RAILWAY GRIEVANCES

New Zealand Times, Volume XXX, Issue 6452, 25 February 1908, Page 6

RAILWAY GRIEVANCES

MR. i r DR N.SBY rx M FPLV. (To tho Editor ! 'N.Z. Times.”) Sir,—Under the heading of " Railway Ork'VjiTirf's’’ you have published a ro|KJrt of somo speorhe;, made at a mooting of tho E.veuti vc (V>umil of Um- Amalgam aI ml Son inly of Railway Servants; but, sir, tho hoadin;; does not apply. If Hie rej>or(, had been Jmadod: ‘‘ Over a Moribund J'jX"OUtive, M that would have b<-en much uoaror the mark—bub you were not lo know that. Tim dyiny executive would, however, have Leon well advised iuid it kejtt out of tho public prints, becau.so bo.ude.H, then- is no excuse for before the gwioriil public liio questions involved in tho low, sad wad m a;'.ouy of the executive. So far tu* tho reported spe-orhew have roto myself, J. am ponectJy conUt t to permit the galled jade. n> wiueo: but tho policy of the Aniai14amated Society is so misrepresented, and ii-s muiiliiTs so vdiiied. that I am coin polled to sot tho matter right. It would' take boo long, and occupy too much valuable space for mo to go into details. It must suffice, therefore, to say that there lias never been any trouble in the .society that lias not boon of tho executive's own making. Boon after I was given control of ihe ‘ Railway Review ” (1 did not seek tho position) £ inserted nm article—nob an editorial-—which drew down upon the paper the displeasure of tho (General Manager. That article dealt with an experiment in engines —an experiment of a costly nature and of xwohlomabic value. The failure then predicted for the experiment ■was nob f;ur out—as time and experience have shown. Rritish companies ■fcruyl tho sa.ino experiment, and have long since reputed the of cmgine which was hero brought under criticism.

An effort was made to discover tho author of tho article, but failed —as it clofw’frvod. Several men wore n carpeted,” and it was no fault of the management that no one was punished. Jki attributing tlio article to nomeono in the service tho management simply barked up the wrong tree. Tho men’s executive got horribly scared after tlie article had appeared and had boon noticed by tho newspaper press of New Zealand. It was this very notice by tho newspapers that caused all the pother. The General Manager wrote to tho executive threatening the society with the visitation of his displeasure if the insertion of such art ides continued to ho permitted. Tho executive wrote a grovelling apology, and -cried “‘iff you ploa.se, sir, we didn’t do it: it was tin) other follow. ’* 'Dio Manager was implacable. "I hold you responsible, and will punish you accordingly, if yon don't get rid of the pestilent -person to whom you handed over your paper”—or words to that effect. The Manager further suggested that all articles should ho vised by the dOxecutive Council, end' that body actually had the hardihood to propose that" this should be done. Then the editor took a hand, and wrote that, having regard to the position, and fooling that if ho gavo way, the independence of tho “ Review ” would be gone and tho men’s cause sacrificed. ho refused to be dictated to by tho General Manager or anyone else.

Lntor, after the throats were made of mnunojorial displeasure. tho editor wrote that ho “ despised tho threats as doeplv an ho despised the one who used them." The throats wore not repeated, and I have reason to know that Mr Ronayno .set about revising his course of* conduct towards the editor of the “Review.” Tho Executive Council then sought to shift tho editor by force of law, and hero, again, tha pusillanimous anei failed utterly. By tho pursuance of the most unworthy tactics, by •jno anneerers eon temp I; i bio , by Ila ra ssi n g nonduefc and otherwise, the editor was kept extremely busy by tho Executive Council. Tho boast was made that tho final overthrow of tho editor was only a matter of time, and that whom tho elections for delegates to conference camo on, and when the poll for the office of general secretary took •place, the editor would be incontinently “pitched out,” Time has proved that all those calculations were destined to como to -nought. During tho two years* period which expires next month, I have not ■confined my attention—so far as railway men are concerned—to the “ Re•view.” In tho House and on the public platform X have exposed what I 'know to bo wrong. I have mercilessly bold up to execration those who have dealt with tho railway men as though they were more beasts of burthen. My demincd atiotn 3 affected men in both divisions, and tho fact that certain removals and alterations have taken place, and tho additional facta that reforms in treatment, shelter, and ■other accommodation for f ho men bavo been brought about within these two years, justify, as nothing else could have done, tho work I sot my hand to.

In the House and out of it tho men's executive sought to frustrate my every effort. Tho Executive CVmnjsfl of the men's union has defended every petty tyrant in the service—it has abased itself before Lho management. and injured tho cause it was placed in office to advocate. It is well for tho Amalgamated Society erf d&ailway Servants that the spineless body which has too long held office is Dow to bo speedily relegated to tho Obscurity from which it should never have been permitted* to emerge. Necessarily, when tho elections were ■owning round. X placed tho position before the railway men. Tho Executive Council did the same. It paid 1 ont of tho funds (illegally. I am of ■opinion) for an electioneering tout of the president and general secretary, Tho executive also issued (illegally) a newspaper of its own to combat the efforts of tho “ Review." When the elections were hold tho reply of tho men was an almost four-to-ono vote for *ho candidate for the general secretaryship who was supported for the office by the “Review.”

That was the deliberate reply of the men themselves.

These men tho Executive Council noiv denounces as thoughtless, revolutionary, lacking experience, lovers of sensationalism, and opposed to discipline. No more deadly or undoserved insult was ever offered to o great body of men. Even if all the votes recorded had been those of the younger men of the service, could thnt bo held to bo any excuse for such accusations as the executive body makes against tho younger men of the Amalgamated Society-of "Railway Servants? But I am in a position to say that the vast majority of tho older men of tho serrVice —some of them men who have been in the employ of tho

New Zrnlnnd IPdhvays (man and boy) for over thirty years—voted for tho snbomo of reeon-Gruci ion and rciormaliou and for tho candidate for tho secretary shi o whose election was advocated by' me. My experience of largo bodies of workers lias always been that in the long run they may l)o trusted to do justice to their fellows. I was misrepresented, my character aspersed, my motives twisted, an 1 my words distorted almost beyond recognition. Even my eliorGs in the Houm wmc sought ro bo decried and rendered of none effect. Rut through the whole had business f kept the goal in sight, and I owe ii. to a large number of my brother members of Parliament that thev stood by tho cause I b.d espoused, and had sought to [dead before the House and country.

Those members wise thins assisted me knew that I was carrying nut the wishes of the railway men of New Zealand without fee or reward.

There wore grievances, and there arc grievances still, that needed and, me*! redress. En!il those are redressed. and until the railway rmm de-dro me to cease, I will not relax my efforts. The men have shown that they have confidence in mo. In my turn, let mo say that I have oonPdonco in thorn. [ know them to be. in tho lump, a fine cla-ss of men. To them I have unceasingly preached soberness, discipline, devotion to duty; but I have also preached tho doctrine of fearlessness. If. lias hrsmi my rare always to show the men what return they should got for their service. In return I have demanded that they should give of their boot. They have done so. It is not I/O ho expected that every man anti, boy in the Railway Service of New Zealand will, or can he, of tho highest grade of energy and intelligence. But, take the men ns whole, and I say unhesitatingly, that they are a credit to Hie Dominion. They would he a credit to any community <A’i earth. Therefore-, tho railway! men can afford to treat with something akin to contempt the scurrilous attack that has been made upon thorn by a poor-snrrifed and soundlydefeated Executive Council. None the less, tho shame is with any governing body that would seek to put upon the thousands of men whom it is its duty to defend, a discredit so heavy, a character so black. The railway men hold in respect aK who are set. in authority over them; but they hnvo their own *fmimens as tn how fe»- the conditions of tho service fall short of what they should be. Much has been done for railway men these past few years, much more remains to he accomplished. Had the moribund executive realised this truth., ami not have tried to curry favour with’the management and its understrappers, the railway men would have been as leal and true to the executive as they have been to me. Tlie railway men of New Zealand seek for no favours from tho management. Tl’c men “have their duty to do, and intend to carry out that, duty to tho fullest extent of their powers, mental end physical. The men also realise that tho management, like themselves—that all the officers, and even the Minister—are tho servants of the State, of which every man or woman is a unit. That which .is right and just the men seek to have. Thor look to the people (the State) to give to the railway worker that only which is his hy right. They have no quarrel with any man, unless he bo the eno who attempts to hnv the rnnd that leads to that point where corpus in the recognition of tho rights cf the workers.

Tho attempt that hn« been made bv the men’s own executive (a flying one. T. grant von} to dbr-rodd +ho mon of the Amalgamated Society nf Railway Servants, and to prejudice them in tho eyes of the public, is a base and black act that nothing can ever atone for. If T desired to find n full and unanswerable defence for all my actr and words in support of the railway men ,aod in defiance of n nusillanimonc executive. I would point to the speeches of the * president and general secretary. The Executive Council has covered ita,.-lf with dheraco- it carries with it into its enforced retirement, not ■alone the chagrin of signal defeat, hut tho indelible disgrace that must ever attach to false witness and disloyalty.—l am, etc., J. T. M. HORNSBY. Editor “Railway Review." Carterton, February 34th. 1908.