THE DREAMS OF WORKING MEN.
GIVEN a social state and economic arrangements in which, for the mass of men who work with their hands, every- thing is not for the best in the best possible of worlds—how change that state and those arrangements so as to render more tolerable the conditions of the working man's life ? This great problem is one with which in every form all classes in this country and America are now pretty familiar,—which philanthropists and politicians, and working men themselves, are busily trying to solve in a thousand different ways. It is one also, we may say, in which the drift of preponderating influences entirely favours the majority. If institutions are against their welfare, the set of political ideas tends to give them the power to alter institutions when alterations promise a balance of advantage. We refer not merely to democratic notions on the suffrage, but to the concurrence of manifold agencies in spreading education, by which the privilege of voting may become a real power. But more than anything else the economic conditions of life at the present day tend to improve the lot of the masses. The inventions which mul- tiply productive power and increase wealth create a situa- tion in which the labourer must receive the greatest propor- tionate benefit. By making less and less arduous the bare struggle for existence which the race maintains they produce an ever increasing fund for the employment of labour, and for more intelligence in the labour, since human skill alone can gratify the wants of taste and luxury. And as intelligence is naturally limited and the competition keen, and the demand is for ever higher degrees of intelligence, the tendency is to give the command of the market to the labourer. The whole class rises, as larger and larger sections come under the influ- ence of this keen competition, while the inventions themselves tend to diminish the proportion of work which ignorant labour can accomplish. Thus as wealth increases, the pro- portion to be given to workers increases still faster—the cir- cumstances render almost inconceivable the continuance of a very poor proletariat, unless we suppose that the holders of wealth, having tastes to gratify and possessing the ordinary impatience of humanity to gratify them, pre- fer of set purpose to go without enjoyment rather than compete for the necessary labour. The only fact which 1 makes against this statement of the position is the progressive increase of population ; but, in point of fact, population even in England increases more slowly than wealth, and we think must do so, whatever the rate of increase, while actual men and women are needed to create and reproduce the wealth itself. Such being the circumstances, working men need have no internecine quarrel with the social state and its economic arrangements. Provided only they pursue the redress of distinct grievances, and take care not to destroy, they have the game in their own hands. In a society based on unlimited compe- tition they have much more than a chance. Co-operation, and State education, and better sanitary laws, and amendments in the laws of succession to property, and more effective State management of monopolies, and the stimulus of public opinion against war, are all important ends to aim at ; but the "stars in their courses" are now fighting for workers, and the fact should be recognized when they look abroad and estimate their prospects.
If the truth lies in this account of the Matter, we should attach less consequence to the dreams which the working men were dreaming last week in their Congress at Brussels ; their vague ideas of what is wrong in their case, their impracticable notions of what would be improvement, and their no-measures to attain the improvement of which they dream. We are dis- posed to think the whole proceedings very harmless indeed. It is true enough, no doubt, that all concerned should watch, what is simmering in working men's minds ; but we must also believe that practice is different from theory, and that, in spite of themselves, when it comes to practice, the facts will drag the working men another way than they dream, unless they continue very blind indeed. We must not shut our eyes to the truth that they are only beginners in an intricate debate, that their errors are so vague as to lead to no action, that before action comes, they are likely to have more light. In any case they cannot but feel many advantages in the pre- sent circumstances,—and this actually cropped up in the de- bate about machinery, which is one of their stock topics of complaint,—and as these advantages will increase with the progress of time, they will be less and less likely to throw them away for a mere Utopia, even if any practical proposition to carry out their dreams is ever submitted. Take the most formidable proposition of any, which was only assented to, by the way, by a majority of the Congress—that quarries, mines, and railways ought to belong to the community as represented by the State, but the "State regenerated, and itself submitted to the law of justice ;" that the economic evolution of society will make it necessary to subject agricultural property to the same rule ; and that quarries, mines, railways, and land should be worked by concessions, not to companies of capitalists, but companies of workmen. It is clear, at first sight, that those who talk thus, and they indeed expressly say so, do not contemplate immediate action ; but what if they did under any practical conditions ? The careful handling of agricultural property may show that even the dreamers do not all think of confisca- tion, but if confiscation is discarded there is nothing alarming in the proposal ; the whole community may discuss its expediency ; and the collective ownership of railways at least is within the pale of practical schemes. Even if confiscation is not discarded in this dream, people may be reassured about it by the tendency of things to make workmen holders of pro- perty; the proportion of good things held by those who do not work at all is perpetually diminishing, and thus every year makes the sheer confiscation of property less and less likely. Those who are not absolutely idle will have less to gain, and their own condition will tempt them less to violence. If we come at length to a Socialistic organization it will be from other motives than the mere desire to appropriate individual possessions. How little the proposition has been thought out is shown in the idea that concessions for working the mines and land are to be given not to capitalists, but to
workers. It is as certain as two and two are four that the workmen who get a concession must to some extent be capitalists or command capital, or they could not work a day, and the want will come out when a practical
scheme is thought. of. The other propositions were of a similarly harmless, inconsequential description. Denouncing
the injuries of machinery to workmen, the members of Congress could not propose to stop the invention or making of machines. They did not admit that machinery benefited
themselves most, though some admitted that it benefited them a little, but they could suggest nothing more than a vague resolution to get the control of the genii into their own hands. In the same way, educational reformers who profess themselves
at war with Governments could propose nothing practical of any sort to extend and improve the education of their class except "public libraries and lectures," which they are to get in some mysterious way. Strangest of all, beholding the marvels of "credit," they dream of establishing mutual-credit institutions, of "abolishing credit," and producing "immediate exchanges" between producers and consumers—as if any such institutions, how cleverly so-ever devised, could dispense with the assistance of capital—the means left from yesterday to sup- port those who produce to-day. It is rather amusing to see the workmen taken in by the currency delusion, but it is a peculiarly harmless one ; there is nothing to hinder the establishment to-morrow of any number of " mutual-credit " institutions, were it not that mutual credit, where no one has any capital, or far too little for the purpose, is a thing which could never get floated at all. We do not except from our assertion of harmlessness the proposal to strike against war. If the great majority of workmen of two countries are really opposed to a war it is not likely to come to much ; and if they are not all opposed, the strike of a minority will be as power- less as Mrs. Partington's mop against the Atlantic tide. If the idleness of a large minority again were likely to hamper military operations, governments, as yet, would be unregenerate enough to dragoon the unpatriotic citizens into work. Workmen must know in their hearts that strikes before or after the commence- ment of a war will not compensate the want of that political influence which is the real thing to seek after. When they get it, it remains to be proved that they too will not have their disputes and wars.
But if harmless in one sense, as not heralds of a revolution which their shadow seems to portend, the dreams of working men are mischievous enough if too much indulged in. They are so much subtracted from the energy of waking life which might be devoted to better things. Thus, instead of protesting against war, they might engage zealously in winning political power, that is, practical influence under the existing forms of government. Instead of vapouring about collective property and devising new credit institutions, they might. do much to put capital into better hands by promoting the amend- ment of the laws of succession, and to give themselves capital by means of savings' banks, friendly societies, and co-operative institutions. Things are tending that way, and they produce some improvement, if they do not give that ideal perfection which is unattainable. Instead of denouncing machinery or doubting its benefits, they might devise schemes to draft off to other places and employments the workmen whom new machines displace, schemes in which we are sure capitalists would not be sorry to help them. In the present circumstances of the world, emigration holds out a boundless field for dis- placed labour, and an emigration fund could effect systemati- cally what is already done partially and feebly. It would pay far better than strikes. Instead of dreaming about education in an ideal State, they could lend a hand to many active efforts by which education is being extended at once. All this, no doubt, would amount to an admission that the principles of existing society are not radically noxious ; and the notion plainly is that everything is wrong, and that a revolution is needed. The State and its institutions are all against them, and they must be overthrown ; they can hardly endure even the name of the State. They have a vague notion, too, that the capitalists, meaning by the word those who hold capital and are not themselves workers, are sucking the blood of labourers, filching away all the profits, and living in plenty by the workman's sweat. All this is very pitiful, at a time when they are weighing more in the State every day, and when capitalists who are not workers are also dwindling in comparison. They only delay their own improvement by neglecting the facts, though we do not suppose the truth can long be hid from them. A little more investigation of the machinery of society, assisted by a few practical tests, will soon reveal at least the smallness of the share of production which the idle holders of capital secure as profits or interest. They ought not to confound, though it is natural they should, the evils of imperfect distribution, which is capable of being amended, with those inherent in the system itself.
There was only one thing which the Congress really did of a practical kind, and that was to forward the arrangements for Strikes. To combine and strike is the one instrument which workmen have been able to wield to secure better terms for themselves. And the instrument is so powerful that it may help them to accomplish too much. It has not been without its uses during the lingering prevalence of ideas about the absolute right of employers to dictate the arrangements of working, but neither is it for Unions wholly to prescribe the terms. Such as it is, the only practical effort of the Congress. is the suggestion of English workmen, and it is noticeable that they appear to have possessed all the practical sense of the gathering. It was they who led the opposition to the con- demnation of machinery. They even saw through the credit delusion, and although the proposal by one of them of a State- bank to swallow up all others was extravagant enough—the- State to make a profit of forty millions by the business, after- compensating the present bankers, we suppose—and although, too, if practicable, it would do workmen little good, it was- yet a proposal conceivable on present methods, and which might be put into a projet de loi or Act of Parliament. The same practical mind was shown in the willingness to work with the State as at presenf, and not merely wait for an ideal State in the matter of education. The English workmen have evidently gained by the insular habit of business and the freedom of the political atmosphere. They do not think of - existing arrangements in so purely hostile a spirit as their Continental associates. If Continental demagogues would only learn, the Congress would not be without its advantages. Whether they do so or not, the attitude of the English work- men is some assurance of the safety of England at least from Socialistic storms. If the delegates who unite with Con- tinental democracy are so guarded and practical, and so - respectful of existing arrangements, the feeling which guides them, we may feel sure, is stronger and freer from admixture. among the large sections of workmen whom they could not- pretend to represent.
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