The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1907-01-16
TAKES ISSUE WITH RIPLEY.
Conductor Says Santa Fe President Is
Mistaken About DisIoyalty.

Whlle wage conferences are going
on between railroad officials and their
EN- ployes a discussion has arisen over
| the loyalty of railroad men to their
| employers c. A. Pinney, a conductor
on the Pennsylvania railroad. takes
E issue with the statement recently
made by E. P. Ripley. president of the
Santa Fe road, that railroad men are
| less loyal than other classes of en-
ployes. He says:
'As railroad man of twenty-eight
years experience, I wish to take issue
with E. p. Ripley, president of the
Atchison. Topeka & Santa Fe railroad,
when he says railroad men are not as
| loyal to their employers as men in
other employment. 1 can call his at
tention to the men who stood by the
railroads of this country in time of
trouble, who worked days without
seeing home or family, hours without
property, and when a very few did not
| do so he condemns them as a class as
not being loyal
IT remember in 1894 when the
switchmen struck and had Chicago on
the verge of riot (caused by the hood
lum and not by the railroad mem ,
these same switchmen took engines
and went into yards and saved num-
bers of cars from burning, and the
several brotherhoods, o. r. c., B. of
l.. z. and B. of r. T., stuck to their
posts as long as possible and were not
in sympathy with this movement.
would like to have Mr.. Ripley name
any class of employees who are more
loyal, who work longer hours and re-
ceive as little pay or consideration as
a class than the railroad men of this
country. Where will you find a more
intelligent body of men a whole
than the railroad men of this country :?
Look at the manag gers of our rail-
roads of this country, men who came
from the ranks who worked twenty
four, thirty-six and longer hours with
out any pay for overtime until they
demanded it. which was just and right
that the railroads pay them overtime,
not to Increase their wages but to stop
this overtime. which is blood money.
| can refer Mr.. Ripley to his own
road, where a conductor was dis
charged by A trainmaSter for tieing up
for rest after a number of hours on
duty. This man, Mr. Murphy. was
refnstated when the trainmaster or SUI
perintendent found it was the state
law not to work railroad men more
than certain number of hours with
out eight hours rest, but he was dis
charged later by these officials for
| stubbornness. they claimed.
LOOK at the men who have gained
honor by their loyalty to the railroad
and long and hard work. w. A. Card
ner or the Northwestern, w. D. Cam
tillon of the same system, w. c.
Brown of the New York Central lines
and f. Underwood of the Erie, and
could go on with quite a number of
CNACl AhCH WHO IIdN0 WORKED their
way up by what? Loyalty, and not
disloyalty, to their employers OF all
men know personally employed on
railroads. do not know one man who
is disloyal to his employers, or the
system that employs him. There is, of
course, numbers of men who think
they should be treated a little better
in regard to hours and compensation,
and are now trying to secure the same
from the several managements and I
have no doubt will be successful
without being considered disloyal. The
published reports of the earnings and
the cost of living all argue in their
favor, and I hope the managers will
settle peaceably with these loyal vet
Grams"