DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.22140#0197
THE JOINT-STOCK PRINCIPLE IN LABOUR. 181
generation of force. And if it be said that the dealer must com-
pensate himself for the enhanced price, the answer is obvious. I
buy coal from the London exchange, and pay ready money to a
middleman, who gives a three or six months' bill to the producer.
In just the same way a bookseller thinks he makes you a grand
■osfer in taking off threepence in the shilling on books, when he
gets fourpence allowed, and while you pay him over the counter,
he claims six months' credit from the publisher. The middleman
in England is very rapacious, very plausible, and generally very
ignorant. I confess I never saw much merit in the process by
which some eminent people have got rich, i.e., by buying at eight-
pence and selling at a shilling.
A good deal of attention has been directed of late to the pro-
■cesses adopted by what are called sweaters, i.e., middlemen who
prey on the ignorance and misery of poor workmen. Now
recently the case of the match girls, earning from seven to eight
shillings a week, has been handled. Near twenty years ago Mr.
Lowe, then Chancellor of the Exchequer, proposed to tax matches ;
I fancy sometimes because he wanted to puzzle people with the
motto of his projected stamp, ex luce lucellum. On that occasion
Messrs. Bryant and May marshalled their workwomen, got them
to go in procession to Westminster Hall, and extinguished the
project by a judicious mixture of pathos and ridicule. But this
estimable firm got all the profit of the demonstration. A few
months ago Mrs. Besant called attention to the wretched earnings
of these people, and an attempt at making their condition better
known was made by some of our University people at Toynbee
Hall. The London Trades Council also lent their authority to
arbitration. After a good deal of fencing the firm yielded, and I
am glad to hear that now the wages of the match girls are more
than doubled, and that they are able to lead respectable lives. But
I don't think that matches are dearer and profits are less. The
new departure only required a little management and tact. Some
people, however, seem to have a peculiar pleasure in making their
workmen beggarly and keeping them so.
I do not indeed assert that all the improvement in the condition
of workmen has come from the establishment of labour partner-
ships, but I do not know any other cause for a phenomenon, in
generation of force. And if it be said that the dealer must com-
pensate himself for the enhanced price, the answer is obvious. I
buy coal from the London exchange, and pay ready money to a
middleman, who gives a three or six months' bill to the producer.
In just the same way a bookseller thinks he makes you a grand
■osfer in taking off threepence in the shilling on books, when he
gets fourpence allowed, and while you pay him over the counter,
he claims six months' credit from the publisher. The middleman
in England is very rapacious, very plausible, and generally very
ignorant. I confess I never saw much merit in the process by
which some eminent people have got rich, i.e., by buying at eight-
pence and selling at a shilling.
A good deal of attention has been directed of late to the pro-
■cesses adopted by what are called sweaters, i.e., middlemen who
prey on the ignorance and misery of poor workmen. Now
recently the case of the match girls, earning from seven to eight
shillings a week, has been handled. Near twenty years ago Mr.
Lowe, then Chancellor of the Exchequer, proposed to tax matches ;
I fancy sometimes because he wanted to puzzle people with the
motto of his projected stamp, ex luce lucellum. On that occasion
Messrs. Bryant and May marshalled their workwomen, got them
to go in procession to Westminster Hall, and extinguished the
project by a judicious mixture of pathos and ridicule. But this
estimable firm got all the profit of the demonstration. A few
months ago Mrs. Besant called attention to the wretched earnings
of these people, and an attempt at making their condition better
known was made by some of our University people at Toynbee
Hall. The London Trades Council also lent their authority to
arbitration. After a good deal of fencing the firm yielded, and I
am glad to hear that now the wages of the match girls are more
than doubled, and that they are able to lead respectable lives. But
I don't think that matches are dearer and profits are less. The
new departure only required a little management and tact. Some
people, however, seem to have a peculiar pleasure in making their
workmen beggarly and keeping them so.
I do not indeed assert that all the improvement in the condition
of workmen has come from the establishment of labour partner-
ships, but I do not know any other cause for a phenomenon, in