The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1868-05-16 00:00:00

TEE IRON TRADE.

IVOLVERIIAMPTON, Tredneaday.

To-day there was an influential, though not
very numerous attendance of the Iron Trade on
'Change. Business was quiet. mid the demand
slack, notwithstanding that the mesa of the laid-
. . . .

tilers who will not accede to the masters' terms
remain out. About Bilden the non-union men
are going in. The Bilston Iron Comany and
the proprietors of the llerberts' Park Works
have each about a dozen puddling furnaces on
this week at the drop. The distribution of
money, yesterday, has made some of the men
less ready to negotiate than before. The mas-
ters do not, however, believe that the sums per
head disbursed are as large as the men have
I stated. The men, on the contrary, allege that
it was as they have made public. and that more
will soon be forthcoming. "It will pay the men
of other districts," the masters reafark, "to send
them small sums to remain out; for they get
the benefit of making puddled bars to supply tke
mills where the men on do not mai- ss much as
is wanted, and they also execute orders for fin-
ished iron that ought to have come here." The
notion of giving the men what they demand was ,
ridiculed. "It is impossible; we have reduced
prices, and cannot give high wages,'' argued the
employers. Orders are going chiefly to North
Staffordshire that would have come here if there
had been no strike ; and makers are anticipating
that the same result will follow this as has at-
tended other strikes, and specifications in the
Mare go into districts now applied to for the
first time. Thus the masters and men in South
Staffordshire will alike suffer a permanent loss
by the existing strike. Meanwhile the present
disadvantage is considerable both to the pig and
also finished iron makers.

DCDLia, Tred4eAn.

From conversation with the groups of men '
hanging about the streets of Brierley MU and
neighbourhood, we learn (although the informa-
tion was not given freely, and efforts were made
to deceive) that a dividend of about 2s had been
paid to the non-unionists who remain out. The
: puddlers in the Union have been receiving lffs
per week from their own societies, according to
their own statements. In thus writing we must,
in justice to the executive, state that we attach
no blame to that body, which is always anxious
that the public might receive reliable informa-
tion. The meeting at Brierley Hill to-day was
attended by 700 paddlers, millmen, rollers, and
others; and again a resolution was passed in
favour of remaining out. Previous to the close
of the meeting, however, a number of the Exe-
cutive left for a meeting at Walsall.
. . . .

There are many rumours that Unionists will
not in future be employed, but no official notifi-
cation of such intention has been given. The
nearest approach is the advertisement of Messrs.
Dawes, Bromford, who state that initialers can
be employed at their works, the arrangements
with their old hands being broken off.

There is little that is new to report as to the
state of the Iron Trade ; the attendance at the
Exchange, on Thursday, was as large as usual,
but very few transactions were reported. A few
letter orders have ecene in during the week, and
emfidence amongst consumers seams to be in-
creasing. So far as may be judged front reports,
there are more orders in than any former period
of this year —about vullicient as an average for
two-thirds work. .

It is difficult to say precisely how matters
stand with the men. The difficulty has not
ended so soon as was anticipated. A good
number are still out, and a kind of agitation is
kept up, which is in a measure inconvenient and
productive of mischief. The Ironmasters them-
selves seem to think that the men will all go in
before long, but amongst many of them there is
a spirit which does not exactly favour that con-
clusion ; the strong probability is that the strug-
gle will yet be prolonged for some time.