With the hostile criticism of the press and a section of the House, and engaged in driving a pair of spirited steeds, the telegraphists and the postmen, that threatened every moment to break away and overturn the chariot, Mr. Raikes’s position was no enviable one. In the circumstances too ready compliance with the demands on either hand would probably have been interpreted as weakness, if not by the men themselves, by Parliament, and still more probably by the Lords of the Treasury. Mr. Raikes was an able man, but pride generally overrules conscience and sometimes wisdom. He was but human; and most men in a position of power would prefer to be accused of tyranny rather than weakness. So the tension continued and increased till, reaching the breaking-point in the case of the postmen, as has been shown, it almost seemed as if the telegraphists must follow their desperate example.
CHAPTER XVIII
THE PROVINCIAL SORTING CLERKS—THEIR POSITION—THE RIDLEY COMMISSION, AND EVIDENCE PREPARED—THE FORMATION OF AN ORGANISATION—THE RIGHT OF PUBLIC MEETING.
Through a long course of years the postmen, the letter-sorters, and the telegraphists had cultivated each their fertile patch of ground, and produced a plentiful crop of the thistles of discontent. But there was one other widely-distributed and important section of the postal community who, while feeling most of the grievances of which the others complained, yet took no combined action. While the letter-carriers and the telegraphists especially assumed a more or less aggressive attitude in the maintenance and furtherance of their rights and privileges in the service, the provincial postal clerks, as important a body as either of these, remained passive till the year 1886. Through the whole of the stormy and exciting periods, the strike of the telegraphists in 1870, the upheaval of the postmen and sorters two or three years later, and the recurrence of fierce agitation among all other postal bodies during the few years following, the postal clerks, undisturbed, pursued the even tenor of their way. That they had grievances goes without saying; but there were influences that held them in check; and they did not realise the grievances they suffered from so acutely as a body that they could be drawn easily into the vortex of agitation. They agitated more or less for the removal of restrictions and the redress of local grievances, but their efforts were too tentative and sporadic in their character to be of permanent value or make any lasting impression. It was not till 1886 that an awakening was to come. The postal clerks as a collective body were content to sow their wild oats on the Ridley Commission of 1886-87. That commission, on which had been centred the hopes of many thousands of men in the postal service, proved abortive. In spite of the distinct promise held out and express invitations made to prepare and tender evidence before it, the Ridley Commission on Civil Establishments dashed every hope to the ground by prematurely disbanding. The effect of this on other postal bodies has already been seen. The abortive Ridley Commission has had much to answer for, and became in itself the most fruitful source of that discontent it was originally intended to allay. When it became evident that it would not after all reach the doors of the Post-Office, a groan of disappointment went up from the overworked and underpaid multitudinous army of malcontents which made up the rank and file of the postal service; and that groan of disappointment presently deepened into cries of execration at what seemed so like a wilful betrayal. That deep disappointment was shared by the postal clerks everywhere throughout the kingdom; and in common with other bodies similarly duped, they came to recognise that the very cause of their disappointment might be turned to advantage. After all, the Ridley Commission came as a blessing in disguise. It had provided an opportunity and an excuse for collecting evidence and preparing the strongest possible indictment against the department. The evidence thus so laboriously gathered and industriously prepared was not to be wasted now. The investigation and the experience had taught them many things; it had familiarised them with bodies and branches which had hitherto been held apart, it brought about an affinitive and friendly cohesion of particles; and small bodies which had revolved in their own distinct circumscribed orbit were now given a place and a relationship in a more or less orderly system. In point of fact it was the means of introducing among them one cardinal principle, a law, that of combination.
Previous to the Ridley Commission the postal clerks had been little heard of as a combined body, but now on this occasion, with a unanimity that was as commendable as it was remarkable, they showed the necessity by setting the example of forming an association. It has to be borne in mind that the telegraphists were already combined, but their combination proceeded from a different origin, though the effect of the failure of the Ridley Commission was to strengthen their already existing organisation considerably. It was on the purely postal side of the service, however, that the most marked effect was to be produced. In response to the call for evidence of grievances, men hitherto unheard of leapt into the breach, and took up the duties of representatives and collectors of the required evidence most cheerfully. The disappointment that ensued produced the inevitable result where no combination had previously existed, and the ruins of the Ridley Commission were to become the training-ground for a new army of agitation. The same influence operated everywhere. The same effect exactly was produced among the London sorters and the provincial postal clerks. These two uncombined classes had no intercourse with each other; and though there was a kinship between them it had never been recognised. They were like two tribes of one nation, but divided by seas and continents, and with no telegraphic communication between them. For all practical purposes they were almost ignorant of each other’s existence. Yet the London sorters and the provincial sorting clerks without any preconcerted signal, and unknown to each other, spontaneously gravitated towards combination, where no combination existed before. The provincial postal clerks, however, took the initiative, and it was not till some few months afterwards that the Metropolitan letter-sorters, almost unconsciously following the example of their country cousins, formed the Fawcett Association on similar lines. The formation of the Postal Clerks’ Association was preceded by the familiar secret gatherings and more or less successful attempts at belling the cat at the various offices. To engage in such forbidden enterprises in those days was, to say the least, risky; and the promoters stood to pay the penalty of their rashness at any time they might be called on.
As Liverpool had taken a prominent, if not the leading part in the first telegraphists’ agitation, and again in 1881, so once more, in the case of the postal clerks, was Liverpool to produce the man and show the way. The deplorable condition into which the postal service had fallen, so far as their working environments, their prospects and pay were concerned, roused one or two individuals among the postal clerks here to seek about for a remedy. The cries of discontent, and the calls for redress from other distant places, came to their ears like inarticulate voices in the night. From various sources it was conveyed to them that the same injustices and the same hardships they suffered from, also afflicted thousands of others of their own widely-distributed class throughout the country. The invitation to lay before the Ridley Commission evidence as to conditions and prospects immediately produced a thrill of expectancy among postal servants everywhere. From Liverpool the threads of sympathetic communication were carried to the different centres of existing discontent all over the United Kingdom, and the threads were gradually strengthened each day till they vibrated in unison.
Telegraphic communication did much, and circular letters did much towards establishing an understanding as to their aims and desire. Much of the groundwork for their plan of future action was thus roughly prepared, and it was in these circumstances that four or five of the Liverpool postal clerks one day met to discuss the situation, and decide on the methods of collecting evidence. With the object of fully ascertaining the feelings of the Liverpool men themselves, and to judge whether the future movement would be likely to be led from there, and Liverpool sustain its character for leading the van, a notice was put up in one of the retiring-rooms calling a meeting of the postal clerks to more openly discuss the matter. A meeting was held December 5, 1886, thirty only attending, however; but it was decided to form a committee of thirteen. George Lascelles, one of their number, who had actually set the little movement afoot, was elected secretary. More meetings followed in the usual course of things, and the new combination gradually became fixed and determined in its principles, shape, and character. Its dimensions and its name were from this time the only things that remained to be decided. Circulars were speedily got out inviting the co-operation of other offices, sixty-three of the larger towns being thus circularised at first. But so unknown were they to each other that these circulars had to be posted blindly, and addressed simply to the “Sorting Clerks at ⸺.” Gradually the responses came in, the identity of men willing to work in the new mission was revealed, and a human sympathy and a relationship as between new-found brothers all at once sprang into existence. Truly the Ridley Commission had not been called in vain. The men thus newly brought into touch with each other, like inhabitants suddenly coming out from the dim unknown, were invited to send a representative from each of their offices to a general conference. The conference was to be held at Liverpool, January 21. The strangers came out from the darkness; and those who at first were but names now met face to face in flesh and blood reality, the hopeful pioneers of a movement.
The conference was held, and proved an unqualified success. There was an interchange of views, and a mutual understanding of their wants, on which they were enabled to formulate a series of resolutions; and on the lines of these resolutions George Lascelles, the secretary, was authorised to draw up a general statement of evidence for the Commission then sitting.