The Daily News. SATURDAY, MARCH 8, 1913. THE BRITISH RAILWAY STRIKE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 247, 8 March 1913, Page 4

The Daily News. SATURDAY, MARCH 8, 1913. THE BRITISH RAILWAY STRIKE.

Tile trouble that is threatening Great Britain industrially in the threat of a railway strike is really a recurrence of the dispute of two or three years ago, which was settled temporarily on terms that never had the approval of the majority of the men. Murmurs of discontent have been heard in the ranks of the railway servants almost unceasingly, and it has needed only the sound of a battle-cry, apparently, to precipitate a struggle. It appears at the moment that the dismissal of one man by the Midland Railway Company is going to be the nominal issue of a fight which will dislocate the transport service in all parts of the Mother Country and to some extent throughout the whole world. The roots of this trouble strike deep into the very foundations of the British railway system. The lines, speaking, generally, are over-capitalised, and the division of responsibility among many scores of private companies, each providing large salaries for directors, managers and engineers, has not made for economical or efficient administration. The result is that the employees are underpaid and overworked, while the shareholders, except in a few instances, receive a comparatively small return on

their investments. The solution suggested by the'unions is the nationalisation of the railways, but obviously the State should not be expected to take over the burden of "watered" and wasted tangible assets in the possession of the companies. A minimum wage might be, and probably will be, enforced by the House of Commons, but then industry Will be expected to pay increased railway rates. The remedy that would serve the national interests best would be the writing oft' of many millions of capital, to be followed by nationalisation or a working agreement between the companies to prevent unnecessary duplication of service and expenditure. But the state of public opinion in the Mother Country apparently does not make this drastic rearrangement practicable, and the railway hands will have to fight their own battles -against the forces of vested interest and custom, although the cost of a big strike will .cover many times the modest concessions they desire to secure. The threatened strike would, of cnurse, be little short of a national disaster, but it might have its uses in directing general attention to the value of nationalising or municipalising the various methods of transport. After that ivc shall want to see the system extended to our food supplies.