The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1868-09-12 00:00:00

THE CAB-STRIKE IN LONDON.

The ranks of the unprivileged cab-drivers were
coneiderably augmented on Tuesday, but the number
of seceesionists was only a mere fraction of the estimate
formed by the Hackney Carriage Proprietors' Associa-
tion on the previous evening. There is still a fair
supply of cabs at the varione railway stations, an the
inconvenience to which travellers are being subjected is
not so serious as might have been expected. At
Cluiring-cros.s, which has been abandoned by about
thirty drivers, broughanis have bieß placed on tne
stand. Other railway companies have also provided,
noire or lees, against any possible contingency ;
but the opinion entertained by the men Inn strike
is that if they succeed in bringing the privileged
drivers, or even the majority of them, to their eide,
any attempt on the part of the railway companies to
resist their demands must necessarily be abortive
Referring to this foolish "strike," The Times
remarks :
The London Cab Strike should have occurred in Dablin.
There is a spice of humour, nod to say absurdity, about the
proceeding which is above the conception of matter-of-fact
Englishmen. The men are striking again 4 the wrong people,
in a wrong fashion, and fir a purpose which, if it could ever
be effected, would certainly do them no good. They have left
their work by way of practical protest against what they
term "railway monopoly " unit privileged cabs." They desire
that their cabs, now excluded from railway stations, should
be admitted to them on an equal footing with the cabs
now "privileged" to stand there by special licence from
the Railway Companies, and, their demands having been re-
flised by the Directors, they have struck, not aminst the
Directors, but against the public.. They have a grievance,
as they fancy, in not being allowed to ply for hire within the
railway precincts at Pail :mgt. and Charing-cross, and so
they refuse to take a 1.110 from Piccadilly to Bromide°. All
this while the only 1011SillOSS which it concerns the strikers to
interrupt is going till without interruption, while the busi-
ness against which they have no complaint, and by which
they get their bread, is brought to a standstill. . . .
The cabmen are striving to art upon the public in hopes
that the public may act upon the Railway 'hoards. But how
are the Railway Boards—never over-sensitive bodies—to feel
this coercion? There was an Irish story lill -en Mai might
suggest all answer to the question An absentee landlord
was apprised icy his agent of the menaces—amounting to
murder—expressed by his emisperated tenants. ''Sir," was
the reply, ''ii those rascals think that by threatening to
shoot you they can intimidate me, they are very- much mis-
taken." We may cmilidently anticipate equal fortitude on
the present neeaElloll from Our friends the Directors. They
are not altogether unaccustomed to the cries of the public,
and we can hardly suppose they will take the responsibility
of sufferings which they are not intlictinr. If the Strike—
which is impossible—were to last these three months, the
metropolitan railways would hardly feel it In the meantime
the ordinary easterners of cabmen are learning how to do with-
out cabs, and the rival promietors of clarences, broughams,
carts, alld omnibuses are retlning an abundant harvest.
supposing, however, for argument's sake, that the purpoi,e
of the Strike could lie accomplished, and that a branch of
the trade now limited toil select number of cabs were thrown
open to all, who would be the gainers—the drivers of the
cabs or the owners? tin cabman s work wen, known to he
worth a shilling a day more than before, would Inc be allowed
to pocket that shilling, or WOUIII it go to his master? That
question would he worth discussion at the next open-air
meeting, unless, indeed, the men should arrive hi the mean-
time at abetter comprehension of their position. Nothing
can show the i ilefinSeqUellee of their proceedings more than the
arguments they advance, for these arguments in the main
have nothing to do witlt the grievances alleged or the
object pursued. If the cab duty is oppressive, that
is not the doing of the Railway companies ; if fodder
is dear, it will net he made cheaper by refusing to take a
fare to a railway station ; if times are bad, they will not lie
made better by abstaining froui work. We have purposely
said nothing of a very important consideration—the legality
of this strike under the present Cab Acts—but the men will
surely see, as the public will surely feel, that the privileged
system is deriving a geeing justification from the present
proceedings. r" this we owe it that the inconvenience
suffered by the popubab al the uietropolis is partial instead
of complete. The only cabs now doing their duty to the
public are the cabs under agreement with the Railway Com-

panics, and there will be more disposition, we sudp,t, to
see this example extended than to get it aboliAied. Nothing
is more likely than that the Acts of Parliament now ruling
the cab trade should In subjected to revision, but it is 11 no ,
moms sop, obable that the changes introduced woc)d be to I
the satisfaction of the present race of cabmen.