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Tom Mann's Memoirs

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Tom Mann's Memoirs ^—.T'^'T-^'^ ppDf Toronto LU^ . ^ TOM MANN'S MEMOIRS. TOM MANN'S fi^a^-Memoirs IX. 1923 THE LABOUR PUBLISHING COMPANY LIMITED 38 GREAT ORMOND STREET :: LONDON W.C. i Made and Printed in Great Britain by C. Tinlixg & Co. Ltd. 53, Victoria Street, Liverpool, and at London and Prescot. n TABLE OF CONTENTS ^/6ooK I.—EUROPE CHAP. PAGE I. CHILDHOOD AND APPRENTICESHIP , . 11 II. EARLY JOBS AND WORKMATES ... 22 III. FIRST SOCIALIST ACTIVITIES ... 37 IV. THE FIGHT FOR AN EIGHT-HOUR DAY . 59 V. THE DOCK STRIKE OF 1889 ... 82 VI. AFTER THE DOCKERS' STRIKE ... 94 VII. THE LABOUR MO^^:MENT AND THE CHURCHES 111 VIII. SECRETARYSHIP OF THE INDEPENDENT LABOUR PARTY ..... 126 IX. INTERNATIONAL LABOUR ORGANISATION . 135 X. ORGANISATION OF GENERAL WORKERS . 150 Book II.—SOUTHERN SKIES XI. NEW ZBIAXAND ..... 161 XII. FIRST YEARS IN AUSTRALIA . 178 XIII. SOCIALIST WORKERS, WRITERS, AND POETS 197 XIV. FREE-SPEECH FIGHT ..... 209 XV. NEW SOUTH WALES ; NEW ZEALAND REVISITED ...... 219 XVI. THE BROKEN HILL DISPUTE . 229 XVII. SOUTH AFRICA ...... 244 (.^BoOK III.—HOME AGAIN XVIII. INDUSTRIAL SOLIDARITY • • XIX. POLICE BRUTALITY . " " XX. THE don't SHOOT LEAFLET . XXI. TRIAL FOR INCITEMENT TO MUTINY XXII. CONCLUSION AND F.\REWELL LIST OF TOM MANN'S PUBLISHED WRITINGS OUTSTANDING DATES, ETC. INDEX )BOOK ONE—EUROPE. 11 CHAPTER ONE. Childhood and Apprenticeship. (1856 to 1880). I WAS born at Foleshill, Coventry, Warwickshire, on April 15th, 1856. I fix upon 1880, when I was twenty-four years of age, as a suitable opening date for what follows, because in this year I first began to realise that the faults of individuals, and the evils in the community, the existence of which I deplored, were not to be eUminated or cured by individuals of class and station to urging" every live godly, righteous, and sober lives." I must explain that I had only a very short time at as less all school a boy, than three years told ; about a year and a half at Foleshill Old Church Day School, and about a year at Little Heath School, Foleshill. As by this time I was nine years of age I was considered old enough to start work. My mother had died when I was two and a half years old. My father was a clerk at the Victoria so it Colliery ; was counted fitting that I should make a start as a boy on the colliery farm. A year as an ordinary kiddie doing odd jobs in the fields, bird-scaring, leading the horse at the plough, stone-picking, harvesting, and so on, and I was ready to tackle a job down the mine. I started work down the mine in the air courses. A number of men and boys were always at this work : the duties were to make and in order " " keep small roads or courses to convey the air to the respective workings in the mines. These air courses were only three feet and wide, and high" my work was to take away the mullock," coal, or dirt that the man would require taken from him 12 " " as he worked away at heading a new road, or an one. For this removal there repairing existing " were boxes known down the mine as dans," about two feet six inches long and eighteen inches wide and of a similar depth, with an iron ring strongly fixed at each end. I had to draw the rails it built box along, not on ; was sledge-like, and each boy had a belt and chain. A piece of stout material was fitted on the boy around the waist. To this there was a chain attached, and the boy would hook the chain to the box, and, on all fours, the chain between his crawling " legs," would drag the box along and take it to the gob where it would be emptied. Donkey work it certainly was. The boys were stripped to the waist, and as there were only candles enough for one each, and these could not be carried, but had to be fixed at the end of the stages, the boy had to crawl on hands and toes dragging his load along in worse than Egyptian darkness. Many a time did I actually lie down groaning as a consequence of the strain on the loins, when heavy " "especially the road was wet and clayey causing much resistance to the load being dragged. The work is now rarely done in this way. More generally a larger road is made, rails are laid, and horses the but it do pulling ; must be remembered that I am writing of a period before the Mines Regulation Act of 1872, and four years before the Education Act of 1870. I had been working at the mine about four years when a spontaneous fire broke out, and proved to be of such a serious nature that it could not be extinguished. Several attempts were made to restart work ; but every time fresh air was admitted the fire burst forth anew. At length the mine was closed altogether, and thus it remains to this day—1922. Our family, like the rest, had to leave the district. We settled in Birmingham, and I became 18 apprenticed to a tool-making firm. This was in 1870, the year the Elementary Education Act was passed. Its operation was too late to be helpful to me, as I was already in my fifteenth year when it became law, and had been at work five years. By degrees it dawned on me that I had missed in the educational I realised that something Une ; all boys under fourteen were now required to attend school. I, like other boys, very frequently had to work overtime, so the only school I could attend was Sunday School, to which I went regularly, and I became a regular churchgoer as well—at St. Thomas', Holloway Head, Birmingham. The working hours at the factory were sixty a week, but, as I have said, frequently we were called upon to work overtime, usually two hours of an evening, thus leaving at eight o'clock instead of six o'clock, and as we started punctually at six in the morning, it made a long day of it. At this time I knew nothing at all about trade unionism, but one or other of the occasionally " men would be pointed out to me as belonging to the Society." I had no clear idea as to what this signified, until, when I was sixteen, I became conscious of some kind of the " activity amongst men, particularly the Society men," which neither I nor my boy workmates could make much of. As the weeks we overheard mention " passed, of the Beehive," the trade-union paper, which, however, I have no recollection of having seen at that time. Then we heard of meetings being held. We youngsters had not so far been counted of sufficient importance to be consulted, or even informed, till we learned that the men were nego- tiating with the firm about the Nine-Hour Day. The next bit of news was indeed exciting. We learned that every person in the firm, men and boys, was summoned to a meeting. This was the first meeting of the kind I had ever attended. The 14 proceedings did not last long. The business consisted of a report from the committee that had been negotiating with the firm for the nine-hour day, or fifty-four hour week, instead of the ten-hour day and the sixty-hour week. It was proposed that all should continue to start work at six in the and leave at five in the instead morning, "evening be of of six ; also that there must penalisation overtime." This, I gathered, meant that the men would refuse to work overtime unless there was more than the ordinary time rate for it. All the proposals being endorsed, negotiations were con- tinued and completed, the firm granting the con- ditions. How truly pleased I was I need not trouble to add, and how thoroughly all enjoyed the dinner held to celebrate the event requires no further comment ! I did not know at the time that there was a general move throughout the country establishing the nine-hour day in all engineering works so it I reason ; but was, and had good to be glad of it. The reduction of working hours to nine a day, coupled with the stoppage of overtime, had a very important bearing on my life. The firm having agreed to pay extra for overtime, very astutely gave orders immediately for a considerable exten- sion of the factory, sufficient to accommodate an additional hundred men and boys. This was exactly what the men had aimed at, and I believe all were delighted at the diminution of overtime. For myself, I very rarely worked any overtime after this during the additional five years I remained there to complete my apprenticeship. Fortunately for those of my age, others who had sorely felt the need of education, had already— in co-operation with influential persons—taken action to establish evening classes in the town. Thus, at the Midland Institute, at the Severn Street Institute, and elsewhere, classes on many 15 available at i subjects were very reasonable rates. ! Three evenings a week for five years I attended classes in connection with the Science and Art Department, South Kensington. I In addition I attended a Bible class one evening a week, and found it very helpful. I shall refer to this later. Also, I went on one evening a week to the meetings of a temperance society of wliich I was a member.
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