496
THE CONGRESS OF WOMEN.
which was now constantly growing in value; and second, as makers of the laws. These two advantages gave them leisure for study and improvement; wealth, for charity, for refinement and luxuries. The condition of those who tilled the soil had formerly been that of mere serfs, who had neither civil, religious, nor industrial liberty. Everything the serf produced belonged to his lord. One hundred and fifty years ago, then, most of the land of England was divided into small holdings, and titled by lease or copy-holders, i. e., those who obtained their lands of the lords upon long leases; or free-holders, those who purchased their lands, yet continued to pay annually a small rent. The chief difference between the copy-holder and the freeholder was, the free-holder’s rent could not be raised as the land rose in value. These, with the farm laborers, who lived in the family, ate at the same table, and shared the same coarse fare and rude society, constituted the sturdy yeomanry of England. Then, dotted over all England, in lanes and byways, were cottages surrounded by an acre of land each. In the cottage was the hand-loom, at which sat the master-workman (then called the manufacturer), who, assisted by his apprentices, wove the woolen, silk, linen and cotton cloth of England.
Then as the population was sparse, and there was land enough for all, the poorer or common lands were allotted annually to a still poorer class of farmers. Each man had three strips, one for barley, one for wheat and one for grass, besides a right to pasture a cow or a pig and obtain fuel from the common fields. The philosopher’s stone, so long in vain sought, was at length found in the huge beds of coal and iron ore that lay side by side just under the surface of English soil, and that “ labor” was soon to place England at the head of industrial Europe. This was only one hundred and fifty years ago. The intolerance and bigotry of those times is well illustrated by the manner in which the great inventions of Watt, Hargreaves and Crompton were received and requited.
Rioters burst into their houses and broke in pieces their machines, with the cry, “Men, not machines!” They believed they could regulate the price of wages by breaking labor-saving machines, just as it is now imagined that by restricting the number of laborers wages will rise. Both methods only reduce the amount of wealth produced, and in the end works injury to all. When cloth began to be woven by machinery, moved by the forces of nature, the first effect upon the master-workmen and their apprentices was to gradually destroy both their industry and their capital, for their looms became so much useless lumber. Henceforth if they would weave cloth they must go to the machines, and become a part of them.
The second effect was to tear the people up by the roots and carry them away from the soil to the town, with lives reduced to the one monstrous purpose—that of tending a machine. Many did leave their homes to find employment; but many were left to eke out a miserable existence as best they could. Now what was the effect of all this upon the manufacturer? This word has now a new meaning.
The gulf has widened between him and his apprentices or day laborers.
Obtaining his labor cheap (the price of wages being fixed by law), his profits were large, and he soon amassed an ‘enormous fortune. Others, seeing his large profits, engaged in the same business, and then the competition between one manufacturer and another gradually reduced the price of cloth, until the profits of the business amounted to only a fair rate of interest on the capital invested, and the effect of this was to so cheapen production that the goods were within the reach of nearly all, and this so stimulated trade and foreign commerce that it opened up new avenues to labor, and capital sprang up as if by magic. Where before one yard of cloth was produced, now there were many greater comforts, and a higher standard of living was the result, until these machines were a blessing to all, except those whose toil they were intended to lighten. They lived a hard, monotonous life, slaves both to the machines and to the firms or corporations that employed them. Since that time population in England has increased tenfold, and wealth far more. So that had there been a just (not equal, but a just) distribution of the wealth produced, all classes would have been benefited.