The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-01-17
TEsrs oF EMPuoYEA

.
 ferrea to lately:
 | It will not aIiay tho fears of timid travellers to read that eight train crews I on a Chicago railroad ran by dsngst | sienal without needing 1t The test w1tn an unlighted semaphore. with the result | above stated. shows to, what extent ta- miIiarity with danger creates a reckiess disregard for it. The name cf tne com- pany u,aking the test is for obvious req req. | sons, omitted. and tho travehng pubic | win be slow to believe that all ratircad ! systems are operated hy such lax mets z ! ods as would admit ef the poes,psn'y er sr | such wholesale lack of caution. The reSr | of discharge alone should have caused tne engineers and firemen who rusned psse | the uniighted semaphcre with the saIne
 degree of confidence they wSu,S s. nave t sbow eH | more regard for the safety or tne passen- gers behind them. The blame in the case | in pcint seems to rest largely wltn she management. who failed to enforce o'e- dtence to oroers
 This experiment was made for the pur- pose of testing the reliability of tram crews at night. When signal light b for any cause not burning the engineers | arc expected to stop, just as they Wouto
 if the red light danger signal were ep' yet in this case eight trains passed with out stopping. although all the engineers and crews must have seen that the ab- sence of any light was really danger signal
 Well may The Oregonian reason that s,cb an occurrence will not tend to in- s,,re confidence in those who, have to travel at night The nane of the rofo is not given, as stated above. but people will naturally inquire if other trainmen
 are as recklessly indifferent as were those ! on that Chicago road, andNif such care lessness is common what safety Is there
 for the travelling pablic: Of course it
 would be unjust to charge that engineers and other railroad people throughout the country have no more regard TOT the
 safety of passengers than those at Chi- l earn displayed, yet the question is bound
 to come up whether the case mentioned was an exceptional one, and whether
 test made elsewhere might not show hke
 results.
 | We wonder. with The Oregonian. that a feeling of self-interest should not nave led the men in the above case to heed the danger signaL If they had been sure | that they would lose their jobs If they | failed to stop when the light was not
 showing, we feel reasonably certain that
 they would have promptly stopped to see
 what was the matter, but there IS the
 point They must have felt pretty sure that they would not be called to account l believed that those above them would
 take no note of their action, unless there
 was an accident. Suppose, however one
 of these trains thus unheedfng the signai had met with an accident, causing ioss
 of life would not the engineer, brakeman
 and others have been called to account?
 Of course they would. but would they or
 those above them have been most to
 blame?
 It is a. fact useless to deny, that many
 railroad employees are overworked. There are rules or regulations which require the men to work only a certain number oi hours out of every twenty-four. That IS the theory, but If one is ordered to "dou'
 ble up" and remain on duty "A hours oi ! more, he must do it. The superintendent or other boss cannot force him to thus L.oyerwork himself, but he is informed thai he can either do the double duty or gel out and make room for some one whc will. This is the kind of discipline tna' l they must submit to or lose their places
 If the whole truth could be known we suspect that many of the horrible acei' dents which shock the country are que | to the fact that the men who should nave been alert and watchful were overworkeo until nature could stand it no longer, and they broke down or fell asleep There Is
 A limit to human endurance and we have no doubt that train employees frequently pass that limit because they are forced to do so or luse their places.
 If, whenever an accident occurs, 1t could be proven that 1t was wholly or even par
 tially due to over-work on the part of any of the employees. the punishment should fall on those at the top
 of the list who arc really responsi- ble and who are justly to blame. Inves- tigation of railroad disaster doesn't usu- I
 ally kake tfas turn, however, for thoso
 who are punished are often the ones who
 are least to blame. And on this part of
 the subject the following from The Mo- bile Register is to the point:
 l In the stress of American life, the men who are put in charge of the lives of oth- | CTS are often very much over worked, ana | they are not always we'll paid. Often, too, they are incompetent by inexperience or l habit for the performance of duty prop- | erIv They have sometimes. incompetent | men over them, men selected as SupeTln- | teudcnts, etc. not because of lifelong | acouaintance with railroad operatlona but | for other and personal rcasons-sueh men | as dn not know how to select capabls l subordfnates or how to have the com pany 8 rules obeyed.
 There is much truth in the contention
 that men holding important positions In
 the railroad serrlce are not always se-
 lected because of lifelong acquaintance
 with railroad operation" In railroadtnE.
 as in other business. there is more or less
 of favoritism, and 1t sometimes happens
 that those holding the highet positions are Incompetent. Whether there is a rem
 edy for all these evils is another ques-
 ton.
 The new metal radium, it is claimed. lis the long-sought-for philosophers
 stone that will turn all metals to gold.
 The Montgomery Advertiser fears that