The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1913-07-07
New Discovery of a Bill Passed
Last Winter.
PREVENTS surprise TESTS"
Railroads Unable to Manipu-
late Switch Signals.
Attorney General Can Offer
No Relief.

The efforts of the railway lines OF
Kansas to promote safety by conduct
ing surprise tests on their employees
in the operation of trains have been
blocked by a bill passed on the last
legislature and the state is able to Of
fer no relief. AS a result the last leg
islature has been nailed to the mast
and lashed by railway managements
and publications over the country-but
the new law still stands on the statute
books.
The law provides that any person
who shall manipulate or tamper with
any switch stand, target, switchlight or
light controlling the movements or
trains, for the purpose of misleading
or deceiving engineers, fremen or train
crews, shall be deemed guilty of a mis-
demeanor and fined not less than $500
and not more than $1,000. If any act
in disobedience of this law results in
the death or great bodily injury shall
be deemed a miSdemeanor pun1sha bic
by imprisonment at hard labor.
When the bill was introduced in the
senate early in the 1913 session it wos
passed without opposition. 1t was has
tily considered as a preventice OF
holdups, malicious wrecks and acts OF
wand alism The railway men in the
lobbies did not detect in the bill e.n
act that would absolutely prevent their
"spotting' methods and their plans OF
testing the efficiency and consistency
of engineers and trainmen.
Brotherhoods Are Blamed.
It has been discovered now that the
act prevents the surprise tests that
railways used along their lines in tho
state.
For instance, an engineer was sus-
pected OF running past warning signals
and passing up danger signs. A man
tIo 1i-1n md f1J1-1
switch light or manipulate a light IL
such a manner that under the rules,
the engineer would be required to stol-
If this engineer believed that all was
safe despite the warning or If he de-
tected the work of "spotter' and ran
by the warning, he was reported to TIN:
superintendent and either fired OF
laid off, for g. certain period.
The surprise test was hated by rail-
way men. One of the most reliable
railway publications in the country it
discussing the situation said recently
This is one of the worst laws that
ever disgraced a statute book. 1t de-
stroys safe precautions and it is likely
to be a means of destroying human
lives. 1t removes from railway opera
ton one of the best assurances cl
safety and takes from railway officers
one of the best means of enforcing dis
cipline.
And why? The legislative commit
tees of the various railway brotherhoods
could answer. And the same commi'
tees could explain the many full-creW
and electric headlight bills and most
of the other destructive legislation
which is rolling an overwhelming bur-
den of unnecessary expense on the rail-
ways of this country
1t has been stated that the ''sur-
prise test is the railway officers safe
guard against disobedience of signals
Railway men say that it enables them
to discover habitual carcleSsneSS on the
part of trainmen as would be likely &c
cause disaster were the signals in their
positions of warning under the actual
conditions of operation.
At the office of the attorney general
this afternoon the law was read over
carefully and no loophole could b:
found whereby the railroads could ma
nipulate their signals and conduct their
surprise tests without violating the
effect OF the act