Page:Engines and men- the history of the Associated Society of Locomotive Engineers and Firemen. A survey of organisation of railways and railway locomotive men (IA enginesmenhistor00rayniala).pdf/100

 being thus raised for the help of those members who were not yet in benefit with the Society when they became involved in the strike. To these members was paid a sum not exceeding 12s. weekly. It was a splendid and honourable record for a young Society whose total funds were little over £7,000 at the time of this unexpected fight.

Mr. Parfitt told me an interesting incident that occurred some months later in connection with that strike. A G.W. driver from Aberdare was proceeding to lodgings at a foreign station when he met a former G.W.R. man who acted as blackleg on the Midland. The latter greeted the Aberdarian and held out his hand. The man from Aberdare did not speak or respond. Instead, he put down his basket and tea-can, and taking hold of his top-coat, which he carried over his arm, he turned it inside out, picked up his basket and tea, and walked silently on. The offender sharply realised that to fight against one set of men was to injure all.

Continuous attempts have been made to blame the Associated Society for this strike, and it was maligned for its own kindliness to its victims. No other society came out so generously, but it never endorsed the strike, nor incited it, nor even discussed it until the fourth day of its procedure, when other systems were urging men in to defeat the struggling men of the Midland. The fall lived in the memory of Midland men for twenty years, and in 1903 one exclaimed, "If any man says strike to me, I'll strike him on the head with a coal hammer." New strength has risen since then, and the whole Midland system has paused nine days without victimisation, without the possibility of one single man coming from other systems, and without suffering to a single member. Such is the value of industrial organisation.

The Society sacrificed, as I have shown, to assist the unfortunate, and this had two effects. It brought the reserve funds running down, and it sent the list of members running up. All over the country drivers and firemen noticed this first test of a Protection Fund, and saw it was something real in time of need. They saw the further lesson of national claims and united action, and began to move beyond the sectional view.