THE TRUCK SYSTEM.

Westport Times, Volume V, Issue 858, 7 September 1871, Page 3

THE TRUCK SYSTEM.

The Truck Commissioners appointed by Parliament last -session—Mr C. S. C. Bo wen, barrister-at-law, and Mr A. C. Sellar, advocate—have completed their enquiry, and a volume has been issued containing their report, with an abstract of the evidence taken, to be followed by a Hecond volume presenting the evidence in full. The Commissioners have found abundant proof of the prevalence in various parts of the kingdom of the system of paying wages otherwise than in the " current coin of the realm," as the Truck Act phrases it. There are about 147,000 hands in the employ of masters who keep provision shops, and some thousands more are engaged at works where a poundage is charged on all advances made to the men before pay-day ; there must be at least half a million of men, women, and children dependent upon wages which are not paid in money in full. Long pays are the support of the system, the men being unable to maintain themselves in the interim without assistance ; and the Commissioners state that weekly pays to within 10 per cent.'of the gross estimated amount would be found practicable. Some of the evidence would seem astounding to persons unacquainted with the system. In the watch manufacture, for instance, in Lancashire, some masters, who truck, but not in provisions, pay in watches and trinkets. A workman, who states that if a man did not take these he would not get any work from such masters, says a man may reckon he does very well if he gets a watch for £5, and sells it for half that sum. Another workman was charged £6 10s for a watch, pledged it for 30s, and scld the pawn ticket for 10s. These masters "have no work" for a man if he will not take a watch and work out the price. A pawnbroker in the neighbourhood had above 800 watches pledged at his shop in the six months, May to iron works of South Wales are among the homes of truck." " Men who can subsist without intermediate advances till the monthly pay-day comes round may spend their money where they pleaae, but those who cannot live without advances can only, as a rule, obtain them by becoming customers at " the shop ;" they may take, perhaps, a fifth of the advance in money, but the rest in articles, which they go to other shops to re-sell if they want money.

An Ebbw Vale grocer states that he takes the Ebbw Vale Company's tobacco from their men, and gives them lOd a lb for what is charged Is 4d to them ; for candles, charged 6d to the men, he gives them 4£d ; for sugar at s|d, he gives them 4d; for soap, charged to them at sd, he gives 3d. He has been doing this for 18 years. The company employ above 12,000 hands. * " Turn-book day" shows the prevalence of the system. It is the close of a pay month, and the workmen then begin to draw against the

i pay of the next month. The coini pany's shops are open on that occasion • at 6 a.m., or earlier. The women and i children arrive long before, with their , advance books, as late comerß might i have to wait nearly all day before they could get their food. Some take their places at the door about midnight. The Secretary to the Commission went down to witness one of these scenes. Three women and a little boy (to keep a place for his mother) arrived before 2 a.m., more women and little girls , soon afterwards, and when the shop opened at half-past 5 there were between 50 and 60 huddled round the door for warmth, and ready to rush in. They said the shop would not have opened so early but that an alarm had been given that it was being watched. The shopkeeper said he expected to finish by 7 p.m. on that day. All the women questioned had been there at other times in rain and snow, with no shelter. The numbers waiting: Were less than usual; sometimes there are a hundred. ' They sang ballads by turns, and at other times talked and told stories of the scrapes caused by taking money home instead of leaviug it at the shop. Some sell flour or tobacco from the shop to pay their rent. A shop manager admitted that he had seen women begin to sit on his doorstep before he went to bed at night; he attributed such conduct to " perversity." The Commissioners,|on the other hand, think that " nothing can explainjsuch narratives except the hypothesis that the company's shop depends on forced and not willing customers.*' A ease in Scotland is mentioned* where slips are sent from the cash-office to the store containing the names of the men and the amount advanced, and these are compared with the store book, and a "black list" then made out ; but whatever the machinery used, the result is secured. Without now multiplying instances, we turn to the recommendations made by the Commissioners with a view to extirpating a system long doomed, for there have been laws against it in England for 400 years. The Commissioners are convinced that short pays of all but a percentage kept back until measurement of the work, might safely be enforced by legislation where neeessary, and this would go to the root of the evil. What the men want is " their money every week." The penalties under the Truck Act should be increased. The first offence, says the Commissioners, might be a misdemeanour punishable by a fine of £SO and costs, and in default, by imprisonment, and, on a second offence, temporary disqualification for offices of public trust might be added. If possible, the institution of prosecutions should be entrusted to some public officer. But the Commissioners think a system of inspection, clear of local influences, would be even more effectual 5 and they took evidence on the practicability of combining this duty with that of the factory inspectors or sub-inspectors. Some other amendments of the Truck Act are recommended, to make it more clear 'and efficient. The Commissioners point out that it is doubtful whether the present law reaches a tenant who works a shop for an employer and shares the profit with him; and that an employer having the command of all the land in the neighbourhood is able, by simply refusing sites for private shops, to command the custom of his workmen without the use of any tangible means of compulsion.