544 INDUSTRIAL INSTITUTIONS. 



see that the same policy is still pursued a policy which 

 would be much further pursued were police restraints still 

 less efficient than they are. 



Among minor parallelisms may be named the conflicts 

 arising in old times between the craft-gilds, and in modern 

 times between the wage-earners gilds, respecting the limits 

 of their several occupations. The gild-members in one 

 business denied to those in a kindred business the right to 

 make certain things which they contended fell within their 

 monopoly. And similarly at present among wage-earners, 

 those of one class are interdicted from doing certain kinds of 

 work which those of another class say belong to their occu 

 pation. Thus the fitters and plumbers, the joiners and ship 

 wrights, quarrel over special employments which both claim. 

 Within these few weeks public attention has been drawn to 

 a conflict of this kind between boilermakers and fitters at 

 Messrs. Thorneycroft s works at Chiswick. 



In one respect, however, the ancient traders gilds and the 

 modern wage-earners gilds have differed in their policies, 

 because their motives have operated differently. The bodies 

 of craftsmen exercised some supervision over the products 

 made and sold by their members; seeming to do this in the 

 public interest, and being in some cases commissioned thus 

 to do it. But in fact they did it in their own interests. A 

 gild-brother who used some inferior material for making the 

 thing he sold, was by so doing enabled to get a greater profit 

 than the rest of the gild-brethren who used the better ma 

 terial; and their prohibition was prompted by their desire 

 to prevent this, not by their desire to protect the public. 

 But the wage-earners who have established fixed rates of 

 payment for so many hours work, have no interest in main 

 taining the standard of work. Contrariwise, they have an 

 interest in lowering the standard in respect of quantity if 

 not of quality: so much so that the superior artisan is pre 

 vented from exercising his greater ability by the frowns of 

 his fellows, w r hose work by comparison he discredits. 



