AN AVERTED CALAMITY.

NZ Truth, Issue 131, 21 December 1907, Page 8

AN AVERTED CALAMITY.

The Threatened Railway Strike. "..KING NED AS A STRIKE AVERTER, Directors Display Ductility; t BUT ARE MORE LUCRE-LOVING THAN "LOYAL."

'As news' from England, repeatedly sen r. to us by cable, made quite clear, England was, recentl*|, on the verge bf a very great strike, a strike that would have had tremendous consequences, and whose end no man eeuld foresee. .That England was profoundly stirred by the possibility of this great strike taking place was made clear enough, even by means of a cable whose statements can seldom he taken as convincing. It was alleged that the directors of the railways were quite certain of winning the fight, if it tpok place, and that there was an abundance of blacklegs—euphemistically termed "free laborers" — to take the. places of strikers. We were also informeir-tliat the majority, of railway servants did, not belong to the railway union, and that, therefore, it was absurd to think that a strike of the members of the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants could be a success. The directors were.i'eported to be CONTEMPTUOUSLY .CONFIDENT of their being able to defeat the members of the union. Yet, m spite of this alleged confidence, and the pairaded determination of the directors of the \ railway companies not to "recognise" the men's union, we were suddenly informed that the directors had come to terms with the men- This news appeared m the daily newspap-, ers. It was stated that Mr Richard' Bell had addressed a meeting of the Sphinx Club and had declared- that, as a result of a conference held with Lloyd George, and- of the King having interested himself m tlie matter of a settlement of tlie dispute? an agreement had v been arriyed at; and v the nature of this settlement would be pommunicated to the King. The settlement consisted m the establishment of a systy?fn of conciliation boards for the various groups of railway" servants. In the event of the members of the boards not being able to arrive at a settlement of any dispute that might arise, the dispute was to be referred to an arbitrator appointed by the Speaker of the House of ! Commons and the Master of the Rolls. The cablegram declared that the agreement did no,t recognise the union, but a subsequent cablegram stated that the agreement did recognise the principle of collective bargaining, and that, therefore, the unionists were satisfied. This settlement 'ofC the threatened strike was hailed as k birthday gift by the leader-writ ei;s of the AUSTRALASIAN. FLUNKEY PRESS, and much space: was devoted to praise of the King's ' 'tact" and "patriotism.", News that reaches us by the mail, however, leads us to. believe that the hearts of the Gradgriuds and Bound erbys. who for the directorates of the English railway companies, were much more affected jby .the proWab'ility of. their being badly beaten by the railway servants than by any feeling' of "loyalty" towards the King.' The British' prTjfit-monger and dividend-hunter is loyal only to his breeches pocket. His god and king is gold. If the king stood m the way ofthe profit-monger adding materially to. his profits, the latter would become a Republican to-mor-

row. The fact is that what J»¥«ught the railway directors to rea.*ea .was tlie realisation of the fact tkat the men were strong enough to win, and that public opinion was on tkeir side. In the cablegrams to Australasia it was stated that the men- who were m favor of the strike constituted a ridiculously 'small minority of the employees of the railway, companies ; but thc information received by us by the mail makes it clear that the strength ' of thc men was really very great, great enough to enable them to win. Here is what Mr Richard- Bell, the men's leader, i had to say about the matter at a meeting held at Cardiff. We take the report frohl!' " the ' ' Cardiff- Weekly News" :— ', From an address by Mr R, Bell, M.P., general secretary of the Amalgamated Society of Railway' Servants, which occupied 80 minutes m delivery, we take the following points '—There does exist throughout the whole of the United Kingdom a good deal bf excitement at this; moment. Men feel that they have griev- ; ances, and that they are oppressed, j and they are desirous that something should be done to relieve them of this pressure. They are, m consequence of •their excitement and environment,, ready for any action. (Loud cheers.) Now, I want these men to keep as calm and as cool as they can. There is nothing more likely to lead us into a catastrophe than for men to forget themselves iri moments of excitement. OUR MAXIMUM-THEIR MINIMUM. The demands, we are told, /are unreasonable ; they arc so costly, and Would- mean -the ruination, of many railways. We know that, the demands are fairly high— j( A voice.: Not at all)— but I don't think we can ..quarrel about that. (Laughter.) *\ But those deniands are our maximumThe companies' minipkum is, "We- can give you nothing."- Well, now', as reasonable men, we say, "Your minimum is too low.'.' Then they say to ns, "Your maximum is too high." Then I say, "Let vs N meet to discuss matters." (Cheers.) COMPANIES WOULD BE 'JUSTIFIED. [ If they believe that, by allowing i the men to negotiate through their. ! representatives the conditions of their I i employment, it would injure the safe- 1 ty of the travelling public, interfere j with the management of the railways, and .destroy completely the discipline of the men, then I say that the railway companies would lie absolutely justified m refusing to meet us ;' but it is because they arc under 'this misconception— if they do really believe these things— because they are really wrong m their conception of what we , mean, that we have asked them to meet us at a preliminary meeting. v. INELIGIBLE FOR MEMBERSHIP. I have gone through the list of 581---6G4 people employed on the railways of the United Kingdom, and find ; that the following, for one cause or 'another, are not eligible for membership of our organisation :— 46,227 boys, 53,676 clerks, 8799 inspectors/ 8528 stationmasters, 53,729 laborers 74,798 mechanics, and 30,049 adults m miscellaneous departments. These figures show that nearly half of the 581,000 are not eligible for membership of our union. In addition, there are 16,317 carmen, and there is a union m London for railway , carmen which has between 5000 and 6000 members. Those men are witlvus m this agitation if it comes to a strike. OF NO CONSEQUENCE ! We are told that, having only 97,---000 m our society we shall produce no effect m withdrawing these men from the service. The companies, we are told', can have a reduced service ; they cau disconnect the signal wirek and points, and work theni by hand levers. (Laughter. ) To' Withdraw 97,---000 men from the railway, service would not be noticed at all. (Renewed laughter.) MAN ON THE FOOTPLATE.. You will have , observed in 'the papers on Saturday that Mr Fox. the secretary of the Associated Society— (Cries of "Rubbish")— no,' l will try and be fair. (Applause.) I know that there aro thousands iv Fox's society who will repudiate such abatement. * . ■_ All I have to say is that if they think the Associated movement and cause is going. to succeed with conduct like that, then they are going to make a very sad mistake. Mow this J say with an enormous amount of oonfldonce— if we come /to thc time that a blow has to be struck, wo shall find thousands of associated men with us. NON-UNIONISTS WILL HELP. According to our branch secretaries there aro thousands of non-unionists who arc fully anxious to have ballot papers. Leave that to us who have to settle the whole of this .question. No one appreciates more than I do and those who are with me the splendid attitude non-unionists are showing. (Cheers.) W!hcn we have had our answer from our own members, then we shall go to others and say, "Our own members are going to do so and so— will you help us ?" And they will help us. There is nd mistake afoout that. (Cheers.) NO TURNING BACK. lam told lam too slow. It may be, but whilst I may he slow, I am I, also fairly sure. (Cheers.) In any great question I engage m, I draw out my plan, and I think over every move. I look forward to ascertain what a step, when taken, will lead to. And when 1 have examined my chessboard ami satisfied myself with my plan, and made up my mind, there is no turning back. IT this .movement is allowed to drop before you establish the' principle, of the. right of negotiating

thrqugh.your officials, depend upon it that within twelve months of- to-day there will be hundreds who will regret that ever this movement started. You will have demonstrated your weakness. DIPLOMACY NOT EXHAUSTED.; I am not going to cease m my efforts m diplomacy, to try and get this brought about. Depend upon it, even after you have filled your ballot papers up we are not going to cj.ll you immediately "m strike until we have made another, effort — (applause)—but I hope that, because I say this to-day, I must not be mistaken to be showing weakness. (Cheers.) If a rupture . does take place I shall he able to say that the railwaymen of this country and their leaders are not responsible. Two meetings were held on Sunday, September 22, at Swansea. At the second of these meetings other .officers of the Union spoke with equal emphasis as to the strength of those likely to be engaged m the strike. The meeting is thus reported :— In the evening a great meeting /of raihvaymen and other trade unionists was held m the Star Theatre. Mr J. P. Beynon, President of the Swansea Trades Council, presided, and he was supported by Messrs J. R. Bell (President ofthe A.S.R.S.), ! J. H. Thomas (organising secretary), W. C. Mitchell, G. E. Codd, Harry Williams (National Amalgamated Laborers' Union), Councillor G. Colville, J. Wignall, J.P. (Lockers' Union), E. Collier and others. In opening the proceedings, the chairman wished to announce that the labor movement m Swansea stood unitedly BEHIND THE AMALGAMATED SOCIETY of Railway Servants m this time of crisis— (cheers)— and this feeling of unity m the district of Swansea was but an indication of the greater national solidarity m this, matter, it being universally felt that the .main issue for which the directors were responsible was one of vital importance to the whole trade union movement. (Cheers.) He reviewed at length the conditions under which railway servants worked, and commented on the reasonablen%ss of their demands, strongly condemning the attitude of the directors m even refusing audiences to the men's representative. (Cheers.) If they had at the present moment adequate Labor representation m the House of Commons, one of its first duties would be to make such crises as now confronted them impossible, and the only way was the nationalisation of railways. . __„ Mr J. H. Thomas^ organising secretary, followed, and m a rousing address detailed the position of affairs. In concluding, 1 he produced a ballot paper, and asked the railwaymen, AMID PROLONGED CHEERING, to fearlessly fill it up. Mr W. C. Mitchell then moved the following motion,— "That this mass meeting of Swansea and district railwaymen regret thc arbitrary and unconstitutional attitude of the railway companies m refusing to recognise the principles of collective bargaining, and whilst we recognise the gravity ofthe E.G. decision, wn heartily endorse the same, and pledge ourselves to loyally, support any action taken to enforce our just and equitable demands." The speaker said the fact that the membership of their society now numbered 100,---000, and that members were coming m jit the rate bf , 500 'A WEEK, clearly demonstrated that railway servants had grievances which must be , remedied. ' ■ m Mr G. E. Codd seconded, and said, "Judging by the spirit which prevails and the unanimity which exists there can be no doubt of success." Mr J. R.Bell, President of the A.S.R.S., followed In support, saying he hailed from a railway where the principle of collective bargaining was recognised years ago— (Cheers)— and now he was determined to do all he could to get the principle recognised on'every railway. Mr Harry Williams, Councillor Colwill, and Mr J. Wignall, J.P., representing other Hrade unions, followed m support, /and the motion was then carried with' enthusiasm.

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