Railways a National Industry 447 



tion boards; (3) a central conciliation board, and (4) the 

 eventual calling in of an arbitrator if the matters in dispute 

 should still be undecided. 



Forty-six companies adopted the scheme. The conciliation 

 boards were elected ; agreements were in many instances 

 arranged as the result of their proceedings ; and, where no 

 settlement could be arrived at by the boards, arbitration was 

 resorted to. Dissatisfaction with the course of procedure 

 and its results was, however, expressed from time to time 

 more especially by members and officers of the Amalgamated 

 Society of Railway Servants ; and such dissatisfaction became 

 acute during the prevalence of the " labour unrest " which 

 spread throughout the country in the summer and early 

 autumn of 1911, affecting, more especially, the various 

 transport services. Joint action was now taken by the 

 Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants, the Associated 

 Society of Locomotive Engineers and Firemen, the General 

 Railway Workers' Union and the United Pointsmen and 

 Signalmen's Society. 



At the outset attempts had been made to show that the 

 railwaymen had some genuine grievances against the concilia- 

 tion boards on account of their " slowness," etc. ; but it soon 

 became apparent that the trouble was mainly based on fresh 

 demands for " recognition." On Tuesday, August 15, repre- 

 sentatives of the four societies issued from Liverpool an 

 ultimatum in which they offered the railway companies 

 " twenty-four hours to decide whether they were prepared 

 to meet immediately members of those societies to negotiate 

 the basis of settlement of the matters in dispute " ; and they 

 added : "In the event of this offer being refused, there will 

 be no alternative than to respond to the demands now being 

 made for a national railway stoppage." 



The railway companies expressed their firm resolve to 

 adhere to the principle of conciliation, and on the following 

 Thursday the " signal " was given for a general railway strike. 

 Only about one-third of^the railway workers responded, and, 

 though great and very grave inconvenience and loss were 

 caused in some parts of the country, there was (owing, in 

 part, to the calling out by the Government of a large body of 

 troops to protect the railway operations) no such " paralysis " 

 of the railway traffic in general as had been threatened, while 



