The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-05-10
WHAT WOULD HAPPEN
 IF THE COPS STRUCK?
On One Occasion Quarter of Million Citizens Offered Themselves as
 Special Officers

Short Of a wholesale mutiny in our standing army-a quite unthinkable thing it is difficult to imagine any more se- rious situation than that which would be created by a general strike amongst po- llcemen, says Tit-Bits.
 ct such thing or something very like like it at all events, has happened in the past; may happen in the future.
 The trade union, formed only so recent ly as last October amongst the metropol- itan police, is gathering strength daily, and its leaders openly proclaim their in tention of starting a strike as soon as they are strong enough.
 London may well be uneasy at tlre pros pect, for past experience has shown what a police strike may mean.
 When. for example, some 200 constables refused to go on duty at Bow street po- lice station one night in July, 1890, the rougher elements of the population in the slum areas immediately adjoining got to know about it almost immediately, and rioting broke out within an hour. It was suppressed by the Foot guards, who were hastily summoned, but not before con siderable damage had been done
 In September, 1882, however following similar strikes at Cork Limerick and elsewhere in Ireland, the Dublin police came out in a body early one morning, and the city, already seething with polit- ical excitement and unrest was left abso- iutSlS dil6 udiut IuStd1liY the SnOD- Keepers everywhere put up their shutters, the jarveys stabled their horses, the trans ceased running.
 Nor were the fears that these measures indicated groundless. In a little while the streets were filled with bowling mobs. bent upon mischief. But the government promptly took a hand in the game, and showed, too, that it meant business.
 Battalion after battalion of infantry, each man carrying in hIs pouch 40 rounds of ball ammunition, was lined along the principal streets, and later on, when dusk fell. violence where necessary was met by violence, the soldiers charging the riot CTS with fixed bayonets. So was the city saved.
 Next day thousands of angry citizens came forward to enroll themselves as spe- ical constables and shortly afterwards the strike collapsed. The police author ities, however. took stern view of what had happened. and of all the many hun dreds who refused duty at the beginning cnly paltry POS were reinstated.
 A somewhat similar result attended d yet earlier strike of the metropolitan po- lice in October, 1872. Thati to say, mum bers of the strikers were prosecuted under the police acts and fined, while 10 con tsables We're summarily dismissed, and 6o mere reduced in rank.
 It is difficult, indeed, to see how any po- lice strike can end otherwise than in fail ure, no matter how great inconvenience, and even danger, it may inflict upon the community for the time being.
 And for this very good reason, that ex- perience has shown that private citizens are always ready to come forward and act as special constables on an emergency. 1t only remains. then, to swear them in, and serve out to them truncheons and fairly efficiently practically all the duties that fall to the lot of the ordinary uni formed policeman.
 This course has been actually pursued in the case of other labor disturbances. the latest instance being in connection with the great railway strike of 1911, when quite number of Specials were en- rolled in the city of London and else where.
 As it turned out, there services were not required. but they would certainly have been called up for duty if the strike had not collapsed, and every argument that could be urged in favor of their em- ployment on that occasion would apply with even greater force if the 5,5OO,OOO OF 6,0O0.000 of people dwelling within the me- tropolice police area were to be left un- guarded. prey to the forces of lawless- nuess and disorder.
 In such a case the citizen reserve the authorities would be able to draw upon would be practically unlimited. This was proved at the time of the Chartist dis turbances. when no fewer than 900 per- sons, belonging to practically every class of the community. came forward and of fered themselves as special constables.