A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



friendly societies, formed to assist the workman in time of sickness, to help 

 to bury him and to succour his widow after his death, or to give financial aid 

 in case of accident or temporary disablement. As the stress of competition 

 grew fiercer a new policy was initiated : the unions became militant and 

 progressive. 



The idea of carrying the principles of protection into the labour market 

 appealed very forcibly to workmen who had suffered from the extreme 

 depression of wages. Trade unionism, as we know it to-day, sprang from 

 the idea of meeting the arbitrary commands of capital by the equally insistent 

 demands of labour : of fighting one monopoly by another.*" By the year 

 1833 the idea had rapidly gained ground, and unions were organized on an 

 extensive basis. They had agitators and agents everywhere who led the 

 attack against those who did not come in, threatening them with heavy fines 

 and exclusion from the ultimate benefits of the combination. The men 

 became so intimidated by these threats that they often joined reluctantly from 

 fear rather than from choice. The evidence of a Liverpool builder was to 

 the effect that all building operations when in full swing had been suspended 

 there by the withdrawal of the workmen at the order of the union. The 

 men admitted they had no grievance, but they had received orders which 

 they dared not disregard.*" 



It may be asked how it came about that with these advantages of 

 combination available the Lancashire weavers were in such pitiable case. 

 The answer lies in the astounding fact, already mentioned, that the trade 

 unions of the thirties did not recognize the weavers.*'' 



There was, however, about this time another great ameliorating move- 

 ment to which these poor operatives did not appeal in vain, and which aimed 

 at achieving the moral and material rescue of the poverty-stricken workers 

 of Lancashire by peaceful and constructive rather than by warlike and de- 

 structive methods. This was the great co-operative movement initiated by 

 the famous Robert Owen, who as a mill manager and cotton spinner in 

 Manchester from 1791 to 1799 had come into close contact with the working 

 class there, and had been struck with their condition of ' ignorance, vicious- 

 ness and discomfort.' **" His aim was to show the people how to help them- 

 selves by uniting intelligence with industry. ' He taught Pity to leave off 

 weeping and to ally itself to Improvement.'**^ The economic importance 

 of Owen's idea lay in its practical application to the needs of the people at 

 the particular moment. In the opening decades of the nineteenth century 

 the population were nearly starving, and owing to their extreme poverty 

 they were in the hands of the shop-keepers, who charged them higher prices 

 because of the risk of not receiving payment.**^ Owen's idea was that if the 

 working class ' had the sense to unite ' in the scheme, they ' might make 

 something of shop-keeping.'**' They might become their own supply 



"' Cf. Rep. of Select Committee on Manuf. &c. 293, par. 4882. 'I have no doubt that the ultimate 

 intention ... is to get up the price of labour and to make a monopoly of it.' 



"^ Ibid. 291, par. 4853. 



"' Pari. Rep. on Handloom Weaving, Analysis of Evidence, 7, pt. i, sect. ii. 



"" G. J. Holyoake, Hist, of Co-operation in Engl, i, 55. "i Ibid. 86. 



•" Cf evidence of Jas. Grimshaw before the Select Committee on Manufacture, &c. Rep 6oq par 

 10202-4. ■'^ y f • 



'" Holyoake, op. cit. i, 59. 



316 



