Connecticut western news., 1874-08-14
THE GREAT LOCKOUT.
The English Farmers and the LabOrel
 -.Their Wages and their COnditi 0M.

The English Farmers and the Laborers
 "-Their Wages and their Condition.
 In April last the farm laborers in the eastern counties of England notified their employers that their wages must be raised or they would leave off work. In Suffolk, where the strike was first made, and which has since been the hot bed of the contention, the average laborers were then receiving from $3 25 to $3. 50 week the best men of course received several shil!ings more. These wages, the farmers asserted, were quite adequate to the support of the labor CTS, and an increase was impossible, on account of the small profit which, even at existing rates, could be made from the farms. They could not consent to their own actual impoverishment.
 Societies under the name of defence associations were organized by the farmers, who resolved not to employ any laborers belonging to agricultural unions. A fresh incentive to the de- mands of the laborers was given by Dr. Fraser, the Bishop of Manchester, who urged their cause in an able letter to the London Times, commencing, " Are the farmers of England mad ?"
 Since the spring the struggle has continued, and it is not yet at an end. The network of agricultural unions all through the country has been the means of keeping the quarrel alive. From the contributions of the members of these unions and of the trades unions in towns, the families of the locked out laborers of the eastern counties have been supported. The Central Union at bennington is now paying out five or six thousand dollars 8 week. Many of the locked-out men have been compelled to emigrate to New Zealand or other colonies, and some have moved to other parts of England. The executive com mittee of the Central Agricultural Union has offered free passage to all who will emigrate to Canada during this month.
 A few days ago thera was great de- monstration in Manchester to express sympathy with the eastern county farm laborers. Some 15, 600 trades unionists took part, and the standard carried at the head of the procession bore litho- graphic portrait of the Bishop of Manchester, to whom the speakers made complimentary references. MT. Joseph Arch addressed the meeting. He claimed that the agricultural labor CTS had 8 right to combine to better their condition. Unions of labor, in his opinion, can alone secure the posses sion and enjoyment of their rights. The farm laborers' question is not merely @ matter of an advance of wages. They complain, MT. Arch said, of inadequate payment for work, of the insuficiency of cottage accommodation, and their powerlessness in the cleo. toral representation. -.
 In reply to MT. Arch it is said that the farm laborers in Suffolk are excep- tionally healthy and strong. Their homes are not miserable, but in the main scrupulously clean and quite com fortable. For instance, there are 125 small tenemcnts upon the Earl of Stradbroke's estate, each of which has small garden attacned to it. In every cottage where there is family there are two bedrooms. Upon Lord Rendlesham's estate there are 286 cot tages, and nearly all of them have gar dens. The rent of cottage and gar den varies from $13 to $22 per annnm. The Suffolk cottages are said to be pat terms of what village home should be. AAO OOuonSC4o O1h0 OAOAA OWA OACoO NAAO brew their own beer, and the bread is said to be of excellent quality. There is no truth, we are told, in the asser- tion that the laborers pick snails from the hedges for dinner and drink tea made from nettles. The worst cottages belong to people who cling to them be. cause they are their old homes, and re. fuse to exchange them for more commo' dious dwellings,.
 Some of the laborers have already re- turned to their work, but most of them still hold out. The men who went tc the manufacturing counties where wages are higher, found the work much harder in proportion, and many have returned to the eastern counties. The hay and clover have been cut, and some farmers have supplied the place of skilled la borers with moving machines. Un skilled labor can be easily obtained from the cities. In few days it will ne harvest time, and the farmers do not anticipate any difficulty in cutting an6 getting in their grain. If they can gel through their harvesting successfully the prospect is bad for the locked-ou men. Their funds are becoming ex hausted, and there is no slgn of yielding on the part of the defense associations It is to be ehoped that some just compro mise may before long be effected.-N
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