Sir Albert Rollit said: “The Tweedmouth Committee was a one-sided tribunal; the officials were represented on it, but the men not at all….”
Captain Norton replied: “The Right Honorable Gentleman had also referred to the question of Members on both sides of the House coming to him for protection. That was very startling, because the reason they were there at all was that they might represent every section of their constituents,[206] … but presuming the Post Office servants were organized, he submitted they were within their rights to appeal to their Members…. If the postal officials were such terrible tyrants he hoped they would take note that they could never hope for fair play from the present Government. The Right Honorable Gentleman had appointed a packed jury of five individuals to deal with a fraction of the question…. In other words, he was going to take shelter behind this bogus committee…. He was going to appoint five Members, possibly sweaters, to determine the rate of wages…. It would be astounding if the postal officials accepted any such bogus arbitration. If it was to be a Board of Arbitration, why should not they have five postal servants added to the five employers of labor?” Captain Norton is a Junior Lord of the Treasury in the present Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman Ministry.
On May 17, 1903, the National Joint Committee of the Postal Association unanimously resolved: “That this National Joint Committee views with extreme dissatisfaction the appointment of a Court of Inquiry which is not composed of members of Parliament, but is an altogether irresponsible body, and protests against the scope of the inquiry being limited to a single grievance and to a minority of the Staff. It pledges itself to continue to use every legitimate endeavor to obtain an impartial Parliamentary Committee of Inquiry into the causes of discontent in the postal and telegraph service.[207]
In August, 1903, the Postmaster General appointed a “Committee to inquire into the adequacy of the wages paid to certain classes of the postal servants.” The Committee consisted of: Sir Edward Bradford, until lately Chief Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police; Mr. Charles Booth, a Liverpool Merchant, and the author of “The Life and Labor of the People in London;” Mr. Samuel Fay, General Manager of the Great Central Railway; Mr. Thomas Brodrick, Secretary of the Co-operative Wholesale Society, Manchester; and Mr. R. Burbridge, Managing Director of Harrod’s Stores.[208]
FOOTNOTES:
[182] Who’s Who, 1903, Woods, Sam’l., M. P. for S. W. Lancashire, 1892 to 1895; M. P. (R.) for Walthamstow, Essex, 1897 to 1900; President of Lancashire Miners’ Federation; Vice-President of Miners’ Federation of Great Britain; Secretary of Trade Union Congress since 1894.
[183] Hansard’s Parliamentary Debates, February 18, 1898, p. 1,107 and following.
[184] Compare also Hansard’s Parliamentary Debates, April 22, 1874, p. 958 and following, and June 1, 1874, p. 797 and following. Parliamentary Papers, 1874, vol. IV: A Bill to Relieve Revenue Officers from remaining Electoral Disabilities; and 37 and 38 Victoriæ, c. 22: An Act to Relieve Revenue Officers from remaining Electoral Disabilities.