" Zbe ippettator," guguSt 31st, 1850
THE RAILWAY STRIKE
WHETHER it take effect or not, the general strike threat- ened by railway drivers and firemen ought to be a warning to the public. The Directors of the Eastern Counties Railway have been supported in the contest with their men by the managers of other railways, who have lent contin- gents of drivers to supply the vacancies ; but a general strike would defeat that aid, and would extend the paralysis against which the Directors of the Eastern Counties, are contending to other great lines of communication. It may be said that strikes never succeed, and that in this case the men will be unable to persevere ; but there are very great distinctions between such a strike and a strike in an ordinary trade. In no trade is there any such extended and distinct unity as in the iron network. In no trade do the numbers of the workpeople approximate so nearly to the number of posts ; in no trade is there such immediate and overt relation between the supply of labour and the demand. In any factory business, for example, the number of hands is very uncertain, and not distinctly limited ; supplies of hands may be drawn from the hangers-on of the trade or from cognate trades ; a strike checks production, but there is a stock on hand which is husbanded under the stringency of an augmented price. None of these considerations hold good on the railway. The stage- coach is broken up. The posts in the service are numbered. The very organisation facilitates an insurrectionary movement.
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