The Conflict Between Labor and Capital

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1876. Excerpt: ... V. THE GOOD AND EVIL OF TRADE-UNIONS. No one will deny the vast importance to which trade-unions have attained, for the influence they wield over their members is enormous; and a marvel, too, because obedience is so general while being purely voluntary. It is true the members in submitting freely to organized rule believe they are really promoting their own personal advantage, yet this does not always appear, and when the interest is unseen, or thought to be opposed to the interest of the individual, his temptation to disobey is great. Such discipline, therefore, as trade-unions often exhibit must excite admiration, however bitterly they may be condemned. Trade-unions have their origin in the rise of factories. So long as workmen were isolated in their tasks and could not meet together in large numbers, no organization existed among them, and the dominion of the employer over his men was complete. But times have changed. Great factories have arisen employing thousands. When they daily assemble under the same roof, tend the same machine, and work at the same table, is it not natural, nay reasonable, to confer and act together upon questions in which all are mutually interested? Besides, manufacturing cities have sprung up, busily engaged in producing the same commodities, thus augmenting the mutual personal interest. Sheffield, Manchester, Lyons, Verviers, Lowell, Pittsburg, are names of great cities, in each of which nearly all the capital and skill are united in a single industry. Railways and other facilities of easy communication also lend their aid in forming these unions, by bringing workmen together and enabling them to render fraternal assistance. A recent writer upon the condition of the operatives in the factories of Wurtemberg remarks that if it...