THE BUILDERS' STRIKE.
Two important operations have been carried on by the belligerents this week. The Master Builders mustered in great strength at the Free- masons' Tavern on Monday, to receive the report of a committee and de- termine what to do. They decided upon stringent measures. They re- solved to form a " Central Association of Master Builders," no member of which "shall engae, or continue in his employment, any contributor to the funds of any trades Union or Trades Society which practices in- terference with the regulations of any establishment, the hours or terms of labour, the contracts or agreements of employers or employed, or the qualification or terms of service." And further that no workman shall be employed by any member of the society who will not sign this agree- ment— " I declare that I am not now nor will I during the continuance of my engagement with you, become a member of or support any society which, directly or indirectly, interferes with the arrangements of this or any other establishment, or the hours or terms of labour, and that I recognize the right of employers and employed individually to make any trade engage- ments on which they may choose to agree." This proceeding roused the temper a the men. On Wednesday evening they met in Hyde Park, some thousands strong. Mr. Feeley, a painter, presided. He said, the movement had not originated with dissatisfied men, but had been caused by the tyranny of the employers and the evils inflicted upon the working classes by what was called the system of political economy. Their forefathers had fought their way to liberty through blood and death. They were now required to give up the privileges which had been gained for them by their forefathers, and to sign themselves soulless slaves and give up every pretension to humanity, by putting their hands to the fiendish document which had been prepared for their signature.
Mr. Blomfield, bricklayer, said political economy was introduced about 1819 to bring down wages, and the working-man should oppose it. At all events, if the shops should be closed, there is a source of relief for both parties—the operatives can go into the weikhouse, and the employers into the Insolvent Court. (" Hear, hear !" and laughter.)
Mr. Creaser, joiner, said—
Was it a sufficient argument against the nine hours' movement, to say that their forefathers worked ten hours a day ? At that time there was not the frightful competition which now existed, and in the present state of things the workmen did more than double the amount of labour in ten future which was performed by their forefathers in the seine time. Was not that a sufficient reason for granting the concession now asked of the employers ? (Cheers.) Mr. Pawn mason, said that last year the whole of the builders in Yorkshire and Lancashire entered into a combination to annihilate the whole of the trade of the societies in that part of the country, and asked the men to sign declarations to discountenance any society for the pro- tection of labour. Some of the employers closed their shops one night, but opened them the next morning, and in the course of two or three weeks most of the extensive builders in that part of the country were compelled to follow their example. Mr. Potter, joiner, secretary of the movement, said the masters insisted on reducing the men to slavery by breaking up their societies.
The masters had raised a combination amongst themselves to put down a combination among the working men, which was a simple movement on the part of the men to appraise their own labour and sell it for what it was worth, in accordance with the fundamental principles of free trade and political economy. The metropolitan builders were not about to fight the operatives in the metropolis merely, but the building operatives throughout England.
The meeting adopted a resolution regretting the opposition of the employers because it widens the breach between them and the workmen, and stating that "as the pledge they would extract from us, by signing the document they propose, would rob us of every particle of freedom and reduce us to the condition of serfs, we determine to use every power of moral resistance, and pledge ourselves to use all constitutional means for bringing the nine hours labour movement to a successful termi- nation."
In reply to a letter from Lord Kinnaird, Mr. Fleming, the Secretary of the United Building Trades, has declared that this body has not only nothing to do with the strike, but disapproves of it.
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