The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1872-10-01
WORKINGMEN IN ENGLAND.
STRIKES AND THE E~IORBITANT
PRICES IN P~R0HISIONS.
In the Mines and Workshops Of Britain
How the Laborers are Treated
Struggling for an Existence.
Correspondence of the New York SUM-

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Correspondence Of the New York Suu.1
LONDON, September 10.
Editors and other guardians OF the public
veal are loud In denunclatlops of strikes.
Much sympathy is expressed for persons Of
fixed incomes, who can afford only a certain
amount for a certain thing, and when prices
rise thew have to make shift with less in pro.
portion. Those with $1,000 q year, we are told,
cannot live as we'll now and occupy 80 respect
able a position In society as they could a few
years ago on fsO0 a year. They have to stint to
keep up appearance, and curtain in all dtrec:
lions. The universal demand of the labori6g
population for shorter hours and more pay
opens the sorry prospect Of increasing hard
ship. These large-hearted sympathizers and
denouncers lose sight of the corollary that
The poor man cannot make ten shlllIngs go
as fur now as eight shiIlings a few years ago,
and that bis stinting implies absolute deprl-
vatIon of the necessaries of lie. The tact that
| hiph prices have In every Instance preceded
ma rise in wages, and that where advances
have been obtained they are out Of all proper
lion to the advance In prices, is altogether
ignored.
present exorbilsnt prices ofcoal; they ore too
lazy to work, and they want more money. 10
from tbe reductions that were made as late as
two wears ago, and they were made on the
nlea mat The stock on hand was unstable at
The did rates. Since the; revival of trade,
however, all the old stock produced at the
lowest wages has been disposed OF at the
highest prices. and the recent advance OF
wages does In no case exceed Cd a ton, or q a
Week to The miner, while Within the last TWO
months coal has risen g., 10 ton at the pits
month. and los q ton In The London market.
| The prices set down by the coal owners OF the
North for the month OF August are more than
double the prices during the same month lost
year. The STAFFORD Main Colllery, near
Barnsley, In South Yorkshire, has isued the
price list for the current month as follows:
Rest coal, Der ton, 20s; wallsends, 1885,; hards,
l6s: nuts, l5s; cobbles. l2s, and slack, s.. Last
wear the best realized little more than SIS a
ion, cobbles brought from 80 81 10 4s, and
slack was sold for % q ton.
THE coLL1ERs.
What the miner gets as his share In this
wonderful prosperity Is Just Two and one-half
pence a ton more than he had last year. But
the miners are determined not to produce any
dead stock agalu II they can help 1t, TO have
the little advance taken Of as soon as the
present extraordinary demand subsidies. They
are bent UPON working only eight hours a day.
and Tho coal owners must accede 10 their de-
mand. Not long ago the Staffordshire coal
owners consented 10 the eight hours working
| dsy. and now they are qnRrrelling whether
the men shall be In the pit at ak in The morn
| ing or only at the mouth ready to descend.
| The men are as obstinate as lheir masters.
| The masters demand that the men shall de.
| scend and ascend In their own time. The
men want TO split the difference. They
nave no objection to come up In their
| own time in the afternoon, but they
| strongly object to going down In their
W time In the morning. a conferences be-
tween 8 hundred coal owners and six dele
| gates or the miners lasted three hours, but
| neither party could persuade The other. Mass
| meetings we're held after the conference, and
| resolutions passed not TO give ln. The house
coal golfers In the Rhonda Valley OF Wale9
| rad an advance of I'd. q ton on the hfst OF
July, and they are now In hopes of getting
another "a. 1t Ia on the strength OF such ad-
yances that q Midland coal owner proclalL1s
la the Times that the requirements OF the
miners families are 30 much below their
present wages that numbers are found the
day after pay day lying about the roads and
fields In q state OF into4lcation, and that all
the leisure they have gained ID spent IN pot
houses.
THE IRON WORkEh5.
The iron trade is In the same position as to
| prlces az tho coal trade, and 1t Is the demand
| of the iron trade for coal, both at home and
| abroad, that has made coal 30 costly. For
| twenty years the average price or bar Iron did
not exceed f6 q ton. Two years ago IL rose TO
ss; IL Is now above ETA, other kinds OF iron In
| proportion, and the nfne-bour movement Ia
| responsible for that. The Increase Of the
| wages of the iron workers bears the same re-
lstion to tile selling price of Iron as tha In.
crease of the GOLFERS wages bears to the sell
Ing price of coal. The Iron masters are reluc.
tant to book orders even ut the present high
prices; they want more. However, there Is no
alarm among the editors about the price Of
iron, because 1t does not enter 80 Immediately
into every day life. We do not buy pots, KEEL
ties and pans every day, but We like TO put
them on the fire every day With something 10
Lhpm. and the costlier these articles are the
leas we procure. The workingmen strike and
the moment they do so they are reproached
with causing the increase IN price OF every
thing, It must be remembered, says an arls.
~tocralic print, that wages and prices go to.
gether, and that If the collier wants higher
wages the town operative must pay more for
his coal. and that with an increase In the
wages of the agricultural laborer, meat and
other provisions must become more eXpen.
sIve. Were cost of production the limit OF
the selling pFiCo ouou otSuhiChlo "ouAu 10
lnoontroyertiole, but then, per contra, low
wages would make cheap goods. However
true It may be that no article can be produced
for any length of time, the selling price OF
which does not x,eed the cost of production,
thers ia nothing In the exisling order of
Ihlnps to prevent high prices and low wages
goIn9 together tor very long periods Of time.
were It not for unions and strikes the colliers
and iron workers would not have obtained the
paltry advances they have, and coal and iron
would be as dear as they are.
No amount of crednlous stupidity will in
duce a person 10 believe that the GOLFERS ad-
vance of Cd. q ton for the getting of the coal is
the cause why best Goals cost 36s. o ton 10
LondoD. Instead of from 24s. TO 26s. O ton, the
ordjnarv price for the last twenty years; but It
Iakes very little persuasion to convince one
that the prospect of enormous pro9Ls has In
diced coal and Iron masters to coucede the
advance of wages with 80 little trouble as
many nave done, and they will not be slow In
taking it off again at the first sign of falling
prices. long before they get down again to The
old average. Only last year, when the North
of nglaa Iron workers belonging to the
Darlington board of arbitration demanded a
ten per cent. advance OF wages, and showed
good reasons hat the prospect of the trade
warranted such q demand, the iron masters
actually insisted on q five per cent. reduction
of wages. notwithstanding that the upward
tendency which has resulted In The present
extraordinary high prices was already manifest
in every direction.
WAGES AND The COST OF LIVING.
The high price of provisions is not the re-