The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1879-01-04 00:00:00

THE AMALGAMATED ENGINEERS,

A Correspondent writes to lite times :
" The publication of the two documents issued by
the Iron Trades' Employers' Association has caused
among the operative members of the engineering
trade in the metropolis feelings of uneasiness and
surprise. It had been for some time whispered
about in the trade that very shortly the members
of the asseAation would take counsel together as to
the advisibility of bringing back the old weekly
working hours of 57:12, which were put an end to by the
adoption of the nine hours' movement; but it was not
expected‘hat any decided action would ke taken in
the matter for, at least, a couple of months. Hence
the letter of the secretary of the association, Mr.
Sydney Smith, in which he states that a conference of
the members will ba held on the 7th of January, "to
arrange preliminaries for the adoption of the resump-
tion of the 57i hours," has come upon the great bulk
of the London engineers with surprise.
It may be remembered that the engineers' strike of
1871, which ended in the virtual establishment of the
nine hours' per diem principle, lasted over five months,
and cost the Amalgamated Society of Engineers from
£16,000 to £20,000, although that did not by any means
represent the amount given to the men, which included
large sums of money from local efforts. That strike
was fought out with great persistency on both sides,
and created an agitation in the metropolis, and
especially throughout the North of England, on the
part of the men which probably exceeded in earnestness
any trasie-union agitation in recent years. In 1871
the funds of he Amalgamated Society were very large;
but although at present they exceei the figure
reached seven years previously, the great depression
in trade is considered by the unionists to counter-
balance even a very large increase in the funds of any
union. Acting upon the resolution passed by the
Council of the Amalgamated Society last Monday
night, that the proposed extension of working hours
should e resisted to the utmost of our moral and
material power,' and that 'preparations for an
organised resistance should be made at once,' thore
mostinterested were on Tuesday making preparations
for what promises to be a protracted struggle, but no
definite action will be taken until the Bth inst."

With the expiration of the year 1878 the custom of
awarding good conduct gratuities.to soldiers has been
abolished.

HOW ENGLAND LOSES TRADE.
'-
Under the above heading, lite Times publishes the
following letter :
Sir,—Tho present state of depreision in trade, not only in
England, but generally over Eurore and in America, affords
opportunities to note some things which cannot well be
overlooked in the close and keel international race for
trade supremacy now going on allover the world.
I am the manufacturer of an article which during the last
twenty }ears has been growing rapidly in demand in all the
chief markets abroad, as well as in England. Until the last
few weeks the machinery for producing this has been con•
fined solely to this country. Some time, however, before
the close of the Paris Erdbition, the machinery taken from
England appeared In France, and is now competing for the
large and rapidly•growing French trade with the Englikh
makers. The raw material, which is one of the chief staples
of Birmingham, is purchased bo h by the English and French
makers a.most entirely from Germany (from Westphalia)
The Germans undersell the English in this by _about 20a to
305., a ton and have done so for many years, and the quality
is superior to what is ordinarily produced in England.

There is a considerable, though by no means a heavy,
duty on t‘ e English manufactured Article entering France
Besides, of course, there are the carriage and freight of the
"raw material crming down the Moine to Rotterdam and
thence to England, and then the additional cost in freight
and carriage of the manufactured article being returned to
the Continekt for sale in the French market I have, more-
over, just been informed, from a source on which I can place
some reliance, that the owners of this machinery which has
just been int7oduced to France from England are about to use
some cxceptonal official assist..nce to raise the French
import duty, which may possibly effectually destroy the
whole or gret!er part of the English exports of this article
to France.

So far, whai I have related, however interesting enough
to England met. illy and to English manufacturers at a
time like the present, is the mere preface to the chief object
I have had in irriting this letter.
The Weights and Measures Act is now attracting attention
with us now, atii justly so, in order that there may be a
mull desired utiformity over all the kingdom. If such is
the case withti England, bow much more important
nationally is it et a time when the international race for
trade is so keen, that an Uniforrni'y so much desired in
weights, measuses, and money should be advocat-d for
extensiiin as far as possible with the neighbouring countries
with whom we trade?

Many of your readers would be surprised, for instlnce, to
know that I. as a minufacturer tradiug with both France
anl America, care ierce almost da,ly in c msequence of our
having in Engl Ind so metric or decimA syF teal in measures
or money such as thE French have and the Americans have so
far a 3 regards money Both mrelt and my customers lose
our temper, our time, and our profits not infrequently over
this apparently small matter,"

Formerly, when ccoopetition was not so keen, I invoiced
all my goods sent to ths French market in sterling currency
at so mtich per yard and received a cheque or draft on
London for the sterling amount, which suited me very
well. But by-and by, as trade got keener, I had constant
complaints from the French pnrchaser not only because of
his loss in exchange, but on another account. In one line
of an invoice there might be 10,000 metres, say, at 4id.
per metre when the article was made 24 inches wide; and
when another 10,000 metres was made 36 inches wide I
could not without loss divide the id. into any unit of
money we have in England, so Lcarried out the custom of
the trade by taking advantage of the fraction and charging
71d. per metre, causing my French friends to lose both money
and temper at times over this. Depression in trade causing
keener competition, our French customers now insist on
English manufacturers using their own metric and decimal
systems of measures and moneys, and our invoices are now
made out accordingly, and the French remit us in francs,
to their profit and our loss in tie matter of exchange Ihe
tables are thus turned on us, and I may powibly, btnides, in
doing so be infringing our own Weights and Measures Act.
But it is not only in France, but in America also, that our
"unscientific" system of moneys and weights perplexes our
customers abroad, and prevents them readily costing Eng-
lish goods in order to compare their cost with the cost of
their own goods, and calculate at the same time readily
their sire cost in their Customs tariff.

These may appear small matters to many, but I have no
doubt other English manufacturers as well as myself could
tell from their experience how much more smoothly the
wheels of international trade would work could we have an
international metric and decimal system in measures and
,money, as well as greater freedom in the matter of Customs
tariffs, which we in England so much desire.

The decimal system in money is most urgently wanted by
an increasing number in this country. It is now used ex-
tensively am, ng us in all correct scientific calculations, and
surely there cannot be any strong reason for not extending
it, permissively at least, for the purposes of trade. This
has been done in Canada only within the last few years
with the greatest advAntage, and it is ra.h.r sad that
England is almost the only laggard among vaiions in this
respect. The saving in time, sill also the greater correct-
ness in keeping accounts, would to the English trading and
banking community be enormous. The practical value it
would have in more smoothly carrying on our international
trade would also be immense.
Althouch not advocating these views yourself, your in-
serting this letter might assist to ventilate the subject at a
time, like the present, of depre.sed trade.—l am, Sir, your
obedient servant, AN ENGLISH MANUFACTURER,
Fellow of the Statistical Society,
December 26, 1578. and one of the Auditors.