Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1915-02-11
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RAILROAD COMBINE"
RAPED BY TRAINMEN


Railroad, the Lackawanna Rail
road. the New York Central Rail-
road. the Delaware and Hudson
Rallroad, the Buffalo, Rochester
ana pittsburgh Railway, the Pitts
burgh, Summerville and Clarion
Railroad and the Cumberland Val
ley Railroad. Five of these cor
porations are Pennsylvania cor
porations, and considerable part
OF the stock of two of them is
owned by Pennsylvanians. Eleven
IL the thirteen are practically for
elgn corporations and eight of
them are actually so.
Railroad Power With LEGISLATURE
Briefly stated, their announce
ment declares, they intend to pre-
sent the question of the repeal of
the tuIl crew laws to the public
out why. is left to conjecture. The
power to repeal the laws is vested
in the Legislature. The senators
and representatives in the General
Assembly are chosen by the people
TO perform such service and the
Constitution of the Commonwealth
declares that the legislative power
OF this Commonwealth shall be
vested in General Assembly
which shall consist of Il Senate
and House of representatives.
But the senator's and representa-
tives are bound by the obligations
of their oaths to fidelity to con-
science and the Constitution. The
power behind the throne, how
ever, the politicians, are free alike
10 moral and legal restraints and
lobby composed of thirteen rail
roads may look good to them.
Besides there is an advantage
IN an appeal to an audience fa-
miliar with the subject. The aver
age citizen knows about as much
concerning the practical operation
OF a railroad as the man in the
moon knows about building sew
ers. And this is not an aspersion
upon its intelligence. Railroad
ing is trade peculiar to itself.
Men who have had no experience
In the service have no idea of the
requirements of a safe and sane
conduct of n train. They all know
that it is necessary to have an en-
Sineer and a conductor on each
train and that there is a flagman,
fireman and brakeman carried.
But they have little idea of the
duties of each of these employees
and might easily be made to think
that train equipped with air
brakes could get along without a
brakeman.
Importance of Full Crew
But railroad trainmen know the
Importance of. well-equipped
train with its burden of human
or commodity freight. To keen
all trains on all roads operating in
Pennsylvania up to that standard
II guarantees the safety of pas
senSers and freight, and probably
saves more than that amount each
year in guaranteeing immunity
from wrecks. During 1913, the
hrst year under the full crew bill,
not a single passenger was killed
on the pennsylvania railroad. In
IVA the same splendid record
was made. 1t is not claimed that
this splendid achievement in rail-
roading is ascribable entirely to
the full crew, but it may Justly
be claimed that the full euuip-
ment had something to do with
1t. For these reasons it is not fair
either to the General Assembly or
the railroad trainmen that this
immense lobby is addressing itself
to the public rather than to the
I-tS ioldluIG.
The full crew law does not re-
quire the employment of men
whose services are not necessary.
and 1t does not mean employment
without service. 1t means safety
TO lives and property of the pub
lie and we submit that it is better
that our legislation should con-
serve life than create dividends.
The full crew bill has not in the
two years it has been in force i'm
paired the prosperity of the rail-
roads or added needless expense
to the operation of transportation
companies. 1t has fulfilled IFS
mission of making safety first a
principle in railroad operation and
marked an era of freedom from
calamity in railroading that is a
credit to the transportation COM
panies and an honor to the State
of PENNSYLVANIA.
Ihe Wage-earners of the rail-
roads of Pennsylvania are not rich
enough to enter into competition
with the thirteen railroads in the
combination to fight the full crew
law in a campaign before the pub
lie. But they are firm in their
convictions that the law has
worked good results both from the
viewpoint of labor and capital and
they will contend with such en-
erSy as they can command for the
maintenance of the Just principle
expressed in the law in question.