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/333

 the "Daily Mail" said, about £1,000,000 a day. Included in this was the cost of an organisation which had been built up in reserve for many months, of petrol and other supplies for lorry services, of accumulating food stores, of troops' movements, of pay and rations of volunteer workers, and the extra money that would have to be provided for the guarantee of receipts to the railways under the war agreement.

Business men were inclined to place the total loss to the nation at about £50,000,000. The National Union of Railwaymen lost £300,000 of its funds issued as strike pay, as well as a large amount for propaganda and expenses.

Messages from various provincial centres showed that more than 335,000 workers other than railwaymen had been thrown out of employment by the strike.

Mr. Lloyd George, who had begun by calling the men conspirators and anarchists, ended by calling them into his drawing-room. The strike turned all England into a nine days' wonder. While the unions remained solid to a man, and the railway stations were closed and guarded, the roads witnessed a return to something like stage coach conditions, but with motors instead of horses. Leeds to London was a long, chilly. £3 3s, journey. Theatrical companies moved by, or didn't move at all; newspapers organised motor delivery, and music hall artistes packed their trappings into all sorts of vehicles. There were motor expresses for fish and other food traffic, and for nine days there was much traffic and chaos on the roads. It was the most wonderful and certainly the most spectacular strike in history, and certainly it was most successful. The whole world of organised labour was paying tributes of admiration to the Society, which had begun the year by securing the standard eight hours day, and ended it by a thrilling exhibition of unselfish solidarity. Resolutions and letters of congratulation poured in from all quarters, possibly the most important being those I will quote from {[aqid}, the General Secretary of the N.U.R., and Mr. C. T. Cramp, who was then the President. Mr. Thomas wrote:—