Atlanta Georgian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1912-1939, 1912-10-01

/ ployees and those (the public who travel
upon our trains
1t would not be compatible with my
sense Of right, and | would be recreant
in my duty TO our employees. to the pub
lie and to the property / represent to re-
store such man to our ranks without
any reason whatever-in brief to restore
him simply because you request it,
Yours truly
tSigned) w. S. BRAND,
Superintendent
THE ALBION
Augusta Ga, Sept II, 1912.
Mr.. W. 5. BRAND. Supt.,
Georgia Railroad Company,
Augusta Ga.
your two. communica tions written YES
terday and one today referring to the rein
statement OF Conductor j. T. Paschal and
"hlch was the subject matter of our con-
ference neld in your office on Saturday
afternoon, 14th inst, have been received
and carefully considered Your first and
second letters did not set out clearly what
your decision was, but we understand
from your communication of today that
our request is denied
we can not accept your decision as final
and as the matter has been placed in YOUR
hands by the General Manager to adjust,
we understand that we have the com
pdny maj reply. Therefore, there seems
ohly one course left open for u.s. which
is TO submit the case to the membership
Tor them TO decide our future course
However, inasmuch as the Conductors and
Trainmen are federated on this system. we
nave decided, first to convene the federated
committee and lay our case before that
committee. AS soon as an officer of that
organization and committee has convened.
we Will ask you for further conference to
ADVISE you of the decision reached bv
the Federated Board
IN our hrst communication to YOU YES
! terday / advised you that as soon as we
received your final answer in writing. Civ
| ing your decision in the case at issue. we
! would answer your communication and
ADVISE you whether or not we would ac-
cept your decision.
In your communication yesterday. no.
tree several places where | am quoted in
| correctly, and | wish to call your atten-
| tlon to these sta tements and will correct
| them.
said that no official could succeed
without the cooperation and support of
| those under him-that unless the men had
confidence in their superiors and felt and
knew that favoritism and discriminate ton
was not practiced, that it had been con-
ceded by almost all fair minded officials
that his success was hopeless And did
not believe you would claim that YOU
were an exception. Your answer to this
statement Was-That You are right, and
| II | felt that | did not have the sunnort
| or my Conductors, ! would resign as Su-
| perintendent." But | did not say. that
the Conductors would withhold their sup
| port and cooperation from you.
| told you, however, that II we failed to
reach satisfactory settlement you hay
| Ing failed to convince us that there was
no merit in Mr.. Paschals case) there
was only one course left for us to pursue,
and that was to let the men whom we
| represent decide for us what action we
should take. l presume this is what you
refer TO as threats"
We agree just as heartily as YOU do
that the Conductors employed on the
Georgia Railroad are for Law and Order
and cheerfully submit to authority at all
times, We believe that Mr.. Paschal has
been and is today firm believer in these
same principles, and furthermore, we are
nrmly Of the belief that he carried out
the instructions contained in your bulle-
tin dated November a. 1911. to the letter
Mr.. Scott General Manager wrote to
Mr. A. L. Chandler, Vice Chairman of
the Conductors Committee, under date of
July 10, 1912, as follows:
Your letter of July is has reached me
here
4 have carefully considered the case of
{ n Il lNy,I -
violation of Superintendent Brands Bull
letln of November IA, 1911, relative to the
hours of Service Law and the National
Law itself. Therefore | am not inclined
to consider an appeal for his renstate-
ment"
Therefore, on July 10, as a matter of
record, Mr., Paschal was charged by his
General Manager with violating your Bull
letin of November IA, 1911, and the Ma
tional Law, AND NOTHING MORE.
However. he is now charged by YOU with
also violating Rule 1872.
We claim that the Bulletin issued Nov.
l4th, 1911, supersedes and amends Rule
l$2, inasmuch as II is addressed to En-
gineers. Firemen, Conductors and Train
men, and it confers no power on the Con-
ductor or any other individual therein, to
arbitrarily decide the question. 1t is ad-
dressed to the members individually, and
specifically and places the responsibility
on men individually. If it were addressed
TO the Conductor alone, or If it were ad-
dressed to all four classes and then speci-
sponsibe for seeing that il was carried
out, it would be entirely different. There
is not line III it that recognizes the Con-
ductors authority to arbitrarily decide
when that time has been reached, and
consequently il seems to us that holding
him responsible for violation on the part
of others is far-fetChed and unfair.
We were told by YOU in conference that
he was not charged with violating the
law himself, therefore il is not fair to
now charge him with doing so. We I'M
derstand he was on the siding with the
switches closed seven minutes before the
sixteen hours was up.
Il We note what YOU say relative to the
Georgia r. r. equipping its line with tel
ephone system-"Thus the Bulletin in
structions to report to dispatcher could
have been easily carried out, and his fail
ure to do so Is without excuse or reason,
Under date OF Feby. 18th, 1872 the In
terstate Commerce Commission made a
ruling on the Hours OF Service Law,
which reads in part as follows:
Neither under the act nor under the
ruling of the Commission can a carrier
employ regularly for the purpose of send
ing, receiving or delivering orders affect
ing the movement of trains a trainmar
! who has been on duty longer than the
limit fixed for a telegrap phi or telephone
operator The proviso of the law applies
tyl,. l,.a,