Agnes Giberne

“ It's because I want you all to see what you are, and what you might be, if ye'd sense and spirit to exert yourselves. It's because I'm a friend of the Working-man. It's because the noble society, of which I am a member and a delegate—and proud to be both;—it's because that noble society is the friend of the Working-man, desirous to rescue him from the gigantic heel of a merciless power, which is crushing him in the dust—like the boa-constrictor, lads, which wraps the victim in its voluminous folds, and slays him in its slimy embrace. And the best thing a friend can give is advice. ”

“ Sarah checked the cry which rose to her lips. She turned to the fire, away from Martha.
"He don't wake up, not even for your taking him," said Millie. "He must be dreadful sleepy."
"He is—very sound," Mrs. Holdfast answered in trembling tones, as she pressed the tiny cold form more closely in her arms.
"Give him back to me!" demanded Martha hoarsely.
"No, my dear—take your tea first," said Mrs. Holdfast. "I'll lay him in his cot—just for—"
"No, no—give him to me! ”

“ I dare say you'd like it better if I was to talk a lot about tyranny and oppression, and iron heels trampling you down, and such trash, and then was to butter you up for a set of noble chaps, the like of which never trod this earth before."
"You're used to that sort of thing, ain't you, now? But it's not in my line, nor never will be. You may be noble if you choose—all and any of you. I don't say you all are; any more than I'd go for to say that all the aristocracy or all the capitalists of the country are noble. ”

“ Then she burst out as if choked, "But if you'd been getting your wages all this time we'd never have got to such a pass! As if it mattered that you'd have had to work a bit longer than you liked! What business has a man got to marry, if he don't mean to work? Why, dear me, a lot more work wouldn't have pulled you down yourself, like the want of food! ”

“ Yet, if the masters couldn't get hands to work for them, much use would their wealth be to them. The men do the work, and power goes with labour too; but if there was no capital out of which their wages would come, they'd be badly off too."
"Fact is, there's power on both sides, and there's dependence on both sides. It's the few with capital to balance the many without capital. More truly, it's the few with large capital to balance the many with little capital." ”

“ It's natural and it's right that working-men should band together to protect their own interests; and maybe now and then a strike's the only method open to them. Any way, I do know it oughtn't to be a common thing. For in nine cases out of ten, lads, the loss is more than the gain. A strike is wise, only when affairs are in such a condition, that you all know on the very best authority—not only on Pope's authority—that a rise is your just due, and that there's no chance of your getting it for a long while save by a strike. ”

“ Couldn't able and honourable men be found, who'd look into the state of the matter, and tell us in honest truth whether a rise is our just due—men who could be trusted by employers and workmen alike? Wouldn't sometimes a calm and temperate demand for a rise, backed by a real knowledge of the justice of it, be as likely to bring about what's wanted as all the anger and bitterness of a strike? ”

“ For the Strike was begun!
The masters could not long hold out. Success, speedy success, in the shape of higher wages and shorter hours, might be confidently expected. So Peter Pope declared. Capital could not but fail in a tussle with labour; for what was capital without labour? Peter Pope forgot to ask the equally forcible question—What was labour without capital? It is so easy to say, What is a man's head without his body?—But then one naturally inquires next, What is a man's body without his head? ”

“ But I'd like to know one thing, and that is, why working-men are paid at a higher rate in other countries than in England?"
"And perhaps, if I answer that, you'll tell me why workmen are paid at a lower rate in other countries than in England," said John.
"Look at America," was the answer.
"And look at France—look at Germany—look at Holland. It comes in both cases from the same reason. Labour is more scarce in one place than in another; or, capital is more plentiful. Either way the wages must rise." ”

“ If ye give in tamely now and let yourselves be driven to the shambles like a flock of silly sheep, and crushed to the earth under the iron heels of a set of despots, as 'ud grind down the very souls of ye, if they could, into scrapings of gold-dust,—why, ye'll never hold the position of men! ”

“ When there's much work to be done, and few men to do it, labour is dear because it's scarce. When there's little work to be done, and many men to do it, labour is cheap because it is plentiful. And when labour is cheap, no amount of strikes can make it worth more than it is worth, even though wages may be forced up unnaturally for a while. ”

“ Let the masters look to themselves, and take the men's side—which Pope does not do, for all his boasting. Try to show them—as many as will listen to you—the wise and common-sense view of things. Show them the folly of trying to control forces which will not be controlled. ”

“ Holdfast spoke slowly—"and yet there are times, and no use to deny it, when things ain't fair, and the men have real good reason to know it—reason beyond the empty talk of clap-trap blusterers—and the question is, what's to be done?" ”

“ Stands to reason, don't it, that folks turn to the cheapest market for their goods? If you men can buy a serviceable coat for a low price at one shop, you won't choose to pay a high price for the same at another shop. So, by getting higher wages than are really your due, you'll have driven away the trade from your neighbourhood, perhaps from your country; and masters and men will suffer alike."
"Maybe you'll say that if all working-men over the world joined into one great league, they could force up the wages everywhere alike. ”

“ If you're being really paid under the fair worth of your labour, it's because the demand for that labour is increasing; and in such a case competition among the masters will soon act for you, and bring about a rise. If your labour is being paid at its fair value, no strike can bring about a lasting rise. If labour is growing more plentiful, and the demand is growing less, then, strike or no strike, your wages must fall. ”

“ When trade's prosperous, and the demand for labour grows, and the masters compete one against another for hands, then wages rise. But when the market is overstocked, and the demand for labour gets less, and the men compete one against another for work, instead of the masters competing for men, there's a change. ”

“ I tell ye, lads, ye're all tied hand and foot; though many a one of you scarce feels his bonds, just because he don't know what freedom is. You're degraded and miserable and enslaved, and don't scarce know what it is to wish for anything better. ”

“ Working-men ain't a-going to be trampled on no longer, nor their wives neither. We won't put up with no more tyranny nor nonsense."
Martha moved her head from one side to the other, and was silent.
But Sarah Holdfast remarked dryly, "There's a sort of tyranny in the home that isn't so easy got rid of! And there's a tyranny of working-man to working-man, which I'd like to see done away with. It may be harder tyranny than the tyranny of capital, which folks talk such a lot about nowadays." ”

“ Martha put a sudden check upon herself.
"Yes, he does," she said. "He does think; and it goes to his heart to see baby Harry's look. I didn't mean that, Bobbie; I only meant, I wish with all my heart the strike was over."
"Look 'ee here, Mrs. Holdfast!"
Molly Hicks once more held out her baby, and Sarah Holdfast's kind face softened with pity.
"Poor little thing! Why, she's wasted away to nothing!"
"Starving!" said Mrs. Hicks, in a dry unnatural voice.
"Poor little thing!" repeated Mrs. Holdfast.
"There's nothing for anybody at home. And we've parted with pretty near everything. ”

“ There's a deal of ignorance on such points; and sometimes there's unfair accusations; and many a strike fails of its object just because it deserves to fail. But for all that there are times, now in one trade, now in another, when a rise is known on all sides and acknowledged by good judges to be the real due of the men, and yet it's withheld. ”

“ There is not the least need that you should be clever or learned yourself, or even powerful in speech. You only have to go on saying the same thing over and over and over again, with dogged pertinacity; and in time you are sure to be believed. The British Public is wonderfully easy of belief, and will swallow anything,—if only you give it time! Peter Pope had done this. ”

“ Only take care too many of you don't go; for as sure as labour gets more plentiful, the wages will run down."
"When you think of the lower rate of wages paid to workmen on the Continent, you'll no doubt say that the advantage on our side is all owing to Trades, Unions and strikes. But it's nothing of the sort. Trades Unions, property managed, are all very well in their way; and a strike at the right time may be a good thing in its way. But Trades Unions and strikes can't force wages up to a higher level and keep them there, when the state of the labour-market don't allow it." ”

“ You've had a lot of fine words said to you of late by Pope, which maybe some of you believe. He'd teach you to think that everything is in your own hands; that you only have to strike and strike again to get higher and higher wages, and that the masters all keep you wilfully down, and don't give you your dues. ”

“ You'll tell me, perhaps, that many a strike isn't for higher wages, but for shorter hours. So it is. English workmen are growing mighty careful of themselves nowadays, and afraid of work. But the rise is the same either way. It's a rise if you get better pay for ten hours' work than before; and it's a rise if you keep ten hours' pay for nine hours' work. ”

“ If a rise in wages is really your due, I suppose it's sure to come sooner or later, from the pressure of competition, whether you strike or whether you don't. But if you're mistaken as to the state of things, and a rise is not your due—why a strike isn't like to do more than bring loss and disappointment; or even if it does force the wages up for a bit, that can't last, and things will be worse for your trade in the end."
"It 'ud be a good thing if masters and men would draw together, and be more friendly-like, and each listen to the other. ”

“ It's a question that affects their pockets. But it's worth our knowing too; for it bears on the truth of labour being paid at its worth; and it tells us of forces which will have their way, and which masters nor men can't control."
"Any way, you'll do well to hold back from vain struggles which can't profit you—struggles to bring about a rate of wages beyond the real worth of your labour. For you might as well try to force a river to run uphill." ”

“ By forcing up the wages, you make the fruits of your work more dear than elsewhere. Then other towns or other countries will compete against you, producing the same things more cheaply. Then the public will leave you, and buy elsewhere. ”

“ Martha found no comfort in the thought of John Holdfast's superiority.
"See here—" she said, looking round—"all the little comforts we've been getting together, when we could spare a sixpence or a shilling. And they'll all go now. I won't say but what Roger's been a good husband in the main, letting alone that he's so easy led. He does care for the children, and he brings home his wages more regular than most—if he wasn't so fond of a day's holiday, when he ought to be at work. Talk of short hours! He's never in no danger of overdoing hisself. But that's the way with the men. ”

“ There's a good old saying, lads, as tells us 'Procrastination is the thief of time!' Procrastination means putting off. Procrastination is putting off the settling of a question like you're doing now. Procrastination is the thief of time. It steals time! It steals the nick of time, when the nick of time comes; and once gone, you'll never get that nick of time back."
"Now's the time I tell ye, boys! Will you cringe before the iron heel of capital? Will ye knuckle down before the bloodhounds of tyrannic power, when ye may fight and conquer, if ye will ”

“ The cost of production is greater, whichever sort of rise you get; and that means a higher price for the thing sold; and that means, sometimes, driving away the trade to some other place. A lot of trade has drifted away from England to foreign countries, of late years—and why? Just because the shorter hours and higher wages of English workmen mean higher prices for the produce of their work—and people won't pay higher prices when they can get as good for lower. ”

“ I've been a-telling Holdfast he's got to work up his action, afore he speaks agin. The men likes a lot of action."
"I shouldn't recommend either you or Holdfast to take Pope for your model," said the much diverted Mr. Hughes, as he moved away. "A statement, well worded, may be quite as emphatic without the swing or the stamp."
Peter stood motionless, weighing this parting utterance. He rubbed his forehead more than once in dubious style.
"'A fine thing is action,' says I, 'and Pope's got a lot of it.'" ”

“ There'd ought to be some way of getting at the truth of things, in this land, short of fighting. A strike means loss to masters and to men; and many a strike, it's found later, need never have taken place at all. ”

“ It wouldn't do no harm to you, lads, if you was sometimes to put yourselves into the masters' place, and think how you'd act there. And I wish the masters would do the same for the men. Not as they don't sometimes, I'll be bound. There's masters and masters, just as there's men and men! I don't see as we ourselves have much to complain of. Mr. Bertie and Mr. Lovett have been good friends to us for many a year. It wasn't till Pope came to enlighten our ignorance, that we found out we was grovelling under the heels of two bloodthirsty tyrants. ”