It appears to be nearly certain that a great strike
is impend- ing, both in the coal and cotton trades. In the former, the- miners declare that prices have risen, and demand an increase of wages by ten per cent., while the owners assert that they are only just recovering from recent losses. They, therefore, refuse to yield ; the men are handing in notices, and according to the Ti»te8, 125,000 men—all the Yorkshire miners, in fact—will shortly be out of employ. As the masters can wait, and the- men are poor, from a long course of low wages, the issue may be foreseen. The cotton spinners, on the other hand, ask an increase of five per cent., not because trade is prospering, but because it is not. They say that competition is so great that there is no- profit. and consequently, a low rate of wage, which can be raised only by killing out the little mill-owners, who take low prices and produce too fast. In this case, also, the men, 90,000 in number, have little chance, for they have small funds, and the strike will directly benefit all owners who have accumulate& stocks on hand. There is no doubt, we believe, that too much capital is put into this trade, and more cloth made than people are willing to buy, except at ruinously low prices. It is difficult. to understand why, under such circumstances, the temptation to' little men to open mills is so strong; but so it is, and there may be some gambling element in the trade which outsiders do not. clearly perceive.
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