Part 1

Transcribed from the 1873 Longmans, Green, and Co. edition by David Price.

WAGES IN 1873.

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ADDRESS

READ BEFORE THE

SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION

AT NORWICH.

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BY

THOMAS BRASSEY, M.P.

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LONDON: LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO. 1873.

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LONDON: PRINTED BY SPOTTISWOODE AND CO., NEW-STREET SQUARE AND PARLIAMENT STREET

WAGES IN 1873.

Rise in Wages.

IN the following Address I shall devote myself to the task of reviewing, I hope in an impartial spirit, the most recent phases of the labour movement. The great advance of wages is a conspicuous feature of modern English industry, and is obviously due to the rapid growth of the general trade of the country. The long depression following on the panic of 1866 has been succeeded by a period of unprecedented activity in every branch of our export trade. The demands upon the labour-market have far exceeded the supply; and the artisan and labourer have not been slow to take advantage of a situation which afforded to them a brilliant opportunity. Between 1866 and 1869 the value of the exports of the produce and manufactures of the United Kingdom had remained stationary; while it rose from £190,000,000 in 1869, to £256,257,000 in 1872. Such a leap was not possible without imposing a strain upon the powers of our labouring population, which must inevitably have led to a material alteration in the rate of wages.

Not attributable to strikes.

It is too often alleged that the recent advance of wages is attributable to a series of successful strikes. I maintain, on the contrary, that a strike against a falling market is never successful, and that Trades Unions, as an organisation for the purpose of raising wages, can never do more than assist the workman to obtain an advance at a somewhat earlier date than that at which the competition among employers would have brought about the same result. I may quote the unfortunate strike in South Wales, at the commencement of this year, as a signal instance of the inability of Trades Unions to cope with the superior resources of employers when firmly united together.

The recent strike in South Wales.

It may be worth while briefly to recapitulate the most important incidents of the South Wales strike. In June 1872, the miners had proposed to apply for an advance of 20 per cent. on their wages. They were, however, advised by the executive council of their Union to limit their demand to an advance of 10 per cent. The advance was granted, and three months later the men asked for an additional 10 per cent. Their application was refused, and shortly afterwards the masters gave notice of a 10 per cent. reduction. The men thereupon desired that their case should be referred to arbitration. This request was refused by the masters, who were so fully convinced of the strength of their own case, that they offered to submit their books for the inspection of the workmen. The miners were unwilling to avail themselves of this offer; and, encouraged by large promises of support from Mr. Halliday and Mr. Pickard, they went out on strike.

Without venturing to apportion to either of the contending interests their share of responsibility, it is clear that the ironmasters were alone in a position to know whether their business was sufficiently remunerative to make it possible to dispense with a reduction of wages; and it was stated by Mr. Crawshay that he had taken a contract for 2,000 tons of rails at £9. 2_s._ 5_d._ per ton nett, and that he lost money by selling rails at that price. Mr. Crawshay expressed an opinion, founded on the statements made by his workmen in daily interviews, that, but for the interference of the Union, they would have been satisfied with the explanations which he had given them, and returned to their work. In short, it became a point of honour with the masters to prove to their workmen that they were able, when acting in concert, to fight a successful campaign against the united forces of the Miners’ Union.

The miners, on the other hand, were in the embarrassing position in which workmen are always placed whenever they are engaged in similar disputes. They had to struggle in the dark, and had no means of correctly estimating the profits of their employers. The responsibility of the Executive Council of the Miners’ Union, during the labour crisis in South Wales, was immense. Although the miners connected with the Union were only 10,000 in number, by their cessation of labour 50,000 of their fellow-workmen, engaged in various branches of the iron trade, were kept out of work. The ‘strike pay’ distributed by the Colliers’ Union amounted to a total of £40,000, a sum quite insignificant, by comparison with the amount of £800,000, which the men would have earned, had they continued at work; and yet the burden of sustaining a vast population proved eventually insupportable. In point of fact, the men were only enabled to continue the struggle by the assistance of the tradesmen of the district; and when, at length, the latter found themselves unable to continue the supply of the necessaries of life on credit, surrender was inevitable.

The reaction against the International Society among the working classes in Belgium originated in a similar cause. In 1871, during the strike in Flanders, the International was unable to fulfil its promises of support, and it has consequently lost credit with the operatives, many of whom, as we are informed by Mr. Kennedy, have withdrawn from the Society. It was the same with the miners at Waldenburg, in Silesia, where 6,000 men went out on strike. After all their savings had been exhausted, they received a grandiloquent despatch from the Central Council at Berlin, urging them to emigrate _en masse_. A few obeyed the advice. The majority who remained were compelled to surrender, being consoled by the assurance that the most valiant armies must sometimes yield to superior numbers, and that they had won for themselves the admiration of Germany.

Almost to the last the originators of the strike in South Wales opposed the generally felt desire to return to work. Never, perhaps, was the magical power of eloquence over an imperfectly educated audience more conspicuously displayed than at the meetings held by the workmen towards the close of the South Wales strike. Men, who had gathered together, for the express purpose of negotiating a peace with their employers, were turned aside against their own judgments by the eloquent exaggerations of orators, who were interested in the continuation of the struggle.

Overwhelming, indeed, is the influence of speech over the uninstructed mind. Well may Carlyle exclaim: ‘He who well considers, will find this same right of speech, as we moderns have it, to be a truly astonishing product of ages; and the longer he considers it, the more astonishing and alarming. I reckon it the saddest of all the curses that now lie heavy on us.’

In the event, as I have said, the workmen returned to their work on the terms, which their masters had originally proposed. Happily they had not long to wait for an improvement of their position; and, in less than a fortnight after the close of the strike, the workmen received an advance of 10 per cent. on the reduced wages, which they had accepted.

Proposal of the International for an universal strike.

The defeat of the miners in South Wales offers, as I have already said, one more illustration of the inability of workmen to force a concession from employers possessed of abundant resources, when the state of trade is such, that a concession cannot be made, without involving the employer in direct pecuniary loss. We have evidence that this fact is becoming generally recognised. The inability of Trades Unions to control the rate of wages was frankly admitted by the members of the International Society in their last congress, when the working men were informed that hereafter, if they wished to secure any substantial advantages for labour, there must be a strike _en masse_ of all the working men of every country in the world.

In extreme cases strike may produce results beneficial to workmen. Orderly conduct of men on strike in South Wales.

While I feel bound to assure the working man of the certain frustration of his expectations, if he seeks to obtain from capital impossible concessions, I am at the same time ready to acknowledge that a strike will sometimes make an impression on employers, even in cases, in which the demand for an increase of wages is not immediately conceded. If the trade, in which the workmen on strike are engaged, is prosperous for the employer; cessation of production means loss of profit. The apprehension of a recurrence of such loss may, on a future occasion, induce concessions; and the wage-earning classes may rest assured that, in the long run, and without the assistance of Trades Unions and the disastrous interruptions to their business occasioned by protracted strikes, the competition among employers, to secure the services of workmen, will infallibly lead to a rise of pay, proportionate to the amount of profit, derived from the particular industry, with which they are connected. It was a noteworthy feature in the South Wales strike, that the men never had recourse to physical violence. I attribute their good conduct in this regard in part to the influence of Mr. Halliday and his colleagues.

Advance in price of coal.

I now pass to the graver subject of the recent rise in the price of coal. It will be remembered that, on the motion of Mr. Mundella, a Committee of the House of Commons was appointed in the last Session to inquire into this subject. After a long investigation the Committee reported, as might have been expected, that, in their judgment, the rapid development of the iron industry was the primary cause of the advance in the price of coal. It appears from statistics, compiled under the direction of the Committee, that the total production of coal in 1869 was 107,000,000 tons, of which 79,000,000 were used in manufactures. The total production in 1871 was 117,000,000 tons, of which 85,000,000 were used in manufactures. It will thus be seen how large a proportion of the total quantity of coal raised is consumed in manufactures, and specially in the manufacture of iron. In 1867, 567,000 tons of pig iron were exported, 4,193,000 tons of pig iron were converted into rolled iron, 1,317,000 tons of rolled iron were exported, and 28,331,000 tons of coal were used in the manufacture of iron. In 1872, 1,333,000 tons of pig iron were exported, 5,390,000 tons of pig iron were converted into rolled iron, 2,055,000 tons of rolled iron were exported, and 38,229,000 tons of coal were consumed in the manufacture of iron.

Mr. Lothian Bell.

In the evidence, which he gave before the Committee, Mr. Lothian Bell stated that the greatly increased demand for the manufacture of iron, although not the sole cause, was one of the causes, of the rapid advance in the price of coal.

In his district the iron trade gave a great stimulus to the coal trade. ‘But,’ he observed, ‘all industry throughout the country has been, and still is, in a very flourishing condition. The manufacture of alkali in the North, the increase of railways, the substitution of steam for sailing vessels, all added to demands on an output not very greatly increasing.’ It is to be observed that the rise in the price of iron preceded the rise in the price of coal. Mr. Lothian Bell quoted figures, from which it appeared that, in September 1871, forge pig iron was selling for 50_s._, while coke was selling for from 10_s._ to 12_s._ a ton. In July 1872, the forge pig iron rose to 120_s._—more than double the price of nine months before—and coke, following the advance in iron, rose from 37_s._ 6_d._ to 41_s._ a ton.

The Committee rightly observe, in commenting upon these figures, that, although the disturbance in the proportion between the demand and the supply of coal might not appear sufficient to explain fully the great rise of prices, yet a comparatively small deficiency in the supply of an article of paramount necessity may produce a disproportionate increase of price, through the eagerness of buyers competing with each other, each for his own supply.

Rise of wages in collieries.

Other reasons for the rise in the price of coal have been urged, and among these more especially the reduction in the hours of labour, and the great advance of wages. The advance in the wages paid to miners is in truth extraordinary. In a large colliery, in which I have an interest, I will give the advance in the weekly wages of some of the principal trades. The weekly wages of hewers in 1869 were 24_s._ 5_d._; they have risen in 1873 to 48_s._ 9_d._ The wages of timbermen in 1863 were 25_s._; in 1873 they are 53_s._ 4_d._ Haulers, in 1869, 20_s._; in 1873, 31_s._ 6_d._ Landers, in 1869, 21_s._; in 1873, 36_s._ 9_d._ Labourers in 1869, 15_s._; in 1873, 24_s._ a week. The average wages of all the men employed were 20_s._ 11_d._ for 1869, as compared with an average of 36_s._ 8_d._ per week in 1873.

A similar rise of wages has been established in other parts of the country, of which I have no personal knowledge. Wages have risen, since 1870, 48 per cent. in Northumberland, and 50 per cent. in Durham. The requirements of the Mines Regulation Act have involved an additional expenditure, estimated by some authorities at 12½ per cent. upon the cost of production. It was estimated by Mr. Pease that the total cost of working, in the collieries with which he was connected, had increased 50 per cent. between 1870 and 1872. Mr. A. Macdonald, the president of the Miners’ National Association, confirming the opinion of Mr. Pease, estimated that the cost of getting coal in Northumberland had increased, between 1868 and 1872–73, from 60 to 65 per cent., while the selling price had risen 120 per cent.

Increased profits of colliery proprietors.

It might be easily made to appear that the rise of wages was the principal cause of the advance in coal. But the case would be imperfectly presented for examination, if the profit derived from the working of the pits were not ascertained. The colliery, to which I have already referred, had, for years, been worked at a serious loss—there being no dividend for the proprietors in the years 1870 and 1871. Indeed, the prospects were so gloomy in the latter year, that some of the shareholders in the undertaking made over their interest to their co-proprietors at a considerable discount. At length, however, the tide suddenly turned, and in 1872 an ample dividend was earned; while there is every prospect that the results of the present year may be still more favourable.

Rise of wages has followed advance in price of coal.

My individual experience abundantly confirms the opinion expressed by the Committee of the House of Commons, to the effect that the prices of coal, which prevailed for years before the present rise commenced, were so low that they did not afford a reasonable profit to the owners of collieries in general, or such remuneration as the workmen might, with regard to the hazardous and arduous nature of their labour, reasonably expect. The rise in the rate of wages has not, under the exceptional circumstances, been unreasonable; and it is certain that the real order of events has been, first, the rise in price of iron, then a rise in the price of coal, and lastly a rise in the rate of wages. On the other hand, great as the profits in the coal trade have been, it is a question whether the last two years have compensated the coal-owners for the former protracted era of stagnation, and, in many cases, of serious loss.

In a letter addressed to _The Times_, early in the present year, in which the case of the masters was ably argued, Mr. Laing narrated the history of the Bleanavon Company. Owing to various causes, that concern had been worked for several years without profit. Only within the last three years had it become a profitable undertaking; and yet all through a long period of adversity an amount of £3,000 to £4,000 a week was paid in wages, at the same rate as by the most prosperous iron works; and the capital sunk by the original proprietors was the means of creating a town, and supporting a population of 9,000, in a secluded mountain valley of South Wales.

Causes which will lead to a reduction in price of coal.

The present unprecedented prosperity may continue for a year or two years at the most, but, at the end of that time, the influx of capital into the coal trade, attracted by the present high profits, will infallibly lead to some reduction of price. New coal pits are being sunk. Old pits are being improved. More workmen are being trained in the business of mining. Hence we may look with confidence to an augmentation of the output, and to a sufficient supply for the ordinary demands of consumers. The insufficient profits of former days cannot be attributed to the unreasonable standard at which wages were maintained. The excessive competition in the supply of coal was the true cause of the unfortunate position of the trade. And as in the former period of depression, so in the sudden and it may be short-lived prosperity of the present day, the rates of wages must be regarded, not as a cause, but as a consequence, of an abnormal position of affairs.

Hours of labour.

Complaints have been urged as to the effects of shortening the hours of labour; and it is certain that if a comparison be made between the amount raised and the total number of individuals employed, a less quantity is raised than in former years. It must not, however, be forgotten that high wages have attracted many untrained hands to the coal pits. It would be presumptuous in me to express an opinion as to the precise number of hours, which would constitute a fair working day in a coal pit. Mr. Macdonald, who has had actual experience as a working miner, declares that the present earnings could not be obtained with less than eight hours of work a day, and that no man, who laboured assiduously for that number of hours could work continuously six days a week at coal mining. It will be the duty of those, to whom the miners are in the habit of looking for guidance, to watch with care the course of trade. They know that the iron manufactures of this country can only prosper, so long as we are able to sell our iron abroad at cheaper rates than those demanded by foreign producers.

There are some who think that a limitation of the hours of labour is in itself an evil. I cannot share in this view. Because some may make an unwise use of their newly acquired advantages, that is no reason for returning to a former state of things; when, in the general depression of trade, an undue pressure was brought to bear upon the working man. ‘No doubt,’ says Sir Arthur Helps, ‘hard work is a great police agent. If everybody were worked from morning till night, and then carefully locked up, the register of crime might be greatly diminished. But what would become of human nature? Where would be the room for growth in such a system of things?’

The use of leisure requires education, and that education had not been freely given to the mechanics, miners, and puddlers, of former generations.

The double-shift system.

Among the various proposals for maintaining the production of collieries while conceding to the individual workman the advantage of a reduction in the number of hours of daily labour, the double-shift system of working promises a most satisfactory result. When the memorable struggle was commenced in Newcastle for a reduction in the number of hours, I ventured to suggest, in an address delivered at Birkenhead, that the solution of the difficulty, which had arisen in the engineering establishments, might be found in employing relays of mechanics to succeed each other at the same machine. When we have to combine human labour with machine power, we know that it is impossible for the human machine to keep pace with machinery of brass and iron. But why, I venture to ask, should not a machine, which never tires, be tended by two or three artisans relieving each other as one watch relieves another on board ship? In driving the machinery of steamships, it has been found necessary, on long voyages, to have three sets of engineers and firemen. Why should not the day be divided into three periods of eight hours, or the working day be extended to sixteen hours, two sets of men being employed? The change, arising from the increasing use of machinery, seems to render corresponding modifications in the application of labour essential. My friend Mr. Elliott is pushing the system of a succession of labour in collieries with very advantageous results to all parties concerned. Comparing a Durham colliery, worked on the double-shift system, with a colliery in Glamorganshire, worked by one set of miners, he ascertained that twice the quantity of coal per day was being raised in Durham. The prejudices of the miners in South Wales against the double-shift have presented a serious obstacle to its introduction, but Mr. Elliott hopes that this may eventually be overcome by the influence of Mr. Macdonald and other representatives of the men, whose superior intelligence will enable them to appreciate more readily the advantages of new and improved systems of working.

Coal-cutting machines.

Among various improvements, which may tend to reduce the price of coal, we may look with confidence to the increased use of coal-cutting machinery as a substitute for manual labour; and to the discovery of methods by which the consumption of fuel may be reduced. The experiments, which have been tried with the machines invented by Captain Beaumont, R.E., and others, have been eminently satisfactory; and these machines are now being made in large numbers in Glasgow and Birmingham.

Waste of coal in domestic consumption.

Our domestic consumption is undoubtedly wasteful; and the inventor of an effective improvement in the form of grate in common use will be a real benefactor to his fellow-man. Already we have, in the cooking-stove for yachts, the invention of Mr. Atkey, of Cowes, a highly successful apparatus. A letter from Mr. Vale, Ex-President of the Liverpool Architectural Society, addressed to _The Times_ in August last, describes a cooking stove for a party of nine persons and a crew of thirteen men, which measured only one foot four inches by one foot four inches in area, and one foot nine inches in height, the actual fuel-space being less than one cubic foot. The fuel required in his yacht for one day’s consumption was forty-seven pounds of coke at twenty shillings a ton, and the cost per head per day amounted to less than one farthing.

Captain Galton’s fireplace.

In his lecture, delivered at Bradford during the meeting of the British Association in the present year, Mr. Siemens described Captain Galton’s ventilating fireplace as a most valuable invention.