The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1873-02-01 00:00:00

induttrtra of this greatsountry may not he squandered
wasted iu iniierahle strikes —I sm, Are.,
A .carca EmpLot ER

The Times has the following leader on the Strikes :

The most zealous friends of the Welsh Colliers on Strike
may by this time have come to the conclusion that a man's
right to sell his :sheer on Iris own terms is not the only right
to be ornsidered in the question. Of course, the right Is not
admitted by the pitmen themselve. In this application to
individnale, for if it were there would be an end of the
Strike to-morrow, even if it hail ever begun. The rigbt
Is asserted for the whole population employed lir the
Collieries, If the right exist, it Is a right to injure, If not
absolutely to sty, all the noon rous industries which depend
upon coal—indeed, to stop 'he manufactures, the trade, the
commerce. mid even the defences of the country. Our Special
Correspondent has been to Swansea, and finds that even there,
where the proprietors of the Immense iron, copper, tie, and
other works have their own Collieries, the general rise in the
price of coal, measured by a rime from ne. to its a ton on
that for domestic use, is telling on the exports. A short
paragrimh the other day described the same results In the
Cheshire salt trade the coat price of salt necessarily sari s
almo:t exactly with the price of the coal Calf 'toyed in
raising the brine and evaporating the seater, and in le If-
defence the umniefactureus were obliged to raise the price
it salt from 7s or St to at much as Dn. a tun. Ai this
proved eleuost prohibitive, they reduced it to la., which
is DJW the price, we are told, for common salt. But
this tells OD the exports, and will tell further, for It Is ouly
cheapness combined with quality which enables English aalt
to Coco Its way against the bay and rock salt obtainable in
any qmmtity In most parts of the world. The makers ann.
eipate that the price will We much higher this year,
simply because they see no end of the Strike but it is pos-
sible the nyekera may not have considered sufficiently the
eff.ct of high price iu promoting discovery, quickening
invention, and stimulating enterprise. If it be true
that the Americans have discovered solid mountains of
salt, they will not require, incluting Canada, two hundred
thousand tons yearly from this country. But from all
quarters we have the same remonstrances against the at-
tempt of one particular class of labour 'to extort Its own
terms by para'yzing all other Industries. Every man has
rights undoubtedly, brit "every man" is only another term
Stir "all men," and it can hardly he said that all men have
the right to sit down and do nothing till they are all equally
satisfied.

" A Scotch Employer," whose letter we publish elsewhere,
seems to us to meet the special difficulty of the questim
very correctly. That difficulty in the mind of most of our
readers will be the nature of the einplosment, the severity
of the work, Its Intense replibilveur si—more in the 101114fill-
tion. perhaps, ths.. in the reality—anti Its terrible dangers,
not to be averted, even though chiefly owing to the negli-
gence of the men thorns lees. The public at large are ills-
polled to leek with very great pity and consideration upon
the men compelled to spend their working lives Is bur-
rowing Into the depths where fire and water dispute for the
ascendency, where the air is poisoned, where the only safe
light is • rayless glimmer and the work itself to it -done with
every disadvantage of position and posture. The compensa-
tion is that the wages are very good as compared with those
of a field labourer or even a "navvy." Our Correspondent,
In noticing that the pitmen on Strike have no bitter
allowance from their own Fitton than 10s. • week, which Is
the usual pay ct as agricultural labourer in the South-
Wergern Counties, °hams that every One of these men has
bests accustomed to spend that sum weekly in drink, and to
think it hardly sufficient for his Just needs lint when the
work is very hard, and the wages are very good, there is only
one rats of prudence and common sense, even if nine out of
ten never see It. 'that rule is that every man should do
his very best, work as much as he well can, cans as much as
he can, and endeavour in that way to improve his position.
A wan who can afford to spend its, a week in drink can
easily save gine in four or five years. by working his utmost
and drinking his least—that is, by drinking only enough for
necessary refreshment. A working man not much over
thirty, and with few months to feed, fit he ha. £lOO hal the
whole world before him, for there is no place in which our
language is spoken where he will not be welcome, and in-
deed, very much wanted. Nor is it necessary to hold out the
bait of emigration. Even they who stay at home, If only
they save a tittle and acquire temperate habits, will be
sure to have some opportunity of lightening their
labour, or exchanging it for some pleasanter em-
ployment. The case of hard labour, then, ii not so had as to
be governed only by simple selfishness on the part of the
labeurer himself. or simple pity on the part of the public.
We may reason quietly with the pitman without imputation
of Inhumanity. We may even suppose him to he. good citi-
zen, and ready to do his duty to the sommonwealth, includ-
ing some millions not better off than himself. We tell him
frankly that it la his duty to do his best, to raise as much
Coal as he can, not to strnd out overmuch for a rate of wages
which his employers declare to be incompatible with a fair
print, and which he cannot himself make out to be com-
patible with it. The calculation of profits is easy to nobody,
Mal impossible to the working man.
l'ohappily, the pitman, in common with many other work-
ing men, is possessed wish the belief that be has it in his
power to command prices, and therefore wages, by control-
ling production. ft is one of the very oldest and most uni-
versal of errors As our Civrespondent observes all ex-
perience shows that the more you can supply of any article
of necessary c .nsumption the more it wit be wanted—that
Is, the more will the world take of it, and the more will the
world depend upon it. Coal is now very much dearer than it
was forty years ago, bemosse the supply has been sir im.
memo, and the establishments raised upon that supply so
numerous and consume so much. Coal has changed the
clammier of our cities, the relatt ins of industry, all traffic
by land or by sea, aud, It may he said, the very face of the
earth All ults hits been dine becsuse the puddle generally
Lauded that the supply-would continue, and arranged their
plans upon thisexpectation. Should the Welsh colliers per-
sist to such an extent as materially to reduce the yield and
arm:sesta prices, there cannot fail to be an industrial collapse.
In that mar the demand for coal will fall too, and even if the
price or coals falls in consequence, people Will begin to think
twice before they commit their fortunes to e-iterprlscs
in which cheap coal Is a necessary element. We shall
have no more instances of single companies burning •
thousand tons of 'mai week by week at the same works.
The mere prospect it the world's industry being stop mni, or
seriously Impeded, ought itself to suggest I, the collier seine
doubts as to his alleged right to make Ids own terms That
right all will admit, so as It be considered by the side of
other rights, lint neither the collier nor any other man has
a 'Mit to obstruct arrangements, such as the period of
" shifts," and the use of machinery tnpplemeriting
human industry, for the were object of diminishing
or contricting the yield. No Strike can succeed If it defy
opinion snd repel sympathy, or If it be amenable to a ma-
terial confutation. The Colliers will soon have all England
against them If they persist in a course which can be shown
to he mireuonable, and which the working classes generally
will have good reason to think so. They had better come
to some fair compromise before they have to make an skew
lute surrender.