The Sun.
London, England, 1853-12-28 00:00:00

THE WAGES MOVEMENT.

LORD PALMERSTON'S REPLY TO THE
OPERATIVES OF PRESTON.

PRESTON, MONDAY.—It will be remembered
that, a short time ago, a memorial was addressed
to Lord Palmerston in reference to the contest at
present going on between the factory operatives of
this town and their employers. The memorial was
adopted at a general meeting of weavers' dele-
gates. Yesterday Mr. Kinder Smith, president of
the Operatives' Executive Council, received the
following reply from the Home-office :
" Whitehall, Dec. 24, 1853.
" Sir—l am directed by Viscount Palmerston to
acknowledge the receipt of the memorial dated the
15th ult., signed by you on behalf of the power-loom •
weavers of Preston and its neighbourhood.
" Lord Palmerston has delayed till now answering
this memorial, in the daily hope that he might hear that
an amicable arrangement of differences had been come
to between the workpeople and their employers. I am,
however, to assure you that his lordship read the memo-
rial with much sympathy and with deep regret.
"It was impossible that he should not sympathise
with the feelings of a large number of a most deserving
class of the community, who have been led to think that
they are suffering under acts of injustice, and could not
but excite his deep regret to reflect upon the severe pri-
vations which the state of things to which the memorial
refers must have inflicted upon those on whom it so
hardly bears.
" Lord Palmerston desires inc to state that he feels
bound, moreover, to do justice to the temper and mode-
ration with which the memorial has been drawn up. His
lordship is sorry, however, to say that he has no means
of interposing to apply a remedy for the evils referred
to. It would be impossible for him, without much more
detailed information than lie
possesses, to form a just
opinion as to the merits of the points in dispute between
the working men and their employers, and he could not,
as a member of the Government, possess any right er
power to interfere in the matter.
" Under these circumstances, his lordship would only
for venture to suggest in the mostfriendlyloiritsome topics
o
awareeon thatlsicer 1 atiotnbooufr being a commodity, like anythe memorialists. They must be
well ltlhe
other, its money value in the market must be regulated
by the same general principles which govern the
price of other commodities ; and that among these go-
verning principles the most influential are the cost of
production and the relative proportions of demand and
supply. The cost of production in regard to labour
n
the price of the necessaries of life, and the proper-
It
se na ofs the demand and supply must depend very much
upon the periodical fluctuations of trade. It is greatly
to be wished that both the working men and their em-
ployers would allow these general causes to act silently
and gradually in equitably adjusting, from time to time,
the proper rates of the money reward for labour, and it
is scarcely to be doubted that by forbearance on both
sides, and by mutual and reciprocal good feeling, these
arrangements might generally be effected without re-
course to such injurious methods as strikes' and 'lock-
outs.' It may be stated that in times when, according
to the general principles above adverted to, an increase
in the rate of wages would be just, that increase might
be too long delayed, and the working men be thus sub-
jected to undue privation, if the adjustment was left to
the gradual operation of forbearance and good will.
But may not an appeal be made to the result of recent
events to show that even such inconvenience would be
less than the evil arising from extensive and general
strikes ? These evils are many and great. Tho
strike of the workmen deprives the strikers of their
wages, and, so far as wages are concerned, it de-
prives them of the means of subsistence. On the other
hand, the strikes, of course, stop production, and
unless markets happen at the moment to be much over-
stocked, strikes give to the foreign producer a position
of advantage• from which he may not afterwards be flo
easily dislodged. And if strikes were to become too
frequent, or of too long duration, a part of that capital
which is now applied to giving employment to labour
at home might possibly be transferred to other coun-
tries, to the disadvantage of British industry ; and that
this is not a groundless supposition is proved by the
fact that British manufacturing establishments have
been formed in Belgium, in Prance, and in Mexico.
This, too, leads to a reflection upon the opinion which
seems to have actuated the strikers, that the general pros-
perity of our export trade was in itself a proof that the
rate of wages ought to be increased. Lord Palmerston
does not pretend to form any judgment as to whether
that opinion was well or ill founded in the particular in-
stance to which it referred, but his lordship has desired
me to remark that our power to supply foreign markets
with manufactures depends upon the cheapness at which
those manufactures can be sold ; that their price must
depend mainly on the cost of production, and that the
wages of labour form a material part of that cost.

"Therefore, as our exported manufactures must
always be running a hard race with the similar manufac-
tures of other countries, an apparently flourishing trade
may possibly be checked by an increase of wages, which
would add t 3 the oost of production ; and the gains
made by the manufacturer may often consist of a very
small profit upon each separate article, the aggregate
amount ofgain depending on the quantity exported, and
that quantity depending on the cheapness of the commo-
dities, which cheapness again is governed by the cost of
production.
" In directing me to submit these general reflections
to the consideration of the memorialists, Lord Palmer.
ston does not mean to give any opinion on the imme-
diate subject of dispute ; but his lordship would earnestly
entreat the working men to lay aside those feelings which
are too apt to be engendered by a struggle, and to endea-
vour if possible to come to some arrangement with their
employers.— I am, sir, your obedient servant,
" R. WADDINGTON.
"Mr. Kinder Smith, Preston."