Victory for Railway Workers: The 'Standard Caboose' Law
New legislation mandates safer, more humane conditions for the men who ride the rails.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Railroad men all over the state are much pleased at the passage by the late legislature of the 'standard caboose' law. After January 1, 1910, all cabooses must be standard size, 24 feet in length, with a toilet and sleeping accommodations for eight men. The use of small cabooses has worked a great hardship on railroad men, with hardly room to stand upright and practically no sleeping accommodations. There is no class of workers that are put under a greater physical strain than railroad men. Any law that will add to the comfort of this class of men will assuredly make them more efficient and add to the safety of transportation.
“There is no class of workers that are put under a greater physical strain nor upon whom a greater responsibility rests than railroad men.”
Long hours and physically punishing work environments remain central to labor debates in the freight industry today. This 1909 law illustrates how labor unions and civic groups pushed for basic safety standards long before federal regulation became the norm.
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