The Sunday telegram. [volume] (Clarksburg, W. Va.) 1914-1927, 1916-04-09
FAIR AND JUST
An Eight Hour Work Day for Railroad Train Service
Men Will Make Better Citizens.

employees are MIN engaged in fast pas
senger runs and are exceptional cases.
They should not be used as examples
Of what the average train service en-
ploye gets. because in the present
demand for an eight-hour day the pas
senger service is not included.
The public who do not always under
stand railway conditions and railway
workers hear only the railway side
OF the story. In the railway talk Of
moving terminals there Is but little
TO heed. The railways can expedite
their freight service and continue with
their present terminals II they really
wish to do so. In some few cases
there may be couple OF hours over
time.
When an engineer has drawn q
check for 1868 and conductor check
forD$247 for months work, the rail-
way may call attention to this, but
neglect to say that these men worked
fifteen hours and twenty-five minutes
every day in the month and secured
most OF their sleep in a box car Ca
boose" out along the line. Later, when
these men lay off to recuperate. their
big check must. Of course. dwindle,
and soon these men are broken down
and are dumped on the scrap heap"
with the other old machinery, and may
be taken in by some kindly relative
or perhaps find room In some distant
home" maintained by the employees
organizations. Thus they conclude
their days-these soldiers Of the great
transportation army. these men who
have safely transported countless mum.
bers OF passengers and endless trains
of freight. Though the engines and
cars become larger and yet larger,
and though the trains become even
longer. and though the hours Of SER
vice become more intensely fierce, the
railway employe still measures up to
his work.
In the great railway yards the
switchman whose tired feet strike
the engine "footboard" or the cinders
all day, or night, or the man in the
cab" who pulls and throws the levers
back and forth all day or night, work.
ing among countless and conflicting
signals and endless danger and in
every condition OF weather-these are
the true soldiers OF industry. These
men should not need to ask for better
conditions. Better conditions should
have been given them years ago.
Twelve hours. or more. Is their pres
ent day or night, when eight hours
should be their limit.
The fostering by some railways of
various unfair conditions. and their
usual opposition to all suggestions to-
wards improvement and their COM
plant about unfair regulations has
provoked a reproof from one of the
most conservative Of our public men.
In a speech before the New York
Traffic Club on February 81. ex-
President Taft reproved the railways
for their mlsdeeds and their opposi-
ton to the laws Of the land and to re-
form. He accused them OF corrupting
councils and legislatures and defyine
the interstate commerce commission
and being generally unreasonable, and
then warned them OF a possible gov
eminent ownership The general pub
lie will give this conservative speaker
serious consideration. The employees
may we'll feel they have able counsel
upon their side.
President Wilson has said that the
workers have n right to say under
what conditions they will work. The
railway employees merely ask that the
public approve their effort for a rea-
sonable condition.