The times., 1897-04-11
A PLEA FOR LABOR
ORGANIZATIONS.
Aud a History of Their Relations to
Industry, Society aud Government.
SECOND PAPER


The true history Of the nglish-speaking
working people was first related by Prof.
James e. ThoroId Rogers From his works,
together with the history of the guilds
of the Middle Ages, the condition of the
working people Of England from the Close
of the twelfth to the beginning Of the
sixteenth century may be readily ascer-
tanned prof Rogers continues his re
searches into the condition of the Engllsli
Iaborcr to our own time, and George How
ell, in his History of the Coninct be
tween Capital and Labor and Sidney
ana Beatrice Webb in their History OF
Trade Unionism of England" give faith
full accounts of the efforts or the lahor
people to improve their condition; or the
resistance made by the employers 10 iabOr
organizations: of the laws passed Tor the
oppression and relief Of iabor; OF the bias
of the courts in favor Of employers, and
of the principles and policies OF labor or
CARNATIONS
The history of the labor movement III the
United States has yet to he written, though
7 V. Powderly and George h. MCNEIL
have given partial accounts of the rise and
progress of labor organizations.
From the view which history gives or
English society at the completion or the
conquest of England by William the Con-
queror, il appears that the great majority
of working people were v1llelns hounu 10
the soil, and transferable with it, Few
being serfs attached to the persons oflords.
In the cities and larger towns there was
considerable number OF working people
who possessed lands by some tenure, and
who supported themselves by their own
labor These were generally artisans but
there were undoubtedly some unskilled
laborers among the number. A landless
man was practically an outlaw who had no
civil rights whatever.
There was but little change in the num-
bcrs or condition of the English people, or
Of wages or prices from the beginning of
the twelfth century until the black death
DESTROYED one-third of the population in
the middle of the fourteenth, though the
number OF free laborers was considerably
increased by the manumisSion OF serfs and
the committing of the labor services owed
| by the villeins TO payments of money, ana
| to the purchase of copyhoids by the VII
eins The servitude of the villein was not
| a severe one; the labor he owed his lord
was so defined that there could be little
| dispute about it, and he was free to work
| for himself or another when his services
| to his lord had been rendered, though ne
was subject 70 imprisonment III the latter
| were not performed He could not leave
| his parish without his lords permission;
| his wares were fixed by his lord or his
| bailiff. aud he could be imprisoned if he
! left his service before his contract had
| been completed. The administration OF
| the laws in the thirteenth and fourteenth
centuries was very favorable to the free
| dom OF the villeins, and the Influence OF
| the church was exerted for the ameliora-
| tiou Of their condition.
The villein had certain rights in the
| soil of which he could not be deprived,
| and he had curtilage Of a few acres
| about his house, which he and his family
| cultivated or used as pasture, and GER
tain parcels of land called burrows" IN
! the arabic land of the parish, which was
| divided from that of the others by "balks" :"
| He probably owned both cattle and sheep,
and horse or pony, with pigs and fowls.
! When the crops were gathered the arabic
!! ground became common pasturage, and
| this, with the pasture lands of the
| parish, he had right to use for the
| pasture of his stock. He had the right
| of ..pannage," that is, of pasturing his
| nigs in his lords woods in the fan, when
/ the mast was falling, On the payment of
a small fee, and of getting firewood from
the woods without charge. The villein
could save money, and many Of them did,