We wonder why Railway servants, of all mankind, are so
powerless to obtain decent treatment. The annual meeting of their representative body was held in Edinburgh on Wednes- day, and it was stated by several delegates that even recently they had been required to work from 17 to 22 hours a day, or from 88 to 105 hours a week. This is monstrous, even if we admit that a great machine like a Railway is justified, in the public intere4t, in using men up, for the public is constantly endangered by the labour of men too tired to think, or see, or act quickly. Imagine a pointsman with, .perhaps, 25 trains to direct, working the levers after 17 hours of continuous toil! So long as nothing new occurs, he goes on automatically, even if really asleep ; but the moment he has to think, all is over, and there is a collision. We believe the men's statements to be literally true, and entirely agree with the delegates that Parliament should order a return of cases in which Railway employ& are worked for more than fifteen hours a day. The men are not children, it is true, and need not obey unless they please; but the public are children, and mast travel. Besides, the State binds the Railway servants to work well under criminal penalties.
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