The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1873-02-08 00:00:00

'HE ST-EIKE IN souru WALES.

The Speotal Correspvadeut ot the linis write :

MERTHYR, Feb. 2
The weather of the last three days is eubjecting the
men out on Strike, and the poorer clasess depending
on them, to hardships which ought to try crucially
their powers of endurance. Since Thursday night
there has been an &lensed continual frost, and
throughout to-day mew has been f sluing heavily ;
a high wind has drifted the snow up to the height
of a foot to a foot and a half along the fronts of the
houses, and the glares is rapidly falling. No advances
towards a settlement are hi-leg made by either
hide except to a very limited extent. The Ueiou
denies, through Mr. Halliday and other of its organs,
that any order hail been issued by its executive against
coal cutting for the pumping engines ; but it is a fact
that be overseer of one of the Cy farthfa pits is obliged
at this moment to do that work himself. Colliers will
not come to do it even at the full rate of wages. Some
few men did i resent themselves at the mouth of nee of
the pits, and were about to descend, when women and
girls set np a cry of " turn coats." and the colliers de-
camped. As against such indications, it ought to be
mentioned that some of the iroeworkers on Strike, to
a limn Mr. Cr.... shay 'sneaking an adeaticeuf I.oe. a week,
waited Ola buss yesterday, and said they would prefer to
resume work at 14s or to.. a week to remaiffiug out in
isilimees on the las. Mr. Cray/shay commended them
for their proper feeling, but said be could not take in
his ironworkers, because he had no coal for his fur.
nieces. This is a etriking illustration of the fart that
the colliers hold the key of the psi aims. At the suns
time, I think it may be doubted that any vet), large
number of the ironworkers would be found ready to
go in. They have not been reduced to the state that
would render capitulation an actual necessity, and the
majority express the neselves determined to stand out.
There are no people, perhaps, whose real opinions it
is more difficult to gene at than thee, of the lower
orders of the Welsh. They are at since loquacious and
reticent : they are always very ready to accommodate
you with plenty of words, hit no people are more skilled
in the net of words for the concealment of ideas. The
same individual is an enthusiastic deteuds r of the Strike,
or • tierce denouncer 0 'the misohievous men who
have stopped the work," according to the sympathies
of the hearer. It is only by mixing among them when
they are talking of the matter among themselve
you can come at what they really think. Persons
who know the native character well say that the
olliere would throw over Mr. Haliiilay and his
Union to-morrow if he atod his executive ordered
them to take any coarse which they did not believe
to be directly to their own advantage. The Unionists
say that if the masters recognized it, the Union
would he powerful in checking irregularity of work-
ing and in securing a proper output of coal. The
argument of the minders in reply is that while the
is powerful for evil, it would be quite power-
less for goes! so far 34 the Welsh miners aro con-
cerned. They believe that loy the discountenance-
ing of what is known as " chas'ne," the agents
of the Union have been keeping down the output.
The manager of a proprietary, which is not in the
masters' Union, haa told use that if the trio were
anxious to get an additional weight of coal raised, in
order, say, to load a vessel and save demurrage, ha
should be afraid to let the colliers know that anxiety.
because experience has taught him that if he did
they would knock off an hour or so earlier in order
that they might cut less. A member of the
Masters' Union told me that some time ago ffi one
of his pits a steady collier was induced to cat out a
considerable weight ot coal above the ordinary ,
aver:see, but this lasted for one day ot ly. On the '
following morning a meetiog wee held at the pit's
mouth before the colliers deaam led, and the man
who bad displayed such offensive industry was
warned in no very choice terms not to attempt a re-
petition of the offence. Coal is now high, but it is
well for the public that a very large number of the
colders on Strike from the ironwork coalpits have
found employment in the steam coal and house coal
pit,, and that consequently the output from both
those eaeses of pits has very considerably increased
within the last fortnight. Several large steam coal
owners have told me that they gave strict orders
that none of the colsiers on 'Strike from the ironwork
pits were to get to work in their collieries, but it is
not a little singular that the traffic receipts of a line
which runs through the steam and house coal pits cf
an extensive valley, not very many miles from
Merthyr, were over £l,OOO higher the week before last
than in the corresponding week of last year, and that
every day last week many more trucks laden yrdh coal
pawed over that line than day for day had ever peesed
over it before. 'There are, however ugly rumours in
the regions of those coal pits which seem t o indicate it
would be very much to the disadvantage of the coal
consuming public if the present Strike were patched
up in a way displeasing to :he steam and buss coal
hewers. One cannot pass through the Rhenslda
Valley, for instance, wi lout seeing that the
colliers these are a more reckless and determined
looking set of fellows than those in the
Merthyr Valleys. The latter look like natives of the
doll on which they are living; the Rhondda Valley
men look like rongh colonists ; in presenting such an
appearance they are quite in keeping with the charac-
ter of the pleas. It is a colony which has grown up
rapidly under a prosperous industry. One of the chief
reasons why colliers' wages are so high is that when
those steam and house coal valleys began to be worked
the masters had to offer higher wages than those paid at
that time in the Merthyr Valleys in order to indnce
men to go there,. Even with such an inducement only
very young men as a.rule migrated there. beeanee there
were but few houssa near, and the colliers hurl to put
up with many hardships above as well as underground.
Since then thosoiaside of houses have been built in
the Rhondda and Aberdare Valleys, but life, espe-
cially in the former, is somewsiat sougher than in the
Merthyr datriets, and the colliers are still of the
colonist stamp. They are not only paying liberally
towards the support of their brothers on strike, but
"using all their influence" with the small tradeamen
to further the subscription list,. The donations paid
to Rob Roy by the Scotch farmers were not more
strictly " blackmail " than the money which the strug-
gling shopkeepers of South Walter are paying by way
of " eoltuitary donations" to beggars in person or
committees appointed to receive and distribute those
peace offerings. The only real pity felt is for those
who did nothing to bring about the Strike, but whom
it has reduced to abject destitution.

The following Ii also green the Special Correspondent of
The Times
MERTHYR, Feb. 3.

Mr. Fothergill's furnacemen at Aberdare have not
carried out their intention of joining the Strike. on
Friday morning they announced to his agent, Mr. Fos-
good, that they would do so, but they saw him again
on Saturday, and the result of what passed is that they
have entered on anether month at the reduced rate.
The declaration that they would go out W 34 reported
to me by Mr. Fosgood himself.

Mr. Fothergill states that during the last month
they tani.d £.2 91 91. a week; they are making pig
iron, for which Mr. Fothergill has the necessary coals.
Wherever th, masters have had the coals, as at Ithym-
°eye, for instance, the furnacemen have, as a rule,
remained at work at the reduction, but those men
who only work at the blast furnaces and at making
pig irm are saarcely included in the general term
fronwnfkers. Up to this I have steadily refused
to believe in the genuineness of threatening letters
reported to have been sent to men who have consented
to cut coal or do other work in any of the pits, but I
have now before me a letter brought to the office of the
Cyf arthia works by a collier working in a pit of Mr
Crawshay's. known as the Csvm Pit, to whom it was
:tddressed through the post. It is as follows :

"Merthyr TydvU, Jan. 4, 1973

"To the furncoats or Blacklegs that work in Cerm Pit
(omery,—We wish to Inform you that soma of your fellow
rae6 will take your life unless you will repent and leave
working at Cwm Cit. We csution you so much as this at
present, tow before a fortnight you will he drifted to another
world unless you will leave your present occupation. The
Owe of which we Intebil to take your life will bees under
(.eu Walsh letter). Prepare yourself, for your life will be
taken fret.: you unless you leave working under the green
turf. "Yours,
..TWENTY DETERMINED TO REVENGE."

Enclosed in the foregoing letter was another, written
in the Welsh language, and, I believe, a translation of
the one in English. At the foot of the Welsh letter
was a wretched pen and ink sketch of a collier having
his head severed from his body with a reaping hook,
evWded by the arm of some unseen assassin. Red ink
was used to depict the streams of blood flowing from
the bead and the decapitated trunk. It is possible that
there is nothing serious in this missive. We know that
silly stupidity indulges in what are known as "larks,"
even when anything like fun, whether successful or
abortive, is wholly out of place. It may be so in this
instance, hut it is rather awkward, and not reassuring,
that the English ccpy of the letter is written on note
paper which on one corner bears a stamp with these
scot& embossed round it and in the centre: -" Amal-
gamated Association of Miners, Merthyr and Dowlais
District," At least the letter must have been written
by some one who had access to the Union note paper
of the distriit in which the ;At is situated. It will
be observed that the date of the English letter is
January 4 ; that of the Welsh copy is dated both
3rd and 4h of January ; the post.m irk appears to be
January 31, and the Illan to whom it Was addresettl
alleges that it came into his hands Cu Saturday last. I
hate heard of other acts of terrorism, but as there is
no apparent connexion between them and any one act-
ing for the Union, I think it better not to refer further
to them. A threatening letter such as this is, how..
ever, ouite a different matter. I hope and believe
there is ro real cause for men being afraid of working
in :tither ironworks or collieries, if they should think
tit to so ; but I have reason to think that
4, great many of the pane fellowa theinselvts do
rugi
riot concur with rug n this opinion. The Union
which publicly repudiates the idea of intimida
tion, owes it to itself to inquire how it has
come to pale that 1.0 official pal er is used for the pur-
pose of preventing, by threats of assassination, colliers
doing work that is necessary to preserve the coaloits
for the colliers as well as the maters. Ae to apr
Kpect of an end of the Stlike. I see none. The affair
has reached a stage in which it is likely to rtmain for
weeks to come, during which the clothes and furniture
of thousands of poor families will he sold or pawned.
:tire misery will be 'suffered by sunny more thousands
of women and children, and s great industrial district
swill be demoralised by a wholesale system of organised
mendicancy.

;',,c Times' Special eorresporrient also writes :-
31ErTlint Feb. 4
The result o! the negotiations for a settlement between
ilr nrover, ht, ^others has been accepte tin the Merthyr
district ars a failure, ania..'ll parties appear to have abandoned
any hopes they may have er,:,tained of an early termination
themselveanp to the belief
of the odepute, and to have glv .0
that the struggle has entered upon a ;"lillte likely to be pro-
tracted until one of the contending pst..les has exhausied
its powers of resistance. A meeting of ell4gates
repTh
seating all the districts of the Union In ton,, is
was held at M erth Yr today, at which the question-6! the
double shift was discussed for several hours, but the discus
sten was remarkably one sided, and the whole of the speakers
arguing against the system, the hostility of feeling was so
unanimous that it was considered unnecessary to express it
by a formal resolutim. The threatening letter pubished
In The Times to-day came under notice, and was det,Anced
with indignation as a wicked attempt to bring the Union
into contempt and to exclte public feeling against it. The
original was obtained from Mr Crawshay and shown to
the delegate., none of whom, however, could recognize
the handwriting either of the Welsh original or the Eng-
transistion which was sent with it. In the evening

a tub meeting-was heel at. the Drill-halt, ,hich wan ad-
, dressed by Mr. Halliday. He was received with loud &p-
-i plaints, arid or the course of a speech of groat length sod
i the meeting whidi it was intended to hold last wook was
I poatpotmd is ord, r that nothing should occur calculated to
I prevent the arren.e/Ileirt which was then thought likely to
he the result of tire negotiations between Mr. Broaden and
his workmen. Those negotiations were now practically at
an eini, arid thorn fi ire th.,re wart nothing to interfere nun
tho meeting. Ito conanlaim d bitterly of the personal-
ities in which Mr Tothergill had Inc utged by reite-
rating day after day hie allegation that he and his
coaojutors were agitators, incendiaries, and breeders
of discord, upon which they flooriahed. He thought they
were little likely to arrive at peace while employers mani-
fested a spirit of that kind Mr. 13rogdon, however, had re-
pudiated those terms, and he ventured to hope that the
mastors generally held the °pluton ot Mr. Brogden rather
than that of Mr. Fothergid Were it no he felt sure they
were riot so widely separated, nor so unlikely to come to a
ettlement, ou a satisfactory heals. lietcning to the suffer-
ing which existed, he sad that If the workmen had been
true to themselves its times paid, and bad made suitable
provision for adversity, there would not have been
so much privation. 14 was a leason which he earnestly
exhorted them to into to their ow,, profit iii future. A cops
of the lauttrated London N.tos of Saturday I int -was pro-
duced, aaid net illustration representing a dog-tight as the
Smiley occupation of Welsh colliers was denounced with
great emphasis, wild was endorsed by Ms me.ding. Mr.
Halliday believed the threatening letter already mentioned
was not written by ac--tiler, hut if It w.ne, in tho narue of
the Union he deClared that they would not couuteuance mich
conduct for a moment, bit would exert themselves for
the discovery of the offender, that the culprit might
bear the ptini.diment which he deserved. It was
no proof that the lettor was written by a member
of the Union beratlne the paper rout tined the lin.
premien of their seal, as if a snail tlesiglict to bring the
Ilion into a false position he would have no difficulty In
obtaining a blank sheet of official note-paper. its urged
the workmen to abstain under all temptation from such
reprehensible actions. so long as they did no they would
find him with them (-sorting himself to the utmost to procure
pecuniary assistance while the fight acted but from the
moment they resorted to malpractices bringing them within
the meshes of the law, they must riot could upon his syin-
pithy and assistance Ile thou discussed the double slat
question, and justified the refit In rej. chug the proposal to
settle the illspute uoon thin halals. With the excepiiiin
of the colliers of Northumberland and Durh in and
• few pits in the Forest of Dean luel Bristol districta, all the
collieries of the country were worked upon the system In
operation here. Ho described the double shift as a aystem
which involved such • sacrifice of social and do i ratio corn-
, forts as the workmen could not reasonably be called upon to
submit tn. lie contended that it would not realise the ex.
pectatlons of the employers act, Increased output, with a re-
duction In the coat of working, ton greater extent than could
be effected by a modification of the present system such as
they h proposed on behalf of the workmen. He believed,
however, that If the masters wnuld meet the men again
good would r(sult from it. He warned the masters,
however, that in holding out a desire for another
meeting they must not Interpret it as a sign of yield-
ing. Not no : they had found the sinews of war tot their
members so far, and would again, no matter how long the
struggle continued and he read a letter from a Cleveland
Minors' Association which had voted a contriblition of £lOO
a week to the Strike Fund of the Welsh c. liters. Ile hoped,
however, they would find a better settlement thin a sur-
render of the men through sheer necessity, since snob a
settlement would certainly ha productive of future grave
complications between masters RIO Olen, and must re-
sult in a repetition of the present struggle. if, 11-Iwever,
they were forced to fight to the end, if something was not
done and done quickly to produce a better condition oh
things, they might be assured that .the workmen would Ire
taken away by trainloads to places where they could find
employment at remunerative prices. Much as he should
deplore nuch a Istituto dish-cation of local industry, yet it
would be done before they surrendered to the reduction. He
prayed from his heart, however, that peace might be estab-
lished before it came to that pass. Dr. James Lewis, of
Maesteg, afterwards addreined the meeting, and advised an-
other conference bnwenn masters and men, and his senti-
ments were apparently endorsed by the meeting, which broke
up, however, without coming to any formal resolution.