Sheffield Daily Telegraph – Saturday 05 March 1904
Mr. Burt, M.P., and the Denaby Strike
Frank Declaration
Mr. Burt, M.P., says the “Pall Mall Gazette,” in his monthly circular to the Northumberland miners, brings to their notice that in the Denaby case there was a distinct breach of contract by the workmen, and the union supported the latter in their illegal action by giving the strike pay.
This circumstance, along with the exercise of intimidation by trade union officials themselves, is discreetly ignored in orations upon the oppressive treatment of labour, but one trade unionist, we are glad to see, has the candour to state the truth of the matter in plain terms.
Those who represent the Denaby Main, Taff Vale, and similar judgments as an injustice to labour have to show either that intimidation and breach of contract are laudable and proper in themselves, or that there are special reasons for allowing trade unionists, unlike all other classes, to practise them with impunity.