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

by Earl Thomas Brassey Brassey

WAGES IN 1873.

Rise in Wages.

In the following Address I shall devote myself to the task of reviewing, I hope in an impartial spirit, the most recent phases of the labour movement. The great advance of wages is a conspicuous feature of modern English industry, and is obviously due to the rapid growth of the general trade of the country. The long depression following on the panic of 1866 has been succeeded by a period of unprecedented activity in every branch of our export trade. The demands upon the labour-market have far exceeded the supply; and the artisan and labourer have not been slow to take advantage of a situation which afforded to them a brilliant opportunity. Between 1866 and 1869 the value of the exports of the produce and manufactures of the United Kingdom had remained stationary; while it rose from £190,000,000 in 1869, to £256,257,000 in 1872. Such a leap was not possible without imposing a strain upon the powers of our labouring population, which must inevitably have led to a material alteration in the rate of wages.

Not attributable to strikes.

It is too often alleged that the recent advance of wages is attributable to a series of successful strikes. I maintain, on the contrary, that a strike against a falling market is never successful, and that Trades Unions, as an organisation for the purpose of raising wages, can never do more than assist the workman to obtain an advance at a somewhat earlier date than that at which the competition among employers would have brought about the same result. I may quote the unfortunate strike in South Wales, at the commencement of this year, as a signal instance of the inability of Trades Unions to cope with the superior resources of employers when firmly united together.

The recent strike in South Wales.

It may be worth while briefly to recapitulate the most important incidents of the South Wales strike. In June 1872, the miners had proposed to apply for an advance of 20 per cent. on their wages. They were, however, advised by the executive council of their Union to limit their demand to an advance of 10 per cent. The advance was granted, and three months later the men asked for an additional 10 per cent. Their application was refused, and shortly afterwards the masters gave notice of a 10 per cent. reduction. The men thereupon desired that their case should be referred to arbitration. This request was refused by the masters, who were so fully convinced of the strength of their own case, that they offered to submit their books for the inspection of the workmen. The miners were unwilling to avail themselves of this offer; and, encouraged by large promises of support from Mr. Halliday and Mr. Pickard, they went out on strike.

Without venturing to apportion to either of the contending interests their share of responsibility, it is clear that the ironmasters were alone in a position to know whether their business was sufficiently remunerative to make it possible to dispense with a reduction of wages; and it was stated by Mr. Crawshay that he had taken a contract for 2,000 tons of rails at £9. 2s. 5d. per ton nett, and that he lost money by selling rails at that price. Mr. Crawshay expressed an opinion, founded on the statements made by his workmen in daily interviews, that, but for the interference of the Union, they would have been satisfied with the explanations which he had given them, and returned to their work. In short, it became a point of honour with the masters to prove to their workmen that they were able, when acting in concert, to fight a successful campaign against the united forces of the Miners’ Union.

The miners, on the other hand, were in the embarrassing position in which workmen are always placed whenever they are engaged in similar disputes. They had to struggle in the dark, and had no means of correctly estimating the profits of their employers. The responsibility of the Executive Council of the Miners’ Union, during the labour crisis in South Wales, was immense. Although the miners connected with the Union were only 10,000 in number, by their cessation of labour 50,000 of their fellow-workmen, engaged in various branches of the iron trade, were kept out of work. The ‘strike pay’ distributed by the Colliers’ Union amounted to a total of £40,000, a sum quite insignificant, by comparison with the amount of £800,000, which the men would have earned, had they continued at work; and yet the burden of sustaining a vast population proved eventually insupportable. In point of fact, the men were only enabled to continue the struggle by the assistance of the tradesmen of the district; and when, at length, the latter found themselves unable to continue the supply of the necessaries of life on credit, surrender was inevitable.

The reaction against the International Society among the working classes in Belgium originated in a similar cause. In 1871, during the strike in Flanders, the International was unable to fulfil its promises of support, and it has consequently lost credit with the operatives, many of whom, as we are informed by Mr. Kennedy, have withdrawn from the Society. It was the same with the miners at Waldenburg, in Silesia, where 6,000 men went out on strike. After all their savings had been exhausted, they received a grandiloquent despatch from the Central Council at Berlin, urging them to emigrate en masse. A few obeyed the advice. The majority who remained were compelled to surrender, being consoled by the assurance that the most valiant armies must sometimes yield to superior numbers, and that they had won for themselves the admiration of Germany.