THE WORLD OF THE TRANSPORTATION MEN
“Here, boss, jes’ take fo’ dollars’ worth of ride out of this here
bill.” This was the response of an old Negro riding on a Southern
train when asked for his ticket by the conductor. Without a word the
conductor gave him the change from a ten dollar bill and a ticket to
tuck into his hat and which allowed him to ride to a town approximately
two hundred miles distant. When the train reached its destination
the old Negro began to fumble in his pockets and then he picked up
his bundles and slowly got off. Three hours later, as a train coming
in the opposite direction stopped at the station, the same Negro got
aboard, paid his fare back to the starting-point and arrived early in
the morning. Going up the street he met the judge of the district, who
said to him, “Hello, John, what are you doing out so early? Where have
you been?” “I ain’t been nowhere, Judge; I jes’ been doing a little
traveling.” This is not an isolated case by any means. I told this
story as I had heard it to a conductor on another road and he said it
was a very common thing to have fifteen or twenty white people as well
as Negroes “ride out” the mileage covered by a five dollar bill.
The American is the most restless person in the world. We are always on
the move and a large amount of our traveling is purposeless. We simply
travel because we like to be going somewhere. This trait in us is a
survival from a long past age in man’s development. This primitive love
of change is strengthened by the economic pressure under which most of
us live. Early man wandered from place to place in search of his food.
Modern man does the same, the only difference being that he does not
now look for his food ready to his hand, but looks for a place to work,
so that he can earn money with which to buy his food. “We have been
married twelve years,” said a vivacious little lady, “and I have lived
in six states. It seems that my husband is always getting a chance to
better our condition, and we both have come to look forward to a move
about every two years. If we just live long enough, we will have lived
in every state in the Union.”
But transportation as we understand it to-day refers to the moving
of freight, express, and mail, as well as to the moving of men and
women. Man himself was the original burden-bearer and became the first
transportation system, carrying combined freight and express. He simply
took his bundle on his shoulders and used his legs as the means of
moving from one place to another. Then he used other men to help carry
his loads. There has been much speculation as to how the stones used in
the building of the Great Pyramids were brought to the desert and put
into place. Many theories have been advanced. One of the latest is that
the Pyramids are made of concrete and that they were poured rather than
quarried. However the material was secured, or in whatever way the work
was accomplished, we can be sure of one thing and that is that all of
the material was carried by men. They were the slaves of Pharaoh and
this was the usual form of the transportation system of Egypt. There
were auxiliary lines which employed camels, asses, and some horses; but
the slave was the principal carrier just as he is in Africa to-day. The
rivers and the oceans were used as highways of travel, but the boats
were very crude affairs and the slaves chained to the seats and pulling
on heavy oars formed the motive power. The oars were made in graduated
lengths, one bank above another. The three-tiered Roman boat was known
as the trireme and it was the great-grandfather of the ocean liners
with their triple screws. It is a long development from the primitive
methods of travel and burden-bearing in the early days of Egypt to the
great transcontinental railway lines and the ocean steamships of our
day!
=Progress and Transportation.= The word progress carries within it the
implication that there is a road over which the race of men is passing.
The roadmaker has always been the pioneer of civilization. The advent
of steam and the perfecting of railroads marks a period of development
throughout civilization itself. Some one has said that it would be
far more interesting and informing concerning the facts that will
transpire in the next one hundred years, if we could see the railroad
map showing all the transportation lines in the different continents to
be published in the year 2018, than if we could have a map that would
simply show the national boundaries. A nation may be compared to a
human body. The railroad lines are the arteries along which flows the
life-blood of the nation. Industry is the center of a nation’s life,
and it pumps commerce over the rails and thus keeps the body growing
and in a healthful state.
=Age of the Engineer.= The great world war has been characterized in
many ways, but perhaps the best characterization of all is that it
is an engineers’ war. Eliminate the work of the engineers, civil and
mechanical, from this war and it could not have been fought. For that
matter the last seventy-five years of the world’s history has belonged
to the engineers. Ninety per cent. of all our comforts, conveniences,
and practical achievements is due to their work, and what wonders
have been wrought in this time! The engineer has accomplished more in
the field of transportation than in any other realm. Transportation,
represented by the railroads, the steamships, the automobiles, and the
better roads that have been built to accommodate them, makes up the
chief differences between our age and all those ages preceding.
=The Railway Systems.= There is being operated in the United States at
the present time 230,000 miles of railroads. The mileage which they
cover if stretched about the earth would belt the globe nine times.
The total mileage for the whole world is about 700,000; all of Europe
has 215,140 miles. The United States and Canada together have almost
half the total mileage of the world and as much as all of Europe and
Asia combined. In 1915 the railroads of the United States carried
976,303,602 passengers and moved 1,802,018,177 tons of freight. The
railway companies employed 1,654,075 men and women. The average hourly
pay for these workers, figured on the basis of the eight-hour day,
is twenty-six cents. Railroading is a most difficult and dangerous
occupation, and yet there is something in the work itself that appeals
to the worker. “Once a railroad man, always a railroad man,” as one
brakeman put it.
There was a railroad wreck on the Southern Pacific line just south of
Livermore, California, some years ago. The engine fell over into a
creek and the engineer was caught underneath, and pressed down into
the soft sand. It was eighteen hours before he was rescued; his chest
was crushed and he was horribly burned but by some miracle he lived.
The railway company gave him a pension in recognition of his faithful
services of about twelve years, and he was able to live on the income
without working. This invalided engineer was idle for almost ten
months; he then went back to the company and asked to be put on an
engine again. He was not considered strong enough to run a passenger
engine, but was supremely happy when put in charge of a switch engine
in the train-yards of Sacramento. He said, “It was the happiest day of
my life when I pulled the throttle, and again felt the engine begin to
move out under my touch and control.”
=Casualty Lists.= In the year 1916, the steam railways of the United
States injured 196,722 people and killed 10,001. The electric railways
for the same period injured 4,606 and killed 518. Of these persons,
4,928 were killed while riding as passengers, or while at work in the
performance of their tasks. The remainder were killed while walking
upon the railway tracks or in other ways trespassing.
One bitter cold day a Lackawanna train from New York going to Buffalo
was nearing a little village near Binghamton when the brakeman,
muffling up his ears, stepped out on the rear platform to be ready to
signal as the train stopped at the near-by crossing. The train stopped
and then gave four blasts on the whistle calling in the brakeman. There
was a delay and the conductor went back to find out why the brakeman
did not come, but could not see him anywhere down the line. The train
was late and running badly, so instead of backing up to look for the
brakeman, the conductor gave orders for the train to go ahead and
reported the fact at the next station. Two stations beyond word reached
him that the body of the brakeman had been found beside the track. He
had stepped out on the rear platform just as the train rounded a curve
and the platform being slippery he lost his footing and was thrown off
and killed instantly. The brakeman’s family was protected because he
was engaged in interstate commerce, but one more human being was lost
in the performance of his daily task. The inventions such as patent
coupling devices, block signals, and the vestibule cars, have done
away with a great many accidents, but in the very nature of the case,
there will always be danger in the work done by the men who operate our
trains.
=The Human Factor.= The railroads of the country are made as safe as
possible by installing wonderful devices which work automatically.
The tracks are inspected, old ties replaced by new ones; bolts are
tested, yet in spite of all the excellent devices to secure safety,
accidents occur in sickening succession. An entire circus company was
recently wiped out by an accident on the Michigan Central Railroad. The
members of the circus were nearly all asleep when a train from the rear
plunged through their cars killing nearly one hundred and injuring
over one hundred others. The wreckage caught fire and many of the
bodies were cremated. Reports would indicate that this accident was one
of those unavoidable things that happen so often in railroading.
Experiences in speaking before groups of railroad men prove that the
question of danger is always before the minds of the workers. These men
literally carry their lives in their hands. For after all, no matter
how perfectly the track may be laid, and in spite of the fact that
the signals are all set, there is always the human factor to be taken
into consideration. The flagman may not go back far enough from the
train that is stopped so that the one following can be brought to a
halt before crashing into the train ahead. Another thing that enters
into the situation is the fact that men who are working surrounded
by constant perils are likely to become careless. “I carry with me a
sense of responsibility for the life of every man, woman, and child who
rides on my train.” This was the statement of a conscientious railroad
engineer. “But,” he continued, “I am in constant fear that my train
will be wrecked through the carelessness of somebody else.” This man
recognized a need that is essential in securing safety in traveling
on our railroads, that is, a sense of corporate responsibility; by
this we mean, that the entire group of men, all the workers and all of
those who are responsible for the operation of the roads should feel
the same sense of responsibility that the individual engineer feels.
To secure this condition the railroad companies must realize that they
are dealing with human beings; and that the men who furnish the human
element in the railroad equation are entitled to a voice and a share
in the management of the line.
=Wages and Hours of Work.= When the railroad employees threatened to
strike in 1917 and asked for an eight-hour day and an increase of
wages, there was a great deal of discussion as to whether the companies
or the men were in the right. Most people sided with the companies
against the men, because there is an idea among the people that the
railroad men are the best paid employees in any of our industries.
Contrary to the general understanding, the railroad employees for the
most part are not well paid. The government has recognized the need for
increased wages and has made advances to nearly all classes of railway
employees since federal control went into effect. The average rate for
a normal day’s work for engineers in the freight service throughout the
eastern territory is $4.85, conductors $4, brakemen $2.67, and firemen
$3.25. These are the best paid of all the railroad employees. Tower
men, who have in their care the lives of millions of passengers as they
protect crossings, receive from $40 to $50 a month. Telegraphers, train
dispatchers, track inspectors, and other employees, outside of the four
great brotherhoods, made up of the engineers, conductors, brakemen, and
firemen, are very poorly paid. And even the wages for the best paid and
most skilful operators, the brakeman and the fireman, for instance, are
so low that it means that in order to earn a living wage they must make
a great deal through overtime.
The effect of this low wage is shown in the number of employees who are
changed every year. In the first nine months of 1917 in the eastern
territory three men were employed for every one job filled. This is
known as the turn-over in employment and it is unusually high because
the wages are below standard, the hours long, and the work hard and
dangerous. There is a continual change in the operating forces and a
consequent lack of efficiency. Another consideration to be taken into
account in studying the wages and lives of railway workers is that of
the effect of the work upon the workers. An engineer must put in years
as a fireman before he can secure the right to run an engine, and then
a dozen or fifteen years is about the length of time that he can depend
on keeping his job. He is fortunate indeed if he earns a good wage for
this length of time. The wear and tear on muscles, nerves, eyes, ears,
kidneys, and heart is almost certain to break down the strongest body
in a few years. Some few men stand the strain and hold on for twenty
years but these are the rare exceptions.
=Fictitious Values and the Railways.= The railroad business deals in
a commodity that may be termed public service. Almost more than any
other business it is dependent for success upon the good-will of the
public. The earnings of the railroads have been enormous and even if
their operating expenses are high, there have been big profits made,
and these profits have been taken up to a large extent in paying
dividends upon fictitious values. This is the most serious situation
that threatens the railroad system of the United States. For instance,
a road is built and a certain amount of money put into the equipment
and rolling stock, such as engines, coaches, and freight-cars. The
employees are hired and the road begins to do business as a regular
passenger and freight carrier. Out of its total receipts it must pay a
fixed amount for up-keep, for new equipment, and for wages, besides the
interest on the money it has borrowed. The balance that is left from
the amount of money received by the road and the amount it must pay out
marks its own profits. This is given to the owners of the road.
For many years the railroads felt that they needed special legislation;
and money was spent in buying up legislators, in corrupting city
councils, and in gaining the influence of noted men who would agree
to return certain favors to the road for certain concessions given. A
common practise in connection with this was the giving of free passes
to all statesmen and newspaper men. In addition to this the railroad
property became valuable as a factor in the stock market, and new stock
was continually being issued. This stock would be sold and in many
cases no new equipment put into the road, so that at the present time
some of the railroads of the United States have three or four times as
much stock as they have actual physical value for their stock.
A good illustration of this business situation would be that you
as owner of a house worth $4,000 should make or form a cooperative
housekeeping company and sell shares in this new company, basing the
value of the total amount of shares upon the $4,000 that the house
is worth. You could sell forty shares each for $100. This would be
perfectly legitimate and a good business transaction, because at any
time every share would have back of it one-fortieth of the total value
of the house. But suppose instead of selling forty shares, you should
capitalize your house at $40,000 and sell 400 shares at $100 a piece,
instead of the forty shares. The extra valuation would be known as
watered stock, because there would be no real value attached to it. You
would be selling something that neither you nor anybody else possessed.
It is said that the term watered stock came from the practise of one
of the early financiers who brought cattle from the West to sell in
the New York market when New York was a very small city. He drove the
cattle a long distance on the last day, and then gave them salt the
night before arrival, so that they were inordinately thirsty. Just
before they were sold and weighed he would let them drink all the water
they wanted, so that the man who bought them was paying for a great
deal of water in addition to the actual amount of beef he received.
The result of this financial device known as watered stock has been
disastrous for many of our railway companies, and the plight of the
United States railroads has been a scandal for years.
=Regulating the Railroads.= The legislature of nearly every state
has tried to remedy the railway situation. The commissions in the
various states have frequently found themselves in each other’s way.
The Interstate Commerce Commission appointed by the United States
government for the purpose of regulating railroads is one of the most
efficient bodies in the entire government and has rendered remarkable
services. The citizens of the United States are individualists and
believe strongly in letting each business adjust its own difficulties
as best it can. With the growth of the world commerce without, and
the development of the country’s trade within, however, many men are
coming to believe that the only way out of difficulties is through a
larger degree of government control, tending finally to government
ownership of all the means of transportation. The strongest argument in
favor of government ownership is the success of the Interstate Commerce
Commission. During the last ten years there has come about a very
radical change in the relations existing between the various railways
and the general public. During the period between 1850 and 1900 the
railways were masters of the situation; and the financiers who built
and operated them were despots, more or less benevolent or the opposite
according to their personal temperaments. The railway presidents
during that period really regarded their roads as private property
to be managed as they saw fit. This theory built up a great railroad
system in the country, but the theory is not big enough to meet the new
national demands that are put upon the common carriers of the day. The
railroads are now pleading with the public to recognize them as public
institutions primarily interested in serving the people.
[Illustration:
Press Illustrating Service.
In New York harbor and on other waterways, living upon the canal-boats
and barges, are the families of the workers.]
=Railroads and Churches.= The railroad situation is too complicated
for us to attempt a solution of it in a church study class. It will
demand years of experimentation and a degree of personal service on
the part of the best and ablest men of our nation. What the church can
and must do is to try to estimate the value of the principles that are
involved in the railroad development and management. This can be done
by following the story of the railroad as told by the writers in the
public magazines of the last ten years. The history of our railroad
legislation is also available for us in the records of the Interstate
Commerce Commission. Each study group should write to Washington and
get the literature issued by this commission. Much of it will be
found to be dry reading, being largely a compilation of statistics;
and these statistics dealing in figures so large that they mean very
little to us. The recommendations, however, and the conclusions are of
practical value and will be found to be extremely helpful in the wise
and just conclusion regarding our attitude toward the railroad as a
national institution.
=Other Means of Transportation.= The work of the men engaged in
transportation is not by any means confined to the workers on the
railroads. In our cities there are thousands of men employed on the
street-cars, elevated railroads, and subway railways. The interurban
traction lines employ hundreds of thousands of men. A careful study has
been made of the situation affecting these workers by the Department
of Labor of the United States, and its report is based upon facts
ascertained from actual conditions found in all the principal cities
of the country. Without exception the street-car men, including
conductors, motormen, linesmen, and ticket-sellers, are poorly paid.
Many of the cities are paying the men much less than a living wage.
What do you know about the conditions in the street-cars in your own
city? Where do the men who operate these cars live? What about their
families? A motorman on one of the elevated railway lines of Chicago
shot himself a few years ago. The note he left said: “I have four
children and it is impossible with the rising cost of living for me
to maintain my home on $2.12 a day. I have a Life Insurance policy
for $2,000 and this is worth more to my wife and children than I earn
at present.” The street-car lines in most of our cities are owned and
controlled by capitalists living in some other city, and they are
operated, not for the benefit of the city, but simply for profits. The
frequent strikes on the street-car lines are the direct result of this
foolish policy of our cities of allowing themselves to be exploited
by groups of business men who have no interest in the city, but hold
toward it, its citizens, and its own workers, the attitude of a set
of political and social freebooters. A few places only have attempted
municipal ownership, and in these cases it has met with a large
measure of success. The lines owned and operated by the San Francisco
municipality have proved so successful that the business men are all
enthusiastic over the policy.
Another group that aids in providing transportation is made up of
the men on boats on the lakes, rivers, and canals; those who come to
our shores from other nations traveling by sea in foreign boats; the
sailors on our merchant marine; and the thousands of workers on the
docks and lighters in our harbors. In connection with this great work,
Andrew Furuseth, president of the International Seamen’s Union, stands
out as a remarkable figure. He is a Scandinavian by birth, and worked
his way up from the simple life of a sailor before the mast until he is
now the best known sailor in all the world. Mr. Furuseth has a great
heart, and has fought long and hard for his fellow workers; he might
be rich to-day, but as head of the union he accepts only the pay of a
first-class seaman and is literally giving his life for others. At a
meeting of the City Club in Rochester which he addressed some years
ago, one of the gentlemen present turned to his companion and said:
“Just look at Furuseth. In every line of his face there is written a
chapter of the tragedy and pathos of the men who go down to the sea in
ships.”
The sailor has been practically a prisoner always. When he signed his
work papers he put himself under the control of an absolute autocrat.
Until recently the master of a ship at sea recognized no authority
greater than himself, and when the boat landed at any port, no matter
what the treatment might have been, the seaman could not desert,
otherwise he would be arrested and imprisoned. Furuseth protested
against this inhuman treatment, and through a long period of years kept
demanding that seamen, “the last slaves” as he called them, be made
free. Finally his efforts were successful and on March, 1915, there was
approved by the Congress of the United States an Act which promotes the
welfare of the American seaman in the merchant marine. It abolishes
arrest and imprisonment for desertion, and it secured the abrogation
of treaty provisions between the different nations which guaranteed
that American sailors would be treated as felons if they deserted in a
foreign port. It also provided additional safety at sea for all persons
upon a boat; one of its provisions being that there shall be carried on
every passenger-carrying steamer or sailing vessel enough life-boats
so that each passenger and each man of the crew will have a seat and
a chance for escape in case of an accident. It is interesting to note
that this Act was passed as a direct result of the sinking of the
_Titanic_.
=The World of the Transportation Men.= The transportation men live in a
world apart. How many sailors do you know? How many street-car men? How
many railroaders? Have you ever wondered where the conductor on the
street-car upon which you ride so often lives? “Yes, we have a little
church, but it is over across the tracks where the railroad men live,
and I always attend the Presbyterian Church here.” This was the excuse
given by a gentleman for not attending the church of the denomination
to which he had belonged before he moved into a new community near
Chicago. We do not want a church to be known as the Railroad Men’s
Church or the Sailors’ Church or the Street-Car Workers’ Church. This
is not the way to be the best kind of a neighbor. What we do want is
for the church everywhere to take an interest in these men who are
providing for our transportation and also carrying the necessities
of life for all the world. We come into personal relationships with
many of them in a business way, and they all do much to add to our
wealth, our happiness, and our comfort. We in turn as individuals and
as members of the church should acquaint ourselves with the conditions
surrounding them.
For instance, in the waters of the New York harbor, living upon the
canal-boats which move in and out carrying coal, hay, and other rough
freight, are the families of the workers, and in these families there
are approximately 5,000 children. They are at one place to-day and
another place to-morrow. These people have no citizenship in the best
sense of the word. Many of the men do not vote because they live in
no locality long enough to register. The questions of schooling, of
church privileges, and of all social contact are serious ones. Yet how
many people in New York City, or for that matter in any of the smaller
towns and villages where these boats land, have ever once thought of
the status and social conditions of these men, and women, and their
children? Things we know. The things which the boats and the railroads
carry and that other thing that looms so large, the profits that are
made from transportation, are regarded as very important; but we have
paid scant attention to the men who produce things and carry them from
place to place.