RAILWAY STRIKES
By Charles Dickens
First published in Household Words, 11th January 1851
Everything that has a direct bearing on the prosperity, happiness, and reputation of the working-men of England should be a Household Word.
We offer a few remarks on a subject which has recently attracted their attention, and on which one particular and important branch of industry has made a demonstration, affecting, more or less, every other branch of industry, and the whole community; in the hope that there are a few among the intelligent body of skilled mechanics who will suspect us of entertaining any other than friendly feelings towards them, or of regarding them with any sentiment but one of esteem and confidence.
The Engine Drivers and Firemen on the North Western line of Railway - the great iron high-road of the Kingdom, by which communication is maintained with Ireland, Scotland, Wales, the chief manufacturing towns of Great Britain, and the port which is the main artery of her commerce with the world - have threatened, for the second time, a simultaneous abandonment of their work, and relinquishment of their engagements with the company they have contracted to serve.
We dismiss from consideration, the merits of the case. It would be easy, we conceive, to show, that the complaints of the men, even assuming them to be beyond dispute, were not, from the beginning of the manifestation, of a grave character, or by any means hopeless of fair adjustment. But, we purposely dismiss that question. We purposely dismiss, also, the character of the Company, for careful, business-like, generous, and honourable management. We are content to assume that it stands at no higher than the level of the very worst public servant bearing the name of railway, that the public possesses. We will suppose Mr. Glyn's communications with the men, to have been characterised by overbearing evasion, and not (as they undoubtedly have been) by courtesy, good temper, self-command, and the perfect spirit of a gentleman. We will suppose the case of the Company to be the worst that such a case could be, in this country, and in these times. Even with such a reduction of it to its lowest possible point, and a corresponding elevation of the case of the skilled Railway servants to its highest, we must deny the moral right or the justification of the latter to exert the immense power they accidentally possess, to the public detriment and danger.
We say, accidentally possess, because this power has not been raised up by themselves. If there be ill-conditioned spirits among them who represent that it has been, they represent what is not true, and what a minute's rational consideration will show to be false. It is a result of a vast system of skilful combination, and a vast expenditure of wealth. The construction of the line, alone, against all the engineering difficulties it presented, involved an amount of outlay that was wonderful, even in England. To bring it to its present state of working efficiency, a thousand ingenious problems have been studied and solved, stupendous machines have been constructed, a variety of plans and schemes have been matured with incredible labour: a great whole has been pieced together by numerous capacities and appliances, and kept incessantly in motion. Even the character of the men, which stands deservedly high, has not been set up by themselves alone, but has been assisted by large contributions from these various sources. Without a good permanent way, and good engine power, they could not have established themselves in the public confidence as good drivers. Without good business management in the complicated arrangement of trains for goods and passengers, they could not possibly have avoided accidents. They have done their part manfully; but they could not have done it, without efficient aid in like manful sort, from every department of the great executive staff. And because it happens that the whole machine is dependent upon them in one important stage, and is delivered necessarily into their control - and because it happens that Railway accidents, when they do occur, are of a frightful nature, attended with horrible mutilation and loss of life - and because such accidents, with the best precautions, probably must occur, in the event of their resignation in a body - is it, therefore, defensible to strike?
To that, the question comes. It is just so narrow, and not broader. We all know, perfectly well, that there would be no strike, but for the extent of the power possessed. Can such an exercise of it be defended, after due consideration, by any honest man?
We firmly believe that these are honest men - as honest men as the world can produce. But, we believe, also, that they have not well considered what it is that they do. They are laboriously and constantly employed; and it is the habit of many men, so engaged, to allow other men to think for them. These deputy-thinkers are not always the most judicious order of intellects. They are something quick at grievances. They drive Express Trains to that point, and Parliamentary to all other points. They are not always, perhaps, the best workmen, and are not so satisfied as the best workmen. They are, sometimes, not workmen at all, but designing persons, who have, for their own base purposes, immeshed the workmen in a system of tyranny and oppression. Through these, on the one hand, and through an imperfect or misguided view of the details of a case on the other, a strike (always supposing the great power in the strikers) may be easily set a going. Once begun, there is aroused a chivalrous spirit - much to be respected, however mistaken its manifestation - which forbids all reasoning. I will stand by my order, and do as the rest do. I never flinch from my fellow-workmen. I should not have thought of this myself; but I wish to be true to the backbone, and here I put my name among the others." Perhaps in no class of society, in any country, is this principle of honour so strong, as among most great bodies of English artisans.
But, there is a higher principle of honour yet; and it is that, we suggest to our friends the Engine Drivers and Firemen on the North Western Railway, which would lead to these greater considerations. First, what is my duty to the public, who are, after all, my chief employers? Secondly, what is my duty to my fellow workmen of all denominations: not only here, upon this Railway, but all over England?
We will suppose Engine Driver, John Safe, entering upon these considerations with his Fireman, Thomas Sparks. Sparks is one of the best men, but he has a great belief in Caleb Coke, of Wolverhampton, and Coke says (because somebody else has said so, to him) "Strike!"
"But, Sparks," argues John Safe, sitting on the side of the tender, waiting for the Down Express, "to look at it in these two ways, before we take any measures. - Here we are, a body of men with a great public charge; hundreds and thousands of lives every day. Individuals among us may, of course, and of course do, every now and again give up their part of that charge, for one reason or another - and right too! But I'm not so sure that we can all turn our backs upon it at once, and do right."
Thomas Sparks inquires "Why not?"
"Why, it seems to me, Sparks," says John Safe, "rather a murdering mode of action."
Sparks, to whom the question has never presented itself in this light, turns pale.
"You see," John Safe pursues, "when I first came upon this line, I didn't know - how could I? - where there was a bridge and where a tunnel - where we took the turnpike road - where there was a cutting - where there was an embankment - where there was an incline - when full speed, when half, when slacken, when shut off, when your whistle going, when not. I got to know all such, by degrees; first, from them that was used to it; then, from my own use, Sparks."
"So you did, John," says Sparks.
"Well, Sparks! When we and all the rest that are used to it, Engine Drivers and Firemen, all down the line and up again, lay our heads together, and say to the public, 'if you don't back us upon what we want, we'll all go to the right-about, such a-day, so that Nobody shall know all such' - that's rather a murdering mode of action, it appears to me."
Thomas Sparks, still uncomfortably pale, wishes Coke of Wolverhampton were present, to reply.
"Because, it's saying to the public, 'if you don't back us up, we'll do our united best towards being run away with, and run into, and smashed, and jammed, and dislocated, and having your heads took off, and your bodies gleaned for, in small pieces - and we hope you may!' Now, you know, that has a murdering appearance, Sparks, upon the whole!" says John Safe.
Sparks, much shocked, suggests that "it mightn't happen."
"True. But it might," returns John Safe, "and we know it might - no men better. We threaten that it might. Now, when we entered into this employment, Sparks, I doubt if it was any part of our fair bargain, that we should have a monopoly of this line, and a manslaughtering sort of a power over the public. What do you think?"
Thomas Sparks thinks certainly not. But, Coke of Wolverhampton said, last Wednesday (as somebody else said to him), that every man worthy of the name of Briton must stick up for his rights.
"There again!" says Safe. "To my mind, Sparks, it's not at all clear that any person's rights, can be another person's wrongs. And, that our strike must be a wrong to the persons we strike against, call 'em Company or Public, seems pretty plain."
"What do they go and unite against us for, then?" demands Thomas Sparks.
"I don't know that they do," replies John Safe. We took service with this company, as Individuals, ourselves, and not as a body; and you know very well we no more ever thought, then, of turning them off, as one man, than they ever thought of turning us off as one man. If the Company is a body, now, it was a body all the same when we came into its employment with our eyes wide open, Sparks."
"Why do they make aggravating rules then, respecting the Locomotives?" demands Mr. Sparks, "which, Coke of Wolverhampton says, is Despotism!"
"Well, anyways they're made for the public safety, Sparks," returns John Safe; "and what's for the public safety, is for yours and mine. The first things to go, in a smash, is, generally, the Engine and Tender."
"I don't want to be made more safe," growls Thomas Sparks. "I am safe enough, I am."
"But, it don't signify a cinder whether you want it or don't want it," returns his companion. "You must be made safe, Sparks, whether you like it or not, - if not on your own account, on other people's."
"Coke of Wolverhampton says, Justice! That's what Coke says!" observes Mr. Sparks, after a little deliberation.
"And a very good thing it is to say," returns John Safe. "A better thing to do. But, let's be sure we do it. I can't see that we good workmen do it to ourselves and families, by letting in bad un's that are out of employment. That's as to ourselves. I am sure we don't do it to the Company or Public, by conspiring together, to turn an accidental advantage against 'em. Look at other people! Gentlemen don't strike. Union doctors are bad enough paid (which we are not), but they don't strike, and leave the sick groaning in their beds. So much for use of power. Then for taste. The respectable young men and women that serve in shops, they didn't strike, when they wanted early closing."
"All the world wasn't against them," Thomas Sparks puts in.
"No; if it had been, a man might have begun to doubt their being in the right," returns John Safe.
"Why, you don't doubt our being in the right, I hope?" says Sparks.
"If I do, I an't alone in it. You know there are scores and scores of us that, of their own accord, don't want no striking, nor anything of the kind."
"Suppose we all agreed that we was a prey to despotism, what then?" asks Sparks.
"Why, even then, I should recommend our doing our work, true to the public, and appealing to the public feeling against the same," replies John Safe. "It would very soon act on the Company. As to the Company and the Public siding together against us, I don't find the Public too apt to go along with the Company when it can help it."
"Don't we owe nothing to our order?" inquires Thomas Sparks.
"A good deal. And when we enter on a strike like this, we don't appear to me to pay it. We are rather of the upper sort of our order; and what we owe to other workmen, is, to set 'em a good example, and to represent them well. Now, there is, at present, a deal of general talk (here and there, with a good deal of truth in it) of combinations of capital, and one power and another, against workmen. I leave you to judge how it serves the workman's case, at such a time, to show a small body of his order, combined, in a misuse of power, against the whole community!"
It appears to us, not only that John Safe might reasonably urge these arguments and facts; but, that John Safe did actually present many of them, and not remotely suggest the rest, to the consideration of an aggregate meeting of the Engine Drivers and Firemen engaged on the Southern Division of the line, which was held at Camden Town on the day after Christmas Day. The sensible, moderate, and upright tone of some men who spoke at that meeting, as we find them reported in The Times, commands our admiration and respect, though it by no means surprises us. We would especially commend to the attention of our readers, the speech of an Engine Driver on the Great Western Railway, and the letter of the Enginemen and Firemen at the Bedford Station. Writing, in submission to the necessities of this publication, immediately after that meeting was held, we are, of course, in ignorance of the issue of the question, though it will probably have transpired before the present number appears. It can, however, in no wise affect the observations we have made, or those with which we conclude.
To the men, we would submit, that if they fail in adjusting the difference to their complete satisfaction, the failure will be principally their own fault, as inseparable, in a great measure, from the injudicious and unjustifiable threat into which the more sensible portion of them have allowed themselves to be betrayed. What the Directors might have conceded to temperate remonstrance, it is easy to understand they may deem it culpable weakness to yield to so alarming a combination against the public service and safety.
To the Public, we would submit, that the steadiness and patriotism of English workmen may, in the long run, be safely trusted; and that this mistake, once remedied, may be calmly dismissed. It is natural, in the first hot reception of such a menace, to write letters to newspapers, urging strong-handed legislation, or the enforcement of pains and penalties, past, present, or to come, on such deserters from their posts. But, it is not agreeable, on calmer reflection, to contemplate the English artisan as working under a curb or yoke, or even as being supposed to require one. His spirit is of the highest; his nature is of the best. He comes of a great race, and his character is famous in the world. If a false step on the part of any man should be generously forgotten, it should be forgotten in him.
Contribution by Duncan Fowler
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