A history of postal agitation from fifty years ago till the present day

by H. G. Swift

Among other eminent labour leaders and Radical politicians of the day there figured George Howell, who never failed the postmen in their need, and who had interviewed perhaps more members of Parliament and the heads of the Government than any other public man; for at this period it had particularly fallen to Mr. Howell’s lot to represent their case in this manner.

Shortly after this great Exeter Hall meeting the society published a balance-sheet, which clearly showed the enormous amount of work involved in the previous two years’ crusade. During the two years of agitation, numerous meetings, both reported and unreported, had been held; they had carried the war into almost every part of the kingdom, they had interviewed public men innumerable, prepared and got signed three monster petitions to Parliament, and attained to the dignity and importance of occupying the time and attention of the House of Commons more than once. The general correspondence of the society during the two years of its existence had involved the writing of no less than 2546 letters; while to the public press communications to the tune of nearly 2000 had been sent out. But, altogether, during the two years nearly 14,000 communications were addressed to Parliamentary candidates, M.P.’s, public men, and others. Truly, the Post-Office had been made to direct its hand against itself. Among the list of subscribers were the names of several public men, including Canon Liddon and Sir Charles Dilke.

The organisation of combined postal servants was now being perfected in various ways. Interviewing members of Parliament, both privately and at the House, was now almost of daily occurrence; and Booth and the various others were on terms of intimacy with most of the prominent men of the day.

It was this time a Conservative Government in power, and those members who wished to show a desire to redeem their promises convened a conference of the known Parliamentary friends to the postal cause. For the Exeter Hall meetings had had a marked effect on the press and the public. The conference was therefore called at the Westminster Palace Hotel, a stone’s-throw from the House itself. It was to be quite public, and reporters admitted. A deputation of the aggrieved men attended to urge their case once more. Mr. Roebuck was this time in the chair; and Mr. Stavely Hill and numerous other influential and well-known M.P.’s formed the self-appointed jury. Booth once more went over the old ground of their grievances; and Haley, another postal agitator, also gave an able exposition of their simple claims, which appeared to impress them favourably. The immediate result of the conference was that Mr. Roebuck, on behalf of his colleagues, promised to do an indefinite something as soon as found convenient.

They so far redeemed their pledge and showed their confidence in the justice of the postal claims as to privately urge the Government to take up the matter. For a month or so there was a superficial quietude among the discontented men. There were no meetings, but the postmen and the letter-sorters were subscribing to the general fund. There was no further interference on the part of the officials, probably from the fact that they were now beginning to recognise that the movement was too strong, and rendered stronger by press sympathy and public support. Eventually Mr. Roebuck—“Tear ’em,” as he was called in reference to his pugnacity in the House—brought up the matter of the postal case for inquiry on the Estimates. Booth, Haley, and the rest of the leaders of the agitation were found a place under the gallery, by the side of Sir John Tilly, the secretary, and Mr. Scudamore; for in some things the House is no respecter of persons. The debate was eminently interesting, and brought out all the points of the postal case in a marked degree.

The reply of the Government was unfavourable; and the argument, which has done duty so many times since, that there was really no just cause for complaint, was then used for the first time, and set an easy precedent, which nearly all succeeding Postmasters-General faithfully followed.

After the debate the leaders of the agitation crowded round the members in the lobby, Roebuck particularly was besieged by the disappointed men; but he shook himself free of them with the air of a man who had done his duty, and was determined to court failure no further. “Tear ’em” Roebuck was evidently chagrined and as annoyed as his clients, and he turned on them almost with a snarl. “You see I can do no more; the Government won’t interfere,” said he, and strutted away. The Government had left them to their fate; but pressure was privately brought to bear on Lord John Manners, who was now Postmaster-General. The refusal of the Government to interfere on behalf of the oppressed and aggrieved postal employés after all the promises of the Tory party, and after all the patronage extended to them publicly, resulted in such a feeling of resentment and disappointment among all classes of the service, that Booth the leader had the utmost difficulty in holding his followers in check. There was, indeed, one abortive attempt at a strike among the Hull postmen, and the spark might have ignited the whole had Booth and his associates given encouragement to it. It wanted but a breath from the agitators at this moment to fan the whole into a blaze.

Booth during this time never lost heart; he was as indefatigable as ever; scarcely a day passed but what he interviewed somebody or was himself interviewed. He had carried the art of interviewing to such an extent that he several times personated the secretary of the postal movement, Hawkins, for the purpose of getting editors and pressmen to say a word or two in behalf of the baffled, but as yet not defeated, agitation. By personating his own secretary in getting himself interviewed he thus evaded the official rule which forbade any postal servant communicating with the press, and which there is little doubt would have been mercilessly enforced against any one in the service caught doing it too openly. But however little they had to expect from the permanent officials, they felt that with a Postmaster-General as representative of the party from which only recently they had received so much sympathy and patronage, active hostility would not be allowed to be carried too far. Moreover, they felt pretty safe in conjecturing that, come what may, what the law officers of the late administration had hesitated to carry to a completion would not in a hurry be resorted to under the new Government of the party which included so many tried and pledged friends of postal reform. True, the Conservative Government, which the postal vote had in some measure helped to bring back to power, had so far disappointed them in not at once taking up their case as they were led to believe it would. But they were aware that their grievances were still occupying the attention of a large number of the members on both sides of the House, and that a large amount of influence was being brought to bear on the Postmaster-General. From Lord John Manners there was still something to be hoped for. And this hope was sustained by the plausible rumour that the Government’s refusal to inquire into their grievances was only a diplomatic way of empowering the Postmaster-General to do all that might be found to be necessary towards ameliorating the conditions of the service over which he had been put to rule. Yet the cloven hoof peeped out in an unexpected manner, and sooner than was to be looked for.

Lord John Manners, so long as he was in opposition, had not declined to be counted among the Tory supporters of Booth and the postal agitation, he having replied in favourable terms to letters and circulars soliciting his support towards obtaining the asked-for inquiry. There is perhaps always some allowance to be made for one newly taking office, and inconsistency is to an extent allowable, if not to be looked for. But it came as a surprise and something of a shock to Booth especially to learn that the new Postmaster-General, resisting all overtures from those of his own party, was about to set his face uncompromisingly against their claims and against the representatives who might urge them. Certainly, on the face of it, it seemed a wonderfully gracious act in a Postmaster-General to consent to receive a deputation of the men for the purpose of hearing once more from their own lips the story of their grievances he was already so well acquainted with. An application for an interview had been sent forward, in itself perhaps a piece of audacity almost unheard of, and to the surprise of the men themselves it was intimated that the interview would be granted. It was granted, but only with the condition that Booth should not be present. By the time that this was announced Booth had got over his first surprise, and was quite prepared for the intended snub, but scarcely for the unjustifiable insult which followed. It had been previously arranged that he should lead the deputation, but it was now officially conveyed to him that the Postmaster-General, while willing to see a deputation of the letter-carriers and sorters, must refuse to receive Booth “on account of his official bad character.” There was a feeling among the force that if the Postmaster-General would not see the leader the deputation ought not to go forward, but Booth put himself out of the question, and advised them to meet the head of the department and to obtain what advantage was possible. It was therefore decided to do so; but the undeserved insult, though inflicted on the man, was none the less felt to be aimed at the principle of combination, and their hopes were overshadowed with the suspicion that the interview was granted mainly for the purpose of better marking the agitators for future reference. The Postmaster-General’s treatment of Booth was scarcely likely to reassure them or to maintain their confidence in his fairmindedness. Throughout the agitation Booth had been careful not to run foul of his superiors on official matters, and his official character had been good enough to please Lord John Manners and his party before the last General Election.

The deputation to the Postmaster-General was memorable if only from the fact that this was the very first occasion the public head of the department had ever consented to receive representatives of the working staff. It looked like a concession, and as such would read well in the Tory press especially. But the men in their hearts were prepared for the disappointment which was to follow, and anticipated that it was the Postmaster-General himself who intended to get the most out of the interview.