Open Writing

Shortly after the talk about Luddites at the Cherry Tree, it became evident that the threat of immanent trouble had reached in the district, as threatening letters were received. These were delivered by unseen hands, and written over the name of Ned Ludd, sometimes styled ‘King’ or ‘General.’ They cultivated a sense of alarm because of the directness and personal nature of their threats. Even so, some recipients thought they were nothing but empty instruments full of bluster and bluff.

When some of the threats were carried out in a series of outrageous actions, they were instantly converted to the view that the letters served serious purposes.

Even the cynical learned that broken cropping frames, the earliest targets, were not jokes, and the Luddites were not phantoms. One Luddite letter concluded: "General Ludd wishes me to state that though his troops here are not at present making any movement, that is not for want of force, as the organisation is quite strong in Yorkshire, but that they are at present only devising the best means for the grand attack."

Luddite letters were direct statements of intent to wage war against manufacturers that resisted their demands, including orders that they remove power machines, restore piecework rates, and return to former wage levels. Clothiers protested that power machines were the future, and would have to stay if they were to remain in business. They complained that they were not to blame that things had got so bad for workers.

They imputed the changes to costly wars, embargoes, and government policies as the reasons for rising food prices and shortages, declaring that workers were not the only sufferers. Owners too suffered falls in their profits because foreign markets had been shut off by Orders in Council that forbade their trading with ‘enemy states.’ All workers’ demands achieved, they protested, whether they were Luddites or not, was to add extra burdens on top of abnormally high manufacturing costs. Consequently, they refused to accommodate Luddite demands and chose to risk whatever repercussions might follow. Workers read their refusals as evidence of malice, and the seeds of conflict began to take root.

Staithes said openly that he kept, “An open mind.” He said he would wait and see how things worked out before he did anything. He feared that his workers might consider any revisions he made as a result of the threats as weakness, and they might then take advantage of him. He was sure, he told his associates, that none of his employees had anything to do with this ‘Luddite business.’

Privately, his confidence in his workers was not sound at all. He greatly feared that his workers might join with the Luddites, infiltrate his mill, sow discord, and damage his property. He also believed that he would be spared the worst if he made it known that if attacks came he would more than meet them head on and would prevail. But inwardly he was afraid. He was very afraid. Being suspended on both horns of the same dilemma has an extremely debilitating effect on a man, and particularly so when the man already has more than his share of anxieties as Staithes had. But his doubts and cares only made his instability worse. He struggled to occupy several positions at the same time. Consequently, he approached madness at an increasing rate.

"Let them try to get in and wreck my business,” he growled to himself. “I will identify their Trojan Horses if they are reckless enough to try their vandalism on me. Just let them try it and they will find out for themselves!”