Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1870-10-27

tb;s state of things had been growing
better counsels had begun to prevail. The
wiser and more humane of the employers
and of the leaders of the work-people,
staggered at the magnitude of the interests
involved. and the bitterness and waste OF
the struggle, had for years been advocat-
ing the establishment of courts of arbitra-
ton and Cancellation for the peacable set
Element of all trade disputes. AT length
these wiser counsels took shape and bore
good fruit. The honor of establishing
courts of arbitration and Cancellation, irs'
in his own trade at Nottingham, ana after
ward in other parts of England, belongs 10
great measure to Mr.. Mundella, the men,
Der for Sheffield, who is now in this couh-
try, and, Ibelieve, in this hall.
I have NO time to give you details
about them. Suffice it to say that they
are established in all the great indus,
tries of the kingdom. and that almost all
the most powerful Unions have inserted III
their rules positive prohibition OF strikes
until after the questions in dispute nave
been before an arbitrator and council oil
Cancellation. 1t may be too sanguine to
say that great strikes are evils OF the past
but every day shows that in the future they
will be gross outrages on the moral
sense of the community, and the offend
ing party will have all England against
them. You may be interested to hear
how the Courts are carried on. In Janu-
ary last l went down to hold one at Mid
dlesborough, the center Of the North of
England iron district Trace had revived,
and though some advance had been given
the men thought they were entitled to
more. The dispute had become bitter.
The interests involved amounted to mill
lions. The Court sat in the Town Hall
IA employers, the leading men of the dis
trict on one side of long table, IA were
from the works of these employers on the
other. We sat for two days. During the
first. hard things were said, and blunt con-
tradictions as to facts and figures flew
about. On the second the angles seemed
to have been rubbed off. and both sides
spoke quietly and fairly. At the end of
the day the employers went into one room,
the men into another. | carried propo-
sails backwards and forwards for perhaps
half an hour, and at the end OF that time
had the happiness of getting the sigma
lures of both sides to an agreement which
settled all questions in dispute, and bound
EMPLOYERS and workmen for whole year.
ORIGIN OF COOPERATIVE SOCIETIES.
But if matters rested here with us
should still be doubtful for the future OF
the labor question in England. At the best,
Courts of Arbitration leave the standing
armies untouched and even involve the
necessity of keeping them highly or
ganized While there are standing
armies there must be always danger of
war, whether between nations or classes,
but trust that we in England are on the
sure road to getting rid OF standing armies
altogether, or at any rate in the industrial
world. 1t is by the cooperative move
ment that this blessing seems likely to be
obtained, and to this l must now turn. 1t
is a great subject, perhaps the greatest
which the social reformer has to deal with.
No one can be more conscious than l am
Of the utter inadequacy OF any sketch |
can give you in such lecture as this, and
there are many friends in this room who
will remark the many gaps in what have
already said and what | have yet to say.
However, l can but do my best, and hope
that what l say may perhaps lead those
most interested in these questions over
here to study our industrial history OF the
last forty years more in detail.
In the midst of the worst years of the
great labor war, which have been speak
ing of, when masters were asserting their
right to do what they would regardless Of
their men, and men were ready to starve
if they could only injure or defeat their
masters, the cooperative movement COM
menced SO far as the scope of this lecture
is concerned. leave on one side coop
Grafton for purposes of distribution, which
began somewhat earlier, although it has
been as yet by far the most successful.
Under it the working people throughout
the whole of the North of England have
established stores of their own. which sup
ply them with pure and unadulterated ar
ticles at cost price, for all profits on pur-
chases are divided periodically among the
members. They have delivered them
selves from the thraldom of debt to the
small shopkeepers and publicans, and have
body. The system of ready money pay
ments is spreading widely wherever CO.
operative stores flourish. But it is asso-
citation for production. far harder reform
to carry out, with which we are concern
ed, and this had scarcely any existence in
England till after the French revolution of
lSto. All Ol you no care lOI tieSc iucS-
tons probably remember the establishment
of the Workmen's Associations at Paris at
that time. The national ateliers were
founded on false principles, Tor political
purposes, and failed grievously, but many
other associations established by the QUE
r,evs themselves flourished for years in
deed, some of them were still in great
prosperity down to the breaking out Of this
sad war. Wen. some Englishmen who
had seen or knew about them, resolved to
try the experiment at home, feeling sure
that in this direction. however difficult the
path might prove, lay the true solution Of
the labor question. We formed in London
society tor promoting wOrkingmen's as
sociations. and assisted a number Of bodies
OF men, in the building, tailoring. shoe
making, and other trades, to start in bus-
ness tor themselves, under rules which
provided that all those employed on the
work should share in the profits The
saline thing was done in other parts OF Eng
land, and in other branches OF industry |
will not trouble you with details. Most of
these associations failed. few succeeded
and remain TO this day, but the experience