Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1915-01-07
BIG INCREASED COST OF LABOR

BIG INCREASED COST OF LABOR
To give the reader an exact idea of
how the cost of labor has advanced
in the operation of railroads we quote
the following increases in the daily
wage from 1900 to 1914 period
of only fourteen years: In the case
of engineers it increased from $3.6S
per day to $5.76, or an increase of
Sc percent; firemen from $2.21 to
1852, or "a per cent; conductors
from 1881 to $4.S3, or As per cent |;
station agents from $1.9S to Sale or
8 per cent; other station men from
$1.62 to $40, or IT per cent; or
binary traimen from $1.97 to 1886,
or 20 per cent; machinists, from
$2.72 to 1852, or 29 per cent; car
penters from $2.31 to $2.59, or IL
per cent; other shopmen from $1.93
to $2.20, or IA per cent; section fore
men from $1.51 to $1.S3, or 81 per
cent; trackmen from $1.15 to $1.52
or 32 per cent; telegraph operators
and dispatchers from $2.25 to $2.65
or II per cent This means gen.
eral average increase in wages of
80 29-100 per cent--and all other
classes of railroad operatives and en-
ployees in more or less similar de-
gree. While these advances have
proven a great boon to the nearly two
million men employed in the rail
way service and increased their ca
pacity to buy from merchant and far
mer, they have exacted many mil
lions annually from the railroads
themselves-all of which made the
general public richer, but the roads
poorer. In 1900 the railroads paid
$1.44 per ton for coal. Now they
pay $1.81. Then they paid 3Sc for
ties. Now they pay SIC.
OTHER INCREASED COSTS
Rut there are many other items
which have enormously increased the
cost of railroad operation which we
cannot go into because of lack OF
space. The public is constantly de-
manding a more efficient and safer
service, and hence the railroads have
had to spend vast sums in installing
block signals, steel passenger cars,
doing away with grade crossings,
Strengthening lines, heavier locomo-
tives, better roadbeds, and supply
ing many other precautions protect
ing both their operatives and the pub
liza all things very necessary, yet
very costly. So too, numerous states
have passed "full crew" laws which
without benefitting the public, have
compelled the railroads to pay a
toll of millions to useless employees.
Now, while labor, farm products
merchandise and manufactures and
supplies of all kinds have steadily
increased in price, the railroads, as
stated before, have been compelled to
reduce their rates in the face of this
avalanche of ever-advancing cost OF
operation-and that all but the most
powerful lines find themselves in an
exceedingly critical condition is not
to be wondered at. The farmer, the
merchant, the manufacturer and the
laborer justly insist that they would
not be able to get along on the prices
they received ten years ago. How
then, can the railroads which are the
largest employers of labor and buy
ers of material in the United States,
be expected to exist on less than they
received ten or fifteen vars ago? In
view of these facts, it is no wonder
that President Wilson and other pa
triotic and careful students of the
situation are speaking words of kind
ly admonition to the American pub
lie, to the end that the railroads,
through whose giant arteries flows
the very life blood of the nation, may
not be wrecked and destroyed.
THE PUBLIC AND THE MANAGER
On one hand, for the last twenty
five years the public has demanded
the best and the highest efficiency in
service and lower rates in one and
the same breath. On the other hand
stand the thousands of men and wom-
en- who have invested their money
in railroad securities and who, in
common with the farmer, the manu-
facturer and the merchant, believe
they are entitled to a fair profit.
Then come the hundreds and thous-
ands of employees who are continu-
ally clamoring for an increase in wag-
es, as well as the cost of all manner
of railroad supplies which is con-
stantly advancing, and between them
as arbiters. stand the managers OF
the roads the big "hired men" strug-
Cling with might and main to recon
cile all these conflicting interests In
the face of reduced rates upon every
hand That they have at last reached
point where they can continue the
unequal struggle no longer should
not be a matter of wonder and in
face of the harsh and unfriendly crit.
icism which has descended upon theiI
heads from every quarter they find
themselves in the mental attitude oil
tho fiddlar In tho Waofarp miniu o
camp when he yelled out please
don't shoot boys; l am doing the
best l can" paid adv. To be con-
tinued next week.
tice:-Have II. G. Leach cry
yOur sales Phone 2l5 50-tf