AND ON THE CONTINENT.

143

countries. Therefore they passed a resolution at the last Trade-Unions Congress whereby the demanded introduction of the eight-hours day could be declined by individual industries. The move-ment for technical education for the opening of India and Africa (20), the bimetallic movement (21), etc., are looked at to-day byoperatives and employers as political allies.

But in another respect do the social conditions come into account.Centralised industry is liable to crises as a result of the world’smarket. They cause loss to the employers alone as long as wagesdo not exceed the bare-existence minimum; on the other handthey partly affect wages prejudicially as soon as, in consequence oftechnically advanced conditions, in spite of lower piece-wages theweekly earnings of the operatives are high. The English opera-tives accept reductions in wages in consequence of bad trade justas frequently as they demand as a right to participate in theincreased profits of the industry by increased wages.

In the German “Enquete” many German employers point outthis elasticity of wages as a great advantage of England. Theycomplain that they have not the same possibility, because a lessen-ing of wages is simply impossible in the interest of labour capacity(22). But besides this, the principle of this adaptability of wagesto crises is also accepted by both parties to the large societiescomprising the whole industry, which are not yet developed inGermany . For only thereby is a,uni form fixing of wages madepossible for the whole of an industry.

In Lancashire , as I have shown in my book “ On Social Peace,”the normal wages are regulated by lists conjointly agreed upon ;on the other hand, the actual wages vary from the normal wagesin various percentages according to the state of trade. Lotadeclares this, and rightly so, a suitable condition for centralisedindustry (23).

20. Compare Second Report of the Commission on Depression of Trade,part I., 5,103. Further, concerning the importance of Africa , whose con-sumption is capable of tremendous expansion and rapidly increases, Ellison“ Cotton Trade,” p. 155

21. Compare the Bimetallic Manifesto of the United Textile Operatives(125,000 operatives), Nov. 30th, 1891.

22. Report of the “ Enquetekommission, ” p. 168. “ Protokolle,” pp. 86,

296, 299, 344, 375.

23. Compare Lotz: “ Ideen zur deutschen Handelspolitik ” (Leipzig,892), pp. 135, 208, and 209