More Looms to a Weaver At long last the Weavers'
Amalgamation in the cotton trade has ratified the agreement to increase the normal number of looms .worked by each weaver. As the delegates accepted it on a vote by 104 to 40, the operatives must by now be prepared to bow to the inevitable, after years of argument and one prolonged strike. There are still outstanding differences about the reinstatement of some hundreds of weavers, but these should disappear if trade revives. It has long been obvious that, to compete on more level terms with Japan and America and other countries employing automatic looms, Lanca- shire must make a fuller use of its textile machinery. But it has been hindered by old custom and by the fear that if each weaver worked six or eight looms instead of four fewer men and women would be employed. The continuous decline of our exports has at last convinced the operatives that they must try the new method.
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