The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1872-09-07 00:00:00

THE LONDON BAKING TRADE.

Several important meetings in connexion with the
anticipated strike in the London baking tra Is was held
on Saturday night in various parts of the metropolis.
The movement appears to gain fresh partisans almost
every day, new branches of one m• other of the two
unions being constantly openetl. The master bakers
on their part are not inaative, and Mr. Bonthron,
baker, of Regent-street, who led the oppositi ni to the
day system at the Anderton's Hotel meeting, has issued
copies of the following circular to every master baker
in the metropolis

"101, Regeutntreet, W.

"Sr,—At a meeting of the committee appointed at the
Seymour-hall meeting of master bikers, it was agreed that
the following resolutions be circulated for consideration and
approval
"1. That a working day shall consist of 12 hours, or 72
hours per week, but that such 12 hours be left to the limita-
tion of each particular shop on the ninlerstanding that a
higher rate of payment be given for night work than for day
work.
•

That overtime be paid for by arrangement.
•. a. That, in crier to Minx, the wages of the men to a fair
standard, She e orninitlke respectfully suggest that the whole
question of wages paid by each master be reconsidered by
him in view of the increased cost of living, and if, upon con•
shleration and Inquiry, they be found too low, to raise
thorn, and that as far as p issible they may be in uni.
tenuity, they will feel obliged if each will Kindly state what
they consider a fair wage for foremen, second, and third
hands respectively.
"4. That our desire Is that there should be no Sunday
work except what is absolutely necessary, seen as ferments,
sponges, ite.. but that where there are belongs the men should
be specially paid for it.
- •• • • - -

'1 am requested to forward you the above, and to request
that you will kindly till in the answers ' Yea' or ' No ' to each,
and whether you are willing to abide by them. Please add
any further remarks you may desire to make on the opposite
site. When the answers have been returned th 3 list of art
herents will be forwarded to you with the propositions of
the committee.
" Yours respectfully,
°J.BUNTERON, Secretary."

A crowded meeting of journeymen was held on Satin..
day, at the "Pewter Platter, White Lion-street,
Bishopsgste, Mr. W. Morrison in the chair. The
large room was quite filled, and additional interest was
felt from the knowledge that several master bakers had
promised to address the meeting.
The Chairman, in opening the proceedings, observed
that he was proud to see so many men present
as well as several masters. They had now arrived
at the critical point of their movement, and the
greatest caution would have to be observed. They
had been fighting far the last 34 years for what
they had now determined to make a bold stand
upon. He then referred to the conference question,
and was sorry to see that the masters had not followed
up their own suggestion, but had completely upset the
projected meeting by refusing to allow the 4 to 4
system to stand as the basin of discussion. It was
time they now came forward and stood up for their
rights, for while other trades were asking for nine
hours, the jdurneymen bakers were only asking for U.
Mr. Meachen then moved a resolution condemna-
tory of the programme set forth by the Master
Bakers' Trade Protection Society.
Mr. Webb, who seconded, said the only wonder to
him was that the journeymen had not seen it their
interest to combine together long since. It was useless
to depend upon the master bakers. The principle of
4to 4 had been successfully carried out in the shop
where he was at work. With regard to the yeast
money the master could not take it from the men, as
it was a contract between the men and the yeast mer-
chant, and the same might be said of the sack money.
The resolution was then put to the meeting and
carried.
Mr. Wrighton Davidson, a master baker, next ad'
dressed the meeting. He said he was pleased to see
the amount of interest the men were taking in the
great and important movement, and although the
platform which they had elected to place befi,re the
world was not so perfect as he should have liked to
see, yet it was • step in the right direction. It was
the stepping stone which would ultimately lead to
freedom and liberty. The platform of the muter'
meant nothing more nor less than a continua-
tion of the present system of unlimited hours of
labour. Those West-end masters who ruled the others
had got their corinti7 mansions out of the bones and
sinews of the journeymen. Were something like ten
or twelve sheps in the West-end to be the masters of
the entire tradel If they meant to emancipate them-

_ -
selves they must go in for fixed wages and ceitsin
hours, and then they would receive support from all
the trades unions of England. Ho nued upon all
present to join in uniin, and said that before twelve
months all the money laid out would be amply com-
pensated.
Mr. Poole, another master biker, spoke strongly hi
favour of the journeymen, and advocated a fixed rate
of wages and time. He said that as long as the strike
lasted he would contribute 54. per week towards the
support of the out of-place men.
Several other speeches were delivered and a large
number of members enrolled in the union.

A second large meeting was held at the "Father
Redcap." Camberwell, Mr. Sabine in the chair, to
establish a new branch of the London Union of Opera-
tive Bakers. Mr. Harvey spoke at some length upon
the hardships of the journeymen, ani Mr. Archer said
he had been connected with societies for 23 yeass and
had never known such an aLitation as the present,
which he believed and trusted would be successful. At
the request of the chairman, Mr. Rose, a master baker,
addressed the meeting. He said he cause there to
countenance the movement, and would like to see the
journeyman baker in a better position. He advised
the men to take counsel and wed consider what they
really meant to do. Some discussion followed, and a
good number of members were enrolled.

In London, on Monday evening, the Bakers' Strike
Committee met at the Central Committee Rooms, and
a considerable amount of business was transacte J. It
was decided that the circulars announcing that the
men would be withdrawn on September 21 should be
sent to every master baker in Loudon, and four mem-
bers agreed to undertake the work.
It was decided some time since to issue a manifesto
to the public on the position of affairs, and the follow.
in was adopted :
" Fellow Citizens—in this enlightened age the actions of
men most harmonize with public opinion. and tu appealing
to this tribunal to pass judgment updn the bakers' dispute
the operatives feel that the verdict will be upon the side of
truth and justice, and in their favour. For years past, as the
world is well aware, the condition of the journey man bakerhss
, been a ingrate to his employer, a shame to humanity, and a
scandal upon civilization Education, science, and philan-
thropy have achieved much for all other classes, but in his
ease they have dominate or nothing. lie is still the outcast of
the industrial system, the pariah of the social circle, the only
artisan who is deprived id his rest, denied his Sabbath, sad
doomed to toil in confined dungeons, the fetid atmosphere of
which Is as fatal to life as the poisonous breath of the Black
Hole of Calcutta. Government inspectors have denounced
the evils surrounding him as most baneful and demoralizing,
and medical men have affirmed that he is a prey to the moat
debilitating influences, and his Cerm of life the briefest of all
elasser—in a sentence, that he is murdered by long hours ant
excessive toil. For him there la no respite His existence is that
of ailog's. Ile scarcely know. what it is to enjoy a night'arepose.
ills sleep is a ' pitch ' on the heated bakehouse ; his bed, the
hoard uron which the bread is made, and when he rises from
his hard couch his sweat and tears literally mingle with the
ingredients of which the staff of life is manufactured,
and which the public are compelled to eat. The Sab-
bath comes, but comes no Sablath day to him, and time
year after 3 ear he drags out a miserable monotonous
existence, labouring 16, 18, 11114 20 hours a day. at a wage
which a [weep or scavenger would refuse, until his health
fails, and a premature death terminates his suffer.no.
Will any Christian mien say that the operative baker ought
to be gat stied with such an iniquitous system? When all
other trades are obtaining increased pay and reduced hours,
is lie alone to be condemned to sleepless nights, excessive
toil, low wages, dine. e, and death? Certainly not. 1t ia his
duty as a progresaive being to claim a share of the advan-
tages aliddi all other classou enjoy, and, as The Times justly
says,—.. If his demands are not unreasonable and can be con-
ceded, they aught to be.'
" • • -

"It was not the journeymen's wish to have taken the
Initiative in the moil, of reform. They preferred the =titers
should have taken the lead, but the employers declined the
task, and advised before they could take any action in the
matter that the men should he united and be ready with a
platform to conatituto the basis of discussion. Tile men
heeded the advice, fused themselves into one central organi-
zation, and prepared a platform of principles, but the
masters, 'instead of calmly discussing it with them, trea-
cherously broke faith and substituted one of their own.
Still, as the first principle—the working day of twelve hours
from four to f nr—was retained intact, ills men submitted to
the indignity and amended their platform to inset the
wasters' s iew. But they were no hitter ;If even ith this
concession. The masters at their next u•eeting cancelled the
only propmition upon which their own committee and the
men were agreed, and pledged their delegates tea series of
resolutions which they knew the operatives could not accept.
"We now come to a coesieeration of the two platforms.
The men a tv, • We require a workiug day ~f 11 hours, the
time of which shall be Used from 4 iv 4, anti a recognized
minimum scale of wit,. Sorely there is nothing mi-
re mumble In Cris demand ! But the employers say, 'No
We will give you a day of 12 hours Ire 72 per week, but the
time shall net be fixed. It shall be loft to the require-
meets of each particular shop.' A more jesuitical evasion
could not be coneeived. llp bedsting upon this con-
dition they know they will perpetuate the ' ary ' 12 hours
system, which for so many years has wrought ruin
awl degradation upon the trade. The requirements of
each particular shop' is a very elastic phrase. It R1P61113
that there shall be no uniformity—that employers shall
have the right to make what stipulations they please : that
those in districts shall claim night scot k at half the
wage given for it in others ...tablet such a principle the
men must contend to the bitter ent. They may be
vanquished as they am poor, and their employers are
rich, but better they should be reduced to the condition
of dock 1 dmurers and scavergers than silently submit to a
bondage more dezrading than that w hich the Egyptians im.
posed upon the Israelites. Baty/eel, boneage and starvation
there is litt'e eerie for chtice. But of the two It is better
tonic frem want than to linger on a inimrable existence in
slavery, a clime to ourselves and accursed by our fellow-
men. We have, however, faith in the great heart of
humanity, and in the &Tony of our sufferings we venture
to appeal to our countrymen and countrywomen Wa
appeal to Trade Cuionists to support our humble efforts
to ohtr.in those bootie which they already enjoy. We
anneal to the religious sentiment of the community to
demand ferns the Sabbath, wilt di should be held too sacred
either to be bought ten dd. We appeal t,. that I ve of fair
play which has ever distinguished the English Press at times
like th se, and trust that its potent voice will be heard ix
our behalf ; and, lastly, we app, silo the general public,
whose sympathies are ever on the side of right and justice.
hr t it not be recorded in history that in this 19 h century in
England—the home of opulence and prosperity—a poor de-
graded class of artisans were allowed to be yoked to serfdom
because they had not the sinews of war to fight egoist the
capital of their merciless employers !
"By order of Use London Trade Council of Operative
Bakers.
" PETER Tr 'LE 1 Secretaries."
EPHRAIM ADAMS,
! A deputation also attended from Scotland, and said
i the sytnpathy of the Scotch bakers was with the
j London men in the movement.

The operative bakers of the provincial towns of
Ireland appear inclined to follow the example recently
set by the Dublin operatives. The principal grievance
complained of in tire provinces is night work and Sun-
day work. The Nenagh operatives have had their
demands conceded—namely, day work on ordinary
days and no work on Sunday until midnight. The
Limerick bakers have given notice of similar demands.
A meeting of the employers of labour in Cork was
held on Saturday with a view to concerted action
regarding strikes. The meeting was private, but it is
understood that it was resolved not to employ men who
had joined in the recent strikes in the city, and to create
a fund out of which to indemnify indivi Mal employers
from any loss they might sustain through strikes. A
large slim is said to have been subaeribed in the room
towards this fund-
• •

The great majority of the Dublin operative bakers
have gone back to work in their old establishments, but
several of the employers, including threcof the largest,
have permanently detached their establishments from
the Trade Union men. There are now coneequ.ntly
about 900 operatives in the city in place of 700, as
before the strike. A large number must, therefore,
now be out of employment.