Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1915-03-01
M'CALEB DISCUSSES
FULL CREW MEASURE
TContinued from First Pagc.l

an average of S5 cars eastbound and
81 cars westbound. in order to COM
ply with the requirements of the full
crew law, resulting in the useless ex-
penditure of S27.072.49 for the Phila-
delphia division alone. This. of course
only applies to the freight movement
In order that you may know some
thing about the work Of these brake
men, i have here n report of OBJ
servations made by some of my repre-
sentatives on a number of fast trains
on this division, which show that the
brakemen, of which there are two
performed the following service:
Time BraI5emen Work
THE average time the front brake
man performed service on the entire
trip was 35 minutes, and the rear
brakeman s minutes. In other words,
these two men were paid on the basis
OF 13 hours work and the combined
service to this company was a little
over 1 hour. This investigation shows
clearly that there is no necessity for
two brakemen on fast trains, and in
fact there is very little work for one
brakeman to do, in addition to the
work performed by the conductor and
flagman.
''In order to comply with the pro-
lates to passenger trains, necessitates
on my division alone an expenditure
approXimatinE $4,000 year. Now
as straight business proposition, take
one of our through trains, for exam
pie, say train No. 9: no doubt you
have ridden on this train, which leaves
Harrisburg at 1880 p. m, and upon
which, under the requirements of the
full crew law. we were compelled to
place a second brakeman. The equip
ment of this train alone involves an
investment approximating about S170,-
600 and l submit to you, do you think
we would permit the movement of this
train over this division if we felt it
was not properly manned? Further
do you know that before this second
man was put on we had n total of
twenty-one employees on that train,
and still have them? This includes
the enginemen. fireman, conductor
basgagemaster and two brakemen and
porters."
In his statement superintendent
McCaleb says he is the one person who
knows what the full crew law does
on his division, and that there are
number of trains run over his division
that have more than the law requires.
He continues:
Under provision of the law we can
operate a train of twenty-nine cars
over this division with a crew of five
men, but should one car be added to
that train an extra man is required.
Costs S57 900
You must realize that our income
must be confined to solely what we
get from the public, and it is the con-
Germ of everybody that it should be
spent to the best advantage. If we
are forced to make an outlay of over
$4,000 on this division from which
we obtain no return, it is obvious that
our ability to accommodate the resi-
dents of Harrisburg and at other
points along the line of the Philadel-
phia division will be to that extent
decreased. The public is discom-
moded through the curtailment of
facilities, related industries are Grip
pied and wage workers lose their jobs.
believe that the policy that has been
adopted by our company of endeavor-
ing to educate the people as regards
the full crew law will result in their
making demand upon the State Legis-
lature to repeal the existing law in the
interest of the public and as a matter
of justice and fairness to all con-
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