Montana news. [volume] (Lewistown, Mont.) 1904-191?, 1907-01-24
New Slave Bill
Sixteen.HOur Bondage For Railroad
ers HypOCritically Advocated by
Corporation Flunkeys

Rejoice, ye railroaders, rejoice, for
the hour of your emancipation has
come! The legislative assembly of
Montana is about to create a law linn
iting your work day to sixteen hours
and fine the boss $4,000 or put him
in Jail thirty days if he works you
longer.
II. J. Miller, the lawyer who de-
Tended the Livingston concrete com.
pany in the courts for violating eight
hour law, has introduced bill No. 5s
entitled "An act to regulate the hours
of labor of locomotive engineers, fire.
mren, conductors, trainmen, operators
and agents acting as operators, and
to provide penalty for the violation
thereof
The bill makes the legal workday
Of trainmen and telegraph operators
sivteen consecutive hours in any TWEEN
ty-four hours.
The greatest farce attached to the
bill is that it legalizes the sixteen
hour day of labor for telegraph oper-
ators, when at present they work only
twelve hours.
For years the telegraphers' union
has tried to secure the eight hour day
ON the railroads that Inss through
Montana but failed TO do so. During
the summer of 1905 the operators on
the G.. N. and N. p. railway went on
strike and one of their demands was
an eight-hour day.
For years the operators have fought
and struggled for eight hours for work,
eight hours for sleep and eight hours
to play, but the corporation legisla.
ture of Montana considers telegraph.
ers work only play and vote to make
il sixteen hours for work and eight
hours to sleep, just reversing what the
operators have tried for years TO
secure.
The bill also extends the principles
Of benevolent feudalism to the train.
men, in as much they are to have
eight hours rest after working sixteen
hours, so that they viii be able to
work other sixteen hours. This is one
of the reactionary features of the bill.
At present train crews can call for
six, eight or ten hours rest when they
reach the end of the division regardless
Of the number of hours they have
worked, and it requires no bills intro
duccd by lawyers TO secure this rest
for them. How the trains crew will
for after the bill becomes law is n
conundrum to any. IL takes way
freight train from twenty to twenty
nine hours to travel division Of one
hundred and twenty five miles in Mon
tana, and owing to the large volume
Of traffic and the lack of side tracks
il is impossible to shorten the time,
and such conditions will remain so
for years TO come. Such being the
ease, we suppose that after train has
been on the road sixteen hours il will
pull into side track, all hands repair
to the caboose or an empty box car
and take a nap until the eight hours
are up or hunt farm house for some.
thing to eat. When the eight hours
rest is up, the crew will take the
train TO its destination or until sixteen
hours more have past, then locate an
other side track for another eight
hours nap.
Any good features that might have
been in the bill would be annulled by
a provision which prevents the train
crew from tying up any passenger or
mail train between terminals. This
clause easily keeps the railroads from
violating the law, as any train tied up
on side track can be construed rs
tying up passenger, by
keeping another freight from entering
the side track TO allow the passenger
to pass. So boys, your nap in the ca
boose or empty box car on a side track
will be an iredescent deram.
On Monday afternoon the bill was
under consideration. whitetidS of
Flathead county moved an amendment
making the railroads liable for dam
ages for accidents to employees who
work over sixteen hours. Miller of
Park objected to this, asking why was
It that they wanted to amend now,