438 History of Inland Transport 



animation funds in the case of the salaried staff and by 

 pension funds in the case of the wages staff. 



The whole question in regard to the standing of these 

 funds was investigated by a Departmental Committee which 

 was appointed by the Board of Trade in 1908, and presented 

 its report [Cd. 5349] in 1910. It was the position, more 

 especially, of the superannuation funds that gave rise to 

 the uneasiness leading up to the appointment of this Com- 

 mittee. The earliest of the said funds was started by the 

 London and North- Western Railway Company in 1853, and 

 other companies followed the example thus set, the Committee 

 reporting on, altogether, fifteen superannuation funds brought 

 to their notice. At first no doubt was felt as to the stability 

 of the funds ; but when the railway companies, with a view 

 to maintaining the efficiency of the service, enforced the 

 retirement of officers at the age of sixty-five, or in some cases 

 at the otherwise optional age of sixty, heavier demands were 

 made on the funds at the same time that the benefits were 

 being increased. Actuarial investigations disclosed sub- 

 stantial deficiencies, and some of the companies sought to 

 cover these by abandoning actuarial valuations altogether 

 and guaranteeing payment of claims out of their revenue, 

 this being in addition to the ordinary contributions which, 

 in one form or another, all the companies were making to 

 the funds. A certain want of uniformity followed, and the 

 Committee now made various recommendations in regard 

 to the future working both of the fifteen superannuation 

 funds and of seventeen pension funds applying to the wages 

 staff. 



There is no need here to enter into the details of the actual 

 or proposed arrangements. Suffice it, therefore, to point 

 to the existence of these funds, with their accumulated 

 reserves of close on ^11,000,000, as designed to assure the 

 future of nearly 300,000 railwaymen, over and above whatever 

 salary or wage they may receive while in active employ- 

 ment. 



The Railway Guards' Universal Friendly Society was 

 established in 1849 to encourage thrift and to provide, among 

 other benefits, permanent pay for life to disabled members and 

 annuities for the widows and orphans of deceased members. 

 The total amount expended in relief down to the end of 1910 



