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Organisation of North Staffs Miners 1881
Researched by John Lumsdon
The leading miners of this district are in earnest in the formation of their new and consolidated district. With the object of arousing among the rank and file of their class, the Association has issued an appeal in favour of unity. This appeal has been placed in the hands of thousands of the men who work in the coal and ironstone mines of the district, and no doubt it will have a good influence in stimulating local unionism among the class to it is addressed. The following is the appeal:-
One Union for North Staffordshire
The miners of North Staffordshire have now another opportunity to build up a great association. The two associations that have existed for some time in the district are become one. From Cheadle to Madeley, and from Longton to Mow-Cop, there is only one union; but at present this wide district is only a frame-work a skeleton of unionism. We appeal to every miner to help to cloth the bare ribs of our association with the flesh of health and strength. The power of the individual miner will create, by co-operation with his fellows; will be used for the benefit of the mining class.
Speaking of ancient times, it is said “there were giants in those days.” The giants of modern times are the forces brought into existence by the combinations of men for given objects, and no Genii of Eastern story were more obedient, or strong, to work the will of the men to whom they were devoted than is the well knit organisation of multitudes of working men, full of noble force to overcome their difficulties and to raise them as a class. Such are the common of men’s lives that labour is the highest form of our ordinary life duty, because upon its exercise and reward depend not merely the life of the weaker, but the life of all his family.
It necessarily follows that labour being so high a duty the obligation to protect that labour, by seeing that it is pursued under right conditions and meets with a just remuneration, must also be a duty of the first importance. We point to the recent 10% advance in wages, as a proof that unity of action is required amongst miners to obtain even that increase of pay that the state of the market so plainly justifies: and we appeal to the thousands of miners in North Staffordshire to spare a few pence weekly out of that advance to build up an organisation that will not only help to preserve present wages, but give a vantage ground for winning other advances when the proper times come.
It is not fair that the battle of the miners should be left to a few men.
Certainly some of the most stirring storiesin human history are those that tell a few “keeping the gate”for the many against the enemies of all. but surly the men who are brave enough to face the dangers of the mine in this district do not desire that a few should carry them in their arms in this matter of trade unity; and if they are cowardly and mean enough to have such a desire, they should remember that a small number oftener lose the struggle than win it and all suffer together.
The men therefore who wish to reap where they have not sown, not only have to go home at harvest time without any sheaves upon their own backs, but condemn others to the same misfortune. The collier’s wife has an interest in this question. We do not pretend that union will create wages out of nothing for working miners; but we are convinced, because we have proved it, that the subscriptions of the collier class to create a strong union, are seed that yields more than a hundred fold for the small sacrifice that is made.
We want no association that will array men bitterly against employers. We believe that working men may make mistakes as well as employers, but it only legitimate self-protection that the working miner should look after his side of the question. Neither capital nor labour should have unlimited way.
We agree with the writer who recently said that “capital has its rights as well as its duties, and labour has its duties as well as its rights. But certainly the first duty of labour is to look after its rights and we wish now to call upon all the miners in north Staffordshire to perform this duty, without having any desire to tempt them to neglect any duties they may have to employers, or to anyone else. Our desire is to form a substantial union. We don’t want to swell out like the frog who wished to make itself as big as an ox, and which burst in the attempt, but to have all the patience and strength of the latter with the wisdom of the men to use it. We do not whish to have on our ranks the censorious and fault finding. We want an honest and brotherly union in which there shall be an absence of “hatred, malice and un-charitableness.”
Let there be a gathering together of miners of North Staffordshire, just as the tribes of old came from the mountain and plain to meet in one temple and worship one god. It is even a part of the duty that men owe to their Creator that they should perform the work well which their hands find to do. Let us then gather together from Mow-cop to Harriseahead from Bradley Green from Kidsgrove, from the fatally famous Talke o the Hill, from Chesterton from Silverdale and Audley and from every mining village and smoky town in the Potteries. Lodges will be opened everywhere for the non-union man to find a refuge in.
We know that this appeal will be canvassed in every pit bank and discussed away from the light of day in the workings of every mine, and believe that the result of our making one strong union for the entire district will be the strengthening of every lodge, the creation of a powerful Federation of North Staffordshire miners.
Let those who cannot attend their lodge meetings send their subscriptions by their fellow miners, and let it be proved to our employers that we are capable of bringing into being great organised strength and of using it with moderation and common sense. The miners of south Staffordshire, Cannock Chase, East Worcestershire, and Shropshire are appealing to us to join them in forming a Federation of Midlands Miners. Certainly the mountain of our industry is in labour, and it will depend upon you, to whom this appeal is being addressed, whether weakness or strength shall be born. We have confidence in the result, and believe that North Staffordshire will soon see a stronger miners’ union that ever existed amongst us before.
Let us then be up and doing
With a heart for any fate
Still achieving still pursuing
Learn to labour and to wait
The Executive Committee of the Miners’ Association March 1st 1881