Oxford University undergraduates were blamed for extending the strike by the city’s horse-drawn tram drivers and conductors.
As we recalled last week, there were violent scenes in the city as hooligans joined the crews in their protest over low pay in 1913.
Many students returning for the university’s Trinity term supported the strikers.
Thirty or more would pour on to one of the few trams still running and cram the whole top deck, making life difficult for the driver and conductor, as well as the horses.
The University Proctors, however, found an effective way of combating this early form of ‘sit-in’.
They would wait until the pirate passengers had started their journey, stop the tram, make them get off one by one and take their names and colleges, netting a respectable bag of troublemakers in one fell swoop.
The strikers also claimed widespread support from influential figures in the community, including the Bishop of Oxford and Oxford University’s Regius Professor of Divinity.
However, The Oxford Times kept a consistent line in opposing the strike.
At the start, it said in an editorial: “A strike, even after due notice, is a barbaric, even futile, means of securing a higher wage and less work which workers everywhere are constantly seeking.”
Later, it said: “The sooner the curtain is rung down on this absurd farce, the better for the men in the buses and the good order of the city.
“Despite the optimistic orations of the strike leaders, each evening the strike seems to be slowly fizzling out.”
And that is exactly what happened.
All the strikers found new jobs, allegedly on higher pay than at the tram company.
Strike leaders tried to put on a brave face, claiming that the strike had highlighted “the evil of low wages”.
It wasn’t long before the horse-trams disappeared for good in Oxford, to be replaced by petrol-engined buses.
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