ENGLISH COAL STRIKE 525 



The Knox Case, 1912. In December 1912 a serious strike took place on the North 

 Eastern railway over the case of Driver Knox, leading temporarily to a complete local 

 dislocation of traffic and much injury to industry. Knox, who was a main-line driver, 

 had been arrested at Newcastle on October 26 for being drunk and disorderly and 

 assaulting the police* and when brought before the magistrates was fined five shillings 

 for being drunk, though the charge of assault was dismissed. He was off duty at the 

 time, but the company naturally took a serious view of such a conviction in the case 

 of a man who was liable to be responsible for the safety of a passenger-train, and he 

 was reduced in rank to that of driver of a pilot-engine only. He had apparently 

 thought that no notice would be taken by the company, and had paid the fine and 

 not appealed against the conviction; but when he was reduced in rank he protested 

 that he had been wrongly convicted, and his case was taken up by the local branches 

 of the men's union at Newcastle, Gateshead and elsewhere, their claim being that 

 the company had no right to take cognisance of a man's action when off duty. Their 

 demand that Knox should be reinstated was refused on public grounds by the company, 

 and on December 6 the men decided to strike. The situation was altogether anomalous, 

 since the strike was carried out without the sanction of the officials of the union, without 

 legal notice, and contrary to the agreement made with the company for referring all 

 disputes to a conciliation board; but by December 8 thousands of railwaymen at 

 Newcastle, Gateshead, South Shields and other neighbouring centres had gone out, 

 and the whole service was disorganised. It quickly became apparent that a settlement 

 depended on whether Knox's conviction for drunkenness represented a serious offence 

 or not. As matters stood the company were bound to treat it as one, but if he could 

 show that an error had been committed they were prepared to reinstate him. For 

 this purpose an appeal was made by Knox to the Home Office, and on the roth of 

 December the Home Secretary sent Mr. Chester Jones, one of the London police 

 magistrates, to Newcastle to hold an official enquiry. He began to take evidence on 

 the 1 2th, and issued his report on the i4th. It was shown that Knox was not quite 

 sober on the occasion in question, and had been refused admission to a tramcar, with 

 the result that an altercation took place, in which he had been roughly handled by the 

 police; but the evidence was by no means satisfactory, and Mr. Chester Jones, in the 

 circumstances, came to the conclusion, on the main point at issue, that Knox was not 

 really either " drunk or disorderly " or " drunk and incapable " or even " drunk at 

 all in the police-court sense." This being so, the Home Secretary announced that 

 Knox would be granted a free pardon; and as this result wiped all the proceedings out 

 the company immediately reinstated him. It was agreed that the strikers should re- 

 sume their old places, which they had forfeited by their breach of agreement, on paying 

 a week's wages as a fine, while the company paid compensation to the new men .they 

 had taken on during the strike; and on these terms the whole affair came to an end on 

 December 16 with a minimum of further dissatisfaction. 



The National Coal Strike of 1912. In December 1910 a strike began at the Cambrian 

 Combine Collieries (of which Mr. D. A. Thomas was managing director), owing to the 

 failure of the two referees (representing owners and men) appointed by the South 

 Wales Conciliation Board to agree upon a tonnage price for the working of a seam at 

 the Ely Pit, which had till then been worked on day-work. The rates offered by the 

 owners were denounced by the strike committee as a " starvation " wage; but the 

 strike was really a forward move on the part of the younger extremists among the 

 men, who had obtained the upper hand and were influenced by socialistic doctrines. 

 A general lock-out of the men working in other seams in the Ely Pit was the masters' 

 reply. The Welsh socialists then sent delegates to enlist sympathy among the English 

 and Scottish miners elsewhere, and to try to bring about a general strike; but the: 

 leaders of the Miners' Federation of Great Britain were not prepared to support the 

 action of the Ely Pit strike committee, and financial support was withdrawn, so that 

 the strike collapsed. But the propaganda which started in connection with it had an 

 influence on what followed. 



