The age-herald., 1897-12-02
THE RAILROADS F FIGHTING FOR TIME In which to Comply With the LaE as to
 Equipments. RATHER WARM DISCUSSION Between COWen For the Railroads and MOrriSSey For the Employees. NO EFFORTS HAD BEEN MADE By Some of the Roads While Slaughter Of Human Life Had Gone On, Said Mor- E rissey-Ministers Urged En-
 fOrcement of the Law.
NO EFFORTS HAD BEEN MADE

| commerce commission today opened the
 hearing of the railways which have pe- tltioned for an extemsiCn oftime in which to comply with the law of 1893, reqlLT- ing thsm ito fit their engines and cars l with automatic car couplers and air
 brakes. The petitioners, representing | several hundreid railway companies and also representative of labor unions wera
 present. in the court room which was | crowded ba the docca. Great interest | was manifested.
 John Cowen, ona of the receivers of the | Baltimore and Ohio railroad presented | the object to the commission. PreVlouS | to his general petitlo Chairman MOTH ! son of the commission called for the Glea- | son why th- roads which ware not com | pletely equipped under Uhle law, had pc | ribfoned the commission for am extension | of time. He explained as the princpal | reason why the roadsi had not complAed | fully was the industrial depression which | followed tha passage of the act in 1885, | which, he said, had made them finan- | cially unable to make the outlay to com | ply with the law.
 | He said that fit would cost from $4O0O0- | 900 to $50, ,O00, 900 for each railway to com | ply with 6ha law. The colt. he said,
 must come from the wages of the em- | ployes.
 The percentage of equipped cars for | passenger. trains ranged, from opinions | given by experts present, from 50 to 60 | per cent
 P. H. Morrsssy, representing the | BralSe1nerls association, the locomotive | engineers, fireman and teleglraphers, fol- | lowed Mir. Cowen with forcible pressn- | tation of the attitude of the railway eLm- | ployes toward the solicited extensions. 1 This law, the main features of which
 we're to become operative on the first day of the new ysar, he said, was rep | resentation of the heart and conscience | of the American people SIS represented by l the,r chosen servants in congress. The assocla tions for which he appeared were | a unit for protesting aga.nst any such un- l reasonable extension as had been pro-
 posed. Five years. he said, would r5nder
 the purpose of tIhe law nugatory and | void.
 l During the past five years 2.500 railway
 men have bsen k He'd annually and be-
 tween 10000 and 25,OOO injured. Of these
 casualties 50 per cerf. were directly at
 tribuftable to the two evils this law was
 desgned to correct. The slaughter would
 continue as long as the present condition
 remained. He thought somelthing should
 be done with roads which, being able at
 least to comply partially, had utterly d,s- regarded ',he law. Hs replied heatedly l to an inhimation of wage reduction
 thrown out by MT. Cowan. ''I spaak tn no defiant spirit" said MT
 Morrfssey, "but wanlt to say that when
 the question of a reduction of wages Is
 presented to us we will meet it. If the
 alternative is reducing wages or the
 Cnaiming and death of it's members was presented to the organizations which I
 represent, I do not hesitate to say that
 they would prefer to go out and equip
 the roads themselves"
 He called attenion to great financial | losses the beneficial associa tions of the
 roads had sustained. Death and dis
 ability claims amounting to $2,0O0, 900 had 1 been paid out during the past five years
 enough to completely equip a road like
 the Louisville and Nashville. | When pr.ssed by Chairman Morrison. MT. Morrissey replied that the railroad l employees agreed that the maximum ex- | tension must not exce.d year. In discussing the proposition of the | railroads made by Mir Cowen, MT. Mor-
 rl5sey asked if the commission in grant, | ing an extension had power to impose | conditions
 q am sorry to say" replied Chairman | Morrison, 'ithat there are some things | the commission does not know, and that | is one of them"
 Congressman Harrison. of Alabama, | made the poEnt that tihe yellow fever in l the south had been a severe strain on
 southern roads.
 | After fthe recess MT. Julius Rosendale, l of Philadelphia, on behalf of himself l and many eminent divines, whom he l said he represented, and among whom | he mentioned Cardinal Gibbons, entered
 a protest against granting any exten- l sion of time.
 l Samuel Gompers, president of the l American Federation of Labor. joined | in MT. Morrissey's protest for any un- l due extension of time for complying | with the laws.
 l There were present many representa- rtlves of the roads, all asking for time, as indicated by MT Cowen. l The hearing closed with a somewhat l sensational exchange between MT. Cow l en and MT. Morrissey.
 MT. Cowen, in closing, indignantly re- l pudiated the idea that MT. Gompers or l MT. Morrissey in any way represented | the employees of the Baltimore and Ohio | railway.
 | MT. Morrissey jumped to his feet when
 MT. Cowen sat down. He had tried, he | said, to occupy a dignified attitude | throughout Bhe hearing. He did not de- sine to give offense and he had nls9iu- l tained silence while the statements of l the railroaders were being made, but he | said, he deemed it his duty to reply to | the inslnuatd'on. of MT. Cowen that he i did not represent the railway trainmen.