THE POLITICAL CHARACTER OF THE WORKING notice, and which prove
that, notwithstanding the bad tines shut up in a box, attributing to him all sorts of evil and good To turn to the other end of the scale and come nearer home. qualities, which he shares pretty much in the same propor_ The Price's Workmen's Industrial Society, in the half-year tions ea the rest of us. When we come to turn him out into ending at Lady-day, made a profit of 112/. 5s. 8d. after the light at last, we venture to predict pretty confidently every deduction, applicable for dividend beyond the fixed that he will tarn out only white, like the rest of 1" after all. interest of 5/. per cent, on shares ; and from their report it Now that the extension of the suffrage seems likely to be_ appears that almost every member had received more in hard come again for a time the most important question in home cash from the society than he had paid to its funds, the origi- politics, and threatens to divide us once more into two camps, nal 1/. share having increased to Si. 19s. 6d. the condition of the unenfranchised classes is beginning to But industrial trading societies form only a very small excite lively controversy. It is wonderful to hear the vehe- portion of the organizations of this class. The purely provi- mence with which, since Mr. Gladstone's famous speech, dent societies and the trades societies are far more numerous. intelligent persons are maintaining contradictory propositions We will only refer to one of these, and it shall be the largest upon this subject. The working man "so-called "—we would and most powerful. The Amalgamated Society of Engineers that so good a name had not been first narrowed, and then has 242 branches in the United Kingdom, five in Australia, hacked about all over the country, and in every newspaper, one in New Zealand, four in Canada, one in Malta, and five until it goes against the grain to use it—is, according to one in the United States. Its income for 1863 was £62,380, of set of those who oppose reform, utterly unfit for the suffrage, which it spent £52,600, or more than 21,000 a week in because he is still a child with the vices of a man, requiring allowances to members out of work, and sick, and other to be thought for and looked after if he is to be kept at all strictly provident and benevolent objects. The funds in decent ; drunken, reckless, and debauched, the moment hand amount to 267,410. The yearly report of the society, a he is left to his own devices. There are certain sets volume ofupwards of 200 pages, gives the most minute details
Men like these are dangerous instruments in the hands of of facts which are the stock evidence on this side of power, and becoming more dangerous now than ever, for they the case, such as wife-beating, the amount of drink per are no longer stupid men. Armies are becoming so vast, the head consumed by the labouring classes and the like, military art so complicated, the use of science in war so visible, which are certainly difficult to get over—which indeed we have that only capable men, men of a certain elevation of intellect no wish whatever to get over, butdesire on the contrary to remain if not of character, have any chance of reaching the top. A man on this side of them, and see what they mean, and, if it may of really great brain, whose only scruples concern his military be, what is to be done about them.
honour, whose only object is army promotion, whose only But there are two sides to every shield, and a very remark- genial feeling is for " ma enfans " his soldiers, whose only able " other side " to this one, which may be profitably re- notion of politics is the judicious application of force, is as commended to the notice of those who believe in the childish- dangerous as a lighted shell, a boiler ready to burst, a mine ness and recklessness of the labouring classes. Perhaps the wanting only fuse. And when we reflect that the employ- most concise form in which we can once more call attention to ment of these men, the lighting of these fuses, is absolutely this other side will be to recur to the facts disclosed by the in the hands of a class of very inferior persons, the Kings returns of Mr. Tidd Pratt as to the co-operative societiea who rule by hereditary descent, and who by their circum- registered under the Industrial and Provident Societies Acts stances and their training are deficient in sympathy for all for the year 1862. The first of these Acts was passed in who oppose them, we tremble for the future of Europe. It 1852 by the efforts of certain gentlemen and working has men under arms sufficient to rule it, or at least to men who were promoting the establishment of as- make resistance the most awful of calamities, and at the head of sociations and co-operative stores at that time. The Act those armies are men whose principle is courage, whose law is gave certain facilities, such as the power of suing military honour, whose statesmanship is a state of siege, men and being sued in their corporate name and capacity, trained, as Gibbon once said of all armies, " at once to slavery the vesting of all property in trustees, &c., the object of and to blood." Already their opinion is making war sterner which was to give something like the same chances in trading than ever, already their individual influence with the as the Joint Stock Companies Acts had given to the other soldiers is so great that Kings defer to them and their "claims," classes of society. Trading societies of the labouring classes and they are fast becoming in the rapid decay of all other were then in their infancy. The few that had existed some dignities, the extinction of great proprietors, the dearth of years before had, with scarcely an exception but that of the great free politicians, the suppression of great literary Rochdale Pioneers, ceased to do business, or in most cases to eminences, the virtual aristocracy of Europe. The British exist. Well, looking at the report in question we must own Government is sometimes compelled to conciliate a great that it is a very awkward document for the advocates of the peer, and Napoleon, with all his power, felt that he could " child with the vices of a man" theory. We find that in the not safely remove General Pelissier from the viceroyalty of year 1862, the tenth after passing of the Act, there were Algeria. The rough soldier was loved by his army, and 332 co-operative trading societies registered under it.
Kings nowadays rule by grace of their armies' affection. These contained 90,458 members, who owned a share capital Year by year, as the Governments succeed in lengthening of 429,315, on which they had received in the year 20,401/. the service of their soldiers and separating them from the as interest. But the interest on share capital only represented
people, the number of these soldiers, not of fortune but of the a small part of the benefits derived by them from their in- barrack, increases over the Continent, and Englishmen may vestments. For beyond the fixed payment on capital, an
study the lesson. The tendency of the day is to throw all mili- aggregate net profit of 165,770 had been realized, the tary commissions into the hands of men who make the profession greater part of which had been also divided amongst the business and its rewards the hope of their lives, who are the shareholders in proportion to the amount of their in fact officers simply after the Continental type. They dealings with the societies. The cash price which the societies
make, no doubt, excellent officers ; but it may be as well to had paid for the goods consumed by them was 2,067,867/., reflect whether England does not gain something at least from which goods they had sold to members and the public for her possession of an army commanded by men who are mem- 2,331,650/. A simple su.bstraction sum, which readers may hers of Parliament as well as colonels, country gentlemen as do for themselves, will show the working expenses. We well as officers, Englishmen as well as soldiers of the camp. much question whether the middle dais, whose express function An effort to hold down England by the sword is not very is trade, could have shown for that year anythine° like the same likely in our day ; but an effort to change the army into a results in their joint-stock companies. Since 1862 there has military caste is already making, and it is the caste, and not been no full published return from the registrar, but 105 new
the army, which produces Pelissiers. societies have been registered, and we will shortly refer to
two of the latest balance-sheets which have come under our THE POLITICAL CHARACTER OF THE WORKING notice, and which prove that, notwithstanding the bad tines MAN. of 1863, the co-operative societies are holding their own. We of the diaribution of the funds and the statistics of every branch. One of the most remarkable of the tables is that showing the number and the causes of deaths of members, and the average age which they attain. We regret to see that this average is only 38 years. It must be remembered, in order to judge fairly of the powers of organization and government which these men possess, that trades societies are still for most purposes outside the law. They can only obtain a partial registration under the Friendly Societies Acts, as some of their objects are not recognized, and they do not adopt the Government tables, which are inapplicable to their case. No doubt the Amalgamated Engineers is an exceptional society, but any one who is curious enough to make the inquiry may easily satisfy himself of the hold which such societies have taken on the great mass of our skilled workmen, and of the loyalty with which they are supported, and the really mar- vellous honesty with which their affairs are conducted. If he comes to the study for the first time, we take it he will soon abandon any preconceived notion as to the improvidence and incapacity for government of the working man "so called."
"Precisely so," those will exclaim at once who oppose ex- tension of the suffrage from the other side. "We know all this well enough, and it is just this we dread. This very power of combination makes the unenfranchised dangerous. Let them in and they will strengthen their combinations, act as one man on all political questions in which they take an interest, and swamp all the rest of us." For our own part we have little fear on this score. Any one who knows the class of man, and has been present at the meetings of trades societies, where if anywhere the unani- mity so much feared would show itself most, is perfectly aware that in sober fact there is no class in which there are more strik- ing differences of opinion, or a stronger minority resolutely bent on standing on the old ways and resisting all progress. But, be the danger what it may, surely it can scarcely be weighed against that of deliberately closing the door against the people who are giving these proofs of their fitness for admis- sion. Besides, the real question is not what is safe, but what is just, and we are of those who believe that that which is just can never be unsafe.
Our great strength in England is that we have a represen- tative Parliament, and therefore a representative Government. If that strength is to last we must find before long some means of getting a bond fide representation of the great and rapidly increasing body of intelligent men who live by weekly wages, and are the founders and supporters of such societies as those to which we have referred. That they are not repre- sented at present, however much they may be flattered and patronized, must be clear to any one who reads the debates which touch any questions in which—to use a common and expressive phrase—the rights of labour and capital are opposed. We only wish that the upper and middle classes were getting over their prejudices as rapidly as the unrepresented classes are shaking off theirs. The experience of the last dozen years has taught these latter much as to the difficulties and temptations of the manu- facturers and masters for whom they work, and the tradesmen from whom they buy, for they have become in some sort masters and capitalists themselves. • Let us then by all means consider well how the thin,'a may best be done but make up our minds that it has to be done, and that quickly. It would be well, indeed, if we could get a little out of the old groove, drop the eternal wrangle between eight-pounders, ten- pounders, and four-pounders, which can never end in any- thing but blunders, and see whether a reasonable way cannot be found to give the working man "so called" his fair share, and only his fair share, in the Legislature. The sheaves have been well threshed by Mr. Mill, Mr. Hare, and others, and we would fain see Mr. Gladstone gathering up the corn. Meantime, we would commend one distinguishing charac- teristic of the working man "so called" to his brethren of the middle and upper classes. He is before all things hopeful, and has a hearty trust in a better future, which faith is in itself a tower of strength. At the co-operative festival in the Free-trade Hall the other day 2,000 co-operators sang— "Then stand by each other,
And each help his brother, In hastening the bright coming day; Wise Co-operation Will better the nation, And where there's a will there's a way."
We have not a word to say for the poetry, but the temper and habit of mind which such songs indicate are amongst the best Signs of the times, and we should be very glad to see them Spreading upwards.
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