The Express.
London, England, 1865-01-11 00:00:00

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LONDON, WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 11.

Tar masters compcning the General Builders'
Association have entered upon a course in which
they will need an the support of public opinion if
their efforts are not to end in conspicuous failure.
But so far from this support having been given, it
has been deliberately withheld. As far sews are
aware, every independent journal that has dis-
cussed their proposed "discharge-note," has con-
demned it. It may be hoped that this fact will
lead them to panes and reconsider that measure.
Social topics are not publicly treated now as they
once were. There is on all sides • disposition to
examine impartially,and do justice to the merits of
questions as they arise, 'without regard to class
feelings, and it must strike the members of the
Association as remarkable that their discharge-note
finds no favour even with those who are on princi-
ple most opposed to sliikes, and who, therefore, in
previous disputes have generally taken the side of
the employers. The inclination of the public in
tbese matters is ordinarily determined by
a very simple consideration. We have all
an interest in the steady and uninter-
rupted progress of the industry of the country,
and naturally look with dislike upon whichever
party is t►e first to obstruct its advance. When
the state of the market warrants or requires a re.
adjustment of the terms on which labour is ren-
dered and accepted, we expect to see that adjust-
ment effected by a mutual and easy accommoda-
tion of interests, so that it may appear to be the
work of circumstances and not of arbitrary com-
pulsion. The relations of employer and employed
seem, however, to have pawed out of that siege
of development in which the skilled workman
makes his contract with the employer individually
and without Telerate& to anything but his own pre-
sent convenience. Workmen now look upon the
power of the capitalists as something too gigantic
for them to approach singly and unaided, and
hence associate themselves for mutual support.
Our political economists acknowledge that com-
binations of the employed are in some cases useful :
our politicians speak of strikes as " a reserved
" power," and our laws to acertain extent recognise
their legitimacy. The workmen, having proved
the power of association, are constantly under the
temptation to pervert it, or employ it to exossa, as
they have done in many notorious eases. Looker,-
on at these disputes seldom make sufficient allow-
ance for the feelings of the parties in their respec-
tive positions. The workmen have come to regard
production as a kind of partnership, and wages as
their share in the distribution of the joint product
of labour and capital, and nothing can deter them
from undertaking to examine the equity of the
allotment. But in the great majority of instances
they proceed to this examination without the
qualifications necessary to lead them to • just con-
clusion. Very few workmen, indeed, understand
the value of the moat important element which the
successful employer brings to the work of pro-
duction in his faculty of energetically working a
capital so as to obtain large results at moderate
rates of profits. And this ignorance of the con-
dition of success in enterprise is the most fruitful
cause of unjustifiable strikes. On the other
hand, the capitalist, because labour is • commodity,
snd, like every other commodity, is to be treated
as anch—as he is never tired of repeating—has not
yet acquired the ability to look on with confidence
while its owners discuss its value, and consider
the means of disposing of it at enhanced prices.
This is the great advantage which workmen pro-
pose to themselves by their combinations. They
desire, when tradels rising, to place themselves in
a better position, to participate in the master's in-
creasing profits. Now it is vain and futile to hope
that this method once begun, will be wholly aban-
doned. We are all familiar with the history of
strikes which have proved moat disastrous to the
men. That of the South Staffordshire colliers is
the moot recent instance. But the record of one
strike which, being reasonable in its object& and
well-timed, has proved successful, gives the men
assurance of a power in their hands which is not I
shaken by the fact that unwarrantable and foolish'
strikes have failed. We must expect, therefore,
that the workmen will cling to an expedient the
efficacy of which they have proved. But we
may reasonably hope that in time, as both masters
and men grow familiar with the power of combi-
nation, the knowledge of its force on the one hand,
and of its limits on the other, will operate on both
parties by anticipation, causing the employed to
abstain from preferring unreasonable demands, and
leaving the employer to concede such demands as
are just.

At this point, however, a section of the masters,
represented by the General Builders' Association,
come in, and declare that they are determined to put
an end to combinations amongst the men altogether.
The discharge-note is avowedly brought forward to
enable the masters to make strikes impossible.
This is carrying the matter too far. War is an I
evil, so is a standing army in time of peace.
Nevertheless, a nation which has every reason for
cultivating goodwill would resent a summons to
disarm. •This is the significance of the act of the
General Builders' Association, and we cannot be
surprised that the men resist it with some warmth
of temper. It cannot be denied that the masters
have a right to take this course if they like ; at the
same time it is confessedly an aggravation of the
terms on which they have hitherto stood with the
men. Nor is it correct to state that in taking this
course they are but fighting the men with their own
weapons. This, indeed, seems to be conceded in the
admission that the discharge-note is an " extreme
" measure." It is so because the proscription
which it is intended to enforce is of a personal