The Sun.
London, England, 1861-09-11 00:00:00

STRIKES.

The paper upon strikes read by Mr. Watts at
the British Association is so able, so interesting,
end so conclusive that one begins to wonder there
should ever be any strikes at all. Even the few
strikes that have had a degree of success have been
a loss both to the workman as well as the em-
ployer, while the great majority of strikes have
been unsuccessful and ruinous. It is a matter of
demonstration, and Mr. Watts has put it so clearly
that a child can understand it, and can ask—as
many a child has done ere this—why " father"
has been so foolish. Why then are there such
things as strikes among our hardheaded working
men, especially in the astute region of the North,
under pulpits and platforms where reason rules
the day, and where the elements of all science
are taught with the AB C ? Unfortunately, the
same question may be asked with regard to many
other things besides strikes, where the argument
is all one way and the practice all the other.
The arguments against dram-drinking and smo-
ing, against improvident marriages and immoral
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they are little attended to. In all these cases there
is much besides reason in the question. In the
case of strikes, the stronger the argument against
them—and it cannot be stronger—the stronger also '
the presumption of causes more powerful than rea-
son. In at least three cases out of four the artisan,
having been content with his wages, his master,
and his work, or satisfied within himself that his
master would not change his wages or his work
without good reason, and finding also invariably
that his wife and children were equally satisfied,
nevertheless obeys the dictation of some so-called
secretary, or committee, or delegate, and, with sor-
rowful heart, joins the strike. As it is part of this
world's dispensation that the few should rule the
many, and as there can be no general action at all
without heads and leaders, we must not object to
the domination of committees. But there is no
species of domination, no tyranny, no Continental
despotism, no barbaric rule, in which the many are
so helplessly, so ignominiously, so reluctantly
dragged, and starved, and led captive by the few,
as in a strike. This alone shows how little reason
has to do with the affair. Wherever the many will
be led by the few, it is vain to argue with the many ;
and the few perhaps have arguments of their own
that you can have nothing to do with.
But we will proceed on Mr. Watts's supposition
that in almost every case an artisan does an utterly
absurd,ridiculous, and suicidal act by joining a strike.
The next thing is to ask why he does so. The inge-
nious essayist and Lord Monteagle, with a character-
istic confidence in the power of sound doctrine,
evidently think that much may be done by opening
the eyes of the artisan and enlarging his mind to
the folly of strikes. If he will only go by the rule
of three, the tables of interest at 5 per cent., and
other right rules of reason, be will see at once how
little he gains, or rather how much he loses, by
even a successful strike of five weeks for a shilling
a week more wages, when his memory must tell
him how shortlived all arrangements have been,
and how soon a bad time may close the mill in his
face. The case is so plain that it hardly wants a
teacher. As the artisan returns home, after declar-
ing himself on the strike, and takes his seat before
the hearth which he must soon stint of fuel, by the
table which will show gradually less genial fare'
amid furniture, and crockery, and linen, and good
clothes, which will find their way to the pawn-
broker, and children whom he must take away at
once from school, and soon see half starved and half
naked, he must be able to work the figures of the
question quite as well as Mr. Watts. He must
know perfectly well that he is gsing to make a fool
of himself, or be made a fool of. He must know
that no advance will make up for the total loss of a
dozen weeks' wages, or even half a dozen ; that it
will do him no good to deprive his employer of
money or credit ; and that, if he succeeds in getting
an advance, it may only end in making his trade
wholly unprofitable, in gazetting his master, and
closing his mill. All this he knows, we will ven-
ture to say, as well as Mr. Watts can teach him,
though he may not be able to put together so many
interesting illustrations. Why, then, does he commit
the suicide P Why does he throw his wages down
the gutter ? Why is he, all of a sudden, so unna-
tural a father, so bad a husband ? Why does he
rebel against reason and sin against knowledge ?
The answer is that he feels a strong duty
and obligation to his own order and class, and
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attachment to his employer. The probability is
except that he occasionally hears their strong voice
equally probable that he knows even less of his
employer. Here, then, is the reply to Mr. Watts'
able argument and Archbishop Whately's admir-
able lessons on money matters. The moral and
social influence round the artisan almost compels
him to take part in the strike, He is naturally
gregarious. He is not accustomed to independence
of action or of forethought. Most probably he has
not much power of making his opinions known,
even if he has them. He hears on all aides the
rumours and threats of an intended strike. All at
once there is a strike. If he does not join it he is a
marked man. To all purposes of social happiness
he is a ruined man. He may think the strike ever
so foolish or wicked, but there is no help for it. He
cannot swim against the stream. All the reasoning
in the world is lost in such a case.

But this only goes to show that the evil must be
taken in time. We take the liberty of assuming
that it 18 an evil, for we believe there is not a single

instance of a considerable strike in which it did not 1
turn out that the calculations of the employer were
sound and those of the workmen unsound. Such
arguments as those of Mr. Watts may be useful
now, though they would be mere talking to the
wind and storm during an actual strike. In our.
humble opinion, more may be done in a time of
peace and union towards creating a sound public
opinion and a right feeling among the men. In
many cases, no doubt, it is not easy to establish a
personal relation between the masters and the men,
as the men are a mere floating crowd on the look
out for work and passing from one job to another ;
but wherever it is possible employers will find it to
their interest to do all they can to secure the con-
fidence of their servants, and to establish a con-
nexion closer than that of trade. This is done in
agriculture, and there is no reason why it should
not be done wherever the relation of employer and
employed has lasted a few years. Any man with
the heart of a gentleman must find the pleasure of
mere money-making very dull unless he is at the
same time acquiring a personal hold on the respect
and affections of those who tire engaged with him.
Surely, if an employerlis -a gentleman of educa-
tion,Zeottrighteto be able to beat on his own ground
such as delegates, union secretaries, and the
authors of these strikes. The metropolis and other
manufacturing constituencies send to Parliament
men of business, financiers, and orators. These
men surely can hold their own against the sort of
people who
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the masters. Cannot something
notions upon labour' and capital, with no other
to give well-disposed operatives an organisation
capable of resisting the designs of self-interested
publicdb doubt, ub t,
mischiefmakers ? We are no believers in mere illu-
mination. As we have observed, at least three out
of four of those who join strikes are driven as sheep
to the slaughter, either against their will or without
a will of their own. They want protection. They
want consolidation. They want drilling. This,
too, must be beforehand. But what they want
above all is such a personal confidence in their 4m-
ployers as shall make them follow them in the hour
of trial instead of Union tyrants. It is sometimes
said, indeed, that it does operatives no good to see
much of them, and that it is more easy to set them
up than to set them down. This may be a difficult
and delicate task, but nobody shall persuade us that
really superior men cannot do much to win the love
or respect of their inferiors.
But at the bottom of this whole question there is
a truth which Mr. Watts does not bring out. It
is, that this is not a mere matter of wages. No
purely commercial relation ever will stand. Even
an engagement for a few months is liable to be
rudely interrupted if there is not some of the salt
of life to redeem it. If the principals of a commer-
cial firm have not the affections, as well as the com-
pulsory presence and paid time, of their employes,
they will soon find themselves cheated, robbed, and
betrayed on every side. The purely commercial re-
lation is a rope of sand. The first wave of opinion,
the merest breath of caprice, dissolves it to atoms.
There must be added to it the fibre and cement of
social feeling. So long as the masons and other
building operatives in London, and so long as the
pitmen in the North, are always changing their
lodgings and connections—so long as weavers, cut-
lers, and some other artisans have no other relation
with their employer than to bring their work to his
office, they will never have a particle of feeling for
their employers, and always imagine that their in-
terests are diametrically opposed. On the slightest
provocation they will be ready to hurt themselves
and their families, if they think they inflict a
greater hurt on their employer. Argument, of
course, is wasted on these men. They know all that
Mr. Watts or Dr. Whately can tell them, or, if they
have anything still to learn, it will only be that
they are doing even more mischief than they ex-
pected. Let us not be supposed to underrate the
force of truth and the power of good argument. We
only see that it is as useless on the eve of a strike
as argument was in the American quarrel, and that
the working classes want something more than
orthodox " indoctrination" to stand by their em-
ployers.— Times.