The labor journal. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1909-1976, 1910-01-07
WILL LURToN BE SAFETY DEVICE?

Adam M. Schlemmer was brake
man. He lived in small town in Penn
sylvania, supporting wife and family
on the wages earned by coupling cars
for the Buffalo, Rochester & Pitsburg
Railway company. One Sunday night
he failed to get the coupling into the
hole where it should have gone, and
his head was mashed to a jelly.
Since then Schlemmer has become a
United States supreme court precedent.
The car which Schlemmer tried to
couple was defective. 1t was without
the automatic coupler which the law
passed by congress, March 2, $685. re-
quires such cars to have. Schlemmer's
widow sued the railroad, setting out
this fact and asking damages.
The corporation owned courts of
Pennsylvania threw Schemmer out of
court. The judges said he was careless.
They said that a careful man would
have kept his head out of the way of
the car-bumpers. Or, if he had been
still more careful, he would have re-
signed his job. Inasmuch as he in
sisted upon getting his head in the
wrong place, it must be assumed that
he was careless, therefore guilty of
"contributory negligence" therefore not
a proper party to sue railroad for
compensation.
When Schlemmer's case got to the
United States supreme court it pro.
duced division of opinion among those
learned gentlemen. Mr. Justice Holmes
and a majority of the court held that
Schlemmer was probably not intent on
committing suicide, and that it was fair
to assume that he did all he could to
keep his head from being mashed.
Mr.. Justice Brewer took the other
view.
1t was shown that the coupling had
to be directed into a three-inch slot;
that the coupling was heavy; that
failure to get it into the slot would re-
suit in the inevitable smashing of the
man who failed; that the night was
dark, and that the space between the
cars was very narrow.
Mr.. Justice Brewer thinks Schlem-
mer's job was easy. He said in his
opinion:
Before the deceased went under the
car he was twice notified to be care
full and KEEP his head down; and yet
without any necessity therefor being
shown, he lifted his head and it was
crushed between the cars. All that he
had to do was to guide the free end of
the drawbar into the slot"
That was all Schlemmer had to do;
just to keep his head out of the place
where it would be smashed just keep
it down, and guide the drawbar into
the three-inch slot.
The familiarity of Mr.. Justice Brewer
with drawbars and coupling slots was
sufficient to cause him to decide that
the job was an easy one Frequently,
no doubt, Mr. Justice Brewer has of a
Sunday night, in a dark railway yard,
with a lantern in his hand, crouched
between the ends of two approaching
cars, certain that the coupling would
be made or his head would be the pen
atty.
Perhaps Schlemmer was sleepy. May
be he was thinking of the minister's
sermon. Perhaps he was meditating on
the latest prank of the baby. Who can
say that he had not read one of Mr.. |
Justice Brewers public speeches and
was wondering at the case with which
a judge can make his twelve thousand |
per annum, while a brakeman has to |
get cut at 9 p. m. and ''hustle for the
grub"i
Anyhow, Schlemmer did not get the 1
drawbar to the opening, and the pen
atty he paid for his negligence" was
death
The moral of the tale is this; Mr. I
Justice Brewer and Judge Horace H. /
Lurton nominated by President Taft I
for the United States supreme eourt)