DOOM OF HORSE-DRAWN OMNIBUS.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 764, 12 March 1910, Page 13

DOOM OF HORSE-DRAWN OMNIBUS.

HOW TEE MEN ARE. AFFECTED. The disappearance of the horse-drawn omnibus to giye way to the swifter motorbus has steadily and rapidly taken; place in the streets of London. Now one of the last hopes of the old horsoYbus has been doomed by'the amalgamation of the London Goneral Omnibus Company with the Vanguard and Road-Car Companies! The immediate effect of this has been the removal of fifty horse omnibuses from tho London streets.

Few people will rogret the progress of motor powef, of which this is a sign. In itself it is an excellent thing that our street traffic should be uniform, swift, and clean. There is no excuse for sentimentality ovor the passing of the omnibus horse. But, unfortunately, progress for the majority often brings temporary disaster to' a minority, and it has happened in this case. The reinpval of those fifty omnibuses of the old-fashioned kind has thrown out of work fifty drivers, fifty conductors, and ostlers, stablemen, harnessmen, and others to the number of about 100 more. • ■ These men, most of whom have wives and families, suddenly find themselves at the beginning of year .thrust out of work, and so far without any prospect of finding work.. They also complain bitterly that the company they served has not given them a chance, and has dealt with them shamefully. The. men's point of view was cxpressed by one of the drivers to a "Daily Chronicle" representative. "We knew," he said, "only a few days before that: tho horse omnibuses would bo. taken off the road. Naturally we were ..anxious,,but we, did not think that we would be thrust ' off- at a moment's notice. Some of us have a record of thirty-three.- and; thirty-four years' service with the General Omnibus Company. All of us have keep good characters, and have Borved the company loyally. We all believed that something would be found for us. "But last Wednesday one of the officials of the yard brought down a great bundle of licenses. These are the licenses granted by Scotland Yard to each man/ and held so long as he is of good character on the road. That license was re--turned to each of us, and it was tho certificate of our dismissal. We were pnid off, and stepped out into the streets, and here we are,/on the kerb,' as we say —without work. It is very hard! Most of us have built up decent little home 3, and we have brought, our wages home regularly to the wives and children, and kept, some .of us, an old father and mother as well. And now the little home-will be broken up, and God knows what is to become ,of us

"It is hard enough on the young ones, and it is harder still on those who liavo grown old in the service of the company."