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METHODS OF SOCIAL REFORM.
rrnd social science to ondearonr to detect those arrangemenh
wlriuh must ultimately prosper, because they are founded on
tho truo principles of human nature. And if, as I believe, the
artizaa will ultimately become tho sharer in the profits of the
work he does, and the zealous friend of the capitalist, we cannot
do a more important work than facilitating and hastening
the changc.
At present mo see the working-men of o, trade usually
banded togotiler, endeavouring to restrict the number mho
can sllaro in tl1e work, often resisting more or less opeuly auy
considerable improvement that will yield more results in proportion
to labour; in 8hort,, studying in some degree, but
pcrhnps unconscic)usly, Ir how not to do it,” instead of giving
their wholo tllougllts and efforts “horn to do most work with
lenst time, trouble, and expense.” We Gud them again
lal~ouriug under tho impression that their employers are a
gmsping Bet of monopolists, mho contribute but little to their
work, but dram enormous profits from it. Every increase of
wngcs they cnn secure is too often thought to be twice blessed ;
it is so much to thcir own advantage, it is so much from the
profits of those wllo havo no right to it. The ardcnt unionistr
looks to tho raising of prices, thc restriction of labour, the
limitation of supply, for tho improving of his own condition.
LEO does not BCC that all these measures, though beneficial
apparently to ’himsclf, nro directly contrary to tho good of
the whole con~rr~unit~y, and that if others acted on thc same
principles it would simply amount to a general striving after
scarcity and poverty.
The mastors contribute to all these erroneous notions by
surrounding their profits and their losses with profound
secrecy, and, though the ultimate result is different, there is
no doubt that their immediate profit does depend upon keeping
wages down. Aoting, as they usuelly do, in more or less
concert with other employers, they countenance, if they do
not originate, the idea that comb‘ination should be in a
horizontal direction between employer and employer, between
workman and workman.
And then, again, what rnot.ive is there under present cir-