The Washington times., 1916-08-26
DECLINE FEARED IN
R. R. DEVELOPMENT
Elliott, Of New Haven Road,
Thinks People Won't Pay
Higher Wage Bill.

President Howard Elliott OF the New
York. New Haven and Hartford and
chairman of the Board Of Directors.
today issued the following statement:
have believed and I still believe that
question Of such great Importance
only after all its aspects have been
carefully considered by a tribunal free
from pretudice and partisanship.
The 10000 900 Of our people can have.
Of course sc, the KIND q Laws: wording
II they want growing and efficient
railroads, and believe they can have
them on the basis OF an eight hour dsy
they must be willing to pay. the bills
be willing to pay contipoSsiy higher
event the. development Of the railroad
systems Of our country will be checked.
With a decline In our railroad de;
as agricultural growth will be choked.
To my mind, the true patriotic policy
for the welfare Of the whole country
at this time 10 for every man to do
rather than to check IT and to reduce
Its output. We are far behind other
countries In many ways, and we have
great task before us in the next
ten years to keep our proper place
Hopes for Solution.
II hope. therefore. very much that
In the interest of all our 100000, 900
people some solution OF the present
situation may be found, rather than II
in the interest of the 100000 who are
now pressing their demands"
One OF the most forceful reasons
WHY the demands of the train en-
who nGu% Se d
II. H. Ashton. president Of the Chi
caRo and Northwestern railway. lis
the fact that for q long period OF
have been increasing much faster II
proportion than the amount OF traf-
nc handled, The labor cost OF han
ding TRAFFIC depends both on the
and on the wages paid per employe.
and II is necessary to go clear back
to the panic period OF the. early sos
when traffic was at its lowest u eps
bankrupt. to find a time when the
labor cost Of moving a given amount
OF traffic was as high as 1t Is now.
Main Cause of Disaster.
1.-THE wages paid then were much
lower than now. but the improvements
in the railways and in their operating
methods which have been made by the
arrangements, have caused large In
crease In the amount Of traffic handled
per employe: but the wages OF the train
service employees have Increased faster.
This Is one of the main causes OF the
disaster which has overtaken many rail-
ways. causing the mileage In the hands
of receivers to be greater recently than
ever before in the history Of the coun-
try.
THE way things have been going in
the railway business IL illustrated by
statistics regarding the increases In the
wages of train employees and In the
traffic handled per employe. during the
eight years from 1906 to 1914.
During this period the tOn-niles
handled per engineer per year increased
20 per cent; the passenger-miles handled
81 per cent. and the wages paid u per
cent.
1.-The increases for the other employees
involved in the present movement we're:
passenger-miles 20 per cent; wages ~
"Firemen. ton-miles. 30 per cent:
passenger-miles 81 per cent; wages.
Other Trainmen. ton miles. II per
wages. 40 per cent.
'In 1900 the amount Of wages paid
OF freight moved one mile was 5s.+
cents, while in 1914 II was 81 cents
an increase OF % per cent.
And now, in spite of these great
advances in wages, which have been
made and which pave been out Of all
proportion to the increases in the
amount of traffic handled. the train
employees are back asking for far
larger advance In wages than ever
was made in the past.
How can 1t be thought that the
railways can prosper and satisfactor-
lily serve the needs OF the country II
there are to be further increases in
wages far exceeding any ever made
at one time before?"