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The Luddites
Emily
The
Luddites are fighting for the right cause, but in the wrong way. They are
right to protest against machines replacing their jobs but they should not
destroy machines and factory property. They want their jobs back from
these metal machines that do not have to be paid an hourly or daily wage.
The government and factory owners have only thought about what will help
them instead of thinking about the poor workers they have laid off. Now
they are suffering the consequences. The Luddites have started vandalizing
their property.
The Luddites actions are so reckless and
irresponsible. Why do they think that destroying the machines will get
their jobs back? These people cannot just go around destroying machines
and property that does not belong to them. There are other ways to protest
and get what you want. Destroying the factory only makes the factory
owners mad. Do they think they will hire people who destroyed their
equipment? These people should learn to compromise and protest calmly.
Their ideas are for a common good.
The
Luddites and other people will find that machines cannot replace
everything we do. They also create more jobs for people because machines
do not stay in perfect working order forever. There will have to be
someone who can fix machines and someone to clean them so that they don’t
rust. The factory owners need to realize that the people with no jobs will
not be able to afford the goods that the factory makes.
The
government has the responsibility to make sure that people are treated
fairly by their employers. They should not have allowed the laws that
protected the working peoples wages
to be abolished. They have even suspended minimum wage, so the people who
do have jobs are not getting paid enough. Have they no feeling or respect
for their citizens? It is possible to create an industrial environment
where workers, factory owners, supervisors, and machines can work together
to help their organization. With so many machines replacing people’s
jobs the entire working class will be in poverty and that is not good for
the government or the economy. There must be some compromise between the
two sides so that men will not have to compete with machines.
The Luddites are not asking for much except
that the factory owners and the government realize how many people are
suffering because of these machines.
They want a little sympathy for their cause if any thing else.
These people’s families are going hungry. They have no food. They have
no money. Some of them cannot afford common necessities. Some cannot get
jobs because the only skill they new has now been replaced by a machine.
If
we all compromise and remember to protest calmly and rationally we will
not have all of this chaos and poverty in our society. You can have
speeches that allow everyone to hear the wrongs of the factories. The
speeches also help to collect sympathy. You can hold demonstrations where
no violent actions symbolize something. The Luddites will receive more
respect if they protest this way because they would not seem so barbaric.
If
the factory workers and the owners cannot solve their problems on their
own. There are ways to fix things. [In New Lanark[i]
you can see my work. I have made
struggling industrial towns strong. I have made workers happy.] To do this
you must have a clear understanding between workers and owners and
overseers. They must all respect each other’s needs and concerns.
-Robert Owen
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The name Luddite came from a man who destroyed machinery, his name was
Ned Ludd. The Luddites or Ludds were a group of people who were
against machines. Some preferred the cottage industry where everything
was made by hand in people’s houses. They protested by breaking
machines and attacking and threatening factories.
– In early 18th century
laws protesting worker and they wages were overthrown. In 1809
regulations in the wool industry were destroyed. In 1813 the
apprentice’s system was suspended. In1814 minimum wage was
suspended.
a-
New Lanark was towns of 2000 people. 500 of them were children from
poor houses and charities. The children were treated badly. The people
of the town had unsanitary conditions. Their houses were unsanitary
and their education system was poor. Owen came in and improved houses
and helped the people of New Lanark to become a strong town and
improved their education system greatly.
The
Luddites
The Luddites[i]
are a plague to modern industry. They
are groups of artisans who are led by the mythical general Ludd.
They are fighting to destroy the modern machines that are being
placed in factories. They say
that machinery is responsible for hurting their way of life and for
destroying the old order of craftsmanship.
They are resisting the new order because it leads to the lowering
of wages and the deterioration of working conditions. Their quest to destroy machinery hurts the economy as well as
the welfare of the lower classes. It
should be stopped.
Machinery
is what makes divisions of labor possible and division of labor is what
makes Industrialization possible. Division
of labor[ii]
makes industrialization possible because it increases production.
It makes production more efficient and quick.
Division of labor is key to economical success.
By destroying machinery you hurt the division of labor that the
economy depends on.
As
stated earlier, machinery[iii]
is key to division of labor. By
destroying machines the Luddites disrupt industrial production.
They are not only hurting the economy, but they are hurting their
own welfare. My work, The
Wealth of Nations, states, “it is the great multiplication of the
productions of all the different arts, which occasions, the universal
opulence which extends itself to the lowest ranks of the people”.
This means that by destroying the machines they are destroying the
source of wealth that will eventually go to the working class.
Therefore, it is in their own best interest to stop their protests.
In
conclusion, the crusade that the Luddites have started is something that
should be stopped to protect the economy and their own welfare.
The invisible hand currently leads factory owners to employ
machinery in their factories. When
you go against the invisible hand of the economy, you will not prosper
with the rest of society.
1
Adam Smith is credited with forming the principles of capitalism.
Adam Smith was born in Scotland in 1723; he was appointed a
professor at Glasgow University after studying at Oxford University in
England. He wrote his
first book in 1759, it was titled The Theory of Moral Sentiments.
The work, for which he is famous, The Wealth of Nations,
was published in 1776. He
wrote it over a period of 10 years.
When it was released he was made instantly famous.
In it he established his thoughts on economic policy, he also
stated government policy should not interfere with the economy.
He advocated free trade and the division of labor.
[i] The Luddite struggle took
place in late eighteenth-early nineteenth century Britain.
Their movement lasted a short time.
In the early nineteenth century the movement threatened to
become a national protest.
However, the movement was stopped in 1812 when armed Luddites
clashed with 10,000 army troops and mill owners.
When the army hanged enough protesters the movement stopped.
In 1817, trials were held to convict the leaders of the Luddite
movement.
3
Using the old method of production, every laborer makes one product by
himself. Using division
of labor a team of laborers work to make one product.
Each one of them makes a different part of the product. For
example, if one worker makes a 5-part machine, which takes him 5 hours
to make, in 5 hours he has made 1 machine.
If they’re 5 workers, each of them making one part of the
machine every 30 minutes, in 5 hours they can make 10 machines.
4
Adam Smith thought that machinery was a key to industry.
In his book, The Wealth of Nations He says that
“Everybody must recognize how much labor is facilitated and abridged
by the proper machinery. I shall observe, therefore, that the
invention of all those machines, by which labor is so facilitated and
abridged, seems to have been owing to the division of labor.”
Later he said that a person will find easier ways to produce
something when all of his energy is focused on one simple object.
The Luddites: A Child’s Cause
The Luddites are great people with a good cause. They are going to
get us more money and improve our working conditions. Without them the
working class would have less freedom and fewer rights. They are making
the English government understand what life for the working class is like.
The government is finally giving the factory workers rights but they still
think of us as scum.
The Luddites are laborers who revolt and destroy machines. They are
heroes to us all and most of the workers look up to them. They follow a
man named “Ned Ludd”. That is why we call them Luddites. There is not
really a person named “Ned Ludd” but the Luddites say they follow him.
They probably got the name from a mythical person named Ludd. Tons of
workers are going to Luddism because they can’t find any relief in the
court or parliament. Trade unions’ actions are now banned and many
people join the Luddites.1
They are going to free the factory slaves from a living hell. The towns
support them because they know the Luddites will change our lives to
better ones. The government can’t stop them because every single poor
person supports them. We love the Luddites and what they’re doing. Every
new machine that comes to lower our wage, they destroy. They have even
bargained with some of the factory owners to raise our wage. They raise
riots and revolts but are never armed. The Luddites are taking a great
risk because the government can cut them down. The soldiers have attacked
crowds of unarmed Luddites before at the Peterloo massacre.2
They killed about 11 people and wounded over 400 more. The English
government thought it would stop the movement, but they were wrong. The
Luddites are going to revolt until we get what we want. All we really want
is the right to vote, better conditions, higher wages, and more respect.3
The Luddites have faced many soldiers before but not the 10,000
they faced at Peterloo.
Unfortunately, the Luddites were slaughtered. The soldiers hung almost all
the Luddites. The factory workers and towns gave up the fight. When the
Luddites started fighting in 1809 I never thought it would end in 1816. We
all thought it would end with the working class living better, but the
government won.
1
Trade unions were workers who bargained with factory owners for higher
wages and better working conditions. The government passed tough laws
to get rid of trade unions.
2
The Peterloo massacre was on St. Peter’s field, in Manchester, in
1819. Soldiers charged into a crowd of unarmed people. The people had
gathered to hear a famous campaigner named Henry Hunt. The soldiers
killed eleven people and injured over 400. It was called the Peterloo
massacre because it was a major military defeat like Waterloo, when
the English defeated Napoleon, and also because it was on St. Peter’s
field. Not everybody there was a Luddite. Most people were civilians
that had gathered to hear Henry Hunt.
3
Child laborers had horrible working conditions. They worked longer
than 12 hours a day and had very low wages. The machines could easily
take off a finger or a limb. Coal miners had to pull cars full of coal
while naked and chained to the cart. The children never went to school
and didn’t get any education from their family. They didn’t work
next to their family either. Everyone in a working class family had to
work otherwise they couldn’t afford food or an apartment.
4
In 1812 the Luddites faced over 10,000 soldiers and mill owners. The
government knew that the protests could become a national movement and
hung enough Luddites to eventually break the movement in 1816.
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