The Labor enquirer., 1886-10-09


In many trades even now men cannot
get employment if they are past middle
age. The masters take advantage oi
dull times to select the most robust from
among the horde of unemployed
Young men can be driven harder and
therefore more profit ground out of theil
toll, and besides this they are the ons
most likely to rebel and kick up riots, sc
it is best to keep them quiet. The ole
men can only murmur and there is
chance of their fri nds being able te
look after them. They are lucky if they
belong to benefit society or a trades
union and can look forward to small
superannuation. If not, then they can be
thrust into the workhouse where their
living costs but little and their murmur-
ing is never heard. During life thev
were but tools of production hired at the
cost of their own maintenance; now
they are cast aside as worn out, useless
things, unworthy of the least respect.
1t would be uncomfortable for society to
leave them to rot in their novels, so as a
matter of convenience they are sent to
the workhouse, which is only better
qhan the street in 80 far (as Dickens
says) that they starve little slower.
Here l think we need, not little re-
form, but a complete change. Those
who have grown old in the service OF
the community should get not the worst
and most contemptuous treatment but
the best and most respectful. The fee
bleness should ensure them that rever-
ence which people generally are only
too eager to accord to those in high
places or for whom the puss gets up a
sensation" l am sure | need not urge
this point very strongly, only let me re-
mind you that the present state OF
things is a part of the system and can
not be much altered. Capitalism has nc
sentiment in it and only concerns itself
with what and whom it can wiring a
profit out of. The care of the young and
provision for the old must be left to the
chances of a tardy and invidious phi
lanthropy.
A few other points which illustrate
the change are, for instance, the condi-
ton of workshops. Very often these
places are SO unhealthy that all kinds of
disease. chiefly lung complaints, are
generated among the employees. Even
now many trades have diseases peculiar
to them. Or again. let US consider the
Jerry builder. This modern atroclty
seems to be striving after perfection as a
constructor of death traps. Or, again,
the makers of shoddy, who have made
the difference between cloth and paper
80 slight as to puzzle all but experts to
tell one from the othe-. In all these in
stances the one cause Is at work. Each
nan is struggling to gain his living by
cheating somebody else out Of theirs.
Having now glanced at the old prln
ciples and the new let US see what lnHu-
ence is at work bringing about this So
cial Revolution. l have already spoken
of some forms of competition, but there
is another. There is great strgugle
cow going on between different nations
for Shares in the worlds commerce.
Fifty years ago England had practically
the trade of the world in her own hands,
but of later years other nations have
been developing their industrial re-
sources, competing with England, and
are now slowly ousting her from her
former monopoly. European and Amer
ican traders have fought against ours
and wrested a good deal of trade from
them. England will probably always
have a large trade, but it is impossible
that she can ever again have such a
monopoly as she enjoyed-or rather
sickened herself within the early
years of the latter half of this century
This international competition is one OF
the greatest forces which is bringing us
to Revolution.
In this country millions of people de-
pend upon our foreign trade. The varl-
GUS mining and textile industries, the
engineering and few other trades used
to export millions of pounds worth of
goods every year. This expectation is
rapidly and regularly declining We
are now IN the worst depression of trade
that this country has suffered for many
wears and in spite of It's long duration it
shows as yet no signs of passing away.
This is due to the shifting, In fact to the
loss, of our trade. The consequences are
plain enough. Our trade may slightly
revive Dut will never be what it was.
Other nations will have their share
We can butcher and rob the Soudanze
and the Egyptians and the Burmese
when it suits the purposes of our mer-
chants. But we cannot annex America
and massacre Europe. As the foreign
trade diminishes the army of unem'
ployed will get bigger and bigger, and
the condition of those in employm
grow more precarious than it is even
now. 1t is beyond the power of the
ca ,italists to help this, even if they
tried. They cannot pay wages on no
orders. They cannot go on manufactur
ing after they have lost their markets.
That unemployed army will be a great