The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1876-05-13 00:00:00

A FLATTERING TALE.

For once in a way, the papers contain a cheering an-
nouncement relative to the Budget.
In the Customs and Inland revenus Bill there is a clause
as to the restriction of male servants in the 19th section of 32
&33 Vict. C. 11. It is not to include a person who has been
band ficle engaged to serve his employer for a portion only of
each day, and does not reside in his employer's house."
Give the Government their due and that will be-
thanks for the relief of poor hougeholders from a vexa-
tious restriction by which the revenue really gained
nothing, whilst boys and old men were kept out of em-
ployment. Mr. Punch is pleased to find that Ministers
mind what they have been told, and hopes that this
good intention may not be put down, as so many good
Intentions are, to pave the way of the new Bill through
Parliament—Punch.

Political diEcussions now wax so furious in Paripjan.
private circles that several ho.i.tesses
taboo all party question at their receptions. Accordingly,
Instead of the ordinary formula, "dancing," on the cards of
s
invitation, the guests find the intimation "politic prohi-
bited."—Court Journal.

THE STATE OF TRADE.

The Times of Monday, in their Money Article, said :

"Trade in Sheffield is reported to be more de-
pressed than has been experienced for a long series
of years, and advices from quarters where Strikes
prevail show the obstinacy of the men engaged in
the iron trade to be still the reamn which shuts out
our manufacturers from all chance in present cir-
cntnstances of competing for orders with foreign
makers. With reference to a recent dispute between
the ironmasters of South Staffordshire and their
men, Mr. Chamberlain, Mayor of Birmingham, gave
an arard that the men should work at a reduction of
7i per cent., with which decision many of them were
reported to have been much dissatisfied. In reply to
a letter sent to him on the subject, Mr. Chamberlain,
in referring to the necessity of adopting the course
suggested by him, wrote in answer :
'lf they have any doubts on the subject, I cannot help
thinking that those would be removed by considering what:
would have happened if there had been no Board of Arbi-
tration. In this case the ironrcasters would have given
notice of a reduction of I2i per cent., and the men would
.probably have struck against it In the present state of
trade—with many concerns actually losing money largely,
with the demand not more than equal to half the total i
production, and with an increasing foreign competition—,;
'there could be only one termination to such a strike; and
after some weeks, or, it may be, months, of miserable .1
struggle against_ want and hunger, the men would have'
been beaten. Surely it is wise to make the best of existing'
circumstances, to take what work is to be had even at the '
lowest wages, and to wait till a better time comes, When a
revival of trade will enable the employers to give proper
remuneration to their workmen.'

I

These remarks can hardly be too widely disseminated
(continues The Times), and the purport of them brought
home to the understandings of the men. If sufficient
evidence has not been afforded to the misguided mem-
bers of the Unions who instigate their associates to
persist in demanding what it is not possible for the
masters to give, we may mention a significant fact
within our knowledge, which is the best test of what
will probably continue to happen if the men determine
still to shut their eyes to the logic of facts and remain
out on Strike. One of our leading railway companies
has just entered into a contract for a supply of steel
rails with the Prussian firm of Messrs. Krupp and
Co."

The Times of Wednesday, in a leader upon the
above, remarks :
"The men, it seems, are much dissatisfied with Mr.
Chamberlain's decision. If they admit Mr. Chamberlain's
facts, it is not easy to see how they can expect a more favour-
able conclusion from them. Mr. Chamberlain assumes that
the iron trade is in a depressed state; that the present supply
of iron is much more than equal to the present demand;
that foreign iivalry has increased and has grown more for-
midable; and that. as a consequence of ell this, the English
iron manufacture has of late been carried on in great part
at an actual loss of money. What, he asks, would have been
the result if there had been no board of arbitration between
masters and men, and no such sentence as that of which the
men are complaining? The reduction of wages must, he
affirms, have been made in any case; but it would have been
greater than that to which the men are now asked to submit,
and it would have been forced upon them in a far more un-
pleasant and expensive manner. . . .
"We cannot doubt the substantial correctness of Mr.
Chamberlain's advice. The facts upon which he founds it
are confirmed from all sides, and it is the same as that to
which the men are obliged just now to listen in other trades,
too, or which they are suffering from the consequences of
neglecting. The truth is that almost all branches of trade
have been standing still for some time past and have at best
been carried on with diminished profits. The Iron Trade in
particular, as the Rettrns we published yesterday helped to
show, is in a very bad state indeed; nor does there
seem any near prospect of its recovery, The Men
must make their choice accordingly. They must either
put up with lower wages as their share of the reduced
gains, or they must turn their hands to something else where
trade prospects may be more encouraging. As for standing
out for former terms, that has now bkome simply im-
practicable, and could end only in a total and disastrous
defeat. It is equally the interest of both sides that the pro.
sent stagnant interval should be got over as quietly as
possible. Capital once sunk is not easily to be withdrawn
from an unprofitable field of business. The masters, accord.?
ingly, wish their establishments to be kept going in the line
to which they have pledged themselves, and they will thus •
be in a position toltake immediate advantage of a return of
commercial prosperity. They will cut down their hours, and
will make every possible retrenchment of outlay ; but they
will not willingly close their works and do nothing. They
will give lower wages to each man, butthey will not necessarily
crease to employ as many men as before. The men, on their
part, must frankly recognize their position. They, too, are•
not easily to be shifted from one business to another in ac-
cordance with the fluctuations of the labour market. The
trade which a man has learnt he naturally looks upon as the
means of his future livelihood, and he is not willing to
abandon it and begin life over again. But, in these circum-'
stances, he mustnot expect to be able to dictate his own
terms without reference to anything more substantial than
his own wants and wishes. it the trade he has chosen is out
of favour with fortune, and if he does not choose to throw Isi
his lot elsewhere, there is nothiqg for it but to wait until the
cloud has passed. Pass it will, by and by, in the almost cer-
tain order of events; but the change must be watched for
with patience, and is not to be hurried by any means which
the men have at their command.

"The more closely we look into the matter, and the more
we understand the causes which have been at work to de-
press trade, the more confident snail we justly feel about the
future. The present stagnation, however aisastrous it may
be both to labourers and to capitalists, is only the natural
reaction after more brick reasons. The profits of the Iron
Trade up to a somewhat recent date were very large indeed,
and the business was correspondingly developed. More
capital was attracted into it, more works were open, more
hands were needed for it, and higher wages were necessarily
offered to bring them in. These were the years of plenty.
Their tendency, already marked, was probably a good
deal favoured by the Franco-German war and by the
comparative suspension of foreign industry that attended it.
The greater the height to which trade was thus artificially
raised, the lower, of course, must be the succeeding depth
into which it was some day to falL There is all the differ-
ence in the world, so far as the producers are concerned, be-
tv..een a supply which is not quite equal to the demand and
a sapr4y which in any fit gree exceeds the demand. It is
clear, however, in the nature of things that these two states
have a tendency to come about alternately. In due time
the foreign iron trade recovered from the depressing influence
which had kept it down, and it was further stimulated by
the sight of the gains which Englishmen bad been dividing
but which no one nation could expect to retain permanently.
The general depression of foreign trade, produced by an ex-
cessive inflation which followed the war, has also done much
since to impoverish some of our best customers, and has thus
injured us even more than foreign competition itself. Any-
how, the high profits and correspondingly high wages of lour
and five years ago are the natural antecedents of the low
profits and lowered wages of to-day. It is of no use to
grumble about them. There are two ways, and two only,
In which they can be remedied. If the foreign and home
market for our goods can be extended beyond its pre-
sent limits, there may be occupation and profit for
everybody on something like the old terms. But
If this cannot be done, the depression of trade must
be left to work its own cure. It is clear enough in
what way this will come about. Low profits will no longer
attract capitaL If our foreign customers do not increase
their orders, our foreign competitors will no longer have the
same prizes before their eyes. Production, both in this
country and abroad, will endeavour to suit itself to the
demand, and will in turn fall below it as certainly as it has
lately gone beyond it. When this happens, wages and profits
will revive together. But to demand high wages at a time of
low profits would be just as absurd as to expect high profits
amid the competition of an overstocked market. Nature, we
may be sure, will refuse to honour such a bill as this, how-
ever peremptory may be the terms in which it has been
drawn.

"There Is, therefore, only one course at present open to
both masters and men in the Iron Trade. They must submit
to the penalty of having glutted the market. The earlier
steps were pleasant and profitable, but this was the goal to
which they were always tending. They have now for some
time reached it, but they need not fear that they are never
to retrace their way. Time is the one thing that is needed
for a complete cure of the whole mischief. But time, unfor-
tunately, is one of the very hardest things to find. The natural
passage from bad to good years may be sure, but it is
dismal, too, to those who are engaged in making
It ; and some of them, we may feel sure, will be
squeezed aside before it is made. There is only one method
by which the process, tiresome anyhow, can be at all cut
short. Masters and men have a common interest in creating
new markets for their wares, or in so extending the
old ones as to meet the supplies which can be poured
in. North America may be the best unoccupied ground,
but It is very doubtful whether it can be turned to
most ready account. It is not strange, meanwhile,
that our people are casting wistful eyes in the OPposite
direction; that they should desire to open up China
more completely to English commerce, or should think
that India is not as good a customer as she ought to
be. A. development of our trade in any manufactured
articles would soonniffect our iron trade, indirectly, indeed,
but not the less certainly. It would create a greater demand
for the machinery of production and of distribution ; and
iron, it need hardly be said, enters very largely into both.
This is the most rapid cure we can suggest, and, indeed, the
only one in which human agency is of any great account.
Whether ills tried or not, were are sure the men would do
wisely to listen to the Mayor of Birmingham's advice. The pay
which they once received came to them under a very diffe-
rent condition of the labour market, and of that on which
the labour market depends. The old state of things mutt
return before wages can be restored to their old level. But
of all the methods by which this result can be sought, a
Strike jut now is about the most uulikely to succeed, or
rather is about the most certain to make men's position a
good deal worse than it is or than it need become. •