Workmen are for the most part disposed to associate; but the association is not always of a healthy kind.  It sometimes takes the form of Unions against masters; and displays itself in the Strikes that are so common, and usually so unfortunate.  Workmen also strike against men of their own class, for the purpose of excluding them from their special calling.  One of the principal objects of trades-unions is to keep up wages at the expense of the lower paid and unassociated working people.  They endeavour to prevent poorer men learning their trade, and thus keep the supply of labour below the demand.[1] This system may last for a time, but it becomes ruinous in the end.

[Footnote 1:  On the 31st January, 1875, a labourer in the employment of Messrs. Vickers, Sheffield, who had not served an apprenticeship, was put on to turn one of the lathes.  This being contrary to the rules of the union, the men in the shop struck work.  It is a usual course for men of the union to “strike” in this manner against persons of their own condition, and to exercise a force not resting in law or natural right, but merely on the will of a majority, and directly subversive of the freedom of the individual.]

It is not the want of money that prevents skilled workmen from becoming capitalists, and opening the door for the employment of labouring men who are poorer and less skilled than themselves.  The work-people threw away half a million sterling during the Preston strike, after which they went back to work at the old terms.  The London building trades threw away over three hundred thousand pounds during their strike; and even had they obtained the terms for which they struck, it would have taken six years to recoup them for their loss.  The colliers in the Forest of Dean went back to work at the old terms after eleven weeks’ play, at the loss of fifty thousand pounds.  The iron-workers of Northumberland and Durham, after spending a third of the year in idleness, and losing two hundred thousand pounds in wages, went back to work at a reduction of ten per cent.  The colliers and iron-workers of South Wales, during the recent strike or lock-out, were idle for four months, and, according to Lord Aberdare, lost, in wages alone, not less than three millions sterling!

Here, then, is abundance of money within the power of working-men,—­money which they might utilize, but do not.  Think only of a solitary million, out of the three millions sterling which they threw away during the coal strike, being devoted to the starting of collieries, or iron-mills, or manufactories, to be worked by co-operative production for the benefit of the operatives themselves.  With frugal habits, says Mr. Greg, the well-conditioned workman might in ten years easily have five hundred pounds in the bank; and, combining his savings with twenty other men similarly disposed, they might have ten thousand pounds for the purpose of starting any manufacture in which they are adepts.[1]