The Topeka state journal., 1910-04-25
This Is POst.Panic Times With
Railway Labor Unions.
Demands for Increase in Wages
Come From Every Source.
MORE UNWILLING
Railways Object to Increase in
Salary Expenditures.
Other Items of General IntereS
in Railroad World.

The most striking feature of the rail-
way post-panic year 1908 was, per-
haps, the abnormal position into which
it forced the railways in their policy to-
ward labor, says the Railway Age Ga
zette. The panic of 1907 came on and
it's after results ensued at a time when
labor was highly organized and as
sertive 1t threatened in advance
strikes should any attempt be made to
reduce wages The only sentimental
effect on the labor union of hard times
and reduced railway earnings was 10
suppress it's noble rage for an advance
of wages and postpone it to better
times. The logical sequel in the policy
of the railway companies followed and,
indeed, was compelled by necessity.
Debarred from the natural remedy of
reducing wages, with public sentiment
set firmly against any increase of
rates and with the federal big stick
and the lesser state sticks in menacing
poise, the railways direction of least
resistance was the reduction of forces;
and that reduction followed on a very
large scale. 1t ran down in many cases
to the lowest point consistent with
public safety in operation. The head
of one of the large eastern railways
could be quoted here as saying at the
time that but for the reductions of
train service the matter of conserving
public safety with his reduced operat-
ing force would have been problem
grave if not inso1uble.
The reduction had two other aspects,
one Of them strongly emphasized at the
time. 1t enabled the railway to dis
charge its least efficient men and, rela-
lively, it made the labor retained more
efficient-not only because it was nat
urally so, but because it was spurred
by the fear of losing its job The 9TH
ganized labor itself. In effect, organized
labor proclaimed as its policy the in
tenSified penalty for the few as the
better alternative for the slight ad-
vantage of the many. The union, rath-
er than assent to reduction of 10 per
cent in the wage, would be willing to
see 20 per cent of Its members dis
charged and go on a basis Of semi
starvation. Had the hard times been
longer, had they reached down deeper,
panic and "long drag of 1873 and after
years, this illogical, not to say inhu-
name, position of the unions would
have come out in more vivid perspec-
tive.
With the revival of business on the
railways, economic history now re-
peats itself and organized labor is ask
ing increased wages accompanied with
the usual threat of a strike. After an
indefinite number of years there will
again be a period of railway depres-
sion. But through both periods, wheth-
er Of depression or prosperity, several
large. One is the tendency of labor to
trench more and more upon the rail-
ways gross earning power. Another is
the increased unwillingneSS of the rail-
way to face the consequence of a
strike. third has already been ex-
pressed in the experiences of 1908, when
for the old and orthodox remedy of
wage reduction there was substituted
the reduction Of the working force,
raising sharply the question whether
wage reduction hereafter is to be out
worn and the more cruel expedient
it. But these subordinate
questions are lost in a larger one. In
sistent claims of labor, making larger
and larger drafts upon the earning |
power of the railways have thus far
been measurably met by fresh operat- |
ing and mechanical eff1cienctes. But |
the claims of labor have no natural |
limit. They grow with 1abor's own or
ganized strength, while to railway eff |
and economy there must be a |
limit somewhere. What will be the |
line of readjustment when this limit is |
reached. Will there be a reversion to |
old remedies, or a resort to new ones |
with some such principle as compul- |
sorry arbitration in the foreground, |
certain to be urged more strenuously as |
the railways relation to public neces- |
sity and convenience. .intensif1es?
Partly then as the result of economic |
changes, of which the rise in the cost |
Of living is most prominent, one finds |