Memoir and Letters of Francis W. Newman by Giberne Sieveking
page 85 of 413 (20%)
page 85 of 413 (20%)
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he never went beyond the diaconate.] "Gladstone's letters just now are a
powerful stimulus to public opinion.... Not the Socialists only, but numbers of workmen besides treat it as _an abstract wickedness_ in a master to offer lower wages than are at any particular time existing. They have never any objection to a _rise_ of wages; so I cannot say they treat the existing rate as a divinely appointed amount; but they do not see that if they are unwilling to bind themselves not to strike for a rise, they ought to concede in the master a moral right to lower.... What is to be done with those who will go on enunciating and propagating dangerous general maxims as abstract axiomatic truth?... _Your_ method of making the masters determine how many _shall enter_ a trade will succeed; but I do not see that it will succeed in ejecting. In the years of railroad excitement the London newspapers were enormously overworked, and a great increase no doubt took place in the numbers of printers (perhaps also in their wages); now the printers for some time have been in comparative depression.... I do not contend that _all_ lowering of wages by masters is merciful and just, but that _some_ may be; whereas the Socialists and Co. instantly declaim against _all_ or _any_ lowering, without entering into any details as to present or past history of the trade. When I said that machinery is in every light the friend of the poor, I do not think I overlooked the occasional mischief caused by its _sudden_ introduction.... The effect of machinery is in the long run a steady rise of wages as well as a cheap supply of goods: the advantage to the poor is universal and permanent, the evil is partial and transitory. Moreover, the evil is immensely aggravated by their perverseness. Three generations of hand-loom weavers have been propagated in spite of the notorious misery it must cause. Machinery does _not_ raise the rate of profits or interest; it _does_ raise the rate of wages: compare Manchester and Buckingham in proof.... I do not think I am _at all_ carried into reaction by unjust attacks on capitalists, but I am very strongly by the [right or wrong] |
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