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/55



Our Society—The A.S.R.S. and the Strike—The Change in 1880—Victimisation and Revolt—A Famous Letter—The First Branches—First Executive Meetings—Strike and Victimisation Pay.

RIOR to 1880, apart from the North Eastern drivers' action the efforts of organised railwaymen had been confined to methods of appeal. So far as Parliament was concerned. Mr. Bass and a few friends acted as spokesmen, strictly within limits of course, and outside Parliament the scope of action was chiefly the scope of talk and persuasion. The strike weapon was officially rejected because it was feared, and at delegate meetings it west discussed and talked out. The assembly at Birmingham Delegate Meeting of the A.S.R.S. in October, 1877, illustrates the difficulty. An attendance of 130 delegates included 30 engine drivers, 20 goods guards, and signalmen, clerks, firemen, inspectors, porters, platelayers, foremen, carmen, fitters, time-keepers, carpenters, blacksmiths, carriage washers, examiners, policemen, and gatemen. Was this a Trade Union? There was a lack of common understanding, because there was a lack of knowledge of each other's conditions, and meetings came and went without effect. There were, of course, those who advocated strike action, and it was discussed at Leeds in 1879, when the President declared he had never known arbitration to fail. An effective reply was made to this that it had never failed because it had never been tried, and the companies would not recognise them. The objects of the A.S.R.S. were stated to be "to improve the conditions of all classes of railway