The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1916-12-16

the railroad without them. This was
a mistake on their part. We were
affected, but only because the strike
came suddenly. Inside of two weeks
we had things running smoothly in our
Geographic service and a large num-
Der of our old employees were out of
work Things in this department have
| been running smoothly ever since, and
we have since that time had no con-
tracts with that union. We have. how
ever, attempted to treat our employees
| fairly and we think we have Please
! notice that we did not begin the quar-
rel and that we had not taken any
steps to break with our men. The
sympathy strike is not justified in any
case where a contract already exists
Rule of Unions More Harsh.
| Next came our trouble with our shop
crafts For years we had contracts
with this class of labor but the rule
of unionism kept getting harder and
harder. We were limited in our con-
/ tracts-not only as to the rates we
should pay-but as to the number of
/ apprentices We could have, as to the
/ class of work that could be done by
each class of machinists and more
than all by the tyranny of the local
I leaders. One of these leaders could call
1 his committee together in working
| hours, complain of some grievance or
some fancied grievance and if his de-
/ mands were not complied with, call
/ out all the men in the shop. With
/ trains to move, with locomotives to get
/ ready, the officer of the road would
! give in and the men go back to work
| This tyranny became so grtevous that
1 we were absolutely forced to resist 1t
with the consequence that one OF the
bitterest struggles that any railroad
/ has gone thru was fought and won by
/ U.S. 1t cost US hundreds of thousands
| of dollars but at that price was worth
all it cost. Again many of our old
employees found themselves out OF
| work. In this case the tyranny of the
| unions was to blame. Since that
strike we have had no contracts with
/ shop organizations, we have spendid
apprentice system, we pay the going
wages and pay bonuses to our work
men. depending on the character of
work performed by them. We believe
our men to be well satisfied.
In connection with bonuses l will
show how the organizations are OPP
posed We instituted the practice of
| paving engineers for the amount of
/ coal they saved, it being our belief
that care in this respect would effect
a large saving to the company The
Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers
/ reouested US to remove this effort to
gain efficiency and we complied In
1 other words. we wished to increase
their earnings and they opposed IL
Enter the Trainmen.
And this brings me to the four train
brotherhoods. We have never had any
serious trouble with them We have
made our schedules and contracts with
( them to the advantage of each There
are elements in these schedules that
we believe are not to the best inter
! ests of the service. nor are they TO the
/ best interests of the men. but we be-
n
better satisfied to work under them
than without so we are content UE
/ TO ten wears ago each organization or
! each road made its own contract, ex-
l cept that the Order of Railway Con
ductors and Brotherhood of Railway
4 Trafnmen generally worked together
and one contract was signed by the
representatives of each Then came
! the So-called concerted movement, by
| which the organization asked all the
/ roads in one part of the country tC
meet the Representatives of the unioT
and make increases in pay and changes
/ in working conditions Unfortunately
there was little chance for give anc
/ take in these conferences and the Tina
result was a threatened strike, medl-
alton and finally arbitration. In eacf
arbitration the real decisions had tt
be left to arbitrators who were not &C
quainted with the teehnicalities of tht
case and the result was generally un
satisfactory to either side. each claim
ing that it had not ~eceived all tina
it should. As mS FER of fact, tbs
arbitrators have tried to split the diff
ferences. The men latteEly in makins
their demands have recognized thi
and have asked for double what thel
expected to get The roads, on thu
other hand, have tried to get injected
into the arbitrations some considera
ton of the Irregularities that hav'
crept into the existing schedules, bu
thus far without success In the con
troversy with the engineers and fire
} men two years ago we insisted on sub
! hitting the entire schedules for con
i sideration but the men were equal.