The Sun.
London, England, 1867-02-05 00:00:00

- •
NEWSPAPER
\te
• shillings as daily wages instead • "\ `4l
two ? Is it the humanity of his • W 7 •
The wthholatia.
importunity that adjusts the Alittr
Theat
d country,e
nrateaa
ja ist adjustedoagnedthe r for him_ . 4..
by • ure
supply.with all other descriptions of
is exported
tiesddaebvoroteadd,towthheerpe
it isetsoefadlwl
in precisely
eooriseellsye
capitalsthh
aearrneed:
the same way. To wategheealsaas,
atthheeefni
then, all
finerceomweegrreavtiotagt:t.
mlforeon
anot'her class must get so much lepss,seunnleisshthe
aeoon;s:
increase of wages becomes a deduction from
But profits admit of a very slight reducti
pared with the anregate sum laid out in wages.
Let us suppose that profits are ten per cent.'". pe
annum in England. This whole percentage, if
devoted to rats.ng wages, would increase -them
but very sughtly. Ten per cent. profits on the
sums paid throughout a whole year in wag4-i
would amount to but a very small proportion of
each day's wages. But even the whole ten per cent.
coul«1 not be added to present wages, else ca,pi-
talis:s would be left without any income. Now,
a unionist may here observe that some capitalists
derive an iaeome of teas and hundreds of
thousands from their trade; that these vas::, heornes
would greatly swell the wages paid at present to
their workmen respectively ; and that what is
tire of great incomes, is also true of small ones.
If, then, even half of existing profits were di-
vided amongst labourers, in the shape of increased
wages, all, it might be supposed, would be well
off, and the greatest good of the greatest num-
ber would be attained. The fallacy of this sug-
gestion consists in overlooking the fact that every
penny of the income: of capitalists is at present
devoted to the payment of wages, except the
amount spent in luxurious enjoyment by the
capitalist and his family. If Rothschild and
Gurney, then, have each an income of half-a-million -
a year, and expend on their living merely a tenth
of that sum, it is only that tenth which could he
added to the existing funds devoted by them to the
payment of wages. For in those funds are already
included such portions of ..theiv..inFialo as are in-
tended by them to be added to their capital, and as
such applied by themselves, their agents, or debtors,
to the hiring of labour. Indeed, as no one swallows
his gold in its original state, but first exchanges it for
some commodity or other, every portion of income
appears, on a superficial consideration, to be cast
into the wages fund ; and, in fact, operatives, as a
rule, think that the purchaser of costly fabrics
and other luxuries is their chief benefactor, inas-
much as he circulates his money freely. But,
money thus circulated, would.be much more bene-
ficial to the labouring class if invested as capital,
for a demand for commodities is never a dernP.nd
for labour ; while a great proportion of capitrAl is
directly employed in hiring labourers. The Alms,
however, spent by capitalists in luxuries is so
inconsiderable, compared with the whole amount
paid away in wages, that to appropriate a share
of the former amount is a consummation alto-
gether unworthy of any combination or strike on
a large scale, much less for an international
trades union. Mr. M'Donald, however, the Presi-
dent of the Scotch Miners' National Association,
recently announced that more than half-a-million
has been gained by the Scotch miners within nine
months by means of combination. Other trades
unions too could doubtless tell a similar tale. But
these facts do not, on examination, disprove the
theory we have stated. Let us, then, examine a
little further the general effects of a rise of wages
in a particular trade. It being an ascertained fact,
as well as demonstrable iz priori, that the rates of
profit and wages tend to the same level in all em-
ployments of the same difficulty, it follows that a
threatened diminution of profits, consequent upon
a rise of wages, in a particular line, is obviated
by a rise in price of the manufactures or other
articles produced in that trade. A rise of wages in
a particular trade is like a tax upon-capitalists in
that line : such a tax would fall upon the.consu-
mers of the taxed articles. A usual result of spe-
cial taxation of this sort, whether imposed by the
legislature or by trades unions, is thus to place the
particular trade at a disadvantage in the foreign
market. Articles that have risen in price will be
displaced by foreign competition ; so that the ulti-
mate effect of a strike is to divert capital from the
very employment in which the strike occurred,
and, consequently, to lower wages in that em-
ployment. For instance, the Thames Ironworks
Shipbuilding, Engineering, and Dry Dock Com-
pany were recently offered a contract by a for-
eign company upon certain terms, which, how-
ever, would involve a reduction of wages with re-
spect to any new labourers they employed, in
addition to their exisiting daily average of two
thousand. The English company proposed to the
working shipwrights of the port of London such
a reduction as would enable them to enter upon
the contract. The reduced scale of wages was
refused by the shipwrights, so that the contract
has passed to foreign sh4tbuilders: Rarely, then,
do employers sufrt.r anyttyss consequent upon a
rise of wages in a particular trade, except indi-
rectly, when the articles in which they deal are
displaced in the market by foreign competition.
In such a case part of their capital must be em-
ployed in some other line, and a change of
investment is always attended with more or
less loss. But, so much of their capital as
continues to be invested in the old employment
will still bear the usual rate of profit, the rise in
wages being compensated by a rise in price of
the articles so produced. A strike in a particular
line, however, inflicts as much damage upon the
general body of labourers as it does service to
the strikers. For, as the consumers of the arti-
cles affected by the strike pay more than they did
previously for them, so now they have so much
less to buy other articles. If the class which
struck is itself a large Consumer of the articles
they produce, they are themselves the chief
sufferers by the consequent rise in prices. A
strike for an advance in agricultural wages is,
therefore, not so expedient for the labouring
class as a strike by factory operatives. Besides,
since the adoption of free trade, a slight increase
in the price of corn is certain to be followed by
importation on so vast a scale as to restore the
old range of prices. Free trade thus precludes
the possibility of any undue demands of agricultu-
ral labourers being complied with. In manufac-
turing industry alone can they be successful. •
The profits of trade, however, are now so low in
England that any further fall is sure to lead to
the investment of capital abroad, or else
high,
even wasted in futile speculations, from which
even though temporary. dividends maymbee
Besides, foreign contractors expected.relucnt
any country whose punctuality to enter upon a contract withl.t sieeeaot
the merchants
mer
mercy
condition of the Belgian iron of a trades union. The recnenYttraindqeuihryy into the
that our otuor
retain
oes
our
iCroreneaddmanitdofWniloliianmcs shreaseowifs we
-position in the foreign market. The same, we
beal may be correctly stated of all our chief
m iileufveLtures. A successful strike in England,
therefore, is likely to be followed by the loss of
the foreign market for the commodities, the prices
of which are affected by the strike, unless foreign
operatives are induced by means of a Universal
Labour Unity Scheme, as it is termed, to exact
similarly high wages for themselves. A monetary
propaganda of this nature, founded upon an in-
tended confiscation of the profits of capitalists,
would be the most fatal blow which could be
inflicted upon industrial enterprise, and the
general progress of civilisation. The rate of
profit is low in old countries and high in new
ones. Hence spring the centrifugal tendencies of
capital to emigrate to new countries, where it is
also most required. Social law thus spontaneously
replenishes the face of the earth. Is the world,
then, to be regulated by compulsion and force
instead of contracts. The results of such an
hypothetical state of society, or rather of human
beings in an advanced stage of savage life, are
too fearful to contemplate. Combinations
amongst workmen are, indeed, as unexceptionable
in principle as combinations amongst masters.
But any resort to intimidation or other violent
interference with the laws of contract involve
ruin to both masters and operatives in proportion
to the degree in which force is substituted for
their mutual agreements.

It is currently reported, according to the Army
and N a r Gazette, y
Lord Clarence
that Sir J
ra
geot,h nrk
omacinoagtlount:i ldmesr-giinv-ecnh Vice-
Admirali
efa
the Mediterranean, pertuission to visit the port of Toulon
with the fleet during the approaching summer, so as to
afford an opportunity to as many under his command as
can be spared from their necessary duties to proceed to
Paris for the purpose of seeing the Exhibition.
The Pall Mall Gazette states :—" A person in
1 London wishing to prepay a letter to Rome has to
pay 8(.1. ; but if he posts his letter without prepaying
it, it is delivered in Rome for 5j:1., and letters from
Rome to England, whether unpaid or prepaid, cost but
51,1. "W. C. Cartright, Arthur Russell, Plowden,
Cholmeley and Co., 11. Caldwell, and J. T. Payne."
Englishmen residing in Rome have applied to the
General ,Post Office for an explanation of this
anomaly, but can obtain none—at least none that
they can understand. Mr. Hill throws the blame
of the overcharge on the French Post (Mee, and
Messig. Cartright, Russell, Plowden, Cholmeley
and Co., Caldwell, and Payne reply, that if the
French Post Office make an unjust overcharge of
20. on each paid letter front- Londonglis ht;or Rome,osto ffi
lee
should be the special duty of the
to see that the imposition Li abafe4." • - • •
.„...