Note 176-12 — Chapter III

The former view, for instance, of Harriet Martineau, "The tendence of strikes and sticks to produce low wages" (1834) is now unconditionally shared only by few. When Sterling says that the momentary success of a strike is followed by a two-fold reaction which restores the natural equilibrium, viz.: increase of the number of workmen and decrease of capital (Journal des Econ., 1870, 192), he overlooks not only the length of the transition time which would certainly be possible here, but also that an altered standard of life of the workmen prevents the former, and one of the capitalists the latter. The Count of Paris and Thornton do not doubt that the elevation of the condition of the English working classes, as proved by Ludlow and Jones, is to be ascribed, in part, to the effect of the trades-unions. Many of the unions work against the intemperance and quarrelsomeness of their members. The people's charter of 1835, came from the London "workingmen's association."