One of these special comm:;sions—that of Mr. Overend and his colleagues at Sheffield—is of sufficient importance and interest to warrant rather special reference. Out of about sixty trades-unions in that town, thirteen are proved to have promoted or encouraged outrages of various degrees of criminality, from theft and intimidation up to personal violence and murder. The most ordinary method of coercion in use hears th..; Hanle of '• rattening," and is employed to enforce payment of contributions to the unions. and to compel obedience to their rules. If any workman fall into arrear with his payments, or infringe the rules of the trade to which he belongs, his wheel-hands, tools, or other materials of work are secretly removed, and held in pledge, until lie sub mits to the requirements of the union. This is done most frequently under the direct orders of the union officers; but sometimes a private member "rattens" another, who is known to be in some way at issue with his society, and takes the risk of his action being adopted by the remaind r, In the majority of cases, on due submission and a moderate payment, the property rattened is restored to its owner. The practice is defended on the ground that it is the readiest nail most effectual means of compelling the regular payment of contributions to the union funds and of enforcing obedience to union orders,.
So thoroughly is it understood that rattening is the work of a trade society, that a man whose tools are taken never thinks of applying to the police for restitution; he com municates with the secretary of the union which governs his trade. In cases of con• tumacy on the part of a member, it is sometimes attempted to saddle his employer with the cost of the rattening, even when he is no party to the dispute, on the ground, that he ought to compel his workmen to comply with the rules of the union. Battening is generally successful in securing its ends; but if it fail, an anonymous letter is sent to the refractory person, threatening vengeance in the event of further resistance; and in only too many instances, the threats have been carried out to the last extremity. Thus, in 1854, a man named Elisha Parker had his house blown up by gunpowder, his horse was hamstrung, and he himself disabled by a pistol-shot, because he worked with non-union men, after being warned to leave his employment. In 1857, James Linley was shot at and wounded for changing his business of grinding scissors for that of grinding saws, and keeping a greater number of apprentices than the rules of the trade prescribed. As he still persisted, he was shot to death with an air-gun in 1859. At other times, pow der has been mixed with filings or other materials near the working apparatus of onnoxions persons, who have often suffered serious injuries from its explosion. The list of outrages, fatal and other, might be largely extended; but those we have given are not unfair representatives of the whole. It is only fair to add that of late years the evil pre-eminence of Sheffield has not been so obvious, but the old spirit occasionally asserts itself still, though happily in some what milder forms.
The bellows-cutting by the chain-makers of the midland districts, during their strike of 1859, is somewhat analogous to the ratteuing at Sheffield; and disclosures of similar practices were made at the inquiry before Mr. Pickering and others in Manchester, also
iu 1867. We have not space to go into detail; but the examples of Sheffield, Dudley, and Wolverhampton were faithfully repeated. Powder explosions, personal injuries, the wholesale destruction of bricks by trampling upon them while soft, a shed destroyed by naphtha, the insertion of needles into the clay, so as to disable the workmen; such were among the characteristic confessions made by the witnesses. Among other reasons given for a strike was one that an employer had himself "set a brick," a task expressly reserved for brick-setters; and among the restrictions on trade was one forbidding the use in Manchester of bricks not made within the Manchester district, a circle about eight miles- across.
Although in very Many instances strikes have been begun and concluded without the intervention of trades-unions, yet, as a matter of fact, all the more notable strikes have either been organized by them, or bad their direct support; and of late, the ten dency has been to associate the unions of different trades into one body, so far as this particular policy is concerned. This article would therefore be incomplete without a brief reference to some of the more remarkable contests between masters and workmen.
Among the leading strikes, few, if any, have occupied the attention of the public more than the struggle between the amalgamated society of engineers and their employers, which took place in 1851-52. It originated in the determination of the workmen to abolish piecework and over-time. The dispute was further complicated through a demand made by the mechanics at Messrs. Hibbert & Platt's works, in Oldham, insisting that certain self-acting machines in use there should be attended to by skilled laborers only. Thirty-four Lancashire firms entered into a written agreement to meet any action on the part of the men by the immediate closing of their establish ments, which furnished employment to 10,000 people. A similar resolution was adopted by the master engineers of the London district. The men left work on the 1st of Janu my, 1852, and the works were formally closed on the 10th. The strike virtually ended on the 30th March, when the men conceded the points in dispute, with the exception of an obnoxious declaration insisted upon by the.masters, that none of the men employed should. for the future, either directly or indirectly support trades-unions. The cost of the strike is understood, besides the enormous loss of wages, to have exceeded £40,000, including moneys contributed to non-society men. Great numbers of the men emi grated, and fearful suffering was endured by thousands of. families. The amalgamated society still exists, and is one of the most extensive and powerful organizations in the interest of labor in the world. In 1852, after its failure in the great struggle, it started with 7,000 members. In 1860, its members exceeded 17,000, and in 1878 they num bered 45,408. The total income of the society for 1878 was £123,881, and its accumu lated funds were S',251,675. It- has branches in every part of the world where English engineers are employed.