42 POLITICAL ECONOMY 



ing as to wages, unions think it their business to settle many 

 collateral conditions ; and, in fact, no relation between employer 

 and employed escapes their vigilance. At first sight, all men 

 who pique themselves on being liberal, are disposed to concede 

 to workmen the right of refusing to work unless the conditions 

 of the employment suit them as well as the wages ; but a little 

 consideration has already shown us that we cannot allow men 

 to stipulate for any conditions whatever. We will now point 

 out some of those conditions which are indefensible, but which 

 have been claimed, ay, and established, by the workmen. 



Sometimes the societies choose the materials the masters 

 shall employ, such as the size and make of bricks, or the quality 

 of stone to be used. Sometimes they choose the place where 

 the materials shall be prepared for use, as when they refuse to 

 set stones worked at the quarry instead of at the building. 

 Sometimes they refuse to allow the employment of certain 

 machinery. Sometimes they claim the right of dismissing their 

 own superior officers, as their foremen. Sometimes they even 

 choose the means of transport of the materials to be used, 

 refusing to fix bricks brought on a given canal, or by a given 

 carter. They even claim a veto over contractors, and sometimes 

 architects. In fine, it is hard to say in what matter affecting 

 their employer they will not occasionally interfere, when it is 

 their interest to do so. 



These claims are selected from isolated instances in special 

 trades ; they do not represent the general conduct of unions, 

 and it must be singularly galling to workmen to find every 

 instance of unjust action discovered in any petty branch or trade 

 attributed to the general policy of their societies. On the 

 contrary, many skilled artisans will not hesitate to denounce 

 interference in every case above cited as unjust and intolerable. 

 The difficulty is to show this to the more ignorant workman, 

 who replies doggedly, ' I have a right to do what I please with 

 my own labour, and will not work if you get bricks from Jones 

 less than four inches thick, or stones ready dressed from 

 Robinson's quarries, or if Smith cuts them, or if Green is to be 

 foreman, or if you use barrows instead of hods.' We answer, 

 1 dogged objector ! you have not a right to do what you 

 please with your own, but only to do that which is lawful, and 



