BENEFITS OF THE RAIKES SCHEME—A MARTINET POSTMASTER-GENERAL—A NEW PARLIAMENTARY POLICY—A PARTING OF THE WAYS—POLITICAL RIGHTS OF POSTAL SERVANTS—A BLOW AT COMBINATION.
BENEFITS OF THE RAIKES SCHEME—A MARTINET POSTMASTER-GENERAL—A NEW PARLIAMENTARY POLICY—A PARTING OF THE WAYS—POLITICAL RIGHTS OF POSTAL SERVANTS—A BLOW AT COMBINATION.
Looking at all the circumstances impartially, it must be acknowledged that the late Mr. Raikes had bestowed very substantial benefits on the postal service. In the face of opposition to his proposals, and despite hostility from several sides at once, he had manfully tackled the complex and bewildering problem, and had set himself the task of adjudicating on the thousand divergent and multifarious class interests. It was a labour worthy of an intellectual Hercules to seek to cleanse such an Augean stable as the Post-Office, but he had done as much as it were possible for one man to dare attempt, meeting with the growls probably of the watch-dogs of the Treasury, and with little gratitude from those who benefited by the result. The late Postmaster-General had, though chary of it at first, at last set himself to the stupendous task of satisfying the wants and serving the conflicting interests of the discontented army under his control. He had set himself to the task, but he had materially shortened his days for his pains. Both the London sorters and the provincial sorting clerks were fairly well satisfied with the result of the Raikes scheme, but the telegraphists and the postmen were but little satisfied with their measure of relief, and remained hardly less discontented than before. The flowers had scarcely faded on the grave of their departed chief before the mutterings of discontent were again heard, from the ranks of the postmen and the telegraphists particularly. It was not so much that they were guilty of ingratitude as that their grievances as Government servants so far outmeasured the well-intentioned remedy.
Shortly before his death Mr. Raikes had outlined in the House of Commons the revision he intended to bring in for the London and provincial postmen. But when the scheme came to be applied it was found that the London town postmen did not fairly participate, that in fact there was no rise in wages for them, their action in regard to the ill-starred Postmen’s Union and the strike period being considered deserving of punishment by exclusion from benefits. The discontent consequent on this had brought about, just before Mr. Raikes’s death, the suggestion for another experiment at organisation, and on August 15, 1891, a large and enthusiastic gathering of postmen met to condemn the revised scales of pay recommended by the Departmental Committee and recently adopted by the Postmaster-General. At this meeting a resolution was carried which led to the immediate formation of a Postmen’s Federation of town and provincial men, C. Churchfield being appointed general secretary, and A. F. Harris treasurer. The provisional committee at once issued a manifesto to all postmen, inviting London offices to send delegates to a meeting on September 19, 1891, to elect an executive. The conference was held, and the executive formed. The executive of the newly-formed Postmen’s Federation worked with a will, and obtaining for themselves the right enjoyed by the sorters, that of free meeting outside Post-Office buildings, a series of meetings was started in every part of London. Having as yet no organ of their own by which to establish a means of communication with the various branches, they approached the Fawcett Association with a view to thePostbeing placed at their disposal. The monthly report of progress among the postmen appeared in thePostregularly up to June 1892, when thePostmen’s Gazettewas started. On September 16 of the same year the first annual conference of the Postmen’s Federation was held, W. Rouse, an E.C. postman, and long known as a powerful advocate of their claims, being elected president. Thirty-three London and thirty-eight provincial men attended this conference. They adopted a programme which consisted of a claim for a 20s. minimum, with a yearly increment of 2s. and a maximum of 40s. a week in all towns where fifty or more postmen were employed; three weeks’holiday; eight hours’ work within a twelve hours’ limit; and the abolition of stripes on condition that the maximum rate of pay be raised to 40s. A national petition was soon afterwards drafted, which contained in addition a claim for exemption from parcel-post work as then combined with ordinary letter-carrying duties; unestablished auxiliaries and rural postmen to be merged into the established force; citizen rights; and an improved Superannuation Act for all postmen. This programme was distributed to over five hundred towns. About two hundred and fifty towns adopted the programme completely and subscribed to the national petition based thereon. The new Postmaster-General’s reply was unequivocal refusal to all the points raised. That, however, was not exactly the first move in the game of postal chess which Sir James Fergusson, as Mr. Raikes’s successor, had sat down to play.
Meanwhile the sorters already had come to realise that whatever the benefits vouchsafed to them by the provisions of the Raikes scheme, they still suffered disabilities sufficient to entitle them to make a further effort to gain their removal. Sir James Fergusson had come to them with the reputation of a stern disciplinarian, but that did not accuse him of want of justice. As the result of much deliberation and a general meeting, a memorial was drawn up and presented February 18, 1892. The memorial, in pleading for an interview, stated that the object was to urge (1) that the London sorting force may be placed in, at the least, an equal position as regards scales of pay, &c., with the telegraphists at the Central Station; (2) that they be designated “sorting clerks” instead of “sorters”; (3) that they may be eligible for promotion to higher positions, including clerkships; and (4) that the number of higher appointments be regulated strictly according to the number of duties corresponding. Sir James Fergusson’s reply was in the negative on every single count, nor would he grant an interview on any pretence. He issued an official circular, March 25, 1892, to the staff reminding them of the benefits already procured to them by Mr. Fawcett and Mr. Raikes, and expressing a regret—clearly intended as a rebuff—that they should reiterate their claims, which were so fully answered by his predecessor.
To the refusal of the Postmaster-General the Fawcett Association drew up a reply, respectfully expressing dissent from the view taken of their case, reiterating their claims, and urging that, while they were not unmindful of the material advantages lately gained by many of those they represented, they were none the less convinced that many of those concessions, with the additions they now asked for, should have been conceded years earlier. They trusted that their renewed request for investigation would not be thought unreasonable, or other than in the interest of the public service. This was signed and forwarded, May 6, by the committee of the Fawcett Association on behalf of the London sorting force. This met with scant courtesy, and a few days afterwards it was intimated to them that Sir James Fergusson directed that they be informed that his previous reply was to be taken as final, that the reiteration of requests which after full consideration had been refused, and the objectionable tone adopted, presumably because of that, was an abuse of the privilege of presenting memorials to the head of the department.
The uncompromising attitude taken up by the Postmaster-General caused the sorters to strike out a new line of policy from that moment. Clery had become impatient of the slow and unsatisfactory methods of pressing their claims on the attention of the department. The methods had availed them well with Mr. Raikes, but in Sir James Fergusson they soon had to recognise a master of a different calibre. It was not only the slowness of the hackneyed method of seeking redress with almost the certainty of refusal that decided them on their course of action. There were other things in addition. The general attitude of the officials towards them and their organisation had undergone a marked change almost from the moment that Sir James Fergusson set foot in St. Martin’s-le-Grand. One of the first acts was to prohibit the distribution of thePost, their official organ, within Post-Office buildings, and there was a growing and well-grounded suspicion that it was the first expression of a desire to smash the union of postal employés. There were indeed a hundred different influences in evidence everywhere about them which decided the most impulsive of their members to urge the immediate adoption of a vigorousParliamentary policy and to press for a Committee of Inquiry into the Post-Office. If such a policy was not novel, it was a bold one. Clery himself, three or four years before, had advocated such a policy, and it was only owing to the conciliatory treatment meted out to them by Mr. Raikes that its further consideration was so long shelved. There were serious differences of opinion between the chairman of the association, J. H. Williams, and a section of the committee in regard to this question. Williams’s colder, more cautious nature put him in opposition to the more daring line of policy in which he discerned strong possibilities of personal risk to those adopting it. No man could suspect Williams of want of nerve; he had proved his high courage sufficiently; it was only that he thought the old and more familiar methods the safer, and probably the surer. Clery, the more impetuous, eventually gained over by far the greater following to his own way of thinking, and in the result the question was definitely settled at a general meeting, June 15, 1892. At this meeting it was resolved “that immediate action be taken to secure from Parliamentary candidates a pledge to support a motion for a Parliamentary Committee of Inquiry.” This was carried with enthusiasm, and practically unanimously.
The association had now entered on one of the most important steps in the history of postal trades-unionism. Clery on this occasion for the first time occupied the chair, Williams being absent. After the general meeting there were but few dissentients to the policy; and Williams, with deep regret, though with firm resolve that his view was the correct one, felt constrained under the circumstances to relinquish the leadership. On the adoption of such a policy, to which he was opposed, his position as chairman was no longer possible, and much as the members shared his regret at the necessity of it, Williams laid down the epaulettes he had worn with so much distinction, and resigned his commission. From that moment the chairmanship was by unanimous approval filled by W. E. Clery, and the recognised leadership fell into his hands, while the secretaryship vacated by him was taken up by W. B. Cheesman of the Western District Office. Clery was now the recognised leader of the association, but as a matter of factfor a considerable time previously his strong personality had marked him as the virtual leader when the moment arrived for more decisive action.
In view of the impending General Election, presumably the Postmaster-General took the association’s adoption of the new line of policy as a challenge to his administrative authority, for almost immediately afterwards a Post-Office Circular, dated June 17, 1892, was issued as special information for postal servants. The Postmaster-General desired to warn Post-Office servants that it “would be improper for them, whether in combination or otherwise, to extract promises from candidates for election to the House of Commons with reference to their pay and position.” No small amount of curiosity was at first felt at its introduction on the notice-boards of the General Post-Office, but immediately a whip was issued to the members of the association by W. E. Clery, the newly-elected chairman, which was as decisive as it was prompt. If Sir James Fergusson’s new order was intended to intimidate, it did not have the desired result. The Postmaster-General had only just stated in the House of Commons that “there is no Act of Parliament regulating such a matter,” yet he had suddenly made a law unto himself. Within an hour or so of the appearance of the Post-Office Circular containing this order or instruction from the departmental head, the following whip was sent the round of the association:—
“The notice in the current number of the Post-Office Circular does not affect the policy of the association.(Signed) “W. E. Clery,Chairman.”
“The notice in the current number of the Post-Office Circular does not affect the policy of the association.
(Signed) “W. E. Clery,Chairman.”
Accordingly within the next few days, the General Election being now close at hand, a letter as from the Fawcett Association was addressed to Parliamentary candidates all over the country. The circular-letter stated that, in accordance with the resolution passed at the general meeting of their members, they begged to lay before the Parliamentary candidate a brief statement of facts in explanation and support of the position they had adopted, and soliciting an early and definite reply to this question: “Will you, in the event ofyour being elected a member of Parliament, support a motion for the appointment of a Parliamentary Committee of Inquiry into the Post-Office, such as was advocated by Earl Compton, and largely supported during a recent session of the House of Commons?”
The circular went on to disavow any intention on their part to act otherwise than as ordinary citizens in the enjoyment of the franchise; and to offer the assurance that it was only because they believed such an inquiry would put an end to discontent in the postal service that they felt it their duty to thus ask for Parliamentary support. This circular was signed by W. E. Clery, as chairman, and W. B. Cheesman, as secretary. The circular was at once a means of canvassing public support and sympathy, and a protest against the interference with their public rights and public duties as citizens. It was a protest against being taken back to the days when Mr. Monk, the member for Gloucester, fought for them a strenuous uphill battle of years to obtain what was now so lightly to be taken from them. In thus exercising their right as citizens in approaching Parliamentary candidates, they were doing so not only in their own behalf but in the interest of every other class in the postal service throughout the United Kingdom, embracing the telegraphists, the sorting clerks, the Savings-Bank men, the postmen, themselves, and others. And they were doing so totally irrespective of party bias or motive. Within a few days replies from candidates, for the most part favourable, poured in by the hundred; and presumably not one of the politicians thus replying saw anything reprehensible in their being thus approached by postal servants in search of a legitimate inquiry into their alleged grievances. Among the successful Parliamentary candidates who favourably replied were the names of many who were to undertake much work in the future in furtherance of postal claims. These included Sir Albert Rollit, Mr. James Rowlands, Mr. Naoroji, Mr. Cremer, Mr. Keir Hardie, Mr. James Stuart, and that sturdy veteran of previous postal campaigns, Mr. Geo. Howell; while occurring in the list were the names of Mr. John Burns, Mr. Thomas Burt, Mr. Pickersgill, and a number of other eminent and equally well-known public men.
The provincial male telegraphists had in the meanwhile issued a precisely similar circular to Parliamentary candidates, and Sir James Fergusson marked his disapproval of such action by specially calling attention to it in the House on June 14. The circular emanating from the telegraphists he quoted at some length, and, referring to the fact that the sorting branch of the service had adopted the same proceedings on the eve of a General Election, he strongly condemned their action as improper. He appealed to the members of the House to decline to give any such pledge as was solicited, and stated that he had the member for Midlothian (Mr. Gladstone) and the member for Derby (Sir William Harcourt) in full agreement with his observations. Mr. Geo. Howell strongly criticised the attitude taken up by the Postmaster-General, and stoutly contended for the right of postal servants to combine, and further to carry out all the legitimate functions and obligations of combination. He was supported by Mr. Lawson and Mr. Story.
It was hoped by the rank and file of postal servants that the Postmaster-General, Sir James Fergusson, would sustain a defeat at the poll; but North-East Manchester sent him back to the House of Commons, and for a time to his place at St. Martin’s-le-Grand, by a narrow majority of 110. Sir James Fergusson temporarily resumed his position as head of Post-Office affairs on July 18, immediately after the result of the election was known, and he as immediately made his presence felt. The very same day he reassumed office he called on the chairman and secretary of the Fawcett Association to explain their action in regard to signing and sending out the circular to Parliamentary candidates. In explaining their conduct, they took up the very natural position that they were simply carrying out the instructions of a general meeting, and had acted in a representative capacity; that they had been careful not to transgress the official warning as expressed by the Postmaster-General; and that they had been careful not to solicit pledges relative to their duties and pay. They thought that in the absence of any official order, and in view of the fact that they had been allowed to carry out the behest of their constituents, they werejustified in thinking they had not contravened any official rule, since no intimation of such had been conveyed to them. On July 22 the Postmaster-General gave his decision on their case, which was that for their “insubordination” they be dismissed the service. This was a direct blow at the very root of representative principle, and the strongest rebuff that the spirit of trades unionism had yet sustained; besides, it had in one moment reduced the franchise for postal servants to the flimsiest mockery. The blow was regarded as so unnecessary and so unjust that there was an immediate outcry against it both from within the walls of the Post-Office and from without. To have been consistent, the Postmaster-General should have dismissed the whole body of sorters who were responsible for the instruction acted on. In twenty-four hours practically the whole of the London sorting force, Chief Office men and District men, had signed a memorial to the Postmaster-General, asking his reconsideration of the dismissals on the ground that they fully identified themselves with the policy adopted and the instruction given Clery and Cheesman as two officers of their association. Not only from the class directly affected, but from the postmen, the postal clerks all over the country, the telegraphists, and others, came an almost unanimous cry of indignation and disapproval. And this indignation was echoed with surprising unanimity by the press, both Tory and Liberal joining in condemning Sir James Fergusson’s action as intolerant and unjustifiably severe. Even the few organs that were induced to say a word in favour of the Postmaster-General’s action, based their conclusions for the most part on the supposition that insubordination had been committed; whereas there was no insubordination, and no contravening of any known existing rule of the department in asking merely for a public inquiry. Others, while opining that discipline must be maintained in a great public department of State, nevertheless agreed that it was neither fair nor constitutional that the political rights of citizens should in this free country be at the mercy of official caprice.
The Fawcett Association promptly carried the question one step further, and obtained counsel’s opinion that the action of Sir James Fergusson was illegal and unconstitutional, a viewin which Sir Charles Russell, the present Lord Chief-Justice, fully concurred, as did also Mr. S. D. Waddy, Q.C., M.P.
Yet despite all appeals, all arguments, and all criticism, Sir James Fergusson stuck to his position with the dogged pertinacity of an old-time soldier and a martinet. Rightly or wrongly, he had taken the step, and he owed it to his pride and his reputation to stand by it. And he stood by it, a solid rock of obstinacy against which the waves of protest splashed in vain.
The dismissed chairman and secretary of the Fawcett Association remained in their respective offices, and the members of the organisation rallied round them stronger than ever. There was a feeling that they had been made the martyrs of an injustice for their sakes and for promoting their cause, and they stood by them to a man.
The case of the dismissals, involving as it did the question of the right of combination in the Post-Office, occasioned no little public comment at the time, and the interest was to an extent kept alive by the publication of a brochure by W. E. Clery, entitled “Civil Servitude,” containing a full and detailed statement of the facts. The General Election by this time was over, and political fate had given her decision in favour of the Liberal party. Sir James Fergusson, therefore, was now reduced to a passing shadow; but it was still hoped by many that, like a repentant political sinner, he would use his last few hours of office in retrieving the great mistake that had certainly damaged his popularity with the service for evermore. But Sir James Fergusson chose to leave office with the cry for justice still ringing in his ears, and pursuing him even in the House of Commons. On August 9, Mr. Sam Woods took up the matter of the arbitrary dismissals by asking the Postmaster-General if it were not possible on reconsideration to reinstate the two officials. Sir James Fergusson was most aggressive in his replies, and stated, amidst the cheers of his own party, that he did not intend to reinstate the two dismissed representatives of the sorters; nor would he withdraw the warning to Post-Office servants on the subject. Mr. Cobb, M.P., bearing on the same subject, put questions which implied that higher officials of the Inland Revenue had been guilty of circularising candidates on personal matters, but Sir James Fergussonwas possibly saved from awkward admissions by the ruling of the Speaker that the question could not stand. The trades unionists of the country were particularly strong in their sympathy towards the two dismissed leaders of postal combination; and expressions and resolutions of sympathy poured in upon them from every part. There were resolutions expressive of sympathy with the Fawcett Association, and of condemnation of Sir James Fergusson; and amidst a perfect shower of such trades-union condemnations the Postmaster-General in the middle of August departed from the stage to make way for his Liberal successor. If the villain had now been cut out of the piece, all hopes were centred on the new-comer as the hero.