Viii.—: Opposition of the Working Classes to Protection.

The question of Fiscal Policy was discussed in September, 1903, at the Trades Union Congress at Leicester. A resolution strongly condemning the Chamberlain programme was introduced by Mr. Sexton, of Liverpool, on behalf of the National Dock Labourers, supported by Mr. Holmes, of Cardiff, representing the Railway Servants, and Mr. Michaels, of London, for the Cabdrivers’ Association. This condemnation was not confined to the representatives of the powerful Trades Unions of the Dock Labourers and Railwaymen. The adhesion to the Conservative programme of Mr. Macdonald, the secretary of the London Trades Union Council, gave a momentary encouragement to the Protectionists, which was freely exploited by the Birmingham Tariff Committee. He did not appear at Leicester to defend his views, and they were violently attacked by several speakers, notably by Mr. Harvey, of the Miners’ Federation. With the exception of Mr. Mosses, of Leeds, and one or two other timid speakers, who professed themselves in favour of an inquiry, there was a general recognition of the benefits of Free Trade. Where, but from protected countries, do the poor foreigners come who carry on the sweating system? In what Protectionist country is the workman’s condition as good as in England? In the days of dear bread, wages were 50 per cent. below their present standard, and the price of food has gone down 30 per cent. A national protest against Preferential Tariffs was signed by 960 of the most prominent Trades Union and Co-operative representatives. Twelve out of the thirteen Labour M.P.’s had signed it. The signatures of the officials of the Co-operative Societies represented 2,022,000 members, with a capital of £26,600,000, and a working capital in 1902 of £55,319,000. At the 1905 Trades Union Congress the question was again raised, and the Chamberlain programme thrown out by 1,256,000 to 26,000.

Some of the Board of Trade tables have not been of a sort to attract the English workmen to Mr. Chamberlain’s side.

This table shows that wages have risen more rapidly in England than in the United States, though less rapidly than in Germany. The respective rates of wages are as follows:—

Thus German wages are more than a third lower in the towns and 43 per cent. in the capital. The English workman knows that, thanks to Free Trade, he can get manufactured goods and food at the lowest prices. He sees no reason for giving up Free Trade, he had rather go to his Co-operative Society.

When Mr. Chamberlain has once got hold of an argument he sticks to it, however often it has been refuted. At St. Helens on June 3, 1905, he waxed enthusiastic over the condition of the cotton operatives in protected countries, and expressed the hope of seeing English workers similarly placed. Almost the next day the Report of the Tariff Commission on cotton declared “That in these countries the conditions of labour are poor and the wages low.” And they count on the lowness of their wages to enable them to compete with England. Inquiries made in connection with the Chamberlain programme have confirmed the following axioms:—

Wages are high in proportion to the cheapness of raw materials. Their rise is conditioned by efficiency of plant and cheapness of transport.

Free Trade is the policy of cheapness, and therefore of high wages, since on the same selling price they can rise to the full extent of the share that would have been taken by Protection.

The Memorandum has attempted to ascertain the share of export trade in wages. Wages may be estimated as between 40 and 60, say 50 per cent. in exported manufactures, of which the annual average for 1900-4 was £232,000,000—i.e., £116,000,000 in wages; 10 per cent. may be added for repair, secondary labour, &c.; in round numbers wages may be counted as £120,000,000 to £130,000,000. According to the inquiries the total wages of industry in the United Kingdom may be estimated at between £700,000,000 and £750,000,000; consequently wages of the export trade are less than 20 per cent., or a fifth of the whole, and Mr. Chamberlain is thus attempting to upset the whole of English trade to increase, perhaps by a tenth, a fifth of the total wages. It is always the same, this wonderful system of sacrificing the majority to the minority, risking the normal conditions of industry for hazardous advantages.