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/50

 For purposes of the moment we have reached the formation of the A.S.R.S., March 2nd, 1872, which proceeded under the piloting care of Michael Bass, and devoted its attention chiefly to hours and accidents, both very urgent matters certainly. It had a jong list of patrons and presidents, none of whom were working men, and all its operations were confined to the old type of friendly society. In 1872 it claimed to have 17,247 members out of 250,000 employees, but this membership steadily declined, until in 1882 it had only a scattered and very ineffective membership of 6,321. One of the inherent weaknesses, limiting the scope of action, was, without any question, the all grades composition. In 1882 not two per cent, of the railwaymen were organised, although the Scottish Society of Railway Servants had been established, and the United Pointsmen and Signalmen's Society (1880) had come along, and our own Society was in its vigorous infancy. It was not until 1889 that the General Railway Workers' Union was formed. The A.S.R.S. waited on Members of Parliament, and ventured into the lobby for interviews. The breathless idea that the working people might send representatives through the lobby to take seats in the House itself had not then dawned.

The decade of the seventies had been an atrociously hard time for railwaymen. There had been many fatalities and accidents to men and boys in the service, and all were "wage slaves" in a real and grim sense. The system that brought vastly increased wealth to commerce, banks, mines, and all financial interests, was only a durance vile for the men who ran the system. Something was about to happen to break the suppression, and the great venture was launched by the drivers and firemen. Seven men of Monmouthshire, stirred by the arbitrary attitude of the Great Western, breathed the great inspiration. The same project was being confidentially whispered at Birmingham, Sheffield, Bristol, and Leeds, and in 1880 it broke out spontaneously under the letters A.S.L.E. & F.