The copper era and Morenci leader., 1912-08-09
RAILWAY cos. FILE REFERENDUM
 ARGUMENTS
Pamphlets Will Be Circulated Among The Voters Prior to The Election to be Held
 In November
WANT A FAIR UNDERSTANDING
Corporations Say They Are Ready and Willing To Go Before the Voters
 on Fire Bills.

PHOENIX, Aug 2.-Opponents of the so-called railroad bills passed by the legislature and concerning. which referendum petitions have been in circulation for the last two days ments against them which will find place in the pamphlets to be sub mitted to the voters.
 Houe Bill 50: Qualifications of Con-
 ductors and Engineers.
 This act takes from the hands of responsible railway officials the pow CT to pass upon the qualifications of the men for whose work the com pany is responsible. It is a ref1eC- manhood. Some of the best rail road men in the country became con ductor or engineer with comparative brief experience. Other men, after a life time of experience have barely demonstrated their fitness for such positions.
 The law is intended to place weapon in the hands of labor unions in case of a strike. The railway off, cials competent to direct the every day work of conductors and engi- neers, certainly is competent to handle train or engine in case of emergency, such as wreck or wash out or when such conductors or engineers refuse to work, but if he attempts to perform their duty he becomes criminal, the public being denied transportation service for the time being, even although compe tent men may be available to run the trains and engines It might as well be said that farmer could not drive his own team until he had ridden three years in a wagon, or slept three years in a stable.
 House Bill A: Full Crew Law.
 This act takes from the hands of the responsible railway officials the power to decide how many men can safely operate a train. Experience elsewhere has proven that such laws result in the employment of unnec essary men. Nothing sso demoral- izing to discipline on a railway or ness and waste. Unnecessary mem bers of a train crew get in each others way and retard efficiency by gossiping.
 suggestion has been made that safety will be increased by requiring unnecessary trainmen to sit idle in the caboose, rather than confuse, by their presence, the other men, who are actually operating the train.
 
 This act requires installation of electric headlights, on which the Pyle company virtually have a monopoly. Experienced engineers and railway officials doubt the wis dom of such electric headlights. Ex- tensive experiments made in Indiana demonstrated conclusively that such powerful headlights obscured red switch lights, and other warning sig
 
 dangerous The headlight so dag zled observers, that trainmen of oth- CT trains could not distinguish inn portant classification signals which are displayed on locomotives, any disregard of which may cause fatal collisions The railroads believe that the legislature might as well attempt to require farmer to use on wagons a patented light that would prevent the driver seeing the horses head. They are convinced that when this light of public opinion, the patented device will be obscured in an eclipse.
 Senate Bill 24; Three Cent Fare Bill.
 The railway claim that if the legis- lature can limit the rate of fare to three cents per mile, it can likewise limit the market price of hay to ten dollars per ton or the price or wheat to seventy-five cents per bushel. They assert that the law of supply and demand is alone applicable.
 Arizona has a population of only one and six tenths persons per square mile, as against twelve per sons per square mile in Texas, and a greater number in many other states. Operation in Arizona is ab- normally expensive because of the distance that water and fuel must be hauled Again, the mountains which yield the mineral wealth of Arizona, increase it's transportation difficulties by the grades which rail- roads climb Railways know that large expenditures are necessary for new lines, and for increased facilities for handling traffic; that such fresh capital can only be attracted by a remunerative return. Atttention is invited to the fact that, however, much legislation may be imposed upon capital already invested, it IS impossible to legislate and regulate new private capital into and enter prise.
 The railways offer figures to sup port their claims and insist upon the right to be heard, to the same day in court, that is accorded the humb-