Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1916-09-06
RAILROAD STRIKE AVERTED.
Eight Hour Law Passed. President
Signs Bill.

The final act in the surrender of
President Wilson and congress to the
four great railroad brotherhoods
was performed at 9:20 a. m. Sun
day when President Wilson signed
the Adamson eight hour BILL
The passage of this act by the SEN
ate Saturday was followed by the is
suing of orders from the brother
hood headquarters to 100000 rail-
way employees throughout the coun-
| try not to strike Monday morning.
That there may be no question as
| to tho legality of the measure as
result of 1t having been signed on
sunday, the president afilxed his
| signature again on his return to
Washington Tuesday.
According to the interstate COM
merce commission there are 31l,-
1890 men employed'fn the train SER
vice, Including the four brother
hoods in thesstrike The round num-
bers Of 100000 are, stherefore an
exaggeration.-s These. 311 900 men
received $3S9,865.2S5 in wages, or
twelve per cent Of the total operat-
ing income of the roads says the Ce-
dar Rapids Republican.
The railroads have on their books
63R, 900 shareholders, that is stock
holders. To these was paid $379,S65,-
O24, or $1O,OO0,OO0 less than was
paid to the men in the train service.
The total wages paid by the rail-
roads amounted to 373,069,811,
or just about four times as much as
was paid the shareholders, that is
the owners of the roads. OF the over
three hundred millions paid to stock
holders, in the form of dividends,
only $217,1O4.390 represented mo-
ney earned during the year out OF
railroading, the other hundred mil
lions in dividends came out of inter-
corporate earnings, that Is earnings
on railroad investments, not out Of
operating trains. The average rate
of dividends paid on railroad stocks
was 3.S per cent, 1915, or less than
four per cent. Forty per cent of the
stock of railroads paid no dividends
at all. Railroad stocks are invest
ments, except in a few instances
hold.
OF the forty per cent of railroad
stocks on which no dividends are
paid, large share is stock that Is
not entitled to dividends, since it
does not represent anything except
paper and speculations. The Rock
Island stocks, for instance, many Of
them represent nothing and are not
entitled to dividends. Railroads gen.
orally speaking pay no dividends on
stocks that represent nothing in the
properties. However, that, railroads
should continue to pay reasonable
dividends on honest investments Is
quite as important as that they
should pay decent wages. Unless
they pay the wages they cannot con-
tinue to command the services Of
men to operate the trains, and un-
less they pay the dividends they will
not be able to get money with which
to make improvements, extensions
and so on. The man who has thou
sand dollars saved up and invests 1t
in railroad stocks Is entitled to divi-
dend. He may have worked for that
thousand dollars and in his old age
he is entitled to have that money
work for him.
i Doth thC AaOOACi anu tHC ihVCStOb
are worthy of their hire and are en-
titled to proper returns. Having de-
termined what is proper it remains
to fix rates so that they can earn
enough to pay such proper charges.
| Employees of the railroads other
than members of the four brother
hoods are to make a determined
fight on the Adamson eght-hour
law according to Robert Frazier an
emplOye Of the Nashville Chatano0-
ga and st. Louis railroad. He claimed
to have secured many signatures to
a petition protesting against the law.
Mr.. Frazier will leave for Pittsburg
today and following visit to Phil
adelphia and New York will go to
Washington to present his petition to
the president.
| He claims the new law only af-
fects 100000 men and ignores L.
100000 other railroad employees.