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The Railway Strike

Raemaekers, Louis, 1919, Chromolithograph
The Railway Strike
The Railway Strike
The Railway Strike
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Category
Library Item
Item no
33445
Title
The Railway Strike
Description
"Tommy on leave: 'Look here, mate, my pal must go to Hospital.'
Striking Engine-driver: 'Yes, when I've got my ten bob.'"

"Throughout the war the attitude of Labour was exemplary, and many threatened strikes were averted by consideration of the ultimate effect on the chances of victory and the fate of the men in the trenches. For these reasons the threatened railway strike of 1918 never had public opinion behind it, and, like all movements divorced from public approbation, it was utterly futile. Even the strikers directly concerned could not face the irrefutable logic that the cessation of the railway service for one hour entailed incredible sufferings to the wounded, hardship to the men home on leave in that brief respite from the privations of trench warfare, and the paralysis of the whole strength of Britain's effort. Humanity and common-sense prevailed - the heart and the head of British working men are never really wrong."
Artist / maker
Date
1919
Size
34 x 26.3 cm
Location
Art and Design Library
Copyright
Louis Raemaekaers' drawings are reproduced by kind permission of the Louis Raemaekers Foundation.