The Sun.
London, England, 1826-05-12 00:00:00

DISTRESSED MANUFACTURERS.

At a period when the eyes of the whole kingdom
re fixed upon the distresses of the manufacturing
poor, and the means which are fortunately adopted in
every part of the country for its alleviation, every thing
that can tend to prevent a recurrence of the evil is in-
teresting. All attempts to describe the malady tend
to perplex rather than relieve the mind ; and the cause
is lost in the contemplation of the effects which un-
fortunately exhibit themselves in misery of a thousand
forms. Amongst the pamphlets on this subject which have
issued from the press, we have met with one whose bre-
vity encouraged us to open it, and we found ourselves
obliged to give it a hasty perusal. There is much
point in its remarks ; and however destitute it may be
of those high qualities which recommend the writings
of popular men to our notice, it has the merit of ex-
hibiting, in their proper colours, some of the most
mischievous of the existing plans, both for the manage-
ment of workmen, and the regulation of their wages.
The pamphlet to which we allude is entitled « An
Address to the Manufacturers of the United
Kingdom, &e. By WILLIAM HALE." We quote
two passages as a specimen of the general style of the
work :

" Numerous factories have been erected, and crowded with
children, without any attention being paid to their moral im-
provement. Great numbers of the lower classes have been raked
together from distant parts—a profligate population has been un-
duly increased—and upon every sudden check of trade, recourse
was had to the unjust and impolitic measure of reducing the price
of labour ; this forced the weavers to work more hours every day,
which increased the evil, by the daily accumulation of manufac-
tured goods. The system of further reducing the price of labour
still went on, until the poor weavers were obliged to work hard
sixteen hours every day to earn SEVEN shillings per week ! Their-
being obliged to work so many hours, merely to earn a part of
their bread, turned out much more work every week than could
possibly be disposed of; and thus their unparalleled exertions
recurred upon themselves in a proportionate ratio of accumu-
lated distress.

The cold theory of ' half a loaf is better than none,' of com-
pelling the labourer to reduce the price of his work, has become a
Powerful menu for effecting universal and lasting distress. At
periods in which the warehouses were greatly overstocked, the
only moral remedy would have been, to have kept up the price of
labour, and to have reduced, for a time, the quantity of work to
be done. Instead of obliging the poor to work for half, 'or less
than half, of their accustomed wages, instead of making them
toil from fifteen to eighteen hours out of every twenty-four, to
procure bread for their families ; and thus increase by a ruining
addition the stocks of goods every week, which must ine-
vitably terminate in a great, universal, and lasting depression
the true policy would have been to have put the journeymen upon
half work, and not to have diminished the price of weaving._
Thus the poor would have obtained as much money for six hours
labour per day, Its they earned in sixteen holm under the system
which has been so fatally pursued. By the plan here recom-
mended, the journeymen, I am persuaded, would have felt as
thankful to their masters as though they had been in full work ;
many of them would have employed their leisure time in various
methods of honest ingenuity, or economical arts, which would
have exercised their minds, have kept them free from temptation,
and have made a little but valuable addition to their weekly in-
come. By pursuing this system the poor would soon have been
restored to their full employment; the demand for manufactured
goods would very soon have been upon the increase; the proper
diminution of stock would necessarily and immediately have fol-
lowed, as there would not have been any unnatural accumulation
to be got off."