The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1878-06-15 00:00:00

THE STOURBRIDG-E OBSERVER

can labour dictate to capital the terms on which it should
employ itself?
" I ask the working men of Duicashire to debate thee
question among themselves, free alike from passion and
from prejudice. There never, perhaps, was a greater crisis
in the cotton industry—not the least important of tie
three great staple trades—of this country. The interestsof
the operatives are as vitally concerned in an equitable solu-
tion of the question as the interests of the masters. If we
do not take care, Lancashire may become as forsaken of ier ,
greatest industry as South Wales is of hers. It is in the hope
of contributing something to prevent a national calamity—,
as one desiring to see only what is fair and right maintained
between man and man—that I have ventured to write the
foregoing pages. which I must trust to your kindness to
enable me to set before the world. Liberavi animant means.
—lam, tic., "J. MANCHESTER.
"June 8."

At Burnley there is a growing opinion that in the
course of a week or so following, it will be quite time
to throw the mills open to give the operatives an
opportunity to resume work, and there is a prevailing
opinion that a very large proportion of them will be
prepared to do so.

A meeting of spinners was held at Blackburn on
Saturday, consisting of representatives from Ac-
crington, Blackburn, Church, Over Damen, and
Padiham, in order to test the feelings of the men as to
whether they are willing to go in at the 10 per cent.
reduction. The men had been instructed to hold shop
meetings at the various mills, and the decision come
to was said to be as follows :—Two mills in Blackburn
have expressed themselves in favour ot going in at 10
per cent. reduction. All the rest were in favour of 5
per cent. The mills at Accrington, Church, Over
Darwen, and Padiham have all expressed themselves
in favour of 5 per cent. reduction.

On Tuesday afternoon a mass meeting, attended by
12,000 persons, was held on Blakely-moor, Blackburn,
to consider what steps should be taken with a view of
resuming work. The meeting was an orderly one but
a most determined spirit of resistance was exhibited by
a majority of those present not to submit to the
masters' proposals yet (says the Blackburn Correspond-
ent of The Times). The speakers alluded to the great
amount of misery and wretchedness that existed in the
town, and they besought the operatives to resume work
on the masters' terms. The following resolution was
proposed :
"That this meeting is of opinion the present strike should
terminate, and the employers should open their mills at an
early date to give those who are willing an opportunity of
going to work."

The proposal was met with approval by some and
hisses by others, and some cried out that they were not
ready for work yet, if no better terms could be
offered by the masters. The motion was lost by a
great majority, and the meeting then terminated.

A meeting of overlookers representing every mill in
the town, save one, was held at Accrington on Tues-
day for the purpose of considering what steps should
be taken to terminate the struggle in the cotton trade.
All the overlookers present were in favour of accepting
the ten per cent. reduction, and it was decided that
every effort should be made to end the strike.

The following letter was received on Tuesday by
Mr. Joshua Rawlinson, secretary of the North and
North• East Lancashire Cotton Spinners and Manu-
facturers Association :

"Dear Sir,—At a meeting of the Central Wages Com-
mittee, held this afternoon, we were instructed to say they
were prepared to recommend tile acceptance of a seven-and-
a-half per cent. reduction. An early reply will oblige—
Yours truly, THOMAS BERTWIST.LE, JOHN WHALLEY."

To the above letter Mr. Rawlinson sent the follow-
ing reply by telegram :
"My instructions are clear and definite, not to convene a
meeting of Central Committee unless there is a clear indica-
tion that the operatives are prepared to accept the ten per
cent. reduction in wages. This, therefore, leaves me no
option, and is also an answer to your offer."

THE "LEAGUE OF THE CROSS" TEM-

PERANCE DEMONSTRATION.
In London, on Monday, the Victoria Embank-
ment of the Thames and Hyde Park were the scenes
of a great temperance demonstration, wholly consisting
of the Roman Catholic "League of the Cross," which
was instituted by Cardinal Manning, and numbers up-
wards of 20,000 enrolled members in London and the
surrounding districts. Nearly all the members of
this League are of Irish nationality. The muster of
the League was arranged to be on the Thames Em-
bankment, and branches with banners, all emblazoned
with Roman Catholic emblems, began to arrive
soon after midday. The district branches, up-
wards of twenty in number, seemed each to have its
own band, and these were marshalled by Mr. Camp-
bell, a Catholic temperance advocate of many years'
standing. He was aided by several mounted marshals,
who wore green and gold scarves of office bearing the
letters "C. L. G-.," representing the words " Car-
dinal League Guards." A little before two o'clock the
thunderstoim broke, and the throng, composed of
men, women, and children—the 20,000 temperance
leaguers having brought many friends with them—
fled in search of shelter. This was the only serious mis-
hap of the day, and, the storm over, the people again
formed column and marched through the streets by way
of Charing-cross, Pall-mall, St. James's-street, and Pic-
cadilly to the Park, where they broke off and wan-
dered about while waiting for Cardinal Manning. A
guard of honour with a band stood ready to receive
him at the Marble Arch. His Eminence unfortunately
walked in at another gate, but in order to carry out
the programme with exactness, he good-naturedly pro-
ceeded across the Park towards the Marble Arch and
met his guard and band, who then escorted him back
to the assembled thousands, by whom he was received
with every mark of enthusiastic regard. The children
were clean and orderly, and the grown-op people,
while not wanting in humour, were exceedingly well-
conducted. A table was placed by the Reformers'
Tree, and here the Cardinal, with whom was Mr.
Redmond, M.P., and many clergy, addressed the as-
semblage.
Looking over the great throng, the cardinal said he
did not think that all over England and Ireland there
would be spent a happier day, or a more innocent day,
than the League of the Cross would spend this Whit-
Monday in Hyde Park. All who came there as mem-
bers of the League of the Cross were, be was sure,
men who had happy homes to go back to—sober homes
and temperate homes, and sober and temperate wives
and children like themselves; and on the morrow they
would have no reason for sorrow at their Whit-Mon-
day holiday. He wished he could say the same of multi-
tudes of people who would go home that night,
ashamed of themselves when they reached home at
the way they had spent the day, and deeply grieved on
the morrow at their holiday. He was greatly rejoiced
to see the people at this annual gathering in greater
numbers than they had ever gathered before, and he
was rejoiced still more to know that the children there
—many of whom he had seen—were pledged members
of the league. The other day he administered the
pledge to 500 boys and girls at Tower-hill; and he re-
joiced at this, for if the children were brought up to
abhor the sight of strong drink and refuse to taste it,
they would not want it when they grew to men's and
women's years. Parents who kept this in mind, and
kept their children from tasting drink, would have the
comfort of grateful children in their old age, to smooth
their dying pillows • and parents who had thus been
mindful of their children's welfare when the children
were young could go down to their graves in the
surity that those whom they had left behind would
live an upright, pure, and sober life.
Mr. Redmond, M.P., was then called upon by the
Cardinal to speak, and expressed himself as delighted
with the sight that day presented in Hyde Park by
the sober and orderly throng of his fellow-country
people, and said that the work of Father Mathew was
being carried out with the greatest energy by the Car-
dinal. He urged that the Irish people, if sober, could
make for themselves a great future, and he besought
his fellow-country people in England to persevere in
the exaniple they were setting to all around them.
'Phe Cardinal and his friends then proceeded to
another group of those assembled, with the little
children placed in the midst. Cardinal Manning was
here presented with an address setting forth gratitude
to him for his advocacy of temperance, and promising
to adhere to its principles.