The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1842-09-13 00:00:00

Practise it

reduced

" 81. But, as a general rule, do you find that it is the
richer or the poorer concerns that
practise this system ?
We have found the most cases among the smaller manniae-
turers.

" 82. And not so much in the large towns as in the smaller
districts, such as Shipley and Windhill, and that neighbour-
hood ?—Yes, mostly in the villages."

An attempt was made by Mr. Cobden to wring from
Mr. Autey an admission in favour of his own specific
for the cure of "all the ills which flesh is heir to."
Mark the insidious windiny of the leaguer, and "the
settler" administered to him by the witness !

" 89. You are aware of the habits of the working class,
and their mode of hiring themselves to their employers; do
you think that a man, if the trade were good, would submit
to a reduction in the price of his groceries and other things
equal to ss. in the pound ?—// appears to me very plainly, as
far as I can see, that the manufacturers have the men under
their own power, and can do what they think proper with
them, whether good or bad ."'

Hear that, Mr. Cobden,—you know that it is true !

The manufacturers have the men under their own

power, and CAN DO WHAT THEY THINK I'M:WEE
WITH THEM !" They can reduce their wages at will;
and, if they are restive, they can—"send them out to
play a week!" But proceed we with Mr. Cobden's
questions :

" 90. If there was employment for the labourers, and
plenty of it, do you think that the labourers would agree to
a reduction of their wages to the extent of ss. in the pound ?
—I do not know that they could prevent it. We have a good
deal of work going on in Bradford, bad as trade is said to
be, and as soon as ever the income lax was mentioned, it re-
duced their wages at once; so soon as ever Sir Robert Peel
introduced the bill the manufacturers said they would have
it at once out of their wages I"

Excellent, considerate men! You would transfer at
once the burthen of taxation to the shoulders of the
over-tasked and over-toiled drudges who serve you!
Professors of humanity—you who tell us that all your
care—all your political nostrums—are for the exclusive
benefit of the working man,—what would be your
course if, instead of imposing taxes, the government of
Sir Robert Peel had remitted them—if it had con-
ceded to your demands for free trade, cheapened the
price of bread, given you low priced sugar moistened
with the blood of slavery, and reduced to one half the
cost of living ? You would give at once that benefit to
the starving weaver and spinner;—you would raise,
rather than depress, the price of labour? Let us see
what you have done already, as brought before us in the
evidence of the same witness !

" 91. Mr. Dancornbe.—llow much have the wages been

in the pound

" 92. It is as great a reduction as that occasioned by the
truck system ?—Yes ; since this income-tax was mentioned,
I know of one person who declared that to a girl who wrought
for him at the time, a weaver ; the conversation ran to this
effect :--` Well, Sir Robert Peel is now going to lay an in-
come-tax on us,' or the tariff,' more properly speaking.

" 93. Mr. Yorke.—There is a material difference between
the two ; which do you. mean ?—ln this case it was the tariff,
in the other it was the income-tax ; I have two or three
cases that I could mention ; this was alluding to the tariff;
he said to this girl, Sir Robert Peel is going to nzake things
cheaper.' She said, Yes, I believe he is.' Well,' he
said, I shall take Gd. a piece off you.' In the second case
the income-tax was the reason ; he said, If Sir Rat. Peel
lays the income-tax on, we will make you pay for it.'
UndoUbtedly this would be the course of the very
"liberal" gentlemen of the Anti-Corn-Law League.
Cheapen the loaf, reduce the cost of living, and then—
starving weavers of Lancashire and Yorkshire, victims
of this atrocious truck system !—your very liberal
masters, these professors of excessive consideration for
your welfare, would " take sixpence a piece off you"
—would coolly proclaim to you their determination to
place the whole amount of the advantage, which was for
you, in their own pockets ! Proceed we, however, with
our evidence. Mr. William Jennings, a master manu-
facturer, at Windhill, near Bradford, 70 years old,
thus testifies :

"597. Is it the practice much in your neighbourhood to
pay the wages of the workpeople in goods ?—lt is sadly too
much, I think.

"598. Is that practice recent, or has it always prevailed ?-
1 think in our small village there are only about three but
who do pay in goods, only three who pay in money; there
might be some small clothmakers that I have not any know-
ledge of that pay in money ; I do not know that there are.
" 599. Mr. COBDEN.—Three out of how many ?—I cannot
say ; there are a few good clothmakers in our town.
" 600. Are there 20 or 30 ?—I am sure I cannot say ; they
are only very small manufacturers.

. .
" 601. CH AIRMAN.—Is the practice recent in that district,
or has it always prevailed?—lt has been a growing evil;
lately one man has gone on three or four years, and other
persons have seen he has gained property by it, and that has
caused them to follow the same plan.

" 602. What effect does the system of paying in goods pro-
duce upon the manufacturer who pays in money ?—I think
it produces a largeish benefit to the man paying in goods; he
generally sells them a little higher than the shopkeeper.
" 603. He sells the goods to the workmen a little higher
than the shops ?—Yes ; I can tell you an instance that I
recollect. We had a poor.woman that was very badly; she
wished the husband to get her a little light bread that comes
from Pudsey ; he said he had no means, he had not had
money for a month ; she said, go to such a spot, and he went
to John Firth, and he asked him to let him have a little bit
of light bread; he went to him and told him his case: I
can bring you candles, or something of that kind.' He said,
' That will do for me ;' and he got a bit of light bread for
his poorly wife for the candles; that he told rue just before
I came away here, and that I can credit."

The same witness states that by practising the truck
system, although the wages which he pays amount to
no more than £4680 per annum, he is assured that he
would gain £4OO to £5OO per annum !—four hundred
to five hundred a year wrung from the working man
by this most cruel and wicked fraud !
But come we now to the cotton manufacture ; and,
although it occupies more of our space than we can
well spare, we must give the following at length, as
furnishing a complete description of a truck cotton
establishment, owned too—we blush to record the
fact—by a Conservative ! Thomas Montgomery, an
operative, who had been employed at Mr. Dugdale's
establishment, Lower-house, near Burnley, was ex-
amined at great length by the committee as to the
extent to which the truck system had been practised
by that firm. He was asked—

" 788. Be so good as to state in what manner the truck
system is carried on will commence with the rent of the
houses ; the rents are from ls. to ls. 3d. more a week than
the rents of houses belonging to other landlords, and I have
reason for knowing that, from having lived in a house occu-
pied by one of the workers of Mr. Dugdale, and also in a
house that was occupied by a tenant of another landlord. I
had lodged in:each of the houses at different times while with
Mr. Dugdale, and I can state, from experience, that the ac-
commodation was as good for 2s. 3d. as it was for 3s. 5d.,
which was paid for Mr. Dugdale's houses.
" 789. Are the people compelled to reside in those houses ?
—When there are any empty that is the case.
" 790. Those who work for Mr. Dugdale are compelled to
reside in them?—Yes; if there are any empty. The next
thing is as to the shop and premises belonging to himself,
but the licenses are not taken out in his name. A person of
the name of Fleming takes out the license, but the men are
told that they must go to the shop, at least those with fami-
lies. The young people they do not interfere with.

" 791. What are the prices of these groceries at the shop ;
are they the same prices as at other retail grocers ?—The
people have complained to me, but I am not prepared to give
the items, or how much they differ from other shops,—only
these people have frequently complained, and said, if they
had had the money they could have purchased the things at
a great deal a lower rate in Burnley than at the shop, for
they said they were forced to take them whether good or
bad, and if they complained or remonstrated, they were dis-
charged.

797. Now to proceed to the next item ?—The next item
is the butcher : Mr. Dugdale keeps a butcher regularly em-
ployed, and he kills meat; this meat has a price set upon it
by the master on the Friday morning, and if any of the meat
remains it is sent round on the Saturday.
_a

" 798. If any meat remains unsold ?—lf it happens to be
so, which is frequently the case; but that is only on a Friday
in the month ; and I will tell you the reason why it is all
sold then. They have a month's credit, and they carry it
away then without forcing, because of the credit; but at
other times, if they kill a cow they always kill sheep. Eut
it is not every Friday they kill a cow ; only now and then.
If they happen to kill a cow and some of the meat remains
the man is obliged to carry it out, and leave it where lee
thinks proper, whether the parties like it or not. I have
known instances occur of that kind, which have come under
my own notice.

" When this meat is served out to the working people, is
there any clerk connected with the establishment standing
by ?—Yes, there is one regularly standing by, and he hooks
it ; they will take no money for anything if they offered it.
The clerk is not allowed to take money. It is always booked
until the month's pay.

" 801. Are the people obliged to allow the meat to be
booked against them ?—I understand in some cases it is left,
and in others they go for it and carry it away ; they are not
compelled to take it, but if any remains, the butcher 'goes
round and leaves it at any house where there is a large
family, and they must take whatever he pleases to leave
without grumbling. (!)

" 102. And what is the price, generally speaking ?-?'he
highest price; the meat is not perhaps so bad ; I
nothing to say about the meat ; it is generally tolerably good,

alidof the highest price, the highest Burnley market price.
The meat is pretty fair.

" 803. Is the price of this meat stopped out of the wages ?
—Yes, always stopped, as well as rent and coals.
" 801. How long has this system prevailed in Mr. Dug-
dale's establishment to your knowledge will tell you. He
kept a shop up to the time that the Truck Act passed ; he
then gave it up. That is now two years ago ; but since then
he has started another shop."

A similar practice prevailed with respect to supplying
the workmen with milk :

"805. Now proceed with your next item ?—The next is
milk, which is a very great grievance to the people, or at least
they seem to be dissatisfied with it
" 806. What is the chore

:ter of the factory of Mr. Dug-

dale; what does be manufacture?—He is a calico printer,
and a general manufacturer. He manufactures through and
through. The milk is a very great grievance. In the win-
ter time they have not enough, and in the summer time they
are obliged to take what is given to them. The man calcu-
lates when the cans are filled for him, and the clerk stands

there to deliver the milk out at 8 o'clock in the morning and
ti o'clock in the evening. The milk is delivered, and he cal-
culates how much every person must have, and they must
have the quantity whether they please or no ; I have known
them to be under the necessity of churning the milk; they
have had so noels of it they could not use it, and they dare
not refuse to take it. The clerk's orders were, the milk must
be divided, and they must have it. Supposing there is only
one quart, they must take it, or two, or three, if there is so
much, and the people are very much grieved about that, be-
cause, where there are large families they generally give more
in proportion to their families, and there is, sometimes, three
or four times as much milk as they can use."

The witness then proceeded to state that in the
establishment in question there existed a vexatious
system of fining the men, they not being previously
aware in some cases what offences were fineable. After
describing some of these fines, he says—

" I do not wish to say as much as I could upon the sub-
ject of fines. There are many ways that they fine. 1 have
known as much as ss, and in one instance they fined no less
than 15s, all at one time. Young Mr. James Dugdale came
in and caught four playing at cards in the printing place at
the dinner hour, and two men sate beside getting their dinner;
he fined the four 53 a piece, and also the two for sitting
watching them. I remember another case of an old man, an
engineer; he handed a newspaper over to another old maa
working at the machine; young Mr. Dugdale came in at the
time, and he fined one 2s and the other 2s Gd. Well,' said
the man who received the paper, I think this is too hard ; I
have not read the paper, it has only just been handed overto
me.' There was also another case of an apprentice whom he
beat and fined 2s Gd; the apprentice said, Ido not think
that is very gentlemanly;' he knocked him down and kicked
him, and tined him 2s Gd afterwards."

May we not well wonder that in England, free and
enlightened England, a system such as this could
be tolerated for a day ? That the working classes in
this manufacturing Arcadia could submit to have the
wages of their almost ceaseless toil thus measured out
to them in the trashy and highly-charged wares of the
truck-shop ? Well, indeed, we might, could we blind
our eyes to the hopeless dependency of the working
man upon his exacting master ! He must visit the
truck-shop. He must take from it the whole or a
large portion of the amount of his earnings or submit
to be deprived of his employment. If any working
man has not done this, an intelligent witness informs
us, " he has been discharged, and when he has gone
from the employer there has been a note sent to all the
other manufacturers in the town, saying, he is a man
that will not pay his shop debts, and he must yo about
his business, and the poor fellow is turned ; there
are more of those that get transported than there are of
actual thieves in our neighbourhood ; this is my firm

opinion !"
The labourer who will not submit to the terms of the
truck master, is a proscribed man ! His place is no
longer amongst the friends of his youth or his man-
hood. He must tear himself away from every scene
which he has loved—from the graves, perhaps, of his
parents or of his children—and go forth to struggle in
a land overstocked with labour, amongst strange faces,
too often to sink down in the struggle to the dreaded
doom of pauperism and the union workhouse.
Englishmen, though demoralized, as too often they are
in the heart of manufacturing districts, love and cling
to their homes. This feeling it is which alone enables
them to endure on, with such a system snatching from
their eager and hungry lips the very food for which
they have toiled.

But more upon this subject by and bye. In the
meantime we beg the calm and earnest attention of
our readers to the facts which we have placed before

In the observations made by us in our paper of the
2nd instant, respecting the election of councillors, in
November next, we are surprised to find that the
remarks upon Mr. Richard Bright have been consi-
dered an imputation upon hitn. We have no hesita-
tion in stating, that we did not mean to reflect upon
his public or private character, for we have no reason
to believe him anything else than most upright and
respectable.

Our Radical friends have become amazingly touchy
of late. If an humble journalist, like ourselves, has
ventured to kint a fault against the fancied perfection,
the beauty of countenance, the grace of attire even, of
any "liberal " philosopher, we have been pelted, forth-
with, with big words, threatened with long pieces of
parchment, more painful to endure than whip thongs,
and even had ominous intimations conveyed to us of
impending assault and battery, daggers and pistols !
We cannot even indulge ourselves with a glance at
a town-councillor's gaiters without bringing down
upon ourselves a storm of rabid denunciations, to
which the explosion of a fishwoman's indignation is
as a penny pop-gun's report to the thunder of a sixty-
two-pounder; and yet, strange to say, Radical journal-
ism itself' can bluster and call names, rail and throw
dirt upon all that comes in its path, with as much
assurance as if it had never professed to write in kid
gloves, use honied sentences, and eschew hard lan-

guage'!

As an instance of this strange perversion of " the
fitness of things," we were visited last week with a
volley of " excellent indignation"— we could imagine
that it had been bottled up for a gelvemonth !)—by
oar excellent neighbour the Albion, because we dis-
turbed the visions of self-importance of some half
dozen gentlemen, who are about to submit themselves
to the judgment of the municipal constituencies of the
borough. Contemplating our especial benefit, our con-
temporary laid aside for the nonce his ordinary slip-
slop style of writing, and ventured upon the use of the
tomahawk. To this moment we have scarcely got
over it. The vision of the editor of the Albion, in his

war paint,
" Grinning most horribly a ghastly smile,"
as he smote right and left, has clung to us even in our
dreams. And now, when the blister, raised upon the
hands of the learned Theban by the unwonted wea-
pon, can scarcely have healed, we are completely struck
aback by the discovery of the very offence in his own
columns, for which we so lately sustained the weight
of his virtuous indignation ! We were personal last
week, and must not be personal again. The Albion
was personal yesterday, and may be personal whenso-
ever it pleases him ! We questioned the grace of Mr.
Yates's short trousers and gaiters, and other small
matters of the kind ; and we were monsters !. The
Albion, or his thinking man, yesterday, and upon every
occasion, indulges, unreproved, in nicknames and per-
sonalities, of an infinitely more aggravated character,
and is a gentleman—a model of propriety and elegance!
If our readers will peruse the lucubrations of the
Albion's " Thinking Man" this week, he will readily
perceive the justice of our remarks. The dauber who
does these pieces of witless impertinence, ought cer-
tainly, in fairness, to be visited by the Albion, in his
war-paint, and frightened into good behaviour. The
thinking man is, however, a Radical—perhaps a Radi-
cal alderman—and he may therefore jest, with impu-
nity, upon the personal infirmities of other men; and
even enlarge upon his own claim to rank amongst " the
giants" (who be they, good Albion ?) of the Radical
faction in the council !

ST. HELEN'S CATTLE SHOW AND FAIR.—The annual
fair and show of cattle, at St. Helen's, took place on Thurs-
day last, at the new market place in that town. There was a
very fine show of good horses and cattle of all sorts, but the
day, on account of the wet, was very much against the fair.
Many dealers from distant parts attended, and there was a
good deal of business done. As the present exhibition in-
cluded a prize show as well as fair, many of the neighbouring
farmers brought some fine cattle in order to obtain the prizes.
The judges were, Mr. Webster, spirit merchant, St. Helen's,
Mr. Rocliff, farmer, Windle, and Mr. J. Unsworth, Den-
ton's-green. The following is a statement of the award of
the prizes :—For the best team of horses,won by Mr. Rellis,
£4; 2d prize, ditto, Mr. Clough, £2. For the best driie of
milk cows, won by Mr. Highley, £3; 2d ditto, by Mr. Ben-
nett, £2. For the best drive of heifers, won by Mr. Bayk,
£l.