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

IN ii.: 1V S PAPEU
1,;....,4-,
i
-:.:.? - - ~: s: ' i' '4,
(-- s• -- fl ap, .
,rtz
~..-:.-
nine hours on Sat nrdays though they ga - 0 -.''''srl. ' 'ic-'-'-'''' 4/
holiday. This Mr. Lucas at once i,711 2A,)1,.7i3",--f, i4.2',
i'V
BYtheir offered concession Messrs. Lucas an ' si , t-k-' si-Ts'y
Rtlk will loSe X 14,090 on their present cent Al. ... at s
~..
To increase the men's pay and pay them as ssell les
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 svould.be a most serious loss. But it must
be remembered that the arrangements they are new
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 stick losses on less wealthy con-
tractors with large Works in hand as would, ner-
haps, reduce to bankruptcy a dozen firms before sly
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, wi thd raw
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were withdrawn he could not listen to any such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. To
this unguarded question Mr. Lucas at once replied,
" Then you want me to give guarantees that I will
not concede tile demantds for which you . now
actually profess to be
-striking!" As no one could
explain away this manifest slip of the delegate no
answer Wad- : .6n, and Mr. Lucas explained that
the;best guarantee he.could give :the men that be
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 eertainty
of this loss wh'ish 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.