The star-independent. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1904-1917, 1915-05-12
VIEWED FROM A DISTANCE
New York "Time s. Comment on the
Full Grew Repealer
Editor, the Star-Independent:

Editor, the tar-Independent:
Dear Sir-Will you kindly publish
the following quotations from an edi-
torial with bearing on the Pennsylvania
full crew fight, appearing in the New
York Chimes" this morning, entitled,
Making Railways Unprofitablei"
1.-THE Pennsylvania Legislature has
repealed the full crew law of that State
and has sent to the Governor a bill
providing that the Public Service Com
mission shall oversee the manning Of
trains. That is better than was done
by the New York Legislature, which
rejected amid cheers the proposal to
give the Commission control over the
matter without repeating the law reg
ulating it. That was a mere juggle,
pleasing nobody, and perhaps it was as
well that it failed. In Pennsylvania
the battle is not even yet won, as it
is said that the Governor s signature
is doubtful. The effort to make the
railways profitable is making poor prog.
where there is more sympathy for the
Pooi NoihihSiHdu IMAM lOr tue Tlcu rail-
ways.
"That is singular, because nobody
has done more for the workingman than
the railways. Not only are railwages
high, but conditions Of employment
have been much improved. The argu-
ment for the full crew law is that cars
are longer and that trains contain
more cars. That leaves out of account
what the railways have done to enable
locomotives to haul longer and heavier
trains. They have spent vast sums on
all sorts of devices to make easier and
safer such work as is left for trainmen
to do. Passenger trains are heated by
steam and lighted by electricity or gas.
There are automatic couplers to make
brakemen IS lives safer, and air brakes
to make them easier. There are signals
and switches and many devices which
case the trainmen S work and make the
passengers safer than anything the
trainmen can do. AS regards freight
trains the case is even stronger. The
brakemen no longer run along the tops
of cars and wind up hand brakes with
brake sticks. The work is done from
the locomotive cab, and there is not
"Yet it is said that the Governor Of
Pennsylvania is doubtful about signing
the bill. He must have doubt
whether profitable railways are as much
of a blessing to the country as full
crews. The railways have made ir.
retrievable investments of countless
millions for the comfort and safety of
travellers, shippers, and their own en-
ployes, and the wealth of the railways
is made the basis of plea for depriv-
ing them of profit. Even Missouri it.
self, which was thought to have set the
fashion of giving the railways chance
to earn their living has wearied of we'll
doing, and has fallen before the tempta-
tion of bills to lower fares, or to pre-
vent their being raised. The same is
true of several Western and Southern
States, and it cannot be said that the
case of the railways has yet been
won.
''The chief reason for the check to
the growth of the railways is the de-
cline of their credit, partly because Of
legislation. Their work has been more
efficient than ever, as measured by tons
or passengers transported. But their
revenues are smaller because of full
crew laws, hours of service laws, short
train laws, orders to supply improve
ments without allowing increase of
revenue, orders to reduce rates, and so
on. If the Governor of Pennsylvania
thinks that the country can have all
these things at the cost of the rail
ways without the country suffering, he
will veto the measure before him. But
if he has a picture of the industry be-
fore him, and judges the future from
the past, he will refuse to add to the
load of the overburdened industry
Pennsy Employe.