Cricket 1914

M a y 2, 1914. THE WORLD OF CRICKET. 93 TH E L A ST R E ST IN G -PLAC E O F A G R E A T C R IC K E T E R . (This photograph of George Lohmann’s grave at Matjesfontein was specially taken for the W o r ld o f C r ic k e t through the kind offices of Mr. A rthur Sherwell, M.P.) Is the strike of cricket-ball makers going to cause a shortage of balls ? The business is a small one as far as numbers employed go, and nearly, if not quite, two-thirds of the work is done in and around Tonbridge— the metro­ polis of the cricket-ball, so to speak. O n e gathers that the question at issue would be solved a t once if the cricket public could be persuaded to pay sixpence more per ball. Is this too much to expect ? Few cricketers, one imagines, would care to think th at one of the chief implements of the great game they love was the product of sweated labour. This is not a charge levelled against the manufacturers ; but in any considera­ tion of the subject it is important to remember that the making of a cricket ball is one of the handicrafts that require considerable training and skill, and the men engaged naturally expect a skilled workman’s wage. T he price of m aterials has gone up considerably of recent years— leath er more especially, and the best of leather is required. T o m eet th e m en’s dem ands would cu t ou t th e m an ufactu rers’ profits— alread y sm all in comparison w ith those of the m iddle-m en— altogether as far as regards th e higher class of balls. O n e m ay have sympathy with the men, y et feel th at they have not altogether played the game. In one respect they have gone very far wide of doing so. The employes of Messrs. Wisden and Messrs. Ives came out. Messrs. Duke’s men remained at work. They were satisfied, and saw no sufficient reason for coming out. A t Penshurst few cheap balls are made, and the men are well paid for the higher grade stuff. T o us it seems that the Penshurst men m ight have been left alone. Bu t this would be against trade union tactics, of course. The strikers, 200 or more strong, marched over to Penshurst w ith a band, and paraded up and down before Messrs. Duke’s factory, calling upon the men to come out and join them. Their shouting was not confined to adjurations of this sort, but included besides (so one gathers) expressions injurious and intensely annoying to the Messrs. Duke themselves. S u r e l y even a striker should recognise the fact th at an employer who already pays above the average wage is entitled to some consideration ! If not, then a strike becomes war on all employers, whether gu ilty (from the union point of view) or innocent— which to an unprejudiced observer seems absurd. T h e Penshurst men held out for two or three days. They really had nothing to strike for, and did not want to strike. Bu t the student of human nature can guess the outcome. The parading, the band, the shouts worked upon them ; and in the upshot all but a dozen or so of the oldest hands— old enough to be wise and to be strong— went out to join the strikers. T h e election of Mr. R. C. Gosling to the presidency of the Essex C.C.C. has brought forth the inevitable allusions to the fact that he is an old Corinthian. Interesting, but, in view of his new office being in connection with a cricket club, scarcely so important as the fact that he is a Cambridge cricket blue, which escaped notice in many quarters. H e played against Oxford three years— 1888 to 1890.