The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1893-12-01
LONDON'S FREE PORTERa
The Trouble That Came to an An
cient English Organization.
For Six Centuries the Order Had Econ
In the Ascendant, But It Was
Finally Routed Out and
Overthrow.

III LCuOOu, duO IOIty Iutu WCIC LII ACo
out of building on Rose street, near
the Thames. by twenty policemen.
which would seem to indicate that
each of the forty was but half . man
The forty men, indeed, were not in
good fettle, for they were starving,
and, although starving men fight hard,
as was shown by the recent huge coal
strike in England, still these forty
evicted men could hardly have expected
to successfully resist twenty well-fed
London policemen, especially when
they knew that if they did overcome
them there were hundreds of other
peelers in reserve.
whose full name is, or was: THE Fell
lowship of Free Porters of the Port of
London" This order was founded in
the thirteenth century. says the De-
troit Free Press, and from that time
until twenty-one years ago they and
they alone had the sole right of I'M
loading ships that came to London.
They held for centuries monopoly
that they rigidlv enforced. No one
not a member could get job at the
port of London. Whether they abused
their monopoly or not / can't say, but
the chances are they did. Anyhow.
such a monopoly must have had a re-
tarding effect on the growth of a great
seaport, and in 1872, after years Of agi-
tation, an act was passed in parlia-
ment abolishing the monopoly Of tho
fellowship porters. They had their
inning for centuries; now came their
outing, which they found far from
pleasant.
When the order was thrown out Of
work it was supposed the members
would have the same chance of earn
ing "a living that anyone else has But
every age has its own peculiar monop-
olies, and the unfortunate porters ran
against those of the nineteenth
century. The trades unions absolutely
barred the porters from every occupa-
ton, even street sweeping, which is
one of the close corporations of Lon
don. The fellowship porters thus
found themselves shut out from every
means of earning living. The trades
unions said to them: "You fellows
had soft snap for six hundred years.
That ought to satisfy you. It's our
turn now"
The corporation Of London was or
dered by the government to wind up
the Order of Fellowship PorterA
The unluclsy porters lived on hope.
for their order was comparatively rich,
owning about one hundred thousand
dollars in cash, besides valuable prop
erty in London. This should have been
divided among the porters long ago
The membership is not large now and
the property of the company would
keep them all in comfort. It belongs
to them, for each porter during all tho
centuries had to contribute part of his
earnings to the order. Now the curl
Gus fact comes up that the order in its
prosperous days never contemplated
the possibility of its being abolished
So no provision was made for the sup
port of its members or the dividing of
the spoil. If this had been done there
would now be no trouble. But-and it
sounds like irony now to tho starving
men-it has the power to provide .
first-class funeral for Q member who
dies.
The order is governed by court Of
rulers" a governor and deputy gov.
ernor. The court Of rulers" consists
of three persons, one elected by tho
porters and two by the two corn ex-
changes The alderman for Billings
gate is, by virtue of his aldermanship,
the governor Of the fellowship porters,
SO, coming from such quarter of Lon
don, he was doubtless just the man to
appreciate the bad language of the
men on the delay N winding up. The
court of rulers meet on the second
Tuesday of every month at the build
ing of the order in Rose street. They
have nothing whatever to do now ex-
cept to sign a check for the burial ex-
penses Of some unfortunate member
who has starved to death.
On the Goth of September the fellow.
ship porters stormed the offices of their
order and captured them. Forty men
lived there night and day for month,
holding the fort and begging food
from passersby, as the prisoners in the
Fleet used to do. They expected thus
to call public attention to the vexa-
tious delay of the corporation. They
called public attention all right
enough-and also the police-but the
corporation has not budged up to the
time of going to press
-
Good Advice.
Give every man his due: