Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1910-12-22
RAIL SERVICE CRIPPLED.
Shippers Declare Roads Can't Secure
Firensn and Ensinsers.


Chicago. Dec. 22.-"The railroads are
men and engineers said Charles w.
butcher, salesman for a large feed
concern which sells several trainloads
of feed every mont to points all over
the United States from Minneapolis to
Ell Paso and New York to San Fran
cisco.
They simply can't get fremen to
shove the tons of Goa it takes to pull
s~eventy-fve or eighty cars that they
hau with the big engines. This thing
is general all over the country and
shippers are general in their clamor
for better service, tho l have always
been accorded the best Of service to DO
had, and we ship aBVer every railroad
in the countE.
lat Belle Plaine;-Iowa, a few days
g l saw four t~raiH~crews changed, as
the fremen couldn't stand the pace.
and the stock, and all other freight.
for thai matter. a to stand there
while new crews were hunted up. 1t
takes a giant of a fireman to stand up
under this heavy work OF heaving 50
many tons of coal into a locomotive
in order to keep the steam up to the
proper notch.
There are thousands Of cars stand
ing on the tracks right now for lack
of dremen to put on to pull them. 1t
took me three days to get a car
switched over on a track where there
are a thousand idle cars tandlng now,
simply because the railroads lack nre-
men and engineers.
What men are working on the Jon
are so overworked that accidents are
liable to occur at any time. These
long hours for the engine crew ntaur-
ally follow the scarcity OF men 1or
these positions. The officials are tieo
up, as they can not supply competellt
engineers in sufficient umber 10 pull
smaller trains, and naturally we nave
long trains, delayed shipments ana
dissatisfied shippers.
Blu the engineers themselves are
going to tie things up tighter snort4y. !
was talking with w OF the Oldest men
on the road yesterday morning n
they said that 97h per cent OF their
number had voted to strike, and there
wouldn't be a wheel turned until there
was a settlement; and there would be
no arbitation, either, as they had the
railroads where they want them.
"'The railroads won the last time
because we WSISu "c1A CAOo0n
ganized to stick together said this en-
gineer.
but we will win this fight this
time. The railroads have put on oil
burners in some places to overcome the
fireman problem, but they have added
his duties to those Of the engineer
without giving the ireman's salary to
the engineer also 1 look for q serious
tie-up of the railroads by the first OF
the week, as these engineers talk as II
they mean business"
In their anxiety to even scores with
the shippers for opposing the stand OF
the railroads for higher freight rates.
rail men declare yesterday that APP
p~roxinately $4,000 miles of passenger
train service per day has been cut Oft
by the western rail lines.
The reduction in train service, 1t is
asserted, is in line with the general
plan Of retrenchment that the railroads
have been following for some time
The Burlington system has Topped OIL
1874 miles Del day OF train service
since early last fall and is considering
an additional contraction in that
branch of its business. The territory
aisS.ca ..es both east and west Of the
Missouri river.