BEGINNINGS OF THE TELEGRAPHISTS’ MOVEMENT—AN EARLY ATTEMPT AT A STRIKE—ACOUP D’ÉTAT—“SCUDAMORE’S FOLLY.”
BEGINNINGS OF THE TELEGRAPHISTS’ MOVEMENT—AN EARLY ATTEMPT AT A STRIKE—ACOUP D’ÉTAT—“SCUDAMORE’S FOLLY.”
At this point it is necessary to go back a number of years to gather in a trailing strand that has yet to be spliced into the body of the narrative. As has already been noted, the spirit of discontent and agitation in the Post-Office had strongly manifested itself in various ways before the year 1870. For nearly twenty-five years trouble in the postal ranks had shown itself from time to time. And the taking over of the telegraphs by the Government, and placing the old companies’ staffs under the wing of the Post-Office, was to recruit new forces for the army of discontent. If the men thus taken over had had a little more consideration shown them from the outset, perhaps much of the future trouble which from the first moment was set brewing might have been arrested. But it was not so, despite the promises held out to them, and it was not long before they realised that they were to remain a neglected body.
Before the transfer the telegraph business of the country was divided amongst three principal companies, “The Electric,” “The United Kingdom,” “The British, Irish, and Magnetic,” and, for London only, “The Metropolitan District Company.” They had no connection with each other, but it seems that the men in their employ indifferently rambled from one to the other on the mere strength of having been formerly employed anywhere as a telegraphist. The class of men for the most part so employed was a very mixed one, and consisted largely of those who had “come down in the world,” often men of birth and education, and those shipwrecked from other vessels. They seemed to be an independent, Bohemianlot, and somewhat nomadic in their habits, for not infrequently those dismissed or resigned from one company, with little difficulty took a seat in another of the three. The conditions were much about the same, and the salary equally poor, averaging about £1 a week. But though the salary was low, and the prospects ill defined and unsatisfactory, it was understood that there were other means of making money in a small way. There was apparently a looseness and a happy-go-lucky style of freedom obtaining among the telegraph companies of this period that enabled the operators to make for themselves certain privileges which ultimately became their rights. Their salary was low, but in course of time it was to some extent compensated for by the acquisition of perquisites, and small emoluments. These often consisted of keeping the offices open after hours, and making their own charges, levying taxes for porterage on messages, taking allowances for string, paper, and other material. In some cases these privileges and emoluments accruing to the senior men were farmed out among the juniors to save time and trouble. A company’s operator might occasionally constitute himself a temporary agent for his company in his spare time after ordinary hours of duty, charging sixpence extra on each message, and this the companies rather encouraged than otherwise. The men were on free and easy terms with most of the business men in their locality, and presents and Christmas-boxes of a substantial nature often came to them in the form of provisions, &c., in recognition of services rendered in emergency. There was generally a telegraph office at the more important railway stations throughout the kingdom, and the railway officials commonly extended privileges to the telegraph companies’ operators. Railway fares were scarcely taken into account in the cost of living, and a telegraph operator attached to a telegraph office on any company’s line experienced little difficulty in obtaining a free pass for almost any distance.
Such a precarious system of remuneration for their services was almost as unsatisfactory for them as it proved to be for the telegraph-using public; and it is doubtful if such a state of things could have lasted much longer when the requirements of the service broadened and developed.
When it became known in 1868, through the passing of the Telegraph Act in that year, that the companies and the men together were to be swept into the Post-Office, it was very naturally expected that there would be some improvement in their prospects, even if no immediate benefit were offered them. The men, therefore, in anticipation that their future under Government service would be somewhat improved, put themselves on their best behaviour, and stiffened themselves up a little more.
As was only to be expected among such an independent body of men, who, through all their career in the service of the old companies, had been allowed much liberty and discretion and those few privileges only possible in their employ, dissatisfaction soon followed on disappointment, when it was learnt that, after all, nothing was to be gained from the transfer. High hopes had been entertained by the telegraph clerks by the occurrence of one passage in the 1868 Act, to which great weight and importance had been attached. The clause read: “Such Officers and Clerks upon their appointment shall be deemed to be, to all intents and purposes, Officers and Clerks in the Permanent Civil Service of the Crown, and shall be entitled to the same but no other privileges.”
Instead of which, while there was no improvement in salary, all the little privileges and chances of emoluments were of necessity withdrawn. They were subjected to a far more rigorous rule of discipline than they had in their free-born manner been accustomed to in their former employment. In the old companies many averaged £2 a week at least, though there was no fixed rate of salary; but when the Government took them under its paternal care, there was no consideration made for what they had lost or left behind. The companies had been bought over lock, stock, and barrel, and the human machines, despised but indispensable, were thrown in as chattels and makeweight. The estates had been bought, and with them the serfs living on the land; and, being useful only to make the estates pay, they were, in the usual logic of the circumstances, least considered. The average wage was only 17s. or 18s. a week; there were no mealreliefs for provincial men; there was compulsory excessive overtime, in some cases for nothing, and in most cases next to nothing.
They saw that if they were to obtain better treatment and fairer prospects, as befitted their new character as Government servants, they would have to fight for it. This they commenced doing by means of petition. But these petitions were either ignored or refused, and not the slightest concession was made. The compulsion to bring up their starvation pittance to a normal wage by an excessive amount of overtime, poorly paid for—often no more than threepence an hour—with also excessive punishment by the imposition of extra duty, without pay, for the most trifling errors, soon proved that they had jumped out of the frying-pan into the fire. While the telegraph service was divided among a number of private companies, and while the telegraph clerks remained a limited class, they could play on the rivalry among the companies, and had things pretty much their own way when a grievance oppressed them. But under the new conditions of service they found that on the score of their serving the Crown instead of a private concern, they were expected to accept conditions and treatment which would not have been tolerated for a month under the old system. The eight hours’ day was reduced to a mere farce by the compulsion to earn anything approaching a decent livelihood only by means of miserably-paid overtime. They found that they were expected to pay dearly for the honour of serving a Government monopoly, and that, moreover, they were at the mercy of the department because it was a monopoly. Their hopes and expectations, based on the explicitly-worded clause in the Telegraph Act of 1868, were almost from the first moment of their entrance through the portals of the Post-Office dashed to the ground. They saw that the public and themselves had been hoodwinked by the specious promises held out to the old companies’ servants. They therefore decided to put the public in full possession of the facts of their case; and if they could not obtain redress from the department which had so far betrayed their confidence, they would revert to other and more drastic means. The old companies’ men were not so tame and submissiveas perhaps the authorities had anticipated. They regarded the clause in the Telegraph Act as undoubtedly covering themselves, and at least, if it did not entitle them to being placed on an equality with the lower or second division of the Civil Service—upon which they maintained the framers of the Act intended them to be placed—they should be accorded better treatment in minor respects.
The scant hospitality the new comers had received at the hands of the authorities for months rankled deeply within them. They found that they had been delivered into the house of bondage; and Mr. Frank Ives Scudamore, and the others of the authorities who wore their honours so thick upon them for effecting the transfer of the mighty business, were hard and inconsiderate taskmasters where their humbler servants were concerned. The disappointment increased with the realisation that the department repudiated its promise and its obligations as contained in the Act, and the mutterings of discontent swelled in volume.
The first attempt at organisation for redress was made in 1871, the year following the transfer. If they came in like lambs, they preferred to go out, if they went out at all, like roaring lions. During the few months they had been in the employ of their new masters the thousands of company men had found a ready means of intercommunication and an exchange of news and ideas. Men became familiarised with each other from a distance all over the country, and the electric current of discontent ran freely along the wires from every large centre. In every large office throughout the kingdom there were eager spirits waiting for the opportunity to do something towards promoting the agitation and establishing a common line of action. They had the very instrument in their hands which most favoured their desire and their plans. The mine was laid; it wanted but the electric spark of a united purpose to fire the train. Exactly how the mine was prepared and sprung perhaps will never be definitely known. It was communicated from several of the large towns that the aggrieved men were animated with a single purpose and desire; each did their share in the way of convening meetings among the staff, in making collections for a general fund, andgiving mutual help and encouragement. As is always the case, the leaders came forward as the occasion demanded it; but it is somewhat difficult to assign the authorship of this first movement to any particular individual. The agitation was less the result of any personality or quality of leadership than it was the spontaneous response to a widely-spread sense of injustice. One curious result of the unanimity of feeling, and the spontaneity of its translation into action, was that almost every town in turn afterwards claimed to have taken the initiative, and to have produced the arch agitator who originated the movement. At this time of day the claim of Manchester is almost universally allowed. Manchester from the first moment uprose as a mountain of discontent; it produced both men and money for the agitation, and became the seat of the memorable strike. But for long afterwards, before the fragments came to be pieced together into historic orderliness, and while the discussion which always succeeds the battle was proceeding among the late participants, it was contended that Bradford had an almost equal claim. There was one man at Bradford office, a counterman, a man of superior attainments, a gentleman by birth and education, who, realising the situation, conceived the possibility of a universal agitation among telegraphists, if not all postal servants who had wrongs to be righted and grievances to be redressed. He was not the only one who shared this dream at that time; and possibly, had it come a couple of years later, when the postmen’s agitation was in full swing, it might have been realised to an extent which would have proved even more embarrassing to the Government than it did. Ashden was the name of the Bradford man, whose ambition was equal to his discontent, and with a courage that outweighed both. He thought it necessary to complete the organisation without delay, and to this end at once threw himself into the fray, and tacitly assumed the leadership of the Bradford contingent. There was a series of the usual back-stair meetings, and others more or less secret, but a meeting on a more pretentious scale was held outside the town at a place called Smithy’s Bridge. This was an exclusive if not altogether private gathering, only a chosen dozen or so being present. It was in reality a conference ofthe powers, for it consisted principally of delegates from the centres of disaffection and the prominent agitators of those places, including Mulholland and Hacker of Manchester, and Norman of Liverpool. They met to decide on some common plan of action in response to the desire on every hand. It was shortly after the meeting at Bradford that the Telegraphists’ Organisation was formally founded.
In the meantime, however, the same discontent begotten of irritation and disappointment at the manner of their modest claims being ignored found a voice at Liverpool, Manchester, Edinburgh, Dublin, and various other places. The decision come to at Bradford was taken away to each of these centres and there discussed and pondered over, and resulted in a small conference at Manchester being held in a room at the Railway Tavern, while a similar meeting was held at Liverpool at the Clock Tavern, London Road. At each of these communions Ashden made his influence felt and helped to mould the plan of future action.
In due course, on October 21, 1871, a Telegraphists’ Association was formed, Manchester being the head centre; and from the moment of its inauguration three Manchester men, T. W. Mulholland, Hollingworth, and Heald, were the acknowledged leaders. Needless to say, the newly-formed association found plenty of work to do from the very start.
The authorities, seemingly anticipating that there would presently be trouble among the men, had made some preparations for an emergency, and at the same time provided themselves a means by which the old company men could be discarded if they proved too importunate. In some of the larger towns selected men were made “clerks in charge.” Those who undertook the rotation were for the most part the old companies’ transferred men and others who had been engaged after the transfer, and who were beginning to smart under the conviction that they had been enticed into the service under false pretences. In their eagerness to put a foil on the prevailing discontent the authorities took into the service any one who had the barest and most rudimentary knowledge of an instrument; the halt, the lame, and almost the blind being also accepted. Though often of little use, thesenewly-imported men in some cases succeeded in getting higher wages than the men who did the real work. Scores of old companies’ men were getting but a pound a week or less, while ex-pupil-teachers and others were brought in from the streets and given twenty-five shillings. Such things could not but produce still further friction, and it looked as if the preference would be given to these men who were so unjustly set off against them. In fact it soon proved so in some instances, and a number of the younger of the companies’ men became so disgusted that some joined foreign cable telegraph companies, preferring to trust their future to private employers than to a Government department which could treat them so. Others went to America and were still better received. A large number of the youngsters whose fathers or relations were already in the Post-Office had been placed under tuition as learners before the transfer, and these and the others, ex-schoolmasters, &c., were induced to take little or no part in the drama.
It is significant that soon after the starting of the agitation, Mr. Scudamore, the Permanent Under-Secretary, promised a new scale of classification. This promise lulled the discontent for a while; but the long-continued delay in bringing it out brought the feeling to an acute stage. The men did not let their mutterings go unheard.
The leaders of the Telegraphists’ Association now became aware that all their communications to the various branches of the movement were, both letters and telegrams, being “Grahamed” or tapped, and it was more than believed that the authorities were exercising a rigorous censorship over the correspondence between members. To avoid this, messages to other towns were frequently forwarded by train, and eventually a secret code was arranged, the telegrams appertaining to the business of the movement being addressed to a private firm in Manchester. These telegrams referring to the arrangement of meetings and other business were handed in and paid for in the ordinary way over the counter, and, in the case of Manchester, all were addressed to Doncaster & Knowles, 75 Oxford Street, who, being in sympathy with the men, placed their address at their disposal. The code which was adoptedwas varied from time to time and as events progressed. The towns affected were referred to in these secret messages by various Christian names: “John” was London, “James” Manchester, “Charley” Birmingham, “Peter” Sheffield, “Tom” Liverpool, “Ben” Bristol, and so on through the whole list of towns. Numerals from one to nine were “tallow,” “rape,” “olive,” “cotton,” “linseed,” “petroleum,” “currants,” “molasses,” and “whisky.” When the strike agitation was fully started the code was considerably amplified and rendered more complicated for safety.
Meantime the prevailing discontent and the threatening aspect of affairs did not escape the observation of the press any more than of the authorities. A letter appeared in theLondon Standarddirecting attention to the movement in the provinces, and the imminence of a strike unless the authorities took action speedily. A day or two after, on the 7th December 1871, officials from the Chief Office were sent down to Manchester to inquire into the condition of things. The result of this official inquiry was the immediate suspension of the leaders, Mulholland, Heald, Hacker, Hollingworth, and others forming the committee, while the same course was adopted at Liverpool and Bradford. The men were suspended for fomenting agitation and for forming an association in contravention of official regulation and the Law of Conspiracy. Similar Star-Chamber inquiries were also made at Liverpool the same day, with the result that one of the Liverpool committee, C. Nottingham, was suspended. It is difficult to understand why this man was singled out for suspension, as he was by no means the prime mover of the Liverpool movement; Norman, Ryan (the treasurer), and others there being far more prominent. Nottingham was away ill at home when the officials desired him to be brought before them, and he was accordingly brought, ill as he was, in a cab to the office. After hearing his sentence of suspension he was allowed to return home as best he might. When the Liverpool men realised what had taken place the excitement and indignation was great, and a meeting was called for the same evening. The meeting was held at a house in Ann Street. They had no sooner met, however, than they weremade aware that the house was being watched by official detectives, who were stationed to secretly take the names of those attending. The warning was passed to those on their way to the meeting; while those who had already assembled were passed out by another door. Another rendezvous was found a little later at the Great Eastern Hotel, and here the eager crowd of outlawed telegraphists met to discuss the serious situation. Here it was decided, as the result of their deliberations, to present an ultimatum to the postmaster to the effect that if the suspended men were not reinstated by noon, and a definite time fixed for the proper classification of the staff, they would turn out on strike. To solemnise the decision come to a borrowed Bible was produced, and the men present swore upon it that they would be true to each other, and not desert the cause. Telegrams were forthwith despatched that night informing other towns what Liverpool had decided on. These telegrams were, however, as it was suspected, intercepted. The ultimatum was next day, December 8th, presented to the postmaster, and they waited. Twelve o’clock struck, and simultaneously a gong, the sounding of which was the prearranged signal for decisive action, began to ring. Immediately every one rose from his place in the instrument-room. But before they could leave in a body, the postmaster appeared on the scene, and standing in the doorway, made a speech in terms of entreaty and warning and proceeded to read an official paper. But by this time the feeling had got out of bounds; the tide had risen and was not to be pushed back with a mop. The postmaster had to stand aside, and the operators swept past him, then into the street; and the strike began. If there was one office in particular that showed the example it was Liverpool; Manchester, Bradford, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Dublin, and Cork, where similar scenes had occurred, following suit immediately afterwards.
The same evening a meeting was held at the Clock Inn, when a telegram was read from Mr. Scudamore to the Liverpool postmaster stating that the Manchester strikers had gone in to their duties. In his anxiety and excess of zeal during this troublous time the Under-Secretary was not above practisingdeception on the men, believing probably that the end justified the means. It was to get the recalcitrants back to work that this telegram was sent from headquarters. But the ruse was detected by the presence in Liverpool of a Manchester delegate, who was able on the spot to at once contradict it and reassure the Liverpool men that his town was firm. The suspension of the leaders was the signal for a general strike, and brought to a culminating point all the resentment and dissatisfaction which had been rankling within the breasts of the men for a twelvemonth past. In an instant the disquieting news was flashed from Manchester and Liverpool to every outpost in the kingdom. The beacons flamed up everywhere in a single hour. With one accord the men not only of Liverpool, but of Bradford, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Dublin, and Cork, struck, and refused to resume their duties until the suspended men at Manchester were reinstated. As showing the spirit that animated them, one of the Manchester officials of the association, who was on sick leave through an accident, immediately on learning the step that had been taken sent a message to his chief to the effect that he also was to be regarded as out on strike.
But the secret censorship exercised over all telegrams suspected of emanating from the affected men considerably handicapped them in their action. Still, by the use of their prearranged code—whole sentences being signified by such names and words as “Turkish,” “Canadian,” “Trunks,” “Bonds,” “Arabia,” &c., &c.—they were fairly well able to communicate with Manchester and other places. Conflicting rumours, which it was not always easy to contradict or verify on the spot, were set afloat as to the movements. But what had been a strike at Manchester and elsewhere became a little later a lock-out at various other offices in the provinces. The assistance and sympathy shown by the telegraphists of other towns betrayed a feeling of general unrest, and there were other symptoms as unmistakable which decided the authorities to deal summarily with the whole. They decided on acoup d’état, hoping that one bold stroke would terrorise them into obedience and smash their organisation.
At noon next day it was noticed at various offices that themessages received bore the signatures of strange senders at the other end of the wires. The fact occasioned no little comment, and the telegraphists of Bradford, Hull, and elsewhere, and in all the offices which of late had made themselves prominent in agitation, were not long in arriving at the correct conclusion. The storm had come, and they had got to face it, as they relied on their comrades in other distant towns also facing it. The same method of procedure happened everywhere, and in every affected office alike. A man was mysteriously sent away from his instrument and did not return, then another, and another. Meanwhile those remaining at the instruments were endeavouring to obtain some information from the other end, but to all their inquiries there was dead silence, and they realised that their interrogations had only met with the fate of being silently recorded against them many miles away. Then some one in the room would break the tension of silence, and they would troop out in a body, knowing as if by instinct that the same was being faithfully enacted elsewhere. Then in most cases as they trooped out from the instrument-room they would be confronted with several burly town policemen, who would half direct, half hustle them into another room, where they were virtually made prisoners awaiting the pleasure of the local postmaster. In some cases the postmaster would carry out his official instruction neatly and politely. If it were so, all went well; but in several instances the blundering over-zeal of an unpopular martinet nearly precipitated a riot. There is reason to think that the official instruction from London was to the effect that it should be effected as quietly and as discreetly as possible, and with few exceptions the delicate task of the postmasters was so carried out. Then while the telegraphists were waiting the arrival of the postmaster and other officials from whom they were to learn what was expected of them, a number of strangers newly arrived from London took their vacant places in the instrument-room. That being done, the door would be opened and the work of inquisition began. Generally the local postmaster would be accompanied by the officials, and in some cases by the influential public men of the town, the mayor or the vicar. They were admonished for their behaviour in leaving theirinstruments in the manner they had, even though it had been so confidently expected that they would act so, and they were offered the opportunity of going back to their work, but on conditions which they as a body could not accept.
In one case, at Bradford, they were preached to for half-an-hour by a colonial bishop, the vicar of the town, Bishop Ryan, on the duties of obedience to their pastors and masters, and the desirability of remaining good and dutiful in that position in which it had pleased God for some wise purpose to place them. The good bishop, however, did not forget, in the course of his little homily, to turn to the officials forming a cordon round the postmaster, and remind them that it was his opinion that the men were being disgracefully treated. The postmaster addressed them, and others addressed them. But the men having taken the step they had, and feeling certain that exactly the same step was being taken in all other towns, would not return to work that day. The men were then released on their own recognisances. Later, however, they were again called up, and directly questioned as to whether they each belonged to their association; and if so, would they sign an agreement to relinquish their society, and promise never again to agitate? As was only to be anticipated, every self-respecting man refused. They were then, in some cases by policemen already stationed, unceremoniously bundled into the street as dismissed from Post-Office employ.
In each of the towns where this took place there was generally much sympathy shown for the locked-out or rather dismissed men. At Liverpool there was a public meeting outside Brown’s Library. A strike fund was organised, and some of the leading cotton and stockbrokers of the Exchange contributed to the fund no less than £70 by passing round the hat.
On the following Monday a prominent representative of trades unionism in Liverpool waited on the committee and offered to pay all expenses if they would raise an action at law against Mr. Frank Ives Scudamore for having suspended the leaders of their movement, as the trade unionists of Liverpool were of the opinion that such suspensions were illegal. A sum of £1000 was freely mentioned, and it was stated that they were anxious to see the matter tested. This offer to defray theexpenses of the prosecution was the result of a discussion on the question that arose at the Trades Union Congress at Nottingham. It was definitely proposed to prosecute Mr. Scudamore not only for illegally suspending members of a trades union, but for illegally suppressing their telegrams, and also wilfully delaying press messages. The Trades Union Congress would assist financially.
On the day before the strike a telegram was forwarded from Manchester to theDaily News, intended for insertion as a press item, from one of the staff in relation to the suspension of the leaders there. The stoppage of this telegram by the authorities aroused the strongest indignation of theDaily News, and next day it commented in no measured terms on the “arbitrary and unjustifiable conduct of the London authorities.” It was described as an attempt to establish a Russian censorship over news. Delays of telegraphic communications were frequent within this brief period, and to conciliate the public on the point the Post-Office Secretary was afterwards publicly admonished with a wink by the Postmaster-General.
The press of the kingdom vigorously protested against the action of the Post-Office Secretary, whose excuse was that he was compelled to do so in order to prevent what he termed the mutiny from spreading. This, however, did not stop the complaints in the House of Commons; and at last the Postmaster-General, Mr. Monsell, stated that Mr. Scudamore had to be officially censured for his action. This was considered the first gain of the despised telegraph employé in the House of Commons.
On the same day that this offer was made, it was announced that the postmaster had been informed by one of their representatives that if all the men who had struck were allowed to return without prejudice, the strike would terminate. But the postmaster, in reply, stated that no terms from the disaffected clerks themselves would be accepted; and none would be allowed to resume unless they signed an officially-prepared form, expressing regret for insubordination and begging to be allowed to resume duty on the terms of Mr. Scudamore’s notice. At a meeting of the Liverpool men, held at the Clock the same evening, this announcement from the Liverpool postmaster was received with hisses and dissent.
The day following a circular was issued to the strikers, signed by Mr. Scudamore, which was to the effect that they were to be recorded as being dismissed.
The department, in deciding on taking this simultaneous step at a certain hour on one day, had made what preparations were possible at so short a notice; but, as was only to be expected, the public service suffered accordingly for many days to come. Men with a knowledge of telegraphy were not so easy to obtain, as those who knew their work were appraised by the remaining companies at a somewhat higher value than the Government chose to put upon them. Consequently the men who were engaged to fill the places of those dismissed constituted a various and motley crowd for the most part, and in some cases actually had to learn their work as they went along. The natural result of so many immature telegraphists being put to the work was a complete wrecking of telegraphic communication for days afterwards. The men who were recruited from London principally were, however, little to blame, either for the breakdown in the service or for the part they were made to play. For the most part they were complete strangers to each other; men picked up from almost every walk in life; many of them had known privation, and were glad of a berth under any conditions. It was therefore not greatly surprising that they knew as little ofesprit de corpsas they knew of telegraphy when first engaged.
What had really happened in London when the Postmaster-General and his advisers decided on a preconcerted signal to the postmasters of the provincial towns, was this: The class of pseudo-telegraphists already described, having been engaged some weeks before and put through a painful course of self-tuition, were at the end of that time regarded as having matriculated sufficiently for the purpose for which they were principally wanted. Then they were each in turn asked if they would care to be transferred to some provincial town, Liverpool, Manchester, or wherever it might be. All objections and demurs if any were immediately met by the offer to pay all expenses. One at a time they were called into a room at the Chief Office in Telegraph Street, and told to prepare at a few hours’ notice to be sent where their services weremost required. The question of railway fares, and wives and children, and removal of home belongings was peremptorily brushed aside. They had only to name an approximate amount as covering all expenses, and, to their pleased astonishment, that sum was placed before them. The Controller’s clerk was a few feet away presiding over an open box of gold, and on each of these poor seedy fellows being asked to name his amount, it was given him with no more trouble than obtaining his signature. It is not to be wondered at that the men were so easily tempted. If they were guilty of what in trade-union parlance is known as “blacklegging,” then their offence was a venial one, inasmuch as they were not in a position to realise to the full what was being enacted.
The telegraphists’ strike would probably have proved a greater success, from their own point of view, but for this temptation. And it was this reflection that occasioned the somewhat strained feeling between London and the provinces for some years following the incident.
The strike collapsed owing to the difficulties in rendering their organisation complete before such a drastic step was taken, and their unpreparedness to meet the prompt and decisive action of the department. The contemplated attitude of the telegraphists was known to the authorities long before it was definitely taken up by the men; their every move was anticipated. It was therefore, and considering all things, not to be wondered at that they found themselves outmanœuvred at the finish. That the department should have so completely squelched the movement in the manner it did was a matter for congratulation from a public point of view. But it must not be forgotten that all the legitimate appeals made by the telegraphists had produced no result but bitterness and disappointment; while the very means adopted by the authorities to avert such a contingency went far to precipitate it.
It is only fair to say that the department on this occasion extended a little clemency even in the hour of its victory. It was sufficient for it to have proved its power and authority, and—especially taking into consideration how useful, after all, were the services of such men at that time of day—it was amenable to reason, and allowed itself to be influenced onbehalf of the dismissed and locked-out men. Six or seven of the more prominent agitators had been dismissed outright, while the locked-out men were kept out a considerable time before they were allowed to resume duty. These were all, with one or two exceptions, brought back one at a time through the influence of public men. Mulholland and three other Manchester men were not given the chance to return until six weeks afterwards. During the time of his suspension it was made pretty plain to him that he might return whenever he chose, on certain conditions; but Mulholland resisted both blandishments and threats, and stuck to his guns unflinchingly during all the severe examinations through which he passed. The official desire was to obtain the books, documents, and papers in Mulholland’s possession, which related to the business and the working of the agitation. That desire of Mr. Scudamore was communicated to him through the Manchester officials.
The only reply sent in by the sturdy agitator was that the entire matter of his recent interview with the postmaster having been truthfully communicated by him to the rest of the suspended men, there was nothing to submit for Mr. Scudamore’s consideration but the grievances of the telegraph operators, which led to the formation of an association. While his fate was trembling in the balance, he still maintained, in the most respectful terms, however, that this combination of telegraphists meant nothing more than an endeavour to obtain, not only their fair and equitable demands, but the performance of promises given by Mr. Scudamore himself. Further, Mulholland vigorously maintained that only the absence of an association at the time of the transfer was responsible for their being neglected for so long by the State department. During the whole time that these overtures were being made by the Manchester officials desirous of obtaining possession of the papers which would implicate others, Mulholland never for a moment lost his self-respect, or was tempted to forget what was due to himself as an honest man. On his refusal to deliver up the coveted documents, the official whose duty it had been to negotiate the bargain of betrayal attempted to deny that he had“either insisted on it or made a condition of it.” Immediately following on this came a request for an explanation in writing as to why he should not be dismissed the service. The “explanation” was furnished promptly enough. But whether the official mind was ashamed to carry the matter so far, or the authorities felt bound to respect the honourable consistency of the man, Mulholland was not dismissed after all; at the end of six weeks’ suspension being quietly allowed to resume his place. The rest of the Manchester staff meanwhile, misled by the false and contradictory reports that the clerks in other towns were wavering or willingly returning to duty, gradually themselves resumed work.
While most of the men who comprised the committees in the various towns were still under suspension, a grand concert was organised at Liverpool on their behalf, and to help to defray the expenses that had been incurred. The concert took place at the Concert Hall, Lord Nelson Street, on December 22nd, 1871. It was highly successful; Mr. Osmond Tearle, the well-known actor, who in his earlier days had been a Liverpool telegraph clerk in the old “Magnetic Company,” rendering great assistance with his recitations of “Eugene Aram” and other pieces. A special prologue was spoken on this occasion, in which the following lines occurred:—
“But hold, enough about the little wireWhich carries all the tidings we require.’Tis of the workers we would speak to-night,Who, but for asking what was just and right,Are turned adrift to face the world anew;And first they seek their sympathy from you.Withhold it not in this their hour of need;And may to-night’s proceedings quickly leadTo well-paid work where energy and skillMay meet with justice, kindness, and goodwill.”
“But hold, enough about the little wireWhich carries all the tidings we require.’Tis of the workers we would speak to-night,Who, but for asking what was just and right,Are turned adrift to face the world anew;And first they seek their sympathy from you.Withhold it not in this their hour of need;And may to-night’s proceedings quickly leadTo well-paid work where energy and skillMay meet with justice, kindness, and goodwill.”
“But hold, enough about the little wireWhich carries all the tidings we require.’Tis of the workers we would speak to-night,Who, but for asking what was just and right,Are turned adrift to face the world anew;And first they seek their sympathy from you.Withhold it not in this their hour of need;And may to-night’s proceedings quickly leadTo well-paid work where energy and skillMay meet with justice, kindness, and goodwill.”
“But hold, enough about the little wire
Which carries all the tidings we require.
’Tis of the workers we would speak to-night,
Who, but for asking what was just and right,
Are turned adrift to face the world anew;
And first they seek their sympathy from you.
Withhold it not in this their hour of need;
And may to-night’s proceedings quickly lead
To well-paid work where energy and skill
May meet with justice, kindness, and goodwill.”
The suspended men on whose behalf the concert was held were Messrs. Norman, Ryan, Robinson, Nottingham, and others.
Within a fortnight after the collapse of the strike, the whole of the suspended men at Liverpool were reinstated. Themen of other affected towns were similarly recalled to duty, or induced to return by promises that the grievances of telegraphists generally should be immediately seen into. Thus terminated the brief but exciting strike period of 1871.
Ashden of Bradford, regarded as one of the principal ringleaders, being allowed to return, was after a while dismissed for “generally unsatisfactory conduct.” Few of those who had participated in the recent unfortunate attempt at a strike were allowed to remain at their own offices, for fear their influence might survive, and it was thought a very necessary precaution to transport them to other distant places. By this means they were well distributed about the country, as it was thought that a man finding himself among strangers would be less prone to give effect to his proclivity for agitation.
Judged on the surface, the strike was a complete failure; but its actual effect was a lesson both to the men and the authorities. It rudely awakened the department to the fact that some improvement was imperatively necessary; and at the same time it paved the way for a protective organisation on an improved and permanent basis.
There can be little doubt that these few days of excitement and agitation must have been very trying to one in the position of Mr. Frank Ives Scudamore. Though perhaps he had to take some share of the blame for making possible the strike, it must be said he acted with some tact, firmness, mud moderation in the handling of an extremely delicate as well as difficult problem which had thus suddenly confronted the department. But he might have averted it in the beginning by a little of the good judgment and moderation displayed towards the end. His warning circular issued to the strikers the day after they broke out of bounds, was almost as much an appeal as a command to the erring ones to return to the fold. He seems to have been a somewhat gentle nature whom circumstances eventually hardened into an indifferent diplomatist.
Then there was a breathing time for some months, and the men cautiously refrained from discussing and advertising their grievances too freely, but they were sustained by the hope, based on semi-official information, that some sort of remedial measure was being prepared by the department.
In August 1872 the hope was realised. A scheme of classification was introduced, and its reception was hailed with increased satisfaction when it was found that it dated back nearly a year, and covered the strike period. Under this scheme some few clerks received an immediate rise in wages, and considerable sums in back pay. That in itself was a most palatable sauce, and helped the digestion of the scheme very considerably for some. Whatever the intention of its authors, it proved to be not so fair as it appeared on the surface; and its application to practical uses proved its worthlessness in meeting all the demands of the telegraphists. With the monetary improvements, so far as the maximum was concerned, there was perhaps least to grumble at; but it left entirely untouched the other grievances which pressed so sorely upon them.
Perhaps the name of “Scudamore’s Folly,” by which it afterwards came to be distinguished, most aptly described it. The dissatisfaction which it so soon produced placed it almost beyond doubt that it was full of leakages. The higher rates of pay were regarded as so far beyond the immediate reach of the majority that the solatium of back money bestowed on the fortunate few was soon forgotten; it was found that the promised promotion speedily came to a standstill; and there obtained, generally, the same annoying and irritating conditions as prevailed before the strike. The evils which the Scudamore scheme was set to cure, were by its operation rather accentuated than mitigated. The telegraph staff, which then numbered 5233, were divided into numerous classes with absurdly low wages, and increments which were microscopic. The ultimate prospect of a decent living wage was so dim and distant that it was scarcely worth taking into account. By the scales of pay indicated in the scheme, a telegraphist had to creep up from a minimum of eight or ten shillings a week by annual increments of a shilling till he reached the halting-ground of twenty-one shillings a week. By the time he reached this guinea a week he was a full-grown man, ready in the natural course of things to become the head of a family in the full performance of his duties as a father and a citizen. Many of them then, needless to say, had so far tempted misfortune.And having arrived at the guinea a week, the lowness of their wage rendered them the ready slaves of the department at sixpence an hour for overtime. A period of sixteen years was allowed by the scheme for a man to reach the Elysium of the second class, which rose from £70 to £90 a year. For the sum of a guinea a week gratuitous Sunday labour was imposed, and for eighteen years was rigidly exacted because it was in the bond. When at last public opinion compelled the resumption of payment for Sunday work, the department with unconscious irony granted it as a “concession,” and afterwards pointed to it as a reason for continuing an inadequate scale of wages.
At the introduction of the scheme the London force consisted of 688 men and 1038 women. To seven-tenths of the male staff it gave an average mean wage of 23s. 5d. a week, and to the remaining three-tenths, 55s. 4d., or 32s. a week more than the others. The reason for such a striking difference on so trifling a wage-scale was not made public. The female section met with similar Shylock-like generosity. Eighty-one per cent got between 16s. and 17s. weekly, and the rest 31s. The actual scale in the Central Telegraph Office was:—
What has always been derisively referred to as “Scudamore’s Folly,” condemned the London telegraphist to a life of poverty; but it condemned his fellow in the provinces to something worse. The provincial male force numbered 3507, and out of this number the generous author of the scheme placed 213 male officers on fixed wages of 7s., 8s., and 10s. a week; while to 151 young men it gave 12s. a week, rising by annual increments of 6d. to 15s.—a state of things closely analogous to the disgraceful boy-sorter system in vogue on the postal side at the same period. The rest of the provincial male officers were divided into small groups, but it is sufficient to say that the greatest money-making department of the State had the effrontery to fix the average mean pay of 3012, or 88.4 percent. of the whole staff, at less than a guinea a week. Only 405 received the weekly wage of 50s.
By the great majority the “Scudamore Folly” was received with resentment; and it was not long before it produced a plentiful crop of petitions, protests, and appeals, which, however, were only received politely to be pigeon-holed indefinitely.
A Select Committee of the House of Commons sat in 1876, to inquire into the whole working of the telegraphs, and in their report to the House strongly recommended the desirability of training the operators in the scientific and technical knowledge of the complex and delicate apparatus by which they had to perform their official duties. This was expected to procure some further official acknowledgment of the value and importance of telegraph work. But the importance and signification of this recommendation does not appear to have struck the official mind till June 1880, when the Secretary notified that in future promotion would to a considerable extent be dependent on the acquisition of this technical knowledge. The invitation was responded to very largely in the hope that some benefit would accrue; but all the time energy and confidence were wasted completely.
Men had still to perform overtime at inadequate rates of pay to supplement their incomes, and they were still inordinately punished for comparatively trivial errors and shortcomings. Altogether the service, in spite of this Scudamore scheme, became so unpopular and so unbearable for a number that, according to a special Parliamentary return, no fewer than 2341 out of 6000 telegraph clerks left during a period of eight and a half years, a large number joining the cable companies, where they received better treatment and more encouragement. Certainly there must have been something radically wrong to account for this extraordinary exodus, and for the fact that public servants were driven wholesale to seek refuge with private employers.
Dissatisfaction became so rife that after about eight years, namely in November 1880, a fresh movement was set afoot. This time it was at Liverpool that the phœnix was to rise from its ashes.