Elements of Morals: With Special Application of the Moral Law to the Duties of the Individual and of Society and the StateJanet, Paul
Philosophy
Elements of Morals: With Special Application of the Moral Law to the Duties of the Individual and of Society and the State
Janet, Paul
Ethics
4. Workingmen cannot be blamed for seeking to defend their interests and
increase their comforts; in so doing they only do what all men should do.
They have also the right, in order to get satisfaction, to attach to their
work such conditions as they may reasonably desire: it is the _law of
demand_ and _supply_, common to all industries. In short, as an individual
refusal to work is a means absolutely inefficacious to bring about an
increase of wages, it must be admitted that the workingmen have a right to
act in concert and collectively to refuse to work, and, collectively, to
make their conditions; hence the right of strikes recognized to-day by the
law. But this right, granted to the principle of the liberty of work, must
not be turned against this principle. The workingmen who freely refuse to
work should not stand in the way of those who, finding their demands
ill-founded, persist in continuing to work under the existing conditions.
All violence, all threats to force into the strike him who is opposed
thereto, is an injustice and a tyranny. This violence is condemned by law;
but as it is easily disguised, it cannot always be reached; it is,
therefore, through the morals one must act upon it--through persuasion and
education. The workmen must gradually adopt the morals of liberty, must
respect each other. For the same reason they should respect women's work;
should not interdict to their wives and daughters the right of improving
their condition by work. Unquestionably it is much to be desired that
woman should become more and more centred in domestic duties, the care of
her household and family. This is her principal part in the social work.
But as long as the imperfect condition of the laboring classes does not
permit this state of things, it may be said that the workmen work against
themselves in trying to close the field of industry to women.
The tendency toward the equality of wages, as the ideal of the
remuneration of work, is also to be condemned. Nothing is more contrary to
the spirit of the times, which demands that every one be treated according
to his work. Capacity, painstaking, personal efforts, are elements that
demand to be proportionately remunerated. Let us add, that it is the duty
of head masters, in the case of a good will, succumbing to physical
inability, to conciliate benevolence and equity with justice; this,
however, is only an exceptional case. But, as a principle, each one should
be rewarded only for what he has done. Otherwise there would be an
inducement to indifference and idleness.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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