Evening Post.

Evening Post, Volume LII, Issue 161, 28 November 1896, Page 4

Evening Post.

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 1896. THE WAGES OP RAILWAY EMPLOYES. ♦ Dubing the election campaign for the Suburbs the Government candidate appears to have exhibited a singular modesty in affording information or projecting into prominence the effect of the Railway Classification' Acf of the Hon. Mr. Cadman, passed last session, particularly as it affects the rank and file of the workers. We propose to supply the information, in order that those railway workers who are so ardent in support qfl the Government, under the impression that'its members are, above all public men, those who may be relied upon to keep up the. rate of wages, may know how little there is, in so far as railway men are concerned, to justify that opinion. The 'Act ' came • into force on the 16th October last, and from that date any persons who may enter the service of the Department as porters, shunters, cleaners, strikers, and machinists, rivetters, platelayers, and cadets will be subjected to a decreased rate of pay. Excepting cadets, the diminished rate of, wages is sixpence per day, and in the case of cadets the decrease ranges from ten to thirtyfive pounds per annum. We have not space to quote the tables, in full, but they will be - found in a return quoted by the Minister for Railways during tho passage of the Bill at page 672 of Hansard, No* 86, of last session. It may, of course, be argued that this variation in the rate of wages does not affect the staff at present employed, but the workers themselves will know full well that where in any establishment there are two rates of pay for equal labour and ability the lower will inevitably become the standard. But this is not all. The constant boast of the Government is that in its paternal care of the workers it invariably pays the maximum wage, and this being so, this all-round reduction must be the signal for a similar diminution of the wages paid by private employers throughout the whole country. But the classes we have enumerated are not the only ones who will suffer." Take the case of the crossing-keepers. When the clause reducing these to thirty shillings a week without house accommodation, and twenty-five shillings with house, was reached, Mr. Earnshaw was the only Labour member to make a stand for the maintenance of their wage. He moved that- the wage of crossing-keepers be maintained at six shillings a day, and who were the men who vainly supported him against the Government ? The railway workers may read them with interest now. They were Sir Robert Stout, Captain Russell, and Messrs. Newman, Massey, O'Regan, Earnshaw, M'Laohlan, Green, Button, T. Maokenzie, and Mitchelson. And it is curious and instructive to reflect that Mr. Earnshaw, against whom all the powers of the Government are now arrayed ,to keep him out of Parliament, was the one champion of his own class during the passage of this Bill. Of the crossing-keepers he said, " Seeing that this class is largely recruited from men who have been injured in the Government service, it is a very unfair thing that they be reduced to £1 10s per week. I say if there is one class above another which this House ought to have taken an interest in it is this unfortunate 5 class." And, again, of the new scale in the lower grades of the service, he realised their meaning^ and predicted their effect : — " So far as the working chutes are concerted ia these several de-

partments, in the immediate future the new employe's will suffer substantial reduction." But Mr. Earnshaw is a true Labour member, who dares to stand for his class even against Seddonism. Will the railway men of Potone have so much courage? We fear not. They are workers under a political system that requires thorn to be of the right colour, and they must, we fear, do as they are told.