +poverty increases. This is what De Tocqueville meant when writing of +France, before the Revolution, he said, "According as prosperity began +to dawn in France, men's minds appeared to become more unquiet and +disturbed; public discontent was sharpened, hatred of all ancient +institutions went on increasing, till the nation was visibly on the +verge of a revolution. One might almost say that the French found their +condition all the more intolerable according as it became better."[11] + +So in England the change of industrial conditions which has massed the +poor in great cities, the spread of knowledge by compulsory education, +cheap newspapers, libraries, and a thousand other vehicles of knowledge, +the possession and growing appreciation of political power, have made +poverty more self-conscious and the poor more discontented. By striving +to educate, intellectually, morally, sanitarily, the poor, we have made +them half-conscious of many needs they never recognized before. They +were once naked, and not ashamed, but we have taught them better. We +have raised the standard of the requirements of a decent human life, but +we have not increased to a corresponding degree their power to attain +them. If by poverty is meant the difference between felt wants and the +power to satisfy them, there is more poverty than ever. The income of +the poor has grown, but their desires and needs have grown more rapidly. +Hence the growth of a conscious class hatred, the "growing animosity of +the poor against the rich," which Mr. Barnett notes in the slums of +Whitechapel. The poor were once too stupid and too sodden for vigorous +discontent, now though their poverty may be less intense, it is more +alive, and more militant. The rate of improvement in the condition of +the poor is not quick enough to stem the current of popular discontent. + +Nor is it the poor alone who are stricken with discontent. Clearer +thought and saner feelings are beginning to make it evident that in the +march of true civilization no one class can remain hopelessly behind. +Hence the problems of poverty are ever pressing more and more upon the +better-hearted, keener-sighted men and women of the more fortunate +classes; they feel that _they_ have no right to be contented with the +condition of the poor. The demand that a life worth living shall be made +possible for all, and that the knowledge, wealth, and energy of a nation +shall be rightly devoted to no other end than this, is the true measure +of the moral growth of a civilized community. The following picture +drawn a few years ago by Mr. Frederick Harrison shows how far we yet +fall short of such a realization--"To me at least, it would be enough to +condemn modern society as hardly an advance on slavery or serfdom, if +the permanent condition of industry were to be that which we now behold; +that 90 per cent, of the actual producers of wealth have no home that +they can call their own beyond the end of a week; have no bit of soil, +or so much as a room that belongs to them; have nothing of value of any +kind except as much as will go in a cart; have the precarious chance of +weekly wages which barely suffice to keep them in health; are housed for +the most part in places that no man thinks fit for his horse; are +separated by so narrow a margin from destitution that a month of bad +trade, sickness, or unexpected loss brings them face to face with hunger +and pauperism."[12] + + + + +Chapter II. + +The Effects of Machinery on the Condition of the Working-Classes. + + + +Sec. 1. Centralizing-Influence of Machinery.--In seeking to understand the +nature and causes of the poverty of the lower working-classes, it is +impossible to avoid some discussion of the influence of machinery. For +the rapid and continuous growth of machinery is at once the outward +visible sign and the material agent of the great revolution which has +changed the whole face of the industrial world during the last century. +With the detailed history of this vast change we are not concerned, but +only with its effects on the industrial condition of the poor in the +present day. + +Those who have studied in books of history the industrial and +educational condition of the mass of the working populace at the +beginning of this century, or have read such novels as _Shirley_, _Mary +Barton_, and _Alton Locke_, will not be surprised at the mingled +mistrust and hatred with which the working-classes regarded each new +introduction of machinery into the manufacturing arts. These people, +having only a short life to live, naturally took a short-sighted view of +the case; having a specialized form of skill as their only means of +getting bread, they did not greet with joy the triumphs of inventive +skill which robbed this skill of its market value. Even the more +educated champions of the interests of working-classes have often viewed +with grave suspicion the rapid substitution of machinery for hand-labour +in the industrial arts. The enormous increase of wealth-producing power +given by the new machinery can scarcely be realized. It is reckoned that +fifty men with modern machinery could do all the cotton-spinning of the +whole of Lancashire a century ago. Mr. Leone Levi has calculated that to +make by hand all the yarn spun in England in one year by the use of the +self-acting mule, would take 100,000,000 men. The instruments which work +this wonderful change are called "labour-saving" machinery. From this +title it may be deemed that their first object, or at any rate their +chief effect, would be to lighten labour. It seems at first sight +therefore strange to find so reasonable a writer as John Stuart Mill +declaring, "It is questionable if all the mechanical inventions yet made +have lightened the day's toil of any human being." Yet if we confine our +attention to the direct effects of machinery, we shall acknowledge that +Mill's doubt is, upon the whole, a well founded one. + +According to the evidence of existing poverty adduced in the last +chapter, it would appear that the lowest classes of workers have not +shared to any considerable degree the enormous gain of wealth-producing +power bestowed by machinery. It is not our object here to discuss the +right of the poorer workers to profit by inventions due to others, but +merely to indicate the effects which the growth of machinery actually +produce in this economic condition. Let us examine the industrial +effects of the growth of machinery, so as to understand how they affect +the social and economic welfare of the working-classes. + +Sec. 2. Class Separation of Employer and Workmen.--The first effect of +machinery is to give a new and powerful impulse to the centralizing +tendency in industry. "Civilization is economy of power, and English +power is coal," said the materialistic Baron Liebig. Coal as a generator +of steam-power demands that manufactures shall be conducted on a large +scale in particular localities. Before the day of large, expensive +steam-driven machinery, manufacture was done in scattered houses by +workers who were the owners of their simple tools, and often of the +material on which they worked; or in small workshops, where a master +worked with a few journeymen and apprentices. Machinery changed all +this. It drove the workers into large factories, and obliged them to +live in concentrated masses near their work. They no longer owned the +material in which their labour was stored, or the tools with which they +worked; they had to use the material belonging to their employer; the +machinery which made their tools valueless was also the property of the +capitalist employer. Instead of selling the products of their capital +and labour to merchants or consumers, they were compelled to sell their +labour-power to the employer as the only means of earning a livelihood. +Again, the social relations between the wealthy employer and his "hands" +were quite different from those intimate personal relations which had +subsisted between the small master and his assistants. The very size of +the factory made such a social change inevitable, the personal relation +which marked medieval industry was no longer possible. Machinery then +did two things. On the one hand, it destroyed the position of the +workman as a self-sufficing industrial unit, and made him dependent on a +capitalist for employment and the means of supporting life. On the other +hand, it weakened the sense of responsibility in the employer towards +his workmen in proportion as the dependence of the latter became more +absolute. + +With each step in the growth of the factory system the workman became +more dependent, and the employer more irresponsible. Thus we note the +first industrial effect of machinery in the formation of two definite +industrial classes--the dependent workman, and the irresponsible +employer. The term "irresponsible" is not designed to convey any moral +stigma. The industrial employer can no more be blamed for being +irresponsible than the workman for being dependent. The terms merely +express the nature of the schism which naturally followed the triumph of +machinery. Prophets like Carlyle and Ruskin, slighting the economic +causes of the change, clamoured for "Captains of Industry," employers +who should realize a moral responsibility, and reviving a dead feudalism +should assume unasked the protectorate of their employes. The whole army +of theoretic and practical reformers might indeed be divided into two +classes, according as they seek to impose responsibility on employers, +or to establish a larger independence in the employed. But this is not +the place to discuss methods of reform. It is sufficient to note the +testimony borne by all alike to the disintegrating influence of +machinery. + +Again, the growth of machinery makes industry more intricate. +Manufacturers no longer produce for a small known market, the +fluctuations of which are slight, and easily calculable. The element of +speculation enters into manufacture at every pore--size of market, +competitors, and price are all unknown. Machinery works at random like +the blind giant it is. Every improvement in communication, and each +application of labour-saving invention adds to the delicacy and +difficulty of trade calculations. Hence in the productive force of +machinery we see the material cause of the violent oscillations, the +quiver of which never has time to pass out of modern trade. The periodic +over-production and subsequent depression are thus closely related to +machinery. It is the result upon the workman of these fluctuations that +alone concerns us. + +The effect of machinery upon the regularity of employment is both a +difficult and a serious subject. Its precise importance cannot be +measured. Before the era of machinery there often arose from other +reasons, especially war or failure of crops, fluctuations which worked +most disastrously on the English labourer. But in modern times we must +look to more distinctively industrial causes for an explanation of +unsteadiness of employment, and here the close competition of steam- +driven machinery plays the leading part. + +It must not, however, be supposed that machinery is essentially related +to unsteadiness of work. The contrary is obviously the case. Cheap tools +can be kept idle without great loss to their owner, but every stoppage +in the work of expensive machinery means a heavy loss to the capitalist. +Thus the larger the part played by expensive machinery, the stronger the +personal motive in the individual capitalist to give full regular +employment to his workmen. It is the competition of other machinery over +which he has no control that operates as the immediate cause of +instability of work. Thus the growth of machinery has a double and +conflicting influence upon regularity of employment; it punishes capital +more severely for each irregularity or stoppage, while at the same time +it makes such fluctuations more violent. + +Sec. 3. Displacement of Labour.--But the result of machinery which has +drawn most attention is the displacement of labour. In every branch of +productive work, agriculture as well as manufacture, the conflict +between manual skill and machine skill has been waged incessantly during +the last century. Step by step all along the line the machine has ousted +the skilled manual worker, either rendering his office superfluous, or +retaining him to play the part of servant to the new machine. A good +deal of thoughtless rhetoric has been consumed upon the subject of this +new serfdom of the worker to machinery. There is no reason in the nature +of things why the work of attendance on machinery should not be more +dignified, more pleasant, and more remunerative to the working-man than +the work it displaces. To shift on to the shoulders of brute nature the +most difficult and exhausting kinds of work has been in large measure +the actual effect of machinery. There is also every reason to believe +that the large body of workers whose work consists in the regular +attendance on and manipulation of machinery have shared largely in the +results of the increased production which machinery has brought about. +The present "aristocracy of labour" is the direct creation of the +machine. But our concern lies chiefly with the weaker portion of the +working-classes. How does the constant advance of labour-saving +machinery affect these? What is the effect of machinery upon the demand +for labour? In answering these questions we have to carefully +distinguish the ultimate effect upon the labour-market as a whole, and +the immediate effect upon certain portions of the labour-supply. + +It is generally urged that machinery employs as many men as it +displaces. This has in fact been the earlier effect of the introduction +of machinery into the great staple industries of the country. The first +effect of mechanical production in the spinning and weaving industries +was to displace the hand-worker. But the enormous increase in demand for +textile wares caused by the fall of price, has provided work for more +hands than were employed before, especially when we bear in mind the +subsidiary work in construction of machinery, and enlarged mechanism of +conveyance and distribution. Taking a purely historical view of the +question, one would say that the labour displaced by machinery found +employment in other occupations, directly or indirectly, due to the +machinery itself. Provided the aggregate volume of commerce grows at a +corresponding pace with the labour-saving power of new machinery, the +classes dependent on the use of their labour have nothing in the long +run to fear. + +A machine is invented which will enable one man to make as many boots as +four men made formerly, displacing the labour of three men. If the +cheapening of boots thus brought about doubles the sale of boots, one of +the three "displaced" men can find employment at the machine. If it +takes the labour of one man to keep up the production of the new +machinery, and another to assist in the distribution of the increased +boot-supply, it will be evident that the aggregate of labour has not +suffered. It is, however, clear that this exactly balanced effect by no +means necessarily happens. The expansion of consumption of commodities +produced by machinery is not necessarily such as to provide employment +for the displaced labour in the same trade or its subsidiary trades. The +result of the introduction of machinery may be a displacement of human +by mechanical labour, so far as the entire trade is concerned. The +bearing of this tendency is of great significance. Analysis of recent +census returns shows that not only is agriculture rapidly declining in +the amount of employment it affords, but that the same tendency occurs +in the staple processes of manufacture: either there is an absolute +decline in employment, as in the textile and dress trades, or the rate +of increase is considerably slower than that of the occupied class as a +whole, indicating a relative decline of importance. This tendency is +greatest where machinery is most highly developed--that is to say, +machinery has kept out of these industries a number of workers who in +the ordinary condition of affairs would have been required to assist in +turning out the increased supply. The recent increase of population has +been shut out of the staple industries. They are not therefore compelled +to be idle. Employment for these has been found chiefly in satisfying +new wants. But industries engaged in supplying new wants, i.e. new +comforts or new luxuries, are obviously less steady than those engaged +in supplying the prime necessaries of ordinary life. + +Thus while it may be true that the ultimate effect of the introduction +of machinery is not to diminish the demand for labour, it would seem to +operate in driving a larger and larger proportion of labour to find +employment in those industries which from their nature furnish a less +steady employment. Again, though the demand for labour may in the long +run always keep pace with the growth of machinery, it is obvious that +the workers whose skill loses its value by the introduction of machinery +must always be injured. The process of displacement in particular trades +has been responsible for a large amount of actual hardship and suffering +among the working-classes. + +It is little comfort to the hand-worker, driven out to seek unskilled +labour by the competition of new machinery, that the world will be a +gainer in the long run. "The short run, if the expression may be used, +is often quite long enough to make the difference between a happy and a +miserable life."[13] Philosophers may reckon this evil as a part of the +inevitable price of progress, but it is none the less deplorable for +that. Society as a whole gains largely by each step; a small number of +those who can least afford to lose, are the only losers. + +The following quotation from an address given at the Industrial +Remuneration Congress in 1886, puts the case with admirable +clearness--"The citizens of England are too intelligent to contend +against such cheapening of production, as they know the result has been +beneficial to mankind; but many of them think it is a hardship and +injustice which deserves more attention that those whose skilled labour +is often superseded by machinery, should have to bear all the loss and +poverty through their means to earn a living being taken away from them. +If there is a real vested interest in existence which entitles to +compensation in some form when it is interfered with, it is that of a +skilled producer in his trade; for that skill has not only given him a +living, but has added to the wealth and prosperity of the +community."[14] The quantity of labour displaced by machinery and +seeking new employment, forms a large section of the margin of +unemployed, and will form an important factor in the problem of poverty. + +Sec. 4. Effect of Machinery upon the Character of Labour. Next, what is the +general effect of machinery upon the character of the work done? The +economic gain attending all division of labour is of course based on the +improved quality and quantity of work obtained by confining each worker +to a narrow range of activity. If no great inventions in machinery took +place, we might therefore expect a constant narrowing of the activity of +each worker, which would make his work constantly more simple, and more +monotonous, and himself more and more dependent on the regular co- +operation of an increasing number of other persons over whom he had no +direct control. Without the growth of modern machinery, mere subdivision +of labour would constantly make for the slavery and the intellectual +degradation of labour. Independently of the mighty and ever-new +applications of mechanical forces, this process of subdivision or +specialization would take place, though at a slower pace. How far does +machinery degrade, demoralize, dementalize the worker? + +The constantly growing specialization of machinery is the most striking +industrial phenomenon of modern times. Since the worker is more and more +the attendant of machinery, does not this mean a corresponding +specialization of the worker? It would seem so at first sight, yet if we +look closer it becomes less obvious. So far as mere manual activity is +concerned, it seems probable that the general effect of machinery has +been both to narrow the range of that activity, and to take over that +dexterity which consisted in the incessant repetition of a single +uniform process. Very delicately specialized manipulation is precisely +the work it pays best to do by machinery, so that, as Professor Marshall +says, "machinery can make uniform actions more accurately and +effectively than man can; and most of the work which was done by those +who were specially skilful with the fingers a few generations ago, is +now done by machinery."[15] He illustrates from the wood and metal +industries, where the process is constantly going on. + +"The chief difficulty to be overcome is that of getting the machinery to +hold the material firmly in exactly the position in which the machine- +tool can be brought to bear on it in the right way, and without wasting +meanwhile too much time in taking grip of it. But this can generally be +contrived when it is worth while to spend some labour and expense on it; +and then the whole operations can often be controlled by a worker, who, +sitting before the machine, takes with the left hand a piece of wood or +metal from a heap, and puts it in a socket, while with the right he +draws down a lever, or in some other way sets the machine-tool at work, +and finally with his left hand throws on to another heap the material +which has been cut, or punched, or drilled, or planed exactly after a +given pattern." + +Professor Marshall summarizes the tendency in the following words--"We +are thus led to a general rule, the action of which is more prominent in +some branches of manufacture than others, but which applies to all. It +is, that any manufacturing operation that can be reduced to uniformity, +so that the same thing has to be done over and over again in the same +way, is sure to be taken over sooner or later by machinery. There may be +delays and difficulties; but if the work to be done by it is on a +sufficient scale, money and inventive power will be spent without stint +on the task till it is achieved. There still remains the responsibility +for seeing that the machinery is in good order and working smoothly; but +even this task is often made light of by the introduction of an +automatic movement which brings the machine to a stop the instant +anything goes wrong."[16] + +Since the economy of production constantly induces machinery to take +over all work capable of being reduced to routine, it would seem to +follow by a logical necessity that the work left for the human worker +was that which was less capable of being subjected to close uniformity; +that is work requiring discretion and intelligence to be applied to each +separate action. Although the process described by Professor Marshall +assigns a constantly diminishing proportion of each productive work to +the effort of man, of that portion which remains for him to do a +constantly increasing proportion will be work of judgment and specific +calculation applied to particular cases. And this is the conclusion +which Professor Marshall himself asserts-- + +"Since machinery does not encroach much upon that manual work which +requires judgment, while the management of machinery does require +judgment, there is a much greater demand now than formerly for +intelligence and resource. Those qualities which enable men to decide +rightly and quickly in new and difficult cases, are the common property +of the better class of workmen in almost every trade, and a person who +has acquired them in one trade can easily transfer them to another." + +If this is true, it signifies that the formal specialization of the +worker, which comes from his attendance on a more and more specialized +piece of machinery, does not really narrow and degrade his industrial +life, but supplies a certain education of the judgment and intelligence +which has a general value that more than compensates the apparent +specialization of manual functions. The very fact that the worker's +services are still required is a proof that his work is less automatic +(i.e. more intelligent) than that of the most delicate machinery in use; +and since the work which requires less intelligence is continually being +taken over by machinery, the work which remains would seem to require a +constantly higher average of intelligence. It is, of course, true that +there are certain kinds of work which can never be done by machinery, +because they require a little care and a little judgment, while that +care and judgment is so slight as to supply no real food for thought, or +education for the judgment. No doubt a good deal of the less responsible +work connected with machinery is of this order. Moreover, there are +certain other influences to be taken into account which affect the net +resuit of the growth of machinery upon the condition of the workers. The +physical and moral evils connected with the close confinement of large +bodies of workers, especially in the case of young persons, within the +narrow unwholesome limits of the factory or mill, though considerably +mitigated by the operation of factory legislation, are still no light +offset against the advantages which have been mentioned. The weakly, +ill-formed bodies, the unhealthy lives lived by the factory-workers in +our great manufacturing centres are facts which have an intimate +connection with the growth of machinery. But though our agricultural +population, in spite of their poverty and hard work, live longer and +enjoy better physical health than our town-workers, there are few who +would deny that the town-workers are both better educated and more +intelligent. This intelligence must in a large measure be attributed to +the influences of machinery, and of those social conditions which +machinery has assisted to establish. This intelligence must be reckoned +as an adequate offset against the formal specialization of machine- +labour, and must be regarded as an emancipative influence, giving to its +possessor a larger choice in the forms of employment. So far as a man's +labour-power consists in the mere knowledge how to tend a particular +piece of machinery he may appear to be more "enslaved" with each +specialization of machinery; but so far as his labour-power consists in +the practice of discretion and intelligence, these are qualities which +render him more free. + +Moreover, as regards the specialization of machinery, there is one point +to be noticed which modifies to some considerable extent the effects of +subdivision upon labour. On the one hand, the tendency to split up the +manufacture of a commodity into several distinct branches, often +undertaken in different localities and with wholly different machinery, +prevents the skilled worker in one branch from passing into another, and +thus limits his practical freedom as an industrial worker. On the other +hand, this has its compensating advantage in the tendency of different +trades to adopt analogous kinds of machinery and similar processes. +Thus, while a machinist engaged in a screw manufactory is so specialized +that he cannot easily pass from one process to another process in the +screw trade, he will find himself able to obtain employment in other +hardware manufactures which employ the same or similar processes. + +Sec. 5. Are all Men equal before the Machine?--It is sometimes said that +"all men become equal before the machine." This is only true in the +sense that there are certain large classes of machine-work which require +in the worker such attention, care, endurance, and skill as are within +the power of most persons possessed of ordinary capacities of mind and +body. In such forms of machine-work it is sometimes possible for women +and children to compete with men, and even to take their places by their +ability to offer their work at a cheaper price. The effect of machinery +development in thus throwing on the labour-market a large quantity of +women and children competitors is one of those serious questions which +will occupy our attention in a later chapter. It is here sufficient to +remember that it was this effect which led to a general recognition of +the fact that machinery and the factory system could not be trusted to +an unfettered system of _laissez faire_. The Factory Acts, and the whole +body of legislative enactments, interfering with "freedom of contract" +between employer and employed, resulted from the fact that machinery +enabled women and children to be employed in many branches of productive +work from which their physical weakness precluded them before. + +Sec. 6. Summary of Effects of Machinery on the Condition of the Poor.--To +sum up with any degree of precision the net advantages and disadvantages +of the growth of machinery upon the working classes is impossible. If we +look not merely at the growth of money incomes, but at the character of +those products which have been most cheapened by the introduction of +machinery, we shall incline to the opinion that the net gain in wealth- +producing power due to machinery has not been equally shared by all +classes in the community.[17] + +The capitalist classes, so far as they can be properly severed from the +rest of the community, have gained most, as was inevitable in a change +which increased the part played by capital in production. A short-timed +monopoly of the abnormal profits of each new invention, and an enormous +expansion of the field of investment for capital must be set against the +gradual fall in the interest paid for the use of each piece of capital. +But as the advantage of each new invention has by the competition of +machinery-owners been passed on to the consumer, all other classes of +the community have gained in proportion to their consumption of +machinery-produced commodities. As machinery plays a smaller part in the +production of necessaries of life than in the production of comforts and +luxuries, it will be evident that each class gain as consumers in +proportion to its income. The poorest classes, whose consumption of +machine-productions is smallest, gain least. It cannot, however, be +said, that there is any class of regular workers who, as consumers, have +been injured by machinery. All have gained. The skilled workmen, the +aristocracy of labour, have, as has been shown, gained very +considerably. Even the poor classes of regular unskilled workmen have +raised their standard of comfort. + +It is in its bearing on the industrial condition of the very poor, and +those who are unable to get regular work at decent wages, that the +influence of machinery is most questionable. Violent trade fluctuations, +and a continuous displacement of hand-labour by new mechanical +inventions, keep in perpetual existence a large margin of unemployed or +half-employed, who form the most hopeless and degraded section of the +city poor, and furnish a body of reckless, starving competitors for +work, who keep down the standard of wages and of life for the lower +grades of regular workers affected by this competition. + + + + +Chapter III. + +The Influx of Population into Large Towns. + + + +Sec. 1. Movements of Population between City and Country. The growth of +large cities is so closely related to the problems of poverty as to +deserve a separate treatment. The movements of population form a group +of facts more open than most others to precise measurement, and from +them much light is thrown on the condition of the working classes. That +the towns are growing at the expense of the country, is a commonplace to +which we ought to seek to attach a more definite meaning. + +We may trace the inflow of country-born people into the towns by looking +either at the statistics of towns, or of rural districts. But first we +ought to bear in mind one fact. Quite apart from any change in +proportion of population, there is an enormous interchange constantly +taking place between adjoining counties and districts. The general +fluidity of population has been of course vastly increased by new +facilities of communication and migration; persons are less and less +bound down to the village or county in which they were born. So we find +that in England and Wales, only 739 out of each 1000 persons were living +in their native county in 1901. In some London districts it is reckoned +that more than one quarter of the inhabitants change their address each +year. So that when we are told that in seven large Scotch towns only 524 +out of each 1000 are natives, and that in Middlesex only 35 per cent. of +the male adult population are Middlesex by birth, we are not thereby +enabled to form any conclusion as to the growth of towns. + +To arrive at any useful result we must compare the inflow with the +outflow. Most of the valuable information we possess on this point +applies directly to London but the same forces which are operating in +London, will be found to be at work with more or less intensity in other +centres of population in proportion to their size. Comparing the inflow +of London with its outflow, we find that in 1881 nearly twice as many +strangers were living in London as Londoners were living outside; in +other words, that London was gaining from the country at the rate of +more than 10,000 per annum. So far as London itself is concerned, the +last two censuses show a cessation of the flow, but the enormous growth +of Middlesex outside the metropolitan boundaries indicates a continuance +of the centripetal tendency. + +Now what does London do with this increase? Is it spread evenly over the +surface of the great city? + +Certainly not. And here we reach a point which has a great significance +for those interested in East London. It is clearly shown that none of +this gain goes to swell the numbers of East London. Many individual +strangers of course go there, but the outflow from East London towards +the suburban parts more than compensates the inflow. By comparing the +population of East London in 1901 with that in 1881, it is found that +the increase is far less than it ought to be, if we add the excess of +births over deaths. How is this? The answer is not far to seek, and +stamps with fatal significance one aspect of Poverty, namely, +overcrowding. East London does not gain so fast as other parts, because +it will not hold any more people. It has reached what is termed +"saturation point." Introduce strangers, and they can only stay on +condition that they push out, and take the place of, earlier residents. + +So we find in all districts of large towns, where poverty lies thickest, +the inflow is less than the outflow. The great stream of incomers goes +to swell the population of parts not hitherto overcrowded, thus ever +increasing the area of dense city population. Districts like Bethnal +Green and Mile End are found to show the smallest increase, while +outlying districts like West Ham grow at a prodigious pace. + +Sec. 2. Rate of Migration from Rural Districts.--But perhaps the most +instructive point of view from which to regard the absorption of country +population by the towns is not from inside but from outside. + +Confining our attention for the present to migration from the country to +the town, and leaving the foreign immigration for separate treatment, we +find that the large majority of incomers to London are from agricultural +counties, such as Kent, Bucks, Herts, Devon, Lincoln, and not from +counties with large manufacturing centres of their own, like Yorkshire, +Lancashire, and Cheshire. The great manufacturing counties contribute +very slightly to the growth of London. While twelve representative +agricultural counties furnished sixteen per 1000 of the population of +London in 1881, twelve representative manufacturing counties supplied no +more than two-and-a-half per 1000. + +Respecting the rate of the decline of agricultural population +exaggerated statements are often made. If we take the inhabitants of +rural sanitary districts, and of urban districts below 10,000 as the +rural population, we shall find that between 1891 and 1901 the growth in +the rural districts is 5.3 per cent. as compared with 15.8 per cent. for +the centres of population. Even if the urban standard be placed at a +lower point, 5000, there is still an increase of 3.5 per cent. in the +rural population. If, however, we eliminate the "home" counties and +other rural districts round the large centres of population, largely +used for residential purposes, and turn to agricultural England, we +shall find that it shows a positive decline in rural population. In the +period 1891-1901 no fewer than 18 English and Welsh counties show a +decrease of rural inhabitants, taking the higher limit of urban +population. This has been going on with increasing rapidity during the +last forty years. Whereas, in 1861, 37.7 per cent. of the population +were living in the country, in 1901 the proportion has sunk to 23 per +cent. + +What these figures mean is that almost the whole of the natural increase +in country population is being gradually sucked into city life. Not +London alone, of course, but all the large cities have been engaged in +this work of absorption. Everywhere the centripetal forces are at work. +The larger the town the stronger the power of suction, and the wider the +area over which the attraction extends. There are three chief +considerations which affect the force with which the attraction of a +large city acts upon rural districts. The first is distance. By far the +largest quantity of new-comers into London are natives of Middlesex, +Kent, Bucks, and what are known as "the home counties." As we pass +further North and West, the per-centage gradually though not quite +regularly declines. The numbers from Durham and Northumberland on the +one hand, and from Devon and Somerset on the other are much larger than +those from certain nearer counties, such as Stafford, Yorkshire, and +Lancaster. The chief determinate of the force of attraction, distance +from the centre, is in these cases qualified by two other +considerations. In the case of Durham and Northumberland a large +navigable seaboard affords greater facility and cheapness of transport, +an important factor in the mobility of labour. In the case of Devon and +Somerset the absence of the counter-attraction of large provincial +cities drives almost the whole of its migratory folk to London, whereas +in Yorkshire and Lancashire and the chief Midland manufacturing counties +the attraction of their own industrial centres acts more powerfully in +their immediate neighbourhood than the magic of London itself. Thus, if +we were to take the map of England and mark it so as to represent the +gravitation towards cities, we should find that every remotest village +was subject to a number of weaker or stronger, nearer or more distant, +forces, which were helping to draw off its rising population into the +eddy of city life. If we examined in detail a typical agricultural +county, we should probably find that while its one or two considerable +towns of 40,000 or 50,000 inhabitants were growing at something above +the average rate for the whole country, the smaller towns of 5000 to +10,000 were only just managing to hold their own, the smallest towns and +large villages were steadily declining, while the scattered agricultural +population remained almost stationary. For it is the small towns and the +villages that suffer most, for reasons which will shortly appear. + +Sec. 3. Effects of Agricultural Depression.--We have next to ask what is +the nature of this attractive force which drains the country to feed the +city population? What has hitherto been spoken of as a single force will +be seen to be a complex of several forces, different in kind, acting +conjointly to produce the same result. + +The first readily suggests itself couched under the familiar phrase, +Agricultural Depression. It is needless here to enlarge on this big and +melancholy theme. It is evident that what is called the law of +Diminishing Return to Labour in Agriculture, the fact that every +additional labourer, upon a given surface, beyond a certain sufficient +number, will be less and less profitably employed, while the indefinite +expansion of manufacture will permit every additional hand to be +utilized so as to increase the average product of each worker, would of +itself suffice to explain why in a fairly thickly populated country like +England, young labourers would find it to their interest to leave the +land and seek manufacturing work in the cities. This would of itself +explain why the country population might stand still while the city +grew. When to this natural tendency we add the influence of the vast +tracts of virgin, or cheaply cultivated soil, brought into active +competition with English agriculture by the railways and steamships +which link us with distant lands in America, Australia, and Asia, we +have a fully adequate explanation of the main force of the tide in the +movement of population. After a country has reached a certain stage in +the development of its resources, the commercial population must grow +more quickly than the agricultural, and the larger the outside area open +to supply agricultural imports the faster the change thus brought about +in the relation of city and rural population. + +Sec. 4. Nature of the Decline of Rural Population.--It has been shown that +the absolute reduction in the number of those living in rural districts +is very small. If, however, we take the statistics of farmers and farm- +labourers in these same districts we often find a very considerable +decline. The real extent of the decline of agriculture is somewhat +concealed by the habit of including in the agricultural population a +good many people not engaged in work of agriculture. The number of +retail shopkeepers, railway men and others concerned with the transport +of goods, domestic servants, teachers, and others not directly occupied +in the production of material wealth, has considerably increased of late +years. So too, not every form of agriculture has declined. While farmers +and labourers show a decrease, market-gardeners show a large increase, +and there seem to be many more persons living in towns who cultivate a +bit of land in the country as a subsidiary employment. + +Taken as a whole the absolute fall off in the number of those working +upon the soil is not large. The decline of small country industries is +much more considerable. Here another law of industrial motion comes in, +the rapid tendency of manufacture towards centralization in the towns, +which we have discussed in the last chapter. Here we are concerned only +with its effect in stamping out small rural industries. The growth of +the railway has been the chief agent in the work. Wherever the railroad +has penetrated a country it has withered the ancient cottage industries +of our land. It is true that even before the time of railways the +development of machinery had in large measure destroyed the spinning and +weaving trades, which in Lancashire, Yorkshire, and elsewhere had given +employment to large numbers of country families. The railway, and the +constant application of new machinery have completed this work of +destruction, and have likewise abolished a number of small handicrafts, +such as hand-stitched boots, and lace, which flourished in western and +midland districts, Nor is this all. The same potent forces have +transferred to towns many branches of work connected indirectly with +agricultural pursuits; country smiths, brickmakers, sawyers, turners, +coopers, wheelwrights, are rapidly vanishing from the face of the +country. + +Sec. 5. Attractions of the Town, Economic and Social. The concrete form in +which the industrial forces, which we have described, appeal to the +dull-headed rustic is the attraction of higher wages. An elaborate +comparison of towns and country wages is not required. It is enough to +say that labourer's wages in London and other large cities are some 50 +per cent, higher than the wages of agricultural labourers in most parts +of England, and the wages of skilled labour show a similar relation. +Besides the actual difficulty of getting agricultural employment in many +parts, improved means of knowledge, and of cheap transport, constantly +flaunt this offer of higher wages before the eyes of the more +discontented among agricultural workers. It is true that if wages are +higher in London, the cost of living is also higher, and the conditions +of life and work are generally more detrimental to health and happiness; +but these drawbacks are more often realized after the fatal step has +been taken than before. + +Along with the concrete motive of higher wages there come other inherent +attractions of town life. + +"The contagion of numbers, the sense of something going on, the theatres +and music-halls, the brilliantly-lighted streets and busy crowds"[18] +have a very powerful effect on the dawning intelligence of the rustic. +The growing accessibility of towns brings these temptations within the +reach of all. These social attractions probably contain more evil than +good, and act with growing force on the restless and reckless among our +country population. The tramp and the beggar find more comfort and more +gain in the towns. The action of indiscriminate and spasmodic charity, +which still prevails in London and other large centres of riches, is +responsible in no small measure for the poverty and degradation of city +slums. + +"The far-reaching advertisement of irresponsible charity acts as a +powerful magnet. Whole sections of the population are demoralized, men +and women throwing down their work right and left in order to qualify +for relief; while the conclusion of the whole matter is intensified +congestion of the labour market--angry bitter feeling for the +insufficiency of the pittance, or rejection of the claim." So writes +Miss Potter of the famous Mansion House Relief Funds. + +It is easy to see how the worthless element from our villages, the +loafer, the shiftless, the drunkard, the criminal, naturally gravitates +towards its proper place as part of the "social wreckage" of our cities. +But the size of this element must not be exaggerated. It forms a +comparatively small fraction of the whole. Our city criminal, our city +loafer, is generally home-grown, and is not supplied directly from the +country. If it were true that only the worthless portion of our country +population passed into our cities to perish in the struggle for +existence, which is so fatal in city life, we should on the whole have +reason to congratulate ourselves. But this is not so. The main body of +those who pass into city life are in fact the cream of the native +population of the country, drawn by advantages chiefly economic. They +consist of large numbers of vigorous young men, mostly between the age +of twenty and twenty-five, who leave agriculture for manufacture, or +move into towns owing to displacement of handicrafts by wholesale +manufacture. + +Sec. 6. Effect of the Change on National Health.--This decay of country +life, however much we may regret it, seems under present industrial +conditions inevitable. Nor is it altogether to be regretted or +condemned. The movement indisputably represents a certain equalization +of advantages economic, educational, and social. The steady workman who +moves into the town generally betters himself from the point of view of +immediate material advantages. + +But in regarding the movement as a whole a much more serious question +confronts us. What is the net result upon the physical well-being of the +nation of this drafting of the abler and better country folk into the +towns? Let the death-rate first testify. In 1902 the death-rate for the +whole rural population was 13.7 per 1000, that of the whole urban +population 17.8. Now it is not the case that town life is necessarily +more unhealthy than country life to any considerable extent. There are +well-to-do districts of London, whole boroughs, such as Hampstead, where +the death-rate is considerably lower than the ordinary rural rate. The +weight of city mortality falls upon the poor. + +Careful statistics justify the conclusion that the death-rate of an +average poor district in London, Liverpool, or Glasgow, is quite double +that of the average country district which is being drained to feed the +city. We now see what the growth of town population, and the decay of +the country really means. It means in the first place that each year +brings a larger proportion of the nation within reach of the higher rate +of mortality, by taking them from more healthy and placing them under +less healthy conditions. In the case of the lower classes of workers who +gravitate to London, it means putting them in a place where the chance +of death in a given year is doubled for them. And remember, this higher +death-rate is applied not indiscriminately, but to selected subjects. It +is the young, healthy, vigorous blood of the country which is exposed to +these unhealthy conditions. A pure Londoner of the third generation, +that is, one whose grandparents as well as his parents were born in +London, is very seldom found. It is certain that nearly all the most +effective vital energy given out in London work, physical and +intellectual alike, belongs to men whose fathers were country bred, if +they were not country born themselves. In kinds of work where pure +physical vigour play an important part, this is most strikingly +apparent. The following statistics bearing on the London police force +were obtained by Mr. Llewellyn Smith in 1888-- + + London born. Country born. Total. + + Metropolitan Police 2,716 10,908 13,624 + City " 194 698 892 + +Railway men, carriers, omnibus-drivers, corn and timber porters, and +those in whose work physique tells most, are all largely drawn from the +country. Nor is the physical deterioration of city life to be merely +measured by death-rates. Many town influences, which do not appreciably +affect mortality, distinctly lower the vitality, which must be taken as +the physical measure of the value of life. The denizens of city slums +not only die twice as fast as their country cousins, but their health +and vigour is less during the time they live. + +A fair consideration of these facts discloses something much more +important than a mere change in social and industrial conditions. Linked +with this change we see a deterioration of the physique of the race as a +distinct factor in the problem of city poverty. This is no vague +speculation, but a strongly-supported hypothesis, which deserves most +serious attention. Dr. Ogle, who has done much work in elucidation of +this point, sums up in the following striking language-- + +"The combined effect of this constantly higher mortality in the towns, +and of the constant immigration into it of the pick of the rural +population, must clearly be a gradual deterioration of the whole, +inasmuch as the more energetic and vigorous members of the community are +consumed more rapidly than the rest of the population. The system is one +which leads to the survival of the unfittest." + +Thus the city figures as a mighty vampire, continually sucking the +strongest blood of the country to keep up the abnormal supply of energy +it has to give out in the excitement of a too fast and unwholesome life. +Whether the science of the future may not supply some decentralizing +agency, which shall reverse the centralizing force of modern industry, +is not a wholly frivolous speculation to suggest. Some sanguine +imaginations already foresee the time when those great natural forces, +the economical use of which has compelled men and women to crowd into +factories in great cities, may be distributable with such ease and +cheapness over the whole surface of the land as no longer to require +that close local relation which means overcrowding in work and in home +life. If science could do this it would confer upon humanity an +advantage far less equivocal than that which belongs to the present +reign of iron and steam. + +Sec. 7. The Extent of Foreign Immigration.--So much for the inflow from the +country districts. But there is another inflow which is drawing close +attention, the inflow of cheap foreign labour into our towns. Here again +we have first to guard against some exaggeration. It is not true that +German, Polish, and Russian Jews are coming over in large battalions to +steal all the employment of the English working-man, by under-selling +him in the labour-market. In the first place, it should be noted that +the foreigners of England, as a whole, bear a smaller proportion to the +total population than in any other first-class European state. In 1901 +the foreigners were 76 in 10,000 of the population; that is a good deal +less than one per cent. Our numbers as a nation are not increased by +immigration. On the contrary, between 1871 and 1901 we lost considerably +by emigration.[19] Even London, the centre of attraction to foreigners, +does not contain nearly so large a per-centage of foreigners as any +other great capital. The census gave 3 per cent. as the proportion of +foreigners, excluding those born in England of foreign parents. Though +this figure is perhaps too low, the true proportion cannot be very +large. It is not the number, but the distribution and occupation of the +foreign immigrants, that make them an object of so much solicitude. The +borough of Stepney contains no less than 40 per cent. of the foreign- +born population of London, the foreigners increasing from 15,998 in 1881 +to 54,310 in 1901. At present 182 out of every 1000 in this district are +foreigners. The proportion is also very high in Holborn, Westminster, +Marylebone, Bethnal Green, and St Pancras. The Report of the Royal +Commission on Alien Immigration, 1902, states "that the greatest evils +produced by the Alien Immigrants here are the overcrowding caused by +them in certain districts of London, and the consequent displacement of +the native population." The concentration of the immigrant question is +attested by the fact that in 1901 no less than 48 per cent. of the total +foreign population were resident in six metropolitan boroughs, and in +the three cities of Manchester, Liverpool, and Leeds. While a +considerable number of them are Germans, French, and Italians, attracted +here by better industrial conditions in trades for which they have some +special aptitude, a greatly increasing proportion are Russian and Polish +Jews, driven to immigrate partly by political and religious persecution, +partly for industrial ends, and feeding the unskilled labour-market in +certain manufactures of our great cities. + +Sec. 8. The Jew as an Industrial Competitor.--Looking at these foreigners +as individuals, there is much to be said in their favour. They do not +introduce a lower morality into the quarters where they settle, as the +Chinese are said to do; nor are they quarrelsome and law-breaking, like +the low-class Italians who swarm into America. Their habits, so far as +cleanliness is concerned, are perhaps not desirable, but the standard of +the native population of Whitechapel is not sensitively high. For the +most part, and this is true especially of the Jews, they are steady, +industrious, quiet, sober, thrifty, quick to learn, and tolerably +honest. From the point of view of the old Political Economy, they are +the very people to be encouraged, for they turn out the largest quantity +of wealth at the lowest cost of production. If it is the chief end for a +nation to accumulate the largest possible stock of material wealth, it +is evident that these are the very people we require to enable us to +achieve our object. + +But if we consider it is sound national policy to pay regard to the +welfare of all classes engaged in producing this wealth, we may regard +this foreign immigration in quite another light. The very virtues just +enumerated are the chief faults we have to find with the foreign Jew. +Just because he is willing and able to work so hard for so little pay, +willing to undertake any kind of work out of which he can make a living, +because he can surpass in skill, industry, and adaptability the native +Londoner, the foreign Jew is such a terrible competitor. He is the +nearest approach to the ideal "economic" man, the "fittest" person to +survive in trade competition. Admirable in domestic morality, and an +orderly citizen, he is almost void of social morality. No compunction or +consideration for his fellow-worker will keep him from underselling and +overreaching them; he acquires a thorough mastery of all the +dishonourable tricks of trade which are difficult to restrain by law; +the superior calculating intellect, which is a national heritage, is +used unsparingly to enable him to take advantage of every weakness, +folly, and vice of the society in which he lives. + +Sec. 9. Effect of Foreign Competition.--One other quality he has in common +with the mass of poor foreigners who compete in the London labour +market--he can live on less than the Englishman. What Mrs Webb says of +the Polish Jew, is in large measure true of all cheap foreign +labour--"As industrial competitor, the Polish Jew is fettered by no +definite standard of life; it rises and falls with his opportunities; he +is not depressed by penury, and he is not demoralized by gain." The +fatal significance of this is evident. We have seen that notwithstanding +a general rise in the standard of comfort of the mass of labourers, +there still remains in all our cities a body of labouring men and women +engaged in doing ill-paid and irregular work for wages which keep them +always on the verge of starvation. Now consider what it means for these +people to have brought into their midst a number of competitors who can +live even more cheaply than they can live, and who will consent to toil +from morning to night for whatever they can get. These new-comers are +obviously able, in their eagerness for work, to drive down the rate of +wages even below what represents starvation-point for the native worker. +The insistence of the poorer working-classes, under the stimulus of new- +felt wants, the growing enlightenment of public opinion, have slowly and +gradually won, even for the poorer workers in English cities, some small +advance in material comfort, some slight expansion in the meaning of the +term "necessaries of life." Turn a few shiploads of Polish Jews upon any +of these districts, and they will and must in the struggle for life +destroy the whole of this. Remember it is not merely the struggle of too +many workers competing on equal terms for an insufficient quantity of +work. That is terrible enough. But when the struggle is between those +accustomed to a higher, and those accustomed to a lower, standard of +life, the latter can obviously oust the former, and take their work. +Just as a base currency drives out of circulation a pure currency, so +does a lower standard of comfort drive out a higher one. This is the +vital question regarding foreign immigration which has to be faced. + +Nor is it merely a question of the number of these foreigners. The +inflow of a comparatively small number into a neighbourhood where much +of the work is low-skilled and irregular, will often produce an effect +which seems quite out of proportion to the actual number of the +invaders. Where work is slack and difficult to get, a very small +addition of low-living foreigners will cause a perceptible fall in the +entire wages of the neighbourhood in the employments which their +competition affects. It is true that the Jew does not remain a low- +skilled labourer for starvation wages. Beginning at the bottom of the +ladder, he rises by his industry and skill, until he gets into the rank +of skilled workers, or more frequently becomes a sub-contractor, or a +small shopkeeper. It might appear that as he thus rose, the effect of +his competition in the low skilled labour market would disappear. And +this would be so were it not for the persistent arrival of new-comers to +take the place of those who rise. It is the continuity in the flow of +foreign emigration which constitutes the real danger. + +Economic considerations do not justify us in expecting any speedy check +upon this flow. The growing means of communication among nations, the +cheapening of transport, the breaking down of international prejudices, +must, if they are left free to operate, induce the labourer to seek the +best market for his labour, and thus tend to equalize the condition of +labour in the various communities, raising the level of the lower paid +and lower lived at the expense of the higher paid and higher lived. + +Sec. 10. The Water-tight Compartment Theory.--One point remains to be +mentioned. It is sometimes urged that the foreign Jews who come to our +shores do not injure our low skilled workers to any considerable extent, +because they do not often enter native trades, but introduce new trades +which would not have existed at all were it not for their presence. They +work, it is said, in water-tight compartments, competing among +themselves, but not directly competing with English workers. Now if it +were the case that these foreigners really introduced new branches of +production designed to stimulate and supply new wants this contention +would have much weight. The Flemings who in Edward III.'s reign +introduced the finer kinds of weaving into England, and the Huguenot +refugees who established new branches of the silk, glass, and paper +manufactures, conferred a direct service upon English commerce, and +their presence in the labour market was probably an indirect service to +the English workers. But this is not the case with the modern Jew +immigrants. They have not stimulated or supplied new wants. It is not +even correct to say that most of them do not directly compete with +native labour. It is true that certain branches of the cheap clothing +trade have been their creation. The cheap coat trade, which they almost +monopolize, seems due to their presence. But even here they have +established no new _kind_ of trade. To their cheap labour perhaps is due +in some cases the large export trade in cheap clothing, but even then it +is doubtful whether the work would not otherwise have been done by +machinery under healthier conditions, and have furnished work and wages +for English workers. During the last decade they have been entering more +and more into direct competition with British labour in the cabinet- +making, shoemaking, baking, hair-dressing, and domestic service +occupations. Lastly, they enter into direct competition of the worst +form with English female labour, which is driven in these very clothing +trades to accept work and wages which are even too low to tempt the Jews +of Whitechapel. The constant infiltration of cheap immigrant labour is +in large measure responsible for the existence of the "sweating +workshops," and the survival of low forms of industrial development +which form a factor in the problem of poverty. + + + + +Chapter IV. + +"The Sweating System." + + + +Sec. 1. Origin of the Term "Sweating."--Having gained insight into some of +the leading industrial forces of the age, we can approach more hopefully +the study of that aspect of City poverty, commonly known as the +"Sweating System." + +The first thing is to get a definite meaning to the term. Since the +examination of experts before the recent "Lords' Committee" elicited +more than twenty widely divergent definitions of this "Sweating System," +some care is required at the outset of our inquiry. The common use of +the term "Sweating System" is itself responsible for much ambiguity, for +the term "system" presupposes a more or less distinct form of +organization of industry identified with the evils of sweating. Now as +it should be one of the objects of inquiry to ascertain whether there +exists any one such definite form, it will be better at the outset to +confine ourselves to the question, "What is Sweating?" + +As an industrial term the word seems to have been first used among +journeymen tailors. The tailoring houses which once executed all orders +on their own premises, by degrees came to recognize the convenience of +giving out work to tailors who would work at their own homes. The long +hours which the home workers were induced to work in order to increase +their pay, caused the term "Sweater" to be applied to them by the men +who worked for fixed hours on the tailors' premises, and who found their +work passing more and more into the hands of the home workers. Thus we +learn that originally it was long hours and not low wages which +constituted "sweating." School-boy slang still uses the word in this +same sense. Moreover, the first sweater was one who "sweated" himself, +not others. But soon when more and more tailoring work was "put out," +the home worker, finding he could undertake more than he could execute, +employed his family and also outsiders to help him. This makes the +second stage in the evolution of the term; the sweater now "sweated" +others as well as himself, and he figured as a "middleman" between the +tailoring firm which employed him, and the assistants whom he employed +for fixed wages. Other clothing trades have passed through the same +process of development, and have produced a sub-contracting middleman. +The term "sweater" has thus by the outside world, and sometimes by the +workers themselves, come to be generally applied to sub-contractors in +small City trades. But the fact of the special application has not +prevented the growth of a wider signification of "sweating" and +"sweater." As the long hours worked in the tailors' garrets were +attended with other evils--a low rate of wages, unsanitary conditions, +irregularity of employment, and occasional tyranny in all the forms +which attend industrial authority--all these evils became attached to +the notion of sweating. The word has thus grown into a generic term to +express this disease of City poverty from its purely industrial side. +Though "long hours" was the gist of the original complaint, low wages +have come to be recognized as equally belonging to the essence of +"sweating." In some cases, indeed, low wages have become the leading +idea, so that employers are classed as sweaters who pay low wages, +without consideration of hours or other conditions of employment. Trade +Unions, for example, use the term "sweating" specifically to express the +conduct of employers who pay less than the "standard" rate of wages. The +abominable sanitary condition of many of the small workshops, or private +dwellings of workers, is to many reformers the most essential element in +sweating. + +Sec. 2. Present Applications of the Name.--When the connotation of the term +"sweating" had become extended so as to include along with excessive +hours of labour, low wages, unsanitary conditions of work, and other +evils, which commonly belong to the method of sub-contract employment, +it was only natural that the same word should come to be applied to the +same evils when they were found outside the sub-contract system. For +though it has been, and still is, true, that where the method of sub- +contract is used the workers are frequently "sweated," and though to the +popular mind the sub-contractor still figures as the typical sweater, it +is not right to regard "sub-contract" as the real cause of sweating. For +it is found-- + +Firstly, that in some trades sub-contract is used without the evils of +sweating being present. Mr. Burnett, labour correspondent to the Board +of Trade, in his evidence before the Lords' Committee, maintains that +where Trade Unions are strong, as in the engineering trade, sub-contract +is sometimes employed under conditions which are entirely +"unobjectionable." So too in the building trades, sub-contract is not +always attended by "sweating." + +Secondly, much of the worst "sweating" is found where the element of +sub-contract is entirely wanting, and where there is no trace of a +ravenous middleman. This will be found especially in women's +employments. Miss Potter, after a close investigation of this point, +arrives at the conclusion that "undoubtedly the worst paid work is made +under the direction of East End retail slop-shops, or for tally-men--a +business from which contact, even in the equivocal form of wholesale +trading, has been eliminated."[20] The term "sweating" must be deemed as +applicable to the case of the women employed in the large steam- +laundries, who on Friday and Saturday work for fifteen or sixteen hours +a day, to the overworked and under-paid waitresses in restaurants and +shops, to the men who, as Mr. Burleigh testified, "are employed in some +of the wealthiest houses of business, and received for an average +working week of ninety-five hours, board, lodging, and L15 a year," as +it is to the tailoress who works fourteen hours a day for Whitechapel +sub-contractors. + +The terms "sweating" and "sweating System," then, after originating in a +narrow application to the practice of over-work under sub-contractors in +the lower branches of the tailoring trade, has expanded into a large +generic term, to express the condition of all overworked, ill-paid, +badly-housed workers in our cities. It sums up the industrial or +economic aspects of the problem of city poverty. Scarcely any trade in +its lowest grades is free from it; in nearly all we find the wretched +"fag end" where the workers are miserably oppressed. This is true not +only of the poorest manual labour, that of the sandwich-man, with his +wage of 1s. 2d. per diem, and of the lowest class of each manufacturing +trade in East and Central London. It is true of the relatively unskilled +labour in every form of employment; the miserable writing-clerk, who on +25s. a week or less has to support a wife and children and an appearance +of respectability; the usher, who grinds out low-class instruction +through the whole tedious day for less than the wage of a plain cook; +the condition of these and many other kinds of low-class brain-workers +is only a shade less pitiable than the "sweating" of manual labourers, +and the causes, as we shall see, are much the same. If our investigation +of "sweating" is chiefly confined to the condition of the manual +labourer, it is only because the malady there touches more directly and +obviously the prime conditions of physical life, not because the nature +of the industrial disease is different. + +Sec. 3. Leading "Sweating" Trades.--It is next desirable to have some clear +knowledge of the particular trades in which the worst forms of +"sweating" are found, and the extent to which it prevails in each. The +following brief summary is in a large measure drawn from evidence +furnished to the recent Lords' Committee on the Sweating System. Since +the sweating in women's industries is so important a subject as to +demand a separate treatment, the facts stated here will chiefly apply to +male industries. + +Tailoring.--In the tailoring trade the best kind of clothes are still +made by highly-skilled and well-paid workmen, but the bulk of the cheap +clothing is in the hands of "sweaters," who are sometimes skilled +tailors, sometimes not, and who superintend the work of cheap unskilled +hands. In London the coat trade should be distinguished from the vest +and trousers trade. The coat-making trade in East London is a closely- +defined district, with an area of one square mile, including the whole +of Whitechapel and parts of two adjoining parishes. The trade is almost +entirely in the hands of Jews, who number from thirty to forty thousand +persons. Recent investigations disclosed 906 workshops, which, in the +quality and conditions of the work done in them, may be graded according +to the number of hands employed. The larger workshops, employing from +ten to twenty-five hands or more, generally pay fair wages, and are free +from symptoms of sweating. But in the small workshops, which form about +80 per cent of the whole number, the common evils of the sweating system +assert themselves--overcrowding, bad sanitation, and excessive hours of +labour. Thirteen and fourteen hours are the nominal day's work for men; +and those workshops which do not escape the Factory Inspector assign a +nominal factory day for women; but "among the imperfectly taught workers +in the slop and stock trade, and more especially in the domestic +workshops, under-pressers, plain machinists, and fellers are in many +instances expected to 'convenience' their masters, i.e. to work for +twelve or fifteen hours in return for ten or thirteen hours' wage."[21] +The better class workers, who require some skill, get comparatively high +wages even in the smaller workshops, though the work is irregular; but +the general hands engaged in making 1s. coats, generally women, get a +maximum of _1s. 6d._, and a minimum which is indefinitely below 1s. for +a twelve hours' day. This low-class work is also hopeless. The raw hand, +or "greener" as he is called, will often work through his apprenticeship +for nominal wages; but he has the prospect of becoming a machinist, and +earning from 6s. to 10s. a day, or of becoming in his turn a sweater. +The general hand has no such hope. The lowest kind of coat-making, +however, is refused by the Jew contractor, and falls to Gentile women. +These women also undertake most of the low-class vest and trousers +making, generally take their work direct from a wholesale house, and +execute it at home, or in small workshops. The price for this work is +miserably low, partly by reason of the competition of provincial +factories, partly for reasons to be discussed in a later chapter. Women +will work for twelve or fifteen hours a day throughout the week as +"trousers finishers," for a net-earning of as little as 4s. or 5s. Such +is the condition of inferior unskilled labour in the tailoring trade. It +should however be understood that in "tailoring," as in other "sweating" +trades, the lowest figures quoted must be received with caution. The +wages of a "greener," a beginner or apprentice, should not be taken as +evidence of a low wage in the trade, for though it is a lamentable thing +that the learner should have to live upon the value of his prentice +work, it is evident that under no commercial condition could he support +himself in comfort during this period. It is the normal starvation wage +of the low-class experienced hand which is the true measure of +"sweating" in these trades. Two facts serve to give prominence to the +growth of "sweating" in the tailoring trades. During the last few years +there has been a fall of some 30 per cent, in the prices paid for the +same class of work. During the same period the irregularity of work has +increased. Even in fairly large shops the work for ordinary labour only +averages some three days in the week, while we must reckon two and a +half days for unskilled workers in smaller workshops, or working at +home. + +Among provincial towns Liverpool, Manchester, and Leeds show a rapid +growth of sweating in the clothing trade. In each case the evil is +imputed to "an influx of foreigners, chiefly Jews." In each town the +same conditions appear--irregular work and wages, unsanitary conditions, +over-crowding, evasion of inspection. The growth in Leeds is remarkable. +"There are now ninety-seven Jewish workshops in the city, whereas five +years ago there were scarcely a dozen. The number of Jews engaged in the +tailoring trade is about three thousand. The whole Jewish population of +Leeds is about five thousand."[22] + +Boot-making.--The hand-sewn trade, which constitutes the upper stratum +of this industry, is executed for the most part by skilled workers, who +get good wages for somewhat irregular employment. There are several +strong trade organizations, and though the hours are long, extending +occasionally to thirteen or fourteen hours, the worst forms of sweating +are not found. So too in the upper branches of machine-sewn boots, the +skilled hands get fairly high wages. But the lower grades of machine- +made boots, and the "sew-rounds," i.e. fancy shoes and slippers, which +form a large part of the industry in London, present some of the worst +features of the "sweating system." The "sweating master" plays a large +part here. "In a busy week a comparatively competent 'sweater' may earn +from 18s. to 25s. less skilful hands may get 15s. or 16s. but boys and +newly-arrived foreigners take 10s., 8s., 7s., or less; while the +masters, after paying all expenses, would, according to their own +estimates, make not less than 30s., and must, in many cases, net much +higher sums. Owing, however, to the irregularity of their employment, +the average weekly earnings of both masters and men throughout the year +fall very greatly below the amount which they can earn when in full +work."[23] For the lowest kinds of work an ordinary male hand appears to +be able to earn not more than 15s. per week. A slow worker, it is said, +would earn an average of some 10s. to 12s. per week. The hours of labour +for sweating work appear to be from fifteen to eighteen per diem, and +"greeners" not infrequently work eighteen to twenty hours a day. Women, +who are largely used in making "felt and carpet uppers," cannot, if they +work their hardest, make more than 1s. 3d. a day. In the lowest class of +work wages fall even lower. Mr. Schloss gives the wages of five men +working in a small workshop, whose average is less than 11s. a week. +These wages do not of course represent skilled work at all. Machinery +has taken over all the skilled work, and left a dull laborious monotony +of operations which a very few weeks' practice enable a completely +unskilled worker to undertake. Probably the bulk of the cheapest work is +executed by foreigners, although from figures taken in 1887, of four +typical London parishes, it appeared that only 16 per cent, of the whole +trade were foreigners. In the lower classes of goods a considerable fall +of price has occurred during the fast few years, and perhaps the most +degraded conditions of male labour are to be found in the boot trade. A +large proportion of the work throughout the trade is out-work, and +therefore escapes the operation of the Factory Act. The competition +among small employers is greatly accentuated by the existence of a form +of middleman known as the "factor," who is an agent who gets his profit +by playing off one small manufacturer against another, keeping down +prices, and consequently wages, to a minimum. A large number of the +small producers are extremely poor, and owing to the System which +enables them to obtain material from leather-merchants on short credit, +are constantly obliged to sell at a disadvantage to meet their bills. +The "factor," as a speculator, takes advantage of this to accumulate +large stocks at low prices, and throwing them on the market in large +quantities when wholesale prices rise, causes much irregularity in the +trade. + +The following quotation from the Report of the Lords' Committee sums up +the chief industrial forces which are at work, and likewise illustrates +the confusion of causes with symptoms, and casual concomitants, which +marks the "common sense" investigations of intricate social phenomena. +"It will be seen from the foregoing epitome of the evidence, that +sweating in the boot trade is mainly traced by the witnesses to the +introduction of machinery, and a more complete system of subdivision of +labour, coupled with immigration from abroad and foreign competition. +Some witnesses have traced it in a great measure, if not principally, to +the action of factors; some to excessive competition among small masters +as well as men; others have accused the Trades Unions of a course of +action which has defeated the end they have in view, namely, effectual +combination, by driving work, owing to their arbitrary conduct, out of +the factory into the house of the worker, and of handicapping England in +the race with foreign countries, by setting their faces against the use +of the best machinery."[24] + +Shirt-making.--Perhaps no other branch of the clothing trade shows so +large an area of utter misery as shirt-making, which is carried on, +chiefly by women, in East London. The complete absence of adequate +organization, arising from the fact that the work is entirely out-work, +done not even by clusters of women in workshops, but almost altogether +by scattered workers in their own homes, makes this perhaps the +completest example of the evils of sweating. The commoner shirts are +sold wholesale at 10s. 6d. per dozen. Of this sum, it appears that the +worker gets 2s. 11/2d., and the sweater sometimes as much as 4s. The +competition of married women enters here, for shirt-making requires +little skill and no capital; hence it can be undertaken, and often is, +by married women, anxious to increase the little and irregular earnings +of their husbands, and willing to work all day for whatever they can +get. Some of the worst cases brought before the Lords' Committee showed +that a week's work of this kind brings in a net gain of from 3s. to 5s. +It appears likely that few unmarried women or widows can undertake this +work, because it does not suffice to afford a subsistence wage. But if +this is so, it must be remembered that the competition of married women +has succeeded in underselling the unmarried women, who might otherwise +have been able to obtain this work at a wage which would have supported +life. The fact that those who work at shirt-making do not depend +entirely on it for a livelihood, is an aggravation rather than an +extenuation of the sweating character of this employment. + +Sec. 4. Some minor "Sweating" Trades.--Mantle-making is also a woman's +industry. The wages are just sufficiently higher than in shirt-making to +admit the introduction of the lowest grades of unsupported female +workers. From 1s. 3d. to 1s. 6d. a day can be made at this work. + +Furring employs large numbers of foreign males, and some thousands of +both native and foreign females. It is almost entirely conducted in +small workshops, under the conduct of middlemen, who receive the +expensive furs from manufacturers, and hire "hands" to sew and work them +up. Wages have fallen during the last few years to the barest +subsistence point, and even below. Wages for men are put at 10s. or +12s., and in the case of girls and young women, fall as low as 4s.; a +sum which is in itself insufficient to support life, and must therefore +be only paid to women and girls who are partly subsisted by the efforts +of relatives with whom they live, or by the wages of vice. + +In cabinet-making and upholstery, the same disintegrating influences +have been at work which we noted in tailoring. Many firms which formerly +executed all orders on their own premises, now buy from small factors, +and much of the lowest and least skilled work is undertaken by small +"garret-masters," or even by single workmen who hawk round their wares +for sale on their own account. The higher and skilled branches are +protected by trade organizations, and there is no evidence that wages +have fallen; but in the less skilled work, owing perhaps in part to the +competition of machinery, prices have fallen, and wages are low. There +is evidence that the sub-contract system here is sometimes carried +through several stages, much to the detriment of the workman who +actually executes the orders. + +One of the most degraded among the sweating industries in the country is +chain and nail-making. The condition of the chain-makers of Cradley +Heath has called forth much public attention. The system of employment +is a somewhat complicated one. A middleman, called a "fogger," acts as a +go-between, receiving the material from the master, distributing it +among the workers, and collecting the finished product. Evidence before +the Committee shows that an accumulation of intricate forms of abuse of +power existed, including in some cases systematic evasion of the Truck +Act. Much of the work is extremely laborious, hours are long, twelve +hours forming an ordinary day, and the wage paid is the barest +subsistence wage. Much of the work done by women is quite unfit for +them. + +Sec. 5. Who is the Sweater? The Sub-contractor?--These facts relating to a +few of the principal trades in the lower branches of which "sweating" +thrives, must suffice as a general indication of the character of the +disease as it infests the inferior strata of almost all industries. + +Having learnt what "sweating" means, our next question naturally takes +the form, Who is the sweater? Who is the person responsible for this +state of things? John Bull is concrete, materialistic in his feeling and +his reasoning. He wants to find an individual, or a class embodiment of +sweating. If he can find the sweater, he is prepared to loathe and +abolish him. Our indignation and humanitarianism requires a scape-goat. +As we saw, many of the cases of sweating were found where there was a +sub-contractor. To our hasty vision, here seems to be the responsible +party. Forty years ago _Alton Locke_ gave us a powerful picture of the +wicked sub-contracting tailor, who, spider-like, lured into his web the +unfortunate victim, and sucked his blood for gain. The indignation of +tender-hearted but loose-thinking philanthropists, short-visioned +working-class orators, assisted by the satire of the comic journal, has +firmly planted in the imagination of the public an ideal of an East +London sweater; an idle, bloated middleman, whose expansive waistcoat is +decorated with resplendent seals and watch-chains, who drinks his +Champagne, and smokes his perfumed cigar, as he watches complacently the +sunken faces and cowering forms of the wretched creatures whose +happiness, health, and very life are sacrificed to his heartless greed. + +Now a fair study of facts show this creature to be little else than a +myth. The miseries of the sweating den are no exaggeration, they are +attested by a thousand reliable witnesses; but this monster human spider +is not found there. Though opinions differ considerably as to the +precise status of the sweating middleman, it is evident that in the +worst "sweating" trades he is not idle, and he is not rich. In cases +where the well-to-do, comfortable sub-contractor is found, he generally +pays fair wages, and does not grossly abuse his power. When the worst +features of sweating are present, the master sweater is nearly always +poor, his profits driven down by competition, so that he barely makes a +living. It is, indeed, evident that in many of the worst Whitechapel +sweating-dens the master does not on the average make a larger income +than the more highly paid of his machinists. So, too, most of these +"sweaters" work along with their hands, and work just as hard. Some, +indeed, have represented this sweating middleman as one who thrusts +himself between the proper employer and the working man in order to make +a gain for himself without performing any service. But the bulk of +evidence goes to show that the sweater, even when he does not occupy +himself in detailed manual labour, performs a useful work of +superintendence and management. "The sweater in the vast majority of +cases is the one man in the workshop who can, and does, perform each and +any branch of the trade." + +For the old adage, which made a tailor the ninth part of a man, has been +completely reversed by the subdivision of work in modern industry. It +now takes more than nine men to make a tailor. We have foremen or +cutters, basters, machinists, fellers, button-holers, pressers, general +workers, &c. No fewer than twenty-five such subdivisions have been +marked in the trade. Since the so-called tailor is no tailor at all, but +a "button-holer" or "baster," it is obvious that the working of such a +system requires some one capable of general direction. + +This opinion is not, however, inconsistent with the belief that such +work of "direction" or "organization" may be paid on a scale wholly out +of proportion to the real worth of the services performed. Extremely +strong evidence has been tendered to show that in many large towns, +especially in Leeds and Liverpool, the "sweating" tailor has frequently +"no practical knowledge of his trade." The ignorance and incompetence of +the working tailors enables a Jew with a business mind, by bribing +managers, to obtain a contract for work which he makes no pretence to +execute himself. His ability consists simply in the fact that he can get +more work at a cheaper rate out of the poorer workmen than the manager +of a large firm. In his capacity of middleman he is a "convenience," and +for his work, which is nominally that of master tailor, really that of +sweating manager, he gets his pay. + +Part of the "service" thus rendered by the sweater is doubtless that he +acts as a screen to the employing firm. Public opinion, and "the +reputation of the firm," would not permit a well-known business to +employ the workers _directly_ under their own roof upon the terms which +the secrecy of the sweater's den enables them to pay. But in spite of +this, whether the "Jew sweater" is really a competent tailor or is a +mere "organizer" of poor labour, it should be distinctly understood that +he is paid for the performance of real work, which under the present +industrial system has a use. + +Sec. 6. Different Species of Middlemen.--It may be well here to say +something on the general position of the "middleman" in commerce. The +popular notion that the "middleman" is a useless being, and that if he +could be abolished all would go well, arises from a confusion of thought +which deserves notice. This confusion springs from a failure to +understand that the "middleman" is a part of a commercial System. He is +not a mere intruder, a parasitic party, who forces his way between +employer and worker, or between producer and consumer, and without +conferring any service, extracts for himself a profit which involves a +loss to the worker or the consumer, or to both. If we examine this +notion, either by reference to facts, or from _a priori_ consideration, +we shall find it based on a superstition. "Middleman" is a broad generic +term used to describe a man through whose hands goods pass on their way +to the consuming public, but who does not appear to add any value to the +goods he handles. At any stage in the production of these goods, +previous to their final distribution, the middleman may come in and take +his profit for no visible work done. He may be a speculator, buying up +grain or timber, and holding or manipulating it in the large markets; or +he may be a wholesale merchant, who, buying directly from the fisherman, +and selling to the retail fishmonger, is supposed to be responsible for +the high price of fish; he may be the retailer who in East London is +supposed to cause the high price of vegetables. + +With these species of middlemen we are not now concerned, except to say +that their work, which is that of distribution, i.e. the more convenient +disposal of forms of material wealth, may be equally important with the +work of the farmer, the fisherman, or the market-gardener, though the +latter produce changes in the shape and appearance of the goods, while +the former do not. The middleman who stands between the employing firm +and the worker is of three forms. He may undertake a piece of work for a +wholesale house, and taking the material home, execute it with the aid +of his family or outside assistants. This is the chamber-master proper, +or "sweater" in the tailoring trade. Or he may act as distributor, +receive the material, and undertake to find workers who will execute it +at their own homes, he undertaking the responsibility of collection. +Where the workers are scattered over a large city area, or over a number +of villages, this work of distribution, and its responsibility, may be +considerable. Lastly, there may be the "sub-contractor" proper, who +undertakes to do a portion of a work already contracted for, and either +finds materials and tools, and pays workers to work for him, or sublets +parts of his contract to workers who provide their own materials and +tools. The mining and building trades contain various examples of such +sub-contracts. Now in none of these cases is the middleman a mere +parasite. In every case he does work, which, though as a rule it does +not alter the material form of the goods with which it deals, adds +distinct value to them, and is under present industrial conditions +equally necessary, and equally entitled to fair remuneration with the +work of the other producers. The old maxim "nihil ex nihilo fit" is as +true in commerce as in chemistry. In a competitive society a man can get +nothing for nothing. If the middleman is a capitalist he may get +something for use of his capital; but that too implies that his capital +is put to some useful work. + +Sec. 7. Work and Pay of the Middleman.--The complaint that the middleman +confers no service, and deserves no pay, is the result of two fallacies. +The first, to which allusion has been made already, consists in the +failure to recognize the work of distribution done by the middleman. The +second and more important is the confusion of mind which leads people to +conclude that because under different circumstances a particular class +of work might be dispensed with, therefore that work is under present +circumstances useless and undeserving of reward. Lawyers might be +useless if there were no dishonesty or crime, but we do not therefore +feel justified in describing as useless the present work they do. With +every progress of new inventions we are constantly rendering useless +some class or other of undoubted "workers." So the middleman in his +various capacities may be dispensed with, if the organization of +industrial society is so changed that he is no longer required; but +until such changes are affected he must get, and deserves, his pay. It +may indeed be true that certain classes of middlemen are enabled by the +position they hold to extract either from their employers or from the +public a profit which seems out of proportion to the services they +render. But this is by no means generally the case with the middleman in +his capacity of "sweater." Even where a middleman does make large +profits, we are not justified in describing such gain as excessive or +unfair, unless we are prepared to challenge the claim of "free +competition" to determine the respective money values of industrial +services. The "sweating" middleman does work which is at present +necessary; he gets pay; if we think he gets too much, are we prepared +with any rule to determine even approximately how much he ought to get? + +Sec. 8. The Employer as "Sweater."--Since it appears that the middleman +often sweats others of necessity because he is himself "sweated," in the +low terms of the contract he makes, and since much of the worst +"sweating" takes place where firms of employers deal directly with the +"workers," it may seem that the blame is shifted on to the employer, and +that the real responsibility rests with him. Now is this so? When we see +an important firm representing a large capital and employing many hands, +paying a wage barely sufficient for the maintenance of life, we are apt +to accuse the employers of meanness and extortion: we say this firm +could afford to pay higher wages, but they prefer to take higher +profits; the necessity of the poor is their opportunity. Now this +accusation ought to be fairly faced. It will then be found to fall with +very different force according as it is addressed to one or other of two +classes of employers. Firms which are shielded from the full force of +the competition of capital by the possession of some patent or trade +secret, some special advantage in natural resources, locality, or +command of markets, are generally in a position which will enable them +to reap a rate of profit, the excess of which beyond the ordinary rate +of profit measures the value of the practical monopoly they possess. The +owners of a coal-mine, or a gas-works, a special brand of soap or +biscuits, or a ring of capitalists who have secured control of a market, +are often able to pay wages above the market level without endangering +their commercial position. Even in a trade like the Lancashire cotton +trade, where there is free competition among the various firms, a rapid +change in the produce market may often raise the profits of the trade, +so that all or nearly all the employing firms could afford to pay higher +wages without running any risk of failure. Now employers who are in a +position like this are morally responsible for the hardship and +degradation they inflict if they pay wages insufficient for decent +maintenance. Their excuse that they are paying the market rate of wages, +and that if their men do not choose to work for this rate there are +plenty of others who will, is no exoneration of their conduct unless it +be distinctly admitted that "moral considerations" have no place in +commerce. Employers who in the enjoyment of this superior position pay +bare subsistance wages, and defend themselves by the plea that they pay +the "market rate," are "sweaters," and the blame of sweating will +rightly attach to them. + +But this is not to be regarded as the normal position of employers. +Among firms unsheltered by a monopoly, and exposed to the full force of +capitalist competition, the rate of profit is also at "the minimum of +subsistence," that is to say, if higher wages were paid to the employes, +the rate of profit would either become a negative quantity, or would be +so low that capital could no longer be obtained for investment in such a +trade. Generally it may be said that a joint-stock company and a private +firm, trading as most firms do chiefly on borrowed capital, could not +pay higher wages and stand its ground in the competition with other +firms. If a benevolent employer engaged in a manufacture exposed to open +competition undertook to raise the wages of his men twenty per cent, in +order to lift them to a level of comfort which satisfied his +benevolence, he must first sacrifice the whole of his "wage of +superintendence," and he will then find that he can only pay the +necessary interest on his borrowed capital out of his own pocket: in +fact he would find he had essayed to do what in the long run was +impossible. The individual employer under normal circumstances is no +more to blame for the low wages, long hours, &c., than is the middleman. +He could not greatly improve the industrial condition of his employes, +however much he might wish. + +Sec. 9. The Purchaser as "Sweater." A third view, a little longer-sighted +than the others, casts the blame upon the purchasing public. Wages must +be low, we are told, because the purchaser insists on low prices. It is +the rage for "cheapness" which is the real cause, according to this line +of thought. Formerly the customer was content to pay a fair price for an +article to a tradesman with whom he dealt regularly, and whose interest +it was to sell him a fair article. The tradesman could thus afford to +pay the manufacturer a price which would enable him to pay decent wages, +and in return for this price he insisted upon good work being put into +the goods he bought. Thus there was no demand for bad work. Skilled work +alone could find a market, and skilled work requires the payment of +decent wages. The growth of modern competition has changed all this. +Regular custom has given way to touting and advertising, the bond of +interest between consumer and shopkeeper is broken, the latter seeks +merely to sell the largest quantity of wares to any one who will buy, +the former to pay the lowest price to any one who will sell him what he +thinks he wants. Hence a deterioration in the quality of many goods. It +is no longer the interest of many tradesmen to sell sound wares; the +consumer can no longer rely upon the recommendation of the retailer as a +skilled judge of the quality of a particular line of goods; he is thrown +back upon his own discrimination, and as an amateur he is apt to be +worsted in a bargain with a specialist. There is no reason to suppose +that customers are meaner than they used to be. They always bought +things as cheaply as they knew how to get them. The real point is that +they are less able to detect false cheapness than they used to be. Not +merely do they no longer rely upon a known and trusted retailer to +protect them from the deceits of the manufacturer, but the facilities +for deception are continually increasing. The greater complexity of +trade, the larger variety of commodities, the increased specialization +in production and distribution, the growth of "a science of +adulteration" have immensely increased the advantage which the +professional salesman possesses over the amateur customer. Hence the +growth of goods meant not for use but for sale--jerry-built houses, +adulterated food, sham cloth and leather, botched work of every sort, +designed merely to pass muster in a hurried act of sale. To such a +degree of refinement have the arts of deception been carried that the +customer is liable to be tricked and duped at every turn. It is not that +he foolishly prefers to buy a bad article at a low price, but that he +cannot rely upon his judgment to discriminate good from bad quality; he +therefore prefers to pay a low price because he has no guarantee that by +paying more he will get a better article. It is this fact, and not a +mania for cheapness, which explains the flooding of the market with bad +qualities of wares. This effectual demand for bad workmanship on the +part of the consuming public is no doubt directly responsible for many +of the worst phases of "sweating." Slop clothes and cheap boots are +turned out in large quantities by workers who have no claim to be called +tailors or shoemakers. A few weeks' practice suffices to furnish the +quantum of clumsy skill or deceit required for this work. That is to +say, the whole field of unskilled labour is a recruiting-ground for the +"sweater" or small employer in these and other clothing trades. If the +public insisted on buying good articles, and paid the price requisite +for their production, these "sweating" trades would be impossible. But +before we saddle the consuming public with the blame, we must bear in +mind the following extenuating circumstances. + +Sec. 10. What the Purchaser can do.--The payment of a higher price is no +guarantee that the workers who produce the goods are not "sweated." If I +am competent to discriminate well-made goods from badly-made goods, I +shall find it to my interest to abstain from purchasing the latter, and +shall be likewise doing what I can to discourage "sweating." But by +merely paying a higher price for goods of the same quality as those +which I could buy at a lower price, I may be only putting a larger +profit in the hands of the employers of this low-skilled labour, and am +certainly doing nothing to decrease that demand for badly-made goods +which appears to be the root of the evil. The purchaser who wishes to +discourage sweating should look first to the quality of the goods he +buys, rather than to the price. Skilled labour is seldom sweated to the +same degree as unskilled labour, and a high class of workmanship will +generally be a guarantee of decent wages. In so far as the purchaser +lacks ability to accurately gauge quality, he has little security that +by paying a higher price he is securing better wages for the workers. +The so-called respectability of a well-known house is a poor guarantee +that its employes are getting decent wages, and no guarantee at all that +the workers in the various factories with which the firm deals are well +paid. It is impossible for a private customer to know that by dealing +with a given shop he is not directly or indirectly encouraging +"sweating." It might, however, be feasible for the consuming public to +appoint committees, whose special work it should be to ascertain that +goods offered in shops were produced by firms who paid decent wages. If +a "white list" of firms who paid good wages, and dealt only with +manufacturers who paid good wages, were formed, purchasers who desired +to discourage sweating would be able to feel a certain security, so far, +at any rate, as the later stages of production are concerned, which +ordinary knowledge of the world and business will not at present enable +them to obtain. The force of an organized public opinion, even that of a +respectable minority, brought to bear upon notorious "sweating" firms, +would doubtless be of great avail, if carefully applied. + +At the same time, it must not for a moment be imagined that the problem +of poverty would be solved if we could insure, by the payment of higher +prices for better qualities of goods, the extermination of the sweating +trades. This low, degraded and degrading work enables large numbers of +poor inefficient workers to eke out a bare subsistence. If it were taken +away, the direct result would be an accession of poverty and misery. The +demand for skilled labour would be greater, but the unskilled labourer +cannot pass the barrier and compete for this; the overflow of helpless, +hopeless, feeble, unskilled labour would be greater than ever. Whatever +the ultimate effects of decreasing the demand for unskilled labour might +be, the misery of the immediate effects could not be lightly set aside. +This contradiction of the present certain effect and the probable future +effects confronts the philanthropist at every turn. The condition of the +London match-girls may serve as an illustration of this. Their miserable +life has rightly roused the indignation of all kind-hearted people. The +wretched earnings they take have provoked people to suggest that we +should put an end to the trade by refusing to buy from them. But since +the earnings of these girls depend entirely on the amount they sell, +this direct result of your action, prompted by humane sentiment, will be +to reduce still further these miserable earnings; that is to say, you +increase the suffering of the very persons whose lot you desire to +alleviate. You may say that you buy your matches all the same, but you +buy them at a shop where you may or may not have reason to believe that +the attendants are well paid. But that will not benefit the girls, whose +business you have destroyed; they will not be employed in the shops, for +they belong to a different grade of labour. This dilemma meets the +social reformer at each step; the complexity of industrial relations +appears to turn the chariot of progress into a Juggernaut's car, to +crush a number of innocent victims with each advance it makes. One thing +is evident, that if the consuming public were to regulate its acts of +purchase with every possible regard to the condition of the workers, +they could not ensure that every worker should have good regular work +for decent wages. + +In arriving at this conclusion, we are far from maintaining that the +public even in its private capacity as a body of consumers could do +nothing. A certain portion of responsibility rests on the public, as we +saw it rested on employers and on middlemen. But the malady is rightly +traceable in its full force neither to the action of individuals nor of +industrial classes, but to the relation which subsists between these +individuals and classes; that is, to the nature and character of the +industrial system in its present working. This may seem a vague +statement, but it is correct; the desire to be prematurely definite has +led to a narrow conception of the "sweating" malady, which more than +anything else has impeded efforts at reform. + + + + +Chapter V. + +The Causes of Sweating. + + + +Sec. 1. The excessive Supply of Low-skilled Labour.--Turning to the +industrial system for an explanation of the evils of "Sweating," we +shall find three chief factors in the problem; three dominant aspects +from which the question may be regarded. They are sometimes spoken of as +the causes of sweating, but they are better described as conditions, and +even as such are not separate, but closely related at various points. + +The first condition of "sweating" is an abundant and excessive supply of +low-skilled and inefficient labour. It needs no parade of economic +reasoning to show that where there are more persons willing to do a +particular kind of work than are required, the wages for that work, if +free competition is permitted, cannot be more than what is just +sufficient to induce the required number to accept the work. In other +words, where there exists any quantity of unemployed competitors for +low-skilled work, wages, hours of labour, and other conditions of +employment are so regulated, as to present an attraction which just +outweighs the alternatives open to the unemployed, viz. odd jobs, +stealing, starving, and the poor-house. In countries where access to +unused land is free, the productiveness of labour applied to such land +marks the minimum of wages possible; in countries where no such access +is possible, the minimum wages of unskilled labour, whenever the supply +exceeds the demand, is determined by the attractiveness of the +alternatives named above. + +A margin of unemployed labour means a bare subsistence wage for low- +skilled labour, and it means this wage earned under industrial +conditions, such as we find under the "sweating system." In order to +keep the wage of low-skilled labour down to this minimum, which can only +rise with an improvement in the alternatives, it is not required that +there should at any time exist a large number of unemployed. A very +small number, in effective competition with those employed, will be +quite as effectual in keeping down the rate of wages. The same applies +to all grades of skilled labour, with this important difference, that +the minimum wage can never fall below what is required to induce less +skilled workers to acquire and apply the extra skill which will enable +them to furnish the requisite supply of highly-skilled workers. Trade +Unions have instinctively directed all their efforts to preventing the +competition of unemployed workers in their respective trades from +pulling down to its minimum the rate of wages. The strongest of those +have succeeded in establishing a standard wage less than which no one +shall accept; unemployed men, who in free competition would accept less +than this standard wage, are supported by the funds of the Union, that +they may not underbid. Unions of comparatively unskilled workers, who +are never free from the competition of unemployed, and who cannot +undertake permanently to buy off all competitors ready to underbid, +endeavour to limit the numbers of their members, and to prevent +outsiders from effectively competing with them in the labour market, in +order that by restricting the supply of labour, they may prevent a fall +of wages. The importance of these movements for us consists in their +firm but tacit recognition of the fact, that an excessive supply of +unskilled labour lies at the root of the industrial disease of +"sweating." + +Sec. 2. The Contributing Causes of excessive Supply.--The last two chapters +have dealt with the principal large industrial movements which bear on +this supply of excessive low-skilled labour; but to make the question +clear, it will be well to enumerate the various contributing causes. + +[Greek: a]. The influx of rural population into the towns constantly +swells the supply of raw unskilled labour. The better quality of this +agricultural labour, as we saw, does not continue to form part of this +glut, but rises into more skilled and higher paid strata of labour. The +worse quality forms a permanent addition to the mass of inefficient +labour competing for bare subsistence wages. + +[Greek: b]. The steady flow of cheap unskilled foreign labour into our +large cities, especially into London, swollen by occasional floods of +compulsory exiles, adds an element whose competition as a part of the +mass of unskilled labour is injurious out of proportion to its numerical +amount. + +[Greek: g]. Since this foreign immigration weakens the industrial +condition of our low-skilled native labour by increasing the supply, it +will be evident that any cause which decreases the demand for such +labour will operate in the same way. The free importation from abroad of +goods which compete in our markets with the goods which "sweated" labour +is applied to make, has the same effect upon the workers in "sweating" +trades as the introduction of cheap foreign labour. The one diminishes +the demand, the other increases the supply of unskilled or low-skilled +labour. The import of quantities of German-made cheap clothing into East +London shops, to compete with native manufacture of the same goods, will +have precisely the same force in maintaining "sweating," as will the +introduction of German workers, who shall make these same clothes in +East London itself. In each case, the purchasing public reaps the +advantage of cheap labour in low prices, while the workers suffer in low +wages. The contention that English goods made at home must be exported +to pay for the cheap German goods, furnishes no answer from the point of +view of the low-skilled worker, unless these exports embody the kind of +labour of which he is capable. + +[Greek: d]. The constant introduction of new machinery, as a substitute +for skilled hand-labour, by robbing of its value the skill of certain +classes of workers, adds these to the supply of low-skilled labour. + +[Greek: e]. The growth of machinery and of education, by placing women +and young persons more upon an equality with male adult labour, swells +the supply of low-skilled labour in certain branches of work. Women and +young persons either take the places once occupied by men, or undertake +new work (e.g. in post-office or telegraph-office), which would once +have been open only to the competition of men. This growth of the direct +or indirect competition of women and young persons, must be considered +as operating to swell the general supply of unskilled labour. + +[Greek: z]. In London another temporary, but important, factor must be +noted. The competition of provincial factories has proved too strong for +London factories in many industries. Hence of late years a gradual +transfer of manufacture from London to the provinces. A large number of +workers in London factories have found themselves out of work. The +break-up of the London factories has furnished "sweating trades" with a +large quantity of unemployed and starving people from whom to draw. + +Regarded from the widest economic point of view, the existence of an +excessive supply of labour seeking employments open to free competition +must be regarded as the most important aspect of the "sweating system." +The recent condition of the competition for casual dock-labour brought +dramatically to the foreground this factor in the labour question. The +struggle for livelihood was there reduced to its lowest and most brutal +terms. "There is a place at the London Docks called the cage, a sort of +pen fenced off by iron railings. I have seen three hundred half-starved +dockers crowded round this cage, when perhaps a ganger would appear +wanting three hands, and the awful struggle of these three hundred +famished wretches fighting for that opportunity to get two or three +hours' work has left an impression upon me that can never be effaced. +Why, I have actually seen them clambering over each other's backs to +reach the coveted ticket. I have frequently seen men emerge bleeding and +breathless, with their clothes pretty well torn off their backs." The +competition described in this picture only differs from other +competitions for low-skilled town labour in as much as the conditions of +tender gave a tragical concentration to the display of industrial +forces. This picture, exaggerated as it will appear to those who have +not seen it, brings home to us the essential character of free +competition for low-skilled labour where the normal supply is in excess +of the demand. If other forms of low-skilled labour were put up to be +scrambled for in the same public manner, the scene would be repeated _ad +nauseam_. But because the competition of seamstresses, tailors, shirt- +finishers, fur-sewers, &c., is conducted more quietly and privately, it +is not less intense, not less miserable, and not less degrading. This +struggle for life in the shape of work for bare subsistence wages, is +the true logical and necessary outcome of free competition among an over +supply of low-skilled labourers. + +Sec. 3. The Multiplication of "Small Masters."--Having made so much +progress in our analysis, we shall approach more intelligently another +important aspect of the "sweating system." Mr. Booth and other +investigators find the tap-root of the disease to consist in the +multiplication of small masters. The leading industrial forces of the +age, as we have seen, make for the concentration of labour in larger and +larger masses, and its employment in larger and larger factories. Yet in +London and in certain other large centres of population, we find certain +trades which are still conducted on a small scale in little workshops or +private houses, and those trades furnish a very large proportion of the +worst examples of "sweating." Here is a case of arrested development in +the evolution of industry. It is even worse than that; for some trades +which had been subject to the concentrating force of the factory system, +have fallen into a sort of back-wash of the industrial current, and +broken up again into smaller units. The increased proportion of the +clothing industries conducted in private houses and small workshops is +the most notorious example. This applies not only to East London, but to +Liverpool, Leeds, Sheffield, and other large cities, especially where +foreign labour has penetrated. For a large proportion of the sweating +workshops, especially in clothing trades, are supported by foreign +labour. In Liverpool during the last ten years the substitution of home- +workers for workers in tailors' shops has been marked, and in particular +does this growth of home-workers apply to women. + +A credible witness before the Lords' Committee stated that "at the +present moment it would be safe to say that two-thirds of the sweaters +in Liverpool are foreigners," coming chiefly from Germany and Russian +Poland. In Leeds sixteen years ago there were only twelve Jewish +workshops; there are now some hundreds. + +Since a very large proportion of the worst sweating occurs in trades +where the work is given out, either directly or by the medium of sub- +contract, to home-workers, it is natural that stress should be laid upon +the small private workshops as the centre of the disease. If the work +could only be got away from the home and the small workshop, where +inspection is impracticable, and done in the factory or large workshop, +where limitations of hours of labour and sanitary conditions could be +enforced, where the force of public opinion could secure the payment of +decent wages, and where organization among workers would be possible, +the worst phases of the malady would disappear. The abolition of the +small workshop is the great object of a large number of practical +reformers who have studied the sweating system. The following opinion of +an expert witness is endorsed by many students of the question--"If the +employers were compelled to obtain workshops, and the goods were made +under a factory system, we believe that they could be made quite as +cheaply under that system, with greater comfort to the workers, in +shorter hours; and that the profits would then be distributed among the +workers, so that the public would obtain their goods at the same +price."[25] It is maintained that the inferior qualities of shoes are +produced and sold more cheaply in the United States by a larger use of +machinery under the factory system, than in London under a sweating +system, though wages are, of course, much higher in America. Moreover, +many of the products of the London sweating trades are competing on +almost equal terms with the products of provincial factories, where +machines are used instead of hand-labour. + +Sec. 4. Economic Advantages of "Small Workshops."--The question we have to +answer is this--Why has the small workshop survived and grown up in +London and other large cities, in direct antagonism to the prevalent +industrial movement of the age? It is evident that the small workshop +system must possess some industrial advantages which enable it to hold +its own. The following considerations throw light upon this subject. + +1. A larger proportion of the work in sweating trades is work for which +there is a very irregular demand. Irregularity of employment, or, more +accurately speaking, insufficiency of employment--for the "irregularity" +is itself regular--forms one of the most terrible phases of the sweating +system. The lower you descend in the ranks of labour the worse it is. A +large number of the trades, especially where women are employed, are +trades where the elements of "season" and fashion enter in. But even +those which, like tailoring, shirtmaking, shoemaking, furniture and +upholstery, would seem less subject to periodic or purely capricious +changes, are liable in fact to grave and frequent fluctuations of the +market. The average employment in sweating trades is roughly estimated +at three or four days in the week. There are two busy seasons lasting +some six weeks each, when these miserable creatures are habitually +overworked. "The remaining nine months," says Mr. Burnett, "do not +average more than half time, especially among the lower grade workers." + +This gives us one clue to the ability of the small workshop to survive-- +its superior flexibility from the point of view of the employer. + +"High organization makes for regularity; low organization lends itself +to the opposite. A large factory cannot stop at all without serious +loss; a full-sized workshop will make great efforts to keep going; but +the man who employs only two or three others in his own house can, if +work fails, send them all adrift to pick up a living as best they +can."[26] + +Since a smaller sweating-master can set up business on some L2 capital, +and does not expect to make much more profit as employer than as +workman, he is able to change from one capacity to the other with great +facility. + +2. The high rent for large business premises, especially in London, +makes for the small workshop or home-work system. The payment of rent is +thus avoided by the business firm which is the real employer, and thrown +upon the sub-contractor or the workers themselves, to be by them in +their turn generally evaded by using the dwelling-room for a workshop. +Thus one of the most glaring evils of the sweating system is seen to +form a distinct economic advantage in the workshop, as compared with the +large factory. The element of rent is practically eliminated as an +industrial charge. + +3. The evasion of the restrictions of the Factory Act must be regarded +as another economic advantage. Excessive hours of labour when +convenient, overcrowding in order to avoid rent, absence of proper +sanitary conditions, are essential to the cheapest forms of production +under present conditions. It does not pay either the employing firm or +the sub-contractor to consider the health or even the life of the +workers, provided that the state of the labour market is such that they +can easily replace spent lives. + +4. The inability to combine for their mutual protection and advantage of +scattered employes working in small bodies, living apart, and +unacquainted even with the existence of one another, is another +"cheapness" of the workshop system. + +5. The fact that so large a proportion of master-sweaters are Jews has a +special significance. It seems to imply that the poorer class of +immigrant Jews possess a natural aptitude for the position, and that +their presence in our large cities furnishes the corner-stone of the +vicious system. Independence and mastery are conditions which have a +market value for all men, but especially for the timid and often down- +trodden Jew. Most men will contentedly receive less as master than as +servant, but especially the Jew. We saw that the immigrant Jew, by his +capacities and inclinations, was induced to make special efforts to +substitute work of management for manual labour, and to become a profit- +maker instead of a wage-earner. The Jew craves the position of a +sweating-master, because that is the lowest step in a ladder which may +lead to a life of magnificence, supported out of usury. The Jewish Board +of Guardians in London, though its philanthropic action is on the whole +more enlightened than that of most wealthy public bodies, has been +responsible in no small measure for this artificial multiplication of +small masters. A very large proportion of the funds which they dispensed +was given or lent in small sums in order to enable poor Jews "to set up +for themselves." The effect of this was twofold. It first assisted to +draw to London numbers of continental Jews, who struggled as "greeners" +under sweaters for six months, until they were qualified for assistance +from the Jewish Board of Guardians. It then enabled them to set up as +small masters, and sweat other "greeners" as they themselves were +sweated. It was quite true that the object of such charity was the most +useful which any society could undertake; namely, that of assisting the +industrially weak to stand on their own legs. But it was unfortunately +true that this early stage of independence was built upon the miserable +dependence of other workers. + +6. But while, as we see, there are many special conditions which, in +London especially, favour the small workshop, the most important will be +found to consist in the large supply of cheap unskilled labour. This is +the real material out of which the small workshop system is built. In +dealing with the other conditions, we shall find that they all +presuppose this abundant supply of labour. If labour were more scarce, +and wages therefore higher, the small workshop would be impossible, for +the absolute economy of labour, effected by the factory organization +with its larger use of machinery, would far outweigh the number of small +economies which, as we have seen, at present in certain trades, favour +and make possible the small workshop. Every limitation in the supply of +this low-skilled labour, every expansion of the alternatives offered by +emigration, access to free land, &c., will be effectual in crushing a +number of the sweating workshops, and favouring the large factory at +their expense. + +Sec. 5. Irresponsibility of Employers.--The third view of the sweating +System lays stress upon its moral aspect, and finds its chief cause in +the irresponsibility of the employer. Now we have already seen that this +severance of the personal relation between employer and employed is a +necessary result of the establishment of the large factory as the +industrial unit, and of the ever-growing complexity of modern commerce. +It is not merely that the widening gap of social position between +employer and employed, and the increased number of the latter, make the +previous close relation impossible. Quite as important is the fact that +the real employer in modern industry is growing more "impersonal." What +we mean is this. The nominal employer or manager is not the real +employer. The real employer of labour is capital, and it is to the +owners of the capital in any business that we must chiefly look for the +exercise of such responsibility as rightly subsists between employer and +employed. Now, while it is calculated that one-eighth of the business of +England is in the hands of joint-stock companies, constituting far more +than one-eighth of the large businesses, in the great majority of other +cases, where business is conducted on a large scale, the head of the +business is to a great extent a mere manager of other people's capital. +Thus while the manager's sense of personal responsibility is weakened by +the number of "hands" whom he employs, his freedom of action is likewise +crippled by his obligation to subserve the interests of a body of +capitalists who are in ignorance of the very names and number of the +human beings whose destiny they are controlling. The severance of the +real "employer" from his "hands" is thus far more complete than would +appear from mere attention to the growth in the size of the average +business. Now it must not be supposed that this severance of the +personal relation between employer and employed is of necessity a loss +to the latter. There is no reason to suppose that the close relation +subsisting in the old days between the master and his journeymen and +apprentices was as a rule idyllically beautiful. No doubt the control of +the master was often vexatious and despotic. The tyranny of a heartless +employer under the old system was probably much more injurious than the +apathy of the most vulgar plutocrat of to-day. The employe under the +modern system is less subject to petty spite and unjust interference on +the part of his employer. In this sense he is more free. But on the +other hand, he has lost that guarantee against utter destitution and +degradation afforded by the humanity of the better class of masters. He +has exchanged a human nexus for a "cash nexus." The nominal freedom of +this cash relationship is in the case of the upper strata of workmen +probably a real freedom; the irresponsibility of their employers has +educated them to more self-reliance, and strengthened a healthy +personality in them. It is the lower class of workers who suffer. More +and more they need the humanity of the responsible employer to protect +them against the rigours of the labour-market. The worst miseries of the +early factory times were due directly to the break-up of the +responsibility of employers. This was slowly recognized by the people of +England, and the series of Factory Acts, Employers' Liability Acts, and +other measures for the protection of labour, must be regarded as a +national attempt to build up a compulsory legal responsibility to be +imposed upon employers in place of a natural responsibility based on +moral feeling. We draft legislation and appoint inspectors to teach +employers their duty towards employes, and to ensure that they do it. +Thus in certain industries we have patched up an artificial mechanism of +responsibility. + +Wherever this legal responsibility is not enforced in the case of low- +skilled workers, we have, or are liable to have, "sweating." Glancing +superficially at the small workshop or sweating-den, it might seem that +this being a mere survival of the old system, the legal enforcement of +responsibility would be unnecessary. But it is not a mere survival. In +the small workshop of the old system the master was the real employer. +In the modern "sweating" den he is not the real employer, but a mere +link between the employing firm and the worker. From this point of view +we must assign as the true cause of sweating, the evasion of the legal +responsibility of the Factory Act rendered possible to firms which +employ outside workers either directly or indirectly through the agency +of "sweaters." Although it might be prudent as a means of breaking up +the small workshop to attempt to impose upon the "middleman" the legal +responsibility, genuine reform directed to this aspect of "sweating," +can only operate by making the real employing firm directly responsible +for the industrial condition of its outdoor direct or indirect employes. + +This responsibility imposed by law has been strengthened as an effective +safeguard of the interests of the workers by combination among the +latter. In skilled industries where strong trade organization exists, +the practical value of such combination exceeds the value of restrictive +legislation. + +"In their essence Trade Unions are voluntary associations of workmen, +for mutual protection and assistance in securing the most favourable +conditions of labour." "This is their primary and fundamental object, +and includes all efforts to raise wages or prevent a reduction of wages; +to diminish the hours of labour or resist attempts to increase the +working hours; and to regulate all matters pertaining to methods of +employment or discharge, and modes of working."[27] Engineers, boiler- +makers, cotton-spinners, printers, would more readily give up the +assistance given them by legislative restriction than the power which +they have secured for themselves by combination. It is in proportion as +trade combination is weak that the actual protection afforded by Factory +and Employers' Liability Acts become important. Just as we saw that +sweating trades were those which escaped the legislative eye; so we see +that they are also the trades where effective combination does not +exist. Where Trade Unions are strong, sweating cannot make any way. The +State aid of restrictive legislation, and the self help of private +combination are alike wanting to the "sweated" workers. + + + + +Chapter VI. + +Remedies for Sweating. + + + +Sec. 1. Factory Legislation. What it can do.--Having now set forth the +three aspects of the industrial disease of "Sweating"--the excessive +supply of unskilled labour, the multiplication of small employers, the +irresponsibility of capital--we have next to ask, What is the nature of +the proposed remedies? Since any full discussion of the different +remedies is here impossible, it must suffice if we briefly indicate the +application of the chief proposed remedies to the different aspects of +the disease. These remedies will fairly fall into three classes. + +The first class aim at attacking by legislative means, the small +workshop system, and the evils of long hours and unsanitary conditions +from which the "sweated" workers suffer. Briefly, it may be said that +they seek to increase and to enforce the legal responsibility of +employers, and indirectly to crush the small workshop system by turning +upon it the wholesome light of publicity, and imposing certain irksome +and expensive conditions which will make its survival in its worst and +ugliest shapes impossible. The most practical recommendation of the +Report of the Lords' Committee is an extension of the sanitary clauses +of the Factory Act, so as to reach all workshops. + +We have seen that the unrestricted use of cheap labour is the essence of +"sweating." If the wholesome restrictions of our Factory Legislation +were in fact extended so as to cover all forms of employment, they would +so increase the expenses of the sweating houses, that they would fall +before the competition of the large factory system. Karl Marx writing a +generation ago saw this most clearly. "But as regards labour in the so- +called domestic industries, and the intermediate forms between this and +manufacture, so soon as limits are put to the working day and to the +employment of children, these industries go to the wall. Unlimited +exploitation of cheap labour power is the sole foundation of their power +to compete."[28] + +The effectiveness of the existing Factory Act, so far as relates to +small workshops, is impaired by the following considerations-- + +1. The difficulty in finding small workshops. There is no effectual +registration of workshops, and the number of inspectors is inadequate to +the elaborate and tedious method of search imposed by the present +system. + +2. The limitation as to right of entry. The power of inspectors to +"enter, inspect, and examine at all reasonable times by day or night, a +factory or a workshop, and every part thereof, when he has reason to +believe that any person is employed therein, and to enter by day any +place he has reasonable cause to believe to be a factory or workshop," +is in fact not applicable in the case of dwelling-rooms used for +workshops. In a large number of cases of the worst form of "sweating," +the inspector has no right of entrance but by consent of the occupant, +and the time which elapses before such consent is given suffices to +enable the "sweater" to adjust matters so as to remove all evidence of +infringements of the law. + +3. The restricted power in reference to sanitation. A factory inspector +has no sanitary powers; he cannot act save through the sanitary officer. +The machinery of sanitary reform thus loses effectiveness. + +Compulsory registration of workshops, adequate inspection, and reform of +machinery of sanitary reform, would be of material value in dealing with +some of the evils of the small workshop. But it would by no means put an +end to "sweating." So far as it admitted the continuance of the small +workshop, it would neither directly nor indirectly abate the evil of low +wages. It is even possible that any rapid extension of the Factory Act +might, by limiting the amount of employment in small workshops, increase +for a time the misery of those low-skilled workers, who might be +incapable of undertaking regular work in the larger factory. It is, at +any rate, not evident that such legislative reform would assist low- +class workers to obtain decent wages and regular employment, though it +would improve the other conditions under which they worked. + +Again, existing factory legislation by no means covers even +theoretically the whole field of "sweating." Public-houses, restaurants, +all shops and places of amusement, laundries, and certain other +important forms of employment, which escape the present factory +legislation, are in their lower branches liable to the evils of +"sweating," and should be included under such factory legislation as +seeks to remedy these evils. + +Sec. 2. Co-operative Production.--The organization of labour is the second +form of remedy. It is urged that wherever effective organization exists +in any trade, there is no danger of sweating. We have therefore, it is +maintained, only to organize the lower grades of labour, and "sweating" +will cease to exist. There are two forms of organization commonly +advocated, Co-operation and Trade Unionism. + +The suggestion that the poorer grades of workers should by co-operative +production seek to relieve themselves from the stress of poverty and the +tyranny of the "sweating system," is a counsel of perfection far removed +from the possibility of present attainment. No one who has closely +studied the growth of productive co-operation in England will regard it +as a practicable remedy for poverty. Productive co-operation is +successful at present only in rare cases among skilled workmen of +exceptional morale and education. It is impossible that it should be +practised by low-skilled, low-waged workers, under industrial conditions +like those of to-day. It is surprising to find that the Lords' Committee +in its final report should have given prominence to schemes of co- +operation as a cure for the disease. The following paragraph correctly +sums up experience upon the subject-- + +"Productive societies have been from time to time started in East +London, but their career has been neither long nor brilliant. They have +often had a semi-philanthropic basis, and have been well-meant but +hopeless attempts to supersede 'sweating' by co-operation. None now +working are of sufficient importance to be mentioned."[29] + +The place which productive and distributive co-operation is destined to +occupy in the history of the industrial freedom and elevation of the +masses doubtless will be of the first importance. To look forward to a +time when the workers of the community may be grouped in co-operative +bodies, either competing with one another, or related by some bond which +shall minimize the friction of competition, while not impairing the +freedom and integrity of each several group, is not perhaps a wild +utopian vision. To students of English industrial history the transition +to such a state will not appear more marked than the transition through +which industry passed under the Industrial Revolution to the present +capitalist system. But the recognition of this possible future does not +justify us in suggesting productive co-operation as a present remedy for +the poverty of low-skilled city workers. These latter must rise several +steps on the industrial and moral ladder before they are brought within +the reach of the co-operative remedy. It is with the cost and labour of +these early steps that the students of the problem of present poverty +must concern themselves. + +Sec. 3. Trade Unionism. Ability of Workers to combine. Trade Unionism is a +more hopeful remedy. Large bodies of workers have by this means helped +to raise themselves from a condition of industrial weakness to one of +industrial strength. Why should not close combination among workers in +low-paid and sweating industries be attended with like results? Why +should not the men and women working in "sweating" trades combine, and +insist upon higher wages, shorter hours, more regular employment, and +better sanitary conditions? Well, it may be regarded as an axiom in +practical economies, that any concerted action, however weak and +desultory, has its value. Union is always strength. An employer who can +easily resist any number of individual claims for higher wages by his +power to replace each worker by an outsider, can less easily resist the +united pressure of a large body of his workmen, because the +inconvenience of replacing them all at once by a body of outsiders, is +far greater than the added difficulty of replacing each of them at +separate intervals of time. This is the basis of the power of concerted +action among workers. But the measure of this power depends in the main +upon two considerations. + +First comes the degree of effectiveness in combination. The prime +requisites for effective combination are a spirit of comradeship and +mutual trust, knowledge and self-restraint in the disposition of united +force. Education and free and frequent intercourse can alone establish +these elements of effective combination. And here the first difficulty +for workers in "sweating" trades appears. Low-skilled work implies a low +degree of intelligence and education. The sweating industries, as we +have seen, are as a rule those which escape the centralizing influence +of the factory System, and where the employes work, either singly or in +small groups, unknown to one another, and with few opportunities of +forming a close mutual understanding. In some employments this local +severance belongs to the essence of the work, as, for example, in the +case of cab-drivers, omnibus-drivers, and generally in shop-work, where, +in spite of the growth of large stores, small masters still predominate; +in other employments the disunion of workers forms a distinct commercial +advantage which enables such low-class industries to survive, as in the +small workshop and the home-labour, which form the central crux of our +sweating problem. The very lack of leisure, and the incessant strain +upon the physique which belong to "sweating," contribute to retard +education, and to render mutual acquaintanceship and the formation of a +distinct trade interest extremely difficult. How to overcome these grave +difficulties which stand in the way of effective combination among +unskilled workers is a consideration of the first importance. The rapid +and momentarily successful action of organized dock labourers must not +be taken as conclusive evidence that combination in all other branches +of low-class labour can proceed at the same pace. The public and +localized character of the competition for casual dock labour rendered +effective combination here possible, in spite of the low intellectual +and moral calibre of the average labourer. It is the absence of such +public and localized competition which is the kernel of the difficulty +in most "sweating" trades. It may be safely said that the measure of +progress in organization of low class labour will be the comparative +size and localization of the industrial unit. Where "sweating" exists in +large factories or large shops, effective combination even among workers +of low education may be tolerably rapid; among workers engaged by some +large firm whose work brings them only into occasional contact, the +progress will be not so fast; among workers in small unrelated workshops +who have no opportunities of direct intercourse with one another, the +progress will be extremely slow. The most urgent need of organization is +precisely in those industries where it is most difficult to organize. It +is, on the whole, not reasonable to expect that this remedy, unless +aided by other forces working against the small workshops, will enable +the "hands" in the small sweater's den to materially improve their +condition. + +Sec. 4. Trade Union Methods of limiting Competition.--So far we have +regarded the value of combination as dependent on the ability of workers +to combine. There is another side which cannot be neglected. Two +societies of workmen equally strong in the moral qualities of successful +union may differ widely in the influence they can exert to secure and +improve their position. We saw that the real value of organization to a +body of workmen lay in the power it gave them to make it inconvenient +for an employer to dispense with their services in favour of outsiders. +Now the degree of this inconvenience will obviously depend in great +measure upon the number of outsiders qualified by strength and skill to +take their place without delay. The whole force of Unionism hangs on +"the unemployed." The strongest and most effective Unions are in trades +where there are the smallest number of unemployed competitors; the +weakest Unions are in trades which are beset by crowds of outsiders able +and willing to undertake the work, and if necessary to underbid those +who are employed. + +Close attention to the composition and working of our Trade Unions +discloses the fact that their chief object is to limit the competition +for work in their respective trades. Since their methods are sometimes +indirect, this is sometimes denied, but the following statement of Trade +Union methods makes it clear. The minimum or standard rate of wages +plays a prominent part in Unionism. It is arbitrarily fixed by the +Union, which in its estimate takes into account, [Greek: a]. prices paid +for articles produced; [Greek: b]. a reasonable standard of comfort; +[Greek: g]. and remuneration for time spent in acquiring necessary +skill.[30] This is an estimate, it must be remembered, of a "fair wage," +based upon calculations as to what is just and reasonable, and does not +necessarily correspond to the economic wage obtainable in a +neighbourhood by the free competition of labour and capital. Now this +standard wage, which may or may not be the wage actually paid, plays a +very prominent part in Unionism. The point of importance here is its +bearing on the admission of new members. The candidate for membership +has, as his principal qualification, to show that he is capable of +earning the standard rate of wages. It is evident, however, that the +effect of any large new accession to the ranks of any trade must, unless +there is a corresponding growth of employment, bring down the rate of +wages, whether these be fixed by a Trade Union standard or not. Hence it +is evident that any Trade Union would be bound to refuse admission to +new applicants who, though they might be in other respects competent +workmen, could not find work without under-bidding those who were at +present occupied. This they would do by reason of their standard wage +qualification, for they would be able to show that the new applicants +would not be competent to earn standard wages under the circumstances. +How far Trade Unions actually have conscious recourse to this method of +limiting their numbers, may be doubted; but no one acquainted with the +spirit of Trades Unions would believe that if a sudden growth of +technical schools enabled large numbers of duly qualified youths to +apply for admission into the various Unions so as to compete for the +same quantity of work with the body of existing members, the Unions of +the latter would freely and cheerfully admit them. To do so would be +suicidal, for no standard rate of wages could stand against the pressure +of an increased supply of labour upon a fixed demand. But it is not +necessary to suppose that any considerable number of actually qualified +workmen are refused admission to Trade Unions of skilled workers. For +the possession of the requisite skill, implying as it does a certain +natural capacity, and an expenditure of time and money not within the +power of the poorest classes, forms a practical limit to the number of +applicants. Moreover, in many trades, though by no means in all, +restrictions are placed by the Unions upon the number of apprentices, +with the object of limiting the number of those who should from year to +year be qualified to compete for work. In other trades where no rigid +rule to this effect exists, there is an understanding which is equally +effective. Certain trades, such as the engineers, boiler-makers, and +other branches of iron trade, place no restrictions, and in certain +other trades the restrictions are not closely applied. But most of the +strong Trades Unions protect themselves in another way against the +competition of unemployed. By a System of "out of work" pay, they bribe +those of their body, who from time to time are thrown out of work, not +to underbid those in work, so as to bring down the rate of wages. +Several of the most important Unions pay large sums every year to "out +of work" members. By these three means, the "minimum wage" qualification +for membership, the limitation of the number of apprentices, and the +"out of work" fund, the Trade Unions strengthen the power of organized +labour in skilled industries by restricting the competition of +unemployed outsiders. + +It is true that some of the leading exponents of Trade Unionism deny +that the chief object of the Unions is to limit competition. Mr. Howell +considers that the "standard wage" qualification for membership is +designed in order to ensure a high standard of workmanship, and regards +the "out of work" fund merely as belonging to the insurance or +prudential side of Trade Unionism. But though it may readily be admitted +that one effect of these measures may be to maintain good workmanship +and to relieve distress, it is reasonable to regard the most important +result actually attained as being the object chiefly sought. It is fair +to suppose, therefore, that while Unionists may not be indifferent to +the honour of their craft, their principal object is to strengthen their +economic position. At any rate, whatever the intention of Trade Unions +may be, the principal effect of their regulations is to limit the +effective supply of competing labour in their respective branches of +industry. + +Sec. 5. Can Low-skilled Workers successfully combine?--Now the question +which concerns our inquiry may be stated thus. Supposing that the +workers in "sweating" industries were able to combine, would they be +able to secure themselves against outside competition as the skilled +worker does? Will their combination practically increase the difficulty +in replacing them by outsiders? Now it will be evident that the +unskilled or low-skilled workers cannot depend upon the methods which +are adopted by Unions of skilled workers, to limit the number of +competitors for work. A test of physical fitness, such as was recently +proposed as a qualification for admission to the Dock-labourers Union, +will not, unless raised far above the average fitness of present +members, limit the number of applicants to anything like the same extent +as the test of workmanship in skilled industries. Neither could rules of +apprenticeship act where the special skill required was very small. Nor +again is it easy to see how funds raised by the contribution of the +poorest classes of workers, could suffice to support unemployed members +when temporarily "out of work," or to buy off the active competition of +outsiders, or "black-legs," to use the term in vogue. The constant +influx of unskilled labour from the rural districts and from abroad, +swollen by the numbers of skilled workmen whose skill has been robbed of +its value by machinery, keeps a large continual margin of unemployed, +able and willing to undertake any kind of unskilled or low-skilled +labour, which will provide a minimum subsistence wage. The very success +which attends the efforts of skilled workers to limit the effective +supply of their labour by making it more difficult for unskilled workers +to enter their ranks, increases the competition for low-skilled work, +and makes effective combination among low-skilled workers more +difficult. Though we may not be inclined to agree with Prof. Jevons, +that "it is quite impossible for Trade Unions in general to effect any +permanent increase of wages," there is much force in his conclusion, +that "every rise of wages which one body secures by mere exclusive +combination, represents a certain extent, sometimes a large extent, of +injury to the other bodies of workmen."[31] In so far as Unions of +skilled workers limit their numbers, they increase the number of +competitors for unskilled work; and since wages cannot rise when the +supply of labour obtainable at the present rate exceeds the demand, +their action helps to maintain that "bare subsistence wage," which forms +a leading feature in "sweating." + +Are we then to regard Unions of low-skilled workers as quite impotent so +long as they are beset by the competition of innumerable outsiders? Can +combination contribute nothing to a solution of the sweating problem? +There are two ways in which close combination might seem to avail low- +skilled workers in their endeavours to secure better industrial +conditions. + +In the first place, close united action of a large body of men engaged +in any employment gives them, as we saw, a certain power dependent on +the inconvenience and expense they can cause to their employers by a +sudden withdrawal. This power is, of course, in part measured by the +number of unemployed easily procurable to take their place. But granted +the largest possible margin of unemployed, there will always be a +certain difficulty and loss in replacing a united body of employes by a +body of outsiders, though the working capacity of each new-comer may be +equal to that of each member of the former gang. This power belonging +inherently to those in possession, and largely dependent for its +practical utility on close unity of action, may always be worked by a +trade organization to push the interests of its members independently of +the supply of free outside labour, and used by slow degrees may be made +a means of gaining piece by piece a considerable industrial gain. Care +must, however, be taken, never to press for a larger gain than is +covered by the difficulty of replacing the body of present employes by +outside labour. Miscalculations of the amount of this inherent power of +Union are the chief causes of "lock-outs" and failures in strikes. + +Another weapon in the hands of unskilled combination, less calculable in +its effectiveness, is the force of public opinion aided by "picketing," +and the other machinery of persuasion or coercion used to prevent the +effective competition of "free" labour. In certain crises, as for +example in the Dock strike of 1889, these forces may operate so +powerfully as to strictly limit the supply of labour, and to shut out +the competition of unemployed. There can be no reason to doubt that if +public authority had not winked at illegal coercion of outside labour, +and public opinion touched by sentiment condoned the winking, the Dock +strike would have failed as other movements of low-skilled labour have +generally failed. The success of the Dockers is no measure of the power +of combination among low-skilled labourers. It is possible, however, +that a growing sense of comradeship, aided by a general recognition of +the justice of a claim, may be generally relied upon to furnish a +certain force which shall restrict the competition of free labour in +critical junctures of the labour movement. If public opinion, especially +among workmen, becomes strongly set in favour of letting capital and +labour "fight it out" in cases of trade disputes, and vigorously resents +all interference of outsiders offering to replace the contending +labourers, it seems likely that this practical elimination of outside +competition may enable combinations of unskilled workmen to materially +improve their condition in spite of the existence of a large supply of +outside labour able to replace them. + +Sec. 6. Can Trade Unionism crush out "Sweating"?--But here again it must be +recognized that each movement of public opinion in this direction is +really making for the establishment of new trade monopolies, which tend +to aggravate the condition of free unemployed labour. Unions of low- +skilled labour can only be successful at the expanse of outsiders, who +will find it increasingly difficult to get employment. The success of +combinations of low-skilled workers will close one by one every avenue +of regular employment to the unemployed, who will tend to become even +more nomadic and predatory in their habits, and more irregular and +miserable in their lives, affording continually a larger field of +operation for the small "sweater," and other forms of "arrested +development" in commerce. It must always be an absorbing interest to a +Trades Union to maintain the industrial welfare of its members by +preventing what it must regard as an "over-supply" of labour. No +organization of labour can effect very much unless it takes measures to +restrict the competition of "free labour"; each Union, by limiting the +number of competitors for its work, increases the competition in trades +not similarly protected. So with every growth of Trade Unionism the +pressure on unprotected bodies of workmen grows greater. Thus it would +seem that while organization of labour may become a real remedy for +"sweating" in any industry to which it is vigorously applied, it cannot +be relied upon ever entirely to crash out the evil. It can only drive it +into a smaller compass, where its intenser character may secure for it +that close and vigorous public attention which, in spite of recent +revelations, has not been yet secured, and compel society to clearly +face the problem of a residue of labour-power which is rotting in the +miserable and degraded bodies of its owners, because all the material on +which it might be productively employed is otherwise engaged. + +Sec. 7. Public Workshops.--Those who are most active in the spread of +Unionism among the low-skilled branches of industry, are quite aware +that their action, by fencing off section after section of labour from +the fierce competition of outsiders, is rendering the struggle more +intense for the unprotected residuum. So far as they indulge any wider +view than the interest of their special trades, it may be taken that +they design to force the public to provide in some way for the +unemployed or casually employed workers, against whom the gates of each +Union have been successively closed. There can be little doubt that if +Unionism is able to establish itself firmly among the low-skilled +industries, we shall find this margin of unemployed low-skilled labour +growing larger and more desperate, in proportion to the growing +difficulty of finding occupation. Trade Union leaders have boldly avowed +that they will thus compel the State to recognize the "right to +employment," and to provide that employment by means of national or +municipal workshops. With questions of abstract "right" we are not here +concerned, but it may be well to indicate certain economic difficulties +involved in the establishment of public works as a solution of the +"unemployed" problem. Since the "unemployed" will, under the closer +restrictions of growing Trade Unionism, consist more and more of low- +skilled labourers, the public works on which they must be employed must +be branches of low-skilled labour. But the Unions of low-skilled workers +will have been organized with the view of monopolizing all the low- +skilled work which the present needs of the community require to be +done. How then will the public provide low-skilled work for the +unemployed? One of two courses seems inevitable. Either the public must +employ them in work similar to that which is being done by Union men for +private firms, in which case they will enter into competition with the +latter, and either undersell them in the market and take their trade, or +by increasing the aggregate supply of the produce, bring down the price, +and with it the wage of the Union men. Or else if they are not to +compete with the labour of Union men, they must be employed in relief +works, undertaken not to satisfy a public need or to produce a commodity +with a market value, but in order that those employed may, by a wholly +or partially idle expenditure of effort, appear to be contributing to +their own support, whereas they are really just as much recipients of +public charity as if they were kept in actual idleness. This is the +dilemma which has to be faced by advocates of public workshops. Nor can +it be eluded by supposing that the public may use the unemployed labour +either in producing some new utility for the public use, such as +improved street-paving, or a municipal hot-water supply. For if such +undertakings are of a character which a private company would regard as +commercially sound, they ought to be, and will be, undertaken by wise +public bodies independently of the consideration of providing work for +unemployed. If they are not such as would be considered commercially +sound, then in so far as they fall short of commercial soundness, they +will be "charity" pure and simple, given as relief is now given to able- +bodied paupers, on condition of an expenditure of mere effort which is +not a commercial _quid pro quo_. + +If the State or municipality were permitted to conduct business on +ordinary commercial principles, it might indeed be expected to seize the +opportunity afforded by a large supply of unemployed labour, to +undertake new public works at a lower cost than usual. But to take this +advantage of the cheapness of labour is held to be "sweating." Public +bodies are called upon to disregard the rise and fall of market wages, +and to pay "a fair wage," which practically means a wage which is the +same whether labour is plentiful or scarce. This refusal to permit the +ordinary commercial inducement to operate in the case of public bodies, +cuts off what might be regarded as a natural check to the accumulation +of unemployed labour. If public bodies are to employ more labour, when +labour is excessive, and pay a wage which shall be above the market +price, it must be clearly understood that the portion of the wages which +represents the "uncommercial" aspect of the contract is just as much +public charity as the half-crown paid as out-door relief under the +present Poor Law. Lastly, the establishment of State or municipal +workshops for the "unemployed" has no economic connection with the +"socialist" policy, by which the State or municipality should assume +control and management of railways, mines, gas-works, tramways, and +other works into which the element of monopoly enters. Such a +"socialist" policy, if carried out, would not directly afford any relief +to the unemployed. For, in the first place, the labour employed in these +new public departments would be chiefly skilled, and not unskilled. +Moreover, so far as the condition of the "workers" was concerned, the +nationalization, or municipalization of these works would not imply any +increased demand for labour, but merely the transfer of a number of +employes from private to the public service. The public control of +departments of industry, which are now in private hands, would not, so +long as it was conducted on a commercial footing in the public interest, +furnish either direct, or indirect, relief to "the unemployed." A +reduction of hours of labour in the case of workers transferred to the +public service, might afford employment to an increased number of +skilled labourers, and might indirectly operate in reducing the number +of unemployed. But such reduction of hours of labour, like the payment +of wages above the market rate, forms no essential part of a "socialist" +policy, but is rather a charitable appendage. + +Sec. 8. State Business on uncommercial terms.--It cannot be too clearly +recognized that the payment by a public body of wages which are above +the market price, the payment of pensions, the reduction of hours of +labour, and any other advantages freely conferred, which place public +servants in a better position than private servants, stand on precisely +the same economic footing with the establishment of public workshops for +the relief of the unemployed, in which wages are paid for work which is +deficient in commercial value. In each case the work done has some +value, unless the unemployed are used to dig holes in the ground and +fill them up again; in each case the wages paid for that work are in +excess of the market rate. + +If it were established as a general rule, that public bodies should +always add a "bonus" to the market wage of their employes to bring it up +to "fairness," and take off a portion of the usual "working-day" to +bring it down to "fairness," it would follow quite consistently that a +wage equal to, or exceeding, the minimum market rate might be paid to +"unemployed" for work, the value of which would be somewhat less than +that produced by the lowest class of "employed" workers. The policy +throughout is one and the same, and is based upon a repudiation of +competition as a test of the value of labour, and the substitution of +some other standard derived from moral or prudential considerations. + +So far as the State or Municipality chooses to regulate by an +"uncommercial" or moral standard the conditions of labour for the +limited number of employes required for the services which are a public +monopoly, it is able to do so, provided the public is willing to pay the +price. There is much to be said in favour of such a course, for the +public example might lend invaluable aid in forming a strong public +opinion which should successfully demand decent conditions of life and +work, for the whole body of workers. But if the State or Municipality +were to undertake to provide work and wages for an indefinite number of +men who failed to obtain work in the competition market, the effect +would be to offer a premium upon "unemployment." Thus, it would appear +that as fast as the public works drew off the unemployed, so fast would +men leave the low-paid, irregular occupations, and by placing themselves +in a state of "unemployment" qualify for public service. There would of +course be a natural check to this flow. As the State drained off all +surplus labour, the market value of labour would rise, greater +regularity of employment would be secured, and the general improvement +of industrial conditions would check the tendency of workers to flow +towards the public workshops. This consideration has led many of the +leaders of labour movements to favour a scheme of public workshops, +which would practically mean that the State or Municipality undertook to +limit the supply of labour in the open market, by providing for any +surplus which might exist, at the public expense. The effect of such a +policy would be of course to enormously strengthen the effective power +of labour-organizations. But while the advocates of public workshops are +fully alive to these economic effects, they have not worked out with +equal clearness the question relating to the disposal of the labour in +public workshops. How can the "protected" labour of the public workshops +be so occupied, that its produce may not, by direct or indirect +competition with the produce of outside labour, outweigh the advantage +conferred upon the latter by the removal of the "unemployed" from the +field of competition, in digging holes and filling them up again, or +other useless work, the problem is a simple one. In that case the State +provides maintenance for the weaker members in order that their presence +as competitors for work may not injure the stronger members. But if the +public workmen produce anything of value, by what means can it be kept +from competing with and underselling the goods produced under ordinary +commercial conditions? Without alleging that the difficulties involved +in these questions are necessarily fatal to all schemes of public works, +we maintain that they require to be clearly faced. + +Even if it be held that public workshops can furnish no economic remedy +for poverty, this judgment would of course be by no means conclusive +against public emergency works undertaken on charitable grounds to tide +over a crisis. Every form of charity, public or private, discriminate or +indiscriminate, entails some evil consequences. But this consideration +is not final. A charitable palliative is defensible and useful when the +net advantages outweigh the net disadvantages. This might seem self- +evident, but it requires to be stated, because there are not wanting +individuals and societies which imagine they have disposed of the claim +of charitable remedies by pointing out the evil consequences they +entail. It is evident that circumstances might arise which would compel +the wisest and steadiest Government to adopt public relief works as a +temporary expedient for meeting exceptional distress. + +Sec. 9. Restriction of Foreign Emigration.--Two further proposals for +keeping down the supply of low-skilled labour deserve notice, and the +more so because they are forcing their way rapidly toward the arena of +practical politics. + +The first is the question of an Alien law limiting or prohibiting the +migration of foreign labourers into England. The power of the German, +Polish, or Russian Jew, accustomed to a lower standard of life, to +undersell the English worker in the English labour market, has already +been admitted as a cause of "sweating" in several city industries. The +importance of this factor in the problem of poverty is, however, a much +disputed point. To some extent these foreign labourers are said to make +new industries, and not to enter into direct and disastrous competition +with native workers. In most cases, however, direct competition between +foreign and native workers does exist, and, as we see, the comparatively +small number of the foreign immigrants compared with the aggregate of +native workers, is no true criterion of the harm their competition does +to low-waged workers. Whether this country will find it wise to reverse +its national policy of free admission to outside labour, it is not easy +to predict. The point should not be misunderstood. Free admission of +cheap foreign labour must be admitted _prima facie_ to be conducive to +the greatest production of wealth in this country. Those who seek to +restrict or prohibit this admission, do so on the ground that the damage +inflicted upon that class of workers, brought directly or indirectly +into competition for employment with these foreigners, overbalances the +net gain in the aggregate of national wealth. It is this consideration +which has chiefly operated in inducing the United States, Canada, and +Australia to prohibit the admission of Chinese or Coolie labour, and to +place close restrictions upon cheap European labour. Sir Charles Dilke, +in a general summary of colonial policy on this matter, writes, +"Colonial labour seeks protection by legislative means, not only against +the cheap labour of the dark-skinned or of the yellow man, but also +against white paupers, and against the artificial supply of labour by +State-aided white immigration. Most of the countries of the world, +indeed, have laws against the admission of destitute aliens, and the +United Kingdom is in practice almost the only exception."[32] + +The greater contrast between the customary standard of living of the +immigrants and that of the native workers with whom they would compete, +has naturally made the question seem a more vital one for our colonies, +and for the United States than for us. There can, however, be little +doubt that if a few shiploads of Chinese labourers were emptied into the +wharves of East London, whatever Government chanced to be in power would +be compelled to adopt immediate measures of restraint on immigration, so +terrible would the effect be upon the low class European labourers in +our midst. Whether any such Alien legislation will be adopted to meet +the inroad of continental labour depends in large measure on the course +of continental history. It is, however, not improbable that if the +organization of the workers proceeds along the present lines, when they +come to realize their ability to use political power for securing their +industrial position, they may decide that it will be advisable to limit +the supply of labour by excluding foreigners. Those, however, who are +already prepared to adopt such a step, do not always realize as clearly +as they should, that the exclusion of cheap foreigners from our labour- +market will be in all probability accompanied by an exclusion from our +markets of the cheap goods made by these foreigners in their own +country, the admission of which, while it increases the aggregate wealth +of England, inflicts a direct injury on those particular workers, the +demand for whose labour is diminished by the introduction of foreign +goods which can undersell them. If an Alien law is passed, it will bring +both logically and historically in its wake such protective measures as +will constitute a reversal of our present Free Trade policy. Whether +such new and hazardous changes in our national policy are likely to be +made, depends in large measure upon the success of other schemes for +treating the condition of over-supply of low-skilled labour. If no +relief is found from these, it seems not unlikely that a democratic +government will some day decide that such artificial prohibition of +foreign labour, and the foreign goods which compete with the goods +produced by low-skilled English labour, will benefit the low-skilled +workers in their capacity as wage-earners, more than the consequent rise +of prices will injure them in their capacity as consumers. + +Sec. 10. The "Eight Hours Day" Argument.--The last proposal which deserves +attention, is that which seeks to shorten the average working-day. The +attempt to secure by legislation or by combination an eight hours day, +or its equivalent, might seem to affect the "sweating system" most +directly, as a restriction on excessive hours of labour. But so far as +it claims to strike a blow at the industrial oppression of low-skilled +labour, its importance will depend upon its effect on the demand and +supply of that low-skilled labour. The result which the advocates of an +eight hours day claim for their measure, may be stated as follows-- + +Assuming that low-skilled workers now work on an average twelve hours a +day, a compulsory reduction to eight hours would mean that one-third +more men were required to perform the same amount of work, leaving out +for convenience the question whether an eight hours day would be more +productive than the first eight hours of a twelve hours day. Since the +same quantity of low-skilled work would require to be done, employment +would now be provided for a large number of those who would otherwise +have been unemployed. In fact, if the shorter day is accompanied by an +absolute prohibition of over-time, it seems possible that work would +thus be found for the whole army of "unemployed." Nor is this all. The +existence of a constant standing "pool" of unemployed was, as we saw, +responsible for keeping the wages of low-skilled labour down to a bare +subsistence wage. Let this "pool" be once drained off, wages will +rapidly rise, since the combined action of workers will no longer be +able to be defeated by the eagerness of "outsiders" to take their work +and wages. Thus an eight hours day would at once solve the problem of +the "work-less," and raise the wages of low-skilled labour. The effect +would be precisely the same as if the number of competitors for work +were suddenly reduced. For the price of labour, as of all else, depends +on the relation between the demand for it and the supply, and the price +will rise if the demand is increased while the supply remains the same, +or if the supply is decreased while the demand remains the same. A +compulsory eight hours day would practically mean a shrinkage in the +supply of labour offered in the market, and the first effect would +indisputably be a rise in the price of labour. To reduce by one-third at +a single blow the amount of labour put forth in a day by any class of +workers, is precisely equivalent to a sudden removal of one-third of +these workers from the field of labour. We know from history that the +result of a disastrous epidemic, like the Black Plague, has been to +raise the wages and improve the general condition of the labourer even +in the teeth of legal attempts to keep down wages. The advocates of an +Eight Hours Act assert that the same effect would follow from that +measure. + +Setting aside as foreign to our discussion all consideration of the +difficulties in passing and enforcing an Eight Hours Act, or in applying +it to certain industries, the following economic objection is raised by +opponents to the eight hours movement-- + +The larger aggregate of wages, which must be paid under an eight hours +day, will increase the expanses of production in each industry. For the +increased wage cannot in general be obtained by reducing profits, for +any such reduction will drive freshly-accumulated capital more and more +to seek foreign investments, and managing ability will in some measure +tend to follow it. The higher aggregate of wages must therefore be +represented in a general rise of prices. This rise of prices will have +two effects. In the first place it will tend to largely negative the +higher aggregate of money wages. Or if organized labour, free from the +competition of unemployed, is able to maintain a higher rate of real +wages, the general rise in prices will enable foreign producers to +undersell us in our own market (unless we adopted a Protective Tariff), +and will disable us from competing in foreign markets. This constitutes +the pith of the economic objection raised against an eight hours day. +The eight hours advocates meet the objection in the following ways-- +First, they deny that prices will rise in consequence of the increased +aggregate of wages. A reduction in interest and in wages of +superintendence will take place in many branches of industry, without +any appreciable tendency to diminish the application of capital, or to +drive it out of the country. + +Secondly, the result of an increased expenditure in wages will be to +crush the small factories and workshops, which are the backbone of the +sweating System, and to assist the industrial evolution which makes in +favour of large well-organized factories working with the newest +machinery. + +Thirdly, it is claimed that we shall not be ousted either from our own +or from foreign markets by foreign competition, because the eight hours +movement in England must be regarded as part of a larger industrial +movement which is proceeding _pari passu_ among the competing nations. +If the wages of German, French, and American workers are advancing at +the same rate as English wages, or if other industrial restrictions in +those countries are otherwise increasing the expenses of production at a +corresponding rate, the argument of foreign competition falls to the +ground. + +These leading arguments of the advocates of an eight hours day are of +very unequal value. The first argument is really based upon the +supposition that the increased aggregate of wages can be "got out of +capital" by lowering interest and profits. The general validity of this +argument may be questioned. In its application a distinction must be +drawn between those businesses which by means of the possession of some +monopoly, patent, or other trade advantage are screened from the full +force of competition, and are thus enabled to earn profits above the +average, and those businesses where the constant stress of close +competition keeps interest and profits down to the lowest point which +suffices to induce the continued application of capital and organizing +ability. In the former cases the "cost" of an Eight Hours Day might be +got out of capital, assuming an effective organization of labour, in the +latter cases it could not. + +As to the second argument, it is probable enough that the legal eight +hours day would accelerate the industrial evolution, which is enabling +the large well-equipped factory to crush out the smaller factory. As we +have seen that the worst evils of "sweating" are associated with a lower +order of industrial organization, any cause which assisted to destroy +the small workshop and the out-work system, would be a benefit. But as +the economic motive of such improved organization with increased use of +machinery, would be to save human labour, it is doubtful whether a +quickening of this process would not act as a continual feeder to the +band of unemployed, by enabling employers to dispense with the services +of even this or that body of workers whose work is taken over by brute +machinery. + +The net value of these two eight hours arguments is doubtful. The real +weight of the discussion seems to rest on the third. + +If the movement for improving the industrial condition of the working +classes does proceed as rapidly in other industrial countries as in our +own, we shall have nothing to fear from foreign competition, since +expenses of production and prices will be rising equally among our own. +If there is no such equal progress in other nations, then the industrial +gain sought for the working classes of this country by a shorter day +cannot be obtained, though any special class or classes of workers may +be relieved of excessive toil at the expense of the community as a +whole. Government employes, and that large number of workers who cannot +be brought into direct competition with foreign labour, can receive the +same wages for shorter hours, provided the public is willing to pay a +higher price for their protected labour. + +In conclusion, it may be well to add that the economic difficulties +which beset this question cannot be lightly set aside by an assertion +that the same difficulties were raised by economists against earlier +factory legislation, and that experience has shown that they may be +safely disregarded. It is impossible to say how far the introduction of +humane restrictions upon the exploitation of cheap human labour has +affected the aggregate production of wealth in England. It has not +prevented the growth of our trade, but very possibly it has checked the +rate of growth. If the mere accumulation of material wealth, regardless +alike of the mode of production or of the distribution, be regarded as +the industrial goal, it is quite conceivable that a policy of utter +_laissez faire_ might be the best means of securing that end. Although +healthy and happy workers are more efficient than the half-starved and +wholly degraded beings who slaved in the uninspected factories and mines +during the earlier period of the factory system, and still slave in the +sweater's den, it may still be to the interest of employers to pay +starvation wages for relatively inefficient work, rather than pay high +wages for a shorter day's work to more efficient workers. It is to the +capitalist a mere sum in arithmetic; and we cannot predict that the +result will always turn in favour of humanity and justice. + +At the same time, even if it is uncertain whether a shorter working day +could be secured without a fall of wages, it is still open to advocates +of a shorter working day to urge that it is worth while to purchase +leisure at such a price. If a shorter working day could cure or abate +the evil of "the unemployed," and help to raise the industrial condition +of the low-skilled workers, the community might well afford to pay the +cost. + + + + +Chapter VII. + +Over-Supply of Low-Skilled Labour. + + + +Sec. 1. Restatement of the "Low-skilled Labour" Question.--Our inquiry into +Factory Legislation and Trade Unionism as cures for sweating have served +to emphasize the economic nature of the disease, the over-supply of low- +skilled labour. Factory legislation, while it may abate many of the +symptoms of the disease, cannot directly touch the centre of the malady, +low wages, though by securing publicity it may be of indirect assistance +in preventing the payment of wages which public opinion would condemn as +insufficient for a decent livelihood. Trade Unionism as an effective +agent in securing the industrial welfare of workers, is seen to rest +upon the basis of restriction of labour supply, and its total +effectiveness is limited by the fact that each exercise of this +restriction in the interest of a class of workers weakens the position +of the unemployed who are seeking work. The industrial degradation of +the "sweated" workers arises from the fact that they are working +surrounded by a pool of unemployed or superfluous supply of labour. So +long as there remains this standing pool of excessive labour, it is +difficult to see how the wages of low unskilled workers can be +materially raised. The most intelligent social reformers are naturally +directing their attention to the question, how to drain these lowlands +of labour of the superfluous supply, or in other words to keep down the +population of the low-skilled working class. Among the many population +drainage schemes, the following deserve close attention-- + +Sec. 2. Checks on growth of population.--We need not discuss in its wider +aspect the question whether our population tends to increase faster than +the means of subsistence. Disciples of Malthus, who urge the growing +pressure of population on the food supply, are sometimes told that so +far as this argument applies to England, the growth of wealth is faster +than the growth of population, and that as modern facilities for +exchange enable any quantity of this wealth to be transferred into food +and other necessaries, their alarm is groundless. Now these rival +contentions have no concern for us. We are interested not in the +pressure of the whole population upon an actual or possible food supply, +but with the pressure of a certain portion of that population upon a +relatively fixed supply of work. It is approximately true to say that at +any given time there exists a certain quality of unskilled or low- +skilled work to be done. If there are at hand just enough workers to do +it, the wages will be sufficiently high to allow a decent standard of +living. If, on the other hand, there are present more than enough +workers willing to do the work, a number of them must remain without +work and wages, while those who are employed get the lowest wages they +will consent to take. Thus it will seem of prime importance to keep down +the population of low-skilled workers to the point which leaves a merely +nominal margin of superfluous labour. The Malthusian question has in its +modern practical aspect narrowed down to this. The working classes by +abstinence from early or improvident marriages, or by the exercise of +moral restraints after marriage can, it is urged, check that tendency of +the working population to outgrow the increase of the work for which +they compete. There can be no doubt that the more intelligent classes of +skilled labourers have already profited by this consideration, and as +education and intelligence are more widely diffused, we may expect these +prudential checks on "over-population" will operate with increased +effect among the whole body of workers. But precisely because these +checks are moral and reasonable, they must be of very slow acceptance +among that class whose industrial condition forms a stubborn barrier to +moral and intellectual progress. Those who would gain most by the +practice of prudential checks, are least capable of practising them. The +ordinary "labourer" earns full wages as soon as he attains manhood's +strength; he is as able to support a wife and family at twenty as he +will ever be; indeed he is more so, for while he is young his work is +more regular, and less liable to interruption by ill-health. The +reflection that an early marriage means the probability of a larger +family, and that a large family helps to keep wages low, cannot at +present be expected to make a deep impression upon the young unskilled +labourer. The value of restraint after marriage could probably be +inculcated with more effect, because it would appeal more intelligibly +to the immediate interest of the labourer. But it is to the growing +education and intelligence of women, rather than to that of men, that we +must look for a recognition of the importance of restraint on early +marriages and large families. + +Sec. 3. The "Emigration" Remedy.--The most direct and obvious drainage +scheme is by emigration. If there are more workers than there is work +for them to do, why not remove those who are not wanted, and put them +where there is work to do? The thing sounds very simple, but the +simplicity is somewhat delusive. The old _laissez faire_ political +economist would ask, "Why, since labour is always moving towards the +place where it can be most profitably employed, is it necessary to do +anything but let it flow? Why should the State or philanthropic people +busy themselves about the matter? If labour is not wanted in one place, +and is wanted in another, it will and must leave the one place and go to +the other. If you assist the process by compulsion, or by any artificial +aid, you may be removing the wrong people, or you may be removing them +to the wrong place." Now the reply to the main _laissez faire_ position +is conclusive. Just as water, though always tending to find its own +level, does not actually find it when it is dammed up in some pool by +natural or artificial earthworks, so labour stored in the persons of +poor and ignorant men and women is not in fact free to seek the place of +most profitable employment. The highlands of labour are drained by this +natural flow; even the strain of competition in skilled hand-labour +finds sensible relief by the voluntary emigration of the more +adventurous artisans, but the poor low-skilled workers suffer here again +by reason of their poverty: no natural movement can relieve the plethora +of labour-power in low-class employments. The fluidity of low-skilled +labour seldom exceeds the power of moving from one town to a +neighbouring town, or from a country district to the nearest market +towns, or to London in search of work. If the lowlands are to be drained +at all, it must be done by an artificial system. Now all such systems +are in fact open to the mistakes mentioned above. If we look too +exclusively to the requirements of new colonies, and the opportunities +of work they present, we may be induced to remove from England a class +of men and women whose services we can ill afford to lose, and who are +not in any true sense superfluous labour. To assist sturdy and shrewd +Scotch farmers, or a body of skilled artisans thrown out of work by a +temporary trade depression, to transfer themselves and their families to +America or Australia, is a policy the net advantage of which is open to +grave doubt. Of course by removing any body of workers you make room for +others, but this fact does not make it a matter of indifference which +class is removed. On the other hand, if we look exclusively to the +interests of the whole mass of labour in England, we should probably be +led to assist the emigration of large bodies of the lowest and least +competent workers. This course, though doubtless for the advantage of +the low class labour, directly relieved, is detrimental to the interest +of the new country, which is flooded with inefficient workers, and +confers little benefit upon these workers themselves, since they are +totally incapable of making their way in a new country. The reckless +drafting off of our social failures into new lands is a criminal policy, +which has been only too rife in the State-aided emigration of the past, +and which is now rendered more and more difficult each year by the +refusal of foreign lands to receive our "wreckage." Here, then, is the +crux of emigration. The class we can best afford to lose, is the class +our colonies and foreign nations can least afford to take, and if they +consent to receive them they only assume the burden we escape. The age +of loose promiscuous pauper emigration has gone by. If we are to use +foreign emigration as a mode of relief for our congested population in +the future, it will be on condition that we select or educate our +colonists before we send them out. Whether the State or private +organizations undertake the work, our colonizing process must begin at +home. The necessity of dealing directly with our weak surplus population +of low-skilled workers is gaining more clear recognition every year, as +the reluctance to interfere with the supposed freedom of the subject +even where the subject is "unfree" is giving way before the urgency of +the situation. + +Sec. 4. Mr. Charles Booth's "Drainage Scheme."--The terrible examples our +history presents to us of the effects of unwise poor law administration, +rightly enjoin the strictest caution in contemplating new experiments. +But the growing recognition of the duty of the State to protect its +members who are unable to protect themselves, and to secure fair +opportunities of self-support and self-improvement, as well as the +danger of handing over their protection to the conflicting claims of +private and often misguided philanthropy, is rapidly gaining ground +against the advocates of _laissez faire_. It is beginning to be felt +that the State cannot afford to allow the right of private social +experiment on the part of charitable organizations. The relief of +destitution has for centuries been recognized as the proper business of +the State. Our present poor law practically fails to relieve the bulk of +the really destitute. Even were it successful it would be doing nothing +to prevent destitution. Since neither existing legislation nor the +forces of private charity are competent to cope with the evils of +"sweating," engendered by an excess of low-class labour, it is probable +that the pressure of democratic government will make more and more in +favour of some large new experiment of social drainage. In view of this +it may not be out of place to describe briefly two schemes proposed by +private students of the problem of poverty. + +Mr. Charles Booth, recognizing that the superfluity of cheap inefficient +labour lies at the root of the matter, suggests the removal of the most +helpless and degraded class from the strain of a struggle which is fatal +not merely to themselves, but to the class immediately above them. The +reason for this removal is given as follows-- + +"To effectually deal with the whole of class B--for the State to nurse +the helpless and incompetent as we in our own families nurse the old, +the young, and the sick, and provide for those who are not competent to +provide for themselves--may seem an impossible undertaking; but nothing +less than this will enable self-respecting labour to obtain its full +remuneration, and the nation its raised standard of life. The +difficulties, which are certainly great, do not consist in the cost. As +it is, these unfortunate people cost the community one way or another +considerably more than they contribute. I do not refer solely to the +fact that they cost the State more than they pay directly or indirectly +in taxes. I mean that altogether, ill-paid and half-starved as they are, +they consume, or waste, or have expended on them, more wealth than they +produce." + +Mr. Booth would remove the "very poor," and plant them in industrial +communities under proper government supervision. + +"Put practically, my idea is that these people should be allowed to live +as families in industrial groups, planted wherever land and building +materials were cheap; being well-housed and well-warmed, and taught, +trained, and employed from morning to night on work, indoors or out, for +themselves, or on Government account." + +The Government should provide material and tools, and having the people +entirely on its hands, get out of them what it can. Wages should be paid +at a "fair proportionate rate," so as to admit comparison of earnings of +the different communities, and of individuals. The commercial deficit +involved in the scheme should be borne by the State. This expansion of +our poor law policy, for it is nothing more, aims less at the +reformation and improvement of the class taken under its charge, than at +the relief which would be afforded to the classes who suffered from +their competition in the industrial struggle. What it amounts to is the +removal of the mass of unemployed. The difficulties involved in such a +scheme are, as Mr. Booth admits, very grave. + +The following points especially deserve attention-- + +1. Since it is not conceivable that compulsion should be brought to bear +in the selection and removal out of the ordinary industrial community of +those weaker members whose continued struggle is considered undesirable, +it is evident that the industrial colonies must be recruited out of +volunteers. It will thus become a large expansion of the present +workhouse system. The eternal dilemma of the poor law will be present +there. On the one hand, if, as seems likely, the degradation and +disgrace attaching to the workhouse is extended to the industrial +colony, it will fail to attract the more honest and deserving among the +"very poor," and to this extent will fail to relieve the struggling +workers of their competition. On the other hand, if the condition of the +"industrial colonist" is recognized as preferable to that of the +struggling free competitor, it must in some measure act as a premium +upon industrial failure, checking the output of energy and the growth of +self-reliance in the lower ranks of the working classes. No scheme for +the relief of poverty is wholly free from this difficulty; but there is +danger that the State colony of Mr. Booth would, if it were successful +as a mode of "drainage," be open to it in no ordinary degree. + +2. Closely related to this first difficulty is the fact that Mr. Booth +provides no real suggestion for a process of discrimination in the +treatment of our social failures, which shall distinguish the failure +due directly to deep-seated vice of character and habit, from the +failure due to unhappy chance or the fault of others. Difficult, almost +impossible, as such discrimination between deserving and undeserving is, +it is felt that any genuine reform of our present poor law system +demands that some attempt in this direction should be made. We must try +to distinguish curable from incurable cases, and we must try to cure the +former while we preserve society from the contamination of the latter. +The mere removal of a class of "very poor" will not suffice. + +Since however the scheme of Mr. C. Booth does not proceed beyond the +stage of a suggested outline of treatment, it is not fair or profitable +to press close criticism. It is, however, a fact of some significance +that one who has brought such close study to bear upon the problem of +poverty should arrive at the conclusion that "Thorough interference on +the part of the State with the lives of a small fraction of the +population, would tend to make it possible, ultimately, to dispense with +any Socialistic interference in the lives of all the rest."[33] + +Sec. 5. Proposed remedies for "Unemployment."--In discussing methods of +dealing with "the unemployed," who represent an "over-supply" of labour +at a given time, it is often found convenient to distinguish the +temporary "unemployment" due to fluctuations rising from the nature of +certain trades, and the permanent unemployment or half employment of +large numbers of the least efficient town workers. The fluctuations in +employment due to changes of season, as in the building trades, and many +branches of dock labour, or to changes of fashion, as in the silk and +"fancy" woollen trade, or to temporary changes in the field of +employment caused by a transformation of industrial processes, are +direct causes of a considerable quantity of temporary unemployment. To +these must be added the unemployment represented by the interval between +the termination of one job and the beginning of another, as in the +building trades. Lastly, the wider fluctuations of general trade seem to +impose a character of irregularity upon trade, so that the modern System +of industry will not work without some unemployed margin, some reserve +of labour. + +These irregularities and leakages seem to explain why, at any given +time, a certain considerable number of fairly efficient and willing +workmen may be out of work. It is often urged that this class of +"unemployed" must be regarded as quite distinct from the superfluity of +low-skilled and inefficient workers found in our towns, and that the two +classes present different problems for solution. The character of the +"chronic" class of unemployed makes the problem appear to be, not one of +economic readjustment, but rather of training and education. But this +appearance is deceptive. The connection between the two kinds of +"unemployment" is much closer than is supposed. The irregularity of the +"season" and "fashion" trades, the periodic spells of bad trade, are +continually engaged in degrading and deteriorating the physique, the +morale, and the industrial efficiency of the weaker members of each +trade: these weaklings are unable to maintain a steady and healthy +standard of life under economic conditions which make work and wages +irregular, and are constantly dropping out of the more skilled trades to +swell the already congested low-skilled labour market. Every period of +"depressed trade" feeds the pool of low-skilled labour from a hundred +different channels. The connection between the two classes of +"unemployed" is, therefore, a close and vital one. To drain off this +pool would, in fact, be of little permanent use unless those +irregularities of trade, which are constantly feeding it, are also +checked. + +Still less serviceable are those schemes of rescuing "the unemployed," +which, in the very work of rescue, engender an economic force whose +operation causes as much unemployment as it cures. A signal example of +this futile system of social drainage has been afforded by certain +experiments of the Salvation Army in their City Works and Farm Colony. +The original draft of the scheme contained in the volume, _In Darkest +England_, clearly recognized the advisability of keeping the bounty-fed +products of the Salvation Colonies from competition in the market with +the products of outside labour. The design was to withdraw from the +competitive labour market certain members of "the unemployed," to train +and educate them in efficient labour, and to apply this labour to +capital provided out of charitable funds: the produce of this labour was +to be consumed by the colonists themselves, who would thus become as far +as possible self-supporting; in no case was it to be thrown upon the +open market. As a matter of fact these sound, economic conditions of +social experiment have been utterly ignored. Matches, firewood, +furniture, etc. produced in the City factories have been thrown upon the +open market. The Hadleigh Farm Colony, originally designed to give a +thorough training in the arts of agriculture so as to educate its +members for the Over Sea Colony, has devoted more and more attention to +shoemaking, carpentering, and other special mechanical crafts, and less +and less to the efficient cultivation of the soil; the boots, chairs, +etc. being thrown in large quantities upon the open market. Moreover, +the fruit and vegetables raised upon the Farm have been systematically +placed upon the outside market. The result of such a line of conduct is +evident. Suppose A is a carpenter thrown out of work because there are +more carpenters than are required to turn out the current supply of +chairs and tables at a profitable price; the Salvation Army takes A in +hand, and provides him with capital upon which no interest need be paid. +A's chairs, now thrown on the market, can undersell the chairs provided +by B, C, D, his former trade competitors. Unless we suppose an increased +demand for chairs, the result is that A's chairs displace those of B in +the market, and B is thrown out of employment. Thus A, assisted by the +Salvation Army, has simply taken B's work. If the Salvation Army now +takes B in hand, it can engage him in useful work on condition that he +takes away the work of C. If match-makers are thrown out of work by +trade conditions, and the Salvation Army places them in a factory, and +sells in the open market the matches which they make, the public which +buys these matches abstains from buying the matches made by other firms, +and these firms are thus prevented from employing as much labour as they +would otherwise have done. No net increase of employment is caused by +this action of the Salvation Army, and therefore they have done nothing +towards the solution of the unemployed problem. They have provided +employment for certain known persons at the expense of throwing out of +employment certain other unknown persons. Since those who are thrown out +of work in the labour market are, on the average, inferior in character +and industry to those who are kept in work, the effect of the Salvation +Army policy is to substitute inferior for superior workers. The blind +philanthropist may perhaps be excused for not seeing beyond his nose, +and for ignoring "unseen" in favour of "seen" results. But General Booth +was advised of the sound economic conditions of his experiment, and +seemed to recognize the value of the advice. The defence of his action +sometimes takes the form of a denial that the Salvation Army undersells +outside produce in the market. Salvation matches are sold, it is said, +rather above than below the ordinary price of matches. If this be true, +it affords no answer to the objection raised above. The Salvation +matches are bought by persons who would have bought other matches if +they had not bought these, and if they choose to pay 3d. for Salvation +matches instead of 21/2d. for others, the effect of this action is still +to take away employment from the 21/2d. firm and give it to the Salvation +firm. Indeed, it might be urged that a larger amount of unemployment is +caused in this case, for persons who now pay 3d. for matches which they +formerly bought for 21/2d., will diminish their expenditure upon other +commodities, and the result will be to diminish employment in those +industries engaged in supplying these commodities. Here is another +"unseen" result of fallacious philanthropy. + +The inevitable result of the Salvation Army placing goods in the open +market is to increase the supply relatively to the demand; in order that +the larger supply may be sold prices must fall, and it makes no +difference whether or no the Salvation Army takes the lead in reducing +the price. If the fall of price enables the whole of the increased +supply to be taken off at the lower price, then an increase of +employment has been obtained in this trade, though, in this case, it +should be remembered that in all probability the lower level of prices +means a reduction of wages in the outside labour market. If the +increased supply is not taken off at the lower prices, then the +Salvation goods can only be sold on condition that some others remain +unsold, employment of Salvationists thus displacing employment of other +workers. The roundabout nature of much of this competition does not +impair one whit the inevitability of this result. + +This objection is applicable not only to the method of the Salvation +Army, but to many other industrial experiments conducted on a +philanthropic basis. Directly or indirectly bounty-fed labour is brought +into competition with self-supporting labour to the detriment of the +latter. It is sometimes sought to evade the difficulty by confining the +produce which the assisted labour puts upon the open market to classes +of articles which are not for the most part produced in this country, +but which are largely imported from abroad. It is urged that although +shoes and furniture and matches ought not to be produced by assisted +labour for the outside market, it is permissible for an agricultural +colony to replace by home products the large imports in the shape of +cheese, fruit, bacon, poultry, etc., which we now receive from abroad. +Those who maintain this position commonly fail to take into +consideration the exports which go out from this country to pay for +these imports. If this export trade is diminished the trades engaged in +manufacturing the exported goods will suffer, and labour employed in +these trades may be thrown out of employment. This objection may be met +by showing that the goods formerly exported, or an equivalent quantity +of other goods, will be demanded for the increased consumption of the +labourers in the agricultural colony. This is a valid answer if the home +consumption rises sufficiently to absorb the goods formerly exported to +pay for agricultural imports. But even where this just balance is +maintained, allowance must be made for some disturbance of established +trades owing to the fact that the new demand created at home will +probably be for different classes of articles from those which formed +the exports now displaced. The safest use of assisted labour, where the +products are designed for the open market, is in the production of +articles for which there is a steadily growing demand within this +country. Even in this case the utmost care should be exercised to +prevent the products of assisted labour from so depressing prices as to +injure the wages of outside labour engaged in similar productions. + +Since the existence of an unemployed class who are unemployed because +they are unable, not because they are unwilling, to get work, is proof +of an insufficiency of employment, it is apparent that nothing is of +real assistance which does not increase the net amount of employment. +Since the amount of employment is determined by, and varies with, the +consumption of the community, the only sure method of increasing the +amount of employment is by raising the standard of consumption for the +community. Where, as is common in times of trade depression, +unemployment of labour is attended by unemployment of capital, this +joint excess of the two requisites of production is only to be explained +by the low standard of consumption of the community. Since the working- +classes form a vast majority of the community, and their standard of +consumption is low compared with that of the upper classes, it is to a +progressive standard of comfort among the workers that we must look for +a guarantee of increasing employment. It may be urged that the luxurious +expenditure of the rich provides as much employment as the more +necessary expenditure of the poor. But, setting aside all considerations +of the inutility or noxious character of luxury, there is one vital +difference between the employment afforded in the two cases. The demand +for luxuries is essentially capricious and irregular, and this +irregularity must always be reflected in the employment of the trades +which supply them. On the other hand, a general rise in the standard of +comfort of the workers creates an increased demand of a steady and +habitual kind, the new elements of consumption belonging to the order of +necessaries or primary comforts become ingrained in the habits of large +classes of consumers, and the employment they afford is regular and +reliable. When this simple principle is once clearly grasped by social +reformers, it will enable them to see that the only effective remedy for +unemployment lies in a general policy of social and economic reform, +which aims at placing a larger and larger proportion of the "consuming +power" of the community in the hands of those who, having received it as +the earnings of their effort, will learn to use it in building up a +higher standard of wholesome consumption. + + + + +Chapter VIII. + +The Industrial Condition of Women-Workers. + + + +Sec. 1. The Number of Women engaged in Industrial Work.--The evils of +"sweating" press more heavily on women workers than on men. It is not +merely that women as "the weaker sex" suffer more under the same burden, +but that their industrial burden is absolutely heavier than that of men. +The causes and the meaning of this demand a special treatment. + +The census returns for 1901 showed that out of 4,171,751 females engaged +in occupations about 401/2 per cent. were in domestic or other service, +381/2 per cent. in manufactures, 7 per cent. in commerce, chiefly as shop- +assistants, 4 per cent. in teaching, 3 per cent. in hotels, boarding- +houses, etc., and 7 per cent. in other occupations. + +The following table gives the groups of occupations in which more +females are employed than males:-- + + Occupational Groups Males Females + Sick nurses, midwives, etc. 1,092 67,269 + Teaching 61,897 172,873 + Domestic service 124,263 1,690,686 + Bookbinding: paper and stationery manufactures 42,644 64,210 + Textile manufactures 492,175 663,222 + Dress manufactures 336,186 689,956 + -------------------- + 1,058,257 3,348,216 + All other occupations 9,098,717 823,535 + -------------------- + All occupations 10,156,974 4,171,751 + +The manufactures in which women have been gaining upon men are the +textile and clothing trades in almost all branches, tobacco, printing, +stationery, brushes, india-rubber, and foods. + +Sec. 2. Women's Wages.--Turning now to women engaged in city industries, +let us gauge their industrial condition by the tests of wages, hours of +labour, sanitary conditions, regularity of employment + +The following is a list of the average wages paid for different kinds of +factory work in London. + + Artificial flowers 8 to 12 shillings. + Bookbinding 9 " 11 " + Boxmaking 8 " 16 " + Brushes 8 " 15 " + Caps 8 " 16 " + Collars 11 " 15 " + Confectionery 8 " 14 " + Corsets 8 " 16 " + Fur-sewing 7 " 14 " + Fur-sewing in winter 4 " 7 " + Matches 8 " 13 " + Rope 8 " 11 " + Umbrellas 10 " 18 " + +These are ordinary wages. Very good or industrious workers are said to +get in some cases 20 per cent, more; unskilful or idle workers less. + +It must be borne in mind that these sums represent a full week's work. +The importance of this qualification will appear presently. + +It is obvious at a glance that these wages are for the most part +considerably lower than those paid for any regular form of male labour. +But there is another fact which adds to the significance of this. +Skilled labour among men is much more highly paid than unskilled labour. +Among women's industries this is not the case to any great extent. +Skilled work like that of book-folding is paid no higher than the almost +unskilled work of the jam or match girl. This is said to be due partly +to the fact that the lower kinds of work are done by girls and women who +are compelled to support themselves, while the higher class is done by +women partly kept by husband or father, partly to the pride taken in the +performance of more skilled work, and the reluctance to mingle with +women belonging to a lower stratum of society, which prevents the wages +of the various kinds of work from being determined by free economic +competition. A bookbinding girl would sooner take lower wages than +engage in an inferior class of work which happened to rise in the market +price of its labour. But whatever the causes may be, the fact cannot be +disputed that the lower rates of wages extend over a larger proportion +of women workers. + +Again, the wages quoted above refer to workers in factories. But only +three women's trades of any importance are managed entirely in +factories, the cigar, confectionery, and match-making[34] trades. In +many of the other trades part of the work is done in factories, part is +let out to sweaters, or to women who work at their own homes. Many of +the clothing trades come under this class, as for example, the tie- +making, trimmings, corset-making trades. The employers in these trades +are able to play the out-doors workers against the indoors workers, so +as to keep down the wages of both to a minimum. The "corset" manufacture +is fairly representative of these trades. The following list gives the +per-centage of workers receiving various sums for "indoors" i.e. +"factory" work. + + s. s. s. s. s. s. s. s. s. s. + Under 4 3--6 8--10 10--12 12--15 Over 15 + 2.94 p.c. 50 p.c. 2.94 p.c. 5.9 p.c. 14.7 p.c. 22.52 p.c. + +Outdoor workers earn from 6s. to 12s., but where more than 10s. is +earned, the woman is generally assisted by one or more of her children. +Generally speaking, the most miserably paid work is that in trades where +most of the work is done by out-door workers. Such is the lowest stratum +of the "vest and trousers" trade, where English women undertake work +rejected by the lowest class of Jew workers, and the shirt-making trade, +which, in the opinion of the Lords' Committee, "does not appear to +afford subsistence to those who have no other employment." In these and +other trades of the lowest order, 6s. a week is a tolerably common wage +for a work-woman of fair skill to net after a hard week's work, and +there are many individual cases where the wage falls far below this +mark. + +It is true that the work for which the lowest wages are paid is often +that of learners, or of inefficient work-women; but while this may be a +satisfactory "economic" explanation, it does not mitigate the terrible +significance of the fact that many women are dependent on such work as +their sole opportunity of earning an honest livelihood. + +Sec. 3. Irregularity of Employment.--As the wages of women are lower than +those of men, so they suffer more from irregularity of employment. There +are two special reasons for this. + +[Greek: a]. Many trades in which women are employed, depend largely upon +the element of Season. The confectionery trade, one of the most +important, employs twice as many hands in the busy season as in the +slack season. Match-makers have a slack season, in which many of them +sell flowers, or go "hopping." Laundry work is largely "season" work. +Fur-sewing is perhaps the worst example of the terrible effect of +irregular work taken with low wages. "For several months in the year the +fur-sewers have either no work, or earn about 3s. or 4s. a week, and +many of these work in overcrowded insanitary workshops in the season. +Fur-sewing is the worst paid industry in the East End, with absolutely +no exceptions."[35] + +[Greek: b]. Fluctuations in fashion affect many women's trades; in +particular, the "ornamental" clothing trades, e.g. furs, feathers, +trimmings, etc. + +Employers in these slack times prefer generally to keep on the better +hands (on lower wages), and to dismiss the inferior hands. + +These "natural" fluctuations, added to ordinary trade irregularities, +favour the employment of "outdoor" workers in sweaters' dens or at home, +and require in these trades, as conducted at present, the existence of +an enormous margin of "casual" workers. These two chief factors in the +"sweating" problem, sub-contract and irregular home-work, are far more +prevalent in female industries than in male. + +Sec. 4. Hours of Labour in Women's Trades.--The Factory Act is supposed to +protect women engaged in industrial work from excessive hours of labour, +by setting a limit of twelve hours to the working day, including an +interval of two hours for meals. + +But passing over the fact that a dispensation is granted, enabling women +to be employed for fourteen hours during certain times, there is the far +more important consideration that most employments of women wholly +escape the operation of the Factory Act. In part this is due to the +difficulty of enforcing the Act in the case of sweating workshops, many +of which are unknown to inspectors, while others habitually break the +law and escape the penalty. Again, the Act does not and cannot be made +to apply to a large class of small domestic workshops. When the +dwelling-room is also the work-room, it is impossible to enforce by any +machinery of law, close limitation of hours of labour. Something may be +done to extend the arm of the law over small workshops; but the worst +form of out-work, that voluntarily undertaken by women in their own +homes, cannot be thus put down. Nothing short of a total prohibition of +outwork imposed on employers would be effectual here. Lastly, there are +many large employments not subject to the Factory Act, where the +economic power of the employer over weak employees is grossly abused. +One of the worst instances is that of the large laundries, where women +work enormously long hours during the season, and are often engaged for +fifteen or sixteen hours on Fridays and Saturdays. The whole class of +shop-assistants are worked excessive hours. Twelve and fourteen hours +are a common shop day, and frequently the figure rises to sixteen hours. +Restaurants and public-houses are perhaps the greatest offenders. The +case of shop-assistants is most aggravated, for these excessive hours of +labour are wholly waste time; a reduction of 25 or even of 50 per cent +in the shopping-day, reasonably adjusted to the requirements of classes +and localities, would cause no diminution in the quantity of sales +effected, nor would it cause any appreciable inconvenience to the +consuming public. + +Sec. 5. Sanitary Conditions.--Seeing that a larger proportion of women +workers are occupied in the small workshops or in their own overcrowded +homes, it is obvious that the fourth count of the "sweating" charge, +that of unsanitary conditions of work, applies more cruelly to them than +to men. Their more sedentary occupations, and the longer hours they work +in many cases outside the operation of the Factory Act, makes the evils +of overcrowding, bad ventilation, bad drainage, etc., more detrimental +to the health of women than of men workers. + +Sec. 6. Special Burdens incident on Women.--We have now applied the four +chief heads of the "sweating" disease--low wages, long hours, irregular +employment, unsanitary conditions--to women's work, and have seen that +the absolute pressure in each case is heavier on the weaker sex. + +But in estimating the industrial condition of women, there are certain +other considerations which must not be left out of sight. + +To many women-workers, the duties of maternity and the care of children, +which in a civilized human society ought to secure for them some +remission from the burden, of the industrial fight, are a positive +handicap in the struggle for a livelihood. When a married woman or a +widow is compelled to support herself and her family, the home ties +which preclude her from the acceptance of regular factory work, tell +fatally against her in the effort to earn a living. Married women, and +others with home duties which cannot be neglected, furnish an almost +illimitable field of casual or irregular labour. Not only is this +irregular work worse paid than regular factory work, but its existence +helps to keep up the pernicious system of "out-work" under which +"sweating" thrives. The commercial competition of to-day positively +trades upon the maternity of women-workers. + +In estimating the quantity of work which falls to the lot of industrial +women-workers, we must not forget to add to the wage-work that domestic +work which few of them can wholly avoid, and which is represented by no +wages. Looking at the problem in a broad human light, it is difficult to +say which is the graver evil, the additional burden of the domestic +work, so far as it is done, or the habitual neglect of it, where it is +evaded. Here perhaps the former point of view is more pertinent. To the +long hours of the factory-worker, or the shopwoman, we must often add +the irksome duties which to a weary wife must make the return home a +pain rather than a pleasure. When the industrial work is carried on at +home the worries and interruptions of family life must always contribute +to the difficulty and intensity of the toil, and tell upon the nervous +system and the general health of the women-workers. + +Other evils, incident on woman's industrial work, do not require +elaboration, though their cumulative effect is often very real. Many +women-workers, the locality of whose home depends on the work of their +husband or father, are obliged to travel every day long distances to and +from their work. The waste of time, the weariness, and sometimes the +expense of 'bus or train thus imposed on them, is in thousands of cases +a heavy tax upon their industrial life. Women working in factories, or +taking work home, suffer also many wrongs by reason of their "weaker +sex," and their general lack of trade organization. Unjust and arbitrary +fines are imposed by harsh employers so as to filch a portion of their +scanty earnings; their time is wasted by unnecessary delay in the giving +out of work, or its inspection when finished; the brutality and +insolence of male overseers is a common incident in their career. In a +score of different ways the weakness of women injures them as +competitors in the free fight for industrial work. + +Sec. 7. Causes of the Industrial Weakness of Women.--This brief summary of +the industrial condition of low-skilled women-workers will suffice to +bring out the fact that the "sweating" question is even more a woman's +question than a man's. The question which rises next is, Why do women as +industrial workers suffer more than men? + +In the first place, as the physically weaker sex, they do on the average +a smaller quantity of work, and therefore receive lower wages. In +certain kinds of work, where women do piece-work along with men, it is +found that they get as high wages as men for the same quantity of work. +The recent report upon Textile Industries establishes this fact so far +as those trades are concerned. But this is not always, perhaps not in +the majority of instances, the case. Women-workers do not, in many +cases, receive the same wages which would be paid to men for doing the +same work. Why is this? It is sometimes described as an unfair advantage +taken of women because they are women. There is a male prejudice, it is +urged, against women-workers, which prevents employers from paying them +the wages they could and would pay to men. + +Now this contention, so far as it refers to a sentimental bias, is not +tenable. A body of women-workers, equally skilled with male workers, and +as strongly organized, would be able to extract the same rate of wages +in any trade. Everything depends upon the words "_as strongly +organized_." It is the general industrial weakness of the condition of +most women-workers, and not a sex prejudice, which prevents them from +receiving the wages which men might get, if the work the women do were +left for male competition alone. An employer, as a rule, pays the lowest +wages he can get the work done at. The real question we have to meet is +this. Why can he get women who will consent to work at a lower rate than +he could get men to work at? What peculiar conditions are there +affecting women which will oblige them to accept work on lower terms +than men? + +Well, in the first place, the wage of a man can never fall much lower +than will suffice to maintain at the minimum standard of comfort both +himself and the average family he has to support. The minimum wage of +the man, it is true, need not cover the full support of his family, +because the wife or children will on the average contribute something to +their maintenance. But the wage of the man must cover his own support, +and part of the support of his family. This marks a rigid minimum wage +for male labour; if competition tends to drive wages lower, the supply +of labour is limited to unmarried males. + +The case of woman is different. If she is a free woman her minimum wage +will be what is required to support herself alone, and since a woman +appears able to keep alive and in working condition on a lower scale of +expenditure than man, the possible minimum wage for independent women- +workers will be less than a single man would consent to work for, and +considerably less than what a married man would require. But there are +other economic causes more important than this which drag down women's +wages. + +Single women, working to support themselves, are subject to the constant +competition of other women who are not dependent for their full +livelihood on the wages they get, and who, if necessary, are often +willing to take wages which would not keep them alive if they had no +other source of income. The minimum wages which can be obtained for +certain kinds of work may by this competition of "bounty-fed" labour be +driven considerably below starvation point. This is no mere hypothesis. +It will be obvious that the class of fur-sewers who, as we saw, earned +while in full work from 4s. to 7s. in the winter months, and the lower +grades of brush-makers and match-makers, to say nothing of the casual +"out-workers," who often take for a whole week's work 3s. or 2s. 6d., +cannot, and do not, live upon these earnings. They must either die upon +them, as many in fact do, or else they must be assisted by other funds. + +There are, at least, three classes of female workers whose competition +helps to keep wages below the point of bare subsistence in the +employments which they enter. + +First, there are married women who in their eagerness to increase the +family income, or to procure special comforts for themselves, are +willing to work at what must be regarded as "uncommercial rates"; that +is to say, for lower wages than they would be willing to accept if they +were working for full maintenance. It is sometimes asserted that since +these married women have not so strong a motive to secure work, they +will not, and in fact do not, undersell, and bring down the rate of +wages. But it must be admitted, firstly, that the very addition of their +number to the total of competitors for low-skilled work, forces down, +and keeps down, the price paid for that work; and secondly, that if they +choose, they are enabled to underbid at any time the labour of women +entirely dependent on themselves for support. The existence of this +competition of married women must be regarded as one of the reasons why +wages are low in women's employments. + +Secondly, a large proportion of unmarried women live at home. Even if +they pay their parents the full cost of their keep, they can live more +cheaply than if they had to find a home for themselves. A large +proportion, however, of the younger women are partly supported at the +expense of their family, and work largely to provide luxuries in the +shape of dress, and other ornamental articles. Many of them will consent +to work long hours all week, for an incredibly low sum to spend on +superfluities. + +Thirdly, there is the competition of women assisted by charity, or in +receipt of out-door poor relief. Sums paid by Boards of Guardians to +widows with young children, or assistance given by charitable persons to +aid women in distressed circumstances to earn a livelihood, will enable +these women to get work by accepting wages which would have been +impossible if they had not outside assistance to depend upon. It is thus +possible that by assisting a thoroughly deserving case, you may be +helping to drive down below starvation-point the wages of a class of +workers. + +Probably a large majority of women-workers are to some extent bounty-fed +in one of these ways. In so far as they do receive assistance from one +of these sources, enabling them to accept lower wages than they could +otherwise have done, it should be clearly understood that they are +presenting the difference between the commercial and the uncommercial +price as a free gift to their employer, or in so far as competition will +oblige him to lower his prices, to the public, which purchases the +results of their work. But the most terrible effect of this uncommercial +competition falls on that miserable minority of their sisters who have +no such extra source of income, and who have to make the lower wages +find clothes, and shelter for themselves, and perhaps a family of +children. We hear a good deal about the jealousy of men, and the +difficulties male Trade Unions have sometimes thrown in the way of women +obtaining employment, which may seem to affect male interests. But +though there is doubtless some ground for these complaints, it should be +acknowledged that it is women who are the real enemies of women. Women's +wages in the "sweating" trades are almost incredibly low, because there +is an artificially large supply of women able and willing to take work +at these low rates. + +It will be possible to raise the wages in these low-paid employments +only on condition that women will agree to refuse to undersell one +another beyond a certain point. A restriction in what is called "freedom +of competition" is the only direct remedy which can be applied by women +themselves. If women could be induced to refuse to avail themselves of +the terrible power conferred by these different forms of "bounty," their +wages could not fall below that 9s. or 10s. which would be required to +keep them alive, and would probably rise higher. + +Sec. 8. What Trade Unionism can do for them.--A question which naturally +rises now is, how far combination in the form of Trade Unionism can +assist to raise the industrial condition of these women. The practical +power wielded by male Unions we saw was twofold. Firstly, by restricting +the supply of labour in their respective trades they raised its market +price, i.e. wages. Secondly, they could extract better conditions from +employers, by obliging the latter to deal with them as a single large +body instead of dealing with them as a number of individuals. How far +can women-workers effect these same ends by these same means? + +Trade Unionism, so far as women are concerned, is yet in its infancy. In +1874, Mrs. Paterson established a society, now named the Women's Trades +Union Provident League, to try and establish combination among women in +their several trades. The first Union was that of women engaged in book- +binding, formed in September 1874. Since then a considerable number of +Unions have been formed among match-makers, dressmakers, milliners, +mantle-makers, upholstresses, rope-makers, confectioners, box-makers, +shirt-makers, umbrella-makers, brush-makers and others. Many of these +have been formed to remedy some pressing grievance, or to secure some +definite advance of wage, and in certain cases of skilled factory work +where the women have maintained a steady front, as among the match- +makers and the confectioners, considerable concessions have been won +from employers. But the small scale and tentative character of most of +these organizations do not yet afford any adequate test of what Unionism +can achieve. The workers in a few factories here and there have formed a +Union of, at the most, a few hundred workers. No large women's trade has +yet been organized with anything approaching the size and completeness +of the stronger men's Unions. Women Trade Unionists numbered 120,178 in +1901, and of these no less than 89.9 per cent were textile workers, +whose Unions are mostly organized by and associated with male Unions. + +There are several reasons why the growth of effective organization among +women-workers must be slow. In the first place, as we have seen, a large +proportion of their work is "out work" done at home or in small domestic +workshops. Now labour organizations are necessarily strong and +effective, in proportion as the labourers are thrown together constantly +both in their work and in their leisure, have free and frequent +opportunities of meeting and discussion, of educating a sense of +comradeship and mutual confidence, which shall form a moral basis of +unity for common industrial action. But to the majority of women-workers +no such opportunities are open. Even the factory workers are for the +most part employed in small groups, and are dispersed in their homes. +Combination among the mass of home-workers or workers in small sweating +establishments is almost impossible. The women's Unions have hitherto +been successful in proportion as the trades are factory trades. Where +endeavours have been made to organize East End shirt-makers, milliners, +and others who work at home, very little has been achieved. In those +trades where it is possible to give out an indefinite amount of the work +to sub-contractors, or to workers to do at home, it seems impossible +that any great results can be thus attained. Even in trades where part +of the work is done in factories, the existence of reckless competition +among unorganized out-workers can be utilized by unprincipled employers +to destroy attempts at effective combination among their factory hands. +The force of public opinion which may support an organization of factory +workers by preventing outsiders from underselling, can have no effect +upon the competition of home-workers, who bid in ignorance of their +competitors, and bid often for the means of keeping life in themselves +and their children. The very poverty of the mass of women-workers, the +low industrial conditions, which Unionism seeks to relieve, form cruel +barriers to the success of their attempts. The low physical condition, +the chronic exhaustion produced by the long hours and fetid atmosphere +in which the poorer workers live, crush out the human energy required +for effective protest and combination. Moreover, the power to strike, +and, if necessary, to hold out for a long period of time, is an +essential to a strong Trade Union. Almost all the advantages won by +women's Unions have been won by their proved capacity for holding out +against employers. This is largely a matter of funds. It is almost +impossible for the poorest classes of women-workers to raise by their +own abstinence a fund which shall make their Union formidable. Their +efforts where successful have been always backed by outside assistance. +Even were there a close federation of Unions of various women's trades-- +a distant dream at present--the larger proportion of recipients of low +wages among women-workers as compared with men would render their +success more difficult. + +Sec. 9. Legislative Restriction and the force of Public Opinion.--If Trade +Unionism among women is destined to achieve any large result, it would +appear that it will require to be supported by two extra-Union forces. + +The first of these forces must consist of legislative restriction of +"out-work." If all employers of women were compelled to provide +factories, and to employ them there in doing that work at present done +at home or in small and practically unapproachable workshops, several +wholesome results would follow. The conditions of effective combination +would be secured, public opinion would assist in securing decent wages, +factory inspection would provide shorter hours and fair sanitary +conditions, and last, not least, women whose home duties precluded them +from full factory work would be taken out of the field of competition. +Whether it would be possible to successfully crush the whole system of +industrial "out-work" may be open to question; but it is certain that so +long as, and in proportion as "out-work" is permitted, attempts on the +part of women to raise their industrial condition by combination will be +weak and unsuccessful. So long as "out-work" continues to be largely +practised and unrestrained, competition sharpened by the action of +married women and other irregular and "bounty-fed" labour, must keep +down the price of women's work, not only for the out-workers themselves, +but also for the factory workers. Nor is it possible to see how the +system of "out-work" can be repressed or even restricted by any other +force than legislation. So long as home-workers are "free" to offer, and +employers to accept, this labour, it will continue to exist so long as +it pays; it will pay so long as it is offered cheap enough; and it will +be offered cheaply so long as the supply continues to bear the present +relation to the demand. + +But there is another force required to give any full effect to such +extensions of the Factory Act as will crush private workshops, and +either directly or indirectly prohibit out-work. The real reason, as we +saw, why woman's wages were proportionately lower than man's, was the +competition of a mass of women, able and willing to work at indefinitely +low rates, because they were wholly or partly supported from other +sources. Now legislation can hardly interfere to prevent this +competition, but public opinion can. If the greater part of the +industrial work now done by women at home were done in factories, this +fact in itself would offer some restrictions to the competition of +married women, which is so fatal to those who depend entirely upon their +wages for a livelihood. But the gradual growth of a strong public +opinion, fed by a clear perception of the harm married women do to their +unsupported sisters by their competition, and directed towards the +establishment of a healthy social feeling against the wage-earning +proclivities of married women, would be a far more wholesome as well as +a more potent method of interference than the passing of any law. + +To interfere with the work of young women living at home, and supported +in large part by their parents, would be impracticable even if it were +desirable, although the competition of these conduces to the same +lowering of women's wages. But the education of a strong popular +sentiment against the propriety of the industrial labour of married +women, would be not only practicable, but highly desirable. Such a +public sentiment would not at first operate so stringently as to +interfere in those exceptional cases where it seems an absolute +necessity that the wife should aid by her home or factory work the +family income. But a steady pressure of public opinion, making for the +closer restriction of the wage-work of married women, would be of +incomparable value to the movement to secure better industrial +conditions for those women who are obliged to work for a living. A +fuller, clearer realization of the importance of this subject is much +needed at the present time. The industrial emancipation of women, +favoured by the liberal sentiments of the age, has been eagerly utilized +by enterprising managers of businesses in search of the cheapest labour. +Not only women, but also children are enabled, owing to the nature of +recent mechanical inventions which relieve the physical strain, but +increase the monotony of labour, to make themselves useful in factories +or home-work. Each year sees a large growth in the ranks of women- +workers. Eager to earn each what she can, girls and wives alike rush +into factory work, reckless of the fact that their very readiness to +work tells against them in the amount of their weekly wages, and only +goes to swell the dividends of the capitalist, or perhaps eventually to +lower prices. The improving mechanism of our State School System assists +this movement, by turning out every year a larger percentage of half- +timers, crammed to qualify for wage-earners at the earliest possible +period. Already in Lancashire and elsewhere, the labour of these +thirteen-year-olders is competing with the labour of their fathers. The +substitution of the "ring" for the "mule" in Lancashire mills, is +responsible for the sight which may now be seen, of strong men lounging +about the streets, supported by the earnings of their own children, who +have undersold them in the labour market. The "ring" machine can be +worked by a child, and can be learned in half an hour; that is the sole +explanation of this deplorable phenomenon. + +In the case of child-work, with its degrading consequences on the +physical and mental health of the victim thus prematurely thrust into +the struggle of life, legislation can doubtless do much. By raising the +standard of education, and, if necessary, by an absolute prohibition of +child-work, the State would be keeping well within the powers which the +strictest individualist would assign to it, as it would be merely +protecting the rising generation against the cupidity of parents and the +encroachments of industrial competition. + +The case of married women-workers is different. Better education of +women in domestic work and the requirements of wifehood and motherhood; +the growth of a juster and more wholesome feeling in the man, that he +may refuse to demand that his wife add wage-work to her domestic +drudgery; and above all, a clearer and more generally diffused +perception in society of the value of healthy and careful provision for +the children of our race, should build up a bulwark of public opinion, +which shall offer stronger and stronger obstruction to the employment of +married women, either outside or inside the home, in the capacity of +industrial wage-earners. The satisfaction rightly felt in the ever wider +opportunities afforded to unmarried women of earning an independent +livelihood, and of using their abilities and energies in socially useful +work, is considerably qualified by our perception of the injury which +these new opportunities inflict upon our offspring and our homes. +Surely, from the large standpoint of true national economy, no wiser use +could be made of the vast expansion of the wealth-producing power of the +nation under the reign of machinery, than to secure for every woman +destined to be a wife and a mother, that relief from the physical strain +of industrial toil which shall enable her to bring forth healthy +offspring, and to employ her time and attention in their nurture, and in +the ordering of a cleanly, wholesome, peaceful home life. So long as +public opinion permits or even encourages women, who either are or will +be mothers, to neglect the preparation for, and the performance of, the +duties of domestic life and of maternity, by engaging in laborious and +unhealthy industrial occupations, so long shall we pay the penalty in +that physical and moral deterioration of the race which we have traced +in low city life. How can the women of Cradley Heath engaged in wielding +huge sledge-hammers, or carrying on their neck a hundredweight of chain +for twelve or fourteen hours a day, in order to earn five or seven +shillings a week, bear or rear healthy children? What "hope of our race" +can we expect from the average London factory hand? What "home" is she +capable of making for her husband and her children? The high death-rate +of the "slum" children must be largely attributed to the fact that the +women are factory workers first and mothers afterwards. Roscher, the +German economist, assigns as the reason why the Jewish population of +Prussia increases so much faster than the Christian, the fact that the +Jewish mothers seldom go out of their own homes to work.[36] One of the +chief social dangers of the age is the effect of industrial work upon +the motherhood of the race. Surely, the first duty of society should be +to secure healthy conditions for the lives of the young, so as to lay a +firm physical foundation for the progress of the race. + +This we neglect to do when we look with indifference or complacency upon +the present phase of unrestricted competition in industrial work amongst +women. So long as we refuse to insist, as a nation, that along with the +growth of national wealth there shall be secured those conditions of +healthy home life requisite for the sound, physical, moral, and +intellectual growth of the young, at whatever cost of interference with +so-called private liberty of action, we are rendering ourselves as a +nation deliberately responsible for the continuance of that creature +whose appearance gives a loud lie to our claim of civilization--the +gutter child of our city streets. Thousands of these children, as we +well know, the direct product of economic maladjustment, grow up every +year--in our great cities to pass from babyhood into the street arab, +afterwards to become what they may, tramp, pauper, criminal, casual +labourer, feeble-bodied, weak-minded, desolate creatures, incapable of +strong, continuous effort at any useful work. These are the children who +have never known a healthy home. With that poverty which compels mothers +to be wage-earners, lies no small share of the responsibility of this +sin against society and moral progress. It is true that no sudden +general prohibition of married woman's work would be feasible. But it is +surely to be hoped that with every future rise in the wages and +industrial position of male wage-earners, there may be a growing +sentiment in favour of a restriction of industrial work among married +women. + + + + +Chapter IX. + +Moral Aspects of Poverty. + + + +Sec. 1. "Moral" View of the Causes of Poverty.--Our diagnosis of "sweating" +has regarded poverty as an industrial disease, and we have therefore +concerned ourselves with the examination of industrial remedies, factory +legislation, Trade Unionism, and restrictions of the supply of unskilled +labour. It may seem that in doing this we have ignored certain important +moral factors in the problem, which, in the opinion of many, are all +important. Until quite recently the vast majority of those philanthropic +persons who interested themselves in the miserable conditions of the +poor, paid very slight attention to the economic aspect of poverty, and +never dreamed of the application of economic remedies. It is not +unnatural that religions and moral teachers engaged in active detailed +work among the poor should be so strongly impressed by the moral +symptoms of the disease as to mistake them for the prime causes. "It is +a fact apparent to every thoughtful man that the larger portion of the +misery that constitutes our Social Question arises from idleness, +gluttony, drink, waste, indulgence, profligacy, betting, and +dissipation." These words of Mr. Arnold White express the common view of +those philanthropists who do not understand what is meant by "the +industrial system," and of the bulk of the comfortable classes when they +are confronted with the evils of poverty as disclosed in "the sweating +system." Intemperance, unthrift, idleness, and inefficiency are indeed +common vices of the poor. If therefore we could teach the poor to be +temperate, thrifty, industrious, and efficient, would not the problem of +poverty be solved? Is not a moral remedy instead of an economic remedy +the one to be desired? The question at issue here is a vital one to all +who earnestly desire to secure a better life for the poor. This "moral +view" has much to recommend it at first sight. In the first place, it is +a "moral" view, and as morality is admittedly the truest and most real +end of man, it would seem that a moral cure must be more radical and +efficient than any merely industrial cure. Again, these "vices" of the +poor, drink, dirt, gambling, prostitution, &c., are very definite and +concrete maladies attaching to large numbers of individual cases, and +visibly responsible for the misery and degradation of the vicious and +their families. Last, not least, this aspect of poverty, by representing +the condition of the poor to be chiefly "their own fault," lightens the +sense of responsibility for the "well to do." It is decidedly the more +comfortable view, for it at once flatters the pride of the rich by +representing poverty as an evidence of incompetency, salves his +conscience when pricked by the contrast of the misery around him, and +assists him to secure his material interests by adopting an attitude of +stern repression towards large industrial or political agitations in the +interests of labour, on the ground that "these are wrong ways of +tackling the question." + +Sec. 2. "Unemployment" and the Vices of the Poor.--The question is this, +Can the poor be moralized, and will that cure Poverty? To discuss this +question with the fullness it deserves is here impossible, but the +following considerations will furnish some data for an answer-- + +In the first place, it is very difficult to ascertain to what extent +drink, vice, idleness, and other personal defects are actually +responsible for poverty in individual cases. There is, however, reason +to believe that the bulk of cases of extreme poverty and destitution +cannot be traced to these personal vices, but, on the other hand, that +they are attributable to industrial causes for which the sufferer is not +responsible. The following is the result of a careful analysis of 4000 +cases of "very poor" undertaken by Mr. Charles Booth. These are grouped +as follows according to the apparent causes of distress-- + + 4 per cent, are "loafers." + 14 " " are attributed to drink and thriftlessness. + 27 " " are due to illness, large families, or other misfortunes. + 55 " " are assigned to "questions of employment." + +Here, in the lowest class of city poor, moral defects are the direct +cause of distress in only 18 per cent. of the cases, though doubtless +they may have acted as contributory or indirect causes in a larger +number. + +In the classes just above the "very poor," 68 per cent. of poverty is +attributed to "questions of employment," and only 13 per cent. to drink +and thriftlessness. In the lowest parts of Whitechapel drink figures +very slightly, affecting only 4 per cent. of the very poor, and 1 per +cent. of the poor, according to Mr. Booth. Even applied to a higher +grade of labour, a close investigation of facts discloses a grossly +exaggerated notion of the sums spent in drink by city workers in receipt +of good wages. A careful inquiry into the expenditure of a body of three +hundred Amalgamated Engineers during a period of two years, yielded an +average of 1s. 9d. per week spent on drink. + +So, too, in the cases brought to the notice of the Lords' Committee, +drink and personal vices do not play the most important part. The Rev. +S. A. Barnett, who knows East London so well, does not find the origin +of poverty in the vices of the poor. Terrible as are the results of +drunkenness, impurity, unthrift, idleness, disregard of sanitary rules, +it is not possible, looking fairly at the facts, to regard these as the +main sources of poverty. If we are not carried away by the spirit of +some special fanaticism, we shall look upon these evils as the natural +and necessary accessories of the struggle for a livelihood, carried on +under the industrial conditions of our age and country. Even supposing +it were demonstrable that a much larger proportion of the cases of +poverty and misery were the direct consequence of these moral and +sanitary vices of the poor, we should not be justified in concluding +that moral influence and education were the most effectual cures, +capable of direct application. It is indeed highly probable that the +"unemployed" worker is on the average morally and industrially inferior +to the "employed," and from the individual point of view this +inferiority is often responsible for his non-employment. But this only +means that differences of moral and industrial character determine what +particular individuals shall succeed or fail in the fight for work and +wages. It by no means follows that if by education we could improve all +these moral and industrial weaklings they could obtain steady employment +without displacing others. Where an over-supply of labour exists, no +remedy which does not operate either by restricting the supply or +increasing the demand for labour can be effectual. + +Sec. 3. Civilization ascends from Material to Moral.--The life of the +poorest and most degraded classes is impenetrable to the highest +influences of civilization. So long as the bare struggle for continuance +of physical existence absorbs all their energies, they cannot be +civilized. The consideration of the greater intrinsic worth of the moral +life than the merely physical life, must not be allowed to mislead us. +That which has the precedence in value has not the precedence in time. +We must begin with the lower life before we can ascend to the higher. As +in the individual the _corpus sanum_ is rightly an object of earlier +solicitude in education than the _mens sana_, though the latter may be +of higher importance; so with the progress of a class. We cannot go to +the lowest of our slum population and teach them to be clean, thrifty, +industrious, steady, moral, intellectual, and religious, until we have +first taught them how to secure for themselves the industrial conditions +of healthy physical life. Our poorest classes have neither the time, the +energy, or the desire to be clean, thrifty, intellectual, moral, or +religious. In our haste we forget that there is a proper and necessary +order in the awakening of desires. At present our "slum" population do +not desire to be moral and intellectual, or even to be particularly +clean. Therefore these higher goods must wait, so far as they are +dependent on the voluntary action of the poor. What these people do want +is better food, and more of it; warmer clothes; better and surer +shelter; and greater security of permanent employment on decent wages. +Until we can assist them to gratify these "lower" desires, we shall try +in vain to awaken "higher" ones. We must prepare the soil of a healthy +physical existence before we can hope to sow the moral seed so as to +bring forth fruit. Upon a sound physical foundation alone can we build a +high moral and spiritual civilization. + +Moral and sanitary reformers have their proper sphere of action among +those portions of the working classes who have climbed the first rounds +in the ladder of civilization, and stand on tolerably firm conditions of +material comfort and security. They cannot hope at present to achieve +any great success among the poorest workers. The fact must not be +shirked that in preaching thrift, hygiene, morality, and religion to the +dwellers in the courts and alleys of our great cities, we are sowing +seed upon a barren ground. Certain isolated cases of success must not +blind us to this truth. Take, for example, thrift. It is not possible to +expect that large class of workers who depend upon irregular earnings of +less than 18s. a week to set by anything for a rainy day. The essence of +thrift is regularity, and regularity is to them impossible. Even +supposing their scant wage was regular, it is questionable whether they +would be justified in stinting the bodily necessities of their families +by setting aside a portion which could not in the long run suffice to +provide even a bare maintenance for old age or disablement. To say this +is not to impugn the value of thrift in maintaining a character of +dignity and independence in the worker; it is simply to recognize that +valuable as these qualities are, they must be subordinated to the first +demands of physical life. Those who can save without encroaching on the +prime necessaries of life ought to save; but there are still many who +cannot save, and these are they whom the problem of poverty especially +concerns. The saying of Aristotle, that "it is needful first to have a +maintenance, and then to practise virtue," does not indeed imply that we +_ought_ to postpone practising the moral virtues until we have secured +ourselves against want, but rather means that before we can live well we +_must_ first be able to live at all. + +Precisely the same is true of the "inefficiency" of the poor. Nothing is +more common than to hear men and women, often incapable themselves of +earning by work the money which they spend, assigning as the root of +poverty the inefficiency of the poor. It is quite true that the "poor" +consist for the most part of inefficient workers. It would be strange if +it were not so. How shall a child of the slums, ill-fed in body and +mind, brought up in the industrial and moral degradation of low city +life, without a chance of learning how to use hands or head, and to +acquire habits of steady industry, become an efficient workman? The +conditions under which they grow up to manhood and womanhood preclude +the possibility of efficiency. It is the bitterest portion of the lot of +the poor that they are deprived of the opportunity of learning to work +well. To taunt them with their incapacity, and to regard it as the cause +of poverty, is nothing else than a piece of blind insolence. Here and +there an individual may be to blame for neglected opportunities; but the +"poor" as a class have no more chance under present conditions of +acquiring "efficiency" than of attaining to refined artistic taste, or +the culminating Christian virtue of holiness. Inefficiency is one of the +worst and most degrading aspects of poverty; but to regard it as the +leading cause is an error fatal to a true understanding of the problem. + +We now see why it is impossible to seriously entertain the claim of Co- +operative Production as a direct remedy for poverty. The success of Co- +operative schemes depends almost entirely upon the presence of high +moral and intellectual qualities in those co-operating--trust, patience, +self restraint, and obedience combined with power of organization, +skill, and business enterprise. These qualities are not yet possessed by +our skilled artisan class to the extent requisite to enable them to +readily succeed in productive co-operation; how can it be expected then +that low-skilled inefficient labour should exhibit them? The +enthusiastic co-operator says we must educate them up to the requisite +moral and intellectual level. The answer is, that it is impossible to +apply such educating influences effectually, until we have first placed +them on a sound physical basis of existence; that is to say, until we +have already cured the worst form of the malady. From whatever point we +approach this question we are driven to the conclusion that as the true +cause of the disease is an industrial one, so the earliest remedies must +be rather industrial than moral or educational. + +Sec. 4. Effects of Temperance and Technical Education.--Again, we are by no +means justified in leaping to the conclusion that if we could induce +workers to become more sober, more industrious, or more skilful, their +industrial condition would of necessity be improved to a corresponding +extent. If we can induce an odd farm-labourer here and there to give up +his "beer," he and his family are no doubt better off to the extent of +this saving, and can employ the money in some much more profitable way. +But if the whole class of farm-labourers could be persuaded to become +teetotalers without substituting some new craving of equal force in the +place of drink, it is extremely probable that in all places where there +was an abundant supply of farm-labourers, the wage of a farm-labourer +would gradually fall to the extent of the sum of money formerly spent in +beer. For the lowest paid classes of labourers get, roughly speaking, no +more wages than will just suffice to provide them with what they insist +on regarding as necessaries of life. To an ordinary labourer "beer" is a +part of the minimum subsistence for less than which he will not consent +to work at all. Where there is an abundance of labour, as is generally +the case in low-skilled employments, this minimum subsistence or lowest +standard of comfort practically determines wages. If you were merely to +take something away from this recognized minimum without putting +something else to take its place, you would actually lower the rate of +wages. If, by a crusade of temperance pure and simple, you made +teetotalers of the mass of low-skilled workers, their wages would +indisputably fall, although they might be more competent workers than +before. If, on the other hand, following the true line of temperance +reform, you expelled intemperance by substituting for drink some +healthier, higher, and equally strong desire which cost as much or more +to attain its satisfaction; if in giving up drink they insisted on +providing against sickness and old age, or upon better houses and more +recreation and enjoyment, then their wages would not fall, and might +even rise in proportion as their new wants, as a class, were more +expensive than the craving for drink which they had abandoned. + +Or, again, take the case of technical or general education. In so far as +technical education enabled a number of men who would otherwise have +been unskilled labourers, to compete for skilled work, it will no doubt +enable these men to raise themselves in the industrial sense; but the +addition of their number to the ranks of skilled labour will imply an +increase in supply of skilled labour, and a decrease in supply of +unskilled labour; the price or wage for unskilled labour will rise, but +the wage for skilled labour will fall assuming the relationship between +the demand for skilled and unskilled labour to remain as before. A mere +increase in the efficiency of labour, though it would increase the +quantity of wealth produced, and render a rise of wages possible, would +of itself have no economic force to bring about a rise. No improvement +in the character of labour will be effectual in raising wages unless it +causes a rise in the standard of comfort, which he demands as a +condition of the use of his labour. If we merely increased the +efficiency of labour without a corresponding stimulation of new wants, +we should be simply increasing the mass of labour-power offered for +sale, and the price of each portion would fall correspondingly. It would +confer no more _direct_ benefit upon the worker as such, than does the +introduction of some new machine which has the same effect of adding to +the average efficiency of the worker. Those who would advocate technical +and general education, with a view to the material improvement of the +masses, must see that this education be applied in such a way as to +assist in implanting and strengthening new wholesome demands in those +educated, so as to effectively raise this standard of living. There can +be little doubt but that such education would create new desires, and so +would indirectly secure the industrial elevation of the masses. But it +ought to be clearly recognized that the industrial force which operates +_directly_ to raise the wages of the workers, is not technical skill, or +increased efficiency of labour, but the elevated standard of comfort +required by the working-classes. It is at the same time true, that if we +could merely stimulate the workers to new wants requiring higher wages, +they could not necessarily satisfy all these new wants. If it were +possible to induce all labourers to demand such increase of wages as +sufficed to enable them to lay by savings, it is difficult to say +whether they could in all cases press this claim successfully. But if at +the same time their efficiency as labourers likewise grew, it will be +evident that they both can and would raise that standard of living. + +In so far as the results of technical education upon the class of low- +skilled labourers alone is concerned, it is evident that it would +relieve the constant pressure of an excessive supply. Whatever the +effect of this might be upon the industrial condition of the skilled +industries subjected to the increased competition, there can be no doubt +that the wages of low-skilled labour would rise. Since the condition of +unskilled or low-skilled workers forms the chief ingredient in poverty, +such a "levelling up" may be regarded as a valuable contribution towards +a cure of the worst phase of the disease. + +This brief investigation of the working of moral and educational cures +for industrial diseases shows us that these remedies can only operate in +improving the material condition of the poorest classes, in so far as +they conduce to raise the standard of living among the poor. Since a +higher standard of comfort means economically a restriction in the +number of persons willing to undertake work for a lower rate of wage +than will support this standard of comfort, it may be said that moral +remedies can be only effectual in so far as they limit the supply of +low-skilled, low-paid labour. Thus we are brought round again to the one +central point in the problem of poverty, the existence of an excessive +supply of cheap labour. + +Sec. 5. The False Dilemma which impedes Progress.--There are those who seek +to retard all social progress by a false and mischievous dilemma which +takes the following shape. No radical improvement in industrial +organization, no work of social reconstruction, can be of any real avail +unless it is preceded by such moral and intellectual improvement in the +condition of the mass of workers as shall render the new machinery +effective; unless the change in human nature comes first, a change in +external conditions will be useless. On the other hand, it is evident +that no moral or intellectual education can be brought effectively to +bear upon the mass of human beings, whose whole energies are necessarily +absorbed by the effort to secure the means of bare physical support. +Thus it is made to appear as if industrial and moral progress must each +precede the other, a thing which is impossible. Those who urge that the +two forms of improvement must proceed _pari passu, _do not precisely +understand what they propose. + +The falsehood of the above dilemma consists in the assumption that +industrial reformers wish to proceed by a sudden leap from an old +industrial order to a new one. Such sudden movements are not in +accordance with the gradual growth which nature insists upon as the +condition of wise change. But it is equally in accordance with nature +that the material growth precedes the moral. Not that the work of moral +reconstruction can lag far behind. Each step in this industrial +advancement of the poor should, and must, if the gain is to be +permanent, be followed closely and secured by a corresponding advance in +moral and intellectual character and habits. But the moral and religious +reformer should never forget that in order of time material reform comes +first, and that unless proper precedence be yielded to it, the higher +ends of humanity are unattainable. + + + + +Chapter X. + +"Socialistic Legislation." + + + +Sec. 1. Legislation in restraint of "Free" Contract.--The direct pressure +of certain tangible and painful forms of industrial grievance and of +poverty has forced upon us a large mass of legislation which is +sometimes called by the name of Socialistic Legislation. It is necessary +to enter on a brief examination of the character of the various +enactments included under this vague term, in order to ascertain the +real nature of the remedy they seek to apply. + +Perhaps the most typical form of this socialistic legislation is +contained in the Factory Acts, embodying as they do a series of direct +interferences in the interests of the labouring classes with freedom of +contract between capital and labour. + +The first of these Factory Acts, the Health and Morals Act, was passed +in 1802, and was designed for the protection of children apprenticed in +the rising manufacturing towns of the north, engaged in the cotton and +woollen trades. Large numbers of children apprenticed by poor-law +overseers in the southern counties were sent as "slaves" to the northern +manufacturer, to be kept in overcrowded buildings adjoining the factory, +and to be worked day and night, with an utter disregard to all +considerations of physical or moral health. There is no page in the +history of our nation so infamous as that which tells the details of the +unbridled greed of these pioneers of modern commercialism, feeding on +the misery and degradation of English children. This Act of 1802, +enforcing some small sanitary reforms, prohibited night work, and +limited the working-day of apprenticed children to twelve hours. In +1819, another Act was passed for the benefit of unapprenticed child +workers in cotton mills, prohibiting the employment of children under +nine years, and limiting the working-day to twelve hours for children +between nine and sixteen. Sir John Cam Hobhouse in 1825 passed an Act +further restricting the labour of children under sixteen years, +requiring a register of children employed in mills, and shortening the +work on Saturdays. Then came the agitation of Richard Oastler for a Ten +Hours Bill. But Parliament was not ripe for this, and Hobhouse, +attempting to redeem the hours in textile industries, was defeated by +the northern manufacturers. Public feeling, however, formed chiefly by +Tories like Oastler, Sadler, Ashley, and Fielden, drove the Whig leader, +Lord Althorp, to pass the important Factory Act of 1833. This Act drew +the distinction between children admitted to work below the age of +thirteen, and "young persons" of ages from thirteen to eighteen; +enforced in the case of the former attendance at school, and a maximum +working week of forty-eight hours; in the case of the latter prohibited +night work, and limited the hours of work to sixty-nine a week. The next +step of importance was Peel's consolidating Factory Act of 1844, +reducing the working-day for children to six and a half hours, and +increasing the compulsory school attendance from two hours to three, and +strengthening in various ways the machinery of inspection. In 1845 Lord +Ashley passed a measure prohibiting the night work of women. In 1848, by +the Act of Mr. Fielden, ten hours was assigned as a working-day for +women and young persons, and further restrictions in favour of women and +children were made in 1850 and 1853. + +It must, however, be remembered that all the Factory legislation +previous to 1860 was confined to textile factories--cotton, woollen, +silk, or linen. In 1860, bleaching and dyeing works were brought within +the Factory Acts, and several other detailed extensions were made +between 1861 and 1864, in the direction of lace manufacture, pottery, +chimney-sweeping, and other employments. But not until 1867 were +manufactories in general brought under Factory legislation. This was +achieved by the Factory Acts Extension Act, and the Workshops Regulation +Act. For several years, however, the beneficial effects of this +legislation was grievously impaired by the fact that local authorities +were left to enforce it. Not until 1871, when the regulation and +enforcement was restored to State inspectors, was the legislation really +effectual. The Factory and Workshop Act of 1878, modified by a few more +recent restrictions, is still in force. It makes an advance on the +earlier legislation in the following directions. It prohibits the +employment in any factory or workshop of children under the age of +eleven, and requires a certificate of fitness for factory labour under +the age of sixteen. It imposes the half-time system on all children, +admitting, however, two methods, either of passing half the day in +school, and half at work, or of giving alternate days to work and +school. It recognizes a distinction between the severity of work in +textile factories and in non-textile factories, assigning a working week +of about fifty-six and a half hours to the former, and sixty hours to +the latter. The exceptions of domestic workshops, and of many other +forms of female and child employment, the permission of over-time within +certain limitations, and the inadequate provision of inspection, +considerably diminish the beneficial effects of these restrictive +measures. + +In 1842 Lord Ashley secured a Mining Act, which prohibited the +underground employment of women, and of boys under ten years. In 1850 +mine inspectors were provided, and a number of precautions enforced to +secure the safety of miners. In 1864 several minor industries, dangerous +in their nature, such as the manufacture of lucifer-matches, cartridges, +etc., were brought under special regulations. To these restrictive +pieces of legislation should be added the Employers' Liability Act, +enforcing the liability of employers for injuries sustained by workers +through no fault of their own, and the "Truck" legislation, compelling +the payment of wages in cash, and at suitable places. + +This slight sketch will suffice to mark the leading features of a large +class of laws which must be regarded as a growth of State socialism. + +The following points deserve special attention-- + +1. These measures are all forced on Parliament by the recognition of +actual grievances, and all are testimony to the failure of a system of +complete _laissez faire_. + +2. They all imply a direct interference of the State with individual +freedom--i.e. the worker cannot sell his labour as he likes; the +capitalist cannot make what contracts he likes. + +3. Though the protection of children and women is the strongest motive +force in this legislative action, many of these measures interfere +directly or indirectly with adult male labour--e.g. the limit on the +factory hours of women and children practically limits the factory day +for men, where the latter work with women or children. The clauses of +recent Factory Acts requiring the "fencing of machinery" and other +precautions, apply to men as well as to children and women. The Truck +Act and Employers' Liability Act apply to male adult labour. + +Sec. 2. Theory of this Legislation.--Under such legislation as the +foregoing it is evident that the theory that a worker should be free to +sell his labour as he likes has given way before the following +considerations-- + +(1) That this supposed "freedom to work as one likes" often means only a +freedom to work as another person likes, whether that other person be a +parent, as in the case of children, or an employer, as in the case of +adult workers. + +(2) That a worker in a modern industrial community is not a detached +unit, whose contract to work only concerns himself and his employer. The +fellow-workers in the same trade and society at large have a distinct +and recognizable interest in the conditions of the work of one another. +A, by keeping his shop open on Sundays, or for long hours on week-days, +is able to compel B, C, D, and all the rest of his trade competitors to +do the same. A minority of workmen by accepting low wages, or working +over-time, are often able to compel the majority to do the same. There +is no labour-contract or other commercial act which merely regards the +interest of the parties directly concerned. How far a society acting for +the protection of itself, or of a number of its members, is justified in +interfering between employer and workman, or between competing +tradesmen, is a question of expediency. General considerations of the +theoretic "freedom of contract," and the supposed "self-regarding" +quality of the actions, are thus liable to be set aside by this +socialistic legislation. + +(3) These interferences with "free contract" of labour are not traceable +to the policy of any one political party. The most valuable portions of +the factory measures were passed by nominally Conservative governments, +and though supported by a section of the Radical party, were strenuously +opposed by the bulk of the Liberals, including another section of +Radicals and political economists. + +These measures signify a slow but steady growth of national sentiment in +favour of securing for the poor a better life. The keynote of the whole +movement is the protection of the weak. This appears especially in a +recognition of the growing claims of children. Not only is this seen in +the history of factory legislation, but in the long line of educational +legislation, happily not ended yet. These taken together form a chain of +measures for the protection of the young against the tyranny, greed, or +carelessness of employers or parents. The strongest public sentiment is +still working in this same direction. Recent agitation on the subject of +prevention of cruelty to children, free dinners for school-children, +adoption of children, child insurance, attest the growing strength of +this feeling. + +Sec. 3. General extension of Paternal Government.--The class of measures +with which we have dealt recognizes that children, women, and in some +cases men, are unable to look after their own interests as industrial +workers, and require the aid of paternal legislation. But it must not be +forgotten that the century has seen the growth of another long series of +legislative Acts based also on the industrial weakness of the +individual, and designed to protect society in general, adult or young, +educated or uneducated, rich or poor. Among these come Adulteration +Acts, Vaccination Acts, Contagious Diseases Acts, and the network of +sanitary legislation, Acts for the regulation of weights and measures, +and for the inspection of various commodities, licenses for doctors, +chemists, hawkers, &c. Many of these are based on ancient historic +precedents; we have grown so accustomed to them, and so thoroughly +recognize the value of most of them, that it seems almost unnecessary to +speak of them as socialistic measures. Yet such they are, and all of +them are objected to upon this very ground by men of the political +school of Mr. Herbert Spencer and Mr. Auberon Herbert. For it should be +noted-- + +1. Each of these Acts interferes with the freedom of the individual. It +compels him to do certain things--e.g. vaccinate his children, admit +inspectors on his premises--and it forbids him to do certain other +things. + +2. Most of these Acts limit the utility to the individual of his +capital, by forbidding him to employ it in certain ways, and hampering +him with various restrictions and expenses. The State, or municipality, +in certain cases--e.g. railways and cabs--even goes so far as to fix +prices. + +Sec. 4. State and Municipal Undertakings.--But the State does not confine +itself to these restrictive or prohibitive measures, interfering with +the free individual application of capital and labour, in the interests +of other individuals, or of society at large. The State and the +municipality is constantly engaged in undertaking new branches of +productive work, thus limiting the industrial area left open to the +application of private capitalist enterprise. + +In some cases these public works exist side by side in competition with +private enterprise; as, for example, in the carriage of parcels, life +insurance, banking, and the various minor branches of post-office work, +in medical attendance, and the maintenance of national education, and of +places of amusement and recreation. In other cases it claims an absolute +monopoly, and shuts off entirely private enterprise, as in the +conveyance of letters and telegrams, and the local industries connected +with the production and distribution of gas and water. The extent and +complexity of that portion of our State and municipal machinery which is +engaged in productive work will be understood from the following +description-- + +"Besides our international relations, and the army, navy, police, and +the courts of justice, the community now carries on for itself, in some +part or another of these islands, the post-office, telegraphs, carriage +of small commodities, coinage, surveys the regulation of the currency +and note issue, the provision of weights and measures, the making, +sweeping, lighting, and repairing of streets, roads, and bridges, life +insurance, the grant of annuities, shipbuilding, stockbroking, banking, +farming, and money-lending. It provides for many of us from birth to +burial--midwifery, nursery, education, board and lodging, vaccination, +medical attendance, medicine, public worship, amusements, and interment. +It furnishes and maintains its own museums, parks, art galleries, +libraries, concert-halls, roads, bridges, markets, slaughterhouses, +fire-engines, lighthouses, pilots, ferries, surf-boats, steam-tugs, +life-boats, cemeteries, public baths, washhouses, pounds, harbours, +piers, wharves, hospitals, dispensaries, gas-works, water-works, +tramways, telegraph-cables, allotments, cow-meadows, artisans' +dwellings, schools, churches, and reading-rooms. It carries on and +publishes its own researches in geology, meteorology, statistics, +zoology, geography, and even theology. In our colonies the English +Government further allows and encourages the communities to provide for +themselves railways, canals, pawnbroking, theatres, forestry, cinchona +farms, irrigation, leper villages, casinos, bathing establishments, and +immigration, and to deal in ballast, guano, quinine, opium, salt, and +what not. Every one of these functions, with those of the army, navy, +police, and courts of justice, were at one time left to private +enterprise, and were a source of legitimate individual investment of +capital."[37] + +Some of the utilities and conveniences thus supplied by public capital +and public labour are old-established wants, but many are new wants, and +the marked tendency of public bodies to undertake the provision of the +new necessaries and conveniences which grow up with civilization is a +phenomenon which deserves close attention. + +Sec. 5. Motives of "Socialistic Legislation."--Stated in general terms, +this socialistic tendency may be described as a movement for the control +and administration by the public of all works engaged in satisfying +common general needs of life, which are liable, if trusted to private +enterprise, to become monopolies. + +Articles which everybody needs, the consumption or use of which is +fairly regular, and where there is danger of insufficient or injurious +competition, if the provision be left to private firms, are constantly +passing, and will pass more and more quickly, under public control. The +work of protection against direct injuries to person and property has in +all civilized countries been recognized as a dangerous monoply if left +to private enterprise. Hence military, naval, police, and judicial work +is first "socialized," and in modern life a large number of subsidiary +works for the protection of the life and wealth of the community are +added to these first public duties. Roads, bridges, and a large part of +the machinery of communication or conveyance are soon found to be +capable of abuse if left to private ownership; hence the post and +telegraph is generally State-owned, and in most countries the railways. +There is for the same reason a strong movement towards the municipal +ownership of tramways, gas-and water-works, and all such works as are +associated with monopoly of land, and are not open to adequate +competition. In England everywhere these works are subject to public +control, and the tendency is for this control, which implies part +ownership, to develop into full ownership. Nearly half the gas-consumers +in this country are already supplied by public works. One hundred and +two municipalities own electric plant, forty-five own their tramway +systems, one hundred and ninety-three their water supplies, at the close +of 1902. + +The receipts of local authorities from rates and other sources, +including productive undertakings, had increased from seventy millions +sterling to one hundred and forty-five millions between 1890-1 and +1901-2. Art galleries, free libraries, schools of technical education, +are beginning to spring up on all sides. Municipal lodging-houses are in +working at London, Glasgow, and several other large towns. + +In every one of these cases, two forces are at work together, the +pressure of an urgent public need, and the perception that private +enterprise cannot be trusted to satisfy their need on account of the +danger of monopoly. How far or how fast this State or municipal +limitation of private enterprise and assumption of public enterprise +will proceed, it is not possible to predict. Everything depends on the +two following considerations-- + +First, the tendency of present private industries concerned with the +supply of common wants of life to develop into dangerous monopolies by +the decay of effective competition. If the forces at work in the United +States for the establishment of syndicates, trusts, and other forms of +monopoly, show themselves equally strong in England, the inevitable +result will be an acceleration of State and municipal socialism. + +Secondly, the capacity shown by our municipal and other public bodies +for the effective management of such commercial enterprises as they are +at present engaged in. + +Reviewing then the mass of restrictive, regulative, and prohibitive +legislation, largely the growth of the last half century, and the +application of the State and municipal machinery to various kinds of +commercial undertakings in the interest of the community, we find it +implies a considerable and growing restriction of the sphere of private +enterprise. + +Sec. 6. The "Socialism" of Taxation--But there is another form of State +interference which is more direct and significant than any of these. One +of the largest State works is that of public education. Now the cost of +this is in large measure defrayed by rate and tax, the bulk of which, in +this case, is paid by those who do not get for themselves or for their +children any direct return. The State-assisted education is said to tax +A for the benefit of B. Nor is this a solitary instance; it belongs to +the very essence of the modern socialistic movement. There is a strong +movement, independent too of political partisanship, to cast, or to +appear to cast, the burden of taxation more heavily upon the wealthier +classes in order to relieve the poor. It is enough to allude to the +income tax and the Poor Law. These are socialistic measures of the +purest kind, and are directly open to that objection which is commonly +raised against theoretic socialism, that it designs "to take from the +rich in order to give to the poor." The growing public opinion in favour +of graduated income tax, and the higher duty upon legacies and rich +man's luxuries, are based on a direct approval of this simple policy of +taking from the rich and giving to the poor. + +The advocates of these measures urge this claim on grounds of public +expediency, and those whose money is taken for the benefit of their +poorer brethren, though they grumble, do not seriously impugn the right +of the State to levy taxes in what way seems best. Whether we regard the +whole movement from the taxation standpoint, or from the standpoint of +benefits received, we shall perceive that it really means a direct and +growing pressure brought to bear upon the rich for the benefit of the +poor. A consideration of all the various classes of socialistic +legislation and taxation to which we have referred, will show that we +are constantly engaged more and more in the practical assertion and +embodiment of the three following principles-- + +1. That the individual is often too weak or ignorant to protect himself +in contract or bargain, and requires public protection. + +2. That considerations of public interest are held to justify a growing +interference with "rights of property." + +3. That the State or municipality may enlarge their functions in any +direction and to any extent, provided a clear public interest is +subserved. + +Sec. 7. Relation of Theoretic Socialism to Socialistic Legislation.--Now it +has been convenient in speaking of this growth of State and municipal +action to use the term Socialism. But we ought to be clear as to the +application of this term. Although Sir William Harcourt declared, "We +are all socialists to-day," the sober, practical man who is responsible +for these "socialistic" measures, smiles at the saying, and regards it +as a rhetorical exaggeration. He knows well enough that he and his +fellow-workers are guided by no theory of the proper limits of +government, and are animated by no desire to curtail the use of private +property. The practical politician in this country is beckoned forward +by no large, bright ideal; no abstract consideration of justice or +social expediency supplies him with any motive force. The presence of +close detailed circumstance, some local, concrete want to be supplied, +some distinct tangible grievance to be redressed, some calculable +immediate economy to be effected, such are the only conscious motives +which push him forward along the path we have described. An alarming +outbreak of disease registered in a high local death-rate presses the +question of sanitary reform, and gives prominence to the housing of the +working-classes. The bad quality of gas, and the knowledge that the +local gas company, having reached the limit of their legal dividend, are +squandering the surplus on high salaries and expensive offices, leads to +the municipalization of the gas-works. The demand made upon the +ratepayers of Bury to expend; L60,000 on sewage-works, a large +proportion of which would go to increase the ground value of Lord +Derby's property, leads them to realize the justice and expediency of a +system of taxation of ground values which shall prevent the rich +landlord from pocketing the contribution of the poor ratepayer. So too +among those directly responsible for State legislation, it is the force +of public opinion built out of small local concrete grievances acting in +coalition with a growing sentiment in favour of securing better material +conditions for the poor, that drafts these socialistic bills, and gets +them registered as Acts of Parliament. + +But the student of history must not be deceived into thinking that +principles and abstract theories are not operative forces because they +appear to be subordinated to the pressure of small local or temporal +expediencies. Underneath these detailed actions, which seem in large +measure the product of chance, or of the selfish or sentimental effort +of some individual or party, the historian is able to trace the +underworking of some large principle which furnishes the key to the real +logic of events. The spirit of democracy has played a very small part in +the conscious effort of the democratic workers. But the inductive study +of modern history shows it as a force dominating the course of events, +directing and "operating" the _minor_ forces which worked unconsciously +in the fulfilment of its purpose. So it is with this spirit of +socialism. The professed socialist is a rare, perhaps an unnecessary, +person, who wishes to instruct and generally succeeds in scaring +humanity by bringing out into the light of conscious day the dim +principle which is working at the back of the course of events. Since +this conscious socialism is not an industrial force of any great +influence in England, it is not here necessary to discuss the claim of +the theoretic socialist to provide a solution for the problem of +poverty. But it is of importance for us to recognize clearly the nature +of the interpretation theoretic socialists place upon the order of +events set forth in this chapter, for this interpretation throws +considerable light on the industrial condition of labour. + +We see that the land nationalizer claims to remove, and the land +reformer in general to abate, the evil of poverty by securing for those +dependent on the fluctuating value and uncertain tenure of wage-labour +an equal share in those land-values, the product of nature and social +activity, which are at present monopolized by a few. Now the quality of +monopoly which the land nationalizer finds in land, the professed +socialist finds also in all forms of capital. The more discreet and +thoughtful socialist in England at least does not deny that the special +material forms of capital, and the services they render, may be in part +due to the former activity of their present owners, or of those from +whom their present owners have legitimately acquired them; but he +affirms that a large part of the value of these forms of capital, and of +the interest obtained for their use, is due to a monopoly of certain +opportunities and powers which are social property just as much as land +is. The following statement by one of the ablest exponents of this +doctrine will explain what this claim signifies-- + +"We claim an equal right to this 'inheritance of mankind,' which by our +institutions a minority is at present enabled to monopolize, and which +it does monopolize and use in order to extort thereby an unearned +increment; and this inheritance is true capital. We mean thereby the +principle, potentiality, embodied in the axe, the spade, the plough, the +steam-engine, tools of all kinds, books or pictures, bequeathed by +thinkers, writers, inventors, discoverers, and other labourers of the +past, a social growth to which all individual claims have lapsed by +death, but from the advantages of which the masses are virtually shut +out for lack of means. The very best definition of government, even that +of to-day, is that it is the agency of society which procures title to +this treasure, stores it up, guards and gives access to it to every one, +and of which all must make the best use, first and foremost by +education." + +The conscious socialist is he who, recognizing in theory the nature of +this social property inherent in all forms of capital, aims consciously +at getting possession or control of it for society, in order to solve +the problem of poverty by making the wage-earner not only a joint-owner +of the social property in land but also in capital. + +In other words, it signifies that the community refuses to sanction any +absolute property on the part of any of its members, recognizing that a +large portion of the value of each individual's work is due, not to his +solitary efforts, but to the assistance lent by the community, which has +educated and secured for the individual the skill which he puts in his +work; has allowed him to make use of certain pieces of the material +universe which belongs to society; has protected him in the performance +of his work; and lastly, by providing him a market of exchange, has +given a social value to his product which cannot be attributed to his +individual efforts. In recognition of the co-operation of society in all +production of wealth, the community claims the right to impose such +conditions upon the individual as may secure for it a share in that +social value it has by its presence and activity assisted to create. The +claim of the theoretic socialist is that society by taxing or placing +other conditions upon the individual as capitalist or workman is only +interfering to secure her own. Since it is not possible to make any +satisfactory estimate of the proportion of any value produced which is +due to the individual efforts, and to society respectively, there can be +no limit assigned to the right of society to increase its claim save the +limit imposed by expediency. It will not be for the interest of society +to make so large a claim by way of regulation, restriction, or taxation, +as shall prevent the individual from applying his best efforts to the +work of production, whether his function consists in the application of +capital or of labour. The claims of many theoretic socialists transcend +this statement, and claim for society a full control of all the +instruments of production. But it is not necessary to discuss this wider +claim, for the narrower one is held sufficient to justify and explain +those slow legislative movements which come under the head of practical +socialism, as illustrated in modern English history. + +Now while this conscious socialism has no large hold in England, it is +necessary to admit that the doctrine just quoted does furnish in some +measure an explanation of the unconscious socialism traceable in much of +the legislation of this century. When it is said that "we are all +socialists to-day," what is meant is, that we are all engaged in the +active promotion or approval of legislation which can only be explained +as a gradual unconscious recognition of the existence of a social +property in capital which it is held politic to secure for the public +use. + +The increasing restrictions on free use of capital, the monopoly of +certain branches of industry by the State and the municipality, the +growing tendency to take money from the rich by taxation, can be +explained, reconciled, and justified on no other principle than the +recognition that a certain share of the value of these forms of wealth +is due to the community which has assisted and co-operated with the +individual owner in its creation. Whether the socialistic legislation +which, stronger than all traditions of party politics, is constantly +imposing new limitations upon the private use of capital, is desirable +or not, is not the question with which we are concerned. It is the fact +that is important. Society is constantly engaged in endeavouring, +feebly, slowly, and blindly, to relieve the stress of poverty, and the +industrial weakness of low-skilled labour, by laying hands upon certain +functions and certain portions of wealth formerly left to private +individuals, and claiming them as social functions and social wealth to +be administered for the social welfare. This is the past and present +contribution of "socialistic legislation" towards a solution of the +problem of poverty, and it seems not unlikely that the claims of society +upon these forms of social property will be larger and more +systematically enforced in the future. + + + + +Chapter XI. + +The Industrial Outlook of Low-Skilled Labour. + + + +Sec. 1. The Concentration of Capital.--It must be remembered that we have +been concerned with what is only a portion of the great industrial +movement of to-day. Perhaps it may serve to make the industrial position +of the poor low-skilled workers more distinct if we attempt to set this +portion in its true relation to the larger Labour Problem, by giving a +brief outline of the size and relation of the main industrial forces of +the day. + +If we look at the two great industrial factors, Capital and Labour, we +see a corresponding change taking place in each. This change signifies a +constant endeavour to escape the rigour of competition by a co-operation +which grows ever closer towards fusion of interests previously separate. + +Look first at Capital. We saw how the application of machinery and +mechanical power to productive industries replaced the independent +citizen, or small capitalist, who worked with a handful of assistants, +by the mill and factory owner with his numerous "hands." The economic +use of machinery led to production on a larger scale. But new, complex, +and expensive machinery is continually being invented, which, for those +who can afford to purchase and use it, represents a fresh economy in +production, and enables them both to produce larger quantities of goods +more rapidly, and to get rid of them by underselling those of their +trade competitors who are working with old-fashioned and less effective +machinery. As this process is continually going on, it signifies a +constant advantage which the owner of a large business capital has over +the owner of a smaller capital. In earlier times, when trade was more +localized, and the small manufacturer or merchant had his steady +customers, and stood on a slowly and carefully acquired reputation, it +was not so easy for a new competitor to take his trade by the offer of +some small additional advantage. But the opening up of wider +communication by cheap postage, the newspaper, the railway, the +telegraph, the general and rapid knowledge of prices, the enormous +growth of touting and advertising, have broken up the local and personal +character of commerce, and tend to make the whole world one complete and +even arena of competition. Thus the fortunate possessor of some +commercial advantage, however trifling, which enables him to produce +more cheaply or sell more effectively than his fellows, can rapidly +acquire their trade, unless they are able to avail themselves of the new +machinery, or special skill, or other economy which he possesses. This +consideration enables the large capitalist in all businesses where large +capital contains these advantages, or the owner of some large natural +monopoly, who can most cheaply extract large quantities of raw material, +to crush in free competition the smaller businesses. In proportion as +business is becoming wider and more cosmopolitan, these natural +advantages of large capital over small are able to assert themselves +more and more effectively. In certain branches of trade, which have not +yet been taken over by elaborate machinery, or where everything depends +upon the personal activity and intelligence, and the detailed +supervision of a fully interested owner, the small capitalist may still +hold his own, as in certain branches of retail trade. But the general +movement is in favour of large businesses. Everywhere the big business +is swallowing up the smaller, and in its turn is liable to be swallowed +by a bigger one. In manufacture, where the cosmopolitan character is +strongest, and where machinery plays so large a part, the movement +towards vast businesses is most marked; each year makes it more rapid, +and more general. But in wholesale and retail distribution, though +somewhat slower, the tendency is the same. Even in agriculture, where +close personal care and the limitations of a local market temper the +larger tendency, the recent annals of Western America and Australia +supply startling evidence of the concentrative force of machinery. The +meaning of this movement in capital must not be mistaken. It is not +merely that among competing businesses, the larger showing themselves +the stronger survive, and the smaller, out-competed disappear. This of +course often happens. The big screw-manufacturer able to provide some +new labour-saving machinery, to advertise more effectively, or even to +sell at a loss for a period of time, can drown his weaker competitors +and take their trade. The small tradesman can no longer hold his own in +the fight with the universal provider, or the co-operative store. + +But this destruction of the small business, though an essential factor +in the movement, is not perhaps the most important aspect. The +industrial superiority of the large business over the small makes for +the concentration both of small capitals and of business ability. The +monster millionaire, who owns the whole or the bulk of his great +business, is after all a very rare specimen. The typical business form +of to-day is the joint stock company. This simply means that a number of +capitalists, who might otherwise have been competing with one another on +a small scale of business, recognizing the advantage of size, agree to +mass their capital into one large lump, and to entrust its manipulation +to the best business ability they can muster among them, or procure from +outside. This process in its simplest form is seen in the amalgamation +of existing and competing businesses, notable examples of which have +recently occurred in the London publishing trade. But the ordinary +Company, whether it grows by the expansion of some large existent +business, or, like most railways or other new enterprises, is formed out +of money subscribed in order to form a business, represents the same +concentrating tendency. These share-owners put their capital together +into one concern, in order to reap some advantage which they think they +would not reap if they placed the capital in small competing businesses. +But though it has been calculated that about one-third of English +commerce is now in the hands of joint stock companies, this by no means +exhausts the significance of the centralizing force in capital. Almost +all large businesses, and many small businesses, are recognized to be +conducted largely with borrowed capitals. The owners of these debentures +are in fact joint capitalists with the nominal owner of the business. +They prefer to lend their capital, because they hope to enjoy a portion +of the gain and security which belongs to a large business as compared +with a small one. Along with this coming together of small capitals to +make a large capital, there is a constant centralization and +organization of business ability. It is not uncommon for the owner of a +small and therefore failing business to accept a salaried post in the +office of some great business firm. So too we find the son of a small +tradesman, recognizing the hopelessness of maintaining his father's +business, takes his place behind the counter of some monster house. + +Sec. 2. How Competition affects Capital.--Now the force which brings about +all these movements is the force of competition. Every increase of +knowledge, every improvement of communication, every breakdown of +international or local barriers, increases the advantage of the big +business, and makes the struggle for existence among small businesses +more keen and more hopeless. It is the desire to escape from the heavy +and harassing strain of trade competition, which practically drives +small businesses to suspend their mutual hostilities, and to combine. It +is true that most of the large private businesses or joint stock +companies are not formed by this direct process of pacification. But for +all that, their _raison d'etre_ is found in the desire to escape the +friction and waste of competition which would take place if each +shareholder set up business separately on his own account. We shall not +be surprised that the competition of small businesses has given way +before co-operation, when we perceive the force and fierceness of the +competition between the larger consolidated masses of capital. With the +development of the arts of advertising, touting, adulteration, political +jobbery, and speculation, acting over an ever-widening area of +competition, the fight between the large joint stock businesses grows +always more cruel and complex. Business failures tend to become more +frequent and more disastrous. A recent French economist reckons that ten +out of every hundred who enter business succeed, fifty vegetate, and +forty go into bankruptcy. In America, where internal competition is +still keener and speculation more rife, it has been lately calculated +that ninety-five per cent, of those who enter business "fail of +success." Just as in the growth of political society the private +individual has given up the right of private war to the State, with the +result that as States grow stronger and better organized, the war +between them becomes fiercer and more destructive, so is it with the +concentration of capital. The small capitalist, seeking to avoid the +strain of personal competition, amalgamates with others, and the +competition between these masses of capital waxes every day fiercer. We +have no accurate data for measuring the diminution of the number of +separate competitors which has attended the growing concentration of +capital, but we know that the average magnitude of a successful business +is continually increasing. The following figures illustrate the meaning +of this movement from the American cotton trade, which is not one of the +industries most susceptible to the concentrative pressure. "It will be +seen that in 756 large establishments in 1880, in which the aggregate +capital invested was five times as great as that in the 801 +establishments in 1830, the capital invested per spindle was one-third +less, the number of spindles operated by each labourer nearly three +times as large, the product per spindle one-fourth greater, the product +per dollar invested twice as large, the price of the cotton cloth nearly +sixty per cent, less, the consumption _per capita _of the population +over one hundred per cent greater, and the wages more than double. What +is true of this industry is true of all industries where the +concentration of capital has taken place."[38] + +It is needless to add that these large works are conducted, not by +single owners, but in nearly all cases by the managers of associated +capitals. Regarded from the large standpoint of industrial development, +all these phenomena denote a change in the sphere of competition. From +the competition of private capitals owned by individuals we have passed +to the competition of associated capitals. The question now arises, +"Will not the same forces, which, in order to avoid the waste and +destruction of ever keener competition, compelled the private +capitalists to suspension of hostility and to combination, act upon the +larger masses of associated capital?" The answer is already working +itself clearly out in industrial history. The concentrative adhesive +forces are everywhere driving the competing masses of capital to seek +safety, and escape waste and destruction, by welding themselves into +still larger masses, renouncing the competition with one another in +order to compete more successfully with other large bodies. Thus, +wherever these forces are in free operation, the number of competing +firms is continually growing less; the surviving competitors have +crushed or absorbed their weaker rivals, and have grown big by feeding +on their carcases. + +But the struggle between these few big survivors becomes more fierce +than ever. Fitted out with enormous capital, provided with the latest, +most complex, and most expensive machinery, producing with a reckless +disregard for one another or the wants of the consuming public, +advertising on a prodigious scale in order to force new markets, or +steal the markets of one another, they are constantly driven to lower +their prices in order to effect sales; profits are driven to a minimum; +all the business energy at their command is absorbed by the strain of +the fight; any unforeseen fluctuations in the market brings on a crisis, +ruins the weaker combatants, and causes heavy losses all round. In +trades where the concentrative process has proceeded furthest this +warfare is naturally fiercest. But as the number of competing units +grows smaller, arbitration or union becomes more feasible. Close and +successful united action among a large number of scattered competitors +of different scales of importance, such as exist during the earlier +stage of capitalism, would be impossible. But where the number is small, +combination presents itself as possible, and in so much as the +competition is fiercer, the direct motive to such combination is +stronger. Hence we find that attempts are made to relieve the strain +among the largest businesses. The fiercest combatants weary of incessant +war and patch up treaties. The weapon of capitalist warfare is the power +of under-selling--"cutting prices." The most powerful firms consent to +sheathe this weapon, i.e. agree not to undersell one another, but to +adopt a common scale of prices. This action, in direct restraint of +competition, corresponds to the action of a trades union, and is +attained by many trades whose capital is not large or business highly +developed. Neither does it imply close union of friendly relations +between the combining parties. It is a policy dictated by the barest +instinct of self-preservation. We see it regularly applied in certain +local trades, especially in the production and distribution of +perishable commodities. Our bakers, butchers, dairy-men, are everywhere +in a constant state of suspended hostility, each endeavouring indeed to +get the largest trade for himself, but abiding generally by a common +scale of prices. Wherever the local merchants are not easily able to be +interfered with by outsiders, as in the coal-trade, they form a more or +less closely compacted ring for the maintenance of common terms, raising +and lowering prices by agreement. The possibility of successfully +maintaining these compacts depends on the ability to resist outside +pressure, the element of monopoly in the trade. When this power is +strong, a local ring of competing tradesmen may succeed in maintaining +enormous prices. To take a humble example--In many a remote Swiss +village, rapidly grown into a fashionable resort, the local washerwomen +are able to charge prices twice as high as those paid in London, +probably four times as high as the normal price of the neighbourhood. + +Grocers or clothiers are not able to combine with the same effect, for +the consumer is far less dependent on local distribution for these +wares. But wherever such retail combinations are possible they are +found. Among large producers and large distributing agencies the same +tendency prevails, especially in cases where the market is largely +local. Free competition of prices among coal-owners or iron-masters +gives way under the pressure of common interests, to a schedule of +prices; competing railways come to terms. Even among large businesses +which enjoy no local monopoly, there are constant endeavours to maintain +a common scale of prices. This condition of loose, irregular, and +partial co-operation among competing industrial units is the +characteristic condition of trade in such a commercial country as +England to-day. Competitors give up the combat _a outrance_, and fight +with blunted lances. + +Sec. 3. Syndicates and Trusts.--But it is of course extremely difficult to +maintain these loose agreements among merchants and producers engaged in +intricate and far-reaching trades. A big opportunity is constantly +tempting one of them to undersell; new firms are constantly springing up +with new machinery, willing to trade upon the artificially raised +prices, by under-selling so as to secure a business; over-production and +a glut of goods tempts weaker firms to "cut rates," and this breaks down +the compact. A score of different causes interfere with these delicate +combinations, and plunge the different firms into the full heat and +waste of the conflict. The renewed "free competition" proves once more +fatal to the smaller businesses; the waste inflicted on the "leviathans" +who survive forms a fresh motive to a closer combination. + +These new closer combinations are known by the names of Syndicate and +Trust. This marks another stage in the evolution of capital. In the +United States, where the growth is most clearly marked, the Standard Oil +Trust forms the leading example of a successful Trust. In 1881, this +Standard Oil Company having maintained for some ten years tolerably +close informal relations with its leading competitors in the Eastern +States, and having crushed out the smaller companies, entered into a +close arrangement with the remaining competitors, with the view of a +practical consolidation of the businesses into one, though the formal +identity of the several firms was still maintained. The various +companies which entered into this union, comprising nearly all the chief +oil-mills, submitted their businesses to valuation, and placed +themselves in the hands of a board of trustees, with an absolute power +to regulate the quantity of production, and if necessary to close mills, +to raise and lower prices, and to work the whole number as a joint +concern. Each company gave up its shares to the Trust, receiving notes +of acknowledgment for the worth of the shares, and the total profits +were to be divided as dividend each half-year. This Trust has continued +to exist, and has now a practical monopoly of the oil trade in America, +controlling, it is reckoned, more than 90 per cent. of the whole market, +and regulating production and prices. + +Everywhere this process is at work. Competing firms are in every trade, +where their small numbers permit, striving to come to closer terms than +formerly, and either secretly or openly joining forces so as to get full +control over the production or distribution of some product, in order to +manipulate prices for their own profit. From railways and corn-stores +down to slate-pencils, coffins, and sticking-plaster, everything is +tending to fall under the power of a Trust. Many of these Trusts fail to +secure the union of a sufficient proportion of the large competitors, or +quarrels spring up among the combining firms, or some new firms enter +into competition too strong to be fought or bought over. In these ways a +large number of the Trusts have hitherto broken down, and will doubtless +continue to break down. In England, this step in capitalist evolution is +only beginning to be taken. In glass, paper, salt, coal, and a few other +commodities, combinations more permanent than the mere Ring or Corner, +and closer than the ordinary masters' unions, have been formed. But Free +Trade, which leaves us open to the less calculable and controllable +element of foreign competition, and the fact that the earlier stages of +concentration of capital are not yet completed here in most trades, have +hitherto retarded the growth of the successful Trust in England. Even in +America there is no case where the monopoly of a Trust reigns absolute +through the whole country, though many of them enjoy a local control of +production and prices which is practically unrestricted. Excepting in +the case of the Standard Oil Trust, and a few less important bodies +which enjoy the control of some local monopoly, such as anthracite coal, +the supremacy of the leading Trust or Syndicate is brought in certain +places into direct conflict with other more or less independent +competing bodies. In other words, the evolution of capital, which tends +ever to the establishment of competition between a smaller number of +larger masses, has nowhere worked out the logical conclusion which means +the condensation of the few large competing bodies into a single mass. +This final step, which presents a completely organized trade with the +element of competition utterly eliminated under the control of a single +body of mere joint-owners of the capital engaged, must be regarded as +the goal, the ideal culmination of the concentrative movement of modern +capital. It is said that more than one-third of the business in the +United States is already controlled by Trusts. But most of them have +only in part succeeded in their effort to escape from competition by +integrating their personal interests into a single homogeneous mass. +Even in cases where they do rule the market untrammelled by the direct +interference of any competitors, they are still deterred from a free use +of their control over prices by the possibility of competition which any +full use of this control might give rise to. For it does not follow that +even where a Trust holds an absolute monopoly of the market of a +locality, that it will be able to maintain that monopoly were it to +raise its prices beyond a certain point. In proportion, however, as +experience yields a greater skill in the management of Trusts, and their +growing strength enables them to more successfully defy outside attempts +at competition, their power to raise prices and increase their rates of +profit would rise accordingly. + +Regarding, then, the development of the capitalist system from the first +establishment of the capitalist-employer as a distinct industrial class, +we trace the massing of capital in larger and larger competing forms, +the number of which represents a pyramid growing narrower as it ascends +towards an ideal apex, represented by the absolute unity or identity of +interests of the capital in a given trade. In so far as the interests of +different trades may clash, we might carry on this movement further, and +trace the gradual agreement, integration, and fusion of the capitals +represented in various trades. There is, in fact, an ever-growing +understanding and union between the various forms of capital in a +country. The recognition of this ultimate identity of interest must be +regarded as a constant force making for the unification of the whole +capital of a country, in the same way as the common interests of +directly competing capitals in the same trade leads to a union for +mutual support and ultimate identification. + +Sec. 4. Uses and Abuses of the Trust.--This, however, carries us beyond the +immediate industrial outlook. The successful formation of the Trust +represents the highest reach of capitalistic evolution. Although the +subject is too involved for any lengthy discussion here, a few points +bearing on the nature of the Trust deserve attention. + +The Trust is clearly seen to be a natural step in the evolution of +capital. It belongs to the industrial progress of the day, and must not +be condemned as if it were a retrograde or evil thing. It is distinctly +an attempt to introduce order into chaos, to save the waste of war, to +organize an industry. The Trust-makers often claim that their line of +action is both necessary and socially beneficial, and urge the following +points-- + +The low rates of profit, owing to the miscalculation of competitors who +establish too many factories and glut the market; the waste of energy in +the work of competition; the adulteration of goods induced by the desire +to undersell; the enormous royalties which must be paid to a competitor +who has secured some new invention--these and other causes necessitate +some common action. By the united action of the Trust the following +economic advantages are gained-- + + a. The saving of the labour and the waste of competition. + + b. Economy in buying and selling, in discovering and establishing new + markets. + + c. The maintenance of a good quality of wares without fear of being + undersold. + + d. Mutual guarantee and insurance against losses. + + e. The closing of works which are disadvantageously placed or are + otherwise unnecessary to furnish the requisite supply at profitable + prices. + + f. The raising of prices to a level which will give a living basis of + steady production and profit. + +That all these economies are useful to the capitalists who form Trusts +will be obvious. How far they are socially useful is a more difficult +question. Reflection, however, will make one thing evident, viz. that +though the public may share that part of the advantage derived from the +more economical use of large capitals, it cannot share that portion +which is derived from the absence of competition. If two or more Trusts +or aggregations of capital are still in actual or even in potential +competition, the public will be enabled to reap what gain belongs to +larger efficient production, for it will be for the interest of each +severally to sell at the lowest prices; but if a single Trust rule the +market, though the economic advantage of the Trust will be greater in so +far as it escapes the labour of all competition, there will be no force +to secure for the public any share in this advantage. The advantageous +position enjoyed by a Trust will certainly enable its owners at the same +time to pay high profits, give high wages, and sell at low prices. But +while the force of self-interest will secure the first result, there is +nothing to guarantee the second and third. There is no adequate security +that in the culminating product of capitalistic growth, the single +dominant Trust or Syndicate self-interest will keep down prices, as is +often urged by the advocates of Trust. It is true that "they have a +direct interest in keeping prices at least sufficiently low not to +invite the organization of counter-enterprises which may destroy their +existing profits."[39] But this consideration is qualified in two +ways:--_a_. Where Trust is formed or assisted by the possession of a +natural monopoly, i.e. land, or some content of land, absolutely limited +in quality, such potential competition does not exist, and nothing, save +the possibility of substituting another commodity, places a limit on the +rise of price which a Trust may impose on the public.. Although the fear +of potential competition will prevent the maintenance of an indefinitely +high price it will not necessarily prevent such a rise of price as will +yield enormous profits, and form a grievous burden on consumers. For a +strongly-constituted Trust will be able to crush any competing +combination of ordinary size and strength by a temporary lowering of its +prices below the margin of profitable production, the weapon which a +strong rich company can always use successfully against a weaker new +competitor. + +But though a Trust with a really strong monopoly, and rid of all +effective competition, will be able to impose exorbitant and oppressive +prices on consumers, it must be observed that it is not necessarily to +its interest to do so. Every rise of price implies a fall off in +quantity sold; and it may therefore pay a Trust better to sell a large +quantity at a moderate profit than a smaller quantity at an enormous +profit. The exercise of the power possessed by the owners of a monopoly +depends upon the proportionate effect a rise of price will have upon the +sale. This again depends upon the nature and uses of the commodity in +which the Trust deals. In proportion as an article belongs to the +"necessaries" of life, a rise of price will have a small effect on the +purchase of it, as compared with the effect of a similar rise of price +on articles which belong to the "comforts" or "luxuries" of life, or +which may be readily replaced by some cheaper substitute. Thus it will +appear that the power of a Trust or monopoly of capital is liable to be +detrimental to the public interest--1st. In proportion as there is a +want of effective existing competition, and a difficulty of potential +competition. 2nd. In proportion as the commodity dealt in by the Trust +belongs to the necessaries of life. + +Sec. 5. Steps in the Organization of labour.--The movements of labour show +an order closely correspondent with those of capital. As the units of +capital seek relief from the strain and waste of competition by uniting +into masses, and as the fiercer competition of these masses force them +into ever larger and closer aggregates, until they are enabled to obtain +partial or total relief from the competitive strife, so is it with +labour. The formation of individual units of labour-power into Trades +Unions, the amalgamation of these Unions on a larger scale and in closer +co-operation, are movements analogous to the concentration of small +units of capital traced above. It is not necessary to follow in detail +the concentrative process which is gradually welding labour into larger +units of competition. The uneven pace at which this process works in +different places and in various trades has prevented a clear recognition +of the law of the movement. The following steps, not always taken +however in precisely the same order, mark the progress-- + +1. Workers in the same trade in a town or locality form a "Union," or +limited co-operative society, the economic essence of which consists in +the fact that in regard to the price and other conditions of their +labour they act as a complex unit. Where such unions are strongly +formed, the employer or body of employers deals not with individual +workmen, but with the Union of workmen, in matters which the Union +considers to be of common interest. + +2. Next comes the establishment of provincial or national relations +between these local Unions. The Northumberland and Durham miners will +connect their various branches, and will, if necessary, enter into +relations with the Unions of other mining districts. The local Unions of +engineers, of carpenters, &c., are related closely by means of elected +representatives in national Unions. In the strongest Unions the central +control is absolute in reference to the more important objects of union, +the pressure for higher wages, shorter hours, and other industrial +advantages, or the resistance of attempts to impose reductions of wages, +&c. + +3. Along with the movement towards a national organization of the +workers in a trade, or in some cases prior to it, is the growth of +combined action between allied industries, that is to say, trades which +are closely related in work and interests. In the building trades, for +example, bricklayers, masons, carpenters, plasterers, plumbers, painters +and decorators, find that their respective trade interests meet, and are +interwoven at a score of different points. The sympathetic action thus +set up is beginning to find its way to the establishment of closer co- +operation between the Unions of these several trades. The different +industries engaged in river-side work are rapidly forming into closer +union. So also the various mining classes, the railway workers, civil +servants, are moving gradually but surely towards a recognition of +common interests, and of the advantage of close common action. + +4. The fact of the innumerable delicate but important relations which +subsist among classes of workers, whose work appears on the surface but +distantly related, is leading to Trade Councils representative of all +the Trade Unions in a district. In the midland counties and in London +these general Trade Councils are engaged in the gigantic task of welding +into some single unity the complex conflicting interests of large bodies +of workmen. + +5. An allusion to the attempts to establish international relations +between the Unions of English workmen and those of foreign countries is +important, more as indicating the probable line of future labour +movement, than as indicating the early probability of effective +international union of labour. Though slight spasmodic international co- +operation of workers may even now be possible, especially among members +of English-speaking races, the divergent immediate interests, the +different stages of industrial development reached in the various +industrial countries, seem likely for a long time at any rate to +preclude the possibility of close co-operation between the united +workers of different nations. + +Sec. 6. Parallelism of the Movements in Capital and Labour.--Now this +movement in labour, irregular, partial, and incomplete as it is, is +strictly parallel with the movement of capital. In both, the smaller +units become merged and concentrated into larger units, driven by self- +interest to combine for more effective competition in larger masses. The +fact that in the case of capital the concentration is more complete, +does not really impair the accuracy of the analogy. Small capitals, when +they have co-operated or formed a union, are absolutely merged, and +cease to exist or act as individual units at all. A "share" in a +business has no separate existence so long as it is kept in that +business. But the small units of labour cannot so absolutely merge their +individuality. The capital-unit being impersonal can be absolutely +merged for common action with like units. The labour-unit being personal +only surrenders part of his freedom of action and competition to the +Union, which henceforth represents the social side of his industrial +self. How far the necessity of close social action between labour-units +in the future may compel the labourer to merge more of his industrial +individuality in the Union, is an open question which the future history +of labour-movements will decide. + +The slow, intermittent, and fragmentary manner in which labour-unions +have been hitherto conducted even in the stronger trades, is a fact +which has perhaps done more to hide the true parallelism in the +evolution of capital and labour. The path traced above has not yet been +traversed by the bulk of English working men, while, as has been shown, +working women have hardly begun to contemplate the first step. But the +uneven rate of development, in the case of capital and labour, should +not blind us to the law which is operating in both movements. The +representative relation between capital and labour is no longer that +between a single employer and a number of individual working men, each +of the latter making his own terms with the former for the sale of his +labour, but between a large company or union of employers on the one +hand, and a union of workmen on the other. The last few years have +consolidated and secured this relation in the case of such powerful +staple industries in England as mining, ship-building, iron-work, and +even in the weaker low-skilled industries the relation is gradually +winning recognition. + +Sec. 7. Probabilities of Industrial Peace.--This concentrative process at +work in both capital and labour, consolidating the smaller industrial +units into larger ones, and tending to a unification of the masses of +capital and of labour engaged respectively in the several industries, is +at the present time by far the most important factor of industrial +history. How far these two movements in capital and in labour react on +one another for peace or for strife is a delicate and difficult +question. Consideration of the common interest of capital and labour +dependent on their necessary co-operation in industry might lead us to +suppose that along with the growing organization of the two forces there +would come an increased recognition of this community of interest which +would make constantly and rapidly for industrial peace. But we must not +be misled by the stress which is rightly laid on the identity of +interest between capital and labour. The identity which is based on the +general consideration that capital and labour are both required in the +conduct of a given business, is no effective guarantee against a genuine +clash of interests between the actual forms of capital and the labourers +engaged at a given time in that particular business. To a body of +employes who are seeking to extract a rise of wages from their +employers, or to resist a reduction of wages, it is no argument to point +out that if they gain their point the fall of profit in their employers' +business will have some effect in lowering the average interest on +invested capital, and will thus prevent the accumulation of some capital +which would have helped to find employment for some more working men. +The immediate direct interests of a particular body of workmen and a +particular company of employers may, and frequently will, impel them to +a course directly opposed to the wider interests of their fellow- +capitalists or fellow-workers. But it is evident that the smaller the +industrial unit, the more frequent will these conflicts between the +immediate special interest and the wider class interest be. Since this +is so, it would follow that the establishment of larger industrial +units, such as workmen's unions and employers' unions, based on a +cancelling of minor conflicting interests, will diminish the aggregate +quantity of friction between capital and labour. If there were a close +union between all the river-side and carrying trades of the country, it +is far less likely that a particular local body of dock-labourers would, +in order to seize some temporary advantage for themselves, be allowed to +take a course which might throw out of work, or otherwise injure, the +other workers concerned in the industries allied to theirs. One of the +important educative effects of labour organizations will be a growing +recognition of the intricate _rapport_ which subsists not only between +the interests of different classes of workers, but between capital and +labour in its more general aspect. This lesson again is driven home by +the dramatic scale of the terrible though less frequent conflicts which +still occur between capital and labour. Industrial war seems to follow +the same law of change as military war. As the incessant bickering of +private guerilla warfare has given way in modern times to occasional, +large, organized, brief, and terribly destructive campaigns, so it is in +trade. In both cases the aggregate of friction and waste is probably +much less under the modern _regime_, but the dread of these dramatic +lessons is growing ever greater, and the tendency to postponement and +conciliation grows apace. But just as the fact of a growing identity in +the interest of different nations, the growing recognition of that fact, +and the growing horror of war, potent factors as they seem to reasonable +men, make very slow progress towards the substitution of international +arbitration for appeals to the sword, so in industry we cannot presume +that the existence of reasonable grounds for conciliation will speedily +rid us of the terror and waste of industrial conflicts. It is even +possible that just as the speedy formation of a strong national unity, +like that of Prussia under Frederick the Great, out of weak, disordered, +smaller units, may engender for a time a bellicose spirit which works +itself out in strife, so the rapid rise and union of weak and oppressed +bodies of poorer labourers make for a shortsighted policy of blind +aggression. Such considerations as this must, at any rate, temper the +hopes of speedy industrial pacification we may form from dwelling on the +more reasonable effects and teaching of organization. Although the very +growth and existence of the larger industrial units implies, as we saw, +a laying aside of smaller conflicts, we cannot assume that the forces at +present working directly for the pacification of capital and labour, and +for their ultimate fusion, are at all commensurate in importance with +the concentrative forces operating in the two industrial elements +respectively. It is indisputably true that the recent development of +organization, especially of labour unions, acts as a direct restraint of +industrial warfare, and a facilitation of peaceable settlements of trade +disputes. Mr. Burnett, in his Report to the Board of Trade, on Strikes +and Lock-outs in 1888, remarks _a propos_ of the various modes of +arbitration, that "these methods of arranging difficulties have only +been made possible by organization of the forces on both sides, and +have, as it were, been gradually evolved from the general progress of +the combination movement."[40] + +Speaking of Trade Unions, he sums up--"In fact the executive committees +of all the chief Unions are to a very large extent hostile to strikes, +and exercise a restraining influence"--a judgment the truth of which has +been largely exemplified during the last two or three years. But our +hopes and desires must not lead us to exaggerate the size of these +peaceable factors. _Conseils de prud'hommes_ on the continent, boards of +arbitration and conciliation in this country, profit-sharing schemes in +Europe and America, are laudable attempts to bridge over the antagonism +which exists between separate concrete masses of capital and labour. The +growth of piecework and of sliding scales has effected something. But +the success of the Board of Conciliation and Arbitration in the +manufactured iron trade of the north of England has not yet led to much +successful imitation in other industries. Recent experience of formal +methods of conciliation and of sliding scales, especially in the mining, +engineering, and metal industries, as well as the failure of some of the +most important profit-sharing experiments, shows that we must be +satisfied with slow progress in these direct endeavours after +arbitration. The difficulty of finding an enduring scale of values which +will retain the adherence of both interests amidst industrial movements +which continually tend to upset the previously accepted "fair rates," is +the deeper economic cause which breaks down many of these attempts. The +direct fusion of the interests of employers and employed, and in some +measure of capital and labour, which is the object of the co-operative +movement, is a steadily growing force, whose successes may serve perhaps +better than any other landmark as a measure of the improving _morale_ of +the several grades of workers who show themselves able to adopt its +methods. But while co-operative distribution has thriven, the success of +co-operative workshops and mills has hitherto been extremely slow. A +considerable expansion of the productive work of the co-operative +wholesale societies within the last few years offers indeed more +encouragement. But at present only about 21/4 per cent. of English +industry and commerce, as tested by profits, is under the conduct of co- +operative societies. Hence, while it seems possible that the slow growth +in productive co-operation, and the more rapid progress of distributive +co-operation, may serve to point the true line of successful advance in +the future, the present condition of the co-operative movement does not +entitle it to rank as one of the most powerful and prominent industrial +forces. Though it may be hoped and even predicted that each movement in +the agglomerative development of capital and labour which presents the +two agents in larger and more organized shape, will render the work of +conciliation more peremptory and more feasible, it must be admitted that +all these conciliatory movements making for the direct fusion of capital +and labour, are of an importance subordinate to the larger evolutionary +force on which we have laid stress. + +We see then the multitudinous units of capital and labour crystallizing +ever into larger and larger masses, moving towards an ideal goal which +would present a single body of organized capital and a single body of +organized labour. The process in each case is stimulated by the similar +process in the other. Each step in the organization of labour forces a +corresponding move towards organization of capital, and _vice versa_. +Striking examples of this imitative strategic movement have been +presented by the rapid temporary organization of Australian capital, and +by the effect of Dock Labourers' Unions in England in promoting the +closer co-operation of the capital of shipowners. By this interaction of +the two forces, the development in the organization of capital and +labour presents itself as a _pari passu_ progress; or perhaps more +strictly it goes by the analogy of a game of draughts; the normal state +is a series of alternate moves; but when one side has gained a victory, +that is, taken a piece, it can make another move. + +Sec. 8. Relation of Low-skilled Labour to the wider Movement.--The relation +in which this large industrial evolution stands to our problem of the +poor low-skilled worker is not obscure. In comparing the movement of +capital with that of labour we saw that in one respect the former was +clearer and more perfect. The weaker capitalist, he who fails to keep +pace with industrial progress, and will not avail himself of the +advantage which union gives to contending pieces of capital, is simply +snuffed out; that is, he ceases to have an independent existence as a +capitalist when he can no longer make profit. The laggard, ill-managed +piece of capital is swept off the board. This is possible, for the +capital is a property separable from its owner. The case of labour is +different. The labour-power is not separable from the person of the +labourer. So the labourer left behind in the evolution of labour +organization does not at once perish, but continues to struggle on in a +position which is ever becoming weaker. "Organize or starve," is the law +of modern labour movements. The mass of low-skilled workers find +themselves fighting the industrial battle for existence, each for +himself, in the old-fashioned way, without any of the advantages which +organization gives their more prosperous brothers. They represent the +survival of an earlier industrial stage. If the crudest form of the +struggle were permitted to rage with unabated force, large numbers of +them would be swept out of life, thereby rendering successful +organization and industrial advance more possible to the survivors. But +modern notions of humanity insist upon the retention of these +superfluous, low-skilled workers, while at the same time failing to +recognize, and making no real attempt to provide against, the inevitable +result of that retention. By allowing the continuance of the crude +struggle for existence which is the form industrial competition takes +when applied to the low-skilled workers, and at the same time forbidding +the proved "unfittest" to be cleared out of the world, we seem to +perpetuate and intensify the struggle. The elimination of the "unfit" is +the necessary means of progress enforced by the law of competition. An +insistence on the survival, and a permission of continued struggle to +the unfit, cuts off the natural avenue of progress for their more fit +competitors. So long as the crude industrial struggle is permitted on +these unnatural terms, the effective organization and progress of the +main body of low-skilled workers seems a logical impossibility. If the +upper strata of low-class workers are enabled to organize, and, what is +more difficult, to protect themselves against incursions of outsiders, +the position of the lower strata will become even more hopeless and +helpless. If one by one all the avenues of regular low-skilled labour +are closed by securing a practical monopoly of this and that work for +the members of a Union, the superfluous body of labourers will be driven +more and more to depend on irregular jobs, and forced more and more into +concentrated masses of city dwellers, will present an ever-growing +difficulty and danger to national order and national health. +Consideration of the general progress of the working-classes has no +force to set aside this problem. It seems not unlikely that we are +entering on a new phase of the poverty question. The upper strata of +low-skilled labour are learning to organize. If they succeed in forming +and maintaining strong Unions, that is to say, in lifting themselves +from the chaotic struggle of an earlier industrial epoch, so as to get +fairly on the road of modern industrial progress, the condition of those +left behind will press the illogicality of our present national economy +upon us with a dramatic force which will be more convincing than logic, +for it will appeal to a growing national sentiment of pity and humanity +which will take no denial, and will find itself driven for the first +time to a serious recognition of poverty as a national, industrial +disease, requiring a national, industrial remedy. + +The great problem of poverty thus resides in the conditions of the low- +skilled workman. To live industrially under the new order he must +organize. He cannot organize because he is so poor, so ignorant, so +weak. Because he is not organized he continues to be poor, ignorant, +weak. Here is a great dilemma, of which whoever shall have found the key +will have done much to solve the problem of poverty. + + + + +List of Authorities. + + + +By far the most valuable general work of reference upon _Problems of +Poverty_ is Charles Booth's _Labour and Life of the People_ (Williams & +Norgate). By the side of this work on London may be set Mr Rowntree's +_Poverty: A Story of Town Life_ (Macmillan). A large quantity of +valuable material exists in _The Report of the Industrial Remuneration +Conference_, and in the _Reports of the Lords' Committee on the Sweating +System_ and of the _Labour Commission_. Among shorter and more +accessible works dealing with the industrial causes of poverty and the +application of industrial remedies, Toynbee's _Industrial Revolution_ +(Rivington); Gibbins' _Industrial History of England (University +Extension Series_, Methuen & Co.); and Jevons'_The State in Relation to +Labour (English Citizen Series)_, will be found most useful. For a clear +understanding of the relation of economic theory to the facts of labour +and poverty, J.E. Symes' _Political Economy_ (Rivington), and Marshall's +_Economies of Industry_are specially recommended. + +Among the large mass of books and pamphlets bearing on special subjects +connected with _Problems of Poverty_, the following are most useful. An +asterisk is placed against the names of those which deserve special +attention, and which are easily accessible. + + + +Sweating and Its Causes. + + +* Booth, _Labour and Life of the People_. + +* _Final Report of Lords' Committee on the Sweating System._ + +Marx, "Capital," chap. xv., _Machinery and Modern Industry_ +(Sonnenschein). + +Burnett, _Report to the Board of Trade on Sweating_ (Blue-Book, 1887). + +"Socialism," _Fabian Essays_ (Walter Scott). + +Booth, _Pauperism and the Endowment of Old Age_ (Macmillan). + +J. A. Spender, _The State and Pensions in Old Age_ (Sonnenschein). + +J. T. Arlidge, _Hygiene of Occupations_ (Rivington). + + + +Co-Operation and Labour Organization. + + +* Webb, _History of Trade Unionism_ (Longman). + +* Howell, _Conflicts of Capital and Labour_ (Chatto & Windus). + +* Burnett, _Report of Trade Unions_ (Blue-Book). + +Brentano, _Gilds and Trade Unions_ (Truebner). + +* Baernreither, _Associations of English Working-men_. + +Acland and Jones, _Working-men Co-operators_. + +Gilman, _Profit-sharing between Employer and Employed_ (Macmillan). + +_Co-operative Wholesale Society's Annual_. + +Potter, _Co-operative Movement in Great Britain_ (Sonnenschein). + +* Webb, _Industrial Democracy_ (Longman). + +* Schloss, _Methods of Industrial Remuneration_ (Williams & Norgate). + + + +Chartiable Work and Poor Law, &c. + + +* Aschrott, _The English Poor Law System_ (Knight). + +H. Bosanquet, _The Strength of the People_ (Macmillan). + +P. Alden, _The Unemployed_. + +Fowle, _The Poor Law_ (_English Citizen Series_). + +Booth, _In Darkest England_. + +Blackley, _Thrift and Independence_ (People's Library, S.P.C.K.). + +* Mackay, _The English Poor_ (Murray). + +* _Report on Pauperism in England and Wales_ (Blue-Book, 1889). + +Rev. S.A. Barnett, _Practicable Socialism_. + +Loch, _Charity Organization_ (Sonnenschein). + +_Report of Committee on National Provident Insurance_ (Blue-Book, 1887). + + + +Socialistic Legislation. + + +Ensor, _Modern Socialism_ (Harpers). + +* Jevons, _The State in Relation to Labour_. + +Webb, _Socialism in England_ (Swan Sonnenschein). + +Hyndman, _Historical Basis of Socialism in England_ (Kegan Paul). + +* "Socialism" (_Fabian Essays_). + +* Toynbee, _Industrial Revolution_ (Rivington). + +Kirkup, _An Inquiry into Socialism_ (Longman). + + + +Movements of Capital. + + +* Marx, "Capital," vol. ii., ch. xv. + +* Baker, _Monopolies and the People_ (Putnams). + +"Socialism," _Fabian Essays_. + +Macrosty, _Trust and the State_ (Grant Richards). + +Ely, _Monopolies and Trusts_ (Macmillan). + + + +The Measure of Poverty. + + +*Giffen, _Economic Inquiries and Studies _(Bell). + +Mulhall, _Dictionary of Statistics_ (Routledge). + +Bowley, _National Progress in Wealth and Trade_(King). + +* Board of Trade Memoranda, _British and Foreign Trade and Industrial +Conditions_ [cd. 1761 and 2237]. + +_Statistical Abstract of the United Kingdom_ [cd. 1727]. + +* _Census of England and Wales: General Report_, 1901 [cd. 2174]. + +* Leone Levi, _Wages and Earnings of the Working-Classes_ (Murray). + +* _Report of the Industrial Remuneration Conference_ (Cassell). + +Giffen, _Growth of Capital_ (Bell). + +Valpy, _An Inquiry into the Conditions and Occupations of the People in +Central London_. + + + + +Footnotes + + + +[1] This sum includes an allowance for the part of the wage of domestic +servants, shop-attendants, &c. paid in kind. + +[2] Leone Levi's _Wages and Earnings of the Working-Classes_, p. II. + +[3] _Labour and Life of the People_, vol. i. p. 38. + +[4] _Poverty: A Study of Town Life_. (Macmillan & Co.) + +[5] By Mr P.H. Mann in _Sociological Papers_. (Macmillan.) + +[6] Cf. _An Inquiry into the Conditions and Occupations of the People in +Central London_, R. A. Valpy. + +[7] This statement is borne out by _A Return of Expenditure of Working- +Men_, for 1889, published by the Labour Department of the Board of +Trade. + +[8] See two interesting papers, "Our Farmers in Chains," by the Rev. +Harry Jones (_National Review_, April and July, 1890). + +[9] Arnold White: _The Problems of a Great City_, p. 159. + +[10] Marshall's _Principles of Economics_, II. ch. iv. Sec.2. + +[11] De Tocqueville, _Ancient Regime_, ch. xvi. + +[12] _Report of the Industrial Remuneration Conference_, 1886, p. 429. + +[13] Cannan's _Elementary Political Economy_, part ii. Sec. 15. + +[14] _Industrial Remuneration Congress Report_, p. 153. Mr. W. Owen. + +[15] _Economics of Industry_, p. 111. + +[16] _Principles of Economics_, pp. 314, 316. + +[17] Kirkup, _Inquiry into Socialism_, p. 72. + +[18] Booth's _Labour and Life of the People, _vol. i. Part. III. ch. ii. +_Influx of Population, _by H. Llewellyn Smith. A most valuable paper, +from which many of the facts here stated have been drawn. + +[19] The official estimate is not precise, since our statistics of +emigration refer only to non-European countries. + +[20] _Labour and Life of the People_, vol. i. p. 237. + +[21] _Labour and Life of East London_, vol. i. p. 224. + +[22] _Report on the Sweating System_, p. 14. + +[23] _Labour and Life of the People_, p. 271. + +[24] _Final Report on the Sweating System, _Sec. 68. + +[25] _Lords' Committee on the Sweating System; Last Report, _ p. 184. + +[26] _Labour and Life in London_, vol. i. p. 489. + +[27] Howell, _Conflicts of Capital and Labour, _p. 128. Second Edition, +Macmillan & Co. + +[28] Karl Marx, _Capital_, vol. ii. p. 480. + +[29] _Labour and Life in East London, _vol. i. p. 112. + +[30] Cf. Howell's _Conflicts of Capital and Labour_, p. 207. + +[31] _The State in Relation to Labour_, p. 106. + +[32] _Problems of Greater Britain_, vol. ii. p. 314. + +[33] _Labour and Life of the People_, vol. i, p. 167. + +[34] The match-box trade, however, is chiefly in the hands of +home-workers. + +[35] _Labour and Life of the People_, vol, i p. 427. + +[36] Roscher's _Political Economy_, Sec. 242. + +[37] Fabian Essays in Socialism, p. 48. + +[38] Quoted by G. Gunton: _Political Science Quarterly_, Sept. 1880. + +[39] G. Gunton: _Political Science Quarterly, _Sept. 1888. + +[40] p. 17. + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PROBLEMS OF POVERTY*** + + +******* This file should be named 10710.txt or 10710.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/1/0/7/1/10710 + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. 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