The Executive could hardly do any other. On the Midland at the time they met were some who refused to strike, and some firemen taking the places of drivers, while drivers from other systems were being sent to help the Midland defeat the men. It was impossible for a Society of Locomotive Engineers to endorse such a state of affairs. They had not sanctioned, or sought, or encouraged the strike, but they could not have any of their members black-legging the regular drivers during the struggle.
The consequences of this unofficial and misdirected strike were disastrous, and the general register of the Society is a pathetic record of members who were never re-instated.
"The necessity for combination," wrote Mr. Sunter some months later," was never more fully illustrated than in the recent dispute with the Midland Company. If the men had belonged to our Society it would not have resulted in a strike, because the Company, realising the men's potency, would not venture to impose upon them such conditions. The statement that the Society encouraged the men to strike is not true. The Society did not encourage the men to strike, nor pay strike pay, but under the rules the Society paid out in out-of-work pay to 402 members £1,685 16s.; 56 members were assisted abroad at a cost of £261 10s., and six delegates who were discharged were allowed £100 each under the rules-£600."
The Midland strike cost the new Society something like £3,000, and a tribute of admiration is due to the committee for the generous manner in which it sought to bring the very best results out of a sad blunder by other people. There was no direct approach to companies by the Society then, because Trade Unions were not recognised. Amongst the delegates victimised by discharge for having taken part as a deputation to represent their fellow-workers at Derby were John Harrison, of Openshaw Branch, and Thomas Ball, of Nottingham Branch. To these and four others was paid a sum of £100 and 15s, weekly during unemployment. The Society also made an appeal to its branches for subscriptions, a fund
