CORNELL 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
 WiLLARD FiSKE 
 
 Endowment 
 
Ljn^o..-. ^°f"e" University Library 
 HD5367.R12 1891 .S3 
 
 The Scottish railway strike 1891: 
 
 olin 
 
 3 1924 030 079 176 
 
Cornell University 
 Library 
 
 The original of tliis book is in 
 tine Cornell University Library. 
 
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 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924030079176 
 
THE SCOTTISH 
 
 Railway Strike 
 
 I 8 9 I 
 
 A HISTORY AND CRITICISM 
 
 BY 
 
 JAMES MAYOR 
 
 PROFESSOR OF POLITICAL ECONOMY AND STATISTICS, 
 
 ST. MUNGO'S COLLEGE, GLASGOW; LECTURER IN POLITICAL ECONOMY, 
 
 GLASGOW UNIVERSITY EXTENSION BOARD, 
 
 AND GLASGOW ATHEN^UM. 
 
 EDINBURGH 
 
 WILLIAM BROWN 
 
 26 Princes Street 
 
 1891 
 
UNJVtRC'TV I 
 
 \ LIBRARY i 
 
 H;ii ^- 
 
 BY THE SAME AUTHOR. 
 
 Economic History and Theory; 
 
 Synoptic Tables and Diagrams. 
 
 Price i/6. 
 
 On Wage Statistics and Wage Theories. 
 
 Pkice 6d. 
 
 EDINBURGH : WILLIAM BROWN. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 Although it is not yet possible to estimate even 
 approximately the economic effects of the strike 
 of the railway men in Scotland, there is a certain 
 advantage in making a strictly contemporary 
 record and criticism, ere the turmoil of the strife 
 is over, and ere its incidents are forgotten. The 
 closeness of our view militates against our 
 realising fully the larger issues involved, and 
 perhaps also prevents us from clearly appre- 
 hending the relations of the struggle to others 
 of a similar character at home and abroad. An 
 attempt will however be made to describe and 
 discuss the strike in a dispassionate and scientific 
 spirit, and to make some estimate of the place 
 in the general labour problem, of the special 
 questions that have been raised during its course. 
 
 J. M. 
 
 Glasgow, 31^/ January, 1891. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Chapter I. — Narrative of the Transactions prior to the Strike, 7 
 
 „ II. — The Leading Events during the Strike, 14 
 
 ,, III. — The Issues of the Strike : — (i) The Hours of Labour; 
 
 (2) The Recognition of the Union, 25 
 
 „ IV. — The Negotiations for Settlement, - - 37 
 
 ,, V. — Legal Questions Involved, - 41 
 
 ,, VI. — Men, IMethods, Causes, and Result : A Suggestion, 49 
 
 ,, VII. — The Relations of Capital and Labour, as illustrated by 
 
 the Struggle, ... - - 58 
 
 Appendix, - . . 65 
 
LEADING DATES. 
 
 ISS2-S1— 
 
 1889, September — 
 1S90, January — 
 
 17th August- 
 
 loth September- 
 19th October — 
 
 9th November — 
 
 nth and 15th Nov.— 
 23rd November — 
 30th November — 
 7th December — 
 14th December — 
 
 2 1 St December — 
 
 27th December — 
 
 27th December — 
 31st December — 
 1S91, 7th and 8th January- 
 9th January — 
 9th till 17th January- 
 2ist and 22nd January- 
 22nd January — 
 
 24th January — 
 
 29th January — 
 31st January — 
 
 Caledonian Railway Strike and Agitation 
 among North British Railway Employees. 
 
 General Agitation for Ten-Hours Day. 
 
 Concessions granted by North British Coy. 
 
 After Dissatisfaction among Certain Sections 
 of Employees during the Summer, Meet- 
 ings of Railwaymen held. 
 
 Correspondence between Companies and 
 Secretary of Society. 
 
 Offer by men of submission to Arbitration, 
 and proposal to Strike in the event of offer 
 being rejected. 
 
 Correspondence with Companies. Offer re- 
 jected. Meetings. 
 
 ■ Correspondence with Companies. 
 Meetings. 
 
 Meeting at Edinburgh. 
 
 Meeting at Glasgow. 
 
 Meetings in the Country. Delay resolved 
 
 upon. 
 Meetings at all Centres. Resolution to 
 
 Strike forthwith carried. 
 Public Meeting at Edinburgh to express 
 
 sympathy with men. 
 Dundee Negotiations. 
 G. & S.W. men returned to work. 
 
 ■ Mr. Haldane's Negotiations. 
 Glasgow Citizens' Meeting. 
 
 Glasgow Citizens' Committee Negotiations. 
 —Lord Aberdeen's Negotiations. 
 Civil Action raised by North British Compy. 
 
 against Messrs. Milne, Tait, etc. 
 Large body of men return to work on 
 
 Caledonian System. 
 Settlement with North British Railway. 
 Settlement with Caledonian Railway. 
 
THE RAILWAY STRIKE. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 Narrative of the Transactions Prior to the Strike. 
 
 The agitation for reduction of hours in the raihva)- ser- 
 vice in Scotland may be said to have formally begun in 1882. 
 In January, 1883, the men employed on the Caledonian 
 Railway engaged in a strike, and though the attempt to 
 reduce the hours of labour may be described as a partial 
 failure, the ultimate result was a considerable modification of 
 the conditions of employment in that company.' In the same 
 year, deputations from the employees made representations to 
 the North British Railway Coy., with the result of at least 
 certain nominal concessions. The demand of the men at that 
 time was for a working day of nine hours.' 
 
 In the case for the North British Railway Coy., as stated in the 
 " Circular to Staff, 15th November, 1890," the agitation of 18S3 is 
 represented as having been based upon a desire for increase 
 of wages, rather than for a diminution of labour. This con- 
 struction is, however, repudiated by the men, as is also the 
 statement that the present agitation has any such object." 
 During the years subsequent to 1883, strong efforts were made 
 to consolidate the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants 
 in Scotland, and while this was going on, public representations 
 by the men to the companies fell for the time into abeyance. 
 A demand for a normal working day of ten hours for all grades 
 was formulated in the autumn of i88g, and presented to the 
 
 (0 It is alleged, however, that the men in the mineral department lost rather than 
 gained ground by changes in the summer of 1883. 
 
 (2) North British Railway Company. Circular to Staff, 15th November, 1890. 
 
 (3) Report by Executive Committee Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants^ 
 23rd November, 1890. On this point see below, page 28. 
 
companies. In January, 1890, the managers of the North 
 British Raihvay received deputations from certain sections of 
 their men, and " concessions " were again granted.^ Some 
 sections, however, " declined to comply with the request of 
 the directors to meet representatives from the departments 
 separately for the consideration of any grievances they might 
 have." - The North British Railway Company thus admitted 
 the existence of unallayed discontent in their service; but they 
 alleged that the men concerned had been invited to come for- 
 ward and state their grievances, and that they had not done so. 
 In the case for the men, the reduction of the hours of labour of 
 certain classes is admitted as the result of the negotiations of 
 January, 1890.^ These concessions are, however, represented 
 to have amounted to a reduction to an eight hours day for 
 only six per cent, of the men employed in signal cabins on the 
 North British system, while " 94 per cent, continued to be em- 
 ployed for twelve hours, and in some instances for fourteen or 
 fifteen hours." From the point of view of the men, therefore, 
 the concessions of January, 1890, were inadequate even as re- 
 gards the class of signalmen, while the other classes — engine- 
 drivers, firemen, etc. — were practically unaffected. The ex- 
 pression, " others who declined to comply with the request of 
 the directors to meet and discuss their grievances with the 
 manager," ^ doubtless refers to these classes. 
 
 During the year 1890, the North British Railway was the 
 chief scene of disaffection, and the disaffected were mainly in 
 those grades whose claims were not placed before the manager 
 and directors by deputations in grades separately. On the face 
 of it, this looks a reasonable position for the railway company, 
 and a correspondingly unreasonable position for the men. The 
 rationale of the situation is, however, that the men, rightly or 
 wrongly, suspected that the members of the deputations from the 
 grades, whoever they might be, would be " marked " men ever 
 after, and that they would be degraded or dismissed at the first 
 
 (i) N. B. Railway Circular to Staff. Op. cit. (2) lb. 
 (3) Report Executive Society. Op. cit. (4) Circular to Staff. Op. cit. 
 
opportunit)'.^ This suspicion, justified or not, has influenced 
 so very largely the whole bearing of the men, both before and 
 after the strike, that it cannot be passed over, though it is 
 extremely difficult to form a judgment upon a matter which could 
 only really be cleared up by examination of a great number of 
 witnesses on oath in a court of justice. No doubt a large part 
 of the feeling is the outcome of the general suspicion which is 
 unfortunately characteristic of many classes of workmen ; but ihe 
 prevalence of it, and the number of instances of which details have 
 been given by the men, suggest either acknowledgment that the 
 feeling is not groundless, or a judicial inquiry. Such proceedings 
 as are alleged to have taken place might well have escaped the 
 knowledge of the superior officials of the company. Indeed, the 
 men insist that the superior officials are not aware of the real 
 state of matters. 
 
 During the summer of 1890, the congestion of traffic on the 
 North British system, following upon the opening of the Forth 
 Bridge and its connections, became notorious. Much of this 
 congestion was no doubt due to the inadequacy of the accom- 
 modation at Waverley Station, Edinburgh ; but there is probably 
 some weight to be attached to the statements that trains have 
 had to stand owing to the staff having refused to take duty until 
 they had secured " an amount of rest,'' and that " extra men " 
 had to be called out on Sundays to clear up the yards " for a 
 more favourable start at the commencement of the week."^ 
 
 It is alleged by the men that the conditions of work became 
 more and more severe during the summer and early autumn of 
 1890. Meetings of the men were held in August and September! 
 and a series of formal demands were made by them through the 
 secretary of their society to the companies. The demands of 
 the men were formulated in the following terms ■." 
 
 (i) "The unsafe proposals of the companies to meet the men in grades is not only obso- 
 lete in the regulation of the conditions between employers and employtd, but has had 
 disastrous results in the floiver of the delegates afterwards being dismissed."— Report 
 Executive Amalgamated Society Railway Servants, 24th No^■tmber, 1890. 
 
 (2) Report Executive. Op. cit. 
 
 (3) Circular Letter to Companies, loth September, i8go. 
 
" I. That a universal ten-hours day be the maximum days work for all 
 grades of the service. 
 
 "2. That the custom of reckoning hours of labour by an aggregate 
 fortnight's work be dispensed with, and that each day stand for itself. 
 " 3. That time-and-a-quarter be paid for overtime. 
 "4. Time-and-a-half pay for Sunday duty ; such to be reckoned from 
 12 p.m. on Saturday to 12 p.m. on Sunday. 
 
 "5. That eight hours be the maximum for yardsmen, shunters, ground 
 pointsmen, and locomotive men, and others engaged in busy shunting yards. 
 "6. That more cabins at present working on the twelve-hours systdn 
 be placed on the eight hours per day system. 
 
 " 7 That a universal agreement for regular annual holidays be put into 
 practice. 
 
 "8. That the running of trains on the "trip" or contract system be 
 abolished. 
 
 " 9. That a mileage system be arranged for passenger and goods trains. 
 " 10. That, owing to the whole time of all grades being at the disposal 
 of the companies, it be a condition of service that all men be guaranteed 
 a week's work, and when called out for duty at any time, or waiting orders 
 by instruction, a full day's pay be paid, and the custom of booking men 
 off duty for periods during the running of their maximum day's work be 
 abolished." 
 
 To this circular the railway companies replied to the effect 
 that any grievances could only be discussed by deputations 
 from the grades in the usual manner.^ For the reason explained, 
 the men wisely or unwisely rejected this mode, and desired 
 the companies to submit the matters in dispute to arbitration. 
 At meetings, held in various districts on Sunday, 19th Ociober, 
 this course was decided upon, and a threat formally made that 
 if the companies rejected the offer of arbitration, a strike was 
 the alternative. To this offer to submit the question at issue 
 to arbitration, the manager of the North British Railway Com- 
 pany replied : '' There is no question at issue," " and went on 
 to say that the whole subject had been gone into in 1883, and 
 that the reforms then initiated, as well as the subsequent 
 
 (i) There i> singular unanimity among the men as to " the usual manner." " I en- 
 quired of the men (at Bathgate) if they had ever laid their grievances before the 
 Company. ' Oh, yes. we have done so by written communication, and even by deputa- 
 tion, but without result. Many [of our communications were never acknowledged.'"— 
 Citizen Inquiry, Fifth Article. 
 
 (2) Circular to Staff, 15th November, 1890. 
 
reforms of January, 1890, as regards the hours of signalmen, 
 were still in progress. 
 
 Meetings were held at Glasgow and elsewhere on 23rd 
 November, at which this and other replies were read to the 
 men, and at which the Executive announced that they recom- 
 mended " cessation of labour,'' with the object of compelling 
 the companies to grant their demands. They professed them- 
 selves confident of their ability to provide the necessary funds, 
 and asked the men to send to the secretary of the society their 
 notices of resignation for transmission to the railway companies 
 in whose service the men were respectively, if and when the 
 Executive thought a sufficient number of notices had been 
 received to justify such action. The question of notice is so 
 important, and has filled so large a place in the public con- 
 troversies on the subject, that it is advisable to give in full the 
 relative paragraph of the Report of 23rd November, by the 
 Executive of the Society of Railway Servants : 
 
 NOTICES OF THE MEX. 
 
 ** The committee, in deliberating upon this important point, had before 
 them the legal opinions of three eminent men, along with the result of 
 inquiries at other trade unions, and are unanimously of opinion that the 
 usual notices of the men should be given in, and their contracts honestly 
 fulfilled. The rule-book of each company has been carefully gone over 
 regarding the necessary notices to be given by the various grades, which 
 on the three lines range from one week to a month. The men may rely 
 upon their notices being presented according to the terms of their agree- 
 ment, and at a time to secure that all railways must stop work according 
 to the conditions and time hereafter specified. 
 
 DATE TO CEASE WORK. 
 
 In consideration of the length of notice required by some companies, and 
 for the purpose of all stopping on one date, the committee have derided 
 to fix Wednesday, 24th December, as the day when all work shall cease. 
 By that period ample time is given for them to carry out the many im- 
 portant arrangements incidental to having the notices sent in. The 
 following is the manner determined upon by the committee for tendering 
 the notices of the men : The cards which every man will have signed will 
 immediately after the meeting be forwarded to the general office, where a 
 staff of clerks will be employed in tabulating and compiUng the notices. 
 This will take a day or two to acccmplish. During this time the addressed 
 
post-cards from those who are not at the meetings to day will also be 
 coming to hand. They must be placed in the hands of absentees immediately, 
 and the names of men to whom they were given taken, so as a check be 
 kept of any backslider. After such is done, and it is seen that a sufficient 
 number has fortified the committee to take steps, they will be handed in to 
 the companies. The committee, however, wish to make it perfectly clear 
 that if a sufficient majority does not give them the requisite power to acl", 
 that the notices will not be presented, as, however anxious they are to sec 
 a cessation of labour, they are determined that no partial stoppage with 
 their sanction shall take place, which would tend to result in failure, and 
 many of our best men sacrificed." 
 
 On 30th November and on 7th December meetings were 
 held in various railway centres in Scotland. It was evident 
 that while the men in Glasgow and Edinburgh were enthusi- 
 astic in favour of a strike, the men in the country districts were 
 apathetic. The reasons are obvious. Work is less severe in 
 the country than in the town. The country men live in small 
 groups thinly scattered over a large area. They have been to ally 
 unaccustomed to corporate action, and they are stationary in 
 their habits. Nevertheless, by the 7th December, 4,173 notices 
 of resignation had been handed to the Executive. At the meet- 
 ings held on these dates, and on the 14th and 21st December, 
 the Executive intimated that they did not consider that the 
 number of notices justified a cessation of labour. The Society 
 of Railway Servants in Scotland has a membership of 9,000, 
 and the number of notices showed that only a minority df these 
 were in favour of a strike, while the views of the large number 
 of non-members were quite unascertainable. 
 
 During November and December the current of feeling 
 among the men was apparently against the Executive. 
 They were looked upon as throwing cold water upon the pro- 
 posed strike. ' The mutterings of discontent found expression 
 
 (i) ''A m.^^ who was sitting in the area of the hall said he u a^ disappointed at th<- character 
 of the meeting. He had come there prepared not to start work again, or at all events 
 not to start after Monday week. (.Applause.) Wliat was proposed by the E.xecutive 
 was a retrograde in place of a forward movement. Cards simdar to those which they 
 now held were sent to them twelve months ago He did not intend to sign his one, and 
 he knew that a great many others were of a similar mind. He moved as an amendment 
 that the report should not be adopted, but that the men should agree to cease work a 
 week hence. The amendment was received with loud and prolonged cheerincr. The 
 mover, continuing, said Le was aware that the proposal was not according to faw but 
 
13 
 
 in Glasgow in a proposal to give a week's notice on the 14th 
 December for a strike on the 21st. The counterproposal of 
 the Executive for delay was, however, carried on the 14th 
 December at several meetings in the country. These meetings 
 were, it is stated, attended by 2,100 men, of whom 600 voted 
 for the proposal to give a week's notice at once, and 875 to 
 abide by the decision of the Executive not to strike until the 
 number of resignations justified such action. At the meeting 
 held in Glasgow on 21st December, the Executive announced 
 that additional notices of resignation were still necessary, and 
 that they continued to refrain from advising an immediate 
 cessation of labour. "A man in the gallery"^ "moved that 
 they do not resume work," and this proposal was carried amid 
 a scene of great excitement by 660 to Si." The news was 
 telegraphed to meetings held the same afternoon at Edinburgh, 
 Motherwell, Perth, and elsewhere, and the motion for an 
 immediate strike without notice was carried by considerable 
 majorities at all the centres but one. " The man in the gallery " 
 had apparently rightly interpreted the prevailing feeling. 
 
 it did not do to discuss legal points with men like railway servants, who knew nothing 
 about law, and, further, had no time to consider it. (Laughter ) If they resolved on 
 this course, the directors of the railway companies might put them in jail. If they did 
 so, they would have something to live for : and they would be sure of their hours. 
 (Laughter ) 
 
 A railway .ser\-ant in the gallery of the hall also stated that he \\a.s dissatisfied with the 
 report submitted by the committee. For the last fifteen years the men had had the sanie 
 papers submitted to them over and over again. (Laughter.) He was distinctly in 
 favd"ur of an immediate strike. As the breaking of an agreement was not a criminal 
 oftence they could not be put in prison, and surely there was enough money in the 
 society to pay the fine of any man who was proceeded against. 
 
 One of the men said that if the amendment was carried, ard an immediate strike was 
 not successful, the Executive Committee would at once turn round and say, " Oh ! jou 
 should have done as we wanted, and all would have been well." The fact was the 
 Executive were far too cautious. They had never made a spurt to get the society brought 
 into prominence by ri.sking something to win something. They had always wanted them 
 to go on and go on. When the 24th of December came there were men who were super- 
 animated on the North Biitish Railway. They would lose their jobs and the superannua. 
 tion allowance which Mr. Walker put for^vard so much, and then there would be 
 nothine left for them but the poorhouse. (Laughter.) 
 
 A member of the committee said it was not the fault of the Executive that they had 
 acted as they had done. The remedy lay with the men. If they did not want a cautious 
 Executive they should elect men who were not cautious. (A voice—" The Executive are 
 there to do what they are bidden." Applause.)"— Report of iSIeeting at GlasgoWj 
 Glasgoiu Herald, 24th November, 1890. 
 
 (2) Glasstnu Htr<ild, 22nd December, 1890. 
 
 (3) The exact figures were— For an Agaiusl. an 
 
 Immediate Strike- Immediate Strike 
 Caledonian, " 35" 22 
 
 North British. 231 =7 
 
 G. & S We-tern, 73 3^ 
 
 660 Ei 
 
14 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 The Leading Events during the Strike. 
 
 Though the agitation for the reduction of working hours had 
 been going on for at least seven or eight years, and the agitation 
 for a ten hours day for more than a year, and though a strike had 
 been in the making for at least two months, the resolution sud- 
 denly to cease labour without legal notice was carried, so far as 
 an outsider can judge, by a spontaneous rush. The men were 
 weary of the apparently never-ending and fruitless correspon- 
 dence between their secretary, Mr. Tail, and the railway com- 
 panies.^ They found, or thought they found, an obstinate in- 
 disposition to improve their conditions of labour ; they saw 
 their work become weekly more and more severe ; they sus- 
 pected that their presence in the ranks of the agitators might 
 compromise them with the managers of the companies ; and, 
 above all, they learned that the employees of the North 
 Eastern Railway had secured substantial changes in adminis- 
 tration by means of a conference between the directors of the 
 company and Mr. Harford, secretary of the English Railway 
 Servants' Society. Thus, on the one hand, disgusted with their 
 own position, and on the other encouraged by the successful 
 result of the decisive measures adopted by their brethren in 
 the North of England, a section of the men sufificiently 
 numerous to carry their point at the meetings of the railway 
 servants decided not to return to their employment. In so 
 doing they disregarded the advice of their Executive Committee, 
 and forgot or ignored the probable illegality of their action. 
 Although this rather risky manoeuvre gave the strikers an 
 immediate strategic advantage, it is very doubtful whether the 
 sudden cessation of labour without notice was deliberately 
 adopted with the view of securing this advantage. The indi- 
 cations of the course of events go to prove the contrary. 
 Indeed there is little doubt that the men did not realise at the 
 
 '"'Jk'/T "^"^""^ proposal to strike had been made onT^October, and two 
 months had elapsed. ^ wt-Luuer, aiiu lwu 
 
15 
 
 time, precisely the view that might be taken and was exten- 
 sively taken, of their action. Their Executive had very properly 
 sought legal advice ^ on the subject of notice, and had con- 
 sistently declined to advise a strike in which a comparatively 
 small minority would be involved, probably only to their own 
 personal sacrifice. But the constant deferring of the moment 
 of engagement is more demoralising to troops than a partial 
 defeat, and the men who were eager for a strike, instinctively 
 felt that unless they made a decisive movement at the critical 
 hour on the 21st December, their spirits would be worn out 
 before the struggle began. ^ The step, bold and irregular as it 
 was, was successful at least in securing the endorsement of the 
 general body of the men. 
 
 On Sunday night, 21st December, there were throughout 
 Scotland upwards of 3,000 men on strike; on Monday, 22nd, 
 there were 4,000; on 23rd, 5,000 to 6,000; and by Christmas Day 
 8,500 to 9,000.^ These figures are given with due reserve. It 
 is impossible, amid the conflicting statements, to arrive at an 
 accurate series of figures. Indeed, the very large amount of 
 coming and going among the men rendered the collection of 
 correct statistics of the number on strike at any particular 
 moment quite impracticable. Apart from errors made in good 
 faith, it is probable that, as in most strikes, statements were 
 made, both by the officials of the companies and by the men on 
 strike, which were for tactical reasons exaggerated or minimised 
 as suited the purpose of the moment. 
 
 The railway companies were completely taken by surprise. 
 They had not made, perhaps they could not have made, pro- 
 vision for the conduct of the traffic without the services of the 
 strikers. The result for a time was utter chaos. The internal 
 transport of the central, eastern, southern, and western districts 
 of Scotland was for a day or two utterly paralysed. The strike 
 
 (i) See above, page ii. 
 
 (2) The question of notice is more fully discussed on pages 46 and 50. 
 
 (3) For estimate of the total number of railway servants in Scotland, and of those 
 affected by the strike, see page 23. 
 
i6 
 
 was most heavily felt by the North British Railway, and less 
 heavily by the Caledonian and the Glasgow and South-Western 
 Railways. 
 
 The chief incidents of the struggle can only be briefly 
 summarised. A reduced passenger train time-table was pre- 
 pared for all the lines. From the 22nd December onwards, 
 for at least four weeks, the depots of the companies were blocked 
 with goods, and unmanned engines were rusting in their sheds. 
 The quantity cf minerals moved for weeks, excepting by traders' 
 own engines, or by engines manned by traders, was insignificant, 
 For several days the Vale of Leven, the Aberfoyle, and other 
 lines were closed for traffic. The Glasgow Underground (City) 
 Railway was closed for circle trains from the beginning of the 
 strike till 28th January, a period of five weeks. 
 
 It is not too much to say that on Monday, Tuesday, and 
 Wednesday, 21st till 23rd December, the passenger, goods, and 
 mineral services in Scotland were disorganized to the extent of 
 paralysis. Signalmen had left their cabins, engine drivers had 
 left their engines and their routes, and new men could not be 
 trained to unaccustomed work at a day's notice, even if new 
 men could be found to take the places of those who had gone. 
 All this produced an incalculable amount of public loss and 
 inconvenience. The days between the beginning of the strike 
 and the New-Year holidays were fruitful of suffering to all 
 classes of the community. Many public works were closed 
 almost immediately owing to the want of fuel. It is hardly 
 likely to be an overestimate that 100,000 persons were granted 
 an unwelcome extension of holiday. At the works of the 
 Singer Company at Kilbowie, on the Clyde, upwards of 5 000 
 persons were thrown out of employment at once, owing to the 
 North British Railway Company being unable to run the usual 
 special trains from Glasgow to Kilbowie for the purpose of con- 
 veying them to and from their work. The passenger traffic of 
 the Christmas and New-Year weeks was seriously impeded, 
 notwithstanding the abandonment of the goods traffic in its 
 
17 
 
 favour, and the concentration of the whole energies of the 
 companies upon it. The real testing-point came on Monday, 
 5th January, when the public works would in the ordinary 
 course have been opened, and when the goods traffic had to 
 be dealt with or industry paralysed. Notwithstanding the 
 adherence of a considerable proportion of their servants, and 
 the influx of a certain number of " blacklegs,'' the companies 
 did not succeed for several weeks in doing more th^n merely 
 touching the fringe of the goods and mineral services. The 
 chief incident, and one which affected a large group of com- 
 plementary industries, was the want of coal. Stocks in Glasgow 
 were soon exhausted, and though considerable quantities were 
 carted from local pits to the enrichment of their owners, who 
 sold their output at enhanced prices, steam coal for ships' use 
 or exportation^ was almost unprocurable, and steel works, 
 engineering works, shipbuilding yards, and cotton mills closed 
 their doors, and very many thousands of workmen were thrown 
 out of employment.^ Meanwhile the impossibility of procuring 
 despatch for coal accumulating at the pitheads compelled 
 the coalmasters to cease working, and in the mining dis- 
 tricts thousands of miners became idle. Some were for the 
 time supported by their trade unions.^ The dearth of coal 
 and the high prices charged by local dealers pressed most 
 heavily upon the poorer classes, whose hardships were much 
 intensified by the enhancement of the cost of fuel during the 
 height of an unusually severe winter. The retail price of coal 
 
 (i) Coal Shipments from Scottish ports: 
 
 Tons. 
 Decrease for Week ending December 27th 47- 548 
 
 January 3rd (Included on lotb) 
 Do. loth 23,731 
 
 Do. 17th 29,040 
 
 Do. 24th 49.065 
 
 Do. 31st 22,277 Total, 171,662 
 
 (2) During the weeks ending the loth, 17th, and 24th January, a very large number of 
 the public works in the west of Scotland still remained closed. 
 
 (3) A curious instance of the instability of the relations between capital and labour, 
 and of the highly arbitrary fixation of prices during periods of industrial emergency, is 
 afforded by the case of a colliery in Fifeshire, where coal was being spld at the relatively 
 high price of 17s. 6d. per ton. The men in'^isted on an advance in wages, which the 
 employers promptly refused on the ground that the rise in price was only temporary. 
 The men thereupon threatened to strike, whereupon the colliery owners reduced the 
 price of coal from 17s. fid. to los. per ton. 
 
 B 
 
rose from under 20s. to 4o3- per ton. A coal famine was im- 
 minent, and stoppage of the gas supply in Glasgow and Edmburgh 
 was no rem^ te probability. Coals were exported from the Tyne 
 instead of from the Forth and the Clyde. Carts were employed 
 to convey goods from the country manufacturing districts for 
 distances up to thirty miles to Glasgow for shipment. Vessels 
 waited for cargoes. Foreign merchants bought their goods 
 elsewhere. On every hand one learned that trade was leaving 
 the Scottish ports. 
 
 Even that part of the social loss which might be expressed 
 in terms of money can hardly be estimated ; the immediate 
 effects were so widespread and the indirect effects quite in- 
 calculable, while the loss otherwise can only be dimly guessed 
 at.^ Both sides were equally obstinate, and apparently equally 
 indifferent to public opinion. The daily newspapers were, 
 with three exceptions, opposed to the action of the men,' and 
 opinion on the exchanges was wholly against the strikers. 
 
 During a crisis such as that produced by the strike, the 
 tension both of the public mind and of the minds of the 
 strikers is very high, and the likelihood of causing important 
 changes in the situation by the propagation even of an un- 
 founded rumour is an inducement to some people to make 
 the attempt. While spurious rumours are alleged to have been 
 set afoot by strikers, the strikers declare that panic among 
 them was artificially promoted by officials. 
 
 The prevailing feeling was undoubtedly one of condemna- 
 tion that the men had, by striking without notice, at once em- 
 barrassed the railway companies and endangered the public 
 safety, both as to transport of persons and of supplies. Yet 
 there was an undercurrent of feeling, which found frequent 
 expres sion at public meetings in Glasgow an d Edinburgh, and 
 
 (i) Seepage 24. 
 
 {2) The important service rendered to the strikers even by the newspapers whose 
 leading articles were antagonistic to them ought, however, to be speciaUy noticed. Tk 
 strike began at a time when Parliament was not in session, and pages were daily dt- 
 voted to full and accurate reports of the meetings The prominent position in public 
 attention occupied by Ihe strike was due largely to this. The statements communicatd 
 to the newspapers, on behalf of both sides, as to the state of traffic from day to dayaie, 
 however, to be received with caution. 
 
'9 
 
 otherwise, that the grievances of the railway men would have 
 to be remedied somehow. 
 
 Aid came to the companies from local firms, who lent 
 private engines with the services of drivers, and from 
 the English railways in conducting the traffic to the south. 
 Aid came to the men from trades unions, both in Scotland 
 and in England, in shape of money and " agitators." Incidents 
 familiar in the great English strikes became commonplaces. 
 "Picketing'" was extensively adopted.' Collisions between the 
 strikers and their sympathisers and the police took place. Out- 
 rages upon railway property occurred ; and some of these were 
 traced to men on strike. Railway accidents due to ignorance 
 or want of skill on the part of the men employed to replace 
 the strikers happened almost daily. 
 
 Apart from the various attempts at negotiations for settlement, 
 which will be noticed later, two leading incidents happened in 
 the course of the strike. These were the defection of the men 
 employed by the Glasgow and South-Western Railway, and the 
 eviction at Motherwell of the families of about a dozen of the stri- 
 kers from houses belonging to the Caledonian Railway Company. 
 
 From the first it was felt by the general body of the men that 
 their weakest section, from a combative point of view, was that 
 which consisted of the employees of the smallest of the three . 
 railways concerned. It was known that the men on the Glasgow 
 and South-Western Railway had less reason to be discontented 
 that the conditions of their work generally were not nearly so 
 severe, and t^iat a much larger proportion of the men than on 
 the other railways had an eight-hours day.^ The officials of the 
 Glasgow and South-Western Railway, at all events, succeeded in 
 winning back their men to work, long before the other lines saw 
 their way out of the mess. The effect of this upon the morale 
 of the remainder of the strikers was considerable, and it required 
 all the powers of those who had stepped or had been thrust into 
 the position of leaders to prevent wholesale defections from 
 following. _^_^_ 
 
 (i) See pages 41 and 52. (2) See page 26. 
 
On Monday, 5th January, the families of about a dozen 
 engine-drivers and others on strike were evicted from houses 
 belonging to the Caledonian Railway Company at Motherwell. 
 These evictions were carried out with a great display of military 
 and police force,^ under the command of the sheriff of the county, 
 in presence of some twenty or thirty thousand people. The roof 
 of the railway station and a signal-box were wrecked by rioters, 
 and the Riot Act was read to a turbulent mob. In the excited 
 state of popular feeling the agents of the railway company 
 yielded to the representations of the authorities, and decided 
 to refrain from risking further violence, by deferring proceedings 
 for the eviction of the remainder of the striker-tenants. 
 
 One of the characteristics of the strike was the great amount 
 of coming and going. Many men seem to have struck, returned, 
 and struck again. The fear that the strike was collapsing, 
 again and again produced more or less severe panic, and 
 tovards the close of the fifth week panic was really the chronic 
 condition. After the Glasgow and South-Western Railway had 
 overcome the strike, so far as their system was concerned, the 
 Caledonian Railway succeeded to a certain extent in inducing re- 
 turn to its ranks, until by the close of the fifth week it was announced 
 that the vacancies on the line were practically filled up. This 
 seems to have led to a panic among some of the Caledonian 
 men who still remained out, and they further weakened the 
 position of the men on strike by taking service with the North 
 British Railway. Meantime, however, there can be no doubt 
 that many men who had been employed by both railways in the 
 emergency became dissatisfied with the conditions of work and 
 left the services. All this makes it difficult to form an estimate, 
 but probably at the end of the fifth week the ranks of the 
 strikers did not number more than 3,000." 
 
 Notwithstanding the immense loss which was daily being 
 
 (i) It would appear from the repoi ts in the newspapers that none of the strikers 
 concerned offered any resistance to the proceedings, some of them even having previously 
 removed from the houses. 
 
 (2) The aliment which had been paid by the strike committee, GIas.row for four weeks 
 at los. was at the end of the fifth week raised to I2S. 6d. ; at Edinburgh'it was 17s 6d 
 for unmarried and 20s. for married men. / ■ * 
 
incurred, the directors of the companies did not move from 
 their position. " Return and we shall consider your griev- 
 , ances," was the invariable burthen of the statements of the 
 manager of the North British Railway. The Caledonian 
 Company went a little further than this. They definitely 
 refused to concede a universal ten-hours day.^ 
 
 On Friday, 23rd January, Mr. Channing moved in the 
 House of Commons a resolution expressing the view " that 
 the excessive hours of labour imposed on railway servants 
 constitute a grave scandal and a constant source of danger, 
 and urging that the Board of Trade should be empowered to 
 issue orders directing railway companies to limit the hours of 
 work of special classes of their servants, or to make such a 
 reasonable increase in any class as will obviate the necessity 
 for overtime work." 
 
 Although the Government did not accept the resolution, 
 
 because its adoption would have committed the House to 
 
 definite legislation on the subject, the president of the Board 
 
 ' of Trade offered to move the appointment of a Select Com- 
 
 ' mittee to inquire how far the question could be dealt with by 
 
 legislation.^ 
 
 The sixth week of the strike opened with a settlement still 
 hopelessly in the distance. The commercial community 
 viewed with despair the prospect of the indefinite continuance 
 of indiff'erent transport facilities. At the best, both the 
 Caledonian and North British Railways were maintaining but 
 a partial service, the heavy mineral traffic being almost abso- 
 lutely at a standstill.^ The prospect of drastic legislative 
 interference probably helped to quicken the action of the 
 
 (i) "Sir James King said . . . ' He desired to make itclearthat the company did not 
 see their way to concede a ten-hours day all round, and that they could not agree to 
 recognise the Jlxecutive of the Amalgamated Society, but on the men returning to work, 
 the directors would be quite ready to consider and remedy any grievances in connection 
 ■ with the service which might be brought before them, so far as these were reasonable.' " — 
 Evening Times, January 14th, 189T. 
 
 (2) Mr. Channing's motion was lost on a division by 141 to 124 — a majority of only 17 
 for the Government. Sir M. H. Beach afterwards intimated his intention of moving for 
 a Select Committee. 
 
 (3) The weekly decrease in coal shipments proves this. See page 24. 
 
directors ; while the increase in the number of more or less 
 serious outrages during the fifth and sixth weeks had probably 
 an influence both on the attitude of the pubhc mind and on 
 the pohcy of the leaders of the men on strike. The con- 
 tinuance of the struggle was beginning to open up serious 
 questions for everyone ; and the civil action undertaken by 
 the North British Railway Company against the Executive of 
 the society had apparently rendered an amicable settlement 
 more hopeless than ever. This was the situation when, on 
 29th January, a meeting took place between the manager 
 of the North British Railway and representatives of the men, 
 with the result that a settlement was arrived at so far as that 
 company was concerned. Two days later a similar meeting 
 took place between the manager of the Caledonian Railway 
 and delegates of the men with a similar result. Thus, on 
 31st January, after having run a course of six weeks, dismal 
 alike for the public, the strikers, and the companies, the strike 
 came to an end ^ 
 
 (I) Cf. page 39. 
 
NOTE I. TO CHAPTER II. 
 
 The relation of the numbers on strike to the total numbers of railway 
 servants is not at present readily ascertainable. It has been stated for 
 the Caledonian Railway Company that the total number of its employees 
 was prior to the strike 14,600. This figure must include, however, all 
 employees whatsoever, and some thousands must be deducted for those 
 who could not under any conceivab'e circumstances be affected by the 
 strike. The grades involved were chiefly guards, engine-drivers, firemen, 
 signalmen, and examiners. The total numbers of these grades in the 
 employment of the companies, as at March, 1S90, were as follows : 
 
 Name of company 
 
 Number 
 
 Name of company 
 
 Number 
 
 and class of 
 
 of each cla-;s 
 
 and class of 
 
 of each class. 
 
 servant. 
 
 employed. 
 
 seivant. 
 
 employed. 
 
 Caledonian. 
 
 Mar., 
 
 G. & S. W. 
 
 i\lar., 
 
 
 1890. 
 
 
 iSgo 
 
 Passenger guards, 
 
 157 
 
 Passenger guards, 
 
 7t 
 
 Goods guards. 
 
 5C0 
 
 Goods guards, 
 
 219 
 
 Engine drivers and firemen, 
 
 1426 
 
 Engine-drivers ?nd fi enien, 
 
 57^ 
 
 Signalmen, 
 
 85a 
 
 ■'ignalmen, 
 
 38s 
 
 Examiners, 
 
 105 
 
 Examineis (not stated). 
 
 
 C. R. totals, 
 
 3126 
 
 G. & S. W. totaLs 
 
 1253 
 
 North British. 
 
 
 
 
 Passenger guards, 
 
 193 
 
 
 
 Goodb guards, 
 
 645 
 
 
 
 Engine-drivers and firemen, 
 
 159.3 
 
 C. R. totals. 
 
 3126 
 
 Signalmen, 
 
 - I023 
 
 N. B. do , - 
 
 3594 
 
 Examiners, 
 
 135 
 
 G. & S. W. do , 
 
 1253 
 
 N. B. totals, 
 
 3594 
 
 Grand totals, 
 
 7973 
 
 
 
 Parliamentary Return 
 
 C.-6158. 
 
 Since other classes, of the numbers of which no reliable statements are 
 available, were involved in the strike, it would not be quite fair to infer 
 from these figures that the estimate of the number of men on strike on 
 Christmas Day, given by the newspapers at 8,500 to 9,000, was utterly wide 
 of the mark, though it was perhaps an over-estimate. At the height of 
 the struggle, when the maximum number of men were out, it is probably 
 fair to say that of the 7,973 men of the grades above mentioned, at least 
 two-thirds were on strike. The total number of railway employees of all 
 grades in Scotland is perhaps about 35,00c. 
 
24 
 
 NOTE II. TO CHAPTER II. 
 
 The direct loss to the companies cannot be estimated by merely adding 
 the weekly decrease on the traffic returns, although this item alone amounted 
 to a large sum, exclusive of the increase that would have accrued but for 
 the strike. 
 
 Decrease for week ending 
 I tecember 27th, - 
 January 3rd, 
 
 — loth, 
 -^ 17th, 
 
 — 24th, 
 
 — 31st, 
 
 Caledonian 
 
 North 
 British. 
 
 G. & S. W. 
 
 £ 
 
 8,404 
 2,825 
 +4=3 
 
 + 2T0 
 
 +345 
 +885 
 
 Totals. 
 
 £ 
 26,829 
 41.285 
 26,844 
 17.735 
 14.355 
 8.899 
 
 £ 
 
 10,101 
 7.903 
 II. 315 
 6,753 
 1 207 
 +1 137 
 
 £ 
 8,324 
 3°.557 
 15.952 
 11,192 
 13.493 
 10.921 
 
 36,142 
 
 90 439 
 
 9,366 
 
 135.947 
 
 A portion of this decrease is no doubt due to deferred rather than to lost 
 traffic, but the item of lepairs for damage to rolling stock by inefficient 
 employees is alleged to be considerable, and the actual costs in high pay 
 to " blackleg " labour, and in expenses entailed by the strike, have been 
 very heavy. In bonuses to "loyal" employees each of the companies 
 dispensed the amount of one week's pay. It is to be remembered also 
 that the compacies boarded and lodged very large numbers of their em- 
 ployees during the strike. The cost of doing so practically doubled the 
 amount paid in wages to the men concerned. A reliable estimate of the 
 total direct loss to the companies can hardly yet be made, but the 
 estimate of ^200,000, arrived at by adding together the estimated 
 amounts of the individual items of direct loss mentioned, is probably 
 well within the mark. The depreciation in the market value of the 
 capital stock of the Scottish railways is also a serious item. In 
 the case of the North British Railway this has been most marked. In 
 the first week of October 1S90, before a strike was threatened by the 
 men, the stock stood at 61, during the strike it touched 49, a fall of 20 per 
 cent. This depreciation is possibly temporary ; but there can be no doubt 
 that the strike and its effect upon the stock has to some extent shaken the 
 confidence of investors in Scottish railways, which during the past few 
 years have been rapidly rising in public favour and in market value. 
 Caledonian stock has suffered only a fractional loss since 1st October. 
 The loss in unpaid wages to the men on strike may be roughly estimated 
 at ;^40,ooo. It is almost futile to estimate the aggregate loss to the 
 individual members of the public. It is probably many times the amount 
 of the combined losses of the companies and the men. Perhaps it would 
 be rather an under than an overestimate to say that Scotland has lost a 
 million during the six weeks of the strike. 
 
25 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 THE ISSUES OF THE STRIKE. 
 
 I. 
 
 The Hours of Labour. 
 
 The circumstances under which the strike took place 
 unfortunately tended from the outset to obscure the real 
 question at issue. The notoriety of the long hours of railway 
 servants was forgotten in the reflection that the strikers had 
 put themselves in the wrong by breaking their engagements. 
 From the point of view of the railway companies, nothing 
 could have been more fortunate than the reckless action of the 
 strikers, for it enabled the directors to appeal with much 
 success to the traveUing and trading public for forbearance 
 while contending against men whom they were able to show 
 had disregarded legal obligations. But beneath and behind 
 the notice question, and altogether separate from it, lay the 
 fundamental cause of quarrel — the question of excessive spells 
 of duty. -^ The figures supplied by the companies to the 
 Board of Trade, whatever may be their value as disclosing 
 the actual condition of affairs on any one of the lines, at least 
 afford means of comparison. A glance at the table^ will show 
 at once that while the conditions of work on the Glasgow and 
 South- Western Railway and on the Caledonian approximated 
 to those on the great English lines, those on the North British 
 
 (i) 054,344 strikes in separate establishments in the United States (1881- 
 86) for "reduction of hours " as a single issue, 1,055 succeeded, 966 suc- 
 ceeded partly, and 2.323 failed. — 3rd Report of United Hates Commission 
 of Labour, p 1021. 1,770 of the strikes and 2,114 of the failures occurred 
 m a single year (i885), the culminating point in recent American labour 
 hist •xy. — lb., pp. IC02 and 13. In 1889, in the United Kingdom, dis- 
 satisfaction with conditions of work, hours, material, etc., caused 139 strikes. 
 Of these 62 were successful, 31 were partially successful, 42 were unsuc- 
 cessful, and the results of 4 were unknown. — Parliamentary Report C. — 
 6176, p. 30. 
 (2) See page 66. 
 
26 
 
 were enormously more severe. These figures tend to confirm 
 the widely prevalent impression, that the Caledonian and Glas- 
 gow and South- Western Railways ' were dragged into the struggle 
 with their men on account of the intolerable severity of the 
 work on the North British system. The result was that when 
 the other railways were gradually getting out of the mess, 
 the North British was left alone to fight a gruesome battle with 
 a body of men determined not to submit.^ The statistics of 
 September, 1889, and March, 1890, by no means, however, 
 represent the state of matters later. It was in the summer 
 of 1890^ that the strain of traffic over the new lines was 
 most severe, and the work hardest. Although the North 
 British Railway Company had largely extended its lines and 
 increased its traffic, it had made a merely fractional addition 
 to its staff, and thus some of the men were kept on duty for 
 periods altogether beyond permanent human endurance.* In 
 
 (i) " speaking at a social gaihering of the employees uf the City Union Railway 
 (worked by the Glasgow and .^outh- Western Railway Company), held last night, Mr. 
 Q. Y. Lawson, the manager, said that things on their line had been going on smoothly 
 until the strike began. He was sorry that a number of their employees had been drawn 
 into it. The directors had met the employees in a most handsome way, and when the 
 statements of the men were analysed it was found there was little to complain of. The 
 whole programme of the society had actually bten in operation on the Union Railway for 
 some years. Their signalmen had an eight-hours shift, a clerk assisted in all the 
 important cabins, and the men were paid time and quarter for overtime and time and half 
 for Sunday work. The company had been doing that for years, and the directors were 
 surprised some of the men should have struck." — Glasgow Evening Citizen, 25th January, 
 1891. As regards the Caledonian Railway, Sir James King, deputy chairman, in meet- 
 ing the Glasgow Citizens' Committee, " Pointed to what the company had done during 
 the last 15 months entirely with the view of relieving the staff. During the last year 
 the company had put on 50 additional engines daily, and had employed 150 additional 
 men in the locomotive department, 55 addiiional yardsmen and brakesmen, and 67 
 additional signalmen. All of this was done with the view of reducing the hours of labour, 
 and it involved a very large additional expenditure. All through, the attitude of the 
 directors towards their employees had been most conciliatory and they had made great 
 concessions in the different departments in wages, hours, holidays, premiums, and 
 \xzi\ioiTTis"—E7.e7iing Times., 14th January, 1891. 
 
 (2) See, however, page 40. 
 
 (3) " All classes of men in the North British service were unanimously of opinion that 
 for long delays and congestion of traffic last year was the worst in iheir experience of 
 15, 20, and 25 years. This was clearly demonstated in the vieinity of Edinburgh last 
 summer, when it was no uncommon occurrence for a goods train to take seven hours to 
 cover a distance of six miles "—Glasgow Evening Citizen " Inquiry," 4th Article. 
 
 (4) See table, page 66. Detailed statements of the work of individual men were 
 given in the excellent series of papers, the result of the Citizen "Inquiry," Op. cit. A 
 few instances are taken at random : — 
 
 March, 1890— N.B engine driver. Daily runs for the month averaged 17 hours; 
 maximum number of hours on duty, 21 ; minimum, 12. 
 
 8th till 20th December, 1890.— N.B engine-driver. Hours on duty 14 17 00 20 
 
 ''*'fl^h V^' ^°^'n '^' 7 '^' r "^xf o^^- "-^'^^ '7 ''°"''f Sundays are included.' 
 8th til 20th December, 1890.— N.B. engine driver. Hours on duty 17 20 20 11 
 
 21, 00, 13^, 18. 16, 21, 16, 18^ Average, 17^ nours daily. Ji /. , . ► 
 
 Datenotgiven—N B. engine driver. Hours worked, consecucive davs ot\ or-i to 
 
 19, 24. Ditto, 173, 165, 18, 24, 15. ^ ' ^* ^' =" 
 
27 
 
 order to provide for the cases of men who, while nominally on 
 duty, are really not occupied during the whole of the time, as in 
 the case of the servants at a country station, some elasticity 
 in the arrangement of the number of hours is necessary. 
 But no person can seriously maintain that the driver of a 
 goods train between Edinburgh and Glasgow can possibly 
 continue to work on consecutive days, 21 J, 21^, 19, 19, 
 and 24 hours for any considerable length of time. One of 
 three things must happen — the man must die, or he must find 
 some other employment,' or he must combine with others to 
 compel his employers to treat him better. The last course is 
 the one he elected to adopt. 
 
 The claim of the men as made three monthsbefore the strike ''' « as 
 for a universal maximum ten-hours day for all grades, with the 
 abolition of the system of reckoning hours of labour by an aggre- 
 gate fortnight's work, and, in the payment of wages, overtime to 
 be calculated at time and a quarter. This remained as the lead- 
 ing issue of the strike until Mr. Haldane, in his desire to 
 promote a settlement, succeeded in inducing the Executive to 
 agree to a modification of this demand. The result of his 
 negotiations^ was the narrowing of the controversy to a single 
 point, and the abandonment on the part of the men of a very 
 important position. It is necessary to understand clearly how 
 the system of aggregates works in order to appreciate the 
 extent of the concession which the men were prepared to 
 make. Up till the strike the normal fortnight's work was 144 
 hours. This number of hours might be made up in any way 
 that suited the service. Thus, a man might conceivably make 
 up in eight days his tale of hours for a fortnight. He would 
 then begin to earn overtime, should he be required — as in the 
 normal case he would — to work for four or six dajs more.' A 
 
 (1) Cf. page 63. (2) See above page lo. (3) See page 38. 
 
 (4) By an arrangement effected in 1889, and applyingto certain grades, the Caledonian 
 Railway Company appear to have succeeded in increasing the number of hours of work 
 without a proportional additional cost to the Company. Ibis arrangement limited the 
 payment of wages for overtime to payment for one day per fortnight above the aggregate 
 of 144 hours, irrespective of the number of hours actually worked. .'\s a quid pro quo, the 
 rate of wages was increased about r2i%. This plan may have been devised for the purpose 
 
28 
 
 man might, however, be on duty for a spell of twenty-four 
 hours thrice a week without earning any overtime at all. Under 
 the new arrangements of the North Eastern Railway, the 
 aggregate is not a fortnightly but a weekly one, the men being 
 paid overtime after sixty hours per week. On the Midland 
 Railway certain sections of the employees are paid not by the 
 aggregate fortnight's work but by a daily reckoning. 
 
 It was this daily reckoning system which the Scottish railway 
 servants wanted the companies to adopt for all the grades. 
 Such a system is not now in use on any of our railways, but its 
 advantages over the aggregate systems, as a means of checking 
 excessive spells of work, is obvious. On the suggestion 
 of Mr. Haldane the men abandoned the claim for the 
 abolition of the aggregate system, and offered to content them- 
 selves with reduction of the aggregate from a fortnightly one 
 of 144 hours to a weekly one of 60 hours. 
 
 It has been suggested that desire for increased wages was 
 the fundamental reason of the strike.' The men deny this, 
 and there is no reason to suppose that their denial is 
 insincere. Assuming that the men really wanted more 
 leisure — ■ more time with their families, as some of them 
 put it — it is difficult to see on what lines they could have 
 proceeded other than those upon which they actually did 
 proceed. Had they demanded a rigid and indiscriminate fixa- 
 tion of maximum hours beyond which they would not work on 
 any terms, such a policy would have been hopelessly impracticable. 
 Thus they sought reduction of hours by demanding the imposi- 
 tion of a fine for overtime. The principle of overtime is probably 
 a bad one, since it does not necessarily secure any diminution 
 
 of lessening the inducement to the men to work ovenime, and it certainly tends to effect 
 its purpose ; but it is alleged by the men to result in practical compulsion to work two, 
 three, or more days for which no payment is made whatever, excepting in the increase in 
 the weekly rate. It is alleged that though the men accepted this arrangement in 1889, 
 its acceptarce was really forced upon them, and that the great increase of traffic and 
 cou'^equent increased length of the spells of work have caused the bargain to De greatly 
 to their disadvantage. 
 
 (5) By the manager of the North British Railway Company (see page 8), and notably 
 by Sir Michael Hicks-Beach. See reporl. House of Commons deb.ite, Times, 24th 
 January, 1891. 
 
29 
 
 in the number of consecutive hours of duty or any increase in 
 the public safety ; it might be argued that, since overtime 
 working would, on the adoption of the men's plan, involve 
 higher pay, there would probably be less grumbling but more 
 overtime than ever.^ 
 
 It goes without saying that even had the demand of the men 
 been made with increased pay as a motive, that of itself would 
 not constitute an argument against its being granted. The 
 diminution of the aggregate would involve the infliction of 
 a penalty upon the companies for long spells of work, and thus 
 tend to make these long spells less frequent, since it would be 
 to the companies* interest to employ more men rather than to 
 pay a less number 25 per cent, additional for overtime. The 
 employment of additional men would probably be the effect of 
 the proposed change ; but so far as the new arrangement had 
 not this effect, and assuming the amount of traffic to remain as 
 it was prior to the strike, or to increase, it would be true, as the 
 companies allege, that the wages of the men individually would 
 be increased. The wages bill would also be increased by 
 granting the demand of the men for a sixty-hours week, by so 
 much as the difference between the cost of an aggregate fort- 
 night of 144 hours and the cost of a period of 120 hours in twa 
 
 (i) See, however, the statement of the Executive: 
 
 "Full and fair opportunity is only wanted to clearly show the directors that it is a 
 reduction of hours that is wanted, and that no satisfaction will be given unless such is 
 conceded. When, through their manager, the North British Railway Board say — 
 "There is no doubt that the object of the present movement is to secure increased pay 
 and not reduced hours," they are but adding insult to injury to their staff. Such a state- 
 ment leads us to ask if they are really aware of the condition of work their men labour 
 under to-day — that passenger, goods, and mineral men are working from 14 to 24 hours of 
 duty, and if through this strain they demand ordinary rest before being called upon to 
 do a similar stretch of hours, the arbitrary hand of the foreman or inspector is laid upon 
 them, and they are, in some cases, told to remain at home until they ate sent for (an easy 
 method of suspension), or if, through their physical energy being exhausted, they fall 
 sick, when they go to resume duty, they are informed their place is filled, but they can 
 start in a subordinate position, or if not content with that there is no woik for them. Are 
 they aware of such acts being done in their name? If they are, it reflects a sad state of 
 commercial morality ; if they are not, they should not prejudge men's actions, but meet 
 those who can clearly and fearlessly prove that such is actually taking place. In the 
 circular issued by the North British Board it is clearly shown it would be useless to meet 
 them, as they desire, in grades, as the Board's mind is made up that their men do not want 
 reduced hours. What is the use of meeting men whose minds are made up, and the 
 men's claims prejudged? Another very important factor must not be forgotten, that it 
 was only after the strike of the Caledonian men in 1883 that ihe North British manager 
 met the men at all at that time." — Report of Executive, Glasgoiv Herald^ 24th Novem- 
 ber, iSqi. 
 
3° 
 
 weekly aggregates. Tnis difference is not a simple numerical 
 one, as might at first sight appear, since the two sums are 
 different in character. The experience of manufacturing in- 
 dustry goes to prove that, within certain limits, reduction of 
 hours means increased human activity. It is thus questionable 
 how far it is true that the working expenditure of the companies 
 would be materially increased by reduction of hours, were this 
 accompanied, as it probably would be, by increased efficiency of 
 labour.^ 
 
 Consideration of the figures in Tables I. and 11.^ suggests a 
 reason for the length of spells of work of Scottish as compared 
 with English railway servants. Although exact comparison 
 cannot be made owing to the disparity in the proportions of 
 single and double lines in England and in Scotland respectively, 
 the figures suggest that the Scottish lines are less amply supplied 
 with locomotives than the English lines.- The number of 
 locomotives on the English lines per mile open is nearly one 
 per mile, while the Scottish lines have only a little more than 
 half a locomotive per mile. The delays which occurred during 
 last year were probably partly due to want of plant and want of 
 station accommodation, but were also, it is alleged, partly due 
 to the exhausted condition of the men.^ They were working 
 really at a minimum instead of a maximum of efficiency. Since 
 delayed traffic is more costly in its use of plant than expeditious 
 trafific, it is hardly open to doubt that a sufficient staff, whose 
 hours are not pushed beyond the limit up to which the men 
 are efficient, is more economical than an insufficient staff which 
 frequently falls asleep over its work from sheer exhaustion. 
 Many of the detailed grievances narrated at the meetings of the 
 men on strike, and in the newspapers, might no doubt be easily 
 set aside by the managers ; but the broad fact remains that the 
 North British Railway has been for nearly twelve months unable 
 to cope with its increase of traffic owing to the opening up of 
 its extensions. Although this company has shown more enter- 
 
 (i) See page 57 n. (2) See page 65. 
 
 (3) See note in Report Executive noted above, page 30, 
 
31 
 
 prise in constructing new lines than any other railway company 
 in Scotland, it has so far failed to reap the full advantage of its 
 enterprise, owing to want of adequate administration of details, 
 and consequent want of punctuality exasperating alike to the 
 public and to its own servants. 
 
 This inability to cope with rapid growth appears also to 
 have been the experience of the Caledonian Railway. It is 
 alleged that some of their most important depots are seriously 
 undermanned, and that the work can only be overtaken by the 
 existing staff by means of systematic overtime working.^ 
 
 Efforts upon the Caledonian line are alleged to have been 
 concentrated largely upon the economical use of locomotive 
 power. For example, until a few years ago the goods traffic 
 between Glasgow and Carlisle was carried on by what was 
 known as the single-trip system. This system involved the 
 employment of twenty-four engines — twelve of which were 
 housed at Carlisle and twelve at Glasgow. The journey was 
 accomplished in nine hours, and the men in charge of the 
 train slept at Glasgow and at Carlisle on alternate nights. The 
 system was, however, abolished in favour of the double-trip 
 system which is now in vogue. This system involves the 
 employment of only six engines instead of twenty-four, and 
 the accomplishment of a double trip in eighteen consecutive 
 hours. The change was accompanied by an increase of pay, 
 but the increase of work is reported by some, at least, of the 
 men to have undermined their health. The saving in plant 
 and other expenses, produced by the introduction of the 
 double-trip system, has been, it is alleged, largely effected at 
 the expense of the men. 
 
 It seems almost absurd to criticise the details of railway 
 administration ; but it would appear that either want of means 
 or want of administrative ability in dealing with materiel or 
 with masses of men, or some potent force outside of the 
 
 (i) It is impossible to test the accuracy of these statements in detail otherwise than by 
 a Parliamentary inquiry. St. RoUox, Glasgow, has been mentioned to me as a flagrant 
 case of an undermanned depot. 
 
32 
 
 administration, has dragged the companies and the country 
 into the mire of a serious crisis. We are driven to give some 
 weight to the two first-mentioned causes, unless we are to be 
 absolutely sceptical of everything that is said for the traders 
 and for the men, and blindly credulous of everything that is 
 said for the companies. The extent to which the strike has 
 been due to causes beyond the strict range of administration is 
 discussed elsewhere. 
 
 The railway system is, in a sense, only in its infancy ; many 
 lines of the railways in Scotland are but partially developed ; 
 the two great companies have between them practically a mono- 
 poly of the internal transport of the country. Unless one is to 
 take an extremely pessimistic view of the rapidity with which 
 the exhaustion of the coalfields of Lanarkshire and Fifeshire is 
 approaching, we can hardly fail to believe that the companies 
 are just now in process of consolidating a property which must 
 become progressively valuable. If the present service is pinched 
 and straitened, in order that the property may become of 
 greatly increased value to the future holders of the stock, it is 
 a question as to how far this is justifiable from any point of 
 view. If administration is going on such lines, it is opposed 
 equally to the interests of the existing bodies of shareholders 
 and of the companies' servants. 
 
 II. 
 
 The Recognition of the Union. 
 
 Although recognition of the Amalgamated Society of Railway 
 Servants by the railway Boards was a material issue in the 
 controversy, the repeated demands for a conference between 
 representatives of the companies and representatives of the 
 men was the only explicit formulation of it as an issue. 
 Moreover, ere yet the strike had run half its course the demand 
 for a conference had been expressly placed in abeyance by the 
 
33 
 
 society, in order not to divert attention from the main issue — 
 the question of hours. ^ 
 
 From the point of view of the railway companies it could 
 not, however, be thus thrust into the background. As regards 
 the Caledonian Railway, recognition of the union remained the 
 substantial reason of the strike. No doubt the service of that 
 company did not realise the men's expressed ideal in point of 
 hours, and other grievances were also felt; but the adherence 
 of the Board to the " graded system," with its traditions, 
 impelled the men to demand conference between the directors 
 and their own representatives, selected because they were 
 independent of the penalties that might attach to audacious 
 complainants in the company's service. The Board, on the 
 other hand, founded upon the established custom of the com- 
 pany, and especially upon their rule-book, wherein the mode of 
 the presentation of grievances was prescribed. 
 
 Rule isa. — " Should any servant think himself aggrieved at any time 
 he may memorialise the Board ; but in such cases the memorial must be 
 sent through the head of his department.'' ^ 
 
 It may be noted that this rule is probably of no validity 
 excepting as a rule of administration, for the infringement of 
 which the company may punish by degradation or dismissal. 
 It is unlikely that infringement of it could be held to be a 
 breach of contract, since the terms of it ' involve the foregoing 
 of a right now recognised, if not even explicitly sanctioned by 
 law, viz , the right of combination. ^ 
 
 As regards the North British Railway, the relative importance 
 of the questions was in a measure reversed. The position of 
 the question of hours was felt to be intolerable by the men, 
 and to demand immediate answer to the claim made by 
 the Executive of the society ; but the Board thought they saw 
 
 (i) In the Haldane and again in the Aberdeen negotiations. 
 
 (2) Rule-book, Caledonian Railway Company. This rule is not one of those common 
 to the lines on the Clearing House system. 
 
 (3) No provision is made for more than one person memorialising the Board as one 
 act. It is thus analogous to the similar provision as regards petitioning the Czar, and it 
 is surrounded by similar associations. 
 
 (4) See page 41. 
 
34 
 
 their interest to lie in adhering to the strictly technical render- 
 ing of their rules, and in declining discussion of the question 
 of hours save by the " graded system." On both hands, there- 
 fore, although the men expressly left the point in abeyance, it 
 remained as a materia.! issue, obstinately opposed by the 
 managers and directors of the companies. 
 
 Although comparatively few strikes have occurred upon 
 "recognition of the union," as the ostensible or the leading 
 issue, ^ it has really entered into almost all strikes, especially in 
 the rudimentary stages of individual trade-union organisations. 
 At a certain stage in the history of a union it is indeed the 
 inevitable battle which must be fought. The experience of 
 trade-unionists will probably universally confirm the statement 
 that a strike has almost invariably preceded such recognition, 
 and that, given substantial grievances and evil traditions associ- 
 ated with individual appeals for redress, the recognition of the 
 union has been conceded as the immediate or the remote result 
 of the strike. 
 
 It must not be inferred from this that trades-unionism and 
 striking are permanently indissociably connected. Strikes 
 occurred during the periods when combination was illegal, and 
 they occur now where no unions exist.'' 
 
 A union strong enough to strike, but too weak to hold 
 together without a strike, is a danger to all concerned. A 
 union, of which the bulk of a trade are members," guided 
 by an intelligent and trusted Executive, is more likely to be 
 reasonable in its demands than a loosely aggregated mass, 
 without common interests, full of jealousy and suspicion, and 
 acting frequently from caprice. 
 
 (i) Out of 22,304 strikes in separate establishments in the United States (1881-86) only 
 58 occurred solely for "recognition of union," and of these 16 succeeded and 42 failed.— 
 3rd Annual Report (1887) Commission of Labour, p. 1021. 
 
 (2) '■ There is no union in Macclesfield ; but a united action on the part of the weavers 
 has produced a cessation of work." Qy. 13.834. Third Report Depression of Trade 
 Commission. 
 
 (3) The Amalgamated Society of Engineers, in the earlier stages of its history, 
 experienced several strikes; but after all, in thirty-five years spent only 3^ per cent, of 
 its aggregate income in trade disputes, a portion of that amount being spent in assistance 
 to other trades. Cf. Labour Statistics, C. — 5104, p. 31. 
 
35 
 
 Looked at simply as a means of dealing with employers,' 
 through a representative instructed in the wants of the men 
 and independent of the employers, the trade-union unques- 
 tionably places the men in the position of being able to make a 
 more advantageous bargain than would otherwise be generally 
 possible for them to make. And, moreover, it really 
 enables the administrator of the labour of many thousands of 
 men to learn and understand their feelings and grievances 
 much more fully and accurately than it is possible for him to 
 do through his subordinates, whose interest generally lies in 
 preventing even the appearance of want of smoothness in 
 working. 
 
 A workman is easily abashed by a superior official. He 
 cannot state his case lucidly or fairly. He either overstates or 
 understates it. In so important a matter as contracting with 
 the leader of a great industrial army, especially a potentate so 
 awful and unapproachable in his eyes as a railway manager, he 
 feels that he needs an advocate well posted in the details of 
 his industry, and possessed of a fluent tongue and a ready pen. 
 He is willing to pay for such an advocate.^ Thus the trades- 
 union secretary becomes a necessity. There is no reason to 
 suppose that he must be a nuisance to employers, or that he 
 must be an autocrat to the men who employ him. Indeed, 
 the contrary is generally the case. So much opposed are 
 working-men to attempted autocracy by members of their own 
 class, that they are frequently severe to rudeness to those whom 
 they employ.^ In the railway strike the men broke away from 
 their secretary and their Executive, and carried out their 
 design in their own way. That they did so is an incidental 
 proof of the rudimentary character of their organisation. 
 
 (i) Apart from the question of labour combination, which is dealt with later, page 58. 
 
 (2) The abu^e of the paid agitator, freely disiJensed in the columns of the newspapers 
 during industrial disputes, is no doubt sometimes deserved ; but those who find them- 
 selves aggrieved by it are aware that similar abuse has at all times been dispensed to 
 those who were not of the abuser's party, and has sometimes been heaped upon those 
 who afterwards became popular idols. 
 
 . (3) The meetings of Co-operative Societies afford frequent examples of this ; and an 
 instance of it in the present strike is given above. See Note, p. 12. 
 
36 
 
 Had they been more accustomed to act together, they would 
 have been more disposed to listen to the advice of their leaders, 
 and they would not in that case have struck without notice. 
 So far from the railway managers pursuing a wise course in 
 refusing to treat with the representatives of the men, it is fairly 
 clear that their policy in this regard has been extremely short- 
 sighted. The future safe conduct of the railways really depends 
 upon a cordial understanding between the men and their repre- 
 sentatives, and between the representatives and the companies. 
 The raising of the civil action by the North British Railway 
 Company against the Executive of the Railway Servants 
 Association occurred while the foregoing pages were in the 
 press. This action concluded for;^2o,ooo damages for having 
 seduced and assisted the men on strike to break their engage- 
 ments by leaving the company's service without legal notice. 
 The leading points founded upon are : (i) That though the 
 Executive in their published statements opposed the resolution 
 to strike without notice, " in reality they countenanced and 
 supported " it. (2) That, after the resolution v/as carried on 
 2 1 St December, Mr. Tait, the secretary of the association, 
 advised those present to go " at once and induce, if possible, 
 those not present to join the strike." (3) That the system of 
 picketing is illegal. (4) That the promise of strike-money 
 held out to the men is a cause of the breach of engagement, 
 (5) That the Executive had paid money to persons employed 
 by the railway companies to replace the strikers in order 
 to enable them to desert their employment. (6) That 
 the members of the Executive had propagated false statements 
 to the effect that it was unsafe to travel upon the company's 
 lines. This action was entered on Friday, 23rd January, 1891, 
 against William Milne, Chairman of Executive (and retired 
 railway servant), Henry Tait, Secretary (and retired railway 
 servant), James Paisley, Treasurer (signalman), John Smith 
 (passenger-guard), Archibald Press (goods-guard), and Angus 
 Macdonald (signalman), as individuals, and as representing the 
 Committee of the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants. 
 
37 
 
 It is to be noted that this action was accompanied by a 
 summary legal process known in Scots law as diligence, by 
 which the pursuing company arrested the whole property of the 
 defenders. The object of employing this process was, appar- 
 ently, to enable the company to seize, at least temporarily, the 
 funds of the society. These funds consisted mainly of money 
 subscribed from day to day by other trade-unions and by the 
 public. A sum of about ;!£^3,ooo was arrested by this means. 
 The withdrawal of the action was one of the conditions of 
 the settlement. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 The Negotiations for Settlement. 
 
 Almost from the beginning of the strike, individuals and 
 public bodies proffered their services as mediators. Among 
 the earliest of the attempts at conciliation were those mide by 
 the magistrates of Dundee. Dundee had suffered heavily, 
 both in its passenger and in its goods traffic, and it was 
 ■ generally felt that serious efforts at a compromise ought 
 promptly to be made. Accordingly, on 29th December) 
 the magistrates saw Mr. Walker, general manager of the North 
 British Railway, who insisted upon the men returning to their 
 work, on the understanding that their grievances should be 
 afterwards considered.' 
 
 This proposal was rejected by the men, who regarded it as too 
 vague. Having committed themselves to the serious arbitra- 
 ment of a strike on the 21st December, they felt that, six days 
 afterwards, they could not abandon their position without some 
 definite assurance that the conditions of their labour were 
 certain to be modified. 
 
 (i) The terms of the tnemo'adum are important, smce, with a certain moditication, 
 they formed the basis upon which a month later a settlement was finally made. " Mr. 
 Walker agreed to meet a deputation consisting of an employee from each class of North 
 British servants now on strike, and arranged for meeting the respective classes within 
 the next fortnight to discuss any question that might be brought forward." — Scotsman^ 
 31st December, 1890. 
 
38 
 
 Earlier negotiations having come to nothing, Mr. Haldane, 
 Q.C., M.P., attempted on the 7th and 8th January to arrange 
 a compromise between the companies and the men on the basis 
 of the settlement effected by the North Eastern Railway Com- 
 pany with their employees. His efforts were unavailing; but 
 they made an important change in the situation, and narrowed 
 the quarrel to a single point. 
 
 The strike had been fought on two issues. First, there was 
 the question of hours ; and second, there was the question of 
 conference between the managers and the representatives of the 
 men instead of conference by the " graded system." 
 
 Mr. Haldane succeeded in inducing the men to abandon the 
 second issue, and to promise to resume work immediately on 
 the directors undertaking to accept the principle of a sixty- 
 hours week, or a ten-hours day " interpreted in a reasonable 
 spirit."-*^ Mr. Haldane put this proposal before the directors of 
 the North British Company, and they gave the answer which 
 they had already given to a deputation from Dundee, that 
 they would discuss grievances only with the men after resump- 
 tion of work, and then only by the graded system. The Execu- 
 tive of the society then issued a manifesto, throwing the respon- 
 sibihty of the continuance of the strike upon the companies, 
 and announcing their determination to continue the struggle. 
 
 The representations by the Glasgow Citizens' Committee 
 met with a similar answer from the North British Railway; 
 while, on behalf of the Caledonian Railway, Sir James King 
 
 (i) The text of the memorandum submitted by Mr. Haldane to the directors, and 
 rejected by them, was as follows : 
 
 (1) ■■ 'J he working day to be ten hours of actual work. This clause is to be interpre- 
 ted in a reasonable spirit by both parties, and neither as compelling the companies tO' 
 treat, for example, a porter at a roadside station as on the same fooling as a porter at a 
 large station where the work is continuous, nor as entitling the companies to exact from a 
 porter at a roadside station an unreasonably lone: day's duty. This clause does not affect 
 the existing rates of wages. (2) Overtime to be paid for after sixty hours per week have 
 been worked. (3) Oveitime to be paid for at the rate of time and a quarter. (4) Sunday 
 work to be paid for at the rate of time and a half. (5) For shunters and yardstnen ia 
 busy shunting yards, and signalmen at important signal cabins, eight hours to be the 
 ma.ximum day's duty. (6) The men on strike to go m at once on the companies under- 
 aking to give effect to these terms. 
 
 " These are, in substance, the terms which already exist between the North-Eastern 
 and othei railway companies in England and their employees, and we know of no peculi- 
 arity in the circumstances of the Scottish railway system which can form a difficulty in 
 the way of their receiving effect in Scotland. " — Scotsma7i, January 9th, 1891. 
 
39 
 
 intimated that the directors " declined to accede to the 
 demand for a universal maximum '' ten-hours day, and also 
 declined to recognise the Railway Servants' Association.^ 
 
 Finally, on 19th January, the Earl of Aberdeen was appealed 
 to by the Executive to employ his influence to bring the 
 struggle to an end. The substance of the appeal was this : 
 The men were announced to be wiUing to return to their 
 work should Lord Aberdeen advise them to do so after he had 
 seen the directors of the companies and obtained assurance 
 of the genuineness of their intention to reduce the working 
 hours. ^ The Earl did not, however, see his way to 
 advise the Executive explicitly ; but after conferring with 
 the directors of the companies, he wrote to the Executive 
 pointing out that they had already amply vindicated 
 their claims to have their grievances considered seriously, 
 and that they ought at once to return to their work. ^ 
 Principal Rainy and others wrote to the men in the same 
 strain ; and the result of these various influences was that a 
 deputation of men on strike on the North British system met 
 Mr. Walker, the manager, on Thursday, 29th January. Mr. 
 Walker repeated in substance the terms of the Dundee memo- 
 randum, to the effect that the grievances of the men would be 
 discussed within a fortnight. The discussion was, however, to 
 take place between delegates of the employees and the direc- 
 
 (i) See page 2r. 
 
 (2) The Executive explicitly gave expression to their regret that the men had been 
 guilty of breach of contract. 
 
 (3) The following is the principal passage in the letter of Lord Aberdeen : " I wish 
 to suggest and to urge with all respect, but with the utmost earnestness, that the time 
 has now arrived when, without sacrifice of principle and without loss of dignity, you can 
 at once offer to return to work. 
 
 *■ Some may ask, ' Are we then to surrender the position which we have maintained 3II 
 these weeks with so much strain and stress?' I answer, 'Assuredly not.' You will 
 not, by returning now to work, withdraw from or contradict your repeated assertions as to 
 the justice of what you have claimed from the railway companies. But by returning 
 now you will be recognising (as others will be bound in fairness to recognise) in a manly 
 and independent spirit, that you have done all that you can be reasonably asked to do in 
 vindication of your principles and your convictions, and that you are not called upon to 
 inflict further loss upon yourselves, your families your fellow-workmen of other trades, 
 aLd the public, by remaining longer on strike. 
 
 " Further, I am satisfied from what 1 have learned that tte railway directors in express- 
 ing their intention of fairly considering all gi ievances, are not using these words in any 
 vague or evasive sense, but that so far as consistent with what is properly due to the 
 interests of the shareholders they do contemplate certain modifications in the conditions 
 ol itryict"— Scottish Leader, 30th January, 1891. 
 
40 
 
 tors, a rather important departure from the established practice. 
 As many of the men on strike as possible were to be re-engaged; 
 all prosecutions were to be abandoned and the action against 
 the Executive was to be withdrawn. The men accepted this 
 compromise, if compromise it may be called ; and the strike 
 was over.^ 
 
 On the same day a similar deputation of Caledonian 
 Railway employees was met by the manager; but in that 
 case the company regarded itself in so strong a position — 
 a comparatively small number of their men remaining on strike 
 — that the manager refused to accept the memorandum ac- 
 cepted by the North British Railway Company, and thus the 
 men on the Caledonian system found themselves, after all, the 
 last of the strikers to abandon their position. On 31st January, 
 however, negotiations were renewed, and the strike finally 
 terminated. 
 
 (1) TO THE NORTH BRITISH RMLWAY MEN AT PRESLNT ON 
 STRIKE. 
 Fellow Workmrn, — We have at lengih received sufficient assurance through a 
 deputation appointed hy the Executive Committee, that the company is prepared to give 
 every considerat'on to the conditions for which you have been contending during the last 
 six weeks ; and, farther, thai everj thing possible will b j done by the officials to reinstate 
 every man in his former position, and that no advantage shall be taken of men for any- 
 thing; they may have done during the struggle 
 
 Under the circumstances, we do not see that anything further is to be gained hy 
 prolonging the strike, and we therefore instruct all men to return to their work on Friday, 
 the 30th day of January, 1891. 
 
 HEXRY TAir, 
 General Secretary of ihe Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants 
 for Scotland. 
 EDWARD HARFORD, 
 General Secretary of the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants 
 for England, Ireland, and Wales. 
 " Arrangements, under this document which I hold in my hand, have been made for 
 the men to be restored to their former positions — (lend and continuing cheers) — so far as 
 the same may be now open— (crie< of ' Oh ')— that the company will withdraw all 
 prosecutions against the men, and, further, that on resumption of work, Mr. Walker 
 will at once arrange for meetings of the men and the directors within a fortnight there- 
 after to discuss every question whatsoever that may be brought forward. In addition to 
 that. Mr, Walker, in reply to a question, said that there was no intention on the part of 
 the d rectors that any source of bitterness should subsist between the company and the 
 staff — (hear, hear) —and that the action against the society would be withdrawn." — Mr. 
 Harford at meeting at Edinburgh. Scottish Leade*; 29th January, i8gi. Manifesto of 
 29th January, 1891. 
 
41 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 Legal Questions Involved. 
 
 The legal questions that have arisen in course of the strike 
 are too numerous and intricate for adequate treatment here. 
 The chief among them may, however, be classified. 
 
 Combination. — The laws relating to trade combinations in 
 general need not be further referred to than to say that though 
 trade unions still suffer certain disabilities, they are expressly 
 sanctioned by statute. The Acts which comprise the legis- 
 lation on the subject are the Trade Union Acts, 1871 and 1876 
 (34 and 35 Vict., c. 31, and 39 and 40 Vict., c. 22'). In addi- 
 tion to the Trade Union Acts, the 3rd section of the Conspiracy 
 and Protection of Property Act, 1875 (38 and 39 Vict, c. 86), 
 is generally cited as affording leg il authority for combinations 
 for trade purposes. The relative portion of the section is 
 as follows : 
 
 3. An agreement or combination by two or more persons to do or 
 procure to be done any act in contemplation or furtherance of a trade 
 dispute between employers and workmen shall not be indictable as a con- 
 spiracy if such act committed by one person would not be punishable as a 
 crime. 
 
 Picketing. — The state of the law on pickr ting is sufficiently 
 vague to have produced recendy decisions by able lawyers 
 which have run counter to each other in their interpretation of 
 the law.^ The law on picketing is laid down in the Conspiracy 
 and Protection of Property Act, 1875 (38 and 39 Vict, c. 86). 
 7. Penalty for intimidation or annoyance by violence or otherwise : 
 Every person who, with a view to compel any other person to abstain 
 from doing or to do ary act which fuch other person has a legal right to 
 do or abstain from doing, wrongfully and without legal authority — 
 
 (1) Uses violence to or intimidates such other person or his wife or 
 children or injures his properly ; or (2), persistently follows such other 
 
 (i) For summary of the law relating to trade unions see Fraser, Treatise on Master 
 and Servant, etc., p. 421 ; also Report on Strikes, etc., Parliamentary Paper C.— 5809. 
 
 (2) E.g., by Mr. Justice Cave at Bristol, March 28th, 1890, and by Mr. Eompas, 
 Q.C., Recorder of Plymouth, January gth, 1891. 
 
42 
 
 person about from place to place ; or (3), hides any tools, clothes, or other 
 property owned or used by such other person, or deprives him of or hinders 
 him in the use thereof ; or (4), watches or besets the house or other place 
 where such other person re.-ides, or works, or carries on business, or hap- 
 pens to be, or the approach to such house or place ; or (5), follows such 
 other person with two or more other persons in a disorderly manner in or 
 through any street or road ; shall on conviction thereof by a Court of Sum- 
 mary Jurisdiction (in Scotland the Sheriff of the county or any one of his 
 substitutes), or on indictment as hereinafter mentioned, be liable to pay a 
 penalty not exceeding twenty pounds, or to be imprisoned for a term not 
 exceeding three months, with or without hard labour. 
 
 Attending at or near the house or place where a person resides, or works, 
 or carries on business, or happens to be, or the approach to such house or 
 place, in order merely to obtain or communicate information, shall not be 
 deemed a watching or besetting Within the meaning of this section. 
 
 In a case under this Act in 1876^ it was urged for the 
 accused that if the "watching ' and "besetting" were done 
 merely for the purpose of persuading the men to quit their 
 employment it would not be illegal. But Baron Huddleston, 
 in delivering judgment, said : ' I cannot assent to that view of 
 the law. The statute allows watching or attending near a 
 place for the purpose of obtaining or communicating informa- 
 tion, but this is the only exception." 
 
 The charge to the grand jury, by Mr. Russell Gurney,^ 
 Recorder of Plymouth, in 1875, summarised the law of picket- 
 ing. His view was that by the Criminal Law Amendment 
 Act, 1871,^ "conduct that might be accounted for by the desire 
 to ascertain who were the persons working there, and peace- 
 ably to persuade any others who were proposing to work there 
 to join their fellow-workmen who were contending for what, 
 rightly or wrongly, they thought was for the interest of the 
 general body " was not punishable. It would appear that, 
 whatever may be the difficulty of defining "intimidation," 
 
 (i) Reg. V, Eauld (1876), 13 Cox Cr. Ca, 282. Cf. Fraser, On Master and Servant, 
 p. 42Q. 
 
 (2) Quoted in Parliamentary Paper C. — 5809, p 14. Mr. Gurney's ctiarge was circu- 
 lated by JVIr. Cross among judges and magis. rates in 1875. 
 
 (3) The relitive section of tire Criminal Law Amendment Act, i87r, was repeated in 
 Mr. Cross's Conspiracy Act of 1875, section vii., op. cit. 
 
43 
 
 the intention of the Act of 1875 was to permit "peaceable 
 persuasion." At Glasgow and elsewhere intimidation in several 
 cases was proved to have been exercised during the strike, 
 and was punished. " Picketing," however, in the sense of 
 " peaceable persuasion," was extensively carried on without 
 interference.' 
 
 An important decision was given by Mr. Justice Cave^ in 
 the spring of 1890. Eight men were accused under the Act 
 of 1875, and pleaded guilty to " a conspiracy to follow in a 
 disorderly manner." 
 
 Mr. Justice Cave said : I am very much inclined to the opinion that 
 the men who are now before me, and who have pleaded guilty to the 
 charge of following in a disorderly manner, were desirous of carrying out 
 the law of 1875, and that, while they did make use of the rights given to 
 them by that law, they were desirous not to overstep its limits. But, 
 where a considerable amount of feeling is aroused- as is generally the 
 case when strikes of this kind take place, and when men assemble in 
 numbers — it is extremely difficult, if not impossible, to restrain them from 
 expressing their feelings, and when they do follow persons who take a 
 different view, and express their feelings, that undoubtedly amounts to a 
 disorderly following which cannot be allowed. The object apparently of 
 the Act is to give the members of the Union — or indeed any class of men, 
 but especially the members of the Union — the right by all lawful means to 
 persuade those of their own class to join with them, and abstain from 
 selling their labour at a price below that which is deemed by the mass of 
 the operatives as being « fair and reasonable price. By the Act of 1875 
 they are enabled to pursue that object as long as they pursue it in a lawful 
 manner. As I have said, there is danger when numbers of men who feel 
 strongly upon the subject come together that they will express themselves 
 strongly, and undoubtedly, if they do express themselves strongly, they 
 are to that extent "endeavouring," or without " endeavouring," they are 
 controlling the minds of other men who take a different view of the subject. 
 It seems to me, therefore, that the law has carefully provided so far as it 
 can against such gatherings, and as I understand the effect of the law it is 
 this : It is not an offence to follow a dissentient workman to his home for 
 the purpose of ascertaining where he lives, provided that that is done in a. 
 perfectly orderly manner, that is to say, without any shouts or disturb- 
 ances, and without a crowd, and provided that as soon as that object has 
 
 (i) On interpretation of '* intimidation" see Appeal Case Agnew v. Munro, Justiciary 
 Appeal Court, Feb. 2. Ke^ort.-Scotsman, February 3, 1891. 
 (2) In the case of Westlake, Walters, and others, Bristol Spring Assizes, 28th March, 1890. 
 
44 
 
 been attained (which it is \\hen it is known where he lives) he is not 
 followed about any more. If he is followed about after that, the offence 
 of persistent following is committed, but as long as one man, or even two 
 men, follow a dissentient operative to his house solely for the purpose of 
 ascertaining where he lives, and carefully abstain from in any way insult- 
 ing, or annoying, or jeering at him, there is nothing in my mind in the 
 Act of Parliament which makes that at all criminal ; unfortunately, in this 
 case that was not adhered to. Numbers did follow these men, and the 
 usual danger which arises from numbers following did arise in this case, 
 that they were tempted to express their feelings by opprobrious epithets, 
 and thus degenerated into a disorderly follomng. I now come to the 
 question of "watching or besetting.'' That undoubtedly is a difficult 
 question, because the language of the Act is somewhat obscure upon the 
 subject : By-sec. 7, sub-sec. 4, " Every person who, with a view to compel 
 any other person to abstain from doing or to do any act which such other 
 person has a legal right to do, or abstain from doing wrongfully, and with- 
 out legal authority, watches, or besets the house or other place where 
 such other person resides, or works, or carries on business, or happens to 
 be, or the approach to such house or place, or follows such other person 
 with two or more persons in a disorderly manner, in or through any street 
 or road," the man who does that is liable on conviction to either a pecuni- 
 ary penalty or imprisonment, " provided always that attending at or near 
 the house or place where a person resides, or works, or carries on business, 
 or happens to be, or the approach to such house or place, in order merely 
 to obtain or communicate information, shall not be deemed to be a watching 
 or besetting within the meaning of this section." Now the watching or 
 besetting against which the section is directed is watching or besetting with 
 a view to compel another person to do something which he does not wish 
 to do, or to abstain from doing something which he does wish to do, and 
 the Legislature goes further and says that watching with a view to obtain 
 or communicate information does not come within that provis'on. There- 
 fore, in every case where there is a watching of a house, it becomes important 
 to ascertain, in order to see if it is criminal or not, what is the object with 
 which the watching takes place, and the first question one would be inclined 
 to ask would be — what were the numbers that were employed ? Where 
 one or two men are employed, there is not the same ground for assuming 
 that the watching or besetting is for a criminal purpose, as where large 
 numbers of men are employed. Further again, one must see what is done 
 by the men who are so engaged in watching. If they simply communicate 
 to persons who are about to go into the house that a strike is going on, and 
 peaceably and quietly atk them not to go to work — and of course, by peace- 
 ably and quietly, I mean it must be without the s]ighte-t attempt to annoy 
 or intimidate, or anything of that sort — if that is all that i^ done, that is 
 
45 
 
 not in my judgment within the Act of Parliament. But if they are there 
 for some other purpose ; if a crowd collects at the time when the persons 
 working are expected to leave, and if the crowd follows those men in a 
 disorderly manner, then I consider that that would be a watching or 
 besetting of the house within the meaning of the Act of Parliament, and 
 would be punishable. So again, if numbers of men are employed so as to 
 render access to the house difficult, that men cannot get there without 
 having to push through a crowd, which, without displaying any hostility, 
 is certainly not a friendly crowd, that, again, I should consider to be a 
 watching or besetting within the meaning of the Act of Parliament. In 
 point of fact, beyond having two men for the purpose of communicating or 
 obtaining information, anything further would undoubtedly prima facie 
 look like » watching or besetting, which was contrary to the intention of 
 the Act, and I hope that in the future that will be borne in mind, and that 
 while operatives use the rights which the law has given them, and which, 
 of course, they are entitled to use, they will take the greatest care not to 
 go beyond those rights, and cot by unnecessarily sending a large body of 
 men, or even a considerable body of men, give rise to the suspicion that 
 they are seeking something more than merely to obtain or communicate 
 information, because those objects may undoubtedly be attained under 
 ordinary circumstances by one or two men at the outside, and if more go 
 than that number, then the parties who send them, and those who go, 
 must not be surprised if a jury or the magistrates come to the opinion that 
 there is a watching or besetting which is forbidden by the Act. 
 
 A judgment which affects the subject of picketing in a very- 
 serious manner was given on gth January, rSgi, by Mr. 
 Bompas, Q.C., Recorder of Plymouth. Mr. Bompas said : — 
 "To put the matter in popular language, I am of opinion that 
 "a strike by the members of a trade union for the purpose 
 "of increasing their wages, or altering the conditions of their 
 "employment, is lawful, unless accompanied by violence or 
 "intimidation . . . ; but that a strike for the purpose of 
 "compelling employers not to employ other persons, or to 
 " alter the terms of the employment of such other persons, is 
 "illegal, and renders all persons in it liable to proceedings- 
 "under this section."^ 
 
 This decision appears to open up questions far beyond 
 section 7 of the Conspiracy Act, 1875, under which the pro- 
 
 (i) Cf. Times, I2th January, 1891. 
 
46 
 
 ceedings in question were taken. The section quoted in full 
 above does not impose any limit upon the character of the 
 information which it is permissible to convey, and thus the only 
 foundation for the decision is that a strike of this character 
 would be in "restraint of trade," and would, therefore, lay 
 those who conducted it open to an action for damages, though 
 not to criminal proceedings. 
 
 "The result of this section (section 3, quoted on page 41 
 "supra), taken in combination with section 7 (quoted on page 
 "41 supra), is to make it perfectly lawful for workmen, so far 
 " as criminal consequences are concerned, to threaten an employer 
 " that they will leave his service in a body unless he discharges 
 "a particular workman. But although protected by statute 
 " from criminal liability, workmen would expose themselves by 
 ' such conduct to a civil action of damages at the instance of a 
 " fellow-workman discharged by his employer in consequence 
 " of such threats." — Fraser " On Master and Servant," p. 424. 
 
 This is directly in the teeth of Mr. Bompas's opinion, and 
 the Times'^ says wisely : " The public at large will not be 
 " satisfied unless the law, as laid down by Mr. Bompas, is 
 "either affirmed or overruled in a Court of higher authority." 
 
 Desertion of Service. — The master's remedy in case of 
 desertion of service by his employees is twofold. Under 
 certain circumstances he may employ criminal, under other 
 circumstances civil procedure. There are two sections of the 
 Conspiracy Act dealing with this question. Section 4 makes 
 special provision for employees of gas and water corporations. 
 Section 5 is generally applicable. 
 
 Where any person wilfully and maliciously breaks a contract of service 
 or of hiring, knowing or having reasonable cause to believe that the 
 probable consequences of his so doing, either alone or in combination with 
 others, will be to endanger human life, or cause serious bodily injury, or to 
 expose valuable property, whether real or personal, to destruction or 
 serious injury, he shall, on conviction thereof by a court of summary 
 jurisdiction, or on indictment as hereinafter mentioned, be liable either to 
 (i) January 12, 1891. 
 
47 
 
 pay a penally not exceeding twenty pounds, or to be imprisoned for a term 
 not exceeding three months, with or without hard labour. 
 
 With the view probably of testing the applicability of Section 
 5 of the Conspiracy Act to the case of the railway servants, 
 two signalmen were prosecuted at Stirling for infringement of 
 its provisions. The evidence showed that the men had given 
 up the keys of their signal-box, and before leaving them had 
 intimated that they would not return to duty. The Sheriff 
 (Buntine) held that the men had no reason to suppose that 
 their failure to return to duty at the hour fixed for their return 
 would involve risk to hfe or property, and on that ground the 
 charge against the men was found not proven.' The breach 
 of an ordinary contract^ of service renders a servant liable to an 
 action of damages for loss that may arise through the breaking 
 of the engagement. A mere absence, however, for two or three 
 days has been held to be insufficient to entitle an employer to 
 damages as against a servant.^ " If a master can prove actual 
 injury to himself or his business, arising from the servant's 
 breach of contract, the latter is not only liable to be dismissed 
 and to forfeit his current wages, but he may be amerced in 
 damages as well."^ The extent of the damages awarded has 
 been made to depend upon the degree of facility with which 
 the servant's place could be supplied. Imprisonment for 
 breach of an ordinary contract of service is understood to be 
 no longer competent.^ 
 
 Several hundred cases were raised by each of the railway 
 companies against their men. Some of these were defended 
 on various technical pleas ; these were withdrawn, and the 
 
 (i) See Scottish Leader, 7th January, 1891. 
 
 (2) Periods of Notice to be given and received. Terms of notice on the various 
 railways differ slightly. Caledonian Railway Company ; Guards, enginemen, firemen, 
 and platelayers, two weeks ; porters, signalmen, etc., one week. Servants are " liable 
 to immediate dismissal for disobedience of orders, negligence, misconduct, or incom- 
 petency." North British Railway, Rule 16. It stated that " No servant is allowed to 
 quit the company's service without giving the notice required by the terms of his 
 engagement— namely, stationmasters, clerks, checkers, inspectors, detectives, guards, 
 brakesmen collectors, engine-drivers, firemen, signalmen, marshalmen, yardsmen, 
 shunters, pointsmen, and watchmen, one month ; porters, carters gatekeepers, horse- 
 drivers, and platelayers, fourteen days." 
 
 (3) See Fraser, op. cit., p. tJ5- U) H- P- "3- 
 (5) See Fraser, op cit., p. 382. 
 
remainder were allowed to go against the defendants, the 
 av®wed intention being to avoid intensifying the bitterness of 
 the situation by defending them unless the strike should con- 
 tinue much longer, in which event the cases would be sisted and 
 defended. At the close of the strike the suits were abandoned. 
 
 Trade Disputes. — The Employer and Workmen Act, 1875, 
 op. cit, supplied a form of procedure which has not been taken 
 advantage of in this case, nor indeed almost at all in Scotland. 
 By this Act ex'ensive powers are given to the Sheriffs and their 
 substitutes (in Scotland) and to the County Court in England, 
 which were intended to enable them to settle industrial dis- 
 putes. There is, however, no provision enabling one party in 
 a dispute of such a nature as that involved in the recent strike, 
 to force the other to submit it to the Court under the Act. 
 
 Season Tickets. — In addition to the legal questions involved 
 in the relations of the companies with their servants, there 
 were other questions concerning the relations of the railway 
 companies to the public and to traders. The season ticket 
 holders who had been unable to use their tickets on the 
 Glasgow City and District Railway, owing to its being closed 
 for about a month, raised an action against the railway for de- 
 claration that the period of tickets so affected should be extended 
 or a proportional amount of the cost of the ticket refunded. 
 
 Carriage. — The railways are, in theory, highways upon 
 which anyone may run appropriate vehicles. During the 
 strike many traders conducted their own traffic, using their 
 own plant and paying mileage dues. It is questionable 
 whether any action would lie against the railway companies for 
 refusal or delay to carry goods during a crisis such as they 
 have passed through. The loss of goods owing to the dis- 
 organisation of traffic must have been considerable, and would, 
 no doubt, in certain cases have to be made good by the rail- 
 way companies. A railway company by advertising that it has" 
 ceased for any reason to run trains may probably relieve itself 
 of subsequent liability to the public. 
 
49 
 
 Dwelling-houses. — The Caledonian Railway Company's rule 
 is as follows : 
 
 "All dwelling-houses specially appropriated by the company for the 
 accommodation of their servants, as such, are only let during their employ- 
 ment, and any servant taking or occupying such a dwelling-house shall be 
 bound or entitled to remove therefrom on his receiving or giving notice of 
 the termination of his employment." 
 
 It has been suggested that the letting by the company of 
 the houses to its employees is an infringement of the Truck 
 Act. This, however, is a mistake. It appears fairly clear that 
 railway servants are entitled to be regarded as '■ artificers" in 
 the sense of the Act, though they are not expressly men- 
 tioned.' Under Section 23 (The Truck Act, i and 2 Will. 
 IV., c. 37) it is provided that nothing in the Act shall be con- 
 strued to prevent any employer " from demising to any artaficer, 
 etc., the whole or any part of any tenement, at any rent to be 
 thereon reserved. . . . nor from making, or contracting to make, 
 any stoppage or deduction from the wages of any such artificer 
 for or in respect of any such rent.'' It has been held, however, 
 that this must be made the subject of a written contract.'^ 
 
 CH.APTER VI. 
 
 Men, Methods, Causes, and Result : A Suggestion. 
 
 The railway men belong as a body to the skilled labour 
 class. They are not, as the " dockers " are, irregularly employed 
 and shiftless. Certain classes of them occupy a unique position. 
 Their skill is both specialised and localised. For example, an 
 engine-driver of a passenger train accustomed to the Westing- 
 house brake is, without special training, unable to drive a 
 goods train fitted with the ordinary handbrake and ordinary 
 
 (l) See on interpretation of scope of Act, Fi^ser, op. cit., p. 445, 
 {2I See Eraser, op. cit., p. 449. 
 
5° 
 
 couplings. It is more difficult to take curves and gradients 
 with a goods train under such conditions' than is the case 
 with a passenger train. The driver's skill, too, is localised, 
 because so complicated is the network of lines, so sharp many 
 of the curves, so frequent the changes in gradient, that unless 
 a driver " knows the road " he is helpless. The complicated 
 and varying systems of signals is an additional incident of 
 this localisation of skill. Knowledge of the signal system of 
 one branch line is of no value on another.^ Specialisation 
 and localisation of skill have thus together given the engine- 
 driver and some other classes of railwaymen a practical 
 monopoly.^ 
 
 Work is hard but wages are high.'' The men in the higher 
 grades — first, second, and third class engine-drivers and guards 
 — live in good houses and have bank accounts. If the railway 
 managers did not believe in the approach of a strike, the men 
 did, and they saved against the evil day. When the Executive 
 began to distribute strike pa)', many of the men handed the 
 money back to the strike funds. They fought largely on their 
 own individual resources. 
 
 There has been so much speculation as to the motive 
 which prompted the men to strike without notice that it seems 
 necessary to give the men's own view of this question. The 
 men conceived that if they gave notice of resignation, tha' such 
 notice meant permanent severance from their employment, and 
 
 (0 It is probable that one of the reforms of the near future will be the fitting of 
 continuous brakes to goods as well as to passenger trains. 
 
 (2) This seems very absurd ; uniformity in the system of signaling is surely not beyond 
 the wit of man. 
 
 (3) The extent to which this monopoly of skill is effective is, of course, limited. One 
 of the chief sources of annoyance to the strikers was that the men who had taken their 
 places were being coached in their work by the men who had remained loyal to the 
 companies. 
 
 (4) The following are the wa^es paid on the North British system, according to The 
 Citizen " Inquiry": 
 
 Engine-dri\ers, 4s. 6d. to 6s. 6d. per day. 
 
 Firemen, - icjs. od. to 24s od. per week, 
 
 (juardb, 24s. od. to 30s od. „ 
 
 Signalmen, 20s. od. to 22s od. ,, 
 
 Cleaners, - - - los- od. to i6s. od. ,, 
 
 Porters. - - - . 14s. od. to i8s. od. ,, 
 
 Edinburgh E.\pre-,s Drivers, 7s. od. per day. 
 
 Urakesnien, - - 27s. od. to 30s. od. per week. 
 
SI 
 
 many of them gave their notices to the Executive on this 
 ■distinct understanding. Many of those, however, who re- 
 frained from giving their notices, and who afterwards voted for 
 an immediate strike, thought that by leaving their work without 
 notice they became liable only to the usual penalities for 
 absence without leave ; and they imagined that, at longest, the 
 strike would last a week, at the end of which they hoped to 
 return to their work with, at least, some improvement in their 
 position. They thus regarded the tendering of notice as 
 tantamount to retiral from their employment, and simple non- 
 return to work as a strike, in protest against the conditions 
 under which they laboured. That they had broken their 
 •engagements, and that they might thus be held legally liable 
 for breach of contract does not seem to have been present 
 in their minds, although it was certainly impressed upon them 
 by their own Executive.^ 
 
 This explanation has, of course, no bearing upon the legal 
 question of notice,^ but must be given a certain weight in form- 
 ing an ethical judgment upon the action of the men. 
 
 Day by day, during the strike, the men in the Glasgow 
 district met at noon in the Albion Halls, College Street.' The 
 audience, until the Executive appeared at two o'clock each 
 day, beguiled the time with songs and occasionally a dance 
 ■and instrumental music. '■ Mr John Smith, engine-driver, 
 Polmadie, for a song," read the chairman, and Air John 
 Smith, a well-dressed, powerfully built man, sang "Afton 
 Water" with unexpected sweetness, a welcome incongruity 
 ■at a strike meeting. Sometimes a brakesman, with in- 
 genuous face and ungainly air, gave a rollicking topical song, 
 in which incidents of the strike found a setting in very rude 
 verse indeed. There was the most perfect order and good- 
 humour. The audience was easily tolerant of lapses in memory, 
 
 (i) See page ii. 
 
 (2) See page 47, 
 
 (3) The Albion Halls was for the railway what " W.tde's Arms" was for the dockers 
 strike. 
 
52 
 
 and of music as a rule vigorous rather than artistic. Day by 
 day, reports were read from the districts, describing the situa- 
 tion from the point of view of the men. "Motherwell.— -All 
 out here, stand firm ; sure to win." This was the prevailing 
 strain during the six weary weeks. 
 
 But the real work of the strikers was done at night and ia 
 the early morning. " Picketing,'' which formed so important 
 a feature in the Dockers' Strike of 1S89,' was from the beginning, 
 and especially at the beginning, a serious factor in the railway 
 struggle. On the evening of Sunday, 21st December, when 
 an immediate strike was suddenly proclaimed, the secretary, 
 Mr Tait, proved himself equal to the emergency, and produced 
 at once a " plan of campaign " which he had apparently 
 prepared in anticipation of a strike under ordinary conditions, 
 as designed by the Executive. 
 
 By this ' plan of campaign' pickets were despatched direct 
 from the meeting to St RoUox, Polmadie, and other places in 
 the Glasgow districts, and similar parties drove to Motherwell 
 and elsewhere to convey information and to " bring the men 
 out." The picketing of the first Sunday was the great 
 success of the strike. The enthusiasm of the men who had 
 been actually engaged in the movement had " caught on,"' 
 and men at all the centres joined them in shoals. After the 
 heat of the first moments of action was over, and during the 
 six weeks of the struggle, picketing became a dreary 
 business. Pickets from the body of the strikers were paid 
 out of the strike funds ; but there were besides many volun- 
 teers who joined the paid pickets and spent with them the 
 dismal hours between eleven o'clock at night and five or six 
 in the morning, on the hillsides of the Lothians, tramping from 
 cabin to cabin across the moors, or on the road at Polmadie, 
 the most dreary and unredeemed part of Glasgow, watching, 
 all night the gate of the Caledonian Railway Depot, amid 
 snow and keen east wind. The pickets were organised in 
 
 (j) "See The Story of the Dockers' Strike." H. LI. Smith and Vaughan Nash, p. lol. 
 
53 
 
 relieving parties, and their captains were posted in the law of 
 the subject, vague as it is. They carried copies of the Con- 
 spiracy Act in their pockets, and gave peripatetic lectures in 
 law to its own officers, who were sometimes too recent acces- 
 sions to the force to have fully mastered all the clauses of all 
 the statutes they were expected to administer. 
 
 It would appear that the men were urgently warned against 
 "intimidation" by the captains of their pickets, and 
 although there were unquestionably cases in which the 
 pickets were guilty of "watching and besetting," these 
 were after all not numerous, when one considers the very large 
 number of men who were engaged, and the number of places 
 •where picketing was carried on. A serious encounter took 
 place between steel-workers who had volunteered to picket, 
 and the police at Polmadie, in which several persons were 
 injured. 
 
 The personal element was not nearly so manifest in the 
 railway as it was in the dockers' strike. In London, Burns' 
 white straw hat was a kind of banner which everyone 
 recognised, and his rather turgid eloquence was immensely 
 ■effective among the London crowds. Scotsmen are, however, 
 more difiScult to move by mere harangues, and, besides, the 
 wide area over which the strike was scattered rendered 
 personal force harder to exercise. The magnetism, of a crowd 
 counts for something in a strike. When men are broken into 
 ■small groups it is supremely difficult to sustain concerted 
 action. The hard work of the Executive was largely con- 
 sultative and clerical. They had an immense correspondence 
 with the districts, and they were almost daily interviewed by 
 ■volunteer negotiators. In addition to work of this kind the 
 members of the Executive visited the pickets, and spoke 
 twice or thrice a day at the meetings.' Burns reported at 
 one moment that he had had no sleep for eighty hours. For 
 
 (0 The helpers who came from England were Mr Harford,_ Secretary of the Amalga- 
 ■mated Society of Railway Servants, and "John Burns —Socialist, Engineer, Agitator, 
 ■and County Councillor." 
 
54 
 
 days together they had worked continuously. By the close of 
 the struggle, they were all thoroughly exhausted. For those- 
 who are engaged in it, a modern strike, with its rapidly 
 passing phases and its intense concentration of life and energy 
 upon a single point, really crushes half a lifetime into a 
 few weeks. Few men who have experienced a serious cam- 
 paign desire to experience another. 
 
 The chief personal figure in the struggle was not, however,, 
 to be found among the strikers, but was to be found on the 
 other side. The man who was felt to hold the key of the 
 position was Mr. John Walker, general manager of the North 
 British Railway Company, well known in Scotland as one of 
 the most astute and enterprising railway administrators in the 
 country, the man in whose reign the Tay and Forth Bridges 
 hare been built, and who was found, when peop'e awoke after 
 the fact, practically to have secured possession of the keys of 
 internal transport in Scotland. Mr. Walker had, along with 
 an able coadjutor on the North British Company, raised the 
 railway in point of mileage and influence from the position of 
 a bad second to the position of being easily the first among 
 the Scottish lines. Whatever one may think as to the likeli- 
 hood of a great error in judgment having been made by Mr. 
 Walker, in allowing the discontent of his men to reach such 
 proportions, one cannot but admire his firm adherence to what 
 he believed to be his duty, and his really magnificent loyalty 
 to his corporation. At the same time, it depends very largely 
 upon the energy with which he now " sets his house in order," 
 whether or not the public demand for serious limitation of 
 the power of railway managers and directors may not become 
 quite irresistible. 
 
 Unnecessary complications in calculating hours and wages, 
 were among the causes of the London Dock strike, and were 
 among the subsidiary causes of the railway strike in Scotland. 
 In London the hours paid for were less than those actually 
 worked.' This also was the case in Scotland. By means of the 
 
 (i) *'The Story of the Dockerb' Strike." p. 49. 
 
55 
 
 system of booking on and booking off, and by the " trip " 
 system, the companies are accused of having succeeded in 
 getting from one to two hours' duty per day per man without 
 paying for it.' 
 
 The chief causes of the strike, already incidentally noticed, 
 may be summarised here : 
 
 1. The neglect, and consequent accumulation of grievances, 
 many of them, perhaps, individually petty, brought about a 
 temper in the minds of the men that was little short of 
 desperate; and it was the existence of this temper, especially 
 among the men at Glasgow, Hamilton, and Motherwell, wh'ch 
 led to their breaking from the control of their Executive, and 
 ultimately to the strike. 
 
 2. Behind this specific cause lay another, more remotely 
 responsible for it and for the whole crisis. This was the 
 severe competition between the two railways — the Caledonian 
 and the North British.- During the few past years not only 
 have enormous sums been spent by each of them in opposing 
 the other's Bills in Parliament," but their working expenses 
 have been largely increased, owing to the assumed need of 
 making certain lines in order to secure the means of com- 
 munication in districts in course of development, and to the 
 running of certain trains for purely competitive reasons. The 
 evidence before the Railway Rates Commission showed how 
 the districts in which competition was not effective were 
 compelled to pay in increased rates in order to help to make 
 up for the loss upon districts where competition was severely 
 effective. One section of the public was thus taxed for 
 the benefit of another section; while it would appear from the 
 preceding pages as if some part, at least, of the reduction in 
 rates in districts where competition was severe was recovered 
 
 (i) Cf. Mr. Strettnn in TAtf £«_^/«(r^r, January 30, iSgl. The booking system was, after 
 the strike, abolished by the G. & S. W. Railway Company, 20th January, i89[. See 
 Evening Citizen, 21st January. 
 
 (2) Sharply criticised by a shareholder at j special meeting of the North British 
 Railway, 3rd February, 1891. 
 
 (3) On Edinburgh access and on G. S. W. Railway aniilTamition, for instance. 
 
56 
 
 by the companies in exacting increased work from their men. 
 The question as to how far it is expedient to permit raihvay 
 companies to expend large capital sums in making unnecessary 
 lines, and a large part of their revenue in unnecessary expendi- 
 ture, while they adopt questionable means to recoup themselves, 
 out of the pockets of the public or out of the labour of their 
 men, must necessarily engage the attention of statesmen. 
 
 The argument for the State ownership of railways, against 
 which of course many objections may be urged, might become 
 irresistible, should the evils associated with railway rates and 
 with railway labour continue to thrust themselves into the eyes 
 of the public. It must be noted that the strike, so far as it was 
 due to administrative causes, might have occurred on a State- 
 owned as well as on a joint-stock railway. So far, however, as 
 it was due to excessive competition, the strike was the outcome of 
 conditions from which State ownership offers one means of escape. 
 
 What was the result of the strike? is a plain question to 
 which no plain answer can be given. It is too soon to say. 
 If the hours of labour are immediately, or ere long, reduced, 
 the strike has been successful j if the same dismal round of 
 work without leisure goes on as before, it has been a failure. 
 It is perfectly clear that, no matter what the terms may be upon 
 which the men have capitulated, the central issue of the strike 
 — the reduction of hours — must be faced. It must be faced, if 
 need be, by the raising of additional capital. The development 
 of the line, and the carriage of increasing traffic, cannot 
 permanently be carried on at the expense of the men. If any 
 attempt is made to ^moothe over the difficulties without deal- 
 ing with them, retribution in shape of another and perhaps 
 more serious strike must inevitably follow. 
 
 A practical suggestion may, perhaps, be made in connection 
 with the administration of railways. The interests of men working 
 the railways are, or ought to be, as genuinely identified with the 
 successful development of the companies as are those of share- 
 holders. The men are not destitute of funds. The English 
 Railway Servants' Society owns over ;^7 0,000, of which the sum 
 
57 
 
 of ;^24,ooo is invested in four per cent. Debenture stock of 
 seven of the English lines. The sum is not a large one in 
 proportion to the capitals of the companies ; but if one 
 considers the capital value of the men themselves, as one may 
 fairly do, since they invest their lives in the companies as the 
 shareholders invest their money, it becomes evident that they, 
 as well as the shareholders, should be represented upon the 
 Board of Directors. There seems no serious reason why the 
 servants should not have a representative on the Board, who 
 would be fully in touch with the men, and able to inform the 
 Board of substantial yet unremedied grievances which he may 
 find to exist. If this representative cannot technically take his 
 seat at the Board as ihe representative of the men, he may be 
 sent there as representing the men in their capacity of share- 
 holders. With this object the Scottish Railway Servants' 
 Society might consider the advisability of investing a few 
 thousand pounds in the ordinal y stock of the companies, 
 sending their representatives to the shareholders' meetings, 
 and endeavouring to place them upon the respective Boards. 
 It is not improbable that the presence there of a practical 
 railway man might be a great benefit all round. 
 
 NOTE TO CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Even should reduction of the hours of labour result in increased working expenditure, 
 it does not follow that it would result in decrease of net earnings. If, however, such 
 decrease did take place, it would affect : (i) expenditure on other items; or (2) dividends ; 
 or (3) rates. 'J'hal is, that : (i) a che.k would be placed upon unproductive expenditure, 
 e.^.. useless trains would be withdrawn and much greater attention than is now the case 
 devoted to judicious economies; or (2) the dividends of the shareholders would be 
 lowered, either by direct deduction or by the payment of interest upon capital raised for 
 the development of unproductive branches; or (3) rates and fares would be raised. The 
 last mentioned would be the final resort, for in the present position of railway competition 
 in Scotland any general or considerable advance is unlikely to take place. There are 
 certain variations both in the cond,tinns of labour on the different railways, and in the 
 incidence of their fi.xed charges, and the increase in rates which would follow reduction m 
 the hours of labour would by a well-known principle be measured at most by the net 
 cost of the changes to the railway requiring least of these. The possibility of the com- 
 panies effecting a general arbitrary advance in rates, even by a conspiracy to do so, is 
 remote. Should a pooling arrangement be adopted under the sanction of Parliament, the 
 subsequent advantage in reduced legal and working expenses would probably avoid the 
 necessity and prevent the desire for increased rates. Railway monopoly is bringing up 
 in this country difficulties that have reached an aoute stage in the United States. The 
 chief difficulty lies in the fact that the railroad is a natural monopoly, an d that the 
 business of a carrier may be, and on the highway is, open to competition. 
 
58 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 The Relations of Capital and Labour as Illustrated- 
 BY THE Struggle. 
 
 The deliberate ' corporate action of the manual labour class 
 is as potent a factor in these closing years of the century as the 
 development of the machine industry was at the beginning of 
 it. The surprise and dismay of the workers under the pressure 
 of the advancing power of the middle class, due to its energetic 
 adoption of the factory system, have their natural counterparts 
 in the surprise and dismay of the commercial class under the 
 pressure of the advancing power of labour combined in great 
 mas;es threatening to dictate terms to the rest of society. The 
 incidents of the earlier phases in the development of the machine 
 industry produced acute industrial disturbance, as do all invasions 
 of established custom. The same effect is now being produced,, 
 the world over, in this " periode chaotique " through which we 
 are passing to some new order. It is quite possible that the 
 advantage, or some of the advantage, gained by capitalists- 
 during the earlier years of the development of modern industry,, 
 an advantage which has been to a large extent maintained by 
 them, is about to pass over to the other side. Largely founded 
 as this advantage was upon the customary and legal isolation 
 of the labourer, the development of a tendency towards 
 corporate action on the part of labourers was bound to invade 
 it by progressive steps. This development of corporate action 
 on the part of labour has been really coincident with a similar 
 development on the part of capital. The modern joint-stock 
 company and the modern trade-union were born together, and 
 have grown together. 
 
 The combination of a great many small capitals, formerly 
 
 (i) " It is tnie that there is le^^ deliberate selfishness in early than in modern forms of 
 industry : but there is also less deliberate unselfishness. It is the deliberateness and not 
 the selfishness that is the characteristic of the modern age." — Marshall : " Principles of 
 Economics," I. 6. 
 
59 
 
 competing against each other, but now in one mass prepared to- 
 compete against other similarly large masses, has been developed 
 under the same set of conditions as have led to the develop- 
 ment of labour combinations. Individual capitalists club their 
 capitals in order to protect their individual interests by collective 
 action ; individual labourers act in the same way with the same 
 aim. There can be no doubt that the dominant motive in 
 both cases is self-interest. The danger which may arise to 
 society lies in the circumstance, that one or other of these 
 masses of combined labour or combined capital which may 
 happen to exercise some socially necessary function may fold 
 its hands and say, " we do no work until such and such terms 
 be granted." There is a further danger in the possibility of the 
 growth of gigantic combinations of capital a?id labour, by means 
 of which the interest of one group may for a time act to the 
 disadvantage of society in general — '' a danger so great that if 
 these compacts cannot be bent by public opinion they may 
 have to be broken up by public force." ^ 
 
 The extent to which the public is entitled to interfere in 
 industrial disputes is not capable of precise limitation. - 
 Fussy interference is, of course, to be discouraged ; but the 
 feeling of responsibility is rudimentary, owing, perhaps, to 
 its diffusion, even in the best-regulated corporate bodies, and 
 the dread of public reprobation, or even something more, acts 
 as a wholesome check against arbitrary or capricious action.* 
 This applies with special force to the " indivisible " industries, 
 and among them especially to those engaged in the exercife of 
 
 (1) Pi-eMdential address by Professor Marshall (p. i6), Section 1-' British Association, 
 1890. .-^s, perhaps, for example, by partial re-enanctment of the old laws against 
 "engrossing." r - ■ ,, , 
 
 (2) "Thouch there are some little differences of opmion among us as to the scale on 
 which the owners of such undertakings (gas water, railway, tran.way, electric supply 
 Tomoanies °T) when in private hands should be compensated for interference with what 
 th« had iholght their vested riebts, we are all agreed that such right of interference 
 mus\ be absoTufe, and the economists o. to^ay are eagerh^mquiring wh=t form ,t ,s most 
 expedient for this interference to take. -Prof. Mar.h„ll, Address K. A., op. Clt. 
 
 t::ty\nQVarUrr;j7ur,ralo^ Econcnics, I. 
 
6o 
 
 ■socially necessary functions. A railway company cannot be at 
 •once "a great public department ''' and a private business 
 claiming immunity from criticism, or even from regulation. In 
 all considerable industrial struggles, the great, patient, almost 
 •silent, "credulous, and ignorant public" is the real sufferer. 
 It is truer than ever it was, not alone in a merely metaphorical, 
 but strictly in an organic sense, that we " are members one of 
 another." " I conceive it to be demonstrable that the higher 
 and the more complex the organisation of the social body, the 
 more closely is the life of each member bound up with that of 
 the whole ; and the larger becomes the category of acts which 
 cease to be merely self-regarding, and which interfere with the 
 freedom of others more or less seriously.''" 
 
 The close interdependence of the parts of our highly 
 •organised society, and the dependence of the groups which 
 constitute the commercial world upon each other and upon the 
 public, were conspicuously manifested in the recent financial 
 cris's in London.^ And in the railway crisis which is just over 
 it became clear that an error in judgment on the part of the 
 directors of a public company, or on the part of their employees, 
 cr of both, or a breach of contract by one or the other, might 
 plunge the whole community in trouble and a large part of it 
 in absolute misery. The interest of the public as the holder 
 of the great insurance fund from which all the losses due to 
 all such catastrophes must be paid, is really paramount. The 
 objection that it has no business with industrial conflicts, and 
 that these are best left to be settled by the brute forces of the 
 combatants, will not hold water for a moment. 
 
 In dispassionately examining the subject of labour combina- 
 tions, we must regard them not as the outcome of an isolated 
 movement, but as having been brought into existence by a set of 
 conditions which could hardly have failed to produce them. 
 
 (i) Lord Tweeddale. chairman North British Railway, to deputation, January, 1891. 
 
 (2) "The Struggle for Existence," by Professor Huxley, Nineteenth Century, 
 February, 1888. 
 
 (3) See for suggestive remarks on this point, speech by Mr. Goschen at Leeds, 28th 
 January, 189T. 
 
6i 
 
 The view that the reduction of hours of labour and the increase 
 of wages secured during the past half century has been due to any 
 very large extent to the action of trade unions may probably be 
 subject to modification ; but among other tendencies, the 
 tendency to corporate action has unquestionably eventuated in 
 the labourer being placed in a position of greater advantage 
 than he formerly was in making his bargain.^ When we realise 
 that the employer on any large scale controls, as a rule, not 
 alone his own capital, but the combined capita's of many 
 persons, and when we find that he employs not the labour of 
 one man, but the labour of a great number of men, we see 
 at once that he represents a combination " more compact than 
 any trades union is likely to be. ' ' The development of the 
 banking system and the system of credit has rendered the large 
 industry possible, but it has destroyed the small master, and 
 by so doing has changed the plane of competition. 
 
 The labour market without combination became relatively 
 overstocked with sellers, while the buyers became relatively 
 fewer. It is true that they bought in the aggregate more 
 largely^ than the larger number of small masters under the 
 preceding system, but the relative smallness of their numbers 
 operated as a restriction of the market as regards buyers. The 
 only counterpoise to this, apparent to the present generation 
 of labourers and capable of prompt application, is combination. 
 
 (i) "Whether the employer be an individual or a corporation, it is as though there 
 were but one man wielding the force of the entire capital of a productive establishment, 
 in the effort to secure advantageous terms from the workmen. If now the workmen act 
 not collectively, but individually, if they compete vigorously with each other for employ- 
 ment they divide their force against themselves, assist the capitalist, and forfeit all hope 
 of a 'successful issue of the contest. The army of labour fires, as itwere, into its own 
 ^,^]^g Xhe strategic inequality in the position of capitalists and labourers 
 
 would be' at a maximum if there were but one employer in a locality, and if employees 
 were numerous unorganised, and unable to emigrate. If, in addition to this, the ethico- 
 economic rule of " every man for himself "—were a recognised principle of action, the 
 result would be a society composed indeed of men, but completely dehumanised in its 
 oreanic action It would be a collective brute. . . . A tnaxmuim of justice in dis- 
 tribution is attained where the brute forces are even y matched, and where moral influ- 
 ..T,r,= =rf pffirient A minimum of justice results where brute forces are unequal, and 
 moral forcfs are wanting."-Prof' J. B. Clark. ■' The Philosophy of Wealth," p. ,33. 
 
 (2) Cf. Prof. Marshall. Address B. A., p. S ; " There was not only a class injustice 
 but a logical confusio ' ' 
 
 free competition was 
 was for that reason an 
 
 loijical confusion, in prohibiting combinations among workmen, on the ground that 
 nmriptiilon was a good, and that combination being opposed to free competition. 
 
 evil." 
 
 (3) That is, machinery increased employment. 
 
62 
 
 It is quite erroneous to suppose that combination and com- 
 petition are mutually exclusive. A combination, as in a joint- 
 stock company is, indeed, formed, as a rule, to employ the 
 methods of competition more effectively than they can be 
 employed by individual members of it ; and the same may be 
 said of trade unions. The trade union, however, serves several 
 distinct purposes. First, it is a combined mutual life, health, and 
 annuity society. Second, it is a society for the insurance of 
 regularity of employment. Third, it is a combination of men 
 •who, by clubbing their resources, place a reserve price upon 
 their labour.' 
 
 To many it may seem superfluous to enter upon discussion 
 of a question to which it would appear as if there could only 
 be one answer, namely, that anti-combination laws have been 
 Iried and have failed, that combination is not now likely 
 to be prohibited by law, and that therefore its justification, 
 €Cohomic and otherwise, is unnecessary. But during the past 
 few weeks the prevalent feeling among the commercial classes 
 has undoubtedly been that as regards those employed in what 
 have been described as socially necessary functions, combina- 
 tions ought not to be allowed. But the prohibition of it in 
 such cases, while it prevails in others, places the public service 
 at a serious disadvantage in the labour market. As a practical 
 question, it is clear that prohibition of the social right of 
 combination as regards the servants of railway, gas, and water 
 corporations would be accompanied by increase of wages 
 as a countervailing inducement to recruits, by reduction in the 
 quality of the workmen employed, or by rebellion. 
 
 Now, it may plainly be suggested that the Scottish railway 
 strike was due not to the strength of the combination among 
 the railway servants, but to the weakness of it '' ; that the refusal 
 to recognise and to treat with the Union amounted to a 
 
 (i) On certain ill effects of unionism, sec Donistliorpe's " Individualism; A Sj-stem of 
 Politico," page 22a. 
 
 (2) Had llie Union been strong enougli to secure a preponderating number of notices 
 from the general body of railway servants, it would have been simply suicidal for the 
 companies to have permitted a strike. 
 
63 
 
 practical though ineffectual prohibition of it ; and that 
 ■each of the three results of prohibition did actually take 
 place. First, wages were necessarily to some extent and in 
 some grades increased. Second, the quality of the workmen 
 in other grades was reduced by changes; and third, the con- 
 ditions of work becoming more severe, the men rebelled. 
 The notorious severity of the work on the Scottish lines and 
 the uncertainty of promotion rendered it difficult for one of 
 the railways, at least, to get an adequate staff of efficient and 
 experienced servants.' This want of inducement to recruits 
 was at once the reason of the strike and the reason of the 
 utter collapse of the railway service which followed it. Given 
 a choice of employments, an efficient worker will choose that 
 employment which offers him the most advantageous terms. 
 When, therefore, a railway company hampers itself by pro- 
 hibition of combination, a principle frankly acknowledged by 
 almost every other industry, and then further hampers itself 
 by excessive severity of work, it must give high wages or 
 it loses the best of its men, gets relatively inferior men to 
 replace them, degrades the remainder of its employees, and, 
 "by severity of work beyond a certain point, forces them into 
 rebellion.' 
 
 Besides the feeling that combination among railway servants, 
 ought by some means to be prevented by law, the companies 
 being unable of their own action to prevent it, there was also 
 the feehng that the strike of railway servants presaged a general 
 uprising of labour against capital, and that in resisting the 
 claims of the men, the companies were fighting the battle of 
 the commercial world against the New Unionism. Time alone 
 
 (1) The deterioratir^ influence upon sk.Ued labour of excessive strain and irritatins 
 II) ine aeieriui.ii.ib deteriorating influence upon unskilled labour of irregu- 
 
 condmons .s analogous to the deterio g proportion of young men on strike. 
 
 bnty of '""P'oy^'^K^reaily r^ade it. They carried everything before then, at the 
 These were the men who reauy m ^^^ ^^^^ ^^^ _,^^^.^^^ ^_. ^^^.^^ received 
 
 S'crSfd wTg'e? or ha^^^ng been reduced to a condition of chronic despair. 
 
 r ■, ,„a1r.irv mav be traced in the disregard and miscalculation of physical 
 
 (2) Anpt ,"i"?,„^he cfllapse of the Tay Bridge; and in the disregard and miscalcula- 
 forceswhjchjedtothecojlapse^o J^.^j^ ^^^ to the collapse of the railway system. 
 
 tion of .P''i,"° have been costly. Even Boards of Hireclors find it bird to contend 
 
 iigainst I star. 
 
64 
 
 can show whether or not there is any foundation for this 
 dread. Meanwhile, it may be noted that the railway servants 
 are among the least likely to be leaders in an uprising of labour. 
 They are very loosely bound together in their union ; their 
 experience of corporate action is slender in the extreme ; 
 their notorious want of leisure has prevented them from study- 
 ing, even had they been so disposed, the questions with which 
 recent labour struggles have familiarised other workers. 
 
 Moreover, the years 1889 and 1890 were prolific in strikes. 
 The working class is heartily weary of the worry of them, so 
 that, unless some specially deep-seated grievance arises into 
 prominent notice, there is little likelihood of the feeling of fear 
 having any speedy justification in fact. It is, however, to be 
 remembered, that we are probably on a downward curve of 
 trade fluctuation, and that this is generally productive of trade 
 disputes. Wisely conducted and strongly supported unions, 
 with appeals to arbitration where disputes cannot be prevented 
 otherwise are the visible palliatives. Their judicious exercise 
 may enable us to get round awkward corners. 
 
 While resistance to sectional combinations, whether of labour 
 or capital, is inexpedient as a generalprirciple, it would appear es 
 though the trade union and the joint-stock company, however 
 they may develop, do not supply a permanent solution of the 
 labour problem, though they may contain the germs of a 
 mediate solution. The difticulty, so far as both of these 
 forms of combination are concerned, is, that men in a 
 position of considerable power are apt to use it badly, 
 whether this power is possessed by them because they 
 have been entrusted with large masses of capital, or whether 
 they feel, perhaps, in an exaggerated form, the irresistible force 
 of their labour combination. Meanwhile, the existing checks: 
 to these tendencies — publicity and criticism — may well be 
 applied constantly, and much may be hoped from the growing 
 discredit which is overtaking short-sighted self-regarding and 
 socially injurious action on the part of individuals or of 
 corporations. 
 

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