Stone Fears Engineer Kills Manager Who Orders Surprise Test
The head of the locomotive engineers' union tells a federal wage arbitration board he has long feared a stressed engineer might one day kill a railroad official over unfair surprise efficiency tests, a startling admission in a labor dispute over working conditions.
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Omaha Daily Bee 187?-1922 · February 21, 1915 · Page 1
1 min readCHICAGO, Feb. 20.
Warren S. Stone, head of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers, told the board of arbitration in the western railroad wage arbitration today that for two years he had been haunted by the fear that some engineer, his nerves shaken by a surprise efficiency test, would assassinate the operating official who ordered the test. Mr. Stone spoke earnestly in the course of a session devoted to the demands of the men that unfair surprise tests be eliminated, and which discussion ended with both sides as far apart as ever.
A. W. Trenholm, general manager of the Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis & Omaha railroad, in the witness chair, said he could not write a rule which would meet all the conditions on all railroads, and yet satisfy the men. He insisted that the roads do not sanction tests which endanger the lives of the men, although such tests, through mistakes of individuals, might occasionally be made.
"Engineers are a full-blooded, courageous class of men and not given to jumping from their cabs in a fit of nerves," said Mr. Trenholm.
"Nevertheless," constant hammering wears out even the strongest nerve," put in Mr. Stone. "I know of one man who was subjected to forty-five tests in sixty days, and it is my belief that nerves are at the bottom of the two or three suicides a month which show on our insurance records. Honestly, gentlemen, I have been haunted for two years with the fear that some engineer, with his nerves unstrung by one of these tests, should kill the manager responsible for the condition."
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