The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-04-14

Chicago and north of the Norfolk and Western railway, which territory you designate as the Eastern district.
 The railways represented in this dis trict are 50 in number, and carry about one-half of the passenger and freight traffic of the United States.
 The proposed increase in wages and changes in working conditions would in- crease the pay of engineers of the rail- ways of the eastern district for the service now being rendered by the following amounts per annum:
 Passenger service .............. .sl ,253. G.9i Freight service ...............,... 357S, 39l .T3 switching service, including belt l,052, ,5Oz. % Terminal delay .................. S0i,15i. Il bother working conditions Ss', iCi. lJ
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 Total increase .................s7.55 .s7 .553, 792. "A
 Or 1863 per cent.
 This increase would be equivalent to placing on these properties a lien of $lSS,- Si4.SlS of per cent securities which would have preference over first mortgage bonds, and to just that extent would les sen the ability of the roads to make the movements necessary to increase the ef- iciency of their service, and to insure greater safety to the public and the em- polyes.
 Already the traffic of growing coun- try has overtaxed the existing facilities, and the heavy burdens incurred through legislation. the large expenditures for im- provements which produce no revenue, and the previous wage increases nave made it impossible for many of the roads to raise money to provide for added fa- cilities which a prudent foresight de- mands.
 Past history indicates that If these in- creases are given to the engineers they will be followed by similar requests from other employees, which, if granted. would result in actual bankruptcy to some or the roads. and would leave them as a whole unprepared to meet any sudden increase in the demands for transportation. The wage advance to engineers and other employees in 1910 was made in expec- tation of a much needed advance in 1 freight rates, which the interstate com merce commission declined to allow. En- ] forced reductions of rates have been more l or less continuous since that period and many important rate reductions are now | pending, the latest decision being in Inc 1 Pittsburg Lake Coal case, requiring an average reduction of 10047G cents per ton l in the freight rate, which will directly affect over 21, eco. .0C0 tons of coal per an- mum. and the general effect upon freight rates on fuel and commercial coal will be far reaching.
 1911 Miles operated .................. J2. .s36 Total operating revenue .....S ,114,o2y,2fs Net operating revenue ....... $33o .909 Total number of empoyes.... 679,l79 Total compensation to employees s5lS.7SI.i3S
 It is less than two yearS,since the last adjustment of engineers wages was made in the eastern district, which resulted in an annual increase of engineers pay amounting to S3,923 eS0.6l, or 10.73 per cent per annum. In this adjustment all con ditions of the service then prevailing were considered and provided for, and since that time there has been no substantial change in these conditions.
 The conductors and trainmen have standard wages as a result of the crisis developed in connection with their de- mands, which were finally disposed of by mediation and arbitration; not that the railroads were satisfied with the standard scale, but because of the conclusions reached by the arbitrators. The fact that another class of employees has through stress of circumstances secured a stand