The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1915-12-27


 Do Work That Used To
 Be Done By Well Organ
 ized Help.
 That the cost of moving freight in the Bridgeport de- pots of the New Haven road has increased from the normal average of 26 cents to about 55 cents ton, is the gossip among merchants and others interest," ed in the freight congestion here.
 Protests from merchants and truckmen may result in radi- cal changes. in Bridgeport. Tti is likely that an attempt will be made to point out to the New Haven officials that congestion here is caused, not so much by abnormal conditions, but by the 1nefficiency of those handl- ing the freight.
 It is freely asserted among men who are interested in the congestion hef-e that the con- dftions that now face the rail- road may be eoped with suc- cessfully. Upheavals in the system locally are said to be to blame.
 According to persons who have watched the removal of freight at local stations, the system here has never Pecov- cred since the strike Of last summer.
 To begin with, according to obserx- CTS, New Haven men were sent to this city during this year to show local men how to move freight. They inn 1nedfately made changes and it is said that chaos has been apparent ever since
 Now, when freight is piled so high that it is bulging out the doors. and 1! when shippers dump their freight in the snow because there is no room in the house, it is not that there are no cars to put the freight in. some say. but because the cars are not empty.
 Long strings of loaded cars are on. the tracks. Some of these are open ed, for the purpose of transfers, and because there are no empties, ths freight must be dumped on the floor of the freight house. This stuff then becomes almost hope1essIy intertangI-
 
 transfer freight.
 Trucking freight is more of an arti than is\ apparent to the initiated. AS most of the old hands who knew how to handle freight have left, and most of those now working don't stay long enough to learn how. movs ing freight is somewhat of a job.
 Last Monday, several score of idle persons from New York, were inn ported here, to supp1ant 20 old hands who were discharged for a minor dis agreement They can't handle freight. Most of them left. Some were discharged anad were hired gain becauseNo of thes hortage of men. ] In fact it is said that men are dis everey day, especially at Whiting street, and when they ap- pear the next day they are given } jobs.
 Where as a year ago, the freight / handlers were mostly old hands, &hel new force is composed of 4loaters-t Some of them push their trucks in front of them which is considered very inefficient.
 Corrals are made every day at the Remington Arms & Ammunition Cos of the men who fail to get jobs there.t Some of them. who went to the freight house and then refused to 1 work. declare they were promised ! s2.50 a day and after they reached H the scene of the job. they learned that ! $1.75 was all they'd get.
 Complaints are being made too, of 1 he system in vogue at tfbreaking out'' freight. In the days when freight ! was moved for 26 cents a ton, one ] stevedore handled not more than five { cars. Now they have a physical i'm possibility presented to them, of handling all the cars in a string.
 With the job of learning the des- tination of every piece of freight, guessing it's weight and loading the. trucks of gangs of men. they have . hard time trying to do things right i
 Agood stevedore is a thing of joy 1 forever, any freight expert will tell i you. So is a good trucker, although i he's a humble worker. A good freight i checker, the man who handles the l gangs of four men each, commonly f called a ta1lynan, is also desirable. There's a scarcity of all these good men in local houses.
 Some were fred on trivial excuses. Some went on strike last summer and didn't return. The majority gave up their jobs, which they say became un- pleasant, and went to work in factor es, generally in the Remington plants. Included among the discharged ones was a. foreman. an efficient man. ship {