Show THE WELSH COLLIER Y STRIKE THE great strike of the welsh colliers which has been a portion of the durden lurden burden of the newspapers during the winter directly affected 60 of the hands employed in the coal and iron works of south wales upwards of one third of that number being at merthyr at the dowlais works at cyd mr Craw shays an and plymouth fothergill aej and hankens Han ha keys more than the inciting cause of the strike was that the masters gave notice of a reduction of wages of often ten per percent cent on the of december the reason assigned for this reduction was that the iron trade had become so bad that the coal masters could not fill orders except at such a great reduction in price as rendered a reduction of wages necessary the men replied by quotations from the price lists of trade journals showing that welsh bar iron during portions of that year had been quoted at higher rates than north of england bars yet there was no talk of reduction in the north where wages were already higher than in south wales A conference between the two parties ensued at Cardi cardiff fr at which the masters produced statements of the prices actually received by them and which were considerably below the quotations adduced adduce d by the men who then naturally asked how they were to have the fig figures urea uret proved unless the masters would consent to arbitration the masters answered that arbitration had proved one sided lit practice as shown in cases in south wales and also in the north the masters were willing to submit their books and vouchers to attest the accuracy of their representations to any two workmen appointed by their fellows at the several works and suggested that the men go to work until the last of march to await the result of the spring inquiry for iron when it was hoped there would be such an improvement as would warrant the giving back the ten per cent with possibly an addition thes they wanted the men to enable them to tide over the current difficulty until then at a meeting at merthyr the men rejected these proposals and insisted on old prices or arbitration the sore has been kept open and festering all winter notwithstanding divers efforts to heal it over hundreds of colliers in the neighborhood of merthyr have mi migrated I 1 grated to and aberdare aberdale Aber dare valley some of the men had worked 40 years or more at the same works one of these migrating strikers is thus described my tia tta a yia rib ra an old gentleman wearing a tall hat based upon a marvelously narrow bria brim was at tho the outset rather incline i to be melancholy and was decidedly nervous at finding himself in la a railway carriage ive worked for mr Craw crausbay shay forty two years he said and land I 1 have not had much cause to travel I 1 wish id none now but the old woman and me cant caret live upon nothing so I 1 took up my spade this thia morning and said to her hert betsy evans im going to the other side of ane mountain to get work it if mr Craw shay abay send sends sword word to say wheres john evans erans worked for tor me forty two years tell him to come back at once let me know im rin back it if I 1 walk all the way and deed id rather walk sor for or I 1 dont much care about these railways railia m im getting rather old to change about at my time of life but 11 can use my spade still stilli and the there it Is I 1 knew it was because the old gentleman had an affectionate manner of holding the implement under his arm a habit which tia lia the crowded state of the carriage made matters awkward sor tor his hla 0 opposite neighbour mr evans la Is not t the e olde oldest stor of the for sor or I 1 talked with one there on ou Saturday who had bad been fifty ears vears in the service of the Craw shays and nd had dim recollections of the great riots of 1831 when the black flag was on oil bre con high road and the insurgent colliers were shot down like wolves by soldiers but forty two years service is a long period arlod to have suddenly broken up and thinking over this and of the sorrow which tho the severance of the assoc alsoc associations latt lati ons of nearly hait halt a century must have bare caused to the old man it became possible to regard the obtrusive spade with quite a kindly interest and to resist the reflection that it might just as conveniently have been caused to assume a perpendicular position |