Uttl 
 
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 
 
 NEW YORK BOSTON CHICAGO DALLAS 
 ATLANTA SAN FRANCISCO 
 
 MACMILLAN & CO., LIMITED 
 
 LONDON BOMBAY CALCUTTA 
 MELBOURNE 
 
 THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, LTD. 
 
 TORONTO 
 
THE LIFE WORK OF 
 
 EDWARD A. MOSELE Y 
 
 IN THE SERVICE OF HUMANITY 
 
 BY 
 
 JAMES MORGAN 
 
 gork 
 
 THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 
 1913 
 
 Att rights reserved 
 

 
 COPTBIftHT, 1913, 
 
 BY THE MACMILLAN COMPANY. 
 
 Set up and electrotyped. Published September, 1913. 
 
 NortaooK 
 
 J. 8. Cashing Co. Berwick & Smith Co. 
 Norwood, Mass., U.S.A. 
 
FOREWORD 
 
 WHEN a man dies, his worth must be estimated not by 
 what he received but by what he gave, not by what he 
 achieved for himself but by what he achieved for others 
 for us. If he drew out of life more than he put in, his name 
 must pass into insolvency only to be discharged into a 
 kindly oblivion. If, on the other hand, his services exceed 
 his honors and rewards, the world is his debtor. Edward 
 A. Moseley, Secretary of the Interstate Commerce Com- 
 mission from its organization in 188T until his death in 
 1911, held only a modest office, but in the final accounting 
 he is disclosed a creditor of humanity. 
 
 At the request of his brothers and as my offering to the 
 memory of a friend, I have prepared this record of his life. 
 Admittedly it is out of proportion to his fame, but so was 
 the work he did for a quarter of a century as champion of 
 laws which have greatly promoted safety, justice, and peace 
 on the railroads of the United States. The story needs to 
 be told all the more because the general public knows so 
 little of the labors of this government official who quietly 
 turned what might have been a routine task into a noble 
 service on behalf of his fellow men. 
 
 Pioneer in an important field of meliorative legislation, 
 his work and his papers specially deserve the attention of 
 those who are interested in the development of the federal 
 power as a regulative agency, and the narrative and docu- 
 ments of his long and successful endeavor before Congress 
 
 393563 
 
vi FOREWORD 
 
 and in the courts are significant materials for an opening 
 chapter in the history of the supervision by the nation of 
 interstate affairs. 
 
 He anticipated what is to-day a national movement for 
 the conservation of natural resources, which fittingly began, 
 under his leadership, with the conservation of human beings. 
 He saw the safeguards of life on the rail grow year by year 
 until Congress required every freight car in the country 
 to be made over. He saw the employer's liability for deaths 
 and injuries among railroad employees established by law 
 and decision. He saw the hours of service on the trains 
 limited by act of Congress, and saw peace between em- 
 ployees and employers fortified by effective provisions for 
 mediation and arbitration. 
 
 If every British ship bears on her hull " Plimsoll's Mark " 
 in token of Samuel Plimsoll's act of Parliament against 
 overloading, equally the air brake, the automatic coupler, 
 and each device prescribed by Congress for the security 
 of trainmen on the hundreds of thousands of freight cars 
 in the United States are the " Moseley Mark," and a tes- 
 timony to Edward A. Moseley's unselfish and unwearied 
 labors in behalf of the far more numerous crews on the rail 
 who face perils as great as those of the sea. 
 
 BOSTON. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 I. A PUBLIC-SPIRITED RACE 1 
 
 II. SAILING BEFORE THE MAST 6 
 
 III. VENTURES AND ADVENTURES . . . . . .14 
 
 IV. IN THE LEGISLATURE 22 
 
 V. FINDING HIS PLACE 26 
 
 VI. THE NEW SECRETARY .31 
 
 VII. UNDER FIVE PRESIDENTS 41 
 
 VIII. A CLEVELAND INCIDENT 48 
 
 IX. TAKING UP HIS LIFE WORK . . . . .54 
 
 X. THE FIRST SAFETY APPLIANCE ACT .... 64 
 
 XL THE BRAKEMAN WHO LOST A HAND .... 77 
 
 XII. BATTLING FOR CRIPPLES AND WIDOWS .... 89 
 
 XIII. THE EMPLOYERS' LIABILITY ACT 103 
 
 XIV. SAVING TEN THOUSAND MEN A YEAR . . . .118 
 XV. Two GREAT MEASURES . . . . . . .131 
 
 XVI. MEDIATION AND ARBITRATION 143 
 
 XVII. THE RAILROAD BROTHERHOODS 158 
 
 XVIII. HEROES IN OVERALLS 170 
 
 XIX. FOR ECONOMIC JUSTICE . 184 
 
 XX. QUESTIONS OF LAW 203 
 
 XXI. CUBA AND THE COAL STRIKE 211 
 
 XXII. A REPUBLIC'S GRATITUDE 219 
 
 XXIII. His WORK DONE 230 
 
 XXIV. A BROAD-GAUGE AMERICAN 246 
 
 XXV. A RECORD OF FRIENDSHIPS 255 
 
 XXVI. THE MANY-SIDED MAN 262 
 
 APPRECIATIONS 278 
 
 ADDRESSES 309 
 
 INDEX 373 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 The Frontispiece, with autograph Frontispiece 
 
 FACING PAGE 
 
 Mr. Moseley in Boyhood ......... 8 
 
 Mr. Moseley 's Boyhood Home 12 
 
 The Thanks of the Commonwealth . .74 
 
 Mr. Moseley at His Desk .220 
 
 Mr. Moseley in the Dismal Swamp ....... 268 
 
 Deer Island in the Merrimac, Newburyport, Massachusetts . . 276 
 
EDWARD A. MOSELEY 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 A PUBLIC-SPIRITED RACE 
 
 EDWARD A. MOSELEY was fortunate in the accidents 
 of his birth, fortunate in the commonwealth, the town, 
 and the family in which he was born. 
 
 He was reared in a home marked by comfort and re- 
 finement. His native town of Newburyport, although 
 linked with the world by commerce and dignified by a 
 fine civic pride, was almost rural in its quietness and in its 
 neighborly spirit. From his native state of Massachu- 
 setts, he received the heritage of her high ideals of public 
 service, and in his boyhood he saw her the moral leader 
 of the nation in its great crisis. 
 
 While he was a most democratic man, he always took 
 an honest satisfaction in the traditions of his old New 
 England family, which he diligently searched out in its 
 many branches. His has been a stanch and public-spirited 
 race characteristic of Massachusetts, where family pride 
 attaches not so much to old fortunes won in trade and to 
 large estates as to the record of services and honors in the 
 forum, the field, or the pulpit. His interest in his geneal- 
 ogy was centered upon those forbears who had served 
 the colony, the commonwealth, and the country, and he 
 
 B 1 
 
2 EDWARD A. MOSELEY 
 
 , : ; ..-'. 
 
 liked to trace his descent from good men who had taken 
 their part in all the various movements which in peace 
 and war make up the history of New England. 
 
 No less than twenty-two of his ancestors are recorded 
 among the pioneers of the Old Bay Colony, who settled on 
 the shore of the New World between 1630 and 1750, in- 
 cluding Thaddeus Clark, John Brown, Richard Strong, 
 William Thomas, Thomas Chapman, and John Maudesley 
 or Moseley, who came from near Hull in England in the 
 beginning of the Puritan immigration and settled at Dor- 
 chester, now a district of Boston, before 1640. 
 
 Samuel, the great-grandson of John Moseley, graduated 
 from Harvard in 1729, was chaplain to Governor Belcher 
 and for fifty-seven years pastor of a church in Windham, 
 Connecticut " an eminent Christian and distinguished 
 divine, a tender companion, an affectionate parent," his 
 epitaph tells us. His son, Ebenezer, graduating from 
 Yale College in 1763, followed in his father's footsteps 
 and, entering the ministry, went as a missionary to the 
 Indians of the Six Nations, among whom he gained great 
 influence. Patriotism, however, transformed the clergy- 
 man into a soldier when the Revolution came. Raising 
 a company, he entered the army under General Israel 
 Putnam and was a captain at the battle of Bunker Hill. 
 He was afterward commissioned as a colonel, and was 
 often elected to the Connecticut Legislature. Among 
 other ancestors of Edward A. Moseley in the Revolution 
 were Colonel Gilmore, Colonel Jonathan Buck, and Cap- 
 tain Ebenezer Buck. 
 
 The clerical soldier, Colonel Ebenezer Moseley, married 
 
A PUBLIC-SPIRITED RACE a 
 
 a sister of Governor and Senator Caleb Strong of Mas- 
 sachusetts, and their son, Ebenezer, established the family 
 in Newburyport. The latter was a graduate of Yale, 
 a public official and successful lawyer, in whose office 
 Caleb Cushing, afterwards a distinguished attorney- 
 general of the United States, read law. A portrait of 
 Colonel Moseley holds an honored place among the por- 
 traits of distinguished leaders of the Essex bar in the 
 Court House at Salem. His position in the community 
 is well shown by the fact that he was chosen to welcome 
 Lafayette to Newburyport when the illustrious French- 
 man was making his farewell tour of America in 1824. 
 
 Ebenezer Moseley's son, Edward Strong Moseley, who 
 was born in Newburyport in 1813 and died there in 1900, 
 was among the last surviving types of New England 
 merchants in the golden age of New England commerce, 
 when adventure and romance mingled with trade. He 
 was a member of the Yale Class of 1833, and began his 
 long and prosperous business life in the counting room 
 of Benjamin A. Gould, a noted East India merchant of 
 Boston. As supercargo, he made two voyages to India 
 and one to China in his early days and crossed the equator 
 sixteen times. He became one of the largest shipowners 
 of Newburyport and had an interest in scores of vessels. 
 While yet a young man, it was said of him that he was 
 "the richest man in town, . . . but he never had any 
 pride of purse or possession and disliked exceedingly any 
 ostentation or display of mere money." 
 
 As the trade between New England and the East de- 
 clined, Mr. Moseley took part in establishing manufac- 
 
4 EDWARD A. MOSELEY 
 
 tures, but in the last fifty years of his life he was engaged 
 in banking. He was president of the Mechanicks' Na- 
 tional Bank for forty years and, until his death, and for 
 nearly as long a time, president of the Institution for 
 Savings in Newburyport, a man " whose word was law," 
 and having " the manner of long command . . . yet few 
 men have lived with a more open hand than his when 
 his heart or his sense of justice was touched . . . 
 his charities, although unheralded, were large ... a 
 man of scholarship, with refined and eclectic tastes in 
 literature, a constant student and fastidious reader, col- 
 lecting rare books and manuscripts, himself a writer of 
 faultless English and well-rounded periods." 
 
 Edward Strong Moseley's life was filled with service, 
 but aside from membership of the school committee and 
 on the Board of Trustees of the Public Library, he never 
 accepted public office. Himself a liberal giver to the 
 library, he largely influenced its generous endowment. 
 As president of the Merrimac Humane Society and presi- 
 dent of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Ani- 
 mals, his benevolent spirit found active expression. His 
 father had been one of the founders of the Humane 
 Society, and his own son, Edward, was in turn a member 
 of it. 
 
 He married, in 1839, Charlotte Augusta, daughter of 
 Rev. George T. Chapman, D.D., an Episcopal clergyman, 
 born in Devonshire, England, a woman whose "life was 
 like one long prayer." Of that happy union which lasted 
 fifty-four years and until Mrs. Moseley's death in 1893, 
 the surviving children are Charles William and Frederick 
 
A PUBLIC-SPIRITED RACE 5 
 
 Strong Moseley, both prominent and fortunate in the 
 financial life of Boston ; Mary Alice Abbot of Westford, 
 Massachusetts, and Charlotte Augusta Nason, who lives 
 in the old home on High Street, Newburyport. The 
 eldest of this interesting family was Edward Augustus 
 Moseley, born March 23, 1846. 
 
CHAPTER II 
 SAILING BEFORE THE MAST 
 
 NEWBTJRYPORT was and is a rare good town to be 
 born in. It is more* than a geographical term, more than 
 a mere political subdivision. It inspires veneration and 
 affection among its sons and daughters, and to Edward 
 A. Moseley it ever remained the dearest spot of earth. 
 
 Although an incorporated city, with busy mills, an 
 old-time serenity clings to it. The traditions of other 
 days linger about its stately old homes and quaint old 
 churches, as well as about the neglected wharves and the 
 fishermen's cottages down by the shore. It is a place 
 with a character and charm of its own, proud of its past 
 and content with its present lot. John Quincy Adams 
 lamented that he had found better society in Newbury- 
 port when he was a law student, than he could find in 
 Washington when he was President. 
 
 The poet's proposition that the child is father of the 
 man was verified in Mr. Moseley's life. He was a youth 
 with standards of his own and not at all conventional. 
 He went to several private schools, after which he attended 
 the West End Male Grammar School and the Brown 
 High School, but he did not stay to graduate from the 
 latter. He cared little for books, but a great deal for life. 
 
 A healthy young animal, he had his full share of the 
 
 6 
 
SAILING BEFORE THE MAST 7 
 
 element of mischief, which moved him, however, to no 
 worse tricks than filling the schoolhouse furnace with 
 asafetida, and thus causing school to be dismissed. The 
 same welcome result was ingeniously accomplished by 
 him another time when he stuffed the thermometer with 
 ice. When the principal came and read the temperature, 
 he shivered and said, "Why, boys, you can't study in 
 this cold room; off you go !" 
 
 With it all, the boy was kind, and his wiser teachers 
 found his weak spot and ruled him through his affections. 
 The slightest kindness would overcome him. One day, 
 after perpetrating some offense, he opened his desk and 
 saw there a volume of Moore's poems, "From his affec- 
 tionate teacher, O. B. M." That was enough to conquer 
 hun, and thenceforth nothing could tempt him to break 
 a rule. 
 
 Mathematics was his favorite study, and yet he seemed 
 not to be studious of books even in that branch. He 
 worked out problems easily, but almost by his own 
 methods. 
 
 His brother, Frederick S., recalls him as "not a remark- 
 able scholar, but much more interested in outdoor life. 
 He was an athlete and a good deal of a boxer. Although 
 it may not be worth mentioning, I think he enjoyed a 
 good, clean fight more than anything else, and it is my 
 impression he generally came out ahead, though far from 
 being a bully." 
 
 "I remember him," his brother, Charles W., writes, 
 "as a very active, wide-awake boy ; very much interested 
 in his friends and devoted to them, and very much in- 
 
8 EDWARD A. MOSELEY 
 
 terested in nature and everything of the outside world 
 about him. 
 
 " He always had some hobby and was, at different times, 
 interested in his garden, in making and collecting minerals 
 and other natural objects, and also later in all kinds of 
 sports. At one time he was very much interested in hens, 
 later in the male of the species, which he used in cock 
 fights, also in colts and horses and in timing their speed. 
 
 "He was always warm-hearted and prodigal with his 
 money and good will. He never seemed to know what 
 the word fear meant, and in tussles with the boys he was 
 always our champion. 
 
 "The qualities that in after life led him to take the 
 part of the ill-used employees of railroads caused him as 
 a boy to take the part of the weaker fellows, and many 
 a stiff fight did he make in protecting them from the 
 overgrown bullies. 
 
 "In Newburyport there were what amongst the boys 
 were called the ' upperlongers ' and the ' downerlongers ' ; 
 and I well recall a memorable fight, which he waged on 
 our frog pond in the winter season at the time of skating, 
 with a big, bluff, strong champion of the ' downerlongers/ 
 This champion was a bigger boy than my brother, and 
 the battle was almost an uneven one for that reason. 
 But Edward came off with all honors, as it was deemed a 
 drawn battle, and he never knew when he was licked. 
 
 "Although most intelligent, my brother when a boy 
 never cared much about books or was much of a general 
 student ; but, where he was interested, in natural history 
 and other matters, he was a good reader. 
 
MR. MOSELEY IN BOYHOOD 
 
SAILING BEFORE THE MAST 9 
 
 "The spirit of adventure was always strong in him 
 and although my father would have been glad to send 
 him to college, he early caught the fever to go to sea. 
 It was no use combating it, for go he must. So he was 
 provided with a good outfit and shipped as a boy before 
 the mast aboard the ship Coringa, which belonged to Mr. 
 Nathaniel Goddard, a warm friend of my father." 
 
 In Edward's boyhood, Newburyport, like many other 
 New England ports, was turning from the sea and its 
 declining trade to the land and its new commerce by rail. 
 The chief figures of the town were the retired captains 
 and the East India merchants, who had transformed 
 themselves into prosaic manufacturers and bankers. The 
 leaders in the community had served their earliest ap- 
 prenticeship on ship deck and in far-away ports, the travel- 
 ing scholarship of that period, while the rank and file of 
 the inhabitants generally had been to sea. They were all, 
 indeed, men of the world. 
 
 Edward was only sixteen when he felt he had enough 
 of schools and books. He thought it was time for him 
 to see the world and claim his traveling scholarship. He 
 was strong in body, with a spirit restless for adventure. 
 But ships sailed no more out of the mouth of the Merrimac 
 to the ends of the earth. Another call than that of the 
 sea sounded in the boy's ears. The drums were beating 
 to arms in the Civil War, and Edward wanted to be a 
 soldier. His father, however, preferred his own school, 
 and insisted that if his son would leave home, he should 
 go to sea. Thus Edward became a sailor. 
 
 With a tarpaulin on his head, hard as wood and var- 
 
10 EDWARD A. MOSELEY 
 
 nished until it glistened, a pea-jacket, trousers flaring 
 from the knees down, with a blue woolen shirt and a flow- 
 ing black tie, he shipped before the mast in the ship 
 Coringa from Boston, laden with lumber for the south 
 coast of Africa and destined finally to Calcutta. His 
 father said that if a boy was to become a good sailor 
 he should not climb through the cabin window but through 
 the hawsehole ; and Edward shipped with the crew, at 
 nine dollars a month. 
 
 The New Englanders having forsaken the sea, he was 
 one of the last of the sons of shipowners to sail before 
 the mast. All but one of his sixteen comrades were men 
 of foreign birth and foreign speech. They were a more 
 than ordinarily rough lot, because in those days the war 
 was attracting the best of their craft. When the sailor 
 boy first greeted his companions of the forecastle, most of 
 them were still land sick from their cruising in the crooked 
 streets of the North End of Boston. Several had to be 
 hoisted aboard like live stock, and Edward's opening 
 lesson in his new school was a demonstration of the sober- 
 ing effects of the belaying pin, vigorously applied by the 
 captain and mate. 
 
 It was in truth a sudden and rude transition for a boy 
 accustomed to a cultivated home and the watchful care 
 of gentle parents. As he saw the water widening its 
 space between him and the wharf, he leaned over the rail 
 in an agony of homesickness, and wept into Boston harbor. 
 
 The Coringa was an old-fashioned East Indiaman that 
 took all hands to shorten sail. A voyage on her entailed 
 hardships unknown in this day. There was then little 
 
SAILING BEFORE THE MAST 11 
 
 law or sentiment for the protection of sailors. The safe- 
 guarding of their interests was in its infancy. Punish- 
 ments were severe to the degree of cruelty, and there were 
 few or no restraints on the brutal passions of an officer. 
 
 Hygienic provisions were unknown or ignored, and the 
 living accommodations wretched. There was yet no 
 canned food, and the sailor could tell what his bill of fare 
 would be months in advance. Edward's menu consisted 
 of salt pork and beef the color of mahogany, and sea bis- 
 cuits that had to be broken with mallets. He slept hi 
 the forecastle and shared in every way the common lot. 
 
 Sometimes he had to fight to hold his own in that 
 rough company. Though of tender years and gentle 
 breeding, he was strong as a moose, registering one hun- 
 dred and seventy-five pounds on the scales. When one 
 of the sailors drew a knife on him, the boy struck it from 
 his hand and pounded the bully to the floor. The mate, 
 coming upon them, whipped the aggressor for his mur- 
 derous conduct. 
 
 It was a long and hard voyage, but Edward felt well 
 rewarded by the strange sights that fascinated him while 
 ashore in India. He contracted Asiatic dysentery in 
 Calcutta, however, and had a most miserable homeward 
 voyage. The captain, foolishly jealous of the shipowner's 
 son and fearing he might be put over him, added to his 
 tortures by nagging him fiendishly. He used to come to 
 his cabin with the air of wishing to hasten his death, and 
 cheerfully report that the sharks were following the ship 
 and waiting for his body to be thrown over to them. 
 
 The poor forlorn boy was desperately ill and felt that 
 
12 EDWARD A. MOSELEY 
 
 the one thing which could keep him alive was to con- 
 centrate his mind on the thought that he must see his 
 mother again. The Bible she had given him was his 
 only diversion, and, to his lasting profit, he read it con- 
 stantly. For five months he was out of sight of land, 
 and when at last the Coringa entered home waters, he had 
 to be carried ashore, half wasted away with the fever. 
 From one hundred and seventy-five pounds he had fallen 
 away to ninety. Only careful nursing slowly restored 
 him to his normal health and strength. 
 
 He lived to pay back the cruelly foolish captain of the 
 Coringa, but not in the captain's own hard coin. In 
 after years, when the shipmaster was in great sorrow and 
 needed the pardon and favor of his sailor, he received 
 both for the asking. 
 
 Edward was gone a year on the trying voyage, and 
 learned lessons that guided him throughout his life. He 
 had run the gantlet of the mobs, as Emerson expressed 
 it, and, removed from the social environment in which he 
 was reared, he had gained in the rough-and-tumble school 
 of the forecastle and the docks, self-denial, self-reliance 
 and that vigorous independence which ever afterward 
 stamped his character. He had met his fellow-men from 
 many countries on a common level, regardless of race and 
 education, and while living their life with them he made 
 the discovery, as he always said, that the qualities of 
 manhood are not confined to any race or class or station. 
 
 He came out of that forecastle a thoroughgoing demo- 
 crat, as free from the spirit of caste as any man who 
 ever breathed. Democracy was more than an intel- 
 
SAILING BEFORE THE MAST 13 
 
 lectual conviction with him. It was an emotion, an 
 instinct, and he never looked down or up to any man. 
 With years and experience, he grew increasingly careless 
 and innocent of the lines that unhappily divide men, al- 
 though he appreciated and attracted the society of culti- 
 vated and intellectual individuals, and the friendships of 
 his life defied social classification. 
 
CHAPTER III 
 VENTURES AND ADVENTURES 
 
 SOME time after his return from the East Indies, but 
 before he was well established on his land legs, Edward 
 agreed to sail for the northwest coast of America and to 
 Alaska on a voyage that would take him away from home 
 five years. He was overruled by his parents, however, 
 and he repressed his longing for the sea. His ambition 
 was diverted to a business life and, entering the office of 
 the Bartlett Mills in Newburyport, he stayed there long 
 enough to gain some knowledge of the manufacture of 
 cotton goods. 
 
 Every salt breeze that blew in upon him, however, and 
 the water, stretching away from every cross street, dis- 
 tracted and tempted him. He dallied with his favorite 
 element by making a small venture in the business of 
 mackerel fishing, taking an interest in some vessels en- 
 gaged in that fishery. When he left the mills, he gravi- 
 tated toward the East India trade and was for a while 
 in the office of Rufus Wills and Son of Boston. After 
 a voyage to the West Indies, he made a connection with 
 the noted East India house of N. and B. Goddard, 
 where he continued for several years, in the course of 
 which he acquired some property in ships. 
 
 The counting house, however, never claimed from him 
 a whole-hearted loyalty, and as soon as he was twenty- 
 
 14 
 
VENTURES AND ADVENTURES 15 
 
 one he made a little voyage into politics. His city, the 
 state, and the country were Republican. Perhaps his 
 innate interest in the under dog was his chief reason for 
 going over to the Democrats. 
 
 He delighted in defying social prejudices and making 
 friends with the non-elect, such as he came upon in the 
 pursuit of his sporting interest in boxing, in horses, dogs, 
 and cocks. His personal popularity, therefore, more than 
 offset the unpopularity of his party, and he was elected to 
 the common council when he was hardly more than of age. 
 He served two terms in that body, after which he was 
 for two successive terms an alderman. Although the 
 youngest member of the city council, he led the move- 
 ment for funding the heavy city debt and felt flattered 
 to be called "the father of the sinking fund." For four- 
 teen years he served as one of its trustees. 
 
 When he sought promotion to a seat in the Legislature 
 of Massachusetts, however, political lines were drawn 
 more sharply against his party in that wider field, and he 
 was defeated, although complimented with the largest 
 vote ever cast for a Democratic candidate in his district 
 and lacking only ten votes of an election. As the Demo- 
 cratic candidate for commissioner of insolvency, he met 
 again the fate to which Massachusetts Democrats were 
 inured in that period. 
 
 Political ambition was not his only distraction from 
 business in those days of his young manhood. He was 
 in love, and with all the ardor of first love. His choice 
 had fallen on one whom he had known from boyhood, 
 and probably it would not have been easy for him to say 
 
16 EDWARD A. MOSELEY 
 
 when she ceased to be his playmate and bloomed into a 
 sweetheart. Sailor-like, he had her name tattooed on his 
 arm. Her house was to him like another home, and after 
 his schoolday battles he used to go to her mother to have 
 his face washed and his clothes sewed up before ventur- 
 ing to present himself at his own home. 
 
 He wished to marry at twenty, but the enterprise did 
 not commend itself to his father's trained judgment as a 
 financier. He was told that he should not marry until 
 he had $10,000, and, like the great historian of Rome, 
 "he sighed as a lover but obeyed as a son." When he 
 was only twenty-three, however, he was enabled by some 
 successful ventures to meet his father's standard of 
 prudence and realize the dearest hope of his heart. Kate 
 Montague, daughter of Joseph Newmarch and Sarah 
 Bridges Prescott, became his wife on April 13, 1869, 
 bringing to him a girlhood love that never grew old, a 
 rare devotion, and the sound counsels of a good woman's 
 wisdom. From her he always had encouragement in his 
 best endeavor, and her self-forgetfulness was a large fac- 
 tor in his success. 
 
 Mrs. Moseley is a lineal descendant of Colonel William 
 Pepperell and of Judge Joseph Newmarch, and four of 
 her mother's ancestors came over in the first voyage of 
 the Mayflower. Three children were born to this mar- 
 riage, of whom only one, Katherine Prescott Moseley, 
 survives. 
 
 The glory of the East India trade having faded, and 
 office duties never having interested him, Mr. Moseley 
 went into the southern pine lumber business in 1872, 
 
VENTURES AND ADVENTURES 17 
 
 when he was twenty-six years old. With Mr. William D. 
 Wheelwright, he formed the firm of Moseley and Wheel- 
 wright in Boston and took upon himself the more congenial 
 task of looking after the outside activities of the concern. 
 The new firm quickly built up a large and constantly 
 increasing business, in furtherance of which Mr. Moseley 
 traveled in the Gulf states, Central and South America, 
 the West Indies and Europe. His firm always had under 
 charter a fleet of vessels, which loaded at southern ports 
 in the United States under his direction. While his 
 principal headquarters were at Pascagoula, Mississippi, 
 he came to know the entire yellow pine region and all its 
 mill men. 
 
 One of Moseley and Wheelwright's notable contracts 
 was to furnish flooring and planking for the Centennial 
 Exposition at Philadelphia in 1876. Another interesting 
 contract they undertook was to build a palace for the 
 president of the republic of Hayti. Mr. Moseley went to 
 Port au Prince to superintend the construction. There 
 he won his way into the confidence of the dusky po- 
 tentates and was in full enjoyment of his experience in 
 the inner councils of the government, when a revolution 
 broke out. The high official with whom he had the closest 
 relations having been shot, he deemed it prudent to flee 
 the island and abandon the contract for the palace. 
 
 On one of his West Indian journeys he was stricken 
 with yellow fever at St. Thomas, but something more 
 perilous still befell him on a visit to Cuba in the midst of 
 the Ten Years' War, the unsuccessful revolution that 
 preceded the more recent and successful revolt against 
 
18 EDWARD A. MOSELEY 
 
 Spanish rule. He landed at Santiago from Jamaica early 
 in 1874, shortly after the fifty-one men of the filibustering 
 vessel Virginius had been stood in a row there by the 
 Spaniards and shot down as pirates. He arrived to find 
 the Spanish military burning with hatred of Americans 
 as sympathizers with the Cuban rebels. 
 
 His destination was Havana, where he had some im- 
 portant business to do for his firm, but he was warned 
 on all sides against making the journey. An American 
 newspaper correspondent had recently undertaken it and 
 mysteriously disappeared. The American consul earnestly 
 advised him, and the consul's good wife, with tears in her 
 eyes, begged him not to go. He was told that he might 
 be murdered on the ship and his body thrown overboard. 
 Nevertheless, he went, not necessarily from a foolhardy 
 love of danger, but in the easy confidence characteristic 
 of the man, that he could take care of himself in any 
 situation. 
 
 Carrying a revolver and a gimlet dagger, he boarded 
 the coasting vessel Gloria, filled with Spanish officers and 
 soldiers. He was the only civilian in the company, but 
 he reached Manzanillo without having had the least 
 trouble with his fellow-voyagers. While the Gloria lay 
 at the Manzanillo wharf, he went ashore to attend to 
 some business which took him to the home of the Ameri- 
 can consular agent. There he was led into a dark room, 
 and the consular agent, who was a German resident in 
 Cuba, made a long appeal to his love of liberty as an 
 American. 
 
 The patriots of Manzanillo wished to make a certain 
 
VENTURES AND ADVENTURES 19 
 
 important communication to a secret friend of the revo- 
 lution in Havana. The agent begged Mr. Moseley to 
 deliver the message as a service to the cause of liberty, 
 and he consented to do it. As the agent dictated it, he 
 wrote the message on the last leaf of a small account 
 book and then pasted the leaf to the cover. 
 
 After his dinner of tainted salt cod, cooked in rancid 
 oil, and spoiled jerked beef from Buenos Ayres, another 
 patriot suddenly and silently made his appearance before 
 the new-found friend of Cuba libre. This man held out 
 two letters, but Mr. Moseley was wary of him and paid 
 no attention to his approaches, whereupon the agent 
 said, "They are all right ; take them." They were to be 
 delivered to the same man in Havana, and, although Mr. 
 Moseley felt he was getting deeper and deeper into the 
 plot, his spirit of adventure was aroused and he accepted 
 this added service. Returning to the Gloria, he cut a 
 neat slit in one of his bags and hid the two letters between 
 the lining and the leather. 
 
 After another untroubled voyage, surrounded by 
 Spanish uniforms, he went ashore again at Cienfuegos, 
 where he met some ship captains he knew, and he was 
 known in those days to most of the men who sailed in 
 West Indian waters. While he was speaking with the 
 captains, two officers came to him and through an inter- 
 preter told him that, although they were wearing the 
 uniform of Spain, they were revolutionists at heart. 
 Would Senor have the kindness to inform them how to 
 get into communication with the nearest insurgent 
 army? 
 
20 EDWARD A. MOSELEY 
 
 "Don't betray us," the spokesman added, in a pleading 
 tone, "or we will be shot." 
 
 "I am a merchant," Mr. Moseley cautiously answered, 
 "and know nothing about this revolution. I have no 
 information to give and no advice, except to say that if 
 I were a Spaniard, I would remain one." 
 
 "Those two beggars followed me to my ship," he said, 
 in recalling the experience, "and they with others exam- 
 ined my baggage and searched my person, stripping 
 me to the skin. They found nothing, not even my 
 heart, for that was in my throat. I saw that I had 
 brought myself under official suspicion, and I knew that 
 if any treasonable correspondence was found on me, I 
 would probably be shot down like a dog." 
 
 At Surgidero, where he left the boat to take the train 
 for Havana, he was searched again, and for a week after 
 his arrival at the latter city he thought it best not to 
 deliver the dispatches of the revolutionists. When at 
 last he presented himself to the revolutionary agent, he 
 moistened the leaf of his little account book, tore it out, 
 and gave it to him with the two letters, and thus fulfilled 
 the delicate duty thrust upon him in the name of liberty. 
 
 From southern seas to northern wilds, the scene sud- 
 denly shifted in his life. Owing to some unfortunate 
 loans, his firm was obliged to protect itself by taking over 
 the township of Jerusalem in Maine, and there in the 
 wilderness he passed much of his time through three 
 years. He went into the woods in the fall with his teams 
 and his big crew of men, and in the spring the logs they 
 had cut were driven out and down the Kennebec. He 
 
VENTURES AND ADVENTURES 21 
 
 shared the lot of his loggers and drivers, and there never 
 was a mark of dress or manner to distinguish him from his 
 men. His firm had leased a mill on the dam at Augusta, 
 and one night when a heavy freshet came, he could see 
 in the lightning flashes almost the entire cut of several 
 million feet of logs going over the dam. There were no 
 booms out, and the logs were scattered and borne to sea. 
 
 This, with other misfortunes befalling the firm at the 
 tune, forced the failure of Moseley and Wheelwright. 
 Among the liabilities were some debts which the partners 
 regarded as debts of honor, representing money lent 
 them personally. They agreed together that these must 
 be paid in full, and they entirely wiped out that class of 
 indebtedness within three years. 
 
 They had made themselves the leaders in the southern 
 timber trade, and in order to carry on operations the 
 firm was reorganized as Moseley, Wheelwright and Com- 
 pany, Mr. A. M. Stetson having joined them. Shortly 
 afterward, Mr. Wheelwright took into his own hands the 
 New York interests of the partnership and surrendered 
 certain of his Boston interests to the new firm of Stetson, 
 Moseley and Company. 
 
 The truth is that while Mr. Moseley, by his energy, 
 industry, intelligence and enterprise had shown himself 
 capable of building up a large if not profitable business, 
 he had yet to find, when he was forty, his real business, 
 the business for which his life thus far had been only a 
 preparation. 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 IN THE LEGISLATURE 
 
 STETSON, MOSELEY and COMPANY had a lumber yard 
 and sawmill in South Boston, and Mr. Moseley lived in 
 that district, in Thomas Park on the slope of Dorchester 
 Heights, where Washington mounted the cannon that 
 drove the British out of Boston. 
 
 A workman in his lumber yard, a man from Maine, 
 told Mr. Moseley one morning that he had to support 
 eight children on $1.25 a day, and that he had not been 
 inside a theater since his marriage. "I had one child," 
 Mr. Moseley explained when telling of that interview 
 with his workman, "and spent more than $1.25 a day 
 foolishly." He went to the man the next morning, told 
 him to get the men in the yard together and ask for 
 $1.75. "My partner will consult me/' he said, "and I 
 will advise him to give you the increase." 
 
 The unique strike, thus worked up by the employer 
 against himself, was a complete success for both sides. 
 It brought the men an increased wage and brought Mr. 
 Moseley a long step nearer his life work. The Knights 
 of Labor were now in full swing and soon to be nearly 
 two million strong under the leadership of T. V. Powderly. 
 The problem of labor was looming large. Association 
 with his brother-in-law, Mr. Richard S. Spofford of New- 
 buryport, a distinguished lawyer, who was a states' rights 
 
 22 
 
 
IN THE LEGISLATURE 23 
 
 Democrat and who had presided over a Labor Conven- 
 tion, was not without influence upon Mr. Moseley in this 
 matter. 
 
 Although born to wealth, Mr. Moseley had lived the 
 life of the man who works with his hands, in the fore- 
 castle and in the logging camp. As an employer of large 
 numbers of workers, there never was a line between him 
 and his employees. His own experience had impressed 
 him with the belief that the labor problem could be solved 
 only by the intoduction of a freer democracy in the in- 
 dustries of the country, by employers mingling with their 
 men, studying their wants, and finally making them allies 
 instead of foes. 
 
 To the dismay of some and the disgust of others in the 
 employing element, he joined the Knights of Labor. He 
 was soon chosen master workman of a big South Boston 
 assembly, of which nearly all his employees were mem- 
 bers. The meetings became the forum for the discus- 
 sion of all sorts of economic questions by the workmen 
 in most of the trades and factories of the district, where 
 Mr. Moseley was largely instrumental in increasing the 
 membership of the Knights of Labor to several thousand. 
 Strange as it seemed to have an employer among them, 
 Mr. Powderly and other leaders could not doubt his 
 earnestness. He won their confidence and became an 
 officer in the district assembly. 
 
 It was in the same period that Mr. Moseley was drawn 
 into politics again. His brother-in-law, Mr. Spofford, was 
 the Democratic candidate for Congress on the ticket with 
 Grover Cleveland in 1884, and Mr. Moseley managed 
 
24 EDWARD A. MOSELEY 
 
 the campaign. He was also chosen a member of the 
 executive committee of the Democratic state committee. 
 Mr. SpofforcTs spirited fight was unavailing in a strongly 
 Republican district. He did not go to Congress, but his 
 brother-in-law and manager went to the Legislature, 
 being elected in 1885. Still claiming a legal residence in 
 Newburyport, Mr. Moseley was chosen from that city. 
 
 Having had a large experience hi shipping by rail, he 
 was appointed a member of the railroad committee. 
 Although he did not often address the House, his intelli- 
 gence and energy made him at once an influential and 
 useful member. He soon found the hidden wires that 
 moved men, and developed a genius for pulling them. 
 
 Regulative legislation concerning the conditions of 
 labor, then still in its infancy, appealed to him strongly, 
 and he voted for woman suffrage. Being on the railroad 
 committee, his attention naturally was directed toward 
 proposals for safer car couplers, brakes, and frogs. He 
 introduced and gave a good deal of time to promoting 
 the passage of an industrial arbitration bill. When he 
 actively supported an employers' liability bill, introduced 
 by a friend and fellow-member, Mr. Philip J. Doherty 
 of Boston, great pressure was brought to bear for the 
 purpose of compelling him to change his position. While 
 the British Parliament, under the leadership of Glad- 
 stone, had enacted a modern statute on this subject to 
 meet modern conditions, the law in republican America 
 had not advanced a step since the dawn of the new era 
 of industrialism. 
 
 That Mr. Moseley, himself an employer of labor and 
 
IN THE LEGISLATURE 25 
 
 president of the Mechanics' Exchange of Boston, should 
 advocate a more liberal law, excited violent indignation 
 in certain quarters. A delegation from the Master 
 Builders' Exchange, where all the builders of Boston met, 
 went to him and told him that his support of labor meas- 
 ures, particularly the employers' liability bill, had dis- 
 appointed and displeased his associates in the business 
 world. As an employer, he knew what the latter bill, 
 at least, meant to the pockets of employers. The delega- 
 tion demanded that he not only vote against the bill, 
 but rise in the House and oppose it. 
 
 It is hardly necessary to say that such an appeal to 
 such a man only served to make him stand. firmer. He 
 was no longer content merely to vote for the bill and to 
 defend it in the lobby, but he determined to advocate it 
 on the floor, and when he spoke he announced that he 
 spoke as an employer. For this insurgency he was told 
 that he should never again be permitted to enter the 
 Master Builders' Exchange, a privilege indispensable to 
 the successful conduct of a lumber business at that time. 
 He accepted the consequences to himself without com- 
 plaining, but he did not feel that his firm should be made 
 to suffer on his account, and he took steps to withdraw 
 from the partnership with Mr. Stetson. 
 
 If he had failed to serve his private interest in the 
 Legislature, he had served the public interest to the 
 satisfaction of his constituents, who again elected him to 
 the House in 1886. It was in the midst of his second 
 session that the opportunity for a wider service came to 
 him, the service to which he gave his life. 
 
CHAPTER V 
 FINDING HIS PLACE 
 
 THE Interstate Commerce Law was enacted on Feb- 
 ruary 4, 1887, a full hundred years after the framing of 
 the Federal constitution, which gave the Congress the 
 power "to regulate commerce with foreign nations, and 
 among the several states." Congress had from the out- 
 set exercised its power to regulate commerce with foreign 
 nations, but it did not approach its duty toward "com- 
 merce among the several states" until after a cen- 
 tury of inaction. Meanwhile the states themselves were 
 forbidden to interfere with that commerce. 
 
 When New York granted Robert Fulton and his asso- 
 ciates the exclusive right to navigate the waters of that 
 state with steamboats, the great problem of interstate 
 commerce was born. Fulton's company contended that 
 no boats but theirs could navigate the waters of New 
 York, even to carry passengers and freight across the 
 Hudson River from New Jersey; but Chief Justice 
 Marshall denied the authority of the state and upheld 
 that of the nation over commerce passing from one 
 state to another. That merely local question settled, the 
 problem did not present itself again for many years. 
 
 It was hardly possible and not at all necessary for 
 Congress to regulate interstate commerce by stage- 
 
 26 
 
 
FINDING HIS PLACE 27 
 
 coaches. Until the steam railroad came, there was no 
 interstate commerce by land which demanded national 
 attention. Even the railroads at first were so local in 
 character that few of them crossed state lines. They 
 ran only short distances, and passengers and freight were 
 transferred from road to road. 
 
 When the era of combination came, the little roads 
 were joined together to form the big trunk lines that now 
 often span half the width of the continent and do busi- 
 ness in a score of states. As these great lines of com- 
 merce spread over the nation, they escaped all govern- 
 mental control and literally became a law unto themselves. 
 The states were forbidden to interfere with them, and 
 the nation neglected its power and duty. 
 
 When New Jersey gave a certain company the exclu- 
 sive privilege of carrying passengers and freight across 
 the state on the line of travel between New York and 
 Philadelphia, Congress first woke to its responsibility and 
 passed a law in 1866 forbidding a state to obstruct the 
 flow of commerce between the states, after which the 
 national Legislature fell into another sleep of twenty 
 years. Some western states seeking to regulate the 
 charges on their products shipped to the New York 
 market, the Supreme Court of the United States forbade 
 them and declared that they were usurping the functions 
 of Congress; but Congress slept on while the abuses 
 grew, and the Standard Oil, the sugar, and other cor- 
 porations fattened into giants on rebates and all manner 
 of unjust favors, which the railroads, often under coer- 
 cion, yielded to big shippers. 
 
28 EDWARD A. MOSELEY 
 
 Not excessive rates, but unequal rates and facilities, 
 were the worst offenses against justice and the general 
 welfare. The railroads had become, under the protec- 
 tion of the law, the highways of the nation, even as the 
 streets are the highways of the city. That one citizen 
 should have the use of the national highways on better 
 terms than another, was as demoralizing and intolerable 
 as if a municipality should favor one citizen at the ex- 
 pense of another in the use of the municipal highways, 
 telling one merchant or truckman or cabman that he 
 could ply his trade in the streets to the exclusion of a 
 competitor. 
 
 To establish equality on the rail and to " regulate com- 
 merce among the states," Congress passed the Inter- 
 state Commerce Law and established the Interstate 
 Commerce Commission. 
 
 Being virtually out of business at the time and his 
 party in power at Washington, Mr. Moseley, complying 
 with the advice of his brother-in-law, Mr. Spofford, who 
 outlined a plan of procedure and gave him letters to 
 leading statesmen, applied to President Cleveland for 
 appointment as one of the five members of the proposed 
 commission. Another of his advisers and supporters was 
 his friend, John Boyle O'Reilly, who personally indorsed 
 him to the President. The work made a special appeal 
 to his interest, and his fitness for the place as well as his 
 popularity brought him the cordial indorsement of nearly 
 the entire membership of the Massachusetts Legislature, 
 regardless of party lines, including the lieutenant-gov- 
 ernor and the president of the Senate, both Republicans, 
 
FINDING HIS PLACE 29 
 
 the mayor of Boston, prominent business men, and rail- 
 road officials as well as labor leaders. 
 
 The act limited the President to the appointment of 
 only three members from his own party, and Mr. Cleve- 
 land felt that the Democratic places should go to the 
 Democratic sections, and that one of the two Republicans 
 whom he was required to appoint should come from Re- 
 publican New England. This being his view of the mat- 
 ter, he could not consider Mr. Moseley in his selection of 
 Commissioners. 
 
 Mr. Cleveland, however, had his own original methods 
 of utilizing men, and if a man commended himself to his 
 shrewd judgment of character, he was likely to keep him 
 in mind until he had found some place for him where he 
 could be useful to his administration. He could not, in 
 accordance with his geographical rule, make Mr. Moseley 
 an Interstate Commerce Commissioner, but he did not 
 forget him. 
 
 As the time drew near for the organization of the new 
 body, the President sent for Patrick A. Collins, the lead- 
 ing Democratic congressman from New England and 
 chairman of the Democratic state committee of Massa- 
 chusetts, and told him that he would like to have Mr. 
 Moseley appointed Secretary of the Commission. Mr. 
 Cleveland was very much in earnest in his desire to see 
 the Commission well started. He had gone outside his 
 party to select for the chairmanship the ablest available 
 lawyer in the country having an acquaintance with the 
 railway business. Thomas M. Cooley, a distinguished 
 jurist and an eminent author of standard works on cer- 
 
 
 
30 EDWARD A. MOSELEY 
 
 tain branches of law, was induced to resign a railway 
 receivership, which was paying him $25,000 a year, to 
 become chairman of the Commission at a salary of $7500, 
 so strongly did the President impress him with his sense 
 of the importance of the public service to be rendered. 
 
 Mr. Cleveland told Mr. Collins that he believed the 
 Secretaryship would prove to be an important post, and 
 that he was anxious to see it occupied by a man the 
 equal of the Commissioners in ability. The suggestion 
 was original with the President, and it took Mr. Collins 
 and, in turn, Mr. Moseley himself by surprise. The 
 latter, in response to a summons, went to Washington 
 to see the President, whose good opinion of him was con- 
 firmed by their interview. 
 
 Acting entirely on a hint from the White House, the 
 Commissioners at their first meeting on April 19, 1887, 
 elected Edward A. Moseley, Secretary. Judge Cooley 
 was chairman, and his associates on the Commission 
 were William R. Morrison of Illinois, for twenty years a 
 Democratic leader in Congress and until within a few 
 weeks the chairman of the House committee on ways and 
 means; Augustus Schoonmaker of New York, Aldace 
 F. Walker of Vermont, and Walter L. Bragg of Alabama. 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 THE NEW SECRETARY 
 
 THE new Commission was in a difficult situation. No 
 path of duty had been blazed for it. The law creating it 
 was an experiment in a new field of Federal activity and 
 was yet to be tested by experience and interpreted by the 
 courts. Its methods of procedure remained to be devised. 
 Public opinion expected wonders to be performed, while, 
 on the other hand, the railroads conceded little or no 
 rightful authority to the Commission to meddle in what 
 had been exclusively their own business for half a century. 
 
 The Commissioners were strangers to one another, with 
 ideas and temperaments yet to be harmonized. Their 
 executive officer, the Secretary, was wholly unknown to 
 all of them. They had taken him on President Cleve- 
 land's faith, and not improbably or unreasonably some 
 of them may have regretted that they had not been left 
 free to consult their own personal preferences. 
 
 It must be admitted that for the first task before him, 
 Mr. Moseley had no special experience and no natural 
 aptitude. This was the work of establishing the routine 
 of his office, and tangling it up in the inevitable red tape 
 of a governmental bureau. Those were the very things 
 of which he had always been impatient in his private 
 business, where he had slighted or evaded office work and 
 
 31 
 
32 EDWARD A. MOSELEY 
 
 clerical details as too irksome to be borne. He had 
 chosen, as far as he could, to live his life out under the 
 sky. Now, he found himself primarily in the relation of 
 a clerk to a court, and he knew nothing of law and judicial 
 forms. 
 
 His innocence of official formalities was peculiarly try- 
 ing to Chairman Cooley, who had sat for thirty years on 
 the bench of the Supreme Court of Michigan and had 
 never before seen a high officer of the court going about 
 his duties in his shirt sleeves merely because the weather 
 chanced to be hot, and calling out to his assistants in the 
 free and hearty tones of a logging camp. The Secretary's 
 manners certainly were then as ever most unofficial, 
 although filled with the spirit of kindness and simple 
 courtesy. In his first contact with men, he was not 
 likely to appear to the best advantage. He was never 
 glib of tongue, and, while boldly self-reliant and inde- 
 pendent, he was often reserved before a stranger to the 
 point of seeming shyness. 
 
 More than one of the Commissioners shared Judge 
 Cooley's disappointment in him in those early months, 
 when he and they were working out their novel problem 
 each in his own way. The misunderstanding, which is 
 both amusing and pathetic in the light of his subsequent 
 relations with them and success in his office, nearly cul- 
 minated in a direct request to the President that he 
 permit the Commission to make a change in the Secretary- 
 ship. Mr. Moseley's readiness to take responsibility in 
 the absence of the Commission from the city only alarmed 
 the Chairman, and when in due time the doubters saw 
 
THE NEW SECRETARY 33 
 
 order in the affairs of the bureau miraculously emerging 
 from chaos, they still doubted, and suspected that some 
 subordinate of the Secretary must be bringing it forth. 
 When at length and it was not long they came to 
 know the man, his versatility, his energy, his persistence, 
 his sound judgment, his knowledge of men, his loyalty, 
 the Commission gave him its confidence without measure 
 and took him into its inner councils. 
 
 Reports of the early dissatisfaction with him had 
 reached the White House, and President Cleveland was 
 gratified now by the proved fitness of the man whom he 
 had chosen for the Commission. He always regarded 
 Mr. Moseley with pride as one of "my boys," and Col. 
 Daniel S. Lamont, Secretary to the President, said in a 
 letter under date of July 5, 1888, "We all like Moseley 
 very much, and he is everywhere here respected and 
 appreciated." 
 
 The venerable and learned chairman of the Commis- 
 sion leaned on the Secretary with somewhat of the trust 
 and affection of a father with his son. In their drives 
 and in their evenings together, the Judge reasoned out 
 the underlying principles of laws in their relation to 
 commerce, and soon found an apt pupil in his lay com- 
 panion, and a vigorous and clear-headed adviser as to the 
 practical aspect of the problems with which his theories 
 dealt. He urged and aided him to study law and become 
 a member of the bar. 
 
 Their correspondence, when the chairman was away 
 from Washington, gives glimpses of the unusual intimacy 
 that grew between these men, separated by the gulf of 
 
34 EDWARD A. MOSELEY 
 
 years and personal experience. When Judge Cooley was 
 compelled by ill health to resign from the Commission 
 in 1891, he wrote to the Secretary, "I shall ever cherish 
 with the liveliest sentiments of affection and respect the 
 recollection of my association with you while my con- 
 nection with the Commission continued/' It is well 
 within bounds to say that this friendship was the closest 
 and warmest that Judge Cooley formed in the course of 
 his service in Washington, and it lasted the remaining 
 years of his life. 
 
 This conquest was repeated by the Secretary in his 
 relations with Judge Cooley 's associates on the Commis- 
 sion and with each of their successors through the many 
 years of his connection with the body. He made himself 
 the friend of all, the new Commissioners turning to him 
 as a safe guide, and the Commission as a whole confid- 
 ing in his experience, discretion, and ability, looking to 
 him for counsel in all things from the smallest personal 
 matters to the gravest public problems. 
 
 "I wish you would please select a more suitable and 
 agreeable apartment for my family before we return for 
 the winter ; my wife relies on your taste." That is one 
 request from a Commissioner to the Secretary which gives 
 us a glimpse of the unofficial responsibilities and tasks 
 that he cheerfully bore, and there are other similar letters 
 and telegrams to the same effect : " Please order the gas 
 turned on" ; "As you know almost everything, can you 
 find out whether I can get a couple of good servants in 
 Washington, a cook and a second girl ? " 
 
 One of his own letters to a commissioner who was 
 
THE NEW SECRETARY 35 
 
 building a house in his home town is characteristic of 
 his many-sided relations with the members of the Com- 
 mission : " Don't hurry it. The longer it is in building, 
 in the same proportion the longer it will stand. Then 
 again be sure that everything is dry. Unless your lum- 
 ber is well seasoned and dry, it is, to a greater or less 
 extent, always a serious annoyance. The mitered joints 
 come apart, the floor shrinks, etc. Where one is putting 
 up anything like panel work, it is an excellent idea to 
 put on a coat of the cheapest kind of paint on the back 
 before nailing, as it prevents the moisture from coming 
 out of the wood. I think there is a tremendous lot of 
 fun in building a house, and you are apt to have more 
 pleasure in building than in lodging in it. So, unless you 
 have got other business in view, I would drag it along as 
 long as possible." 
 
 Another Commissioner, in writing him in a vacation 
 season, said : " Since everybody is to be gone, you will be 
 able to have your own way without fighting for it. May 
 you rest in peace !" 
 
 No doubt the Secretary did the homely and useful 
 kindnesses requested of him as gladly and effectively as 
 he conducted difficult negotiations with Congress and its 
 committees and with the great departments on behalf 
 of the Commission, which relied on his diplomacy and 
 energy to promote its ends everywhere in Washington, 
 and even constituted him its envoy to the White House 
 on many important and delicate occasions. 
 
 Whatever the difficulty, and however badly tangled, 
 the Commission always felt warranted in assuming that 
 
36 EDWARD A. MOSELEY 
 
 "Moseley will fix it up." It was by no means unusual 
 for him to see the President regarding the reappointment 
 of Commissioners, and to bring back welcome assurances. 
 Even when his efforts failed of success, they were so whole- 
 hearted as not to fail of appreciation on the part of the 
 disappointed member, one such, for example, writing him 
 hi these terms of gratefulness : "I want you to know how 
 very highly I appreciate your earnest and sincere efforts 
 in behalf of my reappointment. I feel that you did all 
 that possibly could be done, and I trust that the day may 
 come when I can reciprocate your great kindness." 
 
 Mr. Moseley was a militant Democrat in the begin- 
 ning and a devoted Cleveland man. When the campaign 
 of 1888 came and Mr. Cleveland was up for reelection, 
 he had been in Washington somewhat more than a year, 
 and was well established in the regard and confidence of 
 the President, Colonel Lamont, and those in the inner 
 circle. His eager interest in Cleveland's success led him 
 to give the President a piece of advice which probably 
 changed one chapter in the history of the time. 
 
 There was a vacancy in the Chief-Justiceship of the 
 United States, and it was persistently reported that 
 Edward J. Phelps of Vermont was to be appointed to that 
 exalted office. Mr. Phelps, who was Minister to Eng- 
 land, was in Washington apparently to receive the honor. 
 The senators from his state, Messrs. Edmunds and 
 Morrill, had signified their willingness to give him the 
 two Republican votes that any appointee must have to be 
 confirmed by the Senate where the Democrats were in a 
 minority* 
 
THE NEW SECRETARY 37 
 
 It was in the period when Parnell's campaign in behalf 
 of Irish Home Rule had aroused the Irish race at home 
 and abroad, and citizens of Irish birth or descent in this 
 country were extremely sensitive regarding our relations 
 with the British Government. Through Mr. Moseley's 
 friendship for John Boyle O'Reilly, who, although a poet 
 and not a politician, was the influential editor of the 
 Boston Pilot, an Irish Catholic journal of national circu- 
 lation at the time, he was conversant with the opinions 
 and feelings of citizens of that race and faith. He knew 
 that Mr. Phelps' deportment in England had given 
 serious offense to the tens of thousands of organized sup- 
 porters in this country of the Home Rule cause. 
 
 Others in Washington knew as well as he that the 
 Phelps appointment would be most unwelcome to those 
 people, but the White House seemed oblivious to that 
 important political fact. It remained for him to sound 
 the warning. When he called at the White House on 
 this errand, the President was engaged and Colonel La- 
 mont was out, whereupon he sat down at the latter's 
 desk and wrote this note : 
 
 DEAR COLONEL LAMONT: The appointment of E. J. 
 Phelps as chief justice will play the dickens with us. 
 
 Yours, 
 
 NED MOSELEY. 
 
 That outspoken statement was like a gust of fresh air 
 in the White House. Colonel Lament showed the note 
 to the President, and they summoned Congressman 
 Patrick A. Collins, lately president of the Irish Land 
 
 
38 EDWARD A. MOSELEY 
 
 League of America. Mr. Collins told the President that 
 he did not wish to be placed in the position of assuming 
 to be the spokesman of the Irish race on such a subject, 
 and suggested that he call in other congressmen of Irish 
 birth or extraction. Accordingly some thirty of them were 
 hastily assembled, with the result that Mr. Moseley's 
 impulsive remonstrance was vigorously indorsed, and the 
 press received a brief statement from the White House 
 somewhat in this form : " Those in a position to know the 
 facts are only amused by the assumption that the ap- 
 pointment of Edward J. Phelps to the Chief -Justiceship 
 has been decided on. Mr. Phelps is not a candidate, and 
 his name is not under consideration. " Mr. Phelps re- 
 turned to his post in London, and eventually Melville W. 
 Fuller was appointed Chief Justice. 
 
 When Mr. Cleveland was defeated, no one was more 
 grievously disappointed than Mr. Moseley. He was 
 much heartened by this prophetic letter from O'Reilly, 
 and he took pleasure in sending it to Mr. Cleveland after 
 four years, when the prophecy had been verified by 
 events : 
 
 The Pilot. 
 
 BOSTON, Nov. 26, 1888. 
 DEAR NED : 
 
 Forgive me I have been out of Boston for a week, 
 lecturing in Cincinnati; before that for over a week, 
 buried in a poem for the negro monument. . . . 
 
 The campaign of 1892 has already begun, and the Presi- 
 dent will sweep the country, as sure as he lives, on the 
 very issues which have beaten us this time. We tried 
 to reap the crop before it was ripe ; that is all. It was a 
 good crop, and it will grow again. 
 
 Harrison is essentially an incapable man at least for 
 
THE NEW SECRETARY 39 
 
 a great place. He might do for the Senate, where in- 
 dividual judgment was not called for, as Bayard did for 
 it. But when he comes to a place where his every word 
 and act, or silence and inaction, are under the blaze and 
 the microscope, he will fall short every time. As sure as 
 the sun is over him, a small nature cannot act largely 
 under supreme conditions; and as President he cannot 
 shuffle in doing, or evade consequences. Every mistake 
 of Mr. Cleveland has been due to Bayard or other minis- 
 ters ; every mistake of Harrison's will be his own. Gov- 
 ernor Hill cannot last even two out of the four years. 
 He lacks moral fiber; and by the new states to be 
 made next year, New York will not be as much the Key 
 State in '92 that it has hitherto been. 
 
 Harrison's first wet blanket, on the enthusiasts will be 
 the throwing over of Blaine. His selection of a secretary, 
 also, is simply fatuous. Depend on it, he will go from 
 blunder to blunder, for pettiness is a blunder in a Presi- 
 dent. 
 
 Cleveland will grow stronger every year. His defeat 
 is unnatural; every intelligent Republican secretly ad- 
 mits that it was accidental. Profoundly, I believe, dear 
 Ned, that we were defeated by Bayard, Phelps, and Endi- 
 cott. The only wonder in my mind is that 100,000 
 instead of 10,000 New York Irishmen were not seduced 
 in their disappointment and indignation. Bayard de- 
 serves the obscurity into which he goes. An American 
 minister who could insult twenty million Irish Americans, 
 without cause, and injure their interests by obstructing 
 Home Rule for Ireland, as Phelps has done, deserves the 
 contempt of all men. The fool has helped no one but 
 Harrison, and he has hurt every one else. 
 
 I hope the President will withdraw the treaty of ex- 
 tradition, and appeal to the manliness and morality of 
 Canada to give up our refugee swindlers without bargain- 
 ing for the giving up of refugee politicians, which is wholly 
 a British and not at all a Canadian interest. And I also 
 hope that the President will reassert his common-sense 
 tariff reform principles, and declare that the intelligence 
 of the country will within two years compel the change, 
 which he proposed and our party formulated. 
 
40 EDWARD A. MOSELEY 
 
 And now, dear Ned, let me say how sorry I am to think 
 that your faithful and splendid work is to end in getting 
 beheaded. Don't fret we shall know a lot more in '92. 
 You can get along without trouble; we shall be busy 
 from the very beginning. 
 
 More time for a good canoe trip next year. 
 Good-by, dear old man. 
 
 Affectionately yours, 
 JOHN BOYLE O'REILLY. 
 

 CHAPTER VII 
 UNDER FIVE PRESIDENTS 
 
 WITH the inauguration of Harrison, in 1889, the Re- 
 publicans came back to claim their own. There was a 
 clean sweep of all places outside the classified civil service. 
 
 The Interstate Commerce Commission was a bipartisan 
 body under the law creating it, and Mr. Moseley felt 
 that properly the Secretary might be exempted from the 
 general rule by which the victors took the spoils. He 
 was not appointed for a limited term, but to serve at the 
 pleasure of the Commission. He therefore prepared to 
 defend his office. The term of one of the three Dem- 
 ocratic Commissioners expired in 1891, and a Republican, 
 Martin A. Knapp of New York, took his place, thus giving 
 the Republicans a majority on the Commission. 
 
 A Republican candidate for the Secretaryship opened 
 an aggressive campaign against its Democratic incum- 
 bent, but Mr. Moseley showed himself a better cam- 
 paigner. All the old Commissioners were cordially in 
 favor of his retention, but the Republicans among them 
 might have found it hard to resist a partisan pressure 
 for his place. Mr. Moseley, however, had known no 
 party in the conduct of his office, had made many in- 
 fluential friends among the Republicans, and was able 
 to bring to bear more powerful Republican support than 
 his Republican opponent. 
 
 41 
 
42 EDWARD A. MOSELEY 
 
 The Commission was deluged with strong indorsements 
 of him, Senators Hoar and Dawes of Massachusetts, 
 Senators Blair and Chandler of New Hampshire, Senator 
 Cullom of Illinois, the father of the Interstate Commerce 
 Law, and Gen. Russell A. Alger of Michigan being notable 
 among those who actively joined in his support. Means 
 were found of pulling Senator Quay of Pennsylvania, 
 the chairman of the Republican national committee, 
 away from the opposition to him. 
 
 Senator Chandler wrote: "In my belief Mr. Moseley 
 has the confidence and respect of the leading men in 
 New England without regard to party politics." William 
 W. Crapo, a distinguished ex-congressman from Massa- 
 chusetts, in writing to Colonel Morrison said : "I regard 
 him as eminently qualified for the place. You know my 
 politics. I am as ardent a Republican as when we 
 journeyed together to Louisiana in 1876 to discover who 
 had been elected President. Mr. Moseley is a Demo- 
 crat. If he is to be displaced simply to put a Republi- 
 can into the position, I shall regard it as a grave mis- 
 take. Your board ought not to be administered as a 
 party organization, and the public will have confidence 
 in it only so far as it believes it to be free from party 
 influence." 
 
 Senator Dawes said, in his indorsement : "I have known 
 your Secretary, Mr. Edward A. Moseley, for many years, 
 and although differing from him in politics, I have not 
 failed to recognize and appreciate his ability and fidelity 
 in his office. I should regret exceedingly to see him dis- 
 placed, and I cannot conceive of any exigency of the 
 
 
UNDER FIVE PRESIDENTS 43 
 
 public service that would require it." The foremost 
 Republican of the day, James G. Elaine, wrote to Com- 
 missioner Veazey, "I hope you will not consider me 
 meddling if I express my warm wishes for the retention 
 of Mr. Moseley." 
 
 The officers of the brotherhoods of railway employees 
 joined the representatives of the railways themselves in 
 supporting a secretary who had shown himself fair to all. 
 Mr. L. T. Michener, a close friend of President Harri- 
 son, writing as " counsel for a number of railroad com- 
 panies," said, "I have never heard from railway officials 
 or from counsel anything but kind words for Mr. 
 Moseley, for they all appreciate his obliging disposition 
 and realize that he has a thorough knowledge of the 
 law and practice before the Commission." Mr. George 
 G. Greene, general counsel of the Lake Shore and Michigan 
 Southern Railway, addressed Chauncey M. Depew, the 
 president, earnestly suggesting that he intercede for Mr. 
 Moseley, saying, "I have had opportunity and occasion 
 to know something of his methods and administration 
 of affairs in his office, and I cannot commend him too 
 highly." Messrs. Britton and Gray wrote as legal 
 representatives of "some 10,000 miles of railroad" : 
 
 Mr. Moseley has, in our frequent contact with him, 
 given demonstration of his complete absorption in the 
 work of the Commission and the duties of his office con- 
 nected therewith . Whenever we have met him accidentally 
 outside, the same absorption in his work and duties was 
 manifested by his constant discussion of the interstate 
 commerce business in some phase or other. In litigation 
 brought by the Commission to enforce its orders, we 
 seriously doubt whether any counsel acting for the United 
 
44 EDWARD A. MOSELEY 
 
 States or the Commission could exhibit greater enthusiasm 
 or a greater degree of industry in preparing the case on 
 the Commission's behalf, and in running down all sources 
 of information and proof. We have never regarded the 
 office as a political one, and are honest in the conviction 
 that certainly Mr. Moseley has never given it any such 
 turn. . . . His readiness to answer all inquiries, to 
 furnish all information possible or proper, and to give all 
 parties the entire facilities within his reach for their 
 benefit, coupled with his zeal and interest in sustaining 
 the Commission and forwarding its important work, 
 lead us to believe that no one else can be found who can 
 better fill the office, nor do we believe that any one can 
 be found to measure up to Mr. Moseley 's present experi- 
 ence and capacity to fill his important office. 
 
 The most significant among the many letters on the 
 subject, because of the acquaintance of the writer with 
 Mr. Moseley's work, was the following from Mr. George 
 G. Crocker of the state railroad commission of Massa- 
 chusetts : 
 
 BOSTON, November 19, 1891. 
 HON. GEORGE F. HOAR. 
 
 MY DEAR SIR : 
 
 You ask me what is my opinion of Mr. Edward A. 
 Moseley, the Secretary of the Interstate Commerce Com- 
 mission, and of the value of his services. I take pleasure 
 in replying that, as railroad commissioner, I have on 
 several occasions called upon Mr. Moseley for information 
 in regard to the work of the Interstate Commerce Com- 
 mission and other matters bearing upon the duties of the 
 board. I have always found him not only willing, but 
 prompt, in responding to any request for information, and 
 I have further found that he has a wide and valuable 
 knowledge of railroad men and railroad affairs. I regard 
 his experience in the position as of great value to the 
 public, and should certainly feel that the usefulness of 
 the work of the Commission to the public would be im- 
 
UNDER FIVE PRESIDENTS 45 
 
 paired if by substituting another man his experience 
 should be sacrificed. 
 
 Especially of late have I had occasion to appreciate 
 his ability and the personal interest which he takes in 
 the duties of his office. At the last convention of the 
 railroad commissioners, held at the rooms of the Inter- 
 state Commerce Commission in Washington, I was ap- 
 pointed by Judge Cooley as the chairman of a committee 
 of five commissioners from different parts of the country 
 to urge upon Congress the adoption on freight cars of 
 uniform automatic couplers and certain other safety 
 appliances. 
 
 Mr. Moseley consented to act as secretary of the com- 
 mittee, and as such he has devoted a large amount of time 
 and thought, ability and experience, towards securing 
 for the committee returns from the railroad and trans- 
 portation companies of the country. These returns 
 have further been classified by him and statistics compiled, 
 and the report made by him at a meeting of the committee 
 held in New York proved to be most instructive,, and 
 specially impressed the members of the committee with 
 surprise that he was both able and willing voluntarily to 
 work in such an indefatigable spirit. 
 
 I should certainly deplore any action looking towards 
 supplanting him, and believe that such action would 
 neither be in the interest of efficiency of service nor con- 
 sistent with the principles which must be adhered to if 
 high standards in our public service are to be maintained. 
 
 Most truly yours, 
 
 GEORGE G. CROCKER. 
 
 Mr. Crocker gave not only the chief reason for retain- 
 ing the Secretary, but Mr. Moseley's own real reason for 
 wishing to be retained, and that was the opportunity 
 for service which the movement for safety car appliances 
 had opened to him. The secretaryship as a job was not 
 worth fighting for. It was a laborious post, the honor 
 and emolument of which were alike small. 
 
46 EDWARD A. MOSELEY 
 
 The effort to displace him served to call out this ex- 
 pression from the chairman of the Commission in a 
 letter to the officers of the Brotherhood of Locomotive 
 Engineers : 
 
 ANN ARBOR, November 19, 1891. 
 MESSRS. P. M. ARTHUR, G. C. E., 
 AND T. S. INGRAHAM, F. G. E. 
 
 Replying to yours of the 17th instant, I beg to assure 
 you that I am not in sympathy with any proposal to 
 remove Mr. Moseley, the Secretary of the Interstate Com- 
 merce Commission. I know of no reason which could 
 justify the removal. He is a faithful, diligent, and cour- 
 teous officer, fully acquainted with the duties of the posi- 
 tion, and ambitious to perform them to the satisfaction 
 of the public and of all concerned. I think his removal 
 would be a great wrong to the public service. 
 
 Very respectfully yours, 
 
 T. M. COOLEY. 
 
 Finally, Mr. Moseley received this conclusive assurance 
 from Mr. Joseph H. Manley, the leader of Republican 
 politics in Maine, " Don't worry ; you are all right." The 
 Secretary not only held his place, but removed it for- 
 ever from the scramble for partisan spoils. He was not 
 called upon again to lift a finger to retain it, although at 
 one time in the course of the Harrison administration it 
 was said that the only other Cleveland appointee left in 
 a prominent post at Washington was the register of the 
 treasury, General Rosecrans. 
 
 All but one of the original Commissioners retired 
 within five years of the organization of the Commission, 
 and with the retirement of Colonel Morrison in 1897, 
 the last member of the first Commission was gone. The 
 Secretary survived all changes among the Commissioners 
 
UNDER FIVE PRESIDENTS 47 
 
 and all changes of administrations. First and last he 
 served with nearly a score of Commissioners and under 
 five Presidents Cleveland, Harrison, McKinley, Roose- 
 velt and Taft. Parties and Presidents came and went, 
 but he, almost if not quite alone among the more con- 
 spicuous officials at Washington, stayed on undisturbed 
 in his unique place, where it may be said he created a 
 part for himself. 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 A CLEVELAND INCIDENT 
 
 MR. MOSELEY'S firm hold on the good will of the 
 Commission, when a majority of its members were not 
 of the party with which he acted before his appointment, 
 was put to the test by a situation that Grover Cleveland 
 unwittingly created in the campaign of 1892. 
 
 Mr. Cleveland received a letter from a man styling 
 himself the editor of a newspaper called the Irish Nation- 
 alist, and representing himself to be a Democrat who 
 wished to clear the party candidate for President from 
 the charge that in his former administration a treaty 
 had been negotiated with Great Britain permitting the 
 extradition of political refugees. The subject being one 
 with which Mr. Moseley had dealt in the campaign of 
 1888, Mr. Cleveland referred the inquiry to him in the 
 following letter : 
 
 (PERSONAL) 
 
 GRAY GABLES, BUZZARDS BAY, MASS. 
 
 August 9, 1892. 
 EDWARD A. MOSELEY, ESQ. 
 MY DEAR SIR : 
 
 The inclosed letter from John F. Kearney was received 
 a day or two ago. You will see that inquiries are made 
 therein in relation to a subject with which, if I am not 
 mistaken, you are quite familiar. I refer to the British 
 
 48 
 
A CLEVELAND INCIDENT 49 
 
 extradition treaty, which was presented to the Senate 
 during my administration as President. I send this 
 letter to you for the reason that I believe you are better 
 able to answer it than I am; and if you see fit to write 
 Mr. Kearney the truth in relation to this matter, as you 
 understand it, I shall be glad. I hope that you may be 
 able to do this on your own account entirely, basing your 
 reply on information which you yourself obtained, and 
 merely mentioning the fact that I have referred the letter 
 to you on account of your great familiarity with the 
 subject. 
 
 Very truly yours, 
 
 GROVER CLEVELAND. 
 
 Mr. Cleveland, in his confidence in Mr. Moseley's 
 friendship for him and ability to answer the inquiry, 
 imposed a delicate duty on a man holding office under the 
 opposing candidate for President. Mr. Moseley wrote 
 to Kearney, saying that the treaty as sent to the Senate 
 by President Cleveland contained no such provision. On 
 further inquiry about Kearney, he became convinced that 
 the man was trying to turn a political trick. He warned 
 Mr. Cleveland against him and received the following 
 reply : 
 
 (PERSONAL) 
 
 GRAY GABLES, BUZZARDS BAY, MASS. 
 
 October 8, 1892. 
 EDWARD A. MOSELEY, ESQ. 
 
 MY DEAR SIR: 
 
 I have received your letter of the 1st instant accom- 
 panied by a statement which you prepared in relation to 
 the Phelps-Rosebery treaty. I thank you [most sin- 
 cerely for the labor which you have expended in this 
 matter and for the very satisfactory presentation which 
 you make of the question. I also desire to express my 
 obligation to you for having made inquiry concerning the 
 
50 EDWARD A. MOSELEY 
 
 gentleman who asked of me the information. Of course, 
 I could judge nothing of his character and purposes ex- 
 cept as they were made apparent by his letter to me. 
 
 The information you receive concerning him, if entirely 
 reliable, and if he continues in the same condition as 
 described by your correspondent, properly caused you to 
 hesitate before putting the document which you have 
 prepared in his hands. My own idea is that you could 
 not have done a better thing than to submit it to the 
 judgment of Mr. Quincy, for I suppose its transmission 
 to him will perhaps put it in the way of being passed upon 
 by the members of the national committee as well as by 
 himself. 
 
 Assuring you of my appreciation of the efforts you have 
 made to comply with my request in this matter, I am, 
 
 Yours very truly, 
 
 GROVER CLEVELAND. 
 
 Another man next took up the subject and came 
 to Washington to see Mr. Moseley. He represented 
 himself as having come directly from Mr. Cleveland, 
 whose visiting card he presented as evidence of good 
 faith. After discussing the treaty with this new in- 
 quirer, Mr. Moseley became suspicious of his caller's 
 sincerity, and the man admitted that he was working the 
 thing up for the Republican campaign. 
 
 That admission of duplicity naturally aroused Mr. 
 Moseley's indignation, if not belligerence, and the man 
 caused him to be arrested in the middle of the night on 
 the charge of having threatened his life, a charge which 
 was vigorously denied. The arrest was made at an hour 
 when it was difficult for Mr. Moseley to call friends to 
 his aid, and he was therefore detained at the station 
 until morning. It was an unpleasant situation, apart 
 
A CLEVELAND INCIDENT 51 
 
 from the indignity put upon him, to be involved in a 
 campaign from which he had tried to keep free because 
 of his position under a Republican administration. 
 There is another letter from Mr. Cleveland, expressive 
 of his sympathy in the annoyance he had innocently 
 brought upon him: 
 
 12 WEST 51sT STREET, NEW YORK CITY, 
 
 October 21, 1892. 
 EDWARD A. MOSELEY, ESQ., WASHINGTON, D. C. 
 
 MY DEAR SIR: 
 
 I thank you for your letter of October 18, and the one 
 you inclose from your friend at Newburyport, Massachu- 
 setts. I have read the letter with very great satisfaction 
 and return it to you, thinking perhaps that you would 
 like to preserve it. 
 
 This corroborates other evidence which has come to 
 hand that our veteran soldiers cannot be played upon to 
 the same extent as heretofore by demagogic practices. 
 
 Mr.- -to whom you refer in your letter, came to 
 me and asked me in regard to the treaty, apparently in 
 good faith. I answered him as well as my recollection 
 permitted me to, and finally said to him that it was a 
 matter entirely within your knowledge and that your 
 memory upon the subject would probably be better than 
 mine. The questions which followed that in relation to 
 the treaty, satisfied me in a very few minutes that his 
 interview was not sought in good faith, and I peremptorily 
 declined to have any further conversation with him. 
 Since that time I have received from him sundry and 
 divers letters, some of a very peremptory, not to say 
 threatening kind, to which I have paid no attention ; but 
 I did not understand until the receipt of your letter the 
 meaning of the reference he made to your threatening 
 his life. 
 
 My impression is that your treatment of him, as de- 
 scribed in your letter, was exactly what he deserved. 
 
 Very truly yours, 
 
 GROVER CLEVELAND. 
 
52 EDWARD A. MOSELEY 
 
 Mr. Moseley was furious with rage over his experience, 
 but the election soon came and the incident was closed 
 with the campaign. After the election, he wrote Mr. 
 Cleveland this letter: 
 
 November 14, 1892. 
 
 HON. GROVER CLEVELAND, 
 12 West 51st Street, 
 New York City. 
 
 DEAR MR. PRESIDENT: 
 
 I knew you would be elected and of course you know 
 I hoped so as never before when I had to face the humili- 
 ation that they put upon me on account of that cracked- 
 brain scalawag, , but I was not prepared for such 
 
 a deluge. The atmosphere in Washington is changed 
 already there is life and cheer in it, and I tell them they 
 need not think that the triumphant Democracy with its 
 access to power is going to abuse it. They did raise the 
 devil with me that night, fairly pulling me out of a sick 
 bed in my nightshirt and locking me up in a dirty cell. 
 
 You will be sorry to learn of my dear mother's illness. 
 That was the only news that saddened me at all in the 
 midst of the glorious election reports. She is over eighty, 
 and I grieve about it. I write you about her because I 
 recall, when you told me in the White House one St. 
 Patrick's Day, that the patron saint had the advantage of 
 you by a day, your tenderness as you told me of your 
 mother and what a sure guide she had always been 
 and how you always missed her steadfast and supporting 
 friendship. That came home to me the more because my 
 mother rejoiced at your victory almost as much as your 
 own would have done. 
 
 I inclose an old letter of our dear Boyle O'Reilly's, 
 which you have never seen. Do read it through and see 
 if it is not prophetic. 
 
 With great regard and respect, 
 EDWARD A. MOSELEY. 
 
A CLEVELAND INCIDENT 53 
 
 Mr. Moseley's relations with Mr. Cleveland in the 
 latter 's second administration were cordial and influen- 
 tial. When a vacancy occurred in the Commission, the 
 President received many requests for Mr. Moseley's 
 appointment as a Commissioner from the leaders of the 
 railroad brotherhoods, Chief Arthur of the locomotive en- 
 gineers expressing the general feeling of the unions when 
 he said in his letter, under date of March 19, 1894 : 
 
 We would urge, in view of the many questions that are 
 daily arising which so directly concern railroad employees, 
 his appointment, not because we have any reason to think 
 the class of men referred to would receive any favors at 
 his hands that justice would not dictate, but because this 
 great army of men engaged in the most hazardous em- 
 ployment that the country has, have no one in the Com- 
 mission that has any practical knowledge of them or their 
 duties, and certainly the welfare of these men and of our 
 common country of which they are no small part, entitles 
 them to an unbiased representative, whom they respect 
 and in whose judgment, impartially given, they can have 
 confidence. 
 
 Mr. Cleveland, however, felt now as he felt when Mr. 
 Moseley's name was first presented in 1887, that he 
 should not choose a Democratic member from Republi- 
 can New England. With that decision, Mr. Moseley 
 relinquished his ambition for a seat on the Commission, 
 and never again turned his hand over for promotion or 
 preferment of any kind. This was fortunate for him and 
 his work, for as a Commissioner his tenure might have 
 been less permanent, and it is extremely doubtful, had he 
 been one among the several members of the Commission, 
 if he could have done as much as he succeeded in doing 
 in the fifteen crowded years that followed. 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 TAKING UP HIS LIFE WORK 
 
 BEHIND every law there is a man. Edward A. Moseley 
 was the man behind the act of Congress "For the Protec- 
 tion of Travelers and Employees on Interstate Railroads." 
 The law had other friends as loyal as he and whose fair 
 share of the credit no one will deny. He organized and 
 conducted the remarkable campaign that placed it on 
 the statute books ; the Interstate Commerce Commission 
 looked chiefly to him to set it in operation ; under the 
 orders of the Commission, he took charge of its enforce- 
 ment; for twenty years he led in the running fight for 
 its life in the courts, and at last really gave his own 
 life in defense of the cause. 
 
 The Interstate Commerce Act of 1887, which created 
 the Interstate Commerce Commission, made no provision 
 for the regulation of the conditions of travel and labor 
 on the railways. It was strictly a commerce law, having 
 to do only with questions of dollars and cents. Its sole 
 ami was to protect property, and there was not a clause 
 in it for the protection of men. It was wholly an economic 
 statute, and in no sense a humane measure. The Inter- 
 state Commerce Commission was constituted and organ- 
 ized to look after corn and oats and live stock, but not 
 human beings. 
 
 The framers of the law are not to be censured for this 
 
 54 
 
TAKING UP HIS LIFE WORK 55 
 
 omission. The idea of the Federal government as a con- 
 structive force in the development of the nation had yet 
 hardly dawned on the public mind. Its sphere of duty 
 was still supposed to be chiefly confined to repelling in- 
 vasion, suppressing rebellion, and providing judicial tribu- 
 nals for umpiring disputes between citizens of different 
 states. 
 
 Aside from scattering garden seed over the land and at- 
 tempting to give an incidental protection to manufactures 
 in levying customs duties, the national government was 
 not expected to do anything to help the American people. 
 The dogma of laissez faire was unchallenged, and it was 
 a cardinal principle of statesmanship to leave the people 
 to look out for themselves, or, if they could not do it, to 
 let the states guard their interests. The government of 
 the United States had scarcely enlarged the field of its 
 activities in the hundred years of its existence. To adopt 
 the policy of interfering between the railways and the 
 shippers, therefore, stretched the exercise of Federal 
 power quite as far as any one seriously thought of ex- 
 panding it in 1887, and it is not to be wondered at that 
 no suggestion was made to interfere between the railways 
 and its own employees. 
 
 There was, however, one form of Federal service which 
 held a peculiar interest for Mr. Moseley. The nation 
 did provide means of saving life at sea and on the lakes. 
 It had erected lighthouses and other guides for the 
 benefit of marine commerce, and it provided a life-saving 
 patrol on the coasts. Mr. Moseley felt a natural sym- 
 pathy with that beneficent work. He was proud of his 
 
56 EDWARD A. MOSELEY 
 
 membership in the Merrimac Humane Society of New- 
 buryport, of which his father was president for a long 
 time, and which his grandfather had founded for the 
 rescue of sailors before there was a United States Life- 
 saving Service. 
 
 From boyhood he had vainly coveted a Massachusetts 
 Humane Society medal, and he used to confess with a 
 smile that he never went swimming where there were 
 others in the water that he did not keep his eye open for 
 an opportunity to win the medal. He could make up a 
 laughable story of his patient waiting and watching on a 
 crowded beach and his persistent ill luck in never being 
 about when a bather caught a cramp, or when some 
 novice was drawn down by the undertow. 
 
 It was his ambition at one tune to be superintendent 
 of the United States Life-saving service, and, the year 
 after his appointment to the Secretaryship of the Inter- 
 state Commerce Commission, he requested that he be 
 considered for the vacancy whenever a change should be 
 made in the bureau. Akin to this humane interest was 
 the interest he had developed in the problem of ameliorat- 
 ing the condition of laboring men, and he expressed an 
 ambition to be Commissioner of Labor, when that office 
 was in process of reorganization in 1888. 
 
 Neither of these fields for congenial service opening to 
 him, he created a far larger field for himself. He had 
 come to Washington directly from his seat in the Massa- 
 chusetts Legislature, generally the most advanced legis- 
 lative body in the country, notwithstanding the conser- 
 vative repute of the Old Bay State. There he had given 
 
TAKING UP HIS LIFE WORK 57 
 
 much earnest attention to the many measures pending 
 for the regulation of labor. As a member of the joint 
 committee on railroads, he had considered various means 
 of reducing the perils of trainmen. 
 
 Once when a bill requiring a certain fixture on freight 
 cars was under consideration, he had heard a railway 
 official denounce it as an outrage. "Why!" the official 
 exclaimed, "every time a fellow grabbed that thing, he 
 would give the car such a wrench, it would spring a leak 
 and ruin the contents." That emphasized to Mr. Moseley 
 the conflict between the point of view of humanity and 
 that of business. The objector was thinking of the leaky 
 car and the bill for the damaged merchandise, and not of 
 the human being, the brakeman, who would seize the 
 fixture only to save his life. He saw that the gulf be- 
 tween those conflicting points of view was so wide that 
 the law alone could bridge it. 
 
 He found that a state law was useless. The efforts of 
 the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to promote the 
 safety of railroad employees had only made a bad matter 
 worse. State laws had proved themselves entirely in- 
 effectual to meet the case, because they were so diverse 
 and inconsistent. For instance, a car fitted to-day with 
 the coupler prescribed in Massachusetts might next 
 month, in the movements of interstate commerce, find its 
 way into Texas, Nebraska, or Colorado, each state having 
 a different coupler in conformity with its own laws, but 
 non-interlocking with the couplers of other states, thus 
 increasing rather than diminishing the loss of life and 
 limb. 
 
58 EDWARD A. MOSELEY 
 
 Still no general movement was started looking to the 
 Federal power for relief. The Railroad Commission of 
 Massachusetts said in its report for 1886 : 
 
 It has seemed to the board an unsound argument that 
 one state should do nothing because it cannot do all. The 
 natural tendency of such an argument is to throw upon 
 Congress the duty of legislation for the protection of 
 train hands who are engaged in interstate commerce. 
 For many reasons it seems to us that the desired end should 
 be obtained by the harmonious action of the state govern- 
 ment rather than by the intervention of Federal authority. 
 
 In two years more the Massachusetts Commission, 
 through Chairman Crocker, had reached the conclusion, 
 announced in its report for 1888, that " Congress should 
 interfere to prevent the yearly mutilation of employees. " 
 Mr. Moseley at the same time was doing what he could 
 in Washington to bring the responsibility for the situa- 
 tion home to the only authority really competent to deal 
 with it. Having gained the confidence of Chairman 
 Cooley, he introduced the subject to his favorable con- 
 sideration and to the sympathetic attention of the other 
 Commissioners. He realized as well as they that the 
 statute under which they were working gave them no 
 authority in this matter. 
 
 The Federal government, in adopting the law, had 
 asserted its power to regulate commerce between the 
 states, but not the instrumentalities of that commerce, 
 the cars in which it was carried. How could the Com- 
 mission take note of anything lying outside the scope of 
 its organic law ? 
 
 Mr. Moseley, however, joined in plans for a national 
 
TAKING UP HIS LIFE WORK 59 
 
 movement in support of his position. The Massachu- 
 setts Legislature memorialized Congress for legislation 
 on the subject, the prayer being presented to the Senate 
 by Senator Hoar on March 31, 1888. Mr. Moseley's 
 friend, Mr. Collins of Massachusetts, introduced in the 
 House a resolution, directing the Commission to inves- 
 tigate the matter. Without waiting for Congress to act, 
 the Secretary called upon the railroads, with the sanction 
 of the Commission, to report the number of persons 
 killed and injured in coupling cars. 
 
 When the State Railroad Commissioners met in Wash- 
 ington in March,^1889, to consider the supervision of rail- 
 roads in general, Chairman Cooley presided over their 
 convention. Mr. George G. Crocker of the Massachu- 
 setts Commission offered a resolution urging the Inter- 
 state Commerce Commission to consider what could be 
 done to prevent the loss of life and limb in coupling and 
 uncoupling freight cars used in interstate commerce and 
 in handling the brakes of such cars. 
 
 With the adoption of that resolution, the states, which 
 might have been jealous of Federal interference, were 
 placed on record as in sympathy with the cause, and 
 afterward Mr. Crocker was appointed chairman and Mr. 
 Moseley secretary of a special committee on safety ap- 
 pliances. This Crocker committee proved to be an active 
 influence in promoting the movement. 
 
 The first mention of the subject in the annual reports of 
 the Interstate Commerce Commission was made in 1889, 
 but the Commissioners confessed that they were not pre- 
 pared to recommend a national law because the difficulties 
 
60 EDWARD A. MOSELEY 
 
 of formulating and enforcing such a statute seemed to 
 them great, if not insurmountable. The Secretary, how- 
 ever, went on with his work of collating the casualty re- 
 ports from the railroads, the totals of which constituted a 
 staggering argument for action, and he employed every 
 possible means of driving the argument home. A graphic 
 portrayal of the situation was made by him in a public 
 address, delivered before the Brotherhood of Railroad 
 Trainmen in Faneuil Hall, Boston, in the course of 
 which he said : 
 
 There is something appalling in the statement that more 
 hard-working and faithful rail way employees in the United 
 States went down in sudden death last year than the en- 
 tire number of Union men who died at the Battle of the 
 Wilderness ; nearly as many as those who died the bitter 
 death at Spottsylvania ; more than three times the num- 
 ber of the Union dead at Lookout Mountain, Missionary 
 Ridge and Orchard Knob combined, and that more of 
 the grand army of railway men of this country were cut 
 and bruised and maimed and mangled last year than all 
 the Union wounded and missing on the bloody field of 
 Gettysburg ; nearly equal in number to the wounded and 
 missing in the reign of death and devastation at Shiloh, 
 first and second Bull Run and Antietam combined ; while 
 there traveled under the care and guidance of this clear- 
 headed and vigilant army of railway workers 560,958,211 
 passengers with so much ease and safety that only one 
 in every 1,491,910 was killed and only one in every 173,833 
 was injured from all causes, including their own careless- 
 ness. 
 
 We are standing upon the shore of the Atlantic. Look- 
 ing to the east, we behold a broad expanse of water. Upon 
 this coast within sound of the roar of the surf not 
 a storm arises but a prayer goes up from the good house- 
 wife for the safety of the poor sailor struggling with the 
 elements. Why is this solicitude so fervently expressed ? 
 
TAKING UP HIS LIFE WORK 61 
 
 From time immemorial the limitless deep has been asso- 
 ciated with peril to human life, and the most anxious 
 feelings of our race have been evoked in behalf of those 
 "who go down to the sea in ships." For centuries every 
 civilized language has, in prose and poetry, extolled the 
 heroism of the sailor, and sympathized with the dangers 
 and sacrifices of the toiler who earns his livelihood upon 
 the unstable elements. The sound of the waves and the 
 heavy blasts call attention to the fact and tend to per- 
 petuate one of the finest traits in our human nature a 
 brotherly interest in the welfare of a worthy portion of 
 the community. 
 
 And yet, how little of this commendable sympathy is 
 bestowed on the equally brave and far more exposed toiler 
 working in the freight yard or on the rail ! He, too, is 
 traveling a deck. To be swept from it will hurl him to 
 eternity in a far more sudden and agonizing way than the 
 poor fellow carried by a wave from the deck of a vessel. 
 The latter, in many instances, has a chance with the help 
 of a resolute heart and sinewy arm of rescuing himself 
 from a watery grave. How vast the difference with the 
 victim of the railway, the great modern agent of civiliza- 
 tion, as essential to human intercourse as the ship has 
 been since the earliest times ! 
 
 Yet dangers to the trainmen do not come home to the 
 good people. Their attention has not yet been suffi- 
 ciently awakened to the subject. Let them think of the 
 fated fellow who slips between the cars and whose only 
 possible escape is by a desperate grasp at their icy sides ; 
 or of him who, swept from the running board of the rapidly 
 moving car, is hurled to instant and certain destruction. 
 
 Dangers beset him everywhere. As he works amid 
 an intricate warp of iron rails, the next step may fasten 
 his heel in the deadly unblocked frog, holding him in a 
 vise, suffering an agony of suspense, while the wheel 
 bears down upon him to mangle his poor body and crush 
 his life out. 
 
 Let people reflect that it requires fully as much courage 
 and nerve to peer out into the darkness and catch sight 
 of a few feet of gleaming rails in front, all else the black- 
 ness of night, as it does to stand on the bridge of a ship 
 
62 EDWARD A. MOSELEY 
 
 and with straining eyes endeavor to avoid the passing 
 vessel, the derelict, or the iceberg. 
 
 Even the railroad employees themselves had to be 
 aroused from their indifference or despair. Mr. Moseley 
 did not find it an easy task to communicate to them his 
 enthusiasm in their behalf and his confidence that some- 
 thing could be done to lessen the perils amid which they 
 labored and to reduce the awful rate of slaughter on the 
 rail, to which their life had accustomed them. 
 
 They had no legislative agents in Washington in those 
 days when Mr. Moseley began his work, and there was 
 not a line in the federal statutes for the protection of the 
 eight hundred thousand railroad workers. Employed in 
 a business that overlapped state lines, the state could 
 not effectively protect them, and the nation had neg- 
 lected them. They toiled in what was legally and prac- 
 tically no man's land. The new champion who had 
 taken up their cause at Washington, therefore, had first 
 to convert their leaders and convince them that by join- 
 ing with him Congress could be compelled to act in their 
 behalf. They soon became infected, however, with his 
 zealous spirit, and under his expert guidance they made 
 their wishes known to senators and representatives. 
 
 While the Commission gave the appalling record of the 
 casualties in its report in 1890, that conservative body 
 did not venture a comment on the figures. In 1891, 
 while it still refrained from urging any regulative law, it 
 incorporated in its report an extended review of the matter 
 over the signature of Secretary Moseley. Finally the 
 question found a place in the President's message, when 
 
TAKING UP HIS LIFE WORK 63 
 
 \ 
 
 President Harrison declared that " it is a reproach to our 
 
 civilization that any class of American workmen should, 
 in the pursuit of a necessary and useful vocation, be 
 subjected to a peril of life and limb as great as that of 
 a soldier in time of war." Newspapers and magazines 
 turned the subject over and over, and gave voice to 
 the swelling public demand for remedial legislation, while 
 Mr. Moseley, as the general in the field, directed the 
 movement against the " deadly link and pin," and the 
 hand brake. 
 
 The former required a man to step between the cars and 
 take his life in his hand at every coupling, while the 
 latter required the brakemen to imperil their lives on the 
 narrow and often slippery running boards in the darkness 
 of night, and in gales that sometimes swept them away ; 
 to leap from roof to roof of swaying cars, to jump from 
 box cars to flat cars and twist the treacherous brakes 
 whenever a train was to be brought to a stop. 
 
 The remedy was astonishingly plain equip freight 
 cars with automatic couplers and air brakes the same as 
 passenger cars. The only obstacle was the expense 
 but that was a large one. For there were more than 
 1,200,000 freight cars, and very few of them had auto- 
 matic couplers and air brakes. The cry went up that it 
 would cost the railroads $100,000,000 to comply with 
 such a law. The $100,000,000 was placed in the scales 
 against the totals, which Mr. Moseley was collecting and 
 publishing, of the yearly sacrifice of thousands of killed 
 and wounded. And manhood outweighed money. 
 
CHAPTER X 
 THE FIRST SAFETY APPLIANCE ACT 
 
 THE campaign for the Safety Appliance Act was a long 
 and arduous one. Mr. Moseley supplied the committee 
 reports in both the Senate and in the House, the material 
 for speeches of senators and representatives, for the 
 annual reports of the Commission and for the messages of 
 President Harrison, who thrice commended the measure 
 to Congress. He marshaled the forces of railway labor 
 for the first tune in Washington, and skillfully pulled the 
 wires leading to the seats of influence at either end of 
 the Capitol. He brought such pressure to bear on both 
 national conventions in 1892 as to cause the subject to 
 be mentioned in the platforms of the Republican and 
 Democratic parties. He steered and pushed the bill 
 with all the adroitness and efficiency and with more than 
 the ardor of an experienced lobbyist. 
 
 Indeed, his arts and his zeal brought suspicion upon him 
 at first. He was seen to be a thoroughly practical pro- 
 moter who knew the ropes, and not a wild-eyed zealot. 
 Wherefore there were those who suspected he must be 
 in the employ of some selfish interest, perhaps a patented 
 coupler or brake. That he made a close poll of Congress 
 like any trained lobbyist, is shown by a letter in which 
 he told how the Senate did the bill to death in the ses- 
 sion of 1891-1892. It was addressed to the President's 
 
 64 
 
THE FIRST SAFETY APPLIANCE ACT 65 
 
 secretary, in reply to an inquiry from the White House 
 at a time when General Harrison was preparing his last 
 
 annual message : 
 
 (CONFIDENTIAL) 
 
 INTERSTATE COMMERCE COMMISSION, WASHINGTON. 
 November 15, 1892. 
 
 HON. E. W. HALFORD, Private Secretary to the President, 
 
 Executive Mansion. 
 DEAR MR. HALFORD : 
 
 I desire confidentially to state to you that I heard of 
 no opposition in the House of Representatives in relation 
 to safety appliance legislation, except from Mr. O'Neill 
 of Pennsylvania, who, in the committee, stated that he 
 was opposed to any legislation on the subject. The House 
 bill passed unanimously without debate or dissent. 
 
 In the Senate committee on interstate commerce it met 
 with considerable opposition. In fact, Senator Hiscock 
 declared that while he would allow the bill substituted for 
 the House bill to be reported if a promise were made by the 
 chairman, Senator Cullom, that it would not be called 
 up last session, still he would fight the bill in every pos- 
 sible way, and in debate if necessary. It was therefore 
 agreed that it should not be called up. In the open ses- 
 sion of the committee it was apparent that Senator Wol- 
 cott was opposed to this legislation, as was Senator His- 
 cock, and Senator Gorman was not favorable. 
 
 The question is one which was mentioned in both party 
 platforms, but honestly, the attention which it has re- 
 ceived from the public, is very largely due to the President's 
 earnest and humane interest in the subject. 
 
 I fully believe that by means of circulars, etc., every 
 railroad employee in the United States understands and 
 appreciates the President's active and generous efforts 
 looking to his welfare, and it has been my pleasure, as 
 far as lay in my power, to see that this was made known. 
 I am, with great regard and respect, 
 
 EDWARD A. MOSELEY. 
 
 P.S. It is perhaps proper for me to state in order 
 to reply fully to your inquiry that the reports in both 
 
66 EDWARD A. MOSELEY 
 
 the Senate and the House, as well as the article in the 
 fifth annual report of the Commission, were compiled by 
 me. 
 
 When the final test came, the opposition contrived to 
 capture more votes than Mr. Moseley had conceded to 
 them. They were not enough, however, either to defeat 
 the bill or block its progress. It was put on its passage 
 in the last days of an expiring Congress and administra- 
 tion, while from a gallery Mr. Moseley watched and 
 directed the fight, and it won in a garrison finish. In 
 the House debate on February 21, 1893, an eloquent 
 young Nebraska member from whom the country was 
 to hear in a wider forum, William Jennings Bryan, ex- 
 pressed the determination of the friends of the bill in 
 these words : 
 
 I for one am willing to stay here till this session ends, 
 because I think this bill should be passed. I believe it is 
 dictated by humanity, and I am not willing, if I can pre- 
 vent it, that these men shall be killed and maimed just 
 because some of the railroads insist that they cannot 
 afford to put these couplers on their cars. The only ob- 
 jection that I have heard made, the only real one in that 
 letter of Mr. Haines found on our desks this morning, is 
 that it would cost $75 a car, or $75,000,000. 
 
 Mr. Moseley made this interesting memorandum of the 
 enactment of the law : 
 
 The bill passed the Senate with ten votes against it 
 by the greatest opposition. Of the ten votes against it, 
 eight were given by Democrats and two by Republicans ; 
 one of the Republicans being Senator Stewart of Nevada 
 and the other Senator Sawyer of Wisconsin. It then went 
 to the House and passed with eighty-four votes against it, 
 seventy-eight of which were cast by Democrats and six 
 
THE FIRST SAFETY APPLIANCE ACT 67 
 
 by Republicans. The perfidy of certain people may be 
 well known when the very persons who took part in the 
 adoption of the platform were most active on return to 
 Congress in their attempt to prevent this legislation. 
 
 It has always been charged that the railroad interests 
 had made their peace with Tammany and that as a con- 
 tribution to the campaign had been made, this legislation 
 should not be enacted. This is well shown when it is 
 understood that every representative from Tammany 
 voted against the enactment of this humane law, with one 
 exception. There are persons who saw a telegram, which 
 probably could be produced if necessary, from Richard 
 Croker to Amos Cummings, about in the following 
 words : 
 
 "We are against the car coupler bill. Throw it down 
 and tell our people to do the same. 
 
 "RICHARD CROKER." 
 
 Full well they obeyed the command of their master, 
 except Cummings, who said he would see Richard Croker 
 in hell ten thousand times before he would fail to cast his 
 vote for so meritorious and humane a bill. 
 
 Mr. Moseley followed the bill from the Capitol to the 
 White House, as he himself related in a letter written 
 sixteen years afterward to President Harrison's Attorney- 
 General : 
 
 INTERSTATE COMMERCE COMMISSION, WASHINGTON. 
 
 June 16, 1909. 
 Office of the Secretary, 
 EDWARD A. MOSELEY. 
 
 HON. WILLIAM H. H. MILLER, INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA. 
 
 DEAR GENERAL : 
 
 My good friend, Mr. Michener, dropped in this morn- 
 ing, and our conversation led to the old days and the 
 great work which was done by President Harrison in 
 forcing the passage of what is known as the "Car Coupler 
 Law." I shall never forget the great impression that you 
 
68 EDWARD A. MOSELEY 
 
 made upon the writer at the time, when I was told at the 
 White House that I had better see you, as the railroads 
 had made a final protest, and that the President had re- 
 ferred the bill to you for the purpose of advising him as 
 to whether or not he should sign it. 
 
 I went to your office ; there had been a large delegation 
 of railway attorneys and others to see you to urge you to 
 advise the President to adopt their view, and I shall never 
 forget what you said to me, "Moseley, I don't like 
 your bill." My heart was in my mouth when, with a 
 great deal of force, you brought your fist down on the 
 table and said, " because, it is not half strong enough." 
 I have been your ardent admirer ever since. 
 
 But the bill with all its faults, which you were so ready 
 to perceive, has done a wonderful work, and at the sug- 
 gestion of Mr. Michener I take pleasure in sending you a 
 copy of defendant's brief in the case of International and 
 Great Northern Railroad Company v. United States of 
 America, No. 1776. By glancing over this brief you will 
 see the great benefit that this bill has been as an instru- 
 ment of saving life and limb. 
 
 I am, with great regard and respect, 
 
 EDWARD A. MOSELEY. 
 
 Another letter completes the record of the enact- 
 ment : 
 
 EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON. 
 
 February 27, 1893. 
 EDWARD A. MOSELEY, ESQ., 
 
 Interstate Commerce Commission. 
 MY DEAR MR. MOSELEY: 
 
 I have your letter of the 18th instant. You certainly 
 have earned the pen, and when the President approves 
 the bill, I will see that it is reserved for you. 
 
 Congratulating you upon the passage of this most 
 righteous measure, and wishing you all good things, 
 
 Very truly yours, 
 E. W. HALFORD, 
 Private Secretary. 
 
THE FIRST SAFETY APPLIANCE ACT 69 
 
 Had the author of this legislation been in the Senate 
 or House, his name would have been attached to it and 
 it would be known to the world as the "Moseley Law." 
 By reason of his position, however, Mr. Moseley neces- 
 sarily had done his work in the name of the Commis- 
 sion ; but those who could know what part he had taken 
 in framing and passing the act awarded him full credit, 
 as the following testimonials bear witness : 
 
 BROTHERHOOD OF LOCOMOTIVE FIREMEN, 
 
 In the Fourth Biennial Congress assembled, express 
 their appreciation and gratitude for services rendered by 
 Edward A. Moseley, Secretary of the Interstate Commerce 
 Commission, through whose faithful and earnest efforts 
 before the Committee on Interstate Commerce, the 
 " Coupler Bill" was passed by Congress and became a 
 law, during the administration of President Harrison, 
 March 2d, eighteen hundred and ninety-three. 
 
 The " Coupler Bill" required the placing of automatic 
 couplers upon all freight cars and the equipment of loco- 
 motives with safety air brakes, making the lives of rail- 
 way employees as safe as possible by the ingenuity of man. 
 
 ORDER OF RAILWAY CONDUCTORS OF AMERICA 
 
 At the twenty-fourth Grand Division of the Order of 
 Railway Conductors, held at Toledo, Ohio, May 17, 1893, 
 the following resolution was adopted : 
 
 Whereas, The conductors running trains and in other 
 service on the railroads are directly interested in the ques- 
 tion of a standard form of coupler for use on freight and 
 passenger cars, and whereas the late law of Congress calls 
 for uniformity on freight cars, therefore be it 
 
 Resolved, That the thanks of the O. R. C. are hereby 
 tendered to the worthy Secretary of the Interstate Com- 
 merce Commission, Edward A. Moseley, for his efforts in 
 securing safety appliance legislation for railroad employees. 
 E. E. CLARK, Grand Chief Conductor. 
 WM. P. DANIELS, Grand Secretary and Treasurer. 
 
70 EDWARD A. MOSELEY 
 
 BROTHERHOOD OF RAILROAD TRAINMEN 
 To EDWARD A. MOSELEY 
 
 In grateful recognition of his valuable assistance and 
 unselfish interest, which contributed in no small measure 
 toward the enactment of the Automatic Coupler and 
 Power Brake Law, giving to the railway employees of the 
 United States greater security to life and limb in their 
 hazardous vocation, the Brotherhood of Railroad Train- 
 men at its second biennial convention, held at Galesburg, 
 Illinois, May 20 to June 5, inclusive, eighteen hundred 
 and ninety-five, makes sincere acknowledgment of the 
 sterling friendship of Honorable Edward A. Moseley. 
 
 Railway trainmen, men who face danger and death in a 
 struggle to win their daily bread, know and appreciate 
 a true friend. Formal words of thanks are small com- 
 pensation for such substantial evidences of good will, 
 but we wish to give expression to our hope that Mr. 
 Moseley's remaining years may be many and filled with 
 the brightest and best of the earth. 
 
 P. H. MORRISEY, Grand Master. 
 Attest : 
 
 W. A. SHEAHAN, Secretary. 
 
 SWITCHMEN'S MUTUAL AID ASSOCIATION OF NORTH 
 
 AMERICA 
 
 At the eighth National Convention of the Switchmen's 
 Mutual Association, held at Evansville, Indiana, May 
 14th, 1894, it was 
 
 Resolved, That it is the sense of this convention to ex- 
 tend our sincere thanks to the Honorable Edward A. 
 Moseley, for his kindly interest in furthering the adoption 
 of the many safety appliances now in use on railroads. 
 
 J. E. WILSON, Grand Master. 
 
 JOHN DOWNEY, First Vice-Grand Master. 
 
 MILES W. BARRETT, Second Vice-Grand Master. 
 
 J. M. MURPHY, Grand Secretary and Treasurer. 
 
 The Railroad Yard Masters' Association, at their 
 fourth annual convention, also passed resolutions tender- 
 
THE FIRST SAFETY APPLIANCE ACT 71 
 
 ing a vote of thanks for the services which Mr. Moseley 
 rendered in the passage of the bill. 
 
 AT THE REGULAR MEETING 
 
 BIENNIAL CONVENTION BROTHERHOOD LOCOMOTIVE 
 ENGINEERS 
 
 Held in St. Paul, Minnesota, May 9, 1894, the following 
 preamble and resolutions were adopted, to wit : 
 
 Whereas, The Honorable Edward A. Moseley, Secretary 
 of the Interstate Commerce Commission has, at all times 
 and under all circumstances, by his untiring efforts and 
 his ready and willing assistance, manifested his interest 
 in labor organizations and their representatives and in 
 this body especially, therefore be it 
 
 Resolved, That this Grand International Body in con- 
 vention assembled, fully realizing the importance of the 
 service rendered by Mr. Moseley and the readiness with 
 which he has responded to any request made upon him 
 so far as it was consistent with his duty as an officer of 
 the government, take this opportunity to testify our 
 high appreciation of not only the service rendered, but 
 the spirit that prompted it. 
 
 That the individual and united thanks of this Grand 
 Body be tendered Mr. Moseley, and that we hereby 
 pledge ourselves to make use of any opportunity that 
 may present itself to prove our appreciation by acts as 
 well as by words. 
 
 Resolved, That a copy of these resolutions, suitably 
 engrossed and signed by our grand officers, be forwarded 
 to Mr. Moseley for his acceptance. 
 P. M. ARTHUR, Grand Chief T. S. INGRAHM, First 
 
 Engineer. Grand Engineer. 
 
 A. B. YOUNGSON, Asst. C. H. SALMONS, Second 
 
 Grand Chief Engineer. Grand Engineer. 
 
 DELOSS EVERETT, Third Grand Engineer. 
 
 Those resolutions, engrossed and framed, were the 
 cherished adornments of the walls of the Secretary's 
 
72 EDWARD A. MOSELEY 
 
 office as long as Mr. Moseley lived. The Locomotive 
 Firemen's Magazine made this record of his services : 
 
 The law passed by the late Congress relating to safety 
 appliances on railroad trains marks an epoch in legis- 
 lation of great significance. It demonstrates that the 
 law-making power of the country does take some interest 
 in human life. If corporations are without souls, as is 
 generally believed, it does not follow, fortunately, that 
 Congress is equally destitute in that regard, and can not 
 be aroused to a sense of obligation to do right. It requires 
 time and patience, however, to educate the average Con- 
 gress. It is a great body and moves slowly. To convince 
 it, and then instill into it the required courage to act, is 
 a herculean task. 
 
 Only the few are able to comprehend the conflicting 
 influences brought to bear upon Congress when any im- 
 portant measure demands action, and especially is this 
 true when the measure, in any sense, antagonizes the 
 greed of corporations. In such cases capital and brains are 
 in alliance, and if the measure provides protection for 
 workingmen, the tremendous disparity of influences is 
 seen at once. To enact a law "to promote the safety of 
 employees upon railroads" brought out the full force of 
 corporation opposition, and, to succeed, labor was chal- 
 lenged to put forth every power at its command, and in 
 the trial it found in the person of Mr. Edward A. Moseley 
 a champion whose steadfast fidelity is worthy of the 
 highest commendation. 
 
 We have on our table documentary evidence of Mr. 
 Moseley's untiring labors, as also the opposition that had 
 to be overcome to secure the passage of the important 
 measure, all indicating his comprehension of the situation 
 and displaying, not only unflagging fidelity to the welfare 
 of labor, but diplomatic skill of the first order in dealing 
 with law makers. We are made acquainted with the 
 vote of each member of Congress, and also his party affili- 
 ations for future reference, in all of which we see Mr. 
 Moseley 's splendid management. It affords the magazine 
 unstinted satisfaction to give Mr. Moseley the fullest 
 
THE FIRST SAFETY APPLIANCE ACT 73 
 
 possible recognition for his labors and sacrifices, and to 
 pledge him that his work will not be forgotten. 
 
 At the national convention of state railroad commis- 
 sioners, the committee on safety appliances spread on the 
 minutes this acknowledgment : 
 
 We desire in this report to make special mention of 
 the services rendered by Mr. Edward A. Moseley, Sec- 
 retary of the Interstate Commerce Commission. We can 
 state with a degree of positiveness that he gave himself 
 no rest until assured of success in the passage of the Safety 
 Appliance Bill. Kind and courteous in his manner, ever 
 ready to lend an assisting hand to all in their efforts to 
 have a just and humane law passed that would give to the 
 railroad employees more security to life and limb, he will 
 ever be remembered as an earnest advocate of measures 
 that were of great interest and benefit to railroad em- 
 ployees, and to him we can truthfully say we owe, in a 
 greater measure than to any other, the success of the bill 
 that has become a law. 
 
 No congratulatory message was more prompt, and we 
 may be sure that none gave its recipient more pleasure, 
 than this letter from his mother, written on the day that 
 President Harrison signed the act, and in the last year of 
 her life : 
 
 NEWBURYPORT, March 22, 1893. 
 
 MY DARLING BOY: 
 
 I must write to congratulate you upon your great 
 achievement. From your first efforts in the cause, I have 
 taken the greatest interest in its success. Ah, my dear 
 one, you are the philanthropist among my sons. How 
 proud I am of you. You make your mother's heart 
 rejoice. Now, your name will be blessed all over the 
 land. 
 
 The articles you have written and sent me on the sub- 
 
74 EDWARD A. MOSELEY 
 
 ject, I have read most diligently, and I thank you for 
 them; they are so to the point. 
 
 My eyes trouble me so much that I can write no more. 
 May the blessings of heaven rest upon you, is the earnest 
 prayer of your fond mother, 
 
 CHARLOTTE A. MOSELEY. 
 
 The father added this postscript : 
 
 DEAR EDWARD : 
 
 I will not attempt to gild refined gold, by adding any 
 words to your mother's note. 
 
 She evidently felt great interest in writing you, writing 
 in her chamber this morning almost immediately on rising. 
 I cannot express my sentiments on the subject better 
 than by attempting to pass hers as my own also. 
 
 Affectionately, 
 FATHER. 
 
 Among many words of praise in the press, Mr. Mose- 
 ley's home paper, the Newburyport News, on March 11, 
 1893, made a pertinent suggestion : 
 
 Massachusetts has become one of the foremost states 
 in appeal for a congressional insistence upon a uniform 
 car coupler bill. Each year has witnessed the passage 
 of a resolution by the Bay State Legislature setting forth 
 the advantages of this measure, but until 1893 the efforts 
 of our people have met with disappointment. Now, 
 thanks in a great measure to a Massachusetts man, the 
 car coupler bill has become a law, and the railroad men 
 and humanitarians are happy. 
 
 It would be eminently fitting for the Massachusetts 
 Legislature to recognize the efforts in this connection of 
 Secretary Edward A. Moseley of the Interstate Commerce 
 Commission. By his zeal he has made possible that 
 which Massachusetts has sought for years, and due recog- 
 nizance of the fact might well be taken. Mr. Moseley 
 is a Newburyport citizen, and our city has four people 
 
COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS. 
 
 In tlu year One Thousand Kight Hundred and Xtnety (hire . 
 
 (Cvttutumwcalii) 
 
 to 
 
THE FIRST SAFETY APPLIANCE ACT 75 
 
 at the State House who are friends of Mr. Moseley. Let 
 any one of them place this subject before the Legislature 
 and we predict that it will meet with favor at the hands 
 of the members of both branches, many of whom know 
 Mr. Moseley personally and all of whom are acquainted 
 with him by favorable reputation. 
 
 The Legislature of Massachusetts being in session, the 
 chairman of the house committee on railroads, Mr. George 
 von L. Meyer, afterward ambassador and cabinet minis- 
 ter, reported a resolve which passed both branches, be- 
 stowing on Mr. Moseley the high and rare honor of the 
 thanks of the Commonwealth. That parchment, bear- 
 ing the seal of his native state, remained always his 
 proudest possession. It was to him a patent of nobility. 
 
 COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS 
 
 IN THE YEAR ONE THOUSAND, EIGHT HUNDRED AND 
 
 NINETY-THREE 
 
 RESOLUTIONS 
 
 TENDERING THE THANKS OF THE COMMONWEALTH 
 
 TO 
 
 EDWARD A. MOSELEY 
 
 Resolved, that the Senate and House of Representatives, 
 in General Court assembled, appreciating the valuable 
 services rendered the cause of humanity by Edward A. 
 Moseley of Newburyport by his untiring and efficient 
 efforts to secure greater safety to railroad employees, 
 hereby tender the thanks of the Commonwealth to him 
 for his sincere and disinterested labors to secure the pas- 
 sage of the law requiring railroads engaged in interstate 
 commerce to equip their freight cars with automatic 
 couplers. 
 
 Resolved, That a copy of these resolutions, suitably 
 engrossed and signed by the President and Clerk of the 
 
76 EDWARD A. MOSELEY 
 
 Senate, and the Speaker and the Clerk of the House of 
 Representatives, be forwarded to Mr. Moseley. 
 
 Senate, April 4, 1893. 
 
 Adopted. ALFRED S. PINKERTON, President. 
 HENRY D. COOLIDGE, Clerk. 
 
 House of Representatives, April 10, 1893. 
 Adopted. WILLIAM E. BARRETT, Speaker. 
 EDWARD A. MCLAUGHLIN, Clerk. 
 
 Witness the Seal of the Commonwealth. 
 
 WILLIAM M. OLIN, Secretary. 
 
CHAPTER XI 
 THE BRAKEMAN WHO LOST A HAND 
 
 THE battle for the Safety Appliance Act was not yet 
 won ; it really had only begun. For the act had yet to 
 be enforced and to run the gantlet of the courts. 
 
 Mr. Moseley began at once to prepare himself for the 
 task of enforcing the law all along the lines of the thou- 
 sand railroads to which it applied. It was so generally 
 regarded as his law that the Interstate Commerce Com- 
 mission left its enforcement to him through all the re- 
 maining years of his service. To meet that duty, he was 
 drawn into a close study of railroading. 
 
 He had already made himself the leading authority 
 in Washington on the practical operation of the rail- 
 roads, and in the further course of his duties he gained a 
 remarkably intimate knowledge of the business of rail- 
 road transportation and the lives of those engaged in 
 handling that vast traffic. His mind was filled with 
 pictures of the men in the cab and the caboose, at the 
 brake and the switch, and their labors and perils grew 
 to be as real to his vision as if he himself had borne them. 
 
 The Safety Appliance Act being an entirely new de- 
 parture in Federal legislation, it was certain to be stub- 
 bornly contested line by line. To meet that contest, Mr. 
 
 Moseley plunged into a study of the history of consti- 
 
 77 
 
78 EDWARD A. MOSELEY 
 
 tutional law and judicial rulings affecting the intricate 
 relations of the nation to the states. 
 
 The novelty of the new act placed it at a disadvantage 
 in court. The law is a most conservative profession. 
 Judges generally, by reason of their age and station, are 
 slow to recognize new conditions and the new principles 
 of legislation which a younger generation has devised to 
 meet them. Moreover, it was the special misfortune of 
 this law that many judges, particularly in the West, 
 had been railroad attorneys before their appointment 
 to the bench, and the exclusively railroad point of view 
 often remained their habit of mind. A few of them, 
 indeed, seemed not to be conscious that their position on 
 the bench should work a change in their relations with 
 railroads. 
 
 In an article in Transportation for September, 1893, 
 Mr. Moseley brought up the case of a Federal judge, who 
 was said to have accepted free passage over a line which 
 was applying for an injunction against its striking work- 
 men, and who sat in a private office of the company 
 when he issued the writ without the knowledge of the 
 men. Mr. Moseley raised the question whether, if such 
 conduct were permissible in a judge, it was fair to dismiss 
 and disgrace a juror for dining with a party to a suit. 
 
 In one of his pamphlets, which he circulated widely, 
 he quoted Mr. Milton H. Smith, president of the Louis- 
 ville and Nashville, as having testified before the Inter- 
 state Commerce Commission when asked as to what 
 extent his road gave passes to judges: "I think I will 
 have to refer you to our attorney. I think Mr. Baxter 
 
THE BRAKEMAN WHO LOST A HAND 79 
 
 has been of the opinion, and I fear most of our attorneys 
 have been of the same opinion, that it is well not to appear 
 before a judge unless he has a pass if he wants one." 
 
 Mr. Moseley was already a member of the bar of the 
 Supreme Court of the United States when the Safety 
 Appliance Law was passed. President Cleveland had 
 advised him, shortly after coming to Washington, to 
 study law, and it was under the able direction of Judge 
 Cooley that he prepared for his successful examination. 
 He was duly enrolled as a member of the bar in 1889, 
 before most of those about him knew that he had thought 
 of such a thing. A letter to the Chairman of the Safety 
 Appliance Committee of the Railroad Commissioners 
 shows his interest in law when his duties under the 
 Safety Appliance Act were only beginning: 
 
 INTERSTATE COMMERCE COMMISSION, 
 
 OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY, WASHINGTON. 
 
 March 18, 1893. 
 HON. GEORGE G. CROCKER, 
 
 19 Milk Street, Boston, Mass. 
 
 MY DEAR MR. CROCKER: 
 
 When I first, at the suggestion of Mr. Cleveland, deter- 
 mined to acquire some familiarity with the jurisprudence 
 of our country, I took the advice of that eminent sage of 
 the law, Judge Thomas M. Cooley. His suggestion was 
 that I should commence my studies by a most careful 
 reading of Cooley's Edition of Blackstone's Commentaries. 
 
 By reference to page sixty of volume one, third edition, 
 of that great work you will find a cardinal rule laid down 
 for the construction of all laws, which made a very pro- 
 found impression upon me. It is that "As to the effects 
 and consequences, the rule is that where words bear none 
 or a very absurd signification, if literally understood, we 
 must a little deviate from the received sense of them," 
 
80 EDWARD A. MOSELEY 
 
 and the great commentator follows the general principle 
 thus laid with a most apposite illustration, as follows : 
 " Therefore, the Bolognian law mentioned by Puffendorf, 
 which enacted that whoever drew blood in the streets 
 should be punished with the utmost severity, was held, 
 after long debate, not to extend to the surgeon who 
 opened the vein of a person that fell down in the street 
 with a fit." 
 
 I agree with you that the second section of the act may, 
 not must, bear literally the interpretation which you place 
 upon it, and I have read with interest your last favor, 
 the theory of which I think would have consigned to 
 condign punishment the surgeon who bled a fainting 
 person in the street. Jesting aside, I can only refer you 
 again to the principle which I suggested in my last to you, 
 that this law must be construed, as all legislation must be, 
 with reference to the evil sought to be remedied by its 
 enactment. This rule of construction I think would 
 certainly sustain my view, but aside from this it strikes 
 me that much the most reasonable, literal interpretation 
 of the law is what I contend for. 
 
 Your interpretation, as I most respectfully but very con- 
 fidently suggest, not only violates the principle which 
 makes legislative intent the cardinal rule of interpretation, 
 but appears to me to be a strained construction of the 
 very wording of the act. However, as I said before, I 
 should greatly prefer the act as originally drafted by you, 
 was pledged to it, and did all in my power to secure its 
 enactment. 
 
 I am convinced that the sound, literal interpretation, 
 as well as the intent of section two, is that while any road 
 may adopt any coupler it pleases, it must do so with this 
 limitation, that any coupler so adopted must not only 
 act automatically with all other couplers used, owned or 
 controlled by that particular company, but it must couple 
 automatically with the coupler of any car belonging to 
 any other company or person, which the first company 
 may undertake to haul upon its line. 
 
 However, dear Mr. Crocker, I feel that I can well con- 
 tinue to sit at the feet of Gamaliel. With my great regard 
 and respect for you and your opinion, it may seem pre- 
 
THE BRAKEMAN WHO LOST A HAND 81 
 
 sumption to entertain views antagonistic to your own 
 upon a question of statutory interpretation ; but as our 
 old friend Butler in Hudibras says, "He that complies 
 against his will is of his own opinion still." 
 
 But the crucial test is soon to come. Mr. Safford and 
 the advocates of the link-and-pin type are arrayed in a 
 final struggle with those who advocate the principle of the 
 vertical plane in couplers. I thank God that I will not 
 have the slightest pecuniary interest in this fight, and 
 truly I do not care which wins. I can express my position 
 in one simple sentence : That the principle of coupling 
 without personal intervention shall be universal. I am, 
 
 With great regard, 
 
 Most sincerely yours, 
 
 EDWARD A. MOSELEY. 
 
 Although in earlier days the least bookish of men, Mr. 
 Moseley brought to bear on his study of the legal aspects 
 of his work an unusual power of concentration and an 
 original and ingenious mind. He took his books to bed 
 with him and read them until nature asserted herself and 
 he fell asleep. He discussed the subject with every 
 lawyer he met, and surprised well-trained members of the 
 bar by the originality of his deductions. Working largely 
 in a new field, he was driven to take advanced ground on 
 the question of Federal authority. 
 
 By the provisions of the new law, every locomotive 
 engaged in interstate commerce must be equipped with 
 a power driving-wheel brake and appliances for operating 
 the air-brake system, and every train must contain a 
 sufficient number of cars with air brakes to enable it to 
 be controlled by the engineer without the necessity of a 
 brakeman setting the old hand brakes. It was further 
 required that all cars employed in interstate commerce 
 
82 EDWARD A. MOSELEY 
 
 should have automatic couplers which would couple by 
 mere impact and so devised that they could be coupled 
 and uncoupled without the necessity of a man going 
 between them. 
 
 To give the railroad companies sufficient time in which 
 to equip their cars with safety appliances, the law did not 
 become fully effective until August 1, 1900. Only five 
 days afterward, a brakeman named W. O. Johnson lost a 
 hand while coupling a dining car to a locomotive at 
 Promontory, a little station on the Southern Pacific Rail- 
 road in the state of Utah. While both the locomotive 
 and the dining car were equipped with automatic couplers, 
 they were so different in type that they could not be 
 coupled by impact, and Johnson was ordered to go 
 between them to make the coupling. His hand was 
 caught and crushed so badly that it had to be amputated 
 above the wrist. 
 
 The maiming of that brakeman on that far-away 
 siding in Utah put the new law to the test. The judge 
 of the trial court, on motion of the attorney for the rail- 
 road, directed the jury to find in favor of the company, 
 whereupon the brakeman 7 s case was appealed to the 
 Circuit Court of Appeals. When that court had finished 
 with the case, it was found that the Safety Appliance 
 Act was more sadly maimed than poor Johnson himself. 
 It, too, had been caught between the bumpers and its 
 life all but crushed out. 
 
 The decision, written by Judge Sanborn, was a most 
 learned disquisition on many subjects, but with scant 
 reference to the lost hand. The court held that although 
 
THE BRAKEMAN WHO LOST A HAND 83 
 
 the act required automatic couplers on cars, a locomotive 
 was not a car; that although the dining car was being 
 turned in order to be placed in an interstate train bound 
 for San Francisco, it was not actually engaged in inter- 
 state commerce at the moment when the accident oc- 
 curred; that since the couplers were automatic, they 
 complied with the law, even if they were of such different 
 patterns that they could not be automatically coupled. 
 
 That would probably have been the end of the John- 
 son case in the ordinary course of litigation. The wounded 
 brakeman would hardly have found the money or the 
 courage to carry his suit against his former employer to 
 the Supreme Court of the United States, twenty-five 
 hundred miles away. Two judges sitting with Judge 
 Sanborn had concurred in the decision, which sustained 
 the adverse decision of the court below. Four judges 
 against one crippled brakeman ! 
 
 At that point, however, Mr. Moseley, who had been 
 anxiously watching the case, took it up, determined to 
 defend at once the rights of the brakeman and the life 
 of the law. If the act could not secure automatic couplers 
 and protect men from going between cars, he saw that it 
 would be worthless and all his years of hard work wasted. 
 He went to the President and the attorney-general, and 
 through the influence of the government a writ of cer- 
 tiorari was granted by the Supreme Court. By this 
 means the case was brought before the highest court in 
 the land. 
 
 That was but the opening of the fight. Unless the 
 case were presented to the Supreme Court in accordance 
 
84 EDWARD A. MOSELEY 
 
 with Mr. Moseley's own carefully designed plan, the 
 result might and probably would be the same as in the 
 Circuit Court of Appeals, a victory for the railroad and 
 a defeat for the injured man. In the latter court the 
 opinion favorable to the railroad was written by a most 
 intellectual judge, well trained in all the niceties of legal 
 precision. It bore every mark of a strong legal mind, 
 and to most lawyers it would seem to be conclusive. 
 
 The opinion would have been conclusive had it been 
 answered only with legal platitudes. Mr. Moseley saw 
 that clearly. He knew that it was necessary to get before 
 the Supreme Court the stern realities of the railroad man's 
 dangerous calling, in order to show the situation with 
 which Congress was dealing when it adopted the law. 
 To be able to do that, he boldly adopted a course unknown 
 to our system of jurisprudence. He urged Mr. Knox, 
 then the attorney-general, to intervene and file a brief on 
 behalf of the government. Such a thing never had 
 been done hi the long existence of the department of 
 justice. 
 
 The case was mere private litigation : Johnson v. 
 Southern Pacific Railway. How could the government 
 become a party to it? Why should the government 
 throw its great weight in the scales of justice in a pri- 
 vate case ? Simply to save the law from being done to 
 death. 
 
 Mr. Moseley asked that the department request 
 permission to file a brief, in order to bring to the notice 
 of the court what the government deemed to be a 
 proper interpretation of the statute and in order that its 
 
THE BRAKEMAN WHO LOST A HAND 85 
 
 integrity might be preserved. He appreciated the fact 
 that it was better to have the law adjudicated for the first 
 time in a case where harm had been done to an indi- 
 vidual, rather than in some government prosecution for 
 a penalty. An application of the law to a violation which 
 had not caused an injury to any one would perhaps im- 
 press the judges as technical and result hi the court 
 approaching the subject in a technical rather than hi a 
 broad and humane spirit favorable to the remedial fea- 
 tures of the law. The government consented to intervene, 
 and a new precedent was made. '$ 
 
 No one but a man of Mr. Moseley's large heart and 
 superb vigor could have succeeded hi arousing the in- 
 terest of the chief law officers of the United States hi a 
 poor brakeman's suit for damages against a powerful 
 railroad. There was no impropriety in the action, for 
 the law, by its terms, required a governmental body, the 
 Interstate Commerce Commission, to enforce its pro- 
 visions. Therefore, as Mr. Moseley argued, it was 
 proper for law officers of the government to appear in a 
 proceeding hi which that law was to be interpreted by 
 the highest court. 
 
 For weeks and months before the matter was pre- 
 sented hi court, Mr. Moseley was in constant consulta- 
 tion with railroad men and with the lawyers who were 
 to represent the brakeman. He consulted with President 
 Roosevelt and Attorney-General Moody, who had suc- 
 ceeded Mr. Knox, and he enlisted the great assistance of 
 Mr. Moody and Solicitor-General Hoyt. The latter 
 officials, the highest law officers of the government, filed 
 
86 EDWARD A. MOSELEY 
 
 a strong and able brief for an interpretation of the law 
 favorable to its vitality. 
 
 To cause the government to intervene in a case be- 
 tween private parties, was not the only innovation 
 which Mr. Moseley brought about in his contest for the 
 life of the law. He determined to reach the heart of the 
 court by a vivid representation of the danger of coupling 
 cars with link and pin. A lawyer of the regular school, 
 who realized that the case was to be tried on the printed 
 record, would have felt obliged to confine himself to it, 
 for fear of a rebuke if he attempted to call to the atten- 
 tion of the court anything not in the record. But Mr. 
 Moseley was not daunted, and he insisted that the rule 
 confining comment and argument to the record was not 
 violated by illustrating to the court what the record 
 really meant. 
 
 At much expense, he had large photographs and cuts 
 made showing men in the act of coupling cars with 
 couplers like those which had maimed Johnson. Thus 
 he interpreted the record to the court pictorially, so that 
 the justices had before them not only the words of the 
 record, but the real and vital facts in the case. He went 
 further, and at considerable trouble had a model made of 
 cars with automatic coupling devices attached. When 
 this was brought into the chamber of the Supreme Court, 
 the attention of the justices was called for the first 
 time to a demonstration of the safety and efficiency of 
 the automatic method of coupling, without the necessity 
 of a man going between the cars -and endangering his 
 life. 
 
THE BRAKEMAN WHO LOST A HAND 87 
 
 In short, the court was interested in the human and 
 mechanical problem which was before it. All this re- 
 quired careful preparation and planning for weeks and 
 months. Care was taken to place before the court all 
 statistics that had a bearing on the matter. The statis- 
 tics of the deaths and injuries from coupling cars were 
 startling. They were accurately compiled, were used 
 fairly to strengthen the case, and their application was 
 made clear to the aspect of the controversy then before 
 the court. Every phase of the legislative history of the 
 act, the interpretation of which was then to be judicially 
 made, was placed before the justices, and particular atten- 
 tion was directed to the remarkable declaration of Pres- 
 ident Harrison, in one of his messages urging the safety 
 appliance legislation, to the effect that the perils of our 
 railroad employees constituted a reproach to our civiliza- 
 tion. 
 
 The Supreme Court gave the victory to the brakeman 
 and the law. Chief Justice Fuller delivered the opinion, 
 in which he employed the quotation from President 
 Harrison that Mr. Moseley had laid before the court, 
 and he commended the diligence of counsel in presenting 
 the history of the legislation ; the decision of the Circuit 
 Court of Appeals was reversed, and the case was re- 
 manded for a new trial. 
 
 The final document hi the record of the matter is 
 pathetic, so typical of the law's delay. When nearly 
 eight years had passed since Johnson lost his hand, the 
 following telegrams were exchanged : 
 
88 EDWARD A. MOSELEY 
 
 OGDEN, UTAH, April 16, 1908. 
 HON. E. A. MOSELEY, 
 Secretary Interstate Commerce, 
 Washington, D.C. 
 
 What is your advice as to accepting three thousand, 
 Johnson case, considering poverty and heavy expense; 
 answer. 
 
 W. L. MAGINNIS. 
 
 WASHINGTON, April 17, 1908. 
 W. L. MAGINNIS, 
 Eccles Building, 
 Ogden, Utah. 
 
 Our advice is for you to accept it. 
 
 EDWABD A. MOSELEY. 
 
CHAPTER XII 
 BATTLING FOR CRIPPLES AND WIDOWS 
 
 HOWEVER Johnson may have fared, a decisive victory 
 had been won in his name for all the tens of thousands 
 of trainmen in the country. The court of last resort 
 had said that thenceforth they should not be required to 
 go between cars for the purpose of coupling them and risk 
 life and limb, as he had been ordered to do. 
 
 The Johnson case took an important place in the litera- 
 ture of statute law and has been cited in nearly all the 
 decisions that have followed in cases arising under the 
 Safety Appliance Act. Mr. Moseley gave Chief Justice 
 Fuller's opinion the widest publicity within his power, 
 distributing thousands of printed copies among judges, 
 lawyers, labor unions, and railway managers. 
 
 He collected and forwarded to a railway journal, for 
 the purposes of an illustrated article on the celebrated 
 case, portraits of the members of the court, President 
 Roosevelt, the attorney-general, and solicitor-general and 
 of all the persons in any way connected except his 
 own. "So far as my own interest in the matter is con- 
 cerned, " he wrote to the editor in the spirit that ruled 
 him throughout his long term of service, "I have the 
 satisfaction of knowing that we won out, and am con- 
 tent to rest in the consciousness of good deeds well 
 done." 
 
 89 
 
90 EDWARD A. MOSELEY 
 
 Largely by his bold ingenuity, energy, and persistence, 
 a new precedent had been established, and the success 
 attending the experiment was an object lesson to all the 
 departments. A new and powerful weapon of defense 
 had been developed, and Mr. Moseley announced to all 
 concerned that "the government is determined that no 
 law shall receive its death blow by judicial construction 
 unless the matter has first been fairly presented to the 
 Supreme Court of the United States." 
 
 He watched the courts all over the Union like a hawk, 
 and wherever he found a railway worker suing to recover 
 for injuries inflicted through the failure of a railroad to 
 provide safety appliances, he went to the defense of the 
 law. The government would intervene, as in the John- 
 son case, in an effort to see that no violator of the act 
 should escape the consequences when the violation had 
 caused the death or injury of an employee. 
 
 Nor did Mr. Moseley confine his watchfulness to the 
 Federal courts alone. To the astonishment of judges and 
 of lawyers engaged in this branch of law, attorneys of the 
 national government intervened even in cases brought 
 before state courts to save the act from virtual nullifica- 
 tion. In Kansas, a trainman, Brinkmeier, was injured 
 while coupling cars in 1900, the year that the law went 
 fully into force, and the jury gave him a verdict for 
 $6500 against the Missouri Pacific Railroad. 
 
 The counsel for the company did not take the course 
 pursued by the Southern Pacific in the Johnson case, 
 but adopted new tactics. They asked the judge to in- 
 struct the jury that Brinkmeier must prove that the 
 
BATTLING FOR CRIPPLES AND WIDOWS 91 
 
 company had failed to use " reasonable care" to comply 
 with the Safety Appliance Act. The judge having re- 
 fused so to instruct, the point was carried to the Supreme 
 Court of Kansas, and that court set aside the verdict 
 and ordered a new trial, hi which the injured man was 
 commanded to prove that the railroad did not use reason- 
 able care to provide safety appliances. 
 
 Mr. Moseley learned of that decision from a newspaper 
 clipping, and saw at once that the law was again in 
 jeopardy. He hastened to secure the intervention of the 
 United States in the case, the first tune the nation ever 
 intervened in private litigation in a state court to uphold 
 the integrity of a national law. By the construction 
 placed on it hi the Kansas court, the requirements of the 
 act were not absolute, and in order to convict a railroad 
 of a violation it would be necessary to prove that it had 
 failed to use reasonable care to comply with the statute. 
 
 The United States asked leave to have the point re- 
 argued. The court gave leave, but after hearing the 
 argument of the representative of the Federal govern- 
 ment, whom Mr. Moseley sent to Kansas for the pur- 
 pose, it affirmed its former judgment, and sent Brink- 
 meier back to undergo the cost and delay of a new trial, 
 with the added burden of having to show it was owing 
 to the conscious neglect of the company that he was 
 injured, an almost impossible task. 
 
 Again the case came before the Supreme Court of 
 Kansas on appeal. In the meantime, the ground had 
 been taken from under the court and the interpretation 
 for which Mr. Moseley contended had become thoroughly 
 
92 EDWARD A. MOSELEY 
 
 established, and it is now recognized by all the courts 
 that compliance with the Safety Appliance Act is an 
 absolute, mandatory obligation. The point was finally 
 settled by a decision Mr. Moseley took special pleasure 
 in reporting in the following letter, which illustrates his 
 close attention to court proceedings. 
 
 May 18, 1908. 
 DEAR MR. LOEB : 
 
 Justice Moody in the Supreme Court to-day delivered a 
 most important opinion, the effects of which will be very 
 far reaching. It holds that where there is a statute pro- 
 viding for safety appliances, reasonable care and due 
 diligence in keeping them in repair are not sufficient 
 that the obligation of this law is absolute. 
 
 I have prepared a little memorandum in regard to this 
 decision which I inclose, and I am desirous of having the 
 President see it, for Justice Moody has certainly per- 
 formed a great service to the public and one which is in 
 line with the various recommendations and efforts of the 
 President in the matter of making the distribution of the 
 economic disadvantages incident to great corporations 
 more just. It will be a great cause of regret if the public 
 fail to notice this advanced step of the court. 
 I write this in the greatest haste. 
 
 With regard and respect, 
 
 EDWARD A. MOSELEY. 
 HON. WILLIAM LOEB, JR., 
 
 Secretary to the President. 
 
 Brinkmeier, however, never recovered damages. When 
 the Kansas Supreme Court found itself overwhelmed by 
 the current of judicial authority against the position it 
 had taken, it was able to pick flaws in his counsel's peti- 
 tion, and on this technical point it was sustained by the 
 Supreme Court of the United States after Mr. Moseley's 
 death eleven years and five months after the injury! 
 
BATTLING FOR CRIPPLES AND WIDOWS 93 
 
 While Mr. Moseley was battling on one hand to sus- 
 tain the law hi the courts, he constantly carried on a 
 campaign in Congress for amendments and new statutes, 
 designed to meet every question or doubt raised by rail- 
 road attorneys and ultraconservative judges. Thus the 
 weak spots in the legislation, which it was his duty to 
 enforce, were steadily strengthened. 
 
 Congress not only abolished the old common law de- 
 fense of the carelessness of a fellow-servant in cases arising 
 from injuries sustained in interstate commerce, but it also 
 took away the plea of assumption of risk by the injured 
 employee where it could be shown that the injury was 
 caused through the failure of the railroad to provide the 
 safety appliances prescribed by law. Congress also put a 
 stop to word juggling by specifically declaring that the 
 Safety Appliance Act relates to " locomotives, tenders, 
 cars, and similar vehicles. " To the quibbling as to 
 whether an empty car on a siding is really embraced in 
 the provisions of the act, Congress made it plain that 
 everything on wheels, which is used on any railroad 
 engaged hi interstate commerce, is included. Mr. Mose- 
 ley 's active participation in that legislative work is dis- 
 closed by two letters which he received after the passage 
 of a most important amendatory act in 1903, one from a 
 member of the Senate and the other from a member of 
 the House committee on interstate and foreign com- 
 merce : 
 
94 EDWARD A. MOSELEY 
 
 WASHINGTON, D.C., 
 March 27, 1903. 
 
 HON. EDWARD A. MOSELEY, Secretary, 
 
 Interstate Commerce Commission, Washington, D.G. 
 
 DEAR SIR : 
 
 I have been intending to say ever since the passage of 
 the act to promote the safety of employees and travelers 
 on railroads etc., at the recent session of Congress, that 
 I feel much indebted to you for your earnest and helpful 
 support. I refer not only to your general support of the 
 general proposition, but the help you rendered in perfect- 
 ing the measure. The amendments that were adopted 
 upon your suggestions, especially those adopted while the 
 bill was in conference, did much to make the measure 
 more satisfactory and effective than it otherwise would 
 have been. All who were interested in this legislation 
 should indeed feel very grateful to you for your efficient 
 friendship in the matter. 
 
 Very truly yours, 
 
 J. B. FORAKER. 
 
 WASHINGTON, D.C., 
 March 5, 1903. 
 
 HON. EDWARD A. MOSELEY, Secretary, 
 Interstate Commerce Commission. 
 
 MY DEAR SIR: 
 
 The act to amend an act entitled "An act to promote 
 the safety of employees and travelers upon railways, by 
 compelling common carriers engaged in interstate com- 
 merce to equip their cars with automatic couplers and 
 continuous brakes and their locomotives with driving- 
 wheel brakes, and for other purposes," being now a law, 
 it is to be hoped that such an improvement in railway 
 appliances and the use thereof will follow that injuries to 
 trainmen will be much less frequent, and will steadily 
 diminish in number and severity. 
 
 It is only just that due acknowledgment should be 
 made to you for the important services you have rendered, 
 and without which this amendment would probably have 
 failed of passage at the recent session of Congress. When 
 
BATTLING FOR CRIPPLES AND WIDOWS 95 
 
 counsels were distracted and the measure apparently dead, 
 your intercession led to such a bringing together of po- 
 tential forces that consideration and action were had. 
 And in the incomplete form in which the measure had 
 passed both Houses, with respect to its provision relating 
 to automatic couplers, it was solely responsive to your 
 suggestions and representations that further amendment 
 was recommended by both Houses of Congress. 
 
 Doubtless a grateful appreciation by those interested 
 directly will be manifested, and I trust you will never 
 weary in earnest labor in the cause of humanity, which 
 you have thus far served so well. 
 
 Yours very sincerely, 
 IRVING P. WANGER. 
 
 Mr. Moseley's able and vigorous championship of the 
 various laws with which he had to do, attracted the 
 favorable attention of judges and lawyers throughout 
 the country, and a confidential correspondence sprang 
 up between him and them. As an example of the confi- 
 dence reposed in him by distinguished correspondents, 
 the following remarkably frank letter from an eminent 
 Federal judge will serve : 
 
 MY DEAR MR. MOSELEY: 
 
 Accept my sincere thanks for copies of the brief for the 
 plaintiff in error in the Johnson case. I was favored with 
 a copy of the opinion of the Circuit Court of Appeals in the 
 case soon after it was filed, and was on the point of writing 
 a review of it, when I learned the case had been taken to 
 the Supreme Court. 
 
 The writer of the opinion in the Court of Appeals has 
 an acute and ready, but an extremely narrow mind as 
 narrow as the neck of a vinegar cruet. To him the little 
 things of the law seem great and the great things little. 
 He argues a question of the construction of a great reme- 
 dial statute enacted to preserve human life as though it 
 was a plea in abatement or a special demurrer under the 
 
96 EDWARD A. MOSELEY 
 
 old system of special pleading. He delights in technical- 
 ities, subtleties, refinements and microscopic distinctions. 
 If his construction of the statute is right, the last state of 
 the employees and the public is worse than the first. 
 
 It is distressing to see such a judicial perversion of a 
 beneficent statute. 
 
 Thanking you again for your courtesy, I am 
 
 Very truly, 
 
 Mr. Moseley's close observation of legal points is illus- 
 trated by this letter which he wrote to a Federal judge : 
 
 November 19, 1906. 
 
 DEAR JUDGE : 
 
 Your opinion and order have been received, and permit 
 me to say that I am much pleased with the views you have 
 expressed, because I am sure every fact will be brought out 
 at the trial. . . . 
 
 It seems but proper to call your attention to your state- 
 ment that the locomotive in the Johnson case was a 
 switch engine. That does not appear to be the fact. 
 The locomotive was a freight engine running between 
 Terrace and Ogden, two points in Utah, and was being 
 used at the time of the accident in hauling an interstate 
 freight train running between San Francisco, California, 
 and Ogden, Utah. It had been cut off from its train at 
 Promontory for the special purpose of doing the particular 
 work in which Johnson was injured, and had gone down 
 to hook on to the dining car. It was an engine which was 
 not presumed to have gone out of the state, and was en- 
 gaged temporarily in switching service because there is 
 no switching engine at Promontory, as there is not work 
 enough there for one. Every other statement made by 
 you in regard to the case, I am confident is correct. . . . 
 
 I may also call your attention to the last paragraph on 
 the next to the last page of your opinion, where it is stated 
 that "lack of guilty knowledge will avail as a defense." 
 Is this not a typewriter's error ? Should it not read "not 
 avail as a defense?" You will also find a typewriter's 
 
BATTLING FOR CRIPPLES AND WIDOWS 97 
 
 error near the bottom of page 5, where your opinion is 
 spoken of as a " petition 7 ' instead of an opinion. 
 With great regard and respect, 
 
 EDWARD A. MOSELEY. 
 
 An assistant counsel of a great railway system having 
 said, while defending a prosecution in Chicago which had 
 been brought against his company, that a certain other 
 company had escaped prosecution through " graft," he 
 pointed his cynical remark in Mr.- Moseley's direction. 
 Mr. Moseley, who kept on friendly terms throughout his 
 fights with many of the leading railway attorneys, wrote 
 to the general counsel of the road this characteristic 
 rejoinder : 
 
 I am writing you in a personal way to express my in- 
 dignation and resentment at the statement made by your 
 Mr. Blank. . . . 
 
 From one point of view it excites my risibility to think 
 that I should be placed in the same category with grafters 
 in a field of endeavor where the picking is so slim ; but 
 from a practical viewpoint, in consideration of my duty 
 as a public official and of my past record, Mr. Blank's 
 insinuation is nothing short of contemptible, and I must 
 express my resentment in the most emphatic manner at 
 my command. I will not stand such treatment, and I 
 really believe that if Mr. Blank was within reaching dis- 
 tance I might be tempted to use something stronger than 
 words in dealing with him. I am inclined to think that 
 he may thank God that there is a reasonable amount of 
 real estate between Washington and Chicago. 
 
 Of course, I am at the bottom of these prosecutions, 
 but only as the official upon whom the enforcement of the 
 law devolves, and I have the audacity to believe that when 
 I place my hands to the plow, I shall strike a furrow before 
 leaving it ; when I accept a duty I shall carry it through 
 to the letter. There has been no " persecution" of your 
 company, as Mr. Blank seems to believe. All we want 
 is to have the law observed. 
 
98 EDWARD A. MOSELEY 
 
 In these cases which we brought to the attention of the 
 court, there was none which could not have been avoided 
 by the expenditure of a few cents for material and a few 
 moments of time by a car repairer ; whereas the man who 
 was compelled to go between the cars by reason of the 
 defective equipment might have been killed, thus entailing 
 a loss of several thousand dollars upon the company. . . . 
 
 That the suits brought by us have been properly in- 
 stituted is evidenced by the fact that we have never lost 
 a case, and with the present temper of the Executive and of 
 Congress, if any case is lost by fault of the law, or through 
 any weakness or deficiency in the statute, I assure you 
 that Congress will take speedy action to still further 
 strengthen the law and emphasize its intent in enact- 
 ing it. 
 
 With kind personal regards, I am, 
 
 Sincerely yours, 
 
 EDWARD A. MOSELEY. 
 
 For twenty-five years Mr. Moseley attended the read- 
 ing of the opinions of the Supreme Court. He knew the 
 opinions thoroughly and could instantly recall them for 
 use in an emergency. He was better informed on ques- 
 tions involving the conflict between state and Federal 
 authority than nine tenths of the practicing lawyers of 
 the country. As a notable example of this he issued a 
 pamphlet on Federal power, and when more than a year 
 afterward Secretary Knox, one of the foremost constitu- 
 tional lawyers, delivered an address on the same subject, 
 it was astonishing to note the similarity of the lines of 
 thought in which Mr. Moseley had anticipated that 
 leader of the bar. 
 
 His many legal contests gave him an extraordinary 
 acquaintance with the temper and tendencies of the 
 members of the Federal courts all over the Union, and he 
 
BATTLING FOR CRIPPLES AND WIDOWS 99 
 
 carried in his mind a classification of the judges in accord- 
 ance with the mental bias their decisions had disclosed. 
 Sometimes he maneuvered most skilfully to avoid putting 
 a disputed point of law to the test in courts where he 
 thought the tone was unprogressive. His deep interest 
 in appointments to the bench is evidenced by the intro- 
 ductory part of a letter which he addressed to Mr. Taft 
 in the opening year of the latter 's Presidency : 
 
 Before your election you were good enough to tell me 
 that when you were President I might express to you my 
 views concerning appointments to the federal bench. 
 This is my justification for addressing you relative to the 
 appointment of a suitable person to fill the vacancy on 
 the Supreme Court bench occasioned by the death of 
 Justice Peckham. 
 
 I wish it to be understood that I have no predilection 
 in favor of any particular person for this important ap- 
 pointment, my only desire being to feel assured that who- 
 ever is appointed will not be reactionary in his views but 
 may be depended upon at least to hold a sympathetic 
 attitude towards the admirable sentiments expressed 
 by you recently in your Chicago address. 
 
 One of the hardest and most interesting legal fights in 
 which Mr. Moseley engaged was in the Schlemmer case. 
 A steam shovel was in transit from a point in the state 
 of New York to a point in the state of Pennsylvania, 
 and was equipped with the 'old link-and-pin coupler, 
 contrary to the Federal law. To couple it to a caboose 
 at a station in Pennsylvania one night, Schlemmer was 
 obliged to go between the two cars, stoop down, lamp in 
 hand, and guide a long iron bar, weighing about eighty 
 pounds, into the slot of the caboose coupler. Struggling 
 in that cramped position under the burden of the heavy 
 
100 EDWARD A. MOSELEY 
 
 bar, the poor fellow missed his aim as the cars came to- 
 gether, and his head was crushed. 
 
 His widow sued the railroad company, and the jury 
 gave her a verdict of $10,000, which the judge set aside 
 on motion of the railroad counsel. The company con- 
 tended that there was contributory negligence on the 
 part of the dead man, and that the conductor who was 
 standing by at the time had shouted to him to look out 
 for his head. The widow appealed to the Supreme 
 Court of Pennsylvania, and there again she lost, that 
 court saying in its decision : 
 
 "It is the settled law of Pennsylvania that any negli- 
 gence of a party injured, which contributed to his injury, 
 bars his recovery of damages without regard to the neg- 
 ligence either greater or less than his own, of the other 
 party. The present is a clear case of contributory neg- 
 ligence within this rule." 
 
 A member of the brotherhood to which Schlemmer had 
 belonged brought the sad case to Mr. Moseley's atten- 
 tion. He instantly took up the widow's cause, and for 
 five years it never was out of his thoughts. In a letter 
 acknowledging the receipt of the court record of the case, 
 he wrote on April 1, 1905 : 
 
 It made my blood boil when I read it. We are working 
 on it now and are having the help of some of the people 
 in the Supreme Court in the preparation of our prayer 
 for a writ of error. I am making a careful study of the 
 case. I have concluded to go myself to Justice Brown in 
 regard to the writ of error. I am a member of the court, 
 and personally I am a warm friend of his, and I can per- 
 haps talk with him better than any one else here. 
 
BATTLING FOR CRIPPLES AND yHBcWS 101 
 
 Mr. Moseley made this a personal matter. He did 
 not act as an official of the government, but out of sym- 
 pathy with the widow and her fatherless children, one of 
 whom he understood was blind. Running parallel with 
 his sympathy was the indignation that had made "his 
 blood boil" over the ruling handed down by the Supreme 
 Court of Pennsylvania, "with its accustomed disregard 
 of humanity," as he said. 
 
 He went to Justice Brown of the Supreme Court of the 
 United States and obtained a writ of error, and then, on 
 his own account, engaged counsel. A prominent rail- 
 road attorney consented out of friendship for him to make 
 the closing argument, and Mr. Moseley selected a young 
 man in his own office to present the case. He went into 
 the preparation of the case with even more than his 
 usual thoroughness, and often in discussing it with his 
 associates, he knelt on the floor in the crouching posture 
 that Schlemmer was compelled to assume between the 
 cars, trying thereby to make clear the manner in which 
 the unfortunate trainman came to his death. 
 
 When two years had passed since he entered upon the 
 case, the matter was heard by the Supreme Court, and 
 in another month Justice Holmes rendered a majority 
 decision, which had been reached by a vote of 5 to 4, 
 reversing the Pennsylvania court and ordering a new 
 trial. At the second trial the widow again won a $10,000 
 verdict, but again the judge set it aside; again she ap- 
 pealed to the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania; again 
 that court non-suited her, and again Mr. Moseley aided 
 to bring her case before the Supreme Court of the 
 
102 EDWARD A. MOSELEY 
 
 United States. Her crowning misfortune was his illness 
 at the time of this second hearing before the highest 
 court, and when at last the final decision against her 
 was rendered on May 15, 1911, her champion lay in his 
 grave. 
 
CHAPTER XIII 
 THE EMPLOYERS' LIABILITY ACT 
 
 WHILE Mr. Moseley was doing what he could in the 
 movement to check the loss of life and limb among rail- 
 road workmen, he found that the money cost of all this 
 human waste chiefly fell upon cripples and widows and 
 orphans. A frightful yearly tol was not only collected 
 from them in pain and tears, but in dollars and cents 
 as well. The vast interstate traffic of the country, 
 the richest commerce in the world, ground up men by 
 the thousands, by the tens of thousands every year, and 
 paid next to nothing for their arms and legs and lives. 
 The larger part of this enormous financial burden was 
 thrust upon physical wrecks and helpless women and 
 children. 
 
 While a member of the Massachusetts Legislature, Mr. 
 Moseley interested himself in the question of an Employ- 
 ers' Liability Act, and he supported a bill on that sub- 
 ject, which, as already stated, had been introduced by a 
 fellow-member, Mr. Philip J. Doherty, whose recent able 
 work on Federal Employers' Liability Law has taken high 
 rank in contemporary legal literature. Mr. Moseley's 
 experience in defending the Safety Appliance Act hi the 
 courts had deepened his conviction that the old common 
 law dogmas, known as the fellow-servant and assumption 
 of risk rules, did not rightfully apply to modern condi- 
 
 103 
 
104 EDWARD A. MOSELEY 
 
 tions and were cruelly unjust to wage earners, partic- 
 ularly in the inevitably hazardous employment of railroad 
 service. The terms in themselves have a distinctly 
 anachronistic sound, echoes of an age when all employees 
 were indeed servants, a class apart, and all employers 
 were masters. 
 
 It chanced that when the first decade of the twentieth 
 century closed, the great republic of the United States, 
 the great democracy of America, was almost the only 
 progressive nation that still clung to those harsh and 
 unsocial doctrines, twin relics, they might be termed, of 
 a medieval industrial system. In several states there 
 had been an effort to mitigate their rigors, but in the 
 Federal courts they continued to operate in their full 
 severity. 
 
 Railroad workmen were among the chief victims of 
 those judicial fetiches. Chief Justice Shaw of the Massa- 
 chusetts Supreme Court having expanded the rule of 
 fellow-servant to cover railroad employment in the in- 
 fancy of the , railroad, his decision was adopted through- 
 out the courts of the country. A train conductor and a 
 laborer engaged in graveling the track, a brakeman and 
 a car inspector, an engineer on one train and the con- 
 ductor on another train, an engineer and a yard clerk, a 
 trainman and a telegraph operator were held to be fellow- 
 servants, and a railroad company, therefore, was not 
 liable for the injury of one caused by the negligence of 
 the other. 
 
 If, moreover, an employee were injured through the 
 negligence of his employer to provide safe conditions of 
 
THE EMPLOYERS' LIABILITY ACT 105 
 
 employment and the employee had knowledge of the 
 defective equipment, the employer was not liable for 
 damages ; the employee was held to have assumed the 
 risk. He was presumably at liberty to refuse to incur 
 the danger of injury, although his refusal probably would 
 have cost him his employment and might have exposed 
 his family to want. 
 
 In many instances railroads did not trust to an implied 
 contract, but required applicants for employment to sign 
 sinister printed forms, in which they contracted to release 
 the companies from all manner of responsibility. In one 
 of those forms submitted to a committee of Congress, the 
 employees were required to agree to assume the risk of 
 every conceivable injury. All the ghastly perils were 
 grimly set forth in fine type, and the poor seeker for work 
 was compelled to sign away life and limb before receiving 
 employment. An express company not only exacted a 
 promise in writing that the employee would never sue 
 for damages, but also a shocking pledge that if he should 
 be killed and his widow or children or any other heir 
 should bring suit, the company should collect from his 
 estate the money it spent in defending itself against his 
 heirs. 
 
 If an injured employee could not be prevented from 
 recovering damages on the ground that his injury was due 
 to the negligence of a fellow-servant or was in conse- 
 quence of a risk which he voluntarily assumed, he might 
 still be defeated by the contention that there was some 
 contributory negligence, however slight, on his own 
 part. This last completed the trinity of legal obstacles 
 
106 EDWARD A. MOSELEY 
 
 that confronted the crippled railway workman in court, 
 or barred the way to the widows and orphans of the 
 hundreds of employees slain on the rail every year. It 
 was said in a Senate debate that in 1897 the railroad 
 workers collected damages for less than 13 per cent of 
 the accidents that befell them. 
 
 Thus trainmen could not look to their employers to 
 protect their families in event of injury or death, and the 
 big insurance companies would not insure them, except 
 at a rate which few of them could afford to pay. Indeed, 
 most of the companies would not accept them at any 
 rate, while other companies issued endowment policies 
 for switchmen, for instance, at a premium based on a 
 twenty-year advance in age; if only twenty-five years 
 old, the switchman must pay as much as a man of forty- 
 five. The insurance actuaries thus calculated that when 
 a man became a switchman, he thereby cut twenty years 
 off his reasonable expectation of life. 
 
 The only feasible means of mitigating the severity of 
 the situation in which the railroad workers found them- 
 selves was to establish insurance and benefit funds of 
 their own and thereby share their burdens. Among 
 Mr. Moseley's papers, a statement was found on this 
 subject, bearing date of 1908, in which the enormous 
 payments of the employees out of their wages for the 
 relief of their unfortunate fellows is set forth in the 
 following figures : 
 
 Since its organization, the Brotherhood of Locomotive 
 Engineers has paid out in benefits for deceased and dis- 
 abled members $17,700,228.71, and in the twelve months 
 
THE EMPLOYERS' LIABILITY ACT 107 
 
 ending November 1, 1907, its beneficiary payments 
 amounted to $1,411,500.05. 
 
 The Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen has paid out a 
 total of $12,006,609.83, and from January 1, to November 
 1, 1907, its payments amounted to $1,508,185.37. 
 
 The Order of Railway Conductors has paid out $9,540,- 
 
 000, and in the period from January 1 to November 1, 
 1907, its payments amounted to $723,000. 
 
 The Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen has paid out 
 a total of $10,549,765, and in the fiscal year ending June 
 30, 1907, its payments amounted to $947,100. 
 
 The Switchmen's Union, which is a comparatively 
 young and small organization, has paid out $820,000 in 
 death and injury benefits, and in the period from January 
 1 to November 1, 1907, its payments amounted to $189,300. 
 
 Here is a total of $50,616,603.54, which these organiza- 
 tions have paid out to the families of deceased and dis- 
 abled members. 
 
 This condition of affairs forced itself upon Mr. Mose- 
 ley's attention and sympathy while he was fighting for 
 the Safety Appliance Law and collecting the statistics 
 of death and injuries among railroad men, and he began 
 to look for a remedy. Early in his study of the question, 
 he came upon the epochal declaration of Emperor William 
 
 1, to the Reichstag in 1881, and the sentiment expressed 
 then by the old Kaiser appealed to him as an example of 
 noble statesmanship : 
 
 We consider it our imperial duty to impress upon the 
 Reichstag the necessity of furthering the welfare of the 
 working people. We should review with increased satis- 
 faction the manifold successes with which the Lord has 
 blessed our reign, could we carry with us to the grave the 
 consciousness of having given our country an additional 
 and lasting assurance of internal peace, and the convic- 
 tion that we have rendered the needy that assistance to 
 which they are justly entitled. Our efforts in this direc- 
 
108 EDWARD A. MOSELEY 
 
 tion are certain of the approval of all the federated govern- 
 ments. We confidently rely on the support of the Reich- 
 stag, without distinction of parties. In order to realize 
 these views, a bill for the insurance of workmen against 
 industrial accidents will first of all be laid before you. 
 
 The first Employers' Liability Act for railroad em- 
 ployees engaged in interstate commerce introduced in 
 Congress was drawn by Mr. Moseley, but, as he after- 
 wards said, "If I had admitted it, my head would have 
 come off instantly." The bill was introduced by his 
 request in 1895, only two years after the passage of the 
 Safety Appliance Act, merely because he wished to see 
 a start made and without any hope of having it taken 
 up at that time. When, however, in 1898, he appeared 
 before the industrial commission appointed by Presi- 
 dent McKinley, he did not hesitate to avow his author- 
 ship of the measure, and he submitted a copy of it to the 
 Commission. When at last President Roosevelt took 
 his stand for such an enactment, Congress passed the 
 Employers' Liability Law of 1906. 
 
 The railroad attorneys promptly assembled to plan a 
 campaign against it in the courts. To meet them, Mr. 
 Moseley successfully urged upon the administration the 
 adoption of a policy of vigorous defense. The precedent 
 that he was able to cite in support of his proposal was the 
 legal innovation, for which he was responsible, in the 
 Johnson case. In the course of the able paper he pre- 
 pared and- submitted to the administration, he said : 
 
 This law is the most important piece of legislation affect- 
 ing the just rights of labor that has been enacted in many 
 
THE EMPLOYERS' LIABILITY ACT 109 
 
 years; indeed, it is probably the most fundamental and 
 far-reaching statute in the interest of the wage worker 
 that has ever been enacted by the national government. 
 It virtually affects the economic and social well-being of a 
 large and intelligent section of our laboring population, 
 and they are naturally interested in the preservation of 
 its integrity. It is a matter which depends largely upon 
 the learning and ability with which the points involved 
 are presented to the courts for adjudication, and when it 
 is considered that the very highest legal talent of the 
 country is enlisted on the side of the railroads, the disad- 
 vantage at which the laborer's side of the case is placed 
 can be readily seen. 
 
 The first instance, as the writer believes, in which the 
 government intervened in a private suit to maintain the 
 integrity of a law passed by Congress was the case of 
 Johnson v. the Southern Pacific Company. . . . No law 
 really has its full benefit until it is passed upon by the 
 highest court in the land, and in reaching that court it is 
 important that every point which would make for the 
 integrity of the law should be saved. It is therefore 
 respectfully suggested that United States district at- 
 torneys be directed to inform the department of justice 
 of any cases that may arise in their districts where the 
 Employers' Liability Law is involved, and keep the de- 
 partment informed of the progress of any of these suits, so 
 that the government may protect the law as far as it may 
 properly do so. 
 
 It is also respectfully suggested that a general brief be 
 prepared with the utmost care, for use as far as applicable 
 in any case that may arise under this law. It is in no way 
 urged that the government should go farther than to pro- 
 tect the law and the evident intent of Congress in passing 
 it, and no question of fact surrounding a particular case 
 should engage the attention of the law officials of the 
 government. 
 
 It may be a new theory, but is it not well within the 
 province of the attorney-general of the United States, 
 when the constitutionality of any act passed by Congress 
 is called in question, to use the resources of the govern- 
 ment to the fullest extent in his power to protect the in- 
 
110 EDWARD A. MOSELEY 
 
 tegrity of that act, particularly when, as in this case, the 
 measure is one which is designed to protect the just rights 
 of a vast body of our country's working citizens, and to 
 relieve them from the disabilities entailed upon them by 
 the failure of powerful railroad corporations to provide 
 suitable appliances and facilities for the protection of the 
 lives and limbs of their employees ? 
 
 Mr. Moseley rejoiced in soon making the announce- 
 ment to a colaborer in the movement for the law, that 
 the administration had determined to act, saying : 
 
 The administration has decided to stand behind the 
 Employers' Liability Law, and the government will in- 
 tervene in any case that may be brought up for the pur- 
 pose of defending the constitutionality of the law. This 
 was decided at a Cabinet meeting a few days ago, and 
 the attorney-general issued a statement, which was given 
 to the press, in regard to the matter. I inclose a copy of 
 this statement herewith. 
 
 I regard this action as one of the most important events 
 in the interest of labor that has ever occurred. Were 
 railway employees, who seek to obtain damages for in- 
 juries received, left to their own resources there is no 
 question that the benefits which this law seeks to confer 
 upon them would be neutralized or entirely destroyed by 
 the action of the courts. 
 
 The railroad companies have the strongest array of legal 
 talent in the country, and this talent will all be directed 
 toward defeating the ends of any such law as this. No 
 private individual can hope to cope with such a power; 
 it will be impossible for any railway employee, who in- 
 vokes the aid of this law, to employ attorneys who can 
 successfully meet the arguments of counsel for the railroad 
 companies. But with the resources of the department of 
 justice placed at his command, in order to protect the 
 integrity of the law, the railway employee is placed on a 
 plane of practical equality with the railway company, 
 and he is thus insured a square deal. 
 
THE EMPLOYERS' LIABILITY ACT 111 
 
 Mr. Moseley followed up the subject with all his energy 
 and enthusiasm, and as the judicial contest was drawing 
 to a close, he reported his feelings in this note to a friend : 
 
 I take pleasure in sending you two opinions sustaining 
 the constitutionality of the Employers' Liability Law. 
 If we can only win in the Supreme Court on April 8, when 
 the case is to be heard there, it will be one of the greatest 
 boons that the railroad men could have. We are then 
 out of the woods with this law which means so much to 
 railroad employees, their widows and orphans. I am so 
 interested in it I hardly sleep nights, waiting for the out- 
 come of the hearing in the Supreme Court. 
 
 In another letter to an editor he disclosed this char- 
 acteristic bit of strategy : 
 
 Your treatment of the Employers' Liability Law is 
 grand. The members of the Supreme Court should see 
 it. Can you not in some way get this article into their 
 hands ? I do not know that there is any impropriety in 
 your sending it to them, but it won't do, of course, for me 
 to be connected with it in the slightest degree. 
 
 I send you a list of the justices of the Supreme Court. 
 You can send the magazine without marking the article, 
 and certainly some of them will find it and read it. Your 
 first editorial is also splendid "The Death Roll of 
 Industry." Do send an unmarked copy to them all. If 
 you have them to spare, it would be good to send to the 
 circuit judges. 
 
 The Supreme Court disappointed his eager hopes in 
 its decision handed down on January 6, 1908. By the 
 familiar vote of 5 to 4, a majority of the justices held 
 that the act was invalid because it did not in express 
 terms limit its effect to railroad employees actually 
 engaged in interstate commerce at the time of the in- 
 jury ; but the court was so divided that no less than five 
 
112 EDWARD A. MOSELEY 
 
 different opinions were rendered. President Roosevelt 
 insisting upon a new act, Congress promptly passed, on 
 April 22, 1908, another Employers' Liability Law, which 
 has now been unanimously sustained by the Supreme 
 Court. 
 
 When Mr. Franklin K. Lane, then a member of the 
 Interstate Commerce Commission, was invited to ad- 
 dress the National Civic Federation on the subject of this 
 law, he replied : 
 
 I feel very much honored at this invitation, but I want 
 to make a suggestion to you, both in the interest of the 
 law and in the interest of your meeting, viz. that you 
 invite Hon. E. A. Moseley, Secretary of the Interstate 
 Commerce Commission, to make this address. As you 
 probably know, Moseley is the father of this law and is 
 in more intimate touch with railroad employees than any 
 other man in the country, in all probability. I think the 
 honor is due him to appear before your body on behalf 
 of this measure because of the work he has done. 
 
 Mr. Moseley, being unable to address the Federation, 
 made some significant observations in his letter of 
 regret : 
 
 The national law has set a pace, and our efforts should 
 in no wise be relaxed until this doctrine is established in 
 every state of the Union. The rules relating to fellow 
 servants and assumption of risk, made by the courts, 
 should be done away with, and the question of contribu- 
 tory negligence, which is a matter of fact, should be left 
 to the jury. 
 
 The national law, following the rule of admiralty, allows 
 the jury to determine the extent to which the employer 
 or employee is liable, and the award shall be rendered 
 accordingly. This, it is hoped, will prove workable. If 
 an enterprise is obviously dangerous, the capital embarked 
 
THE EMPLOYERS' LIABILITY ACT 113 
 
 therein should not be exempt from such losses as arise 
 from the obviously dangerous character of the business. 
 The crowding upon the laboring element of all the burden 
 of industrial accidents cannot be justified upon any ground 
 of justice or public policy. No two of the apologists for 
 the present rules of law, denying to workmen the right to 
 recover, can agree upon the ground or basis for such rules. 
 They are entirely out of harmony with the humane spirit 
 of the present age. 
 
 The great majority of people in this country are wage 
 earners. The law's delays and the fact that they and 
 their dependents bear the burdens of these industrial 
 accidents is awakening a spirit of dissatisfaction which 
 the statesmen of our country may well heed. 
 
 In the progress of the long movement for this law, 
 which Mr. Moseley started in 1895, he was carried by his 
 own experience and the example of some great foreign 
 nations to a still more advanced position. Even before 
 the first Employers' Liability Act was passed, he had be- 
 come an earnest advocate of a Federal compensation act 
 for injured employees engaged in interstate commerce. 
 Mr. Taft having consulted with him early in his cam- 
 paign for President in 1908, and having invited his coun- 
 sel on the general subject of legislation in behalf of rail- 
 road labor, Mr. Moseley wrote him the following letter 
 outlining a workman's compensation law : 
 
 September 29, 1908. 
 MY DEAR MR. TAFT: 
 
 One of the most important and far-reaching questions 
 affecting the rights and interests of labor is that of work- 
 ingmen's compensation. President Roosevelt has taken 
 an advanced stand on this question, and the law passed 
 by Congress at its last session granting compensation to 
 government employees in case of injury marks a long step 
 in advance. 
 
114 EDWARD A. MOSELEY 
 
 It seems to the writer that this matter is one that may 
 well be agitated during the present campaign, and some 
 expression as to the policy of the incoming administration 
 in dealing with this question would undoubtedly be of 
 interest to workingmen at this time. In the hope, there- 
 fore, that I may be able to suggest some thought that may 
 be of service to you along this line, I want to quote the 
 following from a speech delivered by me to the Railroad 
 Trainmen at Buffalo, on May 15, 1905 : 
 
 "It should be remembered that no Safety Appliance 
 Law, no matter how perfect or how well administered, can 
 wholly relieve you from the dangers of your calling. . . . 
 
 "The railroads provide certain sums of money every year 
 for renewals and repairs, as a necessary detail of business 
 administration. A certain number of ties and rails must 
 be replaced; bridges and buildings must be rebuilt or 
 repaired ; engines and cars are worn out or destroyed, and 
 must be replaced ; fuel, oil, and other necessary supplies 
 must be furnished to keep the railway equipment in run- 
 ning condition. All these are necessary expenses which 
 the railroads accept without question, as legitimate charges 
 to be borne by the business. But what about the nec- 
 essary waste of human life and limb ? Just as there are 
 a certain number of cars and engines, rails and ties, worn 
 out and destroyed every year, so there is a certain number 
 of human beings worn out or destroyed; the business 
 itself exacts its toll of human life and limb just as cer- 
 tainly, and in a ratio that can be as accurately predicted, 
 as is the case with the rails and ties, its cars and engines. 
 
 "Now, I contend that compensation for this necessary 
 waste of human life and limb is just as legitimate a charge 
 upon the revenues of the railroads as is compensation for 
 the necessary waste of the inanimate, insensate factors of 
 equipment the ties and rails, the engines and cars. If 
 they provide money for one, they should for the other, 
 since both are absolutely necessary results of running the 
 business. Under present arrangements the money for 
 renewals and repairs of inanimate equipment is cheerfully 
 provided and paid without question, but the only money 
 spent on the animate, the human equipment, is that 
 spent in salaries to high-priced legal functionaries to avoid 
 
THE EMPLOYERS' LIABILITY ACT 115 
 
 payment of such damages for the death or injury of em- 
 ployees as the courts may say they are legally liable for! 
 
 "And when a man goes into court to obtain payment 
 for the loss of an arm or leg, when a widow goes into court 
 to obtain compensation for the death of her husband and 
 the father of her children, they find themselves confronted 
 by legal doctrines that operate by judicial construction 
 almost wholly in the interest of the employer, such as the 
 doctrines of fellow servant, assumption of risk, and con- 
 tributory negligence. We have attempted to cover as- 
 sumption of risk by section eight of our Safety Appliance 
 Law, but the only result has been to substitute therefor 
 the plea of contributory negligence. If a man is now in- 
 jured or killed in the most ordinary method of performing 
 his duties, the chances are that if he or his widow goes into 
 court to obtain compensation, this question of contribu- 
 tory negligence will be raised, and the case is more than 
 likely to be thrown out of court on that ground alone. 
 
 "Such cases should never go into court. The unfair- 
 ness of requiring a widow, or the wreck of a former strong 
 railroad man, to go into court, and after two or three 
 years' fighting under the most favorable conditions to 
 obtain a sum of money, the greater portion of which is 
 spent in repaying counsel who have to fight the case on a 
 contingency, is so apparent that it is a wonder we, calling 
 ourselves a civilized people, permit such a system to 
 endure for a moment. 
 
 "We should have a compensation act, under which the 
 maimed employee or the widow of the employee killed, 
 would receive a regular annuity, based upon the earning 
 power of the one killed or injured. The public obtains the 
 benefit of the lives and limbs regularly wasted in handling 
 the traffic of the country. The lives of the public are in- 
 trusted to you, and our daily existence is directly and in- 
 directly dependent upon the products hauled by you at 
 a regularly recurring expenditure of life and limb, and I 
 say the public should pay for the necessary cost, and let 
 the railroads collect it for the benefit of the killed and 
 injured. It is merely a question of administration, and 
 there should be no difficulty about providing the means. 
 
 "As a matter of fact, the economy of such a law would 
 
116 EDWARD A. MOSELEY 
 
 be incalculable. In the first place it would furnish the 
 strongest possible incentive to the railroads to provide 
 all obtainable safeguards, and maintain them in proper 
 condition, so as to reduce the number of casualties to the 
 lowest possible minimum. Next, it would do away with 
 the expense of maintaining expensive claim and legal de- 
 partments whose main function is to combat the question 
 of damages. Many other items of saving in present ex- 
 pense to the railroads could be suggested, and I have no 
 doubt that on the whole, if the entire burden of the nec- 
 essary expense of such a system were to fall upon present 
 railroad revenues, the roads would find themselves largely 
 the gainers. The gain to the public would also be great in 
 having the court calendars clear of all this litigation. The 
 feeling of contentment that would come with the knowl- 
 edge that the men were having a square deal are factors 
 that from a social and economic standpoint should have 
 great weight. . . ." 
 
 Trusting that these quotations may be of service to 
 you and that you may think the matter of sufficient im- 
 portance to deal with it in some of your speeches, I am, 
 
 With great regard and respect, 
 
 EDWARD A. MOSELEY. 
 
 There is reason to suspect that Mr. Moseley inspired 
 if he did not actually draw a compensation bill which 
 was introduced at the following session of Congress. 
 Since then a proposed law has been submitted by the 
 Employers' Liability and Workmen's Compensation Com- 
 mission. It is pathetic to read a letter to a correspondent, 
 in which Mr. Moseley described the progress of the project 
 and his connection with it : 
 
 As I telegraphed you to-day, I am intensely interested 
 in the subject you speak of, that is, the workingmen's 
 compensation. This is bound to come, and there are a 
 number of railroad officials who favor it. . . . The 
 President has for two years and a half had working 
 
THE EMPLOYERS' LIABILITY ACT 117 
 
 on this subject. He has been trying to overcome the 
 inhibitions of the constitution. 
 
 This is the point Senator has been more than in- 
 terested in, and he, himself, has endeavored to perfect a 
 measure which would hold water. I have had a dozen or 
 more interviews with the senator, where he has sent for 
 me to tell me how interested he is in the subject and how 
 anxious he was to get a bill which could not be over- 
 turned on account of being unconstitutional. . . . When 
 I can see that on the statute book I will say, "Oh, Lord, 
 now let thy servant depart in peace," for I will then 
 think my fife work accomplished. 
 
 While he was not to see the compensation law on the 
 statute book, he saw the dawn of the day of this larger 
 measure of justice. 
 
CHAPTER XIV 
 
 SAVING TEN THOUSAND MEN A YEAR 
 
 WHILE safety appliances have been the means of sav- 
 ing thousands of men from death and injury, it is diffi- 
 cult to express the saving in figures that are exact. 
 
 In the first place the total number of men employed 
 and exposed has grown enormously since the law went 
 into full effect in 1900, and in the next place the great 
 increase in the length of trains and other radical changes 
 in conditions of employment enter in and confuse the 
 statistics. Finally, the Safety Appliance Act affects 
 only the coupling of cars and the control of trains, and 
 does not touch the other perils of railroading. 
 
 Mr. Moseley watched with keen solicitude the growth 
 in the number of casualties on the rail and had his share 
 in the work of framing and forwarding other legislation 
 for their prevention. He viewed with pardonable satis- 
 faction, however, the great decrease in the rate of cou- 
 pling accidents. 
 
 In a memorandum which was prepared on November 30, 
 1909, it was shown that while in 1893 one man was killed 
 for 349 employed in coupling and uncoupling cars, the 
 number so employed for each one killed in 1908 was 983 
 an increase in safety from death amounting to more 
 than 181 per cent. In every group of 13 so employed in 
 
 118 
 
SAVING TEN THOUSAND MEN A YEAR 119 
 
 1893, one was injured, while in 1908 there was only one 
 injury in each group of 62, an increase in safety from 
 injuries amounting to 376 per cent. 
 
 A clearer and more impressive deduction from these 
 figures was made in the statement that if the accidents 
 due to coupling and uncoupling had increased in the 
 same ratio as the number of men employed increased 
 since 1893, there would have been 486 men killed and 
 13,724 injured in coupling accidents in 1908 instead of the 
 actual number of 198 killed and 3116 injured. In other 
 words, we should have had a total of 14,210 men killed 
 and injured in coupling at the old rate which ruled before 
 safety appliances came in, rather than the actual total 
 of 3314 in 1908. 
 
 By the latest reports it is seen that coupling accidents 
 are now only 6J per cent of the total casualties among 
 railway employees, whereas they once amounted to 
 44 per cent of the total. There were 9063 coupling acci- 
 dents in 1893, when there were only 179,636 trainmen 
 employed. In 1911 there were 281,645 trainmen em- 
 ployed, but only 3428 coupling accidents occurred among 
 that great number. Those figures plainly tell the story 
 of more than 10,000 trainmen saved from death or injury 
 in one year by the Safety Appliance Law. Surely no 
 other act of Congress, not even the organic law of the noble 
 Life-saving Service, has as much to its credit. 
 
 In this instance, as always, justice cost nothing. The 
 railroads as well as the men were benefited by safety 
 appliances. The first cost of installing the new system 
 may well have staggered the companies. Once it was in 
 
120 
 
 EDWARD A. MOSELEY 
 
 operation, however, it proved to be a welcome measure 
 of economy and efficiency. 
 
 The late E. H. Harriman commended the law in a talk 
 with Mr. Moseley, and as early as 1901, Mr. F. A. Delano, 
 general manager of the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy 
 Railroad, wrote Mr. Moseley that it would be extremely 
 difficult, if not impossible, to transport the present busi- 
 ness, if the link and draw bar were still in use, without 
 greatly increasing the number of engines. Mr. Delano 
 added that the number of trains broken hi two with safety 
 
 TABLE I 
 
 NUMBER OF TRAINMEN EMPLOYED, WITH NUMBER KILLED AND 
 INJURED COUPLING AND UNCOUPLING CARS FOR THE YEARS 
 ENDING JUNE 30 
 
 : YEAB 
 
 NUMBER 
 EMPLOYED 
 
 NUMBER KILLED 
 
 NUMBER INJURED 
 
 1893 
 
 179,636 
 
 310 
 
 8753 
 
 1894 
 
 160,033 
 
 181 
 
 5539 
 
 1895 
 
 157,731 
 
 189 
 
 6077 
 
 1896 
 
 162,876 
 
 157 
 
 6457 
 
 1897 
 
 161,398 
 
 147 
 
 4698 
 
 1898 
 
 170,708 
 
 182 
 
 5290 
 
 1899 
 
 178,851 
 
 180 
 
 5055 
 
 1900 
 
 191,198 
 
 188 
 
 3803 
 
 1901 
 
 209,043 
 
 163 
 
 2377 j 
 
 1902 
 
 225,422 
 
 141 
 
 2457 
 
 1903 
 
 253,660 
 
 211 
 
 3023 
 
 1904 
 
 253,834 
 
 269 
 
 3506 
 
 1905 
 
 265,175 
 
 217 
 
 3316 
 
 1906 
 
 285,556 
 
 266 
 
 3590 
 
 1907 
 
 317,808 
 
 272 
 
 4062 
 
 1908 
 
 281,645 
 
 198 
 
 3116 
 
SAVING TEN THOUSAND MEN A YEAR 121 
 
 appliances is less and the cost of general maintenance 
 lower, while it would be extremely dangerous and practi- 
 cally impossible to operate the present trains at prevailing 
 speed without the power brakes, and switching is greatly 
 expedited. 
 
 The Safety Appliance Act made possible a remarkable 
 development in train operation. Automatic couplers were 
 so much more effective than the link and pin in holding 
 trains together that trains have doubled in length since 
 the law went into force. This has greatly reduced the 
 
 TABLE II 
 
 RATIO OP CASUALTIES TO TRAINMEN FROM COUPLING AND UN- 
 COUPLING FROM TOTAL ACCIDENTS TO TRAINMEN FOR THE YEARS 
 NAMED, ENDING JUNE 30 
 
 YBAB 
 
 KILLED 1 
 PER CENT 
 
 INJURED 
 PER CENT 
 
 TOTAL KILLED 
 AND INJURED 
 PER CENT 
 
 1893 .... 
 
 19.78 
 
 4637 
 
 4433 
 
 1894 
 
 17.59 
 
 42.27 
 
 4048 
 
 1895 
 
 18.59 
 
 41.20 
 
 39.75 
 
 1896 
 
 14.63 
 
 40.52 
 
 3888 
 
 1897 
 
 15.16 
 
 34.06 
 
 32.80 
 
 1898 
 
 15.95 
 
 33.81 
 
 32.60 
 
 1899 
 
 15.58 
 
 30.34 
 
 29.38 
 
 1900 
 
 13.47 
 
 21.64 
 
 21.04 
 
 1901 
 
 10.60 
 
 14.22 
 
 13.91 
 
 1902 
 
 8.42 
 
 11.51 
 
 11.29 
 
 1903 
 
 10.19 
 
 11.77 
 
 11.66 
 
 1904 
 
 12.72 
 
 11.98 
 
 12.03 
 
 1905 
 
 1090 
 
 11 11 
 
 11 10 
 
 1906 
 
 11 52 
 
 1026 
 
 1034 
 
 1907 
 
 1072 
 
 9 97 
 
 1001 
 
 1908 . . 
 
 10 75 
 
 8 70 
 
 880 
 
 
 
 
 
122 EDWARD A. MOSELEY 
 
 cost of hauling. The average tonnage per train when the 
 law went into effect was 184; the average now is 383. 
 The link and pin could not hold such a train together. 
 Justice pays. 
 
 The success of the law lay in its intelligent enforcement. 
 The Commission having left this task to Mr. Moseley, 
 he developed a remarkably efficient body of inspectors. 
 
 There was something characteristic in the standard of 
 selection which he adopted. If the inspectors really 
 were to inspect, they must be practical railroad men, and 
 if they were members of the railroad brotherhoods, they 
 would be more likely to feel a sympathy with the object 
 of the law the protection of their brethren from 
 injuries. Moreover, they could inspect effectively only 
 by going into switchyards without let or hindrance from 
 officials, and mingling freely with the employees. Mr. 
 Moseley, therefore, resolved that he would not have the 
 inspection service turned into easy berths for political 
 workers or into a training school for high school novices 
 certified by the Civil Service Commission. The latter 
 Commission agreed to a rule, proposed by Mr. Moseley, 
 that no one should be eligible unless he had a record of 
 at least six years of active service in the actual operation 
 of trains as engineer, foreman, conductor, trainman or 
 yardman. 
 
 It was with a good deal of reluctance that the Civil 
 Service Commission permitted the appointments to be 
 made without a civil service examination, and they con- 
 sented only on the condition that all the recommendations 
 and everything relating to the selections should be sub- 
 
SAVING TEN THOUSAND MEN A YEAR 123 
 
 mitted to their consideration. When some one complained 
 that few or no non-union men were chosen inspectors, 
 Mr. Moseley explained in the following letter in 1908, 
 that since the eligible class under the rule comprised a 
 total of 285,556 trainmen, 274,402 of whom were members 
 of organizations, it naturally followed that the inspectors 
 would be union men: 
 
 You will see that it is a practical impossibility to secure 
 inspectors who are eligible to appointment unless they are 
 members of the organization. Personally, I cannot see 
 what possible objection can be urged against an inspector 
 belonging to one of these railway labor organizations. 
 Practically all the railroads of the country treat with 
 these organizations ; their wages and conditions of service 
 are determined by the method of collective bargaining, 
 and it may be assumed that the railroads have found this 
 method satisfactory or they would not continue it. 
 
 Those ignorant of the fact might claim that this is a 
 recognition of the closed shop principle, but nothing is 
 farther from the truth. It is a fact that in the entire 
 history of these railway labor organizations no objection 
 has ever been raised to the employment of men who are 
 not members. If there is any employment in the world 
 that is run on the open shop principle, it is certainly that 
 of railroading. . . . 
 
 The policy of selecting these safety appliance inspectors 
 from the classes indicated in the regulations was adopted, 
 with the approval of the President, with the idea of em- 
 ploying them from among those persons who are directly 
 at risk and in whose interest the law was primarily enacted. 
 That their service has been highly efficient and entirely 
 satisfactory, is proved by the records of this office relating 
 to prosecutions for violations of the law. In the cases 
 that have been brought in court to date, involving more 
 than two thousand separate violations of the law, only 
 six have been decided adversely to the government, and 
 those adverse decisions were in no case based upon the 
 facts, but upon interpretations of the law which were con- 
 
124 EDWARD A. MOSELEY 
 
 trary to the views held by the Commission. All of these 
 cases have been appealed, in the effort to have the Com- 
 mission's interpretation of the law sustained. In not a 
 single instance have the facts on which inspectors based 
 reports for violation of the law been controverted. 
 
 Mr. Moseley took much pride in the character and spirit 
 of his corps. He guarded it vigilantly against the intro- 
 duction of unfit and unworthy applicants, however power- 
 ful their indorsers might be. In declining to appoint a 
 man recommended by one of the foremost members of 
 Congress, he wrote : 
 
 I am sure you will understand that I have no personal 
 motive in this matter but that I write you this fully and 
 frankly, having in mind your interest, which I believe will 
 be subserved by advising you of the true situation, as 
 well as the interests of that large body of our fellow citi- 
 zens, for the protection of whom this legislation was en- 
 acted. 
 
 I inclose you a list of names of men who have been ap- 
 pointed to these positions and the reasons for which they 
 were appointed. You can readily appreciate the number 
 of applications which have been made, some of them 
 indorsed by entire state congressional delegations, but 
 not a man has been selected whose name was suggested 
 to me by any one other than as stated in my memorandum 
 to you. 
 
 Another letter to a most influential Massachusetts 
 man, who proposed the appointment of a person from 
 Mr. Moseley's own home neighborhood, discloses his 
 scrupulous care in the selections : 
 
 My only reason for hesitation at all in the matter has 
 been the fact of his residence in my immediate neighbor- 
 hood and the possible room afforded by the fact of an 
 imputation to me of making such appointment from per- 
 
SAVING TEN THOUSAND MEN A YEAR 125 
 
 sonal consideration alone. The rule that has always gov- 
 erned me in such matters is to avoid the appearance of 
 being controlled by such considerations. I have never 
 made an appointment to any position by reason of any 
 personal association or connection with myself. 
 
 A recent report of the Interstate Commerce Commis- 
 sion noted that, in all, $206,600 had been collected in 
 judgments against railroads for violations of the Safety 
 Appliance Act since it went into force. On this subject of 
 prosecuting violators of the act, Mr. Moseley once wrote 
 to the then president of the Illinois Central Railroad a 
 letter which displayed his fairness of spirit in the work of 
 enforcing the law : 
 
 May 7, 1904. 
 MR. STUYVESANT FISH, 
 
 135 BROADWAY, NEW YORK, N.Y. 
 DEAR MR. FISH : 
 
 Your kind letter of the fifth instant has been received, 
 and I am more pleased with it than I can well express, 
 because it leads me to believe that one railway president, 
 at least, understands me. 
 
 The institution of prosecutions for violation of the law 
 is always a disagreeable duty, and the enforcement of the 
 safety appliance and accident report laws is never resorted 
 to until after repeated requests for compliance with the 
 requirements of these statutes have been disregarded. 
 One controlling reason for this indulgent practice is found 
 in the fact that failure to observe the mandatory provi- 
 sions of these laws is, as a rule, due to the neglect of sub- 
 ordinates in the railway service. 
 
 As executive officer of the Commission and having the 
 matters relating to safety appliances and accidents par- 
 ticularly in charge, many things done by me in an official 
 capacity may seem harsh to those who have given little 
 attention to the exigencies of this administrative work and 
 the fair and ample opportunities always allowed to car- 
 riers for the correction of defective appliances. The dis- 
 
126 EDWARD A. MOSELEY 
 
 charge of the duties enjoined under these laws could be 
 rendered much easier, and the attitude of executive rail- 
 way officers in all cases be one of friendly cooperation, 
 if the matter should be made the subject of conference 
 with me whenever any such officer believes that his com- 
 pany has been treated harshly or unfairly in any de- 
 gree. . . . 
 With great regard and respect, I am, 
 
 Very truly yours, 
 
 EDWARD A. MOSELEY. 
 
 While engaged in the task of seeing that the two 
 million or more freight cars and locomotives in the 
 United States were equipped as the law required, Mr. 
 Moseley did not neglect the little stretch of rails across 
 the Isthmus of Panama, when the government acquired 
 it, or the small amount of rolling stock belonging to navy 
 yards. Moreover, the advanced stand which this country 
 took for safety appliances and the effective methods 
 adopted for enforcing the Federal statutes on the subject 
 exerted an influence entirely beyond the jurisdiction of 
 the United States government, attracting the attention 
 and exciting the envy of other nations. 
 
 It is not often that our laws are looked upon as models 
 for English legislation, but London Punch lately pointed 
 to the Safety Appliance Acts as an example to be fol- 
 lowed by Great Britain. In a full-page cartoon, a train- 
 man is shown crouching between the bumpers of cars 
 equipped with the antiquated link and pin. "An Old 
 Reproach" is the headline, and Mr. Punch says, in allu- 
 sion to a pending arbitration: "Glad they're settling the 
 question of hours and wages ; but what about the question 
 of life and limb ? Railway returns show an appalling 
 
SAVING TEN THOUSAND MEN A YEAR 127 
 
 number of deaths and injuries among shunters. This 
 number might be enormously reduced by the introduc- 
 tion, as in America, of automatic coupling." 
 
 Already British officials had taken a lively interest in 
 safety legislation in the United States, and for some time 
 several distinguished members of the government were 
 in correspondence with Mr. Moseley, notably Sir Francis 
 J. S. Hopwood, who repeatedly drew upon the experience 
 of his American correspondent and who made grateful 
 acknowledgments of his indebtedness. "It is very good 
 of you to pay so much attention to friends I introduce," 
 Sir Francis wrote Mr. Moseley, relative to visiting repre- 
 sentatives of the British Board of Trade, whom he had 
 accredited from time to time, "but the consolation to' 
 you must be found in the fact that you promote a good 
 cause on this side of the Atlantic." 
 
 When it was proposed in 1909 to take the work of 
 enforcing this humane legislation out of Mr. Moseley's 
 hands, the representatives of the men in whose interest 
 the law was enacted made a convincing demonstration 
 of their confidence in him. The proposal, however, 
 carried no personal reflection on the Secretary. With a 
 judge's liking for keeping administrative and judicial 
 duties and powers nicely separated, President Taft had 
 set up the Court of Commerce, and he contemplated a 
 new arrangement whereby the enforcement of the Safety 
 Appliance Act would be withdrawn from the Interstate 
 Commerce Commission. 
 
 Mr. Taft was no doubt innocent of the personal bearing 
 of the change. But a rumor of it was enough to array 
 
128 EDWARD A. MOSELEY 
 
 the brotherhoods of railroad employees against a plan 
 that would transfer the task from Mr. Moseley's trained 
 and vigorous hands. The White House resounded with 
 their protests. One official of a brotherhood wrote to 
 another official this review of the situation : 
 
 Mr. Edward A. Moseley, Secretary of the Interstate 
 Commerce Commission, may justly be termed the father 
 of safety appliance laws in this country. For twenty 
 years he has worked with unremitting zeal in an honest 
 endeavor to throw about the railway employees of this 
 nation, the protecting arm of the government and to 
 shield them in a measure from the dangers of the perilous 
 occupation in which they are engaged. It is largely 
 through his efforts that the Interstate Commerce Com- 
 mission has to-day arrived at its present state of efficiency 
 and that the laws enacted for the safety of employees are 
 beginning to bring forth results ; and the earnest hopes on 
 the part of all thinking people and the purpose of Congress 
 are just beginning to be realized. 
 
 During the past several years, the Commission has 
 gathered to itself many men of exceptional ability, who 
 have a practical knowledge of modern railway methods 
 and whose every aspiration is heartily in sympathy with 
 the great humane work in which they are engaged. . . . 
 Because of this effectual work, the Interstate Commerce 
 Commission has endeared itself to the hearts of more 
 than a million railway employees of this country. Is it 
 any wonder, then, and can it not be justly expected that 
 they would view with alarm the transfer of the power now 
 in the hands of the Commission into other hands, which, 
 to say the least, are unfamiliar with the discharge of these 
 duties which so vitally affect our interests. 
 
 This transfer of power is an experiment at best, and it 
 occurs to me that as the path leading up to the present 
 state of efficiency of the Interstate Commerce Commission 
 has been a rugged road indeed, fraught with numerous 
 perils and much suffering on the part of railway employees, 
 we might justly be excused for viewing with apprehension 
 
SAVING TEN THOUSAND MEN A YEAR 129 
 
 any proposition that might make it necessary for us to 
 retra verse the same rugged road. 
 
 This is not a question in which material things alone are 
 involved ; to us, it is a question of life or death ; it is a 
 question in which the widow's anguish and the orphan's 
 tears might well be pointed to as a mute appeal against 
 any change in the department of government to which they 
 have learned to look for protection. Therefore, I hope 
 and believe that you will take such steps as in your judg- 
 ment will bring to the attention of the President, most 
 forcibly, the light in which we regard his proposed rec- 
 ommendation, and, failing in that direction, you will, or 
 authorize me to, bring all possible power to bear upon 
 Congress, by circular letter to all lodges, or in any other 
 manner you may deem advisable, to the end that if such 
 recommendation is made over our protest, we may block 
 its successful carrying out by Congress. 
 
 I have requested an audience with the President, and it 
 will doubtless be granted within the near future. I shall 
 use my best efforts to apprize him of the apprehension 
 with which we view his contemplated recommendation. 
 
 Please find attached, copy from the New York Evening 
 Post, which may be of value to you in this struggle. All 
 of the above is for your information and consideration. 
 
 In another letter between the thoroughly aroused 
 brotherhood officials, this was said by one of the highest 
 and most prominent railway labor leaders : 
 
 ... I am writing to ask if you do not believe that a meet- 
 ing should be held in the city of Chicago, or some other 
 convenient place, in the near future to discuss what method 
 shall be taken to prevent, if possible, the transfer of ad- 
 ministrative authority over the enforcement of Safety 
 Appliance Laws from the Interstate Commerce Commis- 
 sion to the Secretary of Commerce and Labor. 
 
 In still another letter, the writer gave this estimate of 
 Mr. Moseley's work : 
 
130 EDWARD A. MOSELEY 
 
 You know as well as I do Secretary Moseley's whole 
 heart and soul are in this particular line of work, and 
 what has been accomplished by a small number of men 
 in a short period of time is very familiar to you, and one 
 reason for this splendid showing made by the safety ap- 
 pliance inspectors, they strive to give results to one whom 
 they love and respect, because they know Secretary 
 Moseley's whole being is wrapped up in the safety of the 
 men engaged in the train service. To me it would seem 
 a crime to separate Secretary Moseley from the safety 
 appliance division. 
 
 I am sure, if necessary, every lodge of our brotherhood 
 in the United States would pass resolutions against a 
 movement to change the safety appliance division away 
 from a department that has accomplished such splendid 
 results for our men. 
 
 President Taft was not unnaturally surprised and per- 
 turbed by the bombardment, and the earnest persistence 
 of the brotherhood officials, in letters to the President and 
 calls at the White House, did not leave him in doubt that 
 the protest was as genuine as it was strong. In a few 
 days he assured Mr. Roe, who presented himself as the 
 representative of two of the brotherhoods and as the man 
 responsible for sounding the alarm, that the project would 
 not be pressed. 
 
 The episode is recalled here only to put on record the 
 grateful appreciation of the representatives of a host 
 of railway workers toward a man who, when friends were 
 few in Washington, had boldly befriended them and who 
 had devoted a score of years to their protection from 
 death and wounds and injustice. 
 
CHAPTER XV 
 
 Two GREAT MEASURES 
 
 MR. MOSELEY was the first person invited to discuss 
 labor legislation before the National Industrial Com- 
 mission of 1898. He prepared for his appearance before 
 that body with his usual thoroughness, and there is no 
 better record of his reasoning powers, his spirit of inde- 
 pendence and fairness, the breadth of his mind, and his 
 advanced position than may be found in the official report 
 of his testimony and examination. 
 
 The Commission had been appointed by President 
 McKinley in obedience to the orders of Congress and 
 charged with the task of inquiring into economic and 
 industrial conditions. The country was only emerging 
 from a long period of hard times and entering an era of 
 extraordinary material development. People were think- 
 ing almost altogether of encouraging business, and states- 
 manship was absorbed in the work of legislation for the 
 interests of property. 
 
 Mr. Moseley, however, was still thinking of men, not 
 money, and he announced to the Commission, "I am here 
 solely as a citizen whose whole heart is wrapped up in the 
 subject of the relations between capital and labor and 
 the proper position which they should occupy to each 
 
 other. " Among the bills which he drafted and proposed 
 
 131 
 
132 EDWARD A. MOSELEY 
 
 was an act requiring railroads to report all collisions and 
 accidents, with the causes and surrounding circumstances. 
 
 This act became a law in 1901, and as Secretary of the 
 Interstate Commerce Commission he inaugurated the 
 Quarterly Accident Bulletin, which became in his hands 
 an important feature of the administrative activities of 
 the Commission. The bulletin showed a rapidly increas- 
 ing number of deaths and injuries on the rail, notwith- 
 standing the adoption of safety appliances. That was 
 Mr. Moseley's purpose when he urged the Accident 
 Report Law, and under it he was enabled to prove that 
 the railroads of the United States were still injuring 
 relatively twenty-nine times as many persons as the 
 railroads of the kingdom of Prussia. The Accident Bulle- 
 tins show that a passenger in this country is injured every 
 39 minutes and an employee every 11 minutes. 
 
 The publication of the reports at first disheartened, 
 and then aroused, the supporters of safety legislation. 
 With the passage of the act requiring automatic couplers 
 and brakes, it was comfortably assumed that the ugly 
 problem had been met and solved and that the work was 
 finished. The bulletins exposed the fallacy of that 
 assumption and disturbed the easy assurance of the law- 
 makers. The Safety Appliance Acts had protected only 
 the employees engaged in coupling and braking and left 
 untouched all other perils of railroad employment and 
 travel. 
 
 To avert collision, a prolific source of accidents to men 
 and passengers, Mr. Moseley took up the advocacy of a 
 law compelling all railroads to establish v the block signal 
 
TWO GREAT MEASURES 
 
 133 
 
 system in the running of trains, in place of the old and 
 faulty system, under which a train dispatcher, in a moment 
 of confusion, a sleepy boy in a telegraph office, or a worn- 
 out flagman could wreck two trainloads of humanity. 
 
 TABLE SHOWING NUMBER OF RAILWAY EMPLOYEES ON PAYROLLS, 
 JUNE 30 OF EACH YEAR AND THE INCREASING NUMBERS KILLED 
 AND INJURED, NOTWITHSTANDING THE GREAT DECLINE IN 
 COUPLING ACCIDENTS DUE TO THE ADOPTION OF SAFETY AP- 
 PLIANCES 
 
 YEAB 
 
 TOTAL NUMBER OF RAILWAY EM- 
 PLOYEES 
 
 NUMBER 
 KILLED 
 
 PER 1000 
 
 EMPLOYED 
 
 NUMBER 
 INJURED 
 
 PER 1000 
 
 EMPLOYED 
 
 On Payrolls 
 June 30 
 
 Killed 
 during 
 Year 
 
 Injured 
 during 
 Year 
 
 1895 
 
 785,034 
 
 826,620 
 823,476 
 874,558 
 928,924 
 1,017,653 
 ,071,169 
 ,189,315 
 ,312,537 
 ,296,121 
 ,382,196 
 ,521,355 
 ,672,074 
 ,458,244 
 
 1,811 
 1,861 
 
 1,693 
 1,958 
 2,210 
 2,550 
 2,675 
 2,969 
 3,606 
 3,632 
 3,361 
 3,929 
 4,534 
 3,470 
 
 25,696 
 29,969 
 27,667 
 31,761 
 34,923 
 39,643 
 41,142 
 50,524 
 60,481 
 67,067 
 66,833 
 76,701 
 87,644 
 83,367 
 
 2.307 
 2.251 
 2.056 
 2.239 
 2.379 
 2.506 
 2.497 
 2.497 
 2.747 
 2.802 
 2.431 
 2.583 
 2.712 
 2.380 
 
 32.73 
 36.26 
 33.61 
 36.32 
 37.59 
 38.96 
 38.41 
 42.48 
 46.08 
 51.75 
 48.36 
 50.43 
 52.42 
 57.17 
 
 1896 
 
 1897 
 
 1898 
 
 1899 .... 
 
 1900 
 
 1901 
 
 1902 
 
 1903 
 
 1904 
 
 1905 
 
 1906 
 
 1907 
 
 1908 
 
 
 He simply advocated that all railroads should be com- 
 pelled to do what some railroads had voluntarily done 
 in adopting the block signal method. He continually 
 preached the doctrine through the accident bulletins and 
 in the press. 
 
134 EDWARD A. MOSELEY 
 
 In accordance with his recommendation, the Commis- 
 sion, in its report to Congress for 1903, advocated a law 
 making the use of the block system obligatory, and the 
 draft of a bill was presented. Mr. Esch, of Wisconsin, 
 a prominent member of the House committee on inter- 
 state and foreign commerce, introduced the bill, and 
 Mr. Moseley aided him with arguments and statistics 
 in support of it. A strong effort was made to have the 
 bill passed in 1906, but it was urged that Congress did 
 not have sufficient information concerning the use and 
 need of block signals and automatic train stops to enable 
 it intelligently to legislate. Mr. Moseley thereupon 
 secured the passage of a joint resolution, authorizing an 
 investigation of the entire subject, together with tests 
 of such automatic appliances as promised to contribute 
 to the safety of train operation. 
 
 Under this resolution a board of experts was appointed, 
 and a thorough investigation was made. This board 
 has made several valuable reports, stating definite con- 
 clusions hi favor of both the block signal system and 
 automatic train control appliances, which in due time 
 Congress probably will adopt, and which probably would 
 already have been adopted had Mr. Moseley been spared 
 to urge and steer the movement to that end. 
 
 When such a law finally is in operation, we are likely 
 to have fewer head-on or rear-end collisions, and the 
 greatest terror of travel on railroads will be much lessened. 
 Then there will be automatic signals on every railroad 
 in the country to warn the engineer of the near presence 
 of a train ahead. If he should run by the signal, one 
 
TWO GREAT MEASURES 135 
 
 engineer reported 256 signals on a run of 148 miles at 
 a speed of nearly a mile a minute, or a signal to be ob- 
 served and obeyed every 35 seconds, it is hoped that 
 it may prove feasible to have a little mechanical contri- 
 vance which will automatically correct him and bring 
 his train to a stop. In the agitation that prepared the 
 way for this important life-saving measure, Mr. Moseley 
 was the pioneer, but in pursuance of his invariable 
 custom, he held himself in the background, taking no 
 credit and not even permitting his name to appear in 
 connection with it. 
 
 In an article which he wrote for the Review of Reviews 
 in 1904, on " Railroad Accidents in the United States," 
 he set forth arguments and statistics, not only in support 
 of block signals, but in favor of still other laws for the 
 protection of life on railroads. He divided all accidents 
 to passengers into two classes, preventable and unpre- 
 ventable, and he showed that a far larger number are 
 killed and injured in the former than in the latter class. 
 
 Among the preventable accidents, he enumerated those 
 due to the absence of block signals, to overworked train- 
 men, to defects in the train order system, to the lack of a 
 third man on locomotives, and to other lesser causes that 
 are avoidable. He concluded his article with these 
 suggested remedies : First, block signals ; second, a re- 
 formed train order system ; third, shorter hours of serv- 
 ice ; fourth, a third man on all modern, high-speed loco- 
 motives ; fifth, relieving conductors of heavy, high-speed 
 trains from ticket taking and every other responsibility 
 except that of running the train ; sixth, the employment 
 
136 EDWARD A. MOSELEY 
 
 of only experienced men in responsible positions ; seventh, 
 the laying of a second, third, and fourth track as rapidly 
 as practicable for the accommodation of the growing 
 traffic. 
 
 While advocating the block signal in place of human 
 beings to guard against collisions, Mr. Moseley joined 
 in the movement for regulating by law the hours of 
 service for trainmen. He took care that the quarterly 
 bulletins should regularly point the moral in support of 
 the latter measure. 
 
 For accident after accident such causes as these were 
 assigned in the reports from the railroads: " Flagman 
 sent back to protect rear of train, but fell asleep at side 
 of track, after twenty-one hours on duty ; " " Sent out with 
 flag, but fell asleep on track, after fifteen hours on duty ;" 
 "Crew fell asleep, after twenty-seven hours on duty;" 
 "Engineer ran by signals, after fifty-nine hours on duty, 
 with only two hours sleep;" " Engineer and brakemen 
 asleep, after eighteen hours on duty;" "Flagman asleep, 
 after sixteen and one half hours on duty ;" "Flagman and 
 conductor asleep, after eighteen hours on duty;" "Engi- 
 neer asleep discharged after thirty-eight hours on 
 duty;" "Disobeyed signals, after forty-eight hours on 
 duty;" "Mistook red signal for green, after twenty-one 
 hours on duty;" "Engineer did not keep proper lookout, 
 after twenty-two hours on duty." 
 
 It is just to say that many railroads had rules which 
 prescribed proper hours of labor, but if the men were 
 willing they were permitted to work extra and thereby 
 earn more pay. It was therefore simply a question of 
 
TWO GREAT MEASURES 137 
 
 financial temptation and physical endurance on the part 
 of the men. A letter from the mother of a railroad 
 workman called out this statement of Mr. Moseley's 
 views a few months before the publication of his article 
 in the Review of Reviews : 
 
 August 4, 1904. 
 DEAR MADAM : 
 
 Your letter of July 19 to the Secretary of the Depart- 
 ment of Commerce and Labor has been referred to this 
 Commission. 
 
 I am greatly interested in your letter, and do wish that 
 something could be done to embody in legislation the 
 ideas you have so well expressed, especially with regard to 
 the excessive hours of labor to which railroad trainmen are 
 subjected. It is really shameful the way men are driven, 
 and the consequences are something terrible, leading not 
 alone to a direct loss of life in many cases, but also to the 
 physical and moral degeneration of the men themselves. 
 
 It was only two or three days ago that, in discussing 
 this very question with the chief executive of one of our 
 largest and most conservative railway organizations of 
 employees, he said to me, "Do you know that the use of 
 intoxicating liquor by locomotive engineers is largely on 
 the increase?" I expressed surprise at the statement, 
 and asked him to what he attributed the fact. 
 
 He replied that it was directly due to the excessive 
 hours of labor to which the men were subjected. The 
 monster engines and heavy trains now in service are a 
 terrible strain on the men under the best conditions con- 
 ceivable, but when they are compelled to be on duty from 
 eighteen to thirty-six hours at a stretch, under the terrible 
 nervous strain that is an ordinary incident of modern 
 railroading, they simply go to pieces, and it is not surpris- 
 ing that they should resort to stimulants to drive then* 
 jaded bodies and nerve them to the work before them. 
 
 This gentleman informed me that it was his intention 
 to start an agitation within the ranks of the organizations 
 for the purpose of appealing to Congress to pass a law 
 limiting the hours of labor of railroad men, and prescribing 
 
138 EDWARD A. MOSELEY 
 
 penalties for its infraction. This is really one of the most 
 important matters affecting the safety of the traveling 
 public that can be imagined, and public interest should 
 be aroused to the gravity of the situation. 
 
 The Interstate Commerce Commission publishes quar- 
 terly reports of accidents on railways in the United 
 States, the last published one of which I inclose herewith. 
 These bulletins are made up from reports which are fur- 
 nished to the Commission by the railroads themselves, 
 and furnish numerous instances where the inference is 
 plain that accidents resulted from men being too long on 
 duty. In the inclosed bulletin you will note two cases 
 which I have marked, resulting in the death of two per- 
 sons, and both of them were undoubtedly caused by the 
 men being worn out by excessive hours of duty. Engi- 
 neers and flagmen do not go to sleep at their posts unless 
 they are completely worn out. 
 
 The question of ambulance cars and facilities for giving 
 first aid to the injured is of importance, and I understand 
 that many of the western roads have been long in the habit 
 of carrying emergency chests on their trains. It ought to 
 be a general condition, and employees ought to be given 
 regular instruction in the art of giving first aid ; but the 
 question of excessive hours of labor so far transcends this 
 in importance that it really sinks into insignificance. 
 
 I am glad to note your interest in this matter, and hope 
 you will do what you can to widen the circle of interest 
 until the public becomes thoroughly aroused to demand 
 some system of legislative protection, both for the em- 
 ployees who have to suffer directly, and for themselves who 
 are often indirectly the victims. In England the hours 
 of railway servants are under the direction of the Board 
 of Trade, and employees are fully protected by law from 
 excessive hours of labor. It should be the same here. 
 
 Again thanking you for your good letter, I am, 
 
 Very respectfully, 
 
 EDWARD A. MOSELEY, 
 Secretary. 
 
 Similar expressions of interest in limiting the hours of 
 work were introduced in the reports of the Commission 
 
TWO GREAT MEASURES 139 
 
 for 1904 and 1905. While President Roosevelt was at his 
 summer home at Oyster Bay, in 1906, he read an article 
 in the Outlook, entitled " Asleep at his Post." The article 
 aroused his interest in the subject of overworked railroad 
 employees and was the means of bringing his powerful 
 influence to bear for the passage of a remedial law. He 
 hastened to call upon the Interstate Commerce Commis- 
 sion for a report in the following letter : 
 
 OYSTER BAY, N.Y. 
 
 July 23, 1906. 
 GENTLEMEN : 
 
 I am directed by the President to ask if you will inform 
 him what legislation is needed, in view of the article in 
 the last number of the Outlook entitled, " Asleep at his 
 Post." 
 
 Very truly yours, 
 WM. LOEB, JR., 
 Secretary to the President. 
 INTERSTATE COMMERCE COMMISSION, 
 WASHINGTON, D. C. 
 
 Mr. Moseley had already taken up the matter with the 
 railroad labor organizations the year before, and they had 
 joined in asking him to aid their legislative representative 
 in the preparation of a bill. He found, however, that he 
 could not agree with their representative in framing what 
 he regarded as a practical measure. 
 
 When President Roosevelt took up the question, Mr. 
 Moseley rejoiced, for he knew that Mr. Roosevelt would 
 push it with his characteristic vigor, and compel imme- 
 diate action. Legislation was recommended in the annual 
 message of the President in December, 1906, and a hot 
 fight ensued. The railroads at first stubbornly opposed 
 
140 EDWARD A. MOSELEY 
 
 any interference whatever by the government, and many 
 prominent members of the two Houses were disinclined 
 to run counter to the railroad influences. The President, 
 however, wrote exceedingly sharp letters to some of them, 
 which stirred them to action. 
 
 It was a complex and difficult subject for legislation, 
 and the railroads were able to raise many strong objec- 
 tions to details in any scheme of regulation. A deadlock 
 followed, the session was near its end, and it seemed as if 
 a bill could not be agreed upon before adjournment. It 
 was a situation calling for concessions. While Mr. 
 Moseley worked with the President to secure some 
 practical result through compromise, he was in a cross 
 fire between the representatives of the railroads and the 
 legislative agent of the railroad labor organizations. 
 Moreover, he felt called upon to protect the President 
 against being dragged into a public controversy on the 
 subject, and he found himself at times in a tight corner 
 and bearing alone the brunt of a savage attack. 
 
 When the bill was in desperate straits and all but 
 dead, the President called a conference, and Mr. Moseley 
 went to the White House to advise with him and the 
 House Committee. The President induced the com- 
 mittee to agree to report the bill with the amendments 
 which Mr. Moseley proposed, and the House passed it 
 as amended. 
 
 A conflict next arose between the Senate and House, 
 when again Mr. Moseley was summoned to the White 
 House to give his views to a conference committee. The 
 fate of the bill was still in the balance on Sunday, the day 
 
TWO GREAT MEASURES 141 
 
 before adjournment, and Mr. Moseley made his final 
 appeal then to the conferees of the two Houses. It was 
 in the closing hours of the session of 1907 that the bill 
 became a law. The Washington correspondent of the 
 Chicago Tribune in reporting the President's success in 
 the matter, said: "In this campaign the President has 
 been greatly assisted by Edward A. Moseley, Secretary 
 of the Interstate Commerce Commission and the real 
 originator of the legislation." 
 
 While Mr. Moseley was far from satisfied with the law, 
 he felt assured that it was the best that could possibly 
 have been passed in the face of a strong opposition, and 
 that it was a fair start toward better things. Although 
 the legislative representative of the brotherhoods, in 
 an uncompromising spirit which would have defeated all 
 legislation on the subject, had tried to make it appear 
 that Mr. Moseley was working against the interests of the 
 railroad men, the organizations relied on his wisdom ; 
 the chiefs telegraphed him their thanks, while the legisla- 
 tive agent was recalled and ceased to represent the brother- 
 hoods at Washington. 
 
 By the provisions of the Hours of Service Act, it is 
 made unlawful for common carriers to require or permit 
 any telegrapher or dispatcher at a night and day office 
 to work more than nine hours in twenty-four, nor for 
 more than thirteen hours, if employed at a place which 
 is operated only in the daytime. 
 
 For every other employee connected with train opera- 
 tion, it is provided that he shall not be required or per- 
 mitted to remain on duty for a longer period than sixteen 
 
142 EDWARD A. MOSELEY 
 
 consecutive hours ; when that limit has been reached, he 
 shall be relieved and not permitted to return to duty 
 until he has had ten consecutive hours off duty; any 
 employee who has been on duty sixteen hours, not con- 
 secutively, but in the aggregate in the course of twenty- 
 four hours, shall have eight hours off before being required 
 or permitted to return to work. 
 
 The necessary exceptions to these rules are carefully 
 guarded, and, thanks to this law, the Commission has been 
 enabled to announce that mishaps, attributed to trainmen 
 falling asleep, have almost entirely disappeared from the 
 accident reports. 
 
CHAPTER XVI 
 MEDIATION AND ARBITRATION 
 
 MR. MOSELEY successfully labored for the enactment 
 and enforcement of many important laws; he was 
 engaged in a continuous legislative campaign for nearly 
 a quarter of a century. None among the statutes which 
 he advocated, excepting only the Safety Appliance Acts, 
 better reflected the spirit of the man than the Arbitration 
 Law of 1898, commonly known as the Erdman Act, which 
 chanced to take its name from a Pennsylvania congress- 
 man who was not a member of Congress when the law 
 was passed, or the author of a line of it. 
 
 Mr. Moseley's interest in the subject was manifested 
 as early as the period of his service in the Massachusetts 
 Legislature, when he introduced an arbitration bill. 
 His experience as Secretary of the Interstate Commerce 
 Commission strengthened his conviction of the necessity 
 of taking measures for the promotion of peace between 
 employers and employees. In his Boston address to the 
 Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen on October 17, 1893, 
 he said : 
 
 The mind of man can hardly conceive of the desolation 
 which might be caused whenever the men who man the 
 brakes, fire the engine, or control its movements, combine 
 throughout the land in an assertion of what they con- 
 ceive to be their inalienable rights. The very staff of 
 
 143 
 
144 EDWARD A. MOSELEY 
 
 life, bread, must at such a time be wanting in sections 
 which had never before known the blighting touch of 
 poverty ; the winter blast will at such a time send a colder 
 chill to hearths where lack of warmth had never be- 
 fore been felt. The desolation of war would be as nothing 
 compared to the famine which organized effort on your 
 part could create. 
 
 These considerations serve also to keep you constantly 
 reminded of the grave and delicate responsibilities resting 
 upon you, and particularly your chosen leaders charged 
 in a large measure with the duty of wisely directing your 
 actions. How grateful, therefore, should every inhabitant 
 of this great country feel to the men in whose hands are 
 intrusted not only fortune and the comforts of life, but 
 life itself. The efforts of the leaders among you, as has 
 often been shown in the past, are more frequently directed 
 toward conciliation, and as a restraining influence in the 
 brotherhood, than in any other way. . . . 
 
 It is no use to disguise the fact that when the public 
 is put to inconvenience by reason of a strike, the public 
 retaliates by denouncing the strikers. Yet slowly but 
 surely, after the heat of the battle has passed away, public 
 opinion finally separates the chaff from the wheat, and 
 determines who has done the wrong and should bear the 
 responsibility. It is, therefore, of the greatest importance, 
 from a purely selfish point of view, that no step should 
 ever be taken which would disturb intercourse between the 
 people of the country in any degree without the greatest 
 provocation; because you are bringing trouble, incon- 
 venience, and perhaps distress upon others ; and, as the 
 rich can always look out for themselves, the burden is 
 sure to fall more heavily upon those who are poor and can 
 ill afford to bear it. 
 
 Already Mr. Moseley had proposed a national arbi- 
 tration law and compulsory arbitration as a remedy 
 for railroad strikes. In concluding an earnest and able 
 argument for such a statute in the journal, Transportation, 
 for September, 1893, he said : 
 
MEDIATION AND ARBITRATION 145 
 
 Congress has recently passed a humane law in the in- 
 terest of the railroad employee, providing for the adoption 
 of a uniform system of coupling cars, and for other ap- 
 pliances ; and that law was intended to protect employees 
 as far as possible from injury and death. Why should 
 not Congress, by making arbitration compulsory, now 
 provide for the protection of their livelihood as well? 
 This is especially appropriate and feasible when the fact 
 is considered that such a disposition of railway labor dis- 
 putes is eminently fair, is practically certain to result in 
 just awards, and will be for the interest of the employer 
 as well as of the employed. 
 
 The conductors, the engineers, the firemen, yardmen, 
 brakemen and switchmen all contribute, not their manual 
 labor only, but their brains, their judgment, and, as sta- 
 tistics show, their lives too often, as against the mere money 
 of the stockholders. Are they not, then, entitled to con- 
 sideration and protection ? The law affords no remedy ; 
 the courts, as at present constituted, have no power to 
 deal with the real question. Further legislation is nec- 
 essary: To the broad principle of arbitration we must 
 look for ultimate relief ! To the importance of the ques- 
 tion involved and to the urgent need of an adequate 
 remedy we can no longer shut our eyes with safety. 
 
 A letter which was addressed to him shortly after the 
 publication of his article in Transportation and the delivery 
 of his Boston address testified at once to his recognized 
 leadership of the movement and to the indorsement of it 
 by the railroad labor organizations : 
 
146 EDWARD A. MOSELEY 
 
 OFFICE OF THE GRAND LODGE, 
 BROTHERHOOD OF LOCOMOTIVE FIREMEN 
 
 TERRE HAUTE, INDIANA. 
 
 Nov. 28, 1893. 
 EDWARD A. MOSELEY, ESQ., Secretary, 
 
 Interstate Commerce Commission, Washington, D.C. 
 
 MY DEAR MR. MOSELEY: 
 
 While in St. Louis the early part of last week, I had 
 quite a lengthy interview with Grand Chief Arthur of the 
 B. of L. E. in regard to united action on the part of the 
 executive officers of each of the railway organizations in 
 conjunction with yourself and such others as may be 
 friendly to us in bringing about national legislation for 
 the purpose of compelling arbitration of all railway dis- 
 putes. I find that Mr. Arthur is in hearty sympathy 
 with the movement, as are all the other grand officers with 
 whom I have talked. 
 
 I write you to get an opinion from you as to the pro- 
 priety of a meeting in Washington as soon as it is possible 
 for us to convene there, for the purpose of agreeing upon 
 a bill, which will, in the judgment of the majority of the 
 parties interested, meet the requirements, and for the 
 purpose of bringing about such influence upon represen- 
 tatives and senators as possible for the enactment of the 
 measure. 
 
 We look upon you as the principal engineer in this move- 
 ment. Your utterances on the question of arbitration 
 and your suggestions are very valuable to us all, and we 
 therefore submit this proposition to you and if in your 
 judgment it will be wise for us to hold a meeting there, I 
 will arrange with the grand officers at our next meeting 
 in St. Paul to have a date fixed when we shall all be pres- 
 ent in Washington and with you go over the matter very 
 carefully and decide upon a course of action to be carried 
 out during the winter months while Congress is in session. 
 
 Awaiting your reply, I remain 
 
 Yours sincerely, 
 F. P. SARGENT. 
 
MEDIATION AND ARBITRATION 147 
 
 In the course of the session of Congress that followed, 
 the great railroad strike of 1894 the so-called Debs 
 Strike realized the fears Mr. Moseley had expressed, 
 and forced upon public attention the problem of securing 
 peace with justice on the national highways. Court 
 injunction and the bayonet were found to be the only 
 means at hand for reopening those highways, closed by a 
 widespread strike in the Midwest and the Northwest. 
 As Mr. Moseley had pointed out in his argument for an 
 arbitration law, "the fundamental cause of the trouble 
 . . . was not and could not have been considered by the 
 courts with a view to settlement." 
 
 The law took no account of the grievance of the strikers ; 
 the government could only act as a strike breaker, and 
 leave whatever injustice there was in the situation to 
 rankle, uncured and unconsidered. A system of whole- 
 sale blacklisting of strikers and union men was adopted 
 by certain railroads against the defeated and helpless 
 members of labor organizations. 
 
 Meanwhile, the country was distracted by the hard 
 times through which it was groping, and the arbitration 
 bill that Mr. Moseley presented to Congress, under the 
 privilege of a friendly member, was not taken up. Never- 
 theless, he persisted in his agitation. He went to Attorney- 
 General Olney, who had incurred the censure of labor 
 men by counseling in President Cleveland's cabinet the 
 vigorous measures adopted against the Debs Strike, and 
 brought to his attention the other side of the question. 
 He asked Mr. Olney to give him the privilege of introduc- 
 ing some of the personal elements in that other side, and 
 
148 EDWARD A. MOSELEY 
 
 he induced representatives of the workingmen to go with 
 him to see the official whom they had come to regard as 
 their able and unrelenting foe. 
 
 It was always Mr. Moseley's simple faith that men 
 needed only to know in order to understand one another. 
 His faith was justified in this instance. Mr. Olney's 
 interest was awakened, and the labor men found him 
 ready to discuss matters in a spirit of fairness. 
 
 When, therefore, the Reading Railroad management 
 revived an old rule against the employment of members 
 of labor unions, Mr. Moseley asked the union officials 
 to come to Washington and see the attorney-general. 
 The Reading road was in the hands of receivers appointed 
 by the United States court and under some degree of 
 responsibility to the law department of the government. 
 
 Mr. Olney listened to his callers and was convinced 
 that their organizations were wrongfully treated. He 
 brought the question before the receivers, but they 
 refused to rescind the discriminatory order. By his 
 advice a union official sued for an injunction, but not 
 being an actual employee and only a representative of the 
 employees, the court dismissed his bill. 
 
 Any employee daring to challenge the rule would, of 
 course, be discharged from employment; but three em- 
 ployees came forward and offered to sacrifice themselves. 
 The case was brought in their names, and they were 
 summarily discharged ; but the workmen had the satis- 
 faction of seeing the attorney-general of the United States 
 come to their assistance and file a statement in then- 
 behalf as "amicus curiae." Nevertheless, the court 
 
MEDIATION AND ARBITRATION 149 
 
 decided adversely to the unions and the attorney-general, 
 and the discrimination was permitted to continue. 
 
 Mr. Moseley next interested Mr. Olney in arbitration, 
 and the attorney-general drafted much of the bill which, 
 under Mr. Moseley's championship before committees 
 and in the lobby of Congress, became a law on June 1, 
 1898. Some of the obstacles which had to be overcome 
 in securing the passage of the law are disclosed by Mr. 
 Moseley in a letter to a friend, under date of November 8, 
 1897:- 
 
 The Arbitration Bill was introduced in both House and 
 Senate during the extra session of Congress, but no action 
 was taken in either branch; in fact, in the House of Rep- 
 resentatives, there were no committees appointed, as you 
 are aware, therefore, there has been nothing as yet done. 
 I will try and send you the bill to-day. 
 
 The one that I send has met the approval of the Fed- 
 eration of Railway Employees, but Mr. Gompers and Mr. 
 Forsyth, who represents the Seamen's Union, and is 
 connected with the American Federation of Labor, op- 
 pose any legislation. It seems to me a sort of "dog-in- 
 the-manager" attitude to take, for, in deference to the 
 Seamen, we have carefully excluded them from the opera- 
 tion of the bill, and I believe that Mr. Gompers could 
 trust the leaders of the Railway Associations. . . . 
 
 I am doing my best. It is unnecessary for me to tell 
 you that. In the last Congress you will see the fate of 
 the Arbitration Bill. It passed the House. The railway 
 organizations, through me, had an interview with Mr. 
 Reed ; it resulted in its passage ; but Mr. Calvin Brice 
 soaked it in the Senate. I send you a memorandum which 
 will show you how it went on. Those people up there in 
 the Senate know very well how to kill a thing without 
 apparently antagonizing it. 
 
 I have always believed that Mr. Olney's proposed 
 amendment to the bill which, in fact, he drew at our in- 
 stance, and simply because we wanted to be fair to the 
 
150 EDWARD A. MOSELEY 
 
 railroads as well as to the men, should have gone in the 
 bill, and I think events are proving it. 
 
 When the community is really threatened with famine 
 or widespread disaster, the President should have the 
 power to invoke the aid of the courts, as he now possesses 
 the power of using the military and only to the same 
 extent, for he never will dare to do so unless it is in answer 
 to public opinion, no matter who the President is; but 
 when it comes that private individuals or corporations 
 get the courts to throw their influence against the laboring 
 man, it becomes an outrage which sooner or later will 
 result in revolution. 
 
 Now I am not writing you as an official of the govern- 
 ment. I am writing you as a friend, and as a plain Amer- 
 ican citizen, who is in a position to see the holes in the 
 ladder. I do not want to be wrong, and I am largely 
 influenced in what I ultimately conclude to be right by 
 you. 
 
 This law is known as the Erdman act, but as his right- 
 ful trophies, Mr. Moseley received and treasured the pens 
 with which Speaker Reed and President McKinley signed 
 the bill. The representative in Washington of five 
 railroad brotherhoods, Mr. W. F. Hynes, in an interview 
 on the enactment of the law, said : 
 
 Among the many disinterested persons who have from 
 pure and unselfish motives assisted us in the passage of 
 this measure, the foremost, the ablest, and the most un- 
 tiring in his efforts, was our sincere and philanthropic 
 friend, the Honorable E. A. Moseley, whose labors are 
 appreciated by organized railway labor all over the United 
 States. 
 
 Mr. Olney, meanwhile, had retired from public office, 
 but he retained his active interest in the measure, and 
 when its passage was assured, he wrote to Mr. Moseley : 
 "The bill as a whole is a better bill than I expected you 
 
MEDIATION AND ARBITRATION 151 
 
 would be able to get through and I congratulate you 
 heartily on your achievement. " 
 
 One section as drafted by Mr. Olney, but omitted from 
 the law, is highly interesting since it provided that when 
 the public interests were threatened with irreparable 
 damage, the government could step in and, through the 
 courts, take the roads from their managers, and operate 
 them in the public interest until such time as the strike 
 or dispute was settled ; and he also added a proviso that 
 the use of the courts should not be allowed to the private 
 individual in such disputes, but that action should be 
 taken only by the President of the United States. In 
 other words, the executive could employ the peaceful 
 method of the court, as he now under similar circumstances 
 uses the military forces of the country. 
 
 The act as it stands is more than an arbitration law. 
 Carroll D. Wright, then commissioner of labor, described 
 it as " practically a bill of rights for labor." To meet 
 the situation presented in the Reading case, Mr. Moseley 
 incorporated a provision to the effect that when a railroad 
 is in the hands of receivers, the representatives of the 
 employees shall have the right to be heard in court upon 
 conditions of employment, and no reduction in wages 
 may be made by a receiver without due notice by authority 
 of the court. 
 
 Much to his disappointment, one other feature of the 
 law in which he was deeply interested was declared to 
 be unconstitutional. Many railroad men engaged in the 
 Strike of 1894 had been unable to obtain permanent em- 
 ployment again. It was said that when these men went 
 
152 EDWARD A. MOSELEY 
 
 to railroad officials and asked for certificates of good 
 character, if they received any recommendations they 
 were of a kind that prevented rather than aided them to 
 get places. By the method of writing the certificate or 
 by use of certain water marks or other tricky means, the 
 paper amounted to a notice that the person presenting 
 it was on the black list. 
 
 To meet that kind of persecution, Mr. Moseley himself 
 devised section ten of the Arbitration Law, providing a 
 penalty for threatening or discriminating against any 
 employee because of membership in a labor organization. 
 After a prolonged contest over it, the provision was 
 declared invalid by the Supreme Court in its decision in 
 the Adair case, as being in conflict with the Constitution. 
 Mr. Moseley felt that the court had overlooked the 
 peculiar circumstances of a railroad man's employment 
 and all the semipublic responsibilities attaching to it. 
 In reviewing the decision, he said : 
 
 As I understand it, the whole scheme of the Arbitration 
 Law was for two purposes, first, to avoid strife upon lines 
 of carriers engaged in interstate commerce, and, second, 
 to find a peaceable means of settling difficulties when they 
 arose. That the law has resulted in great advantage to 
 the public is evidenced by the fact that since its passage 
 there never has been a strike upon any railroad engaged 
 in interstate commerce, in which the public interests were 
 threatened ; in fact, I may say there have been no strikes. 
 
 Congress yearly appropriates $10,000 to put the ma- 
 chinery of this law in motion, if necessary. One of the 
 greatest causes of strikes and dissatisfaction was the dis- 
 crimination against members of labor unions, and if Con- 
 gress has power to deal with the question at all, it cer- 
 tainly seems to me it has power to pass such measures as 
 
MEDIATION AND ARBITRATION 153 
 
 are deemed advisable and essential to prevent strikes, 
 lock-outs, and such dissatisfaction as will cause suffering 
 to the public by reason of failure to have themselves and 
 their property transported. 
 
 The unrest among our people seems to be increasing, 
 and if the national government is found impotent to deal 
 with the questions which are going to arise, every man 
 who urges that this and similar legislation is unconstitu- 
 tional and thereby denies federal authority, will himself 
 ultimately suffer by the disorganization which will result. 
 
 Some very learned members of the bar shared his disap- 
 pointment, and to one of the most eminent he wrote : 
 
 I send you an opinion of the court in the so-called Adair 
 case. While I bow to that great forum of all knowledge, 
 I am too obtuse to follow the subtle and alleged reasoning 
 of the majority of the court. If strikes on railroads have 
 got nothing to do with interstate commerce, what has? 
 How about the Lennon case? I fear the court has not 
 got that touch upon the public pulse which is necessary 
 for them to realize the true conditions in this respect. 
 
 It was only within a month that Mr. Mellen, with 
 great gravity, informed the Interstate Commerce Com- 
 mission that if the New York, New Haven and Hartford 
 Road should stop running for six days New England would 
 starve. His statement is true if all the roads running in 
 to New England were tied up. Anyway, it is in the power 
 of the railroad employee to cause untold suffering and 
 distress. 
 
 I had supposed that when a person engaged in a semi- 
 public employment, like that of the railroad, there was 
 an obligation upon him to continue his work, and that he 
 could not instantly leave his job that he owed a duty to 
 the public that even transcended his own special whims 
 and desires ; but the court has thrown all this over. 
 
 The men will read it and understand that they may 
 leave their train between stations and leave the passengers 
 to suffer from hunger and cold. The train dispatcher, 
 who carries in his head the trains over a long line of single 
 
154 EDWARD A. MOSELEY 
 
 track, may leave his key and it is perfectly proper, and 
 he has the endorsement of the Supreme Court in doing 
 so, and yet in the Lennon case a man was put in jail be- 
 cause he refused to haul his train in violation of the order 
 of the court. It is in my humble opinion going to have a 
 bad result, as an encouragement to liberty of action which 
 will result in license. 
 
 The benign influence of the Arbitration Law, as a whole, 
 is incalculable. In the first place it is an assertion of the 
 public interest in the unobstructed operation of the rail- 
 roads, and in the next place it is an ever present means 
 of harmonizing differences between conflicting interests. 
 
 The vital provision is that whenever a controversy 
 arises concerning wages, hours of labor, or conditions of 
 employment between a carrier and its employees, seri- 
 ously interrupting or threatening to interrupt the busi- 
 ness of the carrier, a member of the Court of Commerce 
 or of the Interstate Commerce Commission and the 
 Commissioner of Labor shall, upon the request of either 
 party to the controversy, with all practicable expedition 
 put themselves in communication with both parties and 
 shall use their best efforts of mediation and conciliation 
 amicably to settle the dispute ; and if such efforts shall 
 be unsuccessful, shall at once endeavor to bring about the 
 arbitration of the controversy in accordance with the 
 provisions of the act. 
 
 It is more than remarkable and even borders upon the 
 marvelous, that since 1906 the offer of mediation by the 
 able and discreet representatives of the government un- 
 der the act, Judge Martin A. Knapp and Commissioner 
 Charles P. Neill, has not been definitely rejected in any case 
 
MEDIATION AND ARBITRATION 155 
 
 of consequence in which a strike was seriously threatened. 
 They have often been engaged in accordance with the 
 terms of the law, and in all that period have not had to 
 report a single failure to produce an amicable settlement 
 of any important controversy. The law has thus pre- 
 vented what might have been irreparable loss and in- 
 jury to the country. 
 
 Difficulties have been repeatedly and quietly settled 
 under the terms of this beneficent statute. There are 
 notable instances, which show the practical benefit of 
 the legislation and which are known to the public. Dif- 
 ferences arose between several railroads west of the 
 Mississippi and their employees in the summer of 1906, 
 which threatened to tie up all the great transportation 
 lines of that section. With the consent of both sides, the 
 official mediators succeeded, not in laying down rules 
 for the guidance of the parties to the dispute, but in 
 getting the parties themselves to agree by compromise 
 upon conditions which were found satisfactory. 
 
 Another important instance of the same kind occurred 
 during the spring of 1908. All the roads south of the 
 Ohio and east of the Mississippi had posted notice of a 
 cut in wages effective thirty days later, and similar 
 action had been taken by several lines in the Northwest. 
 Although conferences between employers and employees 
 continued for a considerable time, the employees were 
 unable to obtain a withdrawal of the notice of reduction. 
 President Roosevelt, therefore, addressed a letter to the 
 Interstate Commerce Commission, asking it to determine 
 the financial condition of the roads which had posted 
 
156 EDWARD A. MOSELEY 
 
 the notices in order that the public might know whether 
 the proposed cut was necessary or justifiable. 
 
 Following that action by the President, the railroad 
 companies suspended the notices and submitted the 
 matter to the official mediators. As the result of a series 
 of conferences, participated in by the representatives of 
 the employees, the reduction in wages both in the North- 
 west and in the South were indefinitely postponed. 
 
 More recently, the act was put to the test, in 1912, in a 
 case involving the interests of the entire country. In 
 this instance, the locomotive engineers had presented a 
 schedule which the railroads rejected. The newspapers 
 were filled with pessimistic news of a great impending 
 strike, which threatened to paralyze the commerce of the 
 nation. Neither side would admit that there was room 
 for compromise, and each refused to invoke the Arbi- 
 tration Act. Nevertheless Judge Knapp and Commis- 
 sioner Neill, the government mediators, took up the case 
 informally, and this manifestation of their interest in a 
 peaceable settlement served to center public opinion 
 on the side of peace. The railroads and the engineers 
 felt the force of that opinion, and resuming the negotia- 
 tions which had been abandoned in despair, they agreed 
 upon a plan of arbitration. A still later case is that of the 
 firemen, whose differences with some fifty railroad com- 
 panies gravely threatened all the country east of the 
 Mississippi in 1913, but which after prolonged negotia- 
 tions were submitted to arbitration under the provisions 
 of the act. 
 
 The law applies only to those classes of employees 
 
MEDIATION AND ARBITRATION 157 
 
 actually engaged in train operation, and since 1906 there 
 has been no serious strike among them. The latest 
 official report, prepared by Commissioner Neill, presents 
 this astonishing record of five years : 
 
 The controversies which have been brought before the 
 mediators have ranged in importance all the way from a 
 few instances of small roads, involving less than 100 miles 
 of line and fewer than 100 employees, up to cases of ex- 
 ceptional magnitude, embracing over 50 roads and in- 
 volving more than 100,000 miles of line and over 40,000 
 employees in a single controversy. In one year, 1910, the 
 assistance of the mediators under the act was called for 
 in sixteen cases, these cases involving nearly 300,000 
 miles of railroad and directly involving nearly 80,000 
 railway men. The total mileage involved in the forty- 
 eight cases in which the provisions of the law have been 
 invoked is over 500,000 and the total number of employees 
 directly involved is over 160,000. 
 
 There is no more successful act than this on the statute 
 books of the United States. 
 
CHAPTER XVII 
 THE RAILROAD BROTHERHOODS 
 
 ALTHOUGH, when Mr. Moseley started the national 
 movement for greater safety of life among toilers and 
 travelers on railroads, there was not a line of congres- 
 sional legislation in their behalf, it was his happy fortune 
 to live to see in operation an elaborate code of Federal 
 acts covering nearly every phase of the subject. 
 
 The Safety Appliance Statute of 1893 was the pioneer 
 and parent of all these useful laws. In promoting the 
 passage and enforcement of that Act, Mr. Moseley blazed 
 the way for the legislation that has followed. It was 
 the first assertion of the interest and authority of the 
 Federal Government in and over the conditions of labor 
 and the instrumentalities of transportation on interstate 
 railroads. The long and brilliantly successful campaign 
 which Mr. Moseley led in the establishment of that Act 
 was, hi effect, a campaign of education for the enlighten- 
 ment of Congress and the courts, the railroads and their 
 employees and the general public as to the powers and 
 duties of the National Government in an entirely new 
 field. 
 
 When he began, he had to convince even the officers of 
 the railway unions that congressional legislation in behalf 
 
 158 
 
THE RAILROAD BROTHERHOODS 159 
 
 of the men was possible and worth striving for. The 
 brotherhoods of employees had no permanent represen- 
 tation in Washington until after the passage of the Safety 
 Appliance Act, although they had sent a former railroad 
 commissioner of Iowa, Mr. L. S. Coffin, to represent them 
 temporarily, and he cooperated with Mr. Moseley. 
 
 As late as 1894, Mr. Moseley was urging upon the 
 brotherhood leaders the necessity of having "a good man 
 here to push things." "It will be necessary to be con- 
 stantly represented here for the next month or six weeks 
 at least, and I think it would be economical to employ a 
 resident attorney." "I can," he added, "see him every 
 day, every hour if need be, and consult and advise with 
 him freely as to every step taken." He was at that par- 
 ticular time hoping to see Congress modify the injunction 
 process in labor disputes, and that marked the beginning 
 of the practice, in operation ever since, of having repre- 
 sentatives of the brotherhoods in Washington to look after 
 their interests in Congress and before the Interstate 
 Commerce Commission. 
 
 A new and important influence was thus introduced, on 
 Mr. Moseley's motion, at the capital and in national 
 politics, an element which now makes itself felt in the 
 halls and committee rooms of Congress, in the White 
 House, in national party conventions, and in national 
 political campaigns. The total number of railroad 
 employees not being far from a million and three quarters, 
 largely voters, and at least a third of them in the brother- 
 hoods, it safely may be said that there is hardly another 
 single interest in the country with equal voting strength. 
 
160 EDWARD A. MOSELEY 
 
 Combined, they alone might turn a presidential election. 
 As this new factor became active and put forth its efforts, 
 leaders in Congress displayed an increasing intelligence 
 and sympathy on the subject of railway labor legislation. 
 When Mr. Roosevelt suddenly came to the Presidency, 
 after an era of extreme conservatism under Presidents 
 Cleveland and McKinley, he showed a readiness to take 
 up such questions and throw the influence of the admin- 
 istration in favor of advanced measures, which had re- 
 ceived no countenance from his predecessors. Mr. Roose- 
 velt had not been in the White House a month, when 
 Mr. Moseley wrote to the late Chief Arthur of the Brother- 
 hood of Locomotive Engineers : 
 
 I have not heard from you for some time, and wish you 
 could come down here and see me. I have been over to 
 see our new President several times since he has been 
 President, and I believe you will find him very much in- 
 terested in anything which will promote the welfare of 
 the railroad employees. I think it would be a wise thing 
 for the heads of the railway labor organizations to come 
 here and call upon him and I am sure they will receive 
 a cordial reception. I have known him for twenty years, 
 and if you will come down I shall be glad to go over with 
 you. 
 
 I think the Safety Appliance Law is working out well. 
 With a few exceptions among the railway officials, I 
 think all are now working to a common end, and that is 
 the highest state of efficiency in safety appliance equip- 
 ment attainable. I was gratified a few days ago to hear 
 one of the leading railway attorneys of the country say 
 that the benefits of the law had been forcibly brought to 
 his attention by the fact of the greatly reduced number of 
 suits against his company on account of accidents to 
 employees. He said it is astounding, the great reduction 
 which has taken place in these claims. 
 
THE RAILROAD BROTHERHOODS 161 
 
 Afterward, in an address before a convention of fire- 
 men, Mr. Moseley made this comment on the surprise 
 and criticism that had been occasioned by the appearance 
 of labor representatives at the White House : 
 
 We hear of the great banker, the railroad magnate, the 
 man who has acquired immense wealth in commercial 
 pursuits, being entertained at the White House ; and the 
 opinions of such men on affairs of state and fiscal affairs 
 of the nation are given the greatest weight. Is it a crime 
 for the President to confer with other men, who have 
 their individual stake in the body politic? 
 
 There has been altogether too little conference with the 
 hosts of labor in the past. It has been only the bankers 
 and business magnates whose opinions were considered 
 of any account in the councils of the nation. But there 
 are workingmen who are as capable and conservative 
 advisers as these ; their interests in the nation are fully 
 as important as the interests of the bankers, and they 
 represent the men who go to make up the majority of our 
 people. . . . 
 
 Your everyday contracts are being kept sacred by you, 
 although many of them bear heavily upon the men ; but 
 you believe that when a contract is entered into it must 
 be observed until it expires. . . . There is nothing but 
 venom and injustice in this attack, and no man should 
 be punished simply for being a member of your organiza- 
 tion, for showing a consideration for labor, or for not 
 inviting the counsel of its representatives, even though 
 he be the president of the United States. 
 
 Mr. Moseley not only brought the leaders of the rail- 
 road brotherhoods in contact with the new President but 
 with the successive Attorney-Generals of the Roosevelt 
 administration as well. He no longer stood alone in 
 official Washington, as he had for ten or a dozen years, 
 and no longer worked under cover in order to avoid the 
 fatal antagonism of men in high places. His one time 
 
 M 
 
162 EDWARD A. MOSELEY 
 
 hobby, "Moseley's hobby/' -tolerated when it was 
 not scorned among practical politicians, became the 
 fashion at the capital, where formerly he took his official 
 head in his hand every time he appeared at the Capitol. 
 From forwarding a friendless cause, he now found his 
 leadership challenged by ambitious converts and new 
 recruits. This rivalry, however, troubled him not at all. 
 On the contrary, he rather welcomed and encouraged it, 
 as he adroitly turned it to account, while continuing to 
 pursue his policy of self-effacement. A close observer 
 gives this description of the man and his methods : 
 
 Unlike the average politician, Mr. Moseley did not 
 employ band wagon methods in his work. He was always 
 seeking results, and when he set out to accomplish a cer- 
 tain object, he seemed to lose sight entirely of the personal 
 element, and give no thought to the question of credit to 
 himself. In that respect he was the most unselfish in- 
 dividual I have ever known. As long as his object was 
 accomplished he cared nothing whatever about where 
 the credit was given, and while he certainly appreciated 
 commendation (as every human being does), he was 
 always ready to have it publicly believed that the credit 
 for his work was due to one of his instruments rather than 
 to himself. 
 
 While his earnest efforts to secure justice for the 
 workers brought upon him the suspicions and attacks 
 of some of the more prejudiced representatives of the 
 railroad corporations, most of the railroad managers and 
 lawyers with whom he dealt came to rely upon his fair- 
 ness toward all interests. The following letter from one 
 of the foremost railroad lawyers is expressive of this 
 view : 
 
THE RAILROAD BROTHERHOODS 163 
 
 CHICAGO, MILWAUKEE AND ST. PAUL RAILROAD, 
 LEGAL DEPARTMENT. 
 
 CHICAGO, Nov. 21, 1897. 
 DEAR MR. MOSELEY : 
 
 I reached here last night after a stay of a few days in 
 New York and Philadelphia. On the way, I read with 
 great interest your Boston address before the railway 
 trainmen. 
 
 If everybody would take as sensible a view of labor 
 unions as you do in your speech, no reasonable man would 
 object. I was much interested in the statistics you in- 
 corporated in your remarks, and in the splendid advice 
 you gave the members of the organization. I think we 
 may safely conclude that labor organizations have come 
 to stay, and that the duty of all who have anything to do 
 with the administration of railway property is to endeavor 
 to guide the organization in the right way, and that is 
 exactly what you are doing, and it is a good work. . . . 
 
 Yours very truly, 
 
 GEO. R. PECK. 
 
 Mr. Moseley kept at all times in close touch with the 
 movements of the brotherhoods, and was a safe adviser 
 in many of the grave emergencies confronting the organi- 
 zations. Whenever they felt they were in any manner 
 abused or deprived of their rights, by legislation adverse 
 to their interests, or by judicial decisions believed to be 
 unfair to them, he was almost the first man in the country 
 to whom an appeal was made for advice in their efforts 
 to sfecure what they deemed to be their rights. 
 
 He had, however, his differences with them, for he 
 always held himself the servant of the whole public rather 
 than of any one interest, and he worked with them to no 
 small and narrow purpose. Occasions arose when he 
 exerted himself to moderate their policies, and more 
 
164 EDWARD A. MOSELEY 
 
 than once he found himself in open opposition to their 
 plans. 
 
 In short, he was as independent of them as of the rail- 
 road companies, having nothing to ask of them for him- 
 self and they nothing to give him, although at times 
 his zeal for their welfare caused a few of their represen- 
 tatives to act as if they were doing him a personal favor 
 in cooperating with him. 
 
 Mr. W. F. Hynes, who represented the five principal 
 brotherhoods in Washington in 1896, writes of Mr. 
 Moseley and his relations with the brotherhoods: "He 
 had urged upon the organizations with such force the 
 necessity of such legislation on this (safety appliances) 
 and kindred subjects that they finally took a determined 
 position to secure such laws, and strangely enough he 
 was opposed, in some instances, by the very men whom he 
 sought to relieve." 
 
 Generally it was only the inevitable friction between the 
 organizations, jealousy of one organization toward an- 
 other, or of one leader toward another, which, from time 
 to time, embarrassed him in his efforts to serve all and to 
 promote the good of humanity. Of the American Federa- 
 tion of Labor he wrote in 1900, "There is nothing regard- 
 ing the Interstate Commerce Commission which they have 
 not done all they could to prevent. . . . The American 
 Federation of Labor wanted to kill our arbitration bill." 
 
 One letter written by Mr. Moseley in 1908 to the Brother- 
 hood of Railroad Trainmen, in acknowledgment of com- 
 mendatory resolutions, is expressive of his friendly and 
 helpful relations with the organizations : - 
 
THE RAILROAD BROTHERHOODS 165 
 
 June 23, 1905. 
 
 MR. A. E. KING, Grand Secretary Brotherhood of Rail- 
 road Trainmen, Cleveland, Ohio. 
 
 DEAR SIR AND BROTHER: 
 
 Copies of resolution sent me under date of the 15th 
 instant have been received, and I take the first oppor- 
 tunity to acknowledge them, and express my sincere and 
 heartfelt thanks to the members of the convention for 
 the resolution concerning myself. 
 
 I appreciate this evidence of good feeling on the part of 
 the trainmen more than words can express. It is a pleasure 
 to me to know that my efforts to better the conditions of 
 labor of railroad employees have borne some fruit, and it 
 is doubly pleasant to receive such hearty commendation 
 from the trainmen as is evidenced by this resolution. 
 
 We have traveled a long and difficult road, and there 
 have been times when it seemed as though the battle 
 would surely go against us, but the cause was too good to 
 be finally defeated, and in line with the progress of humani- 
 tarian instincts and a higher type of civilization, we 
 have triumphed to the extent that the principle of govern- 
 ment control and regulation of the conditions of railroad 
 labor is now so firmly established that it can never more 
 be defeated. It is now too late for any backward step, 
 and as. it is against all nature for things to remain sta- 
 tionary it is absolutely certain that we must go forward. 
 
 There is no longer any question about the matter of 
 safety appliances. . . . The next forward step is to protect 
 and conserve the rights and interests of the injured em- 
 ployee and of the widows and orphans of those who go 
 down to death. This can only be done by statute, along 
 the lines suggested in my public address at Buffalo. There 
 is no greater question than this that could occupy the 
 attention of the trainmen to-day. 
 
 Again expressing my heartfelt thanks for the action of 
 your convention, and with kind personal regards to your- 
 self and Brother Morrissey, I am, 
 
 Fraternally yours, 
 
 EDWARD A. MOSELEY. 
 
166 EDWARD A. MOSELEY 
 
 Notwithstanding occasional and only momentary dis- 
 agreements, it is remarkable how long and well Mr. 
 Moseley and the brotherhoods worked together, and it is 
 equally creditable to their loyalty and to his good faith. 
 Without flattery, it may be said that the members of 
 the brotherhoods are of the very highest type of Ameri- 
 can labor. There is perhaps no other great group of 
 workmen in this country which quite equals the conductors 
 and engineers, firemen, brakemen, telegraphers, switch- 
 men, roundhouse men and all having to do with the 
 movement of trains, in intelligence, zeal, sobriety and the 
 various qualities that make good American citizens. 
 This is necessarily so from the nature of their calling, 
 where every man, from the highest to the lowest grade, 
 is responsible for the safety of human life. Their re- 
 sponsibility is outlined by Kipling in this stanza : 
 
 It is their care in all the ages, 
 To take the buffet and cushion the shock ; 
 It is their care that the gear engages ; 
 It is their care that the switches lock ; 
 It is their care that the wheels run truly ; 
 It is their care to embark and entrain; 
 Tally, transport, and deliver duly, 
 The sons of Mary by land and main. 
 
 Naturally the superior character of the rank and file of 
 railroad men is reflected in the men who rise to leadership 
 among them, and the chiefs and other officials of the 
 brotherhoods have long enjoyed the respect and confidence 
 of the country. These were Mr. Moseley 's coworkers 
 for a quarter of a century, and some of them were more 
 they were his friends. 
 
THE RAILROAD BROTHERHOODS 167 
 
 He was a strong believer in the incorporation of labor 
 unions, and he wrote into the Arbitration Bill a section 
 designed to encourage that policy. In a letter to one of 
 the most prominent labor leaders, in 1908, he said : - 
 
 Ever since the decision in the Hatters' case, I have been 
 greatly troubled by thoughts of the consequences of the 
 action of the Supreme Court, and have cast about for 
 means of finding to some extent, at least, a measure of 
 relief. 
 
 It would appear that it is unsafe since this decision 
 for any man of property to be a member of a labor or- 
 ganization, because he is liable to the extent of his financial 
 ability for the acts of any member of the organization. 
 Again, the organizations have their sick benefits, their 
 death benefits, and also their out-of-door or relief funds, 
 all of which are liable at any time to be seized upon. 
 
 I am aware how disinclined organized labor is to in- 
 corporate and the reasons which may be controlling why 
 they should not incorporate, but it does seem to me 
 that the national incorporation act affords a measure of 
 relief for the situation which now confronts them. In- 
 corporated, no member is liable for the acts of the organ- 
 ization ; neither is the organization liable for the acts of 
 any of its members. Mr. Harriman and Mr. Morgan no 
 doubt belong to hundreds of corporations, but these cor- 
 porations can do anything they see fit, and Harriman and 
 Morgan are not liable. Why can't labor take a lesson 
 from the capitalists and protect themselves in the same 
 way? . . . 
 
 I have therefore drawn a bill, which I have shown to 
 no living person and no one but myself knows anything 
 about. If it is of any use to you, I beg of you to use it 
 as your own. My only desire in the matter is to have 
 labor protected. We can never get through such laws 
 as they have in Great Britain to protect labor, because 
 our Supreme Court stands as a barrier, and a decision 
 of any five of the judges can at any time overthrow an act 
 of Congress. 
 
168 EDWARD A. MOSELEY 
 
 When the constitutionality of the section of the Arbi- 
 tration Bill which Mr. Moseley wrote for the purpose of 
 preventing the discharge or blacklisting of railroad work- 
 men because of their membership in a union was assailed 
 in the now well-known Adair case, he secured the inter- 
 vention of the Government in the defense of its validity 
 and aided the department of justice in preparing the brief. 
 He fortified himself with the opinion of a most eminent 
 lawyer, a former Attorney-General, who advised him that 
 " human beings are among the instrumentalities of Inter- 
 state Commerce as much as cars, locomotives, automatic 
 brakes and other inanimate things. The character 
 and qualifications of the persons engaged in such com- 
 merce are most important, both as regards its efficient 
 conduct and as regards the safety of travelers. In the 
 non-discriminatory rule under consideration, Congress 
 must be held to have had precisely those considerations 
 in mind. It must be taken to have thought that national 
 carriers could not exclude from employment union laborers 
 without detriment to the service without barring out 
 a class of employees who might be and probably would 
 be among the best fitted for the work to be done." 
 
 While the Adair case was on, the following letter was 
 written, under date of November 13, 1906, to a corre- 
 spondent of the Chicago Tribune by a high official of the 
 Government, outside the Interstate Commerce Com- 
 mission : 
 
 I have been reading your excellent letter in Monday's 
 Tribune all of your letters are excellent and I note 
 that you give me the credit for having brought to the 
 
THE RAILROAD BROTHERHOODS 169 
 
 attention of the Attorney-General, the Louisville and 
 Nashville case in which the Attorney-General intervened. 
 
 This was good of you, and I appreciate it very much. 
 I know that you always want to do the right thing by 
 the right man, but in this case you have done the right 
 thing by the wrong man. The entire credit for this 
 excellent piece of work is due to my worthy friend, the 
 Secretary of the Interstate Commerce Commission, Hon- 
 orable Edward A. Moseley, who was fighting the stormy 
 and thankless battle of the wageworker before you and 
 I were born, and who, although his hair is getting both 
 gray and scant on the forward part of his head, and who, 
 although he is laying on the adipose tissue that comes with 
 advancing years, is still fighting the good fight as ener- 
 getically, as intelligently, and successfully as ever. 
 
 No man in the United States has done more in the in- 
 terest of the man who works with his hands than Moseley. 
 This is simply one of his many successful jobs, and I 
 would not wish for a moment to get the credit for it. If 
 I had known of it, I would have done just what Moseley 
 did, but the difficulty is that one must get up very early 
 to do more in this cause than Moseley. He has no re- 
 lation whatever with a man who brings crowds from 
 England over here, and, although I suspect his bank ac- 
 count entitles him to rank amongst the plutocracy, his 
 mind and his heart, together with all the parts of his 
 anatomy, are with the common people like ourselves. 
 
 Greatly to Mr. Moseley 's disappointment, the Supreme 
 Court declared the section void as in conflict with the 
 Constitution. He thrived on disappointment, however, 
 and what would have been discouragements to other 
 natures only gave him added zest for the strife. "I am 
 the same old two and six pence/' he wrote a friend in a 
 foreign country, " plugging along, fighting the battles as 
 well as I can for the fellow that wears a blouse and lugs 
 a dinner pail." 
 
CHAPTER XVIII 
 HEROES IN OVERALLS 
 
 IN his arguments for protective legislation for railroad 
 workers, Mr. Moseley was in the habit of comparing the 
 hazards of their calling with the perils of sailors, which 
 had been made more real to the public imagination by the 
 classics of literature, and which he himself had faced in 
 his youth. 
 
 As early as 1894, in a speech delivered at the convention 
 of the Brotherhood of Railroad Firemen at Harrisburg, 
 on September 10 of that year, he said : 
 
 Our Girards, our Coopers, our Astors, and some few of 
 our other millionaires, beneficiaries of honest toilers' 
 labor, have given of their wealth for the cause of humanity 
 and to aid human advancement. The nation honors 
 them, and from one end of the world to the other their 
 praises are sung and echoed down the ages, while their 
 deeds are engraved upon monumental marble and granite. 
 But Bill Smith or Tom Jones the man who gives his 
 life, worth more to him than all the millions in the world 
 freely offers it in the cause of humanity the man who 
 stands at his post while the flames slowly roast him to 
 death, stands there because the lives of others depend' 
 upon him is a hero whose sacrifice is a thousand times 
 greater than that of all the men who give mere money. 
 Still he generally fills an unremembered grave, and leaves 
 no memory of his noble acts behind him, save in the 
 hearts of his sympathetic fellow-workers and kindred 
 souls that appreciate true heroism in whatever sphere 
 exhibited. 
 
 170 
 
HEROES IN OVERALLS 171 
 
 Within the last few days we have read of destructive 
 forest fires throughout several of the great western states. 
 A train was sent down the line of the road. It ran quickly 
 into the timber lands; great clouds of smoke enveloped 
 it ; flames licked their way to the roadbed ; but the little 
 band of rescuers rode on into the yawning, devouring 
 furnace not for money, but for love of their fellow-men. 
 They went to save, and nobly did they do the work ! 
 Ever and anon the train stopped to take on board some 
 fainting woman with a babe clutched to her breast ; some 
 men made mad by the awful race with fire on, on they 
 went, never faltering ; and at last with wheels welded to 
 axles, with the woodwork of the cars aflame and charred, 
 with the engine cab entirely burned away, that train 
 reached safety that train manned by kings Ameri- 
 can railway men heroes every one, and their deed has 
 forced the admiration of the civilized world. 
 
 That engineer has made the name of Root immortal, 
 but who was that other on that cabless engine, that man 
 who fought fire with fire, who hurled fuel to the hungry 
 furnace flames that fire might save from fire, sobbing, gasp- 
 ing, not through fear, but from the agony of living death, 
 never deserting his post, leaping now and again into the 
 water tank to extinguish the fire from his body, or to dash 
 water on the engineer who was this who shoveled coal 
 while burning death was creeping o'er him inch by inch, 
 happy that his life could be given in exchange for the lives 
 of suffering women and innocent children ? We know the 
 engineer's name. Tell us, who can, the name of this 
 fireman ? Let it be enshrined in the hearts of his country- 
 men and enrolled with the names of the world's greatest 
 heroes. 
 
 Take up the daily papers any day and you will find evi- 
 dences of heroism, bravery, and self-sacrifice on the part 
 of those employed on or about the railroads of our coun- 
 try. The Congress of the United States freely gives of 
 the people's money over a million dollars a year to support 
 the life-saving stations upon our coasts. On those of her 
 citizens who, by self-sacrifice, risk, bravery, daring upon 
 the sea merit it, the country bestows her medals, signifying 
 her appreciation of gallant deeds. And worthy is the 
 
172 EDWARD A. MOSELEY 
 
 object. But why limit this to the sea ? Should not those 
 who have been equally true upon land receive some mark 
 of appreciation of their country ? To secure the Cross of 
 the Legion of Honor is the fond dream of every true 
 Frenchman's heart. Let us have our company of heroes. 
 
 In Mr. Moseley's ceaseless agitation for measures to 
 meet more urgent and practical needs, this sentimental 
 suggestion was neglected for several years, but it was 
 not forgotten. At last he gave the idea form in a bill 
 which he drafted and which was introduced in Congress. 
 At a hearing before the Senate committee on interstate 
 commerce in February, 1905, he appeared and made an 
 interesting and feeling argument in its support. 
 
 He pointed out, that in 1876, Congress had made pro- 
 vision for bestowing medals upon men who endangered 
 their lives in endeavoring to save lives at sea, and he asked 
 support for the bill providing medals for those " saving 
 or endeavoring to save lives from any wreck, disaster, 
 or grave accident, or in preventing or endeavoring to 
 prevent such wreck, disaster, or grave accident upon any 
 railroad within the United States engaged in interstate 
 commerce." He told again the story of Root, the brave 
 engineer of the relief train in the Wisconsin forest fire, 
 and he told other stories of daring on the rail : 
 
 Was greater courage ever manifested, than that of the 
 locomotive engineer, Joseph Lutz? A flue burst, filling 
 his cab with scalding white-hot steam, while his express 
 train was at full speed. He did not jump ; he stuck to 
 his post, while the flesh was cooked, and peeled from his 
 hands and face and body ! He stopped his train and 
 saved his passengers, but he is crippled for life. . . . 
 
 Who remembers the heroic deed of the humble switch- 
 
HEROES IN OVERALLS 173 
 
 man, Timothy Quinlan, who gave up his life on February 
 27, 1904, in saving the Lake Shore Limited and its cargo 
 of human freight from destruction ? The train was bear- 
 ing down upon an open switch at lightning speed; an 
 awful catastrophe seemed inevitable; Quinlan saw the 
 danger, and while there was not one chance in a thousand 
 that he would be able to avert the impending catastrophe 
 without sacrificing his own life, he hesitated not an instant. 
 He reached the open switch, and threw it, fairly under the 
 pilot of the onrushing engine. 
 
 The train with its precious human cargo rushed on in 
 safety, but what of brave Timothy Quinlan ! The mo- 
 mentum of the train was so great that it picked up his body 
 and fairly threw it on an adjoining track directly in front 
 of a moving engine, and in an instant all that remained of 
 brave Timothy Quinlan was a mangled, bleeding mass of 
 human flesh and bones. 
 
 Among the railroad employees examples of heroism of 
 the highest type are of almost daily occurrence and might 
 be multiplied indefinitely. That there is need for some 
 such measure as this bill proposes will be almost univer- 
 sally conceded. Mr. Carnegie has recently established a 
 hero fund to cover cases of individual heroism, and his 
 action is commendable in the highest degree. It does not, 
 however, seem appropriate that cases of conspicuous 
 bravery in a distinctly public service should be left to be 
 rewarded by private parties. There ought to be some 
 public recognition and public record of these matters, 
 such as this bill proposes. 
 
 In his last message to Congress, the President recom- 
 mended such legislation in the following language : "The 
 Government has recognized heroism upon the water, and 
 bestows medals of honor upon those persons who by ex- 
 treme and heroic daring have endangered their lives in 
 saving or endeavoring to save lives from the perils of the 
 sea in the waters over which the United States has juris- 
 diction, or upon an American vessel. This recognition 
 should be extended to cover cases of conspicuous bravery 
 and self-sacrifice in the saving of life in private employ- 
 ments under the jurisdiction of the United States, and 
 particularly in the land commerce of the nation." 
 
174 EDWARD A. MOSELEY 
 
 I am not here to represent any particular person or 
 interest, but I have made a study of this subject for nearly 
 twenty years, and as the President has called attention to 
 it, the time now seems opportune to ask for this legislation. 
 I want to say that I have had some experience in these 
 matters, for when a boy of sixteen I had already crossed 
 the Equator four times in the forecastle of an East In- 
 diaman, and, having been reared upon the seacoast, I 
 know something about the perils of the deep, and have 
 experienced that sentiment of awe with which most per- 
 sons contemplate the vastness and power of the sea. 
 
 I have, therefore, no desire to detract in any manner 
 from the brave deeds of those who have distinguished 
 themselves upon the water, but there are other brave men 
 daily performing acts of self-sacrificing heroism all over 
 our country men who are as worthy as our heroes of 
 the sea, but who are debarred from receiving public rec- 
 ognition of deeds of the most sublime heroism. It seems 
 to me that public recognition of such matters should not 
 be confined to those who have won the title of hero upon 
 the waters over which the United States has jurisdiction 
 or upon the battle field. The Government should be will- 
 ing to give its medals also to those who have distinguished 
 themselves in the land commerce of the nation. The 
 spirit in which I advocate this measure is well expressed 
 by Mr. Cy Warman, the railroad poet and writer, in the 
 following verses : 
 
 Now that we've scattered the flowers of May 
 Over the graves of the blue and the gray 
 Over the graves where the women weep, 
 Over the mounds where the heroes sleep 
 Now, let us turn to the graves of those 
 Who have lived and died in their overclothes. 
 
 Are they not heroes ? Have they not died 
 
 Under their engines, side by side ? 
 
 Have they not stood by the throttle and brake 
 
 And gone down to death for their passengers' sake ? 
 
 Calm, undisturbed is the peaceful repose 
 
 Of the men who have died in their overclothes. 
 
 We would not take from the soldier's grave 
 Not even the blades of grass that wave, 
 
HEROES IN OVERALLS 175 
 
 Nor would we ask you to hand us down 
 A single star from the soldier's crown ; 
 All honor to them ; but forget not those 
 Who have lived and died in their overclothes. 
 
 We would take nothing from the heroes the nation al- 
 ready honors. We would simply ask that other heroes 
 who are equally worthy be also honored. A measure 
 such as this should call forth a hearty response, and I 
 respectfully urge upon the committee the favorable con- 
 sideration of this bill. 
 
 In promoting the passage of the Medal Bill, Mr. 
 Moseley ordered from one of the journals of the railroad 
 brotherhoods a number of copies of an article narrating 
 a brave deed, and this transaction led to the following 
 correspondence : 
 
 OFFICE OF GEAND LODGE, SWITCHMEN'S UNION OF 
 
 NORTH AMERICA, 
 326 Mooney Bldg., Buffalo, N.Y., 
 
 March 6, 1905. 
 EDWARD A. MOSELEY, ESQ., 
 
 Secretary, Interstate Commerce Commission, 
 Washington, B.C. 
 
 DEAR SIR AND BROTHER: 
 
 On my return from the west recently, I learned that 
 you had requested copies of the letter published in our 
 Journal for Hon. T. V. Powderly, relative to a hero who 
 was a member of this union and who sacrificed his life for 
 the sake of humanity at Cleveland, Ohio, and that while 
 there was some expense incurred in connection with the 
 publication of the articles and it being forwarded to you, 
 our editor, Mr. Cassidy, sent with the documents a bill 
 to you for the same. 
 
 Let me explain that Mr. Cassidy did not know of the 
 fact that you are annually spending thousands of dollars 
 of your own money for the purpose of protecting the lives 
 of railroad men, and had he known it he would have, 
 instead of sending a bill to you, presented it to the grand 
 
176 EDWARD A. MOSELEY 
 
 board, which was afterwards done ; and by this time you 
 have had, no doubt, the amount remitted to you, which 
 I hope will be satisfactory, and that you will have no un- 
 kind feelings towards this union because of the presenting 
 of the bill. Had I been here at the time the request was 
 received, this mistake would not have been made, and I 
 again assure you Mr. Cassidy meant no offense whatever 
 in sending it, as he believed the expense would be borne 
 by the Commission, and not by you individually. 
 I am, with best wishes for your success, 
 
 Fraternally yours, 
 F. T. HAWLEY, 
 
 Grand Master. 
 
 March 10, 1905. 
 
 MR. F. T. HAWLEY, Grand Master, Switchmen's Union 
 of North America, 
 
 326 Mooney Bldg., Buffalo, N.Y. 
 
 DEAR BRO. HAWLEY: 
 
 I am more than surprised at your letter. To think for 
 one moment that I had a feeling about the union present- 
 ing me a bill for those leaflets of Powderly's tribute to 
 Timothy Quinlan as being other than just and right never 
 entered my head. I was only too glad to have them and 
 looked upon the whole matter as a favor. There was 
 every reason why I should pay for them, and I thought it 
 only natural that the bill should be sent. I wanted the 
 leaflets to distribute among members of Congress. 
 
 I send you a copy of the law. The President signed the 
 bill and sent me the pen. I have been advocating such 
 a measure for years and am delighted with the result. 
 
 I have just written to Bro. Cassidy asking him if Tim- 
 othy Quinlan did not leave a mother, wife, or sister who 
 had depended upon him for support. It seems to me that 
 I could make no better use of the check, which was so 
 kindly returned to me, than to send it to his widow or 
 mother or some relative of his. If you can inform me of 
 the proper person, I will write her a nice letter and trans- 
 mit it and the check through you. Poor man, he met a 
 noble death, and in doing so has called attention in a most 
 
HEROES IN OVERALLS 177 
 
 forcible way to the intrepidity, courage and heroism of 
 the class of men represented. I believe his death was 
 not in vain. 
 
 With all cordial regards to you and your associates, 
 I am as ever, 
 
 Fraternally yours, 
 
 EDWARD A. MOSELEY. 
 
 The bill having become a law, the following letter 
 notes the next step : 
 
 THE WHITE HOUSE, WASHINGTON, 
 March 30, 1905. 
 
 MY DEAR MR. MOSELEY: 
 
 I send you herewith the regulations governing the 
 award of life-saving medals under the provisions of the 
 Act of Congress approved February 23, 1905, together 
 with the pen with which the President signed them. 
 Very truly yours, 
 
 WM. LOEB, JR. 
 
 Secretary to the President. 
 
 In the regulations, the President directed that appli- 
 cations for medals should be addressed to and filed with 
 the Interstate Commerce Commission. Satisfactory evi- 
 dence of the facts must be filed in each case in the form of 
 affidavits made by eyewitnesses, of good repute and 
 standing, testifying of their own knowledge. The opin- 
 ion of witnesses that the person, for whom an award is 
 sought, acted with extreme daring and endangered his 
 life is not sufficient, but the affidavits must set forth the 
 facts in detail and show clearly in what manner and to 
 what extent life was endangered and extreme daring 
 exhibited. The railroad upon which the incident occurred, 
 the date, time of day, condition of weather, the names of 
 
178 EDWARD A. MOSELEY 
 
 all person present, when practicable, and other pertinent 
 circumstances should be stated. 
 
 The affidavits should be made before an officer duly 
 authorized to administer oaths and be accompanied by 
 the certificate of some United States official of the district 
 in which the affiants reside, such as a judge or clerk of 
 United States Court, District Attorney, or Postmaster, to 
 the effect that the affiants are reputable and credible 
 persons. If the affidavits are taken before an officer 
 without an official seal, his official character must be 
 certified by the proper officer of a court of record, under 
 the seal thereof. 
 
 At the President's request, Mr. Moseley had a medal 
 designed, the artist being Mr. Adoiph Weinman of New 
 York. President Roosevelt continued to take a lively 
 interest in the project, and suggested some changes in 
 the design of the medal and of the button which a medalist 
 is entitled to wear. The following letter properly forms a 
 part of the record of this piece of legislation : 
 
 July 17, 1906. 
 
 HON. JAMES R. MANN, M.C., 
 Chicago, Illinois. 
 
 DEAR MR. MANN : 
 
 I have sent you by Adams express a replica of the design 
 for the medal of honor which is to be awarded those who 
 distinguish themselves by exceptional heroism in the sav- 
 ing of life upon railroads, which I wish you to accept with 
 my compliments. 
 
 I feel that this small measure of recognition, at least, is 
 due you for the great interest you took in this measure in 
 Congress. You introduced the bill, reported it from the 
 committee on interstate and foreign commerce, and put 
 it through the House. Your report was an earnest and 
 
HEROES IN OVERALLS 179 
 
 convincing plea for recognition by the General Government 
 of the heroism of railroad employees, and I feel that the 
 railroad men of the country owe you a debt of gratitude 
 for your untiring efforts in their behalf, to the end that 
 they should receive the same sort of recognition for hero- 
 ism as the Government has long given to those who ex- 
 hibit extraordinary bravery on the waters under the ju- 
 risdiction of the United States. . . . 
 
 With kindest wishes, and trusting that the replica will 
 reach you in good condition, I am, 
 
 Sincerely yours, 
 
 EDWARD A. MOSELEY. 
 
 Mr. Moseley, and the committee of award acting with 
 him, passed favorably on thirteen applications for medals. 
 A brief condensation of the reports on file must suffice 
 to indicate the worthy character of the deeds which, under 
 the law, have found recognition from the nation : 
 
 George Poell, Grand Island, Nebraska, a fireman on a 
 freight train, saw a little child on the track between the 
 rails ; he went out the front window of the cab, along the 
 running board, and down to the step of the pilot on the 
 front end of engine ; he grasped the pilot brace with his 
 right hand and leaned as far forward as possible so as to 
 grasp the child with his left and swing it out of the 
 way when the engine reached it. He accomplished this 
 feat successfully, but in swinging the child out of the way 
 its body struck him with such force as to cause him to 
 lose his footing ; he fell, and his left foot was torn from 
 the leg, both his arms were broken, and his face and body 
 terribly bruised and lacerated. The child was found to be 
 uninjured beyond the shock and a slight bruise. Medal 
 awarded, December 21, 1905. 
 
 Charles W. Haight, Utica, New York, a locomotive 
 engineer, discovered a little child between the rails; he 
 went out on the running board and down to the pilot, but 
 in grasping the child its head struck him on the breast 
 
180 EDWARD A. MOSELEY 
 
 with considerable force, bearing him backward upon the 
 pilot beam, where he had great difficulty in hanging on 
 with his burden in his arm until the train came to a stop 
 and the brakeman assisted him to the ground. Medal 
 awarded, June 21, 1906. 
 
 George H. Williams, Braintree, Massachusetts, an en- 
 gineer, after bringing his train to a stop at Quincy station, 
 saw a woman and girl running to cross the other track and, 
 realizing that they would not have time to cross ahead of 
 an approaching train, he jumped from his engine and ran 
 toward them with the idea of assisting them, at the same 
 time calling out to warn them of their danger. The girl, 
 being in the lead, and more nimble than her mother, got 
 safely across, but the mother only got on the track, when 
 she was arrested by the gate tender, who pulled her back 
 from the train. At the same instant Williams reached her 
 in his attempt to shove her back, but he did not have time 
 to get entirely across the track before the train reached 
 him. He was struck by the locomotive and thrown a 
 distance of about twenty feet, sustaining severe injuries, 
 which necessitated his removal to the hospital, and he 
 was unable to resume his regular duties until about three 
 months after the accident. Medal awarded, June 21, 1906. 
 
 Edward Murray, Pittsburg, freight conductor, was rid- 
 ing on the footboard on the rear end of the tender, as the 
 engine approached a street crossing; two children, aged 
 two and four years, stepped upon the track. The engine 
 was almost upon them. Murray, in utter disregard of 
 his own safety, leaped from the footboard in front of the 
 moving engine, lifted one child clear of the rails, and 
 grasping the other in his arms stepped on the footboard 
 of the engine just in time to escape being run down and 
 crushed beneath the wheels. Medal awarded, October 23, 
 1906. 
 
 In Parsons, Pennsylvania, while on his way to school, 
 a Polish lad about twelve years of age, in walking on the 
 track, caught his foot in a frog ; at the same time a pas- 
 senger train was rapidly approaching. Edgar E. George, 
 a stenographer, managed to reach the boy in advance of 
 
HEROES IN OVERALLS 181 
 
 the train, but was unable to release his foot. The train was 
 almost upon him, and it seemed as if nothing could pre- 
 vent the boy from being mangled to death, but instead of 
 leaving the lad to his fate and looking out for his own 
 safety, George quickly sprang to one side, and with his 
 left arm bore the boy's body down as far as the outer rail 
 would permit and with his right arm forced the imprisoned 
 leg under the cylinder, journal boxes and steps, which 
 scraped their bodies as they came along. The engineer 
 did not succeed in stopping the train until the engine and 
 one coach had passed over Mr. George and the boy, when 
 the boy was found safe in George's arms. Medal awarded, 
 June 8, 1907. 
 
 A passenger train arrived at the bridge which spans the 
 Cumberland River at Clarksville, Tennessee. The draw 
 was open at the time, but the engineer failed to stop his 
 train, with the result that the locomotive and the mail and 
 baggage cars plunged into the river. The engineer was 
 killed. Two mail clerks were in the mail cars at the time, 
 and the baggageman was in his car. Although seriously in- 
 jured, they managed to break their way out and get on top 
 of the cars. . . . The river was at flood stage, with a seven 
 or eight mile current, and full of drift. It was also quite 
 dark at the time of the accident, and the river was in such 
 condition that it was considered unsafe to run the ferry 
 boat, which crosses a short distance below the place where 
 the accident occurred. A number of persons saw the- 
 cars floating down the river, and heard the cries of the 
 men for assistance, but none attempted to go to their 
 aid, as all feared to take the risk. Mr. Arms, who lives 
 on the bank of the river, was confined to his bed with 
 malarial fever, but he immediately rose, and without 
 waiting to put on coat, hat, or shoes, made his way as 
 rapidly as possible to the ferry landing. He jumped into 
 a skiff, and appealed to the bystanders for aid, offering 
 ten dollars, all the money he had, to any person who would 
 go with him in the boat. Failing to secure a companion, 
 he shoved off in the boat alone, although one of the persons 
 appealed to, states that "I told him it was madness to go 
 out there, for if the drift don't swamp you, the people on 
 
182 EDWARD A. MOSELEY 
 
 those cars will jump in and swamp you sure." With 
 cries of encouragement to the imperiled persons, Arms 
 finally reached the cars, and safely landed the men upon 
 the river bank. Had it not been for this heroic action, 
 it cannot be doubted that all three of the men, whose lives 
 were imperiled, would have perished. Application for a 
 medal for Mr. Arms was made by the Postmaster-General, 
 officials of the railway mail service having taken the 
 matter up and procured the necessary affidavits and 
 statements upon which to base an application under the 
 statute. Medal awarded, June 8, 1907. 
 
 Edward A. McGrath, Milwaukee, a station agent, is 
 a cripple; a six-year-old girl started to cross the track 
 ahead of a train, apparently not perceiving its approach 
 at the rate of from 15 to 20 miles per hour. McGrath 
 quickly rushed to the rescue of the child. The train was 
 so close that the spectators feared it would be impossible 
 for either to escape destruction. McGrath was struck 
 by the pilot beam of the engine, and his hat was knocked 
 off, but he fortunately escaped injury and succeeded in 
 lifting the little girl from in front of the engine and plac- 
 ing her entirely uninjured out of the zone of danger. 
 Medal awarded, December 3, 1907. 
 
 Frank Larson, Fremont, Nebraska, a locomotive 
 fireman, discovered a small boy on the track about 400 
 feet ahead of the engine ; he climbed out the window in the 
 front of the cab, hastened along the running board to the 
 pilot of the engine, reaching the point of danger just in 
 time to catch the child by its clothing and throw it off the 
 track as the train passed over the spot where it had been 
 standing. Medal awarded, April 2, 1908. 
 
 Charles Bennett, Waukegan, Illinois, a brakeman on a 
 train which was sidetracked, as a fast passenger train 
 approached, running at a speed of fifty or sixty miles an 
 hour, saw a woman step on the track directly in front of 
 the train, one hundred and fifty feet from where he was 
 standing. When he reached her and caught hold of her 
 with the intention of pulling her from the track, she re- 
 sisted his effort and endeavored to break away from him, 
 
HEROES IN OVERALLS 183 
 
 evidently misunderstanding his intention and having 
 no idea of her dangerous position. Finding that he could 
 not induce the woman to leave the track, he picked her up 
 bodily, when the train was almost upon them, and they 
 rolled together into a fifteen-foot ditch at the side of the 
 track, "the train passing so close that Bennett's body was 
 brushed by the pilot beam of the engine. Medal awarded, 
 April 2, 1908. 
 
 Robert Brendle, McKeesport, Pennsylvania, a police- 
 man, was on duty at a street crossing when a train came 
 along at a good rate of speed. At the same time, a woman 
 started across the tracks. Brendle attempted to warn her 
 by shouting to her. She was a foreigner ; did not speak 
 English and did not seem to understand the warning 
 cries. Brendle ran on to the track, grabbed the woman 
 about the waist, and carried her quickly across. The 
 train was so close to them that the pilot beam of the 
 locomotive brushed the officer's body and the witnesses 
 of the incident turned their heads aside, thinking that 
 both would surely be ground to pieces under the train. 
 Medal awarded, February 28, 1910. 
 
 George Karsten, switchman, Milwaukee, standing on a 
 platform between north-bound and south-bound tracks, 
 when a woman stepped directly in the path of an on-com- 
 ing engine. Karsten ran to her assistance, expecting to 
 push her off the track. She was a large woman, however, 
 and began to struggle with him, and continued to resist 
 his efforts to get her out of harm's way until the engine 
 struck them. The woman was killed, and Karsten fell 
 between the rails, the tender and all of the engine except 
 the pilot passing over him. When the engine was stopped, 
 he was lying under the pony trucks. His clothing was 
 badly torn, and he was badly scratched, but not seriously 
 injured. Medal awarded, February 28, 1910. 
 
 Such as these, the brave, self-sacrificing, simple every- 
 day folk, the common soldiers in the armies of peace, 
 Mr. Moseley delighted to see the nation enroll among its 
 heroes. 
 
CHAPTER XIX 
 FOR ECONOMIC JUSTICE 
 
 WHILE the humane features of railroad regulation en- 
 listed Mr. Moseley's whole heart, he always gave a full 
 share of his thought and energy to the important eco- 
 nomic objects of the Interstate Commerce Commission. 
 Commissioner Prouty, in his estimate of the man, which 
 will be found elsewhere in this volume, says "it was largely 
 due to him that the trains of thought and courses of 
 action were put in operation which finally resulted in the 
 Hepburn amendment of 1906" the law from which 
 the Commission draws its present vigor. 
 
 The movement, which Mr. Moseley led, for safety 
 appliances really vindicated and established the power 
 of Federal law over the instrumentalities of interstate 
 commerce before it had been effectively applied to the 
 commerce itself. Although the original Interstate Com- 
 merce Act had been passed solely for the purpose of 
 preventing injustice to shippers and passengers, the law, 
 as interpreted by the courts, proved to be wofully inade- 
 quate, and for years the Commission was unable to correct 
 the characteristic abuses it was organized to remedy. 
 Public interest fell away from it in large measure. 
 
 The Commission developed an unexpected efficiency 
 in dealing with certain conditions of railroad labor, while 
 
 it disclosed a disheartening helplessness to effect any 
 
 184 
 
FOR ECONOMIC JUSTICE 185 
 
 marked improvement for the commerce which that labor 
 was engaged in handling. Laws had done much for the 
 employees, but little for the patrons of the railroads. 
 
 The Safety Appliance Acts, their approval by the courts 
 and their vigorous enforcement, thus became a convincing 
 example of what the Government could and should do in 
 regulating interstate commerce. They gave complete 
 and convincing proof of the moral obligation and practical 
 efficiency of the General Government as a regulative agency 
 throughout the whole field of commerce between the States. 
 
 Early in his service, Mr. Moseley took a position far in 
 advance of public sentiment and political expediency on 
 the subject of the power and duty of the nation over the 
 mighty interstate traffic, which still flowed virtually 
 unregulated, and he held his ground through a long 
 period of distrust and despair. In an address delivered 
 in September, 1900, he employed a striking phrase ex- 
 pressive of his stand : "Some one has said that commerce 
 is war. That may or may not be true ; but one thing is 
 certain, unregulated commerce is commercial anarchy/' 
 His deep interest in the problem at a time when it was 
 suffering from neglect is shown by the following letters 
 which passed between him and a learned member of the 
 faculty of Williams College in the same year : 
 
 October 2, 1900. 
 MR. JOHN BASCOM, 
 Williamstown, Mass. 
 
 DEAR SIR: 
 
 At two o'clock this morning, worried and troubled, I 
 could not sleep. In casting about for something to read, 
 my eye fell upon your book on "Growth of Nationality 
 
186 EDWARD A. MOSELEY 
 
 in the United States." I picked it up and immediately 
 became absorbed in it, and I hasten to confess to you that 
 I had failed to read the book and did not know of its 
 contents until a few hours ago. 
 
 Harassed as we have been, and almost disheartened of 
 being ever able to be of service to the public in the direc- 
 tion of the regulation of commerce, I have almost felt 
 like giving up the battle. Directed by order of the 
 Commission to secure legislation, I have been making the 
 best effort I could, only to be persecuted and misinter- 
 preted in every possible way. But after reading your 
 book I have taken on new life. It is so fair, so just, and 
 goes to the crux of the trouble, I take hope, finding that 
 some one endowed with ability to express himself so for- 
 cibly has taken the position which you have, for there are 
 very few indeed who are forcible and lucid who take the 
 public side of these questions. 
 
 Now I do want to know more of you, for I cannot tell 
 you how much you have relieved my feelings. The next 
 letter I write is to Mr. Olney, for the purpose of begging 
 him to read at least chapter six of your book. The 
 justices of the Supreme Court must see the book, and if 
 they are not already in possession of it, I want to have the 
 publishers send a copy to each of them and send me the 
 bill, which I will gladly pay. It should be read by every- 
 body. I am about ordering from the publishers a half- 
 dozen copies for the Commission, and I only regret that I 
 do not have funds at my disposal to put copies in the hands 
 of every shipper in the country. 
 
 I take pleasure in inclosing copies of two addresses I 
 recently delivered, and also send a copy of a secret attack 
 which is only one of the many to which I have been sub- 
 jected because of my efforts to bring about the legisla- 
 tive remedies advocated in your book. 
 
 I do not think you have seen a copy of the hearings 
 before the Senate committee in the effort of the com- 
 mercial organizations to amend the law. The bill 
 introduced was reported adversely, but is still on the 
 calendar. 
 
 I am, with great respect, 
 
 EDWARD A. MOSELEY. 
 
FOR ECONOMIC JUSTICE 187 
 
 WlLLIAMSTOWN, MASS. 
 
 Oct. 6, 1900. 
 MR. EDWARD A. MOSELEY. 
 
 DEAR SIR: 
 
 Your letter gave me much pleasure, and I lay awake 
 last night rejoicing in your plucky fight. It will be to 
 you and to the Commission according to your courage 
 and faith. 
 
 You have a magnificent calling. Few in our day can 
 do as much. It is a good sign that they abuse you ; it 
 shows that your words take hold. "When men hate you 
 and say all manner of evil against you falsely, rejoice 
 and be exceeding glad." I hope you will sleep sound and 
 wake up every morning to put the case anew with undy- 
 ing patience. 
 
 I hammer it in to the students and into the community 
 whenever I get a chance. I am professor of Political 
 Science. 
 
 I have sent your generous offer in reference to the 
 judges, to the Putnams. I am obliged for the documents. 
 Please keep me posted. What I am most in danger of is 
 ignorance. 
 
 With much regard, 
 
 JOHN BASCOM. 
 
 P.S. I feel some diffidence in letting you pay for the 
 volumes for the judges. I would pay half or the whole, 
 as suits your convenience. 
 
 J.B. 
 
 A distinguished railroad attorney also testified to Mr. 
 Moseley's efforts at that time in the following letter : 
 
 CHICAGO, MILWAUKEE AND ST. PAUL RAILWAY COMPANY, 
 OFFICE OF GENERAL COUNSEL, 
 
 OLD COLONY BUILDING, CHICAGO, 
 
 October 5, 1900. 
 MY DEAR MR. MOSELEY : 
 
 I must thank you for sending me the pamphlet copy of 
 your address before the Millers 7 State Association at 
 Atlantic City. I have read it with care, with interest 
 
188 EDWARD A. MOSELEY 
 
 and with profit. It is a very thoughtful and able pro- 
 duction, and I doubt not will accomplish much good. I 
 was particularly struck by the fairness with which you 
 discussed the various questions, for it is certain that 
 nearly all of them are such that something can be said 
 on both sides. 
 
 The regulation of commerce has always been in the 
 constitution, although it was never seriously attempted 
 until the passage of the Interstate Commerce Act, and 
 probably years will elapse before there will be a real and 
 genuine regulation of commerce ; still, I believe the time 
 will come when the vicious practices now so justly com- 
 plained of, will be eradicated. The payment of rebates 
 is not only unjust in itself, but it is productive of great 
 harm to the public and to the railroads themselves. I 
 hope you will continue to write on the subject, for what 
 the public most needs is intelligent discussion, and not 
 the ranting of demagogues. 
 
 I am expecting to be in Washington before long, and 
 hope to see you. 
 
 With best wishes, 
 
 Very truly yours, 
 
 GEORGE R. PECK. 
 
 A letter written by Justice Brewer of the Supreme 
 Court to Mr. Moseley gives evidence of the Secretary's 
 activity in this field as far back as 1892, when he went 
 directly to the justice relative to a rate decision that had 
 lately been handed down. An excerpt from the letter 
 follows : 
 
 SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES, 
 WASHINGTON, November 8, 1892. 
 
 MR. EDWARD A. MOSELEY, Secretary Interstate Com- 
 merce Commission, Washington. 
 
 DEAR SIR : 
 
 ... I can confess to be much disturbed by your 
 very careful and valuable suggestions, but I hope that 
 any error, if error there be in the criticized language, 
 
FOR ECONOMIC JUSTICE 189 
 
 will be speedily corrected. ... I am very much obliged 
 to you for the frankness with which you called upon me. 
 I shall always be glad to talk over with you the law and 
 practice with respect to interstate commerce. What 
 all must desire, is a correct interpretation of the statutes, 
 and protection to all rights, individual and corporate. 
 With great respect, 
 
 I am, yours truly, 
 
 D. J. BREWER. 
 
 When at last the question of regulating interstate 
 commerce came to the front once more early in the 
 Roosevelt administration, Mr. Moseley's successful work 
 for safety appliances had perfected him in the fine art 
 of agitation. The Commission employed and relied 
 upon his ability in promoting legislation, to aid in for- 
 warding bills for broadening and strengthening the 
 Federal authority. In the long and arduous campaigns 
 which were waged in Congress, he discharged with dis- 
 cretion the delicate duty of representing the Commission 
 as a whole at the Capitol. 
 
 A letter Mr. Moseley wrote in 1902 was remarkably 
 prophetic of all the steps that have since been taken. In 
 it he clearly and concisely described the situation as it was 
 then, and foreshadowed the various remedial measures 
 that have since been adopted. This is the letter : 
 
 April 3, 1902. 
 MR. HENRY GEORGE, JR., 
 
 101 West 84th Street, 
 
 New York, N.Y. 
 DEAR MR. GEORGE : 
 
 Your kind letter, which I greatly appreciate, is re- 
 ceived. It is one of those cases of appreciation which are 
 only occasionally met with in the course of official life. 
 
190 EDWARD A. MOSELEY 
 
 If a man serves wealth and power, his road is usually 
 made quite easy for him; but the public are largely in 
 ignorance of what is going on and have no opportunities 
 of determining whether the average official is friendly or 
 not. They generally take it for granted that a man who 
 occupies a public office holds it by the grace of the 
 powerful. 
 
 Permit me to say that the experiment of regulation in 
 fact has never been tried. The Interstate Commerce 
 Law was a compromise, and the adroit agent of the 
 railroad in the capacity of the senator or representative 
 took care to insert language that afforded the pretexts 
 for arguments, which, accepted by the courts, resulted 
 in nullifying what were believed to be valuable provisions 
 of the law. Take for instance the phrase, " substantially 
 similar circumstances and conditions." Harmless words 
 apparently, but they have defeated the express purposes 
 of the proponents of the law. 
 
 The same may be said of the undefinable word "rea- 
 sonble." It is as difficult to determine the reasonableness 
 of a thing without a definition of the word " reasonable, " as 
 it would be to fix prices by the quart if the dimensions of 
 that measure had not been settled. Who is to determine 
 when a rate is reasonable ? The courts have denied the 
 right to the Commission and practically refuse to do it 
 themselves. 
 
 I should like to see an effort at regulation which really 
 meant something. It should, I think, be made a mis- 
 demeanor, punishable by imprisonment, for any officer 
 of a railroad to keep any false account or to keep any 
 book or memorandum, other than those established by 
 the law or the regulating authority; this to apply to 
 financial operations as well as to the movement of traffic. 
 No transportation should be issued upon any pretext 
 whatever unless it was duly recorded and open to public 
 inspection. Rates should be public, and it should be 
 made a punishable offense to even offer to depart there- 
 from. The regulating authority should have the power, 
 when challenged, of prescribing what is a just rate ; and 
 the extent and terms on which railroads should accept 
 traffic from other roads. 
 
FOR ECONOMIC JUSTICE 191 
 
 But this subject is too large for a letter. I only want 
 to say that I believe an earnest and sincere attempt 
 should be made to regulate the railroads by law and the 
 experiment tried ; but can such an act be passed when the 
 real friends of regulation are largely outside the halls 
 of Congress and so very few within them ? 
 
 Should you ever come to Washington, I should be 
 greatly pleased to have you call upon me. If there is 
 ever anything here in the way of documents or informa- 
 tion which I can procure for you, pray command me. 
 
 Sincerely yours, 
 
 EDWARD A. MOSELEY. 
 
 Perhaps there is no better way of indicating the part 
 which Mr. Moseley played in the discussion and struggle 
 that followed than by presenting a few letters, and let 
 them tell the story. 
 
 August 30, 1905. 
 
 HON. S. B. ELKINS, United States Senator, Washington, 
 B.C. 
 
 DEAR SENATOR ELKINS : 
 
 I am writing you entirely on my own responsibility 
 and not as an official. 
 
 In my opinion, the great wrongs in railroad transpor- 
 tation are due to one or more shippers, by some means 
 or other, having an advantage which competitive shippers 
 do not enjoy. This, I believe, is a crying evil, far greater 
 than those involved in any question of the rate. When 
 every one has precisely the same treatment and has to 
 pay the same rate, a large factor in this question of gov- 
 ernmental regulation and the fixing of rates will have 
 been eliminated. 
 
 Mr. Spenser has said that he believed in the fullest 
 publicity and, as I understand, so did a number of the 
 other railroad companies. Until we have this, all at- 
 tempts to see that all receive equal rates will, to a greater 
 or less extent, fail. If all are to enjoy equality of treat- 
 ment I know of nothing which would be more effective 
 
192 EDWARD A. MOSELEY 
 
 than the plan proposed in the inclosed suggestion for 
 amendment of the act. 
 
 There are a number of other questions which it would 
 be well to deal with. For instance, there is a large amount 
 of commerce which is free from any control ; it is neither 
 covered by State nor National law. The first section of 
 the law could easily be broadened so as to remedy this 
 condition. 
 
 Then, there is the question whether express companies 
 should not be subject to the provisions of the act. The 
 Commission early decided that express business, con- 
 ducted by an independent organization, acquiring trans- 
 portation rights by contract, was not described in the 
 act with sufficient precision to warrant the Commission 
 in taking jurisdiction thereof. I believe, in the light of 
 your amendments to the law, that if the question were 
 to come before the Commission to-day the decision would 
 be reversed, but, unfortunately, the conclusion was 
 reached very early in the history of the Commission. 
 
 This, if you will please so consider it, is a confidential 
 letter. I have no pride in anything I may advocate 
 and what I write is merely suggestive. 
 
 I am, with great regard and respect, 
 
 EDWARD A. MOSELEY. 
 
 Receiving from Secretary Loeb the suggestion that he 
 should put his views in writing for the President's exami- 
 nation, Mr. Moseley replied : 
 
 October 4, 1905. 
 
 HON. WILLIAM LOEB, JR., Secretary to the President, 
 White House, Washington, B.C. 
 
 DEAR MR. LOEB: 
 
 Replying to your suggestion that I put what I desire 
 to say in writing, I submit the following : 
 
 My experience of more than eighteen years as Secre- 
 tary, in addition to many years of active business life, 
 impresses me with the fact that the greatest sore in the 
 railway situation is the advantage secretly given one 
 
FOR ECONOMIC JUSTICE 193 
 
 person which another is not permitted to enjoy. Within 
 the past few years it has been repeatedly announced that 
 discrimination practices, which have existed in the past, 
 have been done away with that rebates have been 
 abolished. It is of no consequence or difference to the 
 public, or to those who suffer, how the advantage is given 
 so long as it is substantial and results in a different rate 
 to one person than that which is allowed to another. 
 
 The adroitness of the traffic manager and the shrewd- 
 ness of the shipper have in many cases changed the form 
 which these secret advantages have taken, so that the 
 bald method of paying a straight rebate may be little 
 used; but I confidently believe that these illegitimate 
 advantages are afforded now in almost as great degree as 
 in the past. 
 
 Notwithstanding the Elkins Law and the authority of 
 the Commission to compel testimony, it is difficult now, 
 as it always has been, to ascertain the facts respecting 
 secret practices. It is only when some railroad finds it 
 is losing business, when some shipper finds his com- 
 petitor's trade increasing abnormally, or through the 
 grumbling of some dissatisfied employee, that the inves- 
 tigating body can obtain information which will justify 
 Jthe institution of an inquiry. Even then these investi- 
 gations, in very many instances, fail to develop the true 
 situation, which, if brought out, would justify presenta- 
 tion of the matter to the prosecuting officers of the 
 Government. 
 
 It follows, therefore, that no matter how desirable it 
 may be to amend the act in other respects, if there are 
 provided no means of obtaining the information neces- 
 sary to successful prosecution, these ruinous practices 
 will continue. The cure for the evil is publicity of the 
 accounts of common carriers. It should be made a 
 criminal offense for any common carrier engaged in inter- 
 state commerce to keep any book, memorandum, or data 
 other than those prescribed by law or regulation, and such 
 books or memoranda should be open to the inspection of 
 representatives of the government who are expert ac- 
 countants and familiar with the methods of railroad 
 bookkeeping. . . . 
 
194 EDWARD A. MOSELEY 
 
 When every man can feel assured that he will pay the 
 same charge for the transportation of himself and his 
 property as is paid by others for the carriage of other 
 persons, or like property, under similar conditions, the 
 railroad problem, so-called, will be a long way towards 
 solution. 
 
 I am, with great regard and respect, 
 
 EDWARD A. MOSELEY. 
 
 November 21, 1905. 
 HON. JOHN W. GAINES, Nashville, Tennessee. 
 
 DEAR MR. GAINES : 
 
 I notice that the coal men of Tennessee are about to 
 have a convention at which it is proposed to pass resolu- 
 tions against the President's position in regard to the 
 rate question. Is it possible that Mr. D. M. Parry, 
 buggy manufacturer, and also vice president of the In- 
 dianapolis Southern Railway, Daniel Davenport, of 
 Bridgeport, Connecticut, employed by the railroads, and 
 F. B. Thurber, also employed by the Erie Railroad, will 
 be there to aid and assist in condemning the President's 
 attempt to obtain justice for all and his effort to secure 
 fair treatment? 
 
 Paraphrasing the remarks of certain persons who called 
 upon the President to urge him not to recommend any 
 legislation looking to an increase in the power of the 
 Commission over rates, they practically said : Do not 
 take any steps to restrain the exactions of the railroads 
 and relieve the rest of the community. A " square deal" 
 with us means that the railroads should be allowed to 
 continue to levy tribute unrestrained on the public 
 generally in order that they may be better equipped to 
 grant us favors and discriminate for our benefit. 
 
 Have the people down in your section forgotten the 
 words of that eminent statesman, Milton H. Smith of 
 the Louisville & Nashville : "If the people don't like it, 
 they can walk." Have they forgotten the time when 
 the people of Nebraska were burning corn for fuel, not- 
 withstanding the fact that the mine operators of Ten- 
 nessee and Kentucky would gladly have sent them coal 
 
FOR ECONOMIC JUSTICE 195 
 
 and regardless of the fact that the particular railroads 
 over which the coal would have been transported were 
 willing to carry it at rates which would permit of its 
 movement, but the octopus at that time of railroad 
 management the gentlemen's agreement or associa- 
 tion forbade it being done because it would disturb 
 the joint rate situation, and what coal did go to Nebraska 
 and Kansas continued to go from the mines of Pennsyl- 
 vania and Ohio? It really seems to me that a great 
 many people have very short memories. 
 
 This is not written as Secretary of the Interstate 
 Commerce Commission, but is only a personal line to 
 yourself. 
 
 I am, with great regard and respect, 
 
 EDWARD A. MOSELEY. 
 
 January 30, 1906. 
 
 HON. P. C. KNOX, United States Senator, Washington, 
 B.C. 
 
 DEAR SENATOR: 
 
 The Chairman returned this morning. I have sub- 
 mitted your request to him and he will make reply. 
 
 I want to say, however, that reparation through any 
 tribunal, judicial or otherwise, for injuries resulting from 
 discrimination or unreasonable rates has never proved of 
 great practical value and is entirely inadequate as a pro- 
 tection to those suffering the injury. We have been 
 unable to find any case either in Great Britain or the 
 United States, in State or Federal courts, where one who 
 has been injured has recovered anything in court on 
 account of an unreasonable rate. The Commission has 
 endeavored to grant relief in this respect and has ordered 
 that reparation be made, but only one case has ever been 
 tested in court. In that case the complainants prevailed 
 in the Circuit Court but were defeated in the Court of 
 Appeals. See F. R. 137, p. 343. The case is now in the 
 Supreme Court. 
 
 It is admitted, I believe, by all that after a transaction 
 is completed and the shipper has paid the rate to the 
 carrier, reparation therefor can only be recovered legally 
 
196 EDWARD A. MOSELEY 
 
 by a proceeding before a court and jury ; so that, however 
 plausible the theory of righting every wrong in court 
 may seem and however adequate the same may, in fact, 
 be in respect to ordinary controversies, it is manifestly 
 illusive and inadequate as to the rights of those who bear 
 the burdens of freight rates. 
 
 Often the man who ships and pays the rate and who 
 alone could sue in court because he alone is known in 
 the transaction has not been hurt by an unjust or exces- 
 sive rate, since in the purchase and sale of the article he 
 has taken care of himself and cast the burden on the 
 consumer or producer or both. In most cases, though, 
 the hampering limitations upon one's business by reason 
 of unjust discrimination in rates or facilities are certain, 
 serious and possibly even destructive ; yet how can they 
 even be measured and definitely located with that cer- 
 tainty and directness necessary to support a specific 
 verdict for a definite amount in dollars and cents against 
 this road and that one ? 
 
 When one's business has been greatly damaged or 
 destroyed by unjust rates and he sues for damages and 
 undertakes to prove the same, how can he do it ? If he 
 proves what shipments he has made, and shows the excess 
 in rates paid thereon above what would have been just 
 and reasonable, he might recover this, but in most cases 
 this would only be a small part of the injury he had sus- 
 tained. When he goes beyond this and tries to show 
 what greater business he could and would have done 
 upon fair and just rates if he had had them, he soon 
 gets into the domain of uncertainty and so-called specu- 
 lative damages and is cut off. 
 
 The only even approximately adequate protection to 
 those who have rights involved in the question of just 
 and reasonable rates, in the very nature of the case, is the 
 establishment of just and reasonable rates beforehand 
 upon which to do business. These wrongs once done can 
 never be righted, for their extent can never be ascertained 
 and measured. Prevention is the only possible protec- 
 tion. 
 
 With great regard and respect, 
 
 EDWARD A. MOSELEY. 
 
FOR ECONOMIC JUSTICE 197 
 
 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, U.S., 
 WASHINGTON, D.C. 
 
 Feb. 7, 1906. 
 
 Many thanks, my dear Mr. Moseley, for your very 
 kind note which has just been handed to me. 
 
 I am very glad that you approve what I said to-day 
 on the rate bill. It confirms my opinions and gives me 
 reason to be satisfied with my performance on the floor 
 a feeling which was by no means strong with me before 
 I read your words of encouragement and praise. 
 
 Yours very sincerely, 
 
 W. BOURKE COCKRAN. 
 
 In the following letter to a lawyer, who had been 
 retained by the Commission, the methods of the Commis- 
 sion are disclosed : 
 
 April 26, 1906. 
 DEAR MR. : 
 
 In regard to the publicity which has been given to 
 your employment, it is very annoying to the Commission 
 that their business should have any circulation in the 
 papers. It is entirely contrary to their settled policy. 
 The hearings, of course, are open and so are the reports, 
 which they officially announce. 
 
 Whether it was your statement or that of Mr. , the 
 
 results seem to have been the same. Every paper in 
 the country, almost, has announced your employment by 
 the Commission and in a way which would give the im- 
 pression that the Commission has entered upon a crusade 
 against certain interests rather than pursuing the calm, 
 deliberate course which should characterize a body of this 
 sort. Nothing could be more unfortunate, particularly 
 at this time when the Senate of the United States is 
 deliberating about conferring more power upon the 
 Commission. 
 
 The Commission can accomplish all the public desires 
 without the aid of public announcement and do so in a 
 far more effective way. Anything which looks as though 
 
198 EDWARD A. MOSELEY 
 
 the Commission had dropped a judicial view of things 
 and were becoming prosecuting officers is detrimental to 
 their interests, particularly at this time. If, therefore, 
 in future, before any action is taken, you will consult with 
 
 Mr. , it would be better. You will bear in mind, 
 
 please, that I urged your employment by the Commission 
 
 as an assistant and aid to Mr. , and the Commission 
 
 fully understands that he is in charge of the matter. 
 
 I beg of you to make no announcement of who is sub- 
 poenaed or what course is contemplated by the Commis- 
 sion, and that all information which is given out in regard 
 to this matter comes from the Commission direct. 
 
 Very truly yours, 
 
 EDWARD A. MOSELEY. 
 
 May 10, 1906. 
 
 HON. STEPHEN B. ELKINS, United States Senator, 
 Washington, D.C. 
 
 DEAR SENATOR: 
 
 I want to call your attention to the amendment adopted 
 by the Senate prohibiting carriers transporting any article 
 or commodity which it manufactures, mines, produces, 
 sells, or has any interest in and especially to the except- 
 ing clause at the end, which reads as follows: " except 
 such articles or commodities as may be necessary or used 
 in the conduct of its business as a common carrier." 
 
 Now, the exception goes to the article or commodity 
 and not to the extent of the transportation for its own 
 use, and the danger is that the excepting clause may be 
 so construed that coal, which is used by the carrier in its 
 business, will be entirely excepted from the amendment. 
 In point of fact, of course, the real purpose of the amend- 
 ment is to prohibit the carrier from having any interest 
 in the coal, etc., transported except as the use of such 
 commodity may be necessary in the conduct of its busi- 
 ness. It is suggested that the following excepting clause 
 would more nearly meet the requirements of the amend- 
 ment : " except to the extent that the transportation of 
 any such article or commodity may be necessary for the 
 
FOR ECONOMIC JUSTICE 199 
 
 use of that article or commodity in the conduct of its 
 business as a common carrier. " 
 
 I am, with great regard and respect, 
 
 EDWARD A. MOSELEY. 
 
 May 16, 1906. 
 DEAR MR. : 
 
 Your telegram just received. I send you herewith, 
 special delivery, a copy of Congressional Record, which 
 I think will interest you. 
 
 Senator Hale took occasion to say twice, as I am told, 
 that the Commission got in their work overnight. I 
 hear that Senators Lodge and Hale are very much irri- 
 tated with us. Senator Gallinger moved to lay the 
 amendment to increase the Secretary's salary on the 
 table. A friend of mine, who saw him this morning, told 
 me that he said that he would fight and oppose me as 
 long as he has breath, and that I was an " anarchist" and 
 that I was "the originator of all this radical legislation." 
 You can therefore understand the feeling. 
 
 The truth really is that I did get around. The first 
 man to tell me of our victory was Senator Dillingham. 
 . . . Whether we can hold our ground or not I do not 
 know. Very likely the writer may have to go down in 
 the struggle, but they were making anxious inquiries yes- 
 terday from the Capitol to find out if any of the Commis- 
 sioners were in town. I suppose they want to fix the 
 deviltry upon somebody besides an insignificant Secretary. 
 
 I write you under great pressure of work. They are 
 
 now discussing the Allison amendment. I send you 
 
 yesterday's Chicago Tribune; it may interest you. There 
 
 is a lot of suppressed and ill-suppressed bad blood. 
 
 With great regard and respect, 
 
 EDWARD A. MOSELEY. 
 
 June 29, 1906. 
 
 HON. WILLIAM H. MOODY, Attorney-General, Washington, 
 B.C. 
 
 DEAR MR. MOODY : 
 
 The Rate Bill has just passed. I have hastily run 
 over its provisions. Few people have studied the bill 
 
200 EDWARD A. MOSELEY 
 
 and really understand what is in it. The review, which 
 I inclose, was prepared on the spur of the moment, but I 
 think it contains all the essentials. This was made for 
 my own gratification and I have not given it to anybody. 
 In reference to the Attorney Bill, Senator Clark states 
 that he will substitute the House Bill therefor, and when 
 my informant left the Capitol the Senator was awaiting 
 recognition from the vice president to bring the matter 
 to the attention of the Senate. 
 
 I am, with great regard and respect, 
 
 EDWARD A. MOSELEY. 
 
 July 2, 1906. 
 HON. STEPHEN B. ELKINS, United States Senator, 
 
 Washington, D.C. 
 DEAR SENATOR: 
 
 The battle is over and the public have received more 
 than the friends of the legislation ever expected to get. 
 I feel that there are few who really understand what the 
 law means better than the writer, and, therefore, from 
 my point of view the satisfaction is all the greater. You 
 certainly have made an earnest fight for a fair, just, and 
 thoroughly effective measure, and I am sure that time 
 will prove that it is of as great, if not greater, value than 
 its predecessor, the Elkins Law. 
 
 As far as I am personally concerned, I have to thank 
 you for your earnest efforts in my own behalf. I am 
 particularly able to do so because all that you did was 
 entirely without solicitation on my part. 
 
 I have just had the pleasure of reading your speech 
 before the West Virginia Bankers Association at Elkins, 
 West Virginia, January 20, 1906. I may truthfully say 
 that it is fine ; one of the best I have ever read. I have 
 heard some sermons which were not half so good. Few 
 appreciate that wealth has its burdens, as onerous some- 
 times and insistent as are the privations of poverty, and 
 that the golden eagle is not necessarily the ticket of ad- 
 mission to happiness. 
 
 Wishing you all success, I am, 
 
 With great regard and respect, 
 
 EDWARD A. MOSELEY. 
 
FOR ECONOMIC JUSTICE 201 
 
 The Act of 1906, clause by clause, reflected the ideas 
 which Mr. Moseley had been advocating for several years. 
 It empowered the Commission to suspend any excessive 
 rate and to establish a fair rate in accordance with its 
 best judgment ; it brought express and sleeping car com- 
 panies and pipe lines within the law ; it stopped the free 
 pass abuse ; under it all common carriers to-day are com- 
 pelled to keep their books and accounts by a uniform 
 method which the Commission has devised and prescribed, 
 so that an inspector from Washington may walk into 
 any railroad office in the United States, and read at a 
 glance the record of any transaction, and trace the re- 
 ceipt and expenditure of every dollar. The Act also in- 
 creased the number of Commissioners from five to seven 
 and their salaries from $7500 to $10,000 a year. 
 
 The last words of Mr. Moseley to be quoted on this 
 subject were spoken in an interview published throughout 
 the country on June 5, 1910. "Has the regulation of 
 railroads been of practical benefit to the people?" the 
 interviewer asked. 
 
 "Oh, most assuredly," Mr. Moseley replied. "For- 
 merly when a man took a carriage to the railway station 
 he paid for the service at a rate established by the mu- 
 nicipality. Hackmen had to post the official tariff of fares 
 inside their vehicles as a measure against robbery. But 
 the man, passenger or shipper, arriving at the depot, 
 found a halo of sanctity around the head of the ticket 
 seller or the freight agent, and he paid the price de- 
 manded, unless he decided to walk or carry his goods 
 on his back. All information and all power for per- 
 
202 EDWARD A. MOSELEY 
 
 forming a public function were centered in the railroads 
 themselves. 
 
 "A big shipper could negotiate, or have a friend, a 
 relative, or a tool in the traffic department. The mer- 
 chant on the opposite corner from Marshall Field in 
 Chicago saw Field prospering and underselling him 
 because of rebates that were denied every one else. The 
 Standard Oil Company made an arrangement by which 
 the railways lined their own pockets and paid it $1 a 
 barrel for all the oil that was shipped by its competitors. 
 
 "Such swindling of the public is now outlawed. Re- 
 bates and discriminations are largely stopped, and would 
 be altogether so if our courts would send some responsible 
 railway officials to prison not an understrapper, who 
 is obeying orders, but a bright and shining light in the 
 world of high finance. One jail sentence, served to the 
 last minute, would wholly clear the atmosphere." 
 
.CHAPTER XX 
 QUESTIONS OF LAW 
 
 MR. MOSELEY'S experience led him to take the broadest 
 view of the national power under the Constitution. 
 
 The best example of this is found in a pamphlet which 
 he issued in 1907 under the title of " Federal Supremacy." 
 The conclusion he announced in that document was far 
 ahead of judicial decisions. Indeed, it anticipated by 
 four years and was a close forecast of the opinion of Judge 
 Sanborn in the Minnesota rate cases, April 29, 1911. 
 
 Supporting his argument in the pamphlet with a wealth 
 of citations, Mr. Moseley passed from the assertion of 
 the exclusive power of Congress to regulate interstate 
 commerce to the contention that any attempt of a State 
 to control interstate carriers by fixing the rates they shall 
 charge even within the limits of the State would involve 
 a conflict of power. This was the closing paragraph of 
 his pamphlet : 
 
 The laws of a state have no extra-territorial force. 
 They can operate only within its limits, and the legisla- 
 tures of states through which an interstate road may 
 run, moved by local prejudice and whim, each, in time, 
 passing laws regulating rates to be charged by that road, 
 presents a total lack of uniformity. The power in the 
 Federal government being unquestioned, the control by 
 it of the interstate carrier follows, even to the extent of 
 controlling rates charged for transportation anywhere on 
 its line. This power arises not alone from the commerce 
 
 203 
 
204 EDWARD A. MOSELEY 
 
 clause of the Constitution, but from various clauses therein; 
 it is the aggregate of powers, both enumerated and im- 
 plied, which constitutes the Federal sovereignty ; and it is 
 the exercise of those powers which insures to the greatest 
 number of the people the greatest good. 
 
 Mr. Moseley's views of the Federal power were so out of 
 accord with the traditions of the Democratic party that 
 he often lost patience with Democrats in Congress, when 
 many of them showed, particularly at first, a dread of the 
 centralizing tendencies of his various bills. It was, 
 however, a Democratic House, with a Democratic speaker, 
 which passed his first bill, the Safety Appliance Act of 
 1893. But in his increasing absorption in subjects en- 
 tirely outside of party politics, he quite lost interest in 
 partisanship of any brand and got what he could for his 
 cause out of each of the parties. 
 
 Mr. Moseley published and distributed, presumably 
 at his own expense, an eight-page pamphlet under date 
 of December 23, 1906, championing the proposal, which 
 President Roosevelt had indorsed, of giving the govern- 
 ment the right of appeal on points of law in criminal 
 cases. The pamphlet was offered as a rejoinder to Mr. 
 Milton H. Smith, president of the Louisville & Nashville 
 Railroad. A few quotations must suffice to show the 
 vigor with which the writer argued his case : - 
 
 As matters now stand, a person charged with crime 
 under a Federal statute has only to employ an astute 
 lawyer to draw up a demurrer to the indictment, charg- 
 ing that the law under which the action is brought is 
 unconstitutional. If a Federal judge can be found to 
 sustain the demurrer, the defendant goes free without 
 any determination of the merits of the case; and the 
 
QUESTIONS OF LAW 205 
 
 Government, having no right of appeal, cannot protect 
 the integrity of the law by taking the case to a higher 
 court for review. 
 
 In other words, the defendant is absolved from punish- 
 ment for a crime of which he may be guilty by the deci- 
 sion of an inferior court on a mere point of law, and there 
 is no method by which a higher court may be brought 
 to say whether or not the decision of the lower court is 
 erroneous. . . . 
 
 In urging the passage of the bill now pending in Con- 
 gress, the President used the following language in his 
 last annual message : 
 
 "I cannot too strongly urge the passage of the bill in 
 question. ... I have specifically in view a recent deci- 
 sion by a District Judge, leaving railway employees with- 
 out remedy for violation of a certain so-called labor statute. 
 It seems an absurdity to permit a single District Judge, 
 against what might be the judgment of the immense 
 majority of his colleagues on the bench, to declare a law 
 solemnly enacted by Congress to be ' unconstitutional/ 
 and then deny to the government the right to have the 
 Supreme Court definitely decide the question." 
 
 This is the language that aroused the ire of Mr. Smith, 
 causing him to characterize the President's conduct as 
 " dastardly" and charging him with an attempt to intimi- 
 date the Judge. However, the fact that Mr. Smith's 
 railroad was virtually the defendant in the case referred 
 to by the President may perhaps explain the violence of 
 the gentleman's criticism, while at the same time detract- 
 ing from its value. . . . 
 
 On the invitation of the editor of the New York Herald, 
 Mr. Moseley wrote a general review of the railroad situa- 
 tion, which was published in that paper, on January 2, 
 1908, and which filled more than a page. After discuss- 
 ing the constitutional and practical distinctions between 
 Federal and State control and elucidating the position of 
 the Interstate Commerce Commission, he unfolded the 
 
206 EDWARD A. MOSELEY 
 
 story of the progress and prosperity of the railroads of 
 the country. 
 
 Again the rule of reason, which the Supreme Court has 
 since read into the Sherman Law, was discussed by Mr. 
 Moseley in the appended letter : 
 
 March 24, 1908. 
 DEAR ME. LOEB : 
 
 In Sunday's Herald I noticed, as you will see by the 
 inclosed clipping, that it was proposed by the President 
 to recommend to Congress the passage of a law exempting 
 reasonable combinations and reasonable contracts from 
 the operation of the anti-trust law. 
 
 I am considerably disturbed about this, if the criminal 
 features of the law are to remain, for the reasons set forth 
 in the accompanying memorandum. I am confident 
 that if the proposition is made by the President that it 
 will be attacked by the Administration's opponents, who 
 will claim that it is a covert attempt to destroy the law. 
 
 Please use your own judgment as to speaking to the 
 President about this matter, because I don't want to be 
 in the position of a "butter in," and this is written you 
 personally and not officially, and without consultation 
 with others. 
 
 With great regard and respect, 
 
 EDWARD A. MOSELEY. 
 HON. WILLIAM LOEB, JR., 
 
 Secretary to the President, Washington, D.C. 
 
 Mr. Taft, in the course of his campaign for President 
 in 1908, having hinted at the policy, which he finally 
 adopted, of establishing a Commerce Court, Mr. Moseley 
 did not hesitate to lay before him the objections to such 
 a policy : 
 
 October 12, 1908. 
 
 DEAR MR. TAFT: 
 
 Supplementing my letter of the tenth instant, and 
 pursuant to my postscript thereto, permit me again to 
 
QUESTIONS OF LAW 207 
 
 advert to your recent intimation that the functions and 
 duties of the Interstate Commerce Commission should be 
 segregated. Lack of time precluded, in my communica- 
 tion of Saturday, the presentation of my views with such 
 particularity as I believe expedient. 
 
 I desire especially to amplify what I had to say with 
 reference to the determination of what is and what is 
 not a reasonable rate. This is one of the most important 
 duties of the Commission, and requires for its perform- 
 ance the exercise of functions preeminently legislative. 
 For the Commission to act judicially in the establishment 
 of a rate would be subversive of the very purposes for 
 which this body was created. The Commissioners are 
 in no sense judges, and the popular misconception to the 
 contrary is utterly without foundation in fact. 
 
 To elaborate upon the analogy I suggested the similarity 
 between the establishment of local cab tariffs by the Com- 
 missioners of the District of Columbia and the regulation 
 of the rates covering interstate transportation. The jehus 
 of Washington are granted a hearing before the District 
 Commissioners. They are permitted to introduce evi- 
 dence as to the prevailing cost of equipment, fodder and 
 repairs. They are allowed to testify as to the volume of 
 traffic in designated localities. Then, from a considera- 
 tion of all these elements, the Commissioners decide that 
 cab fares shall not exceed twenty-five cents for fifteen 
 squares. 
 
 There is no actual relation between the expenditure 
 for equipment and maintenance and the charge prescribed 
 for the service. The exact cost of the transportation is, 
 in the very nature of things, not susceptible of accurate 
 computation. There is no process of deduction that could 
 yield the identical result at which the Commissioners 
 arrive. They establish what in their opinion constitutes 
 a fair return for the services rendered, viewed from the 
 standpoint of the cab driver as well as protection of 
 the traveling public, but their conclusion is, in reality, 
 the product of the merest guesswork. 
 
 So with the ascertainment of reasonable rates by the 
 Interstate Commerce Commission. Take, for instance, 
 the rate on hairpins from New York to the Pacific coast. 
 
208 EDWARD A. MOSELEY 
 
 The entire amount involved in the transportation of this 
 traffic aggregates only a few hundreds of dollars. It 
 would be absolutely impossible to ascertain the ratio of 
 the wear and tear occasioned thereby to the general depre- 
 ciation of equipment. It would be equally impracticable 
 to attempt an investigation into the intrinsic cost of 
 transportation. The carriers, however, have established 
 what they believe to be a rate commensurate with the 
 service expended. If the charges assessed under such 
 rate inflict hardship upon the dealers in the articles men- 
 tioned, they may appeal to the Commission to have such 
 rates for the future reduced. Precisely as in the case of 
 the cab drivers, they may present testimony to show that 
 the prevailing freight rates imperil their interests. The 
 carriers may submit their evidence in justification of the 
 tariff attacked. The Commission weighs the proof offered 
 by both sides, determines the happy average, and the 
 charges are reduced or not as the circumstances may 
 appear to warrant. 
 
 In any event, the Commission can only guess at the 
 propriety of a given rate, and in the case stated, they 
 merely substitute their own estimate for the conjecture 
 of the railroad company. The decision of each is char- 
 acterized by a like incertitude, but it is only reasonable 
 to assume that severi men of the tested probity of the 
 Commissioners, untrammeled by the persuasion of self- 
 interest, and actuated solely by a desire to promote the pub- 
 lic weal, would much more nearly approximate a reason- 
 able tariff than could the officials of the railroad company, 
 biased, as they must necessarily be, by the proddings of 
 personal advantage. 
 
 The carriers established rates in the first instance, and 
 such charges remain in effect until they are modified by 
 the companies themselves, or condemned as unreasonable 
 by the Commission. The welfare of the public can be 
 conserved only by allowing an appeal from the otherwise 
 arbitrary fiat of the railroad companies. Such an appeal 
 could not be submitted directly to the courts by the 
 parties aggrieved, because the establishment of rates is a 
 matter beyond the purview of judicial discretion. There 
 has never been an instance in any court where a com- 
 
QUESTIONS OF LAW 200 
 
 plainant has recovered a scintilla of reparation because a 
 rate was unreasonable. 
 
 This essential recourse can be had only to the Inter- 
 state Commerce Commission. Their efforts have met 
 with the unstinted approval and cooperation of the 
 various boards of trade, traffic associations and chambers 
 of commerce through the country, and the innumerable 
 testimonials received at this office from benefited com- 
 plainants, commendatory of their work, fully attest the 
 unqualified indorsement of the present regimen. 
 
 The question of rates involves a consideration of so 
 many factors that it is absolutely essential that the 
 Commission shall have ready access to all the railroad 
 tariffs, contracts, agreements, etc., now filed by the 
 carriers ; that they shall have the power to investigate 
 at all times the books and accounts of railroad com- 
 panies ; and that their investigations shall not be circum- 
 scribed by the inflexible rules of judicial procedure. 
 
 A final appeal to the Federal courts should properly be 
 allowed from the orders of the Commission, to secure an 
 ultimate determination of the Federal questions presented, 
 as by the suggestion of confiscatory rates, due process of 
 law, etc., incidents protected by the Constitution of the 
 United States. The question as to whether or not the 
 Commission has the power to regulate freight rates is 
 now on certification to the Supreme Court, in the Wil- 
 lamette Valley lumber cases, and we will be fully advised 
 as to the true status of the proposition when the decision 
 is handed down by that tribunal. 
 
 Another aspect of the situation to which I wish to 
 direct your particular attention concerns the effectuation 
 of the Safety Appliance Laws. The Department of 
 Justice has left almost entirely to the Commission the 
 prosecution of cases under these statutes. We have our 
 own attorneys, specialists in this branch of the work, 
 whose attention is confined exclusively to the work of 
 this division. The Commission has instituted the novel 
 practice of intervening in private causes whenever any 
 of the acts intrusted to them for enforcement are as- 
 sailed. The result of their efforts in the enforcement of 
 these laws is a line of favorable decisions unparalleled by 
 
210 EDWARD A. MOSELEY 
 
 any law on our statute books. This same policy of 
 specialization is pursued by the Commission in every 
 field of their endeavor, and it must, of necessity, produce 
 the very best results. 
 
 Our vigorous enforcement of the Safety Appliance 
 Laws has resulted in a material reduction in the number 
 of railroad fatalities, a fact which is duly noted and 
 appreciated by our vast army of railroad trainmen, and 
 it may be said with certainty that any attempt to dissi- 
 pate the efforts of the Commission in the execution of 
 these laws would meet with an overwhelming storm of 
 protest from the beneficiaries thereunder. . . . 
 
 I trust you will condone the length of this communi- 
 cation, which, I assure you again, is prompted by a per- 
 sonally, disinterested desire to advance the welfare of all 
 concerned. As you are aware, my position is such that 
 I would not be affected one way or the other by the con- 
 summation of your suggestion, but it occurs to me that 
 the propagation of the ideas advanced might be unwise 
 just at this time. 
 
 I am, with great regard and respect, 
 
 EDWARD A. MOSELEY. 
 
CHAPTER XXI 
 CUBA AND THE COAL STRIKE 
 
 THE story of Mr. Moseley's visit to Cuba on business at 
 the time of the unsuccessful Ten Years' War for the libera- 
 tion of the Island and his acceptance of a hazardous serv- 
 ice for the revolutionists has already been told. That early 
 experience lends added interest to a useful work he per- 
 formed for Cuba when at last her independence was won. 
 
 In the closing days of the American occupation of the 
 Island, the Military Government wished to prepare a 
 general railroad law and have it in operation when the 
 transfer of power to the republic of Cuba should take 
 place. Mr. Moseley was chosen as the adviser of those who 
 were engaged in the task, and General Leonard Wood, the 
 Military Governor, sent him the following invitation : 
 
 HEADQUARTERS MILITARY GOVERNOR, ISLAND OF CUBA, 
 
 HAVANA. 
 
 December 23, 1901. 
 
 MR. EDWARD" A. MOSELEY, Secretary, Interstate Com- 
 merce Commission, Washington, D.C. 
 
 SIR: 
 
 I am proposing a general revision of the existing rail- 
 way laws'of the Island, and the Secretary of Public Works 
 has requested me to ask you to give us your assistance, 
 thinking same will be of great value. Could you come 
 down here for a couple of weeks, and if so, what compen- 
 sation would you desire? I would appreciate it very 
 
 211 
 
212 EDWARD A. MOSELEY 
 
 much if you could come and realize fully that your opinion 
 and assistance would be of great service to us. Please 
 cable me if you can come. 
 
 Very respectfully, 
 
 LEONARD WOOD, 
 Military Governor of Cuba. 
 
 Mr. Moseley was very busy at the time, but, after some 
 further correspondence by cable, he was convinced that 
 there was an opportunity to discharge an important and 
 attractive duty, and he went to Havana. There he found 
 a novel situation which appealed to his imagination. 
 A single American, in the person of the Military Governor, 
 had the power to adopt and enforce, in a month, a com- 
 plete scheme of railroad regulation such as the President 
 and Congress and Courts of the United States thus far 
 had been unable to formulate and establish for this 
 country, after twenty years of discussion. 
 
 When Mr. Moseley arrived in Havana, however, he 
 saw at once that the railroads were as keenly alive to 
 their interests in Cuba as they were in the United States, 
 for in the draft of the law which had already been prepared, 
 the welfare of the companies was well guarded. He felt 
 that certain modern measures for the protection of the 
 public had been neglected, and also that the plan might 
 work a harsh injustice to the employees. 
 
 General Wood had wisely selected him to revise the 
 draft, and when Mr. Moseley had pointed out the de- 
 fects, the general asked him to redraw or amend the regu- 
 lations wherever he deemed necessary and make them 
 just to the people, the railroads and their employees. 
 This he proceeded to do, and, conscious of the arbitrary 
 
CUBA AND THE COAL STRIKE 213 
 
 power of the Military Government behind him, he saw to 
 it that Cuba should have a nearly ideal railroad law. 
 
 Not only was the Railroad Commission authorized to 
 fix rates, but Mr. Moseley also drew up a provision em- 
 powering the Commission to interfere between the rail- 
 roads and their employees to protect the latter. He in- 
 corporated in the law a virtual recognition of labor 
 unions by providing that employees might be heard 
 through their representatives in these terms : 
 
 " The Commission is to revise and approve the by-laws 
 and working regulations of railroad companies, and all 
 such regulations pertaining to and affecting employees 
 are to be approved only after the aforesaid employees 
 and their representatives have had opportunity to be 
 heard before the Commission." 
 
 After his return to Washington, Mr. Moseley explained 
 this phase of his work in the following letter, under date 
 of March 27, 1902: 
 
 I take great pleasure in sending you a copy of the 
 railroad law of Cuba, which has been established by the 
 Military Governor, Major-General Wood. This law in- 
 cludes a uniform classification and rules of practice before 
 the Commission, which is created by the law. This will 
 be the railway law of Cuba after the American occupa- 
 tion has ceased. 
 
 I went to Cuba to assist in its preparation and, of 
 course, am very much interested in it. From the last 
 clause of the abstract of the law, copy of which I inclose, 
 you will see that I have been doing some work for the 
 men. I could not well put into the law the word " organi- 
 zation," but you will readily understand that it is an 
 encouragement to organization in that the representa- 
 tives of employees are recognized. 
 
214 EDWARD A. MOSELEY 
 
 As I took the responsibility of urging this, I trust you 
 will give it whatever notice you deem proper. Of course 
 I do not want to be connected with the matter in any 
 way, but I think the credit should be given to Major- 
 General Wood, who approved of its insertion in the law. 
 When I returned, I told the President what I had done, 
 and in his characteristic way he expressed himself as 
 greatly pleased with it and said : " Bully, old man; bully 
 for you, I cannot tell you how much satisfaction this 
 gives me." 
 
 I believe that the new Republic should start off by 
 recognizing labor and the representatives of labor. I 
 expect to have to go down to Cuba again to aid in the 
 final adjusting of tariffs. One of the things that the 
 people of Cuba have to dread is the demands made upon 
 them by the owners of the railroads of Cuba, who are 
 mostly foreigners, and under the circumstances it was 
 deemed that if a fair and just law was made the United 
 States could assist the infant Republic in the enforcement 
 of it. 
 
 I believe it is perhaps the best law upon the statute 
 books of any country undertaking to regulate railroads, 
 and there was great necessity for it. The former law put 
 the railroads of Cuba absolutely under the control of 
 the Minister of Public Works, and if executed it would 
 have been harsh and extreme, but owing to the venality 
 of the Spanish officials and their willingness to accept 
 bribes, it was more honored in the breach than in the 
 observance. 
 
 On Mr. Moseley's departure for Washington, General 
 Wood wrote in appreciation of his services : 
 
 HEADQUARTERS MILITARY GOVERNOR, ISLAND OF CUBA, 
 
 February 25, 1902. 
 
 HON. MARTIN A. KNAPP, Chairman of the Interstate 
 
 Commerce Commission, Washington. 
 SIR: 
 
 I have the honor to state that Messrs. Edward A. 
 Moseley and Martin S. Decker, Secretary and Assistant 
 
CUBA AND THE COAL STRIKE 215 
 
 Secretary, respectively, of the Interstate Commerce 
 Commission, have been detained in Havana upon my 
 request and have rendered most valuable assistance in 
 the revision of the railroad laws of Cuba and the classifi- 
 cation of rates. 
 
 It is regretted that they are unable to remain longer, 
 and I beg to assure you that their services have been 
 most highly appreciated and will be of great and lasting 
 benefit to Cuba. 
 
 I hope that at some early date the Commission will 
 permit the return of Messrs. Moseley and Decker to this 
 Island, as I desire their assistance on the question of the 
 railroad tariff. 
 
 Very respectfully, 
 
 LEONARD WOOD, 
 Military Governor of Cuba. 
 
 In a few weeks this second call was received from Gen- 
 eral Wood : 
 
 HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF CUBA. HAVANA. 
 
 April 3, 1902. 
 
 ADJUTANT GENERAL, WASHINGTON, D.C. : 
 
 For transmission to Chairman Interstate Commerce 
 Commission. Desire presence of Mr. Moseley for few 
 days !in Havana to confer with Railroad Commission on 
 question of rates. Expenses will be met from insular funds. 
 
 WOOD. 
 
 On this second visit to Havana, Mr. Moseley attended 
 the hearing of the protest from the railroads against any 
 law being enforced affecting their interests, rights, and 
 concessions under the Spanish- American treaty of peace. 
 Before leaving the Island, he passed on the regulations 
 and tariffs for every railroad in Cuba, and one of the 
 principal railroad managers was not long in acknowledg- 
 ing that while he had bitterly opposed the law at first, 
 
216 EDWARD A. MOSELEY 
 
 it proved to be nearly perfect in operation, that the rates 
 were just and that the business had increased enormously. 
 
 Mr. Moseley had declined from the outset to accept 
 pay for his services to the Military Government, which 
 at first General Wood was inclined to compensate out of 
 the Cuban treasury at the rate of $100 a day. After the 
 work was finished to the satisfaction of the General and 
 the Railroad Commission, an allowance of $5000 was 
 proposed. Mr. Moseley persisted in his refusal to accept 
 any money whatever for his services, he having made it a 
 rule in the beginning of his official life not to receive any fees 
 or any form of compensation other than his lawful salary. 
 
 The value of his labors is a matter of official record. 
 In his report to the War Department, General Wood 
 said : 
 
 Mr. Moseley 's work was extremely valuable and of 
 great assistance. His vast experience as Secretary of the 
 Interstate Commerce Commission, and his clear judgment 
 in all matters involved, was of immense assistance in 
 rounding out the law, and he virtually directed the regu- 
 lations embodied in Order No. 117. He also largely in- 
 fluenced the provisions of Order No. 61. 
 
 Mr. Frank Steinhart, chief clerk of the department of 
 Cuba, also wrote : 
 
 Only one thoroughly acquainted with the condition of 
 affairs then existing here can appreciate General Wood's 
 statement that your work was extremely valuable and of 
 great assistance ; that your clear judgment in all matters 
 involved was of immense assistance in rounding out the 
 law, and that you virtually directed the regulations 
 embodied in Order No. 117 and largely influenced the 
 provision of Order No. 61. 
 
CUBA AND THE COAL STRIKE 217 
 
 Another interesting service, apart from his duty to 
 the Commission, fell to Mr. Moseley when President 
 Roosevelt appointed him an Assistant Recorder of 
 the Anthracite Coal Strike Commission in 1902, the 
 other Assistant Recorder being Mr. Charles P. Neill, 
 afterward Commissioner of Labor, and the Chief Re- 
 corder being Colonel Carroll D. Wright. The dis- 
 tinguished men whom the President selected to arbi- 
 trate the dispute between employers and employees, 
 which had closed the hard coal mines and threat- 
 ened the country with great hardship on the eve of 
 winter, requested Mr. Moseley to act as their disbursing 
 officer. 
 
 It happened, however, that the Commission had no 
 funds to disburse. The law had not created it, and there 
 was no appropriation to meet its expenses. Its resource- 
 ful disbursing officer, nevertheless, arranged at once to 
 place $20,000 at its disposal on his own personal credit, 
 trusting to the fairness of Congress to reimburse him. 
 When President Roosevelt sent for him to talk over the 
 affairs of the Commission, Mr. Roosevelt said, "The 
 Commission must not fail for want of money; you are 
 disbursing officer, and if you need funds, draw upon my 
 private purse. " 
 
 "I am pleased to tell you, Mr. President," said Mr. 
 Moseley; "that I have already arranged that matter on 
 my own account." 
 
 The Scranton Truth, published in the city where the 
 Commission held its sessions, said of Mr. Moseley in a 
 personal sketch : 
 
218 EDWARD A. MOSELEY 
 
 If it should be asked who is the most popular man 
 attached to the Anthracite Commission among all the 
 distinguished persons brought here through the sessions, 
 there would be a unanimous opinion uttered that Assistant 
 Recorder Moseley is the one. Everywhere in demand, 
 everywhere wanted, everywhere honored and respected, 
 and even beloved, he is at once the most necessary as well 
 as the most unobtrusive individual connected with the 
 hearings. There are few people familiarly seen about the 
 Lackawanna County Court House, from judges to scrub 
 women, who do not look upon Mr. Moseley with smiles 
 of approval. It is never too much trouble for him to be 
 kind, and he is never in too much of a hurry to be civil 
 to the humblest as well as the highest. 
 
 He is the one who makes smooth the rough places, not 
 only for the members of the Commission, but for every- 
 body in the vicinity. He always has a supply of peace, 
 which he ladles out in copious quantities among those who 
 are disposed to make disturbances, and his pacificatory 
 methods would probably settle anything on earth except 
 the present controversy. He is one of the few men in 
 this country who have not written a piece for the news- 
 papers, telling how to settle it, and yet those who know 
 him pretty well believe that he might be depended on to 
 evolve a reasonably practical recipe for healing even these 
 grave differences. 
 
 The Chairman of the Commission, Judge George Gray 
 of the Federal bench, was an old personal friend of Mr. 
 Moseley, and when the work of the Commissioners had 
 been successfully finished they were all his personal 
 friends. In the closing days of their work, they were 
 his guests at dinner at the Metropolitan Club in Wash- 
 ington. "Your recent services with the Anthracite 
 Coal Strike Commission," Judge Gray afterward wrote 
 Mr. Moseley, "I am sure were such as to make each 
 member of that Commission your warm personal friend." 
 
CHAPTER XXII 
 A REPUBLIC'S GRATITUDE 
 
 THROUGH all the years Mr. Moseley was tirelessly 
 working for the interests of others, he did nothing and 
 asked nothing, absolutely nothing, for himself. He gave 
 his time, his money, and his health, and took nothing in 
 return. 
 
 The man literally gave himself, and forgot his own 
 interests. He renounced all claim to public applause, 
 which would have been as gratifying to him as to any 
 one, and cheerfully passed over to others the credit for 
 his successful labors. 
 
 He sought no political advancement or official pro- 
 motion. He asked for no increase in salary in the nearly 
 twenty-five years that he held office, and he brought 
 upon himself suspicion and investigation, in an era of 
 muck raking, because it was plainly to be seen that he 
 was not living on his government pay. 
 
 When one or two discharged clerks, who must have 
 exhausted his almost boundless forbearance, took re- 
 venge by bringing charges of petty irregularities against 
 him, not before the Commission, but in other quarters 
 less informed, the obvious fact that he was not living 
 within his official income was seized upon as a suspicious 
 circumstance. Possibly the department which enter- 
 tained the charges was predisposed to welcome them by 
 
 219 
 
220 EDWARD A. MOSELEY 
 
 its ambition to absorb some of the functions of Mr. 
 Moseley's office, an end which might be promoted if 
 any looseness should be disclosed in his conduct of it. 
 
 It was a time when the muck raker was very busy in 
 Washington. Rumor mongering and scandal mongering 
 were at a premium. The energies of the secret service 
 were diverted from counterfeiters and moonshiners, while 
 its agents trailed and spied on senators and representatives 
 and officials of the executive departments. 
 
 Mr. Moseley was under this un-American kind of 
 espionage for weeks before he had a hint of it. The 
 Commission was as innocent as he of the inquisitorial pro- 
 ceedings directed at him. When at last the secret serv- 
 ice men disclosed themselves to him, he promptly gave 
 them his keys and free access to everything within his 
 control, including his personal correspondence, his private 
 accounts in banks and his private safe-deposit com- 
 partments. 
 
 This was near the beginning of 1904. Leaving behind 
 him all possible means of searching out every trans- 
 action in his official and private affairs, Mr. Moseley 
 turned his back on his office, and went to his home re- 
 solved not to interfere in any way with the investigation, 
 and not to return until exonerated. 
 
 His friends, seeing only the absurdity of the thing, 
 made a jest of the whole business. But he who was by 
 no means thin skinned in a fair fight, and always took 
 the knocks that came to him with a smile, showed him- 
 self as sensitive in his honor as a woman, and was all 
 but overwhelmed by the humiliation put upon him. 
 
A REPUBLIC'S GRATITUDE 221 
 
 Among his effects was found this pathetic memoran- 
 dum, scribbled with a pencil on some little sheets of 
 paper : "The position which I have been in since Decem- 
 ber 31 is horrible. . . . After being followed for six 
 weeks by secret service men, then to be held up in igno- 
 miny for five weeks more and kept in total ignorance of 
 the charges against me, while the detective continues to 
 'run down clews/ confers with my accusers, who are 
 devoid of all character, and also with every employee 
 who in the past seventeen years has been discharged, 
 in the hope of manufacturing a case against me, I have 
 refrained, against the advice of friends, from doing 
 anything. My regard for the President, and my belief 
 in his integrity of purpose, have kept me quiet. I am 
 sure he cannot realize the suffering I am made to endure, 
 inflicted on me in his name/' 
 
 His bearing in that trying time was truly expressive 
 of the man who was always ready to defend a friend and 
 take the part of the under dog, joying in a fight for 
 others, but who could not lift a hand for himself when 
 unjustly and shamefully attacked, and " refrained from 
 doing anything" for his own protection. He waited at 
 his home until President Roosevelt sent for him and told 
 him that, after a searching investigation, he had been en- 
 tirely vindicated. 
 
 The official announcement of the outcome, in May, 
 1904, was made by the Interstate Commerce Commis- 
 sion which, after spreading on the records of the Com- 
 mission a detailed account of the vindication, quoted 
 this expression of confidence which the Commissioners 
 
222 EDWARD A. MOSELEY 
 
 had not hesitated to give him while he was under fire, 
 and before the investigation had exonerated him. 
 
 We take occasion to say further that you have always 
 been, during the entire period of our association with you, 
 a capable, energetic, and trustworthy official. While as 
 Secretary of the Commission your office hours have not 
 been regulated by any rule, you have shown your desire 
 to observe the proprieties of official conduct by constant 
 and regular attendance, frequently, and we think generally, 
 exceeding the number of hours required of our clerical 
 force, and you have not been known to absent yourself, 
 at any time or for any reason, without express permis- 
 sion. 
 
 Your duties have been manifold and exacting, especially 
 in recent years, and those duties have been discharged 
 with exceptional zeal and fidelity to the public interest. 
 You have not only been loyal to the Commission and 
 devoted to the work in which it is engaged, but your 
 efforts to secure wholesome and needed laws and enforce 
 their observance have promoted the cause of humanity 
 and entitled you to honorable distinction. 
 
 Your personal conduct at the office and elsewhere, so 
 far as we have had opportunity to observe it or know 
 about it, has been exemplary and commendable, while 
 the unselfishness and generosity of your disposition, par- 
 ticularly in matters affecting your financial interest, have 
 often been the subject of favorable comment. In all the 
 period of our connection with the Commission, you have 
 never intimated a wish to have your salary as Secretary 
 increased, and you have steadily refused to accept extra 
 compensation for your services as disbursing officer, al- 
 though the sum of $500 a year was voted to you by the 
 Commission in 1891 and has been offered at various times 
 since. 
 
 Besides this, you made two trips to Cuba at the request 
 of the Government, to revise the railway laws of that 
 country, and declined, as we are informed and believe, to 
 accept a fee of $5000 which was offered to you for your 
 services in that important matter. Knowing these facts 
 
A REPUBLIC'S GRATITUDE 223 
 
 and others of similar import, and basing our opinion upon 
 years of familiar acquaintance, the idea that you would 
 attempt to defraud the government in the petty ways 
 stated in these charges seem to us simply preposterous. 
 
 In conclusion you are assured of the confidence and 
 esteem of every member of the Commission. 
 
 This minute by the Commission continues : 
 
 As before stated, during all the time the investigation 
 was proceeding (nearly five months) Mr. Moseley volun- 
 tarily remained away from the office, not only that the 
 fullest opportunity might be given to investigate his con- 
 duct, from every standpoint, but also awaiting with confi- 
 dence a complete vindication of his conduct. He has 
 served the Commission and the Government conscien- 
 tiously for seventeen years, with the single aim of doing 
 his duty to the public and to the Commission, and his 
 self-respect led him to absent himself until he was fully 
 exonerated. 
 
 At last, what Mr. Moseley so confidently expected, has 
 taken place. The President, after carefully considering 
 the charges against him, has dismissed them. It has 
 been a trying ordeal, but Mr. Moseley has, during the 
 whole time, been sustained by the consciousness that he 
 was not guilty of any offense against the Government or 
 the public weal, and his whole official conduct was an 
 open book, to which he invited the closest scrutiny and 
 research. 
 
 The Washington Post made this editorial comment on 
 the case : 
 
 The inquiry into the accounts of Mr. Edward A. Mose- 
 ley, Secretary and Disbursing Agent of the Interstate 
 Commerce Commission, has terminated in a complete and 
 unreserved exoneration of that gentleman. It is not only 
 that nothing has been proved to his discredit. It is that 
 everything alleged or even suspected has been entirely 
 disproved. Mr. Moseley is left without a cloud or so 
 much as the lightest shadow on his name. 
 
224 EDWARD A. MOSELEY 
 
 No great amount of wisdom was needed to foresee that 
 termination. When a public official, at the first breath 
 of accusation, hands over his keys, books, papers and 
 property of every kind, and studiously absents himself 
 from the office throughout the entire period of the investi- 
 gation he has demanded, he at once relieves himself, in 
 the minds of all impartial and judicious men, of the very 
 smallest shadow of suspicion. No one, after that, imagines 
 for a moment that he is conscious of any shortcoming or 
 has anything to fear from the minutest and most jealous 
 scrutiny. 
 
 Guilty men do not adopt this course ; even men who 
 doubt their ability without doubting their integrity of pur- 
 pose would hesitate at such radical measures as Mr. 
 Moseley adopted and adhered to. His action meant not 
 only that he knew himself to be honest, but that he knew 
 himself to be capable and efficient as well. No other inter- 
 pretation on that action is conceivable. 
 
 As we have said, the inquiry has resulted in a complete 
 exoneration. Of course, Mr. Moseley's friends were pre- 
 pared for that, and so indeed were all thoughtful observers 
 of the incident. But the country has a new and shining 
 standard by which to measure future scandals and indict- 
 ments in connection with Government officials. Let us 
 hope that we shall see more of it. 
 
 Mr. Moseley 's mail was filled with the rejoicings and 
 congratulations of his friends. Commissioner Prouty, 
 who was absent from the city, wrote, "What I congratu- 
 late you upon is, not that the charges have been dis- 
 missed, but that your conduct has been such that no other 
 feasible course was open." 
 
 "It is almost worth while," wrote Judge Gray of the 
 United States Circuit Court of Appeals, "to have been 
 attacked to be so handsomely vindicated. Of course, I 
 never had any doubt as to the ultimate issue of the 
 investigation." 
 
A REPUBLIC'S GRATITUDE 225 
 
 Mr. Don M. Dickinson, formerly Postmaster-General, 
 telegraphed from Detroit, " Congratulations on complete 
 vindication." 
 
 From Mr. Wayne MacVeagh, formerly Attorney- 
 General, came this exclamation: "Over four months 
 and a half to find out that you had not been a grafter on 
 ice and stationery I" 
 
 Joseph Nimmo, the statistician, added this observa- 
 tion to his congratulatory letter, "You are also to be 
 congratulated on the abiding trust of the Interstate Com- 
 merce Commission in your ability and integrity." 
 
 Congressman Hemenway wrote from his Indiana 
 home, "I congratulate you and regret that the Govern- 
 ment has not more of your kind occupying official posi- 
 tions." 
 
 Mr. W. J. Calhoun, formerly a member of the Com- 
 mission, afterward Ambassador to China, wrote, "If 
 you have enemies who has not ? I am very glad 
 their attack only served to make brighter your personal 
 and official record." 
 
 Mr. George R. Peck, general counsel of the Chicago, 
 Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad wrote: "The whole 
 affair was, in my opinion, a disgrace to the civil service 
 of the country, but your complete vindication was, in a 
 sense, a recompense for the annoyance to which you 
 have been subjected." 
 
 Mr. Charles S. Hamlin wrote from Boston: "While 
 we all knew the result would be as it is, yet it is a satis- 
 faction to have our golden opinion of you duly verified." 
 
 Professor Henry C. Adams wrote from Ann Arbor, 
 Q 
 
226 EDWARD A. MOSELEY 
 
 "It seems to place too much importance upon the whole 
 affair, to say to you that I congratulate you upon coming 
 through the ordeal without detriment to yourself." 
 
 Yet the suffering Mr. Moseley endured at this time, it 
 is not too much to say, seriously undermined his health 
 and hastened his death. It is a fact that one of the per- 
 sons who made the false accusations ultimately came to 
 him confessing and begging for assistance, and received it. 
 
 Mr. Moseley continued to pay for the privilege of 
 working for Uncle Sam as he had done every year since 
 he took the office. An inheritance from his uncle, 
 William O. Moseley, in 1894, aided him toward building 
 a house in Washington, and finally his share of his father's 
 fortune, which came to him hi 1900, brought him a com- 
 petence. 
 
 He, who had no superior in the public service as a 
 promoter of measures in Congress and in the executive 
 departments, saw with indifference the salaries of most 
 fellow officials in Washington, including those of his 
 Commissioners, pushed up 25 and 50 per cent, and did 
 not turn his hand over to advance his own salary from 
 the amount originally prescribed by Congress in 1887, 
 $3500 a year. The duties and responsibilities of his 
 office had been multiplied many times, but the compen- 
 sation remained stationary for several years more, and 
 he remained content. He could lobby for others, but not 
 for himself. 
 
 When, without his solicitation, a motion was made in 
 Congress to increase his salary, he stood by while a few 
 men at the Capitol, whose antagonism he had aroused 
 
A REPUBLIC'S GRATITUDE 227 
 
 by his aggressive campaigns for legislation, took their 
 revenge on him. Senator Stephen B. Elkins of West 
 Virginia eulogized in vain the disinterested services of 
 Secretary Moseley, whom he had known ever since the 
 organization of the Commission, and whom he pro- 
 nounced an efficient, able, and faithful official, one having 
 the confidence of all the executive departments and the 
 President. Senator Elkins said in the Senate : 
 
 Mr. Moseley was appointed Assistant Recorder of the 
 Anthracite Coal Strike Commission by President Roose- 
 velt and, at the request of the Commission, became its 
 disbursing officer. All the money expended by the Com- 
 mission until Congress made provision, which it was 
 doubtful they would do, was provided by Mr. Moseley 
 on his personal security alone, he thereby assuming the 
 great risk of Congress not making any appropriation for 
 the expenditures of the Commission. 
 
 During the American occupation of Cuba, at the re- 
 quest of the Governor-General of that Island, Mr. Moseley 
 was sent by the United States Government to assist in 
 drawing a railroad law, to fix a classification of articles of 
 freight, formulate rules of practice, and to fix railroad 
 rates. . . . 
 
 For his valuable work in connection with drafting the 
 railroad law of Cuba, Mr. Moseley was informed by those 
 in authority that they would be pleased to pay him some 
 $5000 out of the revenues of the Cuban treasury, and it 
 was urged upon him that he could properly accept it. 
 Mr. Moseley, however, refused, stating that all his services 
 - time and energy belonged to the United States Gov- 
 ernment wherever employed, and that, being assigned to 
 work in Cuba, all he was entitled to was his actual living 
 and traveling expenses. 
 
 The Secretary was marked out to be excluded from 
 his share in the upward trend of government salaries. 
 
228 EDWARD A. MOSELEY 
 
 Congress freely increased the pay of incumbents of sine- 
 cures. Had the Secretary of the Interstate Commerce 
 Commission done nothing but plod along in the path of 
 bureaucratic routine, he would have been rewarded 
 without question. 
 
 Because he held office not merely for himself, but as a 
 vantage point from which to forward the interests of 
 tens of thousands of citizens, who had no Senators to 
 represent then- interests, he was singled out for rebuke 
 and punishment by men who felt no enmity toward him, 
 but toward his ceaseless demands that the railroads 
 be compelled to give better protection to life and limb 
 and to care for the wounded and for widows and orphans. 
 They had no idea how little he cared whether his 
 salary was $5000, $3500, or nothing. If he had really 
 cared, and had employed in his own interest the in- 
 fluences always at his instant command, we may be 
 sure that the increase would have been promptly forth- 
 coming. He accepted the discrimination against him 
 as a distinction, and it actually became a point of pride 
 with him. 
 
 At the next session of Congress, the Commission 
 formally and earnestly appealed for an increase in the 
 salary of the Secretary, not only in justice to him, but 
 in justice to subordinates who could not be properly 
 paid as long as their chief was underpaid; and finally 
 the increase was granted. Chairman Knapp's letter 
 follows : 
 
A REPUBLIC'S GRATITUDE 229 
 
 . INTERSTATE COMMERCE COMMISSION, WASHINGTON, 
 December 17, 1906. 
 
 HON. JAMES A. TAWNEY, Chairman Committee on 
 Appropriations, House of Representatives, Wash- 
 ington, D.C. 
 
 DEAR SIR : 
 
 The Interstate Commerce Commission has the honor 
 to submit herewith a supplemental estimate providing 
 for its Secretary a salary of $5000 per annum in place of 
 $3500 fixed by the present law. 
 
 The Secretary of the Commission is its chief executive 
 officer, and the amended act has greatly increased his 
 labors and responsibility. The present salary is materially 
 less than the proper compensation of such an official and 
 much below the salaries paid, as we understand, to officials 
 of corresponding rank and duties in other branches of the 
 public service. This disproportion is the more notice- 
 able because of the relation of the salary now paid the 
 Secretary to the increased salaries of the members of the 
 Commission under the amended law. 
 
 From the time of the creation of the Commission nearly 
 twenty years ago, Mr. Edward A. Moseley has been its 
 Secretary, and the ability and zeal with which he has dis- 
 charged his duties are matters of common knowledge. 
 He enjoys the confidence and respect of the Commission, 
 and its members are unanimous in asking that he receive 
 the salary named in the estimate. The position itself 
 and the present incumbent alike deserve the full increase 
 recommended. 
 
 There is a further reason which we may properly men- 
 tion. The salaries of the Assistant Secretary and other 
 subordinates are fixed by the Commission, and propriety 
 requires that they be adjusted with reference to the salary 
 which the law fixes for the Secretary. An increase in 
 salary of the Secretary will enable the Commission to 
 properly advance somewhat the salaries now paid to 
 others whose long and faithful service, in some cases 
 almost invaluable, entitle them to increased compensa- 
 tion as a matter of simple justice. 
 
 Very respectfully yours, 
 
 MARTIN A. KNAPP, Chairman. 
 
CHAPTER XXIII 
 His WORK DONE 
 
 THE work Mr. Moseley did in studying, formulating, 
 and promoting the legislation which is his monument, 
 and in defending and enforcing that legislation would 
 have absorbed and exhausted the energies and abilities 
 of a man of normal capacity. Few men would have 
 found the time and strength to do anything else. It 
 represents, however, only one division of Mr. Moseley's 
 activities. 
 
 Throughout the years that he was battling for those 
 laws in Congress, in the Courts and all along the more 
 than two hundred thousand miles of railroads in this 
 country, he was faithfully fulfilling his arduous, delicate 
 and responsible duties as Secretary and executive officer 
 of the Interstate Commerce Commission, one of the 
 most exacting posts in Washington, which would have 
 taxed to the full measure the attention and industry of 
 almost any other man. No detail of his obligations to the 
 Commission, the Government or the public was neglected. 
 
 Many who were interested only in his discharge of 
 the functions of his office looked upon his ceaseless agi- 
 tation for protective measures in behalf of safety of life 
 on the rail as a mere side issue, as an amusing diversion 
 or distraction. To them it was "Moseley's hobby," an 
 innocent but unimportant affair. 
 
 230 
 
HIS WORK DONE 231 
 
 For the Interstate Commerce Commission was estab- 
 lished solely to regulate railroad rates, and its regulation 
 of the conditions of railroad labor naturally was regarded 
 as a digression from its original duty, an offshoot from 
 its main purpose, gratuitously brought about by its 
 Secretary. There have been members of the Commis- 
 sion who had little sympathy with his unending crusade, 
 and who were annoyed by the criticism which his mili- 
 tant methods sometimes provoked among railroad of- 
 ficials. It is a tribute to their forbearance no less than 
 to his consummate tact that he was left free to carry 
 on his various campaigns. It was the silent expression 
 of the Commission's esteem and of its sense of his value. 
 
 While much of his propaganda was outside all official 
 bounds and therefore had to be forwarded without in- 
 volving the Commission, whenever he spoke or acted as 
 its representative, that body loyally stood behind him, 
 and thereby made possible the work he did. There is 
 no purpose in these pages to award to the Secretary any 
 credit which the Commission or any one else is entitled 
 to share with him, although in a personal sketch it would 
 be difficult to avoid giving such an impression. No one 
 can follow his activities, mark the advanced position 
 which he boldly took on many questions and occasions, 
 and note the powerful influences which he successfully 
 combated, without admiration for the confidence and 
 constancy of the Commission in sustaining him. 
 
 His personal relations with the Commissioners were 
 helpful and friendly and often intimate and affectionate. 
 The most politic of men, he aided to harmonize their 
 
232 EDWARD A. MOSELEY 
 
 inevitable differences and secure united action on the 
 questions that came before them. He administered the 
 oath of office to new members and freely opened to them 
 the storehouse of his long experience. It chanced some- 
 times that he participated in their selection, and was 
 the first to give them the good news, for he was ever 
 vigilant to promote the appointment of progressive men 
 on the Commission. 
 
 As early as 1891 he was writing to an absent member 
 on the occasion of a vacancy : 
 
 This Commission is in a mighty lame position. The 
 Chairman will never come here again, I am sure. Vir- 
 tually there will be two new men coming into the Com- 
 mission, and that within a short time. It is of the utmost 
 importance that the man appointed to succeed Commis- 
 sioner Bragg should be a man who has some familiarity 
 with this subject, and that it should not be parceled out 
 to somebody or other, or even to a man who may have 
 won distinction in something else. 
 
 The President rarely hastens in matters of this sort, 
 but I am awfully afraid that somebody may get a hold 
 before you can see him and tell him the situation. But, 
 for God's sake, Mr. Commissioner, don't let anybody 
 get into this Commission, if you can help it, that is not 
 going to be an aid and assistance to it ! I don't care 
 about myself, but this question is so great and over- 
 powering, that my only thought is that the Commission 
 shall not go down under the trials and troubles which 
 are constantly being heaped upon it, and that, now the 
 opportunity is here, some strong man should be put into 
 the harness, to help draw the load. 
 
 This letter is in the strictest confidence to you, and it is 
 only because you are not here. I do pray that you will 
 communicate to the President something or other, which 
 will deter him from taking any hasty action. I am here 
 on the spot, and appreciate everything. For God's sake, 
 do act ! 
 
HIS WORK DONE 233 
 
 The Secretary's opposition to a candidate for a seat 
 at the Commission table in the McKinley administration 
 took the form of a movement of protest. President 
 McKinley had indicated his approval of the candidacy, 
 but the applicant had a record as a judge which Mr. 
 Moseley regarded as unsuited to a member of the Com- 
 mission, and he went after him, although he took his 
 official life in his hands when he did it. The President 
 told the judge's friends that if they would see that the 
 objections were withdrawn, he would nominate him, but 
 Mr. Moseley did not yield to the pressure brought to bear 
 directly upon himself as the instigator of the remon- 
 strance, and the selection was not made. The man's 
 transparent unselfishness never failed to vindicate his 
 actions. 
 
 In the discharge of the strictly official duties of his 
 office, Mr. Moseley proved himself a most efficient execu- 
 tive. When he became Secretary of the Commission in 
 1887, it was a bureau of the Interior Department, with 
 a staff of five clerks. He saw the Commission become 
 independent of any department, not far from six hundred 
 and fifty persons on its roll of employees, and the annual 
 appropriation for its maintenance, of which he was the 
 disbursing agent for many years, increased to $1,800,000. 
 
 He saw the files, which he started, grow until they 
 held ten million documents and papers, and the library 
 of the Commission prosper until it was pointed to with 
 envy by the officials of other governments and was 
 rivaled in its completeness only by the far older library 
 of the railroad bureau of Prussia. 
 
234 EDWARD A. MOSELEY 
 
 As Secretary, he examined every detail of his work, 
 with the purpose of promoting the convenience of the 
 Commission and its staff and the service of the public. 
 Whenever a decision was to be announced by the Com- 
 mission, the representatives of the press were warned of 
 its coming, in order that all should have a fair and equal 
 chance. A synopsis was then carefully prepared and 
 sent to such newspapers as cared to have it. The opin- 
 ions were also sent to the parties immediately interested, 
 and in some instances every operating railroad in the 
 United States was served with a copy, under the seal of 
 the Commission and by registered mail. Comparing 
 the system which he pursued with that of the Supreme 
 Court, he once wrote : 
 
 The Supreme Court decisions are declared from the 
 bench. One may go every Monday, which is the day set 
 for decisions, month in and month out, awaiting the court's 
 determination, until patience almost ceases to be a virtue. 
 At last the opinion is rendered orally by one of the Judges. 
 It is weeks afterwards when the full report is obtained, 
 and it is sold to anybody who desires a copy. No service 
 is had. Anybody who wants a decision of the Court goes 
 to the clerk's office and pays for it. Such a thing as a 
 synopsis of the opinion is unheard of. 
 
 The Secretary of the Interstate Commerce Commis- 
 sion, who, it is claimed, has an equal right to the per- 
 quisites of his office, can truthfully say that anything 
 that the Commission has in the way of papers can be had 
 for the asking. There has never yet been an intimation 
 that any citizen of this country has obtained information 
 in advance of anybody else or has been able pecuniarily 
 to profit by it. 
 
 In accordance with Mr. Moseley's conception of public 
 service, everything was made free from the beginning, 
 
HIS WORK DONE 235 
 
 and the Secretary never collected a fee or made a charge 
 in any transaction. He declined, as previously stated, 
 even to accept extra compensation for his work as dis- 
 bursing officer of the Commission. His ideal was to 
 place the facilities of his office freely at the service of the 
 public, with the minimum cost of money and time, 
 using every endeavor to bring the Commission into the 
 closest and most cordial relations with the country. 
 
 In the course of his service more than one hundred 
 thousand answers to letters were sent out over his sig- 
 nature. To most of them he gave a personal touch, and 
 the persons to whom they were sent were made to feel 
 that their efforts and wishes were noted and appreciated. 
 United States attorneys have said that their correspond- 
 ence with him was more satisfactory than their relations 
 with any other department of the Government. 
 
 No letter, formally prepared by any of the officials of 
 the Commission, could get by him with an error or blun- 
 der in it. His power of instant detection of such mis- 
 takes was a gift. When handed fifty or one hundred 
 letters for his signature, he went over them rapidly but 
 thoroughly, and it was almost impossible for a mistake 
 to escape his eye. 
 
 He had a wide correspondence outside that arising 
 from the routine of his office, a correspondence in which 
 he exchanged views with judges and lawyers, economists, 
 railroad officials, and the representatives of railroad 
 brotherhoods. From time to time he wrote papers and 
 delivered public addresses on the subjects with which 
 his work dealt. Both these and his letters display not 
 
236 EDWARD A. MOSELEY 
 
 only the development of his legal learning and his reason- 
 ing faculties, but thoroughness and taste in their prepara- 
 tion. When engaged in preparing them he was accus- 
 tomed to dictating to his stenographer his ideas in the 
 rough, and then giving the copy to one or two of his 
 assistants who were acquainted with the subject. Upon 
 their verification and formulation of his ideas according 
 to their best judgment, he revised and re-shaped the docu- 
 ment to suit himself, and then again had the matter put 
 in form. Sometimes it went through two or three hands 
 before it was fully satisfactory. 
 
 When it was finally in shape, the product was essen- 
 tially his own. The quotations and citations in almost 
 all cases were suggested by him, but of course the literal 
 examinations of the quotations at the original sources 
 had been carefully made by others. 
 
 A trusted and loyal member of the staff has drawn this 
 picture : 
 
 Mr. Moseley's methods of work were indirect and some- 
 what peculiar. He seldom went at a thing in such a way 
 as to disclose to his assistants just what he was doing. 
 In the initial stages of his work for the accomplishment of 
 a particular object, it was his custom to have several 
 persons at once working out his plans, each entirely 
 ignorant of what the others were doing, and all completely 
 in the dark concerning his object. 
 
 He would come to me, for instance, and tell me to do a 
 certain thing, perhaps involving considerable research, 
 such as digging through the Commission's statistical re- 
 ports or foreign reports, without giving me the faintest 
 idea of what he wanted to show or the purpose for which 
 he desired the information. After taking the matter up 
 and working on it for perhaps a week or more, I would 
 
HIS WORK DONE 237 
 
 be very likely to discover that several other persons were 
 working on the same thing, all as much hi the dark as 
 myself, and all entirely ignorant of the fact that others 
 were doing the same thing as themselves. 
 
 This method of work was rather exasperating at times, 
 and I was never quite able to adjust myself to his point 
 of view. I suppose he reasoned that results obtained in 
 this way were more likely to be accurate, because they 
 would not be affected hi any degree by the personal views 
 of the workers, and one man's work would check another's 
 in such a way that errors hi the final result would be 
 practically eliminated. At any rate, it did not set very 
 well at tunes to find, after turning in the result of several 
 days 7 or weeks' close work, that five or six other persons 
 had been doing the same thing as yourself (only perhaps in 
 a different way) and you had not known a thing about it. 
 
 Mr. Moseley was a keen observer, and had a most 
 remarkable memory. His faculty of going over a written 
 page and getting the meat out of it almost at a glance 
 was almost uncanny. This was especially true of court 
 decisions. He would run through a decision in a case 
 which interested him almost as fast as he could turn the 
 pages, and when he was through he could tell clearly just 
 what the decision contained. 
 
 Perhaps months after he had run through a decision 
 in this apparently cursory and hurried manner, some other 
 case would be brought to his attention, involving the same 
 or similar points. He would then remember the former 
 decision and cite its essential features almost word for 
 word. Time and again have I heard him, when in con- 
 sultation with the Commission's attorneys about im- 
 portant features of court decisions, cite to them decisions 
 made months, or perhaps years, previously decisions 
 that bore with compelling force upon the points under 
 discussion and when they were looked up it would be 
 found that his memory of them was absolutely accurate. 
 
 When working to secure an end which he had set his 
 heart upon, he used every instrumentality that came to 
 his hand, which promised in any degree to aid his purpose, 
 irrespective of his personal likes or dislikes. In that 
 respect he was certainly a remarkable man. He would 
 
238 EDWARD A. MOSELEY 
 
 cheerfully and persistently work with men for whom he 
 had the utmost contempt if he thought that by placating 
 them they could in any degree aid him in his work. 
 
 Time and again have I known of his enduring snubs 
 from petty-souled individuals, and taking without ap- 
 parent resentment actual insults from men who were 
 not worthy to wipe his boots (so-called leaders of the 
 workingmen whom he labored to serve) rather than break 
 with them and thus lose their influence for his measures. 
 He has even let it be thought that such men were more 
 entitled to credit for his measures than he himself ! He 
 never broke with any man, no matter what the provoca- 
 tion, as long as he needed the assistance of that man in 
 any degree for the accomplishment of his purpose. 
 
 On the other hand, he seemed to forget his friends, if 
 their friendship was likely to injure his measures. I have 
 known him to ignore men for whom he had the highest 
 regard, when the circumstances were such that any par- 
 ticular show of cordiality for a certain individual might 
 have influenced the action of another man, of whom he 
 perhaps thought lightly, in a way to jeopardize a bill for 
 which he was working. In short, his work was impersonal 
 to a greater extent than that of any other man I have 
 ever known. 
 
 He had strong likes and dislikes, naturally, and would 
 do anything in the world for a friend, but in performing 
 his work he picked his instruments without reference to 
 their character, affiliations or disposition toward himself. 
 And his judgment in picking the right instruments was 
 almost perfect. In all my association with him I never 
 knew him to be deceived in a man. 
 
 An able and intimate associate has drawn this sketch 
 of Mr. Moseley at work : 
 
 I wish I could give you a vivid picture of how he did 
 his work : how in the early morning before coming to the 
 office he would call on such officials and public men as 
 could be of service in formulating sentiment and public 
 opinion upon the matters in which he was interested . . . 
 
HIS WORK DONE 239 
 
 how he took home with him to his room and went over 
 not only the particular problems of the Commission, but 
 those broader questions of public interest into which the 
 Commission work dovetailed, and studied them until late 
 into the night, or discussed them with some co-worker 
 until from sheer fatigue he dropped into slumber. 
 
 Of course he worked too hard. His energy, which was 
 dynamic, was used unstintingly and ungrudgingly in the 
 consideration and development of the advanced problems 
 of this generation. 
 
 When he first took up his work in 1887, Mr. Moseley 
 was in vigorous athletic condition. But his rugged 
 strength and health began to break, under his unsparing 
 demands upon them, a dozen years and more before his 
 death. For the last four years, it might be said that he 
 faced death in a hand-to-hand fight. But, deaf to the 
 anxious entreaties of family and friends, he never re- 
 lented and never gave up while it was possible for him to 
 stand. One or two brief outings only gave him some 
 respite, and he enjoyed a trip to Quebec and St. Anne 
 de Beaupre, which he took with his brother-in-law, Otis 
 Livingston Prescott, as much as he had enjoyed a trip 
 to Europe in the early seventies. 
 
 Some letters among his papers which were called out 
 on the occasion of his first serious illness, when he had 
 gone to his Massachusetts home to recuperate, testify 
 to the tender solicitude of the Commission. The Chair- 
 man wrote him : 
 
 INTERSTATE COMMERCE COMMISSION WASHINGTON, 
 September 25, 1907. 
 
 MY DEAR MOSELEY: 
 
 The telegrams received yesterday afternoon and to-day 
 have given us all the greatest pleasure. 
 
240 EDWARD A. MOSELEY 
 
 We were certain that the newspaper reports were 
 grossly exaggerated, but these reports were so persistent 
 that we felt some anxiety, which was happily removed by 
 your encouraging messages. 
 
 Let me repeat what I wired you yesterday. Give 
 yourself up to the business of recovering with the same 
 confidence and singleness of purpose that you always 
 bring to the discharge of your official duties. Do not 
 allow any distress of mind about office matters to stand 
 in the way of your speedy restoration to health. We will 
 all do the best we can without you and only ask that you 
 accept the situation with patience and hopefulness. That 
 is the unanimous and earnest sentiment of the entire office. 
 
 I have taken up with the architect the matter of our 
 hearing room and am to have another interview with 
 him to-morrow. Clements and Clark will be here, and 
 we shall have the benefit of their suggestions. I am sure 
 we shall have a very dignified and satisfactory place in 
 which to conduct our public hearings. 
 
 What you say about the National Convention of Rail- 
 road Commissioners is at once correct and important. I 
 think it is a great opportunity to avoid friction, promote 
 uniformity of policy and action, and so perform a dis- 
 tinctly useful public service. I shall urge my associates 
 to show their interest in this gathering and intend to be 
 present myself at all the important sessions. . . . 
 
 Give my kindest regards to all your family and accept 
 for yourself the assurance of my constant and unaffected 
 friendship. 
 
 Yours very truly, 
 
 MARTIN A. KNAPP. 
 
 This letter from Commissioner Harlan was found 
 among Mr. Moseley's papers : 
 
 WASHINGTON, October 1, 1907. 
 DEAR MR. SECRETARY: 
 
 I reached Washington Saturday night, but came to the 
 office for the first time this morning and then found your 
 note of the 27th, which was forwarded to me here from 
 
HIS WORK DONE 241 
 
 Essex. I was very glad to hear from you and especially 
 to know that the specialist from Boston has given you so 
 favorable an account of your condition. 
 
 It seems to me that we were all of us lacking in con- 
 sideration in not insisting upon your taking a long vaca- 
 tion, as the rest of us did. You ought not to have come 
 back to Washington at that time. I hope, however, that 
 you will take a good long rest and will not think of re- 
 turning to your desk until you are thoroughly recuperated. 
 You certainly are entitled to this, and I am sure that it 
 is the sensible thing to do. 
 
 Although we shall miss you, as we always do when 
 you are absent, I am sure that my colleagues will wish 
 you to carry out this suggestion. I know of no change 
 or readjustment that is contemplated in the office force 
 or assignment of rooms that has not already had your 
 attention. If any changes are suggested, they can very 
 well wait until your return. 
 
 You will of course be very much missed at the National 
 Convention of Railroad Commissioners. . . . 
 
 Please give my best regards to Mrs. Moseley, and 
 believe me, as ever 
 
 Your sincere friend, 
 
 JAMES S. HARLAN. 
 HON. EDWARD A. MOSELEY, 
 
 Deer Island, Newburyport, Mass. 
 
 P.S. If there is anything, officially or personally, 
 that I can do for you during your absence, please do not 
 hesitate to let me know. It will be a pleasure to be of 
 service to you. 
 
 It is pleasing to quote another letter from the Chair- 
 man, written later in Mr. Moseley's absence : 
 
 WASHINGTON, October 18, 1907. 
 MY DEAR MOSELEY: 
 
 It gives me the greatest pleasure to learn from your 
 letters and otherwise that you are making rapid recovery 
 and looking forward to an early return to your work. 
 
 You are greatly missed, and it will be a day of delight 
 
242 EDWARD A. MOSELEY 
 
 when you come back to us. But, my dear friend, let me 
 advise you to take time enough, while you are in that 
 line of business, to get thoroughly well before you again 
 put on the official harness. There is no chance that the 
 job will be finished during your absence; it will last long 
 after you put your hand to it once more, and most likely 
 be bigger than it is now when you and I are both released 
 from its burdens permanently. 
 
 Be good to yourself for a while, as you have so long 
 been good to every one else, and give to yourself the rest 
 of body and mind which you have so faithfully earned. 
 In all things you have my unaffected sympathy and 
 friendship, and I am always 
 
 Your sincere friend, 
 
 MARTIN A. KNAPP. 
 
 The last step in the Federal regulation of car appliances 
 for the safety of trainmen was taken on April 14, 1910, 
 when the President signed an act of Congress looking to 
 a uniform equipment of all cars. This marked the com- 
 pletion of the work for safety appliances which Mr. 
 Moseley began twenty years before. 
 
 Under the operation of the Act of 1893, the first bill 
 which he championed and the first assertion of the power 
 of Congress to regulate the conditions of railway labor, 
 all the hundreds of thousands of cars in the country had 
 been equipped with automatic air brakes and uniform 
 automatic couplers. Under the Act of 1910, the Inter- 
 state Commerce Commission was empowered and re- 
 quired to prescribe and dictate every other detail in the 
 equipment of a car. 
 
 To-day no car can be hauled on a railroad engaged in 
 interstate commerce unless it has automatic couplers 
 and air brakes, and henceforth every new or rebuilt car 
 
HIS WORK DONE 243 
 
 must conform to all the other standards set up by the 
 law and the Commission. In the course of a short time 
 a brakeman or switchman will be secure in the assurance, 
 as he goes about his work in the darkness of night, that 
 all cars, whether from Maine or Oregon, Montana or 
 Florida, will have grab irons in one certain position, all 
 ladders will be in the same place and with the same num- 
 ber of rungs, all sill steps will be just so far from the 
 ground and no higher, and all running boards exactly the 
 same width. 
 
 By July 16, 1916, the standardization of the cars must 
 be completed. No more will the trainmen be required 
 in the night to hazard life and limb on the guess as to 
 whether the ladder is on the end or the side of the car, 
 whether the sill step is two feet or three from the ground, 
 or whether the running board of the next car is broader 
 or narrower than the one from which he leaps as he 
 races over the swinging, jumping train. Poor guessing 
 of one kind and another cost six hundred and sixty-six 
 railroad employees their lives in one year and brought 
 injuries to fourteen thousand eight hundred and sixty- 
 nine others. Hereafter, by the law's command, all cars 
 will be constructed in these respects precisely alike, and 
 the cars of every train must be twenty-four inches apart 
 when coupled and moving. No detail of the conditions 
 surrounding trainmen is now left to chance. 
 
 When the Commission held its hearing in October, 
 1910, for the discussion of the proper regulations under 
 this last law in the remarkable code of useful statutes 
 which Mr. Moseley had done so much to construct, he 
 
244 EDWARD A. MOSELEY 
 
 was mortally ill. Against the warning of physicians and 
 the pleas of those about him, he took an active part in a 
 long session in the hearing room of the Commission, 
 determined to finish his work. There he fell at his post 
 of duty, " collapsing/' as the press dispatch of the day 
 reported, "in the very hour of winning his twenty-year 
 fight." 
 
 He had loyally and gladly spent the last ounce of his 
 energy in behalf of the good cause, to which, in the vigor 
 of his prime, he had dedicated his life, and in his home at 
 Washington under the loving care of his wife and his 
 daughter, Katherine Prescott Moseley, he uncomplain- 
 ingly awaited the end, which came on April 18, 1911, 
 less than a month after he entered his sixty-sixth year. 
 "His patience and sweetness under his long suffering," 
 a dear friend has recalled, "were infinite and filled his 
 nurses and his indefatigable and great physician, Dr. 
 Philip Roy, with wonder and affection. At 9 o'clock the 
 last night he discussed the points of a Supreme Court 
 decision, holding the pamphlet; at five the next morn- 
 ing, .with his hand beneath his cheek, he fell asleep." 
 
 His death called out many words of regret and praise 
 from the press and from public men. On. the occasion 
 of his funeral at historic St. John's church in Washing- 
 ton, the railroad workers of the United States by delega- 
 tions and floral offerings expressed their sorrow over 
 the death of their champion, a sentiment which at sub- 
 sequent National conventions they entered in their 
 records by the adoption of resolutions. The Interstate 
 Commerce Commission recorded as a body the heavy 
 
HIS WORK DONE 245 
 
 sense of loss that each of its members felt; and from 
 societies and individuals all over the country messages 
 of sympathy came to the bereaved family. 
 
 Mr. Moseley's life was at a low ebb when he had in- 
 sisted on leaving his loved retreat at Deer Island in 
 the fall. But the ruling passion was strong as ever, and, 
 paying no heed to his duty to himself, he had hearkened 
 to the old call of duty to others. 
 
 Now his tasks were done, he was borne home again; 
 the prayers were said and the songs sung in old St. Paul's 
 at Newburyport, where when a boy he was confirmed, 
 and the wearied body rested at last by the shores of the 
 Merrimac. 
 
CHAPTER XXIV 
 A BROAD-GAUGE AMERICAN 
 
 MANY wondered when they saw Edward A. Moseley, 
 with eight or ten generations of Puritan ancestry stretch- 
 ing behind him, selected President-General of the Ameri- 
 can-Irish Historical Society, while many others, who 
 knew nothing of his New England background, assumed 
 he was a product of our recent immigration. 
 
 Mr. James Jeffrey Roche said that Mr. Roosevelt, in 
 a friendly talk early in his term, bracketed him and Mr. 
 Moseley together as "you Irish Catholics." Apparently 
 the President had not guessed then that the President- 
 General of the American-Irish Historical Society was 
 quite as old an American as himself, and had been born 
 into the Protestant Episcopal church. Indeed, his 
 mo ther's father, Rev. Dr. Chapman, was sufficiently 
 distinguished among the learned clergy of that church 
 to receive the favorable attention of Cardinal Newman 
 in his "Essays Critical and Historical." 
 
 It was very like Mr. Moseley not to be content to 
 prove his eligibility, by right of descent, to membership 
 in the Society of Colonial Wars, the Sons of the Revolu- 
 tion and the Society of the Cincinnati, but also to 
 search out proofs of his qualification for admission to 
 the Charitable Irish Society of Boston and to the Ameri- 
 
 246 
 
A BROAD-GAUGE AMERICAN 247 
 
 can-Irish Historical Society. In the beginning, his in- 
 terest in this branch of his ancestry probably was a part 
 of his loyalty to O'Reilly, but he broadened it into an 
 expression of his instinctive antipathy to all racial nar- 
 rowness. 
 
 "My descent/ ' he wrote, "from Irish ancestry, of 
 which I am justly proud, and also from the English and 
 Welsh, not only enables me to regard myself as among 
 typical Americans in respect to origin, as well as aspira- 
 tions and pride of country, but renders me fondly sym- 
 pathetic with the aims and purposes of this American- 
 Irish society. The main purpose of the American-Irish 
 Historical Society is to elucidate the history of the Irish 
 element of our people and the extent of its contributions 
 to our development and civilization since the earliest 
 colonial period, a rich and greatly neglected field for 
 historical research. " 
 
 He found that he was ninth in descent from Lieu- 
 tenant Thaddeus Clarke, a native of the north of Ire- 
 land, who was sent to Portland, Maine, in 1690, in charge 
 of a small body of troops. In one of the fights with 
 the Indians, Lieutenant Clarke and twelve of his men 
 were led into ambush and killed. He was also eleventh 
 in descent from George Cleaves, who he believed came 
 from Ireland, and who was the original founder of the 
 town of Falmouth, which is now a part of Portland. 
 
 Mr. Moseley was proud of his election as the second 
 President-General of the American-Irish Historical Society 
 in succession to Rear Admiral Richard W. Meade, 
 U.S.N., in 1897, and of the honor of reelection to that 
 
248 EDWARD A. MOSELEY 
 
 office. On first taking his place, he delivered a carefully 
 prepared and able address on the services of his prede- 
 cessor, Admiral Meade, and on the general subject of the 
 Irish influence in American history. An interesting 
 service which he performed while President-General is re- 
 corded in the following letter : 
 
 AMERICAN-IRISH HISTORICAL SOCIETY, Office of the Presi- 
 dent-General, Washington, D.C. 
 
 June 27, 1898. 
 
 T. HAMILTON MURRAY, ESQ., Secretary-General, Ameri- 
 can-Irish Historical Society, Providence, R.I. 
 
 DEAR MR. SECRETARY-GENERAL: 
 
 I regret exceedingly that I shall be unable to be present 
 at the outing of our society at Newcastle, having just 
 returned from an official trip to the Pacific coast, where 
 I have been since the 25th of last May. I particularly 
 regret this, as I have been looking forward to it with a 
 great deal of anticipation, it being usual for me to come 
 home by the last of June. 
 
 Sometime ago, at the happy request of my friend, Mr. 
 M. E. Hennessey, of the Boston Globe, I urged upon 
 Hon. John D. Long, Secretary of the Navy, the propriety 
 of naming some vessels, about to be built, for three naval 
 heroes of Irish stock, Commodore John Barry, Com- 
 mander Macdonough, Captain Jeremiah O'Brien, that it 
 would be but a proper recognition of the Irish element 
 which had taken so prominent a part in our navy of the 
 past. At the time I received his assurance that he would 
 see what could be done, and it resulted in his determi- 
 nation to call two torpedo boat destroyers Barry and 
 Macdonough, and a torpedo boat O'Brien, all about to 
 be built. I inclose a memorandum of the dimensions of 
 these vessels. 
 
 My request to the Honorable Secretary was made as 
 President-General in behalf of the Society, and I feel 
 that the formal thanks of the Society are due to Governor 
 Long for his cheerful compliance with the request. At 
 
A BROAD-GAUGE AMERICAN 249 
 
 the same time it should not be overlooked that the sug- 
 gestion originated with our friend Mr. Hennessey. Should 
 the Society see fit to recognize Secretary Long's action, 
 I should be pleased to communicate its thanks to him. 
 I am, 
 
 Fraternally yours, 
 
 EDWARD A. MOSELEY, President-General. 
 
 Another recognition of his breadth of spirit, which 
 pleased Mr. Moseley, was his selection, in 1907, to serve 
 on a distinguished committee, representing all creeds, 
 charged with presenting a portrait of Cardinal Gibbons 
 to the Catholic University in Washington. In accepting 
 the appointment, he wrote : 
 
 I consider it a very high honor to be selected as a 
 member of such a committee and thank you most heartily 
 for suggesting my name in that connection. I respond 
 the more readily to your request for the reason that I 
 hold His Eminence in the very highest respect. 
 
 Situated as I am here in close proximity to His Emi- 
 nence, it has perhaps been my good fortune to have an 
 exceptional opportunity to observe and admire his admi- 
 rable traits of character. I am a profound admirer of his 
 intense Americanism and the enthusiasm which he dis- 
 plays in the advancement of every good cause. Inde- 
 pendently of the high and honorable position he occupies 
 in his great church, I consider that he stands among the 
 very highest of our citizens and is entitled to the love, 
 admiration and respect of all men. 
 
 With his active membership in the American-Irish 
 Historical Society, Mr. Moseley was a no less loyal 
 member of older patriotic, historical, and sociological 
 organizations. He was on the standing committee of 
 the Massachusetts Society of the Cincinnati; a mem- 
 ber of the Sons of the Revolution; of the Society of 
 
250 EDWARD A. MOSELEY 
 
 Colonial Wars, of which he was Chancellor ; of the Bun- 
 ker Hill Monument Association; of the Merrimac Hu- 
 mane Society; of the American Association for Labor 
 Legislation ; of the American Association for the Advance- 
 ment of Science; of the American Political Science 
 Association; of the National Geographical Society and 
 American Economic Society. He was besides a member 
 of the Metropolitan, Army and Navy, Chevy Chase, 
 and Cosmos clubs of Washington. 
 
 In a little talk at a dinner of the Cincinnati in Wash- 
 ington, it was characteristic of Mr. Moseley that he 
 should have dwelt, not on the pride of lineage, but on 
 democracy as the great legacy of the Revolution to all 
 Americans, share and share alike : 
 
 Happy was the idea which has resulted in bringing 
 together on this occasion those of us residing at the nation's 
 capital. Although we are very properly denied the 
 privilege of being a society as of the thirteen original 
 states, we can meet together as a committee, forming and 
 cementing those friendships which it was the purpose of 
 our fathers to perpetuate. 
 
 They were the leaders in our struggle for independence, 
 who not only risked their lives upon the field of battle, 
 but also the punishment meted out to traitors. They 
 left to us a heritage of glory which it is our duty and 
 privilege to maintain, not in vain boasting of our fathers' 
 deeds, not in seeking social rank, and, least of all, in no 
 offensive assertion of superiority of birth. 
 
 Neither exclusiveness nor gradations of social distinc- 
 tion, but democracy and the brotherhood of man, is the 
 lesson our fathers taught and which we, their loyal sons, 
 should manifest and teach. No prestige or applause is 
 due to us for what our fathers dared and did. The glory 
 is theirs alone. Responsibility alone is ours, that our 
 generation may not impair their glory or their work. 
 
A BROAD-GAUGE AMERICAN 251 
 
 The result of their work for the welfare of humanity 
 must not be dissipated. 
 
 The inheritance of their glory is not ours alone ; all 
 Americans share it. Every faithful and patriotic Ameri- 
 can is an heir of the Revolutionary fathers though he may 
 be of foreign birth and recent arrival, if he takes up the 
 duty and responsibility of citizenship in their spirit of 
 devotion to the welfare of all. 
 
 The only true way in which we may share the glory 
 of our fathers is by devoted adherence to their broad 
 democracy ; by aiding in our generation the uplift of 
 humanity and by jealous guardianship of the government 
 they created, lest its benefits be dissipated. 
 
 If their work is to be immortal, and we of all men do 
 not doubt it, the ark of the covenant of the Nation's 
 liberties must be safeguarded in each generation. It is 
 for us to see that we are aligned in the ranks of freedom's 
 preservers, if we would be worthy descendants of those 
 who established liberty. 
 
 And especially must we remember that the foundation 
 of the works of our fathers was the imperishable principle 
 that all men are created free and equal. Government is 
 not by the select for the select. All the people know 
 more than some of the people. All the rights and inter- 
 ests of all the people must not be submerged in protecting 
 some of the rights of some of the people. 
 
 This seems to me the lesson they teach in the present 
 hour. In the hearts of all the people, especially of our 
 statesmen, should be implanted the seed of universal 
 brotherhood. Let us, then, fulfill our duty to our fathers 
 by a performance of duty as we find it day by day. Let 
 us draw no lines of race or creed, or of the " guinea stamp." 
 
 With benevolence to all and pandering to none, by 
 kindly deeds, pure thoughts and honest zeal, let us serve 
 our fellow men. Thus we shall honor and perpetuate the 
 principles which justify our being. 
 
 In the closing year of his active life, the University 
 of Notre Dame, one of the oldest of the institutions of 
 higher education in the Middle West, conferred on Mr. 
 
252 EDWARD A. MOSELEY 
 
 Moseley the degree of Doctor of Laws, a recognition of 
 his work which brought him much satisfaction. Going 
 to the seat of the University at Notre Dame, Indiana, 
 he received the degree on June 13, 1910, Governor Mar- 
 shall of Indiana, who was among those so honored on 
 the same day, delivering the principal address. 
 
 The director of studies made the announcement of 
 Mr. Moseley's degree in these words: "A humanitarian 
 who has employed the powers of his great office for the 
 protection of human life, whose work as Secretary of the 
 Interstate Commerce Commission for twenty-three years 
 has been marked by energetic and sustained devotion to 
 official duty, to whose beneficent activities the industrial as 
 well as the traveling public are debtors, and whose freedom 
 from self-seeking is such a noble example of patriotism." 
 
 Mr. Moseley received the degree from the hands of 
 the Papal Delegate to the United States, now Cardinal 
 Falconio. His new honor brought him many pleasant 
 words of congratulation. As he was leaving Washington 
 for Notre Dame, President Taft jokingly asked him to 
 tell the faculty that he had always entertained the very 
 highest opinion of their university until he learned they 
 were about to confer this degree. 
 
 Dean Mussey of the Washington College of Law wrote 
 to congratulate Mr. Moseley, saying, "The reasons for 
 granting it (the degree of Doctor of Laws) are of the 
 highest and have been well earned by you. The Wash- 
 ington College of Law congratulates you on this latest 
 honor and congratulates itself that you are willing to 
 assist us as a member of the lecture corps." Judge 
 
A BROAD-GAUGE AMERICAN 253 
 
 De Lacy of the Washington Juvenile Court wrote: "It 
 is an honor well bestowed upon a gentleman who is well 
 versed not only in the theory of the law, but in its actual 
 working between man and man. You are entitled to 
 receive this degree from the university of experience as 
 well as from a university of letters. " Mrs. Harriet 
 Prescott Spofford, his sister-in-law, wrote, "It is a real 
 crown to your work." 
 
 In an editorial comment, the Springfield Republican 
 said: "He has been a good friend of the railway em- 
 ployees in Washington and of the railways as well, when 
 the broad view is taken. Long service is behind the 
 conferring of a degree that is stretched to meet all sorts 
 of demands. " 
 
 Specially pleasing was the letter from Father Cava- 
 naugh, head of the University, in which he said to the 
 new honorary alumnus: "You carried away with you 
 the affection of all at the University. I never knew 
 anybody to capture so completely the hearts of all." 
 
 A railway workman wrote to the University to thank 
 it for recognizing the friend of the railway workers, than 
 whom "there is not a man in the world who has done 
 more for the advancement of the welfare of the man 
 who labors with his hands." Among Mr. Moseley's 
 papers this copy of a communication on the subject was 
 found, but with no name attached : 
 
 OUR NEW COLLEAGUE : 
 
 From the fo'castle of the good ship Amarintha to tho 
 sublime degree of a Doctor of Laws : long stretch of life 
 full of altruistic effort ! 
 
254 EDWARD A. MOSELEY 
 
 No man has, in these United States, done more for a 
 peaceful solution of the relations between master and 
 servant than this new Doctor of Laws, because he recog- 
 nizes that the science of laws deals not with concepts, but 
 with things or facts and not with talk about facts. The 
 distinction between the two is the recognition between 
 realities, combined with human sympathy, and the 
 formal twaddle of the school-trained lawyers, who some- 
 how get on our benches. Human sympathy seems to be 
 the key to the solution of his public success, while from 
 the private side, a complete lack of envy of the achieve- 
 ment of others is his great characteristic. 
 
 Long life and continued success in his self-appointed 
 task! 
 
CHAPTER XXV 
 A RECOKD OF FRIENDSHIPS 
 
 UNLIKE many strong men, Mr. Moseley's strength 
 was proved by his friendships far more than by his 
 enmities. To be sure, he made enemies as well as friends, 
 but he never remembered the former and never forgot 
 the latter. 
 
 His life is a record of friendships with all manner and 
 conditions of men. If assembled together, they would 
 form an extraordinary social medley, for there never was 
 the faintest trace of a class line drawn between them by 
 him. He had no use for any subdivisions of the human 
 family. It was with him, as his friend O'Reilly said of 
 Edmund Burke : 
 
 Races or sects were to him a profanity, 
 Hindoo and Negro and Celt were as one, 
 Large as mankind was his splendid humanity, 
 Large in its record the work he has done. 
 
 The man was filled with the spirit of helpfulness, and 
 no one could ask for or have a more loyal and effective 
 friend at court. He was always ready to make the 
 interests of others his own, and superior to his own. 
 There was nothing within honor that he would not do 
 for another ; he seldom had anything to ask for himself. 
 
 In the easiest and commonest form of generosity, he 
 gave away no one knows how much money, and he least 
 
 255 
 
256 EDWARD A. MOSELEY 
 
 of all, for he gave it freely and with never a thought of 
 what was left. But with every such gift he gave some- 
 thing dearer and rarer than money himself. 
 
 He was constantly appealed to and forever giving his 
 time and influence in behalf of those who stood in need 
 of his service. The need was the only test ; it made no 
 difference if the man was a stranger, or more than a 
 stranger, a one-time enemy. One who, in blindness of 
 soul, was brutally cruel to him in his boyhood, came to 
 him in after years in need of his assistance and received 
 it ungrudgingly and instantly. 
 
 A favor seeker at his office, who, in a moment of passion 
 and disappointment, called him "a liar," was promptly 
 knocked down, though half his age and twice his weight, 
 and then he received " first aid" from the hand that 
 felled him, and, finally, the favor he sought. 
 
 A friendless Swede, a common soldier, having been 
 thrown in the guardhouse for his ignorance of formalities 
 in appealing to the Secretary of War for his discharge 
 from the army, Mr. Moseley no sooner heard of the poor 
 fellow's plight than he dropped everything to gain this 
 stranger's liberty. Learning that the Secretary, Mr. 
 Endicott, was absent from the department for the day, 
 he could not wait for his return, but hastened to his 
 house and laid the case before him. Secretary Endicott, 
 being accustomed to such appeals, did not at once share 
 his visitor's excitement over the arrest of the soldier, and 
 coolly promised to have the proper authorities investigate 
 the matter when he returned to his office. 
 
 "But, Mr. Secretary," Mr. Moseley urged, "the man 
 
A RECORD OF FRIENDSHIPS 257 
 
 will be lying in that guardhouse all the time, and for no 
 other offense than having dared to address a simple letter 
 to you ! And you did not resent his writing you, but 
 referred it to the commandant of his post for a report on 
 the merits of his request, and this brass-buttoned under- 
 strapper in his offended dignity has locked him up." 
 
 Thus he persisted, until he had communicated some of 
 his warmth to the Secretary. When he came away at 
 last, he bore with him a peremptory order from Mr. Endi- 
 cott, which before night unlocked the prison door five 
 hundred miles away, and permitted the surprised prisoner 
 to rejoin his comrades in the barracks, a free man. 
 
 Any one, native or foreigner, black or white, could 
 touch Mr. Moseley's heartstrings and call into action all 
 his force. Some one told him the story of Ung Wah, a 
 cook in the navy, locked up in the naval prison as a de- 
 serter. He brought the case of this Chinese before the 
 Secretary of the Navy at once, and asked for his release. 
 He argued in vain. He pleaded that this foreigner 
 could not understand the significance, force and effect 
 of the naval regulations and should not be imprisoned. 
 But he made no impression, and was informed that there 
 were many other Chinese who were in prison for the same 
 offense. 
 
 Still he did not give up the fight for the prisoner. 
 Reflecting upon the subject with close concentration, as 
 was his wont, the idea came to him that as the Chinese 
 could not be naturalized and could not be citizens, this 
 man could not take a valid oath of allegiance. Yet the 
 taking of the oath was a condition precedent to entering 
 
258 EDWARD A. MOSELEY 
 
 the army and navy of the United States, and therefore 
 Ung Wah's enlistment was void ! He never was lawfully 
 in the naval service, and could not be imprisoned for 
 deserting the service into which he never had been legally 
 sworn. The ingenuity and the force of this argument 
 were effective, and Secretary Long released Ung Wah and 
 several other Chinese who were serving sentences. 
 
 Ung Wah, on his liberation from prison, opened a 
 restaurant in Washington, became a real estate owner 
 and prosperous merchant, remaining to the end a grate- 
 ful and faithful friend of the man who had so successfully 
 befriended an unknown alien. The following letter gives 
 additional evidence of Mr. Moseley's interest in the 
 Chinese : 
 
 September 21, 1909. 
 
 MR. A. T. STEWART, Superintendent of Schools, Franklin 
 Building, Washington, D.C. 
 
 DEAR MR. STEWART: 
 
 The bearer of this is Lee Jin, a young Chinaman, who 
 has been in this country for about six years and whose 
 father is a Chinese merchant. He came here for the pur- 
 pose of obtaining an education, and I have taken much 
 interest in him. He has, as I understand, passed the 8th 
 grade, and is now just entering the Business High School. 
 
 Lee Jin has an aptitude for mechanics, and, after con- 
 sultation with Dr. Hardesty, we think his interests would 
 perhaps be advanced by transferring him to the McKinley 
 High School, and it is with this purpose that I write you. 
 He is an intelligent young Chinaman, is ambitious, and 
 has a desire to acquire a knowledge of machinery such 
 as we understand a course in this school would give him. 
 
 Will you kindly look the young man over, and make 
 such arrangements as you may deem wise ? 
 With great respect, 
 
 EDWARD A. MOSELEY. 
 
A RECORD OF FRIENDSHIPS 259 
 
 A Greek boy, detained at an immigration station, was 
 about to be deported, when Mr. Moseley heard of the 
 case from a friend. He labored so ardently with the 
 Secretary of Commerce and Labor and with the Com- 
 missioner of Immigration that the order of deportation 
 was reversed and the gates of the land of promise were 
 opened to the stranger, who made it his first duty after 
 being permitted to step upon American soil, to write a 
 grateful letter to the author of his good fortune. The 
 letter was in Greek, but Mr. Moseley took the trouble 
 to have it translated, and he replied to it with some 
 sound and useful counsels to the new American. 
 
 There is a characteristic touch in this letter to a Vir- 
 ginia colored woman, the mother of one of his servants, 
 to each of whom he always stood as a friend rather than a 
 master : 
 
 October 1, 1909. 
 MRS. AMANDA GORDON, 
 Prospect, Va. 
 
 DEAR MAMMY: 
 
 Carry tells me that you would like some alcohol for 
 rubbing. I therefore take great pleasure in sending by 
 express a quart, which you should get at once, and I 
 hope it will do you a great deal of good. 
 
 Carry is a good girl, and we all think everything of 
 her. I am very glad to do anything for her dear mother 
 that will please her. She is often telling us about you 
 and how much she thinks of you. You know I have 
 always wanted you to come up here and make us a visit, 
 but somehow or other you have never done it. 
 
 I am sorry to hear that you are not well, but hope this 
 letter will find you better. 
 
 Sincerely yours, 
 
 EDWARD A. MOSELEY. 
 
260 EDWARD A. MOSELEY 
 
 He was as quick to give his seat in a street car to a poor 
 old negro working woman as to any member of her sex. 
 In his own freedom from race prejudice, he so far under- 
 estimated the strength of that feeling in others as to chal- 
 lenge the color line on Southern railroads. He resolved 
 on an effort to enforce the " civil rights" of the colored 
 man in Pullman cars south of the Mason and Dixon line. 
 Two inspectors were sent, with one of the colored mes- 
 sengers of the Commission, to get evidence of discrim- 
 ination, and they plunged into the very heart of the black 
 belt. They found the discrimination without any diffi- 
 culty, but they did not find it an easy task to escape 
 with their lives after insisting upon Pullman accommoda- 
 tions for the messenger, who, a member of the staff says, 
 " almost turns white to-day when any one suggests a 
 repetition of his trip." 
 
 In a letter to an old friend living abroad, Mr. Moseley 
 gave this hint of the philosophy which so largely gov- 
 erned his life : 
 
 You say that I do not tell you anything about myself. 
 I presume I am the same Ned Moseley you used to know, 
 only a little older. I must say that time has dealt kindly 
 with me, and I feel most of the time as young as I ever 
 did. The only way I am reminded of my advancing 
 years is by my being reminded ever and anon of my old 
 friends dropping off. 
 
 Everything is going very pleasantly with me. You 
 know I have devoted my life to the interests of the man 
 with the patched trousers and have been quite successful. 
 ... It is a very comforting thought that this work 
 has saved many a poor devil from death or injury and 
 kept many a good right arm to support a family; but 
 
A RECORD OF FRIENDSHIPS 261 
 
 the espousal of the cause of the "under dog" is not pro- 
 ductive of great honors in a material sense. 
 
 However, if the world is a little better for my having 
 lived in it, I am satisfied. I have sometimes thought that 
 if I had devoted the same time and energy to fighting 
 the cause of the corporations, my material benefits would 
 have been greater and the reward more substantial ; but 
 I have never regretted my choice. 
 
CHAPTER XXVI 
 
 THE MANY-SIDED MAN 
 
 To portray Moseley the man would be a difficult task 
 and one for which this pen at least is confessedly unequal. 
 The elements were so mixed in him, his nature and his 
 interests so various, that his oldest and closest friends 
 were always making surprising discoveries of unsuspected 
 traits and talents, until they no longer smiled at John 
 Boyle O'Reilly's proud boast of his friend, "Ned Moseley 
 can do anything that any man can do." 
 
 Reticent and often preoccupied at a casual meeting, 
 simple and modest in every relation, most persons could 
 see no more than one side of the man ; few, if any, knew 
 all of his many sides. 
 
 His gift for concentration and his boyish enthusiasm 
 enabled him to take up any duty or pastime and pursue 
 it as if it were his only object in life. It was this quality 
 which deceived mere acquaintances into believing that 
 they had taken the full measure of the man when they 
 had seen but a fraction of him. Those who saw him at 
 his sports might easily believe he was only a sport ; not 
 a few who saw him carrying on his fights for labor laws 
 supposed he must have come up from the ranks of labor ; 
 they who saw him so enthusiastic and effective in any one 
 
 of his several little worlds in which he delighted to make 
 
 262 
 
THE MANY-SIDED MAN 263 
 
 excursions, were likely to believe that it was his whole 
 world. And, for the time being, it was. 
 
 One of his earliest excursions was into the world of 
 sports, where he labored as diligently to develop skill and 
 win success as in any field he ever entered. Horses, dogs 
 and even gamecocks engaged his attention at one time. 
 Athletics became his chief interest later, and he gained 
 rank among amateur swimmers and boxers, and was a 
 good swordsman. He was a leading member of the 
 old Cribb Club of Boston in its heyday. This was an 
 athletic organization with a clubhouse on Avery Street, 
 and with some of the foremost names of Boston on its 
 membership roll. 
 
 In his life of the poet, O'Reilly, James Jeffrey Roche 
 noted that the club had been named after Tom Cribb, 
 a noted English boxer, and described it in these terms : 
 
 The Cribb Club, founded for the encouragement of 
 the " manly art/' was one of the most exclusive in the 
 exclusive city of Boston, numbering among its member- 
 ship, men distinguished in art, literature and statesman- 
 ship. They were strong, brave, honorable men who 
 loved the natural virtue of courage as much as they 
 hated the cowardly custom which has made the knife 
 and pistol a reproach to the American name. 
 
 O'Reilly and Moseley were among the best boxers in 
 the club. An old-time habitu6, in calling up the memory 
 of that "gentleman's club where gentlemen could meet 
 and, in all the panoply of the prize ring, pummel one 
 another to their heart's content in accordance with the 
 Marquis of Queensbury rules," has set down these few 
 recollections for this book : 
 
264 EDWARD A. MOSELEY 
 
 I well remember holding the watch for an event between 
 O'Reilly and Moseley, and there were no love pats about 
 it either. Both men were stripped to the buff. The 
 blows came hard and fast, and were given with all the 
 strength the combatants could muster. So far as appear- 
 ances went for anything, it was a genuine contest of skill 
 and muscle. Of course it was a draw. The few present 
 behind locked doors could not decide any other way. 
 For really, it was one of the prettiest boxing matches you 
 would see anywhere, even in professional circles. 
 
 I recall a legend of Moseley stepping into a contest 
 with a professional out at a big picnic. The gentleman 
 amateur, as might have been expected, got the worst end 
 of it, but he simply did not know when he was whipped, 
 and the event had to be called a draw. Out of the ring 
 as well as in, Moseley was one of the best and squarest 
 of men, and he was never known to turn his back on any 
 appeal which came to him, no matter how humble the 
 source, nor how insignificant the object. 
 
 Mr. Moseley himself in his sketch, "John Boyle 
 O'Reilly, the Man," made this record of his boxing 
 experiences with his friend : 
 
 One afternoon on going up to the Pilot office, he said: 
 "Dear old man, I have been working so hard ! Let us 
 go down to the club and I will throw some of this blood 
 out of my brain into my arms and fists." We went 
 down, and, stripping for it, jumped into the ring. It 
 commenced gently enough, but in a short time we were 
 both thoroughly aroused. It was a contest of strong 
 men who were there to give and take. At last it became 
 apparent that one or the other of us must go down. It 
 meant a "knock out." 
 
 The veteran, Tim McCarthy, who was professor of 
 sparring at the club and who had charge there, seeing 
 the turn of affairs, sang out "time," but neither of us 
 heeded it, and he jumped over the ropes and with a 
 touch separated us. It was the last time we ever put on 
 the gloves for a contest, although O'Reilly had a playful 
 
THE MANY-SIDED MAN 265 
 
 way of slipping up and giving me a clip almost forcible 
 enough to knock an ox down. It was play, but it was 
 earnest play, as everything was in his life. 
 
 Nothing so inculcates self-control as sparring. The 
 humiliation of a blow is hard to eradicate, but a boxer 
 quickly realizes that it is essential not to lose his temper, 
 no matter how hard hit. A man who can receive a blow 
 in the face and preserve his equilibrium, is not apt to 
 get angry, although he may simulate it, when called out 
 of his name ; neither, if he is a sparrer, conscious of his 
 power and skill, does he feel called upon to whip the 
 aggressor to prove himself not a coward. He would 
 despise himself for striking one whom he felt was his in- 
 ferior, while the knife and pistol have no place in his 
 armament. 
 
 As to boxing in general, Mr. Moseley wrote in his 
 sketch : 
 
 The sparrer must have his telegraph system in perfect 
 order. A break in the circuit means disaster. With his 
 eye fixed upon that of his opponent, he notices that he is 
 sending a message to his brain. His own response must 
 be as nearly instantaneous as electricity. A telegram to 
 the brain announces that here is a blow coming or an open- 
 ing, and as the eye telegraphs to the brain the impending 
 blow or the opportunity to deliver one, so the brain sends 
 notice to the arm to ' ' get at it , " " ward " - or " strike, ' ' 
 as the case may be, while at the same time this is sup- 
 plemented by a signal to the legs to get under way, 
 ahead and astern. Many of us are inclined to wool- 
 gathering, but when in front of another man we must 
 concentrate our thoughts, if never at any other time, or 
 suffer the consequences. 
 
 Recurring to Mr. O'Reilly, Mr. Moseley wrote : 
 
 He always entered into every sport with the heartiest 
 enthusiasm. He did not have the slightest sympathy 
 for a man in full vigor who could not take as well as 
 
266 EDWARD A. MOSELEY 
 
 give a blow. In his sparring he was like a whirlwind. 
 We often sparred together, but after a while, with tacit 
 consent we seemed to drop it ; there was too much earnest- 
 ness in it. I never sparred with him when I did not feel 
 that I could expect no quarter, and that one or the other 
 would have to go down. 
 
 The two men fenced as well as sparred, and Mr. Moseley 
 made this report of his encounters with O'Reilly in the 
 former field of friendly combat : 
 
 Again, he was a skilled swordsman. He told me that 
 when he first came a fugitive in this country he thought 
 he would maintain himself by giving lessons in broad- 
 sword, single-stick, and foils; and it used to give him 
 great pleasure to put a foil in my hand and say to me - 
 for I professed to know nothing of it "Ned, on guard ! 
 Now run me through. Thrust me anywhere you can. 
 Kill me if you can." And then with a smile upon his 
 face he would ward off my lunges until, suiting his pur- 
 pose, he would send my sword flying across the room. 
 
 Canoeing, that primal aquatic sport of America, was 
 another form of recreation which Moseley enjoyed some- 
 times with Sigourney Butler and Dr. Guiterras and often 
 with O'Reilly. He and O'Reilly made many happy voy- 
 ages together, on the Charles, in Boston Harbor, and on 
 the Merrimac, and once they paddled through the Dismal 
 Swamp of Virginia. Another quotation from Mr. Mose- 
 ley's sketch is appropriate here : 
 
 Always in our outings O'Reilly and myself kept an 
 accurate account, which we balanced every evening. It 
 was simply a matter of method and pleasure to do so. 
 I might say: "Boyle, you know you bought a quart of 
 milk to-day ; you haven't got that down ; " or it might 
 be, "You gave a quarter to that lock tender;" or he 
 might say, "Ned, you bought some bread and cheese at 
 
THE MANY-SIDED MAN 267 
 
 the grocery at such a place, or we paid so much toll, or 
 something of that sort," and then after marshaling all 
 the expenses, we would divide them. It was purely 
 method on his part. No man was more liberal in his 
 expenditures, but he did not like to be under obligation 
 even to a friend. 
 
 An incident of one of their trips was thus recalled by 
 Mr. Moseley : 
 
 I remember, although it may seem personal to myself 
 to mention it, that once on the Merrimac we were swim- 
 ming from a point of rocks, at the upper edge of the 
 Laurels, and the conversation turned upon the subject 
 of diving and bringing weights from the bottom. 
 
 Picking up an ordinary-sized rock, he said, "Ned, I 
 wager you a dollar you cannot bring that from the bottom 
 50 yards out." 
 
 With a spirit half of bravado, I said: "I would not 
 fool with that pebble. Here is something like," taking 
 a rock from the stone fence close at hand. 
 
 He thought I could never do it ; but putting a white 
 towel on the under side, that I might distinguish it under 
 water, he took it out in the boat, and estimating the 
 distance, dropped it overboard some fifty yards from the 
 shore in twelve feet of water. 
 
 I swam out, and after some effort secured it and 
 managed to bring it ashore. He was so pleased, he took 
 it to the nearest scale and found it weighed 34 pounds. 
 He seemed to feel as proud of what he thought was quite 
 an achievement as if he had done it himself, or as if it 
 had been something equal to the composition or delivery 
 of his St. Patrick's Day poem. He related the incident 
 in the Pilot, challenging any one to surpass it. I was 
 constantly having men tell me of something which 
 O'Reilly had laid at my door that pleased him. 
 
 When Mr. Moseley went to Washington, Mr. O'Reilly 
 viewed his going as a calamity to their companionship. 
 "The summer opens lonesome for me," he mournfully 
 
268 EDWARD A. MOSELEY 
 
 wrote in June, 1887. "I can't bear to look at the canoe. 
 ... I shall never have the heart to paddle down to 
 Governor's Island and swim/' 
 
 Yet the climax of their journeyings was in store for 
 them. This was a trip to the Dismal Swamp, for which 
 they did much fond and excited planning. O'Reilly 
 wrote of their venture into that strange region: "In 
 the month of May, 1888, two sunburned white men, in 
 cedar canoes, turned at right angles from the broad waters 
 of the Dismal Swamp Canal, and entered the dark and 
 narrow channel, called the Feeder, that pierces the very 
 heart of the swamp." 
 
 Another canoe trip was soon among the plans, this 
 time to the Eastern Shore of Maryland "A tent on 
 the beach," as O'Reilly outlined the project, "shooting 
 and fishing, and lying in the sand all day, like savages." 
 Again he wrote: "In May, please God, we will go down 
 to that Eastern Shore and take a howl in the primeval. 
 I am tired to death." He was, in truth, tired to death, 
 and he and his comrade were to voyage together no more. 
 After O'Reilly's untimely death in 1890, the sorrowing 
 and loyal friend contributed some interesting and intimate 
 recollections of their rare companionship to the biography 
 of the poet which James Jeffrey Roche was preparing. 
 
 A graceful appreciation of Mr. Moseley's own memorial 
 of his friend, "John Boyle O'Reilly, the Man," was 
 written by another friend, Samuel Roads, Jr., of Marble- 
 head, Massachusetts, author of "The History and Tradi- 
 tions" of that unique old town, in acknowledging the 
 receipt of the brochure : 
 
THE MANY-SIDED MAN 269 
 
 To MY FRIEND, EDWARD A. MOSELEY : 
 
 Whose charming description of "John Boyle O'Reilly 
 the Man/' is only an unconscious tribute to noble char- 
 acteristics of mind and heart which are his own, as much 
 as they were those of the patriot and poet of whom he 
 writes; and whose article on "Arbitration," proves to 
 all the world what his friends have always known, that 
 his great heart always goes out in sympathy to the toiler 
 and wage earner. 
 
 SAMUEL ROADS, JR. 
 September 15, 1893. 
 
 In loyalty to O'Reilly's memory, Mr. Moseley cham- 
 pioned the retention of Captain Hathaway, as the United 
 States Shipping Commissioner of New Bedford, Massachu- 
 setts because of his gallant part in the rescue of O'Reilly 
 from the penal colony of western Australia. He was happy 
 to serve the memory of his friend again, by securing the 
 presence of Vice-President Stevenson at the dedication of 
 the O'Reilly monument in the Fenway at Boston. 
 
 When Moseley, too, had completed the voyage of 
 life, a friend of the two friends, Joseph Smith of Lowell, 
 Massachusetts, at a meeting of the John Boyle O'Reilly 
 Club of Boston, held at Loblolly Cove on Cape Ann amid 
 scenes associated with their memory, read this tribute : 
 
 A MEMORY 
 
 Here by the waters of Loblolly Cove 
 
 We greet the spirits of the dead we love. 
 
 Here by the restless, ever-sounding sea, 
 
 Comes back the dear, the undying mem'ry 
 
 Of older days, of braver, sweeter days, 
 
 When faith and friendship marked our lives and ways ; 
 
 When life was sweet and all the world was young, 
 
 When Moseley wrought and Boyle O'Reilly sung. 
 
270 EDWARD A. MOSELEY 
 
 In the firm valor of their faith and youth 
 
 They faced the world and fought for right and truth ; 
 
 And here they heard the sea's deep-throated call, 
 
 Free for the nonce, from dull convention's thrall. 
 
 To them that voice told many a wondrous tale 
 
 That sent their souls to sea with ev'ry sail, 
 
 Adventuring back where ev'ry spicy breeze 
 
 Kissed the green Edens of Polynesian seas. 
 
 Their work is done ; their souls from earth are free ; 
 
 Their ships now anchor in the tideless sea ; 
 
 Each nobly wrought, each left an honored name, 
 
 And each inspired a love more sweet than fame. 
 
 Now watch and ward a gentle spirit keeps 
 
 On that green hill where Boyle O'Reilly sleeps, 
 
 And Moseley rests where sweet sea breezes bring, 
 
 The music which the tides eternal sing. 
 
 Here by the waters of Loblolly Cove 
 
 We hail the spirits of the dead we love. 
 
 A woman of distinction and discrimination pronounced 
 Mr. Moseley "the most accomplished man" she ever 
 knew. It would not be easy to measure the range of 
 his accomplishments, for he was not in the habit of mak- 
 ing them a merit. For instance, how many who knew 
 him had any idea that he could paint? Yet he had a 
 strong love for the fine arts, and in his early days he both 
 drew and painted well. 
 
 The deep-sea chanteys were dear to him ; and he pos- 
 sessed a rich and strong baritone voice with which, when 
 he sang such a song as "Toll not the Village Bell for 
 Me," he moved his hearers to tears. He was greatly 
 interested in the musical work of his daughter, provid- 
 ing her every facility and constantly bringing her new 
 music. 
 
 He never dabbled in anything, but, whether at work 
 
THE MANY-SIDED MAN 271 
 
 or play, he strove with all his might to master whatever 
 he undertook. He knew the trees, the flowers and the 
 things that grow in field and garden. He had a practical 
 and scientific knowledge of them. When he built his 
 Washington house in Sixteenth Street, he had only a 
 little grass plot, hardly as large as a billiard table, but he 
 experimented with various grass seed until he had a 
 sward like velvet, which was literally hand raised. He 
 would hardly have survived his cares and anxieties but 
 for the pleasure he had in his various gardens. When it 
 was not his legal books among which he fell asleep, it 
 was among all the flower catalogues published in this 
 country and many from abroad ; he had an inherited and 
 passionate love of flowers. Even when his health began 
 to fail, the medical books he studied and which made him 
 almost as good a physician as can be made by books 
 alone, did not supplant the gardening books. 
 
 In his enthusiasm for working in the soil, he bought a 
 small farm at Kenil worth, Maryland, in 1903, and 
 undertook to raise flowers and vegetables for the Wash- 
 ington market. Busy as his days were, he was obliged 
 to leave the management of the place to others, himself 
 able only to go out at night and do what he could while 
 the light lasted. His correspondence with his head farmer 
 makes a surprising disclosure of his close knowledge of 
 both gardening and marketing, and at the same time 
 gives some amusing glimpses of his ups and downs in 
 agriculture. A few extracts from a large packet of his 
 letters, written to the farmer on days when he could not 
 go out to the farm, must suffice : ' -..' 
 
272 EDWARD A. MOSELEY 
 
 Professor Wood said that he did not believe that any 
 violets could be grown that were better than those violets 
 which you grew in the house. They are so strong and 
 vigorous. . . . 
 
 Now don't fail to see that the ice is kept on the vio- 
 lets. . . . 
 
 If you would do as well by me as I by you, I think you 
 would buy some corn and cut me some wood. I was 
 sure this morning when I looked at your letter that you 
 would say, "I am going to get some corn and fatten the 
 pigs." . . . 
 
 I am very glad that you are improving the quality of 
 
 the violets you send . It won't pay to monkey with 
 
 him. There are plenty of violets from Virginia, and if 
 you don't have violets sent him better bunched, larger 
 bunches, etc., than he gets down there, you will have to 
 take the price which he pays the Virginia people. Our 
 violets, with your skill in growing them and bunching 
 them, ought to be the best that come into the market 
 and bring the highest prices, and undoubtedly they will 
 be if you will follow it up. . . . 
 
 Do not plant any more onions, please, but clean those 
 that you have, where they need it the little ones. I 
 do not think I will be out to-day, but will see you to- 
 morrow. Be sure to sterilize that stuff, and do it well. . . . 
 Give it a good cooking, and then put it where nothing 
 can get at it on boards or something. Lay it out 
 thin and dry it out so as to make it light and feathery. 
 Do not fail to do this, please. Go to work at it at once, 
 if you will, and cook the devil out of it. ... 
 
 I would not sell a violet to anybody, if they gave ten 
 dollars apiece for them, except the people you are supply- 
 ing. If wants to buy our violets, why let him do it 
 
 regularly, but as a matter of accommodation simply, we 
 have not got them to sell. If violets continue to grow 
 as I think they are going to do, you will be picking ten 
 thousand a day before long, and you had better keep 
 your customers supplied. . . . 
 
 I trust you won't bother me any more than you can 
 help for the present. I have got all I can do here in the 
 office, and I can't give any more thought to the farm. If 
 
THE MANY-SIDED MAN 273 
 
 you are having both tanks filled, you will have them both 
 clouded and will have them so for the winter probably. 
 You ought to put clear water in one and then fill up the 
 other from it. I can't tell you anything about going 
 away just now as I have got more than I can do. Now 
 please don't bother me any more. ... If you want 
 anything, you will have to attend to it yourself. . . . 
 
 I gave one bunch of those onions to . He thought 
 
 they looked beautiful and is going to try them, and I am 
 going to have some other people try the other bunch. 
 
 I am having figure out about the violets. You will 
 
 find that they have done just as well as ever. They are 
 not blooming now, but in former years they did not 
 bloom later. Just about this time they were blooming, 
 and along about the last of November or first of Decem- 
 ber you hardly had any. . . . 
 
 * It is no use for you to be bellowing. You ought to 
 thank God that things are as good as they are. There 
 is only one thing more, and that is that you want to get 
 plenty of straw and litter to put on those onions or you 
 will lose them. . . . 
 
 I could not reach you by telephone this morning, but 
 hardly supposed that such a catastrophe had taken place. 
 Of course, I am sorry enough about it, but the only thing 
 to do is not to get discouraged. I had $900 insurance 
 on the thing, but it was cancelled about a fortnight ago 
 and therefore it is a total loss. I know of nothing else 
 to do but to go ahead and build another house. There 
 is no use to throw up the sponge or get discouraged. 
 Save everything you possibly can. Get the water out 
 of your boilers so they won't crack, and empty your 
 water pipes. The first thing you want to do is to make 
 some sort of arrangement so you can get water. See 
 what can be done about getting a new tank or getting 
 the old tank in condition so that it will hold water. 
 Perhaps you will have the steam engine to do your 
 pumping. 
 
 Anyway, go ahead and do the best you can; don't 
 get discouraged, I am back of you. A little fire is not 
 going to drive us to the wall. I am sorry enough the 
 house and the rest of the stuff are gone, but we will have 
 
274 EDWARD A. MOSELEY 
 
 to make the most of it. You might as well start to clean 
 up, and we will get ready to go to work to build. 
 
 Surely there was no lack of the true sporting spirit 
 under that blow, nor was there when, on casting up 
 accounts, he found that he had paid out nearly a thousand 
 dollars hi one year for horse feed. The end of this 
 story of long-distance farming does not appear among 
 Mr. Moseley's papers. 
 
 But nothing ever dampened his ardor on the general 
 subject. Early every morning before he went to his 
 office, Nelson, his faithful servant of more than twenty 
 years, drove him to the Agricultural Department, and 
 every spring evening he came home with his arms full 
 of the first flowers. This letter from the White House 
 recalls a little incident that may be worth noting here : 
 
 The White House, Washington. 
 
 March 16, 1907. 
 MY DEAR MR. MOSELEY: 
 
 I handed the pot of shamrock, which you were so kind 
 as to send to the President, to him just as he was leaving 
 the office, and he asked me to thank you most cordially 
 for your courtesy and to say that he would place it at 
 once in Archie's room. 
 
 With regard, believe me, 
 Sincerely yours, 
 
 WM. LOEB, JR., 
 
 Secretary to the President. 
 
 Mr. Moseley was always an earnest student of plants 
 and made himself in his later years an expert in Chinese 
 plants and vegetables. He imported seeds and flowers 
 from distant lands. No man could have more beautiful 
 
THE MANY-SIDED MAN 275 
 
 monuments than the beds of flowers still blooming in the 
 parks of Washington, which have been developed from 
 seed imported by him and given to the Department of 
 Agriculture. A lawyer friend, wondering at the grasp 
 of the fundamental principles of the law which he dis- 
 played while walking with him in a Government garden 
 one day, was even more astonished on meeting the chief 
 specialist of the government in the matter of foreign 
 plants to hear Mr. Moseley discuss that subject on fairly 
 equal terms with the scientist. 
 
 Mr. Moseley is spoken of by one who was much under 
 his roof as being exceedingly agreeable to live with, by 
 reason of his good humor, his geniality, his cheerful pleas- 
 antry, his consideration. His hospitality was unbounded. 
 Often when a stranger came to Washington, homeless, 
 homesick and alone, with no claim other than that of ac- 
 quaintance, he was made a daily guest at the generous 
 table until after weeks or months he had become familiar 
 with the life and people of the place. It was a pleasant 
 lodge in the wilderness, the charming interior by night 
 overflowed with light, and the house was always full of 
 flowers. 
 
 To one of his worlds, at least, Mr. Moseley ever re- 
 mained unchangingly loyal, and that was the little world 
 of Newburyport, into which he was born. Although the 
 years of his manhood were passed elsewhere, Boston and 
 Washington were to him hardly more than the places of 
 his exile. He held himself always a citizen and lover of 
 the old town where the Merrimac flows into the sea. 
 There his two brothers and a sister have their homes, 
 
276 EDWARD A. MOSELEY 
 
 and at the last, as at the first, it was his favorite play- 
 ground. He never lost his youthful delight in its beauti- 
 ful river and the charming country in which the town is 
 set. 
 
 Up the river and just beyond the edge of the town, the 
 waters are parted by Deer Island, a lovely tree-grown cliff 
 of some seven acres, the home chosen by the late Richard 
 S. Spofford and cherished by his widow, the poet and 
 novelist, Mrs. Harriet Prescott Spofford, sister of Mrs. 
 Moseley. This was the summer home of Mr. and Mrs. 
 Moseley and their daughter, as their Washington house 
 became the winter home of Mrs. Spofford. 
 
 Mr. Moseley's last pastime was motor boating on the 
 Merrimac and on Ipswich Bay and sometimes around 
 Cape Ann. He was contented with the little old engine 
 with which he started, until one day his brother Fred 
 passed him on the river. After that, he did not rest until 
 he had an engine capable of evening up the score. He 
 studied the subject as if he were intending to make 
 a business of constructing motor boats. He went to 
 Rochester for the purpose of personally inspecting some 
 engines. With no little difficulty, he imported from 
 Austria a rare trumpet, on which he could wake the 
 echoes of the forest-bordered river with a fanfare worthy 
 of a royal progress. 
 
 When on his vacations he arrived at the Island, it 
 seemed to all that summer had begun, his friends wel- 
 comed him, the family delighted in him, the servants 
 adored him. He visited his old haunts, found his old 
 wild flowers, interviewed the old fishermen, spent hours 
 

THE MANY-SIDED MAN 277 
 
 in his brothers' gardens at Indian Hill and Maudesleigh 
 and Chailey, and rowed with his brother-in-law. One 
 of his last pleasures was when he tapped at the door of 
 his sister-in-law, Mrs. Spofford, at half-past four in the 
 morning, and together they took the swift Fawn under 
 Captain Charlie Lundborg, and fled down the Merrimac 
 in the sunrise, and through the silver windings of Plum 
 Island River, rushing back through water where the 
 changing wind met the tide, drenched and glad of break- 
 fast. 
 
 In his desire for a boat entirely to his liking, he set 
 up a shop on the river bank, and employed a skillful 
 carpenter. In his last days at Deer Island, when he no 
 longer dared race up to Haverhill or out past Plum 
 Island, he could still go to the little shop and, as he sat 
 hour after hour beside the carpenter's bench, discuss and 
 direct the building of the boat. Alas, he was to sail the 
 Merrimac no more ! 
 
APPRECIATIONS 
 
 THE OUTLOOK, 287 FOURTH AVE., NEW YORK, 
 
 February 15, 1912. 
 MY DEAR MR. MORGAN: 
 
 I most gladly write to say how I appreciated Mr. 
 Moseley's services during the many years he was under 
 me. 
 
 He was one of the men who did really substantial serv- 
 ice for the cause of industrial betterment of our people. 
 He fought on every occasion for better conditions of labor 
 for the great army of railway employees, and on behalf 
 of all laws for appliances that would make the cars safer ; 
 and he took a leading part in the effort that resulted 
 in putting upon the Federal statute books the many 
 laws that now look to the safety and welfare of railway 
 employees. 
 
 I took a real pride hi his association with me, and 
 valued him, and lamented his death. 
 Faithfully yours, 
 
 THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 
 
 278 
 
APPRECIATIONS 279 
 
 THE WHITE HOUSE, WASHINGTON, 
 
 December 7, 1911. 
 MY DEAR MR. MORGAN : 
 
 I am in receipt of your request for a contribution to the 
 memorial for Mr. Moseley, and am glad to send you the 
 following : 
 
 The late Edward A. Moseley did much to further the 
 introduction of safety appliances upon the railroads, 
 the objects of which were to preserve human life. He 
 worked especially for the safety of railroad employees. 
 This alone would have brought him honor and respect, 
 but he found time also to give attention to other public 
 matters of importance. 
 
 His work as Secretary of the Interstate Commerce 
 Commission was worthy of high commendation. 
 
 Sincerely yours, 
 
 WM. H. TAFT. 
 
280 EDWARD A. MOSELEY 
 
 HONORABLE MARTIN A. KNAPP 
 
 PRESIDING JUDGE OF THE COURT OF COMMERCE, FORMERLY CHAIR- 
 MAN OF THE INTERSTATE COMMERCE COMMISSION 
 
 To be actuated by an ardent and unselfish purpose, 
 which discouragement never weakens and difficulty 
 cannot defeat, and to accomplish that purpose in large 
 measure with the results of great and lasting benefit to 
 humanity, is a record of usefulness which only a few men 
 leave behind them. One of these was Edward A. Moseley. 
 
 Born under conditions of family station which pointed 
 to the typical career of the well-bred New Englander, he 
 turned aside from the allurements of wealth, the pleas- 
 ures of social prestige, and the honors of political dis- 
 tinction, to devote the energies of a lifetime to the cause 
 of the overworked and unprotected. Especially was he 
 moved with sympathy for those engaged in hazardous 
 callings, and for the betterment of their lot he labored in 
 season and out of season. This was the keynote of his 
 character and the ruling spirit of his activities. 
 
 The pursuits of early manhood gave him a wide knowl- 
 edge of men and affairs, and this informing experience, 
 added to abilities of a high order, qualified him for the 
 place in which his life work was mainly performed and 
 with which his name will always be associated. 
 
 When the Interstate Commerce Commission was 
 created in 1887, he was made its Secretary and served 
 continuously in that capacity until his lamented death 
 terminated the relation. To the varied and exacting 
 duties of this office he brought an eager and resolute mind, 
 
APPRECIATIONS 281 
 
 unbounded energy and an industry that never wearied. 
 From first to last his heart was in the work of the Com- 
 mission, his one ambition to have that work succeed. 
 For nearly a quarter of a century he gave the best that 
 was in him to aid the development of an adequate and 
 efficient scheme of railway regulation, and his zealous 
 labors contributed in no small degree to the notable 
 results that have been attained. His loyalty was beyond 
 all question, and every Commissioner under whom he 
 served regarded him as a personal friend. 
 
 Whilst he participated at all times and most helpfully 
 in the general work of the Commission, he was conspicu- 
 ously active in promoting measures for the protection of 
 railway employees and the traveling public. To his 
 persistent and determined efforts was largely due the 
 enactment of the various safety appliance laws, and he 
 exerted himself unceasingly for their efficient adminis- 
 tration. His vigorous personality pervaded this field of 
 regulation, and the beneficial results accomplished, now 
 everywhere recognized, will be his enduring monument. 
 
 A remarkable man he was, of versatile powers and 
 marked individuality, enthusiastic, resourceful, uncom- 
 monly likable, a man whose habitual and practical interest 
 in those less fortunate than himself was constantly mani- 
 fested, and above all a man who performed a work of 
 unusual and permanent value, for which he will be long 
 and gratefully remembered. 
 
 MARTIN A. KNAPP. 
 
282 EDWARD A. MOSELEY 7 
 
 HONORABLE FRANKLIN K. LANE 
 
 SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR, FORMERLY A MEMBER OF THE INTER- 
 STATE COMMERCE COMMISSION 
 
 The distinctive characteristic of Mr. Moseley, which 
 drew men toward him, was the breadth of his sympathies. 
 He thought in human terms. The mere matter of dollars 
 involved in a controversy before us did not appeal to him, 
 but once a question was raised involving injustice he was 
 keenly alive. The man of small affairs appealed to him 
 as of quite as much importance in the general scheme as 
 the man with the largest interests ; and where he found 
 those who were without adequate representation he made 
 himself their representative, if their cause was just. 
 
 He left our hearing room on the day of the final sub- 
 mission of the proposed rules governing the application 
 of safety appliances. At that time he had been sick 
 already for months, but had fought off his illness to give 
 consideration to these matters which were the fruit of 
 twenty years of persistent struggle on his part. As he 
 left the room, I turned to one of my colleagues and said, 
 "This is the last time we will see Mr. Moseley in this 
 room, and the aim of his life has been achieved." I 
 believe he felt that way himself. 
 
 The city of Washington is at all times filled with men 
 who jealously guard the rights of property. It has con- 
 tained few comparatively whose first thought is the wel- 
 fare of their kind. In this class Edward A. Moseley was 
 preeminent. 
 
 FRANKLIN K. LANE. 
 
APPRECIATIONS 283 
 
 HONORABLE JUDSON C. CLEMENTS 
 
 MEMBER OF THE INTERSTATE COMMERCE COMMISSION 
 
 The long service of Mr. Moseley as Secretary of the 
 Interstate Commerce Commission, from the tune of its 
 organization until his death, was characterized by intense 
 zeal, prompted by a loyal pride in the work and standing 
 of the Commission and a sense of personal duty and 
 responsibility. 
 
 At an early period during his term of office he became 
 deeply interested in the subject of greater safety of rail- 
 way employees and their just treatment in the matter 
 of compensation for injuries sustained in the service. 
 Naturally, from long consideration of these matters and 
 an earnest effort to promote legislation for better condi- 
 tions, he became interested in the amicable adjustment 
 of disputes between carriers and their employees. 
 
 In addition to his energy and zeal for the cause which 
 he espoused, he was gifted with a discriminating know- 
 ledge of human nature, and was wonderfully resourceful 
 both in wisely planning and wisely executing his plans 
 to meet and deal with practical conditions and difficul- 
 ties in the best manner to promote the ultimate success 
 of his cherished projects. He was always persistent, of 
 a cheerful spirit, courteous and generous without osten- 
 tation. He was naturally sympathetic and ready with a 
 helping hand to those in trouble or need. 
 
 The greatest monument to his memory as a public 
 servant is the record of the conspicuous and effective part 
 taken by him in the promotion of legislation for the 
 
284 EDWARD A. MOSELEY 
 
 protection of life and limb and the amelioration of the 
 condition of those engaged in arduous and hazardous 
 labor, and for the better protection of their rights in the 
 adjustment of liabilities for injuries. His thought and 
 untiring labor devoted to these beneficent and just 
 purposes have erected a more cherished and enduring 
 monument to his unselfish devotion to human right than 
 could any shaft of stone. 
 
 JUDSON C. CLEMENTS. 
 
 HONORABLE CHARLES A. PROUTY 
 
 MEMBER OF THE INTERSTATE COMMERCE COMMISSION 
 
 Mr. Moseley, to an even greater degree than most 
 men who accomplish things, devoted his entire energy to 
 the one matter then in hand, and to this concentration 
 of forces he added a persistency seldom equaled. Not 
 discouraged by defeat or rebuff, he returned repeatedly 
 to the attack, always from a different point of onslaught 
 and by some new and unexpected means. Few men in 
 Washington, not in positions of great authority, could 
 bring to bear upon the accomplishment of their purpose 
 the varied forces that he could. 
 
 I first knew him when I became a member of the 
 Commission, in December, 1896. For some years follow- 
 ing he gave much attention to the amendment of the Act 
 to regulate commerce, which had been emasculated of its 
 supposed virility by the decisions of the Supreme Court. 
 It was largely due to him that the trains of thought and 
 courses of action were put in operation which finally 
 
APPRECIATIONS 285 
 
 resulted in the Hepburn amendment of 1906 ; but before 
 that time came he had transferred his activities to the 
 enforcement of the Safety Appliance Act and the procur- 
 ing of additional legislation looking to the protection of 
 railway employees, to which the last years of his life were 
 entirely devoted. Others will tell of the results of those 
 labors; I only wish to bear witness to the disinterested 
 character of his motives. 
 
 While Mr. Moseley came from characteristic stock of 
 Puritanic New England, he had little taste for the cul- 
 tured pursuits which might naturally have appealed to 
 him. His thought was with the lower stratum of society. 
 The under dog appealed to him. It was not to win out 
 against the railroad, not to see his name in the newspaper, 
 not to gain a following with which to demand recognition, 
 but because he honestly felt for the hardship and suffering 
 of the brakeman, that he gave his time and his substance. 
 
 Largely by reason of this very disinterestedness he 
 won the affectionate regard of the men in whose service 
 he wrought and whose appreciation he prized, and, inci- 
 dentally, fame and power to an unusual degree. 
 
 C. A. PROUTY. 
 
 HONORABLE EDWARD E. CLARK 
 
 MEMBER OF THE INTERSTATE COMMERCE COMMISSION 
 
 I had the privilege and the pleasure of a close and 
 intimate acquaintance and business association with the 
 late Honorable Edward A. Moseley, extending over a 
 number of years, and I am glad to express my esteem 
 for the man and my appreciation of his work. 
 
286 EDWARD A. MOSELEY 
 
 I first became acquainted with him while I occupied 
 the position of grand chief conductor of the Order of 
 Railway Conductors, one of the organizations of the rail- 
 way employees that initiated and worked for the adop- 
 tion of Federal laws requiring the use on railroads of 
 power brakes and automatic couplers in the interest of 
 safety to employees and the traveling public. No man 
 took a keener interest in this humanitarian move, and no 
 man worked more zealously or efficiently for that legis- 
 lation than did Mr. Moseley, who was then Secretary of 
 the Interstate Commerce Commission. He contributed 
 in a great measure to the success achieved in that effort, 
 and in that, as in everything else, he manifested the 
 deepest interest in the welfare of those whose conditions 
 appealed to his sympathetic nature and to whom he 
 owed no particular debt or duty. 
 
 In later years, as a member of the Interstate Commerce 
 Commission, I was closely associated with him along 
 other lines of public work, and through all of my ac- 
 quaintance with him those characteristics which were 
 most notable in his life and his work, and which to my 
 mind most strongly impressed those who knew him inti- 
 mately and well, were genuine sympathy for those who 
 needed sympathy and help and who could not help them- 
 selves, untiring and unswerving devotion to a task once 
 undertaken, and indefatigable will and untiring energy 
 in everything to which he put his mind or hand. 
 
 The humanitarian work to which he gave much of his 
 time and energy in the direction of legislation affecting 
 safety appliances on railroads, hours of service of railway 
 
APPRECIATIONS 287 
 
 employees, and prevention of accidents on railroads, has 
 not yet been completed, but he had the satisfaction be- 
 fore he was called away of seeing the foundation well 
 laid and the major portion of the superstructure reared, 
 and of knowing that he had been closely identified in 
 helpful and useful ways in building both. 
 
 The esteem and affection for him that are entertained 
 by the thousands whom he has helped, constitute a me- 
 morial which I know would be wished for and prized by 
 him more than any or many other monuments. 
 
 The world is better for his having lived. 
 
 E. E. CLARK. 
 
 HON. JAMES S. HARLAN 
 
 MEMBER OF THE INTERSTATE COMMERCE COMMISSION 
 
 The late Edward A. Moseley took a broad view of his 
 duties as Secretary of the Interstate Commerce Com- 
 mission. Not content with being merely its executive 
 officer, he made a close study of the law with a view to 
 ascertaining its defects and omissions, and had much to 
 do with the amendatory legislation by which the act 
 was brought to its present state of effectiveness. 
 
 But his best work in the public interest was a by- 
 product, if I may use such a phrase in this connection, 
 of his official relation with the Commission. In that 
 capacity he came into frequent and close contact with 
 railroad men, and there was thus early brought to his 
 attention the need of legislation for the protection of 
 railway passengers and employees. 
 
288 EDWARD A. MOSELEY 
 
 The Safety Appliance Acts, the Hours of Service Law, 
 the Employers' Liability Act, and other similar statutes 
 were to some extent the result of his long-continued 
 efforts to secure the enactment of such legislation. He 
 had much to do with the enforcement of these laws, and 
 upheld with vigor the principles which they establish. 
 The duties cast upon him by this legislation were at times 
 onerous, but he undertook them cheerfully and performed 
 the work with marked efficiency. It was with him a 
 labor of love ; his friends, in fact, well know how large a 
 part of the remaining years of his life was devoted to the 
 service of others. 
 
 His high sense of duty and the strict performance of 
 his official work won for him the confidence of the Com- 
 mission and of those with whom he came into official 
 contact. His kindly nature and personal qualities were 
 such as to endear him to all. 
 
 JAMES S. HARLAN. 
 
 HONORABLE JAMES R. MANN 
 
 MINORITY LEADER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, FORMERLY 
 CHAIRMAN OF THE HOUSE COMMITTEE ON INTERSTATE AND FOREIGN 
 COMMERCE 
 
 I knew Edward A. Moseley very intimately in a legis- 
 lative way. For years I was one of the active members 
 on the committee of the House of Representatives which 
 deals with railway legislation and during a part of the 
 time was chairman of the committee. All proposed 
 legislation relating to the Interstate Commerce Com- 
 mission came before our committee, as well as all proposed 
 
APPRECIATIONS 289 
 
 legislation concerning rules or appliances to prevent rail- 
 way accidents, or providing for their investigation. 
 
 I think Mr. Moseley came to have a peculiarly favor- 
 able regard for me, and he used to come to me almost 
 constantly concerning the legislative propositions before 
 the committee in which he was interested. I found 
 that he took a special interest in everything relating to 
 the safety of railway employees and the traveling public. 
 On every proposition of the sort which came up, he 
 thoroughly informed himself, and I think I never took 
 action upon any such proposition without having a 
 personal consultation with Mr. Moseley. 
 
 A part of the time the legislative agent of the railway 
 employees in Washington was very autocratic in his 
 demands and difficult to get along with, but I never knew 
 Mr. Moseley to lose his temper, though sometimes un- 
 justly accused. 
 
 He tried to get legislation which would be protective 
 to the vast army of railway employees and tend to pre- 
 vent injury and accident by railway operation. We 
 believed him to be sincere in his efforts and to be well 
 informed as to details, and hence he had great influence. 
 Much of the railway safety appliance legislation was 
 largely molded by him, and the railroad employees lost 
 an abl,e friend when his life passed away. 
 
 JAMES R. MANN. 
 
290 EDWARD A. MOSELEY 
 
 HONORABLE CHAMP CLARK 
 
 SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
 
 I knew the Honorable Edward A. Moseley very well 
 during his service with the Interstate Commerce Com- 
 mission. He did a vast amount of work and he did it 
 well. He was a very valuable public official. 
 
 He was a good American citizen and a very com- 
 panionable and interesting gentleman. I regard his 
 death, not only as a public loss, but as a personal be- 
 reavement. 
 
 CHAMP CLARK. 
 
 HONORABLE JOSEPH G. CANNON 
 
 FORMERLY SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
 
 For many years Edward A. Moseley was the efficient 
 Secretary of the Interstate Commerce Commission. I 
 knew him during practically the whole period of his 
 incumbency of that office, and, in common with all who 
 had knowledge of his work, I regarded him as an im- 
 portant factor in the development and usefulness of the 
 Interstate Commerce Commission. 
 
 Able, conscientious, and industrious, the labors he per- 
 formed were not only of great value to the Commission, 
 but of equal value to all the people of the United States. 
 
 J. G. CANNON. 
 
APPRECIATIONS . 291 
 
 HONORABLE RICHARD OLNEY 
 
 FORMERLY ATTORNEY-GENERAL AND SECRETARY OF STATE 
 
 The late Secretary of the Interstate Commerce Com- 
 mission, Mr. E. A. Moseley, I knew and highly respected. 
 At the same time our personal intercourse was com- 
 paratively slight, occurring principally in the years be- 
 tween 1895 and 1898 and relating to the suit between the 
 receivers of the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad and 
 certain employees who had been discharged because they 
 belonged to a labor union, and to a proposed bill for the 
 arbitration of disputes between railroad corporations and 
 their employees. 
 
 In the administration of his office his diligence was 
 untiring, and the efficiency of the Commission was largely 
 due to his personal efforts. He was specially interested 
 in all measures looking to the welfare of railroad em- 
 ployees, himself initiated many of them, and if their 
 employment is to-day better paid, less dangerous and 
 attended with less hardship than it was twenty years ago, 
 the result is to be largely ascribed to his zeal and his 
 labors. 
 
 RICHARD OLNEY. 
 
292 EDWARD A. MOSELEY 
 
 HONORABLE CHARLES J. BONAPARTE 
 
 FORMERLY ATTORNEY-GENERAL 
 
 Mr. Moseley was a zealous, indefatigable, and praise- 
 worthy public servant, who devoted unreservedly his 
 time, strength and talents to the discharge of his duties, 
 and was a prominent factor in the highly salutary work 
 of the important branch of the Government in which he 
 served, contributing largely to its efficiency and success. 
 
 CHARLES J. BONAPARTE. 
 
 HONORABLE GEORGE VON L. MEYER 
 
 FORMERLY SECRETARY OF THE NAVY 
 
 In my estimation the services to this country of 
 Edward A. Moseley as a specialist in the broader rail- 
 way problems have been of the greatest value. A sub- 
 ject so vast and complex required specially adapted mental 
 qualities, and to this question Mr. Moseley bent the 
 powers of a mind well qualified to cope with it. 
 
 The recognition of his work was wide, and the effect 
 of it by no means ceased with his death. 
 
 GEORGE VON L. MEYER. 
 
APPRECIATIONS 293 
 
 HONORABLE GEORGE GRAY 
 
 JUDGE OF THE UNITED STATES COUKT OP APPEALS 
 
 My friendship for Mr. Moseley was of long standing, 
 and I felt deeply the sudden termination of his useful 
 life. 
 
 I became acquainted with him when he went to Wash- 
 ington at the beginning of Mr. Cleveland's first adminis- 
 tration as Secretary of the newly constituted Interstate 
 Commerce Commission, and I grew somewhat familiar 
 with what he undertook and so successfully accomplished 
 in relation to the important work of that Commission. 
 Sympathizing with the purposes Congress had in view by 
 the creation of the Commission, he strove with whole- 
 souled devotion to promote its usefulness and to inspire 
 confidence in its work. 
 
 During the long months of the Anthracite Coal Strike 
 Arbitration, I was closely associated with him as Secre- 
 tary of our Commission, and I shall always hold in grate- 
 ful remembrance the absolute fidelity and untiring zeal 
 that characterized his efforts to make successful that 
 greatest of industrial arbitrations. 
 
 He did his work with so little of self-exploitation, that 
 he did not always receive the credit due for the im- 
 portant results achieved by him. 
 
 GEORGE GRAY. 
 
294 EDWARD A. MOSELEY 
 
 MAJOR-GENERAL LEONARD WOOD 
 
 CHIEF OF STAFF OF THE UNITED STATES ARMY 
 
 Mr. Moseley was of the greatest assistance to me as 
 Military Governor of Cuba in the preparation of the 
 present railroad law. When the framework of the law 
 had been drawn up, the matter was turned over to Mr. 
 Moseley for a most careful study. The results of his 
 work were embodied in many important changes, all 
 looking to the improvement of the law. He brought to 
 Havana a very large fund of experience and information 
 gained on the Interstate Commerce Commission. All 
 who came in contact with Mr. Moseley during his Cuban 
 work recognized him as an authority, and I think Sir 
 William Van Home and all others who were thrown in 
 contact with him during this period formed a very high 
 opinion of his abilities and a warm feeling of attachment 
 and friendship for him. 
 
 As for myself, I can never forget the immense value of 
 his services. 
 
 Mr. Moseley was a man of singularly attractive char- 
 acter, frank, cordial, always responding cheerfully to 
 demands for assistance. His information concerning 
 railway legislation was profound, and the controlling 
 motive in all his work was the betterment of conditions, 
 not only for the traveling public, but for the vast number 
 of people employed by the railroads. This feature of 
 his work in the Cuban railroad law was very highly 
 appreciated by railroad men in this country. 
 
 LEONARD WOOD. 
 
APPRECIATIONS 295 
 
 HONORABLE CHARLES P. NEILL 
 
 UNITED STATES COMMISSIONER OF LABOR 
 
 During the last ten years of his life it was my privi- 
 lege to know Edward A. Moseley intimately. Our 
 common interest in the improvement of labor conditions 
 drew us together, and we were frequently closely asso- 
 ciated on the same work. This was notably true during 
 the existence of the Anthracite Coal Strike Commission 
 in 1902-1903, when for six months we practically lived 
 together. Each succeeding year of my association with 
 Moseley begot an increasing respect and admiration for 
 the unselfish devotion and splendid earnestness with 
 which he gave himself to every movement that looked 
 to the betterment of the condition of those of his fellow 
 men who bear the brunt of the heavy manual toil which 
 society requires for its necessities and its comforts. Each 
 of those succeeding years brought with it also an in- 
 creased personal affection for the kindly, generous and 
 lovable personality which was united hi him with a 
 vigorous and virile character. 
 
 I have known few men who had the genuine interest 
 of their fellow men at heart to the same degree that 
 Moseley had. He had nothing to gain, and if anything 
 had something to lose because of his open and persistent 
 struggle in the cause of industrial betterment for the 
 wage earners ; but he made their fight his fight, fought it 
 unceasingly and nobly, and left a record of achievement 
 behind him which is at once a monument and an inspira- 
 tion. 
 
 CHARLES P. NEILL. 
 
296 EDWARD A. MOSELEY 
 
 HONORABLE GEORGE G. CROCKER 
 
 FORMERLY CHAIRMAN OF THE MASSACHUSETTS RAILROAD COMMIS- 
 SION AND CHAIRMAN OF THE COMMITTEE ON SAFETY APPLIANCES 
 OF THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF STATE RAILROAD COMMIS- 
 SIONERS 
 
 A little more than twenty years ago, the Massachu- 
 setts Board of Railroad Commissioners organized a 
 movement to secure legislation by Congress requiring 
 the use of automatic couplers and train brakes on freight 
 cars. The legislatures of the various States were roused 
 to memorialize Congress, and the matter was taken up 
 at the conventions of the Railroad Commissioners of the 
 several States, which at that time were held annually in 
 the offices of the Interstate Commerce Commission in 
 Washington. Pursuant to a vote passed at one of these 
 conventions in 1891, Judge Cooley, Chairman of the 
 Interstate Commerce Commission, appointed me as 
 chairman of a committee to hear the parties interested, 
 and draft and secure the passage by Congress of appro- 
 priate legislation. 
 
 Edward A. Moseley was intensely interested in the 
 movement. He gladly consented to serve as secretary 
 of the committee, a position to which he devoted a large 
 amount of tune and thought. He persisted in the work, 
 and the passage of the beneficent Safety Appliance Law 
 less than a year later was undoubtedly due more to his 
 influence, enthusiasm and disinterested hard work than 
 to those of any other man. 
 
 The expenditure involved in equipping freight cars 
 with the train brakes and automatic couplers was, before 
 
APPRECIATIONS 297 
 
 the passage of the law, estimated by the railroad repre- 
 sentatives at $75,000,000. They claimed that any com- 
 pulsory law would be ruinous, even if ten years were 
 allowed for the work. The Switchmen's Union, whose 
 members were the greatest sufferers in the operation of 
 handling the old link-and-pin coupler, also opposed the 
 passage of the law on the ground that it would throw 
 many men out of a job. 
 
 Mr. Moseley, however, had clearly before him the 
 dreadful picture of the annual slaughter, and he knew 
 that it ought to be stopped. He knew, too, that by 
 advocating the passage of the law he risked his position. 
 Unflinchingly he devoted his time and strength to the 
 cause, and that he was able in his lifetime to see the 
 successful results of his work was to him a source of great 
 satisfaction. There can be no doubt that the trainmen 
 on our railroads are chiefly indebted to Edward A. Moseley 
 for hastening the general adoption of the life-saving ap- 
 pliances covered by what is known as the Safety Ap- 
 pliance Law. 
 
 GEOKGE G. CROCKER. 
 
 MR. B. B. ADAMS 
 
 OP THE RAILWAY AGE 
 
 Mr. Moseley's most admirable trait was his courageous 
 independence. He was a strong partisan, and those who 
 opposed him, either hi the courts or in less formal affairs, 
 encountered a persistence which knew no limit; but he 
 always meant to fight only for the right. He "gloried 
 
298 EDWARD A. MOSELEY 
 
 in a fight, " but his energies were put forth in causes which 
 not only appealed to him as just, but which appealed to 
 humanitarian motives and which were causes needing a 
 strong friend. 
 
 The brotherhoods of railroad employees had reason for 
 gratitude, not only for his friendship and influence, but 
 also for his diplomacy and discretion. If the brother- 
 hood leaders had to secure their beneficial laws solely 
 through negotiation with Congressmen, engrossed with 
 other important affairs as Congressmen must be, they 
 would, no doubt, have suffered many delays and losses 
 which they avoided by Mr. Moseley's knowledge of the 
 field, his correct estimate of the hindrances, and his un- 
 intermittent devotion to the railroad men's welfare. 
 
 The railroad companies opposed many of the laws 
 proposed for the benefit of the train men (largely because 
 they desired simply to interpose delay), and thus it came 
 about that Mr. Moseley was often in the thick of what 
 seemed to be a conflict between labor and capital; but 
 he was always able to declare his friendship for capital 
 as well as for labor ; and he strove to do justice to both. 
 His generosity was constantly in evidence, and his serv- 
 ices for the brotherhoods were given without compen- 
 sation. 
 
 To those who knew hirn it is superfluous to say that his 
 aggressiveness was coupled with a geniality, genuine and 
 unfailing. He could denounce an oppressor in the most 
 vigorous style, and on occasion an erring or shortsighted 
 friend say a labor leader could be rebuked with 
 invective equally sharp; but he had unbounded con- 
 
APPRECIATIONS 299 
 
 sideration and tenderness not only for his intimate friends, 
 but as well for the humbler ones with whom he came in 
 contact. A poor negro woman, appealing to the Com- 
 mission for relief from the "Jim Crow car" laws, never 
 experienced more kindly and gracious treatment than 
 she received at the hands of Secretary Moseley. 
 
 B. B. ADAMS. 
 
 MR. JOHN MITCHELL 
 
 FORMERLY PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED MINE WORKERS OF AMERICA 
 
 It was my good fortune to have enjoyed for a con- 
 siderable number of years the acquaintance and, I be- 
 lieve, the confidence of the late Edward A. Moseley. I 
 was familiar with the splendid and unselfish service he 
 rendered the wage earners of our country, especially 
 those employed in the transportation industries. 
 
 He was a potent and indispensable factor in securing 
 the enactment of Federal legislation for the protection of 
 railway employees; his service in this respect alone, to 
 say nothing of his great and sympathetic interest in the 
 uplift of common humanity, entitled him to the respect- 
 ful and loving expressions which came from every source 
 at the time of his death. His name deserves a place 
 among the names of men who made the world better 
 because they lived in it. 
 
 JOHN MITCHELL. 
 
300 EDWARD A. MOSELEY 
 
 ME. T. V. POWDERLY 
 
 THE VETERAN LABOR LEADER 
 
 A friend is one who understands you without explana- 
 tion. Edward A. Moseley was my friend. 
 
 We met for the first time, over a quarter of a century 
 ago in Boston, in the sanctum of John Boyle O'Reilly. 
 James Jeffrey Roche dropped in while we were there, 
 and before separating, we had lunch in a queer little old- 
 fashioned restaurant which they called Bohemia. While 
 there O'Reilly, at Moseley's request, read to us his lines, 
 "In Bohemia" from, as I understood him to say, the 
 original manuscript. 
 
 Mr. Moseley was at that tune a member of the Knights 
 of Labor and Master Workman of his local assembly. 
 
 The acquaintance with Ned Moseley, as O'Reilly and 
 Roche called him, begun that day, grew to a friendship 
 which has continued ever since. I learned to know him 
 intimately and to love him for his faults as well as his 
 virtues. He had both. His faults were few but lovable ; 
 his virtues many and worthy of emulation. 
 
 I shall not speak of his official life ; others will do that 
 much better than I can. 
 
 Fearless and outspoken in advocacy of what he deemed 
 right, he had but scant patience with those who took the 
 side of what he believed wrong. 
 
 Animated by the largest sympathy for the man who 
 worked with his hands, he listened with attentive ear to 
 the toiler's plea for justice and did what he could to 
 smooth the path of the laboring man to better things. 
 
APPRECIATIONS 301 
 
 Hypocrisy was alien to his nature ; he despised sham, 
 deceit and cant. He was a man of earnest deeds. He so 
 valued his word as not to pass it lightly, but once he 
 gave assurance of performance, he faithfully fulfilled his 
 promise. 
 
 It was a delight to call on Moseley, as I often did, and 
 find him angry at some thing or some one. If the object 
 of his wrath were present, so much the better, for then he 
 spoke so plainly and forcibly as to render misinterpreta- 
 tion impossible. 
 
 Clouds would come occasionally, but they quickly 
 dissolved in the warmth of his sunny nature. He envied 
 no man, and in word and deed was charitable to all. 
 He bore no resentment beyond the hour of its birth, and 
 the word "revenge" found no abiding place in his vocabu- 
 lary. 
 
 Day does not end with the darkness that comes at 
 eventide, it goes on forever, for night is but the cloud 
 passing between us and the light. We know the day 
 lives on and that we shall see it again. Moseley's life 
 has not ended, for what we call death is but the veil 
 that human vision cannot penetrate. The splendid work 
 begun by him goes on, and others will be better equipped 
 to continue it, because the Master Workman's hand gave 
 initial impetus to its forward movement. 
 
 They say Ned Moseley's dead not so, 
 
 He lives, he's ever near. 
 
 We cannot see his face, 'tis true, 
 
 Or touch his hand so dear ; 
 
302 EDWARD A. MOSELEY 
 
 We know the earnest work he did, 
 Through all his life, for men ; 
 We know his loving deeds live on, 
 And in them he lives again. 
 
 T. V. POWDERLY. 
 
 MR. W. S. CARTER 
 
 PRESIDENT BROTHERHOOD OF LOCOMOTIVE FIREMEN AND ENGINEMEN 
 
 My personal acquaintance with Mr. Moseley extended 
 over a period of more than fifteen years, and during all 
 that time I not only valued his friendship personally, 
 but greatly appreciated his friendship so effectively ex- 
 pressed for all railroad employees. . . . 
 
 It appears to me at this time that the most efficient 
 and effective work performed by our late friend, Mr. 
 Moseley, was in the early days, long before members and 
 officers of these railway labor organizations understood 
 the importance of railway safety appliance legislation. 
 In the latter days, when it was popular for everybody to 
 support such legislation, it might be accepted as a matter 
 of course that Mr. Moseley, as Secretary of the Inter- 
 state Commerce Commission, would be greatly interested 
 therein. 
 
 But this was not the condition of affairs in the begin- 
 ning, for at that time Mr. Moseley not only had to con- 
 vince government officials and members of Congress of 
 the necessity of enforcing the adoption of railway safety 
 appliances, but had actually to convince the members 
 and officers of the railway brotherhoods that such legis- 
 lation was beneficial and desirable. 
 
APPRECIATIONS 303 
 
 Unfortunately, there are comparatively few in railway 
 service who have personal knowledge of the work that 
 Mr. Moseley did at that time, and most of them judge 
 him solely upon his work of a later day, when so many 
 were interested in the same movement, and he appeared 
 to be but one of a multitude advocating a great cause. 
 
 W. S. CARTER. 
 MR. H. B. PERHAM 
 
 PRESIDENT OF THE ORDER OF RAILROAD TELEGRAPHERS 
 
 This country has produced many strong characters, 
 statesmen, politicians, diplomats, and men of big business, 
 and the operations of the latter class are known and 
 acknowledged to be superior by the leaders in other 
 countries of the world. It has not produced many 
 altruists, perhaps for the reason that there has been less 
 cause for their existence here than elsewhere ; but it did 
 produce a notable one in the person of Edward A. Moseley. 
 
 He was a cosmopolitan. The world was his country, 
 and mankind were his brothers. His sympathies were 
 with the lowly, and his life was devoted to the amelio- 
 ration of bad conditions. When he had accomplished 
 something tangible in that direction, he experienced joys 
 known only to the select few. When reverses came, as 
 they did occasionally, he suffered physical collapse, but 
 voiced no complaint. 
 
 In 1898, when the railroad men's Arbitration Law was 
 being considered by Congress, it was largely due to his 
 activities that harmful and damaging clauses were elimi- 
 nated. When the Erdman Bill became a law, it was a 
 
304 EDWARD A. MOSELEY 
 
 humane proposition, instead of an instrument of slavery 
 as the record shows it to have been at one period of its 
 existence. Another commendable feature of the law is 
 that it recognizes labor organizations in no uncertain 
 way, and it is not now left to the courts to ponder over 
 the question as to whether or not a workmen's union or a 
 labor organization is a legal entity, because they have 
 been recognized by Congress. 
 
 In the conservation of human life, he found especial 
 delight, and the Safety Appliance Laws in behalf of rail- 
 road employees is the concrete expression thereof. He 
 worked indefatigably for the standard height bar and the 
 automatic coupler law, and many a brakeman, conductor, 
 and switchman owes his very life to our friend, without 
 ever in the least being conscious of the fact. 
 
 And what would our railroads amount to now, without 
 that beneficial enactment which they fought at that time 
 every inch of the way? The prevention of death and 
 injury to workmen is, or should be, a primary considera- 
 tion, and just compensation for such matters secondary, 
 but both are of prime importance, and Mr. Moseley was 
 active in support of both propositions almost continually, 
 and he left his mark upon them. 
 
 The Hours of Service Law might be mentioned as one 
 of his most favored ideas, and he brought that to a 
 successful issue. But his activities were so diversified 
 and the length of his services to humanity covered such 
 a period of years that I am liable to exceed my space 
 limit if I attempt to do the subject justice. 
 
 H. B. PERHAM. 
 
APPRECIATIONS 305 
 
 MB. S. E. HEBERLINQ 
 
 PBESIDENT OP THE SWITCHMEN'S UNION OF NORTH AMERICA 
 
 I first met Mr. Moseley over twenty-one years ago, 
 and my impression of him has been that all who came 
 in contact with him were bound to love and admire 
 him for his honest and sincere purpose to benefit men 
 who are engaged in hazardous occupations on railroads. 
 I personally consider his death the greatest loss in my 
 day and time, sustained by railroad men. 
 
 S. E. HEBERLING, President. 
 MR. F. T. HAWLEY 
 
 FORMERLY PRESIDENT OF THE SWITCHMEN'S UNION OF NORTH 
 
 AMERICA 
 
 Edward A. Moseley was one of the most self-sacrificing 
 men of modern times. Were it not for his activity, rail- 
 way employees would now have but little protection in 
 Federal statutes. 
 
 Having been closely associated with him in legislative 
 matters, I can say he labored against the greatest difficul- 
 ties in his efforts for the elimination, or, at least, the limit- 
 ing of dangers to railroad employees, during which time 
 the awful toll of death was exacted to such an alarming 
 extent, that at last he aroused the public to a proper 
 realization of the hazardous duties of the men he aimed 
 to protect, and then the tide turned and he succeeded. 
 
 After the laws were passed, his greatest labors were in 
 
306 EDWARD A. MOSELEY 
 
 enforcing them, for the violations were numerous, and the 
 technicalities which were given as a cause for violating 
 them were so many and so frequent, that the duty im- 
 posed was a severe mental strain, to which he eventually 
 
 succumbed. 
 
 F. T. HAWLEY. 
 
 MB. W. F. HYNES 
 
 A PIONEER REPRESENTATIVE OP THE RAILROAD BROTHERHOODS IN 
 
 WASHINGTON 
 
 My first acquaintance with Mr. Moseley was in the 
 winter of 1896, in the city of Washington, while repre- 
 senting the five great railroad brotherhoods, to wit : 
 The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers, the Order 
 of Railroad Conductors, the Brotherhood of Locomotive 
 Firemen, the Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen, and the 
 Order of Railroad Telegraphers. 
 
 Before I went to Washington, Mr. Moseley had urged 
 upon the organizations with such force the necessity of 
 legislation that they finally took a determined position 
 to secure protective laws, and, strangely enough, he was 
 opposed in some instances by the very men whom he 
 sought to relieve. His indomitable courage, and his un- 
 swerving loyalty to a cause that appealed to him with 
 such peculiar force, bore down all opposition and swept it 
 aside, even to the hurtful sneer that referred to " Mose- 
 ley 's fad/' as some characterized it. Since that time the 
 several railroad brotherhoods have maintained one or 
 more representatives in Washington to assist in carrying 
 forward this work. 
 
APPRECIATIONS 307 
 
 In his fearless campaign, Mr. Moseley brought upon 
 himself the enmity of the powerful corporations through- 
 out the republic who were subjected to inspection and 
 other requirements of the statutes. He did not abuse 
 the duties of the responsible position which he held as 
 Secretary of the Interstate Commerce Commission, but 
 he frankly pointed out the unnecessary dangers, not only 
 to the lives of the employees, but also to those of the 
 traveling public, not to speak of the great property value 
 which was annually sacrificed. Without doubt every rail- 
 road company in the country to-day would oppose any 
 attempt to repeal those statutes, so beneficial have they 
 proved to be for the employee, the public, and the employer. 
 
 The Erdman Arbitration Act, which became a law on 
 June 1, 1898, was secured principally by the efforts of 
 Mr. Moseley. 
 
 In looking over the records of railroad organizations, 
 particularly in relation to strikes, he found, among other 
 things, that they suffered in a cruel way from a peculiar 
 operation of law, and that on more than one occasion 
 men were found guilty of contempt of a court whose exist- 
 ence even had not entered their dreams. In 1896, a 
 bill was introduced giving such a defendant the right to 
 purge himself from contempt by a trial before a jury and 
 by a judge, other than the one whose order was alleged 
 to have been violated. "This," said Mr. Moseley, "is 
 only what the veriest criminal demands and receives 
 under the law, and surely you cannot deny that such 
 consideration should be given to the honest working man." 
 
 His efforts in this direction were quiet and yet so insist- 
 
308 EDWARD A. MOSELEY 
 
 ent and irresistible that that conservative body, the 
 United States Senate, passed such a measure. But it was 
 defeated or, rather, was buried in committee in the House. 
 I might say in passing that this bill met its fate at a time 
 when Mr. Moseley was sick and of necessity was absent 
 from the city of Washington. 
 
 His incessant toil in behalf of the railroad workers, his 
 anxiety to forward their interest and protect their lives 
 by proper legislation, his correspondence, and the thou- 
 sand things which he did for the benefit of this class, can 
 never be fully known. 
 
 His heart and his pocketbook were ever open. I am 
 inclined to believe that his monthly salary was a very 
 insignificant amount after his gifts and charity were 
 subtracted. There was absolutely no ostentation or dis- 
 play in anything he did. He was a foe to the boaster 
 in any form, and the personification of modesty. He 
 despised affectation and pretense, and had little patience 
 with the hypocrite. 
 
 He was eminently fair and absolutely fearless. He was 
 the poorest man I ever knew upon whom to run a bluff, 
 and many found to their discomfort the folly of such an 
 experiment. Yet it was hard, very hard, to quarrel with 
 him. He was kind, forbearing, and exceedingly tolerant. 
 
 Massachusetts has given some great statesmen and 
 citizens to the republic, and they have done much in its 
 construction and in shaping its high and inspiring destiny. 
 Mr. Moseley did all he could for his country and humanity. 
 They did no more. 
 
 W, F. HYNES. 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 WASHINGTON, December 6, 1898. 
 
 TESTIMONY OF MR. EDWARD A. MOSELEY, 
 SECRETARY OF THE INTERSTATE COMMERCE COMMISSION 
 
 BEFORE THE INDUSTRIAL COMMISSION 
 
 THE commission met at 11 A.M., December 6, 1898, Vice- 
 Chairman Phillips presiding. Mr. Edward A. Moseley, secre- 
 tary of the Interstate Commerce Commission, testified. Mr. 
 Phillips suggested that the witness be guided by the syllabus 
 on transportation in giving his testimony. 
 
 MR. MOSELEY. I desire to say that I am here in the capacity 
 of an American citizen, who for many years has paid a good deal 
 of attention to the relations between employer and employee, 
 particularly in connection with railroad labor. I was at one 
 time an officer in one of the largest labor organizations in this 
 country, and have always taken a great interest in this sub- 
 ject. Then, as the secretary of the Interstate Commerce 
 Commission, I have been brought into more or less intimate 
 connection with the railroads and the relations which they 
 bear to the public and to their employees, as well as to each 
 other. It must be understood, however, that I do not in any 
 manner represent the Interstate Commerce Commission, but 
 I am here solely as a citizen whose whole heart is wrapped up 
 in the subject of the relations between capital and labor and 
 the proper position which they should occupy to each other. 
 I therefore gladly make such suggestions as appear to me and 
 which I trust will prove of interest to this commission. In 
 doing so I am happy to follow the suggestion of Mr. Phillips, 
 your chairman, whom I have long known as the friend of those 
 
 interests which I desire to conserve so far as I can. 
 
 309 
 
310 APPENDIX 
 
 The first part of your " topical plan of inquiry" relates to 
 the " Character of duties and classification of employees of 
 railroads and other carriers by land." First, regarding the 
 wages of employees, I desire to pass that and come to the ques- 
 tion of blacklisting discharged employees and compulsory per- 
 formance of service under mandatory injunction. 
 
 Q. (by MR. FARQUHAR). Which section? A. That is 
 Part I, Section 1, " Wages of employees." I do not now know 
 of any demand by the employed that further legislation be had 
 in regard to blacklisting in amendment of the law as it now 
 stands. It forbids blacklisting. I allude to section 10 of 
 the arbitration act of June 1, 1898. 
 
 After the " Chicago strike" there was a large number of 
 employees thrown out of employment who have never been able 
 to obtain employment again. It is alleged that these men would 
 go to the railway managers and ask for certificates of good 
 character to enable them to get employment elsewhere, but 
 that the certificate obtained worked them harm rather than 
 good, for by a method of writing the certificate or by use of 
 certain watermarks, or other means, the paper of apparent 
 recommendation proved to be notice to the person receiving 
 it that the applicant was blacklisted; that there was a very 
 large amount of this blacklisting done even where to all out- 
 ward appearances strong letters of recommendation had been 
 given. So much of a wrong had this become that when the 
 arbitration act was enacted by the last Congress, approved 
 June 1, 1898, in the tenth section, which is next to the last 
 section, it is positively forbidden in any way to blacklist a 
 man, and is made a misdemeanor to do so. I call the atten- 
 tion of the commission to this law. It is the act concerning car- 
 riers engaged in interstate commerce and their employees. . . . 
 
 Blacklisting, of course, is one of those evils which is ex- 
 tremely difficult to meet to make any law which is effective 
 against the practice. If a person does not wish to employ a 
 
APPENDIX 311 
 
 man, or wants to see that some one else does not employ him, 
 the methods of doing so and preventing the applicant from 
 gaining employment on other railroads are easily found, and 
 it is very hard indeed to reach it by effective legislation. Con- 
 gress has, however, put its stamp of disapproval on it and made 
 it a misdemeanor, and I do not now know how to strengthen 
 the law in this particular; still, I believe there is a necessity 
 for at least making the attempt to stamp out blacklisting 
 effectively, and I urge this commission to fully consider this 
 subject with that end in view. 
 
 THE INJUNCTION PROCESS 
 
 "Proceedings for contempt" ought to be fairly looked into, 
 whether the road is in the hands of a receiver or not, as the 
 question is one in which the railroad brotherhoods of the coun- 
 try are to-day very much interested. Such employees should 
 not be punished for contempt for acts done outside of the 
 purview of the court. This matter has proceeded to such an 
 extreme that in a case on the Northern Pacific Railroad the 
 judge of the court enjoined Mr. Arthur, chief executive officer 
 of the locomotive engineers ; Mr. Sargent, chief executive officer 
 of the firemen; Mr. Clark, chief executive officer of the con- 
 ductors; Mr. Wilkinson, chief executive officer of the train- 
 men ; Mr. Ramsay, chief executive officer of the telegraphers ; 
 and Mr. Wilson, chief executive officer of the Switchmen's 
 Mutual Aid Association all heads of their various brother- 
 hoods and hundreds of miles away from in any way consult- 
 ing with the members of their brotherhoods in regard to the 
 question of wages, or the hours of labor, or in regard to any 
 question which was then in dispute. . . . 
 
 I know of nothing more exasperating to the wage worker 
 than the apparent arbitrary action of the courts in the issuance 
 of mandatory injunctions in this class of cases and subsequent 
 proceedings for contempt. This use of the injunction fills 
 
312 APPENDIX 
 
 many of those who are deeply interested in the welfare of their 
 country with great alarm. It is a matter of the greatest sur- 
 prise to Englishmen to observe the way in which the power of 
 the court is strained in this respect. An injunction is never 
 issued there without the greatest deliberation. In this country 
 it seems to be had for the asking, particularly whenever an 
 employer desires to get the influence of the court thrown into 
 the scale in his favor when a dispute between himself and his 
 workmen arises. Whatever warrant there may be for the 
 Federal courts to interfere in disputes between the carriers en- 
 gaged in interstate commerce and their employees, it is straining 
 power for the Federal judges to interfere in those disputes which 
 are simply between those engaged in ordinary industrial pursuits 
 and their employees. It is bringing the Federal judiciary 
 into disrepute, and if something is not done to curb this un- 
 justifiable act on the part of some of the Federal judges it will 
 surely bring disaster to our institutions. 
 
 In the first place, a railroad employer or manager, anticipat- 
 ing a difficulty which is apparently about to take place, rushes 
 to a friendly court. I want to state just for a moment in regard 
 to the Lennon case. It is stated that the judge in this case 
 was at his home in Cleveland and was summoned by telegraph ; 
 was rushed through in the special car of the corporation to 
 Toledo ; went to the offices of the railroad company, where the 
 railroad officials presented their side of the case to him behind 
 the closed doors of the railroad corporation, and where also 
 he issued the injunction, and the first knowledge that the men 
 had of the action was when the injunction was served on them. 
 They had no opportunity there was no chance for them to 
 say a word, and there was no chance for them to explain to the 
 court. The court took the one side at once and threw its whole 
 influence to the railroad. 
 
 This commission will give the railroad employees, through 
 their representatives, an opportunity to be heard, and they will 
 
APPENDIX 313 
 
 convince you that this is a question which needs the most care- 
 ful consideration on your part. This is a matter which con- 
 cerns every wage worker in the country. Their representatives 
 will fairly present this question to you. There ought to be a 
 law prohibiting courts of the United States from enforcing the 
 specific performance of contracts for personal service by writs 
 of injunction. The following bill to this effect has been sug- 
 gested : 
 
 "A BILL to prohibit courts of the United States from enforc- 
 ing the specific performance of contracts for personal serv- 
 ice by writs of injunction or other legal proceedings." 
 ****** * 
 
 though since the passage of the arbitration bill of June, 1898, I 
 
 seriously doubt if any Federal judge will ever undertake again 
 
 to force men against their will by injunction. 
 
 PECULIAR OBLIGATIONS 
 
 I do not come here neither will the railroad employees 
 through their representatives come here and say that there 
 are not circumstances under which a railroad employee is just 
 as much bound to continue his employment as is a pilot on 
 board ship in a dangerous sea way. A railway engineer dissatis- 
 fied with the terms of his employment has no business to leave 
 a train load of passengers out on a prairie. A freight engineer 
 has no right to leave his train in a position where it endangers 
 the lives of others. There is right and reason in all things. 
 The railway employee recognizes that to a certain extent he is 
 performing a public service, and to that extent he is a public 
 servant; that the railroad is performing a public service and 
 he, as a servant of the railroad, owes a duty to the public which 
 those engaged in the ordinary industrial pursuits do not. 
 
 The man engaged in the cotton factory, the man engaged in 
 any ordinary vocation, can leave his employment at any time, 
 
314 APPENDIX 
 
 at any hour, and in any way, and the public cannot properly 
 question his right to do that; but in the case of the railroad 
 and the railroad employee the great overpowering third party, 
 the public, has certain rights, and the railway employees recog- 
 nize those rights. In that respect I think they differ from other 
 organizations or employments. They stand on a different 
 plane, occupy a different relation to the public ; and as the gen- 
 eral public has a right to demand from them certain service, 
 they must have equal right to demand and expect from Congress 
 such measures of protection as are warranted. If not provided 
 for by the National Government, they are practically without 
 such protection. Questions concerning those engaged in the 
 ordinary industrial pursuits are largely matters for the several 
 States to deal with. 
 
 Before leaving this subject, I desire to call attention to the 
 Royal Commission on Labor, whose investigations began May 
 1, 1891, and whose final report was submitted June, 1894, in 
 two volumes, the majority report signed by nineteen and the 
 minority by four commissioners. Their work is comprised in 
 sixty-five blue books, twenty-five being taken up with the tes- 
 timony of witnesses. In addition to these reports, the blue 
 book contains separate statements of the individual views of 
 certain members of the commission of much interest and value. 
 . . . These reports, majority and minority, of the above com- 
 mission are most valuable, and should be in the library of this 
 commission. . . . 
 
 GOVERNMENT OWNERSHIP 
 
 As to general government ownership and control of indus- 
 tries the discussion is endless, both in England and in this coun- 
 try. In regard to government ownership of railroads in the 
 United States the discussion ought to be concluded, at least 
 for the present, if facts are to govern the decision. Note, for 
 example, a statement recently prepared by the Interstate 
 
APPENDIX 315 
 
 Commerce Commission, in compliance with a resolution of the 
 Senate and submitted August 27, 1894. 
 
 "The freight rates," says this statement, "in the United 
 States are, in general terms, only five-eighths of those charged 
 on the Continent of Europe and a little less than one-half of 
 those which prevail in Great Britain. " As shown elsewhere in 
 this statement, the railways on the Continent of Europe are 
 largely owned and operated by Government. In Belgium, 
 71.81 per cent of the railway mileage is both owned and oper- 
 ated by the Government ; hi Denmark, 76.96 per cent so owned 
 and operated; in France, 16.89 per cent; in Norway, 95.67 
 per cent; in Portugal, 37.86 per cent; in Prussia, including 
 Finland, 50.75 per cent; in Sweden, 33.69 per cent; while in 
 Austria-Hungary, 39.98 per cent of the mileage is owned and 
 73.36 per cent operated by the Government ; and in Germany, 
 88.42 per cent is owned and 89.52 per cent is operated by the 
 Government. . . . 
 
 NEGLIGENCE OF FELLOW-SERVANTS 
 
 The great conflict of authority respecting the rule as to when 
 two employees are fellow-servants has caused various States 
 of the Union to pass acts upon the subject. The proposed ob- 
 ject of such acts is, generally, to correct either a previous bad 
 statement or a previous bad judicial decision. Alabama, 
 Massachusetts, Colorado, Indiana, and other States have 
 passed employers' liability acts based upon the English act 
 of 1880. In the case of railroad employees, these acts give 
 the employees a right of action against their employers for in- 
 juries caused by reason of the negligence of any person having 
 charge or control of certain railroad instrumentalities. 
 
 In some States the defense of fellow-servant's negligence 
 has even been abolished in certain cases by statute; other 
 States have no legislation upon the subject; and the United 
 States Supreme Court has decided in the Baugh case, "against 
 
316 APPENDIX 
 
 the trend of some former cases," as Judge Acheson says, that 
 in the absence of State legislation the question is not one of 
 local law upon which the Federal courts are bound to follow 
 the State decisions, but is one of general law upon which the 
 Federal courts may exercise their independent judgment, un- 
 controlled by local decisions. Thus appears the anomalous 
 condition of suits for damages in a State, based upon the same 
 facts, which are governed by different principles of law, de- 
 pendent upon whether the suits are brought in the courts of the 
 State or in the courts of the United States. There is great need 
 of legislation by Congress upon this point. A uniformity is 
 very much to be desired in the legal principles governing such 
 cases. 
 
 Again : A Federal court which sits in one State may enforce 
 the statute of another State, where the injury occurred, although 
 the local State courts of the State wherein the Federal court 
 sits have refused to enforce such statute. Even a decision by 
 a State court that no action can be maintained under a statute 
 of another State is not binding upon a Federal court sitting in 
 the first State in another like case : Cox Case (145 U. S. 593). 
 There the " general law" doctrine also intervened and overrode 
 the local statute. New legislation is necessary along this line, 
 too, in order to clear up such conflict and confusion and to es- 
 tablish a uniform mode of procedure in all the Federal courts. 
 
 EMPLOYERS' LIABILITY 
 
 The weight of authorities establishes that a carrier is bound 
 to the exercise of reasonable care with reference to all the appli- 
 ances of its business, and is bound to protect its employees from 
 injury therefrom by reason of latent or unseen defects so far 
 as such care can do so ; but the carrier is not an insurer to its 
 employees against injury, and is only chargeable for damages 
 happening to its employees from defective appliances when 
 negligence can properly be imputed to the carrier. 
 
APPENDIX 317 
 
 I believe that an investigation by this Commission will show 
 that the time has come when the Congress of the United States 
 should declare itself in regard to these unsettled questions which 
 are being so differently determined by different courts, and for 
 which there exists no fixed rule of decision. 
 
 In England, considerable progress has been made in that 
 direction. The state of the law there, as I understand it, is as 
 follows : Under the old common law the employer was only 
 liable in damages for injuries caused to any one by the negli- 
 gence of his servants, and then an exception was made when the 
 person knowingly incurred the risk. The courts held, on the 
 ground that a workman when he engaged himself in any serv- 
 ice was aware that in all employments the risk of injuries by 
 the negligence of fellow-employees would be incurred, that an 
 employer was not, therefore, liable to the workman for the 
 injuries thus incurred. The first step to relieve the employee 
 of this hardship was the Employers' Liability Act of 1880. At 
 the time of its passage business men all over the country pre- 
 dicted ruin to the employers, but during nearly two decades of 
 operation the predictions have not been fulfilled, and on the 
 contrary it has been seen that the principle enunciated could 
 be further invoked. 
 
 A bill entitled the Employers' Liability Act of 1893 was intro- 
 duced in Parliament by Mr. Asquith, but it did not become a 
 law. It was constructed along the lines of the act above men- 
 tioned, but in addition prohibited "contracting out." The 
 Workmen's Compensation Act of 1897, operative July 1, 1898, 
 and introduced by Mr. Chamberlain, is a further evolution of 
 the principle. It, too, practically prohibits " contracting out" 
 and at the same time makes the employer virtually the insurer 
 of the employee. Instead of the negative exposition, this new 
 act declares the employer liable for all injuries and excepts those 
 occasioned by the serious and willful misconduct of the em- 
 ployee. A schedule of compensations or damages for which 
 
318 APPENDIX 
 
 the employer is variously liable is included in the act. These 
 liabilities are so large that employers are compelled to resort 
 to insurance companies, or, for cheaper indemnity, to mutual 
 combinations. Contrary to expectations, the insurance com- 
 panies have raised their charges very much, but it is conserva- 
 tively hoped that the experience of a short period of time will 
 prove the lack of necessity for such advances in rates. 
 
 This act, by fastening the liability upon the employers, makes 
 a great stride toward the principle that the trades and indus- 
 tries in which an employee is engaged at the time of the injury 
 should bear the burden of the relief and maintenance of the in- 
 jured man and those dependent upon him. 
 
 Q. (by MR. C. J. HARRIS). Is there something about limit 
 of liability in the English law? A. The bill provides That 
 where personal injury is caused to a workman by reason of the 
 negligence of any person in the service of the workman's em- 
 ployer, the workman, or, in case of the injury resulting in death, 
 his representatives, shall have the same right to compensation 
 and remedies against the employer as if the workman had 
 not been in the employer's service. An exception to this is 
 made where the workman, knowing of the negligence, failed, 
 without reasonable excuse, to notify employer, etc. A con- 
 tract made before the accrual of the right is not a defense. 
 The employer, however, in case he has contributed to a fund 
 providing any benefit for the workman, when sued shall be en- 
 titled, in the place of the workman, to any money payable out 
 of the fund. And if the employer is sued and payment of a 
 fine, under any act of Parliament in respect to the same cause of 
 action, has not been paid, the workman shall not be entitled 
 thereafter to receive any such fine. 
 
 Q. Do you know, as a matter of fact, whether they have 
 limited liability by legislation there ? A. To the extent I have 
 stated. 
 
 The Act of 1880 makes the employer liable for injuries to 
 
APPENDIX 319 
 
 the workman caused by defect of machinery, negligence of a 
 person in the employer's service intrusted with superintendence 
 or with authority over the injured man, or any act or omission 
 done or made in obedience to the orders or by-laws of the em- 
 ployer, or by the negligence of any person in charge of railway 
 signals, etc., while the Bill of 1893 would make the employer 
 liable to the injured workman where the injury was caused by 
 the negligence of any person in the service of the employer. 
 Both place the workman in the same position as if he were not in 
 the service of the employer. By the Act of 1880 the employer 
 was protected by exceptions in which he was morally innocent, 
 while Bill 118 excepts him only when the employee, knowing 
 of the negligence, failed without reasonable excuse to notify 
 the employer, etc. The Bill adds, further, that a contract made 
 before the accrual of the right is not a defense. 
 
 On the other hand, by it the employer, when he has contrib- 
 uted to a fund providing any benefit to the workman and the 
 employer is sued, he is entitled, in the place of the workman, 
 to any money payable out of the fund. And if sued and pay- 
 ment of a fine under any act of Parliament in respect to the 
 same cause of action has not been paid by the employer, 
 the workman shall not be entitled thereafter to any such fine. 
 Unlike the Act, the Bill does not limit the amount of damages 
 recoverable, nor does it limit the time within which the action 
 must be brought. Both provide that the action must lie in the 
 county court, but can be carried into a higher court. 
 
 CONFLICTING RULES 
 
 In some of our own States we have limited liability; that is, 
 that a death claim cannot exceed $5000. It is so in Massachu- 
 setts. Damages recoverable for death through negligence : 
 $5000 in Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Massachusetts, Maine, 
 Minnesota, Missouri, New Hampshire, New York, Oregon, 
 Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, West Virginia 13 ; $10,000 in 
 
320 APPENDIX 
 
 District of Columbia, Ohio, and Virginia 3. Now, at least, 
 the Congress should either do that, or it should endeavor to se- 
 cure harmony of decisions of State and Federal courts. 
 
 The case of Baltimore & Ohio Railroad against Baugh 
 (United States Supreme Court Reports, vol. 149, p. 368) is a 
 very peculiar case. I want to state something about it in an off- 
 hand way. Baugh was an employee on the Baltimore & Ohio 
 Railroad ; he was injured, and brought a suit in the State court. 
 The Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, on the ground that it was a 
 foreign corporation, had this case removed to the United States 
 Circuit Court. It was tried in the United States Circuit Court. 
 The court followed the decisions of the State court, and damages 
 were awarded Baugh. The case then went to the Supreme 
 Court of the United States on appeal from this decision 
 made by court of the carrier's own choosing and the Supreme 
 Court held that the railroad was not liable. 
 
 Now, you see this curious state of affairs : Here are two par- 
 allel roads. If the Baltimore & Ohio had been a corporation 
 of the State of Ohio, his case would have been maintained in a 
 State court, where undoubtedly he would have obtained redress ; 
 but here was a foreign corporation paralleling a State road, and 
 Baugh was injured with impunity. The fact of being a foreign 
 corporation deprived him of the protection of the laws of his 
 State, and he could not recover for his injury. The court said 
 that " there is no common law in the United States, but there is 
 a general law"; and that seems to mean that any particular 
 case is judged by such construction as any particular judge may 
 see fit to find, without precedent to guide him. . . . 
 
 Here are a number of conflicting opinions one judge says 
 it is right and one judge says it is wrong ; and if this Commission 
 cannot come to the point where it feels that after a fair examina- 
 tion of this whole subject there ought to be a national law de- 
 nning the liability of employers, at least it should recommend 
 action such as is contemplated by the following proposed act : 
 
APPENDIX 321 
 
 "Ax ACT to secure harmony in decision of State and Federal 
 Courts. 
 
 "Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives 
 of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That 
 the decisions of the courts of last resort in the several States 
 shall, except where the Constitution, treaties, or statutes of the 
 United States otherwise require or provide, be regarded as rules 
 of decision in trials at common law in the courts of the United 
 States, in cases where such decisions apply, and no distinction 
 in this regard shall be made between cases involving questions 
 of general and those involving questions of special or local 
 law." 
 
 It seems to me that, as the time has come when almost every 
 case involving railway employees reaches the courts of the 
 United States, Congress can well enact legislation in regard to 
 that class which the courts must follow. 
 
 Q. (by MR. PHILLIPS). Who suggested that law? A. I 
 wrote it. 
 
 Q. (by MR. KENNEDY). Do the State courts accept the de- 
 cisions of Federal courts as higher than their own? A. No, I 
 think not ; but the Federal court is presumed, where the statute 
 of any particular State is in question, to follow the statute of 
 that State and the decisions of the courts, as far as applicable 
 to the case at issue. 
 
 THE FIRST LIABILITY BILL 
 
 I have also here a Bill which was introduced at my request 
 by Mr. McEttrick, of Boston, in the Fifty-third Congress. 
 I hardly expected that any legislation could there be accom- 
 plished, but I believed that time would bring the question to the 
 front. The Bill was prepared with the greatest care, and is in 
 line with the English Bill of 1893 regarding the same subject. . . . 
 (Mr. Moseley here read his Employers' Liability Bill.) 
 
 Q. Have some States adopted laws similar to that proposed 
 
322 APPENDIX 
 
 by you? A. Yes, indeed. The States, to a greater or less 
 extent, are doing so. Every session, I might say, increases the 
 number, and this is well, for it supplements what Congress has 
 done. 
 
 (Mr. Moseley here read section 3 of the Bill mentioned.) 
 
 This is to prevent an employer from forcing an employee to 
 sign an agreement releasing him from claim for damages by 
 reason of the negligence of the employer. 
 
 (Mr. Moseley here read section 4 of the Bill mentioned.) 
 
 And I would state in explanation of it that the Baltimore 
 & Ohio Railroad and other railroads the Chicago, Burling- 
 ton & Quincy Railroad, etc. have what is called a relief 
 fund, and every employee was required to contribute a certain 
 amount of his earnings to the funds. 
 
 Q. Required by whom ? A. By the employer, who also con- 
 tributes to the fund. 
 
 Q. (by MR. FAEQUHAR). Is that contribution on the part of 
 the employees perfectly voluntary? A. Hardly, sir; it was 
 virtually a condition of employment. It is voluntary in name ; 
 but if a man does not see fit to contribute, the road will prob- 
 ably find somebody better fitted to hold his position than him- 
 self. . . . 
 
 Q. (by MR. KENNEDY). Are railroad relief societies con- 
 sidered by employees as in some instances used to take away 
 their allegiance from their unions, and to put it where their 
 money is? A. That is a matter I will try to explain. Before 
 the statute was enacted it became so onerous to the men that 
 a desire was expressed to provide for it in what is called their 
 Bill Arbitration Bill. Congress responded to this and made 
 it law that it should not be made a condition of employment or 
 a condition of remaining in employment to contribute to any 
 fund, etc., and since the passage of that law, June 1, 1898, I 
 do not think that any railroad has endeavored to force their 
 men hi the slightest way in this respect. 
 
APPENDIX 323 
 
 Q. (by MR. C. J. HARRIS). In view of the decisions of the 
 courts, will it be advisable to attempt liability legislation in this 
 country to cover this whole ground? A. Limited as to the 
 amount recoverable ? You do not mean that if a man is killed, 
 whether it is his own fault or not, then he gets so much ? That 
 is the case now, I believe, in Germany. 
 
 Q. Is that class of legislation being passed by foreign coun- 
 tries? A. Yes, sir ; particularly in Germany. 
 
 Q. What would be the effect here of such legislation? 
 A. This is a question of such importance that I cannot properly 
 answer it offhand. As a matter of present impression, I believe 
 it would not be fair to go to that extent. Let men understand 
 they owe some care and caution when engaged in their work, 
 not only to themselves, but to their employers. If a man is 
 killed by his own negligence, purely as a matter of risk of his 
 employment, he has been receiving increased compensation, 
 or is presumed to be, for the hazardous employment he is engaged 
 in. But where an employer has failed to put on an appliance 
 which the law requires, or uses an unsafe one, or where the 
 employer employs a man to manage or direct who is not a 
 proper person and shows by his conduct he is not, I believe the 
 employer should pay. 
 
 Again, to carry the fellow-servant idea to the extent of claim- 
 ing that an Italian laborer, digging along the railroad track with 
 a boss who says, standing over him, "Go ahead, what are you 
 looking at," when he lifts his head to maintain that he is a 
 fellow-servant of an engineer who comes down a track at a tre- 
 mendous rate of speed and cuts him in two, is not just from my 
 point of view. He is kept at work by the representative of the 
 corporation, who does not allow him to look up for safety, who 
 says, "I am your eyes." To say the engineer is a fellow-servant 
 and the railroad is not responsible is not right. 
 
 Q. Are not the State courts, as a rule, becoming more liberal 
 toward the employee ? A. Yes; there is a recent case in North 
 
324 APPENDIX 
 
 Carolina where the judge took very advanced grounds. A 
 person was injured. It was held, by reason of the fact that the 
 railroad did not use the appliance which experience had shown 
 to be the best safety appliances that the railroad was 
 liable. This was the Greenlee Case, decided by Judge Clark 
 in May, 1898. 
 
 THE SAFETY-APPLIANCE LAW 
 
 In 1893 the Safety- Appliance Law went into effect. The first 
 provision was that the engineer, on and after five years from the 
 date of passage of the law, should be enabled to control his train 
 from the cab ; and just as the passenger train was at that time 
 being controlled, so it was required that railroads should not 
 run freight trains which were not capable of being controlled by 
 the locomotive engineer that is, by the use of the air brake 
 and train brake; and that a necessary proportion of the cars 
 should be equipped to enable them to do it. Of course that 
 would vary. On roads running across the prairie it would not 
 be necessary to have so many cars equipped as it would be in a 
 mountainous country to enable an engineer to control his train. 
 
 This was the first provision. The second provision was 
 that, after five years, no railroad engaged in interstate commerce 
 should use cars which required men to go between them to couple 
 them, and it stopped there; otherwise it would have been as 
 gigantic a job as was ever forced upon anybody, as you can well 
 imagine. If the law had said that any particular device was to 
 have been used, it would have cost the railroads additional 
 millions in paying royalties, etc., over the proper cost for the 
 adoption of an automatic coupler to have applied them; and 
 you can imagine what it would have meant to have turned the 
 railroads over to the tender mercies of the patentee; but it 
 was left to the economies of railroad transportation and those 
 who made a study of them to work out the method of coupling 
 which would relieve the men from the danger of going hi between 
 the cars to couple and uncouple. 
 
APPENDIX 325 
 
 What should be used to accomplish this end resulted in a great 
 struggle. A great many roads were in favor of what is known as 
 the Janney type of coupler, which is a vertical plane coupler, 
 and which had been adopted by the Master Car Builders, while 
 others advocated the continuance of the old type, the link 
 and pin, which was claimed (and I believe it is true) could be 
 made, and was made, automatic, so that this also could be used 
 without men going in between the cars. Now the contest came 
 between the two types of couplers, and it resulted in the general 
 adoption of the M. C. B. coupler. The exigencies of railway 
 operation require that the slack, which all of us have heard 
 about, must be done away with, for to properly work the air 
 brake you must have a solid train. Otherwise, when you under- 
 take to use an air brake, each car becomes a battering-ram, so 
 to speak. It is therefore necessary to make the train as solid 
 as possible. 
 
 It is now claimed that a solid train can be moved with less 
 power than can one with slack between the couplers. So the 
 contest went on, and finally out of it the Master Car Builders' 
 type of coupler won. Now, this type of coupler at the time the 
 law went into effect was free from patents ; anybody could use 
 it anybody could build upon that type of coupler. Of course 
 there were certain claimed improvements on it upon which there 
 were patents, but the general type of the coupler was free from 
 patent rights, and a road could go into the market and get 
 couplers as good as any one else had without paying a royalty. 
 
 Q. (by ME. FARQUHAR). Was this coupler the property of 
 the Master Car Builders' Association and given to all the roads 
 as a benefit? A. Hardly that. The first type was what was 
 known as the Janney type, but Janney, prior to the passage of 
 this law, released all claims he had to the patent to what was 
 known as the contour line, so that anybody could make the 
 M. C. B. coupler prior to the passage of the law. If they saw 
 fit to use that style of coupler, they could do it without paying 
 royalty to any one. 
 
326 APPENDIX 
 
 Q. Was this coupler adopted by the Master Car Builders' 
 Association? A. Yes; and it has worked out so that about 
 75 per cent of the cars are now equipped with the M. C. B. type 
 of coupler. 
 
 The next thing hi the bill were the hand-holds. Many roads 
 used no hand-holds or grab irons on their freight cars, though 
 recommended to do so by the American Railway Association and 
 the Master Car Builders' Association ; some had them hi one 
 place on the car and some had them hi another. The law re- 
 quired that all railroads should have hand-holds at the ends 
 and sides of the cars. That was particularly important during 
 the transition period, where the coupling had to be made between 
 the old-fashioned coupler and the Master Car Builders' coupler, 
 and therefore the switchmen had to get between the cars more 
 then ever to couple up. 
 
 Then another provision of the law was that the drawbars of 
 the cars should be of a maximum or standard height. Now 
 Congress, instead of undertaking to determine itself or leaving 
 it to public officials to do, left the railways themselves, through 
 the American Railway Association, to establish and determine 
 the height, which they did. And 31J inches was fixed to be the 
 minimum height and 34J the maximum height for drawbars 
 3 niches variation being allowed. This resulted in the saving 
 of many lives. . . . 
 
 A short tune ago Mr. Francis P. Hopwood, who is the rail- 
 way secretary of the British Board of Trade, came to this coun- 
 try to look into the workings of this law ; and while there has 
 sprung up hi Great Britain the same opposition encountered 
 here (the expense of the change in Great Britain, it is claimed, 
 would be about 7,000,000, or $35,000,000), I believe Great 
 Britain will ultimately follow our example and enact a safety- 
 appliance law. 
 
 I hope no one will understand that, from any remarks of mine, 
 I believe the individual railroad manager is a hard-hearted man 
 
APPENDIX 327 
 
 that he has not a due regard for the welfare of men employed 
 by him. The railway managers have as big hearts and, in the 
 main, are as kind as anybody else. The Pennsylvania Rail- 
 road raised no opposition to the passage of this law, in fact, was 
 friendly to it. The Chicago & Northwestern and other rail- 
 roads took the same position, while still others I could name 
 fought the bill with all the power they could. 
 
 Q. Has there been a decrease of expense to the railroads from 
 the time of making this change ? A. The loss in coupling pins 
 and the loss in links and the breakages which occur hi draw- 
 bars connected with the old style of coupler is great ; I 
 have figures which show that it costs over $2 a year to main- 
 tain each car ; whereas it is found that the new type of coupler 
 does not cost 50 cents to maintain, and if that ratio is carried 
 out the result of this law is ultimately going to be a saving to 
 the railroads of over a couple of millions a year in that respect. 
 
 Now, another thing. It should be borne in mind the absolute 
 necessity that the freight locomotive engineer should control 
 his train, particularly when running on a single track with 
 passenger cars ahead of his freight tram. The rear-end colli- 
 sions at times in the history of railroads have been appalling, 
 largely occasioned by freight trains running into the rear of 
 passenger trains that have become stalled; but with the use 
 of the air brake the control of the freight train is almost as com- 
 plete as the passenger train. Freight trains can make a much 
 faster time, because the engineer does not have to shut off steam 
 miles away and whistle for brakes. Now they can run right up 
 to a station before shutting off steam. It is increasing the facil- 
 ities with which freight trains can be handled, and has enabled 
 the railroad management to meet another great exigency of 
 economy in present railway management. You will recall the 
 time when the carload was 20,000 or 24,000 pounds. Trains 
 are now being run where the capacity of cars is from 80,000 to 
 100,000 pounds. Of course the railroad employee is performing 
 
328 APPENDIX 
 
 a very much larger service than he ever did. His wages are not 
 being reduced, but you have got to bear in mind that where an 
 employee hauled or handled 200 tons in a train, he can now 
 handle 600 or 800. 
 
 INCORPORATING UNIONS 
 
 Now, coming to the " associations and organizations of em- 
 ployees of railways and other carriers by land." Here is an 
 act to legalize incorporation of national trades unions with the 
 right to appear by their representatives, and that is a thing 
 which the workmen of the United States, the people of the 
 United States, scarcely realize. It is hardly known that there 
 is such a law on the statute books. They have all the rights 
 of an incorporation. If there is any advantage to be gained 
 in the incorporation of capital, they have the same right to have 
 a corporation where labor is the fundamental object. . . . 
 
 These enactments were largely brought about by an act of 
 injustice by the receivers of the Reading Railroad, which was 
 approved by a Federal court. Some time ago the Reading Rail- 
 road revived a regulation which had become an absolute dead 
 letter to the effect that no employee should become a member 
 of a labor organization, and if he did he should be discharged. 
 The general manager of the railroad company called upon some 
 of the railroad employees to come to his office and told them 
 to cease their membership, and demanded that they hand 
 to him the charters and documents belonging to the lodge in the 
 place, and said he must carry out the directions of the receivers. 
 "If you do not do it, I shall turn you off," said he. These men 
 appealed to their brotherhoods, and particularly to the Brother- 
 hood of Railroad Trainmen. They were all interested in it. 
 At my suggestion they came to Washington to see Mr. Olney, 
 who was at that time Attorney-General of the United States, 
 and consulted with him about their rights. The Attorney- 
 General believed that they were wrongfully treated, and said 
 
APPENDIX 329 
 
 he would see what could be done. He sent for the counsel of 
 the Reading Railroad and urged him to rescind the order. The 
 counsel said he would take it before the receivers and would 
 endeavor to get them to do it. In a few days Mr. Olney got 
 word from them that they proposed to carry out their rule, that 
 any man belonging to a labor organization should be discharged. 
 
 Q. (by ME. FARQUHAR). Was that the order of the receivers 
 that was to be carried out? A. The order of the receivers. 
 Mr. Olney then suggested that before anything should be done 
 in the courts they return and remonstrate individually with 
 every receiver. They did so, but to no purpose, as they were 
 virtually shown the door. Then Mr. Olney said, "Bring your 
 bill in the court, asking the courts to enjoin the receivers," and 
 the bill was brought. It was decided to have counsel, and the 
 best that could be had in Philadelphia and Washington was ob- 
 tained and went into the United States court there. The first 
 thing the counsel for the railroad said was that this man Wilkin- 
 son, a representative of the brotherhood which brought the suit, 
 was not an employee of this railroad, and was not a proper party 
 complainant. Mr. Wilkinson's counsel replied that if he di- 
 vulged the names of the men in whose behalf he was appearing 
 they would be put on the blacklist and discharged, and he did 
 not want to offer them up for that purpose. Mr. Olney believed 
 it was fair that the bill should be brought by Mr. Wilkinson. 
 The court held that if they wanted relief they must appear 
 themselves, and dismissed the bill. 
 
 The case was then brought in the name of three employees, 
 who were offered up as a vicarious sacrifice. As was known, 
 the men were discharged, and, to the credit of the Pennsylvania 
 Railroad, they took care of them. Mr. Olney filed a state- 
 ment as "amicus curiae." I commend it to your attention as a 
 fair presentation of the right of men to organize. And I want 
 to say to the credit of the railroad employees, they went down 
 to Harrisburg and got a law passed that would now put a re- 
 
330 APPENDIX 
 
 ceiver in jail who followed this precedent. The judge, however, 
 rendered an opinion, though there were eight states in this 
 Union that made it a criminal offense to deny a man employ- 
 ment or refuse to continue his employment because he belongs 
 to a labor organization, that these receivers could use their 
 employees as they saw fit. 
 
 f 
 THE AKBITRATION LAW 
 
 One object of the Arbitration Bill passed June 1, 1898, which 
 applies only to railroads and their employees, was that without 
 any surrender apparently of any ground which either side held 
 without any appearance of giving in arbitration could be 
 brought about. The Government, through its officers, after 
 endeavoring to settle the matter by conciliation, steps in and 
 says to the disputants, "This difficulty has gone far enough, and 
 you had better agree to arbitration." Now, under these cir- 
 cumstances, the side that will not arbitrate will receive the public 
 condemnation, for the public knows who is in the wrong; so 
 now the wronged have a means of reaching public sentiment, 
 of enlisting the public with them, avoiding strikes which inter- 
 rupt the public in the enjoyment of transportation facilities, 
 and which turn the public against the strikers, no matter if their 
 cause is just. 
 
 What has been the result? I have asked every one of the 
 representatives of the organization, and they say that the rela- 
 tions have never been so pleasant as since the passage of the law. 
 It has been said to me, "We do not want to invoke the opera- 
 tion of that law, and our employers do not, and therefore they 
 meet us on common ground with good feeling, and while we have 
 to give in at times, they also give in ; but we meet and we know 
 if we do not settle it between ourselves, the Government will 
 step in." Since the passage of that law there has not been the 
 slightest murmur, and it meets the approval of every railroad 
 man I have met. There are some who predict that there will 
 
APPENDIX 331 
 
 not be any more strikes. We really believe it is the era of good 
 feeling. 
 
 ACCIDENT REPORTS 
 
 Now, another matter. If not a sparrow falls to the ground 
 without Divine knowledge, why should American citizens, our 
 people, be maimed and killed and no record of the circumstance 
 attending the casualty kept? I believe there should be a re- 
 quirement in case of a collision, or where persons or employees 
 are killed or injured upon the railroads, that the Interstate Com- 
 merce Commission should be notified of it at the time it occurs. 
 It would do very much to decrease the number of accidents upon 
 our railroads. When you open the light of day upon such things, 
 and give the public an opportunity of ascertaining the cause of 
 injury to a man, either a passenger or an employee, you will find 
 that eventually the number of killed and injured will be de- 
 creased. 
 
 Q. Have the railway commissioners of some of the States the 
 right to do that ? A . Quite a number of them have. Under 
 their State laws they have the opportunity to investigate these 
 facts. Many of our states have railway commissioners, while 
 others of them pay no attention to the matter. The National 
 Government statistics furnished by the roads also require 
 revised classification. For instance, a man is hurt; he is re- 
 ported as injured in coupling cars, when the real fact is he is 
 running down a track and tumbles over a tie and falls down and 
 gets hurt. He is reported as injured in coupling cars simply 
 because he is engaged in that occupation. The means are not 
 at hand to ascertain the actual facts. The commission has no 
 means of learning the real cause of the injury. 
 
 Q. Could the Interstate Commerce Law be amended to reach 
 such a case as that? A. I do not think there is the slightest 
 doubt of it. I have a bill amending the Act to promote the 
 safety of employees, etc., which covers this point, I think. It 
 is as follows. , 
 
332 APPENDIX 
 
 Q. Would such reports to the Commission open the doors a 
 good deal to suits for damages ? A.I should not want to have 
 the facts used in that way ; none of these reports should be used 
 in any damage suits, and it might be provided in the act that 
 they should not be. 
 
 The intent is to call the attention of the public to accidents 
 upon the roads. Of course to-day every accident is supposed 
 to be annually reported to the Interstate Commerce Commis- 
 sion, and they have authority to ask for it. They may not have 
 authority to ask for a monthly report. They can ask for annual 
 reports, but that hardly gets at it. Reports at the time of the 
 accident are what are desired. 
 
 Another thing, right here, almost under the shadow of the 
 dome of the Capitol, men have been killed within the last few 
 years by having their feet caught in frogs, and there they have 
 been held as in a vise, and the train backs down on them and kills 
 them. I now recall a case. It was a particularly distressing 
 case. This poor fellow had a wife and a number of children. 
 When he was killed, for a few hours everybody would tell you 
 all about it. I followed the thing up. A dozen hours had not 
 gone by before nobody knew anything about it at all ; even his 
 wife did not. She said : "I do not dare say anything about it, 
 because my brother-in-law is employed on the railroad, and if 
 I say anything about it, he will get his discharge/' 
 
 I also have another bill to which I would call the attention 
 of this Commission: 
 
 "AN ACT to promote the safety of employees upon railroads 
 by compelling persons, firms, companies, and corporations 
 operating railroads to equip their cars and locomotives with 
 automatic couplers, continuous brakes, and grab irons; 
 their locomotives with driving-wheel brakes; to provide 
 a standard height for drawbars for freight cars and engines ; 
 and to adjust, fill, or block all frogs, switches, guard rails, 
 and all other obstructions which are a part of, or are near, 
 
APPENDIX 333 
 
 their tracks as to prevent the feet of employees from being 
 caught therein." 
 
 OTHER PROBLEMS 
 (Mr. Moseley's testimony was continued on December 7.) 
 
 MR. MOSELEY. With some care I prepared the statement 
 which I handed you yesterday, "Authorities upon the law 
 of damages caused from injuries received (1) by negligence of 
 a fellow-servant, and (2) by defective appliances," which I 
 again desire to call your attention to, as it affects railroad em- 
 ployees, because almost all their cases sooner or later get into 
 the Federal court the State courts have little to do with the 
 suits of railroad employees for damages for negligence on the 
 part of the employers. 
 
 Q. Do you think that a fellow-servant could be defined hi 
 a general law? A. I do not think there is any trouble in de- 
 fining what a fellow-servant is. Many of the States are un- 
 dertaking to define it. As I said yesterday, the railroad em- 
 ployees of the country are engaged in a semi-public employment 
 in a national work ; if they obtain any redress at all, they 
 must obtain it through the Congress of the United States. I 
 have not gone into the field of the ordinary industrial pursuits 
 or the relation between an employer and employee in siich in- 
 dustrial pursuits, because I believe these matters are very largely 
 under State control and ones which the people of each State 
 should settle for themselves, as far as the relations between 
 one citizen and another of that particular locality are concerned. 
 
 But when we come to the railroad employee, the case is dif- 
 ferent, for there is hardly a railroad in the United States that the 
 courts have not held by their rulings is engaged in interstate 
 commerce and therefore under National control, and where any 
 difficulty occurs between employer and employee the Federal 
 courts are the ones that are resorted to, that they may put 
 the strong arm of the Federal power into the scales. Also where- 
 
334 APPENDIX 
 
 ever a case occurs of damage by accidents or any cause, it is 
 almost sure to reach the Federal courts. Therefore I believe 
 these are matters which, if Congress itself does not deal with and 
 does not bring about uniformity in by legislation, why de- 
 cisions are as varying as are the ideas of the several judges, 
 judge-made law will continue to largely govern the determina- 
 tion of all these cases. . . . 
 
 THE PUBLIC AND THE ROADS 
 
 In regard to the relations of railroads to the public, it is 
 almost sufficient to say that the Interstate Commerce Commis- 
 sion has been for nearly twelve years asking Congress for legis- 
 lation which its experience hi administering the Act to regulate 
 commerce has shown to be indispensable to effective regulation 
 in the public interest. As Secretary of the Commission, I have 
 no other views on this subject than those which have been ex- 
 pressed by the Commission itself in its reports to Congress. 
 Each of those reports constitutes the record of a year devoted 
 to the work of regulation. The Chairman and other members 
 of the Commission wish me to say that they will be glad to give 
 you the benefit of their views as to any of these matters at any 
 time. One or two of the conditions now prevailing will, how- 
 ever, doubtless interest you at this time, and I will mention 
 them briefly. 
 
 The Act to regulate commerce requires that all rates shall be 
 reasonable and just. It also provides that the Commission shall 
 execute and enforce its provisions. For fully ten years the 
 Commission proceeded upon the idea that its duty to execute 
 and enforce the law involved the issuance of orders to carriers 
 not to exceed the rate shown to be reasonable or just after com- 
 plaint, hearing, and investigation. In 1897 the Supreme Court 
 said that this view was wrong ; that the Commission was not 
 authorized to prescribe rates for future observance by the car- 
 riers, and that the Commission could only condemn the rate 
 
APPENDIX 335 
 
 complained of, and incidentally award reparation. (The Freight 
 Bureau Cases, 167 U. S., 479.) 
 
 Condemning the present rate and awarding reparation is 
 theoretically the remedy at common law, though as a matter of 
 practice no one ever recovered a cent from a carrier for charg- 
 ing an unreasonable rate. In other words, the common law did 
 not and does not afford a remedy. But beyond that, merely pro- 
 ceeding to recover excessive charges is no remedy. First, because 
 the expense always involved in litigation must generally, of itself, 
 deter the institution of such a proceeding. Second, because 
 the person entitled to reparation is generally not the person who 
 is injured. The rate, however excessive, is supposed to be 
 published, and the goods have been bought and sold on the basis 
 of that rate. Obviously, the persons most likely to suffer injury 
 are the producer and consumer, and sometimes the retailer, 
 not the middleman or jobber, who is most frequently the shipper, 
 and therefore the one who might be held entitled to recover the 
 excess charge. 
 
 Q. (by MB. C. J. HARRIS). If parties do not obey decisions 
 of the Commission, are they obliged to do so or not ? A. Yes, 
 sir; the carriers do very often comply with the orders of the 
 Commission. But they will nqt if they consider that anything 
 vital is involved. Of course the Commission may bring suit 
 in court to compel obedience to its order. The average time 
 consumed in reaching final adjudication in such cases by the 
 Supreme Court has been about four years. This practically 
 denies the relief that obedience to the order might afford, and, 
 in fact, enables the carrier to snap its fingers at the rulings of 
 the Commission. Now, if the Commission were empowered, 
 after hearing an investigation in particular cases, to fix the 
 maximum reasonable and just rate, and if the law also provided 
 that the order of the Commission should become effective unless 
 the carrier shows it to be unlawful upon application to the court 
 for review, the result would be that relief would be granted as 
 
336 APPENDIX 
 
 to all future shipments to the producer, to the consumer, to the 
 retailer, and to all parties interested ; and such relief would be 
 summarily enforced unless the carrier could promptly show 
 material error in the decision of the Commission. 
 
 A decision finding that the rate on flour from Minneapolis 
 to Boston is ten cents too high and an order not to charge, say, 
 more than twenty cents for that service, would benefit the 
 Western miller and the New England consumer, as well as all in- 
 termediate handlers of that commodity. If you can say what the 
 rate is to be, you benefit all who are commercially interested. 
 If you can merely say the present rate in a particular case is 
 wrong, you benefit only the man who has paid that rate in the 
 case in question. As the law now stands, the Commission can- 
 not order carriers to observe the rates which it finds, on investi- 
 gation, to be actually reasonable sufficient for the service 
 rendered and those orders which it does issue are practically 
 non-enforceable because of inevitable long delay in the courts 
 under the present procedure. 
 
 When the Act was passed, it was supposed that the Commission 
 had full power to correct the tariff rates, and that its orders, 
 except on plain showing of material error by the Commission, 
 would be summarily enforced by the courts. The Commission 
 cannot determine and order the proper rate, and when it asks 
 the court to enforce any order that it makes, the case must be 
 tried de novo, and, as before stated, the average time consumed 
 in the courts has been about four years. Another present con- 
 dition is shown in case under the tenth, or penal, section of the 
 law. If the published rate from Washington to New York is 
 $6.50 and the road carries a man for $3, the company's agent 
 cannot be convicted of unjust discrimination unless it be shown 
 that somebody paid the $6.50 rate. And so it is with freight. 
 The published rate may be so high that a shipper cannot use 
 it, but at the same time the railway agent may give a favored 
 large shipper a much lower rate, and he will, in consequence, 
 gradually secure a monopoly of the business. 
 
APPENDIX 337 
 
 Q. (by MB. PHILLIPS). Would that result in small shippers 
 not being able to ship at all ? A. Precisely so. We have had 
 plenty of such cases, but the courts will not hold it to be unjust 
 discrimination unless some one, by actually paying a higher rate, 
 is shown to have been wronged. In one case nearly $12,000 
 were expended in proof hi a case against the former receiver 
 and president of the Santa Fe road. It appeared that some 
 million of dollars had been paid out by that road in rebates, and 
 that large amounts were paid to shippers of cattle. But it was 
 not practicable to prove who was injured. Those who actually 
 shipped had a monopoly of the trade. 
 
 THE TRUSTS 
 
 No one thing has operated to the advantage of the large 
 shipper the trust or to the detriment of the small shipper 
 the individual manufacturer or dealer so much as this 
 vicious railway practice of allowing rebates from tariff rates 
 to large customers. Indeed, it has been said that without 
 railway favors the industrial combination could not exist. 
 Whether that statement is accurate or not, it is acknowledged by 
 all who have given thought to the matter that cutting off this 
 railway rebate advantage would most seriously cripple those 
 great foes to individual enterprise. 
 
 The tendency of trusts is to lessen the number of employers, of 
 establishments, and employees, and this to my mind is the alarm- 
 ing feature about them. 
 
 When establishments are many and a man who has spent his 
 best energies, the efforts of the best years of his life, in acquiring 
 a trade, finds himself differing with his employer as to hours of 
 labor, conditions of service, or wages, he loses no whit of his man- 
 hood, no particle of his independence, for the reason that, if 
 the differences are irreconcilable, the workman can lay down 
 his tools and seek another situation. 
 
 But when the trust absorbs the scattered establishments into 
 
338 APPENDIX 
 
 one organization, closes the more expensive and less profitable, 
 and concentrates the production into a few favored localities, 
 the workman is in danger of losing his identity as a man, 
 sinking into the dependent condition of a part of the machinery 
 of the institution. He becomes in a measure helpless, for an 
 individual difference now with his employer means a loss of his 
 means of livelihood a shutting of the only door of opportunity 
 to work at his chosen vocation. The responsibilities of family 
 cares, which should add dignity and nerve to the man, are only 
 weakness and a burden to the machine and make cowards of 
 brave men for very love's sake. He dare not risk their lives 
 and happiness by so much as a feeble protest at the wrong 
 against which his manhood revolts, in fear that, losing his one 
 chance of employment, he must start life anew or enter the ranks 
 of the day laborer, already overcrowded and underpaid. 
 
 There is but one way which suggests itself to me by which 
 labor may combat the evil of the trust, and that is far from 
 being entirely effective. It is by thorough organization. 
 This will not control indeed, should not interfere with 
 the management or financial success of the institution. It will 
 not always save the reduction of establishments and employees. 
 But it will have the effect of preserving his identity and man- 
 hood ; will give him the courage that is always born of numbers ; 
 secure an audience, the whole public, if necessary, for the rela- 
 tion of his wrongs ; insure him, as an integral part of the ma- 
 chinery, the wholesome respect of the administration of the 
 establishment. 
 
 With all his fellow-craftsmen behind him, his situation be- 
 comes infinitely improved, not only socially, but in the public 
 eye. His pleas and demands receive consideration, when de- 
 livered through the megaphone of his order, whether hi the 
 shop, in legislative halls, or in the courts, to say nothing of the 
 beneficiary effects of such organization in substantial relief as 
 well as social sentiment. Every encouragement should be 
 
APPENDIX 339 
 
 given to organization; every trade should be organized; and 
 when the wage earners stand shoulder to shoulder, the trust 
 must still be feared, but its evils will have been mitigated so far 
 as labor can accomplish such a result. . . . 
 
 ATTITUDE OF RAILROAD MANAGER 
 
 There are no more progressive men in any walk in life than the 
 managers of railways, and to say that they are other than fair 
 and considerate would not be just ; indeed, it is difficult to find 
 among them individuals who are not all that any one has a right 
 to expect so far as the treatment of their employees is concerned. 
 Many of them have sprung from the ranks. One speaks of the 
 railway corporation, but he speaks of it collectively. It must 
 be understood that the railways have done a great deal in the 
 interest of their men, as their railway hospitals, their relief as- 
 sociations, their work under the auspices of the railway branch 
 of the Young Men's Christian Association, and many other 
 agencies for good will testify. No remarks that I have here 
 made are made with any view of disparaging, in the least degree, 
 the managers of railways, for whom I have the greatest respect, 
 but it is to state conditions as they exist as fairly as I can. 
 
 Great credit is due and should be accorded the American Rail- 
 way Association and the Master Car Builders' Association, both 
 of which had established such rules as to safety appliances and 
 regulations as would, if they had been carried out by every rail- 
 road, have made legislation unnecessary. It was from the very 
 fact that their recommendations were being lived up to by some 
 roads and not by others that the chaotic condition existed which 
 required the law to unravel and correct. Both of these associa- 
 tions have done a great deal for the railway employees as well 
 as having been of great advantage in devising means looking 
 to economy in railway operation. There is no class of men in 
 the country more ready to respond to the calls of humanity and 
 of justice than are those who operate railroads. 
 
340 APPENDIX 
 
 But in the matter of railway regulation, it is difficult for some 
 railway managers to believe that business methods which are 
 in use in every line of business should, if adopted and pursued 
 in the operation of railways, be made criminal violations of law. 
 The railway manager in the past has believed that his first 
 duty was to the stockholders and investors in his property, and 
 he neither relishes not admits the right of interference in what 
 was so long a private institution that he has forgotten in a 
 measure his own official character and the rights of the public 
 in an enterprise which the people have chartered by their votes, 
 have given their lands for the right of way, have granted the 
 supreme weapon of eminent domain to coerce unwilling in- 
 dividuals, have given millions of acres and billions of dollars 
 to establish, and which in the opinion of many people, intelligent 
 and otherwise, the people should themselves own. If open to 
 criticism on any point, it is not a lack of humanity to their men, 
 not in the intelligent management of the stupendous business 
 under their control, not in the liberal and progressive spirit 
 in which they have carried that management to the front rank 
 in the world's system for safety, speed, comfort, and luxuries 
 of transportation, but in an impatience of restraint, a resent- 
 ment against suggestions from without, a failure to see good 
 in the law, or good will in those called on to enforce it, though 
 of both there are abundant evidences that only the willfully 
 blind can fail to see. 
 
 A REVIEW 
 
 When I first came to Washington, I early recognized the ad- 
 vantage of location and opportunity, in the matter of furthering 
 legislation in the interest of the wage worker, particularly of 
 the employees of railways, now some 874,000 in number, the 
 public character of whose employment secures them greater 
 attention and consideration, at the hands of Congress, than the 
 average breadwinners in other vocations. 
 
APPENDIX 341 
 
 To assist as far as was in my power in this regard, I deemed my 
 duty, found in that effort the keenest pleasure, and it is with 
 no little pride that looking backward over that twelve years the 
 boast is mine that nothing was left undone on my part to help 
 the cause as I saw the situation then or recall it now. 
 
 You will therefore understand with what satisfaction I have 
 hailed the creation of this Commission, which, though it secures 
 not a line of legislation directly, will have performed a great 
 work of education and reform by its exhaustive investigation. 
 It is the forum for the presentation of those questions which 
 vitally affect the life of the nation, questions of vastly more im- 
 portance than those connected with our foreign relations, and 
 upon the proper settlement of which the stability of our Govern- 
 ment depends. 
 
 In these years of effort for the amelioration of the condition 
 of labor and of intimate intercourse with the officers of their 
 associations who so ably represent them, I have been more and 
 more impressed with the high character of both. 
 
 The representatives of the railway employees who have been 
 sent here to ask for legislation in their behalf command respect 
 and win regard, and with those who do the no less important 
 local work are imbued with a sense of responsibility not only 
 to the men they serve, but the country at large. They are con- 
 servative, law-abiding men, and they have neither asked nor 
 advocated any legislation which cannot be justified upon the 
 ground of right, or defended from the vantage ground of hu- 
 manity and a higher civilization. 
 
 I have memoranda of the bills I have suggested as follows : 
 
 "An Act for the protection of railroad employees by requiring 
 railroads to block their frogs, switches, guard rails, etc." 
 v "An Act to secure harmony in decisions of State and Federal 
 courts to overcome the injustice to employees occasioned by 
 decisions of the character of the Baltimore & Ohio against 
 Baugh." 
 
342 APPENDIX 
 
 "An Act relating to the liability of employers engaged in in- 
 terstate and foreign commerce for injuries to their employees, 
 to bring the United States in this respect as near as may be to 
 the laws of Great Britain in regard to employ ers' liability." 
 
 "An Act to promote the safety of employees and travelers 
 by requiring carriers to report all collisions and accidents which 
 may occur upon railroads engaged in interstate commerce with 
 the causes and circumstances comnnected therewith limited to 
 certain classes of accidents." This is in line with the laws of 
 Great Britain. 
 
 RAILROAD ACCIDENTS IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 By EDWARD A. MOSELEY. (In the Review of Reviews, Novem- 
 ber, 1904.) 
 
 A glance at the published statistics is sufficient to show that 
 there has been a considerable increase in the number of railroad 
 accidents since 1902, but a mere comparison of totals is of little 
 or no value. What is wanted is a statement of causes and some 
 practicable suggestions concerning remedies. The chief object 
 for which accident statistics are gathered is the improvement of 
 conditions, the indication of such remedial measures as will 
 add to the safety of life and limb. It may be a matter of in- 
 terest to the statistician to know that the total of certain classes 
 of accidents is greater or less now than formerly, but such infor- 
 mation possesses little interest for the general public. What the 
 public wants to know is why railroad accidents are increasing, 
 and it has become apparent to the Interstate Commerce Com- 
 mission that the great thing to be accomplished by its statistics 
 is that they shall indicate that " why " with sufficient clearness 
 to suggest a remedy. 
 
 On March 3, 1901, the President approved an act which 
 makes it "the duty of the general manager, superintendent, or 
 other proper officer of every common carrier engaged in inter- 
 
APPENDIX 343 
 
 state commerce by railroad to make to the Interstate Commerce 
 Commission, at its office in Washington, D.C., a monthly 
 report, under oath, of all collisions of trains, or where any train 
 or part of a train accidentally leaves the track, and of all acci- 
 dents which may occur to its passengers, or to its employees 
 while in the service of such common carrier and actually on 
 duty, which report shall state the nature and causes thereof, 
 and the circumstances comnnected therewith." 
 
 Publication of the causes of railway accidents, as reported 
 by the railroad companies themselves, places the salient facts 
 pertaining to them before the people and affords a basis for 
 intelligent action in the introduction of remedies, which will 
 safeguard the life and limbs of travelers and employees upon 
 railroads. The commission therefore publishes quarterly bul- 
 letins based upon these monthly reports. In these bulletins 
 the total number of accidents reported in each quarter is given. 
 The accidents are separated into classes, and the causes of the 
 most prominent train accidents reported are given. Twelve 
 of these quarterly bulletins, covering the years ending June 30, 
 1902, 1903, and 1904, have already been published. The classi- 
 fication adopted and the total of accidents reported for the three 
 years above mentioned are shown in the chart. 
 
 There are certain accidents which occur with more or less 
 regularity and frequency on railroads that may be properly 
 called unavoidable. Such are accidents due to exceptional 
 elemental disturbances, entirely unexpected landslides or wash- 
 outs, want of ordinary precaution on the part of passengers or 
 employees, malicious tampering with railway or equipment, 
 broken rails, etc. Such accidents may be accepted as among 
 the ordinary hazards of railroading and be dismissed from our 
 reckoning. We deplore the casualties which accompany such 
 accidents, just as we deplore the loss of life that accompanies 
 the destruction of a ship in a great storm at sea, but in the one 
 case as in the other we know that no human foresight could have 
 prevented the casualty. 
 
344 
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 There are casualties, however, which are fairly preventable, 
 and against the occurrence of which travelers and employees 
 upon railroads have a right to demand protection. When we 
 are told, therefore, that the deaths in railroad accidents in- 
 creased from 2819 in 1902, to 3554 in 1903, and 3787 in 1904, 
 and that the injuries increased from 39,800 in 1902 to 45,977 in 
 1903, and 51,343 in 1904, it is important for us to know whether 
 the increase was due to preventable or unpreventable causes. 
 
 Roughly speaking, then, and considering passengers only, 
 we may say that the train accidents represent the preventable 
 class, while the other accidents, such' as "coming in contact 
 with overhead bridges, structures at the side of track/' etc., 
 "falling from cars or engines, or while getting on or off," and 
 "other causes" represent the unavoidable accidents. They are 
 generally due to negligence on the part of the victims themselves. 
 This separation will enable us to construct the following table : 
 
 
 PBS VENT ABLE 
 ACCIDENTS 
 
 UNPREVENTABLE 
 ACCIDENTS 
 
 Passengers 
 Killed 
 
 Passengers 
 Injured 
 
 Passengers 
 Killed 
 
 Passengers 
 Injured 
 
 1902 
 
 167 
 164 
 270 
 
 3,586 
 4,424 
 4,945 
 
 136 
 157 
 150 
 
 2,503 
 2,549 
 3,132 
 
 1903 
 
 1904 
 
 
 This table shows that the greatest increase in the deaths and 
 injuries to passengers during the past three years has been in 
 the preventable class. An examination of individual cases, as 
 reported in the quarterly bulletins, will disclose causes and help 
 to indicate remedies. 
 
 THE HUMAN ELEMENT IN THE PROBLEM 
 
 Take item 2 in Bulletin No. 7, for the quarter ending March 
 31, 1903. This is a rear collision in which seven persons were 
 
APPENDIX 345 
 
 killed and seven injured. "A passenger train ran into a freight 
 train; personal injuries aggravated by fire in stoves in cars. 
 A brakeman neglected to flag passenger train ; had been a train 
 brakeman 16 months." In this case it is apparent that the 
 whole question of safety depended upon one man, the 
 brakeman who neglected to flag. It would seem that a prop- 
 erly operated block system would have been an added safeguard, 
 and in all probability would have prevented the accident. 
 
 Item 8 is a rear collision resulting in four deaths and three 
 injuries, which occurred in spite of the block system, and 
 illustrates how greatly the safety of trains is dependent upon 
 the vigilance and strict attention to duty of employees, even 
 where the most approved safety devices are employed. " Oc- 
 curred 4 A.M. ; passenger train ran into two locomotives 
 coupled together ; clear block signal wrongfully given. Signal 
 man's attention being momentarily withdrawn from his signal 
 levers, a messenger boy, without authority, cleared the signal. 
 Signal man's age, 19 years, 10 months." This operator was 
 young, and obviously of little experience. He undoubtedly 
 disobeyed the rules of the company in allowing an unauthorized 
 person to enter the tower and have access to the signal levers. 
 
 Item 15 is a rear collision between passenger trains, resulting 
 in twenty-three deaths and eighty-five injuries, which also 
 occurred in spite of the block system, and is a further illustra- 
 tion of how completely the lives of passengers are in the hands 
 of employees. " Collisions on long tangent ; night ; engineman 
 running very fast, disregarded distant and home block signals, 
 also three red lanterns at different points. This engineman was 
 killed. His eyesight was perfect one year before the accident. 
 The road has no periodical examination or test of enginemen." 
 
 The engineer had had ample experience, and his record was 
 good. There is no explanation of his neglect to obey the signals 
 except an unconfirmed newspaper statement that before he 
 died he said that his attention had been drawn away from the 
 
346 APPENDIX 
 
 signals by some trouble with an injector. The fireman was 
 not held in any way responsible, as his duty was at his fire, 
 which required his entire attention. 
 
 A THIRD MAN ON THE ENGINE 
 
 To permit his attention to be distracted by any trouble with 
 an injector under such circumstances was certainly inexcusable 
 on the part of the engineer ; but whether this be the true ex- 
 planation or not, the fact remains that some unusual circum- 
 stance caused a momentarily fatal lapse on his part. The cir- 
 cumstances in this case add weight to the argument, which has 
 been extensively agitated of late years, for three men on these 
 modern high-speed locomotives. Many of these engines are so 
 constructed that it is a matter of extreme difficulty for the fire- 
 man and the engineer to communicate with each other while the 
 engine is running. The fireman is also compelled to devote his 
 entire attention to his fire, and must be constantly on the alert 
 in order to keep steam up to the required pressure. He has 
 no time to watch the signals, nor can he note the actions of the 
 engineer, and under such conditions an engineer might drop 
 dead or meet with an accident that would disable him for the 
 performance of his duties without the fireman knowing anything 
 about it. In such a case the train could easily go to destruction 
 before the fireman had had an opportunity to prevent it. 
 With a third man on the engine, however, whose duty it would 
 be to assist the engineer and keep a lookout for signals, this 
 danger would be averted. It is fair to assume that had there 
 been a third man in the engine in this case under discussion, this 
 terrible accident would not have occurred. 
 
 THE BLOCK SYSTEM 
 
 There are 67 collisions and 1 derailment noted in these bulle- 
 tins, resulting in 270 deaths and 734 injuries to passengers and 
 employees, which might have been avoided had the block system 
 
APPENDIX 347 
 
 been in use. Twenty collisions resulting in 70 deaths and 391 
 injuries to passengers and employees occurred where the block 
 system was in use. The great majority of these accidents were 
 caused by the negligence of employees, either in giving wrong 
 signals or in failing to observe and obey signals properly given. 
 Five of these 20 collisions, however, resulting in 9 deaths and 
 44 injuries, occurred because the rules of the railroads on which 
 they took place did not require a strict interpretation of the 
 block system, in other words, the system was permissive 
 instead of absolute, permitting two trains to occupy the same 
 block at the same time, the following train having instructions 
 to run at reduced speed and keep a lookout for the preceding 
 train. It is perhaps needless to say that under permissive 
 rules the advantages of the block system are largely neutralized. 
 Such rules permit the movement of a greater number of trains 
 over a given section of track in a given time than would be the 
 case were the absolute block system in use, and they may be 
 necessary, at times, to prevent congestion of traffic ; but where- 
 ever permissive blocking is allowed, it must happen that a great 
 measure of the protection afforded by the block system is 
 destroyed. 
 
 DEFECTS IN TRAIN-ORDER SYSTEM 
 
 The greatest number of collisions reported in these bulletins 
 were due to failure of the train-order system in some of its parts. 
 Dispatchers gave wrong orders, or failed to give orders where 
 they were required; operators failed to copy orders correctly, 
 or did not deliver orders that should have been delivered ; con- 
 ductors and engineers misread, misinterpreted, overlooked or 
 forgot orders. Seventy-five accidents of this class are noted, 
 resulting in 188 deaths and 828 injuries to passengers and em- 
 pJoyees. Many of the most distressing collisions that have 
 occurred in this country were due to mistakes in orders, and the 
 regularity and frequency with which such accidents occur 
 emphasize the necessity for radical improvement in the methods 
 
348 APPENDIX 
 
 of handling trains by telegraphic orders or the abolition of the 
 train-order system entirely. 
 
 It is noteworthy that 4 of the above 75 collisions, resulting 
 in 14 deaths and 84 injuries to passengers and employees, and 
 a property loss of nearly one hundred thousand dollars, were due 
 to identical mistakes in reading orders, the overlooking of 
 "2d" or "second." The following is a typical example of 
 this sort of error: " Conductor and engineman of one train 
 misread orders. They had a '19' order against 'Second No. I/ 
 but read it 'No. 1 ' ; engineman was killed. Being on form 19, 
 the order was not read by the operator to the conductor and 
 engineman." This mistake caused a butting collision between 
 a passenger and a freight train, in which 4 persons were killed 
 and 60 injured. It may be observed that the collision at 
 Warrensburg, Mo., on October 10, in which 30 persons were 
 killed and an equal number terribly injured, was another in- 
 stance of this sort of error. Such identical errors emphasize 
 the need of some change in the scheme of numbering or naming 
 trains or in writing the numbers or names in dispatchers' orders. 
 
 A collision between a passenger and a freight train, in which 
 22 persons were killed and 25 injured, was due also to misread- 
 ing orders. The conductor of the freight train read 1 hour and 
 20 minutes, but the order was written 20 minutes. Collisions 
 due to operators copying orders wrongly or failing to deliver 
 orders are numerous. One collision was due to the engineer 
 of one of the trains misreading the name of the station written 
 in his order. Mistakes of dispatchers are not so numerous, but 
 there are several cases of lap orders and failure to make meet- 
 ing-point. 
 
 OVERWORKED TRAINMEN 
 
 The following cases (rear collisions resulting in 5 deaths) are 
 typical of a condition concerning which there has been much 
 complaint of late : "Local freight standing at station ; 12 hours 
 late; no flag out; weather foggy; men on duty 25 hours 30 
 
APPENDIX 349 
 
 minutes." "Engineer failed to properly control speed; had 
 been on duty 22 hours, with 5 hours' rest within that time." 
 " Flagman, who had been ordered to hold one of the trains, 
 went into caboose to get red light ; sat down to warm himself 
 and dry his clothes ; fell asleep ; had been on duty 16^ hours." 
 It is undeniable that many of the accidents which occur are 
 largely contributed to, if not directly caused by, the long hours 
 of duty to which trainmen are subjected. Could we trace the 
 events to their first cause, we should doubtless find that many 
 of those cases of misreading, overlooking, or forgetting orders 
 were due to the fact that wits were dulled and senses benumbed 
 by lack of rest. In the distressing wreck at Glenwood, 111., 
 last summer, in which a large number of excursionists were 
 killed and injured by a freight train running into a passenger 
 train, the evidence at the coroner's inquest showed that the 
 freight engineer (whom the officials of the road said "disregarded 
 plain orders and acted like a crazy man") had been on duty 
 more than 20 hours. In commenting on this case, it was per- 
 tinently said by one of the Chicago papers that "the officials 
 of the company might as well fill their engineers and firemen 
 with whiskey or drug them with opium as to send them out 
 for 15 and 17 hours of continuous work expecting them to keep 
 their heads, apply intelligently the general rules of the road, 
 and give exact obedience to all orders." 
 
 It was pointed out on behalf of the company in this Glen- 
 wood case that the company rules permitted employees to take 
 10 hours' rest after they had been on duty 16 hours. It is 
 a universal rule with railroad companies to permit a period 
 of rest after a certain period of duty before employees are called 
 upon to go on duty again. But the trouble is that these rules 
 are permissive, not mandatory. They do not compel employees 
 to take rest unless the employees themselves think they need it, 
 and, as a consequence, the necessities of the roads, growing out 
 of the movement of traffic, coupled with the greed of the men, 
 
350 APPENDIX 
 
 who in many cases overwork themselves in order to achieve 
 a big month's pay, render the rules of little or no effect. 
 
 Again ; there is no well-organized system of relieving crews 
 on the road after they have been on continuous duty for an 
 excessive number of hours. It is a common practice, when crews 
 ask for rest in the middle of a trip, to run them into a side track, 
 out on the road, and let them sleep on the train before com- 
 pleting the trip. The sort of rest that men get while lying down 
 in a cramped position on an engine, while fully clothed, is not 
 satisfying, and cases are reported in our bulletins where men 
 have pulled right out of a side track in the face of an opposing 
 train, after such a period of rest, under the impression that the 
 train had gone. Furthermore, the construction that is likely 
 to be placed on these rest rules of railroad companies is obvious 
 from a quotation of the rule in force on one of the most prominent 
 roads in the country, as follows : " When train or yard men have 
 been over 10 hours on continuous duty, they will, after arrival 
 at the terminus,^ be entitled to 8 hours' rest without preju- 
 dice, except when necessary to avoid delay to live stock or 
 perishable freight." It will be noted that the period of rest is 
 allowed only after arrival at the terminus, and then only when 
 it will not delay the movement of live stock or perishable freight. 
 When it is considered that in one of the accidents noted above 
 the train crew had been on duty 25 hours and 30 minutes, 
 and had not yet arrived at the terminus, it will be seen how 
 little relief is afforded by such rules in many urgent cases. 
 
 There can be no doubt that the railroads generally have 
 worked under many disadvantages of late years. The necessi- 
 ties growing out of the movement of extraordinary volumes of 
 traffic, and the demands of the public 1 for increased and faster 
 train service, have taxed the facilities of the roads to their 
 utmost, leading to the placing of many inexperienced men 
 in responsible positions, to the overworking of men, and to a 
 disregard of many safeguards that under ordinary conditions 
 
APPENDIX 351 
 
 would have been strictly observed. There is a tendency in 
 certain quarters to refer many of our railroad casualties to the 
 great American tendency to rush things, and I have even heard 
 it remarked that the public demands the service and must 
 accept the dangers incident thereto ; but this is hardly a fair 
 way of looking at the matter, and, when the public is confronted 
 with a mass of purely avoidable casualties, it is proper to ask 
 if it is not time to call a halt and insist on the introduction of 
 such safeguards as will reduce such casualties to a minimum, 
 even though it may result in a lessening of the characteristic 
 hurry and bustle with which Americans are accustomed to 
 move about from place to place. 
 
 THE BRITISH SYSTEM OF REGULATION 
 
 It is pertinent to inquire if the time has not arrived for a more 
 effective system of railway regulation, following the example of 
 Great Britain. Under the Regulation of Railways Act of Great 
 Britain, railway companies are required to report accidents to 
 the Board of Trade in such form, and giving such particulars, 
 as the board may direct, by the earliest practical post after 
 the accident takes place ; and, furthermore, the board has power 
 to direct that notice of any class of accidents shall be sent to 
 them by telegraph immediately after the accident takes place. 
 The board may direct an inquiry to be made by one of its in- 
 spectors into the cause of any accident, and, whenever it deems 
 necessary, it may call in experts and magistrates to assist its 
 inspector in making a more formal investigation. The persons 
 holding this formal investigation have all the powers of a court 
 of summary jurisdiction, and may enter and inspect places or 
 buildings, require the attendance of persons and answers to 
 such inquiries as they see fit to make, enforce the production 
 of books, papers, and documents, administer oaths, and are 
 generally clothed with such powers as will enable them to get 
 at the facts. The inspectors of the board, and the persons 
 
352 APPENDIX 
 
 acting with them in making formal inquiries, as set forth above, 
 are required to make a report of the results of their investi- 
 gations to the Board of Trade, and the Board of Trade is re- 
 quired to make public every such report. 
 
 It is also competent for the Board of Trade to appoint an 
 inspector or some person possessing legal or special knowledge, 
 to assist coroners in holding inquests on the death of persons 
 killed in railway accidents, reports of such inquests to be made 
 to the Board of Trade and to be made public in like manner as in 
 the case of a formal investigation. There can be no doubt that 
 this rigid supervision and investigation of accidents tends to pro- 
 mote the safety of both travelers and employees, and to im- 
 provements in operation and working brought about by the 
 recommendations of the Board, as a result of these investiga- 
 tions, may be attributed a great share of the comparative im- 
 munity from serious railway accidents which the people of 
 Great Britain enjoy. 
 
 In this connection it is proper to say that the Interstate Com- 
 merce Commission has made no recent comparisons between 
 the accident statistics of the United States and those of foreign 
 countries, and the recent statement that has been going the 
 rounds of the press, purporting to give the total of persons killed 
 and injured on the railroads of this country and Great Britain 
 in 1904, and making comparisons between this country and 
 Great Britain, is entirely unauthorized. The Commission has 
 made no such comparisons, and the only figures for 1904 that 
 have yet been compiled are those appearing in this article. 
 
 REMEDIES PROPOSED 
 
 Summarizing the remedies suggested by the above exhibit 
 of causes, they are : 
 
 1. An extension of the block system as rapidly as practicable, 
 and its strict interpretation on lines already blocked. 
 
 2. A radical reform in the train-order system as applied to 
 
APPENDIX 353 
 
 single-track roads, or its entire abolition, substituting the electric 
 staff or tablet system, as has been done in Great Britain. 
 
 3. The introduction of rigid rules governing the hours of labor 
 of railroad employees engaged in train service. 
 
 4. The employment of a third man on all modern high-speed 
 locomotives. 
 
 5. An extension of the practice of employing two conductors 
 on heavy high-speed trains, one to look after the running of 
 the train exclusively and the other to look after the tickets, 
 as is now the practice on several of the transcontinental lines. 
 
 6. The employment of only experienced men in responsible 
 positions. , 
 
 7. An extension of second, third, and fourth track mileage 
 as rapidly as practicable, to accommodate the growing necessi- 
 ties of traffic. 
 
 THE PENALTY OF PROGRESS 
 
 By EDWARD A. MOSELEY. (In the Independent June 11, 
 1908.) 
 
 It is impossible for me to give the subject of industrial ac- 
 cidents exhaustive treatment within the necessarily brief limits 
 of an article of this character, nor shall I attempt it. I can 
 only hope to indicate the proportions of a problem which, in my 
 judgment, is of transcendent importance in its bearing upon our 
 welfare as a nation, and point out what has been done toward its 
 solution in the comparatively limited sphere of Federal activity. 
 
 SOCIETY CANNOT BE INDIFFERENT 
 
 Society cannot be indifferent to the need of its widows; 
 it cannot safely ignore the cry of children made fatherless by 
 methods and machines which typify our present wonderful 
 industrial development. If the elements of national vitality, 
 prosperity, and happiness are sapped to produce such develop- 
 ment, it is purchased at too great a price ; and in our strenuous 
 
 2A 
 
354 APPENDIX 
 
 attempts to write down industrial results in big figures it is 
 high time we paused to count the cost in human life and limb. 
 
 The most commendable feature of the Roosevelt administra- 
 tion, the fact that stands out most prominently as entitling it to 
 popular approval, is the consistent effort that has been made to 
 awaken the public conscience in industrial matters and secure 
 justice for wage earners. The keynote of this effort was 
 struck by the President in his Georgia Day speech at James- 
 town, when, in discussing the question of industrial accidents, 
 he said : "Legislation should be had, alike from the Nation and 
 from the States, not only to guard against the needless multi- 
 plication of these accidents, but to relieve the financial suffer- 
 ing due to them. It is neither just, expedient nor humane ; it 
 is revolting to judgment and sentiment alike, that the financial 
 burden of accidents occurring because of the necessary exigencies 
 of their daily occupation should be thrust upon those sufferers 
 who are least able to bear it, and that such remedy as is theirs 
 should only be obtained by litigation which now burdens our 
 courts." 
 
 WORKINGMEN'S COMPENSATION 
 
 The remedy proposed by the President is a workmen's com- 
 pensation. He rightly judges that only by increasing the finan- 
 cial responsibility of employers for the death or injury of their 
 employees can industrial accidents be reduced to the limits 
 of the unavoidable. Said the President : 
 
 " Congress should adopt legislation providing limited but 
 definite compensation for accidents to all workmen within the 
 scope of the Federal power, including employees in navy yards 
 and arsenals. Similar legislation should follow throughout 
 the States. The old and inadequate remedy of suit for 
 negligence would then gradually disappear. Such a policy 
 would mean that with increased responsibility of the employer 
 would come increased care, and accidents would be reduced in 
 number." 
 
APPENDIX 355 
 
 One who has given but little thought to the subject may 
 think the President's language somewhat radical, even revolu- 
 tionary. Careful consideration, however, will convince an 
 impartial investigator that Mr. Roosevelt has not overstated 
 the injustice which society imposes upon wage earners and 
 their families by requiring them to bear the whole burden of 
 industrial accidents; and the remedy proposed, namely, a 
 definite compensation act, is, as the President well said, only 
 a step towards securing "fair and equitable treatment for each 
 and every one of our people." 
 
 PROFESSIONAL RISK 
 
 It is well known that the constantly recurring accidents in all 
 industrial occupations result in a certain constant ratio of killed 
 and injured, which is known as the "professional risk" of the 
 employment. In Great Britain and the countries of Conti- 
 nental Europe it is the theory that this risk should be borne by 
 the employer, since the labor of the employee is an absolutely 
 necessary factor in the conduct of industry, and the employer 
 derives all his profit therefrom. The employee is, therefore, 
 entitled to compensation for any damage which he may sustain 
 (affecting his earning power or his ability to maintain himself 
 and his dependents), while in the exercise of his vocation. 
 This theory finds its legal expression in the Employers' Liability 
 and Workmen's Compensation Acts of Great Britain, and in 
 numerous statutes modifying the common law rules of master 
 and servant in Germany, France, Switzerland, and other 
 countries of Continental Europe. There is no question about 
 the compensation to which an injured workman is entitled, and 
 he receives it without recourse to an action at law. 
 
 In the United States, however, although he is theoretically 
 endowed with greater political power than in any other country 
 on earth, the wage earner has had no such protection. He 
 has been forced to go into court to obtain compensation for 
 
356 APPENDIX 
 
 injuries received as an incident of his employment, and he la- 
 bored under the additional disadvantage of having little or no 
 statutory protection, especially in those employments that came 
 within the jurisdiction of the Federal courts, such as work for 
 interstate common carriers. In such cases an injured workman 
 must show that his injury was undoubtedly caused by the 
 negligence of his employer, and he must do this under common 
 law rules that placed the employer practically beyond the reach 
 of liability. 
 
 CASE OF FIREMAN BAUGH 
 
 Reference to a leading case, namely, Baltimore & Ohio Rail- 
 road Company v. Baugh, 149 U. S. 368, will illustrate the dis- 
 abilities under which railroad employees have labored and em- 
 phasize the need of Federal legislation 'for their protection. 
 Baugh was a locomotive fireman, who received an injury through 
 the negligence of his engineer. He began an action for damages 
 against the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Company, his employer, 
 in one of the courts of the State of Ohio, but the defendant, 
 claiming citizenship in Maryland by reason of its incorporation 
 in that State, obtained a removal of the cause to the Circuit 
 Court of the United States for the southern district of Maryland. 
 That court, following the decisions of the Ohio courts, gave 
 Baugh a judgment for $6,750, but the railroad company appealed 
 the case to the Supreme Court of the United States, where the 
 judgment of the lower court was reversed on the ground that, 
 because of its interstate character, the liability of the railroad 
 company must be determined by the general law and not by 
 the decisions of the supreme court of the State of Ohio. Under 
 the general law, Baugh could obtain nothing, although under 
 the law as interpreted by the Supreme Court of the State of 
 Ohio he had been awarded a verdict to the amount of nearly 
 $7,000. We may thus observe the paradoxical condition that 
 an interstate railroad in the State of Ohio may incur no liabil- 
 
APPENDIX 357 
 
 ity for the death or injury of an employee, while an employee 
 of a parallel intrastate road who might be killed or injured under 
 precisely similar conditions would be awarded damages. The 
 existence of such conditions as this early attracted the attention 
 of Mr. Roosevelt, and in his first message to Congress, Dec. 
 2, 1902, he recommended the enactment of an employers' 
 liability law. This recommendation was repeated in subse- 
 quent messages, and finally resulted in the passage of the Act 
 of June 11, 1906, which came before the Supreme Court of the 
 United States, to determine its constitutionality, the right of 
 Congress to pass such a law having been contested by the 
 railroads. 
 
 FINANCIAL BURDEN TO EMPLOYEES 
 
 Let us briefly consider the financial burden imposed upon 
 railroad employees by the casualties which are an incident of 
 their calling. It is well known that employees in railroad train 
 service are unable to procure insurance in any of the old-line 
 companies, except at rates that are practically prohibitive, 
 while most of the companies absolutely refuse to accept such 
 risks under any consideration. Certain of the companies will 
 write five, ten, and fifteen year endowment policies for switch- 
 men at premiums based upon a twenty-year advance in age; 
 thus, for instance, a switchman, aged twenty-five years, may 
 obtain such a policy by paying the forty-five-year premium rate. 
 Inasmuch as insurance premium rates are based upon broad 
 observation and are always the result of careful and accurate 
 consideration, this fact is vastly significant. It means that 
 the man who embraces the occupation of railroad switchman 
 thereby at once cuts twenty years off his reasonable expectancy 
 of life. If there is any compensating advantage in this occupa- 
 tion to offset the horror of this grim fact, the writer has failed 
 to discover it in more than twenty years 7 close observation of 
 the conditions of railway labor. 
 
358 APPENDIX 
 
 Being denied the benefits of ordinary insurance, railroad 
 employees have been compelled to establish and maintain in- 
 surance societies of their own. These societies are never called 
 upon to pay death claims as a result of old age. Their payments, 
 however, on account of railroad accidents, are surprisingly 
 large, and in most of the organizations represent a major por- 
 tion of the total claims paid. In the year 1906 the Brotherhood 
 of Railroad Trainmen, with a membership of 82,937, composed 
 of conductors, brakemen, switchmen, and baggagemen, paid 
 1,350 claims, amounting to a total of $1,671,548.96. More 
 than two thirds of these claims, or 927 of the whole number, 
 representing a cash total of considerably more than a million 
 dollars, were paid as a result of deaths and disabilities caused 
 by railroad accidents. During the year ending June 30, 1907, 
 the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and Enginemen, with 
 a membership of about 63,000 engineers and firemen, paid 663 
 death and disability claims, amounting to $947,100. More 
 than 51 per cent of these claims, or 340 of the whole number, 
 representing a cash payment of $489,500, were paid on account 
 of deaths and disabilities caused by railroad accidents. The 
 Switchmen's Union of North America is a comparatively small 
 organization, with membership confined to switchmen employed 
 in railroad yard service. Last year this organization paid 
 179 death and disability claims. Three fourths of these claims, 
 or 128 of the whole number, were paid for deaths or disabilities 
 incurred by members in the ordinary discharge of their vocation ! 
 Why should this enormous toll of life and treasure be exacted 
 from railroad employees ? Does the efficient operation of the 
 Nation's splendid transportation system require that this great 
 burden remain where it has been ? Suppose we admit that the 
 terrible sacrifice of lives and limbs is a necessary concomitant 
 of railroad operation. Suppose we resign ourselves with oriental 
 fatalism to the belief that our transportation Juggernaut must 
 continue to crush out the lives of its operatives without abate- 
 
APPENDIX 359 
 
 ment. Even then, can we excuse ourselves for saddling upon 
 those operatives the financial burden of providing for the needs 
 of their widows and orphans, made such by the very exigencies 
 of the industry itself ? Is it not more to the point and more akin 
 to justice, that this burden should be assumed by the transporta- 
 tion industry and, through it, by society as a whole ? 
 
 SENTIENT AND INSENTIENT 
 
 The necessary factors of railroad operation are sentient and 
 insentient; human beings and their tools and materials with 
 which they work. Both are subjected to wear and tear; both 
 are wasted in the performance of their functions. The rail- 
 roads bear the expense of repairing the waste of their insentient 
 instruments of operation, the wear and tear of roadbed and track, 
 bridges and buildings, locomotives and cars ; but for their sen- 
 tient instruments of operation, they have no concern. The waste 
 of human life and limb, the wear and tear of that active, intelligent 
 army of human beings whose labor alone makes their operation 
 possible, is not a necessary item in the expense account of rail- 
 roads. They maintain a fund for the replacement of all the 
 insentient factors of operation that are worn out or wrecked and 
 have to be consigned to the scrap heap, but the human being 
 that is wrecked as a consequence of his professional risk so 
 as to make him unfit for further service is cast aside, and the 
 carrier would assume no responsibility whatever for his con- 
 dition. He must assume his own risk, must bear his own 
 damage as though it had occurred by reason of his fault or his 
 negligence, when, as a matter of fact, his damage is as much a 
 result of the operation of the property as is the damage to 
 locomotives and cars, bridges and buildings, railway and track, 
 for all of which the carrier provides without question. As 
 was said by Professor Bushnell in a thought-provoking article 
 calling attention to the alarming increase in the number of 
 abnormal dependents in the United States: "Soldiers suffer 
 
360 APPENDIX 
 
 because they are professional destroyers, but members of this 
 great industrial army are struck down every year in this country 
 because they are producers. This is the price they have to pay 
 for the privilege of earning their bread in serving civilization/' 
 It is to the everlasting credit of President Roosevelt that he 
 has perceived the essential injustice of this situation and has 
 earnestly endeavored to correct it, not alone by advocating the 
 passage of the employers' liability and workmen's compensation 
 acts, but by insisting upon a rigid enforcement of Federal statutes 
 calculated to reduce the number of accidents as well as pointing 
 out the need of strengthening or supplementing such legislation 
 in the interest of greater safety. The Safety- Appliance Act of 
 1893, for the better protection of railroad employees in coupling 
 and uncoupling cars, has been vigorously enforced by the ad- 
 ministration under the direction of Mr. Roosevelt ; indeed, had 
 it not been for the work of Senator Knox, then Attorney-General, 
 in securing action by the Supreme Court of the United States 
 in the Johnson case, the humane purpose of this benefit law 
 would have been largely defeated. This was the first instance 
 wherein the Federal Government intervened in a private suit 
 for the purpose of preserving the integrity of an Act of Congress, 
 and to both the President and Senator Knox a debt of gratitude 
 is due for inaugurating the proceedings in this case and pushing 
 them to a successful conclusion. There can be no doubt that 
 many lives have been thus saved to the nation that would have 
 otherwise been wasted. Regulation of the hours of labor of 
 railway employees in train service is another matter that has 
 been urged upon Congress by the President, for the purpose of 
 reducing the number of lives lost in railroad accidents. After 
 vigorous opposition by the railroads through two sessions of 
 Congress a law limiting the hours of labor of employees in train 
 service was placed on the statute books. This law became 
 effective on the 4th of March, 1908. 
 
APPENDIX 361 
 
 BLOCK SIGNALS 
 
 A law requiring the use of block signals on railroads engaged 
 in interstate commerce is another measure that has been firmly 
 advocated by the Administration. As a measure for the preven- 
 tion of collisions, the enforcement of the space interval between 
 trains, which will be brought about by the enforcement of a 
 proper block signal system, is a matter of paramount impor- 
 tance. The railroads have opposed the enactment of such legis- 
 lation on the score of expense, but when its vast possibilities in 
 the way of saving human life are taken into consideration, it 
 would seem that arguments of this character should have little 
 weight. Again, the matter of expense has been greatly over- 
 estimated by the railroads, as the bill for the regulation of this 
 matter, which has the support of the Administration, is so formu- 
 lated as to provide that the item of expense shall not be unduly 
 burdensome upon any particular carrier. In order that Con- 
 gress may have full information on this subject so as to enable 
 it to legislate intelligently, a joint resolution was paueud directing 
 the Interstate Commerce Commission to investigate and report 
 on the use of and necessity for block signal systems and appli- 
 ances for the automatic control of railway trains, and an appro- 
 priation of $50,000 was granted the Commission to enable it to 
 make experimental tests of such block signal systems and appli- 
 ances. Under the authority of this resolution the Commission 
 appointed a board of experts to make a thorough investigation 
 of the whole subject. 
 
 ONE MILLION WORKERS ANNUALLY KILLED 
 All these matters are steps hi the direction of lessening the 
 number of industrial accidents, and so of greater economy in 
 the expenditure of human life. In the article previously re- 
 ferred to, Professor Bushnell states that "at a conservative 
 figure, 1,000,000 workers in the United States every year are 
 killed or injured in industry by accidents, of which three quarters 
 
362 APPENDIX 
 
 are proven by European experience to be wholly unnecessary." 
 I do not know whence Professor Bushnell derives his authority 
 for the statement that 75 per cent of our industrial accidents are 
 wholly unnecessary, and I am inclined to believe his estimate 
 excessive ; but it is, nevertheless, a fact that cannot be ques- 
 tioned that hi all industrial occupations in the United States 
 there is a reckless and wholly unnecessary waste of human life. 
 This shameful condition will continue until effective measures 
 are taken to increase the financial responsibility of employers 
 for the death or injury of employees ; in other words, industrial 
 slaughter will go on as long as it remains cheaper to maim and 
 kill men than to provide effective measures of safety for them. 
 Whether we like to recognize it or not, the fact remains that the 
 whole matter is one of dollars and cents, and we as a nation are 
 greatly to blame that our statutes and our courts have held 
 human life too cheap. We have held safety appliances more 
 expensive than human beings. We must reverse this policy 
 by the enactment of effective liability and compensation acts in 
 all of our States and by vigorous enforcement of such laws of 
 that character as are now on our statute books. 
 
 Federal legislation is not able to deal with this question in all 
 of its aspects, as the power of Congress to deal with the conditions 
 of labor is necessarily limited to labor engaged in interstate 
 commerce or upon the waters of the United States. The Federal 
 power has a fertile field of operation, however, in connection 
 with railroads engaged in interstate commerce, and it is en- 
 couraging to note that Congress has apparently embarked upon 
 a program of remedial legislation which promises vastly to in- 
 crease our regard for the value of human life and reduce the num- 
 ber of accidents upon interstate railroads to the limits of the 
 unavoidable. 
 
APPENDIX 363 
 
 FEDERAL SUPREMACY 
 
 A STUDY OF THE POWER OF THE CONGRESS OVER RAILROADS, 
 BY EDWARD A. MOSELEY 
 
 (Published in pamphlet form, March 23, 1907.) 
 
 Can Congress, in the exercise of its power of control over 
 interstate commerce, either through the commerce clause of 
 the Constitution or through the power to establish post-roads 
 and to raise and support armies, establish regulations, and fix the 
 rates to be charged for the transportation of passengers and 
 property over interstate roads, even to the extent of regulating 
 the rates to be charged from one point to another within the 
 boundaries of a State without regard to the regulating power 
 of the States? 
 
 Previous to the act to facilitate commercial, postal, and mili- 
 tary communication among the several States, passed by Con- 
 gress June 15, 1866 (14 Stat., 66), the National Government had 
 never assumed the right to grant charters for the construction 
 of railroads in any of the States without their consent, and the 
 very extended debates which preceded the enactment of this 
 measure turned mainly upon the right of Congress to charter 
 such roads. The act in question was introduced originally by 
 Senator Sumner for the purpose of correcting an interference with 
 interstate commerce which had arisen through the action of the 
 State of New Jersey in granting a monopoly for the transporta- 
 tion of passengers and property between the cities of New York 
 and Philadelphia to the Camden & Amboy Railroad Company. 
 
 One of the terms of the charter under which this road operated 
 was that, in lieu of all other taxation, the road should pay to the 
 State of New Jersey a tax of ten cents for every passenger car- 
 ried over its line between the cities of New York and Phila- 
 delphia, and all other railroads were forbidden to enter into 
 competition with the Camden & Amboy Railroad for the trans- 
 
364 APPENDIX 
 
 portation of passengers and property across the State of New 
 Jersey between the cities of New York and Philadelphia. 
 During the war the National Government, in the transportation 
 of troops and supplies for the maintenance of its armies, was 
 unable to secure adequate transportation facilities from the 
 Camden & Amboy Railroad, and in this energency pressed the 
 Raritan & Delaware Bay Railroad into its service for the trans- 
 portation of a number of troops and a quantity of quarter- 
 master's stores from New York to Philadelphia. 
 
 Under the terms of its charter the Camden & Amboy Railroad 
 filed a bill in equity praying that the Raritan & Delaware Bay 
 Railroad be compelled to desist and refrain from such trans- 
 portation, and that an account be taken to ascertain the 
 amount of damages. The New Jersey Courts upheld the claims 
 of the Camden & Amboy Railroad, and compelled the Raritan 
 & Delaware Bay Railroad to pay over the amount which it had 
 received from the General Government for said service. It was 
 to correct conditions of this kind that the act above mentioned 
 was introduced, and its passage was vigorously contested on 
 constitutional grounds in three sessions of Congress previous 
 to its passage. Senator Sumner, who introduced the bill, con- 
 tended for the right of the National Government to establish 
 roads within the States on three separate grounds : 
 
 First, under the power to regulate commerce among the 
 several States; 
 
 Second, under the power to establish post-roads ; and, 
 
 Third, under the power to raise and support armies. 
 
 With regard to the post-roads clause and the power to raise 
 and support armies, Senator Sumner spoke as follows : 
 
 " There is also the power Ho establish post-roads/ which is 
 equally explicit. Here, too, the words are plain, and they have 
 received an authoritative exposition. It is with reference to 
 these words that Mr. Justice Story remarks that ' constitutions 
 of Government do not turn upon ingenious subtleties, but are 
 adapted to the business and exigencies of human society; and 
 
APPENDIX 365 
 
 the powers given are understood, in a large sense, in order to 
 secure the public interests. Common sense becomes the guide 
 and prevents men from dealing with mere logical abstractions/ 
 (Story, Commentaries on the Constitution, Vol. 2, Sec. 1144.) 
 The same learned authority, in considering these words of the 
 Constitution, seems to have anticipated the very question now 
 under consideration. Here is a passage which may fitly close the 
 argument on this head : 
 
 " 'Let a case be taken when State policy' 
 
 "As, for instance, in New Jersey at this time 'or State 
 hostility shall lead the Legislature to close up or discontinue a 
 road, the nearest and the best between two great States, rivals, 
 perhaps, for the trade and intercourse of a third State ; shall it be 
 said that Congress has no right to make or repair a road for 
 keeping open for the mail the best means of communication 
 between those States ? May the National Government be com- 
 pelled to take the most inconvenient and indirect route for the 
 mail ? In other words, have the States the power to say how, 
 and upon what roads, the mails shall and shall not travel ? If 
 so, then, in relation to post-roads, the States, and not the Union, 
 are supreme.' (Story, Commentaries on the Constitution, Vol. 
 2, Sec. 1144.) 
 
 "Then comes the power 'to raise and support armies'; an 
 unquestionable power lodged in Congress. But this grant car- 
 ries with it, of course, all incidental powers necessary to the 
 execution of the principal power. It would be absurd to sup- 
 pose that Congress could raise an army, but could not authorize 
 the agencies required for its transportation from place to place. 
 Congress has not been guilty of any such absurdity. Already 
 it has by formal act proceeded 'to authorize the President of 
 the United States in certain cases to take possession of railroads 
 and telegraphs, and for other purposes.' (12 Statutes at 
 Large, p. 334.) By this Act the President is empowered 'to 
 take possession of any or all the railroad lines in the United 
 States, their rolling stock, their offices, shops, buildings, and all 
 their appendages and appurtenances,' and it is declared that any 
 such railroads 'shall be considered as a post-road and a part of 
 the military establishment of the United States.' Here is the 
 exercise of a broader power than any which is now proposed. 
 The less must be contained in the greater." 
 
 On the final passage of this bill Senator Clarke, of New Hamp- 
 shire, succeeded in having incorporated as an amendment to 
 the first section of the bill the following words : 
 
366 APPENDIX 
 
 "Nor shall it be construed to authorize any railroad company 
 to build any new road or connection with any other road without 
 authority from the State in which railroad or connection may be 
 proposed." 
 
 This amendment was accepted by the supporters of the bill 
 in order to remove opposition and insure its passage, but it was 
 insisted by Senator Sumner and other supporters that the 
 amendment was not at all necessary to make the statute conform 
 to the Constitution, but was adopted merely to allay the feeling 
 of opposition on the part of the States. 
 
 The debates on this bill were exhaustive as to the right of 
 Congress to charter and construct roads within the States with- 
 out their consent, and Senator Morrill, of Maine, who was a 
 vigorous opponent of the measure, had this to say as to its 
 effect : 
 
 "It proposes, sir, in a word, to take by the power of the 
 General Government the direction of the internal railway sys- 
 tems of the United States. This is the proposition : I know it 
 may be said that it only proposes to regulate it. To regulate is 
 to control ; to control is to direct ; and under whatever branch 
 you seek to exercise this authority, whether by the commercial 
 power or by the power to regulate the postal service, or by that 
 to raise and support armies and navies, it is the same thing ; it 
 is substantially to assert the power by the General Government 
 to reach out its hand and lay its strong arm on the great Ameri- 
 can railway system. If you have a right to say that roads may 
 connect and shall connect ; if you have a right to say that a 
 railroad company in the interior of New Jersey and that is 
 precisely this case may extend its road across the State and 
 then across the Delaware River and connect with other roads, 
 and that all roads, whether the States authorizing them will or 
 not, shall have the right to connect one road with another, you 
 have thereby asserted a principle which will justify the Govern- 
 ment in establishing rules and regulations in regard to the 
 commerce over these internal railways precisely as upon the 
 navigable waters of the United States." 
 
 Senator Johnson, of Pennsylvania, who was also an opponent 
 of the bill, characterized it as follows : 
 
APPENDIX 367 
 
 "Now what does this bill say? That a road constructed for 
 the local trade of a State, for the purpose of benefiting a com- 
 merce entirely internal as within a State, shall not be subject 
 to any limitations contained in its own charter, provided it has 
 on board its cars a passenger or a box of freight designed to go 
 beyond the limits of which the road is authorized to carry it 
 by its own charter. Once find the possession of one of these 
 companies whose rights are limited, granted for the purpose of 
 carrying on domestic trade as contradistinguished from com- 
 merce between the States once put on board a road of that 
 description a particle of freight or a single passenger, and it has 
 a right to disregard its own charter, and the State has no author- 
 ity to refuse that permission. It has no authority, therefore, 
 to repeal the charter." 
 
 Senator Howard, of Michigan, one of the supporters of the 
 measure, expressed his view as to the power of Congress in the 
 following language : 
 
 "Now, I insist, sir, that a State charter cannot impose condi- 
 tions upon a company that shall prevent, burden, or obstruct 
 commerce, because the power to regulate commerce is granted 
 exclusively to Congress, and therefore such a condition is void. 
 I will not undertake to deny that Congress might, in an exigency, 
 regulate the price of freight and passage money upon the ocean. 
 The time may come when the exercise of such a power will be- 
 come necessary. We have never, thus far, exercised it, to be 
 sure ; we have not seen the necessity of exercising it. And for 
 the same reason I shall not deny that Congress has the power 
 to regulate even tolls in the matter of trade among the States, 
 though we have never exercised it, nor assumed to exercise it, 
 thus far. I am not, however, by such objections to be frightened 
 out of my position, that the power of Congress is just as ex- 
 clusive over the one kind of commerce as the other." 
 
 And Senator Howe, of Wisconsin, expressed his opinion of 
 the power of Congress over such matters as follows : 
 
 "But I said I denied that the power to build railways or au- 
 thorize the construction of railways is exclusively in the several 
 States. I have no manner of doubt, if it were adjudged by Con- 
 gress necessary and expedient to promote the commercial in- 
 terests of the United States, to advance the interests of com- 
 merce moving between State and State, to build a railway, that 
 
368 APPENDIX 
 
 we might authorize the construction of a railway or build it 
 ourselves. It is an instrument of commerce, and if we judge it 
 expedient to build one, who shall control the exercise of our 
 discretion ? " 
 
 The right of Congress to charter roads within the bounda- 
 ries of a State without the State's consent is no longer open to 
 question. That matter was definitely settled by the decision 
 of the Supreme Court of the United States in California v. 
 Pacific Railroad Company (127 U. S. 1). It necessarily follows 
 that, in the exercise of its power to grant franchises for the con- 
 struction of railroads, Congress may establish such regulations 
 as it sees fit for the transportation of passengers and property 
 over such roads, and it is undoubted that such agencies of trans- 
 portation are free from any measure of State control. In de- 
 livering the opinion of the court in California v. Pacific Railroad 
 Company, Mr. Justice Bradley said : 
 
 "The power to construct or to authorize individuals or cor- 
 porations to construct National highways and bridges from 
 State to State is essential to the complete control and regula- 
 tion of interstate commerce. Without authority in Congress 
 to establish and maintain such highways and bridges, it would 
 be without authority to regulate one of the most important 
 adjuncts of commerce. This power in former times was exerted 
 to a very limited extent, the Cumberland or National Road 
 being the most notable instance. Its exertion was but little 
 called for, as commerce was then mostly conducted by water, 
 and many of our statesmen entertained doubts as to the exist- 
 ence of power to establish ways of communication by land. 
 But since, in consequence of the expansion of the country, the 
 multiplication of its products, the invention of railroads and 
 locomotion by steam, land transportation has so vastly increased, 
 a sounder consideration of the subject has prevailed and led to 
 the conclusion that Congress has plenary power over the whole 
 subject." 
 
 If Congress has plenary power over the whole subject, then 
 the control of all rates on interstate roads, operating under a 
 National franchise, whether for the transportation of passengers 
 and property from a point in one State to a point in another 
 
APPENDIX 369 
 
 State, or for the same service between two points lying within 
 the boundaries of a State, is wholly within its discretion. 
 
 In the exercise of this power, the National Government can 
 fix the charges to be made for transportation over an interstate 
 road from one point to another within the boundaries of a State 
 to the same extent as it may from a point in one State to a point 
 in another State. In Stockton v. Baltimore & New York 
 Railroad Company, decided by Justice Bradley of the Supreme 
 Court of the United States, sitting as Circuit Judge in the United 
 States Circuit Court for the District of New Jersey, August 1, 
 1887 (32 Fed. Rep. 9), it was held that, in carrying on foreign 
 and interstate commerce, corporations, equally with individuals, 
 are within the protection of the commercial power of Congress 
 and cannot be molested in another State by State burdens or im- 
 pediments ; also, that Congress can confer upon a State Corpora- 
 tion powers not contained in its original charter, and that the 
 power of Congress is supreme over the whole subject of inter- 
 state commerce, unimpeded and unembarrassed by State lines 
 or State laws. 
 
 In the course of the opinion (bottom of page 16) Justice Brad- 
 ley said : 
 
 "Still it is contended that, although Congress may have 
 power to construct roads and other means of communication 
 between the States, yet this can only be done with the concur- 
 rence and consent of the States in which the structures are made. 
 If this is so, then the power of regulation in Congress is not 
 supreme; it depends on the will of the States. We do not 
 concur in this view. We think that the power of Congress is 
 supreme over the whole subject, unimpeded and unembarrassed 
 by State lines or State laws ; that, in this matter, the country 
 is one, and the work to be accomplished is national ; and that 
 State interests, State jealousies, and State prejudices do not re- 
 quire to be consulted. In matters of foreign and interstate 
 commerce there are no States." 
 
 The principles here laid down are now adjudged law in the 
 courts of the United States, and there would seem to be no ques- 
 2s 
 
370 APPENDIX 
 
 tion concerning the right of Congress to make all regulations 
 necessary to the control and operation of interstate railroads. 
 
 The question of the power of a State to make regulations 
 affecting the rates to be charged for the transportation of inter- 
 state commerce seems to be settled by the decision of the Su- 
 preme Court of the United States in the case of the Wabash, 
 St. Louis & Pacific Railway Company v. Illinois (118 U. S. 557), 
 which was decided October 25, 1886, Mr. Justice Miller deliver- 
 ing the opinion of the Court. 
 
 That case concerned the validity of a statute of the State 
 of Illinois enacted to prevent unjust discrimination and extor- 
 tion in the rates to be charged by railroads in the State of Illinois 
 for the transportation of freight on said roads. The Court 
 held that in so far as the statute in question affected interstate 
 commerce, it was not a valid law, saying : 
 
 "We must, therefore, hold that it is not, and never has been, 
 the deliberate opinion of a majority of this court that a statute 
 of a State which attempts to regulate the fares and charges 
 by railroad companies within its limits, for a transportation 
 which constitutes a part of commerce among the States, is a 
 valid law." 
 
 And again : 
 
 "When it is attempted to apply to transportation through 
 an entire series of States a principle of this kind, and each one 
 of the States shall attempt to establish its own rates of transpor- 
 tation, its own methods to prevent discrimination in rates, or 
 to permit it, the deleterious influence upon the freedom of com- 
 merce among the States and upon the transit of goods through 
 those States cannot be overestimated. That this species of 
 regulation is one which must be, if established at all, of a general 
 and national character, and cannot be safely and wisely remitted 
 to local rules and local regulations, we think is clear from what 
 has already been said. And if it be a regulation of commerce, 
 as we think we have demonstrated it is, and as the Illinois court 
 conceives it to be, it must be of that national character, and the 
 regulation can only appropriately exist by general rules and 
 principles, which demand that it shall be done by the Congress 
 of the United States under the commerce -clause of the Consti- 
 tution." 
 
APPENDIX 371 
 
 So, with respect to the regulation of interstate commerce, 
 it no longer can be doubted that the National Government has 
 exclusive power, and that no State can make a valid regulation 
 affecting the interstate transportation of passengers and prop- 
 erty. 
 
 The freedom of interstate commerce from State control was 
 definitely settled as to the taxing power of the State in the case 
 of the State Freight Tax in 1873 (15 Wall. 232), and later in 1887 
 in the case of Robbins v. Shelby County Taxing District (120 U. S. 
 489). The freedom of interstate commerce with respect to the 
 police power of the State was also declared in the cases relating 
 to the liquor traffic. Mugler v. Kansas (123 U. S. 623). In 
 1894 this principle was extended to an interstate bridge, and it 
 was held that the bridge was an instrument of interstate com- 
 merce whereon Congress alone possessed the power to enact a 
 uniform schedule of charges. Covington, etc., Bridge Co. v. 
 Kentucky (154 U. S. 204). The same principle was later ap- 
 plied in holding invalid the dispensary laws of South Carolina 
 regulating the sale of intoxicating liquors and prohibiting their 
 importation. Scott v. McDonald (165 U. S. 58) ; Vance v. 
 Vandercook (170 U. S. 438). 
 
 The conclusion that flows from these decisions is that the 
 right to carry on commerce among the States is subject to the 
 control of Congress only; it is not the exercise of this power, 
 but its existence in Congress, which excludes all State control 
 and interference. 
 
 The existence of the power to control absolutely and exclu- 
 sively both the subjects and instrumentalities of interstate com- 
 merce is undisputed and undoubted, and any attempt by a 
 State to control interstate carriers by fixing the rates they shall 
 charge for shipments from one point to any other point on their 
 lines involves a conflict of power. 
 
 Justice Bradley, in Robbins v. Shelby Taxing District (120 
 U. S. 489, 494), said : 
 
372 APPENDIX 
 
 "In a word it may be said, that in the matter of interstate 
 commerce the United States are but one country, and are and 
 must be subject to one system of regulation, and not to a multi- 
 tude of systems." 
 
 And again, speaking of certain well-settled principles, and 
 citing numerous decisions of the Supreme Court, he said, 
 p. 492:-- 
 
 "The Constitution of the United States having given to Con- 
 gress the power to regulate commerce, not only with foreign 
 nations, but among the several States, that power is necessarily 
 exclusive whenever the subjects of it are national in their char- 
 acter, or admit only of one uniform system or plan of regula- 
 tion." 
 
 The laws of a State have no extra-territorial force. They 
 can operate only within its limits, and the Legislatures of States 
 through which an interstate road may run, moved by local preju- 
 dice and whim, each, in time, passing laws regulating rates to be 
 charged by that road, presents a total lack of uniformity. The 
 power in the Federal Government being unquestioned, the con- 
 trol by it of the interstate carrier follows, even to the extent of 
 controlling rates charged for transportation anywhere on its 
 line. This power arises not alone from the commerce clause of 
 the Constitution, but from various clauses therein ; it is the ag- 
 gregate of powers, both enumerated and implied, which consti- 
 tutes the Federal sovereignty ; and it is the exercise of those 
 powers which insures to the greatest number of the people the 
 greatest good. 
 
INDEX 
 
 ACCIDENT REPORT LAW, enacted in 
 1901 , 132. Quarterly Accident Bul- 
 letin, 132. 
 
 ADAIB CASE in connection with black- 
 listing of railroad workmen, 152, 168. 
 
 BRAGG, WALTER L., of Alabama, mem- 
 ber of original Interstate Commerce 
 Commission, 30. 
 
 BRINKMEIER CASE, the first case in 
 which the nation ever intervened 
 in a State court to uphold Federal 
 law, 90, 91. 
 
 BRYAN, WILLIAM JENNINGS, favors 
 Safety Appliance Act in speech in 
 House in 1893, 66. 
 
 CLEVELAND, GROVER, suggests Mr. 
 Moseley for Secretaryship, 29, 30 ; 
 pleased at the Secretary's success, 
 33 ; asks Mr. Moseley to investigate 
 Kearney incident during second ad- 
 ministration, 48, 49, 50, 51 ; does 
 not feel justified in appointing Mr. 
 Moseley as Commissioner for po- 
 litical reasons, 53; advises Mr. 
 Moseley to study law, 79. 
 
 COLLINS, PATRICK A., consulted by 
 President Cleveland in regard to 
 Mr. Moseley's appointment as Sec- 
 retary, 29-30; confers with Presi- 
 dent Cleveland relating to the ac- 
 ceptability of Edward J. Phelps as 
 Chief-Justice, owing to his attitude 
 towards the Irish while Minister to 
 England, 37, 38, 59 ; introduces res- 
 olution in the House to have Com- 
 mission investigate need of Federal 
 Safety Appliance Law, 59. 
 
 COOLEY, THOMAS M., resigned position 
 at salary of $25,000 per year to 
 become Chairman of Commission 
 at salary of $7500, 30; urges and 
 aids Mr. Moseley to study law, 33, 
 79; friendship with Mr. Moseley, 
 34 ; writes letter against removal of 
 
 Mr. Moseley, 46; presides over con- 
 vention of State Railroad Commis- 
 sioners, 59. 
 
 CROCKER, GEORGE G., letter to Senator 
 Hoar commending Mr. Moseley, 44 ; 
 influence in furthering Safety Ap- 
 pliance Legislation, 58-59 ; letter 
 from Mr. Moseley, 79. 
 
 CULLOM, Senator of Illinois, father of 
 Interstate Commerce Law, 42. 
 
 DOHERTY, PHILIP J., introduces Em- 
 ployers' Liability Bill in Legislature, 
 24 ; author of able work on Federal 
 Employers' Liability Law, 103. 
 
 ELKINS, STEPHEN B., letters from Mr. 
 Moseley, 191, 198, 200; eulogizes 
 Mr. Moseley in the Senate, 227. 
 
 EMPLOYERS' LIABILITY ACT, 103, 104, 
 105, 106, 107, 108, 109, 110, 111, 
 112. 
 
 ERDMAN ACT. Arbitration Bill. En- 
 counters many obstacles, 149 ; act 
 in operation, 154, 155, 156, 157. 
 
 GRAY, GEORGE, Chairman of Anthracite 
 Coal Commission, personal friend of 
 Mr. Moseley, 218 ; writes on occa- 
 sion of Mr. Moseley's vindication, 
 224. 
 
 HARRISON, BENJAMIN, supports prin- 
 ciples of Safety Appliance Act in 
 presidential message, 63 ; active 
 and generous efforts recognized in 
 a letter from Mr. Moseley to the 
 President's Secretary, 65; efforts 
 recognized in letter from Mr. Mose- 
 ley to former Attorney-General 
 Miller, 67. 
 
 HEPBURN LAW, regulating rates, passed 
 in 1906, 184 ; correspondence relat- 
 ing to the bill, 185, 186, 187, 188, 
 189, 190, 191, 192, 193, 194, 195, 
 196, 197, 198, 199 ; description of 
 the bill, 201, 202. 
 
 373 
 
374 
 
 INDEX 
 
 HOAR, GEORGE F., presents prayer to 
 Senate, 59. 
 
 HOURS or SERVICE ACT, regulates hours 
 of service of trainmen, 136 ; efforts 
 in support of Act, 139, 140 ; pro- 
 visions, 141, 142. 
 
 INTERSTATE COMMERCE COMMISSION, 
 established by Congress, Feb. 4, 
 1887, to regulate commerce among 
 the States and establish equality 
 on the rail, 26, 28, 29, 30. 
 
 JOHNSON CASE, the first case under the 
 Safety Appliance Law, 82, 83, 84, 
 85, 86, 87, 88, 90. 
 
 KNAPP, MARTIN A., appointed to com- 
 mission, 44 ; arbitrator under Erd- 
 man Act, 154 ; successful efforts in 
 threatened country-wide railroad 
 engineers' strike, 156 ; as chairman 
 for Interstate Commerce Commis- 
 sion recommends increase in Mr. 
 Moseley's salary, 229 ; letters on 
 occasion of Mr. Moseley's illness, 
 240, 241, 242. 
 
 LAMONT, DANIEL, compliments Mr. 
 Moseley in letter, 33; has confidence 
 in Mr. Moseley, 36; shows Mr. 
 Moseley's protest against Phelps to 
 President Cleveland, 37. 
 
 McKiNLEY, WILLIAM, as President ap- 
 points National Industrial Com- 
 mission at request of Congress, 131. 
 
 MEDAL BILL, 172, 177, 178. 
 
 MORRISON, WILLIAM R., of Illinois, 
 member of original Commission, 30. 
 
 MOSELEY, CHARLOTTE AUGUSTA, 
 mother of Edward A., 4 ; con- 
 gratulatory letter to her son, 73, 74. 
 
 MOSELEY, EDWARD S., father of Edward 
 A., born 1813, died 1900; member 
 of Yale class of 1833; large ship 
 owner while young man, 3 ; banker 
 for last fifty years of life, 4 ; trustee 
 of Public Library, 4; president of 
 Merrimac Humane Society and 
 president of Society for Prevention 
 of Cruelty to Animals, 4; married 
 Charlotte Augusta Chapman, four 
 children of union, 4 and 5 ; adds 
 postscript to wife's letter to his son 
 Edward, 74. 
 
 MOSELEY, KATE PRESCOTT, wife of Ed- 
 ward A., childhood's sweetheart, 16 ; 
 marriage, 16 ; large factor in hus- 
 band's success, 16; lineage, 16. 
 
 NEILL, CHARLES P., successful efforts of 
 mediation, 154, 155, 156, 157 ; mem- 
 ber of Anthracite Coal Strike Com- 
 mission, 217. 
 
 OLNEY, RICHARD, Attorney-General, 
 interest awakened in labor's point 
 of view, 148 ; goes to its assistance, 
 148 ; drafted much of Erdman Bill, 
 149, 150. 
 
 PECK, GEORGE R., writes letters approv- 
 ing address of Mr. Moseley, 163, 
 187, 188 ; writes Mr. Moseley on the 
 occasion 'of his vindication, 225. 
 
 PHELPS, EDWARD J., appointment to 
 Chief-Justiceship opposed by the 
 Irish, 36, 37, 38. 
 
 POWDERLEY, T. V., Leader of Knights 
 of Labor, 21, 22. 
 
 PROUTY, CHARLES A., credits Mr. Mose- 
 ley as being instrumental in securing 
 the Hepburn amendment, 184 ; con- 
 gratulations on Mr. Moseley's vin- 
 dication, 224. 
 
 ROADS, SAMUEL, JR., compliments Mr. 
 Moseley on latter's Memorial to 
 John Boyle O'Reilly, 268. 
 
 ROCHE, JAMES JEFFREY, mentions 
 Cribb Club in " Life of O'Reilly," 
 263 ; gets interesting anecdotes 
 from Mr. Moseley for his " Life of 
 O'Reilly," 268. 
 
 ROOSEVELT, THEODORE, takes stand 
 for Employers' Liability Law of 
 1906, 108 ; insists on new liability 
 law of 1908, 112 ; aids Mr. Moseley 
 in procuring Hours of Service Act, 
 139, 140, 141 ; asks Congress to de- 
 termine financial condition of rail- 
 roads posting reduction notices, 155 ; 
 favors advanced measures, 160 ; in- 
 terested in design for medal, 178 ; 
 advocates in presidential message 
 right of Government to appeal, 204 ; 
 offers personal loan to Anthracite 
 Coal Commission, 217; thought Mr. 
 Moseley an "Irish Catholic," 246. 
 
 SAFETY APPLIANCE ACT, 64, 57, 58, 59, 
 64. 
 
INDEX 
 
 375 
 
 SCHLEMMEB CASE, contributory neg- 
 ligence, 99, 100, 101, 102. 
 
 SCHOONMAKEK, AUGUSTUS, of New 
 
 York, member of original Commis- 
 sion, 30. 
 
 SPOFFORD, HARRIET PRESCOTT, poet 
 and novelist, sister of Mrs. Moseley, 
 276 ; early morning launch trip with 
 Mr. Moseley in his last days, 277. 
 
 SPOFFORD, RICHARD S., husband of 
 Harriet Prescott, candidate for 
 Congress, 23, 24 ; recommends Mr. 
 Moseley as Interstate Commerce 
 Commissioner, 28. 
 
 TAFT, WILLIAM H., proposes to take 
 enforcement of Safety Appliance 
 Act from the Interstate Commerce 
 Commission, 127 ; relinquishes proj- 
 
 ect, 130 ; receives letter from Mr. 
 Moseley objecting to Commerce 
 Court, 206. 
 
 WALKER, ALDACE F., of Vermont, mem- 
 ber of original Interstate Commerce 
 Commission, 30. 
 
 WOOD, LEONARD, military governor of 
 Cuba, invites Mr. Moseley to 
 assist in general revision of Cuban 
 railway laws, 211 ; writes appre- 
 ciative letter of Mr. Moseley's 
 services, 214 ; sends request to Mr. 
 Moseley for second visit, 215 ; re- 
 ports favorably to War Department 
 on Mr. Moseley's work, 216. 
 
 WRIGHT, CARROLL D., 185; recorder 
 of Anthracite Coal Strike Com- 
 mission, 217. 
 
 EDWARD A. MOSELEY 
 
 BIRTHPLACE, described, 1, 6, 276, 277; 
 interest in his family traditions, 1, 
 2 ; heritage and high ideals, 1 ; 
 New England ancestors, 273 ; school 
 lif e, 7 ; fond of sport, 8 ; champion 
 of the weaker boys, 8 ; love of 
 adventure, 9 ; shipped before the 
 mast, 10; voyage to India, 11; 
 hardships at sea, 11 ; first great 
 lesson in Democracy, 12, 13. 
 
 MAN OF BUSINESS AND POLITICIAN, 
 entered Bartlett Mills, 14; East 
 India trade, Rufus Wills & Sons, 
 voyage to West Indies, 14, 17 ; con- 
 nection with N. B. Goddard, 14; 
 enters politics, 15 ; joins Demo- 
 cratic party, 15 ; elected to common 
 council when hardly of age, 15 ; 
 alderman for two years, 15 ; trustee 
 for city "sinking fund" for fourteen 
 (14) years, 15 ; barely defeated for 
 Legislature, 15 ; marriage to Kate 
 Montague Prescott, 8, 16 ; inci- 
 dents of travel for the firm of Mose- 
 ley and Wheelwright, 17, 18, 19, 20 ; 
 Stetson, Moseley & Co., 21 ; organ- 
 ized strike against himself, 22 ; 
 joins Knights of Labor, 23 ; cam- 
 paign manager for brother-in-law, 
 24 ; member of executive com- 
 mittee of Democratic State Con- 
 vention, 24; goes to Legislature, 
 
 member of railroad committee, 24 ; 
 withdraws from partnership with 
 Mr. Stetson, 25 ; reasons, 24, 25 ; re- 
 elected to legislature, 1886, 25 ; In- 
 terstate Commerce Law, 26 ; reasons 
 for the law, 26, 27, 28 ; establish- 
 ment of Interstate Commerce Com- 
 mission, 28, 29, 30 ; not appointed 
 Commissioner, why ? 28, 29 ; ap- 
 pointed Secretary of Commission at 
 suggestion of President Cleveland, 
 29, 30. 
 
 SECRETARY INTERSTATE COMMERCE 
 COMMISSION, duties complicated at 
 first, 31 ; gradually wins confidence 
 of Commissioners, 33 ; affectionate 
 relation with Judge Cooley, who 
 urges and aids him to become a 
 lawyer, 33, 34 ; intimate and 
 friendly relations with Commis- 
 sioners, 34, 35, 36, 232, 233 ; advice 
 to President Cleveland on Chief- 
 Justiceship, 36, 37, 38 ; Cleveland 
 defeated, 38 ; O'Reilly's prophetic 
 letter, 38, 39, 40; Republicans in 
 power, 41 ; rival candidate for 
 secretaryship, 41 ; indorsements of 
 Mr. Moseley, 42, 43, 44, 45; the 
 reelection of Mr. Moseley frees 
 office from spoils system, 46, 47; 
 two political tricks against Presi- 
 dent Cleveland foiled by Mr. Mose- 
 
376 
 
 INDEX 
 
 ley, 48, 49, 50, 51 ; personal letter 
 to President Cleveland on the occa- 
 sion of his second election, 52 ; re- 
 linquishes ambition for seat in Com- 
 mission, 53 ; father of the bill for 
 protection of railway employees and 
 travelers, 54 ; remarkable efforts 
 to secure Safety Appliance Act, 58, 
 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64; law enacted, 
 66 ; opposition of Tammany, 67 ; 
 letters, resolutions, testimonials, 
 etc., recognizing work for the law, 
 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74 ; thanks of 
 the Commonwealth, 75 ; Commis- 
 sion relies on Mr. Moseley to attend 
 to law's enactment, 77, 122 ; bias of 
 some judges, 78; becomes profi- 
 cient in constitutional law, 77, 78, 81 ; 
 provisions of Safety Appliance Act, 
 81 ; Mr. Moseley 's important part 
 in Johnson test case, 82, 88 ; secures 
 establishment of very important pre- 
 cedents in law and procedure, 85, 90, 
 93 ; Brinkmeier case, 90, 91 ; appre- 
 ciative letters from J. B. Foraker and 
 Irving P. Wanger, respectively, 94 ; 
 favorable attention from judges 
 and lawyers, 95 ; closely follows 
 fate of Interstate Commerce Law 
 in all courts, uses his knowledge of 
 tendencies of Federal judges, 99 ; 
 letter to President Taft relative to 
 appointment of Supreme Court 
 judge, 99 ; Schlemmer case, 99, 100, 
 101, 102; doctrine of "fellow-serv- 
 ant and assumption of risk" and 
 "contributory negligence," 103, 104, 
 105, 106 ; tremendous cost of in- 
 surance to railroad men, 106, 107 ; 
 letter of Emperor William I on 
 industrial insurance, 107, 108 ; Mr. 
 Moseley author of first Employers' 
 Liability Bill, 1895, 108 ; presented 
 bill to Industrial Commission, 1898, 
 108; law passed, 1906, 108; pre- 
 vails upon administration to defend 
 integrity of act, 108, 109, 110; act 
 declared invalid by Supreme Court, 
 111 ; new Employers' Liability Act 
 at instigation of Roosevelt in 1908, 
 declared valid by Supreme Court, 
 112; suggests workingmen's com- 
 pensation act in letter to Taft, 113, 
 114, 115, 116; Harriman and Del- 
 ano commend Safety Appliance 
 Act, 120, 121 ; tables showing re- 
 
 markable decrease in accidents, 120, 
 121; selection of inspectors, 122, 
 123, 124, 125 ; letter to Stuyvesant 
 Fish, 125, 126 ; Mr. Moseley's work 
 recognized in England, 126, 127; 
 proposal to transfer enforcement 
 of Safety Appliance Act to Com- 
 merce Court, 127; country-wide 
 protests, 128, 129, 130; project 
 abandoned, 130 ; procures Accident 
 Report Law, 132; inaugurates 
 Quarterly Accident Bulletin, 132; 
 advocates law requiring block sig- 
 nals, bill introduced in 1903, but 
 fails, 134 ; Congress appoints Com- 
 mission to study matter, 134 ; re- 
 eults expected from proposed laws, 
 134, 135; article on "Railroad Ac- 
 cidents in the United States" 
 in Review of Reviews, 135 ; cam- 
 paign to secure law shortening 
 trainmen's hours of labor, 137, 138, 
 139, 140 ; provisions of Hours of 
 Service Act; passed in 1907, 141, 
 142 ; legislative agent reflects on 
 Mr. Moseley and is recalled, 141 ; 
 result of Act, 142; champion of 
 Arbitration Law of 1898, 143 ; Bos- 
 ton address on Arbitration to 
 Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen, 
 142, 143 ; leadership recognized by 
 labor, 146 ; Mr. Moseley gives At- 
 torney-General Olney labor's point 
 of view, 148 ; Attorney-General es- 
 pouses cause of employees of Read- 
 ing Road, 148 ; Attorney-General 
 assists in drafting Erdman Act, 
 149; Mr. Moseley's letter to a 
 friend recounting obstacles en- 
 countered, 149 ; receives pens with 
 which bill was signed, 150 ; his work 
 applauded by unions, 150; con- 
 gratulations from Mr. Olney, 150 ; 
 important and interesting provi- 
 sions omitted, 151 ; Supreme Court 
 invalidates one clause, 152 ; highly 
 beneficent effect of "Erdman Law," 
 154; instances, 155, 156; official 
 report of Commissioner Neill, 157; 
 Safety Appliance Act, a pioneer, 
 158 ; Mr. Moseley procures brother- 
 hood legislative representation, 159 ; 
 its importance, 159, 160 ; suc- 
 cessful efforts to bring together 
 political leaders and railroad labor, 
 161 ; unselfish methods, 162 ; rela- 
 
INDEX 
 
 377 
 
 tions with railroads, 162, 163 ; rela- 
 tions with brotherhoods, 163, 164, 
 165, 166, 167; section of Arbitra- 
 tion Bill relating to blacklisting 
 declared void, 169 ; fathered Medal 
 Bill, 170, 171, 172, 173, 174, 175, 
 176; provisions of bill, 177, 178; 
 condensed reports of successful 
 applications, 179, 180, 181, 182, 183; 
 moral effect of Safety Appliance 
 Act, 184, 185 ; correspondence be- 
 tween Mr. Moseley and Professor 
 Bascom of Williams College, 185, 
 186, 187 ; appreciative letter from 
 George R. Peck, 187, 188 ; excerpt 
 from letter from Justice Brewer, 
 188, 189 ; aids in broadening scope 
 and power of Commission, 189 ; 
 letter to Henry George, Jr., 189, 190, 
 191 ; fight against unfair discrim- 
 inations in freight rates, 191, 192, 
 193, 194, 195, 196, 197, 198, 199, 
 200 ; letter to Honorable Wm. Loeb, 
 Jr., 192 ; letter to Honorable John 
 W. Gaines, 194 ; letter to Senator 
 P. C. Knox, 195 ; letter from Hon. 
 Bourke Cockran, 197; methods 
 disclosed in letter, 197; letter to 
 Attorney-General Wm. Moody, 
 199, 200; broad interpretation of 
 Federal power, 203, 204; extract 
 from pamphlet on Federal Su- 
 premacy, 203 ; outgrew partisan- 
 ship, 204 ; quotations from pam- 
 phlet advocating the Government's 
 right of appeal in criminal cases, 
 204, 205 ; wrote a general review 
 of railroad situation for New York 
 Herald, 205 ; letter to Mr. Loeb on 
 "rule of reason," 206 ; letter to Pres- 
 ident Taft, protesting against pro- 
 posed commerce court, 206, 207, 
 208, 209, 210 ; largely instrumental 
 in framing Cuban railway law, 211, 
 212, 213 ; appreciative letter from 
 General Leonard Wood, 215; second 
 visit to Cuba for the purpose of 
 regulating rates, 216; refuses pay 
 for Cuban services, 216 ; commen- 
 dation of General Wood and Mr. 
 Frank Steinhart, 216, 217; ap- 
 pointed by President Roosevelt an 
 assistant recorder of Anthracite 
 Coal Strike Com., 217, 228 ; Com- 
 mission appoints him disbursing 
 officer, 217 ; secures funds on own 
 
 credit, 217; Judge Gray's tribute, 
 218 ; investigation against him, 
 prompted by enemies, 220, 221 ; 
 attitude toward investigation and 
 personal bearing, 220, 221 ; com- 
 pletely exonerated, 222, 223; con- 
 gratulatory letters, 224, 225, 227; 
 unsolicited motion made to increase 
 salary, 226, 227, 228, 229. 
 SUMMARY OP CAREER AS SECRETARY, 
 performed multitudinous duties 
 while furthering legislation, 230, 
 231 ; his advanced ideas always 
 sustained by Commission, 231 ; 
 vigilant eye over appointments to 
 Commission, 232, 233 ; marvelous 
 development of the fields of his 
 labors, 233, 234 ; fixed ideal to make 
 Commission of service to public, 
 234, 235 ; tremendous correspond- 
 ence, 236, 237; methods of work 
 described by associates, 236, 237, 
 238, 239; indefatigable labors re- 
 duce his strength, 239 ; letters 
 from Com. Knapp and Com. Har- 
 lin on occasion of illness, 240, 241, 
 242; completion of twenty years' 
 work in Safety Appliance legislation, 
 243, 244 ; collapses at post of duty, 
 244; last hours and death, 244; 
 country-wide expressions of affec- 
 tion and sorrow, 244, 245 ; illustra- 
 tion of his antipathy to race and 
 religious prejudice, 246, 247, 248, 
 
 249, 252, 253; member of many 
 societies, associations, and clubs, 
 
 250, 251; degree of LL.D. from 
 University of Notre Dame, 252; 
 congratulations from Dean Mussey, 
 252 ; Judge De Lacy, Mrs. Harriet 
 Prescott Spofford, 253; Father 
 Cavanaugh and others. 253, 254; 
 generosity and forgiveness, 256, 257 ; 
 acts of service to those of all races 
 and creeds, 257, 258, 259, 260 ; lover 
 of sports and association with 
 O'Reilly, 263, 264, 265, 266, 267, 268; 
 touching incidents of loyalty to 
 O'Reilly's memory, 268, 269 ; appre- 
 ciation by Samuel Roads, Jr., of Mr. 
 Moseley's memorial to O'Reilly, 269; 
 a tribute to O'Reilly and Mr. Mose- 
 ley by their friend Joseph Smith, 269, 
 270; a man of many accomplish- 
 ments, 270, 271 ; much interested 
 in farming, 271, 272, 273, 274 ; an 
 
378 
 
 INDEX 
 
 expert in horticulture, 275 ; un- 
 bounded hospitality, 275 ; last 
 days at Deer Island near Newbury- 
 port, 276, 277; appreciations: 
 Theodore Roosevelt, 278 ; Wm. H. 
 Taft, 279 ; Martin H. Knapp, 280 ; 
 Honorable Franklin K. Lane, 282 ; 
 Honorable Judson C. Clements, 283, 
 284 ; Honorable Charles A. Prouty, 
 284, 285; Honorable Edward G. 
 Clark, 285, 286, 287; Honorable 
 James J. Harlan, 287, 288 ; Honor- 
 able James R. Mann, 288, 289; 
 Honorable Champ Clark, 290; 
 Honorable Joseph G. Cannon, 290 ; 
 Honorable Richard Olney, 291; 
 Honorable Charles J. Bonaparte, 
 292 ; Honorable George Von L. 
 Meyer, 292; Honorable George 
 Gray, 293 ; Major-General Leonard 
 Wood, 294 ; Honorable Charles P. 
 Neill, 295; Honorable George G. 
 
 Crocker, 296, 297; Mr. B. B. Adams, 
 297, 298, 299 ; Mr. John Mitchell, 
 299 ; Mr. T. V. Powderly, 300, 301, 
 304 ; Mr. W. Carter, 302 ; Mr. H. B. 
 Perham, 303, 304 ; Mr. L. G. Heber- 
 ling, 305 ; Mr. F. T. Hawley, 305, 
 306 ; Mr. W. F. Hynes, 306, 307, 308. 
 
 TRAITS AND CHARACTERISTICS, disin- 
 terestedness, 216, 219, 227, 228, 232, 
 255 ; forgiving, 12, 256 ; impartial- 
 ity, 234; kindness, 255, 256, 257, 
 258, 259, 260, 261 ; independence, 
 25, 32, 131 ; ingenuity, 86, 89, 101, 
 113, 257, 258 ; many-sidedness, 262 ; 
 unconventionality, 15, 32 ; persist- 
 ency, 169, 256, 257, 258; friend- 
 ships, 34, 35, 255, 256; fond of 
 sports, 7, 8, 263, 264, 265, 266, 267, 
 268. 
 
 OPINIONS AND PRINCIPLES, labor, 22, 
 23, 24, 25; woman's suffrage, 24; 
 democracy, 12, 13, 15, 250, 251. 
 
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 This work contains the substance of a course of lectures delivered at the 
 Boston University School of Law. The treatment of the subject is directed 
 toward an amelioration of the existing relations between railways and the 
 public ; and it thus becomes to some extent supplementary to Mr. Haines' 
 previous work, " Restrictive Railway Legislation." The volume is a closely 
 reasoned discussion of the most important phase of the Railway problem 
 at the present time: What is the basis of a reasonable rate? The method 
 is both historical and economic, but the argument is essentially one from 
 public utility. 
 
 THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 
 
 Publishers 64-66 Fifth Avenue New York 
 
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY