Last Saturday the Associated Society of Locomotive Engineers and Firemen,
which of course represents only a small proportion, though it is the most important section, of railway workers, threatened to strike at twenty-four hours' notice. The threat was a breach of the undertaking that no more demands should be made during the war. The drivers and firemen wanted a definite promise of an eight-hours working day within a definite period after the war• Several Labour leaders played a wise and prudent part in dissuading the drivers and firemen from a rash and indefensible course, and ultimately the Associated Society was satisfied with a written pledge given by Sir Albert Stanley that the question of the eight-hours day would be considered sympathetically by the Government while there was still State control of the railways after the war.
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