The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1913-01-10
KEIR HARDIE's NONSENSE.

western Railroad because the railroad
company had discharged from it's ser.
vice an engineer who had been drunk.
The engineers fellow-employecs on the
road struck for his rein instatement, iu-
sisting that the company had no right
to discharge the engineer for being
drunk, since he was drunk in his own
| time and not while on duty. The
strikers won, and the engineer was re-
| instated.
Thereupon the English Labor mem
| Der of Parliament. James Keir Hardie.
came out in q speech at Newcastle, de.
Tending the right OF working men to
get drunk in their leisure, and that no
| railroad company or any other employ
| ing force, had any right to discharge
| man for being drunk in his own time,
1T seems to us, however, that Mr..
| Hardle takes an uncommonly short.
sighted view Of this whole matter. 1t
IS not question about a man g right
to control his own personal affairs when
one speaks of responsible railway en-
ployeo's right to get drunk, for get
ting drunk disarranges the mans
system, upsets his nerves, and renders
him unfit for the best service when he
goes upon duty. A man who has
just recovered from a drunk is not fit
to be entrusted with a railroad train,
for his head is not steady, his nerves
are broken, and his general physical
condition is unsound and unreliable.
Pnf ~ this all orI 80 haH
had no responsibility upon him, il might
be argued as Keir Hardie does, that it
is his own affair that if he wants to
put himself in an unfit condition he has
| A. right to do SO, and nobody has any
business to interfere. But where man
is in such a position as engineer of
railroad train with hundreds of lives
at his mercy, these depending upon the
efficiency with which he does his work,
it is quite different matter. The
travelling public has right to insist
that men shall be in perfect physical
condition when undertaking service like
this, and not weakened or broken down
by dissipation, even if ne may not be
drunk when he is running the train.
1t is not in the least a question, viewed
in this light, OF any man g personal
right The right Of the public to the
best possible service, and the fact that
this best possible service cannot be
rendered by man who has newly re-
covered from drunk, is so plain that
it needs no argument.
a good many Of the Eastern railroad
companies in tho United States are de-
manding that their employees not only
shall not get drunk at. any time, but
shall not use liquor at any time: The
reason is perfectly plain. Liquor dis
arranges the system, wrecks the nerves,
and units the employee for the best
service to his employers and to the pub
lie II has been Justly said that the
world is rapidly reaching tho point OF
demanding sobriety from the men to
whom lives arc entrusted, and in this
light il is Just demand. 1t is per
fectIy fair to say that such a strike
as Mr.. Hardie defended is a blow to
civilization, and a peril TO tho lives Of
the travelling public. 1T is impossible to
defend drunkenness in men in a re-
sponsible position running railroad
train. IT is not material to the case to
say that they do not happen to be
drunk while they are on duty. Their
drunkenness units them for trusty SER
vice oven when they are not drunk;
and there is no question but that the
public will support any railroad com
pany in insisting that its employees
shall let liquor alone altogether, cx-
cept in such cases rs it may be genuine
" and honestly prescribed by physi
clan.
The sequel 10 the case Of this en-"
oineer was the natural one. On Christ-
mas eve. only 4 few days after the
restoration Of that engineer to his old
engine, he impcriled train and all its
passengers lives by running past sig
nails which were set against him, 1t
is not stated whether he was drunk or
not: probably he was not: out 1t is
likely that he ran past those signals
simply because his nerves were shat
+orod and reckless irresponsiblhty
took the, place of his calm judgment
Upon this new offense the company
suspended the engineer for month";
bnt there was no strike instituted;
there was no remonstrance; there was
No outcry that the engineer had right
70 be drunk in his own time, and that
the company had no business to dis
charge him. All Of which is precisely as
it> should be; for the safety Of the
travelling public is not to be impaired
upon pleas for the personal right OF an
engineer to get drunk.
The testimony showing an arbitrary
control of ocean commerce by British