Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 50, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 March 1915 — Shows Perils of Rail Men. [ARTICLE]

Shows Perils of Rail Men.

The hazardous nature of the work of locomotive firemen and engineers formed the subject of the testimony presented at Chicago before the federal board of arbitration hearing the wage dispute of 65,000 employees and 98 western railroads. About 50 per cent of the firemen on western roads “die with their boots on,” according to A. H. Hawley, grand secretary-treasurer of the firemen’s brotherhood. Forty-seven per cent, he said, die in service and from railroad accidents. “Of 1,224 disabilities reported to the brotherhood, 691 were caused by blindness and amputation,” Mr. Hawley testified- For the last ten years there have been 5,026 deaths of brotherhood members and 1,224 disabilities.