last. On August 24th of 1914 Mr. Geo. Moore addressed the following letter to the Railway Executive Committee:—
While not desiring to increase your difficulties at the present time, I am compelled to write in reference to the position of locomotivemen who are employed by the various railway companies in this country. Since the war commenced these men have had to hold themselves in readiness to go on duty for the purpose of dealing with troop trains and other Government requirements, and have been called out at varying times. The annual holidays, which some of these men should have been having at the present time, have been cancelled, and while we do not complain of that, and are prepared to do our duty in support of the Government in the present crisis as loyally as anyone else, we find that—in spite of restrictions placed upon the men and demands for the whole of their time to be placed at the disposal of the companies—notably the Midland, the Great Northern, and the Great Central railways are not paying the men a week's wages, contending that they do not actually work, and therefore are not entitled to a week's wage. This is, of course, increasing the economic difficulties of the country, as well as causing serious complaints from the men, and we should like the position defining. As our members are now State servants, they contend they are entitled to a full week's wage."
That was the first difficulty to be righted, and a wage adjustment was pressing close. The Railway Executive proved hostile to the demand for 5s., a sum overdue before the war began, and urgently due now owing to rising prices. There was restlessness and talk of a strike, but eventually, in February of 1915, it was agreed:—
"That 3s. advance should be conceded to railwaymen whose rate of wages was less than 30s. a week, and 2s. to those above 30s."
This was a little more than half of the demand made, for in the aggregate it represented £20,000 a week more than a uniform 2s. 6d. would have done, a sharp indication of what a large
