Labor Blames Railroad's Strike Replacements for a Deadly Wreck Near Everett

SEATTLE, Nov. 21 — Some time ago the State Federation of Labor sent a telegram requesting the Interstate Commerce Commission to see to it that the unsafe equipment operating out of the Everett yards was properly inspected and that inspection and safety rules were enforced. A favorable reply was received, stating that inspectors were ordered to go to Everett at the earliest opportunity. Shortly afterward a wreck occurred north of Everett on the Great Northern road in which three lives were lost. The Federation then put the matter up to the Interstate Commerce Commission by letter, which read in part as follows:

"We are sure you will agree that the government must share the responsibility if any avoidable accident occurs, such as this one, that could have been avoided had the inspection and safety rules promulgated for the protection of the traveling public been properly enforced.

"The government has from time to time, recently, taken the position that the interests of the public were paramount to every other interest that may relate to transportation, and it seems to us that inasmuch as the government has used its powers to try and force labor employed on the roads to accept wages and conditions not otherwise acceptable to them, that the powers of the government might now be well used in the interests of all concerned, to compel the Great Northern, Northern Pacific and other roads operating out of Everett to fully comply with the inspection and safety rules laid down; and that if the present non-union, inefficient and incompetent workmen now employed by them are incapable of maintaining the equipment in a safe condition, and if the lives of the public are being endangered as has now been forcibly proven, that the powers of the government might well be employed to influence those roads to settle with their old employees, and through such a settlement restore the equipment through their efficient and competent help again to a safe condition that will guarantee to the traveling public the protection our government is supposed to afford."

The letter also asks the government to either take steps to effect a settlement of the strike or, failing in that, to see to it that the inspection and safety rules are rigidly enforced.