Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1875-08-11
The British Strikes.

Employers League, after protracted
and obstlrate struggle which had
drained the resting operatives of their
very last resources, and left them on
the verge Of starvation The painful
scenes OF the iron districts are now
about to be exhibited on different
stage. The performance has shifted
to Oldham, Ashton and the other cot
ton manufacturing points of England.
The dramatic person@ this time are
mill-owners and their hands. The
plot of the play is precisely that which
in South Wales enlisted the interest
and sympathy (tor one or other of the
contesting parties) Of world of spec
tators. We can imagine nc reason
why the denouement should be differ.
ent from that with which we are al.
ready familiar, and why the cur tain
should not descend on view of the
misguided uDionists making full sur
render to the sovereignty Of natural
laws.
The cause of the strike and lock-
out Of the English cotton mills may be
stated briefly. With the marked de-
cline of raw cotton in England cotton
goods have of course sympathized.
Trade in all branches is much depress
ed IN that country as it is here-and
even diminished productiod of the
cotton mills could not find a ready
market at home or abroad. But the
manufacturers, hoping for increased
demand and an upward turn in prices,
have not limited Their production.
They have kept the mills going at the
old rates for operatives, until they now
find themselves stocked up with GER
tain classes of goods and the market
giving no signs of Improvement I'm
der such circumstances they have two
courses open to them-one to close the
mills, and the other to require con-
cession of wages from the hands.
The former is the simpler remedy, aud
the best for the employer; the latter is
the more humane for the men. The
manufacturers decided to reduce to a
point at which business could be con-
tinued without a positive loss. A
proposition to this effect has been re-
Jected by the hands, and the mill
owners have no alternative but to pro.
claim a lockout. This is now In ac-
tive operation, and threatens to ex.
tend over the United Kingdom Out
of l62 mills belonging to the Employ
ers' Association, only six were running
on the 3Oth instant, and these will be
closed by the end Of this month unless
the operatives yield. The cable re-
ports the mills at Dundee (headquart-
ers of the jute MANUFACTURED closed
yesterday and $4,000 men out of
work.-mnhe shutdown movement in
Dundee will s5or be followed, doubt
less, by the adoption of similar pol
icy in many other great manufactur-
ing places.
Within two years passed the en-
ployers in all kinds of trade have be-
come better acquainted with each 9th
er, and have quietly formed associa-
t Gus to oppose unionism by its own
weapons and methods. The first great
test of the principle was made in South
Wales, and most successfully; and We
pin our faith in the triumph of the
British mill owners in the present diff.
fculty on the fact that for the first
time they have combined together and
are acting with a common purpose
and will be aided by common fund.
They will stand by each Other as firm.
ly as the workingmen's societies of
Yorkshire and Lancashire and Ches-
hire will stand by the strikers of Ash.
ton, Oldham and Staleybridge. It
saddens one to think of the distress
which must fall on the thousands of
operatives and their families before
this lockout and strike comes to the
| usual end. But in this case. as in
most cases, it cannot be avoided by
anything that the employers can rea-
sonably be asked to do. No man can
be expected to conduct a business
long at loss when it is within his
power to or save himself either by
stopping work by getting it done more
cheaply. Such is the dilemma forced
upon the perplexed manufacturers of
Great Britain, and if the operatives
are Dos willing to take smaller paw
they lrust suffer the consequences.
We do dot favor the combination to
affect wages either among employers
or their workmen, but those who ap-
prove OF the one have no ground upon
which to complain Of the other. r.-NeD
York Journal Of Commerce.