Trouble Ahead.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XLI, Issue 18, 28 October 1908, Page 11

Trouble Ahead.

There has been no strike among the Lancashire cotton operatives for the past fifteen years, though disputes between employers and employed have not been infrequent, and several times the quarrels have been pushed very elose up to the line. To-day the danger of a strike is very great indeed, for the masters are resolved upon an immediate reduction of wages to the extent of 5 per cent, and the men are equally determined that such a reduction shall not take place. The operatives themselves have asked the masters for a joint conference, and perhaps some compromise will be effected. It is sincerely to be hoped that the golden bridge may again be discovered, for a strike in the Lancashire cotton trade would be a national disaster. Those who remember the by-gone strikes in the County Palatine will know how fiercely industrial warfare is waged there and to what extremities. The combatants are likely to proceed before they will harken to the voices of the peacemakers. Many years have passed since Mrs. Gaskell wrote “Mary Barton” and “North and Mouth,” but the Lancashire spirit remains much the same, and a strike would mean a fearful calamity.

The general position is one of interest and may be easily understood, for the central facts are not in dispute. That the trade is, at the moment, in a deplorable condition, is admitted by the leaders of the operatives. Short time is being worked throughout the whole county. The shortage varies in different districts, but in the Burnley area no more than three days a week are being worked. During the other three the mills are standing idie, and a large number of sheds have stopped indefinitely till further notice. This dispute only affects the spinning industry; there has been no parallel demand for a reduction in the weavers’ wages, though the manufacturers of eotton cloths have been just as severely Hit as the owners of spindles by the falling-off in trade. But a strike which paralysed nearly forty million spindles would bring the looms to a dead stop, and a few weeks would see thousands of Lancashire households at the verge of starvation. The operatives have submitted to short time without a murmur. They have recognised its necessity, and they have not complained. They have enjoyed several years of fatness, and they know by long experience that periods of prosperity in tho Lancashire eotton trade have always been followed by periods of depression. But they contend that the employers are asking them too soon to consent to reductions in their rate of wages, and that the financial conditions of the industry are such that capital ought to bear a greater share of the loss before requiring labour to submit to further sacrifice than that entailed by short time. Lancashire has lately passed through a golden age of prosperity. A dozen years ago it was common to hear mill owners lamenting the ruin of the county. They freely prophesied that no capitalist would ever be rash enough to

build another eotton mill, and that the extinction of the industry was only r. matter of time. Then the tide turned, anil things gradually improved, till in 11)04 there set in a regular “boom.” During the next three years the profits made, especially by the spinners, were tremendous. Every wheel that would revolve was set going, and a mania for mill-building set in. In less than three years some fifteen million pounds was invested in laying down new spindles and looms, all of which were profitably employed till towards the end of last year. Then trade commenced to slacken, and of late the depression has grown more acute, tilt to-day Lancashire as a wholu is not working more than four days a week. Even so, the production is greatly in excess of the demand, and huge stocks have accumulated. The operatives, of course, benefited during the boom years by reason of regular work and increased wages. All the changes in wages during the last eight or nine years have been in their favour, and tbo present rate is the highest ever known in the industry. The argument of the employers is that, now the boom is aver, there ought to be an immediate reduction. To this the operatives reply that labour did not obtain any increase until after capital had secured roaring profits from the spurt in trade, ami that the masters ought fairly to wait a little longer before asking the wage-earner to consent to a reduction. It is an open secret that most of the great spinning companies have put to reserve during the past three years huge sums, which will guarantee shareholders reasonable dividends for the next few years, no matter the state of the trade. This adds weight to the men’s contention that the employers are acting prematurely in demanding a reduction now. They recognise that if things go on as they are going a reduction is inevitable, but they think the masters should wait a little longer in pressing for it