Mr. Mundella on Wednesday made an excellent speech to the
Trades Council of Sheffield, of which we can mention only one point. He had the courage, speaking to the representatives of' the Trades Unions, to tell them that the practice of rattening, —breaking or stealing the tools of men who disobey the Unions —was, to say the least, an anachronism which brought disgrace upon the town. It was considered the distinctive Sheffield practice, and he found Italians apologising for the failure to suppress the Italian Cantorra by the argument that England had not been able to suppress the Ratteners of Sheffield. So deep, was the heart-burning the practice occasioned between men and their employers, that the Unions should suppress it for themselves, and at once replace the tools of any man who had been rattened. If the Unions were not rich enough to do this, he, for one, would promise them help, and so would the Chamber of Commerce. That is the truth, bravely spoken. A dozen cases of rattening in a single town do more to injure the Union cause than a dozen instances of the helpfulness of the Unions do to further it.
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