AMALGAMATED SOCIETY OF RAILWAY SERVANTS. PRESENTATION TO THE LATE SECRETARY.

Evening Post, Volume LXXV, Issue 46, 24 February 1908, Page 3

AMALGAMATED SOCIETY OF RAILWAY SERVANTS. PRESENTATION TO THE LATE SECRETARY.

CONDUCT OF THE RAILWAY REVIEW CRITICISED. Tho Executive Council of the Amalgamated Society of Railway ycrva.itj, at a meeting on Friday evening, madu a presentation to Mr. W. J. Edwards, who is retiring from office after eighteen years' seivicc as general secretary. Mr. 'Walker, in making the presentation, said that those who knew MiEdwards best were exceedingly sorry that the society was about to Jo?e hin services. His retirement was not due to want of energy or neglect cf duty, but. to a ceaseless effort ' on the part of the Railway Review to damn the council and all its officers in tho eyes of the members of the society, because objeo tion had been taken to the attitude of the Review in assuming a policy of hostility towards the authorities' of the railway service, which the council knew was outside the functions of the society and prejudicial to its interests It was a moral certainty that, if thr> society's paper was to be allowed to continue in its attitude of openly belittling and .insulting Ihe Genel.ll Manager m the eyes of the staff, destruction of dit, cipline and the encouraging of disrespect must inevitably follow. He re^ fcrred to tho support given. " Ivy th& Review to "a policy ot sensationalism and insult." and its' result was tho re moval of Mr. Ed'warcto from the office ho had long and ably filled at the recent -ballot. The presentation \\da mado as an evidence of the confidences and respect' entertained by the governing body of the i>ooiety for the retit ing secretary. ' Other members of the council spoko in similar terms. In the course of his reply Mr. Edwards said that since the Review waa given over to unrestricted control by Mr. Homsby two years ago the couil. cil had hid to contend, against a sea. of ,truublc The .alli.ti^'e. i>r" the, papei was not only destructives of discipline ; it was shamefully unfair, and unde3on cd. arid the- wretcned farco was mi ensifted owing to the fact- that the editor vas a mombcr of I'cilirtra.ont, who ought toi set a better example. Any broaflminded man, reading' 'the Rrviow, luust cone to tho conclusion that the •insulting inferences to ihe General Han ager would lead to the destruction 0/ discipline and respect. Ho referred to ";ho unreasonable majority who were follow my a wild leader," 'and said hefelt it nu disgrace to br* defeated foi the secretaryship and to make room for tho pcrsou advocated by M.r. Horns- by under such conditic>is. ' Tho vast on cessions granted to the f^rvico, the a-t-cognition of the society by each successive Minister, and the practical assistance of tho General Manager (Mr. Romynf), deserved' better treatment than tho bullying aid insulting treatment of the JJrJhvny Review under the editorship of Mr. Hornsby. Time would show who tho best friends 0* <he so~ cicty v,rre. and tint noßsationalirm and bombast had no eftectixe power foj good.