334 PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION G&G. 
13.—RAILWAY LABOUR. 
By W. WALKER. 
[ Abstract. ] 
NUMBER AND DISTRIBUTION. 
Four million men are employed on railways, viz., 2,300,000 
in Europe, 350,000 in Asia, 1,250,000 in America (including 
900,000 in United States), 60,000 in Africa, and 40,000 in 
Australasia. Of the total, 1,000,000 is in the British do- 
minions, while the number in English-speaking countries is 
1,500,000. 
Of those in Europe, 530,000 are employed in the United 
Kingdom,* 450,000 in Germany, 350,000 in European Russia. 
Tramways and electric railways are excluded from con- 
sideration. 
PROPORTION TO COMMUNITY. 
Railway men are | in 400 of the population of the world. In 
India the proportion is 1 in 1006; in European Russia, 1 in 
300; in Germany, New South Wales, and New Zealand, 1 in 
120; in Australasia, 1 in 110; in South Australia and Victoria, 
1 in 100; in the United States, 1 in 80; and in United King- 
mom, 1 in 15. 
Dividing each of these figures by four, we arrive approximately 
at the proportion of railway men to male adults in the respective 
countries. 
Estimating the working life of railway men at twenty-five 
years, the number of recruits required annually to fill up vacan- 
cies is 160,000 for the world, the proportion of our seven Aus- 
tralasian colonies being 1600. 
RELATION TO SERVICES RENDERED. 
The customary statistics as to services rendered by railways 
as compared with the condition of things prior to railways, are 
largely fallacious, because it is the business of railways to create 
conditions of transport which induce and promote traffic. 
The United States, where 1 in 20 of the adult males is in rail- 
way service, was settled by Europeans in the first instance along 
*The Board of Trade returns show a total of 230,000 employees in the home and 
foreign shipping of the United Kingdom for 1898. 
