The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1871-09-23 00:00:00

THE STRIKES.

A crowded meeting el the I,zelen aneihrmuateil
trades was liehi at their Assembly rooms., I thiekfriars,
On Saturday. to reet•i, e a report froth the i 4, lent of
the Nine Hours I .eager at Newcastle relati‘, to the
nine hours niii, vulva in the north, and also for en.
sidering the best health f assisting the men in strike.
The cluir W2la taken by Mr. Wheatley, pr,ident of
the Amalgamated Trades ( quail.

The Chairman 'aid the battle Wat,lit .•11Mililleeli by
the men, but by the entplOyerH, Mid that the Men hail
now no other hi inourable alternative but it, tight it out.
Mr- Burnett, a del.-late from :Newcastle and pre-
sident if the I isgue, swine hol been appointed a del ou-
teflon to the 'card Committee of the Amalgamated
Trades if Li onion In order to give a denial to the stole-
wenn+ contained in a letter of Sir William Armstrong's
which appeared in The Times of the previous Thurs-
day. Mir William Annstriong had attempted to
rate himself and also to justify his actions ti near Is the
men. lie himself thought that letter proved the weak-
ness of Sir William Armstrong's ease. It commenced
by stating that the employer, a endeavour to procure
,other hits or from English and foreign sources had been
highly successful. He would assure them that they had
nit been successful in ,btaiiking skilled hands. A very
fallacious statement was also mails in reference
to the number of men who had gone in to work.
The nmeloer eis en if DlviiWin, Went I sit lin strike
was 6,195 ; new hands imported, 1,917 ; deduct
number of iksertii.no, I !7,7 ; making 1,730 ; add men
returning to work after desertion, 11 ;or a total
+of new Lusk now at work of 1,711. Ti, this Ilinn•
ber was to lie added +WI hands who hail e"nite back to
work, or who never left their elnidOyinent, aitil new
men engaged on the spot-1,375, waking the total
number engaged 3,116, being nearly half the number
employed at the tune of the strike. In reference to
this last number, 1,375, they would notice that they
were old bands who hail wane back to work, or who
had never left their employment. The truth was Sir
William Arinstr irig employed a great many men at
other works, and the majority of this number was
made up if men whom he had &alighted from hit
other works, el / that they could very truly be Maid
not to have left his employment ; they had hail
men to watch at the gates, and not more than
fifty of the old hands of the saute works had
gone bark, and among these the foremen from other It,.
vartments.nwtitut.l a very large body. Tlie next point
to which he would allude was the .tatetneut that the
employers "only desired to lie left alone in order to
restore their shops to their former activity," but this
the League hardly intended to it,,. They were next
told that the foreign workmen were SO good that the
masters would not change them now for the English.
This null not he true or the masters would not have
gone begging as they al the other night for some of
the old hands to go back. The principal men they had
been able to get back were the fiorgemeinnlnt this they
lush dOne by getting them into beershops, and talking
and buying them +over ; but the men the League de-
pended upon were the boilermakers and plate-nain,
and these the masters could hot get. Another class
of awn they hail been trying to get back was the piece
men, but they could not sneered with them, Ile con-
sidered that the employers. if Ne xcastie were defeat-
ing their I Av., interests. Mally of the men had WM,
left the Tyne-side awl hail uditained situations in
London and elsewhere, nod now would not go
back, and if the masters held out much hunger many
more woold heave, and they would not be able
to get them lack again. The next poiot he had
to rebut in the letter was the insinuation or statement
that the men had commenced the antagonism, awl
had not met the masters in a proper wanner. It Was
the masters who, obj(soting to trades unionism, com-
menced the combination, only they called their union
by another title namely, "An Association for Mutual
Support ;" and then afterwards they refused to have any
communication with the men excepting through their
solicitors, Messrs. Stanton and Atkinson. Ile then
alluded to those parts of the letter whieh referred to the
inter, hew the League had with the Mayor if Newcastle
in reference to his endeavour to bring about a con-
ference. In doing NO he quoted several extracts front a
printed report in which the League delegates said that if
the employers threw out any suggestion that the time
when the Mue hours system should commence should
form the basis of negotiation, then the violent action if
the men might be postponed for a time. The delegates
made overtures a second time by proposing that six if
the masters should meet a drputation of six delegates,
for the purpose cif discussing the question in all Its
ta'ariugs, and they suggeded that if the mayor were
present as a disinterested person, they inight be able to
hit upion some scheme or device whereby a friendly
arrangement might be come to. These overtures were
not received, Si the men hail no other alternative but
to adopt awl stand by their present wiliest% The em-
ployers had, m the contrary, thought proper to bring
over foreigner., whio probably would stay with them till
they hiatt learnillsomething, and would then go back to
their 'wit country to sell their skill at a higher rate. The
English no asters VI% Middle!' have LI w ortiticat on of Owl-
ing that they had assisted the foreigners in carryinii en
a comisaition with them. Ile contended, in conclusion,
that the misters were making, enormous profits at that
Tyne side far greater than the lsondon employers
could make, who paid Ms. a week higher wages, with
far heavier rents and taxes, and the raw material Wit
close at hand. If the London masters could afford
tio pay 10s, a week higher wages with all these
heavier expenses, the employe', of Newcastle could
easily have afforded the slight concession of time they
were asked for.

A resolution Wa..l then pitssed thanking the delegate*
tor their attendance, :111,1 they retired.
A res.,liition was al., passed, " That this meeting
apt .reciates the letter in The Ti es of Tharstlay, Sept. 14,
' A Shropshire Finn I 4. Engiticer+,' and thanks
them for it."

The proposalto rescind the reQohitii al to hold a great
outdoor demonstration in Trafalzar-oitiare was ni•xt
brought under eigisiderati,m. After eonsideraide ills.
eussiiin Igi the motion of Mr. ealey, sceoll. 101 l y3lr.
Vallis, and supported by a large II la jt wity. it was re-
waved not to hold the imposed denionatration in Tra-
falgar winare.

The engineers on strike at Newcastle anti Gateshead
who has o not got employment in other towns held a
public I low akstrati"n in Newcastle on Saturday. As
a good many mot have left for other parts since the
last demonstration, the meeting on Saturday was wit
so large as prolong gatherings, but it was a very im-
posing one. There were several fonds of music and
banners in the procession, and a great Cr ovd of people
accompanied it through the principal streets. In the
crowd were several foreign workmen who have been
bronght to Newcastle to occupy the situations of the
strike }mints in the factories, but none were molested. In
fact, there Was a sort of fraternization in one or two in-
stances between the English and foreign workmen, awl
about balf-a-dozen Germans walked in the pmcessig
Since the last report 19 lielgians, six I :ermans, 12 men
fr. ,m Scotia tub 17 from Christiania, and 25 from
have been added by the mastos to thejactories. The
best workmen that are arriving ate Norwegian and
Swedish engineers. The engine trade, however, is in
its infancy in those countries, and it is stated that
there is a good deal of discontent among the tionvegian
and Swedish musters at having their best men taken
from them. Of course, the wages of engineers are
much higher in England than in the northern countries
of Europe, which is a great inducement for men totake
employment here.

On Friday morning the lads employed at the Bright-
side colliery struck for an advance of wages. The
malcontents numbered about DX), and their refusing
to go to work caused between 400 and :.•00 miners to be
thrown idle for the day. In the afternoon the lads
waited upon Mr. Fielding, the general manager, and
demanded no increase on their present rate of wages.
NO fixed amount was mentioned, but Mr. Fielding
pis,mised to look through the wages list with a view to
making them a slight advance next Saturday, on con-
dition that they WOlald immediately resume their work.
This the lads agreed to do, and work was resumed on
Saturday morning.

Two or three more dyeing firrns have yielded the
advance of 10 per cent on the wages of their work-
people. One firm, that of Messrs. Grandoge, refuse to
grant the advance, and their wo.lipeople remain out on
strike.