In the Times of Wednesday the facts of the present
railway dispute are explained by a correspondent. As is already well known, the chief demand on behalf of the men is that the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants be " recognised " by all the companies. If the figures given by Mr. R. Bell, M.P., the general secretary of the Amalgamated Society, be accepted, there are eighty thousand members out of two hundred and twenty thousand employes who are eligible for membership of the Society. But there are some five hundred and eighty thousand railway employes, so that (1) the Society does not include half of the men eligible; and (2) less than fifty per cent. of the total number of railway employes are eligible. The companies hold that these figures justify them in withholding " recognition." Moreover, the Associated Society of Locomotive Engineers and Firemen, which represents many skilled workmen, dissociates itself from the Amalgamated Society.
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