To say that the men were not striking about wages
but were engaged in what in fact was revolutionary action is no hostile assertion of ours or of anybody else's. It is no attempted inter- pretation of obscure facts. We take this explanation of the strike straight from the mouth of the chief representative of the federated railway organizations. Mr. Cramp, the President of the N.U.R., the organization which ordered the lightning strike, is the author of the following statement :—
" Whenever you say you are ripe for industrial revolution I am with you, but not for a trade dispute. Let us approach it with our eyes open, and be prepared to carry it through."— (Mr. Cramp at Carlisle, May 25th, 1919.) That was the mot d'ordre of the strike, though it was not said at the moment of action but last May—i.e., at the time when the preparations for the present strike were begun.
