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 the cause of the men. Two of these
papers circulated principally in the gutter. One was the notorious
_Town 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 the _Rag_, 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. The _Rag_ and _Town 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 called _Toby_, which, during 1886, dealt week
after week with Post-Office abuses. _Toby_ was 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. _Toby_ for 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 of _Toby_ waned 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. The _Postman_, which had been started as the
organ of a previous agitation, was long since defunct, and a copy of the
_Beehive_ was 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 the _Postal 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 the _Postal 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 Christmas
Day 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 were all 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 got together 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
consequence resolved—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 crowded meeting
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 escaped observation 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 man on 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 courage
permeated 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 Treasury in 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.