The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1913-06-20
Commissions Reserve Finding in Springfield Wreck Disaster--LoConotive Brotherh0od's Representative Takes Exception to Bard0'S StatementS--M'ChOrd Pins
 Bardo Down to Questions of
 Responsibility

The hearing of the Interstate Com xnerce Commission and the Connecti cut Public Utilities Commission in the Stamford wreck, closed at the Hotel sStratfield just before 3 o'clock yester- day when General Manager Bardo had practically flung down the gauntlet to ftI1e organizations of railroad men with fiwhom the New Haven road operates its business, declaring the time had come that the men should 'railroad' and not hold a pistol at the head of the general manager whenever he makes a move for what he believes to be the good of the service
 Bardops testimony was the feature Of the closing hours of the inquiry, eout his defence of the road from the Etandpoant of its being forced into in deficiency through the traiIImen's or .ganizations did not save him from keen examination by Interstate Com missioner AEcChord as to the reSpOn- sfmlity for Doherty's having taken out the Springfield express with his limit ed experience and his lack of school ing in the handling of through passen- ger trains
 McChord udnned sBardo down to the question of the wisdom Of allowing such a thing as Doherty's running the frain without a foreman of engineers or travelling engineer with him on his first trips, and Baroo admitted he thought 1t unEise.
 He admitted there was no rule to rover such a s1tuations though he ffdn't know it until the investigation was begun. and admitted that he was responsible for rules.
 He promised to issue rule at once when McChord directed him to take Buch a step
 MT. Bardo said fin connection with ahe railroads arrangement with It's engineers
 ssThe agreement with the engineers was made effective on May {. 1910. It contains the rules as to the hours Of services, rates of pay, and the condi- 4fous of service, describing and cir ruuscrfbfns in various ways the rights E,f the engineers. Under the agree rneut in article g, rule 1, reads: Spare engineers shall be run first in and first out so far as it Is possible for the re- Inducements of the service, and when engineers are assigned to temporary vacancies in the service, they shall remain on same, provided they are competent. till the regular engineer returns
 That rule as nearly as can ascer- -Haan has been in effect for a long time ut is practically the arrangement that was in effect before any agreement rras entered 1nto-
 That MT. Mellen has been with the property"
 T believe 1t has,
 s%This rule" continued MT. Bardo, = Hhe rules of other roads, is necessarily y wo by reason of the different condi- hions On the New Haven road, TOT HearS, the passenger service was the farRer service, and therefore they had h fewer number of men to draw from En the freight service than were em- E1rved in the passenger service while b41 most other roads the reverse Is Bne rase During the time that this rue rwas effective until comparatively ehort time ago the promotion of fire men to the position of eng1nemen was R,ornparattvely slow Therefore they were probably better qualified by req son Of their longer experience
 "-When I came with the road, this r11Ie vvas here. The order had been Issued by the former general manager d think in December of last year, 10 kfe efKect that spare engineers of less Than two years experience would not be allowed to run through passenger Hradns, and of less than one years eervtce would not be allowed to run ioraI messenger trains. This order was knr4neer9 This protest was brought ko me shortly after came to the Eo-npany We discussed the rule, I halieve in all its aspects
 CT could not find at that time where RT7ere had been a single case where a Sv-ar working under the rule as it then Twisted had created or caused any diff dcu1ty or treuble-I mean in the way k,f an accident. To that extent, then, 6t that time the agreement was with Enc engineers I discussed this mat ker with our general committee of Lo- eouotive Engineers who are also mem bers of the Brotherhood of Locomotive E-uzineers, although we were not deal lur with that organization, but with i,7Tr employees It was my own best 6udEment that in view of all the con ESrSsns I did not think it wise to con- kJu11e that rule without some resrrlc- fYSns and we discussed it freely at Fbat lime They agreed to take the lining back to- their committee room and discuss it and offer something at F1e next meeting Probab bly, a month kIapsed between that meeting and the rext one After we concluded the oth- CT matters we had in hand they sub rasfted what Is substantially nodif1- @akanmz nc t9am s7zIaa which rsadss