the number of collieries at work, and the variety of coals produced,
which though primarily used for particular purposes, will, at certain
prices, be used for others, your Committee, notwithstanding
intermittent and startling fluctuations in price due to temporary
causes, do not believe that any combination either of employers or
workmen can by artificial means succeed in permanently affecting the
ordinary results of the relations of demand and supply in adjusting
the quantity of coal produced to the demand, or can permanently
affect the price resulting from the state of the market; nor do your
Committee believe that the interference of Parliament with the course
of industry and trade in coal could produce any useful or beneficial
result to the public beyond what has been arrived at in recent
legislation, namely, the prevention of injury to the health and
morals of young children and young persons, and the prevention of
accidents from wilful neglect of recognised precautions.
"2. Much evidence has however been given to show the great increase
in the rate of wages, and the earnings of the working miners; but
whilst it is true that in some cases the earnings have enormously
increased, and have been improvidently spent, your Committee conclude
that in general the condition of the workmen has been much improved,
and that the rise in the rate of wages has not, under the exceptional
circumstances, been unreasonable, nor been unattended with
considerable benefit to the workers; indeed in some cases the workmen
have preferred improving the conditions under which they work to
increasing the amount of their wages in money.
"3. It is clearly shown that the real order of events has been the
rise in the price of iron, the rise in the price of coal, and the
rise in the rate of wages. The increased payment per ton for labour
employed in getting the coal cannot therefore be considered as the
primary cause of the large increase in the price of coal; a rise in
wages followed upon rather than preceded a rise in the price of coal.
To the extent to which increased rates of wages have induced workmen
to labour for a shorter number of hours than heretofore, resulting in
a reduced output per man, a higher payment for labour has contributed
indirectly in an important degree to maintain the high price of coal,
but having regard to the great danger to which coal miners are
exposed, and the character of their labour, the average rate of wages
in collieries has not been more than sufficient to attract the
requisite labour to the mine. The workmen, like all others connected
with coal mining, should only regard their present earnings as a
temporary profit, which may, at no distant day, approach towards
former rates."
With respect to the Franchise Association, during the year there was a
strong agitation in favour of an extension of the Franchise to the
householders in the county, as such had been done by the Act of 1868
to those in the borough. The spirit of reform found ready response in
the minds of the Durham miners, and a very active Association was
formed. Although incidental to the labour organisation, and with a
voluntary contribution, it was managed by the leading men in that
Association. The names found prominently in one are found in the
other. A Council meeting of the Miners' Association was held in
November of this year, at which it was proposed that Mr Crawford
should be nominated for one of the county divisions, and the matter
was remitted to the Franchise Association. There were but two of these
divisions at that time--the North and South, each having two members.
There was a General Election in prospect, and it was deemed advisable
to run Mr Crawford as a Liberal candidate. To anticipate a little, he
was duly put forward on Wednesday, the 28th of January 1874. His
candidature was publicly announced, but on Friday, the 30th, at a
meeting of the ex-Committee, he withdrew. His aim in so doing was to
avoid a division of the Liberal forces. There were two Tories in the
field and three Liberals, and it was highly necessary that this should
be avoided. This decision was reported to a Council held on the 31st.
There was a general consensus of opinion that he had acted wisely,
although the delegates regretted the necessity. Some of them had
brought money--as much as £30 in one instance--towards the election
expenses. A resolution was adopted which had for its object the
formation of an election fund with the view to strengthen the hands of
the Franchise Association, and it was agreed that whenever there was a
vacancy in the county, where there was a chance of success, he should
be at once brought forward.
1874
The first Reduction--Co-operative Colliery--The Strike of 1874--The
Wheatley Hill Revolt and Evictions--Second Reduction--First
Arbitration
We finished 1873 with a demand for an advance and a difference as to
the submission for a reference to arbitration. During the interval the
trade had declined to such an extent that the employers sent a claim
for a reduction, and thus the young Society was beginning to find
itself entering its first dark cloud of depression. Up to that moment
the booming times arising out of the Franco-Prussian War had been with
it, but now the relapse which generally follows a fever in trade had
set in, and the demand for coals had fallen off seriously; and whereas
a month or two previously they had expected another advance, it was
felt by Mr Crawford and his colleagues that it would not be possible
to stave off a reduction.
Before coming to the consideration of the first reduction let us, for
the sake of chronological order, note one or two matters of some
importance. The first of these is the demand for men being trained
before being left to themselves in a mine. At the Council meeting held
on Saturday, 21st March, the following resolution was carried:--
"We have again to protest against the introduction of strangers into
our mines--men to whom mining with all its dangers is thoroughly
unknown, whereby the limbs and lives of other men are constantly
endangered. We therefore emphatically ask the owners to put such men
under the care of some practical miner for a period of not less than
six months, who will be responsible for any danger arising from such
person's ignorance of mines."
Another point worthy of note was the resolve to join in the movement
to form a co-operative mining company. At the Council meeting on 4th
April it was resolved:
"That we take £5000 out of the General Fund, and invest it in the
Co-operative Mining Co., as we believe productive co-operation to be
the only solution to the many difficulties that exist between
Capital and Labour."
At the same Council a copy of the owners' request for a reduction was
read. It conveyed the decision of their full meeting: "That the state
of the Durham Coal Trade imperatively calls for a reduction of twenty
per cent. in all colliery wages, both above and below ground, to take
effect from the 18th of next month." A meeting was held between the
two Associations on the 16th of April, when the employers stated the
reasons for their demand. They held "(1) that there was no connection
between profit and wages, and the workmen had, therefore, no
legitimate right to interfere in such a matter; (2) that trade was
vastly more dull, and prices materially less, than was supposed; (3)
that in various parts of our own country and also in Germany,
reductions had taken place, in the latter 25 per cent., and having to
compete in the same markets with firms and districts so brought down,
they had no choice but to enforce the reduction."
This was brought before a Council meeting on April 25th, but the
delegates refused to discuss it then, and referred the question to a
special meeting to be held on the 29th. Steps were taken to prepare
for a stop should a reduction take place, and men were arranged to
visit various districts. Those going to Ireland and Scotland had £30
each. The owners had in the meantime given notice at certain
collieries, and the workmen were told to remain at their own
collieries. On the 27th the Executive Committee issued the following
circular:--
April
27th, 1874.
Fellow Workmen,--According to arrangement, Messrs Patterson,
Wilkinson and Crawford, saw Messrs Burt and Nixon yesterday, and from
information received it appears that the 10 per cent., or a reduction
from 50 to 40, has to affect ALL, both above and below ground.
We cannot but call your attention to our present position. The
adjoining county, much more compact than ours, and many years older
in organisation,--two elements of strength and power,--have just
accepted a reduction of wages. Miners, immediately south of us,--West
Yorkshire,--have expressed their willingness to accept a reduction of
12½ per cent. on wages all round. This, however, the owners
refused to accept. They seek a reduction of 25 per cent., and the
matter is, therefore, going to arbitration. With these facts before
us, is it possible that we can, at the present time, by any means,
which we might adopt, altogether stave off a reduction, more or less,
without referring it to arbitration, in some way or other? We will
not attempt to point out all the terrible effects which must arise
from anything like a general strike. Many of you experimentally know
the direful effect and heartrending destitution which has arisen from
partial strikes amongst ourselves. Suppose a general stop now ensues,
what are the probabilities of success? Can we make our efforts
successful? Suppose we should strike against a receding market, and a
surplus number of men, and lose, what would be the consequences?
These are questions worthy your earnest consideration, because on
them depend your WEAL or WOE for years to come.
We have to-day very fully thought over the matter, and considering
everything, we think it wise, if not absolutely necessary, to make
some advances, with a view to a settlement of this important
question. We, therefore, strongly advise that an offer of 10 per
cent. reduction be made to the owners; and should they refuse this,
let the whole matter go to arbitration. If arbitration be offered and
accepted, we would suggest the appointment of two men on both sides,
and let these four men find a basis or starting-point for
arbitration. Should they fail to agree as to what such basis ought to
be, let the matter go to an umpire, appointed by the four
arbitrators.
Let no one regard this as in the slightest degree dictatorial. We
have too much respect for your collective judgment to attempt
anything of the kind. But we think it our duty to point out that, if
not careful, we may drift amongst shoals and quicksands, which may
endanger the very existence of our Association. And if this should
come to pass, we need not name--not our probable, but certain
condition, for years to come.
On the 29th of April the special Council was held, which approved of
the Committee's circular by offering a reduction of ten per cent. This
decision was conveyed by telegram to Mr Bunning, the employers'
secretary. No sooner was it known in the county than a general protest
was made, not only by the miners, but by the mechanics and enginemen.
They objected to being included in the reduction. These bodies held
meetings in Durham on the race-course on May 2nd, and passed
resolutions not to accept any reduction. The spirit of revolt was
rampant in the county amongst the members of the Miners' Association.
Meetings to protest against it were held throughout the county.
Circulars were sent out by District Councils, in which the Executive
Committee was held up to ridicule. To these the agents replied, boldly
pointing out the danger of the course which was being adopted and the
disaster which would assuredly follow if more moderate action were not
taken. Some of the members of the Executive Committee were found
amongst the protestors and the loudest in their condemnation of Mr
Crawford, who came in for a large share of abuse. It was calculated
that at one of those meetings in Houghton there were 10,000 people
present. On May 5th the coal owners held a meeting. The resolutions
dealt mainly with the action of the enginemen. From these the
employers offered to accept five per cent. if acceded promptly, but no
man should be allowed to work for less reduction than that offer.
During the owners' meeting a telegram was read from Mr Crawford as
follows:--
"For reasons previously given both to the Standing Committee and full
meeting of owners, we shall begin on Monday to work five days per
week or pits be laid idle on Saturday, so far as the working and
drawing of coal is concerned."
To that telegram the owners sent the following reply:--
"The Provisional Committee give notice to the Durham Miners'
Association that unless the Owners' Association receive before the
end of the week a satisfactory assurance that collieries will
continue to work the same number of days per fortnight, as
heretofore, they will advise the Coal Owners' Association to insist
upon the full twenty per cent.--first demanded; such demand only
having been withdrawn on the condition that no change whatever was to
be made in the usual mode of working."
On the 7th of May a Council meeting was held, when the ten per cent.
was under consideration. By a majority of 15 the delegates decided in
favour of the ten per cent., 112 voting for it and 97 against. This
brought the dispute to an end so far as the wages were concerned.
The strike, if it could be called such, was of the most desultory
kind, there being a division as to the acceptance of the ten per cent.
reduction. It is generally known as the "Week's Strike"; but even the
Executive were in ignorance of the time off, and sent out a slip
asking the lodges to tell them "what number of days they were off,
when they stopped, and when they resumed work and the reasons why they
were off." The returns show that there were none off more than a week.
None of them were entitled to strike pay seeing that a colliery had to
be off a fortnight before they could claim. The Executive by their
Minute of June 5th, 1874, said the strike commenced on May 8th and
ended on the 14th.
The strike being settled generally, all the collieries commenced work
except Wheatley Hill, Thornley, and Ludworth. These were in a peculiar
position. For some time they had been ten-day collieries, and at
Wheatley Hill the hours of stonemen, shifters, and wastemen had been
six every day. When the strike ended the Executive Committee sent word
out to the county that work should be resumed under the same
conditions as obtained before the strike. The workmen at the three
collieries claimed they should work the ten days. That position the
following Minute of the Executive Committee bears out:--
"We have again had the case of Thornley, Ludworth and Wheatley Hill
brought before us, and beg to give the following statement: As will
be understood by all lodges, before the stop these places were
working ten days under protest. After the settlement of the working
days matter at our Council, the question arose between the manager
and men whether these were ten or eleven day collieries, the men
holding to the former, while the manager held to the latter. On
Friday, May 15th, Mr Bunning telegraphed, stating that the owners
still held these to be eleven-day places. We replied that they had
been working ten days under protest, and that in some way or other
they ought to recommence on the same conditions."
The three collieries, on the strength of the notice to resume work,
corroborated by the above Minute, refused to start except as ten-day
collieries. The owners offered arbitration, but conditioned it by
asking for the men to work eleven days, and suspended the Joint
Committee until the case was settled. The letter from Mr Bunning
contained the words: "The action of the Thornley etc. men renders the
resumption of the Joint Committee impossible," and asked whether the
Executive were supporting them or not. The men were willing to go to
arbitration, but asked to be allowed to start at the ten days. The
Executive ordered them to work on the employers' terms, summoned a
representative from each colliery to the Committee, and sent out large
deputations to attend meetings. Still the men stood firm. On Monday,
June 1st, the evicting of the men from the houses commenced. A very
large contingent of "Candymen" were imported, and a force of seventy
or eighty policemen, in charge of Superintendent Scott, to maintain
order. There never was an occasion where better humour prevailed
throughout and where there was so little need of police. It would
afford a break in this dry matter-of-fact history if some of the
incidents were related: how a Jew who had come to gather his
fortnightly instalments wrung his hands, and, Shylock-like, cried
about his "monish"; how some of the women were to carry out in
arm-chairs, and one of them stuck hat pins in the Candymen, to the
hilarity of all but themselves; how once in a while a "Candyman," sick
of the work, broke through the crowd, and ran off, chased by the
police and the cheers of the crowd; and how the people dwelt in tents
for three weeks, having continuous sunshine by day and jollity by
night, making a continual round of "picnicking."
We must, however, leave the pleasurable for the historical. The lodge
made an attempt at Council to get strike pay on an appeal against the
Committee. The merits of the case were with them, but their case was
prejudiced by the temper of the delegate, Mr J. Wood. During the
discussion of the question some contention rose as to Wood (who could
write shorthand) taking notes. Mr Wilkinson (the treasurer) expressed
himself in doubt as to Wood's honesty, and the latter struck at the
treasurer on the platform--the consequence being the Council decided
against, and the men were left to their own resources.
An attempt was made to settle the strike by the Rev. W. Mayor of
Thornley. He called upon some of the leading men, and asked them to
meet Mr Cooper, the manager, who with Mr Bunning agreed to allow the
pit to resume work on the old conditions with regard to the number of
days, and that the dispute should be left to the two Associations. The
arrangement was come to on the Monday, and on the Tuesday the horses
and ponies were sent down, and about 100 men commenced. It then
transpired that Mr Cooper objected to three of the leading men, and
the men alleged that there had been some reduction in prices. The
result was the stoppage again. The dispute was as to the submission
for the arbitration. The difference lay in this: the owners wanted the
men to start as an eleven-hour colliery, and then arbitrate. The
workmen were willing to start as at ten hours, and arbitrate. In the
end that was accepted. The arbitrators decided that the men were right
in considering their collieries ten-day collieries and refusing to
resume work except as such; but they concluded that the collieries
should work eleven days, "although at the same time we strongly
censure the conduct of Mr Cooper, the manager, throughout the entire
struggle." They further awarded that the whole expense of the
arbitration should be borne by the owners, thus proving the men to be
right in their contention as to starting.
[Illustration: WILLIAM CRAWFORD, M.P.]
We now come to the second claim for a reduction in wages. On July 17th
Mr Crawford read to the Committee a resolution he had received from
the employers making a claim for a reduction:
"That the Durham Coal Miners' Association, through Mr Crawford, be
informed that the associated Coal Owners consider that it is
necessary to reduce wages substantially and promptly. That
the amount of such reduction, as well as the date of the
commencement, will be considered by the owners on the 7th day of
August next, and that in the meantime the Association will be ready
to give their best consideration to anything the representatives of
the workmen may desire to lay before it."
To this request the Executive Committee could not accede, and on 7th
August the employers sent another claim for a reduction of twenty per
cent. They said "that the best policy to pursue in the exigencies of
the trade, and to restore the activity of the coal and iron trades,
was for the men to submit to a twenty per cent. reduction." In the
event of the workmen not agreeing to such a reduction the owners would
be prepared to leave the whole case to the arbitration of any
gentleman mutually appointed, each party being left free to produce
such evidence as they may think fit and satisfactory, arrangement
being made for prompt decision, and for securing the operation of the
arbitrator's award from the 29th of this month.
Mr Crawford was instructed by the Executive Committee to inform the
employers that, while they did not offer any opinion on the reduction,
they would call the attention of the owners to the last portion of
their resolution, wherein the date of the reduction was fixed, and
said:
"In seeking advances we never yet fixed a date, even when coal was
going up in an unparalleled manner and certainly very much more
rapidly than ever it has come down. Both in March last and now you
wish to fix the date in what seems to us rather an arbitrary manner.
Had we in seeking advances pursued this course, you would have been
more than justified in doing the same thing, but having pursued a
course diametrically opposite, we fail to see the grounds of your
justification for the course you are at present pursuing."
A Council meeting was held on August 22nd, when the first question
discussed was the owners' application for the twenty per cent.
reduction. The following resolution was carried:--
(1) We cannot see where in the Cleveland, or the Coasting, or other
markets the prices of coal and coke are down sufficiently low to
warrant a further reduction of wages. (2) The stacking of coal and
coke may be made to have--but ought not to have--any very material
effect on the workmen's wages, seeing that, if too much is being
produced, we have no objection to be put on short time, or any other
fair process whereby a reduction of wages can be averted.
We fail to see why the employers ought to seek arbitration. We are
now in the same position which they were in during the last two and a
half years. They were at that time so fully certain that trade would
not give any further advance that arbitration was pointedly refused.
We are now so sure that the present, as compared with past prices of
coal and coke, does not warrant any further reduction, that we think
arbitration is only an unnecessary waste of time and money, causing
no end of annoyance without any good resulting therefrom.
This resolution was sent, accompanied by a demand for fifteen per
cent. advance, to the employers, who held a meeting on 28th August,
under the presidency of Mr Stobart, for the purpose of considering it
and what action they should take. After considerable discussion a
resolution was passed to enforce the twenty per cent. reduction and to
give the men fourteen days' notice, to expire on the 19th of
September, seeing that their claim and arbitration had been refused.
The notices were issued in keeping with that resolve, but not to all
men alike. The form of notice was as follows:--
On behalf of----Colliery I do hereby give you notice to determine
your existing hiring on the nineteenth day of September eighteen
hundred and seventy-four, and that the wages and prices heretofore
paid at this colliery will from that date be reduced to the rate of
twenty per cent. and that if your service be continued, it must be on
these terms.
In these circumstances the Executive Committee issued a circular and
called a special Council. The lodges were asked to send their
delegates prepared to discuss and decide upon three questions:
"1. Ought bankmen, horsekeepers, furnacemen, etc., to give in their
notices?
"2. Ought collieries of men (hewers included) who have not received
any notice to give in their notices?
"3. The matter of arbitration."
We will quote a portion or two of the circular. It is very serious and
impressive: