The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1869-04-24
I.i1oR IND CAPITAL.
The Strike of the Lancashire, England,
Cotton Operatives.
CORRESPONDENCE of The New York Herald

CORRESPONDENCE of the New York Herald
LONDON, March 81, 1SG9.-UnleSs most think
ing men in England are very. greatly mistaken,
O very serious calamity is hanging over the
country, and is almost at our very doors. AS
you will 40 doubt have seen IN our newspa-
pers, the operatives at Preston are ION the
strike" as it ls called, and already some 5O00
mill hands" are without employment. This
of Itself would be bad enough, but the evil ls
increasing, and before another fortnight IS
over, at least 20, 600 men, women and children
in and about the great centres OF cotton SPIN
ming will be idle, subsisting upon the contrl-
buttons OF their fellow laborers in other dis.
tricts where the millowners have not tried to
reduce the wages of their workmen.
AS it at present stands, the dispute between
the millowners and the operatives in and
about Preston-and the difficulty is extending
all over Lancashire be briefly stated as
follows: The masters say, and say truly, that
at the present high plice they pay for cotton,
and the low price of the markets for cotton
cloths, twists, prints and the like, it does not
pay them to work their mills, and that they
must reduce all wages by ten per cent. Inc
operatives, on the other hand, say no. They
declare, with perfect truth, that when trade was
brisk, the staple low-priced, the manufactured
goods high. and q demand for the latter IN
every market, the milowners tall OF them
made immense profits, and turned over tneir
capital again and again. did not raise their
wages penny apiece, and that now they ought
NOT to lower them because tho market Is Tor
the moment depressed. Moreover they say,
aud with perfect reason on thoir slde. tnat II
their wages are now lowered ten per cent,
the milIowncrs will never raise them again,
but that .famine paw" will be the rule hence
forth and forever among them. They are quite
willing to submit the question to arbitration;
the arbitrators to consist OF an equal
number Of artisans and milowners, who
will among them select some well,
known public man as referee. But
the masters will not hear of this. With that
doggeduess and bull-headed obstipacy which,
am sorry to say, so often distinguishes the
Ea .lishman when he has made his fortune,
and has a com orta5le balance at his bankers,
they will listen to nothing. "Take what we
offer, or leayo it," ,s their stereotyped reply
and thousands Of artisans have taken them at
their wo,d and struck work. Mills ale shut up,
HELPLESS women and children are halt-sarVed,
and the whole state of society dlsorSanizcn in
what generally are 'hS 'poa. nontishlpg dis
trcts OF England fcs tie working class. For
tunately, there are certain mlloWners s,L IN .ne
north of Lancashire and in Yorkshire, who are
not so short-sighted-not 30 g;asping. Thel
mills ere not shut, because they have not
sought to reduce wages. In these favored dls'
trcts the operatives who are in work are sub
scribing to maint tain those who are not. Ihe
friendly societies and trades union also
help greatly, 30 that the poor people do not
actually want for bread and meat, or rather for
bread and tea for it is very little meat they ever
SEQ except on Sunday. But still ii is an evil.
A great wrong is being done these people. The
funds on which they ought to rely in tune OF
sickness are now being eaten up to afford them
ssevery day food" And all, fear, for no use.
Unfortunately for us, capital always starves Ia
Dor into submission in England. sag un-
fortunately" for fear we shall all suffer some
day from the greed of those who own capital IN
this country. Men cannot-and, what ID more,
they will not submit and give in forever when
on their side. The day will cone when tho Ia
borer in England will help himself to hundred
fold more than capital might now content him
with. Capital in oil civilized communlties has
it's duties as we'll as it's rights, and it it ncglects
those duties it will some day have to feel-be
made to feel-tnat it has done wrong.
All those operatives that are on strike are
the very pick Of our artisans. They are steady,
hard working men, anxious only to get falr
days wages for fair days work, to MAINTAIN
their wives and little ones in comfort, to Keep
q couple of decent rooms over their heads, and
to put by q small nest egg which Will Keep
those dependent upon them from the poor
house when the head Of the family IS dead.
They are, in every sense of the word, decent,
respectable men, with no small amount OF self
respect as witness the prlvatlon they endured
at tho commencement OF the civil war IN Amerl-
ca, before tho wealthy of En5iand oatno to th"i
help. They would make good citizens any
where; but most Of all arc they calculated TO
flourish in the United States. wheic, no matter
how humble man may be born, or how short
his purse may be, he feels that If ho has
trade or a handicraft, and is honest, sober and
we'll conducted, he must rise in the world.