26 AUGUST 1848, Page 15

SETTLEMENT OF THE NORTH-WESTERN RAILWAY DISPUTE.

CONTRARY to the understood rule in disputes between employ- ers and servants, the North-western Railway Company has yielded the point, and passengers are no longer exposed to the manifold dangers of being driven by ignorant enginemen. The concession is creditable to the Company ; for although it is warranted by self-interest, we cannot ascribe it to that motive, since pride is commonly a stronger motive than self-interest, even with commercial gentlemen, especially where contestation is im- plicated with distinctions of social class : we must impute it to the higher motive of public interest—one enlightened rather than adulterated by a wise discretion. Double credit is to be al- lowed to the Company for waiving the natural vexation at the failure of the first steps towards accommodation. The fail- ure is in itself a fortunate circumstance, because the pro- posed arrangement was not sound and true. To save what would be called the honour of the Company, the men were invited to make a surrender ostensibly " unconditional"; the principal ob- ject of dispute, the new classification, having been given up by the Company in a preliminary negotiation. The "firemen" were included in the negotiation, but were not taken on again by the Company : the enginemen honourably stood out on behalf of their assistants ; and the directors as honourably responded by a more complete restoration. The ultimate conclusion of the affair is more satisfactory precisely because it is more undisguised ; it is based, not upon figmentary notions, but upon the necessities and realities of the case. It is therefore more likely to be stable—to remain unperverted by secondary disputes. The very disguise attempted in the former arrangement—the consciousness of a secret against the directors—would have been likely to incite among the men a disposition to encroachment, which is much less probable from a more open settlement on the substantial merits of the case.

But the conclusion of the affair has a yet wider application. It will be a precedent for the guidance of other railway companies in similar matters. Whatever the expediency of economy, there can be no doubt that a class of servants on whose intelligence, zeal, and steadiness, the safety of the public is so immediately dependent, claims a comparatively high rate of remuneration. Not only so, but it is a class among whom all that conduces to self-respect ought to be encouraged. To a classification in aid of discipline there can be no objection; but in this particular class, we say, the appeal must be rather to the better than the baser feelings—rather in the direction of honourable incitement by re- wards and promotions than by punishments and degradations. It has been said, and truly, that although the work demands in- telligence it cannot well be recruited from among the more edu- cated classes, whose training on the whole does not fit them for an occupation so rough and irksome. The service is a peculiar one. It is the more necessary to create a class of men specially trained for it ; and a greater public benefit cannot be rendered than by creating such a class. An enlightened view of the sub- ject therefore will prevent the directing class of the railway world from feeling regret if the class of engine-drivers is allowed to establish a position not without a degree of elevation and firmneee.

No arrangement can approximate more to the character of com- pleteness and finality than one which is based upon reality and shaped by the law of necessity : in the present case, for example, no superintendence of the railway system, however dignified and powerful, could have done more than establish an arrangement resting upon the real merits and necessities of the interests con- cerned. Last week, the public seemed to be threatened with a kind of danger on the new highways of the country that would have been intolerable; and if the managers had not taken effective steps to remove it, interference with a strong hand would have been inevitable. But if the companies are able to anticipate the very object of intervention by shaping the system which is grow- ing up in their hands according to the real wants and necessities of the time, they will prevent the dreaded interference, by super- seding it.