SEVEN YEARS OF STAGNATION—THE POST-OFFICE AND GUTTER JOURNALISM—REVIVAL OF POSTAL JOURNALISM—A CHRISTMAS STRIKE AVERTED—FIRST GLIMPSE OF A NOTABLE AGITATOR—THE PETITION “THAT HELD THE FIELD.”
SEVEN YEARS OF STAGNATION—THE POST-OFFICE AND GUTTER JOURNALISM—REVIVAL OF POSTAL JOURNALISM—A CHRISTMAS STRIKE AVERTED—FIRST GLIMPSE OF A NOTABLE AGITATOR—THE PETITION “THAT HELD THE FIELD.”
As there was a long period of inactivity and stagnation between the period of the cruel dismissals in 1874 and the introduction of the Fawcett scheme, so among the letter-sorters there followed another such period after 1881. This time the period of stagnation lasted nearly seven years. During that seven years or more, the service had relapsed into much about the same condition as prevailed before Mr. Fawcett took office. But for the slightly better rate of pay, the increase on the maximum and an increased holiday for the senior men only, the state of things was little better, if any, than twenty years previous. The men had no organisation to safeguard their interests, and consequently were more or less at the mercy of minor officials who very often did not scruple to take advantage of their helpless condition. That the indoor staffs on the postal side of the service should have drifted into this, that their very lack of combination should have courted the over-zealous attentions of the minor authorities, is not to be wondered at. Still less is it to be wondered at that their interests were neglected; that privileges were lost sight of where they were not openly filched from them; and that sporadic and individual attempts to obtain redress remained unnoticed and went unheard.
The monotony of this period was occasionally broken only by the appearance of some criticism of Post-Office administration, or of the petty tyranny of the lower officials, appearing in one or two papers which pretended to have espoused thecause of the men. Two of these papers circulated principally in the gutter. One was the notoriousTown Talk, which from time to time printed several ably-written articles on Post-Office treatment of its employés. Had they appeared elsewhere than in its too-spicy pages, they might have commanded more attention and carried more conviction of their sincerity. Another was an appropriately-named print called theRag, sold at a halfpenny, and with which for the brief period of its existence there was associated a lately-resigned sorter, who, from a knowledge of his own cruel experiences in the General Post-Office, either wrote or inspired the bitter and vulgar paragraphs which, with pointed personality, were aimed for the most part at the minor supervisors, who were represented as acting the part of bullies and petty tyrants towards their helpless underlings. TheRagandTown Talk, however, came to an untimely end, and, so far as their peculiar advocacy of the postal cause went, perhaps it was as well. The Post-Office employés were in such an oppressed state that they were ready to welcome any criticism almost that was supposed to be aimed at their taskmasters. But though such criticisms were read with some amount of interest by many, they gratified very few, while with many they disgusted more than they interested.
There was also started soon afterwards another belonging to this class of ephemeral journalism, but of somewhat better tone and character, an East-End local organ calledToby, which, during 1886, dealt week after week with Post-Office abuses.Tobywas supposed to have some additional claim on the patronage of postal servants by its being edited by a man who had once been behind the scenes in the Post-Office. It enlivened its more or less pointed criticisms with rough caricatures of certain of the so-called petty tyrants who were supposed to float on human misery; but the simulated and insincere malice of the caricatures was, fortunately for the intended originals, almost completely lost in the quality of the art.Tobyfor a time flourished in the gutters of St. Martin’s-le-Grand, and sold in the streets about the City, but it was principally while the caricatures lasted to afford the amusement and excitement of guessing competitions among the sorters and letter-carriers of the General Post-Office. When the caricatures gave out,and there were no more guesses as to who was meant as the latest victim of the new Hogarth’s pencil, the star ofTobywaned in St. Martin’s-le-Grand.
Advocacy of this nature, such as it was, did no more than cause annoyance and irritation to those who found a ready means to visit reprisals on the men whom they might suspect of being the secret instigators of such insults, while among the men it only satisfied an idle curiosity. Yet the men undoubtedly would have welcomed some proper medium to ventilate their growing grievances. ThePostman, which had been started as the organ of a previous agitation, was long since defunct, and a copy of theBeehivewas now almost a relic of ancient history. It was in response to this growing necessity for discontent to once more find utterance that a new postal organ started. It was called thePostal and Telegraph Service Gazette, and was contributed to by both sides of the service. It was admirably edited, and from the pens of the ablest writers among the telegraphists and the postal force some stirring articles occasionally appeared. It afterwards became thePostal Service Gazette. These new ventures in postal journalism provided a healthy outlet for the pent-up discontent of years. The articles were generally ably written and forcible, but there was not too much personality allowed in the letters from correspondents with a grievance. These organs helped in no inconsiderable measure to shape the course of future events, and, while promoting a spirit of freedom among postal servants, gave it a healthy and manly tone.
Still, even with the help of these organs, there was not yet a properly-organised movement either among the letter-sorters or the letter-carriers. Their recovery from the unmerited onslaught of Lord John Manners, and the effacement of the memory of it, was slow.
But, as is inevitably the case in the same set of circumstances, the harvest was sowing: there was a repetition of the same grumblings, and all the elements of discontent were once more developing. Gradually the old impositions as regards compulsory extra duty were being introduced; the men’s time counted for little or nothing, and their convenience as little. The Fawcett scheme had laid it down expressly that ChristmasDay and Good Friday should be paid for as extra duty, but the whole recommendation, if not rendered nugatory altogether, was applied in a very unsatisfactory manner.
Christmas morning 1886 was nearly witnessing one of those disgraceful rushes for the doors which had taken place on several occasions some years previously. The sorting force had been on duty all through the preceding night, and a long time before many indeed had been working the round of the clock. The men were dead beat, and they had been promised their liberty at nine o’clock. Perhaps there would have been nothing very unreasonable in the request that they should work a few hours longer, had it not been that they had to be back again on duty in the afternoon. But they had experienced this kind of treatment too many times before; and when the clock struck the welcome hour of nine they left the sorting-tables and made to leave the office. Christmas extra duty at this time was looked on with aversion by the most of them, for, as an actual fact, the money they earned on that occasion, they knew, would not be paid them for three or four months to come. Every branch in the office, especially the Inland Letter Branch, was choked with work from floor to ceiling. But the men were eager to get home to snatch a few hours’ rest. Once more they found all the exits closed and bolted against them; and they stood about in sullen groups considering what was best to be done. Mr. Jeffery, the then Controller, who had a reputation for great kindliness and consideration, came on the scene and appealed to the men to clear up the duty. He asked them why they refused to work when the department was willing to pay them so well. There was no response for a few moments, when a youngster named Groves up and spoke to the great man, and told him that it was because they had to wait so long for the money; and pointed out that the Christmas extra-duty money the previous year was not paid till the middle of the following summer; and offered an assurance that if the money were quickly paid the men would doubtless be willing to stop. The Controller, it appeared, had not been aware of this senselessly-unfair cause of delay.
He readily gave his promise that if the correspondence wereall cleared up before the morning was over, he would see that the money should be paid as speedily as possible, and that a special staff of men would be employed to get the account out. There was a cheer, and every one started work. The extra-duty money was paid within a fortnight, and was afterwards paid as quickly.
It was such petty annoyances and such instances of neglect as these, so long continued, that at last began to awaken the men to a fuller sense of their grievances, and which once more fostered the desire for combination amongst them. In addition to this, too, the idea was gaining ground that they were being systematically cheated out of benefits which the Fawcett scheme entitled them to. Now that he was dead, Mr. Fawcett was more than ever regarded as the postal Moses, and they looked for a clearer interpretation of the tablets of the law which he had left behind to help to build his monument.
The new desire for combination at first only asserted itself in a somewhat feeble manner when it became known that a Royal Commission on Civil Establishments would be likely to look in at the doors of the Post-Office. It was then for the first time after so long that a few of the more venturesome banded themselves together for the purpose of collecting and tabulating suitable evidence on postal grievances generally, and for working up the interest of the men affected. Of this little committee J. H. Williams was chairman, and W. E. Clery was secretary. These two sorters, the latter especially, were destined to play a more important part in agitation later on.
The Commission on Civil Establishments had been moved for and obtained by Lord Randolph Churchill, and it was confidently expected that it would take evidence from the Post-Office employés. An invitation had appeared in a Post-Office Circular of December 1886 for postal servants to prepare evidence, if any, to lay before the Royal Commission. Consequently there were several meetings held, and representatives of almost every branch of the service on the postal side were present at these meetings, comprising sorters, letter-carriers, porters, bagmen, and even clerks and members of the major establishment, who were as anxious to make their case heard. A stupendous amount of evidence was thus gottogether and properly prepared. But though an enormous amount of labour was thus expended on the accumulated grievances of so many years, it was all love’s labour lost, and never got beyond this stage. They sustained another disappointment, added to so many others, and learnt that the promised Royal Commission was not intended to come their way, but had concluded its labours. There was nothing left but for the postal committee to disband likewise, which they did with feelings of disappointment, which went to feed still further the smouldering discontent among the men. They felt they had been deliberately fooled by the department in being thus invited to prepare evidence which was to be wasted. Yet it was far from wasted, and the lesson had a real educational value, and one which was to bear fruit a little later on. The little experience, though fraught with disappointment, had none the less taught them the better to prepare their weapons for a future occasion.
At this time, if anything there was more real discontent among the juniors of the sorting staff than among the seniors. The greatest dissatisfaction prevailed among them mainly owing to the lack of promotion, for the sorting force being divided into two classes, first and second, the juniors had to remain at a certain barrier until a vacancy occurred in the class above them. They virtually had little but the hope of waiting for dead men’s shoes. This system of promotion was becoming utterly discredited, owing to the fact that while the juniors’ class was practically unlimited in number, that of the seniors was limited, and by no means in fair proportion. The average of deaths and pensions among their elders afforded a prospect only to the merest section of their number. It was maintained by them that the only fair remedy was the substitution of promotion by service, and not by death or pension. Five years, it was urged, was a fair period of service to entitle them to promotion to the class above them, and a movement was soon on foot to submit their proposal to the Postmaster-General. They were the young bloods of the service, and new blood had brought new courage and new vigour. Their case, carefully prepared, had been awaiting the arrival of the expected Royal Commission which never came. They in consequenceresolved—or rather the youth who led them did, the same W. E. Clery who had acted as secretary of the late abortive Royal Commission movement—to effect what they could in amelioration of their position by using the readiest means to hand. Mr. Raikes was now Postmaster-General, and from all that had reached them of his justice and impartiality, they were inspired with a desire to go forward. It was thought that from every point of view this resolve was a wise one, as should another Royal Commission after all be ready to accept their evidence, and it was learnt that they had failed to petition the Postmaster-General, it might be urged that the hardship of a lack of promotion was one specially manufactured to suit the occasion, since nothing had before been heard of it. So there was a preliminary meeting of the juniors held in the largest refreshment-room of the General Post-Office, and a bigger meeting was held in the same place a few days later, when a draft of the proposed petition was read and discussed. In the following month, September 1887, the second-class men’s petition was forwarded. This petition, to the Postmaster-General direct, was memorable if only from the fact that it was the first petition worth speaking of, the outcome of a general meeting, which had been forwarded to the public head of the department since the day when Lord John Manners dismissed five and punished over a hundred of others practically for the same thing. The petition forwarded on the present occasion expressed in no unmistakable language that the men were unqualifiedly dissatisfied with the system of promotion by vacancy made by pension or death in the ranks of their seniors, and pointed out that, young men as the petitioners were, yet the most of them would be superannuated before their turn for promotion came. It was conveyed to the Postmaster-General for the first time by means of this memorial that the provisions of the Fawcett scheme had not been fully given effect to. Now, one of the most marked features of the 1881 scheme was that the remuneration of postal employés should be “based upon the intelligible principle of paying for work solely according to its quality.” It was urged therefore by these juniors, who so commonly were put to perform higher-class duties for their scanty wage,that their responsibilities should be recognised on the principle laid down by Mr. Fawcett. The petition concluded with a respectful request that, if the Postmaster-General required a further explanation on any particular point, he would receive a deputation of their body. There were two months of silence and waiting. Then in January 1888 permission was obtained to hold another meeting in the refreshment-room, the meeting being called by the youth Clery to consider what further steps should be taken to obtain an answer.
Clery had by this time practically assumed the leadership of the young men’s movement, and though but a mere stripling, displayed from the first, in a very marked degree, qualities of leadership far beyond his years. He was a tall, pale-faced youth, with a rapidity and a fluency of utterance, tipped with a musical brogue, that at once betrayed his Hibernian nationality; a decisiveness of thought and action, united to a method of close reasoning, that at once charmed, convinced, and astonished. He was just the spirit and the calibre to set down in the midst of a few hundred young fellows sore about their unredressed grievances, and he obtained their confidence without asking for it.
It was resolved at this meeting that a deputation should wait upon the Permanent Secretary, Sir Arthur Blackwood; but in answer to their request for an interview it was curtly intimated to them that their memorial had been duly considered by the Postmaster-General, that he could not comply with their request, nor did he see any good in granting the interview asked for. By some means Clery got the answer so as to keep it to himself till the last moment, but by it he was decided to call another general meeting that same evening. There were such whisperings and a pretence at mystery on Clery’s part that expectation was roused to the highest pitch, and a few minutes after eight o’clock the meeting-room was crammed almost to suffocation. Not since the days of the movement twelve or fourteen years before had such enthusiasm prevailed among a meeting assembled within the precincts of the General Post-Office. The silence of fourteen years was broken, and, like the cheers of a beleaguered garrison who see the relief expedition within sight, the shouts of the crowdedmeeting testified to the new hope that had been aroused by the announcement that their petition “held the field.” The convener and chairman of the meeting, Clery, had in his discursive and picturesque fashion gone over every single point of the petition which had been forwarded, and at last, after a rhetorical pause, he announced that he had received a reply which justified him making the declaration that the “petition held the field.” This phrase became memorable to some extent from that moment because of the electrical effect and the enormous enthusiasm it momentarily produced. But it amounted to nothing more than a subtle trick of rhetoric on the part of the speaker, the success of which was not wholly effaced even by the subsequent disappointment when they learnt that the Postmaster-General had met their demands with an unequivocal refusal on every point. Their petition held the field only in so far as that not a single reason had been advanced against it. The feeling of mingled anger and disappointment which had taken possession of the meeting immediately after Clery’s announcement was quickly turned to one of determination to press their claims still further despite the official rebuff. Another petition was forthwith prepared asking for a reconsideration of the various points, but this met with no better fate.
The guns of the second-class movement were thus silenced, and as a sectional agitation the movement itself soon afterwards fell through. But it was not to die in the ordinary sense that sectional movements usually do die. It simply transferred its energies and its resources into a wider field. The conviction had been growing among all grades of the sorting force that they all had grievances in common, and the one that demanded their united action was the manner in which certain benefits of the Fawcett scheme had been persistently withheld. It was therefore decided to combine forces and unite in common action, the juniors and the seniors alike in one camp. This wider fraternal feeling between the first and the second class of sorters was principally brought about by the discovery by Williams—a sorter who had diligently been investigating the matter—of a copy of the full and original text of the much-disputed scheme itself. It seemed to have escapedobservation that the text of this document had been printed in the public press at the time of its introduction, and that it had also been printed as a Parliamentary paper, which might have been procured in the ordinary way with very little trouble had they only thought of it. It is, however, a somewhat curious fact to be remembered that for some reason or other it was thought printed Parliamentary and official papers relating to the Post-Office were unobtainable, and that postal officials, to get a glimpse of them at all, must do so secretly and surreptitiously. There was a feeling that one might only purchase them by proxy, while they waited out of sight with fear and trembling lest their criminal intention should be suspected by some prowling Post-Office spy dogging their footsteps. This was the kind of feeling which indeed had governed most of the actions of postal servants for the previous ten years or so, and doubtless this timid reluctance to be seen reading or seeking to obtain printed official documents by the light of day was a survival and a result of the long serfdom to which they had been reduced.
Yet like most dangers this was more shadowy than real, and there was no reason why a man should not, if he were so minded, have ordered this particular Parliamentary paper through his newsagent, or gone boldly to the counter of the Government printers and, putting down his few pence, demanded to be served with a copy. Furthermore, there was perhaps as little reason why a postal servant should not be seen openly reading such a document within the precincts of the Post-Office itself. He might have cheaply gained a character for boldness had he but known it. But Williams, who first set himself to bring the mysterious document to light, though he shared the original belief about the exclusiveness of this particular class of literature, was made of different stuff, and entered on his quest like one equipped for an expedition into unknown regions. Probably he was disappointed that he met with so few difficulties. The simple purpose was invested with a dramatic interest from the start.
Williams, though he was not weak enough to lose the opportunity for surrounding his exploit with the necessary amount of mystery to enable him to pose as the one manon earth to whom the gods had been kind in vouchsafing him the ownership of the sacred screed, yet, nevertheless, if the truth has to be told, came into its possession in the most ordinary prosaic fashion. But the moral courage of him who was thus determined to brave the unknown terrors of publishers’ rebuffs and awkward official inquiries was none the less real, nor was the document itself when so cheaply obtained any the less valuable.
Williams was undoubtedly a man of grit, of indomitable perseverance, combining the qualities of an attorney with the cold-blooded zeal and high-minded courage of a Puritan of old. The suggestion of the Puritan in his manner was accentuated by a tantalising slowness of utterance even in the moments of highest expectancy, and when his audience felt and knew he had something rich to offer them.
Williams the original discoverer, and the chosen few whom he took into his confidence, hugged their precious document close for a considerable time, withdrawing themselves now and again to little out-of-the-way and unguessed-at meeting-places to distil from it the honey drops which they judiciously from time to time sprinkled among the thirsty multitude of their followers.
It was the knowledge of this discovery and that new leaders had been born to them that tended to erase the class differences between the senior and the junior men, uniting them once and for all in a common purpose and under one standard. This was brought to a culmination on April 18, 1889, when, for the first time since the memorable meeting called by Booth, a former agitator, a huge gathering of postal servants of every grade and class met in one of the disused rooms of the Parcel Depot of St. Martin’s-le-Grand. There had been other meetings within the building, but not till now had every class and every branch been represented on the platform and among those in front. The occasion was noteworthy as being the first after so many years on which the classes had met to unite on a common basis, and as therefore being representative of the entire postal staff of the Chief Office. The previous meeting in the refreshment bar had whetted the appetite of the younger men, and a new couragepermeated all ranks; for they discerned the dawn of a new era. The two principal leaders and expounders of their discontent were already become as apostles of right and truth. It was Clery for the younger, the more ambitious and the more spirited among the sorting force; it was Williams for the elder, the plodding, the painstaking, the cautious. It was Clery for the dashing, audacious manœuvre; it was Williams for the certain, slow, and sure.
Williams was voted into the chair by acclamation, and from that moment wore the epaulettes of an officer and a recognised leader. The Fawcett scheme of 1881 was henceforth to be accepted as their banner, their charter, and their palladium; and with that in their midst they determined to march to victory, and wherever their leaders should direct. Williams, in his careful, painstaking, lawyer-like manner, expounded the scheme they had met to discuss, and showed to their entire satisfaction that the recommendations of the late Mr. Fawcett had not been applied to them; and that certain things mentioned in the bond having so long been withheld from them, it was their duty to themselves and those coming after them in the service to see that they got all that they were thereby entitled to. There was the tremendous enthusiasm usual with those newly awakened to a sense of their long-suffering, and the realisation of things they were yet entitled to have and to hold. There was much determination expressed, but as yet no plan to proceed upon. It was a great meeting, a splendid cohesion of kindred particles too long held asunder, but as yet there was no proposition before them. Then it was that young Clery stepped into the breach, and proposed the heroic method of ignoring the postal officials by addressing a protest to Parliament, or lying right away to the Lords of the Treasury. After their experience with the Postmaster-General, Mr. Raikes, petitions and protests addressed to him were regarded as having no more effect than paper-pellets. If ever a Postmaster-General came in for a rough handling in his own household, Mr. Raikes did on this occasion. The meeting eventually decided on petitioning the Controller of the London postal service for the full benefits of the Fawcett scheme, and pledged itself to forward a similar petition to the Lords of the Treasuryin the event of meeting with unfavourable replies from the Controller and Postmaster-General. Probably no one candidly believed that such a petition would have any more effect than former paper-pellets of similar nature; but it was very necessary as a preliminary stage in the opening of the campaign. A committee, selected from eager candidates, was formed therefore to draw up the terms of a joint petition. The proposal had been much too modest for Clery, who vigorously recommended taking higher ground, and dealing with Parliament direct; but he was now induced to consent to become one of the number henceforth to be known as the Fawcett Scheme Committee. The sorting force as a body had thrown in its lot together; there was to be no more class distinction, the whole contained the lesser; there were to be no more petty rivalries, no more internecine, branch, or sectional differences—not until next time. They were confident they had touched solid ground at last. If this their last appeal to Cæsar proved of no avail, then they would appeal beyond Cæsar, to the Treasury and the public.