Chapter VI
"The claims of the Society upon enginemen and firemen are becoming more fully recognised year by year," said the seventh annual balance sheet, which covered the year up to December 31st, 1886. It had appeared in pamphlet form for the first time, looking much more substantial than the former single quarto sheet, but still only a ghost of the substances of later years, "The day is not far distant," it proceeded confidently, "when the majority of enginemen and firemen will have recognised the fact that to be successful they must join an organisation composed of men of their own calling." The members then numbered 1,593, and the reserve funds stood at £8,961 8s. 3d,
Nearly a third of this total were to be involved in the calamitous Midland strike before another year had passed. In earlier years, conditions on the Midland had not been so bad as under same other lines, but irritation was expressed in January of 1886, when it was, declared of a foreman at Nottingham "that his actions are very strange for a sane man." Special meetings were held on Good Fridays and Sundays owing to severe penalties for small offences. A driver was suspended for twelve days for causing a train to be delayed three minutes at Trent; another was suspended for twelve days for a broken cast-iron eccentric; there were fines for passing
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