444 History of Inland Transport 



men by their companies to acquire a knowledge of " first aid " 

 and general ambulance work. Ambulance corps or classes are 

 now not only general but highly popular throughout the 

 railway system. Instruction is given by qualified teachers ; 

 certificates, vouchers, medallions or labels are presented to 

 those who pass the examinations held, and not only do 

 competitions for money or other prizes take place between 

 teams representing the various districts of a single company's 

 system, but an Inter-Railway Challenge Shield is annually 

 competed for by the picked experts of the various companies, 

 the winning of this shield being regarded as conferring a 

 great honour on those who achieve the victory for their 

 company. 



I have here sought to give a comprehensive survey of 

 the railway service, as a national industry, alike from its 

 economic and from its human side, conveying some idea 

 even if wholly inadequate of its extent and widespread 

 ramifications, and showing the various influences, educational, 

 social and otherwise, that are eminently calculated both to 

 create a " railway type " and to give to the service char- 

 acteristics that distinguish it in many respects from any other 

 of our national industries. 



While not being, perhaps, actually an ideal industry and 

 there are very few workers, of any rank, who would be pre- 

 pared to admit that their occupation in life was absolutely free 

 from drawbacks the railway service offers, as we have seen, 

 many advantages. It is, in fact, really a " service," and not 

 simply a means of employment. One might regard it as the 

 equivalent of a civil service operated on commercial lines. 

 Workers in all of the many classes or grades " enter the 

 service," as they are accustomed to say, when they are young, 

 and they generally do so with the idea of spending their lives 

 in it, and retiring on superannuation allowance or a pension 

 in their old age. 



Railway managers, too, want workers who come to stay. 

 In the United States women typists are being gradually 

 got rid of on the railway because they so often retire at the 

 end of two or three years and get married, the experience 

 of office work they have gained in that time being thus lost 

 to the company. Consequently American railway managers 

 are now showing a preference for male workers who will regard 



