Political Science Quarterly (Volume 1) (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1886. Excerpt: ... OWEN AND THE CHRISTIAN SOCIALISTS. TO the attentive student of English economic history, nothing can be more striking than the great transformation effected in the spirit in which social problems and the relations of the working classes are discussed at the present day. The rise of the factory system with its attendant abuses; the narrow class legislation of Parliament which left the operatives without any adequate protection and at the same time severely repressed all attempts at combination; the vicious system which regulated wages and prices through the fiat of peace justices; and finally the unfortunate wages-fund theory of orthodox economists--all these causes combined to produce in the higher classes a feeling of indifference, in the laboring population a spirit of sullen and dogged resistance which occasionally found vent in violent outbreaks and finally culminated in the Chartist movement. To-day the state of affairs is materially altered. Trades-unions are no longer regarded as revolutionary or illegitimate; their just demands are recognized and their aspirations favored. Eminent economists and noble lords preside at their congresses and conventions. Remedial legislation has been introduced to remove crying abuses and redress absolute wrongs. The dogmas of the Manchester sect are being supplanted by the doctrines of the historical school; and, above all, the whole tone of current discussion and the point of view adopted by employers afford abundant proof that the antagonism of class interests is by no means so acute as in the generation gone by. In England, which has far outstripped us in the path of economic reform, the beneficent effects of this vast change of sentiment have already begun to make their appearance; and among the most potent fact...