The News-Herald. [volume] (Hillsboro, Highland Co., Ohio) 1886-1973, 1895-10-24
HIS OFFICIAL RECORD.
Brice's Hostility to Railway
Men as an Employer.
Ne VOTES AGAINST HUMANE sILLs.

NE VOTES AGAINST HUMANE BILLS.
Him and His Democratic Friends-Hss
Small Claim to BE Considered In Any
Sense . Railroad Man-Not . Railroad
Operator, but . ''Reorganizer."
The Brice literary bureau and the
Brice managers are making desperate
efforts to win to the support Of Brice
legislative candidates the railway en-
ployes Of Ohio. They base their appeals
on the ground that Mr.. Brice 10 also
railroad man" and an employer Of
labor.
The fact is Mr.. Brice has small claims
to be considered in any sense railroad
man. He is not railroad builder. He
is railroad wrecker. He is not rail-
road operator; he is railroad "reor-
ganizer." To him the railway is not an
iron artery Of comerce, highway of
travel and transportation, great EN-.
ployer Of labor and an important ele-
ment Of development. To him it is but
a base, foundation for an issue of
bonds. To him it is but one Of the
pawns he uses in the game he plays for
high stakes every day with fellow-gam-
b]ers on Wall street. To him the en-
gineer, the brakeman, all the tralnmen
and operatives, are simply adjNncts
which, like the rails, the ties and the
roadbed, stand as security for the re-
demption of his chips.
The Brice Way.
Never has ne shown the slightest
sympathy with the railroad employees as
class. 1t is claimed of him that he
recently ordered an increase in the
wages an the Cleveland, Akron and Co.
lumbus railway, a road Of which he re-
cured control, in order that he might
secure and hypothecate, as he has al.
ways done, the million and half Of Sc
serve fund bonds which had been re.
served to meet improvement and inter-
est charges. But this was simply an
election dodge, as is shown by the fact
that he made no corresponding increase
in wages on other roads controlled by
him where the scale was as low or
lower, where the net earnings Of the
road better justified an increase. It
was simply an attempt at wholesale
bribery Of the employees of the Cleve-
land, Akron and Columbus.
On the Southern railroad, where the
traffic is heavier than for years, part Of
which is controlled by Mr.. Brice and
his associates, there has been no in
crease. The employees of that road can
not aid Mr.. Brice's political scheme. In
this connection attention might be
called to similar discrimination among
the employees of this road Of Mr.. Brice's.
Upon the freight trains are employed
both white and negro brakemen. They
perform identically the same work and
with equal ability. And yet the negro
brakeman is paid but an average of
$50. 80 per month. while the white mon
get $42.5O for the same time ard labor.
Why is this?
A Heartless Man.
His record shows that it would have
been better for the working railroad
man if Brice had never emerged from
the obscurity of his dingy law Office at
Lima. In his public life he has shown
himself the uncompromising enemy of
the men who risk their lives daily at
throttle, brake and drawcar. For years
the railroad mems organizations have
been urging the enaction of laws that
would to some degree lessen the awful
risk attendant upon their vocation. The
more progressive and humane Of the
men who really direct the operation of
railroads and not of their stocks and
bonds, spent hundreds Of thousands of
dollars experimenting with the various
devices for this purpose. The conven-
tions Of both parties adopted planks
favoring the enactlon and enforcement
of such laws. They were led to this by
the awful list of casualties in the yearly
reports of the railroads occurring among
the railroad employees.
These reports showed that in the 10
years preceding over 10000 railroad
men had been killed and over 200, ,0OO,-
900 MANNED or injured. It was shown
that there were in the market number
of practical appliances, which, if put
into general use, would minimise the
number of fatalities occurring in the
making up and running of trains.
Consequently bill was introduced in
congress "to promote the safety of rail-
road employees" 1t was commonly
known as the automatic coupler bill."
and it provided that all cars must be
equipped with automatic couplers of a
standard character and uniform height,
and with airbrakes. The bill was in
dorsed by railroad men everywhere,
who petitioned for its passage. The
only objection urged against it was that
it would be an expensive operation to
fit up the cars with these appliances.
In answer to this the following statis-
tics were shown: In the preceding year,
1892, according to the report of the in.
terstate Commission, there were 1854
railway employees killed in the United
States by accident, and 2S,267 injured.
In the five years preceding that in which
the bill was discussed, there had been