“And the men of labour spent their strength in daily struggling for breath to maintain the vital strength they laboured with. So living in a daily circulation of sorrow, living but to work, and working but to live, as if daily bread were the only end of a wearisome life, and a wearisome life the only occasion of daily bread.”—Daniel Defoe.
“And perfect the day shall be, when it is of all men understood that the beauty of holiness must be in labour as well as in rest. Nay! more, if it may be, in labour; in our strength rather than in our weakness; and in the choice of what we shall work for through the six days and may know to be good at their evening time, than in the choice of what we pray for on the seventh, of reward and repose. With the multitude that keep holiday we may perhaps sometimes vainly have gone up to the House of the Lord and vainly there have asked for what we fancied would be mercy; but for the few who labour as their Lord would have them, the mercy needs no seeking, and their wide home no hallowing. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow them all the days of their life, and they shall dwell in the House of the Lord for ever.”—John Ruskin.
THE clue to the approaching change in the social order is to be found in the mind of organised labour. What organised labour is resolved to achieve, that it will achieve soon or late. Hitherto we have been concerned in these pages with an enquiry, more or less speculative, into the conditions and measures required for a wholesome social evolution. How far does the present tendency of organised labour correspond with the general lines of progress which our enquiry has so far constrained us to define? It will not be necessary, in order to answer this question, to survey the whole field of labour policy. For our present purpose we may neglect on the one hand the conservative element in the labour movement, and the extreme revolutionary element on the other. This does not imply a judgment on either; it simply means that we shall reach a safer judgment upon the direction in which labour is minded to go by considering the central mass of the movement; and of this central mass it may be affirmed with some assurance that its best mind has received a more coherent and detailed interpretation in Great Britain than elsewhere. We shall, therefore, consider the general tendency of the progressive elements in the British Labour Movement. It will not be necessary to raise the question of ways and means at this point. It is a question upon which strong views are held on both sides—whether labour is to attain its goal by political or industrial action, by gradual approach or by some catastrophic method such as the general strike. But the question of method does not arise at this point; our present object is to examine so far as we may the goal which organised labour is pursuing.
I
The Trade Union movement originated in the necessity to provide some remedy for “the helplessness in which since the industrial revolution, the individual workman stood in relation to the capitalist employer and still more in relation to the joint-stock company and the national combine or trust.” In this initial stage it was governed by what Mr. Sidney Webb has called the “Doctrine of Vested Interests,” and it was chiefly concerned with securing those concessions and safe-guards which constitute the “Trade Union Conditions” to the suspension of which British Labour consented for the period of the war. These conditions affected the rate of wages, the length of working day, overtime, night work, Sunday duty, mealtimes, holidays, and included a countless multitude of details affecting processes, machines, the employment of boys and girls, the limitation of output, and other related subjects—the whole being an inconceivably intricate patchwork of concessions and advantages gained as the result of innumerable local skirmishes and negotiations. The policy at this stage may be properly described as one of “nibbling” at the enemies’ lines, of raiding his trenches as opportunity offered or need required; and it is a commonplace what large and substantial advantages these operations have yielded to the workers as a whole, whether unionists or not. But it was not possible that these piece-meal tactics should continue to be the chief weapon of a growing, highly organised movement which was gaining a kind of self-consciousness and a common mind; and gradually out of the experience of the Unions grew the “Doctrine of the Common Rule.” The main emphasis has now shifted from the local and sectional problem to that of establishing and maintaining a Standard Rate of Wages and a normal Working Day. This change is naturally marked by the appearance of a large scale strategy in place of the local and occasional tactics of the earlier stage; and the earlier type of labour leader is rapidly disappearing in favour of persons who are able to bring some gifts of statesmanship to the problems of labour. This is not to say that the earlier doctrine has been abandoned; rather it has been supplemented and overshadowed by the new orientation.
But a situation has recently arisen which will probably bring about the permanent and general supremacy of the Common Rule doctrine. The urgencies of war-production made it desirable and necessary that the achievements of the earlier unionism should be suspended; and all the intricate machinery of safeguards and restrictions was willingly laid on one side for the period of the war. But it is now evident that even with the best will in the world, this restoration, as it was originally guaranteed, has become impracticable. Events in industry have moved so rapidly that it is impossible to retrace our steps to the ante-bellum period and to pick up the lines of life where we dropped them in 1914. At first sight it would appear that this result proved that the whole achievement of the earlier union activity had been of a peculiarly fragile and slender kind. Yet, despite this circumstance, the British Trade Unions have grown considerably during the war, this growth being doubtless due to the increasing sense that only a strong corporate movement of the workers will be able to establish for them the necessary conditions of a secure and independent life, and in particular such improvements in their position, in respect of wages and other matters, as they have been able to gain during the war. It now seems likely that the outcome of the situation created by the impossibility of restoring the status quo ante, and the increase of Trade Union strength, will be the general acceptance of the Doctrine of the Common Rule and a programme based upon it; and the demand for the Restoration of Trade Union Conditions may take the form of a demand for certain general standards of life and labour. Already, it is fairly evident that the least that labour will demand will be what Mr. Sidney Webb calls “the New Industrial Charter” in which there are five articles: (i.) the prevention of unemployment; (ii.) the maintenance of standard rates of wages; (iii.) a “constitution” for factory and industry, i.e. the introduction of a measure of democratic control over the conditions of work; (iv.) no limitation of output; (v.) freedom for every worker.[[15]] The “charter” as it stands, represents a minimum demand; it certainly does not run to revolutionary excess and contemplates no organic change in the existing framework of the industrial order. With its probable economic effects we are not now concerned, but it is important to notice the emphasis which it lays upon the standing of the worker. The charter aims to give him security against unemployment, a share in the control of the conditions under which he works, and freedom from the autocratic dictation of employer or foreman, and from the coercion of necessity. Even this moderate measure would undoubtedly bring a great accession of independence to the ordinary worker. Further, this charter applies to all workers, not to unionists alone; for once the Standard Rate and the Normal Day are conceded, the old invidious necessity of making war upon non-unionists disappears; and with it, to the great good of all concerned, the demoralising custom of imposing restrictions upon output.
[15]. The whole position is discussed in its relation both to the employer and to the worker in Mr. Webb’s brochure: The Restoration of Trade Union Conditions. Since these passages were written, the increased demands here foreshadowed have been definitely made.
II
This “charter” will not be granted without a struggle. The greed and amour propre of some employers, and the stupidity of others, will interpose great obstacles to its institution. The great growing strength of organised labour, however, guarantees a comparatively early capitulation of the intransigent employers.[[16]] But it would be a mistake to suppose that this is all that is implied in the present temper of labour. A good deal of what labour is looking to has not yet reached the stage of articulation, but it is impossible to misapprehend the general direction in which it is moving. The socialist propaganda, even if it has not always been as prolific of conversions as its promoters desired, has been a singularly potent instrument of education, and if the workers as a whole have not accepted the conclusions of the socialist, it is most certain that they have been profoundly moved by his premises. Probably more than any other influence it has stimulated the spirit of revolt against a permanent division of society by a line of economic privilege; and it has encouraged a very real insurgency against the idea, so comforting to the fortunate classes, that it is the duty of all persons to be content in that station of life into which Providence has been pleased to call them. While the rich believed that their duty to their less fortunate neighbours was an affair of charity, the Socialist had taught the poor to cry for justice. The chief achievement of the Socialist movement up to this time lies less in the acceptance of its doctrines than in the new sense of right which it has succeeded in awakening, even in many to whom the very term socialism still represents a dangerous and forbidding spectre. And it is this sense of right, the refusal to accept as permanent and just a state of exploitation, with the demand for economic freedom and independence, which is working as an irresistible leaven in the mind of the worker-mass of our time; often indeed, inarticulately enough, but in the minds of the better educated and most thoughtful workers, beginning to express itself in specific requirements which far outstrip Mr. Sidney Webb’s conservative interpretation of the present need.
[16]. Since these paragraphs were written, a National Industrial Conference convened by the British Government, and composed of equal numbers of employers’ and workers’ representatives, has reported unanimously in favour of a universal minimum wage and a universal maximum week.