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The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Volume 86

III.—Who the Workers Are

page 4

III.—Who the Workers Are.

Those who profess to be taking part in the work of the community were divided, at the census of 1881, into the following classes:
Males. Females. Total
Industrial 5,899,720 20,097,809 7,997,529
Agricultural 2,435,569 215,108 2,650,677
Commercial 1,158,155 26,344 1,184,499
Domestic 317,868 2,088,668 2,406,536
Professional 652,943 288,919 941,862
10,464,255 4,716,848 15,181,103
Unoccupied, under 20 6,101,230 6,611,213 12,712,443
Unoccupied, over 20 407,169 6,584,133* 6,991,302
16,972,654 17,912,194 34,884,848

(Compiled from Reports of the 1881 Census for England and Wales, C—3,797; Scotland, C—3,657; and Ireland, C—3,365). The subsequent addition of nearly three millions to the total will have left this distribution substantially unchanged in proportion.

Among the professed workers there are, of course, many whose occupation is merely nominal. The number is swelled by the "sleeping" partners, the briefless barristers, the invalids, and the paupers, prisoners, and sinecurists of every description. Many thousands more have occupations useless or hurtful to the community; and others, as for example domestic servants, labor honestly, but for the personal comfort of the idlers, and they might therefore, as far as production is concerned, as well be themselves idle.

Nevertheless there were, in 1881, 407,169 adult men (one in twenty-one) who did not even profess to have the shadow of an occupation. Most of these form the main body of the idle rich, "the great social evil of.... a non-laboring class" (J. S. Mill, "Political Economy," Popular Edition, p. 455).

It is clear that the labor of the workers is much increased by the presence among them of so large a proportion of persons who take no useful part in the business of life. The possible reduction of the daily hours of work has, however, been much exaggerated. Thus Mr. William Hoyle, writing in 1871, committed himself to the assertion that, "assuming every person did their share, a total of 1¼ hours' daily labor would suffice to supply us in abundance with all the comforts of life" ("Our National Resources," p. 56). It appears from the context that his calculation refers to a community composed exclusively of actual workers in the production of material necessaries, whereas in ordinary human societies about half the population is under the age of twenty, and more than half the adults are women mostly occupied in domestic duties. The 1¼ hours daily have, therefore, at once to be multiplied fourfold, and account is even then taken only of food, clothing, houses, and furniture. The whole calculation is indeed of little value, and has never been accepted by other authorities.

* Most of these are married women engaged in domestic work, although not so described.