Railways a National Industry 413 



a station down the line to the following effect : " Tiger 

 on platform. Send instructions." In England there is no 

 probability of railway-station platforms being taken pos- 

 session of by wandering tigers ; but if anything equivalent 

 thereto, in the form of a sudden and dangerous emergency 

 not provided for by rules and regulations did arise, the officials 

 on duty would be expected to show alike resource and energy 

 in meeting the circumstances promptly and efficiently, so far 

 as they could, instead of waiting to ask the district superin- 

 tendent or the superintendent of the line for instructions. 



Independently of the ever-present dangers of actual opera- 

 tion, to which I shall revert later on, the fact of having to deal 

 with such varied types of humanity as are met with on the 

 platforms of a busy railway station, under conditions ranging 

 between the extremes of amiability and irritability, must also 

 tend to sharpen the wits of the average railway worker, and 

 make a different man of him than he would be if he were to 

 spend his working days in feeding a machine in a factory with 

 bits of tin or leather to be shaped into a particular form. Nor, 

 whether the railway man be concerned in passenger traffic, 

 in goods transport, or in checking claims and accounts in the 

 general offices, must he fail to be ever on the look-out for 

 those who, though they may be the most honest of men in the 

 ordinary affairs of life, never scruple to defraud a railway 

 company when they can. 



Another factor tending to differentiate the railwayman from 

 the ordinary industrial worker is the sense of discipline and 

 the consequent subordination of each unit to an official 

 superior which must needs prevail if a great organisation is 

 to be conducted, not simply with success for the shareholders, 

 but with safety for the public. The maintenance of effective 

 discipline is obviously essential to the safety of railway opera- 

 tion, just as it does, undoubtedly, further help to form the 

 special type of the railway servant. 



The development of the same type is being fostered to an 

 ever-increasing degree by the special training which junior 

 workers undergo with a view to making them, not only better 

 fitted for the particular post they already occupy, but qualified 

 to succeed to higher positions as opportunities for their ad- 

 vancement may arise. 



A railway manager is not alone concerned in the' working 



