The Potteries Examiner : — 1873-06-21 (Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England)

THE ATTACK OF THE "POTTERIES EXPRESS" UPON TRADE SOCIETIES.  That miserable abortion of a newspaper that with subtle irony, which is the best part of the publication, is entitled the "Daily Express," has been following the bent of the man who said, " write me down an ass," with this difference that by its bitter and unjustidable attacks upon trades unionism, and with the blind unconsciousness of pure folly, it has most successfully swornplished for itself, that not very remarkable feat in its case. It is well for the thousands of respectable working men who belong to trade societies in this district to learn what this paper thinks of them and their combinations. It says that in a trade society  To obtain members, a continued system of coercion, persecution, and intimidation is kept up also in eases of strikes, where unanimity Co so essential to the attainment of an object the writer must know that the foulest means are employed to thin the ranks of the "black sheep" as the contented workmen are called. There is that in the nature and objects of trade societies which make them hotbeds of conspiracy, they are coteries of men who are tainted with desperate and chronic discontent, and it therefore behoves society to protect itself by special and severe laws.  This is a return to the spirit of the first attack that it made upon working men's combinations, and a contradiction of its last utterances about these very "special and severe laws," which in its second article it spoke of as having "something rotten" in them. There is no limitation in the sweeping denunciation of the above extract. It accuses trades' unionists generally of "systematic coercion, persecution, and intimidation," it says they employ the "foulest means" to secure their objects, "the thinning of the black sheep ;" and, further, that theirs societies are "hotbeds of conspiracy," and that they are "tainted with desperate and chronic discontent." In all the lies that have been written and uttered against the working men for daring to combine, no fouler, no baser falsehoods, have ever been published. There is no district in the world where there are many more trade unionists in proportion to the population than in this; and, we ask, where are the examples of "systematic coercion and intimidation," and what are the "foulest means" employed here? Are they the Boards of Arbitration and Conciliation, which, in the case of the potters, were formed upon the suggestion of the unions, and which have prevented either a strike or a lock-out of any itnportance from taking place during the last five years? Are these "foul means" employed by the miners? They have accomplished their great work of industrial advancement without any resort to the base counsel which they, in common with all trade societies, are accused of, they never having had any strike, worthy of the name, since they commenced to unite in 1869, all their work having been accomplished by conciliation meetings with the masters at Stoke. And we could go through the different societies in the district and show how they are basely libelled by this unscrupulous publication, conducted by men who, like the quacks in the Market-place, are here today and will be very likely gone to-morrow, as the extinguisher is threatening to put out the light of this farthing dip, that, to distinguish by the name of a journal, is like comparing a grocer's tea paper to the Tinos. A short time since, /Ito the demonstration of miners, this out-at-elbows "gentleman of the press" made a bid for the working men's support by praising them, and now it is going on another taok, for it no doubt thinks by calling the operatives of North Stab fordiLiza desperate agiraty:s, that it will  secure the favour of employers, but the Mute, Of this district have too much common sense t. 3 be won over by such desperate devices. It professe3 to be a journal of independent politics. Read . betweea the lines, thig means independent of all principle, which is an article not dealt in at the office of the "Potteries Express," it being too trouble, some baggage to carry about from town to tows. When the Crown Bank was first disgraced by the "Express" office being opened, it was whispere4 abroad that a certain Liberal M.P. for Stoke-on. Trent belonged to it, and that it was intended to keep his seat warm for the next election; but it was soon apparent that no member except a mem. her of Bedlam would commit political suicide by making such a paper his mouthpiece. When the Conservatives held their demonstration at Hanley the report, and the maudlin nonsense that did duty as a leading article all indicated which way the wind was blowing; and it was bruited abroad that a leader of the Conservatives, who is as. flounced to contest this borough at the next eler tion, was about to give the " ExpresP a 'lift.' But no more egregious blunder was ever made than to think of that gentleman helping such a very lame dog as this, christened the "Express," over the stile by any other means than the toe of his boot. Good Templars and publicans have in turn been wooed, and an admirable exemplification of Lowell's pious editor's creed has been given by the "Express " I don't believe in principle, But oh! I do in interest. To reason further with such a jonrnal as this upon the question of fair and equal laws for working men would be absolute waste of words, as the extract we have given proves that it neither on. derstands, nor is capable of dealing fairly with working men's associations.