'
Arguing that 'the reciprocal duties of employers and employed, _as
such_, are comprised within the limits of their covenant,' the writer
goes on to say, that nevertheless there remains a relation of
'fellow-citizenship and of Christian _neighbourhood_,' by virtue of
which the employer owes service to his work-people, seeing that 'every
man owes service to every man whom he is in a position to serve.' Let
not the Pharisaic fundholder and lazy mortgagee suppose that the great
employers of labour are thus under a peculiar obligation from which
_they_ are exempt. The obligation is assumed to be equal upon all who
have power and means; and it only lies with special weight at the door
of the employer of multitudes, in as far as he is in a situation to
exercise influence over their character and conduct, and usually has
greater means of rendering aid suited to their particular necessities.
Before proceeding to expound the various duties thus imposed upon the
employer, the writer lays down a primary duty as essential to the due
performance of the rest--namely, he must see to making his business
succeed; and for this end he must possess a sufficient capital at
starting; and he must not, for any reasons of vanity or benevolence,
or through laxness, pay higher wages than the state of the
labour-market and the prospects of trade require. Of the secondary
duties which next come in course--and which, be it remembered, arise
not from the mastership, but from the neighbourship--the first is that
of 'making his factory, and the processes carried on there, as healthy
as care and sanitary science can render them.
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