OUR RAILWAY EMPLOYEES.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1085, 25 March 1911, Page 3

OUR RAILWAY EMPLOYEES.

THEIR POSITION* (Bt Samuel Vaile.) No. I. During my twenty-eight years' conflict with the Government on the railway question, I have said but little as to tho position of our railway employees, not because I have not thought much on tho subject, for I have considered it very deeply, but have not deemed the time opportune for dealing with it. For twenty-eight years 1 liavo fought my-hardest to effect a reform in our railway administration, without bringing upon tho Dominion tho disgrace which the action of tho Ward Government in tho last- session of Parliament has compelled nio to- do,' but in this respect 1 have failed.' Had I succeeded in securing a trial of the Stage system, I would have done my best to improve tho position of the railway men. I liavo never considered railway men as a body sufficiently well paid to attract to our Railway Department tho class of men which it should do. Of all tho people in this world there are none on whom such serious responsibility rests as oil those employed in their various grades on our working railways, and therefore it is only fair and right that theirs should bo tlio first position and tho highest, remuneration. Transit is tho very beginning of all tilings. It absolutely controls our trade, commerce, and social intercourse of every kind; nothing can exist without it. Therefore, I contend that tho men who guide, control, and work the transit systems of tho world should bo the very best and ablest in it. I wonjd make tho railway scrvice, which should include tlio tram service, the primo position in the civil service. It should rank above all.tho rest, both as regards remuneration and social position. Tlio bare fact that a man is, or has been, in the railway service and left it with good credentials, should bo a guarantee of his ability and integrity. The enormous responsibility that rests on railway men should bo remembered. Take, for instance, our stationmasters and tho men immediately under them. I liavo often wondered how men could be found to assume their terriblo responsibility, to say nothing of the bard work, for tho miserable salaries paid. Tilings are not as tliey ought to be.. My idea is that wo should regulate our transit servico so as to attract to it tho very best men of every class. With this object in view, instead of speaking of railway men, or railway' employees, I would find sonie special name for them to distinguish them from all other members of tlio public service. So far I liavo not been able to please myself in this respect, but a new designation can no doubt be found.

Then, again, the remuneration of all classes in tho service ought to bo considerably increased. . 1 would also in addition make everyone in tho service personally interested in tho success of tho Department. This could bo dono by fixing.permanently by Act of Parliament what items of expenditure are to be charged to capital and what to revenue account, and also making all fares and rates fixed for a period of years, and then 011 the net revenue a first charge should be, say, 5 per cent-., to lie distributed among the railway men from the Minister' down to the lampcleaner and tho navvy, at the best rato it—this 5 per cent. —would pay 011 the salaries they were then receiving. This would interest every man employed in the most efFective, economical, and safo administration of our railways, and would 110 doubt lead to good results. It would 110 longer be a question of how many men can wo get employed, and bow littlo. work pan each of us do? But, with how few men can wo efficiently work the lines? For tho smaller the number of men and the more economical and safer the administration tlio greater our dividend. It will at once bo seen that a suggestion like this cannot be acted upon under our present, "abominable no system of railway." The first thing to be done is to render every class of trades union and strike among railway workers illegal, and impossible, and it is mainly for this reason that I propose to make the position of tho transit workers different from that of every other worker in a similar capacity in any other employment, I think that all men entering this department should do so under contract. I am not by, any • moans opposed to trades unions. I believe that 011 tho whole they have dono good, but the stoppage of transit is too serious a matter to tho whole community to be oven thought of. Therefore it ought to be a condition of entering the transit servce, that 110 011 c in it,' no matter what his grade is, would bo allowed to take any part in a strike, nor should 110 bo allowed to leave the service without giving, if required, six months' notice nor under any circumstances should, moro than a certain prqpQi'tioji, of tliem lie allowed to leave in any 0110 month.- My objcct in suggesting these conditions is, of course, to render any interruption of our transit system impossible. However, at the. same time I fully recognise tho workers' rights and propose to givo them full compsnsat-ion for anything they may surrender. What I must deny is tho risht of a few politicians to use the transit-; system of tho Dominion as tlioy havo'done ever snco 1870 and are doing now to a greater extent than ever, for tho purposo of keeping themselves in power and as.they think, benefiting their own particular districts, at the-expense of all the rest of tho country. To do all this, of course, means money, but how-to deal with this nait of.the question must form the subject of another'paper. Auckland, March' 14, 1011. .