Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 3.djvu/867

 REVIEWS 853

explanation of certain beliefs and prejudices of workmen which out- siders often find it difficult to understand. For example, trade unions do not wish to be incorporated, because liability to suit at law would ruin the union. They oppose " home work " and the small master system, because the worst evils of cut-throat competition linger in these belated forms of industry. They oppose the organization of sick, acci- cident, and burial benefits managed by the employers, because this gives the employers artificial means of control. They oppose profit- sharing, because this bribes men to desert each other with the faint hope of a small premium.

The assumptions of trade-unionism must be considered in any complete view. One conviction is fundamental : social conditions can, by deliberate human intervention, be changed for the better. Three great doctrines have been urged at different times and on dif- ferent grounds : the doctrine of vested interest in trade, the doctrine of supply and demand, and the doctrine of a living wage. The scheme of the "sliding scale" is inconsistent with the maintenance of the living wage, and the unions believe that the means of efficiency must be provided, and that the price of the product must carry assurance of this minimum. Alliances of employers and wage-workers are formed to keep up profits and wages. The result of this alliance is that the use of invention and machinery is stimulated, inefficient workmen are excluded, the product is thereby increased, and the wealth of the coun- try is enhanced. Of course there is no absolute guaranty to the com- munity that articles of consumption may not be raised in price.

At this point the authors introduce a statement which should be carefully considered in this country, where labor legislation is in its beginnings, especially in the newer manufacturing districts. English public opinion has reached a stage of education where the conditions essential to health and efficiency are not left to the will of employers nor to the struggle attending the higgling of a market. Law deter- mines not only the condition of the shop, but the length of hours for children, and, since 1847, of adult women in certain industries. By an act of 1893 this legislation was extended to protect adult men in the railway service. The decision of the Illinois courts on this prin- ciple would seem to be as antiquated as the Dred Scot decision. The writers believe that it will be as easy to give a physiological definition of a minimum living wage, to be enforced by law, as of a maximum day, and this radical doctrine is discussed with eminent ability.