The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-11-03

fraction less than 12 hours per. day
 for every day in the year. On page
 352 of this same volume he reports
 48 gatemen. platform men and trans
 fer agents on the elevated lines of the Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company as
 having worked 270,836 hours during
 the year, and that the average rate
 paid them was 21 cents per hour. A
 simple calculation reveals the fact, therefore that each and every one of these men worked 15 1-2 hours per day for 365 days of the year. At the rate of wages paid these men had to work these hours every day in the year to make a bare living.
 The total number of passengers
 carried on the elevated, surface and subway lines in New York city for the year ending June 30, 1915, as report ed by the Public Service Commission, was $1,807,632 1000. This means, bas- ed upon a total population of 5,000,- 900, that on the average every inhabi-
 tant of New York city rode every day in the year. Of course every inhabi- tant did not ride every day in the year, many riding many times each day, but there were 5,00O,0OO chances every day to injure passenger on the various lines of transportation in the city. ! The safety of these passengers is depndnt upon tn motormn, con-
 ductors, guards, dispatchers, trainmen, etc., operating and controlling such
 cars and trains and upon no other class of employees, either in New York city or in the United States, is the life and safety of the public so dependent. Vat Ms Wf11ony MT HJ0haSs paign manager, reported in the deci- sion above referred to-, to MT. Hughes that it was all right for men to work 12 to 15 1-2 hours every day and 365 days in the year, and that tere was mo danger to the public even if they did fall asleep, and he and his Com
 mission ordered the proceedings dis continued.
 Hughes, going into their offices at 10 D. m. with an hour or so off for lunch, working at most only a couple of hours on Saturday and not at all
 on Sundays, with summer vacations at country hon1es, could understand
 why it was any hardship to work rail- road and street railroad employees 12 CO 10 I-I llOuTS every Qdy UT lA LO 15 1-2 hours through the night for 365 days every year, or how the pub
 lie could be endangered thereby, and inasmuch as Article 2, Section z, of
 MT. Hughes Railroad Law permitted 10 to 16 hours labor to be perform ed by railroad men, 365 days in each
 year with no provision for a day or
 rest, the proceedings above referred to were discontinued, and the rail-
 road companies were permitted to continue to work these men as much
 as they pleased.
 President Wilson. as recall, said, or certainly said in substance, that so- ciety demanded the eight-hour law for railroad men. Does not the safety of
 the public and the property of the public demand the 8-hour law for such men? The Bureau of the Gen.
 sus 1912 reports for the year 1912 1 $500, 100000 passengers carried by street railroad companies in the United States, and one billion by the steam railroad companies. The safety
 and life of each and every one of
 these passengers was dependent upon the railroad men in charge of the trains or cars carrying them.
 The Eight-hour Railroad Law of
 President Wilson is humane, both in the interest of the men who perform the work and of the public at large dependent upon them.