The workingman's advocate. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1864-1877, 1877-03-03


scheme, the Briggs Brothers and tn,
shsreholding workmen got a dividend o
10 per cent. and $S, 800 besides, Will,
another ~, 500 was divided among III,
workmen. The second year the dividend
to labor was Sl7 800. The plan was tried
for soma eight years, during which III,
firm cleared on an average, it 10 said, II
per cent. per annum, instead Of 6, on theil
capital. This industrial partnership be
tween employers and employs.
prevented strikes, promoted good
will, caused honest work, checked waste
fulness, saved the expense Of overseers
offered the workman an opportunity to in.
vest his savings at a profit, encouraged
thrift, morality and education, and in
creased the profits Of all the co-operators
Il From Mason d. Ldior's Primer o.
Political Economy"
And now let me tell you the story of
Ralahine. The condition OF things in
ireland in the year 1881 can be htly char
acterized by only one word-helI Satan
himself conld not devise a worse state OF
affairs. The peasant was in despair Hi.
only food was an occasional potato. His
only amusement was murder The land
lords we're driven frem their estates. The
stewards were shot. No shade Of color is
black enough to paint the true condition
Of the country. Erin was fast becoming a
desert.
In the midst of this desert an oasis
suddenly appeared In the County Of
Clare, in the southern part of the island,
there was farm Of 6SI acres called "Ra-
lahine." Its owner was John Scott Van
deleur, one Of those race Of fanatics Of the
present and types of the future, who under
stand that landowners have not only rights
but duties. In 1881 he called his tenants
together, and went into partnership with
them. He built a neat and comfortable
cottages on the farm and added cooper
atlve kitchen, small hall, a school, etc.
Land and improvements, with cattle and
tools, were rented to the forty adults and
twelve children, who were then dying ON
the place. From that instant they began
TO hive there The rent, with interest on
some money advanced By the landlord
was "a 900 a year. Mr. Vandeleur
himself considered this rather too
high, but he fixed it advisedly. Ne
was confident Of success, and wished
to show the owners Of Irish soil that il
would pay them in pounds, shillings and
pence to unite with their laborers instead
domineering over them, to put an end to a
state Of affairs in which death was quoted
at premium, and life as cheap as dirt,
nay cheaper, for you could hire one man to
kill another for handful of pennies, and
you paid pound or two for a years use
for an acre Of dirt.
A certain part Of the profits above the
"a 500 was to be set aside for the educa-
ton of the children and the amusement Of
the adults. Any surplus left after the
payment Of wages was to be used in buy
ing the stock, tools, and land for the wage
getters. | need not tronble you here with
further details of the simple plan. II
was partnership between capital and
labor, in which the profits of both de-
pended upon the advantageous use Of
both.
Wf.0o the ezporina sat besen. the County
OF Clare was the worst ia ireland, aud the
neighborhood Of Ralahine was smeared
with blood. The steward Of the farm had
been murdered but few weeks before.
The Nandeleur family hal fed in fear Of
like fate Their house was guarded BY
armed police. The man who, next to the
owner. had most to do with the success of
the cooperative plan, was met upon his
arrival with sullen suspicion and threats
Of murder. He was struck with a stone,
bits Of paper with coffins rudely drawn
upon them were put in his path, and
armed assassins laid in wait for him.
Now, mark the results of the plan.
Within one little year, while famine, theft
and murder made up the history Of the
rest of Ireland, peace and plenty formed
the short and simple annals of the poor at
Ralahine. Within two months, in fact,
bad became good. Thereafter good be-
came better. Ont of an ignorant, vicious,
slothful, brutal and murderous crowd of
starving peasants, cooperation moulded
compact community Of tenant farmers III
which there was, for three years, not one
case of sickness, and but one Of crime.
Labor, having an interest IN the profits,
worked strenuously to increase those
profits. Capital, sharing its profits with
labor, was safe from every peril. Tools
were carefully used, needed repairs were
were promptly make. No overseer's eve
was needed. There was no shirking work.
There was no waste. The farm yielded
far more than ever before--or ever since.
1t is d pity that there should be a
''since" to such a story. But tins Garden
Of Eden was not destined to last il vas
broken up; its inhabitants we're driven
back to starvation and savagery.
John Scott Vandeeur had the vice of
his time. He was, like most Of the sn-called
Irish gentlemen Of that day, q desperate
gambler. IN one wild night Of play at a
Dublin club, he lost all and more than his
all. His story ends with that night 1t Is
| IL L., a ii q.
there is no farther trace Of him he may
be alive to day or he may have sunk long
ago into a nameiess grave the curtain
drops over a ruined life.
Unfortunately, he dragged down
Ralahine in his fall ; when the news reach
ed his people, grief came upon them.
Through that night, there rose and fell up
on the listening air, the wailing cry
''Ohone, Vandeleur, why did you % from
us Ohone, Nandeleur, why did you leave
usf'
The Sheriff swooped down upon Ralahine.
Tho Irish peasant had TO right that the
laws Of England were tounl to respect.
His agreement with Wand .leur was treated
as waste paper he was dIspossessed Of hls
own, and flung back into barbarism.
Two facts stand out in bold relief against
this black background. The first is that
cooperative agriculture, tried under the
most unfavorable circumstances possible
was a great success. The second is that
under this system. it was found that tht
task Of distributing the wealth produced
required the service Of only one man out
of fifty, while in the world at large, where
competition IS king. and co operation is I'M
known, distributing takes one man out o.
five. In other words, under cooperation
49 producers combine TO support one dis
tributor, while under competition, 4 pro
ducers have TO pay the tax that might b
shared among 49,
BY the side of Ralahine, we may plac,
the two cooperative farming firms founded
by an English squire. Mr.. Gurdon, a