The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-03-17

second GlSLIlCl.
Passenger engineers .......146 50 1877 10
Freight engineers ..........l& IL 80 81
MAY, 1895.
First District.
Passenger engineers lib 81 124 90
Freight engineers No.. .16l 62 81 SO
Second District.
Passenger engineers .......1O 10 153 IA
Freight engineers ......... .2O3 OS Il 81
Mr. Durham refused to make a contract
because the contract business had gone to
seed, and the Brotherhood of Locomotive
Engineers were absolutely in control of
the transportation department. He had
no control over his men, and as in the
case mentioned of train running from
Savannah to Townsville on which the
engineers services should cost him six
dollars, he was under the contract re-
quired to pay eight dollars.
Mr.. Durham also established the rule.
which he had long had in force on the
Alabama Midland, that whenever an en-
gineer in any one month had earned $l25
or at the rate of 81, 800 per year, he should
get down and let the engineer at the bot
tom of the list take the engine and earn
meat and bread and shelter for his fam
lily. The inequalities In pay were out
rageous, and were not only unjust to the
company. but unjust to a large number
of capable and worthy first-class locomo-
tive engineers. Maj; Dunham's purpose
was as far is possible, to put his engi-
neers on footing of equality, without
any faVoritism to any one.
The public will not be slow to appre
ciate which brotherhood fair-minded en-
gineers would prefer to serve-the Broth
erhood OF Locomotive Engineers, or the
Brotherhood of Bradford Durham.
No railway official in the south appre-
ciates more fully the necessity for having
sober, capable and loyal engineers on his
trains than does Mr.. Durham; No rail-
way official in the south appreciates more
fully the responsibilities and the hard
work of the conscientious engineer; and
no one appreciates more fully the loyalty
and efficiency Of not only engineers, but
employees in any other department.
Under the administration OF the brother
hood, the affairs of the road, so far as
they related to engineers, were conducted
by committees, and each engineer had to
take the place, whether hard or soft, as
signed him by the brotherhood. Mr. Dun
ham did not believe this to be just or fair,
therefore he would have none of 1t. He
preferred to deal directly with his engi-
neers, and not to deal with them through
any committee, or any other outside party.
The public will now be able to see WHY
it was that some of the engineers of the
Plant system were so eager to precipitate
trouble between the Plant system and its
engineers unless they could get contract.
Men who were making from 5000 to s., 500
a year as locomotive engineers, did not
propose to surrender any part of their
wages to the poor fellow, although mem
Der of the brotherhood, who was making
from $500 to $500 a year. The Durham
brotherhood believed in an arrangement
that would enable all the engineers to earn
good pay, and to support in comfort their
wives and children, and did not believe in
the unjust and unparallel inequalities in
of the B. l.. E.
Those engineers of the Plant system who
undertook to stir UP strife and who I'M
dertook by every means in their power,
to bring on strike, were regarded by Mr..
Durham as conSpiratorS, and as they
seemed anxious to strike and to serve the
brotherhood Mr.. Durham, as he had a
right to do, put in their places other men
VINO were not so unfair and unreasonable
as to strike the hand which fed them.
The brotherhood of Locomotive Engi-
neers is an oath-bound secret organization,
and among other obligations which its
members are required to take, is one that
they will not withdraw from the brother
hood pending a strike. Under the opera
ton of this OATH while ii requires a two
thirds vote of the brotherhood before a
strike can be ordered, 1t will be seen that
many engineers, members of the brother
hood, who may wish to remain with the
company in case of a strike, and to earn
by honest toll a comfortable living for
themselves and their families, are forced
to go out on strike, or else violate their
oaths.
One of the highest compliments ever
paid to a railway official in the south, or
anywhere else for that matter, was the
action taken by the Alabama Midland en-
gineers when 1t appeared that a number
of engineers of the Plant system were bent
on having a strike. The engineers of the
Midland wrote letter to Mr. Arthur, ad-
vising him that while they would like to
have a contract, they did not consider the
mere fact that they did not have, and that
the company refused to make one, suffi-
cient reason for their going out on a
strike, and that they would not do So
These engineers on the Midland, of all the
engineers OF the Plant system, had known
Mr.. Durham longest They knew that he
required of them efficient and loyal SER
vice. and that he would be content with
nothing less. They knew also that so long
as they rendered this service, they had in
Bradford Durham, not only an official
friend, but personal friend And IL was
this confidence in his fairness and in his
innate sense of right and justice which
defeated so completely the schemes of the
agitators and conspirators.
Mr. Durham is a man who talks very
little but he believes in doing absolute
justice TO all men. In worthy cases he
Is charitable: but he does not use his po-
sition as q means Of dispensing his chart
ties 1t has frequently happened that en-