The Butler County press. [volume] (Hamilton, Ohio) 1900-1946, 1916-04-28
Rail WAY MEN
DEFEND DEMANDS
Explain Their Position on the
Eight Hour Day.
FASTER FREIGHT SERVICE.

Present System of Handling Slow
Trains a Detriment to the Public.
Dead Freight Travels Only One Mile
an Hour-Granting the Shorter Day
Would Benefit Railroads.
The technical side Of freight trans
portation is treated in a simple man
ner in statement issued by the four
railroad brotherhoods whose members
are demanding an eight hour day The
statement says:
A great deal has been said about
the inability Of the railroads to grant
the eight hour day to railway train
crews and switchmen, ana few facts
bearing upon the necessity of shorter
work day are here presented.
The unit of wage payment is now
based on the moving of rolling stock
100 miles per ten hours or ten miles
per hour. The men are now asking for
eight hours, or twelve and one-half
miles per hour, 100 miles I'm eight
hours, and time and one half for over
time after eight hours.
The railroad companies, as well as
the public at large, would be benefited
by the change. All trunk lines center.
ing in large terminals have so called
manifest freight, leaving these termi
nails each night, hauling from 1000 to
1,200 tons of freight, which is called
fast freight service. These trains travel
over divisions up to 40 to 24O miles on
an average Of an eight to eleven hour
basis. In many cases the so called drag
or dead freight train, leaving the same
terminal probably three hours ahead
Of these manifest or fast freight trains.
is passed on the road and the fast
freight goes to its destination I'm eight
or nine hours, while the dead freight
is often caught by the federal sixteen
hour law and has to tie up for eight
hours rest before getting into division
or terminal points.
IL one train can be sent over a diyi.
sion of say 40 or 100 miles in eight
hours there is no just reason why the
same class engine with another train
should put in fourteen or sixteen hours
over the same course
For example, take car of bananas
shipped, say. from New Orleans to st.
Louis, which goes through in thirty-six
or thirty eight hours. while car of
dead freight would occupy almost
three weeks getting the same distance;
in other words. dead freight Is moving
In the United States on an average Of
about one mile per hour when it should
move practically as eXpeditiously as
any other commodity
The statement has been repeatedly
made that the men DO not want an
eight hour day. but are simply after an
increase in wages. This absurd state
ment has no basis in fact, as the men
do not want the overtime, and the only
way to stop the working OF the men
overtime is TO put a penalty on the use
Of overtime, 50 that the railroads would
move trains more eXpeditiously and be
mtre saving in their use OF the mems
overtime work. Pay for overtime to
the worker IS blood money, as this
money is made after the man is worn
out, needs sleep and rest, and digs at
his very vitals and makes him old be
fore his time.
Give railway train service men eight
hours work eight hours sleep and
eight hours to pass with their families
and they ask for no overtime and no So
called eXorbitant pay.
The manufacturers and shippers are
constantly brought face to face with
car shortages throughout the United
States, which condition is largely
brought about by slow transportation
of so called dead freight If cars load
ed with this dead or slow moving
freight We're handled more rapidly to
destination, unloaded and returned to
service the company would earn
greater revenue on each car, which in-
crease alone would offset any addl-
tional expense the company would sus-
tain in making the change. Keep the
trains moving by giving them the
amount Of tonnage they can handle
over the division and It VIII be seldom
that the trip cannot he made in eight
hours.
There is no good, logical reason why
railway and train service men should
not be OH an eight hour basis. Before
the federal sixteen hour law was en-
forced the companies worked the men
twenty or thirty hours, but after this
law became effective they found they
could get the trains through in four
teen or fifteen hours, and they will find
this can be just as easily cut to eight
hours as 1t was from thirty to sixteen
hours. 1t needs only the cooperation
Of the company officials with the men
TO make an eight hour day on railroads
a blessing and at the same time knock
the shackles off of 309,174 railroad men
In the United States now calling for re-
lief