Out of the Featherbed

Freight trains going through Arkansas must perform an odd ritual. At the border, the train stops and picks up one or two additional crewmen. The men remain aboard, working with the regular crew while the train traverses the state; they are dropped off as it crosses the border on the way out.

Arkansas law requires a minimum of six crewmen in both the operation and the switching of a freight train. It and similar laws in other states are the result of persuasive union lobbying, and have generally been upheld in the courts. But now, a three-judge U.S. District Court has struck down the Arkansas law in such a way as to put the others in jeopardy.

The supposed justification for Arkansas' legislated featherbedding was safety, but the court was not impressed. "We find," said the judges unanimously, "that freight trains have been operated and switched throughout the country for the past number of years with crews of five men or less and that the operations have been conducted with safety. It follows automatically that such operations can be conducted safely with fewer than six men." The court then granted the request of six railroads and threw out the law as being "unreasonable and oppressive," in violation of due process and an "unconstitutional burden" on interstate commerce.

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