Kansas agitator. [volume] (Garnett, Kan.) 1890-1905, 1896-04-24

/
jects of bargain, whilst, even about wages,
unfettered freedom of individual bargain
ing places the operative at serious disad-
vantage. But there is one important mat
ter which stands midway between the two.
In the most typical processes of modern
industry individual choice as to the length
Of the working day is absolutely impossi-
BILE. Directly we get machinery and divis-
ion of labor, directly we have more than
one person WORKING at the production of an
article, all the persons concerned are COM
PEELED by the very nature Of their occupa-
ton, to work in concert.
This means that there must be
one uniform rule for the whole es-
tablishment. The hours at which the
bell shall ring must either be left to the
automatic decision of the employer, or
else settled by collective regulation Of
some kind or another, to which every
workmen is compelled to conform. Now
it is important to us to be clear upon one
essential fact-namely, that both trade
unionism and factory legislation are
equally inconsistent with the So called
personal liberty of the individual workman
to make his own bargain.
We can not understand this question with
out fully realizing that trade unionism, in
substituting for the individuals choice Of
the employer or workman a general rule
binding on all concerned, is just as much
founded on the subordination Of the indi-
vidual within to the deliberate decision of
the majority as any law can be. The com
mon middle class objection to the factory
! legislation-that it interferes with the indi-
vidual liberty of the operative-springs,
in fact, from ignorance of the economic po-
sition of the wage Garner. We can now
see that, far from diminishing personal free
dom, factory legislation positively increases
the individual liberty and economic indie
pendence of the workers subjected to it.
II. NJ. Hyndman on the Glories of the
British Empire.
H. NJ. Hyndman, the we'll known Labor
leader and organizer of the Social Democrat
ic Federation of Great Britain, publishes a
strong editorial in London Justice, from
| WulCu we uuOlc tuc lolioWihS
Anxious as we are that our own country
should take the lead in the great social
transformation and revolution of the near
future; glad as we are that our Colonies are
likely to stand side by side with us in the
work we have to do; pleased as we may be
to note that foreigners recognize that the
influence of England, even as it is, has not
been wholly exerted on the wrong side-we
are compelled to consider what those ''glo-
ries' really are upon which we are asked
to congratulate ourselves. And when we
thus consider, when perforce we are COM
PEELED to look around, facts and figures rise
up before us which take human form and
shape, in the persons of millions Of worn
out and bloodless men, Of overworked and
decrepit women, of rickerty and scrofulous
children.
These are the glories of the British EN-
pire at home! This is the state Of things
which is daily getting worse and worse in
our midst This is the condition of subju-
cation and degradation for the masses
which the governing classes who call upon
us to back them wish to maintain! As
with ancient Rome. while petty triumphs
are being gained on the frontier, the British
Empire is rotting at its heart.
Read few statistics often repeated but
never yet taken full account of even by the
bulk of Social Democrats. They are drawn
wholly from middle class sources.
The average age of the well-to-do class is
tla of tba oil n nc ic
81. In Liverpool and Manchester the av-
erage age of the workers is put by middle
class statists at Is and II respectively. Our
hero of the hour, Mr.. Joseph Chamberlain,
proposes as a remedy for this that every
worker who arrives at the age of IS (D
should receive the magnificent revenue of
five whole shillings a week.
| A working class family which lives under
existing conditions in our great cities is
worn out physically, intellectually and
morally in three generations. The descend
ants exist, and may still further perpetuate
themselves, but in ever lower and more
degraded types. Yet the recruiting ground
for our city populations no longer exists.
The country districts are unpeopled; the
land is bare of men.
More than one quarter Of the producing
class die in the hospital, the work house, sor
the pauper luratic asylum. The hospital is
an experimental laboratory for the benefit
of the rich. The work house is a squalid
prison. The pauper lunatic asylum is hell
upon earth.
Children exist in our great cities without
fresh air, without pure milk, on bad bread
and Indifferent water, frequently going to
school without any breakfast and quite in
sufficiently clad to meet the weather. No
systematic attempt whatever is made to
deal with this ''glory Of the Empire"
Free meals and free maintenance would
''pauperize'' the children Don't you see
that How many of the children Of the
sweaters and swindlers who make up the
governing classes are ''pauperized" by
their free meals and free maintenance?
AS a result, the physical development Of
the mass of the people is steadily deteri-
Grating. might trust my own eyes to tell
me that, knowing as l have known the
workers of Lancashire and London since
was n how But published statistics teach