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Untitled Article
if such things ever existed , surely they are the possessions of a man in his life and comforts ; and if society becomes so very clever as to dispense with human labour , to the extent of starving the labourer , the latter has a fair cause to goto parliament for compensation 7 on the score of his vested rights—his property , his life and comforts being invaded . What then ? Shall the rich , the
one-tenth , part with their money , and voluntarily mulct themselves of all above their moderate expenditure , to feed and clothe a population idle because its work is better and more cheaply done by machinery ? Scarcely will that thought be entertained . Better should we all turn out , beat our threshing-machines into wheelbarrows and flail handles , and run our power-looms into knockers and
hollow-wares . Shall we , however , not do all we can to meet the evil , by increasing our eleemosynary establishments , and give , without stint or measure , our annual guineas to the daily-started new phases of charity ? Alas ! poor is the assistance , after all , to be rendered by such institutions . Powerful for health , for morais , for education ;—failures when the actual support of myriads is to be effected . * I have walked six times to Manchester before I
could get this bit of work ; in all , eighty-four miles ;—it will take me seventy-six hours ( a decent week ' s work ) to weave it , and my net pay , after all , will be seven shillings , This is given in a penny pamphlet , now before us , as a fact . If fact to one , it is fact to
thousands . — -Again , What change ? for it is obvious that the present is an undesirable , and , we will assert , in firm reliance on the intention of the Creator and former of our bodies and spirits , an unnecessary state of things . The apostle of the Gentiles , perambulating the streets of Athens , observed an altar inscribed * to the unknown
God . ' This was the acknowledgment of human reason that there was something still incomplete in its best theory of providence ; some knowledge yet to be sighed for . And some political economists will not see that there must be a change in the constitution of society , —a revolution unconnected with political movements . * They gasp and rave , ' as the Edinburgh Review says , * and aimlessly struggle , ' because they will not discard their prejudices ; they will not see that it is a Change that is demanded . Dr .
King of Brighton , the author of the * Co-operator , ' has boldly preached the desired change . He heads one of his chapters thus : — - ' Co-operation is the unknown object which the benevolent part of mankind have always been in search of , for the improvement of their fellow-creatures . ' The principle of co-operation , says the Doctor , is , Sirs , ye are brethren ; ' its spirit is , love to all ; its action is going about doing good ; its result , happiness .
But hold ! the industrious classes are already not void of alleged friends ; the working man' has his ' companion' and adviser \ n the diffusers of useful knotvledge ; the chartered body of the noble , the learned , and the benevolent . What say these ^ instructors P ' Your commodity , labour , is at a discount , machinery has
Untitled Article
524 Co-operation .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1832, page 524, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1818/page/20/
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