GREAT STRIKE OF DURHAM MINERS.

Globe, Volume XXI, Issue 1663, 19 June 1879, Page 3

GREAT STRIKE OF DURHAM MINERS.

Nearly all the coal minera in the county o Durham, numbering, it is estimated, at least 50,000 men, have struck against a proposed reduction of wages. A ballot has been taken and the men almost unanimously voted against the acceptance of the masters' terms. A special correspondent sent by the " Times " to report on the progress of this great strike, writing on April 21st, says : " The refusal of the employers' terms by the n-iners, and the consequent continuance of the strike, have induced throughout the whole of the north of England the greatest anxiety and apprehension. Eager interest was manifested to know the result of the ballot, and when it was made known on Saturday afternoon that the die had been cast in favor of war, people at once began to calculate the probable result of the struggle. That it was a "bad job " was vaguely enunciated by everybody, and in the streets, the taverns, the reading-rooms, and other places of public resort on " Canny " Tyneßide, and throughout the district generally, little else has been talked of Bi'nce the result was announced The immediate prospect is, indeed, one of the most gloomy and inauspicious character. The men have taken up an unusually firm and determined attitude. The employers, on the other hand, have not shown any disposition to make further concessions. Negotiations between the parties have practically come to an end, anditis difficult, in the meantime, to discover any means of compromise without conceesion on the one side or the other that neither party, in its present tompor, appears disposed to make. There can be little doubt that the owners committed the great initial error of underrating the firmness and the strength of the men. A large number of them entertained the idea that with weakened resources and a hand-to-mouth fight for very life, the miners would be much moro pliable and easily dealt with than they have proved to be. The power and popularity of the Union were also undervalued. It was, no doubt, a probable enough presumption that, with the many and heavy calls recently made upon it, the Union would bo but ill-prepared to enter on a serious struggle, and that its leaders ©n that account would be much more ready to counsel sacrifices and concessions than they would be when it was flushed with a full exchequer and enjoying the plenitude of numerical strength. But in these calculations the employers had been deceived. It is true that the Union had not the adhesion of the whole body of the men—probably not more than onehalf ; but now that the strike has fairly commenced there is a remarkable community of feeling and action among Unionists and nonUnionists alike, and if the cause of Unionism is not completely shattered by the issue of the straggle it will be likely enough to reap considerable gain. The Durham Miners' Union has probably enjoyed as prosperous a career as any in the country. Its membership has seldom fallen below 30,0C0. It has in its time done much useful work, and it expects, now that it has fallen upon evil day?, to receive its reward in public sympathy and. in the support of other combinations. Whether this hope will be to any extent realized remains to be seen. Tho depression of the coal trade is now so universal that ro unions of its own class can extend a great deal of financial help without making special levies for the purpose. There is, however, a large amount of public sympathy expressed on behalf of the men, not because the owners are regarded as making unjust dom&nds, nor because it is considered that they do not require immediate reliof, but solely because they have declined to follow the precedents of recent years and refor thoir claim unconditionally to arbitration. From this point of view, the owners have undoubtedly the worse case; and those who ask, " Why, if the employers are so much in need of relief, have they declined to prove that necessity in the usual way, and thereby secure the concessions they now take by force ?" are not without relevant and reasonable ground for their inquiry. But tho employers continue to insist that they have Buch obvious need of relief that there is nothing to refer to arbitration, and thus practically decline to advance towards a friendly settlement. It would not, however, bo safe to conclude that tho mon will be the first to yield, or that tho owners are likely to escape without great, and perhaps, permanent injury. Apart altogether from the losses inevitable to the stoppage of collieries, the owners are beset with other difficulties and complications. They will be unable to fulfil important contracts, their shipping will be laid up, their customers will go elsewhere peradventure never to return—and many minor evils will assuredly accrue. For some years past the great northern coalfield has found it increasingly difficult to hold its own against the competition of Scotland on the one hand, and Wales on the other. In regard to the home markets, it has had to confront a

Lancashire, and other coalfields which have recently been developed very largely. Abroad it has found rivals not to be despised in Weßtphalia and Belgium. From each of these directions the competition will now be more than ever difficult to meet. It is infinitely more easy to keep a market, even in tho face of superior odds, than to recover a market again after it has been occupied by a rival. This fact is already being brought home to tho Durham coal-owners by everyday experience. Tho coal shipping trade of the Tvno and Wear is gradually contracting, and in another week it will virtually be suspended. Vessels that were accustomed, after bringing jute to Dundee, corn or other freights to Leith, and so on, to take in a cargo of coals on tho Tyne as a return freight, are now going either to Scotch or Welsh ports for that purpose. The damage done to the shipping interest is not tho least serious part of a business which has many malign aspects. On the Tyne alone the extent of this interest is enormous and its developments is one of tho mest interesting chapters in the annals of that remarkable river. In the year 1800 the total shipments from the Tyno reached 1,550,000 tons ; in 1820, 2,123,000 tons; in 1850, 3,805,000 tons; in 1870, 6,187,000 tons; in 1875, 7,117,000 tons. Of the latter enormous quantity about 4,000,000 tons are shipped from Tyne Dock, the superintendent of which informs mo that two-thirds of the steamers are already laid off. In a few days more about eevonty steamers engaged in the coal shipping trade of the Tyne will bo entirely idle, thus throwing out of employment from 1000 to 1100 seafaring men. The same state of matters will be found on tho Wear, whence two to two and-a-half million tons of coal are annually exported. And to the ports of Seaham, Hartlepool, Middlesbrough, and Stockton the strike means a total suspension of tho coal shipping trade. It follows that the export coal trade of the kingdom must suffer very largely—more so, perhaps, than even those most familiar with its circumstances can anticipate. The total export of coal from the United Kingdom is, in round figures, about sixteen million tons. Of this aggregate, not less than eight millions, or fully one-half, is exported from the Durham coalfields, two and a half million tons from Northumberland, and the residue almost entirely from Wales and Scotland. The exports from Northumberland will not of course be interfered 'with. It is even probable they will be increased ; but the rise that has already occurred in the price of Northumberland coal and the active compation of the Welsh coalfield will not allow the one county to supply to any material extent the deficiencies of the other. A great deal of the coal now exported from Durham finds a market in Northern Europe, where its place will now be filled by the coal of Westphalia; and as the latter district has the advantage of cheaper labour and more ready and economical access to European markets, the advantages which it will certainly reap from the present crisis are likely to be more than temporary.