FREDERICK ENGELS
THE MASTERS AND THE WORKERS IN ENGLAND
TO THE WORKER EDITORS OF L’ATELIER
Gentlemen,
I have just read in your  October issue an article entitled:
“The Masters and the Workers  in England” ; this article men tions a meeting reported by  la Presse of so-called delegates of
workers  employed in the Lancashire cotton industry, a meeting which took  place on  29 August  last in Manchester. The
resolutions passed at this meeting were such as to prove  to
la Presse that there is perfect harmony  between capital and
labour in England.
You  did quite well, gentlemen, to reserve your  judgement
on  the authenticity of a report which a newspaper of the
French bourgeoisie has given, based on  newspapers of the
English bourgeoisie. The report is accurate, it is true; the
resolutions were adopted just as la Presse gives them; there
is only  one small statement lacking in accuracy, but  it is
precisely this small inaccuracy that is the crux of the matter:
the meeting which la Presse describes was not  a meeting of
workers, but  a meeting of foremen.
Gentlemen, I spent two  years in the heart of Lancashire
itself, and these two  years were spent among  the workers;
I saw them both  at their public meetings and in their small
committees; I knew  their leaders and their speakers, and I
think I can assure you  that in no  other country  in the world
will you  find men  more  sincerely devoted to democratic
principles or more  firmly resolved to cast off the yoke of the

capitalist exploiters, under which they find themselves suffering at present, than these Lancashire cotton factory work ers. How,  gentlemen, could these same workers  whom  I have
seen with my  own  eyes throw  several dozen factory owners
off a meeting hall platform, whom  I have seen cast terror
into the ranks of the bourgeois  gathered on  this platform,
their eyes glinting and fists raised, how,  I repeat, could these
same workers  today pass a vote of thanks to their masters
because the latter were kind enough  to prefer a reduction in
working  hours  to a reduction in wages?
But  let us  take a slightly closed look at the matter. Does
not  the reduction in work  mean precisely the same thing for
the worker  as a reduction in wages? Evidently it does; in
both  cases the worker ’s position deteriorates to an equal
extent. There was therefore no  possible reason for the
workers  to thank their masters for having preferred the first
method of reducing the workers ’ income to the second.
However,  gentlemen, if you  study the English newspapers
for late August,  you  will see that the cotton manufacturers
had good  reason to prefer a reduction in working  hours  to
one in wages. At  that time the price of raw cotton was
rising; the same issue of the London  Globe which reports
the meeting in question  also says that the Liverpool speculators were going to take over the cotton market to produce
an artificial rise in price. What do the Manchester manu facturers do in such cases? They send their foremen to meetings and make them pass resolutions like those which la
Presse communicated to you. This is a tried and tested device
which is used each time the speculators try to raise the price
of cotton. It is a warning to the speculators to be careful not
to attempt to raise the price too  high; for in that case the
manufacturers would  reduce consumption  and, in so  doing,
inevitably produce a drop in price. So  the meeting which
gives la Presse grounds  for so  much  rejoicing and acclamation is nothing  but  one of those foremen’s assemblies which
do not  fool anyone in England.
In order to give you  further proof of the extent to which
this meeting was the exclusive work  of the capitalists, it
should suffice to tell you  that the only  newspaper to which
the resolutions were sent, the newspaper from which all the

other newspapers borrowed  them, was the Manchester
Guardian, the organ of the manufacturers. The democratic
workers ’ paper, the Northern Star, also gives them; but  adds
that it has taken them from this capitalist newspaper, a
damning observation in the eyes of the workers.
Yours,  etc.
about October 26, 1847
Published in I’Atelier
No.  2, November  1847
Translated from the French