According to the Chief Commissioner of Labour, Colonel Carroll Wright, the "Knights of Labour" reckon 150,000 members, the American "Federation of Labour" 500,000, and the Railway Union 150,000; together, therefore, 800,000 members. Colonel Wright considers that out of 4,712,622 persons employed in manufacturing and mechanical industries, about 1,400,000, or 29.71 per cent., are in union. The voluminous returns, however, give little or no detailed information regarding those vast bodies of men, and nothing seems to be published concerning their revenues or expenditure, a strange contrast with the accurate printed returns of all our large unions, twenty-one of which (out of a total of 687) number over half a million, and have an annual income of about £1,150,000. Although it is impossible to form a correct estimate of the strength of their organisations, a man of close observation and long experience, like the Chief Commissioner of Labour at Washington, is able to judge fairly of the general condition of the labouring classes of his country, and the following remarks, communicated to the writer, may be taken as a faithful résumé : "Taking the past fourteen years up to the middle of last year, strikes have been on the increase in this country; the two most typical years as to figures are 1886 and the year ending July 1894. During the past twelve months, I think, strikes have been on the decrease. . . . Until the recent industrial depression wages have been steadily on the increase, and in the course of a year they will be back where they were two and a half years ago. Wages are higher than when Protection became the national policy. . . . The extension of the Socialistic idea has not seemed to affect wages in the least. . . . I consider, taking it all round, that the workers in America rank higher in civilisation than in the Old World. . . . Here and there you can find instances where workers in the Old World rank as high as American workers, but not taking it all round." In his estimate of the relative civilisation of workers in America and the Old World, the Commissioner is a little too general, for there is a far greater difference between the workers in different European countries than between the worst of our English workers and the best in the States. Looking, too, at the relative cost of certain items of expenditure, other than "rent and meats," we think he has considerably understated the disadvantages under which the American workman labours. His own and other returns show that, owing to competition in labour and the high price of living, it is difficult for workmen in some industries "to make both ends meet." These remarks are not prompted by mistaken patriotism, for we believe that the workman of the United States enjoys greater comforts than ours; and that before the spread of science instruction (which is not so far advanced in the States as here), he may be said to have been better educated. As a rule he is more temperate, and thereby saves money for wiser expenditure. * Perhaps the most faithful outline of the state of the labour question in the United States is the one given by Mr. Keir Hardie (ex-M.P.) on his return from that country. Of the material condition of the working classes he says: "Wages in most cases, not all, are higher in America, but it costs more to live, and whilst the standard of living is higher, there are more solid home comforts on this side of the Atlantic. . The trade union movement is not nearly so well consolidated as at home. . . . Many of the trade union leaders are party politicians. The Socialist movement as an organised force is not yet much of a power, save in New York. . . Everything points to a rapid development of the Socialist movement in the States. An ugly feeling towards the rebellion is being engendered by the growth of the great monopolists, who are driving the small employer and shopkeeper out of business, corrupting the Legislature, silencing the Press and Pulpit, and reducing the workman to a position of helpless, abject dependence." No wonder, then, that he says of the working classes in England as compared with the same class in the United States, "Strange as it may appear, there is more personal freedom." By some readers this account of the material condition and organisations of the labouring classes in various parts of the civilised world may have appeared tedious, especially as all conclusions must be based more or less upon statistics, whilst others who are deeply interested in the subject will call it superficial. But it must be remembered that when we are treating of the organisations of labour we are only dealing with a section of the working classes, and, as a very able writer pointed out, what we have to look at in this portion of our subject is "the movement all along the line of serious action and serious thought for the betterment of the condition of the masses of the people." † It is to the results of this serious action and thought that we must now turn our attention; to the establishment and constitution of boards of conciliation in labour disputes; provision of work for the unemployed and starving; amelioration of the condition of women; protection of children; co-operative distribution and production, and profitsharing, and employment of labour-saving machinery; most, if not all, of which we believe we are right in saying are births of the latter half of the present century.‡ * Labour Annual, 1896; London, "Clarion" (Ltd.). + Mr. Fletcher, former editor of the London Daily Chronicle. In order to avoid burdening our essay with too many figures, an appendix has been added, showing, as far as we are able, and subject to fluctuations, the wages, hours, and cost of living in various parts of the world at the present time. ESSAY VIII CAPITAL AND LABOUR-BOARDS OF CONCILIATION AND ARBITRATION If we revert for a few moments to the question of the organisations of labour, we find that those have naturally been materially affected of late years by similar combinations on the part of employers; also, in a lesser degree, by what are usually known as "free labour associations"-bodies of men who, for some reason or other, have been opposed to the trade unions. These associations have rarely been of long duration, and, excepting for a short period during a strike (especially where the unions have been unjust and arbitrary), they have seldom secured much support from their own class. Employers of labour have, however, not been slow to avail themselves of their help, and some of the so-called "free labour associations" have undoubtedly been started and maintained by employers as a weapon with which to fight the unions.* The associations of employers are almost, if not entirely, secret societies, in this country at least, publishing reports only for their own members. According to the last returns there were about 400 such societies, of which 93 belonged to the building trade, 79 to metal and mining, 53 clothing, and 68 to farming industries. They have undoubtedly a useful influence in regulating the conditions of labour and in moderating the action of trade unions; indeed, no one who has watched or taken part in the labour movement since the unions of the men were recognised by law will be disposed to deny that in trades where there is a good employers' association and a well-managed union of the men there the relations of the two are placed on the most satisfactory footing. From the intercourse of these two sets of associations have sprung up boards of arbitration and conciliation in various parts of the world, and it is to these that we shall now direct our attention for a brief space. France may be said * This has been proved in one or two cases where the financial statements of "free labour associations" have oozed out, when it was found that a great portion of the maintenance funds had been provided by employers, or their known advocates. to have been the cradle of this movement, for it was there that councils were first established, in 1806, under the title of Conseils des Prud'hommes. From those there has developed a great system, which spreads its branches over the whole civilised world. Although in France there is still some reluctance to refer labour disputes to arbitration, more than half were so settled in the year 1894. Still, the number of strikes there, as almost everywhere else, is far too great, and there is usually, and naturally, a considerable increase during prosperous years, when the men feel that they are entitled to a larger share in the profits of their employers. whilst in 1894 the number had fallen to 390. 634 The number of persons affected by the strikes has risen and fallen in proportion. Concerning the action of the local and central authorities in connection with these trade disputes something will be said hereafter. In Belgium, a country greatly subject to labour disputes on account of the abnormally low wages, courts of conciliation have of late been very active, the most recently established being known as "Councils of Industry and Labour." There, as elsewhere, they are composed of an equal number of employers and employed, and their intervention has often been very successful in averting or terminating strikes, and consequently saving much misery and distress. Those councils are now established in fifty different districts, and they are frequently consulted by the Government on matters in which labour is concerned. In Austria the factory inspectors act largely as arbitrators, an example which might with advantage be followed to some extent in this country, inasmuch as they are better acquainted with the relations of labour and capital than any other persons outside the unions themselves. In Germany the pacific settlement of trade disputes is making rapid progress. Great efforts have been made for many years past, chiefly by philanthropic persons residing in the manufacturing districts, to introduce voluntary boards of conciliation; but, irrespective of these, for one class of labour disputes, namely, concerning injuries to workmen, Germany possesses the most perfect and equitable system to be found anywhere. Syndicates of employers (Berufsgenossenschaften) have been established, whose duty it is to decide whether and what compensation should be made in cases of injury to men during their work. From the decision of those syndicates (which have regular paid officials) appeals lie first to a Court of First Instance, composed of an equal number of employers and employed, and finally to a court sitting in Berlin, which consisted of a president, with four assessors, two from each side. The court of final appeal has recently been transferred to the State Insurance Office. In 1889 the total claims of workmen for injuries to the person throughout Germany amounted to. Of those the employers' syndicate settled 173,106 31,439 11,225 2,010 We speak of the "then existing" highest court, because since the year named laws have been passed which have to some extent altered the constitution and methods of procedure in the courts, but the principle remains the same, and one wholesome regulation is, that the contending parties may not be represented by counsel.* In the United States a great impulse was given to the courts of conciliation by the State of Pennsylvania in the year 1879, after a special commission had been sent to Europe to study the question. In Massachusetts and New York there are boards which have the power to intervene in labour disputes, and such is the moral force which their position gives them that it is said they frequently almost compel a reference to arbitration. The sum total of the movement may, however, be best gathered from the following sentence in the communication, already referred to, from the Chief Labour Commissioner to the writer:-"Boards of conciliation and arbitration are on the increase, and their functions are increasing-very slowly, however." In Great Britain many attempts have been made to settle labour disputes by legislative enactments, but with so little effect that it is hardly necessary to mention them. On the one hand, employers as well as employed object to compulsory arbitration, whilst those who are innocent sufferers by strikes, as well as the general public, declare that until arbitration is enforced by Act of Parliament it will fail to secure industrial peace. There are at the present time three Bills before Parliament with this object, but none that is likely to be carried will have effective compulsory powers. The general and unofficial progress of the movement has been more decided. Mr. Mundella, M.P., former President of the Board of Trade, may be said to be the father of industrial arbitration in this country, for he started the first important The writer's reason for referring to the period named-1889-is because he carefully followed the proceedings and attended the courts himself. |