The workingman's advocate. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1864-1877, 1877-07-28
FIRST PRIZE ESSAY
TRAD ES MON s
For which fifty pounds 0he gift Of Mr. Macdonald, MI
awarded at the Liverpool Trades Union
Congress, January, 1875.


Although, therefore, wages increase La
Dor does not become dearer. This is very
gratifying, because it can hardly be doubt
ed that the spread OF education, and the
comforts which follow fir IN it, will induce
the working man to work less hard, and
for shorter time, for increased wages, than
he has hitherto done. The facts above
stated, too, should serve to lay that fright
full hobgoblin-" Foreign competition"
A ship can hardly be launched in Amer
lea, or a furnace lighted in Belgium, but
England is assured that in consequence of
strikes the trade is leaving the country.
The most trade will always be found where
are are the best workmen, and the argu-
ment of these pages shows how these are
TO be made. 1t is very amusing to notice
that while British capitalists pretend to be
alarmed at foreign competition, every ma
ton under the sun is afraid of English
competition. When our cotton manufac-
turers we're earning Us to los a week,
those In France, Belgium and Germany
were earning rs Sd to 9s I'd, and those in
Russia were content with Is 4d to 2s lid ;
and yet the one thing dreaded by the
tContinentsl nations mentioned was actu-
ally the competition of the British. Such
fsAIs - lie part VI populated country
4 hike Il And are n oundless in the face q
LtAs snAste-sy of 1S6 N-in sumo countries,
4 and its entire absolze6 ff5m ot1dreTs Eha
facility with which people jump to coficld'
sions is something extraordinary. The
public are generally too ready to accept The
invariable antecedent" as q cause and
when a few cargoes of Swedish ore are
imported into England after . dispute
in the iron trade, the newspapers
gravely tell Us that trades unionism il
running the country. while a little INQUIRY
would have told them that the one was
probably no more caused by the other than
that the railway collision ut Thorpe was
due to the burning cigars which Mr.. Spur
Qeon nightly smokes tO the glory Of
God" The story 10, indeed, an old one,
and its constant recital is tedious. 1t was
heard a. long ago Is 1928. when, in con.
sequence of strong union" in Dublin,
the shipbuilding trade on the banks of the
Lifey was destroyed. A little inquiry
would have satisfied an impartial Judge
that, a. vessels in Dublin cost G3 IS Sd per
ton for repairs alone, while in Liverpool,
Sunderland, and many other places, the
same class Of vessels could be bought out
and out for 81 los per ton, there was am.
pie reason why the trade should leave the
LifFey; and a. in the towns to which the
trade Was attracted there was also strong
unions, =" it il little less than an Irish bull
to take the view which was taken BY the
. Dublin shipbuilders. So recently a last
June the Times used - an argument agains
trades unienism, that it had driven thu
shipbuilding trade away from the Thames
One can hardly admit that q Journal j
honestly conducted when 80 much careless
ness IN displayed in attempts to ascertain
the truth, and when such rash conclusion
! are drawn from false premises. Union
exist ON the banks of the Tyne, the Meg
! sey, the Humber, the Clyde, and elsewhere
; If. therefore, the result Of unionism IL i
, drive away the shipbnilding trade, hcw i
| il that il affects the Thames alonei IL tn
| writer in the Times had taken tbs troubl
4 -as he ought 10 have dons-to inquir
into the cost of bodybuilding ON the bank
o III. the Thames, where there are no irul
, an ooal, and compared that cost with n
q expepne u building ships on the baHks q
j 4xifeFs s.sax which theresis abuRdapce .
Z - Ind i'm. hs would h4ve ~ thu
ks& 16ns d&1ass uhish &51krol - ahii
~ &61s ii IL II dkpv
Epn ~ 49,