The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1872-06-29 00:00:00

44t 3tourpribge Opsethr.

SATURDAY, JUNE 29, 1t372.

THE STRIKE IN THE BUILDING

TRADE.

It is not easy to exaggerate the importance of
the lamentable diepute in the buildiug trade—a
dispute first resulting in a strike and then in a
lock-out. The building trade in fact consists of
numerous departments, and though the differen-
ces between wasters cud men were at first con-
fined to one department, other departments in
turn became involved in it, and there is no
knowing to what branches of the trade it way
not extend. Considering the vast extent of the
operations undertaken by builders, and the nu-
merous employments quite outside the building
trade—brickmakers for example—this Let is in
Band( important. But a strike or a lock-out in
no particular trade can have its effects confined to
that trade. Tuey extend iu expanding circles,
growing fainter cud fainter till they ure lost in
the distance, like the effects of a stone cast into
a tranquil lake. What the immediate or ultim-
ate effects of the lock-out in the building trade
may be we do not pretend to foresee, but at pre-
sent we see every reason to doubt whether in
the long run the men will be benefited by the
course they have adopted. Whatever may be the
r.sult, we cannot but state our conviction—with
no desire to take a party view of the affair —that
the men will have themselves to blame if the
result be unfavourable to them, while so far as
present appearanc: s go, they will not be able to
take credit if they ultimately obtain a victory
' which, considering the intermediate loss, Cannot
b.! Hindi better than a defeat. in the first
place they made a demand which facts tend to
chow was greater than the masters could fairly
accede to; and in the second place the men re-
. fused to submit the dispute to independent arbi-
tration. Pending this result the public suffers.
Important public works are stopped ; a large
amount of capital, which otheraise would be
spent in wages and materials, is thrown out of
circulation; and large numbers of MOO are thrown
out of employment into idleness, aud upon the
support of fellow working men whose wages, if
we are to believe the journeymen builders, RIO
already inadequate to the requirements of those
who earn them.

But there is another important consideration
which immediately concerns the public. Prices
—taking that compreheusive word in its full
siguilicance —have risen, and are still rising.
Ihe linieN has alluded to an astonishing and al-
most incredible rise in the price of hardware.
" Sped, s, shovels, locks, files, nails," it remarks,
"and other such goods have advanced, and are
daily advancing in value at a rate for which the
most experienced dealers profess to know no pre-
cedent. The average rise is reckoned at 50 per
cent. iu the last nine mouths." These advances
are said to be justified by the rise in fuel and
and raw material, as well as by increased wages;
anal this is feasible enough. " Iron wares are
dearer," continues the leading journal," because
iron is dearer and coils are dearer, while at the
same time the cost of manufacture has risen
also. But what brought about the rise in coal
and iron? Partly an increased demand, but
principally increased wages to colliers and iron-
workers." There can be no disputing the truth
of this, and we nand not undervalue the impor-
tance of that tenth. We have only to reckon
up, if each calculation be possible, the enormous
number of those branches of industry which de-
pend on coal said iron, to see how seriously the
rise in the prise of these articles is likely to
affect the trade and the productive power of the
British empire, which depends more on her iron
and coal than any other products which could be
named. But there is still another consideration,
or rather we may further extend the same line of
%raiment. The large increase of wages during
the past twelve months, to go no further back,
has tended to increase the purchasing power of
, the wages class, and this in its turn has raised
the coat of living considerably. This fact must
be taken into account when we try and estimate
what those workmen have practically gained
who have obtained an advance of pay, for the
purchasing power of money in regard to the en-
tire wants of a household is certainly not so
great now as it was before the era of shorter
time and increased pay set in. But what of that
very large proportion of the population who have
I not-obtained any increase of pay? They are
decidedly the losers by strikes in which they
have taken no part. Products, commodities,
and manufactures have risen and are' rising, and
people who formerly lived in comparative com-
fort are now complaining that they cannot make
both ends meet, as the comma and expressive
phrase runs. It is this which makes these trade
disputes so important to the public at large, and
which should induce us all to do what lies in our
power to promde the adoption of aa hitration,
the only principle that is adequate to the just
settletuent of disputes between employers and
employed.

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