The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1879-01-11 00:00:00

IRON TRADES-HOURS OF WORKING,

The following letter is from The Times of Saturday :
Sir,—There appears to be a question under discus-
sion relating to the above which likely to lta,i to a
difference of opinion between the men and their em-
ployers, and, as by present appearances this will come
before the public it is important that the facts should
be correctly stead.
I notice in an article in The Times of this day it is
mentioned that the men look upon the resumption of
the 57/ hours of weekly working "as full of the
gravest results to themselves and their families during
the next few months."

Now, this is calculated to convey a very erroneous
impression of the facts of the case. As I understand
the matter, the Iron Trades Employers' Association
proposed to return to the 571 hours for a week's work
instead of 54 hours, thus asking the men to work 33/4
hours per week more than they do now for the same
wages.
The grave results to themselves and their families
to be feared by the men, therefore, are confined to the
abstraction of 31 hours per week from the leisure time
of the men. As to the personal feelings of the men
upon this diminution of their leisure hours I will
not speak; but I venture to think that the effect
upon their families will be beneficial. I had it
upon the authority •of the clergy and district
visitors of a large district soon after the commence-
ment of the 54 hours movement that the wives com-
plained that the effect of increased leisure to the men
was, in too many cases, to increase their personal ex-
penditure and to diminish in like proportion the
amount devoted to the homes and families. lam of
opinion that, if the wives of operative engineers
throughout the country could be polled upon the ques-
tion, 90 per cent. of them would vote for 571 hours of
weekly work, as against 54 hours for the same wages.
I am far from wishing to affix a stigma upon the
working classes in respect of this state of things, for
the experience of life in all degrees shows a tendency
to the same result.
As to the effect of the proposed change of werking
hours upon the employers and upon the trade of the
country, it may be put in a few words—that it will
constitute a profit where none exists now. This profit
will be derived, not so much from the gain from 31
hours of extra labour of the men, for the same wages,
as from the abolition of 31 hours of enforced idleness
of the costly plant and works, which in the engineer-
ing trades of this country must be worth many mil-
lions.

The weekly hours of working an the continent are,
I believe (I do not speak exactly, and may be open to
correction), from 66 to 72 hours, and this carries with
it the useful employment of the plant and works for
that time, with the consequent diminution of establish-
ment charges upon the work turned out.
Trade is bad at present all over the world; but it is,
I think, notorious that of late years this country has
met competitors in engineering products where it did
not formerly meet them, and that a less proportion of
the world's engineering work actually doing now falls
to our share than formerly. We have only to look to
your Money Article this morning to see the results in
which this oompetition has had its part—viz., that in
the list of failures in 1878 engineers and iron trades
figure for 361 in number, which far exceeds that of any
other class of business.
The engineering trade of Great Britain looks for its
customers over the whole world and the question un-
der discussion becomes, therefore, a national question.
Without wishing to write hard words about any section
of our countrymen, there is, to my mind, eourething
very arrogant in the position taken up by the British
workman, which amounts to this, that he is able to
do more work in nine hours than aFrenchman or Ger-
man can do in 12 hours. I say more work because, as
is well known, the rate of wages here is far higher than
on the Continent. But this is not all or even the
chief part of his foolish boast; there is the question of
use of plant. Suppose we take it roughly that the cost
of works, plant, &c., of an engineering establishment
employing 1,000 men amounts to £lOO,OOO. We
have £lOO invested for the employment of each man,
and, consequently, to produce a piece of machinery at
the same cost, the labour of the British workuan
ought to be superior in quality or amount to that of
his Continental neighbour, not only by the difference
of hours and wages above stated, but atqr by the loss
of the use of £lOO per man for the difference of the
hours worked, or some 25 per Cent. I am readr to
admit that the labour of our countrymen is. or at any
rate may be if they please, superior to that o: the
Trenchmau or the German, but I si..rn equally pertain
that it cannot hold its own with the burdens now tpon
it, as descr.bed above.
The propozal oc the Iron Trades Employers As.
eVeation appears theieiore to tite to tie a wig and