The Sun.
London, England, 1868-08-13 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, THURSDAY EVENING, AUGUST l3, 1868.

standing between employer and employed, because
snch good understanding is inimical to their inte-
rests. But we believe no employer has anything to
fear if he will face their antagonism boldly, and
pay fairly for work done. The most zealous society
man we ever knew admitted that he did not think
there were half a dozen persons in the whole trade
who would not go on the limes if they had the
chance ; and the probability is, that among the
candidates for employment on the limes may be
found the names of some of the most blatant up,
holders of wht.t are called " fair " houses.

We fear this letter may be already too long ; but
there is one other point we should like to refer to.
Like many other trades, the operative printers of
London succeeded nearly two years ago in shorten-
ing the hours of work and in advancing the
rate of wageP. But if there ever was a barren
victory, this surely has been one. Directly this was
attained the country printers seized upon the op-
portunity to come in and compete with those in
town ; iu consequence a large quantity of work bas
been diverted into the country and the Continent,
and the opinion is pretty generally entertained that
the printing trade of London li.ts not been so bad
for the last 30 years. Notwithstanding this, and
the fact already stated that the compositors' society
last year expended more than two-thirds of its sub-
scriptions in relieving the unemployed, the society
and its members have never been so arrogant.
Much the same thing has happened in other trades ;
and if the demagogues and dupes of the " trade
councils" cannot read the signs of the times more
clearly, they may yet awake to the fact that they
have done all they could to drive the work from
the country and their employers' capital into other
channels.

Your obedient servants,
August 10.

0. AND CO.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE TIMES.

Sir,—ln your issue of to-day appears a letter
headed " Rattening in the Printing Trade," and
signed "0. and Cu." Into the merits of the dis-
pute between our members and the manager of the
firm in question I do not propose to enter, as that
would occupy far more of your space than I dare
venture to ask you to accord. I, however, trust
you will allow ine to state that the dispute set forth
in your correspondent's letter is not the reason why
our members have determined to leave Messrs. " U.
and C 0.," the cause for the adoption of such a course
being that incessant disputts have arisen between
the society hands employed (who now number only
four) and the firm through their endeavour to
override the London scale and customs of the
trade, and alto the insulting treatment our mein
bers at all times experienced when they had any
representations to make to the manager.
With regard to the observations personal to my-
self, I pass them by as unworthy my notice ; and
with respect to the committee, those who know its
constitution can afford to smile at your correepoa-
dents' ignorance of the capacity of its members ;
but I may state that the Committee of the Master
Printers' Association, representing the immense
majority of the employers of London, do not appear
to entertain the opinion so flippantly put forth by
" 0. and C 0.," as they always display their wiiling-
ness to enter into correspondence and conference
with the representatives of our society on all needful
occasions ; and notably was that the case in 1866,
when our members agitated for an advance of wages,
on which occasion an employers' committee appointed
by a general meeting of the master printers of Lon-
don, met an equal number of compositors elected
by the workmen to discuss the question submitted
to them, and after nearly 12 months' deliberation
conceded the advance desired ; and, as a proof that
the compositors' claims could not be deemed ex-
cessive, two of the employers recently examined
before the Royal Commission on Trades' Unions
stated that even now they did not think compositors
were too well paid.
With regard to the sum expended by the society
in assisting its unemployed members, I should have
imagined that such a fact was to the credit of any
body of working men who made such a provision,
rather than a matter to be objected to or
sneered at.

Your correspondent also taken occasion to state
the names of certain ()films which are closed against

our members ; but, although that is so in the
few houses named (and I very much regret it), I
beg to state we have 240 others i❑ which our mem-
bers are paid by the London scale, and they em-
brace, with two exceptions, all the great houses in
the metropolis.
Again, your correspondent chooses to assume
that the advance of wages in 1866 has driven work
out of town, and thus caused the depression under
which the trade has for some time languished. I
am in a position to know, however, that that slack-
ness has beau equally experienced in the provinces ;
the fact being that trade here has suffered for the
last two years in consequence of the monetary
panic of 1866, and not from work having left Lon-
don to be executed either in the country or abroad.
In conclusion, Sir, I must energetically protest
against the use of the word " rattening" which
heads your correspondent's letter, in connection
with the dispute between themselves and us —a
word which is a convertible term for the most out-
rageous ruffianism culminating in murder. What,
in the name of common sense, is there in the
laboured epistle of " 0. and Co." that justifies
such an insolent imputation ? All that our mem-
bers have done in regard to the 'firm of your corre-
spondents is to give them notice to leave, finding
that they cannot agree with them, and that, they
may rest assured, is all the rattening they will re-
ceive from us.—l am, sir, your obedient servant,
11. SELF, Sec.
London Society of Compositors, 3, Raquet-
court, Fleet-street, Aug. 12.

711 E RISE IN 7HE PRICE OF GOLD 1N
THE UNITED STALES.

(From the Anglo-American Times)

" The steamers leaving to day (August 5) for
Europe take out $1,000,000 in specie. Gold,
149." This telegram from New York, last Wed-
nesday, tells of cause and effect—au effect suffi-
ciently startling to raise hair on bald heads.
On all sides people ask—" What is the
matter ? Gold, 149 !" Those, however, who
have carefully watched the current of events
in America, although surprised at the sudden-
ness of the jump, have anticipated and confi•
dently predicted a steady increase in the price of
gold. Although there doubtless are many reasons,
which we either dimly see or do not see at all, why
gold should rise in Wall-street, there are others so
patent that he who runs can read. The first is the
old law of supply and demand, by which a decrease
in quantity adds to the value of the balance, and
which may turn an Irishman's potato into the
priceless luxury of a bloated English aristocrat, or
macadamize a road with diamonds. Mr. APCUL-
LOCH recently informed Senator CATTELL that
after the immediate demands upon the Treasury
had been settled, inclusive of the payment for
Alaska, but $37,000,000 in gold would remain,
and no relief could be expected from the
Treasury iu the event of a stringency which
could scarcely fail to follow the continuation
of the specie export on the present scale. From
January 1 to July 10 $55,200,000 of specie were
shipped from New York to Europe, being
$24,600,000 more than in the same period of 1867,
and over three times the amount in 1865. The
United States is a gold-producing country, but if
the export be a million, and the produce but half,
any one by the Role of Three, who knows the entire
stock held, can tell at this rate when the list dollar of
the precious metal will leave the Union. The law,
however, of supply and demand interferes, and on
the drain being felt sends up the price. But why
should the United States be thus lavishly exporting
her treasure ? The most obvious reason is a cer-
tain spendthrift recklessness in Americans which
leads them to live up to all they have got and more.
This received a spur instead of a check, by the war,
through inflation ; and the only way to bring them
up is by what sailors call " a round turn." That
is, that while galloping along the strain comes all
at once, and they are suddenly jerked back by their
own impetus. The war, more or less, destroyed
moat of the great ktnerican exports, while the