IN all the debates on the law passed during the late session of Parliament,on account of the combinations of workmen,much stress is laid on the necessity of protecting capital.What capital performs is therefore a question of considerable importance,which the author was,on this account,induced to examine.As a result of this examination,it is his opinion that all the benefits attributed to capital arise from co-existing and skilled labour.He feels himself,on this account,called on to deny that capital has any just claim to the large share of the national produce now bestowed on it.This large share he has endeavored to show is the cause of the poverty of the labourer;and he ventures to assert that the condition of the labourer can never be permanently improved till he can refute the theory,and is determined to oppose the practice of giving nearly everything to capital.
Labour Defended Against the Claims of Capital Throughout this country at present there exists a serious contest between capital and labour.The journeymen of almost every trade have combined to obtain higher wages,and their employers have appealed to the legislature for protection.The contest is not only one of physical endurance,or who can stand out longest,but of argument and reason.It is possible for the workmen to force their masters into compliance,but they must convince the public of the justice of their demands.The press has,at present,a great influence over public questions;and by far the greater and more influential part of it is engaged on the side of the capitalist.Through it,however,and through public opinion,must the journeymen find their way to the legislature.
They may possibly terrify their masters,but they can only obtain the support of any influential persons by an appeal to reason.To suggest some arguments in favour of labour against capital,is my chief motive for publishing the present pamphlet.
The labourers are very unfortunate,I conceive,in being surrounded by nations in a worse political condition than we are,and in some of which labour is still worse paid than here.
Labourers are still more unfortunate in being descended from bondsmen and serfs.Personal slavery or villanage formerly existed in Britain,and all the living labourers still suffer from the bondage of their ancestors.Our claims are consequently never tried by the principles of justice.The law-giver and the capitalist always compare our wages with the wages of other labourers;and without adverting to what we produce,which seems the only criterion by which we ought to be paid,we are instantly condemned as insolent and ungrateful if we ask for more than was enjoyed by the slave of former times,and is now enjoyed by the half-starved slave of other countries.
By our increased skill and knowledge,labour is now probably ten times more productive than it was two hundred years ago;and we are,forsooth,to be contended with the same rewards which the bondsmen then received.All the advantages of our improvements go to the capitalist and the landlord.When,denied any share in our increased produce,we combine to obtain it,we are instantly threatened with summary punishment.New laws are fulminated against us,and if these are found insufficient we are threatened with laws still more severe.
Combination is of itself no crime;on the contrary,it is the principle on which societies are held together.When the Government supposes its existence threatened,or the country in danger,it calls on us all to combine for its protection.
"Combinations of workmen",however,it says through Mr Huskisson,"must be put down."Frequently has it contracted alliances with other governments or made combinations to carry on war and shed blood;frequently has it called on the whole nation to combine when the object has been to plunder and massacre the unoffending subjects of some neighbouring state and frequently have such combinations had heaped on them all the epithets of the vocabulary of glory.No other combination seems unjust or mischievous,in the view of Government,but our combinations to obtain a proper reward for our labour.It is a heinous crime in the eyes of a legislature,composed exclusively of capitalists and landlords,and representing no other interests than their own,for us to try,by any means,to obtain for ourselves and for the comfortable subsistence of our families,a larger share of our own produce than these our masters choose to allow us.All the moral evils that ever plagued a society have been anticipated by the ministers from our persevering in our claims.To put down combinations they have departed from principles held sacred for upwards of two hundred years.They have made also a law handing us over to the magistrates like vagabonds and thieves,and we are to be condemned almost unheard,and without the privilege and formality of a public trial.
All that we are compelled to suffer,all that we have had inflicted on us,has been done for the advantage of capital.
"Capital",says Mr Huskisson,"will be terrified out of the country,and the misguided workmen,unless they are stopped in time,will bring ruin on themselves and on us.""Capital,"says the Marquis of Lansdowne,"must be protected.If its operations be not left free,if they are to be controlled by bodies of workmen,it will leave this for some more favoured country."Capital,if we believe these politicians,has improved England,and the want of capital is the cause of the poverty and sufferings of Ireland.Under the influence of such notions,no laws for the protection of capital are thought too severe,and few or no persons,except the labourers,see either impropriety or injustice in the fashionable mode of despising his claims,and laughing at his distresses.
