The Sun.
London, England, 1858-12-24 00:00:00

COMBINATIONS AMONG PRINTERS.

HARRISON V. PEARCE.—LIBEL.
This was an action for libel, before Mr. Baron
Martin and a common jury, to which the defendant
pleaded not guilty, and a justification. •
The case is of considerable importance to the
printing trade generally, as exemplifying a system
which has long been protested againstby employers,
while it has been stoutly upheld by the "Union"—
a rather powerful combination of the employed.
Mr. Edwin James and Mr. Mellish were counsel
for the plaintiff ; Mr. M. Chambers and Mr. Haw-
kins represented the n
defedant.
Mr. James, in opening the case, said the plaintiff
was the proprietor of the Sheffield Tirnes and other
newspapers published in that town in connection
with it, and the defendant was the proprietor of a
local journal, the Sheffield Daily Telegraph. The
plaintiff came before them to complain of a series
of libels, which not only did him pecuniary damage,
but which had stirred up the feeling of the town of
Sheffield against him, endangering, in paint of fact,
his very personal security. Mr. Harrison, the
plaintiff, had risen by his own exertions from a
somewhat humble position in life, and had become
the proprietor of newspapers, which he had esta-
blished, and which were worth £B,OOO or £lO,OOO
until they were interfered with and nearly destroyed
by a powerful combination. There existed in Shef-
field a letterpress printers' society, which was in
point of fact a trade union, dictating whatever terms
it pleased to the employers. Mr. Harrison having
failed to comply with all the demands of this union,
a series of attacks were commenced against him,
but he endured them, until at last the libels were
published in the Sheffield Daily Telegraph, the ob-
ect-of which was to crush the position which. Mr.
Harrison's paper had fairly earned in the town.
Mr. Harrison had employed a certain number of
members of the union, which seemed to dictate
terms to the masters the most arbitrary that could
be supposed. For instance, compositors must not
work for the Times, they must not work for the
Messrs. Spottiswoode, the Queen's printers ; they
must not work for the Morning Post, nor must
they work for the Morning orEvening Star. Not
only did they lay down these terms, but they
threatened any . person who departed from them
with personal violence. It became impossible for
Mr. Harrison, subjected as he was to this perse-
cution, to carry on his publications. One of his
papers, the cheaper edition, was taken in at all the
factories, and there these placards were circulated,
so that the property fell away fast. There was a
series of libels, which charged Mr. Harrison with
improper conduct of his business, and held him up
to public contempt. Mr. Pearce, the defendant,
seemed to have lent his columns to the union with
the view of crushing a rival journal. He now carne
forward and justified his conduct. He said the
libel was true. It would be read to the jury, and
they would be the judges of its character, and the
effect such a publication was likely to produce ;
and then, measuring the result of those effects, they
would say to what damages the plaintiff was en-
titled.
Mr. Samuel Harrison examined—l am the plain-
tiff in this action. lam proprietor of the Sheffield
Times, which is published weekly, and also daily,
and of the Sheffield Daily News and Evening Ad-
vertiser. The defendant is the proprietor of the
Sheffield Daily Telegraph. I had a partner till
lately. I purchased the Sheffield Times, which was
then a weekly paper. I commenced it as a daily
paper on the 29th of June last. I commenced the
evening paper two years ago. Up to the 4th Oct.
they were profitable papers to me. There is a
society in Sheffield called the Society of Letterpress
Printers. I believe its title is the " Provincial
Typographical Association." Its executive is at
Sheffield, but it extends all over the country.
Mr. M. Chambers said he appeared for the pro-
prietor of a newspaper which had published an ad-
vertisement, and he did not see how this evidence
could affect his client.
Mr. Baron Martin—l do not myself see that it is
evidence. Let the libel be read. •
The alleged libel was then read as follows :
TILE PRESS TRAMPLING ON THE RIGHTS OF LABOUR.
To the Public of Sheffield and the Neighbourhood.
A dispute having taken place with Mr. Harrison, pro-
prietor of the Sheffield Times newspaper, which involves the
sacrifice of the whole of the journeymen printers in his em-
ploy-16 in number—the committee of the Letterpress
Printers Society of Sheffield deem it incumbent on them to
lay the following statement before you, well knowing that
they need only do so to insure your sympathy and moral
bilPrrt for, thanks to our local and general organisation,
we o not ask you for pecuniary aid on behalf of the hands
sacrificed, that being guaranteed from funds subscribed for
the purpose of enabling our members to resist the aggress
sions and attempted innovations on our rights and privileges
as working men by any unscrupulous employers, who, like
the proprietor of the Sheffield Times, think they have a per-
fect right to dictate to those in their employ any and what-
ever terms their caprice or selfishness may suggest.
We purpose, therefore, in this statement strictly to con-
fine ourselves to the facts of the case, and then confidently
leave the issue in your hands, feeling convinced that our
cause is a just one, and one, moreover, as the sequel will
show, that has been forced uponus, unless we were prepared
to submit to a considerable s eduction of wages. and comply
with Mr. Harrison's very modest request and cease to re-
main members of our Trades Union, thereby placing our-
selves the more entirely at his will, and enabling hum to
use us at his pleasure.
About three months ago Mr. Harrison commenced pub-
lishing a morning penny daily paper, in addition to a half-
penny Evening News and Weekly Times, the latter of which
he has been proprietor of for several years, always employ-
ing society men, though it may possibly have been more
from the force of 'circumstances than choice • for he has
frequently tried various schemes to take advantage of those
in his employ by evading the• rules and regulations of the
society; and on more than one occasion a strike has ap-
peared almost inevitable, and would doubtless have taken
place but for the timely and conciliatory measures adopted
by the society—its officers and members generally having a
great aversion to strikes, believing them to be injurious at
the best, and only resorting to them under extreme circum-
stances, and when to do otherwise would be more prejudi-
cial to their interests and derogatory to them as men. For
a short time after the commencement of the penny Daily
Times matters went on much as usual, Mr. Harrison con-
tinuing to pay the same rate of remuneration for the work
done thereon as he had for the halfpenny Evening News,
but not without often demurring to the same, and especi-
ally to the payment of the wages of several of those hands
who were expected by him or his overseer to be at work an
extraordinary number of hours both night and day, and
who consequently made large wages. But as it was
nothing unusual for Mr. Harrison to complain, the- men
employed did not take much notice of his threats to make
his place unfair—or, in other words, an " outlaw" office.
treiThe disappointment originated respecting the payment
of the extra charge for daily paper work, it will, perhaps,
be advisable hereto state some of the reasons why the extra
amount is charged, and also a few particulars as to the
practice in other towns. The public will not fail to per-
ceive that the duties of a morning paperhand are extremely
harassing in their effects on the system. At all seasons of
the year a large portion of the work is done by gaslight ;
and in the winter season nearly the whole of the composi-
tion is so done ; and however excellent the constitution of a
compositor may be, and hbwever prudent and determined
in his endeavours to keep up to the requirements of his
work, a very limited number of years' service on this de-
scription of work will, if the general health can be pre-
served, materially damage his sight, and compel him to
give place in the prime of life to a younger man, and to
seek such employment as he can procure, the prospect of
• which, from his past sedentary occupation, is anything but.
cheering. On these grounds the morning paper hand,
whether in London, in Dublin, or Glasgow, has ever been
paid at a much higher rate than the weekly paper or the
jobbing hand ; and since the introduction of dailies into the
English provinces, the same difference has been obtained.
In Manchester and in Glasgow the daily hand receives an
allowance of 10s. per week ; and in other towns somewhat
smaller sums are paid. When dailies were introduced into
• Sheffield the extra price was fixed at 55., with an additional
3d. per hour for all hours worked after 10 o'clock p.m.
- Five weeks ago the men in the office were made aware of
the fact that one of the employers of the town had adver-
tised in a London newspaper for a number of non-society
hands, the address being " M.G.A., Post-office, Sheffield."
Various ciicumstaneesl. to the belief that this advertise-
ment emanated from ii r. Harrison, who was compelled
thus to hide his real name under fictitious initials, lest his
purpose should be unmasked to the trade throughout the
country, and his machinations defeated. On the Saturday
following the affair came to a crisis, Mr. Harrison giving
most of his men a month's notice to leave his employment,
intimating that if they chased to be members of the trade
society they might be re-engaged, if not they must leave,
aosifineee,wimaspltitnerinined to have no more society men in the
thereby that he intended, if possible, to
have his workgdone on his own terms. Those who did not
receive notice immediately gave it, with two exceptions,
and these two have since
• leave at the expiration
the usual notice and will
i the office being the for thereof;
the only person remaining
is not a member of the seociaatil of the-news department, who
on the part of the hanedi:e
ill
think that this unani-
mityive to the public the
detestation in which the conduct of
en Mr. Harrison is held by
those who knew best, including tn°
except wealth, with their employer ; esqouainclioq telNjteel7 respect,
ing much intelligence, industry, and moral standing
as himself, but who have not been
tunate in contracting a wealthy matrOgiuet; m-eon
who
have contributed a portion of their earnings towards
the maintenance of this very Mr. Samuel Harrison' now
proprietor of the Shejflekt Times, but who some 10 or 12
years ago, was glad to receive his weekly allowance as an
unemployed member of the very trade society for which he
now pi ofesses to have such contempt, and by his actions is
endeavouring to overturn I This is the gratitude he shows
for the kindness he received from many of the men he now
scorns. " Oh, shame ! where is thy blush ?" if after this
ho can meet the public gaze or expect to receive the support
of the inhabitants of a town and neighbourhood like Shef-
field. We do not know the working classes if they do not
with one voice condemn such highly disreputable conduct.
But it may be said that "Mr. Harrison only demanded
that his men should leave the trade society, and that, per-
haps, was not so unreasonable as you seem to imagine." If
such be the case, we say he did more. What was his reply
to applicants for situations? The following letter, in his
own handwriting, will show :
" Sheffield _Daily Times, Sept. 6, 1858.
" Sir,—Hours ten per day, say 10 to 2, 3 to 6, and 9 to 12.
Wages, 285., or 30s. for good hands. State age, and send
testimonials as to sobriety and quickness as compositor.—
Yours, &c., " S. HARRISON."
Thus it will be manifest that his object was first to get the
men to be foolish enough to leave their trade society, and
then he would most magnanimously have offered them from
3s. to ss. per week less than the established wages of the
town for daily work. This, it should be stated, is for