Wages in 1873: Address read before the Social Science Association at Norwich

by Earl Thomas Brassey Brassey

Increasing production with the same number of hands.

The progressive development in the skill of our factory operatives has been clearly shown in the comparison, instituted by Messrs. Bridges and Holmes, of the tasks, now performed, with the amount of work allotted to the hands, as ascertained by the Factory Commission of 1833. Messrs. Bridges and Holmes estimate that the proportion of spindles in 1833 was 112 to each hand, while the corresponding number at the present day would be 517 spindles. The speed of the mule has been so much increased, that more stretches are now made in 10½ hours than formerly in twelve. In 1848 a female would have had only two looms, now she will attend to four. The speed of the power looms in 1833 varied between 90 and 112; it now varies between 170 and 200 picks a minute. Notwithstanding all the improvements of mechanism, the cotton-weaver of the present day is subject to a greater strain than his predecessor of forty years ago.

From a consideration of all these facts, we have reason to congratulate employers in England on the possession of a body of workmen superior to those of any other country. We may also assert, on their behalf, that in no other country of the Old World is the same solicitude displayed for the welfare of the workmen.

I observe with regret the frequently repeated manifestations of disaffection on the part of the working classes on the Continent towards their employers. Lord Brabazon, in his able report on the condition of the industrial classes in France, quotes some painful illustrations of the entire want of confidence between class and class in that distracted country, where ‘Communistic principles have done so much to alienate the affections of the workmen from their employers,’ and where a large proportion of those engaged in manufacturing industry live in a condition of wretchedness and misery, of which, I venture to hope, very few of those, who can command regular employment in this country, have any experience. At Elbœuf we are told of a certain manufacturer who, during the period of dearth, bought a large quantity of provisions, with the view of reselling them to his workmen at a low rate, but who was obliged to renounce his humane project; because the workpeople imagined it was a pretext for making money out of their misery. At Lyons, where no social distinctions keep asunder the numerous small employers from the employed, the sympathy which formerly existed between the owner of the loom and his assistants is no longer found.

When I turn from this gloomy picture to those bright recollections, the most precious portion of the heritage, which I have received from my lamented father, and call to mind the cordial relations, which he always preserved with vast multitudes of workmen, and with a large staff of agents of every grade and disposition of mind; still more, when I see among contemporary employers so many evidences of the same success in conciliating their dependents, I thank my God from the very bottom of my heart, that I was born an Englishman.

Employment of children in Belgium.

While in England we are happily doing away with the great evil of employing young children in our factories, all the Chambers of Commerce in Belgium unite in deploring the increasing moral and physical degeneracy of the working classes, owing to the premature employment of children. In the Belgian factories for spinning and weaving flax, cotton, and wool, children from ten to twelve years old are very generally admitted, and work twelve hours a day. In the Belgian coal-pits 8,000 children under fourteen years of age, of both sexes, are employed. Of children between ten and twelve 2,400 are employed, 700 above and 1,700 below ground.

In 1866, out of their total population of 4,827,000, more than one-half were unable to read or write. The necessity for the employment of children is best proved by the description given by Mr. Kennedy, of the position of the Belgian operatives at Alost and Tirmonde, where a first-class hand earns £28 a year, while the smallest sum on which a man can exist is £20 a year. Indeed, existence is only made possible by the employment of children in factories, and by the possession of a small garden in which vegetables are raised.

Employment of women in England.

In the English factories, where a larger proportion of women are employed than in the factories abroad, it has recently been proposed that the number of hours of labour should be limited by law. The proposal is supported by Messrs. Bridges and Holmes, on the ground that, by exciting a spirit of rivalry between them, women can be goaded on to over-exert themselves in a manner, which would not be observed among men. A woman, we are told, who can mind four looms without an assistant has a certain position, and becomes an object of attention. ‘Hoo’s a four-loomer; hoo’s like to be wed,’ will be commonly remarked of such an one.