Report of the Committee Appointed to Investigate the Railroad Riots in July, 1877: Read in the Senate and House of Representatives May 23, 1878Pennsylvania. General Assembly. Committee Appointed to Investigate the Railroad Riots in July, 1877
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Report of the Committee Appointed to Investigate the Railroad Riots in July, 1877: Read in the Senate and House of Representatives May 23, 1878
Pennsylvania. General Assembly. Committee Appointed to Investigate the Railroad Riots in July, 1877
If such corporation should execute a written contract with all of its
employés on taking them into its service, specifying fully and
particularly the hours and service required from them, the length of
time for which each was hired, and the causes for which he could be
discharged, no one would claim that they could vary the terms of that
contract, without the assent of the employé. From the manner of the
employment of the railroad employés in this country, and especially of
the trainmen, there is in good faith an implied contract that the
employé shall continue to receive the wages the company is at that time
paying for the particular duty which he discharges, until the price is
changed by mutual consent, and that his term of service shall continue
as long as he behaves himself well and performs the services required
of men in his position. This ought to be, and is in equity the implied
contract between the parties, although not legally enforceable. But the
railroad employé has a right to expect such treatment by the company
into whose employ he enters. He is required to be on hand whenever
called for, to give his entire attention to the business of the
corporation, and he settles down with his family in such place as will
make it most convenient for him to attend to the business of the
company. His whole services are theirs, his arrangements are all made
with reference to their business, and when he is discharged, without
any reasonable cause, without any prior notice, or his wages reduced
while his labor is not reduced, and, as is sometimes the case,
increased without his consent, and the order for that purpose made
without consulting him in any manner, he has a right to find fault. He
is like a soldier, whose whole time has been spent in the service. His
occupation is more dangerous than that followed by others, and the kind
of services he has to perform unfits him for other duties, and railroad
officers should always take these facts into consideration in dealing
with him.
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