FABIAN TRACT No. 
The Fabian Municipal Program, 


(REVISED MARCH I895.) 

WoRKING-MEN are now, through the Town, District or CountyCouncillors, or Members of Parliament, elected by their votes, the 
employers of many thousands of their fellow working-men. If the 
Post Office servants are made to toil at inconvenient hours for low 
wages, without full liberty of combination, this is largely due to the 
fact that working-class electors all over the country do not take the 
trouble to protest against this scandal. Dishonest employers and 
"rat" firms still receive many public contracts because working-men 
are often the worst employers of working-men. But at last it is 
possible really to make a move for reform in these matters. 

The chief points of a good municipal policy on labor questions 
(in the narrower sense) are given in the following pages. No Trade 
Unionist or wage-earning elector should vote for any candidate who 
is not sound on these points. Every Trades Council, every Trade 
Union executive or branch, would do well to insist on explicit answers 
on the subject from every candidate." 

Proper Treatment of Labor. 

(a) A normal eight hour day for all public employees. 
This would give a powerful impetus to the general movement for 
shorter hours. Town and County Councils must set a good example 
to other employers. 

(b) Payment of not less than Trade Union wages for each occupation. 
We must at any rate not "sweat" our own employees. 


(c) Full liberty of combination. 
The servants of the public may often need protection against the 
public, as in the Post Office. 

(d) One day's rest in seven, and sufficient holidays. 
The public service must often be kept going on Sundays as well 
as on weekdays, but we must teach railway and tramway directors 
and other employers that this does not necessarily involve a seven 
days' week. 

(e) Prohibition of overtime except in unexpected emergencies.
Shortening hours is not of much use unless overtime is put down. 
At present the Post Office, Customs, and Inland Revenue work much 
overtime. 

* Convenient" Questions," to be put to candidates for Parliament, Town, District 
or County Councils, Boards of Guardians, London Vestries, Parish Councils, etc., are 
contained in Fabian Tracts, Nos. 2o, 21, 24 to 28, 56, 57 and 59· 

Direct Employment of Labor. 

Contracting and sub-contracting generally lead to sweating. To 
maintain all along the line the dyke of the standard rate, we must 
stop even the slightest breach, and this can best be done by the publicity 
of direct payment of wages to workmen by the Council itself. 
Every public body ought to do its own manufacturing as far as possible. 
One town might even make things for another, so as to ensure 
economy and regularity of work in the branch that each undertook. 
The War Office already has its own factory of soldiers' uniforms; the 
Admiralty has its own mills for the sailors' biscuits; Manchester Town 
Council its own gas-works, Bristol Town Council its own docks, Glasgow 
Town Council its own tramways, Nottingham Town Council its 
own artizans' dwellings. Even the St. Pancras Vestry has its own 
electric lighting works, and the Commissioners of Sewers of the City 
of London manufacture, by their own staff, all the waggons, harnes1i, 
and horseshoes that they use. The London County Council has its 
own Works Department. Why should it not set up a factory and 
make all the park-keepers' unitorms, and the other clothing that it 
purchases? 

Fair Wages Clause in all Contracts that 
cannot be avoided. 

t \ In r888 the London Society of Compositors managed to get one 
of their members elected to the London School Board. With the helpof the Socialist members of the Board he secured the adoption of a 
resolution in accordance with which all firms sending tenders for work 
are obliged to declare that they "pay not less than the standard rate 
of wages in each branch of their trade." 
The London County Council quickly passed resolutions to a 
similar effect. Other public bodies, notably the Town Councils of 
Birmingham, Bristol, Hull, Manchester, Salford, Nottingham, Leicester 
and Sheffield have adopted resolutions on the subject. Manyof the Metropolitan Vestries and District Boards have accepted the 
principle, and up and down the country numerous School Boards, 
District Councils, Boards of Guardians and other public bodies have 
done the same thing. Moreover, even the House of Commons has 
adopted the same policy, and, on the motion of Mr. Sydney Buxton, 
it passed, on the 13th of February, 1891, the following resolution:" 
That, in the opinion of this House, it is the duty of the Government 
in all Government contracts to make provision against the evils 
recently disclosed before the Sweating Committee, to insert such conditions 
as may prevent the abuse arising from sub-letting, and to 
make evel"y effort to secure the payment of such wages as are generally 
accepted as current in each trade for competent workmen." 
This policy was found to be of great public advantage, but the 
contractors were always trying to evade it, and, on May 27th, 1892, 
the London County Council passed a more stringent resolution, 
expressly recogni~ing Trade Union rates. The existing Standing 


Orders of the Council (which form the best model for other towns) 

are as follows : 

STANDING ORDERS OF THE COUNCIL. 

183.-(1) There shall be kept at the county hall a list of the rates of wages and 

the hours of labor to be paid and observed by the Council in works which are in the 

nature of construction or manufacture, and which the Council may resolve to carry 

out without the intervention of a contractor. 

The list shall be settled by the Council on the recommendation of the Works 

Committee, and shall be based on the rates of wages and hours of labor recognized \ 

and in practice obtained by the various Trade Unions in London, and by contractors 

in respect of the supply, manufacture and production of any raw material or manu


factured articles, except contractors for the supply of stores to be used in maintenance, 

and shall form part of the Standing Orders of the Council. 

The list shall at all times be open to public inspection. 

(2) In inviting tenders for work to be executed within twenty miles of CharingCross, the advertisements and instructions for tender shall state that in the case of all 
workmen to be employed by the contractor he will be required to pay wages at rates 
not less, and to observe hours of labor not greater, than the rates and hours set out in 
the Council's list, and that such rates of wages and hours of labor will be inserted in 
a schedule and will form part of the contract, and penalties shall be enforced for anybreach thereof. 
As regards each contract the list shall be that in force at the date of the tender. 

This has been the greatest blow that has been struck at "unfair" 
employers that English Trade Union annals record. But unless 
working-men see that candidates are thoroughly in earnest in maintaining 
this result, it will soon all be lost. The resolutions may not 
be rescinded, but constant vigilance is necessary to prevent them 
becoming a dead letter. 

A Trades Hall. 

But public bodies m;ght go further to promote the organisation~ 
of the workers, and to facilitate the protection afforded by Trade(
Unions. At present these have no meeting place, no local rallying 
point, no effective centre of communication. The Paris MunicipalCouncil has built, and now maintains out of public funds, a large 
labor exchange under a committee of Trade Unionists. Here Trade 
Unionists can have accommodation for executive, branch, or general 
meetings free of expense ; here they may maintain their offices and 
secretaries rent free ; here they can establish their own library; here, 
at last, they are free from the obligation of resorting to the public-
house as the only available meeting-place. 

Melbourne, in Victoria, has also its Trades Hall. Edinburgh 
may soon have one provided by private generosity. But could there 
be a better use of public buildings, provided at the cost of the commu-
nity, than to afford accommodation for such an essentially public 
institution as the Trades Council ? This has been recognized in 
Nottingham, where the Mayor grants the Trades Council, free of 
charge, the use of a room in the municipal buildings for its monthly 
and special meetings. At Manchester, Leicester, Hanley, aad other 
towns, the Trades Council is allowed to meet in the Town Hall or at 
the municipal offices. Why should the Trades Council in other 
towns not obtain the same privilege ? 


4 

All that is needed in these cases is that the local Trades Council 
should formally apply for this to be done, and that the local Trade 
Unionists should insist, at every election, that candidates should be 
in favor of this proposal. The London and other County Councils 
do not yet legally possess the power to carry out their constituents' 
wishes in this respect. But they would soon obtain that power from 
Parliament if the workers demanded it. 

How to get this Labor Policy adopted. 

Press it upon all candidates for office, and get your Trade Union 
and Trades Council to take organized action at every election. 

What can you do to help ? You can propose at the very next 
meeting of your branch that a small committee be formed to consider 
all the candidates for your own constituency ; to make a list of 
your members who are electors ; to send them a special circular 
about the importance of the election to Trade Unionists; to concert 
with other unions in holding a special meeting of all the Trade 
Unionists in the constituency ; to hunt up all those who have removed 
but are still entitled to vote. 

Above all, form a band of men who will promise to goround on the day of voting and fetch up every member of 
your Union to the poll. 

FABIAN TRACTS. 

Local Government.-No. 62, Parish and District Councils: what they are 
and what they can do. No. 6r, The London County Council: what it is and what it 
does. No. 6o, The London Vestries. No. 55, The Workers' School Board Program. 
No. 54, Humanizing the Poor Law. No. 17, Reform of the Poor Law. All rd. each, 
or gd. per doz. 

Questions for Candidates.-No. 20, Poor Law Guardians. No. 21, London 
Vestries. No. 24, Parliament. No. 25, School Boards. No. 26, London CountyCouncil. No. 27, Town Councils. No. 28, County Councils (Rural). No. 56, 
Parish Councils. No. 57, Rural District Councils. No. 59, Urban District Councils. 
6 for rd., or rs. per roo. 

Socialism, etc.-No. 5, Facts for Socialists (revised r8g5). No. sr, Socialism: 
True and False. No. 42, Christian Socialism. No. 41, The Fabian Society. rd. 
each, or gd. per doz. No. 45, Impossibilities of Anarchism, 2d. No. 29, What to 
Read, 3d. 

LEAFLETS.--No. r, Why are the many Poor? No. r2, Practicable Land 
Nationalization. No. 13, What Socialism Is. No. rg, What the Farm Laborer 
Wants. No. 44, Plea for Poor Law Reform. No. 58, Allotments and How to Get 
Them. Each 4 pp. ; 6 for rd., or rs. per roo. 

The Set of Tracts, bound, 3s. gd. post free; unbound, 2s. 3d. post free. Parcels 
of ros. and upwards post free. 

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