The Sun.
London, England, 1861-04-04 00:00:00

THE BUILDERS' STRIKE.

We are very happy to say that there is now a
good prospect of a permanent adjustment of the
difficulties between the masters and wcrkmen, and
that a compromise will probably be effected on
terms more advantageous to the men than they at
first had airy right to expect. The suggestion
which we made last week in these columns—that

the men should accept the proposition of working
by the hour, under an increased scale of wages,
which would enable them, working five days of 10
hours, to knock off at one on Saturday without
any diminution in their weekly earnings—has
been, we are glad to say, most favourably received
by the men themselves. Under these terms, we
believe, from all we have heard, a settlement may
soon be come to and work resumed at the four firms
from which the men have struck. We by no means
intend to say that the turbulent spirits who rule
at the trades' unions committees are at all in-
clined to accept the proposition of payment by the
hour. Such an arrangement leaves each man at
liberty to make his own terms of work without the
assistance or dictation of the unions, and is there-
fore a fatal blow at the power and influence which
they hitherto used so mischievously for the men's
interests. They are therefore likely to oppose it to
the last, but they will, it is hoped, be compelled to
give way to the wishes of the men themselves, who,
we are very glad to say, are in a great measure
taking the settlement of the dispute into their own
hands. If they do so entirely—if they will consent
to use their own judgment in the matter without
relying on the blind guidance of Mr. Potter and
others—there will soon be an end of the question.
The truth is that the men are for once thoroughly
alarmed, and suspect that their leaders have
misled them. They relied on a certain amount
of public sympathy, at least from other trades,
and they relied also not a little on the
support of one or two journals taking up what
they chose to call the rights of labour. To their
astonishment they find that every organ of public
opinion without a single exception has gone against
them, and exposed the unreasonableness and injus-
tice of their demands with unusual vigour. They
have found that this expression of public opinion
faithfully represents the feelings of every class, and
that many trades, though willing to contribute to
their support while " out" have expressed in the
strongest terms their entire disapprobation of the
" strike." This universal opposition made the men
more than doubtful, and when the knowledge spread
abroad that the masters would close their shops,
that the unions, from the badness of trade, the
severity of the winter, and other causes, could afford
little or no relief to a general " loek-out," and,
above all, that foreign workmen were certain to
be introduced, which would have the effect of de-
pressing the market price of labour for years
to come—the men became thoroughly aroused,
and pressed for a reasonable adjustment of the
dispute. It was then that the liberal terms offered
by Messrs. Lucas and Messrs. Kelk, under payment
by the hour, began to tell upon the wavering. Of
all the trades on strike, the masons are the best off.
Neither Messrs. Lucas nor Messrs. Kelk expected a
single man of that calling to give in under a two
months' struggle. But the obvious liberality of the
terms offered have shaken even these, and already,
in spite of all the threats and entreaties, and even
high pay of the unions to buy them out, 28 have
returned to their work at Messrs. Lucas's, and there
will probably be 50 before the end of the week.
In short, the majority of the men appear satisfied
with the terms offered under payment by the
hour, and have eagerly taken up our tangsugestion
that they should work five days at
,hours
and take a half-holiday from one 'clock oatur-
day, receiving the same wageso as hen
in our
Two days after this suggestion appeared our
columns a deputation of delegates waited upon
Messrs. Lucas, and asked whether if the men worked
their 10 hours under the hour system of payment
far five days they would object, as we suggested, to
pay books ready at 1 &clock, so that the
geihrt from that hour take a half holiday. To
hmaevne
might
this Messrs. Lucas at once consented. The earnings
were then calculated under this arrangement of the
hour system and half holiday, and found to be as
follows :
Five days, of 10 hours, at 7d. per hour £1 9
Saturday, 6,1; hours, up to 1 o'clock.... 0 3 '5"

Total
.
The earnings of the men now, Xi 12 14-
. ...
holiday,without a half
their half day each
are :335., so that for
man would only pay a halfpenny. The delegates,
however, appeared to think that this was too much,
for they asked Messrs. Lucas if they would give the
making their wages, with
men the extra halfpenny,
the half holiday, 335.,
to do.
tly the same as at present,
ex ac
Messrs. Lucas at once agreed
without the holiday. This, after some minutes'
consideration,
Emboldened by this concession, the delates then
`demanded that the masters should pay the usual