AN AMERICAN IMPORTED

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XLVIII, Issue XLVIII, 21 May 1914, Page 5

AN AMERICAN IMPORTED

TO MANAGE ENGLISH RAILWAY

CLERKS' PROTEST.

(Press Association. —Coi'yiught.)

LONDON, May 18

At a conference of delegates from the Clerks' Association (representing k/a,oooj held at Edinburgh, speakers protested against. Lord Claud Hamilton's action in importing a general manager for the •Great Eastern .Railway Company from tiie United States. The conference condemned the nepotism, favouritism, and close departmental system which prevented clerks from 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 rill the post of general manager, and announced that tho company had appointed Mr Thornton, ■ Superintendent of the Long Island Railroad, America. Mr Thornton is aged forty-one years. Lord Hamilton cabled to Mr Thornton, wdio 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 operations, an*} because it was suggested that 3change 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, declaring that there were too many ornamental and. useless directors, and' not sufficient encouragement folv. 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 promotion. The editor of the "Railway Review-" said that if Lcfrd Hamilton's statement that it was impossible to fin<l a capable Englishman' for the position was true, it was the greatest reflection cast upon English railway management for many years. The editor asserted that there was plentv of ability among British railway men b'nt thev were not given a chance. The "Westminster Gazette" refused to believe that Englishmen, who were the pioneers of trie railway construction of the world, were incapable of managing the Great Eastern Company's system.) ,