The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1885-02-21 00:00:00

Et ,Standrib,ge o,)sserber

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 21st, 18.
_
LABOURLESS LABOURERS.

NATIONS, even as individuals, are to
periods of adversity." The assertion is a
.truism, and though it forms part of a mem-
orable deliverance of Disraeli, spoken at a
period of depression which was mac h keener
than that which is now 1e.,,L4 felt, the s_m-
tence as it stands might b taken as a text
. and starting piint by pelitie..l partisans of
. •
.any. shade of opinion ; or frcm its painfully
patent teaching the independent thinker may
proceed to discuss without prejudice those
questions Nvitich in " hard times" force them-
selves upon the consideration of wig-kers out
of, work a matter of pet sorai I moment.
...No one can ignore, nor-would any wish to
deny, that there is to-day in Britain a con-
siderable amount of distress in many indus-
trial centres, arising from a "slackness " in
the labour market in connection with more
, ,than one branch of trade and its depend-
encies. The depression makes itself felt, in
relative degree, right down the social scale,
beginning with the capitalist and employer,
and ending with the employ 6, while it era-
braces in its distressing effect all whose oc-
cupation it is to minister to the wants of
either class. Those who feel it least are those
. . who, wise when work is plentiful and times
are good, thriftily prepare for a "rainy day."
In this category your average working man
of our time is the least frequent figurer. We
have no pedantic desire to preach philosophy
with cruel coldness to a starving assembly;
bnt hard times have their lessons lessons
which can never be learnt with such force-
fulness as at the moment they arise. It
would be unkind and foolish to relieve dis-
tress without striving at the same time to
provide against its recarrence for the future.
The charitable and the thrifty will deny
themselves nay, are now nobly doing so—
that the shiftless and the unfortunate shall
not suffer want. True charity and self-
- denying generosity—and nowhere are they
found, we joyfully admit, in greater degree
than in the ranks of the more careful work-
ers themselves—should give counsel with
bread to the hungry. The working classes
stKp,. as they claim, of sturdy and independent
..opirit; but they sacrifice all their independ-
eiiee if they themselves neglect to provide
for the future. We have as much right to
__ _

expect them to bring their expenditu-re far

eno- ugh within their- earnings to be able to
-withstand the " slack " periods that will
come now and again as we have to look to
their masters and the tradesfolk whose ex-
istence depends upon the general association
of 'all in industry to live under their incomes.
But they do not. In reality the task is the
same for -all. Still the worker when adver-
sity overtakes him too often has at once to
go to the shopkeeper for credit to enable him
to continue the home food supptY ; when that
useful member of society would have been
in the same breadless position had he not
husbanded his resources more carefully than
the customer whom he is now expected to
Assist. The same argument holds good as
regards the employer. Each maintains a
different place in life; and if master and
shopkeeper in their spheres spent their in-
comes with the same reckless disregard for
the future as do the workers their wages, the
conutry would succumb to starvation during
the very first week of general trade stop-
page. Of course with such subdivisions of
industry as we have a total stoppage of all
trade could not occur; but the argument
would hold just as true as regards any one
separate temporarily paralysed branch. Ours
is an age of amusement and indulgence. The
British working man and his family manage
when work is plentiful to extract quite as
mach of pleasure out of life as any other
class, if not more. As a rule they procure
plenty of good wholesome food day by day,
with an extra liberal table for Sunday, and
are well clad. They pay their rent and at-
tend to all the passing obligations of life, and
then in most cases all that is left of the
weekly wage goes to provide the enjoyments
of the hour. The first week out of work
finis them face to face with want, and de-
pendent on others for the bare necessaries of
existence. Without further illustration and
enlargement we affirm, then, that the first
cause of destitution and distress among the
working classes is their disregard of practi-
cal foresight and preparation against such
ineyitable contingencies as periods of trade
depression. It is illogical and an evasion of
tho issue for them to claim that the capital-
ist has the advantage of them in the struggle
for existence. Were he as thriftless as they
are, he would not only live—more luxuriously
of course, but relatively similar the same
hatid-toomenth life as they do, but quickly
fall from his capitalist position by extra-
+agant imprudence. Want of thrift is at
the root of all the evil. The result would
be precisely the same if Government gave
employment in an artificial manner to all
out of work from whatever cause. Neither
would it be altered if importations were
made more costly by the imposition of duties
bringing their market price up to even twice
that of goods manufactured at home. And
if the British workman were paid as much
again for his toil as he is at present, he would
just as quickly be " hard-up " when work
"fell off" if he did not systametically alter
his views of extstenee so as to inclnde there.
Hi provisior4 for the future. As things are,
English labour is in the mail fairly well
pail for, and it is (pito possible, excepting
in cases of unusual i!l-fortane arising from
aceident and prolong:: 1 illness—and wise co.
operation can evea insure against these
calamities—for working men t ) entrench
theru ;elves behind aF. E-built protecting wall
of preparation in readiness for any probable
attack of industrial depression, Competi-
tion and a free labour market have see ared
the.t much. A system of national works in-
dependent of the laws of supply and demand '
-in-which all willing labour might claim em-
ployment, would certainly tend to reduce
wagos consilerably below the equitable
elandard that now rules them, and so
directly defeat the aims of those who seek
to bring about such a state of things. The
elamororis crowd who have this week been
" demonstrating " in London as nnemployeJ
workmen, and stating their case with more
of threatening than reason, had no logical
proposals to make; and the disorderly scenes
presented will not help the cause of distressed
labour in the least, but rather re-act to
alio:late public sympathy from it. It is for
the workers to address themselves to provide
from are means within their own dispo;al
against less prosperous days, and so prevent
the possibility of the cry of widespread dis-
tress being of such frequent recurrence.
Destitution must be the hard experience
fmnir which they shall bitterly gather the
leirsons of thrif that all unheeded presented
themselves in sunny days of ample employ-
'sent. These are, mayhap, hard unpalatable
assertions, but they are none the less true.
And so long as trade continues to ebb and
flow in waves of demand and depression so:
long will it be incumbent on all dependent:
upon it for livelihood to keep something in
Scir the morrow.