The record-union., 1899-09-28
LOCOMOTIVE ENGINEERS.
DENOUNCE THE ASSAULTS OF
THE YELLOW PRESS.
Letter Sent Out to Members Of the
Brotherhood of Locomotive
Engineers.


ment of the Brotherhood of Locomotive
Engineers has adopted and sent out to
members of the fraternity the following
letter:
Hall Of the General Committee of Ad-
Justment OF the Brotherhood Of Lo-
connective Engineers. San Francisco.
CAL, September p, 1899.
To the Members of the B. of L. E. of
viz: Subdivision 161, San Francisco.
Cal; 531, Algiers, La. 277, Portland,
Oregon; D, Los Angeles, Cal. 1877, San
Antonio, Texas; 30, Ogden, Utah: %.
Tucson, Arizona; 1872, Ell Paso, Texas
1oS, Wadsworth, Nevada; 476, Rose
burg, Oregon; 415, Rocklin. Cal; 366,
Houston, Texas; 1885, Bakersfield, CAL;
42o, Dunsmuir, Cal; 11O, Sacramento,
Cal; and 2S3, Oakland, Cal-Greeting:
From various points within the juris-
diction of this committee has come to
1T complaints of the injury to member
ship in general, caused by the unfair
ness of a portion of the daily press Of
San Francisco, Cal, in reporting any
thing in the nature of an accident on
the lines of the Southern Pacific Rail-
road; and the subject having been care
deemed by your General Committee of
Adjustment to deserve your serious
consideration.
While as a body the locomotive en-
gineers employed on the Southern Pa
cffc compare more than favorably with
those Of any other system, wherever it
may be (and the same we think can be
said, class for class, of our associates
in the service - the fremen, the con-
ductors, the brakemen, the switchmen,
the operators, dispatchers, and track
mem, and while the truth of any char ge
that life or property is less safe in the
hands of the Southern Pacific employees
than in those of other systems can be
safely challenged, yet the happening
of any accident on the Southern Pacific
lines, great or small, is made the occa-
sion for black headlines, and among
other Drejudicial statements the i'm
preston is given, either by express as
sertion or direct implication, that trains
on Southern Pacific lines are habitually
manned by incompetent and drunken
employees, who recklessly and bruta1iy
disregard the safety of lives and prop
erty.
Your duties require at all times the
highest degree of vigilance and mental
effort, and few realize the countless
times in the life of a locomotive engi-
neer when slightest lapse pn his part
would result in wreck or disaster and
to your credit as a body be it noted that
those lapses are very few. The best
will sometimes make mistakes, and
when man has safely hauled his
trains from year to year a lifetime
almost, perhaps, as many of you have
- without one single blot upon his rec
ord, scarce one single error to him
charged, if he at last should one time
brand Of incompetency upon him, based
upon such one error, and clamor for his
dismissal.
1t is said Of the Captain who recently
put the liner Paris ashore upon the
English coast that he had made prevl-
ously five hundred trips across the At
lantic without a single mishap; and yet
his error was at last from simply read
ing 7:30 o'clock c $50 in an entry upon
the chart. Why his mind failed in its
usual vigilance on that one occasion
when SO many million times before it
had been true, is one of the mysteries
that cannot be solved.
The unfairness named tends to cause
discharge of engineers for slight lapses,
or for single lapse or error after long
and capable service, by reason of the
criticism which prompts it, melting the
management to leave no possible
ground for such criticism, as has been
realized on more than one occasion
within your knowledge by your commit
tees who have interceded in behalf of
engineers thus discharged
We do not care to inquire into the
motives political or otherwise) which
prompt the present policy of that por-
tion of the press of which we speak,
but when. in the ways named. our
members, who have spent perhaps
years in their calling, and have therein
handled millions of dollars worth of
property, and millions Of lives
almost, without mishap, are caus d
to be discharged for some small
error, when otherwise punishment
would be less severe, self protection
requires that you use your influence
to lessen such attacks upon you; and if
they continue there is no reason why
you should not entirely withdraw your
patronage of every description from
such portion of the press, as we'll as
explain to those with whom you asso-
ciate, and with whom you have bust
ness dealings within your respective To-
calities, the injury which you as class
suffer when such publications are en-
couraged, and we strongly recommend
that you adopt such course. Yours
fraternally,
JOHN H. LANDON, Chairman,