EARLY DAYS (1908-23)

This is the story of GASAA at the national level but reference to events before the formation of the Federal body in 1923 is necessary in order to acquire a more complete feeling for the people involved in the unfolding events to come.
As was the case with most of Australia's trade associations the formation of the Federal, or National, body grew from the earlier activities of State groups. At the turn of the century commerce and manufacturing were conducted primarily in Melbourne and Sydney. This led to State Associations usually being established first in those two States.

THE STATE ASSOCIATIONS

New South Wales

On 29 May 1908 a meeting of "photo engravers" was held at the Criterion Hotel in Sydney to, as the chairman (S W Bacon) put it, "try and come to an arrangement whereby the no minimum charge could be done away with and a minimum price fixed".<
Those present in addition to S W Bacon, were W T Baker, F A Randle, J Winston, E J Hyde, E J Martin, A A Lawson, E R Morris, F Waite, C Wiseheart (representing H B Bell) and E A Bradford.
The Chairman added to his opening remarks by saying that "if an Association were formed several other matters of mutual advantage to Photo Engravers could also be dealt with". In these modern days, with price fixing both impractical and unlawful, it is not just several of those "other matters" which occupy the agendas but a whole host of them. At the meeting "Mr Hyde proposed and Mr Lawson seconded that those present form themselves into an association to be called the Master Process Engravers Association". The motion was carried and the association formed. E A Bradford was appointed Secretary and E J Hyde Treasurer. The remainder of the meeting was devoted to discussion of prices. (E A Bradford was not an engraver himself but a commercial artist said to be located in Hunter Street and later in Jameson St. He apparently became involved because of his business connection with photo engravers).

Discussions over the next several years revolved around price matters, membership and discounts although wider horizons opened with problems regarding tariff duties on electros, and stereos and the price of electric current. With regard to customs duties, S W Bacon said he had written to Messrs Patterson and Shugg in Melbourne on the matter. This was the first reference in NSW to interstate contact.
On 22 July 1909 mention was made of what was to become a major and still continuing role for GASAA. It was decided "that the Executive of the Master Process Engravers Association is prepared to meet the Executive of the Photo Engravers Union to discuss their wages log".
NSW became registered as an industrial union of employers under the NSW Act in 1924 "through the able and energetic work of Mr E J Hyde who piloted the Association through many knotty legal problems". The words come from the 1924 NSW Annual Report.

Victoria

The Victorian Association played a major role in encouraging interstate liaison. For example, its Honorary Secretary, Mr Richard Linton (later Sir Richard), visited Sydney in 1914 to explain to Sydney members details of Victorian activities. So far as the NSW minutes are concerned this is the first recorded face-to-face contact between the two State Associations.

R Linton was associated with the supply house of Middows Bros. He later became a life member of the Victorian Association, a Member of the Legislative Assembly and in 1933 was appointed Victorian Agent-General in London.

Unfortunately there are no surviving records of the early days of the Victorian Association.
The oldest available minute book dates only as far back as 1925 but the Association was formed well before that. It was certainly in existence on 26 October 1909 as it was referred to in the NSW Minutes on that date. At the third Annual Dinner of the Victorian employees' body (the Victorian Process Engravers Association) on 29 May 1915 there was a formal Toast to
"The Master Process Engravers Association".

In 1931 a number of Victorian members faced up to the price cutting crisis of the Depression period. In what was clearly an orchestrated move they arranged the disbandment of the association at a General Meeting on 15 June. Surprisingly it was also resolved to hand over any surplus funds to the Victorian Process Engravers Association, better known as "The Union". On the following day, 16 June, a further meeting was held and a new association formed. Not all the members of the previous association were invited into membership of the new body. This was one way to get rid of unwanted members!

Victoria was host to the first "conference" between the NSW and Victorian Associations. This was held in Melbourne in 1915.

In 1920 the Victorian Association played an important role in helping the South Australian Association establish itself.

South Australia

The South Australian Association was formed in December 1920 or January 1921. Interstate members, including C B Shugg and A Lyell of Melbourne and F A Randle Snr of Sydney attended the inaugural meeting and lent their support. S R Delmont of Adelaide had been a motivating figure in the move.

Queensland

NSW received correspondence from S A Best of Brisbane on 3 December 1914 asking for particulars of the NSW Association "as they were starting one in Brisbane". The Association must have been soon formed because in 1917 it issued its first price list. An independent report claims the Queensland Association was established in 1918 through the good offices of A A Lawson (Snr) and E J Hyde of the NSW Association. The truth is lost in time but now of little consequence.

Western Australia

The Western Australia Association was "admitted to the Federal Association" in 1926. It did not, however, play a really active role until the 1950's.

INFORMAL INTERSTATE CO-OPERATION

The early minute books of the NSW (from 1908) and Victorian (from 1925) Associations are all that are available prior to Federal minutes being written in 1938. If any records of the "first" Federation (1923-38) exist their location is currently unknown. The records that are available disclose gradually increasing contact between photo-engravers in the different States.

On 7 September 1914, R Linton, the Honorary Secretary of the Victorian Master Process Engravers Association, met representatives of the NSW body in Sydney. The NSW members present were A A Lawson, W T Baker, B Freshwater, H B Bell, G Woods, F A Randle (Snr), E J Hyde, A A Lawson Jnr, E R Morris and E A Bradford (Secretary).

R Linton told of the role of the Victorian Association including its "black list" of bad and doubtful customers. Also it was reported that no accounts in Melbourne were opened for new customers unless a clearance was given from the firm doing the work previously. Needless to say, the Victorian body justifiably felt it was doing a worthwhile job for its members

In January 1915, NSW received a letter from the "Melbourne Master Process Engravers Association" congratulating it on the adoption of a price schedule. It was then proposed by F A Randle (Snr) and seconded by H Price that the NSW Secretary write back (to the Melbourne Association) thanking it for its congratulations and good wishes and hoping that an early date for a conference may be arranged.

In April 1915, the NSW Secretary was asked to send the Brisbane Association "a schedule of prices and ascertain what progress has been made and inform them that we are working cordially with Melbourne". The ubiquitous R Linton, Honorary Secretary of the Melbourne Association, was present at the April meeting in NSW and extended an invitation to the NSW President (A A Lawson) and Secretary (E A Bradford) to attend the Melbourne Annual Dinner to be held on 14 May 1915.

On 6 May 1915 the President told a NSW meeting that he was "going over" to Melbourne to attend the Dinner "and would talk over the trade matters generally and the advisability of a conference". At the next NSW meeting (3 June 1915) correspondence was received from the Victorian Association re the "conference held in Melbourne". It appears that Messrs A A A Lawson, F Randle and F Middows attended from Sydney.

The "conference" had resolved:

• That no man be re-employed at a higher wage than that paid him by his previous employer.
• That the Secretary of each Association should have access to sales and wages books of members to guarantee agreement is observed.

One wonders the extent to which these resolutions were followed in practice.

NSW decided to follow the Victorian example by arranging a Dinner at Farmers (Farmers was a retail store) on 10 September 1915 and inviting Victorian members to attend. The opportunity would be taken to hold another "conference". On 2 September it was reported that Victoria would be represented by "Messrs A Lyell, C B Shugg, R Linton and probably Mr Enticott".

There is no record of who attended and what was discussed but the success of the event was no doubt ensured by the donation of 100 cigars by F Middows.

Not everything, however, was sweetness and light. The NSW meeting in November 1915 dealt with a report that "the Melbourne people were doing Sydney work for Mr C Willmot at 10% off Sydney's rates".

The NSW Secretary was asked to write to Melbourne for an explanation.

Any discord which may have resulted was not too damaging because several unnamed Sydney "delegates" attended the 1916 Melbourne Dinner and participated in another conference with their Melbourne colleagues. The ecumenical spirit was expanded by deciding to acquaint the Brisbane Association with the result of the conference.

The practice of Melbourne and Sydney delegates attending each others Annual Dinner and taking the opportunity to confer continued with a dinner in Sydney in September 1916. The system apparently lapsed however in 1917/18 - perhaps because of wartime preoccupations. Nevertheless the associations in Victoria, NSW and Queensland were becoming involved in a wider range of industry activity.

Although price schedules and union negotiations remained major issues, attention was also being given to such items as apprenticeship training, tariff matters, industry promotion (as we would call it today) and labour supply.

Face-to-face formal contact between the Queensland and NSW Associations is recorded for the first time in the NSW minutes as being on 22 October 1918 when Queensland's S A Best attended a special meeting of the NSW Association. Matters of common interest were discussed. NSW was represented by its President F A Randle, A A Lawson, H B Bell, E R Morris, E J Martin, E J Hyde, A A Lawson Jnr, and E A Bradford.

THE DEVELOPMENT OF FORMAL INTERSTATE CONFERENCES

Victoria, 4/5 December 1919

After the end of the 1914-18 War it all started to happen. Victoria decided to organise a "Peace Dinner and Conference".

Unlike the previous "conferences" which lapsed in the later years of the War, this one would involve a third Association. This was the Brisbane organisation. S A Best had learnt of the conference in correspondence from the NSW Association.

The Conference itself was on 5 December 1919. NSW was represented by four delegates and Brisbane by one. The identity of two of the New South Welshmen (one was E J Hyde as current NSW President and another A A Lawson) and of the Victorian attendees is not known. The Queensland delegate was presumably S A Best.

Before attending the conference the NSW Association, at a meeting on 1 December 1914, recorded the suggestion "that an Annual Convention be held in the different States in which Associations are existent in such rotation as may be mutually agreed". This decision arose from a motion moved by F A Randle (Snr) and seconded by E R Morris.

The fate of this suggestion when discussed at the interstate conference is not recorded but its thrust met with support from other places because a further conference was held in the following year.

NSW Conference - 14/15 October 1920

The location chosen for the 1920 Conference, termed the "Equity Conference", was the Royal National Park just south of Sydney. Unfortunately no written record of attendances or of the discussions, which took place is available.

Photographs taken at a picnic held during the Conference show that the attendees included the A A Lawsons (father and son), G Woods, E J Hyde, W T Baker, E R Morris, A Lyell, F A Randle, F Middows, J Patterson and E A Bradford. The picnickers were all attired in suit, stiff collar and tie in the fashion of the day. All had hats most of which were homburgs but the odd cloth cap and panama were also evident.

Queensland Conference - 1921

The next interstate conference was held in Brisbane in 1921 (probably in May). Matters discussed included the "Black List" of overdue accounts, discounts and a 50% surcharge on line and half tone blocks, which were required in less than 8 hours.

At the NSW meeting on the following 4 August, and after consideration of items dealt with in Brisbane, it was proposed by A Lawson, seconded by E Martin and agreed "that a committee be appointed to draft a constitution for the Federal Association consisting of the President Mr E Hyde, Mr F A Randle and Mr W T Baker".

This rather succinct resolution suggests that the 1921 conference considered the formation of a Federal Association and that NSW was asked to work towards transforming the idea into reality.

The committee reported back to NSW on 1 December 1921 and it was agreed by the NSW Association that copies of the report be "forwarded to the other associations for their consideration and that they be asked to communicate their views on the matter at the earliest possible moment". At this stage the other associations were in Melbourne, Brisbane and Adelaide. Responses were received from each State and passed to the committee.