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Leader (1850-1860), 19th June 1852, Edition Town of 2, Page 583, Untitled Article

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      Untitled Article

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

      Qn Friday the Viceregal party visited Queenstown . The weather was brilliant . The scene up the river was very animated : guns were fired , flags displayed , and immense gaiety everywhere * In the evening there was ball in the banqueting pavilion j and the next morning , having paid a farewell visit to the Exhibition , the Viceroy set out fbr Dublin .

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      MR . T . O . WARD ON "RECIPROCAL TAXATION , " AND THE « BANKRUPTCY CHECK / 5 We continue the publication of Mr . Ward ' s important letters on the " Retail Question ] " and we wpnld particularly direct the attention of our readers to the « Industrial parallels '' by which he demonstrates the financial superiority of the humbler handicrafts to those great manufacturing enterprizes hitherto regarded as of paramount importance , and as alone requiring legislative regulation . Mr . Ward ' s comparison of " cotton lords and washerwomen , " first as individuals ,

      and subsequently as classes , is extremely striking and instructive j and the power and originality of these preliminary expositions dispose us to augur favourably of the remedial measure * which this able thinker promises to deveiope , so soon as public opinion is sufficiently awakened to the magnitude of the evils requiring cure . His appealto thei metropolitan press for a fair degree of publicity and discussion , is one to which we , for our part , respond with pleasurej 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 E . ETAIL QUESTION —» " RECIPBOCAIi TAXATION , " " THE BANKEUPTCY CHECK . " ( To the Editor of 'the Morning Herald . J Sib , —My attention has just been called to your second leader against the recent decision of Lord Campbell , Dr . Milman , and Mr . Grote , in respect of the retail book trade , and against my letter on retail trade in general ; to the 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 j but , on my own behalf , I am anxious once again to disclaim the visionary schemes of " weedingout tradesmen , " "

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

      tho profitable consideration of a measure adapted to relieyo us from our present ruinous expenditure on duplicate retail establishments , I shall propose , as the next subjeot for discussion , that course which seems to me best adapted to tho existing conditions of London trade and traders . You will then find me , I believe , as little disposed as yourself for abrupt or Utopian changes , such as would requiro tho " sudden invention of new employments for 60 , 000 superseded tradesmen ; " and the " visionary aspirations" you enumerate , with all their hypothetical results , will appear to have boon loss my dreams than your own . You will also find my abhorrence of monopoly , and my reliance on competition to secure low prices , by no moans inferior to

      voura , notwithstanding my conviction , founded on carefully observed facts , that competition with recklessly multi plied establishments invariably issues in coalitions ( avowed or tacit ) against tho public—coalitions which , vo their offoots on prioe to the consumer , are equivalent to monopoly ; though they may loavo tho trader '^ profits still red uood , by subdivision , to bare subsistence point . Lot mo add that , in socking to mitigate those evils , I Jc "op oflpeoially in view the intorosts of tho retailors thorns wolves , of whom thousands now pass ft miserable exist * oiioo in futile struggles for impossible success—sinking , throug h tho slow tortures of gradual ruin , to final bankruptcy and despair . No man who has ponderod , as I havo , ovojr the tho

      horrors of thp bankruptcy oheok— -cankering Jioarfc-acho long hidden bonljath a , smiling oxtorior—the sioknosB of hopo deferred—tho feverish gambling for retrieval of still accumulating Ions—tho gradual approach of «» o fatal term—and , sharpest pang of all , tho long-dqlayod disolotmro of thoir beggary to tho horror-stricken wife and iainily _ kiml . nea . vtod man , I say , opuld desire tho con"nuance of such a , limitation , oveuti wora it effectual ^ to tho } i « duo multiplicity of rotuilern i xutv aro those who , in thoir ' ^ partial soUcitudo for tho infcorfiste of tho public and tho tyiwoifl , udvooato a roqlnw at onco moro mild and moro oljuotivo , justly amona . blo , in my opinion , to tho ohwgo of ' inhumanity / Atovorting , howovor . to the preliminary qu « iUonwhoth « r

      or not I have exaggerated the exhaustive nature of the drain on the public purse involved in this reciprocal taxation , I beg permission to point out , in conclusion , that the annual establishment charges of 1000 needless shops ( at 600 L average cost each ) would equal the amount of a 69 , duty on the corn 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 on our resources , to a rate of lOd . in the pound on the entire house rental || of the metropolis . I have the honour to be , Sir , With much consideration , Your obedient servant , F . O . Wabd .

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      INDTJSTBIAL PAEALI . EI . S : —COTTON" LORDS AND WASHERWOMEN — JOINT-STOCK LEVIATHANS AN , J > RETAIL FBY , ¦ ( To the Editor of the Morning Serald . J Sib ,- ~ -I should willingly accept the character and quality of a " benevolent visionary" in such excellent company as that of Lord Campbell , t > r . Milman , and Mr . Grote , were I not really in hope to " accomplish the good" which you regard as Utopian , by HdtigRfcijag 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 ia impossible . It is one thing to point 6 ut a morbid overgrowth , whether in the system of a man or a community , —to estimate its exhaustive drain on the economy , and to devise means for checking its increase ; itis 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 facts , 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 bur present random multiplication of-retail shops and other petty establishments in London : charges unconsciouslyimposedon 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 exemplify this by an extreme and somewhat Btriking 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 faotory , his costly machinery , and his 1000 or 1500 operatives , ft is scarcely possible to conceive a more marked and incontestable social predominance than that of the second over the first of th / se two individuals . But if now we change the point of view , and , instead of two individuals , contemplate two classes , we find ourselves and to tho

      constrained to reverse our estimate , recognise lowly washing-interest superior to the lordly cotton-interest , as well in the extent of its total operations as in the magnitude of its collective revenues . This sounds like a paradox , bul it is a simple fact , and one susceptible of easy demonstration . Take for this purpose a unit of production , as , for example , a shirt , and compare the relative peouniary importance of tho opera ^ tions , textilo and detergent , of which it is the subject . The manufacture of a working 1 man ' s shirt costs ( on an average and in round figures ) as follows : —¦ s . d .

      Cotton , at U . per lb 0 8 Spinning . * 0 2 £ Weaving . . 0 ^ . 3 . . Bloaohing and profit 0 1 $ Cost of material . 13 Making up ..... .... 0 9 Total manufacturing ^ cost . . . . 2 0 Tho washing of such a shirt is porformod , on an avorago , 40 times , at a cost of a ponny each time , which gives , as its s . d .

      Total washing cost ....... 3 < t or 66 per cent , moro than tho manufacturing coat . A like proportion holds between the costlier toxtil p and dotorgont operations of which a gentleman ' s shirt is tho subject ; and tho comparison , when oxtondod to choapor articles of attire , is , of courso , still loss i ' avourablo to tho commonly-assumed superiority of cotton lords to laundresses . Tho total washing bills of tho motronohs , at tho low average of Is . per head por weok ( adopted on caroful computation by Mr . Bullar ) , amount to no Ions than 6 , 000 , 000 ? . per annum ; a sum exceeding by upwards Q f 2 , 000 , 000 ? . tho" estimated annual revonuo drawn irom London by the cotton manufacturers .

      If the export trado in cotton twist and calico bo takon into tho account , so alao , to koop tho comparison fair , must the dotorgent operations of our foreign customers ; and wo thus arrive ftt irrefragable proof that tho wash-tubs ot tho world outweigh , ! in thoir rfggrogatG importanoo , tho epinning-jonnfos and tho power-looms . If , therefore , by undue multiplication of establishments , the apparently petty operations of tho laundress aro iondoroa costliocr than they need ho by only 10 por oont ., tho roaourcei of tho Londoner * or « more heavily taxed than

      by a rise of like amount in the price of cotton- ^ rise which would fill all Manchester with gloom , and call forth the lamentations of the entire press . , 1 . If , on the other hand , by any regulation of the washerwomen ' s trade > heretofore carried on utterly at random , these surplus charges could be d iminished 10 per cent ra saving of no less than 500 , 0002 . a year 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 t 000000 /

      metropolis ( assessed , as you are aware , a 12 ,, . per annum ) , 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 ia this social disorder to b e met ? " 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 me in directing public attention to the facts 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 cotton manufacture * and other " great commercial interests" attract a disproportionate share of attention . Cotton-spinning , for example , has been the subject of reiterated parliamentary inquiries , 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 . Parallelwhich

      Grant me space for another Industrial , I can condense within narrower compass than the last . The great water-rate question , which has agitated th e metropolis for the last half-century , calling forth year after year the anxious-inquiries of parliament , and the elaborate disquisitions of the press , is a question of about 40 O , 0 O 0 £ . per annum , that being , in round figures , the total Waterrental of London . Nay , as there is no hope of reducing the charges of the monopolist water companies more than half , we may consider 20 O , 0 OOZ . a year as the whole subjectmatter of our protracted water-rate contest . col

      Ifow , 200 , 000 ? . por annum is but just equal to the - lective amount of the surplus or saveable establishmon t charges imposed on the London public by the maintenance of 400 retail shops beyond the number required , whether for the 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 now 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 the 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 tho equally painful and inadequate " bankruptcy check , " the regulation of our

      relatively trivial water-rates has occupied parliamentary committees session after session , at a coat to tho companies ( and therefore ultimately to the public ) of at least 1000 Z . a day . I submit it to tho impartial judgment of thoso whoso duty it is to guido public qpinion , whether tho pecuniary importance of tho retail question , considered in tho light of the foregoing facts , ia not equal ( at least ) to that of tho much-mooted water question—nay , oven of tho cotton manufacture itself ? Lot but thus much bo conceded to mo , and fairly impressed upon publio opinion , and I will endeavour to show how tho prossuro of this " reciprocal taxation" may bo diminished for all classes , without detriment to tho legitimate interests of any . Meanwhile , I remain , Sir , with much deference , Your obedient servant , F . O . Wabd .

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      THOMAS FRANCIS MKAGHER . Tho most oloquont of tho Irish exiles of ' 48 arrived in New York on tho 2 Gth of May . How ho escaped ia rather smartly narrated in tho Now York papers : — " Mr . Moag her had tho partial liborty of a ticket of loavo at the time of his escape , but did not violate its condition . It ran as follows : — ' 1 undertake not to escapo from , tho colony ao long as I hold this ticket of leave' Having made provious preparations for his flight , a floot horse sa d dled in his stable , and , well armed with pistolH , ho addressed a lottov to tho magistrate , of Itoss , about twenty miles distant , and a township of tho district out of which ho was not pormittod to fro . Tho placo in which ho

      ro-Bidod was tho wild bush . In this Icttor ho returned hifl ticket of leave , and said ho would remain- at his houso that day till twelve o ' clock , when tho loavo expired , in ordor to givo tho authorities an opportunity of arresting him , if thoy could ., Whon tho magistrate road tho letter ho was astounded , and ho immediately ordered tho chief of police , who happonod to bo prosont , to prooocd at onco to arrost him . Tho chief of polioo replied ho would not do any such thing , ua ho was an Irinluwun , and that young gtmtloman waB an Irishman . ' JJut you must do it' rotortod tho magistrate . ' Faith , I will not / repliod tho Irishman } « I will resign first . ' ' But I will not accept your resignation . ' ' Thon if you do not , you may lot id alono > but I will not arrest young Moagher . ' The magis-

      Untitled Article

      ^^ 19 , 1852 . ] THE LEAPEB . 583

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), June 19, 1852, page 583, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1940/page/11/