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LIFE AND LABOUR 
 
 OF THE 
 
 PEOPLE IN LONDON 
 
LIFE AND LABOUR 
 
 OF THE 
 
 PEOPLE IN LONDON 
 
 CHARLES BOOTH 
 
 ASSISTED BY 
 
 ERNEST AVES 
 
 Second Series: Industry 
 
 COMPARISONS, SURVEY AND CONCLUSIONS 
 
 MACMILLAN AND CO., Limited 
 
 NEW YORK : THE MACMILLAN CO. 
 I903 
 
Note to 1903 Edition 
 
 This volume, originally published in 1897 as Vol. IX. of " Life and 
 Labour," has undergone detailed revision, and the Abstract of the first 
 nine volumes, which was formerly given here, has been transferred to 
 the final volume, as part of the Summary of the now complete work. 
 
 G. Norman & Son, Printers, Floral Street, London 
 
Table of Contents 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Introduction (C.B.) \\ 
 
 Part I. — COMPARISONS (C.B.) 
 
 CHAPTER 
 
 I. Crowding and Apparent Poverty 3 
 
 Size and construction of Houses in Poor Districts. Definition 
 of Crowding and of Poverty. Crowded conditions according 
 to Trades. 
 
 II. Crowding and Earnings 13 
 
 Trades analysed by comparing conditions as to crowding 
 with wages earned. Effects of irregularity. 
 
 HI. Born in or out of London, and Living in the Inner or 
 
 Outer Circle 28 
 
 Connection between Birthplace in London, residence in the 
 Inner Metropolitan Circle, and crowded Homes. 
 
 IV. Size and Constitution of the Census Family 35 
 
 Comparison by Trades. 
 
 V. Age Distribution of the Occupied Classes 43 
 
 (Illustrated by Diagrams.) 
 
 Trades with age proportions normal, or with excess or de- 
 ficiency in youth, manhood, or old age. 
 
 VI. Status as to Employment 54 
 
 Proportion of employers to employed, and to those working 
 on their own account, in various industries. 
 
 VII. Increasing and Decreasing Trades 59 
 
 Changes in numbers and proportions (1861-1891) 
 
VI 
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 Part IT.— SURVEY AND CONCLUSIONS 
 
 CHAPTER PARE 
 
 I. Characteristics of Modern Industry (C. B.) 69 
 
 Recognized characteristics. The connection of poverty with 
 industry. Organic nature of industry. Good and bad sides 
 of the modern system. Growth, prospects and limitations of 
 trade combinations. 
 
 II. London as a Centre of Trade and Industry ... (E. A.) 84 
 The vitality and productive energy of London. An unrivalled 
 national emporium and world market. Its economic advantages 
 and disadvantages. . . 
 
 III. The Localization and Diffusion of Trades in London 
 
 \E.A.) 96 
 
 Scattering of workers and localization of trades. Economic 
 advantages of localization. Localizing influences. Examples. 
 Instances of diffusion. 
 
 IV. Large and Small Systems of Production and Employment 
 
 {E. A .) 104 
 
 General survey of systems obtaining in London. Social 
 and economic utility of production on a large scale. Conditions 
 favourable to the small system. Dangers attendant upon 
 either method. 
 
 V. Characteristics and Training of London Labour 
 
 [E. A.) 120 
 
 The changing character of industrial organization. Elements 
 of industrial efficiency. Training and apprenticeship. London's 
 power to produce workers. Over specialization: specialized 
 excellence and specialized degradation. London v. Provincial 
 labour. How individual efficiency can best be maintained. 
 
 VI. Trade Unions .. (E. A.) 136 
 
 T. Introductory — Combination and Association. II. Work- 
 men's Associations. III. Ordinary functions of Trade Unions. 
 IV. Training and tests of efficiency V. The minimum wage. 
 VI. Limitations to the sphere of Trade Union action. 
 
 VII. The Hours of Labour ... (E.A.) 182 
 
 Varying length of the working day. The " fair " day's work. 
 Possible effects of a reduction of hours. Governmental action. 
 The question of overtime. Conclusion. Summary of hours of 
 work, overtime, &c. ... .. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 Vll 
 
 i. Methods of Remuneration: Time and Piecework 
 
 (E.A.)2i 5 
 
 .Dependence of method of payment on nature of industrial 
 relationship. Piece-work and Time-work : Arguments for and 
 against the adoption of one or other system. The varying 
 effects of either method considered. The possibilities of their 
 combination. 
 
 IX. Irregularity of Earnings (E.A.) 228 
 
 The special problem of irregular employment. Position of* 
 those who are neither "employers" nor "employed." Per- 
 sonal and economic causes of irregularity. Natural and artificial 
 causes. The effects of price movements, free trade, population, 
 machinery, weather, fashion, and trade unions, on discontinuity 
 of work. Remedies suggested and discussed. 
 
 X. Rates of Wages (C. B. and E. A.) 263 
 
 The wide range of wages in industry. The rates paid to 
 each class of London labour. A general schedule of remunera- 
 tion. Nominal and real earnings. The unequal sharing of lost 
 time. The supplementary wage-earning power of boys and 
 girls. The family income. The variations of working-class 
 income in London discussed. 
 
 XT. The Choice of Employment (C. B. and E. A.) 285 
 
 Considerations involved in the choice of work. Subjective 
 and objective industrial qualifications. Trade expenses. The 
 question of leisure. The relation between the individual, his 
 work, and his pay. The limited freedom of choice of the very 
 poor. The position of parents and children. 
 
 XII. On Industrial Remedies (C. B. and E. A.) 293 
 
 Specific evils demanding remedies. The general aims of 
 remedial measures. Some practical suggestions discussed : 
 improved education ; the raising of the age of legal employ- 
 ment ; restriction of the casual employment of the young ; the 
 operation of the Factory Acts ; the better registration and 
 inspection of workshops. Trade unions as employment bureaux 
 and the "unemployed" benefit. The prospects of schemes of 
 Co-operation and Co-partnership. Poverty considered with 
 special reference to insufficient pay and lack of work. State 
 action and State responsibility discussed. 
 
 XIII. Expenditure and the Standard of Life (C. B.) 319 
 
 The cost of living as a boy, as a young man, and when 
 married. The standard of life and the standard of earnings. 
 The lives of classes A to F described. The connection of 
 birth-rate and death-rate with social condition. 
 
 The impression left by the two inquiries into the social and 
 industrial position of London. Subjects to be dealt with in the 
 concluding portion of the inquiry. 
 
 INDEX ., 
 
 34i 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 This volume, which concludes the present series, contains 
 two parts. In the first, comparisons are made between the 
 various trade sections as to apparent poverty, " crowding," 
 earnings, proportion of Londoners, numbers in family, ages 
 of workers, proportion of employers to employed, and 
 increase or decrease [1861-1891] of numbers engaged. 
 These chapters, though somewhat forbidding, contain 
 matter of considerable interest, being in fact a distillation 
 of all the statistics concerning the above-mentioned groups 
 of facts. 
 
 The second part, drawing on the whole preceding- 
 accounts of London trades, treats of such subjects as 
 irregularity of employment, trade unionism, methods and 
 amount of remuneration and industrial remedies for 
 poverty. It deals mainly in generalizations, but any 
 London reader can if he will shift the point of view from 
 the general to the particular by taking as an example any 
 trade or occupation, or the lot of any individual worker 
 of which he has exact knowledge, in order to test 
 the correctness of the conclusions to which we have 
 come. He may classify himself or anyone whose 
 circumstances are known to him, according to the trade at 
 which he works, the wages earned and the character of the 
 
 home in which he lives. There is no life that is led in 
 v c 
 
x INTRODUCTION 
 
 London which may not serve as an illustration to this 
 book, no individual who may not find his place in its 
 schedules. In this way a definite value may be given to 
 the gradations of my scale, and a test may be applied to 
 the probability of the conclusions drawn. 
 
 The closing chapter touches upon the standard of life, 
 actual or possible, and so steps into line with the first series 
 of this work, thus completing the design originally laid 
 down and expressed in the title of the book. 
 
 Still this does not conclude the work, but what remains 
 to be done is of a different character, being to estimate the 
 forces for good or evil that are acting upon the condition 
 of the population before we can arrive at that balancing of 
 hopes and fears that will form our final judgment. 
 
PAET L-COMPARISONS. 
 
CHAPTER I. 
 
 CROWDING AND APPARENT POVERTY. 
 
 In the poorer parts of London most of the houses have a 
 frontage of from 12 to 15 ft. only, and of this about 3 ft. is 
 devoted to entrance passage and stairs. The front room 
 on the first floor has usually two windows and occupies the 
 whole breadth of the house. This may be repeated on the 
 floor above. The other rooms are all somewhat smaller. 
 The largest size commonly found is about 12 by 14 ft. and 
 the smallest perhaps 8 ft. by 8 ft. The height from floor 
 to ceiling varies from 8 to 10 ft. 
 
 It is with rooms of this character, containing on an 
 average about 1000 cubic ft. of space, but varying among 
 themselves to the extent indicated above, that we have 
 usually to deal when the number of rooms occupied by a 
 family is taken as a measure of poverty. Two or more 
 persons making their home in one such room, or four 
 or more in two such rooms, or six or more in three, 
 are accounted crowded and therefore presumably poor; 
 the assumption being that if they were not poor they 
 would allow themselves more space. It is evident 
 that this theory has many limitations, and affords but 
 a rough test of poverty. Not only does the actual size 
 of the room or rooms come into question, but much 
 depends on the meaning of " person/' A mother and 
 her baby count for two, but one room is all that they 
 really require, whereas for two adults to eat, sleep and live 
 in one room is a condition of crowding which would hardly 
 v 1 * 
 
4 
 
 COMPARISONS. 
 
 be endured unless poverty compelled. Whether a family 
 of four in two rooms is more crowded or less so than 
 two families of two persons each occupying one room 
 would probably depend on the management. With orderly 
 arrangements the enlarged family might gain — but if dis- 
 order reigned the increase in numbers would undoubtedly 
 aggravate discomfort. But in comparing large bodies of 
 men one with another, such considerations may be ignored ; 
 for in almost every trade we shall find every description 
 of family living in every kind of house in somewhat simiiar 
 proportions. 
 
 Another irregularity springs from the greater difficulty 
 found in obtaining house-room in some quarters than in 
 others, and the consequent high rents paid by those who 
 must give whatever is necessary to enable them to be 
 near their work. These people, for workmen, may be 
 well off, and quite beyond the pinch of poverty, yet they 
 have to endure and make the best of very limited 
 accommodation. A still more common case in which the 
 test fails is where house-room is so plentiful and rents so 
 low, or their payment so easily evaded, that even the 
 poorest people need not be crowded in the rooms of which 
 they make their homes. In such cases a low percentage of 
 crowding may be combined with a high degree of poverty. 
 
 In spite of these divergencies, we are probably justified 
 in assuming, that on the average crowding does provide 
 a reasonably fair measure of poverty ; and some support 
 is given to this assumption by the fact that the total 
 percentage of poverty indicated by this test agrees almost 
 exactly with that reached in our previous inquiry by 
 a different method, about 30 per cent, of poverty being 
 shown in both ways. But the tests applied are very 
 rough, and the results attained do not pretend to be 
 more than an approximation to the truth. 
 
 The meaning attached throughout to the word "poverty," 
 and the distinction drawn between the "poor" and the 
 
CROWDING AND APPARENT POVERTY. 5 
 
 "very poor" must also be borne in mind. The "poor" 
 have been defined or described as including alike those 
 whose earnings are small because of irregularity of employ- 
 ment and those whose work though regular is ill-paid. 
 They are further defined as those whose means are barely 
 sufficient for decent independent life. Though not in 
 actual "want," they would be the better for more of 
 everything. Their lives are an unending straggle and 
 lack comfort, but these people are neither ill-nourished 
 nor ill-clad according to any standard that can reasonably 
 be used. And finally, to come to figures, I have suggested 
 18s to 21s per week for a moderate-sized family as the 
 income I have had in my mind. The " very poor " — who 
 answer more or less to the very crowded, i.e. those living 
 three or more to a room — are those who from any cause 
 fall below this standard. 
 
 Although the average results may be fairly trustworthy, 
 there is a very considerable difference according as the 
 test of crowding is applied in the inner or in the outer 
 circle of London. This difference, which we find in almost 
 every trade, is largely due to the question of rent, but 
 it also responds to the broad circumstance that the poorer 
 representatives in nearly every trade live nearest to, and 
 the better off furthest from, the centre of London. 
 
 It must be remembered moreover that we can only 
 deal with apparent poverty. A man who earns good wages 
 may spend but little of them on his home. Such is 
 notoriously the case in trades where the rate of pay is 
 high and the work intermittent, especially when wages 
 are earned by great physical exertion, as for instance with 
 the coal-porters. We are compelled by our method to 
 treat the desire for sufficient house accommodation as a 
 force acting uniformly or proportionately on all, but this is 
 by no means always the case. 
 
 Taking into account so far as possible these considera- 
 tions and limitations, we may proceed to compare the 
 
6 
 
 COMPARISONS. 
 
 trades and groups of trades into which we have divided 
 the people of London. It appears that, tested by the 
 crowded conditions in which they live, street-sellers, coal- 
 porters and dock-labourers are the poorest sections of the 
 population (see Table L on page 8). On the whole, street- 
 sellers take the lead, having, if we exclude those returned 
 as employers, 69 per cent, of families living two or more 
 persons in each room. Coal-porters come next with 65 per 
 cent., followed closely by the 63 per cent, of dock-labourers. 
 These two latter sections consist almost entirely of the 
 employed class. 
 
 It is noteworthy that two-thirds of the costermongers and 
 two-thirds of the dock-labourers live in the inner ring. As 
 a rule these proportions are reversed : amongst coal- 
 porters the homes of only one-third are in the inner ring. 
 
 The fact that crowded homes are not always a test of 
 poverty where house accommodation is difficult to obtain 
 and rents are high, does not apply to any very great 
 extent in these sections. With costermongers the pro- 
 portion rises to 71 per cent, in the inner, and falls to 
 55 per cent, in the outer circle ; with coal-porters the 
 comparative rates are 74 and 59 per cent. ; while dock- 
 labourers have about 62 per cent, of crowding wherever 
 they live. 
 
 Finally, if we test these sections by the extreme cases of 
 crowding, namely those in which three or more persons 
 occupy each room, we find the same order. Street-sellers 
 again lead with no less than 36 per cent., coal-porters come 
 next with 80 per cent., and dock-labourers follow with 
 28^ per cent. 
 
 In no other occupations are the signs of poverty and dis- 
 comfort quite so great, but the section of general labourers 
 is not far behind in this unenviable competition. These 
 labourers are, however, a selection of the poorest out of many 
 employments, and therefore do not enter quite fairly into 
 comparison. A large number of them are, indeed, actually 
 
CROWDING AND APPARENT POVERTY. 
 
 7 
 
 employed as dock-labourers, coal-porters, or street-seller*, 
 but being illiterate or without any special pride in their 
 calling, put themselves down in the census schedule merely 
 as "labouring men/' That this must be so is certain, 
 because the totals given in the census, especially for dock- 
 labourers and costerrnongers, are undoubtedly very much 
 below the true figures, and on the other hand the number 
 of "general labourers" (returned as nearly eighty thousand) 
 would not otherwise be accounted for. General labourers 
 include also a proportion of loafers (though of these a large 
 number would claim a trade), but for the rest are made 
 up of contingents from many occupations, being usually 
 men employed in unspecialized work who do not associate 
 themselves — at any rate by name — with any particular 
 trade, but are able to move from one kind of business to 
 another, doing, wherever it may be required, labour of a 
 rough character. To some extent, of course, this general 
 heading may also comprise men whose work, though un- 
 skilled and simply called " labour/' requires special practice. 
 But when labourers are specially employed, and particularly 
 when detailed to assist handicraftsmen, they are fully 
 entitled and generally disposed to call themselves by the 
 name of the trade in which they give assistance, as brick- 
 layers' labourers, labourers in gasworks, or chemical 
 labourers, &c. If returned in this way they cease, 
 from the point of view of the census, to be "general 
 labourers," and are included with bricklayers, gas- 
 workers, &c. Some, however, return themselves in one 
 way and some in the other, and the result is a confus ; on 
 much to be deplored, but for which it is difficult to BUggest 
 any remedy, so long at least as the householder and not 
 the enumerator is responsible for the correct filling up of 
 the schedule. 
 
Table I. — Sections arranged in order of apparent poverty 
 of heads of families (1.891). 
 
 Pebcentage 
 of Crowding 
 
 Sections. 
 
 Costers and street-sellers 
 
 Coal-porters 
 
 Dock-labourers 
 
 General labourers ... 
 
 Carmen 
 
 Bricklayers 
 
 Municipal labour, &c. 
 Plasterers* paperhangers 
 Paper manufactures 
 Painters and glaziers 
 Hemp, jute, and fibre 
 
 Masons 
 
 Cab and omnibus service 
 
 Cabinet makers, &c 
 
 Boot and shoe-makers. 
 Woollens and carpets . 
 
 Warehousemen, &c 
 
 Gasworks service 
 
 Glass and earthenware... 
 Brass,copper,tin,lead,&c. 
 
 Machinists 
 
 Railway labour 
 
 Blacksmiths 
 
 Bookbinders 
 
 Factory labour (undef.)... 
 General shop-keepers ... 
 
 Extra service 
 
 Brush -makers : 
 
 Tailors 
 
 Locksmiths, &c 
 
 Country labour 
 
 Sundry workers in iron 
 
 and steel 
 
 Brewers and mineral 
 
 water makers 
 
 Carriage building 
 
 Leather dressing, &c. .. 
 Engine drivers (undef.). 
 
 Coopers 
 
 Trimmings, &c 
 
 Shirt-makers and seam 
 
 Lightermen 
 
 Printers 
 
 Saddlery, harness, &c. 
 
 65 
 
 64 
 
 62i 
 
 584 
 
 56 
 
 534 
 
 53 
 
 51 
 
 49 
 
 49 
 
 47 
 
 45| 
 
 45± 
 
 45 
 
 45 
 
 45 
 
 45 
 
 44 
 
 43 
 
 424 
 
 42 
 
 414 
 
 41* 
 
 41* 
 
 404 
 
 40£ 
 
 404 
 
 40 
 
 391 
 
 38 
 
 374 
 37 
 
 364 
 364 
 36 
 
 35£ 
 
 35 
 
 344 
 
 34 
 
 •*! SCO 
 
 69 
 
 65 
 
 63 
 
 594 
 
 58 
 
 55 
 
 544 
 
 53 
 
 55 
 
 524 
 
 524 
 
 49 
 
 48 
 
 52 
 
 52 
 
 514 
 
 46 
 
 44i 
 
 48" 
 
 47 
 
 44 
 
 43 
 
 45 
 
 44 
 
 42 
 
 47 
 
 45 
 
 46 
 
 47 
 
 434 
 
 444 
 
 42 
 
 421 
 
 41" 
 
 43 
 
 38 
 
 38 
 
 43 
 
 Percentage 
 of Crowding. 
 
 Sections. 
 
 Millers, &c 
 
 Plumbers 
 
 Tobacco workers 
 
 India-rubber, &c 
 
 Musical instruments, &c 
 Carpenters and joiners.. 
 
 Hatters 
 
 Seamen 
 
 Chemicals 
 
 Dyers and cleaners 
 
 Soap, candles, and glue 
 
 Railway service 
 
 Engineering, &c 
 
 Silk and fancy textiles.. 
 Bakers and confectioners 
 Surgical, &c. , instruments 
 
 Police, &c 
 
 Dock and wharf service 
 Dress-makers, &c. .. 
 Butchers & fishmongers 
 
 Gardeners, &c 
 
 Jewellers, &c 
 
 Milk-sellers 
 
 Shipwrights, &c 
 
 Watches and clocks .. 
 
 Art and amusement .. 
 
 Builders 
 
 Coal, wood,& corn dealers 
 
 Stationers 
 
 Grocers, &c. 
 
 Ironmongers, &c 
 
 Booksellers, &c 
 
 Civil & municipal service 
 
 Medicine 
 
 Army and navy 
 
 Commercial clerks 
 
 Publicans , 
 
 Drapers 
 
 Literature and science . 
 
 Religion , 
 
 Merchants, brokers, &c 
 
 Education 
 
 Lodging & coffee-houses 
 
 Law 
 
 Architects, &c 
 
 34 
 
 34 
 
 33 
 
 33 
 
 324 
 
 314 
 
 304 
 
 304 
 
 29i 
 
 28| 
 
 284 
 
 28 
 
 274 
 
 27 
 
 264 
 
 26 
 
 26 
 
 254 
 
 244 
 
 2U 
 
 234 
 
 22i 
 
 22 
 
 22 
 
 21 
 
 194 
 
 19 
 
 18i 
 
 174 
 15 
 15 
 15 
 14 
 13 
 104 
 104 
 10 
 10 
 7 
 
 64 
 6 
 
 54 
 5 
 5 
 4 
 
 Note. — As in previous volumes, the deductions for employers and their 
 families have been made on the assumption that they will live under better 
 conditions than the bulk of those they employ. 
 
CROWDING AND APPARENT POVERTY. 9 
 
 Of the eighty thousand general labourers, those who 
 are assistants in skilled trades are better off than the 
 rest, and most of them will be found living in the 
 outer circle, where are situated the factories at which 
 they work. On the whole, the section shows 58 J per cent, 
 of crowding, or omitting a few employers (returned, we 
 suppose, as " master labourers 594 per cent. This rate 
 rises to 70 per cent, in the inner, but falls to 51* per cent, 
 in the outer ring. Of extreme crowding there is 26 
 per cent. 
 
 Next in order of apparent poverty comes the great 
 body of carmen with 56 per cent, of crowded families, or 
 58 per cent, if employers are omitted. The percentage of 
 crowding is 62 in the inner and 50 in the outer circle, and 
 amongst them there is 27 per cent, of extreme crowding. 
 
 These five sections — street-sellers, coal-porters, dock- 
 labourers, general labourers and carmen — together include 
 88,469 heads of families, or a total of 399,690 persons, 
 of whom no less than 235,281 exist under crowded con- 
 ditions, while 109,390 are so crowded as to be living three 
 or more persons to a room. Even in the outer circle, 
 where rents are comparatively moderate, over 114,000 
 of these people are to be found living two or more persons 
 to each room occupied. 
 
 After allowing for all possible limitations, these figures 
 indicate an appalling amount of poverty and discomfort 
 among those engaged in these occupations. 
 
 The second grade in the comparison we are attempt- 
 ing to make is occupied by a group from the building 
 trades — bricklayers (including scaffolders and labourers), 
 plasterers (including whitewashers) and painters, of whom 
 many are very irregularly employed. To these we have 
 added those engaged in drainage, &c, including scavengers 
 and others employed in the care of the streets. Brick- 
 layers have 55 per cent., municipal labour 54J per cent., 
 plasterers 53 per cent., and painters 52 \ per cent, of 
 
10 
 
 COMPARISONS. 
 
 crowding, employers being omitted in each case. To this 
 group may be added, as of kindred employment, the masons 
 and their labourers, although they are somewhat better off, 
 showing only 49 per cent, of crowding. In these sections 
 taken together we find 50,842 heads of families (including 
 employers) and a population of 238,229 persons, of whom 
 120,045 live under crowded conditions, 51,554 being very 
 crowded. In this case 75,000 of the crowded live in 
 the outer circle, where there is least excuse for so 
 unfavourable a condition of life. 
 
 Having now dealt with the sections which include the 
 great bulk of the labourers, we pass to manufacture and 
 other employments in which the proportion of those 
 living in crowded homes falls gradually from 50 to less 
 than 5 per cent. This is shown in the summary on the 
 opposite page, in which both employers and employed are 
 included. 
 
 Fully one-half of the population (omitting inmates of 
 institutions) show from 30 to 65 per cent, of crowding, and 
 in this half are included by far the greater number of ordi- 
 nary industrial occupations. Engine and machine makers 
 and those engaged in the manufacture of chemicals or in 
 dyeing and cleaning (all very modern trades) fall just below 
 30 per cent. Lower rates apply to the professional classes, 
 shop-keepers, commercial clerks, police, and a few old 
 established highly skilled employments, such as silk weaving 
 and watch making. It may be that in these cases there is 
 less apparent crowding because the accommodation some- 
 times includes the workshop. If employees only are 
 considered, the list of occupations with less than 30 per 
 cent, of crowding would be still further restricted. 
 
 The question then arises, who are all these people in every 
 trade who lead so pinched an existence, and why is it that 
 their means are so restricted or their standard of house 
 room so low ? 
 
 Before any complete answer can be given to theso 
 
Table II.— Summary Statement. [Arranged in order of crowding.) 
 
 Occupations. 
 [Figures in parentheses indicate proportion of crowding.] 
 
 Costers and street-sellers (65-2), coal-porters (63-9),) 
 dock-labourers (62-5), general labourers (58-5), car- 1 
 
 men (56-2) j 
 
 Bricklayers (53*7), municipal labour (53-1), plasterers ) 
 
 (50-8), painters (48-8), masons (45-7) j 
 
 Paper (49 0),hemp (46-8), warehouse-men (45-2), wool- I 
 
 lens, &c. (45-0) J 
 
 Cab and omnibus service (45*7) 
 
 Cabinet-makers (45*2), boot and shoe-makers (44'9j,| 
 
 machinists (42-5), tailors (40-0) j 
 
 Glass and earthenware (43*1), brass, tin, lead, etc. 
 (42-7), factory labour undefined (41-7), book-binders 
 
 (41-3), extra service (40-5), brush-makers (40-3) 
 
 Gasworks service (43*9), railway labour (42-1), black- 
 smiths (41-6), general shop-keepers (40*3), lock- 
 smiths (39.6) 
 
 Iron and steel-workers (38*2), carriage building (36-8), 
 leather dressing, &c. (36-7), coopers (35*9), saddlers 
 (34-2), plumbers (33 9), tobacco workers (33*0), 
 india-rubber, &c. (32*9), musical instruments and 
 
 toys (32 4), carpenters (31-5) 
 
 Country labour (38*7), brewers and mineral water' 
 makers (37 - 6), engine drivers, &c, undef. (36'7), 
 shirt-makers, &c. (35*6), trimmings, &c. (35*5), 
 lightermen (35-0), printers (34-3), millers (34-1), 
 
 hatters (30-5), seamen (30-6) , 
 
 Chemicals (29'3), soap, candles, &c. (287), dyers and 
 cleaners (28*5), engineering (27*5), silk (26*9), sur- 
 gical, &c, instruments (261), dressmakers, &c, 
 (24-3), jewellers, &c. (22-4), shipwrights (22-1), 
 
 watches and clocks (21*0) 
 
 Railway service (27-8), bakers, &c. (26-3), police (25-9),) 
 dock service (25-3), gardeners (23*6), butchers and [ 
 
 fishmongers (23-4), milk-sellers (22-2) j 
 
 Art and amusement (193), civil and municipal service j 
 (13-8), medicine (12-6), army and navy (10 4), litera- ,- 
 ture (7-0), religion (6-3), education (5-3), law (5-2)...) 
 Builders (19-1), clerks (10'6), merchants (61), archi-1 
 
 tects (4-0) } 
 
 Corn, &c, dealers (18-5), stationers (17'3), iron-\ 
 mongers, &c. (15-3), grocers, &c. (15-2), booksellers! 
 (14-9), drapers (9 9), publicans (9 9), lodging-house | 
 keepers (4 9) / 
 
 Total 
 
 Domestic service * • 
 
 Pensioners, means, institutions and servants in charge 
 
 Total of families and population 926,766 4,211,743 
 
 Families. 
 
 88,469 
 
 50,842 
 
 23,223 
 32,588 
 74,110 
 
 61,993 
 25,743 
 
 66,760 
 56,796 
 
 Popula- 
 tion. 
 
 399,690 
 
 Crowl.-il 
 
 '2 or mora IFworatan 
 
 in each cruwdnl. 
 room. 
 
 235,-jki 
 
 238,229 1 120,045 
 
 99,945 
 144,237 
 333,898 
 
 229,991 
 120,045 
 
 312,631 
 242,641 
 
 50,460 203,793 
 
 65,914 
 
 60,040 
 64,566 
 
 59,161 
 
 780,665 
 19,224 
 126,877 
 
 310,570 
 
 270,793 
 308,582 
 
 294,248 
 
 45,707 
 65,877 
 145,685 I 45 to 40 
 
 94,513 
 49,699 
 
 106,122 
 
 84,993 
 
 52,358 
 
 78,153 
 
 30,190 
 31,318 
 
 36,399 
 
 3,509,2991,170,340 
 70,453 
 631,991 
 
 * Includes only those occupied in service who have homes of their own ; the others are 
 enumerated with the families they serve. 
 
12 
 
 COMPARISONS. 
 
 questions it will be necessary to sum up and bring to a 
 point much, of the information gathered together in the 
 preceding volumes of this work. As a first step, we may 
 carry forward our comparisons into earnings and into the 
 relation between standard of earnings and standard of life. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 CROWDING AND EARNINGS. 
 
 Poverty (tested by Crowding) compared with Earnings. 
 
 Our attempt to connect the evidence as to poverty based 
 upon crowding with that obtained as to remuneration in 
 each trade, has met with only partial success. The 
 obstacles are great. Of these the first is the difficulty 
 of making in most trades any list of employees and their 
 wages which represents fairly the whole body of those 
 occupied ; and the second is that of estimating the annual 
 value of more or less irregular employment. 
 
 The plan adopted has been to obtain from as many 
 employers as possible a detailed statement of actual 
 amounts earned by those whom they employ, either in one 
 average week ; or in two different weeks, one chosen when 
 trade is active, the other when trade is slack. Taken 
 together these returns give average earnings for an average 
 number — not necessarily or probably the true average 
 for the year, but an approximation to it; and similarly 
 the busy and slack weeks when compared give a measure — 
 "but not a strictly accurate measure — of irregularity of 
 employment indicated by the numbers working and the 
 amounts earned at different times. It is evident that 
 nothing short of particulars which should include the whole 
 working population for every week in the year, could 
 give completely correct results, and that such details 
 would be unattainable even by a public inquiry. As a 
 response to an unauthorised private inquirer the amount 
 of information obtained has been, I venture to say, remark- 
 able ; and is a strong proof of good-will on the part of 
 employers and employed and of the lively interest taken 
 
14 
 
 COMPARISONS. 
 
 in social industrial problems. While admitting the imper- 
 fection of the results I very gratefully ackuowledge the 
 assistance I have received. 
 
 The inexactitude of the relation between poverty and 
 domestic crowding is another difficulty which cannot . be 
 ignored, and though I have already referred to this point in 
 the preceding chapter, it is necessary here to lay stress upon 
 it once more. It will be borne in mind that we reckon as- 
 living under crowded conditions those whose house accom- 
 modation is limited to one room for each two or more persons, 
 and that the number of persons so situated was found to 
 agree very closely with the total accounted as "poor" in 
 the classification of the population given in the " Poverty 
 Series " of this work, namely, those whose earnings were 
 supposed not to exceed 21s a week for a " small n family.* 
 This general agreement in results did not, however, hold 
 good in all districts alike, some being more crowded than 
 poor, and others more poor than crowded. Where rents are 
 high, crowding, as already intimated, is sometimes com- 
 patible with good living from every other point of view, 
 while where house accommodation is plentiful the opposite 
 may be true. On the whole we find that this distinction 
 coincides with the inner and outer circles of London. 
 
 Dealing with these difficulties as well as we could, we 
 have endeavoured, trade by trade, to put together the d;ita 
 for a comparison between earnings and style of life for the 
 whole population. In some sections we have succeeded 
 fairly ; in others not so well. In every trade some pro- 
 vision has to be made to cover irregularity of employment, 
 or to meet the probability of rates of wages lower than 
 are shown in our returns ; but these adjustments vary 
 in extent. Allowance had also to be made for reasonable 
 deductions from gross earnings, such, for instance, as 
 
 * A " small family " is considered to consist of about four members, and 
 provides the best basis of comparison with the earnings of the head of the 
 family only. 
 
CROWDING AND EARNINGS. ir, 
 
 expense of travelling to and from work, cost of tools, or 
 trade-union subscription. In view of these considerations, 
 it is perhaps not surprising if nominal earnings of from 25a 
 to 30s a week still fall within the lines of our measure of 
 poverty.* This, however, can be shown more clearly in 
 detail. 
 
 Besides those whose earnings are irregular and uncertain, 
 there are in every trade some who, though claiming that 
 trade as their occupation, yet never work. Whatever bo 
 the reason, whether it be old age, or sickness, or idleness, 
 or any other cause, the fact remains that they neither 
 work nor earn, and though perhaps nominally heads of 
 families, are probably supported by wife or children. The 
 inclusion of these men with other heads of families no doubt 
 tends to increase the apparent poverty of the trade. On 
 the other hand, the fact that our wages returns, which 
 include married and single, lodgers as well as householders, 
 are compared with the social condition of heads of families 
 only, will tend somewhat in the opposite direction ; for it 
 is fair to suppose that, amongst adults, heads of families 
 have the best and most regular employment. 
 
 Turning now to our task, and taking first the building 
 trade with its nine sections, we find on the whole 45 per 
 cent, of crowding, while our returns show only 40 per 
 cent, of earnings under '60s. (See Table III., p. 16.) 
 What, then, is a nominal 30s worth to men employed 
 in these trades, and do our figures fairly represent the 
 whole trade ? 
 
 That this employment is subject to great fluctuation is 
 well known. Our returns show a difference between busy 
 
 * It is to be remembered that the net wages, whatever they may amount 
 to, are not necessarily or even usually the total income if the family is 
 large. To the earnings of the head of the family must be added not only the 
 earnings of children or wife, but also money received from lodgers. They may, 
 however, stand fairly enough as the basis of the comparison here instituted, 
 with the supposed 21s income taken as the "line of poverty" for a small 
 family. 
 
Table III. — Earnings (for one week) in various Employ- 
 ments, compared with conditions as to crowding. 
 
 Trade Sections. 
 
 Numbers. 
 
 Pboportions. 
 
 AUUlt 
 
 Males 
 employed. 
 
 Sche- 
 duled. 
 
 Wages 
 under 
 25s. 
 
 Crowded 
 
 (em- 
 ployees 
 only). 
 
 Wages 
 under 
 30s. 
 
 
 
 
 per cent. 
 
 per cent. 
 
 per cent. 
 
 
 *97,873 
 
 5,066 
 
 
 45 
 
 40 
 
 
 29,515 
 
 591 
 
 14 
 
 52 
 
 30 
 
 
 7,348 
 
 685 
 
 34 
 
 41 
 
 51 
 
 
 2,978 
 
 367 
 
 8 
 
 38 
 
 284 
 
 
 1,813 
 
 140 
 
 18| 
 
 24 
 
 25 
 
 Sundry workers in iron and steel 
 
 36,702 
 
 13,203 
 
 32 
 
 36 
 
 46 
 
 
 11,130 
 
 1,402 
 
 24£ 
 
 491 
 
 434 
 
 
 4,748 
 
 412 
 
 H 
 
 28 
 
 164 
 
 
 2,143 
 
 147 
 
 20 
 
 28 
 
 36 
 
 
 5,184 
 
 830 
 
 10 
 
 30 
 
 25 
 
 Musical instruments and toys ... 
 
 5,885 
 
 308 
 
 17 
 
 37 
 
 30 
 
 
 2,973 
 
 743 
 
 18 
 
 48 
 
 32 
 
 
 2,375 
 
 403 
 
 26£ 
 
 32 
 
 464 
 
 
 1,149 
 
 1,276 
 
 33 
 
 31 
 
 574 
 
 
 8,281 
 
 665 
 
 27 
 
 39 
 
 44 
 
 
 2,440 
 
 207 
 
 9 
 
 42 
 
 324 
 
 
 2,229 
 
 367 
 
 14 
 
 39 
 
 32 
 
 
 25,480 
 
 2,164 
 
 144 
 
 37 
 
 254 
 
 
 4,621 
 
 781 
 
 164 
 
 44 
 
 28 
 
 
 2,459 
 
 270 
 
 19 
 
 34 
 
 42 
 
 
 3,301 
 
 263 
 
 20 
 
 25 
 
 38 
 
 
 3,468 
 
 399 
 
 32i 
 38 
 
 21 
 
 564 
 
 
 2,388 
 
 90 
 
 30 
 
 56 
 
 
 750 
 
 114 
 
 36 
 
 37 
 
 594 
 
 
 1,285 
 
 134 
 
 46J 
 
 51 
 
 714 
 
 
 1,317 
 
 518 
 
 34 
 
 39£ 
 
 584 
 
 
 2,228 
 
 208 
 
 14* 
 
 36 
 
 324 
 
 
 4,062 
 
 170 
 
 25i 
 
 43 
 
 50 
 
 
 10,873 
 
 911 
 
 38 
 
 15i 
 
 534 
 
 
 1,377 
 
 909 
 
 46i 
 
 39^ 
 
 72| 
 
 
 2,909 
 
 1,223 
 
 34 
 
 40 
 
 76 
 
 
 559 
 
 258 
 
 561 
 
 51i 
 
 75 
 
 
 10,471 
 
 431 
 
 28 
 
 46| 
 
 58 
 
 
 4,503 
 
 179 
 
 78 
 
 30 
 
 904 
 
 Butchers and fishmongers 
 
 14,873 
 
 223 
 
 38 
 
 34 
 
 60 
 
 
 11,542 
 
 770 
 
 33 
 
 39 
 
 644 
 
 Cab and omnibus service 
 
 33,961 
 
 1,979 
 
 4 
 
 48 
 
 264 
 
 
 33,519 
 
 2,311 
 
 60 
 
 58 
 
 794 
 
 
 4,369 
 
 958 
 
 16 
 
 65 
 
 28 
 
 
 5,529 
 
 4,976 
 
 19 
 
 441 
 
 344 
 
 Warehousemen and messengers 
 
 28,733 
 
 976 
 
 39J 
 
 46| 
 594 
 
 66 
 
 General labourers 
 
 70,035 
 
 2,335 
 
 43 
 
 78 
 
 Engine drivers and artisans 
 
 
 
 
 
 (undefined) 
 
 13,626 
 
 690 
 
 16 
 
 391 
 
 30 
 
 Omitting architects. 
 
CROWDING AND EARNINGS. l7 
 
 and slack weeks of 50 per cent, in numbers employed, as 
 well as 7 per cent, in average amounts earned by those 
 who are still working. Wages, maintained at a high level 
 are paid by the hour, and men who work by the job 
 have frequent intervals of idleness. The consequent 
 irregularity in earnings is indicated to some extent in 
 the returns from employers. If a man, his job being 
 finished, knocks off work in the middle of a week, the 
 fact is reflected in the money he earns for that week, 
 and would in this way correctly affect the average figure.' 
 It might indeed happen that a man leaving one employer 
 (on a Wednesday, for instance), filled up his week else- 
 where, in which case our returns would show too little 
 instead of too much; but on the other hand whole weeks 
 may be lost between one piece of work and the next, 
 especially in winter. 
 
 Comparing actual earnings with full pay for forty- 
 eight hours' work in the week, the loss through irregu- 
 larity of employment is estimated as being equal to the 
 difference between 38s and 31s 6d, or 28s and 23s 3d [see 
 Vol. I., " Industry/ 5 p. 129), or from 6s 6d to 4s 9d a week. 
 This difference is reduced to from 4s 3d to 2s 3d if the 
 comparison is made with the already modified figures of our 
 returns.* Travelling expenses, too, are an almost constant 
 charge. Men in the building trades must followthe work, and 
 cannot continually move their homes. Some high estimates 
 are given of the cost of travelling (see Vol. I., " Industry/* 
 p. 125), and it is probable that not less than Is a week on the 
 average is absorbed in this way. If to these deductions we 
 add the trade-union subscription, it would seem not unreason- 
 able to reduce the estimated wage figures by nearly 5s a week 
 in order to state fairly the net cash income available for 
 
 * The extent to which unavoidable irregularity of work is aggravated by 
 the irregular conduct of the worker, or by a lack of effort on his part to find 
 work, cannot be gauged, but our estimates are supposed to represent the 
 actual loss of time of men of good character and average energy. 
 
 v 2 
 
18 
 
 COMPARISONS. 
 
 personal expenditure. This would make the proportion of 
 crowding coincide with the proportion of those whose real 
 earnings are something less than 25s. But even so, we are 
 still 4s above the poverty standard of 21s, and have to find 
 the explanation (if the standard be still accepted) either in 
 money which never reaches the home, but is spent in drink 
 or other forms of generosity or extravagance, or in the 
 probability that our sample represents a more or less 
 picked body of men. 
 
 These explanations combined may perhaps sufficiently 
 account for the discrepancy between the two classifica- 
 tions, neither of which, as we have already said, can 
 pretend to be more than a rough approximation to the 
 truth. It must be remembered that rates of wages 
 in these trades are jealously guarded by trade - union 
 action, and amongst capable workmen the proportion of 
 unionists is large. Competent men, whether unionists or 
 not, obtain the pick of the work and earn good wages. It is 
 the less capable of the labourers, so far as they are never- 
 theless included with the skilled men in the total numbers, 
 who, with the idle, the drunken, and the sick, pull down a large 
 proportion of the earnings to a level which agrees with the 
 apparently impoverished condition in which so many are living. 
 
 As a general rule, taking all occupations together, the 
 line of crowding coincides with the proportion of workers 
 whose wages are below 25s. Printing and book-binding 
 form the only other important group of trades in which so 
 high a rate as 30s of nominal earnings must be taken for 
 this comparison, and it is certainly noteworthy that in these, 
 as in the building trades, wages have been raised and hours 
 shortened to a remarkable extent by trade-union action. 
 
 Among printers we find that 37 per cent, of heads of 
 families are ostensibly poor, while of the 2164 men for whom 
 we have wages returns, only 25 per cent, appear as earning 
 less than 30s a week. Work in this trade is increasingly 
 difficult to obtain, and the payment of out-of-work benefit 
 
CROWDING AND EARNINGS. 10 
 
 is seriously depleting the Societies' funds. Here trade 
 union action has undoubtedly overshot its mark, with the 
 result of simultaneously attracting labour to London and 
 driving trade away. Some of the men have no work, many 
 have only part work, while all who are employed are 
 heavily taxed to pay out-of-work benefits and to sustain 
 the strength of the organization by which wages are 
 maintained at so high a level. 
 
 The book -binding trade shows no better results j 44 per 
 cent, of those employed live under crowded conditions, 
 as compared to 28 per cent, earning less than 30s. This 
 industry, like the building trade, is subject to very great 
 seasonal irregularity, amounting, according to our returns, 
 to 171 per cent, in numbers and 21£ per cent, in money 
 earned, or 35 per cent, combined. The Board of Trade 
 returns of 1886 show the still greater diminution of 17 per 
 cent, in numbers and 37 per cent, in money, or 47^ per 
 cent, combined. These percentages would be higher still if 
 men only were included, as most of the boys, and more women 
 in proportion than men, are kept employed in slack times. 
 
 In this trade, too, the unions have been remarkably 
 successful in raising rates of wages, stopping overtime, and 
 reducing the regular working hours, and the result, we are 
 informed, is that, whether regularly or irregularly employed, 
 the men receive on the average less money than formerly. 
 
 With hatters, also a highly organized body, we find the 
 same comparison holds, that namely of a nominal 30s wage 
 with the line of poverty ; but here the issue is confused 
 by the inclusion of the ill-organized cap makers of East 
 London, whose comparatively low and irregular earnings 
 alfect the average. 
 
 Elsewhere, as a rule, the proportion of those who are 
 apparently poor tallies with the number whose earnings 
 are below 25s. For instance, in the metal trades, amongst 
 engineers and workers in iron and steel, we find 32 per 
 cent, whose nominal earnings are below 25s compared 
 v 2 * 
 
20 
 
 COMPARISONS. 
 
 with 36 per cent, living under crowded conditions. From 
 these trades we have returns which cover thirteen thousand 
 out of the census total of 36,000 employees — a very sufficient 
 
 basis. 
 
 As a contrast to this, amongst workers in " other 
 metals,"* i.e. other than iron and steel, we find 50 per cent, 
 of crowding, whereas our returns of wages show only 25 per 
 cent, earning less than 25s. The main explanation of this 
 large discrepancy lies in the character of the trade, which 
 includes many employers in a very small way of business 
 whose workmen are quite outside the range of our wages 
 statistics and undoubtedly work under less favourable 
 conditions than the employees of larger firms. There 
 are also a considerable number who work on their 
 own account — employing no one — whose earnings are 
 precarious. Excessive expenditure on drink, due, it 
 seems, to dry throats caused by the character of the 
 work, is said to prevail in these trades, and may partly 
 explain the discrepancy. 
 
 In the watch and clock trades again, the proportion of 
 crowded compares fairly well with those who earn less than 
 25s, but the number to whom our information extends is 
 too small for any very safe comparison to be made. 
 
 In those trades which we have designated as " sundry 
 manufactures" t we find throughout a relation more or less 
 exact subsisting between the proportion who are crowded 
 and the proportion returned as earning less than 25s a 
 week. As to those engaged in the making of soap and 
 candles, for instance, our statistics are exceptionally com- 
 plete, including actually more men than the census allots 
 to these trades, and we find the proportion of crowded to 
 be 31 cent., and of those earning less than 25s, 33 
 per cent. The factories are situated in the outskirts of 
 London, and the men are thus afforded the great economic 
 
 * Brass, copper, tin, lead, zinc, &c. 
 
 t Chemicals, soap and candles, leather dressing, saddlery, brushes, &c. 
 
CROWDING AND EARNINGS. 21 
 
 advantage of living near their factory in a neighbourhood 
 where rents are low. The work is also fairly regular. 
 Our returns agree with those of the Board of Trade in 
 making the difference between busy and slack times only 
 about 10 per cent, in numbers and 10 per cent, in amount 
 earned. Part of the reduction due to irregularity would 
 show itself in our figures, and taking everything into 
 account the proportion of crowded people seems rather 
 higher than it should be in this trade. 
 
 In the manufacture of chemicals, paint, &c, we require 
 to combine our figures with those of the Board of Trade* 
 as representing different portions of the group ; we then 
 find 26 J per cent, earning less than 25s as against 32 per 
 cent, of crowded. These figures are compounded of two 
 distinct elements ; for the men in the white lead and paint 
 works are less well paid, more irregularly employed and 
 more liable to sickness than those engaged in the manu- 
 facture of chemicals and some other cognate industries. 
 It is possible that we have not compounded these elements 
 in due proportion.f 
 
 Dyers and cleaners show 37 per cent, of crowding as 
 compared to 36 per cent, earning less than 25s, and india- 
 rubber and floorcloth workers 39 per cent, of crowding 
 compared to 34 per cent, below 25s. Silks, fancy textiles, 
 woollens, &c, taken together have 30 per cent, of crowd- 
 ing compared to 38 per cent, below 25s; rope and 
 mat-makers, 51 per cent, of crowding with 46 per cent, of 
 earnings under 25s. All these trades suffer the ordinary 
 degree of irregularity of employment, and may be supposed 
 to have each their share of men who, from one cause or 
 another, are out of work. The effect of all this en real 
 average earnings may be sufficient, when combined with 
 
 * Our returns were mostly from chemical works, and those of the Board 
 of Trade mostly from paint and white lead works. 
 
 + This difficulty applies more or less throughout, as each of our sections, 
 and many even of the census headings, include a number of distinct trades 
 to which varying conditions apply. 
 
22 
 
 COMPARISONS. 
 
 necessary deductions for trade expenses, to reduce the 
 nominal 26s of our returns to about the same level as the 
 21s of our former classification. 
 
 With millers, sugar-refiners, brewers and mineral-water 
 makers, a comparison of the same character may be 
 made : 
 
 Millers and sugar-refiners 39£°/o crowded and 46^% earning under 25s. 
 
 Brewers 40 % „ 34 % 
 
 Mineral- water makers 51| / o >» 56£°/o " >> 
 
 That there are comparatively so few crowded amongst 
 the millers, &c, is no doubt due to a large number of those 
 returned to us as employed in these trades passing in the 
 census as " general labourers." 
 
 Butchers show 38 per cent, of crowded compared to 
 34 per cent, earning less than 25s, and grocers, &c, 39 per 
 cent., compared to 33 per cent below 26s. Thus on the 
 whole the correspondence between crowding and poverty 
 appears to be fairly established. 
 
 But to this general rule there are some exceptions 
 to be noted in addition to those already mentioned. In the 
 manufacture of glass and earthenware 48 per cent, of the 
 employees are living in apparent poverty, when, according 
 to our returns (which include one-fourth of the whole 
 number of adult males employed), only 32 per cent, earn 
 less than 30s, and only 18 per cent, less than 26s. The 
 difference in numbers employed between slack and busy 
 weeks is very slight in these trades, and the variation 
 noticeable in earnings — 20 to 25 per cent, comparing busy 
 and slack times — is supposed to be taken into account in the 
 average on which our wages statistics are based. It may 
 be that our returns are in some way not fairly repre- 
 sentative, but there does not seem to be any large class, 
 receiving a lower scale of remuneration, unrepresented by 
 our figures. On the whole I am inclined in this case to 
 doubt the correctness of the returns made to us — at any rate 
 I am unable to find any other explanation of this discrepancy. 
 
CROWDING AND EARNINGS. 23 
 
 The trades connected with leather and furs show 39 per 
 cent, of apparent poverty as compared to only 27 per cent, 
 returned as earning less than 25s, but in this group are 
 included a great many minor industries, some of them very 
 ill-paid, from which it is not possible to obtain lists oV 
 wages. There is also some sub-contract work which makes 
 it impossible for the manufacturers to give complete wages 
 returns, so that our sample is certainly inadequate. Beyond 
 this it is to be remembered that those employed in these 
 trades live mostly in crowded districts where rents are 
 high, and also that amongst them old-fashioned habits as 
 to drink prevail to a great extent. 
 
 Surgical, scientific and musical instrument makers 
 show 30 to 34 per cent, of crowding with, according 
 to our returns, only 25 to 30 per cent, who earn less than 
 305. With these main trades are grouped many minor 
 ones, such as the making of fishing-tackle, magic-lanterns, 
 games, toys and tobacco-pipes, and a good deal of the 
 manufacture is done under garret masters with very 
 irregular conditions of work, and in some cases with 
 extremely low pay — all outside the range of our wages 
 returns. Jewellers, too, show as much as 28 per cent, of 
 crowding with only 16 per cent, whose wages are below 30s. 
 In this case not only is there a mass of cheap work done for 
 garret masters, but the foreigners who do it live in Central 
 London under conditions of crowding which may not 
 always be connected with any great degree of poverty. 
 
 Brush-making again is a most uncertain and irregular 
 employment. The return from one firm shows no less than 
 50 per cent, reduction in numbers employed, as well as 
 fully 30 per cent, in amounts earned per head, comparing a 
 slack and a busy week. In this trade we find 39 per cent, 
 who are living under crowded conditions, whereas our 
 wages returns show only 32 per cent, whose earnings are 
 nnder 305. So far as this discrepancy is not accounted for 
 by irregularity of work and consequent loss of time, it is 
 
24 
 
 COMPARISONS. 
 
 probably due to the considerable number of men who are 
 employed in small workshops, or who work at home on 
 their own account. We have no particulars of the wages 
 or earnings of these men, but they are undoubtedly low. 
 
 Coachmen, cabmen and omnibus men are another 
 exception. So far as we are able to test them we find only 
 26 per cent, with nominal earnings of less than 30s, whereas 
 there are 45 per cent, living under conditions of crowding. 
 The families of coachmen and cabmen often live, rather 
 tightly packed, in rooms over stables, and are not on that 
 account necessarily to be accounted poor. In these trades, 
 on the other hand, are to be found large numbers of hangers 
 on, who take a job when it offers, pick up a living as they 
 can, and evade investigation. 
 
 Carmen are in this respect a great contrast to cabmen, 
 &c. Their pay though low can be relied on; amongst 
 them, consequently, we find 58 per cent, of crowded in close 
 agreement with 60 per cent, earning less than 25s. 
 
 For dock or general labourers, coal-porters and gas- 
 workers, it is difficult to make any very satisfactory 
 comparison between earnings and style of life. Among 
 dock-labourers who earn from an average income of 8s or 
 less to one of 25s or 30s a week, we find 62 per cent, of 
 crowded families. Such of the general labourers as we 
 have returns from, show 43 per cent, under 25s, whereas 
 there is 60 per cent, of crowding, but those to whom our 
 returns apply are the more regularly employed. A better 
 comparison can be made as to warehousemen and messen- 
 gers, amongst whom we find 46 per cent, of crowding 
 against 39 per cent, of earnings below 25s. Gas-workers 
 show 44 per cent, of crowding with only 19 per cent, of 
 earnings under 25s, or 33 per cent, under 30s, a result 
 which reflects very clearly the effect of seasonal irregularity 
 in this trade ; and, finally, with coal-porters the contrast 
 between earnings when at work and result in comfort of 
 life is at its greatest, as we find no less than 65 per cent. 
 
CROWDING AND EARNINGS. 26 
 
 living under crowded conditions while only 16 per cent, are 
 returned as earning less than 25s, and only 28 per cent, 
 less than 30s per week. Or, looking at the other end of the 
 scale, we find that only 12 per cent, of these men and their 
 families are so well off as to live with less than one person 
 to each room or able to occupy more than four rooms in 
 all, although no less than 22 per cent, appear to earn fully 
 50s a week. Coal-porters undoubtedly earn very high 
 wages when at work, but do not for the most part 
 average their expenditure in good and bad weeks ; they 
 rather spend their money as soon as made, much of it 
 undoubtedly going in drink. 
 
 On the whole, reviewing all the facts before us, it seems 
 probable that the line of poverty in London, if we are to 
 accept crowding as a test, lies a little above the figure 
 formerly laid down. In proof of this, we may turn to the 
 section of municipal employment, for which we have 
 remarkably full statistics collected in the year of the 1891 
 census by one of the vestries. The men have regular em- 
 ployment, and their homes are distributed in all parts of 
 London. We find that the proportion living under 
 crowded conditions agrees with the percentage of those 
 whose wages are below 22s or 23s, which would be mid- 
 way between 21s and 25s. 
 
 It must be admitted, however, that the relation ship 
 between the statistics of remuneration and those of poverty 
 as tested by crowding is not very close. The discrepancies 
 may be explained and bridged over, but they remain in 
 many ways more remarkable than the agreement which 
 underlies them. One thing is abundantly evident, that the 
 full amount of nominal wages does not, as a rule, reach the 
 home. Some proportion is either not received at all or else 
 is dissipated in some way in a sufficient number of cases to 
 materially affect the averages. Between these two great 
 causes of domestic poverty— irregularity of earnings and 
 
20 
 
 COMPARISONS. 
 
 irregularity of conduct, both of which act in the same 
 direction — it is not possible to divide very exactly the 
 responsibility for impoverished homes. According to the 
 bent of one's mind or the mood of the moment, greater 
 importance is attached to this cause or that, and the 
 onlooker remembers the uncertainties of work or dwells 
 upon the recklessness of expenditure, and especially of 
 expenditure in drink. Moreover, these causes are com- 
 plicated by interaction. A man is apt to drink when he is 
 idle, as well as to lose his work because of intemperate 
 habits. 
 
 Between the economic position of families, more or less 
 uniform in size and known to be earning about the same 
 money, a valuable comparison might be made. If made, 
 it would undoubtedly show an amazing divergence, 
 rapidly increasing as time went on and self-restraint and 
 good management showed their cumulative effect. Some 
 families can never save on any income, while others succeed, 
 in doing so, however limited may be their means. Moreover, 
 what is true of savings is also true of all that is obtained 
 for money spent ; the decency and comfort of the home, 
 the quality of the food eaten, and the perfection or imper- 
 fection of the clothes worn, are by no means necessarily 
 in proportion to amount earned. On all these points 
 successful results are possible even with very straitened 
 means if the man is loyal and the woman prudent, while 
 they are unattainable without these virtues, even when the 
 earnings are much larger; and it may be noticed that wise 
 spending and wise saving go usually hand-in-hand. 
 
 It is not my object now to discuss the moral bearings 
 of these questions. I merely point them out in order to 
 account in part for the divergency between earnings and 
 what is shown for them on the average in many trades. 
 Dealing with broad averages, we must accept, amongst 
 other conditions, a broad average view of human nature, 
 and take men and women as they are, not refusing to 
 
CROWDING AND EARNINGS. 
 
 27 
 
 account a family poor, although the cause of poverty may 
 be the folly of the woman or the madness of the man, any 
 more than if it be phthisis or typhoid fever. 
 
 But when all is said that can be said in this direction, we 
 have still to turn to the other explanation and to admit thai , 
 owing to the irregularity of industrial life, a considerable 
 part of the nominal earnings in very many trades is not 
 received at all, and that therefore statistics based on rates 
 of wages may be very delusive. 
 
 Moreover, when we bring the whole population under 
 review we cannot but find many victims of poverty — the 
 sick, the maimed, the unlucky, the foolish, the stupid, the 
 lazy or the vicious, as well as old persons and widows — 
 who do not show at all in ordinary industrial statistics, but 
 who nevertheless find their places in the census amongst 
 the " occupied," and drag down the average condition of 
 the population accredited to the trades to which they claim 
 to belong. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 BORN IN OB OUT OF LONDON AND LIVING IN THE INNER OB 
 OUTER CIRCLE. 
 
 (1) Born in or out of London. 
 
 On the whole 50*2 per cent, of the heads of families are 
 returned as having been born in London, and an examina- 
 tion of the table given on the next page shows that the 
 middle position is exactly occupied by grocers. Civil 
 servants, commercial clerks, engine and machine makers, 
 bricklayers, publicans, and those engaged upon art or in 
 providing amusements, lie close to the average line on 
 either hand, and general labourers are very little above it, 
 there being 52 per cent, of them born in London. 
 
 Passing to the extremes, the highest proportion of 
 born Londoners is found amongst the heads of families 
 engaged in bookbinding; indeed the most essentially 
 London occupations are those connected with paper and 
 print. In bookbinding the proportion born in London 
 actually reaches 81 per cent., in paper manufacture (i.e. 
 envelope making, &c.) it is 78 per cent. ; amongst station- 
 ers 70 per cent. ; and with printers 66 per cent. The 
 ancient industry of brush-making follows with 76 per cent., 
 whilst lightermen who, protected ' by privileges handed 
 down from father to son, have plied their trade upon the 
 Thames from time immemorial, have 75 per cent, of London 
 born. Those engaged in making musical instruments and 
 toys show 71 per cent., and so do the manufacturers of 
 glass and earthenware. With coopers, another ancient 
 industry, the percentage is 69, and about the same rate 
 applies to cabinet makers and the workers in sundry 
 
BORN IN OR OUT OF LONDON, ETC. 
 
 20 
 
 Table IV. — Showing for each section the proportion of heads of 
 families bom in London, as compared to those living in the Inner 
 Ring or under crowded conditions. 
 
 Section. 
 
 Born 
 in 
 London 
 
 Bookbinders 
 
 Paper manufactures 
 
 Brushmakers 
 
 Lightermen 
 
 Glass & earthenware 
 Musical instruments 
 
 and toys 
 
 Stationers 
 
 Coopers 
 
 Trimmings, &c. ... 
 General shopkeepers 
 Cabinet makers ... 
 Brass, copper, &c... 
 Silk & fancy textiles 
 Woollens & carpets 
 Hemp, jute, fibre- 
 Printers 
 
 Costers, &c 
 
 Dock-labourers 
 
 Jewellers, &c 
 
 Plasterers, &c 
 
 Painters and glaziers 
 India-rubber, &c — 
 Soap, candles,& glue 
 
 Machinists 
 
 Dyers & cleaners ... 
 Leather dressing,&c. 
 
 Plumbers 
 
 Locksmiths, &c. ... 
 
 Coal-porters 
 
 Shipwrights, &c. ... 
 
 Chemicals 
 
 Surgical, &c, instru- 
 ments 
 
 Booksellers, &c. ... 
 Sundry workers in 
 iron and steel ... 
 
 Hatters 
 
 Carmen 
 
 Warehousemen and 
 
 messengers 
 
 Butchers, &c 
 
 Shirtmakers, &c. ... 
 Ironmongers, &c... 
 
 Law 
 
 Factory Labour 
 
 (undef.) 
 
 Tobacco workers ... 
 Watches and clocks 
 Boot & shoe makers 
 Coal, wood, & corn 
 dealers, &c 
 
 Per cnt 
 81 
 78 
 76 
 75 
 71 
 
 Living 
 in Inner 
 Circle. 
 
 71 
 70 
 69 
 69 
 68 
 68 
 68 
 68 
 68 
 67 
 66 
 66 
 66 
 65 
 65 
 65 
 63 
 63 
 62 
 62 
 62 
 62 
 62 
 61 
 60 
 60 
 
 59 
 58 
 
 57 
 57 
 57 
 
 57 
 56 
 56 
 55 
 54 
 
 53 
 53 
 53 
 52 
 
 52 
 
 Per cnt. 
 58 
 60 
 57 
 52 
 52 
 
 30 
 
 35J 
 
 54 
 
 56 
 
 58 
 
 56 
 
 49 
 
 55 
 
 59 
 
 62 
 
 48 
 
 63 
 
 65 
 
 39 
 
 23 
 
 31 
 
 46 
 
 39 
 
 42 
 
 31 
 
 63 
 
 28 
 
 35 
 
 34 
 
 37 
 
 28 
 
 31 
 
 33 
 
 38 
 56 
 50 
 
 57 
 38 
 47 
 34 
 18 
 
 36 
 61 
 40 
 
 55 
 
 33 
 
 Crowd 
 ed. 
 
 Per cnt. 
 41 
 49 
 40 
 35 
 47 
 
 32 
 
 17 
 
 36 
 
 36 
 
 40 
 
 45 
 
 43 
 
 27 
 
 45 
 
 47 
 
 34 
 
 65 
 
 62i 
 
 22 
 
 51 
 
 49 
 
 33 
 
 29 
 
 43 
 
 28 
 
 29 
 
 36 
 
 40 
 
 64 
 
 22 
 
 29 
 
 26 
 15 
 
 38 
 30 
 56 
 
 45 
 23i 
 36 
 15 
 5 
 
 41* 
 33 
 21 
 45 
 
 18i 
 
 Section. 
 
 General labourers 
 Dock and wharf 
 
 service 
 
 Extra service 
 
 Publicans 
 
 Commercial clerks 
 
 Grocers 
 
 Engive drivers, &g. 
 
 (undef.) 
 
 Civil and municipal 
 
 service 
 
 Bricklayers 
 
 Art and amusement 
 Engineering, &c... 
 Dressmaking, &c. 
 Municipal labour... 
 Country labour ... 
 
 Blacksmiths 
 
 Masons 
 
 Millers, &c 
 
 Builders 
 
 Carriage building- 
 Gasworks service... 
 
 Unoccupied 
 
 Seamen 
 
 Saddlery, &c 
 
 Cab and omnibus 
 
 service 
 
 Household service 
 Merchants, &c. ... 
 Carpenters & joiners 
 
 Architects, &c 
 
 Bakers and confec 
 
 tioners 
 
 Drapers, &c 
 
 Brewers & mineral 
 
 water makers .. 
 
 Milksellers 
 
 Medicine 
 
 Tailors ..... 
 
 Literature & science 
 
 Education 
 
 Lodging and coffee 
 
 house keepers .. 
 Bailway service .. 
 
 Keligion 
 
 Railway labour .. 
 Gardeners, &c. .. 
 
 Police 
 
 Army and navy .. 
 
 Gen 
 
 eral average 
 
 Born 
 in 
 
 London. 
 
 Living 
 In Inner 
 Circle. 
 
 Crowd- 
 ed. 
 
 Per cnt. 
 
 Per cut 
 
 Per cnt 
 
 52 
 
 37 
 
 58J 
 
 52 
 
 42 
 
 25 
 
 51* 
 
 43 
 
 40* 
 
 51 
 
 47 
 
 10" 
 
 51 
 
 19 
 
 10* 
 
 50 
 
 34 
 
 15* 
 
 49 
 
 36 
 
 37 
 
 49* 
 
 24 
 
 14 
 
 49 
 
 31 
 
 54 
 
 49 
 
 30 
 
 19 
 
 49 
 
 28 
 
 27 
 
 49 
 
 40 
 
 24 
 
 48 
 
 36 
 
 53 
 
 47 
 
 24 
 
 39 
 
 47 
 
 35 
 
 42 
 
 46 
 
 33 
 
 46 
 
 45 
 
 46 
 
 34* 
 
 44 
 
 24 
 
 19 
 
 44 
 
 35 
 
 37 
 
 43 
 
 25 
 
 44 
 
 43 
 
 28 
 
 14 
 
 42 
 
 34 
 
 30* 
 
 42 
 
 44 
 
 34 
 
 42 
 
 34 
 
 46 
 
 41 
 
 47 
 
 38* 
 
 41 
 
 18 
 
 6 
 
 41 
 
 28 
 
 31 
 
 40 
 
 15 
 
 4 
 
 40 
 
 39 
 
 20 
 
 40 
 
 26 
 
 10 
 
 39 
 
 57 
 
 37* 
 
 37 
 
 31 
 
 22* 
 
 37 
 
 35 
 
 12* 
 
 37 
 
 64 
 
 40 
 
 35 
 
 20 
 
 7 
 
 35 
 
 Id 
 
 
 
 34 
 
 47 
 
 
 
 31 
 
 19 
 
 28 
 
 27 
 
 28 
 
 6 
 
 22 
 
 16 
 
 42 
 
 22 
 
 6 
 
 23* 
 
 17 
 
 43 
 
 26 
 
 12 
 
 22 
 
 10* 
 
 50 
 
 37 
 
 3*i 
 
30 
 
 COMPARISONS. 
 
 metals (a mass of small industries), to fancy weaving, mat 
 and rope making, the manufacture of umbrellas, artificial 
 flowers and trimmings, and to jewellers. Amongst coster- 
 mongers and the keepers of small general shops the rate is 
 66 to 68 per cent. ; with dock-labourers it is 66 per cent., 
 and with painters 65 per cent. Such, therefore, are the 
 most characteristic employments of born Londoners. 
 
 Of all these only costermongers and dock -labourers are 
 exceptionally poor, but the average of crowding is high, 
 being about 43 per cent, in these trades taken together. 
 It is to be observed that the manufacturing industries 
 included in this group are, with the exception of glass and 
 earthenware, usually conducted on a small scale, and several 
 are rather declining trades, or are the subjects of cheap 
 sweated labour. In London industries, the born Londoner 
 does not seem to have the better position. 
 
 At the opposite extreme (omitting soldiers, who are but 
 birds of passage), we find the police with only 17 per cent, 
 of heads of families London born, and next to them gar- 
 deners and railway labourers with 22 per cent., and railway 
 servants, of whom the proportion is 31 per cent. Then 
 come lodging-house keepers with 34 per cent., teachers with 
 35 per cent., tailors (affected by Jewish immigration) 37 per 
 cent., milk-sellers 37 per cent., brewers' men 39 per cent., 
 bakers 40 per cent., drapers 40 per cent., and cabmen, 
 &c, 42 per cent. All these trades draw their labour from 
 the provinces, with the exception of tailors and bakers, 
 who are largely foreigners. In this group the average 
 percentage of crowding is 34, but if we exclude tailors 
 and cabmen, who are subject to special influences which 
 induce crowding — the tailors, on account of the presence 
 amongst them of many poor Jews, and the cabmen and 
 coachmen owing to living over the stables — the average 
 would be reduced to 17 per cent; showing again that in 
 London the new comers on the whole fare much better 
 than the old residents. 
 
BO EN IN OR OUT OF LONDON, ETC. 
 
 31 
 
 (2) Living in the Inner or Outer Circle.* 
 
 Turning now to dwellers in the inner or outer circle, we 
 find for all London 38 percent, of families living in the inner, 
 and 62 per cent, in the outer districts. The mean posil ion 
 in this case is occupied by bakers, butchers, and fishmongers, 
 who, as they cater for local wants, are found fairly evenly 
 distributed throughout London. The same thing is true 
 of general labourers, probably for a similar reason. The 
 extreme instances of centralization are dock labourers (with 
 dock service the opposite is true), tailors, leather-dressers, 
 fur-pullers, &c, and costermongers, all of whom have G3 to 65 
 per cent, of their number dwelling in the inner circle. At 
 the other end of the scale (not to mention gardeners, whose 
 case is obvious) we find professional men and commercial 
 clerks with only 15 to 20 per cent, living in the inner, and 
 80 to 85 per cent, in the outer districts. 
 
 If we combine these comparisons, we find that there is a 
 not unnatural numerical connection between those who 
 have been born in London, those who live in the inner 
 metropolitan circle, and those who are crowded in their 
 homes. Thus the sections which (as to their heads of 
 families) have : — 
 
 Per cent. Per cent. Ter cent. 
 
 G5 to 81 born in London show 43£ living in the inner circle and 43 crowded. 
 55 „ 63 „ „ 44£ „ „ 38 
 
 45 „ 54 „ „ 34 „ „ 3L} „ 
 
 37 „ 44 „ „ 35 „ „ 29£ „ 
 
 Below 37 „ 22 „ „ 18 
 
 The greater the proportion of born Londoners, the 
 greater also the proportion of those living in the central 
 districts of London and the larger the number, too, of those 
 whose homes are crowded. A two-fold influence connects 
 
 * A list of the districts comprised in the inner and outer circle of 
 respectively is given in Vol. I., p. 26. 
 
32 
 
 COMPARISONS. 
 
 crowding with the inner circle; for not only does poverty 
 cause most crowding where accommodation is comparatively 
 difficult to obtain and rents high; but much of the worst- 
 paid work demands that those who labour at it shall live 
 in proximity to the markets, warehouses and docks, which, 
 lining the banks of the Thames, are situated in the very 
 midst of London. 
 
 That the proportion of born Londoners is greatest 
 amongst the inhabitants of the inner circle has also a double 
 bearing, lending support to two theories which have been 
 put forward in a previous volume, the one that the 
 London-born man deteriorates and sinks into poverty, 
 elbowed out by the vigorous and successful immigrant, the 
 other that this tendency has a centripetal aspect, with the 
 result that men or generations of men in London, gravitate 
 inwards and downwards, as if caught in a pit, out of which 
 escape is difficult. 
 
 The exceptions to this general rule, which connects birth 
 in London with crowded homes, and with residence in its 
 inward parts, are worth noting. Trades in which neither 
 crowding nor living in the inner circle are found to bear any 
 relation to the proportion of born Londoners are mainly those 
 carried on in small retail local shops — stationers, book- 
 sellers, jewellers, ironmongers and drapers — and the same 
 thing is true of builders. In all these trades success rests 
 largely on establishment for many years — or u good-will " 
 as it is called — an advantage handed down from father to 
 son, or to be obtained only by those who, as old residents, 
 are known and trusted by their neighbours. Thus these 
 trades tend to fall into the hands of Londoners. On the 
 other hand, the local character of these occupations, from 
 which they derive their strength, causes them to be found 
 in all parts of London, including the newer residential 
 districts to which removal is made as needed. Finally, 
 whether successful or unsuccessful, the necessity of having 
 good business premises precludes much domestic crowding. 
 
BORN IN OR OUT OF LONDON, ETC. M 
 
 Dyers and cleaners, chemical workers and the makers of 
 scientific instruments, form another group in which also 
 we find a very considerable proportion of Londoners who 
 live in the outer circle and are not much crowded. These 
 are all trades of recent development which, establishing 
 their factories in the outskirts, draw readily from the 
 London market the kind of labour they require — labour 
 which demands intelligence and adaptability, rather than 
 any special skill or strength. 
 
 Londoners also form a large proportion of architects, 
 lawyers, civil servants, merchants and commercial clerks, 
 amongst whom there is very little crowding. These men, 
 whose working hours are not long, and rarely begin 
 before 9 or half-past, are able to live at a distance, and 
 even the poorest of them have a standard of home life 
 which demands sufficient house-room. 
 
 Tailors provide an exception of a different kind. Of 
 these a very large proportion live in the inner circle, and 
 amongst them there is a good deal of crowding, but only 
 a small proportion— 37 per cent, of heads of families so 
 employed— are London born. This anomalous result is 
 plainly due to the hold which Jewish immigrants have 
 obtained in this trade. 
 
 Instances in which a high degree of crowding accom- 
 panies residence in the outer circle, but in which there 
 are only a small proportion of Londoners, may be found 
 in cab and omnibus service, gas-works and railway labour. 
 In the two last of these trades we find the worst-paid 
 sections of country immigrants. Finally we have a few 
 industries in which considerable numbers live in the inner 
 circle, although those engaged are neither largely London 
 born nor much crowded. This is true of brewers, coffee- 
 house keepers and policemen. The great London breweries, 
 beins very old-established, and indifferent, it would seem, 
 to considerations of rent, are centrally situated. Their 
 employees live near their work, often in houses owned by 
 v 
 
34 
 
 COMPARISONS. 
 
 the brewery. Policemen, who are usually recruited from 
 the Provinces, are naturally most wanted where most 
 people congregate, and must live reasonably near their 
 beat; and finally, coffee-house keepers find their best 
 opportunity in crowded districts, but must themselves 
 occupy comparatively spacious premises. It seems that 
 they come mostly from the Provinces, recruited, perhaps, 
 from the class of domestic servants; this, however, does 
 not apply to publicans, of whom a normal proportion are 
 London born. 
 
 If these exceptions (comprising twenty out of eighty- 
 six sections) be deducted — and to many of them the general 
 principle we are considering is manifestly inapplicable — 
 the rule as regards the rest stands out with still greater 
 distinctness. Thus for 66 out of 86 sections we have the 
 following results : — 
 
 Per cent. Per cent. Per cent. 
 
 65 to 81 born in London show 49 living in the inner circle and 44J crowded. 
 55 ,, 65 „ ,, 46£ „ ,, 41} „ 
 
 45 „ 55 „ „ 37} „ „ 38} „ 
 
 37 „ 45 „ „ 33 „ „ 27} 
 
 Below 37 „ „ 17i „ 12} ., 
 
 In all these sections a connection is shown between the 
 proportion of heads of families born in London, and resi- 
 dence in the inner circle or crowded homes — one or both — 
 and the fact that it is often one rather than both, seems to 
 show that there is an entirely independent connection 
 between the first and each of the other two conditions. 
 That is, that amongst Londoners there is a tendency to 
 have crowded homes as well as to live in the inner districts, 
 and not at all necessarily the one because of the other. 
 
 Among other reasons, it is very probable that the London- 
 born man becomes accustomed to crowding, and feels the 
 need of air and space less than country-bred people. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 SIZE AND CONSTITUTION OF THE CENSUS FAMUtf. 
 
 By "size of family" is usually meant the number of 
 children born to any marriage, but the particulars extracted 
 from the census returns for the purposes of this book, 
 give no information of this kind. The householders' 
 schedules, however they might be analysed, would afford 
 no accurate information on this point, although something 
 more might perhaps be done in this direction than has 
 been attempted here. All that has been noted by us is 
 the number of individuals included in each schedule, and 
 whether they are occupied or unoccupied ; except that 
 domestic servants have been separately stated. 
 
 The head of the family is always counted as occupied. 
 Even if unemployed at the time, a man will be sure to 
 return himself under the occupation which he usually 
 follows, and those whose vocation is not otherwise stated 
 are included amongst the occupied as " living on their own 
 means." The "other occupied" members of each family 
 are such as claim status by employment of some kind ; the 
 unoccupied are those who make no such claim. Those 
 who make the claim of occupation are doubtless at 
 work and may be supposed to earn their own living or 
 contribute substantially to the family purse. The usual 
 plan, adopted by children as well as lodgers who board, 
 is to pay a weekly sum to cover the expense of their 
 keep. What more they earn goes for private purposes, for 
 dress or pleasure, &c. 
 
 Amongst the wives there are some, and amongst the 
 v 3 * 
 
36 
 
 COMPARISONS. 
 
 single women and girls there are many, who, though they 
 do not admit that they are employed in any trade, and 
 make no claim to industrial status, yet do undertake 
 regular work and are paid for it. In some of the trades 
 in which young women are engaged, it is certain that the 
 actual number of girls employed far exceeds the number 
 returned in the census, and as the missing girls are not to 
 be found under any other heading we can only assume 
 that their occupation, whatever it might be, was not 
 mentioned in the census schedule. Beyond this there is 
 a good deal of remunerated work done by young ladies 
 "for a friend," or under some other genteel and euphemistic 
 subterfuge, by those whose social position would, it is 
 thought, suffer by the open acknowledgment of regular 
 employment. Of these some no doubt realty work for their 
 living, but many more work rather for pocket-money. 
 
 Wives and young children form the bulk of the 
 unoccupied members of all families, while of the " others 
 occupied " the greater part will be older children who are 
 at work; but it must be remembered that no necessary 
 blood relationship exists between the members of a 
 census family. Boarders, lodgers, visitors, and domestic 
 servants are included. The bond is merely that of the 
 household. Those who live under the same roof or in the 
 same apartments, using probably the same kitchen fire, 
 are accounted as members of one family. Thus, in 
 comparing one group with another as to size of family, 
 it is necessary to take into account the way in which these 
 families are made up. There are usually more members all 
 told when a man is the head than when a woman fills that 
 place. For a woman to be at the head implies in effect 
 that a man is missing, and his absence naturally affects 
 also the number of children, especially young children ; 
 consequently we find that the average number per family 
 in women's trades is about one less than in men's employ- 
 ments ; and in trades which afford a mixture of male and 
 
SIZE AND CONSTITUTION OF THE CENSUS FAMILY. 37 
 
 female heads the average number is reduced closely in 
 accordance with this rule. 
 
 In pursuing our comparison allowance must be made for 
 this fact; it is also necessary to deduct servants, as to 
 include them would swell the totals in some sections 
 considerably more than in others. Deducting servants, 
 and assuming that families of which a woman is the 
 head contain on the average one less than the others, we 
 obtain the statement of comparative size of families 
 given on the next page. 
 
 It will be seen from this table that of families with male 
 heads, lodging and coffee-house keepers and publicans 
 stand first with a little over five individuals to each 
 family, and that doctors come last with an average of 
 three-and-a-half only. Speaking generally, the families of 
 labouring men vary from 5 to 4| members, and those 
 of the professional classes from 4| to 3£ members, but 
 there are some exceptions to this, and there are, as we 
 have seen, many considerations to be taken into account in 
 making the comparison. 
 
 As to lodging and coffee-house keepers and publicans, 
 it is to be noticed that the large totals are caused by 
 abnormal numbers of " others occupied." Of these some are 
 lodgers who board, while others, living on the premises, are 
 employed in capacities which do not count as domestic 
 service ; consequently some deduction must be made, and 
 the first place as to real size of family (that is in the 
 ordinary sense) undoubtedly passes to builders, who show a 
 high average both of occupied and unoccupied members, 
 and among whom there is no reason to suppose that any 
 excessive proportion of lodgers or visitors would be found. 
 
 Builders, with whom the average is 4*99, are followed by 
 plasterers and dock service with 4*88 members per family ; 
 then come gasworks service and shipwrights, 4*84 ; masons 
 and coopers, 4'82 ; and so on step by step in close gradation 
 to 4*50, or less, for various industrial pursuits. 
 
Table Y. — Comparative Size and Constitution of Families 
 
 Male Heads. 
 
 with 
 
 Constitution. 
 
 Section. 
 
 Number 
 of 
 
 Aver 
 
 age 
 
 
 go. 
 
 3 
 
 O 
 
 o • 
 
 
 families. 
 
 size. 
 
 j Hea 
 
 O g 
 
 O *£ 
 s a; 
 
 Lodging &nd coffee- 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 3,881 
 
 5-12 
 
 1 
 
 2-15 
 
 1-97 
 
 
 10,234 
 
 507 
 
 1 
 
 1-66 
 
 2-41 
 
 
 6,851 
 
 4-99 
 
 1 
 
 1-14 
 
 285 
 
 Plasterers and paper- 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 5,106 
 
 4-88 
 
 
 •97 
 
 291 
 
 Dock and wharf service 
 
 1,614 
 
 . 4-88 
 
 
 •97 
 
 291 
 
 
 4,350 
 
 4-84 
 
 
 •82 
 
 302 
 
 
 1,696 
 
 4-84 
 
 1 
 
 1-12 
 
 2-72 
 
 
 4,738 
 
 4-82 
 
 1 
 
 •98 
 
 2-84 
 
 
 2,566 
 
 4-82 
 
 1 
 
 1-13 
 
 269 
 
 
 3243 
 
 4-78 
 
 1 
 
 •79 
 
 2-99 
 
 
 4,075 
 
 4-77 
 
 1 
 
 •89 
 
 2-88 
 
 Butchers & fishmongers 
 
 15,781 
 
 4-75 
 
 1 
 
 •98 
 
 2-77 
 
 
 8,164 
 
 4-73 
 
 1 
 
 •94 
 
 2-79 
 
 Leather dressing, &c. ... 
 
 7,369 
 
 4-73 
 
 1 
 
 1-04 
 
 2-69 
 
 
 14,325 
 
 4-72 
 
 1 
 
 •91 
 
 2*81 
 
 Sundry workers in iron 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 6,494 
 
 4-71 
 
 
 •92 
 
 2-79 
 
 Coal, wood, &corn-dealers 
 
 4,220 
 
 4-71 
 
 
 1-02 
 
 2-69 
 
 
 3,475 
 
 4-70 
 
 1 
 
 •93 
 
 2-77 
 
 Brass, copper, tin, &c. 
 
 9,417 
 
 4-68 
 
 
 •89 
 
 2-79 
 
 
 5,127 
 
 4-68 
 
 1 
 
 •80 
 
 2-88 
 
 Cabinet makers, &c. ... 
 
 28,484 
 
 4-67 
 
 1 
 
 1-03 
 
 2-64 
 
 
 5,014 
 
 4*66 
 
 1 
 
 •97 
 
 2-69 
 
 Engine drivers., &c. (un- 
 
 9,599 
 
 4-66 
 
 1 
 
 •92 
 
 2-74 
 
 Bakers and confectioners 
 
 9,879 
 
 4-66 
 
 1 
 
 1-17 
 
 2-49 
 
 
 1,267 
 
 4-65 
 
 1 
 
 •9S 
 
 2-67 
 
 Carpenters and joiners 
 
 24,749 
 
 4-64 
 
 1 
 
 •93 
 
 2-71 
 
 
 25,202 
 
 4*64 
 
 1 
 
 •82 
 
 2-82 
 
 
 3,738 
 
 4-63 
 
 1 
 
 1-07 
 
 2-56 
 
 Engineering, &c 
 
 15,449 
 
 4-62 
 
 1 
 
 •88 
 
 2-74 
 
 Glass and earthenware 
 
 2,444 
 
 4-62 
 
 1 
 
 •86 
 
 2-76 
 
 Brush-makers 
 
 2,142 
 
 4-62 
 
 1 
 
 1-16 
 
 2*46 
 
 Dyers and cleaners 
 
 773 
 
 4-62 
 
 1 
 
 1-17 
 
 2-45 
 
 Millers, &c 
 
 1,134 
 
 4-62 
 
 1 
 
 •92 
 
 2-70 
 
 Country labour 
 
 2,231 
 
 4-61 
 
 1 
 
 •95 
 
 2-66 
 
 
 2,094 
 
 4-60 
 
 
 ■94 
 
 2-66 
 
 Carriage building 
 
 6,260 
 
 4-60 
 
 
 •95 
 
 2-65 
 
 
 2,779 
 
 4-60 
 
 
 •88 
 
 2-72 
 
 Painters and glaziers ... 
 
 22,934 
 
 4-59 
 
 
 •90 
 
 2-69 
 
 
 1,181 
 
 4*59 
 
 
 1-19 
 
 2-40 
 
 
 15,311 
 
 4-59 
 
 
 •86 
 
 2-73 
 
 
 2,563 
 
 4-5S 
 
 
 •93 
 
 2-65 
 
 
 14,947 
 
 4'58 
 
 
 1-06 
 
 2-52 
 
 Police and Prisons 
 
 8,561 
 
 4-58 
 
 
 •62 
 
 2-96 
 
 General shop-keepers ... 
 
 5,784 
 
 4-57 
 
 
 1-11 
 
 2'46 
 
 Constitution. 
 
 Section. 
 
 Number 
 of 
 
 families. 
 
 Aver- 
 age 
 size. 
 
 Head. 
 
 Others 
 occupied 
 
 Unoccu- 
 pied. 
 
 Boot and shoe-makers 
 
 20,387 
 
 ' 
 
 4 - 56 
 
 1 
 
 1-08 
 
 2'48 
 
 Musical inst. and toys 
 
 5,274 
 
 4-56 
 
 1 
 
 •97 
 
 2'59 
 
 
 4,522 
 
 4-54 
 
 1 
 
 I'll 
 
 2'43 
 
 Soap, candles, glue, &c. 
 
 1,003 
 
 4-53 
 
 1 
 
 •99 
 
 2'54 
 
 Dock labourers 
 
 9,602 
 
 4*52 
 
 1 
 
 •88 
 
 2'64 
 
 
 17,846 
 
 4-52 
 
 1 
 
 •89 
 
 2'63 
 
 Jewellers, &c 
 
 4,487 
 
 4*52 
 
 1 
 
 1-02 
 
 2-50 
 
 Municipal labour, water- 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 works &c* 
 
 3,626 
 
 4*52 
 
 1 
 
 •95 
 
 2'57 
 
 
 44,517 
 
 4"48 
 
 1 
 
 •84 
 
 2' 64 
 
 kjauuici jf j JKtl llcoo, OuiZ* 
 
 2,303 
 
 4 48 
 
 1 
 
 •97 
 
 2'51 
 
 
 6,143 
 
 4'47 
 
 1 
 
 1*25 
 
 2*22 
 
 Sf'.fl nn pre 
 
 3,054 
 
 4*46 
 
 1 
 
 1*06 
 
 2'40 
 
 l^fl ffcnTV InHfwiT ^iTnrlof ^ 
 
 3,454 
 
 4*45 
 
 1 
 
 •84 
 
 2'61 
 
 Tailors: 
 
 16,960 
 
 4"42 
 
 1 
 
 1'14 
 
 2*28 
 
 n Ct lr . Tvi n H p t* a 
 
 3,473 
 
 4"41 
 
 1 
 
 1'05 
 
 2'36 
 
 TT UUlLCllO allU. L-c* I Uclo ... 
 
 913 
 
 4' 41 
 
 1 
 
 1*10 
 
 2'31 
 
 l^jiVifinrl riinniVinc coTiri/io 
 
 32,506 
 
 4*41 
 
 1 
 
 •80 
 
 2'61 
 
 
 1,928 
 
 4'40 
 
 1 
 
 1*08 
 
 2*32 
 
 Mcicli&ntiS) brokers. &c. 
 
 13,077 
 
 4'40 
 
 1 
 
 •92 
 
 2'48 
 
 j. apci 1 1 1 till u lat till Co. . . . ». 
 
 2,143 
 
 4'38 
 
 1 
 
 1-09 
 
 2'29 
 
 
 2,672 
 
 4'38 
 
 1 
 
 1-07 
 
 2'3l 
 
 Civil and municipal serv. 
 
 13,378 
 
 4-35 
 
 1 
 
 •82 
 
 253 
 
 Surgical, &c, instruments 
 
 4,103 
 
 4-33 
 
 1 
 
 •80 
 
 2'53 
 
 
 4,064 
 
 4-33 
 
 1 
 
 •97 
 
 2'36 
 
 
 3,673 
 
 4-29 
 
 1 
 
 •83 
 
 246 
 
 Gardeners, &c 
 
 7,496 
 
 4-29 
 
 1 
 
 •92 
 
 2 37 
 
 
 3,592 
 
 4-28 
 
 1 
 
 1-18 
 
 210 
 
 Warehousemen, Mes- 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 senders &c 
 
 17,646 
 
 4'28 
 
 1 
 
 *S9 
 
 2*39 
 
 Sipn mpTi 
 
 3,577 
 
 4'25 
 
 1 
 
 "84 
 
 2'41 
 
 
 4,019 
 
 4 '22 
 
 1 
 
 I'll 
 
 2*11 
 
 Costers And. street-sellers 
 
 5,050 
 
 4*20 
 
 1 
 
 1'03 
 
 2*17 
 
 flnm niprpiii 1 f»l pt»1t« 
 
 40,131 
 
 4'1S 
 
 1 
 
 •79 
 
 2*39 
 
 TTn Appn t*i prl 
 
 34,835 
 
 4'17 
 
 1 
 
 1'24 
 
 1'93 
 
 Silk 3.nd fsmcy textiles. ■ 
 
 ±,ZUO 
 
 4*12 
 
 1 
 
 1'2S 
 
 1*84 
 
 
 4,342 
 
 in 
 
 1 
 
 1*15 
 
 1 '96 
 
 Law 
 
 7 734 
 
 4 "05 
 
 1 
 
 */5 
 
 - o\j 
 
 Af n p Vt i n i qt.Q! 
 
 OJ D 
 
 4'03 
 
 1 
 
 •97 
 
 206 
 
 T^YTTJ* Qprvifp 
 
 y f ooi 
 
 3"9S 
 
 1 
 
 1-44 
 
 1'54 
 
 Household service &c. 
 
 13 629 
 
 3*90 
 
 1 
 
 •90 
 
 2'00 
 
 Literature and science 
 
 2,492 
 
 3-87 
 
 1 
 
 •77 
 
 210 
 
 Art and amusement 
 
 8,461 
 
 3-87 
 
 1 
 
 •90 
 
 197 
 
 
 3,834 
 
 3-71 
 
 1 
 
 •55 
 
 2'16 
 
 
 1,479 
 
 3-57 
 
 1 
 
 1-21 
 
 1-36 
 
 
 7,057 
 
 351 
 
 1 
 
 •91 
 
 1*60 
 
 
 724 
 
 3-27 
 
 1 
 
 1-24 
 
 1-03 
 
SIZE AND CONSTITUTION OF THE CENSUS FAMILY. 39 
 
 The numbers of the occupied, and still more of the 
 unoccupied, show wider variations than the total; for if the 
 one falls short the other often makes up the deficiency to 
 some extent. Taking the occupied we find, out of eighty-four 
 sections, sixty-nine which show an average per family of not 
 less than '8 or more than 1*1, and a considerable proportion 
 lie between *9 and 1*0. When the figure is over 1*0 it is 
 due either to the inclusion in the family circle of employees 
 residing and working on the premises, as with publicans, 
 bakers, and drapers j or of learners living with their 
 employers, as with tailors and boot-makers, and other trades 
 in which many foreigners are employed. Or it may be owing 
 to the presence of an exceptionally large proportion of middle 
 aged or elderly men amongst the heads of families, and 
 consequently of grown up sons and daughters, as with 
 builders, shipwrights, coopers, and watch-makers; or to 
 the wives working and returning themselves accordingly, 
 as with brush-makers and sack-makers (included under 
 workers in hemp, jute, &c). The same peculiarity of a 
 high proportion of "others occupied" applies also to those 
 who come under the headings of religion and education, 
 due no doubt to the presence as boarders of pupil teachers 
 and students, who count as "occupied" in the census 
 returns. 
 
 The instances where there are less than -8 "other 
 occupied " persons per family are very few— namely, army 
 and navy, police, commercial clerks, and those engaged in 
 literature and science. A. low average age for the heads 
 of families is doubtless the explanation in every case, 
 except, perhaps, as to literature and science, where a 
 higher class is touched and an entirely different social 
 condition prevails. 
 
 Turning now to unoccupied members, the number varies 
 from 3-02 to 1-60 per family. The latter is quite abnormal, 
 being found only with medical men, the exigencies oi 
 whose profession often make it necessary for them to have 
 
40 
 
 COMPARISONS. 
 
 an establishment of their own at an age when other men 
 are still living with their parents, or as boarders in 
 lodgings. Within the range of from 2 to 3 per family, 
 the numbers of the unoccupied vary from section to 
 section, and it appears that this element is the best test 
 of size of family in the ordinary sense. The maximum 
 number (3*02) is found with gasworks service, followed 
 closely by the allied trade of coal-porters (2*99). It may 
 be remembered that these two trades gave a very bad 
 result for crowding compared to the supposed earnings, 
 and in the excessive proportion of dependents we have, so far 
 as it goes, an explanation. In both of these industries 
 the number of " other occupied " members is considerably 
 below average. It is probable that the irregularity of em- 
 ployment of the heads of these families militates against the 
 stability of the home. In such homes children early leave 
 the nest, and lodgers are less frequently found than where 
 there can be a more settled and therefore more comfortable 
 domestic life. It may be also that the grimy character of 
 the man's work has its effect. Who, for instance, would 
 by choice lodge at the house of a sweep ? The same com- 
 bination — a large proportion of unoccupied with a small 
 proportion of occupied — is present with policemen, and is 
 undoubtedly due in this case to the low average age of the 
 head of family and probable presence of young children. 
 
 From 3 to 2\ unoccupied (and therefore dependent) 
 members is the usual number in all ordinary working-class 
 employments. Where the number is less than 2J it is 
 usually due to the fact that the wives work, as with silk- 
 weavers (who are also exceptionally old), sack-makers, 
 paper-bag, box, and envelope makers, book-binders, hatters, 
 &c. To these may be added watchmakers and gardeners 
 as of above average age, and lodging-house keepers and 
 publicans — trades which are not well suited for those who 
 have many young children, and to which, on the other 
 hand, men often retire when their children are no longer 
 
SIZE AND CONSTITUTION OF THE CENSUS FAMILY. 41 
 
 young. In the same category are stationers, drapers, and 
 ironmongers, employments in which the young men are 
 rarely heads of families, at any rate in the census meaning 
 of the term, and soldiers and sailors who naturally have 
 but small families. Otherwise those whose families contain 
 less than 2| unoccupied members belong mainly to the 
 mercantile and professional classes, as under : — 
 
 Merchants and brokers 2 48 
 
 Architects 2 46 
 
 Commercial clerks 2 39 
 
 Eeligion 211 
 
 Literature 2- 10 
 
 Education 2 04 
 
 Art and amusement l % 
 
 Medicine 1-60 
 
 There are, however, two other instances for which no 
 explanation readily offers. These are warehousemen (2*39), 
 and costermongers (2*17). It may be that coster children 
 go to work very early. It is difficult also to find adequate 
 •explanation for so wide a difference as exists in some 
 instances amongst the ordinary working and trading 
 classes — but perhaps we have already pressed these 
 statistics far enough in endeavouring to make them yield 
 their full meaning. There is, at all events, a quite remark- 
 able uniformity in the figures for all ordinary unskilled 
 labour, country labour showing 2*66 unoccupied members 
 per family, railway labour, 2*65, dock and general labour, 
 2*64, and factory labour, 2*61. Uniformity of result 
 could hardly go further. 
 
 At this point it may be of interest to note the proportion 
 of the adult males in each section who are heads of families. 
 This proportion has an extraordinary range, varying from 
 85 per cent, with shipwrights to 34 per cent, with seamen 
 and 30 per cent with army and navy (see table on p. 42). 
 
 This proportion and the constitution of the average family 
 are closely connected with the ages of the persons employed 
 in each section, of which we shall treat next. They are 
 also affected by economic position and class habits. 
 
42 
 
 COMPARISONS. 
 
 Table VI. — Percentage of Male Heads of Families to Males 
 over 20 (census (1891) enumeration). 
 
 Section. 
 
 Shipwrights, &o 
 
 Builders 
 
 Publicans 
 
 Dock and wharf service 
 
 Municipal labour 
 
 Plasterers and paperhangers 
 
 Extra service 
 
 Coopers, &c 
 
 Masons 
 
 Carpenters and joiners 
 
 India-rubber, &c 
 
 Railway labour 
 
 Gasworks service 
 
 Bricklayers 
 
 General shop-keepers 
 
 Tobacco workers 
 
 Coal, wood and corn dealers 
 
 Blacksmiths , 
 
 Lightermen 
 
 Dyers and cleaners 
 
 Religion 
 
 Painters and glaziers 
 
 Locksmiths, &c 
 
 Brush-makers 
 
 Cabinet makers, &c 
 
 Sundry workers in iron and 
 
 steel , 
 
 Leather dressing, &c , 
 
 Hemp, jute, and fibre 
 
 Boot and shoe-makers 
 
 Engineering, &c 
 
 Trimmings, &c 
 
 Gardeners, &c 
 
 Coal-porters 
 
 Brewers and mineral water 
 
 makers 
 
 Carriage building 
 
 Woollens, carpets 
 
 Milk-sellers 
 
 Brass, copper, tin, lead, &c... 
 
 Chemicals 
 
 Booksellers, &c 
 
 Soap, candles, glue, &c 
 
 Saddlery, harness, &c 
 
 Silk and fancy textiles 
 
 Cab and omnibus service 
 
 Carmen 
 
 Per 
 Cent. 
 
 85 
 
 83 
 
 83 
 
 81 
 
 81 
 
 79* 
 
 79 
 
 78* 
 
 78" 
 
 78 
 
 78 
 
 78 
 
 78 
 
 77^ 
 
 77i 
 
 77 
 
 77 
 
 76 
 
 76 
 
 75i 
 
 75 
 
 75 
 
 75 
 
 75 
 
 74^ 
 
 74* 
 
 74| 
 
 74J 
 
 74 
 
 74 
 
 74 
 
 74 
 
 73J 
 
 73 
 
 73 
 
 73 
 
 72J 
 
 72| 
 
 72J 
 
 72 
 
 72 
 
 72 
 
 72 
 
 72 
 
 Section. 
 
 Musical instruments and toys 
 
 Tailors 
 
 Millers, &c 
 
 Watches and clocks 
 
 Paper manufactures 
 
 Butchers and fishmongers .. 
 
 Grocers, &c 
 
 Railway service 
 
 Police 
 
 Jewellers, &c 
 
 Glass and earthenware 
 
 Engine drivers and artisans 
 
 (undefined) 
 
 Hatters 
 
 Dressmakers, &c 
 
 Plumbers 
 
 Ironmongers, &c 
 
 Merchants, brokers, &c. ... 
 
 Dock labourers 
 
 Unoccupied , 
 
 Bookbinders 
 
 Civil and municipal service... 
 Factory labourers (undef.) 
 
 Medicine 
 
 Stationers 
 
 Bakers and confectioners... 
 
 Shirtmakers, &c 
 
 Surgical, &c, instruments 
 
 Country labour , 
 
 Literature, &c 
 
 Architects, &c , 
 
 Printers , 
 
 Lodging and coffee-house 
 
 keepers 
 
 Education 
 
 General labourers 
 
 Art and amusement 
 
 Law 
 
 Warehousemen and messen 
 
 gers , 
 
 Costers and street-sellers 
 
 Commercial clerks 
 
 Machinists , 
 
 Drapers, &c 
 
 Household service 
 
 Seamen 
 
 Army and Navy 
 
Nos. 
 
 EXPLANATORY NOTE 
 Ok Method adopted in preparing the Diagrams of Numbers 
 of occupied Males at Different Ages. 
 
 Of every 10,000 males in London, 
 6300 males are divided bv 
 
 Ages. 
 
 Proportion per 
 
 10,000 of 
 total aged 10-80. 
 
 Proportion 
 
 at each 
 year of age. 
 
 10-15 
 
 193*5 
 
 38-7 
 
 15-20 
 
 880-0 
 
 176-0 
 
 20-25 
 
 933-0 
 
 186-6 
 
 25-35 
 
 1636-0 
 
 163-6 
 
 35-45 
 
 1201-0 
 
 120-1 
 
 45-55 
 
 830-0 
 
 83-0 
 
 55-65 
 
 434-0 
 
 43-4 
 
 65-80 
 
 192-5 
 
 12-8 
 
 are counted as occupied. These 
 ages in the following manner :— 
 
 The last column, giving the 
 yearly mean, is obtained by divid- 
 ing the proportionate figures by the 
 number of years which they cover. 
 Thus the proportionate figures for 
 ages 10-15, as representing 5 years, 
 are divided by 5, giving 38-7 as the 
 mean ; similarly, for 25-35, covering 
 10 years, the figures are divided by 
 10, giving 163*6 as the mean num- 
 ber. The numbers at the different 
 age-periods in each Trade-section 
 or Group are brought to the same 
 scale, and the charts drawn in 
 accordance with the mean figures, 
 as is shown by the indicating points 
 of the curves being placed in the 
 centre of each age-period. 
 
 Diagram (I.) showing ages of occupied in 
 whole population and in certain selected 
 trades. (1891— Males.) 
 
 Whole of occupied Males 
 
 in London. 
 Excess of young (Printers). (2) 
 Excess in prime of life \ 
 
 (Dock Labour). / ; 
 
 Excess in old age (Boot-" 
 
 makers). 
 
 A^es.iO 
 
 VOL. V. PART I. CHAP. V. TO FACE PAGE 43. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 AGE DISTRIBUTION OF THE OCCUPIED CLASSES. 
 
 Fob each trade section, or for nearly every such section in 
 the four preceding volumes, a diagram has been furnished 
 comparing the ages of occupied males in the section with 
 the age distribution of all occupied males in London. Sonic 
 trades follow almost exactly the general line, whilst others 
 show a special surplus or special deficiency of young 
 persons, or of those in middle life, or in old age, as the case 
 may be. Others, again, show marked irregularities, pointing 
 usually either to the combination under one heading of 
 trades with different characteristics, or to some notable 
 industrial change (as, for instance, a surplus of old men in 
 decaying industries, or their entire absence in trades of 
 recent origin), or indicating, it may be, the substitution 
 of boy labour or female labour for that of adult men. 
 
 The diagram herewith (I.) shows four separate curves 
 chosen to represent (1) the normal line, (2) an exaggerated 
 number of young persons, (3) the absence of young men, 
 and (4) an excess of old men. In studying these curves it 
 must be borne in mind that every elevation of one part of 
 the line has a depressing effect elsewhere ; but it is never- 
 theless in most cases possible to determine whether excess 
 or deficiency is the active agent, or whether both influences 
 must be counted. 
 
 The object of the proposed comparison is to show, as 
 a study of industrial friction, the manner in which oppor- 
 tunities of employment necessarily shift from trade to 
 trade as the workers pass from boyhood to old age. 
 
 In some trades there are hardly any young people 
 employed, and in others comparatively few who are not 
 young. In only a few trades is the proportion at every 
 age quite the same as that of the whole occupied popula- 
 
44 
 
 COMPARISONS. 
 
 tion, and those with only a slight divergence are not 
 numerous. It follows that a very large number of people 
 necessarily change their trade at least once, as they pass 
 from boyhood to manhood and from manhood to old age. 
 
 In the following trades we find true proportions at each 
 age : — 
 
 Cabinet makers. 
 
 Engineering, &c. 
 
 Sundry iron and steel-workers. 
 
 Leather-dressers, &c. 
 
 Booksellers. 
 
 Millers, &c. 
 
 The boy who starts work in any of these trades may 
 fairly hope to live his life and end his days in it. It is only 
 if the trade contracts that any of its members need to look 
 for other work. 
 
 The trades which show very slight deviations from the 
 normal line are : — 
 
 Occupation. 
 
 Direction of other deviations. 
 
 Brass, copper, tin, lead, &c, workers... 
 Engine drivers and artisans (undefined) 
 Musical instrument and toy-makers ... 
 Saddlers and harness-makers 
 
 Jewellers, gold and silver workers 
 
 General labourers 
 
 Seamen 
 
 Tailors 
 
 Hatters 
 
 Law 
 
 Excess of youths. 
 
 Deficiency of youths and 
 
 in prime of life. 
 Deficiency of youths. 
 
 Deficiency of youths and 
 in prime of life ; excess 
 of old. 
 
 Deficiency in prime of 
 
 life and excess of old. 
 Excess in prime of life. 
 
 In these trades the ages of those employed are so 
 nearly normal as not materially to affect the questions 
 of movement and friction, but of no other employments 
 €an this be said. In some cases almost every boy who 
 enters a trade does so knowing that his future will lie 
 •elsewhere. In others the demand is for the very cream of 
 manhood ; boys are not wanted, and the muscle and nerve 
 
AGE DISTRIBUTION OF THE OCCUPIED CLASSES. 45- 
 
 of even the middle-aged becomes too stiff. In this respect 
 almost every occupation, as an examination of the diagrams 
 given in preceding volumes shows, has its peculiarity. 
 
 It is not very easy to make an effective comparison of 
 this kind, but something may be done by grouping together 
 those occupations which show more or less similar peculi- 
 arities : and this we will attempt in a sequence beginning 
 with those in which the young prevail, and ending with 
 the occupations which especially favour the old. 
 
 The trades which have an exaggerated proportion of boys 
 and young men are : — 
 
 Occupation. 
 
 Principal deviation from 
 normal line. 
 
 Direction of other deviations. 
 
 
 
 vv aitJiiuuBciiicu emu 
 
 messengers Strongly marked excess to 20 Deficiency 30 and up. 
 
 Factory labour 
 
 (undefined) 
 Commercial clerks, 
 
 &g 
 
 Printers 
 
 Drapers, &c 
 
 Army and navy ... 
 Domestic service . 
 Soap, candles, glue, 
 
 &c, manuf ! Moderate excess to 20 
 
 Chemical workers 
 
 25 
 30 
 
 Hemp, jute, and 
 fibre workers ... 
 
 Paper manufac- 
 turers 
 
 Civil and municipal 
 service . 
 
 Stationers 
 
 Book-binders 
 
 Glass and earthen- 
 ware manuf. ... 
 
 Ironmongers, &c. . 
 
 Grocers &c 
 
 Surgical and elec- 
 trical Lustrum ts. 
 
 Milk-sellers 
 
 Bakers and con- 
 fectioners 
 
 Butchers and fish- 
 mongers 
 
 Carmen 
 
 Plumbers, &c 
 
 „25 
 
 „ 30 
 
 Deficiency 45 and up. 
 
 Deficiency 45 and up. 
 Deficiency in prime of life. 
 
 Deficiency in prime of life. 
 Deficiency in prime of life. 
 
 Deficiency 45 and up. 
 
46 
 
 COMPARISONS. 
 
 The difficulty of finding civilian employment experienced 
 by soldiers who are discharged or pass into the reserve 
 after a short period of service, has been brought forcibly 
 before the public, but perhaps they are not so much worse 
 off than others who are thrown out by general tendencies, 
 on the average as inexorable in their working as any term 
 of enlistment. In some cases the excess of the young 
 is due to the novel character or rapid expansion of a 
 business, and it will take another decade, or perhaps two, 
 before we can say at what age those who have grown up 
 in the trade must be dispensed with. 
 
 The sections which employ an excessive proportion of 
 men in the prime of life are as follows : — 
 
 Occupation. 
 
 Eailway service 
 
 Education 
 
 Coal-porters 
 
 Brewers and mineral water 
 manuf 
 
 Cab and omnibus service... 
 
 Police 
 
 Gas-works service 
 
 Architects 
 
 Bricklayers 
 
 Medicine 
 
 Literature 
 
 Art and amusement 
 
 Religion 
 
 Extra domestic service 
 
 Publicans 
 
 Masons 
 
 Carpenters and joiners 
 
 Plasterers and paper- 
 hangers 
 
 Painters, &c 
 
 Railway labour 
 
 Dock labour 
 
 Dock service 
 
 Lodging and coffee-house 
 keepers 
 
 Principal deviation 
 from normal line. 
 
 Excess 25 to 35 
 25 to 40 
 
 25 to 45 
 
 25 to 50 ... 
 30 to 45 ... 
 
 Deficiency 20 to 30 
 Excess 30 to 50 ... 
 
 35 to 45 
 
 Direction of other 
 deviations. 
 
 Excess of youths. 
 Deficiency of youths. 
 Deficiency of youths and 
 old age. 
 
 Deficiency of youths and 
 
 excess 45 to 60. 
 Deficiency of youths. 
 
 Excess 45 and up. 
 
 Deficiency of youths and 
 
 excess 50 to 60. 
 Excess 45 and up. 
 
 Deficiency of youths and 
 excess 45 to 60. 
 
 »> »> 
 Deficiency of youths and 
 excess 45 and up. 
 
AGE DISTRIBUTION OF THE OCCUPIED CLASSES. 47 
 
 Of the above it should be noted that in most instances 
 the excess is carried past the prime of life, i.e. from forty- 
 five to sixty. This is the case with railway labour, six 
 sections from the building trades, brewers, publicans and 
 coffee-house keepers, as well as with medicine, art, litera- 
 ture, religion and extra service. 
 
 It will at once be apparent that this table exactly 
 reverses the conditions presented by the sections which 
 employ an excess of young men, but great ingenuity and 
 a very wide knowledge would be needed to dove-tail 
 the two. Many who are messengers up to twenty may 
 appear later, for instance, under railway service; a surplus 
 of young domestic servants may pass into the category of 
 extra (i.e. outside) domestic service, or be found as coffee 
 or lodging-house keepers or publicans, or become cabmen, 
 busmen, or stablemen, or join the police ; lads described 
 as "factory labourers, undefined," or engaged in sundry 
 manufactures — soap, candles, chemicals, &c. — may, per- 
 haps, afterwards feed the ranks of dock labour, or become 
 in their years of greatest strength gas-workers or coal- 
 porters. In some way these transitions are made — the 
 movement may be up or down, of the nature of promotion 
 or the reverse. The figures before us give a glimpse of 
 the seething mass of industrial life, in which individual 
 action, guided by necessity or profit, adapts itself to 
 human needs. The process is, perhaps, a salutory one, 
 but it involves much suffering and many dismal failures, 
 and, it may be, a good deal of unnecessary friction, 
 while it is made much worse for the young Londoners if 
 the best places are filled by countrymen who come to 
 London. 
 
 In the following sections the excess is only found 
 after forty or forty-five — that is, when the prime of life 
 is past : — 
 
48 
 
 COMPARISONS. 
 
 Occupation. 
 
 Principal deviation 
 from normal line. 
 
 Direction of other deviations. 
 
 Lightermen 
 
 Builders 
 
 Carriage builders 
 
 Coopers 
 
 Blacksmiths 
 
 Dyers and cleaners .... 
 
 Boot and shoe workers 
 
 Coal, wood and corn dealers 
 
 Municipal labour 
 
 Shipwrights 
 
 Gardeners and country labour 
 Watch and clock-makers 
 
 Excess 40 to 50 
 40 to 60 
 
 45 
 
 to 60 
 
 Deficiency of youths. 
 Excess of old. 
 Deficiency of youths. 
 Deficiency of youths and 
 excess of old. 
 
 Deficiency of youths and 
 
 in prime of life. 
 Deficiency of youths and 
 
 in prime of life, excess- 
 
 of old. 
 Excess of old. 
 Deficiency of youths. 
 Deficiency of youths and 
 
 excess of old. 
 
 In six of the foregoing groups, the excess beyond fifty-five or sixty is 
 carried into quite old age, and there are also the following instances in 
 which abnormal proportions are only shown after fifty-five — that is, in 
 old age : — 
 
 Occupation. 
 
 Principal deviation 
 from normal line. 
 
 Direction of other deviations. 
 
 Silk and fancy textiles 
 
 Excess 55 and up 
 
 Excess 60 and up 
 > > 
 
 Deficiency of youths and in 
 prime of life. 
 
 »> i» 
 
 1 » » » 
 Deficiency in prime of life. 
 
 
 
 
 [Milliners and dressmakers, shirtmakers and seamstresses, trimmings, 
 artificial flowers, &c, and machinists, consisting mainly of females, are 
 omitted from the foregoing comparisons.] 
 
 Lightermen and watermen may not improbably have been 
 sailors in their more active years. Those who call them- 
 selves builders have perhaps been previously connected with 
 the building trade in some special branch, and so too with 
 blacksmiths, who when young may perhaps be returned as 
 hammermen. Dealers in coal, wood, &c, are often men 
 who have retired from more active occupations. With 
 boot-makers, tailors and hatters, the excess of old men,. 
 
Nos. (For explanation of method adopted in preparing tins chart, see Note on Diagram L, p. 43.) 
 280- 
 
 A$as.l0 15 20 25 30 
 
 35 w *5 50 55 60 65 70 75 80 
 
 VOL. V. PART I. CHAP. V. TO FACE PAGE 48. 
 
AGE DISTRIBUTION OF THE OCCUPIED CLASSES 4'.) 
 
 which is not very great, is no doubt due to the work being 
 comparatively light. Those so employed perhaps live to 
 a greater age, and at any rate can continue longer at 
 work than many others. The same may no doubt be said 
 of gardeners. 
 
 But the most striking instances of excessive proportion 
 of the old are the decaying or decayed trades — coopers, 
 shipwrights, silk-weavers, rope-makers, and watch-makers 
 — as shown on the annexed diagram (II.). 
 
 The lines on the diagram which represent coopers and 
 shipwrights correspond very closely. Few young men enter 
 these trades, but the old remain. In another decade, 
 doubtless, the curve will have changed, in so far that the 
 excess in proportion will be at sixty in place of fifty; and 
 gradually, with greatly reduced numbers, a normal line will 
 again occur, beginning at twenty or twenty-five aud pro- 
 ceeding downwards towards old age. 
 
 In the curve which represents silk-weaving, &c, we see 
 signs of the springing up of new methods, or new industries, 
 finding employment for the young; and on the other hand 
 the exaggeration in old age has passed on to sixty, and over 
 sixty ; for the decay of the old Spitalfields industry dates 
 from nearly forty years ago. In rope-making it is not 
 decay, but a change of system that is indicated. Here the 
 use of machinery has brought in a large number of boys ; 
 men from twenty-five to forty-five are missing ; but the old 
 hands linger on. It is the same with the making of 
 watches and clocks, where the line, practically normal up 
 to forty, shows a surplus of the old at fifty and still more at 
 sixty years of age. 
 
 As already indicated, the facts we are dealing with can 
 usually be stated either in terms of excess or of deficiency', 
 i.e. as an unusually large proportion at one time of life, or 
 an unusually small proportion at some other time, but in 
 some cases it is the deficiency at some particular age 
 which is to be remarked rather than a surplus at any 
 
50 COMPARISONS. 
 
 other. The following sections showing abnormally small 
 proportions at certain ages, are instances of this : — 
 
 Occupation. 
 
 • • 
 
 Principal deviation from 
 normal line. 
 
 Direction of other 
 deviations 
 
 Locksmiths, &c. ... 
 
 Deficiency up to 25 
 
 — 
 
 Woollen goods and 
 
 
 
 carpet manufac- 
 
 
 
 
 17 to 40 
 
 Deficiency in prime of life. 
 
 India-rubber goods 
 
 
 and floor-cloth- 
 
 
 
 
 , , 20 to 25 
 
 
 Tobacco workers ... 
 
 
 
 General shop- 
 
 
 
 
 up to 30 
 
 Deficiency in prime of life. 
 
 Costermongers and 
 
 
 
 20 to 30 
 
 
 All the above 
 
 show a surplus 
 
 later on, but there is a 
 
 special and exceptional lack of younger men. 
 
 The pressure on life caused by the need of leaving one 
 employment and seeking another, has been here considered 
 pathologically, as involving suffering ; as a necessary evil. 
 But it has another aspect, under which it appears as the 
 spring of health rather than an attack upon welfare. 
 
 An able French writer, in a recent book on the position 
 of labour in England,* has treated this necessity, which he 
 recognizes as a prominent feature of our modern life, 
 entirely from this more cheerful aspect, and finds in it the 
 true base and best hope of our national prosperity. This 
 view may, perhaps, be carried too far, but must not on that 
 account be neglected. 
 
 To get rid of all shifting from trade to trade would be to 
 sink to a system of caste, with its fatal stagnation. There is 
 a healthy stimulus to individual energy in every decision 
 demanded from us, and a power of education in the exercise 
 of forethought. And connected with this there is a selec- 
 
 * "The Labour Question in Britain," by Paul de Rousiers. (English 
 translation: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., 1896.) 
 
Nos. 
 
 Agas.lO 15 20 25 30 35 40 *5 50 55 60 65 70 75 80 
 
 VOL.Y PART L CHAP. V. TO FACE PAGE 51. 
 
AGE DISTRIBUTION OF THE OCCUPIED CLASSES. 51 
 
 tive force. Those profit who are ready to meet inevitable 
 change and take advantage of opportunities that may offer. 
 But neither the advantage to the " Wise Virgins" nor the 
 educational value of the competitive process generally is 
 much solace to the many who suffer for their folly or lack 
 of strength. 
 
 Moreover, the pressure which we recognize as good in 
 many ways for humanity at large is precisely what every 
 wise man seeks to avoid for himself and for his children 
 too, except in a very mitigated form. Thus, though as a 
 discipline it may be a blessing in disguise, it is as an evil 
 that the enforced shifting from employment to employment 
 is here considered. 
 
 Age Distribution of Female Employees. 
 
 So large a proportion of females at every age claim no 
 industrial occupation, and transfers from the occupied to 
 the unoccupied ranks, or vice versa, are so frequent, owing 
 to marriage, widowhood, or other change of circumstance, 
 that no argument as to industrial friction can be drawn 
 from the figures. Nevertheless, they are of some interest. 
 
 It seems that milliners and dress-makers follow exactly 
 the normal line ; that is, the proportions of all ages following 
 these pursuits are almost exactly the same as those of the 
 whole occupied female population of London. .Tailoring, 
 brush and comb-making, and cabinet makiug (i.e. uphol- 
 stery), differ very little from the normal, but the difference 
 in all is the same, there being a slight deficiency of girls and 
 of women up to thirty-five years of age, and a slight excess 
 above that age. Hat and cap-making show a surplus of 
 girls, a deficiency of women from twenty-five to fifty, with 
 a normal line in old age. Confectioners, tobacco- workers, 
 book-binders, envelope cutters, boot and shoe-workers, and 
 machinists, all have a surplus of girls, and deficiency in 
 later life. It is the same with domestic servants. The 
 proportion is redressed by shirt-makers and seamstresses, 
 v 4 * 
 
52 
 
 COMPARISONS. 
 
 charwomen, and washerwomen, amongst whom there is a 
 great preponderance of the old. The annexed diagram 
 (III.) gives the lines for tailoring, book-binding and extra 
 service (including charwomen, &c.) for comparison. 
 
 In closing this chapter it may be of interest if we 
 insert a diagram (IV.) to show the age distribution of the 
 whole population of London, divided into occupied and 
 unoccupied, male and female, and note the peculiarities 
 which, applying to the whole and representing general 
 tendencies, must necessarily be repeated, though in 
 different degrees, in the various parts. 
 
 What at once strikes the eye on referring to the diagram 
 is the upward " kink " in the curve representing the whole 
 population from twenty or a little below twenty to nearly 
 twenty-five. This is the age at which the greatest influx 
 happens, and the lines dealing with each sex separately 
 show that the greater part of the immigrants are young 
 women of or under twenty years of age, coming, no doubt, 
 from the provinces as domestic servants, or sometimes as 
 wives to men who, if not married when they come to 
 London, may seek a wife in their country home. 
 
 Employment with both sexes begins between ten and 
 fifteen years of age, and the numbers employed rapidly reach 
 their maximum, with women before twenty, with men 
 between twenty and twenty-five. By (or before) twenty, 
 marriage provides a domestic career for many young 
 women who have previously been in employment of one 
 kind or another, and continues to affect the line till 
 thirty-five or forty. Were it not for the large number of 
 girls and young women who come to London between 
 fifteen and thirty years of age, the effect of marriage 
 would be still more marked. 
 
 The curve which represents the proportion of un- 
 occupied females tells the same story, but of course 
 reversed. It shows numbers increasing rapidly from about 
 
30UT 
 OT 
 
 riZED 
 
AGE DISTRIBUTION OF THE OCCUPIED CLASSES. 
 
 58 
 
 seventeen up to thirty, and following .after thirty the 
 ordinary line of decrease by mortality, only slightly affected 
 by the abandonment of work in old age. 
 
 The curve for males also shows signs of the immigration, 
 especially between the ages of from about seventeen to 
 twenty-three, when very large numbers of clerks, shop- 
 assistants, young working men, and students in one or 
 another of the professions, come to London. But, in the 
 case of men, the effect of this immigration is to a great 
 extent counteracted by the exodus which takes place, 
 much larger numbers than among women leaving, per- 
 manently or temporarily, for the provinces, the colonies, or 
 abroad. 
 
 As compared with the independent course taken by the 
 curve for occupied females, the close correspondence, after 
 the age of about twenty-two, of the curve representing the 
 occupied males w 7 ith that for the total of males in London is 
 a noteworthy feature, accompanied as it is by the correlative 
 fact that from about the same age the small number of 
 unoccupied males remains practically stationary to the end. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 STATUS AS TO EMPLOYMENT. 
 
 In considering the comparative poverty of those employed 
 in each section, we have constantly referred to the division 
 shown by the census of 1891 between employers, employed, 
 and those who are neither employers nor employed. 
 A further use can be made of the same figures to indicate 
 the average size of the unit of business. 
 
 Thus in book-binding there are fifty-one employed 
 persons to each employer, but amongst watch and clock- 
 makers, only four to each employer. Ifc is not possible to 
 apply this test to every occupation. In the building 
 trades, for example, we find bricklayers, carpenters, 
 painters, &c, all in the employ of men who call themselves 
 "builders," while there are also master bricklayers, and 
 master carpenters who do not claim to be builders, and 
 master painters, whose men often include carpenters, 
 plasterers and plumbers. In many cases it is, in fact, 
 doubtful by which of several possible titles a master man 
 should rightly describe himself. Even so, although it 
 would not be possible to give the proportion of employers 
 to employed in any particular section, we might still do this 
 for the aggregate of the building trades, were it not that 
 we find bricklayers, carpenters and painters as employed 
 men in many other quarters, for instance in gasworks, 
 railway-works, and any large manufacturing business. 
 The same thing is true of blacksmiths, copper-smiths 
 
STATUS AS TO EMPLOYMENT. 
 
 r>r> 
 
 and tinsmiths, and of many branches of engineering, as 
 well as of coopers, carmen, coachmen, stable-men, &c. 
 Then, too, there are employments in which all arc 
 employers — such as "contractors," "ship-owners/* &c, 
 and others in which all are employees, amongst them being 
 "artisans," "machinists," and "labourers" of every kind. 
 Not only is it impossible to deal with these sections 
 themselves, but they affect the results shown by other 
 sections, for a discrepancy is caused if some of those 
 employed, instead of being placed in their proper trade, 
 appear elsewhere in the census — for instance, as machinists 
 or artisans, or as general labourers or clerks. Those who 
 follow these occupations, having no employers in their own 
 section, must be distributed amongst the other sections, 
 and would by so much increase the numbers there returned. 
 In other cases there is a transfer — as, for instance, with 
 regard to workers in "other metals," viz., copper, tin, 
 lead, &c, some of whom will be employed in engine and 
 machine making ; or, it may be, at chemical works, or by 
 brewers and distillers, or by printers, with the result that 
 what one section gains, another loses. The sections to 
 which these errors principally apply have not been included 
 in the list which follows. We have not, for example, 
 ventured to state any figures for the separate divisions of 
 the building trades, but we know that the average number 
 per master is on the whole something like thirteen. The 
 list is nevertheless sufficient, and is probably sufficiently 
 correct, to afford an interesting comparison. 
 
 If we consider the number of male employees only, it 
 is seen that printers head the list, followed by the 
 engineering trades, but, if women are included, book- 
 binders have, on the average, the largest establishments- 
 standing first as to women and girls, and third as to men 
 and boys : — 
 
56 
 
 COMPARISONS. 
 
 Table VII. — Showing number of Employed to each Employer 
 in certain Trades, 
 
 
 Employees. 
 
 Total. 
 
 Male. 
 
 Female. 
 
 
 OA 
 
 ol 
 
 51 
 
 
 9 
 
 29 
 
 38 
 
 
 33 
 
 2 . 
 
 35 
 
 
 
 
 27 
 
 
 
 
 18 
 
 
 15 
 
 
 17 
 
 
 10 
 
 7 
 
 1 / 
 
 
 10 
 
 l 
 
 1G 
 
 
 8 
 
 7 
 
 15 
 
 
 14 
 
 1 
 
 15 
 
 
 8 
 
 n 
 O 
 
 14 
 
 Tl f * 1 1 £>_ _ 
 
 11 
 
 
 191 
 
 13% 
 
 
 12 
 
 1 
 
 13 
 
 
 Q 
 O 
 
 o 
 
 13 
 
 
 8 
 
 
 
 13 
 
 
 12 
 
 
 1 o 
 14 
 
 Q 
 
 o 
 
 4 
 
 12 
 
 ct_n_ j /* j x * i 
 
 5 
 
 7 
 
 12 
 
 
 7 
 
 5 
 
 
 
 6 
 
 
 
 12 
 
 
 10 
 
 1 
 
 11 
 
 
 9 
 
 2 
 
 11 
 
 
 
 11 
 
 11 
 
 
 8£ 
 
 H 
 
 10 
 
 
 8 
 
 2 
 
 10 
 
 
 5 
 
 5 
 
 10 
 
 
 41 
 
 3 
 
 7* 
 
 
 C) 
 
 1 
 
 7 
 
 
 7 
 
 
 7 
 
 
 4 
 
 2 
 
 
 
 
 4 
 
 1 
 
 5 
 
 
 4 
 
 
 4 
 
 The small average size of industrial establishments at 
 once arrests attention, and this is the more noticeable when 
 it is remembered that in many of the trades mentioned 
 there are found some very large factories, whose size, 
 although they may count their employees by hundreds, is 
 entirely swamped when averaged with the great mass of 
 small establishments ; nor is this all, for in addition to the 
 small factories and workshops, wherein are to be found both 
 
STATUS AS TO EMPLOY KENT. 57 
 
 employers and employed, there are in many trades a very 
 large number of men who work on their own account, 
 employing no one or obtaining only a little assistance of an 
 unprofessional kind from members of their own family. 
 The extent to which this form of individual production, and 
 that of the smallest type of workshop, obtains in London, 
 is shown in the following table : — 
 
 Table VIII. — Showing number of individuals who work 
 on their own account compared to number of those who 
 employ others, in various trades. 
 
 
 Employers. 
 
 Working on 
 own account. 
 
 Shirt-makers and seamstresses 
 
 353 
 
 3581 
 
 Dress-makers and milliners 
 
 5280 
 
 18,500 
 
 
 3042 
 
 5238 
 
 
 G8G 
 
 908 
 
 
 4226 
 
 5199 
 
 Musical instruments and toys 
 
 815 
 
 919 
 
 
 35G 
 
 379 
 
 
 355 
 
 304 
 
 Surgical and electrical instrument makers 
 
 539 
 
 481 
 
 
 3767 
 
 3303 
 
 
 424 
 
 353 
 
 
 208 
 
 106 
 
 
 708 
 
 501 
 
 970 
 
 741 
 
 
 1547 
 
 1213 
 
 
 3434 
 
 2192 
 
 Note. — The return called for in the census was not always filled up, and 
 it is here assumed that those who made no return consisted of employers, 
 employed, and " neither " in the same proportions as the far larger number 
 of those who made the return. 
 
 It will be seen that in all the trades which are suited for 
 operations on a small scale, there are about as many men 
 who work on their own account as there are employers. 
 These small units of industry may sometimes be the sur- 
 vival of an old state of things, but by no means always. 
 More often they are the form which the most pushing 
 industries adopt in the struggle for existence. London is 
 
58 
 
 COMPARISONS. 
 
 no doubt the stronghold of small industries, but London is 
 the greatest of modern cities, and what is true of London 
 is, I believe, not less true of all great cities — of New York 
 and Melbourne, as well as of Paris and Berlin. 
 
 On the whole, if we except such large and impersonal 
 undertakings as railways, docks, and gasworks, the police 
 force and various forms of public service, one notices rather 
 the immense number of small undertakings than the tendency 
 to exaggeration of size, which is supposed to be character- 
 istic of modern industry. The figures which can be given 
 are far from perfect, but will, afc any rate, do very well 
 for comparing one period with another. The census of 
 1891 may serve in this way as a starting point, and after 
 a decade has passed we shall perhaps be able to see more 
 clearly in what direction we are moving in this respect. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 INCREASING AND DECREASING TRADES. 
 
 Between 1881 and 1891 the population of Londoo 
 increased 10| per cent., but the numbers employed in 
 this or that trade were affected in very varying degrees. 
 Those engaged in making surgical, scientific, and 
 electrical instruments, for instance, increased no less than 
 113 per cent., while, on the other hand, shipwrights 
 decreased 56J per cent. The true mean is occupied 
 by leather dressers, fur-pullers, &c, amongst whom the 
 gain in the decade exactly kept pace with that of the 
 population. 
 
 If we look back farther we find that the augmentation 
 in the numbers of scientific instrument makers lias been 
 continuous, amounting to 246 per cent, since 18(31. 
 This increase has been exceeded only by that of the paper 
 trades, in which the total addition to the numbers employed 
 was 250 per cent. Shipwrights have as continuously 
 declined, the reduction being no less than 72.1 per cent, 
 since 1861. Where there is an increase it has, as a rule, 
 been a fairly steady one during the whole thirty years, 
 and where a decrease that also has been persistent. An 
 exception to this rule is to be found in the building trades, 
 in which only the last decade shows a decrease; the 
 explanation being, not that the trade has really declined, 
 but that its operations have been partly transferred to 
 districts beyond the census boundaries. Hat and cap 
 makers form another exception, as after decreasing rapidly 
 up to 1881, they show 12 per cent, increase in the las! 
 
Table IX. — Showing the increase or decrease in Metropolitan industries and 
 professions between 1861 and 1891. 
 
 Section. 
 
 Surgical, &c, instru-\ 
 ments ) 
 
 Factory labour (undef.). . 
 
 Machinists 
 
 Coal-porters 
 
 Paper manufactures .... 
 
 Gasworks service 
 
 Engine drivers and \ 
 artisans (undefined). . / 
 
 Municipal labour, &c 
 
 Costers and street-sellers 
 
 Carmen 
 
 India-rubber, &c 
 
 Civil & municipal service 
 Dock and wharf service ) 
 
 „ labourers / 
 
 Printers 
 
 Chemicals 
 
 Booksellers, &c 
 
 Art and amusement .... 
 
 Engineering, &c 
 
 Milk-sellers 
 
 Tailors 
 
 Soap, candles, glue, &c. 
 Bakers and confectioners 
 
 Commercial clerks 
 
 Plumbers 
 
 Grocers, &c 
 
 Drapers, &c 
 
 Stationers 
 
 Cab and omnibus ser-) 
 
 vice J 
 
 Religion 
 
 Tobacco workers 
 
 Blacksmiths 
 
 Book-binders 
 
 Builders 
 
 Literature and science . . 
 Musical instruments 1 
 
 and toys / 
 
 Brass, copper, tin, lead, ) 
 
 &c f 
 
 Class and earthenware . . 
 
 Extra service 
 
 Ironmongers, &c 
 
 Trimmings, &c 
 
 Painters and glaziers 
 
 Dress-makers & milliners 
 Butchers & fishmongers 
 
 Numbers 
 returned, 
 1891. 
 
 Increases or 
 Decreases. 
 
 1S81-1S91 1S61-1891 
 
 
 
 % 
 
 
 % 
 
 8,300 
 
 + 
 
 llo 
 
 + 
 
 246 
 
 8,600 
 
 + 
 
 79 
 
 + 
 
 309* 
 
 10,700 
 
 
 78^ 
 
 * 
 
 
 4,800 
 
 + 
 
 50 
 
 + 
 
 50 
 
 14,700 
 
 + 
 
 48 1 
 
 + 
 
 250 
 
 5,900 
 
 + 
 
 47* 
 
 + 103* 
 
 18,000 
 
 + 
 
 43 
 
 
 221* 
 
 4,900 
 
 + 
 
 40 
 
 T 
 
 123 
 
 12,900 
 
 + 
 
 38* 
 
 
 t 
 
 43,800 
 
 + 
 
 36* 
 
 + 
 
 198 
 
 3,100 
 
 + 
 
 35 
 
 + 
 
 138* 
 
 27,200 
 
 + 
 
 34i 
 
 + 
 
 45£ 
 
 16 700 
 
 4. 
 
 34* 
 
 + 
 
 17 
 
 40,000 
 
 + 
 
 33* 
 
 + 124* 
 
 5.800 
 
 + 
 
 32 
 
 + 
 
 141* 
 
 7,800 
 
 + 
 
 32 
 
 
 66 
 
 24,200 
 
 + 
 
 32 
 
 + 
 
 87* 
 
 25,000 
 
 + 
 
 31* 
 
 + 
 
 108* 
 
 10.200 
 
 + 
 
 31 
 
 + 
 
 82 
 
 - 52,300 
 
 + 
 
 30 
 
 + 
 
 41* 
 
 2 200 
 
 + 
 
 29* 
 
 
 26£ 
 
 25,800 
 
 + 
 
 29 
 
 + 
 
 66£ 
 
 108,400 
 
 + 
 
 28* 
 
 + 
 
 205* 
 
 9,300 
 
 + 
 
 27* 
 
 
 t 
 
 31,500 
 
 + 
 
 27* 
 
 + 
 
 59 
 
 30,900 
 
 + 
 
 26* 
 
 + 
 
 53 
 
 8 900 
 
 + 
 
 25V 
 
 + 
 
 98 
 
 48,200 
 
 + 
 
 25 
 
 + 
 
 69* 
 
 8.600 
 
 + 
 
 24* 
 
 + 
 
 75* 
 
 9.600 
 
 + 
 
 24* 
 
 + 
 
 88 
 
 12,300 
 
 + 
 
 24 
 
 + 
 
 28 
 
 15,900 
 
 + 
 
 23 
 
 + 
 
 104 
 
 8,900 
 
 + 
 
 22 
 
 + 
 
 134 
 
 4,500 
 
 + 
 
 21* 
 
 + 
 
 137 
 
 10.400 
 
 + 
 
 21 
 
 + 
 
 37 
 
 17,200 
 
 + 
 
 19* 
 
 + 
 
 35* 
 
 5,000 
 
 + 
 
 19 
 
 + 
 
 66* 
 
 93,000 
 
 + 
 
 19 
 
 + 
 
 50* 
 
 9,200 
 
 + 
 
 18 
 
 + 
 
 91* 
 
 19,700 
 
 + 
 
 16* 
 
 + 
 
 1\ 
 
 32,700 
 
 + 
 
 16 
 
 
 t 
 
 83,400 
 
 + 
 
 16 
 
 + 
 
 46* 
 
 28,600 
 
 + 
 
 15* 
 
 + 
 
 26* 
 
 Section. 
 
 Numbers 
 returned, 
 1S91. 
 
 Army and navy 
 
 Police, &c 
 
 Cabinet makers, &c 
 
 Railway labour 
 
 Gardeners, &c 
 
 Hat and cap-makers 
 
 Railway service 
 
 Warehousemen and \ 
 
 messengers ) 
 
 Leather dressing, &c 
 
 Medicine 
 
 Brewers, mineral water ) 
 
 workers / 
 
 Carriage building 
 
 Saddlery, harness, &c. . . 
 Household service, &c. . . 
 Boot and shoe-makers . . 
 
 Education 
 
 Lodging and coffee- ) 
 
 house keepers J 
 
 Architects, &c 
 
 Seamen 
 
 General labourers 
 
 Locksmiths, &c 
 
 Jewellers, &c 
 
 Hemp, jute, fibre 
 
 Publicans 
 
 Sundry workers in iron ) 
 and steel / 
 
 Merchants, brokers, &c. 
 
 Lightermen 
 
 General shop-keepers 
 
 I Woollens and carpets . . 
 
 Law 
 
 Dyers and cleaners 
 
 Carpenters and joiners . . 
 
 Watches and clocks .... 
 
 Brush-makers 
 
 Masons 
 
 Bricklayers 
 
 Plasterers & paperhangers 
 
 Millers, &c 
 
 Silk and fancy textiles . . 
 
 Coal, wood, corn-dealers 
 
 Coopers 
 
 Shirt-makers and seam- ) 
 stresses / 
 
 Country labour 
 
 Shipwrights. &c 
 
 Increases or 
 Decreases. 
 
 1881-1891 1361-1891 
 
 
 
 % 
 
 
 %_ 
 
 15 800 
 
 
 15* 
 
 
 25 
 
 12 300 
 
 
 15 
 
 
 
 
 
 1 A 
 
 1* 
 
 + 
 
 16 
 
 3 500 
 
 
 13 
 
 
 
 12,100 
 
 + 
 
 13 
 
 + 
 
 7 
 
 5,500 
 
 + 
 
 12 
 
 
 27* 
 
 24,800 
 
 + 
 
 iH- 
 
 + 
 
 199 
 
 63,600 
 
 + 
 
 11 
 
 + 
 
 66* 
 
 15,700 
 
 
 10* 
 
 
 82* 
 
 
 
 3 
 
 
 50 
 
 4,400 
 
 + 
 
 7* 
 
 + 
 
 22 
 
 9,600 
 
 + 
 
 5* 
 
 + 
 
 18* 
 
 3,900 
 
 + 
 
 5* 
 
 + 
 
 HI 
 
 306,200 
 
 + 
 
 5* 
 
 + 
 
 37 
 
 39,000 
 
 + 
 
 4* 
 
 
 8* 
 
 27,600 
 
 
 5 
 
 
 51 i 
 ox a 
 
 11,000 
 
 + 
 
 4 
 
 + 
 
 66* 
 
 6,000 
 
 + 
 
 3* 
 
 + 
 
 54 
 
 12,100 
 
 + 
 
 3* 
 
 
 
 21* 
 
 79,700 
 
 + 
 
 3* 
 
 + 
 
 60 
 
 5,300 
 
 
 
 + 
 
 38 
 
 8,600 
 
 
 — 
 
 + 
 
 16 
 
 3,300 
 
 
 
 
 21* 
 
 15,000 
 
 
 
 i 
 
 
 
 17* 
 
 10,700 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 5* 
 
 20,000 
 
 — 
 
 1* 
 
 + 
 
 58* 
 
 6,000 
 
 — 
 
 n 
 
 
 4= 
 
 14,200 
 
 — 
 
 3 
 
 
 t 
 
 2,700 
 
 
 3* 
 
 
 37 
 
 14,600 
 
 
 4* 
 
 
 90* 
 
 2,000 
 
 
 
 5 
 
 
 20 
 
 34,500 
 
 
 
 13 
 
 + 
 
 .,- 
 
 4,300 
 
 
 14 
 
 
 21* 
 
 5,500 
 
 
 14 
 
 
 2 
 
 6,500 
 
 
 16* 
 
 + 
 
 41* 
 
 19,400 
 
 
 18 
 
 + 
 
 14 
 
 6,900 
 
 
 19 
 
 + 
 
 6 
 
 2,300 
 
 
 20* 
 
 
 49 
 
 4,800 
 
 
 21* 
 
 
 61* 
 
 6,600 
 
 
 21* 
 
 
 9* 
 
 3,600 
 
 
 29* 
 
 
 33* 
 
 18,500 
 
 
 32 
 
 
 34 
 
 3,800 
 
 
 34* 
 
 
 51* 
 
 2,300 
 
 
 56| 
 
 
 72* 
 
 Increase of Population: 1881—1891, 10* per cent. ; 1861—1891, 50 per cent. 
 * The figures are for 1871—1891, as there was no return for machinists or engine drivers in 
 t Costers and general shop-keepers are combined in 1861 ; 1861—1891 + 84* per cent, 
 painters are combined in 1861 ; 1861—1891 + 100 per cent. 
 = Denotes that the numbers were the same as in 1891. 
 
 1861. 
 
 Plumbers and 
 
INCREASING AND DECREASING TRADES. 
 
 61 
 
 decade, undoubtedly due to the rise of the cloth cap 
 industry. In the case of seamen, too, a rapid decline has 
 been followed recently by a slight increase, and, on the 
 other hand, merchants, bankers and brokers, whose numbers 
 were greatly augmented from 1861 to 1881, have decreased 
 slightly since — due, perhaps, to the development of limited 
 liability companies. 
 
 The changes are often significant as showing the drift 
 and direction of modern industry, and the extension of 
 old or creation of new demands. A distinction, however, 
 must be drawn between trades which work for a wide 
 market, and those which, like the cab and omnibus service, 
 find their customers entirely in London. Among industries 
 of the former description, we find no increase in the last 
 decade equal to that already mentioned as being shown by 
 the scientific instrument makers (which is connected chiefly 
 with the extended demand for electrical appliances) ; but 
 paper manufacture (that is, the making of paper boxes- 
 and bags, and the cutting of envelopes) shows an increase 
 of 48i per cent.; India-rubber and floor-cloth, 35 per 
 cent.; chemical workers, 32 per cent. ; engineering, &c. r 
 311 p er cent.*; and soap and candle makers, 294 per 
 cent. All these trades, excepting the last, lie in the full 
 stream of modern development, and in connection with 
 the trade of candle making we have already noted 
 the very remarkable fact that the more light we have 
 the more we seem to require, so that the demands for 
 electricity, gas, petroleum and candles, all increase 
 together. 
 
 A very considerable addition (34i per cent.) is shown 
 in the numbers of those returned as employed about the 
 docks and wharves, but these men are in every census con- 
 fused more or less with general labourers, and consequently 
 
 * The increase amongst engine and machine makers is the more 
 remarkable as it has come about in spite of a great transfer of all 
 descriptions of iron work to the North and Midlands. 
 
62 
 
 COMPARISONS. 
 
 the figures are open to doubt. A better test of the amount 
 of work connected with the receiving and handling of 
 merchandise is perhaps afforded by the carmen, who have 
 increased 36 \ per cent, in the decade, and no less than 
 198 per cent, since 1861. These are very eloquent figures, 
 which certainly do not bear out the view that trade is 
 leaving the Port of London. Coal-porters show an increase 
 of 50 per cent., due partly no doubt to the general develop- 
 ment of trade, but more to the substitution of coal- 
 consuming steamers for sailing vessels. It is possible, too, 
 that, as an indirect result of completer organization, a 
 larger proportion of coal-porters have in the last decade 
 returned themselves correctly, instead of as labourers, and 
 this may perhaps apply to dock labourers also. But in any 
 case the fissures are strong evidence of the extension of 
 business, of which another proof is found in the increase of 
 commercial clerks by 28-^ per cent, in the decade, and by no 
 less than 205£ per cent, since 1861. 
 
 The decreasing trades — trades which are leaving 
 London — are milling, sugar-refining, &c, which show 20.^ 
 per cent, reduction in the decade, or 49 per cent, in the 
 thirty years, due mainly to the loss of the sugar industry 
 through foreign bounties ;** silk and fancy textiles, in which 
 the reduction is 21 \ per cent, since 1881, and no less than 
 61 \ per cent, since 1861 (another back-water on the great 
 stream of free trade) ; coopers, whose trade has slipped 
 away, chiefly in the last ten years, in connection with the 
 substitution of metal drums for wooden barrels, and the 
 making of the latter by machinery ; and finally ship- 
 wrights (already referred to), who have suffered in the 
 revolution which, in replacing wood by iron and steel in 
 ship-building, has transferred this trade to the North of 
 England. All these trades work for a large market. 
 
 Other changes in the census totals indicate alterations in 
 
 * Against this may be set the increase in the manufacture of jams, &c, 
 owing to the cheapness of sugar. 
 
INCREASING AND DECREASING TRADES. 68 
 
 business methods. For instance, we find an increase in 
 undefined factory labour of 79 per cent, in the decade, 
 following similar increases in the preceding periods, so thai 
 the total addition (calculated on a small original total) is 
 no less than 309i per cent. ; besides this, artisans, &c, 
 undefined, have increased by 43 per cent, since 1881. 
 Here we undoubtedly trace the application of science to 
 manufacture, with the result that in certain trades the 
 contribution of skill passes into new and fewer hands—- 
 the hands of those who direct rather than those who do 
 the work — and thus tends to be dissociated, perhaps for 
 ever, from the old skill of the handicraftsman. This 
 revolution, though connected with the introduction of 
 machinery, is not confined to it, nor have we yet felt, by 
 any means, its full effect. The increase in machinists (78 
 per cent.) which reflects the application of the sewing 
 machine to many trades, has been naturally accompanied 
 by a decrease amongst seamstresses. With tailors also 
 the addition (30 per cent.) is connected mainly with a 
 changed method of business, which by immensely cheapen in g 
 the production of clothes, has found a wider market. In 
 fact a new branch of trade has been created, in which 
 room has been found for a large proportion of the Jewish 
 immigrants, by whom or by whose co-religionists this 
 industry has been principally built up. 
 
 Some trades there are, showing large additions to 
 their numbers, in which can be traced both the gradual 
 movement of modern industry and a special extension of 
 London demands; such as printing, with 33£ per cent, 
 addition since 1881, and no less than 124^ per cent. Bince 
 1861, and book-binding with an increase of 23 per cent, in 
 ten years, or 104 per cent, in thirty years. Books, papers 
 and periodicals printed in the metropolis go all over the 
 world, but a large part of the demand lies within the 
 boundaries of London, and consequently we find a consider- 
 able growth in the number of book-sellers and newsagents, 
 
64 
 
 COMPARISONS. 
 
 amounting to 32 per cent, in ten, or 66 per cent, in thirty 
 years. Of a similar character is the increase in the number 
 of makers of musical instruments and toys ; an increase 
 which, as showing the capacity of the population for 
 spending money on the smaller luxuries of life, may perhaps 
 be taken as a further indication of prosperity. 
 
 Turning now to those who are engaged solely in serving 
 London, we note that gasworks service has increased 47J 
 per cent, in ten years, and no less than 103^ per cent, since 
 1861. Those employed in drainage and the care of the 
 streets, have increased 40 per cent, in ten years. They 
 are mostly paid out of public funds. With the section 
 of art and amusement we come to strictly private under- 
 takings supported by voluntary expenditure on luxuries or 
 pleasures, and here we find that those who minister to the 
 public in this way have added 32 per cent, to their numbers 
 while the whole population they serve has increased only 10^ 
 per cent., and although, no doubt, visitors to London provide 
 a considerable and growing contingent of playgoers, yet if 
 we take all kinds of places of amusement, and all prices of 
 seats in each house, the proportion of Londoners amongst 
 the audiences must be overwhelming. Coachmen, cabmen 
 and 'busmen have increased 25 per cent., and all classes 
 undoubtedly share the benefit, especially as regards 
 omnibuses and tramcars. Then again milk-sellers have 
 grown 31 per cent., indicating, surely, a widespread 
 advance in comfort, and possibly also in sobriety. Though 
 greatest in recent years this rise has been continuous, 
 so that milk-sellers have increased since 1861 by 82 per 
 cent. This increase has been accompanied, and perhaps 
 partly caused, by a revolution in the trade ; London dairies 
 having been superseded by railway borne milk far superior 
 in quality to that formerly supplied. 
 
 No less satisfactory than the increase in the retailers of 
 milk is the decrease in the numbers of publicans and their 
 assistants, which, though only | per cent, in the last decade, 
 
INCREASING AND DECREASING TRADES. 65 
 
 is 174 per cent, since 1861— a great change when compared 
 with 50 per cent, increase of population. 
 
 On the whole, the changes in the industrial constitution 
 of London point to and are no doubt closely connected 
 with a general increase in and concentration of wealth. 
 That " wealth accumulates and men decay" is in some 
 sense a true verdict as regards London, but it is not the 
 whole truth, for, thanks largely on the one hand to better 
 administration, and on the other to a healthy influx and 
 efflux of population, a wholesome balance is maintained, and 
 it may even be hoped that the better influences prevail. 
 
 There are some further subjects on which comparisons 
 might be made. Among these apprenticeship and methods 
 of learning and the extent of trade organization will receive 
 consideration later. Other points may very likely occur to 
 the reader on which information might have been useful, 
 but which we have passed over. It is evident, for instance, 
 that more might be made of the constitution of the census 
 family — the ages and birthplaces of its members, their 
 several occupations, and their actual relationship to the 
 head of the family. In this respect, though treated with 
 great liberality by the Registrar-General, we were some- 
 what restricted by the terms upon which alone a private 
 person could be allowed access to official information. 
 
 What has here been done for London might be much 
 better done — and done for the whole country — at the epoch 
 of any numerical census; and if undertaken, would constitute 
 a social industrial census of very great value. With a little 
 preconcerted arrangement, so that the information gathered 
 by the Registrar-General might lend itself easily to such 
 further investigation, the work I have attempted might, I 
 venture to suggest, be taken up by the Board of Trade 
 with the certainty of a far larger measure of success ; and 
 I should be glad to think that my imperfect attempt had 
 done something to point the way. 
 
PART II— SURVEY AND CONCLUSIONS. 
 
 V 
 
CHAPTER I. 
 
 CHARACTERISTICS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 The recognized characteristics of modern industry are an 
 extreme division of labour, a continuously extending use 
 of machinery, and a general complexity of organization. 
 These conditions are usually supposed to point to a large 
 scale of operations, but they do not by any means exclude 
 the class of small employers of labour. 
 
 Some trades are suitable only for small and others only 
 for large establishments, but in most occupations success 
 is compatible with units of very varying size. It is true 
 that small businesses, if they succeed, tend to become 
 larger, and, if they fail, cease to exist; but it is also true 
 that there is a never-ceasing supply of new undertakings, of 
 all sizes indeed, but most frequently on a small scale. 
 Moreover, failure is not confined to small establishments, 
 and the largest may break up ; the common law of life- 
 birth, growth, plenitude of vigour, decay and dissolution- 
 applies very clearly to business undertakings, and, with 
 trade as with human life, mortality, though greatest in 
 infancy, is common to all. There is consequently a con- 
 tinuous flux in the development of industry, and it would 
 be as reasonable to suppose that the day of small busi- 
 nesses is over as to look for an end of gnats, because of 
 the strong flight and open beak of the swallow, or of 
 small fishes because of the whale's great mouth. 
 
 In London the peculiarities and comparative advanta 
 
70 
 
 SURVEY AND CONCLUSIONS. 
 
 of large and small units of trade have a special application, 
 and are of particular interest, since London frequently 
 represents the small, where the Provinces represent the 
 large type; while within the confines of the Metropolis 
 may be noted in some trades the struggle between factory 
 and workshop, and in others between workshop and home 
 industry. Thus the experience of London affords practical 
 proof of the persistent vitality of small methods of business, 
 and this vitality is easily explained. Success in the supply 
 of ever-varying demands (the demands of modern civilized 
 life) depends upon a ready adaptability to changing 
 circumstances, and this is naturally a strong point in 
 a regime of small business establishments, which, if they 
 succeed, do so largely by virtue of close touch of the 
 management with both customers and employees, or, if 
 they fail, give place, with very slight economic disturbance, 
 to others ; coming and going or changing shape as required, 
 unhampered by the stiffness of structure which is almost 
 inseparable from large capitalist undertakings. 
 
 The characteristics first mentioned — division of labour, 
 extension of machinery, and complexity of organization — 
 cannot be s^aid to be in themselves responsible for the 
 connection of poverty with industry which undoubtedly 
 exists in London. They play some part in producing 
 this anomaly, but do not lie at the root of the matter. 
 There is nothing that is necessarily hostile to the 
 welfare of the worker in the specialization of labour, or 
 in the use of machinery, or in good book-keeping, or 
 in the substitution of science for rule of thumb. In 
 some directions the workman's responsibility and the 
 importance of his individuality may be curtailed, but they 
 do not cease to exist ; they rather take new forms. 
 Although something is lost in the character of the rela- 
 tions between employer and employed under the large 
 system of industry, something also is gained; and it 
 is to be noted that in the effort to secure the economic 
 
CHARACTERISTICS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 71 
 
 advantages of both systems, the development of largo 
 businesses becomes more and more departmental in 
 character, giving rise to new forms of individuality in 
 management, and providing fresh opportunities for whole- 
 some personal relations, not only between the public and 
 those who serve it, but also in effect, if not in name, 
 between employers and employed. We must dig a little 
 deeper to find the connection that we seek between poverty 
 and modern conditions of employment. 
 
 The special and over-mastering characteristic of industry 
 in our times would seem to lie in altered conditions of 
 industrial action following a change in the relation between 
 supply and demand. Under quite simple conditions a 
 known demand is . the spring of production, and consump- 
 tion follows closely on the heels of both. To-day trade no 
 longer awaits this genuine impulse, but seeks to forestall 
 or even to create it. Formerly the difficulty lay in supply 
 — the demand in most cases was always present. Then 
 the basis of any trade lay in having something to sell; 
 now it lies far more in having found someone to buy. 
 By this change the hands of the entrepreneur (or " under- 
 taker," as he has been gloomily called in our language) 
 have been strengthened. Without his aid it is with diffi- 
 culty that anyone can produce anything to advantage for 
 sale, or offer acceptable service of any kind. In the 
 making of a market the mere producer is helpless. 
 
 This* which I take to be the essential characteristic of 
 modern industry, is evidenced by the spread of advertising. 
 Be-un in the interests of medicinal specifics, the efficacy 
 of which depended largely upon faith, the system has been 
 gradually extended till now almost every requisite of bfa 
 seeks to attract the attention and win the favour of the 
 consumer in this way, and the expense of securing publici y 
 is a very considerable item in the cost of distribution. In 
 the same direction, of even greater importance is the 
 increasing employment of special travelling agents by those 
 
72 
 
 SURVEY AND CONCLUSIONS. 
 
 who seek to market their wares. This development is in 
 part an accomplished fact, in part only a tendency. But, 
 though varying in degree, it is traceable more or less on 
 every side. It is by no means a bad tendency. If the 
 initiative lies with the consumer, he can only take what 
 he finds ready, or at great expense order a special pro- 
 duction for his use. But when the producer or dealer seeks 
 a market for his wares, he must exercise good judgment 
 in catering at the lowest possible prices for widespread 
 wants, and by these means he opens up an enormously 
 widened range of selection for the consumer. There is, 
 I think, a large balance in favour of this system. But 
 heightened competition and great irregularity of employ- 
 ment seem necessarily involved, bringing with them serious 
 evils. 
 
 These evils the workers seek to counteract by organiza- 
 tion, and the State by legislation, and against them public 
 sentiment flings itself, at times with much misdirected 
 abuse, at times with enthusiastic advocacy of impractic- 
 able remedies. Whether they be remediable or not, the 
 existence of these evils has driven the undiscriminating 
 advocacy of laisser faire from the field, and has even 
 shaken seriously the stability and hold on public opinion 
 of orthodox economic doctrine. It follows that there is 
 great danger of ill-advised action, and it is as throwing 
 some light on the character of these troubles and difficul- 
 ties, and on the possibility of their removal, that I now 
 turn to the material we have collected concerning industry 
 in London. 
 
 The general characteristics of modern industry are 
 closely associated with its organic character. In trade 
 no member can suffer without others suffering too, and 
 times of prosperity are generally shared. From this organic 
 relationship special forms of expansion and contraction 
 result, making epochs of good and bad trade which succeed 
 
CHARACTERISTICS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 73 
 
 each other in cycles. It is true that such alternations are 
 no new thing, having always followed upon favourable or 
 unfavourable harvests, and having been even more marked 
 in the past than now, but while by cheapening carriage 
 and by other means, we have to a great extent equalized 
 the distribution of the products of the earth and have 
 vanquished famine, the periodical waves of good and bad 
 times are still severe. We escape from the grip of dearth 
 only to suffer the strange and monstrous strangulation of 
 over-production . 
 
 Looked at from near by, these cycles of depression have 
 a distinctly harmful and even a cruel aspect ; but from a 
 more distant point of view, " afar from the sphere of our 
 sorrow/'' they seem less malignant. They might then, 
 perhaps, with a little effort of the imagination, be con- 
 sidered as the orderly beating of a heart causing the blood 
 to circulate — each throb a cycle. Even in the range of our 
 lives, within easy grasp of human experience, whether or 
 not men suffer from these alternations depends on the unit 
 of time on which economic life is based. Those who live 
 from day to day, or from week to week, and even those 
 who live from year to year, may be pinched when trade 
 contracts — some of them must be. There are some victims, 
 but those who are able and willing to provide in times of 
 prosperity for the lean years which seem inevitably to 
 follow, do not suffer at all ; and, if the alternations of good 
 and bad times be not too sudden or too great, the com- 
 munity gains not only by the strengthening of character 
 under stress, but also by a direct effect on enterprise. 
 As to character the effect, especially on wage-earners, is 
 very similar to that exercised on a population by the 
 recurrence of winter as compared to the enervation of 
 continual summer. As to enterprise, and this applies more 
 particularly to the masters, it is not difficult to understand 
 the invigorating influence of periodic stress. In bad times 
 men's wits are exercised to escape loss, and only the more 
 
74 
 
 SURVEY AND CONCLUSIONS. 
 
 capable managers, or those who command some special 
 advantages, can stand the strain. There result a constant 
 seeking after improvement, a weeding-ont of the incapable, 
 and a survival of the fittest. In good times the whole scale 
 of operations with the improved methods is naturally 
 extended, and when trade once more contracts the struggle 
 is renewed. A cheapening of production results ; but 
 greater cheapness is not the only benefit to the community 
 from this struggle, for from the pursuit of success under 
 difficulties spring the efforts to which I have already 
 referred, which are needed to approach or attract the 
 customer and make it easier to serve him. Indeed, 
 cheapness itself is sought as much in order to extend as 
 to hold a market. In these ways existence is made easier 
 to the consumer, the multiplication of wants is system- 
 atically encouraged by those whose object it is to supply 
 them, and the standard of life rises. 
 
 The organic character of industry reacts upon individuals 
 as well as trades. As in production each business plays 
 its part — leaning upon other trades for support, or itself 
 the centre of many subsidiary efforts — so under modern 
 conditions it is with each individual worker. Increasing 
 sub-division of labour makes it continually less possible for 
 any one to stand alone. Hence there arises great com- 
 plexity of industrial structure — a complexit}^ which affects 
 small units of business as well as large ; for it frequently 
 happens under the most modern development of the small 
 employer that he " works for the trade," undertaking some 
 single operation — a mere fraction of a complicated process 
 in the course of which the product passes backwards and 
 forwards and from workshop to workshop on its road to 
 completion. With improved and cheapened means of 
 communication, division of labour is being extended in 
 many directions, with striking and perhaps unexpected 
 results. Not only do the small men work for the large, but 
 
CHARACTERISTICS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 75 
 
 the large for the small ; the finished article of one operation 
 being the raw material of the next. 
 
 When the small employer works for the large manufacturer 
 it is usually to perform some detail, some special finishing 
 process, which can be done as well perhaps under a separate 
 roof and better under distinct management. Sometimes 
 the " sub-contractor/' as he is rather loosely described, 
 coming in from outside is provided with the room ho 
 requires for his operations, or a regular employee in the 
 factory may take work at a price, paying wages to those 
 under him. Thus, even with respect to work done through- 
 out under factory conditions, under the same roof and 
 general management, there may be every shade of delegated 
 authority, every degree of separate individuality and 
 responsibility — from the foreman of a department, who 
 merely carries out the orders he receives, to an independent 
 master, working under inspection, but otherwise entirely 
 uncontrolled. When the large factory works for the small 
 master it is in the earlier processes — in preparing his 
 materials, or the parts which he will put together. 
 
 In these ways the J3aths of both systems are made 
 easy ; industry assumes a large or a small shape as con- 
 venience or economy may direct, and the result is an inter- 
 dependent and very complicated machine, bound together 
 by the ligaments of credit, in the action of which the 
 productive impulse is gradually removed from the immediate 
 requirements of the actual consumer, and becomes dependent 
 on speculation and the forestalling of demand. 
 
 Thus it is that modern industry, with all its advantages, 
 yet evolves an ill-regulated life of its own, with the 
 periodical recurrence of glutted markets and workless 
 workers. 
 
 On its good side the system is extraordinarily efficient. 
 The capacities of man are stimulated, guided and brought 
 to bear on the desired object, and the forces of nature are 
 
76 
 
 SURVEY AND CONCLUSIONS. 
 
 more and more subdued to his service. No other system 
 has been found equally productive. 
 
 Some of the workers suffer from pressure amounting to 
 hardship, but every worker is also a consumer, and as 
 consumers all gain; so that the standard of life rises in 
 every, or almost every, class. There follow further, 
 a general expansion and elasticity of trade, and an opening 
 up of new avenues of success which have gone far to replace 
 in European countries, and especially, I think, in England, 
 the advantages which unoccupied land provides elsewhere. 
 To talent, even of a very humble description, a career 
 always opens, and energy and enterprise find nowhere 
 a better market than at home. 
 
 Modern business, thus constituted, requires, above all 
 things, good leadership. It is neither labour nor capital 
 alone that profiteth, but rather the application of both to 
 the needs of men. Labour without wise guidance is as 
 useless as capital without the power to employ it well. 
 The demand for the application of brains to capital, and of 
 both to business management, was not always so exacting. 
 A boot-maker, who waited to make boots till someone 
 ordered them, needed no other impulse, and for guidance 
 took his measure from his customer's foot. But if, in pursuit 
 of cheapness of production and in his desire to supply 
 a wider market, he now builds a factory, creates expensive 
 machinery, and makes boots by the thousand, his success 
 will evidently depend, in quite another degree, on sound 
 judgment and business forethought. If he succeed, many 
 will share the benefit of his success, and his failure, if he 
 fail, will be correspondingly widespread in its effects. 
 
 Primitive methods still prevailed largely in the days of 
 the older economists, and may account for their equally 
 primitive analysis of the main instruments of production 
 into land, capital, and labour. The further analysis, show- 
 ing management as a distinct and most important form of 
 industrial effort with profit as its characteristic mode of 
 
CHARACTERISTICS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 77 
 
 remuneration, has only had full recognition in more recent 
 years. As wages are the usual reward and motive of labour 
 (using the word in its ordinary sense), as interest is 
 the return and stimulus for the use of capital, and rent for 
 the use and development of land, so profit making is the 
 aim which mainly actuates management. "'Tis money 
 makes the mare to go." They may require to be con- 
 trolled by other considerations, but the desire to make, and 
 the necessity of making, profit are the dominant influences 
 in business management. If the desire for the maximum 
 profit of the moment is accepted as the sole guide, grasping 
 after gain may lead men far astray, both as caterers and as 
 employers, but on the whole we may say, with Dr. Johnson, 
 that "a man is seldom more innocently occupied than in 
 making money." 
 
 No benefit can permanently accrue to those who undertake 
 the management of business, without some corresponding 
 advantage having been gained by those whose wants are 
 supplied. Nor is this the only debt owed by society to 
 what is contemptuously called " profit-mongering." The 
 part profit plays as guide is perhaps not less important 
 than that of motive, though it is rarely recognized. In 
 this capacity it may be regarded as the proof that an 
 exchange of services has been accomplished, the benefits of 
 which are mutual. The making of profit decides whether 
 labour has been wisely applied or material rightly used. 
 Men will not pay for what they do not want, nor on the 
 other hand continue to supply that by which they g%in 
 nothing. Thus we have in profit the final economic justi- 
 fication of expenditure in trade. Every transaction comes 
 to be tried in the court of profit or loss, and no business 
 enterprise, unless it be experimental or educational or 
 philanthropic in its character, which does not respond to 
 this guidance can be permanently either successful or 
 useful. 
 
 It may be desirable to supplement the action of this 
 
7S 
 
 SURVEY AND CONCLUSIONS. 
 
 impulse. For some services other motives and other tests 
 are required. But in the daily guidance of the greater 
 part of the activities of life, it is not easy to see how it can 
 be dispensed with or adequately replaced. 
 
 It will thus be seen that the status and efficiency of 
 manual labour depend very closely on the part played by 
 brain power. Of this all management is a form, andi 
 machinery itself is only another development of manage- 
 ment. Those who are employed themselves become parts 
 of a machine which, though arranged to suit their powers, 
 or the terms on which their labour can be secured, does 
 gradually, by selection and exercise, tend to modify the- 
 characters and capacities of men to suit its own require- 
 ments. This conduces to the suppression of industrial 
 individuality amongst working men, and to the increase of 
 helplessness — a result which, though most evident when 
 the unit of business is large, is true of modern industry in 
 all its shapes. On the connection between this helpless- 
 ness and poverty it is hardly necessary to dwell ; it is self- 
 evident and continually recurs. 
 
 The consciousness which has come home to working-men 
 of the comparatively weak position of the individual 
 worker has been the main cause of trade unions, with, 
 many consequences which are seen developing day by day 
 before our .eyes.* 
 
 Combinations of workmen, if widespread and powerful, 
 make it necessary for employers to combine also. On 
 these lines a balance of power may be reached which may 
 work fairly well. Under it we have organized men and 
 organized masters, organized peace or organized war. 
 
 * Of these developments some are indeed so recent and so marked, and 
 have produced such rapid changes, as to have, perhaps, rather blurred the 
 picture of some of the trades we have studied; disturbing the "instant- 
 aneous " character of the " photograph " which we have tried to produce of 
 the industrial conditions of to-day. 
 
CHARACTERISTICS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 7«j 
 
 This is rather a strained condition of things at best; and 
 hope of permanent good must bo looked for in tho 
 gradual attainment by both masters and men of a know- 
 ledge of their own and their opponents' position in relation 
 each to each and to the consumer whom they both serve, 
 and with whom, be it said, rests the ultimate yea and nay 
 of employment. 
 
 When the consequences of trade disputes become very 
 serious, and particularly if the general interests of the 
 community are palpably involved, interference in some 
 shape follows. Public sentiment is aroused, newspapers 
 espouse this side or that, arbitration is called for, and 
 perhaps the Government intervenes as a peacemaker. 
 Actual intervention rarely comes till both disputants are 
 ready to welcome it, and coming thus is generally success- 
 ful. A temporary success of this kind or the wearisome 
 strain of hostile relationships has led in some cases to the 
 establishment of a permanent board of arbitration or 
 conciliation. This plan has yielded excellent results in 
 the current adjustment of differences and maintenance of 
 peace, and offers perhaps the best chance for the future as 
 leading to the evolution of traditions of diplomacy which 
 it may be hoped will gradually replace the recklessness of 
 mere combat. 
 
 But these final results of systematic organization are not 
 easily reached, and it may even be doubted whether, con- 
 sidering the entire field of industrial relations, this is the 
 direction in w^hich, on the whole, we are moving. The 
 movement at any rate is very slow. Only certain trades 
 seem capable of effective organization, and their number 
 does not appear to grow larger. It is, I know, commonly 
 supposed that under modern development trades bee- • 
 more and more suitable for elaborate organization, but 
 I can find no sure ground for this belief. 
 
 Successful combination depends on possession by the 
 men of some special qualification for the work they under- 
 
80 
 
 SURVEY AND CONCLUSIONS. 
 
 take, which serves to protect them, at any rate for a time, 
 from the competition of outside labour. The number of 
 trades and of men to whom this applies does not tend to 
 increase. Apprenticeship is dying out. Steadiness of 
 character and amenability to discipline, rather than 
 acquired skill, are the qualities increasingly demanded, 
 and those selected for advancement on account of these 
 qualities are " masters' men/' taught by the masters what 
 they require to know, and needing no assistance from any 
 union in obtaining fair wages and regular employment. 
 
 It is to be observed, moreover, that the helplessness of 
 the worker, whether unionist or non-unionist, shows itself 
 not so much in rates of wages as in irregularity, or actual 
 lack, of employment ; and that combination, while usually 
 able to cope successfully with many questions affecting the 
 conditions of employment, is powerless to increase the 
 volume of work — happy indeed if it does not diminish it. 
 It is to be noted also that the efforts made by some unions 
 to equalize earnings by a system of out-of-work benefit 
 have not been very successful. Their principal object is to 
 maintain rates of wages, and this they not infrequently 
 accomplish, but with the practical result that the well- 
 behaved and competent support the ill-behaved and 
 incompetent ; as well as, and even more than, the victims 
 of mischance. Beyond this it must be said that rates of 
 wages, although at times greatly affected by combination 
 among the workers, are determined at bottom by general 
 conditions, such as custom and the standard of life, and 
 depend on subtle forms of competition which no combina- 
 tion can control or evade — on an economic atmosphere, in 
 fact, which is itself the resultant of many causes. Among 
 these causes combined action to raise and sustain the value 
 of labour plays a considerable part, but other influences, 
 as, for instance, climate and national character, go for 
 far more. 
 
 The connection between lack of organization and 
 
CHARACTERISTICS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 81 
 
 insufficient remuneration is mainly indirect. A low scale 
 of pay is found only with labour which can be easily 
 replaced, and such labour lacks all the qualities which 
 make organization feasible and successful. Tt is not 
 ill-paid because unorganized so much as unorganized 
 because of little real value. On the other hand, good pay 
 is perfectly possible without the support of any combina- 
 tion. Individual strength, trustworthiness or intelligence 
 give value to service even apart from the possession of 
 special skill, and those who possess these qualifications 
 may be even better able to make their own market 
 successfully. 
 
 I do not undervalue the efficacy of much trade union 
 action. Beyond questions of remuneration they have been 
 particularly useful in reducing hours of labour and in 
 checking the abuse of overtime; moreover, by giving 
 expression to common aspirations they breathe life and 
 spirit into the hearts of the men. But if trade unions 
 try to extend their action beyond the limits of consent 
 and seek to compel the adherence of all workers to one 
 policy by the refusal of union men to work with non- 
 unionists, the attempt is likely to be followed, and in some 
 cases has been followed, by the " federation of free 
 labour," or by the offer of substantial advantages by 
 employers to non-union men. The sudden cessation of 
 work being regarded as the main weapon of combination, 
 and being sometimes used without much regard to the 
 mischief done, masters very naturally seek to blunt its 
 edge by offers of continuous employment, of profit-sharing, 
 of cheap insurance, and of pensions in old age; and by so 
 doing show how great is the additional value, in some 
 employments at any rate, of work which is not subject to 
 this risk of interference. Management has absolute need 
 of a secure basis for its forecasts and calculations, and 
 beyond this finds a further advantage, in the effect on the 
 character of the work done, of a closer bond with those 
 
82 
 
 SURVEY AND CONCLUSIONS. 
 
 who are employed, to say nothing of the perhaps senti- 
 mental, but not less real, value of pleasant relations with 
 work-people which the spirit aroused by trade union 
 policy often tends to impair. For these various advantages, 
 and especially the first, the hirers of labour are willing to 
 pay substantially. 
 
 It may, perhaps, be said that ifc is not till masters have 
 experienced the rough side of union action that they learn 
 to value free relations, and hence that either way it is to 
 the unions that improvement is due. These considera- 
 tions, however, tend to limit, and at times to undermine, 
 the powers exerted by the unions. The part organized 
 combination among the workers plays in securing a just 
 balance of affairs is important, but it is in this light, as 
 a modifying rather than as a controlling force, that it must 
 be regarded. 
 
 The heightened struggle for existence, with it ups and 
 downs of commercial inflation and contraction, causes 
 more evils than we have here mentioned. They are, 
 however^ all compatible with a rising standard of comfort 
 and a greater diffusion of wealth. Competition is a force 
 that drives unceasingly. In order to reach and please the 
 customer, use is made of every possible advantage. If 
 machinery cheapens cost, then hand-labour must accept less 
 money or lose its work entirely. The management which 
 ruthlessly adapts itself to these hard circumstances is 
 characterized as " sweating." The evils which result have 
 been analysed in a previous volume. They affect employers 
 as well as employed. Both suffer, and the advantage to the 
 consumer is often illusory. Masters and men are alike 
 ground down, while the public is defrauded by adulteration 
 and bad workmanship. 
 
 Frequent bankruptcy is another product of this struggle, 
 and by throwing men out of work is the cause of much 
 industrial friction and consequent distress. So chronic is 
 
CHARACTERISTICS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 83 
 
 this trouble that the forced sales of bankrupt stock may 
 even be counted amongst the accredited methods of 
 distribution. 
 
 Thus, to sum up, we find that the main characteristics of 
 modern industry are the speculative forestalling- of wants, 
 a great complexity of operation and increased respon- 
 sibility of management. The results are cheap and 
 manifold products, a rising standard of life, and extended 
 fields of industrial action ; but connected with these 
 undoubted advantages we have a string of serious evils, 
 and it is not surprising that consciousness of them causes 
 men to seek persistently for a remedy; all the more 
 as they seem to be only the misbegotten offspring of 
 prosperity. It may be that in ordinary times no very large 
 proportion of the population are sufferers from these evils, 
 but whatever their numbers, or to whatever extent their 
 misfortunes may be traceable to their own fault, we cannot 
 unheeding pass by on the other side. 
 
 v 
 
CHAPTER H. 
 
 LONDON AS A CENTEE OF TKADE AND INDUSTRY. 
 
 London has no single staple industry. We find in it 
 no dominant trade or group of trades — no industrial 
 feature corresponding, for instance, to the dependence 
 of the great towns of Lancashire and Yorkshire upon 
 the prosperity of the textile industries ; of Newcastle on 
 ship-building and engineering ; of Middlesbrough on the 
 iron trade; of Lyons upon silk; and of Chicago upon 
 a progressive agriculture. London has no such specialized 
 industrial life. Ship-building may leave the Thames; 
 silk - w eaving decline in Spitalfields ; chair - making 
 desert Bethnal Green ; books be printed in Edinburgh 
 or Aberdeen ; and sugar-refining be killed by foreign 
 fiscal policy ; but the industrial activity of London shows 
 no abatement. Individuals and individual trades may 
 suffer, but her vitality and productive energy, stimulated 
 by a variety of resources probably unequalled in their 
 number and extent by those of any other city either 
 ancient or modern, remain unimpaired. London is supreme 
 not only in variety, but in total magnitude. The workers 
 are numbered not only by thousands, but by hundreds of 
 thousands, even almost by millions. 
 
 In regarding London as a whole, therefore, we are 
 confronted by the many sidedness of its industrial life. 
 The multiplicity of processes and trades arrests the atten- 
 tion, but we have difficulty in analysing the complex 
 whole — in grasping the endless varieties of its component 
 
LONDON AS A CENTRE OF TRADE AND INDUSTRY. 85 
 
 parts. Not one trade alone is seen in operation, not two 
 or three, but a multitude. Every branch and all the 
 machinery of trade and industry are represented — banking 
 and finance, manufacture, dealing, and distribution, and 
 every form of public and private service. Thus, while 
 tending often to over-specialize the skill of its individual 
 workers, London maintains and develops a comprehensive- 
 ness that is almost magnificent in its catholicity and range. 
 
 This great variety is the outcome of many forces — the 
 widening area covered by trade ; the pressure of competi- 
 tion ; the fresh applications to industry of the teachings 
 of science, and the extending demands of a people that 
 is learning constantly to turn the luxuries of the past 
 into the necessaries of the present. The story of the 
 treasured silk stockings of Queen Elizabeth is not without 
 significance, nor the fact that any errand-boy can carry in 
 his pocket to-day the watch that comparative wealth alone 
 could command some twenty years ago. In every direction 
 new wants are being recognized, some pressing closely upon 
 the productive power of the community, others suggesting 
 only in dim outline new fields of demand that the future 
 will fully reveal. In every direction new outlets are being 
 opened up for the absorption of human energy, and — 
 source of so many social and economic problems — new 
 ways are being discovered by which this energy can be 
 either economized or supplanted. 
 
 These varied changes lead to an altered relationship 
 between many parts of the industrial whole, and the fresh 
 adaptations necessary, even though they be signs of growth, 
 not infrequently involve dislocation. It is this feature, 
 indeed, combiued with the difficulties to which it gives 
 rise and the suffering with which it is frequently attended, 
 rather than the creation of new fields of employment, 
 that is often allowed to absorb the attention. Hardship is 
 more dramatic than natural growth, and it is the instinct 
 
86 
 
 SURVEY AND CONCLUSIONS. 
 
 of the popular mind to fix itself upon the more startling, 
 and even upon the sadder tendencies of the times, rather 
 than upon those that are more persistent and progressive — 
 upon social and economic " faults/' rather than upon the 
 lines of a gradual evolution. 
 
 But the fundamental fact of continuous development 
 remains. Industrial life palpitates with youth and growth, 
 and those would seem to err who, in pursuit of any ideal, 
 would run the risk of stereotyping its forms or limiting the 
 extent of its expansion. 
 
 So many branches of industry coming within the network 
 of her operations, London is deeply concerned in this 
 increasingly productive power of the race, and in the 
 variety and elasticity of human demand. Sometimes we 
 see her lagging behind, irresponsive to a potential demand 
 that it only rested with her to make effective; at others 
 swift to change, alert, leading, and initiating*. 
 
 Continual variation and development must, however, be 
 met constantly by a corresponding power and readiness of 
 adaptation and response. The industrial tenure of places, 
 as of persons, is essentially insecure. Even the develop- 
 ment of a great city, tracing its origin to its accessibility, 
 to the strength of its military position, or, it may be, partly 
 to chance, does not ensure the permanent retention of 
 more than a small proportion of the total of its industrial 
 activities. Certain of its operations in distribution and in 
 trading ; all forms of service rendered to persons or groups 
 of persons ; all labour expended on permanent fixtures, 
 such as buildings or streets, must, it is true, be necessarily 
 carried on in its midst. But, in spite of the important 
 influences of physical environment, only a small proportion 
 of the whole field of productive industry is permanently 
 assured to a given centre by any form of natural monopoly. 
 In a certain number of cases, especially when the com- 
 modity is bulky, or perishable, or when it is normally 
 produced for immediate consumption, the local producer is 
 
LONDON AS A CENTRE OF TRADE AND INDUSTRY. 87 
 
 guaranteed to some extent against outside competition, in 
 any case as regards the later stages of manufacture, since 
 he tends to be at once the most economical, as well as the 
 most convenient source of supply: London, for instance, 
 is less likely to import coffins than gold-leaf, and loaves 
 of bread than corn and flour. But in a few cases only does 
 the locality of a demand determine also the locality of an 
 industry, and the great bulk of the trades of London 
 remain liable to displacement. 
 
 We may ask, therefore, with reference to the larger part 
 of its productive industry : how is London able to secure 
 the necessary supply of persons and of plant; of the 
 materials and all the forms of subsidiary equipment that 
 enable it, not only to hold its own successfully in the 
 competition that presses within its own borders, but also, 
 dependent as it is upon distant sources for almost all 
 material used, to place its finished commodities in a 
 thousand forms upon a thousand markets ? What are the 
 special advantages of London as a centre of trade and 
 manufacture ? 
 
 The first advantage that London possesses is its own 
 population of between four and five millions, providing 
 a range of effective demand far exceeding that of any other 
 centre. Up to the present time, moreover, this source 
 of demand has tended constantly to grow, being rein- 
 forced by increased facilities for locomotion and trans- 
 port, and for the remittal of money, which have made 
 London a source of wholesale, and even of retail, supply 
 for the whole country. For, in some measure, the 
 Metropolis fills a position in relation to the country at 
 large analogous to that which small provincial towns 
 occupy in relation to their neighbouring villages: it is 
 a great purchasing market for those resident elsewhere. 
 Provincial dealers who buy to sell again; manufac- 
 turers, who buy material to be made up in some other 
 
S3 
 
 SURVEY AND CONCLUSIONS. 
 
 form; provincial consumers; and visitors from every 
 country go to swell the effective demand of London. For 
 some, the shops and stores provide the diffused and varied 
 display out of which every taste and every purse can be 
 accommodated ; for others, the markets are concentrated in 
 recognized localities in the warehouses and showrooms of 
 the particular trade, as in Curtain Road for many classes of 
 furniture, in the near neighbourhood of St. Paul's for all 
 forms of drapery ; and in Hatton Garden for diamonds and 
 jewellery; while in other cases, as for timber, leather, 
 corn and wool, there are fixed times of public sale in special 
 centres of exchange. 
 
 The economic position of London is still further 
 strengthened by the fact that it is not only an unrivalled 
 national emporium and world-market, but is also the 
 Mother-city of the Kingdom and of the Empire. London 
 is the centre, moreover, not only of the Imperial Govern- 
 ment and of the Judiciary, but also of banking and 
 finance, both national and international. It is in London 
 that the agents-general for the great Colonies, as well as 
 the chief business agencies, and official commercial repre- 
 sentatives of foreign countries are found, their presence 
 illustrating the fact that it is the recognized national centre, 
 not only of government but of trade. Nearly all important 
 provincial manufacturing firms also, either through a London 
 branch or the medium of a recognized agent, find it 
 expedient to make special provision for the distribution of 
 some part of their products in the London market, and, 
 even if in some cases their presence indicates increased 
 competition with London industries, they in any case assist 
 in perfecting its varied stock of merchandise, and so in 
 strengthening its attractive force. 
 
 In spite, therefore, of all tendencies towards the 
 elimination of the unnecessary middle-man, which involves 
 also that of the unnecessary middle-market, London still 
 holds a unique position in the variety of ways in which 
 
LONDON AS A CENTRE OF TRADE AND INDUSTRY. 89 
 
 it acts as a centre of distribution for home, colonial, and 
 foreign products. Everything can be bought in London, 
 and therefore everyone comes to buy, and the Metropolitan 
 manufacturer himself finds his advantage as buyer as well 
 as seller in this great market. For London is as much 
 an emporium for raw materials coming from all parts of 
 the world, as for finished products, and in addition, the manu- 
 facturer can readily supply himself with every appliance, 
 machine or tool that may be required for his work. 
 
 Labour also of every kind can be easily hired. One has 
 usually but to hold up the finger to secure whatever men are 
 needed, and although much of London labour is unskilled 
 and degraded, much of it is of the greatest excellence, 
 and is being constantly recruited from among the best 
 workmen that the country can produce. 
 
 So marked a feature is this excellence and abundance 
 that we find an external demand not only for London labour 
 through the medium of London products, but also not 
 infrequently for the immediate industrial services of its 
 workmen. Skilled men are asked for to plan, supervise, 
 and carry out work in all directions, and for exceptional 
 service no distance is found to be too great. 
 
 Finally, for facilities of distribution and of transport by 
 sea and land, the position of London is unequalled, and 
 the circle of its economic advantages is completed by the 
 fact that it is the greatest port as well as the greatest 
 city of the world. 
 
 Such considerations, together with the general interest 
 of London, "the Mecca of the Anglo-Saxon race"— its 
 leadership in amusement and fashion ; its historical associa- 
 tions ; the fascination and glitter, even the gloom, of its 
 hurrying life— all go to swell its attractive force, and to 
 strengthen its position as a centre of trade and manufacture. 
 Thus London has a unique general attractiveness, as well 
 as great resources. Its industrial position is both the cause 
 and the effect of its wealth, and it illustrates in the form of 
 
90 
 
 SURVEY AND CONCLUSIONS. 
 
 a great community the truth of the ancient saying that riches 
 come where wealth and all that wealth commands abound. 
 
 On the other hand, the disadvantages are grave, and, 
 if London had to start again, would prove insuperable. 
 Modern industry is largely dependent for economy on cheap 
 coal and cheap iron, and London has neither; or it may 
 demand ample supplies of running water and fresh air, and 
 again London has neither ; or light and space, and these 
 also are either not available or can be obtained only at a 
 prohibitive cost in rent ; or low wages, which indeed are 
 often paid, but for which indifferent labour alone can be 
 secured in return, since in London good workmen command 
 very high wages.* 
 
 A further natural disadvantage is to be found in the 
 physical deterioration of Londoners for which only partial 
 compensation is to be found in the modern athletic 
 revival, and in the influx of strong arms and firm 
 nerves from the Provinces. If left to its own natural 
 increase, the force of London would almost inevitably 
 decay, and, except in connection with a continued increase 
 of population, it is not easy to see how the refreshing stream 
 from outside sources could flow freely. It will be seen, 
 however, that in this disadvantage — in the actual deteriora- 
 tion of London-born labour — is found one source of the 
 undesirable economic strength possessed in such trades as 
 depend on the supply of ill-paid labour. 
 
 Lastly, we should perhaps add, although it is a drawback 
 
 * The comparison of the real wages of the London workman with those 
 paid m provincial towns is a complicated problem, owing to the local variations 
 in certain necessary items of expenditure, especially rent, for which allowance 
 must be made. The wages paid, however, except in certain low-paid 
 trades, are almost always higher in London, and this is a consideration that 
 tells against the London manufacturer. A conspicuous instance is found 
 in the case of the litho-printers, for whom the London rate is 40s ; for 
 Belfast, 35s ; for Birmingham, 32s Gd ; and for Leeds and Cardiff 30s, in 
 all cases for a week of rifty-four hours. On the other hand, it must be 
 remembered that a comparison of the real cost of labour cannot be made 
 by a comparison of rates of wages. It would be necessary also to compare 
 efficiency. 
 
LONDON AS A CENTRE OF TRADE AND INDUSTRY. 91 
 
 more than counterbalanced by the size and the immediate 
 neighbourhood of London itself, the fact that London 
 is surrounded by comparatively non-populous districts. 
 Beyond the twelve-mile radius, all of which is, strict ly 
 speaking, a Metropolitan and suburban area, the district is 
 primarily residential and agricultural, neither populous 
 nor manufacturing. As market-counties, Sussex, Hertford- 
 shire, Berkshire and extra-metropolitan Kent and Surrey, 
 cannot be compared with the great manufacturing counties 
 of the North and the Midlands. 
 
 It is evident that the economic hold of London will be 
 weak when fuel, iron or steel enters largely as an item in the 
 cost of production ; when the materials used are from bulk 
 or weight expensive to move, unless the final commodity be 
 fragile or quickly perishable ; or when the processes of the 
 trade require much space, either of structure or open ground. 
 
 Thus, under existing conditions, London can never 
 become an important centre of the iron and steel trades, or 
 of the textile industries, or for the production of chemicals. 
 The economic influences at work will tend also to banish 
 from London an increasing proportion of such work as the 
 dressing of stone for building ; carpentering and joinery 
 in their earlier stages, especially when the work is straight- 
 forward and executed to well-known patterns ; ship-building 
 in all its branches ; mat-making, originally a London 
 textile industry ; carriage-building; perhaps also printing; 
 and we find that, largely on account of rental charges, the 
 Bermondsey tan yards are gradually giving way to those 
 of the Provinces.* 
 
 But it may be noted that, in certain trades, even though 
 the dominant influences are adverse, there are special kinds 
 
 * Apart from questions of fiscal policy the general economic conditions 
 affecting the strength of foreign and colonial competition in the London 
 markets will necessarily be similar in kind to those that determine he 
 strength of provincial competition, in the former cases carnage becoming 
 generally, though by no means always, a more important item. 
 
92 
 
 SURVEY AND CONCLUSIONS. 
 
 of work which tend to be retained by London. In some 
 cases this is explained by the necessity for prompt execution 
 of the work, or when, from its artistic or complicated 
 character, the direct and constant supervision of the buyer 
 or his agent is desirable. It happens also sometimes when 
 great excellence is demanded. Thus, we find that, while 
 Birmingham makes much jewellery from well-known 
 patterns, London is the centre of the finer work that is 
 marked by originality of design ; that the best carriages 
 are still made, and made throughout, in London ; that the 
 best surgical instruments and the best cutlery are secured 
 by the combination of London workmanship and Sheffield 
 steel ; that the best scientific instruments, the best work 
 in stained glass windows, and, in spite of the increase in 
 the number of provincial factories, the best organs, continue 
 to be made in London. In all these instances it is the 
 superior excellence of the work of the London artisan which 
 maintains his position. It is also said that one reason why 
 there is no room for apprentices in many of the large 
 joinery shops of London is that the best work alone is 
 executed there. 
 
 It may also be noted that London is largely a centre at 
 which the later processes of manufacture are carried out. 
 An illustration of this may be seen in the fact that although 
 nearly fifteen thousand persons are enumerated in the 
 somewhat complex section of paper manufactures, only 
 one paper-mill is found within the metropolitan area, 
 while envelope and paper-bag making, for instance, are 
 considerable London industries. Another example is that 
 of the " cloth-workers," who are represented in London by 
 a small but highly skilled group of cloth-shrinkers. A 
 more significant aspect of this is seen, however, in the 
 tendency for London to become a place where parts made 
 elsewhere are put together — to become, in other words, 
 a " fitting shop." Of this we have illustrations in 
 the importation of carriage wheels or parts of wheels 
 
LONDON AS A CENTRE OF TRADE AND INDUSTRY 
 
 93 
 
 from America; or of the roller desks in sections, from 
 the same country; and it is further instanced by many 
 "London watches/' and other articles that acquire in 
 this way the stamp of London make. We may note too the 
 exaggerated complaints that the London joiner and plumber 
 are becoming simply the "fitters" of goods made elsewhere. 
 
 This tendency is the normal accompaniment of industrial 
 life in a great centre of distribution and consumption. 
 As consumption is the last stage in the history of a com- 
 modity, so we may perhaps regard " dealing" as a kind of 
 penultimate process ; and with this, of which London is for 
 many industries the head-quarters, the last stages of 
 manufacture are often closely associated. 
 
 Finally, in its connection with trades mainly located 
 elsewhere, the place of London as a " repairing shop " must 
 be mentioned. The most important examples of this are 
 found in the metal trades and among the riverside industries 
 connected with ship-building. 
 
 Tn most of the fields of employment we have mentioned, 
 London work is in a very marked way supplementary to 
 or dependent upon that done in the Provinces. In other 
 directions Metropolitan trades are more independent and 
 self-sustained, but it is less easy to indicate the general 
 characteristics of those trades over which the hold of London 
 is strong than of those over which it is weak. 
 
 The position is necessarily strongest when the convenience 
 of meeting a local demand by local sources of supply is 
 exceptionally great, as in baking, brewing, and the printing 
 of newspapers.* 
 
 * Perhaps the only productive industry that falls indubitably under this 
 heading is baking. The connection of all others, even when it is closest, 
 as in wholesale clothing, is accidental, and not due to any necessary local 
 relationship. Even in baking, the supplying of London with bread from large 
 extra-metropolitan bakeries is quite within the range of possible develop- 
 ments, and a large amount of beer now drunk in London comes from 
 outside, some being brewed in Germany. 
 
94 
 
 SURVEY AND CONCLUSIONS. 
 
 There are certain other trades also in which, when makers 
 have by special reputation established some control of the 
 market, the position of London is especially strong, as is apt 
 indeed to be the case with all trades that, no matter from 
 what cause, have been once established in any given locality. 
 
 Thus we find a large group of trades in which the stroDg 
 position of London seems to be explained, not by any 
 particular fitness other than that of nearness to a large 
 market, but rather by a gradual process, mainly unnoticed, 
 which tends to follow when the beginnings of a trade have 
 been made in a locality that has proved, on experiment, to 
 be favourable. J'y suis, j'y reste, might be taken as their 
 motto. They have held their own in the stress of 
 competition, and, having established their roots, have all 
 the strength that possession gives. Among such trades 
 are the following : clock-making ; piano making ; basket 
 making ; saddle and harness making ; portmanteau and 
 leather bag making ; and, in spite of partial withdrawal, 
 carriage building. 
 
 The hold of London, again, is especially strong in certain 
 industries that are largely dependent upon an abundant 
 supply of low paid subsidiary labour, some of the most 
 conspicuous instances being drawn from those trades in 
 which female labour is largely employed. In the absence 
 of any single staple trade in which women are engaged, the 
 road is left clear in London for the expansion of many 
 trades which otherwise would either not have flourished 
 there or would have been carried on under different 
 conditions of manufacture. But the prevailing circum- 
 stances of life and labour in London have ensured the 
 supply of a large quantity of such low-priced labour. It 
 is always available ; much of it is young, and cheap ; much 
 of it is over-specialized and cheap ; and unfortunately the 
 conditions of employment of male labour not infrequently 
 illustrate the same — from many points of view regrettable — 
 strength of the economic position of London. 
 
LONDON AS A CENTRE OF TRADE AND INDUSTRY. 05 
 
 Thus, since it is able to supply the large proportion of 
 unskilled, semi-skilled, and over-specialized labour that they 
 need, London may be regarded as being especially adapted 
 to the following trades: the cheap furniture trade; the 
 ready-made clothing and wholesale boot and shoe trades ; 
 rope and sack- making ; rubber work; fur-work; paper 
 and cardboard box-making; and envelope-making. 
 
 Finally, one small group must be mentioned in which the 
 prevailing conditions are exceptional, since in these cases 
 the position of London is strengthened by the fact that it 
 does to a great extent provide the raw material needed. 
 The chief illustrations of this are found in the manufacture 
 of soap, glue, and size ; it is also largely true of tanning 
 and leather dressing, and of the London glass trade, in 
 which old broken glass is almost exclusively used. 
 
 What we have said will serve to indicate some of the 
 salient features of the industrial life of London : its vitality 
 and variety; its expansiveness and its instability; its 
 economic attractiveness and the fierce play upon it of 
 a wide-spread competition; the strength of the conflict 
 within its own borders; its vigour and its dependence. 
 This chapter will serve as an introduction to the study of 
 some of the more particular phases of that life: the 
 localization of its trades; the systems of production under 
 which they are carried on ; the characteristic features of 
 the labour employed; the training of the workers and the 
 renewal of their supply; the problem of associated effort 
 for the maintenance alike of efficiency and peace; and the 
 influences that make for regularity or irregularity of 
 employment. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE LOCALIZATION AND DIFFUSION OF TBADES IN LONDON. 
 
 In the preceding chapter we have examined some of the 
 general characteristics of London as an industrial centre. 
 In the present one we pass to the more special question of 
 the localization or diffusion of particular trades, and ask 
 why it is that, while some occupations are concentrated in 
 fairly well-defined areas, others are scattered throughout 
 the whole Metropolis. 
 
 It must be noted at the outset, that the localization of a 
 trade does not involve a corresponding localization of the 
 homes of those who are engaged in it. On the contrary 
 place of residence and place of work are steadily becoming 
 increasingly independent of, and even remote from, each 
 other. 
 
 While the most striking example of this fact is afforded 
 by the difference between the day and night census of the 
 City — 301,384 as compared with 37,694 — it is clear that 
 in this remarkable divergence we have only a conspicuous 
 illustration of a widespread modern tendency. The pro- 
 bability that the City banker or merchant will live in Kent 
 or Kensington, and the City clerk in Camberwell or Crouch 
 End, finds its counterpart in the influences and facilities 
 that are inducing many operatives of every class to live in 
 the outer ring of London, with the certainty of lower rents 
 and the hope of better hygienic conditions. 
 
THE LOCALIZATION AND DIFFUSION OF TRADES. 97 
 
 But, while the workers scatter, the fact of economic 
 localization remains. It may, indeed, be argued that in 
 large centres of population it will become a more con- 
 spicuous feature, for while the migration of the family 
 remains necessarily difficult and costly, the movement of 
 the individual, to and fro, is constantly becoming cheaper 
 and simpler. The advantages of localization are thus 
 secured by an increasing number of trades, the members 
 of which may play and sleep many miles distant from the 
 area in which they work, and the individual worker 
 becomes, to an increasing extent, the relatively mobile 
 element in modern industrial life. 
 
 The localization of a great industry tends to be essen- 
 tially organic in its nature, often developing, if the market 
 supplied be sufficiently large and expansive, a great 
 complexity of form, and illustrating in a given area the 
 same interdependence of parts that national and even 
 international industries illustrate, in other aspects, on a 
 larger and grander scale. 
 
 The economic advantages of localization largely consist 
 in grouping around the main processes of an industry 
 those allied and subsidiary trades and processes which, 
 combined with adequate means of distribution, go to secure 
 the maximum of aggregate efficiency. A trade atmosphere 
 and a trade environment tend also to secure to such a 
 locality certain advantages in training, a consideration that 
 has a heightened importance where hereditary aptitudes 
 have been developed, and when the power of the family 
 and of the family tradition in the trade is strong. These 
 advantages may in certain cases, however, be counteracted 
 by the mischievous controlling influence that is not infre- 
 quently exercised by the skilled employees of such localized 
 trades over the admission of new members and over the 
 prevailing standards of efficiency. 
 
 One of the most interesting examples of localization that 
 V i 
 
SURVEY AND CONCLUSIONS. 
 
 London presents is that existing in and around Fleet 
 Street, where there are found not only newspaper offices 
 and printing firms, but nearly every branch of allied 
 service, from the depot of the type-founder and printing- 
 machine maker to advertising and wholesale news agencies ; 
 the whole affording a conspicuous instance of concentration 
 and development. 
 
 Another example, with less striking historical associ- 
 ations, is found in the East London furniture trade. 
 Localization in this case also is presented in a highly 
 organic form, the component parts making an economic 
 whole, which, for the production of certain classes of 
 commodities, is of unrivalled efficiency. This group of 
 trades illustrates also that excessive specialization of indi- 
 vidual aptitudes which, under certain conditions, tends to 
 accompany division of labour. 
 
 But, although the foregoing are instances of highly 
 developed localization, neither those mentioned, nor any 
 other trades in London, present it in such an excessive 
 or disproportionate form as to involve for London as an 
 industrial area the same kind of economic weakness that 
 excessive specialization involves for the individual. From 
 this danger London is saved by the variety of its industries. 
 
 The precise localization of the printing and furniture 
 trades, and of many others that might be mentioned, finds 
 an explanation, not in any inherent advantages possessed 
 by the particular areas in which they flourish, but rather 
 in chance. A favourable start has been followed by a 
 gradual development, adding to the strength of the trade 
 and securing, in an increasing degree, the advantages of 
 connection and efficiency that concentration tends to ensure. 
 In the absence of any particular unfitness, the locality 
 gradually acquires a special suitability : a great market is 
 established; a tradition formed, and the associations of a 
 trade dominate and give character to a whole district. 
 
 But it is sometimes possible to indicate more special 
 
THE LOCALIZATION AND DIFFUSION OF TRADES. 99 
 
 explanations of localization. We find, for instance, the 
 packing-case makers in the City; the carriage builders 
 near the West End; and the heavy van-builders mainly in 
 East and South-East London, where most of the heavy 
 carting is done — all attracted to their respective districts 
 by the wish to secure the advantages of nearness to an 
 appropriate market, while light vans, in the absence of aDy 
 localizing influence, may be cited as an instance of products 
 that are made in almost every quarter. Envelope making, 
 pushed from the neighbourhood of Cannon Street by 
 increasing rents, is now chiefly located in Southwark, still 
 close to the centre of business correspondence and of export ; 
 and, as instances of remoter causation, we find brush-making 
 still in that part of London in which it was first established 
 when the materials for brooms could be cut from the 
 surrounding marshes ; and watch-making and silk-weaving 
 in the neighbourhoods of Clerkenwell and Spitalfields where 
 the foreign craftsmen settled long ago without the City 
 walls. The grouping on the outer ring of London of manu- 
 factures, such as of soap or chemicals, that require, relatively 
 to the numbers employed, large premises, may be necessa i y 
 in conformity to municipal regulations, but is likewise 
 explained by the double necessity of avoiding high rentals and 
 of securing the easy command of cheap means of transport, 
 and the importance of the latter consideration in many trades 
 is further illustrated by the proximity of most of the box- 
 makers' factories to the London canals. With riverside 
 industries, the physical conditions — that is, the actual facts 
 of the water-way and the docks — afford the main explanation. 
 These industries supply by far the greatest instance of 
 localization. And the importance of the river in the life of 
 London, though it is often a source of pride, is not fully 
 appreciated. 
 
 In the above examples one or more of the following special 
 influences has been mainly operative in determining localiza- 
 tion: proximity to an appropriate market; accessibility to 
 suitable means of transport ; variations of rent in different 
 
 7* 
 
100 
 
 SURVEY AND CONCLUSIONS. 
 
 parts of London ; and physical necessity. In every instance 
 the supply of the labour required has been assumed. While, 
 however, in many of the above cases this has been largely 
 drawn from outlying districts, in another group of trades we 
 find that localization is mainly determined by the neces- 
 sity of being able to draw upon the locality itself for large 
 supplies of low-paid labour. This may, indeed, be regarded 
 as the proximate cause of the expansion of some of the 
 most distinctive manufacturing industries of East and 
 South London — furniture, boots and shoes, caps, clothing, 
 paper bags and cardboard boxes, matches, jam, &c. In 
 several of these trades female labour is largely employed, 
 and they are found, therefore, in the neighbourhood of 
 districts largely occupied by " unskilled " or semi-skilled 
 workmen, or by those whose employment is most discon- 
 tinuous in character, since it is chiefly the daughters, wives, 
 and widows of these men who turn to labour of this kind. 
 
 Outside the range of manufacture, from a variety of 
 causes, many examples of localization are found : lawyers, 
 for instance, naturally gather together in the neighbour- 
 hood of the Law Courts, and doctors' plates are frequent 
 in particular streets close to the quarters of fashionable 
 London ; engineering firms seem to be taking possession of 
 Queen Victoria Street, and bicycle makers of Holborn 
 Viaduct, while builders' ironmongers, the modern represen- 
 tatives of an ancient movement of " ironmongers from Iron- 
 mongers' Lane and Old Jurie"* are still found in Upper 
 Thames Street. 
 
 In the City itself we find other and still more striking 
 examples, but in many respects the position of the City is 
 unique as the centre and core of London. The Stock 
 Exchange and Lloyds; the great produce centres of Mark 
 and Mincing Lanes; and Paternoster Row, are among the 
 many important examples, all with their appropriate 
 * Stow : Survey of London, 1598 (Ed. 1832, p. 31). 
 
THE LOCALIZATION AND DIFFUSION OF TRADES. m 
 
 settings of offices, warehouses and show-rooms within the 
 City. But the greatest instance of all is found in the 
 localization within its borders of the banking system of 
 the Empire— of Bagebot's symbolic " Lombard Street." 
 In this we ha,ve an instance of concentration so profoundly 
 important in its practical bearings and so penetrating in 
 its effects, that even the chances of employment of the 
 poorest sempstress or casual labourer of East London are 
 connected, by a chain of sequence that it would be easy to 
 trace, with the stability of a few associations established 
 almost within a stone's throw of the Bank of England. 
 
 To the wide-spread rule of concentration retail trade is 
 usually an exception, for the retail distributor must be 
 ubiquitous and suited in every case to his more immediate 
 surroundings. Thus we have the small " general shop" of 
 the poor back street ; the prosperous glitter and exuberant 
 show of the main thoroughfares of industrial or suburban 
 districts ; the substantial establishments of the City ; and 
 the more delicate catering of Regent Street and Piccadilly. 
 This determination of the character of the shop by the 
 character of its neighbourhood is illustrated in every 
 branch of distribution — drapers, hosiers, tailors, hatters, 
 milliners, &c. — and the same relationship is found when 
 many branches are combined in a single undertaking, as 
 in large stores.* Shops, however, are but the industrial 
 garniture of cities. Sometimes, in quite exceptional cases, 
 they may indicate forms of local productive activity, but in 
 * The influence of the residential neighbourhood is reflected in many 
 other directions— in, for instance, lodging-houses, hotels and public-houses, 
 and in the distribution of members of the medical profession if general 
 practitioners. It should be noted that the City is in this, as in so many 
 other respects, exceptional ; its retail shops — tailors, boot-makers, hatters, 
 jewellers, restaurants, &c— reflecting the demands, not of its residents, but 
 of its immense day population. Certain streets and particular firms that have 
 established a special reputation are, in a somewhat analogous way, exceptional 
 to the extent to which they are able to attract a demand from those living 
 in other parts. 
 
102 
 
 SURVEY AND CONCLUSIONS. 
 
 no trade can they be assumed to do so. Boots, clothes, 
 and f arniture, for instance, sold in West London shops are 
 not infrequently the products of East London industry. 
 
 The local variations in the quality alike of the products 
 and of the labour of the same trade must be mentioned 
 in conclusion. Though there are numerous exceptions, 
 and though the greater cheapness of the commodity 
 does not always indicate a lower average of remuneration 
 for the operative, yet in many important trades, the 
 general rule holds that the condition of the worker tends 
 to vary with the character and quality of the product. 
 Owing to the higher standard of excellence required, 
 those who produce more directly and more exclusively 
 for the wealthier classes of the community are likely to 
 pay or receive a higher rate of wages than those who 
 produce for a poorer, more mixed, or more distant market. 
 
 The effects of this general rule might be illustrated in 
 several ways, but they are, perhaps, sufficiently reflected in 
 the comparison of the social condition of the members of 
 the trades mentioned in the following table, of the con- 
 trasts shown in which, however, they by no means afford 
 the sole explanation : — * 
 
 Percentage of crowded and not crowded in certain trades 
 in East and West London. 
 
 
 Tailoks. 
 
 Boot & Shoe 
 Makers. 
 
 Cabinet 
 Makers. 
 
 Hat and Cap 
 
 Makers. 
 
 DlSTKICTS. 
 
 
 
 
 
 T3 
 
 
 <V 
 
 
 
 'p 
 
 s 
 
 o 
 
 Not 
 Crowd 
 
 > 
 
 £ 
 o 
 
 Nol 
 Crowd 
 
 o 
 
 £> 
 
 No1 
 Crowd 
 
 b 
 D 
 
 Nol 
 Crowd 
 
 West 
 
 52J 
 28 
 
 47* 
 72" 
 
 56 
 33 
 
 44 
 67 
 
 55 
 34 
 
 45 
 66 
 
 48 
 22f 
 
 52 
 78f 
 
 
 
 
 39£ 
 
 60£ 
 
 44i 
 
 55^ 
 
 45 
 
 55 
 
 29 
 
 71 
 
 * See Comparisons : I. Crowding and Apparent Poverty, p. 4. 
 f Including North London. 
 
THE LOCALIZATION AND DIFFUSION OF TRADES. 103 
 
 In the following chapter the manufacturing industries 
 of London will be considered with special reference to the 
 system of production followed. The question of localization 
 thus falls somewhat into the background, but its effects on 
 both system of work and condition of worker, especially 
 regards the nature of the market, the efficiency of the 
 individual, and the specialization of individual skill, will be 
 found to be of marked importance in certain trades. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 LAKGE AND SMALL SYSTEMS OF PKODUCTION AND 
 EMPLOYMENT. 
 
 To some extent the system of production followed in 
 a particular industry is determined by its general charac- 
 ter — by the nature of the material upon which labour 
 is employed ; by the number of successive or concurrent 
 processes required to yield the final product; by the 
 degree in which direct control of labour is called for and 
 opportunities exist for its advantageous direction ; by 
 the size of the market supplied ; and by the extent 
 to which machinery, mechanical appliances, and special 
 plant can be utilized. But, although such considera- 
 tions may suggest the system under which any particular 
 industry is likely to- be carried on, they cannot be relied on 
 to tell us definitely what it will actually be. The method 
 of production may be partially determined by local and 
 non-essential conditions. And the character of the work 
 may itself change. 
 
 In London, all systems are found. There are "works," 
 where, in addition to machinery and an extensive plant, 
 much subsidiary labour is employed on purely manual 
 processes; factories of which the characteristic features are 
 the application of "power" and the association of human 
 labour with mechanical appliances ; and workshops, large 
 and small, down to the room of the isolated home-worker. 
 
 Thus, we find chemical works, soapworks, dyeworks, 
 engineering works, &c, representing trades in which the 
 large system has conquered, and in which, therefore, such 
 questions as the multiplication of the small workshop and 
 the position of the home-worker have no place; while in 
 
SYSTEMS OF PRODUCTION AND EMPLOYMENT. 105 
 
 jam-ii) akin g, candle-making, rubber manufacture, railway 
 carriage building, clotli letterpress binding, envelope 
 making, and printing we find the factory system also 
 adopted, though in very different forms, both as regards 
 scale of operations and conditions of employment. 
 
 In other trades, the conflict of rival systems is more 
 conspicuously exemplified, but we see the tendency of the 
 factory system to prevail when machinery c*n be profitably 
 employed, as in scientific and electrical instrument making, 
 watch-making, rope-making, tin-canister making, and in 
 some branches of the pottery trades, where "the advantage 
 is with the large maker who can use steam power/' and it 
 is so even in the sack and tarpaulin trade, in which, from 
 a combination of causes, work is tending to be concen- 
 trated in the factories. 
 
 Others again are on the border-line. In brush -making, 
 for instance, since but little machinery is used, and there 
 are several convenient stages in production, the ligh ten- 
 branches of the trade are most frequently carried on in the 
 home; while, in the heavier branches, in which not only 
 can the subdivision of the work be pushed further, but in 
 which machinery can be more extensively used, the factory 
 system is gaining ground. It may be further noted that 
 much of the polishing — an independent and final process 
 done by hand — still remains a home employment in both 
 branches of this trade. 
 
 In a certain number of cases, even though little or 
 no machinery be employed, the general character of the 
 trade tends to fix it in the workshop. This may be 
 due to certain qualities of the material used, such as its 
 great value, dangerous character, or bulkiness, or to the 
 economies secured by concentration of management and 
 subdivision of labour. Instances are found in silver- 
 smiths' and jewellers' work; in gold-beating; in the 
 manufacture of drugs; in private carriage budding; in 
 some sections of the clothing and many of the wood- 
 
106 
 
 SURVEY AND CONCLUSIONS. 
 
 working trades. And here, again, some industries — well 
 illustrated in clothing and wood-working, in which the 
 different systems compete for mastery — still rest on the 
 border-line. In such trades the greatest practical interest 
 of the moment is found, because it is by them that some 
 of the gravest problems are presented. 
 
 It appears, then, that every system has its field, and 
 that none can be pronounced good or bad in itself, either 
 on social or on economic grounds, the real satisfactoriness 
 or the reverse of the conditions of employment turning 
 on a much wider range of economic considerations than 
 on size of the working unit, or on system of production. 
 The variations in size have, however, a real importance, 
 even though we are nnable to draw an exact line of 
 demarcation between what is meant by " large " and 
 "small." The application of the qualifying term varies 
 between trade and trade, and in most cases large under- 
 takings shade down by imperceptible degrees to small, so 
 that exact classification from this point of view becomes 
 entirely arbitrary. In a general comparison, however, 
 of the larger system, be it in the shape of factory or 
 workshop, with the small, it would seem that the 
 balance of general advantage rests with the former. 
 On the economic side it affords greater opportunities for 
 using improvements in methods of production ; either by the 
 introduction of machinery and the application of scientific 
 methods, or by the more effective subdivision of labour. 
 It secures advantage in the employment of many forms of 
 useful subsidiary service, such as clerical staff, door-keepers, 
 &c. ; and it makes greater enterprise and bolder initiative 
 possible. The social advantages of the large system are : — 
 Better sanitary and hygienic conditions of employment; 
 fuller publicity; completer registration; and more regular 
 inspection. And on both social and economic grounds it 
 has the two-fold advantage of tending to secure increased 
 
SYSTEMS OF PRODUCTION AND EMPLOYMENT. 107 
 
 regularity of employment and greater uniformity within 
 each trade as regards rates of pay and hours of work. 
 By this the organization of labour is made more easy 
 on the part of the men, while the employer secures a more 
 certain basis on which to prepare estimates and enter 
 into contracts — advantages which should tend to make 
 employment more steady, and minimize the evils of insensate 
 competition. 
 
 On the other hand, as has already been pointed out in 
 Chapter I., small establishments are more elastic, respond- 
 ing more quickly to the needs of the hour, or perishing 
 with less disturbance if they fail to respond. They can 
 rest their action on a closer personal touch between masters 
 and men and between producer and consumer, and in these 
 ways balance to some extent the great economies and advan- 
 tages of the larger system. The result of this is seen in 
 the vigorous vitality of the small system in a large number 
 of London trades. It must be admitted in addition that 
 for many trades small workshops offer the only efficient 
 training school. 
 
 The extent to which greater regularity of employment 
 will be secured by the large system depends on the amount 
 of working capital and, in particular on the proportion of it 
 that is fixed, especially of such capital as depreciates in 
 value by disuse ; but perhaps still more on the extent 
 to which the character of the trade makes it possible 
 to work for " stock " in slack times. The whole question 
 of machinery and its effects on employment is involved 
 in this argument. 
 
 The introduction of machinery in any trade may lead 
 gradually to a complete change of process, converting, it 
 may be, a home industry into one that is mainly carried on 
 in the factory. Such a change tends, as a rule, to weaken 
 the London position, on account of increased rental charges, 
 and may even result in moving the trade so affected to 
 provincial centres. The boot and shoe trade, in some of 
 
108 
 
 SURVEY AND CONCLUSIONS. 
 
 its branches, illustrates the operation of this tendency.* 
 And, generally, it may be stated that transitions to the 
 factory system are unfavourable to London, except, 
 perhaps, when the factory is content to supply the parts 
 or the prepared materials used by the individual worker or 
 small workshop, as is done by the sawmills in the furniture 
 trades ; or when much of the labour appropriate to the 
 machinery used is low-paid and abundant, as is that 
 required in the tin-canister and wire-rope factories. The 
 effects of the extended use of machinery on London 
 industry are, however, determined largely by the ways in 
 which it alters the relationship between the various items 
 that make up the total expenses of production. 
 
 Thus since the introduction of machinery diminishes the 
 extent to which wages enter as an element of the expenses 
 of production, this altered relationship may, under certain 
 conditions, help to strengthen the position of the London 
 trade. In those cases, for instance, in which the relative 
 positions of the London and provincial employer turn 
 largely, not on differences of system, but on differences in 
 rates of wages paid, a previously adverse position may 
 even be turned in favour of London by the increased 
 economy in production secured by the more effective 
 use of machinery. Some branches of printing are instances 
 of trades so circumstanced. 
 
 Or, again, it sometimes happens that bold expenditure 
 and the extensive introduction of machinery may even 
 re-habilitate a London industry, the additional strength in 
 competition far outweighing such normally adverse London 
 conditions as high rental charges. Instances of this are 
 seen in the case of gutta-percha stopper making, in which 
 the importation of the German hand-made article has 
 
 * The temporary character of the effects of the strike of 1890 in this 
 trade is probably to a great extent due to the economic difficulty of high 
 rents that the provision of the workshops asked for would have involved. (By 
 ■a mistake in Vol. III., page 21, it was stated that no strike had occurred.) 
 
SYSTEMS OF PRODUCTION AND EMPLOYMENT. 109 
 
 been almost completely arrested by the equipment of a 
 London factory; and in that of dyeing, in which much 
 of the trade is being recovered from the Provinces, 
 where the advantage had consisted mainly in havir o- been 
 beforehand in the application of machinery and scientific 
 methods. 
 
 The extending use of machinery has resulted in an 
 enormous gain to the community as a whole, and will 
 doubtless continue to do so, yet in certain cases and in 
 individual trades some of the most painful problems of 
 modern industrial life are due to the difficulty and hardship 
 arising from the dislocation that has followed on its appli- 
 cation. The way in which mechanical aids in production 
 affect the character of labour — diminishing or increasing 
 individual efficiency and altering the elements of efficiency 
 itself — must also be noted, as well as the effect of large as 
 compared with small methods of work on the position of 
 the individual worker. 
 
 The more impersonal relationship between employers 
 and employed under the large system is apt to introduce 
 a sharper division of duties. The routine ; the disciplinary 
 regulations ; as well as the actual numbers employed, serve, 
 undoubtedly, to prevent the heads of large firms from 
 having much personal contact with the members of then- 
 staff, and this is especially true of occupations in which 
 employment is normally discontinuous, as it is in most 
 branches of the building trade. It must, however, be said 
 that the character of the relationship existing between em- 
 ployers and employed is much more important than its 
 closeness; that it is far more essential that the prevailing 
 tone should be friendly than that intercourse should be 
 intimate or frequent ; and that much may be done to show 
 consideration and forethought that will demonstrate tho 
 care and goodwill of employers to all in their service, even 
 though they be known personally to but a few. On the 
 
110 
 
 SURVEY AND CONCLUSIONS. 
 
 other hand, there is a certain element of clanger in the 
 exclusive control of labour by subordinates, owing partly to 
 the diminished sense of moral responsibility that they are 
 likely to feel. A man will often impose a condition or exact 
 a return for another that he would refrain from, if acting 
 directly for himself. Large business corporations tend 
 to have no conscience, and this non-moral relationship is 
 undoubtedly more apt to prevail in the case of manage- 
 ment by deputy than by the actual employer. But 
 it is only a danger, and is in no sense a condition of the 
 large system of employment. Statements, therefore, which, 
 referring to the factory system, describe the man as the 
 slave of the machine, and the manager or foreman as a 
 universal tyrant are in need of many qualifications. 
 
 Under present conditions, moreover, it must be admitted 
 that regular association with a large and firmly established 
 business undertaking, even though it be under exacting 
 conditions and for small pay, may compare not unfavour- 
 ably with the position of many independent home-workers. 
 Perhaps no industrial lot is more sad than that of the 
 solitary worker, making for an uncertain and unknown 
 market — his only master the need to live. Both conditions 
 are forms of industrial servitude, and both involve certain 
 evils, but the latter is on the whole the less desirable. 
 
 There is no necessary fixity in the system followed by 
 the individual worker. The home-worker, for instance, is 
 the potential occupier of a small workshop ; and any small 
 workshop may become, if management be successful and 
 conditions favourable, a large centre of employment. There 
 is a tendency in most trades towards such a change in 
 industrial status, and in these cases fixity is probably 
 a sign of economic weakness. We are led to ask, therefore, 
 why the small system, in one or more of its various forms, 
 persistently prevails in certain trades to so large an extent ? 
 
 Although in considering this question no very close 
 
SYSTEMS OF PRODUCTION AND EMPLOYMENT. m 
 
 analysis of those working under the small system is 
 necessary, the four following component classes must bo 
 distinguished : — 
 
 (1) The small maker, who employs labour, and, either in 
 his own home or in a workshop, produces commodities 
 made from his own material. 
 
 (2) The master man who employs labour as above, but 
 on material supplied either by some superior employing 
 firm or by some intermediary. 
 
 (3) The home-maker, who works by himself on his own 
 material. 
 
 (4) The home-worker, who works by himself on material 
 supplied as in No. 2. 
 
 The chief motive that leads to the multiplication of 
 the small employers of both the above classes, Nos. 1 and 
 2, and of the home-maker, No. 3, is the greater freedom 
 and independence that these changes of status secure — or 
 -are expected to secure. Closely allied to this is the motive 
 of hope that springs from possibilities. As a wage-earner 
 the range of earnings is fixed to within at least a few 
 shillings per week, but as an employer there is no such 
 narrow limit. Profits may be added to remuneration for 
 labour expended, and, if success attend effort, a large 
 income and complete change of social position may in time 
 result. The hopeful attractiveness of these chances is 
 often not exhausted until there have been many attempts 
 and many failures. 
 
 In the case of home-makers and home-workers the motive 
 of independence is closely connected with that of con- 
 venience, especially in the case of women with household 
 duties to perform.* The preference for home-work is 
 
 * It may be observed that this form of convenience, which is mainly the 
 free selection of the working hours, is not incompatible with workshop ;m<l 
 even factory employment where little machinery is used, and payment is by 
 the piece. An example of this is seen in the hatters' furriers. The factories 
 are opened at a fixed hour in the morning, but the women come in when 
 ■they like, the work being given out over-night. 
 
112 
 
 SURVEY AND CONCLUSIONS. 
 
 frequently strengthened by the ability to requisition the 
 services of other members of the family. When this is 
 the case the domestic workshop springs into existence, and 
 we have industries, as in some branches of the furrier's 
 trade, where the family may almost be regarded as the 
 working nnit. 
 
 The attractiveness of what are termed ^supplementary 
 earnings" must also be mentioned as a motive explaining 
 the prevalence of many forms of home employment. 
 W omen as a rule are supplementary wage-earners, in the 
 sense of not providing a full maintenance, and although 
 many are obliged to continue work even when married, 
 there is a large amount of quasi-voluntary employment, 
 especially among those who can work at home. The 
 few shillings earned in this way may, unless they sap 
 the energies of the husband and decrease his contribution 
 to the common purse, add much to the pleasures of life 
 in the case of the individual family. But it is this form 
 of employment that to no inconsiderable extent intensifies 
 the competition among those who are entirely dependent 
 upon their own exertions, and may have others to support. 
 
 Something akin to despair may, on the other hand, be 
 the actuating motive, especially in the case of the " home- 
 maker." If, when direct employment cannot be obtained, 
 a few shillings can be raised to buy the necessary materials, 
 and if tools have not been pawned, men turn to making 
 things at home, trusting to a sale of their product in 
 whatever market is open to them at the week's end. 
 
 And, finally, a love of freedom, perhaps perverted, 
 explains the existence of many of the same class. These 
 are men who are smart and unsteady, who work in rushes, 
 and who, — at times working at home with feverish energy 
 through days of abnormal length, and, at others perhaps, 
 taking a spell with some employer who will put up with 
 their irregularities for the sake of their cleverness — will, 
 later on, drop out from both ranks till the money 
 
SYSTEMS OF PRODUCTION AND EMPLOYMENT. 113 
 
 they have earned is all spent. The mode of life of such 
 men is necessarily harmful, and those of them who make and 
 sell in any open market that offers generally do so as weai 
 competitors, becoming centres of undercutting and of dis- 
 organization in the trade to which they belong. 
 
 Of the economic conditions that favour the small system 
 of production, the most important is the possibility of 
 starting with very little capital. In the cases of the 
 small master man or the home-worker (Nos. 2 and 4) who 
 may wish to extend their operations, or of the wage-earner 
 wishing to start in one of these capacities, the ability to 
 give or procure a guarantee against loss or misappropriation 
 of material committed to their care will be the main 
 requirement. The expenses of industry will under these 
 circumstances be small, and capital will be only necessary 
 for this indirect and reserved use. But in the case of the 
 small independent employer and the home-maker (Nos. 1 
 and 3) the command of some capital for the purchase of 
 the material used will be necessary. 
 
 When only a very little initial capital is required in order 
 to commence business "on one's own account," the conditions 
 are apt to be altogether too favourable to the multiplication 
 of the small man. The cabinet-maker, for instance, can start 
 operations, albeit inadequately and insecurely, with only 
 £2 or £3 in hand, and in the case of fish curers, makers of 
 cheap magic-lanterns and toys, of sweet stuffs, ginger beer 
 and many other things, an even smaller capital will suffice. 
 
 Other determining circumstances are found in the nature 
 of the market. If, in a trade in which little capital is 
 required, the market be large, the demand fairly constant, 
 and the buyers easily accessible, and if the practice of the 
 market be to buy, either on order, or from chance pro- 
 ducers offering for cash, then in that market will the 
 small producer find his opportunity. By far the most 
 important of such markets are wholesale, that is, when the 
 v 8 
 
114 
 
 SURVEY AND CONCLUSIONS. 
 
 small maker produces " for the trade," and not for sale 
 direct to the consumer. But it may be noted that the know- 
 ledge possessed by the small maker " to the trade " that 
 enables him to get a footing, not infrequently involves the 
 somewhat unscrupulous use of information obtained as 
 a wage-earner. Thus we are told that in the wire-workers' 
 trade the garret-masters frequently approach customers of 
 the firm they had previously worked for, and offer goods at 
 a considerably lower price. In this way either the order 
 is obtained, or, after the customer has informed the firm of 
 the lower price at which he can secure what he wants, the 
 firm in its turn tells the workmen of the new competition, 
 and prices and wages tend downwards all round. This 
 operation is said to be one of the chief causes of the 
 continued reduction in the prices of "repeated" orders. 
 Then if the small man does not succeed on his own account, 
 he, to quote from our notes of evidence of a wire-worker 
 (wage-earner), " again seeks employment, cursing the 
 bad pay and every bad condition for which he and his 
 class are chiefly responsible." 
 
 A large retail market may serve as well as a wholesale 
 one when the commodity offered is something that meets 
 a large and undiscriminating demand; when the worth 
 of the guarantee of the seller can be easily estimated by 
 the chance consumer, or when the exchange value of the 
 article is so small as to make its intrinsic merits a con- 
 sideration of secondary importance; and especially when 
 the commodity is portable. Under these conditions the 
 hawking of goods in the streets, or from house to house, 
 tends to prevail, and hawked goods in London, outside the 
 range of eatables, are to a great extent the product of the 
 small workshop or the home. Instances of this are found 
 in some of the poorest branches of the cabinet-making 
 trade; in some wire-work goods {e.g. toasting forks); in 
 light tin-plated goods ; in cheap basket and brush work ; 
 and in firewood. 
 
SYSTEMS OF PRODUCTION AND EMPLOYMENT. 115 
 
 The dissimilarity as regards well being that is constantly 
 found to be compatible with similarity of industrial form 
 emphasizes the fact that no system of production whatever 
 can rightly be regarded as good or bad in itself, either on 
 social or economic grounds. We have seen that the form 
 is the result of many influences, and that it is frequently 
 transitional in character. It will be therefore upon the 
 presence or absence of certain particular conditions, inde- 
 pendent alike of system, place of work, and size of unit, 
 that ethical as well as economic judgment must be based. 
 
 In the cases of the small practical retail saddler, " one of 
 the few surviving illustrations of the mediasval workshop;" 
 in the small master man of the London cutlery trade ; in 
 the " chamber masters " of the surgical instrument trade ; 
 in the watch-makers of Clerkenwell ; in many of the work- 
 shops of the wholesale tailoring trade ; and in some of the 
 workrooms of the journeyman tailors who execute at home 
 the best "bespoke " work, we have illustrations of the fact 
 that the "small system" in its various phases is compatible 
 with favourable conditions of work and of employment. 
 
 It is, indeed, the quality of the labour required, con- 
 sidered in relation to the circumstances under which the 
 demand makes itself felt, that determines whether the 
 conditions are satisfactory or the reverse. In a young 
 settlement, for instance, a sempstress working in her 
 wooden shanty might economically be the most enviable 
 person in the whole community. But in London the reverse 
 is the case ; for in such a trade, in which no great skill is 
 required, and the work can be done at home, there are too 
 many women available. Competition therefore is excessive 
 and conditions hard. But it is upon the conditions and not 
 the system that attention should be focussed. If it be 
 found that the conditions are necessarily permanent, and 
 that, when associated with a particular system, they are 
 harmful, then the system can be logically condemned. 
 But not otherwise. And this necessary permanency is 
 
116 
 
 SURVEY AND CONCLUSIONS. 
 
 hard to prove. It is even difficult to show that the 
 disadvantages which we are apt to associate with this or 
 that system have any connection with it. 
 
 The small system of production may, for instance, be 
 accompanied by many of the advantages of enterprise and 
 initiative that might seem to be obtainable only with large 
 firms controlling large capital. These very advantages are, 
 however, often supplied to it by a body of non-manufactur- 
 ing middle-men, who, replacing one of the functions of the 
 large employer, tend to multiply the small maker, affording 
 him some guarantee of continuous employment, and pro- 
 viding his market. The general efficiency of productive 
 energy is, under such conditions, determined in great 
 measure by the effectiveness and completeness of the 
 machinery of distribution. 
 
 We see, on the other hand, that excessive specialization of 
 skill and consequent loss of industrial independence are in 
 no sense exclusively connected with, perhaps even not 
 found in their extremist forms in, the large system of pro- 
 duction, with which they are most popularly associated. 
 They are in fact often determined, not so much by the 
 size of the individual centre of employment, as by the 
 number of branches into which a trade may be sub- 
 divided. The highly organized development, therefore, of 
 an industry in any locality, even if the characteristic 
 features be the small and the smallest system of production, 
 may thus be followed by all the evils of labour that is over- 
 specialized, and therefore incapable, as regards each 
 individual operative, of the adaptation that changing 
 conditions may demand. 
 
 And so also with that form of sub-contract which is most 
 likely to be accompanied by "sweating" — when neither 
 plant is owned nor material supplied by the " sub-con- 
 tractor," and when labour alone is his source of profit — this 
 also has no necessary connection with any particular method 
 of production — large or small. In the large cabinet maker's 
 
SYSTEMS OF PRODUCTION AND EMPLOYMENT. 117 
 
 -shop, for instance, we may find the skilled operative working 
 with an assistant "greener," or the French polisher, as 
 n piece-master, taking on and paying his own men j in 
 the carriage building trade we see the f: leading hand," 
 having accepted work " at a price," making his own terms 
 with others whom he himself employs and pays; in 
 some pianoforte factories we still find the different parts of 
 the work given to contractors who make their own bargains 
 with men whom they independently employ, and a similar 
 practice is even more prevalent in the light leather factories 
 of Bermondsey. In some sections of the saddlers' trade the 
 same relationship is found on a smaller scale and on perhaps 
 more favourable conditions ; and the Boiler Makers' Society 
 has been not altogether inaptly described as a union of 
 small employers. 
 
 In comparing the large system with the small, however, 
 we are led to the general conclusion that, ceteris paribus, 
 the small employer tends to impose harder conditions 
 upon his workers, even though they be more irregularly 
 enforced, than does the large employer. And some of the 
 reasons for this are not far to seek. One of the most 
 important is found in the fact that the small master often 
 works himself at his own trade, and, working for his own 
 hand, is apt to measure against his own eagerness the 
 response of others whose interest in the total output cannot 
 be so great as his own. He often maintains a very friendly 
 relationship with the few workers round him, but his 
 capital is small, his business interest is concentrated, and 
 his employees consequently become, in a more intensified 
 form than in the case of a large employer with a wider 
 field of operations to divert attention, the human 
 instruments of production out of whose energy his profits 
 most directly and most obviously come. And the strength 
 of his interest in their labour is reflected in the force and 
 the strenuousness of his control. 
 
 But it must also be remembered that, although the small 
 
118 
 
 SURVEY AND CONCLUSIONS. 
 
 employer may more often " drive," he is also himself more 
 often driven — is often, indeed, not so free an economic 
 agent as those over whom, so long as they work for him, he 
 rules. His responsibilities are greater, and he is subject, in 
 many ways from which the wage-earner is comparatively 
 free, to the conditions of the market for which he works. 
 
 We are, however, led again by a wider survey to the 
 conclusion arrived at in an earlier chapter* that the con- 
 ditions implied by the term " sweating " — the drive, the 
 excessive specialization, and the human exploitation — 
 are largely independent of any system of production, 
 and of any particular relationship between employers and 
 emplo} r ed. They are dependent on more fundamental 
 considerations : — On the general position and character 
 of the trade ; on the quality of the labour employed ; 
 on the nature and strength of the traditions of the trade, 
 and of its labour organizations ; on the force of competition 
 within and the pressure of competition from without ; and 
 on the character of employers and of their deputies. 
 
 The best as well as the worst conditions of employment 
 may, indeed, prevail under any system — large or small, 
 factory, workshop, or home. To obtain a basis for generaliza- 
 tion as to the real explanation of the prevailing conditions, 
 a careful analysis of the particular circumstances affecting 
 particular trades is thus necessary, rather than a classifica- 
 tion based on superficial differences of form. Even then 
 any conclusions arrived at would be largely hypothetical 
 in character, for it is as necessary in the study of 
 contemporary industrial life as in that of abstract economic 
 theory to be clear as to the nature of the assumptions 
 that have been made in enunciating any proposition. 
 In the case before us, however, these assumptions will be 
 based on an examination of actual circumstances ; whereas 
 abstract theory necessarily depends to a great extent on 
 their elimination. 
 
 * First Series, Vol. IV., chap. X. 
 
SYSTEMS OF PRODUCTION AND EMPLOYMENT. 
 
 119 
 
 While the fundamental motive that determines method 
 of production may be stated generally as the desire to 
 secure the most effective use of labour and capital, various 
 influencing circumstances such as have been mentioned, 
 determine the special conditions of employment that prevail 
 in any particular trade. These may vary from time 
 to time with a hundred operating causes, but in certain 
 trades, especially in some of those in which the small 
 system chiefly prevails, they have acted with harmful and 
 deteriorating force both on work and worker. 
 
 This has been due largely to what have become the 
 normal conditions of competition in the trades concerned, 
 but it has been accentuated in a marked degree by the 
 response that the producer has felt himself obliged to 
 make to the popular demand for cheapness — that Janus- 
 faced economic idol; making on the one side for comfort 
 in life, but on the other constituting a shrine before which, 
 though most worship blindly, many human lives have been 
 and are being sacrificed. The vast majority of consumers 
 are constantly on the alert for cheap things, and, what- 
 ever their margin of income may be, they are apt to yield 
 to the temptation to welcome the lowest range of prices 
 that competition can secure, whatever be the conditions 
 of employment involved. 
 
 An instance may be given from the evidence of a tin- 
 plate worker regarding his trade, who says: "All big 
 shops have small garret-masters — small sweaters who have 
 been journeymen themselves and are anxious to be 
 independent, and to start on their own account — working 
 for them, and doing the light, common work. These small 
 men make things which are only made to sell, and only 
 sell because they are cheap. They are of no use, have no 
 strength, yet people buy them, and the supply has caused 
 a demand. Working-men's wives, who ought to know 
 better, are the chief offenders." 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 CHARACTERISTICS AND TRAINING OF LONDON LABOUR. 
 
 The " industrial revolution," started in the eighteenth 
 century, is still in active progress, and the conflict of 
 system — of new against old forms of industrial organization 
 — inaugurated more than a century ago, is still proceeding 
 in many trades. In some it has not even yet began. But 
 the effects are already widespread, and the resulting changes 
 of industrial structure are working themselves out in many 
 forms, nowhere, perhaps, more actively or with a greater 
 variety of illustration than in London. 
 
 Among other effects of the changes that have taken 
 place, we find that the division of occupations into " skilled " 
 and "unskilled" which once passed muster is gradually 
 falling into disrepute, and that many of the elements of 
 personal industrial efficiency are tending to alter. 
 
 In the present chapter we shall consider these points 
 with special reference to the characteristics of London 
 labour; to the degree of independence maintained by 
 London as regards the supply of labour required ; and 
 to the allied question of industrial training. 
 
 Although the terms " skilled" and "unskilled" are 
 becoming increasingly inexact and unscientific, it may be 
 assumed that they will long continue in use, for a very 
 varying standard of efficiency is nearly always found 
 among individuals nominally following the same occupation, 
 and in most trades those employed may be roughly 
 divided into skilled or unskilled workers. It is rather 
 when we compare trade with trade that we discern wider 
 and more unmistakable differences, some occupations 
 
CHARACTERISTICS OF LONDON LABOUR. 
 
 121 
 
 demanding, if mastered thoroughly, a range of knowledge 
 and of aptitude that distinguishes them in a very 
 marked way from others in which there is no correspond- 
 ing scope. Moreover, the increasing use of scientific 
 processes and of machinery, demanding care rather than 
 skill, together with the greater variety in the functions of 
 operative labour generally and in the conditions under 
 which they are fulfilled, make the old expressions increas- 
 ingly inadequate. They will be found to be especially 
 so in the present more particular consideration of the 
 elements of industrial efficiency, and the extent to which 
 London is able to supply them. 
 
 In what does industrial efficiency consist ? It may be 
 possible to define competency, but competency is no 
 guarantee of effective work. The most skilful, clever, and 
 " competent " men are, indeed, sometimes very far from 
 being efficient, for, unless the strictest supervision be 
 possible and enforced, they not infrequently take liberties 
 with their powers, and lack many of the qualities that are 
 absolutely necessary to effective service. Competency and 
 skill mean power; efficiency means power applied. 
 
 The word has, therefore, a wide meaning, for efficiency 
 will involve, not only the mastery of the processes required in 
 any particular occupation, but the presence of the personal 
 qualities — the physical, and, if there be no control from 
 outside, the moral fibre, necessary to ensure its exercise. 
 
 The simplest form of efficiency is called for in the case of 
 labour expended on easy and straight-forward work, such 
 as road-sweeping or wood-chopping. From this we may 
 rise to the rarest manual form, demanding the highest skill 
 and trustworthiness, in which the operative, working, it 
 may be alone, on costly materials, needs in the pursuit of 
 his craft not only the most careful and skilled manipulation, 
 but the power of judgment and of feeling as regards both 
 utility and beauty. 
 
122 
 
 SURVEY AND CONCLUSIONS. 
 
 In some trades, like that of the smith, there is " always 
 something to learn " ; in most there is scope for the 
 perfect adaptation that comes from the repeated exercise, 
 even in a limited field, of hand and brain ; but in many 
 the opportunities for adding either to knowledge or to 
 efficiency are small. This is, perhaps, especially so, when 
 the operative is the feeder of a machine, in which case, if 
 there be no active responsibility felt for the machine that 
 is served, and no watchful interest in the final product, 
 there is danger, even more, perhaps, than when great 
 muscular strain is involved, lest occupation should dwarf 
 the physical and mental life of the worker. In such cases 
 efficiency is found mainly in an unrelieved and unvarying 
 persistency. In persistency we find, indeed, the most 
 general element of efficiency, but it varies in character from 
 the mechanical repetition of the simplest movement to the 
 strong and sympathetic application of the highest powers 
 — from the methods of the "mason," for instance, "whose 
 persistency is as the ways are of men in this world," to 
 those of Michael Angelo. 
 
 Efficiency, therefore, will vary with and be closely 
 related to both occupation and the moral and physical con- 
 ditions under which occupation is followed. Even the 
 element of voluntary persistency will often be unessential, 
 although always to be desired. When strict superintend- 
 ence is exercised, or when the degree of effort is determined 
 either by the recurring demand of machinery for attention, 
 or, in cases when all must work together, by the pace 
 that is set by the somewhat more highly-paid leader of 
 a gang — in such cases we may approach the conditions 
 of the tread-mill, and secure regularity of effort in spite of 
 the absence of good-will. 
 
 The relative, and therefore varying nature of industrial 
 efficiency is curiously illustrated in the special importance 
 that is attached to particular qualities in particular trades. 
 
CHARACTERISTICS OF LONDON LABOUR. 
 
 123 
 
 Thus we read that for coffin-makers it is more important 
 that a man should be strong and presentable, with respectful 
 and, "if possible, sympathetic manners," than a highly 
 skilled workman ; an organ-builder must not only have 
 a general knowledge of his craft, but, since the church is 
 often his workshop, he must be sober, steady, and of good 
 behaviour ; in the case of the artesian-well constructor, 
 much of whose work has to be executed without super- 
 vision, at a distance from head-quarters, reliability is 
 so essential that in some cases a suitable man who 
 possesses some aptitude for the work will be given the 
 necessary special training in adult life; for those em- 
 ployed in chemical works, attention and obedience are 
 the first essentials ; for farriers, strength and nerve ; for 
 plasterers, when good work is expected, there is a special 
 need for its conscientious performance, since scamped 
 work can often be concealed in any case for a time ; in 
 the making of tin canisters and many other things nimble 
 fingers count for more than experience ; it is particularly 
 essential that the dyer should be honest, since " many 
 articles of small size and great value pass constantly 
 through his hands " ; and we read that " the most 
 essential virtue for the milk-carrier is punctuality in 
 the morning." If the material used in a trade is valuable, 
 as in the cases of clothiers' cutters, upholsterers, boot- 
 clickers, or of paint-brush makers (who use expensive 
 bristles), there is exceptional need of good judgment, 
 since waste may be considerable if this be not exercised. 
 And again special branches of the same trade often demand 
 special qualities, in this fact being found indeed one of the 
 fundamental reasons for the specialization of skill. Thus, 
 in the glass trade, while factories in which the artistic and 
 highly-finished ware is produced cannot secure a sufficient 
 supply of duly qualified men, others, in which goods 
 of common or simple construction are made, are over-run 
 by second-rate workmen. Even among the " unskilled" 
 
124 
 
 SURVEY AND CONCLUSIONS. 
 
 we not infrequently find that special elements of efficiency 
 are demanded, as in the case of the "heavy lifters" 
 in railway engineering works, for whose tasks great 
 strength is required ; or in that of scaffolders, who 
 must possess not only nerve but a knowledge of how to 
 tie secure knots, and who are consequently largely recruited 
 from sailors. 
 
 We cannot, therefore, give any useful general answer 
 to the question as to what are the necessary elements of 
 industrial efficiency. Even the most general and apparently 
 most obvious statement of physical and moral qualifications 
 might be found untrue if tested by application to the 
 economic requirements of this or that particular occupa- 
 tion. We are driven back upon the conclusion that efficiency 
 is essentially relative both to function and to the con- 
 ditions under which function is served — to the particular 
 needs or aims of the employer, and to the service which 
 the public requires. 
 
 It will follow, since industrial training is desired only to 
 secure the greatest efficiency, that the most appropriate 
 form of training will in its turn be related to that form of 
 efficiency which prevailing conditions show to be most 
 necessary. These conditions vary from occupation to 
 occupation and sometimes even within the borders of 
 a single trade ; and they are often affected by the special 
 circumstances of employment in London — by the exceptional 
 opportunities offered there for excellence of work, and by 
 the exceptional dangers of its degradation. 
 
 Of many occupations it can hardly be said that any 
 particular training is required. We have seen, indeed, 
 that this is in some measure true even of certain branches 
 of " skilled " trades : especially when they are carried on 
 under highly specialized forms, as are those sections of 
 the cabinet-making and tailoring trades in East London, 
 to which newly landed foreigners can readily turn for 
 
CHARACTERISTICS OF LONDON LABOUR. 
 
 125 
 
 a livelihood without either previous training or experience. 
 But there are other well-defined fields of employment as 
 to which the above statement is more generally true — as in 
 the cases of porters, and many factory, dock, and general 
 labourers. There are certain other occupations, also, in 
 relation to which, although a particular kind of experience 
 is essential, the idea of systematic training is irrelevant, as, 
 for instance, in the cases of costers and cabmen. These 
 have, it is true, to learn their business in a way that is 
 unnecessary for, let us say, a builder's excavator, but they 
 cannot be systematically taught. If there be a natural 
 facility, then an acquaintance with London streets and 
 London life, the example of their parents, or the doings 
 of those among whom they live, ensure the necessary 
 knowledge. London, as it is seen in the daily whirl of 
 business and pleasure, is their workshop as it has been 
 their school, their playground and their nursery. 
 
 The value of this general London experience is reflected 
 in the figures given in the table on page 29, in the contrast 
 shown there between the 66 per cent, of heads of families 
 of costers, the 61 per cent, of coal-porters, and, in spite 
 of their dealing with horses, the 57 per cent, of carmen 
 who are London born, when compared with the 43 per cent, 
 of those engaged in gas-work service; the 31 per cent, 
 of railway service ; and the 22 per cent, of gardeners. 
 
 In none of the above occupations can it be said that syste- 
 matic training is required, and this is also true of the groups 
 of factory labourers, chemical workers, warehousemen, and 
 the great majority of millers' and brewers' employees. 
 
 Although, however, the foregoing classes are somewhat 
 similarly situated in reference to the non-requirement of 
 systematic industrial training, it is otherwise as regards 
 their general qualifications, and the three following groups 
 may perhaps be distinguished: (1) in which a particular 
 type of man is wanted and secured, such as for most brewers' 
 employees, with strength and trustworthiness as their 
 
126 
 
 SURVEY AND CONCLUSIONS. 
 
 main tests of efficiency; (2) when, as in the cases of 
 cabmen and costers, a general London experience is the 
 main qualification, with the sharpened wits, or, it may 
 even be, the dulled consciences that have resulted from 
 a London upbringing ; while in (3) including many general 
 labourers and some street-sellers, we are able to trace the 
 signs of a residual drift. In the last group, efficiency is 
 mainly negative in its character, and position largely 
 determined by the process of rejection elsewhere : the 
 fitness of the individual for the place which he fills, is 
 then a sign of inefficiency when compared even with 
 a general and average standard; and status finds its 
 explanation, sometimes in misfortune, but often in physical 
 weakness and incompetency, or, it may be, in laziness, 
 drunkenness, or crime. 
 
 With the exception of the chemical workers, mill-workers, 
 brewers, and factory labourers, the classes already mentioned 
 are mainly engaged in the wide field of subsidiary industrial 
 service. It is in the productive industries that the questions 
 of training, of apprenticeship, and of the power of London 
 to meet her own demand for workers, are perhaps of 
 greatest importance. 
 
 In the following trades alone does the system of appren- 
 ticeship seem to prevail with any degree of generality in 
 London at the present time : — 
 
 Coopering (especially among the " wet " coppers). 
 
 Export packing-case making. 
 
 Basket making. 
 
 Railway engineering. 
 
 Copper-smiths and braziers. 
 
 Pewtering. 
 
 Tin-plate work : " East End," i.e. in the lighter work. 
 
 Wire- weaving. 
 
 Silver-plate working. 
 
 Spoon and fork finishing. 
 
 Organ building. 
 
 Printing. 
 
CHARACTERISTICS OF LONDON LABOUR. 127 
 
 Book-binding. 
 Mat-making. 
 Silk-hat making. 
 Hair-dressing. 
 
 And in some of the old-established, well-organized, but declining 
 riverside industries. 
 
 Even in the foregoing cases, which represent so small 
 a proportion of London trades, and which rank for the most 
 part among its minor industries, the system of apprentice- 
 ship adopted varies greatly both in thoroughness and in 
 form, and the old plan of a seven years' indenture is rarely 
 followed. 
 
 In a few trades other than those enumerated, appren- 
 tices are, it is true, found, as in the piece-masters' shops 
 of the cabinet makers, and in some small special trades, 
 such as " thermometer and tube blowing ; 99 but the 
 recurring note throughout the whole of the industrial 
 volumes of the present inquiry, is that the system of 
 apprenticeship is either dead or dying. 
 
 The practice of the past has for the most part yielded in 
 . the face of modern influences, and it would be unreasonable 
 to anticipate any general revival of apprenticing in London, 
 or even, in some cases, of regular training. The pressure 
 of existing conditions on the general character of London 
 employments is too adverse, since its products tend to be 
 characterized either by great cheapness and lack of finish, 
 when there is often no need for an apprentice's training, 
 or by being produced under a pressure of haste which leaves 
 no time for his slow performance; by such extreme and 
 constrained excellence as leaves no room for his imperfect 
 work, or by the fact that the preparatory stages, formerly 
 his daily task, are now executed by the machine. 
 
 The greater difficulty of supervising lads who are 
 living in London also deserves mention. There is more 
 steady home life in the provinces. The home itself, and in 
 small places the boy's whole surroundings, come more 
 within the knowledge of the master, so that there is a social 
 
128 
 
 SURVEY AND CONCLUSIONS. 
 
 check on his conduct. In London it is otherwise. There, 
 a youth may easily lose himself at will in the great world 
 that surrounds him. The master can, it is true, to some 
 extent control the influence of the workshop, even though 
 he may have little to do directly with the instruction of the 
 apprentice; but he can feel no confidence that this 
 influence is being backed up out of working hours, and this 
 doubt weighs with him against assuming the responsibility 
 of taking indentured apprentices. 
 
 Moreover, trade requirements vary. In some cases, the 
 greater value of the experience gained by movement from 
 shop to shop during the probationary period is frankly 
 maintained, as, for instance, by masons and engineers. 
 In many trades the preference for " speedy earning " to 
 "steady learning" blocks the way. This consideration 
 affects both employers and employed alike, and when yielded 
 to by the latter it may be due to the pressure of home con- 
 ditions, for young workers are often no freer as economic 
 agents than adults. It seems, too, that in many directions 
 a revision of the apprentice's wage is reasonably called for, 
 although, to balance the instruction that he obtains, he must 
 always expect a lower rate than the "improver," towards 
 whom the employer has no corresponding obligation. 
 
 In nearly every direction, also, a strong feeling exists 
 that the old forms or customs need amendment in favour 
 of a more elastic system by which, though the legal tie 
 between employer and apprentice may be made less binding, 
 the moral obligation shall become more so. It seems also 
 that in many cases fuller provision must be made by 
 which the training of the workshop, necessarily somewhat 
 unsystematic and unscientific at the best, is preceded and 
 accompanied by teaching in well-equipped, well-staffed, 
 and well-adapted technical schools — answering the double 
 purpose, it may be noted, of increasing knowledge and of 
 dispelling the widespread prejudices of working-men in 
 favour of traditional and old-fashioned methods. 
 
CHARACTERISTICS OF LONDON LABOUR. 129 
 
 In different trades different methods of adjustment 
 are required. The relative numbers of apprentices to 
 adult workers ; the provision of efficient supervision and 
 instruction ; the question of premiums, of term of service, 
 and of certificates of competency; the uses of an outside 
 intermediary in bringing employers and apprentices 
 together and in adjudicating in cases of disagreement ; the 
 relation of the apprentice to the trade union ; — these and 
 many other points would require special consideration 
 in their bearing upon particular trades. Apprenticeship, 
 however, whatever the particular appropriate form may 
 be, must always be regarded as a bargain involving the 
 kindred interest of both master and apprentice. The 
 development of the sense of responsibility of the former in 
 his capacity of instructor, and the provision of the necessary 
 incentive for the latter in his capacity of learner, should 
 be the two main objects to be kept in view. Finally, no 
 proper working of the apprenticeship system can be 
 realized without the establishment of a satisfactory personal 
 relationship, but this would be the natural outcome of the 
 frank recognition by the respective parties of a mutual 
 obligation. 
 
 If this sense were stronger and more widely spread, it 
 is probable that London would be industrially more self- 
 sustained than it is, although the power to produce 
 •successive generations of workers depends upon many other 
 conditions. 
 
 The part that London plays in the production of its 
 workers is of a two-fold character. 
 
 An examination of the table of the proportions born 
 in London,* to which we have already referred, shows 
 that it is the essentially London trades which are, as 
 indeed was to be expected, chiefly recruited from those 
 born in London. For such trades London provides a school 
 
 * On page 29. 
 
130 
 
 SURVEY AND CONCLUSIONS. 
 
 which is far more complete than any found in the 
 Provinces, in spite of the normal disadvantages of the 
 Metropolis as a centre of industrial training. We see 
 this well illustrated in the cases of the book-binders, with 
 only 19 per cent, of heads of families born out of London ; 
 of those engaged in the various trades included under 
 paper manufacture, with 22 per cent. ; in the brash-makers, 
 with 24 per cent. ; in the glass and earthenware workers 
 and musical instrument makers, each with 29 per cent. ; in 
 the sundry metal trades, with 32 per cent. ; in the printers, 
 with 34 per cent. ; and in the jewellers, with 35 per cent., 
 as compared with an average of 50 per cent, for the whole 
 population. 
 
 In all these occupations the concentrated London trade 
 provides an environment which is stronger, both as an 
 attracting and educating influence, than any found outside. 
 The same is true of cabinet makers, with only 32 per cent., 
 and of painters, with 39 per cent, of heads of families born 
 out of London, but in these cases the influence that 
 London exercises is somewhat different in its general 
 character. In these trades, and some others like them, 
 a large proportion of those employed simply drift into 
 the stream of industrial opportunities that flows by them ; 
 while others are dragged down by the rush of disorganized 
 and deteriorated labour that competes for work — an 
 eddying current stirred by the fluctuating demand of 
 a great market. And the result is seen in the " brush- 
 hand," who can secure employment as a painter only when 
 the conditions of this seasonal trade are in his favour, or 
 in the poor cabinet maker, who, carried away by the chances 
 offered by a highly localized and highly specialized trade, 
 is left, half-taught and helpless, to strain his life away in 
 a struggle that is largely bred of inefficiency. From a large 
 proportion of the members of such industries no general 
 mastery of their trade is required, but London can find 
 room for, and, for the moment, even seems to need the 
 
CHARACTERISTICS OF LONDON LABOUR. l:;i 
 
 services of, these sorry crowds of half-taught and ill-paid 
 workers. 
 
 Excellence and degradation, in their most highly 
 specialized as well as in their most general forms, are 
 found pre-eminently in London industries : not only, for 
 instance, the specialized excellence of the stone carver who, 
 because of a particular aptitude, keeps mainly to figure- 
 work, and the specialized degradation of the cabinet maker, 
 who does nothing and can do nothing but knock together 
 the prepared parts of cheap wardrobes; but also the 
 general excellence of the highly skilled carpenter, ready, 
 if the opportunity occur, to fill the place of foreman, and 
 be responsible for the supervision of the largest building 
 contracts ; and the general degradation of the man who is 
 capable of nothing but to dig foundations, if he have 
 strength, or, if he be physically weak, to sell penny toys in 
 Cheapside. London, in short, grinds out of its industrial 
 mill both the best and the worst, and may often rightly lay 
 claim to the special merit of the former even when frankly 
 looking to the Provinces for much of its best material. 
 
 It follows, therefore, that if a trade be concentrated in 
 London — be it one that is well-organized and comparatively 
 well-paid like that of book-binders, or one that is charac- 
 terized rather by disintegration and excessive specialization, 
 like that of cabinet-makers— London may be expected, not 
 only to train but to produce the majority of the workers. 
 If, on the other hand, a trade be widely carried on in the 
 Provinces, as well as in London, and if a general knowledge 
 of it be of service even to those working under the more 
 sharply differentiated conditions of London employment, 
 then it is probable that a large proportion will be country- 
 born, as we find is the case with carpenters and joiners, 
 bricklayers, carriage builders, engineers, smiths, and 
 saddlers, among whom the percentages of heads of families 
 born out of London range from 51 to 59. 
 
132 
 
 SURVEY AND CONCLUSIONS. 
 
 Whether this movement from the country will tend to be 
 diminished either by the improved teaching power of 
 London itself; by the cutting off of the outside sources 
 of supply, or perhaps by the diminished London demand ; 
 or whether, if it continue, it will be counteracted by a 
 larger and readier outflow from London to the Provinces, 
 cannot be forecast. Quite independently, however, of the 
 answers to these questions, the practical problem of 
 industrial training to a great extent awaits solution at 
 the present time both for many of those that London 
 absorbs and for all its own people. It affects that part 
 of the community to whom the future belongs, and thus 
 constitutes perhaps a more fundamentally important 
 problem than almost any of those that are attracting 
 public attention. 
 
 We have seen that, to many fields of employment, 
 including even many branches of " skilled " trades, the 
 notion of systematic training is inappropriate. Efficiency 
 does not seem to depend upon it. Subdivision of labour 
 and the extending use of mechanical appliances — the latter 
 often accelerated by the suggestiveness of the former — are 
 in process of active and even aggressive development, and 
 new considerations are seen to interpose when we examine 
 the ways in which individual efficiency can be best 
 maintained. 
 
 The modern economic end is rarely found in the main- 
 tenance of individual independence as regards the processes 
 involved in any particular occupation. Such independence 
 is often simply an indication of wasted energy. Nor does 
 the fact that a man has produced a finished commodity 
 unaided, give any assurance that therefore he will himself 
 derive a greater satisfaction from it, or that the product 
 will possess a greater utility or beauty. The creative and 
 artistic sense of " this is my work " need not be more 
 stimulating than the sense of a corporate responsibility 
 
CHARACTERISTICS OF LONDON LABOUR. 
 
 133 
 
 and claim. There is rarely, save in the highest forum 
 of creative art, any real independence and detachment. 
 On the other hand, genuine pride in work is to be found 
 everywhere. 
 
 The great products of modern industry, such as a 
 building, a ship, or a locomotive, necessarily involve the 
 co-operation of many hands and minds, and there is not 
 infrequently a feeling of satisfaction in the result as of a 
 corporate achievement and triumph. It does not appear 
 why a similar sentiment should not have its place more 
 widely recognized in connection with the combined effort 
 required to produce many things of smaller dimensions — 
 even though they be boots and coats — and that this feeling 
 might find its place to some extent is perhaps shown by 
 the way in which men are always apt to consider their 
 particular share of the work on which they are engaged 
 as the most important. 
 
 The conventional disrepute of much of the highly 
 specialized work of to-day is due, not only to the traditional 
 respect for older methods, but also to the recognition that 
 much that is most sterling in industrial life is sacrificed to 
 the demand for cheap goods — for cheapness at any cost. 
 But it would seem that here, as in so many other cases, the 
 condemnation of the conditions under which a certain 
 object is attained has led to the condemnation of much 
 that is in itself desirable — perhaps also inevitable. 
 
 It would indeed be a mistake to consider only the 
 material product, for in the wider social interest, and 
 ultimately in the economic interest itself, the conditions 
 of employment need to be such as do not degrade the 
 individual worker. The cheapening of cost, in the sense 
 of more effective production, is in itself a social gain. 
 It is the sham cheapness of deceptive or adulterated 
 goods, made for sale and not for use, and the harmful 
 conditions of employment that are not infrequently the 
 
134 
 
 SURVEY AND CONCLUSIONS. 
 
 accompaniment of the cheaper forms of production, which 
 are deserving of condemnation. 
 
 But cheapness is possible without the baneful features 
 of low pay and long and irregular hours. Such features 
 are conditional, and, it may even be hoped, temporary 
 phases — the expression, often chaotic in form and injurious 
 in result, of the movement towards a completer adoption 
 of the sound principle of division of labour. 
 
 At the present stage of development, it would appear 
 that in many trades the dangers of undue economic 
 dependence on others and lack of versatility, leading, 
 it may be, to personal deterioration, will have to be met 
 by better and more continuous general education, by 
 the development of other forms of individual progress, 
 and by the pressure of a higher standard of comfort and 
 life, rather than by technical education or any system 
 of apprenticeship. Dominant influences point to a still 
 greater use of mechanical aids in the future, and to 
 a more highly specialized application of labour in all 
 processes. The necessity of economic adaptation to 
 changing conditions will require therefore to be met by 
 increased power of adaptation on the part of the individual 
 worker. 
 
 But there is, it would appear, a double problem of in- 
 dustrial training before London working men. In many 
 occupations large numbers must be employed who cannot, 
 in the actual processes of their calling, use a wide technical 
 knowledge, and cannot therefore rely on it for the main- 
 tenance of their economic strength. Their most valuable 
 equipment will be found, not in craft-knowledge of the old 
 kind, but in moral advance and an extended intellectual 
 horizon. On this basis all alike, whether technically 
 skilled or not, may refuse to lend themselves to the baser 
 conditions of industrial life by which so many are overcome 
 to-day. For some, indeed, the fullest and best adapted 
 technical knowledge and industrial training will always be 
 
CHARACTERISTICS OF LONDON LABOUR. 135 
 
 essential. These will be the aristocracy even of the most 
 subdivided trades, keeping up the standard of efficiency ; 
 helping to initiate j and, it may be hoped, permeating by 
 their influence those who work in narrower grooves and 
 with smaller powers. But for others, and it seems even 
 for an increasing proportion, the maintenance of their 
 economic position will have to be secured by more funda- 
 mental qualities than by the acquirement of special aptitudes. 
 For if in the future the simplest and most highly concen- 
 trated form of individual effort should be that most calcu- 
 lated to secure the highest corporate efficiency, the most 
 appropriate training for those thus employed will be, not 
 that which confers powers that cannot be used, but rather 
 one that enables men to perform, it may be, some simple 
 task faithfully and well, with self-restraint, and thus with 
 satisfaction and with dignity. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 TRADE UNIONS. 
 
 I. — Introductory — Association and Combination. 
 
 In considering the different forms of association and the 
 extent to which they prevail it will be desirable to bear in 
 mind the character of the industries to which they apply. 
 It is remarkable that out of the seven broad divisions of the 
 occupied population — viz. manufacture, retail distribution, 
 commercial service, transport, public service, professional 
 service, and domestic service — it is only in a certain pro- 
 portion of two of them, namely, in manufacture and 
 transport, that we find to any considerable extent the form 
 of protective association known as the Trade Union. The 
 comparative numbers in these divisions are as follows : — 
 
 Persons. 
 
 I. Those mainly engaged in Manufacture and Productive 
 
 Industry 684,218 
 
 II. Those mainly engaged in Retail Distribution 186,750 
 
 III. Those mainly engaged in Banking, Insurance, and Com- 
 
 mercial Service 124,309 
 
 IV. Those engaged in Locomotion, Transport, and General 
 
 Labour 355,270 
 
 V. Those engaged in Public Service 60,648 
 
 VI. ,, ,, Professions and Professional Service ... 111,915 
 
 VII. ,, ,, Indoor and Outdoor Domestic Service ... 399,178 
 VIII. Returned as of no occupation (mostly married women and 
 
 children) 2,289,455 
 
 Total Population 4,211,743 
 
 No. I. embraces wood-workers and metal-workers of all 
 kinds, millers, brewers, tobacco-workers, bakers and con- 
 fectioners ; " sundry " manufactures ; and the greater part 
 of those engaged in the building trades, the printing and 
 
TRADE UNIONS. 
 
 137 
 
 allied trades, and the clothing and textile trades. In some 
 of the above sections — for instance, in the clothing trades, 
 and among tobacco-workers, and bakers and confectioners — 
 there is an appreciable minority engaged in the work of 
 distribution. But, since exact analysis is impossible, and 
 since even in these trades the very great majority is engaged 
 in productive industry, they have been included here. 
 
 No. II. includes stationers, booksellers, &c, drapers, &c, 
 milk-sellers, butchers, fishmongers, grocers, &c, publicans, 
 &c, lodging and coffee-house keepers, ironmongers, coal, 
 wood and corn dealers, general shopkeepers, and costers 
 and street-sellers. 
 
 The numbers in both the preceding divisions would be 
 considerably higher if clerical and manual subsidiary service 
 could have been included. 
 
 In No. IV., in the cab, omnibus and tram men, and in 
 the various branches of railway service, we have a body of 
 men engaged, in a special sense, in the unofficial service 
 of the public. They number 72,959. These, together with 
 carmen, coal-porters, seamen, and certain branches of 
 riverside employment, give a total of 156,214 engaged in 
 the general service of locomotion and transport in the 
 Metropolis. General labourers (79,747) are also placed 
 here, and probably include the greater number of the 
 builders' labourers, as well as a large proportion of dock 
 labourers. It is in this section, perhaps above all others, 
 that we find the elements of the labour problem in their 
 crudest and most hopeless form. 
 
 Of the total in No. VI., 18,393 are returned as members 
 of the three professions of law, medicine and religion. 
 Authors, editors and journalists reach a total of only 3211. 
 The returns would probably have been considerably higher 
 had the description conveyed any definite qualification, and 
 still more so had the titles been protected by Statute, as 
 are, for instance, those of barristers, who often insert on the 
 census schedule the legal status they possess, even though 
 
138 
 
 SURVEY AND CONCLUSIONS. 
 
 dependent on some extraneous profession for their livelihood 
 — on letters, for instance, rather than on briefs. 
 
 This division embraces, in addition, architects and civil 
 engineers, &c, and those who fall under the general 
 headings of art and amusement, science and education ; 
 together with various forms of subsidiary or allied service : 
 law clerks, sick nurses, chemists, &c. 
 
 Although trade unionism is practically limited, as we 
 have said, to sections I. and IV., various typical forms of 
 association are found in some of the other divisions. In 
 the cases of solicitors and doctors we have organizations 
 resting on a legal basis, with special privileges conferred 
 aud responsibilities enforced by Parliament, in which, 
 consequently, membership is compulsory.* In other cases 
 we find prominent objects of association in the promotion 
 of technical education, in the spread of information or the 
 interchange of expert opinion useful to the members of 
 a particular profession or trade. The membership of insti- 
 tutes, like those of the actuaries or civil engineers, most 
 nearly approaches this form. But such objects alone rarely 
 constitute the reasons for a society's existence, the bond 
 thus formed, apart from any protective or friendly object, 
 not being sufficiently strong. Other associations, again, such 
 as the commercial travellers, the Spanish leather dressers, 
 the goldsmiths and jewellers, or the master coach-builders' 
 benefit societies, are mainly social or philanthropic in their 
 basis. 
 
 There is a common tendency for the objects of organiza- 
 tion to become complex. Such complexity has sometimes 
 resulted from the use of incidental opportunities for the 
 
 * These associations differ so much in character from voluntary labour 
 and trade organizations that the parallel sometimes drawn between them is 
 misleading. The Plumbers' Registration Bill, which has several times been 
 before Parliament, would make it illegal for anyone not authorized to call 
 himself a registered plumber, and is interesting in this connection. The 
 Act, as in the other cases, would tend to create a monopoly in the public 
 interest— in this instance for the sake of the public health. 
 
TRADE UNIONS. 
 
 139 
 
 promotion of some secondary object, and occasionally it 
 lias been strengthened by the fact (as in the case of many 
 early labour combinations) that the real motive for 
 association could not be avowed. 
 
 But it is clear that the bonds of membership vary in 
 kind. In the case of the solicitors, or again of auctioneers 
 who are compelled to take out a licence, the unauthorized 
 assumption of the statutory qualifications is liable to 
 punishment in a court of law. In other cases a duly 
 registered body like the Institute of Chartered Accountants, 
 may, by examination or by other methods of admission, 
 possess the power of conferring privileges necessary to the 
 full pursuit of a certain calling, but the recognition of such 
 standards as these associations are able to set, rests solely 
 on public opinion. In other cases, the bond is strictly 
 social, membership of the society being purely voluntary 
 and non-membership making itself felt only in the non- 
 participation in whatever friendly benefits may be offered. 
 
 In the case of associations of employers or employed, 
 where also membership is voluntary, the basis is 
 primarily economic. The bond is frequently strengthened 
 by the offer of additional friendly advantages, but the 
 primary object is an improved industrial position to be 
 secured by the members. The underlying motive is self- 
 interest. At times, indeed, these bodies may act for 
 altruistic purposes, but the dominant influence that brings 
 them into existence, and which maintains their vitality, 
 is the belief that in some way they will prove advan- 
 tageous to the individual members who compose them. 
 
 It is with such associations as these, and their presence 
 or absence in London trades, that we shall be mainly 
 concerned in the present chapter. 
 
 Before considering the more common form of voluntary 
 protective association, in which the motive for combination 
 is mainly, but by no means exclusively, found in the 
 relation of one class to another within the same trade, the 
 
140 
 
 SURVEY AND CONCLUSIONS. 
 
 existence of protective combinations may be noted in which 
 the necessary motive is supplied by the fact that some 
 outside party threatens or seems to threaten particular 
 interests. Examples of this kind of association are 
 seen in that of the costers and street-sellers, who have 
 combined, mainly for the protection of market privileges 
 in particular streets in which it was contended that 
 a prescriptive right had been created, against the encroach- 
 ing regulations of Public Boards or against the inter- 
 ference of the police ; and in the Associated Booksellers 
 of Great Britain and Ireland, a society which concerns 
 itself chiefly with the regulation of book discounts. Other 
 instances are the Retail Newsagents' and Booksellers' Union, 
 the object of which is mainly to adjust business relations 
 with newspaper publishers ; the Master Bill Posters' 
 Association, founded to protect its members both against 
 municipal interference and against the systematic attacks 
 of those who on aesthetic or moral grounds have shown 
 hostility; and lastly, the four protective societies estab- 
 lished by publicans in the interests of " the trade." These 
 societies have been formed in opposition to the United 
 Kingdom Alliance, and to deal with the numerous legis- 
 lative proposals for the further restriction of the liquor 
 traffic. The interesting case of Brewers' Hall, which, in 
 the exercise of its functions as a protective society, forbids 
 the sale of beer by its members below a fixed minimum 
 price, also deserves mention here. 
 
 These, however, are of the nature of trade protection 
 societies, differing essentially from the great types of 
 employers' associations and labour organizations, of which 
 during the last hundred years so striking a development 
 has been witnessed. 
 
 The popular division of the industrial world into rival 
 camps of employers and employed is not only superficial 
 but misleading, since the analysis of almost any trade 
 
TRADE UNIONS. 
 
 141 
 
 shows us the number and variety of its divergent interests ; 
 while a broader view reveals the strength of the forces 
 that, in spite of conspicuous forms of conflict and unrest, 
 make for solidarity among all sections concerned. 
 
 The incompleteness of such a division might be illustrated 
 by reference to almost any chapter in the present work, 
 but it is enough to appeal to facts open to the commonest 
 observation of the industrial world. The almost unbroken 
 continuity in the gradation of conditions which is presented 
 to us, not only by society at large, but by the component 
 sections of many individual trades, is among the healthiest 
 and most generally applicable characteristics of the national 
 life, while a complete change in individual status is far 
 from uncommon. The discussion therefore of the industrial 
 relationships of employer and employed, as if, on the one 
 side, there were a body of rich men with assured incomes 
 and, on the other, a miserable proletariat, involves a 
 caricature of modern industrial society in this country for 
 which, in spite of the extremes of poverty and wealth that 
 it presents, there is no justification. 
 
 There is neither fixity nor finality in industrial relation- 
 ships, and there are no sharply dividing lines. 
 
 But, though this complete gradation is true of the 
 aggregate, analysis shows us many well-defined sub- 
 divisions, some by status, but most by occupation. If we 
 take colours to indicate occupations and spaces of different 
 size for the numbers involved, we may imagine any great 
 centre of population as a patchwork surface. Then if in- 
 tensity of tint represents differing status, the colour by 
 which an occupation is represented will sometimes be 
 uniform throughout, although more often divided into 
 clearly defined shades. But the patchwork forms a single 
 piece ; the demarcations, whether between different colours 
 or between different shades of the same colour, are not 
 lines of severance : the great fabric holds together, 
 albeit with ragged edges and some thin places. 
 
142 
 
 SURVEY AND CONCLUSIONS. 
 
 Employers' associations, other than Trade Protection 
 Societies, are generally the sequel to the combinations of 
 wage-earners, and that they should follow rather than 
 precede the latter is to a great extent explained by the- 
 pressure of the sacrifice of individual freedom that asso- 
 ciation always involves ; for this sacrifice tends to make 
 itself more felt in the case of employers than employed, 
 since their operations are more varied and their field 
 wider. As there is more scope for action, there is also 
 greater unwillingness to limit in any respect the power of 
 free initiative and unhampered management. For such 
 reasons, therefore, the steps towards association are only 
 likely to be taken when the pressure of some outside 
 influence makes the counterbalancing gain both evident 
 and certain. 
 
 The conditions, therefore, that lead to the formation of 
 such associations are much simpler than in the case- 
 of the employed, being determined for the most part by 
 the strength of the workmen's organization in the given 
 trade. The actual power of association is generally present, 
 except when the number of small masters is very great and 
 there are rapid changes in status between employers and 
 employed, and when consequently there is an absence of 
 the material for a permanent bond or for the recognition 
 of a corporate responsibility. 
 
 In London the following are among the most important 
 instances of employers' associations : — 
 
 Builders ; master coopers ; ship-builders and boiler- 
 makers ; master brush-makers; master tailors; boot and 
 shoe manufacturers, and master bakers — the society of the 
 last-mentioned concerning itself, however, largely with the 
 question of excessive official interference. Such associ- 
 ations exist also in the printing and allied trades, and in 
 several branches of the furniture trades. In some cases 
 the London Chamber of Commerce affords a medium of 
 intercourse, with a view to joint action, between employers. 
 
TRADE UNIONS. 
 
 143 
 
 In many trades the foremen have separate societies, 
 usually less for purposes of protection than for friendly 
 objects. 
 
 II. — Workmen's Associations. 
 
 In the table of occupations which follows, the propor- 
 tion "in union" is shown for the various sections, together 
 with the amount of young and female labour, the proportion 
 of employers to employed, and other particulars bearing on 
 the subject of the present chapter. 
 
 In a certain number of minor subdivisious (as, for 
 instance, in that of the barge builders with 80 per cent.) 
 a somewhat higher percentage of organization is reached 
 than is shown by any division given in the table. But for 
 any considerable group of trades we may take 67 per cent, 
 as the maximum reached, and in the thirty- six groups 
 enumerated the proportion ranges from this maximum 
 down to 4J per cent. 
 
 In the various sections of " labour " the lines of organi- 
 zation, except perhaps in the case of the General Builders' 
 Labourers' Union, are not very sharply marked, corre- 
 sponding in this respect to the absence of clear definition in 
 the census returns themselves. An aggregate percentage 
 has, therefore, been obtained by grouping the members of 
 eight of the allied sections together. The 27 per cent, 
 thus yielded is probably still somewhat too high a figure, 
 for the net of these labour unions is cast very widely, and 
 a certain proportion of their members are drawn from 
 porters, factory labourers, and other outside bodies of 
 workers who are separately returned in the census. But 
 the numbers added in this way are not likely to be very 
 considerable, and, with few exceptions, the sections to 
 Avhich they properly belong may be regarded as practically 
 unorganized. 
 
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14G 
 
 SURVEY AND CONCLUSIONS. 
 
 In the whole group included in the foregoing table there is 
 a total membership of 147,300 trade unionists, out of about 
 489,500 employed males over twenty years of age occupied 
 in the trades enumerated. It may be assumed that those 
 above this age include practically all who are eligible for 
 membership of the various trade unions, and in these trades 
 we therefore have a total of over 30 per cent, who are 
 members. If we add the 30,000, or thereabouts, omitted 
 from the table for various reasons, we have a grand total of 
 from 177,000 to 180,000 trade unionists, equivalent to 
 13^ per cent, of the adult male population of London; to 
 14J per cent, of the total of those who are occupied; and 
 to 3^ per cent, of the total population.* 
 
 It will be seen from the table that in few cases are the 
 members of a single trade combined in a single society. 
 Altogether, the trade unionists of London are divided 
 among some 250 separate organizations, and the average 
 membership, if equally divided among all the societies, 
 would be a little over 700. Apart from the Civil Service 
 and professional organizations, only thirty-five have 
 a membership of more than one thousand. To these 
 operative builders contribute seven ; labour, seven ; iron 
 and steel workers, four ; printers and allied trades, three ;. 
 boot and shoe makers, two; railway service, two; and 
 cabinet-makers, shipwrights, bookbinders, tailors, tobacco- 
 workers, bakers and confectioners, carmen, stevedores, sea- 
 men, and lightermen, one each. These thirty-five societies 
 account for about 112,000 of the total, and thus average 
 about 3200 members, while all the remaining societies, 
 again excluding the Civil Service and professional bodies, 
 have, on the average, only slightly more than 200 members. 
 
 * This last figure corresponds exactly with the percentage given by- 
 Mr. and Mrs. Sidney Webb for the wider Metropolitan area included in 
 their definition of London, comprising a population of over five and a half 
 millions instead of our total of something under four and a quarter millions. 
 {Vide " History of Trade Unionism," 1894, p. 489.) 
 
TRADE UNIONS. 
 
 147 
 
 "Too many unions and too little unity" is a dictum of 
 wide application in the trade union world. 
 
 Some of the effects of this disintegration may be seen by 
 comparing the position of the painters with that of the 
 general labourers. In both cases the practical difficulties 
 of organization are very great, but it cannot be doubted 
 that while the painters are greatly weakened by the 
 number of small unions without any great power of 
 cohesion, the group of labourers is made comparatively 
 strong by the much greater concentration of its members. 
 And even in the latter case the multiplication of societies 
 has led to a considerable amount of overlapping and 
 friction, due to the absence of close co-operation between 
 the different organizations and to the consequent difficulty 
 of preventing members who have fallen into arrears in 
 one society from joining another for which they aro 
 equally eligible, and which may, especially in the 
 absence of friendly benefits, answer their purpose equally 
 well. 
 
 But divided though the membership of many of the 
 societies may be, and small though the total proportion of 
 members is, we must be especially on our guard against 
 estimating by numbers the extent of the influence exerted, 
 numbers, indeed, representing often rather the nucleus 
 of this influence than the measure. In a few instances 
 the figures may convey an exaggerated impression of 
 strength, these cases being generally either unions of 
 unskilled labour or those of old-established and well- 
 organized, but declining trades; but as a rule the reverse 
 is true. The active influence of a society is generally far 
 wider than the circle of its own particular members. 
 Moreover, the principle of trade unionism is more widely 
 spread than its form. In many trades that are entirely 
 unorganized, there is nevertheless a valuable consciousness 
 of the right of combination with all its latent possibilities, 
 and even, it may be, a recognition that the establishment 
 v 10 * 
 
148 
 
 SURVEY AND CONCLUSIONS. 
 
 and maintenance of beneficial customs are not unconnected 
 with the underlying principles of association. 
 
 Perhaps, also, in this connection should be mentioned 
 the power of temporary combination possessed by those 
 who are not, and probably could not be, permanently 
 organized. Even if the spasmodic demonstrations of com- 
 bined action, made for a special purpose, cease when the 
 attempt has succeeded or failed, they are not unimportant 
 as proofs of the recognition by all classes of workers of 
 their full right and ability to take corporate action if 
 they will. The cases of the match-girls and dock- 
 labourers have shown clearly that the possession of 
 this reserve of power would be recognized and could be 
 used by almost every section of wage-earners, if occasion 
 should demand it. Again, we find that beneficial effects 
 sometimes endure even after active union has ceased, and 
 even when the main claim has been won and lost again. 
 Thus, in the case of the oil-millers, who joined the Dock 
 Labourers' Union in the flush of enthusiasm of 1889 and 
 secured a rise in wages at that time, although wages 
 have now again fallen, the improvement in conditions as 
 regards overtime, meal times, and sanitary arrangements 
 has continued. 
 
 Although the figures indicate the narrowness of the field 
 that many of the societies cover, the spectacle they present 
 of many small centres of independent origin illustrates 
 the spontaneity of trade union expansion. Occasionally 
 we find a big society springing suddenly into existence, 
 but its stability is generally in inverse proportion to the 
 rapidity of its growth. The normal process is for local 
 societies to be formed and for the larger and more success- 
 ful of these to absorb or eliminate the smaller and less 
 successful, subsequent expansion most frequently taking 
 the shape of the establishment of branches affiliated to 
 the parent society. 
 
TRADE UNIONS. 
 
 At other times this process of amalgamation is reversed, 
 and a considerable number of existing societies trace their 
 origin to a splitting off from the parent organization, due 
 it may be to some new trade development, or to an internal 
 difference on some question of union policy. But integra- 
 tion, rather than disintegration, is the more frequent sequel 
 to local independent initiative. 
 
 Federation is a further step, undertaken to secure the 
 combined action, sometimes of the members of a single 
 trade when they are divided up among several societies, and 
 sometimes of the different societies of an allied group of 
 trades. The movement towards concentration has been 
 active during the past few years,"* but effective amalgama- 
 tion must of necessity be of slow growth, and strong 
 federations are as yet very rarely found. Recent 
 instances of amalgamation are seen in the cases of the 
 upholsterers ; the French polishers ; and the plate glass 
 workers, all belonging to a group of trades in which 
 the force of organization has been greatly weakened by 
 decentralization ; of the farriers, and of the stevedores. 
 Of Federation, London offers now no conspicuously strong 
 example. No group of trades can be said fully to have 
 overcome the difficult task of forming a strong protective 
 organization that combines the advantages of centralized 
 common action with the maintenance of the necessary 
 independence of the constituent societies. We see the 
 difficulties manifested by the weak position of the London 
 Building Trades' Federation during the various building 
 trade strikes of 1896 — a position largely resulting from the 
 almost complete absence of federated action on the part of 
 the associated societies during the latter half of 1895 and 
 from the subsequent series of disputes. We have the same 
 difficulties showing themselves, in the case of a national 
 
 * It is noteworthy that of the seventy-five Federations of Trade Unions 
 in the United Kingdom enumerated in the second Annual Eeport of the 
 Labour Department (1895), only seventeen were formed prior to 1890. 
 
ISO 
 
 SURVEY AND CONCLUSIONS. 
 
 federation, in the looseness of the tie between the 
 nominally federated societies of the carriage building 
 trade, explained, it would appear, by the fear on the 
 part of the London men of being " bossed" by Liver- 
 pool ; and again in the case of the National Federation 
 of Coopers. Among the brass workers a London 
 Federation exists, but a more important source of strength 
 of the Metropolitan Societies in this group is found in 
 their affiliation to a National Association of kindred 
 bodies. 
 
 In the London Trades' Council the trade unionists of 
 the Metropolis possess the machinery of a central con- 
 sultative and propagandist body. It has a somewhat 
 fluctuating membership, however, and although active 
 politically from time to time, cannot be said to exercise 
 a great influence on the Trade Union Movement in London. 
 The representative strength of the Council was about 
 59,000 in 1895. 
 
 On the whole, in spite of certain opposing tendencies 
 trade unionism is to be regarded rather as representing an 
 expanded form of individualism than any thorough col- 
 lectivism. Each society tends to develop a strong corporate 
 sense which is apt to dominate the minds of the chief 
 executive officers, and is often also prevalent among the 
 general body of members. This is a source of weakness in 
 so far as it narrows outlook, hampers action, and increases 
 expense, but of strength in so far as it ensures loyalty and 
 devotion. 
 
 It is to be noted that at least seventy-five of the 
 societies included in the table on pp. 144-145 are purely 
 Metropolitan, and, big though London is, and highly localized 
 though many of its trades are, the dangers of narrowness of 
 outlook are increased when the executive responsibilities 
 thus cover only a portion of the workers of a single trade. 
 Their members are not easily brought " to understand 
 that the well-being of a w^hole trade, and not of any 
 
TRADE UNIONS. 
 
 151 
 
 one section of it, is that which has first to be 
 considered/' and there is great danger, therefore, that 
 the necessity may be overlooked of taking action 
 with due reference to the conditions prevailing in 
 the same trade, in other parts of the country or even 
 • abroad. The parochialism of the outlook tends to become 
 still more pronounced in the case of those trades in which 
 not one but several local societies exist, as in the cases 
 of the painters with fourteen ; of the cabinet-making 
 group with twenty-three; and of the workers in metals 
 other than iron and steel, the leather trades, and printing 
 and allied trades, with sixteen societies each. Of these 
 eighty-five societies, at least thirty-seven operate only in 
 London. 
 
 III. — Ordinary Functions op Trade Unions. 
 
 Every bond fide trade union is a protective association, 
 and in the conflict of opinion in recent years with regard 
 to the proper functions of these organizations we have had 
 a recrudescence of the old controversy as to whether or not 
 they should endeavour to be anything more. 
 
 Differences of opinion on this point still exist, but the 
 balance is overwhelmingly on the side of the wider inter- 
 pretation of the rightful sphere of trade union action. 
 This conclusion has been forced even on the members of 
 many of the societies which were started in 1889, and in 
 the years immediately following, on the opposite principle, 
 and is now admitted by many of those who for a time held 
 strongly to the belief that the true unionism was purely 
 militant in form. Experience has once more shown that 
 only in very exceptional cases can this narrow interpre- 
 tation of objects ensure permanency. In certain trades 
 in which, for example, the changing conditions of the basis 
 
152 
 
 SURVEY AND CONCLUSIONS. 
 
 on which wages are calculated demand constant watch- 
 fulness, or when an elaborate and varying schedule of 
 piece-work rates Shas to be maintained, or when, as witli 
 government servants, the members are a compact class in 
 permanent employment, a protective form of association 
 may suffice. But, as a rule, the bond thus offered is too 
 weak. The forces drawing men together are too inter- 
 mittent and the sense of gain secured too vague for the 
 ordinary man, who will not be regular in his subscriptions 
 to his trade society unless he feels that he is receiving an 
 equivalent for his money. This he is unable to detect 
 in the obscure and somewhat abstract advantages of 
 organization pure and simple, and in the mere possibility 
 of combined action so provided. It is, therefore, only at 
 times of dispute that the purely protective bond is likely 
 to satisfy. Thus elements of instability and unrest, and 
 a desire to justify its existence by some extraneous 
 corporate movement, tends to accompany a simply militant 
 organization and to weaken its power as a persistent and 
 steadying force in industrial relationships. 
 
 In addition to purely protective aims, of which the most 
 general are the giving of dispute pay, the securing of legal 
 aid in differences arising upon questions of employment, 
 and the maintenance of the necessary executive officers, 
 the following table will illustrate the variety of further 
 objects, one or more of which the great majority of 
 unions have in view. The particulars refer to the 1 76 
 London societies from which details of benefits have been 
 obtained : — 
 
TRADE UNIONS. 153 
 Tahle of Benefits offered by London Trade Societies. 
 
 Description of Benefits Offered. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 t3 
 
 H 
 
 yzed. 
 
 ;roup. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 o 
 
 
 1 
 
 O * 
 
 la 
 c 
 
 .5 
 
 Trades. 
 
 5 
 
 
 
 2 
 
 o 
 
 'co 
 
 £ 
 % 
 
 _o 
 
 « 
 
 a> 
 §* 
 
 
 -u 
 
 o 
 
 CO 
 
 
 o 
 
 CO 
 
 <£> 
 Q 
 
 'o 
 
 < 
 
 C 
 
 <i> 
 
 Ph 
 
 <A 
 U 
 
 OSS 
 
 CU 
 
 a 
 P5 
 
 CO 
 
 o 
 
 s ana 
 ive E 
 
 a 
 .2 
 
 ociet 
 
 
 6 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 CO 
 
 
 1 
 
 m 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 °o 
 
 o 
 
 
 o 
 
 CQ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 oqP-i 
 
 
 
 
 7 
 
 10 
 
 21 
 
 10 
 
 8 
 
 4 
 
 3 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 21 
 
 2 
 
 12 
 
 35 
 
 
 17 
 
 7 
 
 14 
 
 1 
 
 2 
 
 4 
 
 5 
 
 1 
 
 19 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 23 
 
 Carriage builders,coopers, 1 
 
 7 
 
 1 
 
 10 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 q 
 o 
 
 
 12 
 
 X 
 
 7 
 
 
 Iron and steel trades 
 
 14 
 
 12 
 
 18 
 
 10 
 
 8 
 
 2 
 
 3 
 
 3 
 
 19 
 
 
 — 
 
 19 
 
 Workers in other metals 
 
 11 
 
 3 
 
 10 
 
 1 
 
 4 
 
 1 
 
 
 4 
 
 11 
 
 
 4 
 
 i n 
 ±o 
 
 Printing and allied trades 
 
 13 
 
 4 
 
 8 
 
 
 5 
 
 
 — 
 
 
 14 
 
 
 2 
 
 10 
 
 Bookbinding and paper ) 
 
 7 
 
 3 
 
 
 
 — 
 
 4 
 
 — 
 
 
 2 
 
 8 
 
 
 
 8 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Precious metals, clocks, ) 
 
 1 1 
 11 
 
 o 
 
 7 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 ± 
 
 lo 
 
 
 3 
 
 10 
 
 Glass, &c, leather, sad- 1 
 dlery, & brush-making [ 
 
 10 
 
 4 
 
 
 
 
 
 4 
 
 2 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 18 
 
 1 
 
 11 
 
 30 
 
 Tailors, boot and shoe- i 
 makers, hatters, &c. ... j 
 
 5 
 
 8 
 
 8 
 
 — 
 
 4 
 
 4 
 
 
 — 
 
 8 
 
 
 
 2 
 
 10 
 
 Tobacco, bakers, and ) 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 4 
 
 
 
 4 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Railway service, dock, j 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 gas, and various labour V 
 
 3 
 
 1 
 
 9 
 
 5 
 
 2 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 10 
 
 4 
 
 G 
 
 20 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 115 
 
 01 
 
 121 
 
 40 
 
 48 
 
 20 
 
 10 
 
 13 
 
 159 
 
 1 
 
 17 
 
 49 
 
 225 
 
 The subscriptions to the various societies range from 2d 
 to 2s 3d per week. Out of 167 that have been analyzed, 
 from 2d to 6d is paid in 108 societies; from 7d to Is in 47 ; 
 from 1,9 to 2s in 10; and in two cases 2s is exceeded. The 
 most common subscription is 6d, which is paid by 37 
 societies, while 3d is paid by 24; 2d by 23; 4d by 20; Is 
 by 15; and 9cZ by 13. In the larger and more important 
 societies somewhat the larger subscriptions are paid on the 
 average, 72 per cent, of those with a membership of 200 or 
 less raising 6d or less per week, as compared with 57 per 
 cent, of those with more than 200 members in which 
 equally small subscriptions are paid. 
 
154 
 
 SURVEY AND CONCLUSIONS. 
 
 The analysis includes every combination of benefit. 
 Superannuation or pension is offered only by the richer 
 societies, and the amount of benefit under the various 
 heads, especially sick-pay and out-of-work allowance, and 
 the periods for which they can be claimed, show a corre- 
 sponding relationship to the subscriptions, which are 
 themselves, as a rule, roughly proportional to wages. 
 In a few cases the societies have an emigration fund, 
 which may be regarded as an expansion of the more 
 common travelling benefit. 
 
 In only seventeen out of the total of 17G societies for 
 which we have an analysis of objects, are protective 
 benefits alone offered. In a certain number of additional 
 cases there is a u trade section," which members can 
 join at any age. Older men are often eligible for this 
 section alone, since they would be too costly as members if 
 they could claim benefits other than those of a strictly 
 protective character. For some of the more important 
 benefits membership is not infrequently optional. 
 
 The preceding table gives details of the benefits that are 
 promised, but since trade unions, in common with limited 
 companies, building societies, or other corporate under- 
 takings, have no guarantee against insolvency, they some- 
 times fail to meet their liabilities. In important societies 
 this rarely happens, and although, few could stand the 
 test of an actuarial valuation with regard to those of their 
 liabilities that could be thus calculated, the past experience 
 of trade unions provides, with few exceptions, a good 
 financial record. In some cases a readjustment of benefits 
 has been found necessary, but, on the whole, in the elasticity 
 of the special levy a financial expedient has been found 
 by means of which times of exceptional stress have been 
 successfully met. 
 
 Various rules are adopted to maintain financial stability. 
 In some cases, as in those of the compositors and the 
 amalgamated carpenters and joiners, the reserve per member 
 
TRADE UNIONS. 155 
 
 is not allowed to fall below a certain fixed minimum, 
 levies being imposed to secure a readjustment should this 
 happen. In others, a certain aggregate minimum reserve is 
 fixed independently of the total membership of the society, 
 as in the case of the operative masons. In a few societies, 
 again, there are special safeguards for particular benefits, 
 as with the day-working bookbinders, whose charge for 
 superannuation allowance is controlled by a rule that limits 
 the numbers receiving this form of help to a certain 
 fixed proportion of the total financial membership of the 
 society. The peculiar difficulty attending the administration 
 of trade union funds, the dependence of such expenditure 
 as that for unemployed benefit upon fluctuating trade 
 conditions, and the impossibility of reducing many of the 
 funds to actuarial law — all these bear witness to the 
 sagacity and caution which have overcome stumbling- 
 blocks so serious. 
 
 It is to friendly benefits that the greater part of trade 
 union expenditure is devoted.* Many of them, such as 
 
 * The following figures, extracted from the Eeport on Trade Unions 
 by the Chief Labour Correspondent of the Labour Department (1894), 
 illustrate this. The figures refer to the whole country. Keturns were 
 received from 832 Societies, with a membership of 1,256,448. Their expendi- 
 ture during the year amounted to £1,789,280 and was distributed as follows : 
 
 £ £ 
 Trade Benefits : Dispute .... 232,006 
 Other Benefits and 
 
 Grants . . . 52,821 
 
 Provident Benefits : Out of Work . 534,382 
 
 Sick 229,017 
 
 Accident. . . . 24,152 
 
 Superannuation . 129,007 
 
 Funeral .... 87,386 
 
 Grants to other Trade Unions, 
 
 Federation Payments, etc. . 123,474 
 Working and other expenses . 377,035 
 
 284,827 
 
 1,003,944 
 
 500,509 
 £1,789,280 
 
156 
 
 SURVEY AND CONCLUSIONS. 
 
 sick and superannuation allowance, constitute a permanent 
 and approximately fixed charge upon the societies that 
 offer them. The unemployed benefit is a much more 
 varying item, and protective charges rise or fall to a still 
 greater extent; sometimes, daring a period of dispute, 
 pressing heavily upon the members — even necessitating, 
 it may be, an appeal to other associations — at other times 
 representing during long periods but a small and perhaps 
 insignificant proportion of the total expenditure. There 
 is no correspondence, therefore, between the two forms 
 of claim. There is, indeed, a certain incongruity in their 
 combination inasmuch as the very benefits which, generally 
 speaking, are almost indispensable as a steadying force 
 and as providing a permanent bond of membership, are 
 also those which most restrict the freedom of protective 
 action. 
 
 Such protective action is in the main concerned 
 with the employers, but it is important to remember that 
 not a few societies have within the scope of their defined 
 objects the regulation of the relations of " workmen and 
 workmen" as well as those of workmen and employers. 
 
 The relations of workmen and workmen need regulating" 
 from the trade union point of view mainly from two causes 
 — (1) from the force of individual interest acting upon 
 workmen of the same class and leading them to depart from 
 the recognised terms of employment in their trade : as, for 
 instance, to take work on contract and to sub-let when such 
 practice is forbidden; or to work under the current scale of 
 wages; or to do something that is contrary to the accepted 
 conditions of the trade and that confers what then becomes 
 an unfair advantage upon the offending member. 
 
 But (2) an equally important reason for this form of 
 regulation arises from the overlapping between occupa- 
 tion and occupation. Well-known instances of this are 
 seen in the cases of the artisan or mechanic and the 
 assistant labourer, when the latter is forbidden to use 
 
TRADE UNIONS. 
 
 157 
 
 the skilled man's tools; in the definition, or attempted 
 definition, of the spheres of work of such trades as the 
 shipwrights and ships' carpenters; of masons and brick- 
 layers where they come together ; or of plumbers and fitters. 
 Cases of the overlapping of the spheres of employment 
 of boys and females with those of adult male labour are 
 somewhat analogous ; and under the same general heading 
 may be brought all attempts to regulate the relation of 
 unionists and non-unionists. In such cases, however, the 
 employer comes in as a directly interested third party, and 
 these regulations may perhaps be more appropriately 
 regarded as similar in kind to those of the more important 
 class of protective functions that are concerned with the 
 relations of employers and employed. 
 
 With regard to these it must be noted at the outset that 
 the special objects of the trade society and the interests 
 of the employers are by no means uniformly in opposition. 
 Sometimes they are even identical, as in the case of the 
 Mat and Matting Weavers' Trade Society, the efforts of 
 which are mainly directed against the sale, in the open 
 market, of prison-made goods. But at other times the 
 identity of interest, although it may be very real, is less easy 
 to detect. It has often to be sought for in the application 
 of the economic paradox that " low wages are not always 
 cheap." In as far as the better conditions of employment 
 that may be secured by trade union action have the 
 effect of increasing individual efficiency by the channels 
 of physical or moral improvement, an employer's concession 
 that seemed a sacrifice may prove an actual gain even to 
 the conceding party, and the apparent conflict of interest 
 be lost in a real harmony.* 
 
 But as a rule these results, even when realized, are 
 among the more subtle and "unseen." The "seen" 
 
 * Perhaps the most frequent illustration of this truth may be found in the 
 history of disputes turning on the question of the length of the working day. 
 {Compare Eae's " Eight Hours for Work.") 
 
158 
 
 SURVEY AND CONCLUSIONS. 
 
 elements of any dispute are almost invariably treated on 
 the general assumption, true in the main, that as regards 
 the particular points under arrangement, the interests of 
 masters and men are necessarily divergent. 
 
 The special objects which the societies set before them- 
 selves vary, not only from trade to trade, but also from 
 time to time within the same trade. Thus, the London 
 compositors are thinking now rather of changes made 
 necessary by the introduction of new machinery than of 
 either hours of work or regulations for apprentices; the 
 main task of the barge-builders' society is no longer 
 the abolition of overtime, but the careful regulation of 
 admission into the trade ; most branches of the building 
 trades are concerned with questions of overlapping, sub- 
 contract, and the position of non-unionists ; the boot and 
 shoemakers have still the questions of machinery and of 
 workshop accommodation before them ; and in a short time 
 we may see the cab and 'busmen thrown together, not by 
 disputes with the owners in regard to pay or hiring, but 
 by the threatened invasion of the autocar. 
 
 Fresh problems are from time to time presented accord- 
 ing to the changing circumstances of each particular 
 trade : the expedient may become the inexpedient, and ques- 
 tions which have been regarded with indifference may at 
 any time become matters of pressing and vital importance. 
 
 A change, also, in the character of the immediate aim 
 of a particular society will be affected, not only by tho 
 circumstances of the trade, but by the strength of the- 
 organization itself. Such more general and elementary 
 forms of trade union claim, as that with regard to the rate- 
 of pay, may be followed, if conditions be favourable, by 
 the more difficult and controversial claim for the recognition 
 of some rule with regard to the employment of non- 
 society men. Kelative financial and numerical strength and 
 questions of general expediency will, in short, determine at 
 
Til AD E UNIONS. 
 
 159 
 
 any given time the more specific character of the trade 
 union demand. 
 
 At the present time there is, perhaps, a two-fold change 
 in the accepted opinion with regard to the action of trade 
 unions, pointing to a fuller recognition, on the one hand of 
 the extension and on the other of the limitation, of their 
 sphere of operations. 
 
 In addition to the major questions of wages and hours, 
 it is beginning to be recognized that on such questions 
 as sanitary conditions, enforcement of Factory Acts, terms 
 of notice, modes of payment of wages, arrangements for 
 meal times, and many minor points, the trade union, and 
 perhaps the trade union alone, can give adequate expression 
 to the demands of the members of any given trade, and 
 through its representative officers effectively put forward 
 claims or resist encroachments. 
 
 It is in the appreciation of the number and importance 
 of the subjects lying within their proper sphere that a 
 greater field for corporate action is being discovered, even 
 side by side with the recognized subordination of trade 
 union action to other determining influences. 
 
 Moreover, though the organization of labour is an influence 
 over-shadowed by the wider and more powerful causes that 
 determine the general condition of any particular group of 
 workers, it is in trade unions alone that we find the right 
 and possibility of industrial combination — the wage-earner's 
 charter of the century — permanently demonstrated. 
 
 The principle of association, welcomed by nearly all in 
 its other manifestations, is often especially feared and 
 suspected in industrial life, although in every sectional form 
 of association — in religion, in philanthropy, in politics, and 
 even in purely social relationships — there is also danger of 
 bias and unfairness, and of the neglect of the widest 
 interests. It is perhaps felt that in trade unions the aims 
 are still more sectional in character ; and their moral basis 
 is thus more often suspected. 
 
IGO 
 
 SURVEY AND CONCLUSIONS. 
 
 It is doubtless largely because their interests have often 
 conflicted in a very serious way with those that are wider 
 and more important, and because it is feared that individual 
 independence may be weakened, that much very honest 
 criticism of the trade union movement as a whole has 
 found expression. 
 
 Behind, and necessarily behind, the action of friendly 
 negotiation by means of the informal or recognized 
 methods of conciliation or arbitration — to both of which 
 the existence of trade unions seems almost necessary — 
 lie the weapons, on the side of the employer, of the 
 lock-out, and on that of the employed, of the strike, 
 both alike a recourse to the rude arbitrament of war. 
 This close association in the popular mind of trade unions 
 and strikes makes many overlook the beneficial char- 
 acter of the more permanent and constant action of these 
 societies. 
 
 And the evils of partisanship have, it is true, often been 
 incurred : claims have been unreasonable ; strikes have 
 been hastily entered upon ; methods of propaganda have 
 been tyrannical ; pickets have bullied ; industrial relation- 
 ships have been unnecessarily disturbed and strained ; and 
 trades have been permanently injured or displaced, and in 
 this way the principle of association has been discredited. 
 
 Industrial relationships are, however, apt to be deter- 
 mined by the less responsible and less restrained on both 
 sides, and it is often difficult to see how anti-social 
 practices are to be repressed, except by the methods 
 of organization. It is unreasonable, therefore, to advocate 
 the elimination of agencies that seem to have a well 
 defined sphere unless, like the Socialists, whose way the 
 trade unions often seem to block, we are prepared with 
 alternative proposals, or unless we are contented to 
 await the millenium, relying upon the ultimate superi- 
 ority of individual enlightenment and independence. The 
 abuses of trade unions are indeed best regarded as the 
 
TRADE UNIONS. 
 
 161 
 
 froth on the surface of a movement which for this country 
 and for this age takes the place to some extent of the 
 crude social struggle, the political vapourings or the in- 
 dustrial stagnation of other countries or other times. 
 
 Those who condemn the narrowness of view frequently 
 illustrated by trade union policy may be reminded that 
 the outlook, although narrow, is not the narrowest. 
 Beyond the individual, beyond even the borders of the 
 family, the sphere of interest of the members of any such 
 society is widened, in any case to that of a section of 
 his fellow workers, the individual member himself being 
 included as one who, so far as his association is concerned, 
 has only equal claims with many others. Nor can we refrain 
 from bearing witness to the noble spirit of comradeship 
 that has often been evinced by their members. 
 
 In themselves trade unions may be regarded as safe- 
 guards and expedients, justified and explained by the 
 circumstances of the times. If these change, and if the 
 desired amelioration of conditions can be permanently 
 secured by better methods which either do not require, or 
 are incompatible with, the existence of these protective 
 associations ; then, it is not the new methods which should 
 be condemned, but the associations themselves that should 
 give way. 
 
 There are, however, many difficulties in the way of 
 effecting a transition from worse to better conditions. 
 There is the difficulty of judging as to the permanence or 
 general applicability that the new forms are likely to display, 
 and of being sure of the real motives of all concerned ; while 
 jealousies often block the way in effecting a change in the 
 mutual relations of employers and employed. Confusion thus 
 arises in the minds of trade unionists between end and 
 means, and from this blurred vision springs a trade union 
 bias against changes tending to unite more completely the 
 interests of employers and employed. It is sometimes 
 
1G2 
 
 SURVEY AND CONCLUSIONS. 
 
 honestly feared that the independence of the worker may 
 be unduly weakened by changes of this description, but 
 there is also the danger that when such proposals are 
 mooted, the trade unionist, recognizing the incompatibility 
 of the old protective methods, based on the accepted and 
 customary division of the occupied classes in any given 
 trade, should be suspicious of movements which, 
 however good in themselves, tend to eliminate his trade 
 organization, because they tend to weld the interests of 
 masters and men more closely together. But such welding 
 would be the most complete solution of the very problem 
 that trade unions are seeking to solve, and they them- 
 selves must meanwhile be recognized as institutions 
 made desirable, and in many cases necessary, by the 
 prevalence of conditions that in themselves have neither 
 the elements nor the claims of permanency. To attribute 
 such permanency to them, and thus to the forms of 
 protective association to which they give rise, is to mistake 
 the means for the end, the contingent for the essential. 
 
 IV. — Training and Tests of Efficiency. 
 
 Save in exceptional cases, the connection between 
 London trade unions and the training of workers is 
 remote. Various causes explain this, prominent among 
 them being, as regards many skilled trades, the large influx 
 of labour from the provinces. The London stock is being 
 continually recruited, and generally strengthened, from 
 outside sources, and over the industrial upbringing of the 
 migrant there is no control. 
 
 But the conditions of London labour tend to increase this 
 powerlessness, for, as has been seen, workers are frequently 
 employed there, either in highly specialized channels, in 
 which it is difficult to find use for a thorough training, or 
 on products of high excellence, when there is apt to be no 
 room for the learner. 
 
 It is found, therefore, that while employers are for the 
 
TRADE UNIONS. 
 
 163 
 
 most part negligent and foremen impatient, the operatives 
 themselves are generally either powerless or indifferent 
 to proposals for the more systematic training of workers, 
 whether with or without some plan of regular apprentice- 
 ship. 
 
 The trade unions sometimes have rules relating to 
 apprenticeship, but their primary object, forced upon the 
 members to a great extent by the excessive employment of 
 young and cheap labour, is rather the regulation of the 
 supply of workers, than the assurance of adequate training.* 
 In a certain number of cases a genuine interest is doubtless 
 felt ; occasionally, on the other hand, we detect rather a 
 fear of the rising generation, which, if it uses to the full 
 the new opportunities not infrequently offered of acquiring 
 thorough craft-knowledge, may be able it is thought to 
 oust the older generation before its time. 
 
 But, in the main, indifference and a sense of impotence 
 prevail. Inherited privileges and traditional customs have, 
 indeed, a much wider and more important influence in 
 determining the conditions under which a trade is both 
 entered and mastered, or not mastered when entered, than 
 have the unions themselves. This general indifference 
 remains none the less short-sighted, both on the side of em- 
 ployers and employed; for a combined attempt to deal with 
 the question might, in some cases, check that increasing 
 superficiality of knowledge, through which markets are 
 often lost or wages lowered. 
 
 There is, it is true, a widespread dissatisfaction at the 
 present want of system in training, especially in cases in 
 
 * Sometimes they miss their mark, even when the union is strong ; as, 
 with the glass-workers, among whom, with strong societies and strict 
 rules as to apprenticeship, "there are but few apprentices in the union 
 shops. The members of the union, and the trade at large, are mainly 
 recruited from boys and youths brought up in non-union establishments, 
 where the proportion of boys to men is in the inverse ratio to that 
 established by the union. This is not the only instance to be met with of 
 the sweating shop figuring as the sole school of industry." — Vol. II., p. 83. 
 V 11 * 
 
1G4 
 
 SURVEY AND CONCLUSIONS. 
 
 which the greater specialization of skill and the increasing 
 use of machinery have forced the consideration of this 
 question upon the members of a trade. But it is the 
 disintegrating effects of these influences rather than the 
 need of efficient training that has been most apt to 
 attract attention.* 
 
 We find the same limitations both of interest and of 
 power, as regards the qualifications of the adult members 
 of a trade. A few exceptions may be cited, as that 
 of the lithographic artists, by whose trade society a 
 register is kept of the work done by the members ; or 
 the City and West End cooks and carvers, who have 
 power " to fine heavily the member who does not give 
 satisfaction to his employers," and, in common with 
 other societies in this trade, reserves the right "to treat 
 proved inefficiency as a punishable offence." But, generally 
 speaking, the measure of responsibility that the trade 
 union accepts for the efficiency of its members is based on 
 the statement made at the branch meeting by the supporters 
 of the candidate for admission to their ranks that the 
 applicant is a good fellow, knows his trade, and has been 
 able to command the recognized current rates of wages 
 for such and such a period of time. If he can secure this 
 testimony he is usually (subject it may be, to certain 
 restrictions as regards age) ipso facto qualified for member- 
 ship of the union of his trade. If it be one to which those 
 only are admitted who have served their time as apprentices, 
 it may be necessary for the candidate to show his indentures, 
 and, when he is young, further questions are likely to be 
 put as to his knowledge of the craft. But, as we have seen, 
 these are the more exceptional conditions of admission, and 
 even in the case of an indentured apprentice who has satis- 
 
 * In only two cases have we a record of the direct initiative being taken 
 by trade societies, towards the improvement of the technical education of 
 their members, viz., those of the zinc-workers and the lithographic artists. 
 Vol. L, p. 393; Vol. U„ p. 220. 
 
TRADE UNIONS. 
 
 165 
 
 factorily served his time, it is the test of the workshop and 
 the eye of the foreman or employer that can alone give 
 the real guarantee of efficiency. 
 
 It may, therefore, be stated as a general rule that the 
 trade union does not attempt to apply any test of efficiency 
 other than that (easily measured and easily applied, in 
 auy case for short periods of time) of ability to earn 
 a certain recognized minimum wage. Any further test 
 is, in the vast majority of cases, deliberately left to the 
 employers in the particular trade : if they will employ a 
 man at the accepted rates, prior to his election as a 
 member of his union, then, in the absence of other special 
 disqualifications, the union will accept him. The 
 economic position of the individual man is not affected. 
 The same criteria of suitability for employment will be 
 applied after as before his election. The same methods of 
 superintendence are necessary for the unionist as for the 
 non-unionist, and throughout, there is no attempt made by 
 the unions, save in certain cases of flagrant violation, to 
 assume corporate responsibility for efficiency of service. 
 
 In this, however, there is but little reason for adverse 
 criticism, for it would be useless to advocate the exercise 
 by the societies of a function that is for the most part 
 beyond their power. Greater discrimination than is now 
 shown might often be exercised in the admission of 
 candidates, especially in the loosely organized purely 
 protective societies; and also even in the best managed 
 societies if acting under the pressure of conditions of 
 dispute, when the rules of election tend always to be 
 somewhat laxly administered. But in the main the 
 average level of efficiency of their members must be 
 determined, not by their own action and policy, but rather 
 by some outside prevailing standard and by the play of 
 competition operating over a wide area upon the members 
 of any particular trade. 
 
 In the attractiveness of London, acting both economically 
 
16G 
 
 SURVEY AND CONCLUSIONS. 
 
 and socially, we find the real influence that determines 
 what the standard of efficiency shall be in the case of such 
 craftsmen as joiners, masons, plumbers, and fitters, from 
 whom good work is demanded and whose ranks can be 
 recruited from the Provinces. The best provincial labour 
 is attracted ; and the migrants becoming generally apt 
 learners in the London school, and also keen competitors, 
 thus establish the high level that London labour 
 reaches. On the other hand, in those trades in which 
 there is room for a low class of labour — as, for instance, in 
 many branches of cabinet making, tailoring, and pianoforte 
 making — it is rather the local conditions that may be 
 regarded as the main determining influences. 
 
 National or even international pressure may determine 
 the degree of skill that London employers will demand, 
 raising it in some cases to unrivalled excellence, or leaving 
 it at other times to struggle, in deteriorated forms, against 
 the methods of production prevailing elsewhere. 
 
 There is, nevertheless, abundant room for local effort 
 towards raising the London standard. London workmen, 
 even in the most highly skilled and highly localized trades, 
 stand in no ring-fence, and it may be one of the most import- 
 ant tasks for their leaders in the future to impress upon the 
 rank and file the truth that corporate strength must rest at 
 last upon individual efficiency. Towards raising this, trade 
 unions may have as important a part to play as in the 
 direct endeavour to increase the share that each man can 
 secure of the final product, for, ultimately, it is upon the 
 individual standard maintained that the ability to secure 
 improved material conditions will mainly depend. 
 
 Y. — The Minimum Wage. 
 
 Although no real test of efficiency can be said to be 
 applied by trade unions, — save in the very exceptional 
 cases already noted — approximate uniformity of remunera- 
 
TRADE UNIONS. 
 
 167 
 
 tion and of the general conditions of employment is aimed 
 at for the members of the same class in every trade. Every 
 union endeavours to secure the same hours, the same rates 
 for overtime (if worked at all), the use of the same scale if 
 on piece-work, and not less than the same rates if time- 
 wages be paid. It is the last two objects that have led to 
 the very general attempt to secure the recognition of the 
 principle of the " minimum wage." 
 
 This conception is analogous to that of the "living 
 wage" — that will-o'-the-wisp of the social reformer — for, 
 with certain modifications, the adherents of both are 
 opposed to the view that wages must depend on the 
 current level of prices and range of profits. It is thus 
 not infrequently argued that the minimum wage is to be 
 taken as a fixed element in the expenses of production, 
 and that to this extent the adjustment of price in the open 
 market, in any case for considerable periods of time, is to 
 be restricted. 
 
 It is obvious, however, that this view wears a different 
 aspect according to whether we are considering* a rate of 
 remuneration really necessary to family maintenance or one 
 which, accepted at any given time in a particular trade, 
 avowedly leaves over a margin, more or less considerable, 
 for the " extras " of life. 
 
 Even for unskilled labour, the idea of a "living wage" 
 is indeterminate. It varies greatly, not only from country 
 to country, but from place to place in the same country, 
 even from locality to locality in London itself, and also 
 from time to time according to fluctuations in the average 
 level of prices and to variations in the accepted standard 
 of life. But there is a sufficient regularity in the elements 
 of necessary demand for the family unit to afford us, for 
 any locality, a fairly exact basis. 
 
 In London, for instance, although there are many adult 
 men whose services are not worth 6d an hour, and many 
 families that live on less than 24s per week, the " docker's 
 
168 
 
 SURVEY AND CONCLUSIONS. 
 
 tanner" of 1889 was accepted with, a common chorus of 
 approval as representing the wage which able-bodied heads 
 of families might not unfairly regard as their minimum 
 demand. 
 
 If we assume for the sake of argument that this, on 
 a forty-eight hours' week, may be rightly taken as an 
 irreducible minimum, it is clear that so soon as minima 
 are fixed at higher rates than this, a new set of consider- 
 ations, other than those of reasonable subsistence, have to 
 be taken into account. 
 
 Leaving out of the question any extra remuneration 
 that may be claimed to meet the expenses of any particular 
 industry, such as the provision of tools or dress, we find 
 that any margin above the assumed living wage is due to 
 exceptional conditions of one kind or another : the work 
 involves difficulty, responsibility, danger or some ether 
 quality, which marks out those who follow it as being above 
 the average and thus able to secure more than the assumed 
 accepted living wage of the unskilled workers of their 
 district. This higher rate is in the main not secured by, 
 and not determined by, the trade unions. They rather 
 intervene as secondary influences, strengthening and 
 consolidating the position of a body of men who are 
 differentiated from others by the normal conditions of 
 their employment rather than by the fact of their combina- 
 tion. The trade union may forestall a natural rise in wages, 
 or for a time may arrest a fall, but whatever may be the 
 circumstances of its intervention, its general characteristic 
 is to crystallize a normal tendency, and to secure, in any 
 case for a time, a practical uniformity of conditions for 
 a body of men whose general economic position is quite 
 otherwise determined. 
 
 Approximate uniformity of pay may, indeed, be almost 
 regarded as a condition of organization, and this is natural, 
 for the task of organization itself is thereby simplified, and 
 the interests of the average man are consolidated. The 
 
TRADE UNIONS. 
 
 169 
 
 attempt to fix a minimum wage in any organized trade 
 may, therefore, be regarded as a necessary accompaniment 
 of trade union action. The question at issue is, indeed, not 
 the principle of a fixed minimum, but rather the level at 
 which this minimum should be maintained in those trades 
 which are able to command more than the accepted level 
 of the " living wage " for a week's work. 
 
 It may seem that the highest possible point must neces- 
 sarily be the right one to aim at, but trade unionists are 
 alive to the disadvantages that may ensue from an undis- 
 criminating adherence to this policy. In many trades 
 differential rates have been introduced for older men, and 
 in some an attempt has been made to modify the rates for 
 younger men who have passed the probationary stages and 
 yet are hardly sufficiently well equipped to claim with 
 justice the full current rate of wages. This practice, is, 
 however, jealously watched and its extension deprecated lest 
 a reduced minimum, if sanctioned for a section of a trade, 
 should tend to become the prevailing rate for all. An 
 analagous difficulty presents itself to those who propose, as 
 likely to lead to a more regular diffusion of employ- 
 ment in the case of seasonal trades, the recognition of 
 a lower rate during the normally slacker periods of the 
 year. The fall, it is seen, would be easy ; the recovery 
 more difficult, and even, it is feared, impossible should 
 there be a slow revival of trade at the beginning of the 
 ordinarily busy season. 
 
 There is the further argument in favour of uniformity, 
 that the certainty and fixity in wages that it involves, 
 enables employers to estimate the cost of work with a 
 degree of assurance that would be impossible in a varying 
 labour market. They become strong or weak competitors, 
 not according to their success in cutting down wages, but 
 according to their qualities as really efficient managers ; as 
 those who from their character as employers can attract the 
 best men and make the best use of the labour they employ ; 
 
170 
 
 SURVEY AND CONCLUSIONS. 
 
 and, in the case of manufacture, as judicious buyers of the 
 material used. 
 
 An unscrupulous and capable manufacturer may become 
 a centre of disorganization and deterioration in a whole 
 trade, since buyers, not being able to analyze all the 
 conditions that enable hini to become an exceptionally 
 cheap producer, or not caring to do so, will quote his 
 prices, and other makers are apt to be driven to follow 
 his example in exacting the maximum of work for the 
 minimum of wage. Uniformity of wage-conditions acts, at 
 least in their own sphere, as a check on this form of 
 excessive competition. 
 
 Assuming that uniformity is desirable, there is consider- 
 able difficulty in determining the point at which it can 
 most advantageously be fixed. The higher the minimum 
 is, the more exclusive does the trade union tend to become. 
 It is possible, even, by a too rigorous policy, to exclude 
 from the ranks of any existing society so large a propor- 
 tion of the members of a trade, that any approach to 
 effective organization is rendered impossible. The greater 
 the disproportion also between the minimum maintained 
 and the average real standard of the trade, the more hotly 
 will the citadel of the union be attacked from outside. 
 
 Further, a high minimum diminishes the scope for the 
 adequate reward of special skill, tending to secure for the 
 less efficient more, and for the more efficient less, than they 
 deserve. For the higher the minimum, the more likely 
 is it to be also the maximum, and thus to leave less 
 scope than would otherwise be possible for the adaptation 
 of remuneration to efficiency. 
 
 A very high minimum, moreover, tends to diminish the 
 continuity of employment. The bond between employer 
 and employed that is represented by the "surplus" value 
 of the services rendered is weakened, and the stability of 
 their relationship thereby endangered. The larger the 
 proportion of men who are receiving what is felt to be 
 
TRADE UNIONS. 
 
 171 
 
 more than their appropriate return, the larger also will 
 be the proportion dismissed when trade slackens. 
 
 It can hardly be denied that one of the main arguments 
 in favour of the policy that aims always at the highest 
 possible minimum lies in its simplicity. Its strength 
 rests largely on the fact, not that it is ideally the best 
 policy, but rather that it fits in best with the degree 
 of administrative power possessed by the unions, and 
 with the common-sense of the rank and file of the 
 members. In any given case, however, and London offers 
 several illustrations, too high a minimum is apt to set at 
 work various influences by which conditions may easily, 
 and even rapidly, become only nominally favourable. It may 
 be by the greater discontinuity of employment ; by stricter 
 supervision ; by the more rapid introduction of machinery, 
 or of boy and girl labour ; or by actual displacement, that 
 the subtle processes of economic adaptation will work. 
 The effects will vary with circumstances and with trades, 
 but the end will almost always be the same, for there are 
 few occupations that can, even with the completest 
 organization, firmly establish a real and effective monopoly. 
 
 At the present time — when, as in the case of the 
 dock-labourers, employment is becoming more permanent, 
 or, as in the case of the operative masons, it is tending to 
 be more exclusively restricted to the members of a trade 
 society — the position of those outside the pale either of 
 permanency or of organization is becoming increasingly 
 difficult. The normal stress of competition is accentuated 
 in their case, and unemployment is precipitated on the 
 heads of those least able to bear it. While, however, 
 more stable conditions of employment necessarily make 
 the position harder for those left outside, completeness 
 of organization will only have this effect up to a certain 
 point. For if the conditions enforced and the minimum 
 secured by a strong trade society to the average members 
 of the trade do not approximate to a normal basis, 
 
172 
 
 SURVEY AND CONCLUSIONS. 
 
 and, above all, if they have been secured by the help 
 of circumstances that were only temporarily favourable, 
 then the society ranges against itself economic forces that 
 will bring about either a weak union unable to enforce 
 its own too exclusive rules, or one that is avowedly 
 representative only of the more highly skilled members 
 of the craft in question. 
 
 Lastly, adaptation to the changing conditions of a market 
 becomes more difficult. There is a maximum wage that 
 the employer can or will pay as well as a minimum that 
 the wage-earner can or will accept, and although the 
 position of this maximum, like that of the minimum wage 
 itself, is liable to shift, there is always some point at which, 
 taking the average of a few years, it may said to be fixed. 
 In some cases, and especially when much capital has been 
 invested, employers may work for awhile on a no-profit 
 basis, this being often preferable to complete stoppage, and 
 the heavy permanent sacrifice thus entailed ; but they can 
 hardly act in this way for long. 
 
 The character of the trade ; the plant set up ; the staff 
 that it may be important to retain ; the prospects of the 
 future; and the temperament of the employer, will all 
 help to determine the point at which unremunerative 
 working will lead to stoppage. The stock-jobber, with 
 no machinery to go rusty; no mine which may be flooded; 
 or staff to retain, may take a holiday when in his particular 
 market the turn is steadily unfavourable or uncertain, and 
 is often the richer for his complete abstention and absence 
 from work. But a manufacturer cannot thus dissociate 
 himself from his occupation : if prices fall or if his market 
 contracts, he has to endeavour to secure a readjustment of 
 the elements that make up the cost of production, and one 
 of these is wages. It is at such a time that he, on his 
 side, will discover what his maximum must be, and 
 ultimately, if the industry continue, the trade union 
 minimum cannot exceed it. 
 
TRADE UNIONS. 
 
 173 
 
 VI. — Limitations to the Spheee of Trade Unions. 
 
 The table on pages 144-145 shows how diverse are the 
 conditions even of the highly organized London trades ; 
 but, in spite of the absence of uniformity, we may state in 
 a general way the conditions which make for organization : 
 
 (1) When stability of conditions prevail in the trade: when, 
 e.g., there is no easy recourse for the buyer to other 
 markets or to alternative products; or for the maker to 
 mechanical substitutes for labour, or to the importation 
 of labour in case of dispute ; and when the movement 
 of capital to other fields of operation is difficult. 
 
 (2) When the industry is not readily practised by inde- 
 pendent workers and permanence of status as between 
 masters and men is maintained. 
 
 (3) When the proportion of boy or female labour employed 
 is small, and incapable of competing with adult male 
 labour ; especially when there is need for the exercise 
 of acquired skill in the manual processes of the work. 
 
 (4) When the quantity and quality of work done affords 
 a uniform basis of comparison between man and man 
 so that personal relationships, as between employer 
 and employed, become comparatively unimportant. 
 
 It will be found that some, if not most, of these conditions 
 are present in every organized trade, and their importance 
 may be shown by reference to almost any occupation 
 included in the table. Thus in the printing trade, with 
 difficulties presented by the employment of boy labour and 
 by the introduction of new machinery, we find that as 
 regards skill, measurabilifcy of result, and permanency of 
 status, the conditions are highly favourable. In the welJ- 
 organized book-binding and tobacco trades, although in both 
 cases women are largely employed, we find that in the 
 former trade the sphere of women's work is now fairly well- 
 defined, and that in the latter, where the work is largely 
 identical, the same rates are paid to both sexes. In neither 
 case, therefore, does the presence of the women introduce 
 
174 
 
 SURVEY AND CONCLUSIONS. 
 
 a new element of competition. Again, the low position of 
 the cabinet-makers as regards organization is to a great 
 extent explained by the prevalence of the small system 
 of production ; by a highly developed method of wholesale 
 distribution, under which the small makers habitually 
 compete for the custom of the factor; by the great sub- 
 division of labour ; and by the small degree of permanency 
 in the employing class. 
 
 Turning to those occupations in the list that fall under 
 locomotion, transport and general labour, we find that in 
 this group the employees may be said to be generally 
 strong as regards the measurability of their work ; in the 
 freedom from the competition of boy and female labour 
 and in the large proportion of employed to employers, thus 
 facilitating the common action that is rendered easier by 
 common employment. They are weak, on the other hand, 
 in as far as acquired skill is unnecessary; in the greater 
 tendency for mechanical substitutes to supplant the simpler 
 and more laborious manual processes ; and in the power 
 that frequently exists to secure imported labour in cases 
 of dispute. The great weakness of the group lies in 
 the width of the sphere of potential competition. With 
 the exception of the dock and other officials, lightermen,, 
 bargemen, and, perhaps, watermen and stevedores, the 
 protecting economic conditions of employment of all the 
 members in this division are particularly weak. Even in the 
 case of the more responsible position of railway servants, or 
 of cab and omnibus men, the necessary qualifications are not 
 such as to define the group of competitors with any degree 
 of clearness, as in the case of most skilled trades. It is 
 true that this distinction is only one of degree, and that, 
 in the case of trades that are classed as skilled, if the 
 subdivision of employment be excessive, the economic 
 conditions tend, in this respect, to approximate to those of 
 unskilled labour itself. In the case of the general labourer,, 
 however, when the acquirement of the appropriate knack 
 
TRADE UNIONS. 
 
 175 
 
 takes the place of any, even though it be a very limited, 
 kind of skill, and when the first and last requisite is not 
 infrequently found in the possession of a certain measure 
 of muscular strength, we find the widest of all fields of 
 employment, and the most elastic body of possible workers. 
 
 In the superior position as regards organization, there- 
 fore, of some of the groups of "labour " as compared with 
 some of the more skilled trades in which the motive to 
 organization is equally strong, we have a striking example 
 of the aid that comparative uniformity of conditions and 
 permanency of status give, when combined with adequate 
 and intelligently directed motive ; and of the power that 
 may be thus secured to overcome in some measure the 
 normally weak economic position of this class of workers. 
 
 Although trade unionism is conspicuous by its absence 
 in so many fields of employment, it is less easy to state 
 succinctly the conditions unfavourable to it. 
 
 London in the aggregate can hardly be regarded as a 
 stronghold of the movement. Metropolitan conditions 
 militate against trade unionism, just as they do against 
 other democratic institutions that depend largely for their 
 vitality on the maintenance of intimate personal relation- 
 ship between their members. 
 
 Thus we find the co-operative movement baffied for the 
 moment, even on the distributive side, by the size of a city 
 in which, not only does the competition of the retailers 
 secure a most efficient distribution, but in which men scatter 
 far and wide when their day's work is done, so that the 
 vast majority remain strangers even to their more immedi- 
 ate neighbours. 
 
 In addition, the fact that London is the greatest centre 
 of the small system of production, militates in many ways 
 against the possibilities and forces of combination, for it 
 results in the isolation of wage-earners in small groups, and 
 tends to break down the distinction between master and man. 
 
170 SURVEY AND CONCLUSIONS. 
 
 There is thus altogether a more than average amount of 
 difficulty in the way of trade union expansion in London. 
 
 In pursuing this subject further, it is to be noticed 
 that there is a general absence of protective association 
 in practically all branches of distributive employment; 
 in banking and insurance ; in some branches of the public 
 service ; in indoor and outdoor service ; and among the 
 employees in the various professions. The following table 
 will show in greater detail those sections of which this 
 statement is true : — 
 
 Industrial Groups in which there are no Trade Unions. 
 
 Section. 
 
 Total 
 
 Employed 
 
 i > 1 1 1 yiuy cu. 
 
 Population. 
 
 Males. 
 
 Females. 
 
 
 83,448 
 
 1,418 
 
 58,250 
 
 Warehousemen and messengers ... 
 
 63,556 
 
 61,926 
 
 1,437 
 
 
 5,836 
 
 3,295 
 
 2,001 
 
 
 2,195 
 
 1,587 
 
 339 
 
 
 8,883 
 
 4,497 
 
 2,811 
 
 
 1 nun 
 
 a cnc 
 4,oyo 
 
 506 
 
 
 4,811 
 
 1,594 
 
 2,498 
 
 
 2,700 
 
 1,323 
 
 1,158 
 
 
 1,946 
 
 921 
 
 651 
 
 
 3,074 
 
 1,612 
 
 1,139 
 
 
 18,487 
 
 874 
 
 13,679 
 
 
 10,663 
 
 1,554 
 
 9,109 
 
 
 19,678 
 
 4,251 
 
 12,112 
 
 
 30,926 
 
 14,603 
 
 12,502 
 
 
 2,320 
 4,396 
 
 1,687 
 
 421 
 
 Brewers, mineral water makers, &c... 
 
 3,823 
 
 246 
 
 
 10,169 
 
 6,478 
 
 931 
 
 
 28,637 
 
 19,628 
 
 996 
 
 
 31,531 
 
 18,149 
 
 2,507 
 
 
 14,991 
 
 5,996 
 
 776 
 
 Lodging and coffee-house keepers 
 
 11,004 
 
 1,369 
 
 1,324 
 
 Ironmongers, glass and china dealers 
 
 9,164 
 
 5,930 
 
 591 
 
 
 6,564 
 
 3,030 
 
 312 
 
 
 14,241 
 
 3,473 
 
 3,239 
 
 
 19,992 
 
 
 
 
 108,423 
 
 99,713 
 
 8,710 
 
 
 12,093 
 
 
 
 
 3,774 
 
 3,386 
 
 99 
 
 The indifference to organization frequently found may 
 
 * A few may belong to the National Union of Shop Assistants, the 
 Warehousemen and Clerks, or the United Shop Assistants' Union. 
 
 f A few belong to the Millers' National Union. A large number of oil 
 millers joined the Dockers' Union in 1889, but have nearly all since left. 
 
 J As already mentioned (note on page 145), there is one small Union. 
 
TRADE UNIONS. 
 
 177 
 
 often be explained by the conditions of employment; as 
 with, the brewers' workmen, among whom, though sectional 
 feeling is strong, the terms of service are so favourable that 
 there is none of the pressure normally felt when abuses 
 are numerous. For protective association springs from 
 the sense among a certain proportion of those employed 
 either that unnecessary disadvantages exist which might 
 be removed by combined action ; or that customary 
 privileges are threatened that could be protected by the 
 same means. 
 
 In other cases, again, the disinclination to organize may 
 result from distrust of the methods of combination, or from 
 the feeling that it is inappropriate to the relationship 
 generally existing between employers and employed in 
 some particular occupation. The personal character of 
 the relationship, for example, may be so marked a feature 
 that the impersonal intervention of representatives of an 
 organized society is felt to have a certain irrelevancy 
 and even impropriety. 
 
 Thus in many directions, including clerical occupations 
 and assistants of all kinds, as well as some skilled trades, 
 and even in certain cases of unskilled labour, the inappro- 
 priateness of any organized plan of adjusting industrial 
 relationships is often manifest; the relation of individuals 
 or groups of individuals to employers involving a sense 
 of mutual confidence that renders the method of protective 
 association incongruous. 
 
 Again, we sometimes find both motive and power to 
 organize weakened when the class-relationship is expected 
 to be of a transitional character. This is very generally 
 the case with masters and men where the small system 
 of production prevails, and when large numbers are 
 t( working on their own account." A conspicuous instance 
 is seen in the case of shop-assistants, for in addition 
 to the obstacle frequently presented by the personal 
 or confidential character of their relations with their 
 v 12 
 
178 
 
 SURVEY AND CONCLUSIONS. 
 
 employers, a permanent source of weakness in all attempts 
 at organization is found in the fact that every young 
 shop-assistant is apt to regard himself as a future 
 employer, and although the increase in the proportion of 
 large retail shops is clearly diminishing the likelihood of 
 change of 'status, yet the hope of change is general. 
 Moreover the heads of departments in large shops are 
 probably as far removed from trade union organization as 
 small employers. 
 
 The non-manual occupations are in fact little suited for 
 trade union action. An approximate uniformity of con- 
 ditions is an essential feature of unionism, and the charac- 
 teristic of most manual trades, that, while a minimum is 
 aimed at, a fairly well-defined maximum is also known to 
 prevail — is largely absent from most non-manual employ- 
 ments. The saying, " once a rivetter always a rivetter," has 
 no parallel in many callings. It is especially inapplicable to 
 all those occupations in which the normal state of mind is 
 to live in the expectation of doing better in life — not in the 
 way that the mason may hope to secure a better yard, 
 obtaining, it may be, more regular work or slightly higher 
 wages, but in the sense of a change in position, making for 
 advance in life, and initiating a u career." 
 
 It is the disintegrating force of these vague possibilities 
 that in many employments weakens both the motives that 
 make for organization, and the power of trade unions 
 when formed. 
 
 It is to be noted that an organization generally represents 
 a corporate interest much wider than that of the workpeople 
 of a single firm, and that frequently the employer who is 
 on the best terms with his people is also the one who 
 is most in sympathy with the trade unions j whereas the 
 employer with whom relations are most strained is apt to 
 be the man who dislikes them most. The considerate 
 employer, even in the case of partially organized trades, 
 whether sympathetically or unsympathetically disposed 
 
)()l T 
 
 OT 
 
 riZED 
 
TRADE UNIONS. 
 
 179 
 
 towards the trade union, undoubtedly blocks the way 
 towards a completer organization, much in the same way 
 that the moderate drinker prevents the introduction of 
 drastic temperance legislation. 
 
 In the case of all female labour instability of status — ■ 
 social rather than economic — is a standing obstacle to 
 organization. The most active trade union initiative is 
 undertaken by comparatively young men, and the great 
 majority of the older responsible leaders and executive 
 officers are found among those who have been brought 
 up from youth in trade union traditions. It is the young 
 mechanic who has just entered upon his adult career, 
 with every probability, and generally with every intention 
 of pursuing it during his working life, who is the 
 best recruit of his trade society, which often, indeed, 
 becomes for him one of the principal channels by which 
 his sense of corporate responsibility, and even of a wider 
 citizenship is developed. But to the young woman the 
 perspective of her future is quite differently shadowed forth. 
 The hope of marriage rather than the strengthening of her 
 industrial position is usually the dominating influence in 
 her life, and in this, combined with a less-developed capacity 
 than even that of men for the tasks of organization and 
 administration, is found a great disintegrating force. 
 
 The practical difficulty of combination among women 
 is well illustrated by the three accompanying charts. 
 In every case the sudden drop, as compared with men, 
 in the numbers employed between the ages of 20 and 
 35, is clearly marked, as is also the much more gradual 
 decline in their numbers from the age of 40 onwards. 
 Thus, even such permanency of economic status as is 
 found among women does not correspond in any sense with 
 that of men. The cases in which it may be anticipated are 
 nearly always of women who have passed the age at which 
 effective organization on trade and friendly lines is likely 
 v 12 * 
 
ISO 
 
 SURVEY AND CONCLUSIONS. 
 
 to be secured; when the flush of enthusiasm that may 
 stir the imagination and prompt to a great corporate 
 endeavour, has paled in the ]ong years of work — unhoped 
 for, perhaps unexpected — that have led on to middle age. 
 
 In many cases, the absence of trade unions, even in 
 occupations in which there seems, perhaps, the most likely 
 field for their application, is explained, not so much by the 
 presence of any normally disintegrating force and preventive 
 influence — as in the case of women — as by the negative 
 resistance of apathy and ignorance; due partly to defect 
 of character, but more often to a depressing sense of the 
 economic weakness of their position, which reacts upon the 
 power of corporate initiative. Trade unionism is still a 
 growing movement, and its sphere maybe greatly extended 
 in the future, but there are many groups of wage-earners, 
 even among the lowest paid male sections of the population 
 with whom the motive to organize should be strongest, for 
 whom the help of combination is, nevertheless, almost 
 unattainable — indeterminate bodies among whom there is 
 no cohering force, no development of leadership, consisting 
 of men for whose employment even the simple qualification 
 of persistency is often neither required nor forthcoming. 
 
 The part played by trade unions has, as we have seen, 
 many limitations, not only where they exist, but also from 
 the fact that in many directions they do not exist at all. 
 Nevertheless they exercise a very real power beyond the 
 proportion of their numerical strength. In spite of over- 
 lapping and jealousies, with many leaders and divergent 
 aims, and with an only half developed sense of respon- 
 sibility, the trade unions of London still exert a regulating 
 economic force of no little importance. 
 
 The history of the "fair wages clause," the extent to 
 which it is adopted, and the more general recognition, not 
 only by public bodies, but by a wider public, of a moral 
 obligation to discourage or so far as possible prohibit, 
 
TRADE UNIONS. 
 
 181 
 
 anti-social conditions of employment, illustrates the indirect 
 power that can also be exerted by trade societies. For they 
 exercise considerable influence in the formation of public 
 opinion on labour questions, and in the constitution of 
 popularly elected bodies, the labour members are almost 
 invariably drawn from the unions themselves. " Labour " 
 without the unions would be comparatively dumb. 
 
 But our estimate of their strength and influence should 
 not be exaggerated. For the dominating and determining 
 conditions of employment it is necessary to look in other 
 directions, and over wider fields than those covered by 
 these associations. Industrial life, although involving a 
 curtailment on every hand of the scope of individual freedom, 
 and made up of a tissue of involuntary sacrifices, still leaves, 
 even among wage-earners, the active impulses of the 
 individual mind as the most important economic force. 
 
 In changing economic conditions, in expanding or 
 shrinking markets, and in fluctuating prices we find the 
 great planks in the industrial platform upon which the 
 individual, sometimes in union with his fellows bub in any 
 case in the exercise of his own judgment, has to play his 
 part. It will be mainly by forces and opportunities such as 
 these, as they bear upon the individual man, that, according 
 to his power of response, industrial status and reward 
 will be determined. Only to a very limited extent can 
 associated effort direct these dominating influences. 
 
 [Some remarks on trade unions as remedial agencies will 
 be found in Chapter XII.] 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE HOURS OF LABOUR. 
 
 The question of continuity or discontinuity of work 
 covers, practically, the whole question of unemployment ; 
 it therefore claims our first attention in an examination of 
 the conditions of employment. It is followed in import- 
 ance by the question of wages, and last comes that of 
 hours. But just as, when employment has been once 
 secured, the rate of pay comes to the front, so, no sooner 
 is a decent subsistence wage being earned, than the question 
 of hours becomes of as great, perhaps of even greater 
 moment. Whether more or less be earned affects, no doubt, 
 immediate comfort, whereas a working day unduly pro- 
 longed injures the whole life. The popular recognition of 
 the importance of this question is seen in the revival during 
 recent years of one of the claims put forward in the 
 Chartist rhyme that moved men's hearts some half a century 
 ago. Now, as then, the demand for " eight hours' work," 
 with or without 
 
 " . . . . eight hours' play, 
 Eight hours' sleep, and eight shillings a day " — 
 
 has become the form in which the widespread desire for 
 greater leisure finds its most frequent expression. 
 
 A summary of " the recognized hours of work " in the 
 majority of the trades and occupations of London is given 
 in the table printed at the end of this chapter. Out of 
 206 occupations there are : — 
 
 13 in which 48 hours (or less) are worked per week. 
 
 ol in which over 48 and less than 54 hours are worked. 
 
 84 in which 54 and less than 60 hours are worked. 
 
THE HOURS OF LABOUR. 
 
 183 
 
 29 in which CO and less than 72 hours are worked. 
 
 29 in which 72«hours and upwards are worked. 
 
 Particulars with regard to the practice of overtime are 
 also given in a large number of cases. 
 
 Though the table shows large groups of trades that are 
 carried on under approximately similar time-conditions, 
 the conspicuous feature is variety ; and it is so because of 
 the varying character of other conditions. The amount 
 of skill demanded ; the character of the work ; seasonal 
 influences ; the controlling effects of the Factory Acts ; 
 trade customs ; the degree of organization achieved; the 
 forethought and capacity of emploj^ers and foremen; 
 and the method of remuneration adopted ; these are all 
 influences, bearing unequally upon different trades, and apt 
 to bring in elements of widespread variation in the hours 
 worked. Thus, a tram-conductor works long hours because 
 the duties are light, and because many men possess the 
 necessary qualifications; and the abnormally long day of 
 the carman may be similarly explained, for though greater 
 physical strain is sometimes involved, it is compensated 
 to some extent by the long spells of driving and often of 
 simple waiting which accompany his work. 
 
 Other typical instances may be mentioned. For example, 
 shop assistants have light work — physically as compared 
 with the mason, and intellectually as compared with the 
 banker's clerk — but their long hours are also to be 
 explained by the habits of late marketing adopted by the 
 working-class consumer ; by the fear of loss of custom if 
 an attempt is made to compress the work of the day into 
 fewer hours ; and by the absence of any common under- 
 standing among the employers or of effective combination 
 among the assistants. In the case of cook-shops and 
 retail pork butchers in poor neighbourhoods, the direct 
 competition of the public-houses is felt, and the fear that 
 a transfer of trade to the licensed houses might follow from 
 earlier closing. 
 
184 
 
 SURVEY AND CONCLUSIONS. 
 
 The baker's week, often terribly long, is so, partly 
 because of the insufficiency of organization* and the keenness 
 of competition, but partly also because there are long 
 spells of waiting, sometimes even of sleeping, during the 
 process of bread-making. Thus, even though on Friday 
 night and Saturday morning, when the output has to suffice 
 for a two days' supply, a day of very abnormal length 
 results, the nominal hours worked give a somewhat 
 exaggerated impression of the actual strain involved. 
 
 The long hours of the East London slipper-maker are 
 due to the fact that the work is seasonal in character, 
 and mostly done at home under keen competition and 
 with low and declining rates of pay. It is work characterized 
 by the severe conditions that tend to prevail amongst the 
 home industries of East London; but here, again, the 
 physical strain of the work is not great. 
 
 The miller's shift of twelve hours, day or night, is 
 fixed, as regards the skilled men employed, by the fact 
 that machinery is used which needs comparatively little 
 detailed and constant attention ; in addition, the work is 
 only intermittently severe, the greater part of it is unskilled, 
 and keenly competed for ; and, finally, there is no supple- 
 mentary boy or female labour to bring the mills under the 
 hours regulations of the Factory Acts. Among envelope- 
 makers, on the other hand, these regulations are probably 
 the chief influences determining hours, since women and 
 girls make up by far the larger proportion of those 
 employed. 
 
 Sometimes the hours of minor trades are determined by 
 those of some superior industry. Thus, gilders who, 
 amongst painters, are generally but a small proportion of 
 those employed, conform to the hours worked by the dominant 
 trade. Vellum binders, again, usually form a department of 
 a larger business, and are subordinated to the conditions of 
 the printing trade. They, therefore, failed to obtain an 
 eight-hours' day, which was secured by the leather and 
 
THE HOURS OF LABOUR. 
 
 185 
 
 cloth binders, who work, for the most part, in separate 
 factories, and thus in independence of any allied trade. 
 
 In some outdoor occupations — those of gardeners and 
 riggers of ships, for instance — winter, even more stringently 
 than the strongest organization or the strictest official 
 control, enforces a short working day. In other trades, 
 such as that of the operative masons, though the influence 
 of the seasons is seen in the shorter working day of winter, 
 comparatively short hours are maintained throughout the 
 year by means of effective organization based on the 
 possession of acquired skill. 
 
 Another illustration of the varying circumstances that 
 affect this question of hours is found in the bonded 
 warehouses, in which the eight hours' day of the Customs 
 (from 8 to 4), fixes also the hours of the labourers employed. 
 The same cause affects to some extent the hours worked at 
 the docks. Finally, basket-workers and tank-makers are 
 instances of trades in which there is great independence as 
 to the time worked, with the result that the working week 
 probably does not average more than forty hours. This 
 independence is due to skill and organization combined 
 with piece-work, so that the weekly average varies in these 
 cases not only with the work to be done, but also, in an 
 exceptional degree, according to the inclination of the man. 
 
 These illustrations to some extent explain the fact that 
 the customary working week of London wage-earners 
 varies in length from something under forty to something 
 over one hundred hours. The complexity of the 
 controlling influences and the variety of conditions, point 
 to the probability, almost to the certainty, of per- 
 manent differences in the number of hours worked ; 
 and the anticipation that a day of uniform length for all 
 occupations will be adopted has, it would appear, no 
 solid basis. Uniformity is indeed almost impossible : any 
 expectations we may form and any conclusions we may 
 draw, must be particular to the individual trade, and will 
 
186 
 
 SURVEY AND CONCLUSIONS. 
 
 need constant modification according to its special circum- 
 stances. 
 
 For any given trade there is doubtless a golden mean, 
 the realization of which will be to the best interests of the 
 whole community. The difficulty is to see where this rests. 
 
 Economic efficiency is determined, not simply by the 
 period over which a man works, but also by the intensity 
 of his application, and in every occupation there is a period 
 that is best calculated to secure the greatest return for 
 energy expended. This period undoubtedly varies for 
 different men working even in the same trade and under 
 the same conditions, though for average men, and for an 
 average working life-time, the statement applies to every 
 occupation. But in the endeavour to fix the true point 
 of adjustment, misunderstandings and conflicts frequently 
 arise. Workmen, biassed by the desire for the maximum 
 of remuneration in exchange for a minimum of effort, are 
 inclined to put it too low j employers, thinking rather of the 
 returns of the moment than of the sustained efficiency of 
 their workers, are apt to put it too high. Eecent economic 
 history seems to show, however, that gradually the true 
 mean is being discovered, and probably no race has made 
 greater advance than the Anglo-Saxon in realizing that a 
 shorter working day does not necessarily involve diminished 
 material return. 
 
 The advance, however, has been unequal. In a certain 
 number of trades we may fairly say, that such an adjust- 
 ment has been arrived at as leads neither to the waste of 
 products nor to the degradation of men. But while, in 
 a few cases, the number of hours voluntarily worked is so 
 low as to involve a real material loss and waste, in a 
 considerable number of other trades, the length of the 
 working day is still so excessive as to lead to much 
 personal deterioration — to lower vitality and narrower life, 
 and therefore in the long run to actual economic waste. 
 
THE HOURS OF LABOUR. 
 
 137 
 
 In the case of the joiner, with a weekly wage of 40s, and 
 hours averaging forty-eight per week throughout the year, 
 we may consider that a desirable adjustment has been 
 secured. But on turning to the picture presented by, let 
 us say, the home box-makers, or the cabinet-makers 
 employed in many of the East London workshops, our 
 judgment is reversed. Conditions are felt to be harmful, 
 and we look around for remedies. 
 
 But in this matter several points of view are possible. 
 The individual building-contractor, for instance, may quite 
 honestly hold the opinion that, at 40s, the wages of his 
 joiners are unnecessarily high, and that their work would 
 be economically more effective if they worked fifty-four 
 instead of forty-eight hours ; while the joiners, acquiesc- 
 ing in the forty-eight hour week, may perhaps think that 
 Is instead of 10^ an hour would be no more than fair 
 pay for an efficient man, and do their best to secure it. 
 In such a case, both employers and employed will consider 
 unsatisfactory what we, from a general standpoint, have 
 assumed to be a reasonable and appropriate adjustment. 
 
 We find conflicting opinions even as regards the, 
 irregular spells of work, or the extremely long hours, 
 of the East London cabinet-maker or home-worker. Voices 
 of approval make themselves heard. It may be the 
 wholesale factor who speaks, or the retailer, or the City 
 firm that carries on a profitable export trade in cheap home- 
 made products ; or it may be the consumer, ignorant perhaps 
 of the sources and conditions of supply, who simply thinks 
 well of a market in which cheap goods abound. 
 
 There are at least four points of view from which such 
 questions may be regarded, each selfish in its own way and 
 yet each able to claim a wider justification. The employer 
 finds in profit the basis of industrial stability. The workman 
 rests industrial efficiency, present and future, on the welfare 
 of himself and his family. The merchant claims to work in 
 the interest of the consumer. While the consumer himself, 
 
188 
 
 SURVEY AND CONCLUSIONS. 
 
 with a primary concern for his own pocket, may at the same 
 time claim to safeguard the economic position of the whole 
 community. These points of view are suggested to show 
 the bias by which all in their special capacities are apt to 
 be affected, in spite of the concurrence of the enduring 
 interests of all sections. 
 
 The amount of work done ultimately determines the 
 remuneration which the wage-earner can secure; but 
 his welfare reacts in the long run upon his industrial 
 efficiency ; and to disentangle the consumer from the com- 
 munity, in which he plays many other parts, is not possible. 
 The consciousness of such considerations is, however, 
 seldom strong. " Things are in the saddle, and ride man- 
 kind." It is their own burdens of which men are most 
 conscious, and which, should opportunities offer, they will 
 endeavour to shift to other, and in all probability unknown, 
 shoulders. 
 
 In forming an opinion upon the time conditions of 
 employment, we are tempted to seek for some average, 
 varying perhaps from trade to trade, but giving us an 
 appropriate level for each. The basis of such a calculation 
 will, however, be affected by the particular character- 
 istics of different occupations. It would be reason- 
 able, for instance, that the bricklayer, engaged in the- 
 construction of sewers, should work for shorter hours 
 at the same wage than a brother craftsman working- 
 on a building ; or, to compare unskilled work of different 
 kinds, that the man employed in white lead works should 
 have a shorter day than the labourer who sweeps the 
 streets. 
 
 The point, however, to which we would particularly direct 
 attention, is that, in employments that involve neither great 
 intelligence nor great responsibility, the characteristics 
 summed up in the word intensity do not in themselves 
 enable us to judge as to what a reasonable working 
 
THE HOURS OF LABOUR. 
 
 189 
 
 day would be. In forming an opinion as to reasonable 
 hours for such classes as door-keepers or watchmen — 
 employments which usually involve neither physical nor 
 mental strain, and demand no skill — we are bound to note 
 such considerations as confinement and the simple occupa- 
 tion of the man's time, for, after a certain point, these 
 have as much importance as more positive forms of effort. 
 
 A " fair " day's work must stand in a due relation 
 to the other elements that properly make up a man's life. 
 It is not simply as much as he can do. We must look 
 back from the end of the twenty-four hours, as well as 
 forward from the beginning of the «working-day, in order 
 to judge fairly as to how much time ought to be 
 taken up even in the simplest and least exacting forms of 
 employment. Home, rest, and recreation demand recog- 
 nition, and a not immoderate estimate of their claims 
 leads to the conclusion that even for the easiest tasks, 
 a ten hours' working day on regular employment might 
 be taken as a reasonable maximum. Even in the 
 absence of any quantitative expression, the moral force of 
 the idea of a " living day," analogous to that of a " living 
 wage," might with advantage be brought home to the 
 public mind. For the complete absorption of the life, 
 even with the highest pay, is apt to be as injurious to 
 health and character as the most precarious form of 
 livelihood. 
 
 Even so, a balance must be reached between what a man 
 gives and what he gets. If the duties are easy and the 
 hours not long, unless the place be a matter of privilege, 
 the remuneration will surely be low. 
 
 Such are some of the more general considerations 
 suggested by a survey of the conditions now prevailing 
 in London, but when we contemplate any change in 
 them, another set of considerations springs into promi- 
 nence. We are obliged to ask in the case of any proposal 
 
190 
 
 SURVEY AND CONCLUSIONS. 
 
 for the reduction of hours, what effect its adoption will 
 have on outside competition with London manufacture ; 
 whether, if the London position be weakened, a reduction 
 of wages will be needed, and if needed will be accepted ; 
 or again, what will be the effect on the economic efficiency 
 of the individual workman. 
 
 To such questions very different replies would have to be 
 given in respect to different trades. Even as regards any 
 single trade, the internal opinion is often conflicting, and 
 a sound conclusion can only be reached after a careful 
 examination of the special conditions, both physical and 
 moral, that affect the response in increased efficiency which, 
 the wage-earners concerned may be expected to make. 
 
 With regard to the more personal effect of a reduction 
 of hours that does not impair the chances of employment, 
 the whole question of hours derives its importance from 
 the assumption that greater leisure will be advantageous to 
 the individual worker. 
 
 This assumption in any particular case may clearly be as 
 false as the belief that because a man can earn more money 
 he is therefore certain to be in a better material position, for 
 time and money can be squandered with equal ease. In 
 spite, however, of the waste of leisure that is witnessed on 
 every hand, the common claim for a greater share of it is 
 justified by the great balance of advantages that it tends 
 to secure. An increasingly urgent demand has therefore 
 arisen for a greater margin of leisure available for the 
 home, and for all that rounds life off, and makes it a- 
 completer thing — a demand urged not only on behalf of the 
 artisan and mechanic, who in many trades are well situated 
 in this respect, but for all whose industrial position unduly 
 narrows life and makes it run too completely in the grooves 
 of their daily work. 
 
 But if good rather than harm is to result, steps towards 
 improvement, as in the past, must ever be tentative and 
 
THE HOURS OF LABOUR. 
 
 191 
 
 experimental. In certain cases of flagrant excess, as in 
 that of many female shop-assistants, the community, acting 
 if need be through Government, might tilt almost blindfold 
 against abuses that exist, and rest assured that the physical 
 and moral gain would more than counterbalance any 
 temporary dislocation of some particular trade. But as 
 a rule it is safer to follow an opposite method and make 
 careful calculation of all the consequences of change. 
 
 Up to the present time, however, there seems to be 
 little risk of a too hasty advance, and the national caution, 
 here as in other matters that involve economic considera- 
 tions, is showing itself in a national deliberateness. 
 
 One great hindrance will have been removed when the 
 lesson of the elasticity of the power of human response has 
 been fully learnt ; when it is realized, for instance, that, 
 even with machinery, while its speed and capacity remain 
 the same, output may often be maintained though hours be 
 diminished ; for in factories, in which the operative is 
 sometimes regarded as of secondary importance to the 
 machine, this "reserve of personal efficiency," to quote 
 Mr. Rae's phrase, will tell ; while in the case of all skilled 
 labour, in which machinery plays no part, the possible 
 effects of this subtle, unknown, and often unexpected 
 expansion of individual power, may be important beyond 
 measure. Few more fatal fallacies have hindered the path 
 of industrial reform than the superficial assumption, happily 
 dying, that return can be safely measured in terms of the 
 hours of employment. 
 
 But, on the other hand, there is great difficulty in esti- 
 mating the effect of improved time conditions over long 
 periods. A shorter working day is calculated to act at 
 first as a stimulus upon the energies of the operative, but 
 impulses of this nature are rarely of sustained strength. 
 Whether such effects will last depends on the use to which 
 the increased leisure is put ; on the interest of the operative 
 in maintaining the new order of things ; and on the strict- 
 
192 
 
 SURVEY AND CONCLUSIONS. 
 
 ness, and it may be the increased strictness, of superin- 
 tendence. 
 
 In the case of overtime we find the obverse of this 
 picture, and many employers, while accepting the neces- 
 sity of occasional spells of it, are strongly opposed to its 
 more prolonged use. They find that " it does not really 
 pay ; " that after a very short time " the extra hour you 
 get at night is taken off the next morning ; " and that you 
 " do not get a consistent extra for the extra hours, even 
 on machines, although they depend less on the physical 
 state of the man." 
 
 Overtime may, therefore, ultimately involve economic 
 waste, and shorter hours economic gain. Success or 
 failure for employers or employed and the likelihood of the 
 continued adoption of any change introduced, will thus 
 greatly depend on maintaining the previous measure of 
 efficiency. 
 
 A discussion of proposals made with a view of securing 
 shorter hours by governmental action opens up too wide a 
 subject to be fully discussed here. We may note, however, 
 that two broad questions are involved, the one connected 
 with the economic characteristics of particular trades, the 
 other rather with the personal characteristics of the workers. 
 
 Of these questions the former would demand much the 
 same analysis wherever the trade might be located ; since 
 it would always be necessary to consider such points as the 
 character of the work, the relation to other markets, the 
 available machinery for enforcing regulations, and the effect 
 on expenses of production, as well as on the position of 
 subsidiary or allied trades. Apart, however, from such 
 economic points, there are others which call for special 
 consideration as regards London. 
 
 The extent to which legal enforcement is possible depends 
 everywhere very largely upon the personal element involved. 
 If the individual members of a trade are " solid" with regard 
 
THE HOURS OF LABOUR. 
 
 195 
 
 to some particular observance, the difficulties of working any 
 compulsory rule are either insurmountable, if the men are 
 solidly adverse, or simplicity itself, if they are solidly 
 favourable. Rarely, however, is there any such consensus 
 of opinion. In this, as in other connections, from varia- 
 tions in temperament, in physique, in family, or from other 
 causes, the personal equation has many values. 
 
 The difficulty of enforcing uniformity of conditions, 
 therefore, is considerable, even in highly centralized, well- 
 organized trades, carried on under the large system of 
 production; but in London — that congeries of unknown 
 millions, and home of a multitude of small industries — 
 it is vastly greater. Even should the prescribed day be 
 apparently observed, difficulty in enforcement might 
 still sometimes arise, for the practice of working for two 
 employers is not unknown. Among printers' warehouse- 
 men, labourers, and machinists, the practice of working 
 at night for a second master is not uncommon ; and 
 complaints, of a similar "unfair " prolongation of the day's 
 work are made among the zinc-workers. But the evasion, 
 of the normal day takes place more often through the 
 medium of home employment : the carpenter and joiner 
 " with his bench in his back kitchen " is said to be a great 
 offender in this respect ; and among the glass painters, 
 including even those who have permanent situations at 
 high wages, a similar charge is made against men who 
 tout for work to do at home, after having had a day's 
 employment in a shop. Whether greed or the most 
 devoted sacrifice be the motive, the practical difficulties of 
 checking such practices remain to a great extent the same, 
 while in the latter event the case in favour of interference 
 loses whatever ground it might otherwise possess. 
 
 Putting strictly economic considerations on one side,, 
 the strength of the obstacles to be overcome by the advo- 
 cates of legislative interference will be determined largely 
 by the trend of public feeling; but the existence of a- 
 v 13 
 
194 
 
 SURVEY AND CONCLUSIONS. 
 
 strong trade opinion is probably a factor of almost equal 
 importance. At present, however, the public voice is 
 uncertain, while the trade voice is often either inarticulate 
 or discordant or unstable. 
 
 Incidental reference has been already made to the 
 question of overtime, and in some trades it is this question, 
 rather than that of the length of the regular working day, 
 that is uppermost. Especially is this so when no extra 
 rates are paid, when the overtime is not merely periodically 
 excessive, but systematic, and when therefore the regula- 
 tion day tends to be practically unrecognized. Except in 
 these more systematic forms, overtime may be regarded as 
 one of the numerous effects of irregularity in the volume of 
 trade. 
 
 It is worthy of note that the allied ideas of Irregular 
 Employment and Overtime are now more constantly before 
 the public mind than they have been at any previous 
 period. The recurring problem of unemployment is, in 
 fact, only an extension of that of irregularity, while the 
 idea of overtime has been made more definite by the 
 regulations of the Factory Acts and the action of trade 
 unions. 
 
 The meaning of overtime varies from trade to trade, and 
 from decade to decade ; and needs the correlative idea of 
 a recognized working day, to give it any approach to an 
 exact value. With many occupations the idea has no 
 meaning. To the peasant proprietor of the Swiss valleys, 
 sharing in its communal rights, it is unknown ; in the 
 summer he works from the early morning till long after 
 full daylight fails, but the hours for him are simply a day 
 of prolonged and probably willing labour : it is life to him 
 to tend his crops ; and the safe ingathering of the harvest, 
 no matter how laborious the task, is his great reward. But 
 the idea of overtime is hardly more foreign to his mind 
 than to that of the London omnibus driver, who prefers to 
 
THE HOURS OF LABOUR. 
 
 195 
 
 work for days of fifteen hours instead of twelve, and to 
 have more money or be able to take a larger number of 
 occasional holidays, than to work more uniformly for the 
 shorter day. Again, in the case of the more hardly 
 placed East London home-workers — the slipper-maker, for 
 instance, who in the busy season works for thirteen or 
 fourteen hours, " which is not considered long in our 
 trade " — we have a class of workers who are similarly free 
 from any idea that they are working overtime. 
 
 The term seems, in short, to imply one or both of two 
 things : in all cases regulation, either official or customary, 
 of the length of the regular day ; and sometimes also, 
 should longer hours be worked, differing rates of pay. 
 In the case of the female factory hand, working a pre- 
 scribed excess on a certain number of days, we have 
 a concrete case of overtime, with its limits clearly defined 
 by Act of Parliament, — and meaning in this country, it 
 may be noted, different things during different periods of 
 the present century. In the case of the operative mason, 
 again, with a strong trade union and a forty- eight hours 
 normal working week, and with increased rates of pay for 
 all extra time, we have an example of overtime defined in 
 the minds of the members of this trade according to the 
 understanding arrived at between their trade society and 
 the employers' association. 
 
 The problem of overtime is therefore closely connected 
 with the larger question of the length of the working day. 
 Most of the points raised by its discussion, such as the 
 effect on the individual and on the output, have their 
 corresponding place in any consideration of the hours 
 worked in any trade. 
 
 From one point of view, however, the question of over- 
 time requires separate treatment. The length of the 
 working day, whether long or short, is assumed to 
 be something fixed. Overtime, on the other hand, is an 
 expedient by which variation in the working day is made 
 v 13 * 
 
190 
 
 SURVEY AND CONCLUSIONS. 
 
 possible to suit certain contingencies, and it is on the 
 nature of these contingencies that its reasonableness or 
 unreasonableness depends. It may be noted that so 
 far as the extent of the irregularity of work depends on 
 the capacity and forethought of employers or their 
 deputies, the resource of overtime will find an automatic 
 check against abuse in all those cases in which special 
 overtime rates are paid. 
 
 When the volume of work varies necessarily, the 
 objection to overtime becomes more problematic, and the 
 policy of those organized bodies of workmen who aim at 
 its complete elimination is in such cases very questionable. 
 The Trade Union opposition to the practice is largely 
 explained, as is often also the advocacy of an eight hours' 
 day, by the desire to secure a more equal apportionment 
 of work among all members of a trade. But, since in 
 many occupations a certain fluctuation in the volume of 
 employment cannot be avoided, it follows that either 
 additional labour must from time to time be requisitioned 
 or extra hours must be worked. If, therefore, overtime 
 be discountenanced, additional workers must be engaged 
 during these unavoidable periods of great pressure, and 
 as a further result the number of those intermittently 
 employed will be increased. For all who are employed 
 only during the busier season, since they are likely to 
 be the less competent, will be unemployed, so far as this 
 trade is concerned, during other periods of the year. 
 Their industrial tenure will be necessarily insecure, and 
 a hard-and-fast rule forbidding overtime, although it 
 might seem to share the work among a larger number 
 of men, might under such circumstances indirectly lead 
 to the permanent degradation of those who, if the hours 
 of employment had been more elastic, would have 
 been prevented from picking up this temporary and pre- 
 carious livelihood. It does not follow that the position 
 of the discarded men would have been bettered, but 
 
THE HOURS OF LABOUR. 
 
 197 
 
 any trade arrangements that facilitate, and perhaps even 
 make necessary, the existence of a body of hangers-on who 
 cannot hope to secure regular and decent wages, must be 
 harmful in the long run both to the trade of which they 
 may be regarded, as the industrial camp followers, and also 
 to themselves. 
 
 This argument applies only to those trades in which the 
 requirements of additional labour necessarily vary, but in 
 which the variations do not involve injuriously excessive 
 application, which cannot be reasonably balanced by holidays 
 in slack times ; it leaves unweakened the widespread opposi- 
 tion to systematic overtime. It serves, however, to show 
 that overtime, under certain conditions, may have real 
 utility, and that opposition to it may be shortsighted and 
 unreasonable. For by it the field of employment in 
 any trade may be made desirably elastic ; and besides 
 diminishing the danger of increasing the number of the 
 casually employed, it may provide opportunities of making 
 up for the short time to which even those in fairly regular 
 work are, in the great majority of trades, liable at some 
 period of the year. 
 
 The rigid elimination of overtime, like the strict enforce- 
 ment of an eight hours' day, might for a time, under certain 
 circumstances, absorb some proportion of the unemployed, 
 but such methods can have no permanent value as a solu- 
 tion of the difficulties of unemployment, except on the 
 assumption that they will be followed by a greater moral 
 restraint and general foresight. 
 
 The extent to which overtime aids in securing continuous 
 employment largely determines the opinion with which we 
 regard it. In connection with both overtime and the hours 
 of labour, however, there is another and deeper considera- 
 tion in their effects on the larger question of sustained, 
 life-efficiency. 
 
 But this consideration is frequently lost sight of by 
 
198 
 
 SURVEY AND CONCLUSIONS. 
 
 the actual parties to a contract for the employment of 
 labour. The present and the immediate future absorb 
 attention : on the one side perhaps the wife to be won, 
 or the home to be kept together ; on the other success 
 to be achieved, or the disgrace of bankruptcy to be 
 averted. These and similar disturbing forces press upon 
 the individual, limiting his freedom, dictating the con- 
 ditions of his industrial life, and distorting his judgment. 
 It is the more necessary, therefore, to keep steadily in 
 view the main industrial object of securing that desirable 
 combination of hours and work which, without sacrificing 
 private life, secures the most capable, willing, and effective 
 service. From the limited points of view of the individual 
 operative or employer, excessive toil may seem to be con- 
 sistent with, and even necessary to, their more immediate 
 objects, but since excess implies some subsequent form of 
 deterioration, it can rarely be compatible with the interests 
 of the community at large. 
 
 Hospitals, for instance, require the services of nurses for 
 a few years only, and the supply of new probationers is 
 abundant, but it can hardly be doubted that the long hours 
 exacted during the period of training are injurious to 
 after-vigour of mind and body. And thus, though the 
 hospitals themselves may be well and economically served, 
 the nurses, and ultimately the community as a whole, pay 
 the penalty. 
 
 It may, however, be asked whether the excessive labour 
 of some one class may not lead permanently to a greater 
 productive efficiency for the community than could other- 
 wise be secured. 
 
 It is quite possible to imagine conditions under which 
 the loafing and the vicious might, if isolated, and treated 
 like the galley slaves of the Middle Ages, be more useful as 
 over-worked men than if they worked under easier condi- 
 tions, and no public loss even if worked to death. But the 
 moral effect on the community, though it were able to 
 
THE HOURS OF LABOUR. 
 
 190" 
 
 regard tliis severe lot in the light of deterrent punishment, 
 could hardly fail to be bad. In a minor degree such 
 discipline might seem desirable in many cases, but amongst 
 us no such segregation is possible. The willing and the 
 idle, the over-worked and the under-worked, jostle in the 
 same crowd, live in the same street, and move in the same 
 civic life ; all alike in their own ways exert their measure 
 of influence, and all alike beget children. It is thus 
 inevitable that the whole community should suffer from 
 the deterioration of any section ; from this there is no 
 escape. In the social state, no man or woman, however 
 lonely, stands apart, and later generations, if not we 
 ourselves, will suffer from the effects of every form of 
 present degradation. 
 
 The form of degradation that follows from excessive 
 hours of labour takes different shapes. It may even be 
 compatible with regular work, good wages, and abundant 
 food ; for too long hours tend to create a mechanical and 
 absorbed mind, indifferent alike to home and to the wider 
 interests of life. Such degradation is perhaps undetected, 
 and is the more subtle because more self-absorbing than 
 the extremer forms of the same evil. It may not involve 
 as great economic or physical evils, but its moral effects 
 are hardly less regrettable and sinister. 
 
 In spite, however, of much excess — some working-days 
 robbing toil of all tranquility, and others rather inducing- 
 a kind of tranquility that is almost the negation of life — ■ 
 recent tendencies give undoubted indications of improve- 
 ment. Of these, perhaps most important of all, are the 
 signs that the point of view of a large and influential 
 section of the community is changing, and becoming at 
 once more enlightened and more sympathetic. We art? 
 already a stage beyond the mere recognition of the need 
 to live. The modern world is ready, not only to see the 
 necessity of life, but of a life worth living. 
 
200 
 
 SURVEY AND CONCLUSIONS. 
 
 On examination, we find that almost every social and 
 economic question, including this of the hours of labour, 
 derives its ultimate practical importance from a more 
 widely spread and more human care for the individual life ; 
 John Smith, "fit" or "unfit," with Mary his wife and 
 their family of youug children — their labour and their 
 life — are seen to be the final cause of the present inquirv. 
 But when we thus reach the individual, we reach also our 
 dilemma. John Smith is a " free " man, and so also is 
 his employer, and it is perhaps the highest social aim to 
 realize, maintain, and develop the freedom of both, in their 
 mutual as in all other relationships. If therefore it suits 
 the one and seems to suit the other, or if the workman 
 sees no other road open to him but to accept excessive 
 hours of work, in what directions can we look for the 
 solution of the difficulty in which he plunges himself? 
 Many are impatient of patience, and the claims of slow 
 methods of improvement are apt to elicit a chill response. 
 Nevertheless, it is upon them that progress must mainly 
 rely. 
 
APPENDIX TO CHAPTER VII. 
 
 4 
 
 SUMMARY 
 
 OF 
 
 HOURS OF WORK, OVERTIME, AND PRINCIPAL METHODS OF 
 REMUNERATION IN LONDON TRADES. 
 
 (A) TRADES WORKING 48 HOURS OR LESS PER WEEK. 
 
 Trade 
 Group. 
 
 Occupation. 
 
 Recog- 
 nized 
 Hours. 
 
 Remarks. 
 
 Method 
 of Remun- 
 eration. 
 
 Overtime, &c. 
 
 BUILDING" 
 Vol. I., 
 p. 170. 
 
 
 421—47 
 
 Winter — summer 
 Making yearly average 
 
 of 46 hours per week. 
 
 Work begins 7 a.m. 
 
 Hour 
 
 Overtime reduced 
 since 1892. 
 
 8 — 11 p.m., time and 
 half rate. 11 — 7 a.m., 
 double time rate 
 
 WOOD- 
 WORKERS. 
 Vol. I., p. 190, 257, 
 271. 
 
 Wood carvers... 
 
 Dock-coopers ... 
 Shipwrights ... 
 
 48 
 
 42 —48 
 44J-51 
 
 In best shops. Else- 
 where same as cabi- 
 net-makers 
 
 Winter — summer 
 
 6.30 a.m. — 5 p.m. .sum- 
 mer. Daylight to 
 dark, winter 
 
 Hour 
 
 Week 
 
 Piece (a 
 few on 
 day work) 
 
 
 SUNDRY 
 MANUF. 
 Vol. IL, 
 p. 80. 
 
 Stained-glass 
 painters 
 
 44—48 
 
 Some work 54 hours 
 
 Week 
 
 
 1* 
 
 5 
 
 « o 
 Ph > 
 
 Bookbinders ... 
 
 Book-edge gild- 
 ers 
 
 48 
 
 48 
 48 
 
 Begin 8—9 a.m. End 
 6.30—7.30 p.m. 
 
 Obtained after few 
 hours' strike 
 
 54 hours when work- 
 ing at a printer's 
 
 Week 
 and 
 piece 
 
 Week 
 
 Week 
 
 Overtime at time and 
 quarter after 54 
 hours. Little since 
 1892 
 
 Short time usual when 
 slack 
 
 
 TEXTILES. 
 Vol. II.. 
 p. 342. 
 
 Mat-makers ... 
 
 
 
 48 
 
 Average does not ex- 
 ceed 30. Work inter- 
 mittent 
 
 Piece 
 
 
202 SURVEY AND CONCLUSIONS. 
 
 Trades working 48 hours or less per week (continued): — 
 
 Trade 
 Group. 
 
 Occupation. 
 
 Recog- 
 nized 
 Hours. 
 
 Remarks. 
 
 Method 
 of Remun- 
 eration. 
 
 Overtime. &c. 
 
 DRESS. 
 Vol. HI. 
 p. 63. VoT. 
 IV., p. 294. 
 
 Feather-curlers 
 
 48 
 
 9 a.m. — 7 p.m. on week 
 days ; 3 p.m. Satur- 
 days 
 
 Week 
 
 Overtime after 7 p.m. 
 
 PUBLIC SERVICE 
 
 -AND PROFES- 
 SIONAL. Vol. IV., 
 pp 32, 112, 127. 
 
 Sewer-flushers . 
 
 TT.n rrvi vpvc ( oC\T\- 
 
 per plate) 
 Engravers (wood) 
 
 Scene-painters . 
 
 (average) 
 
 45 
 42 —48 J 
 
 42—48 ( 
 45—51 
 
 Seldom exceed 50 
 
 Hours irregular, espec- 
 ially when working 
 in employer's room 
 
 10 a.m. to 7 or 8 p.m. 
 
 Week 
 
 Piece 
 
 Piece (a 
 few by 
 the hour) 
 
 Week 
 
 
 (B) TRADES WORKING OVER 48 AND UNDER 54 HOURS 
 
 PER WEEK. 
 
 f Overtime much re- 
 duced since 1892. ex- 
 cept for those engaged 
 in painting and white - 
 
 I washing 
 
 Overtime rates are 
 
 ! 4.30 or 5 — 8 p.m. at 
 time and a quarter, 
 8 — 10 p.m. at time and 
 a half. After 10 pm. 
 at double time Extra 
 pay for work on 
 Saturday afternoon 
 and on Sundays 
 
 Overtime very excep- 
 tional. Suppressed 
 by Trade Society 
 
 Men paid every night. 
 More short time than 
 overtime 
 
 DO gf 
 
 c r 
 £ 2 
 o 
 
 Clerks of works 
 
 Bricklayers 
 
 Masons 
 
 Plasterers 
 
 Carpenters and 
 joiners 
 
 Painters and 
 glaziers 
 
 Gas-fitters 
 
 Scaffolders 
 
 Labourers 
 
 Smiths and fit- 
 ters (builders). 
 
 Marble-masons 
 and polishers . 
 
 Cabinet-makers 
 
 Carvers and 
 gilders 
 
 Upholsterers ... 
 
 Mattress and 
 palliasse-makers 
 
 Brewers' and 
 other tight 
 coopers 
 
 Riggers 
 
 47—50 f 
 
 52—54 
 
 52—56 
 52J-531 
 
 52—56 
 52£ 
 
 51 
 51 
 
 Winter — summer 
 Hours fixed for all 
 sections of the build- 
 ing trades except 
 plumbers, by agree- 
 ment of 1892 
 Average hours for the 
 year, 48J. Work 
 begins 6.30 or 7 a.m. 
 Much variation in 
 hours of painters 
 
 Usually 52^ or 54 
 
 Men on common frames 
 work 54 to 60 hours 
 and are piece-workers 
 
 Time seldom kept, ex- 
 cept when busy 
 
 Start in summer at 
 
 7 a.m. and winter at 
 
 8 a.m. Saturdays at 
 6 a.m. 
 
 Start 7 a.m. 
 
 Week 
 Hour 
 
 Hour 
 and piec 
 
 Hour 
 and piec 
 
 Hour 
 and piec 
 
 Mostly 
 piece 
 
 Piece (a 
 few d&y 
 work) 
 
 Day 
 
SUMMARY OF HOURS OF WORK, ETC. 203 
 Trades working over 48 and under 54 hours per week (continued) : — 
 
 Occupation. 
 
 Tank-makers or 
 rivetters 
 Cutlers 
 
 Brass-workers . 
 
 Tin and iron- 
 plate workers . 
 
 Tin-canister 
 makers 
 
 Jewellers and 
 goldsmiths 
 
 Silversmiths ... 
 
 Billiard-table 
 
 makers 
 
 Glass-makers . 
 Match-makers . 
 
 Curriers 
 
 Fur-skin dress- 
 ers 
 
 Brush-makers . 
 
 .Recog- 
 nized 
 Hours. 
 
 Litfho artists ... 
 Paper-stainers . 
 
 Bill-posters ... 
 Sandwich men . 
 
 54 
 52 
 
 50—54 
 
 50— 54 
 
 51— 56 
 
 50 
 
 50—52 
 
 514 
 
 48—56 
 52—56 
 
 48—54 
 
 521-54J 
 
 48—54 
 
 Remarks. 
 
 About 40 hours actu- 
 ally worked 
 
 54 regarded by union 
 as maximum 
 
 Start at 6 a.m. in ship- 
 ping and 8 to 10 a.m. 
 in general branches 
 
 Reduced from 56 by 
 trade union action 
 
 In some cases 56. Best 
 piece hands do their 
 work betweenTuesday 
 and Friday night 
 
 Begin 9 a.m. 
 
 48 hours in large fac- 
 tories 
 
 Begin at 8 a.m. in 
 winter and 6 a.m. in 
 summer 
 
 Unhairers start at 
 8 a.m. 
 
 Factories open about 
 8 or 9 hours per day 
 
 53—54 
 52—56 
 
 52—56 
 51—57 
 
 Some only work 44 
 hours 
 
 Block-printers seldom 
 exceed 48—50 hours 
 
 Start 7 or 8 a.m. 
 Start 8.30 a.m. 
 
 Method 
 of Remun- 
 eration. 
 
 Piece 
 Hour 
 
 Hour 
 
 and piece 
 
 Hour 
 and piece 
 
 Piece 
 
 Hour 
 and piece 
 
 Hour 
 
 and piece 
 
 Hour 
 
 and piece 
 
 Piece 
 
 Men by 
 week ; 
 »irls piece 
 
 Week 
 and piece 
 
 Piece 
 (dyers by 
 week) 
 
 Piece 
 
 Week 
 
 Piece 
 (machine 
 workers 
 by week) 
 
 Week 
 
 Bay 
 
 Overtime, &c. 
 
 Extra pressure at 
 Christmas 
 
 Overtime exceptional ; 
 short time proverbial 
 
 Marked decrease in 
 amount of overtime 
 
 A great deal of over- 
 time when busy, bal- 
 anced by short time 
 when slack 
 
 Shavers begin later, but 
 may not finish before 
 10 or 11 p.m. 
 
 Work intermittent 
 
 Overtime in busy sea- 
 son 
 
 Machine printers may 
 work 70 hours when 
 busy 
 
 Overtime after 6 p.m. ; 
 2d per hour ^^^^^ 
 
204 SURVEY AND CONCLUSIONS. 
 
 Trades working over 48 and under 54 hours per week (continued): — 
 
 Trade 
 Group. 
 
 Occupation. 
 
 Recog- 
 nized 
 Hours. 
 
 Remarks. 
 
 Method 
 of Remun- 
 eration. 
 
 Overtime, &c. 
 
 TEXTILES. 
 
 Vol IT., 
 pp. 315, 346. 
 
 Pattern tracers 
 Bass-dressers... 
 
 48—54 
 
 (about) 
 52 
 
 
 Week 
 Piece 
 
 Much overtime in busy 
 seasons 
 
 Full time seldom 
 worked 
 
 DRESS. 
 
 Vol. TIL, pp. 59, 61, 62, 68, 30, 33. 
 Also Vol. IV., pp. 266-8. 
 
 Trimming 
 weavers and 
 spinners 
 
 Artificial-flower 
 makers 
 
 Umbrella-frame 
 makers and 
 machinists 
 
 Drapers' whole- 
 sale salesmen 
 
 Silk-hatters ... 
 Felt-hatters ... 
 
 5LJ— 53J 
 
 52|— 55 
 
 40— 52£ 
 45—61 
 
 49—59 
 49—54 
 
 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. 1J 
 hours for meals 
 
 Men work 60 hours, ac- 
 cording to Board of 
 Trade return 
 
 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. or 
 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. 
 
 These hours represent 
 the two extremes. 
 9 a.m. to 5 or 6 p.m. 
 
 m vvinfpv JinrI till 7 nv 
 
 AUL 1> llllt 1 , ill l\A till | \JL 
 
 8 p.m. in summer 
 
 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Jan- 
 uary — July. 9 a.m. 
 to 6 p.m. July — 
 December 
 
 A nominal 9 hours day 
 
 Weavers 
 piece ; 
 spinners 
 by week 
 
 Piece(few 
 by week) 
 
 Week 
 and piece 
 
 Yearly 
 salary, 
 board 
 and 
 lodging 
 
 Piece 
 Piece 
 
 Hours given include 
 meal times. March 
 very busy — meals 
 taken at work. Hours 
 under 48 in slack 
 time 
 
 FOOD AND 
 DRINK. 
 Vol. IV.. p. 224. 
 Vol III , p. 208. 
 
 Tobacco workers 
 
 Fish - salesmen 
 (wholesale) 
 
 50 
 
 4R ^4 
 
 ^tO 1)1 
 
 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Half 
 day on Saturday 
 
 5 a.m. to 1 or 2 p.m. 
 Not much work after 
 9 a.m. 
 
 Week 
 and piece 
 
 Week 
 
 
 LOCO 
 MOTION.&c. 
 Vol. HI., 
 p. 353 
 
 Gardeners 
 (County Coun- 
 cil) 
 
 48—54 
 
 Winter — summer 
 
 Week 
 
 
SUMMARY OF HOURS OF WORK, ETC. 205 
 
 Trades working over 48 and under 54 hours 'per week (continued):-— 
 
 Trade 
 Group. 
 
 Occupation. 
 
 Recog- 
 nized 
 Hours. 
 
 Remarks. 
 
 Method 
 of Remun- 
 eration. 
 
 Overtime, &c. 
 
 CO 
 CO 
 
 "* 
 
 >-) o> 
 
 c M 
 
 « s* 
 <j & 
 
 o 
 
 > 
 
 Dock officials.. 
 
 Warehousemen 
 (bonded) 
 
 Coal-porters ... 
 
 48—54 
 45—51 
 
 48—54 
 
 8 a.m. — 4.30 p.m. 
 summer. 9 a.m. 
 — 4.30 p.m. winter 
 
 Winter — summer. 
 
 Average 9 hours per 
 day, but much longer 
 when unloading ships 
 
 Week 
 Week 
 
 Piece 
 
 No pay for overtime, 
 but time off allowed in 
 compensation 
 
 40 hours when slack to 
 68 when busy. Extra 
 pay given by employ- 
 ers to officials 
 
 j PUBLIC, PROFES- 
 SIONAL, AND OTHER 
 SERVICE. 
 1 Vol. IV., pp. 84, 116, 245. 
 
 Artificial - teeth 
 makers 
 
 Photographers . 
 Park-attendants 
 
 48J-51 
 
 51—54 
 
 (Average) 
 52^ 
 
 8 or 8.30 a.m. to 6 p.m. 
 Saturdays 2 p.m. 
 
 8 a.mto 6.30 or 7 p.m. 
 \\ hours for meals 
 
 48 hours per week from 
 November to Feb- 
 ruary. 54 for rest of 
 year 
 
 Week 
 Week 
 Week 
 
 Overtime about 6 hours 
 
 per week throughout 
 
 the year 
 In studios 52-60 hours 
 
 usual, and sometimes 
 
 part of Sunday 
 Overtime rates from 
 
 Qd to l^d per hour 
 
 (C) TRADES WORKING 54 AND UNDER 60 HOURS PER WEEK. 
 
 
 Slaters and 
 tilers 
 
 56i 
 
 One witness says 55^ 
 hours 
 
 Hour 
 
 Some overtime, but no 
 special rates 
 
 WOOD WORKERS. 
 1 Vol. L, pp. 1S5, ISS, 193, 204. 212. 
 
 French - polish- 
 ers 
 
 Glass-bevellers. 
 
 55£ 
 
 54 
 
 52—58 
 56* 
 56£ 
 
 60 
 
 Reduced to 52J when 
 working with Build- 
 ing Trades 
 
 All grades included 
 
 usual in picture- 
 frame shops 
 
 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., and till 
 2 p.m. on Saturdays 
 
 Start work 6 a.m. 
 
 Hours irregular. Men 
 seldom start before 
 9 a.m. 
 
 Hour 
 
 Piece and 
 hour 
 
 Hour 
 Piece 
 Hour 
 
 Piece 
 
 Time and a quarter for 
 first 2 hours. Time 
 and a half for second 
 2 hours. Double rates 
 for over 4 hours 
 
 Box-makers ... 
 
 Packing-case 
 makers 
 
 Basket-makers . 
 
206 SURVEY AND CONCLUSIONS. 
 
 Trades working 54 and under 60 hours per week (continued): — 
 
 Occupation. 
 
 Recog- 
 nized 
 Hours. 
 
 Remarks. 
 
 Method 
 of Remun- 
 eration. 
 
 Overtime, &c. 
 
 Bamboo and 
 cane workers 
 
 59 
 
 Wood-choppers. I 56 — 57 
 
 Van -builders.... 
 
 Sail-makers 
 
 Engineers, &c. . 
 
 Gas-meter 
 
 makers 
 Boiler - makers 
 
 and iron-ship 
 
 builders 
 
 Farriers 
 
 Iron-founders. 
 
 Iron-safe 
 makers 
 
 54 
 
 7 a.m. to 
 factories 
 
 Coach-builders . j 54 — 55^ 
 
 Lath-renders ... j 56 — 57 
 
 Barge-builders . I 54 
 
 I 
 
 Mast and block I 51—57 
 makers 
 
 54 
 
 54 
 
 54 
 54 
 
 54—61 
 
 54 
 
 54 
 
 p.m. in 
 
 but 
 
 Nominally fixed, 
 very irregular in 
 practice 
 
 6 a.m. to 5 p.m., or 
 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. 
 
 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. ; 2 p.m. 
 
 on Saturdays. 2 hours 
 for meals 
 
 Winter — summer. 
 Winter, November 1 
 — February L4 
 
 Work very irregular 
 
 6 a.m. to 5 p.m. 1p.m. 
 
 on Saturdays. Hours 
 rather longer in Rail- 
 way shops 
 
 These hours are for 
 omnibus and tram- 
 yards. Ordinary for- 
 ges start 6 a.m. and 
 go on till finished 
 
 Nominal. Average pro- 
 bably under 50 hours 
 
 Piece (a 
 few by | 
 week) 
 
 Piece 
 
 Piece 
 and time 
 
 Piece 
 
 Piece 
 Day 
 
 Day 
 Piece 
 
 Very long 
 times 
 
 hours at 
 
 Mainly 
 by week 
 — some 
 piece 
 
 Piece 
 
 Day 
 and 
 piece 
 
 Day 
 and 
 piece 
 
 Week 
 
 Piece 
 
 Long hours more com- 
 mon with small than 
 with large employers, 
 especially in busy 
 summer months 
 
 Overtime rate, 10$d. 
 Very little worked 
 
 Time and a quarter 
 first 2 hours. Time 
 and a half aftersvards. 
 But little overtime 
 now worked 
 
 Double rates (Is &d) 
 after 5 p.m. 24 — 30 
 hours at a stretch 
 permissible on ship 
 repairs under Union 
 rules 
 
 9 to 9i hours a normal 
 day 
 
 Overtime at customary 
 extra rates 
 
 Overtime unknown, 
 except when fixing 
 safes at a bank 
 
SUMMARY OF HOURS OF WORK, ETC. 207 
 Tradps working 54 and under 60 hours per week {continued)-. — 
 
 Occupation. 
 
 Type-founders . 
 
 Brass-founders 
 Brass-finishers , 
 
 Coppersmiths . . , 
 
 Pewterers 
 
 Wire- workers... 
 
 Clock-makers... 
 
 Philosophical 
 Instrument 
 makers 
 
 Surgical Instru- 
 ment makers . 
 
 Electric light- 
 ing workers 
 
 Pianoforte 
 makers 
 
 Harmonium 
 and American 
 organ makers 
 
 Cricket-ball 
 makers 
 
 Other makers of 
 games' mate- 
 rials 
 
 Tobacco pipes 
 (briar) makers 
 
 Stained-glass 
 
 glaziers 
 Earthenware 
 
 throwers and 
 
 moulders 
 Kiln-setters ... 
 
 Ked-potters ... 
 Chemical work- 
 
 Recog- 
 nized 
 Hours. 
 
 54 
 
 54 
 54 
 
 54 
 
 54— 58 
 
 55— 60 
 
 Remarks 
 
 Method 
 of Remun- 
 eration. 
 
 54 
 54—60 
 
 52—581 
 
 54—56 
 
 54—56 
 
 54—56 
 
 56 
 
 (about) 
 56 
 
 (about) 
 55 
 
 One firm works 48 
 
 Task qualification for 
 moulders 
 
 Irregular, except in 
 railway shops 
 
 Usually start 8 a.m. 
 
 Averages shown by 
 
 wages' returns 
 8 hour shifts for 
 
 engine-room staff 
 48 in large firms in 
 
 sur*mer 
 
 Hour, 
 week, or 
 piece 
 
 Hour 
 
 Hour or 
 piece 
 
 Hour or 
 day 
 
 Week 
 and piece 
 
 Piece 
 
 Overtime, &c. 
 
 (about) 
 54 
 56—60 
 
 .30 a.m. to 8 p.m. 
 
 Standard hours, but 
 not well kept 
 
 Hour 
 
 Hour 
 and piece 
 
 Week 
 
 Week 
 
 Piece 
 
 Time 
 and piece 
 
 Piece 
 
 Overtime the rule 
 
 Much overtime for 
 some men 
 
 Work until 10 or mid- 
 night when busy 
 iavoured by men 
 
 Overtime 
 busy 
 
 (irregular) Dependent on cooling 
 of kilns 
 
 56 
 54—56 
 
 Week 
 Piece 
 
 Piece 
 
 Piece 
 
 Hour 
 or week 
 
 when very 
 
 20 or even 30 hours' 
 
 overtime when busy. 
 Two shifts sometimes 
 worked 
 
2C3 SURVEY AND CONCLUSIONS. 
 
 Trades working 54 and under 60 hours per week (continued): — 
 
 Occupation. 
 
 Recog- 
 nized 
 Hours. 
 
 Remarks. 
 
 Method 
 of Remun- 
 eration. 
 
 Overtime, &c. 
 
 White-lead 
 workers 
 
 Leather-glazers 
 Portmanteau 
 makers 
 
 Fancy leather 
 
 workers 
 Saddlers 
 
 Horse -hair 
 workers 
 
 Compositors ... 
 
 Machine mana- 
 gers 
 
 Eotary print- 
 ing - machine 
 workers 
 
 Warehousemen 
 and cutters 
 
 Copperplate 
 printers 
 
 Lithographic 
 printers 
 
 Vellum binders 
 
 Envelope mak- 
 ers 
 
 Cardboard box 
 makers 
 
 Paper-bag mak- 
 ers 
 
 Stationers' 
 countermen 
 (wholesale) 
 
 56— 59 
 
 57— 60 
 54 
 
 54 
 
 56i 
 
 56 
 
 54 
 54 
 
 54 
 
 54 
 54 
 54 
 
 54 
 
 48—59 
 55—58 
 
 57^—581 
 54 
 
 Casual work. 3 days 
 only worked by those 
 in unhealthy depart- 
 ments 
 
 Day or 
 week 
 
 Week 
 Week 
 and 
 piece 
 
 Week 
 
 Piece, a 
 few by 
 the hour 
 Piece 
 
 Overtime about 1 day 
 per week during sum- 
 mer, but short time 
 from October to 
 March 
 
 Very busy November, 
 slack after Christmas 
 
 8 a.m. to 7 or 7.30 p.m. 
 Saturdays 12 or 2 p.m. 
 
 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. Satur- 
 days 2 p.m. 12 hours 
 for night-men, 7 — 7 
 
 Pull time worked by 
 few 
 
 Usually employed in 
 printing works and 
 follow printers' hours 
 
 8.30 a.m. to 6, 7 or 8 
 p.m. 
 
 8 or 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. 
 
 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. 1 or 
 2 p.m. Saturdays 
 Same hours as printers 
 
 Week 
 and piece 
 
 Week 
 
 Week 
 
 Week 
 Piece 
 Week 
 
 Week 
 
 Piece 
 
 Mainly 
 piece 
 
 Piece 
 Week 
 
 Much overtime and 
 night work on news- 
 papers and maga- 
 zines 
 
 Special overtime rates 
 Much night work 
 
 Not much overtime 
 except for artists. 
 Special rates when 
 necessary 
 
 Learners paid weekly 
 wages 
 
SUMMARY OF HOURS OF WORK, ETC. 20"J 
 
 Trades working 54 and under 60 hours 'per week (continued) : — 
 
 Trade 
 Group. 
 
 Occupation. 
 
 Recog- 
 nized 
 Hours. 
 
 Remarks. 
 
 Method 
 of Remun- 
 eration. 
 
 Overtime, &c. 
 
 <o 
 
 o" 
 
 Tailors' sales- 
 men 
 
 58—61 
 
 Less 5 to 7^ hours for 
 meals. 8.30 a.m. to 
 7 or 7.30 p.m. 
 
 Week 
 
 65 — 78 hours in subur- 
 ban shops, meals ex- 
 cluded 
 
 ■<* 
 co 
 rn _ 
 
 Cap makers ... 
 
 (about) 
 60 
 
 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. 
 
 Piece 
 
 Work for 8 months 
 in year only 
 
 DRE! 
 ol. III., pp. 
 
 Milliners and 
 dressmakers 
 
 59J 
 
 Maximum. 8.30 a.m. 
 to 8 p.m. 4 p.m. 
 
 Saturdays 
 
 Week 
 and 
 piece 
 
 Maximum is generally 
 worked during busy 
 season and often 
 exceeded 
 
 > 
 
 VV dlKIIl^-faulCii. 
 
 makers 
 
 57 
 
 ft m trs ft tt\ m A ~n vn 
 O ct. 111. liU O J.J.IJLI. u jj.iii. 
 
 on Mondays. 2 p.m. 
 Saturdays 
 
 Week 
 and 
 piece 
 
 
 
 Millers 
 
 59 
 50—64 
 
 Day and night shifts 
 Start 5 or 6 a.m. and 
 
 Week 
 Week 
 
 Overtime general in 
 mills 
 
 Unusual to allow over- 
 
 6, 232, 234. 
 
 Mineral-water 
 makers 
 
 55 
 
 continue till work is 
 done 
 
 8 a.m. to 7.30 p.m. 
 
 Week 
 and piece 
 
 time rates 
 
 Much overtime in 
 summer 
 
 DRINK. 
 
 199, 210, 215, 20 
 
 Confectioners. . . 
 
 (about) 
 58 
 
 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. when 
 working in bake- 
 house 
 
 Men by 
 
 week ; 
 women 
 by week 
 
 
 FOOD AND 
 
 i, 122, 131, 161, 
 
 Butchers' sales- 
 men (whole- 
 sale) 
 
 Haddock curers 
 
 (about) 
 56 
 
 (about) 
 54 
 
 Inclusive of meals. 
 Smithneld opens 4 
 a.m. 
 
 Start 10 a.m. 
 
 Week 
 Day 
 
 Extra pay for night 
 work 
 
 Vol. ITT., pp. 10c 
 
 Grocers' ware- 
 housemen 
 (wholesale) 
 
 Meat essence 
 makers 
 
 Cellar-men 
 
 54 
 51—57 
 54 
 
 One case 44 hours 
 
 Men 8 a.m. to 7.30 
 p.m., and women 9 
 a.m. to 7 p.m. 
 
 45 hours in bonded 
 warehouses. Begin 
 
 Week 
 Week 
 Week 
 
 Overtime — Oct.— Jan. 
 paid 4d to 8d per hour 
 
 Overtime 6c£ per hour 
 
 
 
 51—60 
 
 8 a.m. 
 
 Week 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Platelayers 
 
 54 
 
 Average 9 hours per 
 day, exclusive of 
 meals 
 
 Week 
 
 
 
 V 
 
 
 
 
 14 
 
210 SURVEY AND CONCLUSIONS. 
 
 Trades working 54 and under 60 hours per week{con tinned) 
 
 Trade 
 Group. 
 
 O 2-p 
 < r 
 
 Occupation. 
 
 C2 
 
 H « 
 
 H 1:0 
 Oiov 
 cs 70 OT 
 
 M CO 
 
 % . o> 
 
 « 
 
 Gasworkers 
 
 Engine drivers 
 and firemen 
 (stationary) 
 
 Stevedores 
 
 Road sweepers.. 
 Dustmen 
 
 Slopmen 
 
 Gullymen 
 
 Street masons 
 
 and paviors 
 Eoad labourers 
 
 Shampooers 
 (Turkish bath) 
 
 Hairdressers 
 
 Recog- 
 nized 
 Hours. 
 
 Remarks. 
 
 52—54 
 
 52—60 
 
 54 
 
 48—60 
 
 55—60 
 
 55—60 
 
 48-60 
 48—60 
 
 48—60 
 54—72 
 
 60—66 
 
 52 in carbonising de- 
 partment. Start 6 
 a.m. Sometimes 3 
 shifts of 8 hours 
 
 Hours vary with trade 
 with which it is con- 
 nected 
 
 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Night 
 work 5 p.m. to 7 a.m. 
 
 Average 54 to 58^ 
 
 hours. 50 to 54 
 
 hours in winter 
 Average. Extremes 
 
 range from 48 — 71^ 
 
 hours 
 
 Extreme range 46 — 
 7H hours 
 
 About 56 is the average 
 
 Less 9 hours for meals. 
 9 a.m. to 7 or 8 p.m. 
 
 Method 
 of Remun- 
 eration. 
 
 Week (a 
 few 
 piece) 
 
 Hour or 
 week 
 
 Day 
 
 Overtime, &c. 
 
 72 hours when working! 
 2 shifts in the carbon- 
 ising department 
 
 Overtime rates depend- 
 ent on connected- 
 trade 
 
 Is per hour for over- 
 time 
 
 Week 
 
 Week 
 (some 
 gratuities* 
 
 Week 
 
 Week 
 Week 
 
 Week 
 
 Week 
 and 
 gratuities 
 
 Week 
 (wig- 
 makers 
 piece) 
 
 Overtime very rare 
 
 In season some wort 
 after shop is closed 
 
 (D) TRADES WORKING 60 AND UNDER 72 HOURS PER WEEE 
 
 WOOD- 1 
 WORKERS. | 
 Vol. I., 1 
 p. 258. | 
 
 White coopers.. 
 
 60 
 
 
 Piece 
 
 
 
 73 
 
 (J« r . 
 P.Z> ~ 
 
 Metallic cask 
 and drum 
 makers 
 
 60 
 
 Nominal. Not more 
 than 52 — 54 hours 
 actually worked 
 
 Piece 
 
 
 E>oo r 
 
 r< £ 
 
 WW = & 
 
 Gold and silver 
 wire drawers 
 and spinners 
 
 321—05 
 
 Slack and ordinary full 
 time 
 
 Day and 
 piece 
 
 
SUMMARY OF HOURS OF WORK, ETG. 211 
 Trades working 60 and under 72 hours per week (continued) :— 
 
 Occupation. 
 
 Soap and candle 
 makers 
 
 Glue and size 
 
 makers 
 Lime jobbers 
 
 (leather 
 
 dressing) 
 Tanners 
 
 Shedmen 
 (leather 
 dressing) 
 
 Recog- 
 nized 
 Hours. 
 
 Paper makers... 
 
 Stationers' 
 
 countermen 
 
 (retail) 
 Booksellers' 
 
 countermen 
 
 (retail) 
 Newsagents 
 
 (wholesale) 
 
 Gl 
 
 CO 
 
 CO 
 
 Long 
 hours 
 
 Remarks. 
 
 10 or 10| hours day. 
 C a.m. to C p.m. 
 Saturdays 4 p.m. 
 
 Drapers (whole- 
 sale) 
 
 Drapers (retail) 
 
 Sugar refiners... 
 
 GO— GG 
 
 (about) 
 
 ei— 74 
 
 (about) 
 CI— 74 
 
 (about) 
 
 C2— ee 
 
 Often work on Sundays 
 
 Method 
 of Remun- 
 eration. 
 
 Day and 
 piece 
 
 Week 
 Hour 
 
 Overtime, &c. 
 
 Much overtime when 
 busy. Keturns show 
 average ranges of 5Cf 
 
 Often work overtime 
 
 Week Usually make 5 hours 
 and piece overtime per week 
 
 Hour 
 and piece 
 
 ei 
 
 59— 74£ 
 
 Oil millers 
 
 ^ rH i Oil refiners. 
 
 I Bakers (bread 
 and biscuit) 
 
 CO 
 
 60 
 60 
 
 Women — men. Two 
 12 hour shifts for 
 men 
 
 Less 6 to 8| hours for 
 meals 
 
 Less 6 to 8£ hours for 
 meals 
 
 Start 3 or 4 a.m. for 
 country trade, and 3 to 
 5.30 a.m. for town 
 trade 
 
 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. 
 normal 
 
 Women 56 — 67 hours 
 
 Two 12 hour shifts. 2 
 hours allowed for 
 meals 
 
 Week 
 
 Week 
 
 Week 
 
 Week 
 
 Men on machines aver- 
 age 57| hours, omit- 
 ting meal times 
 
 Month oi- 
 week 
 
 Month or 
 week 
 
 Two 12 hour shifts 
 from midnight on 
 Sunday 
 
 C a.m. to C p.m. with Week 
 1^ hours for meals 
 
 These are factory Week 
 hours 
 
 Week 
 
 Week 
 
 Longer hours on show 
 days 
 
 71 — 76 hours in me- 
 dium sized shops and 
 still longer in winter 
 
 Work regular through 
 year 
 
 Bonus given on in- 
 creased out-put 
 
 Time and a half paid 
 after CO hours 
 
 V 
 
 14 * 
 
212 SURVEY AND CONCLUSIONS. 
 
 Trades working 60 and under 72 hours per week {continued):- 
 
 Trade 
 
 Group, j Occupation. 
 
 p. 
 
 Engine drivers , 
 
 2$ ! Passenger guards 
 
 Firemen 
 
 Gardeners (job- 
 bing, nursery, 
 or market) 
 
 C5 "3 
 
 ^ CN 
 < r-T 
 
 B c 
 
 CO ■- 1 
 
 f& a « 
 
 (HO* 
 
 Recog- 
 nized 
 Hours. 
 
 GO 
 
 60 
 
 60 
 60—63 
 
 Remarks. 
 
 10 hours' day and no 
 mealtimes. 8^ hours 
 on District Eailway 
 
 In summer, hours begin 
 6 a.m. Winter, day- 
 light to dusk 
 
 Export packers. 
 Wharf labourers 
 
 Asphalte pav- 
 iors 
 
 Grave diggers... 
 
 Waitresses 
 
 Washing service 
 
 Barbers 60—85 
 
 61 
 
 )— 72 
 
 57—66 
 
 (about) 
 60 
 
 (about) 
 60 
 
 60 
 
 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Meals 
 li hours. Saturdays 
 till 1 p.m. 
 
 6 or 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. 
 
 Method 
 of Remun- 
 eration. 
 
 Week 
 
 Week 
 
 Week 
 
 Day and 
 piece 
 
 Week 
 
 Hour, oi- 
 week 
 
 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. 
 
 hours for meals 
 
 I a.m. to 
 tea rooms) 
 
 p.m. (in 
 
 Full hours seldom 
 worked except by 
 packers and sorters 
 
 ) a.m. to 8 p.m. with 1 
 hour for meals 
 
 Overtime, &c. 
 
 Overtime at time and a 
 quarter frecpient 
 
 Overtime paid 2\d to 
 4£d per hour for 
 market gardeners on 
 special jobs 
 
 Overtime not uncom- 
 mon 
 
 Week 
 
 Week 
 and piece 
 
 Week 
 (some 
 
 gratuities) 
 
 Men by 
 week ; 
 women 
 day and 
 piece 
 
 Week 
 (some 
 gratuities) 
 
 Overtime worked when 
 busy in winter 
 
 Overtime 3d per hour 
 after 8 p.m. 
 
 Longer hours usual in 
 small shops 
 
 (B) TRADES WORKING 72 HOURS AND UPWARDS PER WEEK 
 
 PRINT- 
 ING- 
 Vol. I!., 
 p. 299 
 
 Newsagents 
 (retail) 
 
 81 
 
 Less meal times. Begin 
 6 a.m. 
 
 Week 
 
 
 
 
 71 
 
 Start 8.30 a.m. 
 
 Month or 
 week 
 
 
 
SUMMARY OF HOURS OF WORK, ETC. 
 
 Trades working 72 hours and upwards per week (continued) : 
 
 Trade j 
 
 3roup. Occupation. 
 
 Recog- 
 nized 
 Hours. 
 
 Remarks. 
 
 Method 
 of Remun- 
 eration. 
 
 Overtime s &c. 
 
 
 Draymen (brew- 
 ers) 
 
 64—101 
 
 74 — 101 in busy weeks. 
 64 — 94 in slack weeks 
 
 Week 
 
 j-ijuLit; uu. cHiu wen uy 
 one firm 
 
 
 Bakers (bread) . 
 
 70—80 
 
 Hours in retail shops 
 
 Week 
 
 Some work 90 to 100 
 hours 
 
 co 
 
 CO 
 
 •o" 
 
 co 
 
 Market porters . 
 
 72 
 
 88 
 
 Hours vary, but aver- 
 age not less than 12 
 per day 
 
 In clu sive of meal times , 
 4 a.m. to 5 p.m. 
 
 Meal times excluded. 
 Start 4 a.m. 
 
 Day and 
 piece 
 
 Week 
 
 Week 
 
 !M 
 
 Milk carriers 
 (wholesale) 
 
 75 
 
 
 DRINK 
 
 79, 200, 5 
 
 Milk carriers 
 (retail) 
 
 (about) 
 87 
 
 Including meals. Start 
 5 a.m. 
 
 Week 
 
 Work every day in the 
 year 
 
 
 Butchers' shop- 
 man (retail) 
 
 (about) 
 84 
 
 Including meals. Start 
 6 or 7 a.m. 
 
 Week 
 
 
 FOOD 
 
 149, 19! 
 
 Fishmongers 
 (retail) 
 
 (about) 
 72 
 
 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. 2 
 hours for meals 
 
 Week 
 
 
 III., pp. 122, 
 
 Grocers (retail). 
 
 Greengrocers 
 (retail) 
 
 70—75 
 
 (about) 
 84 
 
 8 a.m. to 9.30 p.m. 
 Start 3 a.m. 
 
 Week 
 Week 
 
 Close 11 or 12 on Fri- 
 days and Saturdays 
 
 
 
 81—88 
 
 Average 12 to 13 hours 
 
 per day and 10 on 
 
 Sundays 
 Average 12 to 13 hours 
 
 per day and 10 on 
 
 Sundays 
 
 Week 
 Week 
 
 
 > 
 
 
 81—88 
 
 
 
 
 
 336, 326. 
 
 Omnibus and 
 tram drivers 
 and conduc- 
 tors 
 
 72 
 
 And upwards 
 
 Week 
 
 Some work 15 hours 
 and 9 hours on alter- 
 nate days 
 
 OTION. 
 
 325, 327, 
 
 Cabmen 
 
 82—88 
 90 
 
 (average) 
 90—100 
 
 13 or 14 hours a day 
 usual 
 
 A y\ r\ n n wn vn Q 
 
 XL 1 111 UUlYCHUO 
 
 By the 
 job 
 
 Week 
 Week 
 
 100. Overtime some- 
 times allowed for 
 extra loads 
 
 LOCOM 
 
 , pp. 314, 292, 
 
 Mail cart 
 
 drivers 
 
 
 
 1. IN. 
 
 Goods' guards . 
 
 77 
 
 11 hours per day 
 
 Week 
 
 
 
 Bailway carmen 
 
 (average) 
 84 
 
 About 14 hours per 
 day 
 
 Week 
 
 
SURVEY AND CONCLUSIONS. 
 
 Trades working 72 hours and upwards per week (continued) : — 
 
 Trade 
 Group. 
 
 Occupation. 
 
 Recog- 
 nized 
 Hours. 
 
 Remarks. 
 
 Method 
 of Remun- 
 eration. 
 
 Overtime, &c. 
 
 . OS 
 
 t— 
 
 ■C co 
 
 5 o» 
 V os 
 1 M 
 
 O co 
 
 .. 
 
 Oh 
 u - 
 
 o M 
 f> 
 
 Kailway porters 
 
 56—84 
 84 
 
 56—84 
 72 
 
 72 
 
 8 — 12 hours per day 
 
 Week of 7 days of 12 
 hours 
 
 8 — 12 hours per day 
 Full week 
 
 12 hour day 
 
 Week 
 
 Week 
 (some 
 gratuities) 
 
 Week 
 
 Day 
 
 By the 
 job 
 
 Much overtime in 
 foggy weather 
 
 Increased to 90 or 100 
 hours when on night- 
 work 
 
 Overtime at time and a 
 half after 14 hours 
 
 Lightermen ... 
 
 LABOUR. 
 Vol. HI., 
 p. 441. 
 
 Coal carmen ... 
 
 78 
 
 Including meals. Start 
 6 a.m. 
 
 Piece 
 
 
 O CM 
 
 >■ co" 
 
 Pi §5 
 
 H . 
 
 o 
 
 K 
 
 SI 
 
 
 72—84 ' 
 
 (about) 
 
 80 
 72—90 
 
 The longer hours are 
 worked by foreigners 
 
 Start 7 a.m. 
 For men 
 
 Week 
 (and 
 gratuities) 
 
 Week 
 
 Week 
 (some 
 gratuities) 
 
 
 Bath attendants 
 
 Note. — The above tables show in a general way the hours prevailing or recognized as normal 
 in the various occupations mentioned. Here and there the outside ranges have been indicated, 
 while in other cases averages or hours usually worked have been given. It will be necessary in 
 all cases where greater accuracy is required to refer back to the descriptions given in former 
 volumes of the industries themselves and their various branches. 
 
 For instance, tankmakers, who figure among those trades " working over forty-eight but under 
 fifty-four hours," are so placed because their recognized full week is one of fifty-four hours ; 
 while in point of fact they rarely work over forty hours. In the same way the normal week of 
 glass-makers, metallic-cask makers, hatters, silversmiths, sail-makers, &c, is one of shorter 
 duration than their nominal full week ; while that of bakers, drapers, &c, is normally one of 
 greater length than that indicated in the table. 
 
 Where a trade has more than one branch, and where these branches work different hours and 
 are sufficiently distinct to be treated as different occupations, they are scheduled separately. 
 Thus, coopers will be found under the sub-heads of dock coopers, brewers' coopers and white 
 coopers ; in the same way, builders' smiths are distinguished from engineers' smiths. 
 
 Except where special mention is made to the contrary, meal times have been deducted in 
 stating the "recognized" hours. For some occupations, such as drovers, slaughter-men, 
 private coachmen, waterworks' turn-cocks, law-writers, theatrical property-men, &c, the hours 
 of work are so indefinite that it has been found impossible to give even an " average " figure for 
 them, and they have therefore been omitted from the tables. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 METHODS OF REMUNERATION : TIME AND PIECE-WORK. 
 
 The method of remuneration adopted in any particular 
 trade is connected with far-reaching industrial relationships, 
 ranging from a chance connection with a stranger taken 
 on for an odd hour to perform some casual task, to the 
 fullest application of the principle of industrial co-partner- 
 ship. These two extremes illustrate the maximum and 
 minimum of interest in the service rendered or the work 
 done ; between them we have every form of tie — the per- 
 manent man on a weekly wage, the piece-worker, the 
 combination of a task-performance with a time-wage, or, 
 it may be, the arrangement by which a small group of men, 
 practising co-operation in its most elementary form, share 
 among themselves the money earned. 
 
 Sometimes the method of remuneration adopted in a 
 trade has been introduced on the initiative of those em- 
 ployed, but employers too are seeking constantly for the 
 plan that will secure them the best service. Their 
 methods vary largely. Some believe that constant superin- 
 tendence is essential for labour of every kind, while 
 others strive to dispense with overlooking, and endeavour 
 to secure a response by other means : some employers 
 try to touch men's hearts, others their fears ; some look 
 far ahead and, with abundant care, endeavour to train up 
 and secure the services of a body of men who may become 
 their trusted helpers, while others are content to meet the 
 business necessity of the moment, and, guided mainly by 
 the supply that offers of the particular labour they require, 
 think little or nothing of people, but everything of results. 
 In such cases the business relationship is apt to be unre- 
 
21G 
 
 SURVEY AND CONCLUSIONS. 
 
 lieved; and service can scarcely be touched by any kindly 
 feeling. 
 
 We find a corresponding variation in the attitude of 
 those who are employed. The work done for a wage may 
 be regarded simply as a task, or it may become a genuine 
 part of life. It may be accompanied by a real interest in 
 a corporate success, or it may be regarded simply as a 
 minimum that has to be accomplished in order that employ- 
 ment may be retained. 
 
 In spite of everything that may operate to the contrary, 
 the basis of industrial relationship, in the majority of cases, 
 is personal, deriving its strength very largely from its 
 moral character irrespective of the particular form in which 
 it is manifested, which, in itself, may or may not be good. 
 Loyalty and mutual consideration will be found in the 
 sweater's den, while disaffection may creep into even a 
 co-operative undertaking, and the sharing of profits is no 
 guarantee against misunderstanding. At the same time 
 any form to be satisfactory must rest upon a sound 
 economic basis, and must, sooner or later, stand con- 
 demned, if not compatible with the intelligent use of 
 capital and the efficient direction of labour. " Better !> 
 relationships can in no way avoid the penalty that a weaker 
 economic position will ultimately involve : the friction and 
 probable failure that will follow. 
 
 The most important varieties in the methods of re- 
 muneration adopted are payment by piece and by time, and 
 to these we now turn. 
 
 Their practical importance is dependent in the first place 
 on the elasticity of the springs of action of the individual 
 worker. It may be argued, indeed, that the adoption of 
 a time-rate or a piece-rate system of payment should 
 make no difference in the amount of work executed, 
 provided that the conditions of employment are felt to be 
 reasonable, and the moral standard of the operative is 
 
METHODS OF REMUNERATION : TIME AND PIECE-WORK. 217 
 
 sufficiently high. But it is found that the impulse to effort 
 is almost inevitably affected by the method of remuneration 
 under which men work. 
 
 At present the trend of the opinion of wage-earners in 
 many trades is against piece-work, and when corporate 
 action has been taken it has been generally in favour of 
 the adoption of time-rates of pay. The historic struggles 
 of the engineers, and of many branches of the building 
 trades, have been in favour of this change, and the 
 prominence given to the claims of time-work in labour 
 disputes which have turned on changes in system of pay- 
 ment has somewhat misguided public opinion in regard to 
 this question, and led to the assumption that time-work is 
 more largely prevalent, in trades in which some other 
 system might be accepted, than is really the case. As regards 
 London especially, this misapprehension is perhaps more 
 than usually widespread, owing to the extent to which 
 payment by piece has been abolished in the building 
 trades.* 
 
 The facts, so far as they have been obtained, are embodied 
 in the table on pages 201-214. 
 
 With a large number of occupations there is no room for 
 choice. Their special conditions practically necessitate the 
 adoption of one system or the other. Thus home-work, 
 executed away from the superintendence of the employer, 
 and often taken up by women in time spared from other 
 duties, is necessarily piece-work. On the other hand, many 
 services must be paid by time, because the results cannoD 
 be separately estimated ; those, for instance, connected with 
 all forms of locomotion, and with most branches of retail 
 distribution. In transport and general labour nearly all 
 are paid by time, and in several groups in the building 
 trade, payment cannot well be made on any other system. 
 But where either system is available, as with the various 
 
 * The piece-work that exists in the building trades is merely sub-contract. 
 The piece-master " pays his men by the hour. 
 
218 
 
 SURVEY AND CONCLUSIONS. 
 
 branches of manufacture, it is found, so far as our figures 
 go, that the number of piece-workers among men consider- 
 ably exceeds that of time-workers, and that among women, 
 similarly engaged, piece-work is almost universal. Speak- 
 ing generally, the only large classes of women employed 
 as manual workers, who are exclusively paid by time, are 
 charwomen, washerwomen and domestic servants. 
 
 It may be claimed that the principle of giving a bonus, 
 which may be introduced into almost any business, is a form 
 of payment by results which is the essence of piece-work. 
 But it would be straining the application of the term to 
 describe the sharing of the profits that result from the 
 general working of a business, or even of a department in 
 a business, in the same manner as remuneration that is in 
 immediate relation to the results of the labour of an indi- 
 vidual. The analogy between profit-sharing in all its forms 
 and piece-work may easily be pushed too far, and their 
 mistaken identification has already blocked the way to the 
 adoption of valuable experiments in industrial reform. 
 
 Although the two systems of payment are marked by 
 many characteristic differences, in practice the results tend 
 constantly to approach each other. The time-rate is 
 always based upon what an average man may be expected 
 to perform, and the piece-rate upon that which an average 
 day's work may be expected to secure. It is largely 
 because of this that the distinction is more apparent 
 than real. There is a constant tendency to estimate 
 remuneration in the double terms of time and output, 
 and when a scale of piece-work rates is drawn up, or when 
 a time-rate is fixed, the double method of calculation has 
 necessarily to be used. 
 
 It is a mistake, therefore, to regard the two systems as 
 though they are entirely antithetical and based on funda- 
 mentally different estimates. It is found rather that every 
 readjustment of wages illustrates their similarities, and that 
 
METHODS OF REMUNERATION : TIME AND PIECE-WORK. 219 
 
 the natural working of competition tends, as does trade 
 union policy, towards procuring approximate uniformity of 
 remuneration, whatever the system adopted may be. In 
 practice, both systems and every combination of them are 
 found. 
 
 The more exactly its results can be estimated, the more 
 is labour adapted to piece-work. This fact explains the 
 unsuitability for payment by piece of new kinds of work, 
 especially that done on original or elaborate designs, or 
 such as requires great skill or care, or in which defects can 
 be easily concealed. 
 
 That a time system should be commonly adopted for new 
 tasks is evidently reasonable. Even the most capable 
 employer cannot always estimate with any degree of 
 accuracy the number of hours which some fresh piece of 
 work will require, and either a very trustworthy man 
 has then to be employed, or a time-rate of payment be 
 combined with more careful supervision. By this means 
 a basis of measurement is obtained, and the same 
 task, if repeated, can afterwards be included in the 
 schedule of piece-work prices. Thus, among surgical 
 instrument makers we find that time-work is the rule in 
 shops where the first examples of new designs are made, 
 whereas among the chamber masters, who generally execute 
 orders for the reproduction of known patterns, the piece- 
 work system prevails. So also glass-bevellers are divided 
 into two classes, those "following curves and elaborate 
 shapes in their bevelling " being on time-work, while the 
 others, engaged on plain edges, are paid by the piece. 
 Analogous differences are found among cabinet-makers 
 according to the character of the shop ; and, in other trades 
 where the time system is more universal, it is on the 
 straight-forward work, especially when executed in large 
 quantities, that the piece system tends to be more constantly 
 revived; among bricklayers, for instance, on straight runs 
 
220 
 
 SURVEY AND CONCLUSIONS. 
 
 of brick- work, among house carpenters in the laying of 
 floors, or among joiners in making window frames to some 
 uniform pattern. 
 
 The use of machinery has often paved the way for the 
 substitution of time-work for piece-work. The subordina- 
 tion of the man to the machine is a favourite theme 
 with many writers, though there are few occupations in 
 which individual care does not have a considerable effect 
 on the output, no matter how perfect the mechanism may 
 be. But the demands of the machine differ, and when 
 the function of the man is either to watch self-acting 
 mechanical processes, or to superintend the feeding of a 
 machine that itself determines the pace of the human 
 movement, there is a tendency for piece-work to be 
 eliminated as being either impossible or unsuitable to the 
 new conditions. Instances are seen in the trade of paper- 
 stainers, among whom, while the hand-workers are usually 
 paid by the piece, the machine-workers are invariably on 
 a time rate; or in that of cork-workers, where the intro- 
 duction of machinery has been usually followed by time 
 payment. 
 
 This is not, it is true, a universal movement, and in some 
 trades the possibility of intensifying the labour of the 
 operative through the medium of the machine has led to the 
 rigid insistence by organized workmen upon the maintenance 
 of piece-work rates. Professor Marshall's statement that 
 " When appliances are used equality of remuneration 
 will require equality of appliance/'' reminds us that great 
 unfairness might result under apparent similarity of 
 conditions. It is in the difficulty of regulating the intro- 
 duction of changes in machinery that make labour more 
 arduous, that the main explanation is found of the 
 maintenance, in spite of its great complexity, of the 
 elaborate piece-work schedules of the cotton trade. 
 When machinery can be thus altered, it is obvious that 
 a more satisfactory relation between output and effort 
 
METHODS OF REMUNERATION : TIME AND PIECE-WORK. 221 
 
 and wages can be maintained by piece rates than by time 
 rates, since the latter could not readily be adjusted to the 
 increasing intensity of the labour. 
 
 In considering the arguments for and against piece-work 
 and for and against time-work, the point of view here adopted 
 will be that of the general observer rather than that of 
 employer or employed. Opinion on this subject does 
 not strictly follow class divisions. Many wage-earners 
 prefer piece-work, and most do so where it is really 
 suitable, while employers prefer time-work for many 
 purposes. The advantages and defects of both systems 
 are often recognized no less clearly on the one side than on 
 the other. 
 
 Effort is likely to be more persistent, and earnings are 
 usually higher, under a piece-work than under a time-work 
 system, but this does not in itself prove the superiority of 
 the former method, either for the employer or the employed, 
 for many considerations are involved besides the amount of 
 work done or the money earned in a given time. As the 
 danger of " shirking," for instance, is lessened, that of 
 "scamping" might increase, or health might fail if the 
 pressure were too severe. Thus it is that very varying 
 opinions are expressed both by masters and men on the 
 merits of the rival systems. 
 
 In favour of piece-work it is said that it requires less 
 supervision ; that by its adoption management is made easier, 
 simpler, and less costly. The operative knows that he will 
 be paid strictly according to performance, and that if he 
 works either for short days or with little energy he will 
 suffer accordingly. It is argued, therefore, that superin- 
 tendence not only becomes more economical, but also less 
 detective in its character. 
 
 On the other hand, it is said that in many occupations 
 this argument is entirely fallacious, since the very fact 
 that the more work done the higher the earnings will be, 
 
222 
 
 SURVEY AND CONCLUSIONS. 
 
 is a direct temptation to the concealment of inferior work. 
 Men will be induced to send in hurried work, perfecting it 
 only up to the point that will pass muster ; and interest 
 and pride in their craft will inevitably be lost in the 
 thought of the weekly wages-sheet. It is further urged 
 that, in certain trades, management, though simplified, will 
 at the same time be deteriorated, the piece-work system 
 giving a chance to the master who, though he may have 
 business capacity, yet is without that practical knowledge 
 of the trade which is requisite for an appreciative and 
 intelligent employer. Masters who have not the technical 
 knowledge that would enable them to estimate the time 
 that work should occupy are, it is said, apt to fall back upon 
 the more automatic test of piece-work. Superintendence 
 thus becomes less sympathetic, and the craft itself is likely 
 to be degraded. 
 
 Again, it is urged that only under a system of piece- 
 work can the best energies of a man be called forth; 
 that this method of payment is even necessary, as one 
 employer has expressed it, in order to " tap the reserve of 
 force in a man/' and most men would agree that more work 
 is " naturally 99 done and more money made in an hour on 
 piece than on time-work. 
 
 In reply, it is said that the temptation to excessive effort 
 is apt to be too great, and that a system which aims at 
 continually calling forth the last possibilities of effort of 
 which a man is capable, is not only damaging to his health, 
 but in the end economically disastrous ; and piece-work is 
 condemned by those who hold this view, although it may 
 be freely accepted, and even preferred by both masters and 
 men. The objection to it is analogous to that which many 
 have to systematic overtime : a too intense application is 
 felt to be as harmful as one that is too prolonged. 
 
 It is urged, on the other hand, that if men can and will 
 work with such vigour and persistency, who shall forbid 
 them ? This freedom alone, it is said, can secure a due 
 
METHODS OF REMUNERATION : TIME AND PIECE-WORK. 223 
 
 reward to the man of more than average strength or powers 
 of application, or, it may be, of more than average skill. 
 
 Bnt the argument is again answered : Such freedom, 
 if freedom it really be, is a prostitution of this noble 
 attribute of life. It is not a genuine impulse that inspires 
 men, but the " greed of gain." Or if justice be appealed to, 
 this justice, it is said, turns out to be a form of selfishness, for 
 if men took thought for their fellows, they would not be eager 
 for more work than " fairness " would allow them to claim. 
 This argument may not be very strong economically, but 
 it is further pointed out that equality of remuneration 
 does not necessarily follow when payment is made by 
 time. Advantages in all work, such as securing the most 
 desirable tasks, can and will be obtained by the more 
 competent men ; besides which a time-rate, since it fixes 
 a minimum and not a maximum, and since in most trades 
 there are branches for which special rates are paid, 
 frequently leaves a considerable scope for variation in the 
 actual wages earned. Further, it is pointed out that the 
 most competent and trustworthy man, even if only able to 
 earn the same rates as those who are less competent and 
 less trustworthy, yet secures his advantage from greater 
 regularity of employment. 
 
 These arguments, for and against, leave the question 
 very much a matter of application. Each system is good 
 in its place. The dangers, on this side or that, have to be 
 met by suitable modifications. 
 
 Some other questions of a more general character must 
 Ioq considered. 
 
 As regards the effect of piece-work on regularity of 
 employment there are conflicting opinions. On the one 
 hand, it is held that the piece-worker has a better chance 
 than the time-worker of securing employment through the 
 year, and there are many figures that bear out this con- 
 tention. Earnings may show a greater fluctuation, but 
 
224 
 
 SURVEY AND CONCLUSIONS. 
 
 as a rule it is easier to get something to do daring slack 
 times in a piece-work trade than in one in which time- 
 work prevails. Our returns of the iron and steel trades 
 illustrate this point, for while the time-workers dropped 
 39 per cent, in number in the slack week, the piece- 
 workers even showed a slight increase, indicating some 
 degree of interchangeability between the two classes, but 
 still illustrating the tendency of piece-work to secure a 
 more general division of the work during slackness. 
 
 On the other hand, it is stated that in all trades in which 
 the piece system is the rule, there is a direct temptation to 
 men to be irregular in their habits, " to come when they like 
 and go when they like," and it is urged that the dangerous- 
 facilities thus offered for working irregular hours within 
 the week more than counterbalance any advantage there 
 may be in securing some modicum of employment in dull 
 times. It is admitted that this voluntary irregularity can 
 be, and often is, counteracted to some extent by the 
 efficient control of the employer, for it is erroneous to 
 suppose that because men are working by the piece their 
 employer is therefore indifferent to their habits as regards 
 hours of labour. If they are using plant, or even only 
 room, their absence means the direct waste of capital 
 invested, and if they are out-workers, using neither the 
 plant nor the premises of their employer, the irregularity 
 will still give trouble and cause uncertainty. It is the 
 constant aim, therefore, of the employer of piece-workers 
 to secure as great a regularity as is practicable. 
 
 Another question involved is the effect of piece-work on 
 the chances of employment of those below and beyond the 
 age of maximum strength and efficiency. It is urged that 
 employers, when engaging men by time, will be more 
 strict in the test of efficiency they impose. Especially 
 will this be so in all trades in which high rates prevail, 
 since employers cannot then afford to employ any men who 
 are not fully competent, and, if such have been engaged,. 
 
METHODS OF REMUNERATION : TIME AND PIECE-WORK. 225 
 
 the first spell of slackness will be used as an occasion for 
 their prompt dismissal. Under these circumstances, it is 
 the youngest and the oldest who are apt to suffer. It is 
 claimed also, that individuals with very different abilities 
 can more readily adapt themselves to the conditions of 
 piece-work. But then again it is held that piece-work, 
 facilitating, as it does, the sub-division of labour, and the 
 despecialization of skill, often provides even too great a 
 facility for the employment of the young; and as regards 
 the older man it is said that the physical effects of piece- 
 work tend to be so injurious that the chances of his 
 securing employment late in life are in practice diminished 
 by his earlier physical decline. 
 
 Finally, an argument must be noted concerning the 
 effects of the system of payment adopted on the uniformity 
 and fixity of the rate of remuneration. As a general rule 
 the method most compatible with these objects will be 
 preferred by the wage-earner. This preference may be 
 illustrated by the case of the more highly skilled cabinet- 
 makers, whose constant endeavour in the best workshops 
 of their trade is to maintain a time-rate of wages. Their 
 contention is that any schedule of piece-work prices under 
 modern conditions, because of its unworkable complexity, 
 leads constantly to uncertainty and friction, and that 
 payment by time leaves less scope for either the secret or 
 the open "pitting" of one worker against another. 
 
 This danger may be to some extent counteracted in 
 individual workshops by the instrumentality of the " shop 
 committee," but, in trades in which there is no effective 
 organization to maintain and revise the schedule of piece- 
 work prices as required, it is felt that the " cutting down " 
 of wages is more difficult to restrain than under a time- 
 rate method of payment. The bargain as to the price at 
 which work shall be executed is, in the same way, more 
 liable to abuse by the employer, and more likely to place 
 the operative at a disadvantage than an agreement for a 
 v 15 
 
226 
 
 SURVEY AND CONCLUSIONS. 
 
 certain rate of pay per hour or per day, because on the latter 
 plan there are fewer and less recurring elements of possible 
 variation. Against this, however, we must set the wide- 
 spread opinion among employers in some trades that the time 
 system is more liable to abuse on the part of the workmen. 
 
 "We thus search in vain for a final and conclusive judg- 
 ment that in all cases, either on social or on economic 
 grounds, this or that practice is the best. 
 
 No general rule can be laid down, for the appropriateness 
 of the method of payment will always be mainly determined 
 by the special circumstances and traditions of the different 
 trades. There is no uniformity either of practice or of 
 policy. While the plasterer, the engineer, and the mason, 
 make the abolition of piece-work a firm plank in their 
 trade-union platform, the tank-maker and the basket-maker 
 uphold it, because with them it leads to the greatest 
 independence and most agreeable conditions ; in the glass 
 industry the maintenance of a piece-work scale is the main 
 reason for the existence of the trade union ; while among 
 brass and bronze finishers, although there is no uniform 
 scale, and although much waste of time and much annoy- 
 ance are caused in fixing new prices, the piece-work system 
 is still preferred. 
 
 It should be noted here, perhaps, that in some trades 
 in which corporate opinion seems well defined, and in 
 which piece-work is discountenanced, it is still sometimes 
 adopted and concealed, and that the temptation to this 
 practice must increase when the time-rate is low and the 
 working day short. 
 
 Such evasions, perhaps no less than the diversity of the 
 method of payment adopted, show the difficulty of securing 
 uniformity. But light is afforded as to what is desirable 
 by the attempt to combine the two methods in trades to 
 which both are applicable. When this is done, though the 
 remuneration may be based on a time-rate, some greater 
 
METHODS OF REMUNERATION : TIME AND PIECE-WORK. 227 
 
 elasticity of earnings would be made probable, by the 
 recognition of piece-work possibilities up to the level 
 which is accepted, by employers and employed alike, as 
 compatible with the maintenance of personal efficiency and 
 of good work. In not a few trades such a compromise as 
 this has led to a successful avoidance both of excessive 
 slackness and of excessive effort. 
 
 It may perhaps be thought that this question of the method 
 of payment has been considered on a too general assumption 
 that purely personal considerations will necessarily guide 
 conduct if the opportunity be given. Ordinary employers, 
 however, and ordinary working men, are neither idealists 
 nor knaves, 
 
 " . . neither children nor gods, but men in a world of men," 
 and the discussion must be conducted on the frank assump- 
 tion that the best relationship will be that which will be 
 most effective industrially, as tending to secure the greatest 
 possible permanent advantage for all concerned. In the 
 search for conditions that would tend to combine individual 
 well-being with industrial efficiency human nature has to 
 be rather rudely analyzed. We are for ever perplexed, 
 moreover, by the multiplicity of motives that actuate the 
 individual, and by the ways in which higher and lower 
 aims are intermingled according to the strength and the 
 weakness of personal character. 
 
 v 
 
 15 * 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 IRREGULARITY OF EARNINGS. 
 
 A complete explanation of the standard of material well- 
 being maintained by any individual family would involve a 
 consideration of many fundamental points. Such questions, 
 for instance, as the influence of the family tradition ; the 
 character and habits of the particular household ; and the 
 capacity of the wife, would be of the first importance. But 
 even when we put such points on one side, and assume 
 roughly that the man who is able to earn 40s in a working 
 week is "better off" than one who can earn only 28s, we 
 are at once met by the problem of irregular employment, 
 for it is fairly certain that the standard of comfort is fixed 
 rather by the regularity than by the rate of pay. 
 
 A workman who earned 25s a week throughout the year 
 would almost certainly live in far greater comfort than one 
 who earned 506' in twenty-six weeks taken here and there 
 throughout the twelve months, even though both were 
 steady men, and though the latter might reasonably reckon 
 on obtaining twenty-six weeks of employment out of the 
 fifty-two at the higher rate. 
 
 The preceding volumes have contained constant refer- 
 ences to the influences that make for irregularity, and an 
 endeavour must now be made to classify and analyze them. 
 
 The question of irregular earnings derives its chief 
 importance from its practical bearing on the position of 
 wage-earners ; in many aspects, therefore, it may be best 
 considered with special reference to this class. But the 
 subject has a wider aspect, for many of the causes of 
 irregular employment are quite general in their effects, 
 
IRREGULARITY OF EARNINGS. 
 
 229 
 
 influencing the position, not of wage-earners alone, but of 
 everyone concerned with the trades affected. 
 
 The special problem of irregular employment largely 
 resolves itself, in short, into the more general one of a 
 fluctuating and uncertain demand for commodities and 
 services. The cause that brings difficulty and distress 
 to the workman may involve the employer himself in 
 bankruptcy and loss of his position, though the effects of 
 irregular demand on the individual wage-earner are quicker, 
 and perhaps more obvious. The employer has more staying- 
 power, and his transitions to the ranks of the workless 
 are neither so sudden nor so frequent as those of the 
 wage-earner ; but, on the other hand, the workman is 
 strengthened by greater freedom of movement and less 
 responsibility. In spite, however, of differences in economic 
 status, many of the disturbing causes tend to affect both 
 classes alike, though often in different degrees and under 
 different guises. 
 
 We must, therefore, recognize how largely unity of 
 interest and subjection to the same influences prevail 
 among all classes that are industrially associated ; and 
 how incomplete is the view that results from a too exclusive 
 consideration of the position of the wage-earner in relation 
 to this question. We find further evidence of this in the 
 fact that industrial London is to a large extent composed 
 of those who have returned themselves as " neither 
 employer nor employed." The real position of many of 
 these is doubtless not dissimilar to that of those who have 
 returned themselves as "employed." But they often 
 rely for their employment,, such as it is, on chance 
 members of the community with whom not even the 
 semblance of a persistent relationship is maintained. The 
 essence of their industrial position lies rather in their direct 
 dependence upon a problematical demand for the com- 
 modities or services they offer, a demand which comes 
 partly from that portion of the community with which 
 
230 
 
 SURVEY AND CONCLUSIONS. 
 
 they have succeeded in establishing some kind of " connec- 
 tion," and partly from a wider and more uncertain range. 
 Among booksellers, grocers, coal and corn dealers and 
 general shopkeepers the proportion returned as " neither 
 employer nor employed " varies from 15£ to 45 \ per cent, 
 of the total numbers, and rises among costers to 70 J 
 per cent. Even in the case of plasterers and paper- 
 hangers, musical instrument and toy-makers, and saddlers, 
 there are 9 per cent, in the neutral class ; among lock- 
 smiths and gas-fitters, and cabinet-makers, there are 
 10 per cent.; while makers of trimmings, &c, show 11J 
 per cent.; boot-makers, 13J per cent, (equal to nearly 
 25 per cent, of employed males over twenty) ; shirt- 
 makers, 19J per cent. ; and watch and clock -makers, 22-|- 
 per cent., or in this case nearly 45 per cent, of the total 
 of employed males over twenty years of age. 
 
 In the organized and unorganized sections enumerated on 
 pp. 144-145, we find that about 60,000 males (including 
 6692 costers) have returned themselves as neither employ- 
 ing nor employed ; while among milliners, dress-makers 
 and shirt-makers nearly 22,000 women are included in 
 the same category. It is clear, therefore, that a not 
 inconsiderable proportion of London workers are not 
 " employed" in the ordinary sense of the word, and that the 
 problem of irregular earnings is for such persons indepen- 
 dent of a connection with an individual employer. 
 
 The figures serve also to suggest the dependence of 
 all upon influences that are wider than those determined 
 by a personal connection. The close relationship of 
 employer and employed, though often prominent as a 
 proximate cause of intermittent employment, probably 
 ranks among the minor influences. The employer is often 
 rather the lever by which the individual is put in or out of 
 gear with the industrial machinery of life, in which at 
 times he can, perhaps, fill no part, than the real cause of 
 displacement. Even as regards wage-earners, therefore, 
 
IRREGULARITY OF EARNINGS. 
 
 231 
 
 we shall constantly have to pass beyond the consideration 
 of causes affected by the customary class-relationship, to 
 others more fundamental and far-reaching. 
 
 Industry strains blindly for an equilibrium that is never 
 maintained. In the whole rauge of London trades there 
 is hardly an instance in which demand is uniform, supply 
 certain, and personal efficiency equal. Changing relations 
 of supply to demand, inequality of powers, variety in the 
 strength of the actuating motives, are seen on every hand ; 
 and anything like general security of industrial tenure is 
 entirely absent. One of the most stupendous facts of 
 life is the uncertainty of the position of the vast majority 
 of those, no matter what their status may be, who are 
 dependent upon industry for their livelihood. For a short 
 period the future may be clear to the majority perhaps 
 in every occupation, but for a more distant time they trust, 
 like Mr. Micawber, that something will turn up. Men 
 work on, reposing a half-recognized faith, based on a half- 
 interpreted experience, in the potential demand that is 
 around them. Happily, as a rule, their faith is justified; 
 for there is a general persistency of opportunity, although 
 particular trades disappear, and the occupation of whole 
 classes of workers may be swept away. 
 
 For the individual, however, and especially for the wage- 
 earner, the fact remains that there is rarely certainty or 
 safety. He lives shadowed by the consciousness of an 
 uncertain tenure, and there are few whose hearts would 
 not be comforted if the faith upon which their industrial 
 life rests could be based on a fuller knowledge. To this 
 uncertainty is due much to the stimulus and excitement of 
 industrial life, but much also of its disheartening pressure. 
 
 To quote from our evidence of an operative brushmaker, 
 " The great curse of a journeyman's life is irregularity of 
 employment. When I thought it likely that I should be 
 thrown out of employment it seemed to paralyze me 
 completely, and I used to sit at home brooding over it 
 
232 
 
 SURVEY AND CONCLUSIONS. 
 
 until the blow fell. . . . The fear of being turned off is the 
 worst thing in a working-man's life, and more or less 
 acutely it is almost always, in the case of the vast majority, 
 present to his mind. - " 
 
 It is to be noted that the term irregular employment, if 
 strictly used in relation to the normal working day, does not 
 exclude continuous employment accompanied by temporary 
 or prolonged periods of pressure or overtime. Irregularity 
 in this sense includes all variations from the normal day, 
 be the variation a plus or minus quantity ; whether leading, 
 that is, to industrial slavery or to the formation of an 
 unemployed class. How far regular employment is econo- 
 mically desirable, is, therefore, a question of degree, and 
 different men will have different ideas on this point. 
 Outside judgment too will vary to some extent with the 
 character of employments. The standard as to what is 
 considered socially and even in some cases economically 
 desirable in the extent, intensity, or continuity of labour, 
 changes, and the tide has in recent years set strongly 
 in favour of a more leisured, although not less efficient, 
 industrial life, with a shorter working day and longer 
 holidays. Eegularity must not, therefore, be regarded as 
 an end in itself : work, however regular, if unduly pro- 
 longed may be more deleterious than that which is too 
 intermittent, and beneficial regularity may be defined as 
 that which combines social well-being with economic 
 efficiency. 
 
 We must also distinguish between various kinds of 
 periodical irregularity. There is, for instance, the weekly 
 irregularity of some trades in which not only do wage- 
 earners habitually keep " Saint Monday," but in which the 
 length of the working day increases systematically and 
 harmfully from Tuesday to Friday ; then again there are 
 the yearly fluctuations in seasonal trades; while cyclical 
 variations spread over long periods are characteristic of 
 many occupations, seasonal and otherwise. The disturb- 
 
IRREGULARITY OF EARNINGS. 
 
 233 
 
 ing influences at work are mainly connected with one 
 or another of these three phases of recurrent irregularity — 
 the short, the seasonal, and that which comes in cycles.* 
 
 In considering the influences which determine the tenure 
 of individual employment and the continuity in the demand 
 for labour in a particular trade, we are met by the fact 
 that, while men are frequently unable to secure regular 
 work, they often do not desire it. We are thus carried 
 at once to the distinction between Personal and Economic 
 causes of irregular employment. 
 
 In actual life a constant intermixture of these two main 
 groups of causes is found at work. One set of influences 
 alone rarely determines the amount of employment that a 
 man is able to secure. Moreover the comparative strength 
 with which the two sets of causes bear upon the individual 
 varies at different times. Incompetency and unreliability, 
 for instance, become less effective as disqualifications for 
 service with increasing intensity of demand. 
 
 Many personal causes of economic weakness induce, not 
 irregularity of employment, but rather a permanent dis- 
 qualification for this or that particular occupation. Thus, 
 muscular weakness is incompatible with navvies' work, 
 defective eyesight with that of the engine-driver, and 
 clumsiness with that of the scientific instrument maker. 
 In declining health or advancing years, however, such 
 physical causes may increase the insecurity of tenure at 
 different periods of the individual life, and, when once an 
 old place has been lost, become a powerful cause of 
 subsequent irregularity. 
 
 * Seasonal and cyclical variations, as measured by actual unemployment, 
 are well illustrated by the tables and charts compiled from the trade union 
 and employers' returns to the Board of Trade. Vide Annual Reports of the 
 Labour Department ; and in the evidence given by Mr. H. Llewellyn Smith 
 (Commissioner of Labour) before the Parliamentary Committee on Distress 
 from Want of Employment (Third Eeport, 1895). 
 
234 
 
 SURVEY AND CONCLUSIONS. 
 
 Intellectual qualifications in the same way have a 
 permanent and persistent effect upon occupation followed, 
 roughly determining the status of the individual. The 
 illiterate man, no matter how steady he may be, does not 
 become a mechanical engineer, nor, under normal con- 
 ditions, does the clever artisan sweep our roads. But 
 the intelligence of members of the same trade varies, 
 and this variation constitutes, when demand is weak, a 
 fairly well defined cause of irregularity, affecting in the 
 first place those whose intelligence, although perhaps equal 
 to the rough general standard ordinarily demanded in the 
 trade, is below the average. Here also we notice a constant 
 intermixture in their effects of the personal and impersonal 
 causes. 
 
 In moral qualities we find a cause of irregular employ- 
 ment both more variable and more independent in its 
 action. Physique and intelligence determine roughly the 
 industrial position of the individual and leave him there. 
 But it is more frequently otherwise as regards moral 
 standard. In this there lies a greater likelihood of 
 changes during the normal working years of a man's life, 
 whether of deterioration or improvement. In this is 
 probably found the justification of the very general opinion 
 that moral weakness in one form or another is the prolific, 
 if not the main, source of irregularity of employment. And 
 undoubtedly intemperance, dishonesty, laziness, negligence, 
 carelessness, unpunctuality, disobedience or a quarrelsome 
 habit — all the qualities in fact that combine to make up 
 either an untrustworthy man, a mauvais sujct, or a nuisance 
 — are constant sources of economic weakness. 
 
 The causes that have been so far mentioned have been 
 regarded as acting independently of the direct initiative of 
 the individual. Responsibility may rest with him, but the 
 actual displacement, it has been assumed, takes place through 
 the employer, the workman receiving, not giving, notice. 
 
IRREGULARITY OF EARNINGS. 
 
 235 
 
 But much irregular employment is due to the direct 
 initiative of the wage-earner himself. The cases in which 
 customary habits lead to regular irregularity week by week 
 have been already noticed, and there are other instances 
 in which discontinuity of work within short recurring 
 periods is largely due to the influence of the occupation 
 itself, as may be illustrated by contrasting the work of the 
 coal-porter with that of the joiner. 
 
 The power to earn high wages, whether attained by 
 effective organization, or by the possession of exceptional 
 skill or strength, not infrequently becomes a direct cause of 
 irregular work. Thus of the portmanteau and leather case 
 makers an employer enunciates the hard saying that " the 
 best workmen are all drunkards " ; among the small but 
 highly organized body of saddle tree-makers it is " not a 
 very uncommon thing for men to remain ' on the booze 9 for 
 weeks together." The metallic cask-makers used to earn 
 such good wages that they were often unwilling to come in 
 during the first part of the week, and the increasing use 
 of machinery in their trade has been traced to this practice; 
 among the bamboo and cane-makers an employer reports 
 that " Englishmen work the best and earn the most, 
 but drink the most. Foreigners when ' green ' are sober." 
 Electrical workers, we hear, " though earning good wages, 
 do not save; their work is irregular and so are their 
 habits " ; among silversmiths many of the best piece- 
 workers, still earning 40s per week or more, " make their 
 Sunday last three days " ; and of the pianoforte makers 
 some of the quickest and smartest workmen are found 
 in shops where work is most irregular and where there 
 is most drinking. " These men," it is said, " do not want 
 work every week in the year ; hard work and large earnings 
 succeeded by idleness and hard drinking make exactly the 
 life that suits them." So, too, " coalies " will earn as 
 much as 20s or more by a single prolonged spell of work, 
 and spend it all before beginning again. 
 
23G 
 
 SURVEY AND CONCLUSIONS. 
 
 These instances are drawn from particular trades, but 
 examples of the same characteristics, with more or less 
 admixture of the laxity of the easy-going or the selfishness 
 of the positively vicious, are to be found scattered over 
 almost every field of employment. In addition, with 
 irregularity based on their own weak wills or ingrained 
 habits, we have the lower class of the casual labourer and 
 street loafer — those shiftless denizens of every great city — 
 making up a large body of individuals to whom irregularity 
 is freedom and who find some compensation for the pre- 
 cariousness of their existence in the spurious independence 
 their mode of life secures. 
 
 Among some female workers similar traits of irregularity 
 are to be noticed. Thus, among the fancy-box makers one 
 employer, remarking on differences of character amongst the 
 girls in his service, and the prevalence of the habit among 
 some of them of going out "for a spree" of two or three days 
 and then coming back to "work like niggers," mentions 
 especially that some of his best workers do this ; and 
 Miss Collet draws attention to the same fact in the chapter 
 on Women's Work in Vol. 1Y. of our first series. After 
 referring to the voluntary absence of some 60 per cent, of 
 the girls of the Victoria Match Factory for periods of from 
 half a day to two days per week, Miss Collet continues : 
 " this irregularity of attendance is found in all factories 
 among what might be called the 8s to 10s girls. These 
 wages give these girls as much as they care to work for, 
 and after that they like holidays best." * 
 
 Change from one employer to another is not, however, 
 necessarily a sign of economic weakness. It is often 
 deliberately incurred from entirely reasonable motives. In 
 many trades in which discontinuity is normal, the moment 
 of enforced movement is sometimes forestalled, those 
 who foresee the impending cessation of employment, shifting 
 * Vol. IV., p. 323 (First Series). 
 
IRREGULARITY OF EARNINGS. 
 
 237 
 
 voluntarily, thereby increasing, instead of diminishing, the 
 degree of regularity of employment they cau secure. 
 
 Occasionally men change their place of work from a 
 personal preference for some particular foreman, employer 
 or shop mates, even in the absence of any direct material 
 advantage, as in wages. At other times there is a bolder 
 change, and, especially in the earlier years of the working 
 life, the recognition of the value of a wider experience 
 becomes a powerful motive to discontinuity. The restless- 
 ness that leads men to move doubtless shades down by 
 imperceptible degrees, from the execution of the well- 
 considered plan by which trade knowledge may be 
 perfected, to pure shiftlessness.* It must be recognized, 
 therefore, that moving from employer to employer, or 
 from place to place, does not always indicate weakness or 
 insecurity of position. It may be, rather, a sign of economic 
 strength ; of a more than average intelligence and independ- 
 ence, tending to make the industrial footing surer and so 
 to increase the chances of regular employment in later years. 
 
 The intermixture of personal and economic considera- 
 tions are best illustrated by the motives actuating 
 employers when trade is slack. 
 
 In every occupation there are some employees whose 
 industrial tenure is less secure than that of others. They 
 are, it may be, less capable, less trustworthy, or less easy 
 to get on with, and when any are dismissed these men 
 go first. Their elimination is less certain and less 
 sudden in some trades than in others, according to the 
 character of the work, to the nature and extent of the plant 
 used, to the method of remuneration, or to other causes. 
 But even in circumstances that facilitate continuous work 
 employers rather welcome the opportunity that offers for 
 
 * In the puzzling English language, I would beg any foreign reader to 
 observe, "A shifty man in pure shiftlessness may shift," and still leave the 
 overworked word " shift" with two distinct meanings. 
 
238 
 
 SURVEY AND CONCLUSIONS. 
 
 weeding out those whose services are unsatisfactory. 
 These are the Jonahs, without power of prophecy or even 
 of foresight, who are thrown overboard. 
 
 Thus, of pianoforte workers, an employer reports that 
 the slack time is "the opportunity for weeding out the 
 black sheep ; any men inclined to unsteadiness or idleness, 
 drunkenness or sedition are then generally got rid of." Of 
 the shipwrights we read, "the second-rate men are the 
 casuals, taken on when wanted;" of French polishers, " the 
 best hands have as usual the most regular work; the 
 irregularity falls to the lot of the extra men employed at 
 busy times, when double the regular working staff is not 
 infrequently needed." Of cabinet makers an employer says, 
 "When work is slack the worst men are discharged;" but,, 
 he adds, that he has four men " whom he would not dis- 
 charge even if trade were very bad. He would make stock 
 to keep them going." Of bookbinders a journeyman says, 
 " the employers will keep on the regular staff, discharging 
 those who were taken on during the busy time. . . . These 
 would be the first discharged. The same men are always 
 signing the book " — that is, the out-of-work book of the 
 trade society. Of the machine watchmakers an employer 
 states that they try as far as possible to let their good 
 hands have regular work, "and do not attempt to keep 
 on their less good men by lowering the hours of work all 
 round, though this plan has to be adopted when trade is 
 extremely slack ; " and among the barge-builders, who are- 
 paid on a time-rate of 7s 6d a day, it is the young and old 
 who are the first to suffer in slack times. 
 
 Displacement is so frequently due to the conjunction 
 of some form of personal disqualification and the pressure 
 of disadvantageous economic conditions, that it may 
 perhaps be assumed that only in the minority of cases 
 is one set of influences alone sufficient to determine the 
 question of employment for any individual man. We must 
 
IRREGULARITY OF EARNINGS. 
 
 239 
 
 not, however, be led on to the acceptance of what may 
 seem to be the comforting corollary (solacing thought to 
 many a respectable citizen), that " a steady man who knows 
 his trade can always secure employment/'' for that is not 
 always so ; but it is certainly the exception to find men of 
 this stamp so placed that the uncertainty of their position 
 becomes for them a source of serious difficulty. They form 
 rather the well-lubricated working-class members of society, 
 moving without much loss of energy, and slipping readily 
 into the places which they are able to fill. It is the less 
 steady and the less efficient who feel the friction, and creak 
 as they move. But, as a corrective of complacency, the 
 following pertinent instance from the notes of our evidence 
 may perhaps be cited. An East London sugar refiner, 
 who had for some time previously to the time of our 
 interview been obliged gradually to discharge his staff, 
 reported that one of the men had called regularly at the 
 works every morning for three months in the hope of being 
 re-engaged. " At the end of that time he disappeared, and 
 on inquiry it was found that he had been sent to gaol for 
 housebreaking. He had always been a sober, steady, and 
 contented worker, and bore an excellent character." 
 
 Personal causes of irregular employment are closely con- 
 nected with the extent to which the elements of industrial 
 efficiency are demanded. We have seen that what 
 constitutes personal economic efficiency varies greatly in 
 character, and that moral considerations are among those 
 that enter in very varying degrees. In many occu- 
 pations these can hardly be said to have great importance, 
 since certificates of character are neither asked for nor 
 offered. When the requisite technical efficiency alone is 
 needed, there is, from the industrial point of view, no 
 great difference between individuals whose character, if 
 a more personal and more moral relationship had to be 
 established, would be found to differ widely. It is only 
 when there is scope for their display and use that moral 
 
240 
 
 SURVEY AND CONCLUSIONS. 
 
 characteristics come to have direct market value. But it 
 is important to note that in many unexpected ways they 
 act as retaining qualities, strengthening the position of 
 the individual, and securing to him more permanently 
 the particular berth he fills. 
 
 It is the conventional belief that modern employment 
 rests almost exclusively upon a " cash nexus," but the bond 
 is often much more personal and complex. Even in the 
 building trade, in which the most impersonal relationship 
 between employer and employed is illustrated, we find 
 the foreman with his list of known men ; the joiners' shop 
 and the masons' yard each with its nucleus of a permanent 
 staff; and the jobbing builder with his carefully selected 
 employees. 
 
 Industrial relationships constantly tend to reflect the 
 necessity of accord between those who are brought into 
 contact with one another, so that idiosyncrasies are not 
 overlooked, for Dick is as a rule not quite the same as 
 Tom, and Harry is rarely the equivalent of either, and each 
 foreman will have his particular preferences. 
 
 It is almost impossible to exaggerate the importance 
 of this constant undercurrent of personal causation as 
 affecting employment, tracing its origin as it does in so 
 many of its aspects to the strength or weakness of 
 individual character. 
 
 Generally, one may say that the test of a workman's 
 character lies in his power to establish reputable claims, 
 other than those of technical efficiency, upon the considera- 
 tion of employers ; and that of an employer upon his ability 
 to appreciate the validity of such claims. 
 
 Turning to the consideration of the more strictly 
 economic causes of irregular employment, we may first 
 notice those that are accompanied by price movements, 
 and may to some extent even be identified with them. By 
 some, these movements are regarded as the most prolific 
 
IRREGULARITY OF EARNINGS. 
 
 241 
 
 sources of industrial dislocation of every kind, and currency 
 questions in this relation have become the battle-field alike 
 of politics and of economic theory. So disturbing has the 
 subject become, that " currency/' it has been said, not 
 money, should now rank with wine and women as one of 
 the three great causes of madness in men, and we are 
 therefore fortunate in being able to regard this contro- 
 versial question as beyond the scope of our inquiry. For 
 in this case, as in some others yet to be mentioned, we find 
 no special connection with the conditions of employment in 
 London.* 
 
 Moreover, whatever may be the influence exerted upon 
 the conditions of industrial life by the machinery of 
 exchange, it is to be noted that the active processes of 
 trade are for the most part carried on by business men, 
 in a state of mental indifference as to the basis on which 
 the national or international system of currency rests. 
 Or, if taken into account at all, questions of this kind 
 are classed with other vague and subtle influences, which, 
 though recognized as possibly affecting the conditions of 
 the particular market under observation, are nevertheless 
 in most cases felt to be beyond the range of practical 
 calculation. 
 
 All classes depend upon the strength of the economic 
 motives of enterprise. If these flag, the whole population 
 suffers, and in them imagination plays a great part. 
 Although concrete facts, in the long run, exercise a con- 
 trolling influence, a movement in trade is primarily 
 a movement of many minds. Anticipations are hopeful or 
 hopeless, buoyant or depressed, and the effects are seen in 
 brisk or slack employment. Thus, the state of the labour 
 market is largely determined by the ways in which many 
 people are ' ' making up their minds." 
 
 Just as the Socialist is apt to over-estimate the per- 
 manency of the material forms of wealth existing at any 
 * This was written at the height of the bi-metallic controversy. 
 v 16 
 
242 
 
 SURVEY AND CONCLUSIONS. 
 
 given time, and to ignore their vital sources, so too much 
 importance is commonly given to the mechanical influence 
 of concrete facts on questions of price and value, and too 
 little to the results of imagination playing on these facts, 
 and to the freedom with which, according to its interpreta- 
 tion of the circumstances of the moment, each individual 
 acts. 
 
 This is hardly less true on the side of consumption than 
 on that of production, for the proportion of the general de- 
 mand that is determined by sheer necessity has been greatly 
 diminished in modern times. The aggregate demand is be- 
 coming more many-sided and more optional, and, therefore, 
 more variable and more elastic. Confidence has thus an 
 increasing power to beget a freer expenditure, and this 
 expenditure justifies, and in its turn reacts upon, the 
 hopeful anticipations which have stimulated production. 
 In the absence of confidence, the reverse happens ; 
 the energy of enterprise is checked and expenditure is 
 unnecessarily reduced. 
 
 Good judgment in business is largely a manner of 
 interpreting the conditions of a particular market at any 
 given moment ; and in the watching of prices as an indica- 
 tion of tendencies — of stability or instability, of probable 
 loss or probable profit — we detect the secret of the 
 importance that they and questions of currency assume in 
 connection with the problem of irregular employment, and 
 touch on the allied causes of movement — speculation and 
 credit — both of which may become sources of industrial 
 disturbance. 
 
 When enterprise is encouraged by speculation, and 
 credit is inflated, employment tends to be brisk and well 
 sustained. But excess brings the penalty of reaction. 
 If demand has been miscalculated, the inevitable con- 
 traction ensues to adjust the balance, and loss of employ- 
 ment follows. How far speculation should go and the 
 extent to which credit should be given, are, however, 
 
IRREGULARITY OF EARNINGS. 
 
 243 
 
 essentially questions of degree. The latter is closely allied 
 to that confidence which is the very basis of industrial 
 enterprise, and great benefits can be secured by the 
 legitimate action of both. 
 
 On the mind of the merchant or manufacturer price has 
 its influence as affecting the chances of profit, and on the 
 consumer in regard to the income available for expendi- 
 ture. It is to be noted, however, that the trader, the 
 contractor, and the financier are affected more directly than 
 the wage-earner. 
 
 Price movements, it will be readily seen, are the outcome 
 of a large number of antecedent causes. It is the 
 complexity of these and the manifold ways in which they 
 ruffle or perturb the sea of employment that the present 
 analysis emphasizes, and makes it desirable to indicate 
 some of the more special economic causes of discontinuous 
 employment evidenced by our study of the London trades. 
 
 Alterations in the conditions of employment may be 
 quite independent of any internal changes in the particular 
 trade affected, and be connected rather with the level of 
 industrial activity maintained in the country at large. Thus 
 the engineering trades are primarily dependent on " cycles 
 of inflation or contraction that affect the industry of 
 the country generally/' and the transport of goods may be 
 cited as an instance of services, the fluctuating demand for 
 which also illustrates this marked general relationship. 
 
 Other trades which depend for their activity upon the 
 general level of prosperity are the group of industries 
 that provide the commodities coming under the general 
 "heading of luxuries, viz. gold and silver ware, carriages, 
 pianofortes, &c. Some of these are subject to special 
 causes of seasonal variation in demand, but, in a 
 general way, they stand in striking contrast to the 
 great central class of trades, such as baking, boot-making, 
 dyeing, &c, which provide the objects of a more persistent, 
 v 10 * 
 
244 
 
 SURVEY AND CONCLUSIONS. 
 
 because more necessary demand, and are thus less subject 
 to rapid fluctuations. 
 
 In other cases, a closer interdependence of trades is 
 illustrated. Thus, the molasses coopers have suffered 
 permanently from the substitution of beet for cane sugar, 
 and the decline of sugar refining in London ; the white-lead 
 workers respond to the fluctuations in the painting trade, 
 and are slackest in November and December ; tank-makers 
 are busy in spring with the revival of the building trade, 
 while the ironfounders are dependent to some extent upon 
 the same influence. Sometimes it is the slackness of one 
 employment which causes briskness in another. Thus, 
 in the winter, when brewers brew less, coppersmiths and 
 braziers are called in to repair the plant, and many other 
 similar instances might be given. 
 
 Different trades, again, are subject to different influences, 
 according to the size and character of the market they 
 supply. 
 
 In some occupations we find an illustration of the 
 advantage that is secured by a more widely diffused 
 internal demand; paper and cardboard box makers, for 
 instance, were at first mainly dependent on the drapery 
 trade, and closely followed its fluctuations, but their wares 
 are now much more widely used, with the result that 
 there is a greater equalization as well as an extension 
 of the demand. The same thing is true of the tin canister 
 trade, in which et potted meats in the early months 
 of the year, sausages in the spring, fruit in the summer, 
 fish in the autumn, and a little of everything in the winter, 
 keep the men going throughout the year with a fair degree 
 of uniformity. " 
 
 A great local market, such as that of London, contracts 
 or expands in noticeable ways, but those of its trades which 
 supply a large external demand are liable to a new and 
 further range of disturbing influences. 
 
IRREGULARITY OF EARNINGS. 
 
 245 
 
 Thus, the Lancashire Cotton Strike of 1893 is reported 
 as having been a cause of great slackness in the London 
 pianoforte and harmonium trade in that year ; and, in 
 book-binding, Bible work is mentioned as having been 
 curtailed in 1893-4 by the tariff legislation and commercial 
 collapse in America; while the wire-drawers have suffered 
 in recent years through depression in Australia. 
 
 Under modern conditions, with increased information, 
 greater publicity and better means of transport and com- 
 munication, there seems also to be a greater risk of rapid 
 variation in the volume of trade. The magnitude and 
 the ramifications of a great trading activity are apt to 
 carry with them also the sting of uncertainty. For many 
 of her products the world is the market of London, 
 and there are few outside movements, whether they be 
 troubles in Africa, depression in Australia, collapse in 
 Argentina, or excitement in America, that do not re-act 
 upon the condition o£ one section or another of London 
 wage-earners. London and the British Isles have given an 
 unequalled pledge to industrial fortune, but in embracing 
 freedom, they have at the same time donned a fiery 
 Nessus coat. They have left far behind the ideal of a quiet 
 self-containment, and have subjected themselves rather 
 to the invigorating influences of a world-competition. 
 Expansion has become the law of our industrial life, and 
 increasing wealth is its first-fruit. But uncertainty, irregu- 
 larity and poverty lurk behind, and are also in part its 
 offspring. 
 
 The disturbing effects of alterations in the fiscal policy 
 of other nations are well-worn themes, but at home we 
 do not suffer much disturbance from legislative action. 
 There are few industries that can be - affected by the 
 annual budget, and the influence of general legislation 
 upon employment, even when concerned with the regu- 
 lation of industrial conditions, is, except as regards 
 
246 
 
 SURVEY AND CONCLUSIONS. 
 
 women and children, incidental only. In the cases of 
 electric lighting and the telephone system, and more 
 recently in that of the auto-motors, we find instances, 
 however, of industries directly dependent upon Parliament- 
 ary or municipal action for their development, and one 
 thing often leads to another, as when the introduction of 
 the parcel-post gave a sudden stimulus to the production 
 of weighing machines. 
 
 The effects of administration are probably greater than 
 those of legislation, and in some directions employments have 
 been prejudiced in London by the action of the local 
 authorities. The motive has been found in the general 
 well-being, but the industrial structure, although resting 
 on a strong foundation, is delicate, and parts are easily 
 injured. In these cases, as in every other instance of 
 disturbance, we see the first effects of interference in an 
 increased irregularity of employment for some section of 
 the workers. An illustration of this may be drawn from 
 the practical abolition of the private slaughter-houses of 
 London. 
 
 Advocates of this or that particular reform are apt to be 
 impatient of the sluggish movement of Parliament and of 
 municipal authorities. But it is a matter for congratulation 
 when changes affecting trade and industry are introduced 
 by slow degrees. It is invariably difficult to foresee the 
 mischief that may be caused by ill-judged action, and, 
 though there is often a very strong temptation to take 
 up the heroic cry of justice at any cost, it is to be 
 remembered that the heavens may sometimes fall. In 
 matters affecting the material base upon which the whole 
 political and social structure of the country rests, and 
 upon the solidity of which even its power of moral and 
 intellectual advance is largely dependent, it is specially 
 imperative to "make haste slowly/' 
 
 Certain more persistent social and economic forces tend 
 
IRREGULARITY OF EARNINGS. 
 
 247 
 
 often in the same way to bring about irregularity of 
 employment. From within there is the constant pressure 
 of the new generations that are ever taking their place in 
 the ranks of the adult workers. The tide of an increasing 
 population is perhaps the most fundamental cause, on the 
 one side, of well-being, but, on the other, of greater 
 economic stress on this or that individual wage-earner. 
 And as, from increasing intelligence, or from greater 
 adaptability to the new conditions, the young battalions 
 improve their power of competition, we cannot blind our- 
 selves to the fact, that while the community gains, the 
 industrial tenure of the men and women of the older 
 generation becomes gradually less secure. 
 
 In some trades the pressure is from without, having its 
 source sometimes in the competition of the migrant or the 
 alien, and sometimes in the introduction of provincial or 
 foreign commodities. Jewellers, furriers, tailors, boot- 
 makers, cabinet-makers, tobacco-workers, confectioners, 
 and hair-dressers, for instance, are largely invaded by 
 foreigners, while it is provincial workmen who enter 
 the ranks of coach-builders, farriers, bakers (the German 
 influx in this direction having been to some extent 
 arrested), and many sections of the building trades and of 
 general labourers. 
 
 From this influx, London as a whole stands to gain, 
 whether by the creation of a new local industry, as in 
 the case of the wholesale clothing trade, or by the 
 high level reached by some London trades, largely from 
 their power of attracting the best provincial labour. 
 But the weaker individual members of the trades 
 affected suffer in the keenness of competition that 
 prevails. 
 
 As regards the introduction of commodities, we find 
 that in the building trades, although the products are 
 mainly fixtures, the tendency is for an increasing pro- 
 portion of the work to be executed in the provinces. 
 
248 
 
 SURVEY AND CONCLUSIONS. 
 
 In many other trades in which, the products are easily 
 portable, the pressure of competition from outside markets 
 becomes still more marked. Organ-builders and piano- 
 forte-makers, for instance, have to compete more than 
 formerly with provincial factories, and engineering, ship- 
 building, coach-building, basket-making, comb-making, 
 boat-building, chair-making and printing are among other 
 trades in which the position of the London operative is being 
 weakened by competition from provincial sources of supply; 
 while carvers and gilders, lath-renders, oar-makers, gold- 
 beaters, lithographic and colour printers, fancy letter 
 makers, watchmakers, and sugar-refiners are among those 
 that are subject to a similar pressure from the output of 
 foreign markets. 
 
 There is probably a balance of total gain in all this 
 economic movement. But a certain amount of displace- 
 ment is inevitable, and it would be difficult to strike an 
 exact account in any given case. In some instances, we 
 see the competition acting as a stimulus, but in others 
 the contest is too severe, and not only do individuals go 
 under, but whole trades dwindle. 
 
 The extended use of machinery and the adoption either 
 of new processes or of fresh applications of science to 
 manufacture act in various ways as sources of industrial 
 disturbance and displacement. They may eliminate a 
 portion of the labour previously employed ; or may change 
 its character and standard. 
 
 We find illustrations on every hand of the substitution 
 of products — stimulating the demand for labour in one 
 direction and curtailing it in another. Thus, the use of 
 tank vessels and tank carts for petroleum in the place of 
 barrels, and of galvanized iron ware for wooden buckets, 
 weakens the demand for the services of the cooper ; and 
 the introduction of wire-woven spring mattrasses displaces 
 
IRREGULARITY OF EARNINGS. 
 
 249 
 
 the palliasse maker. Perforated wooden seats for cliairs 
 are ousting the makers of the old-fashioned cane bottoms, 
 and type-founders are prejudicially affected by the extended 
 practice of stereotyping. Process engraving has largely 
 taken the place of steel and copperplate ; the use of iron 
 spars, iron masts and wire ropes is withdrawing employ- 
 ment from riggers, mast and block makers; sail-makers 
 suffer from the substitution of steam for sailing ships, 
 and the building trades offer numerous examples of 
 new products which have forced their way upon the 
 market. 
 
 Printers, boot-makers, felt-hat makers, oil-millers, chem- 
 ical workers, lightermen, and to some extent plumbers, 
 joiners and builders' labourers, are among the trades in 
 which a certain amount of actual displacement is being 
 effected at the present time, and, in spite of the general 
 economic gain that tends to follow from every successful 
 substitution, the practical problem of unemployment stares 
 in the face those individuals whose industrial position is 
 assailed. 
 
 Changes in the character of the work and the standard 
 of skill demanded are illustrated by the dyers and cleaners, 
 whose improved methods have displaced many of the 
 upholstresses and seamstresses previously employed, 
 and also by watchmakers, rope-makers, potters, and tin 
 canister makers. 
 
 The deterioration of skill due to changes in methods of 
 production, aided by the absence of systematic industrial 
 training, causes the anchorage of the individual to the 
 place he fills to become less secure. In those trades 
 also in which an excessive sub-division of labour prevails, 
 the individual independence of the worker is weakened. 
 He is unable to work unless he can be fitted into 
 a scheme of organized production, and in most cases 
 needs the help of plant which he cannot own, but 
 
250 
 
 SURVEY AND CONCLUSIONS. 
 
 which forms a necessary part of the processes in which 
 he is engaged.* 
 
 We must, however, not exaggerate the effects on the 
 continuity of employment of this form of deterioration of 
 skill, and apparent loss of independence. In no small 
 number of cases the simplicity of the work and the 
 consequent ease with which the requisite skill can be 
 acquired, actually increase the number of the channels 
 by which employment can be secured. In its extremer 
 and lower forms we find this power of adaptation illustrated 
 by the ability of the foreign immigrant, even in almost 
 complete independence of his past occupation, to pick up 
 some branch of one of the highly localized and differ- 
 entiated trades in East London, such as tailoring, cabinet- 
 making, or boot-making. The individual tends to become 
 less capable, but some compensation is found in the 
 increased mobility that results from the very simplicity of 
 the processes required by his own and similarly situated 
 trades. 
 
 In its higher forms, again, we find corresponding effects 
 due to the general similarity of the machines used in many 
 branches of the engineering trades, and Professor Marshall 
 cites numerous industrial operations as illustrating the truth 
 that " while there is a constantly increasing sub-division 
 of labour, many of the lines of division between trades 
 which are normally distinct are becoming narrower and 
 less difficult to be passed." 
 
 But at the present stage of industrial development, when 
 excessive specialization often means deterioration of power 
 and limitation of adaptability, and when those who follow 
 these highly differentiated branches of employment are 
 often poorly educated and without the intellectual or 
 
 * A high value of machinery and plant relatively to the cost of labour 
 employed, tends in itself to promote greater regularity of employment, since 
 the loss from its disuse becomes an additional inducement to the owner to 
 secure its continuous service. 
 
IRREGULARITY OF EARNINGS. 
 
 251 
 
 physical vigour that are the great aids to industrial 
 independence, the result is seen in a weakened economic 
 position, and in the greater discontinuity of employment 
 that tends to follow. 
 
 Increased simplicity of process, due either to the intro- 
 duction of machinery or to the extending sub-division of 
 labour, has many effects, of which one is the substitution 
 of boy or female labour for that of the adult male. 
 Printing, brush-making, wire rope and netting making, 
 and tin canister making, are illustrations of trades in 
 which this change has followed on the extended introduc- 
 tion of machinery ; while cabinet-making, upholstering, 
 fancy leather working and vellum binding, are among 
 those in which it has resulted rather from an increasing 
 sub-division of the work. 
 
 In many of the influences affecting irregularity of 
 earnings, the hand of nature may be detected. At the 
 present time, when, in spite of restrictive tariffs, the whole 
 world is becoming economically more completely one, and 
 when, in consequence, the more primitive fear of famine, 
 and even of great scarcity, is far removed from the vast 
 majority of the members of all civilized communities, 
 physical conditions still remain, even in the urban centres 
 of England, the greatest single disturbing influence on the 
 state of employment. 
 
 By the time and bounty of harvests this great population 
 is comparatively but little affected. In certain London 
 occupations, however, a direct relation to agricultural and 
 rural conditions may be detected, not only in the work of 
 distribution, as in the handling of grain at the Surrey 
 Commercial or the Millwall Docks, or in the case of 
 greengrocers during the summer months, " especially the 
 strawberry season," but also in such cases as the paper- 
 bag makers, for whose products the fruit season rapidly 
 increases the demand ; or of the braziers, who are busy 
 
252 
 
 SURVEY AND CONCLUSIONS. 
 
 when jam-makers " require new coppers or send in their 
 old ones to be repaired." 
 
 In other instances, however, when nature is bountiful, 
 and even on this very account a London trade may be 
 depressed, as in the case of the oil-millers, who are 
 usually slack in summer, when little oil-cake is required 
 for feeding cattle, but were brisk when the hay harvest 
 failed in 1893. 
 
 Changes in the temperature or the weather have a very 
 marked influence on the state of employment, and the 
 building trades afford the most conspicuous instance of their 
 effects on the demand for labour. 
 
 Eain is an enemy to many occupations. Billposters, for 
 instance, are turned off in wet weather, and at the Docks 
 the same cause may throw from 500 to 2500 men out of 
 employment on any given day. 
 
 The material loss arising from a day of dense London fog 
 cannot be easily estimated, nor the occupations enumerated 
 that it harms. The sole compensating effect is probably 
 found among those who provide the various forms of 
 artificial lighting. 
 
 A curious instance in which weather that is generally 
 unfavourable improves the chances of employment of a 
 particular class is that of the lightermen, for whom, in the 
 absence of such an excessive frost as may lock the Thames, 
 the unpropitious winter weather is advantageous. The 
 explanation is found partly in the brisker coal trade of 
 the colder months of the year, but mainly in the longer 
 time that the work takes and the larger number of men 
 it is consequently necessary to employ. 
 
 A still more important point is the effect of the seasons 
 on demand. 
 
 There are a few happily constituted trades in which, 
 though the seasonal effect on demand for any one article 
 is considerable, a compensating influence is found iu the 
 different character of the goods supplied. Thus, in the case 
 
IRREGULARITY OF EARNINGS. 
 
 253 
 
 of gas-stoves, those used for cooking are especially in 
 request in the summer and those for heating in the winter ; 
 while in the lighter metal trades coal-scuttles and water-pots 
 form the staple commodities, and these again represent 
 a winter and summer demand. The same equilibrium is 
 maintained for the zinc-workers ; while philosophical and 
 optical instrument making are among trades that are 
 fortunate in producing commodities that can be safely made 
 " for stock," since they neither deteriorate quickly, nor does 
 their fashion change. 
 
 Generally, however, it is otherwise, and variation in 
 demand due to physical causes is often followed, as with 
 gas-workers, by an almost inevitable irregularity of em- 
 ployment. 
 
 The seasons as affecting temperature have a yet wider 
 range of influence upon demand, and especially in the various 
 branches of the clothing trade is this influence of the 
 seasons noticeable. Coal-porters and woodchoppers again 
 are busiest during the winter; while frosty weather causes 
 a brisk demand for the services of the farrier. To some 
 extent also the state of the thermometer affects the con- 
 sumption of food and drink : for example, less beer and 
 more spirits are taken when the temperature is very low. 
 
 On house repairs and renewals the seasons have also 
 their effect. The "spring running" is not confined to 
 the jungle, and house- cleaning may perhaps be regarded 
 as one of the many signs of that renewal of life that 
 nature's new year stirs. Thus, dyers and cleaners are busy 
 then, and, although there is an autumn season, it is " the 
 spring rush that causes the greatest irregularity." 
 
 Again, it is when the sunlight comes, and discloses 
 the shabbier corners, that the need of something new 
 to brighten the rooms is felt, with a resulting brisk- 
 ness in many branches of the furniture trade, such 
 as bamboo and cane-work. The corresponding demand 
 for goods at holiday resorts makes itself felt somewhat 
 
254 
 
 SURVEY AND CONCLUSIONS. 
 
 later in the year, nearer the time at which the summer 
 influx of visitors is expected, for whom preparation must 
 be made. Paper-stainers, on the other hand, are busy 
 in the winter, preparing the stores that will be needed in 
 the spring — and many other trades are similarly affected. 
 
 The weather, too, as such, has its own sphere of influence 
 on demand. The winter, with its heavy storms and fogs, is 
 the busiest time for shipwrights and many other river-side 
 workers, whose main employment in London now consists 
 in making good the damage due to nature's destructive 
 energy; while for pleasure boats the busy time is the 
 spring and the quieter and warmer months of the year. 
 
 Lastly, the effect of weather and of temperature on life 
 and health may be noted, and the corresponding effect on 
 demand. Undertakers are apt to be busiest from November 
 to April, and for the manufacturing druggists, also, the 
 winter, when illness and disease are most rife, is the busiest 
 time. Epidemics have naturally a disturbing influence of 
 the same kind, and the outbreak of influenza in the summer 
 of 1893 was spoken of as a red-letter time for the clinical 
 thermometer makers and for the section of the glass-blowing 
 trade that manufactures small medicine bottles. It may 
 be remarked that this note of satisfaction at the access of 
 new business due to a sudden demand is not echoed by the 
 undertakers. They prefer, on the other hand, " a good, 
 steady death-rate. Fluctuations annoy them," since a busy 
 is sure to be succeeded by a slack time. They know that 
 sooner or later their services must be demanded. 
 
 Fashion is a universally recognized cause of fluctuation 
 and its influence is widespread. It becomes a serious 
 source of irregularity in many directions, and the variable 
 earnings of the women who work for fashionable West 
 London dress-makers are among its many unsatisfactory 
 results. 
 
 There is fashion in times as well as in commodities, and 
 
IRREGULARITY OF EARNINGS. 
 
 255 
 
 tlie " season w in London, involving as it does the presence 
 in large numbers of those whose power of effective demand 
 is great, is another strong influence incompatible with 
 continuous employment. In some directions the effects are 
 mainly on the work of retail distribution, but a great 
 anticipatory demand is often created, and this reacts upon 
 the productive industries themselves. 
 
 In many occupations, however, the presence of the 
 consumer is required in order to give the necessary 
 stimulus. We find this influence reflected in the employ- 
 ment of goldsmiths, jewellers, and others whose products 
 are durable, and still more noticeably in that of con- 
 fectioners, cabmen, livery stablemen, farriers, and others 
 who supply either a perishable commodity or some required 
 service of the moment. 
 
 In other cases there is a more immediate cause of 
 variation. The pantomime season gives a special fillip 
 to gold and silver-wire workers and wig makers; great 
 weddings afford brisk employment to lapidaries and 
 workers in the precious metals ; goldbeaters and gilders 
 are specially busy when artists are preparing for the picture 
 exhibitions of the spring ; and Parliament, the political 
 accompaniment of much of the social activity of London, 
 is itself directly responsible for a considerable amount 
 of fluctuation, especially in some sections of the printing 
 trades. 
 
 In some cases we find the disturbing influence in the 
 calendar itself; Christmas is the culminating time for 
 many trades, and production is frequently seen anticipating 
 the demand of the last few weeks of the year. Thus for 
 letter-press binders, fancy leather workers, dressing-case 
 makers, &c, the months preceding the Christmas season are 
 the busy time. 
 
 Times of leisure again become sources of disturbance, 
 providing employment for some sections and taking it away 
 from others. All public holidays, for instance, not by any 
 
256 
 
 SURVEY AND CONCLUSIONS. 
 
 means excluding the Christmas festival itself, make the 
 pewterers busy, while the summer holiday season is the busy 
 time for the portmanteau and trunk makers. But, while more 
 leisured London takes its voluntary recess in August and 
 September, an enforced holiday is in some cases imposed 
 upon other classes. The retail newsagents are affected at 
 this time, and in the letter-press printing these months 
 are described, except for those who work on the parochial 
 registers, as the dead season of the year. In other 
 directions the leisure of some and the absence of others 
 creates employment ; amongst lead-workers, for example, 
 autumn is the busiest time for the manufacture of sporting 
 shot, whilst at this season also the electrical worker, 
 with the least amount of disturbance to occupiers, can enter 
 dwellings to put up fittings and installations. 
 
 Some of the above instances may perhaps seem trifling, 
 but, even if activity be stimulated in other directions, no 
 change is without significance which diminishes the demand 
 for the labour of any set of workers, however few they may 
 be. For it is by the multiplication of such small changes 
 that the great problem of discontinuous employment is 
 created. In the present chapter we have endeavoured to 
 indicate even the tiny rivulets of industrial movement, 
 for there is no general convergence of the streams, be 
 they large or small. Each rather has its own measure of 
 influence on the position of this or that group of workers. 
 
 An influence of a different order arises from the division 
 of the spheres of work as between trade and trade. 
 
 The sharp differentiation of labour has been noticed 
 as one of the main characteristics of the industrial field 
 of London; and, so far as many of the more highly 
 organized trades are concerned, it is in consequence 
 becoming less and less open to the out-of-work artisan 
 
IRREGULARITY OF EARNINGS. 
 
 257 
 
 or mechanic to make excursions into such other employ- 
 ment as might offer in slack times. Thus, while in 
 a small provincial town the man is welcomed who can turn 
 his hand with equal facility to plastering- or to brick-work, 
 and, perhaps, " do a bit of plumbing/' in London this 
 free movement from craft to craft is often restricted, and 
 men are thus prevented, during periods of unemployment, 
 from the search for, or the acceptance of, work in other 
 directions. 
 
 Under these circumstances, alternative employment, if 
 undertaken at all, has to be sought in quite alien fields : 
 the bricklayer, for instance, must not try for work in 
 the mason's yard ; the joiner is forbidden to poach in the 
 cabinet-maker's shop ; and the fitter who endeavours to 
 secure plumbing-work is looked at askance by members 
 of the latter craft. Sometimes these restrictions limit 
 rather arbitrarily the field of a man's possible employment, 
 and leave him out of work when under freer conditions he 
 might have been able to tide more easily over periods of 
 slackness. This is the penalty that some are from time to 
 time compelled to pay, in return for the advantage of 
 the definite field of employment that is secured to them 
 within the pale of the given trade. But though the 
 individual may thus sometimes lose the reward of a greater 
 adaptability through a convention that prevents him from 
 doing what he can and allows him to do only what the 
 rules of his own and other trades permit, in occupations 
 where distinct spheres of work are usually recognized and 
 observed, the general economic result probably secures to 
 the community, with least friction, the most competent 
 aggregate service. 
 
 It sometimes happens, however, that the allotted spheres 
 of competing and allied trades are not well-defined, and in 
 such cases overlapping produces more or less friction and 
 open dispute, the disturbing effects of which again make 
 for discontinuity of employment. 
 
258 
 
 SURVEY AND CONCLUSIONS. 
 
 In the demarcation of industries and in the difficulties 
 occasionally arising from overlapping, the trade unions 
 often make themselves felt; but, in other ways also — some- 
 times through the persistent pressure of strong and active 
 organizations, and sometimes as the consequence of an actual 
 dispute — these societies inadvertently become themselves 
 the causes of irregular employment. The actual loss of work 
 that is necessarily involved in every strike or lock-out 
 requires a sacrifice that is often never made good, either in 
 the trade immediately concerned or in those that are allied 
 and indirectly affected. A harmful break of this kind cannot 
 be left out of account, even if the ultimate effects of the 
 struggle be beneficial to the workman, so that employment 
 is resumed under conditions better than those preceding 
 the dispute. But the effects are not seldom to alter the 
 ensuing conditions to the disadvantage of the wage- 
 earner, be it by the actual removal of the work to the 
 provinces or to other countries ; by the more speedy intro- 
 duction of machinery ; by the more rigorous exclusion of 
 the less competent members of the trade ; by the employ- 
 ment of a cheaper form of labour; by the introduction or 
 more rapid substitution of some alternative commodity or 
 service ; or simply by the fact that personal relatious 
 between employers and employed become strained and 
 hardened. 
 
 Finally, we may observe that in several trades the normal 
 effects of many of the influences making for irregular 
 employment are accentuated by the conditions as to 
 terms of notice under which men enter upon their periods 
 of service. The right and custom of immediate dismissal 
 on the one side and of immediate notice on the other is 
 widely prevalent, aud necessarily tends to make tenure 
 insecure and uncertain. It is true that in some industries 
 there has been a marked increase during recent years in 
 the proportion of those in more permanent employment — 
 
IRREGULARITY OF EARNINGS. 
 
 259 
 
 notably in labour at the docks, wharves, and warehouses. 
 But in many trades no such tendency is seen, or even 
 desired. The engineers, for instance, require no notice; 
 a clause in the Builders' Agreements for 1892, and again 
 in those of 1896, stipulates for only one hour's notice on 
 either side ; and so with the boiler-makers, who summarily 
 leave or are discharged. Even among female shop-assistants, 
 while in a few shops a week's, and in some a month's, notice 
 is given, the ordinary rule is summary dismissal without 
 any claim to wages by way of compensation. 
 
 It cau hardly be doubted that so loose an attachment 
 of the individual to the employer makes for discontinuous 
 employment even though, as in the case of the operative 
 builders, it may conform to the general conditions of his 
 trade, or, as in the case of the boiler-makers, may conduce 
 to a maximum of personal independence. The position 
 of these Ishmaels of the industrial world contrasts strongly 
 with that of the clerk of a first-class bank, for whom 
 everything is arranged so that when once admission 
 has been secured his permanent services may be 
 retained ; or with that of many members of the 
 Civil Service, whose appointment is practically for the 
 working life. 
 
 The conditions as regards terms of notice under which 
 many men and women are employed go far to justify the 
 opinion that certainty of work is even a greater need than 
 higher pay • but it is not easy to say at what point the sense 
 of personal independence and of personal responsibility can 
 be best combined with fixity of industrial tenure. 
 
 In many directions something may be done to mitigate 
 the evils arising from irregularity of employment ; as by 
 making ' ' for stock " during dull times, or by arranging to 
 move men from department to department as required. 
 These remedies, however, are not equally available in all 
 trades. Cork cutters, billiard table makers, and soap boilers 
 
260 
 
 SURVEY AND CONCLUSIONS. 
 
 are instances of those who can follow the practice of making" 
 for stock, because what they produce is always the same and 
 always wanted, and to maintain a comparatively uniform 
 output is a profitable use of capital. But this is not possible 
 when manufacture must wait for orders before it can act, as 
 when fashion dictates what the next shape shall be, or in 
 many other cases where production cannot safely forestall 
 demand. Nor is it always possible to transfer workers from 
 one task to another. Girls cannot do the work of men, nor 
 are skilled and unskilled men interchangeable. Never- 
 theless, it seems that more could often be done in both 
 directions to make employment more regular, or to apportion 
 it more evenly. 
 
 The practice of employers at times of unavoidable slack- 
 ness naturally varies. In some cases the indivisible char- 
 acter of the work renders any reduction in the amount of 
 labour impossible, except by dismissing some of those 
 employed, but when work can be divided the policy 
 pursued becomes a matter of choice, and the considerateness 
 of the master is then an important factor. The men may 
 be put on piece instead of day work, so that each has 
 a share, or all may work short time, and there are cases 
 when the men themselves take the initiative and insist on 
 short time for all as against the dismissal of some. 
 
 Sometimes the difficulty is solved on the side of the 
 operative by recourse to an alternative employment. This 
 is most practicable for the least specialized labour, but 
 among skilled men also such a change is not infrequently 
 made, as for instance from pianoforte making to cabinet 
 making, from pattern making to carpentering, from clock- 
 making to gas meter and automatic machine making ; 
 from scientific instrument making to electrical work, or 
 from military harness making to boot-making. In these 
 cases the temporary change is to a trade demanding less 
 skill. The opposite step cannot be taken. In skilled 
 trades, however, the pursuit of an alternative employment. 
 
IRREGULARITY OF EARNINGS. 
 
 261 
 
 as already stated, is steadily becoming more difficult owing 
 to the stricter demarcation of the recognized spheres of 
 work. 
 
 In some occupations there is a recognized movement 
 according to the seasons, as from gasworks in winter to 
 the building trades in spring* and summer, and with fore- 
 thought and consideration much, can be done to use more 
 fully the opportunities offered by these alternating sources 
 of demand. 
 
 Lastly, there are various ways in which the private con- 
 sumer can increase the regularity of employment. He on 
 his side, if he will, can do much, to diminish the periodical 
 pressure that comes from the rush of seasonal orders, with 
 their attendant evils of long hours, hurried work, and over- 
 crowded work-rooms. G-eneral rules are said to disregard 
 'very small considerations, but in industrial relationships 
 nothing is unimportant. It is just the apparently small 
 things, when done by large numbers of people, that 
 become material causes of disturbance or the reverse. 
 
 Remedies for irregularity of employment, as we have 
 already seen, are, to some extent, double-edged. The 
 result of every improvement is to reduce the total number 
 of workers needed to accomplish a certain amount of work, 
 and the immediate advantage thus lies with the more 
 competent men, who secure more than their previous share, 
 while a proportion of the less competent obtain less, or 
 perhaps have none at all. The road is hard, but it is the 
 only one to a better state of things. 
 
 It is in such ways as those enumerated that the regularity 
 or irregularity of employment is affected by personal 
 qualities and social conveniences, by trade conventions, 
 business considerations and natural forces. They make a 
 part of that maze of influences in subordination to which 
 men work. The individual for the most part pursues 
 his task unconscious of the interacting forces which play 
 
2G2 
 
 SURVEY AND CONCLUSIONS. 
 
 around him. At times, when some powerful influence 
 causes unusual dislocation, his attention may be arrested. 
 But as a rule the threads of causation are never traced. The 
 woof is too tangled. The majority are, however, saved and 
 sustained by a more or less persistent and reasonable self- 
 regard, and by this self-regard mainly is order preserved 
 and progress made amid the apparent chaos. 
 
 But, meanwhile, the uncertainty and irregularity of their 
 industrial position lead to the personal degradation of 
 large numbers. For them change and uncertainty have 
 no stimulating force. They tend to fall alike in the 
 industrial and the social scale, and although several of the 
 influences that have been considered are signs, and even 
 conditions, of a general progress, they make also for 
 greater industrial stress and in many cases seem but to 
 stereotype poverty. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 EATES OF WAGES. 
 
 The subjects with which wo are dealing overlap to a 
 considerable extent, and with each successive chapter 
 there is increased danger of repetition. Thus, the charac- 
 teristics of modern industry in general do not differ greatly 
 from those prevailing in London, and consist for the most 
 part of the facts as to localization, business structure, train- 
 ing and organization of the workers, hours of labour and 
 methods of remuneration, which have been treated in 
 separate chapters. Nor is this all, for each particular 
 subject involves some, if not all, the others. Neither trade 
 unionism nor localization can be considered apart from 
 business methods, working hours and rates of pay; nor 
 remuneration apart from regularity of work, the chances 
 of employment and standard of life. Nevertheless, each 
 of these subjects, under certain aspects, claims distinct 
 treatment. 
 
 As to remuneration, the most salient and remarkable 
 fact is its variation in amount. There would seem to be no 
 standard, and the laws by which wages are governed are 
 difficult to trace. The variation is noticeable not only, or 
 even particularly, between trade and trade. It is found 
 just as much between man and man within the limits of 
 the same trade ; and applies also, though not so constantly, 
 to different periods of the year with the same men. It affects 
 rates of pay no less than results in income ; it applies to 
 women as well as to men, and to young as well as to old. 
 
 Take any of our tables of weekly earnings in any trade, 
 and it will be seen that the range is from below 20s to 
 
264 
 
 SURVEY AND CONCLUSIONS. 
 
 45s and upwards. Between these extremes — between 20s, 
 which is never the bottom, and 45s, which is seldom the 
 top — there is, probably, a concentration at some particular 
 point indicating a standard rate; or there may be two 
 such points of convergence, the one for the men with, 
 and the other for those without, some special skill. But 
 this concentration very rarely affects as many as one-third 
 of the total numbers employed. Moreover, the amounts, 
 quoted for convenience sake in groups — 25s to 30s, 
 30s to 35s, and so on — really vary shilling by shilling, 
 and except for such concentration as has been mentioned 
 and an occasional preference for round figures, show an 
 almost unbroken range, as will be seen by the examples 
 given below : — 
 
 Wages returns (men). — Shilling variations in weekly 
 earnings in selected Trades. 
 
 Weekly rate. 
 
 Coopers. 
 
 Engineers. 
 
 Printers. 
 
 Millers. 
 
 Carmen. 
 
 Total. 
 
 Under 20s 
 
 13 
 
 321 
 
 128 
 
 108 
 
 40 
 
 610 
 
 20s 
 
 5 
 
 169 
 
 115 
 
 31 
 
 29 
 
 349 
 
 21s 
 
 3 
 
 187 
 
 33 
 
 59 
 
 42 
 
 324 
 
 22s 
 
 3 
 
 133 
 
 29 
 
 68 
 
 15 
 
 248 
 
 23s 
 
 2 
 
 92 
 
 31 
 
 45 
 
 20 
 
 190 
 
 24s 
 
 3 
 
 360 
 
 37 
 
 111 
 
 159 
 
 670 
 
 25s 
 
 25 
 
 164 
 
 59 
 
 73 
 
 71 
 
 392 
 
 26s 
 
 19 
 
 148 
 
 64 
 
 48 
 
 75 
 
 354 
 
 27 s 
 
 20 
 
 231 
 
 68 
 
 42 
 
 67 
 
 428 
 
 28s 
 
 15 
 
 131 
 
 48 
 
 44 
 
 63 
 
 301 
 
 29s 
 
 2 
 
 90 
 
 28 
 
 27 
 
 88 
 
 235 
 
 30s 
 
 25 
 
 316 
 
 93 
 
 67 
 
 77 
 
 578 
 
 31s 
 
 1 
 
 62 
 
 28 
 
 7 
 
 ]5 
 
 113 
 
 
 14 
 
 85 
 
 53 
 
 13 
 
 51 
 
 216 
 
 33s 
 
 10 
 
 253 
 
 31 
 
 10 
 
 20 
 
 324 
 
 34s 
 
 4 
 
 109 
 
 51 
 
 2 
 
 13 
 
 179 
 
 
 33 
 
 234 
 
 66 
 
 38 
 
 17 
 
 388 
 
 36s 
 
 7 
 
 282 
 
 56 
 
 23 
 
 23 
 
 391 
 
 37s 
 
 24 
 
 80 
 
 53 
 
 3 
 
 6 
 
 166 
 
 38s 
 
 5 
 
 612 
 
 404 
 
 4 
 
 32 
 
 1057 
 
 
 2 
 
 198 
 
 37 
 
 13 
 
 2 
 
 252 
 
 40s 
 
 9 
 
 339 
 
 184 
 
 19 
 
 17 
 
 568 
 
 Over 40s 
 
 68 
 
 1431 
 
 740 
 
 54 
 
 119 
 
 2412 
 
 Total 
 
 312 
 
 6027 
 
 2436 
 
 909 
 
 1061 
 
 10,745 
 
RATES OF WAGES. 
 
 265 
 
 In our tables we deal with actual earnings, and not witli 
 rates of pay, but the Board of Trade, in 1886, adopted 
 a different plan ; their calculation was based on " a full 
 week's work," and except in some specially constituted 
 trades, the range is hardly less noticeable. 
 
 What is the explanation ? Why is one man paid much 
 and another little ? What are the dominating influences 
 at work ? 
 
 There are two influences that make for variety — oppor- 
 tunity and capacity. The one may vary as much as the other, 
 but the two are so closely interwoven that they may hardly be 
 disentangled even although in themselves they involve alto- 
 gether different ideas. A chance advantage may determine 
 on whom a lot will fall, but the capacity to make the most 
 of opportunities that offer, goes much further in explaining 
 the differences that prevail. There are also two influences 
 which make for uniformity — the one, combination among 
 the workers ; and the other, customary usage and the 
 standard of life. Whatever value may be given to these, 
 they clearly cannot be the controlling agencies. On the 
 contrary, they are themselves over-ruled; and the greater 
 their strength, so much the more overwhelmingly strong 
 must be the influences they fail to counteract. To say this 
 is not to undervalue them, for though the standard of 
 existence can do nothing to equalize earnings, it may set 
 the tone from top to bottom ; while combination may 
 assist large bodies of men to mount the stairs of life or to 
 hold on to whatever level they are able to reach. Still, we 
 are finally thrown back on the individual elements in the 
 wage problem. Men are various, and so are their earnings. 
 
 If the graduated scale of remuneration to be found within 
 the borders of each trade is mainly due to differences in 
 the efficiency of individual workers ; the wide variation 
 between trade and trade is to be explained by the nature of 
 the services demanded or by the conditions under which the 
 work is done. A trade may involve risk to body or health; 
 
2GC 
 
 SURVEY AND CONCLUSIONS. 
 
 hours may be long or employment exceptionally irregular ; 
 there may be special expenses or special perquisites ; trade 
 union action may be strong or weak; the employment 
 may have the character of a monopoly or be at the mercy 
 of competition from "residual labour." These considera- 
 tions explain why dockers earn less than stevedores, and 
 stevedores than shipwrights ; why the ordinary house 
 painter earns less than the joiner, the vellum binder than 
 the compositor, the cap-maker than the silk-hat maker; 
 why scaffolders command more than builders' excavators, 
 and jewellers than clock-makers ; and why, for the same 
 period of work, wood-choppers earn least of all. 
 
 But in suggesting the possibility of explaining to some 
 extent the position of this or that class of men, or of any 
 individual, it must not be supposed that the elements of 
 the problem are fixed. On the contrary, it is essential to 
 emphasize the vast social importance of movement and 
 potential change. Fixity of condition is the exception, and 
 possibilities both of amelioration and degradation are 
 witnessed on every hand. 
 
 Turning now to the actual facts, I propose to state in 
 a general way, what wages are paid for each class of 
 labour, and to indicate the bases of the bargain. 
 
 I take 21s as the bottom level for adult male labour in 
 London. The employments in which less than 21,9 a week 
 (or 3s Gd a day) is paid are exceptional in character. 
 When the rate is 18s or 20s the work is not only charac- 
 terized usually by great regularity and constancy with no 
 slack seasons or lost days, but is generally such as a quite 
 young or quite old man could perform — men who probably 
 have only themselves to keep. It is work which demands 
 but little experience or muscular strength. Thus, many mail- 
 cart drivers and a considerable number of one horse carmen 
 are paid on this basis. Railway goods porters are another 
 instance, but these men are transferred from one part of 
 
RATES OF WAGES. 
 
 267 
 
 England to another, and the rates paid are affected by- 
 other than London conditions. There are also a propor- 
 tion of 18,9 or 20s men amongst the unskilled labourers 
 employed in flour mills, rope works, &c. Many of these, 
 and still more those employed in market gardening, live in 
 the outskirts of London and share, more or less, the position 
 of country labour. 
 
 For the mail-cart or railway work, or for other employ- 
 ment of like kind, a young man may perhaps readily accept 
 the remuneration offered; but when he grows older and 
 marries, or wishes to marry, he is refused the rise of wages 
 he then badly needs. The employer finds no additional 
 value in his services. He can obtain a younger man 
 able and willing to do the same work at the same pay, 
 or may have boys working for him for whom the change 
 would be a fitting promotion. The man thus has no 
 chance of a rise. He is perhaps encouraged to look else- 
 where, but allowed to stay on meanwhile ; and very likely 
 does so for a length of time, rather than risk the loss of 
 a certainty. But if he moves he demands 21s in his new 
 place or perhaps more, and probably gets what he asks. 
 In this sense 21s may be taken as a minimum. 
 
 From the employers' point of view this is the rate at 
 which a labouring man, without any special skill or 
 aptitude, can be hired by the week in London. But 
 it would not be correct to say that men of this description 
 command 21s a week, for more men than are required 
 are always glad to obtain regular work at these wages. 
 The offer of less money would be refused, but on this 
 wage the occasional loss of a day would be put up with. 
 If hired for temporary work by the day such a man 
 might accept 3s 6d, though he would try for 4s. If hired 
 by the hour, he would not be content with less than hd, 
 and might possibly be paid 6d. 
 
 From a labourer of this kind little is expected. In some 
 cases honesty is especially important, in other cases watch- 
 
208 
 
 SURVEY AND CONCLUSIONS. 
 
 fulness, sobriety or punctuality; in some a touch of intel- 
 ligence is requisite, and in others a degree of strength. 
 The man himself may perhaps be quite unaware of what it 
 is that gives him his value. He is very likely too ignorant 
 to comprehend exactly the place he fills. On the other 
 haud he knows what he wants, and will stand up fiercely 
 for what he considers his rights ; and unhesitatingly throw 
 up his work if these are infringed, or if any trial pushes 
 his temper very far. Such men must be treated fairly well, 
 or, however great the chances may be against them in 
 finding another place, they will not stay. There lies in 
 this recklessness a measure of security; every master 
 knows it. 
 
 More than 21s will always be paid when the work 
 demands any special powers. The qualification may be 
 very slight, but, if the work ceases to be that which every 
 man can perform, an extra wage is paid; and if his services 
 are needed at all, the man who possesses the additional 
 qualification may be said to command a wage of 22s, 23s or 
 24s. But his chance of obtaining work of the kind for 
 which he possesses special aptitude, may perhaps be no 
 better than that which the man who is only worth 21s has 
 of obtaining such work as he can do. And although in 
 case of need the man with some special aptitude might 
 undertake ordinary work at the lower price, he would not 
 be preferred for it; indeed he might not possess in an 
 equal degree some moral quality — such as punctuality or 
 sobriety — which may be the basis of the 21s man's value 
 to his employer. The experience, or extra strength, or 
 whatever it is that enables a man to earn the higher pay, 
 may thus be of no value except under special circumstances. 
 
 The qualities that entitle a labourer to expect a few 
 extra shillings a week are very various, and reach upward, 
 till they may enable their possessor to demand as much as 
 30s a week, but they are not dignified with the name of 
 "skill," and their possessor is still classed as a "labouring 
 
RATES OF WAGES. 
 
 2G9 
 
 man." Of these qualities, physical strength is the most 
 important, and combined with some knack which practice 
 gives, and protected perhaps by some degree of monopoly, 
 may raise the possible earnings to a high figure — as with 
 coal-porters, who often earn considerably more than Is an 
 hour. Such cases are exceptional, but amongst ordinary 
 regular labourers, we find every rate of wage from 21s 
 to 30s, corresponding to every degree of experience and 
 strength. These rates, however, do not depend solely on 
 capacity, but are modified as between trade and trade, or 
 between one firm and another, by other conditions that 
 obtain, or by the liberalit}^ or illiberality on the question 
 of wages of particular employers in their policy of 
 management. 
 
 The number of men in London within this range of 
 remuneration is very great, but it would be a mistake to 
 regard the demand for such labour as forming one market. 
 Whatever quality differentiates a man from the quite 
 ordinary labourer, differentiates him also from all whose 
 special gift is not precisely the same as his, and, as time 
 goes on, and as the special qualities are strengthened, this 
 separation widens. The initial advantage, for instance,, 
 may be strength, which helps a man in almost any 
 direction — but knack must be added, and knack applies to 
 some particular kind of work. Or it may be teachableness 
 that is the first requirement, and then every lesson tends 
 to specialize. Further, as men become specialists they 
 stiffen. Once, or perhaps twice, they may be able to adapt 
 themselves to new demands on brain or muscle, but, like 
 wire, they suffer from much bending, and finally may 
 break, but can bend no more. To be young enough is 
 always the first requisite if there is something to be learnt, 
 but while a man continues at the work to which brain and 
 muscle are accustomed, his services may be increasingly 
 valuable for many years. There are some trades in which 
 the aptitude of even a very old man is not lost. If, how- 
 
270 
 
 SURVEY AND CONCLUSIONS. 
 
 ever, the particular work should fail and a fresh start be 
 necessary, a man must begin again at the bottom. His 
 special acquired value is gone, and if he is old he may even 
 be found to have no industrial value at all. 
 
 Most labourers are paid weekly, bat the day's work is 
 usually the basis of remuneration, and very many of those 
 who appear amongst the poorly paid on our lists have not had 
 a full week's work. When men are employed permanently, 
 the weekly wages are often calculated on a rather lower 
 basis. Payment by the hour is not usual for unskilled, or 
 semi-skilled, specialized labour, but when paid in this way, 
 the rate is commonly Qd. 
 
 Skilled work, on the other hand, is very commonly paid 
 by the hour, and receives from 8d to lOcZ or Is. In most of 
 the skilled trades competent steady men work nearly full 
 time on the average, that is, overtime and short time about 
 balance each other. Full time, however, varies from forty 
 to more than sixty hours per week. As a rule the higher 
 the rate of pay the shorter the day — forty hours at Is are 
 equal to sixty hours at 8d — aud 40s a week is, in effect, 
 the basis of remuneration for skilled work in London, men 
 earning a little more or a little less than this according 
 to the combination they may make of rates and hours 
 within the limits given above. 
 
 Payment by time or by piece does not greatly affect the 
 remuneration. By making special exertion, those on piece- 
 work can earn more in an hour than they would be paid 
 on time, and with men who are exceptionally energetic, 
 persevering, and strong, the advantage may be maintained ; 
 but others pull down the average, and thus with piece- 
 workers, even more than with time-workers, we have every 
 grade of income between our extremes of " under 20s," and 
 " 45s and upwards."" 
 
 The wages of boys do not vary much between trade and 
 trade, and the difference between boy and boy is mostly 
 a question of age. They begin, as a rule, at 5s, and rise a 
 
MATES OF WAGES. 271 
 
 little year by year. The largest proportion receive from 
 6s to 10s. As tliey grow to manhood their earnings (if they 
 remain in the same employment) gradually rise towards 206'. 
 From choice or from necessity they make changes very 
 frequently, and often do not lose by so doing. The 
 qualifications which entitle a boy to his wages are usually 
 not very great ; mainly readiness to do as he is told, and, 
 in some employments, a knowledge of reading and writing 
 and a little arithmetic. 
 
 Women who work regular hours for wages earn from 10s 
 to 20s a week, and the earnings of girls may be put at 5s to 
 15s, but our statistics do not separate the two, and some 
 full-grown girls earn nearly women's wages. Except for 
 learners, who are usually paid a small weekly sum, payment 
 is commonly by the piece, whenever piece-work is practic- 
 able at all. 
 
 Such, in general outline, is the range of remuneration 
 in London. What has been written in previous chapters 
 shows the conditions under which employment offers and 
 earnings are made. The materials at our disposal are 
 insufficient for such a tabulation of wages generally as would 
 show, even approximately, the proportions at each rate, but 
 a combination of our schedules of earnings may, neverthe- 
 less, be of some value if the conclusions drawn are not 
 pressed too far. The very difficulties we meet with are 
 themselves suggestive. If we attempt, for instance, to 
 indicate the rates "recognized and current" in London 
 trades, we experience the same difficulties as those which 
 have been encountered by the County Council and the 
 School Board as regards the men employed by them 
 directly or indirectly on work for which they desired to 
 secure the payment of " fair wages." 
 
 In some cases a trade union minimum can be 
 given; in others we have to content ourselves with wide 
 extremes ; and in others, again, we can only make an 
 
272 SURVEY AND CONCLUSIONS. 
 
 arbitrary calculation on a piece-work basis. Moreover, in 
 many trades there are so many subdivisions or particular 
 branches in which special rates are paid, as to make a 
 general schedule of nominal rates valueless without much 
 explanation and qualification. 
 
 JSTor do we fare much better if we base our inquiry on 
 actual weekly earnings, and attempt, by combining our 
 schedules, to show average results. Each of these schedules 
 needs to be taken with allowances which, though noted at the 
 time, cannot be so borne in mind as to be carried forward 
 into a general statement with any certainty of success. 
 
 For these reasons it is better to refer the student back 
 to the various sections dealing with wages and average 
 earnings in the four preceding volumes. Nevertheless, to 
 the general reader there may be some interest in a state- 
 ment of the facts as to the 75,000 adult male w T age-earners- 
 for whom we have particulars. The numbers at each rate 
 of earnings are as given below, the result being that, 
 rather more than half are returned as receiving 30.5 a week 
 or more : — 
 
 Under 20s. 20s- 25s. 25s— 30s. 30s— 35s. 35s— 40s. 40s— 15s. Over 45s. Total. 
 3886 13,108 17,078 16,818 11,594 6568 6014 75,076- 
 Percent. 5 17£ 23 22^ 15 9 8 100 
 
 «J°/o ~54r/o 
 
 Those who have read the preceding volumes will remem- 
 ber — and the fact is dwelt upon in the first part of the 
 present volume — that from these rates deductions must 
 be made for trade expenses, and that the figures do not 
 sufficiently allow for irregularity of employment and loss of 
 time. The wages here shown are therefore a little too high, 
 and it is probable, also, that the men included are some- 
 what too favourable a sample of the whole industrial 
 population of London. A correction of these errors would 
 modify the results to some extent. The proportions of those- 
 
BATES OF WAGES. 
 
 273 
 
 who earn 40s to 45s, and over 45s, would be less than 9 and 
 8 per cent, respectively, and that of those who earn less 
 than 20s would be more than 5 per cent. The number of 
 those who earn from 20s to 25s would probably be at least 
 as great as that of those who receive from 25s to 30s, and 
 the classes at 30s to 35s, and 35s to 40s, would be pro- 
 portionately reduced. 
 
 Fifty-five of the sections into which I have divided the 
 total population are represented in the above statement. 
 In twenty-eight of these the great majority are earning 
 30s or more, as follows : — 
 
 Jewellers with 84 per cent, at 30s (or more) out of 412 scheduled 
 
 Scientific inst. makers .. ,, 75 
 
 Shipwrights ,, 75 
 
 Printers ,, 74 
 
 Omnibus service, <fec... ,, 74 
 
 Coal-porters ,, 72 
 
 Bookbinders „ 72 
 
 Engine drivers, &c ,, 70 
 
 Cabinet-makers ,, 70 
 
 Musical inst. makers ... ,, 69 
 
 Coopers ,, 69 
 
 Gasworkers ,, 68 
 
 Saddlers ,, 68 
 
 Glass & E'ware workers 68 
 
 Hatters „ 87 
 
 Brushmakers ,, 66 
 
 Police ,, 65 
 
 Watch and clockmakers ,, 63 
 
 Chemical workers „ 63 
 
 Stationers „ 62 
 
 Building trades (8 sec- 
 tions) „ 60 
 
 830 
 140 
 2164 
 1979 
 958 
 781 
 690 
 591 
 308 
 367 
 7420 
 207 
 743 
 208 
 439 
 16,084 
 147 
 403 
 263 
 
 5907 
 
 Total 41,041 
 
 If arranged in an order based on the proportion who earn 
 35s or more, jewellers still lead, but printers take the second 
 place, and hatters come third instead of fifteenth as on the 
 above list. On the other hand, bookbinders stand twenty- 
 sixth, dropping out of this list altogether, and the police, 
 
 y . 18 
 
274 
 
 SURVEY AND CONCLUSIONS. 
 
 whose wages rarely rise above 35s, fall still lower ; other- 
 wise the order is not greatly different. 
 
 Next we have sixteen sections in which there are from 
 GO per cent, to 40 per cent., or on the average one-half, who 
 receive 30s or more. These sections are as follows : — 
 
 Paper manufacture ... with 58 per cent, at 30s (or more) out of 270 scheduled 
 Metal workers (not iron 
 
 or steel) , 57 
 
 Leather trades „ 56 
 
 Booksellers & newsagents ,, 54 
 Iron and steel workers 
 
 (3 sections) ,, 54 
 
 Trimming makers, &c. 50 
 
 Carriage builders ,, 49 
 
 Dress & mantles (men) ,, 45 
 
 Silk and woollen ,, 44 
 
 Soap & candle manuf. ,, 43 
 
 Bakers & confectioners ,, 42 
 
 India-rubber workers ... ,, 41 
 
 Dyers and cleaners ,, 40 
 
 Butchers, &c ,, 40 
 
 1402 
 665 
 399 
 
 13,203 
 170 
 685 
 60 
 90 
 1276 
 431 
 518 
 114 
 223 
 
 Total 19,506 
 
 On this list the adoption of 35s as the basis in place of 
 30s makes hardly any difference in the order shown. 
 
 Finally, there are eleven sections in which less than 40 
 per cent, of those scheduled receive 30s or more : — 
 
 Grocers with 36 per cent, at 30s (or more) out of 770 scheduled 
 
 Whouse & messengers 
 Hemp & jute workers.. 
 
 Millers, &c 
 
 Mineral water makers.. 
 
 Brewers 
 
 General labourers 
 
 Carmen 
 
 Railway workers 
 
 Municipal labour... 
 
 Milk -sellers 
 
 34 
 28 
 28 
 25 
 23 
 22 
 20 
 19 
 19 
 10 
 
 976 
 134 
 909 
 258 
 1502 
 2335 
 2311 
 1241 
 3914 
 179 
 
 Total 14,529 
 
RATES OF WAGES. 
 
 275 
 
 Amongst these eleven sections there is comparatively 
 little variety of work, and with most the pay, though not 
 high, is secure. 
 
 In all except the most regular employments the weekly 
 earnings given in the preceding statements exaggerate the 
 proportion receiving more than 30s, but they nevertheless 
 fall considerably below the nominal rates of wages in many 
 if not in most of these trades. Nominal rates are often very 
 misleading : a man in the street may receive 6cl for some 
 small service which does not occupy him as many minutes, 
 yet his weekly earnings may yield less than a penny an 
 hour. Tkis is an extreme case, but the principle goes 
 far, and average weekly earnings throughout the year, 
 rather than the nominal rate paid for a single week, 
 ■determine the standard of life. 
 
 The difficulties in the way of making any complete table 
 of the prevailing rates of remuneration apply with even 
 greater force to an attempt to give exact particulars of 
 yearly averages. For while deductions have to be made 
 for fluctuations of trade and for loss of work through ill- 
 health or other causes, special remuneration for special work, 
 or for overtime, provide additions to the normal rates of 
 pay. The net results are therefore difficult to gauge. 
 
 The figures in the following tables are, we believe, 
 approximately true for the average men of the trades 
 mentioned, but they are inserted rather to emphasize the 
 grave importance of discriminating between rates of pay 
 and average earnings, than as giving averages that can 
 be taken as strictly accurate. The first table includes 
 those of the selected trades in which the normal conditions 
 of employment are regular, and in which the difference 
 between rates and averages does not exceed 8 per cent. : — 
 
 V 
 
 18* 
 
270 
 
 SURVEY AND CONCLUSIONS. 
 Normally Regular Occupations. 
 
 Occupation. 
 
 Engineers (time- work) .. 
 
 Zinc workers 
 
 Surgical instrmt. mkrs. 
 
 Chemical labourers 
 
 Druggists, manuf 
 
 Floorcloth labourers ... 
 
 Brewing, Stagemen 
 
 ,, Tunmen 
 
 ,, Cellarmen ... 
 ,, Trouncers ... 
 Carmen, 1 horse 
 
 ,, 2 horse 
 
 Omnibus drivers 
 
 Tram „ 
 
 ,, conductors 
 
 Eailway Engine drivers 
 
 ,, Signalmen 
 
 ,, Shunters 
 
 ,, Porters 
 
 Postmen 
 
 Sorters 
 
 Firemen (Brigade) 
 
 Gardeners, L. C. C 
 
 Police Constables 
 
 Dustmen 
 
 Artificial Teeth Makers 
 Newsagents (Collectoi 
 
 and Packer) 
 
 Millers (Flour) ... 
 
 Time-work. 
 
 Piece work. 
 
 Normal 
 weekly 
 rate. 
 
 38/- 
 38/- 
 40/- 
 32/- 
 25/- 
 21/- 
 32/- 
 27/- 
 24/(5 
 
 21/- 
 24/- 
 42/- 
 38/6 
 31/6 
 45/- 
 25/- 
 21/- 
 20/- 
 26/- 
 30/- 
 34/- 
 26/3 
 31/- 
 26/- 
 26/- 
 
 25/- 
 
 EstimatedlPerccntage; Normal 
 
 weekly I reduction 
 average j from 
 for year.* j normal 
 
 36/- 
 36/- 
 40/- 
 30/- 
 23/- 
 21/- 
 31/6 
 26/- 
 23/6 
 
 21/- 
 24/- 
 39/- 
 36/- 
 29/- 
 45/- 
 25/- 
 21/- 
 20/- 
 26/- 
 30/- 
 34/- 
 26/3 
 31/- 
 26/- 
 28/- 
 
 27/- 
 24/- 
 
 Total 802/9 I 779/3 
 
 Average 29/8 ! 28/10 
 
 6 
 8 
 
 1.', 
 
 4 
 
 7 
 
 8 
 
 weekly 
 earn- 
 intrs. 
 
 Estimated 
 weekly 
 average 
 
 for year. * 
 
 Percentage 
 reduction 
 
 from 
 normal. 
 
 See irreg. occupations. 
 
 26/- 
 
 +71 
 4 
 
 24/6 
 
 — I 
 
 3% 
 
 In a considerable number of these occupations, especially 
 among the lower paid, no difference between rate and 
 average exists. In one case, that of the artificial teeth 
 makers, the average even exceeds the normal rate, since in 
 this instance regular work is accompanied by six hours 
 estimated average of overtime per week throughout the 
 year. Such an instance of excess probably does not- 
 
 Including overtime. 
 
RATES OF WAGES. 
 
 277 
 
 stand alone among the London trades. The normally 
 greater irregularity of piece-work is illustrated by the 
 fact that only two examples of occupations in which 
 payment is made on this basis appear in this list. 
 
 In the second table, all trades have been included in 
 which the difference between the weekly rate and average 
 earnings of time-workers exceeds 8 per cent., but does not 
 exceed 20 per cent., and in which, for piece-workers, the 
 difference is between 8 and 25 per cent. The average 
 deviations shown are 14J per cent, and 18 per cent, in the 
 two divisions. 
 
 Irregular Occupations. 
 
 
 Time-work. 
 
 Piece-work. 
 
 Occupation. 
 
 Normal 
 
 Estimated 
 
 Percentage 
 
 Normal Estimated 
 
 Percentage 
 
 
 weekly 
 
 weekly 
 
 reduction 
 
 weekly 
 
 weekly 
 
 reduction 
 
 
 rate. 
 
 average 
 
 from 
 
 earn- 
 
 average 
 
 from 
 
 
 
 for year.* 
 
 normal. 
 
 
 for year * 
 
 normal. 
 
 
 38/-t 
 
 31/6 
 
 17 
 
 
 
 
 
 38/-t 
 
 31/6 
 
 17 
 
 
 
 
 Carpenters and Joiners 
 
 38/-f 
 
 32/8 
 
 14 
 
 
 
 
 Painters (regular men).. 
 
 34/- 
 
 29/- 
 
 15 
 
 
 
 
 
 28/- 
 
 23/6 
 
 16 
 
 
 
 
 Engineers (piece-work). 
 
 See normally reg. occupa. 
 
 40/- 
 
 30/- 
 
 25 
 
 
 
 
 
 35/- 
 
 30/- 
 
 144 
 
 
 33/- 
 
 27/- 
 
 18 
 
 
 
 
 Tin-plate workers, East 
 
 
 
 
 
 End 
 
 
 
 
 28/- 
 
 21/- 
 
 25 
 
 Paint-brush makers ... 
 
 
 
 
 45/- 
 
 38/- 
 
 154 
 
 
 38/- 
 
 34/- 
 
 104 
 
 42/- 
 
 32/- 
 
 234 
 
 Litho machine minders 
 
 40/- 
 
 32/- 
 
 20" 
 
 
 
 
 
 28/- 
 
 25/- 
 
 104 
 
 
 
 
 
 36/- 
 
 32/- 
 
 n 
 
 
 
 
 French polishers (regu- 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 35/- 
 
 32/- 
 
 84 
 
 
 
 
 
 40/6 
 
 35/- 
 
 134 
 
 
 
 
 Gold beaters (best men 
 
 
 
 
 
 only) 
 
 
 
 
 30/- 
 
 26/- 
 
 1^4 
 
 Pianoforte (back) mkrs. 
 
 
 
 
 42/- 
 
 35/- 
 
 164 
 
 Brewing, Draymen (1st 
 
 
 
 
 43/- 
 
 38/- 
 
 114 
 
 class only) 
 
 
 
 
 Total 
 
 426/6 
 
 365/2 
 
 144 % 
 
 305/- 
 
 250/- 
 
 18 % 
 
 
 35/64 
 
 30/5 
 
 
 38/1 
 
 31/3 
 
 
 * Including overtime. t Raised to 40/- in 1896. 
 
278 
 
 SURVEY AND CONCLUSIONS. 
 
 The tendency towards a greater deviation in the piece- 
 work trades is again shown, and in this connection 
 suggestive comparisons can be made as to the compositors 
 and the engineers, for whom weekly rates and yearly 
 averages are given under both methods of remuneration. 
 
 In the lasfc table certain "very irregular" occupations have 
 been included, in which the deviation of rates from 
 averages exceeds 20 and 25 per cent, in the two classes 
 respectively. 
 
 Very Irregular Occupations. 
 
 
 Time-work. 
 
 Piece-work. 
 
 Occupation. 
 
 Normal 
 
 1 I 
 Esti mated Percentage 1 Normal 
 
 Estimated 
 
 Percentage 
 
 
 weekly 
 
 weekly 
 
 reduction 
 
 weekly 
 
 weekly 
 
 reduction 
 
 
 rate. 
 
 average 
 
 from 
 
 earn- 
 
 average 
 
 from 
 
 
 
 for year.* 
 
 normal. 
 
 ings. 
 
 for year.* 
 
 normal. 
 
 
 
 
 
 37/- 
 
 27/- 
 
 27 
 
 
 
 
 
 45/- 
 
 24/- 
 
 46i 
 
 
 
 
 
 45/- 
 
 15/- 
 
 66| 
 
 Goldsmithsf Chainmkrs) 
 
 
 
 
 35/- 
 
 25/- 
 
 28| 
 
 
 36/- 
 
 27/- 
 
 25 
 
 
 
 
 Brushmakers (Panners) 
 
 
 
 
 40/- 
 
 28/- 
 
 30 
 
 
 
 
 
 30/- 
 
 21/- 
 
 30 
 
 
 
 
 
 35/- 
 
 25/- 
 
 28i 
 
 
 
 
 
 30/- 
 
 20/- 
 
 33i 
 
 
 
 
 
 75/- 
 
 40/- 
 
 46^ 
 
 Bookbinders (forw'ders) 
 
 34/- 
 
 25/- 
 
 26 
 
 
 
 
 39/- 
 
 25/- 
 
 36 
 
 
 
 
 Fr'nch polishers (cas'al) 
 
 35/- 
 
 20/- 
 
 43 
 
 
 
 
 Total 
 
 144/- 
 
 97/- 
 
 32i % 
 
 372/- 
 
 225/- 
 
 38% 
 
 
 36/- 
 
 24/3 
 
 41/4 
 
 25/- 
 
 
 In some instances, as in those of French polishers, 
 goldsmiths, and slaughtermen, the deviations are due to 
 normally recurring influences, while in those of dry coopers, 
 of shipwrights and caulkers, they are explained by the 
 generally weaker position of these trades. 
 
 The following short statement shows the loss of time and 
 money to the individual wage-earner that is represented 
 by the averages shown in the three preceding tables : 
 
 * Including overtime. 
 
HATES OF WAGES. 279 
 
 Showing the average loss of time and wages on the basis 
 of the three preceding tables. 
 
 
 Percentage differ- 
 ence between 
 weekly rate and 
 yearly average. 
 
 Equivalent loss 
 per £ on normal 
 rate per week. 
 
 Approximately 
 equivalent loss of 
 working weeks 
 
 Regular Occupations. 
 
 
 
 
 Time-work 
 
 3 
 
 17 
 
 11 
 
 J 2 
 
 
 
 1/1 
 
 3 
 
 Irregular Occupations. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 2/11 
 
 n 
 
 
 18 
 
 3/7 
 
 n 
 
 Very Irregular Occupations 
 
 
 
 
 
 321 
 
 6/6 
 
 17 
 
 
 38" 
 
 7/7 
 
 19| 
 
 The accompanying chart shows graphically the devia- 
 tion in certain trades of the rate of wages from the stated 
 average, serving to illustrate further the divergence 
 between nominal and actual earniDgs. The extent of the 
 difference is exhibited in the diagram by the lighter 
 shading. The narrowing of this space in the lower paid 
 trades is noticeable, and also the greater discrepancy shown 
 when piece-rates are paid. 
 
 The causes of the discrepancy between rates and 
 averages, shown in these tables and in the chart, have been 
 already considered — generally, in the chapter on irregu- 
 larity of earnings ; and more specifically, in the various 
 sections of the preceding volumes. It is necessary here, 
 however, again to draw attention to the fact that the loss 
 of earnings in any particular trade is unequally shared. 
 The average for any occupation would no doubt apply 
 pretty closely to a certain proportion of the rank and file of 
 its workers, but, on the whole, would be the result of very 
 unequal sharing between the more and the less competent 
 of the workers. While many in almost every trade work 
 
280 
 
 SURVEY AND CONCLUSIONS. 
 
 with practically no loss of earnings, and some do so eveu 
 in the most irregular and uncertain employments, others 
 are habitual half-timers. No point has been more em- 
 phatically emphasized by the present inquiry than the 
 unequal efficiency of the members of any industry, and the 
 relatively disadvantageous position of the less efficient. 
 To them, competition deals out stern justice, whatever the 
 cause of their inefficiency may be. 
 
 When we go beyond the individual wage-earner, and 
 endeavour to make a statement of the combined resources 
 of the family, the difficulties presented are considerably 
 increased. The uncertainty as to the average earnings of 
 the individual man is accentuated by the further uncer- 
 tainty as to the actual composition of the family, and 
 as to the wage-earning powers of such of its members 
 as may be included among " others occupied." In some 
 cases, moreover, the " family " of the census is made up of 
 quite other elements than those of parents and children, 
 and the household income may thus be a very complex 
 affair; it may include contributions not only from the 
 children, or the wife, but also from more distant relatives, 
 or even from mere lodgers. 
 
 Our only positive information from which an estimate of 
 family income can be made concerns the earnings of the 
 heads of families themselves. We may, however, eke this 
 out with an estimate of what the supplementary wage- 
 earning power is likely to be. 
 
 Our returns of the weekly earnings of about 17,000 
 individual women, girls, and boys, yield a combined average 
 of about 9.9 6d in all occupations. From this amount it is 
 necessary to make a deduction for loss of time, and though 
 on this point we have rather little to guide us, we may 
 perhaps accept as approximately true for the individual 
 supplementary wage-earner, the average loss of time for 
 ail the adult male workers included in the preceding tables. 
 
RATES OF WAGES. 281 
 
 This average loss, estimated by grouping together the whole 
 of the trades for which we have been able to make a com- 
 parison between weekly rates and yearly earnings, amounts 
 to between 11 and 12 per cent., equivalent to nearly six 
 weeks in the year, and would reduce the 9s 6d mentioned 
 above to about 8s 6d. It is possible that the loss by 
 irregularity of employment is really more than this, but 
 on the other hand a good deal of money is earned by 
 girls and young women who do not return themselves a^ 
 following any regular occupation, and this amount would 
 be extra. We may therefore be nearly right if we take 
 the total supplementary earnings as equal to 8s 6d a week 
 for each other occupied person.* 
 
 The total value of the supplementary earnings will, 
 however, vary from group to group according to the 
 average composition of the census family — that is, accord- 
 ing to the proportion of its members who work. Our 
 analysis has shown that the additional wage-earners range, 
 for all trades, from a minimum of '55 to a maximum of 
 2*15 per family, and for those included in the following 
 table (being, with the exception of the piece-work occupa- 
 tions, the trades referred to in the chart facing page 378) 
 the variation is from a minimum of '62 in the case of the 
 police, who are largely composed of comparatively young 
 men with young children, to a maximum of 1*12 in the case 
 of shipwrights and barge-builders, among whom there is a 
 preponderance of the more aged. 
 
 In allowing for this variation in the constitution of the 
 census families we are able by usiog the table given in 
 Part I., chapter IV., to estimate the aggregate family wage- 
 earning power in the scheduled trades ; and the knowledge 
 
 * We leave out of consideration the wages of adults who are not heads of 
 families, as their money can only in exceptional cases be accounted as 
 family income, and moreover the vast majority of the census families are so 
 in the ordinary as well as in the census acceptance of the term. 
 
282 SURVEY AND CONCLUSIONS. 
 
 we possess of the average total number in each family 
 makes it further possible to calculate the income available 
 per head. 
 
 In the following table we give the results based on this 
 calculation : — 
 
 Table showing the estimated average weekly earnings of 
 the whole family in selected occupations, and the share 
 of the income available per person. 
 
 Occupation of the head of 
 the family. 
 
 Wages of the head. 
 
 Estimated 
 
 Estimated 
 
 Average 
 size of 
 family. 
 
 Earn- 
 ings 
 avail- 
 able per 
 week 
 per 
 unit. 
 
 Normal 
 weekly 
 rate. 
 
 Estimated 
 average 
 for the 
 year.* 
 
 supple- 
 mentary 
 earnings. 
 
 earnings 
 (whole 
 jamnyj. 
 
 
 40/6 
 
 35/- 
 
 Q /ft 
 
 y/o 
 
 A A /A 
 44/b 
 
 A 'QA 
 
 y/z 
 
 
 39/- 
 
 25/- 
 
 8/9 
 
 33/9 
 
 4-67 
 
 7/0i 
 
 
 38/6 
 
 36/- 
 
 6/10 
 
 42/10 
 
 4-41 
 
 9/8i 
 
 
 38/- 
 
 36/- 
 
 7/6 
 
 43/6 
 
 4-62 
 
 9/3 
 
 
 38/- 
 
 36/- 
 
 7/7 
 
 43/7 
 
 4-68 
 
 9/3| 
 
 
 38/- 
 
 34/- 
 
 7/7 
 
 41/7 
 
 452 
 
 
 Carpenters and joiners ... 
 
 88/-f 
 
 32/8 
 
 7/11 
 
 40/7 
 
 4-64 
 
 8/11 
 
 
 38/-f 
 
 31/6 
 
 8/4 
 
 39/10 
 
 4-82 
 
 8/3 
 
 
 36/- 
 
 32/- 
 
 8/9 
 
 40/9 
 
 4 67 
 
 8/8* 
 
 French polishers (regular) 
 
 35/- 
 
 32/- 
 
 8/9 
 
 40/9 
 
 4-67 
 
 8/8^ 
 
 French polishers (casual). 
 
 35/- 
 
 20/- 
 
 8/9 
 
 28/9 
 
 4-67 
 
 6/lf 
 
 Book- binders (cloth for- 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 34/- 
 
 25/- 
 
 8/11 
 
 33/11 
 
 4-41 
 
 7/9 
 
 Leather workers (shed 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 33/- 
 
 27/- 
 
 8/10 
 
 35/10 
 
 473 
 
 7/7 
 
 
 32/- 
 
 31/6 
 
 7/6 
 
 39/- 
 
 4-60 
 
 8/5i 
 
 
 31/6 
 
 29/- 
 
 6/10 
 
 35/10 
 
 4-41 
 
 8/10* 
 
 
 31/- 
 
 31/- 
 
 5/4 
 
 36/4 
 
 4-58 
 
 7/H* 
 
 Signalmen (railway) 
 
 25/- 
 
 25/- 
 
 7/4 
 
 32/4 
 
 4-59 
 
 7/0£ 
 
 
 25/- 
 
 24/- 
 
 7/10 
 
 31/10 
 
 462 
 
 O/lOi 
 
 
 24/6 
 
 23/6 
 
 7/6 
 
 31/- 
 
 4 60 
 
 6/8* 
 
 
 21/- 
 
 i 
 
 21/- 
 
 7/4 
 
 28/4 
 
 4-59 
 
 6/2 
 
 These figures must be regarded merely as a statement of 
 probabilities. It is, indeed, sufficiently certain that the 
 aggregate income of the average family will approximate to 
 the amounts mentioned, but it is only in this way that the 
 
 * Including overtime. 
 
 f Eaised to 40/- in 1896. 
 
BATES OF WAGES. 
 
 283 
 
 figures can be used. Any individual family may be com- 
 posed of a much stronger or of a mucli weaker group of 
 wage-earners than would yield the results shown in the 
 table. But any exaggerated deviation in this or that 
 direction need not be considered. It is neither by the 
 more than usually well -to-do-family, nor by those whose 
 position is one of more than average hardship, that the 
 true conditions of industrial life are to be measured, and 
 the statistical basis of the table justifies the assumption 
 that the figures given in it indicate truly the points on 
 which earnings converge — indicate, that is to say, the 
 most common lot in the trades referred to. 
 
 The actual industrial position of the most degraded is 
 left to a great extent undetermined, for it is not shown by 
 the tabulation of earnings, nor indicated by the most apt 
 study of economic causes. We have, therefore, to fall 
 back on such general knowledge as we possess on this 
 subject, and from that point of view much has already been 
 said. 
 
 In considering the apportionment of responsibility for 
 their wretched lot, the observer may lean this way or that. 
 If he dwells on the forces bearing on the individual, and, 
 from his lifelong surroundings social and industrial, quite 
 beyond his control, he may be biassed in favour of a theory 
 of personal irresponsibility. But place before him any single 
 act of recklessness or depravity, and the theory crumbles 
 away ; no one ever can or does act upon it. 
 
 We are on the horns of a dilemma. 
 
 We ask some man, who seems to have fallen by the way, 
 why he is thus overthrown, why he is lazy or drunken, 
 why he knows no trade, why he is content to work 
 irregularly or for a pittance wage ? why his home is poor, 
 and his wife and children not cared for ? He may be 
 without excuse, and the moral decadence of his own life 
 stand out clearly as the chief explanation of the poor part 
 
284 
 
 SURVEY AND CONCLUSIONS. 
 
 he plays. Yet we pause. We think for him, and cannot 
 but consider: what of his childhood, of his early home, of 
 his education, of his chances of learning thoroughly some 
 well-chosen trade ? And what, too, of the care shown him 
 in the years of his youth and early manhood ? Or, looking 
 still further back, we seek to interpret his life in the 
 longer retrospect of history. Thus a sense of a wide 
 responsibility is realized — if we do not begin with it, we 
 end with it — and sympathy tempers the apparently sure 
 verdict of justice, even though it be recognized that action 
 may, if it soften the effect of disasters, fail to check 
 their cause. 
 
CHAPTER XI. 
 
 THE CHOICE OF EMPLOYMENT. 
 
 For the great majority of men and boys the selection of 
 an occupation may seem to be determined by adventitious 
 circumstances. Yet there are many points, beyond such 
 personal questions as temperament, physique, intelligence, 
 and education, which call for consideration by any person 
 in search of employment, either for himself or for another, 
 which, thougli they may not be deliberately passed under 
 review, do exercise a certain influence. 
 
 No doubt the question of remuneration underlies all. 
 The wages will be compared with the hours worked, the 
 chances of obtaining regular employment weighed, together 
 with the opportunities of advancement. Consideration 
 must be given to the extent to which a trade is open to 
 disturbing forces, such as the competition of female labour, 
 or the introduction of machinery, or the more subtle 
 influences affecting regularity enumerated in a preceding 
 chapter, while the character and measure of organization 
 will need to be carefully considered in judging as to 
 the chances of employment and good pay that a trade may 
 seem to offer. Further, the probability of increasing or 
 decreasing demand for the products of the trade, or for 
 the services rendered, will need to be borne in mind. It 
 is to be noted that the prospects of employment, even- in 
 new and flourishing industries, are affected in a three-fold 
 fashion by the opportunities offered, the qualities required, 
 and the numbers attracted. A trade opening up a new 
 field is often quickly overrun, and a vigorous immediate 
 demand for labour, especially if the skill required be not 
 great, may be an actual cause of downfall for the wage- 
 earner; whereas some little known or even declining trade 
 may be safeguarded by its apparently weaker position ; 
 
286 
 
 SURVEY AND CONCLUSIONS. 
 
 since, on account of its bad name or inconspicuous character, 
 new members are rarely attracted to it; and the existing 
 members, like Brer Eabbit, will " lay low and say nuffin." 
 
 Although the various forces of competition allow few 
 trades to remain close corporations, yet some elements of 
 exclusiveness are often found, helped by organization or 
 tradition, or resting simply on the measure of skill required. 
 To those within the trade, or with access to it, such 
 restrictions are a source of strength ; to those outside, of 
 difficulty. On the other hand, the easier the ingress, the 
 more likely, if no great skill be demanded, is it that an 
 industry will be honeycombed by the abuses of sweating. 
 But if the exclusiveness that a trade possesses be due to 
 the restrictive effects of the special skill demanded, it will 
 be necessary to take into account the possibilities of being 
 properly taught in London, and the amount of time and 
 money needed in order to acquire the skill. 
 
 In balancing advantages it will surely be asked : Is 
 Sunday or night work involved ; and, if so, does the rate 
 of pay compensate for such drawbacks ? Is the work 
 dangerous, or unhealthy, or dirty ? Does it have any 
 physically deteriorating effects, such as the discoloration 
 of the skin or the formation of a " hummie " on the neck ? 
 Is it accounted respectable ? Is the work monotonous or 
 varied ? And, if free from such objections and attractive, 
 is it so attractive and so easily mastered as to draw to itself 
 a large mass of competitors ? Many of these points will 
 be reflected in the wages paid, and all are closely connected 
 with the chances of obtaining and retaining* satisfactory 
 employment. « 
 
 The opportunities of advancement to be considered may 
 take the shape of a change of status, as to that of foreman, 
 or of higher remuneration following upon an increasing 
 mastery of the trade itself. Or it may be that opportuni- 
 ties are afforded of starting " on one's own account/' but 
 it then will be, or ought to be asked — especially if such 
 
THE CHOICE OF EMPLOYMENT. 
 
 287 
 
 chances are numerous — whether the risks of failure are 
 correspondingly great; for, if these loom large, the 
 advantage of such opportunities may be only nominal, and 
 in any case it will be necessary to weigh the conditions, 
 whether desirable or undesirable, under which such 
 a commencement is made. 
 
 It may also be asked whether, if employment fail, there 
 is any natural' transition to some alternative occupation ? 
 Will the work he undertakes make the man adaptable or 
 leave him in a groove? Is the labour so specialized 
 that degradation in the industrial scale is inevitable if the 
 particular employment be lost ? 
 
 The chances of supplementary earnings, either in the shape 
 of perquisites or tips, or special tasks to perform must also 
 be considered. Does the craft afford opportunities, as with 
 carpenters and watch-makers, of securing extra work at 
 home either from neighbours or at first hand in other ways? 
 
 There is a further series of considerations connected 
 with necessary expenses. In a city where rent, always 
 a serious item, yet varies considerably from district to 
 district, the question arises whether the choice of locality 
 for the home is disadvantageously restricted. For instance, 
 if it is necessary to live in Central London a much higher 
 rent will be incurred for the same accommodation than by 
 those living in or near the " outer ring," and such excess 
 may not unreasonably be regarded as an expense of the 
 industry itself. There are other outgoings which evidently 
 have to be allowed for. Tools have to be provided, as in 
 the case of the joiner, the carriage builder, or the pianoforte 
 maker, all of whom must have a rather costly outfit, needing 
 periodical renewal ; or a cabman has to find ornaments and 
 accessories to make his cab look smart, as well as water- 
 proof clothing, rug, and whip. In many other cases special 
 articles of dress have to be provided. With messengers 
 the wear and tear of boots is a consideration, and in some 
 instances, as with shop assistants and clerks, the standard 
 
288 
 
 SURVEY AND CONCLUSIONS. 
 
 of respectability of appearance that has to be maintained 
 becomes a claim of this description. A still more direct 
 charge upon earnings is the provision that the workers in 
 some trades have to make of part of the materials used — such 
 as thread, or paste — or of the fuel needed for heating tools. 
 
 In London, travelling is a tax on industry of no little 
 importance, which would have to be considered in con- 
 nection with rent. It presses particularly on such trades 
 as that of electrical workers, the locality of whose task is 
 apt constantly to shift ; and on operative builders, for whom 
 both employers and locality are continually changing ; and 
 on those whose occupation is localized in a district in which 
 domestic rents are almost prohibitive, as in the case of 
 warehousemen engaged in the City. 
 
 Finally, in these days of greater stress but increasing 
 leisure, the question of holidays would deserve some 
 notice. It is true that for many wage-earners slack times 
 provide the natural holidays of the year, frequently 
 extending over a period longer than is desired. But in 
 many directions the holiday question is important, and the 
 answer that can be given to it directly affects the measure 
 of attractiveness possessed by any trade. The municipal 
 servant, for instance, usually secures a short holiday without 
 loss of pay ; whereas many a man is compelled to take 
 a somewhat lengthy one in the slack season, and receive 
 the while no wages. The ordinary mechanic in regular 
 employment can take a holiday or not, according to his 
 willingness to sacrifice his pay ; but milk-carriers can 
 secure no relief from their regularly-recurring duties, even 
 on Sundays and Christmas Day. 
 
 In any individual case it rarely happens that the 
 advantages and disadvantages of different employments are 
 thus deliberately passed in review, at least with any degree 
 of completeness. The economic adjustment which takes 
 place is due to a much more unconscious process. At 
 
THE CHOICE OF EMPLOYMENT. 
 
 289 
 
 the outset of the working life a haphazard start is often, 
 made, even when the need for money at home affords little 
 excuse for it. The traditional occupation of the family is 
 preferred because it is best known, and not because any 
 comparison with others has been made; or the hint of 
 a friend may be acted on ; or the knowledge that some 
 neighbouring employer who has a good character can 
 take a lad ; — for these and similar reasons the first steps 
 are taken. But the boy, however his start may have 
 been made, gradually forms his own opinion, and opinion 
 is gradually formed about him ; he discovers his particular 
 preferences, his powers or his weaknesses, or they are 
 discovered for him ; and often in this way, even though no 
 measure of forethought has been exercised, he tends to 
 place himself, or to be placed, according to his fitness. 
 Again, it is often some single concrete advantage or disad- 
 vantage that attracts or repels the individual worker: the 
 previous choice of some young friend, and the fact that 
 his companionship can be secured in a particular work- 
 shop, or the presence of a good-natured foreman, may 
 attract ; and on the other hand, a dispute, a fine, or some 
 irritating regulation may repel, and help to divert the 
 individual in this direction or in that. 
 
 It may seem, therefore, that the preceding remarks 
 have been somewhat theoretic in character ; no boy, how- 
 ever thoughtful, — no parents, however prudent or wise, — 
 could possibly weigh all the considerations mentioned. 
 Indeed, we ourselves have only fully appreciated them at 
 the end, and as the result, of a protracted study of London 
 trades. But, though the individual often seems to be but 
 the creature of industrial circumstance, hasty and unthink- 
 ing in action, undiscriminating in choice (when any power 
 of choice exists), and often acting under the pressure of 
 direct personal necessity, in the mass the advantages 
 and disadvantages of particular employments tell. Their 
 variety or monotony, their scope or their limitations, their 
 v 19 
 
290 
 
 SURVEY AND CONCLUSIONS. 
 
 healthiness or unheal thiness, the possibility or impossibility 
 of earning wages early in life, and all the varied favour- 
 able and unfavourable conditions that make up their 
 character — their good or bad reputation in the working- 
 class mind — all these considerations do finally direct the 
 flow of labour. In this way the man is fitted into his 
 place, work is found which he can do, and the level of 
 remuneration in each employment is gradually determined. 
 
 The method is a rude one. Keal capacity often remains 
 unrecognised, whilst indifferent merit may attain to an 
 undeserved position. Happily, the structural elements of 
 the problem are constantly changing. Death solves some 
 of its difficulties, but it is also attacked in other ways. 
 Every rise in the general standard of life, and every 
 expansion of the demand for better paid and less dis- 
 organized labour, helps in the solution of the problem. 
 Inferior ill-paid labour, and the lower classes of labour 
 generally, exist mainly because in comparison with other 
 fields of employment the number of applicants is excessive. 
 By fitting himself for more useful and more responsible 
 work, and by seeking it sedulously, every individual may 
 play his part in raising the standard; and may rest 
 assured that by so doing he will increase the demand for 
 that better work which he seeks to supply, as well as 
 decrease the supply of that kind of labour for which it would 
 be well there should be no demand. Moreover, there is 
 probably no field of honest labour needed by society that 
 would not, if worked with a sense of responsibility, 
 become satisfactory in itself, both socially and economically. 
 
 The unsatisfactory nature of this rough process of adjust- 
 ment is being continually diminished by the spread of 
 education. The elementary school is a great leveller, not 
 by any means in the sense of leading to a uniformity of 
 capacity, and still less to uniformity in the distribution 
 of earnings, but in the sense of making industrial move- 
 ment more free. We obtain some indication of the forces 
 
THE CHOICE OF EMPLOYMENT. 
 
 291 
 
 that are at work by comparing the industrial England of 
 to-day with, that of fifty years ago. The old fixity of 
 condition has passed away, and in schools, railways, and 
 industrial development we find the main explanations of 
 this change. The colours, formerly constant, now, as in 
 a kaleidoscope, shift and change and intermingle. 
 
 It is the young who are most mobile. In spite of all the 
 limiting influences of ignorance, indifference and poverty, 
 there is among the vast majority of parents, and among 
 the young themselves, a great amount of active discrimina- 
 tion and shrewd thinking, tending surely to fill the ranks 
 of the expanding and to deplete those of the contracting 
 trades, whilst maintaining at a steady level those of the 
 more stable occupations. Some may take the wroug tack, 
 and either from their own fault, from the miscalculation 
 of others, or from sheer misfortune, swell the lower ranks 
 of labour by their failure. But these are the exceptions, 
 and not so numerous as those who reach their " White 
 honse " of an improved position in life. 
 
 The rule of adjustment is not broken by the existence 
 of these failures. It is seldom that a competent and steady 
 man, even though pulled down by sickness, is found in the 
 lowest ranks of labour. Those who are forced to accept 
 disadvantageous employment are nearly always tbe incap- 
 able. At times of exceptional distress, exceptional 
 phenomena may be witnessed, and examples of individual 
 misplacement do occur; but in the main the truth is 
 forced upon us that there is an approximately true relation 
 between the men and the work they obtain, and again 
 between the work done and its comparative remuneration. 
 
 We are too apt to regard the industrial world as com- 
 posed of groups uniformly paid, and rigidly fixed as to 
 their position. We see the picture around us — 'the carman, 
 the bricklayer, the dock labourer, the tram conductor, 
 the painter, the sandwich man — and the statical aspects of 
 society, and the forces which uphold it, come uppermost 
 v 19 * 
 
292 
 
 SURVEY AND CONCLUSIONS. 
 
 iii our minds. But when we endeavour to trace the road 
 by which each individual has travelled or is travelling, 
 the dynamic forces at work are impressed upon us. To- 
 gether with the permanence of the industrial type, we 
 become conscious of the incessant change that is taking 
 place in the conditions of a large proportion of the in- 
 dividual lives. Restlessness, ambition, ability, folly; 
 hesitancy, indifference or dullness, carry men along, up and 
 down, and down and up again, in the industrial as in the 
 other roads of life. 
 
 Still there are considerable sections of the population, 
 and even of the younger generation, for whom little 
 freedom of industrial choice can be claimed. This applies 
 to many working women and girls, but more particularly 
 to the boys of the very poor, who are pitchforked into 
 working life with a more than usual lack of care, as errand 
 boys, as van boys, or as street-sellers. An idle father or 
 an empty cupboard leads to many a false step for the 
 children, false because taken either too soon or on the 
 wrong road. In this way the seed is sown of a future crop 
 of unemployed adult labour. It is the modern version of 
 the bygone abuses of child-labour. 
 
 We have spoken of the choice of employment as in 
 theory it should be, and as in fact it finally comes to be in 
 the slow grinding mill of life ; and we have said with how 
 little prevision the first steps are often made. Even with 
 kind and well-disposed parents there is a natural tempta- 
 tion to take the easiest course, and that which brings the 
 best wages without delay. To do so may be to sell the 
 future for the present — hardly ever a good bargain, though 
 one that is often forced upon the poor. In the choice of 
 employment, as in other things, it is in proportion as men 
 grasp the fact that they have a future which can only be 
 secured at the cost of some present sacrifice, and as they 
 are willing to make that sacrifice, that they can hope to 
 attain permanent prosperity. 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 
 ON INDUSTEIAL REMEDIES. 
 
 L 
 
 As our starting point we recognise and admit the anomalous 
 combination of poverty and industry. This it is that cries 
 for remedy. Where there is industry there ought to be no 
 poverty; all the more since we also recognise and admit 
 that we can count as an influence in favour of industrial 
 welfare the continued expansion of national trade and of 
 London as its greatest centre of action, providing the 
 scope required by an active people. 
 
 We therefore turn to the personal element and may find 
 in "the reform of the individual by the individual," if 
 applied all round, the great remedy Ave seek. So far- 
 reaching in its influence that it might even be trusted to 
 create the general prosperity on which it seems to depend, 
 it must, as I have said, be applied all round — to masters 
 fully as much as to men; to those who consume as well as 
 those who create ; to those who buy as well as those who 
 sell. It would cause production to be better adapted to 
 requirements; management to be more capable and more 
 thoughtful ; labour more persistent, more honest and more 
 efficient; demand more considerate and undoubtedly of 
 enormously greater volume. 
 
 These two great inter-connected influences, industrial 
 expansion and individual character, pervade the whole of 
 industrial life, and through them every other influence 
 we can name is exerted, but when we descend to 
 particulars we find their practical application very difficult. 
 A trade languishes because it does not meet the especial 
 wants of its customers, or fails for lack of science. In 
 what way is the management to be amended ? Another, 
 perhaps, is wrecked by the short-sighted, ill-timed or 
 
204 
 
 SURVEY AND CONCLUSIONS. 
 
 ill-judged action of a trade union. The mischief is done. 
 It may be that the revival of a discarded fashion or the 
 repeal of a prohibitive fiscal law by some foreign govern- 
 ment is the only chance for a ruined trade, or there may 
 be no available remedy, save, if there be the requisite 
 mobility, in the transfer of capacity to some other field. 
 We encounter the too often neglected forces of economic 
 friction. 
 
 The industrial evils for which remedies are sought are 
 infinitely various in nature. "We think of the chemical 
 worker earning fairly good wages, but ruining his health 
 by the wilful neglect of reasonable precautions ; of 
 the half-skilled plumber; of the bricklayer on strike, or 
 the bootmaker locked out ; of the housewife shopping un- 
 necessarily late on Saturday night ; of the tailoress losing 
 time through waiting at her employer's door for a retarded 
 task ; of the pressure in the West End during the busy 
 weeks of the London season ; of the long hours and in- 
 sanitary conditions of small workshops ; of the discomfort 
 and unhealthiness of the home of the domestic fur-worker ; 
 of the young mother returning to the factory ; or of the 
 boy of twelve selling papers in the street. Very many 
 needs are suggested, and the remedies considered in detail 
 are inter-connected in various ways. The most certain 
 method, for instance, of securing better health may be by 
 shorter hours of work, or the only way of obtaining higher 
 wages may be through increased efficiency. 
 
 Or, if we consider the principal objects which remedies 
 have in view — higher wages, more regular work, shorter 
 hours, better health and longer life, greater personal 
 safety, proper training and increased efficiency, and the 
 maintenance of industrial peace— it is clear that the 
 pursuit of all these objects is not equally reasonable or 
 requisite in every field of employment. To some they do 
 not apply at all. 
 
 The appropriate instrument of remedial action will 
 
ON INDUSTRIAL REMEDIES. 
 
 205 
 
 vary with the object aimed at. Sometimes we may find 
 the instrument within the borders of the trade concerned. 
 To employers and foremen, for instance, we may look for 
 better management and more thoughtful distribution of 
 work, by which the maximum of regularity may be secured, 
 not only from week to week but also from day to day ; or 
 to the wage-earner for greater care in using the safeguards 
 prescribed for health ; or to employers and employed alike 
 for the frankness and consideration which conduce to the 
 maintenance of satisfactory relations. 
 
 Or we may have to look outside the borders of the 
 particular trade : to Parliament for legislation or to 
 local authorities for bye-laws; to the central or local 
 government for better administration ; to the consumer for 
 some discrimination as to what is purchased, that it be not 
 <f cheap and nasty," and for some regard as to when 
 purchases are made or orders given, so that undue pressure 
 or excessive hours of work may be avoided. Or finally, 
 when those within the trade are either apathetic or helpless, 
 we may find in an aroused and enlightened public opinion 
 the main lever by which the tardy wheels of reform may 
 be quickened. 
 
 There is thus no single panacea, no philosopher's stone 
 by which economists or statesmen can touch the surging 
 life of London, even with the glint of an age of gold. It is, 
 indeed, not this or that particular remedy that is the most 
 essential need, but rather a vital movement; not laws or 
 regulations, but the creation of a quiet determination on 
 the part of men and women, rich and poor alike, to do 
 their individual share. 
 
 Industrial remedies must not be curative, only, of 
 existing evils ; they must be preventive also ; and pre- 
 pared to meet new evils as they arise. Again the same 
 large principles apply; foresight and adaptability are 
 demanded from the individual to take advantage of the 
 
296 
 
 SURVEY AND CONCLUSIONS. 
 
 cushion of continuous expansion, and in the facts as to 
 declining and expanding trades we have evidence of the 
 remarkable, and for the most part unobserved, processes 
 of industrial adaptation and elasticity. But important 
 as are the facts of these changes, far more so are those 
 brought about by death. If only we could apply 
 effective remedial action to the young, in a generation the 
 evil conditions which seem so unchangeable would be 
 swept away. Thus it is that education comes to be of the 
 first importance. 
 
 What we seek from education is not simply, nor perhaps 
 even primarily, economic in character, but the best hope of 
 economic improvement is insured by this foundation ; and 
 on this basis the adoption of other remedies becomes more 
 possible. Few of these have an entirely external source; 
 and, even when authority steps in, there is nearly always 
 need for the intelligent co-operation of the individuals 
 affected. Factory legislation and sanitary measures, for 
 instance, are more easily administered for those who 
 can understand and appreciate the regulations by which 
 they benefit. 
 
 The most valuable external influences, however, are not 
 those which control the individual, but those which enable 
 him to act more freely and more intelligently for himself. 
 In this respect above all, we recognize the fundamental 
 importance of education as an instrument of industrial 
 reform. For some, the advantages secured by a complete 
 scientific training may be the first consideration ; and for 
 others a sufficient though more limited technical training. 
 But for all, the " education of the citizen" will be calculated 
 to have solid and beneficial results, and the extent to which 
 the advantages of technical education in particular, and of 
 improved industrial training generally, will be used, is 
 largely determined by the thoroughness of the preliminary 
 teaching. From this consideration the proposal to raise 
 the age of legal employment derives its great practical 
 
ON INDUSTRIAL REMEDIES. 
 
 297 
 
 importance. At present it is often just the quickest 
 children who, because they are able to pass the prescribed 
 standards at the earliest age, are most liable to be with- 
 drawn from the school influences from which they, 
 especially, are able to benefit. Still further restrictions on 
 the employment of the young would be desirable, but may 
 not be practicable. 
 
 The thousand opportunities for earning precarious liveli- 
 hoods presented by great centres of population are an evil 
 peculiarity; a source of demoralization for all who come 
 within their influence, and most especially for the young. 
 It may be that this does not apply to London to any 
 disproportionate extent when compared with its vast 
 population, but in a village or small town, those who gain 
 a subsistence in this way are merely a few, or it may even 
 be only isolated members of society ; whereas, in London 
 they form a large class, exerting the influence of a class, 
 and affording day by day a deplorable and seductive 
 demonstration of the possibility of scraping through life 
 without knowledge of any trade, without discipline, and 
 without even the elements of an orderly industrial life. 
 If it were possible by stricter police regulations against 
 loafing and cadging, no less than against begging, to check 
 the manufacture of this class, it would be desirable by these 
 means to weaken the harmful influence of the school of 
 irregularity which some of our public thoroughfares 
 present. 
 
 The immense London demand for boy labour, at high 
 rates of wages, but for employments which have no future, 
 is, from many points of view, a matter for regret, but 
 errand boys, messenger boys, van boys, and those employed 
 on mechanical tasks in excessively specialized trades, have 
 at any rate a better chance than those who find their 
 living in the streets, and the fact that there is this demand 
 for young labour facilitates the absorption of wastrel 
 boys into industry. 
 
298 
 
 SURVEY AND CONCLUSIONS. 
 
 In the enforcement of special provisions for the preser- 
 vation of health and safety we have a wide field for 
 external remedial action, although the most important 
 steps, here as almost always, must be taken from within. 
 The motives of the simple Acts passed in the early years of 
 the century, and those of the complex code of factory and 
 workshop regulations now in force, are the same; but the 
 scope has been extended, and in most respects adult 
 workers of both sexes are now as much protected by law as 
 the children and apprentices who were the special care of 
 earlier legislation. In provisions for cleanliness, ventilation, 
 amount of space and sanitary arrangements, there are now 
 practically no exceptions in respect of age or sex ; but it 
 is of less importance to ask what is, or might be, the scope 
 of the regulations of the Factory Acts and Public Health 
 Act, than to consider by what system of inspection or 
 penalty they can be enforced. 
 
 It is of the first importance that the regulations, if 
 observed at all, should be observed by everybody alike, 
 since otherwise, if the enactments are in any way a burthen, 
 those who conform to the law are penalized by so doing. 
 This equality before the law is far from being attained. 
 In the practical work of administration the first task is the 
 registration of the places liable to inspection, and this is 
 most difficult in those very districts in which the enforcement 
 of the Acts is most needed. In many parts of London it 
 has not been found possible to complete even this initial 
 step, and much time is lost owing to the frequency of 
 changes of address. The task, undertaken as it is with 
 insufficient clerical and subordinate assistance, occupies 
 several years. 
 
 In this connection, however, I strongly advocate the 
 placing of a large share of responsibility on the landlord, 
 not only in the matter of registration, but as regards all 
 provisions of the law. Questions of structure, ventilation, 
 sanitation, &c, are directly his concern, and registration 
 
ON INDUSTRIAL REMEDIES. 
 
 299 
 
 should be. It is his proper business to know the purpose 
 for which his premises are used, and he should be responsi- 
 ble for their fitness. Neglect might fairly be punished by 
 a substantial fine. Questions of crowding and of hours 
 worked are directly the concern of the tenant, but it would 
 not be amiss that the landlord should be also responsible, 
 in so far as to be ultimately liable for the payment of any 
 fines incurred in these respects which could not be recovered 
 from the tenant. In this way, and, as I believe, in no other 
 way, the necessary regulations could be uniformly enforced. 
 It may be thought unfair to put this burthen of responsi- 
 bility on the landlord, but he has the remedy in his own 
 hands. If he can collect rent he can collect fines, and, 
 moreover, may do much to prevent their being incurred. 
 His interest will be with the keeping of the law, not with 
 its breach, and so in him inspection will find an ally. It 
 is by performing such duties that urban landlords can best 
 justify and make secure the great position they hold in the 
 social economy. Should the landlord, however, shrink 
 from, the direct performance of this duty, he will be all the 
 more obliged to protect himself by charging some extra 
 rent to any tenant whose conduct or responsibility was not 
 to be trusted, and this extra rent, by placing the probable 
 law-breaker at a disadvantage, would, in so far, bring about 
 the desired end. 
 
 The strict and uniform enforcement of such regulations 
 would do much to raise the character of small workshops, 
 and would tend to bring about a desirable separation of 
 the premises used for work from those used for domestic 
 purposes. At present, although the work of factory 
 inspectors and medical officers of health, with their subord- 
 inates, is often excellent, they seem to act too much in the 
 dark, emerging only from time to time before the public gaze 
 through the medium of a police court. In this connection 
 the effects of the agitation at the time of the appointment 
 and during the investigations of the Sweating Commission, 
 
300 
 
 SURVEY AND CONCLUSIONS. 
 
 are suggestive. The public attention which was directed 
 to the conditions under which, much work was at that 
 time given out to sub-contractors led, as is well known, 
 to a temporary improvement in some trades. Employers 
 became alarmed, and it does not appear why the powers 
 of publicity and the motive of fear should not be more 
 constantly used. 
 
 A question arises as to the definition of a workshop. 
 The more perfect the system of registration and the more 
 clearly the responsibility of the landlord can be established, 
 the further will it be possible to carry the operation of the 
 law. The object must be to include all manufacturing 
 employment in which wages are paid, or in which several 
 persons are working together in combination. In all 
 such cases it should be recognized that the State enters as 
 a third party and may insist, for the general good of the 
 community, that certain conditions are observed. Fair 
 play and sound policy alike demand that the pressure thus 
 exercised is not limited in its incidence to any particular 
 methods of employment. If factories are regulated, work- 
 shops must not be uncontrolled, nor must small workshops 
 evade a law to which large ones are liable ; nor, so far as 
 possible, must work done in the homes of the people escape 
 the responsibilities that fall upon workshops. The net, 
 therefore, must be large and its meshes small. 
 
 In effect, if the landlord is made responsible for the 
 registration of all premises used for industrial purposes, 
 few would escape, and at this point the responsibility of the 
 landlord would be met and carried to a still further point 
 by that already recognized, though not fully enforced, of 
 the employer of outworkers.* 
 
 * It is provided by the present Act that these employers shall furnish the 
 factory inspectors with the names and addresses of their out- workers, and 
 they are also made to some extent responsible for the sanitary conditions 
 under which the work is done. But the power of the inspectors to take any 
 effective s teps in regard to the hemes cf these outworkers is still an open 
 question. 
 
ON INDUSTRIAL REMEDIES. 
 
 301 
 
 If the commanding' position of the landlord be not used, 
 and if the carrying out by the mere multiplication of 
 inspectors, of the enormous task imposed by the present 
 Acts be impracticable, then some scheme of guerilla warfare 
 should be organized, to be conducted by peripatetic staffs 
 drafted without warning from district to district as 
 required. If such a practice, with its possibilities of dis- 
 closure, were accompanied by a more liberal diffusion of 
 information respecting the Acts, much might be hoped 
 from it, but even so, better local information is essential. 
 
 The present method — with its slow and imperfect 
 pi"ocess of registration carried out by an insufficient staff, 
 with names and particulars discovered as chance offers, 
 and with an occasional remedy enforced or conviction 
 secured — is not unlikely to resolve itself into an administra- 
 tion j)our rive tending to induce a contempt for the law. 
 No steps are taken to ensure public co-operation or the 
 creation of a sound public opinion on these matters. It is 
 nobody's business to make known even the leading pro- 
 visions of Acts of the greatest public utility, nor are the 
 Acts themselves either very accessible to the public or 
 their language easily understood. When a great measure 
 like the Factory and Workshops Act of 1895 is passed, the 
 Minister in charge heaves a sigh of relief, and the Govern- 
 ment is satisfied if a reputation for successful legislation 
 has been secured. The Press cease3 to discuss the pro- 
 visions of the measure, and the task of administration is 
 hampered by the resulting indifference and ignorance. 
 
 The defects and ineffectiveness of administration are 
 accentuated at the present time by the complexity of the 
 Acts themselves and the dual control that exists. A com- 
 pleter independence of action on the part of the Govern- 
 ment Inspectors and the Local Sanitary authorities, seems 
 to be required, but should be accompanied by a syste- 
 matic exchange of information and a stricter co-ordination. 
 The present plan by which the sanitary authority has in 
 
302 
 
 SURVEY AND CONCLUSIONS. 
 
 effect little power over factories except to take action when 
 called upon by the inspector; by which the inspector not 
 infrequently prefers to report sanitary defects in workshops 
 to the sanitary authority, although he has the power to act 
 independently; and by which he has no power at all over 
 domestic workshops ; is clearly one which leads to a con- 
 siderable amount of perplexity on the part of employers 
 as to where authority really rests, as well as to overlapping 
 efforts and slow procedure. 
 
 I do not propose to discuss the scope of the regulations 
 that the law should attempt to enforce. I would only point 
 out that very limited regulations uniformly acted on would 
 be far better than the most elaborate rules, which are 
 habitually evaded by the ill-disposed. It may be well 
 that the rules should go a little beyond this minimum, and 
 be to some extent counsels of perfection, but in their 
 administration it is desirable that the pressure should be 
 gradual. The most essential thing is that it should fall 
 equally on all. 
 
 II. 
 
 The efficacy of trade unions as remedial agencies is 
 mainly due to the assured and well-defined relationships in 
 industrial life which they do much to secure. The best 
 systems of conciliation and arbitration are still being* 
 tentatively sought by tedious and painful experiment, but 
 it is noteworthy that the trade union form of combination 
 is the principal basis on which all industrial diplomacy is 
 founded. This is the greatest contribution made by trade 
 unions towards remedial action. The organization that 
 can wield the weapon of the strike is also, and for that 
 very reason, that which can be turned to the service of 
 peace, and thus at the present time the existence of the 
 trade union in the strongest form possible, and under the 
 ablest, and most responsible, guidance, often becomes the 
 
ON INDUSTRIAL REMEDIES. 
 
 303 
 
 best guarantee of the avoidance of conflict. The definite- 
 ness sought by these societies in endeavouring to secure 
 the best conditions possible from employers, apply to the 
 relations amongst the members themselves, as well as to 
 those between employer and employed; and even extend 
 in some cases to those between unionist and non-unionist 
 workmen. 
 
 As a result of the position thus secured, trade union 
 action forms one of the chief methods by which the 
 principle of representation finds its place in industrial life. 
 The elected officials represent not only the members of the 
 union, but one side of the general interests of the trade, 
 and when they confer with an association of masters the 
 representation is fairly complete. In this way the exercise 
 of a collective control becomes possible. 
 
 We have seen, however, that organization is very far 
 from complete. There are organized trades, unorganized 
 trades, and disorganized trades : trades which lend them- 
 selves to permanent organization, and others in which the 
 principle, though always alive, only operates from time to 
 time; others again which only benefit indirectly, bearing 
 none of the burthen themselves; and finally there are those 
 to which the principle does not seem to apply at all. 
 
 In speaking of a " disorganized " trade we have in view, 
 not one in which no trade union exists, but one in which 
 the relations of employers and employed are fluctuating 
 and nncertain, in which labour is either over-specialized or 
 undifferentiated, or has its scope ill-defined, and when, 
 in consequence, the evils of low wages, long hours, or 
 unhealthy conditions tend to creep in. The disorganization 
 of an industry is a sign of disease, but is compatible with 
 very complex industrial forms and with a highly developed, 
 localization. 
 
 Trade union organization is rarely, if ever, complete; and. 
 the attempt to secure stability of class-relationships when 
 accompanied by incomplete organization is undermined by the 
 
30-1 
 
 SURVEY AND CONCLUSIONS. 
 
 position of the non-unionist. The danger may take the form 
 of actual hostility between the organized and unorganized 
 members of a trade, or may simply reflect the general failure 
 of strength that springs from the weaker position in which 
 the latter are placed. In only a few of the most highly 
 organized trades is the actual exclusion of non-unionists 
 attained, though in many trades the unionists and non- 
 unionists do not work together. In some cases steps have 
 been taken towards the counter-organization of free labour. 
 Whether this be done or not — and it is never done on the 
 independent initiative of the wage-earners themselves — an 
 internecine struggle is apt to follow any attempt to exclude 
 non-unionists, with the usual charges of selfishness against 
 the "blackleg," and of "tyranny" against the union. 
 "Where the union, though it may not be entirely compre- 
 hensive, yet includes all the more capable workers, it is 
 indeed able to force wages upwards, but in so doing 
 endangers perhaps its own position, and certainly that of 
 the inferior workers "beyond the pale"; the operative 
 builder obtains 10 d per hour, and the stricter elimination 
 of the less skilled man follows; the compositors secure 
 a minimum wage of 38s, and the numbers of unemployed 
 among their members increase. It is the same if the 
 improvement in the terms of labour springs from the 
 voluntary action of the employers. The local vestries, for 
 instance, increase wages, and the services of the less com- 
 petent and elder men are apt to be no longer required; 
 or dock labourers are granted more permanent employment 
 and higher pay, and the casual "docker" is driven to seek 
 a still more precarious livelihood elsewhere. Thus, the 
 pressure that is relieved at one point is apt to become 
 somewhat more severe elsewhere : the advantages that 
 are secured to some are accompanied by a greater struggle 
 for others, and especially for the less competent and more 
 aged. The reflex effects of remedial action have thus to 
 be watched and guarded against, lest they engender a new 
 disease in some unexpected form. 
 
ON INDUSTRIAL REMEDIES. 
 
 305 
 
 In this connection the influence and action of trade 
 unions as regards the evils of irregular employment must 
 be specially noticed. 
 
 On the causes of a fluctuating demand for labour they 
 can exercise no control, though they may, in some cases, 
 by the diminution or abolition of overtime, or by securing 
 the adoption of a shorter working day, obtain a more equal 
 distribution of employment over the year, and thus some- 
 what greater continuity of work. Bub these influences, 
 except in so far as they may react beneficially on the moral 
 habits of the men, are of small account. The abolition of 
 overtime, moreover, may even, as we have already said, 
 tend to increase the irregularity of employment. 
 
 It is in other and more direct ways that trade union 
 action is actively beneficial in remedying the evils of 
 uncertainty or lack of work. In some trades the difficulties 
 of old age are met by a superannuation allowance, and in 
 a larger number out-of-work pay is provided. Moreover, 
 every trade union branch is to a certain extent an employ- 
 ment bureau, and the rarity of application by financial 
 members of trade societies to the municipal or voluntary 
 labour bureaux of London is explained, partly perhaps by 
 sentiment, but also, and chiefly, by the fact that the 
 members have at their disposal other and more effective 
 means for finding employment. The recognized and 
 unsystematic ways by which a man out of work finds, 
 or endeavours to find, employment — such as the help of 
 friends; the chat of the dinner-hour; " looking round"; 
 following up particular foremen; the social club, the public- 
 house, or the occasional advertisement — are at the disposal 
 of most men. But a well-organized trade union alone has 
 the power to provide the machinery by which any degree 
 of system is introduced into the method by which the 
 individual wage-earner, out of gear for a time with the 
 industrial machine, is helped to find his place again. 
 
 In the case of all societies in which out-of-work benefit 
 is given there is the corporate motive of economy that 
 v 20 
 
30G 
 
 SURVEY AND CONCLUSIONS. 
 
 makes the members of a branch desirous of finding 
 employment for anyone who may be drawing on the 
 funds. But even apart from this, when there is no out- 
 of-work book, and no recognition of, or reference to, the 
 branch by either employer or foreman, the branch is still 
 one of the best bureaux of information available to the 
 individual man. IE a popular man, with wife and family, 
 his chances are the better, always provided he be a fairly 
 good workman. 
 
 The difficulty which arises with those who, from some 
 personal or trade disqualification, are constantly thrown 
 out of work, cannot of course be avoided by the trade 
 union, for the "in and out" is as recognized a problem in the 
 field of employment as in that of poor-law administration. 
 As a rule these men are unwelcome members of a union, 
 but while they remain on the books their chances of obtain- 
 ing work are at least increased by the machinery and all 
 the sources of information that the branch provides ; and 
 their own efforts are stimulated by the pressure it exercises 
 against idleness. 
 
 The practical difficulty which the societies have to 
 overcome from this source, as well as the importance of 
 the out-of-work benefit itself, is well illustrated by the 
 experience of the London Society of Compositors in which, 
 during the years 1891-4, 40 per cent, of the money 
 expended in this benefit was paid to 7J per cent, of the 
 members.* 
 
 * The position of this Society during the four years is shown by the 
 following table : — 
 
 
 Income. 
 
 Total 
 Expenditure. 
 
 Unemployed 
 Benefit. 
 
 Number of 
 Members. 
 
 1891 
 
 £18,253 
 
 £20,613 
 
 £10,639 
 
 9350 
 
 1892 
 
 19,554 
 
 21,595 
 
 11,906 
 
 9798 
 
 1893 
 
 20,935 
 
 23,824 
 
 11,865 
 
 10151 
 
 1894 
 
 26,956 
 
 26,349 
 
 16,584 
 
 10011 
 
 Total ... 
 
 £85,698 
 
 £92,381 
 
 £50,994 
 
 
 Of the £51,000 disbursed in unemployed benefits, no less than £21.000 
 was paid to 742 members who were out of work some part of each year. A 
 
ON INDUSTRIAL RE M E DIES. 
 
 307 
 
 The influence of trade unions on wages, hours o£ labour, 
 &c, has been considered in Chapter VI., and some of the 
 possible remedies for irregularity of work have found their 
 place at the end of Chapter IX. One of these — the possibility 
 of change of employment — considered as a far-reaching 
 industrial remedy, must be regarded not as an oscillation 
 between trade and trade, but rather as a power of 
 complete transition to some other field of industry should 
 necessity arise. In this sense movement and the capacity 
 for movement and change are real remedies, for they are 
 an application of that adaptability the possession of 
 which is the best if not the only security against lapse of 
 employment. 
 
 further sum of £11,000 was paid to 812 members who applied in three out of 
 the four years. Thus £33,000, or 65 per cent, of the total expended, went to 
 15 per cent, of the members. 
 
 The following table, prepared by Mr. G. E. Arkell from the returns 
 published by the Society of 9370 applications distributed among 4347 
 individual members, shows the actual distribution of the unemployed benefit 
 during the four years. It will be observed that the amount received per 
 member increases regularly with the number of years in which application 
 is made, those who applied in all four years receiving in the course of each 
 year nearly twice as much as those received who applied in one year only. 
 They were not only out of work but very much out of work, and their 
 support was proportionately costly to the Society. Age or misfortune may 
 partly account for this result, but the chief explanation is probably to be 
 found in a lack of efficiency due to other causes. 
 
 London Society of Compositors (1891-4). 
 
 Receiver! Unemployed 
 Benefits in 
 
 Recipients. 
 
 Total Benefit 
 Received. 
 
 Average per 
 
 M AN. 
 
 Number. 
 
 Per 
 Cent. 
 
 £ 
 
 Per Cent- 
 age of 
 Total. 
 
 Per 
 Year. 
 
 For 
 Period. 
 
 One Year only ... 
 Two Years 
 Three Years 
 All Four Years... 
 
 1620 
 1173 
 812 
 742 
 
 37£ 
 27 
 
 m 
 
 17 
 
 6,407 
 11,110 
 12,368 
 21,109 
 
 12* 
 22 
 24 
 414 
 
 £ s. d. 
 
 3 19 
 
 4 15 
 
 5 10 
 7 2 
 
 £ s. d. 
 3 19 
 9 10 
 15 3 
 28 8 
 
 
 4347 
 
 100 
 
 50,994 
 
 100 
 
 5 9 
 
 11 5 
 
 V 
 
 20 * 
 
308 
 
 SURVEY AND CONCLUSIONS. 
 
 Even more practically valuable is the facile elasticity that 
 enables a man readily to turn in whatever direction is suited 
 to the occasion within as well as without the recognized 
 limits of a trade. It may be only in new countries that 
 a Jack-of-all-trades is in place, but the spirit that can find 
 many roads to a desired end is as valuable here in England 
 as anywhere. 
 
 In the consideration of possible remedies, associated 
 industrial effort must not be omitted, for it is an influence 
 which may be pregnant with great possibilities of progress 
 in the future, if not for the present generation. Up to 
 the present it has not accomplished very much — especially 
 in London ; but the movement towards co-operative pro- 
 duction has gathered strength considerably during the ten 
 years that our inquiry has occupied. 
 
 In the variety of its methods lie many of the elements 
 of its strength. According to the character of the business 
 and the intelligence of the workers, these methods may 
 range from the simple giving of a bonus on wages to the 
 completest forms of co-partnership in industry. In such 
 forms of association the solution of many difficulties may 
 ultimately be found to rest ; not as between consumer and 
 producer, which is the distinctive woik of distributive 
 co-operation, but as between capital and labour. 
 
 III. 
 
 It cannot but be admitted that the industrial conditions 
 under which we live lead to poverty, or at least that 
 poverty follows in their train. The immediate explana- 
 tion of poverty is usually very simple : No savings ; no 
 opportunity of remunerative work ; inadequate pay ; 
 inability cr unwillingness to do the work that offers ; 
 reckless expenditure — such are the causes of which one 
 thinks. But in seeking remedies it is rather for cansce 
 
ON INDUSTRIAL REMEDIES. 
 
 309 
 
 causarum that we must look. We ask why pay is in- 
 sufficient, how it is that work cannot be had, by what 
 chance the sufferer has no share of accumulated wealth ; 
 or we may seek to explain incapacity or to analyze sloth. 
 Finally, in the attempt to reach the very root of things, 
 we are driven to turn these questions another way, and 
 to inquire why work should be remunerated at all; how 
 there comes to be any accumulated wealth, or what claim 
 any one in particular has to its enjoyment. I do not wish 
 to pursue abstract reasoning of this kind, but when, as is 
 sometimes the case in socio-economic discussion, it seems 
 to be assumed that those who lack work or money are 
 on that account wrongfully treated, it is desirable to ask 
 what it is that entitles men to either — not in any spirit 
 of cynicism, but rather in that of the scientific dictum, 
 "A nihilo nihil fit 
 
 Remunerative work with payment by results is the basis 
 of the industrial order on which our civilized life rests. 
 When men earn largely the world has usually benefited in 
 proportion ; and, similarly, when they are paid very little or 
 are unable to earn anything at all, it is fully probable that 
 what they contribute to the service of the world is no less 
 insignificant. Opportunities might very well be more 
 equal, but it may be questioned whether under any different 
 industrial system they would, on the whole, be as great ; 
 and whatever the system — whether individualist or socialist, 
 competitive or paternal — the final cure of poverty must lie 
 either in increasing the serviceableness of the work done, 
 or in securing for the less capable a sufficient share of 
 that which is produced by the more capable members of 
 society, or most likely in a combination of these two. 
 
 Social remedies are all concerned with securing advan- 
 tages for the less capable. Industrial remedies, while 
 using both methods, are more particularly directed to 
 the widening of opportunity and the increase of service- 
 ableness. 
 
310 
 
 SURVEY AND CONCLUSIONS. 
 
 Let us first take the case of insufficient pay. 
 
 At the outset, it may be observed that the employments 
 in which a low rate of pay is found are those which almost 
 anyone can undertake at short notice, as needing neither 
 special training nor special powers of any kind. Under 
 such conditions the rate of remuneration naturally falls to 
 the bottom level, whatever that may be, and poverty is 
 then not far off. For this state of things the most certain 
 cure lies in improving the character o£ the work done 
 or the service rendered. If this can be accomplished the 
 worker will assuredly be lifted out of the slough in 
 which he is now sunk. Nor is this all; for by the decrease 
 in the numbers of those who are only fit for the lowest 
 class of work, the value of even their poor services will 
 be enhanced. It may perhaps be objected, that the over- 
 plus of labour would in that case be merely transferred ; 
 and that any gain to the lowest would be illusory, since 
 the class above would be dragged down by the excessive 
 competition. This objection assumes an economic rigidity 
 very far from the truth. The wants and activities of men 
 rise with the average of capacity, and the amount of work 
 to be done is accordingly increased. Thus, more than in 
 anything else, the way of improvement lies in the increase 
 of the numbers of the capable and willing, and the 
 decrease of the incapable or the shirkers. The industrial 
 activity of capable men makes opportunities for all the 
 world. In no other way can permanent advancement be 
 attained. Acts of Parliament may do something to raise 
 and protect the standard of life ; combination among the 
 workers be useful in fighting their battle ; and public 
 opinion have effect in strengthening, or even in creating, 
 a sense of responsibility amongst employers ; but unless 
 the final result is to add to the utility and serviceableness 
 of the work done, improvements have little chance of 
 lasting. 
 
 This doctrine is applicable as much to the employer as 
 
ON INDUSTRIAL REMEDIES. 
 
 311 
 
 to the employed, or even more so ; in their case on the 
 largest scale may be seen " the making of opportunities 
 
 for all the world." But if they fail ! 
 
 Unfortunately the inherent differences in the potentialities 
 and value of human effort are imperfectly apprehended, 
 and attention is chiefly directed to the terms on which the 
 product, treated as a fixed quantity, shall be divided. The 
 notion of " undifferentiated labour " is the basis of theoretic 
 Socialism, and is more or less involved in all schemes for 
 bringing industry under State control. Socialistic calcula- 
 tions and plans of action almost depend upon a simple 
 labour unit. The extraordinary diversity of powers and 
 conditions, to which every line of our inquiry bears witness, 
 is constantly ignored, and the economic value, whether 
 positive or negative, of the employer is scouted. Trade 
 unionists, the working classes generally, and even a wider 
 public, are to a considerable extent under the influence of 
 these ideas. 
 
 They affect the relations of capital and labour in a some- 
 what onesided way. The employer is for ever seeking to 
 utilize to the utmost the labour of those who work for 
 him, and if he fails in economic virtue it will usually be on 
 other ground than this; but on the part of the men 
 thought is seldom given to the necessity of adapting the 
 work done to the employers' needs. An attempt on his 
 part to reduce wages, or the refusal to raise them, is never 
 met by seeking to increase the utility of the services 
 offered, but always and solely by a refusal to render them 
 at all, or the threat of this ; or occasionally, if the employer 
 persist and a strike is inconvenient, by the opposite plan 
 of giving as little utility as possible in exchange for the 
 wages paid ; that is by the fatal resource of giving slow 
 work to match small pay, known as the " ca' canny " 
 policy. 
 
 To light is often strictly necessary, and the power to 
 fight efficiently can never be dispensed with, but such 
 
312 
 
 SURVEY AND CONCLUSIONS. 
 
 action as this, unless of the most temporary character, 
 appears to me to be bad generalship on the part of the 
 union leaders, as well as bad economics, and only to be 
 accounted for by misconception on their part as to the 
 permanent basis of industrial value. To seek to make 
 a bargain more equal by decreasing the utility of what you 
 have to sell is surely suicidal. If you give less (the 
 Sybiline Books notwithstanding), you cannot reasonably 
 hope to receive more. It will, perhaps, be said that to 
 give less, either in quantity or quality, is the bottom fact 
 in every rise of price, the method invariably adopted ; but 
 the parallel does not exactly hold. As regards quantity 
 the portion of the product withheld remains in stock : it is 
 not so as to labour which passeth with the day. As regards 
 qualit} 7 , if: the quality be that of intensity, there is some- 
 thing to be said. Intensity implies exhaustion, and a man 
 may as reasonably measure his services by units of effort as 
 units of time ; to do so is the basis of all piece-work 
 remuneration. It may suit one man to work six or eight 
 hours intensely and then stop for the day, while another 
 gives ten or twelve hours to his task. Or the character of 
 the work may decide the intensity of the strain it involves 
 on nerve or muscle and the pay will rightly be proportionate 
 (amongst other things) to the energy expended. No 
 employer can reasonably ask more effort without offering 
 more pay, unless the change is to be regarded as reducing 
 the remuneration, and no employee can be expected to 
 strain himself to the point of exhaustion, unless remun- 
 erated accordingly (only what he has agreed to do that he 
 must honourably perform) ; but in the shape the bargain 
 takes he will do well to consider the convenience of the 
 employer and the success of the work. 
 
 Moreover, " quality " in work is by no means confined 
 to intensity, or even skill, but includes conscientious care 
 of every kind, and in this every man has much to give, for 
 which he ought and would be paid, did he know how to 
 
ON INDUSTRIAL HE ME DIES. 
 
 313 
 
 play his cards aright. The results are often attained. 
 A good master will not fail to recognize such men, and in 
 fixity of tenure, if in no other way, they reap what they 
 have sown. But they play no game. It is part of their 
 virtue that they are unconscious of it. It is only as an 
 instance that I refer to their case. It is not of individual 
 success that I am thinking, but of the policy and methods 
 of action open to united bodies of men consciously seeking 
 their own advantage and deliberately playing their own 
 game. To them I would offer " do ut des " as a motto. 
 The threat, " pay us well or we will serve you ill," cannot 
 compare in effectiveness with the demand a pay us well 
 because we serve you well." If wages are to be raised to 
 the utmost and then maintained at the top level, it is 
 essential that the wage-earner should consider first the 
 interests of the employer. 
 
 It will, perhaps, again be hinted that (t sauce for the 
 goose is sauce for the gander." Why, it may be asked, 
 should the generosity of the opening, the present tense of 
 " I give," be expected from the men rather than the 
 masters ? why should not the masters leave the subjunctive 
 " that thou mayst give " (involving something also of 
 a future tense) to the men ? But it is not a practical 
 suggestion. It is always for the seller to show his wares 
 and satisfy the buyer of their value. The buyer must be 
 won. He stands on guard. Caveat emptor. In this case 
 buyers and sellers have a common interest more than 
 usually direct, and were mutual suspicions at rest agree- 
 ment ought not to be difficult. Moreover, no transaction 
 stands alone. Every industrial bargain is based on the 
 results of previous bargains and is the link which connects 
 them with those which come after. To be jealous of the 
 success of one's opponent in any transaction is short- 
 sighted. His advantage to-day becomes the sure basis of 
 your own success another time. 
 
 A margin of profit to the employer is necessary to 
 
314 
 
 SURVEY AND CONCLUSIONS. 
 
 continuity of employment; in this sense it is his security. 
 The more certain and safe it is the less this margin needs 
 to be, and the less it will inevitably tend to become. By 
 this means, in the end the wage-earner and the consumer 
 together share a permanent benefit, and it must never be 
 forgotten that the consumer is largely the wage-earner 
 over again. 
 
 We have seen how various are the elements of utility. 
 Men do not know the possibilities of their own value. 
 Such virtues as truthfulness, honesty, and loyalty, might 
 seem smirched if appraised, though they are the most 
 valuable of all commodities. Others, such as trust- 
 worthiness, promptitude, punctuality, and sobriety are more 
 freely recognized as merchantable qualities, and find a place 
 wherever characters are asked and given. It is all these, 
 no less than skill and strength, that make the value of a 
 man's work; and to bring them to market, while it honours 
 him, does not degrade them. 
 
 It is only by giving his best services that any man is in 
 a position to insist upon a full reward. In this way each 
 individual must seek industrial salvation. For low wages 
 there is no other cure, and what is true of the one man is 
 true also of the mass. Underlying all that may be done 
 for him by combination or by legislation or by public 
 sentiment, the individual, in asserting his claim to a living 
 wage, needs to base his action on a sounder philosophy 
 and a firmer faith than that which usually prevails. To be 
 as useful as possible — such is the Gospel of industry ; and 
 there is no one, high or low, rich or poor, to whom it does 
 not apply. 
 
 IY. 
 
 The poverty that is due to low wages is, in London, less 
 in volume as well as less acute than that which is consequent 
 cn some form of lack of work. The causes of this indus- 
 
ON INDUSTRIAL REMEDIES. 
 
 315 
 
 trial failure and consequent irregularity of employment are 
 many and complicated. Socialism boldly offers a solution, 
 and to this oweL its influence over the minds and hearts of 
 men. But the ideal it holds out has no solidity of structure 
 and no firm basis. This is shown by the splitting into 
 different camps of those who are thus associated which is 
 invariably experienced when the moment of action is even 
 approached. Connected with this natural cleavage is the 
 throwing off of the more violent elements under free 
 discussion, the abandonment by the majority of extreme 
 views, and the acceptance of legality of action. Ameliora- 
 tion of existing conditions, rather than radical change, 
 then becomes the aim. Revolutionary ideas are discarded, 
 and the whole subject falls into the lines of ordinary demo- 
 cratic government. Finally, it is found that the solution 
 is not there. The dream has faded and is gone. 
 
 Even if there is agreement as to the ends in view, the 
 means to be adopted under law and constitution to secure 
 more equal conditions still leave room for much difference 
 of opinion, and the widest divergence appertains to the 
 part which the central authority is expected to play in 
 improving the conditions of life. This action may be 
 brought to bear' on any of the troubles of the poor, but it 
 is especially with regard to lack of work that its possibilities 
 need now to be considered. For questions of public health 
 and education are already fully recognized as being within 
 the province of the State, and on the other hand, if the 
 Socialistic idea yields so far as to admit wages at all, the 
 rates will generally still be recognized as remaining within 
 the scope of individual action, limited and controlled by 
 voluntary combination. There then remain the questions 
 of finding employment when needed, of savings, and of care 
 for the future, as to all of which the proper sphere of the 
 State is disputed, although with a general admission that 
 interference with private initiative may, within certain 
 limits, be desirable. 
 
316 
 
 SURVEY AND CONCLUSIONS. 
 
 To be able and willing to work, and yet to be nnable to 
 obtain work, seems a bard fate, and singularly unnecessary 
 in a world where the welfare of all might surely be capable 
 of increase in some degree by the work of each. It would 
 appear to be a mere question of the application of work 
 to useful ends, but, however simple this may sound, it is 
 fraught with great difficulties. The doubt that faces us is 
 whether it is possible for the State by special action to start 
 or stimulate work ia one direction, without checking it, or 
 taking away some other stimulus, in some other direction. 
 
 We may say with some confidence that the volume of 
 employment depends on the relation which the amount of 
 enterprise bears to the numbers seeking employment. But 
 enterprise itself depends on many things : on the pressure 
 of capital seeking investment; on the presence of unem- 
 ployed (and therefore cheap) labour ; on the demand of 
 consumers for the things or services they require ; and 
 finally on the hope of gain, the spirit of adventure, and the 
 pushing of inventive genius, and all these interact, 
 employing each other as well as hiring labour. They are 
 also all subject to two forms of exhaustion, being liable to 
 repletion or collapse. The play of these forces is apt to 
 result in cyclical alternations of good and' bad times, and 
 in a competitive struggle for success in which the weakest 
 go to the wall. The question then is — Can the central 
 action of the State or the interference of local government, 
 either increase the total volume of enterprise or beneficially 
 regulate its flow ? 
 
 It is evident that any operation undertaken by the State 
 must adversely affect some, if not all, of the sources of 
 private enterprise. It will withdraw capital and so decrease 
 the pressure exercised by the amount seeking investment. 
 It will absorb labour and tend to raise its price. It will 
 satisfy needs that would otherwise seek other methods of 
 satisfaction. So far as it competes with private enterprise 
 it will reduce the chances of profit, and may thus damp the 
 
ON INDUSTRIAL REMEDIES. 
 
 317 
 
 spirit of adventure. Public action may indeed forestall the 
 natural flow of enterprise, but if this is all it can do, and if 
 we suffer a permanent loss of spontaneity, we might find 
 we had paid very dearly for the temporary advantage. 
 In spite of this, so far as such action does not come into 
 immediate competition with possible or probable private 
 enterprise, there would still be some field for it. Within 
 the limits of moderation there would be no serious 
 objection to the absorption of labour and capital in this 
 way. Neither capital nor labour are fixed and rigid in 
 amouut or in efficiency. Their elasticity in response to 
 demand is great. Moreover, it is rare for either to be fully 
 employed at any one time. 
 
 The limits to the desirability of such action depend on 
 the nature of the government and also on the character 
 of the people governed. With an absolute government 
 and a dependent people, State enterprise may be desirable, 
 whilst where there is freedom and industrial energy it would 
 do more harm than good. The class of work, too, that 
 it may be desirable to undertake varies according to the 
 prevailing conditions of life ; for instance, railways may be 
 a more fitting national work where population is sparse, and 
 the rebuilding of cities where it is crowded. In a general 
 way it is desirable that the wants supplied by these means 
 should be such as are widely felt, and at the same time 
 more easily catered for by public than by private effort. 
 In such cases, public action, if cautiously and carefully 
 undertaken, may increase the total volume of enterprise and 
 add greatly to the general prosperity. 
 
 Such operations, however, would not be aimed at, and 
 would not particularly touch, the case of the unemployed, 
 who are so, while others find work, mainly because of 
 some personal disability under which they suffer. With 
 greater general prosperity there might, indeed, be fewer of 
 those who suffer in this way, but even that is not certain, 
 and at any rate the class would not cease to exist. 
 
318 
 
 SURVEY AND CONCLUSIONS. 
 
 To organize systematically the labour of those who are 
 incapable of finding a living for themselves would be an 
 entirely different undertaking. The Socialists think it 
 can be done by self-devotion on the part of the capable, 
 and a final sternness which shall enforce obedience by the 
 threat of starvation. The practical difficulties in the way 
 are perhaps overwhelming, but in theory I see no objection 
 to the assumption by the State of this responsibility ; and 
 the very close limits within which alone such a course is 
 possible, are due, not to fear of injury to independent lives 
 nor to the danger of perpetuating or increasing the assisted 
 class, as might at first be supposed, but arise solely because 
 the incapable would refuse to submit to the discipline 
 which alone would give any value either industrial or 
 educational to their work. If attempted, it would be of 
 the nature of a State charity, and socialistic in the sense of 
 the Poor Law rather than as involving any change in the 
 economics of industry. 
 
 It is to other quite as much as to industrial remedies 
 that we must look for the cure or relief of poverty. 
 We have to consider what the State or private effort 
 does or might do in London for the young and for the 
 old, for the morally weak and for the sick, as well 
 as for the unemployed ; and what religion and philanthropy 
 are doing or might do to form public opinion, to supple- 
 ment or modify the influence of legislation, and to 
 disseminate wholesome views of human life ; or what other 
 action, public or private, may assist in eradicating the 
 causes or softening the hardships of poverty. 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 EXPENDITURE AND STANDARD OF LIFE. 
 
 When a boy belonging to the working class in London 
 has finished his schooling at thirteen or fourteen years of 
 age, he readily finds work for which he is paid 4s, 5.9, or 
 6s a week. As a general rule the poorer his future 
 chances, the higher will be the immediate pay which he 
 receives. In the already rare case of formal apprenticeship 
 he usually foregoes all remuneration at the outset and, in 
 addition, a premium will often have to be paid. In other 
 cases the lad's earnings go to the man who teaches him, 
 but this also is exceptional, and applies more commonly to 
 father and son than to strangers. Thus for all practical 
 purposes we may regard boys when they leave school as 
 money- earners. 
 
 A boy usually hands over his money to his mother, who 
 out of it gives him every morning pennies to be spent at 
 lunch-time or needed for train or tramway fares, or allowed 
 for pocket money. The rest of his earnings go towards 
 the expenses of board, lodging, and clothes. It costs 
 from 3d to 6d a day to feed a boy at home, including lunch, 
 which, though generally eaten where he works, is prepared at 
 home and carried in the pocket. The penny or so which may 
 be added to be spent at the cocoa rooms would be additional. 
 
 As the boy grows older his weekly earnings rise. One 
 who earned 5s when thirteen might be in receipt of any sum 
 from 10s to lbs a week when he was eighteen years old, 
 equal to a rise of from Is to 2s each twelve months. After 
 eighteen more and more divergence is shown, and by 
 twenty or twenty-one some will be making men's wages 
 while others are still earning no more than 14s or 15s. 
 At some time between fourteen and eighteen years of age 
 
320 
 
 SURVEY AND CONCLUSIONS. 
 
 the arrangement between the boy and his mother will 
 probably take a different shape. He prefers to keep his 
 wages, and pay his mother for board and lodging. This 
 change usually occurs so soon as the mother would 
 otherwise "make a profit" out of the boy; the same is 
 true of girls also. Though it may savour more of business 
 than the family tie, it is natural enough and has become 
 customary. 
 
 The cost of keeping a young man in food varies a good 
 deal, but depends mainly on the capacity of the housewife, 
 A mother can satisfy her son more easily than others can, 
 for it must be a very bad home if a lad does not prefer the 
 food he obtains there to what he buys elsewhere. The 
 money paid to the mother will vary from 5s to 10s a week, 
 according to age and other circumstances, and out of this 
 the boy or young man will obtain good value in board and 
 lodging, washing and mending. On these terms, however 
 small the profit may be, a mother is usually glad to have 
 her son in the house. If the lad have no home, or for any 
 other reason goes into lodgings, his living will cost him 
 rather more. For the share of a room or, it may be, the 
 half of a bed shared with some other young man, he would 
 have to pay 3.9 or 3s Qd a week, or about 4s if he have 
 a small room to himself. This charge, besides furniture and 
 bed linen, includes the use of the kitchen to sit in and the 
 cooking and serving of meals, both of the simplest ; the 
 lodger finding the uncooked food himself. It may or may 
 not cover ordinary washing and mending, but starched 
 shirts and collars would, in any case, be extra, and are 
 usually sent to a laundry. If cooked meals are provided, 
 the charge for them will be 8s to 10s a week. 
 
 Altogether, living in this way would cost a young man 
 10s to 14s a week for board and lodging. This calculation 
 assumes that substantially all meals are provided at home, 
 being either eaten there or taken from there if eaten else- 
 where. When meals are consumed away from the house, 
 
EXPENDITURE AND STANDARD OF LIFE. 
 
 321 
 
 tea, coffee, cocoa, or beer will be bought in addition, and if 
 food also is bought at a cook-shop or restaurant the expense 
 of living is further increased. 
 
 A young man who is earning 15s a week has on this 
 basis, over and above board and lodging, a small margin 
 in hand — which is increased if he is living with his parents — 
 with which to buy clothes and defray small charges*; and 
 if his wages should be as much as 18s or 20s he is able to 
 indulge in various pleasures. He may frequent the music- 
 halls or pay for a bicycle by instalments, or take up any 
 other pursuit, or indulge mildly in any extravagance 
 to which his fancy turns, and may thus be considered 
 well off. He might no doubt save money, but he rarely 
 does so until he begins to look forward to marriage, and 
 not always then. As he grows older his necessary weekly 
 expenditure does not increase very much, while his pay, 
 by the time he is twenty-two or twenty-three years old, 
 rises to that of the full-grown man — to 20s or 30s or more, 
 according to his trade. At this stage he generally marries 
 and a new family life begins. 
 
 To pursue further this story of a working man's life, 
 we will take the case of a mau earning on the average 24s 
 a week the whole year round, and suppose that he marries 
 a young woman who has been earning 10s (out of which 
 she probably has given her mother 7s, leaving os for 
 her dress, &c.) . When first married the wife will probably 
 continue her work, and the married pair, living in lodgings 
 with 34s a week joint income, are better off than they were 
 when apart, and if careful will soon save money enough to 
 furnish a home of their own. But if children are born, the 
 wife can no longer earn money, and with growing expendi- 
 ture and a diminished income pressure begins to be felt. 
 
 * The margin that results from the economy of living at home may be at 
 times absorbed by home claims of one kind or another, as for instance on 
 account of widowed mothers, ailing fathers, or younger brothers and sisters ; 
 but pleasures probably count for less. 
 
322 
 
 SURVEY AND CONCLUSIONS. 
 
 We will assume that there are two children and try to 
 make up the budget of these people. Hitherto their income 
 has been sufficient and they do not readily begin to stint 
 themselves. Their food and firing will probably cost 14s ; 
 rent, lighting, and renewals of furniture, will not be less 
 than 6s; and thus there will be about 4s a week (or £10 a 
 year) left for clothes, tobacco, club money, doctor, and 
 pleasure or holiday expenses. 
 
 It is evident that there is here no great margin for drink 
 or anything else ; if drink is taken there will be so much the 
 less money for other things. With three or four children the 
 position is naturally worse; but even so the income of this 
 family would be 2s or 3s a week above our supposed line of 
 poverty. With six or seven young children, and no increase 
 of income, this household would fall below the line. The 
 food obtained might still be sufficient, but the quantity 
 of meat allowed must be small. Accommodation fully 
 sufficient for four, and passing muster for five or six, would 
 become very much crowded with eight or nine persons in 
 the family. Clothes and furniture would become shabby, 
 or go to pieces. Club payments would perhaps lapse ; in 
 case of illness or trouble there would be nothing to fall 
 back upon; and undoubted poverty, if not actual destitution, 
 must supervene unless there is exceptionally good manage- 
 ment on the part of the woman, and very helpful self- 
 denying conduct on the part of the man. When these 
 are present, results which would seem impossible are 
 achieved. 
 
 Happily, in very many cases the earnings by this time 
 have risen. They tend to rise as responsibilities increase, 
 and a family of six or eight with 28s or 30s coming in may 
 do nearly as well as one of four or five persons on 24s. 
 Moreover, the extreme pressure passes as soon as the eldest 
 children begin to earn money. 
 
 I have assumed that the wife does not work for money 
 after her children are born, and it is at any rate evident 
 
EXPENDITURE AND STANDARD OF LIFE. 
 
 323 
 
 that if she lias several young children it could not be 
 expected of her. She may, however, earn something by 
 taking lodgers, forestalling in this way the position of 
 a family with grown-up children. This resource, however, 
 involves increased rent and more expenditure of capital 
 for furniture than would be needed for the accommodation 
 of elder children, and besides is subject to considerable 
 risks from defaulting lodgers. In a lower class, amongst 
 the chronically poor and very poor, when the man earns 
 little or brings little home, and of course where there is no 
 male bread-winner, the women almost always earn some 
 money. The standard of life in many of these cases can 
 be described only in negatives. It has rather been my 
 aim to draw a rough picture of the most common lot — 
 that of the fairly well fed and well clothed comfort- 
 able working class of London, and to indicate its risks 
 and limitations. 
 
 Just as, starting from about 24s for a moderate family, 
 each shilling a week less is a direct step into poverty, 
 so each shilling a week more tells no less quickly in the 
 opposite direction. As the weekly income rises from 20s 
 to 22,9, 24s, 26s, 28s, and 30s, not only does the whole 
 standard of life gradually rise, but what goes for even 
 more, that which is aimed at is attained. In this respect it 
 is mainly the sum that regularly reaches the home that must 
 be considered. What is done with the money, and the 
 amount of comfort it yields, depends almost entirely on the 
 wife. It may be said that habitual expenditure on extras 
 of any kind, and even extravagance or squandering, if of 
 such a description as can be laid aside at need, provide a 
 kind of reserve. But wastefulness, whether on the part of 
 the husband or the wife, affects the comfort of the home 
 as much as, or perhaps more than, the presence of three or 
 four additional children, so that with wasteful ways earnings 
 of 24s or 28s become no more than 22s or 26s, or even less 
 for any good they do. 
 
 v 21 * 
 
324 
 
 SURVEY AND CONCLUSIONS. 
 
 This is no less true, though it may be less serious, when 
 the money earned is 35s, 40s, or even 50s; and many a 
 family which might be living in easy comfort is dragged 
 down in this way. Otherwise a wide difference in standard 
 of life, amounting almost to a class distinction, is noticeable 
 between those who earn less and those who earn more than 
 35s a week, or thereabouts. 
 
 It is not possible to say w 7 ith certainty or exactness 
 what proportion of the population are living above, and 
 what proportion below, this line, or any other line that 
 might be chosen. The difficulties in the way of such 
 calculations have been dwelt upon in the first part of this 
 volume. Rates of wages are both incomplete and incorrect 
 as records of income, because of the subsidiary earnings 
 of children or wife, and because of periods out of work and 
 other forms of irregularity of employment. Moreover, no 
 returns that can be obtained represent fully the whole 
 body of workers. We can, therefore, only arrive at an 
 estimate. The result of all our inquiries make it reasonably 
 sure that one-third of the population are on or about the 
 line of poverty or are below it, having at most an income 
 which one time with another averages 21s or 22s for a 
 small family (or up to 25s or 26s for one of larger size), 
 and in many cases falling much below this level. There 
 maybe another third who have perhaps 10s more, or, taking 
 the year round, from 25s to 35s a week, among whom 
 would be counted, in addition to wage-earners, many retail 
 tradesmen and small masters; and the last third would 
 include all who are better off. The first group, who are 
 practically those who are living two or more persons to 
 each room occupied, contains our classes A, B, C, and D. 
 The next, with on the average nearly one room to each 
 person, consists of class E, with portions of F and Gr ; 
 while the final group includes the rest of F and G and all 
 of Class H — that is, all those who employ servants as well 
 as some of those who do not. Of the first, many are 
 
EXPENDITURE AND STANDARD OF LIFE. 
 
 325 
 
 pinched by want and all live in poverty, if poverty be 
 defined as having no surplus. The second enjoy solid 
 working-class comfort, and of the third group the worst-off 
 live in plenty and the best-off in luxury. 
 
 In describing the prevailing standard of life it will be 
 desirable first to revert to the description of the six lower 
 classes given in the first volume of the Poverty Series. 
 
 Of the lowest class, A, which cannot be associated in 
 any regular way with industrial or family life, nothing more 
 need now be said. The common lodging-house caters for 
 their necessities and the public-house for their superfluities. 
 Their ultimate standard of life is almost savage, both in its 
 simplicity and in its excesses. 
 
 Class B, the very poor, whose earnings are irregular as 
 well as small, contains, like every other class, a mixture 
 oi many kinds, but the most prevailing characteristic is 
 incompetence, which may be due to age or illness, but is 
 often aggravated by indulgence in alcohol. The staple 
 food of this class is bread, and for a beverage at their 
 meals they usually drink tea. Other articles of food they 
 add as they may be able; margarine to spread on the 
 bread, or jam if there are children, a little bacon or some 
 fried fish. Potatoes are largely used, greens sometimes, 
 and the cheap parts of beef and mutton on occasion when 
 the money in hand goes far enough. The food is ill-cooked 
 and often tasteless, and pickles are commonly added as 
 a relish. Alcohol, whether in the form of beer or spirits, 
 is mostly taken apart from, or in place of, food. The 
 clothing worn is in most cases sufficient for warmth, but 
 is disreputable in appearance, ill-fitting and unsuitable. 
 Cast-off clothes of the wealthy, passing downwards, are 
 bought and sold, as well as given ; and these carry with 
 them a faded smartness even as regards men's clothes, 
 while the outer garments of the women show much 
 tawdriness of trimming and the relics of past fashion, in 
 
326 
 
 SURVEY AND CONCLUSIONS. 
 
 shapes which have lost what meaning they may ever have 
 possessed. This class may almost be distinguished by its 
 deplorable boots. 
 
 The typical home of such families is extremely miserable 
 and unsavoury. The furniture, whether much or little in 
 quantity, consists of things barely worth pawning, or they 
 would have been pawned; things not only shabby and 
 broken, but foul. The bed-clothes are grimy as well as 
 ragged, and, except in hot weather, their insufficiency is 
 eked out by flinging on the bed such of the day-clothes as 
 are discarded for the night. The same room serves for living 
 and sleeping, cooking and washing, for children of all ages 
 as well as for man and wife. Remains of food are always 
 about — there is perhaps no cupboard — probably part of a 
 loaf is on the table with a little butter and a much-used 
 knife, or a teapot, an unwashed cup or two and a cracked 
 plate. The window, broken, patched, and dirty, indicates 
 more perhaps than anything else that no housewifely pride 
 is taken. Such is the appearance presented by a homo of 
 this class to the casual visitor. 
 
 The inmates may not be so badly off as they seem. They 
 may perhaps be " qualifying for relief/' and prefer to look 
 poor ; or they may be habitual squanderers of their resources. 
 But, on the other hand, they may be starving. In any case 
 they are most likely incapable of permanent improvement. 
 They may be detected in deception, but will again try to 
 deceive ; may be shamed for a time, but will not cease to 
 squander ; or they may be fed and assisted to make a fresh 
 start, but do not and cannot become self-supporting. Such 
 at least is the rule. Where poverty is connected with sick- 
 ness or old age, even when permanent improvement cannot 
 be looked for, there is at times a noble and most arduous 
 struggle to maintain respectability. And there are now 
 and then cases of industrial disability, no less sad, which 
 are the result of pure misfortune. Or it may be that under 
 an unfortunate marriage, the respectable partner attempts, 
 
EXPENDITURE AND STANDARD OF LIFE. 327 
 
 with disheartening results, to prevent the ruin threatened 
 by the conduct of the other. 
 
 The standard of life characteristic of Class B as I have 
 described it does not of course apply strictly to the whole 
 300,000 persons who, according to our estimates, belong to 
 this class in London. There are many gradations, and as 
 there is no clear line of division between class and class it 
 may be roughly assumed that one-third of the whole number 
 counted would approach more or less towards the standard 
 of Classes C or D. 
 
 The distinction we have drawn between Classes C and D, 
 rests on the question of regularity or irregularity of 
 earnings, and so carries with it some difference in standard 
 of life. It would not be actually impossible for the family 
 of a man who earned on the year's average 21s a week, to 
 live regularly at that rate, although he might make 35s in 
 some weeks and not more than 7s in others. But such 
 self-control is nob to be expected, and consequently as 
 a rule there is a great difference between the ways of life 
 in Class C, where the work, though fairly well paid, is 
 irregular and uncertain, and the habits of Class D, where 
 the wages, though not high, are the same or nearly the 
 same, week by week, all the year round. 
 
 In Class D there is never the consciousness of spare 
 cash ; the effect of any unwonted expenditure is felt at once 
 in short commons at the week end. The result is that 
 extravagances are avoided and the wife spends the regular 
 sum she receives in much the same manner week after 
 week. A good deal of bread is eaten and tea drunk, 
 especially by the women and children, but the meals have 
 a more attractive character than with Class B. Bacon, eggs, 
 and fish appear regularly in the budgets. A piece of meat 
 cooked on Sunday serves also for dinner on Monday and 
 Tuesday, and puddings, rarely seen in Class B, are in 
 Class D a regular institution, not every day, but sometimes 
 in the week. On the whole these people have enough, and 
 
328 
 
 SURVEY AND CONCLUSIONS. 
 
 very seldom too much, to eat ; and. healthy though rather 
 restricted lives are led. The clothes worn are sometimes 
 second-hand, but if not new when bought they have at least 
 been made to look new. More generally, however, these 
 people buy new things of common though often sterling 
 quality at cheap shops, and both men and women look 
 creditably dressed. It is on the children that the passion 
 for finery spends itself. In this class children play a great 
 part, being at once the plague and pride of their parents' 
 lives. But whether plague or pride, their influence in 
 dragging families into poverty is seldom thought of at all. 
 
 The home, however poor and however crowded, is on 
 a different plane altogether from that found in Class B. 
 The window is bright, shrouded with clean cotton-lace 
 curtains, and often filled with plants ; or a little table 
 holding some treasured ornament is pushed forward 
 between the curtains, that passers-by may see it. e< I am 
 very particular about my windows," said a woman of this 
 class, hi whose house I once occupied an unfurnished room, 
 and I hope my curtains did her no discredit. The condition 
 of the window is typical of all the rest. The furniture, 
 though poor, is cared for, and if the atmosphere is sometimes 
 close, at any rate it does not share the foul and acrid smell 
 which is the almost invariable characteristic of the homes 
 of Class B, and of which the very streets reek where their 
 houses are found. There is nothing depressing about the 
 homes of Class D, except perhaps on washing day — and not 
 then unless the clothes have to be dried indoors — and the 
 life is one that might for a while be shared with pleasure by 
 anyone. Its peculiar curse, the narrow margin between 
 such a life and destitution, the lack of any protection 
 against the " slings and arrows of outrageous fortune," 
 happily does not weigh much on the minds of this class. 
 
 The people of Class C, though on the whole worse off than 
 those of Class D, have in a certain sense a higher standard. 
 For this class demands and aims at more than it can achieve, 
 
EXPENDITURE AND STANDARD OF LIFE. 
 
 329 
 
 except when times are good. Just as Class B represents 
 the failure of D, so Class C is the failure of E, irregularity 
 of earnings or of conduct being the explanation in both 
 cases, and the proportion of failure to success is the 
 measure of each class. It will be enough as regards C, 
 if, when we come to describe the manner of life in E — 
 the class of fully-paid labour in regular employ — we 
 remember that the people of the former class, although 
 they may wish to live like E, must, when earnings fail, either 
 fly to the pawnshop, or get into debt, or go without the 
 food to which they have been accustomed. For Class C 
 spends the money as it comes. These people vary among 
 themselves as regards the extent or proportion in which 
 they apply these financial expedients, and also, radically, 
 according to the nature of the irregularity from which they 
 suffer : that is according to whether it is of long or short 
 duration ; a matter of seasons, or occasional in its character. 
 Thus this class affords great variety of condition without 
 any very distinct type. 
 
 Class E contains the largest section of the people, and is 
 thus, more than any other, representative of the "way 
 we live now." Meals are more regular. For dinner, meat 
 and vegetables are demanded every day. Bacon, eggs and 
 fish find their place at other times. Puddings and tarts 
 are not uncommon, and bread ceases to be the staff of 
 life. Skill in cookery becomes very important, and 
 though capable of much improvement, is on the whole 
 not amiss. In this class no one goes short of food. 
 Clothes necessary for warmth and comfort are usually good 
 and suitable; they wear well and are well worn. It is only 
 when smartness is attempted that rubbish is bought, and 
 unserviceableness and cheapness going together, money is 
 wasted. Even so, if the young men and young women 
 succeed in looking as they would wish to look in the 
 evening or on the Sundays in each other's eyes, they obtain 
 their money's worth. The working clothes are according 
 
330 
 
 SURVEY AND CONCLUSIONS. 
 
 to the nature of the work. The holiday garments are 
 as nearly as possible in the fashion of the day. As a rule, 
 none of the clothes are second-hand. 
 
 In the furnishing- and care of the houses or rooms in 
 which Class E dwells, considerable housewifely pride is 
 shown, though the results secured fall short of what 
 is commonly attained by villagers much lower in the 
 industrial scale. The furniture is usually inconvenient and 
 ill-arranged, and is almost always ugly. It is probably 
 impossible to combine beauty with such lack of individuality 
 as goes with the cheapest forms of production, and the 
 very small size of the rooms makes arrangement difficult. 
 Still, with better taste something more might be done. 
 Taste in this matter is, indeed, hardly exercised at all, 
 but displays itself mostly in covering the walls with 
 pictures. The kitchen, with high chimneypiece, set about 
 with bright metal candlesticks and dish covers, is the most 
 attractive room in every house. 
 
 Between a typical home of Class E and a typical home in 
 F — the class of foremen and highly-paid artisans — there is 
 a wide distinction both in the character of the accommo- 
 dation and in the use made of it. Class E may have a 
 parlour as well as a kitchen, but it is not used except on 
 Sunday ; or if regular use is made of it, it is as a bedroom 
 for overflowing children. Class F not only always has 
 a parlour, but uses it as such. It is used by the family to 
 sit in, as well as for entertaining company, and some, at any 
 rate, of the meals are eaten there. In Class E, as also in 
 Classes C and D, ablutions are usually performed at the 
 sink in the back kitchen, or sometimes in warm weather 
 a tap in the yard may be resorted to. This rule applies 
 to both sexes. Little children, on the other hand, are 
 generally washed before the kitchen fire. Men going 
 early to their work do not wash in the morning, and when 
 they come home may even eat before doing so. But, hunger 
 satisfied, they te clean themselves up " before going out. 
 
EXPENDITURE AND STANDARD OF LIFE. 
 
 331 
 
 Those whose work begins after breakfast come down- 
 stairs half-dressed in order to wash ; and either finish the 
 operation in the back-kitchen, where there is usually 
 a small looking-glass and often a brush and comb, or 
 return to their bedroom for this purpose. It is the same 
 with the women and girls. Those who start early postpone 
 washing till evening, and the others take their turn — 
 usually after the men have gone. Sometimes a lodger will 
 have water carried to his room ; but if so, it probably 
 indicates that he belongs to Class F.* In Class F the 
 back kitchen as a place for ablutions is superseded by the 
 bedroom, and not infrequently in new houses by the bath- 
 room, by which means much carrying of cans and pails 
 up and down stairs is avoided. 
 
 With F we reach the summit of working-class life. 
 The head of the family earns from 40.9 to 60s, or even 70s 
 a week, and there are often other members bringing in 
 money. They live very comfortably and many of them 
 save money, or insure their lives for a substantial sum. 
 
 I have made no attempt to gauge the income of the 
 middle and upper classes, and have not prepared any 
 account of their expenditure and manner of existence, but 
 the degree of luxury which prevails is very fairly measured 
 by the particulars given of the number of servants kept 
 compared to the numbers of those on w r hom they wait. 
 
 In various other respects as well as in food, clothing, and 
 house accommodation, broad differences may be noticed 
 between class and class, or a sliding scale from AorB, toF. 
 For instance, very poor people hardly ever venture into 
 any but the smallest description of shop, and for each class 
 there is a corresponding grade. This is a rule, rarely 
 broken, which applies to ail ranks of society. So, too, 
 
 * The standard of life is rising, and in some respects is altering fast. It 
 may be that I have put it too low. Moreover, my experience is hardly 
 sufficient for very confident generalization. 
 
332 
 
 SURVEY AND CONCLUSIONS. 
 
 with regard to the trades taken up by the boys ; and still 
 more as to the occupations sought by the girls ; each class 
 follows its own course, guided as to the boys mainly by 
 the degree of necessity for immediate earnings, and as to 
 the girls by the relative gentility of this or that kind of 
 work. In these respects the shortening or prolonging of 
 education is closely connected with the choice made, and 
 here again we recognize a distinction which holds good 
 throughout society. 
 
 Education itself is another test. At. the very bottom 
 every effort is made to avoid or abbreviate school life; in 
 the next class the children are hurried through their 
 " standards," in order to go to work as soon as possible ; 
 above this, the period is voluntarily extended from thirteen, 
 to fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, and so on, till, with those who 
 go to a university, the educational period lasts till twenty- 
 three or twenty-four years of age. 
 
 The up-bringing and training of children is an even 
 surer standard by which class can be tested and measured. 
 The children of the poor (Classes B, C, and D) are treated 
 injudiciously and very frequently spoilt. If they are not 
 spoilt they are probably treated harshly j or the two plans 
 may be combined. As we rise from B to E or F, with 
 each gradation there is less spoiling and less harshness ; 
 or in other words less want of self-control on the part of 
 the parents. The spoiling, combined with ignorance and 
 poverty, results frequently in improper feeding, such as the 
 lack of milk. Children cry and are given something to 
 eat — just as a babe is given the breast — or are bribed 
 with sweets. "Something to eat," in this case is usually 
 bread and butter or bread and jam ; and rejected pieces 
 that the children throw away may be seen in the gutters of 
 any poor street. 
 
 Further, both birth-rate and death-rate are highest 
 amongst the very poor, and both rates fall as we change 
 our point of view from class to class. The greatest excess of 
 
EXPENDITURE AND STANDARD OF LIFE. 
 
 333 
 
 births over deaths — i.e. the highest rate of increase — probably 
 lies with the lower middle class. Connected with this is 
 the period of marriage, which is at the earliest age with the 
 lowest and at the latest with the upper grades of society. 
 
 As to club-membership, insurance and savings generally, 
 there are distinct class divisions; not but that there are 
 in each class those who do or do not use their money 
 in this way, but that what they attempt, and how they 
 attempt it, differs. 
 
 The standard of life as tested by holidays, applies 
 rather to the middle and upper classes, than to families of 
 working men. Comparatively few employments are so 
 constant as not to yield vacation enough, and in some cases 
 when the slack season falls at a convenient time of year, 
 advantage is taken by those who can afford it, to arrange 
 a week at the seaside. Otherwise, and more generally, 
 enforced idleness is a poor substitute for a holiday. But 
 when the times of work are within a man's own control, 
 and especially if he can make up for times of idleness by 
 extra efforts, short holidays are very frequent. Sometimes 
 nearly half of every week is taken in this way. When 
 work is not subject to these irregularities, the granting 
 of a week's holiday by the employers is not unusual, and 
 full advantage is taken by almost everyone of Bank 
 Holidays and other established days. To belong to the 
 militia and have a few weeks each summer under canvas 
 is a common plan for single men, and whole families of the 
 very poorest of the population go fruit and hop-picking in 
 the home counties with the same effect. With the middle 
 and upper classes the amount of holiday taken and the way 
 in which it is spent, from a fortnight at the seaside to a 
 winter in Algeria or Egypt, serves very fairly to distinguish 
 various social grades. Amongst the upper classes holiday- 
 making has been raised to the level of a fine art and 
 invested almost with the character of a religious 
 observance. 
 
334 
 
 SURVEY AND CONCLUSIONS. 
 
 The difference in standard of life between the sober man 
 and the drunkard is perhaps the greatest of all, but does 
 not lie on class lines with any exactness. Amongst the lower 
 classes, A to E, there is little difference in the way in which 
 a taste for drink is indulged. There are, indeed, grades of 
 public-houses which answer to the classes which principally 
 frequent them, but beyond the one broad distinction 
 between a man who drinks at home and a man who drinks 
 abroad, there is little difference in habit. To describe 
 truly the standard of life in London as to drink, requires 
 more special study. It is enough to say here that the 
 amount of money wasted in this folly is enormous, and 
 forms one main explanation of the disproportion shown in 
 our statistics between average earnings and results in the 
 comforts of home. 
 
 Theatre-going and the frequenting of music-halls, a2;ain, 
 is a question of age or individual taste rather than class.. 
 In every class the young men go most, but in every class 
 there are found stalwart theatre-goers for whom the- 
 amusement never palls. As with public-houses, there are- 
 music-halls and theatres of every grade. The increase 
 in the taste for such amusements, and in the opportunities 
 for indulging it, is very remarkable. We have seen how 
 naturally this expenditure falls in with the surplus cash 
 of the time before marriage. 
 
 All classes in London give largely in charity. They 
 differ (but only as between the upper class and the rest) 
 in the method, and to some partial extent in the aim or 
 sentiment. It is probable that the poorest people give 
 the most in proportion to what they have. The widow's 
 mite is a recurring fact in daily life, and no credit is 
 claimed for it. " I could not see them starve/' is the 
 simple explanation given ; or, " we shall never miss it.' r 
 The sight of a beggar's, possibly deliberate, misery never 
 fails to touch their simple hearts. Their gifts are spon- 
 taneous and thoughtless, and could never be subjected 
 
EXPENDITURE AND STANDARD OF LIFE. 
 
 335 
 
 to rule, or organized, and still less administered, by others. 
 Their own position, often not very far removed from want, 
 quickens their sympathies, and the word " undeserving " 
 does not stay their hand. Doleful street-singing is most 
 successfully practised in poor streets. 
 
 Window-gardening, the cultivation of plants under 
 glass, and still more the keeping of pet animals and other 
 hobbies, are common to all classes, and are the source of 
 very much pleasure, especially to those whose means are 
 small. The cat's-meat man and the bird-fancier's shop are 
 marks of a poor neighbourhood, and the itinerant vendor 
 of plants is seen everywhere. 
 
 The taste for reading, again, is no question of class. 
 In nearly every section there seem to be born students, 
 and everywhere are also found eager readers of the current 
 trash of the day. Many men in every class read nothing 
 but the sporting papers. The main difference discernible 
 lies in the use by the working classes of a weekly iu 
 place of a daily paper, and with the introduction of 
 halfpenny papers this distinction becomes each year less 
 marked. The proportion of income spent on literature of 
 one kind or other is perhaps as great with the poor as 
 with the rich, and free libraries are largely used by 
 a limited number of people. 
 
 As to religion, each class is touched in some fashion, and 
 each religious organization plays its part. What this part 
 is, and in what way each class is affected, will be an 
 important part of the concluding portion of this work, 
 in which an attempt will be made to measure the influences 
 under which the people live. 
 
 Just as the chief impression made by the first part of this 
 inquiry into the Life and Labour of London was one of 
 mass, so that made by the second part is one of detail. We 
 divide London by classes, and the imagination is appalled 
 by the aggregate numbers living under very similar 
 
336 
 
 SURVEY AND CONCLUSIONS. 
 
 conditions, in streets any one of which seems quite like any 
 other. The map with its half-dozen colours tells the whole 
 story, and description is mere reiteration. We divide by 
 trades and are bewildered not only by the multiplicity of 
 these divisions, but by the great variety of status amongst 
 the workers in each trade. Industry is seen to be a very 
 complex affair, and irrepressible individuality is its key-note. 
 
 The result is that no grouping of trades is satisfactory or 
 even of much utility, and for the purposes of these conclud- 
 ing words I incline to discard trades or groups of trades, 
 classes or groups of classes, and think of the whole 
 population simply as individuals or as families, each and 
 all fighting for themselves and for those who belong- to 
 them, the good battle of life. This point of view brings 
 us once more face to face with the contrasts of poverty 
 and wealth. 
 
 Looked at from the side of industry, life presents itself 
 as full of chances, the best use of which demands free 
 individuality. This is the main conclusion to which the 
 study of London trades has tended. In this fact we find the 
 only security for collective prosperity, and, though all do 
 not share alike, and however wide the difference in lot, 
 I cannot doubt that it provides also the best hope for the 
 diffusion of comfort and wealth. Advantages and oppor- 
 tunities might be made more equal than they are, and the 
 more equal the better, but even if it were possible to make 
 them absolutely the same for all, the deepest roots of social 
 inequality would remain untouched ; for success depends 
 mainly on the power to grasp and make use of opportunities 
 as they occur. Even now they offer so freely that there is 
 no one born who does not continually let them slip. The 
 chances that offer, to be grasped or missed with reward or 
 penalty attached, make of men's lives a struggle which 
 never ends and which falls very hardly on some ; but 
 from this very struggle the whole community, and every 
 individual in it, undoubtedly gains. 
 
EXPENDITURE AND STANDARD OF LIFE. 
 
 337 
 
 A kindly critic of my work has asked me to say if possible 
 " what it all amounts to." What I understand to be sought 
 is an opinion, based on the facts disclosed, as to the actual 
 condition in which the population of London lives and the 
 opportunities which their lives afford. 
 
 To this question the present volume gives a rather lengthy 
 answer. But, to sum it up, what in effect is this answer ? 
 If we lift up our hands and our voices., is it to be in 
 rejoicing or in horror ? May we step forward with hope, or 
 must we learn patiently to endure the evils we cannot cure ? 
 
 It is remarkable that these should still be open questions. 
 But, no doubt, difference of opinion on them springs largely 
 from the point of view adopted. If I now state my own 
 view it may at least serve as a peg on which discussion 
 might hang, and if I hesitate to do so it is because I do not 
 wish to add any colour if it can be avoided to the white 
 light in which I have tried to work in making researches 
 into existing facts. What I have endeavoured to present 
 to my readers is a picture or a way of looking at things, 
 rather than a doctrine or an argument. I have been glad 
 to see my book furnish weapons and ammunition for 
 absolutely opposed schools, and can even make shift to 
 stifle my annoyance when it is occasionally quoted in 
 support of doctrines which I abhor. 
 
 In its pages Londoners have been described as they 
 live, and again as they work, but now in attempting to 
 obtain a correct general impression, we may perhaps turn 
 to yet another method and consider the living picture — 
 of which every spectator is himself a part — which the people 
 of London offer, as, on business or on pleasure bent, they 
 are seen in their streets. It is no holiday show that is 
 thus exhibited, but merely a fair sample of the every-day 
 appearance and daily life of four million people. To me it 
 is always an inspiriting sight, especially in the main streets, 
 and not the least so in those of the poorest districts. The 
 mere bustle of a crowd, which is the first impression left 
 v 22 
 
338 
 
 SURVEY AND CONCLUSIONS. 
 
 upon the mind, resolves itself into the eagerness, energy, 
 and individuality of its component parts. Men, women 
 and children, all or nearly all, are keenly pursuing 
 some aim, so much so, that the few of whom this 
 is not true attract attention and often become objects of 
 suspicion. Nearly all are well dressed and look well fed. 
 Ragged clothes or hungry faces catch the eye when they 
 occur. In quiet streets where there is neither crowd nor 
 bustle it is the same ; the passers-by are going about their 
 business and seldom seem to call for pity on account of 
 poverty. We thus have the general impression of a well- 
 to-do energetic people, and we find this impression borne 
 out by all the facts and every test that can be applied; 
 but subject, just as they are, to the presence of exceptions, 
 and in about the same degree. Here and there as one 
 walks some woe-begone figure slips past, or a glimpse 
 is caught of some back street. We may then turn to our 
 statistics to learn what proportion such things bear to the 
 rest, and it would seem that the proportion is on the whole 
 much the same as is indicated by the panorama of the 
 street. If we would plumb the degree of misery involved, 
 or analyze its causes we may do so from the annals of the 
 people and streets that these volumes contain, or far better, 
 bring to bear upon the quest personal knowledge gained 
 in attempts to improve the conditions of life or relieve 
 distress. 
 
 To the question of another critic, " What is the good 
 of it all ? " I shall still attempt no answer. I trust in 
 the efficacy and utility of the scientific method in throwing 
 light upon social questions, and the work on which I 
 am engaged is not yet finished. In spite of the length to 
 which it has attained, I have to ask once more the patience 
 of my readers. The circumstances which may lead to 
 poverty are various. In my next volumes I hope to show 
 the extent to which remedies of many kinds, wise and 
 unwise, are now being applied ; and in this way, before 
 
EXPENDITURE AND STANDARD OF LIFE. 339 
 
 attempting to . decide what further or other action should 
 be pursued, take stock of what is being done now, and try 
 to trace the effects of the agencies and influences, actually 
 at work, upon the existing state of things. 
 
 If 1 can accomplish this, and besides showing where 
 poverty exists in Loudon and in what degree, and some- 
 thing of its relation to industry, which has now been done, 
 indicate also the manner in which the condition of the 
 people is affected for good or evil by social action of 
 various kinds, it may become easier than it now is to avoid 
 the wrong and choose the right path ; and the question of 
 my critic will have been answered. 
 
 THE END. 
 
 V 
 
 23 
 
INDEX. 
 
INDEX 
 
 Ablutions of the working classes, 
 330-331 
 
 Age, distribution of the occupied 
 classes, 43-53 
 
 trades with a normal age line, 44 
 
 trades with exaggerated propor- 
 tion of boys and young men, 45 
 
 trades with excessive proportion 
 
 of middle-aged, 46 
 
 trades with excess of old, 47, 48 
 
 trades with abnormally small 
 
 proportions at certain ages, 49 
 
 distribution of female employees, 
 
 51-52 
 
 distribution of the whole popula- 
 tion — occupied and unoccu- 
 pied — male and female, 52 
 
 of legal employment, the 
 
 restriction of, 297 
 
 Aliens and foreign competition, 247 
 
 Alms-giving, 334 
 
 Alternative products, 248 
 
 employments, 257 
 
 Amusements, 334 
 
 Apprenticeship, 126 
 
 and trade unions, 163 
 
 Apprentices' wages and obligations, 
 128 
 
 Arbitration and conciliation, 302 
 Association and combination, 136-143 
 
 of employers, 142 
 
 of workmen, 143 
 
 protective, 157 
 
 Average earnings in selected trades, 
 276-278 
 
 Benefits offered by trade societies, 
 153 
 
 Birthplace, in or out of London, 
 28-34 
 
 in connection with essen- 
 tially London trades, 
 129-130 
 
 Birth-rate and death-rate of the 
 
 working classes, 332 
 Book-binding trade, crowding and 
 
 earnings in the, 19 
 
 V 
 
 Boot and shoe-makers, crowding in 
 
 E. and W. London, 102 
 Boy and female labour, introduction 
 
 of, 251 
 
 Boys, trades with an exaggerated 
 
 proportion of, 45 
 Boy labour, 297 
 Boys, wages of, 270 
 Boys and young men, cost of life at 
 
 home, 319-321 
 Bricklayers and crowding, 9 
 Brushmakers, crowding and earnings 
 
 of, 23 
 
 Building Trades' Federation, the, 149 
 Business, size of unit of, 54 
 Butchers, crowding and earnings of, 
 22 
 
 CABiNET-makers, crowding in E. and 
 
 W. London, 102 
 Captainship in industry, 76 
 Carmen, crowding among, 9 
 Casual labour and irregularity, 234 
 Census family, the, 35 
 Centralization of work, 96 
 Central London, cost of life in, 287 
 Change, its good and bad side, 50 
 Character, as affected by industry, 
 
 73 
 
 Characteristics of modern industry, 
 69-83 
 
 Characteristics and training of 
 
 London labour, 120-135 
 Charity of the working classes, 334 
 Cheap labour, 94, 100 
 Cheapness, 74, 133 
 
 the rage for, 119 
 
 Chemical workers, crowding among,10 
 and earn- 
 ings of, 21 
 Children of the working classes, 332 
 Choice of employment, the, 285-292 
 City, the, 100 
 Class distinctions, 325-335 
 Clerks, crowding among, 10 
 Coachmen, cabmen and omnibus 
 
 men, crowding and earnings of, 24 
 
 24 
 
•su 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Coal porters, crowding among, 6 
 
 crowding and earnings 
 
 of, 24 
 
 Combinations of workmen, 78 
 Competition of provincial labour, 
 130, 131 
 
 of aliens, 247 
 
 of commodities, 247-248 
 
 effect of, 115 
 
 — — and Wages, 169 
 
 sphere of potential, 174 
 
 Competence and efficiency, 121 
 Complexity of life in London, 84-85 
 Conciliation and arbitration, 302 
 Continuity of work and overtime, 197 
 Co-operation and co-partnership, 308 
 Corporate feeling in production, 132 
 Cost of living, 319-324 
 Credit and speculation, 242 
 Crowding, definition of, 3 
 
 and apparent poverty, 3-12 
 
 and earnings, 13-27 
 
 connected with birthplace 
 
 and districts inhabited, 29 
 in selected E. and W. 
 
 London trades, 102 
 trade sections arranged to 
 
 show percentage of, 8, 11 
 trades more poor than 
 
 crowded, 6 
 trades more crowded than 
 
 poor, 5, 15-19, 24 
 Currency and irregularity, 241 
 Cycles of inflation and contraction, 
 73, 243-244 
 
 Decaying trades, 49, 60, 62 
 Degradation of work in London, 131, 
 199 
 
 Demand, seasonal, 252-253 
 Demarcation of trades, 258 
 Despecialization in trade, 249-250 
 Deterioration of labour, 90, 131 
 Development of London trade, 86 
 Differential rates of wages, 169 
 Diffusion of workers, 96-97 
 Disadvantages of London, 90 
 Disintegration and trade unions, 147 
 Disorganized trades, 303 
 Displacement of trade, 85 
 
 of individuals, 236-238 
 
 of products, 248 
 
 Dock labourers in connection with 
 
 crowding, 6 
 Drift of industry, 61 
 Drink, 26, 334 
 
 Dyers and cleaners, crowding and 
 earnings of, 21 
 
 Earnings and crowding, 13 
 and crowding in various 
 
 trades, table comparing, 
 
 16 
 
 actual and nominal, 17 
 
 irregularity of, 228-262 
 
 and wages, 276-279 
 
 — ■ supplementary, 281-282 
 
 Economic advantages and disad- 
 vantages of London, 87-95 
 Education and industry, 134 
 
 as an industrial remedy, 
 
 296 
 
 Efficiency in industry, 121 
 
 tests of, 162 
 
 and methods of remunera 
 
 tion, 215-216 
 Employers and employed, the pro- 
 portion of, 54-56 
 
 small, 117 
 
 associations, 132 
 
 Employment, systems of, 104 
 
 the choice of, 285-292 
 
 bureaux, the trade 
 
 unions as, 305 
 Employment, status as to, 54-58 
 Engine and machine makers, crowd- 
 ing among, 10 
 Enterprise in business, 76, 241 
 Equilibrium in industry, 231 
 Evils, specific, demanding remedies, 
 294 
 
 Excellence of London work, 89, 131 
 Exclusiveness in trade, 257 
 Expenditure and standard of life, 
 
 317-335 
 Expenses of industry, 287 
 
 Factory system, the, 104 
 
 Acts, effect on hours of work 
 
 of, 183, 184, 185 
 Acts, the extension of the, 
 
 298 
 
 inspection, 299-302 
 
 Fair wages' clause, the, 180 
 " Fair day's work," a, 189 
 Families, size and constitution of, 35 
 comparative size of, by 
 
 trades, 38 
 male and female heads of, 
 
 35-37 
 
 — ■ percentage of male heads 
 
 of, to males over 20, by 
 trades, 42 
 
INDEX. 
 
 345 
 
 Family, income of the, 280-283 
 Fashion and irregularity, 254-255 
 Federation among unions, 149, 150 
 Female labour and trade unions, 179 
 
 ■ irregularity, 236 
 
 Financial stability of trade unions, 
 154 
 
 Fiscal policy and irregularity, 245 
 Fixity in industry, 110 
 Fluctuation of demand, 229 
 Foreign competition, 247 
 Free labour, 304 
 
 trade, 245 
 
 Freedom, love of, 112 
 
 and irregularity, 235 
 
 Friendly benefits of trade unions, 153 
 Functions of trade unions, 151 
 Furniture trades, 98 
 
 Gasworkers, crowding and earnings 
 of, 24 
 
 Gospel of industry, the, 314 
 
 Hat and cap-makers, crowding in E. 
 
 and W. London among, 102 
 Hatters, crowding and earnings 
 
 among, 19 
 Hawkers, 114 
 
 Holidays and irregularity, 235, 255 
 the choice of employ- 
 ment, 288 
 of the poor and the well- 
 to-do, 333 
 Home life of the working classes, 
 325-332 
 
 employment, 110-115 
 
 Hours of labour, the, 182-200 
 
 work in London trades, 
 
 182, 201-214 
 
 and overtime, 194 
 
 individuals, 193, 
 
 200 
 
 effects of controlling, 
 
 189-192 
 
 influences determin- 
 ing, 183-184 
 Houses in poor districts, size of, 3 
 
 Idiosyncracies of large towns, 58 
 Immigration from the provinces, 
 
 30, 52, 129, 131-132 
 Immigrants and irregularity, 247 
 Income of a " poor " family, the, 5 
 
 the family, 280-283 
 
 Increasing and decreasing trades, 
 
 59-65 
 
 Independence, industrial, 116 
 Independent workers, 57 
 Individualism and trade unions, 150 
 Individuals and hours of work, 193, 
 200 
 
 Individuality, the suppression of, 78 
 Industrial relationships, 109-110, 
 
 141, 157, 160, 177 
 training and trade unions, 
 
 162 
 
 remedies, 293-318 
 
 the nature of, 
 
 309 
 
 inquiry, objects and 
 
 utility of, 337-339 
 
 Industries specially adapted to Lon- 
 don, 91-95 
 
 Indus try, characteristics of modern, 
 69-83 
 
 connection of poverty with, 
 
 70 
 
 organic nature of, 72 
 
 the gospel of, 314 
 
 Inspectors, factory, 299-302 
 Insufficient pay and poverty, 314- 
 315 
 
 Intensity of work, 188 
 Intermittent employment and over- 
 time, 196 
 Intervention, State, 191, 315-316 
 Iron and steel trades, crowding and 
 
 earnings in the, 19-20 
 Irregular occupations, tables of, 
 
 277, 278, 279 
 Irregularity and organization, 80 
 
 of earnings, 228-262 
 
 personal and economic 
 
 causes of, 234-237 
 
 and women's work, 236 
 
 trade cycles and, 243 
 
 and internal demand, 
 
 244 
 
 and fiscal policy, 245 
 
 and administration, 246 
 
 and population, 247 
 
 remedies for, 259-262 
 
 and industrial degrada- 
 tion, 283 
 
 Jewellers, crowding and earnings 
 
 among, 23 
 Jews, effect on tailoring trade, 33 
 
 Labour, the excellence of London, 
 89, 131 
 
 low paid, 100 
 
 the dignity of, 290 
 
346 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Labour unions, composition of, 143 
 Labourers, general, in connection 
 
 with crowding, 7 
 municipal, and crowd- 
 ing, 9 
 
 dock and general, crowd- 
 ing and earnings of, 24 
 
 wages of, 266-270 
 
 Landlords, the responsibility of, 
 298 
 
 Large and small systems of produc- 
 tion, 106-119 
 
 Large systems of production, 106 
 
 Leather and fur workers, crowding 
 and earnings of, 23 
 
 Legislation and State action, 183, 
 192-193, 195, 315-318 
 
 Leisure and hours of work, 190 
 
 Limitations to the sphere of trade 
 unions, 173 
 
 Localization and diffusion of trades, 
 96-103 
 
 London, numbers born in or out of, 
 28-30 
 
 numbers living in inner or 
 
 outer circle, 31-34 
 
 as a centre of trade and 
 
 industry, 84-95 
 
 industrial tenure of, 84 
 
 Trades' Council, the, 150 
 
 Loss of time and wages, 279-280 
 
 Machinery, effects of, 107-108 
 
 increase of trade due to, 
 
 63 
 
 and methods of remuner- 
 ation, 220 
 
 and regularity of work, 
 
 250 
 
 Management in industry, 76 
 Markets, creation of, 63-64, 98 
 Married life, the cost of, 321-324 
 Marshall, Professor, on equality of re- 
 muneration, 220 
 
 on specialization 
 
 of work, 250 
 Masons, crowding among, 10 
 Matmakers, crowding and earnings 
 of, 21 
 
 Maximum wage, the, 172 
 Measurability of work, 174 
 Methods of remuneration, time and 
 
 piece-Avork, 215-227 
 Middlemen, 88 
 
 Migration from the Provinces, 30, 247 
 Millers, crowding and earnings of, 
 22 
 
 Mineral water makers, crowding and 
 
 earnings of, 22 
 Minimum wage, the, 166-172 
 Mobility of labour, the, 30, 130-132 
 Modern system of industry, the, 
 
 75-76 
 Money making, 77 
 Moral qualities, the market value of, 
 
 314 
 
 Morale and irregularity, 234 
 Municipal employment, crowding 
 
 and earnings in, 25 
 Musical instrument makers, crowd- 
 ing and earnings of, 23 
 
 " Neither employers nor employed," 
 
 position of, 229-230 
 Nominal wages and actual earnings, 
 
 276-279 _ 
 Non-unionists, 304 
 
 Objects of trade unions, the, 158 
 of the industrial inquiry, 
 
 the, 337 
 " Occupied," the, 35 
 age distribution of the, 
 
 43-53 
 
 Organization, absence of, in certain 
 trades, 176 
 
 conditions of, 173, 174 
 
 and irregularity, 80 
 
 and remuneration, 81 
 
 the objects of, 138 
 
 "Others occupied," the, 35 
 Out-of-work benefits, 153, 155, 305- 
 307 
 
 Overlapping and trade unions, 147, 
 
 157, 257-258 
 Overtime, 194-197 
 
 as a preventive of inter- 
 mittent employment, 
 196, 197 
 
 Overtime, opposition of trade unions 
 to, 196 
 
 Painters, crowding among, 9 
 Pensions, Trade Union, 154 
 Permanency of employment, 171 
 Personal and economic causes of 
 
 irregularity, 233, 237 
 Physical conditions affecting regu- 
 larity of work, 251 
 Piecework, arguments for and 
 against, 221-223 
 
 and the building trades, 
 
 217 
 
INDEX. 
 
 347 
 
 effect of, on continuity of 
 
 work, 223 
 and the employment of 
 
 young and old, 224-225 
 and fixity of rates of 
 
 remuneration, 225 
 
 and women's trades, 218 
 
 and timework, 216 
 
 Plasterers, crowding among, 9 
 Point of view, the general and the 
 
 particular, 335 
 Police, crowding among the, 10 
 Poor, definition of the, 5 
 Population, division of, into eight 
 
 groups, 136 
 Poverty and crowding, 3 
 connection with industry, 
 
 70, 196 
 
 causes of, 308-314 
 
 and remuneration, 13 
 
 Prices, the influence of, 243 
 Printing trade, crowding and earnings 
 
 in the, 18 
 
 trades, localization of, 98 
 
 Privileged Associations, 138 
 Production and employment, systems 
 
 of, 104-119 
 Professional classes, crowding among 
 
 the, 10 
 Profit, 77, 172 
 
 Profit-sharing and remuneration, 216 
 Protective combinations, 139, 151 
 Provincial competition, 247-248 
 
 immigrants, age of, 52 
 
 labour, 130, 131 
 
 migration to London, 30, 
 
 247 
 
 Qualifications, industrial, 123 
 Qualities demanded of employees, 
 80 
 
 Quality in relation to demand, 115 
 
 Rae, Mr., on " Hours of work," 191 
 Rates of wages, 263-284 
 Recognized and current wages, 271- 
 273 
 
 Registration of workshops, the, 298- 
 299 
 
 Regular occupations, table of, 276 
 Regularity of work and piecework, 
 223 
 
 and standard of comfort, 
 
 228 
 
 and machinery, 250 
 
 Relations of workmen and work- 
 men, 156 
 
 Relations between employers and 
 employees, 109-110, 140, 157, 
 160, 177 
 
 Religion and the working classes, 335 
 Remedial action, instruments of, 
 295-302 
 
 Remedies for irregularity of work, 
 
 259-262 
 
 industrial, 293-318 
 
 the nature of social and 
 
 industrial, 309 
 Remuneration, methods of, 215-227 
 
 range of, 264 
 
 Rents, effect of high and low, 4 
 Requirements of special trades, 123 
 Responsibility of landlords, 298 
 Retail trade, 101, 114-115 
 Revolution, the industrial, 120 
 
 Seasons, busy and slack, 252-253 
 Shifting from trade to trade,44, 48, 50 
 
 and irregularity, 237 
 
 Shop keepers, crowding among, 10 
 
 assistants, hours of, 191 
 
 Shops used by working classes, 331 
 Silk weavers, crowding among, 10 
 
 and fancy workers, crowding and 
 
 earnings of, 21 
 Size of businesses, the, 54 
 Skilled men, the wages of, 270 
 "Skilled" work, 120 
 Slack time, 237 
 Small employers, 117 
 
 masters and trade unions, 175, 
 
 177-178 
 
 systems of production, 57, 110 
 
 Smith, H. Llewellyn, on seasonal and 
 
 cyclical variations, 233 
 Soap and candle makers, crowding 
 
 and earnings of, 20 
 Social remedies, the nature of, 309 
 Socialism, 315 
 
 and State responsibility,318 
 
 Socialists and material forms of 
 
 wealth, 241-242 
 Specialization, excessive, 250 
 
 of industry, 78, 116 
 
 Speculation and credit, 242 
 
 in trading, 76 
 
 Standard of life, the, 74, 333 
 
 and expenditure, 
 
 317-335 
 
 the prevailing, 325- 
 
 335 
 
 connected with com- 
 fort and regular 
 work, 228 
 
348 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 State intervention, 191, 315-316 
 Status as to employment, 54-58 
 
 effect of transitional character 
 
 of, 177-179 
 
 uncertainty of, 231 
 
 Street-sellers, crowding among, 6 
 Strikes, trade unions and, 160 
 Sub-contract, 116 
 Subdivision of labour, 256-257 
 Substitution of products, the, 248 
 Superannuation, trade unions and, 
 154 
 
 Supervision, 127, 221 
 
 Supply and demand, relation of, 71 
 
 Surgical and scientific instrument 
 
 makers, crowding and earnings 
 
 of, 23 
 " Sweating," 116 
 
 Systems of production and employ- 
 ment, 104 
 
 Tailors in East and West London, 
 
 crowding among, 102 
 Technical training, 134, 296 
 Tenure, uncertainty of industrial, 231 
 Theatre- going, 334 
 Time and piece-work, 216 
 Time-work, arguments for and 
 against, 221 
 
 the basis of, 218 
 
 and the building trades, 
 
 217 
 
 Trade and industry, London as a 
 
 centre of, 84-95 
 Trades' Council, the London, 150 
 Trades, age distribution by, 43-53 
 
 comparative size of families 
 
 in, 38 
 
 found in particular localities, 
 
 99 
 
 increasing and decreasing, 
 
 60 
 
 number of employed to each 
 
 employer in, 56 
 proportions of crowded or 
 
 poor, 8, 11, 16 
 proportion in — born in or 
 
 out of London — living in 
 
 inner or outer circle, 29 
 Trade unions, 136-181 
 
 absence of in certain 
 
 trades, 176-180 
 
 action of, 78-82 
 
 benefits offered by, 153 
 
 conditions favourable 
 
 to, 173 
 
 conditions unfavour- 
 able to, 175 
 
 effect on wages, 18, 
 
 168 
 
 and female labour, 179 
 
 forms of growth of, 148 
 
 functions of, 151 
 
 individualism of, 150 
 
 and irregularity, 258 
 
 limitations to sphere 
 
 of action of, 81, 173 
 in London, list of, 144- 
 
 145 
 
 objects of, 158 
 
 sphere and extent of 
 
 influence of, 81, 
 
 147, 158-162 
 proportion of members 
 
 to population, 146 
 as remedial agencies, 
 
 302 
 
 and tests of efficiency, 
 
 162-172 
 Tradition, the effects of, 97 
 
 and trade unions, 163 
 
 Training and characteristics of Lon- 
 don labour, 120-135 
 Training, general, 124 
 
 technical, 134, 296 
 
 and trade unions, 162 
 
 Unemployed, the, 196, 316-318 
 Uniformity of wage, 168 
 Unions (see trade unions) 
 "Unoccupied," proportion of, per 
 
 family in each trade, 38 
 Unskilled men, wages of, 266-270 
 "Unskilled'' work, characteristics 
 
 of, 121 
 
 Wage, the minimum, 166-172 
 Wages of adult male labour, 266-270 
 
 of boys, 270 
 
 differential rates of, 169 
 
 effects of high "minimum," 
 
 170 
 
 " fair," 180 
 
 how spent, 5, 319-324 
 
 and loss of time, 279 
 
 low, and poverty, 310 
 
 nominal and real, 15, 17, 18 
 
 rates of, 264 
 
 recognized and current, 271- 
 
 273 
 
 of skilled men, 270 
 
 and trade union policy, 168 
 
INDEX. 
 
 349 
 
 of women, 271 
 
 Want of work and poverty, 314-315 
 Watchmakers, crowding among, 10, 
 20 
 
 Wealth, effect on industry of, 65 
 Webb, S. and B., on percentage of 
 
 Trade Unionists, 146 
 Wives and young children, 36 
 Women, age distribution of em- 
 ployed, 51 
 
 and piece-work, 218 
 
 status of, 179 
 
 wages of, 271 
 
 work of, 36 
 
 Work, poverty and want of, 314 
 Working classes, home life of, 325- 
 332 
 
 Working day, length of, 182, 194 
 Workmen's Associations, 143, 181 
 Workmen and workmen, relations 
 of, 156 
 
 Workshops, the registration and in- 
 spection of, 298-302 
 Workshop system, the, 105 
 
ERRATA IN PREVIOUS VOLUMES OF THE INDUSTRIAL 
 
 SERIES. 
 
 Vol. I. 
 
 p. 293, under " Status as to Employment," the figures for Fitters and for 
 Millwrights have been transposed. Total of Fitters should be 9270, and of 
 Millwrights 351, instead of vice versa. 
 
 Vol. II., Appendix. 
 Part I., Table B, p. 367.— The total of C and D should be 12 %, and 
 E should be 2 °/ . The figures have been transposed. 
 
 Part III., Table B, p. 373.— Printers (No. 5) should be 3084, not 23,084. 
 
 Vol. III. 
 
 p. 21, see correction, Vol. IX., p. 201, note. 
 
 p. 92, for "nearly 186,000," read " nearly 136,000." 
 
 p. 146, line 3 of note, /or " quality " read " quantity." 
 
 p. 150, line 12 from bottom, for "Friday" read "Thursday." 
 
 p. 214. — The figures for Greengrocers and Oil and Colourmen have been 
 transposed. The total of Greengrocers should be 4031, and of Oil and 
 Colourmen 9530, instead of vice versa. 
 
 p. 231. — The figures for Males and Females have been transposed in the 
 Census Enumeration. The total of Males should be 4794, and of Females 
 6210, instead of vice versa. 
 
SYLLABUS OF THE ENTIRE WORK 
 
Life and Labour of the People 
 in London 
 
 (CHARLES BOOTH) 
 
 First Series : Poverty 
 VOL. I. 
 Part. I. East London 
 
 Chap. I. Introductory 
 
 II. Concerning the Whole 
 District 
 III. Concerning the Separate 
 Districts 
 
 Chap. IV. Institutions 
 V. Poverty 
 VI. Class Relations 
 VII. Point of View 
 
 Part II. Central London 
 
 Chap. I. Descriptive I Chap. III. Com. Lodging Houses 
 
 II. Covent Garden IV. Homeless Men 
 
 Part III. Outlying London, North of the Thames 
 
 Chap. I. Special Districts, West I Chap. II. Walthamstow 
 and North 
 
 Part IV. South London 
 Chap. I. The District Generally | Chap. II. Battersea 
 
 Conclusion 
 East London, Central London and Battersea compared 
 
iv 
 
 LIFE AND LABOUR IN LONDON 
 
 VOL. II. 
 
 Part I. London Street by Street 
 
 Chap. I. Introduction 
 
 II. Statistics of Poverty 
 
 Chap. III. Classification and De- 
 scription of Streets 
 
 Part II. Appendix 
 
 Classification and Description of the Population of London by School 
 Board Blocks and Divisions 
 
 VOL. III. 
 
 Part I. Special Subjects 
 
 Chap. I. Blocks of Model Dwell- 
 ings 
 
 (1) Statistics 
 
 (2) Influence on Character 
 
 (3) Sketch of Life in Build- 
 
 ings 
 
 Chap. II. Influx of Population 
 (East London) 
 
 III. Influx of Population 
 
 (London generally) 
 
 IV. The Jewish Com- 
 
 munity (East London) 
 
 Part II. London Children 
 
 Chap. I. Classification of Schools 
 and Children 
 II. Elementary Education 
 
 Chap. III. Secondary Education 
 
 (1) Boys 
 
 (2) Girls 
 
 VOL. IV. 
 
 The Trades of East London Connected with Poverty 
 
 Chap. I. Introduction 
 II. The Docks 
 
 III. The Tailoring Trade 
 
 IV. Bootmaking 
 
 V. Tailoring and Boot 
 making — East & West 
 
 Chap. VI. The Furniture Trade 
 VII. Tobacco Workers 
 VIII. Silk Manufacture 
 IX. Women's Work 
 X. Sweating 
 
SYLLABUS OF THE ENTIRE WORK 
 
 Second Series: Industry 
 
 VOL. I. 
 
 General Classification of the Whole Population 
 
 Part I. The Building Trades 
 
 Chap. I. The Whole Group 
 
 II. The Different Sections 
 III. Conditions of Employ- 
 ment 
 
 Chap. IV. Organization 
 
 V. Abuses- 
 ditions 
 
 ■Social Con- 
 
 Part II. Wood Workers 
 
 Preliminary Statement 
 Chap. I. Cabinet Makers 
 II. Carriage Builders 
 
 Chap. III. Coopers 
 
 IV. Shipwrights 
 
 Part III, 
 
 Preliminary Statement 
 Chap. I. Engineering, Boiler- 
 Making, &c. 
 II. Blacksmiths 
 
 Metal Workers 
 Chap. HI. 
 
 Other Workers in 
 Iron and Steel 
 IV. Workers in other 
 metals 
 
 VOL. II. 
 
 Part I. Precious Metals, Watches and 
 Instruments 
 
 Preliminary Statement Chai\ III. Surgical, Scientific, 
 
 Chap. I. Jewellers, Gold and and Electrical Instru- 
 
 Silversmiths ments 
 II. Watches and Clocks IV. Musical Instruments 
 
 and Toys 
 
 Part II. Sundry Manufactures 
 
 Preliminary Statement 
 Chap. I. Glass and Earthenware 
 II. Chemicals 
 
 HI. Soap, Candles, Glue, &c. 
 
 Chat. IV. Leathtr Dressing, &c. 
 V. Saddlery and Harness 
 VI. Brush Making 
 
vi 
 
 LIFE AND LABOUR IN LONDON 
 
 Part III. Printing 
 
 Preliminary Statement 
 Chap. I. Printers 
 
 II. Bookbinders 
 III. Paper Manufacturers 
 
 Part IV. The 
 
 Preliminary Statement 
 Chap. I. Silk and Woollen 
 Goods 
 
 II. Dyeing and Cleaning 
 
 VOL. 
 
 Part I. 
 
 Preliminary Statement 
 Chap. I. Tailors and Bootmakers 
 II. Hatters 
 
 III. Milliners, Dress and 
 Shirt Makers 
 
 and Paper Trades 
 
 Chap. IV. Stationers 
 
 V. Booksellers and News- 
 agents 
 
 Textile Trades 
 
 Chap. III. Hemp, Jute and 
 Fibre 
 
 IV. Floorcloth and Water- 
 
 proof 
 
 III. 
 
 Dress 
 
 Chap. IV. Trimmings, Artificial 
 Flowers, &c. 
 
 V. Drapers, Hosiers, Silk 
 
 Mercers 
 
 Part II 
 Preliminary Statement 
 Chap. I. Millers, Sugar Refiners, 
 &c. 
 
 II. Brewers and Tobacco 
 
 Workers 
 III. Bakers and Confec- 
 tioners 
 
 Food and Drink 
 
 Chap. IV. Milksellers 
 
 V. Butchers and Fish- 
 mongers 
 VI. Grocers, Oil and 
 
 Colourmen 
 VII. Publicans and Coffee 
 House Keepers 
 
 Part III. 
 
 Preliminary Statement 
 Chap. I. Shopkeepers and Gen 
 eral Dealers 
 
 Dealers and Clerks 
 
 j Chap. II. Costers and 
 
 Street 
 
 Sellers 
 
 III. Merchants and Clerks 
 
 Part IV. Locomotion, &c. 
 
 Preliminary Statement | Chap. III. Railway Work 
 
 Chap. I. Cab and Omnibus Ser- j IV. Gardeners, &c. 
 
 vice V. Merchant Seamen 
 
 II. Carmen and Lightermen 
 
 Part V. 
 
 Preliminary Statement 
 Chap. I. The Docks and Wharves 
 II. Coal Porters and Gas 
 Workers 
 
 Labour 
 
 Chap. III. Warehousemen and 
 Messengers 
 IV. Undefined Labour 
 
SYLLABUS OF THE ENTIRE WORK 
 
 VOL. IV. 
 
 Part I. Public Service and Professional Classes 
 Preliminary Statement i Chap. IV. Law and Medicine 
 
 Chap. I. Civil and Municipal | V. Art and Amusement 
 
 Service VI. Literature and"Educa- 
 
 II. Municipal Labour, &c. tion 
 III. Soldiers and Police VII. Religion 
 
 Part II. Domestic Service 
 
 Preliminary Statement Chap. II. Extra Service 
 
 Chap. I. Household Service, &c. 
 
 Part III. The " Unoccupied " Classes 
 Persons living on own Means, Pensioners, Retired, &c. 
 
 Part IV. Inmates of Institutions, &c. 
 
 Chap. I. Occupations I Chap. IV. A Picture of Pauperism 
 
 II. Pauperism at Stepney {continued) 
 III. A Picture of Pauper- j Appendix. Summary of Stories of 
 
 I Stepney Pauperism 
 
 ism 
 
 VOL. V. 
 Part I. Comparisons 
 
 Chap. I. Crowding and Apparent 
 Poverty 
 Crowding and Earnings 
 Born in and out of Lon- 
 don and Living in 
 Inner or Outer Circle 
 Size and Constitution of 
 the Census Family 
 
 II. 
 III. 
 
 IV. 
 
 Chap. V. Age Distribution of 
 the Occupied Classes 
 (illustrated by dia- 
 grams) 
 
 VI. Status as to Employ- 
 ment 
 
 VII. Increasing and De- 
 creasing Trades 
 
 Part II. Survey and Conclusions 
 
 Chap. I. Characteristics of 
 Modern Industry 
 II. London as a Centre of 
 Trade and Industry 
 
 III. The Localization and 
 
 Diffusion of Trades 
 
 IV. Large and Small 
 
 Systems of Produc- 
 tion and Employment 
 V. Characteristics & Train- 
 ing of London Labour 
 VI. Trade Unions 
 
 Chap. VII. The Hours of Labour 
 VIII. Methods of Remu- 
 neration : Time 
 and Piece Work. 
 IX. Irregularity of Earn- 
 ings 
 
 X. Rates of Wages 
 XL The Choice of Em- 
 ployment 
 XII. Industrial Remedies 
 XIII. Expenditure and the 
 Standard of Life 
 
LIFE AND LABOUR IN LONDON 
 
 [ Third Series: Religious Influences 
 
 VOL. L 
 
 London North of the Thames : 
 The Outer Ring 
 
 Introduction 
 
 Chapter I. Outer East London 
 {With Sketch Map) 
 
 (1) General Character 
 
 (2) The Response to Religion 
 
 (3) The Church of England 
 
 (4) Other Religious Work 
 
 (5) Special Areas 
 
 (6) Police, Drink, and Disorder 
 
 (7) Marriage and Thrift 
 
 (8) Housing and Transit 
 
 (9) Local Administration 
 
 Coloured Maps with Notes and List of Places of Worship 
 
 Chapter II. The North East 
 {With Sketch Map) 
 
 (1) Hackney: Past and Present 
 
 (2) The Response to Religion 
 
 (3) Church-going and Working 
 
 Men 
 
 (4) Local Details of Religious 
 
 Work 
 
 (5) Areas of Special Difficulty 
 
 (6) Social Initiative of Religious 
 Bodies 
 
 (7) Police, Drink, and Pleasure 
 Seeking 
 
 (8) Local Administration 
 
 Coloured Map with Notes and List of Places of Worship 
 
 Chapter III. North London 
 
 {With Sketch Map) 
 
 (1) General Description 
 
 (2) Middle-class Religious De 
 
 velopment 
 
 (3) Evangelical Work and 
 
 Methods 
 
 (4) Special Areas and their Treat- 
 ment 
 
 (5) Religion and Class 
 
 (6) Local Administration 
 
 Coloured Map with Notes and List of Places of Worship 
 
SYLLABUS OF THE ENTIRE WORK 
 
 Chapter IV. The North-West 
 {With Sketch Map) 
 
 (1) Complication of Class 
 
 (2) Highgate and Kentish Town 
 
 (3) Camden Town,Regent's Park 
 
 and Somers Tow n 
 
 (4) The Housing and Condition 
 
 of the People 
 
 (5) The Lisson Grove Area 
 
 (with coloured map) 
 
 (6) Portland Town 
 
 (7) St. John's Wood and 
 
 Hampstead 
 
 (8) Local Administration 
 
 Coloured Maps with Notes and List of Places of Worship 
 Chapter V. Illustrations 
 
 VOL. II. 
 
 London North of the Thames 
 
 The Inner Ring 
 
 Whitechapel and St. George's East 
 
 {With Sketch Map) 
 
 (5) The Roman Catholics 
 
 in - the - East, 
 
 Chapter I. 
 
 (1) Changes 
 
 (2) Spitalfields 
 
 (3) Whitechapel 
 
 (4) St. George's 
 
 Wapping and Shadwell 
 
 Chapter II. Bethnal Green, Haggerston, &c. 
 
 {With Sketch Map) 
 
 (1) The Boundary Street Area | (4) Religious Work in Haggers- 
 
 (2) Other Portions of Bethnal 
 
 Green 
 
 (6) Charitable Agencies 
 
 (7) Other Methods 
 
 (8) Local Administration 
 
 (9) Summary- 
 
 ton, &c. 
 { 5) Standard of Life 
 (6) Public Buildings and Local 
 Administration 
 
 (3) Oxford House 
 
 Coloured Map with Notes and List of Places of Worship 
 
 Chapter III. 
 
 (1) Hoxton 
 
 (2) St. Luke's 
 
 Hoxton, St. Luke's and Clerkenwell 
 
 {With Sketch Map) 
 
 (3) Clerkenwell 
 
 (4) Local Administration 
 
 Coloured Map with Notes and List of Places of Worship 
 
X 
 
 LIFE AND LABOUR IN LONDON 
 
 Chapter IV. West-Central London 
 {With Sketch Map) 
 
 (1) West of Gray's Inn Road (3) Russell Square to Langham 
 
 (2) South of Oxford Street and pj ace 
 
 Holborn, East of Regent 
 
 Street (4) Local Administration 
 
 Coloured Map with Notes and List of Places of Worship 
 
 Chapter V. Illustrations 
 
 VOL. III. 
 
 The City of London and the West End 
 Part I. The City 
 
 Chapter I. The Churches 
 ( With Sketch Map) 
 
 Chapter II. A Suggestion 
 
 Chapter III. Illustrations 
 List of Places of Worship 
 
 Part II The West 
 
 Chapter I. Westminster and South Pimlico 
 
 {With Sketch Map) 
 (1) Old Westminster | (2) South Pimlico 
 
 Coloured Map with Notes and List of Places of Worship 
 
 Chapter II. The Inner West 
 {With Sketch Map) 
 
 (1) General Plan (5) Brompton and Belgravia 
 
 (2) Mayfair (6) Chelsea 
 
 (3) Marylebone and Bayswater (7) Paddington 
 
 (4) Kensington (8) Local Administration 
 
 Coloured Map with Notes and List of Places of Worship 
 
SYLLABUS OF THE ENTIRE WORK xi 
 
 (1) Introductory 
 
 (2) Kensal New Town 
 
 (3) Queen's Park 
 
 (4) Kensington Park 
 
 Chapter III. The Outer West 
 {With Sketch Map) 
 
 (5) A Piece of Unbuilt London 
 
 (6) NottingDale 
 
 (7) Local Administration 
 
 Coloured Map with Notes and List of Places of Worship 
 Chapter IV. The Outer West (continued) 
 
 (3) Local Administration 
 
 (4) London, North of 
 
 Thames 
 
 the 
 
 (1) Shepherd's Bush and Ham- 
 
 mersmith 
 
 (2) Fulham 
 
 Coloured Map with Notes and List of Places of Worship 
 
 Chapter V. Illustrations. West London 
 Chapter VI. Illustrations. North of Thames 
 
 generally 
 
 VOL. IV. 
 Inner South London 
 
 Chapter I. West Southwark. and North Lambeth 
 {With Sketch Map) 
 
 (1) Introductory 
 
 (2) From the Borough to Black- 
 
 friars Road 
 
 (3) From Blackfriars Road to 
 
 Lambeth 
 
 Chapter 
 
 (4) Lambeth Road to Vauxhall 
 
 (5) Side Lights 
 
 (6) Local Administration 
 II. Newington and Walworth 
 
 {With Sketch Map) 
 
 (1) The Church of England 
 
 (2) The Baptists 
 
 (3) Wesleyan and other Method- 
 
 ists 
 
 (4) Congregationalists 
 
 (5) Independent Missions 
 
 (6) More Side Lights 
 
 (7) Local Administration 
 
 Chapter III. Bermondsey 
 (With Sketch Map) 
 
 (1) Comparative Poverty 
 
 (2) Four Poor Parishes 
 
 (3) Nonconformists and Mis- 
 
 sions in the same area 
 
 (4) Conditions of Life 
 
 (5) The Riverside 
 
 (6) Remainder of the District 
 
 (7) Local Administration 
 
xii 
 
 LIFE AND LABOUR IN LONDON 
 
 Chapter IV. Rotherhithe 
 
 {With Sketch Map) 
 
 (1) The Riverside North of the 
 
 Park 
 
 (2) The Neighbourhood of South- 
 
 wark Park 
 
 (3) Round the Docks 
 
 (4) South of the Park 
 
 (5) Local Administration 
 
 Coloured Map with Notes and List of Places of Worship 
 
 Chapters V. and VI. Illustrations 
 
 VOL. V. 
 
 South-East and South-West London 
 Part I. The South-East 
 
 Chapter I. Deptford 
 {With Sketch Map) 
 
 (1) General Character 
 
 (2) Old Deptford Parishes 
 
 (3) Newer Deptford 
 
 (4) The Southern and Western 
 
 Parishes 
 
 (5) Local Administration 
 
 (1) Opening 
 
 (2) The Poor Part of West 
 
 Greenwich 
 
 (3) The Remainder of West 
 
 Greenwich 
 
 Chapter II. Greenwich 
 {With Sketch Map) 
 
 (4) East Greenwich 
 
 (5) East Greenwich (continued) 
 
 (6) Local Administration 
 
 Coloured Map with Notes and List of Places oj Worship 
 
 Chapter III. Woolwich, etc. 
 (With Sketch Map) 
 
 (1) Charlton 
 
 (2) Three Aspects of Woolwich 
 
 (3) Religious Effort in Woolwich 
 
 (4) Plumstead 
 
 (5) Various Opinions 
 
 (6) Social Influences 
 
 (7) Local Administration 
 
 Coloured Map with Notes and List of Places of Worship 
 
 Chapter IV. Illustrations 
 
SYLLABUS OF THE ENTIRE WORK xiii 
 
 Part II The South - West 
 
 {With Sketch Map) 
 
 Chapter L Battersea 
 
 (3) Old Battersea and the River- 
 side 
 
 (4) Local Administration 
 
 (1) Nine Elms and the Neigh- 
 
 bourhood 
 
 (2) From Battersea Park to 
 
 Lavender Hill 
 
 Chapter II. Clapham 
 
 (1) From the Religious Point of 
 View 
 
 (2) From the Home Point of View 
 
 (3) Clapham to Kennington 
 
 Coloured Map with, Notes and List of Places of Worship 
 
 Chapter III. Wandsworth and Putney 
 
 (1) The Valley of the Wandle (3) Local Administration 
 
 (2) Putney 
 
 Coloured Map with Notes and List of Places of Worship 
 
 Chapter IV. Illustrations 
 
 VOL. VI. 
 
 Outer South London 
 
 Chapter I. The Belt of Crowding and Poverty 
 
 (1) The Whole District I (4) The Poor Part of Camberwell 
 
 (2 ) North and West of Clapham , v ~, j 
 
 v 3 Road * (5) The Belt of Crowding and 
 
 (3) The Sultan Street Area Poverty (continued) 
 
 Chapter II. Beyond the Belt of Crowding — 
 Southward to the Hills 
 
 (1) From Clapham Road to the 
 S.E. and Chatham Railway 
 
 (2) South of Peckham Road 
 
XIV 
 
 LIFE AND LABOUR IN LONDON 
 
 Chapter III. 
 
 (1) The Western Side 
 
 (2) The Eastern Side 
 
 (3) The Concourse on Peckham 
 
 Rye 
 
 Further South 
 
 (4) Social Condition 
 
 (5) Local Administration 
 
 Sketch Map, and Coloured Map with Notes and List of Plates 
 of Worship 
 
 Chapter IV. Outlying Southern Suburbs 
 The Western Portion 
 {With Sketch Map) 
 
 ( 1 ) From Roehampton to Balham 
 
 (2) From Balham to Upper 
 
 Tooting 
 
 (3) Summers Town and Toot- 
 
 ing Graveney 
 
 (4) Streatham 
 
 (5) Tulse Hill and Brockwell 
 
 Park 
 
 (6) Norwood 
 
 (7) Dulwich 
 
 General Notes on District and List of Places of Worship 
 
 Chapter V. Outlying Southern Suburbs 
 The Eastern Portion 
 {With Sketch Map) 
 
 (1) Sydenham, Anerley and 
 
 Penge 
 
 (2) Brockley and Forest Hill 
 
 (3) Lewi sham 
 
 (4) Black heath, Lee and Eltham 
 
 (5) Local Administration 
 
 General Notes on District and List of Places of Worship 
 
 Chapter VI. Illustrations 
 
 Appendix to Vols. L to VI. 
 
 Statistics. — Sex, Birthplace and Industrial Status of Heads of 
 Families, and Social Classification, by Registration Districts or 
 Sub-districts 
 
 General Index 
 
SYLLABUS OF THE ENTIRE WORK xv 
 
 VOL. VII. 
 
 Summary of Religious Influences 
 
 Chapter 1 
 
 The Church of Fnot and 
 
 II. 
 
 
 III. 
 
 The Nonconformist Bodies 
 
 IV 
 
 I T T TT^TR ATTrtWQ I nJ OMPmsJTTOTJ \K TCTC 1 
 ILLUOl lUiMi V \r\ \J IN \^\J IN r WK.JV1 la 1 O J 
 
 XT 
 V . 
 
 The Roman Catholic Church (with 
 
 
 ITT TTCTT? A TTOTVTC 1 
 
 VI 
 
 IVTtqctom \SJ HT? If 
 
 VII. 
 
 Illustrations (Mission Work) 
 
 VIII. 
 
 Other Religious Effort (with Illus- 
 
 
 trations) 
 
 IX. 
 
 Settlements and Polytechnics 
 
 X. 
 
 Aspects of Religion 
 
 XI. 
 
 Position of Religion in London 
 
 
 FINAL VOLUME 
 
 Conclusion and Summary 
 
 Part I. 
 
 Some Comparisons 
 
 II. 
 
 Habits of the People 
 
 III. 
 
 Notes on Administration 
 
 IV. 
 
 Conclusion 
 
 Appendix. — Summary of Contents of Entire Series 
 
 Map of Inner London — showing Places of Worship, 
 Elementary Schools and Public Houses. 
 
Special Announcement (1902) 
 
 LIFE AND LABOUR OF 
 THE PEOPLE IN LONDON 
 
 CHARLES 
 BOOTH 
 
 The nine volumes previously published have been 
 REVISED, and are now issued bound uniformly 
 with the Eight new volumes^ the complete work being 
 arranged in three series^ with a Final Volume^ as 
 under : — 
 
 First Series: * 4 Poverty" . . . ) 5/- net per vol. 
 
 In 4 Volumes j 15/- net the set 
 
 Second Series: " Industry " . • ) 5/- net per vol. 
 
 In 5 Volumes J 20/- net the set 
 
 Third Series: " Religious Influences" | 5/- net per vol. 
 
 In 7 Volumes J 30/- net the set 
 
 Final Volume: Notes on Social In- ) 
 
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 fluences and Conclusion . . j 
 
 Each volume may be obtained separately 
 
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