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ONE
T347
PENNY.
THE
EMIGRATION FRAUD
A REPLY TO LORD BRABAZON.
By H. M. HYNDMAN.
Reprinted, by permission from the “Nineteenth Century.-’
MODERN PRESS, 13, Paternoster Row, London, E.C.
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�THE EMIGRATION FRAUD EXPOSED.
T T is natural that at a time when there is serious depression in nearly every one of our great industries, from
agriculture downwards, many remedies should be proposed
for the unemployed labour and “over-population ’’which appa
rently exists in Great Britain. Nor is there any remedy which
is, at first sight, so simple and yet so satisfactory as Emigra
tion. That if there are too many people in these islands they
should go away of their own accord, or be helped away, to
other regions where vast tracts of land lie uncultivated, seems
no doubt a reasonable proposal. No one, I feel sure, would
dispute that, granted the assumption involved in the “ if,” it
would be the duty of the community at large to help those o
the population who are in excess to reach countries where
they could subsist by their labour, provided they could not
get there without such aid. Nor could it, I think, be denied
that emigration, conducted under the control of the people of
England and the inhabitants of our Colonies jointly, would
be better managed than any happy-go-lucky exodus, similar
to that which we have so far favoured. There is nothing in
the nature of the case, certainly, to deter men and women
from going to our colonies situated in a temperate climate or
to America; and millions who have emigrated have found
happy homes and reared healthy families at the cost of rea
�4
sonable labour, though things are not now as they were. All
that need be stipulated for before the State is called in to
direct or to aid such emigration is, that it should be clearly
shown that there is not plenty of room for the people here;
and that circumstances in the country to which they would
betake themselves are such at the time as to warrant their
going or being sent.
This, I venture to think, is as complete an acceptance of
the position taken by Lord Brabazon on State-Directed
Emigration as he himself could desire. It is satisfactory,
therefore, to find that I can fully agree with Lord Brabazon’s
statements concerning the present condition of large number
of the workers in London and our other great industrial
centres. For instance, when Lord Brabazon speaks of “ the
fearful competition existing in the centres of industry which
compels large classes of honest, sober, hardworking men and
women to lead such a bitter struggle for mere existence that
the acquisition of the actual necessaries of daily life is suffi
cient to engross their fullest energies and which leaves them
without the least margin of time or strength for making any
provision against the advent of disease and old age, much
less for the accumulation of capital ”—when Lord Brabazon
writes thus, I say, he but repeats what a “ visionary revolu
tionist ” like myself has been urging for years past. So again
I can heartily agree with what he so forcibly adds : “ Whether
there is or is not a demand for the State direction of emigra
tion, of this I am confident, that means must be found, and
that quickly, to put an end to the fearful struggle for life
which is to be met with in the east and south of London, and
in most of our large towns. The disease has got beyond the
power of private efforts and has assumed proportions too
gigantic to be dealt with by any power short of a Govern
ment or a powerful municipality. Starving men are not to
be argued with ”—this seems to me altogether excellent. . , .
�5
" Whether the Government like it or not, they will have to
take into their serious consideration how best to relieve this
deplorable congestion of population in our large towns.”
There is indeed “ a social malady which, if allowed to con
tinue unchecked, must inevitably end in some fatal national
catastrophe.” Lord Brabazon is also quite right in stating
that the Democratic Federation did its best, and with very
great success, to meet and controvert his special remedy for
this state of things, and I have every reason to believe will
continue to do so. The difference between us therefore is
narrowed to two points. First, whether there is really any
over-population. Lord Brabazon says there is. I say, in
spite of appearances, that there is not. Secondly, assuming
the over-population to exist, whether the time is favourable
for exporting the people. Lord Brabazon says it is. I, again,
say it is not. On this second point, however, I shall not
touch, for if I prove my position on the first it will be un
necessary to go further; and, besides, recent reports of the
state of the labouring population in Canada, Australia, and
New Zealand, to say nothing of the United States, are cer
tainly all against sending out more emigrants.
Before dealing with the main question, I would just add
that we Socialists do not wish to keep the people in wretched
ness in this country in order that we may have them at hand
to make a revolution with, as Lord Brabazon, rather
unreasonably it seems to me, suggests. We are no be
lievers in a revolution of starvelings. At the very time
when the Democratic Federation challenged State-directed
and State-aided emigration, we issued a series of
practical proposals for home colonisation and municipal em
ployment, which are perfectly sound as far as they go,
and would relieve the present distress at once, much
more effectually than the removal of a few th ousand families
could relieve it. These proposals Lord Brabazon has. I
�0
know, seen. The £10,000,000 which was wasted on the war
in Egypt would have far more than carried out the whole
plan. That we are revolutionists I am quite ready to admit;
whether we are visionary remains to be seen. At any rate,
the peer and the revolutionists are both agreed that the
present condition of things cannot go on without leading
to “ some fatal national catastrophe.”
Now for the “ over-population ” and Lord Brabazon's
State-directed remedy for it.
To begin with, as it seems to me, Lord Brabazon proves a
little too much. He says that the “ increase of population
outstrips the increase of the demand for labour,” and goes on
to argue as follow : “ Every ten years between three and four
million more mouths have to obtain food in this country;
and inasmuch as the soil of England is not elastic and cannot
be made to produce a greatly increased quantity of food ; as
England cannot at this moment supply all her sons with an
adequate meal a day ; and as she already has to import half
the food which she consumes—the problem how we are to
feed our surplus population is one which is serious now, will
annually increase in seriousness, and unless solved within a
very few years by some statemanlike measure of relief to
population, will not be long in settling itself, in a very
unpleasant way for some of us, if we decline to grapple with
it whilst it is still capable of easy solution.” Now this argu
ment, if pressed to its logical conclusion, surely means that
one half our present population ought to emigrate. Lord
Brabazon does not mean that, I know, yet that is the fair
deduction from such a statement. But Mr. Samuel Smith
says, and Lord Brabazon fathers his statement, that no
changes in the land laws could do mors’ than put four million
additional people into agricultural employment. Do Lord
Brabazon and Mr. Smith know what that admission involves ?
The total number of people now in agricultural employment
�7
in England and Wales amounts to but 1,300,000 all told.
What an enormous increase of produce, then, would the four
million additional labourers bring about! It is the opinion
of some of the most skilled agriculturists in the kingdom that
under proper conditions this country might easily produce its
whole food supply or its agricultural equivalent. We ought
not to forget that our whole system is one gigantic
machine of waste, and that, for example, whilst we import
every year a large amount of artificial manures, we sweep
down into the rivers and sea, in the form of sewage, at least
£30,000,000 to £40,000,000 worth of manure of the very best
description. What vast changes the proper use of that would
effect! Yet a really scientific arrangement is almost imposs
ible in our existing large cities. With proper application of
machinery, careful dairy and poultry farming, and entire
change of our method of dealing with human manure, it is
almost impossible to say what might not be done with our
lands, if at the same time the present wretched system of
landowning were done away with, and one substituted in the
interest of the whole community. None of those who have
most earnestly opposed State-directed emigration are in favour
of cutting up the land among the 35,000,000 of people. They
do urge, however, that it should be used for the advantage of
the whole people collectively and not for the gain of a class.
Lord Brabazon does not dispute that some increase
might be obtained ; his friend Mr. Samuel Smith virtually
admits that an enormous increase might be obtained ; others
say that our agricultural produce might be profitaby doubled.
Let us begin colonisation at home, then, and try emigration
afterwards.
But we are now dependent on foreign sources for half our
food supply, which we obtain partly in return for goods
exported and partly in payment of interest on capital lent.
To devote more, labour to raising food than we can get it for
�8
by devoting less labour to producing other commodities
which we could then exchange for food, is clearly bad policy, so
long as we command the sea and can carry on such exchange.
It is not the amount of food which can be grown in these
islands that limits population, or what Lord Brabazon calls
the “ supply and demand of labour,” in Great Britain. That
depends upon the state of the world-market for goods, and
the profit which has been made by the capitalist class under
the present conditions of productions. Thus there is “ over
population,” and thousands of men are out of work, all along
the Clyde to-day ; but about two years ago there were not
hands enough to do the business which flowed into the ship
yards, and mere boys not out of their apprenticeship were
coming from other centres to earn 32s. a week as rivetters.
Is this sort of “ boom ” and depression with its accompany
ing periods of over-work, followed by slack time and “ over
population,” due merely to the natural increase of our people ?
Assuredly not. There is some other cause at work to make
useful labourers useless within a period of a few months.
But I deny the actual over-population, so far as labourers
are concerned, altogether. Never assuredly was the power of
man over nature so great asit is to-day. Neverin the history
of the human race was so much wealth raised with so little
labour. Relatively fewer hands are employed in the iron,
coal, cotton, wool, and other industries than was the case a
few years ago; yet a much greater quantity of wealth is pro
duced. A few’ figures will make this quite clear. Thus in the
coal industry 538,829 persons employed in mining and
handling coal above and below ground in the year 1874 ex
tracted 140,713,832 tons of coal. In the year 1883, 514,933
persons produced 163,737,327 tons, an increase of over
23,000,000 tons, though 24,000 fewer persons were em
ployed. In 1874 the miners won 261 tons of coal per
head; in 1880, 334 tons a head ; yet in the latter year 53,896
�9
of them were out of work—became over-population, that is.
In the working of iron and steel 360,356 persons were em
ployed in 1872, and produced and used 6,741,929 tons of pigiron; in 1883,361,343 persons were so employed, and they
produced 8,490,224 tons, or an increase of 1,750,000 tons for
virtually the same number employed 1 In the cotton and
flax industry 570,000 persons used 1,266,100,000 pounds of
cotton in 1874; while in 1883 but 586,470 persons used
1,510,600,900 pounds; In every case a trifling increase or
decrease of persons employed contemporaneously with a
great increase in production. It is the same in every depart
ment. The numbers employed in agriculture in England and
Wales have fallen from 2,010,454 in 1861, to 1,383,184 m 1881,
■of whom but 800,000 are classed as agricultural labourers.
Bear in mind that all this while population has been in
creasing at the rate of 10 per cent, in every ten years ; so that
the numbers of actual workers remain stationary or decrease,
while the whole population increases. If greater and greater
wealth is being continuously produced with the same number
or a less number of hands, surely Lord Brabazon’s argu
ments leak water at every seam. The over-population arises,
then, not from a decrease in the powers of production, but
from their increase. Improved machinery gives greater
wealth to the employing class but renders employment for the
workers more uncertain, substituting in many departments
women’s and children’s low-priced labour for that of men;
and brings about the periods of universal crisis &?ch as that
we are now suffering from—over-production, over-population,
and the rest of it—more often, and renders them more severe.
Has Lord Brabazon looked at the figures of the last census?
The population of England and Wales is close upon 26,000,000.
out of these, 14,786,000 are classed as “ indefinite and un
productive;” and this although there are 1,800,000 of the
domestic class included in the other n,ooo,ooo! Surely the
�IO
over-population in Great Britain, then, consists of a great
portion of these 14,780,000—for even the commercial and
professional classes are included in the other 11,000,000—
and not the unemployed portion of the 7,000,000 or 8,000,000.
of actual producers about whom Lord Brabazon speaks.
Why the 1,800.000 domestic class alone—what can we think
of that vast array of useless persons eating their heads oft
and producing nothing? It is not the “ indefinite and un
productive ” 14,780,000, nor even the domestic servants,
however, who are thrown out starving on the streets in bad
times. No, it is for the most part the artisans and labourers,
who make the wealth these people enjoy, that thus suffer.
Take it from another point of view. Mr. Mundella assures
us triumphantly that the returns to income-tax have increased
from £578,000,000 to £601,000,000 during even these years of
depression. Mr. Mulhall tells us that the total income of the
country is close upon £1,300,000,000. Mr. Giffen informs us
that between 1865 and 1875 the capital of this country in
creased £2,400,000,000 or 40 per cent. That is, the actual
savings did so, after the population had spent its income in the
usual way. Thus capital value during that period, according
to the head of the Statistical Department of the Board of
Trade, who certainly is no friend of the workers, increased
at four times the rate of the increase of population. What
becomes of over-population here ? Again, out of that income
of £1,300,000,000 how much do the producing classes get ? I
say £300,000,000 or less. The highest estimate I have ever
seen is £500,000,000. It strikes me, then, that a rather more
equitable distribution of the results of labour is what we need,
even without making preparation for greater production on
on the land or elsewhere, before we begin to talk of over
population in any sense.
For, be it remembered, Lord Brabazon expressly says that
he and his friends do not intend to ship off the ‘ 2,000,000
�11
to 3,000,000 pauperised and degraded people ’ who, according
to Mr. Samuel Smith (whose figures Lord Brabazon quotes),
are constantly a tax on the community. Not at all. These
we are to have ever with us. But let Lord Brabazon speak
for himself on this point. “ And here it would be well to
make it clearly understood that we ... do not propose that
Her Majesty’s Government should transfer the idle, the
vicious, the ne’er-do-weel, or the pauper from the slums of
London, &c.” Oh, dear, no; that would never do. It is the
able, sober, useful labourers who want work but cannot get it,
the men who are eager to get away and work for their wives
and families but cannot, the very flower of our producing
class, that Lord Brabazon proposes to transport for us. And
these are the over-population ; while the classes which live
in luxury on other men’s labour are, I suppose, essential to
the well-being of the State—the very pillars of the Empire.
How many families of labourers would the £35,000,000 taken
in rent by 8,000 families keep in comfort in return for really
useful work ? How many hundred millions sterling do the
capitalist class take in interest and profit ? Surely a few
questions like these ought to show Lord Brabazon the folly
of his over-population theory.
Or, if not, take France. That is a country with a stationary
or even a decreasing population; and France is on the whole
a wealthy country too. Yet at this moment there is over
population, fearful over-population, in Paris, Lyons, and
Marseilles, Rouen, Roubaix, and St. Etienne, even worse than
there is in London, Liverpool, and Glasgow, Newcastle,
Sunderland, Sheffield, &c. How does Lord Brabazon account
for that ? Would he recommend emigration as a panacea to
the hardworking, thrifty, temperate, Malthusian Frenchman ?
Clearly not ; it would be too absurd. Thus we have
worse over-population in France at the present time than
we have in England, and horrible misery for the
�12
producing classes there as here though the one
country has a stationary and the other an increasing
population. Manifestly there is something more in this than
Lord Brabazon thinks. If we emigrated 5,000,000 persons
from England to-morrow, and continued our present system
of capitalist production for profit, individual exchange, private!
property, and so forth, we should equally have over-popula
tion of the producing class at the next period of industrial
crisis. “ It is indeed lamentable to consider how many mil
lions of pounds have been squandered,” as Lord Brazabon
truly says, “ in the maintenance of able-bodied men and
women in our workhouses.” It is still more lamentable to
consider how many hundreds of millions of pounds have been
squandered, and are now being squandered, in the mainten
ance of able-bodied men and women in utter idleness and
degrading luxury from their cradles to their graves. But it is
nothing short of infamous that the whole system of production
for profit throughout the civilised world, as well as in England,
should be based upon the misery and degradation of the
labouring class, that they should have no control over the
exchange of the wealth which they produce, and that when
the greed of the capitalist and the cupidity of the landlord
bring about a period of glut and crisis they should be turned
out workless i»pon the streets, treated as over-population, and
then State-aided to the Colonies, there to be fleeced by the
same classes in 'other ways.
*
Neither America nor our
Colonies offer the openings that they did. There, as here,
the landowner and the capitalist crush the mere wage
labourers, and regard them in times of depression as over
population, and treat them accordingly.
There is plenty for all in this England of ours—plenty of
* Out of a total realised national wealth estimated by Mr. Mul
hall at /8,000,000,000 in round figures, 222,500 families, sayi,200,000
persons out of 30,000 000. own nearly £6,000,000,000.
�food, plenty of raiment, plenty of everything that goes to
make up a healthy and happy life. At this very time, the
power of man over nature, the capacity to produce more and
more wealth with a less and less expenditure of labour, is
growing every day. Every improvement in machinery, every
advance in chemistry, every development in electricity, means
that all mankind could gain greater wealth and greater leisure
at the same time. In agriculture, as in other departments,
the advance in science, the application of machinery, is now
almost as rapid as it has long been in manufacture. Yet the
workers alone do not benefit by this. They work, it is true,
in social union for social purposes, but their product, when
finished, escapes from them into the hands of others; they
are forced to compete against one another for a bare sub
sistence wage : the very improved machines they make and
use hurry on the period of hard times and over-population
for them; if they are not employed at a profit they are not
employed at alland all the while they see those who work
not at all, or very little, living in excessive luxury at the cost
of their degradation. Under any rational system of produc
tion, under any regulated system of collective exchange, they
—ay and all of us—could enjoy a standard of comfort and a
wholesome, happy, leisurely, yet active life, such as has never
been known on the planet. Yet we are told it is utopian and
visionary to urge that the workers should turn the machines
which they make, the land which they till, the commodities
they produce, to the advantage of the whole community.
I say, finally, then, that emigration is not even a palliative
under present conditions; that it is harmful to the country,
and that there is enough and to spare for all here at home.
But I, too, look with sadness to the immediate future. For
when a man like Lord Brabazon, who obviously feels for the
needy and sympathises with the oppressed, can look at our
anarchical society only from the point of view of his own class
�*4
interests, and is led astray by the fallacies of huckster eco
nomy, I despair of a peaceful solution to the inevitable class
struggle even in England ; and I fear that we must pass
through the fiery furnace of “ some fatal national catastrophe ”
to the goal of full economical freedom and organised work
for all.
�SOCIALIST LITERATURE.
The following works are strongly recommended to all who
wish to understand the Social-Democratic movement in
England. Orders, accompanied by stamps, sent to
THE
MODERN
PRESS,
13, Paternoster Row, London, E.C.,
will be executed by return of post. Parcels to the value of
One Shilling and upwards sent post free.
“JUSTICE,” the Organ of the Social Democracy.
Every Saturday, One Penny.
A genuine working class paper, held by working class men as trustees,
edited by an “unskilled labourer,’’ independent of advertisements, and
written gratuitously by working men. Established January, 1884.
Socialism Made Plain.
The social and
political manifesto of the Social-Democratic Federation,
issued in June, 1883 : with “The Unemployed,” a
Manifesto issued after the “ Riots in the West End ” on
8th February, 1886. Seventy-first thousand. Crown 8-vo.,
paper cover, price id.
The Socialist Catechism.
By J. L. Joynes.
Reprinted with additions from Justice.
Price One Penny. Twentieth thousand.
Royal 8-vo.,
Socialist theories stated, and the vulgar objections to them refuted in
the form of question and answer.
The Appeal to the Young.
By Prince
Peter Kropotkin. Translated from the French by H. M.
Hyndman, and reprinted from Justice.
Royal 8-vo.,
16-pp. Price One Penny. Tenth thousand.
The most eloquent and noble appeal to the generous emotions ever pen
ned by a scientific man. Its author has just suffered five years imprison
ment at the hands of the French Republic for advocating the cause of the
workers.
Socialism and the Worker. By F. A. Sorge.
Price One Penny.
An explanation in the simplest language of the main idea of Socialism.
Wage-Labour and Capital.
By Karl Marx.
Translated by J. L. Joynes and reprinted from Justice.
New and cheaper edition, Royal 8-vo., Price One Penny.
This is the only work of the great Socialist thinker which has been
translated into English, and relentlessly criticises capitalist production.
�Socialism and Slavery. By H. M. Hyndman.
(In reply to Mr. Herbert Spencer’s Article on “ The
Coming Slavery). New Edition. 16-pp., Royal 8-vo.
Price One Penny.
A convincing argument against the laissez faire philosophy.
What an Eight Hour Bill Means. By T.
Mann, (Amalgamated Engineers). New edition with
portrait. Price One Penny. Ninth thousand.
John Williams and the History of the
Social-Democratic Federation.
8-vo., Price One Penny.
With Portrait.
Royal
The Chicago Riots and the Class War in
the United States. By H. M. Hyndman.
from Time, June, 1886. Price One Penny.
Reprinted
A sketch of the rise of capitalist monopolies, and a demonstration of the
inadequacy of mere political democracy to remedy their results.
The Facts about the Unemployed.
of the Middle Class.
Royal 8-vo.
By One
Price One Penny.
An appeal and a warning issued in October, 1886, showing the causes of
the present distress, how they can be removed, what steps have already
been taken, and what are the consequences of continued indifference to
hunger and despair.
International Trade Union Congress, held
at Paris, August, 1886.
Report by Adolphe Smith,
Official Interpreter to the Congress. 24-pp., Royal 8-vo.
Price Three-Halfpence.
The Man with the Red Flag.
Being John
Bnrns’ Speech at the Old Bailey, when tried for Seditious
Conspiracy, on April 9th, 1886. (From the Verbatim
Notes of the official shorthand reporter). With Portrait.
Price 3d.
By EDWARD” CARPENTER, M.A.,
Author of “Towards Democracy,” “ Modern Science,” &c„ &c.
Social Progress and Individual Effort.
An answer to the questions, how far man is conditioned by his material
circumstances, and how far he is their master.
Desirable Mansions.
A criticism of the ineptitude of the conventional life of the well-to-do.
Co-operative Production.
A lecture on the profit sharing system of Leclaire of Paris.
Price One Penny each.
�
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The emigration fraud : a reply to Lord Brabazon
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Hyndman, Henry Mayers [1842-1921]
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Place of publication: London
Collation: 14, [2] p. : ill. (port.) ; 19 cm.
Notes: Date of publication from KVK. Reprinted with permission from the "Nineteenth Century". Publisher's list on two unnumbered pages at the end.
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T397
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Migration
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PRICE ONE PENNY.
Oh Slaves of these laborious years,
Oh Freemen of the years to be :
Shake off your blind and foolish fears,
And hail the Truth that makes you free.
WHAT
A
COMPULSORY
8 Hour Working Day
MEANS
By
TO
THE
TOM
WORKERS.
Mi .zV TV ’2V ,
(Amalgamated Engineers).
THE MODERN PRESS, 13, Paternoster Row, E.C.
Agent
for
U.S.A., W. L. ROSENBERG, 261, EAST TENTH
STREET, NEW YORK CITY.
�The Emigration Fraud Exposed.
By
H. M. Hyndman. With a portrait of the Author.
Reprinted by permission from the Nineteenth Century for
February, 1885. Crown 8-vo., price id.
The Socialist Catechism.
By J. L. Joynes.
Reprinted with additions from Justice.
price id. Fifteenth thousand.
Socialism and the Worker.
Sorge.
Royal 8-vo.,
By F. A.
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An explanation in the simplest language of the main idea of Socialism.
The Working Man’s Programme (Arbeiter
Programm). By Ferdinand Lassalle. Translated from
the German by Edward Peters. Crown 8-vo., paper
cover, price 6d.
Social Progress and Individual Effort.
Desirable Mansions.
Co-operative Production.
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Peter Kropotkin.
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H. M. Hyndman and reprinted from Justice. Royal 8-vo.,
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The most eloquent and noble appeal to the generous emotions ever pen
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ment at the hands of the French Republic for advocating the cause of the
workers.
John Williams and the History of the
Social-Democratic Federation.
8-vo., price id.
With portrait.
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The Modern Press, 13, Paternoster Row, E.C.
And W. L. ROSENBERG, 261, East Tenth Street, New
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�EIGHT HOURS A DAY.
-------------- ♦--------------
HE appalling amount of distress that exists in
every town in Britain must arrest the atten
tion of all duty loving men and women. No
one who sees the effects of want and the fear
of want can passively behold the dire poverty of a large
section of the workers. Rather will he probe and probe
until he finds the cause of the disease. Socialists have
probed and they find the disease of WANT to be spread
by the profit-making system upon which all industry
and Society itself is based. They know that five or
six centuries ago, without machinery, Englishmen
obtained for their work sufficient to keep them in
vigorous health and that they were not subject to
periodical trade depressions; and when they further
reflect upon the fact that the working day then consisted
of no more than eight* hours, no wonder that Socialists
are discontented with the present state of affairs, and
that they resolve to use every means in their power to
replace the present discord, misery, and anarchy, with
harmony, happiness, and order.
The effect of our so-called labour-saving machinery
(used really by its owners to save wages and not labour)
is to cause continual distress amongst the workers by
mercilessly throwing them out of employment without
any compensation. It may then take a man often
* See “Work and Wages” by Thorold Rogers, M.P.
�months, sometimes years, to find an occupation of any
kind and when found it is at a price much below that
he was in receipt of before the machine disturbed him.
Yet the machine has increased the ease and rapidity of
wealth-production. This increase of wealth is of course
enriching some one—a class of which many perform but
little really useful work while the bulk of them serve
no function useful in any way to the community. Look,
again, at the effect of increased Scientific Knowledge.
By a better knowledge of Chemistry and Metallurgy
tons of metal are now extracted from the ore with the
labour of fewer men than must formerly have been
employed to produce one hundredweight. What I am
concerned about is, that in spite of our advanced methods
of producing wealth, the workers as a class get only a
subsistence wage, whilst an increasing number of them
cannot get the barest necessaries of life.
Optimist Politicians are unwilling to admit that this
is so. Anxious to make out a good case for the present
basis of Society, they ignore the plainest of facts, so in
confirmation of my contention I will quote from one or
two non-Socialists. Professor Thorold Rogers, the
present M.P. for Bermondsey, says on pages 185-6 of
“ Six Centuries of Work and Wages,” written in 1884.
It may be well the case, and there is every reason to fear it is the
case, that there is collected a population in our great towns which
equals in extent the whole of those who lived in England andfWales
six centuries ago; but whose condition is more destitute, whose
homes are more squalid, whose means are more uncertain, whose
prospects are more hopeless than those of the poorest serfs of the
Middle Ages and the meanest drudges of the mediaeval cities. The
arm of the law is strong enough to keep them under, and Society
has no reason to fear their despair; but I refuse to accept the
superficial answer that a man is an admirer of the good old times
because he insists that the vaunts of civilisation should be examined
along with, and not apart from its failures. It is not possible to
give the solution of one problem, the growth of opulence, and to
refuse all attention to the other problem, the growth of penury.
Joseph Cowen M.P. speaking at a Mechanics’
Institute at Newcastle, alluded to the labouring section
as “ a hybrid class doomed to eat the bread of penury
and drink the cup of misery. Precarious labour provided
them with subsistence for the day, but the slightest
�5
interruption threw them destitute. A week of broken
weather brought thousands of these industrial nomads
to the brink of starvation. An inscrutable influence
seemed to sink them as it elevated those around and
above them. Society, ashamed and despairing, swept
them, like refuse, into dismal receptacles, where
seething in their wretchedness, they constituted at once
our weakness and reproach. How to sweeten these
receptacles and help their forlorn occupants to help
themselves was the problem of the hour. If Society did
not settle it, it would in time settle Society.”
To this Socialists answer that there is no permanent
way of sweetening the lives of the class referred to
except by the complete annihilation of the profit-mongers
as a class, by forcing them all into the ranks of the
useful workers. This will be apparent when it is realised
that under the present system we are working to supply
profits to profit-mongers instead of working to supply
the legitimate requirements of the entire community,
and when it is borne in mind that Shareholders and
Employers are contented with nothing less than the
Highest possible profits, it will also be seen that on the
other hand we (the workers) can have nothing more
than the lowest possible wages. To establish Society
nn a proper basis is therefore the work of every rightminded man or woman.
Demagogues have been at work—with good inten
tions perhaps—but they have misled the workers from
the true cause of their troubles. Among the blind
leaders of the blind may be mentioned the Malthusians,
the Teetotallers, the Financial Reformers, and wellintentioned Radicals. The first mentioned have taught
that there are too many people in the country, and that
the only way of bettering our condition is by curtailing
the population, and this in face of the fact that every
year wealth in this country is increasing much faster
than population. The Temperance advocates hammer
away at the blessings of sobriety as though drunkenness
was the cause of poverty, when the fact is the other
Way about. Well nigh as fast as they surround an old
toper with influences that prevent his drinking tastes
�6
being gratified, another fills up the hole out of which
he was lifted. It is a useless expenditure of energy to
be continually preaching temperance and thrift. Let
all be blest with leisure, food, and healthy enjoyments,
as they might be if the economic basis of Society was
as it should be, and then these matters will all right
themselves. The only reason people spend time upon
these panaceas is because they fail to understand the
law of wages, which is that all above a bare subsistence
wage shall go to profit mongers as profit. The only
way out is to destroy the profit mongers.
The same argument applies to the financial reformer.
All sensible persons are of course agreed that the
country should be governed as economically as is con
sistent with efficiency, as also all are agreed that we
should live soberly. But the reformer fails to see that
if we curtail taxation to its lowest possible minimum,
reduce it if you will 90 per cent., not one farthing of it
would be saved to the workers. The Iron Law would
still be in force which says, “ So much as will keep life
in you and no more shall go to you, O ye workers, so long
as the profit making system remains.”
These economic questions cannot be understood in a
sufficiently clear manner by the mass of the workers
while they are absorbed twelve, fourteen, sixteen, and
even more hours a day while in work, and when out of
work are walking about with the pangs of hunger eating
out their vitals, and the blackness of despair staring
them in the face at every turn. Now suppose those of
us who can see these things in something like their
grim reality, decide that come what may, we at least will
do our part towards obtaining remunerative employment
for all, and at the same time sufficient leisure that all
may have a little breathing time after their work, what
course can we take ? To this I reply, there is one way
by which it can be done, viz., by at once concentrating
our efforts towards the establishing of an eight hours
working day.
Let us examine a few figures in order to see clearly
how this would affect us. We have something like
7,000,000 adult workers in the British Isles, working
�7
nominally under the nine hours system, leaving overtime
out of consideration for the moment. Let us see how
many more hands would be put in employment if we
struck off one hour per day from those in work. It is
roughly estimated that of the above mentioned workers
there are about 900,000 now out of work, representing
a total population of 3I or 4 millions of men, women,
and children who cannot get the barest necessaries of
life. Now strike off one hour per day from the 6,000,000
in work. The result would be an immediate demand
for 750,000 additional workers to keep up production
at its present rate, and remembering that these 750,000
would immediately begin to buy more food, clothing,
and general comforts, this of course would give an im
petus to trade, and so add greatly to the comfort of
the entire community for a year or two. These advan
tages, however, would soon be swallowed up by fresh
displacements of labour due to more efficient machinery
and advancing scientific knowledge; but, during the
year or two that it gave relief, see how immensely it
would add to the leisure and therefore to the general
intelligence of the workers. And increased intelligence
means more active discontent with our conditions of
life, and in due course a hastening of the overthrow of
the present capitalistic domination.
I am fully aware that there are some who claim to
have a knowledge of the workers who contend that the
very success of an Eight Hours Movement would
simply mean a perpetuation of the present wretched
system, as the people would become more contented if
the conditions of life were made more tolerable. This
I hold to be the very reverse of truth. As a workman
who has worked from early boyhood on the farm, down
the mine, and in the engineer’s shop, I repudiate such
a slanderous statement. What means the continually
increasing restlessness of late years of those workmen
who are now, relatively to their former position, in a
passable state of comfort ? I contend that it is in
large part due to the additional leisure obtained under
the nine hours system, though most of its advantages
have now been swallowed up by more rapid machinery
�and the cursed system of overtime we still tolerate.
I ask myself what has been my guide in the formation
of my opinions on social and political subjects, and,
risking being charged with egotism, I reply that I have
ever endeavoured to get correct views upon these and
other subjects by fashioning my ideas upon the best
models I could find, and the more leisure I had the
better my opportunity for finding good models. I can
understand a middle-class man holding this—to me—
absurd theory. I can also understand some workmen
reflecting the opinions of these theory-loving, poverty
accentuating blockheads merely because they are
middle-class. But I cannot understand a workman
who through youth and early manhood has been
battling against long hours in order that he might attend
the institute, listen to the lectures, and read the works
of able men, and by these means has succeeded in
having a mind worth owning—I say I cannot under
stand such an one hindering rather than helping in a
shorter hours movement. He practically says by such
conduct that the leisure he used so well as to become a
man thereby, others will use so ill that they will con
tinue fools. But men generally love what is best for
all, and are prepared to do their part towards carrying
it out so soon as they understand clearly what course
they should take. Let those of us who see (or think
we see) further than the average man, do all in our
power towards enabling him to see as clearly as we do,
and then, unless I am incapable of reading aright the
lesson of life, he too will become in his turn an earnest
and an energetic worker for the elevation of his class.
I must apologise to some readers who may think that
none of this reasoning is necessary. I emphasize it
because I know there exist philosophers who strain at
gnats and swallow camels, who talk of ameliorating
human suffering, but hang back instead of assisting a
movement the success of which must for a dead certainty
largely ameliorate the pangs of the hungry men, women,
and children who are now in the throes of despair.
Another section raise the objection that however
desirable it may be to curtail the hours of labour,
�remembering the severe competition of other countries
it is simply impossible either to raise wages or shorten
hours unless a similar movement takes place on the
Continent. I will endeavour to answer this first by
showing that the English workers produce more per man
than any of the Continental Nations, and second, by
showing that with regard to our staple industries
Foreign Competition is a bogie used by the Employer
to frighten the workers into accepting harder terms in
order that their master may make a greater profit. It
may be of some service to point out the relative wealth
per annum produced by the useful workers of this and
other countries. I am assuming that the reader is clear
concerning the source of wealth, that there is no other
source than useful Labour, so that, having sufficient
Raw Material for Workers to exercise their ingenuity
upon, it will be seen that the more workers, the more
the aggregate wealth, as in all ages men have been able
to produce by their labour more than they and their
families required for ordinary consumption. Quoting
from Mulhall’s “Statistics,” we find that Britain with a
Population of 36 millions produces wealth to the amount
of £1,247,000,000 per annum ; France with 37I millions
of people produces annually ^”965,000,000 (or with a
million and a half more people about three-quarters the
amount the English make; Germany, population
45 millions, wealth per annum, ^850,000,000 ; (or two
thirds only of our amount); Russia with 80 millions of
people, creates per annum only ^760,000,000, Austria,
38 millions population, only ^602,000,000 per annum ;
and simarlarly with the smaller nations. These figures
will serve to show that our method of producing wealth
is a more effective one than that in vogue on the Con
tinent, as although they generally work longer hours per
day than the English yet the result of their year’s work
compares unfavourably with ours. The important
lesson to be learnt here is this, that it is not the amount
paid as wages that decides whether or not one country
can compete successfully with another ; or rather, it is
not the countries where wages are low that compete
most successfully with this country. This will be seen
�IO
when it is realised that the severest competitor we have
to-day is America, a country that pays at least 25 per
cent higher wages than are paid in this country.
This of itself should be sufficient to encourage those
timorous mortals who are always attributing our ex
hausting toil to the competition of the lung hours of the
Continent. The time may arrive when, with an equally
advanced method of production, low paid labour will
produce wealth as effectively as better paid labour, but
that time has not yet come. By way of proving this
let me here instance the Iron Shipbuilding industry.
Many have been the disputes between employers and
employed in this industry during the past two or three
years, the employers continually urging that the Con
tinental shipbuilders are getting all the trade, or at any
rate will do so, unless our workmen submit to reductions
in wages and longer hours. This argument was ad
vanced repeatedly during the year 1885, so in order to
thoroughly test the matter a delegation of workers was
despatched to the Continent to bring back precise in
formation upon the subject. They found that Germany
was our chief competitor in Iron Shipbuilding, and
that during the year 1885 that country produced 22,326
tons of shipping. But in this country one firm on the
Clyde during the same period turned out 40,000 tons.
France produced 10,000 tons, and Russia 7,867 tons—
total for the two countries 17,867 tons. But the river
Tyne alone launched no less than 102,998 tons. The
Belgium output was 5,312 tons, that of Holland 2,651
tons, of Denmark 3,515 tons. To sum up, the whole
of the Continental output was a little over 50,000 tons,
while that of the English shipyards was 540,282 tons,
or nearly eleven times as great as that of all the yards
on the Continent put together. With facts like these
before us is it not high time we demanded that our
hours were curtailed so as to give a chance to those
who now walk about in enforced idleness, without
waiting for the Continent to take simultaneous action.
The Americans, who pay their mechanics better wages,
have had to concede the demands of their workmen for
the eight hour working day—not universally, it is true,
�II
because a universal demand was not made. Just astheir success stimulates us, so our success will stimulate
the Continental workers, and we shall find that they
are as well prepared as we are to deal vigorously with
the exploiting classes.
To Trade Unionists I desire to make a special appeal.
How long, how long will you be content with the present
half-hearted policy of your Unions? I readily grant
that good work has been done in the past by the
Unions, but, in Heaven’s name, what good purpose are
they serving now ? All of them have large numbers
out of employment even when their particular trade is
busy. None of the important Societies have any policy
other than that of endeavouring to keep wages from
falling. The true Unionist policy of aggression seems
entirely lost sight of; in fact the Unionist of
to-day should be of all men the last to be hope
lessly apathetic, or supporting a policy that plays
directly into the hands of the capitalist exploiter. Do
not think I am a non-Unionist myself, and therefore
denounce Unionists. T take my share of the work in
the Trade Union to which I belong, but I candidly
confess that unless it shows more vigour in the future
than it is showing at the present time (June, 1886)
I shall be compelled to take the view—against my will
—that to continue to spend time over the ordinary
squabble-investigating, do-nothing policy will be an
unjustifiable waste of one’s energies. I am quite sure
there are thousands of others in my state of mind—e.g.,
all those who concurred with T. R. Threlfall, the pre
sident of the Trades Union Congress, when, in his
Presidential Address, he told the delegates assembled
at Southport that a critical time had arrived in the
history of Trades Unions, and that in the future they
must lead or follow, and that they could not hope to re
tain advanced men with their present policy. In his
magnificent address Mr. Threlfall did all a man could
do to stir the Unionists up to take action in regard to
the Eight Hour working day, but one looks in vain at
each and all of our important Trade Societies to find
any action being taken in the matter. It is not enough
�12
to say their funds are low. Their funds are not too
low to get up an agitation upon this subject. All over
the country they have excellent organisations which
might be used in the first place as the means for instruct
ing their own members up to the required standard, and
then spreading information amongst the non-Unionists,
skilled and unskilled alike. When the bulk of these
understood the pros and cons of the case the combined
forces could make a demand for the immediate passing
of an Eight Hours Bill, the details of which could be
settled by a duly qualified committee.
While this is being done attention should also be
made to another important item alluded to by Mr.
Threlfall viz., the payment of election expenses out of
the local or Imperial rates and the support of Members
of Parliament in a similar manner. When this is done
we shall be able to command the services of those
whom we believe in because of their merits, irrespective
of what the depth of their pocket may be.
Let me now invite attention to the effects of an
Eight Hour Bill upon some of our monopolies. Let us
take the Railways as a representative concern, using
round figures such as will convey a correct idea to the
ordinary reader without confusing him. The Blue Books
bear out the following statements •>—At the present time
the Annual Income of the British Railways may be put
at ^70,000,000, of this vast sum one half goes to the
Shareholders, who do no useful work whatever; one
fourth to keep up rolling stock, permanent way &c.;
and the remaining fourth to the workers, (including
managers’ and superintendents’ salaries).
The man who has not paid attention to Railway
Income and Expenditure will denounce this as trash or
probably by a stronger term. He will probably say
that the figures must be wrong, as Railway Shareholders
get only some 5 per cent on their capital. Exactly, but
where nearly all make the mistake is in not making the
distinction between percentage on money invested and
percentage of Income. There are nominally more than
^920,000,000 invested in Railways in the British Isles,
and 5 per cent on this means about five-eighths of the
�total income, the entire income of 70 millions amounting
only to 8 per cent on the investments. Consequently a
Railway Company paying 4^ per cent to Shareholders
actually pays more than half of the total income to
these utterly useless individuals, leaving the remainder
to go in about equal proportions to rolling stock and
permanent way and as wages and salaries to Employees.
This gives about 18s. per week to the 350,000 persons
engaged on Railways in the British Isles. When we
remember that superintendents and managers get very
large salaries, we see that those who do the hard work
and have the longest hours get much less than 18s.
Now that we realise the enormous amount the idle
shareholders take, let us see how generously they behave
to those in their employ. At Nine Elms are situated the
cleaning sheds of the South Western Railway. Until
recently the “dirty cleaners” at this yard received
£i os. 6d. per week. Instructions have been issued
from Waterloo to curtail their wages from 20s. 6d. to
15s. at one stroke. On the same line, at Waterloo
terminus, the parcels porters commence work at 5.20
in the morning and keep on till 9.45 in the evening with
one Sunday off per fortnight, their wages being from
18s. to 22s. per week.
Now assuming the average day on Railways to be
12 hours, what loss would it inflict on the Shareholders
if a Bill were passed enforcing an Eight Hours’ Working
Day ? We have seen that the Employees get about
a quarter of the total income or about ^"17,000,000.
To curtail the hours by one third means of course putting
one half more men in work than are at present employed.
To pay these at a similar rate to those already working
would require £8,500,000 or less than one per cent on
the nominal value of the shares, so that a Company
paying 4^- per cent now, would, if one half more men
were employed still pay 3^ per cent to the Fleecing
Shareholders. What arrant nonsense then it is to urge
that the Company cannot afford to curtail hours.
Let us look now at the condition of our Colliers.
Here we have men devoting themselves to underground
toil from boyhood to old age, the majority never having
�14
the opportunity of paying a visit to the Capital or any
•other large town, practically kennelled in the earth, tied
down with capitalistic chains,
Spending a Sunless life in the unwholesome mines,
for the wretched pittance of about 18s. per week.
Surely an Eight Hours Bill requires no urging from
me on behalf of those who work in and about the mines ;
when we remember that of the value of coal raised
•annually in this country (about £66,000,000) one third
•only goes to the colliers who raise it.
An item worth mentioning also was pointed out by
Sir Lyon Playfair in his address before the British
Association at Aberdeen in 1885, whilst deploring the
fact that the exhaustion of the British coalfields made
the coal increasingly difficult to get. It was proved
that not only has man’s ingenuity conquered these
obstacles, but owing to the increased power of steam
•engines and hand-labour-saving appliances, two men
now produce as much as three men did twenty years
-ago. Yet coal is dearer now than it was then !
Thirty years ago eight sailors were required for the
management of every 100 tons of shipping. Now, ow
ing to improved machinery, less than half that number
suffice. In twenty years the consumption of fuel on our
ocean-going steamers has been reduced by one half,
chiefly owing to the use of compound engines in place
•of single ones as formerly. Thus on every hand a
greater result is being shown with less labour. And it
must be so or else there is no meaning in material pro
gress. But “ less labour ” means under our existing
system, and must mean so as long as industry is con
trolled by the idle classes, not “ more leisure ” or
shorter hours all round, but less wages, more unemployed,
poverty, famine, and physical and moral degradation.
What then can be more rational than to ease the
burden of those in work and the starving stomachs of
those who are out, by shortening the working day ?
See what is going on in the watch-making industry,
a fine example of the effects of machinery. Among the
exhibits at last year’s Inventions Exhibition was that
of the Waltham Watch Co. Some machines were there
�T5
at work making screws for watches, of which it took
250,000 to make up a pound in weight. These machines
were so perfectly made, that at the Company’s Factory
in Massachusetts, one boy keeps seven of them going.
The best wire to make one pound weight of screws costs
ten shillings, but after this wire has been converted into
screws by passing through this automatic machine, the
screws are worth /’350, or seven hundred times the cost
of the material. Imagine the number of men here
thrown out of employment; the watches in large part
being made by girls, and the enormous profits going to
the owners of the machinery.
Take another case, that of Bryant and May’s Match
Factory in East London. Two years ago this firm was
formed into a Limited Liability Company. Their work
girls are most miserably paid, getting only some 8s. per
week, and the Company refused to increase their pay
when they made a demand a short time since. And
yet that Company, during the first six months of its
existence, after paying all working expenses, actually
paid over ^33,000 to shareholders, who had not done a
single stroke of work towards producing it. These girls
are working ordinary factory hours, io^- per day They
cannot live in comfort on such a miserable pittance as
they are receiving. How many girls are compelled by
this sort of thing, to take to the streets ?
The above is only typical of what all our large firms
are doing. Armstrong, Mitchell and Co., the great
engineering firm at Newcastle-on-Tyne, for instance,
last year after deducting for working expenses and
depreciation of stock, paid to shareholders ^162,000.
Whatever improvement may come through more
efficient machinery etc., its effect, while owned by, and
used for the profit of, the employing class, will be to
throw men out of work and swell the already too full
pockets of the capitalists. If we do not decide to cur
tail the hours of labour, what then can we do ? Allow
things to go from bad to worse ? That is what most
assuredly will happen, unless we absorb the Unemployed
into the ranks of the employed by rigidly suppressing
overtime, and curtailing the nominal nine hours per day
to something less.
�i6
The question will be asked by some, “ What about
wages if we work an hour a day less, are we to have an
hour s less pay ? ” Most certainly not. Even when the
curtailing principle was only partially applied 15 years
ago by the Trade Unionists this did not happen. On the
contrary in many instances the workmen were soon able
to get a rise in actual wages in addition to the curtail
ing of hours. The reason we cannot command a better
wage now is because the Employer can say, “ If you
don’t like it you may go, others will be glad to take your
place,” but, as I think I have shown, if we make Eight
Hours the labour day then the Unemployed will be
absorbed and the workers will be able in their turn to
dictate terms to the Employer.
In conclusion I appeal to the workers of Great Britain
to join hands over this business and let us make it a
success. In a measure of this kind Liberal and Tory,
Christian and Freethinker, Unionist and Non-Unionist,
Mechanic and Labourer, Radical and Social-Democrat,
Teetotaller or Vegetarian, whatsoever be your creed or
sex, unite on common ground and let us fight this
battle of the workers with vigour, with energy and
determination. Be no longer apathetic. Take pleasure
in the performance of your duty as an honest citizen
and the result will be a hastening of that glorious time
when the domination of a class shall be a matter of
History, and when all shall have enough work and
none shall have too much.
For further information on all these subjects read “JUSTICE ”
every Saturday, One Penny, which is owned by working men,
edited by a working man, and independent of capitalist support.
Also, if willing to assist in attaining these objects, write to H. W.
Lee, Bridge House, Blackfriars, E.C.
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Victorian Blogging
Description
An account of the resource
A collection of digitised nineteenth-century pamphlets from Conway Hall Library & Archives. This includes the Conway Tracts, Moncure Conway's personal pamphlet library; the Morris Tracts, donated to the library by Miss Morris in 1904; the National Secular Society's pamphlet library and others. The Conway Tracts were bound with additional ephemera, such as lecture programmes and handwritten notes.<br /><br />Please note that these digitised pamphlets have been edited to maximise the accuracy of the OCR, ensuring they are text searchable. If you would like to view un-edited, full-colour versions of any of our pamphlets, please email librarian@conwayhall.org.uk.<br /><br /><span><img src="http://www.heritagefund.org.uk/sites/default/files/media/attachments/TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" width="238" height="91" alt="TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" /></span>
Creator
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Conway Hall Library & Archives
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2018
Publisher
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Conway Hall Ethical Society
Text
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text.
Original Format
The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data
Pamphlet
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
What a compulsory 8 hour working day means to the workers
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Mann, Tom [1856-1941]
Description
An account of the resource
Place of publication: London
Collation: 16 p. : ill. (port.) ; 19 cm.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references. Date of publication from KVK. Publisher's list on p. 2. Portrait of Mann in oval on front page.
Publisher
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The Modern Press
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
[1886?]
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
T396
Subject
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Working conditions
Socialism
Rights
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<a href="http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/"><img src="http://i.creativecommons.org/p/mark/1.0/88x31.png" alt="Public Domain Mark" /></a><span> </span><br /><span>This work (What a compulsory 8 hour working day means to the workers), identified by </span><a href="https://conwayhallcollections.omeka.net/items/show/www.conwayhall.org.uk"><span>Humanist Library and Archives</span></a><span>, is free of known copyright restrictions.</span>
Format
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application/pdf
Type
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Text
Language
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English
Social conditions
Socialism
Working Classes
Working Conditions