toLcbU 
 
 Trant 
 
 Trade Unions, Their ^rigins and 
 Objects
 
 ^i 
 
 Trade Unions 
 
 HEIR ORIGIN AND OBJECTS, INFLUENCE AND' 
 
 EFFICACY. 
 
 By WILLIAM TRANT, M. A. 
 
 JfT 
 
 WITH AN APPENDIX SHOWING THK 
 
 History and Aims ® 
 
 ! ® 
 
 I ® 
 
 (\MERICAN FEDERATION OF LABOR.! 
 
 TENTH EDITION. 
 
 PRICE _ - _ TEN CENTS. 
 
 Published by thk American Federation ok Labor, 
 
 Samuel Gompers, President, 
 
 Washington. D. C. 
 
 I'i02.
 
 American Federation of Labcjr 
 
 ENDEAVORS TO UNITE • " 
 
 ALL CLASSES OF \VAGE-WORKE:i^^ 
 UNDER ONE HEAD, THROUC'^ 
 THEIR SEVERAL ORGANIZATIOr'^, 
 TO THE END ... ^ 
 
 1. That class, race, creed, political and trade prejudices may be abolished. | 
 
 2. That support, moral and financial, may be given to each other. * - 
 
 It is composed of International, National, State, Central and Local Unions, representing t\^° 
 great bulk c f organized labor in the United States and Canada. 
 
 It gi< es to any organization joining its ranks recognition in the labor field in all its phases. 
 
 It se'cures in cises of boycotts, strikes, lockouts, attentive hearing before all affiliated be(?ir ' 
 and it renders financial aid to the extent of its ability. 
 
 It is not a moneyed institution. It allows each organization to control its own funds ; to esta\°' 
 lisli and expend ils own benefits without let or hinorance. I 
 
 It aims to allow in the light of experience — the utmost liberty to each organization in the cor' 
 luct of its own affairs consistent with the generally understood principles of LABOR. 
 
 It establishes iuter-comniunication, creates agitation, and is in direct and constant correspon 
 ence with a c rps of representative organizers th'oughout the country. r > 
 
 It watches the interests of the workers in National Congress; it endorses and protests ii| tl^ 
 name of I ABOR, and has secured vast relief from burdensome laws and government officials. 
 
 It is in communication with reformers and sympathizers in almost all classes, giving inform*' 
 tion and enlisting their co-operatic n. 
 
 It a semblfs once a year all classes oi wage-earnejs, in convention, to exchange ideaA at' 
 methods, to cultivate mutual interest, to secure united action, to speak for L.4.BOR, to announce '" 
 the world the burdens, aims and hopes of the workers. 
 
 It asks— yea demands— the cooperation of all wage-workers who tielieve in the principle ^* 
 UNITY, and that there is something better in life than long hours, low wages, lack of employmenj' 
 and all that these imply. | 
 
 Its Existence is Based Upon i 
 Economic Law. . | 
 
 TO WIT: i 
 
 •That no particular trade can long maintain wages above the common level. I 
 
 That to maintain high wages all trades and callings must be organized. I 
 
 That lack of organization among the unskilled viially affects the organized skilled. ( 
 
 That general organization of skilled and unskilled can only be accomplished by united actioif' 
 '.•Larefore, FEBER4TION. i 
 
 AGAIN I 
 
 That no one particular locality can long maintain high wages above that of others. | 
 
 That to maintain h'gh wages all localities must be orgatiized. 
 
 That this can best be d->ne bv the maintenance of Nationalard International Unions. 
 
 That any local union which refuses to so affiliate is inconsistent, non-union, and shtu'd be " 1(' 
 t'.Due." 
 
 That each national or international union must be protected in its particular field against riva 
 and seceders. Therefore FEDERATION. 
 
 That the history of the labor movement demonstrates the necessity of a union of individual 
 a jd that logic implies a union of unions— FEDERATION. 
 
 Fraternally, 
 
 SAMUEL GOMPERS, Prestdent. 
 FRANK MORRISON, Secretary. 
 
 Headquarters: WASHINGTON, D. C.
 
 Trade Unions 
 
 THEIR ORIGIN AND OBJECTS, INFLUENCE AND 
 
 EFFICACY. 
 
 By WILLIAM TRANT, M. A. 
 
 WITH AN APPENDIX SHOWING THE 
 
 HisTOHY AND Aims 
 
 AMERICAN FEDERATION OF LABOR. 
 
 TENTH EDITION. 
 
 PRICE - - - TEN CENTSi 
 
 Published by thk Amkrican Federation ok Labor, 
 
 Samuel Gompers, President, 
 
 Washington. D. C.
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 To the officers and members of all Trade and Labor 
 Unions, and to that much abused but serviceable class of 
 Humanitarians — the despised "Labor Agitators" — this pamphlet 
 is respectfully dedicated, with the hope that a perusal of its 
 pages may make the subject of Trade Unions better understood 
 and more thoroughly appreciated. 
 
 The five opening chapters of this pamphlet are condensed 
 from the prize essay on "Trade Unions," written by Mr. Wm. 
 Trant, who secured for it the /^50 prize offered a few years ago 
 by the Trade Union Congress of Great Britain. It is a standard 
 work, prepared after considerable research, and it has been care- 
 fully edited to suit American conditions. 
 
 The American Federation of Labor.
 
 TRADB UNIONS. 
 
 THEIR ORIGIN AND OBJECTS, INFLUENCE AND 
 
 EFFICACY. 
 
 Bv William Trant. 
 
 CHAPTER I.— Historical Sketch. 
 
 Serfdom — Emancipation — The Domestic System — The "Capitalistic Craftsman" — The Working Clsiss 
 The First Crisis — The Statutes of Laborers — The Black Death — High Wages, Cheap Food, and 
 Short Hours — Combination — Guilds — The First Union — Rise of the Artisan — The Lollards— An- 
 tagonism of the AVealthy — The Peasants' Revolt — Oppression of the Working Classes — Debase- 
 ment of the Coin — Confiscation of the Guilds — Combination Laws — The Poor Laws — Continued 
 Decline of the Workman — His Miserable Condition in the Xineteenth Century — Trade Unions 
 Their Original Rules — Combinations of Employers. 
 
 Those who ao often speak of the " wel- 
 fare of the State ' ' would do well to re- 
 member that the phrase has never yet 
 meant the" welfare of the people." The 
 ' ' good old times ' ' were good only for a 
 small portion of the community, and al- 
 though year after year has shown constant 
 improvement, yet that amelioration has 
 been very slow and lamentably imperfect. 
 Aristotle says, in his ''Politics," that the 
 best and most perfect commonwealth is one 
 which provides for the happiness of all its 
 members. The fact that the great philoso- 
 pher conceived such a noble sentiment so 
 long ago is in itself remarkable ; but ad- 
 
 \ miration for his wisdom is somewhat 
 dimini.shed when it is found that, "although 
 artisans and trades of every kind are ueees- 
 k , sary to a State, they are not parts of it," 
 T and their happin&ss, therefore, is of a kind 
 ^A with which the "best and most perfect 
 jV^l commonwealth" has no concern whatever. 
 'Y "The same law must be for all classes 
 J of my subjects," said Henry II., but la- 
 ^ borers were not considered subjects. So 
 \ late as Elizabeth's time they were spoken 
 of (by Shakespeare) as "fragments." 
 Even the Magna Charta, of which English- 
 men are so justly proud, referred but to a 
 moiety of the two millions of persons who 
 inhabiteti England at the time of its pro- 
 VJ mulgation. It affected freemen alone, and 
 y there is little douljt that nearly one-half of 
 the entire population was then in a state 
 of slavery so a])ject that, in the language 
 of the old law-writers, "the villein* knew 
 not in the evening what he was to do in 
 
 \ 
 
 * "Villein" was a term to denote the serf or 
 worker ir. those days. 
 
 INST. INDUS. REL. 
 
 the morning, but was bound to do what- 
 ever he was commanded." He was liable 
 to beating, he was incapable of acquiring 
 property for himself, and any he got be- 
 came his master's ; he could be separated 
 from his wife and children, and sold to an- 
 other lord, or he ceuld be passed with the 
 land upon which he lived, as if he had 
 been a chattel attached to it. 
 
 Various causes noiselessly and gradually 
 effaced this miserable condition, though at 
 a very slow rate. "Faint traces of it," 
 says Lord Macaulay, "were detected liy the 
 curious, so late as the days of the Stuarts ; 
 nor has that institution [villenage], even to 
 this hour, been abolished by statute." 
 From the earliest times, however, serfdom 
 in England bore within it the germs of its 
 own destruction. The lord might enfran- 
 chise hLs villein, or the latter could pur- 
 chase his freedom. If, too, the slave es- 
 caped to some town, and remained there 
 unclaimed a year and a day, he became 
 a free man. There were also difficulties in 
 the way of proving the villenage, the onus 
 of which proof ahvaj'S lay with the lord, 
 while in all disputes on the sulyect the pre- 
 sumption of law was in favor of liberty. 
 
 "Thus," writes Creasy, "while at the 
 period when we first can assert the common 
 law of the complete English nation to com- 
 mence, we find this species of slavery ao 
 widely established in this country, we also 
 find the law for its gradual and ultimately 
 certain extinction." The Church, too, dis- 
 countenanced slavery. Theodore denied 
 Christian burial to the kidnappers, and 
 prohibited the sale of children by their 
 parents after the age of seven. Violation 
 prohibition was punished with excom"
 
 mnnication. The murder of a slave by his 
 owner, though no crime in the eye of the 
 State, hecanie a sin for which penance was 
 exacted by the Church. The shive.s attached 
 to Church ])roperty were freed, and manu- 
 mission became frequent in wills, as the 
 clergy taught that such a gift was a boon 
 to the boul of the dead. 
 
 Wit^ half a nation iu slavery there 
 could ba uo " working class," as the term 
 is generally understood. The wealthy 
 kept domestic artisans amongst their ser- 
 vants, and the wants of the nobles were 
 almost entirely supplied by their retainers. 
 The villeins tilled the soil, while the men 
 in towns worked on what is now called the 
 "domestic system." The factory system 
 and the capitalist employer were not yet 
 known, and the employers of labor were 
 those who provided materials which they 
 hired men to work into the articles required. 
 The glazier glazed, but did not find the 
 glass ; the blacksmith forged, but did not 
 find the iron. There was, therefore, very 
 little hiring of laborers. "The capitalist 
 employer," says Profes.sor Thorold Rogers 
 in "Six Centuries of Labor and Wages," 
 "the first middle man, is entirely un- 
 known till the seventeenth century ; and 
 the capitalist purchaser of raw materials, 
 the second middle man, is later still in 
 the economy of society. 
 
 At a very early date, however, craftsmen 
 became the chief purchasers of the materials 
 on which they worked, and the "capitalist 
 artisan " developed considerably in the six- 
 teenth century. The London tailors, even 
 in the reign of Edward III., were the great 
 importers of woolen cloths, and thire can 
 be no doubt that at this time many of the 
 craftsmen traded in the raw material which 
 they worked. As, however, the trades be- 
 came more prosperous, and the poor, who 
 flocked to the towns, more numerous, the 
 traders gradually ceased working at their 
 craft, and, confining themselves to trading, 
 left the manual labor to their less fortunate 
 companions. That is to say, a class of 
 small dealers in raw material sprang into 
 existence. The distinction of classes be- 
 came marked. The shoemaker soon learnt 
 to look down upon the cobbler, and the 
 leather merchant to despise the shoemaker. 
 
 The "full history ot England as a na- 
 tion," it is agreed, begins in the reign of 
 Henry II., and it is thenabouts that we 
 find anything like a working class gathering 
 itself togethej. In the three centuries 
 which immediately succeeded the Norman 
 Conquest, the commerce of England was 
 greatly extended. Foreign commodities 
 were "introduced in abundance, and na- 
 tive manufactures established and im- 
 proved." This naturally attracted to the 
 towns such serfs as wished for liberty, 
 and thus we find springing up in the towns 
 a class of men jwssessed of personal free- 
 
 dom, but destitute of property and land. 
 These were the forerunners of the wage- 
 working class. 
 
 The Statute of Laborers (23 Ed. III., c. 1) 
 clearly shows the existence of a, wage-re- 
 ceiving class, the remuneration being about 
 one penny a day in addition to food ; and 
 when it is remembered that the sum men- 
 tioned was sufficient to purchase a couple 
 of fowls or the fifth part of a sheep, it is 
 evident that the recipients were well off as 
 things went. Indeed, the statute refeired 
 to was passed because, in the opinion of 
 the landholders, the wages of agricultural 
 laborers had become "exctssive." Here 
 was, in fact, the first "crisis "on record 
 between employers and employed in Eng- 
 land. The depopulation (amounting, it is 
 said, to one-third of the nation) which fol- 
 lowed the great plague of 134P, the "Bls.ck 
 Death," caused a natural rise in the price 
 of labor. Whole villages died or.t ; houses 
 fell in ruins ; entire flocks perished for 
 want of herdsmen ; and the corn crop 
 perished for wants of reapers. The clergy 
 even raised their fees for masses and prayers, 
 because fewer persons were able to afibrd 
 such luxuries ; merchants and tradesmen 
 took advantage of the small supply of wares 
 to raise their prices ; and in like manner 
 the workmen endeavored to profit }>j the 
 dearth of labor, by refusing to work except 
 at enormous prices. The wealthy class 
 objected to all this, and the purpose of the 
 Act referred to was to fix the wages, by re- 
 quiring all laborers, etc., to accept the same 
 remuneration as had been customary before 
 the plague. Any lord of the manor pay- 
 ing more was to be mulcted in trtlJe 
 damages; food was to be sold at reasocf.b'.e 
 prices; and alms were forbidden to ab]e- 
 bodieel laborers. The statute, however, 
 seems to have been elisregarded ; ard two 
 years later we find the master shearmen of 
 London complaining to the city authorities 
 that they could not get men at the same 
 wages as formerly, and that the workmen 
 also refused to work unless they were paid 
 by the piece. 
 
 There had, indeed, already been some- 
 thing of the nature of a "strike," and it 
 was, therefore, ordered that any lurther 
 disputes ehould be settled by the warden 
 of the trade. If a workman did not sub- 
 mit, he was to be punished by the mayor 
 and aldermen. All, however, was of no 
 avail, and what is also surprising is the 
 obtuseness that could for a moment im- 
 agine the Act could be enforced. The 
 statute had to be enforceii by the Manor 
 Court, and that court depended for eCi- 
 ciency upon the good will existing between 
 landlord and tenant; a^'d where statute 
 prices were paid the difference was made 
 up in some other way. Professor IJogers 
 has recently bro\ight to light some curious 
 instances of evasions of the Act, by the
 
 alteratious in the record of the court from 
 the price actually paid to the statute prices; 
 alterations evidently made to technically 
 conform to the law, while actually evading 
 it. At last the peasants combined to resist 
 the law. They organize tliemselves, and 
 they subscribe considerable sums of money 
 for the defence and protection of serfs, 
 which, it has been suggested, may have in- 
 cluded the payment of fines. In point of 
 fact, here is a rudimentary trade union to 
 resist an unjust law and to secure higher 
 wages. A similar statute to the one above 
 quoted was passed in 1362, when, after a 
 violent tempest, a royal order was issued 
 that the materials for roofing and the wages 
 of tilers should not be enhanced by reason 
 of the damage done by the storm. An ad- 
 ditional statute, with a similar object, was 
 passed the following year. 
 
 From these sources, and from the indus- 
 trious researches of Professor Thorold 
 Eogers, we learn what were the wages 
 earned at the period before the rise set in. 
 It will be sufficient to say here that they 
 were not satisfactory, though not so meagre 
 as has been generally supposed. The Acts, 
 however, were disregarded, the men refus- 
 ing to work for less than double or treble 
 the sums prescribed by statute. For about 
 a dozen years wages continued to rise, un- 
 til in 1363 the prosperity of the peasantry 
 was so great that an Act (37 Edward III., 
 c. 14) was passed enjoining carters, plough- 
 men, and farm servants generally, not to 
 eat or drink "excessively," or to wear any 
 cloth except "blanket and russet wool of 
 twelvepence, " while domestic servants were 
 declared to be entitled to only one meal a 
 day of flesh and fish, and were to content 
 themselves at other meals with "milk, 
 butter, cheese, and other such victuals."* 
 These restrictions were as futile as those 
 which preceded them, and it would be 
 foolish to weary the reader with an ac- 
 count of similar legislation effected during 
 the succeeding century, in spite of which, 
 however, wages constantly advanced ; and 
 we find an Act pa«se<l in the reign of 
 Richard II. stating that laborers would 
 not work except at a rate "much more 
 than hath been given to such servants and 
 laborers in any time past." Indeed, they 
 were the halcyon days of the British 
 laborer. He was much better off then than 
 he is now. The rise in the wages of labor 
 after the famine of Edward II. was as much 
 SB from twenty-three per cent, to thirty 
 per cent. ; and after the Black Death in the 
 following reign the average advance was 
 upwards of fifty i)er cent. more. The 
 masons succeeded in obtaining an advance 
 of sixty per cent., the reason of which will 
 be given immediately, tlreat, too, as was 
 
 *In Scotland, at a much later date, fariu labor- 
 ers complained that they had to eat salmon more 
 than four days a week. 
 
 the rise in wages, there was no correspond- 
 ing rise in the price of provisions. Every- 
 thing the laborer needed was as cheap as it 
 ever had been, his laOor was rising in value 
 week by week, and he worked only eight 
 hours a day. Never before or since have 
 the workingmen of England been so well 
 off as far as material comforts were con- 
 cerned, and this halcyon period lasted un- 
 til 1390. 
 
 It will be necessary further on to trac« 
 the reasons of the downward tendency that 
 began to show itself in that year; and to 
 show how it was that laborers who had be- 
 come masters of the situation were again 
 degraded to the level of serfs. It would 
 be interesting to inquire whether any 
 "union" or "combination" had giren the 
 men strength to resist the injustice which 
 the Acts just mentioned inflicted upon them 
 by curbing the "aspiring exertions of indus- 
 try and independency." Materials upon 
 which to found a decided opinion are, unfor< 
 tunately, very scarce. One thing, however, 
 is certain. The people of England had lon| 
 been familiar with the principle of associa- 
 tion for trade and other purposes. Even s« 
 early as the time of Canute, associations 
 under the name of "guilds" were estab- 
 lished for religious purposes. Similar 
 brotherhoods afterwards developed inti» 
 combinations of merchants for mutual as- 
 sistance and protection, and were folio wect 
 in the fourteenth century by "craft-guilds," 
 which, as their name implies, were unions 
 of handicraftsmen — the principal guild be- 
 ing that of the weavers. The very essence 
 of the guilds was mutual support, mutual 
 protection, and mutual responsibility. They 
 were, indeed, the first friendly societies. 
 These guilds gradually extended their influ- 
 ence beyond thelimitsof particular trades, 
 and ultimately became far more powerful 
 than the municipal corporations of the 
 present day. The notions of the members 
 of the guilds were of a very exclusive na- 
 ture in regard to the admission of members. 
 No inlleirui were permitted to join them, 
 and all freemen who were proposed had to 
 be duly elected. 
 
 The noblest of all tlie guilds of the 
 Middle Ages was undoubtedly that of the 
 masons. This brotherhood rose from the 
 circumstances in which the travelling 
 builders of the Middle Ages found them- 
 selves placed. "They were brought to- 
 gether from distant homes to be employed 
 for a considerable time on such great works 
 as our mediaival churches and aitlie<lrals. 
 Near the rising structure on whicli they 
 were engage<l it was necessary that they 
 should provide for themselves a common 
 shed or tabernacle." This was the origi- 
 nal masons' "lodge." Before all things it 
 was necessary that masons should be "free 
 and accepted." The entrance into this 
 guild, aa indeed into all others, vrna, in ac^
 
 oordance with the spirit of the times, sur- 
 rouuded by mysterious rites and ceremonies, 
 and all such societies had their peculiar 
 lore and traditions. Their original inten- 
 tions have long ago been disregarded. All 
 that remains of the masons' guild is the 
 now fashionable order of "'Freemasons," 
 and of the others the rich livery companies 
 of London and the guilds of elsewhere, 
 who now spend their dying moments, as 
 they inaugurated their existence centuries 
 ago, at dinner.* 
 
 The exdusiveness of the guilds naturally 
 separated still more the incipient working 
 class from their well-to-do superiors, and 
 tended more and more to give the work- 
 men separate views and interests, which 
 were not infrequently antagonistic to those 
 of the employer or "master.'" When two or 
 three are gathered with identical interests 
 (and those interests opposed to the wishes 
 of their employers, who are already com- 
 bined), it seems so natural ior them to form 
 a combination of some sort or other that it 
 is imix)ssible to resist the belief that in the 
 fourteenth century the working man — ex- 
 cluded from the guild — would unite with 
 his fellows, if not for general, yet for speci- 
 fic objects in connection with his condition. 
 It is gratifying to learn that this view is 
 taken by so high an authority as Dr. Lujo 
 Brentano,whoal.-o points out that, at about 
 4he time referred to, accounts of ''strikes 
 tn the building trade are particularly nu- 
 merous ; " and there is in existence a 
 "royal mandate as to the workmen who 
 have withdrawn from the palace of West- 
 minster. " Indeed, it is beyond dispute 
 that the masons of the fourteenth century 
 maintained a higher rate of wages than 
 was paid to other crafts, as has been above 
 mentioned, solely on account of the combi- 
 nation these artisans were able to effect ; 
 a fact that non unionists of to day would 
 do well to remember. 
 
 This view is strengthened by the fact 
 that in 1383 the authorities of the city of 
 London issued a proclamation forbidding 
 all "congregations, covins, and conspiracies 
 of workmen ;" and four years later three 
 shoemakers were carried off to Newgate 
 for violating it : while in 1396 a similar 
 coalition of saddlers was suppressed. Two 
 laws also were enacted against combina- 
 tions, congregations, and chapters of work- 
 men (which had been established to limit 
 the number of working hoars >, viz., the 34 
 Edward IV., c. f>, and 3 Henry YI, c. 1. 
 The punishments inflicted upon working 
 men for combining were very severe, and 
 yet they combined in spite of such punish- 
 ments. The endeavors of the laborers to 
 raise wages showed themselves most promi- 
 
 * It is gratifying to find that now some of the 
 livery companies are devoting a f>ortion of their 
 funds to useful puposes, such as ttie promotion of 
 technical education, etc. 
 
 nently in tr.e trades in which, as in the 
 cloth manufacturers, development was 
 most rapidly progressing, and in which 
 there existed a large working class. 
 
 The prosperity of the laborers and arti- 
 sans produced events that alarmed the 
 privilegetl classes. The emancipation of 
 the serfs had for some time past proceeded 
 very rapidly, from causes which have been 
 already indicated. I'rofessor Thorold 
 Eogeis, after an enormous amount of re- 
 search, writes of the fourteenth century, "In 
 the many thousands of bailiffs and manor 
 rolls which I have read, I have never met 
 with a .single instance of the sale of a 
 serf, nor have I discovered any labor rent 
 for which an equitable money payment 
 could not besub-stituted." Indeed, during 
 the reign of Edward II., the practice be- 
 came general of accepting money compen- 
 sation in lieu of labor rents ; and at the 
 end of a quarter of a century the rule had 
 become almost uni\ersal. The improve- 
 ment in the condition of the serfs created 
 an amount of independence among them 
 that had the happiest results. 
 
 Sir Kobert Sale, Captain-General of Nor- 
 wich in 1381, was the son of a villein, wae 
 born a serf, as was also Grostete, the great 
 Oxford scholar of the thirteenth century, 
 thus showing that even in those days serfs 
 could rise 1o very high positions. There is 
 abundant evidence, too, that they became 
 possessed of property, and indeed, as they 
 became enfranchised, they also became 
 copyholders. It ia certain they paid rent, 
 which indicates a real bargain between the 
 lord and the serf which the former could 
 not break if the other fatisiied his dues ; 
 and he could recover wages due to him 
 from his lordly employer by distraint upon 
 his goods, even upon his chattels, and 
 therefore could not be a chattel himself. 
 The impetus given to this process Viy the 
 general rise after the Black Death was 
 brief, and that plague, in short, emanci- 
 pated almost the whole of the surviving 
 serfs. 
 
 It was, therefore, amongst a prosperous 
 and independent class that Wiklif 's "Poor 
 Priests," or Lollards, followed by John 
 Ball, also a priest, preached doctrines that 
 in those days were revolutionary doctrines, 
 and, in the eyes of some people, are so 
 still. From village to village the old 
 couplet was repeated : 
 
 '•When Adana delved and Eve span, 
 Wlio was then the gentleman?" 
 
 The people were taught that those who 
 labored, did so not only for themselves, but 
 to enable others to live without labor, or to 
 live by mischievous labor. The "equality" 
 expounded in the Bible was explained to 
 them, and generally it was impressed upon 
 them that they were oppressed by a priv- 
 ileged class whom accident, fraud, or force 
 had placed in a superior social sphere.
 
 The men were not starving, and had time 
 to listen and to think, and, above all things, 
 to combine. And they did combine. They 
 subscribed money; they shielded the escaped 
 serf from the pursuit of his lord ; the serf 
 and the free joined in a common cause, 
 and waited but the signal to "strike" 
 j^ainst their enemies. The sign was at 
 length given, and the result was, on the 
 10th of June, 1381, the Peasants' Kevolt, 
 or Wat Tyler's Rebellion. This was a 
 rising caused, not by the outrage on Tyler's 
 daughter, or even the poll tax, but by the 
 general attempts by the upper classes to 
 force down the wages of the laborers of 
 England, and to take from them the rights 
 they had won, though of course other 
 grievances would not be forgotten. In all 
 risings for a particular object, the oppor- 
 tunity is seized of making many demands. 
 For the particulars of that revolt the reader 
 la referred to the history of the period. 
 The rebellion nearly succeeded, b'lt the 
 laborers were cajoled into quietude. 
 
 From this time forward for three centu- 
 ries the history of the laboring cla.ss is a 
 aad story. The governing powers never for- 
 gave the Lollards, nor those who listened 
 to them. They seized every opportunity 
 of crushing the people, and it is only re- 
 cently that policy has been departed from. 
 It is not too mu(;h to say that from this 
 time to 1824, in the words of the author 
 already quoted, "a conspiracy concocted by 
 the law, and carried out by parties inter- 
 ested in its su cess, was entered into to 
 cheat the English workman of his wages, 
 to tie him to the soil, to deprive him of 
 age, and to degrade him into irreparable 
 poverty." The first of these repressive 
 measures was the deba.sement of the coin 
 by Henry VIII. and the guardians of Ed- 
 ward VI. The netarious transactions by 
 which this was brought about had for their 
 oVjject the replenishment of the royal 
 coffers out of the earnings of the arti.sans 
 and laborers, and they succeeded in that 
 object. The peasantry were already im- 
 poverished by the action of the land- 
 owners in substituting sheep-farming for 
 agriculture, and the new state of alfaiis 
 opi)ressed thtm with great severity. 
 
 The purchasing power of the revenue 
 fell to one-third of its original capacity, 
 and the consequent rise in prices was one 
 and a half. In other words, if wages rose 
 from Gd. to 9d. a day, the laborers had to 
 pay ;j.s. for meat, 2n. fid. for bread, and 2s. 
 Gd. fi)r butter and cheese, where he had 
 paid Is. before. This, it is obvious, put 
 back the laborer into a position of penury 
 to which he had not been accustomexl , and 
 to which he did not readily submit. His 
 condition was again almost that of the 
 serf. From childhood to old age all was 
 labor. Plight hours no longer constituted 
 » day's work. His miserable condition was 
 
 rendered worse by the dissolution of the 
 monasteries that accompanied the debase- 
 ment of the coin. A great part of the vast 
 funds of the monasteries was devoted to 
 the relief of the poor, and to their assist- 
 ance in many ways. "When this was with- 
 drawn, no substitute was pro^^ded in its 
 place. These transactions were followed 
 by the confiscation of the property of the 
 guilds. I have described them as the first 
 Friendly Societies. The guilds assisted the 
 artisan in times of difiiculty, allowed him 
 loans without interest, and granted benefits 
 to his widow. The effect of the confisca^ 
 tion of the guilds was the same as would 
 result from the confiscation of the funds of 
 the Friendly Societies ; and it is worth 
 noting, as an argument in favor of strong 
 union, that only the provincial guilds wer(! 
 molested, those in London being so power- 
 ful that the Crown dared not molest them. 
 
 The working men resisted these oipres- 
 sions, and vigorous measures were pasFed 
 to force them into submission. An Act 
 was passed iu the reign of Edwaid VI., 
 which shows pretty plainly what was 
 thought in those days of the "working 
 classee." If a man refused to work at 
 statute prices, he was branded with the 
 letter V (vagabond), and reduced to slavery 
 for two years. If he attempted to escape 
 from that condition, he was branded with 
 S, and became a slave for life ; and if he 
 objected to that state, he was banged- It 
 is also evident that the spirit of combina- 
 tion was growing amongst the laborers and 
 artisans, for the laws against workmen's 
 combinations were made still more strin- 
 gent than hitherto. The preamble of 2d 
 and 3d Edward VI., cap. 15 (A.n. 2548), 
 set forth that "artificers, handicraftf^men, 
 and laborers had made confederacies and 
 promises, and have sworn mutual oaths, 
 not only that they should not meddle with 
 one another's work, and perform and finish 
 what another halh begun, but also to con- 
 stitute and appoint how much they shall 
 do in a day, and what hours and times 
 they shall work, contrary to the laws and 
 statutes of this realm, and to Ihe great im- 
 poverishment of his Majesty's subjects." 
 Anyone convicted for the third time of 
 having joined such a combination had his 
 ear cut off, and altogether the punishments 
 were very severe. 
 
 It may be gathered, then, that the prin- 
 ciple of combination amongst the work- 
 people was rapidly progressing, and wat 
 met under the Tudors and Stuarts in a 
 spirit which, it is to be regretted, is not 
 wholly extinct at the present day, as recent 
 events have shown. 
 
 It is not surprising that this stale of af- 
 fairs .should have impressed the thinking 
 minds of the period ; and that the causes 
 and remedies should be con.sidercd. State«- 
 meu and persons of iuflueuce began lu aii^
 
 knowledge the j ustice of the demands of the 
 workpeople. In Sir Thomas More's Utopia 
 the great statesman advocates almost all 
 the reforms that have taken place since his 
 day, and many that have not yet been ac- 
 complished. Indeed, as Mr. J. E. Green 
 points out, " In his treatment of the ques- 
 tion of labor he still remains far in advance 
 of current opinion. The whole system of 
 society around him seemed to him 'nothing 
 but a conspiracy of the rich against the 
 poor. ' Its economic legislation was simply 
 the carrying out of such a conspiracy by 
 process of law. The rich are ever striving 
 to pare away something further from the 
 daily wages of the poor by private fraud, 
 and even by public law, so that the wrong 
 Already existing (for it is a wrong that those 
 from whom the State derives most benefit 
 should receive least reward) is made yet 
 greater by means of the law of the State. 
 
 "The rich devise every means by which 
 they may in the first place secure to them- 
 selves what they have amassed by wrong, 
 and then take to their own use and profit at 
 the lowest possible price the work and labor 
 of the poor. ' ' The result was the wretched 
 existence to which the labor class was 
 doomed — "a life so wretched that even a 
 beast's life seems enviable." More then 
 gives his remedies. The end of labor laws, 
 he says, should Vje the welfare of the laborer. 
 Labor should be compulsory with all. Un- 
 less a man work, neither shall he eat. Even 
 in those days, 1516, More demanded that 
 the period of toil should be shortened to 
 nine hours, with a view to the intellectual 
 improvement of the worker: there miist be 
 also, he pleaded, "a public system of edu- 
 cation," comfortable homes for the people, 
 complete toleration and equality of all re- 
 ligions, and much more in the same strain. 
 
 I do not suppose that any book that was 
 ever written has done so much for the work- 
 ing classes as the Utopia, written by the 
 proposer of the nine hours system more 
 than three hundred years ago. The general 
 progress of civilization, even, had its draw- 
 backs as regards the humbler classes. The 
 general diffusion of the art of printing, the 
 great geographical discoveries effected in 
 the sixteenth century, and the general ac- 
 tivity which prevailed throughout Europe 
 immediately after the Eeformation, gave a 
 great stimulus to trade and commerce, the 
 efiects of which were long felt. This, of 
 coarse, had a beneficial infiuence. It had, 
 however, some drawbacks. Amongst them 
 may be mentioned that in the seventeenth 
 century the practice of setting children pre- 
 iTHiturely to work prevailed to a very large 
 extent. At Norwich, the chief seat of the 
 clothing trade, children began to work at 
 six years old, and earned not the "insig- 
 nificant trifie" which was paid to the little 
 sufferers forty years ago, but very much 
 more than was necessary for their own sus- 
 
 tenance. In the opposition which was 
 shown at the time to this inhumanity is to 
 be discerned the dawn of the Factory Acts, 
 and of the opposition which was subse- 
 quently offered by Trade Unions to the 
 overworking of youths and children. 
 
 I must mention another kind of legisla- 
 tion that emphasized the evils already in- 
 dicated. A state of affairs had been pro- 
 duced which created a class who required 
 not only work, but food, and it was sought 
 to remedy the evil by the enactment of 
 poor laws. I must refer the reader else- 
 where for an account of statutes whose 
 chief result was the manufacture of pau- 
 pers, and whose only effect could be to make 
 the poor, poorer. It will be sufficient to 
 say here that the Justices in quarter ses- 
 sions had the power to fix wages, apotverthat 
 continued under legal sanction till 1812. 
 Naturally they were fixed at the lowest 
 possible figure, the Justices knowing full 
 well that any deficiency would be paid out 
 of the poor rates, to which all occupiers^ 
 that is, the country at large — would be 
 obliged to contribute. There could be 
 but one result from this. Wages would 
 continually fall, and the amount of poor 
 relief as continually rise. As a consequence, 
 the time would ultimately arrive when it 
 would require the whole of the rent from 
 land in order to relieve the poor. Indeed, 
 that condition was being approached and 
 would undoubtedly have been reached but 
 for the discovery of steam power and 
 machine weaving, which, as will appear 
 later on, created a great demand for labor 
 and raised wages. 
 
 In spite of all these difficulties, however, 
 the men continued to combine, and the le- 
 gislature to pass laws against combination. 
 The revolution of 1688 gave no liberties to 
 the artisans and the peasants. In the six- 
 teenth and seventeenth centuries it was or- 
 dained that "journeymen should make no 
 unlawful assemblies, brotherhoods, congre- 
 gations, and flockings together. " The Act 
 of 2 and 3 Ed. VI., c. 15 (aeeante, p. 7) 
 was confirmed by 22-23 Charles II., and 
 remained in force until repealed by 6 Geo. 
 IV., c. 129. The stringent laws, too, to 
 which workingmen were subjected after 
 the Restoration, rendered their position 
 far from comfortable or just. As if the 
 statutes were not sufficiently rigorous, the 
 construction of the existing laws, the offence 
 of conspiracy , originally referring to combi- 
 nations for the purpose of procuring false 
 evidence, or of committing some crime, was 
 extended to associations of work men whose 
 purpose was to raise wages. Even so late 
 as the end of the last century the farm la- 
 borer had no right to sell his labor in the 
 best market, but was compelled to work 
 for any employer in his parish who chose 
 to demand his services at a price fixed by 
 statute. It was not until 1795 that a work-
 
 man could legally travel in searcli of em- 
 ployment out of his own parish. In 154.") 
 the City of London complained that the 
 importation of foreign manufactures was 
 ruining the country, and demanded low 
 wages as a remedy. In 1680 there was, as 
 there is now, the cry that if we paid our ar- 
 tisans high wages we should be unable to 
 compete with loreign countries. In that 
 year Mr. John Bassett, the member for 
 Barnstaple, remarked that it was impos- 
 sible for our textures to maintain a compe- 
 tition with the produce of the Indian looms. 
 ' 'An English mechanic. ' ' hesaid, ' ' instead 
 of slaving like a native of Bengal for a piece 
 of copper, exacted a shilling a day." Al- 
 though this amount is equivalent to only 
 aboutone-half of the present rate of wages, 
 there were even then, as indeed there al- 
 ways have been, attempts to reduce the 
 amount ; and there is ample evidence that 
 so long ago as when the above words were 
 spoken there was " the vehement and bitter 
 cry of labor against capital. " " For so mis- 
 erable a recompense, ' ' wrote Loid Macaulay 
 on ttie aforesaid one shilling a day, " were 
 the pioducers of wealth compelled to toil, 
 rising early and lying down late, while th«^ 
 master clothier, eating, sleeping, and id- 
 ling, became rich by their exertions. " 
 
 From the earliest times until the present 
 day, then, employers have endeavored to 
 pay their men as little as possible for as 
 many hours' work as they could possibly 
 get out of them. In this task the masters 
 have ever been assisted by a Parliament of 
 sympathizing friends — a Parliament which 
 has always yielded reluctantly to any mea- 
 sure calculated to improve the masses, but 
 has greedily accepted any proposal to bene- 
 fit the few at the cost of many; and al- 
 though the onward and upward march of 
 civilization hits rendered such conduct less 
 easy in the present day, yet still tkere is 
 the old tendency to legislate as though the 
 capitalist were entitled to all the plums 
 and the laborer to all the kicks. 
 
 The numerous attempts to fix wages by 
 Act of Parliament were nearly all failures. 
 The assessment of weavers' wages by the 
 Justices had fallen into disuse before 1720. 
 In that year the Justices reasserted the au- 
 thority they po.ssessed, and fixed wages, but 
 their injunctions were disregarded. Ko late 
 as 1708 an Act was passed compelling the 
 London tailors to work from G a. m . t o 7 p. ni . , 
 with an interval of one hour only for re- 
 freshments. The same Act also fixed the 
 wages of the cloth worker at 2.s'. 'id. a day. 
 Either master or servant was liable to im- 
 prisonment for two months for violating 
 these rules; and a master was furth« r liable 
 to a fine of £.'AH) if he employed workmen 
 Avho "lived more than five miles from Ix>n- 
 don. In 17!).') the Berkshire magistrates at 
 Speenhamland declared that wages should 
 rise or fall with the price of brea<l, and 
 
 themselves fixed the rates. Numerous Acts 
 were passed about this time regulating, or 
 rather interfering with, the most minute 
 details of manufacturing industry. To 
 stimulate the Macclesfield trade it was en- 
 acted that no ' ' buttons or button-holes 
 made of cloth, serge, drugget, frieze, cam- 
 let, or any other stufls, should be made, 
 set, or bound on clothes, or worn ;" and the 
 bare enumeration of similar legislation 
 would occupy more space than is at present 
 at disposal. The attempts to keep wages 
 down were supported by statesmen who 
 ought to have known better. Pitt, Fox, 
 and Whitbread distinctly asserted the un» 
 jirst and pernicious doctrine that a laborer's 
 remuneration should be proportioned, not 
 to his services, but to his wants, and in 
 1796 the magistrates in Berkshire attempted 
 to "settle the incomes of the industrious 
 poor." The liberty of operatives was still 
 further restricted at the clo&e of the eigh- 
 teenth century, by an Act of Parliament 
 which declared to be illegal, all contracts, 
 except between ma:>ters and men, for ob- 
 taining advances of wages, altering the 
 usual time of working, decreasing the 
 quantity of work. 
 
 It is difiicult to conceive, in the face of 
 all this, how the condition of the working- 
 man has improved in the slightest degree. 
 Indeed, it has not increased proportionally. 
 He has certainly been enveloped, so to 
 speak, in the general progress of affairs ; 
 he has doubtless shared somewhat in the 
 national prosperity; but whatever improve- 
 ment has taken place in the condition of 
 the working classes, does not all correspond 
 with the improvement which has taken 
 place in the middle and upper classes. In 
 regard to the agricultural laborer the case 
 is very bad. In 1740 a Sufiblk laborer 
 could buy for 5.s., what in 1801 cost him 
 2G.-;. 5d. As Professor Rogers says, "For 
 five centuries and a half, for fifteen, sixteen 
 generations, there was no appreciable al- 
 teration in the condition of the people."' 
 It remained stationary, where it did not 
 deteriorate, from Henry II [. to George III. 
 The condition to day of the laborer in the 
 agricultural districts of England, and the 
 in.stanceswhich are reported of theconduct 
 of the employed, speak of misery and op- 
 pression worthy of the Tudors and the 
 Stuarts. Down to 1779 the condition of 
 the miners in Scotland was lit« rally one of 
 .serfdom. They were obliged to rtinain in 
 the pit as long as the owner chose to keep 
 them there, and they were actually sold as 
 part of the capital invested in the work. 
 If they took work elsewhere, their master 
 could always have them fetched back and 
 flogged as thieves for having robbed him of 
 their labor. It is no wonder that in 17 l.'i 
 the magistrates of Lancashire were alarmed 
 at the symi)toms of combination and «iisa;'- 
 fection, and once again resorted to un
 
 10 
 
 attempt to fix wages in spite of past experi- 
 euces. 
 
 It were tedious to mention the varions 
 events which have ruffled the career of the 
 laborer during the last, century. It is often 
 stated that wages had gradually risen and 
 food had cheapened. This, however, is a 
 mistake. From 1800 until after the repeal 
 of the Corn Laws the state of the laborer 
 seems never to have been in its natural 
 condition. During that period wages were 
 never high, and at times the distress was 
 very great. England was then (1810-1812) 
 in anything but an enviable position. On 
 tbe Continent the hand of every nation was 
 agunst her, and her hand was against every 
 nation. She was at war with all the em- 
 pires she had not subsidized in the Old 
 World, and her arms were struggling with 
 her own offspring in the New World, as 
 well as fighting a war of oppression in the 
 Indies. These wars, which lasted for a 
 quarter of a century, spread misery like a 
 pall over the land. Trade was paralyzed ; 
 foreign ports, both in Europe and America, 
 were closed to us, and by a pig-headed pol- 
 icy* our ports were closed to them. There 
 was not work for anybody, and nearly 
 everybody, therefore, w.is starving. Just at 
 this time an event took place which, al- 
 though a great blessing, and known to be 
 so at the time by far-sighted men, was not 
 unaccompanied by those disasters which 
 generally accompany great changes. While 
 nearly all men were out of work, capital- 
 ists began to introduce into the manufac- 
 turing districts labor-saving machines, 
 which dispensed with seven out of every 
 eight handworkers. This was the last straw. 
 
 The men were in no humor for reasoning 
 on the principles of political economy. 
 They were starving ; and to their eyes the 
 new machinery cut olT every chance of 
 their ever working again. They formed 
 the strongest and most secret combination 
 ever known in this country. Their object 
 was to destroy the new machines, and for 
 three years the havoc they committed, es- 
 pecially in Yorkshire, Lancashire, and 
 Nottinghamshire, was immense. It was 
 not until enormous powers were granted 
 to the military, the magistracy, and the 
 polite, that the conspiracy was brought to 
 an end by the execution of thirty of the 
 ringleaders. | 
 
 Such was the miserable condition of the 
 
 * The notorious " Orders in Council." 
 + The "Luddite Rising," as tlie di'-afifection haa 
 been called, was intensified by the fact that, 
 whereas the operatives were starving, the capi- 
 talists were hoarding. Mr. J. K. Green says: 
 '"The war enriched the landowner, the capitalist, 
 the manufacturer, the farmer; but it impover- 
 ished the poor. It is, indeed, from the fatal years 
 which lie between the Peace of Amiens and 
 Waterloo that we must date that war of classes, 
 that social severance between rich and poor, be- 
 tween employers and employed, which still forms 
 the great difficulty of English politics." 
 
 laborers, and their meagre powers of com- 
 bination, at the dawn of the nineteenth 
 century. Everywhere the combination 
 laws were in full force ; the truck system 
 was almost universally established, and 
 still further, to make the workman depend- 
 ent, he was paid at long intervals ; anil any 
 advances kindly made to him by a gener- 
 ous employer were charged lor at tbe rate 
 of 2C0 per cent, per annum. Add to these 
 the fact that the men were kept at work 
 sixteen hours out of every twenty -four,and 
 it will be no matter of surprise that they 
 were driven to defy the cruel and unjust 
 laws which oppressed ihem, and to carry 
 out their object, not only in the most na- 
 tural of all ways, but by the means with 
 which they were most familiar, namely, 
 by combination. 
 
 The progress of industry at last rendered 
 this imperative. The application of steam 
 power to the processes of manufiicture, fol- 
 lowed by the inventions of Arkwright, 
 Crompton, Hargreaves, at the close of the 
 eighteenth century, and others, had almost 
 annihilated the domestic system of manu- 
 facturing. Hitherto weaving had been 
 carried on in private houses and in sheds 
 adjoining them, as is still the case in some 
 parts of Yorkshire, as, for instance, the vil- 
 lages about Huddersfield and Leeds. Ap-« 
 prentices lived with their masters as part 
 of the family.* It was a common occur- 
 rence tor the apprentice to marry his mas- 
 ter's daughter, and enter into partnership 
 with her father. With the impiovementof 
 machinery, however, when several looms 
 were worked by one engine, the domestic 
 system was supplanted by the factory sys- 
 tem. The rapid production of new ma- 
 chines ruined the trade of the hand loom 
 weaver. There can be no doubt that the 
 introduction of machinery was at Jirtit ex- 
 tremely injurious to tho&e whose means of 
 living were affected — as, indeed, every im- 
 provement in machinery must injure those 
 who are only able to keep in the old groove. 
 By the invention of machinery the public, 
 who paid less for their goods,and the man- 
 ufacturers who produced more cloth for 
 the same, or a less outlay, were the gainers. 
 The old weavers were the only losers. f 
 
 I have said the men resorted to the means 
 with which they were most familiar, viz., 
 combination. Their experiences on this 
 point have already been sketched, but now 
 a new departure was made. In the begin- 
 ning of last century the principle of the 
 guilds had extended itself beyond the mid- 
 dle class, and had reached the working 
 
 * In 1806 there were above 100 such apprentices 
 in Armley, a manufacturing village of betweea 
 4,000 and 5,000 inhabitants. 
 
 t This has always been the case. The objec- 
 tions in 1730 to the "new-fangled machine" (for 
 winnowing) introduced into Scotland are well 
 known.
 
 11 
 
 classes. More correctly speaking, the ca- 
 pitalists had withdrawn, and left the men 
 to organize and to promote their combina- 
 tion and organization. In 1703 the Watch- 
 makers' Society and the Norman Society 
 were established in London upon the prin- 
 ciple of the present friendly societies; and, 
 with others nearly as old, are still in exist- 
 ence. The example thus set was followed 
 by the rapid promotion of similar societies. 
 Such associations, however, were illegal, 
 and their meetings were obliged to be held 
 privately. The "Friendly Society of Iron 
 Founders," which began in 1810, used to 
 meet on dark nights on the peaty wastes 
 and moors on the highlands of the Midland 
 counties, and the archives of the society 
 were buried in the peat. These societies 
 have now ramifications all over the empire, 
 and in England and Wales alone have funds 
 amounting to upwards of £150,000. 
 
 It was customary at the beginning of 
 this century for men from various factories 
 *x> "'neet at taverns to pay their instalments 
 i^to the friendly society, the benefit fund, 
 i>r the burial club. At such gatherings the 
 new ptate of affairs — as being the subject 
 nearest every workman's heart — naturally 
 became the common topic of conversation. 
 Every phase of the question was thoroughly 
 discussed, and the conduct of the several 
 employers was freely criticized. The op- 
 eratives naturally inquired why the hardest 
 work and the least pay generally went to- 
 gether. They saw that everything around 
 them was improving except their own con- 
 dition, and this appeared to be deteriorat- 
 ing. At length some few who worked 
 under a specially severe taskmaster would 
 naturally rebel. They would agree or com- 
 bine to resist the injustice and oppression 
 under which they suffered. Their friends 
 would not only sympathize with them, 
 but, knowing not how soon they might be 
 placed in a similar position, would help 
 them in their fight, and thus, what was at 
 first merely a chat over a glass of beer, 
 soon became a trade union. ' " Men, ' ' says 
 Mr.W. T. Thornton, "are seldom collected 
 together in large masses without speedily 
 discovering that union isstrength, and men 
 wnose daily avocations obliged them to be 
 constantly using, and by use to be constantly 
 sharpening, their wits, were not likely 
 to be backward in making this discovery. ' ' 
 
 The origin of the trade unions accounts 
 for a great many of their peculiar features. 
 As combining was illegal, the unions dis- 
 gui.sed themselves as friendly societies. In 
 framing the rules the founders naturally 
 looked at such models as they were already 
 pos.sessed of; and, as wiser men have done, 
 they selected much that was bad as well 
 as much that was good. It is a remarkable 
 fact that those rules at present in existence 
 in trade unions, which give so much offence 
 to employers, are all actual copies of the 
 
 rules of the ancient guilds, or reproductions 
 of the provisions of ancient statutes. The 
 workingmen invented no absurdities. It 
 cannot be too often borne in mind that 
 trade unions are as much a natural devel- 
 opment as is the British Constitution it- 
 self, and it is as foolish to expect immediate 
 perfection in the one as finality in the 
 amendments already effected in the other. 
 The history of the world teaches us that so 
 universal is frailty that it is not until every 
 variety of error has been passed through 
 and exhausted that things at last settle in- 
 to the right course. 
 
 The workingmen, therefore, cannot be 
 blamed for not discovering that some of 
 the rules they adopted were hardly consist- 
 ent with the general progress of opinion, 
 and it is greatly to their credit that experi- 
 ence has taught them better. The foolish 
 rules are never introduced into new socie- 
 ties, and they are being gradually expunged 
 from the rules of the old ones. This must 
 necessarily be a work of time, because sev- 
 eral of the old rules have at first sight an 
 appearance of justice, and certainly contain 
 within themselves much that would natu- 
 rally commend itself to the workmen. Take, 
 for instance, the rules relating to appren- 
 tices, in those trades to which no appren- 
 ticeship is needed. The rule limiting the 
 number of apprentices is not only charac- 
 teristic of almost all the guilds and of 
 some of the statutes,* but was copied by 
 the Inns of Court and the Universities, and 
 is, moreover, one that would especially 
 commend itself before the introduction of 
 machinery. In the first place, there was, 
 and is, the desire to limit the number of 
 competitors as much as possible. With a 
 market sufficiently well stocked with work> 
 men, each new arrival would be regarded 
 with great jealousy. Nor is there anything 
 wrong in the notion of restricting the sup- 
 ply of laborers. The point where evil may 
 creep in is found in the means taken to 
 bring about such restrictions. A great au- 
 thority like Mr. J. S. Mill urged upon the 
 workingmen the necessity of rc^tiicting 
 their numbers as a means of increasing 
 their wages. The plan he recommended 
 was the "prudential check" of Malthus. 
 
 What, however, seems ea.sy and roseate to 
 the philosopher often appears difficult, if 
 not impracticable, to the ordinary mortal ; 
 and the last generation of British workmen 
 took such steps as instantly occurred to 
 them, or were suggested to them, and the 
 results of which were actually before their 
 eyes. Each man would say to himself, 
 "The less number of workers in my trade 
 the better it is for me." It requires a high 
 state of development to perceive the various 
 and intricate ways in which the laws of 
 
 • 5 Eliz , c. 4 ; 5 and 6 K<1. VI., c. 22; 1 James I.; 
 c. G.
 
 12 
 
 production and distribution work so as to 
 bring about the greatest happiness to the 
 greatest number. Another point which 
 would naturally occur to the workman 
 would be that /(e taught the apprentice and 
 received no remuneration. All the trouble 
 and work of training the youth were left to 
 the artisan, and when the pupil was per- 
 fect he at once competed with his teacher. 
 During the whole of the seven years' ap- 
 prenticeship the master received the bene- 
 fits of the youth's extra labor, and of the 
 premium that was sometimes paid with 
 him, while the man who had borne the 
 heat and burden of the day received no ad- 
 vantage whatever. The rule limiting the 
 number of apprentices, then, was very at- 
 tractive to the founders of trade unions. 
 The improvements in machinery, however, 
 are rapidly depriving the system of its util- 
 ity. It may have require I a. long appren- 
 ticeship before a man could weave ; it re- 
 quires little to "mind a loom ;" and there- 
 fore that rule of the trade unions, which is 
 80 often quoted by employers as exhibiting 
 the arbitrary principle of the unions, had a 
 natural birth, is dying a natural death, 
 and will ere long be decently buried and 
 duly forgotten. 
 
 The trade unions copied several other 
 ancient provisions, such as the rules against 
 sy.stematic overtime. The guilds also for- 
 bade a member to work with a non-mem- 
 ber. No member was to instruct another, 
 and "no person of the mystery was to hire 
 himself to a person of another mystery 
 where greater wages were offered . " " Rat- 
 tening" (exactly similar to the Sheffield 
 system, with the exception that in the old 
 times it was legal, and now it is not) was 
 practised against those persons who neglec- 
 ted to pay their subscriptions. The guilds 
 had also their "black lists," and the word 
 "donation," now ajiplied to the money 
 given to men ' ' on tramp, " is a translation 
 of "Geo-chenk," the word given by the old 
 German guilds to the workmen who were 
 similarly tramping. These and other rules 
 were copied into the codes of the new 
 unions. They are rapidly becoming obso- 
 lete, and are not enforced at all in the iron 
 industries. In these industries no fixed 
 period of servace is imposed on apprentices, 
 nor is their number limited. The union 
 men do not refuse to work with non-union 
 men, and "rattening" is not allowed. 
 
 From this it is seen that, in the natural 
 order of things, the early trade union- 
 ists selected rules which they now ignore. 
 They aLso showed at times more of the 
 bigotry and narrow-mindedness of a by- 
 gone age than one likes to see now. There 
 have been intolerants in every creed, 
 and it would be strange if trade unions had 
 furnished an exception. Even the most 
 Dartial inquirer would fail to detect any 
 <aore intolerance in trade unionism than can 
 
 be found in the society whicu was presided 
 over by the Duke of Cumberland— or,indeed, 
 in any other combination. It would, how- 
 ever, not have been surprising if intoler- 
 ance had reached its culminating point ia 
 trade unions. The wonder is, not that there 
 has been so much ill-feeling on the part of 
 the men, but that there has been so little. 
 Oppression breeds intolerance. The men 
 knew that it was illegal to combine, and 
 having therefore to conspire, they came to 
 regard both their masters and the laws as 
 their natural enemies, against whom they 
 would have to wage a war prolonged, if not 
 everlasting. "Consciousness," says Thorn- 
 ton, "of being singled out as victims by a 
 partial and iniquitous law, directed exclu- 
 sively against themselves, naturally excited 
 in them both general prejudice against all 
 law, and special rancor against those in 
 whose behalf the specially obnoxious law 
 had been enacted. ' ' Created by strikes and 
 nurtured by oppression, unions long re- 
 tained their warlike spirit, a characteristic 
 which now happily is passing away. 
 
 It remains to add that combinations 
 began, not amongst the workmen, but 
 amongst the masters. The employed merely 
 followed the example of their employers. 
 It was, and still is, the practice of large 
 capitalists to combine to keep down the 
 price of labor, instead of competing with 
 each other, and so raising wages to their 
 "legitimate rate, " as it is called. Until 
 lately the combination of the masters has 
 been directed to a great extent against poor, 
 ignorant, and disunited men, and on that 
 account the capitalists have generally been 
 successful. This state of things is now 
 changed. 
 
 It is seen, then, that trade unions were 
 not improvised. They are not sudden and 
 impulsive combinations, carelessly formed 
 to be hastily abandoned. They are the 
 natural outgrowth of natural laws. Work- 
 men soon perceived that all the extra profit.-' 
 arising from approved appliances went 
 into the pockets of the capitalists, and 
 that a great deal of additional misery and 
 suffering was imposed upon themselves. 
 They saw that the hardest fare and the 
 most work always accompanied each other, 
 and there were complaints loud and deep. 
 Indeed, trade unions have always been 
 "forced" into existence by the oppression 
 of the masters ; and when attempts have 
 been made by the men to establish a anion 
 in the absence of pressure from above, they 
 have always failed.* At this distance of 
 time we can now clearly see that the em- 
 ployers of Nottingham must be ])lamt d for 
 the fact that, in 1812, half the population of 
 their town lived upon public relief To 
 destroy a loom was punishable with death, 
 
 * The first attempt of the London tailors and 
 that of the puddlers in 18t5 are cases in point.
 
 13 
 
 and it was then that numerous associations 
 of wopkmen sprung into existence. These 
 associations developed into trade unions as 
 soon as the law permitted them to do so. It 
 can hardly be doubted that the indictment, 
 tifty-seven yards long, charging some me- 
 chanics, in 1846, with conspiring to get np a 
 strike, and with some '"thousands' of mis- 
 demeanors, was the beginning of the now 
 large association known as the Amalga- 
 mated Society of Engineers, and if its 
 success was at all doubtful, the conduct of 
 the Messrs. Piatt in 1852 established its 
 basis on a rock. * It was the violation of 
 
 *■' After a lock-out of four months, and tlie 
 expenditure, of the whule of the aceumulated 
 funds of the Amalgamated Society, the em- 
 ployer.^ opened their works again, and the men 
 went back on the old terms. Had the Amalga- 
 luated Society broken up, as was confidently ex- 
 pected at tlie time, the labor movement might 
 bave been thrown back a quarter of a century 
 
 13 George IV., cap. 68, by the masters, in 
 favor of themselves aud against the inter- 
 ests of the men, which led the Spitalfield 
 weavers to form their association. The 
 oppression of the miners led to the forma- 
 tion of the union in 1831 ; while the cloth- 
 workers, the hatters, calico printers, the 
 Scotch bakers ( who in 1846 were little bet- 
 ter than slaves), and all the new as well a£! 
 the old .societies, have been forced into ei- 
 i.stence by the injustice of the employers. 
 ' ' I am.no lover of trade unions, ' ' says the 
 Bishop of Manchester, "hut they have 
 been forced upon the working classes by 
 the inequitable useof the power of capital." 
 
 . . . as it was, the defeat proved better than a 
 victory. It was the turning-point in the history 
 of the Amalgamated Society, which rapidly re- 
 covered its io.-.ses, and at the end of two yc rs 
 was stronger than ever." Mr. Thomas Hug^.' t, 
 in The Century for May, 1384. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 TRADE UNIONS — THEIR PROGRESS AND DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 Attempts to crush unionism — Hornby v. Close — Combination made legal — First conference of union 
 delegates — The ShetKeld outrages — The Royal Commission — Unequal laws — Picketing — T^o 
 Trade Union Acts. 
 
 The events whose Listory has been 
 sketched in the previous chapter show that 
 combinations amongst workmen have ex- 
 isted from a remote period, as well as indi- 
 cate the origin of trado unions. It wi^s 
 necessary thus to tra< e the historical con- 
 tinuity of thesteps that led lot he formation 
 of unions, el.se their actual objects would 
 not be clearly defined; the difficulties en- 
 countered and overcome not sufficiently 
 appreciated ; the basis on which luiions rest 
 not thoroughly understood, and the future 
 of such institutions not readily realized. 
 
 " We watch the wheels of Nature's mazy plan. 
 And learn the future from the past of man." 
 
 When, however, the existence of unions 
 became a fact, their succeeding career was 
 by no means smooth. Every concession 
 had to be wrung from the legislature l>y 
 the severest struggles, and there was always 
 a readiness shown to hamper or destroy 
 them. 
 
 The power with Avhich it was thought 
 unionism could V)e crushed wa.s very slowly 
 withdrawn. It was not until 18.24 that 
 combinations of working men were rendered 
 legal for " improving wages and reducing 
 ihe hours of labor " and for these two pur- 
 
 poses alone. The statute which gave this 
 power, however, was anything but satis- 
 factory. The word of the master was 
 always to be taken in preference to that of 
 the servant ; the judges decided that all 
 combinations which were "in restraint of 
 trade" were criminal ; and the Queen's 
 Bench in 1867 confirmed the decision of 
 the magistrates {vide Hornby v. Close), that 
 societies having rules enabling them so to 
 act, could hohi no property, not even for 
 benevolent and charitable purposes. This 
 decision ha<l reference to boiler-makera 
 and iron sliip-builders, aud created a great 
 sensation. More than one London new.s- 
 paper declared a belief and expressed a 
 hope that by it unionism had received 
 its death blow. The trade unionists, 
 too, were naturally alarnud ; but they 
 were not ])repared to see destroyed an 
 institution which had been builded up 
 with ."o much trouble, and in the face of so 
 many difficulties. A conference of trade 
 union delegates was convened l)y the 
 "Working Men's Association," and met in 
 St. Martin's Hall, on March."., 6, 7, H, 1H(;7, 
 to consider the matter, as well as the Koyal 
 Commi.'-Hion loiiKpiire into the trade uuioua 
 that the Government of the day had just
 
 14 
 
 appointed.* No such conference had ever 
 been held belore. There were present 
 delegates from sixty-five London societies, 
 twelve provincial trade councils, and 
 twenty- live provincial trade societies. This 
 conference was the forerunner of the trade 
 unions congress that is now such a prom- 
 inent annual public event. The delegates 
 were unanimous in calling for an immediate 
 alteration of the law, and so determined 
 Wi\s their aspect that they refused to accept 
 jks a compromise the measure intrpductd 
 into the House of Commons by Mr. Neale, 
 M. P., for Oxford, having for its object a 
 temporary protection to certain of the 
 societies. On the other hand, a resolution 
 was passed, a bill was drafted, and a peti- 
 tion adopted, which I here reproduce. Re- 
 solved — 
 
 "That, taking into consideration the late 
 decision of the Court of Queen's Bench, in 
 reference to trade unions, depriving them 
 of all legal recognition, and of protection 
 for their funds ; further, taking into con- 
 sideration the benevolent purposes for 
 which the bulk of such funds are subscribed, 
 this meeting of trade delegates is of opinion 
 that it is the bounden dixty of the legisla- 
 ture to enact such laws as will protect their 
 funds, and thereby jjlace the members of 
 those societies on tliesame footing in respect 
 to their funds as all other classes of her 
 Majesty's subjects ; and also bearing in 
 mind the fact that the working of these 
 trade unions are to be inquired into by a 
 Royal Commission, and that legislation in 
 respect to them may hereafter take place, 
 we consider that a bill of the following 
 nature will answer that purpose : — 
 
 "Whereas combinations or associations 
 of the operative classes for the protection 
 of their trade interests are recognized by 
 law ; and whereas it appears that no ade- 
 quate security is by law provided for the 
 safety of the funds collected by such asso- 
 ciations ; be it therefore enacted, etc., etc. 
 
 ' ' That the same protection shall be given 
 to all members of such combinations or 
 associations of the operative classes in re- 
 spect to the funds collected for the purposes 
 of the protection of their trade interests as 
 are afforded to the members ©f Friendly 
 Societies by the Friendly Societies Act ; 
 and shall be recoverable from defaulters 
 in the same way and manner as is pro- 
 vided for in the said Friendly Societies' 
 Act ; and that their protection in re- 
 spect to such funds shall be effectual 
 
 *The object of tlie commission vr&s "to inquire 
 Into the organization and rules of trade unions 
 wid otiier associations, whether of workmen or 
 employers, and into the effect produced by such 
 unions and associations on the workmen and 
 employers respectively, and the relation between 
 workmen and employers and on the trade and 
 industry of the country." 
 
 whether such associations cliall be -on- 
 nected with Friendly, Benefit, or i'rovident 
 Societies, or otherwise, and shall extend to 
 all such funds as are not to be devoted to 
 the promotion of objects criminal iu their 
 own nature, but that nothing herein con- 
 tained shall entitle the office-bearers of such 
 associations or combinations to sue any of 
 their members for arrear of contributions, 
 nor in any respect to coerce any ind"vidual 
 to become a member of such assc;.iatioD , 
 they shall give any further legal recogni- 
 tion (except as hereinbefore provided for) 
 to such societies as is already given ia Law. 
 This Act to have effect until the end of the 
 Parliamentary session next after the Royal 
 Commission of Inquiry on Trade L'nions 
 has given in its report." 
 
 The petition was as follows : — 
 
 The Humble Petition of the Undersigned Mem- 
 bers of the Society of , assemblin;/ 
 or meeting at {or in) , in the 
 Parish of , County : 
 
 Humbly sheweth, — 
 That your petitioners have seen with deep 
 concern that by the late decision of the 
 Court of Queen's Bench, in the case of 
 Hornby r. Close, this organization of work- 
 ing men, in common with nearly two 
 thousand similar Associations throughout 
 the United Kingdom, are deprived of all 
 legal recognition, and of protection for our 
 funds. 
 
 That such funds having been contributed, 
 not merely for what we consider the legiti- 
 mate protection of our trade interests, but 
 also, and principally, for mutual help and 
 support in seasons of adversity ; your Peti- 
 tioners humbly submit that such a state ot 
 the law is an injustice to us as members of 
 the community, will tend to foster fraud 
 and to discourage provident habits ; and is, 
 therefore, extremely undesirable to estab- 
 lish or maintain. 
 
 Your Petitioners therefore humbly pray 
 your Honorable House forthwith to enact 
 such a law as will give to us, and the mem- 
 bers of all such Societies, the same protec- 
 tion for their funds as are enjoyed by all 
 other classes of her Majesty's subjects 
 against fraud and dishonesty. 
 
 And your Petitioners will pray, etc. 
 
 There were many decisions given, too, by 
 judges and minor magistrates that ,'ihowed 
 distinctly employers and operatives were 
 not equal when standing before the seat of 
 judgment. The law did not seem particu- 
 larly just that would not allow men to 
 "picket" iu the tailor's strike, but which 
 allowed the m;'Sters to address a circular to 
 their fellow-employers (being members of 
 the Master Tailors' Association), asking 
 them not to employ certain unionist work- 
 men named therein ; nor does that decision 
 (on the same dispute) seem a very wise one
 
 15 
 
 ■whiol), acknowledging that the simple act 
 of one uiiiu persuading another is perfectly 
 legal, \et stated that, because several men 
 oigauized themselves to inform workmen 
 that such and such a shop was on strjke, 
 they were deemed guilty of an offence 
 against the Jaw. Nor couJd right-minded 
 men be Itiought to see the justice ot that 
 law w hicli, Avhile it only tined the master 
 for breach of contract, imprisoned the ser- 
 vant lor the same offence. It was not until 
 1871 that an Act was passed remedying 
 these defects. The law on the subject even 
 then wa-s, unfortunately, very ambiguous 
 and imperfect. The unjust, cruel, and 
 blundenng imprisonment of the gas stokers 
 showed that there was still plenty of scope 
 for cunning lawyers when pleading to an 
 excited jury and before a prejudiced judge. 
 As a matter of fact the whole tendency of 
 legislation for the men by the masters has 
 ever oeen to keep wages low. Indeed, that 
 has been the avowed object of the laws 
 which have been passed. To counteract 
 this, the unions were formed to keep them 
 high, and we have the authority of a man 
 who believed in a high moral standard that 
 such conduct was praiseworthy. " If it 
 were possible, " wrote Mr. J. S. Mill, "for 
 the working classes, by combining among 
 themselves, to raise or keep up the general 
 rate of wages, it need hardly be said that 
 this would be a thing not to be punished, 
 but to be welcomed and rejoiced at." The 
 further improvements in the law in this 
 resptct will be notictd in due course. 
 
 At this time trade unions were regarded 
 unfavorably by a large portion of the public, 
 in con.sequence of what was known as the 
 Sheffield outrages. " In order to compel 
 men to join their unions and comply with 
 the rules, a system had been adopted of 
 taking away the tools and driving bands of 
 independent or defaulting workmen, and 
 this .system had become so universal that 
 when tools or bands had been stolen, the 
 sufferers applied systematically to the sec- 
 retary of the union to know on what terms 
 the lost articles would be restored. But 
 the utiinnists were not long content with 
 this e.xercise of their power, and proceeded 
 to the e.xtcution of a series ot outrages and 
 crimes which are perhaps almost without 
 parallel in the history of communities sup- 
 posed to he civilized. Masters and work- 
 men who refused or failed to comply with 
 their rules, were snlyccted to treatment of 
 the most diabolical character. Their cattle 
 were hamstrung, or otherwise mutilated, 
 their ricks set on fire. They were shot at, 
 and in one instance a master was kilkd by 
 as air gun fired into a crowded room. Gun- j 
 powder wa-s usually employed in the case of 
 obnoxiousworkmen. Canislersweietniown i 
 down chimneys, bottles filled with the ex- ' 
 plosive, to which lighted fuses were at- ' 
 tached, were thrown through windows of i 
 
 the workmen's dwelling-houses, thus ex* 
 posing women and children to its terrible 
 effects. It was a common practice to place 
 gunpowder in grinding troughs, which ex- 
 ploded as soon as work was commenced." 
 Injustice to the great body of woikmenat 
 Sheffield, it should be stated that these out- 
 rages were committed by a very few per- 
 sons, and were at all times execrated by 
 the great body of the working classes. Out 
 of sixty trade unions, then in existence, 
 twelve were implicated in these outrages, 
 and of these it was shown on inquiry that 
 the greater proportion of the members knew 
 nothing of the actions of their officers. 
 
 The result of the Sheffield outrages was, 
 that a Eoyal Commission was appointed in 
 1867 to inquire in to the matter and into the 
 condition of trade unions generally. The 
 conference of delegates already alluded to 
 urged upon the Government that a trade 
 unionist representative should sit upon the 
 commission. The request was refuted, but 
 ultimately a concession was made that Mr. 
 Frederic Harrison, barrister -at -law, a 
 well-known advocate of unionism and pos-> 
 sessing the confidence of the unionists, 
 should sit on the commission, and he rend- 
 ered signal services in that position. The 
 trade unionists also asked to be present at 
 theinquiryto "watch" their interest. Thia 
 also was refused, but the point was imma- 
 terial as the House of Lords amended the 
 constitution of the commission by throwing 
 its doors open to the press and the public. 
 The disclosures before the commission are 
 now a matter of history. The authors of the 
 outrages were discovered only on their own 
 confession, made under a promise of par- 
 don, and thus they escaped punishment. 
 
 The good points of trade unions were 
 also fully placed before the commission by 
 the best of the unions' secretaries, whose 
 evidence will well repay perusal at this day. 
 Altogether the inquiry raised trade unions 
 in the estimation of the public. It was 
 seen that, purged of their impurities, they 
 would be excellent institutions, and the 
 legislature set to work to give them legal 
 status. In 1871 the Trade Union Act was 
 passed, making trade unions legal societies, 
 and preventing the members from being 
 liable to pro.secution for conspiracy, an 
 offence for vv-hich, in days gone by, so many 
 had suffered imprisonment ; while by an 
 interpretation given to Ku.ssell Gurney's 
 Act of 1868, due protection was given to 
 the funds of the society. In short, trade 
 unions were now acknowledged to be insti- 
 tutions of the country. They bad hence- 
 forth a charter of liberty andundcrthe light 
 and freedom so given to them they began to 
 flourish, and, as will lie shown in the suc- 
 ceeding pages, have continued to flourish, 
 to the welfare of the working classes, and 
 the general benefit of the whole common- 
 wealth.
 
 16 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 TRADES UNIONS — THEIR OBJECTS. 
 
 Kquality of bargaining power — To raise wages— Protection — Sick benefits, etc. — Mutual suppKJrt— 
 Moral impr'^vement of the workman — Executive of unions prevents strikes — Unselfishneaa 
 of unionism — Trade unions congresses — Their influence — The International — The Paris 
 conference. 
 
 The foregoing account of the origin of 
 trade unions is almost an answer to the 
 question, "What are the objects of trade 
 unions?" The question must at all times 
 be difficult to answer in a sentence, be- 
 cause the scope of the objects of unionism 
 grows with the growth of unionism. At 
 hrst they were merely a protection against 
 contracts being too unjust, too heavy to be 
 borne. They now demand — and rightly 
 so — that contracts shall be fair. Mr. Dun- 
 ning says the object of a trade union is " to 
 ensure the freedom of exchange with regard 
 to labor, by putting the workman on some- 
 thing like an equal position in bargaining 
 with his employer." Professor Fawcett 
 takes a similar view Trade unions are 
 formed, he says, so " that the laborer may 
 have the same chance of selling his labor 
 dearly as the master has of buying it 
 cheaply." At a later date, the same au- 
 thority declares the intention of the men to 
 have been "to protect themselves against 
 Tvhat are supposed to be the conflicting in- 
 terests of their employers." So, too, Mr. 
 Trederic Harrison believes that, at any rate, 
 " the all-important question is how equality 
 is to be established," and he represents the 
 placing of labor on the same footing as cap- 
 ital as the great desideratum. Mr. W. T. 
 Thornton, however, admits of no such ob- 
 ject as the abstract idea of equality, The 
 object of unionism, he maintains, is not 
 merely to free men from the dictation of 
 their employers, but to change positions, 
 and to dictate ; and that "their rule is to 
 get as much as they can, and to keep as 
 much as they can get. ' ' 
 
 Although the evidence given before the 
 Trade Union Commission by some of the 
 mo.st intelligent and trustworthy of the 
 trade union secretaries endorses such views 
 as those expressed by Mr. Thornton, yet the 
 history of the movement shows that al- 
 though unions may have been founded 
 principally, if not solely, as protective as- 
 .sociations, and have developed to some ex- 
 tent into aggressive associations, yet they 
 have long ago embraced other features in 
 their objects. They now aim at every 
 means that will raise workmen to the best 
 position it is possible for them to obtain . 
 
 An impartial inquirer, then, will take a 
 
 higher view of the object of trade unionism 
 than Mr. Thornton believes in, without 
 being liable to a charge of sentimentalism. 
 The object of a trade union is a wide one, 
 viz., to do all that can be done to better in 
 every respect the condition of its members. 
 The raising of the rate of wages is un- 
 doubtedly the principal means to that end, 
 but to say that it is the "sole aim" is to 
 mistake the one for the other. Based upon 
 union, the efforts of these organizations 
 are collective, and the results general, not 
 special. Unlike most kinds of individual 
 effort, the object is not to assist men to lift 
 themselves out of their class, as if they were 
 ashamed of it, or as if manual labor were a 
 disgrace, but to raise the class itself in 
 physical well-being and self-estimation. 
 
 No encyclopaedia has yet devoted an ar- 
 ticle to trade unions, and yet trade union- 
 ism is an accomplished fact. They are 
 built on a rock — a firm, sound, sub.stantial 
 basis. They cannot be annihilated. If they 
 were done away with to-day, they would 
 spring up again to-morrow, the same as in 
 the celebrated dispute with Messrs. Piatt, 
 of Oldham, when the men were starved 
 into submission, and were obliged to give 
 up their union, yet they re-joined as soon as 
 they were at work. Although unionism in 
 Lancashire languished during the cotton 
 famine, it sprang into life with renewed 
 vigor when the crisis was over. It would 
 be well if the employers at present endeav- 
 oring to crush out unionism amongst the 
 workmen would take warning from these 
 facts. It is a mistake to say that unions 
 are the cause of hostility between labor 
 and capital ; they are the result of that hos- 
 tility. It will be well for the employers to 
 remember this. It will be well for them to 
 realize the fact that unions will not decrease 
 in power, as some persons fondly hope. 
 
 Wherever there has been intelligence, 
 there has been combination. Professor 
 Fawcett pointed out, in 1871, that there 
 was no combination amongst the agricul- 
 tural laborers, because they were "too ig- 
 norant," and because there was a "want of 
 intelligence." They quietly submitted in 
 North Herefordshire to a pittance of nine 
 or ten shillings a week, while their fellow- 
 laborers in Warwickshire were getting
 
 r, 
 
 twelve shillings a week, and probaVily they 
 were so inured to suffering that they 
 wonld never have complained, had they 
 not been persistently subjected to pitiless, 
 relentless, and objectless cruelty. It is a 
 fact that the most intelligent of our arti- 
 sans are the most earnest advocates of 
 trade unions, and these have not been slow 
 to instruct their less fortunate brethren in 
 the advantages of unionism. 
 
 The power of trade unions will increase 
 with experience, and their intluence will 
 extend as education becomes general. It 
 is for employers to say Avhether they will 
 bow to a necessity graciously, or. as hither- 
 to, goad to the last extremity. Day by 
 day the men are becoming les.s and less de- 
 pendent upon the caprice of employers. 
 Their demand for just laws cannot longer 
 be disregarded, and even now they are 
 able to show that they are as competent as 
 any other class to take care of their own 
 personal habits and requirements. 
 
 The unions, formed in the manner de- 
 scribed, spread rapidly. They did not 
 long confine themselves to the villages or 
 towns in which they began, but the 
 ' 'unions" in various places' 'amalgamated, ' ' 
 and thus irfluenced large areas. They ex- 
 tended their ramification still wider, and 
 they embraced the whole kingdom, and 
 even obtained a footing in America and 
 Australia. 
 
 No trade union is siibsidized. The funds 
 ari>-e from tlie contributions of members. 
 In the Amalgamated Society of Kngineers, 
 the contribution generally is one shilling 
 A week, and if a man be in arrears, he is 
 suspended from the benefits of the society 
 — unless, indeed, he is out of work, or in 
 distres-sed circumstances. 
 
 No sketch of a trade ui^ion can give any 
 idea of the scrupulous care that is taken to 
 do that which is lawful and right. The 
 code of rules of a trade union bristles with 
 judicious safeguards. The ideas that a 
 strike depends upon the ipxc dixit of a paid 
 agitator, and that if the men were to vote 
 by ballot on the question, they would never 
 consent to a strike, are conceived by those 
 only who do not know what a trade union 
 is. In most cases a strike is the result of 
 action taken by the men themselves in each 
 district, the executive having more power to 
 prevent a strike than to initiate one. So 
 re<'*ntly as the last cotton strike, the exec- 
 utive did all they could to prevent the 
 strike, but the operatives rushed into it in 
 spite of the protestations of all the leaders. 
 
 As a proof of the care taken to avoid 
 strikes, may be mentioned that .several of 
 the most powerful unions in the kingdom, 
 have made a rule that in no case shall aid 
 be given Uj any local branch, unless it can 
 be proved that betbre going out a bona 
 fidr offer of arbitration has been made to 
 the employer. The secretaries, or execu- 
 
 tive, too, always warn their union to avoid 
 causes of dispute. "It was confidently ex- 
 pected,"' says Mr. Thos. Hnghe.s, in the 
 Century, ''that strikes would grow in num- 
 bers and intensity, as the unions spread 
 over larger areas :' but "of late years the 
 number of these strikes has notably dimin- 
 ished ; and every year the chances of 
 such lamentable contests seem likely to 
 decrease." It should be noted further, 
 that Mr. Frederic Harrison, at the Trade 
 Union Congress, and Mr. (ieorge Howell, 
 in the Contemporart/ Ji'rvierc, pointed out 
 that "inl88'2, the Amalgamated Engineers, 
 with an income of £1*24,000, and a cash 
 balance of £168,000, expended in disputes 
 altogether, including the support they gave 
 to other trades, the sum of £895 only. That 
 was fiir less than one per cent, of their in- 
 come. The Iron founders spent, out of an 
 income of £4'2.0(IO, £'214 only ; and the 
 Amalgamated Carpenters, who had had a 
 number of disputes, and hr.d been engaged 
 in. strikes, spent £'2i)00 only, out of £50,000, 
 which was only four per cent. : the Tailors, 
 with £18,000, spent £5G5 only ; and the 
 Stonemasons, with 11.000 members in 
 union — the report .seems to say more in 
 sorrow than pride — spent nothing in strikes. 
 During six years of unexampled bad trade, 
 reduction of wages, and industrial disturb- 
 ance, there were a great many strikes, and 
 during that period, seven great trade socie- 
 ties expended in the settlement of dis- 
 putes £162.000 only, out of a capital of 
 nearly £2.000,000. Last year these socie- 
 ties, with an aggregate income of £:?:}0,000, 
 and a cash balance of £360,000, expended 
 altogether, in matters of dispute, about 
 £5000, which was not two per cent, upon 
 the whole of their income, and not one per 
 cent, upon their total available resources 
 for the year." The rules of unions, too, 
 are so framed that the work of the officers 
 of the local union is not interfered with by 
 the duties of their office. Thus no member 
 must call on an ofticer when he is at hif 
 ordinary work under a j>enalty of one 
 shilling ; and there are many wise and 
 prudent regulations, the most important of 
 which willbe pointed out in due course. 
 
 A remarkable feature in trade unioni.sm, 
 is its thorough un.selfishness. The various 
 societies are not opposed to each other; in- 
 deed, they help one another. I'very a.ssist- 
 ance is given to those who are ]»repared to 
 .sacrifice whatever benefits are to l)e derived 
 from living in this country, by emigrating 
 to another. W'oikingmcn r«ali/.e the fact 
 that by nome gf>iug, <ill are benefited. Nf)t 
 only do they cheerfully submit to the ordi- 
 nary contributions of an entrance fee. and 
 a weekly subscription, but they are ever 
 ready to pay an extra levy, sometimes for 
 their own trade purpost s, but very often 
 for ulterior objects, such jus assisting Mr. 
 riim-soU in his agitation. The noble way
 
 18 
 
 in which almost every auion helped the 
 agricultural laborers, and in which some of 
 them subscribed to the relief fund for the 
 famine in India, wnll not easily be forgot- 
 ten. This sacrifice by the individual for 
 the benefit of the community, contrasts 
 favorably with the thoroughly selfish pro- 
 gramme of the National Federation of Asso- 
 ciated Employers, and probably accounts 
 for the general tendency to victory on the 
 side of the men whenever disputes arise. 
 The employers do not try to help each 
 »ther. They are in opposition to each other. 
 Their motto is, "Each for himself," and 
 they aie only united in their attempts to 
 crush the men. The men, on the other 
 hand, it is worth repeating, sink all indi- 
 vidual feelings, and help each other in a 
 thoroughly practical and praiseworthy 
 manner. 
 
 It remains to point out that the principle 
 of unionism is extending beyond individual 
 trades. In all large towna there are trade 
 councils, formed of del^ates from various 
 unions. These councils look after the gen- 
 eral interests of the unionists in the area 
 represented, and an attentive reader of the 
 public prints cannot have failed to notice 
 that they are as ready to censure the action 
 of union members who have done wrong as 
 to support the action of those who are in the 
 right. The growth of unionism .shows it- 
 self still further in the annual congress 
 which is now held. This is a tnoroughly 
 national institution, and its arrangemente 
 allow of the widest possible latitude in the 
 subjects for discussion. It is now sixteen 
 years since the "Labor Parliament" began 
 (at Manchester) its annual sittings, and if 
 there were no other evidence of the great 
 good unionism accomplishes, the work of 
 the Trade Union Congress would be ampie 
 testimony. Many most beneficent acts of 
 Parliament are directly due to the action of 
 the congress, and others have been, and 
 others again are being, improved by the 
 same influence. The Employers' Liability 
 Bill if a case in point, and testifies also to 
 the persistent industry and ability with 
 which all obstacles are removed and all dif- 
 ficulties overcome. The extension of the 
 Factory Acts to workshops is another in- 
 stance, as is also the Act for the better Reg- 
 ulation of Mines; while the protection af- 
 forded to wages by alterations in the 
 Bankrupt Law is also due to the direct 
 influence of the parliamentary committee 
 of the congress. At present it is exerting 
 its powers to have a proper inspection of 
 boilers , a proof of the competency of engine 
 drivers; the protection of merchant seamen, 
 and a great many other things. In addi- 
 tion, the congress, as has been said, exerts 
 its influence on many questions that may 
 noi, at first sight appear really " labor ques- 
 tions." While dusavowing party politics, 
 it irges that workmen should bs ea&aa- 
 
 chised ; that the Corrupt Practices Ace 
 should cheapen the co.st oi elections, so that 
 labor may have a chance of direct represen- 
 tation in Parliament; that alterations in the 
 criminal law shall not afiect workmen dif- 
 ferently to other people ; and that artisans 
 shall be jurymen, factory inspectors, and 
 otherwise act on those occasions wherein 
 the artisan and the operative are as much 
 concerned as anybody else. Added to 
 which it should be observed that the an- 
 nual gathering together of the pickeil 
 unionists of the country must tend to 
 strengthen the feeling of brotherhood 
 amongst them which is the basis on whicU 
 unionism rests.* 
 
 It is easy to see witherward this tendency 
 points. From a national congress to an in- 
 ternational congress is a very short step. 
 The Trade Union Congress of 187!> passed a 
 reselution in favor of a federation of all the 
 trades ofthe United Kingdom, and thorough 
 unionists desire to see a federation of all 
 the trades throughout the world. An in- 
 ternational congress was successfully at- 
 tempted some years ago, and failed at last 
 only because of the socialism so character- 
 istic ofthe continental ouiritr, who dreams 
 of an exterminating war against a class, in- 
 stead of seeking to do that which the Inter- 
 national Society originally intended to do, 
 viz., to make trade unionism cosmopolitau 
 instead of national. 
 
 The experience of the late International 
 Association » ill enable the promoters of a 
 new one, inevitable sooner or later, to ar- 
 range matters upon a.s sound a basis as are 
 trade unions in this country. The leading 
 
 *When the Trade Union Congress first started, 
 it was made the medium of addresses in favor of 
 the principles of unioni.<m by gentlemen of posi- 
 tion, not members of any union. It was soon 
 seen that these addresses, however interesting, 
 were not of that practical business character for 
 which the conKress met, and were delivered to a 
 body of men who obviously required no proof of 
 the principles they held , and the practice was at 
 length forbidden by a standing order ' 'that papers 
 in defence of trade unions are unnecessary " 
 Facilities, however, are always given for ad- 
 dresses on general subjects affecting labor, by 
 competent authorities, at times which do not in- 
 terfere with the business of the congress. Anotbet 
 and an important point that was found torequira 
 alteration was that in the early days of the con 
 gress vae regulations for the admission of dele- 
 gates were not sufficiently stringent, or, more 
 correctly speaking, were not carried out with 
 proper rigor. A peculiar circumstance brought 
 the niatter to a crisis. The paid agitators of a 
 "Fair Trade" organization hadottereil their ser- 
 vices as delegates gratuitously to certain unions, 
 and theoe, actuated by a false economy, accepted 
 those services. The agitators presented them- 
 selves for admission at the congress of 1881 (held 
 in London), butafter some discussion were ex- 
 pelled — the rule that delegates should be for- 
 mally elected, and their expenses paid by the so- 
 ciety which sent them, being on this occasion 
 carried out, despite precedent: and the matter 
 was finally set at rest by a resolution "that no 
 one should be eligible as a delegate whose ex- 
 penses are paid by private individuaLs, or by an;' 
 institution not Sana nde trade unioos or tiade
 
 19 
 
 trade unionists in England realize the fact, 
 and are not afraid to express it. The germ 
 of the organization is present in the foreign 
 branches of some of the largest unions, and 
 it is no uncommon thing for the working- 
 men here to assist their brethren in dis- 
 putes abroad. To almost all the meetings 
 of the Trade L'uiou Congress come mes- 
 sages from their continental friends. In 
 1878 it was from the " International Labor 
 Union," in 1879 it was from the Trade 
 Unions of Germany. In 1881 the workmen 
 of Switzerland similarly approached their 
 English friends ; and in 1883 came an invi^ 
 tation from Paris that was cordially ac- 
 cepted. The friendly feeling towards each 
 other of workmen in different countries, 
 and the international relationships that are 
 springing up, were illustrated in 1874 and 
 in 1882 by the visit to England of deputa- 
 tions from the railway servants of France 
 and Belgium ; and still more recently by the 
 reciprocal visits of the London and Paris 
 cabmen. 
 
 This noble sentiment is peculiar to work- 
 men. The employers have not yet learned 
 to love one another. It is a sentiment, 
 however, that is rapidly spreading, and in 
 high qnarters. Professor Thorold Rogers, 
 in his admirable work so often quoted, 
 says, "I confess that I look forward to the 
 international union of labw partnerships 
 as the best prospect the world has of coerc- 
 ing those hateful instincts of government, 
 all alike irresponsible and indifferent, by 
 which nations are perpetually armed 
 against each other, to the infinite detri- 
 ment, loss, and demoralization of all." 
 
 In response to the invitation of 1883, 
 just referred to, the Trade Unions Congress 
 empowered Mr. E. W. Bailey, Mr. John 
 Burnett, and Mr. lienry Broadhurst and 
 others to attend the conference in Paris of 
 representative working men of France, 
 Italy, and Spain, and I will allow these 
 gentlemen to express their views on the 
 matter in their own words, by giving a con- 
 densation of their official report. "The 
 conference was presided over by Messrs. 
 Broadhurst and Shipton, and by Miss 
 Simcox, and by the French, Italian, and 
 Spani-sh delegates successively. Mr. Bur- 
 nett presided over the first public meeting, 
 and \Irs. Heatherley over the third. The 
 French procedure in business is different 
 from our own. They discuss a question 
 generally. They attempt to form a resolu- 
 tion to meet the expression of opinion 
 given in debate. So far as our experience 
 went, this mode is not so expeditious as the 
 custom adopted by us, of drawing up a 
 resolution and debating it, and then 
 amending it as may be found necessary. 
 We found that the chief work lay in the 
 debate in committee over the terms of reso- 
 lutions. At one time it looked as though 
 the conference would fail in this work; 
 
 however, this undesirable event was avoid- 
 ed, and our subsequent business became 
 more agreeable and easy. The point of 
 difference was the extent to which the 
 State should be asked to protect labor. 
 
 "Our time was too much occupied with 
 meetings to admit of much investigation 
 into the number, the extent, and strength 
 of the Paris trade unions; but so far as w© 
 could gather, it appeared that the compos- 
 itors, the engineers, the smiths, and the 
 carpenters pos.sessed the best unions. Even 
 these cannot be compared w ith the British 
 unions in stability or discipline. The dif- 
 ficulty appears to be to get them to pay 
 contributions of more than twopence a 
 week. Even this sum is only paid by a 
 comparatively small number of the men. 
 The masons' delegate stated that out of 
 some thousands of ma.sons who accepted 
 the principles of their society, only about 
 sixty men were regular subscribers. P'rom 
 this statement, and from other things 
 which came under our observation, it 
 svould appear that the numerical strength 
 of an association is reckoned upon the basis 
 of the number of those in the given trade 
 who approve of the objects of the union, 
 and not upon the number of those who 
 contribute to the funds, such as they are. 
 It was upon this loose condition of things 
 that the English delegates made their 
 strongest attack, by stating the condition 
 of membership in Great Britain, and ap- 
 pealed to the members to exert themselves 
 in making the societies more solid and 
 numerous. 
 
 "From what came under our notice, we 
 are of opinion that the condition of the 
 workpeople {i.e., the mechanics) in Paris 
 is not so good as that of corresponding 
 trades in Great Britain. We met an Eng- 
 lish ma#on in Paris, who is engaged, by an 
 English firm of contractois, at the erection 
 of a Protestant church. He infonned as 
 that he was receiving London wages (viz., 
 ninepence an hour), out of which he paid 
 eighteen francs a week (15s.) for a furnished 
 room, firing, and the use of a kitchen, the 
 latter .shared amongst three families. A 
 shoemaker, who was a delegate at the con- 
 ference, said that men in his trade were 
 working fourteen hours a day for three and 
 a half francs (2.s. lliL). These and similar 
 statements made by other delegates, in 
 reference to some of the provinctsof France, 
 would seem to prove that tlie condition of 
 other French workpeople in tlie large cen- 
 tres and at large works is anything but an 
 enviable one. 
 
 "With the exception of a wi.sh to rely 
 upon the State for things they may do for 
 them.selves, we did not object to the gen- 
 eral views of the French delegates ou 
 social (luestio;..-*. A dele^^ate from the car- 
 penters (M. Tortellier)was an exception. 
 He was in favor of revolution by force, but
 
 iO 
 
 we were informed that this person was 
 under a sentence of imprisonment, and 
 would serve his term of punishment at his 
 convenience. The natural inference to be 
 drawn from this st«itement ^^a« thathe was, 
 in the interest of the reactionary party, 
 doing his best to cause stril'e; thus ati'ord- 
 ing a pretext for the continuance of the 
 French law relating to labor combinations, 
 which we have no hesitation in saying is a 
 disgrace to, and an anomaly in, a Republi- 
 can nation. 
 
 "The speeches of the French delegates 
 contained constant reference to, and con- 
 demnation of, the hourf/eois, i.e., the mid- 
 dle classes. It would appear that there is 
 little or no intercourse between the work- 
 men and the middle classes in France, and 
 the former, therefore, look upon the latter 
 as their natural enemies; but we are bound 
 to say that the want of intimacy is not 
 only obvious in the cases referred to, bat it 
 is also true, to a lamentable extent, be- 
 tween the various groups of workmen 
 themselves. We are painfully alive to the 
 differences between workmen in our own 
 country, and to its deterrent effect upon 
 our thought and progress, but, happily, it 
 does not exist here to such a degree as it 
 does in France. 
 
 "We have here given a resume of our 
 delegation. We do not now offer any defi- 
 nite opinions as to the ultimate issue of the 
 conference in relation to the future inter- 
 course between the peoples of the United 
 Kingdom and the peoples of the continen- 
 tal nations. We hope it may bear some 
 fruit. We are assured of one thing, 
 and that is that the Britiiih trade unions 
 ^ve not suffered by Hatd eontact with their 
 
 foreign associates. We should be open %* 
 the charge of vanity if we ventured to 
 hope that our continental brethren had 
 benefited by our intercourse with them." 
 
 In Antwerp, Ghent, and Brussels, too, 
 the cabinet-makers have recently been 
 holding meetings, and have decided to form 
 a union on the plan of the Alliance Cabi- 
 net-makers' Association of England ; and 
 indeed, any one who reads the ofiicial 
 documents of the trade unions of the Uni- 
 ted Kingdom cannot but be struck with the 
 close intercourse with the workmen of other 
 nations, with a view that no person taking 
 work in a foreign country shall undersell 
 the workmen of that country. 
 
 It is seen, then, that a trade anion is 
 pre-eminently fitted for the work it has to 
 do, as must necessarily be the case when 
 the work to be done has created the organ- 
 ization, and not that the organization has 
 created the work to be done. The power 
 to take men whence they are not wanted, 
 and to carry them — abroad if necessary— 
 where there is work to do ; the care that is 
 taken of the interests of the men, as op- 
 posed to the aggression of the employer, as 
 shown by the frequent reports of the branch 
 secretaries on the trade of their districts; 
 the ability to support men "on strike;" 
 the way in which the unions assist each 
 other and the ease with which additional 
 contributions are succes-sfully levied; and 
 the fund that is reserved for sickness, emi- 
 gration, accidents, superannuation, burials 
 etc. — of which more hereafter — are all evi- 
 dences of the willingness of the men to 
 obey an organization in which they have 
 confidence, and which they believe is work- 
 ing for their good.
 
 ^i 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 TRADE UNIONS — THEIR EFFICACY. 
 
 sSfeey have raised wages — Proofs and instances — How much have the unions raised ■wages?— The 
 unions a record of the state of the labor market — Wages would not rise quickly but for unions 
 — "An unsuccessful strike often succeeds" — Local strikes afl'ect distant areas and many trades 
 — The agricultural laborers — Where unionism is weak, wages are low— Shorter hours, yet more 
 Tvork — Piece work — Errors of unions — Difficulties of the union secretary — Foolish strikes inju- 
 rious, may prevent a rise of wages— A fair day's wages — Employers combinations— Boards of 
 arbitration — Trade anions prevent strikes — Spread of unionism — The power of trade unions ac- 
 knowledged by the employers — Trade unions as friendly and benefit societies— Women's trade 
 unions — Other features of trade unions, some obsolete. 
 
 Although, as has been shown in the pre- 
 ceding chapter, the very nature of a well- 
 organized trade union shows its fitness for 
 the work it has to do, yet it will be satis- 
 factory if it can be shown that they do 
 their work well. The question then arises 
 — Have they been successful? Do they 
 carry out the objects for which they are 
 formed ? 
 
 Let us ask, in the first place, "Have 
 they succeeded in raising wages in the 
 past?" 
 
 It seems so natural that combination 
 should raise wages, that one is amazed 
 such a position can be questioned. As 
 things at present are, the relations between 
 employers and employed imply a pecuniary 
 bargain Can it be doubted that when 
 workmen combine they are much more 
 likely to adjust the bargain on more favor- 
 able terms to themselves than if they had 
 no power of organized action 'i' Those even 
 who are unwilling to admit the efficacy of 
 trade unions cannot help showing at times 
 — unconsciou-'jly, perhaps — that they have 
 an opposite conviction ; and some time 
 ago one who is least friendly to trade or- 
 ganizations pointed out that the secret ot 
 the attachment of the Southern States of 
 America to slave labor "lay chiefly in the 
 obtaining of labor at will at a rate which 
 cannot be controlled by any combination. ' ' 
 
 Now, in looking over the history of trade 
 unions, no impartial oKserver can doubt 
 for one moment that the employers have 
 been gradually giving way. In 1845, Mr. 
 W. Thornton had already called attention 
 to the fact that the result of trade unions 
 had been to raise wages. In the bakiug 
 trade in Edinburgh and Glasgow, and 
 other Scotch towns, before 1846, the men 
 were little l)etter than vassals. They lived 
 with their employers, in cheerless celibacy ; 
 they were locked in their rooms at nine 
 o'clock at nights ; and, in short, being 
 driven by oppression into union, they 
 raised wages 20 per cent., improved their 
 condition, and are now a sober and steady 
 
 class of men. In 1873 the General Alli- 
 ance of Operative House Painters asked 
 for higher wages, and the answer was an 
 increase in the rate of pay amounting to 
 £8000 a year. The annual report for 187.'J 
 of the Amalgamated Society of Tailors 
 shows an increase of wages amounting to 
 £40,000 per annum, while the sum spent 
 in strikes and lockouts amounted to only 
 £549 12s. 9d. A great deal of the increase 
 is directly traceable to strikes or threats of 
 strikes ; though, of course, part may be 
 due to the general prosperity of the coun- 
 try. Still, it is very doubtful whether the 
 men would have shared in that prosperity 
 had it not been for the existence of the 
 union. 
 
 Hardly a single report is issued by the 
 trade unions that does not call attention 
 to the rise in wages which by combined 
 action has been brought about. Through- 
 out the length and breadth of the land the 
 trade unions have, during the past thirty 
 or forty years, forced wages up, and when 
 wages have fallen, the fall has not been to 
 the low point they were at before the ri.se 
 began. It would therefore be tedious to 
 fill page after page with a mass of evi- 
 dence to prove what is universally acknowl- 
 edged. Wages have risen. That is the 
 great fact. The principal if not the only 
 point upon which di.scussion ari.ses is as to 
 whether or not the trade unions have as- 
 sisted to bring about that state of atlairs. 
 One thing is certain, the employers are 
 not authorities on the question. They are 
 too crotchety. One of their great argu- 
 ments again.st trade unions is that they 
 fail in their object, that they do not suc- 
 ceed in raising wages ; while witli their 
 next breath they excuse themselves to the 
 public for the high price of coal, by say- 
 ing "it is the unions raise the price of 
 labor." Perhaps it would be as well if 
 they rinnembered the exi)erience of the 
 past, when out of eighty strikes for advance 
 of wage.s forty-three were successful, seven 
 doubtful, aud only thirty unsuccessful.
 
 22 
 
 How much of the rise in wages is due to 
 the direct action of trade unions, how 
 much to their indirect action, and how 
 much to general progress and prosperity, 
 are questions that it is difficult, if not im- 
 possible, to answer. A table, however, by 
 Mr. Giflen, whom Mr. John Morley de- 
 scribes as "singularly cool and competent, " 
 throws a little light upon the subject. It 
 is as follows : — 
 
 ' 'Assuming the aggregate income of the 
 Ipeople as about 1200 millions now, and 
 that the wages of workingmen are per 
 head twice what they were, the aggregates 
 in 1843 and at the present time would 
 compare as follows : — 
 
 ■S 
 
 X 
 
 
 II 
 
 O U 
 
 - 9. 
 
 
 
 I & \ £ i £ I 
 Capitalist classes from capital 190 4O0 210 110 
 Working income in Income- 
 
 tax returns 
 Ditto not in Income-tax returns 
 
 Total . 
 
 90 180 90 100 
 235 620 385 160 
 
 515 1200 685 130 
 
 Thus the increase of what is known as 
 ■working-class income in the aggregate 
 was greater than that of any other class, 
 being 160 per cent., while the return to 
 capital and the return to what are called 
 the capitalist classes, whether it is from 
 capital proper, or, as Mr. Giflfen maintains, 
 a return more in the nature of wages, had 
 only increased about 100 percent." Can 
 any one for a moment doubt that the 
 "extra" 60 per cent, that fell to the lot of 
 working men is due entirely and solely to 
 action of trade unions ? Does not all ex- 
 perience show that the capitalist class have 
 ever taken as much as they could ? Had 
 it not been for a resisting influence, and 
 the only resisting influence is the trade 
 union, the figures would have been re- 
 versed. The capitalists would have gained 
 an increase of 160 per cent., the operatives 
 of 100. Perhaps the discrepancy would 
 have been much greater. For my own 
 part, I believe that trade unions are to be 
 credited with more than 60 per cent, in- 
 crease, because it would be easy to show 
 that Mr. Giflen has underrated the general 
 increase ;* and, as I have already argued, 
 but for the action of the unions there 
 would have been very little advance of 
 wages indeed, nearly all of the increase 
 falling to the capitalist. At any rate, 60 
 
 * "If ■we had commenced about twenty to 
 twenty-five years ago, we .should have been able 
 to show^ a very great improvement since that 
 time ; while at that date also, as compared with 
 an earlier period, a greater improvement would 
 have been apparent. — Mr. GWl'en, in the pam- 
 phlet already quoted. 
 
 per cent, of the 160 per cent, increase must 
 be attributed, and attributed as a mini- 
 mum, to the direct action of the trade 
 unions. 
 
 Although the question, "To what extent 
 is a rise in wages due to the action of a 
 trade union?" may be difiicult to answer, 
 there can be little doubt that some portion 
 of any particular advance is often due to 
 that influence. Where are the employers 
 who ever came forward and advanced 
 wages unasked ? t They are few and far 
 between, and what chance of improving 
 his condition would any laborer have who 
 struck singly? Very little chance indeed. 
 Now labor, unlike a commodity, will not 
 keep. Once gone, it is gone forever. A 
 day idly spent is a day lost ; and as the 
 capitalist can wait for labor longer than 
 the laborer can wait for wages, there is a 
 natural tendency to depress wages. Then 
 why do they not fall ? Is it not because 
 of the counteracting power of the union? 
 When bricklayers from Liverpool went to 
 work on the new town hall at St. Helen's, 
 they found men in the same trade as them- 
 selves getting higher wages than they were. 
 They instantly demanded to be placed on 
 the same footing as their more fortunate 
 brethren. The employers refused to ac- 
 cede to the request, for reasons best known 
 to themselves. A strike ensued, and after 
 a short delay the men accomplished their 
 object. Now, is there one sane man within 
 the four seas of Great Britain who will 
 deny that in this case the Liverpool brick- 
 layers obtained their advance by united 
 action ? 
 
 This instance shows .something more. 
 It shows how, with a widely spread union, 
 the rates of wages in various towns may be 
 known — as in large unions they are — and 
 the highest rate demanded. Had the St. 
 Helen's bricklayers belonged to the .same 
 union as those from Liverpool, the difler- 
 ence in the rate of wages in two towns so 
 near each other would have been known 
 and equalized, or, in other words, the 
 lower rate would have been raised. But 
 how can men all over the country ascertain 
 what their labor is worth in A'arioua parts 
 of the country unless they act upon the 
 principle of association, and agree upon an 
 organization that encourages an inter- 
 change of information between diflerent 
 parts of the country? When, too, the 
 highest rate of wages is discovered, what 
 would be the good of the discovery unless 
 there was a union strongenough to enforce 
 the demands it is desired to make ? If not 
 the only way, at any rate the easiest 
 
 t In the Newcastle engineering strike, the 
 employers admitted that the condition of tra.'t 
 from the beginning permitted an advance of 
 wages; yet no advance was proposed, till the 
 pressure of the trade unions was brought to 
 Dear.
 
 23 
 
 method of ascertaining the ''real value"' 
 of labor is hj putting pressure on the capi- 
 talist. Nearly all the present •wages rates 
 are based on no real principle of value. 
 Any of the rates are very much below the 
 real value of the work done,* and repre- 
 sent the amount which the workman has 
 been able to squeeze out of his employer, 
 not the full amount to which he is entitled, 
 8uch amount being all above interest on 
 capital, a charge for deterioration of plant, 
 cost of supervision and cost of conduct of 
 business. In bringing pressure to bear 
 Bpon the capitalist, the union is only doing 
 what merchants and manufacturers do to 
 find out the price of the commodities in 
 which they deal. For two years the at- 
 tention of the colliery proprietors was 
 chiefly engrossed with "putting on the 
 screw'' in greater or less twists at a time, 
 until they Ibund a limit to the disgorging 
 powers of the consumer, and that limit 
 was far beyond the wildest demands ever 
 made by any class of men who have ever 
 struck for an advance of wages, f 
 
 But, say those opposed to trade unions, 
 wages would ultimately rise when profits 
 rose, without any combination on the part 
 of the workmen. With a desire to concede 
 as much as possible to our opponents, let 
 us grant this by no means self-evident 
 proposition. There is still the fact that 
 the influence of the union obtains the ad- 
 vance sooner than would otherwise be the 
 case, and that is a gain to the men, and 
 another proof that the societies are able to 
 bring about the results which it is their 
 object to effect. If there were no combina- 
 tion amongst the men, and if profits were 
 rising, the employee would pocket the en- 
 hanced profits, until an imperious neces- 
 sity obliged them to yield some portion to 
 the starving dependents upon their gener- 
 osity and benevolence. 
 
 Not, only, then, is a union able to bring 
 about a rise in wages sooner than would 
 otherwise be the case, but it is also able to 
 wrest from the employers a larger share of 
 the profits than they would concede to a 
 request unsupported by the power to en- 
 force it. 
 
 "Still more," says Mr. J. S. Mill, 
 "might poor laborers who have to do with 
 rich employers remain long without the 
 amount of wages which the demand for 
 their labor would justify, unless, in ver- 
 nacular phrase, they stood out of it; and 
 how can they stand out for terms without 
 organized concert? What chance would 
 
 * The waRcs of the agricultural laborer is an 
 example of this. 
 
 + In Manoboster the carpenters are paid a 
 halfpenny per hour more than in Liverpool. 
 The reason is stateil to he that "in Manchester 
 both eruployers and employed are thorouRhly 
 organized, and an amicable relationuhip exiHtM 
 lietween them : in Liverpool they are compara- 
 tively disorganized.'' 
 
 any laborer have who struck singly for an 
 advance of wages? How could he ever 
 know whether the state of the market ad- 
 mitted of a rise, except by consultation 
 with his fellows naturally leading to con- 
 certed action?" The only instance that 
 has come under the notice of the author of 
 employers being eager to aid a trade union 
 was recently, when, for their own advan- 
 tage, they Avished to see the resuscitation 
 of the Macclesfield silk weavers' union, as 
 a protection to themselves from each other 
 by equalizing wages. 
 
 Even if a strike fail, it not only shows 
 that the men have capacity, willingness, 
 and power to combine in sudi a way that 
 masters will olten hesitate ere they resume 
 the encounter : but, paradoxical as it may 
 appear, an unsucces-sful strike often suc- 
 ceeds. Suppose there has been a long and 
 terrible dispute, like the one in the agri- 
 cultural districts, and that those engaged 
 in it have been obliged to return to work 
 without the advance which was at first 
 sought. Can it be doubted that in the 
 case referred to, the praiseworthy pertinac- 
 ity of the agricultural laborers created 
 such an impression that the farmers will 
 think twice before locking them out when 
 next an advance is asked, especially as all 
 right-feeling and right-thiaking men ac- 
 knowledge that the circumstances of the 
 world are inconsistent with the mainte- 
 nance of the English agriculttiral laborer 
 in the condition which has hitherto been 
 his? Or take the case of the London 
 builders, when 10,000 of them gave up 
 £325,000 without at first getting anything 
 for their money, but after they had re- 
 turned to work "had their wages raised by 
 successive steps from an average of 25.«. to 
 one of 30s., and that without being obliged 
 to resort to a general strike, or to any 
 strike on a large scale." All their recent 
 strikes have been wliat are termed [sec- 
 tional, and in many instances they have 
 not had to strike, but have got what they 
 wanted by simply making it clear that 
 they were prepared to strike unless they 
 got it. ""Chiefly by this means it is that 
 they have succeeded in getting 5s. a week, 
 or 20 per cent., added to their wages. 
 Now, o.s. a week is <£13 a year, which, 
 multiplied by 10,00(», comes to Xi:iO,000, 
 or 40 per cent, on the original outlay^ 
 which now yielding such interest, must be 
 admitted to have been really, in spite of 
 first appearances, a very tolerable invest- 
 ment. 
 
 Indeed, almost the whole of the great 
 failures on the part of the men, when 
 looked at in the same way, show that all 
 was not lost — nor, indeed, so much as was 
 supposed. "The same dismal uniformity, 
 the same miserable monotony of defeat, " 
 as an ironmaster once called a long series 
 of strikes, Avould indeed be yloomy if it
 
 24 
 
 could not be shown that, as in the great 
 Montrose's campaign, Argyll often gained 
 the victory, but failed to reap its fruits. 
 The great strike of the Manchester spin- 
 ners in 1859, when i;-250, 000 of wages were 
 lorfeited apparently to no purpose; a simi- 
 lar loss when in the I'oUowing year 80,000 
 > pinners at Ash ton and Staley bridge 
 struck work ; the dispute on the Tyneand 
 the Wear in 1832, when thousands of pit- 
 men held out with heroic endurance ; the 
 -itrike of the Manchester builders in 1833, 
 when £70,000 of wages were sacrificed ; 
 the Prestoa strikes in 183fS and 1854, in 
 the former of which thirteen weeks' idle- 
 ness cost the men £57,200 — and in the 
 latter there was the terrible suflering of 
 seventeen thousand per sons foregoing £420,- 
 000 of wages for thirty -six weeks ; the en- 
 gineers' strike in 1853, which lasted fifteen 
 weeks, and in which £43.000 of wages were 
 lost ; the strike in the London building 
 trade in 1860 ; that of the ironworkers in 
 Staflordshire, and that in the North in 
 1865 ; t'uat of the London tailors in 1867 ; 
 :tad that of the South Wales miners in 
 1873, who sacrificed £750,000 ; to say 
 nothing of the dispiites in the eastern 
 counties, and the numerous disputes and 
 lock-outs which have recently dotted the 
 island ; here snrely (and these are but 
 samples) is a list of failures sufficient to 
 stamp out the life of unionism, because in 
 the cases mentioned the men had to give in 
 and return to work on terms sometimes the 
 same, often worse, and seldom better, than 
 those against which they struck. Strikes, 
 however, are sometimes of that nature of 
 which it can be said, "It is the battle only, 
 and not the victory, that can be dwelt upon 
 with advantage." The men often appear 
 to have failed disastrously. But the fact 
 is, they were not failures entirely. They 
 were defeats in which the victors got all 
 the glory, the defeated all the profit. The 
 employers rush to the fight ^vith the dash 
 of cavalry, and force the men to capitu- 
 late ; but between their victories they are 
 constantly giving way to the men. The 
 workmen seem fully consciousof this; and 
 in a printers' dispute in Liverpool, a few 
 years ago, men turned out with their fel- 
 lows when the result of the former's doing 
 so was to strike for lower wages. Such was 
 their faith in the ultimate advantages of 
 unionism, and events showed that they 
 had not miscalculated. As Mr. Thornton 
 puts it, "During nearly half a century 
 all signal triumphs have been on one side, 
 all substantial success on the other." 
 
 It is not, therefore, just to say that a 
 strike having cost £700,000 or £800,000, 
 and having failed to obtain that for which 
 it strove, is necessarily a failure. The ad- 
 vance may come later on. Nor can it be 
 eaid that a strike that has cost £20,000, and 
 raised wages say only £2,000, has failed. 
 
 The strike will certainly have been Itxjal ; 
 the rise is almost certain to be general. A 
 strike, too, in one portion of the country 
 often enables men to obtain an advance of 
 wages in another portion without recourse 
 to the final appeal. The funds of the 
 union are thus saved, and often a large 
 advance is obtained at a very small cost, as 
 in the case of the tailors in 1873, who, as 
 already mentioned, obtained an advance 
 amounting to £40,000 per annum, at a cost 
 of only £.594 V2s 9d. 
 
 What, then, sometimes appears an in- 
 effectual strike often proves to be one of 
 great effect. It mus*^ be remembered, too, 
 that non-unionists often reap to some ex- 
 tent the advantages of the unionists. In- 
 deed, in most instances they enjoy all the 
 benefits of an advance brought about by 
 the action of the union, and it is lor them 
 to settle with their own consciences the 
 honesty of reaping advantages, to obtain 
 Avhich they have contributed nothing. 
 When they do not obtain the v, hole of the 
 advantages of a rise, they are pretty sure 
 to obtain some advance, as when the 
 "standard" of wages has been raLsed it 
 drags after it a general increase all round. 
 Itappears from this that union workmen are 
 perfectly justified in refusing to work with 
 non-union men, though the practice of 
 doing so is far from general. The latter 
 have done nothing to raise or sustain 
 wages, and ought not to expect to enjoy 
 the results of the sacrifices, the moral 
 courage, and the contributions of the 
 unionists. Whenever union workmen do 
 work with non-union men it shows that 
 unselfishness and generosity — that sinking 
 of self for others — which are characteristic 
 of almost all unions. It is worth men- 
 tioning, too, that other trades besides the 
 one "on strike" are often benefited by an 
 advance in the wages of those ' " on strike. ' ' 
 Thtts, if the "puddlers" receive an ad- 
 vance of wages, the hammermen, the rol- 
 lers, and the laborers are pretty certain to 
 be similarly treated. It is thus seen that 
 the material advantages of a strike cannot 
 be reckoned by taking the cost of the strike 
 and the gain in wages, and substracting 
 one from the other. 
 
 It maybe said — and veryjtistly — that, 
 if the general tendency of trade unionism 
 be to raise wages, then, where there are 
 no itnious, wages should be lower than 
 ordinary. This is exactly the case. Un- 
 fortunately, the non-unionists keep no 
 statistics, and it is impossible to ascertain 
 the exact wages they are paid. It is, how- 
 ever, generally known that the worst paid 
 trades in the kingdom are those which 
 have no unions. The evidence of the men 
 themselves is valuable on this point, be- 
 cause, unless they felt they received an ad- 
 vantage, they would leave the union. What 
 the men want is high wages for little work,
 
 25 
 
 as much wa<jes as they can wet for aa little 
 T;ork as tbey can do, and if their unions 
 could not give those lienedts to them, they 
 would cease to support them. "I have 
 been a worker." sajs one operative, "some- 
 thing like forty-iour years. For twenty 
 years of that period I have been employed 
 in erecting machinery in diflereut parts of 
 the country, and I have no hesitation in 
 saying, wherever we find union principles 
 ignored a low rate of wages prevails, and 
 the reverse where organization is perfect. 
 1"he most approved remedy for low wages 
 is combination." 
 
 An advance of wages, however, is not the 
 only ol)ject of a trade union, nor the sole 
 purpose of a strike. Sometimes the men 
 demand shorter hours. To work a less 
 number of hours for the same amount of 
 wages is naturally attractive to the work- 
 man. He not only sees that such an ar- 
 langement gives him more time for recrea- 
 1 ion and lor the enjoyment of home com- 
 Jbrts — for billiards, books or beer — without 
 calling on his wife to "pinch, cut, and con- 
 trive," but that the reduction of houi-s 
 causes more of his fellow-workmen to be 
 employed. The demand for a commodity 
 being the same, and the number of work- 
 ing hours diminished, more men must be 
 employed to produce the same amount of 
 work in less time. Men who were forced 
 to be idle are thus provided with employ- 
 ment. These additional workmen become 
 spenders as well as producers, and the ad- 
 vantages of that he knows to consist in a 
 ^'eneral improvement all round. In than 
 benefiting himself, therefore, he is benefit- 
 i iighis class. No action of the trade unionists 
 has been crowned with such signal success as 
 That taken to bring about the reduction of 
 hours. The State itself watched the strain- 
 ing efforts that were being made, both re- 
 
 < ently and in years gone by ; and when 
 there was a sign of tottering or failure, 
 came to ita assistance. "The demand is 
 against the laws of political economy," 
 
 < ry the employers. "We ask a blessing, " 
 I epiy the men, " l>ut are not strong enough 
 to force it." So Parliament steps in and 
 gives a Factory Act ; just as when the 
 men (not the employers) complained that 
 their union was not strong enough to better 
 the condition of miners when underground, 
 the Hou.se of Commons pa.s8ed a "Mines 
 iiegulation Act." The support which the 
 demands of the unions are receiving from 
 Parliament is a very significant phenome- 
 non in the Hi.storyof England. 
 
 What is very surprising is that the em- 
 rtloyers believe that they can get more work 
 out of a man when they work him to ileath. 
 They forget that it is not the miles one 
 travels, but the pace that kills. They 
 ignore the doctrine of Adam Smith, that 
 "the man who works so moderately a.s to 
 be able to work constantly, not only pre- 
 
 .servea his health the longest, but in the 
 course of a year executes the greatest quan- 
 tity of work." Capitalists do not pursue 
 snch a policy in regard to their horses. 
 The fact is, they are not thinking of their 
 men. They are brooding over their valu- 
 able machinery standing idle, and calcu- 
 lating what it would bring them if it went 
 OQ working a few hours longer. The manu- 
 facturer sitting in his counting-house, 
 within the sound of the murmur of hia 
 machinery and the chinking of his engine, 
 hums to himself at each clack of the fly- 
 wheel, "So much forme, so much forme." 
 And when he beholds his "hands" leaving 
 for home on a summer evening while it is 
 yet light, and no longer heais the heavy 
 ioeat of the beam or the rattle of the shut- 
 tle,, he looks upon the stillness as the 
 symbol of his loss. Such men must be 
 very miserable on Sundays. 
 
 It is now, however, a well ascertained 
 fact that, within certain limits, more work 
 is done as a rule where there is a prospect 
 of an early cessation from work than when 
 men know that they are doomed to several 
 hours of continuous employment. A few 
 years ago the average day's work in Eng- 
 land was ten hours. On the Continent it 
 was twelve, in Russia sixteen or seventeen ; 
 and yet it is calculated that two English 
 mowers would do in a day the work of six; 
 Russian ones. Russian factory operatives 
 worked seventy-five hours in the week, 
 when those in England worked only sixty, 
 yet the Avork of the former was only one- 
 fifth of that of the latter. V.'ben the 
 average working time of a miner in South 
 Wales was twelve hours a day, those in the 
 North of England worked only seven, yet 
 the cost of getting coals in Aberdare was 
 2') per cent, more than in Northumber- 
 land. As has been well said, "The work- 
 man who cannot tire himself in eight hours 
 is not worth his salt." 
 
 In showing the efficacy of trade unions, 
 and in maintaining the justice of their de- 
 mauds, it must not be thought that the 
 author imagines they never err. No one 
 will pretend to deny that the unions have 
 done what many people do not approve, 
 and which they themselves on calmer re- 
 flection, do not approve. I5ut this, a.s Mr. 
 Bright .says, only shows they are not im- 
 maculate, and that their wisdom, like that 
 of other classes, is not perfect. One is tired 
 of hearing that the result of trade unions 
 was Broadhead, Crookes, and liallam ; that 
 its means were rufliani^m and munhr ; its 
 ends never ini|uired into. These men were 
 not the result of unionism, but of the at- 
 tempt to crush unionism.* The laws of 
 
 * BrOB(Jliea<l liiiiivelf Hiiiil to (lie KuvhI Coiu- 
 Illi•'^i<.Iler.■l : "If the law woiill only (five tliu 
 unions Home jiowjt to recover cyntrllmtlona, 
 williout ImvinK roooiirse to .«ucli iiioH.survs, there 
 would lio no luoic liL'urU of llii-ui."
 
 26 
 
 the country made all unionists conspira- 
 tors. Even the simplest actions, which 
 are now allowable, were illegal, and 
 when what is morally right is decided by 
 tribunals to be legally wrong, the culprit 
 has more respect lor himself than he has 
 for the law. Unionism, however, needs no 
 defence here on that head. The press may 
 croak about the three miscreants above 
 named until it is hoarse ; it can have little 
 *!ftiect upon an institution which has pro- 
 duced such men as Thomas Burt, Henry 
 Broadhurst, William Allan, John Burnett, 
 Joseph Arch, and John Kane. 
 
 At the same time the unions, and espe- 
 i^lally the union secretaries, have a very 
 difficult task to perform. The average 
 British workman is not yet sufficiently 
 advanced in intelligence to apprehend that 
 wages may vary in two ways. His union, 
 it is imagined, has power to force wages 
 up ; he is loath to admit that it cannot 
 sometimes resist their falling. The avithor 
 once saw an ironworker who had been dis- 
 missed from his work because he had been 
 drinking for three days ; and the stupid 
 fellow was very Avroth indeed because the 
 union secretary would not order a strike 
 on account of the man's dismissal. ' ' I pay 
 my money to t' union," said he, " for pro- 
 tection, and this is how you .serve me." 
 The executive of a union, then, has to be 
 careful, not only that it does not strike un- 
 less it has r'ght on its side, but it has to 
 educate the men to the same opinion. 
 The work n> en have to be taught that 
 they must not attempt to obtain from 
 capital impossible concessions. They must 
 only strike when ce.ssation of produc- 
 tion means loss of prolit to the masters. For 
 instance, it would not only be manifestly 
 unjust but absurd to strike for higher 
 wages in the face of a falling market. How 
 difficult it is to impress this upon the men, 
 the union secretary knows full well. Some- 
 times the men cannot see the force of the 
 forbearance which is urged upon them, and 
 in their ignorance are very self-willed. 
 
 It is gratifying to find that greater care 
 than formerly is taken to prevent those 
 strikes which, being foolish, were always 
 disastrous. How easily this may be done 
 is evident from the practice in some trades 
 of keeping complete registers in which the 
 fluctuations of the market are indicated, 
 and the union secretaries are as well 
 acquainted with the price of cotton and 
 iron as the masters. Even this, however, 
 is not always sufficient, and the employers 
 show, with arguments seemingly plausible, 
 that their profits are very small. The men, 
 however, though unable to point out the 
 fallacy in the reasoning opposed to them, 
 nevertheless are aware of its existence. 
 ' ' We have been working at a loss for 
 years," said a large cotton manufacturer 
 to the union secretary. "Yes," was the 
 
 shrewd reply, " you have been losing yovw 
 little mills and building bigger one.s." The 
 cotton-spinners of Bolton, in September^ 
 1874, sent a similar reply to the notice in 
 a reduction of wages given by the masters. 
 "The operatives," said the reply, "can- 
 not judge of trade from your standpoint. 
 They draw conclusions from circumstantial 
 evidence, and contend that the princely 
 fortunes that seem to be ama-ssed around 
 us cannot have arisen from an unremunera- 
 tive business ; therefore you must pardon 
 them if itbe difficult to make them believe 
 that a reduction in wages is called for. ' ' 
 
 It is certainly a fair question for discus- 
 sion whether or not the rate of wages at 
 the present day is as high as itought to be, 
 even in the best paid trades. Capital is 
 increasing far faster than population. 
 When the latter had doubled it.self the 
 former had quadrupled itself. It .seems, 
 therefore, merely obedience to a natural 
 law that wages should rise; and if trade 
 unions have failed in their efibrts at all, 
 it is in the fact that while they have raised 
 wages, they have not raised them enough. 
 
 War is essentially .euch an uncongenial 
 state of aflTairs that no surprise can be felt 
 that the combinations of employers and of 
 men endeavor to discover some means oi 
 amicably settling disputes. It would na- 
 turally suggest itself to minds on both 
 sides that a meeting of ambassadors or le- 
 legates from the men should meet siuKlar 
 officers from the employers to talk o^er mat- 
 ters. That this should come abx-^iv «ft» 
 prophesied so long ago as 1846 by Mr. John 
 Bright, who, in opposing the Factory Bill, 
 said that "the working classes would 
 every day become more and more powerful 
 and intelligent — not by violent combina- 
 tion or collisions with their employers, but 
 by a rational union amongst themselves, 
 by reasoning with their employers, and l)y 
 the co-operation of all classes." It is worth 
 noting that the initiatory step in this direc- 
 tion was taken by the trades unions. The 
 late general secretary of the Amalgamated 
 Society of Engineers, over and over again, 
 during many years, advocated what is 
 known now as " arbitration," and he was 
 ably backed in his efforts by IMr. 11. Apple- 
 garth, former secretary of the Amalga- 
 mated Society of Carpenters, and other 
 well-known trade unionists. In ISfiO a 
 board of arbitration was formed, at ihr, 
 request of the wen, amongst the Nottingham 
 lace-workers, and since then the trades of 
 Staffordshire, jSIiddlcsborough, Cleveland, 
 Bradford, Sheffield, and other places have 
 followed that example. 
 
 It would be out of place here to point 
 out upon what basis arbitration should be 
 fermed. Mr. Kupert Kettle, in his pam- 
 phlet, has provided us with the necessary 
 forms of proceeding. It is sufficient to 
 state that such a mode of settling a dis-
 
 21 
 
 pute should always to he encouraged. It 
 is very much cheaper to both sides than a 
 strike or lock-out ; and it does not leave 
 behind it that " immortal hate and study 
 of revenge" which are the result — in the 
 present state ot human nature — of a long 
 and rancorous struggle. The argument 
 that arbitration is useless because it is 
 not binding in law, is neither true in fact 
 nor just in reason. The contract which 
 Mr. Kettle directs to be signed when he 
 acts as arbitrator, is as binding as any other 
 contract, but if it were not, honor has 
 such force in our public code of morality 
 that both masters and men would feel 
 bound to obey a compact solemnly and 
 freely entered into. It is iirged by some 
 that arbitrations are unjust in principle, 
 because they are founded upon a fallacy, 
 VIZ., that they can fix the future market 
 price of labor, irrespective of the laws of 
 supply and demand. This, however, 
 is not so. To fix the price of labor 
 for a certain time — for so many weeks 
 or so many days — in advance is not de- 
 ciding upon a future price. It is merely 
 eelling a larger quantity of labor at to- 
 day's price, or, as Mr. Kettle puts it, of 
 "to-day's labor." It is generally better 
 in all commodities — better for both buyer 
 and seller — to deal wholesale. The masters 
 will buy no more of labor at a higher price 
 than they can help ; the men will sell as 
 little at a low price as they possibly can. 
 To say that such a contract as the one here 
 supposed decides the future price of labor 
 is no more true than that a man agreeing 
 to supply another man with apples at two- 
 pence a pound for six months is deciding 
 upon a future price for apples. The price 
 is to-day's price, the ether article in the 
 agreement relates merely to the times of 
 delivery. Perhaps in arbitrations may be 
 seen what will one day become an impar- 
 tial tribunal for determining what is a 
 "fair day's wages for a f ir day's work," 
 and it is one of the best, as it is one of the 
 most gratifying proofs of the efiicacy of 
 trade unions, that they have been .success- 
 ful in the formation of boards of arbitra- 
 tion, and in teaching their men to submit 
 to the decisions of the arbitrators. 
 
 In order, however, that trade unions 
 may lay claim to fitness lor carrying out 
 their objects, they must show something 
 more than that they are able to conduct a 
 strike to a successful issue, to palliate the 
 evils of an unsuccessful strike, and to suc- 
 ceed in occasionally forming a board of 
 arbitration. They must show that in their 
 very nature they have the desire and the 
 power to prevent strikes. It is gratifying 
 to be able to state that in this respect, 
 also, the trade \inions are eminently suc- 
 cessful. Indeed economy, if nothing else, 
 ■would dictate such a policy. The execu- 
 toriea of trade unions have been taught l)y 
 
 experience that, even when an object ih 
 worth striving for, a strike is often thu 
 worst, and always the most expensive waj 
 of obtaining it. Strikes, as a rule, are a 
 dernier rexsori, and are more frequently dis- 
 countenanced by the general secretary 
 than approved of by him. Indeed, it is the 
 boast of most trade union secretaries that 
 they have prevented more strikes than they 
 have originated. This is all the more 
 creditable, because some branch or other is 
 always urging a strike. "At least twenty 
 times in as many months," wrote Mr. 
 Allan, "we have recommended that a 
 strike should not take place." "About 
 one-third," answered Mr. Applegarth, 
 when questioned on the subject hy the 
 Royal Commissioners, "of the applications 
 made to us to strike during the last few 
 years have been refused ; and Jlr. Mac- 
 donald, secretary of the House Painters' 
 Alliance, said — "Our parent society never 
 originated a strike, but it has stojiped 
 many." 
 
 The accounts of the various trade unions, 
 also, shoAvs how reluctant the executories 
 are to indulge in the luxury of a strike. 
 This was recently pointed out by Mr. 
 George Howell, in his clever and concise 
 article in the Contemportui/ Beriar of SeTp- 
 tember, 1883, and by Mr. Frederic Harri- 
 son in his address at the Trade Union 
 Congress at Nottingham in the following 
 month, published in the same magazine 
 in November last. Attention has been 
 already called to this subject, but the 
 passage will bear repetition. ' ' Last year, 
 says Mr. Frederic Harrison, " the Amalga- 
 mated Engineers, with au income of 
 £124,000 and a cash balance of XlGB.OOO, 
 expended in disputes altogether, including 
 the support they gave to other trades, £895 
 only. That Avas far less than one per cent, 
 of the whole of their income. The iron- 
 founders spent, out of an income of £42,- 
 000, £214 only ; and the Amalgamated 
 Carpenters, who had a number of disputes 
 and been engaged in strikes, spent £2,000 
 out of £50,000, which was only four per 
 cent. The tailors, with £18,(H)0, spent 
 £,")()5 only; and the stonemasons with 11,- 
 000 mem>)ers in union, sjjeut nothing in 
 strikes. During six years of unexanii)led 
 bad trade, and reduction of wages, and 
 industrial disturbance, there were a great 
 many strikes, and during that period .seven 
 great trade societies expended in the .settle- 
 ment of disputes £162,000 only out of a 
 capital of nearly £2,000,000. La.st year 
 (1882) these societies, with au aggregate 
 income of £330,0(J0 and a ca-sli In.lance of 
 £300,000, expended altogether in mattersof 
 dispute about £r>,00(), which was not two 
 per cent, on the whole of their income, and 
 not one per cent, on their total available 
 resources for the year." When it is re- 
 membered tliat fi!) per cent, of theie
 
 y8 
 
 societies' expenditures were for benevolent 
 and provident purposes and one per cent. 
 
 • only for strikes, it is absurd to say that the 
 chief object of a trade union is to foster 
 trade disputes. 
 
 The power on part of trade unions to 
 prevent .strikes increases with the strength 
 of the unions. One of the most pleasing 
 
 • features in unionism is that the most 
 powerful associations show least inclina- 
 tion to strike. Where the power to do 
 evil is greatest, the will to u.se that power 
 is least. Strength has been accompanied 
 by intelligence and discretion. TheGlas- 
 makers' Society is composed of every man 
 in the trade, and has, therefore, so to speak, 
 an entire monopoly ; and yet, strange and 
 gratifying to relate, they seldom have any 
 dispute. The masters frequently consult 
 with the representatives of the tinion, and 
 if the former wish to engage additional 
 hands they communicate with the latter, 
 find men are instantly found. It is to be 
 hoped that the Jacts to which attention is 
 here directed will be sufficient to remove 
 the hatred to unionism of those who 
 believe that trade unions are the cause of 
 strikes. A union does, indeed, render a 
 strike possible, but it cannot catise one. 
 As has been aptly said, to maintain that 
 unions are the cause of strikes, is the same 
 as saying that gunpowder is the cause of 
 war. 
 
 There were strikes before there were 
 trade unions, and it is a fact worth re- 
 membering that the most violent strikes 
 have been where unions did not exist. 
 
 Perhaps, however, the strongest argu- 
 ment in favor of the efficacy of trade 
 itnionism is the rapidity with which its 
 principles are spreading amongst the 
 workingmen. If unionism did not benefit 
 the workingman — did not, that is, carry 
 out its object — the workingman would 
 Uave it ; and were not the advantages he 
 receives of a very definite and material 
 nature, he would not submit to the heavy 
 tax upon his wages which his society de- 
 mands — a tax considerably more than half 
 of the amount demanded from him by 
 the Imperial Exchequer. The men, how- 
 ever, do not leave the union. In 1859 it 
 was estimated that the number of mem- 
 bers of trade unions was 600,000 ; in 1870 
 it had, it was calculated, increased to 800,- 
 000. In 1874 I estimated the number at 
 1,500,000; and two years later Mr. George 
 Howell fixed the membership of the difter- 
 ent societies at 1 600,000. In 1870 Mr. 
 Thornton estimated that only about 10 
 per cent, of the v.orkmen were members 
 of unions, but he added that "at the pre- 
 .sent rate of proselytism it will take but a 
 few years more lor all eligible workmen in 
 this country to become converts to union- 
 ism, and enrolled members of trade socie- 
 ties." Since Mr. Thornton wrote, the "rate 
 
 of proselytism" has wonderlully increased. 
 The five largest societies havedoubiea cbe 
 number of their members in sixteen years. 
 Rapid as has been the the progress of trade 
 unionism, there is, therefore, ample 
 room tor further development. Indeed, 
 trade unions are as yet in their infancy. 
 They recognize this, and many of them 
 are exercising themselves to bring non- 
 unionists to see the wisdom of entering 
 their portals. It is to be hoped their 
 efforts will be crowned with success, and 
 that in a very few years every working 
 man will belong to a union of his trade. 
 
 Yeais ago trade unions were considered 
 too insignificant for notice. The Press en- 
 tirely ignored them, and publishers recused 
 to print literature concerning them. When 
 their existence was at last recognized, 
 they were treated with an uncompromising 
 hostility — they were regarded as enemies 
 to social order and progress. To be a trade 
 unionist was to be a " dangerous character, ' ' 
 and that trade unions ought to be suppressed 
 was the general opinion of what is called 
 the respectable portion of the community. 
 All this is now changed ; trade unions are 
 not only acknowledged to be jiLstifiable, 
 but necessary. Magazine editors throw 
 open their pages to the unions' champions, 
 and even the trade union officers themselves 
 contribute articles to the leading publica- 
 tions of the day. The representatives of 
 unions hold converse with Cabinet minis- 
 ters, and the assistance of the societies is 
 eagerly sought by candidates for parlia- 
 mentary honors. The proceedings of the 
 trade congresses are telegraphed from one 
 end of the kingdom to the other. Unions 
 are now acknowledged as a power for 
 "good," and, to crown all, they have suc- 
 ceeded in placing three of their secretaries 
 in the House of Commons itself, and there 
 is every likelihood, ere long, of many more 
 being returned as members of that as- 
 sembly. 
 
 It was discovered that what unionists 
 wanted was not to rob capital, but obtain 
 for labor its rights. It was hoped that the 
 employers would see the question in this 
 light ; and one of the most distressing 
 features in the discussion of this question 
 is the violent hostility, the determination 
 to fight, the desire for war, displayed in 
 the programme of "the National Federation 
 of Associated Employers of Labor. ' ' That 
 document, however, testifies to the power 
 and efficacy of trade unions, which is the 
 point at present under consideration. 
 Amidst a good deal of misrepresentation 
 the employers acknowledge that the un- 
 ionists have an " elaborate organization." 
 ' ' Few are aware, ' ' they say, " " of the ex- 
 tent, compactness of organization, large 
 resources, and great influence of trade 
 unions. They have an annual congress at 
 which an increasing number of unions are
 
 29 
 
 represented each year. ' '"They have the 
 control of enormous funds, -which they ex- 
 pend freely in furtherance of their objects, 
 and the proportion of their earnings which 
 the operatives devote to the service of their 
 leaders is startling.'' We should think so, 
 to the mind of a selfish ma.ster. The associa- 
 tions "are federated together, acting in 
 common accord under able leaders. " ' " They 
 have a well-paid and ample .stafl' of leaders, 
 most of them experienced in the conduct 
 of strikes, many of them skilful as organ- 
 izers, all forming a class apart, a profession, 
 with interests distinct Irom, though not 
 necessarily antagonistic tc, those of the 
 workpeople they lead."' "They have, 
 through their command of money, the im- 
 posing aspect of their organization, and 
 partly, also, from the mistaken humani- 
 tarian aspirations of a certain number of 
 literary men of good standing [.s/c 'mis- 
 taken' men, i. e., such as the late J. K. 
 Mill, Prof. Beesley, Frederic Harrison, 
 Henry Crompton, W. T. Thornton, and 
 others], a large array of literary talent, 
 which is prompt in their service on all oc- 
 casions of controversy. They have their 
 own Press as a field for those exertions. 
 Their writers have free access to some of 
 the leading London journals. They or- 
 ganize frequent meetings at which paid 
 speakers inoculate the working classes with 
 their ideas, and l^rge them to dictate terms 
 to candidates for Parliament .... They 
 have a standing Parliamentary Committee, 
 and a programme, and active members of 
 Parliament are energetic in their service. 
 They have the attentive ear of the minister 
 of the day, and their communications are 
 received with instant and respectful atten- 
 tion. They have a large representation 
 of their own body in London whenever 
 Parliament is likely to be engaged in the 
 discussion of the proposals they have caused 
 to be brought before it. Thus, untram- 
 melled by pecuniary considerations, and 
 specially set apart for this peculiar work, 
 without other clashinii occupations, they 
 resemble the staff of a well-organized, well- 
 provisioned army, for which everything 
 that foresight and preoccupation in a given 
 purpose could provide is at command . . . 
 These results are the deserved reward of 
 the superiority of the trade unionists over 
 the employers in those high qualities of 
 foresight, generalship, and present self- 
 sacrifice, for the sake of future advantage 
 [what an admission !], which form neces- 
 sary elements in the success of every organ- 
 ized society." Truly, if there Avere any 
 doubts as to the fitness of trade unions t« 
 attain their objects, the National Federa- 
 tion of Associated Employers of Labor has 
 removed that doubt. Have the trade unions 
 eucceeded? Ask the federated employers. 
 There can be no better proof, not only of 
 the power, but of the justice of trade 
 
 unionism, than the document from whicL 
 the above quotations are taken. 
 
 Although, then, trade unions have proved 
 themselves thoroughly fit and able to carry 
 out the main objects Jor which ihey were 
 formed, yet it cannot be denied that, in 
 regard to one portion of their programme, 
 they have not .chown the ^ame tact and 
 ability. There is the authority of the chief 
 actuaries in the country for saying that the 
 insurance funds — as they may be called — 
 of some of the trade unions are based upon 
 false data. The amounts expended undei 
 this head are for sickness, superannuation, 
 accidents, funerals, etc., and the sum total 
 thus expended is very large, in some in- 
 stances much greater than is spent in con- 
 ducting a strike or oppcsing a lock-out.*" 
 
 As has been already pointed out, such 
 benevolent notions had vtiy little to do 
 with the formation of a union. Thfy were 
 mere subterluges lacktd to the charter of 
 a union because it was illegal for them to 
 exist without them. When they were ' ' re- 
 gistered," however, they had a sort of 
 qua.si-legal existence, and could, at any 
 rate, meet legally. It is probable that the 
 care and attention of the original members 
 would be devoted mere to the immediate 
 advantage of increased wages than in cal- 
 culating premiums for a sick and burial 
 fund. Probably, alfo, the actuarial abili- 
 ties of the first promoters of unions were 
 not very great. On the other hand, it must 
 be admitted that benevolent funds and 
 kindred funds attached to trade unions 
 both attract members and retain them. In 
 this respect they are a source of strength, 
 because each man is bound to obedience 
 under the penalty of losing all the money 
 he has subscribed lor his support in sick ness 
 and old age. 
 
 That unions force masters to pay bad 
 workmen the same wages as good workmen' 
 is not true, and the very idea would be 
 scouted by all .sensible unionists. The no- 
 tion that such is the case is, however, very 
 general. A uniform rate of pay exists in 
 the army, navy. Government oflices, and 
 other institutions, in which aristocrats have 
 been able to appropriate the "maximum " 
 of pay, leaving a meagre residuum to their 
 less fortunate brethren ; butthetrade unio- 
 nists have not yet learned to practise such 
 injustice. True, the unions sometimes 
 agree upon a minimum rate of wages, but 
 this is(juite another thing. If a man be not 
 worth that minimum no employer need 
 employ him, while if he be a man of supe- 
 rior skill, or extraordinary working ability, 
 there is no limit to the amount of Avages an 
 employer may feel inclined to give him. 
 Of e-ourse, where wages are paiel by the day, 
 a uniform rate natually springs in existence. 
 
 * The Beven larKCxt unloim Hpenl .<;230,096 In 
 1861 in the above-tiaiu<^cI bvnrfiu.
 
 30 
 
 It is, however, agreed upon between the em- 
 ployers and men. It is a mere conven- 
 tional arrangement, and may be abandoned 
 by either side as soon as it is found unj ust or 
 oppressive. It must be remembered that 
 when wages have settled down to a " uni- 
 form rate, " that rate is always below the 
 average, and is therefore a gain to the 
 masters. It is a gain to them in another 
 respect. So far from placing the competent 
 on the same level, says that gentlemen, 
 "this 'uniform rate' has been bitterly 
 complained of, as excluding the incompetent 
 altogether. At the Bradford meeting in 
 1874, one of the speakers gave, as a reason 
 against trade unions, that he was not able 
 to earn the usual rates, and as the union 
 would not allow any of its members to 
 work for less, he could get no employment 
 while he was a member, and so he left.'' 
 A " minimum rate " is the rate which the 
 least competent unionist is worth, and if 
 the man cannot come up to that standard 
 the trade society cares not how soon be 
 
 leaves it. In practice, the masters never 
 complain of this "minimum " or "uniform"' 
 rate. They know the advantages cf it 
 too well to indulge in any such complaint. 
 It is only heard as an argument when they 
 are airing their grievances, and laying the 
 blame of every evil under the sun to the 
 action of trade unions.. It is a kind of 
 reasoning which may fairly be considered a 
 special plea. 
 
 It has been shown, 1st, That trade unions 
 are the natural growth of natural laws, and 
 that their development has been marvel- 
 lously rapid ; 2nd, That their faults (now 
 diminishing) are not inherent or essential, 
 but are either excrescences or mere copies 
 from other corporations ; 3rd, That the ob- 
 ject of unionism is a legitimate and a noble 
 one ; and 4th, That their fitness to attain 
 that object is abundantly proved by the bril- 
 liant success which has characterized their 
 eftbrts. It remains to consider what has 
 been the influence of that success, to whicb 
 ta^k the following chapter will be devoted. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 TRADE rXIOXS — THEIR INFLUENCE. 
 
 ■Effects of high wages — Desire to retain a high social standard — Well-paid labor remunerative t» 
 the capitalist— Foreign competition— High wages does not mean high prices — The high price 
 of coal and the colliers — Co-operation — Trade unions stimulate invention — Bxpenditure by the 
 working classes — Advantages of shorter hours — Self-improvement — Moral influence of trade 
 unions — Endeavor to make good workmen — Educational influence of trade unions^Political 
 influence — Future of trade unions — Legal requirements — Class distinctions — Good conduct of 
 unionists insisted upon — Mutual assistance — The union offlcee storehouses of statistics— The 
 British Association on trade unions — Recapitulation and conclusion. 
 
 It remains to consider — 
 
 ((/) What is the influence of trade unions 
 on the trade of the country ? 
 
 {b) What is their moral eflfect on those 
 who belong to them ? 
 
 It is, indeed, the " higgling of the mar- 
 ket," as Adam Smith calls it, which de- 
 termines prices; and those who do not 
 "higgle," even when "shopping," will 
 generally pay more than the market rate 
 ior their goods. Strikes, then, are not 
 only legitimate, but they are the inevi- 
 table result of commercial bargaining for 
 labor. They are no more opposed to 
 trade than are lockouts. If a man may 
 say to his men, or to a portion of them: 
 "Business is slack, I give you a week's 
 notice," surely when the state of trade is 
 reversed the men may say, "Trade is brisk, 
 give us more wages, or take a week's no- 
 tice." "I do not hesitate to say," says 
 one who is worth hearing* ' ' that the asso- 
 
 ■' iJir. J. S. Mill. 
 
 elation of laborers, of a nature similar to 
 trade unions, far from being a hindrance 
 to a free market for labor, are the necessary 
 instrumentality of that free market — the 
 indispensable means of enabling the filers 
 of labor to take due care of their own in- 
 terests under a system of competition." It 
 seems strange that persons can be found 
 wh© will deny that all legal means em- 
 ployed by those who live by labor, to in- 
 crease the remuneration for that labor, or 
 to shorten the hours of labor — which 
 amounts to the .same thing — or to render 
 their means of living more secure, are no 
 more a violation of the principles of trade 
 than is the conduct of a dealer who with- 
 holds his goods from the market in order 
 to raise their price. 
 
 It has been shown in the previous chap- 
 ter that one of the great results of trade 
 unionism has been to raise wages, and 
 under this head, therefore, it is a no less 
 important inquiry — What are the effects 
 of advanced wages on the trade of the
 
 country ? Now, high wages — i.e. not only a 
 gieater number of dollars a week, but no 
 diminution in their purchasing power — 
 cannot be otherwise than a great blessing. 
 A great deal has been said on the wastelul 
 way in vrhich the extra earnings of the 
 workingmen were squandered in 1870 and 
 the years before, and this will be treated of 
 in the sequel. All a man's extra earnings, 
 however, were not wasted. Some portion 
 of them was, doubtle.ss, spent in .sober 
 uratification , and in increasing the comfort 
 uf the household. Now, one of the articles 
 iu which there has been increased con- 
 sumption is tea. Let us ask, therefore, 
 what is the efiect of an increased consump- 
 tion of tea? Itsignifies, inlhehnstplace, that 
 more ships have been required to fetch the 
 tea from China, to build which ships more 
 men were required, and to man them more 
 men were wanted. The ships had to be 
 rigged, which was good for the ropemakers 
 and the sailcloth manufacturers, as well as 
 several other industries. Then when the 
 tea arrived here, it required more ware- 
 houses and employed more warehousemen, 
 as well as an additional number of carriers, 
 both by rail and road, to distribute it over 
 the country ; it required more paper to 
 wrap it in parcels, more string to tie them 
 with. Indeed, it is difficult to imagine any 
 industry whatever that does not receive 
 some advantage from the increase iu the 
 consumption of any single article ; and it 
 may be a consolation to cosmopolitans to 
 be reminded that the processes here al- 
 luded to are not confined in their advan- 
 tages to this country, but stimulate in a 
 similar way the various trades in the dis- 
 tant land which cultivated the plant ; and 
 thus two nations mutually benefit each 
 other, and feel that they have an interest 
 in each other's prosperity. This, however, 
 is not all. The tea is not sent here for 
 nothing ; we send out other commodities in 
 exchange for it. The cotton fal)rics from 
 Lancashire, the woollen cloths from York- 
 shire, hardware goods from Birmingham, 
 and steel and iron manufactures from Shef- 
 fied, are gathered to our ports and sent to 
 the east, employing labor at every process, 
 and whenever they are moved, from the 
 time the raw material is landed on our 
 shores until the time that it is delivered 
 over to the consumer or the wearer in a far 
 -distant land. When the collier's wife buys 
 an alpaca dress, she little thinks how much 
 the world has been set in motion to enable 
 her to do .so — how that Halt wove it, IJipley 
 dyed it. Lairds built the ship to fetch it, 
 Whitworths made the tools in order that 
 Piatt might make the machines, in order 
 that it might be spun, woven, dyed, pres.sed, 
 before it reached the dre.ssmaker, who used 
 a needle made by Mil ward, and thread by 
 hrooks. An increase iu the consumption 
 of a commodity, therefore, gives work to 
 
 thousands who would be otherwise idle, 
 and has a tendency to raise wages nearer 
 and nearer to the ''just rate," which haa 
 ever been such a bone of contention, Thi.s 
 is the great point to remember — when men 
 are earning money they spend it. They 
 buy more furniture for their homes, more 
 clothes for their back, more beer for their 
 cellar, more and better food. It is only 
 when wages are low that, like Christopher 
 Sly, they have "no more doublets than 
 backs, no more stockings than legs, nor no 
 more shoes than feet. ' ' The prosperity of 
 the workingman, then, increases the pros- 
 perity of the butcher, the baker, the pub- 
 lican, the grocer, the tailor, the draper, 
 and all the manufacturers and industries 
 upon which these trades depend. It may, 
 indeed, be the prosperity of the nation 
 which causes high wages ; but it is equally 
 certain that high wages maintain and in- 
 crease that prosperity.* 
 
 The workingmen, having once tasted the 
 sweets of a prosperous condition, do not 
 like to return to their old wajs of poverty 
 and squalor. They are always found, 
 therefore, struggling to maintain their 
 wages at the maximum point they have 
 ever reached. The reluctance which is 
 shown to submit to a necessary reduction 
 is evidence in proof of this. Now it has 
 been shown by Ricardo, Mill, and others, 
 that the minimum rate of wages is found 
 amongst men in that condition below 
 which they do not choose to live. If these 
 men can be improved iu their condition, 
 and when that ' 'improvement is of a signal 
 character, and a generation grows up which 
 has always been used to an improved scale 
 of comfort, the habits of this new genera- 
 tion, in respect to population, become 
 formed upon a higher minimum, and tlie 
 improvement in their condition becomes 
 permanent." Here, then, is an object 
 worth striving for — a ' ' permanent' ' raising 
 of wages — at any rate, so permanent that it 
 will not fall for one generation— truly a 
 consummation devoutly to be wished, and 
 one which may be reached, not only with- 
 out injury to the capitalist, but to his ma- 
 terial prosperity and advantage. On the 
 other hand, a permanent tall in wageH 
 means a deterioration in the "minimum" 
 condition. When men begin to fall, they 
 descend more rapidly than they rise, and in 
 a few weeks will tbrget the comforts they 
 enjoyed for a few mouths. Facilis direuimji 
 Arerno. There can be no doubt that it wa« 
 this " keeping down" in the years gone by 
 that permanently injured the condition of 
 
 * The HliopkeeperH know tliiH, and often attHlHt 
 to maintain a strike \>y KiviiiK H'c men ci«'<llt 
 while they are out of w<irk. FCxperienco han 
 taught them that when men havr hi^h " -itc^n 
 they spend tliem, and they therefore H-ni-i the 
 men lo obtain an a<lvance, knowing; mai. bhey 
 theruaelve;! will Mhare Ihe iMSueiiir..
 
 32 
 
 the agricultural laborers, from which in- 
 jury they are only now recovering. There 
 can be no higher mission for trade imions 
 than that of raising the condition of the 
 working men of this country to such an 
 extent and for such a length of time that 
 the point reached becomes the accepted 
 minimum, and that any change at all must 
 be in an upward direction. 
 
 The laborers, however, must not expect 
 to derive all the advantages of high wages 
 at once. They must remember that if 
 enhanced wages cause the price of the com- 
 modity produced to be enhanced, the price 
 is raised to them as well as to others. If 
 the demand of the cotton operatives raise 
 the price of shirts, the cotton operatives 
 must pay more for thtir shirts just the 
 same as other people. There is, however, 
 this to be considered, that men produce 
 faster than they consume. Each man pro- 
 duces more than is necessary for his owu 
 support. When a man has made a plough 
 he can make another before that one is 
 worn out. The more there are made the 
 more there will be wanted until all are 
 supplied, which for practical purposes may 
 at present be considered a very remote 
 future. The supply creates the demand. 
 Stockings were not inquired for (because 
 they were not wanted) until they were in- 
 vented ; and if to-morrow we had double 
 the quantity we have to-day, it might be 
 possible to sell them at half the present 
 price without reducing wages at all. It is 
 quite possible that Avagesmay be enhanced, 
 prices diminished, and proliis increased, at 
 one and the same time, as those familiar 
 with the use of newly invented machinery 
 are well aware. This explains a paradoxi- 
 cal appearance at the present day, that all 
 over the world there is a tendency of wages 
 to rise, and at the same time a universal 
 tendency of all materials to cheapen. 
 Unionism helps both these tendencies, and 
 is thus a double blessing. It is probable, 
 though not certain, that profits will be 
 called upon to make the principal sacrifice 
 in the future. At any rate this is to be 
 hoped. Hitherto the consumer has been — 
 to use a vulgar but expressive word — 
 fleeced ; and it is time that the incidence 
 of injustice be either shifted or annihi- 
 lated." 
 
 Although, however, a rise in the price of 
 labor all round, taxes, so to speak, the 
 laborers themselves, yet it does not tax 
 them to the full extent of the advance. 
 There is a race of beings called " non-pro- 
 ducers" — a class "sometimes innocent, 
 generally useless, often noxious." Now a 
 rise in wages all round means that some of 
 the luxuries of the non-producing class are 
 being metamorphosed into extra comforts 
 'ti luxuries for the producing class. This is 
 a pure gain to the producer, in addition to 
 otlier gains which result from the improve- 
 
 ment of his position . The only way by 
 which laborers could be deprived of the 
 benefits of increased wages, would be by 
 the non-laboring class setting to work and. 
 producing something. They would then 
 share in the advantages of the increased 
 prosperity, instead of, as now, sacrificing a 
 portion of their means, and this portion i.s 
 divided amongst the producers. So long, 
 however, as they toil not, neither do they 
 spin, and garner what they have not 
 gathered, they cannot complain that they 
 contribute towards the cost of those who 
 work. 
 
 It must not be thought, however, that 
 well-paid labor is un remunerative to the 
 capitalist. The contrary is the fact. In- 
 deed, that style of labor lorAvhich no wages 
 — in the ordinary sense — -are paid, i.s the 
 least remunerative of any. Slaves will 
 not work. The low state of civilization 
 and the ignorance of even the simplest 
 laws in which it is found necessary to keej) 
 human beings, in order that they may sub- 
 mit to slavery, do more to prevent them 
 from working hard than the lash does to 
 make them work at all. It was pointed 
 out some time ago that "two Middlesex 
 mowers will mow in a day as much grass 
 as six liussian serfs ; and in spite of the 
 dearness of provisions in England, and 
 their cheapness inKussia, the mowing of a 
 quantity of hay Avbich would cost an Eng- 
 lish farmer a copeck will cost a Russian 
 proprietor three or four copecks. " It was, 
 in short, considered as proven that in 
 Kussia, where everything was cheap, the 
 labor oi' a serf was doubly as expensive as 
 that of a laborer in England. Men will 
 not work their very best unless they have 
 an incentive to do so. This great truth 
 has at last made itself known to .some of 
 our great capitali.sts. Sir Thomas Bras^( y 
 and other large employers have found o-t 
 that underpaid labor is by no means econo- 
 mical. Here are a few proofs — When the 
 North Devon Eailway was being mad», 
 men were working at 2.9. a day at first, then 
 2s. 6f/., and then os. 6d. Nevertheless it 
 was found that the work was execittfd 
 more cheaply at the highest rate than at the 
 lowest rate. So also in carrying out thelarjje 
 .sewage works in Oxford Street, London, 
 bricklayers were gradually raised from 6k. 
 to 10s. a day, and at the higher rate of 
 Avages bricks were laid at a cheaper rate : 
 while at the building of Basingstoke sta- 
 tion one London Avorkman at 5s. 6(/. a day 
 did more work than three country ones at 
 3s. (id. each. Many other instances might 
 be added, all showing that intelligent 
 Avorkmen well paid are cheaper than Viad 
 workmen ill paid. As Mr. Frederic Har- 
 rison puts it : " The workman whose intel- 
 ligence requires no more than the minimum 
 of supervision is a cheap bargain even at 
 the maximum wages." " It is said by one
 
 33 
 
 j!' oar factory inspectors that in France 
 one workman looks after 14 spindles. In 
 England one minder and two assistants 
 can manage a mule with 2,'ZH) spindles. It 
 is an obvious economy to employ such a 
 minder at even higher rates as compared 
 with the Fiench. This is the progress by 
 which, in our cotton industry, as in so 
 many others, wages have been rising, pro- 
 fits have been growing, and goods ha^e 
 been cheapened all at the same lime." In- 
 creased wages aie always to be got when 
 there is an increase in the product of labor, 
 although even the rate of wages be lower. 
 Thus aspinnerinGlaiigow (Messis. Houlds- 
 worth's) employed on a mule, and spin- 
 ning cotton 120 hanks to the pov.nd, pro- 
 duced in 1823, working 74-2 hours in the 
 week, 46 pounds of yarn, his nett weekly 
 earnings for which amounted to 26s. Id. 
 In 1833, the rate of wages having in the 
 meantime been reduced 13^ per cent., and 
 the time of workirg having been lessened 
 to 69 hours, the spinner was enabled, by 
 the greater perfection of the machinery, to 
 produce on a mule of the same number 
 cf spindles, 52t pounds of yarn of the same 
 fineness, and his nett weekly eainings ad- 
 vanced to 29.s. lOd. Similar causes raised 
 the rf muneration of the fast spinners from 
 58. Gd. a week in 1871 by successive grada- 
 tions to 9.S. in 1872 ; and almost every trade 
 can tell the same story. Sir Thomas 
 Brassey strengthens this position by point- 
 ing out that in the construction of the 
 Paris and Konen Railway, although the 
 English navvies earned 5.s' a day, while the 
 Frenchmen employed received only 2.s. Gd. 
 a day, yet it was found, on comparing the 
 cost of two adjacent cuttings in precisely 
 similir circumstances, that the excavation 
 was made at a lower co't per cubic yard by 
 the English navvies than by the French 
 laborers ; and it mast be remembered, too, 
 that the former worked one and a half 
 hours a day less than the latter. Another 
 authority has told us that, a few years ago, 
 ten laborers in Ireland raised the same 
 quantity of produce that four laborers 
 raised in England, and the result of the 
 work of the one was generally inferior in 
 quality to tVat of the other. Quarry- 
 owners tell the same tale, and it was the 
 opinion cf the late Sir Francis Crossley 
 that our agricultural laborers would do 
 more work if they were better paid. 
 
 Although, therefore, wages increase, 
 labor does not become dearer. This is very 
 gratifying, because it can hardly bedoubte d 
 that the spread of education, and the com- 
 forts which follow from it, will induce the 
 working man to work less hard, and for 
 shorter time, for increased wages, than he 
 has hitherto done. The facta aV)ove stated, 
 too, should serve to lay that frightful hob- 
 goblin — " foreign competition." A ship can 
 hardly be launched in America, or a fur- 
 
 nace lighted in Belgium, but England ia 
 [ assured that in consequence of strikes the 
 trade is leaving the country. The most 
 trade will always be found where there are 
 the best workmen, and the argument of 
 these pages shows how these are to be 
 made. It is very amusing to notice that 
 while British capitalists pretend to be 
 alarmed at foreign comijetition, every na- 
 tion under the sun is afraid of English 
 competition. When our cotton manufac- 
 turers were earning 12s. to 15s. a week, 
 those iu France, Belgium, and Germany 
 were earning7.«. 3d. to 9s. 7d., andthosein 
 Russia were coLtent with 2s. 4d. to 2s. lid.; 
 and yet the one thing dreaded by the con- 
 tinental nations mentioned was actually 
 the competition of the British. 
 
 Professor Cairns, a careful and thought- 
 ful economist, admits that it is often bet- 
 ter to employ good workmen at high wages 
 than to employ bad workmen at low wages. 
 It is strange, however, that in another 
 argument the Professor overlooks that ad- 
 mission. He places the power of a trade 
 union at a lower point than any other 
 economist who has given them a word of 
 praise. He states that all the union can 
 do is to enfon e a rise when it should take 
 place — and not always then ; but he thinks 
 them incompetent io obtain a rise when 
 the economic conditions do not warrant a 
 rise. Surely Piolessor Caiins misunder- 
 stands the object of a trade union, if he 
 think a part of its programme is to attempt 
 to obtain a rise when economic conditions 
 do not warrant such rise. Failure would 
 be certain to follow such a policy. The 
 differences between employers and em- 
 ployed do not arise from any such notion, 
 but from the general policy of the masters 
 in systematically refusirg to acknowledge 
 that the economic conditions are ever such 
 as to warrant a rise. As Professor Cairns 
 says, the question is : "is there a margin 
 of wealth which woikmen by any com- 
 bination can conquer?" The men thin> 
 there is not a mere margin, but a vast ter- 
 ritory to which they are entitled, and the 
 experiences of the past lill them with sure 
 and certain hopes as to the future. They 
 see the final result, and are determined 
 upon its speedy realization. Nor do they 
 fear that which Profe.ssor Cairns dreads, 
 vi^., thafc in consequence of advanced 
 wages, capital must be withdrawn, and 
 wages therefore fall. Such can only be the 
 ca.se when wag»s are vnduli/ advanced, 
 about which there need be no alarm. At 
 any rate, the workmen have no such fear. 
 They are alive to the admission made by 
 Professor Cairns, to which allusion hji.s l)een 
 made ; and they are a(<iuaint< d with the 
 facts above given, .showing that well-paid, 
 intelligent artisan.^, when not over-worked 
 are always cheapest iu the end. 
 
 It may be mentioned here, in pareathe
 
 M 
 
 sis, that althongh trede unions have a far 
 more powerful influence over wages — con- 
 stantly imparting an upward tendency — 
 than Prolessor Cairns imagines, yet it is 
 likewise an error on the part of those who 
 think that trade unionism seeks to deter- 
 mine the rate of wages. It cannot do that ; 
 it cannot do more than affect them. A 
 trade society may retard a fall or accele 
 rate a rise, but it cannot change the law 
 which regulates the fluctuations, or render 
 permanent that which in its very essence 
 is temporary. 
 
 It is at once seen that the instances of 
 well-paid but remunerative labor, added 
 to those facts which were adduced in sup- 
 port of a similar argument in the previous 
 chapter in regard to the reduction of the 
 hours of labor, show thai the bentficial 
 efifects of the success of unionism on the 
 trade of the country are not at the co.st of 
 the capitalist, but to his advantage and 
 that that advantage is not less but greater 
 by his paying higher wages for shorter hours. 
 
 It was very surprising to notice the facil- 
 ity with which the employers, in 1874, 
 forced a general reduction of wages. Even 
 if the fall in price demanded such a reduc- 
 tion — which is by no means clear— yet it is 
 strange that the men so readily belieied 
 their employers. Great care is taken to 
 register the prices of all commodities ; 
 very little attention is bestowed to regis- 
 tering the TSitf-s of wages. It is. I think, 
 Mr. Frederic Harrison who points ont that 
 even newspapers, speaking of commodities, 
 announce an "upward tendency," or a 
 "slight improvement, ■' or "an increased 
 buoyancy;" but that no such steps are 
 taken in regard to labor. On the other 
 hand, "one of the most experienced engi- 
 neers in England, the secretary of one of 
 our mo -t useful commissions, has repeatedly 
 said that he never knew a labor question in 
 which employers published the truth." 
 The inconsistency of the employers, too, is 
 often very startling. Thus when the We^t 
 Yorkshire colliers demanded an increase of 
 wages, because the price of coal had ad- 
 vanced, the reply of the owners was that 
 the price of coal had nothing whatever to 
 do with the rate of wages. No sooner, 
 however, did coal fall than the owners 
 demanded a reduction of wages, statirg 
 that although "the price of coal did not 
 directly control the ratio of the rate of 
 wages, yet they could not conceal from 
 themselves that it had some effect, and that 
 it was, at any rate, an index of the time 
 when a rise or fall in wages should take 
 place." It is a pity they did not see this 
 when an increase was demanded ! When, 
 too, the men have asked for an advance of, 
 say, 10 per cent , and the masters have not 
 only refused it. but, as has often taken 
 place, demanded a reduction of 10 per 
 cent, out of sheer opposition, it is indeed 
 
 surprising that the men have shown so 
 much forbearance. With some few excep- 
 tions, the men have asked for ' ' Peace on 
 fair terms;" and the employers have an- 
 swered, " War, and an unconditional sur- 
 render." The men have asked for bread, 
 and have received a stone. One of the best 
 influences th^t trade unionism can have on 
 the trade of the country is the one which 
 teaches the employers that what is sought 
 is not a favor, but justice ; and that as the 
 manufacturer makts as much as he can out 
 of the dealer, so will the weaver make as 
 much as he can out of the manufacturer. 
 The sooner the employers see this the 
 better. Professor Fawcett says "there 
 must constantly be a deadening iDfinence 
 depressing industry as long as antagoni.'-m 
 of interest continues between tmployeis 
 and employed, and the noblest, highest, 
 and in every sense best efforts of trade 
 unionism are those that tend to remove 
 that antagonism." 
 
 There can, indeed, be little doubt that 
 the unions have made many a great and 
 praiseworthy sacrifice in sulmitting to re- 
 ductions. In order to avoid a collision the 
 men have yielded their just rights with 
 very little grumbling. It by bo mfans 
 follows that because coal falls in price that 
 wage.^ must immediately fall. In order to 
 justify a fall in wages, it is necessary that 
 the price of coal (or, of course, any other 
 commodity that may be under considera- 
 tion) should fall below that point at which 
 an advance took place. The nifLhavea 
 right to resist any attempt to r« dn..e wages 
 until such a state of affairs cr met a", nut. 
 
 There is another economic efftet o) wade 
 unionism which deserves at leafet a passing 
 mention. The knowledge that men have 
 the power to strike, stimulates the inventive 
 faculties of employers. A strike is not al- 
 ways confi' f <1 in its effects to the particu- 
 lar branch of the trade that makes demards 
 from the employer. A strike of puddleis 
 enforces idieness on other ironworkers ; 
 while "finishers" cannot work if "fullers" 
 won't. It is, therefore, to the advantage 
 of the employers to have the various pro- 
 cesses of manufacture as independent of 
 each other as possible, ^o that if one depart- 
 ment strikes, the necessity of another 
 being idle may be reduced to a minimum. 
 This is accomplished by the introduction of 
 machinery, rendering less and less neces- 
 sary the skill of workmen. Mr. Nasmyth, 
 by mechanical contrivances, reduced thfe 
 number of his men from 3000 to 1500 
 without reducing the production. It has 
 been observed that, in consequence of 
 almisst all great strikes, the employers 
 have set their wits to work, as the saying 
 is, and have invented such improvements 
 that they — and through them the world — 
 have been very great gainers. A notable 
 instance of this is found in the history of
 
 35 
 
 the straggle in 1851 of the engineers with 
 their masters, to which reference has been 
 already made. The process alluded to is 
 going on at present very rapidly. In the 
 iron industries especially, the improvements 
 in material, and the almost daily introduc- 
 tion of newly invented labor-saving con- 
 trivances have resulted in one man being 
 able to do what two and a half men were 
 required to do thirty years ago, to say 
 nothing of the important fact that the 
 material is ten times more durable than it 
 was, and the machines wear out much 
 more slowly. These facts not only bear 
 out the argument, but should induce the 
 men to strengthen their unions, to compete 
 with the displaced labor; and, wherever 
 possible, reap two profits by becoming 
 owners of the machines they construct, as 
 was long ago suggested by the late Mr. 
 John Kane. 
 
 The doctrine that that policy is best 
 which gi%e8the greatest good to the great- 
 est number, has become an axiom. Now, 
 in every commanity the majority must 
 always consist of working men and their 
 families, and it does seem a natural way of 
 proceeding that, if you give a greater hap- 
 piness to a greater number, a step is being 
 made towards realizing Bentham's cele- 
 brated dictum. The moral effects, then, of 
 high wages are great. Of course they might 
 be greater, but a little experience will 
 bring that about. Strikes, therefore, and 
 the trade societies which render strikes pos- 
 sible, are, for these various reasons, not a 
 mischievous, but, on the contrary, a valua- 
 ble part of the existing machinery of so- 
 ciety. 
 
 It would be a work of supererogation to 
 discuss here the great advantages of mors 
 leisure to the working class, but as it is 
 one of the objects of a trade union to ob- 
 tain shorter hours, and as the realization 
 of such a policy has a very beneficial elilect 
 on those who belong to trade societie", the 
 question cannot be passed over without a 
 few words* The advantages of recreation 
 are acknowledged, but few steps are taken 
 to afford the means to indulge in it. 
 
 The men in various trades are not only 
 showing a desire to generally improve 
 themselves, but to obtain a deeper knowl- 
 edge of their oven particular trades. Some 
 time ago, Mr. Wilcock, the then president 
 of the London irioyal Lodge of the General 
 Union of Carpenters, of England, initiated 
 a series of lectures to its members, and the 
 president himself delivered one on "The 
 
 *It has already been pointed out tliat a lon^- 
 hoiirs day means dear labor. Mr. Tliorold ItoKCrs 
 baa Hhown, in Iiis recent work, that it is also in- 
 compatible with good workinani-liip. Hpenliiiif; 
 of the excellent nianonry of Merlon Tower, Ox- 
 ford, four liundred yearH old, he Mays, "' I am per- 
 suaded that Huch .perfect inawonrv would have 
 been incompatible with u long-houra day !" 
 
 Knowledge and U.se of Scales as Applied 
 to the Building Trade." The following 
 month Mr. Dise gave a lecture on freehand 
 drawing. At present, in London, there 
 are several technical classes conducted by 
 artisans, and the City of Guilds Institute 
 as well as the Polytechnic Institution, and 
 the Artisans' Technical Association, are 
 doing much to promote that object. 
 
 There can be no doubt as to the effect of 
 thus teaching men that what their hands 
 find to do should be done with all their 
 might, however weak that might may be. 
 Men are made for something better than 
 to be hewers of wood and draweis of wa- 
 ter. Indeed, the plan of lectuiing just re- 
 ferred to, rapidly bears fruit, and some of 
 the members of the union mentioned have, 
 on account of their superior knowledge of 
 their trade, been appointed head foremen 
 to some of the principal firms. Other 
 unions have similar means ot improving 
 their members and raising their tastes ; 
 and it is to be hoped that, ere long, the 
 practice will be universal. The more time 
 the unions can obtain for their men to do 
 this (and workmen thus educated will be 
 better workmen) the better it will be ; and 
 it is, therefore, for the unions to strnt^gle. 
 with all the means in their power, in order 
 that the men may get as much wages as 
 they can (without infringing upon that 
 limit when their productions would be un- 
 remunerative) for as little work as possible, 
 performed with a minimum of inconveni- 
 ence. 
 
 Indeed, the great advantage of union 
 men over non-union men is being discov- 
 ered by the employers, and they are be- 
 ginning to acknowledge the fact. A Liver- 
 pool carpenter recently told the author that 
 the bosses knew the union men were the 
 best workmen, and that it was a regular 
 thing to give them one penny per hour 
 more than the rate fixed upon by the 
 society. This is not surprising, as no man 
 can be a union carpenter unless he be in 
 good health, have worked a certain number 
 of years at the trade, be a good workman, 
 of steady habits and good moral character. 
 
 Unionists are not desirous ol having in- 
 competent or unsteady workmen ns asso- 
 ciates. They can see that such men do us 
 much to lower wages as anything eKse. The 
 good workmen know this, and they crowd 
 into the unions as fa.'^t as they can. Of 
 course it is not maintained here that all 
 unionist workmen are proHcient. There 
 are, as a matter of fact, Heveral unionistH 
 who are not good workmen ; but there are 
 few good workmen who are not unionists. 
 The men out of union an-, for "theino.st 
 part, either inferior workmen, employed 
 on inferior work at reduced rate.s, or tlio.'<e 
 wlio have belonged to it and are erased. Of 
 these last, .some left beoau.se they <Iid not 
 wi.sh to pay to it, or, indeed, to anylhino
 
 36 
 
 else that they could avoid ; and the rest, 
 by tar the greatest number, are those who 
 have been erased lor non-payment through 
 their unfortunate habits ot intemperance, 
 which left them no means of paying." The 
 trade unions may fairly consider whether 
 or not it comes within their province to 
 take even stronger measures to ensure the 
 efficiency of their members. A "more 
 der^v'u* stabdard of efficiency" than at 
 present might be decided upon, so that a 
 man's union ticket would be a standard of 
 comjietency, and accepted as such by the 
 ■employeis. 
 
 li something of this kind were practica- 
 ble in every trade— and the unions have an 
 excellent organization for carrying out the 
 suggestion — it would be of infinite bene- 
 fit to the community. The employers would 
 readily acknowledge certificates of profi- 
 ciency issued by the unions. It may be 
 added that the unions are showing a lauda- 
 ble desire to take a high tone in regard to 
 this matter. They have, over and over 
 again, protested against the "scamping" 
 ot work and cheating of purchasers, against 
 jerry building, sizing cotton, etc., etc. They 
 are not " the fault ot the artisan — they are 
 his misfortune," says an official report, and 
 continues: "We know, from experience, 
 that the properly-trained and highly-skilled 
 workman is the first to suffer by the shame- 
 ful process. When circumstances press him 
 into this circle of competition, he has to 
 undergo a second apprenticeship to acquire 
 this .sleight of-hand system, during which 
 he earns less wages." Mr. Thomas Hughes 
 thinks the unions "are powerful enough 
 now lo insist, if they choose to do so, that 
 no unionist shall work where such prac- 
 tices prevail." Mr. Thorold Rogers takes 
 a similar view, adding that the men should 
 protect the public, denouncing and expos- 
 ing "dishonest and scantling work." I 
 may add that the desire of the workmen 
 in the direction above indicated, is shown 
 by the objection, on the part of artisans, 
 to clerks and others studying in technical 
 classes, lest such should learn just sufficient 
 to he a dabbler at the trade, and rnus cause 
 to be thrown into the market a quantity of 
 incompetent labor. The same feeling is 
 shown in the desire for sound regulations 
 in regard to apprentices, for it is obvious 
 that any skilled trade, not protected by an 
 apprenticeship system, must always occupy 
 a low status. 
 
 The most important educational work 
 which the trade unions are performing, is 
 that of familiarizing the workman — and, 
 for that matter, the employer as well — with 
 the true relations of capital to labor. The 
 unions are doing good work in another di- 
 rection. Their attention is not solely con- 
 fined to questions affecting capital and 
 labor. The trade unions not only wish 
 the laborers to be good workmen — they are 
 
 also determined to make them good citi- 
 zens, and are anxious to do away with all 
 class distinctions. Tke men are beginning 
 to feel "the glorious privilege of being in- 
 dependent." It is time they did. Nothing 
 tends so much to degrade a class as the 
 knowledge that it is dependent. The day 
 has gone by when a man must feel loyal 
 and dutiful to another simply because he 
 has been born on his estate, or because he 
 works in his factory. The men are willinij 
 enough to receive the ambassador of the 
 employer with all due respect, but they de- 
 mand (on the peril of a strike) that their 
 own delegates shall be equally well re- 
 ceived. It is now acknowledged that the 
 demeanor most fitting towards the poor is 
 that which is most fitting towards every 
 one. The leaders of the unions have per- 
 ceived that the general tendency of human 
 progress is in this direction, and they have 
 detei mined not to oppose, but to assist it. 
 
 It is not only part of the policy of trade 
 unions to demand, as rights, tbofe privi- 
 leges which are now withheld fiom them, 
 but also to render their nt mbeis fit to ex- 
 eicise those rights. It has already been 
 shewn that civility to Iheir emplojeis, as 
 well as sobiiety, aie essential betoie a man 
 ear lee erne a practical trsde unionist. 
 
 When men s^ee lules, and subscribe to 
 them, egainst ceitain wrong-doinfi and evil 
 practices, they (lor use doth breed a habit 
 in a man) look upon those practices as 
 nrovg, and they soon become, in every way, 
 better men. Not only do the unions take 
 steps to prevent evil, they exert the mselvts 
 to promote good. 
 
 A great deal is made by anti-unionists of 
 the notion that when a man joins a union 
 he loses his liberty , and becomes a slave to 
 the union agent or the union efficers. It 
 may be veiy propeily replied that a man, 
 if he likes, has a right to give up his lib- 
 eity. The argument, however, if such it 
 can be called, is wiong in fact. The work- 
 man in delegating the task of asking more 
 wages, instead of asking them personally, 
 is no more giving up his libeity than a 
 client is in hiring an advocate to plead for 
 him to a jury. The men in a union come 
 together of their own accord : they do not 
 so, and do not remain so, unless they think 
 it to their advantage ; and they can leave 
 the society whenever they like. To ray 
 that this is giving up one's libeity, is ftie 
 same in principle as sayir g that a mai in 
 obeying certain laws of his country, ot 
 which he disapproves, is giving up his 
 liberty. It has always been an acknowl- 
 edged principle that a man may voluntarily 
 submit to certain restrictions on his liberty 
 for the common good. 
 
 The trade unionist, too, is much freer in 
 regard to his union than is the citizen in 
 regard to the State. It is with great dilu- 
 culty the latter can throw off his obliga-
 
 tioiis, and then but to rest under freen 
 restrictions ; but the former can do so wixii 
 the greatest facility, though, for reasons 
 mentioned in a former chapter, he seldom 
 avails himself of the opportunity. 
 
 Inasmuch, however, as most trade unions 
 are benefit societies, they have all the in- 
 fluence (and none of the flummery) which 
 flows from those bodies. To teach men to 
 prepare for a rainy day, to lay by for old 
 age, to protect themselves from poverty in 
 case of accident or failing health, loss of 
 tools, etc., and to reward merit and incul- 
 cate the principle of brotherly love and 
 benevolence, are surely laudable objects, 
 and so long as the criteria are sound, they 
 cannot help but have a good influence upon 
 those who are prudent enough to deny 
 themselves to-day, in order that they may 
 enjoy to-morrow. 
 
 These societies, too, are exceedingly use- 
 ful in the mass of valuable statistics they 
 collect. The death rates and the causes of 
 death in various trades point to a field in 
 which medical men may work to great ad- 
 vantage ; while the fluctuations in the rates 
 of wages, and the gradual shortening of 
 hours present au equally interesting pro- 
 blem to political economists. This infor- 
 mation, too, is given for, comparatively 
 speaking, small districts, and the problems 
 referred to can therefore be studied when 
 local influences interfere with general laws. 
 Altogether, there is ample food for both the 
 student, the philosopher, and the states- 
 man, in the vast amount of literature that 
 is annually issued by the trade unions ; 
 and which, by the way, must keep em- 
 ployed a great number of printers, thus 
 benefiting a trade by the mere action of 
 recording the experience of their existence. 
 
 It has been pointed out that combination 
 amongst workmen has existed ever since 
 men had the intelligence to understand 
 that they were oppressed by those whose 
 position gave them the power to oppress. 
 The power to combine became more and 
 more generally acknowledged, until at 
 length, in spite of unjust and partial laws, 
 trade unions became a fact. From combi- 
 nations against oppression they developed 
 into associations having for their object the 
 amelioration of the condition of the work- 
 ing class It has also been shown that the 
 organization of a trade union is pre-emi- 
 nently fitted to carry out that object, and, 
 as proof of that, it has been argued : 1st, 
 That trade unions have succeeded in rais- 
 ing wages and reducing the number of 
 working hours. 2d, That these reforms do 
 not benefit the laborer at the cost of either 
 the capitalist or the consumer ; as, between 
 certain limits, it is found that high pay 
 and the prospect of an early cessation from 
 work are such incentives to industry that 
 the produce of labor is actually greater 
 
 than under a system of long hours and low 
 pay. 3d, That the workmen have such 
 confidence in the benefits they derive Irom 
 union, that, after the experience of "half 
 a millennium," they are crowding into so- 
 cieties, into unions, in a greater ratio every 
 year. 4th, That their dtclared object is to 
 prevent strikes, and substitute arbitrations; 
 and although the latter mode of settling 
 disputes is often proposed' by the men «od 
 refused by the masters, it is seldom pro- 
 posed by the masters and still less olten 
 refused by the men. It has been argued 
 further, that such being Iheobjects of trade 
 unions, and such their success in obtaining 
 those objects, the influence of that success 
 must be very beneficial ; 1st, Because high 
 wages means increased comfoits, which are 
 not only a social but a commercial advan- 
 tage. High wages means incieastd pro- 
 duction, also the double bkssirg just men- 
 tioned. 2d, Because high wages dots not 
 mean enhanced prices, but the contrary. 
 3d, Because the principles of trade union- 
 ism teach men the prudence of denying 
 themselves something today, in order that 
 they may have greater advantages tomor- 
 row ; and the duty of self-saciifite, by 
 calling upon them to contribute, out of 
 their meagre wealth, towards the allevia- 
 of the sufferings of their fellow-men. 4th, 
 Because trade unions endeavor to obtain 
 for the working classes more leisure for re- 
 creation and study. 5th, Because hy lec- 
 tures and other means, the unionsendeavor 
 to make their members better woiknien ; 
 and by rules which stigmatize and punish 
 the idle, the vicious, and the incompetent, 
 do all in their power to make workmen 
 better citizens. It makes clear to them 
 that capital does not make the man, and 
 that a laborer is no worse because he works. 
 "Jack is as good as his master ;" and the 
 men know that if employers would only 
 acknowledge this — if they would only meet 
 their workmen as men on an equal looting 
 with themselves, and discuss the wages 
 system with them, as the late Mr. Brassey, 
 Mr. E. Akroyd, Mr. W. E. Forster, and 
 others were in the habit of doing — then 
 strikes would be impossible. 
 
 It is really difficult to conceive how an 
 institution with such noble objects, having 
 attained those objects, can be anylhinj; but 
 a great blessing to the community in which 
 it is placed. 
 
 Trade unionism, then, has a great future 
 before it. Its ultimate result cannot be 
 otherwise than to convince both employer 
 and employed that they are the truest 
 friends, each of the other, for each derives 
 his revenue from the other. The prosperity 
 of the country is greatly due to the influ- 
 ence of unions on trade, and therefore that 
 influence benefits the capitalist as well na 
 the workman.
 
 3» 
 
 APPKNDIX. 
 
 THE AMERICAN FEDERATION OF LABOR — ITS HISTORY .-^ND AIMS. 
 
 By p. J. McGuiKE. 
 
 The National Labor Union — Various national labor conventions, from 1866 to 1876 — Industrial pania 
 of 1873 to 1878 — Sovereigns of Industrv — Patrons of Husbandry — Industrial Brotherhood — Junior 
 Sons of "76 — International Labor Union — Amalgamated Labor Union — The Pittsburgh Conven- 
 tion of 1881 — Formation of the Federation of Trades — Legislation secured in Congress — Negotia- 
 tions with the Kuights of Labor — The general eight-hour movement in May, 1886 — Difierences 
 with the Knights of Labor— Birth of the American Federation of Labor — Its component parts 
 and objects. 
 
 Early in the year 1866 the trades' assem- 
 blies of New York City and Baltimore is- 
 sued a call for a National Labor Congress, 
 and, in accordance with that appeal, one 
 hundred delegates, representing sixty open 
 and secret labor organizations of all kinds, 
 and covering an area of territory extend- 
 ing from Portland, Me., to San Francisco, 
 met in Baltimore, Md., on August 20. A 
 number of the labor organizations there 
 represented were merely local unions, but 
 a great many were national and interna- 
 tional bodies, such as ship carpenters, rail- 
 road men, miners, painters, carriers, win- 
 dow-glass blowers, stone masons, marble 
 cutters and iron moulders. 
 
 At that convention committees were ap- 
 pointed to look into the expediency of in- 
 troducing the eight-kour system, of taking 
 political action, and forming a permanent 
 national organization. The questions of 
 public domain, the national debt, co-op- 
 erative associations, strikes, and convict 
 labor were fully discussed, and measures 
 were adopted for the organization of sewing 
 women — a movement which at this day is 
 occupying the attention of labor circles in 
 New York City. Among the many resolu- 
 tions passed was one favoring the speedy 
 restoration of agriculture in the South,and 
 the upbuilding of that section upon a new 
 basis of industrial advancement. 
 
 In the following year the second annual 
 congress of the National LaVjor Union was 
 held in Chicago, attended by over two hun- 
 dred delegates, representing trades' unions 
 in all the Northern States and in six 
 Southern States. President Z. C. Whaley, 
 in his report, urged that State organizations 
 be formed, and this idea, together with the 
 demand that the public domain should be 
 reserved for actual settlers, has since been 
 adopted bodily by the Knights of Labor. 
 As may be seen, the National Labor Union 
 was formed in imitation of the Trades' 
 Union Congress of England, in which local 
 bodies, not allowed to discuss politics in 
 their meetings, couid send delefi^^tes tn the 
 central body, and there deal with questions 
 
 of a political nature and thus influence 
 national legislation in favor of the work- 
 ing classes. But the political portion of 
 the work was the smaller portion, for mat- 
 ters of a social and industrial character 
 were dealt with to a greater extent. 
 
 Two conventions of the National Labor 
 Union were held in 1868, one in May and 
 the other in September. The first con- 
 vened in Pittsburgh, and the principal act 
 of that session was an alliance to co operate 
 with the Patrons of Husbandry and the 
 Grangers. The September session was held 
 in New York City, to take action regarding 
 the general movement which was then 
 going on in favor of the establishment of 
 the eight hour rule. In his address the 
 chairman pointed out the need of closer 
 coherence than had yet been attained be- 
 tween the different trades and callings, and 
 recommended that a central head be estab- 
 lished, to which all the trades' ard labor 
 unions should be subordinate. This idea 
 was not strictly carried out, however, and 
 the mistake in disregarding it was subse- 
 quently made plain. The annual conven- 
 tion of 1869 was held in Chicago ; that of 
 1870 in Boston; that of 1871 in Philadel- 
 phia, and that of 1872, which was the last, 
 wound up in Columbus, O. There it was 
 decided to nominate a ticket for President 
 of the Ignited States, and David Davis, of 
 Illinois, was chosen as the standard-bearer. 
 
 This drifting into political action pro- 
 voked so much dissension that one local 
 organization after another — believing that 
 the National Labor Union had entered a 
 field of operations for which it was not 
 intended — withdrew its support, and inter- 
 est was lost in the central body. 
 
 In the next year, 1873, the great panic 
 swept upon the country and demolished 
 the trades' unions. Most of them were 
 built on a basis of very low dues and had 
 no beneficial feature that would hold the 
 members together when trades' questions 
 failed to interest them, and, consequently, 
 both thp local unions and the national or- 
 ganization went down in the crash. The
 
 39 
 
 distress of the winter of 1873-4, and the ia- 
 i:bility of organized labor to stem the re- 
 ductions of wages that were taking place 
 in every branch of industry, induced a 
 number of leading trades' unionists to call 
 another "Industrial Congress" in Roches- 
 ter, N. Y., for April 14, 1874, with the in- 
 tention of returning to the old lines of the 
 National Labor Union, avoiding politics, 
 and of forming a federation of the trades' 
 and labor unions of the entire country. 
 There was represented at this convention a 
 secret organization, then known as the 
 " Sovereigns of Industry," which was mak- 
 ing great headway in the Eastern and Mid- 
 dle States, with a purpose of establishing 
 CO operative stores and eliminating the 
 "middle man" from commercial trans- 
 actions. Another organization represented 
 was that known as the "Industrial Broth- 
 erhood of the United States," also secret 
 and somewhat of the character of the 
 Knights of Labor. 
 
 In the convention there was a .serious 
 clash between the champions of these two 
 bodies on the question of a permanent or- 
 ganization, some of the delegates desiring 
 to form an order similar to the Industrial 
 Brotherhood, and others favoring the Sov- 
 ereigns of Industry plan. A platform was 
 finally adopted, however, which was almost 
 identical in every respect with the declara- 
 tion of principles of the Knights of Labor, 
 and from which the latter has copied. 
 
 The movement to form a permanent in- 
 dustrial congress, nevertheless, seemed to 
 end with that session of the convention, 
 and no further eflbrts were made in that 
 direction until a call for a national con- 
 vention, to be held at Tyrone, Pa., in De- 
 cember, 1875, was issued by a secret or- 
 ganization, which was at that time a 
 promising rival of the Knights of Labor, 
 entitled the "Junior Sons of '76." The 
 design of this gathering was to form a com- 
 bination of all the scattered fragments of 
 the labor movement. Delegates were in 
 attendance from the "Junior Sons of '76," 
 the Knights of Labor, the Grangers, open 
 trades' unions, and social democratic or- 
 ganizations, as they were called at that 
 time. Their worthy designs did not mate- 
 rialize, however, but were dissipated in 
 vain talk. The " Junior Sons " themselves 
 were very short lived. Alter "76" had 
 rolled away, no trace of them could be 
 found. In that year they had engaged in 
 politics as an order throughout Pennsyl- 
 vania, and had elected several members of 
 the Legislature on labor measures. After 
 having done that, their mission seemed to 
 have been fulfilled and they disbanded. 
 
 inuring the same period the Industrial 
 Brotherhood, which was numerically weak, 
 but extended through many sections of the 
 country, was also attempting to outrival 
 the Knights of Labor. Another order of a 
 
 general and secret character had sprung up 
 in the early part of 1877, known as the 
 "International Labor Union," having 
 branches in seventeen States. But little or 
 nothing of national consequence was done 
 by the trades' and labor unions until 1878, 
 when they everywhere began to re-organ- 
 ize, and, profiting by their previous fail- 
 ures, laid the foundations ol local unions 
 upon a basis of high dues, introducing 
 various beneficial features, such as sick, 
 funeral, and disability benefits, and othel 
 financial provisions calculated to hold thf 
 members more firmly to the oiganizatiou. 
 These local bodies in turn combined and 
 formed trades' assemblies, trades' councils, 
 etc. In these central bodies Knights of 
 Labor and trades' unionit-ts were both 
 united. 
 
 Coming up, however, to the preliminary 
 steps that led ultimately to the formation 
 of the American Federation of Labor, a 
 call was issued conjointly by the " Knights 
 of Industry " and a .society known as the 
 " Amalgamated Labor Union ' — an orishoot 
 of the Knights of Labor, ctnipostd of dis- 
 aflfected members of that order — for a con- 
 vention to meet in Terre Haute, Ind., on 
 August 2, 1881. The Amalgamated Labor 
 Union had been organized in 1878, and 
 was confined principally to Ohio and Indi- 
 ana, while the Knights of Industry, with 
 which it joined hands, was confined t(i 
 Missouri and Illinois. The Terie Haute 
 convention had for its object the estabii-'^h- 
 ment ©f a new secret order to s^upplant the 
 Knights of Labor, although, on the face of 
 the call, its object was stated to be to es- 
 tablish a national labor cong^e^.s. There 
 was a large representation of delegates 
 present from St. Louis, Cleveland, Chicago, 
 and other "Western cities, but the only 
 Eastern city represented was Pittsburgh. 
 The trades' union delegates represented the 
 largest constituency, but weie less in num- 
 ber themselves than the delegates of the 
 other .societies. But, by the exercise of 
 tact and diplomacy, the trades' union men, 
 who were at that time al-so members of the 
 Knights of Labor, succest-fuJly oppo.'-«d the 
 project of adding another new organization 
 to the list of societies already in existence, 
 and, for the time being, the friends of the 
 proposed secret organization were defeated. 
 
 A call was published, however, for asub- 
 .sequentconvention.tobeheld in Pitt.slturgh 
 on November 19, 1881, and this gathering 
 proved to be the most important of its kind 
 that had fftis far been held. The call for 
 that convention was remarkable. It read 
 in part : 
 
 " We have numberless trades' unions, 
 trades' assemblies or councils, Knights of 
 Labor, and various otlier local, national, 
 and international lal)or unions, all engaged 
 in the noble task of elevating and improv- 
 ing the condition of the working classvj.
 
 40 
 
 But great as has been the work done by 
 these bodies, there is vastly more that can 
 be done by a combination of all thtse or- 
 ginizatious in a federation of trades' and 
 liibor unions." 
 
 Iq accordance with the spirit of that call, 
 the conveniiou was organized at the date 
 designated, with John Jarrett, at that time 
 president of the Amalgamated Association 
 of Iron and Steel Workers, in the chair. 
 One hundred and seven delegates were 
 present, representing 262,000 workingmen, 
 and a permanent organization was effected 
 styled the "Federation of Organized 
 Trades' and Labor Unions of the United 
 States and Canada," and a congressional 
 committee, like that which the Knights of 
 Laborsubsequently created, was appointed, 
 consisting of Richard Powers, of the Sea- 
 man's Union, of Chicago ; William H. 
 Foster, of the International Typographical 
 Union, of Cincinnati ; Samuel Gompers, 
 of the International Cigar Makers' Union, 
 of New York ; C. F. Burgman, of the Tai- 
 lors' International Union, of San Francisco, 
 and A. C. Kankin, of the Knights of Labor 
 Iron Moulders, of Pittsburgh. Knights of 
 Labor assemblies and trades' unions were 
 equally represented, and it was thoroughly 
 understood that the trades' unionists should 
 preserve their form of organization and the 
 Knights of Labor should maintain theirs, 
 and that the two should work hand in hand 
 for the thorough amalgamation of the 
 working classes under one of these two 
 heads, and that they should use every 
 legitimate means to offset any movement 
 designed to create any more fragments or 
 divisions in the labor army. 
 
 A financial system was established and 
 thirteen measures were adopted of a politi- 
 cal character. They favored the compul- 
 sory education of children, the aboliti< n of 
 child labor, the passage of uniform appren- 
 tice laws, the enforcement of the eight-hour 
 rule, the restriction of contract prison labor, 
 and the abandonment of the store order 
 system. They advocated, also, a first lien 
 for labor done, the repeal of the conspiracy 
 laws against organized labor, the establish- 
 ment of a bureau of labor statistics, the 
 continuance of the protective tariff for 
 American indu.stry, the enactment of a 
 national law to prevent the importation of 
 foreign labor under contract, and urged 
 that organized labor should have represen- 
 tation in all law-making bodies, in order to 
 secure beneficial legislation. Supplemen- 
 tary resolutions were also passed, setting 
 forth the necessity of legislation securing 
 restrictions to Chinese labor, the licensing 
 of stationary engineers, governmental in- 
 spection of factories and workshops, the 
 sanitary supervision of food and wells, and 
 an employers' liability law. Many, if not 
 "11, of these ideas are now taken up and 
 presented by the Knights of Labor. 
 
 At this same session it was oecided to 
 choose a committee of three and invite the 
 co-operation of a committee of three from 
 the Parliamentary Committee of the Trades' 
 Union Congress of Great Britain, and of a 
 committee of three from the Syndical 
 Chambers of Frame, these nine to form a 
 labor commission, whose duty it should be 
 to proceed to Ireland, hear evidence and 
 acquaint themselves with the causes of 
 discontent in that ccuntiy ; thetce to pro- 
 ceed to London and Paris, make investiga- 
 tions of the condition of the working 
 classes there,and publish their report. But, 
 from want of action on the part of the 
 trades' unions of England, the project fell 
 through. 
 
 In the interim until the next convention 
 the Legislative Committee of the Federation 
 set to work and secured several hearicgs 
 before congressional committees of the 
 House and Senate, which resulted in the 
 appointment of a special Senate Commit- 
 tee, of which Senator H. W. Blair, of Kew 
 Hampshire, was chairiL'an, to make a thor- 
 ough investigation of the labor question. 
 Repeated bearings were had belore this 
 committee in favor ot an enforcement of 
 the eight hour law auvl the erection of a 
 national bureau of labor statistics, and in 
 opposition io a bill introduced by Congress- 
 man Towusend, of Cleveland, to make the 
 lake seamen, if they should ever strike or 
 use their ii fluence upon others during a 
 strike, gu\lty in the eyfs of the law of 
 mutiny at sea, and liable to punishment 
 accordingly. So strong was the opposition 
 to this bill that it was shortly afterward 
 buried in the committee. 
 
 On all the various subjects noted above,- 
 bills were introduced by the Federation 
 and placed in the hands (f prominent 
 Congressmen for enactment. From the 
 entire number the passage of a law requir- 
 ing the formation of a national bureau of 
 labor statistics.and of a law preventing the 
 importation of contract labor, was finally 
 secured in 1883 — more than any labor or- 
 ganization had yet accomplished. 
 
 The second convention of the Federation 
 was held in Cleveland, O., on November 
 21, 1882, when Samuel Gompers was 
 elected permanent president, and William 
 H. Foster, subsequently of Philadelphia, 
 permanent secretary. Fearing that some 
 disaster might overtake this organization, as 
 had been the fate of its predecessors, a 
 manifesto was issued to the subordinate 
 unions, discountenancing political action, 
 on the ground that the Federation had 
 been organized as a purely industrial body. 
 The manifesto set forth further, in admi- 
 rable language : 
 
 "We favor this Federation because it is 
 the most natural and assimilative form 
 of bringing the trades' and labor unions 
 together. It preserves the industrial an-
 
 41 
 
 tonomy and distinctive character of each 
 trade and labor union, and, without doing 
 violence to their faith or traditions, blends 
 them all in one harmonious whole — a ' fed- 
 eration of trades' and labor unions.' Such 
 a body looks to the organization of the 
 working classes as workers, and not as 
 'soldiers' (in the present deprecatory sense) 
 or politicans. It makes the qualities of a 
 man as a worker the only tes^ of fitness, and 
 sets up no polif.cal or religious test of 
 membership. It strives for the unification 
 of all labor, not by straining at an enforced 
 union of diverse thought and widely sepa- 
 rated methods, not by prescribing a uniform 
 plan of organization, regardless of their 
 experience or interests, not by antago- 
 nizing or destroying existing organizations, 
 but by perserving all that is integral or 
 good in them and by widening their scope 
 so that each, without destroying their in- 
 dividual character, may act together in all 
 that concerns them. The open trades 
 unions, national and international, can 
 and ought to work side by side with the 
 Knights of Labor, and this would be the case 
 were it not for men either over-zealous or 
 ambitious, who busy themselves in attempt- 
 ing the destruction of existing unions to 
 serve their own whims and mad iconoclasm. 
 ThLs should cease and each should under- 
 stand its proper place and work in that 
 sphere, and if they desire to come under 
 one head or afiiliate their affairs, then let all 
 trades' and labor societies, secret or public, 
 be represented in the Federation of Trades' 
 and Labor Unions." 
 
 As will be observed from reading this 
 manifesto, the friction between the Federa- 
 tion and the Knights of Labor had already 
 become serious and irritating. The next 
 convention, that of 1883, was held in New 
 York, on August 21. Samuel Gompers, 
 was re-elected president, and Frank K. 
 Foster, of Boston, was chosen secretary, 
 and arbitration was favored instead of 
 strikes. The eight-hour rule was insisted 
 upon and laws were demanded to limit the 
 dividends of corporations and to introduce 
 governmental telegraph systems. A com- 
 mittee was appointed to wait on the na- 
 tional conventions of both the Republican 
 and Democratic parties the following year, 
 and secure the insertion of planks in their 
 respective platforms favorable to the 
 interests of the labor movement ; and the 
 Legislative Committee was instructed to 
 present a bill to Congress creating a 
 national Department of Industry or Labor. 
 This project also, like many of those fore- 
 going, now strenuously advocated by the 
 Knights of Labor as an idea of their own. 
 Before the convention adjourned another 
 committee was appointed to confer with 
 the Knights of Labor and other kindred 
 organizations with a view to securing a 
 thorough unification and consolidation. 
 
 Correspondence was subsequently opened 
 with the Knights of Labor on the subject, 
 but, as is known, the proposition was • 
 repulsed. 
 
 The next convention was held in Chicago 
 on October 7, 1884. Steps were taken for 
 a universal agitation in behalf of the eight- 
 hour system, and the 1st of May, 1886, was 
 fixed upon as the date for the general in- 
 auguration of the plan. The question was 
 submitted to each local organization re- 
 represented for action, those.voting in favor 
 of it to be bound by it and those voting in 
 opposition to pledge themselves to sustain 
 the other pioneers in the movement. 
 Among the organizations that decided to 
 inaugurate the system were the cigar 
 makers, the furniture workers, the Ger- 
 man printers, and the carpenters. As will 
 be remembered, the cigar makers and the 
 German printers succeeded, and the fur- 
 niture workers compromised on nine hours, 
 while the carpenters succeeded in establish- 
 ing eight hours in seven cities and com- 
 promised on nine hours in eighty-four 
 cities. The agitation at that time for the 
 introduction of the eight-hour work-day 
 was very popular among the trades of 
 New York, Boston, Cincinnati, Chicago, 
 St. Louis, Washington, and Baltimore. 
 
 The Anarchists, members of the Interna- 
 tional Workingmen's party, who had 
 hitherto violently opposed the eight-hour 
 movement and condemned it on every 
 occasion, now seized upon it as an in- 
 strument, it is believed, to further their 
 propaganda, and the mildest of their 
 agitators became prominent in their attend- 
 ance at eight-hour meetings. The throwing 
 of the bombs at the Haymarket meeting in 
 Chicago on May 5, 188G, however, had a 
 very depressing effect on the eight-hour 
 movement, as President Samuel Gompers 
 declared to Governor Oglesby, inasmuch 
 as the trade-union element in general did 
 not wish to be associated or connected in 
 the popular mind with the Anarchists or 
 their methods, and, consequently, the 
 measure has not been pressed since. 
 
 At the convention of 1885, held in Wash- 
 ington on December 8. attention was prin- 
 cipally directed to strengthening the na- 
 tional organization, and preparing for the 
 eight-hour work-day. The secretary re- 
 ported that he had communicated with the 
 Knights of Labor, inviting its co-operation 
 with the Federation in the enforcement of 
 the system, but that the General A8.«embly 
 at Hamilton, Ont. , had adjourned without 
 taking any action or expressing any sym- 
 pathy for the movement. 
 
 The convention of 1886 was originally 
 called to meet in St. Louis in tbe latter 
 part of the year, but the stirring events 
 incident to the eight-hour strikes, and the 
 difficulties existing wikh the Knights of 
 Labor, led to the memorable conference of
 
 42 
 
 the officers of the trades' unions at Donald- 
 son's Hall, in this city, on May 18, -where 
 defensive measures were outlined to pro- 
 tect the trades' unions and to secure har- 
 mony vrith the Knights of Labor. A com- 
 mittee attended the special session of the 
 Knights' General Assembly, at Cleveland, 
 on May 2U, and after several days" wait- 
 ing, marked by long and animated discus- 
 sions in the General Assembly on trade- 
 union issues, no definite assurances were 
 obtained, and no action was taken. The 
 trades' union committee a second time met 
 the Knights of Labor Executive Board, at 
 the Bingham House, in this city, on Sep- 
 tember 26, and secured promises that defi- 
 nite action would be taken at the Richmond 
 General Assembly, which wouJd lead to 
 harmony between the two organizatiocs. 
 
 The trades unions objected to the admis- 
 sion to the Knights ot Labor of members 
 who had been suspended, expelled, or re- 
 jected for cause by their own orga.nizaiion ; 
 they opposed the formation of Knights of 
 Labor assemblies in trades already thor- 
 oughyl organized in tradeS; unions, and 
 complained of the use of Knights of Labor 
 trade-marks or labels, in competition with 
 their own labels, notably so in the case of 
 the Cigar- Makers' International Union. At 
 the Richmond General Assembly, the trades' 
 union chiefs presented a mass of griev- 
 ances, showing where their local unions 
 had been tampered with by Knights of La- 
 bor organizers, where movements had been 
 made to disrupt them, and where, in cases 
 where such disruption could not be effected, 
 antagonistic organizations were formed by 
 the Knights. The General Assembly, how- 
 ever, instead of removing these alleged 
 evils or giving satisfactory redress to the 
 trades' union element, administered to the 
 Federation a slap in the face, as the latter 
 understood it, by passing a resolution com- 
 pelling the members of Cigar Makers' In- 
 ternational Union connected with the 
 Knights of Labor, to withdraw from the 
 order. 
 
 The call for the St. Louis Convention of 
 the Federation was then abrogated, and a 
 circular was issued designating Columbus, 
 Ohio, as the place of meeting on December 
 8. At the same time all organizations not 
 already affiliated with the Federation, were 
 urged to attend a trades' union convention 
 to be held in the same place on the follow- 
 ing day. After four days' joint sessions of 
 the bodies, the old Federation of trades' and 
 labor unions was dissolved, and the Ameri- 
 can Federation of Labor — the result of 
 long thought, mature brains, and arduous 
 toil — was born to the world. 
 
 Twenty-five national organizations were 
 
 Wended in it, with an aggregate meiu'^ei- 
 ship of 316,469 workingmen. A plan of 
 permanent organization was adopted, very 
 simple in its details, and an executive 
 council of five members and chief officers 
 were elected. Resolutions were passed fa- 
 voring the early adoption of the eight-hour 
 rule, demanding of Congress the passage of 
 a compulsory indenture law, and condemn- 
 ing the Pinkertons' Preventive Patrol, and 
 the Coal and Iron Police. After much de- 
 liberation, a constitution was agreed upon, 
 in which the main objects of the great or- 
 ganization were stated to be "the encour- 
 agement of formation of local unions, and 
 the closer federation of sucn societies, 
 through central trade and labor unions in 
 every city, with the further combination of 
 these bodies into State, territorial, and 
 provincial organizations, to secure Ifgisla- 
 tion in the interests of the working masses; 
 the establishment of national and inter- 
 national trades' unions, based upon a strict 
 recognition of the autonomy of e; ch trade, 
 and the promotion and advancement or 
 such bodies; and the aiding and encour- 
 agement of the labor press of America." 
 
 The revenue of the Federation is de- 
 rived from a per capita tax of one-third 
 of a cent per month for each member in 
 good standing. 
 
 It will be seen that the Federation is es- 
 sentially democratic in principle, and that, 
 unlike its rival, the Knights of Labor, its 
 affairs are conducted in the most frugal 
 and economical manner possible. The 
 second session was held in Baltimore, De- 
 cember 13, 1887. 
 
 The American Federation of Labor is nu- 
 merically the strongest labor organization 
 in the world. 
 
 Within the period during which the 
 Knights have been retrograding, as far as 
 numbers are concerned, the American Fed- 
 eration, since its formation at Columbus, 
 Ohio, on December 8, 1886, has been noise- 
 lessly and rapidly gaining strength and 
 importance. 
 
 Since its first inception, following the 
 traditions of the open trades' unions, it has 
 not affected secrecy, and at the same time 
 it has not courted notoriety. Its component 
 parts, previously organized in different 
 form, have given to the world nearly all the 
 ideas that have since been found useful or 
 valuable in other labor organizations, and 
 the brilliant success which has attended this 
 the first years of its existence, bears portent 
 of great achievement in the future. Ita 
 roster of national and international trades' 
 unions contains such influential and diverse 
 organizations as these ;
 
 National and International Unions. 
 
 Actors' National Protective Union. Lew 
 Morton, S Union Square, New Yorlj, 
 
 N. y. 
 
 Allied Metal Mechanics, International As- 
 sociation of. George B. Buchanan, 421 
 Valentine Building, Toledo, O. 
 
 B 
 
 Bakers' and Confectioners' International, 
 Journeymen. F. H. Harzbecker, Room 
 39, Harrington Building, 236 Superior 
 street, Cleveland, O. 
 
 Barbers' International Union, Journeymen. 
 W. E. Klapetsky, Room 407, Electric 
 Building, Cleveland, O. 
 
 Blacksmiths' International Brotherhood of. 
 Robert B. Kerr, New Mail Building, 
 Moline, 111. 
 
 Blast Furnace Workers' and Smelters' 
 of America, National Association of. 
 Ed. J. Mullen, Lowellville, O. 
 
 Boiler Makers' and Iron Ship Builders, 
 Brotherhood of. W. J. Gilthorpe, Room 
 406, Portsmouth Building, Kansas City, 
 Kans. 
 
 Bookbinders, International Brotherhood of. 
 James W. Dougherty, 216 East Seventy- 
 sixth street. New York, N. Y. 
 
 Boot and Shoe Workers' Union. Horace M. 
 Eaton, 434 Albany Building, Boston, 
 Mass. 
 
 Brewery Workers, National Union of 
 United. Julius Zorn, Odd Fellows' 
 Temple, corner Seventh and Elm 
 streets, Cincinnati, O. 
 
 Brick. Tile and Terra Cotta Workers' Al- 
 liance, International. George Hodge, 
 Blue Island, 111. 
 
 Broom Makers' Union, International. W. 
 R. Boyer, 3S7 South Prairie street, 
 Galesburg, 111. 
 
 Carpenters and Joiners of America, United 
 Brotherhood of. Frank Duffy, Rooms 
 212-215 Lippincott Building, 46 North 
 Twelfth street, Philadelphia, Pa. 
 
 Carpenters and Joiners, Amalgamated So- 
 ciety of. Thomas Atkinson. 332 EJast 
 Ninety-third street. New York, N. Y. 
 
 Carriage and Wagon Makers, International. 
 C. A. Peterson, 54 Aiken avenue, Cleve- 
 land, O. 
 
 Carvers' Association of North America, In- 
 ternational Wood. George H. Thobe, 
 513 Russel avenue, Covington, Ky. 
 
 Car Workers. International Association of. 
 A. D. Wheeler, 644 Prudential Build- 
 ing, Buffalo, N. y. 
 
 Chainmakers' National Union of the United 
 States of America. Russell L. Mohler, 
 609 Genesee street, Trenton, N. J. 
 
 CIgarmakers' International UniOTi of 
 America. George W. Perkins, Room 
 820, Monon Block, 320 Dearborn street, 
 Chicago, 111. 
 
 Clerks' International Protective Associa- 
 tion. Retail. Max Morris, Box 1441, 
 Denver, Colo. 
 
 Coopers' International Union of North 
 
 America. James A. Cabl(», 542 Elizabeth 
 avenue, Kansas City, Kans. 
 
 Coremakers' International Union. M. P. 
 Flaherty, 101 Baxter street. South Bos- 
 ton, Mass. 
 
 Curtain Operatives of America, Amalga- 
 mated Lace. J. Robinson, 3413 Bodinc 
 Street, Philadelphia, Pa. 
 
 D 
 
 Drivers' International Union. Team. 
 George Innis, Room 12. 29 Monroe 
 avenue. West, Detroit, Mich. 
 
 Electrical Workers of America, Interna- 
 tional Brotherhood of. H. W. Sher- 
 man, Corcoran Building, Washington. 
 D. C. 
 
 Engineers, National Brotherhood of Coal 
 Hoisting. T. E. Jenkins, Room 3, 
 Goldsmith Building, Danville, 111. 
 
 Engineers, International Union of Steam. 
 R. A. McKee, 224 Masonic Temple, 
 Peoria, 111. 
 
 Engineers, Amalgamated Societv of. An- 
 drew McEwan, 137 E. "Thirteenth 
 street, New York, N. Y. 
 
 Engravers. International Association of 
 Watch Case. William C. Haubold, 71 
 Sands street, Brtoklyn, N. Y. 
 
 Firemen, International Brotherhood of 
 Stationary. C. L. Shamp, 1169 Fulton 
 street, Chicago, 111. 
 
 Fitters and Helpers, National Association 
 of Steam and Hot Water. W. L. On- 
 stott. 2S34 Wallace street, Chicago, 111. 
 
 G 
 
 Garment Workers of America. United. 
 
 Henry White, Rooms 116-117, Bible 
 
 House, New York, N. Y. 
 Garment Workers' Union, International 
 
 Ladies. Bernard Brafif, S First avenue. 
 
 New York, N. Y. 
 Glass Bottle Blowers' Association of the 
 
 United States and Canada. William 
 
 Launer, Rooms 930-931 Witherspoon 
 
 Building, Juniper and Walnut streets, 
 
 Philadelphia, Pa. 
 Glass Workers' Union, American Flint. 
 
 John L. Dobbins. Room 316, Bissell 
 
 Block, Pittsburg, Pa. 
 Glass Workers, International Association 
 
 Amalgamated. William Figolah, 3257 
 
 Union avenue, Chicago, 111. 
 Granite Cutters' National Union. James 
 
 Duncan, 46-48 New England Building, 
 
 200 Summer street, Boston. Mass. 
 Grinders' National Union. Table Knifo. A. 
 
 J. Russell. 163 Ward street, Walling- 
 
 ford. Conn. 
 
 H 
 
 Hatters of North America, United. John 
 Phillips, 797 Bedford avenue, Brooklvn, 
 N. Y. 
 
 Horse-Shoers of United States and Canada, 
 International Union of Journeymen. 
 Roady Kenchan, 1548 Wazee street, 
 Denver, Colo. 
 
 Hotel and Restaurant Employes' Tnterna- 
 tional Alllanoe and Bartender.^' Inter- 
 national League of America. Jen- L. 
 Sullivan, Fisher Block, 621 Walnut 
 street. Cincinnati, O. 
 
 I 
 
 Iron, Steel and Tin Workers. Amnlgnmated 
 Association of. John Williams, Bissell 
 Block, 407 Seventh avenue, Plttsbnrjf, 
 Pa. 
 
 Jewolrv Workers' Union of Aniorlcn. Inter- 
 national. Charles Ilerwlg, 682 E. HVJil 
 street, New York, N. Y.
 
 44 
 
 Latbors. IiUcinational Union of Wood, 
 Wire and Metal. A. F. Leibig, 182 
 Abbev street, Cleveland, O. 
 
 Laundrv " Workers' International Union, 
 Shirt, Waist and. Charles E. Nordeck, 
 Lock Box 10, Station 1, Troy, N. "5. 
 
 Leather Workers on Horse Goods. United 
 Brotherhood of. Chas. L. Conine. 43.} 
 Gibralter Building, Kansas City, Mo. 
 
 Leather Workers' Union of America, Amal- 
 gamated. Fred Cahill, 211 South 
 Eleventh street, Clean, N. Y. 
 
 Longshoremen's Association. International. 
 Henry C. Barter, Colonial Building, 
 Detroit, Mich. 
 
 M 
 
 Machinists' International Association of. 
 
 George Preston. Rooms 82-85, Corcoran 
 
 Building. Washington, D. C. 
 Meat Cutters and Butcher Workmen of 
 
 North America. Amalgamated. Homer 
 
 D Call. Lock Box 317. Syracuse, N. Y. 
 Metal' Polishers. Buffens. Platers and Brass 
 
 Workers' Union of North America. 
 
 James J. CuUen. 2.5 Third avenue. Sta- 
 tion D, New York, N. Y. 
 Metal Workers' International Association, 
 
 Amalgamated Sheet. John E. Bray, 
 
 313 Nelson Building. Kansas City. Mo. 
 Metal Workers' International Union. 
 
 United. O. O. Sherman, 264 Ogden 
 
 avenue, Chicago, 111. 
 Mine Workers of America. United. William 
 
 B. Wilson. 1101 Stevenson Building, 
 
 Indianapolis, Ind. 
 Mine Workers' Progressive Union of 
 
 America, Northern Mineral. Matt 
 
 Wasley, Ishpeniing, *Iieh. 
 Molder.s' TTnion of North America, Iron. 
 
 E. J. Denney, 433 Walnut street, Cin- 
 cinnati, O. 
 Musicians, American Federation of. Owen 
 
 Miller 700 Market street, St. Louis, 
 
 Mo. 
 
 O 
 
 Oil and Gas Well Workers, International 
 Brotherhood of. Jay H. Mullen, Bow- 
 ling Green, O. 
 
 Painters, Decorators and Paperhangers of 
 America, Brotherhood of. M. P. Car- 
 rick. Drawer 199, Lafayette, Ind. 
 
 Paper Makers of America, United Brother- 
 hood of. P. J. Ackerman, 56a Main 
 street, Watertown, N. Y. 
 
 Pattern Makers' League of North America. 
 John F. McBride, 25 Third avenue, 
 New Y'ork, N. Y. 
 
 Paving Cutters' T^nion of the Unted States 
 of America. J. H. Patterson, Llthonia, 
 Ga. 
 
 Piano and Organ Workers, International 
 Union of America. Frank Helle, 1350 
 South 42d Court, Chicago, 111. 
 
 Plumbers. Gas Fitters. Steam Fitters and 
 Steam Fitters' Helpers. United Asso- 
 ciation of. L. W. Tilden, 518 Odgen 
 Building. Chicago, 111. 
 
 Plate Printers' Union of North America, 
 International. Steel and Copper. T. L. 
 Mahan, 12 LeRoy street, Dorchester, 
 Mass. 
 
 Powder and High Explosive Workers of 
 America. United. Jas. G. McCrindle, 
 Gracedale. Pa. 
 
 Potters. National Brotherhood of Operative. 
 T. J. Duffy, Box 50, East Liverpool. O. 
 
 I'rinling I'ressmen's Union, Internatioaial. 
 \\'. .1. Webb. liM)7 Putnam avenue, 
 Brooklyn, N. Y. 
 
 R 
 
 Railway Employes of America, Amalga- 
 mated Associatfon of Street. W. D. 
 Mahon, 45 Hodges Block, Detroit, 
 Mich. 
 
 Railroad Telegraphers, Order of. L. W. 
 Quick, St. Louis, Mo, 
 
 Railway Trackmen, Brotherhood of. John 
 T. Wilson, 303 Benolst Buildi'ng, St. 
 Louis, Mo. 
 
 Seamen's Union, International. William H. 
 Frazier, li/L-a Lewis street, Boston, 
 Mass. 
 
 Spinners' Association, Cotton Mule. 
 Thomas O'Donnell, Box 203, Fall River, 
 Mass. 
 
 Stage Employes' National Alliance, Thea- 
 trical. Lee M. Hart, care of Bartl's 
 Hotel, State and Harrison streets, 
 Chicago, 111. 
 
 Stereotypers and Electrotypers Union of 
 North America, International. Geo. 
 W. Williams, 534 Warren street, Bos- 
 ton, Mass. 
 
 Stove Mounters' International Union. J. 
 H. Kaefer, 166 Concord avenue, De- 
 troit, Mich. 
 
 Tailors' Union of America, Journeymen. 
 •Tohn B. Lennon, Box 597, Bloomington, 
 111. 
 
 Textile Workers of America, United. Al- 
 bert Hibbert, Box 713 Fall Riven 
 
 , Mas.s. 
 
 Tile Layers and Helpers' Union, Interna- 
 tional Mosaic and Encaustic. Jas. P. 
 Revnolds, 108 Corry street, Allegheny, 
 Pa. 
 
 Tin Plate Workers' Protective Association 
 of America, International. Charles B. 
 Lawyer, Rooms 20-21, Reilly Block, 
 Wheeling, W. Va. 
 
 Tobacco Workers' Unionv International. E. 
 Lewis Evans. Room 56, American Na- 
 tional Bank Building, Third and Main 
 streets, Louisville, Ky. 
 
 Trunk and Bag Workers' Union. Interna- 
 tional. Joseph H. Schickel. 1313 Chou- 
 teau avenue, St. Louis, Mo. 
 
 Typographical Union, International. J. W. 
 Bramwood, Room 8, DeSioto Block, In- 
 dianapolis, Ind. 
 
 U 
 
 Upholsterers' Union of North America, In- 
 ternational. Ant»n J. Engel, 28 Green- 
 wood Terrace, Chicago, 111. 
 
 W 
 
 watch Case Makers. International. Chris. 
 
 J. Turner, 18 Steuben street, East 
 
 Orange, N. J. 
 Weavers' Amalgamated Association, Elas- 
 tic Goring. Thomas Pollard, Box 46, 
 
 Easthampton, Mass. 
 Weavers' Protective Association, American 
 
 Wire. Fred W. Ashworth, Belleville, 
 
 N. J. 
 Wood Workers' International Union of 
 
 America. Amalgamated. Thomas I. 
 
 Kidd, 616-617 Garden City Block, 
 
 Chicago, 111.
 
 L-KBOR OTuiNin: i^iNcer. 
 
 American Federation of Labor. 
 
 WASHINGTON, D. C. 
 
 To all 'Wage-Workers of America — Greeting : 
 
 It is now generally admitted by all really educated and honest men that a thorough organization 
 of the entire working class, to render employment and the means of subsistence less precarious, by 
 securing an equitable ? hare of the fruits of tneir toil, is the most vital necessity of the present day. 
 
 To meet tnis u gmt necessity, and to achieve this most dtsirable result, effort> have been made, 
 too numeious to specify, and too divergent to admit of more than the most general classification. 
 Suffice It to say, that those attempts at organization which admitted to membership the largest 
 proportion of others than wage-workers were those which went the most speedily to the limbo of 
 movements that won't move; while of the surviving experiments those which started with the 
 most elaborate and exhaustive platforms of abstract principles were those which got the soonest 
 into fatal complications, and soonest became exhausted. 
 
 In the fact of so many disastrous failures to supply the undoubtedly e.xisting popular demand 
 for a practicHl mesns of solving the great problem, the question naturally sugge^ts itself to many : 
 " Which is th'i best form of organization for the people, the wor^ ers ?" 
 
 We unhesitatingly answer: " The organization of the working people, by the working people, 
 for the working people- that is the Trade Unions." 
 
 The Trade r nions are the natural growth of natural laws, and from the very nature of their 
 being have stood the test of time aud experience. The development of the Trade Union-, regarded 
 both from the standpoint of numerical expansion and that of practical working, has been ma'- 
 velously_ rapid. The Trade Unions have demonstrated their ability to cope with every emergency — 
 economic or political — as it arises. 
 
 It is true that single Trade Unions have been often beaten in pitched battles against superior 
 forces of united capital, but such defeats are by no means disastrous ; on the contrary, thev are 
 useful in calling the attention of the workers to the necessity of thorough organization, of the 
 inevitable obligation (f bringing the yet unorganized workers into the Union, of uniting the 
 hitherto disconnected Local Unions into National Unions, and of effecting a yft higher unity by 
 the affiliation of all National and International Unions in one grand federation, in which each and 
 all trade organ izitions would be as distinct as the billows, yet one as the sea. 
 
 In the work of trie organization of labor, the most energetic, wisest and devoted of us, when 
 working individually, cannot hope to be successful, but by combining our ffforts all mav. And 
 the combined action of all the Ur ions when exerted in favor of any one Union will certainly be 
 more efficacious than the action of anv one Union, no matter how powerful it may be, if exerted, 
 in favor of an unorganized, or a partially organized mass. 
 
 We assert that it is the duty, as it is also the plain interest, of all working people to organize as 
 such, meet in council, and take practical steps to effect the unity of the working class, as an 
 indispensable preliminary to any successful attempt to eliminate the evils of whii h we, as a class 
 so bitierly and justly complain. That this much desired unity has never been achieved is owirg in 
 a great measure to the non-recognition of the autonomy, or the tight of self-government, of the 
 several trades. The American Federation < f Labor, however, avoids the latal reck on wliich 
 previous organizations, having similar aims, have split, by simply keepingin view this fundamental 
 principle as a landmark, which none but the most infatuated would have ever lost sight of. 
 
 The rapid and steady growth of the American Federatio i of Labor, arising from the affiliation 
 of previously isolated, together with newly formed, National Unions; the establishment of Local 
 Unions of various trades and callings where none before existed; the .spontaneous formation of 
 Federal Labor Unions, composed of wage-workers following various trares in places where there 
 are too few persons employed at anv particular one to allow the formation of Local Unions of those 
 trades, thus furnishing valuable bodies of auxiliaries and recruits to existing Unions upon change 
 of abod^, this steady growth is gratifying evidence of the appreciation of the toilers of ihis broad 
 land of a fo^m of general organization in harmony w^ith their most cherished traditions, and in 
 which each trade enjoys the mo-t perfect Iberty while securing the fullest advantages of ui. iicd 
 action. 
 
 And now, in conclusion, you will permit us to express our acknowledgement of the very 
 moderat" amuuut of governing which has fallen to the lot of those who have the honor to addres« 
 you. While much of this good fortune mu-t be attributed to the nature of the fedeial form of our 
 organization, our task has been immeasurably lightened by the assistance of a body of organizers, 
 who, without hope of rew ird, except the con.sciousness of performing a sacred duty to their feilow 
 workmen, have carried the iiropaganda of trade unionism into the remot^'St parts of the Co"tinent. 
 Much of our burden has bren also eased by the generous co-operation of the Kxecutives of National 
 and Intern tional Unions, wno have acted from a conviction that within the lines of the Pederotion 
 will be foueht to the bitter end the fast-coming grand struggle, involving the perpetuation of the 
 civilization we have so laboriously evolved. Deeply grnteful as we are for your fraternal support, 
 we should be negligent of the duty we owe to each and all, did we not urge you firs' to orgsnize, 
 and then in vour Local. National and International Unions which have not yet joinrd the American 
 Federation of Labor, to do so witnout further delay. Wage-workers of America, unite ! 
 
 Yours fraternally. 
 
 SAMUEL GUMPEKS. Pre^iH/nt. 
 
 JAMES DUNCAN, First yicc-President. 
 JOHN yilTCUVAAj, Second yice-Prcsidcnt. 
 JAMES O'CONXKLL. Third yiccPraidait. 
 MAX MORRIS. /-"Kr/* yicc-Prcsidciil. 
 THOS. I. KIIJD. Fifth Vice-President. 
 D. A. HAYES, Sixth yice-Presidoil. 
 JOHN B. LENNON, Treasurer. 
 
 KR A NK M n K K I S( » X , Secret aiv. 
 
 (4oJ
 
 CBKTIFICATE OF AFFILIATION (CHARTER) wilh two English (German or Italian) 
 Manuals of Comiuou Procedure, giving directions for opening and closing meetings, 
 installatiou of Officers, Initiation of Members, etc $5 00 
 
 CPIARTER OUTFIT 5 00 
 
 \ Charter Outfit consists of one set of Books — Ledger, Day Book, Minute- Book, 
 Treasurer's Account Book, Treasurer's Receipt Book, Secretary's Order Book, one 
 Seal, seven Constitutions, A. F. of L. ; seven Cetificates of Membership, seven Mem- 
 bership and Working Cards, one quire of Official Note Paper, one copy of the Offi- 
 cial Proceedings of Convention, and one copy of History of Trade Unions. 
 
 Seal ?2 oO 
 
 100-page Ledger 1 ^^ 
 
 200-page Ledger 2 2o 
 
 300-page Ledger >> WO 
 
 400-page Ledger 3 50 
 
 500-page Ledger 4 00 
 
 600-i»ai;e Ledger 4 50 
 
 lOO-pagu Day Book 85 
 
 Treasurer's Account Book 50 
 
 Secri-tary's Order Book 50 
 
 Treasurer's Receipt Book 50 
 
 Minute Book 50 
 
 Roll Call Book '. 60 
 
 Membership and Working Cards, per 
 
 100 2 00 
 
 Official Letter Paper, wUh seal, per 
 
 100 50 
 
 Official Note Paper, with Seal, per 100 40 
 
 Ode Cards, per 100 1 00 
 
 Traveling Cards, per dozen 25 
 
 Manuals, English, German, or Italian 25 
 Blank Applications for Membership, 
 
 per 100 50 
 
 Certificates of Membersliip, per dozen 50 
 Union Labels, per 1,000, 75 cents; 
 
 5,000, S3.000; 10,000. $5.00. 
 Kollcd-Gold Eight-Hour Badges, each 
 
 50 cents; per dozen 5 00 
 
 Eight-Hour Campaign Buttons, each 
 
 5 cPnts; per dozen, 40 cents; per 100 3 00 
 
 Constitution, A. F. of L., per 100 5 00 
 
 Horornble Withdrawal Cards, per 
 
 dozen 50 
 
 LABOR LITERATURE. 
 
 HISTORY OF TRADE UNIONS. Bv Wm- 
 Trant, M. A.\ with a .sketch of the National and 
 International Unions of America, by P. J. Mc- 
 Guire,. Per copy, 10 cents' dozen, 75 cents; 100 
 «5.0(). 
 
 PHILOSOPHY OF TRADE UNIONS. By 
 Dwr D. Lain. Per copy, 10 eonts; dozen, SLIO: 
 100. s'aOO. 
 
 THE EIGHT-HOUR PRIMER. The Fact. 
 Theory an<l the Argument. By Geo. E. McNeill.- 
 Per lopy, 5 .-cnts; dozen, 50 cents; 100, 84.00. 
 
 THE EIGHT-HOUR WORKDAY. Its Inaugu- 
 ration, Enforcement and Influences. By Sam- 
 uel Gimiiicrs. Per eoi.y, 5 cent.*; dozen. 50 cents; 
 lnO, '^■l 0(1. 
 
 THE ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL IMPORT- 
 ANCE OF THE EIGHT- HOUR MOVE- 
 MENT. By Geo. Guidon. Per copy, 5 cents; 
 dozen, 50 cents; loO. 81. (Ml. 
 
 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE EIGHT-HOUR 
 MOVEMENT. By Lemuel Daiiryid. I'orcopy, 
 5cent.s- dozen, 50 cents: 100, §4.00. 
 
 WHAT DOES LABOR WANT? By Samnel 
 Gomperx; together with "The Pliilosophy of tlio 
 Labor Movement," by Geo. K. McNeill. Per 
 copy, 5 cents; dozen, 50 cents; 100, S4.00. 
 
 NO GOviPULSORY ARBITRATION. By 
 ■ Samuel Qompern. Per copy, 5 cents; dozen, 50 
 cents; 100, S4 00. ' 
 
 ORGANIZED LABOR; ITS STRUGGLES. 
 ITS ENEMIES AND FOOL FRIENDS- By 
 Samuel Gompers. Per cony, 5 cents; dozen. 50 
 cents; 100. 84 00. 
 
 THE 'PHILOSOPHY OF THE LABOR 
 MOVEMENT." By Geo. K. McNeill: together 
 with "Wliat Does Labor Want?" by Samuel 
 Gompers. Per copy, 5 cents; dozen, 50 cents; 
 100, >?4.00. 
 
 WHAT LABOR COULD DO. By John Sn-in- 
 ton: with "Economic Conferences," by iVm. 
 Salter, and letter of Hon. Amos ./. CummUxjs. 
 Per coi.v, 5 cents; dozen. 50 cents; 100. S4.00. 
 
 T'HE SAFETY OF THE FUTURE LIES IN 
 ORGANIZED LABOR. Y,y llenru D. Lloyd, 
 of Chicago (In English or t!orm;in.) Per copy, 
 5 cents: dozen, 50 cents 100, S4 CO. 
 
 UNIVERSAL EDUCATION. By Senator- 
 Henry W.Blair. Per copy, 5 cents; dozen, 50 
 cents; 100, 84.00. 
 
 CON'DITION OF WOME ^ WORKERS. By 
 Ida M Van Etten. Per copy, 5 cents; dozen, 
 50 cents: 100, S4.00. , 
 
 WHY WE UNITE. Per copy, 2 cents; dozen, 20 
 cents; 100 SI. 50. 
 
 REPORT OF DISCUSSION ON POLITICAL 
 PROGRAM, DENVER CONVENTION, 
 1894. Per copy, 10 cents. 
 
 REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS. A. F. OF L- 
 
 • CONVENTIONS. Per copy, 25 cents; dozen. 
 
 I 82.50; 100, S19.00. ' 
 
 This is a /ac8um7e of the American Federation of Labor BADGE. It is of Rolled 
 (iuld, beautifully enameled in three colors— Red, White and Rlmv T)ti>y mi.' <•,},] if ")() 
 cents each, 85.00 per dozen, or 838.00 per 100. 
 
 REMEMBER! 
 That Union Men Should Purchase Union-Made Goods. 
 That Union Men Should Demand Union-Label Goods ; and that 
 " Wkdlier you Work Oy Uie Piece or Work hy Uu; Day, 
 DecreaHiny the Hoiirn Tnerennrn the I'oy." 
 
 AMERICAN FEDERATIONIST, I O Cents per Copy. Per Year, $ I .OO. 
 
 NoTK.— Tlie foregoing articles will bo supplied only when the requisite nmount of cash accompimics the 
 Older. OtherwisH the urder will not bo rec()gnizo<l. All siipplics sent l)y us hiivo the pustaeo pYepaid or tlio 
 express charges piiid in advance. Do nut lorwiird cash in onvcliipo but send drafti chouK, express money 
 order or jiovt otiicc inimey order made pa.val.ie to the Sccretiiry. 
 
 Labor and Reform Literalure furnished at Publisher's Prices. 
 
 FRANK MORRISON, Secretary. 
 
 SAMUEL GOMPERS, President.
 
 subscribe: 
 
 FOR THE 
 
 American Federationisi 
 
 OFFICIAL MONTHLY MAGAZINE 
 
 DEVOTED TO THE INTERESTS AND VOICING THE DE 
 
 MANDS OF THE TRADE UNION MOVEMENT. 
 
 PUBLISHED BY 
 
 The American Federation of Laboi 
 
 423-425 G STREET, N. W. WASHINGTON, D. C 
 
 Samuel Gompers, Editor 
 
 All communications relating to finances anc 
 'bscpiptions, should be addressed to 
 
 FRANK MORRISON, Secretary 
 
 WASHINGTON, D. C. 
 
 SUBSCRIPTION: 
 
 Per Annum . . . $i.oc 
 
 Single Copy ^ ^^^^^ . lo Centf 
 
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