Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1888-04-12
THE ENGINEERS SIDE.

A Lengthy Review OF the Impending
Difficulties ON the a., II. d q. From
the standpoint OF the Men.
In the Monthly journal of the Brother
hood of Locomotive Engineers for April,
appears an article several columns in
length, written by S. Z. Hoge. who
signs himself chairman committee" and
entitled, THE Facts as They Exist The
article claims that the statements circuia-
ted by the Burlington company concerns
ing the strike are misleading, and in ad-
dilion to the presentation Of a scale set
ting forth that the c., B. g. @, men are
not compensated in comparison with
other roads. the writer admits that on
some branches of the Q road the engin-
eers do not. as the company claims. have
the responsibility of the engineers on the
main line, but that on all these branches
the engineers are obliged at the end
of each trip to take care of his
engine" performing the work known
The imposition of this labor upon him
saves the company the expense of en-
blowing man at this work. On the
main lines the engineers work is ended
when the train is taken to its point of
destination, and the work of the hostler
is done in the round houses by an extra
man employed for that purpose 1t will
therefore be seen that the men who are
supposed TO have easy runs, under the
present system. are compelled to do
extra work in addition to those easy runs,
pauy the wages of hostler."
The writer of the article from which
these extracts are taken, further SAYS that
"while it is correctly stated that we ask
our nav based upon the number of miles
run. il must also be understood
that we care very little about the
terms used by the road" Whether
nav is made by the trip or mile is imma-
,ori,, ,ro,,idod ,bo ,,,a,, ara oo,,ronootod
o',"' p''' '00, 'Do '--Ii '''o
III lust proportion 10 Tue amount pau ny
other roads for trips of the same length
The article alluded TO also claims in re-.
,d,o ,ho or, o,,,ir. Tho oho,i,;or ~
s'" " ''" '"s
any classincatioh oased upon length OF
service, age or experience that if an engi-
necr be competent 10 take charge of the
hoe, ,ra;, n, ,ho "O road tho, be
ousu' W seI inc oes1 pay "hetler nc oe
thirty or ninety years Old when the
o. road places a man in charge of one
of its great exnress trains and entrusts to
ni'ii INC precious h'eS vi i's p"'on'' ny
that act it certities that he is a firstclass
engineer and he ought to receive pay on
the rood,s own certifcate n
a.
N'' ni"h VIM "O'' 'No WIN Vi LII
class engineer ought TO receive pay or
firstclass engineer" The writer dwells at
Ienotb unon the relative nosition of the
.a - ~ ,,h;ao. - a,.,.;a
ln'n anu ioau y" 'h'' Su"JV'' Vi ''"'''N
catlon as ioiloWs:
The "Q's" position is this: 1t places
man in position which requires at his
hands the skin and ability OF frst>class
engineer The first year he is in that po-
stion it pays him much less than first
class engineers wages. The second year
it slightly advances his wages, but still
keeps them less than the tirst-class en-
gineers The third year he is paid their
highest wages for an engineer. The result
is that it is constantly gaining, from the
men who are only serving in their first
and second year, large discount of
was es. 1t also gains all the percentages
in this transaction, because number of
men who work the first or second year do
not stay in the companys employ long
enough to be entitled to the first class
wages that are given to the man who has
served his third year. These first and
second year men who happen to leave to
by other first and second year men, and
so the road manages to keep large per-
sentaSe OF employees al under rates we
~ hn,1, IlJ,,, 11,,,s ,;,, ~ go