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

DECREASE OF SUNDAY LABOUR

Towards its necessary preliminary above adverted
to—the raising the general standard of morals and
intelligence in the district—in-ach has been done of
late years, and with very encouraging results. Sun-
day labour, which was formerly so common, is
greatly reduced, and in the opinion of many of the
best informed persons in the district might with a
little further effort be entirely put an end to. The
general practice in regard to the furnaces was de-
scribed to me as follows :

The practice of working the furnaces in blast on
Sundays has been gradually decreasing for the last
10 years. Now the furnace men are liberated nearly
everywhere throughout the district from 7 a.m. on
Sundays too p.m., and the Sunday is now nearly
as quiet as in Scotland. In some places, however,
they take advantage of the Sunday morning to do
any repairing to the engine, &c., but the men get
away by dinner time.
This, where it exists, is certainly an evasion of
the professed rule. Formerly at such works those
repairs were done during a week day. Now,
although the more conspicuous work of continuing
to blow and consequently to feed the furnaces is
discontinued, the work of the repairs, which go on
without observation, is resorted to instead. It is to
be hoped that these are the last relics of a practice
which is repudiated by the better feelings that are
becoming general, and that a sense of the contradi"-
tion involved in them will lead to their abandon-
ment also.
In another part of the district a large employer
stated to me that " the Sunday here is now as quiet
as in a rural parish. In the population of 8,000 in
this immediate neighbourhood there has been an
astonishing improvement of late year. The dis-
trict is no longer like what it used to be. Drunken-
ness is greatly decreased, as shown by the police
cases. The places of worship are full on Sundays.
The habits of the people are in every respect im-
proved. The beerhouses are respectable and well
looked after."
Another gentleman informed me, "We stop our
furnaces from seven a.m. to five p.m. on Sundays,
and we find we make as much iron in the course of
the week as we did when the furnaces went all Sun-
day. Taking quantity and quality into account, we
are no losers by the change in- a pecuniary point of
view, and certainly the change, which we adopted
on principle, has, we are satisfied, had an excellent
moral effect. Our men are more careful and atten-
tive during the week. We are convinced that the
Sunday labour at the furnaces had most injurious
effects on the young especially."
It is a circumstance deserving of especial notice,
in reference to this subject, that a short daily ser-
vice having been established for the last two years
at the above works, the only men who have never
attended it are furnace men. As those men grow up
to manhood under the influence of a system which,
for them, made no distinction between the Sunday
and any other day, it is but natural that they
should show themselves less open to religious im-
pressions than their fellow-workmen in other de-
partments who had the Sunday to themselves. The
daily service is held from 9 to 9-4- a.m., by the cler-
gyman of the parish, and consists of a short selec-
tion from the Prayer-book, and a brief exposition
of a text of Scripture. Two other instances of the
same kind exist in this district. When circumstances
admit of the clergyman undertaking a duty of this
kind, it must manifestly contribute greatly to the
diffusion of those higher views, and principles from
which every good may be expected, and to the
cementing the bond of union between master and
servant, the absence of which has been from time
to time, and to so great a degree, the source of
, enormous injury to both.
SANITARY MEASURES. _ _

The local boards of health have done a great deal
of late years, throughout a large portion of the
district, by the various sanitary measures which
promote the cleanliness and comfort of the popula-
tion. A full supply of water at a very moderate
rate, through the recently completed South Staf-
fordshire Waterworks, has supplied a deficiency
that has been greatly felt by the labouring classes
in the district. In no part of the country were sani-
tary measures of all kinds more wanted. Much
more, doubtless, remains to be done • and experience
has shown that by a judicious outlay excellent ac-
commodation can be provided for labouring men
and their families, at a rate which affords a satis-
factory return up m the capital, while by proper
vigilance overcrowding with lodgers is prevented.
If experiments of this kind should be made in
this thickly-inhabited district, they would doubt-
less be attended with public benefit. As far, how-
ever, as the colliery population is concerned, it is
asserted that some portion of it will be gradually
transferred to new sources of supply, even if the
seat of the production of iron remains where it is.
The increase of clergy, churches, and schools has
been very great during the last 15 years, and there
can be no doubt that the improvement already de-
scribed in the conduct and habits of the population
is traceable to a great extent to their influence.
STRIKES.

One conspicuous and lamentable fact still re-
mains, the liability to have the industry of this most
important district, in all its numerous branches,
seriously affected, and a vast amount of loss inflicted
upon every interest within it, by the combinations
and strikes of the colliers.
Towards the end of June (1858) a strike of the
" thick-coal colliers" commenced, and did not ter-
minate until near the end of October. The men de-
manded ss. a day. The masters alleged that the
state of the market " made it impossible for them to
give that rate." Early in October it was calculated
that there were upwards of 6,000 men on strike, be-
longing to 120 pits, principally in the Oldbury and
West Bromwich districts, but comprising many also
in the west of Dudley. Much illegal interference with
colliers who were willing to work had taken place,
and also many acts of vagrancy and begging, ac-
companied with intimidation. Several meetings of
the magistrates were convened by the Lord-Lieu-
tenant (Lord Hatherton), and active measures wore
resorted to by the magistrates of Staffordshire and
East Worcestershire, and the police of both coun-
ties for the detection and punishment of offenders,
and for preserving the peace of the district, at the
various open air meetings, which were attended by
large bodies of colliers.
The strike having lasted 14 weeks, and threaten-
ing to become still more serious, a meeting of the
Coal Masters' Association for the two counties was
called, and was held on the ith October at Birmina.-
ham, the chairman (Philip Williams, Esq., High
Sheriff of Staffordshire), presiding. The opinion
of the meeting was stated in the following terms :
" The meeting, in the first place, considers it neces-
sary, with a view to bring the point at issue be-
tween the coal masters and the colliers fairly under
review, to call attention to the fact, that in conse-
quence of the serious and long-continued depression
in the price of iron, coal, and all iron making ma-
terials, it was found necessary at the commencement
of the present year, to effect an immediate reduc-
tion to an extent of about 20 per cent on the wages
of every department connected with the iron and
coal trades ; that this reduction was cheerfully sub-
mitted to by every description of men employed in
the works of the district, with the understanding
that on a revival of trade, and an improvement in
the price of iron, the rate of wages should receive
a proportionate augmentation. The men have ever
since been steadily at work at this reduction, except
in the Oldbury and West Bromwich districts, where
they have been in receipt of the old rate of ss. per
day, although the price of bar iron has since been
further reduced 10s. It being found therefore ab-
solutely necessary that the rate of wages there
should be placed on the same footing as that paid
in other parts of South Staffordshire, notice was
given in June last for a reduction from ss. to 4s.
per day; and at this reduced rate an ordinary collier
may readily earn 28s. per week, with the usual allow-
' tine° of two quarts of beer, and his fire coal in addi-
tion. To this reduction the Oldbury and West
Bromwich colli(-rs refused to accede, insisting on
retaining the previous rate of ss. per day, and they
have now been out on strike about 14 weeks. Be-
sides refusing to work themselves, these men have
had recourse to threats, various modes of intimida-
tion, and urgent appeals for support and co-opera-
tion from the colliers in other parts of the districts
who have been steadily and contentedly at work at
the reduction since February last. In the meantime
the men on strike are endeavouring to support
themselves by begging, and other appeals for sup-
port, whilst the large sums which should be dis-
bursed in wages for the benefit of the neighbour-
s hood are being expended for the purchase of coal