The Liverpool Standard, and General Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1854-09-26 00:00:00

THE PRESTON STRIKE

The next paper read was a very long one, from Mr. H.
Asnwoarn, of Bolton, the subject being, "The Preston
Strike•—its Causes and Consequences." The paper con-
tained a complete history of the strike, from its com-
mencement to its close, and the author endeavoured to
show that its causes were the personal interests of a
number of delegates, strangers to the town, whose object
was to create hostility between the employer and the em-
ployed. He contended that the master cotton-spinners of
Preston were unable to give the advance demanded by the
men. After going through the history of the strike, and
bringing it to the termination, when the men resumed
their employment, the author thus speaks of the results of
the strike :—" It now only remains for- us to look at the
results of the remarkable struggle which we have thus
seen closed, and briefly review some of the important prin-
ciples which were involved in it. The first question which
is naturally suggested is, did the strike attain the object
for which it was resorted to ? Did it raise the wages of
the Preston operatives ? In July and August, before the
commencement of the strike, on the amicable application
of the operatives, an advance of ten per cent. was actually
paid by thirty-two firms out of thirty-six. The strike was
entered upon at the dictation of the delegates, in order to
enforce the same advance on the four firms which still re-
fused ; and it ended, after thirty-six weeks' struggle, in
the general resumption of work by the operatives at the
rates which were paid before the advance of ten per cent.
took place. This was the result of a movement which was
commenced at a period when trade was more prosperous
than it had been for a long series of years, which was con-
ducted with the utmost ability by able and experienced
leaders ; which was sustained with unparalleled enthu-
siasm by a very large portion of the factory operatives
throughout Lancashire, and even drew pecuniary support
from distant parts of the British empire and foreign lands ;
and which was persevered in with exemplary patience at
the cost of much suffering, and with wonderful unanimity,
by the numerous body of operatives on whose behalf it
was undertaken. The climax to this long career of fruit-
less heroism, pursued, if we take everything into account,
under the most favourable auspices, was that, at every
mill, the operatives resumed work for less wages than they
received at the commencement of the strike." The author
then goes on to say that the pecuniary results of the strike
acquire a startling reality when thrown into the form of
figures, and he enters into a statistical statement by which
he makes it appear that the total loss to the masters was
£165,000 ; loss of wages to the operatives during the
strike £250,000; loss to the contributors to the strike
fund £97,000; loss of profit to shopkeepers and innkeepers
£11,250 ; estimated loss to carriers, railway companies,
&c., £1.0,000 ; total loss to the community by the strike,
£533,250. lie then goes on to say :—" Among the moral
results of the strike are some of an unexpected character.
In a communication with which we have been favoured
by the Rev. J. Clay, chaplain to the Preston gaol, that
well-known and philanthropic gentleman says,—` The
effect of the strike on committals to prison has been similar
to that which I always noticed whenever a check has been
given to the full employment of our operatives. The
' stoppage' and ' short-time' iu 1847-8, by throwing many
hundreds of boys into idleness, produced a great increase
of juvenile crime, but yet a greater decrease in the sum-
mary committals of adults. The idleness compelled by
the strike has again been followed by the same results.
The committals to the sessions from Preston during the
six months of the strike, or from November Ist, 1853, to
April 30th, 1854, and of male offenders only, amounted to
seventy-eight. In the corresponding six months of the
preceding year, the same class of committals amounted to
sixty, and in the six months immediately preceding the
strike there were only forty. On the other hand, while
idleness paved the way for dishonesty among many boys
and some men, deprivation of the means of indulging to
excess in liquor led to a great decrease of the disorder and
vice punished by summary conviction. Committals of
this kind, during the six months of the strike, amounted
to eighty-seven ; in the six months immediately preceding,
there were one hundred and fifty-seven. From authentic
returns with which I have been favoured, I find that, dur-
ing the six months of the strike, a falling off in the con-
sumption of spirits and beer took place to the extent of
more than four thousand gallons of the former, and more
than five thousand three hundred barrels of the latter,
The diminished expenditure, therefore, in these crime-
generating articles, has been about £l,OOO weekly, a fact
which sufficiently accounts for the decrease of nearly fifty
per cent. in the summary convictions for drunkenness, as-
saults, and other similar offences.' We have no doubt the
friends of temperance will know how to turn these facts
to account, and for their sake we insert them."

Mr. PEEL, of Dublin, said, as a large employer of labour,
he had been induced to consider deeply upon this subject;
and the result of his inquiries led him to the belief that
the operative workmen do not receive a fair proportion of
the profits of labour. He had also been led to the belief
that a means might be devised, whereby this desirable
result might be brought about without prejudice to the
employers. This, he suggested, might be effected by an
alteration in the law of partnership. He was of opinion
that the country was now in a transition state. The
speaker was proceeding to show how the present method
of paying labour ought to be altered, and another system
adopted, when

The OIIIIRMA74I interposed, on the suggestion of Col.
Sykes, and decided that the discussion must be confined
strictly to statistics.

Mr.MoNcKToN Mmus, M.P., said it had been stated
that at the beginning of the Preston strike the rate of
wages at Preston was below that of other manufacturing
towns. He should be glad to know something as to
that fact.

Mr. AsnwonTn said it was not so. It was said that
the wages at Blackburn were ten per cent. more than in
Preston, but that was not the fact. In some cases in
Blackburn ten per cent. more was paid than in Preston,
but, on the other hand, there were also instances where
ten per cent. more was paid in Preston than in Blackburn.
It depended upon the machines and the description of
cloth.

A lengthened discussion followed, in the course of which
The Rev. J. CLAY, Chaplain to the Preston House of
Correction, said he wished to add a few figures as to what
had been stated about the Preston strike. Mr. Ashworth
had named the number out of employment during the
strike at 17,000. Now, from careful inquiries which he
had made, he was inclined to estimate the number at
18,000, and it was right that the section should know of
what particular parties the persons on strike consisted. He
had been enabled to obtain the sex and ages from one of the
largest mill-owners in Preston, and from these data he had
come to the conclusion that of the 18,000, 6,200 were males
and 11,800 females ; boys under 13, 620; girls under 13,
650; youths 13 and not more than 18, 1,530; girls be-
tween the same ages were no less than 4,400; men above
18, 4,050 ; females above 18, 6,750. There was another
thing which was of importance in this strike. He had rea-
son to believe, from data in his possession, that there were
1,000 females employed in the mills amongst the 18,000
who were the mothers of infants under five years of age.
That was, that there were 1,000 females generally in the
factory, who, on the occasion of the strike, were enabled
to pay that attention to their infants which their occupa-
tion in the factory prevented. This must be taken in con-
nection with another fact, which he had undoubted autho-
rity for stating. The number of infant deaths in Preston
amongst the operative spinners, during the six months of
the strike, was 497, whereas the number in the six months
before the strike was 594. This fact, the section would per-
haps think, raised the important question how far it was
proper to encourage the employment in our cotton mills of
females who had young infants at home which required
their attention. (Hear, hear.)

A vote of thanks having been passed to Mr. Ashworth
closed the business of the section for the day, and its pro-
ceedings were adjourned till Friday.