SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC HISTORY 



regard to affairs at any particular colliery. These are dealt with by the 

 Joint Committee of masters and men, which is rigidly confined to the 

 application of the existing agreement to particular mines or seams. The 

 work of the Joint Committee is incessant, but although its impartiality is 

 recognized its necessary dilatoriness and lack of personal knowledge has 

 resulted in its being often superseded by a committee of one masters' repre- 

 sentative and one workman with power to choose an umpire. 



It says a great deal for the proverbial ' canniness ' of the North-country- 

 man that this complicated system of arbitration and collective bargaining 

 should have lasted so long and worked so well. It is true that strikes have 

 not been wholly avoided, but they have been less bitter and frequent. Since 

 1869, the year of its foundation, the Durham Miners' Association has 

 engaged in four arbitrations between 1874 and 1876, and its members 

 worked under a sliding-scale from 1877 to 1889. Even under the sliding- 

 scale a strike occurred in 1879, but both sides had learned wisdom, and both 

 on this occasion and several times during the years 1888—92 arbitration 

 settled disputes as to wages. At last in 1892 occurred the great Durham 

 Coal Strike. For three months the men held out against the proposed 

 10 per cent, reduction, which the masters demanded in a falling market. 

 It was the worst strike for perhaps half a century, and as trade grew worse 

 and other industries felt the want of coal, the masters demanded even greater 

 reductions. At last when the whole county was on the verge of ruin the good 

 bishop of Durham (Westcott) earned his title of the ' Miners' Bishop ' by 

 persuading the masters to allow the pits to re-start at a 10 per cent, re- 

 duction in wages, not, as he said, on business grounds, but for the sake of 

 ending the misery of the people. 



In this connexion should be mentioned the undoubted fact that the 

 success of collective bargaining in Durham is due to the presence of public- 

 spirited men like Dr. Westcott, or Dr. Robert Spence Watson, who time 

 after time have given of their time and ability to the cause of industrial 

 peace without receiving any monetary reward. In 1888, to mention 

 only one case among many. Dr. Spence Watson acted as arbitrator in a 

 dispute in the iron trade, and the principle of collective bargaining, often 

 with the mediation of an outside public man, has been accepted by most of 

 the trades in Durham. 



In the dark days of the 'eighties many of the unions were less success- 

 ful than that of the miners in keeping up their numbers. The skilled boiler- 

 makers or iron ship-builders of the Tyne and Wear suffered severely as the 

 total tonnage built fell from 1,250,000 tons in 1883 to 473,000 in 1886, 

 and the secretary of the boiler-makers (Mr. Robert Knight) in his annual 

 report for 1886 hinted that their unavoidable sufferings were inducing men 

 to criticise an organization of society which made them possible. 



It is but natural to find that the idea of direct labour representation is so 

 popular in Durham, which with i i"2i per cent, of its population in a trade- 

 union is barely second to the leading trade-unionist county in England — 

 Northumberland, with a percentage of 1 1*23. However, the Durham miner 

 is seldom a socialist ; but there are signs that he is becoming less contented 

 with some of the doctrines of his older leaders. During the strike of 1892 

 a miner is reported to have said {Times of 24 March, 1892), 'Why should 



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