Page:Engines and men- the history of the Associated Society of Locomotive Engineers and Firemen. A survey of organisation of railways and railway locomotive men (IA enginesmenhistor00rayniala).pdf/242

 companies for releasing men for the Army, and the Society had to intervene continuously to preserve fair play in that respect. Methods of compulsion had been adopted to get men into the Railway Operating Division, and several managers had to be interviewed to get the process reversed. There was Conciliation Board discussion, made more difficult by a rather "dog in the manger" attitude of the N.U.R. There was the ever-rising cost of living, on which the Society led the way in a demand for efforts at reduction and restraint by the Cabinet. There was the 1916 discussion of the National Programme, and the request of the Executive that members, branches, delegates, and Conciliation Board officials should concentrate upon the eight hour day, with 7s. minimum per day for enginemen and motormen, 4s. 6d. for firemen, and 3s. 6d, for cleaners.

There were air raids and alarms by night, with stations and trains in gross darkness, and the Easter riots of 1916 in Dublin, when grants had to be made to our members there for losses involved. These, and other problems concerning overwork and a high death rate, and continual losses in battle, had to be dealt with. The Society was entering its busiest and greatest era. Compensation had to be secured for members injured in munition works explosions, ghastly tragedies never reported because of D.O.R.A. In 1916 Mr. Wixson resigned from the Executive, just when members were re-electing him, and the seat had to be declared vacant. Mr. W. Gamble for the Midland District, Mr. J. Healey for the North Midland, and Mr. J. Hunter for Lancashire, were re-elected. , of Llanelly, was elected to succeed Mr. Wixson, The new Executive decided in 1917 to nominate Mr. John Bromley for the Executive of the Labour Party, a post to which he was elected by the Scarborough Conference in 1920. It also decided to table the following resolutions, which are significant of the new spirit of trade unionism:—

1.—To press for the Nationalisation of Railways, and to obtain by legislation complete control of the railways for the people,