Excerpt from Trades Unions: An Inquiry Into Their Rules and Working, Based on the Evidence Before the Royal Commission; Showing the Folly of All Attempts to Raise Wages by Violence and Strikes, and the Beauty and Excellence of the Divine Laws Governing Workmen and EmployersHere, then, is a simple law in political economy, which every child may learn, but ignorance of which has led to many unhappy differences between master and workmen, as we will proceed to show. Now, then, what is the principle the trades unions go upon in selling labour? It is this They fix a minimum rate of wages for each workman - good, bad, or indifferent. The masters are at liberty to give more it they feel inclined, but the men are not at liberty to accept less, whether they feel inclined or not and that minimum rate is oftentimes fixed by the unions in an arbitrary manner, irrespective of the state of trade with the masters, whether it is brisk or slack, or whether labour is scarce or plentiful. On this point we will allow the men to speak for themselves. Mr. W. Allen, Secretary of the Amalgamated Society of Engineers.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books.

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