Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1901-09-20

and there is no doubt, absurd though
the thought may seem to some of us,
that the original grocer as well as the
middleman of all kinds generally was
for a long period of time a criminal in
England.
Prior to the nineteenth century, In
deed, the governing classes of England
were, as they are today in the United
States, even with its broader suffrage,
consumers-that is, soldiers and sailors
professional men and farmers, to
whom any increase either In the price
of goods or of labor was economically
hurtful and in whose eyes, therefore,
any attempt Of either capital or labor
to add to its profits met with disfavor.
1t was not, therefore, until new In
dustrial order had been ushered in and
the complexion of the English parlia-
ment had been changed on the one
hand from that of body of landed
proprietOrs to that of body of manu-
facturers and merchants with a world
expanding trade before them and on
the other until by the extension of the
suffrage the workingman had become
a political factor in the community
that the adverse legislation In England,
both in regard to capital and labor,
ceased.
When these events took place, which
they did, in part at least, by the be-
ginning of the nineteenth century,
there was a complete change of front,
hp nf hn nd AP
parliament. The old laws of restraint
were only possible in a country of a
limited economic development, and
when a broader field of industry and
enterprise began to be opened to Eng
land, as it is today beginning to be
opened to the United States; when a
day of big things and of vast mercan-
tile enterprises and of world expand
ing commerce began to dawn, the re-
strictions of the past seemed trivial
and burdensome. A young Industrial
giant, indeed, had been born which
parliament itself could not fetter.
And yet, fortunately for the laboring
man. this giant was born at a time
when the humane forces and interests
were also developing, when the great
masses of men were acquiring a voice
and an influence in government and
when no political party or judiciary
dared or cared to give to capital a free
dom which it denied to labor itself.
The change was brought about largely
by the invention of machinery and the
development of the mines of England,
4, 81, all H., Al
foreign trade and the growing realiza-
ton of the possibility of an individual
and national wealth hitherto undream-
ed of, If only the factories and the
mines could operate and capital could
combine unchecked by restraints.
The capitalist indeed was interested
not only in the removal of the restric-
tions on capital itself and the abolition
of the old trade guilds, but also even in
the repeal of the statutes which regu-
lated the rates of wages. The old trades
guilds, which by royal charters had in
certain trades and industries been Civ
en- exclusive privileges and a freedom
and exemption from the laws generally
restraining labor, were abolished at the
lHSllBdllOn Ol lIie CaplldllSlS DeCu uuSc
the capitalist desired to work his la
borers for as many hours a day as he
pleased in times of business activity,
which the rules of the guilds forbade,
and also because he desired to be able
to become manufacturer and a mas
ter of industry by virtue of the posses
sion of capital alone and not, as re-
quired by the guilds, as the result of
promotion to that rank from those of
| apprentices and journeymen. While
the statutes regulating rates of wages
were abolished, it was largely because
of the necessity for the manufacturer
to quickly hire large numbers of men
in times of business pressure. which
could only be done by the offer of lar
ger wages than those paid them by
other employers.
The law, then, as administered by the
courts in England today. is practically
this-that fraud and Misrepresentation
intimidation and physical obstruction
or molestation or the intentional pro-
curcment of a violation of contractual
rights are unlawful, both on the part
of the capitalist and of the laborer, but
that to. pursue to the bitter end Il war