Obviously, to perfect the system of independent contract, the
workmen would need to redeem themselves from that condition of utter
_unprovidedness_ in which the great bulk of them are for the present
content to live. Instead of what we see so prevalent now--a sort of
hopelessness as to the benefits of saving--a dread to let it be known
or imagined of them that they possess any store, lest it lead to a
reduction of their wages (a foolish fallacy), or deprive them of a
claim on their employer's consideration in the event of a period of
depression (a mean and unworthy fear), we must see a dignified sense
of independence, resting on the possession of some kind of property,
before we can expect that even this stage in the Progress of Labour
shall be truly reached.
But is it not just one of the essential disadvantages attending the
contract system, or may we rather call it the system of weekly hire,
that while it prompts the employer to frugality, by the obvious
benefits to him of constant accumulation, it leaves the employed, as a
mass, without a sufficient motive to the same virtue, and thus insures
their being retained in that unprovidedness which forbids independence
and true social dignity? On this point, were we a workman, we should
be sorry to rest in an affirmative, or to allow it to slacken our
exertions or sap our self-denial; because if there is a higher
development of the labouring state in store for society, it can only
be attained by the more speedy perfection of the contract state in
_the entire independence of the workman_.
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