The contest for organisers led to vacancies on the Executive, of which Mr. Geo. Moore was made President. Mr. F. Robotham, of Swansea, came on for South Wales; Mr. W. Chapman, of Doncaster, for the North Midland; and Mr. Clarken, of Nottingham, for the Midlands. The quarrel between the Societies found reflection in the Press as well as in branch-rooms. There was a projected libel action against a Bolton paper, and many resolutions from branches. Most of them "supported Mr. Fox," but Stratford and a few others protested against Mr. Fox's reported speeches, and called for a better spirit. The Executive passed a special resolution on the matter, recording that it had not received any invitation from the A.S.R.S. to sanction an all-grades movement according to the Federation Scheme Clause A. They held that in making his statements Mr. Fox was acting with a sole desire to promote the best interests of the Society, and they expressed implicit confidence in him.
The storm, however remote it may seem now, was real enough at the time, and it had serious effect in South Leeds. The attention of the Labour Party Executive was drawn to damaging remarks in the "Railway Review," and the assistance of the Trade Union Congress Parliamentary Committee was invoked to check the campaign. Delegate meetings of the A.S.R.S. had been held on October 5th and 19th, and then on October 20th, at the Euston Theatre, London, Mr. Fox delivered a speech which caused them further annoyance, and their committee declared: "We cannot proceed further with this scheme owing to this breach of confidence by the General Secretary of the A.S.L.E. & F." The unexpected happened, for early in 1908, Sir J. Lawson Walton died, and Mr. Fox found himself launched into a bye-election for South Leeds, under the hot resentment of A.S.R.S. members for his alleged indiscretions. However fully justified he may have been, the result of this difference was a foregone conclusion. The election was fought and lost, and, said Mr. Fox: "It is to be regretted that the slander, falsehoods, and trickery of the supporters of the supposed railway crisis should have allowed a difference between two Societies
