28 AUGUST 1869, Page 3

The Times publishes a very pathetic letter from a nailmaker,

who says there are 22,000 men, women, and children in South Staffordshire and East Worcestershire starving, in consequence of a strike forced on the nailmakers by their rate of wages. Their wages have been gradually reduced, apparently by competition, until a good hand makes only 12s. a week, out of which he has to pay his share of smithy rent, fuel for the blast, and the cost of conveyance to the warehouse, so that the remainder is insufficient for bare maintenance. The trade have consequently struck, and are starving. If this statement is true, the best thing the nail- makers could do would be to abandon a trade clearly overstocked with hands. Why cannot all nails be made by machinery ?