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THE   LABOUR   MOVEMENT 


THE 

REFORMER'S 

BOOK-SHELF. 

Cloth,  3s.  6d.  per  Volume. 

I.  THE  ENGLISH  PEASANT.    Studies :  Historical,  Local, 

and  Biogiaphic.    By  RiCHAED  Heath. 
n.  SIXTY  YEARS  OF  AN  AGITATOR'S  LIFE.    A  cheap 

re-issue    of    the    Autobiography    of    George    Jacob 

HoLTOAEE.    2  Vols.,  with  front.  Portrait. 
m.  THE   LABOUR    MOYEKENT.      By  L.  T.  Hobhouse. 

With  Preface  by  R.  B.  Haldane,  M.P. 
IV.  THE  LIFE  OF  SAMUEL  BAMFORD.    Introduction  by 

Henry  Dunckley. 

OTHER   VOLUMES  IN  PREPAEATION. 


LONDON:   T.    FISHER    UNWIN. 


THE 

LABOUR   MOVEMENT 


BY 

L.     T.     HOBHOUSE 

Late  Fellow  of  Corpus  Christi  College,  Oxford,  formerly  Fellow  ofMerton  College 


WITH  PREFACE  BY  R.  B.  HALDANE,  M.P, 


SECOND  EDITION 


XonDon 
T.    FISHER    UNWIN 

PATERNOSTER  SQUARE 


THfS  Boofc  WHrrH  Hr,^  - 

^e^r,  TO  2N/J!f'*''^-I87H 
you   W,rHTHE.I-®***^^^0 

CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  I. 

PAGE 

THE   AIMS  OF  LABOUR 1 


CHAPTER  n. 
TRADE    UNIONISM   AND   THE    CONTROL   OF   PRODUCTION     .  6 

CHAPTER  HI. 
THE    AIMS   AND    METHODS    OF    CO-OrERATION    ...         33 

CHAPTER  IV. 
THE    DISTRIBUTION    OF   WEALTH 55 

CHAPTER  V. 

THE  CONTROL  OF  INDUSTRY  AND  THE  LIBERTY  OF  THE 

INDIVIDUAL 80 


PEEFATOEY  NOTE. 


The  following  chapters  profess  to  give  neither  a  history  of 
the  Labour  Movement  nor  a  statistical  account  of  the 
present  industrial  position.  Their  aim  is  merely,  first,  to 
state  and  briefly  defend  certain  principles  of  economic 
reform ;  secondly,  to  show  that  under  many  differences  of 
application  and  detail  these  principles  are  common  to 
various  industrial  movements  of  the  present  day ;  and 
accordingly  to  argue  that  the  movements  in  question  have 
a  natural  basis  for  a  closer  alliance  with  one  another  and  a 
reasonable  claim  on  the  support  of  all  who  desire  a  remedy 
for  economic  evils. 

My  obligations  to  several  authors  will  be  obvious  enough ; 
but  I  wish  expressly  to  acknowledge  how  much  I  owe  to 
Mrs.  Webb's  "  Co-operative  Movement "  and  Professor  Mar- 
shall's "  Principles  of  Economics."  I  have  also  to  thank 
Mrs.  Vaughan  Nash  for  several  suggestions,  and  Mr.  Tom 


viu  PBEFATOBY  NOTE. 

Mann  for  many  fruitful  and  stimulating  ideas ;  and  I  am 
under  a  special  obligation  to  Miss  Llewelyn  Davies  (Secre- 
tary of  the  Women's  Co-operative  Guild)  for  most  valuable 
suggestions  and  criticisms  on  points  of  principle  and 
arrangement,  and  for  drawing  my  attention  to  many  illus- 
trative details  of  Trade  Union  and  Co-operative  work. 

NOTE   TO   SECOND  EDITION. 

In  republishing  this  Essay  with  comparatively  few 
alterations,  the  writer  hopes  that  he  will  not  be  taken 
to  be  unconscious  of  its  many  deficiencies  and  short- 
comings. Had  circumstances  permitted,  a  fuller  revision 
would  have  been  undertaken,  but  it  is  hoped  that  as  the 
work  stands  it  may  serve  as  an  elementary  introduction 
to  certain  aspects  of  economic  theory  and  industrial  move- 
ment which  are  more  elaborately  treated  in  larger  works. 


PKEFACE. 


A  DISTINGUISHED  colonial  statesman  once  said  that  it  had 
taken  the  working  classes  of  his  colony  ten  years  to  find 
out  the  power  which  the  extension  of  the  suffrage  had  con- 
ferred on  them.  Nearly  ten  years  have  passed  since  the 
franchise  was  extended  to  the  rural  labourers  here.  In  the 
main  they  appear  to  have  found  their  political  feet.  But  the 
result  has  hardly  been  what  was  looked  for  by  the  Eadical 
leaders  of  1885.  It  is  true  that  the  government  of  this 
country  is,  in  substance,  if  not  in  form,  aim  est  completely 
democratic.  But  experience  has  shown  that  somewhere 
in  the  reasoning  of  the  poHticians  who,  like  Mr.  Chamberlain, 
predicted  that  with  the  new  franchise  those  who  remained 
on  earth  would  witness  a  political  millennium,  there  lurked 
a  fallacy.  That  fallacy  has  now  been  dragged  to  light.  It 
turns  out  to  have  been  a  very  simple  one.  It  consisted  in 
the  assumption  that  Democracy  and  Eadicalism  were  con- 
vertible terms.  That  they  are  not,  we  now  know.  We  have 
witnessed  a  tendency  in  the  working  men  of  the  towns  to 
turn  Conservative,  and  so  to  neutralise  that  shifting  of  the 
balance  of  political  power  which  took  place  in  1885.  What 
is  the  inference  ?  There  are  those  who  decline  to  believe 
that  the  social  arrangements  of  this  country  are  perfect,  or 
even  within  measurable  distance  of  perfection.     They  assert 


X  PItEFACE. 

more  loudly  than  ever  that  the  system  under  which  the  pro- 
ducts of  industry  continue  to  be  distributed  is  pervaded  by 
gross  and  cruel  injustice.  They  declare,  too,  that  the  vp-orking 
people  are  alive  to  this  fact  and  are  prepared  to  insist  upon 
reform.  And  they  draw  the  conclusion  that  the  failure  of 
motive  power  in  the  machine  of  progress  is  to  be  sought,  not 
in  the  Democracy,  but  in  the  Eadicalism  of  to-day. 

Let  us  look  more  closely  at  these  criticisms  of  our 
Eadical  politics.  "  He,  whoever  he  is,"  said  a  great  Ger- 
man, "who  acts  on  one  maxim  is  a  pedant,  and  spoils  things 
for  himself  and  others."  There  is  current  a  tendency 
to  act  on  one  maxim.  It  is  forgotten  that  what  was  the 
truth  for  the  last  generation  is  not  necessarily  the  truth  for 
this.  Cobden  and  Bright  proclaimed  fifty  years  ago  that 
the  next  step  was  to  sweep  away  the  remaining  vestiges  of 
legal  interference  with  the  import  of  food.  They  succeeded 
in  persuading  the  nation  to  take  that  step.  They  had  the 
requisite  force  only  because  they  looked  at  the  one  maxim, 
and  concentrated  themselves  on  its  application.  True,  when 
they  went  further  and  applied  it  to  labour,  as  though  it  also 
were  a  commodity,  they  proved  themselves  open,  in  the 
matter  of  their  opposition  to  Factory  Legislation,  to  the  sus- 
picion of  pedantry.  But  it  is  as  wrong  to-day  to  decry 
Cobden  and  Bright  because  they  took  what  was  undoubtedly 
the  truth  as  regards  the  Corn  Laws  to  be  the  truth  for  all 
times  and  all  circumstances,  as  it  would  be  to  invoke  their 
opinions  to-day  about  the  relations  of  Labour  and  Capital. 

Two  things  have  to  be  taught  to  the  Democracy  of  to-day 
before  it  is  likely  to  fulfil  what  was  predicted  of  it  in  1885. 
It  is  a  Democracy  of  flesh  and  blood,  and  it  has  all  that 
combination  of  strength  and  weakness,  of  desire  for  pro- 
gress coupled  with  attachment  to  the  very  traditions  that 
block  the  highway,  which  is  shown  by  the  numerically  less 
important  layers  of  society  which  weigh  it  down.  And  so 
it  is  that  our  leaders  must  teach  this  Democracy  that  they 
have  a  message  for  it,  a  message  not  of  mere  theoretical 


PEEFACE.  XI 

interest,  but  of  practical  import  for  the  bettering  of  its  con- 
dition. They  must  convince  it,  too,  of  something  more  than 
this  before  they  can  gain  its  faith.  Our  working  people  have 
instincts  of  high-mindedness  which  are  too  often  over-looked* 
Their  imaginations  must  be  touched  and  their  moral  enthu- 
siasm evoked.  And  this  is  only  to  be  done  by  statesmen  who 
can  come  before  them  with  clean  hands,  and  for  the  sake  of 
their  cause  and  not  themselves.  Those  who  have  seen  the 
working  classes  most,  know  best  how  deep  is  their  regard 
for  character  and  ethical  purpose  when  they  find  these 
qualities  in  their  would-be  leaders. 

This  second  matter,  vital  as  it  is,  does  not  come  within 
the  scope  of  any  book  on  the  Labour  Movement.     It  belongs 
to  the  science  of  human  nature.   But  the  first  question,  how 
to  reach  the  working  people  with  a  real  message,  is  the  sub- 
ject of  this  book.     Its  writer  belongs  to  a  school  which  is 
rapidly  growing,  a  school  the  leading  tenet  of  which  is  that 
the  problem  of   to-day  is  distribution  and  not  production* 
and  that  better  distribution  requires  the  active  intervention 
of  the  State  at  every  turn.     The  disciples  of  this  school 
believe  that  society  is  more  than  a  mere  aggregate  of  indi- 
viduals, and  see  in  it  a  living  whole,  which  not  only  does 
control  the  lives  of  its  component  parts,  but  must  do  so  if 
these  parts  are  to  remain  healthy,  and  not  as  to  some  of 
them  develope  into  unnatural  growths  drawing  unduly  on 
the  common  resources,  and  as  to  others  of  them  wither  up 
and  die  of  inanition.     Such  a  general  control  they  say  is 
natural,  and  while  they  agree  that  the  members  must  have 
scope  for  free  development  as  individuals,  they  say  that  such 
development  takes  place  most  healthily  when  it  is  kept  in 
consistency  with  the  equally  real  life  of  the  common  whole. 
They  point  to  the  success  of  the  Factory  Acts,  of  the  Mines 
and  Merchant  Shipping  and  Truck  Acts,  and  to  many  other 
illustrations  of  their  principles,  and  they  demand  that  this 
principle  shall  receive  in  the  future  the  more  extended  appli- 
cation which  they  think  its  past  history  justifies. 


xii  PREFACE. 

It  may  be  that  their  path  will  prove  to  be  beset  with  diffi- 
culties and  with  dangers  which  they  have  not  foreseen.  No 
political  problem  was  ever  adequately  solved  by  the  mere 
dry  light  of  abstract  doctrine.  Yet  it  may  be  that  theirs  is 
the  truth  for  the  time,  just  as  Free  Trade  was  the  truth  for 
the  England  of  half  a  century  since.  And  if  this  be  so  then 
unquestionably  ttie  preachers  of  the  New  Gospel  do  well  to 
look  neither  to  the  right  nor  to  the  left,  but  to  go  unflinch- 
ingly forward  as  did  the  great  reformers  of  the  past,  at  the 
peril  of  being  regarded  as  narrow,  and  with  the  certainty 
that  in  course  of  time  their  own  teaching  will  be  superseded 
as  no  longer  adequate,  and  as  inapphcable  to  a  new  set  of 
social  demands.  Not  only  in  politics,  but  in  religion,  in 
philosophy,  in  science,  in  literature,  and  in  art  have  men 
learned  to  own  that  this  is  so,  and  that  from  the  ever-de- 
veloping nature  of  truth  it  must  be  so. 

Such  a  book  as  this  can  never  do  more  than  present  the 
problem  as  it  is  known,  and  the  solution  as  it  appears  to  be 
known.  It  must  of  necessity  be  abstract  in  its  character. 
But  its  purpose  is  justified  if  it  has  stated  what  is  ascer- 
tained of  the  nature  and  purpose  of  the  new  movement,  and 
has  exhibited  it  as  a  whole.  How  difficult  are  such  legis- 
lative questions  as  the  regulation  of  the  hours  of  labour,  and 
how  crude  are  some  of  the  plans  which  have  been  proposed 
for  dealing  with  them,  the  writer  is  well  aware.  But  to  say 
that  the  questions  are  difficult  and  that  none  of  the  plans 
are  satisfactory  is  not  to  say  that  they  are  to  be  shelved. 
We  may  be  far  from  a  state  of  things  which  many  earnest 
people  hope  for  and  believe  in  as  possible.  But  a  remark- 
able movement  has  commenced,  and  these  pages  will  have 
served  their  purpose  if  they  show  how  and  why  it  has  arisen, 
and  in  what  fashion  its  progress  may  be  accelerated. 

E.  B.  HALDANE. 


THE    LABOUR    MOVEMENT. 


CHAPTER  I. 

THE    AIMS    OF    LABOUR. 

It  is  proverbially  difficult  to  see  the  wood  when  the  trees 
obscure  it,  and  the  casual  observer  of  the  Labour  World  of 
to-day  is  likely  enough  when  he  hears  of  the  "Labour  Move- 
ment "  to  ask,  Where  is  it,  and  what  is  it  ?  There  are 
scores  of  organisations,  hundreds  of  societies,  meetings, 
processions,  denunciations,  programmes,  leading  articles, 
and  placards.  But  what  unity  is  there?  what  common 
principle  or  aim  ?  Above  all,  what  result  ? 
■  A  little  inspection  would  reveal  certain  groupings  of  men 
and  organisations.  If  not  a  "  movement,"  certain  move- 
ments, at  any  rate,  would  stand  out  in  tolerably  definite 
outline.  In  Trade  Unionism,  for  example,  with  its  million 
and  a  half  of  adherents,  we  have  a  great  mass  of  men, 
agreeing  upon  the  whole  in  their  aims  and  methods,  united 
in  idea  if  not  always  in  policy.  Then  there  is  the  Co- 
operative World,  with  its  million^of  members  and  fourteen 
hundred  stores  and  societies  scattered  over  the  length  and 
breadth  of  the  land,  yet  united  by  its  great  wholesale 
societies  and  its  congresses.  Quite  distinct  from  these, 
again,  are  various  political  and  municipal  organisations, 

2  1 


2  THE  LABOUR  MOVEMENT. 

working  apparently  on  quite  different  lines,  yet  also,  as 
they  claim,  in  the  interests  of  labour. 

If  we,  then,  group  the  great  powers  of  the  Labour  World 
after  this  manner,  our  original  question  becomes  manage- 
able, though  it  is  not  yet  answered.  Mutual  understanding 
is  not  yet  complete  as  between  the  actual  members  of  these 
different  groups,  but  to  those  who  believe  in  the  possibility 
of  far-reaching  economic  reform  there  is  no  more  hopeful 
sign  than  the  growing  recognition  among  them  of  a  common 
aim. 

Time  was  when  Trade  Unionists  and  Co-operators  looked 
on  one  another  with  suspicion,  while  both  were  decried  by 
the  partisans  of  State  action  as  the  Whigs  of  the  Labour 
Movement  who  were  bent  on  framing  a  new  aristocracy 
within  the  working  class.  But  the  era  of  mutual  suspicion 
is  rapidly  passing  away,  partly  because  each  of  the  move- 
ments in  question  is  emerging  from  its  primitive  limitations 
and  fulfilling  wider  and  higher  purposes,  and  partly  because 
along  with  this  growth  comes  a  better  understanding  of 
other  methods  of  reform. 

The  truth  is,  as  I  hope  to  show,  that  Trade  Unionism, 
Co-operation,  and  State  and  Municipal  Socialism  have  in 
essentials  one  and  the  same  end  to  serve.  Far  from  being 
alternative  or  incompatible  methods,  each  is,  I  believe,  the 
necessary  supplement  to  the  others  in  the  fulfilment  of  the 
common  purpose,  and  my  present  object  is  to  consider  what 
this  purpose  is  and  how  each  will  help  to  work  it  out. 

In  a  general  way  it  is  easy  enough  to  lay  down  the  objects 
of  any  genuine  movement  of  economic  reform.  That  the 
means  of  livelihood  should  be  shared  by  all  members  of 
society,  and  this  in  such  a  way  that  all  should  have  a 
chance,  not  merely  of  living,  but  of  making  the  best  of 
themselves  and  their  lives — thus  much  must  be  the  desire 
of  every  one  who  considers  the  subject.  And  though  no 
economic  progress  can  of  itself  produce  good  family  life,  nor 
intellectual  culture,  nor  public  spirit,  yet  that  all  of  these 


THE  AIMS  OF  LABOVB.  3 

may  flourish  certain  economic  conditions  must  be  fulfilled, 
and  the  object  of  industrial  reform  is  to  bring  about  these 
conditions.  On  the  national  industry  the  whole  of  the 
national  life  is  based,  and  whatever  powers  may  build  up 
the  fair  edifice  of  the  common  weal,  the  economic  system 
is  responsible  for  the  soundness  of  the  substructure.  This 
soundness  may  be  said  to  consist  in  the  provision  by  honest 
methods  of  the  material  requisites  for  a  good  and  full  life 
for  all  members  of  the  community.  Probably  all  w^ould 
recognise  this  as  desirable,  though  many  would  deny  its 
possibility. 

With  this  denial  I  shall  deal  later.  Meanwhile  I  would 
point  out  that  controversy  really  begins  when  we  attempt 
to  lay  down  the  necessary  prerequisites  of  our  admitted 
aim.  But  in  all  the  movements  which  I  am  considering  it 
would  be  agreed  that,  if  the  economic  basis  of  social  life  is 
to  be  sound,  not  increased  production,  but  a  better  dis- 
tribution of  wealth,  is  essential.  It  is  true  that  wealth  is 
not  an  end  in  itself.  It  is  true  that  beyond  a  certain  point 
increase  of  wealth  does  not  augment  happiness,  but  rather 
tends  to  mar  it.  It  is  true  that  the  acquisition  of  wealth, 
as  such,  is  a  base  end  to  set  before  a  man,  or  a  class,  or  a 
nation.  It  is  true  that  you  will  never  satisfy  your  '*  infinite 
shoeblack  "  by  filling  his  stomach.  It  is  no  less  true  that  a 
certain  moderate  amount  of  material  necessaries  and  com- 
forts are  absolutely  indispensable  to  a  decent  and  happy 
family  life,  and  that  some  measure  of  rest  from  manual  toil 
is  essential  to  the  full  development  of  the  faculties  and  the 
due  enjoyment  of  life ;  and  it  is  equally  undeniable  that 
these  material  necessaries  and  this  leisure  are  out  of  the 
reach  of  vast  numbers  in  the  wealthiest  countries  of  the 
world.  I  do  not  wish  to  dwell  on  this.  We  have  had 
enough  and  to  spare  of  denunciations  of  economic  injustice 
and  of  pictures  of  social  misery.  Let  us  face  the  fact  once 
for  all,  and  not  be  blinded  to  it  by  the  "  barren  optimistic 
sophistries  of  comfortable  moles."     Having  faced  it,  let  us 


4  THE  LABOVB  MOVEMENT, 

consider  the  remedy,  and  admit,  once  for  all,  that  whatever 
be  the  character  of  that  remedy,  it  must  fulfil  this  first 
condition  of  distributing  the  products  of  industry  with  more 
regard  to  the  welfare  of  the  masses  than  is  paid  by  the  blind 
and  sometimes  blindly  adored  forces  of  competition. 

But  a  better  distribution  of  w^ealth  means  also  a  better 
distribution  of  duties.  If  we  are  anxious  that  all  should 
eat  and  be  filled,  we  should  be  equally  determined  that  all 
should  first  work.  In  a  healthy  society  there  are  neither 
idlers  nor  beggars ;  there  is  no  leisured  class,  whether  of 
tramps  or  millionaires.  There  can  be  no  "Gospel  of  Eights" 
apart  from  that  of  Duties.  But  this  means  simply  that  we 
have  to  work  towards  a  healthier  state  of  social  organisa- 
tion in  which  each  man  will  find  his  place  in  society  and 
will  recognise  it.  The  "  social  organism "  is  a  perfect 
organism  only  when  its  members  feel  that  they  depend  on 
one  another.  Hence  no  deep  or  lasting  improvement  can 
come  without  a  change  in  the  spirit  of  our  industrial 
system.  Born  and  bred  in  the  most  outspoken  indi- 
vidualist selfishness,  the  spirit  of  competitive  commer- 
cialism has  never  belied  its  origin.  The  true  source  of 
stock-jobbing  and  adulteration,  of  filibustering  adventurers 
and  odious  traffics  enforced  at  the  sword's  point,  it  has 
made  us  pay  heavily  for  such  advantages  as  it  has  brought. 
No  mere  change  of  machinery  can  undo  the  moral  damage 
it  has  done.  Machinery — laws,  administration,  organisa- 
tions— are  after  all  valuable  only  as  the  lever  by  which  the 
moral  forces  of  society  can  work.  Mere  reform  of  machinery 
is  worthless  unless  it  is  the  expression  of  a  change  of  spirit 
and  feeling.  If  the  change  from  individualism  to  socialism 
meant  nothing  but  an  alteration  in  the  methods  of  organ- 
ising industry,  it  would  leave  the  nation  no  happier  or 
better  than  before.  The  same  dishonesty,  the  same  mean- 
ness, the  same  selfish  rapacity  would  simply  find  different 
outlets.  But  if  machinery  without  moral  force  is  worthless, 
good  intentions  without  machinery  are  helpless.      If  the 


THE  AIMS  OF  LABOUR.  5 

friends  of  justice  and  progress  cannot  come  together  and 
frame  a  concerted  course  of  action,  the  good  they  can  do 
is  limited  to  their  own  lives.  True  administrative  reform 
consists  simply  in  such  mechanical  changes  as  will  put  power 
into  the  hands  of  those  who  will  use  it  best ;  and  when  it  is 
carried  out  with  this  intention  legislative  and  administrative 
advance  is  the  measure  of  progress. 

Any  movement,  then,  that  aims  at  far-reaching  economic 
reform  must,  so  far  as  its  effects  extend,  be  introducing  a 
new  spirit  into  industry — a  feeling  for  the  common  good, 
a  readiness  to  forego  personal  advantage  for  the  general 
gain,  a  recognition  of  mutual  dependence.  It  must  also 
provide  the  machinery  by  which  the  new  spirit  can  make 
its  mark  upon  the  economic  world,  and  its  tendency  must 
be  to  equalise  the  rights  and  duties  of  mankind. 

Now,  taking  the  movements  I  have  named  —  Trade 
Unionism,  Co-operation,  and  State  and  Municipal  Social- 
ism— how  far  does  each  of  these  fulfil  the  above  conditions  ? 
What  are  they  respectively  doing  at  the  present  day  ?  and — 
considering  that  each  movement  is  rapidly  growing — what 
is  their  tendency  ?  what  would  they  achieve  supposing  their 
full  development  attained?  Finally,  are  they  working  to- 
gether or  against  one  another  ?  Is  there  (in  addition  to  the 
general  ends  above  sketched)  any  common  principle  on 
which  they  work  ?  The  following  chapters  will  attempt  to 
give  in  outline  the  answer  to  these  questions. 


CHAPTEE  II. 

TBADE     UNIONISM    AND     THE     CONTBOL    OF 
PBODUCTION. 

If  we  accept  the  general  definition  of  "  industrial  health  " 
just  given,  the  first  problem  that  will  occur  to  us  is  that  of 
providing  suitable  conditions  of  work  and  adequate  remu- 
neration for  the  worker.  Now,  we  find  a  vigorous  and 
growing  effort  to  secure  these  ends  in  Trade  Unionism,  a 
movement  which  is  no  longer  confined  to  the  "  Aristocracy 
of  Labour,"  but  which  embraces  workers  of  every  grade. 
Trade  Unionism  represents  the  attempt  of  the  body  of  pro- 
ducers to  regulate  industry  in  their  own  interests  as  a  body 
— not  the  effort  of  each  man  to  shape  the  course  of  trade  in 
the  way  which  best  suits  himself,  but  the  effort  of  the  united 
body  of  workers  to  arrange  the  conditions  of  industry  in  the 
way  which  best  suits  them  all.  The  Trade  Union  is,  in  fact, 
the  association  of  workers  in  a  given  locality  or  in  a  given 
occupation  formed  with  the  purpose  of  regulating  the  con- 
ditions of  labour  in  that  locality  or  occupation.  It  endea- 
vours, with  varying  success  in  different  cases,  to  fix  a 
minimum  wage,  to  define  the  hours  of  work  suitable  to  the 
occupation,  and  in  general  to  insist  on  those  conditions  of 
employment  the  universal  observance  of  which  is  necessary 
to  the  health,  comfort,  and  efficiency  of  the  whole  body  of 
workers.     Such  an  effort  is,  of  course,  liable  to  errors  both 

of  ends  and  of  means.     As  long  as  the  Trade  Union  repre- 

6 


TBADE  UNIONISM,  7 

sents  a  small  section  of  the  community,  it  may  endeavour 
to  establish  for  itself  a  monopoly  at  the  expense  of  the 
wider  public*  Everything  human  is  liable  to  corruption, 
but  if  we  are  to  push  the  possibility  of  corruption  as  an 
argument  against  Trade  Unionism,  we  must  be  consistent 
and  apply  the  same  reasoning  to  other  institutions  as  well, 
and  it  would  be  difficult  to  see  how  such  primary  social 
necessities  as  the  maintenance  of  a  political  governmeat 
would  escape  condemnation.  It  is  more  important  to  in- 
quire what  are  the  main  beneficial  functions  which  Trade 
Unionism  can  serve  in  assisting  the  organisation  of  industry. 
What  is  the  movement  actually  doing  ?  what  can  it  legiti- 
mately aim  at  ?  can  it  achieve  the  whole  of  its  aim  ?  and 
what  are  its  inherent  limitations  ? 

Eegarding  Trade  Unionism  from  our  present  point  of 
view  as  part  of  a  wider  movement,  its  function  in  that 
movement  is  clear.  It  has  the  foundation  work  to  do. 
The  workers  themselves  are  the  persons  immediately 
affected  by  the  conditions  and  remuneration  of  labour,  and 
to  the  organised  body  of  workers  we  look  accordingly  for 
the  due  regulation  of  these  fundamental  factors  of  social 
health. 

There  are  indeed  some  conditions  of  labour  of  too  great 
importance  to  be  left  to  any  voluntary  associations.  I 
mean  such  as  gravely  affect  the  health  and  safety  of  the 
worker.  These,  as  I  shall  argue  later,  are,  like  the  main- 
tenance of  the  Queen's  peace,  matters  of  the  first  necessity, 
which  must  accordingly  be  regulated  by  law.  In  these 
matters  the  function  of  the  Trade  Union  where  it  exists  is 
mainly  to  give  utterance  to  the  wishes  of  the  workers, 
to  collect  information  and  initiate  legislation,  and  to  aid 
the  enforcement  of  the  law  when  it  is  once  on  the  Statute 
Book.    But  unfortunately  the  unhealthiest  occupations  at 

*  Instances  of  success  in  such  a  policy  would  be  found  rather  among 
old-established  Unions  in  learned  professions  like  the  Bar  than  in  the 
more  modern  combinations  of  manual  labour. 


8  THE  LABOUR  MOVEMENT. 

the  present  day  are  just  there  in  which  Unionism  is 
weakest.  Hence  it  is  on  outside  opinion  that  we  have 
mainly  to  rely  in  the  work  of  removing  the  darkest  blots 
from  our  industrial  life. 

In  their  actual  work  at  the  present  day  Trade  Unions  are 
mainly  concerned  with  the  hours  of  work  and  its  remunera- 
tion. Their  avowed  object  is  to  obtain  a  "  fair  day's  pay 
for  a  fair  day's  work,"  and  that  for  all  workers.  But  these 
are  terms  that  require  some  definition.  As  to  the  "  fair 
day's  work  "  it  is  becoming  pretty  clearly  defined  for  most 
trades  as  an  "  eight-hours  day  " — eight  hours  being  a  time 
for  which  an  average  man  can  work  at  an  average  employ- 
ment without  exhausting  himself  and  without  finding 
himself  deprived  of  all  leisure  and  energy  for  interesting 
himself  in  a  wider  life  outside  his  work. 

But  what  is  a  "  fair  "  wage?  This  is  not  quite  so  easy 
to  determine  on  any  logical  and  consistent  principle.  The 
phrase  indeed  is  used  in  every  trade  dispute  that  arises, 
but  if  a  precise  definition  could  be  attached  to  it  probably 
there  would  be  fewer  disputes  than  there  are.  I  am  not 
bold  enough  to  attempt  such  a  definition.  I  wish  only  to 
offer  a  few  considerations,  all  of  which  may  be,  and  perhaps 
in  part  are,  taken  into  account  by  employers  and  employed 
at  the  present  day,  and  might  be  more  fully  acted  on  by  a 
more  developed  industrial  organisation.  In  asking  what 
wages  are  fair,  I  shall  mean  by  "  fair  wages  "  the  amount 
we  should  fix  if  we  had  the  fixing  in  our  power,  in  other 
words,  I  shall  inquire  how  a  well-ordered  society  would  fix 
the  rate  of  wages  if  it  had  the  whole  distribution  of  wealth 
under  its  control. 

At  present  the  appeal  lies  generally  to  the  custom  of  the 
trade,  or  if  that  is  definitely  rejected  as  giving  a  rate  of 
wage  that  is  "  too  "  high,  or  lower  than  is  "  fair,"  the  rate 
prevaihng  in  other  trades  may  be  looked  to.  Or,  again, 
Buch  a  rate  may  be  thought  fair  as  would  leave  what  is 
regarded  as  an  average  rate  of  profit  to  the  employer — a 


TBADE  UNIONISM.  9 

view  which  may  be  held  to  justify  a  sliding- scale.  But 
especially  since  the  advent  of  Unskilled  Labour  in  the 
arena  of  industrial  warfare  there  has  been  a  tendency  to 
refer  to  the  amount  on  which  a  man  can  live  as  a  standard 
minimum  for  a  fair  wage.  It  is  in  vain  that  the  GalUos 
of  the  middle  class  reply  that  they  ''  do  not  see  the 
necessity  "  that  these  poor  creatures  should  live.  Like  De 
Quincey's  butcher,  the  poor  creatures  concerned  show  a 
determination  to  live  which  is  "  almost  bloodthirsty  "  and 
doubtless  most  unreasonable,  but  nevertheless,  when  it  finds 
organised  expression,  very  effective.  And  looking  at  the 
matter  from  the  point  of  view  of  the  welfare  of  society  as  a 
whole  the  determination  is  perfectly  justifiable.  What  ulti- 
mately is  the  meaning  of  "fair"  or  ''  reasonable?  "  By  the 
agreement  of  philosophers  of  most  opposite  schools  these 
words  mean  "  that  which  is  good  for  society"  in  one  form  or 
another.  Nothing  is  fair,  nothing  reasonable  which  tends  to 
cramp  the  hfe  and  diminish  the  happiness  of  society  as  a  whole. 
Everything  is  fair  and  everything  reasonable  which,  when 
all  its  effects  are  considered,  tends  to  further  social  develop- 
ment and  augment  the  happiness  of  men.  Now  I  ask,  is  it 
for  the  good  of  society  that  a  large  portion  of  it,  say  a  third, 
should  be  unable  to  provide  themselves  adequately  with  the 
mere  material  necessaries  of  life  ?  Is  it  well  for  the  millions 
primarily  concerned  ?  Is  it  well  for  the  moral  health  of  the 
remainder  who  allow  this  to  go  on  ?  Or  is  it  not  rather  the 
first  and  greatest  of  all  blots  on  the  fair  face  of  civilised 
humanity  to  be  removed  at  all  hazards  and  at  any  sacrifice  ? 
I  find  myself,  then,  in  full  agreement  with  those  who  hold 
that  the  first  condition  which  a  "  fair  "  wage  must  fulfil  is 
that  it  should  provide  the  worker  with  the  means  of  living 
a  civiUsed  existence.  It  is  needless  to  remark  that  the 
"  fair"  wage  must  be  earned  by  "  fair  "  work,  but  it  may 
be  noted  that  with  the  progress  of  the  organisation  of 
industry  it  will  become  increasingly  easy  to  penalise 
idleness  whether  picturesque  and  luxurious,  or  squalid  and 


10  THE  LABOUR  MOVEMENT. 

hungry.  At  present  it  is  always  difficult  to  tell  whether  a 
man  could  get  work  if  he  tried.  In  proportion  as  it  becomes 
easier  for  the  industrious  man  to  find  his  proper  place  and 
to  obtain  fitting  reward  it  becomes  less  difficult  to  enforce 
work  and  punish  idleness  without  compunction.  All  that 
I  say,  then,  of  the  standard  of  remuneration  must  be  taken 
as  applying  to  those  who  do  work,  and  work  to  the  standard 
required  by  their  foremen  or  other  managers,  under  limits 
laid  down  by  their  Trade  Union. 

It  will  be  said  that  the  conception  of  a  certain  standard  of 
living  or  comfort  as  determining  the  fair  wage  does  not  help 
us  much  since  the  standard  itself  is  continually  fluctuating. 
That  is  true,  and  there  must  be  an  element  of  indefiniteness 
which  no  abstract  reasoning  can  eliminate,  but  which  can  only 
be  handled  by  common  sense,  treating  each  particular  case 
on  its  merits.  Yet  there  are  certain  necessaries  a;nd  comforts 
which  can  be  specified  that  it  is  eminently  desirable  to  place 
within  the  reach  of  all,  and  some  of  which  are  out  of  the 
reach  of  the  majority  in  England  at  the  present  day.  Such  are 
sufficient  food  and  clothing,  house-room  enough  for  cleanli- 
ness and  decency,  adequate  medical  attendance  and  nursing 
in  sickness,  the  postponement  of  work  in  childhood  till  such 
education  can  be  given  as  fits  a  man  to  be  an  active  citizen, 
and  sufficient  leisure  both  for  study  and  amusement  in  adult 
life.  To  these  must  be  added  a  provision  of  great  importance 
for  childhood.  I  mean  that  the  mother's  care  should  not  be 
diverted  from  the  nursing  and  home  education  of  her  children 
by  the  need  of  contributing  to  their  maintenance.  Every 
career  should  be  open  to  women  without  reserve,  but  it 
should  be  made  unnecessary  that  any  married  woman 
should  occupy  her  time  in  bread-winning  at  the  expense  of 
the  all-important  duties  of  the  home.  The  "  fair  "  wage, 
then,  should  be  such  as  to  enable  a  single  bread-winner  to 
support  a  whole  family  after  the  fashion  I  have  described. 

In  all  this  I  have  been  speaking  of  the  minimum-wage — 
the  first  charge  on  the  produce  of  industry,  and  my  con- 


TBADE  UNIONISM.  11 

tention  is  that  it  should  be  regulated  primarily  by  the  con- 
sideration of  the  possibilities  of  living.  In  actual  wages 
other  considerations  of  course  enter.  The  most  important 
of  these  perhaps  are  skill,  effort,  and  unpleasantness  of 
occupation.  All  these  do  enter  into  the  rate  of  remunera- 
tion. How  far  sJiould  they  do  so  ?  This  question  is  bound 
to  rise  into  importance  with  the  growth  of  Trade  Unionism, 
and  few  problems  are  more  difficult  to  determine  by  any 
theoretical  considerations.  Let  us,  however,  bear  in  mind, 
that  whatever  remuneration  is  just  is  so  because  it  is  for 
the  common  good  that  it  is  awarded.  From  this  point  of 
view  it  is  clear  that  remuneration  should  in  some  degree 
depend  on  effort.  I  do  not  mean  that  competition  should 
be  reintroduced  in  the  form  of  piece-work,  or  that  any 
encouragement  whatever  should  be  given  to  over-exertion ; 
but  that  a  certain  standard  of  assiduity  and  of  length  of 
work  should  be  exacted  as  is  done  at  present  by  the  over- 
seers of  every  branch  of  production,  with  this  difference  only, 
that  the  Trade  Union  of  the  producers  affected  should  have 
a  voice  in  the  fixing  of  the  standard.  By  this  means  society 
can  call  forth  the  requisite  effort  on  its  behalf  without 
mischief  to  the  most  important  part  of  its  wealth,  the 
health  of  its  workers.  Similar  considerations  determine 
the  treatment  of  specially  unpleasant  or  unhealthy  occupa- 
tions. In  these,  due  regard  for  the  common  good  as  bound 
up  with  the  good  of  the  employed,  would  lead  to  such  a  reduc- 
tion of  hours  as  would  leave  plenty  of  time  to  recuperate. 
I  do  not  think  we  shall  in  any  case  long  continue  to  allov\^ 
men  to  be  kept  ten  or  twelve  hours  in  chemical  works, 
where  even  breathing  is  a  danger. 

Turning  next  to  the  wages  of  skill  (under  which  I 
include  bro.in  pov;er),  from  the '  individualist  point  of 
view,  it  seems  highly  desirable  that  a  man's  earnings 
should  be  proportional  to  the  value  of  his  product.  But 
such  an  apportionment  may  be  quite  incompatible  with 
the    virtue    and   happiness    of    society.     Regarding    only 


12  THE  LABOUR  MOVEMENT. 

these  last  considerations,  would  a  well-directed  industrial 
system  assign  a  special  reward  to  high  skill?  So  far  as 
skill  is  attained  by  effort,  and  so  far  as  the  requisite  effort 
could  only  be  called  forth  by  direct  pay,  it  would  be 
worth  while  to  pay  for  it.  But  what  of  native  or  original 
talent?  The  best  and  highest  of  such  talents  never  yet 
have  been  paid  for,  and  perhaps  they  work  better  without 
pay.  The  attempt  to  reward  genius  more  often  succeeds 
in  vulgarising  it.  The  same  holds  in  some  degree  of  the 
lesser  abilities  of  inventors,  and  of  the  captains  of  industry. 
The  profits  attending  success  tend  to  divert  their  attention 
to  profit-making  courses.  They  make  inventions  or  organise 
arrangements  that  will  pay,  not  considering  their  effect 
upon  society.  A  man  is  as  eager  to  invent  a  new  bomb  as  to 
construct  an  improved  plough.  And  possibly  we  should  have 
less  misplaced  ingenuity  if  the  credit  of  the  thing  were  its 
chief  reward.  But  to  push  this  principle  to  its  logical  con- 
clusion would  perhaps  be  Utopian.  There  are  three  reasons 
for  assigning  a  special  reward  to  skill  and  brain  power. 
First,  it  is  often  practically  impossible  to  distinguish  native 
talent  from  the  results  of  past  effort,  and  a  large  proportion 
of  men  will  therefore  neither  acquire  nor  use  skill  except  for 
a  reward.  Secondly,  it  is  better  to  be  liberal  than  niggardly. 
Men  work  best  on  the  whole  for  those  who  best  mark  their 
appreciation  of  services  done  by  adequate  reward,  and 
though  many  a  poet  of  the  first  order  is  and  has  to  be  con- 
tent with  less  pay  than  a  literary  hack — "  What  porridge 
had  John  Keats  ?  " — perhaps  this  is  too  much  to  be  expected 
of  the  mass  of  able  men.  Lastly,  within  certain  limits  the 
brainworker  requires  more  comforts  and  more  rest  than  the 
manual-worker.  He  is  a  more  delicate  machine,  requiring 
more  care,  and  wearing  out  more  easily.  Skill  therefore  in 
every  form  should  be  liberally  rewarded.  Only  let  it  be 
understood  that,  as  a  matter  of  social  exigency,  its  extra 
reward  ranks  far  below  the  necessity  of  providing  a  minimum 
for  all  workers. 


TBADE   UNIONISM,  13 

A  more  difficult  question  arises  as  to  the  opposite  of  skill 
— incompetency.  At  the  present  day  we  have  a  number 
of  sinecures,  rents,  annuities,  charities,  endowments,  work- 
houses, gaols,  and  other  admirable  arrangements  to  keep 
the  incompetent  from  starvation.  If  society  were  able  to 
control  industry  and  wealth  for  the  good  of  its  own 
members  as  a  whole,  I  imagine  that  the  only  differences 
in  this  respect  would  bo  two.  First,  it  would  be  only 
the  incompetent  and  not  also  the  idle  who  would  be 
allowed  thus  to  live  on  the  surplus  products  of  other 
men's  industry.  Idleness  would  be  regarded  as  a  social 
pest,  to  be  stamped  out  like  crime.  Secondly,  the  mis- 
cellaneous selection  of  the  incompetent  for  suitable  pro- 
vision at  present  effected  by  birth,  fortune,  favouritism, 
intrigue,  quackery,  and  other  means,  would  be  superseded 
by  a  more  scientific  adjustment.  All  who  could  work 
would  have  to  work,  and  those  who,  after  adequate  effort, 
proved  incompetent  to  earn  by  their  work  the  minimum  of 
a  decent  livelihood,  would  have  to  be  treated  as  a  particular 
class  of  the  infirm.  As  much  as  they  could  do  being  sternly 
demanded  of  them,  the  common  purse  must  bear  the  deficit. 
Nor  is  this  bad  economy.  To  begin  with,  the  burden  would 
not  be  BO  great  as  that  which  broad-shouldered  England 
bears  to-day.  We  should  have  no  idlers,  let  us  hope,  and 
none  of  the  incompetent  would  be  kept  in  luxury.  Secondly, 
incompetence  is  not  a  constant  factor  in  society.  Two 
things  increase  it — luxury  and  starvation,  both  for  moral 
and  physiological  reasons.  Keep  all  the  incompetent  in 
comfort  without  luxury  as  the  reward  of  the  best  work  they 
can  do,  and  you  make  the  best  possible  arrangements  for 
improving  them  off  the  face  of  the  earth.  I  conclude,  then, 
that  a  fair  reward  of  labour  should  not  be  directly  propor- 
tioned to  skill,  nor  even  to  effort ;  that  the  best  social 
arrangements  would  fix  a  minimum  to  be  paid  even  to  those 
unable  to  fully  earn  it;  and  that  while  an  increase  of 
remuneration  for  pure  skill  is  necessary,  and  within  limits 


14  THE  LABOUB  MOVEMENT. 

desirable,  this  is,  on  the  rule  of  justice  as  laid  down 
by  social  utility,  a  secondary  consideration  as  compared 
with  the  necessity  of  providing  a  sufficiency  for  all,  to  be 
attended  to  when  this  greater  need  is  satisfied.  The 
primary  economic  need  in  the  matter  of  Distribution  is  the 
fixing  of  a  sufficient  minimum  remuneration  and  a  reason- 
able maximum  of  hours  for  all  workers  in  company  with 
the  enforcement  of  the  rule  that  all  who  can  work  must 
work.  Secondary  to  that  is  the  due  apportionment  of 
additional  remuneration  for  additional  effort  and  special 
skill.  To  raise  the  wages  of  all  workers  to  such  a  rate 
as  will,  without  involving  the  exhaustion  of  the  worker, 
provide  the  material  means  of  a  happy  family  life  for 
all,  is  then,  to  us,  the  first  object,  and  if  it  is  difficult 
to  say  what  this  rate  is,  it  is  easy  to  say  what  it  is  not. 
It  is  not  the  wage  paid  to  agricultural  labour  throughout 
the  greater  part  of  England.  It  is  not  the  rate  paid  to 
unskilled  labourers  in  towns.  It  is  questionable  whether 
the  majority  of  clerks  and  skilled  artisans  may  be  said  to 
reach  it.  Wherever  we  di'aw  the  line  it  is  clear  that  an 
enormous  amount  of  levelling  up  remains  to  be  done.* 
Now  the  main  object  of  Trade  Unionism  is  to  enforce  this 
minimum  standard  of  comfort  for  all  workers.  This  duty 
falls  naturally  upon  it  as  the  organisation  of  those  primarily 
concerned,  and  up  to  this  point,  at  least,  it  works  for  what 
we  have  seen  to  be  the  highest  interests  of  society  as  a  whole. 

Can  Trade  Unionism  achieve  this  object  either  as  an  in- 
dependent movement,  or  as  part  of  a  wider  movement? 
Can  it  do  anything  to  secure  for  more  and  more  workers 
a  nearer  approach  to  the  ideal  of  a  fair  day's  work  for  a  fair 
day's  wage  as  above  defined? 

To  answer  this  question  it  is  not  enough  to  point  out  that 

in  general  wages  have  risen  where  Unions  are  strong,  as 

*  In  London,  according  to  Mr.  Charles  Booth,  18s.  to  21s.  per  week 
may  be  said  to  afford  a  bare  sufficiency;  and  the  classes  which  are  either 
in  want  or  would  be  "  better  for  more  of  everything  "  amount  to  32  per 
cent,  of  the  population  ("Life  and  Labour  of  the  People,"  vol.  i.  pp.  'd'6  U. 
and  131,  vol.  ii.  p.  24,  &c.). 


TRADE  UNIONISM.  15 

compared  with  places  or  industries  in  whicli  they  are  weak. 
Nor  is  it  enough  to  show  that  the  period  in  which  Unions 
have  grown  has  witnessed  a  great  improvement  in  the  whole 
economic  condition  of  the  classes  which  have  formed  them. 
A  more  promising  course  is  to  point  to  instances  in  which 
the  Unions  have  actually  agitated  or  fought  for  advantages 
with  success.  It  would  be  easy  enough  to  pile  up  lists  of 
successes  from  all  epochs  of  Trade  Unionism,  and  from 
every  kind  of  trade.  In  the  "Nine  Hours  Movement"  of 
twenty  years  ago  as  in  the  advanced  skirmishes  of  the 
"  Eight  Hours  "  battle  to-day;  '*'  in  the  success  of  the  Miners' 
Federation,  first,  in  raising  wages  from  30  to  40  per  cent., 
and  then  in  resisting  the  reduction  which  has  befallen 
the  non-federated  districts ;  in  the  famous  Docker's  Tanner, 
and  in  the  reduction  of  hours  from  twelve  to  eight  effected 
at  a  stroke  by  the  Gas  workers  Union,  we  see  the  power 
of  combination  at  work,  on  hours  and  wages,  in  skilled 
trades  and  unskilled,  in  the  past  and  in  the  present,  in 
town  and  in  country,!  sometimes  moving  swiftly,  some- 
times checked,  but  on  the  whole  making  its  way,  and  main- 
taining the  ground  that  it  wins.  And  we  cannot  count  by 
victories  alone.  Though  the  Union  may  be  defeated  the 
fight  may  be  justified  by  results.  |  A  brave  people  may  be 

*  Written  in  1892.  The  lock-out  of  1893  ended  in  the  acceptance  of  a 
10  per  cent,  reduction  instead  of  the  25  per  cent,  demanded,  and  in  the 
establishment  of  the  principle  of  a  minimum  wage. 

t  While  they  last,  Unions  of  Agricultural  Labourers  seem  to  be  as 
effective  as  any  others  in  securing  improved  conditions.  But  the  diffi- 
culties in  the  way  of  maintaining  them  are  such  that  it  is  doubtful 
whether  they  have  much  part  to  play  in  the  permanent  improvement 
of  village  life. 

I  For  this  reason  comparative  statistics  of  successes,  partial  successes 
and  failures  of  labour  disputes  give  an  imperfect  measure  of  the  value 
of  Trade  Unionism.  Disputes,  it  must  be  remembered,  are  the  failures 
of  Trade  Unionism,  and  are  but  partially  redeemed  by  victory.  That  is 
to  say,  it  is  the  business  of  Trade  Union  organisation  to  secure  reason- 
able advantages  without  fighting,  and  its  real  success  lies  in  this  direction. 
On  the  whole  question  of  the  historical  test  of  the  success  or  failure  of 
the  movement  much  evidence  has  been  made  generally  available  since 
1892;  yet  at  the  end  of  their  scholarly  and  elaborate  history  of  the 


16  THE  L ABOVE  MOVEMENT. 

beaten,  but  cannot  be  trampled  on  and  enslaved.  So,  to 
put  it  in  the  concrete,  an  Union  may  fight  a  reduction  of 
10  per  cent,  and  lose ;  but  the  stubbornness  of  the  battle 
may  stop  further  reductions  which  would  have  stripped 
unorganised  workmen  of  20,  30,  or  40  per  cent.  Both  sides 
know  this,  and  hence  the  seemingly  narrow  issues  on  which 
long  and  stubborn  disputes  are  often  fought. 

But  mere  figures  give  a  very  imperfect  idea  of  the 
effectiveness  of  Unionism.  Just  as  the  best-armed  nation 
does  not  get  involved  in  war,  so  the  best-drilled,  most 
effective  union  does  not  fight  because  it  has  no  need.  It 
is  by  the  steady  pressure  of  organised  opinion,  by  the 
delicate  tact  of  skilled  negotiators,  by  the  quietly  effective 
ways  about  which  newspapers  are  silent,  that  the  best 
work  is  done.  But  when  we  take  this  quiet  and  gradual 
work  into  account,  no  one  can  tell  by  any  comparison 
of  figures  what  the  effect  of  Unionism  on  wages  and 
hours  has  been,  because  no  one  knows  what  wages  and 
hours  would  have  been  to-day  but  for  the  Unions.  It  is 
not  enough  to  compare  the  state  of  non-Union  trades, 
for  they  too  have  benefited  indirectly  by  the  organisation 
of  the  others.  The  mere  dread  of  combination  is  itself 
a  force,  and  the  employer  knows  that  a  sufficient  margin 
of  loss  teaches  the  lesson  of  combination  even  to  the  stupid 
and  faint-hearted. 

And  on  the  other  side  many  opponents  of  Unionism 
would  say,  ''It  is  easy  enough  to  count  up  these  nominal 
victories,  but  are  the  workers  as  a  whole  permanently  bene- 
fited ?  Are  there  not  often  hidden  losses  counterbalancing 
apparent  gains?"     These  doubts   rest   mainly  on   a  dis- 

movement,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Webb  write : — "  To  sum  up  the  economic  effects 
of  Trade  Unionism,  we  should  have  minutely  to  examine,  not  only  the 
recorded  facts  as  to  movements  of  wages  and  hours,  but  also  the  more 
subtle  consequences  upon  industrial  organisation,  the  accumulation  of 
capital,  and  the  quantity  and  quality  of  commercial  brain  power,"  &c. 
("History  of  Trade  Unionism,"  p.  474).  The  final  verdict  of  the  writers 
in  their  forthcoming  volumes  will  be  awaited  with  interest.  In  the  mean- 
time we  are  thrown  back  on  such  general  considerations  as  are  offered 
below  (p.  17  ff.) 


TBADE  UNIONISM,  .17 

belief  in  the  inherent  power  of  a  Trade  Union  to  accom- 
plish anything.  From  the  nature  of  the  case  they  can 
hardly  be  answered  by  references  and  statistics,  since  they 
suggest  that  the  gains  we  see  are  balanced  by  hidden  losses 
that  we  know  not  of.  Let  us,  then,  consider  how  Trade 
Unionism  works  ?  What  is  the  nature  of  the  help  it  gives 
the  worker  ?  In  this  way  I  think  we  shall  be  able  to  see 
how  far  the  above  objections  have  any  force. 

The  isolated  worker  in  bargaining  with  the  employer  is 
almost  always  at  a  considerable  disadvantage.  If  he 
refuses  work  there  are  almost  always  others  who  will  do  it. 
He  cannot  afford  to  wait,  for  he  has  no  reserve  to  fall  back 
upon.  He  is  like  a  housewife  going  to  a  crowded  market 
with  only  five  minutes  in  which  to  make  many  important 
purchases.  She  will  have  to  take  the  first  thing  that  comes, 
without  pausing  to  look  round  for  a  better  bargain.  And 
this  has  more  force  the  lower  we  go  in  the  scale.  The 
poorer  the  workman  is,  the  less  he  can  afford  to  wait,  and 
the  more  unskilled  his  occupation,  the  greater  the  crowd 
of  competitors  for  it.  Competition  of  course  may  be  the 
other  way.  The  "  worker  "  may  himself  be  sought  after. 
There  is  a  continuous  gradation  from  the  great  lawyer  or 
doctor  who  can  choose  his  own  fee,  and,  whatever  price 
he  names,  will  be  beset  by  "  employers,"  down  through  the 
mass  of  professional  men  and  artizans  who  will  wait  a  bit 
rather  than  take  a  second-rate  place,  to  the  crowd  of 
''casuals"  who  throng  round  you  at  a  railway  station  to 
carry  your  bag  for  a  copper.  The  point  is,  that  the  further 
we  get  below  the  point  of  which  we  spoke  above,  which  we 
may  call  the  minimum  of  comfort,  the  keener  the  competi- 
tion, and  the  worse  the  position  of  theworker  for  bargaining. 
And  his  sole  source  of  strength  is  in  union.  The  Union  to 
him  is  the  machinery  by  which  he  bargains.  If  I  have  a 
house  to  sell  I  employ  an  agent  because  I  think  him  likely 
to  obtain  better  terms  than  I  could  do  unaided.  In  all 
important  transactions,  when  I  have  no  special  skill  of  my 

8 


18  THE  LABOUB  MOVEMENT. 

own,  I  employ  such  machinery  and  such  agents  as  are 
specially  adapted  for  the  work.  So  the  labourer  has  his 
work  to  sell.  He  cannot  sell  it  advantageously  unless  he 
comes  to  terms  with  others  who  have  the  same  commodity 
to  dispose  of.  Nor  does  he  know  the  market.  Accordingly 
he  forms  an  union  that  all  sellers  of  labour  may  act  in  con- 
cert, and  chooses  as  officials  the  best  experts  he  can  find, 
appoints  them  to  watch  the  market  for  him,  and  pays  them 
for  their  advice  as  to  his  dealings.  In  these  ways  the 
labourer  puts  himself  on  an  equality  with  his  employer,  the 
employer  being  already,  as  Prof.  Marshall  has  pointed  out, 
an  absolutely  rigid  combination  to  the  extent  of  the  number 
of  workers  he  employs,  and  being  also  as  a  rule  well  versed 
in  the  conditions  of  the  market  and  the  general  business  of 
bargaining. 

Now,  prima  facie,  we  should  assume  that  if  a  man  is  a 
good  bargainer  he  is  likely  to  be  better  off  through  life  than 
a  bad  one.  But  we  are  told  by  economists  that  wages,  being 
the  price  of  labour,  will  tend  like  all  other  prices  to  an 
equilibrium  point.  This  point  is  fixed,  primarily  and  for 
short  periods,  by  two  things — (a)  The  demand  for  labour, 
i.e.,  the  amount  of  money  employers  are  ready  to  spend  on 
hiring  labour ;  and  (b)  the  supply,  i.e.,  the  number  of 
labourers  seeking  employment  at  the  price  employers  are 
willing  to  pay.  To  the  point  so  fixed,  wages  will  always  be 
tending  slowly  or  quickly.  They  may  never  reach  it  or  rest 
at  it,  but  they  oscillate  about  it  as  a  pendulum  swings  about 
the  vertical  line.  Well,  let  it  be  granted  that  in  any  market 
prices  are  all  tending  to  an  equilibrium.  That  will  not  alter 
the  fact  that  the  least  skilled  purchasers  in  that  market 
Vvdll  get  the  least  for  their  money,  and  if  there  is  one  class 
of  purchasers  less  skilled  on  the  average  than  another,  that 
class  on  an  average  will  come  off  worse.  Prices  will,  if  you 
please  ultimately  tend  to  the  equilibrium  point.  Meanwhile 
the  inferior  marketers  will  have  bought  at  the  high  price,  or 
let  goods  go  at  the  lower.     Here  they  will  hasten  to  pur- 


TBADE  UNIONISM,  19 

chase  when  they  might  have  waited  for  a  fall.  There  they 
will  wait  for  a  fall  while  the  market  is  in  fact  rising.  We 
need  hardly  labour  this  point.  No  one  will  deny  that 
a  good  housewife  makes  a  shilling  go  further  than  a  bad 
one,  and  no  one  can  reverse  his  judgment  when  it  is  a 
question  of  a  class  instead  of  an  individual. 

Let  it  be  granted,  then,  that  wages  tend  of  themselves  to 
an  equilibrium,  and  let  it  be  for  the  moment  supposed  that 
no  deliberate  action  can  affect  this  equilibrium,  still,  the 
worker  who  can  bargain  well  will  get  the  advantages  of 
every  turn  in  the  market.  It  takes  perhaps  twenty  or 
thirty  years  for  an  expansion  of  demand  for  lab®ur  resulting 
from  some  new  commercial  development  to  work  itself  out 
unaided  on  the  rate  of  wages.  Let  us  concede  (we  shall 
see  reason  subsequently  for  withdrawing  the  concession) 
that  no  Trade  Union  action  can  affect  the  rate  which  wages 
will  arrive  at  by  the  end  of  that  time.  Yet  meanwhile  the 
market  might  admit  all  along  of  the  higher  rate.  The 
pressure  of  tendency  will  not  make  itself  felt  for  years  if  the 
party  which  stands  to  win  is  not  in  a  position  to  make  use 
of  his  advantages.  A  little  patience  in  looking  round  the 
market  and  I  might  get  just  the  joint  I  want  a  penny  a 
pound  cheaper.  There  is  a  tendency  to  that  price  against 
which  the  butchers  cannot  hold  out  much  longer.  But  if 
I  am  not  aware  of  the  fact  and  have  not  the  patience  I 
shall  pay  the  extra  penny.  So  with  wages.  There  may  be 
sufficient  ''buoyancy"  in  the  labour  market  to  admit  of  a 
rise  years  before  it  takes  place  if  the  labourers  are  neither 
strong  nor  farsighted.  Now  if  there  were  any  tendency  in 
bargaining  to  right  itself  this  would  not  much  matter.  If 
the  very  fact  that  I  am  underpaid  to  day  set  some  law 
of  justice  or  economic  harmony  into  operation  which 
would  overpay  me  to-morrow,  we  should  cry  quits  all 
round  and  leave  the  market  to  take  care  of  itself.  But 
since  such  harmonies  figure  only  in  the  Mythology  of 
Early  Nineteenth-century  Science,  it  will  be  readily  seen 


20  THE  LABOTJB  MOVEMENT. 

that  to  be  permanently  the  weaker  in  a  series  of  bargains 
is  likely  to  impoverish  you  in  the  long  run.  If,  then,  a 
Trade  Union  could  do  no  more  than  merely  "  anticipate  a 
rise,  or  delay  a  fall,"  and  if  it  did  this  permanently  and  con- 
tinually its  existence  would  be  abundantly  justified — its 
effect  on  the  average  rate  of  wages  would  be  a  very  real  one. 
And  there  is  no  need  at  this  stage  to  suppose  that  the  Union 
gets  the  better  of  the  bargain,  or  that  it  makes  "economic  fric- 
tion" work  on  the  side  of  the  employed  against  the  employer. 
We  need  not,  that  is  to  say,  suppose  that  by  combination 
the  worker  will  get  a  larger  share  of  the  produce  than  he 
would  as  an  isolated  worker  who  should  he  on  perfectly  equal 
terms,  as  to  acuteness,  power  of  waiting,  and  the  like,  with 
his  employer.  Nor  need  we  therefore  hold  that  the  rate 
of  profit  would  be  lower  than  it  would  be  under  such  a 
system  of  perfectly  free  and  equal  competition.  It  is  quite 
enough  for  the  Union  to  prove  that  it  raises  wages  to  the 
point  obtainable  by  such  competition  between  equals.  The 
fact  is  that  the  Trade  Union  suppresses  free  competition  in 
one  sense,  but  institutes  it  for  the  first  time  in  another.  It 
abolishes  the  unrestricted  competition  of  isolated  individuals 
against  one  another  which  places  all  at  the  mercy  of  the 
employer,  and  substitutes  for  it  a  combination  of  men  bar- 
gaining for  employment  on  free  and  equal  terms. 

So  far  we  have  dealt  only  with  the  effect  of  combination 
on  the  temporary  fluctuations  of  the  Labour  Market. 
Considering  the  Union  as  the  only  effective  mechanism  of 
bargaining  available  for  the  labourer,  we  have  seen  that  it 
enables  him  to  take  advantage  of  the  various  fluctuations 
of  demand  instead  of  allowing  these  to  take  advantage  of 
him.  Unionism  finds  the  Labour  World  in  the  state  of  a 
market  where  skilful  dealers  are  selling  to  ignorant  customers 
at  enormous  profits.  And  just  as  such  a  market  is  revolu- 
tionised when  the  customers  become  educated  and  acquire 
knowledge  of  goods  and  their  prices,  so  the  old  methods 
of  selliDg  the  commodity  of  Labour  are  all  upset  by  com- 


TBADE  UNIONISM.  21 

bination.  In  all  this  we  have  assumed  with  the  economists 
that  there  is  a  normal  price  to  which  wages  tend  to  return, 
however  violently  they  may  be  raised  or  lowered  for  a  time, 
and  that  the  Union  can  have  no  influence  in  fixing  that 
price.  But  the  assumption  is  not  accurate  because  Labour, 
though  a  marketable  commodity,  is  not  quite  like  other 
marketable  commodities. 

If  the  price  of  coals  falls  and  I  get  them  2s.  or  3s.  a  ton 
cheaper,  the  coals  are  just  as  good  as  they  were  before  and 
perform  their  function  just  as  well.  But  if  labour  falls,  say, 
in  an  agricultural  district,  from  12s.  to  10s.  per  week,  the 
labourer  does  not  do  his  work  so  well.  The  labourer's 
capacity  for  work — an  economic  factor  of  enormous  impor- 
tance on  which  the  present  commercial  position  of  the 
nations  of  the  world  may  be  truly  said  to  rest — varies 
directly  up  to  a  certain  maximum  with  the  remuneration 
of  his  work.  Send  a  man  out  underfed  and  scantily  clothed 
to  his  wintry  toil  in  the  frozen  farmyard,  and  bid  him  return 
at  night  to  an  unwholesome,  dirty,  draughty  cottage,  and 
as  the  months  go  by  his  mental  and  physical  strength  are 
drained.  He  becomes  spoiled  goods,  and  at  last  has  to  be 
thrown  away — into  the  workhouse.  Meanwhile  his  chil- 
dren are  growing  up  under  similar  conditions,  kept  merci- 
lessly alive  for  a  battle  they  are  not  fit  to  fight. 

When  we  get  below  the  minimum  of  comfort  the  price  of 
labour  has  an  immediate  and  cumulative  effect  upon  its 
efficiency.  The  further  we  go  below  the  minimum  the 
more  important  is  this  effect — until  we  reach  starvation  point. 
Hence  it  is  clear  that  anything  which  affects  the  reward  of 
Labour  for  a  short  period  tends  to  increase  its  efficiency 
beyond  that  period.  And  the  "  short  period "  may  be 
very  short.  If  I  take  a  half-starved  tramp  off  the  road  and 
put  him  to  work  in  my  garden,  in  return  for  food,  clothes, 
and  shelter,  for  a  week,  I  shall  lose  on  the  transaction.  If  I 
keep  him  a  second  week  he  will  be  capable  of  twice  as  much 
work,  and  I  may  be  the  gainer.     This  is  an  extreme  case. 


2i  THE  LABOUIi  MOVEMENT. 

But  on  a  wider  scale,  with  more  far-reaching  effects,  though 
in  a  lesser  degree,  every  increase  in  wages  that  are  still 
below  the  minimum  of  comfort  tends  in  the  same  direction. 
Now  it  is  easy  to  understand  that  the  efficiency  of  Labour 
reacts  on  wages ;  for  it  increases  the  total  produce  of  the 
country,  and  with  it,  though  in  a  lesser  degree,  the  share 
that  falls  to  the  labourer.*  Granting  then  that  Trade 
Unionism  raises  the  price  of  Labour  for  short  periods  by 
enabling  it  to  take  advantage  of  every  turn  of  the  market, 
it  follows  that  it  tends  to  make  a  permanent  improvement 
in  the  condition  of  the  labourer  by  the  best  of  all  methods, 
the  improvement  of  the  labourer  himself. 

What  effect  must  this  rise  in  wages  have  upon  profits  ? 
This  question  is  forced  upon  us  not  only  by  general 
economic  considerations,  but  by  the  patent  fact  that  in 
many  of  the  worst  paid  trades  the  employers,  or  some  of 
them,  find  it  difficult  to  keep  their  heads  above  water  ;  and 
in  some  cases,  as  in  some  of  the  so-called  *'  sweating  "  dens 
of  East  London,  the  employer  is  actually  worse  off  than  his 
half-starved  underlings.  At  first  sight  this  is  a  paradox.  If  in 
the  Labour  market,  and  especially  in  the  unskilled  Labour 
market,  the  advantage  in  bargaining  is  almost  without  excep- 
tion on  one  side,  profits  should  be  high,  and  they  should  be 
highest  where  wages  are  lowest.  As  it  turns  out  the  case  is 
often  the  other  way.  The  general  discussion  of  this  ques- 
tion is  a  matter  for  the  political  economist.  It  concerns  us 
at  present  only  as  raising  the  question  how  the  employer 
can  afford  to  raise  wages.  Must  not  profits  suffer,  and  will 
not  Capital  leave  the  country  ? 

An  increase  of  wages  acts  upon  profit  mainly  by  affecting 

•  The  total  produce  of  the  country  is  really  the  source  of  demand — 
you  cannot  effectively  demand  labour,  whether  of  employer  or  em- 
ployed, until  you  have  the  wherewithal  to  pay  for  it.  How  much  you 
demand  therefore  depends  on  how  much  you  have.  Hence,  as  econo- 
mists have  shown,  the  total  national  dividend  is  the  source  of  demand 
for  further  labour.  Hence  an  increase  of  production  stimulates  demand 
and  tends  thus  to  raise  the  equilibrium  wage. 


TBADE  UNIONISM.  23 

the  cost  of  producing  goods  for  the  market.  But  how  an 
increase  of  wages  will  affect  cost  in  any  case,  and  how  a 
change  in  cost  of  production  will  affect  profits,  is  very  un- 
certain. If  the  higher  wage  increases  the  efficiency  of  the 
worker,*  cost  of  production  will  remain  the  same,  or  even 
fall.  Again,  a  rise  of  wages  may  or  rather  must  stimulate 
demand  for  goods  which  workmen  consume — in  particular 
for  such  as  they  purchase  when  "  times  are  good,"  and  go 
without  when  things  are  slack.  In  these  departments  in- 
creased demand  may  revolutionise  a  trade  by  introducing 
production  on  the  large  scale — a  change  which,  if  successful, 
will  greatly  lower  cost  and  yet  allow  of  higher  wages  for 
the  worker.  Similar  results  follow  if  the  rise  of  wages 
stimulates  the  employer  to  better  methods.  The  first  cock- 
crow sets  the  whole  roost  going,  and  the  first  awakening  in  a 
slumberous  business  calls  forth  corresponding  activities  on 
all  sides,  with  good  results  to  all  parties.  Nevertheless,  there 
may  be  cases  in  which  the  increased  cost  of  manual  labour 
does  raise  the  price  at  which  a  commodity  can  be  sold  with 
profit.  If  we  are  to  believe  the  reports  of  many  of  our  princi- 
pal railway  companies  the  agitator  t  has  by  this  means 
largely  increased  net  expenses  of  many  of  them  in  the  last  few 
years.  Supposing  cost  of  production  to  be  thus  increased, 
what  will  happen  ?  It  is  held  by  some  economists  that  the 
process  will  be  self-defeating.  Capital  will  leave  the  country 
and  wages  will  fall.  That  this  may  be  the  result  in  ex- 
treme cases,  and  even  has  been  the  result  in  some  insta^nces, 
it  would  be  rash  to  deny ;  though  we  may  remark,  foUow- 

*  I  neglect  the  case  where  one  class  of  workers  get  increased  wages  at 
the  expense  of  another  class.  As  I  am  considering  the  case  of  a  general 
rise  for  manual  workers,  such  "  compensation  "  could  only  be  at  the  ex- 
pense of  wages  of  management  or  of  interest — i.e.,  it  must  fall  on  the 
employer  or  on  the  capitalist. 

f  The  "agitator"  is  not  infrequently  attacked  almost  in  the  same 
breath  (a)  for  ruining  the  employer  by  causing  him  to  pay  higher  wages, 
and  (6)  for  humbugging  the  workman  into  thinking  that  he  can  get 
wages  raised.  But  this  must  be  one  of  the  "inner  contradictions"  of 
Capital  spoken  of  by  Karl  Marx. 


24  THE  LABOXJB  MOVEMENT. 

ing  good  authority,  that  it  has  more  probably  come  about, 
if  at  ail,  from  injudicious  disputes  *  than  from  simple  in- 
crease of  cost.   The  truth  is  that  it  is  not  very  easy  for  Capital 
to  leave  the  country.  There  is  much  Capital  that  cannot  leave 
the  country  at  all.      You  cannot  summon  a  Genie  of  the 
Lamp  to  take  up  the  North-Western  Eailway  and  deposit 
it  in  China.     And  it  would  not  pay  if  you  could.     In  most 
cases  the  process  is  one  which  requires  a  certain  tolerably 
clear  margin  of  advantage  to  induce  it.     To  the  extent  of 
this  margin  these  profits  may  be  reduced  without  risk  of 
loss  by  emigration  of  Capital.    Nor  is  this  all.    The  Labour 
movement  of  to-day  is  not  confined  to  the  British  Isles.     It 
is  cosmopolitan.     The  leading  country  in  such  a  movement 
is  always  held  back  to  some  extent  by  the  laggards  in  the 
rear,  but  at  the  same  time  and  w-ith  an  equal  force  she  is 
pulling  them  forward.  The  movement  in  each  nation  helps  the 
progress  of  the  whole.   This  has  always  been  so.   You  cannot 
move  your  foot  without  displacing  the  centre  of  gravity  of 
the  world.     Nor  can  you  act  for  good  or  evil  in  one  country 
of  the  Western  world  without  affecting  the  balance  of  forces 
throughout  the  rest.     But  if  the  correlation  of  cause  and 
eflect  has  always  worked  without  our  knowledge  of  it,  it 
becomes  much  closer  and  more  direct  when  men  are  aware 
of  it,  and  deliberately  set  it  in  motion.     That  the  feeling 
of  a  wider  brotherhood  is  dawning  on  the  leaders  of  the 
Labour  movement — the  working  classes  of  this  island — was 
nobly  proved  by  the  warm  and  generous  help  given  to  the 
German  printers  in  the  struggle  of  1891.   It  has  been  perti- 
nently asked  where  was  the  British  capitalist  in  that  dis- 
pute.    He  has  told  us  often  enough  that  the  cheapness  of 
foreign  labour  is  the  one  obstacle  to  better  conditions  for 

*  Trade  disputes  are  in  themselves  an  evil  to  be  deplored,  but  they 
may  be  the  lesser  of  two  evils.  In  -any  case  the  common  capitalist 
invectives  against  them,  on  the  ground  that  they  "drive  away  trade," 
are  rather  double-edged.  It  takes  two  to  pick  a  quarrel.  The  doctrine 
of  "  non-resistance  " — of  passive  acquiescence  in  every  demand — must 
be  preached  to  both  sides  if  at  all. 


TBADE  UNIONISM.  25 

English  workmen.  Then  he  had  his  opportunity.  His 
gold  would  have  won  the  battle  for  the  German  workman 
and  given  an  impulse  to  the  whole  Labour  movement  on  the 
Continent.  Then  was  the  moment  to  prove  his  sincerity. 
But  the  opportunity  was  not  taken. 

Let  us  concede  then  that  in  raising  herself  England  is 
raising  the  world  with  her.  The  effort  is  the  greater,  but  the 
prize  the  more  glorious.  At  worst  the  check  is  one  that  only 
operates  in  certain  cases,  and  even  so  allows  a  wide  margin. 
Meanwhile,  notice  a  concurrent  effect  of  the  improvement  in 
the  labourer's  condition — the  disappearance  not  of  Capital 
from  the  country,  but  of  the  weaker  employer  from  the  field  of 
competition.  When  wages  are  low  and  men's  time  may  be 
had  for  the  asking,  it  becomes  easier  to  work  a  business  of  a 
certain  kind  with  profit.  Men  of  moderate  or  inferior  abilities 
are  tempted  to  one  of  the  most  difficult  of  games — the 
management  of  a  modern  business  concern — by  the  ease  with 
which  the  pawns  are  moved.  There  are  hosts  of  businesses 
struggling  on  with  no  profit  to  worker,  manager,  or  con- 
sumer, and  which  are  much  better  put  out  of  their  misery. 
The  natural  refuge  of  these  weak  business  concerns  is  the 
weak  and  underpaid  workman,  and  accordingly,  competition 
— though  continually  eliminating  them — does  not  even  so  do 
its  work  fast  enough.  The  fixing  of  a  minimum  wage 
destroys  employment  of  this  kind,  to  the  great  ultimate 
gain  of  all  classes. 

I  conclude  that  the  argument  from  the  "self-defeating" 
process  is  substantially  unsound  and  unimportant.  A  rise  of 
wages  has  a  diverse  effect  in  different  cases  ;  but — to  sum  up 
the  discussion — low  wages  save  for  the  moment,  but  are  un- 
economical in  the  long  run.  Hence  they  are  the  refuge  of  the 
weak  employer,  who  lives  from  hand  to  mouth.  Eaise  the  rate 
and  you  eliminate  this  class  of  managers  and  bring  grist  to 
the  mill  of  the  stronger  men,  who  can  pay  the  higher  rate 
and  make  as  good  a  profit  as  before. 

But  on  the  whole  subject  of  the  effect  on  trade  of  the 


26  THE  LABOUR  MOVEMENT. 

Unions,  and  the  improved  conditions  for  the  worker  which, 
directly  or  indirectly,  they  have  brought  about,  no  one  is 
better  entitled  to  a  hearing  than  Mr.  Mather,  M.P.  : — 

"  We  employers  owe  more  than,  as  a  body,  we  are  inclined 
to  admit  to  the  improvements  in  our  methods  of  manu- 
facture, due  to  the  firmness  and  independence  of  trade  com- 
binations. Our  industrial  steadiness  and  enterprise  are  the 
envy  of  the  world.  The  energy  and  pertinacity  of  Trade 
Unions  have  caused  Acts  of  Parliament  to  be  passed  which 
would  not  otherwise  have  been  promoted  by  employers  or 
politicians,  all  of  which  have  tended  to  improve  British  com- 
merce. And  it  is  worthy  of  note  that  this  improvement 
has  gone  on  concurrently  with  great  and  growing  competi- 
tion of  other  nations,  owing  to  the  development  of  their  own 
resources.  The  enormous  production  of  wealth  in  Great 
Britain  during  the  present  half-century,  which  is  due  to 
natural  resources  and  the  labour  and  skill  bestowed  upon 
their  development,  has  grown  most  rapidly  during  a  period 
remarkable  for  the  extension  of  the  power  of  Trade  Unionism. 
Prosperity  beyond  the  dreams  of  avarice  has  followed  in  the 
wake  of  our  industrial  habits  and  customs,  and  these  have 
undoubtedly  been  largely  promoted  by  the  great  labour 
organisations.  .  .  .  Everyintelligent  employer  will  admit  that 
his  factory  or  workshop,  when  equipped  with  all  the  comforts 
and  conveniences  and  protective  appliances  prescribed  by 
Parliament  for  the  benefit  and  protection  of  his  workpeople 
— though  great  effort,  and,  it  may  be,  even  sacrifice,  on  his 
part  has  been  made  to  procure  them — has  become  a  more 
valuable  property  in  every  sense  of  the  word,  and  a  profit  has 
accrued  to  him  owing  to  the  iiri proved  conditions  under  which 
his  workpeople  have  produced.  .  .  ."  And  speaking  of  the  im- 
portance of  permanence  and  stability  in  a  trade,  he  adds  : — 
**  The  keen  interest  they  feel  in  seeking  to  secure  permanence 
and  progress  in  the  trade  they  pursue  has  been  strikingly 
shown  by  the  fact  that  Trade  Unions  have  agreed  to  reduc- 
tions of  wages,  advocated   short  time,  and  offered  many 


TBADE  UNIONISM,  27 

suggestions  involving  sacrifice  on  the  part  of  the  workers,  in 
order  to  stem  the  tide  of  temporary  adversity."* 

Perhaps  a  majority  of  employers  might  be  quoted  in  an 
opposite  sense,  but  when  Saul  also  is  among  the  prophets 
he  is  worth  a  thousand  voices  on  the  other  side. 

So  far  we  have  studied  Trade  Unionism  as  it  actually  works. 
We  have  seen  that  it  regulates  the  conditions  of  employment  in 
the  interests  of  all  the  workers.  It  puts  the  manual  labourer 
on  an  equality  with  his  employer  in  arranging  terms,  and 
accordingly  it  raises  wages  and  diminishes  hours  of  work. 
It  effects  general  economy  by  eliminating  incapable  em- 
ployers, and  by  raising  the  standard  of  comfort  among  work- 
men it  is  not  only  a  direct  benefit  to  them,  but,  by  making 
them  more  efficient  agents  in  production  promotes  the 
general  health  of  the  national  industry. 

If  now  we  ask  what  hope  there  is  that  Trade  Unionism 
may  succeed  in  estabhshing  what  I  have  called  the  minimum 
of  comfort  for  all  workers,  we  shall  recognise  by  far  the 
greatest  and  most  palpable  obstacle  in  the  present  weakness 
of  Trade  Unionism  itself.  The  competition  of  non-union 
men,  and  the  mistaken  policy  and  narrow  interests  of  some 
of  the  Unions  themselves,  keep  the  movement  back  far  more 
than  any  inherent  weakness  in  the  principle  of  Unionism. 
These  obstacles  are,  however,  being  gradually  overcome  by 
the  spread  of  moral  and  economic  education  among  workmen, 
and  by  the  consolidation  and  federation  of  Unions.  The 
federal  principle  has  the  special  merit  of  overcoming  sec- 
tional antagonisms  and  the  tendency  to  a  narrow  corporate 
spirit.  The  larger  Unions  are  in  a  position  to  choose  abler 
men  to  administer  their  affairs.  They  are  not  wont  to  pre- 
cipitate expensive  disputes,  and  they  command  the  respect 
which  is  necessary  as  a  basis  of  negotiation ;  and  as  different 
trades  act  together  it  becomes  increasingly  difiicult  to  deal 
with  them  by  bringing  in  outside  labour  instead  of  by  an  open 

*  Article  on  •'  Labour  and  the  Hours  of  Labour,"  in  the  Contemj^orary 
Review  for  November,  1892. 


28  THE  LABOUE  MOVEMENT. 

and  honourable  discussion  of  difficulties.  The  first  step 
then  for  Trade  Unionism  is  to  extend  and  perfect  itself  as  a 
moral,  educational,  and  economic  movement.  These  three 
aspects  of  it  are  in  practice  inseparable,  and  the  main 
immediate  hindrance  to  its  achievement  of  its  true  ends  is 
the  imperfection  of  its  own  internal  development — an  imper- 
fection which  its  leaders  are  making  every  effort  to  over- 
come. 

The  tendencies  set  on  foot  by  Trade  Unionism  itself  will 
help  it  whenever  wages  are  below  the  minimum  on  which 
the  worker  can  best  develop  his  powers.  I  mean  the 
economic  advantages  already  explained  of  raising  wages  to 
this  minimum.  If  the  Unions  were  fighting  against  a  con- 
tinual and  ever-increasing  economic  pressure,  one  might 
doubt  the  permanence  of  their  success.  But  to  a  certain 
point  their  work  gets  easier  as  it  goes  on.  The  second 
advance  is  sometimes  more  easily  won  than  the  first.  This 
holds  just  as  long  as  wages  remain  below  the  minimum  of 
comfort.  Up  to  that  point  at  least  a  rise  of  wages  really 
pays  in  the  long  run. 

Lastly,  we  have  been  assuming  all  along  that  the  Union 
has  to  fight  the  employers  and  the  public  at  every  step. 
This  would  once  have  been  practically  true,  but  it  is  true  no 
longer.  Even  as  regards  private  concerns  the  education 
both  of  Unionists  and  of  their  employers  has  improved  of 
late  years,  and  the  employer  has  come  to  see  that  it  "  pays  " 
in  the  long  run,  not  only  from  the  humanitarian,  but  from 
the  business  point  of  view,  to  employ  Union  men  on  Union 
conditions.  Still  more  fundamental  is  the  change  in  public 
feeling.  The  growing  inclination  of  public  bodies  and  co- 
operative societies  to  pay  Union  rates  marks  a  new  era  in 
the  history  of  Unionism.  It  is  the  beginning  of  a  definite 
system  of  fixing  wages  by  the  moral  sense  of  the  com- 
munity. The  rate  on  which  the  Unions,  the  ratepayers, 
and  the  best  employers  agree  has  moral  as  well  as  economic 
forces  at  its  back,  which  the  inferior  employer  cannot  long 


TBADE  UNIONISM.  29 

resist.  As  to  the  justice  and  desirability  of  backing  the 
Union,  no  one  who  holds  the  diffusion  of  the  means  of  the 
elementary  comforts  to  be  the  first  object  of  an  industrial 
system  can  have  any  possible  doubt. 

But  it  is  not  only  direct  help  that  the  Unions  require. 
Admirably  as  they  fulfil  the  elementary  functions  of  the 
organisation  of  industry,  there  are  limits  to  their  work. 
Let  us  now  consider  these,  and  inquire  what  further  organisa- 
tions are  necessary  to  get  over  them  and  to  supplement  the 
efforts  of  Trade  Unionism  and  complete  its  work. 

When  manual  labour  is  cheaper  than  machinery,  under  a 
system  of  free  competition  manual  labour  will  be  employed. 
Conversely,  if  by  any  chance  machinery  in  any  occupation 
becomes  cheaper  than  manual  labour,  employers,  in  the 
absence  of  any  artificial  restraint,  will  dismiss  workmen  and 
set  up  machines.  Or,  if  machinery  be  not  available,  an  in- 
crease in  the  price  of  labour  may  lead  to  retrenchment  by 
some  other  method  of  substitution.  A  better  class  of  work- 
men, for  instance,  may  be  found  in  order  that  the  same 
amount  of  work  may  be  done  by  fewer  hands.  Hence  the 
increased  wages  of  those  who  retain  their  work  may  tend  to 
throw  the  less  capable  labourer  out  of  work  altogether. 
This  is  a  possibility  which  must  be  faced.  Now,  first,  let  me 
boldly  say  that  if  there  is  no  remedy  for  it  the  thing  must  be 
done.  It  is  better  that  three-fourths  should  earn  a  decent 
living  and  the  remaining  fourth  be  left  to  private  charity 
than  that  all  should  struggle  with  starvation  together.  It  is 
a  terrible  alternative,  but  the  better  of  the  two.  But, 
secondly,  the  thing  need  not  be.  The  starving  remnant  want 
food,  clothing,  and  shelter,  and  they  have  muscles  and  sinews. 
To  set  them  to  work  to  supply  their"  own  demands,  or  their 
equivalent,  must  be  possible.  It  is  not  that  there  is  a 
surplus  population.  It  is  not  that  there  are  too  many 
workers  for  the  demand  ;  for  there  is  also  too  much  demand 
for  the  commodities  supplied.  The  very  same  persons  who 
could  supply  the  work  stand  also  in  need  of  the  products  of 


80  THE  LABOUB  MOVEMENT, 

work.  There  is  demand  for  the  products  of  work  on  their 
part,  but  ineffective  demand :  there  is  capacity  for  supplying 
work,  but  ineffective  capacity.  Why  ineffective  ?  Why  do 
the  worker  and  his  work  call  to  one  another  over  a  gulf  they 
cannot  cross?  Largely  for  want  of  an  organisation  con- 
necting producer  and  consumer,  and  setting  men  to  work  to 
supply  all  needs.  Now  such  an  organisation  must  be  found, 
and  the  road  to  it  lies  through  the  control  of  industry  by 
consumers. 

Wo  see  here  the  necessary  supplement  to  the  Trade  Union 
movement.  The  need  for  some  such  supplement  becomes 
even  clearer  when  we  consider  the  whole  function  of  Trade 
Unionism  in  the  distribution  of  wealth.  We  have  seen 
that  its  object,  after  regulating  the  conditions  of  industry,  is 
to  fix  the  minimum  wage  for  the  worker  at  an  amount  which 
will  enable  him  to  attain  his  full  development  and  to  bring 
up  his  family  in  a  corresponding  way.  It  thus  secures  the 
primary  condition  of  sound  economics — "  fair  "  remuneration 
for  the  worker. 

But  there  are  other  social  needs  not  to  be  met  in  this  way. 
In  dealing  with  incompetency  we  have  already,  in  principle, 
discussed  the  support  of  the  helpless,  the  old  and  the 
infirm.  This  burden  falls  on  the  workers  in  one  shape  or 
other  at  the  present  day,  and  will  continue  to  do  so  until  a 
perfected  individualist  philosophy  pushed  to  its  logical  con- 
clusion has  persuaded  us  to  dispose  of  these  encumbrances 
by  the  more  primitive  and  drastic  method  of  putting  an  end 
to  them  when  most  convenient.  Pending  the  application  of 
this  theory  to  practice,  we  have  to  regard  the  support  of  those 
who  produce  nothing  because  they  are  unable  as  a  charge 
upon  the  community.  It  might  indeed  be  met,  in  the  main, 
by  a  sufficient  rise  of  wages  all  round,  but  such  a  rise  could 
hardly  be  obtained  within  any  reasonable  time  by  Trade 
Union  action.  Besides,  experience  has  shown  that  we  can- 
not safely  leave  the  helpless  to  the  care  of  individuals — unless 
we  wish  to  punish  them  because  they  are  helpless.     The 


TBADE  UNIONISM.  81 

burden  is  a  national  one,  affecting  Societj''  as  a  whole,  for  all 
have  been  young,  and  all  are  hable  to  the  misfortunes  of 
infirmity  and  old  age.  We  are  all  of  us  therefore  at  one 
time  or  another  a  burden, 'economically,  upon  Society ;  there- 
fore, we  ourselves,  as  Society,  had  better  meet  the  burden. 
Directly  or  indirectly  the  charge  must  be  defrayed  out  of  the 
surplus  left  in  the  pockets  of  the  nation  after  the  mainten- 
ance of  the  producers  has  been  met ;  and  experience  shows 
that  it  had  better  be  met  directly,  by  a  national  or  municipal 
tax.  There  are,  further,  many  things  essential  to  public 
health,  or  useful  for  the  general  culture  or  enjoyment,  which 
can  be  more  efficiently  carried  out  by  Society  collectively. 
I  need  not  run  through  the  list  of  these,  but  merely  mention 
them  here  as  a  class  of  objects  which  will  make  increasing 
calls  upon  the  public  purse. 

By  merely  fixing  wages  at  a  suitable  amount  we  do  not 
provide  for  all  these  needs.  But,  the  rate  of  wages  being 
given,  there  is  a  considerable  surplus  of  wealth  which  at 
present  goes  into  various  private  pockets  in  the  form  of  Eent 
Profits  or  Interest.  It  is  only  by  drawing  on  this  surplus,  it 
would  appear,  that  Society  can  meet  the  demands  upon  it. 
The  mass  of  the  surplus  can  never  be  touched  by  Trade 
Unionism,  nor  should  we  desire  it  otherwise.  If  here  and 
there  a  strong  Union  wrests  part  of  his  large  profits  from  an 
employer  there  is  no  gain  to  the  community  at  large.  There 
is  much  profit  to  a  certain  body  of  workers  who  are  thus  put 
at  an  advantage  as  compared  with  others,  instead  of  still 
greater  gain  for  a  single  man.  But  there  is  no  broad  collec- 
tive gain,  no  improvement  of  the  general  economic  condition. 
A  bit  of  profit  has  been  transferred  from  one  pocket  to  some 
scores  of  pockets,  that  is  all.  And  from  our  point  of 
view  at  least,  movements  to  the  enrichment  of  a  few  are 
worthless.  Trade  Unionism  then  neither  can  nor  should 
aim  at  securing  profits  for  the  workers.  By  doing  so  it  will 
fail  in  nine  cases  out  of  ten,  and  in  the  tenth  succeed  only  in 
creating  a  small  class  of  workmen-aristocrats.    Its  legitimate 


82  THE  LABOUB  MOVEMENT, 

function  is  to  settle  the  hours  and  condition  of  work,  and  the 
general  minimum  rate  of  wage. 

The  movements  that  are  to  supplement  Trade  Unionism 
must  accordingly  satisfy  two  conditions.  First  they  must 
"correlate"  demand  and  supply,  and  obviate  the  present 
w^aste  of  work  on  one  side,  and  human  life  on  the  other. 
Secondly,  they  must  place  the  surplus  of  wealth  remaining 
after  the  producer's  claims  are  "fairly"  satisfied  at  the 
disposal  of  the  community  for  the  common  use.  We 
have  now  to  consider  the  methods  by  which  this  is  being 
attempted. 


CHAPTEE   III. 

THE  AIMS  AND  METHODS  OF  CO-OPERATION. 

If  Trade  Unionism  represents  the  control  of  industry  by 
communities  of  workers  in  the  interest  of  all  as  workers, 
Co-operation  is  the  system  by  which  production  may  be 
organised  wholly  or  in  part  in  the  interests  of  the  com- 
munity as  consumers.  Let  us  ask  then  what  Co-operation 
is  doing,  and  can  do,  in  the  way  of  regulating  production, 
and  making  a  fair  distribution  of  surplus  wealth. 

First,  as  to  the  power  and  growth  of  the  Co-operative 
movement.  We  have  not  here  to  tell  again  the  twice-told 
tale,  but  merely  to  recall  half-a-dozen  figures  to  show  that 
whatever  be  the  precise  economic  value  of  Co-operation,  it 
is  a  great  and  growing  power  to  be  reckoned  with,  and  that 
whatever  it  can  do  it  probably  will  do  on  an  ever-increasing 
scale. 

Not  to  go  back  to  the  days  of  infancy,  there  were,  in 
1862,  440  co-operative  societies  known  to  exist  in  England 
and  Wales,  with  a  membership  of  90,341  persons.  Their 
sales  in  that  year  amounted  in  round  numbers  to  £2,330,000. 
They  made  a  profit  of  about  £165,500.*  In  1890  there 
were  about  1,303  societies  existing  in  England  and  Wales, 
of  which  1,092  made  returns  published  in  the  report  of  the 
Co-operative  Union.     These  1,092  societies  had  a  member- 

*  These  figures  are  taken  from  the  evidence  of  Mr.  J.  T.  W.  Mitchell, 
Chairman  of  the  English  Co-operative  Wholesale  Society,  before  the 
Labour  Commission. 

4  33 


34  THE  LABOUR  MOVEMENT. 

ship  of  883,000,  sold  goods  to  the  amount  of  £33,000,000 
during  the  year,  with  a  net  profit  of  £3,200,000.  In  addition 
there  were  333  societies  in  Scotland,  with  a  membership  of 
171,000,  bringing  the  total  membership  of  the  Co-operative 
State  to  something  considerably  over  a  million  persons.  * 

Confining  our  view  to  England  and  Wales,  we  see  that  in 
less  than  thirty  years  the  co-operative  population  has  in- 
creased nearly  tenfold,  its  business  nearly  fifteenfold,  and 
its  profits  almost  twentyfold. 

We  have  now  to  ask,  What  is  this  great  movement  doing 
for  the  interests  we  have  at  heart  ?  What  is  the  economic 
significance  of  Co-operation?  In  most  industries  at  the 
present  day  the  production  of  any  article  is  left  to  any  one 
who  chooses  to  undertake  it.  A  man  makes  soap,  or  cotton, 
or  clothes,  not  because  he  wants  to  use  all  that  he  turns 
out  from  his  mill  or  workshop  himself,  nor  necassarily 
because  some  one  else  who  is  going  to  use  them  has  ordered 
them,  but  because  he  guesses  or  calculates  from  the  general 
state  of  the  market  that  some  one  or  other  will  buy  what  he 
makes.  The  case  is  not  much  altered  when  the  actual 
manufacturer  produces  for  a  middleman.  The  middleman 
is  not  a  consumer,  but  an  agent  in  production,  and  when 
the  speculation  and  the  risk  is  not  undertaken  by  the  maker 
of  goods,  it  is  merely  handed  over  to  the  merchant,  whether 
he  be  the  large  wholesale  dealer  or  finally  the  shopkeeper. 
The  modern  system  of  commerce,  then,  will  not  be  greatly 
misrepresented  if  we  figure  it  as  being  carried  on  between 
two  individuals,  A  and  B,  in  such  a  way  that  A,  without 
consulting  B,  guesses  at  what  B  will  want,  and  spends 
much  labour  in  making  it,  B  meanwhile  doing  the  like  for 
A.  The  natural  consequence  is  that  when  A  and  B  come 
together  to  exchange  their  goods  they  do  not  find  them- 
selves altogether  suited.  For  example,  instead  of  A  making 
hats  for  both,  w^hile  B  made  boots,  it  may  have  occurred  to 

*  See  the  Report  of  the  Twenty-fourth  Annual  Co-operative  Congress, 
1892,  p.  13G. 


THE  AIMS  AND  METHODS  OF  CO-OPEBATION.     35 

each  of  them  to  make  hats.  The  result  is  that  they  will 
have  four  hats  between  them  and  no  boots,  and  severe 
commercial  depression  will  ensue.  The  superfluous  hats 
will  be  worthless,  and  both  A  and  B  will  go  barefoot.  Now 
this  is  just  what  happens  on  a  large  scale  in  England  to- 
day. Production  is  for  the  most  part  unregulated.  There 
is  no  systematic  attempt  to  get  what  is  necessary  and  good 
for  the  community  produced,  neither  more  nor  less.  On 
the  contrary,  every  man  produces  what  he  thinks  some  one 
will  give  a  good  price  for,  and  if  many  other  people  have 
been  thinking  the  same  thing  there  will  be  a  glut  in  the 
market.  And  hence  the  paradox  of  modern  industry,  that 
plenty  is  the  cause  of  starvation. "^ 

Now,  if  we  go  back  to  A  and  B  we  may  hope  that  they 
will  learn  wisdom  from  experience.  They  have  but  to  take 
a  very  simple  step.  Instead  of  retiring  each  to  his  own 
abode  to  work  apart,  they  have  merely  to  consult  with  one 
another  as  to  their  respective  needs,  and  set  about  to  help 
one  another  in  supplying  them.  Instead,  then,  of  A  making 
something  that  he  thinks  B  will  buy,  with  a  view  to  profit- 
ing on  the  exchange,  while  B  works  similarly  for  his  profit, 
A  and  B  will  now  work  together,  create  a  joint  product, 
and  share  it  between  them — in  other  words,  they  will  co- 
operate ;  for  this  is  precisely  what  is  effected  by  the  co- 
operative store.  Instead  of  leaving  it  to  individual  millers, 
and  shoemakers,  and  grocers  to  supply  their  needs  and 
make   what  profit   they   can,    co-operators  undertake   to 

*  It  was  at  one  time  contended  by  economists  that  permanent  and 
general  over-production  is  an  impossibility.  This  is  probably  true,  sup- 
posing the  machinery  of  exchange  —  social  and  material — perfected. 
Meanwhile,  nothing  prevents  continual  and  repeated  over-production  in 
many  departments  of  industry  at  once,  over-production  being  understood 
relatively  to  the  existing  effective  demand.  From  the  point  of  view  of 
good  economic  organisation  there  is  over-production  whenever  the  price 
is  too  low  to  allow  adequate  remuneration  for  producers,  whether  em- 
ployers or  employed.  Such  a  contingency  is  not  only  possible,  but 
frequent,  the  low  price  continuing  for  considerable  periods,  and  varying 
according  to  circumstances,  i.e.,  according  to  the  ease  with  which  demand 
for  the  article  expands,  or  the  supply  of  it  gets  contracted. 


86  THE  LABOUR  MOVEMENT. 

supply  their  own  needs,  or  to  direct  others  to  do  so.  Co- 
operation accordingly  represents  the  organisation  of 
industry  by  a  community  of  consumers  in  the  interest  of 
all  as  consumers.  As  such  it  is  the  natural  supplement  to 
organisation  by  producers. 

Now  a  Co-operative  Society,  like  a  Trade  Union,  is 
primarily  an  association  of  some  of  the  residents  in  a 
particular  town  or  village.  As  such  its  scope  and  influence 
on  the  regularity  of  industry  and  the  distribution  of  wealth 
are  necessarily  limited  and  partial.  It  is  for  one  thing 
almost  entirely  confined  to  the  business  of  shopkeeping. 
It  is  thus  a  partial  regulation  of  one  form  of  industry  in 
the  interests  of  a  small  group  of  consumers.  A  wider 
future  opened  upon  co-operation  when  the  Federal 
principle  was  introduced.  What  Federation  will  do  for 
the  Trade  Union  movement  has  yet  to  be  seen.  What  it 
has  done  for  Co-operation  is  clear.  It  has  transformed  an 
aggregate  of  isolated  and  comparatively  petty  shops  into  an 
almost  national  organisation,  undertaking  wholesale  pro- 
duction and  distribution  *  on  a  scale  large  enough  to  form 
an  appreciable  fraction  of  the  commerce  of  the  country,  and 
linking  a  million  men  and  women  all  over  the  island  by  a 
common  interest.  Through  the  Federal  principle  then 
Co-operation  and  Trade  Unionism  are  growing  to  be  modes 
of  national  organisation,  and  it  is  only  as  their  development 
in  this  direction  grows  complete  that  they  take  their  true 
place  as  methods  of  the  collective  control  of  industry  in  the 
interests  of  the  nation  as  a  whole. 

The  Co-operative  Society,  according  to  our  analysis  of  its 
principle,  is  a  community  of  consumers,  undertaking, 
through  their  committee  and  officials,  to  provide  the  goods 
they  require  for  their  own  use.     They  find  the  capital  and 

•  The  two  great  wholesale  societies  exist  to  supply  the  Eetail  Stores. 
They  are  in  fact  associations  of  which  the  local  societies  are  members. 
The  English  Wholesale  had,  in  1891,  a  membership  of  966  societies,  and 
sold  goods  to  its  members  to  the  value  of  £8,000,000.  (Evidence  of  Mr. 
Mitchell,  p.  8.) 


THE  AIMS  AND  METHODS  OF  CO-OPEBATION.     37 

direct  the  management,  and  we  have  thus  a  form  of  the 
control  of  production  by  consumers. 

This  fact  has  been  in  some  degree  obscured  by  the 
tendency  of  the  movement  to  concentrate  itself  upon  that 
form  of  production  which  is  known  as  retail  trade.  Many 
people  would  hardly  consider  the  retail  trader  as  a  producer 
at  all,  and  are  puzzled  by  the  inclusion  of  shopkeeping 
among  the  branches  of  production.  Of  course,  this  is  a 
pure  mistake.  Everybody  is  an  agent  of  production  who 
assists  in  conveying  goods  to  the  consumer.  The  baker's 
boy  who  brings  my  bread  round  in  a  cart  to  my  house  is  no 
whit  less  a  producer  of  my  bread  than  the  baker  who  makes 
the  loaf,  or  the  seamen  and  railway  men  who  carried  the 
wheat  from  Colorado.  What  I  want  is  not  wheat  that  is 
in  Colorado,  nor  bread  that  is  in  the  bakery,  but  a  loaf 
on  my  table,  and  every  one  who  has  assisted  in  making 
the  loaf  out  of  its  original  material,  and  in  bringing  it  to 
my  table,  is  equally  an  agent  in  the  production  of  the  loaf 
which  I  require.  But  furthermore,  Co-operation  is  no 
longer  confined  to  retail  trade.  It  not  only,  as  above 
shown,  does  a  large  wholesale  and  therefore  also  a  large 
transport  business,  but  it  is  steadily  extending  itself  to 
manufactures  of  various  kinds.  Here,  then,  we  have  a 
vigorous  and  growing  movement  based  on  the  principle 
that  the  customer  sets  the  producer  to  work,  and  regulates 
his  industry  through  his  committee.  That  is,  we  have  in 
essence  the  machinery  for  correlating  demand  and  supply, 
and  thus  doing  something  to  mitigate  the  fluctuations  of 
trade,  from  which  all  classes  suffer  so  much.* 

*  This  result  cannot  indeed  be  expected  "on  any  great  scale  until  a  far 
larger  proportion  of  the  trade  of  the  country  is  conducted,  in  one  form 
or  another,  on  co-operative  hues.  But  the  tendency  is  already  evident. 
Both  Mr.  Mitchell  and  Mr.  Maxwell  (Chairman  of  the  Scottish  Wholesale 
Society)  dwell  on  this  effect  of  Co-operation.  Mr.  Mitchell  (Evidence,  p. 
13)  expressly  attributes  the  greater  continuity  of  work  for  the  Co-operative 
employe  to  the  fact  that  "  we  have  an  organised  market  for  our  produc- 
tions." Mr.  Maxwell  (Evidence  before  Labour  Commission,  October  25, 
1892,  p.  36)  says  that,  owing  to  the  steady  increase  of  trade,  "workmen 


38  THE  LABOUB  MOVEMENT. 

Secondly,  the  profits  of  co-operative  enterprise  (though 
ultimately  distributed  on  a  scientific  principle)  are  primarily 
communised — loss  and  gain  affecting  directly  the  whole 
co-operative  community.  Let  me  repeat  Mrs.  Webb's 
explanation  of  this.  At  the  co-operative  store  you  pay, 
in  the  first  instance,  the  ordinary  market  price  for  your 
purchase,  and  you  receive  in  return  a  tally  for  the  amount 
of  your  payment.  At  the  end  of  the  quarter  you  send  in 
your  tallies,  and  the  available  surplus  for  dividend  having 
been  determined,  you  receive  a  share  of  it  proportionate  to 
the  amount  of  your  purchases  as  guaranteed  by  your  tallies. 
To  some  people  this  looks  like  a  mere  clumsy  way  of  giving 
to  you  with  one  hand  and  taking  away  with  the  other. 
"  Why  not  lower  prices  at  once  ?  "  they  say.  Others  have 
attached  importance  to  it  as  a  means  of  encouraging  thrift 
by  putting  people  in  possession  of  two  or  three  pounds  at 
once,  instead  of  saving  for  themselves  on  each  purchase.  But 
the  fact  is  that  this  simple  device  has  succeeded  in  com- 
munising  profit  and  dividing  it  scientifically  among  the 
members  of  the  community.  A  society  of  consumers  has 
undertaken  production.  All  the  producers  being  paid,  cost 
of  production,  including  management,  being  met,  there 
remains  a  surplus.  This  surplus  would  be  a  profit  if  the 
community  were  selling  to  outsiders.  But  they  are  selling 
to  themselves.  The  surplus  therefore  remains  in  the  hands 
of  its  original  possessors,  and  is  ultimately,  with  the 
exception  of  such  part  of  it  as  is  reserved  for  collective 
purposes — educational  or  provident — distributed  among  all 
members  of  the  society  on  a  definite  principle.     Thus  the 


and  workwomen  hare  almost  a  certainty  of  constant  employment  in  the 
Society."  In  the  clothing  factories,  he  says,  "  during  the  slack  season 
we  are  so  certain  of  an  outlet  for  our  productions,  we  make  up  larger 
stocks,  thus  giving  employment  all  the  year  round."  There  is,  again,  a 
confidence  in  the  relations  of  the  Wholesale  Society  and  its  customers, 
which  prevents  injury  from  the  small  accidents  of  commerce,  and  tends 
to  stability.  And  this  result  would  bo  more  marked  if  Co-operative  trade 
were  large  enough  to  set  the  tone  to  industry  as  a  whole. 


THE  AIMS  AND  METHODS  OF  CO-OPERATION.     89 

whole  community  gains  and  loses  together,  and  not  at  the 
expense  of  one  another. 

Hence,  thirdly,  "Profit  on  Price,"  profit  properly  so 
called,  is  not  communised,  but  abolished.  The  surplus 
of  the  value  produced  over  the  cost  of  production  passes 
to  the  community — the  producer's  surplus  is  communised. 
But  there  are  no  separate  business  establishments  effecting 
exchange,  and  therefore  no  profit.  Hence  competition  for 
profit  disappears. 

Thus  the  Co-operative  Movement  admirably  achieves  all 
that  is  required  of  the  collective  control  of  Industry  in  the 
matter  of  directing  Production,  communising  the  surplus, 
and  accordingly  restricting  competition.  And  with  every 
stage  of  its  growth  the  movement  will  become  more  effectual 
in  each  direction.  The  Federal  principle  is  gathering  the 
isolated  Co-operative  Societies  together  into  a  great  whole  of 
almost  national  extent ;  so  that  when  we  speak  of  the  Co- 
operative community,  we  no  longer  mean  a  small  local 
group,  but  a  million  of  men  and  women  in  all  parts  of  Great 
Britain.  The  Co-operative  community  is  becoming  a  mode 
of  national  organisation,  with  results  of  national  import- 
ance. 

It  may,  nevertheless,  be  objected  to  Co-operation  that, 
fast  as  it  may  grow,  it  can  never  absorb  the  whole  of  our 
industry.  Perhaps  not ;  but  meanwhile  the  Co-operative 
principle  can  at  this  moment  be  still  more  rapidly  extended 
in  another  direction.  There  are  many  things  which  prac- 
tically all  the  members  of  a  community  require.  Such  are 
security  to  life  and  property,  good  roads,  means  of  convey- 
ance and  communication,  light,  fresh  air  in  open  spaces, 
water,  and  the  rest.  And  as  to  these,  notice  that  demand 
is  very  constant,  and  people  are  very  nearly  unanimous  as 
to  the  quality  of  the  article  desired.  There  is  little  room 
for  variation  of  taste  in  the  matter  of  drinking-water,  or 
even  railway  travelling.  In  these  cases,  then,  where  all, 
or  nearly  all,  people  require  a  commodity,  and  where  indi- 


40  THE  LABOUR  MOVEMENT, 

viduals  do  not  differ  much  in  their  tastes,  a  different  form 
of  co-operation  has  been  growing  up.  I  mean  the  co-opera- 
tion that  makes  use  of  legally  established  machinery.  The 
dwellers  in  any  thriving  town  which  provides  itself  through 
its  corporate  government  with  the  requisites  mentioned, 
are,  industrially  considered,  members  of  a  large  co-operative 
society.  They  find  that  as  a  body  they  have  certain  needs 
in  common ;  they  direct  their  servants,  the  mayor  and  the 
councillors,  to  make  arrangements  to  supply  these  needs, 
and  they  raise  the  necessary  capital  by  a  rate  upon  them- 
selves. This  is  Co-operation,  or,  if  you  prefer  it.  Socialism. 
On  this  side  the  two  ideas  are  one.  In  each  case  the 
persons  who  are  to  use  the  product  set  the  producer  in 
motion,  and  determine  the  quantity  and  quality  of  the 
product. 

In  this,  as  in  voluntary  Co-operation,  we  have  the  com- 
munity of  consumers  directing  production ;  we  have  a  sur- 
plus over  the  cost  of  production,  which  can  be  used  for 
collective  purposes  in  improving  the  locality ;  and  for  this 
area  of  industry  once  more  we  eliminate  "profit  on  ex- 
change "  and  competition  for  profit.  Here  we  have  one- 
half  of  the  case  for  a  '*  progressive  "  municipal  poUcy.  It 
is  simply  a  step  to  the  collective  control  of  industry  in  the 
interests  of  all.  And  it  differs  from  voluntary  co-operation 
solely  in  the  employment  of  legal  machinery — a  difference 
justified  by  the  nature  of  the  commodities  provided. 

It  remains  only  to  be  pointed  out  that  the  State  and  the 
municipality  differ  primarily  in  size ;  and  if  the  dwellers  in 
a  municipality  may  with  advantage  co-operate  for  producing 
what  is  needed  for  their  town,  a  whole  nation  may,  with 
equal  advantage,  set  its  central  government  to  work  for 
things  pertaining  to  the  country  as  a  whole.  Thus  if  we 
municipalise  tramways,  we  may  with  equal  reason  nationalise 
railways.  It  is  commonly  urged  that  a  State  department  is 
a  bad  manager.  This  may  be  so  in  certain  cases;  but  there 
is  no  need  for  it  to  be  so.     In  the  Post  Office,  for  example, 


THE  AIMS  AND  METHODS  OF  CO-OPEBATION.     41 

we  have  one  of  the  largest  business  organisations  in  the 
country  conducted,  on  the  whole,  cheaply  and  efficiently, 
with  a  large  profit  to  the  nation.  And  this  is  not  the  only 
point  gained  by  our  "  socialistic  "  postal  system.  Suppose 
the  service  handed  over  unconditionally  to  private  com- 
panies, we  should  have  tremendous  competition  for  the 
mails  between  large  centres  and  in  busy,  populous  districts, 
together  with  high  tariffs  or  perhaps  total  neglect  in  out- 
lying places.  The  uniform  rate,  which  is  the  making  of  the 
Post  Office  as  a  national  institution,  would  go,  and  with  it 
the  means  of  uniformly  cheap  and  speedy  communication, 
which  at  present  unites  friends  and  kindred  the  whole 
country  over.  Of  course,  at  the  same  time,  the  profit  which 
now  goes  to  meet  the  general  expenditure  of  the  nation 
would  pass  into  private  hands.  In  general,  it  may  be  held 
that  the  State  will  manage  a  business  well  if  the  public  at 
1-arge  are  immediately  and  directly  interested  in  its  manage- 
ment. If  the  miUtary  and  naval  departments  are  badly 
administered,  the  public  has  its  own  want  of  interest  in  the 
matter  to  thank.  Work  will  not  be  well  done,  as  a  rule, 
unless  those  for  whom  it  is  done  keep  awake. 

Put  the  municipality  in  command  of  that  which  is  muni- 
cipal in  extent  and  the  nation  in  control  of  that  which  is 
national.  In  this  way  the  principle  of  control  by  the  body 
of  consumers  proceeds  most  easily  and  speedily  by  several 
converging  roads.  And  on  each  method  the  effects  are  the 
same.  We  avoid  the  waste  and  friction  at  present  involved 
in  the  adjustment  of  demand  and  supply ;  and  we  put  the 
surplus  revenue  into  the  pockets,  not  of  individuals,  but  of 
the  community.  Lastly,  we  introduce  a  new  spirit  and  a 
new  principle  into  industry. 

Those  who  at  the  present  day  carry  on  business  for  per- 
sonal profit  or  wages,  are  unintentionally  performing  a 
social  function  of  the  first  importance.  I  say  uninten- 
tionally, because,  as  things  now  stand,  neither  employers 
nor  workmen  exercise  themselves  much,  as  a  rule,  about 


42  THE  LABOUB  MOVEMENT. 

the  social  usefulness  of  the  commodity  they  are  producing 
or  distributing.  For  them  the  one  thing  needful  is  to  find 
sufficient  purchasers,  and  the  true  commercialist  spirit  cares 
little  for  the  destiny  or  usefulness  of  the  commodity  it  has 
produced  when  the  sale  is  once  made.  Of  course  there  are 
honourable  exceptions  to  this  rule.  There  are  men  who 
would  rather  starve  than  engage  in  a  socially  noxious  traffic 
of  any  kind,  and  there  are  many  who  would  bear  consider- 
able loss  rather  than  turn  out  an  unsound  article.  Never- 
theless, the  difficulty  of  stirring  any  social  feeling  against 
trades,  or  forms  of  conducting  trade,  which  cost  the  lives  or 
impair  the  health  of  millions,  is  a  sufficient  evidence  of  the 
fact  that,  however  important  be  the  actual  function  sub- 
served by  producers  under  an  individuaUst  system,  the  per- 
formance of  that  function  is  not  the  motive  of  production, 
and,  certain  honourable  exceptions  apart,  bears  no  relation 
to  that  motive  at  all. 

Since,  then,  the  all-important  work  of  supplying  the 
material  and  other  needs  of  society  is  left  to  nature  or  to 
chance,  there  is  little  need  for  wonder  if  the  said  work  is 
ill  performed.  Nor  is  it  of  the  slightest  use  to  hurl  denun- 
ciations at  the  head  of  any  particular  class  at  present  en- 
gaged in  production.  If  over-pressure  of  work  alternates 
with  enforced  idleness ;  if  50  per  cent,  profits  are  found  side 
by  side  with  ruin ;  if  shoddy  or  adulterated  goods  fill  the 
market,  society  has  no  one  but  itself  to  blame.  It  counten- 
ances and  upholds  a  certain  system — or  rather  absence  of 
system — and  it  must  take  the  consequences. 

The  reform  needed,  then,  is  a  quite  different  method  of 
producing  wealth.  We  want  a  new  spirit  in  economics — 
the  spirit  of  mutual  help,  the  sense  of  a  common  good. 
We  want  each  man  to  feel  that  his  daily  work  is  a  service 
to  his  kind,  and  that  idleness  or  anti-social  work  are  a 
disgrace.  This  new  spirit,  and  the  practical  arrange- 
ment for  giving  it  effect,  we  have  seen  growing  up  from 
small  beginnings,  with  many  drawbacks  and  limitations. 


THE  AIMS  AND  METHODS  OF  CO-OPEBATION.     43 

in  the  movements  here  reviewed,  and  v^e  see  accordingly 
in  their  development  the  best  hope  for  the  immediate 
futm-e. 

But  now,  supposing  this  control  of  industry  by  consumers 
completed,  with  all  the  results  above  enumerated  fully 
realised,  what  guarantee  is  there,  it  may  be  asked,  that  the 
worker  will  be  adequately  paid  or  good  conditions  of  work 
secured  ?  We  may  steady  trade,  and  so  increase  our  total 
product,  and  we  may  communise  our  surplus  ;  but  all  with- 
out adequately  remunerating  the  worker.  This  is  particu- 
larly obvious  where  the  communities  of  consumers  and 
producers  are  not  the  same — i.e.,  when  men  consume  who  do 
not  produce.  Take  a  co-operative  society  employing  work- 
men, shop  assistants,  &c.  These  employes  need  not  be 
members  of  the  society,  and  if  they  are,  they  may  be  a  very 
small  minority.  What  is  to  safeguard  their  interest  ?  How 
can  we  be  sure  that  the  society  will  not  be  as  anxious  to  in- 
crease the  common  profit  at  the  expense  of  the  workers  as 
an  ordinary  Joint  Stock  Company,  which  would  rather  see  its 
men  work  eighteen  hours  a  day  than  abandon  J  per  cent,  of 
its  dividend  ? 

There  are  two  answers  to  this.  First,  the  spirit  of  co- 
operation is  opposed  to  "  sweating  "  in  any  form.  The 
movement  never  has  been,  and  never  can  be,  worked  by 
mere  "  dividend  hunters."  It  rests  on  public  spirit  and  the 
sense  of  community ;  and  the  co-operative  community  is 
not  a  narrow  corporation,  such  as  fosters  sinister  interests, 
but  is  as  open  as  the  air  to  all  dwellers  in  the  land.  Hence 
co-operators  have,  in  more  than  one  instance,  taken  a  lead- 
ing part  in  reforming  the  conditions  of  employment.  Thus 
in  thirteen  large  societies  in  Oldham,  the  hours  worked  by 
employes  in  the  shops  average,  according  to  Mr.  Hardern, 
56'16  per  week"  (exclusive  of  meal  times).  The  same 
authority  estimates  the  average  for  ordinary  shops  in  Old- 
ham at  70  hours.     The  south  country  stores  do  not  quite 

*  Evidence  given  before  the  Shop  Hours  Committee.     Ee^ort,  p.  203. 


44  THE  LABOUR  MOVEMENT. 

reach  the  Oldham  level ;  but  the  average  hours  for  the 
whole  number  of  societies  investigated  by  Mr.  Hardern 
come  to  57  per  week,  or  9^  per  diem.  And  in  Northumber- 
land certain  stores  have  already  instituted  a  48-hour  week. 
Thus  the  Northern  Co-operative  Societies  are  becoming  the 
pioneers  of  the  eight-hour  day  for  shop  assistants,  just  as  they 
led  the  van  in  the  weekly  half-hohday  movement  thirty  years 
ago.*  No  doubt  there  have  been  disputes,  and  even  strikes, 
in  the  co-operative  world.  Disputes  are  "  common  to  the 
race."  Common  also  is  the  black  sheep,  and  no  doubt  there 
have  been  black  sheep  among  co-operative  societies  regarded 
as  employers.  Meanwhile,  the  growing  alliance  with  Trade 
Unionism  will  strengthen  the  hands  and  back  the  eloquence 
of  every  co-operator  who  pleads  for  dealing  out  the  measure 
of  justice  and  generosity  to  those  in  his  employ  which  he 
himself  as  a  workman  demands  from  his  employer. 

What  is  true  of  co-operation  proper  holds  also  of  the 
other  forms  of  "compulsory  co-operation."  The  mainspring 
of  the  new  municipal  activity  is  the  desire  to  brighten  the 
life  of  our  towns,  not  outwardly  alone,  but  in  the  homes  of 
the  people.  The  force  behind  the  movement  is  the  belief 
in  it  as  a  means,  not  merely  of  supplying  gas  and  water 
cheap,  but  of  raising  the  condition  of  the  worker.  Hence 
the  demand  that  Trade  Union  rates  should  be  paid,  and  Trade 
Union  conditions  observed  in  all  municipal  works.  While 
this  spirit  lasts  in  the  Co-operative  World  and  among  the 
leaders  of  reform  in  our  municipalities,  there  is  no  fear  for  the 
future  of  either  movement,  or  of  the  workman  under  them. 

But,  it  may  be  urged,  this  is  all  very  well  for  the  present, 
and  will  be  all  very  well  as  long  as  the  movement  is  in  the 
hands  of  the  enthusiasts.  But  what  guarantee  is  there  of 
permanence  ?  There  is  nothing  in  the  constitution  of  the 
Co-operative  Society  as  such  to  safeguard  the  worker.    Just 

*  Op.  cit.  p,  209.  Cf.  a  Eeport  by  Miss  L.  Harris  on  the  Conditions  of 
Women  working  in  Co-operative  Stores  in  1895,  which,  however,  shows 
far  less  favourable  results  in  the  matter  of  wages. 


THE  AIMS  AND  METHODS  OF  CO-OPEBATION.     45 

the  same  holds  of  the  municipality  and  the  State.  The 
tramway  men  may  be  voters,  but  they  form  altogether  a 
tiny  fraction  of  a  municipal  constituency.  What,  then,  is 
to  prevent  the  majority  from  combining  to  oppress  them. 
Here,  then,  is  the  second  answer :  The  Trade  Union.  Here 
we  have  the  natural  organ  for  expressing  the  interests  of 
the  working  community — an  organisation  separate  from 
the  society  of  consumers,  and  resting  on  a  different  basis. 
I  do  not  mean  that  all  is  at  once  settled  when  we  have  a 
strong  Trade  Union.  We  may  in  the  future  have  disputes 
between  Union  and  Union,  and,  as  I  have  already  insisted, 
we  want  definite  ethical  principles  to  form  the  ultimate 
standard  of  appeal.  But  I  mean  that  the  Union  is  the 
needed  supplement  to  the  other  forms  of  the  collective  con- 
trol of  industry.  Even  when  all  work  as  well  as  eat,  our 
interests  as  consumers,  as  purchasers  of  labour,  will  not 
always  be  identical  with  our  requirements  as  producers  or 
labourers,  and  we  want  the  appropriate  organisations  to 
represent  each  interest  and  provide  an  amicable  and  just 
settlement  of  differences.  In  the  last  chapter  we  saw  that 
control  by  consumers  was  the  necessary  supplement  to 
Trade  Unionism '  we  now  see  that,  conversely,  Trade 
Unionism,  or  the  control  by  the  producer,  fills  the  gap  left 
by  Co-operation,  voluntary,  municipal,  and  national. 

We  shall  now  be  better  able  to  take  a  general  view  of  the 
different  forms  of  the  Labour  movement  and  see  what 
unites  them.  It  is  not  only  as  to  ultimate  ends  that  they 
make  common  cause.  That  a  better  distribution  of  wealth 
and  a  higher  tone  in  business  enterprise  are  both  desirable 
would  be  agreed  by  many  people  who  are  neither  Trade 
Unionists  nor  Co-operators  nor  supporters  of  State  Socialism 
in  any  form.  Many  benevolent  and  philanthropic  people 
see  and  deplore  the  evils  of  the  existing  state  of  things 
without  joining  any  of  the  tbrae  movements  in  question. 
What  really  unites  these  movements  is  the  general  character 


46  THE  LABOUR  MOVEMENT. 

of  the  means  they  adopt  for  the  furtherance  of  their  ends. 
In  one  form  or  another  all  three  alike  are  introducing  the 
principle  of  the  collective  control  of  industry  by  the  com- 
munity in  the  interests  of  all  its  members.  They  are  seek- 
ing to  replace  competition  and  the  forces  of  individual 
self-interest  as  the  arbiters  of  industry,  by  a  deliberate  and 
systematic  arrangement  of  labour  and  commerce  in  the  best 
interests  of  society  as  a  whole.  They  are  all  at  present  in 
an  inchoate  or  incomplete  condition  which,  to  some  extent, 
disguises  this  common  character,  but  this  none  the  less 
expresses  their  essential  tendencies  and  the  secret  of  their 
life  and  vigour. 

Within  its  own  sphere,  and  so  far  as  it  is  able  to  carry 
out  its  objects,  the  Trade  Union  entirely  supersedes  free 
competition  between  individuals  actuated  by  their  own 
interests  as  the  controlling  force  of  industrial  life.  Where 
the  Union  is  strong  the  individual  workman  is  powerless 
against  it.  He  has  to  conform  to  its  regulations  as  to 
wages,  hours,  and  conditions  of  work,  no  matter  how  much 
better  a  bargain  he  may  think  that  he  could  drive  on  his 
own  account.  It  might  pay  him  on  occasion  to  take  work 
below  the  standard  wage,  but  the  Union  will  prevent  him. 
He  may  be  able  to  work  beyond  the  regulation  hours  with- 
out injury  to  himself.  He  is  forbidden  by  an  association 
of  men  of  average  strength.  He  might  be  willing  and  able  to 
take  risks  which  others  shun,  but  it  is  not  allowed  him.  In 
every  direction  he  is  limited  and  confined.  It  matters  not 
in  the  least  that  the  compulsion  is  not  put  upon  him  by  the 
law  or  any  legally  constituted  authority.  His  "liberty" 
is  "  interfered  with  "  every  bit  as  much  wherever  the  Union 
is  sufficiently  strong  for  the  purpose.  He  has  to  learn  the 
lesson  that  a  man  must  put  up  with  some  losses  and  incon- 
veniences for  the  general  good  of  his  neighbours.  He  is 
confronted  with  the  authority  and  power  of  the  judgment 
of  the  community  as  to  its  common  welfare.  The  com- 
munity is  here  not  the  state,  but  a  body  of  workers,  and  its 


THE  AIMS  AND  METHODS  OF  CO-OPERATION.     47 

decisions  are  enforced,  not  by  officials  in  uniform,  but  by 
duly  appointed  committees  and  officers  taken  from  the  ranks 
of  the  workers  themselves.  But  the  principle  of  common 
action  for  common  good  imposing  limits  on  individual 
action  for  personal  good  is  apparent  here,  just  as  it  is 
apparent  in  every  law  passed  by  the  Houses  of  Parliament. 
There  is,  however,  an  important  difference.  Parliament 
represents,  or  should  represent,  the  people  as  a  whole. 
The  Trade  Union  represents  a  certain  section  of  the 
people,  and  hitherto  these  sections  have  been  relatively 
small  and  isolated.  This  accounts  at  once  for  the  com- 
parative weakness  of  the  Union's  authority  and  for  the 
sectional  interests  by  which  it  is  sometimes  dominated. 
The  true  principle  of  the  collective  control  of  industry 
means  a  control  exercised,  if  not  by  the  whole  nation,  yet 
in  the  interests  of  the  whole  nation.  No  other  is  either 
desirable  or  permanently  practicable.  The  Trade  Union 
then  sins  against  its  own  vital  principles  when  it  lays  down 
rules  in  its  own  interests  to  the  damage  of  the  public,  just 
as  Parliament  abrogates  its  own  moral  authority  when  it 
passes  a  law  in  the  interests  of  a  class  to  the  detriment  of 
the  conmionwealth.  Now  while  the  Union  is  confined  to 
an  isolated  trade  or  locality,  it  is  particularly  liable  to  this 
weakness.  But  in  the  great  national  Unions  of  to-day, 
very  diverse  interests  of  many  localities  have  to  be  weighed 
against  one  another,  and  the  merits  of  disputes  may  be 
adjudged  coolly  and  dispassionately  by  persons  living  at  a 
distance,  and  responsible  to  many  other  branches  than  the 
one  affected.  In  this  way  the  sectional  character  of  Trade 
Unionism  grows  less  and  its  decisions  grow  in  weight, 
deliberateness,  and  power.  This  process  would  be  greatly 
furthered  by  the  development  of  the  Federal  Principle, 
which  hitherto  has  made  little  headway.*  Federation  no 
less  than  Amalgamation  enlarges,  and  therefore  strengthens, 
the  basis  of  Trade  Union  action.  It  removes  the  narrow- 
*  Cf.  Webb,  "  Trade  Unionism,"  pp.  340  ff.,  and  407,  408. 


48  THE  LABOVB  MOVEMENT. 

ness  and  pettiness,  and  the  tendency  to  foster  sinister 
interests  which  were  almost  inseparable  from  the  original 
form  of  Union,  while  it  gives  free  play  and  full  encourage- 
ment to  the  broader  public  spirit  which  recognises  the  true 
identity  of  interest  for  all  workers. 

And  there  is  nothing  to  regret  in  the  course  which  the 
development  of  Unionism  has  taken.  Eegarded  as  a  moral 
and  educational  force,  it  has  begun  quite  rightly  with  the 
elements  of  the  subject.  It  starts  with  the  workshop  and 
teaches  the  doctrine  of  fellowship  and  brotherhood  for  all 
who  work  at  the  same  bench.  The  lessons  of  public  spirit 
and  public  action  are  thus  first  learnt  by  the  Trade  Unionist 
in  relation  to  the  comrades  with  whom  he  is  actually  asso- 
ciated in  his  work  and  daily  life.  But  the  training  once 
perfect,  the  principle  is  easily  applied  to  a  wider  area.  He 
who  is  faithful  in  small  things  will  be  faithful  also  in  great, 
and  he  who  loves  and  will  serve  his  brother  whom  he  hath 
seen  will  learn  to  aid  his  brother  whom  he  hath  not  seen. 
This  is  working  from  the  base  upwards — there  is  no  other 
safe  method.  Just  as  the  Trade  Union  represents  the 
limitation  of  each  man's  freedom  by  the  whole  body  of 
workers,  so  it  depends  for  its  very  existence  on  the  loyalty 
of  each  member  to  the  common  cause.  Every  advance  in 
Trade  Unionism  involves  a  progress  in  the  intelligence  and 
public  spirit  of  the  workers.  No  Union  can  exist  unless 
the  mass  of  its  members  are  prepared  for  mutual  help  and 
forbearance,  unless  they  have  unlearnt  the  lesson  of  self- 
seeking  and  are  ready  to  make  sacrifices  for  the  good  of 
all. 

Trade  Unionism,  then,  as  it  grows  and  broadens,  intro- 
duces little  by  little  a  new  spirit  into  industry  and  becomes 
the  means  of  regulating  it  in  the  interest  of  the  working 
community.  And  as  in  a  healthy  community  all  are 
workers  who  are  capable  of  work,  the  interests  Trade 
Unionism  considers  are  those  of  the  community  at  large. 
It  is  of  course  a  mere  vulgar  error  to  regard  the  principle 


THE  AIMS  AND  METHODS  OF  COOPEBATION.    49 

of  Trade  Unionism  as  limited  to  manual  work.  The 
majority  of  the  learned  professions  form  closer  Trade 
Unions — either  voluntary  or  supported  and  incorporated  by 
law — than  are  yet  to  be  found  in  the  world  of  Labour.  It 
is  true  that  these  Unions  of  professional  men  leave  much 
to  be  desired  in  their  constitution  and  regulation.  It  is  true 
that,  alike  in  narrowness  and  selfishness  of  aim,  and  in 
hide-bound  adherence  to  tradition,  Trade  Unions  like  the 
Bar  rank  far  below  the  average  Society  of  manual  labourers. 
But  there  is  no  reason  why  this  should  always  be  so.  On 
the  contrary,  there  is  every  ground  to  hope  that  the  public 
spirit  so  rapidly  growing  among  manual  workers  will  spread 
with  increasing  rapidity  through  other  occupations  and  turn 
professional  regulations  to  the  general  benefit  at  once  of  the 
profession  and  the  public. 

We  have  already  tried  to  show  that,  as  Trade  Unionism 
represents  the  control  of  industry  by  the  body  of  producers, 
so  Co-operation  represents  the  control  by  the  body  of  con- 
sumers. So  far  as  its  influence  extends,  it  supersedes  the 
anarchy  of  competition,  introduces  steadiness  and  con- 
tinuity of  employment,  and  secures  the  enjoyment  of  the 
surplus  product  for  all  who  join  in  promoting  it.  Like 
Trade  Unionism  also  it  rests  on  the  pubhc  spirit  of  its 
members,  and  their  readiness  to  sacrifice  personal  profit  for 
the  common  good.  It  controls  industry,  so  to  say,  from  the 
other  end,  and  hence  its  action  is  complementary  to  that  of 
the  Unions,  securing  for  the  community  as  consumers  the 
benefits  which  as  workers  they  could  hardly  obtain. 

Now  both  the  Trade  Union  and  the  Co-operative  Society 
are  voluntary  associations  of  men  consciously  formed  for 
securing  certain  common  ends.  But  if  we  inquire  a  little 
more  deeply  than  usual  what  the  State  is,  why  it  has  come 
into  being,  and  what  justifies  its  existence,  the  answer  must 
be  that  the  State  also  is  an  association  of  all  the  dwellers 
in  a  country,  an  association  that  has  no  doubt  grown  up 
unconsciously,  but  which  has  grown  because  it  has  secured 

5 


50  THE  LABOUR  MOVEMENT. 

certain  valuable  results  for  all  its  members.  And  in  the 
democratic  state  we  get  the  true  principle  of  association 
clearly  worked  out,  namely,  that  all  citizens  shall  be  called 
on  to  serve  the  common  weal,  and,  on  the  other  side,  that 
the  State  shall  serve  not  the  interest  of  the  Few,  nor  even 
of  the  Many,  but  the  interest  of  All. 

Like  the  State,  the  municipality  is  a  kind  of  association, 
but  exercising  a  more  limited  authority  over  a  smaller  area. 
And  the  difference  between  the  State  or  the  municipality 
and  other  associations  formed  by  men,  is  mainly  that  to 
these  two  every  man  living  in  a  given  locality  7?mst  belong, 
whether  he  likes  it  or  not.  He  must  support  them  by  his 
contributions  and  he  must  submit  to  their  authority.  In 
the  case  of  the  Trade  Union  or  Co-operative  Society  he 
need  not  belong  to  the  Association  unless  he  chooses, 
though,  at  least,  in  the  case  of  the  Union,  he  may  often  be 
controlled  by  the  common  power  notwithstanding  that  he 
denies  its  authority.  That  the  Union  is  a  voluntary 
association  makes  no  difference  whatever  to  the  reality  of 
the  control  which  it  exercises  over  individuals,  nor  does  it 
diminish  by  one  jot  the  sternness  of  its  "  interference  "  with 
the  "  liberty  of  the  subject  "  when  the  said  liberty  is  judged 
hostile  to  the  common  good.  The  apostles  of  liberty  in  the 
abstract — of  the  right  divine  of  all  men  to  do  wrong — would 
be  perfectly  logical  in  attacking  the  Trade  Union  just  as 
much  as  the  "Progressive"  municipal  policy.  And  con- 
versely those  who  believe  that  the  collective  control  of 
industry  is  necessary  to  the  economic  welfare  of  society  need 
trouble  themselves  little  as  to  the  name  of  the  body  by 
which  that  control  is  exercised. 

This  much  being  premised,  it  is  clear  that  the  progress  of 
what  is  often  called  Municipal  Socialism,  but  might  just  as 
well  be  called  municipal  life,  is  simply  the  growth  of  the 
collective  control  of  industry  under  a  special  form.  Municipal 
Socialism  aims,  as  we  have  seen,  at  a  special  kind  of  Co- 
operation— the  Co-operation  of  all  the  dwellers  in  a  district 


THE  AIMS  AND  METHODS  OF  CO-OPERATION.     51 

— to  supply  themselves  with  their  common  requirements  by 
means  of  certain  legally  constituted  machinery,  and  enforc- 
ing their  decisions  by  legal  powers.  In  doing  this,  of  course, 
they  interfere  with  the  liberty  of  the  individual.  An  indi- 
vidualist philosopher  may  not  want  to  wash,  but  must  pay 
his  water-rate  all  the  same.  The  majority  who  do  want 
to  wash,  enforce  an  equal  rate  of  payment  on  the  unwashed 
minority.  Tyrannical,  perhaps,  but  necessary.  Grant  that 
washing  is  generally  desirable,  and  that  the  means  thereto 
can  be  most  efficiently  and  economically  provided  for  the 
dwellers  in  a  town  by  the  collective  action  of  the  town 
involving  a  contribution  from  all  members  of  the  same,  then 
the  anti- washing  minority  must  submit.  This  is  no  new 
principle.  It  is  a  principle  as  old  as  human  society.  The 
weakest  tribe  of  bushmen  could  not  hold  together,  unless 
the  interests  of  the  tribe  as  a  whole  were  preferred  in  some 
degree  to  the  interests  or  desires  of  individuals.  What  is 
new,  in  modern  applications  of  the  principle,  is  nothing  but 
the  wider  and  deeper  conception  of  the  welfare  of  society. 

The  municipal  control  of  production,  then,  is  analogous  in 
principle,  and  result  to  ordinary  Co-operation,  and  has,  as  I 
have  tried  to  show,  a  peculiar  and  appropriate  sphere  of  its 
own,  in  which  Co-operation  has  shown  no  tendency  to  get  a 
footing.  And  as  with  the  municipality,  so  with  the  State. 
There  is  no  reason  why  the  railways,  or  any  other  business 
of  national  magnitude  should  not  like  the  Post  Office,  the 
National  Defence,  and  the  Coinage,  be  undertaken  by  a 
committee  sitting  at  Whitehall  and  representing  the  whole 
nation.  To  certain  forms  of  production,  this  mode  of  control 
is  most  appropriate,  while  to  others  it  is  entirely  unsuited. 

But  after  all,  the  main  function"  of  the  State  in  industry, 
as  in  all  other  things,  is  to  be  the  supreme  regulative 
authority.  Every  lesser  community  may  be  dominated  by 
sectional  interests,  and  as  the  power  of  such  sections  grows, 
the  supreme  authority  of  the  central  power  is  needed  to 
balance   and  harmonise   them.     Again,  there   are  certain 


52  THE  LABOUR  MOVEMENT. 

conditions  of  work  most  appropriately  regulated  by  the 
State,  while  others  are  best  left  to  the  control  of  the 
industry  concerned.  The  prime  necessities  of  industrial 
life  ought  not  to  be  left  to  the  care  of  subordinate 
authorities,  or  the  uncertain  effectiveness  of  voluntary 
organisations.  They  are  matters  of  too  urgent  a  necessity. 
Such,  for  example,  is  the  limitation  of  hours.*  It  is  a  prime 
social  necessity  to  secure  some  degree  of  leisure  for  all 
citizens — even  tramway  men — and  to  prevent  the  deteriora- 
tion of  the  worker,  through  long  hours  in  unhealthy 
employment.  Thus,  by  almost  universal  consent,  the  State 
was  more  than  justified  in  undertaking  to  limit  the  hours  of 
work  for  women  and  children  in  the  textile  trades.  This 
might  have  been  left  to  Trade  Union  action  and  delayed 
half  a  century  to  the  physical  deterioration  of  two  genera- 
tions of  operatives,  to  the  saving  of  no  principle  worth 
saving,  and  the  preserving  of  no  interest  worth  preserving. 
As  a  matter  of  fact,  it  was  accomplished  speedily  and  satis- 
factorily by  law.  Similarly  the  provisions  of  the  Factory 
Acts  may  be,  and  should  be,  extended  as  far  as  possible  to 
all  other  trades,  and  the  State  may  with  equal  advantage 
limit  the  hours  of  men  in  unhealthy  employments,  and 
even  within  wider  limits,  in  all  employments,  on  the  same 
principle,  and  with  the  same  results  as  though  the  regula- 
tion were  enforced  by  Trade  Union  action.  No  less 
necessary  than  the  limitation  of  hours  is  the  careful 
supervision  of  the  condition  of  work  in  all  unhealthy  and 
dangerous  trades.  To  risk  other  men's  lives  unnecessarily 
for  the  sake  of  gain  is  a  form  of  murder,  and  murder  by 
free  contract  has  hitherto   been  safe   and  profitable,  but 

*  It  may  be  useful  here  to  distinguish  what  is  necessary  from  what  is 
desirable.  A  certain  limit  (say  eleven  or  twelve  hours)  might  be  regarded 
as  an  absolute  maximum  and  fixed  once  for  all  for  every  employment  alike, 
while  a  lower  maximum  (eight  hours,  or  less)  might  be  fixed  for  un- 
healthy occupations.  Thus  much  might  fairly  be  regarded  as  essential. 
Beyond  this,  it  is  surely  desirable  to  effect  a  general  reduction  to  eight 
hours,  and  here  the  law  might  help  the  various  trades  to  reach  this  end 
for  themselves  by  the  principle  of  local  and  trade  option. 


THE  AIMS  AND  METHODS  OF  CO-OPEBATION.     53 

Society  has  to  see  that  murder  is  not  done  with  its  per- 
mission.* 

Such  are  some  of  the  conditions  of  industry  which  it  is 
the  special  province  of  the  State  to  prescribe,  and  in  these 
directions  its  industrial  activity  is  most  likely  to  develop 
in  the  immediate  future.  The  central  government  is  not 
destined  to  be  merely  the  largest  of  employers.  Above  and 
beyond  that,  lies  its  great  work  of  regulating  all  that  is 
most  vital  to  society,  and  prescribing  the  unity  in  things 
essential,  without  which  a  nation  cannot  live.  And  this 
ideal  of  the  State  is  no  modern  "  Socialist  fad,"  but  is  as 
old  as  Aristotle,  holding  with  him  that  the  State  "comes 
into  being  that  men  may  live,  but  exists  that  they  may  live 
well." 

In  four  different  ways,  then,  we  have  seen  the  principle  of 
collective  control  at  work.  And  in  this  principle  we  recognise 
the  natural  base  of  alliance  for  all  who  have  gone  to  work 
in  any  one  of  these  different  ways.  Not  only  are  there  many 
mansions  in  the  City  of  God,  but  there  are  many  paths  that 
lead  thereto,  even  though  each  be  narrow.  And  so  there 
are  many  ways  to  social  welfare — the  noblest  goal  that  man 
can  set  before  him — but  all  trend  in  one  direction  and  at 
last  they  meet.  And  we  stand  now  at  the  point  where  the 
unity  of  principle  that  has  guided  us  all  along  is  becoming 
clear.  That  principle  is  simple.  It  assumes  that  intelligence 
is  better  than  blind  force,  and  reaches  its  end  more  speedily 
and  surely.  It  holds  that  the  economic  well-being  of  society 
is  the  true  end  of  industry,  and  that  this  end  will  therefore 
be  reached  better  by  an  intelligent  organisation  of  industry, 
than  by  the  haphazard  interaction  of  unintelligent  forces. 
It  holds,  that  self-interest  acts  intelligently  enough  for  self, 

*  As  a  step  to  a  completer  organisation  of  industry,  it  should  be  made 
the  rule  that  all  public  "concessions"  to  private  companies  should 
stipulate  for  "  fair  "  conditions  for  the  worker  as  a  part  of  the  agreement. 
If  we  still  persist  in  allowing  private  persons  to  make  a  profit  on  our  gas 
and  water  supply,  we  can  at  least  insist  that  they  should  employ  their 
men  on  Union  conditions. 


54  THE  LABOVB  MOVEMENT. 

but  inasmuch  as  it  totally  disregards  the  welfare  of  others, 
it  is  to  be  regarded,  relatively  to  that  welfare,  as  a  blind  and 
often  destructive  force.  It  holds  that,  apart  from  the  control 
of  industry  by  the  community  for  its  own  ends,  there  is  no 
force  but  that  of  self-interest  to  impel  and  guide  production, 
and  that  therefore  the  withdrawal  of  collective  control  leaves 
industry  to  the  interaction  of  blind  forces  producing  mixed 
good  and  evil,  with  no  necessary  tendency  to  progress,  no  pre- 
established  *'  economic  harmony  "  between  self-interest  and 
the  common  weal.  Accordingly,  on  the  ground  that  intelli- 
gence is  more  effective  than  brute  m.atter,  and  that  the 
control  of  the  community  is  the  only  possible  intelligent 
agency  which  can  direct  the  course  of  economic  progress,  it 
advocates  the  substitution  of  such  control  for  the  present 
chaos  of  the  economic  world. 


CHAPTIi^R  IV. 

THE  DISTBIBUTION  OF  WEALTH 

Let  us  now  try  to  sum  up  the  joint  economic  result  of  the 
movements  under  consideration.  We  have  seen  that  each  is 
attacking  its  appropriate  part  of  the  problem  of  industrial 
organisation.  Let  us  now  consider  how  far  they  are  natu- 
rally fitted  to  work  together  in  attacking  the  problem  as  a 
whole.  We  shall  get  some  light  on  this  point  if  we  examine 
the  present  *'  system  "  of  unregulated  industry  and  compare 
its  main  results,  point  by  point,  with  those  which  our  methods 
of  organisation  are  tending  to  put  in  their  place. 

In  drawing  the  broad  outlines  of  a  system  of  private 
enterprise,  such  as  on  the  whole  prevails  in  England  at  the 
present  day,  we  shall  simplify  our  task  if  we  follow  the 
ordinary  method  of  economists,  and  assume  for  the  moment 
that  the  competitive  system  described  is  really  a  system  of 
free  com.petition.  And  when  we  speak  of  competition  as 
free,  we  imply,  be  it  remembered,  a  good  deal  more  than 
absence  of  any  legal  or  other  collectively  imposed  restraint. 
We  imply  equality  of  advantage,  i.e.,  that  all  bargainers  in 
the  markets  of  the  country  are  equal  in  position  and  in 
knowledge  of  their  own  interests.  That  being  understood, 
it  will  be  seen  at  once  that  our  assumption  is  a  large  one, 
and  not  fully  realised  in  any  existing  state  of  society. 
Certain  results  of  this  will  be  considered  in  their  place. 
Meanwhile,  it  will  be  convenient  to  proceed  as  though  the 
assumption  were  justified,  precisely  as  in  many  problems 
of  mechanics  it  is  convenient  to  assume  that  bodies  are 

55 


56  THE  LABOUR  MOVEMENT. 

perfectly  rigid,  or  move  without  friction.  In  this  way 
we  get  certain  broad  truths  first,  and  can  introduce  the 
necessary  limitations  and  corrections  afterwards. 

The  central  fact  of  modern  industry  is  the  Division  of 
Labour,  and  the  consequent  production  of  goods — not  for  the 
use  of  the  producers,  but — for  Exchange.  In  the  regulation 
of  industry  everything  depends  on  the  way  in  which  the  Ex- 
change value  of  goods  is  determined.  Think,  first,  for  a 
moment,  how  we  should  determine  Exchange  value,  if  we  had 
it  in  our  power  to  do  so,  on  the  principles  above  determined, 
that  is  to  say,  with  a  view  to  justice  and  social  utility.  Suppos- 
ing the  commodity  to  be  useful  to  society,*  we  should  try  to 
reward  the  producer  in  proportion  to  the  time,  effort,  and 
skill  applied  in  making  it.  And  in  considering  the  reward 
due  for  a  given  quantity  of  time,  effort,  and  skill,  we  should 
be  guided  by  the  amount  it  would  be  possible  to  give  to  all 
workers,  so  that  the  weakest  would  have  enough  for  a 
civilised  existence.  In  apportioning  our  reward,  then,  we 
have  taken  into  account  the  social  utility  of  the  product, 
and  the  amount  and  character  of  the  work  done  upon  it, 
and  the  result  will  be  that  we  shall  get  what  we  want  done, 
and  the  producer  will  make  as  good  a  living  as  may  be 
compatible  with  the  wealth  of  society. 

t  Turning  to  the  actual  effect  of  competition,  we  find  first 
that  the  value  of  things  as  estimated  in  money  is  con- 
tinually fluctuating,  and  that  when  we  ask  what  is  the 
normal  value  of  a  thing  and  how  is  it  fixed,  we  must  make 
it  clear  whether  we  are  referring  to  short  or  long  periods. 
Consider  a  "  market  "  for  a  day,  and  you  find  very  likely 
that  prices  are  different  in  different  places  or  at  different 

"^  From  the  point  of  view  of  abstract  justice,  this  is  obviously  the  first 
consideration.  If  my  time  and  skill  are  spent  in  devising  an  infernal 
machine  for  use  in  a  public  building,  my  just  reward  is  penal  servitude. 

t  In  what  follows  I  am  guided  mainly  by  Prof.  Marshall,  whose  account 
is  the  most  comprehensive.  But  it  will  be  at  once  understood  that  I  am 
not  attempting  even  to  sketch  a  theory  of  value  as  a  whole.  I  wish 
merely  to  bring  out  certain  points  with  regard  to  exchange  which  explain 
some  of  the  obvious  evils  of  our  industrial  system. 


THE  DISTRIBUTION  OF  WEALTH.  57 

hours.  But  you  can  strike  an  average  and  call  it  the 
normal  price  for  the  day — some  prices  being  higher  and 
some  lower  than  the  normal.  Take  the  same  market  for 
a  week,  and  you  will  find  prices  differ  from  day  to  day. 
The  average  price  of  Monday  may  be  higher  or  lower  than 
the  average  for  Tuesday.  But  you  can,  of  course,  strike  an 
average  for  the  week  as  a  whole,  and  speak  of  the  prices 
for  each  day  as  above  or  below,  as  ''  fluctuating  round  " 
the  normal  level  for  the  week.  In  the  same  way  the  week's 
average  fluctuates  about  the  normal  level  for  the  year  and 
so  on  for  any  period,  as  Professor  Marshall  has  ably  shown. 
When  we  speak  of  the  normal  price  of  a  commodity  we 
mean  the  normal  or  average  price  for  the  period  we  are 
considering,  whether  that  period  be  short  or  long. 

Consider  first  a  short  period.  There  is  a  certain  quantity 
of  goods  in  a  market,*  and  an  effective  demand  for  a  certain 
quantity  on  the  part  of  the  purchasers  in  the  market  taken 
as  a  whole.  No  one  can  calculate  either  quantity  precisely, 
though  an  acute  dealer  can  make  a  good  guess.  But,  what 
is  important,  the  extent  of  the  demand  may  vary  with  the 
price  of  the  goods.  More  people  will  be  likely  to  buy  good 
fish  at  Is.  then  at  Is.  6d.  the  pound.  I  shall  buy  another 
pair  of  boots  if  I  can  get  them  cheap,  if  not,  I  shall  make 
this  pair  do  for  another  month.  Now  if  you  can  sell  off 
all  your  fish  at  Is.  6d.  you  will  do  so,  and  I,  who  cannot 
afford  to  go  beyond  Is.,  will  go  without.  But  if  you  cannot 
find  purchasers  who  will  take  off  all  your  fish  at  Is.  6d.,  it 
will  pay  you  to  lower  the  price.  If  all  your  fish  goes  off  at 
Is.,  you  get  more  in  the  long  run  than  if  you  sell  half  at 
Is.  6d.  You  have  to  consider  this,  and  your  aim  being  to 
get  the  maximum  return,  you  will  all  the  time  be  feeling 
after  a  price  at  which  you  will  get  off  so  much  that 
multiplying  price  into  quantity  your  takings  are  greater  than 
they  would  be  at  any  other  price.     Suppose  this  price  to  be 

*  V/e  need  not  here  complicate  the  question  by  referring  to  expected 
goods. 


58  THE  LABOUE  MOVEMENT. 

Is.  3d.,*  then  Is.  3d.  would  be  an  equilibrium  point  to  which 
the  price  will  be  constantly  tending,  though  it  may  never 
reach  it. 

Now,  the  important  point  to  notice  is  that  the  price  thus 
fixed  by  the  equilibrium  of  demand  and  supply  bears  no 
relation  whatever  to  the  cost  of  production.  One  man, 
favoured  by  circumstances  or  by  ability,  may  find  his  fish 
only  cost  him  9d.  per  lb.  to  bring  into  the  market,  and, 
accordingly,  he  takes  a  profit  of  6d.  on  the  price  of  Is,  3d. — 
roughly,  66  per  cent,  on  his  outlay.  Another,  by  ill-luck 
or  mismanagement,  finds  it  cost  him  2s.  to  bring  the  self- 
same fish  to  the  self-same  market,  and  his  time,  labour,  and 
anxiety  are  rewarded  by  a  loss  of  some  37  per  cent,  on  his 
transaction.  Nevertheless,  notice,  he  will  not  be  able  to 
sell  one  penny  higher  than  his  neighbour,  or,  if  he  does, 
he  will  only  lose  the  more,  supposing  Is.  3d.  to  be  the 
equilibrium  price. 

Now  the  question  is  what  is  to  become  of  this  man, 
supposing  his  ill-luck  or  mismanagement  to  continue.  It 
is  clear  that  he  must  eventually  go  under  water,  and  that 
the  longer  he  struggles  the  worse  off  he  will  be.  Now  this 
introduces  us  to  the  determination  of  long-period  values. 
For  the  disappearance  of  the  unsuccessful  competitors 
diminishes  the  quantity  of  goods  in  the  market,  and  given 
the  same  demand  as  before  with  a  decreased  supply,  the 
equilibrium  price  will  rise.t  It  is  clear,  then,  that,  in  the 
long  run  taking  an  average  of  prices  extending  over  a 
sufiicient  time  to  cause  an  extension  of  production  when 
the  market  is  good  or  a  contraction  of  it  when  bad,  this 
average  will  be  sufficient  to  compensate  every  producer  in 

*  Suppose,  e.g.,  you  can  sell  60  lb.  at  Is.  3d.  your  total  return  is  £3  15s. , 
and  suppose  you  could  only  get  off  40  lb.  at  Is.  6d.  you  could  get  only  £3  at 
that  price,  wliile  again  70  lb.  at  Is.  gives  you  £3  lUs.  In  such  a  condition 
of  the  market  Is.  3d.  gives  you  the  best  return. 

t  For  if  I  have  only  40  lb.  to  sell,  and  if  as  before  I  can  find  buyers  for 
40  lb.  at  Is.  Gd.  then  Is.  6d.  gives  me  a  better  return  than  Is.  3d.  (viz. 
£3  instead  of  £2  10s.)  It  may  even  pay  to  raise  the  price  further,  as  if 
I  can  tind  thirty-five  buyers  at  2s. 


THE  DISTRIBUTION  OF  WEALTU.  59 

the  market  for  his  expenditure  of  time,  trouble,  capital,  and 
the  like.  The  average  price  over  a  long  period  tends,  then, 
to  equal  the  cost  of  production.  But  we  have  seen  that 
the  cost  of  production  differs  for  each  producer.  A  and  B 
are  both  farmers.  A  is  an  able  man,  farming  rich  land  near 
a  great  town.  B  a  bad  farmer  on  poor  soil  at  a  considerable 
distance.  But  the  state  of  demand  is  such  as  to  require  all 
B's  corn  as  well  as  A's.  Then  if  this  state  of  things  is  to 
continue  permanently  the  price  of  corn  must  be  sufficient 
to  remunerate  B,  i.e.,  to  allow  B  to  pay  the  average  rate  to 
his  labourers  and  to  receive  the  average  rate  of  interest  on  his 
capital,  a.nd  the  average  return  for  his  own  risk,  anxiety, 
management,  and  the  like — the  average  in  each  case  being 
determined  by  relation  to  the  rate  obtain n.ble  in  other 
occupations  open  to  men  of  the  stamp  of  B.  But  it  is 
clear  that  if  the  price  is  thus  high  enough  to  give  an 
average  reward  to  B,  it  will  give  something  very  much 
above  the  average  to  A — unless,  indeed,  A  has  already  had 
to  pay  a  landlord  or  the  community  for  the  privilege  of 
farming  rich  land  in  a  good  situation.  In  this  case  the 
surplus  that  goes  primarily  to  A  will  ultimately  find  its  way 
into  other  pockets.  But  notice  first  that  price  is  thus 
determined  (on  the  average  of  a  long  period)  by  the  cost  of 
producing  that  part  of  the  commodities  sold  which  are 
brought  to  market  under  the  greatest  disadvantages.  These 
goods  being,  as  it  were,  on  the  margin  of  the  market,  so 
that  a  further  fall  in  price  would  exclude  them  from  it,  they 
are  spoken  of  as  on  the  margin  of  production,'''  and  the 
cost  of  producing  them  is  the  marginal  cost  of  production 
for  that  market.  This  being  understood,  it  holds  that  when 
men  are  very  wise  in  their  own  interests  and  competition 
very  free,  the  average  cost  of  a  commodity  in  a  long  period 
is  determined  by  the  marginal  cost  of  production.  Notice, 
secondly,  that  this  being  so  a  surplus  remains  over  to  every 

*  The  phrase  was,  of  course,  suggested  by  land  supposed  to  bo  physi- 
cally on  the  margin  of  cultivation. 


60  THE  LABOUR  MOVEMENT. 

producer  except  those  on  the  margin — the  surplus  which, 
in  our  instance,  was  left  to  farmer  A  by  the  price  which 
just  satisfied  farmer  B.  The  existence  of  this  surplus 
depending  on  the  inequalities  in  human  and  non-human 
nature,  it  must  remain  in  existence  as  long  as  human 
industry  persists.  Its  existence  is  not  one  of  the  hypo- 
thetical laws  of  political  economy,  but  one  of  its  categorical 
or  unconditional  generalisations.  But  the  disposal  of  the 
surplus  is  a  very  different  matter,  depending  very  largely  on 
human  institutions. 

We  have  now  before  us  two  main  elements  in  the  returns 
which  a  farmer  or  manufacturer  gets  for  his  labour.  A  certain 
portion  of  the  return  reimburses  him  for  the  cost  of  pro- 
ducing his  article.  Another  portion,  which  may  vary  from 
zero  *  to  any  quantity,  is  a  surplus  over  and  above  the  cost 
of  production.  "We  must  consider,  then,  the  elements  which 
make  up  both  these  divisions  of  the  return.  To  do  this 
fully  would  be  to  write  a  book  on  pohtical  economy.  But 
consider  for  a  moment  very  briefly  what  goes  to  build  up 
the  cost  of  producing  an  article.  We  may  distinguish  the 
elements  of  ordinary  manual  labour  and  of  skilled  labour. 
The  price  of  these,  it  must  be  remembered,  is  determined, 
not  immediately  by  the  value  of  their  product  but  rather  by 
the  average  amount  that  the  same  labour  and  skill  can  get 
elsewhere.  Next  come  earnings  of  management,  and  under 
them  we  must  include  not  only  salaries  paid  to  clerks,  foremen, 
overlookers,  or  managers,  but  a  sufficient  recompense  to  the 
employer  himself  for  his  trouble  and  anxiety.  A  man  of 
capital  will  not  permanently  occupy  himself  in  a  business 
v;hich  gives  him  no  return  for  his  trouble  beyond  what  he 
could  safely  get  for  his  capital  if  invested  in  something  else. 
This  brings  us  to  the  last  element  in  cost — viz.,  interest 
on  the  capital  employed.  Now  of  all  these  elements  there 
is  a  certain  average  which  goes  to  determine  the  marginal 
cost  of  production,  and  through  it  the  average  price  of  the 
*  Or  as  I  shall  notice  presently  from  a  minus  quantity. 


THE  DISTRIBUTION  OF  WEALTH.  61 

commodity.  In  the  long  run,  probably  the  price  of  these 
elements  determines  that  of  the  commodity  and  not  vice  versa. 
Some  of  them  act  more  slowly  than  others,  and  all  act 
clumsily  and  roughly  ;  but  all  probably  act  in  the  long  run. 
It  is  different  when  we  turn  to  the  surplus  left  to  each 
producer.  Here  we  have  to  do  with  rewards  determined 
by  price  and  not  determining  it.  It  is  sometimes  dijficult 
to  say  what  earns  these  rewards.  Sometimes  they  seem 
due  to  pure  luck.  Others  depend  on  the  special  abilities  or 
sagacity  of  a  captain  of  industry.  Others  on  the  monopoly 
of  an  invention.  Others  again  on  situation.  We  may, 
however,  distinguish  the  persons  who  receive  the  surplus. 
One  in  general  is  the  ground  landlord  on  whose  land  the 
undertaking  is  carried  on,  and  as  situation  is  an  important 
factor  in  success,  ground  rents,  whether  in  country*  or 
town,  take  up  an  important  part  of  the  surplus.  The  other  re- 
cipient is  in  general  the  entrepreneur,  who  undertakes  the  risk 
of  the  enterprise.  But  of  course  entrepreneur  and  landlord 
may  be  one  individual  (as  in  the  case  of  a  peasant  proprietor), 
or  there  may  be  many  recipients,  as  in  some  profit-sharing 
schemes.  And  it  is  important  to  notice  that  some  factors 
in  the  production  of  the  surplus  are  tangible,  their  value 
measurable,  and  the  returns  to  them  nearly  constant.  Such, 
for  instance,  is  situation.  Other  factors,  like  keen  business 
sagacity,  are  less  easy  to  measure,  and  get  a  variable  return. 
This  distinction  becomes  of  practical  importance  when 
any  attempt  is  made  to  control  the  distribution  of  the 
surplus. 

For  the  average  producer,  then,  the  returns  of  his  industry 
may  be  theoretically  divided  into  two  portions — that  which 
reimburses  the  expenses  of  production  and  U  surplus  over 
and  above,  varying  in  amount.  This  division,  we  have  seen, 
is  independent  of  human  institutions,  though  human  insti- 
tutions may  determine  who  shall  receive  it.     In  one  way 

*  In  the  country  of  course  the  value  of  the  land  and  hence  the  rent, 
depends  largely  on  previous  investments  of  capital  in  the  soil. 


62  THE  LABOUR  MOVEMENT. 

human  institutions  or  efforts  also  affect  the  amount  of  the 
surplus.  Not  only  may  they  increase  or  decrease  the 
productivity  of  labour,  but  they  affect  the  cost  of  production. 
For  example,  if  interest  is  lowered  by  the  general  progress 
of  social  security,  one  element  in  the  cost  of  production  is 
reduced  and  it  tends  to  fall,  leaving  an  increased  producer's 
surplus  for  the  entrepreneur^  landlord,  or  other  recipient. 
Conversely,  a  rise  in  the  price  of  any  of  the  elements 
determining  cost  of  production  tends  to  raise  that  cost  and 
lower  the  surplus.  In  this  way  only,  it  appears,  can 
alterations  in  the  supply  prices  of  any  general  agents  of 
production  affect  the  quantity  of  the  producer's  surplus. 

Having  thus  briefly  sketched  the  effect  of  free  competition 
on  the  distribution  of  w^ealth,  let  us  consider  how  it  affects 
the  welfare  of  society.  We  have  seen  that  the  two  first 
essentials  of  a  thoroughly  economical  system  of  production 
would  be  that  only  good  and  useful  commodities  should  bo 
produced,  and  that  all  the  producers  of  such  commodities 
should  be  remunerated  at  a  suitable  rate — the  elements  for 
determining  which  we  discussed  in  Chapter  II.  Now,  at 
first  sight,  it  would  appear  that  both  these  conditions  are 
satisfied  by  the  competitive  system.  To  begin  with,  under 
such  a  system,  nothing  can  be  repeatedly  and  continually 
produced  in  excess  of  the  demand  for  it.  The  actual  con- 
sumers, it  would  appear,  call  forth  and  regulate  the  supply, 
and  each  man  being  the  best  judge  of  his  own  interests, 
who  can  be  so  fit  to  determine  how  many  shoes  are  to  be 
made  as  those  who  are  going  to  wear  them  ?  In  the  second 
place,  the  price  of  an  article  cannot  permanently  fall  short 
of  the  cost  of  producing  it,  that  is,  it  must  be  at  least 
enough  to  give  a  "  fair  "  rate  of  remuneration  to  aU  parties 
engaged  in  producing  it,  and  tliat,  be  it  remembered,  to  the 
parties  who  produce  it  under  the  greatest  possible  dis- 
advantages, our  generous  system  leaving  an  ample  surplus 
to  more  favoured  or  gifted  individuals. 

So  much  for  the  credit  account.    What  of  the  per  contra? 


TUB  DISTRIBUTION  OF  WEALTH.  63 

Take  first  the  correlation  of  Demand  and  Supply  on  which 
all  hinges.  The  salient  fact  here  is  that  this  correlation 
is  effected  indirectly  and  almost  unconsciously.  There  are 
few  things  more  capricious  and  incalculable  than  the  modern 
market.  Cotton  is  " flat"  and  wool  is  "  brisk,"  and  nobody 
really  knows  why.  Shrewd  men  can  make  a  guess ;  they 
can  look  forward  a  little  way,  but  at  best  they  are  like  men 
groping  in  the  dark,  who  know  the  road  to  be  clear  as  far  as 
the  hand  can  reach,  but  can  never  tell  what  blank  wall  they 
may  not  touch  at  any  step.  The  truth  is,  that  though 
demand  ultimately  governs  supply,  it  has  to  use  very  indirect 
means,  and  very  rough  means.  To  use  an  old  comparison, 
it  is  like  a  force  working  under  a  great  deal  of  friction.  The 
individualist  producer  of  old  days  was  a  market  to  himself. 
He  lived,  as  it  were,  apart,  not  only  "  Cyclops- wise,  govern 
ing  wife  and  children,"  but  also  in  true  Cyclops  fashion, 
producing  just  his  own  needs.  He  delved  and  his  wife  span 
as  they  required.  They  knew  what  they  wanted,  and  pro- 
cured it  by  their  toil,  and  they  had  the  fruits  of  their  toil  as 
its  reward.  A  very  uneconomical  system  of  industry  from 
the  point  of  view  of  production,  but  presenting  some  merits 
from  that  of  distribution.  In  modern  industry  we  have 
changed  all  that.  The  modern  individualist  producer  sows 
that  another  may  reap,  and  that  whether  he  is  wage- 
earner  or  employer.  The  essence  of  the  modern  system,  of 
which  Exchange  is  the  central  feature,  is  that  I  produce 
what  I  think  you  will  buy  at  an  advantage  to  myself. 
Whether  I  am  a  farmer,  merchant,  millowner,  or  shopkeeper, 
the  same  holds.  You  do  not  set  me  to  work,  but  I  set  to 
work  myself  in  the  hope  that  you  wjU  want  what  I  make.''' 
Meanwhile  others  are   setting  to  work  in  the  same  way. 

*  The  truth  of  this  is  not  sensibly  affected  by  the  fact  that  a  large 
number  of  goods  are  made  to  order.  For  a  whole  apparatus — human 
and  inanimate — is  kept  in  readiness  for  orders,  and  the  amount  kept  is 
based  on  calculation  of  the  probable  amount  of  the  orders.  Hence  the 
loss,  if  orders  do  not  come,  is  nearly  as  great  as  though  the  finished  pro- 
duct had  been  already  turned  out. 


64  TEE  LABOUR  MOVEMENT 

Now  if  I  have  made  a  good  guess  at  what  you  want,  I  make 
a  large  profit.  If  a  bad  one,  I  may  be  ruined.  In  the  first 
case,  too  little  of  the  desired  commodity  is  being  produced ; 
in  the  second,  too  much.  In  either  case  the  discrepancy 
from  the  required  amount  tends  to  right  itself,  but  in  the 
meanwhile  one  set  of  men  are  ruined  while  others  retire  with 
a  fortune.  This  is  the  nature  of  the  friction  under  which 
competition  acts  in  adjusting  supply  to  demand.  Men's 
lives  are  the  brake  upon  the  wheel. 

Let  us  consider  this  in  close  connection  with  the  theory  of 
value.  We  have  seen  that  for  short  periods  value  is  de- 
termined by  the  equilibrium  of  demand  and  supply  and  has 
no  connection  with  cost  of  production.  We  have  seen  that 
the  price  thus  fixed  may  be  too  low  to  remunerate  certain  of 
the  producers,  and  that  in  the  long  run  these  will  retire  from 
the  market.  But  at  what  time  and  at  what  cost  ?  If 
the  operation  of  competition  were  swift  and  decisive  we 
should  have  little  to  charge  against  it  on  this  count,  but  the 
''long  period"  in  question  may  extend  over  years  during 
which  time  a  whole  trade  is  disorganised,  employers  are 
contending  miserably  with  forces  that  are  too  strong  for 
them  and  wage-earners  are  pinched.  See  how  this  works 
out.  The  price  of  an  article  is  fixed  for  a  short  period,  say 
three  months,  by  the  equilibration  of  demand  and  supply  at 
a  price  which  does  not  remunerate  a  millowner.  If  he 
could  at  once  contract  his  production  or  close  his  mill  and 
transfer  his  capital  elsewhere,  all  would  work  well.  Supply 
would  fall  off  to  the  required  amount  and  the  remaining 
members  of  the  trade  would  receive  a  good  profit.  But  he 
is  not  in  a  position  to  do  anything  of  the  sort.  His  capital 
is  locked  up.  He  has  acquired  certain  special  business 
aptitudes  and  a  certain  connection.  You  cannot  turn  a 
cotton  manufacturer  into  a  farmer,  nor  a  cotton  mill  into  a 
coal  mine.  When  you  are  able  to  do  that,  competition  will 
begin  to  work  without  friction.  The  result  is  that  the  mill- 
owner  will  make  a  desperate  effort  to  struggle  on.   Not  only 


THE  DISTRIBUTION  OF  WEALTH.  66 

SO,  but  he  may  resort  to  desperate  expedients,  endeavouring 
to  make  up  for  diminished  prices  by  increasing  his  output, 
or  to  attract  customers  by  underselling.  Each  step  plunges 
him  deeper  into  the  mire.  In  both  ways  he  still  further 
diminishes  the  price  of  the  article  and  he  plunges  others 
into  the  same  difficulties.  The  struggle  may,  if  the  gods 
are  merciful,  be  short  and  sharp,  and  in  that  case  ruin  and 
bankruptcy  follow  at  once.  Eich  men  lose  everything ; 
large  stocks  of  machinery  and  costly  buildings  become 
worthless,  hundreds  of  workmen  are  turned  out  into  the 
street.  Yet  nobody  really  was  in  fault.  The  crisis  is  worse 
the  further  it  is  prolonged,  for  it  means  years  of  depres- 
sion of  trade,  irregularity  of  employment,  falling  wages,  and 
vanishing  profits.  Such  is  the  "friction"  which  attends 
the  working  of  competition.  It  does  not  last  for  a  time 
and  then  cease,  but  is  continually  going  on  ;  it  is  the  peren- 
nial sore  of  the  body  politic ;  the  source  of  haggard 
anxiety,  beggary,  and  confusion.  In  point  of  simple  pounds, 
shillings,  and  pence,  the  loss  it  inflicts  on  the  nation  is  incal- 
culable. It  all  depends  on  the  non-adjustment  of  supply  to 
demand.  From  the  absence  of  any  machinery  for  correlating 
these  it  follows  that  prices  may  for  months,  or  even  for 
years,  remain  below  cost  of  production  to  the  continual  loss 
of  the  producer,  bearing  effects  which  we  all  see. 

The  first  object,  then,  of  a  wise  regulation  of  industry 
would  be  to  adjust  supply  to  demand,  and  to  fix  the  price 
of  every  article  at  its  marginal  supply  cost.  It  may  be  impos- 
sible to  do  this  directly,  but  it  is  easier  to  smooth  over  the 
friction  of  the  adjustment.  And  this,  as  we  have  seen,  is 
being  done  by  Co-operation,  voluntary,  "  municipal,"  or 
national,  i.e.,  through  the  control  of  production  by  con- 
sumers. Meanwhile  we  have  other  defects  to  notice  in  the 
competitive  system. 

Let  us  suppose  the  marginal  cost  of  production  deter- 
mined and  maintained  without  fluctuation  by  competition 
so  that  the  losses  attendant  on  fluctuation  may  be  put  out  of 

6 


66  THE  LABOUB  MOVEMENT. 

mind  for  the  moment.     Will  everything  then  go  smoothly  ? 
Cost  of  production,  remember,  includes  the  elements  of  wages 
for  labour,  skill,  and  management ;  the  compensation  for  Eisk 
and  the  interest  on  Capital.     Now  will  the  cost  of  produc- 
tion be  fixed  at  a  rate  which  will  provide  due  remuneration 
for  all  of   these?     And,   again,   supposing   this   condition 
satisfied,  will  the  competition  of  these  several  factors  for 
their  portion  of  the  price  distribute  it  in  the  justest  way, 
that  is,  in  the  way  most  useful  to  the  community  ?     Not  to 
go  into  the  full  theory  of  this  aspect  of  distribution,  con- 
sider   the   operation   of    unrestricted   self-interest   on   one 
factor  in  the  cost  of  production,  the  wages  of  labour,  and 
contrast  it  with  the  effect  of  combination  already  considered. 
To   understand  this  we  must,  as  in   Chapter  II.,  regard 
Labour  as  a  commodity  which  the  labourers  possess  and 
are  ready  to  sell  to  the  highest  bidder.      Now  supposing 
the  labourer  and  the  employer  in  an  equally  advantageous 
position  for  bargaining,  wages  will  be  fixed  for  short  periods 
by  the  equilibrium  of  demand  and  supply.     And  we  saw 
that  in  the  case  of  material  commodities  the  equilibrium 
price  bore  no  relation  to  cost  of  production,  and  might  leave 
the  producer  in  a  bad  plight.  So  it  is  with  wages.  The  market 
wage  for  short  periods  bears  very  little  relation  '■'  to  the 
needs  and  comforts  of  the  labourer  who  sells  his  work  and 
may  leave  him  in  a  very  bad  plight.     In  practice  the  iron 
rule  of  demand  and  supply  is  relaxed  in  the  case  of  wages 
by  two  causes.     The  first  is  the  influence  of  custom  or  even 
charity  which  may  assign  more  to  labour  than  mere  competi- 
tion would  exact.     The  second  is  the  vast  economic  advan- 
tage which  the  great  majority  of  employers  have  over  average 
unorganised  labourers,  an  advantage  parallel  to  those  of  a 
horsedealer  over  a  tyro,  and  enabling  the  employer  as  a 
rule  to  buy  labour  very  much  cheaper  than  would  be  pos- 
sible if  the  labourer  were  equally  able  to  forecast  the  market 

*  It  is  too  much  to  say  there  is  no  relation.   The  wage  even  for  a  week 
must,  as  a  rule,  be  enough  to  keep  the  labourer  from  starving. 


THE  DISTBIBUTION  OF  WEALTH.  67 

and  to  await  a  favourable  turn.  This  acts  as  a  permanent 
force  depressing  the  rate  of  wages,  and  we  have,  in  short, 
one  of  the  most  important  cases  in  which  "  free  "  competition 
as  above  defined  ij  a  delusion.  And  now  notice  further  two 
peculiarities  about  labour  as  a  marketable  commodity.  First 
the  long  period  in  which  its  price  is  adjusted  to  the  *'  cost 
of  producing  it "  is  abnormally  long.  A  low  rate  of  wage 
in  a  given  trade  tends  to  discourage  the  supply  of  labour  for 
that  trade,  but  especially  if  the  low  rate  be  spread  over 
many  trades  or  all  the  trades  of  a  country,  the  operation  of 
this  tendency  occupies  something  like  a  generation  in  work- 
ing itself  out,  being  achieved  in  the  latter  case,  partly  by  dis- 
couragement of  marriage,  more  by  emigration,  and  most  of 
all  by  increased  mortality,  especially  among  young  children. 
This,  of  course,  is  simply  a  form  of  economic  friction.  How- 
ever, whether  quick  or  slow,  by  pestilence  or  famine,  the 
tendency  probably  does  work  itself  out  and  supply  is  re- 
duced to  meet  a  lowered  demand.  But  meanwhile  a  second 
important  peculiarity  of  labour  as  a  marketable  commodity 
has  been  manifesting  itself,  viz.,  the  effect  already  insisted  on, 
of  wages  on  the  efficiency  of  the  labourer. 

Confining  ourselves  to  the  economic  aspect  of  this  we  shall 
find  that  the  productivity  of  labour  is  diminished  by  every 
drain  upon  the  labourer's  strength  due  to  insufficient  food, 
bad  housing,  or  unhealthy  occupations.  And  the  productivity 
of  labour  is  one  factor  in  determining  its  reward,  inasmuch  as 
it  determines  the  total  of  which  labour  receives  a  portion. 
Hence  decreased  productivity  tends  to  further  decrease  of 
wages,  and  we  have,  in  fine,  one  of  those  cases  of  cumulative 
action  to  which  Professor  Marshall  has  carefully  drawn  atten- 
tion. Observe  :  a  low  rate  of  wageB  diminishes  the  produc- 
tivity of  labour;  diminished  productivity  tends  in  turn  to  lower 
wages,  and  so  on,  in  a  vicious  circle.  Conversely,  increased 
wages  and  increased  productivity  tend  to  augment  one 
another,  and  so  on,  in  a  circle  of  hope.  Economic  injuries, 
as  General  Walker  has  shown  us,  tend  to  perpetuate  them- 


68  THE  LABOVB  MOVEMENT. 

selves,  and  the  same  may  be  said  of  economic  gains.  The 
result  is  that  under  a  competitive  system,  the  wages  of 
labour  do  not  necessarily  right  themselves  at  all.  Supply 
v^ill,  indeed,  slowly  tend  to  adjust  itself  to  demand,  but,  to 
say  nothing  of  the  bloodshed  by  the  way,  if  the  labourer's 
remuneration  is  below  the  minimum  necessary  to  a  certain 
development  in  mind  and  body,  the  tendency  of  free  competi- 
tion will  be  not  to  raise  him  to  a  level  with  that  mini- 
mum, but  to  depress  him  further  below  it.  The  equilibrium 
wage  will  sink.  I  conclude,  then,  that  while  it  is  of  the  last 
importance  that  the  mass  of  workers  should  have  a  suffi- 
ciency for  health  of  mind  and  body,  there  is  no  necessary 
tendency  in  the  action  of  competition  to  assign  them  such  a 
sufficiency,  and  I  appeal  to  common  experience  to  decide 
whether  it  does  assign  a  sufficiency  to  half  the  workers  in 
the  United  Kingdom  to-day. 

For  these  deficiencies  of  free  competition  we  have  already 
discussed  the  remedy.  The  grand  cause  depressing  "  free 
labour  "  is  here  seen  to  be  the  economic  weakness  of  the 
labourer  himself,  and  it  is  precisely  this  that  Trade  Unionism 
corrects.  The  more  clearly  it  is  seen  that  industrial  anarchy 
tends  to  depress  great  masses  of  the  workers  and  exclude 
them  from  their  due  reward  as  servants  of  society  the 
greater  is  the  need  for  the  control  of  work  and  wages  by 
Trade  Unionism. 

Now  supposing  the  rate  of  remuneration  fixed ;  supposing 
that  workers  of  every  class  have  obtained  for  themselves  a 
"  fair "  average  remuneration,  taking  into  account,  in 
accordance  with  our  original  principles,  not  only  the  neces- 
saries of  life,  but  also  the  claims  of  effort,  skill,  and  brain 
power ;  supposing,  therefore,  that  the  employing  class  has 
also  fixed  a  "  fair  "  average  wage  for  itself — there  will  still 
be  a  considerable  surplus  of  wealth  to  consider  not  absorbed 
by  the  payment  of  wages. 

The  first  element  in  the  surplus  is  profit  proper,  and  con- 
Bists  in  what  Professor  Marshall  has  called  the  quasi  Eent 


THE  LISTBIBUTION  OF  WEALTH.  69 

of  commercial  ability  and  monopoly,  to  which  we  should  add 
good  fortune.  We  have  seen  that  the  individualist  employer 
after  paying  labour,  rent,  and  interest,  and  after  receiving  a 
sufficient  wage  for  his  own  extremely  hard  work  of  manage- 
ment, mayor  may  not  find  himself  in  possession  of  a  surplus, 
large  or  small.  This  surplus  depends  partly  on  his  skill  and 
efforts,  partly  on  mere  luck.  It  actually  varies  in  amount, 
as  we  have  seen,  from  zero  to  any  quantity.  It  is  the 
"  fringe  "  of  the  national  dividend  where  expansion  and  con- 
traction have  their  first  effects.  If  we  could  bring  together 
all  the  industries  of  the  country  into  a  single  hand,  this 
fringe  would  take  the  form  of  a  very  large  surplus ;  if, 
however,  we  conceive  the  industrial  management  of  the 
country  to  remain  in  its  present  condition  the  "fringe" 
will  present  itself  as  though  cut  very  irregularly  along 
the  surface  of  industry.  In  one  business  the  surplus 
will  be  enormous,  in  another  there  will  be  none  at  all,  in 
a  third  will  be  a  positive  loss.  This  we  can  see  is  a  very 
uneconomical  arrangement,  enriching  some  people  beyond 
what  is  needful  for  the  highest  happiness,  and  ruining 
others  to  their  own  misery  and  the  derangement  of  trade. 
A  small  difference  of  ability,  a  slight  turn  of  luck,  and  one 
man  makes  his  fortune  while  another  is  ruined.  The  result 
is  that  neither  is  happy.  Neither  beggary  nor  princely 
wealth  conduce  best  to  a  happy  and  well-ordered  life.  For 
the  wealth  made  there  is  no  tangible  increase  of  happiness 
or  development  to  show.  Meanwhile  the  lure  of  profit- 
making  corrupts  all  industry  and  changes  honest  work  into 
a  constant  struggle  to  get  more  and  more,  and  an  unceasing 
effort  to  over-reach  others.  Nor  does  the  evil  cease  with 
the  producer.  When  money  becomes  the  test  of  success, 
and  I  am  held  to  have  proved  myself  a  better  man  than  you 
if  I  have  earned  more,  then  the  signs  of  wealth  are  held  the 
proofs  of  merit  and  ability,  and  display  becomes  the  first 
object  for  men  of  means.  There  is  not  one  class  in  England 
at  this  day  that  is  not  infested  by  this  taint.     It  corrupts 


70  THE  LABOUB  MOVEMENT, 

the  life,  mars  the  comfort,  poisons  the  social  gatherings, 
destroys  the  simplicity  of  men  and  women  from  the  cottage 
to  the  castle.     It  fills  the  world  with  ugliness  and  discomfort. 
And  if  in  part  it  is  due  to  a  permanent  human  weakness,  it 
is   fostered   and   cherished  into  a   hideous  growth  by  the 
modern  development  of  the  profit-seeking  spirit.     We  have 
to  quarrel,  then,  both  with  the  distribution  of  the  producer's 
surplus  as  affected  by  competition,  and  with  the  results  to 
character  which  such  a  mode  of  distribution  brings  about. 
Now  what  are  the  compensatory  benefits  of  the  system  of 
private  profit  ?  Eegarding  profit  as  the  wages  of  the  employer 
— the  wages  allowed  him  by  society  under  the  economic 
system  which  it  supports — we  have  to  ask,  Is  it  the  most 
economical  method  of  payment  ?     So  far  as  the  employer's 
profit  depends  on  luck — i.e.,  on  causes  beyond  his  control — 
there  is  clearly  no  economic  advantage  to  society  whatsoever 
in  awarding  it  to  him ;  so  far  as  the  prospect  of  additional 
gain  stimulates  him  to  socially  useful  exertion  society  does 
obtain  a  certain  qtcid  pro  quo.     But,  in  the  first  place,  the 
individual  employer,  aiming  at  his  own  profit,  does  not  neces- 
sarily use  means  thereto  which  contribute  to  the  general 
welfare.     If,  for  example,  he  is  able  by  skilful  advertisement 
to  palm  off  inferior  goods  on  the  public,  his  profit  is  due  to 
his  sagacity  or  cunning,  but  not  to  any  real  social  service. 
To  lie  well  requires   consummate  art   to   which  in   some 
departments  of  modern  industry  a  life -time  may  be  profit- 
ably devoted,  but  it  does  not  conduce  to  the  general  comfort. 
Thus,  if  honest  employers  make  an  honourable  profit  by 
useful  work  directed  with  great  abiUty,  and  are  paid  less 
than  the  value  of  their  services,  we  must  set  against  them 
the  dishonest  traders  who  profit  at  the  expense  of  their  own 
uprightness  and  the  general  well-being,  and  who  are  en- 
couraged thereto  by  many  of  the  circumstances  of  modern 
commerce. 

But  further,  it  may  be  doubted  if  the  individualist  system 
either  checks  the  bad  or  encourages  the  good  in  the  best 


THE  DISTRIBUTION  OF  WEALTH.  71 

way.  The  stakes  are  too  high.  Men  stand  to  win  or  lose 
their  all.  They  oscillate  between  riches  and  beggary.  As 
a  class  our  modern  captains  of  industry  are  not  to  be  envied. 
They  bear  the  first  brunt  of  commercial  storms.  They  are 
subject  to  repeated  periods  of  strain  and  over-pressure. 
The  ups  and  downs  of  fortune  tell  on  their  mental  and 
physical  health.  It  has  even  been  doubted  whether  the 
individualist  system  of  industry  does  not  most  afflict  those 
who  are  generally  supposed  to  gain  by  it  most. 

We  see,  then,  that  the  system  which  leaves  the  producers' 
surplus  as  a  prize  to  be  fought  for  may  stimulate  good  work, 
but  it  also  cherishes  sinister  arts.  It  distributes  its  rewards 
in  a  way  that  causes  over- strain  and  worry,  even  to  the 
favoured  ones.  It  produces  a  competitive  spirit  concen- 
trated on  personal  gain  instead  of  public  good.  And  in  the 
train  of  all  this  come  the  evils  we  discussed  before,  the 
repeated  disorganisation  of  industry,  and  the  consequent  loss 
of  capital  and  deterioration  of  labour.  What  is  needed,  then, 
is  to  communise  the  surplus  products  of  industry.  The 
losses  of  industrial  enterprise  will  then  be  balanced  against 
its  gains.  Loss  will  still  be  loss,  but  it  will  not  spell  ruin. 
The  community  has  broader  shoulders  than  the  individual. 
And  since  in  the  long  run  the  products  of  industry  do  exceed 
the  cost  of  producing  them  by  a  very  large  amount,  this 
net  gain  will  fall  to  society  at  large.  Distributed  by  com- 
petition, it  is  a  source  of  net  unhappiness.  Communised,  it 
is  an  advantage  to  every  one.  Let  me  not  be  understood  to 
advocate  the  under-paying  of  the  employer  or  business- 
manager.  His  work  to  be  well  done  requires  great  industry 
and  high  ability,  and  we  shall  not  gain  as  a  community  by 
niggardliness  in  rewarding  it.  I  ussume  only  that  we  can 
get  good  work  done  for  fixed  salaries  suitably  determined  by 
the  quantity  and  quality  of  the  work  required.  It  is  an 
assumption  which  is  indeed  denied  by  laissez  faire  econo- 
mists, but  warranted  by  all  knowledge  of  human  nature 
working  under  good  institutions.     There  is  no  reason  why 


72  THE  LABOUR  MOVEMENT. 

Mill's  ideal  should  not  yet  be  realised  and  men  learn  to  dig 
and  weave  for  their  country  as  well  as  to  fight  for  it.  And 
if  men  can  dig  and  weave  for  a  fixed  wage  and  exert  them- 
selves to  earn  it  well,  men  can  also  follow  earnestly  and 
strenuously  the  higher  calling  of  guiding  those  who  dig  and 
weave.  This  is  not  a  dream,  nor  even  a  supposition.  It  is 
matter  of  fact  realised  in  many  departments  of  industry  to- 
day. In  medicine,  in  the  churches,  in  education,  wherever 
men  feel  an  interest  in  the  work  as  well  as  in  its  wage,  work 
is  given  gladly  and  willingly  to  the  utmost  of  a  man's  power 
for  a  fixed  reward.  And  the  same  holds  in  industry  pure 
and  simple.  Take  the  co-operative  world  where  as  Mrs. 
Webb  has  well  pointed  out  we  have  men  dealing  with 
millions  of  money,  carrying  on  complicated  operations  on 
a  vast  scale  for  the  salary  of  a  clerk.  There  are  in  truth 
other  motives  to  action  than  those  of  direct  and  pro- 
portionate pecuniary  reward.  There  is  the  prospect  of 
advancement,  of  social  esteem,  of  the  pure  love  of  work,  and 
of  the  desire  to  serve  society.  There  are  motives  mercenary, 
and  motives  of  devotion.  These  last  are  indeed  diminished 
by  a  social  system  which  makes  material  success  the  main 
object  of  respect,  and  tends  to  regard  devotion  to  the  public 
service  as  either  humbug  or  simplicity.  But  they  can  never 
be  extinct,  and  we  have  but  to  curtail  the  field  of  the  other 
impulses  which  compete  with  them  in  human  nature,  and 
they  will  of  themselves  expand  to  all  their  original  vigour. 

Thus  free  competition  distributes  the  profits  of  industry 
so  as  to  do  the  minimum  of  good  at  the  maximum  of  cost. 
To  be  made  socially  useful  "  profits  "  must  be  communised, 
and  as  above  shown  profits  are  being  communised  by  every 
extension  of  co-operation  and  of  national  or  municipal  enter- 
prise. 

But  besides  **  Profit "  in  the  narrower  sense,  there  is  a 
second  element  in  the  surplus  product  not  yet  consid.^-red. 
While  profits  are  fickle  and  variable  a  great  portion  of  the 
excess  of  value  produced  over  the  cost  of  producing  it  goes 


THE  DISTBIBUTION  OF  WEALTH,  73 

to  private  pockets  in  fixed  charges.  And  it  will  continue  to 
do  so  however  much  you  communise  profit.  A  Co-operative 
Society  must  pay  interest  on  its  capital  and  rent  on  its 
premises.  A  municipality  must  purchase  or  rent  land  for 
its  public  works.  Now  Rent  is  the  price  paid  for  differential 
advantages  in  production  to  those  who  own  such  advantages. 
And  "  economic  Eent "  there  always  is  and  always  must  be. 
For,  as  we  have  shown,  some  goods  are  bound  to  be  pro- 
duced under  more  favourable  circumstances  than  others 
which  are  brought  to  the  same  market.  This  advantage 
may  be  due  to  various  things,  such  as  fertility  or  situation, 
and  the  owners  of  such  advantages  can  exact  a  price  for  the 
use  of  them.  No  legislation  can  abolish  economic  rent. 
But  the  law  can  and  does  determine  who  shall  receive  it. 
And  the  question  is.  Does  the  law  do  wisely  in  allowing 
private  individuals  to  absorb  this  enormous  portion  of  the 
national  produce?  In  answering  this  w^e  need  make  no 
attack  on  the  owners  of  Rents.  They  may  be  most  estim- 
able men,  and  many  of  them  may,  of  their  free  choice,  be 
doing  good  service  to  society.  But  the  point  is  that  they 
form  a  permanent  charge  upon  the  ''  National  Dividend," 
for  which  no  adequate  return  is  made  and  for  which  no 
return  need  be  made  at  all. 

In  many  cases  the  value  for  which  rent  is  paid  is  due  to 
natural  causes  and  not  to  human  effort.  Of  this  Mining 
Royalties  are  a  conspicuous  example.  In  other  cases  it  is 
due  to  the  growth  of  society,  as  instanced  by  the  price  of 
land  in  the  City  of  London.  Whenever  we  pay  for  value  so 
created  we  get  no  compensatory  service  rendered,  and  we 
thus  violate  the  first  principle  of  a  sound  economic  system. 
Another  portion  of  the  value  for  which  rent  is  paid  may 
indeed  be  due  to  human  effort,  as  in  the  case  of  wise  im- 
provements carried  out  on  his  estate  by  a  good  landlord. 
But  here  again  the  law  of  inheritance  makes  it  possible  to 
hand  on  the  fruits  of  such  work  to  heirs  who  have  done 
nothing.     And  the  community  is  thus  saddled  with  the  sup- 


74  THE  LABOUR  MOVEMENT. 

port  of  men  who  7ieed  do  nothing  in  return  for  it.  The  same 
holds  of  interest.  If  capital  is  first  created  by  human  skill 
and  forethought,  the  heirs  of  capital  may  be  wise  or  foolish, 
able  or  incompetent,  but  as  long  as  their  capital  stands  in 
their  names  they  will  get  the  same  rate  of  interest  proper. 
In  the  case,  then,  of  the  majority  of  the  rent  and  interest 
paid  by  society  no  compensatory  social  services  need  be 
rendered  in  return.  And  it  is  important  to  remember  that 
the  same  truth  holds  whether  we  pay  £100,000  a  year  to  a 
Duke  or  cut  up  his  estate  and  pay  £100  a  year  to  a  thousand 
petty  yeomen.  The  yeoman  is  able  to  hand  on  his  property 
in  the  same  way,  and  thus,  even  if  he  first  gave  it  its  value, 
we  shall  have  to  pay  his  heirs  to  the  ding  of  doom  for  the 
condescension  of  allowing  themselves  to  be  born.  Nothing 
is  gained  by  substituting  a  number  of  petty  owners — who 
are  not  always  found  to  make  better  use  of  their  position — 
for  the  one  big  owner. 

An  objection  may  be  raised  here  that  Eent  and  Interest 
do  not  stand  on  the  same  footing.  Interest,  it  may  be  said, 
is  earned  by  the  previous  accumulation  of  capital.  Thus  it 
is  paid  not  for  services  immediately  rendered,  but  for  services 
that  have  been  rendered.  Eent,  on  the  other  hand,  is  paid 
for  the  use  of  gifts  of  nature  or  for  value  due  purely  to  the 
growth  of  society,  and  the  rent-owner  may  never  have  per- 
formed any  service  whatever.  He  may  be  a  mere  burden 
on  the  land.  Again,  it  may  be  urged  that  as  economic  factors 
they  are  very  different.  Interest  enters  into  cost  of  pro- 
duction, and  goes  to  determine  price,  while  Eent  is  deter- 
mined by  price.  This  last  point  is  true,'''  and  may  serve  to 
point  the  necessity  for  a  difference  in  the  practical  method 
of  treatment.  Interest  is  only  part  of  the  "surplus"  of 
wealth,  if  in  the  surplus  we  include  everything  that  n  mains 
when  the  actual  workers  (managers  included)  are  paid.  But 
the  question  now  before  us  is  whether  there  is  any  ethical 

*  At  least  of    such   portions   of    '•  actual  rent "   as   correspond  to 
'•  economic  rent." 


THE  DISTBIBUTION  OF  WEALTH.  75 

difference  between  Eent  and  Interest.  Free  competition 
places  both  in  private  hands,  often  accumulating  enormous 
quantities  of  both  in  the  hands  of  one  man.  Is  this  desir- 
able ?  And  is  it  any  more  desirable  in  one  case  than  in  the 
other  ? 

So  far  as  Eent  is  really  "  Unearned  "  the  case  against  it 
may  be  considered  stronger.  If  any  practical  method  can 
be  found  of  fixing  the  point  from  which  we  are  to  begin 
calculating  the  Unearned  Increment,  well  and  good.  There 
would  be  a  strong  case  for  attacking  this  part  of  the  surplus 
first.  It  would  be  the  clearest  of  all  the  many  cases  in 
which  society  obligingly  hands  over  a  handsome  present  to 
a  few  fortunate  individuals.  Similarly  it  is  eminently  desir- 
able that  we  should  take  immediate  steps  to  secure  all  such 
future  increment  to  ourselves  as  a  community. 

But  the  problem  does  not  end  with  the  confiscation  of  the 
Unearned  Increment.  A  great  quantity  of  Eent  is  practi- 
cally indistinguishable  from  Interest  on  Capital,  and  Interest 
itself  takes  an  enormous  share  of  the  national  income. 
Now  morally  and  economically  it  can  make  little  difference 
whether  these  large  sums  are  paid  for  past  services  or  not. 
By  far  the  greater  amount  is  not  now  paid  to  those  who 
did  the  services.  The  principle  of  the  inheritance  of  private 
property  creates  a  lien  on  the  industry  of  all  future  time 
for  the  descendants  of  every  man  who  accumulates  wealth. 
This  is  too  great  a  price  to  pay  for  thrift.  It  is  too 
heavy  a  burden  for  society  to  bear.  The  whole  economic 
system  groans  under  the  load. 

We  have  seen  that  the  movement  hitherto  considered 
would  not  really  touch  this  part  pf  the  national  wealth. 
The  difficulty  is  not  met  either  by  raising  wages  to  a 
''Trades  Union  level"  or  by  the  utmost  extension  of  co- 
operative and  municipal  enterprise.  However  far  we  go  in 
this  direction  we  should  still  be  paying  toll  to  the  amount 
of  nearly  half  our  annual  income  for  the  privilege  of  living 
in  England  and  using  the  stock  of  wealth  accumulated  by 


76  THE  LABOUR  MOVEMENT. 

our  fathers.  But  we  may  indicate  the  principles  on  which 
the  problem  of  Eent  and  Interest  as  a  whole  may  be,  and 
probably  soon  will  be,  dealt  with  by  the  State,  in  further- 
ance of  the  collective  control  of  industry  and  its  products 
by  the  community,  which,  as  we  have  tried  to  show,  is  the 
underlying  idea  of  all  forms  of  the  Labour  movement.  We 
confine  ourselves  merely  to  the  statement  of  principles, 
which  are  in  themselves  comparatively  simple,  though  their 
application  is  endlessly  complex,  and  will  no  doubt  form 
one  of  the  chief  practical  difficulties  of  the  coming  years. 

An  economically  worked  system  of  industry  would,  I 
think,  establish  the  principle  that  payment  should  be  made 
for  services  rendered  and  to  those  by  whom  they  are 
rendered.  The  surplus  left  over  it  would  communise.  We 
should  not  advocate  this  on  the  ground  of  any  objection  to 
wealth  as  such.  It  would  matter  little  how  wealthy  the 
few  might  be  so  long  as  the  many  were  not  poor,  and  so 
long  as  provision  was  made  for  all  socially  useful  objects. 
There  is  no  spite  in  the  Labour  movement  of  to-day,  but 
there  is  a  strong  sense  of  the  poverty  and  misery  around  us, 
and  a  clear  conviction  that  a  better  use  might  be  made  of 
our  enormous  wealth.  We  have  no  wish  to  send  the  rich 
empty  away,  but  cost  what  it  may,  we  are  determined  to 
fill  the  hungry  with  some  of  the  good  things  of  life. 

Thus  we  do  not  object  to  wealth  as  wealth.  Nor  do  we 
object  to  the  present  system  on  the  ground  of  equity,  though 
if  there  be  such  a  thing  as  equity  surely  its  simplest  canons 
are  violated  by  the  extremes  of  fortune  and  the  accidents  of 
inheritance.  Nor  is  it  merely  that  the  existence  of  idle 
luxury  conflicts  with  the  democratic  ideal  of  society  as 
an  association  in  which  rights  and  duties  fall  to  all  alike, 
though  it  does  flagrantly  conflict  with  such  an  ideal.  But 
beyond  all  this  there  is  the  question  w^hcther  the  recognition 
of  inherited  property  in  its  present  form  and  extent  is  com- 
patible with  the  performance  of  the  duties  which  society 
owes  to  its  members.     Holding,  as  we  do,  that  the  rights  of 


THE  DISTBIBUTION  OF  WEALTH.  77 

property  are  wholly  dependent  for  their  binding  force  on  the 
purposes  which  they  subserve  in  the  social  system,  we  have 
to  ask  whether  these  purposes  can  be  adequately  fulj&lled  as 
long  as  hundreds  of  millions  yearly  go  to  private  persons 
for  the  use  of  wealth  that  is  due  partly  to  nature  and  partly 
to  the  efforts  of  their  fathers. 

Just  so  far  then  as  higher  social  exigencies  necessitate  we 
are  bound  to  reduce  our  "  tribute,"  and  revert  to  the  prin- 
ciple of  paying  only  for  services  rendered,  and  only  to  him 
who  renders  them.  But  how  are  we  to  effect  the  change  ? 
How  can  we  deal  with  the  actual  proprietors  of  Eent  and 
Interest  who  have  grown,  as  it  were,  to  their  present  place 
in  the  economic  system,  and  could  hardly  now  fit  them- 
selves into  another?  Every  possible  method  of  dealing 
with  the  problem  presents  great  difficulties,  but  two  things 
may  be  laid  down  as  matters  of  principle.  We  shall  avoid 
dealing  hardly  with  existing  owners,  but  when  there  is  a 
conflict  of  claims  we  shall  set  justice  to  the  community 
above  the  established  interests  of  a  class. 

No  sweeping  interference  with  private  property  is  either 
possible  or  desirable.  We  do  not  in  England  proceed  by 
the  crude  methods  of  revolution  and  confiscation.  We 
could  not,  without  gross  hardships  to  individuals  and 
danger  to  the  public,  confiscate  at  a  blow  the  Land  and 
Capital  of  the  country,  and  we  should  not  know  what  to  do 
with  it  if  we  could.  In  time  the  community  will  become 
the  chief,  perhaps  the  sole  owner,  of  Capital  and  Land. 
But  it  will  be  by  gradual  steps.  The  progress  of  public 
enterprise  admits  of  indefinite  extension,  and  at  each  step 
some  fragment  of  Land  or  Capital  passes  to  the  community. 
And  on  each  occasion  fair  compensation  will  be  given.  But 
it  may  be  asked,  *'  How  does  this  rid  us  of  the  burden?  " 
If  compensation  is  to  be  given,  surely  Capital  and  Eent 
remain  in  essence,  drawing  an  undiminished  tribute  from 
the  worker. 

The  answer  is,  first,  that  the  compensation  in  question  is 


78  THE  LABOUB  MOVEMENT. 

raised  by  taxation,  and  we  can  adjust  taxation  as  we  please. 
If  we  take  the  view  of  Eent,  Interest,  and  Profits  advanced  in 
this  chapter,  we  shall  regard  them  as  the  natural  reservoir 
from  which  wealth  is  to  be  drawn  for  all  public  purposes. 
That  is,  we  should  adjust  taxation  to  fall  exclusively  on  the 
surplus  of  industry,  and  not  at  all  on  "wages" — in  their 
broadest  sense.  Leaving  the  smaller  incomes  as  free  as  pos- 
sible, we  should  graduate  the  income  tax  so  as  to  fall  most 
heavily  on  those  who  are  getting  the  largest  share  of  Rent, 
Interest,  and  Profit.*  We  should  find  another  point  for  the  ap- 
plication of  our  principle  in  the  death  duties,  and  (if  we  do  not 
deal  more  drastically  with  the  Unearned  Increment)  in  the 
taxation  of  Ground  Rents.  In  this  way  we  should  make 
Eent  and  Interest  pay  for  their  own  extinction.  We  should 
inflict  no  overwhelming  loss  on  any  individuals  or  any  class 
of  living  persons,  as  would  happen  if  we  pitched  on  one 
particular  form  of  property — say  Land  or  Railways — and 
took  them  without  compensation.  There  would  be  no 
spoliation,  but  readjustment  of  taxation  on  a  new  principle. 
And  the  ground  landlord  has  no  more  right  to  complain 
when  the  tax  collector  comes  his  way  than  I  have  to  cry  out 
when  the  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer  puts  an  extra  penny 
on  my  income  tax. 

It  might  further  be  suggested  that  compensation  should 
take  the  form  of  terminable  annuities.  With  every  respect 
for  the  rights  of  the  living,  I  do  not  know  that  we  need 
weep  for  the  losses  of  generations  yet  unborn.  If  instead  of 
giving  a  lump  sum  or  2^  per  cent,  on  that  sum  for  ever  we 
allowed  such  higher  percentage  as  might  be  considered  fair  to 
the  owner  for  his  life  (or  even  for  the  life  of  his  next  heir), 
the  temporary  burden  would  be  slightly  increased,  but  the 

*  This  would  in  part  apply  even  to  the  smaller  owners  of  Interest.  The 
reasonable  thrift  which  provides  for  old  age  and  sickness,  and  we  might 
add  for  wife  and  child,  performs  at  present  a  social  function  of  the  first 
importance.  Until  the  State  is  prepared  to  undertake  this  duty  in  its 
entirety,  it  must  be  careful  not  to  discourage  such  individuals  as  are  now 
performing  it  for  themselves  and  those  dependent  on  them. 


THE  DISTBIBUTION  OF  WEALTH.  79 

future  would  be  entirely  free.  I  conclude  that  it  is  possible 
gradually  to  comiQunise  Land  and  Capital  without  recourse  to 
revolutionary  meihods,  by  the  extension  of  public  enterprise 
and  the  readjustment  of  taxation.  I  do  not  profess  to  do 
more  than  indicate  the  broad  principles  upon  which  such 
"  communising  "  is  advocated,  and  on  which  it  might  con- 
ceivably be  carried  out  with  the  least  amount  of  friction  and 
hardship.  The  real  difficulty  is,  of  course,  in  the  practical 
applications,  with  which  we  are  not  dealing  at  present.*  It 
is  our  business  merely  to  discuss  the  results  to  which  we  are 
led  by  applying  the  principles  of  the  collective  control  of 
industry  for  the  common  good  to  the  case  of  private  pro- 
perty in  Eent  and  Interest,  and  one  result  is  simply  that  the 
principle  of  collective  ownership  will  have  to  be  very  greatly 
extended  in  this  direction  if  the  movement  to  economic 
reform  is  to  achieve  all  that  it  promises. 

We  have  now  considered  all  the  main  elements  in  the 
disposition  of  the  national  dividend,  and  we  have  tried  to 
show  that  the  various  forms  of  the  ''Labour  Movt^ment" 
previously  discussed  would  deal  far  better  with  them,  in  the 
interests  of  society,  than  the  forces  of  Private  Enterprise 
and  Free  Competition.  The  Eemuneration  of  the  Workers 
(of  every  kind)  being  fixed  by  the  Trade  Unions  in  agree- 
ment with  the  public  at  large,  the  surplus  remaining  would 
pass  to  the  community  for  common  purposes ;  the  profits  of 
enterprise  going  to  communities  of  consumers,  whether  in 
the  form  of  Co-operative  Societies,  Municipal  Bodies,  or  the 
State ;  while  Eent  and  Interest  would  go  directly  to  the 
Municipality  or  the  Nation.  Thus  each  branch  of  the 
Labour  Movement  has  its  appropriate  part  of  the  general 
problem  to  work  out,  and  tends  to  supplement  the  short- 
comings of  the  others. 

*  Of  these  the  graduation  of  the  Death  Duties  in  1894  may  serve  as  a 
sufficient  example. 


CHAPTER  V. 

THE    CONTROL    OF  INDUSTRY  AND   THE  LIBERTY 
OF  THE  INDIVIDUAL. 

Let  us  now  review  our  position.  Let  us  suppose  the 
principles  we  have  advocated  to  be  recognised  and  carried 
out  to  their  logical  conclusion,  and  let  us  try  to  picture  the 
resulting  state  of  industry.  The  work  of  the  nation  would 
then  be  carried  on  under  the  direction  of  communities  of 
consumers.  There  would  be  the  great  national  works 
developed  from  those  which  exist  at  present.  There  would 
be  probably  a  still  greater  development  of  municipal  works, 
and  there  would  be,  supplementing  these,  voluntarily  formed 
co-operative  associations  on  the  existing  model,  united  by  the 
Federal  principle  and,  ultimately,  co-extensive  with  the  com- 
munity. We  shall  advance  in  all  three  directions  with 
varying  rapidity,  but  steadily  and  simultaneously.  In  each 
case  suitable  remuneration  and  healthy  conditions  of  work 
will  be  ensured  for  all  classes  of  producers  by  good  legisla- 
tion, backed  up  and  supplemented  by  strong  Trade  Union 
action.  The  surplus  product  when  this  charge  is  met  will 
be  in  the  hands  of  the  community  for  common  purposes, 
that  there  may  be  the  means  of  life  for  the  infirm,  and  of 
culture  and  enjoyment  for  all,  and  the  ceaseless  wearying 
roar  of  the  great  engine  of  competition  would  be  still. 

Will  such  an  ideal  ever  become  actual  ?    As  to  its  com- 
plete realisation  I  answer,  "  No  one  can  tell,  and  it  is  not 

80 


THE  CONTBOL  OF  INDUSTBY,  81 

our  business  to  find  out."  What  concerns  us  to-day  is,  not 
the  possibiUty  of  a  complete  ideal,  but  the  practical  value 
and  immediate  promise  of  certain  existing  tendencies. 
Here  are  certain  great  economic  evils  which  all  deplore,  and 
here  are  certain  movements  aiming  at  reform.  Are  these 
movements  actually  doing  good?  Do  they  promise,  if 
developed  along  the  same  lines,  to  go  to  the  root  of  the 
matter  ?  These  are  the  questions  which  we  have  tried  to 
answer,  and  which  we  have  seen  reason  to  answer  in  the 
affirmative.  If  this  answer  be  justified,  then,  whatever 
changes  the  future  may  necessitate,  these  movements  form 
for  the  present  the  means  of  progress. 

Thus  we  may  readily  admit  difficulties  in  applying  the  co- 
operative form  of  industry  to'every  department  of  production. 
In  the  case  of  foreign  trade,  for  example,  co-operation  of 
consumers  to  arrange  for  production  "  would  seem  almost 
out  of  the  question,  unless  in  some  far-off  Federation  of  the 
world  which  is  yet  but  a  dream.  Again,  in  the  case  of  some 
professions  and  other  occupations,  the  principle  seems  some- 
what out  of  place,  and  is  not  likely  to  be  realised  unless  in 
some  modified  form.  In  short,  wherever  the  industrial  revo- 
lution has  not  set  its  mark,  and  where  industry  passes  beyond 
the  limits  of  the  nation,  collective  control  by  consumers 
becomes  a  difficult  matter.  The  case  of  Agriculture  is  one 
of  special  interest  in  this  relation,  and  it  is  worth  while  to 
discuss  a  little  more  fully  the  way  in  which  our  principles 
seem  capable  of  application  in  its  case.  Co-operative  farm- 
ing has  made  some  progress,  though  not  much.  Last  year 
thirty-eight  co-operative  societies  farmed  3,315  acres  in 
Great  Britain.!  And  perhaps  the  co-operative  mills  of  to-day 
will  take  their  corn  from  co-operative  farms  to-morrow. 

*  Transport,  however,  is  already  undertaken  by  the  Wholesale  Societies 
in  ships  of  their  own. 

t  See  the  Report  of  the  Twenty-fourth  Co-operative  Congress,  1892, 
pp.  23  and  32.  The  figures  given  exclude  "  IndividuaHst "  (profit-sharing) 
Societies,  i.e.,  refer  to  farms  worked  ultimately  by  "  distributive  stores." 
Stores  occupying  less  than  ten  acres  are  also  excluded. 

7 


82  THE  LABOUB  MOVEMENT. 

But  it  is  too  early  to  form  any  idea  of  the  progress  possible 
or  likely  in  this  direction. 

Meanwhile  there  is,  at  first  sight,  a  strong  drift  of  things 
in  the  other  direction.     We  seem  to  be  rapidly  sprinkling 
England  with  individualist  producers  of  the  old  mediaeval 
type.     Allotments  and  Small  Holdings  seem  to  many  people 
opposed  not  only  to  every  principle  of  "  Collectivism,"  but 
to  the  whole  tendency  of  the  Industrial  Kevolution.     But 
this  is  not  altogether  the  case.     The  small  occupier  himself 
is  an  individuahst  producer  no  doubt.     And  a  system  of 
yeomanry  or  peas».nt  proprietorship  would  doubtless  bring 
back  many  of  the  evils,  ethical  and  economical,  of  primitive 
individualism.     But  with  communal  ownership  a  very  dif- 
ferent system  is  introduced,  and  com-munal  ownership  is 
already  adopted  as  the  principle  of  a  great  pohtical  party — 
even  though  that  party  has  not  yet  taken  the  final  step  of  repu- 
diating every  opposing  principle.     In  the  case  of  agriculture 
rent  takes  the  greater  share  of  the  surplus  product.     As 
owners  and  rent -receivers,  then,  the  community  will  exercise 
some  of  the  most  important  rights  and  duties  of  collective 
control.     Of  course  this  supposes  that  we  are  not  to  be 
satisfied  with  a  simple  quit  rent  to  be  fixed  once  and  for 
ever.     Such  a  plan  would  be  only  one  degree  better  than  a 
system  of  complete    purchase.      We  have    surely  learnt 
enough  by  sad  experience  of  the  folly  of  fixing  payments  for 
variable  values.     Agricultural  values  are  constantly  shifting 
in  relation  to  money,  and  if  we  fixed  rents  to-day,  thirty 
years  hence  our  tenants  might  be  in  possession  of  great  un- 
earned increments,  or — what  is  just  as  likely — on  their  knees 
to  us  to  relieve  them  of  an  overgrown  burden.    The  small- 
holder must  have  fixity  of  tenure,  but  subject  to  revision  of 
rents  at  stated  periods  of  considerable  length,  with  allow- 
ance for  all  improvements  made  by  the  occupier.    In  this 
way  the  community  will  absorb  its  due  share  of  the  produce 
— the  surplus  over  the  remuneration  of  the  worker. 

In  the  case  of  agriculture,  then,  our  principle  can  be 


THE  CONTEOL  OF  INDUSTRY,  83 

carried  out  in  some  of  its  most  important  featm-es.  As  to 
the  other  cases  mentioned  it  might  not  be  impossible  to  sug- 
gest means  for  its  application  ;  but,  as  we  have  tried  to  make 
clear,  our  purpose  is  to  discuss  existing  tendencies  and  their 
value  when  completely  carried  out.  If  we  go  beyond  them 
we  are  in  danger  of  imagining  a  vain  thing.  Nor  need  we 
be  at  pains  to  work  out  in  our  heads  a  perfectly  finished 
political  order,  rounded  off  in  every  direction.  Of  such 
Utopias  the  only  thing  that  can  be  predicted  with  certainty 
is  that  they  will  always  be  Utopias.  It  is  sufficient  to  show 
the  tendencies  of  a  system,  tendencies  even  now  clearly 
visible,  and  which  will  work  out  wider  and  greater  results  at 
every  stage  of  their  realisation,  though  that  realisation  may 
never  be  completed.  And  let  us,  above  all,  remember  that 
the  accomplishment  of  any  considerable  part  of  our  hopes 
will  open  wider  vistas  of  progress,  will  create  new  problems 
of  its  own,  and  demand  undreamt-of  methods  of  solution. 
No  human  system  ever  yefc  existed  in  completeness.  One 
after  another  has  grown  and  decayed,  and  none  has  stood 
still  in  self-satisfied  fulness  of  development.  Like  "the 
waves  in  the  moonlit  solitudes  mild  of  the  mid-most  ocean," 
they  swell  and  pass  before  we  have  measured  the  height  of 
their  crest.  Only  human  society  under  wise  human  direc- 
tion does  not  rise  to  fall  again  with  the  ceaseless  iteration  of 
the  ocean  waves.  The  tide  of  movement  sweeps  us  higher 
at  each  great  pulsation  ;  it  pauses,  but  it  does  not  sink,  and 
it  changes  its  course  only  to  find  easier  inlets  to  the  shore. 

We  must  then  content  ourselves  with  a  limited  view  of 
the  future,  and  must  not  strain  our  eyes  to  see  the  invisible. 
It  is  enough  for  us  to  trace  the  tendencies  of  our  principles 
to  the  farthest  point  discernible,  to  se'e  how  they  harmonise 
and  supplement  each  other,  and  how  the  application  of  them 
would  meet  the  economic  evils  of  the  day.  If  we  never  get 
perfection  it  is  well  to  get  as  near  it  as  possible. 

¥/e  ought  however  to  meet  in  advance  one  or  two  theo- 
retical objections  which  are  almost  certain  to  arise.    It  will 


84  THE  LABOUR  MOVEMENT.     . 

be  said,  first,  that  economic  laws  render  our  ideals  impos- 
sible. This  objection  may  mean  two  or  three  things.  It 
may  mean  generally  that  sound  economics  are  opposed  to 
such  views.  If  that  is  so  we  must  of  course  have  the  par- 
ticular discrepancies  pointed  out  before  we  can  reply  to  them. 
It  may  mean  again  that  economic  laws  are  as  inevitable  as 
those  of  arithmetic  or  astronomy,  that  it  is  equally  hopeless 
to  contend  against  them  ;  that  these  laws  have  produced  the 
present  state  of  society,  and  that  the  said  state  of  society 
cannot  therefore  be  modified  by  human  effort.  Against  this 
hypothetical  but  not  unlikely  objection,  the  reply  simply  is 
that  it  rests  on  a  misconception  of  the  idea  of  law.  A  law 
in  economics,  as  in  any  other  science,  simply  states  what 
has  resulted,  and  is  expected  to  result,  from  certain  condi- 
tions— what  will  be  the  effect  of  a  given  cause.  Political 
economy  traces  the  existing  state  of  industry,  distribution 
of  wealth,  &c.,  to  certain  causes,  and  says  that  given  those 
causes  the  effects  follow  inevitably.  Very  likely,  but  sup- 
pose we  can  control  the  causes  ?  Given  free  competition, 
enormous  inequalities  of  wealth  are  inevitable.  Doubtless, 
but  suppose  we  can  supersede  competition  by  an  intelligent 
control  of  industry  ?  We  cannot  argue  from  what  happens 
now  to  what  would  happen  under  changed  conditions.  The 
fields  of  economic  and  much  other  scientific  thought  are 
strewn  with  the  bones  of  those  who  have  tried  to  reach 
truth  by  this  method,  and  have  perished  intellectually  in 
the  attempt. 

In  a  somewhat  similar  spirit  it  is  sometimes  said  that 
political  economy /ai;o^^rs  free  competition.  This  idea  still 
seems  to  work  confusedly  in  the  inner  fogs  of  many  minds, 
but  it  is  about  as  intelligible  as  to  say  that  physiology 
favours  disease,  or  astronomy  the  motion  of  the  earth  round 
the  sun.  Political  economy  has  emerged  as  a  science  at  a 
period  when  free  industrial  enterprise  has  been  more  widely 
extended  than  heretofore,  and  accordingly  it  has  been  mainly 
concerned  to  examine  the  phenomena  that  arise  under  a 


THE  CONTBOL  OF  INDUSTBY.  S5 

competitive  regime.  But  political  economy  is  concerned 
purely  with  the  ascertainment  of  facts.  It  tells  us,  or  tries 
to  tell  us,  what  happens  under  given  economic  conditions. 
It  does  not  tell  us  what  ought  to  happen,  what  would  be 
most  desirable  in  the  general  interests.  It  does  not,  as  a 
pure  science,  favour  any  one  form  of  industrial  organisation 
rather  than  another.  And  if  any  political  economist  does 
show  such  favour  we  can  only  say,  that  qua  political 
economist  he  has  no  business  to  do  any  such  thing.  The 
whole  notion  implies  an  entire  misunderstanding  of  the 
nature  of  science  as  an  attempt  to  interpret  existing  facts 
as  it  finds  them.  The  ordinary  "  scientific  "  objections  to 
collectivist  reforms  are,  in  fact,  the  objections  of  pseudo- 
science. 

There  is  however  one  specific  form  of  the  economic  objec- 
tion which  we  can  hardly  expect  to  escape.  The  population- 
theory  has  been  erected  into  a  bulwark  against  almost  all 
theories  of  progress  since  the  days  of  Malthus,  and  it  is  hardly 
to  be  supposed  that  the  Labour  movement  of  to-day  will  be 
allowed  to  pass  unchallenged.  I  shall  be  told  that  this  reck- 
less ministering  to  human  life  and  comfort,  this  monstrous 
preservation  of  the  incompetent,  will  have  as  its  inevitable 
result  the  increase  of  population  which  must  infallibly  lead 
to  increased  poverty.  Observe  the  reasoning  here.  There 
are  more  mouths  to  fill;  therefore  there  is  less  for  each. 
Quite  so,  if  the  whole  stock  of  food  remains  the  same,  but 
how  if  the  supply  of  food  increases  as  fast  as  the  population, 
or  faster  ?  Is  not  this  possible  since  each  new  consumer  is 
(or  is  to  be)  also  a  new  producer.  No,  I  shall  be  told ;  the 
Law  of  Diminishing  Keturns  prevents  this.  Put  ten  men 
to  labour  on  a  farm  and  you  get  a  certain  return.  Add  ten 
more  next  year  and  you  get  a  larger  return,  but  not  twice  as 
large.  You  have  doubled  your  labour,  but  you  will  find  the 
produce  less  than  double.  And  this  gets  worse  the  further 
we  go  on.  Ten  men,  say,  could  produce  enough  from  the 
farm  to  live  in  comfort.  Twenty  men  produce  enough  to  keep 


S6  THE  LABOVB  MOVEMENT, 

fifteen  in  comfort.  Then  five  will  be  underfed.  Thirty  men's 
labour  will  keep  eighteen  in  comfort  and  twelve  will  be  in 
rags,  and  so  it  goes  on  getting  worse  and  worse.  Now,  all 
England  and  all  England's  industry  may  be  looked  at  thus. 
Ten  milUon  (say)  could  live  comfortably  in  England.  At 
twenty  millions,  five  will  be  submerged.  At  thirty  twelve 
will  be  in  want,  and  so  on. 

I  do  not  suppose  that  this  argument  would  now  be  used 
by  any  competent  economist.  But  it  may  be  well  to  explain 
briefly  the  nature  of  the  mistake.  The  simple  truth  is 
that  the  Law  of  Diminishing  Eeturns  is  a  misnomer.  At 
one  stage  returns  increase  proportionately  to  the  amount  of 
labour  applied  ;  i.e.,  a  given  addition  of  labour  brings  a  more 
than  proportionate  increase  of  product.  At  another  stage 
returns  decrease  proportionately  to  the  amount  of  labour; 
i.e.,  a  given  addition  of  labour  brings  a  less  than  proportion- 
ate increase.  Thus  a  farmer  working  single  handed  in  a 
Western  state  reaps  a  certain  harvest.  If  he  is  able  to  hire 
one  labourer  his  return  is  more  than  doubled.  A  second 
labourer  adds  yet  more  than  the  first,  and  so  on  up  to  a 
certain  maximum,  after  which  the  addition  of  a  fresh 
labourer  makes  a  smaller  addition  of  produce  than  is 
obtained  from  the  average  of  preceding  labourers.  At  this 
point  Increasing  Eeturns  give  way  to  Diminishing  Eeturns. 
And  so  it  is  in  all  industry.  There  is  a  period  of  Increasing 
and  a  period  of  Diminishing  Eeturns  and  even  an  inter- 
weaving of  the  two,  so  that  we  pass  from  one  to  the  other 
and  back  again.  And  thus  considered  the  conception  must 
be  applied  to  manufacture,  mining,  transport,  and  other 
industries,  as  well  as  to  agricultural  land.  Let  it  be  granted 
— I  doubt  whether  any  human  being  knows  it  to  be  true — 
that  English  agriculture  is  now  permanently  in  the  period 
of  Diminishing  Eeturns,  it  must  be  remembered  that  Eng- 
land's population  does  not  depend  for  its  food  on  England's 
soil.  And  it  has  yet  to  be  shown  that  an  increase  in  the 
population  does  not  produce  such  an  increasing  return  in 


THE  CONTROL  OF  INDUSTBY.  87 

manufactures  and  transport  as  more  than  counterbalances 
the  diminishing  return  from  agriculture.  That  this  has 
been  so  up  till  the  present  time  seems  to  be  agreed.  Thus 
Professor  Marshall  says  : — 

"  Political  arithmetic  may  be  said  to  have  begun  in  Eng- 
land in  the  seventeenth  century  ;  and  from  that  time 
onwards  v^e  find  a  constant  and  nearly  steady  increase  in 
the  amount  of  accumulated  wealth  per  head  of  the  popula- 
tion "  (**  Principles  of  Economics,"  vol.  i.  p.  729,  2nd  edition, 
1891). 

Ptemembering  the  enormous  increase  in  the  population 
which  has  taken  place  during  the  same  time,  we  see  here  the 
action  of  Increasing  Returns  on  a  large  scale.  In  fact,  the 
pressure  of  population  on  subsistence  ma,y  some  day  become 
a  difficulty.  But  that  it  in  any  way  contributes  to  our  diffi- 
culties at  present,  or  is  likely  to  do  so  within  any  period  for 
which  we  are  called  upon  to  make  provision,  there  is  no 
evidence  to  show.  What  evidence  we  have  points  the  other 
way.  And  for  those  who  look  forward  with  anxiety  to  the 
time  when  even  standing  room  will  be  diiEcult  to  find  on  this 
earth,  let  us  in  Platonic  fashion  crown  them  with  garlands 
as  the  wisest  and  most  far-seeing  of  men,  and  at  the  same 
time  suggest  to  them  that  they  would  find  a  more  congenial 
society  among  the  philosophers  of  Laputa  than  among  the 
legislators  of  our  city. 

A  somewhat  similar  objection  may  be  put  in  a  simpler 
form.  It  may  be  said  "  You  propose  that  every  occupation 
should  be  made  as  safe  and  healthy  as  possible,  that  it 
should  never  be  carried  to  the  point  of  exhaustion,  but 
should  leave  reasonable  leisure  for  every  worker,  and  yet 
that  every  man  should  have  enough  to  maintain  himself  and 
his  family  in  a  way  befitting  a  civilised  being,  and  that  the 
old  and  infirm  should  be  made  comfortable.  But  where  is 
the  money  to  come  from  ?  Quite  apart  from  the  growth  of 
pouplation,  where,  at  the  present  day,  is  the  wealth  that  will 
meet  this  enormous  charge  ?  " 


88  THE  LABOUR  MOVEMENT. 

No  doubt  our  wages  bill  will  be  much  increased  if  we  are 
to  support  all  the  workers  of  the  nation  in  comfort  at  the 
price  of  moderate  toil.  But  it  is  not  at  present  found  im- 
possible to  support  a  considerable  number  of  people  in  a 
great  deal  more  than  comfort  at  the  price  of  no  toil  what- 
ever. Next,  I  would  admit  our  task  to  be  difficult,  but  I 
would  infer  that  it  requires  our  whole  energy,  and  that  we 
must  accordingly  get  rid  of  every  obstacle  to  its  achieve- 
ment. If  certain  persons  hold  a  lien  on  the  produce  of  the 
nation  and  exact  a  toll  for  which  they  make  no  adequate 
return,  our  difficulties  are  certainly  increased  ;  but  my 
inference  would  be  not  that  we  should  abandon  our  task, 
but  that  we  should  reconsider  the  position  of  these  persons. 
Every  argument  from  the  "impossible"  urged  by  the  friends 
of  vested  interests  makes  the  case  against  vested  interests 
stronger.  The  more  difficult  it  is  to  satisfy  the  primary 
needs,  the  more  necessary  it  becomes  to  apply  the  whole  of 
our  revenue  to  that  purpose.  And  the  first  need  of  all  is 
life  for  the  worker.  In  a  true  social  state  every  citizen 
counts  for  something,  all  alike  must  be  considered ;  but  the 
servants  of  society  must  be  considered  first.  If  there  were 
to  be  before  and  after  at  all  in  a  true  state,  those  would  be 
before  who  whether  with  brain  or  muscle  have  done  the 
hardest,  most  unpleasant,  most  dangerous,  most  self-denying 
work  for  the  common  good.  And  next  to  the  worker  would 
come  the  helpless.  Not  till  these  first  needs  are  satisfied 
can  we  consider  any  other  claims.  Individualist  economics 
put  the  cart  before  the  horse  and  then  are  surprised  that 
there  is  no  progress.  We  intend  to  reverse  the  order  and 
see  if  many  "  impossible  "  things  do  not  become  possible. 

I  conclude,  on  the  whole,  that  the  economic  objections  to 
the  collective  control  of  industry  are  not  sound. 

But  one  question  remains  to  be  raised.  In  all  this  advo- 
cacy of  collective  control  are  we  not  leaving  one  side  of  life 
out  of  account  altogether?  Does  not  the  growth  of  the 
central  authority  militate  fatally  against  the  liberty  of  indi- 


THE  CONTBOL  OF  INDUSTBY.  89 

vidual  citizens  which  is  essential  to  progress?  This  is  a 
consideration  which  would  have  had  more  weight  in  Eng- 
land twenty,  or  even  ten,  years  ago  than  it  has  to-day,  and 
I  deal  with  it  not  so  much  because  I  think  it  will  be  con- 
sidered, as  because  I  hold  that  it  ought  to  be  considered. 
I  shall  not,  therefore,  attempt  an  exhaustive  discussion  of 
the  arguments  for  individualism.  I  will  content  myself  with 
one  or  two  as  representative,  and  will  then  pass  to  the  more 
positive  treatment  of  the  subject. 

First,  then,  the  idea  of  the  "rights"  of  the  individual  as 
opposed  to  the  good  of  society,  though  it  would  hardly  find 
countenance  from  any  competent  thinker,  still  appears  to 
lurk  obscurely  in  certain  minds  from  which  it  emerges  from 
time  to  time  into  the  twilight  of  confused  platform  speeches 
or  magazine  articles.  We  still  hear  of  the  rights  of  property, 
the  right  to  free  labour,  the  right  to  drink  when  and  where 
you  please,  as  though  these  rights  were  not  merely  the 
creation  of  society,  sustained  by  society  for  its  own  con- 
venience, and  having  no  other  moral  justification  in  the 
world,  but  superior  to  social  welfare  and  competent  to  give 
it  the  law.  But  a  "  natural  right "  independent  of  the  wel- 
fare of  society  is  as  much  a  contradiction  in  terms  as  a  legal 
right  independent  of  a  law  enforcing  it.  On  this  point 
philosophers  speak  with  one  voice.  That  it  is  the  view  of 
utilitarians,  like  Mill,  holding  as  they  do  that  the  greatest 
happiness  of  mankind  is  the  test  of  right  and  wrong,  goes 
of  course  without  saying.  Let  us  hear,  then,  one  of  the 
greatest  Enghsh  representatives  of  a  quite  opposite  school  of 
thought : — 

"  The  dissociation  of  innate  rights  from  innate  duties  has 
gone  along  with  the  delusion  that  such  rights  existed  apart 
from  society.  Men  were  supposed  to  have  existed  in  a 
state  of  nature  which  was  not  a  state  of  society,  but  in 
which  certain  rights  attached  to  them  as  individuals,  and 
then  to  have  formed  societies  by  contract  or  covenant. 
Society  having   been  formed,   certain  other  rights  arose 


90  THE  LABOUR  MOVEMENT. 

through  positive  enactment ;  but  none  of  these,  it  was  held, 
could  interfere  with  the  natural  rights  which  belonged  to 
men  antecedently  to  the  social  contract  or  survived  it. 

**  Such  a  theory  can  only  be  stated  by  an  application  to 
an  imaginary  state  of  things,  prior  to  the  formation  of 
societies  as  regulated  by  custom  or  law,  of  terms  that  have 
no  meaning  except  in  relation  to  such  societies.  *  Natural 
right,'  as  right  in  a  state  of  nature  which  is  not  a  state  of 
society,  is  a  contradiction.  There  can  be  no  right  without 
a  consciousness  of  common  interest  on  the  part  of  members 
of  a  society.  Without  this  there  might  be  certain  powers 
on  the  part  of  individuals,  but  no  recognition  of  these 
powers  by  others  as  powers  of  which  they  allow  the  exer- 
cise, nor  any  claim  to  such  recognition ;  and  without  this 
recognition  or  claim  to  recognition  there  can  be  no  right."  * 

On  this  point,  then,  Utilitarian  and  Transcendentalist 
join  hands.  A  right  is  nothing  but  what  the  good  of  society 
makes  it.  If  it  were  well  for  society  as  a  whole  to  destroy 
every  right  of  private  property  to-morrow,  it  would  be  just 
to  do  so,  and  the  owners  would  have  no  right  to  object. 
They  might  resist  with  physical  force,  but  they  v^ould  have 
no  moral  ground  to  stand  upon.  If,  therefore,  any  right  to 
any  form  of  property  or  freedom  no  longer  serves  a  good 
social  purpose,  it  must  go.  And  whatever  tenderness  we 
show  to  the  interests  of  individuals,  remember  that  we  do 
this,  too,  in  the  name  of  the  common  welfare. 

This  being  understood,  we  pass  to  the  scientific  argu- 
ments for  individualism.  The  chief  of  these  arguments  is 
an  application  to  human  progress  of  ideas  derived  from 
the  organic  world  at  large.  The  struggle  for  existence 
among  plants  and  animals  is  continually  eliminating  the 
majority  of  those  which  are  born,  and  the  survivors  are 
only  able  to  maintain  their  ground  by  superiority  to  the 
remainder  in   strength,  swiftness,  cunning,  endurance,  or 

*  T.  H.  Green,  "Principles  of  Political  Obligation,"  Philosophical 
Works,  vol.  ii.  p.  354,  2nd  cd.,  1890. 


THE  CONTROL  OF  INDUSTRY,  91 

some  similar  quality.  Hence  the  natural  result  of  the 
struggle  is  the  survival  of  the  fittest,  which  is  the  means  of 
the  gradual  evolution  of  higher  from  lov/er  forms.  So  in 
human  life  success  is  to  the  strong,  the  swift,  the  cunning,  and 
the  patient.  Let  natural  forces  play,  and  these  shall  inherit 
the  earth,  the  weak  and  feeble  being  rooted  out.  In  this 
way  by  slow  degrees  we  attain  to  a  higher  type.  But  if  by 
artificial  means  we  preserve  the  impotent  and  the  help- 
less, we  hinder  this  beneficent  natural  process.  We  prolong 
the  misery  of  their  extinction  and  lower  the  average  of 
human  excellence.  Happiness  and  perfection  are  reached 
by  men  and  by  other  organisms  when  they  are  thoroughly 
well  adapted  to  their  environment,  and  the  supreme  law 
of  progress  is  that  the  ill-adapted  being  should  be  left  to 
die: — 

"  Thou  shalt  not  kill,  but  needst  not  strive 
Officiously  to  keep  alive." 

Now  we  fully  agree  with  the  evolutionists  in  their  main 
position.  It  is  desirable  that  the  fit  should  succeed  and 
the  unfit  fail;  we  are  ready  even  to  exclude  the  utterly 
unfit  from  society  altogether  by  enclosing  them  in  prison 
walls.  But  who  are  the  unfit?  "Those  who  are  ill-adapted 
to  their  environment,"  say  the  evolutionists.  Quite  so;  and 
what  is  the  environment  of  man?  The  society  of  other 
men.  Then  who  is  the  fit  man  ?  Clearly  the  man  who  is 
best  adapted  for  social  life.  And  who  again  is  he  ?  Is  he 
the  bold,  unscrupulous  man  of  force,  the  exacting,  the 
merciless,  the  ungenerous.  Such  is  the  man  who  succeeds 
in  the  anarchical  struggle  for  existence.  Or  is  he  the 
merciful  and  generous  man  of  justice,  whose  hardest  fights 
are  fought  for  others'  lives,  who  would  rather,  with  Plato, 
Buffer  wrong  than  inflict  it,  and  who  will  lay  down  his  life  to 
serve  mankind  ?  The  first  is  fittest  actually  to  survive  in 
the  unregulated  contest  of  individuals.  The  second  is 
fittest  morally  to  survive  in  a  society  of  mutually  depen- 


92  TEE  LABOUB  MOVEMENT, 

dent  human  beings.  And  that  the  morally  fittest  shall 
actually  survive  and  prosper  is  the  object  of  good  social 
institutions.* 

This  society  of  the  just  may  be  an  unattainable  ideal 
upon  earth;  it  may  be  destined  to  exist  only  in  some 
heavenly  place  among  the  gods.  But  according  as  we  are 
brave  or  faint-hearted,  wise  or  foolish,  virtuous  or  corrupt, 
we  approach  it  or  fall  off  from  it.  There  is  not,  and  may 
never  be,  a  heaven  upon  earth,  but  that  is  no  reason  why 
we  should  not  strive  to  realise  as  much  of  heaven  as  we 
can.  We  can  approach,  if  we  can  never  reach,  the  rule  of 
Eight  and  of  Justice,  that  those  shall  prosper  who  deserve  it. 
We  can  at  least  institute  and  maintain  conditions  which 
favour  this  result,  which  therefore  promote  the  survival  of 
the  fittest  in  the  only  sense  in  which  that  end  is  desirable. 
But  even  the  halt  and  the  lame,  if  they  bear  their  trouble 
bravely,  may  be  fitter  for  the  social  state,  and  serve  it 
better  by  their  patient  lives  than  the  bold  and  strong,  who, 
in  the  pursuit  of  their  own  end,  turn  the  earth  into  a  hell. 
Better  to  preserve  the  physically  weak  and  their  offspring 
than  the  morally  bad  and  their  brood  of  evil.  Better  to 
keep  alive  a  maimed  deformity  than  the  human  monsters 
who,  if  the  tale  be  true,  "  grow  "  these  deformities  for  gain. 
But  we  have  no  such  sad  alternatives  before  us.  A  due 
regulation  of  economic  conditions  would  provide  for  physical 

*  It  is  almost  superfluous  to  point  out  the  ambiguity  in  the  word  fit. 
In  any  struggle  the  fittest  survives.  He  would  not  have  survived  had 
he  not  been  the  fittest  to  meet  the  particular  conditions  of  that  particular 
struggle.  It  does  not  follow  that  he  is  the  fittest  from  a  moral  point  of 
view,  i.e.,  that  he  is  the  competitor  for  whom  a  moral  man,  weighing  the 
merits  of  the  rivals  from  a  moral  point  of  view,  would  desire  the  victory. 
Very  immoral  qualities  may  be  the  condition  of  success  in  certain  states 
of  social  or  non-social  existence.  If,  then,  we  wish  to  preserve  the 
morally  fit,  we  must  make  submission  to  vioral  laws  the  main  condition 
of  success.  Then  the  two  meanings  of  fitness  coincide.  The  morally 
fit  become  the  best  fitted  to  survive.  Again,  in  the  first  meaning  of  the 
word,  the  survival  of  the  fittest  is  a  fact.  In  the  second  it  is  a  desidera- 
tum. But  the  fact  is  not  always  a  desideratum,  nor  the  desideratum 
always  a  fact.    We  wish  the  desideratum  to  become  fact. 


THE  CONTROL  OF  INDUSTBY.  93 

as  for  moral  health,  and  far  from  scorning  the  teachings 
of  biology  would  use  them  to  promote  the  evolution  of  a 
nobler  species.'^  The  evolutionist  argument  thus  correctly 
understood  makes  straight  for  collective  control. 

The  true  value  of  liberty  was,  I  venture  to  think,  better 
understood  by  older  writers  like  J.  S.  Mill.  That,  in  his 
phrase,  "  individuality  is  an  element  of  well-being  "  is,  I 
believe,  a  permanent  truth.  We  do  not  want  to  run 
everybody  into  one  mould.  We  do  not  wish  to  turn  our 
national  institutions  into  a  Procrustes  bed,  in  which  every 
man's  nature  is  to  be  cut  to  one  length.  But  then  we  entirely 
deny  that  the  regulation  of  industrial  life  tends  in  this 
direction.  If  it  were  proposed  to  impose  an  uniform 
religion,  to  dictate  a  system  of  thought,  to  interfere  with  a 
man's  leisure,  even  to  regulate  his  minor  tastes  in  dress  or 
furniture,  then,  indeed,  we  should  be  cramping  individuality 
and  inaugurating  an  era  of  stagnation.  And  when  such 
things  are  advocated  we,  for  our  part,  shall  be  found  among 
the  ranks  of  the  Individualists.  But  an  active  social  life 
has  no  connection  with  the  rule  of  bigotry  and  intolerance. 
The  best  social  life  consists  precisely  in  the  harmonious 
working  out  to  their  fullest  possible  development  of  the 
best  capacities  of  all  members  of  the  community.  And  true 
liberty,  to  quote  Professor  Green  again,  is  found  when  each 
man  has  the  greatest  possible  opportunity  for  making  the 
best  of  himself.  And  the  problem  for  society  is  so  far  as 
possible  to  ensure  such  liberty  for  all  its  members.  To  do 
this  undoubtedly  involves  the  curtailment  of  individuals  in 
some  of  their  actions.  But  some  such  limitations  are 
essential  to  the  very  existence  of  society.  We  cannot 
aUow  people  to  discharge  pistols  in  Piccadilly  or  bombs  at 
the  base  of  our  public  buildings,  however  much  they  may  be 

*  So  much  has  been  said  by  evolutionists  of  the  danger  of  keeping 
aUve  tendencies  injurious  to  society,  that  it  is  surprising  that  they  should 
not  notice  the  tendency  of  individualism  to  foster  selfishness  and  callous- 
ness to  suffering — the  most  directly  antisocial  of  all  tendencies. 


94  THE  LABOUR  MOVEMENT. 

convinced  that  they  are  but  following  their  best  impulses  in 
so  doing.  We  have  to  curtail  the  free  play  of  their  aspira- 
tions for  the  safety  of  ourselves  and  our  fellow-citizens. 
The  curtailment  of  the  liberties  of  some,  then,  may  mean 
the  maximum  of  liberty  upon  the  whole.  And  this  maxi- 
mum it  is  our  object  to  ensure.  Thus  free  competition  for 
employment  is  a  form  of  uncurtailed  liberty,  and  it  results 
in  working  hours  of  twelve,  fourteen,  or  sixteen  a  day,  with 
full  liberty  for  self- development  in  the  hours  that  remain. 
If  we  curtail  the  liberty  on  one  side,  and  so  obtain  an  eight- 
hour  day  for  a  group  of  workers,  with- four,  six,  or  eight 
hours'  additional  leisure,  do  we  add  to  liberty  or  subtract 
from  it  upon  the  whole  ?  If  we  compel  so  much  education 
as  puts  a  child  in  a  position  in  which  he  has  all  the  best 
thoughts  that  have  been  expressed  in  his  mother-tongue  at 
his  command,  do  w^e  give  him  a  worse  or  a  better  chance  of 
developing  his  nature  in  the  long  run  ?  In  a  word,  if  we 
exercise  control  where  the  health  and  other  material  needs 
of  society  are  concerned,  do  we  augment  or  diminish  the 
power  of  satisfying  higher  needs  ?  I  should  reply  that  all 
depends  on  the  wisdom  of  our  control.  If  you  govern 
badly  or  unwisely,  probably  enough  you  will  get  bad  results. 
But  it  is  a  bad  government  indeed  that  would  not  be  better 
than  anarchy,  just  as  it  is  a  very  poor  brain  that  is  no 
better  to  its  possessor  than  an  empty  skull.  The  actual 
control  itself  is,  in  fact,  a  small  obstacle  to  liberty  in  its 
higher  aspects.  Just  as  it  matters  little  to  control  the 
body  if  you  leave  the  spirit  free,  so  it  is  a  small  thing  to 
order  man's  doings  in  the  w^ay  of  providing  material  needs 
if  you  leave  him  to  roam  unfettered  in  the  larger  field  of 
mental  and  spiritual  development.  And  as  our  object  is  to 
enable  men  to  realise  such  development,  and  find  in  it  their 
greatest  happiness,  we  insist  at  one  and  the  same  time 
on  perfect  freedom  in  this  direction,  and  perfect  organisa- 
tion of  all  the  material  basis  of  society  which  forms  the 
foundation  of  the  wider  life. 


THE  CONTROL  OF  INDUSTBY.  95 

We  do  not,  then,  attack  liberty,  but  defend  it.  But  we  dis- 
tinguish kinds,  or,  if  you  like,  spheres,  of  liberty  as  of  very 
different  importance.  And  we  advocate  curtailment  of  the 
lower  kinds  in  the  interests  of  the  higher.  It  may  be  asked 
who  is  the  judge  of  higher  and  lower,  and  who  decides  what  is 
essential  to  the  interests  of  the  higher  ?  Only  one  answer 
can  be  given — the  majority  of  the  citizens,  and  this  brings 
us  to  the  second  of  Mill's  pleas  for  liberty — the  fallibility  of 
any  human  authority.  Here  again  we  have  a  consideration 
of  great  and  permanent  importance.  No  human  being,  and, 
therefore,  no  collection  of  human  beings,  can  be  perfectly 
wise.  If  we  adtoit,  with  Aristotle,  that  the  wisdom  of  a 
body  of  men  in  their  collective  decisions  may  be  greater 
than  the  average  wisdom  of  the  component  individuals,  we 
must  yet  allow  that  it  is  imperfect.  The  court  of  appeal  to 
the  people  is  the  highest  human  court,  because  none  higher 
and  none  safer  can  be  devised.  But  the  voice  of  the  people 
is  not  the  voice  of  God.  And  a  whole  generation  may 
follow  a  mistaken  idea  about  its  own  best  interests.  To 
ignore  this  is  the  mere  weakness  of  fanaticism. 

But  we  have  a  corrective  to  all  mistakes— the  only 
corrective  open  to  mankind — in  free  criticism  ;  we  must  in 
many  ways  control  action,  we  cannot  control  thought,  we 
should  not  control  speech.  In  all  curtailment  of  freedom, 
let  this  field  be  left  open,  and  the  main  danger  of  govern- 
ment— persistence  in  a  wrong  course — is  avoided.  We  shall 
lose,  we  do  lose  something  by  toleration  in  this  form.  The 
promulgation  of  error  is  pro  tanto  harmful.  But  Mill  has 
shown  that  the  open  advocacy  of  error  is  far  less  prejudicial 
to  the  cause  of  truth  than  the  suppression  of  divergences  of 
opinion.  Free  discussion  is  the  best  corrective  of  stagna- 
tion, and  free  discussion  involves  some  error.  And  there 
is  a  suitable  point  at  which  the  repression  of  erroneous 
doctrines  should  begin,  the  point  that  is  when  it  issues  in 
action  to  the  hurt  of  society.  At  that  point  repress  it  if  you 
please,  but  still  leave  men  free  to  talk.    This  distinction  is 


96  THE  LABOUB  MOVEMENT. 

of  course  recognised  in  law.  It  is  open  to  a  man  to  advocate 
Mormonism  in  England,  but  it  is  not  open  to  him  to  be  a 
bigamist.  In  most  respects  the  law  already  holds  that  it  is 
best  to  let  men  talk  out  their  thoughts  and  to  meet  them  by 
reason  and  persuasion,  rather  than  with  a  whiff  of  grapeshot. 
And  so  far  from  advocating  an  extension  of  collective  control 
in  this  direction,  we  would  rather  see  a  clearer  line  of  demar- 
cation drawn,  and  the  rule  of  free  discussion  made  as  nearly 
absolute  as  any  rule  can  be.'^  Let  the  fresh  air  of  criti- 
cism move  over  the  face  of  the  waters  and  keep  them 
astir.  Then  at  least  we  shall  avoid  stagnation.  It  is 
difficult  to  many  people  to  combine  toleration  and  zeal — 
difficult,  but  necessary.  Half  the  progressive  movements  of 
the  world  have  failed  in  the  long  run  through  this  defect. 
To  raise  men  one  step  on  the  upward  path,  they  have  built 
up  a  machinery  which  has  prevented  all  further  movement ; 
and  the  next  stage  has  had  to  begin  with  the  breaking 
down  of  this  cumbersome  mechanism.  If  for  the  future 
this  error  can  be  avoided,  progressive  movements  will  no 
longer  contain  the  causes  of  stagnation  or  relapse  within 
themselves.  And  the  single  general  principle  which  can  be 
laid  down  to  help  us  here  is  the  principle  of  free  thought  and 
free  discussion.  It  may  be  asked,  *'  If  you  admit  the  State 
fallible,  how  can  you  insist  that  we  should  let  it  judge  for 
us?"  I  purposely  put  the  question  in  this  form,  because  I 
think,  that  however  phrased,  it  rests  on  an  unanalysed  idea 
of  the  State  as  something  outside  ourselves.  The  truth  of 
course  is  that  we  are  the  State,  and  when  we  judge  and 
decide  things  as  a  state,  we  are  in  no  worse  position  for 
judging  than  in  the  practical  affairs  of  daily  life.  I  cannot 
get  an  infallible  judgment  from  any  source  on  earth,  whether 
on  my  own  affairs  or  to  assist  anybody  else.    Even  if  it  is 

*  It  is,  I  think,  consistent  with  this  to  regulate,  in  some  degree,  the 
manner  of  expression  in  certain  subjects.  Since  in  this  case  the  use  of 
some  expressions  produces  an  effect  on  the  hearer  without  altering  his 
opinion,  and  the  absolute  rule  we  want  is  that  any  attempt  to  modify 
opinion  should  be  permissible. 


THE  CONTBOL  OF  INDU8TBY.  97 

contended  that  every  one  from  Solomon  to  the  village  fool 
is  the  best  judge  of  his  own  interest,  it  cannot  be  held  that 
either  Solomon  or  the  fool  are  infallible  even  on  this  point. 
The  argument  then  cuts  both  ways.  If  the  State  is  fallible 
in  dealing  with  the  individual,  the  individual  is  fallible  in 
acting  for  himself.  And  it  has  to  be  considered  that  each 
man's  action  affects  other  people,  and  however  well  he  may 
be  able  to  judge  for  them  and  for  himself,  there  is  no 
guarantee  that  so  far  as  they  are  concerned,  he  has  the  will 
to  judge  well.  The  democratic  state,  on  the  other  hand, 
represents  the  resultant  judgment,  so  to  say,  of  the  conflict- 
ing views  of  all  its  adult  and  sane  members,  and  in  this 
resultant  judgment  we  get  the  nearest  approach  to  a 
collective  judgment  of  the  social  organism  upon  its  col- 
lective interests,  parallel  to  the  judgment  of  the  individual 
man  on  his  private  interests. 

There  are  those  who  allow  the  uncertainty  of  things  to 
weigh  so  heavily  upon  them  as  to  paralyse  their  will  in  their 
own  private  affairs.  They  exaggerate  caution,  and  allow 
the  one-thousandth  chance  of  failure  to  outweigh  the 
999  probabilities  of  success.  They  do  not  count  the  cost 
before  acting.  They  never  act  at  all.  The  thing  in  some 
instances,  I  believe,  becomes  a  kind  of  mania,  ending  in  a 
sort  of  general  paralysis.  Many  people  suffer  from  a  similar 
paralysis  when  they  approach  public  affairs,  and  the  only 
active  principle  they  appear  to  retain  is  that  of  spreading 
the  same  paralysis  throughout  society.  But  society  must 
judge  and  act,  as  individuals  must  judge  and  act.  Inaction 
no  more  saves  us  from  responsibility,  than  the  ostrich 
secures  itself  from  its  enemy  by  burying  its  head  in  the 
sand.  If  we  decline  to  act,  we  are  responsible  for  all  that 
follows  from  inaction,  as  surely  as  we  must  take  the  conse- 
quences of  action  when  we  do  act.  If  we  do  not  put  down 
gambling,  if  we  do  not  limit  the  hours  of  industry,  if  we  do 
not  punish  criminals,  we  must  be  held  responsible  for  all 
that  follows  from   our  passivity.     EeSjponsibility  is  hung 

8 


98  THE  LABOUB  MOVEMENT. 

about  our  necks,  and  we  cannot  shake  it  off.  For  better  or 
for  worse,  in  private  and  in  public,  at  each  emergency  of 
life  on  each  new  question  forced  on  us,  we  have  to  judge 
as  best  we  can,  using  all  available  light,  listening  to  every 
instructed  teacher,  and,  finally,  coming  to  a  decision  not  less 
resolute  because  delayed.  Consciousness  of  weakness  and 
limitation  is  all  good  if  it  leads  to  open-mindedness  and 
toleration,  all  bad  if  its  result  is  the  paralysis  of  doubt. 
And  in  the  great  matters  of  life,  it  is  our  imperative  duty 
not  only  to  hear  all  sides,  but  also  having  heard  them,  to 
form  opinions  of  our  own.  The  duty  of  having  convictions 
is  correlative  and  supplementary  to  the  duty  of  tolerance 
and  open-mindedness. 

Both  duties  may  be  recognised  in  our  public  action,  and 
the  due  balance  of  both  can  alone  secure  a  continuous 
forward  movement  of  mankind,  and  in  it  Hes  the  solution  of 
the  old  question  between  liberty  and  authority.  Using 
every  available  means  of  obtaining  true  ideas  of  what  is 
necessary  as  the  fundamental  condition  of  social  health,  it 
is  our  right  and  duty  to  enforce  that  by  any  and  every 
form  of  collective  authority,  legally  or  voluntarily  consti- 
tuted. It  is  equally  right  and  good  to  leave  a  fair  field  of 
discussion  open  to  all  who  consider  themselves  aggrieved,  or 
who  think  we  are  in  the  wrong  path.  And,  finally,  collective 
control  has  not  so  much  to  make  people  good  and  happy, 
as  to  establish  the  necessary  conditions  of  goodness  and 
happiness,  leaving  it  to  individual  effort  and  voluntary 
association  to  develop  freely  and  spontaneously  all  the  fair 
flower  and  fruit  of  human  intercourse  and  knowledge  and 
beauty,  which  can  spring  from  a  sovnd  root  firmly  planted 
in  life-giving  earth. 

THE  END. 


Ubc  (BrcBbam  press, 

UNWIN  BROTHEBS, 
WOKIKG  AKD  LONDON. 


Ipreliminac^  Xi6t 


OF 


Mr  T.  fisher  UNWIN'S 

Announcements  for 

1897 


A  Preliminary  List  of 


Mr.  T.  Fisher  Unwin's 

PRELIMINARY  List  of    Announcements 


FREDERIC  ENGELS  : 

The  Co-founder  of  Scientific  Socialism.     His  Work  and 
his  Associations.  [Autumn,  1897. 

SYNOPSIS  OF  Contents  :— Early  Years  (1820-1842)— First  Stay  at 
Manchester  (1842-1844)— At  Paris  and  Brussels  (1844-1847)— The  Com- 
munistic Manifesto  (1847) — During  the  German  Revolution  of  1848- 
1849— In  Exile  (1849-1851)— At  Manchester  Attain  (1851-1869)— At  Lon- 
don and  in  the  Council  of  the  International  (1869-1871)— Engels'  Most 
Important  Work  (1871-1883)— The  Council  of   International  Socialism 

ii8S3-i895)— Engels'   Influence    in    International  Politics— Important 
setters  and  other  Dociunents  of  interest. 


LITHOGRAPHY. 

By  Joseph  Pennell,  Author  of  "  Pen  Drawing  "  "  The 

Illustration  of  Books,"  &c.,  and  Elizabeth  Robins 
Pennell.  With  a  Lithographic  PYontispiece  Por- 
trait of  Mr.  Pennell,  by  J.  McNeill  Whistler.  With 
Numerous  Illustrations  and  Plates.  Uniform  in  style 
with  "  Pen  Drawing."     Price  £3  13s.  6d.  net. 

[Spnng,  1898. 
Lithography  and  Lithographers  is  a  study  of  the  art  and  the  artists 
who  have  practised  it.  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Pennell  have  collaborated  on  this 
book,  which  is  a  history  of  the  invention  and  development  of  litho- 
graphy as  an  art.  Much  attention  will  be  paid  by  the  authors  to  the 
romantic  movement  in  France  when  it  was  at  its  most  important  and 
most  interesting  phase.  The  English  work  of  the  same  time  will  be 
by  no  means  neglected,  nor  yet  that  of  Germany,  and  Italy,  and  the 
other  countries  where  it  was  so  extensively  used.  The  story  of  this 
development  is  extremely  interesting,  as  not  only  all  the  artists,  but 
almost  all  the  literary  men  of  the  day  were  concerned  in  it.  The  pub- 
lisher has  be«n  fortunate  in  securing,  by  special  arrangement  with  the 
French  Government,  a  selection  of  special  reproductions  oi  the  wonder- 
ful series  of  prints  which  were  shown  at  the  Champ  de  Mars  on  the 
occasion  of  the  Centenary  Exhibition.  While  the  collaboration  and 
assistance  of  the  most  famous  contemporary  lithographers,  artists,  and 
printers  has  been    assured,    a  number  of  original  unpublished  lilho- 


Mr.  T.  Fisher  Unwinds  Announcements. 


graphs  will  be  included,  as  well  as  a  complete  scries  of  reproductions  of 
the  most  famous  ones  of  the  past.  The  book  will  be  of  the  same  size 
and  style  as  Mr.  Peiinell's  "Pen  Drawing,"  and  should  be  as  exhaus- 
tive a  record  of  the  lithograpiiic  work  of  the  cent«ry  as  that  volume  is 
of  the  illustration  in  pen  and  ink. 


THE  WORKS  OF  CHARLES  KEENE. 

With  Introduction  and  Notes  by  Joseph  Pennell,  and 
numerous  Pictures  illustrative  of  the  Artist's  method 
and  vein  of  humour.  [Autumn,  1897. 

This  is  the  first  attempt  at  a  complete  presentment  of  the  art  work  of 
Charles  Keene.  It  is  curious  that,  though  an  excellent  life  of  this  great 
artist  has  been  written,  scarely  any  effort  has  been  made  to  collect  or 
discuss  his  drawings  upon  which  his  fame  rests.  Mr.  Pennell  has 
been  fortunate  in  securing  the  assistance  of  Messrs.  Bradbury  & 
Agnew,  the  owners  of  the  engravings  for  Punch,  Once  a  Week,  and 
other  publications,  and  they  have  loaned  the  original  wood  blocks, 
which  have  never  yet  been  printed  from.  He  has  also  been  aided 
greatly  by  the  artist's  brother,  Mr.  Henry  Keene,  who  has  placed,  as 
executor,  all  the  remaining  unpublished  works  of  Keene  at  Mr. 
&enneU's  disposal.  And  the  collections  owned  by  the  British  and 
South  Kensington  Museums  and  many  private  collections  will  be  drawn 
upon.  It  is  certain  that  Charles  Keene's  work  in  Punch  and  Once  a 
Week,  from  the  preliminary  sketch  to  the  finished  wood-engraving,  will 
be  presented  as  it  never  has  been  before.  Not  only  this,  but  examples 
of  his  almost  unknown  etchings,  colour  prints,  charcoal  drawings,  past 
studies,  and  above  all,  his  unrivalled  designs,  in  pen  and  ink,  which 
have  never  been  published  and  never  even  seen,  wiJJ  be  presented  in  a 
fashion  that  will  not  only  appeal  to  those  who  now  love  Keene,  but 
will  vastly  widen  that  circle.  The  book  will  be  illustrated  with  many 
portraits  hitherto  unpublished,  and  will  contain  an  Introduction  and 
copious  notes  on  Keene's  technical  methods  by  Mr.  PenncU,  who  is 
perfectly  qualified  and  fitted  to  undertake  such  a  task. 


PIONEER     WORK     IN     THE     ALPS     OF 
NEW  ZEALAND. 

By  Arthur  P.  Harper.  With  40  Illustrations  and 
Maps.  Demy  8vo.,  cloth,  21s.  net.  Also,  an  Edition 
dc  Luxe  printed  on  Japan  paper,  limited  to  20  copies, 
price  £5  5s.  net. 

Mr.  Harper  did  a  great  deal  of  useful  work  in  exploration  and  map- 
making  before  the  virgin  peaks  of  New  Zealand  had  been  climbed.  His 
pioneering  experiences  ar-e  of  much  interest  and  value,  involving  as 
they  do  observations  and  notes  which  could  not  be  made  by  explorers, 
who  perform  their  feats  in  a  brilliant  hurry. 


A  Preliminary  List  of 


ON  THE  NILE  WITH  A  CAMERA. 

By  Anthony  Wilkin,  With  in  Collotype  and  other 
Illustrations  from  Photographs  by  the  Author.  Demy 
8vo.,  cloth,  2IS. 

The  author  had  the  good  fortuue  to  be  on  the  Nfle  shortly  before  the 
commencement  of  the  late  campaign,  and  to  obtain  a  large  number  of 
photographs,  some  of  which  give  a  fair  idea  of  the  scenery  and  general 
aspect  of  the  country.  Although  the  majority  of  the  remainder  are 
devoted  to  the  remains  of  ancient  Ejjypt,  and  may  be  found  useful  in 
illustrating  the  somewhat  arid  pages  of  the  guide-books,  there  are  still 
he  hopes,  more  than  a  mere  leavening  whose  subjects  are  sufficiently 
unfamiliar  to  warrant  their  reproduction  on  other  than  strictly  artistic 
grounds.  Throughout,  his  object  has  been  to  interest  and,  so  to  speak, 
to  advertise  the  peculiar  charms  of  the  landscape,  the  romance  of  the 
monuments,  and  the  peculiar  fascination  of  the  modern  Egyptian 
character. 


THE    PRINTERS   OF    BASLE: 

Being  the  Autobiographies  of  Thomas  and  Felix 
Platter.  Edited  by  C.  W.  Heckethorne.  Folio, 
Illustrated,  Parchment  Gilt,  2is.  net.       \_Sprin^,  1897. 

This  is  a  very  interesting  br»ok,  describing  the  life  of  two  Swiss  scholars 
of  the  sixteenth  century — lather  and  son.  We  see  clearly  from  its 
pages  the  general  state  of  the  Continent,  and  the  struggle  for  religious 
liberty  which  was  then  going  on  more  or  less  all  over  Germany  and 
Switzerland.  It  was  the  age  of  Zwingli  and  Calvin,  and  the  diaries  of  the 
two  Platters  are  invaluable  historical  documents,  and  do  for  1540.  in  a 
small  way,  what  Pepys'  does  for  England  of  1670. 


THE   INNER   LIFE   OF    THE   HOUSE   OF 

COMMONS, 

Selected  from  the  writings  of  William  White,  with  a 
Prefatory  Note  by  his  Son,  and  an  Introduction  by 
Justin  McCarthy,  M.P.  Two  vols.,  demy  8vo.,  cloth, 
i6s. 

The  late  Mr.  William  White  was,  for  many  years,  doorkeeper  of  the 
House  of  Commons,  and  in  this  capacity  gained  a  unique  knowledge  of 
the  parliamentary  life  of  his  day.  He  witnessed  the  early  skirmishes 
between  Mr.  Disraeli  and  Mr  Gladstone,  and  sketched  many  a  word- 
portrait,  none  the  less  vivid  for  being  un-acadcmical,  for  the  Illustrated 
Times,  from  whose  p»ges  these  extracts  are  mainly  derived.  From 
them  it  will  be  gathered  that  Mr.  White  was  the  pioneer  of  the  modern 
"  descrintive  re^wting  "  which  obtains  so  largely  nowadays. 


Mr.  T.  Fisher  Unw7n''$  Announcements. 


TWELVE  BAD  W^OMEN  : 

A  Companion  Volume  to  "  Twelve  Bad  Men."  Edited 
by  Arthur  Vincent.  Illustrated.  Demy  8vo.,  cloth 
i6s.  '  * 

It  has  not  been  necessary  to  go  further  afield  than  the  British  Isles 
to  find  members  of  the  gentle  sex  worthy  to  rank  as  counterparts  to 
the  Twelve  Bad  Men,  and  these  pages  will  be  found  to  show  that  the 
"badness"  of  Englishwomen  is  not  so  limited  in  kind  as  popular 
phraseology  has  elected  to  make  it  seem.  The  charaders  named  have 
been  selected  as  types  of  various  forms  of  vice  as  developed  in  the 
feminine  heart  ;  and  if  all  the  deadly  sins  are  not  represented  it  is 
believed  that  material  is  here  afforded  for  a  revised  edition  fwith 
additions)  of  the  accepted  Ust. 

This  volume  is  made  up  as  follows :— (i)  Alice  PeSrers,  the  rapacious 
paramour  of  Edward  III. ;  (2)  Alice  Arden,  Shakespeare's  chosen  type 
Df  a  bad  woman  ;  (3)  Mary  Frith,  "Moll  Cutpurse" ;  (4)  the  Countess 
j>f  Somerset,  Sir  Thomas  Overbury's  murderess  ;  (5)  Barbara  Duchess 
jf  Cleveland  ;  (6)  Mary  Young,  "Jenny  Diver  "  ;  (7)  Teresia  Constantia 
Phillips,  Walpole's  "Con  Phillips";  (8)  Miss  Chudleigh ;  (9)  Mrs 
Brownrigg,  the  cruellest  of  women  ;  (10)  Elizabeth  Canning,  impostor  • 
,11)  Mary  Bateman,  "The  Yorkshire  Witch  "  ;  (12)  Mary  Anne  Clarke 
the  baleful  genius  of  "  the  brave  old  Duke  of  York." 

BARDS  OF  THE  GAEL  AND  GALL  : 

A  Volume  of  Verse,  collected  and  edited  by  Dr. 
George  Sigerson.  With  Photogravure  Portrait  of 
the  blind  Irish  Bard,  Carolan.     Cloth,  los.  6d. 

All  lovers  of  Irish  poetry  will  welcome  this  volume.  It  contains 
much  that  will  be  new  to  the  general  reader,  and  nothing  that  is  not 
thoroughly  representative.  It  is  well  to  say  that,  as  absolute  appro- 
priateness of  selection  is  apt  not  to  be  a  conspicuous  quality  ia 
so-called  "Lyras." 

THE  WELSH  PEOPLE  : 

The  Origin,  Language,  History,  and  Present  Character- 
istics, chiefly  extracted  from  the  Report  of  the  Royal 
Commission  on  Land  in  Wales  and  Monmouthshire. 
EJited,  with  Notes  and  Additions,  by  John  Rhys, 
Principal  of  Jesus  College,  and  Professor  of  Celtic 
in  the  University  of  Oxford,  and  David  Brynmor 
Jones,  Q.C.,  M.P.,  two  of  Her  Majesty's  Com- 
missioners.    Demy  8vo.,  cloth,  7s.  6d. 

CONTBMTS  -.—Preface— Introduction— The  Race— The  Language- 
Early  History— The  Welsh  Laws— The  Conquests— Statute  of  Rhuddlan 
—The  Retallions — Statutes  by  Henry  VIH.— Appendix— Sources  of 
Welsh  History— List  of  Principal  Works  on  Wales. 


A  Preliminary  List  of 


THE  NATIONAL  COOK-BOOK. 

By  Marion  Harland  and  Christine  Terhune  Her- 
RiCK.     Large  crown  8vo.,  cloth,  7s.  6d. 

This  work  has  been  in  preparation  during  a  period  of  seven  years, 
and  contains  1,000  recipes  carefully  prepared  in  the  light  of  the  latest 
methods  of  cooking  and  serving.  In  addition  to  the  value  and  interest 
the  volume  possesses  as  the  joint  work  of  two  recognised  authorities 
on  domestic  economy,  the  book  is  unique  in  that  it  includes  dishes  of 
various  nations. 


/iDastetB  ot  /nbeblctne* 

Edited  by  Ernest  Hart,  M.D.,  Editor  of  The  British 
Medical  Journal.  Large  crown  8vo.,  cloth,  3s.  6d. 
each. 

Vol.  I.     JOHN  HUNTER. 

By  Stephen  Paget.     Introduction  by  Sir 
James  Paget. 

This  series  of  biographies  of  eminent  masters  of  medicine  and 
surgery  will  include  such  men  as  Hunter  (by  Mr.  Stephen  Paget,  with 
an  introduction  by  Sir  James  Paget),  Harvey,  Mead,  and  Redcliffe 
(by  Professor  Clifford  Allbut),  Brodie,  Holmes,  Jenner,  Pasteur,  Cooper 
Liston,  Abernethy,  Helmholtz. 


CRAIKTREES. 

By  Watson  Dyke.    Q-own  8vo.,  cloth,  6s. 

"Craiktrees"  is  a  very  agreeable  story  of  Yorkshire  rustic  life.  The 
peccadillo  of  a  miser — to  give  it  no  worse  name— is  the  occasion  of  the 
hero  of  the  piece  proving  the  stuff  of  which  he  is  made.  His  court- 
ship makes  a  pretty  idyll.  You  may  look  th;s  gift  horse  in  the  mouth 
quite  fearlessly,  and  it  will  leave  a  pleasant  taste  in  yours. 


TOURGUENEFF  AND   HIS   FRENCH 

CIRCLE : 

A  Series  of  Letters  to  Flaubert,  George  Sand,  Emile 
Zola,  Guy  de  Maupussant,  Gambetta,  and  others. 
Edited  by  H.  Halperine-Kaminsky,  Crown  8vo., 
cloth,  7s.  6d.  {^Autumn,  1897. 

These  lettres  inedites  have  excited  so  much  interest  during  their 
appearance  in  Cosmcpolis  tliat  a  bare    word  of  introduction  should 


Mr.  T.  Fisher  Unimti's  Announceifnents. 

snffice.  TourquSneff  collected  about  him  in  the  course  of  his  life  in 
Paris  a  number  of  friends  from  the  most  distinjjuished  literati  in 
France,  The  specimens  given  in  this  book  of  a  ten  years'  corres- 
pondence (1863-73)  iUuslrates  Tourgueneff  the  man  in  an  attraet^e 
light.  Interesting  pen-portraits  aboun'd  in  these  pages,  which,  indeed, 
have  attracted  the  attention  of  the  Tsar. 


TRAVELLING  NOTES  IN  SOUTHERN 
FRANCE. 

By  HiPPOLiTE  Adolphe  Taine.  Being  the  Authorised 
Translation  of  **  Garnets  de  Voyage."  Crown  8vo., 
cloth,  7s.  6d. 

This  posthumous  work  is  a  record  of  Impressions  received  by  the 
author  while  journcfying  in  ProVence  examining  schools  in  the  course 
of  1863-5.  There  are  fifty  notes,  comprising  elegant  word-pictures  of 
Donai,  Rennes,  Bordeaux,  Toulouse,  Marseilles,  Lyons,  Strasbourg, 
Amiens,  Nancy,  Reims,  Aries,  &c.  Taine  studied  faces  as  well  as 
places,  and  the  book  shows  the  keen  observation  of  a  refined  mind. 
In  some  sense  it  is  a  companion  volume  to  the  "  Voyage  aux  Pyrenees." 
The  translation  is  published  with  the  authority  of  Mme.  Taine. 


A  GREAT  LIE. 

By  Wilfrid  Hugh  Chesson,  Author  of  "  Name  this 
Child."    Crown  8vo.,  cloth,  6s. 

This  is  a  story  of  "  the  deformed  transformed."  All  liars  should  read 
it.  It  inculcates  modesty  ;  since  most  lies  look  feeble  beside  the 
"  great  lie."  Clergymen  should  also  read  it,  because  the  person  who 
lived  the  "great  lie"  was  so  uncomfortable  that  the  moral  of  his  life 
is  beyond  dispute.  The  writer  has  a  fancy  for  phrase-making  and 
love-making.  He  has  not  been  blind  to  the  merits  of  the  great  lie, 
which  will  occasionally  be  found  amusing.  His  local  colour  is  of  the 
sea.  His  letters  of  introduction — the  good  opinions  of  the  Press — 
are  given  away  with  the  book. 


THE  SCHOOL  FOR  SAINTS  : 

Part  of  the  History  of  the  Right  Honourable  Robert 
Orange,  M.P.  By  John  Oliver  Hobbes,  Author  of 
"The  Herb  Moon,"  "The  Sinner's  Comedy,"  &c. 
Cloth,  gilt  top,  6s.  [Autumn,  1897. 

This  novel  is,  in  part,  a  romance  of"  France,  a  kind  of  modern 
version  of  "  Amadis  de  Gaul,"  or  rather,  an  application  of  the  spirit  of 
that  famous  book  of  chivalry  to  modern  life.  It  is  full  of  the  blended 
pathos  and  irony  which'characterise  the  author's  writings. 


A  Preliminary  List  of 


Ube  CrtmlnolOGP  Series— a^^«^  Volume, 

JUVENILE  OFFENDERS. 

By  William  Douglas  Morrison.    Large  crown 
8vo.,  cloth,  6s. 


A  VILLAGE  POLITICIAN  : 

The  Life  Story  of  John  Buckley.   Edited  by  J.  C.  Buck- 
master.    With  an  Introduction  by  the  Right  Hon, 
A.  J.  MuNDELLA,  M.P.     Crown  8vo.,  cloth,  6s. 
This  is  a  volume  containing  the  interesting  reminiscences  of  a  lead- 
ing pioneer  of  the  Free  Trade  movement.      It  brings  once  more  to  the 
mind  of  the  reader  the  thrilling  times  when  the  repeal  of  the  corn  laws 
was  still  unaccomplished. 

GLIMPSES  INTO  PLANT  LIFE. 

By  Mrs,  Brightwen,  Author  of  "  Wild  Nature  Won 
by  Kindness,"  &c.    Illustrated.    Cloth,  3s.  6d. 


Builders  ot  (Breater  :fi3dtatm 

Edited  by  H.  F.  Wilson,  formerly  Fellow  of  Trinity 
College,  Cambridge.  With  photogravure  frontispiece. 
A  Set  of  12  volumes,  large  crown  8vo.,  cloth,  5s.  each. 

VoL  I.     SIR  W^ALTER  RALEIGH. 

By  Martin  A.  S.  Hume,  Author  of  "The  Court- 
ships of  Queen  Elizabeth,"  "The  Year  After 
the  Armada,"  &c. 


ZhC  story  of  tbe  1Rat!0n6»— A^^w  Volumes. 

Illustrated,  and  with  Maps  and  Indexes,  crown  8vo,, 
cloth,  5s,  each. 

CANADA. 

By  J.  G.  BouRiNOT,  C.M.G.,  LL.D.,  Lit.  D.,  Clerk 
of  the  Canadian  House  of  Commons,  Honorary 
Secretary  and  ex- President  of  the  Royal  Society 
of  Canada,  &c.  Dedicated  to  the  Countess  of 
Aberdeen. 

In  this  book,  written  by  an  English  Canadian  whose  constitutional 
and  historical  works  have  won  him  much  distinction,  we  have  one  of 


Alt,  T.  Fisher  Unwinds  Announcements. 

the  most  interesting  volumes  that  have  yet  appeared  on  the  Dominion 
of  Canada.  Like  the  eminent  American  historian,  Francis  Parkman, 
Dr.  Bourinot  has  given  special  prominence  to  the  exceedingly  pictur- 
esque days  of  the  French  retjime  (1604-1760),  and  his  narrative,  from 
the  beginning  to  the  end,  reads  like  a  romance,  though  in  no  sense  has 
he  sacrificed  historical  truth  tc  mere  graphic  effect.  The  history  of  the 
years  of  English  dominion  is  more  or  less  a  record  of  the  political  and 
constitutional  struggles  of  communities  isolated  from  each  other  until 
1867  ;  but  the  author  has  also  here  invested  his  narrative  with  interest 
by  giving  most  attention  to  the  epoch-making  events,  and  to  tracing 
step  by  step  the  development  of  a  Confederation  which  now  extends 
from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Pacific  Ocean,  and  has  already  won  a  place 
among  the  nations.  The  illustrations  have  been  selected  with  much 
care,  and  add  much  to  the  vividness  of  the  story.  The  portraits  of  the 
makers  of  Canada  are  of  special  value  to  the  students  of  the  history  of 
a  great  English  dependency. 

HER  EXCELLENCY  THE  COUNTESS  OF  ABERDEEN  says:— 
"  From  what  I  have  seen  of  the  book  I  am  sure  that  it  is  just  what 
was  wanted  to  make  both  Canadians  themselves  and  people  at  home 
realise  what  the  history  of  Canada  means." 

GILBERT  PARKER,  author  of  "  The  Seats  of  the  Mighty,"  says  :— 
"  Dr.  Bourinot's  book  is  the  real  thing.  It  reads  like  roniance  and 
tastes  like  the  good  apple  of  truth.  I  have  read  it,  and  re-read  portions 
of  it,  carefully  and  gladly,  and  too  much  cannot  be  said  in  its  favour." 

BRITISH  INDIA. 

By  R.W.  Frazer,  LL.B. 

Every  effort  has  been  made  to  include  in  this  volume  of  the  "Story 
of  the  Nations  "  series  the  results  of  the  recent  researches  in  Indian 
history.  The  course  of  ancient  commerce  between  the  East  and  West, 
the  rise  and  fall  of  the  Portuguese  settlements  in  India,  the  accounts 
of  the  early  English  travellers,  and  details  of  the  first  voyages,  are 
plainly  set  forth.  A  description  is  given  of  the  internal  state  of  India 
towards  the  close  of  the  seventeenth  century,  and  the  causes  detailed 
which  made  the  extension  of  British  dominion  inevitable.  Throughout 
the  story  the  main  facts  which  led  to  the  extension  of  territorial 
possession  are  dwelt  on,  and  the  result  of  each  step  forward  traced. 
The  history  includes  the  most  recent  events,  and  an  account  is  given 
of  the  moral  and  material  progress  of  the  people  under  British  rule. 

MODERN  FRANCE. 

By  Andre  Le  Bon,  Member  of  the   House  of 
Deputies,  Minister  for  Trade  and  Industry. 

ATTo^T^T*  ISpring,  1897. 

AUSTRIA. 

By  Sydney  Whitman,  M.A.       [Autumn,  1897. 

THE  FRANKS. 

By  Lewis  Sergeant,  M.A.  [Autimtn,  1897 


A  Pfeltminaty  List  oj 


THE  BURDEN  OF  LIFE. 

Essays  by  the  late  J.  Hain  Friswell,  Author  of  "  The 
Gentle  Life,"  &c.  Edited,  with  a  Memoir,  by  his 
Daughter,  Laura  Hain  Friswell.  Crown  8vo., 
cloth,  3s.6d. 

The  essays  that  appeared  in  the  Family  Herald,  during  Mr.  Hain 
Friswell's  editorship,  were  remarkable  both  for  literary  acumen  and 
common  sense.  They  were  no  mere  pot-pourris  of  quotation  and 
anecdote.  This  posthumous  collection  is  on  a  par  with  that  which, 
under  the  title  of  "This  Wicked  World,"  had  marked  success  in  1892, 
and  the  more  famous  "Gentle  Life"  series.  The  opinions  of  the 
author  of  "The  Gentle  Life"  are  well  known.  He  was  a  prolific 
writer,  a  true  scholar,  and  an  earnest  and  kindly  man.  As  a  satirist, 
novelist,  and  essayist  he  was  popular,  "  and  deservedly  praised  for  his 
rare  faculty  in  expressing  his  thoughts  in  good  sound  English."  In 
the  fortlicoming  book  an  attempt  will  be  made  to  give  an  account  of 
bis  early  life,  education,  and  determinatien  to  become  an  author.  It 
will  show  his  strong  religious  faith,  his  indefatigable  industry  in  many 
things  as  well  as  in  hterature,  his  love  for  the  working-classes,  whose 
interests  he  had  ever  at  heart,  and  of  whose  edacation  and  advance- 
ment he  never  lost  sight. 


IVAN  ALEXANDROVITCH. 

By  Andree  Hope  (Mrs.  Harvey,  of  Ickwell-Bury). 
Dedicated  to  the  Right  Hon.  W.  E.  Gladstone, 
Crown  8vo.,  cloth,  3s.  6d. 

Ivan  Ivanovitch  is  a  Russo-Parisian  story  of  no  little  interest. 
Conceived  on  the  old  romantic  lin»s  the  love  element  in  it  is  strong 
and  the  pathos  undeniable.  The  Siberian  local  colour  is  clearly 
authentic  ;  it  is  certainly  vivid. 


THOSE  DREADFUL  TWINS  :    Middy  and 
Bosun. 

By  Themselves.  Illustrated.    Crown  8vo.,  cloth,  3s.  6d. 

Everybody  who  isn't  responsible  for  their  not  becoming  conceited 
will  fall  in  love  with  the  "  Dreadful  Twins."  This  is  a  true  book— a 
true  history  of  boyish  frolic  and  escapade.  The  twins  may  be  met  to- 
day in  the  Kensington  Round  Pond.  To-morrow  they  may  be  seen, 
living  like  David  Copperfield  with  Peggotty,  on  board  an  unmantled 
thip.    There  is  much  fun  in  the  book,  and  several  pretty  pictures. 


Mf.  T.  Fisher  Unwinds  Announcements. 


THE  TENTH  MUSE  : 

A  Satire.    By    Herbert    Flowerdew,     Fcap.    8vo., 
cloth,  2s.  6d. 

"  The  Tenth  Muse  "  is  an  account  of  a  strange  race  much  addicted  to 
the  "  mode  Germanorum."  It  is  cast  in  the  style  of  Herodotus,  and  is 
a  satire.  The  cat,  however,  keeps  gravely  enough  in  the  bag,  and  Mrs. 
Grundy  and  other  notable  persons  may  read  about  themselves  with 
composure.  It  is,  however,  none  the  less  witty  and  trenchant  for  being 
gentlemanly  and  self-contained, 


SUN  AND  MIST  : 

Poems.    By  E.  St.  G.  Betts.     Fcap.  8vo,  cloth,  3s.  6d. 
net. 

Mr.  Betts  is  a  poet  :  he  has  the  great  calm  of  the  Wordsworthian 
mood.  Lovers  of  Nature  will  reciprocate  Mr.  Betts'  mellifluous  lines 
with  adequate  and  ungrudging  praise. 


Zbc  Kb\?enture  Series* 

Popular  Re-issue.  Each  large  8vo.,  fully  illustrated,  in 
two  styles  of  binding,  viz.,  dacorative  cover,  cut 
edges,  and  plain  library  style,  uncut  edges,  price 
3s.  6d.  per  vol. 

ADVENTURES  of  a  YOUNGER  SON. 

By  Edward  John  Trelawny.  Introduction  by 
Edward  Garnett. 

THE  LOG  OF  A  JACK  TAR  ; 

Or,  The  Life  of  James  Choyce,  Master  Mariner. 
Now  first  published.  —  With  "O'BRIEN'S 
CAPTIVITY  IN  FRANCE."  Edited  by  the 
late  Commander   V.  Lovett  Cameron. 

Other  Volumes  will  follow. 


BRER  MORTAL. 

By  Ben  Marlas.    Six  full-page  Illustrations  by  Mark 
Zangwill.    Crown  8vo.,  cloth,  5s. 

"  Brer  Mortal  *•  is  an  allegory  of  human  life.    A  great  air  of  remote- 
ness and  stcangeness  and  mystery  hangs  about   .t,  but  many  things 


A  Preliminary  List  of 


sospieiously  like  satire  give  a  clue  to  the  nature  of  the  whole.  A  father 
is  supposed  to  narrate  the  history  of  Brer  Mortal  to  his  inquisitive  son, 
who  is  not  old  enough  to  learn  all  the  fortunate  things  that  happened 
in  the  Dark  Ages.  Mr.  Mark  Zangwill  has  supplied  some  striking 
pictures  in  accordance  with  the  author's  suggestion  that  "  a  pure  de- 
votion to  his  handmaid  the  humble  cliche  may  haply  avail  much." 


TALES  OF  AN  ENGINEER  : 

Being  Fact  and  Fancies  of  Railway  Life.    By  Kendal 
Roy.    With  Frontispiece.     Crown  8vo,,  cloth,  2s.  6d. 

This  book  is  made  up  of  a  series  of  railway  sketches,  which  should 
prove  of  intense  interest  to  engineers  of  all  ages  throughout  England. 
An  added  interest  to  the  book  is  the  fact  that  the  writer  has  had  practi- 
cal experience  of  what  he  describes,  and  in  many  cases  the  stories 
are  founded  upon  fact.  The  book  abounds  in  pathos  and  in  rare 
humour,  and  all  readers  will  allow  that  the  author  has  been  most 
successful  in  reproducing  the  joys  and  the  sorrows  of  engineering  life. 


Ube  Cbtlbren*5  StUOy.— iV^w  Volumes. 

Long  8vo.,  cloth,  gilt  top,  with  Photogravure  Frontis- 
piece, price  2s,  6d.  each. 

5.  OLD  TALES  FROM  GREECE. 

By  Alice  Zimmern. 

6.  FRANCE. 

By  Mary  Rowsell. 

7.  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

By  Minna  Smith. 


ITbe  pscuDon^m  Xtbtar^,— a^^  Volume. 

Paper  covers,  is.  6d. ;  cloth,  2s. 

ANTHONY  JASPER. 

By  Ben  Bolt. 

a  story  dealing  with  the  West  Country  smugglers  at  the  beginning 
of  the  century.  A  slight  love  story  runs  through  the  tale,  in  which  the 
chief  of  the  traders— a  gentleman  with  a  taste  for  adventure,  and  a 
dragoon  captain — sent  down  to  help  in  the  suppression  of  the  illicit 
trading,  are  rivals  for  a  lady's  hand.  There  is  given  a  fair  presentation 
of  som«  of  the  ways  and  methods  of  the  free  traders  of  the  West 
Co«ntrv.  who,  it  will  be  remembered,  were  a  very  hardy  race  of  men  . 


Mr.  T.  Fishet  Unwinds  Announcements. 


and  interesting  descriptions  of  the  meetings  of  the  smugglers  and 
revenue  men,  in  one  of  which  a  great  fight  occurs,  after  which  the 
chief  of  tlie  traders  has  to  flee  the  country.  The  scene  of  the  story  lies 
alon;:*  the  stretch  of  coast  between  Plymouth  Sound  and  Fowey — 
Whitsand  Bay,  which  at  one  time  was  a  favourit*  resort  of  the 
smugglers  when  "running"  contraband  goods. 


Xtttle  l^OVClS,— New  Volumes. 

Demy  8vo.,  printed  in  bold  type,  paper  covers.  6d.  each  ; 
cloth,  IS.  each. 

A  SLIGHT  INDISCRETION. 

By  Edward  Cartwright. 

A  COMEDY  OF  THREE. 

By  Newton  Sanders. 

PASSPORTS. 

By  I.  J.  Armstsono. 

A  NOBLE  HAUL. 

By  W.  Clark  Russell. 

ON  THE  GOGMAGOOS. 

By  Alice  Dumillo. 


TTbe  Xtbtar^  ot  Xttetat^  Iblstot^^ 

There  is  for  orery  nation  a  history,  which  does  not  respond  to  the 
trumpet-call  of  battle,  which  does  not  limit  its  interest  to  the  conflict  of 
dynasties.  This— the  history  of  intellectual  growth  and  artistic' 
achievement — if  less  romantic  than  the  popular  panorama  of  kings  and 
queens,  finds  its  material  in  imperishable  masterpieces,  and  reveals  to 
the  student  something  at  once  more  vital  and  more  picturesque  than 
the  quarrels  of  rival  parliaments.  Nor  is  it  in  any  sense  unscientific  to 
shift  the  point  of  view  from  politics  to  literature.  It  is  but  a  fashion  of 
history  which  insists  that  a  nation  lives  only  for  her  "  arriors— a  fashion 
which  might  long  since  have  been  ousted  by  the  commonplace  reflection 
that  in  history's  despite  the  poets  are  the  true  masters  of  the  earth.  If 
all  record  of  a  nation's  progress  were  blotted  oiit,  and  its  literatui  e  were 
yet  lett  us,  might  we  not  recover  therefrom  the  outHnes  of  the  lost 
history  ? 

It  is.  then,  with  the  literature  of  nations  that  the  present  series  is 
concerned. 


A  Pteliminary  List  of 


Each  volume  will  be  entrusted  to  a  distinguished  scholar,  and  the 
aid  of  foreign  men  of  letters  will  be  invited  whenever  the  perfection 
of  the  series  demands  it. 

The  following  is  but  an  imperfect  list  of  volumes  in  contemplation  >— 

INDIA. 

By  R.  W.  Frazer.,  LL.B 

FRANCE. 

By  Marcel  Schwob. 

MODERN  RUSSIA. 

By  Constance  and  Edward  Garnett. 

IRELAND. 

By  Douglas  Hyde,  LL.D. 

JEVTISH  LIFE  in  the  MIDDLE  AGES. 

By  Israel  Abrahams,  M.A. 


LIFE  OF  SIR  HENRY  PARKES,  G.C.M.G. 

By  Charles  E.  Lyne,  formerly  Editor  of  The  Sydney 
Morning  Herald,  Author  of  **  Industries  of  New 
South  Wales,"  "New  Guinea,"  &c.  Demy  8vo., 
cloth,  i6s.  

A  POT  OF  HONEY. 

By  Susan  Christian,  Author  of  "  Silhouettes."  Cloth, 
35.  6d. 

Miss  Christian's  charm  is  so  much  the  result  of  a  fine  pensiveness  and 
sobriety  in  her  own  temperament  that  her  book  stands  outside  class 
and  category.  It  is  a  story  of  lives  that  somehow  missed  in  aim  or  in 
execution.  If  they  were  heroic,  it  was  with  a  futile  heroism,  and  if 
they  succeeded  in  love,  they  were  a  little  late.  There  is  no  cheapness 
here,  nothing  to  be  called  new-womanish  or  Jin  de  siicle.  The 
sympathy  is  tender,  the  irony  true. 


LETTERS      OF      DANTE      GABRIEL 
ROSSETTI,    1854-1870. 

Edited  by  G.  Birkbeck  Hill,  Illustrated.  Large  crown 
8vo.,  cloth,  128, 


Mr,  T.  Fisher  Unwinds  Announcements. 

» — ■ _  — ~~—' 

THE  TWIT.IGHT  REEF, 

And   other  Stories.     By   H.   C.   McIlwaine.      Crown 
8vo.,  doth,  3s.  6d. 


COMMUNISM    IN    MIDDLE    EUROPE    in 

the  Time  of  the  Reformation. 

By  Karl  Kautsky,  Editor  of  Die  Neue  Zeit,  Author 
of  •'  The  Growth  of  Population  and  Social  Progress," 
"From  Plato  to  the  Anabaptists,"  &c.  Translated 
from  the  German  by  J.  L.  and  E.  J.  Mulliken. 
Cloth,  i6s. 


PACIFIC  TALES. 

By  Louis  Becke,  Author  of  "By  Reef  and  Palm,"  &c. 
With  Frontispiece  Portrait  of  the  Author,  and  several 
Illustrations.    Crown  8vo.,  green  cloth,  gilt  top,  6s. 


TIME  SHADOW  CHRIST  : 

An    Introduction    to    Christ     Himself.      By    Gerald 
Stanley  Lee.    Foolscap  8vo.,  paper  boards,  2s,  6d. 


QUOTATIONS  FOR  OCCASIONS. 

Compiled    by   Katherine  B.   Wood,      Crown  8vo., 
cloth,  3s.  6d. 


APHROESSA ;  and  Other  Poems. 

By  Geokge  Hortox,  Author  of  "  Constantine."    Fcap. 
8vo.,  cloth,  2s.  6d. 


Mr.  T,  Fisher  Unwinds  Announcements 


SKETCHED  AW^HEEL  IN  FIN  DE  SIECLE 
IBERIA. 

By  Fanny  Bullock  Workman  and  William  Hunter 
Workman,  Authors  of  **  Algerian  Memories." 
Thirty  Illustrations  and  Map.     Crown  8vo.,  cloth,  6s. 


THE  TEMPLE  OF  FOLLY  :    A  Novel. 
By  Paul  Creswick.    Crown  8vo.,  cloth,  6s. 


ST.     MARK'S     INDEBTEDNESS     TO     ST. 
MATTHEVV. 
By  F.  P.  Badham.      Crown  8vo.,  cloth,  3s.  6d. 


MOTHER,  BABY,  AND  NURSERY  : 

A    Manual    for     Mothers.    By    Genevieve    Tucker. 
Crown  8vo.,  cloth,  3s.  6d. 


London  :  T.  FISHFR  UNWIN.  Patepnostet?  Square,  E.C 


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BOSTON  UNIVERSITY 

HD8390E98  BOSS 

The  labour  movement,  with  a  preface 


1    17n    DDEIE    nbE 


FREDERICK  S.PARDEE 
MANAGEMENT  LIBRARY 
BOSTON  UNIVERSITY  LIBRARIES 
595  COMMONWEALTH  AVENUE 
BOSTON,  MA  02215 


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