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possibility of bettering the condition of the entire working class, except through the co-operation of the State, aiding the free associations, look at England, the country upon which the other side chiefly rely for proof of their assertion that it is possible to bring about this improvement by limited numbers of individuals in co-operative efforts, independent of outside aid.
It seems to be regarded that England, for many reasons rooted in its peculiar conditions, is the best fitted to successfully try this experiment—the fact, however not proving the possibility of other countries to do the same.
The especial proof referred to with reference to England, points distinctly to the workingmen's associations which, up to this time, have been given as so conclusive. I mean the pioneer movement of Rochdale. Existing since 1844, this consume association founded a spinnery and weaving mill, with a capital of £5,500, in 1858. In the statutes of this co-operative association, an equal share of the business: profits or dividend, besides the bona market price for labor (wages,) was assured to all the workingmen busied in the factory, whether stockholders in the association or not; it having been decided that the yearly dividends should be equally divided, and apportioned to labor-price or wages, as upon the capital stock.
Here let me say that the number of stockholders in the factory amounted to 1,600, while the number of workingmen busied in it were only 500, There was, therefore, quite a number of stockholders who were not at the same time working in the factory; at the same time all the workmen were not stockholders. In 1861, an agitation arose from those who were merely stockholders, backed by some who were both stockholders and workmen, against the rule that the workingmen Who were not stockholders should receive a share of the business profit—the product of labor.
From the side of the stockholder, the argument advanced openly and simply, was, that according to the universal custom in the industrial world, labor was fully paid with the wages alone; and that this wage was fixed by the law of supply and demand. (We have seen above by what law.) "This fact," says Prof. Huber, in the report which he gives of the circumstance, "from the beginning was presented as the necessary, natural state of things, needing no further motive nor
