INDUSTRIAL VILLAGES. 249 



organisation, and its infinitely varied connection, 

 with agriculture as well as with other industries. 



Most of the petty trades, except some of those 

 which are connected with agriculture, are, we 

 must admit, in a very precarious position. The 

 earnings are very low, and the employment is 

 often uncertain. The day of labour is by two, 

 three, or four hours longer than it is in well- 

 organised factories, and at certain seasons it 

 reaches an almost incredible length. The crises 

 are frequent and last for years. Altogether, the 

 worker is much more at the mercy of the dealer 

 or the employer, and the employer is at the mercy 

 of the wholesale dealer. Both are liable to 

 become enslaved to the latter, running into debt 

 to him. In some of the petty trades, especially 

 in the fabrication of the plain textiles, the workers 

 are in dreadful misery. But those who pretend 

 that such misery is the rule are totally wrong. 

 Anyone who has lived among, let us say, the 

 watch-makers in Switzerland and knows their 

 inner family life, will recognise that the condition 

 of these workers was out of all comparison 

 superior, in every respect, material and moral, 

 to the conditions of millions of factory hands. 

 Even during such a crisis in the watch trade as 

 was lived through in 1876-1880, their condition 

 was preferable to the condition of factory hands 



