The living wage

Front matter

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THE

Preface

IX tures of humanity could be modelled on the wild ravage of the beasts that perish !

It was only when the anarchy of the “ free labour in a free market became an actual social peril that society began to move. Faced with the slavery of Cradley Heath and the serfdom of the East End sweating den — finding that the suffering and disease of the slum and the cottage were threatening the security and health of the villa and the palace — the British people had to turn their back on this formula of the nineteenth century economists. First they had to relax the laws against Trade Unions and to allow the working man to take such steps as he could to protect his labour by the combination of the weak against the tyranny of the strong. Fighting behind such entrenchments, a limited number of the working-class — some two millions out of fifteen — have been able to build up some kind of order and security within the welter of our industrial chaos. But that salvage has proved at its best precarious and doubtful, and often the weapon of the strike, formidable and menacing as it appears, has proved doubleedged and even suicidal. Outside the limits of the Trade Unions there still lies a vast mass of the working-class, including nearly all our agricultural abourers, and still the great majority of our town

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PREFACE workers, who find that the tendency of our wagesystem is always to drive down the price of their labour to the lowest level of life livable. Worse still, they have found that the limit has been fixed, not by the heads of families, but by the solitary workers, by the lodgers, and the Rowton House men, often assisted in the fight by philanthropy, or even by the Poor Law.

What are the present fruits of this system ?

Not merely a perpetual undermining of the happiness of our working-class and the efficiency of our manual labour, but also a continual sapping of the foundations in which should rest the security of all that is meant by family life — the strength of our women and the health of our children.

It is clear, therefore, that the unlimited and uncontrolled struggle of wages spells anarchy almost as painful in its effects as the unlimited and uncontrolled competition of physical force in our streets and highways.

What is to be the remedy ?

A Plimsoll line. That, using the expression in its broadest sense, appears to be the solution — whether through Parliament, local boards, or an independent Commission — to which we are heading. A Plimsoll line for labour as well as for ships ; a

PREFACE

XI line above which the ship is not to sink with its burden when it puts out to sea; a line to limit, with human lives on land as with those “who go t- down to the sea in great ships,” the extent of peril and suffering to which the worker is to be liable. Not to abolish competition — any more than competition has been abolished in ships. Competition will always be powerful enough. But to limit the strife — to fix a ring round the prize-fight — to protect the vital parts from the blows of the combatants. This is, in the truest sense, to do the work of civilisation ; for civilisation is at every stage an abatement and modification of the aboriginal strife of man.

HAROLD SPENDER.

I. Chapter

!’he Meaning of the Phease

The Expression of an Idea— Attempts at Definition— The Natural Right of Man- Aspect — The Power of the State.

Page

-The Utilitarian

CHAPTER II. 'he Teend Towaeds the Living Wage - - - 11

An Old Idea— Some Historic Instances — The Industrial Revolution — The Beginnings of Factory Legislation— Trade Unions and the Standard of Living — The State and Fair Wages— Some Recent Legislation— The Complement of Accepted Legislation.

The Cost of Poverty

Pauperism and Low Wages— Child Labour — Infantile Death Rate — Disease and Low Wages — Private Charity — The Moral Poverty.

CHAPTER VI. The Trend of Wages

Wages Since 1850 — The Present Trend— The Decline of the Decade— The Year 1911 — The Results of Strikes — The Cost of Living — A Housekeeper’s Accounts — The Desire for a Higher Standard.

CHAPTER VII. The Trend of Wealth

The Census of Production — Our Foreign Trade — Income Tax Returns — Estate Duties — The Increase of Luxury.

CHAPTER VIII. The Cost and Futility of Strikes

The Strikes since 1900 — Wages Lost by Strikes — Wages Advanced by Strikes — Past Experience Forgotten— The Recent Strikes and the Government— Where Strikes May Succeed — Workers at a Disadvantage— Trade Union Attitude to Strikes — Strikes and War,

The State Regulation of Wages in the United Kingdom 121

The Trade Boards Act — What Has Been Done —

The Trades Affected— The Mines Minimum Wage Act— Tue Present Situation and the Outlook,

CHAPTER XII. The Economics of the Living Wage - - - - 131

The Next Step — The Use of Trade Boards —

The Thirty Shilling Minimum — The Varying Standard Rate — The Need for Caution — The National Aggregate — Individuals and the Nation —

What is Possible.

N xvi CONTENTS

CHAPTER XIII. The Economy op High Wages

The Differences in Efficiency — The Value Of a High Standard— Where Higher Wages May Come From — Increased Efficiency— Higher Prices— Lower Profits — Economic Rent — Causes of Increased Prices — Some Practical Steps.

PAGI

CHAPTER XIV. Some Objections and Difficulties - - - - 157

A Living Wage No Panacea— The Cases of Boys and Old Men — The Case of Women— Equal Pay for Equal Work— The Subsidising of Inefficient Labour.