New Britain herald., 1915-12-01
WORK MORE THAN
 TEN HOURS A DAY
Vast Majority Of Engineers and Firemen on Western Railroads

Washington, Dec. 1.-The vast ma Jorlty of the engineers and firemen of the western railroads work more than ten hours a day. Thousands of them work twelve hours and over out of ev- every twenty-four. From tabulations made with the federal mediation board, it appears that more than for ty per cent. of the engineers and fire men in freight service averaged twelve hours or more of labor every day. In many cases men worked thirteen, fourteen and fifteen hours or longer a day.
 AccofdlnS to recent announcements half million railroad employees. em- brac1ng all railroad labor engaged ln the movement of trains have joined m demand for an eight-hOur day otrlklng evidence presented last year to the Western Engineers and Fire men Arbitration board will be avail able to the railroad workers in press ing for favorable action by the roads upon their demand. This evidence Is in the form of tabulations based on actual payrolls of western roads. Some of the important items in this mass of statistics may be summarized as follows:
 Data Secured.
 Data secured for more than 5000 englnemen engaged in local or way freight service showed that 54 per cent worked twelve hours or more per day during a typical month; 34 per cent, thirteen hours or more; and IT per cent fourteen hours or longer.
 Only 12 per cent, or 121 out of each l,Oo0 employed, averaged less than ten hours eaech day.
 Through Freight Service.
 In through freight service, Fl per cent or 709 out of each 1000 em- ployed during the typical month se- lected, worked ten hours or longer each day
 Thirty-five per cent, or 347 out Of each 1000 averaged twelve hours or more each day; 21 per cent or POS out of each 1000 engineers and firemcn employed on duty thirteen hours or longer; and II per cent or 100 ort of each 1000 showed working day of fourteen hours or over.
 Tabulation for 10000.
 The tabulations for approximately 10000 engineers and firemen en- ployed in all classes of freight service showed that sS per cent, or S77 out of each 1000 bad an average work ing day of ten hours or longer. Tnir- ty-fiVe per cent, or more than one third worked twelve hours or longer each day; sixteen p..r cent, thirteen hours over; seven per cent. f, ur- teen hours. and three per cent. aver aged fifteen hours or Iu:.Err each day.
 During the fiscal vsaT 1914 alone, on fifty-two western railroads there were Al 593 instances where railroad employees engaged in the movement of trains were on duty for sixteen cen secutive hours or longer.
 Within the period July l to Decem- Der 31, 1915, on seventy-siX western railroads there were 492S6 cases where engineers and firemen worked for a continuous period of sixteen hours or longer. More than 13,O00 cases of engineers and firemen work ing seventeen to eighteen hours were reported to the Interstate Commerce commission by these seventy-siX rail- roads during this period of year and a half; 7,50O instances of eighteen to nineteen hours of continuous worl.; 46OO cases of continuous service for nineteen to twenty hours; 5000 ia stances of twenty-one to twenty-five 0 hours of unbroken service; and 1900 cases where engine crews were on duty twenty-three to twenty-foui hours
 Compilations made from the train sheets of representative western rail- roads also disclosed the fact that in through freight service on certain operating divisions the time spent by engineers and firemen in getting trains over the road averaged from eleven to twenty hours per trip.
 The long hours required to move trains rom one division point to an other has been caused by the opera- ting policy of the railroads. Ever with heavier and more powerful loco- motives, the engine crews find it i'm possible to make a speed of ten niles an hour in the majority of ir- stances, because of the heavy freight train loads. The railroads find it more economical to require larger trains to be drawn at slower speed than light trains at high speed.