The Sun.
London, England, 1859-09-19 00:00:00

61 .. 589

THE BUILDERS' STRIKE.

There are symptoms of yielding on the part of
the master builders in the matter of " the declara-
tion." Up to last night the Trades' Conference at
the Paviors' Arms reported that seven different
firms had withdrawn it—namely, those of Aldin,
Kensington ; Jackson and Shaw, Westminster;
Poole; Bevis; Foster, Temple ; Patrick and Sons,
Westminster-road ; and Hall and Sons. Assuming
the whole of these to belong to the Association of
Master Builders—and the conference states that
they do—they form but an inconsiderable propor-
tion of that body, who agreed to adhere to the de-
claration, and who number upwards of 220 in the
aggregate. Still, the members of the conference
regard it as a breach in the enemy's ranks, and it
inspires them with an additional motive to perse-
vere in the struggle. All our inquiries go to show
that by far the greater part of the men who were
locked out on the 6th of August, or probably about
6,000. still hold out, though daily opportunities
have been afforded them of resuming work during
the last week. On the first week of the lock-out
about 12,000 men were thrown oat of employment.
Nearly 7,000 of these participated in the dividend
dispensed at the Pavior' Arms last Monday, and it
is presumed that the other 5,000 have been during
the last six weeks finding work in the country, or
been gradually absorbed into the service of the im-
mense number of builders in the metropolis, who,
not belonging to the Association of aster
Builders, did not suspend their operations dur-
ing the lock-out. It is calculated that about
1,000 of the operatives on strike have found
employment in one or other of those ways, with-
out being asked to accede to the declaration
during the last week, and these men, instead
of being recepients, will henceforth be con-
tributors to the funds collected by the conference
at the Paviors' Arms in aid of the men who are still
left to maintain the struggle. For that reason, Mr.
Potter, the secretary to the conference, expects to
increase the dividend to be paid this day (Monday)
from 3s. 6d., which was the sum paid last week, to
4s. a man. We apprehend it has never been gene-
rally understood by the public that in addition to
the small but now increasing pittance which the
the society men receive at the Paviors' Arms
through the conference, a sum varying from ss. to
Bs. a week, and occasionally reaching 125., is paid
to every one of them out of the funds of the socie-
ties to which they belong. Some of the carpenters,
for instance, are allowed 12s. a week each from their
society, which the dividend to be paid to day will
probably increase to 16s. With this aid, and
through a variety of shifts, they continue to strugle
on against what they conceive to be an attempt to
enslave them ; and, encouraged by the continual
manifestations of sympathy they receive from, not
their own only, but almost all classes of working
men in the country and the metropolis, the great
bulk of them, so far from succumbing, evince a
strong determination to keep up the fight, and it is
said by those who know them well as a body, that
they can hold out for six or eight weeks longer.
While the masters, pressed by the increasing neces-
sities of their position, are now some of them re-
sorting to the provinces for men, the emissaries of
the conference are beating about the country for
money. Trade society meetings of the coopers,

cabinetmakers,und. plumbers, were held in Glas-
gow, in the interest of the men on strike, on the
evenings of Thursday and Friday; as was also a
meeting of the Paisley cottonspinners, on Satur-
day, at ,which a delegate from London attended.
The suns which the men employed in the building
trades in London, and who were not among the
lock-outs, eontribilte weekly in support of their
brethren on strike, are paid with remarkable punc-
tuality and cheerfulness, and: the money received
from the provinces, and which goes to augment the
common stock, is to a great extent made up of
weekly contributions, and promised to be continued
during the struggle, and not simply of donations.