St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1888-02-25
WORK, WORRY, INJUSTICE.
Au Underpaid Operator Tells the Griev-
auces of His Class.
NO REST ON THE SABBATH,
But No Pay for Work on That Day.
Advice to the Railroad COM
missiOnerS.

To the Editor of the Globe.
Our railroad journals are full of the
grievances of railroad men, and real
grievances they are, too: but they do us
no good, because not one cOmmunica-
ton out of 1000 ever reaches the eyes of
the public, and my object in writing this
is to show up one phase of railroad life
which the multitude know nothing
about-the life of an operator. The
majority of railroad stations are what
we call ''One-man stationS;' that is to
say, the operator acts as agent, express
agent, baggage master, United States
mail carrier, ETC., etc., handling at
some stations thousands of pounds of
freight unaided, and thousands of dol
lars per month for the railroad and eX-
press companies for which he pays to
the company, or some guaranty COM
pany, from IS to SIS per year as
guarantee bond for faithful discharge
OF duty. Some night operators are
obliged to pay premium on 81 900 or
81, 1000 bond at stations where they don't
handle 5000 year. We are obliged to
be on duty from o'clock a. m. till Z
p. M, as regular hours, with perhaps
no chance to go to dinner, and where
there is no night operator the day oper-
tor frequently has to stay in the office
until s, 9 or 10 o'clock p. m. to report
some stock train or officers special, and
i'll case of wreck he is expected
TO STAY ALL NIGHT,
or perhaps two nights,in case of wash
out For all Of this he gets from $40 to
$50 per month in the West, and less in
the Eastern states, and not one cent for
over time. The travelling public do not
realize to what extent their lives are in
the hands of the operators, unless they
occasionally read in the papers of some
accident caused by the neglect of some
operator to deliver his orders to the
conductor. Perhaps this operator may
be so Overworked that he hardly knows
what he is doing. There may be dozen
passengers calling for tickets; half as
many want baggage checked; another
wants to send a message and wants the
operator to write it for him; another
wants that jar of butter sent by express
by this train to his son in the city,
etc.; and perhaps this operator ha
worked half or all the night before. Blu
he ought to go 70 jail! We could stand
all this without complaining, if we only
knew that when Sunday comes we
could rest and enjoy the society of our
families, for many of us are married,
STEADILY ON SUNDAY
as on any other dav, perhaps harder,
for many of the roads take Sunday as a
general cleaning-up day on divisions
where they run no passenger trains on
that day. 1t is Sunday to-day, and [
have not been able to get away long
enough to go to dinner, and by the time
| go home tonight will have reported
twenty trains. [ have not had one Sun
day at home with my family for six
months, not even a Thanksgiving,
or Christmas day. While the different
branches OF my family were taking their
Christmas dinner together, was at the
station eating mine out of a tin pail.and
it was Oh Sunday, too. ! love my wife
and little boys and girl as dearly as Jim
Hill loves his, but the only chance I
have to visit with them in the day time
is when they come to the depot Sun
days to see papa, which | usually per-
nit them to do. When left home this
morning my little girl was sick and
''she did wish papa wouldn't go the
depot to-day" / wished so too, but J.
am obliged to. And what do we get for
cent Every other branch of the rail-
road service gets pay, and in some cases
double pay. for every Sunday, OF over
time worked. Is this right? No rail-
road official will say that it is right, but
as long as the people, through the COM
mlSSiOners and legislatures, are crying
down WITH THE TARIFFS"
and compelling them to come down,
they have got to cut expenses some
where; so they cut the operators and
section men, who have no organization
strong enough to protect themselves.
AS | understand it, the railroad COM
panies are obliged to show their net
earnings, and if the commissioners
think they are making too great per
cent on the capital invested they COM
pei them to reduce their rates. Now it
looks to me like this: If the managers
would say, Here, now instead of Civ
ing this money to the farmers, we will
give part of it to our poorly-paid en-
ployes. We will at least pay our oper-
| ators for their Sunday work. / know
[ am not much of a newspaper cor
| respondent, but l wish that these few
rough thoughts might set some good, in
| telligent citizens thinking, and also
working, to bring about legislation that
will make it punishable offense for a
railroad or any other company or person
| to compel man to work Sundays with
| out pay. A vast army of young men
| are deprived of all family or church en-
| joyment on the Sabbath day. Bows. let
us give our experience through the
newspapers, as well as our own papers,
and perhaps some one will interest
| themselves in our behalf. l ''sine''
AN OPERATOR.