| Value. £ | |
| I. Engineering Department (New Works, Repairs, and Maintenance):— | |
| Permanent Way | 9,346,000 |
| Roads, Bridges, Signals, and Other Works | 2,686,000 |
| Station and Buildings | 1,749,000 |
| Docks, Harbours, Wharves, and Canals | 745,000 |
| ———— | |
| Total—Engineering Department | 14,526,000 |
| II. Locomotive Department:— | |
| Engines, Tools, &c. (Construction and Repairs) | 7,917,000 |
| Buildings (New Works, Repairs, and Maintenance)—not included under Head I. | 175,000 |
| ———— | |
| Total—Locomotive Department | 8,092,000 |
| III. Carriages, Waggons, &c.:— | |
| Carriages (Construction and Repairs) | 4,454,000 |
| Waggons (Construction and Repairs) | 3,701,000 |
| Road Vehicles for Passengers and Goods (Construction and Repairs) | 272,000 |
| Buildings (New Works, Repairs, and Maintenance)—not included under Head I. | 33,000 |
| ———— | |
| Total—Carriages, Waggons, &c. | 8,460,000 |
| IV. Waterworks (Repairs and Maintenance) | 155,000 |
| V. Electric Works:— | |
| Buildings and Lines (New Works, Repairs, and Maintenance) | 148,000 |
| VI. Steamboats (Repairs) | 323,000 |
| VII. Other Productive Departments:— | |
| Lamps and Fittings for Lighting Purposes | 150,000 |
| Saddlery and Harness | 32,000 |
| Tarpaulins, Waggon Covers, &c. | 345,000 |
| Clothing | 19,000 |
| Printing | 69,000 |
| Hoists and Cranes (if not previously returned under Head I.): Construction and Repairs | 303,000 |
| Gas manufactured for Companies' use (not included under other Heads) | 286,000 |
| Electricity for Stations, &c. | 128,000 |
| Telegraphs and Telephones | 481,000 |
Buildings (not returned under other Heads): New Works, Repairs, and Maintenance | 92,000 |
| Provender | 308,000 |
| Iron and Steel Manufactures | 178,000 |
| Grease | 115,000 |
| Trucks, Barrows, &c. | 39,000 |
| Other Manufactures and Work Done | 454,000 |
| ———— | |
| Total—Other Productive Departments | 2,999,000 |
| ———— | |
| Grand Total—Goods Made and Work Done | 34,703,000 |
The cost of the materials used was £17,600,000. Deducting this amount from the total of the foregoing table, there is left a net sum of £17,103,000 to represent wages and establishment charges; though it may fairly be assumed that a good deal even of the £17,600,000 which stands for cost of materials was on account of wages previously paid for the procuring or the preparation of those materials by other than non-railway servants.
The total number of persons employed by the railway companies in the manufacture of the goods or in the execution of the work comprised in the statement was 241,526, in the proportion of 232,736 wage-earners and 8790 salaried persons. This figure of 241,526, however, is not necessarily to be added to the 608,750 previously given as the number of railway servants connected with the working of railways. There is nothing to show to what extent the two tables overlap, though overlapping there obviously is, since the first table includes 66,305 permanent-way men, while the second table evidently includes the persons employed on permanent-way work, since the value of that work is put down at £9,346,000. On the other hand, some classes of servants included in the Census of Production returns are excluded from the Railway Accidents return, so that although the exact number of persons directly employed by the railway companies of the United Kingdom cannot be stated, it must be somewhere between 608,750, the total of the one return, and 850,276, the sum of the totals for both returns.
All the figures thus far given relate to work done by persons directly employed by the railway companies themselves; but there is, in addition, a vast amount of work done for the railways by independent companies or manufacturers. Taking, for instance, railway-carriage and waggon-building factories in the United Kingdom, providing for the wants of the smaller companies at home or for railway companies in the colonies or abroad, I find from the Census of Production that this particular phase of "the railway industry" (for it must needs be regarded as included therein, notwithstanding the fact that a few of the items relate to tramcars, horse vehicles, etc.), led in 1907 to an output of goods made or of work done valued at £9,609,000. The items are:—
| £ | |
| Railway carriages for passengers, and parts thereof | 1,676,000 |
| Railway waggons, trucks, etc. | 5,340,000 |
| Parts and accessories of railway carriages and waggons, not distinguished | 129,000 |
| Railway wheels and axles complete | 771,000 |
| Tramcars and parts thereof | 572,000 |
| Vehicles for goods, horse-drawn | 75,000 |
| Machinery and accessories | 135,000 |
| Iron and steel manufactures and structural work | 174,000 |
| Other products | 93,000 |
| ———— | |
| Total value of goods made | 8,965,000 |
| Repair work (including repairing contracts) | 644,000 |
| ———— | |
| Total value of goods made and work done | 9,609,000 |
The number of persons engaged in these railway-carriage and waggon-building factories when the census in question was taken was 28,193, namely, 26,492 wage-earners, and 1701 salaried staff.
When one tries to form some idea of the further volume of employment that results from the supply of the thousand and one necessaries which even the most enterprising and independent of railway companies must still procure from outside manufacturers, makers, growers or providers, it is obvious that the railways, both as an industry in themselves and in their dependence, in endless ramifications, on other industries concerned wholly or in part in supplying railway wants, must provide more or less employment for an army of workers vastly in excess even of the aforesaid 600,000 or 800,000.
In many respects the railway service proper—that is to say, the particular branches thereof which deal with actual transport, as distinct from construction and manufacture—offers features that are unique in their way, even if they do not, also, bring about types of workers of a class distinct from those to be found in the majority of other industries.
In the latter dependence is being placed more and more on the efficiency of the machinery employed, and the person of greatest importance to them is the machinery-inventor or the machinery-improver. The one who works the machine may require to have a certain degree of skill or dexterity in carrying on the necessary process, but the more nearly he can approach the perfection of his machine and become, as it were, part and parcel of it, the greater will often be his degree of success as a worker. In his case the personal equation hardly counts. He is merely the penny put into the slot in order that the figures may work, and any other man, or any other penny, that fulfilled the requisite conditions might be expected to produce the same results.
In railway operation great importance must certainly be attached to the efficiency of the machinery, or of the system; but final success may depend to a very material extent on the efficiency of the unit. Everything that human foresight and railway experience can suggest may be done—both in the provision of complex machinery and in the drawing-up of the most perfect rules and regulations—to ensure safe working; yet the ultimate factor in grave issues on which safety or disaster will depend may be a worker who has either risen to, or has failed to meet, a sudden emergency. In this way, not only does the individual unit count, but the individual unit in railway operation may be the Atlas upon whose shoulders the railway world does, in a sense, rest. A blunder in an ordinary factory or workshop may involve no more than the spoiling of a machine or the waste of so much material. A blunder on the railway may involve a terrible loss of human life.