The case for the factory acts / edited by Mrs. Sidney Webb ; with a preface by Mrs. Humphrey Ward.

Date:
1902
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The case for the factory acts / edited by Mrs. Sidney Webb ; with a preface by Mrs. Humphrey Ward. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Let us see how this comes about. We will not take a time of bad trade, when five workmen are competing for one situation. We will assume that the whole labour market is in a state of perfect equilibrium; that there is only one workman wanting work and only one situation vacant. Now, watch the process of bargaining between the employer and the workman. If the capitalist refuses to accept the workmans terms, he will, no doubt, suffer some inconvenience as an employer. To fulfil his orders he will have to “speed up” some of his machinery, or insist on his workpeople working longer hours. Failing these expedients he may have to delay the delivery of his goods, and may even find his profits, at the end of the year, fractionally less than before. But, mean- while, he goes on eating and drinking, his wife and family go on living, just as before. His physical comfort is not affected: he can afford to wait until the labourer comes back in a humbler frame of mind. And that is just what the labourer must presently do. For he, meanwhile, has lost his day. His very subsistence depends on his promptly coming to an agreement. If he stands out, he has no money to meet his weekly rent, or to buy food for his family. If he is obstinate, consumption of his little hoard, or the pawning of his furniture, may put off the catas-