The age-herald., 1897-08-01
GREAT ENGLISH STRIKE
When All Kinds of Industries Were Nearly at a
 StandstilI for Six Weeks.

Thomas Grundy, the well-known labor leader of this city, was a participant in some cf the famous strikes which occur red in England forty or more years ago, and his recoLections of the manner in winch t4sy were conducted and his eom- ments upon the good which they accom- pHshed are interes tins just now, when strikes and fumors of strikes are engag- ing the attention of nearly everybody. lAIr. Grundy is now upward of 60 years of aet=, and has been a hard worker in the laIecr movement nearly all his life. He drew his first inspiration from mob or striking WeaYers who, when NIT. Gfundy was seven years old, called at the school house whera he was beginning his eduea- ton and compelled the teacher to g we the scholars vacation. This was a unique form of enforced sympathy strike, which MT Grundy has never since seen duplica ted. He had sometimes wondel ed at the tamaness of labor struggles which he has since wittlssssd compared with what he saw in his boyheods s days, but as he remembers his feeling on the great occasion it WAS simply one of satisfaction that the strikers should IelisVe him of the necessity of going to school
 According to MT. Grundy's description eff this strike it must have been one of the greatest labor struggles that ever occur nd. In 1S42 the coalition of the cottC n workers in Lancashire, 1 Yorkshire Cheshire had become SO bad, owirg to the irI.rcduction of machinery, that a general strike movement was brought about without any organization and at first without leadership.
 In it's spontaneous character it seems to lave much reeembled the present min CTS strike now on in half a dozen states, though MI. .Grundy insists that the miners or orP n 9 crp b6 inauguration of general strike com pared with what the WeaVers had on cha { occasion, as the latter were absolutely without any organization wha teEer. Dur ing the six weeks industry of every kind was entirely suspe nded in the district affected, fe being estimated that in the neighborhood of 3,000. 900 people were idle. This included the weaVers themselves and persons of every other occupatio whom they obliged to leave work. The small tradesmen ahd manufacturers were obiig- ed to close their places, the teachers in the schools had to send their pupils homa and the strikers even prevented the pass- i ing of vehicles upon the highways by massing themselves in compact bodies through which no horse could be driven. MT Grundy having been very young at the time this strike occurred. most Of his information about | has been gath cred from reading. The incidents which he remembered are principally the forcing of his teacher to dismiss school and the obligiGe of his father to suspend husi- ness, MT. Grundys father was natter, having shop of his own and employing a few hands in the town of Ashton, near m inchestnr The strikers came r. a large body, and 1t was only necessary for one of them to say: Put out that fire, Grundy," and the natter immediately suspended all work in his little place and sent his men home to wait for the strike to be over
 MT. Grundy remembers seeing bodies of the strikers marching along the high ways thickly massed 'togethsr and fin- ing the roads from side to side as far as they could be sen. They were always armed with clubs, and when marching would line up together, each grasping the club of the man on either side of him, and so weaving themselves into a solid mass. In this way 1t was rend rs d impossible for anything or anybody to occupy the road but the strikers, and their object of forcing a general suspen- sion of business in the district was ob- | tained. This was only for a little while however, as large bodi-s of troops of the empire were ordered into the dis trlct held by the strikers, and soon obliged them to preserve the peace and deslst from interfering with the affairs of those who desired to carry on busi- ness.
 MT Grundy's recollection of the mater is that much sympathy was displayed for the strikers by the troops. and tha the latter were of very little use so far as breaking the strike of the weaversi was concerned. The strike was lost,
 how=ver, the weavers going back to their work at the end of six weeks with out having obtained any increase of wages or any shortening of their hours of labor. It was not long, however. un- til parliament as a result of this strike to yaax. ott afi tn fHa dition of the weavers, and laws which served very effectually to ameliorate their condition were passed.
 Golden, Bright and other great English statesmen took up their cause. and lnves- tigations and discussions resulted, the repeakof the corn laws. by which English workingmen were enabeld to obtain cheaper food, MT. Grundy thinks. was largely due to this trike, though It had been advocated before the strike took place. Another law which was of great benefit forbade women and children un- der IS years of age to be employed in the cotton mills longer than ten hours day. This law was not only good thing in it. self. but 1t caused the workers gener- ally to think and agitate for general ter-hnur day. and some ten years after the great strike of 1S42 there was gen. er;tl strike for ten hours. which resulted slcc ssfully. and which was the begin hing of better times in the matter of hours of labor in early all English in- dustrles.
 NTr. Glundy wss employed in a cotton nlill t-nself at the time this last strike took place. The workingmen simply quit work when they had worked ten hours one day, and so inaugurated a movement which was successful. MT. G1lniy says that at that time there was SO little general education that many persons could not tell the time of day by clc elk, and SO in passing around the wore foi the inauguration of the strike every body was instructed to stop work whcn the clock pointed straight up and down. this being a method of securing a mere general understanding than to say G o'clock in the eyering.
 In the mill where MT Grundy worked the clock was watched all afternoon, and when the time came there was general rush for the outs de of the mill. The fore man had the gates locked and proceeded to harangue the workmen, but 1t was to no purpose. Several were notified that they We're discharged, but this produced no effect upon them or the others. Mir Grundy. thinks that among ignorant a,.lz,, I4ot ic i faoE sp11n "a