The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1833-10-08 00:00:00

COMBINATION OF WORKMEN.

•
• (From • the Journal du Commerce.)
P Ants, Sept. question of the combination of work-
inen has once more been taken up by the press. Although we
have often treated the subject in detail, we think it our duty to
enter again upon the discussion, in order to answer the assertions
of several journals, and replace the question in its true light.
It is the, Constitutienne/ that returns the first to this subjeet,-
that, for the rest, cannot be studied with too much attention.
This journal has published a long article, in which we find
economical considerations, very just and very well expressed, but
from which it is impossible to draw any rational cancluSion. It
even happens that some of those doctrines reciprocally contra-
dict each other. • Thus the Journal de Paris remarks with rea-
son, that after having laid down as a principle that the transac-
tions between master and workmen ought to be perfectly free, it
ill becomes it to rise with so much vivacityagainst the doctrine of
the laissez-faire. Thus, again, it is not clear, when, after having
proclaimed that every combination is criminal, it encourages
workmen to associate. Surely the line which separates combi-
nation from association is not so plainly drawn, that workmen
can distinguish it at the first glance. Besides, we do nu, t too
well see to what this association could tend, badly forined as to
its aim as in its means, unless it he to unite-partial resin tance
into a compact resistance. The. association of workmen, formed
by itself in the middle of our social state, may offer great dan--
gers; regulated and bound to the association of masters by a
common tie, it may, on the contrary, re-establish peace to the
workshop of industry, and become fruitful in hap py results.
-The National has equally taken part in the debate, but it has
united the economical question to its favourite ideas of a re-
public and universal suffrage. Undoubtedly it is v ery conveni-
ent, when accidents happen to obstruct our system of industry,
to arrange all our political. system .in one's own way, and to
launch into an inaefinite hereafter. But it would be more use-
ful and more reasonable to take our political system as it stands,
and strive to turn it in favour of the interests. which are hurt.
It is not enough to say to the people of Lyons or the carpenters
of Paris, take my republic, that Is the universal remedy. In
vain will the workmen take the, republic of the National, the.
Tribune, or the Precurseur ; that will • not hinder the law of
machines and of competition from taking its course,• until a
crisis of improvement or of woful transition manifests itself,
and until frequent. debates take place respecting, the rate of
wages. That is so true, that even -in disturbing thy fundamen-
tal questions of our political organization, even-in ~operatitig
upon entire society at once, the National does not merely point
out future means of regulating the March of the mechanism of
our industry. "In representative. governments," says the.
National, " we attribute no other power to the government than
that of executing-with intelligence arid punctuality the laws pin-
ceeding from a legislature, the true representation of a country ;
it is thither, it is to this legislature, that the representation of
the tradesman must be made to arrive, bv means if universal
suffrage. In 1789, the burghers, the nobles, and,Ttlie clergy
were [nought together, and it is thus that liberty and equality
were founded by means of reconciliation, and of transaction, and
. .
discussion." _

Let this plan be put in execution, and it will naturally follow
that the workmen being more numerous than the rotors, it is
they who will seize upon the national,representation, and make
laws to their own advantage. If the convention, that waf not,
however, the sole express of the working classes, imagined the
maximum, the laws against negociantinne, &c. vne may form an
idea of the movement which would carry away the representa-
tion proposed by the National. But it says, in 1789, the burghers,
nobles, and clergy, were in presence, and that it is thus they
succeeded in coming to an understanding, and transacting the
business of the state. But the reconciliation is not a happy one.
There was no transaction between the tieri.-etat on the one
side, and the nobility and clergy on the other ; there was not
even any transaction possible ; the tiers-elat vanquish the two
orders that disputed the national representation, and it was to
insure that victory. that our first representation was made.—
There is nothing similar in tour present situation ; Tormeily, the
influence of the nobility and clergy may have been suppressed,
and that suppression was necessary to the establishment of our
system of liberty. But no matter what is done, there must be
masters as well as workmen, and we du not see why workmen
should be allowed the right of imposing conditions on masters.
The National, as to the rest, comprehends so well, that it is
not sufficient to the interested parties, in presence, to effect
their reconciliation, that it nods low down their condition, that
they are to be heard and receive justice. 3.46 W, who can as-
sume the title of umpire between those opposite pretensions ?
Is it government? No, since its post, according to the National,
is limited to the execution of the laws, and besides that, the exe-
cutive power would only proceed from the representation of the
workmen, which *Nvould render it at the same time judge and
party. But who than ? This is what is not told us. It is thus,
that when a person has his mind governed by an idea, he hap-
pens to fall into intellectual abstractions beyond practice and.
reality. Certainly the National has rendered the greatest ser-
vices to the popular cause that we also defend; when it took the
economical questions such as they exist under the present sys-
teiia, arid when it handled them with that talent and patriotic
warmth Which we are far front contesting. Abstraction is less
often in the nature of things than the limits of our intelligence ;
and people are exposed to error when they are strongly attached
to an idea. Let us accustom ourselves therefore not to make
the first question that presents itself a question of republic or
monarchy; for all is not contained in the forms of govern-
ment.

For our part, we think that is beyond political organization.
We must seek for institutions fit to conciliate all those differ-
ences which trouble the order of our system of.productions.—
It is thus, for instance, that the special institution of tribunals
of commerce was invented to judge discussions between mer-
chants. There is a similar institution, an institution chated
with a part of peace and foresight, to establish as interme-
diary between the associations of masters and tradesmen.
Formed from the representation of those interests, whicli at
present combined one against the other, it would be, in some
degree, the point of contact, whether they would'come to dis-
solve mutually.
It is towards such a system of arbitration, established upon
equitable basis, that the interested parties seem to turn at pre-
sent, as the only means of peace and conciliatiom It is on this
account we regret, that in the absence of any other. institu-
tion, there are not in Paris councils of expert men (Prod
hornmes,) to assume momentarily the character of tunpire ;
people will recollect with gratitude the services which the
councils of prod hommex resider iu the events of Lyons, and
those which they rendered every day in provincial towns, when
the interests of producers are in a state of hostility,