Page:The Economic Journal Volume 1.djvu/225

 Rh It will be seen from this that the difficulty as to the long hours of work on railways arises almost if not entirely in respect to goods and mineral traffic employés, and that even here prolonged and quickly recurring periods of duty are less frequent with signalmen than with the other two sections. It may also be noted that the percentages are higher on lines where there is much mineral traffic. This is due to the mode of conducting the general traffic of a railway, and will illustrate the complexity which, according to the railway companies, prevents any reduction of working hours in the special cases in which overtime occurs. Traffic management requires that passenger trains, according to their grade, shall have the first claim to the road. Goods trains according to grade come next, and finally the mineral trains. Mineral trains must give way and wait for goods trains to pass them, and these in turn must get out of the way and wait for passenger trains.

The hours of men on passenger trains are comparatively easy of adjustment either by a daily mileage or its equivalent in time. The London and North Western, indeed, with express trains recognizes that not only for the men but for the engines a limited mileage per day is the best means of obtaining the highest result from each, and this principle the company has largely reduced to practice. With the goods and mineral trains this cannot be done. A mineral train may he booked to do a certain journey in a stated period, but as it may have to wait in sidings for the passage of other trains which may themselves be delayed there is no certainty as to how long the journey may really take. Even the London and North Western, as will be seen from the table above, suffers from this practical difficulty, and the other companies say it is one which cannot be surmounted. On the other hand, it is asserted that the difficulty is not so serious as it looks, and that the lines which show such high percentages of overtime are undermanned. It is a question of organization and of cost. There seems little doubt that if the companies care to employ more men and are careful in the organisation of their systems, excessive hours, if not entirely stopped, may be reduced to a minimum. It is for the companies to consider whether it will not be cheaper in the long run to obtain at the cost of a somewhat increased staff, a greater degree of safety and efficiency in the working of their lines.

Casting up the totals shown hy the return and comparing with the one issued last year, it is ascertained that in September, 1888, and in March, 1890, the numbers of railway servants of the five grades first referred to working more than twelve hours were respectively 34,958, as against 33,891, and 32,752 in the corresponding month of the previous year. In nearly all industries the tendency of the last forty years has been to shorten hours, but on the railways the tendency is in the other direction. As it becomes more and more obvious that this state of things is fraught with danger to the travelling public, the demand for state regulation is likely to increase.

Following close upon this report come the first sittings of the Select Committee of the House of Commons appointed to investigate this