The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1895-04-28

war. Switzerland, probably the pures
type of an ancient democracy that eS
capped the universal wreck of the Ro
man empire, still retains many of the
ancient communal features. Isolated
Spots IN eastern Germany also retair
the ancient methods. after a fashion
while in Russia the entire fabric OF
government rests upon commune
tenure. that being the only country in
Europe in the large sense. where the
old tenure. developing through the Tar
! tar conquest into a feudal system, re-
turned back to the communal tenure
when the incubus of feudalism and
serfage was removed. The elnancipa-
ton of the serfs carried the lands with
them, and the communal principle is
/ the Fundamental Sub-structure of the
Russian social constitution. and has
come down from remote times.
In a number of instances many i'm
portant cities in Italy. France. Ger
many and the Netherlands escaped
! complete domination from the feudal
/ lords. that afterwards contributed
largely to the destruction of the feudal
system. These were represented by the
gradual growth of the power of the
! trade guilds. Genoa, Venice. Florence,
Pisa, Milan and many other cities in
| Italy grew into great Importance as
/ commercial or industrial marts.
/ France. Germany and the Netherlands
! also possessed many free Cities that
/ maintained a species OF independence.
The autonomy of Hamburg was re-
tanned till after the F'ranco-Prussian
war.
1t must be remembered that the
France or Germany of that age of po-
litical Renaissance were not the col
lective political units that they after
wards became Indeed, the kingly au-
thority existed more as part OF the
feudal tradition than in fact. The
kings were in constant warfare with
their turbulent mobiles. and it was to
augment the kingly power, or to check
the power of this or that powerful
baron, that these powerful cities were
granted immunities and privileges that
practically freed them from all central
control whatever. and permitted them
TO carve out their destiny untram-
melted. These trade guilds acquired
power, and with them the trades unions
acquired an influence that they are now
somewhat vainly trying to reestab-
iSh. Taking their rise in their spirit OF
resistance to the tyranny of the barons.
they kept alive the spirit of liberty and
preserved the spirit of democratic inSti-
tutions that, in the laws. at least, are
personified in the British. American
and French systems of popular govern
ment.
The trades union comes as an essen
tial unit in any society the moment
slavery ceases. There could be no such
thing as free labor in a. condition such
as the railroad corporations in this
country contended for so recently as
the "Debs" strike, when they asserted
that they would only deal with an en-
ployee as an individual. However
mistaken or destructive the forces set
in motion by a modern strike, such
contention by corporations is destruc-
ton itself to the very constitution of
free government If a workman is
free. he is a contracting party to an
agreement, and this right involves an
additional one to. contract with as
many of his friends as he may con-
clude TO be necessary to the best in
terests of his business. The real issue
is one affecting society itself, and the
real contention is one to establish an
equity that shall either admit both
factions to fight out their contention
as best they may. without legal inter- :
ference, or to establish an equity in
the law that shall define rights as be-
tween two corporations of capital and
of labor and by so doing take it out OF
the power of either to disturb the
peace or welfare of society.
The habit of some corporations of
drawing up a scale of wages and then
eXerting every legal and some Illegal
methods to compel their workmen to
accept it, and then, as in the recent
railroad strike, denominating the re-
as high treason Gin which
they were sustained by several of the
COURTS exhibits what John Stuart Mil
calls the internal spirit of the slave
Such attempts will stand
a bout as long as the wages tariff
drawn up by the Manchester justices
in quarter sessions, in 1925, with an or
dinance specifying that workmen con-
spring to obtain more should stand in
the pillory and lose an ear.
But the medieval or ancient trade
guild was not reflex of our modern
.rades union, nor did their contention
pear any resemblance to the modern
abor question. In those times there
were no large manufactures, with
hundreds of workmen in them, but a
host of small ones, each with an ap-
prentice or two whom the master was
pound to teach not only the secrets
IF his trade or art, but also the re-
,uisite knowledge of all the CONNER
,ial conditions of the business-the
cost of raw material, the expense of ,,
working it UP, and to calculate the
let profits. If the master failed in any !
If these particulars, he was punished !
9y the guild. Consequently, the ap- !
prentice knew exactly the economics
# the business, what wages it would 7
tfford, and whether its profits would
Idmit their being raised. Under such {
no serious difficulty '
bout wages could arise.
But such a system would be abso- i
utely impossible now. The energies Of i
modern production have entirely ex- q
eeded individual bounds. The scale I
5 so vast that even individual mil t
onaire capitalists are obliged to unite
n order to prosecute the enterprises c
f the modern world, and many mil i
ons of capital and thousands of 2
yorkmen must be combined. How 10 I
ombine them and still preserve equity e
nd independence is the riddle of the +
uture. e
AS the guilds of medieval Europe be- '
an to grow, they developed wonder J.
organization. Whoever would sup :
ort himself in his trade must enter 8
lie association of his trade and sub II
lit. without appeal, to its laws. In =,
aCh union the member included his ,
life, sons, daughters and servants. Z
rhatever. concerned a member, touch -
J the whole, and whoever transgres- r,
I'd law of his union paid the pen ~
lty in money and was excluded a a.
lore or less time from the trade. The r.
Uilds were armed with the power of h
ming, confiscation and imprisonment, =
nd this bond and dicipline was COM o.
on to all trades alike. But the pow II
Of regulating the rules and laws of d,
Ie trade was exercised by the mas a;
RS alone. All the free cities con- II
oiled by these trade guilds that were Ell
contiguous or interested OF
ere confederated, and the same rules m
evailed among them all. la