East Indian Railway: 1906 History of the EIR - Chapter XXIX
Note: This is a sub-section of the East Indian Railway
The History of the East Indian Railway by George Huddleston. Published 1906 by Tracker, Spins and Co
CHAPTER XXIX. THE EAST INDIAN RAILWAY UNDER TWO CHAIRMEN.
IT has been said that the East Indian Railway has only had two Chairmen. As a matter of fact this is literally true, for the railway came into existence some years later than the Company, and though the Company has had four, the railway has only had two - Mr. Robert Wigram Crawford was appointed in 1854, immediately after the first section of the line, had been opened for traffic, and when he died, in 1889, General Sir Richard Strachey succeeded him.
Mr. Crawford became Chairman of the Company at a time when, started as an experimental line, experience of the needs of the country and of trade requirements had to be gained by degrees; there was nothing to show what the possibilities were. Until trains actually began to run there were doubts whether the natives of India would travel by rail; until the railway was carried into the Raneegunge coal-field, Indian coal was practically Unknown. It is true that before the days of railways, a certain quantity was brought down the Damoodar River from Raneegunge to Calcutta that, even up to the year 1859, the Bengal Coal Company were still boating coal, because the railway charges were too costly and the wagon stock insufficient; but this could only have been possible for a few months in the year, and profitable only when English coal was very scarce.
Yet the fact remains that for several years after the opening of the railroad, the Bengal Coal Company found it necessary to employ a fleet of some 1,500 boats to bring their coal to market. Surely there could be no better proof than this of the unpreparedness of the railway to carry the traffic offering when it first opened, although it is recorded that in 1855 the railway "had contracted to convey 100,000 tons of coal from Raneegunge to Calcutta."
The export of grain and seeds from India to Europe was, at the time the railway opened, nominal, and whatever was exported came to the port by river. A trade in some items, which are now included among the principal staples carried, such as potatoes or kerosine oil, did not exist; cotton was the traffic which was expected to rank first in importance. "I go," said Lord Dalhousie on his appointment as Viceroy of India in 1847, "not to make wars but to send cotton home."
India was behind all countries in which railroads had been constructed; Jamaica was the only place distant from Europe that could be pointed to as a precedent for the existence of a railway; it was at any rate the only place in which a railway existed, that was at all on a parallel with India. Had the East Indian Railway been completed to Delhi within ten years of the formation of the Company in 1845, as indeed it might well have been, if it had not been for the time lost in controversy and especially in coming to a final decision as to the route to be followed, the Indian Mutiny would have assumed a very different aspect. As it was it took so long to settle details that only the short length to Raneegunge had been constructed when the Mutiny broke out; yet even this short length proved of the greatest advantage to Government in helping forward troops and stores to the front.
Fortunately there were some far-seeing people who realized and insisted that there was in the construction of railways in India, even more than their strategic importance, even more than the primary idea of connecting the seat of the Supreme Government with the North-West Provinces. There were those, in short, who had the foresight and wisdom to see, that the development of the immense resources of the country could only be successfully effected by the introduction of a railroad system, and to believe with Lord Macaulay that, "excepting only the inventions of the alphabet and the printing press, none had done so much for the moral and intellectual progress of man as those which abridge distance and improve the means of communication."
There was at least some truth in what a shareholder in the East Indian Railway remarked at the first meeting of the Board: "Railways would do more towards the civilization of India in seven years than all the missionaries had done in 200 years." But on the other hand there were many who held contrary views, and in the end the East Indian Railway was only sanctioned in part as an "experimental" line.
Among the pioneers of the East Indian Railway, the names of Mr. Crawford and Mr. Macdonald Stephenson will always be remembered. Both of them were associated with the undertaking from its inception; they were among the most prominent of those by whose exertions railways were first introduced into India. It was to Mr. Stephenson that the first steps in the construction and management of the East Indian Railway were entrusted, and his connection continued until 1892, when, owing to advanced age, he retired. Sir Macdonald Stephenson died shortly after his services with the Company were severed, and General Sir Richard Strachey, in referring to his death, remarked: "It does not fall to the lot of many to find their anticipations of success so fully realized as that achieved by the great undertaking, to the initiation of which Sir Macdonald Stephenson's perseverance and energy so largely contributed, and the share he had in that result should always be remembered by those, who, like ourselves, are carrying on the work in which he so long participated."
To Mr. Crawford, however, must be given the credit for conducting the affairs of the Railway, not only up to the time of its purchase by Government, but for some nine years afterwards. Mr. Crawford had many difficulties to contend with, many obstacles to overcome, but he met them always with a sanguine mind and a perfect faith in ultimate success. If anything can be urged against Mr. Crawford, it was perhaps that he failed to realize, to its fullest extent, the part the railway should take in developing traffic. Rather than boldly reduce the coal tariff, Mr Crawford seemed to think that the East Indian Railway collieries could supply the railroads of India with fuel and that other collieries would develop of their own accord; while a reduction in third class fares was only introduced after the Government insisted on the measure. Still it must not be forgotten that, in those days, the first question of a railway man, in regard to any item of traffic was "what freight will it bear" instead of "at what cost can we carry it," and it is only natural that Mr. Crawford should have approached such problems with caution, though none knew better than he, the capabilities of the East Indian Railway to make a profit out of very low freights.
Then again, Mr. Crawford saw the traffic growing far more rapidly than the facilities of the railway, and there is little doubt that he was greatly handicapped by want of funds for improvements; the difficulties he had to contend with were in fact enormous. Almost at the outset of his career as Chairman, the outbreak of the mutiny in India may well have caused a panic among the shareholders in London, yet Mr. Crawford allayed their fears, by making a simple statement of the position, at a time when his heart must have been filled with knowledge that might have made the boldest quail. "The chief loss," he said, "will be that arising from the temporary stoppage of the principal portion of the works, and the consequent delay in their completion." These words were spoken within four months of the massacre at Cawnpore, where the blood of nearly all the East Indian Railway Engineers, engaged on the construction of the part of the line adjacent to that city, had been. shed, at a time of upheaval of the whole of India, and at a time when the Company's affairs in this country must have been in a state of chaos.
Mr. Crawford was Chairman of the Board of Directors from 1854 to 1889, and during these 35 years the gross receipts of the undertaking rose from a nominal sum to over four and a half crores of rupees in a year. During the next fourteen years, General Sir Richard Strachey saw a far more rapid development; the earnings rose to over four crores of rupees in half a year, and to nearly eight crores in a year.
When General Strachey succeeded Mr. Crawford as Chairman, the East Indian Railway controlled 1,626 miles. During the preceding ten years there had practically been no addition to the length of line worked; want of funds had prevented extensions, if indeed their importance had been thoroughly recognised. The undertaking had, as a matter of fact, remained in a state of torpor; from the time the Chord line was completed, it had not made any real progress. It is true that its traffic had continued to grow, but the growth, viewed in the light of what followed, had been very gradual, and in regard to improvements only the most urgent and pressing needs had been provided for.
During the next fifteen years, the mileage worked increased to 2,241.75 miles, while at their close the Grand Chord line, the Shikohabad-Farrukabad extension (since completed), the Ondal-Sainthea Chord, the Khurja-Hapur branch and Bhagulpur-Bausi Railway, each in itself a considerable undertaking, were all under construction. Mr. Crawford's period of Chairmanship marked the completion of an idea. General Sir Richard Strachey's tenure marked an extension of that idea, an extension, such as had not entered into the conception of the originators of the railway.
In the year 1889 when General Strachey became Chairman of the East Indian Railway, the Government share of the surplus profits was Rs. 33,25,385, and the Company's share Rs. 9,44,812.
In 1904, the Government share amounted to Rs. 1,88,99,860, and the Company's share to Rs. 21,05,027. The terms of the contract under which the Company works the railway for the Government have, during the Chairmanship of General Sir Richard Strachey, been made far more favourable to Government, still the dividend to the shareholders, or, as they now are, the Deferred Annuitants, is greater than it was in 1889, although, be it remembered, the rate of exchange is lower.
In 1889, when General Strachey became Chairman, with exchange at more than 1-5d. per rupee, the dividend paid was £5-0-6, per cent, in 1904 with exchange at 1-4d. the dividend was £6-2-0. per cent. It is doubtful whether in the world's history an undertaking of such magnitude as the East Indian Railway has proved so great a success, both financially and otherwise. The capital outlay on the East Indian Railway Company which was in 1850 three millions sterling, rose by the end of 1904 to more than thirty-three and a half millions sterling, and so large are the additions now being made to the locomotive and rolling stock, and so great is the cost of the additions and improvements to way and works, to stations and buildings, to the Company's collieries, workshops and so forth, which are constantly being carried out, that the half-yearly outlay on capital account has for some years been about five hundred thousand pounds. The staff has been greatly augmented, and the Traffic Department in particular has recently been reorganized. In a word, no effort has been spared in making the East Indian foremost of all railways in India, while it retains the unique position of being the cheapest worked line of its size in the world.
The difficulty of obtaining funds for the construction of extensions, for additions to rolling stock, and for the improvement of facilities generally, has been one of the greatest with which General Sir Richard Strachey has had to contend during his Chairmanship. As he remarked in 1890:
"The fact that the sum allowed for the coming year for capital outlay is restricted to three lakhs, and granted with the admonition that if possible less is to be spent, is an illustration of this position. I must be allowed to say that such a grant for a railway extending over 1,500 miles and representing a capital of about 50 crores of rupees, is hardly more than illusory."
It was not until 1897 that the funds available for capital expenditure were to render anything like active progress possible. The Moghalsarai-Gya line, with the branch to Daltongunge was then undertaken, as a first instalment of the Grand Chord. In the succeeding five years there was an average yearly capital outlay of 157 lakhs of rupees, all of which was devoted to construction, to additional engines and rolling stock, and to improvements on the line, including station buildings, staff quarters, workshops and other permanent works. But as before indicated, from 1880 to 1890 the capital outlay had been nominal, the East Indian Railway had been allowed to remain in a condition of torpor. All this had to be remedied and it was General Sir Richard Strachey who had to find the remedy.
When General Strachey became Chairman, the experimental stage had passed away, the success of the railway had become assured. It remained to him to develop what had been created, to make the progress of the future worthy of the success of the past. There are few who will dispute that his policy in reducing rates, particularly the coal rates, his great foresight, and unique knowledge of detail, added to his vast experience and intimate connection with India, have in no small measure contributed to the immense development of traffic which has taken place in the last few years.
It was of him that his brother wrote ("India, its Adminstration and Progress" by Sir John Strachey "There are, in my belief, few men living who have done so much, often in ways unknown to the outside world, for the improvement of Indian administration. It is to him that India owes the initiation of that great policy of the systematic extension of railways and canals which has been crowned with such extraordinary success, which has increased to an incalculable extent the wealth of the country, and has profoundly altered its condition. To him is due the conception of those measures of financial and administrative decentralisation which have had the most far-reaching consequences, and which were pronounced by Sir Henry Maine to be by far the greatest and most successful reforms carried out in India in his time. To his active support is largely due the initiation of the measures, which have proved of the highest value, for preventing the destruction of the Indian forests, and for their scientific protection and management. He it was who first organised the great Department of Public Works, and laid the foundations of the scientific study of Indian meteorology. He was the first, many years ago, to advise that reform of the currency which has now been carried out and the delay of which has involved India in incalculable loss."
It may not be out of place here to relate a short story about General Sir Richard Strachey. When he took to Lord Lawrence for signature, the great despatch on the policy of the Government borrowing largely for reproductive public works, of which of course he had written every word himself, Lord Lawrence put his "L" to the foot of it, and as he laid down his pen looked at General Strachey with a grin and said "They will think me very clever." So, indeed, would many be thought who could sign, as their own, despatches written by the hand of the Chairman of the East Indian Railway.
These remarks would be very incomplete without a word of reference to one, who has been intimately associated with the undertaking for the past fifty years, and still retains his close connection with all its affairs; one who may indeed be regarded as the doyen of the Railway Company and the right-hand man of both its Chairmen; I refer to Sir Alexander Rendel, the Company's Consulting Engineer.
Part only of Sir Alexander Rendel's work is referred to in this volume, it would form a history in itself to detail it in full, but if asked to point to the most important measure introduced by him (in conjunction with General Strachey, years before he became Chairman of the East Indian Railway), I would mention rail way statistics. Undoubtedly these were initiated by him and afterwards became a most valuable guide to the proper conduct of railways and the chief basis for economies in working.
Just one word more. It is the administrative and executive staff in India who have to bear the heat and burden of the day, and the Board of Directors have never had cause to regret the confidence they have invariably placed in the loyal support and co-operation of the workers in India. From the humble porter to the Agent of the Company, every servant of the railway has a task to fulfil; each day brings its round of toil, a difficulty to be overcome, possibly a danger to be faced. The part taken by its employees in this country, in furthering the success of the great undertaking cannot be minimised, and both Chairmen have been among the first to recognise this. Long may it be so, for such recognition is as well deserved now as it was in the early days, when the Government of India lost no opportunity of eulogising the work done by the servants of the Company, though similar work done now is often regarded as a matter of course.
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