The daily morning journal and courier., 1906-08-09
TEN YEARS AND OUT.
average Life of Railroad Engineer Is
 Short and Hard.

canada and Mexico, who stand together in single Brotherhood. They compose perhaps, the most respected, dignified and effective labor organization in the world. Recently they met at Memphis, by their delegates, and in wisdom and decorum remained in session for four weeks. No disagreements, no scandals. no threats, no foolishness came out of their close sagacious and intellient as- Eembly
 An Iowa man, Warren Sanford Stone, Is their chief. He is forty-six years old, hearty, candid and cool, and has pulled everything from local freight to a limited, Put him in overalls and a jumper, and you would trust him for a mile minute, night or day. He has gone faster than that across the prairies, without collisions, head-on or other kinds, and always in the right of way. A deep chested, tall, muscular man, with gray eyes-friendly eyes, but calm, steady and brave-and hair and mustache streaked with frost, he is a fine picture of health, strength and courage. Furthermore, his head is large enough and sound enough for his job.
 My father had large farm in Iowa" he said to me the other day. q entered college with the law in mind, but several of my brothers were rail road men, and, the life they led, to- gether with the wages they earned lured me from school and into a fire mans place on the Rock Island system. In four years and a half I got an en- zine. was an engineer for twenty years and never had but one employer"
 And you escaped with your life?'
 T ran into an accident or two, but 1t wasn't my fault. had a fast day. light passenger train part of the time and killed thirteen human beings in one year. That wasn't my fault, either The terrors of an engineers life are the idiots who walk on the track and farmers who whip up and try to get ever. Persons who drive seem to have mania for beating the locomotive.
 
 whistle and the noise of the train or would jog along as before they would escape. But they will do neither. A good many of them stand up look like wild men around the eyes and lay on the lash. The next instant they are under the wheels or in tree or field along the right of way"
 Are there 'hoodoo' engines?"
 No. kept an engine for six years which had bad reputation-every man who took it had lost his job-but found it to be all right. Bad engines are generally unlucky because the men who run them ought to be doing some thing else-carrying a bod, for in- stance"
 Tn your opinion what is the first quality of an engineer?'
 Common sense; but that is a uni versal need and is no more necessary to engineers than to any one else. Second, l would say quick and reliae.e mind, Is you are running sixty or seventy miles an hour you can't take q situa- tion home with you for reflection and advisement. You have got to act and be in a hurry about it. There are natural engineers, as there are men with gifts s to get money, and to make speeches. In our brotherhood we stand for seniority every time, all else being equal but there is special aptitude for fast trains. and we consider and recognize 1t. Moral courage Is required to run train at mile minute. The engineer trusts the semaphore man and the crews of the freights, who although weary with work and loss of sleep, are expected to get out of the way Thus the engineer of a limited goes crashing into the night. knowing every foot of the track, reading every light and putt ting his faith in others. Sometimes the lights are on the other side and the fireman, stripped to his undershirt, even in zero weather springs forward to the seat he ever calls the signals The engineer repeats them back, look ing straight ahead and the fireman, chilled to the bones, sweating at every pore, goes back to his everlasting shovel. Curves are taken at full speed. Towns are passed with the throttle wide open. Yards dancing with clear red and green lights, each of which is a voice and sign to the engineer, are here one minute and gone the next. There must be physical courage in the teeth of all this, but greater and better still is the moral courage of the man in the cab--his confidence in others as we'll as in himself and his readiness to assume responsibility on the spot.
 ''If fast man is late three times he is out and another engineer takes his place, This silent but relentless threat is over him night and day if he likes his job. There are plenty of good who would not take fast train If they could get out of it. They are not afraid, but they don't enjoy the work. Allen Tyler who was chosen to run over the division out of Cleveland with the eighteen-hour New York and Chicago special, came to me the day be- fore he was killed and told me how proud and happy he was for the chance. So, in describing some of the conditions which surround an engineer, I have attempted to indicate the quail ties which make him compentent to hold his place"
 What Is the membership of the 
 "Fifty-four thousand. We have-sub- divisions in all the states and terri tories and also in Canada and Mexico. We are growing at the rate of four thousand engineers a year. The freight traffic In this country doubles every de-