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/350

 Mr. S. A. Parnwell and Mr. G. H. Wheeler represented the Committee of Railway Managers.

Witnesses for A.S.L.E. & F.:—Mr. W. D. Found (Cleaner). Mr. G. J. Greasley (Fireman), Mr. C. Jarman (Driver), Councillor D. S. Humphreys, J.P., C.C. (Driver).

Mr. Bromley's opening statement occupied an hour and a half, and made a very decided impression as he recounted the long apprenticeship served as cleaner, fireman and driver, until superannuation time is almost reached before the very modest maximum is attained. He detailed the mechanical knowledge and skill needed, the Sunday morning study classes, and the experience that alone made the competent driver; the dangers of the occupation, the drivers and firemen being there first in every calamity. During 1915, he showed, 1,673 drivers were injured, 27 of them fatally, and 2,022 firemen were injured, 23 of them fatally, proving that six per cent, of the drivers and eight per cent, of the firemen were injured during 1915, fatally or otherwise. The General Secretary gave a very real description of the arduous work of the fireman.

"I have a mass of figures," he continued, " dealing with practically all classes of skilled men, but realising the patience of the Board and the length of the proceedings, I am going to ask you to accept my statement when I say that in none of these awards, or findings, or arbitration settlements, are there any skilled men but what they have received a higher percentage increase than the men that I represent; and, consequently, I would appeal to the Board to take this view, that here are men who rightly or wrongly (rightly I claim, and rightly our 62,000 members claim), say that they are skilled men, they are craftsmen, they have the skill and knowledge of tools and the machine that they work, who have at their own expense and in their own time perfected their knowledge, who work irregularly, who work exposed to all weathers, who work in danger and dirt, who work on a moving, oscillating, aye, almost flying platform, and who have been trying for years to be recognised not as uncommon individuals, not as some special brands of humanity, but as