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

tv:ISPAPER

ave the half
mly refused.
; and Messrs.

nine holre on Saturday, though they
holiday. This Mr. Lucas at once 111
Bytheir offered concession Messrs. Luca.
Kelk will lose £14,000 on their presen.
To increase the men's pay and pay them as well for
the half-holiday they give on Saturday would raise
their loss from £14,000 to nearly £40,000. Con-
tractors of such wealth as Messrs. Lucas and Messrs.
Kelk could perhaps afford this, though even to
them it would be a most serious loss. But it must
be remembered that the arrangements they are now
trying to make will be virtually binding on all the
masters, for what one does the others will be com-
pelled to do. To consent, therefore, to raise wages,
and at the same time pay for a half-holiday
given, would entail such losses on less wealthy con-
tractors with large works in hand as would, per-
haps, reduce to bankruptcy a dozen firms before six
months were over. This, therefore, was at once
refused. The delegates then asked Mr. Lucas (and,
by implication, Mr. Kelk, for both firms have acted
together throughout the whole dispute) to withdraw
his proposition of payment
.by the hour, to which
Mr. Lucas answered that it was only put forth
in answer to their demands, and that till their
demands of nine hours' work for ten hours' pay
were withdrawn he could not listen to any such
propositions. He further added that the masters
were now determined to abide by
.payment by
the hour, as they considered it, in the face
of these repeated combinations, better for the
interest of both employers and employed.
At a previous interview one of the delegates
actually asked Mr. Lucas if the men accepted
his proposition of payment by the hour, what
guarantee he would give that he would not limit
the work to nine hours by closing his yards. Zo
this unguarded question Mr. Lucas at once replied,
" Then you want me to give guarantees that I will
not concede the demands for which you DOW
actually profess to be striking !" As no one could
explain away this manifest slip of the delegate no
answer was given, and Mr. Lucas explained that
the best guarantee he could give the men that he
would not comply with their demand 'of limiting
the hours to nine was that it was not his interest to
do so. He would be a loser by having his horses,
machinery, and yards idle, and it was the certainty
of this loss which had induced him with all othe
masters to resist the strike of 1859, for though by
that suspension the masters lost heavily, yet their
loss was but a tithe of what it would be if
they closed the work after nine hours'
labour. To-day the men have' a trade meeting to
consider the propriety of accepting the terms offered
by Messrs. Lucas and Kelk, and taking the half-
holiday. We do most earnestly hope that they will
close with the offer. They will thus have shown
the-public that they are capable of listening to and
appreciating reasonable remonstrance, and they will
have gained a Saturday half-holiday from 1 o'clock
in the day without a farthing's diminution in their
wages.— limes.

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