The Sun.
London, England, 1833-11-02 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF IHE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

Having of late frequently alluded to the for-
mation of Trades' Unions, in the north of
England, for the purpose of regulating the rate
of wages, or directing the employment of manu-
facturing industry, anti having quoted copious ac-
counts of the proceedings of these Unions from
the provincial journals, our readers will be the
better enabled to understand the importance to
he attached to the letter signed " A :Merchant,"
which will be found in another column. Though
its author has sent us his real signature and ad-
dress, he requests that his name may not be re-
vealed ; and his anxiety on this point, which is,
moreover, manifested by subscribing the county,
instead of the town, whence his letter is ad-
dressed, is the best proof of the terror in which
he lives, and of the influence exercised by the
combinations of the workmen over the conduct
of their masters. The extent of these combina-
tions—the completeness of their organization—
the presumed irresistible nature of their autho-
rity—the amount of their pecuniary means, and
the unlimited despotism of their leaders, would
lead us to entertain a very formidable idea of
their danger to the country, were they to con-
tinue long on their present footing, or were
their members not wise enough to see that a
perseverance in unreasonable demands on their
part must ultimately provoke a retaliatory com-
bination on the part of their employers. At
present no individual workmen, or single factory
of workmen, even though willing to continue
their labours, are strong enough, physically or
morally, to disobey the orders, or to resist the
intimidation of the mass. They may join it
with reluctance, but they think that they must
join it ; they look about them for sympathy
among their own class, and find the majority
against them ; they hear the numbers, hopes, and
wrongs of their body exaggerated by their artful
chiefs, who promote at once their own private
interests, and gratify their own personal ambi-
tion, by misleading their fellow workmen ; each
person listens to a command in the name of
" Legion, for they are many," and not being
able to limit the extent of the evil which he may
endure, thinks it better to sacrifice some days of
his wages than to risk his excommunication or
to exiiose his life. Meanwhile the leaders cal-
culate on the want of concert, or the want of
courage, among the masters ; they ascertain the
amount of work which they have to execute
within a particular time, and learn the urgency
of the orders for its accomplishment ; and being
assured that their discharge at such a crisis,
though injurious to themselves, might be more
ruinous to their employers, they reckon on being
able to wring from necessity, at a small risk, what
they could not expect to obtain from justice in
the ordinary course of trade. If they succeed
in any case, their success emboldens them to
proceed, and acquires for them more character
and influence with their followers. They thence
convert the whole labouring population, in parti-
-cular branches of manufactui els, into the blind
instruments of their will or power ; and can stop
an obnoxions factory or ruin a refractory manu-
facturer at their caprice or pleasure. Instances
(we have been assured) have occurred within
the last six months in Leeds, in which, after an
emissary of the Union has been seen to enter
the premises of a manufacturer to order " a halt,"
the whole works stopped in half an hour, as if
by enchantment, and the people retired, express-
ing their regret to their master that they were
obliged to desist from their labour by superior
authority. Such a monstrous tyranny is not to
be endured, and, like other tyrannies, must
work its own ruin, or abridge its own existence,
by the excesses of its own violence. While it
lasts it must destroy all competition for labour—
it must prevent the manufacturer from contend-
ing with foreigners in the sale of his commodity,
by preventing him from reducing the cost of its
production for the foreign market ; it must render
. capital and enterprise totally unavailing against
unreasoning dictation; and it must paralyze all un-
dertakings which depend upon a distant return,by
introducing uncertainty and insecurity into the
management of every manufacturing establish-
ment. How is it possible that a manufacturer
can enter into a contract to supply a certain
amount of goods at a certain price, and by a
certain day, if an unknown and unrecognized
power is allowed to interfere to change his prices,
or to withdraw his workmen, to pass on him a
sentence of excommunication, or to stop his
neighbour's mills, which may be necessary
to aid him in fulfilling his engagements? The
consequences of such a system of combination
and violence will be manifest on the slightest re-
flection. The masters must either combine in
their turn to resist the demands of their work-
men, and to maintain their independent com-
mand over their own resources and establish-
ments, in opposition to the Trades' Unions, or
they must individually yield to their violence,
and hasten to withdraw the wrecks of their for-
tune from the coming storm. In the former case,
they must shut up their factories,—resolve for
some time to live on their capitals,—discharge
every person who has entered a union, and thus
throw immense bodies of men out of employment,
to the risk of the public peace, and the certain
creation ofextensive misery and embarrassment. If
such apparently cruel firmness is continued so
long as to overcome the obstinacy of the work-
men, the vanquished party are not likely to
tabt.in better terms, by having given such striking
proofs at once of their contumacy and of their
weakness. They will, therefore, be more than
ever at the mercy of their masters ; they will
have taught a new lesson of self-protection to a
body of capitalists which, being small, can more
faithfully practise the art, and being wealthy,
can more easily afford to make the temporary
sacrifice of profit which it may require,—and on
future occasions their remonstrances and repre-
sentations will be less regarded, though better
founded than at present. In the latter case
both parties are likely to suffer, but the tempo-
rary victory of the workmen would be an ulti-
mate defeat. The masters whose establishments
are most easily moved, or whose spirit is most
enterprising, will transfer their capital to some
other quarter. Already we have seen more than
one example of this migration in the silk trade,
which, owing to a fixed scale of prices, par-
tially deserted Spitall.ld s for Macclesfield, and
which was subsequently driven by combina-
tions
from Macelesfi9ld to take refuge in i\lan-
chester, where, according to the evidence taken
rn-
now
before the Committee
it flourishes free
Com-
merce, and Shipping, ' on Manufactures, Co
from the fear of unreasonable demands and of
Trades' Unions. If no other locality in Great
Britain offers equal facilities for carrying on the
same manufacture, capital will change its em-
ployment or its country, emigrating to states
where it can enjoy greater security and incur no
danger of ruinous combinations. Such is the
only alternative of those results to which the
Trades' Unions are bringing the situation of their
own members, or the manufacturing capital of,