The Cotton Factory Times. — 1901-06-21 (Manchester, Greater Manchester, England)

EXPLANA.TIONS BY THE EMPLOYERS. 6' INDIGNANTLY DENY" RESPONSIBILITY. Meears. John Catlow and SOD, of Olive Mill, Darwen, writs to the press as follows, under date Juue 17th, 1901 :  Sir,—At the inquait held in Darwen on Friday, the 14th inst., on the death of Eliza McCartney, a weaver formerly einfdoyed by us at our Olive Mill, Darwen, the ooroner thought fit to make the following public statement:—" I must say that morrally, though perhaps net legally, I think this girl's death lies on John West, the tackler, and on the manager and the master of Olive Mill." We were not professionally represented at the inquest, nor were any of the members of our firm present thereat, and we wish througlawan to express our surprise and indignation that snob remarks should be made by one who occupies a quasi-judicial position in the county without, we submit, a particle of evidence to justify them, and without having called upon us or given us an opportunity of being heard in our defence.  We can only claim your kind indulgence to allow us to make a short statement of facts so as to allow the public to judge whether or not the Coroner's remarks were justified. The facts are these. The rule by which every weaver is engaged at our Olive Mill is as follows Olive Min.—Any person in our employ can leave without notice any Wednesday noon. And we reserve the right to discharge without notice any person in our employ on that day and tirne.—By order, John Ca.tlow and Son." During the period of about seven years during which E1i.7.9, McCartney had been intermittently working for us she had oftener than once availed herself of her rights under the rule, and discharged herself without notice. Other weavers, occasionally to our great inconvenience, have often done the same.  AU overlookers in weaving shods are paid by percentages on the weavers' wages—la. 4d. in the pound is the usual percentage, and that is what we give to our overlookers. There are ten overlookers in Olive Mill, and if nine of them earn more than the tenth we naturally want to know the reason. Quite as naturally, if an overlooker has a weaver earning only 22e. per week, when the other weavers under him are earning an average of 245., and he has a chance of engaging a good weaver to replace the one who cannot earn the average, he does so. This is what happened at our mill in the case of MoCartney's dismissal, and is, we submit, legitimate business, and that which is carried on in ordinary course in weaving sheds similar to ours, and at which no one under our terms of service has any right of complaint. Why are we and our manager and overlooker to be held up to public opprobrium and stigmatised as murderers because we, in our turn, lawfully pat an end to MoCartney's contract of service? If McCartney was a competent weaver, she could have got work without difficulty elsewhere than with us. Nobody can regret more than we do the suicide of the poor girl which occurred after her dismiss-0, but that we are morally responsible for her death we indignantly deny. As well might it be said that the Coroner himself was morally guilty of murder because a clerk or domestic servant of his unhappily committed suicide after being lawfully dismissed from his service. Having regard to the fact that the Coroner is not, like an ordinary individual, legally answerable in the courts of law for his official criticisms, we think that it behoves him in future to be more guarded in his language, so as to avoid giving the pain to others which on this occasion he has inflicted upon us.