worth an expenditure of considerably less than one-half of what we now pay for our army and navy. Our soldiers and sailors are entitled to receive at the end of a certain number of years a pension, determined by the length of their service. A nation whose annual income is 1,700,000,000* can afford to pension its fighters. Why does it think that it can afford not to pension its workers? SENTIMENTAL OBJECTIONS. It is sometimes said, even still, that old age pensions are grandmotherly and would sap the independence of the working class. How much independence is to be found in 400,000 men and women seeking relief from the Poor Law it is not easy to calculate; nor can there be much self-respect and conscious dignity in the man who appears weekly before the lodge of his Friendly Society or branch of his Trade Union to beg for a continuation of their distress grant. Independence will be fostered rather than diminished by the removal of economic disabilities that now cripple a workman during his active life, and make the thought of his last years one of harassing dread. Neither can any doctrinaire objection prevail now-a-days to the State intervening where voluntary methods have failed. The State is but the instrument by which the collective will shapes the destinies of the nation. Democracy governs the State; and effective democracy in this country is marshalled in three great movements— the Co-operative Societies, the Trade Unions and the Friendly Societies. The pressure of disadvantageous economic conditions is visible to and felt by the members of these movements. Their entire life is fettered, haunted, and spoilt by it. It is they who have to suffer the horrors of indigent old age: it is they who have tried, by voluntary methods through their organizations, to remove them. But they have failed. Their failure has proved that the task is too great for individual effort to accomplish, and that through the State alone is it possible to effect a permanent solution of the problem. • Tract 5, "Facts for Socialists," edition 1899. lecture in London or the country; and the following publications can be obtained from the Secretary, at the Fabian Office, 276 Strand, London, W.C. FABIAN ESSAYS IN SOCIALISM. (35th Thousand.) Paper cover, 1/-; plain cloth, 2/-, post free from the Secretary. FABIAN TRACTS and LEAFLETS. Tracts, each 16 to 32 pp., price 1d., or 9d. per doz., unless otherwise stated. 1.-On General Socialism in its various aspects. TRACTS.-79. A Word of Remembrance and Caution to the Rich. By JOHN WOOLMAN. 78. Socialism and the Teaching of Christ. By Dr. JOHN CLIFFORD. 87. The same in Welsh. 42. Christian Socialism. By Rev. S. D. HEADLAM. 75. Labor in the Longest Reign. By SIDNEY WEBB. 72. The Moral Aspects of Socialism. By SIDNEY BALL. 69. Difficulties of Individualism. By SIDNEY WEBB. 51. Socialism: True and False. By S. WEBB. 45. The Impossibilities of Anarchism. By BERNARD SHAW (price 2d.). 15. English Progress towards Social Democracy. By S. WEBB. 7. Capital and Land. A survey of the distribution of property among the classes in England (5th edn. revised 1896.) 5. Facts for Socialists. A similar survey of the distribution of income and the condition of the people. (8th edn. revised 1899.) LEAFLETS.13. What Socialism Is. 1. Why are the Many Poor? 38. The same in Welsh II. On Application of Socialism to Particular Problems. TRACTS.-98. State Railways for Ireland. 88. The Growth of Monopoly in English Industry. By H. W. MACROSTY. 86. Municipal Drink Traffic. 85. Liquor Licensing at Home and Abroad. By E. R. PEASE 84. Economics of Direct Employment. 83. State Arbitration and the Living Wage. 80. Shop-life and its Reform. 74. The State and its Functions in New Zealand. 73. Case for State Pensions in Old Age. By GEO. TURNER. 67. Women and the Factory Acts. By Mrs. SIDNEY WEBB. 50. Sweating: its Cause and Remedy. 48. Eight Hours by Law. 23. Case for an Eight Hours Bill. 47. The Unemployed. By J. BURNS, M.P. LEAFLETS.-89. Old Age Pensions at Work. 19. What the Farm Laborer Wants. III.-On Local Government Powers: How to use them. TRACTS.-82. Workmen's Compensation Act: what it means and how to make use of it. 77. Municipalization of Tramways. 76. Houses for the People. 62. Parish and District Councils. 61. The London County Council. 55. The Workers' School Board Program. 54. The Humanizing of the Poor Law. By J. F. OAKESHOTT. LEAFLETS.-90. Municipal. ization of the Milk Supply. 81. Municipal Water. 68. The Tenant's Sanitary Catechism. 71. Same for London. 63. Parish Council Cottages and how to get them. 58. Allotments and how to get themFABIAN MUNICIPAL PROGRAM (Nos. 30 to 37). The Unearned Increment. London's Heritage in the City Guilds. Municipalization of the Gas Supply. Municipal Tramways. London's Water Tribute. Municipalization of the London Docks. The Scandal of London's Markets. A Labor Policy for Public Authorities. The 8 in a red cover for 1d. (9d. per doz.); separately 1/- per 100. IV.-On Books. 29. What to Read. A List of Books for Social Reformers. Contains the best books and blue-books relating to Economics, Socialism, Labor Movements. Poverty, etc. 3rd edn.; revised 1896. Stiff cover, 6d. each; or 4/6 per doz. V.-On Fabian Policy. 70. Report on Fabian Policy and Resolutions presented to the Internat. Socialist Congress. 41. The Fabian Society: its Early History. By BERNARD SHAW. VI.-Question Leaflets, containing Questions for Candidates for the BOOK BOXES lent to Societies, Clubs, Trade Unions, for 6s. a year, or 2,6 a quarter LABOR IN THE LONGEST REIGN (1837-1897). [THIRD EDITION. REPRINTED.] BY SIDNEY WEBB. PUBLISHED AND SOLD BY THE FABIAN SOCIETY. PRICE ONE PENNY. LONDON: THE FABIAN SOCIETY, 3 CLEMENT'S INN, STRAND, W.C. PUBLISHED MARCH 1897. REPRINTED JANUARY 1905. IV V. VI Boc Pr TATE the main range of the ter The paricha And whilst the worst b als and mines, not the workman Kund his : CB Tere cus 2.2 the comparative well-being ids But if one may trust ones samtales, 1737 shows approx Los Baccanfeld's novel. Salon & the Two Nais, gives a good idea of size of the bimors of this period as Mrs. Gaske. & Nary Barton does of the poverty Lancastre Ergells Courice of the Working Catres in 1844 (Sonnenschein, 19,3) is a peture of the period largely compiles trom oficial reports. Middle Ages, of the farm laborers and perhaps also of the little handicraftsmen. Their life, no doubt, was then rude and hard, but it had, perhaps, with its yearly bonds and customary wages, more permanence and regularity on the whole than has since been possible. On the other hand, 1837 marks almost the lowest depth of degradation of the English rural population, and a very low level indeed in the condition of the miner and the mill operative. And, therefore, even if 1897 represents a great advance in almost every respect on 1837, we cannot accept this result with any very great self-complacency. In comparing ourselves with 1837 we set an appallingly low standard, and great indeed would be our guilt if amid our huge increase in national wealth no advance on that year were recorded. It is not possible in a Fabian Tract to attempt a full examination into the condition of the workman to-day as compared with his position in 1837. All that can be done is to give a general impression on the subject, and a few of the many detailed facts which could be cited in support of that impression.* Bad as we are sometimes tempted to think the present condition of the people, it is clear that, on the whole, there has been a substantial advance since 1837. In the great mass of trades, and in nearly all places, the money wages of the men are much higher, and the workman obtains a far larger supply of commodities in return for his labor than he did sixty years ago. In many cases the hours of labor are shorter, the conditions of work are better, and the general standard of life has been considerably raised. The house accommodation, both in town and country, is much improved; the sanitary conditions have often been revolutionized; education is not only far more general, but is also far more extensive; whilst such opportunities for culture as libraries, museums, art galleries, music and healthy recreation are much more accessible to the workman than they ever were before. In a word, the great bulk of the population are far more civilized than they were sixty years ago. Cruel as is our industrial system, life in England is in nearly every respect much more humane than it was. The evils which still exist must not blind us to the progress that has been made. So far the panegyrics of the optimistic statisticians of our time are justified. Wages. It is unnecessary to say very much about the general rise in money wages which has taken place since 1837. There seems no reason to doubt, so far as concerns the male worker, the general accuracy of Sir Robert Giffen's conclusion that the rise in nearly *The Queen's Jubilee in 1887 produced a number of "Fifty Years Retrospects," to which reference should be made by those studying the subject. Of these, Sir Robert Giffen's two essays on "The Progress of the Working Classes during the last half-century" (in his Essays in Finance, second series, 1887), contain the best survey of the economic facts, presented in a somewhat too optimistic way. Mulhall's Fifty Years of National Progress contains a mass of statistics. A more general survey is taken in Sir W. Besant's Fifty Years Ago (Chatto and Windus), which contains a mass of interesting particulars as to the social condition of the nation, but is untrustworthy upon economic facts. The History of Trade Unionism, by S. and B. Webb, tells the story of the working classes; see also The Tailoring Trade, edited for the London School of Economics and Political Science by F. W. Galton (Longmans). |