Mexborough & Swinton Times – Friday 22 September 1893
The Coal War
Signs of Peace
Yorkshire Delegates in Durham
Distress in the District
Coalowners offer the Olive Branch
The Beginning of the End.
It has been a quiet week, quiet all round. Not a whisper of disorder has been heard, and rumours of riots have been at a discount. Denaby Main has ceased to resemble a military station, and the idlers in the Mexborough streets no longer have the unwonted spectacle of military display to amuse them and aid them in the dreary task—especially dreary when the pocket is empty—of killing time.
But notwithstanding that the district is peaceful, that the mob which created such panic and alarm and perpetrated so much wanton damage appears to have decided that, with the risk of bullets and bayonets to take into account, the pastime of destroying colliery offices is hardly worth the candle, there are still large numbers of soldiers in the district, both cavalry and infantry. And the people of the districts that are thus placed under the protection of military forces do not appear to relish it. On Tuesday the soldiers that had been quartered at a colliery in the neighbourhood were drafted into Wombwell, and the Wombwell folks are considerably incensed thereby, while the Wath people are getting just a little tired of the sight of red coats. The large force of Dragoons at Aldwarke still remain there, but the resentment at their presence has been considerably lessened by the military tournament which they gave yesterday in aid of the relief fund for that district.
While obviously indignant that the district should, to a certain extent, be laid under martial law, the inhabitants of the district are certainly going the best way to ensure the speedy removal of the irritating visitors, and it does not appear likely that however long the soldiers remain in the neighbourhood, they will be required to perform any professional services upon their own countrymen. The present attitude of the locked out colliers is one of settled determination and peaceful resistance. They are playing the waiting game with calm and admirable patience, and the coalowners are far less likely to succeed in forcing them into submission than they were a week or two back, when the idlers and loafers of the Barnsley district were injuring the reputation of the colliers by wrecking colliery offices.
When it became evident to the leaders of the men in South Yorkshire that the coalowners and the railway companies were doubling on them, by bringing coal out of Durham and Northumberland at reduced rates of carriage, it was decided by the men of the locality to send delegates to Durham, and apprise the “Geordies” of that district that they were being used as tools to assist the owners to defeat the men of Yorkshire. It was a strong contingent that went to Durham and Northumberland on this errand, and they included Mr. T. Whitfield, Kilnhurst; Mr. John Nolan, Denaby; Mr. Timothy Martin, Treeton; Mr. Thomas Graham, Parkgate; Mr. William Annables, Swinton; Mr. Henry Winstanley, Manvers Main; Mr. Charles Redfern, Wath Main; and Mr. Patrick Cocherty, Carr House.
In the course of a fortnight these delegates have had many opportunities of speaking to their fellows in Durham, and with the very best results. At more than one pit the men have refused to do any more filling for the South Yorkshire district, and the delegates have succeeded in stirring up a feeling that the time has arrived for Durham to render Yorkshire some financial aid. It is possible that the voice from South Yorkshire may also have had something to do with the determination that has arisen in Northumberland and Durham to demand a rise of wages of 16½ and 15 per cent. respectively, while it is certain that the decision of the leaders in the North to ask their men for additional financial aid for the Midland miners is the outcome of the deputation from this district.
But while the Northumbrians and their neighbours across the Tyne are making up their minds all too tardily to help those who helped them so generously eighteen months ago, the distress in the neighbourhood is undoubtedly increasing. Notwithstanding the work of the relief committees the demand for assistance is increasing on every hand, and those who have undertaken to render assistance to the needy have no lack of applicants for assistance.
Mr. C. J. Fleming, Q.C., M.P., has, we are informed, expressed his willingness to subscribe to the relief fund in the Mexborough district, and it is intended to ask the Right Hon. A. H. D. Acland to render some assistance to the Swinton committee. A very material amount of relief has been rendered at Cadeby Main, and the committees of Wombwell, Kilnhurst, Darfield, Parkgate, and other districts have displayed both energy and benevolence in the amount of useful work they have performed.
In addition a large amount of relief has been rendered privately by individuals who are principally of the warm-hearted but often abused publican class. The miners and their families have suffered as much as anyone from the scarcity of coal for fuel, and during the week women and children have been employed in the brickyard on the Mexborough Common, where there is a thin seam of coal very near the surface, in mining operations on their own account. At Manvers Main Colliery, in a field opposite the pit yard, there is a quantity of inferior coal that has been stacked there out of the way, and by the permission of the manager the people of the Mexborough and Swinton district have been busy with barrows and buckets removing it for home use. Some of them, however, have taken advantage of the needs of others and have turned an honest penny by retailing it at something over cost price.
At Aldwarke too large numbers of men, women, and children have obtained supplies of fuel from the large heap near the stables of the company where the dragoons are at present quartered.
But amid all the distress it is gratifying to perceive symptoms that the struggle is drawing to a close. The coalowners are extending the olive branch. In numerous instances they have offered to re-open the pits at the old rate of wages if the men will return to work, and signs are everywhere evident that the stoppage of the coal supply from Durham, in many cases, has done something to bring the colliery owners to their senses.
At present it does not appear that the lock-out can last much longer, for while the men are still firm the coalowners are clearly wavering. Once work is commenced at the old rate in the largest pits the others must give way. Thus in a fortnight, from scenes of anarchy and bloodshed that threatened to postpone the settlement indefinitely, we are, thanks to the fact that pacific counsels have prevailed, within sight of the beginning of the end.