The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Volume 86
III.—Who the Workers Are
III.—Who the Workers Are.
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.