Then in Chapter III. it deals with artificers in the various trades, carpenters, masons, tilers, plasterers and the servers or attendants. In Chapter IV., with shoemakers, tailors, saddlers, tanners, curriers, goldsmiths and others, all of whom were associated with the respective guilds of their several trades. Statutory enactments rapidly followed, and there was a great conflict of authority. In many places the guilds were all-powerful. In some the officials of the empire were members of the guilds and sympathized with or openly aided them. But though often, slowly, yet none the less surely, the statute law constantly prevailed. As a matter of pacification and compromise, the very ordinances used in the guilds were often enacted as the statute law of the land. The effect of the Reformation and the destruction of the monasteries and other religious orders which for centuries had been the channels for distributing the charities and beneficiaries of the wealthy, among the poor and destitute referred to above, rendered it necessary to enact the poor law, or a parish system of relief for the suffering. Hitherto vast sums had been left for public charities and private alms-giving with these ecclesiastic houses and monasteries and the guilds themselves. But with monasteries and religious orders destroyed and the guilds shorn of all legal power to enforce their ordinances by the higher powers of the Empire enacting statutory laws for the government of all the people, these legacies and gifts for the poor and needy sought other channels for distribution. The effects of statutory law were most obvious, not only in the reduction of wages, but also in the limitations and conditions affixed to almost every possible calling, and from the fact that the different craftsmen seldom had any representatives in Parliament to advance their particular craft interests. The military, the priesthood, the wealthy land owners and the capitalists, were ably and fully represented, but a laborer, or craftsman, was seldom found in Parliament, and when there had little or no influence in shaping legislation. The efforts of the craftsmen under the guilds system was always a struggle with some other trade or craft, or some 'Supra, by Howell, p. 16. class of employer, and the issue was settled in their own guild, and by the officials they had elected, or by the inhabitants of their own township. But now they were against the parliamentary acts of the Empire. What was formerly only a local question had now become a national one. The statutes that had been enacted were the laws of the realm and must be obeyed. To disobey them was to oppose constitutional authority. The craftsmen had but one recourse left, and that was a general combination to upset the statute laws or nullify their effects. But such combinations soon. became a conspiracy, then sedition, then treason. Every door led to certain death. There were many brave men who would cheerfully have given life itself to maintain the right of free association and mutual protection and support. But the opportunity had passed. The wealth and intelligence of the age had combined in support of the parliamentary enact ments. Wages, in defiance of all laws of demand and supply, were arbitrarily fixed by law. No man could accept more than the amount fixed by the statute for his trade or calling, or by the justices, even when tendered him. And no employer could lawfully offer more than the amount fixed by law for the particular labor he desired, no matter how great his necessities or his ability to pay. Chapter X. of Edward III. (1360-1) empowered the sheriff to pursue and seize craftsmen who absent themselves out of their service into another town or country, and to outlaw them if not found. If outlawed and found he was to be imprisoned until he would do as the law required and had made satisfaction to his employer, and for the falsity, to be branded with an iron in the shape of the letter F in the forehead, signifying "Falsity." No wages were allowed for the very numerous festival days of that era, and all alliances and combines of masons and carpenters were declared null and void, and each of such artificers was compelled to serve his master and to do every work that to him pertaineth.' THE ELIZABETH REIGN. The reign of Queen Elizabeth marked another era in the history of labor. A code of all existing laws in reference to 1 Supra, Howell, p. 36. labor was enacted which was an advance on prior statute laws, in aiming to do justice to capital and labor and the employer and the employed. During this reign there was an immense impetus given to manufacturers and trades of almost all kinds, largely owing to the spirit of adventure and discovery and the general revival of all financial, social, literary and religious interests that characterized that golden age of English history. From that time to the present, the ever-existing questions and constant friction between capital and labor, and the employer and the wage-worker, have been settled by contract, statute law or the military power all over Europe. The various trades unions existed and were the successors and inheritors by heredity of all that there was of the guilds of an earlier day. The social, and to some extent the religious and benevolent features of the guilds remained, but shorn of their political power, they could only influence legislation by whatever public opinion they could control and bring to bear upon the legislative bodies or the legislative power of the nation, in which they happened to be located. Many of these unions disbursed annually very large sums of money for the sick benefit, the funeral benefit of any member or his wife, for the aged and helpless, and for the benefit of members out of work or on a strike. The vast sums of money were raised almost entirely from contributions and fees of the members. These trades unions have all the evils connected with the guilds. They limited the number of apprentices that could enter any trade during a given period, and no treatment was too severe for those who assumed to work at any trade who were not members of the Trades Unions and working under their orders. Boycotting in the matter of trade with and labor for an employer, who was in any way inimical to their orders, was considered the proper thing to do. Only one thing did they all seem to be always united upon, and that was by every possible means to keep wages up to the highest possible point at all times, and in every trade, and often without regard to other trades, and refusing to work with non-union men. The tack or "stint" system, the maintenance of strikes, and limiting the number of apprentices or laborers to enhance the wages for labor, are some of the evils of Trades Unions, and which were flourishing methods adopted by the guilds. The hours to work, a day or week, and whether by the day or by the piece, has always been a subject of great contention. Employers usually prefer to hire non-union men, but in most civilized nations, and in all great manufacturing centers, laborers are so thoroughly organized at present that union men control nearly every line of trade and manufactures. They seem to have caught the spirit of the age and everywhere combine for mutual protection and support. Combinations for lawful purposes among laborers are as highly commendable as among capitalists. But it may be seriously questioned whether in its effects upon trade and the non-union members who desire to work in the same lines of trade, it may not have been carried too far. No statute or edict of any labor organization can long regulate or control the great question of demand and supply. Labor is always for sale, and what it will bring is a question of demand and supply. It is as honorable for Phil Armour to work up a corner on pork, or the goldbug bankers on Wall Street on money, as for the Trades Unions to corner and control the labor market for higher prices for labor. There is no difference whatever in the principle, the effects and the suffering caused among the non-union laborers is probably much greater than the squeezing of a few more dollars from the myriad pork-eaters, or the money changers, the agony of which is very soon over, while many laborers may be crippled for years, with suffering families who have little to eat or wear, by strikes and labor corners. There is nothing new in the Trades Unions, not a single new feature or power, not observable in the guilds at different times in their existence. But the laborers are better educated, at least in this country, and most of them voters. They are able to wield directly and indirectly an immense political power, which guilds never had for any considerable length of time, or over any such extent of country, or over such vast business enterprises. Being secretly organized, they can work much more effectively and concentrate their power with celerity, and focus it with great effect. The great points of strength in these unions are the social features. Association for mutual sympathy and assistance in sickness and distress. The discussion of how to obtain higher grounds of citizenship, and to obtain all that legi timately belongs to labor as wages, or as its part of co-operative profits in trade or manufacturing. Combination or co-operation is the law of success in this era. It is as profitable within certain limitations as in the various enterprises whose talent and capital are combined for larger profits. Then, again, there is a vast power in numbers. Large bodies may move slowly, but they always move with power. Great numbers inspire enthusiasm. They attract to and develop the best intellects and the highest wisdom that can be drawn into their interests. They also furnish the sympathy of kindred spirits in the same lines of thought and action. This benefit can hardly be over-estimated. Their meetings furnish them entertainment and information that would not reach them in any other way. Their libraries give intellectual food, while their social and religious meetings tend-greatly to satisfy the demands of the soul and the affections. And that without any sacrifice of pride which is sometimes felt when in the presence of those of a higher recognized social, financial or literary standpoint. Their powers are combined, and they meet capital more on an equal footing when compelled to treat with an organization, and there is no fierce competition as there would be if each laborer offered his individual services. Probably few are aware of the vast sums of money that have been cheerfully contributed from ofttimes scanty wages of labor for charitable and benevolent objects by these labor organizations. These benevolencies are in part for membership funerals, for pay to the sick, for the superannuated and for accidents. In fourteen leading societies of this kind, where the statistics did not purport to have been accurately kept, the disbursements were for funerals, £653,743; sick pay, £1,840,511; superannuation, £895,076; accidents, £195,434. The same fourteen societies gave for donations, £3,604,341; benevolent grants, £118,025; loss of tools, £24,822; strikes, £462,818. Here is an aggregate for assistance of £7.331,952, while there was expended for strikes only £462,818. The great railway strike in Scotland caused to come to the front the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants, which, as constituted in 1872, had 33,000 members. In eighteen 1 |