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Mass meeting Crown Bank Hanley 1875
Proposed Reduction of Wages 1874
Researched by John Lumsdon
The North Stafford Coal and Ironmasters Association quarterly meeting was held on Thursday 9th July, 1874 at the Queens Hotel, Hanley, Mr. Wragge, chairman of the Association presiding. The attendance was more than usually numerous and influential. The trade of the district in all its branches was reported to be in an unsatisfactory position and after a full discussion it was unanimously resolved –
That the present condition of the Coal and Ironstone trade of North Stafford and the serious reduction of prices which had taken place, render imperatively necessary a further reduction of 20% in miners wages if the works are to be kept in operation. Also – that the masters are desirous to continue the friendly relations with their workmen which have for a long period existed and they are willing that a deputation of 12 masters should meet a deputation consisting of an equal number of workmen in order that the former may point out the necessity for the step now decided upon.
It also unanimously resolved – that a general notice be given, to terminate all contracts and prices at collieries and ironworks at the expiration of 14 days.
(Note that a reduction of 20% was asked 3 months ago, but that only after the most strenuous efforts were then to consent to a reduction of 10% upon which they have been working since that time.)
A mass meeting of several thousands of miners’ was held on Monday morning 30th May 1875 on the Crown Bank, Hanley. Mr. David Williams was voted to the chair, and on opening the proceedings said a meeting between the employers and the representatives of the men had been arranged to be held that afternoon and he hoped that some satisfactory arrangement would be come to. If not, He believed they were all willing to go into the fight like Britons, determined never to surrender to oppression let it come from where it would.
Mr. T.D. Mathias next addressed the meeting in an able speech. He said he had not been made fully aware of the exact nature of the gathering that morning, but Mr. Brown was to be present at the meeting as soon as he possibly could. The precise object of the meeting he (Mr. Mathias) could only guess. They all knew what the situation was, and why it was that there should be such a meeting as that one, for every effect had its cause.
All effects were the results of causes, and if there had not been a cause why they were all there that morning, they would all or nearly all of them, have been at their usual occupation beneath the surface of the ground, working in the channelled galleries of the coal and mine pits. Instead, however, they were in a condition of enforced idleness, or rather of enforced play. He believed that “all work and no play made Jack a dull boy,” and he therefore believed that a few days of enforced play which they had had, would do them a great amount of good.
It was something rather remarkable that in the world there was unmixed evil. A strike was evil, but there was with it an amount of good at the same time, only they did not want too much of it. In south Wales they had had rather too much of it. He held in his hand a newspaper in which was recorded the end of that great struggle between labour and capital, between the men that believed they were oppressed and the masters whom the men believed were oppressing them.
That great contest in Wales was ended, but it had ended neither in the victory completely for the one or the other. It had, however, ended in a compromise between both, and he, (the speaker) thought what had been done in South Wales after five months struggle, might be done in North Stafford without the struggle.
The miners’ in this district might come to a compromise, providing or course, that both masters and men could come to an honourable settlement and all endeavour to do that which should be the best for themselves and families, so in the interests of the trade of the district and of society generally. They were aware that the masters were now willing to meet a deputation from them, and that such a meeting was to be held that very afternoon.
He thought that they were actuated by a genuine desire to do what is right, and he was glad to know that there had been no ill-feeling engendered and that no evil passions had been excited or been aroused, for when they allowed their passions to become their masters, they were no longer free men, but slaves.His (speaker’s) grandfather used to say “convincea man” – no not a man- “Convince a fool against his will and he’ll have his own opinion still.”
It gave him great pleasure to look upon an aged collier, one who had been battling forty years or more in the gloom, battling with the forces of nature, and braving those destructive fire-damps in the pits. Some men liked to look upon the warrior newly returned from the battle plain, flushed with victory, but he (the speaker) would much rather look upon one of those veterans of the battle of industry, upon one of those that had helped to make England what she was that day.
Who was it that felled the wood, and shaped the timber and stone and so combined them as to form their habitations, their homes their towns, their railways and their factories? It was the hand and brain of the toiler, and he was always glad to meet with the hoary-headed workmen, especially when it was found in the way of righteousness, for then that hoary head was a crown of glory. He believed the men of North Staffordshire were willing to be guided by sound argument brought before them and it was only right that should be supplied with reasons why a reduction should be made, and the argument brought before them clearly, distinctly and intelligently.
That afternoon their representatives would meet their masters and what had they to propose? There was a 10% reduction, and the representatives would tell the masters that the men did not think it was right for their wages to be lowered but if on the other hand you say that it right that the reduction should take effect, let us know the right and if there is a reason, let it be brought to the light of day. If the masters had taken that cause last December in Cardiff, there would not have been a 5 months struggle, and three millions of money as good as thrown away. If the masters of Aberdare,Rhondda, Rhymney, and other places, had given their men the reason, but they would not, and simply said: You must take what we choose to give you, something in the way as throwing a bone to a dog. Mr. Mathias proceeded to say that arbitration meant giving reasons. A friend had said to him that arbitration was a Devine plan and a celestial principle, for in the good book the Great Master, the Common Father of all, said to his moral creatures’ men, “Come now, let us reason together,”
That was what he trusted the masters’ would say to the representative this afternoon. There was no need to fight, or for war, contention and ill will. Let them reason together, let the trade of the district go on harmoniously. Let everything be done that was right, fair, just and equitable, so that there might be peace within their walls and prosperity within their palaces and so that they might show the world that if other masters’ could not agree that in North Stafford they were able to do so, and by so doing be able to have everything that was necessary without the least of the dark and terrible calamity which had hung over south Wales for the last 6 months, causing everything to be in disorder and confusion. He hoped that by the next day they would be able to say that everything had been arranged for peace and prosperity to the trade and commerce of North Staffordshire.
Mr. Brown addressed the meeting in his usual able manner. He said he thought it was only right that they should show their employers that they were willing upon fair and honourable terms to bring the dispute to an end, if possible the very next day. He then read the following resolutions which were moved and seconded by working members present.
This meeting regards that the Associated Coal and Iron masters’ have caused their colliers and other workmen dependent upon them, to be idle during the last fortnight by reason of them refusing to submit the present wages dispute to arbitration on a fair and equitable basis. We, the miners’ employed at Earl Granville’s and other works are willing to submit the present dispute to arbitration, and trust that no employer, whomay be present at the meeting of masters today, will throw any impediment in the way of such a reasonable and honourable settlement being made as shall terminate the present wage dispute in this district.
Mr. Brown, proceeding to speak to the resolution, said he wished to be clearly understood by everybody that the dispute was not a strike really on the part of the men. They were willing a fortnight ago and were willing then to submit the wages question which was in dispute to a fair and impartial Board of Arbitration, the basis to be fixed equitably by both masters’ and men. Employers told them that they knew, beyond all doubt, that they were justified in asking for a 10% reduction, which would make a reduction of 30%, altogether since March 1874. Notwithstanding this great fall in wages they said that the state of the coal and iron trade demanded it and that the prices they were selling at warranted them asking their workmen to submit to the reduction now sort to be made. If this was true why should the employers of the district refuse arbitration?
They said they were willing that arbitration and conciliation should settle all future disputes, and if conciliation and arbitration was to be the panacea for all evils that were to come in the future, why not adopt it to remedy the evil that now exists? Such a question, he thought, was a reasonable question.
They were all aware of the great calamity that had existed in South Wales for the last 5 or 6 months, and that it had been computed that three millions of money had been lost in wages alone, yet the masters and men had had come together after all, and at the Royal Hotel at Cardiff, on Friday last, had met the representatives of the workmen and agreed that, after the long fight they had had, conciliation and arbitration should be the means of settling all their future grievances. He, (Mr. Brown) wanted the employers of this district to agree with the men on a scale like that without their being idle for 5 months before they could come to it. They had never desired any suspension of labour here but had tried to keep their trade at home and not allow it to go into other localities, but he would tell them that he was very much afraid that a few men could be found who were not very particular as to how they made money so long as it was made.
However let the wrong be on which side it might, whether that or the employer or the workmen, the wrong ought to be found out and the wrong put right. Thus they, (the men) were willing to refer the matter to arbitration, and if it could be proved that they were wrong and the employer’s right they would be willing to accept the 105 reduction; but before that was done the men said that it should be proved. There was nothing wrong in that.
They asked the employers to postpone the notices, not to with draw them, but they could not even agree to do that. The men wanted to hoist the flag of truce, but they could not bear to see that. The men believed it was better to keep the pits at work than at play.
The masters perhaps thought that the men would accept another reduction without any resistance at all, but let him tell them that it was very hard to make a working man believe that, to have three 10% reductions taken from his wages was something for his future benefit. Working men were a great deal akin to the middle classes of this country. If they wanted to close a beer-house for the public good they would soon be told that it touched someone’s pocket, and that they could not afford it. They might tell the working collier that his earnings were 4s. - 4s 6p. - Or 5s a day, that if he would submit to another reduction it will gave a stimulus to trade, and that he would have his reward in the future, but he could not see that and required a something a little more logical.
He (Mr. Brown) was bound to say that if he could see the submission to this reduction would give a stimulus to trade and add to the common wealth and that the whole English community would be better for it, he would say submit to it. But he had never known low wages to be a benefit to working men. Let them try to make a middle class man believe that a small profit at the end of the year was a blessing for him and his family and he would soon tell them that it must be one in disguise, for he could not understand it.
There were men present who found it hard work to make all things meet at the present rate of wages and it hard to make a miner believe that he should work for low wages while house-fire coal was being sold at 12s 6p- 13s 4p – 14s – 2p and up to 15s per ton, when they can tell their employers that there was, a while ago, a time when their wages were as high as at the present time and house-fire coal was selling as low as 10s per ton.
At the masters meeting that afternoon, however, they would perhaps get a gleam of light that they had never seen before, and upon the morrow would have something to tell the men. Let him say to union and non-union men that arbitration was a principle worth contending for and let him tell them to clear himself, that what was to be done was the men’s’ own action and not his.
When the first reduction came he advised them to accept it and go to work which they did, and when the second one came, he did the same again, believing it was for the best; but now that it was hard to make both ends meet, not of wines or delicacies, but the substantial’s and necessaries of life, he thought it was time that an investigation should be made, and if it was right that they should eat their bread without butter and drink their tea without sugar, and eat dry potatoes, if that could be proved right, then they would have it, but not until it had been proved.
He believed in conciliationand arbitration and would say a word to some of their young wiseacres that did not believe in it, those who never read or thought – that knew nothing of the intelligence that was to be gained in this world beyond a nigger song, a dance in long clogs or a nasty flimsy force, that never went below the surface for anything, such men were those that told them that arbitrations always meant reductions. Perhaps so, but where an employer had asked for a reduction of wages, and the case had been investigated before a fair tribunal, and proved to the satisfaction of the arbitrator and umpire that it was right, it did not prove that arbitration was, but simply that such employer was asking for what was his right.
On the other hand the mine-owners in Durham asked for a reduction of wages of 20%, and the men and their agents could not see it, and said they would submit it to arbitration. This was done and after six weeks investigation, and all the evidence of the umpire had been weighed, an award was given for a 5% reduction instead of a 20%. Did that get nothing? If it got a reduction of 5%, it saved 15% and also saved a strike that would have impoverished both masters and men. Arbitration was the thing for him.
Mr. Brown then made an able attack upon non unionism, after which he urged the non- union men, if there was a fight, to fight side by side with union men until a fair settlement was made between arbitration or conciliation, assuring them (the non-unionists) that although they had missed their way in the past, so long as they were brave they would receive support. The employer that could not bring his mind to reason, it was only fair to say that he felt his case was a bad one and so bad that he dare not have it investigated. The speaker then showed the connection of tradesmen with the working classes, and advised the former to look after their own business and let the colliers look after theirs, and then everyone’s business would be attended to. The resolutions were then unanimously carried with acclimation, and a show of hands was taken of those willing to remain idle until a fair settlement was made. Almost every hand was held up, and the usual votes of thanks terminated the proceedings.
Other meeting were held at Tunstall and Wolstanton Marsh.