Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1918-02-13
||IlS VOLUNTEER
k kSERvICE IN TANKS
rivers of Locomotives Ready
for Dangerous Work
in France
&IONE ASKS MORE PAY
WASHINGTON. Feb. "a

'c WASHINGTON, Feb. i3
w Locomotive engineers are volunteer
ing for tank service In France. ~ the
teQuest of Secretary Baker names Of
400 locomotive engineers. willing to risk
their lives to roll the big caterpillars
across No Mans Land. were furnished
. by w. s. Stone, president of the
\ Brptherhood of Locomotive Engineers,
~ was developed today before the Fed.
eral Wage Commission.
s'Enaneers are as patriotic as any
Alnericans." Stone declared. and We
win sacrifice our last dollar and our
Tn Invasion of Mexico appeared likely.
4 Secretary of War Baker asked for 800
euGineers who could speak Spanish, and
these names were supplied.
+ "when the Government took over the
railroads advised against any concerted
wage movement. We realized that the
crisis of war was approaching and We
lid not want to jeopardize train serv-
ice and we wanted to do everything in
cur power to keep the lines Of communi-
cation open"
Never before had railroads made so
little preparation for winter operations.
Stone declared in discussing the present
chaotic conditions
Stone injected a plea for the lower
paid railroad employees. Engineers are
the highest paid of railroad employees.
be said.
Only six men out Of every 1OO who
enter the railroad service as firemen
reach the position OF passenger engineer f.
only seventeen out Of each 100 men
+ who start as flromen ever become
~~xr{< hi. a
quitting the service because they are
unable to stand the strain.
A. minimum wage Of Sc a day. with
time and one-half in excess of eight
hours was asked by stone for locomotive
engineers.
Stone vigorously denounced the action
Of rail- roads in employing women to wipe
engines, shovel coal and do track work
X '"Fhere Is no shortage of male labor
and such acti1a Is unnecessary and is
endangerng the future of the country"
Stone said.
Stone attacked the railroads for for
bidding employees TO hold public office.
what reasons are given for this?"
Chairman Lane asked.
"One reason given Is that the rail-
road must have the undivided time Of
Its employees, but the true reason, be-
Heve, is that the progressive employees
do not always vote as the railroads
want them to. Another reason is that
the engineer IL never out Of touch with
his office If he desires to go down
town to the movies he must telephone his
officer for permission to go.
IF the time has arrived when locOmo-
tive engineers must give up their con-
stftutional rights this factor must be
given consideration in wages. Rail-
roads must pay for il"
Stone, in complaining of the long
hours of service stated that twenty and
thirty hours continuous service was
common and that he has known engl-
neers to be held sixty-fve and even
seventy hours.
Last year there was a total of
10f,962 cases where men worked more
than sixteen hours a day" Stone said.
There is only one remedy for this
penalty overtime"
The phrase "aristocrats Of labor" APP
piled to the locomotive engineer is mis-
leading and was circulated by the rail-
roads as propaganda, Stone said The
average monthly wage of locomotive
engineers is about s142, he said. Less
than one out of two thousand engineers
earned 1926 a month on the western
railroads. Only one out of one thousand
earned more than 5000. and only ten
out of one thousand earned more than
t250.