Owen J. Roberts

“ The conclusion was that the nature and purpose of the plant warranted characterization of all respondent's work, of whatever nature, as in interstate commerce.
The test thus applied broader than our decisions justify. All work performed in railroad employment may, in a sense, be said to be necessary to the operation of the road. The business could not be conducted without repair shop employees, clerks, janitors, mechanics, and those who operate all manner of appliance not directly or intimately concerned with interstate transportation as such, or with facilities actually used therein. ”

“ On the ninth day, the turning of the journal on the main drivers having been completed, the respondent, on orders of his foreman, joined others of the unskilled labor gang in removing the main driving wheels from the lathe in the hoist shop, placing them upon a track, and pushing them by hand to the turntable, which was then connected with another track into which the men pushed the wheels preparatory to moving them to a pit in the roundhouse where they could be placed under the locomotive. ”

“ Respondent endeavors to support the claim that here the instrumentality had not been taken out of interstate commerce, by reference to the practice of petitioner, which is that work, sometimes greater and often less in amount than in this case, is done at Maybrook in connection with the monthly boiler wash; whereas, after a locomotive has run thirty-five thousand miles, or eighteen months, it is marked for out of service repairs, and is sent to petitioner's general repair shop at Readville, Mass. ”