The iron and coal-masters of South Wales have fulfilled their
threat, and on Monday, the 2nd inst., 120,000 workmen were locked out, because half of them would not accept a 10-per-cent. reduction. It is calculated that 500,000 men, women, and children are thus thrown out of employ, besides their tradesmen, and all dependent upon those tradesmen's profits. 'The masters reject arbitration and interviews and any form of compromise, and threaten a further reduction if the lock-out lasts a fortnight. As the men have a week's wages in hand, actual distress has not made its appearance, but as we have tried to show elsewhere, they never were so ill prepared, and had better go in at once. The Trades Union of Masters can wait any time at present prices, and however harsh the lock-out may be, the men, without hoards, without a Union, and without the power of emigrating, must yield to the fortune of war. The Unions, as a whole, cannot find the money, /50,000 a week necessary to keep them in health, and the general public holds them in the wrong. The popular notion that they could live on their accumulated furniture is wrong, for the same reason. The pawnbrokers have no such sum to lend.
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