# Engines and Men/Chapter 20

Chapter XX
Early in the year 1918 the One-union movement entered a new phase. Mr. J. E. Conlon, of the Neasden branch of this Society, had sent out a circular to branches strongly urging fusion of forces, and as it was headed with the title of this Society and the superscription of the Neasden branch, it had more attention than it deserved. The Neasden branch secretary got into touch with Head Office, and dissociated that branch from any knowledge of it. Actions of various kinds having been tried to secure fusion into the all-absorbing N.U.R., this was rather a subtle departure from some predecessors, but it met with the strongest objections from all parts of the country, and when the Neasden disclaimer became known there was indignation too. The position found its reflection in the 1918 A.A.D., which decided that Rule 9 should apply to all members of the Society who are members of the One-Union movement, or supporting such a movement. The rule in question debars any member of the Society, who is also a member of any other trade organisation, catering for railway locomotivemen, from occupying any salaried position, serving as a delegate, or occupying any other position in the Society.
That may seem a very poor topic to open a new chapter, but in fact it was a factor in the remarkable growth of membership that ​began early in 1918 and has continued ever since. When there was serious trouble in 1917 over the eight hour day the Society had 35,000 members, but when there was serious trouble over the Mallow shooting tragedy in 1921 the Society had more than doubled that membership, a rate of growth that is perfectly amazing.
All this was accomplished as the result of intensely hard work at headquarters, and zeal all along the line. An application to the Inland Revenue Department had resulted in the increase of the abatement allowance to £2 to members on account of special occupational expenses, including £1 for overalls, and 10s, each for watch repairs and improvement classes. But that was only a preliminary and a minor consideration. On March 26th and 27th of 1918 the Executive was sitting in connection with the claim for the 12 per cent, bonus, on which question the Railway Executive was met on March 27th, April 15th and 25th, when a final settlement was arrived at. Mr. Bromley argued before the Committee that large sections of railwaymen had been granted the bonus on the ground that they were connected with the maintenance and transport of munitions, and the drivers, firemen, and cleaners were equally entitled to that benefit.
Sir Herbert Walker said the Railway Executive Committee had no powers to extend that bonus to the men in whose behalf the appeal was made, and that it could only apply to men over 21 years of age. It would be more in conformity with previous agreements if a flat rate would be agreed upon. The deputation retired to consider the matter, and returned prepared to discuss the basis of an advance in the war wage.
After discussion, it was agreed as follows:
The agreement was signed by Sir H. A. Walker for the R.E.C., and by Messrs. Worthy Cooke and J. Bromley for the A.S.L.E. & F. It was certainly a very good fruit of the enterprise, for there was no acceptance here of a restrictive clause against further applications, and the advances won were equivalent in value to a 12 per cent. on the wages of men over 21 years. Opportunity was taken to discuss other subjects with the R.E.C., including the difficulty of meeting the chief officers of the L. & N.W.R., and the improvement of the Conciliation Scheme, to obtain better negotiating machinery.
The Political Fund members had been meeting with a view to forming a panel of Parliamentary candidates, in readiness for a general election that was known to be pending, and could not be long deferred after peace was once secured. A ballot of the membership of that fund for twelve Parliamentary candidates resulted in the following selection, it being understood that Mr. Bromley was already nominated and known as the prospective Parliamentary candidate for North East Leeds:-Ivor Gregory, 3,709; G. Moore, 3,231; Barton Wild, 3,159; A. Mason, 2,947; W. J. Squance, 2,876; W. W. Cooke, 2,486: H. J. Oxlade, 2,411; Geo. Wride, 2,393; John Drummond, 2,226; R. Hill; 1,734; R. T. Mackereth, 1,401 J. Richards, 1,309. Mr. Oxlade withdrew before the ballot was completed. The names mentioned, with the exception of Mr. Oxlade, therefore constituted the Panel of Parliamentary candidates, but had not the power to pledge the financial support of the Society without the consent of the E.C. The Secretary of the Labour Party was informed of the formation of the Panel, along with an intimation that the Society was prepared to accept a reasonable proportion of financial responsibility, to be agreed upon between the Constituency and the Society, for three candidates ​in addition to Mr. Bromley. It was resolved, in view of the urgency of political changes, to specially appeal to all members to pay the Parliamentary Levy, and to ask those already paying it to contribute an extra shilling that year to strengthen the position financially.
Mr. Cooke reported to the same meeting that his name was going forward to a nomination meeting at Crewe, and his candidature was endorsed for the division, Messrs. Wild and Oxlade representing the Society at the nomination meeting. Mr. Brownlie, of the A.S.E., was chosen at that meeting. Organisation arrangements were made for North East Leeds, and Mr. Gregory's candidature for Nuneaton received the official and hearty sanction of the Society.
Each month of each year brought and still brings its list of disputed compensation cases for negotiation, and some of those handled on behalf of members are of a very interesting character. I recall one in 1918, concerning a member who sustained frostbite in the ear whilst on duty. He subsequently developed erysipelas, and then became seriously ill from Bright's disease. The company flatly refused liability, and there was the difficult question of proving an association between the frostbite and Bright's disease. Two medical men were called into consultation, and they were of opinion that there was a connection between the two. The case was then pressed, and full compensation was paid. This case is only one lifted out of hundreds I have read, all showing how badly an individual might fare if it were not for the strength of this Society.
The unobtrusive but exceedingly valuable work of the auditors and trustees through all these years is worthy of all praise. They work out the return on investments and make sure that funds are soundly placed and for good return. Their names have constantly changed, but their duties have continually increased, and they have been performed with care and devotion.
In April of 1918 correspondence with the Secretary of the General Managers' Committee was considered, in which the E.C. was asked to draft its desired negotiating machinery into such form as to become an amendment to the Draft Conciliation Scheme. It was resolved:
   "That Mr. Clower be informed that the intention of our ​1917 A.A.D. was the rejection of the Conciliation Scheme, which was accepted on behalf of the Society in March and May, 1916, and that this E.C. now definitely rejects such scheme; also, that we are not prepared to accept the scheme even if it should now be accepted in principle by the other parties to the negotiation, as such Scheme does not meet the requirements of locomotivemen. We also instruct the General Secretary to forward our new machinery, with a request for a meeting between the General Managers' Committee and this E.C. at the earliest possible moment."
Mr. Bromley next had an interview with Sir Francis Dent on the matter, and also on the extra food ration, and the E.C. set to work to draft certain clauses showing the method of election of delegates and of negotiations between local delegates, Delegation Boards, and other bodies mentioned in our approved machinery, the scheme then to be fully discussed. This was done, and the completed re-draft of negotiating machinery, as an amendment to the Conciliation Scheme, was considered, when it was resolved:—
"That the new machinery, as revised, be adopted, and forwarded forthwith to the Railway General Managers' Committee," which was asked to arrange an early meeting, not later than May 22nd. The meeting took place on May 24th, when the E.C. Sub-Committee discussed with the General Managers' Committee the machinery suggested by the Society in conjunction with the Conciliation Scheme. The Secretary of the Committee on Reconstruction, and Mr. Thomas, strongly urged the Society to give evidence before that Committee as to the desirability of the application of the terms of the Whitley Report to the railway service. Eventually the Advisory Committee, Section 3, was notified that Mr. Bromley would give evidence, and a statement was prepared and presented.
Up to the year 1918 the N.U.R. had been disposed to deride the National Programme and other movements of the A.S.L.E. & F., but in that year there came a change, and the N.U.R. began the great task of evolving a national programme for all its grades. It ​even confirmed the Mileage Clause it had so strongly attacked, and began a movement on behalf of firemen with religious zeal. By that time, however, the N.U.R. was distinctly out of touch with the negotiations of the Society, and the Conference of 1918 recognised the advantage of independent action by adopting the following resolution :-
   "That this Conference re-affirms the decision of the 1917 Conference, that in future this Society will not be hampered by the presence of the N.U.R., and seeing that we have now established our claim to represent the locomotivemen and electric trainmen, we hereby decide that no agreement can be arrived at between this Society and the N.U.R., other than the complete transfer of their members who are eligible to join this Society, which is in accordance with the Trade Union Congress resolutions of 1906 and 1915."
This was adopted by 49 votes to 3.
The Conference of 1918 devoted considerable attention to its auxiliary benefits, notably the Orphan Fund and the Benevolent Fund. Many benefits were increased without increase of contributions, and in the case of the Orphan Fund, the benefits were allowed after a shorter period of membership and to continue for a year longer than previously. Strike pay was increased 100 per cent. at once, and the protection sum for delegates and other representatives of members was greatly improved. Protection members had their benefits increased and a death benefit and retiring allowance were voted for all who voluntarily pay an additional penny per week. A notable alteration in the whole system of the Benevolent Fund was made by the Conference, for instead of the "calls" of fourpence per member for each casualty, the Fund was placed on a contributory basis of threepence per week, thus giving an assurance of £38 for threepence per week, a proposition that easily eclipsed the capitalist insurance corporations, although the occupational risks are above the average. The sum of £38 has been ​paid out many times since, and gratefully acknowledged in the "Journal" by the recipients, but I want to remark here that some- times the gratitude is overdone. For what a man pays, his mourning relatives are entitled to receive as a right, and not as a favour. For kindness and courtesy in administration I like to see appreciation, but profuse thanks for what the member provided before-hand belong to his memory.
Under the new rules of the Assurance Fund, formerly Benevolent Fund, the benefits ranged from £5 to £38, according to years of membership, and the same scale of benefit was applied for loss of situation through error of judgment, for accident which leads to removal from the footplate, and for failing to pass the eyesight test, very important additions to the material advantages of the Society, and £20 was allowed to a member on retiring at 60 years of age or over. A retiring allowance was provided for members at 60 with ten years membership, fifteen years membership, and twenty years. Thus members were able, after 1918, to pay for death benefits of £5 to £20, £25, £38, £44, or £58 as they desired; and for £7 10s., £1, £15, £20, or £35 retiring allowance at sixty, in addition to weekly superannuation of 4s., 5s., 6s., to 7s. per week. These were notably good benefits, a possible further need being the increase, as funds allow, of the superannuation allowance to sums that meet more accurately the post-war cost of living.
The year 1918 brought an extension of the military age to fifty years, all men under that age being liable to conscription. The extension led to large numbers of grey-haired men, and many physically unfit men, being paraded before the medical boards. At fifty there is hardly a more fit class in the country than our drivers, and consequently large numbers of them were notified to muster for examination, regardless of the occupational exemption they carried, which caused the doctors to labour in vain, and caused the Executive and General Secretary a good deal of extra work in taking care that the exemptions were properly observed. Many ridiculous things were done in the re-shuffling of men, skilled accountants being turned into butchers, and teachers into farm ​hands, but to make engine drivers become navvies was too ridiculous to be allowed.
June 20th of 1918 brought the concession of additional rations so long sought for men on duty and overwork, special tickets being obtainable through the Local Food Control Committees.
The inaugural meetings of the newly constituted and officially recognised District Councils were held during the summer of 1918, governed by the new rules which were then with the Registrar for approval, the meetings being all convened by Executive members in the following order:—
No. 1, Mr. H. J. Oxlade; No. 2, Mr. Squance; No. 3, Mr. Jarman; No. 4, Mr. Holder; No. 5, Mr. Stevenson; No. 6, Mr. Oxlade; Nos. 7 and 8, Mr. Gamble; Nos. 9 and 11, Mr. Cooke; No. 16, Mr. Branson; Nos. 13 and 15, Mr. Wild; No. 14, Mr. Healey: Nos. 16 and 17, Mr. Walker.
The National Programme was revised and improved by the 1918 Conference establishing a mileage rate of 120 miles on express passenger trains and 100 miles on local passenger trains as one day's work, and a lodging allowance of 7s. 6d. per day where men provide their own accommodation when lodging away from home. It included compulsory retirement after 35 years service, on a pension of not less than two-thirds of the wages.
Many branches were restless under the truce of October, 1914, and were pressing for the presentation of this National Programme, and for an increased war wage. The Executive resolved to ask the Railway Executive for an increase of 10s. per week to meet the still increasing cost of living. There was also political activity, and the nomination of several Executive members and officials by branches for various constituencies.
That brings us, I think, to the supreme event of the year 1918, the special meetings which began in London on August 16th, and continued into October, resulting in another substantial wage advance. The General Secretary had sent a letter to the Railway Executive on July 19th, applying for an increase of ten shillings, and to this a reply was received saying there was no justification ​for any increase." An interview was arranged for August 16th, and the claim was then emphasised for 10s. for all those over 18, and 5s. under that age, but that youths under 18 acting as firemen should receive the adult amount. It was also claimed that the award should be made on the eight hour basis. The claim was placed before the Board of Trade, but as nothing had matured up to August 27th, the General Secretary again wrote, as a result of which a meeting was arranged for September 11th. At this meeting it was stated the eight hour basis could not be acceded, and that the full war wage could not be granted to boys under 18. Whilst the increased cost of living warranted an advance of 2s. 9d., the Government proposed to offer two alternatives-3s. 6d, to men over 18, with 1s. 9d. to boys; or 4s. to men over 21. and 2s. to boys under 18, with nothing for those between 18 and 21. These were refused, and a further meeting was held the following day, when the offer was increased to 5s. and 2s. 6d., but no eight hour basis, and nothing more than usual for boys undernb18 employed as firemen, the increase to take effect from Monday, September 16th, with two week back pay on flat rates.
This offer, said the Railway Executive, was final, and the agreement would be ready to sign that night, and that Sir Herbert Walker was leaving for his holidays the next morning. The N.U.R., it should be added, was also negotiating, and had just left the Conference Chamber when the Executive entered. The Executive, therefore, got the impression that the N.U.R. was accepting, but still would neither accept nor sign. On the following day, September 13th, the Chairman had gone on holiday, so the position was wired to him, and arrangements were made for him to return to a meeting, along with the President of the Board of Trade, on September 17th. In fulfilment of this arrangement, meetings were held with these gentlemen at the Board of Trade on Tuesday and Wednesday, September 17th and 18th, Mr. Barnes representing the War Cabinet. At these prolonged meetings, the full claims were again pressed, and it was agreed that as the full war wage could not be conceded to boys under 18 acting as firemen, in future no more boys under that ​age should be made firemen. That was at once a distinct gain, reacting on footplate conditions and making for greater safety.
Next it was agreed that a sliding scale arrangement should apply to war wages, an acceptance in September, 1918, of the scheme advocated by the Society in September of 1916. It was to operate to follow the increased cost of living upwards, but not to reduce the war wage below 30s. in any circumstances. This was the second notable gain, and thirdly certain pledges to the Society, as to after-conditions, were renewed and enlarged upon. The flat rate figures of 5s. and 2s. 6d. were not increased, except that the flat rate advance should be paid back from August 5th, as being near the date of application. On September 19th a further and final conference was held at the Board of Trade without agreement or further offer. The sub-committee therefore returned to the full Executive, and whilst consideration was being given to the position, it was learned that the N.U.R. had accepted the settlement. That distinctly altered the outlook, and the question to face was of using the Society's strength alone to enforce something better, or to realise that the pace had been forced to the utmost limit the War Cabinet would concede, and to accept.
The latter course was adopted. It was agreed to accept the position under protest, and the terms of settlement were not signed by the Society. The terms were as follow:—
   5s. per week increase to those over 18; 2s. 6d. to those under 18; to date from Monday, September 23rd, with back payment from August 5th, a sliding scale arrangement to be set up at once to revise the war wage on every increase of four or five per cent., taking 110 per cent. in its relationship to 30s. as the basis.
After the close of negotiations the Executive passed the following resolution on September 20th:—
   "That we accept under strong protest the ultimatum of the War Cabinet of the award of 5s. and 2s. 6d., and we appoint a sub-committee of the Executive Council to meet representatives of the Government with a view to consider, and if possible ​arrange for, a basis for a sliding scale, such as was offered by the Society to the Railway Executive in September, 1916, and which has now, after all this time, been accepted. We feel that the offer of the Government does not cover the increased cost of living peculiar to our members. We, however, advise our members to accept it, along with a suitable sliding scale, if such can be mutually agreed upon, and to conserve their strength for that fight with the Government and the profiteering classes which will take place in the near future."
The settlement gave little satisfaction, and indeed was scarcely announced when trouble of a serious character began. The traffic men at Llantrisant struck on September 20th, and the Society members followed. On Saturday the 21st, and Sunday the 22nd, other stations followed suit in the South Wales district, and by Sunday night the men of both societies were out at Pontypool, Newport, Aberbeeg, and Severn Tunnel, with several other stations seriously affected, the strike even spreading as far North as Manchester. The Executive and General Secretary proceeded to Newport, where the General Secretaries of both societies addressed the strikers and advised a general resumption of work, repeating the same advice at a mass meeting at Cardiff. The strike closed in Cardiff the same night, September 25th, and all branches were telegraphed to resume duty, but they distrusted the telegram. All that night the branches were telephoning, motoring, and cycling into Newport, to see if it were genuine. The Shrewsbury branch got the police to telephone the Newport police, asking them to ascertain from Mr. Bromley if the telegram was genuine. A number of Severn Tunnel men arrived in the early morning darkness with the same object, and one of them got to Mr. Bromley's bedroom at the hotel. He sent the man down for his colleagues, and on returning they got into Mr. Thomas's bedroom by mistake. He gave them a written instruction to resume, but the Severn Tunnel men would not accept the note when it was conveyed to them, and waited for a personal assurance from Mr. Bromley. The train ​conveying him to London had to stop specially at Severn Tunnel Junction to enable him to assure the men before they would return.
Stratford was out, too, resuming on the 26th, but the South Western, Brighton, and South Eastern did not return until the evening of the 27th, after a great meeting on Clapham Common, from which Mr. Bromley headed a procession of seven hundred loco. men through South West London to the South Eastern depot at Battersea, then on to the Brighton line depot, and finally to Nine Elms, the men resuming with the same solidarity as they began. That strike of September, 1918, was unconstitutional, spasmodic, and irregular, yet magnificent, and it gave great strength to the Executive in their negotiations.
The Executive had been summoned to London on August 26th to assist the members on the London Electric lines, and the position was reviewed with a deputation of the men. Meetings were arranged, and on the morning of August 27th the General Secretary and Mr. Garrison, the E.C. representative of the electric men, made the following agreement with the Electric Companies:—
In the conference on the following day many improvements were secured, making for quicker promotion to higher rates of pay, better terms for Sunday duty and overtime, improved supply of clothing, and several other considerations.
These were only some of the events of the year that brought the end of war hostilities.