Shorter Hours for Switch Engineers.

NEW YORK CITY, June 1, 1905. EDITOR JOURNAL: I noticed that some one has started the subject of a shorter day, and it ought to be pushed. Brothers, the 12-hour day in these modern times at practically the same pay that you got thirty years ago, with all the necessities of life advanced, something should be done to better our cause. You all know that there is no trade or profession where so many good qualities are demanded of a man as of the engineer of today; it does not matter whether he is a switch engineer or a passenger engineer, he must be sober and reliable and intelligent. Switch engine service is not what it was even ten years ago. Then it was considered a good job, and it was, and a man had little cause for complaining, but it is vastly different today. It was not a constant routine of work all day and he did not have to stand on his feet for 12 long hours, if he got tired he could sit down and run the engine just the same, but the switch engines today are different and it is absolutely impossible to sit down and operate the engine, and I want to say that after a man puts in 12 hours pulling reverse levers and stretching half his body out the cab window to catch a signal and watch switches and be held responsible for all that occurs, when 6 o'clock comes he is beginning to look for relief.

The President of the United States has recommended to Congress that the railroad man's hours of service should be shortened, and in view of these facts, let us recommend to the railroad companiesthe shorter work day.

Through the advantages and opportunities secured to the workers by reducing the daily hours of excessive toil, education and good government have progressed. The shorter work day has made the individual worker better and more healthful, morally and physically; it has given to the workers the opportunity to avail themselves of the advantages of our modern facilities for knowledge; but so far, railroad men are not enjoying these advantages.

Reduce the daily hours of labor of the railroad man and it will give him time and opportunity for self development along higher and useful lines; it will give him opportunity to enjoy the comforts of home and his family, and the home will be happier and more healthful and the environment of his children improved.

Brother, don't stand back of the roundhouse and in the oil room, and say that you can't see what the Brotherhood has ever done. Don't blame the Brotherhood, but blame yourself, and let me say that if you will all do less talking in these places, and more in the Division room, our labors will be crowned with success, and a shorter day will come.

Believing in a standard scale and shorter hours, I am,

Fraternally yours,

VANDERBILT DIV. 145.

The Inglewood Club- Echo of the Convention.

BOSTON, MASS., May 29, 1905. EDITOR JOURNAL: On Saturday evening, May 20, in Engineers' Hall, Boston, was held the First Annual Reunion of the Inglewood Club, composed of the Brothers, Sisters, and their families who made the trip from Boston and vicinity to Los Angeles to attend the convention of last year. Thirty-two of the members were present, and with the invited guests made a party of thirty-six, who at eight o'clock sat down to an excellent supper furnished by Dill & Co. of Boston. After the Divine blessing had been asked by Grand Chaplain Dority, all did ample justice to the varied and abundant menu which only Dill can furnish with his gentlemanly and attentive staff of waiters. The table laid with forty covers was beautifully and profusely decorated with flowers by Feinstien of Boston, who also furnished roses for the ladies and boutonnières for the gentlemen, and also music for the occasion.

After the supper remarks were made by Brother Dority, and after a poem written for the occasion by the Corresponding Secretary was read, each one related some pleasant incident of the trip to the

"Golden State." The remainder of the evening was spent in renewing acquaintances of a year ago and pleasant exchange of greetings, and after a vote to hold our next reunion early in next year, the club adjourned with many a hearty handclasp and "God bless you," with a vote of thanks to President Mitchell for his efforts in making the reunion the success it

was.

We were sorry that all of the party who made the trip to California could not be present, five being absent, and also that Mr. Furgeson of General Manager Barr's office, Mr. Batchelder of the Pullman Co., and Mr. Robinson of the General Ticket office, with their ladies (our invited guests), were prevented by sickness and other causes from being with us.

The officers of the Club elected for the coming year were Brother Mitchell, Pres. ; Vice-Pres., Sister Chase; Sec., Sister Getchell; re-elected Chaplain, Bro. Dority, Cor. Sec., Bro. Wardwell.

Fraternally yours, N. H. B. WARDWELL, Cor. Sec. Inglewood Club.

A National Legislative Board.

GREAT FALLS, MONT., May 3, 1905. EDITOR JOURNAL: In these times of agitation for so many and such radical reforms of government, it is not reasonable to presume that railway employees will be awake to their interests and use their influence in a way that will secure and maintain legislation that will give them adequate protection, both from cunning politicians and railway corporations. The present agitation by politicians for increasing the powers of the Interstate Commerce Commission should be carefully studied by all railway employees.

Before giving that commission further power would it not be well to look to the use they are making of the power they now have? As railway employees, would it not be reasonable to expect a decrease in the number of railway men killed and injured? Each year adds an increase in number to the already appalling list. Would increasing the powers of the com

mission so they may make rates, reduce the number of railway men killed and injured? I do not think that it will appeal to railway men in that light. Five per cent. of the men killed and injured in railway accidents on American railways can be traced to two causes-an over desire by the railway companies to reduce expense and the long hours engine and trainmen are required to remain on duty without rest.

The rates upon American railways are one-half lower than the rates upon railways in Europe. Their death and injury is a mite when compared with that suffered upon American railways. The question now confronts us: What should our line of action be?

I am of the opinion we should have a legislative board in every state. At present there are only twelve. Should we stop there? A National Board should be perfected whereby every congressman and federal senator could be reached. It appears to me that our Assistant Grand Chief Engineers could lend valuable aid along these lines in organizing state legislative boards in their respective districts.

The agitation to clothe the Interstate Commerce Commission with authority to make rates is dangerous in the extremean incentive to graft, which now dominates with the finished politicians. If railway rates are reduced, railway companies will try to meet the cut by a further reduction of expense in the operating of railway, which is now below the danger line and has caused many a disastrous wreck to railway property and railway employees.

If any reform along these lines is feasible, the government ownership of railways is the solution of the problem. That politicians should be vested with such powers is a proposition that every railway man should use his ballot against.

The first report of the Railroad Brotherhood Joint Legislative Board of Montana has recently been distributed to members in Montana; a copy has been sent the Grand Divisions and Grand Lodges. They are of some length and speak for them

selves. However, I believe a brief outline here will be fitting.

In pursuance to call by Divisions and lodges of Great Falls, a board was organized in Helena, May 18, 1904. T. F. Richardson, a member of O. R. C. Div. No. 356, Great Falls, was elected Chair

man.

Brother Richardson was the prime mover in the cause, and the railway employees in Montana can never repay Brother Richardson for what he has done for them in this cause.

Many attempts were made by individual members to have an adequate liability law passed for railway employees in Montana. Failure in securing one led up to the organizing of the board. Early in the campaign union meetings were held. At some points railway employees' Non-Partisan Clubs were organized. All railway employees joined clubs and rendered much valuable assistance. Primary and party conventions were attended, nominations for seven members of our orders for state legislators were secured and six were elected.

A liability bill as drafted and approved by the legislative board was the first bill to become a law at the Ninth Session of the Montana Legislature. A bill providing protection to trainmen who are required to give bonds was also enacted into law. A bill providing for rest for engine and trainmen after fifteen hours on duty, also a bill providing for the maintaining of telltales for all structures in close proximity to tracks and restricting future construction of obstructions in close proximity to tracks were killed. The fifteen hour bill was killed by opposition of Brotherhood men on the N. P. Ry. This bill was not approved by the board, as vote was tie in board.

The members of the Joint Board are satisfied that were it not for the action of conducting the campaign on the nonpartisan plan and having our members on the floor of the house, all efforts of the board would have been defeated. That the non-partisan plan is a remedy whereby the railway men can secure such legislation as will give them a square deal from all, if they will by their

ballot proclaim to the finished politician and railway managers alike that voting the machine-made ballot is a dead number with them.

The man who is friendly to their interests is the man who will receive their united support, regardless of party affiliations. Fraternally yours, JIM O'RILEY, Vice Chr. R. R. Bro. J. L. B. of Montana.

A Social and Citizenship Unit.

It has been a long time since the writer has attempted to furnish anything for the columns of the JOURNAL, but in looking over a recent Railroad Telegrapher, I was attracted by an article entitled, "The Social or Citizenship Unit," wherein the author says:

Joy becomes more difficult to obtain, less handy in proportion to the luxury and comfort brought by the increased complexities of our modern civilization and modern refinement brings discontent, & craving for more luxuries and wealth."

It is an old saying, "Our fathers builded better than they knew," and that is certainly true of the founders of our Brotherhood, for there is not a shadow of doubt that our organization has exceeded their wildest dreams as regards its future prosperity when they laid the cornerstone upon which was to be reared the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers. That there was associated with this movement a feeling of real joy, no sane man will attempt to deny, for they were actuated by the very motive that would prompt just such a sense of pleasure, and if it had been devoid of this sentiment there would have been no incentive to attempt to establish or maintain the object they had in view, namely: "The elevation of their particular profession." It would appear in a large degree that we are drifting away from the highest motive that should govern and control our actions as members of an organization we all profess to love and admire. What we want to avoid is the spirit of commercialism that is largely disrupting our modern home life, and what effects that

is just as surely to run into the other conditions concerning our every-day business life.

The spirit of greed and avarice largely predominates to the exclusion of every other virtue, where true love, joy and respect for each other's welfare should be the object of every member of the Brotherhood. If increased wealth and prosperity are going to drive out all our oldtime devotion, then it is time to return to the first principle that attended the founding of our organization, when every one felt an individual interest in the future welfare of each other and the association they were attempting to create. The matter of real and sincere affection for our Brotherhood should be paramount to every other issue.. It should never be forgotten that this is the one immutable bond that should hold us together and guide and control us in all that pertains to our interests as locomotive engineers and our families.

The writer, in regard to the Social Unit, speaks very clearly as to the increased wealth and the so-called modern refinement of the day in certain circles, where true joy is driven out of the home, where the little folks dare not do this and dare not do that, must not sit on this or that chair, everything in the home is more valuable than the glittering sunbeams of a holy and rapturous joy that should illumine every nook and corner of the home. God grant the day will never come in our grand old home of the B. of L. E. when increased pay, preferred runs and seniority will extinguish the old-time flame of true joy that should burn day and night, not only on every consecrated altar of our different divisions, but in the heart of every true lover of our fraternity. Let the principle of genuine fellowship control our every action; let the highest and best possible standard of manhood be maintained, then every mercenary and unbrotherly motive will disappear like the mist before the morning sun, and in their place we will find that joy which is essential to true happiness in all conditions of life.

D. EVERETT, T. G. E.

At the Launching of the Milwaukee.

When I went to see the launching of the cruiser "Milwaukee" at the Union Iron Works in San Francisco, last September, I met young Orlando Skimpton of Punkin Hollow, Tulare County, who was seeing the sights of a large city for the first time. Some of us mountaineers are pretty verdant, but Orlando was very unsophisticated indeed. And for the sake of old recollections of Punkin Hollow, I truly hope that during his stay in the city he was not lassoed by the mountain police of Golden Gate Park and turned into a paddock along with the deer and the elk and the buffalo.

We met by chance. Half an hour or so before the launching took place Orlando wandered into the shipyard to where I was standing on the wharf and boldly accosted me. His face wore a puzzled expression. "Say, what's goin' on in here?" he inquired. "I jumped off a street car and followed the crowd in to see the excitement, but I don't see nothin' in here to get in a sweat about. Look at all the people on them steamboat ships out in the ocean yonder,”—Orlando thought the bay was the ocean-"what did they come here fur?"

"Wait a few moments and you'll see," I replied. "Maybe there'll be a boat race."

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'Oh, I guess they've come to watch 'em build that big ship over there," said Orlando shrewdly. "My! they're doin' a lot of hammerin' and maulin' on it, ain't they? I'll bet i'll take 'em all day to build that ship. By the time they put on the masts and smokestacks and a house for the passengers it'll be night."

During the wait Orlando told me all about himself, and wound up with the information that he expected to be married within two weeks-in fact, that was the reason why he had taken a trip to San Francisco. The fact is, however paradoxical it may seem, Orlando was taking his wedding trip before he was married. He said he had long contemplated going on a wedding tour after his marriage, but as time rolled around and

the happy day drew nigh he realized that if he waited until after the wedding his prospective bride, Melindy, might want to go with him, and he was afraid that he wouldn't have enough money to pay the expenses of both, so he thought he'd better skip out and go alone while he was still single and had the money to pay his

own way.

"Won't Melindy think it kind of mean of you not to share with her the pleasures of your trip?" I asked.

"Oh, she won't keer," said Orlando. "She'll be glad to hear I've had a good time. Why, I expect after I go home her and her folks'll want me to stay to their house a week to hear me give an account of my journey. Her paw and maw has often said they could sit up all night listenin' to me tell of my adventures."

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Then the 'Milwaukee" started down her ways, the fair maiden from Wisconsin performed the christening ceremony,andto quote the daily newspapers-amid the waving of flags, the blowing of sirens and the cheering of the assembled thousands, the huge fighting machine glided gracefully and majestically into the bay-thus adding to our glorious navy one more brave defender of a nation's honor and prestige.

It was a thrilling sight. Yet among all the vast throng there was one person who didn't appreciate the event. The "Milwaukee" no sooner struck the water than Orlando grabbed me by the arm and exclaimed:

"Hey! look at that, will you: If them blamed fools hain't let that ship git away from 'em into the ocean before it's half finished! Ain't that too bad? Now they'll have the job of their lives pullin' it back up onto them skids again! Orlando walked away in disgust. FRED W. CLOUGH.

A Stormy Night's Ride and Its Ending.

Rumbling down the mountain grade at a high rate of speed, the rays from the electric light trying hard to penetrate the darkness of the terrible night, the rain was falling in torrents, the water was rushing down the steep mountain side like mad demons that had burst their bonds, leaping and roaring as though seeking whatsoever they might devour, emptying into mountain gorges, the angry plunging of which could be heard above the clatter of the train. The passengers back in their steam and electrically equipped palace cars, some dreaming of loved ones whom they anticipated seeing in a few short hours; others quietly reading, smoking and otherwise enjoying themselves; few, if any, giving a thought to the night

or the two men of nerve on the head end, with eyes opened, strained to the uttermost to detect the slightest signal of danger their modern equipped monster ploughing into the blackness of the night, heeding not the storm or its noise. Rounding sharp curves, over deep ravines, now buried in deep cuts, through high mountains, the brakes being touched just enough to steady the train around curves, sounding the whistle, receiving the white light, plunging by little way stations, mile after mile is traversed. Three miles more and the foot is reached, then out through a beautiful valley that leads them to their journey's end.

For a moment their minds stray to the bright fireside of home and happy faces of loved ones to welcome them when the few short miles are covered. But, Ah! my God—what is that? A red light on the curve and just around the bend the high bridge over a maddening mountain stream. The brakes are thrown into emergency, the engine is reversed, the sand applied. A plunge, a shriek, I awake! It is only a dream-I have fallen out of bed.

LOCKE C. ALDRICH.