The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1871-12-30 00:00:00

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iATURDAY, DECEMBER 30, 1871.

RAILWAY OVERWORK.

The never-ending, still beginning disputes be-
tween Capital and Labour, and, among these
disputes, the movement for the reduction of the
hours of labour, are matters which, however
much the public may teal interested in them,
are beat left to be fought out as amicably as may
be, by employers and employed. But the exist-
ing agitation among railway employ-,s so directly
affects the safety of railway travellers—which is
almost synonymous with the entire community
—that it legitimately comes within the province
of the public press. When 2,000 men on the
Midland Railway turn out—or are locked out, no
matter which—it is certain there must be some-
thing wrong, either on the part of the men or
their employers; and it is to be feared that the
now patched-up quarrel will ere long burst out
again. That there is something wrong is clear
from the statements which Mr. Bass, M.P.,
made some mouths since—statements which,
unhappily, still hold good. The revelations of
the member for Derby made a considerable sen-
-tation at the time, and we need but briefly refer
to them. The hou. gentleman, it must be pro.
noised, is so situated that his sympathies might
fairly be presumed to be on the side of the em.
ployers. He is a shareholder in the Midland,
and lie contributes largely to its revenues by the
enormous goods traffic created by the transport
of a certain liquid which need not be particula-
rised. But his enquiries into the hours of la-
bour and the wages of the working staff on the
railway led him to conclude that these men were
very unfairly treated. The work in numberless
cases was cruelly protracted. Engine-drivers,
stokers, guards, signalmen, pointsmen, porters,
xc., worked 80, 90, 100, and even more hours in
a week. Instances were given were many of
these men sometimes had not been able to take
off their clothes for two or three days and nights
refreshing sleep being an impossibility. And let
us look at the statements of men employed on
another line. At a recent meeting of the em-
ployee of the Taff Vale Railway—a meeting, by
the way, calm and moderate, though earnest in
its tone—it was stated that many of the men
had for some months past worked 94 hours per
week: 134 hours per day in a week of seven
days !—a statement which is not likely to have
been made if it were untrue, and which ought
not to pass unheeded by the public. No wonder
that the men protested against such monstrous
"overtime 'as this. The men decided to peti-
tion the directors for a reduction of the hours of
labour to ten per day or sixty per week, which
we need scarcely remind the readers is not the
same thing, Sunday work being so common am-
ong railway workmen. They also petition for
an immediate advance of 2s per week, and a
yearly increase of Is per week, till the porters'
wages reach a guinea per week, and till the
wages of signalmen and policemen amount to
255. The men in connection with the Great
iVestern Railway have also begun to agitate for
tai increase of pay, and a reduction in the hours
work. A large meeting of the employee was
:ield on Sunday night last at the Labour-in Vain
Inn, Oldswintord. A number of speeches were
delivered, showing the number of hours they
are employed, and the low remuneration they
get in return. At the close it was resolved to
petition the Company to reduce the time to ten
hours per day, or sixty hours per week, and if
over-time to be paid at the same rate; and a day
and a half for Sunday. Our readers will have
their own opinions whether these demands are
unreasonable, and for our own part we cannot
but think that the men are in the right. Look
iug, however, at the general question, and ob-
serving how railway workmen throughout the
country are complaining of overwork and urging
the justice of some relaxation the question may
arise whether it would not be advisable for Par-
liament to take the matter in hand and impose
some limits as to railway work. On the one
hand it may be said that the railway men are
perfectly well able to fight their own battles, and
that it is unwise for the Legislature to interfere
between employer and employed. But on th,
other hand it may be urged that the men are by no
means so powerful as may be imagined, and that
they have now for some months been complain•
big and agitating, while the success they have
achieved is out of proportion to their efforts to
effect it ; that Parliament has already interfered
between capital and labour in many cases, not-
ably in the Factories and Work-dmps' Acts lat, I
that the unduly protracted labour of railwiv
men, leaving entirely out of the question the
matter of wages, seriously affects the safety of
railway travelling. Of this there can be no
doubt. It has over and over again been proved
on inquests caused by fatal railway accidents,
and during the inquiries made by the Railway
Department of the Board of Trade. It stands
to reason, that men whose energies are taxed
beyond the boundaries of common sense and
common humanity must find the dictates of na-
ture now and then stronger than the hard and
fast lines of directors' law. The workmen on
our railways are, as a whole, a hard-working,
paid body of men ; but on the whole, also, their
demands are certainly more moderate than that
of the men in various other branches of employ.
went, and the public, we think, are interested in
the success of the present movement for curtail-
ing the hours of labour, so that rest and relaxa-
tam may enable the men to do their work effi.-
oaitly and satisfactorily to directors and the
oldie. As to railway shareholders, if they will
dear in mind how " compensation ' reduces
dividends, how compensation springs from neg.
1--ct, and neglect from overwork, we think Mir
i .terest also will he found identical with that of
r Away workmen.

11, MICR% AEU AT LAMM who have not yet need the
.ENVIELD STARCH, they are reliectfully solicited to
It it a tjiall and carefully follow out the directions
nted on every package, and if this is done, they will
, like the Queen's Lsundress, it is the finest Starch
t yever used. When you zisk to!' (11.1:NVIELD Sratiett
, •• that you get it, as inferior kuield are often substituted
f‘alite.sake of extra profit. Beware therefore of spur.
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