The Julesburg grit-advocate., 1911-09-07
Wages Increased

The Wages of the railroad employees
of the United States have increased
more rapidly in late years than have
either railroad earnings or the cost of
living. Exclusive of general officers,
the aggregate pay of railroad employees
increased from little over $500, ,OOO.-
600 to 1912, 900, 900 from 1900 to 1909.
That means that railroad mems COM
pensation for that period increased 1913
per cent. The per cent of increase
in earning nor the cost of living is
anywhere near that. During these
same nine years, however, the general
cost of railroad operation increased II
per cent.
When it is known that the aggregate
labor compensation amount tU nearly
three-fifths of the total cost of railroad
operation. 1t is possible to- gather a
comprehensive idea of what this steady
wage increase means to the railroads
of this country. If account were taken
of wages represented in materials and
supplies bought by railways. Not less
than four-fifths of the money spent by
the American railways would resolve
itself into salaries and wages.
These statements are based on the
official figures which go to comprise
the summary of revenues and expenses
of railroads as prepared by the Bureau
of railway Economics of Washington,
and are the same statistics submitted
to and used by the Interstate Com
merce Commission. Their authenticity,
therefore, is not subject to doubt.
1t would seem from these figures
that the railroad employe is one who
is not in position to complain seri-
ously at the abnormal and "dispro-
portionate" increase in the cost of liv-
ing. His employer, the railway, has
had to meet heavier increase. Not
only have the average earning of rail-
road employees been steadily rising, but
they have risen relatively faster since
1900 than has the ton-mile revenue of
the railroad and faster since 1892 than
the retail food prices. According to
these official statistics.
Forty percent of the gross earnings
of the railways is paid for labor, that
is almost one-half of what the rail-
roads earn in transportation goes into
the pockets of the vast army on its en-
ployes-40 per cent of every dollar
taken in. Figuring the earnings of the
basis of the traffic unit, that is. the ton
miles plus the passenger miles, it .ap-
pears that railroad earnings from 1900
to 1909 increased 3.S per cent, the in
crease being entirely in revenue per ton
mile. For that same period labor COM
pensation per traffic unit increased
9.5 per cent.
Since 1897 railroad wages all over
the country have been steadily rising,
not only in bulk, but the percentage, or
the rate of wages has been upward.
Railroad employees are apportioned, for
the purpose of this investigation, into
classifcations, and every classification
shows some increase in compensation,
the lowest being among the general Of
flee clerk.
Nor is there any indication of a
change in the tendency of those rela-
tive figures. Since January l, 1911,
railroad net earnings, have shown cou
sistent decreases. Traffic has not made
normal gains. operating expenses have
continued to raise and in some instances
rates have been lowered, altogether
initiating against an increase in net
earnings. The Interstate Commerce
Commission own figure for the
month of May, comprising 1873 percent
of all the mileage in the country,
show the aggregate operating revenue
of the railroads to be S220, 0,6l3,147, or
1915 mile. This was actually de-
crease of S45 mile, "A per cent.