Norwich bulletin., 1913-11-11

cost of living had increased seven per cent. Certain minor contentious em- braced within the other four points also were conceded to the employees.
 A Wage Standardization
 The board does not found it's ac- tion entirely upon the increased cost of living reads the award, a docu- ment of 75 printed pages, though it looks upon this as basic"
 Without attempting to standardize the rates of pay between railroad em- ployes of the east and the west, the board asserts it's belief that it is desir- able but not possible at the present time. As to this, the award voices the opinion that congress should make an inquiry as to whether there is any longer a substantial reason for the maintenance of a wage differential be- tween the two sections.
 New Wage of Employees,
 The articles are dealt with separate ly in the award and fix the pay for various classifcations of labor While technical in verbiage, they provide, chiefly that the monthly pay of em- ployes in the passenger branch of the service shall be as follows:
 Conductors, $135; baggagemen, sS2.50; fagmen and rear brakemen. SIS; brakemen, $76.50 overtime per hour-conductors, 45 cents; assistant conductors and ticket collectors, 35.7 cents; baggagemen, 27.5 cents; flag men and rear brakemen, 26 cents; brakemen, 25.5 cents.
 For the freight service. the follow ing are the chief awards Through runs, conductors, four cents a mile f1agmen, 2.67 a mile: brakemen. 2.67 a mile; any run less than 100 miles to be paid for as if it were 100 miles. In way freight, pick up or drop, mine and rouStabout service, same mini mum, conductors are awarded $450 a day of 100 miles or less, ten hours or less; fagmen. $3.10 and brakemen, $3 overtime to be paid for as time and one-half.
 This was one of the few instances in which the employees triumphed in their demand that overtime be paid for at one and one-half the regular rate.
 Dissent of Minority.
 To this finding the employees rep resentatiyes filed a minority report of protest. To the entire finding the railroads representatives dissented.
 We dissent from this award" reads their report. because standardization is chimerical and uneconomic; because such increased cost of living as has occurred is not sufficient to justify the increase granted; because statis- tics prove that risk has decreased and hours of labor have decreased and the weight of evidence is that labor has not increased"
 is the finding of the board that pres ent schedules of pay are not to be changed or disturbed in any way where they exceed the amounts named in the award. Of equal importance is the finding that employees are not to be curtailed either in mileage or in hours of labor to offset the increases granted.
 Embarrassment of Railroads.
 The railroads contention that they are between two horns of a, dilemma from which there is no apparent es- ca pe-that they must either raise rates or cease raising wages-is dismissed by the arbitra tors with this assertion:
 This board believes that it must make it's findings without any refer ence to the dilemma in which the railroads are evidently placed. The In terstate Commerce Commission and not this arbitration board has the duty of determining whether the railroads can earn in addition to their other charges, without an increase in rates the rates of pay that this board be- lieves at the present time to be due to the conductors and trainmen.' Suggestion to Interstate Commerce
 Commission.
 However, the board calls the atten- tion of the Interstate Commerce Com mission to the decrease of hazard that follows the installation of steel cars, double tracking and improved signs. On this point the award says:-
 "All of these things cost in the ag- gregate an immense sum of money. Any policy that would make it i'm possible for the railroads to command this money would be a profound mis- fortune to the whole nation. Such policy would be bad enough in it's ef- feet upon transportation, because it would reduce the efficiency of the rail- roads: but it would be criminal, in the sense that it would make the great army of railroad employees who are numbered by hundreds of thousands, follow their hazardous occupation un- der conditions more hazardous than are justihable in a country like this"