334 SMALL INDUSTRIES AND 



" openly or tacitly " agree to act as one man 

 to bring down the prices almost to a starvation 

 level and such is the case for the immense 

 number of the small and village industries 

 their condition is so bad that only the longing 

 of the workers after a certain relative independ- 

 ence, and their knowledge of what awaits them 

 in the factory, prevent them from joining the 

 ranks of the factory hands. Knowing that in 

 most cases the advent of the factory would 

 mean no work at all for most men, and the 

 taking of the children and girls to the factory,/ 

 they do the utmost to prevent it from appear- 

 ing at all in the village. 



As to combinations in the villages, co- 

 operation and the like, one must never forget 

 how jealously the German, the French, the 

 Russian and the Austrian Governments have 

 hitherto prevented the workers, and especially 

 the village workers, from entering into any sort 

 of combination for economical purposes. In 

 France the peasant syndicates were permitted 

 only by the law of 1884. To keep the peasant 

 at the lowest possible level, by means of taxa- 

 tion, serfdom, and the like, has been, and is 

 still, the policy of most continental States. It 

 was only in 1876 that some extension of the 

 association rights was granted in Germany, 

 and even now a mere co-operative association 



