These recommendations the Tweedmouth Committee made in order to meet the complaints advanced by the Post Office employees that the falling off in the rate of increase of the business of the telegraph branch had caused a slackening in the flow of promotion.
The remaining recommendations of the Tweedmouth Committee it is not necessary to enumerate; suffice it to say, that the Postmaster General, the Duke of Norfolk, advised the Government to accept all of the Committee’s recommendations, with the statement that, on the basis of the staff of 1897, the cost of carrying out the recommendations would begin with $695,000 a year, and would rise ultimately to $1,375,000. That estimate related to both branches of the Post Office, the postal branch and the telegraph; no separate estimates were made for the several branches.
The Government accepts the Committee’s Recommendations
The Lords Commissioners of Her Majesty’s Treasury accepted the Postmaster General’s recommendations, and directed the Financial Secretary of the Treasury, Mr. R. W. Hanbury, to write as follows to the Postmaster General.
“It has, of course, been necessary for my Lords to consider very carefully proposals involving so large an increase of expenditure in a single Department at one time, and they have duly weighed the reasons which the Committee adduces in support of its conclusions. While many of the proposals appear to be abundantly justified by the considerations put forward, there are others which my Lords would have hesitated to accept on any authority less entitled to respect than that by which they are supported. But, my Lords readily acknowledge the exceptional competence of the Committee to pronounce a judgment on the question which came before it, and the great care with which the inquiry has been conducted. They also note that the conclusions represent the unanimous opinion of the Committee, and that they are, in all cases, endorsed by your Grace. They have therefore decided, in view of the weight of authority by which your recommendations are supported, to accept them as they stand, and they authorize you to give effect to them as from the first of April next. They have adopted this course from a strong desire to do full justice to one of the largest and most important services of the State, and because they feel that the settlement now effected must be accepted as permanently satisfying all reasonable claims on the part of the classes included in its terms. The only condition which my Lords desire to attach to their acceptance of your proposals is that the annual increments of pay should, in all cases, be dependent on the certificate of a superior officer, that the conduct of the recipient during the preceding year has been satisfactory.”
Sir A. K. Rollit demands a Committee of Business Men
The recommendations of the Tweedmouth Committee went into effect on April 1, 1897. On July 16, 1897, while the House of Commons was in Committee of Supply, Sir Albert K. Rollit moved the reduction of the salary of the Postmaster General by $5,000.[178] Sir Albert Rollit said: “The Amendment was intended to reflect upon the report of the Tweedmouth Committee, rather than upon either the Government or the Post Office Department, for he thought more might be done to remedy the abuses which were known [shown?] to exist in the course of the report itself. To speak of the Post Office as a revenue earning machine was, in his opinion, not a full or adequate description. He shared to the full the opinion that its first object was to give facilities to the public rather than merely to earn profits, and also to do justice to its employees…. There were grievances which had not been redressed by the report, and the House had a great deal more to do in that direction. It was no answer to say that the Treasury had appropriated a large sum of $695,000 for that very purpose, for after all, what did the appropriation amount to? It only amounted to a rectification of the inadequacies of the past. It was not in London alone, but throughout the United Kingdom, that something like chronic discontent existed. The complaints were loud and widespread. He did not at all agree as to the propriety of the course intimated [by the telegraphists] by way of notice to the Postmaster General, that if the grievances were not redressed, over-time work at night would be suspended [i. e. the telegraphists would refuse to work over-time in order to compel the Government to redress their grievances]. That was an extreme remedy in cases where the public convenience and service were concerned; but, after all, every man’s labor was his own right, and if there were no disposition to remedy present grievances, even that extreme way of trying to bring about a remedy might possibly have to be resorted to. The Treasury was, of course, a barrier to a good deal. He did not say the heads of a Department did not value as much as he might do pecuniarily the services of those who contributed to the joint effect which he and they made for the public advantage, and if we had a splendid Civil Service in this country, he thought it had one great defect, and that was too glaring disproportion between the salaries of the highest officials and those of the lower, and this proportion might well be redressed.”
Sir Albert Rollit said he could not enumerate all the grievances, he would have to confine himself to the enumeration of the worst ones. He began by endorsing the contention of the telegraphists that everybody should rise automatically to a salary of $1,000 a year. The establishment of the “efficiency bars” he said, “was really a violation of the contract with the telegraph operators, and was a grave and gross injustice to them.” He maintained, also, that the Committee’s recommendation that the payment for Sunday labor be reduced from double rates to a rate and a half was “a material alteration of the contract under which servants entered the Department.” He supported the contention of the State employees that it was a grievance that some of the employees had to take their annual vacation in the winter months. “The postmen had asked that the Christmas boxes [contributions from the public] be abolished, $26 a year being added to the wages as a compromise. Evidence had been given that $1.25 a year was the real value of the Christmas boxes, but the Committee said there should be no solicitation for Christmas boxes, and no compensation for their loss.” “He hoped that a statement of grievances, which were provoking the strongest possible feeling, with disadvantage to the efficiency of the Post Office, would be listened to. He was extremely glad to recognize that the Postmaster General had been willing to receive two deputations—one on June 15, which had not yet been replied to, and one yesterday. But he would urge upon the Department and the Government that the real remedy for this strong and wide discontent was the appointment of an independent Committee, because the decision of such a tribunal composed not of officials, but of practical business men, who would perhaps have more sympathy with men in the lower grades of the service, would be loyally accepted, and thus the public would be advantaged and contentment restored to a service which was of great value to the country.” [“Hear, hear.”]
Mr. R. W. Hanbury, who, as Financial Secretary to the Treasury, represented in the House of Commons the Postmaster General, the Duke of Norfolk, replied: “that throughout the discussion some facts had been more or less left out of sight. Honorable Members ought to recollect, in the first place, that the Tweedmouth Committee gave universal satisfaction when it was appointed. It was then agreed that it was the right kind of Committee; and that the right kind of men were appointed to serve upon it. There was no preponderance of Treasury opinion upon the Committee. In fact, the only Treasury official sitting upon it was Sir Francis Mowatt. There was on it a high representative of the Post Office, and the officials of a Department were not as a rule anxious to cut down the salaries of their subordinates. Their tendency would rather be to recommend an increase in salaries. There was also on the Committee a representative of the Labor Department of the Board of Trade, who was particularly well qualified to give an opinion as to the proportion which the wages of the postal and telegraph employees bore to the wages of persons doing corresponding work outside the Post Office. Therefore the Committee was a very efficient body, and through its recommendations the salaries of the officials had already been increased by $700,000 a year, and the increase would amount to something like $1,250,000 a year in the next few years. The Treasury had accepted every recommendation of the Committee, whose suggestions had been adopted wholesale. There was no ground for complaint, therefore, in that direction.”