The labor journal. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1909-1976, 1916-08-11
WHAT TRAINMEN
DEMAND OF R. R.
Sioux City, Iowa, Tribune Gives
Few Facts About Rail
road Men

The railway managers are flooding
the country with publicity regarding
the increase in wages" that is being
demanded by the members of the four
railway brotherhoods who are en-
gagged in actual handling of trains.
It seems the railroad managers can
not make an honest presentation of
this issue any more than they can of
the rate question, the question of
their valuation, or their inside
financing.
The railway employees are not ask
ing for an advance of wages. In fact,
they are asking for the adoption of a
plan that will decrease the income of
many of them. They are asking for
an eight-hour day, instead of being
compelled to stay out on the road
from IL to 16 hours.
Their argument in favor of this
change is reasonable. They say that
passenger trainmen and fast freight
trainmen would not be materially af-
fected by such rule as few of them
are now on the road more than eight
hours. The men who would be af
fected are the trainmen who handle
dead" freight trains. These men are
on the road usually the limit permit
ted by the federal laws-16 hours
and often longer than that before
they get back to their homes. Their
expenses on the road must come out
of their own wages.
The greatest evil however, is the
physical and mental effect upon men
working that length of time. 1t needs
no argument to prove that after eight
or ten hours continuous strain, ones
physical and mental activities get
sluggish 1t is during these periods,
say trainmen, that wrecks most fre-
managements blame it on to the
"carelessness' of the railroad en-
ployes.
Even the traveller in the Pullman
gets tired after a 10-hour ride during
the day. But the man in the engine
cab must keep fresh; he must keep
his mental activities keen for he must
see every signal, keep in mind every
order, and when he enters a railroad
yard must know just what every one
of all the way from so to 300 switch,
signal and block lights mean, and if
they are as they should be to guaran-
tee him clear track. Yet eye fatigue
is one of the first symptoms and re-
suits of long hours of work, and men
tai dullness comes a close second.
Safety first" for the travelling public
demands that men on railroads be not
OVerWorked.
There is yet another side-one
which affects the commercial side of
railroading. Why are some freight
trains handled with such speed that
men who handle them are not on their
runs over eight hours, while other
freight trains hauled with the same
class of motive power and over the
same right-of-way, are IA to 20 hours
clearing one division? Why is a car
load of fruit from 60 to 72 hours
coming from New Orleans to Sioux
City, while carload of other freight
is three to four weeks?
Trainmen say the railroads so over
load dead" freight trains that they
cannot make their time This is done
in order to increase the railroads
profit. This is why the trainmen who
handle these trains must LAY out" on
sidings and at way stations, and be
on their run IA to Is hours.
Trainmen also offer the hint to the
shipper that if the eight-hour law
goes into eject, it will solve the
freight car famine to a great extent.
Railroads will then speed up their
freight schedule, in order to avoid
overtime wages, and freight cars will
be rushed to their destination and un-
loaded instead of ding-donging along
on the road for weeks.-Sioux City.
Iowa, Tribune