Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-08-08
TRA|NMEN WANT A RAISE
QUIET SESSION HELD AT CAM
BRIDGE SPRINGS.
Representatives of 41,OOO Men at the
Meeting-Railroad Officials
Express Surprise.

NEW YORK, August S.-Representatives
of upward of 41.OOO organized railroad
workers employed on the great railroads OF
the eastern half of the country have been
In secret session for ten days or more at
Cambridge Springs, Pa, discussing various
plans for obtaining a readjustmen. of the
wage schedules under which they have been
working.
Those represented at the meetings at
various times have been the conductors
firemen, brakemen, yardmen, switchmen
and telegraphers. The Brotherhood Of Lo-
connective Engineers was not represented at
any of the meetings, and it is said that the
engineers have not and will not have any
requests to make in the matter Of wages.
The roads involved in the present agita-
ton are the Pennsylvania, the New York
Central and allied lines, the New York,
New Haven and Hartford; the Central
Railroad Of New Jersey, the Lake Erie and
Western; the Buffalo, Rochester and Pitts
burg; the Delaware and Hudson, the Balti-
more and Ohio, the Boston and Albany and
the Chesapeake and Ohio.
In the fall of last year the grand officers
Of the various brotherhoods. of railway men,
together with committees of the various
division lodges, met in this city at the
Broadway Central Hotel and. after six
weeks effort, came to an agreement with
the railroads whereby wages We're read
justed and put on higher basis. The engi-
neerS obtained an increase in wages, also a
substantial reduction in hours on the prin-
cipal railroads. 1t is for this reason that
they have not been represented at the Cam
bridge Springs meeting.
Officials Are Surprised.
1t was said on behalf of the firemen's
brotherhood by a brotherhood official yes
terday that many of the firemen had not
obtained any Increase in wages the re-
suit Of the Conferences held here last
year, and the firemen were disposed to
make the criticism that the engineers had
been unduly favored by the roads and that
the engineers brotherhood had not in any
way shown disposition to aid their CO.
workers after the damands Of the engineers
had been granted.
The grievances of the conductors are
that many of them are still compelled to
work twelve hours day. when a ten
hour day was promised. They say they
are making more money now than last
year, but the extra work more than off
sets the increase.
The switchmen and other railroad work
ers declare that a substantial increase
ought to be granted to them, in view of
the great increase in the cost of living.
They say 1t is impossible to make both
ends meet under the present scale of
wages
Great surprise was expressed by rail
road officials in this city yesterday when
they learned that another demand was to
be presented to them for more wages.
Several officers said they were not in a
position to comment on the matter, except
that coming soon after the settlement
of last winter, when the wages of en-
ployes on more than eighty railroads in
the United States were increased, adding
to the pay of nearly 100000 men nearly
SEQ 600, it was unlikely that public
opinion. which forced the last increase,
would support this latest demand.
/ 1t was said that while 1T was true that
the railroads were receiving large returns
on the traffic now being handled the cost
of all materials used by the railroads was
so high that the net profits We're being
gradually narrowed. The roads, one Off
cial said, would have to do considerable
thinking before it would be possible to
adjust wages as TO grant an increase.