and two persons were killed at a well-known and very dangerous
crossing. It being Christmas time, there had been an almost continuous
procession of vehicles all day long over the crossing. At a moment when
perhaps the crush was greatest, the gong in the gate-house gave warning
that an express train was approaching. Immediately there ensued a wild
scramble to hustle the stream of humanity over the crossing and out of
the way of the train. It was no easy task for the gateman. Regardless
of the descending gates, a number of teams, unable to turn aside, made
a final dash to get to the other side. To drop the gates on the backs
of the horses was out of the question, and, as a last resort, frantic
yet useless attempts were made to flag the approaching train. In the
midst of the excitement the flyer dashed upon the scene with disastrous
results.
The following day the accident was thoroughly and fearlessly discussed
in the newspapers. There was no difference of opinion on the subject.
Practically speaking, every one representing the state, the city, the
railroad, and the newspapers, agreed to concentrate their minds on the
grade-crossing problem. It should be abolished. This is the universal
“hobby” and a good one, no doubt, but apparently no one can see an
inch farther. The questions _why_ and _how_ people are killed almost
every day at these crossings received no attention whatever. Public
opinion, not unreasonably perhaps, is satisfied with the assurance that
everything humanly and reasonably possible under the circumstances
was done by the railroad men concerned in it to _get the teams out
of the way of the trains_. But it did not occur to any one that the
whole system of keeping teams out of the way of trains is inherently
and inexcusably wrong. The list of victims who are sacrificed to this
popular mistake is being added to daily. If the public has any right
at all on these crossings, it goes without question that, while they
are making use of their rights and in the act of crossing, their safety
should depend, not upon their efforts to scramble out of the way of the
trains, but upon the moral and legal obligation of the railroads _to
keep the trains out of the way of the vehicles_.
This view, of course, is based on the supposition that the safety of
the public is of more importance than the speed of the trains over
these crossings. In the case we are now considering, if an empty coal
car had been on the crossing it would have been amply protected from
the passenger train. Not only is this true, but the tracks of another
railroad cross this highway diagonally at this point, and while trains
are crossing they are doubly protected by semaphore targets and
derailing switches. Teams, however, and passengers on foot have to
depend on emergency arrangements which, as we all know, are practically
useless. If railroads can afford to protect their rolling-stock in
the way described, the interests and property of the public might
reasonably be expected to receive equal consideration. In plain
language, the pressing of a button in crossing-houses, in connection
with proper signals, would give the public the protection so urgently
called for. Altogether the foregoing may be taken as a very good object
lesson on the safety problem on our railroads.
This crossing accident took place in December, 1907. Within a mile of
the scene, on the next crossing, in the month of July, 1908, another
accident occurred under similar conditions. In this case a wagon was
demolished, two horses were killed, and a number of passengers on an
express train were injured. Comment is unnecessary.
For the rest, the interest and significance of this essay will be sadly
misunderstood if the impression is in any way derived from it that the
railroad employee is singled out and must stand alone as an object of
adverse criticism. As a matter of fact, a volume can be written in our
defense. Only too many of us can remember the time when a deserving
employee could be, and frequently was, discharged on the flimsiest
pretext. His breakfast disagreed with a yard-master or he happened to
have domestic troubles on his mind: for less reason than this good
men were sent packing. Not ten years ago the service on New England
railroads swarmed with favorites and brothers-in-law. Faithful old
employees were sent adrift without a moment’s warning or sympathy, to
make room for youngsters with a “pull.” Many an honest old servitor,
not so very long ago either, with justice and reason might have flung
the retort of old Adam, in “As You Like It,” at his superior. “Is ‘old
dog’ my reward? Most true, I have lost my teeth in your service.” But
we have changed all that. Nevertheless, these things rankle. They say
history repeats itself. Justice certainly does; and as for injustice
it reacts and rebounds, and perhaps, after many days, it returns and
demands a settlement at compound interest. The situation to-day between
labor and capital is but a chapter in the natural history of the
instinct of self-defense.
Finally, in regard to the lack of loyalty to the world at large, the
railroad employee is far from being the only offender. While it may
be said to be strictly unintentional, this lack of loyalty covers our
railroads as with a blanket. The illustrations given above have been
chosen with strict impartiality, and regardless of the personality
of the offenders. With the panorama of railroad life before us, as
I have endeavored to sketch it, we railroad men should be able to
contemplate the conditions, and our conduct in relation to them, as in
a looking-glass. While the writer’s sincere desire from beginning to
end has been to avoid giving unnecessary offense to any one, yet it
should not be forgotten that to take away life, either needlessly or
heedlessly, on a railroad is an offense against society that calls for
the utmost rigor of treatment.
V
THE SQUARE DEAL
In the days of the Roman Republic, when a consul was invested with
supreme power, he received a caution or command somewhat as follows:
“See to it that the Republic receives no injury.”
This injunction is quite as significant and important to-day, both
to individuals and to public officials, as it was a thousand years
ago. Then, as now, the interests of the community were the first and
paramount consideration. But in discussing questions relating to these
interests, such as, for instance, those which have arisen between labor
and management on our railroads, public opinion, as represented by the
press and the laws, should insist upon a fair field, no favor, and
absolutely open play on all sides.
We need only glance at the safety problem on American railroads to
appreciate it thoroughly. During 1907, on a single well-known railroad,
thirty passengers were killed and 1596 injured; 572 trespassers killed
and 526 injured; 72 people were killed at grade crossings and 518
injured; twelve contractor’s men were killed and ten injured; the
total killed numbered 686, and the injured 2650. These figures are
not inclusive of employees. The biggest single item of the year’s
disaster for personal injuries fell under the head of collisions, 76
of them resulting in 456 claims, to the account of which the charge
was $145,748. The total was 876 claims for personal injuries, costing
$746,075, still leaving 2345 unsettled cases at the expiration of the
year.
Some time ago, in the Chicago “Record-Herald,” E. P. Ripley, president
of the Santa Fé system, was quoted as follows: “One of the most serious
conditions which this country is facing to-day is the indifference and
disregard which the employee has for the interests of the employer.”
“The Santa Fé,” continued Mr. Ripley, “hopes to establish a better
_esprit de corps_ among its employees, and expects that a liberal
pension system will have that tendency. We have on this system as much
loyalty as most railroads enjoy, if not more, but it is not what it
should be. The lack of loyalty among employees is a condition from
which all corporations are now suffering, and it presents a most
serious problem.”
It matters little to what railroad one turns for information on this
subject, Mr. Ripley’s remarks, in a greater or less degree, apply to
them all. Quite recently, in discussing this topic, the manager of
another railroad uttered the same opinion from a somewhat different
standpoint. He remarked in substance, “During the last week, at three
different sessions, a committee of employees came to this office for
the purpose of arbitrating, or coming to some understanding about,
a matter of discipline. These men fought tooth and nail for what
they considered their rights in this case, and finally, at the third
hearing, an agreement was arrived at, which, if you choose, you may
call a compromise. So far so good. But now to-day, these same men,
or rather two of them, representing different organizations, have
been up here again. Some kind of a dispute has arisen between these
organizations, and they called upon me, with assurances of belief in
my ability and impartiality, to act as final arbitrator between them.
This means, of course, that I must devote two or three hours of my
time to their private interests. Be this as it may, I consented to
act as arbitrator, but at the same time I couldn’t help wondering
how these men could find it in their hearts to accept my verdict in
their private affairs, about which I know comparatively little, while
they persistently question my judgment, and practically my honesty
of purpose, in matters of discipline and management. In a word,” he
concluded, “why don’t the employees trust the management to administer
the affairs of the railroad conscientiously and fairly, and to give to
each employee a square deal?”
During the palmy days of what may be called autocratic management,
when a railroad man started out in the morning, the paymaster, or the
office-boy, for that matter, could have told you the exact amount
the man would have been entitled to on his return. The employee was
willing, and in fact had agreed, to travel or to work from a point A to
a point B for a certain fixed sum. So far as his pay was concerned, it
made no difference whether he covered the distance in eight hours or
eighteen. If a yard-master delayed him for two or three hours before
starting, and if he lost half a day on the road by reason of wrecks,
disablement of locomotive, or a washout, so much the worse for him. His
duty was to go from A to B and to do what he was told to on the way,
without question, even if it took him from sunrise to sunrise to cover
the distance. There was no help or rescue in sight, no appeal from the
discipline in those days; and if the work was not to his liking, the
world was wide, and a dozen men were ready to step into his place.
Nevertheless, the one-sidedness and injustice of the whole proceeding
were manifest to everybody, and from year to year it remained to be
talked about, objected to, and brooded over. But with ever-increasing
business and complication of conditions, a much better educated class
of men found their way into the railroad service. In moving a train
from place to place, greater intelligence was required. A conductor
to-day can frequently run from one end of the road to the other in a
purely mechanical fashion; but in the early days of railroading, with a
single track, a confusion of flags and train orders, and a multitude of
unforeseen difficulties awaiting him at every station, it took little
less than genius to make a successful railroad man.
The really heart-breaking story of the hardship and heroism of the
trainmen of those days has never been written, but a touch of the
stern reality and pathos of it all can be imagined from the single
consideration, that of seventeen freight conductors who in the year
1883 ran trains through the Hoosac Tunnel, only five in the year 1888,
that is, five years later, were still to be found on the pay-rolls. In
nearly every instance, death in violent form had removed the others.
Of course, as we all know, the most popular type of heroism is to be
looked for on the battlefield; but there are hundreds of railroad
veterans on the streets to-day, undecorated and unremembered, whose
services to the country are all worthy of popular sympathy and national
gratitude.
As a result of these extraordinary conditions and the continual killing
of employees, a new and more intelligent class of men was called upon,
in course of time, to undertake the dangerous duties of railroad
service. With increased intelligence and broader mental equipment,
the thinking process in the brain of the railroad man expanded, and
very naturally his awakened attention was not exclusively centred on
the business of his employers. It soon became known to officials,
and to the world, that we had grievances. Before long, rumblings of
discontent were heard on all sides. Between ourselves we began to
discuss matters of right and wrong. The men got together in groups,
in small gatherings. Here and there, all over the country, little
Runnymedes were attended by all conscientious, determined railroad men.
With an ever-increasing demand for our services, came consciousness
of importance and power. Attention was called to the injustice, the
inconsistency of the situation. We petitioned and agitated for trifles.
Inch by inch ground was gained. Frequently we were beaten back,
sometimes routed, at other times the battle was drawn; but after every
encounter, regardless of result, the ghost of the future remained on
the field to disturb the slumbers of the management. So, through the
years, the struggle proceeded, concession followed concession, until
all kinds of injustice and favoritism, and in fact the whole system of
purely autocratic management, had gone by the board, and fair play for
the railroad trainman was an accomplished fact. For the future, to ask
was to receive. Face to face with organizations of determined men,
with the crops and manufactures of half a continent waiting to be moved
to the seaboard, what was a management or a combination of managements
going to do about it?
Thus, by evolution and revolution, a mighty change has come over the
scene. To-day, when a railroad man makes a trip from point A to point
B, it is altogether different from the performance to which I called
attention at the beginning of this essay. At the end of his trip,
the man now takes out his pencil and does some figuring. Neither the
superintendent nor the paymaster has the slightest idea what the
engineman’s, the conductor’s, or the brakeman’s bill for a day’s work
is going to be. If a man is delayed on a road by the negligence of
a fellow employee, the company will have to pay for the extra time.
If he makes a straight trip, with one or two stops, he has a certain
rate; if in the performance of his duties he is called upon to make an
extra stop or to pick up a car of perishable goods, he will call for a
special rate and much more money. His day’s trip frequently bristles
with possibilities in the way of special rates and overtime. In the
matter of overtime, he may have the opportunity to be just or unjust,
as it pleases him; anyway, the company is at his mercy. Again, if at
the end of a hundred-mile run, or thereabouts, for which an engineman
would receive from four to five dollars, he is requested to take his
engine out on the road again and move a car a distance of twenty feet,
he will turn in his bill to the company for a greater amount than a
gate-tender or a switchman would receive for his whole day’s work, from
six in the morning until six at night, without a minute for meals.
Again, if a man gets into trouble, he is called into the office for an
investigation. If it turns out that the accident was unquestionably
the fault of the employee, he, of course, is liable to be disciplined
for it in some way; but if as a result of the accident, the whole road
is tied up for twelve hours, and he remains on duty half a day longer
than his usual time, he will receive payment for this overtime in full,
regardless of the fact that he himself was wholly responsible for the
delay.
Far from criticising this state of affairs, I consider the
demonstration I have given of the exact status of the railroad man
at the present day a magnificent tribute to righteous and necessary
organization. Up to this point the public has had no cause to complain,
and discipline has not been interfered with. The treasury has borne
the whole burden. While it is doubtless true that the liberal terms
and concessions to which I refer have been brought about, so to
speak, at the point of the bayonet, nevertheless many privileges and
advantages are enjoyed by railroad men, which cannot be said to owe
their origin to compulsion or pressure of any kind. The care shown by
nearly all railroads for the welfare of the employee, and the millions
of dollars that have been expended for his social and intellectual
betterment, must also be taken as direct evidence of square and honest
treatment. To combat the evils of the saloon, and in the interest of
good citizenship, both on and off the railroad, the corporations have
gone extensively and expensively into the construction and maintenance
of reading-rooms and hospitals, as well as relief, savings, and loan
associations. There is, indeed, a fine sense of business judgment
hidden away in these different methods of looking after the interests
of the employees, and there is hardly a road in the country that
does not recognize the principle that to obtain competent, trained
assistants, especially in the operating department, it is essential
that the men be surrounded with all sorts of inducements to remain in
the service, and to be loyal to the interests of their employers. This
philanthropic and betterment work is to be found on all railroads, and
conspicuously so on the Baltimore & Ohio. The following particulars
of relief and betterment work on the above railroad may be taken as a
lesson of what corporations with souls are doing in the interests of
employees.
Membership in the Relief Department of the Baltimore & Ohio is
compulsory on the part of all employed in the direct operation of
the road. The employees themselves have part in the direction of the
affairs of the organization. The company makes all collections and
payments, under its guarantee of responsibility for every penny coming
into or going out through its hands. The company also pledges itself to
pay four per cent interest on the monthly balances of current accounts;
no charge is made for office rent, and all the facilities of the road
are at command, without cost. Operating expenditure is thus reduced
to a minimum, and upon transactions during the year 1906-1907, which
represented a million dollars distributed in benefits, the expense
averaged but a dollar and sixty-eight cents per capita of membership.
The aggregate of the benefits paid from the founding of the Relief to
the close of the year 1906-1907, was thirteen millions of dollars.
The Baltimore & Ohio plan for pension payments, in vogue for the past
twenty-three years, is in conjunction with the Relief Department, but
is not, as that is, maintained by the contributions of employees. The
pension system is maintained entirely by the company, which contributes
for the purpose about $90,000 annually. During the year 1906-1907 the
fund paid in pensions was over $95,000, to about 400 pensioners.
Since its inauguration in 1884, there has been paid out in pensions,
$1,008,000.
Again, the foundation of two other features--Savings and Loan--in the
Baltimore & Ohio dates back a full quarter of a century. The Savings
is strictly a trust fund, around it being thrown the unequivocal
protection of the United States government in the decision handed down
by its courts. Of course this is understood by employee-depositors;
consequently there is absolute confidence. There are no runs, no
anxiety as to savings, and no fear that what has been laid aside for a
rainy day will be risked. Meantime, upon it the company is guaranteeing
four per cent and earnings; the interest and dividend returns thus
amount to never less than five and sometimes five and a half per
cent. The total of the savings deposits to June 30, 1907, reached
eight and a half million dollars, and interest and dividends paid to
employee-depositors to that time came to a million and a half dollars.
The Baltimore & Ohio loan feature is still more remarkable. The object
is to enable the employees to own their own homes. All are real-estate
transactions, and it is a remarkable fact that the administration
of this feature, throughout twenty-five years, has been entirely
without appreciable loss on any single investment. Employee-borrowers
have entered into personal obligations representing the building of
two thousand houses and the purchase of three thousand homesteads.
The transactions of the loan section to June 30 represented six and
three-quarter millions of dollars, when there was also a million and a
quarter in the treasury, upon which the company’s guarantee of four per
cent held good.
Rest-houses are another form through which welfare work in the direct
interest of the employee is carried on as part of the regular operation
of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad. The aim is to furnish a comfortable
and convenient place, open at all hours, to the employee coming in from
his run, whose first want is a bath, with plenty of hot water, and
subsequently a restful bed. The work carried on by the Railroad Y. M.
C. A. is of a similar nature. The old-time dark cabooses, dingy freight
cars, and decrepit coaches, serving as night-holes into which to crawl
for the sleeping hours till the time for the next run, are now nothing
but an unpleasant memory. The Railroad Y. M. C. A., with its commodious
lounging-rooms, bright and airy dining-rooms, clean lunch-counters,
well-appointed kitchens, billiard rooms and bowling alleys, general
assembly halls, libraries, attractive bedrooms and baths, is the
practical exemplification to-day of the fitness of things. The
disbursements of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad for these purposes have
in single years exceeded fifty thousand dollars, and every penny is
profitably expended from the purely business standpoint. Bettering the
man betters his work.
Furthermore, incident to the administration of the Relief Department,
the company, through a corps of medical examiners and surgeons, closely
supervises the health of its employees and the sanitary conditions of
the places where their duties are performed. This corps is in charge
of a chief surgeon and chief medical examiner, both prominent in their
professions; and although the number of men in their charge exceeds
forty thousand, any complicated or persistent disability of an employee
secures the personal supervision of the chief surgeon.
This is surely a remarkable demonstration of what one corporation is
doing, and has done, for the benefit of its employees. It is very
doubtful if any government or any other industrial institution in the
world can show any such record, and one which extends over such a long
term of years. Fair and humane treatment of employees cannot be carried
any further.