[TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR. "]
Sin,—Your article in the Spectator of December 29th on " The Unproductiveness of British Labour" ought, in my opinion, to be issued in the form of a leaflet and circulated broadcast over the country, amongst especially the work- people, for the question you so ably discuss, viz., the restric- tion of production, is, according to my experience of several leading industries, a grave matter for Great Britain. My object, however, is to point out that just now a proposal is on foot amongst the cotton operatives to lessen by Parliamentary enactment the hours of adult labour in textile mills. This agitation is, owing, I suppose, to political exigencies, sup- ported by quite a number of M.P.'s in Lancashire. The fact that our cotton industry is perhaps more severely competed against abroad than any other English trade never seems to have entered the minds of our local legislators. As to the action of Trade-Unions interfering with piecework, in spinning and manufacturing we have not much to complain of, but signs are perceptible of an effort, in what is known as the carding-room of a cotton factory, to draw a hard-and-fast line as to the precise number of flat cards an operative should tent, regardless, I fear, of the varying working capa- bilities of the men in that department of labour.—I am, Sir, &c., WILLIAM TATTERSALL. Melbrook, Bowdon, Cheshire.
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