In due course, on October 21, 1871, a Telegraphists’ Association was formed, Manchester being the head centre; and from the moment of its inauguration three Manchester men, T. W. Mulholland, Hollingworth, and Heald, were the acknowledged leaders. Needless to say, the newly-formed association found plenty of work to do from the very start. The authorities, seemingly anticipating that there would presently be trouble among the men, had made some preparations for an emergency, and at the same time provided themselves a means by which the old company men could be discarded if they proved too importunate. In some of the larger towns selected men were made “clerks in charge.” Those who undertook the rotation were for the most part the old companies’ transferred men and others who had been engaged after the transfer, and who were beginning to smart under the conviction that they had been enticed into the service under false pretences. In their eagerness to put a foil on the prevailing discontent the authorities took into the service any one who had the barest and most rudimentary knowledge of an instrument; the halt, the lame, and almost the blind being also accepted. Though often of little use, these newly-imported men in some cases succeeded in getting higher wages than the men who did the real work. Scores of old companies’ men were getting but a pound a week or less, while ex-pupil-teachers and others were brought in from the streets and given twenty-five shillings. Such things could not but produce still further friction, and it looked as if the preference would be given to these men who were so unjustly set off against them. In fact it soon proved so in some instances, and a number of the younger of the companies’ men became so disgusted that some joined foreign cable telegraph companies, preferring to trust their future to private employers than to a Government department which could treat them so. Others went to America and were still better received. A large number of the youngsters whose fathers or relations were already in the Post-Office had been placed under tuition as learners before the transfer, and these and the others, ex-schoolmasters, &c., were induced to take little or no part in the drama. It is significant that soon after the starting of the agitation, Mr. Scudamore, the Permanent Under-Secretary, promised a new scale of classification. This promise lulled the discontent for a while; but the long-continued delay in bringing it out brought the feeling to an acute stage. The men did not let their mutterings go unheard.