servants by legitimate means; to prevent strikes by promoting good understanding between employers and employed; to obtain shorter hours, and more equitable payment for duty performed."
The companies, as may be imagined, were not disturbed by such pious expressions. In 1879 they imposed numerous reductions of wages because trade was described as bad, although they paid increased dividends. So much feeling was stirred in 1879 that the whole question of strike policy was re-committed to the branches, with the advice that "at the same time we are in favour of the principle of arbitration." The companies did not even deign to give an explanation of why they took the harsh course of increasing hours and reducing wages, and men chosen to represent their fellows on deputations were ruthlessly removed or dismissed from the service, and prevented from getting employment under other companies. Victimisation was therefore a very real and cruel thing. Powerful companies proved impersonal and callous, end recognised no moral obligations. The only outlook was material.
Mr. Fred W. Evans, the first effective General Secretary of the A.S.R.S., fully realised the gravity of the times, and in the circular issued to branches on the strike question, he wrote:—
"By renouncing our right to resist injustice by the resort to strikes we have disarmed in the face of the enemy, and invited him to inflict upon us the attack we have been anxious to avoid and he anxious to inflict. Strikes are justifiable when they constitute the workman's last and only means of asserting or defending his rights. . . . Like war, strikes may be both necessary and justifiable, and like war they demand organisation and sacrifice. As things now stand in the railway service the companies are all powerful, and the men are helpless, obliged to submit to any terms dictated by the companies, until the men possess the means and organisation to unitedly withhold their labour. If railwaymen are ever to be fairly treated, well paid, and not overworked, it will be when they rely on themselves, and use the means within their power ta exact respect for their labour and its rights from their employers."
