On the Economy of Machinery and Manufactures by Charles Babbage (english books to improve english TXT) 📕

had acquired peculiar skill in performing it ceased to derive any

advantage from their dexterity.

363. It is somewhat singular that another and a still more

remarkable instance of the effect of combination amongst workmen,

should have occurred but a few years since in the very same

trade. The process of welding the skelps, so as to convert them

into gun barrels, required much skill, and after the termination

of the war, the demand for muskets having greatly diminished, the

number of persons employed in making them was very much reduced.

This circumstance rendered combination more easy; and upon one

occasion, when a contract had been entered into for a

considerable supply to be delivered on a fixed day, the men all

struck for such an advance of wages as would have caused the

completion of the contract to be attended with a very heavy loss.

In this difficulty, the contractors resorted to a mode of

welding the gun barrel, for which a patent had been taken out by

one of themselves some years before this event. The plan had not

then succeeded so well as to come into general use, in

consequence of the cheapness of the usual mode of welding by hand

labour, combined with some other difficulties with which the

patentee had to contend. But the stimulus produced by the

combination of the workmen, induced him to make new trials, and

he was enabled to introduce such a facility in welding gun

barrels by rollers, and such perfection in the work itself, that,

in all probability, very few will in future be welded by hand

labour.

This new process consisted in folding a bar of iron, about a

foot long, into the form of a cylinder, with the edges a little

overlapping. It was then placed in a furnace, and being taken out

when raised to a welding heat, a triblet, or cylinder of iron,

was placed in it, and the whole was passed quickly through a pair

of rollers. The effect of this was, that the welding was

performed at a single heating, and the remainder of the

elongation necessary for extending the skelps to the length of

the musket barrel, was performed in a similar manner, but at a

lower temperature. The workmen who had combined were, of course,

no longer wanted, and instead of benefiting themselves by their

combination, they were reduced permanently, by this improvement

in the art, to a considerably lower rate of wages: for as the

process of welding gun barrels by hand required peculiar skill

and considerable experience, they had hitherto been in the habit

of earning much higher wages than other workmen of their class.

On the other hand, the new method of welding was far less

injurious to the texture of the iron, which was now exposed only

once, instead of three or four times, to the welding heat, so

that the public derived advantage from the superiority, as well

as from the economy of the process. Another process has

subsequently been invented, applicable to the manufacture of a

lighter kind of iron tubes, which can thus be made at a price

which renders their employment very general. They are now to be

found in the shops of all our larger ironmongers, of various

lengths and diameters, with screws cut at each end; and are in

constant use for the conveyance of gas for lighting, or of water

for warming, our houses. 364. Similar examples must have

presented themselves to all those who are familiar with the

details of our manufactories, but these are sufficient to

illustrate one of the results of combinations. It would not,

however, be fair to push the conclusion deduced from these

instances to its extreme limit. Although it is very apparent,

that in the two cases which have been stated, the effects of

combination were permanently injurious to the workman, by almost

immediately placing him in a lower class (with respect to his

wages) than he occupied before; yet they do not prove that all

such combinations have this effect. It is quite evident that they

have all this tendency, it is also certain that considerable

stimulus must be applied to induce a man to contrive a new and

expensive process; and that in both these cases, unless the fear

of pecuniary loss had acted powerfully, the improvement would not

have been made. If, therefore, the workmen had in either case

combined for only a small advance of wages, they would, in all

probability, have been successful, and the public would have been

deprived, for many years, of the inventions to which these

combinations gave rise. It must, however, be observed, that the

same skill which enabled the men to obtain, after long practice,

higher wages than the rest of their class, would prevent many of

them from being permanently thrown back into the class of

ordinary workmen. Their diminished wages will continue only until

they have acquired, by practice, a facility of execution in some

other of the more difficult operations: but a diminution of

wages, even for a year or two, is still a very serious

inconvenience to any person who lives by his daily exertion. The

consequence of combination has then, in these instances, been, to

the workmen who combined—reduction of wages; to the public -

reduction of price; and to the manufacturer increased sale of his

commodity, resulting from that reduction.

365. It is, however, important to consider the effects of

combination in another and less obvious point of view. The fear

of combination amongst the men whom he employs, will have a

tendency to induce the manufacturer to conceal from his workmen

the extent of the orders he may at any time have received; and,

consequently, they will always be less acquainted with the extent

of the demand for their labour than they otherwise might be. This

is injurious to their interests; for instead of foreseeing, by

the gradual falling-off in the orders, the approach of a time

when they must be unemployed, and preparing accordingly, they are

liable to much more sudden changes than those to which they would

otherwise be exposed.

In the evidence given by Mr Galloway, the engineer, he

remarks, that,

“When employers are competent to show their men that their

business is steady and certain, and when men find that they are

likely to have permanent employment, they have always better

habits, and more settled notions, which will make them better

men, and better workmen, and will produce great benefits to all

who are interested in their employment.”

366. As the manufacturer, when he makes a contract, has no

security that a combination may not arise amongst the workmen,

which may render that contract a loss instead of a benefit;

besides taking precautions to prevent them from becoming

acquainted with it, he must also add to the price at which he

could otherwise sell the article, some small increase to cover

the risk of such an occurrence. If an establishment consist of

several branches which can only be carried on jointly, as, for

instance, of iron mines, blast furnaces, and a colliery, in which

there are distinct classes of workmen, it becomes necessary to

keep on hand a larger stock of materials than would be required,

if it were certain that no combinations would arise.

Suppose, for instance, the colliers were to ‘strike’ for an

advance of wages—unless there was a stock of coal above ground,

the furnaces must be stopped, and the miners also would be thrown

out of employ. Now the cost of keeping a stock of iron ore, or of

coals above ground, is just the same as that of keeping in a

drawer, unemployed, its value in money, (except, indeed, that the

coal suffers a small deterioration by exposure to the elements).

The interest of this sum must, therefore, be considered as the

price of an insurance against the risk of combination amongst the

workmen; and it must, so far as it goes, increase the price of

the manufactured article, and, consequently, limit the demand

which would otherwise exist for it. But every circumstance which

tends to limit the demand, is injurious to the workmen; because

the wider the demand, the less it is exposed to fluctuation.

The effect to which we have alluded, is by no means a

theoretical conclusion; the proprietors of one establishment in

the iron trade, within the author’s knowledge, think it expedient

always to keep above ground a supply of coal for six months,

which is, in that instance, equal in value to about L10,000. When

we reflect that the quantity of capital throughout the country

thus kept unemployed merely from the fear of combinations amongst

the workmen, might, under other circumstances, be used for

keeping a larger number at work, the importance of introducing a

system in which there should exist no inducement to combine

becomes additionally evident.

367. That combinations are, while they last, productive of

serious inconveniences to the workmen themselves, is admitted by

all parties; and it is equally true, that, in most cases, a

successful result does not leave them in so good a condition as

they were in before ‘the strike’. The little capital they

possessed, which ought to have been hoarded with care for days of

illness or distress, is exhausted; and frequently, in order to

gratify a pride, at the existence of which we cannot but rejoice,

even whilst we regret its misdirected energy, they will undergo

the severest privations rather than return to work at their

former wages. With many of the workmen, unfortunately, during

such periods, bad habits are formed which it is very difficult to

eradicate; and, in all those engaged in such transactions, the

kinder feelings of the heart are chilled, and passions are called

into action which are permanently injurious to the happiness of

the individual, and destructive of those sentiments of confidence

which it is equally the interest of the master manufacturer and

of his workman to maintain. If any of the trade refuse to join in

the strike, the majority too frequently forget, in the excitement

of their feelings, the dictates of justice, and endeavour to

exert a species of tyranny, which can never be permitted to exist

in a free country. In conceding therefore to the working classes,

that they have a right, if they consider it expedient, to combine

for the purpose of procuring higher wages (provided always, that

they have completed all their existing contracts), it ought ever

to be kept before their attention, that the same freedom which

they claim for themselves they are bound to allow to others, who

may have different views of the advantages of combination. Every

effort which reason and kindness can dictate, should be made, not

merely to remove their grievances, but to satisfy their own

reason and feelings, and to show them the consequences which will

probably result from their conduct: but the strong arm of the

law, backed, as in such cases it will always be, by public

opinion, should be instantly and unhesitatingly applied, to

prevent them from violating the liberty of a portion of their

own, or of any other class of society.

368. Amongst the evils which ultimately fall heavy on the

working classes themselves, when, through mistaken views, they

attempt to interfere with their employers in the mode of carrying

on their business, may be mentioned the removal of factories to

other situations, where the proprietors may be free from the

improper control of their men. The removal of a considerable

number of lace frames to the western counties, which took place,

in consequence of the combinations in Nottinghamshire, has

already been mentioned. Other instances have occurred, where

still greater injury has been produced by the removal of a

portion of the skill and capital of the country to a foreign

land. Such was the case at Glasgow, as stated in the