The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1881-09-17 00:00:00

BOATING FATALITY.

A river gig, containing eight or nine people, nut off
from New Brighton on Friday in last week to Her
Majesty's ship Agincourt, which was lying off the
entrance to the New North Docks, Liverpool. The tide
was strong and the boat got under the paddles of a steam
tug lying Close to the ironclad and capsized. Some of
the crew of the Agincourt put off with great promti-
tude two boats to the rescue of the people struggling
in the water. A lieutenant of Marines also sprang
from the Agincourt and swam to a woman who was
just sinking. He seized her, and kept her afloat until
she was rescued by a waterman named George Good-
man, of New Brighton. Another woman was picked
up by one of the ironclad's boats. Both women were
put on board the Agincourt and received prompt atten-
tion • but one of them, who was subsequently found
to be Mrs. A. Brown, of South-view, New Brighton,
died at nine o'clock at night from the effects of her im-
mersion. The other persons thrown into the water
were rescued by the crew of the steam tug. Some
excitement was caused on board the Agincourt by the
occurrence, and the gallantry of the young lieutenant
was much applauded.

The steamer Columbia was wrecked during a gale
early on Sunday morning on Lake Michigan. The passengers
and crew escaped in the boats, but the sea ran so high that
the boats were swamped, and only seven persons were saved.
Fifteen were drowned.
On Tuesday afternoon a grand festival of village
choirs, consisting of 1,200 vocalists and instrumentalists:
took place at Oswestry under the presidency of Mr. Henry
Leslie, the adjudicator being the Rev. Sir Frederick Gore
Ouseley, Bart.,l Professor of Music, Oxford. Nine choirs
competed for a banner of honour" for singing, which was
won by•tho Maesbury Musical Union, near Oswestry. Mr.
Richards, the leader, was presented with the banner, the
gift of Mrs. Leslie, by Lady Harlech, amidst great ap-
plause. A grand concert followed, under the conductor-
ship of M. Henry Leslie, the Viscountess Folkestone being
the chief soprano soloist. Several thousand persons were
presents

TRADES' UNION CONGRESS.

The fourteenth annual Trades' Union Congrese was
opened on Monday in St. Andrew's Hall, Newman.
street, London. Mr. William Crawford, of the
Miners' National Union, presided at the commence-
ment of the proceedings, in virtue of his position as
chairman of the parliamentary committee. About 130
delegates were present, representing upwards of one
hundred societies and nearly half a million members.
The Chairman after some preliminary observations
upon the Employers' Liability Act, proceeded to
speak at some length, and in the course of his speech,
said :--Nothing to him seemed so important as to know
how to make the organised power of the trades'
unionists of the country available for the pramotion of
the interests of labour. In an industrial country like
Great Britain the interests of labour furnished the
only true foundation of the nation's wellbeing.
When these prospered, all prospered. When these
declined, all legitimate national interests declined
with them. When he said that, he did not regard
the labour interest separately from other honest
and legitimate interests. He was not thinking
of millenniums, but rather of practical ideas and
policies, which should draw the employer and em-
ployed closer to each other. Trades unionists were
becoming a great political power in the State. In the
infancy of their unions, men were shot out from poli-
tical power. Their associations were illegal, meetings
could not be held, nor could there take place an inter-
change of ideas sufficient to enable them to agree on
matters outside their most pressing requirements.
When unions became legal, men were crippled by
their ignorance and by the want of that experience
and confidence which habits of association would
have given them. That state of things, however, had
now been altogether altered. Old political ques-
tions had been for the most part settled. The disa-
bilities of Dissenters and the oppressions of Roman
Catholics had happily ceased. Parliamentary represent-
ation had been so far re-distributed. When the
borough and county franchise had been assimilated
little would remain to be done in regard to the ex-
tension of popular power. That being so, they
naturally turned from the question of the mere posses-
sion of power to that of its right use. Working men
had been developing in thought and action, and had
thus been enabled to meet the difficulties and take
advantage of the opportunities as they arose. Hence
trade societies, co-operative societies, and, above all
things, the development of a power, by combined
thought and action, which was giving the working
man an influence and power in the legislation and
Fovernment of the country. Wherever any abuse
in the law or its administration existed the Par-
liamentary committee should stimulate parlia-
mentary action, whilst working men generally,
represented at these congresses in their com-
bined streng92, should always be ready to
throw their weight where an injustice of any kind re-
quired to be checked, or a measure of sound practical
legislation promoted and carried. The working classes,
constituting as they did the masses of the people, haol
not acquired political power that they might cast it
from them unused, or that they might use it only by
the direction of others. Individually, werking men
might call themselves by any one of our party names;
but collectively, every question connected with labour
had claims upon them which they ought to meet.
He would regard it as one of the worst calamities that
could befall trades' unionists, did they, under any
pretence whatever, allow themseves to be drawn
into the contentions of mere party politics. Direct
labour questions affected them most, inasmuch as
their ability to perform their duties depended on the
equity by which their connection with their work was
regulated. Indirect labour questions, or questions of
general politics, affected them also, but the first men-
tioned had demands on them which could not be put
aside. Nobody would dispute the power of the working
classes to influence Parliament on public questions
should they decide to do so. They knew that the
legislation necessary for the children and women
employed in factories was delayed for years because
there was no strongly organised power amongst the
trades of the country to force it forward. A like
kind of legislation was necessary in regard to mines,
and that ultimately procured was the result of a power
exercised by trades' unions. But for the action of
trades unionists, many of the evils which they had
twenty years ago would have existed still. They wanted
to use but not abuse their power. Working men did
not claim to be above the liability of mistake, but they
did claim, in their collective capacity, to prefer the
welfare of their country under a reign of just law to
its injury by spoliation on the one hand or oppres-
sion on the other. At this moment there were ques-
tions pending in Parliament, some political and some
directly affecting labour, and if the trades unionists
of the country took the position they ought to occupy
1 on these and other matters their settlement would
follow speedily and effectively. . . . The leaders of
1 working men must study and understand the questions
of the day, particularly labour questions. They must
be rigidly independent. Their actions must be above
party considerations. Those things understood, there
was no reason why the trades unionists of the country
should not at once enter on a career of usefulness and
power, and in a reasonable time place the interests of
labour beyond the assaults of class stupidity, and
under the protection of just laws. (Cheers.)

A resolution expressing horror at the attempted
assassination of General Garfield and sympathy with
him and with the American nation, was the first
business transacted.

Mr. E. Coulson, an operative bricklayer, of London,
was elected Chairman for the ensuing year.
Mr. Broadhurst, M.P., the secretary, read the
report of the Parliamentary Committee, which went
into detail upon the legislative work of the year so far
as it has affected the working classes.

The Trades Union Congress reassembled on Tues-
day at St. Andrew's Hall, when the President, Mr.
Coulson, delivered an address, in which he said, "We
are not willing to tolerate any reversion to the,, old
nonsense of Protection." This declaration was enthu-
siastically cheered. The report of the Parliamentary
Committee was adopted. A resolution was unani-
mously agreed to, instructing that Committee to take
steps to amend the Employers' Liability Act by doing
away with its permissive character.