36 POLITICAL ECONOMY 



All arguments in favour of permitting bargains for money 

 apply to bargains for other privileges, such as a diminution of 

 the hours of labour, the notice to be given before dismissal, the 

 allowance to be made for travelling, etc. But as some conditions 

 are illegal in any contract, we are at liberty to consider what con- 

 ditions shall be declared illegal in this particular class of agree- 

 ment between employer and workman. We assert that the con- 

 tract must contain no provision in virtue of which the workman or 

 the master shall undertake to injure a third person who is no 

 party to the contract, and that all other conditions may properly 

 be made a matter of bargain. This principle will serve to dis- 

 tinguish the right from the wrong action of unions, when in the 

 next division of our subject we consider their actual practice, 

 as explained in the evidence before the Commissioners. Ob- 

 serve, we do not say that workmen must not combine to injure 

 other people. Masters might say that by combining to make 

 them pay high wages unions injured them. Consumers might 

 complain of high prices as an injury. Fellow-labourers thrown 

 out of work by a strike may complain that they suffer by the 

 action of the combination. Yet if a bargain is to be allowed at 

 all, these injuries must follow. We say that the workmen and 

 employers must not be allowed to agree on terms one of which 

 is the injury of a third person. If a contract of this form is 

 entered into, the workman is bribing his employer to injure 

 this third person. The employer wants work done ; the work- 

 man says, ' I will do it on these conditions : 1st, You shall 

 pay me 30s. a week ; 2nd, My working hours shall not exceed 

 56 in each week ; 3rd, You shall turn off John Smith.' Wher- 

 ever, as in this case, one condition of the agreement is that a 

 third person shall be injured, the agreement is contrary to the laws 

 of positive morality, and it is and should be not only illegal, but 

 subject to a penalty for both the parties to such an agreement. 

 We need hardly have recourse to first principles to prove this, 

 and shall assume it as self-evident ; our only care will be to 

 prove that, if enforced, it is sufficient to restrict the action of 

 trade-unions within harmless limits. 



To resume : We find that although combination to raise wages 

 and guard the other interests of workmen is no natural right, 

 it may be permitted consistently with the interests of the com- 

 munity, provided sudden action be prevented, which might 



