Of great advantage, also, to railway workers is the Railwaymen's
Convalescent Home, opened at Herne Bay, Kent, in 1901, with its recent
extension in the form of a similar home at Leasome Castle, Wallasey,
Cheshire, to which, by permission of King George, has been given the title
of "The King Edward VII Memorial Convalescent Home for Railwaymen."
The London and South-Western Railway Servants' Orphanage was originally
opened at Clapham, in 1886, for children whose fathers, at the time of
their death, were in the employ of the railway company. Since July, 1909,
it has been located in a commodious range of buildings erected at Woking,
Surrey, for the purpose. From the time the orphanage was first opened over
400 children have been admitted to its benefits.
Thanks to a generous benefaction left by the late Mr F. W. Webb, locomotive
superintendent of the London and North-Western Railway Company, the railway
colony at Crewe is acquiring an orphanage which will accommodate twenty
girls and twenty boys, the construction cost being estimated at about
£16,000, while a further sum of £35,000 will be available for the purposes
of the endowment of what has, appropriately, been named "the Webb
Orphanage." In appreciation of the value of the services rendered by Mr
Webb to the company, and as an indication of their sympathy with the
institution, the directors of the London and North-Western Railway Company
have subscribed £1000 towards the funds of the orphanage.
In addition to such support as they may render, directly or indirectly, to
the recognised railway beneficent organisations, the railway companies of
the United Kingdom contribute to various other institutions and
associations, of various character, not directly controlled by them, and
not for the exclusive benefit of their servants. Such contributions are
reported to the Board of Trade, which issues an annual {441}return on the
subject. Among those for 1910 were the following:--
£ s. d.
Hospitals, infirmaries and dispensaries 7,832 10 6
Convalescent homes and nursing associations 440 17 0
Ambulance, medical, surgical aid and truss societies 308 1 0
Benevolent and friendly societies, orphan asylums, etc. 790 19 0
Mechanics', seamen's and fishermen's institutes 1,278 14 0
Church funds 1,365 17 8
Missions 340 6 6
Schools and technical institutes 1,137 18 0
These contributions are made by the railway companies not so much,
presumably, from motives of ordinary philanthropy, but in return, more or
less, for benefits derived, or that might be derived, from the institutions
in question by members of their staffs.
Adding these further subsidiary advantages to the educational, social and
recreative facilities offered by the institutes, societies and clubs
already spoken of, it will be seen that there is more to be taken into
account in regard to the railway service in general than the question of
wages alone, and especially so when the statements concerning wages are
based on "averages."
Having seen what are the advantages of the railway service, we may pass on
to consider some of its possible disadvantages.
A return issued by the Board of Trade in August, 1911, gives the latest
available information as to the once much-discussed question of railway
servants' hours of labour. The special interest in this subject lies, of
course, in the fact that if men engaged in the movement of trains work
excessive hours the risk of accident is increased; and the Board of Trade
are authorised, under the Act of 1889, to call for particulars of the hours
of labour of railway servants.
At one time the returns published were presented in such a way as to make
the position appear much worse than really was the case, even after
allowing for unavoidable delays from fog, snowstorms, floods, fluctuations
in traffic, and breakdowns or other unforeseen mishaps which have been, and
must needs be, contributory causes of prolonged hours of duty. Thus, if an
engine-driver, having taken a train to some distant station, returned home
comfortably seated in a third-class carriage, he counted in the official
returns as being on duty, {442}as though he were still undergoing the
strain of driving the engine instead of being occupied, perhaps, in smoking
his pipe, or having a doze.
Following on protests by the railway companies, the returns are now
published in a form less open to criticism, while the agitation raised has
also led the companies to make further efforts to prevent the occurrence of
excessive hours of labour as far as possible. The return for May, 1911,
dealing with 109,041 servants in certain grades (guards, brakesmen,
enginemen, signalmen, examiners), who worked during that month a total of
2,740,693 days, shows that the number of days on which the men were on duty
for periods exceeding twelve hours by one hour and upwards amounted to
14,813, or only .54 per cent of the total days worked.
One of the greatest drawbacks in the railway service lies in the risks of
accident. The extent of these risks is shown by the General Report of the
Board of Trade on Accidents on Railways of the United Kingdom during 1910.
From this I find that the number of railway servants killed in "train
accidents" in 1910 was nine, and the number injured was 113. Of these,
eight were killed and 109 were injured in the work of running trains; and
the proportions of these last-mentioned figures to the total number
(76,327) of engine-drivers, firemen and guards employed on December 31,
1910, were: killed, one in 9541; injured, one in 700. Considering that the
number of miles run by trains on the railways of the United Kingdom in 1910
was 423,221,000, the figures given as to injuries or fatalities to railway
servants through actual train accidents do not constitute a bad record.
They suggest, rather, both the extreme care with which the railway servants
concerned discharge their duty and the effectiveness of the precautions
taken in the interests of themselves as well as of the travelling public.
Excluding train accidents, the numbers of accidents to railway servants due
to the "movement of trains and railway vehicles" in the same year were:
killed, 368; injured 4587. The number of railway servants exposed to danger
from the movement of railway vehicles being 331,296, the proportion of
accidents to number employed was: killed, one in 900; injured, one in 72.
When these last-mentioned figures in regard to injured are {443}compared
with the averages for earlier years, there appears to be a substantial
increase; but a "Note" thereon is given in the official returns to the
following effect: "An order of the Board of Trade on the 21st December,
1906, required non-fatal accidents to be reported whenever they caused
absence from ordinary work for a whole day (instead of absence preventing
five hours' work on any of the next three days). This alteration caused a
large apparent increase in the number of non-fatal accidents in 1907 and
later years." The details in regard to the killed afford, therefore, safer
guidance if one wishes to see whether the various appliances, precautions
and regulations adopted by the railway companies to ensure the greater
safety of those of their servants who are exposed to danger from the
movement of railway vehicles are having the desired effect. Turning to
Table X in the official returns, I extract therefrom the following
figures:--
PROPORTION OF KILLED
YEAR. TO NUMBERS EMPLOYED.
1885-1894 (average) 1 in 501
1895-1904 " 1 " 665
1905-1909 " 1 " 879
1910 1 " 900
Here, therefore, we have distinct evidence of improvement in the element of
risk in railway operation.
A third group of accidents to which railway servants are liable relates to
those that arise in the handling of goods, in attending to engines at rest,
or in other ways not connected with the movement of trains or of railway
vehicles. Here the figures for 1910 are: Killed, 36; injured, 20,305. "The
number of injured is large," says the return, "but the proportion of
serious injuries is smaller than it is in the case of railway accidents
proper, and it will be seen that the proportion of killed to injured is
relatively low." The proportion of killed, in this third group, to the
average number of railway servants exposed to risk was one in 12,546, and
the proportion of injured was one in 22. A considerable number of accidents
in railway goods sheds and warehouses which at one time were included in
the returns of accidents in factories are now included in the returns of
railway accidents.
Liability to accident, whether grave or slight, lends additional importance
to the encouragement given to {444}railwaymen by their companies to acquire
a knowledge of "first aid" and general ambulance work. Ambulance corps or
classes are now not only general but highly popular throughout the railway
system. Instruction is given by qualified teachers; certificates, vouchers,
medallions or labels are presented to those who pass the examinations held,
and not only do competitions for money or other prizes take place between
teams representing the various districts of a single company's system, but
an Inter-Railway Challenge Shield is annually competed for by the picked
experts of the various companies, the winning of this shield being regarded
as conferring a great honour on those who achieve the victory for their
company.
I have here sought to give a comprehensive survey of the railway service,
as a national industry, alike from its economic and from its human side,
conveying some idea--even if wholly inadequate--of its extent and
widespread ramifications, and showing the various influences, educational,
social and otherwise, that are eminently calculated both to create a
"railway type" and to give to the service characteristics that distinguish
it in many respects from any other of our national industries.
While not being, perhaps, actually an ideal industry--and there are very
few workers, of any rank, who would be prepared to admit that their
occupation in life was absolutely free from drawbacks--the railway service
offers, as we have seen, many advantages. It is, in fact, really a
"service," and not simply a means of employment. One might regard it as the
equivalent of a civil service operated on commercial lines. Workers in all
of the many classes or grades "enter the service," as they are accustomed
to say, when they are young, and they generally do so with the idea of
spending their lives in it, and retiring on superannuation allowance or a
pension in their old age.
Railway managers, too, want workers who come to stay. In the United States
women typists are being gradually got rid of on the railway because they so
often retire at the end of two or three years and get married, the
experience of office work they have gained in that time being thus lost to
the company. Consequently American railway managers are now showing a
preference for male workers who will regard {445}the service in the light
of a future career rather than in that of a temporary employment.
That the railway service is a popular one is shown by two facts: (1) the
invariably large surplus of candidates over available vacancies; and (2)
the long-service records of many of the railway workers.
In regard to the former of these points, it will suffice to say that the
chairman of one of the leading English railway companies has stated that in
1906 the number of applicants for appointments on the staff of his company
alone in excess of the number for whom places could be found was over
19,000.
As regards long service, instances of from forty to fifty years' work for
one and the same railway company are so common that they hardly call even
for passing mention. More exceptional was the case of the worker on the
Great Western whose father had served the company for forty-one years, and
who himself retired at the end of forty-two years, leaving a son who had
then been with the company twenty-three years--a total of 106 years for one
family, during three generations.
In another instance four generations employed successively on the Great
Western showed a total of 147 years; but even this record is surpassed by
that of a Cardiff family. The founder of the dynasty joined the Great
Western in 1840. He remained with the company forty-two years, and left
with them two sons, of whom one served forty-five years, and the other
forty-two years. Each of these two sons had five boys, and all ten followed
the example of fathers and grandfather in becoming servants of the same
company, keeping their positions for periods ranging from six to thirty
years. The fourth generation is represented by four members, one of whom
has already been with the company for over ten years. The total service of
those members of the family who were still working on the Great Western a
year or two ago was 147 years, and the aggregate for the four generations
was then over 800 years. Each of the workers concerned has been employed in
the locomotive department.
Notwithstanding the general popularity of the railway service, agitations
and strikes have occurred from time to time; though down to 1907 most of
these arose in connection {446}with questions of conditions of labour in
regard to particular lines of railway.
In 1907 an agitation was promoted by the Amalgamated Society of Railway
Servants in favour of what was called a "National All-Grades Programme" of
demands for higher wages, reduced hours, etc.; and there was a further
demand that the negotiations in respect thereto should be carried on
through the officers of the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants. The
companies declined to grant the concessions asked for in the "Programme,"
alleging that to do so would involve them in a wholly impracticable
increase in their working expenses. It was subsequently stated that
acceptance of the "Programme" would have increased the expenditure of the
companies by between £6,000,000 and £7,000,000 per annum; that the cost to
the London and North-Western Railway Company alone would have exceeded
£500,000 per annum, equal to 1¼ per cent of the company's dividend; that on
the London and South-Western it would have been equal to a two per cent
dividend on the ordinary stock; and so on with other companies in like
proportion.
In the result the demand for the concession of the "Programme" became
subordinate to the demand of the A.S.R.S. for "recognition"; but this,
again, was refused by the railway companies on the ground, not alone that
the membership of the society included only a minority of the men qualified
to join but, also, and more especially, because "recognition," involving
the carrying on of negotiations through the union leaders, would, it was
argued, lower the standard of discipline in a service where considerations
of the public interests, and especially of the public safety, made it a
matter of paramount importance that a high standard of discipline should be
maintained.
Threats of a general railway strike caused much alarm, and led the
Government to intervene. The negotiations carried on at the Board of Trade
were based mainly on the possibility of arranging some system of
conciliation by means of which further disputes would be avoided; and
eventually a four-fold scheme was arranged, comprising, in the case of each
company accepting it, (1) consideration of applications by officers of the
department concerned; (2) sectional {447}conciliation boards; (3) a central
conciliation board, and (4) the eventual calling in of an arbitrator if the
matters in dispute should still be undecided.
Forty-six companies adopted the scheme. The conciliation boards were
elected; agreements were in many instances arranged as the result of their
proceedings; and, where no settlement could be arrived at by the boards,
arbitration was resorted to. Dissatisfaction with the course of procedure
and its results was, however, expressed from time to time more especially
by members and officers of the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants; and
such dissatisfaction became acute during the prevalence of the "labour
unrest" which spread throughout the country in the summer and early autumn
of 1911, affecting, more especially, the various transport services. Joint
action was now taken by the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants, the
Associated Society of Locomotive Engineers and Firemen, the General Railway
Workers' Union and the United Pointsmen and Signalmen's Society.
At the outset attempts had been made to show that the railwaymen had some
genuine grievances against the conciliation boards on account of their
"slowness," etc.; but it soon became apparent that the trouble was mainly
based on fresh demands for "recognition." On Tuesday, August 15,
representatives of the four societies issued from Liverpool an ultimatum in
which they offered the railway companies "twenty-four hours to decide
whether they were prepared to meet immediately members of those societies
to negotiate the basis of settlement of the matters in dispute"; and they
added: "In the event of this offer being refused, there will be no
alternative than to respond to the demands now being made for a national
railway stoppage."
The railway companies expressed their firm resolve to adhere to the
principle of conciliation, and on the following Thursday the "signal" was
given for a general railway strike. Only about one-third of the railway
workers responded, and, though great and very grave inconvenience and loss
were caused in some parts of the country, there was (owing, in part, to the
calling out by the Government of a large body of troops to protect the
railway operations) no such "paralysis" of the railway traffic in general
as had been threatened, while {448}public opinion was distinctly
unsympathetic towards the strikers.
Meanwhile active steps had been taken by the Government to effect a
settlement, and late on the Saturday night (August 19) an agreement was
drawn up and signed by the parties to the negotiations.
Under this agreement the men were to return to work forthwith; pending
questions were to be referred to the conciliation boards, while the
Government undertook to appoint, at once, a Royal Commission to investigate
the working of the conciliation and arbitration scheme, and report what
changes, if any, were desirable with a view to the prompt and satisfactory
settlement of differences. It was further announced that the Government had
given an assurance to the railway companies that they would propose to
Parliament in the Session of 1912 legislation providing that an increase in
the cost of labour due to the improvement of conditions of the staff would
be a valid justification for a reasonable general increase of charges
within the legal _maxima_, if challenged, under the Act of 1894.
Two statements, giving the result of the negotiations, were issued by the
Board of Trade on the night of August 19. In one of these it was announced
that Mr Claughton (chairman of the London and North-Western Railway
Company) and Sir Guy Granet (general manager of the Midland Railway
Company), who represented the railway interests at the Conference, had
"stated that the recommendations of the Commission would be loyally
accepted by the railway companies, even though they be averse to the
contention of the companies on any question of representation, and, should
a settlement be effected, any trace of ill-will which might have arisen
during the strike would certainly be effaced." In the other of these
official announcements it was said: "Assurances have been given by both
parties that they will accept the findings of the Commission." The
statements were repeated in "The Board of Trade Labour Gazette" for
September, 1911.
The Royal Commission, which consisted of five members, viz. Sir David
Harrel (chairman), Sir Thomas R. Ratcliffe Ellis, Mr Arthur Henderson,
M.P., Mr C. G. Beale and Mr John Burnett, held twenty-five sittings,
between August 28 {449}and October 3, for the purpose of taking evidence,
the witnesses examined by them during this period including thirty-four on
behalf of the various railway workers' unions, ten non-unionist workers and
twenty-three representatives of the railway companies.
The case presented on behalf of the railwaymen's unions was, in effect: (1)
that the working of the conciliation and arbitration scheme had in various
respects been very unsatisfactory, and changes therein or alternatives
thereto were recommended, though in regard to the details of these changes
and alternatives the witnesses did not all agree among themselves; (2) that
"recognition" of the unions, allowing of the labour unions officials--with,
as was said, their "trained and experienced minds"--taking part in the
negotiations with the railway companies, was essential to full justice
being done to the men, who were either not competent to state their own
claims or might have their position in the service prejudiced; (3) that
such recognition would be in the interests of industrial peace because of
the increased powers of the unions in enforcing the maintenance of any
bargains that were made; (4) that discipline on the railways would be
strengthened if the men were confident that there would be an impartial
investigation of their complaints; and (5) that, as the principle of
recognition was accepted in other great industries, the railway companies
were not justified in refusing it to their own men.
On the other side it was contended (1) that much of the disappointment felt
at the results of the awards--which had, nevertheless, led to substantial
concessions being made--was due to the unreasonable hopes raised by the
"National Programme," and that, although certain modifications might be
made in the conciliation scheme, the principle thereof was sound, while the
companies had made a "tremendous departure" by themselves proposing, in
1907, in the interests of peace, to concede the principle of arbitration,
which involved the "revolutionary" step of taking from the directors the
power of deciding what the rates of payment and the hours of labour of
their workmen were to be; (2) that the four unions concerned still included
only about one-fourth of the men, and that "recognition" of them would
inevitably lead to interference with questions of management and
{450}discipline, without--as shown by the experiences of the North-Eastern
Railway, where "recognition" had not prevented the occurrence of repeated
disputes--offering any guarantee for peace, while a partial strike on
certain of the Irish lines during the sittings of the Royal Commission was
pointed to as showing that the union officials were unable to control their
members; (3) that the allegations as to railwaymen being unable or afraid
to present their case to their own companies were unfounded, and that the
real object aimed at in demanding "recognition" of the union officials was
to coerce non-unionists into joining the unions which, with their increased
membership, would then be in a better position to force the railways to
agree to all demands; (4) that if the companies were compelled to accept
"recognition," with all the risks it would involve, they should, at the
same time, be relieved of their present responsibilities in respect to the
public safety and public interests; and (5) that no analogy, in regard to
"recognition," could be drawn between the railways, the continuous
operation of which was essential to the wellbeing of the community, and
ordinary commercial undertakings, which could suspend their working with
only a limited degree of inconvenience to the public, or none at all.
The Commissioners, in their report, issued October 20, 1911, declared that
in their opinion it was of the utmost importance that the initial stage of
conference between the men and the companies--apt to be regarded as simply
a preliminary to the later stages under the settlement scheme--should not
only be maintained but facilitated. They recommended the abolition, as
"redundant," of the central boards and the reference to the sectional
boards of "any matter dealing with hours, wages, or conditions of service,
except questions of, or bearing upon, discipline and management." Each
sectional board should have a chairman selected from a panel to be
constituted by the Board of Trade, but such chairman should be called on to
act (virtually as arbitrator) only in the event of the sectional board
being unable to agree. The men should be free to combine in the same person
the duties of men's secretary and advocate at all meetings of the Board,
and be at liberty to appoint to such post "any suitable person, whether an
employee of the company or a person from outside"; though this arrangement
was "not intended {451}to prevent the men from obtaining the services of a
special advocate before the chairman."
Much dissatisfaction with the report--and mainly so on account of what was
regarded as a wholly inadequate extension of the principle of
recognition--was expressed by the men's leaders and endorsed at meetings of
the men's societies, where demands were made for a general strike on a
greater scale than before, while the leaders repudiated any suggestion that
they had given a pledge to accept the findings of the Royal Commission of
Inquiry. A new National Programme of improved conditions was put forward,
but simultaneously therewith various of the leading railway companies
announced revisions of their rates of wages as applying to the lower grades
among their workers.
In the case of the Great Western Railway Company it was reported that
between 20,000 and 30,000 men would benefit from the concessions, the
immediate cost of which to the company would be £56,000 per annum, with an
eventual cost, at the end of three or four years, of £78,000 per annum. The
London and North-Western Company announced increases amounting in the
aggregate to £80,000 a year, these being an addition to increases already
made, under the arbitrator's award, at a cost to the company of £70,000 a
year. The Midland Railway Company gave notice that from November 3 the
minimum rate of pay for all adult members of their staff would be 22s. per
week if employed in London, 20s. per week in certain large towns, and 19s.
per week at all other places, the actual advances thus made to individual
workers ranging from 1s. to 4s. the week.
Material concessions were also announced by the Great Central and the
Caledonian, and intimation was given by other companies that they had the
matter under consideration. All these concessions were, however, apparently
disregarded by leaders of the extremest section among the men, who
declared, in effect, that they would be satisfied with nothing short of
recognition.
In the week ending November 4 representatives of the men's unions held a
four-days' conference in London to consider what action should be taken,
and there would seem to have been some hope on their part that, influenced
by the threat of a further general strike, the Government would
{452}exercise its influence with a view to inducing representatives of the
railway companies to meet the other signatories of the August agreement and
discuss with them the terms of the report. On November 3 the Prime
Minister, Mr Buxton and Sir George Askwith did confer with selected
representatives of the companies at 10 Downing Street. No official
announcement was made as to the result, but this was evidently well
indicated by the following statement in "The Times" of November 4:--
"We understand that the attitude of the directors of the railways of the
country collectively is that, while they are prepared to carry out to the
full the whole of the recommendations of the Inquiry Commission, they are
not prepared to go any further."
Later in the same day the joint executive committee of the railway unions
informed the Press that they had decided to take a ballot of their
members--the papers to be returnable by December 5--on the question as to
whether or not they were prepared to accept the findings of the Royal
Commission and, also, "to withdraw their labour in favour of the
recognition of trade unions and of a programme of all railwaymen," to be
agreed upon by members of the joint executive committee.
Whatever may be the final outcome of all these controversies, the position
in regard to the troubles both of 1907 and 1911 has obviously been most
materially, if not, indeed, mainly, influenced by questions of trade union
recognition which do not necessarily cast any reflection on the railway
service itself, or detract from it as being one of the most important, most
popular and most sought after of our national industries.
{453}CHAPTER XXIX