Omaha daily bee., 1885-03-03
CLosE
How the Railroads Watch Their Mcn
Danger of Knocking Down
-PhotoGrAphing Employees
Passengers Who Pay
to Conductors
Only.

cifc1'
The speakers, writes an Ell PAso, Tex,
correspondent to the San Francisco
Chronicle were two of q group of rail-
road men seated round q table In q beer
saloon on FL Paso street, In their I'M
mediate vicinity your correspondent
slipped the week and insipid lager of the
establishment, which had at least tho
merit of being wet-by the way, q merit
not to despise in the heat of the day, for
the days here are hot already.
One of the group who was evidently
with but not of them, ventured to in
quire:
"What do you mean, Mac, by being
black listed by the southern Pacifc2'
well, boys, to begin at the begin
ming, you all know that as q machinist
I'm about as good as they make them,
and can hold my end up against the best
of them. About a year ago l heard l
could get a job In the Southern Pacific
repair shop at Deming, 30 l sent In my
application with testimonials, etc to
headquarters, and in due time l received
q favorable reply. with a request to iend
on my photograph. Well, l dressed up
In my best and went down to Parker's
gallery, and had II taken cabinet s'ze-
worse luckl l did not think anything
aboutit at the time. Supposed that the
company had q photograph gallery of its
employees, like a militia company L was
once 10, and wanted to have it complete.
Well, after | had been working for some
time, changed about from here to there,
l had o few words from n of the bosses,
and was fired. When l called to look
after that job to-day the master mechanic
looks at me queer like, and asked me to
sit down in the Office for o few minutes.
sin about five minutes he came back
an he gays: Amt you name Mac--2'
Yes said l. well, said he, yer black
listed by the Southern Pacific, an we
can't give you no work on our line.' It's
all a mistake said l; there are more
Macs than one in the world, an /
never did anything to be black listed
There's no mistake at all, he said; 'ain't
that your photograph and he showed a
copy of the photograph l had taken In
Parker's. OF course that settled It,, but
If I thought 1 had myself taken for q
rogues' gallery I'd have seen them an
their job In - first"
odd you find out anything moreabout
itY" inquired the first speaker.
eyes; every fellow whose photograph
they want-an' that's nearly every n
above a section hand-must send a copy,
and then they strike off about five humid
red and send them all over the lines with
which they are In correspondence. Then,
If the Southern Pacific fires him, none of
the other lines will take him on. l call it
an Internal piece of tyranny and the
speaker struck the table until the glasses
danced to the music of their own jingle.
"That's what it u.s." was the universal
Endorsement, ard the indignant machin.
lat having ''set them up again, resumed:
Gust look at the way they're putting
the crews into uniforms, from the con-
ductor down. Why, thirty years ago
they wouldn't get a free man in the
country that would stand it. Now times
are hard and the boys have to sink their
independence. Here in Ell PaEo, whether
on duty or off, a man mustn't enter q
saloon for a glass OF beer, or he may be
fired. That's worse than they treat q
policeman In San Francisco. It's only
when he's on duty that he can't have o
pleasant time with his friends"
EYES," broke in another Of the group,
a brakeman on a freight train, ''look how
all the lines treat conductors and how
they treat engineers. The conductor has
to be responsible for everything under
the sun; has to make out reports, remem.
Der orders, an has the lives of men,
women an children In his hands as much
as an engineer, while an engineer gets a
third more pay. How's that?'
"Why, just th's-we conductors amt
organized" explained a third, "while
there isn't In the United States to-day SO
strong an organization as the Brotherhood
of Locomotive Engineers. If there are
any men driving engines In the United
States that don't belong to the brother
hood, I'd like to wnow where they are,
and 60 would the brotherhood. Our Or
ganization of conductors is only a rope Of
sand compared to theirs no one fears
it,"
"Perhaps," suggested the non-rail-
roader, "~conductors are expected to
knock down the difference in salaries"
"Much show we get to knock down
now! OF course, there Is always moro or
less of it, but he'd be a clever fellow now
who could knock down a third of hi,
salary. What with spoilers, railroad de-
tectives, and sure men, he'd get fred so
quick 'twould make his head SWIM"
"What Ia a sure msn2"
"Well a sure man is one whom the
company know never knocks down. He
gets from $3.50 to 500 a month and only
makes half q dozen runs or 80 over any
one division. This Is how it is: When a
conductor has failed 10 be caught by
spotters of detectives knocking down, and
yet don't turn 10 as much as the company
thinks he ought TO, he is laid off and a
sure man makes half a dozen or a dozen
runs on his division. If the receipts fall,
or remain about the average, the con-
ductor gets back his train; If they go
above, he Is fred"
'Don't freight conductors make some.
thing out of carrying pa~ssepgers| quer-
led the non-railroader.
''There are several reasons why
they can't. The people who work the
freight trains are mechanics out of EN-.
ployment and people of that kind who
have very little stuff, and who think ii
they give so to be carried over a dlvis-
ion they are paying away up, while those
who work the passenger are able to pay
full fare, but don't want to. Then again,
whether the brakeman or conductor Is
braced on a freight, the whole crew
. stands In, leaving hardly enough for any
one man to pay for the drinks. The