The Trades' Union Congress at Hull has engaged in the
discussion of some deep questions, on the most important of which we have said enough elsewhere. The address of the President, Mr. F. Maddison, which was delivered on Tuesday, was one of considerable interest ; nor do we see that he is fairly open to economic censure for exhorting the working men and women of the country "to refuse as far as possible to tender their support to any tradesmen or companies who employ underpaid labour," for difficult as it certainly is to define underpaid labour, we hold it to be clear that it is far better for the country that the price of labour should not sink below the minimum which will support life respectably, even though the class of mere paupers who come upon the State for maintenance be thereby increased, than that slop-selling wages under which men and women starve slowly should be paid for honest work. The Times says that wages inadequate to support life respectably, are at least better than no wages at all. That is just what we dispute. It is better to face the problem boldly, and know how many paupers we really have, than to starve the heart and hope out of labour by paying wages under which even the most industrious labourers cannot gain a decent subsistence.
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