One curious result of the Fawcett scheme was that the telegraphists declared that they were not placed on an equality with the postal side, as was intended by the spirit and letter of it, while the postal agitators a little later adopted similar arguments to prove that they had not been placed on an equality with the telegraphists, as was also intended.
Dissatisfaction with their position in the service, despite the late scheme, gradually became acute once more among the telegraphists. On July 17, 1881, one month from the issuing of Mr. Fawcett’s intended remedy and stop-gap for further agitation, a conference held at Liverpool resolved that a permanent organisation covering the whole of the United Kingdom was an absolute necessity to prevent further encroachments upon them and to preserve what little they had already gained. December 3, 1881, saw the Postal Telegraph Clerks’ Association launched into existence. Immediately from all over the country support was forthcoming, the greater part of the provincial offices rallying round the standard set up at Liverpool.
Mr. Fawcett, as may be imagined, was not pleased at the manner in which his well-intended scheme was received by the telegraphists, but he met all criticism and all opposition with that unflinching courage of the philosopher which was his chiefest trait. An utterance made by him at this period, when speaking at Hackney, November 2, 1881, affords an interesting glimpse into his mind on this question. On that occasion he said, “All experience shows that the sense of wrong remains long after a grievance has been redressed and an injustice remedied.”
Whether or not the grievances had been redressed and the injustices remedied, as he honestly intended they should be so far as lay in his power, certainly the original sense of wrong was to remain long afterwards. This surviving sense of wrong, Mr. Fawcett probably hoped, would gradually die out as his remedy applied its healing balm. But it was to survive longer than he anticipated, and to be fostered till it developed into almost a passionate outburst which, in a few years to come, another equally great and strong man, Mr. Raikes, had eventually to calm and temporarily check by yet another measure of relief.
CHAPTER XIV
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.