Essays On Questions Of The Day Political And Social

386 Pages·1894·23.295 MB·English

by  Goldwin Smith

ESSAYS ON
QUESTIONS OF THE DAY
POLITIOAL AND SOCIAL
BY
GOLDWIN SMITH, D.C.L.
AUTHOR OF " THE UNITED STATES: AN OUTLINE OF POLITICAl.
HISTORY," AND" CANADA AND THE CANADIAN
QUESTION"
SE'&OND EDITION, REVISED
Nefu ~Jltft
en
MACMILLAN AND
AND LONDON
1894
AU rights rllBerved
COPYRIGHT,1893,
By MACMILLAN AND CO.
Set up and electrotyped November, ,893, Revised
edition printed August, ,894.
N OtillQolr ~rt~~ :
J. S. Cushing &. Co. - Berwick &. Smith.
Boston, Mass., U.S.A.
PREFACE TO REVISED EDITION.
THESE Essays are the outcome of discussions in which the
writer has been engaged on the several questions, and are
partly drawn from papers contributed by him to different
periodicals.
Of the subjects some are specially British, though not with
out interest for a citizen of the United States; others are
common to both countries.
Some service may be done by bringing an important question
into focus, even when the reader does not agree witb the
opinions of the writer.
The opinions of the present writer are those of a Liberal of
the old school, as yet unconverted to State Socialism, who still
looks for further improvement, not to increased interference
of government, but to inuividual effort, free association, and
the same agencies, moral, intellectual, and economica.l, which
have brought us thus far, and one of which, science, is now
operating with immensely increased power; deeming it the
function of government to protect these agencies, not to super
sede them. A writer of this school can have no panacea or
nostrum to offer; and when a nostrum or panacea is offered,
he will necessarily be found rather on the critical side. He
will look for improvement, not for regeneration; expect
improvement still to be, as it has been, gradual; and hope
much from steady, calm, and harmonious effort, little from
violence or revolution. In his estimation the clearest gain
v
vi PREFACE TO REVISED EDITIOX.
reaped by the world ··from the political struggles through
which it has been going, amidst much that is equivocal 01'
still on trial, will be liberty of opinion.
In America rather than in Englancl an old English Liberal
now finds his political home. In England that which was the
Liberal party is becoming the party of State Socialism, or, as
Mr. Cleveland calls it, of Paternalism, though it retains the
name, to which, as etymology itself protests, only those who
have faith in liberty are entitled. America, though now invaded
by State Socialism, is still a land of liberty regulated and pro
tected by law, in which every man is free to do his best for
himself, which as a general rule he can hardly do without
also doing what is best for the commonwealth.
The essay which has required most revision is that on the
Political Crisis in England. The scene shifts rapidly on the
English stage, while the nation is apparently drifting towards
socialistic revolution. In the question whether the House of
Lords shall be abolished, reduced to impotence, or so reorgan
ised as to make it, like the American Senate, a conservative
institution, interest centres. If the Second Chamber falls,
there is apparently nothing between the nation and revolu
tion. Already, the Lords having renounced amendment of the
Budget, there is no bar to socialistic confiscation.
Since this essay on the Political Crisis in England was writ
ten and a comparison was incidentally drawn in it between the
industrial situation in England and that in the United States
to the advantage of the latter, we have had in the United
States a sudden outburst of industrial war. When the organi
sation of the Knights of Labour, at one time so much dreaded,
had lost its force, general peace seemed to have been pretty
well assured. This eruption is' not normal, but is the conse-
PREF ACE TO REVISED EDITION. vii
quence of the financial crisis which has. paralysed commerce,
deranged industry, reduced wages, and thrown many altogether
out of employment, especially in congested centres of labour,
such as California and Chicago, at the latter of which much
labour had been collected, and discharged, by the World's
Fair. The violence was foreign. The native American is
faithful to law. The apparent dimensions of the disturbance
were magnified by the extent of its influence.
We have had a lesson, however, on the character of a Trade
Union system, which placed national commerce, the subsistence
of myriads, and the peace of society at the mercy of a labour
despot whose personal game is believed to have had as much
to do with the catastrophe as the Pullman quarrel. The
conflict between employer and employed has given birth to a
set of adventurers who subsist by industrial war and exnlt
when widespread havoc makes the community tremble at their
power.
The attention of politicians of the regular parties, as they
are termed, is called to the growth of another party, not
regular or indeed political, whose single aim it is to aggrandise
the wage-earning class, or that part of it which is capable of
organisation, at the expense of other classes, and which, as its
recent operations show, cares much for its own interest and
very little for the interest of the community at large. What
will be the effect of this intrnsive power on politics and politi
cal combinations? Will good citizens find it safe any longer
to divide themselves on the old party lines, when, by their
division, they will probably bring about the triumph of the
common enemy? If party politicians can think of anything
beyond the immediate game, this crisis affords them matter
for reflection.
viii PREFACE TO REVISED EDITION.
It does not seem that the Pullman strike was justified. The
Company explained the situation to its men. It could not be
expected to pay more for the work than the goous would bring
in the market. Nor in such a case was there any room for
arbitration. Had the men been simply discharged, there would
apparently have been nothing more to be said.
The preachings of the Socialists and Utopians have told;
not their philosophies or their visions, to which the mechanic
pays little heed, but their appeals to class passions, to hatred
of the rich, and to the lust of public plunder. Go to any
socialistic meeting, however respectable, and whatever may be
the formal course of the discussion, you will find that the
pervading sentiment is the same. Men who ultimately proved
some of the most sanguinary of the French Terrorists began
with sentiments milder than those to which Socialists, Com
munists, and N ationalisers of land, to say nothing of Anar
chists, are giving utterance now.
Of any duties of the workingman towards his employer or
the community, of any power which he has of improving his
own lot by frugality, temperance, diligence, self-restraint, in
the organs of labour-agitation there is seldom a word. Em
ployers, good and bad, are alike held up to odium under the
sweeping designation of capital, presented as the "spoilers"
who prey upon the "toilers," and pointed out as the objects of
an everlasting war. The Pullman establishment must have
fed, since its formation, thousands; yet it is treated as labour's
foe, and wrecked at the bidding of incendiaries who have never
given anyone an ounce of bread.
If society does not mean to go under the Unionist yoke,
it will have to uphold freedom of labour. When men do not
choose to work for the wages offered them they have a right,
PREFACE TO REVISED EDITION. ix
individually, or collectively as a Union, to refuse. But they
have no right by violence, physical or moral, to prevent other
iuen from taking the work. This is firm ground, if the com
munity will be true to itself. Unfortunately, the community
can act only through elective legislators who tremble at the
thought of the labour vote.
The action of President Cleveland was applauded by all
good citizens. Can it be doubted that he was right in putting
forth the military force of the commonwealth to control an
anarchical usurper who, in his attempt to reduce the community
to submission by boycotting, sympathetic strikes, tying up
railways, stopping. the mails, intercepting inter-State com
merce, disorganising the inclustry of the country, and threaten
ing to deprive large districts of subsistence, was morally levying
war against the United States? The appeal to patriotism was
of the same kind as in 1861, though not so loud or thrilling.
Patriotism, after a moment of stupor, a.nswered the appeal and
mounted the national col0111's against the anarchic emblem.
But it is not, as in 1861, at its highest mark. At Wash
ington some of the senators, such as Senator Davis of Minne
sota, were brave and true to the country. But we al'e told
that it was impossible to get an expression of opinion from
any member of the House of Representatives, What is to be
expected of men whose political life at the next election will
be at the mercy of the labour vote? It was fortunate that the
President was in his second term. Yet a politician, with the
wire-puller at his ear, often errs in thinking that the timid
'course is the safest.
There is no use in blinking the fact that for the restoration
of order and the prevention of further havoc, happily at small
cost of blood, the country was mainly indebted to the discipline,
x PREFACE TO REYISED EDITION.
constancy, and courage of a handful of regular soldiers. The
day has not yet come on which a regular army, to uphold
public order in the last resort, will no longer be a need of civ
ilisation. Militiamen share the heat of the political or social
fray; they either refuse to fire or fire too soon. The regular
soldier fires at the word of command. Nor cu,n the pattern
of authority or discipline be yet spared.
The real quarrel ,"'-as perhaps less between the COlllpany,
as makers of railway cars, and their workmen, than between
the Company, as owners of the model village of Pullman,
and their tenants. There has been friction in Pullman.
There was friction in its English counterpart, Saltaire. In
dependence kicks against paternal rule, however benevolent,
however wise. Pullman and Saltaire are partial realisations,
as with regard to Pullman has been truly remarked, of the
Socialist's ideal community as it is presented to us in the
reveries of Utopian writers. But the paternalism of Pullman
and Saltaire is far less meddling than that of the socialistic
community would be.
We must not forget the origin of these troubles. Dishonesty
in the high places of commerce, illicit speculation, watering
of stocks, want of integrity in the management of railways,
the derangement of the cnrrency for a political purpose, were
sources of the financial crisis from which industrial disturb
ance flowed, and are as much to blame as the malignant
ambition of the labour demagogues who gave the word for the
strike. Nor can justice pass by the wealthy men of America
who, heedless of the responsibilities of wealth, waste it on
luxury and ostentation, often in the pleasure cities of Europe.
It may be true that they are excluded from politics, but
politics are not the whole of life. They can remain at their
PREFACE TO REVISED EDITION. xi
posts and do their social duty. If they will not, they deserve
to be plundered, and plundered they will be.
The social and political danger caused by the existence of
so sharp a division between employer and employed has been
brought with terrible vividness before us by this conflict.
To make that division sharper still and envenom it at the
same time, is the aim of the labour incendiary. To soften
and, if possible, efface it, must be the aim of everyone who
desires peace with justice. Personal intercourse may do
something. It is an unfortunate part of the joint-stock
system that a company is not personal and can present only a
hard commercial aspect to its workmen.
State Socialism in England scoffs at the American system
of law and liberty as though it were answerable for these
disasters. It is difficult to imagine anything less chargeable
to the account of a system of law and liberty than the tyranny
of a labour despot and his organisation. ·What would the
State Socialist have done in the premises? Would he have
compelled the Pullman Company, by legislation, to carry on a
losing trade for the benefit of their workmen? When English
Socialism says that America is fifty years behind England in
the treatment of the labour question, what does it mean?
Whence but from England and Europe did this curse of
industrial war, with its Unionist tyrannies, its strikes, boy
cottings, and battenings come? When the Sheffield outrages
were committed there had hardly been such a thing as in
dustrial war in the United States. In striking the balance
between the economical situations in the two countries, it is
not to be forgotten that Ireland has been now for a series of
years in a state of agrarian rebellion.
The State Socialists of the British Commons the other
xii PREFACE TO REVISED EDITION.
day passed a Bill limiting the hours of labour in mines.
This is genuine Socialism, since it interferes with the freeuom
of male adult'labour. In laws protecting women and children,
there is nothing really socialistic. A government ma,y regu
late the hours and wages of its own workmen as it pleases,
because the taxpayer finds the money. But private employers,
paying the wages out of theh own purse, cannot afford to
give ten hours' pay for eight hours' work unless the work of
the eight hours is really equivalent to that of the ten; and
the workman whose eight hours are not as good as his ten
hours, that is, the weaker workman, will be in danger of
being thrown out of employment altogether. To the members
of the House of Commons who voted for the Bill this can
hardly have failed to be apparent; but they bowed to the
labour vote.
It seems that in England an attempt is now being made to
fix a minimum of wages, 01', as it is styled, a living wage.
How can the rate of wages be fixed without fixing the rate
of profits, or without fixing the purchasing power of the
wages themselves?
The capitalists organise, equip, and guide industry, taking
a profit which statistics seem to prove is not on the average
more than commensurate with the service rendered and the
risk. The real employer is the purchaser, who cannot be
made, in the long run, to pay for the goods more than they
are worth to him. Bury this fact as deep in ethical eloquence
as you will, it will rise again.
Nor, again, can any State Socialist who is capable of reflec
tion fail to see that danger, and in England most serious
danger, is arising from the growth of population beyond the
demand for labour and the means of subsistence; 01' to be