The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1878-09-21 00:00:00

HAGLEY.

ANNUAL SALE OF RAMS AND EWES—At this sale OD
Monday there was a very good collection of rains an,i
st(,ck ewes. There was a very googl attendance and fair
prict-s were realized. 50 Shropshire and Lincoln rams
ad 60 pens of stock ewe,, theave3, and lames were sub
,rutted to competition. 10 Shropshire rams of Mr. N.
Yates, of Grindle, made an average of £lO 103 ; from
the Kinver Hill flock of Messrs. Webb made an average
of £8 15.; 5 very neat but small ra.ui,, of Mr. W. 1?.
Firmstone made an average of £5 103 ; 4 how the flock
of Mr. Harward, of Winterfold, made an average of .t 7
7s; 3 from Mr. H. Smith, Summer Hill, rnada an
average of £10; 8 Lincoln rams of Mr. J. Boraston Hill
wale an average of nearly £B. The ewes were sold well
generally, the highest pen making 73s a head.

r.ERMENATION OF rHE N AILE RS
STRIKE AT HALESUWEN and OLD HILL,

On Wednesday the nailers'. strike in the Halesowen
and Old Hill district fairly collapsed, and, notwithstand-
ing the vieorous efforts mad. Oy the leaders to etimulate
he people to penevereln the struggle, from the general
-.lens of yie:ding exhibited in the district it is evident
teat the strike is virtually ended. The confidence of
.he operative, w,,EI very much shaken when the decision
of the " jump makers " to resume work became know:,
a few days ago; but when it was announced 'that not only
the " jump " tuen, but a large number of the ordiLary
makers hail resumed work on IVeenesday morning et
Halesowen, the people completely gave way, and seemed
o re-;ard it as useless to protract the strike.
On Wednesday morning a largely-attended meeting of
the operatives was held at the Cross, Olit Hill, Mr. John
Price presided, arid condemned the weakness manifestea
by the people as unjustifiable. Twenty-four thousand
nailers a ere out, end the masters were completely
beaten. He believed they (the inaetere) dared not meet
quarter day without conceding the men's demands,
which he still contended were reasonable. He reminded
the operatives that if they ran in there would be no
doubt reduction upon reduction in a very short time
from the list, which was already a starvation list
(cheers). Alluding to a letter which appeared in the
Daily Post on Tuesday, from Mr. George Green,
criticising the remarks nd-ide by the Rev. J. Ormiston,
vicar of Old Hill, at a meeting of millers, held on Friday
evening, he (sir. Price) said that he could prove that the
reins-lea of air. Ormiston were stric,ay true, Even sup-
posiog the assertions made by Mr, Green were correct,
and teet the ho,dra of tho firm prOirod that a certain
utreiber of men earned 17s per week, there was nothing
sod ebout the deductions which were made. There was
101 carriage, is 6d firing, tools, waste of iron, rent of
shop, When all those deductions wets made, even if
tun man carried 17s gross he would not be able to take
home 14s. Besides, it often happened that the reckon-
ing of one person represented the labour of other
assistants. Where Mr. Green could find one man who
could get 17s per week he (the speaker) would undertake
to find twenty who could not get 12a per week—(hear,
heer)—and numbers of them could not get more than Ss
or Os per week. He considered the letter grossly mis-
represented the true facts of the case—(heat, hear)—and
he assured them, and also wished to assure the public,
that the observations of Mr. Ormiston relative to the
position of the nailers were in every point strictly cor-
rect. He warned the people not to accept the list, which
he believed would not be adhered to long by the em-
ployers. He was informed that the Ha.eauwen nailer,
nad gone in; and if that was true he considered their
case hopeless—(hear, hear)—aud he should consider that
he was doing a great wrong to the people if he kept
teem oht when there was no hope. The people in the
odier districts appeared to be very firm, and as long as
they held together be should continue the strike. If
they ran in (for they should never conclude the strike by
resolution) it would set the operatives one against
another, and would work no end of mischief amongsl.
them, and it would be impossible for another general
sLrike to te organised. tie finally urged upon them,
for the sake of their own interests and their children,
uot to accept the starvation list which was offered by the
masters.

Mr. Joseph Hackett briefly addressed the meeting,
and regretted that the pe .plc had given way after
st•:king for ten wr ks If tiles, intended to go in at ;he
ffsred by the li:esters, he biamed there that they
.id Lot ie so 4'i101:1 he returned from Bromsgrove, and
r ported the coarse the men ite that district intended to
hear). It would have been far b .ttei if the
s rike had terminated then rattier then prolong it so
,T 1 iiy w. eke,' and then fiiiish it wirheut any edditiunal
a ivsntag3 The Were at that tae so uiianimous
in their de!ermination t, contiue the strike without
Biouisgrove, that the leaders acre compelied to go on
with it--(oear, dear).
Upon the usual resolution to play on being put by Mr.
Price, only a few hands were held up in support of it,
Mr. Price refused to accept that as the feeling of the
meeting, aim demziud.d another show of hands. The
resolution was then put a second time, when about half
the persons present signified their approval by holding
up their hands. Mr. Price refused to put a resolution to
conclude the strike, and said that he should leave the
matter entirely in the hands of the people them.
as yes
At the close of the meeting the operatives apparently
vgsriiing the strike as elided, ticked in crowds to the
varieu, warehouses in the district, and took out their
'tree, and in a short time hundreds of shops which have
seen dere.ried oaring the last ten Nleek, were all alive,
ud the familiar sound of the hammer was heard in all
directions. It is stated that the whole of Eliza Tinsley
and Oompany's workpeople, in the Old Hill disirict, have
now then out work, and some of their employers in the
Sedgley district have also resumed work, The opera
.tires employed by other firms have also taken out large
qu entities of iron
On Wednesday afternoon Mr. John Price held meet-
ings at Hasbury, Spring Hill, and Halesowen, for the
purpose cf inducing, if possible, the "joenp makers " to
come out agrlin. It was eviaent. however, from the
manner in which the resolutions were received that the
people in that district had no intenton of accepting the
proposal. The leaders of the men say that the August
list which the people are accepting gives an advance
averaging from 15 to 20 per cent, upon spikes upon the
est made in June last. The increase upon small rose
nails is 20 per cent, upon the same list, but 10 per cosi'.
advance upon the list of 1869. it takes off the linger
rose nails, from 24ths auil upwards 8 per cent, from tn.
1869 list which it is said was the lowest list ever past in
the nait trade.
Mr. Price affirms that coopers' rivets are placed by the
August list 5 per cent. lower than they have been at any
Lime during the last fifty years. The masters, on the
contrary, state that all the classes are advanced by the
August list from 10 to 15 per cent., and that coopers'
rive:s (from sizes 7to 24) are increased about 6d per
bundle by it over the prices paid previous to the Strike
The masters state that the demands of the men were
equal to an advance averaging from 25 to 27i per cent.,
and that by the list issued in August they are advanced
from 10 to 15 per cent.
A great distress among the nailers owing to the long
continuance of the strike has assumed a rather,
serious aspect, and on Saturday afternoon last Mr. F.
A. Homer, out of a fund eueseribed for the purpose
again presented tickets of relief to the natters residing at
Sedgley The extent iif the relisf given was calculated
on Le number of workers on strike at es, li house. .
Mr. F. A. Heiner has appealed to the benevolent for
teeir assistauce to relieve the great and obvious suffer-
ings of the women and children consequent on the strike,
hopiug that the merits iir demerits of the strike—into
which lii eid not cut. r—did uot influence persons in
withholaing help. The tickets varlets to value from Is
6d to 3s each, according to the number of hands at play
in the houses where the relief was administered. On
Saturday afternoon last many of the women, on strike
visited the ironworks, ikc., for some miles round, and
obtained .considerable pecuniary assistance from the
various operatives.