CONTINUANCE OF TELEGRAPHISTS’ AGITATION—NATURE OF GRIEVANCES—“TELEGRAPHISTS’ CRAMP”—AN OUTCOME OF THE SUNDAY QUESTION—THE CARDIFF EXILES—CONDEMNATION OF POSTMASTER-GENERAL—THE “NO OVERTIME” PROTEST.
CONTINUANCE OF TELEGRAPHISTS’ AGITATION—NATURE OF GRIEVANCES—“TELEGRAPHISTS’ CRAMP”—AN OUTCOME OF THE SUNDAY QUESTION—THE CARDIFF EXILES—CONDEMNATION OF POSTMASTER-GENERAL—THE “NO OVERTIME” PROTEST.
For several years after the introduction of the Fawcett scheme in 1881, the telegraph service had remained in a state of sullen discontent. The formation of the Postal Telegraph Clerks’ Association in the December of the same year in which Mr. Fawcett introduced his measure, did much to keep alive, for the next ten years, the memory of their wrongs. The grievances of the telegraph clerks, notwithstanding Mr. Fawcett’s intention, were still so numerous and so genuine, that on the face of it it seemed questionable whether it had brought them any benefit worth speaking of at all. The same measure of relief which the sorters were clamouring for and agitating because, as they thought, it was being withheld from them, was, from its very inadequacy to meet the justice of their demands, the main cause of discontent among the telegraphists. What the sorters thought it would be a boon to get in its entirety, the telegraphists were now discontented with; and not only were they discontented with the scheme itself for the reasons already shown, but that discontent was still further promoted by the systematic manner in which its few benefits were minimised in their application. The majority of telegraphists were still compelled to bolster up their meagre incomes by means of extra duty, and they were still, after all their agitation, face to face with the hated system of classification and all its attendant evils, irregularity and stagnation ofpromotion. Since the introduction of the Fawcett scheme the quality and value of their work had greatly improved, while their duties had become yearly more arduous and responsible. Their hours of duty were longer and far more irregular, the pay was insufficient, and daily growing more so when the cost of living and rent was considered, and their privileges were fewer than ever. The few prizes offered by the Fawcett scheme, the few higher promotions from their ranks to the supervising and superintending staff, brought no comfort or satisfaction to the hungry and underpaid army of the lower ranks. Even the overtime, the one means by which they could set up a barrier between themselves and actual want, which, indeed, they were forced to accept to preserve their respectability, was badly paid for and unjustly distributed. Owing to the constant fluctuation in the amount of work, the telegraphists were frequently required to perform overtime at a minute’s notice at almost all hours of the day and night. Overtime became morally and officially compulsory, and it was only by means of it that they could earn a respectable income. In the same manner that the postmen’s Christmas-boxes were used against them as a means of keeping down their wages, so was compulsory overtime, paid for at slender rates, forced on the telegraphists in extension of their nominal eight hours’ day. The confining of a day’s work to eight hours, even had it been allowable, would for the vast majority have spelt privation and poverty. So that a decent week’s earnings, representing what is now known and accepted as a decent living wage, meant for the telegraphist, not the working week of eight hours’ days, but a week of twelve, fourteen, and more hours daily. The extensive and increasing use of code and cipher messages requiring the most delicate discrimination in transmission, the many added responsibilities, the strain on the mental faculties and nervous system continued and sustained during these long working hours, caused in many cases premature breakdown and too early superannuation. An analysis of the superannuation report for 1885-86 showed that of the total number of telegraph clerks pensioned during that period no less than fifty per cent. were compelled to retire at acomparatively early age, owing to affections of the brain and nervous system induced by the constant strain. These facts alone were sufficient to notify the existence of discontent among them. But there were other grievances too numerous to be catalogued, generally speaking, although Mr. Fawcett had enunciated the principle of payment for work according to its quality. The adoption of the Fawcett scheme was made the medium for greatly adding to the responsibilities of juniors, while imposing on the seniors supervising duties hitherto paid for at a higher rate. They felt that the value and quality of their work was far from accurately measured by the department. Whether their work consisted of transmitting ordinary messages in the ordinary manner, or the selected duties appertaining to special events, such as race meetings, political speeches, &c., in which rapid and accurate manipulation was essential, they were all too poorly recompensed and too little regarded.
These things are mentioned to show that it was not merely a love of agitation for itself that animated the telegraphists at this period. To fully recount their grievances, it would be necessary to go into a mass of technical detail that would only confuse, and no better convince than the few general facts recorded. Added to all this, there was much dissatisfaction regarding the holiday question. The annual leave was distributed throughout the year, so that many went for years without a summer holiday, while for the loss of Bank holidays there was no equivalent given. Then, again, the conditions and environments of their work were not everything to be desired. There was, too, such a thing as “telegraphists’ cramp,” analogous to writers’ cramp, which the growing pressure of telegraph work had introduced among the operators. True, it was not of very frequent occurrence, but it was something to be reckoned with, and no man knew when his turn might come. Telegraphists’ cramp, it appears, is a nerve-wringing, brain-torturing malady, varying in degree of intensity. In one individual it may be confined to simply the nervous inability to signal particular letters, in itself a fatal defect in a telegraphist. Whatever be the pathological explanation of this very curious nervous phenomenon, it undoubtedly affectstelegraphists more or less, and is something to be feared, more particularly in its ultimate results. It is a malady of such a peculiar nature that those to the eye physically able yet may be absolute wrecks as regards their nerves and the operation of signalling particular things.
Such, then, were the grievances under which the telegraphists laboured between 1881 and 1890. During the interval of that eight or nine years there was, of course, a plethora of petitions and applications for interviews; there were public meetings, a few suspensions here and there, inflammatory speeches, annual conferences, and more or less sympathetic notices in the press of their doings. But there was nothing actually achieved by the agitation so far. Some splendid individual efforts were made, however, meanwhile; and the names of Hughes, most prominent during 1884, North, Norman, and others, will long be remembered as men who fearlessly led the van when it was a perilous and delicate task to do so. The individual efforts of these men did much to secure the co-operation of Parliamentary friends and public men, and among those whose services were so secured may be mentioned Sir John Puleston, Mr. Henry Broadhurst, and Mr. Charles Bradlaugh. Mr. Charles Bradlaugh, it will be remembered, did much to promote the earlier postal agitation of 1872-74, and he once more came on the scene to help the telegraphists as he had helped the letter-carriers. He later identified himself particularly with the question of payment for Sunday labour for telegraphists. It was left to Mr. Charles Bradlaugh in the House to take the ballot for a direct motion, and it is not too much to say that it was owing to the number of promises procured by him to vote for this special motion that it was prevented from becoming a very close one. He procured the promises of many Conservatives as well as the bulk of the Liberal party. The Postmaster-General, after first previously declining to grant this Sunday concession, as the result gave in, and the victory of this question was complete. Altogether too much gratitude cannot be given to Mr. Bradlaugh for the manner in which he generally worked for the telegraphists at this time.
There was a deal of work, a laying-in of stores and ammunitionfor future use, a deal of speech-making, letter-writing to M.P.’s, and a general tightening-up of the telegraphists’ forces. But there was no immediate and actual benefit secured, and nothing of an exciting nature worthy of being recorded as an event till 1889-90. The telegraph staff, in common with the rest of Government servants, had been cajoled into the belief that the Royal Commission on Civil Establishments would come to afford them some relief, or at least listen to their plaint. Much of the work in which they had latterly been engaged was occupied in the preparation of evidence for this expected inquiry. The disappointment that ensued only gave a stronger impetus to the agitation, and from theorising and pursuing debating-society methods they adopted a firmer and more aggressive attitude. As with the letter-sorters, they found that the evidence they had prepared and the weight of facts they had accumulated, so far from being waste material and a deadweight, came in very useful now for powder and shot with which to enforce their demands.
What was regarded as an unduly harsh interference with the right of combination at Cardiff some little time afterwards, tended very considerably to arouse the fighting spirit in them, and to bring things to the climax of an open struggle. It was only necessary at this juncture to give the telegraphists a few martyrs to emphasise their grievances, and arouse them to action.
In the August of 1889 a disgraceful state of affairs appears to have existed at Cardiff, telegrams being frequently seriously delayed owing to want of sufficient staff. A paragraph appeared in a local paper, theWestern Mail, complaining of the delay. On this editorial peg, numerous articles, leaders, and letters were hung, till the whole correspondence assumed voluminous proportions. The Cardiff telegraphists, from this realising a sense of their injustice, commenced agitating by meeting and petitions. They complained of the undermanning of the staff and consequent overworking; the insanitary condition of the office itself; the fact that Cardiff was one of the worst classified offices in the kingdom; that supervisors had to perform instrument work to the neglect of their proper duties; that they were punished for errors unavoidably due to lack ofsupervision; favouritism, non-payment of Sunday duty, and sundry minor grievances. In consequence of representations made by Sir John Reed, M.P., a revision took place, and most of the cause of complaint was removed. So far, so good. But a sequel was to come. In the following November, the Postmaster-General, Mr. Raikes, was announced to attend a Church Congress in the neighbourhood, and he telegraphed to a certain colonel at Llandaff, stating his intention to arrive at a certain time. Through the medium of the acting postmaster, so it was alleged, this piece of news found its way into theSouth Wales Daily News. The Postmaster-General on learning this took a very severe view of the case, and in consequence the official was compelled to retire from the service. While the Postmaster-General was in the Principality a number of the Cardiff staff requested him to receive an interview on the vexed question of Sunday work at that office. This resolve was communicated to several provincial offices, and the result was that some thirty telegrams were received, asking him to receive the deputation on the general question. The Postmaster-General promised the Cardiff staff that he would consider. Mr. Raikes, however, left the town early next morning, and the Cardiff men were left disappointed. Further, the various provincial offices, which had sent the telegrams in all good faith, were soon afterwards called on to apologise for their conduct. Appointments becoming due at the Cardiff office, eight of the men eligible were informed by the surveyor that they would receive the higher appointments only on the condition that they proved that they did not write the paragraph which had appeared in theWestern Mail, complaining of the delay of telegrams. Failing this negative proof of their innocence, or their inability to name the person who made public what was now held to be a secret communication, the promotions would be withheld, and they would be transported. As this punishment of transportation to other distant towns where they were strangers meant the breaking-up of their homes, and the severance of family ties and friendly relationships, the telegraphists concerned felt they were the victims of injustice. They were informed that the transference would be made within eight hours; and in thisshort time were compelled to make what arrangement they could for the future, not even knowing to what distant part of the kingdom they would be severally deported. They, against whom nothing more than a suspicion rested of having communicated an innocent item of news, were actually transferred, with little time for leave-taking, next day. They were sent away to various offices. On the night that the first two were ordered away the staff held an impromptu meeting, and the places of the eight men who formed the secretaries and committee of the local branch of the association were filled up. But these officers were also, as soon as it was known, promptly given orders to hold themselves in readiness for transference. It has to be noted here, that Sunday pay was at the time an important item in the general programme, and these men at Cardiff had prepared to urge it strongly; for it was not till some months later that, through the instrumentality of Mr. Bradlaugh in the House of Commons, the question was settled in their favour.
The despotic treatment meted out to the Cardiff men induced Sir E. J. Reed, M.P., to take up their case in real earnest. For the supposed dereliction of duty they were to be penalised by the loss of a £25 increment, besides being packed off to unknown regions within a few hours. Besides Sir E. J. Reed, other influential public men took the matter up, and the case of the Cardiff “exiles” commanded some attention in the House. But the Postmaster-General was not to be moved by any argument, and contended that it was not intended as punishment, and was ultimately for the men’s own good. Yet while it had been stated that the men were transferred for no other reason than that of communicating this piece of information to the local paper, the First Lord of the Treasury, in reply to Mr. Hanbury in June 1888, distinctly stated that such communications could not be considered as an offence against departmental regulations. So that if Mr. Raikes’s treatment was not arbitrary, it was inconsistent. It was doubly inconsistent, seeing that a higher postal official, and not a telegraphist in the first instance, had been accused and made to leave the service for this so-called offence.
The case of the Cardiff “martyrs,” as they were called, produceda very strong feeling against the Postmaster-General amongst the telegraphists; and principally because of this they could not be induced to share that good opinion held of him by the sorters. And in truth it must be said that the Postmaster-General’s conduct towards both the letter-carriers and the telegraphists at this period contrasted somewhat strangely with the leniency and indulgence shown towards the sorting staff, and the facilities offered the latter for promoting a constitutional agitation. Certainly the sorters’ agitation was conducted with great caution and very little heat, while it has to be allowed that, however Mr. Raikes may have been convinced of the existence of grievances generally throughout the service, the over-zeal of the letter-carriers, and the importunities of the telegraphists in some quarters, may have caused him to draw invidious distinctions.
All the evidence and all the circumstances of the Cardiff case tend to show that Mr. Raikes, by some unaccountable means, was induced to commit an unworthy blunder, which helped to render him extremely unpopular with the telegraph service. The ebullition of feeling, openly and widely expressed by public meeting everywhere among the London and provincial telegraphists, and sympathetically reported by the press, so far convinced Mr. Raikes that he had made a mistake, that he afterwards modified his charge against the Cardiff men. This incident, in conjunction with other things, helped very considerably to tighten the sinews of the organisation. And in the meantime, while indignation at the inquisitorial treatment of their Cardiff brethren was at its height, the London telegraphists, who hitherto had been but loosely hanging on to the skirts of the Postal Telegraph Clerks’ Association, closed up their ranks, and on December 17, 1889, went over in a solid and enthusiastic body. Great was the rejoicing when the London men definitely joined hands with the provinces. The accession of 7500 Metropolitan men was certainly something to be jubilant over.
With the fresh reinforcements everywhere, the tide of indignation and dissatisfaction spread over the United Kingdom. For two months nearly, each day saw some expression of the feeling which had taken possession of the telegraph service,and some of the papers discerned all the preparations for an early strike among telegraphists everywhere. It became not a question of Cardiff particularly, but one in which the whole telegraph service was involved and identified with. From Land’s End to John o’ Groats there was an eruptive unrest; and the whole press of the country—Liberal and Tory, Radical and Independent—was kept busy in recording the utterances and commenting on the doings of telegraphists in meeting assembled everywhere. The Postmaster-General was inundated with a steady flow of petitions from every quarter; and besides being heckled from within the service and without, in the press and on the platform, Mr. Raikes experienced a very lively time of it in the House of Commons. There can be little doubt that during this busy and exciting period, with newspaper censure hurled at him from everywhere, and threats and prognostications of direful postal strikes filling the air, the Postmaster-General must have been far more severely punished than the victims of his mistake, the martyrs of Cardiff. This kind of thing lasted unceasingly till April 15, 1890, when the whole question of telegraphists’ grievances was ventilated in the House of Commons by Earl Compton. Earl Compton minutely traversed the ground of their grievances, and was ably supported; but Mr. Raikes defended his administration to the satisfaction of the House, and the motion was in due course lost by thirty-nine votes.
But although the telegraphists’ case was defeated, it was manifest that the matter could not long rest where it was. The feeling by this time was too strained and too acute to be allayed by an official refusal. All the dormant energies of the telegraphists were put forth, and grievances which had remained quiescent and unexpressed for years now loudly demanded redress and readjustment.
Immediately after the defeat of Earl Compton’s motion in the House, Mr. Raikes promulgated a new order restricting the right of public meeting outside the Post-Office. The acute stage at which the telegraphists’ agitation had now arrived was contemporaneous with the trouble among the postmen. The growing aggressiveness of the two postal bodies, the telegraphists and the postmen, and the free usethey were making of public meeting, induced the Postmaster-General to restrict their freedom in this respect by reviving Lord Stanley’s order of 1866. What, however, was a restriction in the case of the telegraphists was a distinct concession to the postal branches of the service, and the sorters especially, who had hitherto been compelled to meet inside Post-Office buildings, greatly appreciated the wider liberty. What in the circumstances was regarded by the sorters as a boon and a concession was, after the wider liberty enjoyed by the telegraphists, regarded by them as a direct attempt on personal rights, and the introduction of terrorism and espionage. And after the assertion of the right of outside public meeting by the postmen, this view was fully shared by them. Indeed, it was the introduction of this restrictive rule that afforded a further excuse for the Postmen’s Union resorting to extreme methods. In so regarding it, the postmen and the telegraphists were at the time greatly upheld by the press, and the Postmaster-General was subjected to a deal of sharp criticism for his action.
The question of free public meeting for all postal employés, and other matters arising out of the new Post-Office order, so strenuously objected to by the telegraphists, were brought under the notice of the House of Commons on April 24, 1890, Mr. Pickersgill, himself an old postal servant, and other members, strongly urging on the Postmaster-General the desirability of modifying the regulation. Mr. Raikes, however, was firm in his attitude, and maintained that the new order was really to relax the stringency of a rule which for nearly a quarter of a century was absolutely prohibitory in its effect.
The day following this discussion in the House, April 25, a deputation of telegraphists waited on the Postmaster-General to urge that he would not only modify the rule as to public meeting, but also that he would give immediate attention to the many grievances of which they complained, and on which they were agitating. Mr. Raikes promised he would refer the whole question of their grievances to the Departmental Committee then sitting for the purpose of assisting him to come to a decision. The telegraphists had therefore to accept his word for it that their case should receive attention in good time.
But meetings still continued to be held in different parts in spite of the presence of the official reporter. His presence was objected to at Leicester in a characteristic manner by the suppression of the names of the speakers, so that Mr. Raikes might know all that was said of him, but not the identity of the speakers. The new regulation became so notorious throughout the country that, in one instance at least, the police authorities in Bucks actually became imbued with the idea that these gatherings were of the nature of proclaimed meetings, as in Ireland under the Coercion Act, and thought it part of their duty to keep a watchful eye on all such meetings of telegraphists. Such was a case specially referred to in the House of Commons by Mr. Bradlaugh in a question put May 20.
The question of compulsory overtime was soon afterwards forced to the front by an admission made by Mr. Raikes in the House, June 12, in answer to Earl Compton, that officers of the telegraph department were not compelled against their will, but were asked to volunteer for overtime. For some time after that the telegraph clerks in London and Dublin decided to take their stand on that admission, but the evil still continued with irritating regularity. Numerous were the published contradictions to the Postmaster—General’s statement in the House, and the press with striking unanimity, excepting theTimes, which consistently stood by Mr. Raikes throughout, strongly denounced the system of enforced overtime and Mr. Raikes’s incorrect denial of its existence. After the authoritative declaration from the official head the “no overtime” movement was taken up enthusiastically among the men, and spread rapidly, not only in London, but throughout the leading provincial offices. At the Central Office in London about 90 per cent. of the male staff pledged themselves to decline to work overtime, and it was decided to put this pledge into force on a certain date unless the Postmaster-General meanwhile announced some measure of relief for their various grievances. It was alleged that the total number of overtime hours worked in the Central Telegraph Office alone reached the enormous weekly total of from ten to twelve thousand, or 30 per cent. on the day’s ordinary work, so that thesudden withdrawal of this amount of work would have meant a serious public inconvenience.
In connection with this attitude a somewhat curious and sensational method of protest was used by the telegraphists on the occasion of the Post-Office Jubilee. Arrangements were made by the authorities that, at a signal sent by the Duchess of Edinburgh from the Jubilee conversazione at South Kensington, the whole of the postal and telegraph service on duty at the moment should burst forth into simultaneous cheering for the Queen. The intended pleasing tribute of loyalty was, however, spoilt in a manner that made Mr. Raikes exceedingly indignant with the telegraphists especially. At ten o’clock, the precise moment having arrived, some four hundred telegraphists being assembled in the central galleries at the Chief Office, the superintendent called for three cheers for the Queen. But silence was steadfastly maintained for some moments, and then with one accord, instead of the cheers expectantly waited for by royal ears at the other end of the telephones, the clerks, to show their resentment, burst out into a deep groan. Three cheers for Mr. Raikes were then asked for, but this was met with a volume of groans deeper than before. The telegraphists, who were afterwards officially interrogated as to the meaning of the demonstration, strongly repudiated any intention of disloyalty or disrespect towards her Majesty the Queen, and explained that the demonstration was spontaneously made as a protest against the manner in which their repeated petitions for redress of grievances had been treated by the higher officials surrounding Mr. Raikes. Their explanation was not deemed satisfactory; there was much writing and further questioning over the incident. A number of representatives were asked to wholly dissociate themselves from what took place, and were called on to sign a paper to that effect. The matter was discussed, and the official memorandum was rejected by eight to three. The names of the eight clerks who voted against the suggestion were asked for, but they unanimously declined to give the required information. The official memorandum of dissociation was circulated and a number of signatures obtained, chiefly from female telegraphists, but the large majority of the staff declined to sign the document.
The incident was reported in most of the papers, but while it showed the telegraphists in no very creditable light on this occasion, it none the less served as a big advertisement and had the effect of turning closer attention to the nature and extent of their grievances. The telegraphists were not applauded for their action, but the Postmaster-General was in some quarters mercilessly taken to task for what seemed like giving countenance to a silly piece of snobbery on the part of toadying officials.
The “no overtime” agitation continued among the telegraphists, and so intense did the feeling become that a large proportion were for striking against the enforcement of the obnoxious overtime at a certain date. The feeling had gained headway so far that a large number had actually signed a paper set in circulation promising to obey the call to arms when the moment arrived. But before the dramatic moment arrived the Controller suddenly sent for a few of the more prominent ringleaders to discuss the situation. After some parrying and courteous preliminaries the official suddenly confronted them with the question as to whether they would promise then and there to use their influence with their followers to restrain them from adopting the course decided on. There was some demur, and the question was objected to as unfair in the circumstances. The official gave them half-an-hour to decide and left them, turning the key in the door as he went out. They were virtually held prisoners in the official’s private room. After some consideration the leaders of the agitation thought discretion the better part of valour, and decided to give the required promise in writing, and this was done. They were then released and went back to their duties. One of the men, however, was rash enough to telegraph the news to Newcastle, with the intimation that the promise given was not seriously intended. The message, as might have been anticipated, was immediately “tapped” and conveyed to headquarters, with the result that the operator was on the spot suspended from duty. He was accordingly dismissed, and though it was not a case in which the victim could be made either a hero or a martyr, the telegraphists, with the generous impulse of comradeship, rallied round him and raised a subscription, whichin a short time realised the sum of £500. The incident gave a set-back to the “no overtime” agitation for the time, but the feeling against the Postmaster-General was by no means modified by its remembrance.
With the hostile criticism of the press and a section of the House, and engaged in driving a pair of spirited steeds, the telegraphists and the postmen, that threatened every moment to break away and overturn the chariot, Mr. Raikes’s position was no enviable one. In the circumstances too ready compliance with the demands on either hand would probably have been interpreted as weakness, if not by the men themselves, by Parliament, and still more probably by the Lords of the Treasury. Mr. Raikes was an able man, but pride generally overrules conscience and sometimes wisdom. He was but human; and most men in a position of power would prefer to be accused of tyranny rather than weakness. So the tension continued and increased till, reaching the breaking-point in the case of the postmen, as has been shown, it almost seemed as if the telegraphists must follow their desperate example.