Current:

Leader (1850-1860), 24th November 1855, Edition 1 of 2, Page 1130, Untitled Article

Page 1130
Page 14
14 of 24

On this page

  • Text (2)

      Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

    • Untitled Article

      Untitled Article

    • Untitled Article

      Untitled Article

  • Transcript

    • Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

      Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.

      Untitled Article

      AFFAIRS AT MANCHESTER . The present aspect of affairs at Manchester is ominous , and the sad experience of the -winter before last suggests a catastrophe which , under the present circumstances , it is not p leasant to contemplate . With the war upon us , the people ' s food at famine prices , a severe winter before us , and discontent abroad among the working-classes , a Strike in Manchester , the very heart of our domestic industry , is not exactly the thing we should have wished for most .

      In some important features the present dispute differs from the unhappy quarrel which originated at Preston in 1853 . Here is no shuffling and beating about the bush ; no "blinking of the real question at issue ; no refusals to give the advance accompanied by insult ; no long period of fierce but suppressed contention ; and then ( when the men have been goaded beyond their patience ) , no pretence that the struggle was not for wages , but for mastery : we are happy to say that there are none of these ugly symptoms about the matter ; on the contrary , the points in dispute have been fairly stated on both sides , and that with remarkable jtidgment and temper . We wish that we could add to this assurance

      an expression of belief that the dispute will be any the more speedily settled on these accounts ; but we cannot . The fact is , the class of operatives now engaged is a very different one from that which struck at Preston . Here are no mobs of giddy girls and hobadehoys , plastic material for wrongheaded and violent demagogues to work upon , but solid and experienced workmen , long tried and hardened in the furnace of labour . At Preston , the spinners had no quarrel with the masters , but were compelled to turn out because the inaction of the weavers rendered their services

      unnecessary . This is a Strike of spinners only , and those who are acquainted with the manufacturing districts know what that means . The Preston Strike of 1833 was a strike of spinners , and a more determined and better organised pitched battle between capital and labour it would be impossible to conceive . As the question has been , stated between the masters and men , it seems to be much more complicated and difficult of settlement than the advance or reduction of an equal and indiscriminate ten per cent . ; indeed , it involves some points not so much technical , as arising out of those principles which govern the internal economy of the whole kingdom . We will endeavour to bo ns brief and as

      intelligible as possible in stating what these are . In the first place , it should bo understood that the manufacturing distinct , like every

      Other , is subject to a constant mutation . As the prices of land vary , as the art of living is cheaper or dearer , as means of transit increase and as accident directs capital into new channels , the various manufacturing towns change very much in their relative importance . No place offers a more striking instance of this than the metropolis of the cotton district itself : five-and-twenty years ago , Manchester was the head-quarters of every branch of the cotton manufacture ; at this day , its only speciality is fine spinning ; all the other branches have migrated to other parts of the district . The causes of this change are almost too obvious to need explanation : land is dearer , and food is dearer , in Manchester , than elsewhere ; and the consequence is , that it offers advantages only to that costly descri ption of manufacture which demands the best skilled , and , therefore , best paid operatives . Coarse spinning is , therefore , on the decline in Manchester , and the men who have turned out ( to the aggregate of nearly 3 , 500 ) are coarse spinners . Before proceeding any further , we wish to explain a principle in trade which a writer in the leading journal , who seeks to demonstrate to the poor spinner that starvation is not half so bad as having to put down your carriage or give up wine , seems altogether to ignore ; and that is , that labour is apart of the material out of which goods are made , and is not to be paid for out of the profits . The cotton broker is not paid for his cotton out of the profits . Suppose the manufacturers were to go and say to him : " Trade is bad , and we can ' t afford to pay the same price for your cotton . " He would curtly reply : " Buy less ; make less stuff ; and the market will mend . " The principle which regulates the price of labour is precisely the same . Returning to the special case of Manchester , we find that food and lodging being dearer , than elsewhere , a workman requires more to live upon there than in any other town in the district ; but , on the other hand , the manufacturer is not so far from his market , and he is much nearer his cotton . He has , besides , some other special advantages , which would enable him to produce goods at a much cheaper rate than elsewhere , if it were not for the drawbacks which we have enumerated . Now it is clear that whenever the drawbacks upon any trade exceed the advantages , that trade must cease to exist . Men cannot bo expected to work iipon starvation wages , and master . " cannot long trade under a loss . Here lies the whole matter in dispute between the spinners and manufacturers of Manchester . We have shown that the operatives cannot live without a higher rate of pay than they can obtain elsewhere . If the manufacturers can show that to pay this higher rate is beyond their ability , tlio sooner they sell their mills and transport their machinery to some more favourable part of the district the better , for that branch of the trade must be practically dead in Manchester , and to persevere in it must be inevitable bankruptcy . It is highly probable that this is the true state of the case . Whether , therefore , the masters did or did not give too much when they conceded advances in 1853 , it is not important to know ; but it is desirable to ascertain what rates they can afford to pay higher than those which j ) rcvail elsewhere . Manchester being under special circumstances , cannot be goA crned by a rate which is applicable to Ash ton , Hy de , or Bolton . The masters arc therefore in error when they appeal to the rates paid at . other places , and the men retort upon them with terrible logic : —" You combined the yonr before last to prevent us from forcing Pres

      Untitled Article

      . ti ^ tions j ^ pe ^* & c ^^ tended yr&t , : tfceMfore , . lies before ' us for 1850 . - An > ftxtencted ) war will demand an extension <^< wr ' ft > roe 9 . ; probably our naval machinery , recruited with the-floating batteries , of which the Emperor Napoleon claims the invention , will be sufficient for all the duties before it ; but it is manifest that operations in Bessarabia , in . Asia , and in the Baltic , as well as in the Crimea , wUX call for a great increase to the land forces , even if there be no demand for military operations : in Central Europe . It becomes important , therefore , to look ahead , in order to ascertain the sources from which our land armies may be recruited . No doubt more numerous and efficient levies can be secured by , better arrangements at home . The graduated pay ¦ which is allowed to the sailors of the nayy , in the formation of a first class between the able-bodied seaman and the petty officers , presents inducements to engage in that force without the dead weight of an increase of pay to . every handi As it is , about every tenth man of the crew is sure of high pay , according to his capacity ; and smart young men find something worth speculating in . Extra pay for the Crimean service , a larger allowance of commissions , and continued improvement in the relations of the soldier , will gradually operate upon , the available classes at home . An absurdity that has kept numbersoutof the ranks will no doubt be corrected by the necessities of the case . The examining surgeons are afflicted with crotchets that make them reject vevy serviceable applicants for fanciful defects * . In a recent case , some supposititious prevalence of flat feet among the recruits caused wholesale rejection by a medical officer . In some respects , however , the comparatively slight draft that has been made upon the resident population in this country is an advantage . It leaves a larger proportion as a reserve to- ; be called forth at a future stage ; and when we . know that . Russia has already been enforcing her fourteenth , levy , that she has drafted off one-fourth of her able-bodied manhood , while our own drafts have been limited to a very small proportion of the humblest class , we feel that we have a weight of strength behind which is alone sufficient , without greater mechanical and scientific aids , to make us stronger than the enemy . But we have other resources upon which we can draw before we press more deeply into our own population . Px'ejudtces are entertained in the East against the Greeks , and yet certain Greek populations certainly deserve some consideration from this country . The Ionians are , to a great extent , our- fellow-subjects ; they ought to share the responsibilities of the Empire ; they have a right to share the opportunities of the British . It is a grievance with the Ionian force that they cannot find employment . On the other hand , there are serious objections to the withdrawal of any large proportion of the British army from India ; as our total force cannot be diminished in that empire without risk . It is true that Russian agencies have probably helped to render the Indian soldier in some quarters a less trustworthy sentinel of British interests than he has been ^ and that he might be advantageously replaced ! , British regiments in . India , ov even Native Indian regiments , would probably be rendered available for service ih South Russia , if they could be replaced by troops from fraorfcher quarter ; and' we see no reason * why the Ionian regiments should not here find the employment tiiafe is denied to them elsewhere . There are other resources in the far East which'would be extremely available . In the island of Ceylon there is a force called " The Ceylon Rifles . " It has proved very steady in dut ^ pline , it is highly efficient , and it is

      rethe Crimea , or even take its part in the Asiatic campaign . The quality of the men has been well tried . They prove very suitable to be officered by Europeans ; they are Mahommedans , yet not very squeamish as to the circumstances amid which they are thrown ; they are easily kept in a state of practical discipline ; they are naturally fierce and adventurous ; and , in short , they constitute the materials for exactly such a corps as would be most valuable .

      crujted ¦ without difficulty . The men are not , as the name implies , natives of Ceylon ; they are drawn from Singapore and Penang ; and . some have even been found at Bantam . They belong to the fierce Malay tribe 3 , and can be obtained in considerable numbers . By increasing this force , a European regiment or two in the South of India might be set free ;—nay it is probable that the force itself might be advantageously transported for service to

      Untitled Article

      < iaa p tj ^ E ^^ J ft lL { No . X Saturday .

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Nov. 24, 1855, page 1130, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2116/page/14/