Mexborough & Swinton Times – Friday 07 November 1902
The pamphlet circulated by Mr Cooke Buckingham Pope, the Chairman of the directors of the Denaby and Cadeby collieries Ltd, is shown elsewhere in this issue.
The immediate purpose of the pamphlet seems to be to indicate those men living in the company’s houses that they may go to work on the old terms if they like, and if they do not do so that they and their families will be turned out of the houses, in which they have been living without paying rent, to make room for men will work.
The pamphlet is really a warning that of what may happen under certain circumstances, a warning, it should be added, which Mr J Buckingham Pope was not bound to give.
A dominant note the pamphlet is a severe manner in which Mr Buckingham Pope deals with the local officials, but when he writes of them as men who can afford to buy pigs, new clothes, and generally act like men of means, it is quite clear that he is not rich writing from his own personal knowledge, but from what he has been told and the tales that are circulating Mexborough and Denaby are not always true.
Mr Pope’s reference to an alleged demand for an increase of wages of 28% is unworthy of. Without stating that the men of Arsenal such an increase, he implies in ambiguous terms, that they had done so, although he should know perfectly well whether they are or not. If they have, he should have boldly stated, and if they have not he should not repeat idle rumour in the matter is so serious.
It must be confessed though Mr Buckingham Pope writes a great deal in his pamphlet he raised the main point. The men have repeatedly declared that they desired a price list, which every man can understand, but while Mr Buckingham Pope refers to the wages he says nothing about the 1890 price list, that document is so it is clear to the majority of the men is a Chinese puzzle. It ought to be a price list which explains itself, which every man who has to work to it can understand without explanation of either Mr Buckingham Pope of the “Mexborough Times,” or anybody else.