|
READERS who care to know what a spokesman of the
working class has to say for his order will find this a capital book.
The writer is a clever fellow; but he is more than that. His
observations are keen and his conclusions are mostly just; they show
that the knowledge which he has picked up has ripened into considerable
wisdom. He is really a working man; a "unit of the great unwashed"
he calls himself. But he asks for no tenderness of handling from
the critic on that account. He tells us that he "would much rather
be damned outright than damned with a qualification." Nor does he
need it. His book has something better than literary pretension;
which, in the case of many working men who take to the pen, means a
putting on of the
fustian of language when they may have cast aside the fustian of
their daily wear. The "Journeyman Engineer" has something to say,
and he says it in good, honest English, being, as he is, thoroughly
English in spirit, and having our national sense of homely humour.
He does not set up the working man as a model hero; nor think, with some
injudicious, idolaters, that in him human nature has most nearly
attained perfection. He has been behind the tapestry, and knows
the seamy side of the pictures that are held up at times on the
platform. He is aware that the workman is often drunken, often
cruel to his wife and little ones, and often guilty of language and
conduct which, to put it mildly, is not all that may become a man.
On the other hand, in spite of vices in the grain, and in spite of
virtues with which he has been varnished, our "Journeyman Engineer"
thinks the working man a pretty good fellow, whether you take him for
all in all, or only "half-and-half." "He will maintain a battle
for what he conceives to be his rights, and never count the cost; he
will stand by his friend in cloud as well as sunshine; and he will often
endure the woes of want, and the still more terrible grief of seeing his
wife and children suffering those woes while he is powerless to relieve
them, with a degree of fortitude which, were it displayed in a more
startling situation, would be deemed heroic." The "Journeyman
Engineer" has seen many instances of kindness and generous feeling
manifested in workshops—men "pitching into" their work in the hardest
style in order that they might give a hand to help some fellow worker
who was ill and could not keep up with the rest. He has frequently
seen a young man—even when trade was dull—voluntarily offering himself
for "the sack," in order to save a married man from it !—as heroic a
thing in its way as was the self-sacrificing act of Sydney in passing on
the cup of water. Nevertheless, he has not met with the paragon
working man of the platform; and thinks that such a one, if he exists,
would stand a likely chance of being chaffed out of any workshop.
Of his fellow workmen he can affirm "as I heard a
mechanic doing the other day when asking a shopmate to write a
letter—that they were very good scholars once, only they have forgot all
their education." Generally speaking, he says the working
man who can write is but a poor correspondent, and "regards letter
writing as a soul-depressing business, fit only for the gloom and
involuntary confinement of a wet Sunday." He combats the Exeter
Hall notion that the working men are in the habit of scoffing at
religion, or of persecuting any one who may be what they consider
"serious"; on the contrary, they entertain a high respect for any member
of their own body who is truly religious in his life. A workshop
often affords a crucial test of the depth of a man's religion, and the
men are apt to find out hypocrisy and scoff at self-righteousness.
The presence of a sincerely devout man in the workshop is beneficial,
and his advice, or reproof, is listened to respectfully. The
reasons why the working men do not go to church are chiefly these:
Sunday is literally their day of rest. From their
humble position they are not compelled to sacrifice to the proprieties
and social decencies; and not feeling obliged to attend from any higher
motive, they like to make the most of their day in the enjoyment of home
comforts and the pleasures of social intercourse. As regards the
attractions of Church, they are impatient at listening to long, dull,
droning sermons, and he thinks the mummeries of ritualism bear no
comparison in splendour with a ballet at the Alhambra. Moreover,
there is a tradition amongst working men to the effect that when, once
on a time, one of their number did present himself at church, he was
shown to the free seats, to see many
better coats obsequiously shown into a pew. This rankles in
their minds, and the most is made of it in excuse for staying away.
The working classes do not take much interest in
either Atheism or Secularism. No journal advocating these
principles has ever paid, or had anything more than the most miserable
circulation. Their main support has been found in the extra
subscriptions of the fanatic few, like that person who some time ago
left a small fortune to a lecturer that he might devote himself entirely
to the spread of Atheism; and, sad to say, the change of fortune brought
a change of mind, and the lecturer gave Atheism the go-by, and devoted
himself to the enjoying of his money and the spoiling of Philistines.
Persons like this have been the mainstay of atheistic publications, not
the working classes themselves.
Our "Journeyman Engineer" glances with a keen eye at
the newspapers devoted to the interests of the working men, in which
they will learn that they are the prey of a "bloated, vicious,
blood-sucking aristocracy," unjust taxation, unfair laws, and a host of
other national and personal wrongs, and may be persuaded that the
Government is an organized swindle, worked by arrant fools and
despicable knaves. Many will recognize the "toady-in-chief" to the
working man pointed out with humour and pelted with scorn by our author,
and we hope the readers of the "Crusher's" paper may see this honest
denunciation by one of themselves. We could also wish that some
woman of the working class were able to picture autobiographically the
evil influence of the "Kitchen Miscellany," and publications still more
vile, on her own life and character. It would be a sad revelation,
a sorry sight, but might be very useful.
What a "Journeyman Engineer" has to say of
trades-unions and strikes will be read with special interest at the
present time. He is a witness to be called on the side of his own
class, but not an unfair one. He stands up for the trade
societies, and shows their many benefits to both masters and men.
He admits that there have been instances "in which a few lazy, brawling
pot-house orators have induced the members of a trade-union" to wrong
the masters and themselves; but that these unions are extremely
beneficial to all parties when wisely conducted, he demonstrates from
the experience of the "Amalgamated Society of Engineers," and furnishes
an interesting account of its rapid growth and great prosperity.
He points to the important fact that this society paid away
£63,565.18s.5½d. to its members in he year 1862—one of the worst years
of the Cotton Famine—as its contribution of help to the nation in a time
of great trial. Naturally the working men feel that it would be
very unjust if the law of the land is not to give them any protection
for such efforts to help themselves, because they may, in extreme cases,
assert the right to "strike." Surely the only right solution of
this difficult question is, for the law to take cognizance of the whole
subject, and, whilst it protects the savings-banks, and legalizes the
benefit societies, appoint a tribunal, with power to hear and determine
the right in each individual case of quarrel. The working men
argue that they do not unite for the purpose of obstructing trade, any
more than a man insures is life on purpose to die.
Any particular "strike" may be really caused by the obstinacy or
selfishness of one man amongst the masters. How, then, are they to
be held responsible for obstructing trade when the law leaves the
responsibility unascertained? Right must be determined before
justice can be done; and both right and justice are not to be sat aside
without examination, because there may occur stoppage in trade.
They are not acquainted with any abstract freedom for Trade to trample
on Labour, right or wrong, and cause it to submit, or run the risk of
losing its savings. Law for one, they say, law for all. It
is the fear of many persons—and that fear has recently had ample
expression—that the prices of labour maintained by the unions may lead
to England's loss of that supremacy in certain branches of manufacture
which she has hitherto held. Working men reply,
"That
has to be tested. We do not wish that England should be beaten
anywhere, having no desire to see the old land knuckle under, being, as
we are, English to the backbone. But should there be a failure of
natural resources, and the turn of some other country has come to
outstrip us in a particular department of industry, why should we and
our wives and children be ground down more and more to make up the
difference? Why should the engineers sink to the level of the
Spitalfields weavers? That is not the only outlet for us.
Should the worst fears be realized, should the Income Tax returns tell a
far different tale of the masters than at present, there are new worlds
asking for our labour, in our own language, and offering double prices
too. We have no need to stop here and go down, down, down,
in order that fortunes may be made and wealth accumulate from our
labour. If humanity is to sink in that way, so that some
particular trade may swim against the current, the sooner
that trade perishes and human beings are delivered the better.
At present the only power we have of determining the necessities of the
case is in the final right of 'striking,'—that is our sole tribunal."
On this head the "Journeyman
Engineer" is quite fair to both masters and men; he admits the time has
arrived when foreign competition can only be beaten off by a cordial
cooperation of employers and employed: united they stand, but divided
they fall. In spite of some lamentable exceptions, the working
classes have more sense on this subject than they always get credit for;
too much, for example, to support such demands as those put forth by the
engine-drivers,—e.g., the right of the men to be judges in the
matter of their own dismissal and the claim that promotion shall go by
seniority only.
We obtain some amusing peeps into the inner life of
the workshop from this book. Here is one that will be novel to
many of our readers:
KEEPING NIX.
"When an apprentice enters a shop, he will in all probability be taught
to ' keep nix' before he is told the names of the tools; and though the
apprentice, everything around him being novel, would prefer being
enlightened regarding the elementary mysteries of his trade to being put
to keep nix, this merely shows his want of wisdom. Keeping nix is
a really important job, and one the efficient discharge of which is
supposed to imply the possession of considerable ability on the part of
the apprentice, and which elevates him in the estimation of those who
are to bring him up in the way he should go. Keeping nix consists
in keeping a bright look-out for the approach of managers or foremen, so
as to he able to give prompt and timely notice to men who may be
skulking, or having a sly read or smoke, or who are engaged on
'corporation work'—that is, work of their own. The boy who can
keep nix well—who can detect the approach of those in authority, while
they are yet afar off, and give warning to those over whose safety he
has been watching, without betraying any agitation, or making any
movement that might excite the suspicious of the enemy—will win the
respect of his mates; he will be regarded by them as a treasure, a youth
of promise. But should he be so slow or so unfortunate as to allow
his mates to be 'dropped on' while he is upon guard, then woe to him !
Curses loud and deep will be heaped upon his thick head; a stout stick
and his back will probably be made acquainted; and from that time forth,
until he has redeemed his tarnished reputation by doing something
specially meritorious in the nix-keeping way, he will be regarded as one
concerning whose capacity to learn his trade there are grave doubts."
Englishman-like,
the "Journeyman Engineer" has his grievances, and must have his grumble.
He is dreadfully persecuted by some rabid Teetotalers, who seem to
regard him as a stumbling-block—an example of the very worst
kind—because he never gets drunk, and yet will not be converted to their
views. Good-naturedly enough he takes his revenge. Another
grievance is the treatment he has suffered from being "only a lodger":—
"None but those who have suffered from having it applied to them can
fully estimate the utterly humiliating power of the word 'only.' I have
read that
|
All that poets sing or grief hath known
Of hopes laid waste, knells in that word alone;
|
but for my part, I would be disposed to give the palm for an utter
misery conveying sense to that word
only. 'It is not good for man to be alone,' but to speak of
a man as being alone does not necessarily imply that he is contemptible,
while to speak of him as being
only anything does. However insignificant a man may be,
whether he is a German Prince or 'a pauper whom nobody owns,' you have
merely to prefix
only to the description of his insignificance, and you intensify
it a thousandfold. It is the constant use of this terrible word
'only,' in conjunction with the term 'a lodger,' that has been chiefly
instrumental in producing the now generally received opinion that a
lodger is a person to be despised. Is a man in his wife's 'black
books,' or does he find himself powerless in his own house, he in either
case fully expresses his position by shrugging his shoulders and simply
observing, 'I'm only a lodger.' Even beggars know that a lodger is
a person of no consideration in a household, for if by chance you open
the door in answer to the knock of any of those importunate personages,
you have merely to say, 'I'm only a lodger,' and the most persistent
beggar will immediately take him or herself off; though in the street,
they would probably have stuck to the same lodger until they had
succeeded in extorting black mail from him. So well is this last
phase of the powerlessness of a lodger understood that it has become a
regular practice with many men who are householders and fathers of
families to get rid of mendicants, collectors of missionary funds, and
other importunate callers, by boldly asserting that they are only
lodgers."
We take this
book to be a fair representative of the more thoughtful working man's
mind,—to some extent it is a spirit-level of English working men
in general; and we find in it an additional cause for wondering why so
many members of the House of Commons should have unhesitatingly
concluded that the working-class plea for a share in the political life
of the nation would be straightway converted into a tug and tussle of
the "Have-nots" against the "Haves," and that for such purpose the
working class would combine against all others. This is
quite unwarranted by all that we know and hear of English working men.
Granted that with a large extension of the franchise many present
members may not be again returned, it will not be on account of their
wealth or landed property: it will be rather because they have no
natural fitness for the position to which they aspire. Given the
same capacity and energy in the man, the working class would any day
prefer to be represented by the gentleman than by one of themselves.
No people has ever shown a greater devotion to their natural leaders, as
they seemed, even though these might only wear the insignia of
leadership. In proof of this we have only to look to the army, to
see what they will do and where they will go, when led pluckily by one
in a higher rank of society. What they ask is to be led—more
intelligently and nobly led. And, we repeat, where there is the
natural nous in the man, wealth, property, education, local or
national standing will always give the advantage over the mere "working
man" in the estimation of the working classes themselves. So that
instead of dolorously contemplating a lowering of the standard of
membership, we can look forward to seeing it raised far above the
present level by the extension of the suffrage to working men.
Instead of swamping the House of Commons with much worse men, we think
there is evidence to show that the working class will exercise a very
important influence in choosing more of the
best men, and aid acceptably in fulfilling the life of a great
nation. |
