The labor journal. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1909-1976, 1922-05-26

y
before, to help them on the road to-
ward peace and plenty.
7. Inequalities of present wages
or treatment, the result of previous
wage adjustments.
Eleven Years Length of Engineers
Life
Obviously, there is no similar work
in other industries with which the
labor of a locomotive engineer can
be compared; nor should any skilled
worker be held down to a mere sub
sistence based on the bare cost of
living. What. then, are the hazards,
the skill, and the responsibility ex-
acted of engineers? We doubt if the
public realizes the risks daily as
sumed by every engineman in active
service. According to the mortality
tables. based upon years of actual
experience by the Brotherhood of Lo-
connective Engineers Insurance De-
partment, the average duration of
life of railroad engineer is but II
years and days No engineer knows
when he steps into the engine cab
whether, through no fault of his, his
life will be snuffed out before the
end of the run. The safety appli-
ances which railroad employees have
secured only after prolonged struggle
can reduce, but they cannot elimi-
nate, the risks incurred by engine
service employees.
Severe Tests Eliminate All But Few
The training, skill and physical
perfection required of an engineer is
such that the great majority of en-
CINE wipers, hostlers and firemen
who spend years of labor preparing
for the opportunity to grasp the
throttle fall by the wayside in the
thorough elimination of the less fit.
Even after rejecting all who cannot
measure up to the strictest tests for
height, perfect vision, heart action,
blood pressure, etc, seventeen per
cent of the firemen who aspire to
become engineers are rejected at
the end of three years because their
eyesight becomes impaired by the
fierce glare Of a crate of Goals
throwing off $500 degrees of heat.
An additional 76 per cent do not ex-
hibit the temperament and natural
ability required of an engineer. so
that only II out of every 100 candi-
dates ever win place on the right
side of the cab. Even after this rig
orous process of the selection of the
most fit, only six out of every 100
ever get places in passenger service.
In brief, the length of training and
the skill required to become a sue
cessful engineer is no less than that
demanded of competent dentist or
an able lawyer.
Engineers Responsibility Exceeds
Doctors
1t is an axiom of social justice that
the payment received for any service
should depend in part upon the re-
sponsibility involved. The skilled
surgeon is certainly entitled to a
greater compensation than the wo-
man who mops up the hospital floors.
In no other profession in the world,
not even excepting the medical pro-
fession. is man entrusted with
greater responsibility for the lives
of his fellowmen than is the engi-
neer in the locomotive cab. How
well he discharges this obligation is
indicated by the report of the Inter
state Commerce Commission for
1921, which shows that fatalities on
American railroads are less than for
the past % years, 16,239,774 pas
sengers being carried to one killed.
Whenever wreck does occur. it is
the men who run the trains and not
the passengers who usually pay the
price. Indeed, the scrupulous care
fulness of engine and train service
is such that one important
transportation line carrying 30,0O0,-
900 persons a year has not fatally
injured one passenger in more than
four years. There are "a times as
many people killed by automobiles in
the United States, according to the
1920 census. as there are passengers
killed on the railroads. The law
recognizes the great responsibility
for human life entrusted to the engi-
neer. and holds him strictly account
able for it's exercise. There is a
grim truth in the jest that if a doc
tor makes a mistake he buries it.
but if an engineer makes a mistake,
he goes to Jail for it. Train service
employees are obliged to perform
their work with a diligence which
precludes the possibility of careless
ness or negligence.
An engineer is not only responsible
IOI bIlC iiNCo pidSCd III NdICs bol
also for the millions of dollars worth
of railroad property which he han
dies every month of his service.
President M. C. Byers of the West
ern Maryland Railroad. recently stat
ed: "An engineer running a train
of 100 coal cars virtually has $780,
900 worth of property in his care.
and for this reason. if no other. the
members of the Brotherhoods should
have comparatively high wages"
Low Wages Will DemOralize Trans
pOrtatiOn System
If the American people permit the
wages of railway employees to be
beaten down in order to pay divi-
lends on railway stocks. which have
been VIGOROUSLY watered, the people
themselves will be the losers. Rail
road service demands an exception
ally high degree of skill. carefulness,l
and responsibility. Wages paid in,