From Crow-Scaring to Westminster: An AutobiographyEdwards, George, Sir
History
From Crow-Scaring to Westminster: An Autobiography
Edwards, George, Sir
George Edwards, 1850-1933
On April 25th I got the committee together again. This time they met in
the Cozens' Temperance Hotel, King's Lynn. There attended the following:
Mr. George Nicholls, M.P., President; Mr. Richard Winfrey, M.P.,
Treasurer; Messrs H. Day, J. Stibbons, T. Thacker, W. Codling, A. P.
Petch, G. Giles, M. Berry and myself. The first minute that was passed
was that my quarterly report be received and that my action in giving
support to the Trunch members out on strike be endorsed. The last part
of the resolution was not necessary as the Emergency Committee I had
called together on April 18th had decided that I should support the men,
but it was an attempt on the part of some who were not at the meeting on
the 18th to ignore the Emergency Committee, as they were opposed to my
calling the meeting; but I stuck to my guns and said I would do it again
if such an occasion arose. The malcontents, however, were determined I
should not, so they passed the following resolution on the motion of Mr.
Winfrey:--
That an Emergency Committee be formed consisting of the officers of
the Union and three other members of the Union living nearest to
the District where any dispute takes place, and that they have
power to deal with any dispute that may arise and report the same
to the next Executive Committee.
I warned them of the folly of such a resolution and told them that we
were within measurable distance of another dispute of much greater
magnitude than the one we had got on at the moment. I asked them if they
thought it was right for one or two men to commit the Union to a strike?
No one knew where it might end. The reply I received was that they were
not going to the expense of calling the committee together more than
once a quarter. Mr. Day, who was in close touch with the enormous amount
of work that was being heaped upon me and my assistant and knew that we
were utterly unable to cope with it, moved a resolution that another
organizer be appointed in order that I might devote more time to office
work. This was turned down, although the Union was going up by leaps and
bounds, which all added to the work of the Union, and we were left to
struggle on as best we could. Can it be wondered at that the matters at
the office got into a state of chaos? For it was humanly impossible for
any one person to grapple with the work, especially in a room four feet
by six feet and I never at home.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account