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to the aphorism, De non apparentibus, et non existentibus eadem, est ratio. How few are able to form any estimate of the cares and toils and laborious calculations of the head of a large establishment; it is because their amount is not known that their reward is grudged. Where such feelings prevail the artistic operative is sure to suffer. The weaver murmurs because the person who produced the design is paid a larger sum than he who wrought it; just as we have heard operatives complain that the overseers received larger wages than the actual workmen. A manufacturer of our acquaintance once listened to the cry; he raised the wages of his workmen and diminished those of the overseers: the result was that both neglected their duty, and had he not reverted to the old system, both must have become bankrupt.

We sincerely regret to find the exploded nonsense of the organization of labor revived by a gentleman of such intelligence as Mr. Mill, and one who has displayed considerable power and acuteness in discussing the other parts of economic science. Like Louis Blanc, he leaves no place for art, design, or contrivance in his hierarchy of labor. With him knowledge, intelligence, taste and skill, take not the rank of capital; the laborer is still a laborer, whether he works with the mind or with the fingers, and operatives whether engaged in design or in the realization of design, are "hewers of wood, and drawers of water." Such monstrous generalization resembles more the ravings of an excited Chartist than the reasonings of a sober philosopher.

The operative who has invested his labor in acquiring a knowledge of his business, aptitude for his peculiar pursuit, even if it be no more than manual dexterity, or mechanical facility, is a capitalist to the extent of his investment and acquirements, and is to the full as much interested in maintaining the rights of property and social order, as if his capital had assumed the form of land or money. Indeed, he is more so; the productiveness of the land will remain, and money will continue to be transferable in a period of social disorganization and confusion, but when such a state of things arises, the operative encounters the danger of a cessation of demand for the products of his special aptitude. This has been the case in Paris. There is no demand for design, for taste, or for skill in the Ateliers Nationaux! There, indeed, all are equally "hewers of wood, and drawers of water," without any such distinction as we find among the operatives of England. And here we may remark that the views which we put forth three months ago, on the economic and artistic effects of the French Revolution, have been realized to the very letter; while every one of Mr. Mill's speculations of the probable results of his co-operative system, and his "Organization of Industry," have been decisively refuted by the lamentable example of France. It is truly grevous to find men with heads on their shoulders, and beards on their chins, describing a return to barbarism an advance of civilization. But Mr. Mill may rest assured that the vapid sentimentality of Jean Jacques. Rousseau will not pass for sound philosophy in the nineteenth century; and that he will be required to exert more scientific cookery than he has yet displayed, to render the theories of Louis Blanc, or even the fanciful speculations of the amiable Charles Duveyrier, palatable to English

taste.

The strength of England lies in its capitalist laborers more than in its physical capital. They form a gradation of ranks between the class of laborers and the class of monied capitalists, sufficiently numerous and sufficiently strong to prevent the one class from ever being set in hostile array against the other. There is "no widening and embittering feud," as Mr. Mill asserts, between the class of laborers and the class of capitalists. It is utterly impossible that there could be such a feud when so many of the laborers themselves are capitalists. There is no country in the world where there is less real separation of class than in England, and there never was a period in English history when that separation was less than it is at the present hour. It is quite true that the distance which separates the richest from the poorest has been increased; but the interval has been filled up by graduated fortunes ranging from the highest point of the standard down to zero. At the point where monied capital begins to diminish rapidly, intellectual capital and moral power take its place, and the subordination goes on regularly until we reach the zero of indolence, ignorance, incapacity and pauperism. A zero there must ever be in society, until men become angels, and angels gods. We wish that Mr. Mill would act as fairly as Louis Blanc, and set forth his plan for the organization of labor and equitable division of profits. Where would he commence his system of partnership? There is a most valuable class of men in society, who place all their property within a ring fence at the moment they put on their hats. They pass their lives" in the service, and for the benefit of others;" and yet Mr. Mill would not venture to call them "hewers of wood and drawers of water," for the class would include literary men, artists, the editors and conductors of public journals, and even Mr. Mill himself, seeing that his services, which are for the benefit of the East India Company, are paid by a fixed salary, without any participation in the profits obtained by the Lords in Leadenhall Street.

Mr. Mill declares that men will be "less and less willing to co-operate as subordinate agents in any work when they have no interest in the result." Every cognisable fact in society refutes this preposterous position. The division of labor in most forms of production multiplies the processes between incipiency and result to such an extent that the "subordinate agents," in the intermediate stages, can know nothing about the result, and can consequently feel no interest it. He adds, "It will be more and more difficult to obtain the best working people, or the best services of any working people, except on conditions similar to those of M. Leclaire;" conditions, be it remembered, that broke down completely in the experiment. But does Mr. Mill mean seriously to assure us that the Times will be unable to command an efficient staff of reporters unless these gentlemen be admitted to a share in the profits of the paper? That magazines and periodicals will find no contributors unless the publishers, in addition to paying a stipulated price, make an equitable distribution of profits besides? Is the man so utterly ignorant of business as to suppose that profit is the invariable rule, and that loss never appears as an exception? He might just as well say that the tailor will not make our coats, unless we contrive that he shall share in the comfort of wear

ing them, or that the brewer will not supply ale unless invited to a share in the drinking.

Such philosophy belongs to that insurrection of physical force against the supremacy of mind, which is now, and will for some months to come, be the scourge of Europe. The physical agent has no right to any portion of such profits, as have resulted exclusively from the direction of the conducting mind; such a claim is as unjust in morals as it is false in economic science. The operative has every right to a fair profit on his capital, but he has no earthly claim to the profit derived from the capital of others; but according to the common fallacy, "he has a right, because the capital would not be productive without his labor." Well, this article could not be written without paper, but has the servant who brought this paper into our study, any right to participate in the payment we receive for the contribution?

We have had some experience in the workings of joint stock companies, and we are by no means impressed with any admiration of extended partnerships. The co-parcenary system of land, wherever it exists, is a perfect nuisance; and the prevalence of the practice is, we believe, one of the chief causes of the low condition of the Irish fisheries. But there is a legal difficulty which Mr. Mill has left out of sight, the act of a partner is binding on a firm. Will an employer consent to risk the hazard of partnership with every operative that enters his concern? debts between partners are irrecoverable at common law; and we doubt whether operatives would like that their only means of recovering wages should be an expensive suit in equity.

We are anxious for elevating the physical as well as the mental and moral condition of the working classes as any one can be, but we protest strongly against all exaggerations of their condition. The operatives of England, even the lowest grade, are not mere "hewers of wood and drawers of water," they have shared more largely in the advantages of progress than any other class of society; in the command of physical comforts, in moral respectability, in mental improvement, and in social importance, they are infinitely superior to those of their own class in any part of Europe, and still more so to those of a similar class in England during the last century. A great deal of the commisseration expressed for them by pseudo-philanthropists, is but disguised contempt, and there are many among them sufficiently shrewd to detect the imposition.

The two plans of improvement proposed for the operatives may be described as turning on either production or distribution. The economist urges the increase, the improvement and the extension of production, since thus the wealth of individuals and the common stock of the country are enlarged and a reserve fund established to meet the contingency of checks and reverses. The sentimentalist proposes that a system of distribution be adopted which should secure to the operatives larger gains and more extended comforts than they at present enjoy. But the sentimentalists forget that if you distribute faster than you produce, you will have entered on an exhaustive process, advancing with an uniformly accelerated ratio, of which it is not difficult to foresee the end; in just the same proportion as the fund to be distributed becomes "small by degrees and beautifully less," will be found that the claimants for shares

become multiplied, and at the same time reproduction, which has to sup ply the fund, begins to illustrate the theory of vanishing fractions. It is easy to see that under such circumstances, establishments and societies must soon be brought to a dead lock. An American poet says,

"That all who give way to these Socialist tricks

Will soon be placed in a pretty particular fix."

The French have reached this "pretty particular fix" already, simply by adopting what Mr. Mill sets forth as the highest beatitude of human society. There is an end to the manufacture of articles ministering to luxury and taste in France, for many a long day. Gastronomic skill is becoming the tradition of a by-gone age; artificial flowers

"Are born to blush unseen,

And waste their beauty where no gazers stare.'”

The "gems of purest ray serene" might just as well be in the “dark unfathomable caves of ocean" as in the shops of jewellers whose doors are never darkened by the shadow of a customer. Hervieu and Potard whose splendid collection of flowers and ribbons attracted more of our fair country women to their establishment, than their rancorous hostility to everything English repelled, if an English customer appeared in the solitude of their warerooms would deem it

"At once an honor and a duty

To kiss the shadow of her shoe tie;"

the Rue (ci-devant) Royale has lost its prosperity with its name, the Rue de la Paix has the peace within its shops, which the Roman histo rian identifies with solitude. Delisle's Novelties are fast passing into the category of antiquities; and the Passages have as little trade as the Catacombs. This desolation is not the result of the Political Revolution which has been consummated; it has been almost wholly caused by the social revolution which has been attempted and which has been commended to us on the high authority of Mr. John Stuart Mill. Truly it was time for our Journal to take up the cause of economic science, when all art, all improvement, all progress and all trade, were thus directly assailed by the latest writer on Political Economy.

NEW FRENCH COIN.-We have a five franc of the glorious Republic. There is no king's crown or head upon it. One side is a wreath encircling the words "5 Francs, 1848." On the other side are three figures which are not exactly mythological, but are no worse for that. The centre figure is evidently Hercules, covered with his lion's skin. On either side of him is a female figure. One has a staff, surmounted with a hand opened upwards; the other holds a levelling compass; their hands being united in front. These two females may represent Liberty and Equality, perhaps, and old Hercules may preserve Fraternity. Around the group are the three great words of the Revolution, "Liberte, Egalite, Fraternite;" and on the edge are the words of faith, "Dieu protege la France." Journal of Commerce.

PATENT OFFICE REPORT.

EXTRACTS FROM THE ANNUAL REPORT OF THE COMMIS

SIONER OF PATENTS TO CONGRESS, 1848.

[Continued from page 131.]

It is unnecessary to occupy time in the statement at length of the grounds on which we have proceeded in making up the table or the particular elements of which it is composed. A reference to the preceding reports, in which these are fully stated is all that now seems needful. We barely remark in addition, that the causes specified may exert a greater or less influence in different years and their operation may likewise be modified by others which may intervene, one or more years, and then perhaps be unknown. A glance at a few leading points comprised in the history of the world, and our relations to the same may not here be without interest or advantage, in prosecution of the object to be aimed at in this report-a faithful representation of facts in respect to our resources in agricultural wealth and its best modes of development.

The state of the world abroad has no doubt exercised an influence on the arrangements of our agricultural industry. There has been a greater demand of us for food by the nations of Europe. We leave out of question here all disputed points with reference to great political theories, and confine ourselves to those facts which will be universally acknowledged.

The almost total failure of one crop and the great deficiency of some of the others in Europe, rendered it necessary for those countries where the evil was most severely felt to look to us for a supply. Such was the state of their commercial regulations also as favored the introduction of our produce on more easy terms than heretofore. The demand thus created has had its influence on a people like our own, not slow to perceive any openings for their enterprise either at home or abroad. Their industry has been stimulated, and the prospect of an abundant market has led the farmers and planters in the various sections of our republic to prepare a greater breadth of land for grain and other crops. The recurrence of the same mysterious cause or disease, which has so greatly diminished the potatoe crop in our own country, has likewise unquestionably turned the attention of some of our agriculturalists still more to other products of the soil less precarious, and which might be substiuted for that well known and favorite fruit of the earth.

The war, it might be supposed, by withdrawing numbers, especially in the west, from the pursuits of agriculture, and from producers converting them into consumers, has lessened the aggregate of the harvests and thus balanced the effect of more favorable influences. This cause has undoubtedly had its influence, and must be regarded among others in looking over the operations of things at home and abroad; but the extent of its exercise on the great crops of our country, it is believed has been compara

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