Part 21 (1/2)
That, briefly, was the essential of the telescribe system. It was invaluable for most purposes, but not for all. Though speedier than the letter, it lacked its privacy when it reached its destination, and it also, in the eyes of many, lacked the sentimental touch, as from hand to hand, which a letter may convey. It carried no enclosures, of course, and, owing to the difficulties of ink and paper, printed matter could not be telescribed at all. It cost twice as much as a letter, but as this was spread in the proportion of three-quarters to the sender and one quarter to the receiver the additional cost was scarcely felt by either. Thus it came about that although the telescribe had diminished the volume of telegrams by ninety per cent., and had made it possible still to cope with a volume of ordinary postal correspondences which up to that time had threatened to swamp the department, it had actually superseded nothing.
At four o'clock Mr Woodbarrow called up Sir John and reported that the two great engines were running smoothly, and that for three minutes the entire system would be closed against any message except his. In other words, while the ”in” circuit was open to three million boxes, the ”out”
circuit was closed against all except one. It was not an absolutely necessary precaution, for overlapping telescripts ”stored latent” until the way was clear, but it was not an occasion on which to hesitate about taking every safeguard.
The momentous order was already written. Hampden opened the lid of a small flat box supported on the telescribe shelf by four vulcanite feet, put the paper carefully in, and closed the lid again. He had pulled down the eight rows of metal studs in antic.i.p.ation of Woodbarrow's message, and there was only one more thing to do. A practical, unemotional man, and not unused, in an earlier decade, to controlling matters of national importance with energy and decision, he now stood with his hand above the fatal switch, not in any real doubt about his action, but with a kind of fascinated time-languor. A minute had already pa.s.sed. To pull down the tiny lever and release it would not occupy a second. At what period of those three minutes should he do it? How long _dare_ he leave it? He caught himself wondering whether on the last second--and with an angry exclamation at the folly he pressed the lever home.
There was no convulsion of nature; a little bell a foot away gave a single stroke, and that was all the indication that the President of the Unity League had pa.s.sed the Rubicon and unmasked his battery.
This was what he had written and scattered broadcast over the land:
”THE UNITY LEAGUE.
”The time has now arrived when it is necessary for the League to take united action in order to safeguard the interests of its members.
”In directing a course which may entail some inconvenience, but can hardly, with ordinary foresight, result in real hards.h.i.+p, your President reminds you of the oft-repeated warning that such a demand would inevitably be made upon your sincerity. The opportunity is now at hand for proving that as a cla.s.s our resource and endurance are not less than those of our opponents.
”On or before the 22nd July, members of the League will cease until further notice to purchase or to use coal in the form of (_a_) Burning Coal (except such as may be already on their premises), (_b_) c.o.ke (with the exception as before), (_c_) Gas, (_d_) Coal-produced electricity.
”The rule applies to all private houses, offices, clubs, schools, and similar establishments; to all hotels, restaurants, boarding-houses and lodging-houses, with the exception (for the time) of necessary kitchen fires, which will be made the subject of a special communication, to all greenhouses and conservatories not used for the purposes of trade; and to all shops, workshops, and similar buildings where oil or other fuel or illuminant not produced or derived from coal can be safely subst.i.tuted.
”Members of the League who have no coal in stock, and who do not possess facilities for introducing a subst.i.tute immediately, are at liberty to procure sufficient to last for a week. With this exception members are required to cancel all orders at present placed for coal. The League will take all responsibility and will defend all actions for breach of contract.
”_Members of the League are earnestly requested to co-operate in this line of action both as regards the letter and the spirit of the rule._
”MEMBERS ARE EMPHATICALLY a.s.sURED THAT EVERY POSSIBLE DEVELOPMENT OF THE CAMPAIGN HAS BEEN FULLY CONSIDERED DURING THE PAST TWO YEARS, AND IT IS ADVANCED WITH ABSOLUTE CONFIDENCE THAT NOTHING UNFORESEEN CAN HAPPEN TO MAR ITS SUCCESSFUL CONCLUSION.
”Nothing but the loyal co-operation of members is required to ensure the triumph of those Principles of Government which the League has always advocated, and a complete attainment of the object for which the League came into existence.
”JOHN HAMPDEN, _President_.
”TRAFALGAR CHAMBERS,
”LONDON, 15^{_th_} _July_ 1918.”
In the past the world had seen very many strikes on the part of workers, not selfishly conceived in their essence, but bringing a great deal of poverty and misery in their train, and declared solely for the purpose of benefiting the strikers through the necessity of others. In the more recent past the world had seen employers combine and declare a few strikes (the word will serve a triple purpose) for just the same end and accompanied by precisely similar results. It was now the turn of the consumers to learn the strike lesson, the most powerful cla.s.s of all, but the most heterogeneous to weld together. The object was the same but pursued under greater stress; the weapons would be similar but more destructive; the track of desolation would be there but wider, and the end----On that morning of the 15th of July the end lay beyond a very dim and distant shock of dust and turmoil that the eye of none could pierce.
CHAPTER XIII
THE EFFECT OF THE BOMB
Mr Strummery having finished his breakfast with the exception of a second gla.s.s of hot water, which const.i.tuted the amiable man's only beverage, took up his copy of _The Scythe_. He had already glanced through _The Tocsin_, in which he had a small proprietary interest, but he also subscribed to _The Scythe_, partly because it brought to his door a library which he found useful when he had to a.s.sume an intimate knowledge of a subject at a day's notice, partly because the crudely blatant note of _The Tocsin_ occasionally failed to strike a sympathetic cord.
He had found that morning in his telescribe receiver the Trafalgar Chambers manifesto which had been flashed to friend and foe alike. He had read it with a frown; it savoured of impertinence that it should be sent to him. He finished it with a laugh, half-contemptuous, half-annoyed. He saw that it was a stupid move unless the League had abandoned all hope of forming the League-Labour alliance; in any case, it was a blow that stung but could not wound. All the chances were that nothing would come of it; _but_, if a million people did give up burning coal for say a month, if a million people _did_ that--well, it would be very inconvenient to themselves, but there would certainly be a good many tens of thousand pounds less wages paid out in districts that seemed to be far from satisfactory even as it was.
_The Tocsin_ did not refer to the matter at all. Mr Strummery opened _The Scythe_, and was rather surprised to see, beneath five lines of heavy heading on the leader page, a full account of Sir John Hampden's sudden move. Instinctively his eye turned to the leader columns. As he had half expected there was a leader on the subject, not very long but wholly benedictory. In rather less measured phrases than the premier organ usually adopted and with other signs of haste, readers were urged to enter whole-heartedly into this development of bloodless civil war of which the impending Personal Property Act had been the first unmasked blow. He glanced on, not troubling about the views advanced until a casual statement drew a smothered exclamation from his lips. ”An argument which will be used in a practical form by the five million adult members now on the books of the League--” ran the carelessly-dropped information. ”It is a lie--a deliberately misleading lie,” muttered the Premier angrily; but it was the truth. He read on.
The article concluded: ”In this connection the strong action taken by M.
Gavard, as indicated in the telegrams from Paris which we print elsewhere, may be purely a coincidence, but it is curiously akin to those 'mathematical coincidences' that fall into their places in a well-planned campaign.”