248

COMBINATIONS AMONGST

themselves to those who are familiar with the detailsof our manufactories, but these are sufficient to illus-trate one of the results of combinations. It wouldnot, however, be fair to push the conclusion deducedfrom these instances to its extreme limit. Althoughit is very apparent, that in the two cases which havebeen stated, the effects of combination were per-manently injurious to the workman, by almostimmediately placing him in a lower class (with re-spect to his wages) than he occupied before ; yet theydo not prove that all such combinations have thiseffect. It is quite evident that they have all thistendency; it is also certain that considerable sti-mulus must be applied to induce a man to contrivea new and expensive process ; and that in boththese cases, unless the fear of pecuniary loss hadacted powerfully, the improvement would not havebeen made. If, therefore, the workmen had ineither case combined for only a small advance ofwages, they would, in all probability, have beensuccessful, and the public would have been de-prived, for many years, of the invention to whichthese combinations gave rise. It must, however, beobserved, that the same skill which enabled them toobtain, after long practice, higher wages than therest of their class, would prevent many of them frombeing permanently thrown back into the class ofordinary workmen. Their diminished wages willcontinue only until they have acquired, by practice, afacility of execution in some other of the more difficultoperations :—But a diminution of wages, even for ayear or two, is still a very serious inconvenience toany person who lives by his daily exertion. The con-