TILE STRIKE.
31st August, 1859.
Siii—Vhe conduct of the press in reference to the strike exhibits a one- sidedness which people are at a loss to account for. I have been a journey- man carpenter, foreman, and master-builder, ranging over a period of some twenty years, and during that time have had considerable experience both as regards the workman and the master ; and, consequently, can address you with some degree of confidence as to the truthfulness of my statements.
I shall reply, in the first place, to the assertion that a bricklayer is not allowed to use both hands when employed on a job. If any one will take the trouble to visit St. George's Square, Thames Bank, on the right-hand side from the river, he will see a block of large houses built entirelyor nearly so from the refuse of the Houses of Parliament, consisting of large blocks of atone and other rubbish, which would puzzle a stronger man than any bricklayer I ever saw to move them with one hand. Besides, every one in the trade knows that inputting in " footings," or in the building of thick walls, both hands are invariably used. When the walls get higher and thinner, how is a man to adjust mortar and place his brick if he is required to put down his trowel and work with both hands ? I fancy I see the builder or his foreman looking at that man ; he would not be required after Satur- day night, if so long.
Again, it has been stated that one bricklayer gets as much wages as another. So he does, if he can: do as much work. How is that known? Why it is notorious that all walls are divided between so many men, to each apportioned a given space; a fast bricklayer is placed at one end, and each man is expected to lift the line at the same time as the fast man at the " coin." If one is behind, his stay on that wall is but short. The same principle is applicable throughout the whole of the trades : unless one man can do what is put before him in equal time, and in as workman-like manner as those around him, lie soon gets "the sack." To presume other- wise is to put down master-builders and their foremen as a set of noodles : a distinction they are not entitled to. With reference to-society men and non-society men among the carpenters, respecting which so much noise has been made, 1 beg to say that the society men do not number one-sixth of the carpenters and joiners in London as members. And yet we are told that the society men overawe and intimidate the non-society men. A more fallaCious argument could never have been put forth. Besides, I know firms whose hands were locked out when the majority were non-society men. Indeed, I know some of the best tradesmen in London who have never been in a trades' society, yet are favourable to the nine hours' movement. We are further told that non-society are put upon by society men. This statement, like many others, is simply false, not only for the reason before stated, but because the men themselves are too wise to abuse one the other merely because of one being a society man and the other not.
It has been said the building operatives are asking for that which has never been heard of befcre—nine hours' work for ten hours' pay. Has it passed out of the recollection of all concerned, that some twenty-five years ago there was no working by gas or candle-light in the winter ; and that there were many strikes against their introduction ? The present strike is, after all, only like the battle for the franchise—a fight for what has been lost. Besides, in many parts of the country, nine hours is the extent of a day's work for a tradesman. That the building trade is not the most healthy, I can vouch for, having known some of the finest young men that ever put foot in London die in consumption after a brief period in the damp new buildings, or gas-heated workshops. It is a common question among carpenters as to what becomes of the old carpenters, for I will defy any one to find an old man in a builder's yard getting his proper pay. I might say an old carpenter could not he found at all. Are these men only to slave away the young part of their days, and then to be turned adrift ? They have come to the conclusion that they will not, and what is to make them? It has been said that the men are drunkards, and that they are immoral and improvident. That there are drunkards among the building trades I am prepared to admit, and so there are in Government offices, for I have seen drunken clerks reeling to office at ten o'clock in the day ; a state in which no workman would be allowed to enter a builder's yard. But that they are either immoral or improvident I deny. That they are not more hypocritical than the builders I can show :—Messrs. Waller, successors to Cubitt, in Eaton Place and Belgrave Square, agree with the Central Asso- ciation to keep their works closed, but allow the foreman to employ the men, and carry on the works on the foreman's responsibility, and when Sa- turday arrives the men are paid, not in the front, but in the back yard. Messrs. Austin and Messrs. Aldin are adopting the same tactics. Messrs. Watts and Son, of Pimlico, looked the matter straight in the face, asked the men what they would do in reference to " the document ; " the answer was, " heat a piece of iron and brand our backs, sooner than we will sign the document." The document was withdrawn, and the whole of the men— upwards of 120—were set to work in three days after the lock-out, although the Messrs. Watts agreed to go in with the Central Association. I could say more, but I have taken too much space already.
I am, Sir, your obedient servant, WILLIAM STEVENS.
Previous page
