The workingman's advocate. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1864-1877, 1876-07-29

In the sixteenth and seventeenth centu-
r1es it was ordained that Jourheyheh
| should make no unlawful assemblies
brotherhoods. congregations, and nocklngs
together. and the stringent laws 10 which
workingmen we're subjected after the Re-
storation rendered their position tar from
comfortable OF lust. Evenso late as the end
Of the last century the farm labourer had no
right TO sell his labour in the best market,
! bnt was compelled TO work tor any employer
| In his parish who choose to demand ms ser
vices al a price fixed by statute. IL was
not until 1875 that workman could
legally travel in search Of employment out
Of his own parish Ia 1880 there was, as
there is now, the cry thrt II we PAID our
artisans high wages We should be unable to
compete with foreign countries In that
year Mr.. John Bassett, the member for
Barnstaple, remarked that 1t was lmpos-
sible for our textures to MAINTAIN com
petition with the produce OF the Indian
| looms. "An English mechanic, ,he SAID
instead Of shaving like native of Bengal
! for piece Of copper, eNacted a shilling a
day." Although this amount is equivalent
| To only about one-half "f the present rate
Of wages, there were even then, as indeed
| there always have been, attempts I" reduce
the amount; and there Is ample evidence
that so long ago as!wheh the above "urds
were sDoken there was ''the vehement and
bitter cry of labour against capital FOR
So miserable recompense, wrote LORD
Macaulay on the aforesaid, one shilling a
dav. were the producers OF wealth com
peiled to toll rising early and lying down
late. while the master clother, eating,
sleeping. and iding, become rch by their
exertlons." From the earliest tIues until
the present day, then, employers have
endeavoured to pay their men as little as
possibly for as many hours work As they
eould pet out uf them. In thus task the
masters have ever been assisted by
Parliament composed Of svmpathlsIng
friends. a Parliament which has always
Welded reluctantly tu any measure caicu-
lated u improve the masses, but has
greedily accepted any proposal Z" 3enehi
the few at the cost Of the many and al
though the onward and upward march Of
civtlzation has rendered such conduct less
easy in the present day, yet sull there Is
the old tendency to legislate as though the
capitalist we're entitled to all the plums,
and the labourer to'all the kicks.
The numerous attempts t. iiX wages by
Act of Parliament were all failures. The
assessment of weavers wages by the
Justices had fallen INTO dlsuse before l12O.
In that year the Justices reasserted the
authority they possessed. and hXed wages,
but their inlunctluns were dIsregarded.
So as late as l76S an Act was passed com
pelling the London tallOrs t. work from
SIX a. IN. to seven pm, with an interval Of
one hour only for refreshments. The
same Act fixed the wages Of the cloth
worker at rs. I'd. a-day. Either master or
servant was liable to Imprisonment for two
months for violating these rules and
master was further liable to hne Of $500
if he employed wurkmen Who lived more
than tive miles from London. Numerous
acts were passed about this time regulat-
ing. OF rather interfering, with minute de
tails of manufacturing industry. TO stlm-
late the Macclesteld trade 1t vas eXacted
nat no buttons or button-hoies made Of
cloth, serge. drugget, frleze, camblet, or
any other stutfs, should be made, set or
bound on clothes OF worn and the bare
enumeration of similar legislation would
occupy more space than Is at present at
disposal The attempts to keep wages
down were supported BY statesmen who
ought to have known better Pitt, Fox,
and Whitbread distinctly asserted the IN
lAst and pernlcIOus doctrines that a
| labourer's remuneration should be proper
toned, not to his services, but T. hIs
wants, and in 1896 the magistrates IN Berk-
shire attempted to settle the incomes of
the industrious poor.
1t is difficult to conceive how, III the face
Of all this, the condition oi the working
man has improved in the slightest degree.
Indeed, it has not improved comparatively.
He has certainly been enveloped, so to
speak, i'll the general progress Of affairs; he
has, doubtless, shared somewhat in the
national prosperity but whatever i'm
provement has ever taken place IN the
condition Of the working classes, It does
not at all correspond with the improve
ment which has taken place in the middle
and upper classes. In regard to the agri-
cultural labourer tho case Is very bad.
The accounts of and the instances which
are reported of the conduct of the masters,
speak of misery and oppression worthy Of
the Tudors and the Stuarts, or at any rate,
of that time when Sir Robert Lakewood
propounded the peculiar notions Of justice
which then occupied the brains Of men Of
rank and family, and for which notions,
Heaven knows, there was ample room in
the repository referred to. Down To 1879
the condition Of the miners in Scotland was
literally one OF serfdom. They were
obliged to remain in the pit as long as the
owner chose to keep them there, and they
were actually sold as part Of the capital
81 kh..wrf fs.x.t .rLr
elsewhere their masters could always have
them fetched back and flogged as thieves
for having robbed him Of their labour.
1t would be tedious to mentiCn the vari-
Gus events which have ruffied the career Of
the labourer during the last century. As
broad fact it may be stated that wages
have gradually risen and food has cheap
ened. From 1900, however, until after
the repeal Of the Corn Laws, the state of
the labourer seems never to have been in
its natural condition. During that period
wages were never high, and at times the
distress was very great. In 1886 tide of
prosperity set in amongst the manufactu-
rers. Profits increased rapidly. Mills,
factories and furnaces sprang up III every
direction, and new steam engines were set
up in Lancashire at an enormous speed.
There were far from sufficient labourers
in the manufacturing districts. Agricult-
ural labourers, attracted by rising wages,
focked to the towns The result was that
wages tell a. rapidly as they had risen, and
as necessity is the mother Of invention,
the working class, which was now consoli-
dating itself, began to devise means of re-
lieving existing distress, and staving off itS
rsvages in the future.
In the beginning Of last century the
principle Of guilds had extended itself
beyond the middle class, and had reached
speaking, the capitalists had withdrawn,
and left the men to continue and to pro-
mote their combination organization. In
| l7O6 the Watchmakerx' Societv and the