34 TRADE UNIONISM AS A FACTOR IN SOCIAL EVOLUTION. 



wages, to tie him to the soil, to deprive him of freedom, and 

 to degrade him to irreparable poverty.' " 



We all know the natural fruits of such legislation. 

 Eefused the privilege of stating their grievances openly 

 and the right to combine to enforce, even in a legitimate 

 manner, a recognition of their wrongs, men will work in 

 secret and endeavour to accomplish by stealth, and in an 

 illegal manner, the ends that should be attained consti- 

 tutionally, if the truest interests of society are to be 

 conserved. 



It was so in the instance under consideration. When the 

 workers found that they could do nothing lawfully to better 

 their condition and relieve them from their enforced slavery, 

 they formed secret combinations ; for, as Howell has rightly 

 affirmed, " Tyranny and oppression will always produce men 

 who will not be deterred, by any consideration of danger, 

 from combining to resist what they deem an injustice." 



After the passing of the prohibitory laws I htve referred 

 to only the most zealous workers combined openly, " but," 

 says Howell, " under the cloak of friendly societies many 

 associations were formed . . . Secrecy was the child of 

 suppression ; the Legislature forged at once the chains of 

 the workmen and the weapons for their deliverance." 



When the law prohibited combination on the part of the 

 workers, the journeymen tried to fix a list of prices. This the 

 employers opposed on the ground that they alone had the 

 right to fix the price of labour. The idea of arbitration in 

 such matters was also opposed. 



That the efforts of the workmen to combine were to some 

 extent successful is sufficiently shown in the fact that at the 

 commencement of the present century strikes were found to 

 be common in almost every trade. Class interest and 

 influence was consequently once more brought to bear, and 

 in the year 1800 a statute was passed directed against all 

 associations of workmen established for any of the purposes 

 for which such societies where then in existence ; for, as I have 

 just mentioned, under the pretext of being friendh societies, 

 associations had been formed having for their object the 

 furthering of the interests of the workers as against the 

 influence and power of the masters. 



By the statute referred to (40 Geo. III., c. 106) all agreements 

 between journeymen and workmen for obtaining an advance 

 of wages for themselves or others, or for reducing the hours of 

 work, or preventing the employment of hands, or in any way 

 affecting any person carrying on any manufacture, was 

 declared to be illegal. Power was given to one Justice of 

 the Peace to convict summarily and impose imprisonment for 

 two months upon any workmen making such agreements, or 

 interfering in the other ways mentioned. 



