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    Avq. 2, 1851.] . ®,t)t 3bt&h$t* 723. _ _...

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    Mr. Coningham's Lecture At Brighton. Gen...

    still exists in a few of the Pans associations . M . Lodard ' s men , it appears , had been accustomed to ¦ work by piece , each receiving so much for 100 bottles blown . They proposed thatthepaymentper 100 bottles should be continued , but that the whole earnings of each dav should be thrown into a common stock , and cqually ' divided . For the maintenance of emulation , and the satisfaction of the " point of honour , " it was agreed that each man ' s produce should be written up , day by day , against the workshop wall . For a few days , there was great emulation ; each workman struggling to establish his superiority . This point once fairly ascertained , the skilful workmen rested

    from time to time , to let their slower comrades catch them tip . When reproached for their indolence , they severally replied , " -Of what do you complain ? I make as many bottles as the best man here . " The second-best workmen soon took to resting also ; the third and fourth hands gradually followed their example . At last , the most of the workmen would reply , " It is not I who make the fewest bottles or spoil the most . " In this way the rate of production , and with it the rate of wages , gradually declined ; till , at the end of eight months , there was a fallingoff of twenty per cent .

    Next season M . Lodard resumed the old plan of paying the men according to the number and quality of the bottles produced respectively by each . The earnings of the master and men immediately rose to their former level . Thus , under the equal-wages system , the worst workman became the standard ; but fair competition , with wages proportioned to individual industry and skill , restored the best workman to his natural position , as example or leader to the rest .

    As Mr . Mill observes : — " There has never been imagined any mode of distributing the produce of industry so well adapted to the requirements of human nature , on the whole , as that of letting the share of each individual ( not in a state of bodily or mental incapacity ) depend , in the main , on that individual ' s own resources and exertions , and on such furtherance as may be obtained from the voluntary good offices of others . " Competition , however , has only become the governing principle in contracts at a comparatively modern date . They were , and some still are , under the influence of custom , which was the protection of the weak against the strong .

    The important association of the block-tin-men is a perfect model of good order and cheerfulness . This business holds an important place in the mechanical industry of Paris , and gives support to 1800 families . In the department of the Seine there are 150 master workmen , who employ about 1500 hands , one-third of whom are stationary , while the rest are constantly fluctuating , and are thus led to form unsettled habits .

    The division of labour , which is carried to . in extreme , and the scarcity of work during six months of the year , had reduced the average rate of wages to thirty pence a day ; and , in the crisis of 1847 , that average fell to twenty pence . The following description of the appearance of this association is by an American , who examined it with the greatest care : — " Passing through anarrowpassagt between therear of two theatres in the liue de Bondy , I came upon a court-yard , filled with trees and shrubbery , and reminding you more of a pleasant country village , than of the sombre purlieus of mechanical industry in a

    crowded city . The space was dotted with ( several small neat cottages , each with a garden and a cluster of trees , and in the centre a building of more pretensions , which proved to be the shop of the associated workmen . On entering the first floor , 1 found a warehouse well ( supplied with manufactured goods , and convenient work-rooms , with an excellent stock of tools , and everything j n admirable order . The workmen were as busy as bees , and wore a happy Ratified look , which 1 have rarely found among the JabouMng-classes in Europe . The whole appearance ol Uie place showed that it waa a money-making concern , and no mistake .

    lho history of thi 8 association , which is as follow * allows that , it nlbo had to pass through the ordeal of adversity : t / 11 |« H * , (; etln K <> J" the trade was ln : W on March 2 IK 18 , and a mutual aid society formed by acclamation . Weekly meetings were then commenced , md continued until the outbreak in June , when I ariH was declared to be in a state of Kicgc . The "ur . au . Ks , however , were r . oume . l in the following October , vvuli a less numerous , but . more int . rested Hienuance . A proportion was made : to establish « . iiu

    iUdasHocration , subject to the regulations of the code-of commerce , and u contract or dwd was drawn up , out no capital was forthcoming . The articled of HMHocuitiou were at last , adopted on December 3 , I ! MH iinoiu . 500 francs in ca-h having been raised by volunn ' l " 0111 ' "" ' " 1 Hl toola and btoc : k U > H »« "mount »»» 400 francs contributed by the workmen . A work-; "i ; « ' »» hired lo ,. r , ()() francs , , lml ufter tli luij ., "oat H ) francs only remained in the coffers of the fnu , ' " \ i - ' lirKt ° I ( lor WIlH lor il l « i » t «*" , 1 * 2 iriSa , ] ,, W " r whi « hl » "l been fixed at two "" t » u day , wcro educed to three , then two , und !

    finally to one franc a week . The association was reduced to three persons before the close of March , 1849 , and they were only enabled to support themselves by sharing the bread of some friendly unaasociated workmen . ' These three men roughed it out till the tide turned never once losing heart . Business came to them at last ; but instead of appropriating it to themselves they devoted the profits to the common interest , and as fast as their means would permit they readmitted their starved out associates . Orders now increased , and they were enabled to lay out 700 f . for the purchase of stock .

    About this time their shop was broken into and all their cash carried off , while the reactionary press insinuated that the money had been stolen by the associates themselves . They now thought that it was all over with their enterprise , and were about to dissolve the concern , when several other associations came to their assistance . 'These contributions were accepted as a loan ; and beginning with five francs a week , they paid back the whole sum . in small instalments , according to their means .

    In order to gam confidence they put a stamp upon their goods , which increased their business , especially among exporting merchants . They then took up the manufacture of fixtures for gas , and with the increase of profits have been enabled to hire their present comfortable quarters at a rent of 2500 f . a year . By the side of this little sunny picture of social life and cooperative labour , based upon a moral principle , I will now place another , painted in more sombre colours , and which I fear is but too correct a description of the moral and social condition of a number of our fellow-creatures .

    M . Leon Faucher , the reactionary Minister of L . Napoleon , in his work upon England , published in 1845 , gives the following description of a small manufacturing town in England , with a population of 9000 souls , and his statements are fully corroborated by the evidence of Mr . Home , the Government subcommisioner . M . Faucher says : — " The little town of Willenhall , within a few miles of Wolverhampton , is a city of locksmiths , consisting of workshops and public houses ( of which there are sixty ) . There are no large traders or proprietors — only mechanics living from hand to mouth . They spend their wages in food and drink , and when the

    wages are gone they drink upon creelit , until credit also be exhausted . Then under the pressure of want they work as long as their limbs sustain them , and , though naturally indolent , will then labour for days ( of twenty hours ) without even sitting down to meals . When a gross of locks has been completed they are taken over to Wolverhampton ; and who , " asks M . Faucher , " can compete with men who sell locks for eighteenpence a dozen , which in London will fetch one shilling each ? " The privations these men endure exceed belief . Their appearance is so peculiar as to be distinguishable among the population of the

    neighbouring towns . Their faces are h .-iggard , their persons filthy , their limbs wasted and ricketty , their skin appears dried and thickened from the smoke . The stiffened light hand looks as though it were actually twisted . The under lip hangs down , indicating discouragement and absence of thought . In old age the features become hard , angular , and inflexible as though they had taken the impress of their perpetual toil . Their food consists of potatoes and bad b icon . Their workrooms have neither doora nor windows , liefore each house lies a sweltering dung heap ; and typhus fever raged for aeven years uninterruptedly in Willenhall . The condition of the

    apprentices is dreadful . They are generally taken , with a premium , from the workhouses of Walsull , Coventry , and Tamworth ; are miserably fed , clothed , and over-worked . A common mode of punishment is that of ' clamming , " or half starving them , and they are often cmell y beaten . Yet strange to nay , the population of AVillenhall had increased M ) per cent ., in the ten years ending 1841 , while that of Uirininghani had increased only 25 per cent ., being in the- inverse ratio of their comfort and well being . These : statements need no comment .

    In VVilhnhall the system of hostile competition of Itussez Jan ;; and the devil take the hindmost , has beenicarned out to its fullest . ( xtent , and hvil , JU . resuIt . Hut thin state of things is not . peculiar to England : the condition of the population of Lisle in Waiiceis equally deplorable . 11 .. h , ,, « , ( . peculiar to the locksmith ' s trade ; for I have seen an association of them m Paris , in the early days of UH existence too , when the men Avcro insuiiiuiontl y fed , and evidently suffering j , rnit privations ; yet order nidus ! iy , | and patient endurance were tlicir dnnint-uihlrmg characteristic .

    Although deeply impressed with the important advantages whi ( . , Jlk < l , t |) nc <; rmj ^ ^ wme ami extensive application of tho system of ^ . operat . vo labour , yet I would at tho h » ii . o time you " ° to l ;» <<><» H »» Kuiiio of vmy and hnmrdite HeIf T ; r l iatUt » i «« U'i » t .. HUM , co-or , rather , vntor t . < l 0 IH ;! ulenc > u - «• » thorny one , nnd those who tmu upon it muvt bo prepared to © nduro the

    alternations of fear and hope—which being deferred maketh the heart sick . Cooperation , though it cannot create work nor suppress competition , may regulate and increase production ; and as free is more productive than slave labour , so also will the produce of independent cooperatives be more profitable than that of mere hiied operatives . Already the manufactures of the Paris Associations have obtained the preference in the market ; and by an equitable division of the demand for labour , and a judicious use of the system of credit ,

    they have been enabled , to a certain extent , to insure their members against non-employment . Cooperative societies may also become an efficient mode of removing the evils attendant upon the system of apprenticeship . But the working-classes must not forget that in the factory and mining districts , the parents too often prove themselves the most cruel taskmasters . Even in one of the Paris Associations I found a boy of fourteen , prematurely earning three francs a day , under his father ' s immediate superindence .

    Although cooperation alone will never suppress pauperism ( a question not to be usefully discussed apart from that of j ) ° pulation ) , it may secure for the workman an equitable share in the produce of his own labour , and enable him to execute his work under more favourable circumstances ; and these circumstances would be materially improved by the success of the present sanitary agitation , which is essentially a People ' s movement . Finally , cooperation , by making the workman selfdependent , will also emancipate him from the sweating system of the contractors and middle men , and as the best-and most intelligent workmen and agriculturists gradually form themselves into associations , they will be enabled to free themselves and their

    descendants from their present condition of serf-like dependence . But , in my opinion , that moral improvement , which is the inevitable concomitant of ; he emancipation of labour , is the most valuable and important of the many and various results which may be anticipated from the success which I heartily desire may attend upon the Cooperative Associations . The great struggle which has been going onin France eversinoe the revolution of 1848 has been a struggle between the working and proprietary classes , or capitalists , for a more equitable division of profits . This struggle , however , has given a powerful stimulus to the cooperative , or joint-stock eocieties , and some very important alterations have taken place in the laws affecting the social position of the workman in relation to his employer .

    In all the large towns in France , whenever disputes arise between the masters anel workmen , they are referred to and decided by a council of prud ' hommes ( skilful or able persons in nn art or trade ) This council was formerly composed of masters only . In vain the Atvlier , the organ of the workmen , supported by tlie National , urged upon Government the necessity for reform . It was not until the Monarchy had crumbled to pieces from its own inherent corruption , and . Republican liberty had been proclaimed , that M . liethnionf , the Minister of Commerce under the Provisional Government , was authorized to frame a new law relative to the

    composition of this tiibuual . Under this new law , which was presented to the Constituent Assembly by his successor , M . Floeon , and passed , after being slightly moelified , the council of prud'hommes was reformed , anel it is now composed of masters and workmen , in equal numbers . ( It was only in 1718 that the abolition of hereditary jurisdictions took place in Scotland . Down to this period , a tenant who hud any dispute with a landlord , could only appeal to him , or to some one else of the same class . ) ' The election of M . 15 onaparto to the Presidency has , for a time , checked the development of these progressive social reforms , and paralyzed the action of the only practical lteforniera in France—the ltepubliean minority of the

    National Assembly—the only party which has a national policy , and one : favourable to the principles of commercial freedom . Indeed , France appears to be in danger of relapsing into a state of anarchy and confusion , resulting from the reactionary policy adopted by tbe imperialist and monarchical factions . The onl y Conservative element in tho midst of all thin violence ; and folly , is tho wonderful capacity for self-organization manifested by the labouring-classes , who an ; exposed , however , to tho incessant interference of the police . Under pretext that Liu ; cooperative associations serve only as a mask for the formation of" political societies , tins

    Government of ]\ 1 . lionapnite Iuih puiMied them with unparalleled rancour , and the working-men , unprotected b y any law of habeas corpus , have been flungV without even the form of trial , into Home one of the numerous bastille h of this new " ancien regime ; " or , if allowed the privilege of trial ( for justice him , in France , become a privilege ) , the jurymen , in the department of tho . Seine , are taken by iof . from a liat of three thousand pemons , nominated by the Government itself a kind of lottery of blanks in which tins victim has no dinner . TJhih , on tlie , M » h November , lH / i () , twenty-three members of the union of thel'uris Associations , under pretext of their having formed a ( secret political uooicty , were wcYCicly punijjhed , Una

    Avq. 2, 1851.] . ®,T)T 3bt&H$T* 723. _ _...

    Avq . 2 , 1851 . ] . ® , t ) t 3 bt & h $ t * 723 . _ _ .. _ ^ -- - _ . — — . --- ¦ " — -iriiBi mii i-- . _ ^_ _ _^_ . . ....

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 2, 1851, page 7, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_02081851/page/7/