Pioneer

Outlines of Industrial History I 16, TH-E INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION AND I THE WORKERS. At the conclusion of the last Outline, and also in dealing with the early phases of the trade unions in Outline 14, the gloomy and disastrous results of the Industrial Revolution upon the status and conditions of the workers, were fore- shadowed. They will now, however, be followed more closely. But no pen will ever do justice to this period of dreadful night/' or ever succeed in fully describing the pitiful state to which so many of the workers were then degraded. The Industrial Revolution enabled the middle-class to achieve final supremacy over the old nobility, who now became its adjuncts. It enabled the capitalist to brush aside all limits of sex, age and day and night, and satisfy his ravenous appetite for surplus labour and profits in a mad orgy; until the glutton had-for his own sake as well &s his victims'—to put a knife to his throat and restrain his greed for the good of his digestion, and in order to secure his continued existence. The ravages and the forced checking of this na- tural appetite form our present subject. THE COMPETITION OF THE MACHINE. The fate of the early workers, competing with the machine when it began to invade their in- dustry, was especially unhappy. The machine produced commodity contains less labour than the hand produced oommodity; as it is the amount of socially necessary labour which deter- mines the value of the product, the human com- petitor has to sell at the same price as the ma- chine and his wages are lowered and hours ex- tended in the hopeless struggle. The same pro- cess occurs when old machinery is competing with new; the worker's wages are lowered to help make up for the handicap of the old ma- chinery. Writing in 1844, Engels painted the poverty endured oy the hand-loom weavers be- fore they were finally ousted by the power-loom. Speaking of the same point, a writer often quoted in these columns, says: "History dis- cl oses no tragedy more horrible than the gradual extinction of the English hand-loom weavers, an cjxtinction that was .spread over several decades, and finally sealed in 1838. Many of them died of starvation, man- with families vegetated for a long time on 2-Jd. a day (getting the remainder of their scanty support from the poor rates). On the other hand, -the English cotton machinery produced an acute effect in India. The Governor General reported 1834-35: The misery hardly finds a parallel in the history of commerce. The bones of the cotton-weavers are bleaching the plains of India.' INTRODUCTION OF WOMAN AND CHILD I LABOUR. The constant aim and the tendency of every improvement in machinery," wrote Dr. Ure, the philosopher of machinofacture, is, in fact, to -do away entirely with the labour of man, or to lessen it6 price by substituting the labour of women and children for thau of grown-up men, Mr of unskilled for that of skilled workmen." Ample contemporary evidence is given in chapter 4 of Gibbins to prove the above statement to be correct. P,-rsoit- of all ages and both --xe-s collected together in huge buildings, under no moral control with no arrangement for the pr&- t. f }' It 1 f la."o.b' 'rhe servation of health, comfit or 'W" "J ine  -v ?- 1. aves of the f?tetorv- .i.?t.?m sickens the imagination and beggars de- scription. As early as 1802, legislation was neces- sary, for the preservation of the health and morals of apprentices and others employed in cotton and other mills," because of the ravages of a. terrible disease in the factory districts, the natural result of the insanitary workshops and homes, 'the inferior and scanty food, and the constant overwork of the factory hands. Ex- tracts from the speeches of Shaftesbury and other reformers, and even from the official reports of factory inspectors; teem with details of these .,early horrors of the factory system, which are almost unbelievable; and, they also contain figures giving indubitable proof of the displace- ment of adult male labour. By the employment of women and children the home was broken up. The following may be found in the sad pages of Engels' "Conditions": The employment of women at once breaks up the family; for when the wife spends twelve or thirteen hours every day in the mill, and the husbfend works the same length of time, there or elsewhere, what becomes of the children ? They grow up like wild weeds; they are put out to nurse for a shilling or eighteen pence a week, and how they are treated may be imagined. In many cases the family is not wholly dissolved by the labour of the wife, but turned upside -down. The wife supports the family, the hus- band sits at home, tends the children, sweeps the room and cooks." Then he (Engels) gives a pathetic letter from a working man relating such an instance. While there took place an enormous increase in infantile mortality, while immorality, child .slasvery, ignorance, and want flourished, by ma- chinery's aid, capital raised the degree of ex- ploitation. The value of labour-power was de- termined, not by the labour-time necessary to maintain the adult labourer, out also by that necessary to maintain his family. Machinery, by throwing every member of that family upon the labour market, spreads the value of the man's labour-power over the whole family. It thus depreciates his labour-power. To purchase the labour-power of a family of four workers .may, perhaps, cost more than it formerly did to purchase the labour-power of the head of the family, but, in return, four days' labour takes the place of one, and their price falls in propor- tion to &he excess of the surplus-labour of the four over the surplus-labour of one. In order that the family may live, four people must now, not only labour, but expend surplus-labour for the capitalist." EXTENSION AND INTENSIFICATION OF LABOUR. When capitalism was in the summer-time of this its first love," we read of ceaseless day and night work, of children working by relays and sleeping in filthy beds which were never al- lowed to cool," and of hands and feet having to rapidly follow the quick movements of the never- tiring machines. Not till 1832 and 1847, was the factory working day reduced to 12 and 10 hours respectively; and when hours were limited, then by increased intensity, within the shortened day, production was maintained at the same level. The factors making the capitalist anxious for a quick turn-over can be easily understood. Be- sides the stimulus of a wide, ready, world mar- ket, and the huge profits made by the first adopters of the new machines over their slower » rival capitalists, the early capitalist wished to get back as quickly as possible the constant capital embodied in the new machines because, they were not then so well protected against the natural elements as now, and they stood in dan- ger of being superseded by new superior inven- tions. Therefore, as these dangers of dead losses .1'=--41.t.ft- day to the twenty-four hours, attempted to got back his capital as soon as he could. The faster the value of the machinery was transferred to the commodity by the labourer the more the risks of non-use and supersession were obviated. Thus the maohine made man its slave. Instead of shortening and lightening the work of the la- bourer the Industrial Revolution had just the opposite effeet; its coming indicated a knowledge and a conscious control of natural forces, but its true benefits can never be enjoyed until the social forces, too, are known and understood. Then these ironipal first effects will be destroyed. CRISES AND DISTRESS. Another thing, which followed in the wake of the Industrial Revolution, and which is a strik- ing proof that capitalism is unfit to continue as, a proper system of society, was the terrible de- cennial crises and times of depression which now regularly occurred. Famines, and scarcity, through natural causes, earthquakes, drought, hurricanes, etc., had always been known to man- kind; but these new periods of disaster, dogging the most prosperous and busy periods, had never been known before. Many explanations have been put forward which upon examination are not satisfactory, or only record the symptoms, and not the true cause and cure of this disease. The fact is that capitalism practices law and order inside the workshop, but outside it prac- tices anarchy. In times of prosperity their owners being eager for profits, the wheels of pro- duction ore speeded up. Everything proceeds madly. Rival capitalists, in fierce competition, make no attempt to estimate the needs of the market, and glut it with their commodities, until soon the prices fall and the inevitable crash comes, with all its gloom, and lasts until the stocks have been consumed and confidence is again restored. At such times as these, when poverty is caused by plenty; when bootmaker's children have to go without boots because their parents have produced too many boots; and when it would be a good thing for the workers if the products produced by their toil and effort were to vanish into smoke, so that they might once again have the opportunity of earning wages, then the contradictions in the capitalist system are most apparent; then social production and universal distribution stand in vivid con- trast with each other, and eapitalism is clearly seen to be a fetter upon production. For as long as the surplus labour or the unpaid for part of the product is owned, not by the worker, but by the capitalist, then there must be a search for a market in which to dispose of this surplus product, and when the market fails, then must come the crisis. Previous of the Industrial Re- volution, production had never been able to fully supply the needs of the market. Later in our lessons, we shall have occasion to refer to the various crises in the 19th Century as they affected the workers, gradually changing from sharp and acute affairs to longer periods of per- manent depression, and in one lesson an attempt will be mode to show how the warlike phase of capitalism, needing markets for its surplus iron and steel commodities, as well as supplies of raw material for the making of the same, has resulted in a terrible crisis and in the highest form of waste imaginable. For a good, special account of these hoppenings, the student should consult Hyndman's Commercial Crises of the 19th Cen- tury." The high wheat prices, ranging often above 100s. per quarter and spelling starvation to the workers, aggravated the distress of the workers in the early decades of the century. The capi- talist, increasing his cans tan t- copital and dis- pensing with some of his workers as he lessened his variable capital, was the upper millstone; while the landed interest, intent on securing good rents from the fanners by protecting them by the Corn Laws, was the nether millstone, which between them. crushed into poverty and starvation the powerless workers. The state of affairs, which the Truck Act in later times made an attempt to remedy, was in existence, aitd this, too, helped to fill: the 1 workers' bitter (KIp up to the bfrim, 4 DESTRUCTION OF SKILL. 1 This was another effect of the Industrial Re- volution. Back in the neighbourhood of 1860, Nasmyth, the inventor of the steam hammer, ksaid: The characteristic feature of our modern mechanical improvements is the introduction of self-acting machinery. What every mechanical workmen has now to do, and what every boy can do, is not to work himself, but to superintend the beautiful labour of the machine. The whole class of workmen that depend exclusively upon their skill is now done away with. Formerly, I employed four boys to every machine. Thanks to these new mechanical combinations, I have reduced the number of grown-up men from 1,500 to 750. The result was a considerable increase in my profits." Bearing in mind who are the re- ceivers of the benefits of the modern dilution of labour, the truth of the last sentence will not be doubted. The undermining of the craft basis and structure of the trade unions, by the indus- trial development, hastened in the Revolution and still being continued, is a subject big enough for separate treatment, THE FACTORY ACTS. I We have now to turn to the limits which had to be placed upon the operations of a soulless capitalism. Limits which were strenuously op- posed by the capitalist who prophesied imme- diate disaster from these attempts to interfere with the rights of unrestrainedly exploiting men, women and children. "John Bright especially distinguished himself (February 10th, 1847) by his violent denunciation of the Ten Hours' Bill, which he characterised as one of the worst mea- sures ever passed in the shape of an Act of the legislature.' Gibbins also furnishes the page, etc., in Hansard, where this extraordinary ut- terance can still be found. However, these gloomy prognostications prove d to be false. These limits prevented capitalism from "killing the goose that laid the golden egg and delayed the coming of its Nemesis. Marx, in his chapter on "The Working Day," tells us that: "As soon as the working class, stunned at first by the noise and turmoil of the news system of production, recovered, in some measure, its senses, its resistance began, and first in the native land of mechanism, in England. For* 30 years, however, the concessions conquered by the workpeople were purely nominal. Parlia- ment passed five Labour Laws between 1802 ond 1833, but was shrewd enough not to vote a penny for their carrying out, for the requisite officials, etc." To follow the various Factory Acts, with all their provisions which were passed between 1833 and 1864; to notice how these Acts were passed in the face of fierce opposition and then evaded in many ingenious ways, by the help of biassed interpretations from interested magistrates; to admire the work of men like Owen, Shaftesbury, Castler, and Sadler in getting these Acts passed, the work of men like Factory Inspector Leonard Horner in getting them actually observed; and to notice how the landlords helped the workers with the Factory Acts in order to revenge them- selves upon the industrial capitalists, but how they fought the repeal of the Corn Laws when +Viau- own interests were involved—these are things te which the reader oan profitably direct his attention by reading up the chapters listed. The Act of 1833 was the first to stop children of under nine years of age entering certain fac- tories, and it limited the working-week of a nine-year-old child to 69 hours. The educational needs of the workers-previously entirely ne- glected—were recognised by the institution of half-timers" in later Acts. The schools for many years hardly deserved their name. Many of the teachers could not even write their own names correctly. Fatigued by toil, the children fell asleep on the stools. Later, rival theologians, squabbling over the children's souls, hindered the education of their minds and bodies. At Queen Victoria's accession one-quarter of the children were totally uneducatel; 49 per oenc of the boys and 57 per cent. of the zirls could not read; and 67 per cent. of the boys and 88 per cent, of the girls could not write. Sympathy for our fellows, with their often low outlook upon life, is engendered when one looks back to these dark years of dense ignorance of not so long ago. It was the terrible state of ignorance and misery among the workers which drew from Car- lyle in 1838 those scathing denunciations of a society which allowed such things to be: he won- dered; not at the rumours of rebellion, but that the workers were content to be quiet so long. Ruskin, Dickens, and others echoed his criticisms in their own particular fashions. Sanitary inquiries, into the state of the crowd- ed, hideous towns, the new industrial centres which had grown up so rapidly, began in 1840. The first medical officer of health wos appointed in 1847 and legislation, making compulsory the cleaning and draining of towns and houses, was started in 1848. Experience taught capitalism that over-exploitation did not pay; reluctantly it had to recognise its own harmful effects. THE CHARTIST MOVEMENT (1838-1843). The Chartist Movement was undoubtedly born out of the distress following the Industrial Re- volution, for with the amelioration of the dis- tress the movement disappeared. The only way the workers could preserve their manhood was in revolt. The Chartists were the proletarian wing of the movement which was endeavouring to secure political freedom in the first three de- cades of the 19th Century right up to its success in the Reform Bill of 1832. Many of them were disappointed with the results of this Bill and drew up a Charter demanding further reforms, Though their demands were political, yet many of them saw that these political demands were only means to the end that they might win econ- omic justice. Diverse in their aims and methods, with their chief strongholds in the towns, having many fine men within their ranks, aiding the workers in their strikes, and spreading much fear and alarm in the minds of the ruling classes, the Chartists and their movement, after having several of their risings suppressed by the mili- tary, flickered out in 1848, For a while they joined with the machinofacturers to repeal the Corn Laws, but the alliance was only a tempor- ary one. Engels, on page 229 of his book, de- scribes how the capitalists tried to use the workers as a cats-paw to pull their chestnuts from the fire. But the workers experienced that cheaper bread might mean, not more food, but less wages; the landlords were not their only enemies. Reserving trade union development for next vt-oek's lesson, it is worth while to notice the stltrt irC xJxx-xjjSttCLlikJu. in tho sopa.ra^ socio- ties federating to form the English Wholesale in 1863. Another example of the workers trying to improve their position is shown by the fact that friendly societies were formed and legally recognised and protected in the years 1829-50. Again, we hear of the formation of Workmen's Institutes and educational efforts. The worker, was passing on from the Luddite machine-break- ing stage to another, in which he sought to gain self-reliance and education in order to under- stand and remedy his condition. "THE GRAND ERA OF CAPITALIST EXPANSION." This occurred in the years from 1850 onwards. Trade went ahead by leaps and bounds." With America suffering from the effects of the Civil War, with Germany late in arriving at national unity and France yet disturbed by external and internal trouble, England, thanks to the start given her by the Industrial Revolution, remained the first industrial nation of the world till about the year 1875. The capitalists could afford to pay their workmen fairly good wages and hence a higher standard of living was adopted. But that "standing feud between worker and master" which was so evident and bitter throughout the first years of the Industrial Revolution, and its effects which we have outlined, only temporarily disappeared in these years of prosperity to re- appear again more open and distinct than ever. The forces which will finally compel the workers to control the means of production are to be easily discerned if we have followed our lesson closely. Reading —Gibbins Period 5. "Capital," Vol. 1., chaps. 10 and 15, on the working day and machinery and modern industry; Craik's "Modern Working-Class," Section 1 and 5. Engels' Conditions of Working Class in Eng- land, 1844." (No full knowledge of the effects of the Industrial Revolution upon the workers can be gained, until this ter- rible collection of evidence is read). Kingsley's "Alton Locke" contoins interest- ing sidelights upon the Chartist Movement and the conditions of the poor. MARK STARR.