The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1887-08-06 00:00:00

Eke stotttinib•ge Oberber

SATTMIDA.Y, AUGUST 6,1887.

OUR TRADE SOCIETIES.

SINCE the Board of Trade established a
department for the collection ot particulars
• respecting labour, for the purpose of diffus-
ing information of great value to the work-
ing classes, a good deal of interesting detail
has Fen gat in and tabulated by the Labour
Correspondent, Mr. John Burnett, and those
who have assisted him, and is now available
in orthodox Blue-Book form. Mr. Burnett
is himself a thoroughly representative work-
-- ing-nran, who has wrought at the engineer's
calling, and consequently he is peculiarly
qualified for the task ho has in hand. He
knows his fellow-workers well, and has
always evinced an active desire to improve
them socially and politically; and now that
he holds a Government post, people expect
that his experiences wid make hire capable
of elucidating many dark points respecting
combinations among those engaged in a
particular trade. Naturally the Labour
Correspondent of the new Government
Bureaa is in sympathy with trades unionism,
ii(l he does not attempt in any way to dis-
o-eieo his views. In introducing the statistics
published in the volume just sent out, Mr.
Burnett makes statements respecting the
objects of trades unions and their history
which may be taken as expressing the
opinions of an expert:if kindly commentator.
The report is non-political and free from
party rancour, though it is the work of one
who has for years been identified with ad-
vanced thinkers on economic questions, and
though it is issued by a Conservative Govern-
ment. The figures given help to set forth
t'le facts concerning the doings and Etatus
of eighteen representative trades' societies of
Great Britian, and they have been compiled
with care by Mr. Burnett, in collaboration
with Mr. Giffen, who is a master hand at
statistics, and they certainly give justification
for the existence of the important bodies
with which they have to deal, whethor or
not we follow the reflection Mr. Burnett
makes. The Labour Correspondent claims
that the emancipation which the trade
organisations of Great Britian have achieved
by steady adherence to their governing prin-
ei pies has gone far to make our workers the
most contented industrial community in the
world ; while their systems of thrift and
benefit in.:emerge:icy have not only conferred
direct and important advantages on the
toilers themselves, bat have incidentally
proved useful te employers and to the people
at large, who are interested in the welfare of
i:oth capitalists and labourers. This is eNfr.
Tinvnett's prouonueernent, and his vivr i.
certeinly- supported by the snceinct epitomes
given by Mr. Cliffen. There can he no doubt
however, that I.•rit.des le-liken:in-1 now is very
different from what Trades Unionism wee
ie those dark days when such terrible eri:ne
as the ratteniugoithe Broadheetls tol etile: 8
Inade trade co_nbination a thing of fear in
the land. Brete force was often then made
use of by the ignorant and yet strong httla -
trials to break clown all that 50nn....al to the:r
imperfect judgment preinlicial to their in.
terests, and too frequently the worker was
as much in the, wrong „vitt' tieoni:lai:o:.s
. as his methods of changing thing:: were
tyrannical and futile. He strul übbii nly
agalust tore introduetion of machinery into
ruanufactoriei of every sort, and hated his
new ma,Thanical competitors with a hatred
as robbers of his own and his children's
bread ; but he has since lived to learn filet
steam-and other artificial expanders of the
labour world
.are his friends and not his
enemies. The demand for maohinery has
vastly increased the number of workmen
employed, and the using of tho machines
has found a field of toil for a much larger
army of industrials. Happily what was crude
and unwise has in a largo measure been
put gel from the trades unions.
There is mach loss disposition
to impose impossible and un-
fair conditions upon the emyloyer than there
n 3ed to be; there is a willingness to listen
to tha voice of reason which was once con-
spicious chiefly by its absence ; there is a
tendency to the consideration of the interests
of the whole community, which is plea;Ang
in the extreme. Combination for the purpose
of maintaining a fair field for labour, and to
the end of seeming- provision in a Iversity,
, old age, illnes.s, or industrial depression, are
what form new the chief features of Tiades
Unionism. a-ea to those objects the members
of • the societiesswe in many cases coetribut-
ing :3 and 4- percent of their income. 1 here
is less ceneetnration of strength to the coer-
cion of those who will not, or c,-innot, see
with the Unionists mainly, perhaps, be-
cause those who do not recoaniee the a ivant,
&gee of union are very much fewer pro-
'4aartionately than they were. acre is an
abiiedourneut of the bad policy of detnanding -,„
one steraltard . price for labour of (liffe - ring
value and ef6.61045.,,1n fact Trades' Union-
ism is less "pig-headeiri.49i.t. as when it
meant simply the allience of - etresegati,.,aed
il4-tifiraneo ;*d it is developing into an "",
etitati.m. woitliy to rank with the cornbj-
w.tti
47'7‘
al a4siietleirion. 'Hove 1741 State__
werking now, and how it stantiS-.:is :-
.shown by the Blue-Book to which we have
referred, and the publication of staticties will
. - leiVe the effect, doubtless, of removing some
• • lingering prejudices against our great incites-
' s • - _trial combinations ; and it may be, of effecting
• - •
.ereett further reforms in the bodies theinselees

*-1

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