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Leader (1850-1860), 19th June 1852, Edition Country of 2, Page 11, INDUSTEIAL PABALLELS :—COTTON LORDS AND ...

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      Cork Exhibition. Lobd And Lady Eglinton ...

      encourage railway enterprisein Ireland , andj referring to a deputation headied by Sir Edward M'Donald , which had had an interview-with him soon after his arrival in . Dublin , respecting the amount of interest charged by Government on loans made to railways in Irela , he stated that Government had returned a favourable reply to his representations upon the subject , and that the interest oh such loans would he reduced to four per cent ., with the option of converting them into a terminable annuity . ,

      On Friday the Viceregal party visited Queenstown ; The weather was brilliant . The scene up the river was Very animated : guns were fired , fla gs displayed , and immense gaiety everywhere . In the evening there was a ball in the banqueting pavilion ; and the next morning , having paid a farewell visit to the Exhibition , the Viceroy set out for Dublin .

      Ar01104

      Mr.-F. O. Ward On "Reciprocal Taxation,"...

      MR .-F . O . WARD ON "RECIPROCAL TAXATION , " A # I ) THE " BANkRUPTCY CHECK /* We continue the publication of Mr . Ward ' s important ' letters on the " Retail Question ; " we would particularly direct , the attention of o'ur readers to the " Industrial parallels" by which he demonstrates the financial superiority of the humbler handicrafts to those great manufabturmg enterprizes hitherto regarded as of paratjaduht importance , and as albhe requiring legislative regulation . Mr . Ward ' s comparison of " cotton lords and washerwomen / ' first as individuals ,

      and subsequently as classesj is extremely striking and instructive ; and the power ahd originality of these preliminary expositions dispose us to augur favourably of the remedial measures which this able thinker promises to develope , so soon as public opinion is sufficiently awakened to the magnitude of the evils requiring cure . His appeal to the metropolitan press for a fair decree of publicity and discussion ; is one to which we ; for our part , respond with pleasure ; and we are glad to observe so many of the London journals giving to Mr . Ward ' s opinions the prominence and consideration which they deserve .

      THE BET AIL QUESTION — " BECIPBOCAL TAXATION , " " THE BANKRUPTCY CHECK . " ( To the _ JEditor of the Morning JBEeraldJ Sib ,- —My attention has iust been called to your second leader-against the recent decision of Lord Campbell , Dr . Milman , and Mr . G-rote , in respect o the retail book trade , and against my letter on retail trade in general ; to tho influence of which letter you attribute the more " cruel" portions of the honourable arbitrators' judgment ; It is not for me to defend the able and eminent men whose " humanity , " on this occasion , you impugn ; but , on my own behalf , I am anxious once again to disclaim the visionary schemea of " weedingout tradesmen , " "

      abolishing competition , " " clearing away 50 , 000 London householders , " and " fixing the price of rill goods by statute , " which you still attribute to me , notwithstanding my reiterated disavowals . I have pointed out the ruinous extravagance of our London distributive system , and contrasted its pecuniary results with those of the moro economical arrangements in partial operation at Paris ; but I have expressly declined for the present to base any practical proposal on this comparison , well knowing that the discussion of remedies is always premature and useless , unless preceded by ample proof and general recognition of the ovils requiring cure . Should Psuccoed so far as to prepare public opinion for

      tho profitable consideration of a measure adapted to relievo us from our prosont ruinous expenditure on duplicate retail establishments , I shall p ropose , as the next subject for disr cussion , that course which seems to mo boat adapted to tho existing conditions of London trade and tradors ; You will then find mb , I believe , as little disposed as yourself for abru pt or Utopian changes , such as would require the " sudden invention of now employments for 60 , 000 supereoded tradesmen ; " and tho " visionary aspirations" you enumerate , with all their hypothetical results , will appear to havo boon loss my dreams than , your own . You will also find my abhorronCe of monopoly , and my reliance on competition to secure low prices , by no moans inferior to founded

      yours , notwithstanding my conviction , on carefully observed facts , that competition with recklessly tout * tiplied establishments invariably isauts in coalitions ( avowed or tacit ) against tho public—coalitions which , in their effec ts on price to tho consumer , aro oquivalent to monopoly ; thou'trh thoy may loavo tho trader's profits still roducod , by subdivision , to pnro subsistence point . Lot , mo add that , in Booking to mitigate thoso evils , I lcoop ospocially in viow tho interests of tho retailors themselves , of whom thousands now pasg a miserable ) existence in futilo struggles for impossible success—sinking , through tho slow tortures of gradual ruin , to final bankruptcy and dospair . No man who has pondered , m I havo , checktho cankering

      over tho horrors of tho bankruptcy — hoart-ncho long hidden beneath a smiling exterior—tho ¦ iolcnoHs of hopo deferred— tho feverish gambling lor retrieval of still accumulating lows—tho gradual approach o £ tho fatal term—and , aharpost pang of all , the long-delayed disclosure of their beggary to tho horror-stricken wito and family . —no kind-hearted man , I say , could dosiro tho continuanco ofsuab a limitation , oven wore it oflootual , to tho unduo niultiplicity of retailors : nor aro those who , m tlioir impartial solicitude- for tjlo interests of tho ' Public and tlio tr aders , advocate a roaimo at onco more mud and moro ottboUvo , justly amenable , in my opinion , to tho ohargo or " inhumanity . ' t Bovortmg , however , to tho preliminary question whothor

      or not I have exaggerated the exhaustive nature of the drain on . the public purse involved in this reciprocal taxation , I be g permission to point out , in conclusion , that the annual establishment charges of 1000 , needless shops ( at 5001 . average cost each ) would equal the amount of a os . duty on the com consumed by the whole London population ( estimating this at one quarter per head per annum ) . Or , to bring the same fact more closely home to the ratepayers' apprehension , 1000 superfluous retail shops are equivalent , in their pressure . ou our resources , to a rate of 10 ( 2 . in the pound on the entire house rental ° of tho inetropplis . , I have tho honour to be , Sir , With much consideration , Your obedient servant , F . O . Wabd .

      Industeial Paballels :—Cotton Lords And ...

      INDUSTEIAL PABALLELS : —COTTON LORDS AND WASHERWOMEN — JOINT-STOCK LEVIATHANS AND RETAIL FEY . ¦ f Po the Editor of the Morning Herald . J Sib , —I should willingly accept the character and quality of a " benevolent visionary" in such excellent company as that of Lord Campbell , Dr . Milman , and Mr . Grote , were I not really in hope to " accomplish the good" which you regard as Utopian , by mitigating the evils which you consider past relief . . My hopes , however , are more limited , and my remedies less radical , than your last able leader assumes them to be . For I hold that , in the social as in the individual body , it is possible to palliate by alterative medicines , many

      ailments for which drastic treatment would be dangerous , and absolute cure is impossible . It is one thing to point out a morbid overgrowth , whether in the system o a man or a community , —to estimate its exhaustive drain on the , econoiny , and to devise means for checking its increase ; it is quite another thing to propose its abrupt excision , or to promise , by remedial measures of any kind , its total dispersion . The same candour which has induced you to withdraw the charge of " inhumanity" will dispose you also ,: I trust / to distinguish between my cautious inductions of fa cts , and other men ' s hasty deductions therefrom ; so that the charge of " visionary speculation" may attach henceforth to the real offenders .

      But I would run the risk of far harsher denunciations than any to be expected from your courtesy for the chance of fixing public attention on the real and startling magnitude of the charges resulting from our present random multiplication of retail shops and other _ petty establishments in London : charges Unconsciously imposed on each other by overcrowded trades , and which I have therefore ventured to designate " Reciprocal Taxation " Statesmen are apt to overlook the fact that of our aggregate national resources , personal and pecuniary , the proportion' engaged in the humbler handicrafts and trades vastly exceeds the proportion embarked in our great industrial enterprises .

      Let me exemp lify this by an extreme and somewhat striking comparison . Picture to yourself , on one hand , an individual washerwoman , with her tubs , her soap , her irons , and her mangle ; and on the other hand , a Manchester cotton lord , with his colossal factory , his costly machinery , and his 1000 or 1500 operatives , it is scarcely possible to conceive a more marked and incontestable social predominance than that of the second over the first of these two individuals . But if now we change the point of view , and , instead o

      two individuals , contemplate two classes , we find ourselves constrained to reverse our estimate , and to recogniso the lowly washing-interest superior to the lordly cotton-interest , as well in tho extent of its total operations as in tho magnitudo of its collective revenues . This Bounds like a paradox , bul it is a simple fact , and one susceptible of easy demonstration . Tako for this purpose a unit o production , as , for oxamplo , a shirt , and compare the relative pecuniary importance of tho opera tions , textile and detergent , of which it is tho subject . shirt ts

      Tho manufacture of a working man ' s cos ( on an average and in round figures ) as follows : —• « . d . Cotton , at 6 a ! . per lb .. 08 Spinning . . . . , O 2 J Weaving 08 Bleaching and profit 0 1 £ Cost of material 13 Making up . . . , 0 9 Total manufacturing cost .... 2 0 Tho washing of such a shirt is performed , on an avorago , 40 times , at a cost of a ponny oach timo , which gives , as its s . d .

      Total washing cost ..... .. 3 4 or 00 per cent , moro than tho manufacturing cost . A like proportion holds between tho costhor toxtilo and dotorgont operations of which a gentleman ' s shirt is tho subject ; and tho comparison , when extended to choapor articles of attire , is , of course , still less favourablo to tho cominonly-nasumod miporiority of cotton lords to laundresses . ' Tho total washing bills of tho metropolis , at tho low avoraga of Is . per head por week ( adopted on carpiul computation by Mr . Bullar ) , amount to no loss than 5 , 000 , 000 k por annum ; a sum oxecoding by upwards of

      2 , 000 , 000 ? . tho estimated annual rovonuo drawn irom London by tho cotton manufacturers . If tho export , trade in cotton twist and calico , bo taken into tho account , bo also , to keen tho comparison fair , muBt tliq dotorgont oporations of our foreign customers ; and wo thus arrive at irrcframiblo proof that tho wash-tuba of tho world outweigh , in their aggr ogato importance , tho spinning-jennies and tho power-looms . if , thorofore , by unduo multiplication of establishments , tho apparently petty oporations of tho laundtoBB , aro r , ondorod costlier than thoy nood bo by only 10 por cont ., tho resources of tho Londoners aro moro heavily taxod than

      by 6 rise of like amount in the price of cotton—a rise which would fill all Manchester with gloom , and call forth the lamentations of the entire press . , V If , on the other hand , by any regulation of the washerwomen ' s trade , heretofore carried on utterly at random , these surplus charges could be diminished 10 per cent ., a saving of ho less than 5 OO , 0 OOZ . a jrear would be secured to the population of London . As this sum equals the produce of a tenpenny rate on the entire house rental of the metropolis ( assessed , as you a re aware , at 12 , 060 , 000 ? . p er anmun ) , every householder may reckon his share of possible economy , and his proportion of actual loss , by this single item " of what I have ventured to call " Reciprocal Taxation . "

      To the question , " How is this social disorder to ba metf" I pledge myself to reply to the best of my ability , at the risk and peril of my own reputation , if only the press will fairly aid ine in directing public attention to the fa cts on which" I rely , and in obtaining that general recognition of the evil which is essential to profitable discussion of the cure . Meanwhile , with these undeniable facts before me , I am bound to declare my opinion that our cottou manufactures and other " great commercial interests" attract a disproportionate share of attention * Cotton-spinning , for example , has been tlio subject of reiterated parliamentary inquir i es , and statute after statute has been enacted for its regulation ; but if the washerwoman ' s craft were brought

      forward with a view to similar amelioration , its aggregate superiority would certainly fail to protect it from the supercilious disregard of the legislature . Grant me space for another Industrial Parallel , which I can condense within narrower compass than the last . The great water-rate question , which has agitated the metropolis for the last haDt-century , calling forth year after year the anxious inquiries of parliament , and the elaborate disquisitions of the press j is a question of about 400 , 000 ?* per annum , that being , in round figures , the total waterrental of London . May , as there is no hope of reducing the charges of the monopolist Water companies more than half , we may consider 2 OO , O 00 Z . a year as the whole subjectmatter of our protracted water-rate contest . but to the col

      Now , 200 , 000 ? . per annum is just equal - lective amount of the surplus or saveable establishment charges imposed on the London public by the maintenance of 400 retail shops beyond the number required , whether for tho distribution of books , bread , spirits and beer , or any other commodity . If , for example , we could do away with 400 of our 5000 London gin-palaces , we should secure as large a reduction of charges as would result from the consolidation of the great monopolist water companies , and the fair adjustment of their extortionate rates . Again , the reduction of the bakers' shops in London to such a proportion with the population as iww actually obtains at Paris , would benefit us more than twice as much , in a pecuniary sense , as the downfall of the abovementioned colossal monopoly , which has survived half a century of hostile agitation .

      Let me guard myself here , however , once more , against being supposed to believe that such large reductions could be affected abruptly , or - ought to bo so effected , if they could . My present object is only to prove tho prodigious aggregate pressure of" Reciprocal Taxation" which _ we incur by our present random multiplication of establishments severally insignificant and obscure . Parliament is obviously not alivo to this fact . For , while retail trade of every description is left to sprout at random , with no other limitation than the equally painful and inadequate " bankruptcy check , " tho regulation of our relatively trivial water-rates has occupied parliamentary

      committees session after session , at a cost to tho companies ( and therefore ultimately to tho public ) of at least 1000 J . a aay . I submit it to tho impartial judgment of thoso whoso duty it is to guide public opinion , whether -the- pecuniary importanco of tho retail question , considered in tho light of tho foregoing facts , is not equal ( at least ) to . that of tho much-mooted water question . —nay , even of tho cotton manufacture itsolf ? lot but thus much bo coneedod to mo , and fairly impressed upon public opinion , and I will endoavour to show how tho pressure of this " reciprocal taxation" bei diminished for aII classes , without dotrirnont to tho legitimate interests of any . Meanwhile , I romain , Sir , with much doforonco , Your obedient servant , F . O . Watid .

      Thomas Francis Meagher. Tho Most Eloquen...

      THOMAS FRANCIS MEAGHER . Tho most eloquent of tho Irish exiles of ' 48 arrived in New York on tho 2 (> th of May . How ho escaped is rather smartly narrated in the Now York papers : — " Mr . Mcaghor had tho partial liborty of a ticket ; of loavo at tho timo of his escape , but did not violate itn condition-. It ran m follows : — ' 1 undertake not to escapo from tho colony bo long as I hold this ticket of leave . ' Having mado previous preparations for his ilight , a ( loot homo Middled in bin stable , and woll armed with pistols , ho addressed a lottor to tlio magistrate of Ross , about twenty miles distant , and a township of tho district ; out of which ho was not permitted to go . Tho place in which ho

      ro-Hidbd was tho wild bush . In this letter ho returned his ticket of leave , and said ho would remain at his houso that day till twolvo o'clock , when tho leave expired , in , order to give tlio authorities an opportunity of arrowing him , if they could . Whon tho magistralo road tho lottor ho wan astounded , and ho immediately ordered the chief of ¦ police , who happened to bo preflont , to proceed , at onoo to arrest him . The chief of police replied he would not do any Hiioh thing , as ho wan an Irishman , and that young gentleman waa an Irishman . ' ^«<< y />«* inu « t ( io * V retorted tho magistrate . ' Faith , 1 will not , ' rophocl tho Irishman ; ' I will rottign iiiHt . ' ' But 1 will not a « copt your resignation . ' ' Then if you do not , you may lot ifc alone , but I will not wrrout young Mouther . ' Tho magia-

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), June 19, 1852, page 11, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_19061852/page/11/