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Westmorland Gazette
Saturday 21 April 1838
Hand-Loom Commission
The assistant Commissioners of the hand loom enquiry commission have, during the past and present week, been investigating the condition of the weavers in Burnley, Colne, Padiham, Marsden, and Haggate, and yesterday a portion of the committee of the weavers of Manchester were examined by Mr. Muggeridge. In every place the enquiry has been carried on in public, and, we believe to the entire satisfaction of the great body of the suffering hand-loom weavers. At Padiham the inquiry was conducted at the national school room, and was attended by upwards of three hundred persons. At Haggate nearly the same number were present at the Baptist chapel school room. The chief grievances of the weavers are the low rate of wages which they are paid, and the arbitrary abatements, made by the employers, of thesescanty earnings. The principal remedies suggested have been the repeal of corn laws, and the establishment of local boards of trade to insure uniformity of wages, the fact being, we understand, established, that many employers are paying widely different rates of wages for the same description of goods. The tendency of such variations is, of course, to bring down the high-priced masters to the scale of the lowest. -Wheeler's Manchester Chronicle
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Mel
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