WORKMEN'S UNIONS.

Globe, Volume IV, Issue 357, 4 August 1875, Page 4

WORKMEN'S UNIONS.

What workmen can do by unions may be judged from the following interesting account, which we extract from an English paper : The North "Wales Quaerymen's Union. It is only twelve months since the union started, and the council feel happy in being in a position to inform the members that the union at the end of the first year numbered 7196. They have also the pleasure to announce that there stands to the credit of the union at the bankers the handsome sum of £1471 Is lid after paying all expenses for the year. The first year of its existence has been a very eventful one, and a very successful one also. The success in the past calls highly for the greatest care in its future movements. The council feel that they have much ground yet to gain, and that it is of the greatest importance that the payments should be kept up regularly every month by the members. It is possible in the face of such success that the members may feel too satisfied. John Lloyi>, president. William John Parry, general secretary. The Public Meeting. At 4 p.m. a public meeting was h< Id at the Guildhall. It was intended to hold the meeting on Castle-square in front of Castle Hotel, but owing to the state of the weather this was abandoned, and the Guildhall restorted to. The chair was occupied by the president of the unions, Mr J. Lloyd Jones, and the executive council were ranged in a circle round the platform. The President introduced Mr Watkin Williams, M.P., to the meeting. Mr Watkin Williams was received with loud and continued applause. He said he preferred, if they would pardon him, to speak in English, and they must therefore excuse him from addressing them in his native tongue. He was a Welshman, thorough bred, and as fond of his country as anyone; but, they must remember that he had been away for twenty years, and the tongue might loose a good deal of its readiness to speak Welsh. A voice: Speak Welsh as much as you can, please. (Hear, hear.) The speaker continuing : He was going to say, Mr Chairman and fellow working men—for he was almost tempted to call those present such—that he had taken part in many public meetings, some with great pleasure, many with great anxiety, and one with great pain ; but he could say without exaggeration that he never took part in any with such pleasure and satisfaction as he did the first annual conference of the North Wales Quarrymen's Union. When he received the invitation to be present, he had his misgivings as to his ability to attend, it being the first day of term and immediately after the re-opening of Parliament. He made an effort to be present on account of the interest he took in their proceedings. (Hear, hear.) He wished to be allowed, in the first place, to congratulate them most heartily on the successful establishment of a union amongst

the quarrymen of North Wales; and he could not pass on a step further without complimenting them on the admirable manner in which their business had been conducted that afternoon. It augured well for the success of the union that their business had been commenced and carried on so admirably. (Hear, hear.) He was present to study their proceedings and help them ; because his feelings were with such unions of workmen, and it was his wish to see them become successful. He knew there were dangers before them, and that difficulties would beset their path : but the error and mistakes which other unions had fallen into would be a warning to them. If he should say anything that looked like lecturing, he hoped they would set it down to his earnestness for their cause, and that alone. Unions of working-men, established for their protection, had struggled on in this country many years with greater or less success. The had aroused strong feelings against them, sometimes justly, for making great mistakes ; and he, for one, said there was no wonder that they had done so. Indeed, the wonder was that they had not made more than they had. (Hear, hear.) Happily, those errors had been examined, considered, and were well understood, and they started with the advantage of having the experience of those who had gone before them, by which they might be able to steer clear of the pitfalls, and avoid the errors into which others had fallen. Now, the first question that presented itself to many people was, "What is their object?" The second, " What are the means by which they endeavour to get at that object?" The third, "Arethose means legitimate?" In 1867, in consequence of some proceedings which were exceedingly extravagant on the part of certain unions, her Majesty appointed a royal commission, composed of men of great experience, ability, and high standing, who had gained the respect and confidence of all who knew them, to examine and report upon the organisation and rules of trades union and other combinations. Evidence was taken for two years, and in 1869 a report was presented. A report of great bulk was printed in blue books, which stood nearly afoot high. Years ago, when one read in the newspapers reports of the extravagant action of particular unions, great prejudice was felt against them, and he had misgivings as to their value and whether they were not doing a great deal of harm. Now, he mentioned this to excuse those who were acting in opposition. They should not be too hard upon them, but reason with them and give them facts. Many people thought they were mischievous organisations, doing a great deal of harm, and speaking for himself he greatly misjudged them; but when he read the result of the labours of the commission, and especially the separate reports which were presented by those of the members who were known to be opposed to trades unions, any little doubt that he had was immediately swept away, and he felt the utmost confidence in their value, both to the workmen who formed part in them, as well as the community at large. (Applause.) But that value depended entirely upon their being properly used and not abused. By studying other instutions of a similar nature they would be able to judge between the things which were best and those which were worst. They could turn their society into the most valuable or the most pernicious uses. Unions might be a blessing to the country ; but like that unruly member—the 'tongue—they might also be made a curse ; and therefore the duty of public men ought to be, so far as lay in their power, to assist the working men by telling them where to avoid the dangers of misuse and where to turn the thing to a right use. The use of a union amongst workmen was described in the report as a means of protecting working men, so as to enable them to get the best possible price for their labour, to raise their wages, and shorten the hours for work. He was not at all inclined to think it was the object of the workman to look after the interest of the master, as the masters could look after their own interests. As Mr Connolly (of the stonemasons' society) said : " The rules are made for men, not for masters. We do not take masters into accouut at all in the arrangement of the matter. We merely look upon them as men who step in with their capital and who want to get the greatest profit they can out of their capital, while we want to get the greatest profit we can out of our labour." That was the point, and the masters and men might as well face it at once. The great object of the union was for the men to get the most they could out of their work ; to get the highest wages and the shortest 'hours of labour ; and so long as they achieved that by _ legitimate means he stood up for it and maintained it was right. He wished to remind those who ■were on the side of their masters and who might be opposed to unions, that the capitalist was a union in himself, that the man who entered business with £20,000 at his back was himself a union. He was in the same position as 500 or 600 men who formed a union. (Hear, hear.) It was to meet that and put themselves in an equal position that the men joined together and formed these unions. Now. he wished to tell them some of the disadvantages and mistakes made by unions. Some might ask what was the limit to which men had a right to combine to raise wages and reduce the hours of labour. His answer was, there was no limit. The only limit was that which the condition of the trade admitted of. Another question might be asked, ' Would you say that men should go on and use their power until they increase their wages from 0s to £1 per day ?" He would say certainly, if the condition of things admitted men being paid £1 per day they were absolutely bound to use every effort to get it, and their action would be justifiable, inasmuch as the strength of the country was increased as they raised the condition of the working population There was danger, however, of societies going beyond the limit. The speaker here referred to the fable of the goose that laid the golden eggs, and advised them to take a lesson from it. There was no doubt at all that the cork-cutting trade had been driven from England by an endeavour to force wages higher than industry would bear. The watchmaking tiade had been driven from Paris, and was now located in or about Geneva from a similar cause. If they, the quarrymen of North Wales, made demands of that sort, and drove the trade in which they were engaged beyond the legitimate bounds, the result would be that it would recoil upon themselves, and the trade would be damaged, if not absolutely ruined. Some people might say, "' Do you then condemn a system of strikes which is now resorted to by trades unions ?" He believed there was no thoughtful man present but would feel that the resort to a strike was a most serious and momentous evil. A

strike between unions and masters was like a war between two nations ; it could only be resorted to as a dire and extreme necessity. It was a thing that might be necessary, and which might bring about what they desired, but perhaps at a very serious cost. It was a remarkable fact that it was assumed by many that one of the principle objects of a union was strikes. He would say, not at all. It was quite the reverse. The establishment and prosperity of a union did uot tend to produce strikes, but it produced a contrary effect. The commissioners were divided in their reports, and did not agree on every point; but the majority of them did not think that the disposition to strike on the part of workmen was, in itself, attributable to unionism, or that the number of strikes increased with the strength of unions. He considered that unionism was powerful enough to obtain what was asked for without restorting to a strike. The question naturally arose, " How then do you account for strikes which have been sanctioned by unions ?" The answer was this. It was in the case of imperfectly formed, young, and not thoroughly consolidated unions that they found the greatest preponderance of strikes. He would venture to predict that they would never have another strike in the North Wales slate quarries. They might ask " Why ?" He would give them the reason. The danger the quarrymen had before them in these strikes was one from exactly the opposite point to that which he had mentioned in the other trades. It was that their union might become one of the most powerful that had ever existed. The reason of it was perfectly clear. One of the great difficulties in the success of many of the unions had had the effect of driving away, as he had already mentioned, the cork cutting trade from this country, and the watchmaking trade from France. The ribbon trade had been driven from certain localities, and that fact had become so well known as to make unions very careful in dealing with the subject. But the quarrymen of North Wales did not make ribbons, did not cut corks, and did not make watches. They dug out slates—a work which could never go away from them either to Belgium or to Germany. (Hear, hear.) This was a matter which was at once their strength and their weakness; for their union would become successful in proportion as they commanded public respect. If they wished to succeed, they must take care to act judiciously and temperately, not altogether overlooking the interests of the community generally, but must judge of what was right for the public as well as for themselves ; and whilst seeking to improve their own condition they must not overlook and be oblivious of the public interest. (Applause.) If they forgot that, he would warn them that their union would not be successful. There were cases in other towns where unions had attempted, by their great strength to force upon their members, and through them upon the community, rules so restrictive and obnoxious that public feeling was aroused against them. He hoped they would not do that, and he believed they would not. He would advise them to restrain themselves in prosperity. One thing he wished them particularly to bear in. mind was, the relation between capital and labour. That question was continually cropping up in the House of Commons, and the Home Secretary gave notice that on Monday evening he would bring in a bill relating to trades unions, but of its nature he was entirely ignorant ; but he felt certain that for years to come they would have bills brought into the. House on this subject. His sympathies were entirely with them (applause), and when he stood up in the House of Commons he wished to be backed and supported, not by their opinions, but by their conduct. (Applause.) When he was speaking in favour of the quarrymen of North Wales, he wished to act in such a manner as to justify him in saying, " Here is the North Wales Quarymen's Union, which you dare not accuse of anything wrong. I challenge you to prove any charge against it. I know the men, and they assure me that their wish is to improve their position, but at the same time not to overlook the consideration of public interest," (Applause.) He trusted they would take these things into consideration, and justify those of their friends in the House of Commons who made similar statements, Those who attacked these unions and denounced working men for being outrageous and selfish might look to the course of history in this country during the last 200 years, and see what the other classes in the community had been doing. Had they no trades unions or restrictive rules in the profession to which he belonged—the Bar? They had; but they must not imagine he was going to support them. He did not like them: but by far the largest majority of his fellows did support them. He could not for his life see why they objected to workmen doing the same thing. He would give them an instance of the rules in force in his profession. Supposing there was a case to be tried at Carnarvon and some person wished to have his services, and were willing to pay him £IOO for coming to appear in it; although he was willing to come, he would not be allowed, because there was a rule in his union which said, " No, you cannot do it; you belong to the Home Circuit and must not poach upon the North Wales Circuit." Now, in his opinion, this rule was monstrous. He mentioned that, not to justify the quarrymen's rules of actions, but to show them that those who condemn the action of unions rather hastily adopted a similar course themselves. He hoped his presence in their midst that day would promote peace and union between the quarrymen and their employers, bepause they no longer to fight for the existence of unions, smce these unions were legalised and admitted to be just. The only question was, that they should use them fairly and legitimately. He must, in justice to the workmen, remind them that the aristocracy of this country were not so free from selfish action in the way of legislation that they could cast the first stone at the working men, inasmuch as the statute book Avas full of Acts of Parliament for the protection and support of aristocratic influence and property. He hoped they would strive to make the union a reality, to attach to it, of his own free will, every workman, to raise their wages to a far greater extent, and be in a position to enjoy some amount of that leisure which was so necessary for their mental, moral, and social happiness, (Applause.) There was nothing which made people more open to reason than reading and study. People who had plenty of time for reading and study, and took advantage of it, could not tell them that they were the worse for it. He might inform them that if at any time their secretary required legal assistance he was entirely at his services. (Applause.) In conclusion, he wished them "God speed." (Applause.) i