Workmen's advocate. (New Haven, Conn.) 1883-1891, 1890-08-23
BRADLAUGH AND HYNDMAN

BNNOLNOoF1 ANU " lNCNlTl'
Any unprejudiced listener to the de-
bate between Messrs Bradlaugh and
Hyndman which took place at st, |
James Hall on the evening Of the 23rd |
of July, must have observed that there
are various ways OF gaining the conf |
dence and sympathy of mixed audi |
ence Mr. Bradlaugh, in his closing re-
marks, described his opponents eIo,
uuence as the 'HZ of champagne,'
and brought forward continually against
him the charge of vagueness. However,
| Mr. Bradlaugh himself, despite his flour
| sh of figures and statistics, was far from
explicit at times, and relied greatly
upon the demagogic tricks which have
often proved SO seryiceabe upon the
platform Of the Half of Science. Mr..
| Hyndman'5 opening remarks, general
and Cursory though they necessarily
were, contained, we venture to think,
some very definite statements. As for
example; That the average age of the
working man is 81 ~ against IS for the
class which does no manual labor; that
while some men work 49, IL, or even 81
hours at Il stretch, twenty, thirty. or
even hundred thousand are starving
for lack of opportunity to earn livell-
hood, and that all medical opinion testi-
hes that IA large proportion of the female
population Of London fall victims
annually to excessive toll undertaken
for insufficient wages. These oft repeated
statements may have become stale, but
they are by no means vague" nor did
Mr. BradlauBh max" any attempt to dis
prove them. He, however, addressed
himself promptly to the task of prov.
ing, "by figures" that the bulk of the
textile industries of the country would
be ruined at once If labor was limited to
eight hours a day, and referred to the
case of the Northumberland miners,
who had declared that compulsory
eight hours day applied to their county
= would throw thousands out of employ
ment, besides lengthening the working
, day for many thousands more. At this
point the speaker discarded his figures;
} and his statement as regards the textile
industries was proved after all in the
very vaguest Of ways-Viz., by an eXhor
tatiOn. LET me ask you to consider"
: said Mr.. Bradlaugh, when the short
hours are worked. whether it will be
t possible to conduct the special industry
in question prohtably SO as to produce
the money with which to pay the
=. wages. va
: 1t is easy to understand the appeal of
IL the Northumberland and Durham min.
/. ers, who, finding that the cost of pro.
duction had Increased by 20 per cent. in
consequence of reduced hours of labor
earnestly requested that they might be
g allow ed toforego the extra leisure which
d entailed an insuiiiciency of food. What
:. is not SO easy to understand is that Mr.
Bradlaugh should bring a charge OF
" ''vaguenees' against hisopponent, while
he was himself speaking in such an un
It pardonably vague way about the pro
# duce of money etc. As for the textile
d industries, we fail to see why they
a should be in jeopardy. 1t is not the
l. power OF carrying on an industry which
e is called in question, but rather tht
e power of few men to fix the value Of
J. labor. Does this threaten trader We
@ cannot see that it necessarily threaten,
& anything but capitalism For if, as Mr.
5; Bradlaugh complains, no one has givet
!. himself the trouble to prove that Ger
q tain number of hours of labor for in
nttyhA ha
Is conduct the Industries of the country
y that is only because the fact is proven
st every day by the existence of many
e persons who do not work at all and VIII,
l. even dissipate and destroy the work o
Al others.
MIR Bradlaugh is a great advocate o
l. thrift. He calls it the life and soul o
5. the country Thrift is always the life an,
s. soul of countries where Mammon i
e worshippedl, hut he says not a wort
l. about the reckless extravaganza of sup
y porting in atiluenCe an absolutely I'm
,r productive class His panegyric of Thrift
20 apples only to the few shllings whic
rs find their way into the workers pocket
It Of the great econ &c problem, with tn
'e extremes of wealth. nd poverty, he ha
y not word to say. except that it wa
RS inevitable. legislation could not cop
IN with it We may advocate the punish
as ment by law Of companies who wor
IN their employees unreasonable hours. bu
d, we must not take any steps to determin
~ the limit of "reasonabeness!" That
u to say, we may condemn unreasonable
hours when we feet them to be unreasor
m able, but our feelings must not be inter
n, fered with in any way by positive an
I'd decisive measures. The capitalist mus
- | mot IN n.h;r,l - ,D,E,ol l. -