Arizona republican. [volume] (Phoenix, Ariz.) 1890-1930, 1915-04-07
|PORTERS TELL
WHAT TIPPING
SYSTEM MEANS
Veterans in Service of Pull
man Company Say They
Must Collect Bulk of Their
Income from Travelling
Public
ASSOCIATED PRESS DIsPATCH1


CHICAGO, April pullman sleep
ing car porters went on the witness
stand before the u. S. Commission
of Industrial Relations and told just
what the tipping system means t.
chem. They could not pay expenses
on the road with their salaries, 20
say nothing Of paying rents anc
maintaining families, they said Other
testimony included a statement that
Pullman conductors do not consider
as dishonest "KnOckdOWns'' on seat
sales enough to pay expenses on the
road These average $50 a month.
The first of the porters to testify
has been in the business twenty one
years. His salary was $42 a month.
He said he made about SIS a month
in tips, making his salary altogether
about SLY "a month This porter said
ne had wife and four children and
also took care of his mother. Two
children we've married, the others il
school He declared he and his fam
lily had always lived we'll.
DO you think any porter would
get along as well as you do on your
rum asked Chairman Walsh
No sir, Mr.. Walsh; some men
| would starVe on that run"
| The next witness was G. II. Syl-
vester of New York, a porter on the
Twentieth Century Limited Of the
Lake Shore and Michigan Southern
road Mr.. Sylvester wore a check
pattern suit and two diamond rings.
His salary, he said, was $3.50 d
month, and tips averaging about S77
! a month He, too, is a veteran and
has been on the present run for
thirteen years He is entitled to 1898
| a week from the Pullman company;
lie has always earned the small
bonus offered by the company; his
uniforms are bought for him because
he has been more than ten years in
the service and no charges have ever
been brought against him, he said.
His train leaves New York in the
afternoon and arrives in Chicago the
next morning and under the rules he
is not entitled to any sleep except
what he gets during the layover
But don't Jet any of them tell you
they do not sleep" he said with a
, grin. The man that tells you he
don't sleep is "a dangerous man.
don't mean that we go to bed, but
We nod when we are supposed to be
on guard in the aisle. All the super
iintendents know that
But it is against the rule" sug-
gested Mr. Walsh
They do not care about that;
al they care about is that we don't
get caught at it. We sit up, just to
guard the car anyway; they know it;
a breath of air will awaken exper-
fenced porters. It's instinct and the
car really is guarded.
And yet charges have never beer
brought against you?"
| NO, because | always figure thai
there is a spotter on every train
But wouldn't the spotter catch you
when you nap"
Il never do until everybody i.
asleep
Commissioner O'Connor asked wha
would be the effect if congress passed
an anti-tipping law.
why, the porters. would simpl.
quit. You can see that for yourself
They could could not live on $3.50
month";
Then would you organize and pc
tition the company" pursued tn,
commissioner
I'VE would just quit and then tel
}. the company We could not live on tn
wages"
But suppose wages were no
raised
We'll, | want to tell you that
the porters were getting, nothing bu
wages and passenger with tw
dollars in his clothes got on he woul
not be safe
Former conductors and porters i
| the course of the session testifie
| they had been on many runs wher
the opportunities for sleep We're few