THE PENNIES OF THE POOR
Cheap Postal Orders—Savings Bank—Life Insurance—Two Post Office
Pamphlets to help the People—Cheap Telegrams—Telephones—‘The Man
for the Post’—‘Words are Silver, Silence is Gold.’
[Sidenote: Postal Money Orders.]
It had been felt for some time that it would be possible to send small
sums of money by post more cheaply. The only method, that of Post Office
Money Orders, in force when Fawcett became Postmaster-General, was well
described by him when he said: ‘If a boy wanted to send his mother the
first shilling he had saved, he would have to pay twopence for the order
and a penny for postage.’ A committee had a measure prepared to remedy
this, and Fawcett quickly saw its value and got the measure passed
through Parliament. Thus originated the Postal Order which is so
familiar to us all.
[Sidenote: Postal Savings Bank.]
In making this change Fawcett had to overcome the opposition of the
banking interest, who considered that the Government was infringing on
their preserves. He came into conflict with them again when he increased
the facilities of the Savings Bank. He made it possible to begin with
the smallest sums by adopting the scheme of stamp slip deposits, which
had been worked out and devised by Mr. Chetwynd, an official of the Post
Office. This was a blank form which could be filled up with twelve penny
stamps, and then deposited in the Savings Bank.
At this time Fawcett, with the help of a Mr. Cardin, another official,
prepared his first popular pamphlet, called ‘Aids to Thrift.’ He took an
enormous amount of interest in this little leaflet, which he felt would
be a great help to the poor and ignorant. He tried to give the
information printed in the regular Post Office Guide in the simplest
language, so that the benefits offered by the Post Office could be
easily grasped by the most ignorant.
[Sidenote: The Working Man who Insured.]
A sad incident set his mind to working out another scheme for lessening
the difficulties of the working man. ‘A poor neighbour employed in a
mill near Salisbury had fallen ill. He had insured himself in a certain
society which was to pay him an allowance in case of illness. The
allowance was stopped under certain pretences strongly suggestive of
fraud. Fawcett, to whom he appealed, immediately called at the offices
of the society. The secretary, not recognising his visitor, treated him
with considerable insolence. Fawcett brought the man to his senses,
extracted certain sums from the society, and took steps to investigate
the nature of its business. He had the satisfaction of obtaining
something for the poor man, who died not long afterwards. Fawcett did
what he could for the family.’
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[Illustration:
PUNCH OR, THE LONDON CHARIVARI—November 27, 1880.
THE NEW STAMP DUTY.
Mr. Fawcett. “NOW, THEN, ALL OF YOU, ‘IN FOR A PENNY IN FOR A POUND.’”
“Mr. Fawcett’s scheme brings saving within everybody’s
reach.”—_Times._
_With special permission from the Proprietors of “Punch”_]
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[Sidenote: Post Office Annuities.]
The facts which he gleaned in connection with this case and others, as
well as from his many friendships since childhood with labourers and
peasants, made him realise the problems which beset the poor who wish to
insure against the future. He improved the system of Post Office
Annuities, and arranged for the publication of a short paper called
‘Plain Rules for the Guidance of persons wishing to make provision for
the future with the aid of the Government.’ This also was to be had
gratuitously, and did much to teach the poor how to provide for
themselves.
[Sidenote: Cheaper Telegrams.]
Fawcett regretted that telegrams were too expensive to be a convenience
for any but the rich. The betting ring and the Stock Exchange were its
principal patrons. He was deeply interested in lowering the cost, so
that telegrams could become useful to the ‘plain people.’ Among the
first deputations to be given an audience by the new Postmaster, was one
requesting cheap telegrams. He set himself with a will to get them,
writing and speaking to urge this new reform. It meant a fresh expense
for the Treasury, at least at the beginning, and he could not get the
consent of that department. But there were many members of the House of
Commons who favoured the change, and pushed it, relying on the
Postmaster-General’s well-known sympathy. In 1883 they succeeded in
outvoting the Government, and the adoption of sixpenny telegrams became
certain.
[Sidenote: The Telegraph Boys.]
Fawcett always had a fellow-feeling for the small boy, and he was very
anxious that the telegraph boys used in the Post Office should be kept
in the service, mounting from their positions as understudies of Mercury
to those of greater distinction and better pay. When on a visit to a
friend in a suburb of a large manufacturing town, Fawcett found that his
friend was able by telephone to direct his business in the town by half
an hour’s conversation, and was then free for the rest of the day. This
so greatly impressed Fawcett, that he became eager to give the public as
large an enjoyment of telephones as possible. He was in favour of
granting the widest possible liberty to qualified persons to start
telephone exchanges, making the condition that the Post Office should be
paid a royalty of ten per cent., and that no written telephone messages
should be delivered. One of his last acts was the approval of a licence
containing these terms, which was signed by his successor. He refused
firmly but gently, in his last interview at the Post Office, to grant to
a gentleman the protection which he asked for a small telephone company,
thus showing himself to the last true to his belief in open competition.
[Sidenote: An Executive Genius.]
We have now seen something of Fawcett’s task at the Post Office,
thirty-three years ago, and how he strove to do the work largely in
accordance with our most approved and up-to-date methods. Some of his
tools are now obsolete, the work has been changed in detail, but the
philosophy and wisdom, the business sense and control which he showed in
his four and a half years of office were what could be considered to-day
so remarkable, so successful, as to amount to executive genius.
Sir Arthur Blackwood, who was Permanent Secretary to the Post Office in
Fawcett’s day, used of his chief this striking phrase: ‘He had a passion
for justice.’ His only criticism of Fawcett’s administration was that he
was too lenient to erring subordinates, and apt to give too much time to
details which might have been entrusted to others. His conclusion was:
‘The Post Office could never, I believe, have a more capable
Postmaster-General, nor its officers a truer friend.’
As witness to this last, a post-office clerk wrote: ‘The humblest
servant within the dominion of his authority was not left uncared for.
During his history as Postmaster-General, a greatly improved state of
feeling has been introduced among the officers in their general tone
towards each other and towards those beneath them.’
The view of the country at large was equally emphatic. Let these verses
from _Punch_, written after Fawcett had been two years in office, speak
for the popular appreciation of his work:—
‘THE MAN FOR THE POST
John Bull _loquitur_
Well, well, here’s comfort, and, by Jove, it’s needed
Amidst the chaos of cantankerous cackle,
Here is one man has silently succeeded—
One man who a tough job can stoutly tackle.
O si sic omnes! In my blatant Babel
Business is a lost art—at least it seems so.
All the more honour to the Champion able
Who still can realise my hopes and dreams so,
To serve the State, to sagely shape and plan for it,
Is the true Statesman’s part, and here’s the man for it.
No epic hero! Well, I’m getting weary
Of the huge windiness now dubbed heroic,
“Arms and the Man”—and a fiasco dreary
Too oft repeated, irritate a Stoic
Such as I’m grown. And then I’m not quite certain,
Applied to him the name _is_ pure misnomer.
_Fawcett_, though seldom called before the curtain,
Perhaps in more than _one_ point pairs with _Homer_.
Although one sang Achilles and his host,
The other schemed, not sang, the Parcels Post.
Perhaps the large ambition that loves spangles
And warrior fame might pooh-pooh the projectors,
But I’m inclined to fancy Red Tape’s tangles
Are tougher foes than many Trojan Hectors.
Achilles as Laocoön might have thundered
And thrust tremendously, and yet been throttled.
St. Stephen’s spouters long have fought and blundered,
And long my rising wrath I’ve choked and bottled,
But I _am_ glad to see one silent, strong fellow,
Who emulates the hero sung by Longfellow.
“Something attempted, something done!” Precisely!
A friend of mine, who much inclined to scoff is,
Declares when Fawcett’s plans have ripened nicely,
The World will be a branch of the Post Office.
Let the Wit wag, the World won’t find salvation
In parcels or reply-cards, stamps or thriftiness;
Danger there may be in “centralisation,”
But after all the squabbling, hobbling shiftiness
Of the cantankerous, rancorous jaw-jaw-jaw-set,
’Tis a relief to turn to turn to Henry Fawcett!’
The ‘one silent, strong fellow’ had learned a patience and tact in his
later years that stood him in good stead when he found himself member of
a Government, and there bound to refrain from criticising its actions. A
story told of him at this time shows a gentle avoidance of differences
not so common in his earlier days.
Professor Clifford, an old Cambridge friend, and secretary of the whilom
Republican Club, died in 1880 leaving his widow in straitened
circumstances. Professor Clifford was a mathematician of the first
order, but, especially in his later years, he became an aggressive
anti-religionist, and wrote much on these matters.
[Sidenote: A Widow’s Pension.]
Fawcett wanted to arrange for a pension for the widow, and took occasion
to speak to the Prime Minister. Gladstone took Fawcett with him down to
his room and asked him, ‘Who is the great man at Cambridge now?’ Fawcett
mentioned the loss that the university had recently sustained by the
death of its mathematician, carefully alluding to Professor Clifford in
this manner. Gladstone said, ‘I always regarded him as a third-rate
theologian.’ To which Fawcett said, ‘I know nothing about his theology,
but as a mathematician he stood in the very front rank.’ This opinion of
Fawcett’s so impressed Gladstone that Mrs. Clifford’s name was added to
the Civil Pension List.
Fawcett would not have joined the Ministry unless he felt in real
sympathy with its avowed principles, but it is probable that had he
remained independent he would have found much to criticise. Leslie
Stephen comments: ‘His position as a Minister without a seat in the
Cabinet imposed reserve, whilst it did not enable him to exert any
direct influence upon the Government. On some points I can only
conjecture his probable views. Mr. Gladstone’s Government was especially
notable for its Irish and Egyptian policy. In both cases I imagine
Fawcett’s sympathy must have been imperfect.’
This position requiring silence, without giving him power to exert
direct influence on the Government, must have been, to one of his frank,
honest, fighting temperament, at times very difficult.
[Sidenote: Interest in Ireland.]
He was profoundly interested in Ireland, and felt that the only
satisfactory symptom in Irish matters was the increased use of the
Savings Bank. A friend of Fawcett’s having casually mentioned his name
in a remote part of Ireland, was surprised at the exclamation, ‘Oh, we
know all about him here!’ This remark was based on the fact that a girl
from the district had gone with great credit through all the stages of a
telegraph clerk’s position in the English General Post Office. On her
quitting to get married, Fawcett had sent for her, and in the kindest
manner thanked her for her past services, and offered his hearty good
wishes for her happiness.
[Illustration:
April 9, 1861.] PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI. 159
“HERE STANDS A POST!”
_With special permission from the Proprietors of “Punch”_]
He felt strongly that exceptional legislation was required to deal with
the land questions of Ireland, and that any legislation would be futile
which did not reflect in some way the wishes of the Irish themselves. No
one could be more opposed than he to Home Rule, which, he declared,
meant ‘the disruption of the Empire.’ He would rather, as he said on one
occasion, that the Liberal Party should remain out of office till its
youngest member had grown grey with age, than be intimidated into voting
for Home Rule. Still he held that some such legislation as that embodied
in Mr. Gladstone’s Land Bill was necessary.
It is related that once at this time, when sitting with friends who were
discussing the Irish irreconcilability, he kept repeating, as if to
himself, ‘We must press on and do what is right’; and he wrote to his
father, ‘There is nothing for it, but to persevere in doing justice in
spite of all provocation.’
[Sidenote: Loyal Work and Loyal Silence.]
He felt that the Egyptian policy was weak, and on one or two occasions
so far showed his distrust as to refuse to vote. But for the most part
he absorbed himself in the work of his own department, and did it nobly.
He gave hard work, sound sense, resolute purpose, and a gay elasticity
of spirit which no weariness could break. It was truly said of him that
he bettered everything and kept his eye on everything. In this, as in
every task, he neared his ideal which he had expressed on leaving
Cambridge: ‘To exert an influence in removing the social evils of our
country, and especially the paramount one, the mental degradation of
millions. I regard it as a high privilege of God if He will enable me to
assist in such a work.’
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A TRIUMPHANT END
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‘Strive for the truth unto death,
and the Lord shall fight for thee.’
‘The things which are seen are temporal, but
the things which are unseen are eternal.’
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