Albuquerque morning journal. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1903-1926, 1914-12-01
Englnemen Present Claims to
Board and Railroad Repre-
SentatIveS Are to Have a
Hearing Later.
$4,000 EMPLOYEES ARE
DEMANDING CHANGES
Higher Pay, Shorter Hours and
Better Working Conditions
Are Matters Of Contention TO
Be Settled,

isy MORNING JOURNAL sreeitl Lrksso wgasi
Chicago. Nov. 30.-When the arbi-
tration OF questions at issue between
lninety-eight western railroads and
900 OF their enginemen began here
today before a board appointed under
the Newlands act. the representatives
of the men set out 90 prove that every
one of their sixteen demands. with
two exceptions OF a comparatively MI
nor nature, are in actual existence on
some roads, although no one road has
granted all OF them.
or the six arbitrators, two were
appointed by the roads, two by the
men and two---Judge Peter {. Prltch.
ard and Charles Nagel--by the gov
ernment. Judge pritchard was chosen
chairman. Then he and his fellow
members settled into their chairs and
for five hours listened to a solid vol
ume of statistics by Warren s. stone,
grand chief engineer of the Brother
hood Of Locomotive Engineers. acting
as counsel for the men. from his first
witness. M. w Cadle. an assistant
grand chief engineer of the organiza-
tion.
The railroads were represented by
A. w. Trenholm. chairman of the con-
ference committee of managers ap-
pointed by the Western Association OF
General Managers. several OF his col
leagues on the committee, and Attor-
ney James NJ. Sheehan.
MIR. Stone outlined his case briefly
and then introduced Exhibit L..
which proved TO be u paper bound
volume Of 935 pages containing up
wards cf half u million words
"ThIs exhibit" he explained, con
tains all the records of agreements be-
tween the englnemen and the rail-
roads in this hearing by its bulks
II was regarded also as ample expla-
nation Of the expectation that the
hearing will last three months.
Summary OF Demands.
A summary of the demands read
and witness replies follow:
1-One hundred miles or less, five
hours or less, will constitutetn days
work in all classes of passenger SER
vice. All mileage In excess of 100
miles shall be paid pro rata. TO In
dicate the Justice Of this demand. Ca
die said that this agreement was al
ready In effect on forty-cight rail-
ways in the eastern territory, as divd-
ed by the Interstate Commerce com
mission, fourteen In the western ter
rltory and twenty-four in the south
eastern territory. Two railroads In
southeastern territory, he said. make
four hours a working day for engine
men.
2--Onc hundred miles or less, ten
hours or less, will constitute "A days
work in all classes vpf service except
passenger and switching. Asi All mile
age in excess of 100 miles shall be paid
for pro rata. Ten miles run will be
the equivalent of one hours services
performed, or vice versn. Witness
said that this rule Is quite general
throughout the country and that u
few railroads even had nine and
eight-hour days.
3--Overtime In passenger service
will be computed and paid for on
basis of twenty miles per hour at rate
for each class Of engine used. Wit
ness did not have statistics on this
subject but said he knew that this
was the practice of a number OF roads
and that he would produce actual fig
nrcs later.
How 10 Compute Overtime.
4--0vertme In all other service ex-
copt passenger and switching will be
computed on q basis of ten miles per
hour and paid for at the rate Of fif-
teen miles per hour, at rate for each
class of engine used. All overtime
will he computed on the minute ba-
sis. cadle testified that this arrange
ment has the sanction OF many roads.
It's real purpose. he said, Is to elimi-
nate overtime, which enginemen re-
sent.
5---Pushers, helpers. mine runs,
work trains, wreck trains, belt line.
and other unclassified SER
vice will be paid through freight
rate according to the class of engine.
The pushers and helpers referred to
are engines which assist IN the haul !
ing of q heavy train, and as the crews
do the same work as the regular en-
ginemcn, many railroads. the witness
said, pay the rate demanded This
answer applied also TO other details |
Df the demands lie testified further
hat the deman for an increase of ten |
per cent paid 10 crews driving lomo-
ives up a grade Of s-l0 per cent or |
1ver, finds precedent on certain west
ern railroads.
G--fhis demand concerns the reten-
ion Of concessions granted to engine
men when they are transferred to (
electric or gasoline engines. cadle |
stated that in the we instances where
electricity or gasoline is used the
lights OF seniority. hours and other
regulations applying to the steam To-
.omotive service were preserved, and t
wages graded proportionately.
Local Freight Trains.
Crews on local freight or mixed I
rains shall he paid ten per cent moro
han those on through freight trains.
With proportionate overtime. With
.egard to this, witness said that somc
'oads paid the ten per cent excess
while others give the local enginemen
Is cents extra per hundred miles.
S--This demand quotes desired SAL
Iries for the crews OF switch engines.
Lsks two cents per hour bonus for
light work and a tenhour workday