The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1872-04-06 00:00:00

HISTORY of the STRIKE of the WARWICK-
SHIRE AGRICULTURAL LABOURERS.

In a letter, dated Leamington, March 31, the Special Cor-
respondent of The Times glees the following interesting
account of the rise and progress of the strike amongst the
agricultural labourers of South Warwickshire :-
-

The strik e of agriculturallabourers in South Warwick-
shire, not only from its original features and from the
character of its promoters but more especially since it
has been seized upon 38 an opportunity by a certain
school of politicians, is a matter of no mere local or
temporary iniportance. The movement originated in
Wellesbourne, a considerable agricultural village about
six miles from Warwick, surrounded by the estates of
Sir Charles Mordaunt and Mr. Lucy and by those of
one or two smaller landowners. There had been, it may
assumed, a certain amount of quiet preparation
among the labouring classes, and this culminated In a
meeting held early in February upon Wellesbourne-
green, for the purpose of forming an Agricultural Union
. analogous to the Unions of the various trades. The
meeting was adjourned to the 13th of February, and
then one Mr. Joseph Arch came very prominently to
the front, and assumed a leadership which he appears
likely to retain. Mr. Arch is in many respects a re-
markable man, and, though he describes himself simply
as an agricultural labourer, he is as distinctly superior
to the typical peasant in physical organization as he
has shown himself to he in courage and in intellectual
capacity. He seems about 45 years of age, and his
account of himself is that he " struck " on his own
1 account two-and-twenty years ago, by refusing the
scanty wages of employers in his immediate vicinity,
and by walking long distances in search of better pay.
It was his custom to go wherever he could get the best
terms, starting to his work on Monday morning and
not returning to his home until Saturday night.
During the intervening time he would save the ersit of
lodgings for himself by sleeping in his clothes in any
shed or outhouse; and the result of all this industry and
self-denial has been that lie has not only earned much
mere money than others of his class, but that he has been
able to educate himself to a considerable extent, and to
bring up a family of seven children in much credit and
respectability. He has been for some time a local
preacher among the Wesleyans, and has thus gained
fluency of speech. At the Wellesbourne meeting he
advocated the new Union in a telling address, in which
he at the same time expressly cautioned his hearers
that their coalition must be defensive only, and that
no amount of strength must lead them to act unfairly
or unjustly to their employers. He met by anticipa-
tion the farrcer's objection—that a Union would en-
able men to strike at critical periods of the year, at
harvest, or when stacks were uncovered for threshing,
and declared that any such conduct would be alike
dishonest and impolitic. He described the agricub
tural labourers as the most down-trodden and op-
pre..sed of all classes of the community, and quoted an
instance of a waggoner who told him that he worked
from four in the morning till eight at night, except
ow Sundays, when he worked from Aye till sit at