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/77

 hard to believe that any sane man would think of doing such a thing, and no one will for a moment believe that the society had any notion of that being done.

On the contrary, we think the Amalgamated Society will be glad to see those railwaymen, who could not come within its paling, unite and go to work for their common good. Knowing as we do that our readers, like other classes of men, cannot all see things from the same point of view, we rejoice that those who have for so long kept apart from the society are now going to work on the same idea, viz., that in unity there is strength. We wish the new Society of Enginemen and Firemen God-speed.

It seers almost an anomaly at first sight that a society so urgently needed should have such slow growth and severe early struggles as I have described. Suspicion and hostility towards it bad been implanted in every A.S.R.S. branch, and then, too, the membership fee and contributions were high. The bid made for security was a bold one, and it is not surprising that large numbers of drivers decided to watch for a time how the thing went. I have traced the early years, and then thrown on to them the light of conditions prevailing at the time. With one further example we can close the chapter. It is the statement of a Lancashire & Yorkshire driver:—

"Just fancy, a driver having a mere lad with him to do a man's work] This boy, when he is not out firing, will be cleaning in the shed at eight or ten shillings a week. Of course, the driver is expected to min to time and do his work as though he had a first-class fireman with him. The question needs not to be asked who has to da the fireman's work. "The driver is the man. If he allows the boy to put coal on the fire, it is as a rule put on to waste; I mean it is not put on in a proper way to get steam and to maintain a proper pressure. There are hundreds of tons of coal wasted in this way, for which the driver is responsible, I have run many a hundred miles, and often could not see a signal owing to my having been firing up; the glare of the fire takes away one's sight for a few minutes. The driver invariably puts