The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1873-01-11 00:00:00

THE STRIKE IN SOUTH WALES.

The Correepondent of The Times, writing from
Merthyr Tydfil, on Saturday night,.eaya:—:

" There never has been a cordllct In the Principality upon
such a tremendoue scale us the present. There have been
strikes and lock-outs, it le true, bet chiefly limited to one or
two works at a time, anti generally in the same town. They
were, indeed, local. But the great struggle now begun
embraces every three establishment In the South Wales dis-
trict, from Blathavon on the cart to Cwrnavon on the west.
The total somber of hands employed in the collieries and at
the ironworks Is estimated at 70,000, but, after allowing the
most liberal ...incline, it Is certain that not less than
60,000 will be affected by the movement. Of that number
rather more than one-third are In tide town of Merthyr. The
Dowlals works give employment to abont 11,000 persons ;
Cy farthfa (Mr. Crawahay's), to shout 5,000 and Plymouth
(Messrs. Eothergill and liankey's), to rather more than
5,000 ; and the amount paid weekly in wages at tines esta-
blishments rather exceeds than falls short of £20,000.
Within • few miles of this, the great centre of the trade,
are the Rhymney ironworks, the Tredegar Ironworks,
the principal works of the Ebbw Vale Company, the
Beaufort, Nantyglo, and Blaine works, and in the farthest
valley seaward the Blamiavon works and some small
work, belonging to the Ebbw Vale Company. They
form a line of gigantic establiehments, with the vast works
at Merthyr at the head. South and west there are the Llynvi
Ironworks, the liaetheeworise, and the Csonavon works,
which are In Isolated positions with relatinu to each other as
compared with the great chain on the northern edge of the
South Wales mining district The number of hands employed
by them does not altogether exceed 10,000. The situation at
present is exceedingly discoureging. Both sides manifest the
greatest firmness in their determination not to yield. The
workmen meet frequently to tlictris their poritlon, and
neither colliers nor ironworkers evince the slightest Inclina-
tion to &ban lon their demand or a court Of arbitration Or
an unconditional withdrawal of the notice. The colliers
the confident in the power of their organisation to sustain
them. The ironworkers, however, have no union, and how
they are going to abide the coeteet we do not know, neither
do they appear to know theloselthe ; hut they are not the
less resolute, if we may be guided by the tone of their meet-
ings, In their determinatiou not to go to work at a reduction
of wages. The proportion of colliers to the whole number
out Is about one-fifth. The rustler returned to tne Amal-
gamated Association is 11,405 as actually out at thls moment
but they are not all in the union, mid therefore will not all
receive benefit from its tunas; but on the 15th
that, the whole of the colliers at Borstalo. number-
ing nearing 3,000, will cease working, and therm men
are nearly all unionists. Apparently there Is en scar-
city of money among the workmen yet, and this Mr-
twnstance may have a good deal to do with the buoyancy of

their spirits. To-day, however, mu the last pay day, and
all the men who were out went to the offices and received
the balances due to them. The total sum thus distributed
must amount to many thousaod pounds, the circulation of
which will prevent the effect of the strike from being felt
by the general public for a short time to come. It will
make itself felt, however, when no money issues from
the oflices, and another fortnight, should the struggle un-
happily continue so long, will subject the men to severe
straits. There are some among them whose prudent
habit' in past times will enable them to weather the Storm,
lett the fact that women and children have already
commenced to beg shows how unprepared by far the
larger portion are fir the severe trial to come. It is es-
pecially unfortunate for the men that they should have te
face the contest darter another winter, for, even now, coal is
In scarce at the said. that people almost scramble for the
quantities that dribble In from other plaoen, arida weak hence
It will be evolve beyond description ; for by that time half the
men will have run out of their stock, and their rrd Mary sources
of supply will be stopped ; and should the contest last •
month the privation. from want of food and flre must be some-
thing to be contemplated with dismay. Prom Inquiries made
at the works we learn that In one or two places—and notab y
so at Cyfarthfa—advantsge will be taken of the stoppage to
execute repairs, mud this will give emploinient for a net
or two to a large number of mechanics —carpenters, smiths.
the But at other works, we are sorry to ray, not a single
man beyond those absolutely I ecessary wid be employed.
The strike and lock-oot will be compl-te. The blast furnaces
are not all out of blast yet, but the few that are blowing
will absorb all the stock of coal In a few days, and then will
have to be damped down, like the others, or be blown out
entirely. As the operation of blowing in again is expeosive,
however, in all cases where it can be done the furnaces will
be simply damped down and the blast taken off. In that
condition they can be kept ready for work at short notice
for three or even four months at • atretch, and this Is •
great power lu the handset the masters in waging the con-
flict.

The cause of the strife is well known. The masters gave
notice of a reduction of wages of 10 per cent, on the let of
December. They stated that their reason for doing an wes
that the iron trade had beceme so bad that they could not
book orders except at such a great reduction in price as
rendered the operation of • reduction of wageslbsolutely
necessary. To that the men replied by quotations from
the price lists of trade jonrnals, showing that Welsh bar
iron had during parts of the year 1572 been quoted at higher
rates than the North of England ban, yet there was no talk
of a reduction in the North, where wages were higher already
than they were in Sou th Wales. There was then a conference of
the two parties at Cardiff, at which the masters produced
statements of the prices actually received by them, and
which were considerably blow the quotations upon which
the men relied to prove their case The men then naturally
asked how they were to have the figures proved, unless the
masters wont consent to a reference to arbitration. The
answer an that arbitration had been one-aided in it/ work.
leg, as shown by cues in South Wales, and the most recent
Instance of the workmen of the North, who Wanted upon
6 per cent, more than the arbitrator, awarded, and the
masters were obliged to yield to avoid a tight. But the
question of proof was pertinet-t, and they would submit
their books and vouchers to attest the accuracy of their
figural to any two workmen appointed by their fellows at
the several works. The masters suggested that the men
should go to work and continue at the reduction till the let
of March, to await the result of the Spring inquiry for Iron,
when it was hoped and believed there vreuld be inch an im-
provement as to enable the employers to give back the 10
per cent with a possible addition. What they asked the
men to do was to enable them to tide over the present diffi-
culty until then. At the meeting at Merthyr next day, as re-
ported in 75c Times, the workmen decisively rejected these
proposals, and insisted upon old prices or arbitration.
. . .

-
The difficulty has been complicated by the action of the
coal owners who raise coal for sale. The steam coal owners
have bound themselves to rise or foil with the iroumasteri
pits. A few days alter the ironmasters had issued their
notices the steam coal owners followed with a notice of re-
duction, and they were followed immediately afterwards by
the house coal owners with theirs. The angry attitude of
the colliers led to the withdrawal of the n:dices at almost
all the pits of these classes, leaving the irournasters alone in
antagonism with their men. The explauat ion given by the
latter of this apparently strange conduct of theirs in adher-
ing to their notice after the others had been withdrawn is
that the eases of the two parties rest up n entirely different
bases. The sale coalo wrier even now, they soy, receives for
the coal he sells double the arose cost of production at the
pit's mouth. The irunmaster, however, consumes his coal in
the manufacture of iron, and gets his profit upon the iron, and
not upon the coal Thus, to realize the seine profit aa the sale
coslowner makes upon his coal, iron which sells at £lO Per
ton, ought not to cost more than L 5 per ton to make, which
was simply impossible. This arrangement of the coal-
owners is • sore point with the ironruasters, who regard it
s spur to the ~ollters outside the ironworks to ass,st by
every means in their power to keep up Ironwork colliers'
wages, in order that their own may not he reduced. It ap-
pears that the enginemen and firemen are not ranked with
the colliers proper, so that the drainage and ventilation
of the pits wtU not be stopped, though the cotters do not
work.

Under the head of "The Exodus from Merthyr,"
the Correspondent f the Datly News, writing from
Aberdare, on Monday night, says
. _

The workmen of the Merthyr valley, with a promptness of
action which has, perhaps, not always happily distieguished
their pro :e since the crisis of Cm quarrel with their
employers, have boor moving westweri to-day iu numbers
which, if the proportion be maintained, will speedily de-
populate the but lately teeming hamlets. A eerier does
not hameer himself in travelling with much of what Mr.
Wemmiek calls "portable property "—an extra shirt, a pair
of socks, a eopernumerary waistcoat, and a change of
trousers, with a oaf of bread, • little tea, a modicum
of sugar, and puribly a rasher of bacon, to Make
up a handy parcel, which is slung over his shoulder on the
handle of his spade, suffice. Thus provided, he turns out to
seek his fortune, bending his steps in the direction of the
Aberdare and ithondda valleys, where the blight of the strike
1,.. not lane., and where they gay "there le work and plenty
to 1,1 had for the arkiag." Impersonal hnd irresponsible
" they" says a good deal to the credulous miner just now,
and though he le in ...rue cases exceedingly exacting of re oof
in support of the assertion, he blindly boiler. in "they,"
and sets out cheerfully to enjoy the promised Eldorado.
It may appear strange to the outsider that the
colliery dietrict west and south of Merthyr should be
capable of absorbing an apparently unlimited number of
band,: but it in probable that the great majority of the men
who start thus early with shovel on shoulder will find ample
work. The explanation of the cirenmeture is not altogether
creditaale to the collier ; but it is best it should be set forth,
and it hae a special interest for the public, who pay current
price. for household coal. The fact is, then, that for twelve
months hack, eter since the extraordinary rte to the price
of coal and the advanced wages paid to the colliers, very
few of the Welsh colliers have been working more
than three-quarter time. The collier can earn 305 a week;
that sum is sufficient to provide him with an approximation
to 'efficiency of food for his family, and • fair alio canoe of
drllik for himsrif. On the old scale of wages he. requirrd six
days' labour a week for him to earn 303., and he wee ac-
customed to work for six days at present prices he
can earn 30s. Is. four days. Accordingly, he, u a rule,
works only four days • week and very frequently
devotes the odd two to getting drunk. This statement
was in effect made by Mr. Menelaus, speaking to the dele-
gates at the Cardiff conference last week ; but I do not repeat
it upon his authority. I have seen the books of two
of the largest employers of colliery labour in South
Wales, and find in the daily returns of the coal "take" that
it begins on the Monday with, to give an average 'Hustle-
Mon, 238 tons; advances on Tuesday to 460; begins well on
Wednesday with 720: and goes on steadily over Thursday
and Freda} yielding 1,650 tons for the two days, About 800
tones day is what might fairly be yielded be this particular
colliery: but as the men do not buckle fairly to their work
till Wednesday there is so much leas cord to go to the mar-
ket. The men who are going d own to the Rhondda and Aberdare
valleys will find the benefit of thin ordinarily unfortunate
state of things, and will be welcomed by the colliery
owner., who in the present state of the market desire
nothing more than a full field. I have seen it stated in a
quarter which is popularly accepted as an authority on all
matters, and the present strike IA calcelated still further t
1.0041 op the price of coal. As • matter of fact the effect
ought to be precisely the reverse, for in the first place it is
not what are called the Sale Coal Collieries that are affected,
but the lommasterg Collieries; its the second place, by the
closing of the immune Ironworks of South Wales the de-
mand for coals has materially lessened; and in the third
place the Sale Coal Collieries by the suession of strength
which the difficulties of the Ironmasters Colliery owners
gives, are In • position to get larger yields thou heretofore.
Many of the seen, especially in the neighbourhood of
Tredegar and Rhymney, are footing it over mountains and
highways . but hundreds are treating themselves to the
luxury of which they have throughout to day almost claimed
the monopoly. At lout two thousmd colliers have taken
tickets at the several stations in Merthyr to-day, and have
come hither or gone on farther westward and northward.
The bulk of the emigrante are colliers who are moving
I. obedience to the word of the Miners' Association.
The unfortunate ironworkers, the victims of the strike,
are here again at the disadvantage which has pursued
them throughout. The collier has all the fields of the wee.
ten valleys open to him ; if they fail to yield • return, he is
to be passed on, carriage free, to Staffordshire and the North,
where the Union will find him work, or, falling that, bet, to
receive 10s. • week, with an allowance per head for each
child under twelve. An ironworker who did not want to
strike, and in point of numbers stands as to 1 against the
colliers has no allowance from a Union no prospect of
removal to the North of Staff ordr hire ; and has not open to
him what is prized most of all, the opportunity of
working In some other of his native villages till such
time as sunshine should be restored in hie own.
The Welsh coal trade I. good, and the colliery owners
can do with as many men as they can find "stall,"
for in their pits. The iron trade is suffering from
• relapse, and the ironnuaters elsewhere have ae mach as
they CM do to find work for their own hand.. f tie being the
position of affairs, the ironworkers—srith the exception of a
few of the younger and more enterprieing who are already off
to the North—are staying moodily at home and anxiously
discitsaing whether Air. Cmwslay ham or has not given
directions for the furnaces at Cyfarthfa to be blown
out. They hope for a speedy reconciliation, and some
think it possible that they may even he at work again by
next Monday. Nothing is more to be desired ; but it is
Impossible to close one's eyes to the fact that the
pusge of every day adds difficulty to the restoration of the
old condition of things. Supposing the best, and reckoning
the colliers of the Merthyr and POI Vales will be willing to
come hack as soon aa affair, are settled between masters and
men, six weeks at least must elapu before they can get hack
to their 01.1" stalls:" for, if they have obtained work else-
where, they will, in accordance with the custom of the
country, have "contracted" for a month. Without the
coal and ironstone you cannot get plg-iron ; and what are the
fifty thousand ironworkers to do in the meanwhile? This is
regarding matter, in the hest light which the day affords,
and the prospect Is not a cheerful one

_
The carriage ill which I Journeyed hither from Merthyr
formed past of a train so long and so heavy that it was
found necessary to have • second engine attached. Every
carriage swarmed with colliers, and when all the third.
Class compartments were filled, the second and first classes
were given up to them; their personal 'mimeo was, as
already hinted, far below the maximum fixed by the
regulation of the railway company, and in not a few
Instances it was comprised in • spade. The emigration
of the wife and children was an exceedingly rare excep-
tion, but the wife and children were there In the station to
see us At and as the heavlly-freighted train steamed slowly
out there was much waving of hands and a chorus of fare-
wells. Everybody seemed in good spirits and confident
of doing well "on the other tilde of the moun-
tain." My ria-el cis —an old gentlemen wearing a
tall bat based upon • marvellously narrow brim, was
at the outatt rather inclined to be melancholy, arid
was decidedly nervous at finding himself in a rail-
way carriage. " I've worked for Mr. erawshay forty-two
years," he said, "arid I have not had much cause to
travel. I wish I'd none now; but the old woman and as.
can't live upon nothing. So I took up my spade this morn-
ing, and said to her 'Betsy Evans, Fos going to the other aide
of the mountain to get work, if lir. Crawshay sends word
to any, 'Where's John Evana that's worked for me forty-
two years? tell him to come back at once,' let me know,
rm back if I walk all the way; and 'deed I'd rather
walk, for I don't much care about these railways. I'm
getting rather old to change about at my time of life,
out I can use my spade still, and there it is." I
knew it was, because the old gentleman had an
affectionate manner of holding the Implement nnder
his arm, a habit which, to the crowded state of the
carriage, made matters awkward for his opposite neighbour.
Mr Evans is not the oldest of the Cyf arthfa men, for I talked
with one there on Saturday who had been fifty years in the
service of the Crawshays, and had dim recollections of the
great riots of lafil, when the black flag was flying on Brecon
high road, and the insurgent colliers were shot down like
wolves by soldiers. But forty.two years' service is • long
period to have suddenly broken op; and thinking over
this, and of the sorrow which the severance of the Wool&
lions of nearly half • century must have caused to the old
man, it became possible to regard the obtrusive spade wah
finite a kindly interest, and to realat the rtflection that it
might Just as conveniently have been caused to assume a
nerpepdicular position. A large contingent of the colliers
got out at Aberdare, but the rest, including Mr. John Evans,
went on further—not, I trust, to fare wefts.

A correspondent of the Daily News writes :

The difficult vID Smith Wales is a eurepllcated one. The
masters, owhg to fall In the price of iron during November,
have taken contracts on lower terms. The fall has brought In
a large number of orders, which has forced up the
market. The colliers, overlooking the fall and Its
conlequencee to the konmasters, look only at the dell
quotations, and claim an advance ; this being

a strike ensnee. The Melte agratates the evil by
diminishing production and keeping up the price. The
men are, In fact, claiming all the advantages of good times,
and refusing to share the disadvantages of bad. They pro
pore to tram for their labour elsewhere, the result of which
will be to lower wages in the districts to which they go;
and the married men, who must remain, will be ()dived
to go let at prices dictated by the masters. Ihe whole
strike is founded on misapprehension of the position.
However well intentioned the delegates may be in their
cites to raise the valid of tabour, and with it the well-being
of the colliers, they are ignorant of the test prima pies
of pollticel economy if they Imitable that they can ktotp
the prices of anything upwards at 10) per cent. above
its average value for any length of time. They are simply
"killing the goose that lap, the golden egg..." lit outing
the colliers to strike they are stopping 50,000 ironworkers,
and leaving what represents some 800,000 mouths utterly ten.
provided for' In its ramification the strike will affect the
well-bong of every working man and tradesman in England;
and the diet dice of the colliers' delegates to the ironworkers
is more despotic in It. reality than anything that they have
ever laid to the account of the molders. Surely bore is a cam
for arbitration.