WORK AND LABOUR.

Lyttelton Times, Volume LXVI, Issue 7925, 30 July 1886, Page 6

WORK AND LABOUR.

We give below an extract from an article in t)ie Engine*r, which puts in a very clear • light the relation of wages stated in money ■ to the actual remuneration for labour aa A measured in the necessaries and luxuries of life. The -working man Is'not usually well; versed in - political economy, and to him a sovereign is a sovereign. If a ploughman receives a pound a-week for his - 1 work now; he quite fails to perceive that he' is much better paid than he ; wasat the - same rate of - wages ten years ago. ■ If he were paid in commodities < he l -would see it - 1 - plainly enough. The fact, of the rate of - wages m s thia. country having-of .late yeara . remained 1 so nearly, stationary while the , x prices of commodities during the same time have largely declined, is tolerably *y clear proof that the presaure of population i ? has not as yet begun to tell much upon the . welfare of the working man. - ’ “ It is very natnral that the working man should suggest any remedy for the existing state of affairs rather than a redaction in wages. In recent articles, however, we have shown that the foreign workman is content with a mere pittance as compared with the wages paid in this country. Wo. do not assert that this is right; but; right - or wrong, it is a stern, uncompromising fact, and we must deal with it and handle ' it as one; and it must not be forgotten that the employers of labour abroad are really much poorer, and are content to live much, more simply, than the employers of labour at home. In one word, countries > with which we have to compete are poorer all round than we are, men and masters: alike, and we in England must be content *.. to assimilate our condition in some degree > to that of the foreigner. In very many—" respects, however, we must still be better ; r off. ; Never in the history of this country r, were all the necessaries and ’ many of th«r- 1 ‘ luxuries of life so cheap as they are now;!.; t. We do not exaggerate at all when wesay ;f . that 80s a Week wages now are more tiian* equivalent to 35s a week ten-years ago." It ” may be !worth while, we think,toput;thi»' : matter in a somewhat different point of .. view from that in which it is usually 1 *' presented, especially to the working man. The money paid in wages is really and in itself of no s value at all. I What the working man gets in return for his toil are commodities, such as bread, -; and j meat, and beer, and tea, and .clothes, . and so on. The master might pay the man ' in goods, and the man would: be ; no worse . off so. long as the bargain was! honestly carried out. Indeed, for many years it was the custom in extensive districts to-pay in: :■ goods,. ,nofc-in.mqnpy. , Abusea..creDfe into the system, and the Truck Act put a stop ~ to it. Let us suppose that in 1875 a work- : man made an arrangement with his, ployier that he should, receive,,instead*«v money, 80s worth per w’eek of such good» ’“ as he required at current prices. Now such;. -1 has been the effect of the reduction in tbs >,. cost of commodities, that year byyear the man woffld have’ received more and more. ■ ‘ £ For ; every ten loaves, for instance, which..A he giot In 1875, he would have a dozen nqw. For-every 31b of sugar he would'howget’ 1 about 51b, and so on; Thus the man would reap very considerable' advantage. If the master'refused to; - rangement, and offered the man 25s worth of goods per week instead of SOs worth. the.maii, ,-|- would still be better off than h e'was 1 1875. ■ This fact is continually overlooked by the men. Tq them a sovereign ; ist»,[r, sovereign. They are oblivious to the fact that-the value of the sovereign as expressed' ' l in terms of purchasing power-is constantly changing; and that of late years the change; has.-jalways .run undone direction ; A that -is to. say, the value of money has con-. /. tinually augmented. A considerable re- . .duction of wages, therefore; does not in any ’ :; wjLy' represent a (Considerable reduction in- ;ir' the power of buying what the wage-earning ; - Classes want. Of course it would be 'a very ‘■' l ' good thing if it were possible-for the artisan and the capitalist to ,*gO qn increase] ingin wealth and in power of purchasing * luxuries and comfortshat this ,cannqt. be. while we have the foreigner at our doors. Indeed, if we ask why it is that we can .buy., things so : cheaply; the answer is that things 1 ' - are cheap because foreigners are'content to'!; 1 ; > supply, ua with them .at a lpw ; price. . TVV n constantly hear it said:' “If duly French . t and | German and‘Belgian : and- other folk 5 ' would * insist on > getting , higher* wages; we jjt should be much better off in f this country.”. • Such a statement is fallacious. ’ The effect- ,' of a rise of wages abroad wo'iild be a rise in'i i' prices at home, which, .would leave the .. English working man no better off than he is now.” ;u