Mexborough & Swinton Times – Friday 11 August 1893
Miners’ Meeting at Denaby Main.
Yesterday morning a large meeting of the Denaby Main miners took place, upwards of 1200 being present.
The Chairman, Mr. Fred Croft, said they had been called together to answer to their names, or the strike pay would be cut off. The first week’s pay was on Saturday next, and he hoped they would take the greatest care of it, as the question in dispute might last a long time.
Several miners wanted to know who had ordered all those policemen that had been imported to Denaby Main; whether they had come to fill the coal stack up, or to incite them to break the laws of their country. If the former, they would only be too glad to see them use a spade, and if the latter, they had now got too wise to be drawn in that direction.
The battle they were fighting was an honourable one, and they did not intend hitting below the belt. The public were with them in this crisis.
It had been stated through the newspapers that a number of colliery owners were willing to withdraw their demand on condition that the men did not claim an advance until the selling prices of coal reached the 1890 and 1891 prices. Was the selling price in either of those two years higher than the present price? A voice answered, “No, no,” and another added, “10 per cent advance.”
He thought the owners could honourably withdraw their claim, and that the federated miners would do their best to level up those districts which had suffered greater reductions than the federated miners.