New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1868-01-23
POWER or L4BORING CLASSES AND
VHEN MLSDIREC7ED


served funds of the laborng population of
Great Britain Indicating, as these estimates
do. the moneyed power of the British working
class, and thus connecting themselves with the
labor question, their Importance can scarcely
be Overestimated.
The results, condensed in brief, are "a fol-
lows: There are 1910 cooperative societies,
chiefly carrying on the business OF grocerS,
provision dealers, dry-gOods sellers, and few
four-mil associations and manufactures: their
capital exceeding S20,000,O00 of our currency.
OF these, about two thirds have been pecuni-
arily successful. Then there are building
"and freehold land societies." with paid
ND capital of about $7O,OO0,0O0. Of:this sum,
about S53OOO,OOO has been invested in dwell
ings for members. OF these members, about
70 per cent. belong to what are usually called
in these returns, " the wage-class." But the
largest item still remains-the amounts invested
in savings banEs-about the same per centage
of the sdepositors being persons living on
wages. The total deposits reach nearly S%Jo,-
100000.
The entire reserve fund, belonging almost
exclusively To the working classes OF Great
Britain, amounts toE the enormous sum OF pre
hundred and eighty millions of orr money, d.
vidcd among cooperative associations, trade
societies, friendly and benevolent societies,
building associations, land savings banks.
This Is n vast power. if the owners had but the
knowledge and the legal right to use 1t to the
best advantage. But on this score there Is
great deduction to be made. With the excep-
ton of about seventy millions employed in the
mense capital is mostly invested in English GOV
eminent securities, yielding tro and nay per
cent. per annum. In our Government securities,
it would yield six per cent. The difference, say
on five hundred millions, Is rs thirteen ana
hird millions TO Hirty mHii0Hs-an annual loss
of sixteen and tro-HirdS mHiiOHs'of dollars. SO
far as the two hundred and ninety millions de-
posted in savings banks are concerned, the IN
vestment in English Government Securities is
made imperative 10y law. One motive prompt
ing the enactment of such a law was doubtless
TO assure to the dcpositor greater security; but
it is lamcntable TO think ~ how much greater
advantage these hundreds of millions of re-
serve funds might be employed, in procuring
homes or otherwise, if ability and honesty were
sure TO be exercised in their management.
When one considers the power which lodges
i'm six hundred millions of dollars, one can
scarcely escape the conclusion that II is lack of
knowledge, more than lack of money, which
prevents many of the wagc-class,' even IN
England, from emerging into competence. The
most striking and most melancholy proof OF
this is 10 be found in some of the recent move
ments among trade societies who, in England.
control nearly fifty millions of dollars Some
of the members composing the societies have
done far worse than to squander portion OF
their mOneypower; they have employed 1t so
as TO bring terrible Icproach on the class they
represent They have sought, by the blacklist
of crimes to effect an impoSSlbility-isr 1t IS an
impossibility TO eradicate one injustice 10y com
hitting another. Believing their own rights to
be invaded. they forgot that the evil must be
increased, not remcded, by encroaching on the
rights of others They stopped not short till
their violence eliminated in terrorism, coupled
with secret Observation-Disclosures crimes,
rccoing terribly on those who committed them.
We have not initiated so fatal an example;
it is to be hoped we never shall. Yet some OF
our trade unions are entering crooked paths,
and no one can tell how far these may lead.
1t is easy to determine the dividing line be-
tween the legal and the illegal in this matter.
As an employer has right to determine what
wages he will give, and an cmployG the same
right to determine what wages he will accept,
so have they both, in their collective capacity.
Master bricklayers, for example, may combine
and agree that those who set their,namcs TO the
agreement will not pay more than so many
dollars thousand for laying brick and jour
nevmen brickayeTs may combine and agree
that those who set their names to the agree
ment will not work for any one who pays less
than so many dollars a thousand for laying
brick All this is legal. But if combination
of master bricklayers. attempts to compel others
who have not signed their agreement to pay
to their workmen no more than a certain rate;
or if n combination of jouneymen bricllayers
attempts to compel other bricklayers who have
not signed their agreement to work for no one
who will not pay them at certain rate, then
these master brcklayers, or the joumeymcn
bricklayers, are guilty of conspiracy and render
themselves liable TO fine and imprisonment
The oiicnsc, in either case, is grave one
viewed i'll its moral aspect; for it not only in
terferes with the inalienable right of the citi-
zcn--the right to employ another at what
wages one sees fit to give, or the right to work
for another at what wages one sees fit to ac-
cept-but it forcibly deprives man who is able
and willing to work of the opportunity to.
do so, and may bring restitution, even starva-
ton, on his family. 1t is the worst species of
tyranny. 1t ought to be resented and resisted,
as one would resent and resist the levyng of
black mail, or the barbarous edict of a despot
1t is none the less despotism because it is cx-
erted by many, not by one tyrant alone. Free
dom to labor is a right as sacred ms freedom to
live.