Birmingham state herald., 1896-09-30
HE PLEADS FOR RAILROAD MEN.

One would imagine from the amount
 of sleep that a certain class of the citi-
 zens Of this country appear to be losing
 for fear something will happen detri-
 mental to the employees of railroads, that the worst enemy laboring men ever had
 is to be found in the person of the Hon. w. J. Bryan. The idea that on a certain
 occasion not far distant in the past this same man Bryan was standing and fight
 ing with all his powers in the interest
 of railroad employees while the men who
 are now losing sleep because of them
 were lobbying and spending bushels of
 money in the effort to defeat the passage of a measure that the employees of rail- roads were seeking to get passed through | congress, seems preposterous, when we l take into consideration the wonderful in- l terest the then lobbyists are now at | tempting to manifest in the employees of l the railroads.
 1 The occasion to which we allude is sim | ply this After certain coupler for cars
 had been invented, patented and proven l to be a success ar effort was made to get l congress to pass a law requiring all rail- | roads to adopt the coupler and equip | their cars with them. It was shown that l large numbers of brakemen were an- | nually being killed and wounded for the | lack of the use of this particular kind of l car couplers by the railroads and that l if the roads were required to use them | the number of accidents occurring to l brakemen and car couplers would be greatly reduced
 From all over the country the railroad operators and their paid lobbyist f1ocked l to Washington to defeat the measure | the same fellows who are now trying to l defeat Bryan's election. MT. Bryan was | then member of congress and being
 then, as he is now, and had always been, l a true friend to the laboring men he was l a warm supporter of the bill. One of the l ablest advicates of the measure was the
 man who the fellows that were there to | defeat it, now say is the deadliest enemy l possible to the laboring man.
 The Congressional Record of the date of February % 1893. shows that on the | previous day there was a debate in the house on the measure and the Hon. w. J. l Bryan, then a member of the house from | Nebraska, made the following remarks; q for one am willing to stay here till 1 this session ends, because l think this l bill should be passed. I believe it is die l tated by humanity, and I am not willing | if l can prevent it, that these men shall l be killed and maimed just because some | of the railroads insist that they cannot l afford to put these couplers on their cars. The only objection that l have heard
 made, the only real one in that letter of MT Haines found on our desks this morn- ing, is that it would cost $75 a car, or $75,000, 900. Some 22000 persons have been injured. Those of us who have asso-
 ciated with these men know that there is
 scarcely one of them employed for any
 length of time in railrOading who does
 not have hand off, or fingers off, or foot
 off, or is not maimed in some way. and
 we have had produced here proof of the
 startling number killed. Now 1 ask MT
 Speaker. does 1t not appeal to us, who
 are members of the only body which can
 give this relief, because the states are |
 powerless-does 1t not appeal to us and to |
 our humanity to pass such laws as will |
 give protection to the lives and limbs of |
 these people.
 "The doctrine of non-interference has | been invoked time and again. and often |
 in vain, to protect the individual from treSpasseS upon it's rights. and now, in this latter day, the doctrine of non-nter- ference is invoked when the corporations of this country seek to trample upon the rights of the people and to disregard even the common duties they owe to hu- | manity. l insist, MT. Speaker, that we who are in favor of this bill and in favoH Of giving to these people that protection which the laws of congress alone can 1 give--I insist that we shall be as zealous | in behalf of this bill as are those on the | other side who see fit to oppose it. ''I do not question their motives, but if we can keep this question in this position, staying here night and day, the country will notice it and public opinion will be brought to bear upon 1t, and we are will ing to trust to our being sustained by
 public opinion. The platforms of both
 the great political parties have declared
 in favor of it: and, as has been well stated
 here today before the election bill was
 passed here without a division. At that
 time we who now favor it had upon our
 side many of those who oppose it now,
 or at least their opposition was not then
 made known.
 Now we are supported by the plat
 forms of both political parties, supported
 by the almost unanimous sentiment or
 the press, and supported, as 1 believe, by
 the great sentiment of the people or this country. can afford to stand here and fight this battle. Upon the one side are the interests of these men and their pro- tection and upon the other the cost to the railroads which this reform will m- pose, if it is carried out.
 q ask MT. Speaker, how can we meas ure the value of human life? How can you say that $75.000,000 expended in euuipping cars outweiShs 2,OOO people | killed and p coo maimed? We may talk l this way about the lives of others; but what if these were our sons or our brothers? I ask of any one Of these gen. tlemen what prlce ne Woulu set upon the life or security of a relative? And how dare we hold at trifling price the lives | and welfare of those not kin to us while we hold as a priceless boon the lives and welfare of those to whom we are re- lated by blood?
 q appeal, MT. Speaker, to those who are in favor of this bill to stand by our rights here as a majority and protect the lives of these people who plead to us for their protection. (ApplauSe)."
  road employees. It was in the interest of l humanity. It was a measure to preserve l human life, but the railroads were very much opposed to 1t. Why? Because | they said it would cost a large sum of money to equip their cars with that par I ticular kind of coupler Because it was money out of their pockets they were un- willing to take steps to preserve the lives and limhs of the same employey that they