The Great Strike on the 'Q' Part 7

Do you know whether or not anyone was hurt on their train--the Quincy train? The roadmaster, engineer and conductor of the train.

That was all that was injured? That was all that was injured.

Do you know their names? I do not.

F. L. Bliss, being recalled, was examined by Mr. Sullivan, and testified as follows:

Q. At what rate of speed did you pull out after you left that 400-foot board--between that and the crossing? A. I pulled out slow; it would not average over about six or eight miles an hour, anyway.

Were you trying to make up for your lost time? No, sir.

Why? We have an order not to make up any time from Fulton Junction to three miles west of Albany. There was an order on the board, and has been there.

So that you were not trying to make up time, and were not running at an extraordinary rate of speed? Not running any faster than though we had been right on time.

And you think the time you were running between that 400 feet and the crossing was about six to eight miles? I don't think when we was on the crossing--I don't think it was over eight miles an hour, anyway--six or eight.

Mr. Dawes: You rely on your fireman, don't you, to look out for his side? A. No, sir.

Who do you rely on? I hardly ever go over the crossing without looking myself; still, he tells me, but I think it is safer to look myself.

You looked on your side? I did.

Did you look out on the other side? I did.

Where did you look out last? Before I started.

Before you started from the 400-foot post? Yes, sir.

Did you look out after that at all? Not after I started on the train until I got on the crossing.

The fireman was shoveling in coal, wasn't he--firing up? Yes, sir.

Did you look out of your side of the cab after you left the 400-foot station, down the Burlington track? Yes, sir; I looked on my side.

How long has that 400-foot post been there, do you know? The 400-foot on our track?

Yes. It has been there ever since I have run down there. I have been running about fourteen years on that run. I don't know how much longer it has been there.

Mr. Sullivan: That is all. The people that have been injured we could not get.

Mr. Dawes: We will admit people were injured. The engineer we shall call was injured more than anybody else.

D. W. Rhodes, a witness called on behalf of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad Company, being first duly sworn, was examined in chief by Mr. Dawes, and testified as follows:

Q. What is your full name? A. D. W. Rhodes.

What is your business? Superintendent of motive power on the C., B.

& Q. road.

Are the engineers responsible to you? Through my a.s.sistants they are directly responsible to me.

But they are immediate employes of your department? They are immediate employes of my department.

Of which you are the head? Yes, sir.

Do you know Mr. Pearce? Yes, sir.

What is his business now, and what was it on the 19th day of March?

Mr. Pearce is a.s.sistant engineer of tests in our laboratory at Aurora.

Is he an engineer in the employ of the Burlington road now? He is not a locomotive engineer.

Was he ever, at any time, an engineer in the employ of the Burlington road? He was never examined as an engineer for the Burlington road.

You say he was not? No, sir; he was not.

Where was he sent? He was sent on this Clinton run, from Mendota to Clinton.

Do you know about what time that run is made? No, I do not.

Was anybody sent with him? He had a pilot; the roadmaster was his pilot.

The roadmaster of that section or division? Yes, sir. I am not very clear about what Mr. Pearce's crew was. I had to take an engine out myself that morning, and I was not at Aurora.

Mr. Sullivan: Do you know anything about it at all, except from hearsay? Do you know from your own knowledge who was on the train?

A. From being present, no.

Mr. Sullivan: This testimony on that subject should be stricken out. The witness: May I make one correction? I said I took an engine out myself that morning; I fired an engine out that morning.

Cross-examination by Mr. Sullivan:

Q. Did Mr. Pearce ever run a locomotive engine before? A. Mr.

Pearce had handled a locomotive engine; yes, sir.

The question was, did he ever run a locomotive engine before?

Please answer that? I am not able to say whether he did or not.

Are you in the habit, when exercising your best judgment to select engineers, to put a man on the road to run a locomotive engine when you don't know whether he has ever run one before or not? In a case like this, where our trains were----

In any case? We do so; I would do so again.

Where the lives of the public and the property of the public are in peril, you will take a man without knowing whether he ever ran an engine before or not, and put him in charge of an engine? No, sir; Mr. Pearce's education and training justified me in believing that he could handle that train properly.

Do you believe any technical education in the shops, without practical experience, fits a man to be placed in charge of an engine to which is attached a pa.s.senger train? Properly guided by a pilot and conductor on the engine, I say so, decidedly.

You would do so at any time? If there had been no strike, you would select a man of that experience, would you? I would only do that under the circ.u.mstances as we were.