The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1914-04-01
RAILROADS REDUCING FORCES
BALTIMORE & OHIO AND PENN.
SiLVANIA LAY OFF MANY
MEN.
Policy OF Rctrenchmcnt Say the or.
fcers, Has Been Forced Oh Them by
increasing Expense OF Operation
and Refusal of Permission TO In.
crease Rates.

THE railroads are now like q ship
in a storm-they are sailing under
close-reefed canvass and this may be
further reefed if conditions do not
change for the better"
This was the statement made by
Baltimore and Ohio official yesterday
in explaining the policy of the COM
pany and Of the Pennsylvania rail-
road in curtailing expenses by getting
rid Of every possible employe whose
services can be dispensed with. The
policy is in operation in every depart
ment of the systems and it is going
on continuously. There have been no
wholesale discharges, nor have those
who have been laid off been of suffi-
cient number at any time to cripple
the departments in which they work.
ed. But they have gone by twos and
threes perhaps and as soon as the
duties they performed coul' ,e taken
up successfully by some other employe
In connection with his own.
The working forces at Mount Clare,
it is said, are not likely further to be
touched, as these have been weeded
down to the closest possible limit and
hardly another one can be spared.
This means that there are at work
in these shops only about one third
OF those employed in normal times
The force of clerks are those now
most affected.
The company's officials say they do
not knoy how long this policy will be
Kept up, nor can they say how many
will ultimately be affected. They do
say that the end of the dismissals is
not now in sight.
These dismissals mean much to
Baltimore in the lessened money
which is available to be spent here
each month. The Baltimore and
Ohio employs in Baltimore alone in
normal periods about 10000 persons.
The monthly payroll is about $780,
600, or $7,2OO.O0O annually.
1t 10 not known nor will it be stat
ed exactly the number which have
been laid off here since the company
commenced its discharges. but this
monthly payroll is now fully one.
third less than before the dismissais
commenced.
! This means a loss of nearly $2,-
100000 annually disbursed from this
company and spent in the city. When
to this is added at least one-third az
much to which the Pennsylvania has
cut down its local payroll, some idea
may he gathered of the lack Of busi-
ness local merchants feel.
). The railroad officials say this meth
od of economy is forced on them by
the additional expense to which they
are put by the advance in the price of
thelr supplies, by the expense entailed
by State and national laws regu-
lating the running and manage
ment of trains and finally by their
| lnaDlhty to get the consent
Of the Interstate Commerce Com
mission to raise their freight rates to
the per cent increase they are seek
ing.
1t is cOntended this last is the crux
of the whole matter and that with
TINS concession granted, conditions
will so quickly change that instead Of
discharges of employees being neces-
sary the companies will be seeking
additional working force.
Officers OF the Pennsylvania rail-
road say the company within the last
three months had laid off about Is, 900
employees on the lines east of Pitts
burgh, in carrying out it's policy OF
general retrenchment. 1t is said that
about 10000 of the remaining 1885,
600 employees have been placed on
shorter time. Two hundred clerks i'm
the general offices have been laid of
within a day or two.
Some weeks ago the company took
off several expensive through trains
and it was stated that further curtail-
ment in the passenger train service is
being worked out.
According to the report, which the
company confirms. the orders for re-
| trenchment and economy cover i'm
provements and extensions, work up
on which has been either stopped or
Observation-Disclosures Sun.