"You are engaged in a service of a public character, and the public are interested not only in the way in which you perform your duties while you continue in that service, but are quite as much interested in the time and circumstances under which you quit that employment. You cannot always choose your own time and place for terminating these relations. If you are permitted to do so you might quit your work at a time and place and under circumstances which would involve irreparable damage to your employers and jeopardize the lives of the traveling public."
Mr. Powderly, in commenting upon the above decision, does not complain of it, but says:
"The decision shows, as I have said before, that the principle of Government ownership of the railroads is being recognized by the courts. While the decision is apparently against the men, it emphasizes our position that the Government has the right to supervise the railroads. Now it is a poor rule that won't work both ways.
"The Interstate Commerce Law was passed for the purpose of controlling the railroads, but up to date no railroad has paid any attention to the law. Anarchy of the worst kind has prevailed. By that I mean a total disregard of the law, and that is what the corporations charge against the anarchists. The courts hold themselves in readiness to obey the will of the corporations when a charge is made against the workmen, but no effort is made to carry out the mandates of the law when the provokers of strikes, the corporations, violate the law."
There is but little doubt, if the judges of the Federal courts would show the same zeal in holding railroad managers amenable to the law as Judge Ricks has displayed in this case with the employes, they would secure increased confidence from the people in the tribunals over which they preside.
All fair-minded persons will agree that labor as well as capital must be subjected to proper restraints, and that the public will demand nothing unreasonable from either.
Accidents are too frequent upon American railroads. The reports of the Interstate Commerce Commission give the following as the numbers killed and injured during the years named:
| 1888 | 1889 | 1890 | 1891 | |||||
| Killed. | Injured. | Killed. | Injured. | Killed. | Injured. | Killed. | Injured. | |
| Employees | 2,070 | 20,148 | 1,972 | 20,028 | 2,451 | 22,396 | 2,660 | 26,140 |
| Passeng's | 315 | 2,138 | 310 | 2,146 | 286 | 2,425 | 293 | 2,972 |
| Others | 2,897 | 3,602 | 3,541 | 4,135 | 3,598 | 4,206 | - | - |
| Total | 5,282 | 25,888 | 5,823 | 26,309 | 6,335 | 29,027 | - | - |
For the year ending June 30, 1890, the total number of employes was 749,801. There was, therefore, one death for every 306 men employed and one injury for every 33 men employed. For the previous year one was killed for every 357 men employed, and one was injured for every 35 men employed. While trainmen represent but 20 per cent, of the total number of employes, the casualties among them represent 58 per cent. of the total number of casualties.
For the year 1888, one passenger was killed in every 1,523,133 passengers carried, and one injured in every 220,024 carried.