The Express.
London, England, 1867-04-26 00:00:00

THE TAILORS' STRIKE.

Up to the present there seems but little proba-
bility that this movement will be amicably terminated.
Since the aggregate meeting of the trade, held in the Al-
hambra on Monday, a committee of the men on strike sits
daily at the Green Dragon King-street, Regent-street, to
whom everything concerning the action of the masters
and the attitude of the men is regularly reported. Com-
munications have been received from several parts of the
Continent expressing intense sympathy with their fellow-
workmen in London, and promising all possible assist.
ante, both moral and material. On Wednesday a tele-
gram was received from Paris couched in the following
words :—" The funds are coming in from all quarters—
from every town in France, and even from abroad. The
painters have sent a large sum. People cannot make out
where we get all our money from. All the papers are in
our favour, and are pronging our calm demeanour. The co-
operative association began working yesterday in an empty
warehouse (their late premises being too small since the
strike) till their new premises on the Boulevard Sevastopol
be ready. We will ail take our savings there as soon as we
resume work. We are very sanguine of encase. You can
form no idea of the effect produced in Paris by the closing
of the tailoring establishments on the Boulevards." The
association alluded to in the telegram is one founded upon
the principle of co-operation or associated labour, of which,
it may be added, Mr. John Stuart Mill is a strenuous ad-
vocate. The MOD in London have struck at about 90 shop
in all, and only three of the masters (Messrs. Creed, Ball,
and Brine) seem satisfied to accept the demandso vigorously
urged by the men on. strike. The following instrir-
ti=a ereg-21stfetig=4:
report themselves to the shop committee as soon
as their trade is finished to be put at once on
the roll. All men on strike to report themselves
at the calling of the roll three times • day, viz., 9 a.m.,
noon, and 4 p.m. All men failing to attend picket duty,
or to answer their names on the roll, to be reported to the
central committee. Secretaries must send in a report
to the central each evening at 6 o'clock." Men appointed
on pickets are required to watch the several places of busi-
ness of which the masters refuel to accede to the claims
of the men, and their conduct is characterised by most un-
mistakable assiduity and vigilance. livery exertion is
being put forward to prevent local journeymen in the
country from making up goods sent to them from the
metropolis, and so injuring the efficiency of the Loudon
Association. Each man will receive • guinea • week,
and the committee will be enabled, owing to the pros-
perous condition of their funds, to make this payment
fdr some time at least. When their own resource. are
exhausted, the tailors expect that their treasury for
the time being will be restored, partially or entirely,
by the other different trades throughout the kingdom.
It may be interesting to many to know bow the con-
cession of the demands •f the men would affect the
masters. With regard to the Erst-class firma " the time
log" would increase the wages of the rmplopis by only
about 2s. a week, while something like 20 or 24-, per cent.
would be added to the present rate in the lesser establish-
ments. Nominally, the dispute is • question of time;
practically, it is simply one of wages. Women who have
not hitherto been received into the asexiation have now
applied for admission, and the committee have consented
to grant their itition. The " slop trade," as it is termed,
is not affected the present agitation, but the men pro-
poweto make • determined attack on what they all the
' iniquity of the system" as soon as they anointed in their
present objects. Certainly some reform in this direction
is absolutely necessary, for many of the unfortunate men
and women engaged in " slop work" in the most wretched
districts in the east of London have to struggle day and
night for • most miserable pittance. So stands the move-
ment at present as regards the labourers. The masters
propose holding a meeting at the Hanover-square Rooms
to-morrow, when their mode of action will be explicitly
announced. —Tenor.