41 6 History of Inland Transport 



the service on the other side, they could foster a closer relation, 

 making them mutually supplementary. In developing ap- 

 proved plans for recruiting the service they would necessarily 

 indicate the lines of a more direct access than now exists from 

 the various schools to apprenticeships in the service, and 

 suggest the best methods by which such apprenticeships 

 would be gradually merged into the full status of regular 

 employ at the point of special fitness." 



On this side of the Atlantic the railway servants' education 

 movement has assumed two phases (i) secondary or technical 

 education of junior members of railway staffs in mechanics' 

 institutions or kindred organisations, created or materially 

 supported by the railway companies, and already carried on 

 during a period of, in some instances, over sixty years ; and 

 (2) a " higher education " movement, of a much more ad- 

 vanced type, developed since about 1903, and conducted 

 either in special classes held at the railway offices or in con- 

 nection with a University, a mechanics' institution, a local 

 educational body, or otherwise. 



It is impossible in the space at my command to give a 

 detailed account of what every railway company in the 

 United Kingdom is doing in these directions. Some typical 

 examples must suffice. 



To begin with mechanics' institutions and other kindred 

 bodies, these are by no means purely educational in their 

 scheme of operations. They include many social and recrea- 

 tive features which, in effect, should play a no less important 

 part than educational efforts in promoting the general 

 efficiency of the railway worker by helping to give him a 

 sound body, a contented mind, and a cheerful disposition as 

 well as more skilful fingers or a better-cultivated brain. In 

 the United States, judging from what Mr Eaton says on the 

 subject, all such " welfare " work as this, though carefully 

 fostered, is regarded by the railroad companies as a purely 

 business proposition ; and he does not attempt to credit 

 them with any higher motive than regard for the almighty 

 dollar. Here, however, while there has been full recognition 

 of the financial value of increased efficiency, the companies 

 have, also, not failed to realise their moral obligations towards 

 their staffs. Hence in seeking to promote the welfare of their 

 employees they have been inspired by motives of humanity, 



