CLERKS' GRIEVANCE

Evening Post, Volume LXXXVII, Issue 118, 20 May 1914, Page 7

CLERKS' GRIEVANCE

MANAGER OF A RAILWAY COMPANY. A PROTEST. (By Telegraph.- Press Asnoclation."Copyrißht. (TIMES AND SYDNEY SUN SERVICES.) LONDON, 18th May. At a conference of delegates from the Clerks' Association (representing 29,000) held at Edinburgh, speakers protested against Lord Claud Hamilton's action in importing a general manager for tho Great Eastern Railway Company from tho United States. The conference condemned the nepotism, favouritism, and close departmental system, which prevented clerks firom securing _ fair promotion, and advocated the public ownership of land, mines, railways, and other monopolies. [At a meeting of .the Great Eastern Railway Company last February, Lord Claud Hamilton bewailed the dearth of young men competent to fill the post of general manager, and announced that the company had appointed Air. Thornton, Superintendent of the Long Island Railroad, America. Mr. Thornton is aged forty-one years. Lord Hamilton cabled to Mr. Thornton, who left by the first boat, inspected the company's system, and accepted the appointment. Lord Hamilton stated that one reason for the appointment was Mr. Thornton's knowledge of electrical operation, .and because it was suggested that a change of system should be confided to a man bringing new ideas. The action of the company was widely condemned in the press. Some papers blamed the system, declai-ing that there were too many ornamental and useless directors, and not sufficient encouragement for the staff. The Observer declared that not; for many years had Britain received such a shock to her pride. Something must be wrong with the system of piomotion. The editor of the Railway Review said that if Lord Hamilton's statement that it was impossible to find a capable Englishman for the position was true, it was tho greatest reflection cast upon English railway management for many years. The editor asserted that there was plenty of ability among British railway men, but that were not given a chance. The Westminster Gazette refused to believe that Englishmen, who were the pioneers of the railway construction of the world, were incapable of managing the Great Eastern Company's system.J