The Workman's Bane & Antidote: Comprising the Essay on Strikes Read at the British Association for the Advancement of Science, 1861, the History of a Mistake, Being a Tale of the Colne Strike, 1860-1, and a Lecture on the Power and Influence of Co-operative Effort Delivered at the Mechanics' Institution, Manchester, November 6th 1861 |
Common terms and phrases
addition to wages amongst amount of subscriptions amount of wages ampton annum arbitration average Barrowford better Birtwistle Bolton capital cheapest market Chorley Clitheroe CO-OPERATIVE EFFORT Co-operative Societies co-operative stores Colne strike corresponding half-year cotton trade Coventry demand for labour dispute districts DORSET STREET earnings East Lancashire employ employment evils extra feel fifty weeks five per cent grievances half per cent hands increase individual employer interest invest John Ruskin JOHN WATTS lessened London builders looms machinery manage MANCHESTER Manchester Examiner manufacturer masters million sterling Moulders nearly necessary object operatives Padiham PALL MALL penny possible present Preston strike produce profit rate of wages reduction reply require result rience Rochdale savings bank secure shareholders shilling a week shopkeepers succeed success suffered things tions Trade Societies turn twenty per cent unani union union of employers wages lost wages paid wealth weaving whilst workmen workpeople
Popular passages
Page 24 - So far as I know, there is not in history record of anything so disgraceful to the human intellect as the modern idea that the commercial text, " Buy in the cheapest market and sell in the dearest," represents, or under any circumstances could represent, an available principle of national economy. Buy in the cheapest market ? — yes ; but what made your market cheap ? Charcoal may be cheap among your roof timbers after a fire, and bricks may be cheap in your streets after an earthquake ; but fire...
Page 9 - ... have invested instead of spending the money, the year's wages would have grown into three years' wages nearly by the time in which the gain of the strike would make up for the loss of a single year. Of course, a strike for 10 per cent, would require only half the above term to make up the loss, while...
Page 9 - ... years. The strike of the London builders in 1859 was for 10 per cent, of time, or its equivalent 10 per cent, of wages, and, as it lasted twenty-six weeks, would, if successful, have required 10£ years of continuous work at the extra rate to make up the loss of wages sacrificed.
Page 5 - ... acknowledge the truth of the theory even while fighting against it, for by strikes they withdraw labour from the market, thus making it artificially scarce, in order to keep up its price. But such an operation, even if successful, is shortsighted; the operatives forget that all increase to the future wages fund comes out of the profits of the employer and the invested savings of the workman; and that to arbitrarily prevent the production of wealth, or to wastefully consume the savings of past...
Page 9 - J per cent would require double the time exhibited in the table, or forty-one years. The strike of the London builders in 1859 was for 10 per cent of time, or its equivalent 10 per cent of wages ; and, as it lasted 26 weeks, would, if successful, have required 10| years of continuous work at the extra rate to make up the loss of wages sacrificed.
Page 8 - ... the one at Padiham twenty-nine weeks, Bolton six weeks, Ashton and district six weeks, Clitheroe six weeks, Blackburn three weeks. The strike of the London builders lasted twenty-six weeks, and the late Colne strike fifty weeks. Let us assume 5 per cent, as the average amount in dispute, and assume that the strike is in every case successful, and we shall then find that the adage which is applied to disputants at law, that " he who wins loses,
Page 13 - If the real co-operative societies extend and succeed, it is possible that we may see individual employers, in self-defence, constituting their workpeople partners in profits, in the belief that the extra interest excited in work would make the employers' share of profit greater than the whole amount formerly obtained. Such an arrangement would also tend to prevent strikes; for, if the hands thought wages were too low, they would see it made up by profit, so that the result would simply be an enforced...
Page 9 - Colne and their employers did not average more than 3|- per cent, and, had the strike been successful, would have required more than twenty-eight years' continuous employment at the advance to make up the amount of wages lost, by which time the lost wages would, at 5 per cent., have quadrupled. In the cotton trade, wages appear to undergo something like a general adjustment every three or four years, in consequence principally of defective or abundant harvests of corn or cotton, or both. Such adjustments...
Page 9 - ... principally of defective or abundant harvests of corn or cotton, or both. Such adjustments occurred in 1853, in 1857, and in 1860. If, therefore, the strikes which occur were spread equally over these periods, they would, even when successful, only affect the rate of wages for about two years upon an average, and therefore could not make up for more than about five weeks' loss of wages by strike. But strikes are seldom successful to the workmen, so that while they sacrifice the wages of the present...
Page 10 - LOBS to Society. The associated colliers have, upon their own showing, spent about a quarter of a million on strikes since 1842; and the amalgamated engineers threw away nearly half a million in 1852. According to our assumption of capital of 65/. per individual, the amount thus lost by the cotton trade alone, would have given employment and wages to 17,184 persons, and if every second person was the head of a family they would represent 42,950 individuals whose bread is thus wasted in perpetuity....