Page:On the economy of machinery and manufactures - Babbage - 1846.djvu/338

304 is, in that instance, equal in value to about 10,000l. When we reflect that the quantity of capital throughout the country thus kept unemployed merely from the fear of combinations amongst the workmen, might, under other circumstances, be used for keeping a larger number at work, the importance of introducing a system in which there should exist no inducement to combine becomes additionally evident.

(367.) That combinations are, while they last, productive of serious inconveniences to the workmen themselves, is admitted by all parties; and it is equally true, that, in most cases, a successful result does not leave them in so good a condition as they were in before "the strike." The little capital they possessed, which ought to have been hoarded with care for days of illness or distress, is exhausted; and frequently, in order to gratify a pride, at the existence of which we cannot but rejoice, even whilst we regret its misdirected energy, they will undergo the severest privations rather than return to work at their former wages. With many of the workmen, unfortunately, during such periods, bad habits are formed which it is very difficult to eradicate; and, in all those engaged in such transactions, the kinder feelings of the heart are chilled, and passions are called into action which are permanently injurious to the happiness of the individual, and destructive of those sentiments of confidence which it is equally the interest of the master-manufacturer and of his workman to maintain. If any of the trade refuse to join in the strike, the majority too frequently forget, in the excitement of their feelings, the dictates of justice, and endeavour to exert a