The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, August 9, 1920, Page 7

e -~ . ready been issued by J. Rai§ihg Wages to Increase Rail Profits Tran8portat10n Officials Welcome Employes’ Wage Awdrd as an Excuse to Obtain Higher Fares and Larger Revenues Washington Bureau, Nonpartisan Leader. HE United States railway labor board, created by the Cummins-Esch transe portation act which returned the rail- roads to pnvate operation, has grant- ed a wage increase tq railroad workers amounting to about %O per cent of the merease demanded by the railroad brotherhoods. The increases will amount to about $500,000,000 per year, and about 2,000,000 railroad workers will benefit from the raise in salaries and wages, according to ~ the figures of the railroads themselves, The rail- - road-workers asked $500,000,000 more than this, but the board, on which/the workers, the railroad man- .agement a.nd the public. was represented, decided " that.the amount granted would enable the employes to meet the increased cost of living. - This increase is going to be used by the railroads as an excuse for a wholesale increase in fweight and passenger rates, which the roads are now endeavor- ing to get. An effort will be made, not only to get increased revenue from the public to meet the wage increases, but as much in excess of the amount ac- tually necessary as the railroads™ran exact, and the entire increases, of course, will be laid by the roads and the newspapers to the workers, though wages will be responsible for only a fraction of it. - When the government took over the railroads at the outbreak of the war they were hopelessly con- gested. Transportation had collapsed. Hampered as it was in many ways, the government' at least made the railroads serviceable during the war. Since the railroads have been returned to private operation they have degenerated into the same or a worse condition than existed when the "gover‘nment took them over. The transportation system is now in chaos—utterly inefficient, congested and-appar- ently helpless, Losses to farmers alone, during this crop season, by reason of this condxtxon, will total hundreds of millions of dollars. Nevertheless, the recent authorized wage increase is really welcomed by railroad owners and execu- tives. It will enable them, they thinK, to get the huge increase in rates they want—many times: more. than enough to cover the increased wagés—and will enable them, through the g'reat dmly press which iy almost universally hostile to labor, to place the en- tire blame on labor, not only for the increased rates but for the trans- portation breakdown. FARM BUREAUS ARE PROPAGANDISTS A bit of -railroad propaganda, along the line which will be work= ed overtime during the next few months, has al- R. Howard, president of the American Farm Bu- reau federation. - This alleged farmers’ organ- ization is on record against government own- ership and operation of the roads, but has been forced to admit}jin a re- _ cent bulletin that under the present private own- ershlp and opera.tlon a serious crisis in agricul- ture has developed. But instead of laying the blame where it belongs, Mr. Howard says: “The railway laborer who has willfully cut down his volume of work and repeatedly struck for increased wages may wake up one of ' these days to find that the in- creases he has caused in the cost of food, clothing and shelter more than offset the increases he has demanded in wages. There is no more ddamna- ble point at which labor can attack economic struc- ture and, I might add, no surer way of cutting its own throat, than by cutting down the efficiency and carrying capacity of our arteries of transportation.” This is pure propaganda of the big financial and railroad interests opposed to government ownership and union labor, and it is put out through an alleged farmers’ organization for the purpose of convincing farmers that they have nothing in common with their fellow workers and producers of the cities. ‘Passenger conductors are the highest paid work- ers who will benefit by the wage increases, with the exception ‘of train dispatchers. ‘According to esti- mates of railway executives themselves, passenger conductors’ salaries are averaging $18% a month, and will average $217 under the new, increased scale. According to the United States government, the cost of living has increased 100 per cent or more during the last few years, so that a passenger con- ductor’s salary of $217 (the average under the in- crease just gmnted) will buy only half of what it would buy, say in 1914. This means that the salary of $217 a month now is equal to a salary of about $108 in 1914, This is taRing the highest-paid railroad workers. Engineers, firemen, switchmen, freight conductors, brakemen, shopmen, clerks, laborers and telephone and telegraph operators Workmg on the railroads all get LESS than passenger conductors. . The only workers who get more are the train .dispatchers, requiring a lngh degree of specxahzed knowledge, training and ability. .Common labor, the poorest paid-railroad workers with the exception of the freight and passenger of- fice clerks, has been receiving $3.20 to $3.60 a day, and under the new scale will receive $4 to $4.40 a day. Reduced to a monthly basis, figuring 26 Wwork- ing days a month, the highest paid railroad laborers will now get $114.40 a month, equal to half that before the 100 per cent raise in the cost.of living. The railroad office clerks will get increases av- ! eraging more than' other classes of labor. The clerks, under the present scale, get from $87.50 to $150 per month, with the average probably closer to the $87.50 than the $150. Their new scale will run from $114 to $177 per month. This is a flashlight photograph of the convention of the Labor party, the Committee of Forty-eight,b 5 World War Veterans and other progressive organizations, taken just afier the ¥ merger whlch brought into being’the third national pohtscal party. PAGE SEVEN These raises on the whole are 50 per cent less " than those demanded by the brotherhoods to meet the increased cost of living. While in the total for @all the railroads in the United States the sum seems large, it appears modest and reasonable when ap- plied in specific cases to individual workers, as has ‘been done in the above comparisons, g HUGE SALARIES ARE PAID TO RAILWAY EXECUTIVES - The railroads will, of course, need more revenue to meet these increases, but they should not be per- mitted to use the fact that workers have obtained necessary and Justlfied increases to boost rates sev- eral times what is necessary to meet the new pay- rolls. It should be remembered that labor is only one item of Many that go into the operatmg cost of railroads, and when considering what'is justice to rmlroad workers—those who actually perform the ‘work—what others are getting out of the railroads shoulpnot be forgotten. For instance, the dividends “to the stockholders and interest to the bondholders, as well as the salaries of the executives. The latter, according-t6 figures prevailing prior to government operation, ran as follows: Per year R. S. Lovett, chairman executive com., Umon Pacific .. $10¢ 104 L. F. Loree, president, Delaware & H dson 50,800 L F. Loree, chairman executive com,, K. C. Southern.. 30,825 .T M. Dickinson, receiver, Chi., Rock “Island & Pacific.. 120,732 L. Bell, general counsel, Chi.,, R. I. & Pacific.. 59,486 H E. Byram, president, Chicuxo, Milwaukee & St. Pnul 60,000 H. E. Byram, vice president, Chi.,, Burl. & Quincy.. Marvin Hughitt Sr., chairman of 'board & Nor.. Marvin Hughitt Jr., vice president, Ci & Northwestem 25,050 Hale Holden, president, Chicago, Burlington & Quincy 65,000 Louis W. Hill, chairman, Great Northern ..:....... 50,000 Julius Kruttschnitt, chairman -of executwe commxttge of board of directors, Southern Pacific «..cevees.00. 88,860 J. M. Haftnaford, president, Northern Pacific 50,000 F; E. House. president, Duluth & Iron Bange 84,645 George T. Slade, first vice president, N. P. .. 85,120 . William Sprouls, president, Southern Pacific . 62,036 L. E. Johnson, president, Mmaoun Pacific civieecses 60,090 E. Pennington, president, M., S. S. Ste. Ma.rle .es 52,723 William F. Herrin, vice premdent and chief counsel : Soutl;:m l’m:ificid...t i?.er;““& PR AL O ig,égg udge, presiden ver i0 Grande.e.seee . A O 4 ; & R. U..... 55,000 nry McAllister Jr., general counsel, D. He’l‘ry.T effrey, chnirm;mgof board, Denver & Rio Grande 20,166 Chadbourne, Ledyard & Mubeun. general counsel. Denver & Rio Grande ..eesessecscscsecscses esesss 55,000 A. J. Earling, president, Chi., Mil. & St. Paul. . H. B. Earling, vice president, Chi., Mil, & St. Pa D. L. Bush, vice president, Chi., Mil & St. Paul B B. F. Bush, president, Missouri Pacific .ssesessesccss 44,170 A, H. Smith, president, New Hork Central sessessesss 78,360 When these salaries of the railroad executives are taken into considera- tion, the $114 a month of the railroad laborer and . railroad clerk, under the new scale, and even, the —$217 a month of the rail- road conductor, under the new scale, look paltry in- deed; to say the Jeast. One of the big out- railroad wage increase will not be overlooked by the farmers. workers were able to get the raise through OR- GANIZATION. Except - for the so-called recent ‘were ndt officially au- thorized by the unions and were in fact con- demned by the heads of the brotherhoods, and ' which were not wide- spread, the raise was obtained wifhout zresort to strike, men, however, were OR- GANIZED. Through col- lective bargaining they got the raise. Working men will continue to, or- ganize and to succeed by organization — a lesson for farmers. If the farm- ers were as well organiz- ed as the railroad work- ers farming would be a safe and profitable busi- ness everywhere today. ¢ B S R et A N TR TR SN s e G . standing facts of the - Railroad - ~ “outlaw® strikes, which. The railroad . e, e 23 bapinssrences R Er AT T S e A A S o S AR R O O Gy I S e