THE MASTER ENGINEERS. AND THEIR WORKMEN. Chree Lectures, ON THE RELATIONS OF CAPITAL AND LABOUR, DELIVERED BY REQUEST OF THE SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING WORKING AT THE MARYLEBONE LITERARY AND SCIENTIFIC ON THE 13TH, 20TH, & 27TH OF FEBRUARY, 1852. BY J. M. LUDLOW, ESQ., OF LINCOLN'S INN, BARRISTER-AT-LAW. LONDON: JOHN JAMES BEZER, 183, FLEET STREET. 1852. KD 11291 HARVARD Coolidge Fund LONDON: WORKING PRINTERS' ASSOCIATION, 4a, JOHNSON'S COURT, FLEET STREET. CONTENTS. General Considerations. — The Class-interest of the Em- THE Conclusions of the Masters' pamphlet flow naturally from the class-interest of the employer.-But the endeavour to keep up or to raise wages flows as naturally from the class-interest of the employed.—The object of such endeavour agrees generally with the teachings of political economy, and with the public interest.. -The presumption of political economy is in favour of its expe- diency, and the master engineers have done nothing in this in- stance to rebut such presumption. Their avowed object shows that it is actually necessary.-Method adopted by the working- men to carry out their object.-Trade-societies and their benefits. The Amalgamated Society.—The law allows and political economy approves of such combinations.-Suggestions for their legalization. The Measures of the Amalgamated Society. DEMAND of the Society for the abolition of systematic over-time iv. LECTURE III. The Issues of the Contest. FIVE issues to the contest; two hostile, three amicable.-Hostile issues: 1.-The triumph of the masters-Temper in which they have conducted the dispute; insinuation of incompetency against the Amalgamated Society; charge of dictation; determination to put down trade-societies.-The accumulation of capital a natural combination against labour; Firms and Companies. 2.-Triumph of the men; less to be deprecated than that of the masters, yet not desirable. Amicable issues-none possible on the ground of competitive plutonomy: 1.-The enforcement of the responsibilities of the employer. 2.-Arbitration; Conseils de Prudhommes. 3.-Association.-Caution to those intending to co-operate. THE MASTER ENGINEERS AND THEIR WORKMEN. LECTURE I. The Class Interests of the Employer and Employed. I HAVE been requested, on behalf of the Society for Promoting Working Men's Associations (to which I belong) to deliver the first of a course of lectures “on the Relation between Labour and Capital, with reference to the present lamentable contest between the Operative Engineers and their Employers." I shall begin my lecture with the expression of the strangest wish, so many of you may think,-ever hinted at by a lecturer; the fear of having too many friends in my audience. I should be very glad to think that the great bulk of those who have come here to-night had either never heard before of the Society for Promoting Working Men's Associations, or had heard only an ill account of it. Nay, from fear passing to regret, I shall not shrink from saying, I am sorry that this course of lectures should have been undertaken by that Society. I do believe it has, or ought to have, something to say on the present dispute, something to do in reference to it; I may believe that it |