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

tain circumstances, supply the place of more regu-
larly acquired knowledge; but that it should not
leave much to be desired—that much waste, many
losses, and many drawbacks, economical and social,
should not, in a vast number of instances, result
from such a system—will scarcely be disputed.
Accordingly several of the largest employers in
the district have from time to time during the
last twenty years endeavoured to substitute for
the butty system that of working their pits,
or some of them, under agents of their own,
the men being directly in their employ, and being
paid, not according to their day's work, but accord-
ing to what each man may choose to earn—the
mode of employing colliery labour most generally
prevalent in other districts.
In the thin coal nearly all these attempts on the
part of the employers failed. Those described to me
by the gentlemen who undertook them had evi -
dently been taken in hand with the best intentions,
and the most earnest desire for the sake of their own
pecuniary interests that they should succeed.
The reasons given to me by those gentlemen for
the failure were that they could not get the men to
. .

do em justice. They found that the men would not
work with the same regularity or steadiness, or do
the same amount of work that the butty, whose in-
terests are so directly involved, was able, by con-
stant vigilance, to induce them to do.
The ill success attending those attempts made by
gentlemen of high standing in the trade, at much
cost, and under circumstances rendering it very de-
sirable that they should succeed, has greatly tended
to strengthen the general opinion of the masters in
the iron and coal trade, that the batty system
is the one under which they can obtain their
coal at the cheapest rate ; a consideeation all the
more important in consequence of the increasing
competition to which Staffordshire has for many
years past been subjected.
Nevertheless a few, even in the thin coal part of
the district, did succeed, and have continued to work
their coal without butties until the present time.
Mr. D. G. Round, of Portland-house, Edgbaston,
a magistrate for the county, and a considerable em-
ployer of colliery labour, informed me that nearly 20
years ago he abandoned the batty system, and is so
satisfied with the results that he should never think
of returning to it. A few other gentlemen also in-
formed me that they had introduced the other plan
in some of their pits, and that they found it to their
advantage, the conditions of success apparently
being---,First, a very intelligent, sufficiently in-
structed, afia thoroughly trustworthy agent, under
whom to place the working of the pits; and,
secondly, a well-selected set of men.
It is obvious that those conditions could not, in
the present state of the district, be combined to an
extent to be capable of general application.
The difficulties, however, have not deterred other
gentlemen from turning their attention again to the
subject. Mr. James Bagnall mentioned to me that
he hoped soon to be able to make a trial with the
new system in one of his numerous pits, which
would be selected with reference to the facilities of
working it without the intervention of a contractor.
Mr. Thomas Bagnall, jun., also expressed his in-
tention of making a similar experiment. It is
much to be desired that the result should encourage
a further extension of the new system in their own
and other works.
But it does not follow that if the butty system
were generally abandoned.—which' it could not be
until after many years, even if there was a general
wish among the masters to do so—the alleged social
disadvantages of the system, that of keeping the
men apart from the masters, and preventing that
knowledge of each other which so much tends to
harmonise society, would necessarily be replaced by
greater opportunities of intercourse, and the benefits
which flow from it. -While it is alleged on the one
hand that the butty system is not inconsistent with
such mutual intercourse, and that, in fact, many
masters who employ butties enjoy the confidence of
their men, and are well known by and greatly
esteemed by them, and are always ready to attend
to any reasonable complaints, it is asserted, on the
other hand, that the new system would not neces-
sarily lead to any greater amount of mutual know-
ledge or personal intercourse. The most common
opportunities for both parties being brought to-
gether are the pay days; but where the pits are
scattered, or the number of men to be paid great,
the payment must be made at several places, to com-
paratively small numbers at each, in order that the
men may be detained as short a time as possible—
all being anxious to be paid at an early hour, in
order to have the rest of the afternoon for going to
market or for recreation. The master, it is said,
cannot always be present at more than one or two
of such places in the course of one pay day ; and if
his habits and inclination dispose him to take a
personal interest in his men, he will find or make
opportunities of becoming personally acquainted
with them, and-of makinc, them understand him,
although not he himself but the butty is the em•
ployer; and that this has long been so in the in-
stance of many masters in the district is well
known, and at times, when a question of wages
arises between the batty and the men, the opinion
and advice of those masters have often been effec-
tual in preventing a strike or leaning to an amic-
able settlement.
The more it becomes the habit of the masters to
interest themselves in the welfare of the men, and
to show personal sympathy with them in the mat-
ters that most nearly affect them, the more they
will obtain their confidence, and the more will any
just ground of complaint, arising from the batty
system or any other source, be removed. But the
spread of improvement among the great body of
the men is quite as essential towards the introduc-
tion of a better state of things. It is asserted by
masters most desirous of promoting every good
work in thel district, that the number of men ad-
dicted to drinking habits, and who consequently
lend themselves willingly to the butty system which
ministers to those habits, prevents any decided
stand being made by the men themselves as a body
against it ; also that the insubordinate habits of a
large proportion of the men prevent their being
dealt with by the master directly, as effectually as
through the butty; and, consequently, that in a
great majority of cases the only mode of getting the
mineral ecpnomically worked is to give the butty a
direct interest in it.
Accordingly, to raise the general standard of
morals and intelligence in this district must long
remain the principal object to which the minds of
all within it who look beyond the material occupa-
tion of the passing moment must be directed.
Out of the generally improved mass will arise in
greater numbers men less willing to lend themselves
to a demoralising system, and butties and sub-agents
more capable of being converted into trustworthy
and intelligent agents, who will, as some do now,
work the masters' pits more profitably than can be
done by the butty system. " I keep a debtor and
creditor account," said to me, one of the gentlemen
who have successfully introduced the new system
in the thin coal district, " with each pit. Each pit
is debited with its amount of capital and machinery,
horses, material, and wages. My ground bailiff
measures the NS ork and it can be ascertained pretty
closely whether the time keeper (the doggy) is dis-
honest or not, i. e., whether he favours any of the
men, by marking them as having done seven days'
work instead of six, &c. I get the best and most
trustworthy timekeeper that I can, and check him
as well as I can. I find by the results, after many
years' experience, that I work the coal much cheaper
than I did when I employed butties. I get steady
men, men who work regularly six days a week ; I
lay out the pits for work more profitably. and get
the coal one-third quicker than under the old sys-
tem, consequently there is a so much quicker return'
on the capital. I pay the men, either themselves or
their wives, or a child for them, early in the after-
noon, about one o'clock, so that the wife can go to
market early. The men can then talk over with
me anything that relates to their work in the pits,
and discuss the question of wages, when times
arrive which require a change. 1 find them very
reasonable, and much less inclined to join strikes,
or to listen to those who propose them, and on the
whole much better satisfied.
" I don't deny that there are many respectable
butties, and many masters who never allow their
butties to have anything to do with public-houses,
and who do their best to prevent the abuses of
which the men complain, and there are many but-
ties who, in consequence of the master knowing his
business, only obtain a reasonable profit from their
contracts, such as they have a right to from the
amount of capital they employ (often considerable
in horses and stores), and as a remuneration for
their services.
" As regards this point the matter stands thus :
A respectable batty ought to reckon to make as a
oantterria
remuneration for his services at least £lOO a year.
But you could not give a ground bailiff less than
material
a week, so that, as regards salary, there is no
an a
differencecin ein
And a
batty
to
re-
turn
b
on the betty'spitali
ctaby hissalary.
it is a much wholesomer
state of things that the master should find the
l employed to work the pits,
than that a part aP
of it
butty. In point of itashould be furnished by the
f
£2OO to upwards of 1,0
fact, many butties make from
and uit has been known t they frequently only
a year by their contracts,
partially work the pit, in that
order to prevent the em-
ployer knowing the amount of their
profits."
But a large number of butties either keep or
interested in public-houses; and although are
evade the act by paying the men not many
actually in a
public-house, but somewhere near, the
to drink
ex-
pected to go there, and thepe men are ex-
recognised
quantity, and if any do not attend their iluanta •
ty is
drunk by the rest. The men fond of drink have,
therefore, no objection to the bony system. Also
when the Ray hour is late in the day, and when the