A correspondent informs us that the rifles in the "
strike " district of South Wales have not been removed, and re- monstrates against what he thinks our harsh opinion of the masters, who, he says, are still giving medical assistance, education, and house coal to the families whose heads are on strike. We are very glad to hear it, but our corre- spondent mistakes our use of the epithet " savage." We used it in its colloquial sense of furious with rage, and that certainly is the impression left by all the reporters on the spot. They all say that the masters are violent in denouncing the "agitators," that they refuse to recognise the Unions, and that they are determined the men shall yield at discretion,—yield, that is, to hunger. With that spirit and with their wealth no compromise is possible, and the men must either starve, emigrate, or give up their right of combining, so as to be able to deal with their masters on an equality. According to all accounts, there is as yet no sign of improvement, and hunger is approaching the cottages.
We have always said of this strike 'that the wen had better yield, askthey are fighting a monopoly in the It of men too rich to ears fox money.
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