ACT AGAINST COMBINATIONS AMONG WORKMEN.
In a former session, Mr. Hume had obtained the passing of an act repealing both the statute and common law concerning combinations among workmen. This act was attended with mischievous effects; and therefore, during this session, Mr. Huskisson called the attention of the house to the subject. In his speech he detailed some painful reports regarding it which had been forwarded to the secretary of the home department: reports which went to show that the most atrocious acts of outrage and violence had been committed by workmen on their employers. Misconceiving the real object of the legislature in the late act, they had, he said, manifested a disposition against the masters, and a tendency to proceedings destructive of the property and business of the latter. This disposition, if it remained unchecked, he asserted, would produce the greatest mischiefs in the country; and the evil was growing to so alarming a pitch in some districts that if not speedily arrested, it would soon become a subject for Mr. Peel to deal with in the exercise of his official functions. As a general principle, he admitted that every man had a right to carry his own labour to the best market, as labour was the poor man’s capital. On the other hand, he contended for the perfect freedom of those who gave employment to them; whose property, machinery, and capital ought to be protected. Mr. Huskisson entered into details to show the nature of the system which was acted upon in several quarters. Associations were formed, he said, which, if persevered in and prosecuted successfully, must terminate in the ruin of the very men who were parties to them. The associations had their delegates, their presidents, their committees of management, and every other sort of functionary comprised in the plan of a government. By one article in a set of regulations it was provided, he remarked, “that the delegates from all the different works should assemble at one and the same place,” on certain occasions; so that it was not the combination of all the workmen of one employer against him, or even of one whole trade against the masters, but systematic union of the workmen of many different trades, and a delegation from each of them to one central meeting. Thus there was established as against the employers a formal system of delegation, a kind of federal republic, all the trades being represented by delegates, who formed a sort of congress. Another regulation which Mr. Huskisson noticed was to this effect:—“Each delegate shall be paid out of his own work with, these exceptions only—the president, the secretary, and the treasurer are to be paid out of the general funds.” The delegates are elected for six months, and may be re-elected. Here he remarked was a tax levied upon each workman for the maintenance of general funds applicable to purposes of a most mischievous character. Other articles declared that it was the duty of the delegates to point out the masters disliked, and to warn such masters of the danger in which they were placed in consequence of this combination. Here, Mr. Huskisson rightly observed, was an acknowledgment of the dangerous nature of these associations. But, he asked, what followed? Why another duty of the delegates was to try everything which prudence might dictate to put the disliked masters out of the trade: not everything which fairness and justice might dictate to workmen who sought to to obtain a redress of grievances, but everything which “prudence” might dictate. In such a position, “prudence” must be understood as implying that degree of precaution that might prevent the “Union” from being brought within a breach of the law, such as the crime of murder. Was it, he asked, fit, right, or reasonable that persons engaged in commercial or other pursuits should, by combinations thus organized, be kept in constant anxiety and terror about their interest and their property. After noticing other regulations of this class of associations, Mr. Huskisson went on to show that others were governed by regulations, if possible, more extraordinary. One of these regulations was, that no man coming into any given district or county within the control assumed by the associating parties, should be allowed to work without previously paying five pounds sterling, to be applied to the funds of the association. In a similar spirit, another regulation set forth, that any child being permitted to assist, should at ten years old be reckoned a quarter of a man, and pay a proportionate sum accordingly. It was also provided that any man being called in by any collier to his assistance should not be at liberty to work, unless previously adopted, like the collier, by the society, and unless, like him, he should previously pay his five pounds. Mr. Huskisson rightly asked whether this amercement of five pounds, and this subscription of one shilling a week to the funds of the association, which every member was called upon to pay and contribute, would not produce to each of the parties, if placed in a saving-bank, far more beneficial and advantageous results? and whether there were not, among these combinations, men anxious for the enjoyment of the power and distinction which they considered the attainment of certain posts would confer upon them? With reference to Mr. Hume’s act, he declared that when he looked at the way in which it was worded, and the artful misconstruction that might be put upon it by those who best knew how to mislead and deceive the men who had engaged in these combinations, he was not surprised that the associators should consider themselves to be warranted in their proceedings under that act. It repealed all former statutes, and then enacted that no proceedings at common law should be had by reason of any combinations or conspiracies of workmen formerly punishable under those repealed statutes. Without imputing to the framers of the bill the slightest idea that any misapprehensions could be entertained of its enactments, he did not doubt that a great portion of the associated and combined workmen in the country did actually believe, that so far from violating the law, its second section proved that they were only pursuing a course strictly conformable to the legislature. It declared that “journeymen, workmen, and other persons who shall hereafter enter into any combination to obtain higher rates of wages, &c., or to regulate the mode of carrying on any manufacture, trade, or business, or the management thereof, shall not be subject or liable to any indictment or prosecution for a criminal conspiracy or combination, or to any other proceeding or punishment whatever, or under the common statute law.” “Would not,” Mr. Huskisson asked, “any person, on reading this sentence, suppose it was something fit and commendable for workmen to conspire together to regulate and control the management of any manufacture?” In conclusion, he said, that under this act, the plotting together for the destruction of machinery, and even threatening life or property were no longer any criminal offence; and that he considered the existing law was not adequate to put down an evil which was increasing to a formidable extent: not the evil of committing the offences to which the act adverted, but the evil of workmen being permitted to plot, and the bold, open avowal of carrying such permission into effect. He moved for the appointment of a committee to inquire into the effects of this act, and to report their opinion how far it might be necessary to repeal or amend it. This motion was agreed to, and the committee, after a laborious investigation, made a report, in which they recommended the repeal of Mr. Hume’s bill; the effect of which would be to restore the operation of those laws which were suspended by the second and third clauses of that act. But while recommending that the common law should be restored, the committee expressed an opinion that an exception should be made to its operation in favour of meetings and consultations amongst either masters or workmen, the object of which was peaceably to consult upon the rate of wages to be either given or, received, and to agree to co-operate with each other in endeavouring to raise it or lower it, or to settle the hours of labour; an exception which, while it gave to those in the different classes of masters and workmen ample means of maintaining their respective interests, would not afford any support to the assumption of power or dictation in either party to the prejudice of the other. But in recommending that liberty of associating and co-operating together, so far as wages or labour were concerned, should be preserved alike to masters and workmen, the committee deemed it requisite to propose that the resolution of any such association should be allowed to bind only parties actually present on personally consenting; all combination beyond this should be at the risk of the parties, and open to the animadversion of the common law, and should be dealt with according to the circumstances of each case. The committee further proposed that every precaution should be taken to ensure a safe and free option to those who were not inclined to take part in such associations. The language of the report on this subject is emphatic. “The most effectual security,” it says, “should be taken that legislative enactment can afford, that, in becoming parties to any association, or subject to their authority, individuals should be left to act under the impulse of their own free will alone; and that those who wish to abstain from them, should be enabled to do so, and continue their service, or engage their industry, on whatever terms, or with whatever master, they may choose, in perfect security against molestation, insult, or personal clanger of what kind soever.” The punishment of offences of the nature alluded to recommended by the committee, was, in case of conviction, six months’ imprisonment, with or without hard labour, according to the circumstances of the case. A bill founded on this report was brought into the commons, and after considerable discussion, was passed into a law. In the committee several of its clauses were resisted, and especially that which made it penal to induce any man to leave his work by threat, or intimidation, or by molesting, or in any way obstructing him. This was said by Mr. Hume to be too vague, as what one man might consider an obstruction, another might not; and by Mr. Mansfield, as being deprecated by the workmen. In reply, Mr. Huskisson said, that he had no intention of acting harshly towards the operative mechanics: the object of the bill was to protect the weak against the strong; to afford to the man who chose to give his labour for a certain value that protection against the combination of large bodies to which every man was entitled. Upon a division the clause objected to was carried by a large majority; the members rightly conceiving that man is free to act upon his own responsibility, and that he should not suffer from the control of others. If a man chooses to give his labour for a certain rate of wages he should be at liberty to do so without intimidation or molestation. And he is the more entitled to act thus independently of his fellow-workmen’s interference, because no man will throw away his labour. Self-interest is, in fact, the best protection from oppression. A skilful mechanic with a good character can always obtain the true value of his labour without the aid of his fellow-operatives. He can act as a man; can ask, and obtain his just wages.