RATIONALE OF THE BUILDERS' URDU.
IT is impossible not to feel some sympathy for working men struggling with capitalists. The man who gives actual and manual labour will always be popular compared with the moneyed man or the man who, like the Railway King, got rich by cun- ning. We share this prejudice, and it is, therefore, with no ill- will to the building operatives of London that we question the justice and doubt the policy of the strike that is to commence today.
Strikes are like wars—some just and necessary, others wanton and unjust. There are fanatics who say that all wars are wicked —and there are masters and masters' partisans who with equal absurdity say that all strikes are wrong. Some strikes are the equitable and necessary means of compelling stingy employers to give a fair day's wages for a fair day's work. What a fair day's wages is can only be ascertained by the result of the strike. If the masters yield, and giving the new wages, continue their works, it is a proof that they had been making an excessive profit out of the labour of their men. lithe master says he cannot afford to give the increased wages, and shuts up his works rather than give them, it is almost a proof that he has made an honest decla- ration. It will be asked, are there no means but a strike of finding out what are fair wages: must this cruel experiment be always used ? Is there no way but war to solve international quarrels ? There is " arbitration: " one answer suits both ques- tions. We have heard of a case in the north of England where a master, pressed for higher wages, opened his accounts ta an arbi- trator nominated jointly by himself and the men, and the ar- bitrator having decided that higher wages could not reasonably be given the men returned to their work. It is not, unfortunately, every master, nor every body of men, who will or can act thus : but the National Association of United Trades in declaring that they have no 'connexion with the associated building operatives who have dictited the present strike, say that by consultation and amicable arbitration they have prevented many strikes.
It is in itself a condemnation of the builders present strike that this Society of the United Trades of the kingdom does not approve
of it. If-the builders were striving to obtain- any fiir boon fir working men, all the operatives of the kingdom would support them ; or if it were a defensive strike, a strike resisting any new act of oppression, the fellow-feeling of the workmen of all crafts would doubtless be with them. But the builders, wishing to obtain a full day's wages for a partial day's work, are weak in the reasons they put forth and are wrong in the means they use. They say that they wish to create employment for the men out of work—but this is an intolerable absurdity. There must be always men out of employment at some time or another in every craft ; it depends on seasons, or on the folly of people who over,- crowd some popular branches of handicraft ; and the only thing to prevent such overcrowding is the occasional sight of surplus hands who have no work to do. But if by any conspiracy it could be managed that there should be no building operatives ever out of work, all the lazy hands of the kingdom would join the build.- ing trade : it would be the finest calling in the world. The attempt is, of course, impracticable ; such a millenium for any class of men is not to be realized—and we think very poorly of the wit or honesty of the building operatives inputting forth such an excuse for their strike. We think., in the second place, that the operatives are wrong in the means they use. They have made no general demand on the masters ; but they select the Messrs. Trollopes, and supported by the funds of the society, the comparatively few workmen in that establishment strike work. While out of work these men would be supported by the contri- butions of the men still working ten hours at the other building- shops, and the Trollopes would thus fall single victims to the banded operatives. To meet this localized war, the masters, knowing that if the Trollopes are conquered, the other firms will be defeated in succession, have declared general war against all operatives connected with the society, (that is, against two-thirds of the operatives in the trade,) and insist on a promise against all connexion with the society from all their men as a condition of future employment. The men refuse the promise, and the great body of builders close their works today—throwing, it is thought, 30,000 men out of work. The masters are condemned for making the war general, but we can hardly see how they could help it. Otherwise they would be beaten in detail. The result will shoe which is wrong. It is not a question of moral right or wrong ; it is a question of the amount of wages, and that amount cannot be fixed by any other than the ordinary laws of supply and demand. The operatives in striking are only putting these laws into action when in a systematic manner they restrict the supply of labourers. The masters in retaliation cut off the demand, and time will tell which is right. If the men can get work elsewhere, or can sup- port themselves without work until the masters .yield, they are right. If the masters do not yield, and prefer to grve up the trade rather than give wages, which would, make the business un- profitable, they show that they were right to refuse the concession.
But is it not sad that there should be so much misery and vice and sin as are sere to follow the strike—wives and children starving, honest hard-working fellows degraded by idleness and drinking, and noisy schemers making a harvest out of the hard-won savings of needy men ? It is a sad thing—as sad as the slaughter at Solferino when a few words could have ar- ranged a peace. We do not, however, see a remedy in the aboli- tion of strikes, but in the wisdom and moderation alike of the working men and their employers, in the encouragement of arbi- tration ; but above all in the spread of true knowledge of the laws that regulate wages, and the emancipation, of the mass of the workmen from that slavery to demagogues to which they are so prone.
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