Page:William Ernst Trautmann - Industrial Unionism (1908).djvu/21

the road. No train is started till every passenger is safe off the car platforms, the speed limit is scrupulously observed, even when behind time, no signals are disregarded; in short, all the rules framed by the company with the intention that they should be continually violated in practice, are rigidly lived up to by the men during such a passive strike.

According to rules, no car when switched, shall run faster than it can be followed by the switchman, nor is the latter allowed to jump on the car or engine while they are in motion, or the rule providing that switch trains shall not exceed a speed of six miles an hour. The strict obedience of these rules results in the detention of freight trains; it takes three times as long as under the usual time required to make up a train; traffic consequently becomes demoralized.

A car inspector, if carrying out instructions in the "most minute details," can use considerable more time for careful inspection, and he can throw out for repairs many a car that would have made several runs more under ordinary conditions, although in "violation of rules." If a car inspector finds defects on cars in a through-going train in a change station, he can cause, "in strict obedience to rules and laws," a new arrangement of the train, unloading of goods and transfer of passengers, and when the regular working hours of the