358 LAND AND LABOR. 



than a penny a mile, first class. In my opinion no one 

 demands this ; in fact the public has no right to de- 

 mand it, for it means the degradation of labor. What 

 is the result of Scotland's cheap railway travelling ? 

 A strike which has unfolded to the public what 

 their so called ' demands for cheap travelling ' mean 

 the suffering that their fellow beings have undergone. 

 "It is not a mere question, in Scotland, whether 

 the men shall work fifty-six or fifty-seven hours a 

 week ; but it is whether they should be required to 

 hang on at important duty till nature is so exhausted 

 that they fall asleep clutching the handles of the 

 critical levers, on the accurate moving of which the 

 lives of hundreds of travellers depend. At one of the 

 meetings of the men, this week, an engine driver 

 stated that in one week he worked ninety-six hours, 

 his Thursday's spell lasting twenty-three and one 

 half hours. A pointsman had two hundred hours 

 duty in a single fortnight. A goods guard for twenty 

 consecutive days had three hundred and sixty work- 

 ing hours, or an average of eighteen hours a day. 

 These astonishing revelations might well make one 

 pause, when advocating that cheapness is the only 

 thing to be considered. Cheapness in railroading and 

 ( li<-;ipness in manufacturing means the exhaustion or 

 the starvation of the laborers. It can be obtained in 

 no other way. Free Trade may bring cheapness. It 

 will not prevent the degradation of labor. 



ROBERT P. PORTER." 



The above may be taken as fairly representing the 

 condition of the industries and working people of Eng- 



