HOW LONDON WAS "HELD UP" BY THE DOCKERS

Southland Times, Issue 16843, 20 September 1911, Page 2

HOW LONDON WAS "HELD UP" BY THE DOCKERS

INCIDENTS OF THE STRIKE. THE AUSTRALIAN TRADERS. LONDON, 11 tli August, The three great London markets in which food supplies from Australasia are ordinarily concentrated—Covent Garden, Tooley-stveet and Smithfield—presented an extraordinary spectacle during the strike of the dock men and carriers. The collapse of the trade took place within 48 hours. Few attempts were made to replace the workers with non-union Ir' our. Tile wholesale dealers, who usually conduct their operations in the style and spirit of military commanders, sat in their offices like men in prison. Policemen patrolled Tooley-street as though it contained a branch of the Mint. Rut they found nothing to do. The strikers had won there instantly. The butler market is only a huge trade conduit. It depends almost hourly on supplies corning in on the adjacent river. And'the Thames had become as quiet as a mill pond. The docks and wharfs were deserted. No traffic of any kind was seen between London-brldge and the Tower-bridge which is generally one of the busiest spots in England. Five days after the beginning of tire strike there-we: lie steamers along the river below Tower-bridge awaiting discharge of their cargo. Food had come from Australia, New Zealand, the Argentine, the United States, the Mediterranean ports, Denmark and elsewhere, but there was nobody to receive it or to handle it. The duck workers of all classes soon gained the wage Increases for which they bad struck, but they remained out day by day in order to help others allied with them. Business at Covent Garden was paralysed as quickly as that at Tooley-street, ami the conditions at Smithfield were but little better. Almost the whole of London’s 7,000,000 inhabitants would have been reduced nearly to starvation point when the carriers * joined the strike if the minor wholesale houses in the suburbs and the retail sh oy : were not provided with their usual week’s reserve supply of the principal articles of, food. Ice (of which London needs at least COOO tons daily during the summer) and green fruit gave out first; then came difficulties In getting coal, butter and cheese, beef and mutton, poultry and other tilings. The cold stores at Smithfield held hundreds of tons, and the ships on the river thousands of tons, of ni'at, hut for the time it was as Inaccessible to the consumers as though it were at Melbourne or Buenos Ayres. The price of the available supplies doubled within four days. The domestic industrial war afforded an Illustration, both swift and unmistakable. of the fate that might easily overtake London through an interruption of sea-borne supplies during a naval war. It was also a remarkable proof of what even the least skilled section of the English workers can accomplish 'by perfect organisation. For the first time the whole of the ne-n who work the Port of 1-ondon and handle the food supplies were combine*! in a solid mass. The Transport Workers’ Federation, of LOO, 000 members, had London’s seven millions at its mercy. Three men—Air Harry Gosling, the chief organiser; Mr Ben Tillett. the secretary of the federation, and Mr Godfrey, the leader of the curriers —managed the strike from an oftiee at Tower Hill. But their influence was at no lime absolute. Here, as in trade disputes which have taken place at several other distributing centres In England, the strikers exhibited an Inclination to control their managers and prevent them from pursuing the old methods of order and’moderation. Mr Gosling and his colleagues found that they could not prevant displays of violence and intimidation, and when they saw Hi,at the men were succeeding they were quite ready to relax their authority and shout with the majority. The strikers were undoubtedly encouraged by the

customary umvillingnes-, of the Home Secretary, backed up on this occasion by the President of the Board of Trade, to prevent open breaches of the law. Everyone who studied the Trade Disputes Act when it was under discussion in 190G foresaw what "peaceful persuasion" by strikers under that law would mean in practice, it has meant in every instance of late—at Manchester. Hull, South Wales, Southampton and other places—dangerous disorder and defiance of common rights: ami in all of these cases the failure of the law has been accompanied by reluctance of the Government which passed it to take early steps for the prevention of violence. The produce trade of London had an experience of pure mob law before the helpless police were able to make out a case for the calling of military assistance. Day after day, before this stage was reached, the strikers were permitted to overturn vans in the streets, and generally to pursue tactics similar to those which, in countries where the people are more excitable —as in the United States, for example—lead to bloodshed. “Peaceful persuasion” by strike pickets of the new typo has, in fact, become the farce that everyone expected it would prove. A comment on the liberties permitted under the Trade Disputes Act was seen in a threat made ’by Mr Will Thorne, a member of the House of Commons, to the effect that if any non-union men should be rash enough to attempt unloading work at the docks, they would be pitched into the river. It was impossible to justify violence by any argument as to provocation or necessity. The complete organisation of the men ensured their early success. In the main, too, they deserved to win on- the merits of their cause, because the majority of them —and the carters in particular —had been both underpaid and overworked. But the port trade of London will suffer under the new conditions. The permanent charges will have to be increased In order to meet the extra cost of labour. “One thing that the strikers, their leaders and the arbitrators seem to have ignored,” says a member of the Shipping Federation, “is that seventenths of the! trade of London Is a distributing trade. Large cargoes of jute, oil, seeds, beans, hemp and alb sorts of fibres and wool come to the port, but London sees practically nothing of them. They go straight out again. Shippers find it convenient to bring them to and distribute them .from London because of the banking facilities here. Now we are not in a position to compete , favourably with other ports in that class of trade. It will be to a large extent lost, and its loss will be a serious blow to all connected with, the docks, men and masters alike. If, there are strikes in ports of protected countries the masters can simply concede the demands of the men and clap on the difference'to the prices, for they have a protective ‘ring’ to help them. But here there is a limit beyond which we cannot go in raising wages and lessening hours.” Thus we come back to England’s tariff problem, which presents itself at every attempt to better the conditions of the worker. The workers themgelves have proved during the last few years that they are incapable of taking long views on economic questions. Their present attitude is partly to be accounted for by the growth of Socialism and by reckless party speeches of the "Limehouse” variety. A feature of the general labour unrest in England is hostility to the conciliation boards. This is now especially marked among the railway employes. It has been shown very clearly by the proceedings during the strike on the Lancashire and Yorkshire railway. " Aye have'had enougli of conciliation boards,” said one of the leaders of the men at Liverpool. We are going to formulate our own demands, and put them before the different companies. Wages are worse than they were fifteen years ago. .While the cost of living has Increased 17 per cent, and wages by 13 per cent., the wages of the Lancashire and Yorkshire men have gone up 6d per week, and have been reduced by 1/6. Conciliation boards are absurd, and we have finished with them. Isn’t that the opinion of Liverpool?” he asked, and the reply was thundered out, “ Yes.” Mr J. H. Thomas, organising secretary of the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants, thinks that the men may get out of hand and precipitate a general railway strike throughout the country. “ Discqntent,” he says, .’* has been steadily growing among all grades of railway workers. Our membership la at present 100,000. New members have been coming in at an unprecedented rate during the past three months, and so many have joined during the last few weeks that. In addition to this 100,000, there are a great many whom the central office of the society have been simply unable to register so far. The rush has been too great to keep pace with them.” He contends that the conciliation boards consistently favour the employers, and that even when a decision is given for the men there are irritating delays In bringing it into effect.—” Age” Correspondent.