The Sun.
London, England, 1867-04-22 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

THE ." WESTMINSTER GAZETTE " ON MASTERS AND
WORKMEN.—The relations between employers and
employed—so complex in their character, and
touching on such dangerous grounds----are excit-
ing no inconsiderable anxiety in almost every
country in Europe. For a long time wealth, the
employers of capital, had it all their own way.
Labour, unintelligent, disorcranized, friendless, lay
at the mercy of capital. Immense profits were
realized, and the labouring classes earned out of
the joint results of labour and capital at best but a
scanty subsistence ; too frequently their existence
bordered on a state of starvation. Underfeeding,
ignorance, discontent, overcrowding in wretched
dwellings, immorality—such were the conditions
annexed to the miseries which awaited on labour.
But the Legislature have wisely intervened be-
tween capital 'and its victim. Parliament regu-
lated the hours of labour, and introduced merciful
restrictions as to the age and sex of those em-
ployed.te rame Searching esaernchseingefintqhueieryensnptrryanwg
aus ponall sides ;
h
shocked and
horrified at the state f poverty and moral
de-
gradation
which was discovered among the ola-
bourers in several of the agricultural districts—
among the operatives in most of the mills and
factories—and among the miners of both sexes in
the mining districts. Such an intervention was a
wise and benevolent step on the part of the Legisla-
tu
alsore e
wee Undera ncianother
necessary conditionteinvoke
of
Parliament things
prevent an organized conspiracy against capital.
The trades' unions, which are now becoming a
power in the country, are the results of a greater
intelligence, and of consequent
it
mayto
organization among
the employed, such as enable them to combine
with effect, if they be so minded, aoainst the em-
ployers of labour. The nature and object of these
combinations have been fully investigated by the
Royal Commission of Inquiry. Besides the gene-
ral and praiseworthy aims common to benevolent
societies, these unions have the further object of
eolownogrk at a uniform to these socie-
ties, the price and the amount of labour, and
o
who belong
ulsion, t
rate, and for the stipulated wages. The skilled
t ife
sc,oberycifinege theand men
workman is not allowed by the rules to avail him-
self of his superior skill, nor the strongest man of
his superior strength, to do more work or to earn
more wages than the average amount regulated by
the rules of the society. The trades' unions go
a step further, which is of a still more questionable
character, in limiting the number of apprentices to
be employed in a trade, and in prohibiting the em-
ployment of non-society men. Should employers,
under a pressure of business, seek to accelerate a
work in hand, by calling in additional men or by
overtime, such a demand, as it is only calculated
to promote the interests of the master and not
those of the men, is never accepted, without re-
ferring to the trades' union council; which, in
most cases, is tantamount to a refusal, since no
answer of any kind is given until after the lapse
of a week. Against such a combination employ-
ers are generally powerless. The expedient has
been more than once tried when, in fulfilinent of
the rules of the society, men have struck work,
to seek to supply their place by importation of
foreign workmen. But the trades' unions have
met this move by a counter-movement ; they have
extended and are extending their organization so
as to combine with foreign workmen against the
employers of labour, and in case of strikes to give
each other mutual supp.ort. Such an organization
of the workmen in various trades all over Europe,
by their numbers and by their wealth, when it is
brought to a greater perfection, will be a most
dangerous element introduced into an already dis-
turbed state of society. What began as a defence
of labour against the exorbitant and selfish de-
mands of the capitalist may not impossibly end in
a war against property. Strikes are on the in-
crease both here and in France. The members
of the trades' unions, becoming more and more
keenly alive to the power which their organization
confers, are not slow in provoking contests and in
dictating terms to employers. Hence the irrita-
tion and the suspicions which are springing up
on both sides. In France, and more especially in
Paris, the wvergien to rautero and to receiYing