The representative., 1895-10-02
THE WORKINGMAN.
His Status in England and America
Worse Than it Was Six Hun.
dred Years Ago.
WHAT KING HENRY VII AND
HENRY VIII DID TO RUIN
THE LABORING MAN.
From the Helena. (Montana) News1

to civilization, said that civilization
had not advanced the condition of the
workingmen of the world, when their
condition was considered in relation
to what it was 600 years age. The
wOrkingmen had done all the manual
labor in building cities, opening up
farms, building railroads, construct
ing canals and feeding the people Of
the world, and building and running
ships which carry the products of the
earth from one country to another.
Labor has done all the work of civiliz-
ation,and how little does it possess of
the wealth of the world AS compared
with the conditions of 600 to 400 years
ago in England, the laboring people
are not as we'll off to-day as the were
then.
Then the laborer could earn a good
living and save something each year,
and live, so far as the fruits of the
nobility. He had bread made of wheat
flour, mutton, beef and pork, with
rye. barley, oats, beans and peas, if
he wanted them. His beer was made
from barley without hops, but was
pure and wholesome. He had but few
small fruits and few vegeta bles; but
the lord had no more The lord had
finer wines and richer clothing, but
the gulf between him and his serf was
not so great as it is to-day between
the money lords and the laborers.
After 1916, when the black death
visited England, the wages and con-
ditions of the laboring people we're
much improved. man being able to
earn sufficient by working eight hours
day, in from fifteen to eighteen
weeks to keep his family year. And
Notwithstanding adverse laws, wages
increased and prices of things remain
ed stationary or decreased. The
profits of labor went mostly to the la
bOrer.
When, during the minority of
Richard H., the laws became too op-
pressive the laboring people OF Eng
land organized in their guilds, rose up,
and under Watt Tyler obtained what
they sought for, though their leader
was killed and many others executed
through the bad faith of the young
king, whom the people trusted. The
instructions led by Tyler in 1881 and
by Jack Cade in 1850 showed that the
people of England were jealous OF
their freedom and proposed to main
tain it. They were prosperous, show
I'M n0f nrln !,
more jealous of their rights and
reader to defend them than a people
ground down into slavery.
The degradation of the people dur
ing the period between the accession
of Henry VIII. and that of Elizabeth
was truly appalling. Henry VII. had
been grasping miser, but his son was
the most extravagant king that ever
SAT on the throne. He not only ex-
acted all the revenues possible of the
people, he but conhscated the prope rty
of the monasteries, and when he had
spent this he confiscated the property
of the guilds and in effect destroyed
the organiZati ons which had upheld
labor.
Evidently the civil wars and the
religious con troversies had divided
the people, for it is plain that they
had not the spirit of their fathers of
100 and 10 years before. And Henry
VIII. debased the coin Of the realm,
and such was the downward progress
Of the people that in the reign of
Elizabeth laboring people could not
earn sufficient by working II or II
hours a day, to exist. and the poor
laws actually made the toilers charges
on their respective parishes and the
parish suppleme ented the laborers
wages by payments which made them
rapidly increased: in the meantime
prices increased as also did rents.
The profits of the labOrers' toll, in
stead Of going to them, as they did in
the three preceding centuries, went
to the owners Of the soil.
From that time to the present cen.
tury the working people were treated
worse than during any period of Eng
lish history. James e. Thorold
Rogers, speaking of the condition of
the laboring people during this time,
in his Hundred Years of Work
and Wages, in England, page 39S, says
II contend that from 1868 to 1924, a
conspiracy, concocted by the law and
carried out by parties Interested in its
success, was entered into to cheat the
English workman out of his wages, to
tie him to the soil, to deprive him OF
hope and degrade him into irremedi-
able poverty. For more than
two centuries and a half, the English
law and those who administered the
law, were engaged in grinding the
English workman down to the lowest
pittance, in stamping out every ex-
preston or act which indicated any
organized discomfort, and in multi
plying penalties upon him when he
dared think of his natural rights"
Again. on page 439, he says" For
nearly five centuries legislation had
declared that labor partnership, that
is, associa tiOns of workingmen formed
for the purpose Of selling their labor
collectively to the best advantage,
were under the ban of the law. The
motive for this repression was never
concealed; it was designed in order to
| increase and secure rents and profits
at the cost of wages. For two cen
| turies it failed, for nearly three it sue
ceeded."
Again, on page 4es, speaking of the
conditions in the latter part of the
18th and the beginning of the 10Th
| century, Mr. Rogers says:
1.-THE wages of the mill hand were
settled by the justices. like those OF
the artisan and peasant. Children