A special cablegram reports that the situation is unchanged. The Society of Engineers insists on the eight-hour day, and the masters refuse to discuss the subject until this point has been abandoned.
The chances of reaching an understanding are more remote than ever.
In the mean while there is trouble in the cotton trade.
The state of the cotton market is such that the manufacturers can no longer pay the wages they have been paying, and they have had to give notice to their hands that they must either close their mills or reduce wages.
At first it was decided that ten per cent. must be taken off the pay of the workers.
The trades unions discussed the matter with the employers, and refused to listen to such a reduction of wages.
The masters then declared that they could not continue to pay the present rate, as they would be losing money. They finally decided to give their workers a month's notice that they were going to reduce their wages five per cent.
Every one is anxiously waiting to see what the factory hands will do at the end of the month.
It is hoped that the time that will intervene before the reduction takes place will give them an opportunity to think matters over, and so avoid a strike.
Should the cotton-workers decide to strike, two hundred thousand operatives may be thrown out of work.