The Sun.
London, England, 1841-02-04 00:00:00

TURN-OUT OF ENGRAVERS TO CALICO•PRINTERS.

Amidst all the vicissitudes incident to trade and com-
merce there is no class of operatives whose condition has
been less affected than that of the engravers to calico
printers. Their ratio of wages throughout the various
revolutions of other trades, has remained stationary, and
at this thy amounts to a very handsome sum. But it is
with this as with almost every class of operatives ; they are
not satisfied with doing well, and when even the amount of
wages is too ample to allow of complaint, their irgenuity
is taxed to discover some other grounds. This is a lesson
which cannot be too often road to the operatives ; for, in
the majority of instances, reduction of wages, the intro-
duction of machinery, destined to supersede manual
labour, and many other sources of humiliation are trace-
able to very trivial causes, the origin of which is to be
found in their own officious intermeddling, and
impertinent interference in the concerns of their em-
ployers. And even in such instances, could the men
gain their end, their success would, in few instances,
benefit their condition. The turn-out of hodmen in
building transactions had led to the invention of machinery,
by which their offices are more rapidly and uniformly per-
formed. The turnouts of cotton-spinners had led to the
invention of mule spinning, by which a great proportion of
hands has been rendered useless. And the same fact is
strongly illustrated by the ingenious machinery used by
engravers to calico-printers, and which, from its rapidity
and precision, must have superseded a large amount of
manual labours,,._- _
- -dug re ordina', patter ner .41 esig a 6, eat -dupes:, be-
come obsolete in this department of arr, thmeachine it.
self, however extraordinary it may appear, Orforming at
once the united offices of designer and engraver.
Further improvements may yet be provoked by the cir-
cumstances before alluded to, and to which I have now
more particularly to advert. Messrs. Joseph and Jslin
Lockett are engravers to calico printers in Manchester,
and employ about 100 men. A few days ago 20 of their
hands struck work and turned out. It was not fur wages ;
in this respect they were satisfied, at least they ought to be,
for several of them were earning 41. per week, and most of
them not less than 31. It was because their employers
had the assurance to transfer at his own request a young
man who had served his apprenticeship in their ser-
vice from one department to another, which better
suited his health. He had been accustomed to en-
grave copper rollers; he was ordered to engrave steel
dies, from which dies the impression is transferred by ma-
chine pressure to the copper rollers. For this very serious
offence 20 of the men turned out, and are destined to re-
main out ; for the Messrs. Lockett have discovered they
can do without them. They have substituted for the turn-
outs several men who before were employed in some part
of the engraving or printing department of the Potteries.
This is a curious transfer, but it has taken place; and the
places of others have been filled up by engravers to copper-
plate printers, all of whom are now engaged in learning the
business of engravers to calico printers. Hitherto the em-
ployers in this department of art have been sander the most
absolute and slavish control of the union ; so much so,
that a master could not ergage an apprentice or a
workman without permission of the union, tied in
the latter instance, even if permission is given, it must
be such a man as the union may choose to send, and
to him full wages must be paid, whatever may be his
merits as a workman, whether enfeebled by age or
otherwise. Thus some employers arc seriously li-
mited in the amount of their business, and for no other rea-
son than that th caprice of the union requires it. The
Messrs. Lockett could furnish employment to another
hundred men, hut the fiat of the union prevents it, and the
introduction of apprentices is absolutely forbidden. This
over-stretch of arbitrary power has, however, had its
proper effect ; and, in defiance of the union, the Messrs.
Lockett have engaged, since the turnout, no less than
twelve apprentices. I recommend these facts as a useful
lesson to trade unions.