The Sun.
London, England, 1859-10-26 00:00:00

lIR. ADAM BLACK, M.P., ON WAGES,
TRADES' UNIONS, AND STRIKES.

On Saturday evening, Mr. Adam Black, M.P.,
delivered a lecture on " Wages, Trades' Unions,
and Strikes," in Dunedin-hall, Edinburgh. The
hall was crowded in every part, upwards of 2,000
being present. Among the gentlemen who accom-
panied Mr. Black to the platform was the Right
Ron. Sir John Melville, the Lord Provost.

After a few remarks from Sir JOHN MELVILLE,
who was called to the chair,
Mr. BLACK rose to address the meeting amidst
loud and prolonged cheering. He spoke at con-
siderable length, but we can only afford space
for a brief condensation of his address. After some
introductory remarks, he said—The subject of
wages, trades' unions, and strikes, is one of very
great importance, as it seriously affects the peace
and prosperity of the country, the accumulation of
capital, and the protection of property ; and it most
especially affects the happiness of the operatives
and their families. Moreover, it is a question
requiring an attentive consideration of first prin-
ciples, with their bearing upon the common busi-
ness of life ; at the same time, it is one which is
much obscured by the animosities and excited feel-
ings occasioned by the sufferings of both masters
and men in their unhappy contests. It will be my
endeavour calmly and impartially to examine the
bearings of this question so deeply affecting our
social economy. The value of commodities does not
continue invariable, their price is affected by fluctua-
tion in abundance or scarcity. The price of corn,
for example, is always varying from this cause.
When a plentiful harvest has thrown a larger than
ordinary quantity into the market, then there will
be a competition among the sellers to procure pur-
chasers, and rather than keep their wheat in the
stockyard the farmers will offer it at a lower price,
and when the price is reduced to such a rate as will
induce a sufficient number of buyers to take up the

quantity to be disposed of, then the price will have
adjusted itself according to the supply and demand.
On the other hand, in the event of a deficient crop
and a scarcity of corn, then, as there would be a
demand for a greater quantity than was brought to
market, purchasers would compete and overbid one
another to secure the desired quantity. So with all
goods; they will command prices relative to their
scarcity or abundance, and if left to a free market
they will as surely adjust themselves according
to the supply and demand as water will rise
to its level ; and all attempts to force prices
to an unnatural level, or to protect certain pro-
ductions, have been attended with disastrous con-
sequences. The only important trade that never was
subjected to the infliction of protection was the cot-
ton trade, and none has risen to such gigantic mag-
nitude, and afforded occupation to somany hundreds
of thousands, and on which have been raised so
many princely fortunes. Experience has incontes-
tibly proved that perfect freedom in buying and
selling is most advantageous for all parties, and that
everything in the nature of monopoly or restriction
or interference with production must be injurious to
the public, and generally without benefit to the
parties for whose advantage they were intended.
Labour is as much an article of commerce as corn or
sugar. Money or capital is likewise an article of
commerce. Both are necessary to production. In all
great works many must be employed who can con-
tribute nothing but labour ; capital, however, is ab-
solutely necessary to procure materials and imple-
ments, and to support the workmen till the manu-
facture is completed and sold, and the money received
for the goods. If capital be necessary for the employ-
ment of labour, labour is equally necessary for the
employment of capital. Capital is always seeking
to employ labour, and it is the business of the capi-
talist to find out the occupation which will yield
the greatest return with security. And according
to the risk and the agreeable or disagreeable nature

of the speculation engaged in, will a higher or a
lower interest be expected; but where trade is
free, the returns from the employment of labour
will on an average bear a uniform value, modified
by circumstances. Skilled labour, for example, or
'what requires years of preparatory instruction, will
be paid higher than unskilled labour, so as to remu-
nerate for the time and expense employed in prepa-
ration for business. Other circumstances will modify
the wages of labour, such as continuous or inter-
rupted employment, healthy or unhealthy occupa-
tion, or other peculiarities ; but wherever the occupa-
tions are of a similar character, and the profits equal,
the wages of labour will likewise be equal. If, under
particular circumstances, profits should be greater in
one trade than the average, then capital and labour
will be attracted to that trade till they reach the
average level. A question arises, what proportion
of the profit of the manufacture should go to the
capitalist, and what to the operative. The interest
of money, like the price of every other commodity,
rises and falls in the market in proportion to its
abundance or scarcity—in other words, if there be
a greater demand for the use of money than usual,
the competition for loans will cause a rise in the in-
terest. On the other hand, if money is more abun-
dant, and the demand limited, the interest will fall.
Let us assume that the average rate of interest is 5
per cent. when laid out on good security and without
trouble to the capitalist. If a capitalist, having
£lO,OOO, is desirous of speculating with it, so as to
bring him in a larger return than ordinary interest,
he may invest it in a cotton-mill, or in building a ship,
or in publishing books, or in any other speculation ;
but, as all trading or commercial speculations are
liable to greater risks than money lent on good se-
curity, and as trade demands careful superintend-
ence, he is entitled to a return considerably higher
than he would receive from the funds, or from lend-
ing it on the security of property. Supposing,
then, the ordinary rate of interest to be 5 per cent.,
a prudent man would not engage in a manufactu-
ring or mercantile speculation unless it promised at
least 8 or 10 per cent. ; say, then, that during the
year he employed 20 men at 20s. a week, the wages
of the men would be £l,o4o—the interest of his
money at 8 per cent. would be £BOO, from which
he would have to pay insurance, bad debts, and
small items, and he would require some remunera-
tion for his own skill and superintendence, say
double the wages of a common workman, £lO4 ;
then, to render this speculation worth carrying on,
it ought to yield an annual profit of £1,944 ; and if
it was a work requiring £lOO,OOO, and employing 200
m'n, then the annual returns should be just ten times
greater. It would be rash to speak positively on this
subjects, as profits are effected by so many acciden-
tal circumstances, but this estimate will serve to
explain the nature of the transaction. Let us see
then what would be the effect of the 20 workmen
demanding a rise in their wages from 20s. to 255.
This would be an additional deduction from the pro-
fits of £260 annually, which would reduce the re-
turn on the capital employed to £540, or little
more than the interest on money lent on property ;
in which case, if the capitalist were a pendent man,
he would as soon as possible withdraw from the
trade, and the men would be thrown idle. If the
capital of the country were to increase more rapidly
than the population, then the division of the profit
on capital would decrease, and the proportion drawn
by labour would increase, and vice versa ; for, as
money becomes more abundant, the interest is con-
sequently lowered—there is a greater inducement
to invest in more remunerating speculations, such
as trade and commerce—there is a greater demand
for men to carry on the new undertakings, and the
competition for workmen increases their wages.
This shows how advantageous it is to the operative
classes that capital should increase, as of necessity
they must share in its benefits. We sometimes hear
in-Informed reasoners speak of capital as antagonis-
tic to labour, whereas it is the very life-blood of la-
bour, and must as certainly circulate through the
-whole body of the labourers as the blood from the
heart circulates to the extremities of the human
frame. Whatever diminishes the wealth of the capi-
talist injuriously affects the workman. If any sud-
den reverse were to come upon the rich, by which
their wealth was to be annihilated, it would be one
of the greatest calamities that could befall the la-
bouring classes ; the country gentleman would be
obliged to pay off his servants ; the improvements on
his estates must be stopped, and those employed on
them discharged ; the manufacturer would not have
the means of carrying on his operations and employ-
ing workmen ; the carrying
would have no demand
for new houses. Erroneous views on the subjects of
`which we are now treatit too often lead the
operative classes to regard their employers with
jealousy, envy, and malevolence ; and the em-
ployers to regard the workmen with distrust
while in their occupation, and with neglect when in
distress. A true and Christian appreciation of the
value and importance of the relation between master
and servant would induce each to regard the other
with charity--the workman to rejoice in the prospe-
rity of his employer, and the employer to treat his
workmen with justice and kindness. In ordinary
ewes prices are fixed by a kind of huckstering ; and,
instead of organising a determined contest, were
workmen to threaten to leave. or actually to leave
their masters, unless their demands were agreed to
(but without obstructing or intimidating others), if
circumstances warranted a compliance with their
terms, some masters would agree to them, and others
would be obliged to follow their example, as other-
wise they would lose their best men. But if already
wages had reached their proper level, and masters
could not carry on their works with afairprofitt—he
if a la7ger propmionwaswpoauiilldawheayso general that
would i n wages,
resistance to the
the workmendemand
find it to be their interest to
,
accept the largest wages that could be mutually
agreed upon. This would accomolish the same ob-
ject as a strike, in every instance where a strike
would
have naturally been successful, without the
-disastrous consequences which uniformly attend
Slum intestine van, In the prosperous summer of

1836, the spinners in Glasgow memorialised their
masters for a rise in wages. Trade being brisk and
profits large, the manufacturers were desirous to in-
crease their trade, and there was a compet . on for
workmen. The advance was thereforereadily agreed
to. But by-and-by came the commercial crisis of
January and February, 1857, and prices fell so much
that the masters could not sell with a profit at the
advanced rate of wages, and therefore they proposed
that wages should be restored to the former rate,
which was from 265. to 365. a-week. The workmen
however thought that, contrary to the nature of
things, wages should be kept up at the same rate in
a period of depression as in times of great pros-
perity. They struck work in a body on the Bth
of April, and continued till the sth of August, a
period of seventeen weeks, when they unani-
mously agreed to return to their work on terms
lower than those first offered by the masters, after
having endured extreme sufferings themselves, and
caused wide-spread misery among others through
this insane strife, which a knowledge of the laws
that regulate wages would have prevented. The
number of spinners in Glasgow in 1837 was between
800 and 900 ; each of these gives employment to a
certain number of women and girls, about seven for
each spinner—thus about 5000 females were de-
prived of the means of livelihood through the folly
and perverseness of those who ought to have known
better. The total loss to Glasgow during the strike
was £194,540. No doubt combinations of work-
men have been legalised by the act of 1825, and
very properly so. But if workmen may combine to
fix prices and resolve upon the conditions on which
they will dispose of their labour, even-handed jus-
tice requires, and the law provides, that the same
rights be accorded to the employers. They may
unite to lower the rate of wages, and to agree on
the conditions on which they will engage work-
men. If the workmen may legally have recourse to
a strike to compel a rise of wages, or any other
concession, the employers may also legally resort to
a lock-out to compel a reduction of wages, or an ac-
ceptance of any other terms. While I say this, I by
no means approve of a look out by the masters.
Both may be legal, but it is very inexpedient, and
very dangerous for either the one party or the other
to exercise this extreme power. It is like the power
of the House of Commons to stop the supplies—a
power which maybe heldup in terrorem, but which
is never exercised. When sueh intestine national
contests occur, they are accompanied with most of
the evils that attend wars. The country which is
the theatre of the war is devastated, property is de-
stroyed, multitudes of innocent persons suffer, the
belligerents on each side endeavour to do as much
damage to the other side as possible, disease and
crime and death follow in the track of war; and
after disaster has done its worst to both parties,
very often from sheer exhaustion they patch up a
peace which leaves both parties in much the same
condition as they were before the beginning
of the conflict. Each party strives to destroy the
property of the other. Multitudes who take no part
in the strike, but desire to remain at peace,
are thrown out of employment. Wives and children
are reduced to beggary, crime becomes more ram-
pant, and disease and death thin their numbers.
This was all painfully illustrated by the great strike
of the colliers in Lanarkshire, Renfrew, and Stir-
ling, in 1837. We have a melancholy instance of
the intense suffering which must often be endured
by the numerous victims of these strikes in the
case of Daniel Lock. a plasterer, who lately com-
mitted suicide in London, leaving behind him a
paper containing these words :—" The strike—the
ruinous strike; God protect my unfortunate family."
The rash act of this unhappy man has made his
case public, but who can tell how many innocent
victims of the pride and folly of others weep in
their desolate homes unheeded and unseen ? It is
difficult to procure the printed rules of the different
unions, and when they are procured they are gene-
rally indefinite and defective ; much is left to be
decided by the council. By the last annual report
of the Amalgamated Engineers and their rules as
revised in 1857, the combination purports to be a
friendly society or benefit club only, but the middle
of the preface contains a paragraph in defence of
" restrictions against the admission into our trade
of those who have not earned a right by a proba-
tionary servitude." After enumerating the trades
comprehended within their scheme, the preamble
sets forth its provision of branches. No branch is
to consist of more than 300 members, or to have
more than seven officers, three officers being allowed
to a branch of 20 members ; every member is re-
gistered, age, trade, married or not, that the details
may be recorded in the general registration book
in London. The fines imposed on the members for
neglecting to notify the union authorities their mar-
riage, or removal, or change of service, show the
strictness of supervision under which they are
living. There is nothing like it anywhere else
in this country. The executive council consists of
25 members, appointed by as many branches of
districts, nine of which are in or near London.
The ordinary business is transacted by the coun-
cil of nine London members, five forming a quo-
rum ; their powers are very great and very
vague, and they determine anything wherein the
society's rules are silent. This is in itself a tremen-
dous power. In case of any dispute, the inquirer
may ask what is the rule on the subject; he may
be told there is no ruler, the council settles those
matters on which the rules are silent. He is in the
hands of the council, who may fine him or expel
him if they think proper, and he has no means of
redress. This power, in the absence of law, is
evidently too formidable to be resisted. The central
council avoids the responsibility of taking care of
the funds. It simply draws on the branches for
what it wants to pay expenses, salaries to itself,
grants to strikes, &c. If the central council asks
for maney, the branch must send it, and at the end
of the financial year the affairs are settled by
equalisations, thus exercising a despotic control
over the funds of the members. Then the members
are liable to numerous fines of 55., 2s. 6d., ls., &c.,
for not giving information on a multitude of sub-
jects, and several other provisions show that every
man is living under a spy system from the hour
when he becomes a member, and a victim, of this
despotic organisation. With a working-man who
has entered the trades' union there often occurs
something that lie can't do, mustn't do, daren't do,
because it is against rules, or would be found out.
There is always the idea that somebody would tell
on him. The yoke seems to be upon him wherever
he goes. If compulsion were only used towards
their own members there would be less room for
complaint, but when it is used to deprive of their
only means of livelihood those who do not belong
to their associations, it is a tyranny more cruel
than that of despotic sovereigns. I shall proceed to
show that trades' unions, as at present managed,
and strikes, are exceedingly injurious, not only to
the country, but to the workmen themselves. I am
unwilling to occupy your time by detailing the
effects of strikes before the passinr, of Mr. Hume's
Act legalising combinations. Before that time in-
stances of violence, sometimes ending in assassina-
tions, were not uncommon. In 1812, Mr. llorsfall,
an eminent manufacturer, was waylaid and shot by
a band of assassins, and several mills were at
the same time attacked and destroyed. In the
end the combination was suppressed but not until
seventeen of the combined workmen had been
executed at York. I have already alluded to the
loss and injury sustained by the workmen and the
public in the strike of the colliers in Lanarkshire
and the adjoining counties. Before the strike their
wages had been raised from time to time to 335. a
week for three days' work of four or five hours a
day only, or 355. for fifteen hours' work—a convin-
cing proof that, when the profit to the capitalist in
any particular line is great, competition among
the masters for workmen will raise wages without
having recourse to a strike. But in 1837, in con-
sequence of the price of iron having fallen from £7
to £4 10s. a ton, the ironmasters found it impos-
sible to carry on their trade while such extrava-
gant wages were paid to the colliers, and offered
them the following terms-30s. a week, working
eight hours a day. Those terms were immediately
rejected, and the whole colliers in Lanarkshire,
2,000 in number, struck work, and remained unem-
ployed for six months. Their place was partly
supplied by weavers, who hal been starving on Bs.
a week. After the loss of six months, the men
were glad to return on the terms offered by their
masters-30s. for 48 hours' labour, instead of 355.
for 15 hours. The town of Preston is celebrated
in the annals of strikes. On the sth November,
1836, the operatives struck, and ceased working
for 13 weeks; 8,500 persons were thrown idle. Of
this number it was said that only 660 spinners
voluntarily left their work, the rest, being depen-
dent on the spinners, though willing to continue
working, could not be employ ed without them. It
was estimated that the loss of
wages 1 )y persons
willing to continue at work was £60,361 ; the less
to the 660 spinners in wages during the turn-out,
£9,652. The total loss to the town and trade of
Preston in this unavailing struggle was £107,196.
The town was crowded with beggars; the work-

„ .
houses were besieged by applicants for relief; three 1
persons were known to have perished from starva-
tion ; and after a contest of five months, the
supplies from the union altogether failing, work
was resumed on the terms offered by the
masters ; but 200 (or one-third .of the spinners)
were obliged to leave the lowa, their
places being occupied by new-comers. In
1854 the operatives of Preston again struck
for a rise of 10 per cent., and, after a contest of seven
months, were glad to return to their work at the
old prices, after again i n volving hundreds of families
in misery and ruin. The amalgamated eagineers,
in the previous year, combined to procure a cessa-
tion of overtime and piecework, and a reduction of
the hours of labour. To this the masters replied