The Sun.
London, England, 1855-11-23 00:00:00

THE STRIKE AT MANCHESTER.

The only change in the situation is, that the operatives
of Messrs. Pooley and Co. Bradford-strret, who had ao•
cepted the reduction offered by the employers, but who
had reported at a public meeting that they were earning
higher wages, have been persuaded to strike. They gave
notice, yesterday morning, to their employers, that they
I would cease working in 14 days, if the original prices
were not restored to them.
The third weekly meeting of the factory operatives on
strike and their friends was held in the People's Insti-
tute on Wednesday, but was of a less interesting cha•
racter than those that had preceded it.
The SECRETARY opened the business by again caution-
ing the operatives out of work to be cautious in their
walks (or processions) through the streets, to be peace-
able, and neither give insults nor take notice of insults
from other people. They had with them at present a
greater amount of public sympathy than turnouts ever
had before, and they ought to be careful to preserve it.
He then read the reply of the masters to the memorial
of the committee, and commented upon it, but disclaimed
any intention to give a reply. The reply, he said, would
come from the committee, after due consideration and
care in drawing it up. He took credit for the operatives
that, by their own temperate course in addressing their
employers, they had elicited from them an answer charac-
terised by a tone of moderation which was unusual, and
which contrasted strongly with the spirit in which Mr.
Kennedy had personally treated them, when he threw
the memorial into the fire and refused to entertain it.
Their memorial bad evidently made an opening between
the men and their employers that might lead to a favour-
able issue. It was not well that in any establishment
there should be ill feeling on one side, and scorn,
tyranny, and neglect on the other, and he hoped,
from the tone of the masters' statement now pub-
lished, they might look forward to better days. (Ap-
plause.) In this statement the masters said they
could not give the prices they were now paying un-
less the prices paid by the masters in other towns were
brought up to the same standard. But this was new
language. Did the masters recollect 1853, when the
operatives of Preston struck against the wealthiest
mill owners in Lancashire there, who were paying the
lowest prices of any masters in the district 1 They then
said that the question was not one of wages, but whether
the masters should be masters in their own establish.
ments ; and they, the masters of Manchester, then en-
tered into a combination and subscribed money, not to
help the turnouts, but to help the masters of Preston to
crush their own workpeople. (Cheers.) Such was the
conduct of the men who now talked of bringing wages
at Manchester down to the standard of other towns,
unless the wages of other towns could be brought up
to the Manchester standard. He concluded by moving
that, notwithstanding the statement of the masters to
the effect that a reduction of prices was the only alter-
native, the operatives on strike still adhere to their first
suggestion, that short time was the better remedy, and
that they promise to do ail they can to induce short
time in other districts.
This resolution was seconded and carried.

The SECRETARY said another resolution had been pre.
pared, pledging the operatives to resist any reduction in
their wages, and to use all legitimate means for obtain-
ing sympathy and support from the public to enable
them to carry out that resistance. He thought, how-
ever, as their reply to the masters' address had not yet
been drawn up, this resolution had better be withheld
for the present.
A communication from the Barbers' Society was read,
promising their support to the men on strike, but ex-
pressing a hope that the operatives who wished to sup-
port their own prices would not patronise the halfpenny
shops. (Applause and laughter.)
The SECRETARY—The meeting laughs, but it is no
laughing matter. They are quite right. (Hear, hear.)
An OPERATIVE said the workmen at Messrs. Pooley's
mill had just held a shop meeting, and wished to state
the result.
'The SECRETARY said it had not been intended to go
into that business till the next meeting, but he might as
well now announce that the hands at Pooley's mills' had
agreed to strike, and would give the requisite notice
next morning. Ile hoped, however, that the business
would be settled before that notice had expired, so that
the operatives at Pooley's would not have occasion to
cease work. Thera was one other shop working at
lower prices, and that was the large mill of the Oxford-
road Twist Company. The bands had submitted to a
seduction there, and Mr. Cooke, one of the firm, was so
proud of his success in reducing them that he bad boasted
of it at Messrs. Kennedy's mill, and said his workpeo-
ple were perfectly satisfied. That was a fair challenge
to the operatives on strike to fetch those hands out if
they could, and it remained to be seen what could be
done. (Cheers.)
A vote of Vianks and three cheers were given to
Pooley's hands, and it was announced that the operatives
of Messrs. Simpson and Thompson, whose notice expired
on the previous night, had agreed to work another
week on the old terms, so that their strike would be
postponed till next Tuesday.
The meeting was then adjourned till next Wednesday.