Perth Amboy evening news., 1915-02-27

! for the proper accommodation or the
riders of that class of cars, but pre-
sumo the railroads consider the
! freights of the Pullman cars as of
! more value than we poor Dubs"
I who travel in the ordinary cars.
| In the advertisement of the rail-
roads, they say that train crew con-
sists of five men, the statement is
erroneous, as the engineer and fire
man are not of the train crew, they
are the engine crew, and their duty
ceases at the end of the tender. The
train crews duty begins at the first
car, so we have three men and not
five.
However, there is considerable
merit in the argument that more
than three men on a twenty or
thirty car milk or express train are
unnecessary, and l would also add
that three trainmen might well take
care of thirty-five car or even for
ty car freight train, but forty cars
should by all means be the limit, for
three man crew, and above that
there should be a man for every
twenty cars.
Here is my argument for, the q
| men: The man o. z.te-lallYe Glib . Il
iye.,s~.fpan IS Used for the purpose of
protecting that end by flag, and the
rear man for the purpose of protect
ing his end by flag. They are also
supposed to glance over the train
just as often as possible to see that
everything is working alright. The
head man can't possibly see more
than twenty car lengths back, nor
can the rear man see more than TWEEN
| ty cars ahead They will get their best
views rounding curves, and there are
curves where you cannot see more
than ten car lengths. Some part OF
| the brake rigging of car may be-
come loose. in fact 1t very often hap
pens, it may drag for ten or fifteen
miles before it becomes fully loosen
,, ed; 1t may happen in the centre of
forty car train and l doubt that 1t
could be discovered at that distance
from either the engine or the ca
boose, but there is chance that it
would, and the train would be stop
ped, the rigging repaired and per-
haps prevent a serious accident, as
when 1t became fully ioosened and
dropped on the rails it would surely
throw the car from the tracks, the
momentum of the following cars
would spill over all tracks and 1t
might happen just when fast train
loaded with passengers Is coming
from the opposite direction and cause
wreck which would mean great loss
of life. The same thing could hap
pen with hot journal burned off,
letting the car down on the track.
which would mean the same kind of
an accident, and 1t frequently hap
pens that a car In the centre of a
train will get pair of wheels Off
= that will bump along on the ties for
several miles when the wheels come
in contact with something throwing
, the whole car off, and those follow
ing will pile sky high.
Many such things are the cause
. of hundreds of accidents and there
are cases on record where they hap
pened Just when train coming from
an opposite direction piles into it.
man on the centre of a forty OF
more car train, properly patroline
and on the lookout, viii prevent
= many accident such as l have above
recited. The railroad officials know
this, but in their eagerness to make
good showing for keeping dowr
expenses, they are gambling that the
: accident will not happen, just as they
gamble that no one will be killed or
, an unprotected crossing.
The railroads are trying to make
the public believe that the extra mer
on trains have been the cause oil
, more accidents than there was pre-
vious to the extra manning, but
do not believe the statement. Sta
tistics in the case they are trying te
make out prove nothing. / chal
iease the railroad to point out ths
casualties caused by the extra mer
on the trains.
The New York Times. (Sunday's
} issue), under the headline More
Hurt Under Full Crew Law" says
; that railroad men justify this state
ment by giving the number of men
killed and injured during the first
years operation complying with the
law, in comparison to the year just
past. and then call the public's at
: tention to the number of employees
! killed and injured, some by falling
: off trains, some by getting on an6
: off cars, and still others whose duty
1t was to couple cars.
Granting that their figures are
, true. | now call on them to point oui
! in what respect the present "Ful
Crew Law" was responsible, or In
any way contributed to these acci
dents or to even explain how the
said accidents could have been pre-