Arizona republican., 1915-04-06
First Government Inquiry Into Wages and Condi- tions of Employment of Pullman Car Porters Be gins in Chicago
BUY UNIFORMS
 FOR TEN YEARS
Then Company Assumes That Burden and Wages Are Automatically In creased $1.37 a month, Says General Manager
ASSOCIATED PRESS pIsPArcHl

CHICAGO. April 5.-The first gov ernment inquiry into wages and con- ditions of employment of sleeping car porters and conductors was made here by the United States Commis- sion on Industrial Relations. L. S. Hungerford, general manager of the Pullman company, on the stand most of the day, was questioned by Chair man Walsh of the commission. In the first fifteen years a sleeping car porter is in the service, Hungerford said, he is paid $27.50 a month. At from ten to fifteen years. like other service employees, he automatically received an advance of $1.37 a month During the ten years he buys his own uniforms. but thereafter the company has taken up this burden.
 The bonus system gives the men with good records an extra months pay each year.
 In reply to the question, he said tips were not considered in giving the wage. But he admitted that new porters on tourist cars are often given extra pay. He said he sup posed the reason was that they do not get so many tips as on the standard sleepers.
 ''Is $27.50 enough to pay any man for a months work?' asked Walsh.
 Minimum wage investigations of the employment of women show that they can not subsist on less than eight dollars a week"
 We can get all the men we want at that rate.' was the reply.
 Have you considered the social effect of such a wage which com- pels men but recently removed from bondage to subsist on gratuities from another race?"
 'I am not competent to answer that"
 Well. can a man live on s275O?"
 T don't know, but it probably de- bends on his perquisities''
 The witness was asked as to the history of the tipping system, and replied that it did not originate at the Pullman company.
 Tt seems always to have been a general condition. It did not origin ate with us. However, if anybody is deserving of tips it is the sleeping car porter; some of them are artists
 It appeared from the testimony that porters are permitted generally to re- tire at II or 12 p. m. and go on duty again at 3 a. m. This applies to seventy-two hour trans continental runs as it does to short ones.
 Are the porters required to polish the shoes of passengers?" asked the chairman.
 No: they are permitted to- an- swered Mir Hungerford
 MT. Walsh read from a book of rules by P. c. Johnson, district su- perintendent of the Pullman company at Omaha. entitled What To Do, What Not to Do."
 In this compilation it appeared that porters were required to shine shoes and the witness said they bought their own polish. Among things for bidden were the use of tooth picks and tobacco. The porter standing at the steps receiving passengers must stand straight and must not lean in- dolently against the car.
 Look pleasant says the rule don't give the passenger the i'm pressiOn that it is mere condescension on your part that he is allowed to ride at all.T
 Other rules are that when pass enger wants to know how long vii the train stop here" the porter is not
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