TRADE-UNIONS 45 



the current rate of wages. Even Mr. Mault, who acted as a 

 kind of advocate, with a brief against the unions, speaks of the 

 ' current rate of wages.' The separate bargain with each man, 

 except in extreme cases, has never obtained, and never will. 

 Xo satisfactory evidence was brought showing that men of extra 

 skill did receive higher wages without unions than with unions, 

 and the case against unions as levelling the men broke down, 

 though urged almost with importunity by the Commissioners. 



No workmen came forward to say, ' I should have as. a week 

 more but for the unions.' There is good evidence that highly 

 skilled workmen in unions do receive more than less skilled 

 workmen. 1 This point would be a small one if no coercion were 

 used to non-society men, as these ambitious workmen would 

 quit the union if they thought it retarded their progress ; but it 

 is certainly to be regretted that all the unions do not act upon 

 a simple principle involved in the carpenters' and joiners' trade- 

 rules, recently adopted at Birmingham : ' The ordinary rate of 

 wages for skilled operatives of the various branches to be 6^d. 

 per hour. Superior and inferior workmen to be rated by the 

 employer or foreman.' 



The middle-class public greatly misapprehend the question 

 of extra skill. In such professions as the law or physic extra 

 skill has an enormous extra value. The best advice may be 

 worth 100 guineas, when the average advice is only worth 

 one. The difference in skill between workmen is not at all 

 after this manner. If the average workman be worth 35s., the 

 very best will not be worth more than 40s. The difference in 

 wages usually given does not generally exceed a shilling or two 

 per week. The great advantage given by skill is certainty of 



1 The assertion that unions wish to reduce good and bad men to one level 

 is continually repeated, but we find no corroborative evidence anywhere. 

 Masters say that they are afraid of giving good workmen extra wages, lest 

 this should lead the men to expect a general rise. They also say, they can- 

 not afford to give extra pay when the general rate is high. Neither state- 

 ment bears on the workman's wish for equality. Neither with nor without 

 unions is there any machinery of competition by which the man of extra 

 skill can enforce full extra payment, because of the understanding between 

 masters that one shall not entice away the other's best hands. The objection 

 to piece-work is due to no objection to skill ; if there be any such objection, 

 it can only exist in some local or small trades, and we are really curious to 

 know how the cry arose. 



