54:6 INDUSTRIAL INSTITUTIONS. 



of the article produced must presently be forced up. What 

 then happens if, as now, trade-unions are established among 

 the workers in nearly all occupations, and if these trade- 

 unions severally succeed in making wages higher? All the 

 various articles they are occupied in making must be raised 

 in price ; and each trade-unionist, while so much the more in 

 pocket by advanced wages, is so much the more out of pocket 

 by having to buy things at advanced rates. 



That this must be the general effect has recently been 

 shown in an unmistakable way. At a recent Miners Con 

 gress it was openly contended that the out-put of coal should 

 be restricted until the price rose to the extent required for 

 giving higher wages. Nothing was said about the effect this 

 raised price of coal would have on the community at large, 

 including, as its chief component, the working classes. All 

 labourers and artisans need fuel, and if coal is made dearer 

 each of them must either spend more for fires or be pinched 

 with cold: the colliers 7 profit must be their loss. But what 

 so obviously happens in this case happens in every case. 

 The trade-union policy carried out to the full, has the effect 

 that every kind of wage-earner is taxed for the benefit of 

 every other kind of wage-earner. 



830. &quot; What right has he to deprive me of work by 

 offering to do it for less? &quot; says the trade-unionist concern 

 ing the non-unionist. He feels himself injured, and thinks 

 that whatever injures him must be wrong. Yet if, instead 

 of himself and a competing artisan, he contemplates two 

 competing tradesmen, he perceives nothing amiss in the 

 underbidding of the one by the other. Says the grocer 

 Jones, pointing to Brown the grocer over the way &quot; What 

 right has he to take away my custom by selling his tea at 

 twopence a pound less than I do? &quot; Does the unionist here 

 recognize a Avrong done by Brown to Jones? Not in the 

 least. He sees that the two have equal rights to offer their 

 commodities at whatever prices they please; and if Brown 



