[388]Among those present were Robert Applegarth, George Odger, Daniel Guile, T. J. Dunning, Alexander Macdonald, William Dronfield, Alexander Campbell, Edwin Coulson, and George Potter. The societies represented included the London Trades Council, Glasgow Trades Committee, Sheffield Association of Organised Trades, Liverpool United Trades Protection Society, Nottingham Association of Organised Trades, and the Northumberland and Durham United Trades and Labourers; the Amalgamated Societies of Engineers and Carpenters, the National Societies of Bricklayers, Masons, Ironfounders, Miners, and Bookbinders, the London Society of Compositors, the Scottish Bakers, Sheffield Sawmakers, etc.
[389]Afterwards Earl of Wemyss.
[390]Minutes of meeting of London Trades Council, March 1864.
[391]It must not be supposed that the lock-out was a new invention. Place describes its use by the master breeches-makers at the end of the last century: Life of Francis Place, by Professor Graham Wallas (1918).
[392]Report of Conference of Trade Delegates at Sheffield(June 1866), p. 22.
[393]“An Ironmaster’s View of Strikes,” by W. R. Hopper, Fortnightly Review(August 1, 1865).
[394]“Measures for Putting an End to the Abuses of Trades Unions,” by Frederic Hill, Barrister-at-Law: Paper in Sessional Proceedings of the National Association for the Promotion of Social Science, 1867-68, p. 24. The popular middle-class sentiment is reflected in Charles Reade’s novel, Put Yourself in his Place(1871).
[395]See, for instance, the speech of George Newton, the secretary of the Glasgow Trades Committee: “A great many strikes, and perhaps lock-outs, too, have arisen from a stubborn refusal on the part of both sides to look the question honestly and fairly in the face.... Let us examine ourselves and see if there be any wicked way in us that contributes to this unsatisfactory state of things, and if we discover that we are not blameless, then we ought, first of all, to set our own house in order.... Then let us examine the opposite side of the camp and see how they stand, and if we find that they have not done all that they ought to have done with a view to prevent these serious evils, let us undisguisedly and in plain language point out where we consider they have erred, and by increasing public opinion in a healthy way against tyranny—some people call it, but perhaps a milder word would be better—against the unwise policy used, it will do much to repress it in future” (Conference Report, Sheffield, 1866).
[396]Rules adopted at Manchester Conference, 1867 (Sheffield, 1867, 12 pp.).
[397]The Alliance was always administered by an executive elected by the Sheffield trades, the leading men amongst which had been active in its formation. The veteran secretary of the Typographical Society, William Dronfield, was the first general secretary. Among the trades represented were the South Yorkshire and Nottingham Miners, the Amalgamated Tailors, Boilermakers, Cotton-spinners, Scottish Associated Carpenters, Yorkshire Glass-bottle Makers, North of England Ironworkers, and the trades of Wolverhampton. The minute books from 1867 to 1870, and its printed Monthly Statement, show that the Alliance at first supported the men in numerous lock-outs, especially among the tailors, miners, and ironworkers, but that there were constant complaints of unpaid levies. Dronfield informed us that the Judicial Committee and the Executive experienced great difficulties from the absence of any control over the constituent Unions, and the impossibility of accurately defining a lock-out. The first conference of the Alliance was held at Manchester from the 1st to the 4th of January 1867, when fifty-three trades had been enrolled, numbering 59,750 members. The “Rules” adopted at this conference contain an interesting address by Dronfield upon the principles and objects of the federation. The next conference was at Preston in September 1867, when the membership had fallen to 23,580, in forty-seven trades, the Boilermakers, among others, formally withdrawing (Minutes of Conference at Preston, Sheffield, 1867, 16 pp.).