Denver labor bulletin., 1916-10-28
Railroad Shanbles
By SCOTT NEARING.

For several years past the railroads
have been actively engaged in safety
first campaign. The safety first" signs
have been posted in shops and round
houses, in stations and on time tables.
As result of this campaign the num-
Der of railway accidents in the last year
for which the interstate commerce COM
mission issues full report l9l5) was
only l70.6Sl-of which S.62l were per-
sons killed and 1872 04O were persons in
jured. The high water mark in Ameri-
can railroad accidents was 1913, with
lO,a64 killed and 2o0,30s injured.
The men who operate the railroads
were engaged in a fierce struggle dur
ing each of the 365 days OF 1915. They
were contending against the forces of
nature. against human carelessness, reck-
lessness, ignorance and greed That
struggle cost the lives of 2.l52 and the
more or less serious injury OF l3s, ,092-
The others killed and injured were pas
sengers or trespassers.
There were about 100000 engineers,
firemen. conductors and "other train
men" employed in the railroads of the
United States in 1915. In addition there
were about 10000 crossing tenders,
switch tenders and watchmen, and per
haps 100000 trackmen and other labor
ers who were in danger from moving
trains. The chief danger from train
movement was run by the men actually
concerned in train operation-not over
400. 900 at the outside. For each 900
of these men. there were four employees
killed and 100 injured in the operation
OF trains in 1915.
These figures are stated roughly be-
cause the reports of the interstate COM
merce commission do not show clearly
what accidents were accidents to train
crews and what accidents were to other
employees engaged in train operation. But
the fact of the business is that in 1915
a man engaged in the operation of trains
had one chance in about $50 to be
killed and one chance in about ten to
be injured during the year.
There are other dangerous places on
the railroads. In 1914, the last year for
which comparative figures are available
there We're 1924 men at work in the
railroad shops OF these men l0l We're
killed and 53.O5l were injured. The rate
of death is much less than on the trains
one in 1000: but the accident rate Is
hicher-thirteen per thousand, one in
jury for each eight men employed.
These figures cover only one year.
Multiply them by ten-to cover ten
wears OF service Inc operating crews
have one chance in twenty-five to be
killed and one chance in one to be in
jured The shopmen have one chance in
400 to he killed and five chances in four
to be injured How vivid Kipling made
these facts in his famous lines:
They finger death at their gloves end.
When they piece and repiece the liv-
ing wire;
He rears against the gates they tend
They feed him hungry beside their
fires.
At break of day. ere men see clear.
They stumble into his terrible stall.
And sale him forth like haltered steer,
And goad him and turn him till even
fall"
Men who risk life and limb daily in
the service of their fellows are entitled
to the best that the world has to give
Their wages should be high. Their hours
should be short. Their working condi-
tions should be as safe as human in
genuity can make them. and they should
be assured ample compensation in case
of injury and generous provision for
their families in case of death. The men
themselves should be regarded with the
profound respect that one man pays to
another who goes to the battlefield the
locomotive cab. the railroad shops, or
any other shambles and there risks life
and limb that his fellows may have more
abundant life.