The San Francisco call., 1906-11-21
OVERLADEN POWER
PLANTS SHOWN

Idat the power plants Of the United
Railroads are overloaded was frankly
confessed by one Of the witnesses be-
fore the arbitration court yesterday.
II s Brondson. chief engineer of mo-
tive power. testified that machines
which have normal capacity Of 1850
amperes were carrying 2400 amperes
between the hours Of and o'clock
IN the evening and that the increase
OF the power used since the fire was
about $4,000 kiloWatt hours The load
carried before the fire was 10000 kilo-
watt hours as compared with over 49,
600 kilowatt hours at the present time
Brondson said he did not consider
the work Of the dynamo operators
dangerous and that he had taken a
500-TolC shock several times without
serious result. To explain 10 the court
the operation OF a power station he
produced photographs showing the
operator sitting in an easy chair in
the midst OF the machinery, but on
oss-examination he added the infor-
nation that the operator did not sit in
the easy chair all the time. and, in
fact, the company only hired agile men
for the position. as they were COM
PEELED 10 step lively 70 accomplish their
duties
An invitation was extended to the
arbitrators TO visit one Of the power
plants and acquaint themselves with
some Of the machines, the names of
which have been a stumbling block in
the procedure since the start Chief
Justice Beatty replied that he would
ike 70 go, but that he had been ex-
aiming his life insurance policy and
had noted a clause which the company
could plead if he should meet with ac-
cident among the bust bars" and other
devices which have been so frequently
mentioned by the witnesses. So the
automobile trip TO the power plants
was postponed. and the counsel for the
unions smiled at this intimation from
the Judge that he was willing to admit
the possibility of danger.
The chief OF motive power had some
kilograms about wages which Indicated
that men worked for a smaller COM
pensation in the Eastern cities. When
he was being cross examined on the
dangers which the operators faced dur
ing breakdowns he said:
Our men like little fun when
things go wrong
Then they have been gratified ex-
ceedinEIy since the fire." Albert John
son added.
Diagrams showing the load carried
BY the power plants during the differ
ent hours Of the day were produced
md the counsel for the unions asked
permission TO copy them, as they
showed the increased amount Of busi-
ness which the road has been handling
since the 1st OF July. Brondson sur
prised the court by testifying that the
supply Of labor was in excess of the
demand in his line Of work
During the morning session Chief
Electrician Foster was on the stand
The question Of the men reporting in
the morning at the shop or at the
locality where repair work was to be
done was under consideration and Fos-
breakdowns Of late due 10 old poles
that II would not be practicable for
the company to adopt the Job TO job"
schedule. Justice Beatty said that he
understood that the men had no prefer
ence between the shop TO shop" and
the Job to Job" plan so long as they
worked only eight hours.
One Of the points which the union is
urging is that an apprentice should
serve three years before he would be-
come a recognized journeyman line
man During the three years the wage
is to be increased from 81 TO $3.50, the
latter figure being the amount paid a
competent Iineman- The company holds
that they cannot induce men to remain
as apprentices for three years and that
they leave for other places to take Jobs
as jourueymen Hnemen before that time
would have expired. To this Johnson
replied yesterday that there was moth
ing TO prevent the company paying
such men the IS as soon as they liked.
for the union would never object to a
raise in any mans wages.
The matter OF guard wires over the
trolley wires came up again The ex-
pert had testified that these wires did
more harm than good IN rebuttaI Of
this Johnson produced a letter from the
General Electric Company, of which
company he had professed the day be-
fore TO be ignorant. upon which Stanley
Moore had ventured to explain to him
that it was an authority IN all matters
electrical So when Johnson offered the
letter he reminded Moore that it was
from the -reco gnized authority" It
stated at length that guard wires were
necessary safeguard to prevent fall
ing wires from coming in contact with
the trolley and endangering lives
The arbitrators will resume their
work at 10 o'clock this morning