Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 35, Number 125, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 October 1903 — USE LIQUOR; LOSE JOBS. [ARTICLE]

USE LIQUOR; LOSE JOBS.

Railways Praclically Issue Ultimatum to Train Employes. Railroads throughout the country are waging war against the use of intoxicating liquors and tobacco by employes engaged in operating trains. The fiat has gone forth generally that employes 'who drink, or who frequent places where liquors are sold, are not safe men to entrust with the lives of patrons nor with the valuable property transported by the railroads. Total abstinence is essential to sendee in the operating department of every railroad centering in Chicago, and so far as known of every important railroad in the United States. The rules which have recently been inaugurated against the use of tobacco are not as stringent ns those against liqqor, but generally they proscribe the use of tobacco while on duty and when about stations and on the property of the railroad companies. As for the cigarette, the order against it is almost as severe as that against whisky. The revolution which is being effected lu these respects is shown iu the new rule books which many of the managements of the Chicago roads have just issued. Without a single exception these books contain the following, or rules which are similarly framed: “The use of intoxicants by employes while on duty is prohibited. Their habitual use, or the frequenting of places where they are sold, is sufficient cause foT dismissal.” “The use of tobacco by employes when on duty in and about passenger citations or on passenger cars is prohibited.” While the rules are now practically the same on all roads, some are more severe than others in their enforcement. Not all the railroads assume to say whether an operating employe may drink when off duty, while henceforth not a few, the Rock Island, for example, will discharge men for frequenting sakxm.i whether on or off duty. The reform has been brought about solely with the idea of increasing the safety in train operation, and officials declare that the prohibitions hnve decreased wrrecks and accidents fully 25 per cent.