New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1904-12-20
FORSAFETY ON RAILROADS
SUPREME COURT RULING.
Al Cars Must Be Equipped soith
Uniform automatic COuplerS.

WASHINGTON. Dec 19.-In a decision handed
down bv Chief Justice Fuller, in the case of
Johnson against the Southern Pacific Railway
Company the Supreme Court of the United
States to-day practically held that all cars, in
Guiding locomotives. should be equipped with
uniform automatic couplers. The court also
held that dining cars cannot be exempt from
the requirements of the safety appliance law
when in use, though empty.
The decision is considered by the Interstate
Commerce Commission and the Department of
Justice to be a decided step forward in the pro-
lection OF railroad employees. Secretary Nose
ley Of the commission summarizes the points
decided follows:
First-The cOuplers on railroad cars must be
OF such a character that they will couple auto
matically and SO save employees from going be-
tween cars, though absolute uniformity Is not
required
Second-A car, though empty and on a side
track, may be engaged in interstate commerce.
Third-That for the purposes of the safety ap-
pliance law locomotives cars and they are
required to be equipped with automatic cOuplers.
The accident out of which the suit grew oc-
Cured at PrOmontOTy. Utah, I'm 1900. when
Johnson, who the head brakeman on a
through passenger train between San Fran
cisco and Ogden was directed to couple the
locomotive to a dining which stand
ing on a sidetrack The engine and were
equipped, respectively. with the Janney coupler
and the Miller hook, but they did not work to-
gether, and Johnson was compelled to go be-
tween the cars, with the result that his hand
so badly mangled that amputation became
necessary. He brought suit for damages. but
both the Circuit Court for the District of Utah
and the Circuit Court of Appeals for the Eighth
Circuit decided against him. To-day's opinion
reVerses both these judgments and orders new
trial.
In announcing the courts view Chief Justice
Fuller said that its purpOrt to require that
cars should be equipped with CouplerS coupling
coupled without the necessity of going be-
tween the ends of the cars He held that the
act requires that locomotives should be equipped
with such coupler5. Notwithstanding its addi-
tOnal requirement that locomotives also should
be equipped with power driving brakes. adding
that II was as necessary for the safety or en-
Pioyes in coupling and uncoupling that locomO-
lives should be equipped with automatic coup
IerS as II was that freight and passenger and
dining cars should be- perhaps more so, as
Judge Thayer suggests, since engines have oC-
casion to make couplings more frequently. Man
feStEy, the word car used in its generic
sense" The locomotive, the court said was
equipped with an automatic coupler, as was the
dining car, but the Couplers on the two cars
were of different types, and would not couple
automatically, so as TO render II unnecessary
for men 10 go between the cars to couple
them. This. il held. did not comply with the
requirements of the law, whose object was TO
protect the lives an0 limbs of railroad en-
DIoyes by rendering it unnecessary for a man
operating the couplers to go between the ends
of the cars, and that object would be defeated
if these different kinds would not automatically
couple with each other. The railroad compa-
MES should be compelled respectively. to adopt
devices, whatever they were which would act
uniformly to eliminate the danger cOnse
Quent men going between the cars"
OF the contention that the dining not
actually engaged in interstate commerce at the
time Of the accident, but was standing
sdetrack. the Chief Justice said: "Confessedly
the dining under the control of Congress
while in the act OF making its Interstate jour
NV E1 ANT EI-QC rrrll
when waiting for the train to be made up for
the next trip" He held that the could not
be considered empty" when in use, but said
that whether cars are empty loaded, the
dancer emnlcNes is the same.