The commonwealth. (Scotland Neck, N.C.) 1896-1929, 1916-06-13
AN TIGHT HOUR DAY
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This is partly true, but the price of |
living aud the additional work requir
cd OF the employees has more than off
set it. Also, the said wage increase
came mostly to the employees having
regular assignments and established
hours for service, but the very great
majority Of the employees, who work in
the irregular freight service and are
allowed to work the day if sufficien
freight shipments come to hand, but
who lose the days work if the bust
ness does not come-these "irregular
freight service' employees gained al
most nothing, but were crowded back
to an hourly compensation, instead OF
mileage basis, by excessively long trains
or in other words, the railways, to re
cover the 1903 to 1914 wage increase,
gave each of their irregular freight
crews two trains to handle instead OF
one, and this not only deprived other
crews Of a train and their days work,
but kept the ''double train dragging
along the railway until it has, in many
places, become the practice of the rail
WAYS to work the employee the Is hours
and merely allow them the eight hours
rest anywhere, and then continue on
with this freight drag as it is call
Cd by both officials and employees.
So the net result Of this is really a
decrease in the earnings of the great
majority of employees, since they are
forced from fast miles at so much per
mile to slow, long hours at the same
rate per hour and handle two and often
three. trains where before they han
died one, and many other duties ad-
ded.
There are some railways that require
the full Is hours work, at all times.
from their employees, and it seems that
the only reasonable and humane solu-
ton for this practice must be the pres
ent movement. The railways declare
that the employees are demanding
500 ,000, 900 increase, but admit that
upon many lines and in many places
there viii be but little change. There
may be some uncomfortable increase.
but nothing like what the officials claim
AMI i'll the light of past experience the
employees can easily predict from what
source the railways will quickly recoup
themselves: additional duties for EN-
ploves is always a fertile field for re-
trenchment. But if the employees win
what they ask for, the public will soon
ers and citizens, and along with this,
the pablo Will also secure an improv-
ed railway service and prompt freight
movement.
The railroads are circulating printed
statements showing names Of train SER
vice employees who are being paid large
wages, and they are doing this to lead
the public to believe that, because a
few men are earning large salarise, it
is all example of what the average train
service man is getting. Invariably the
men whose names appear upon the lists
as examples of large salaries being paid
to railway train employees are men en-
gagged i'll fast passenger runs and are
exceptional cases. They should not be
used rs examples of what the average
train service employee gets, because in
the present demand for an eight hour
day the PASSENGER SERVICE IS
NOT INCLUDED.
The public who do not always under
stand railway conditions and railway
workers hear only the railway side OF
the story. In the railway talk of NOV
ing terminals there is but little to heed
The railways can expedite their freight
service and continue with their present
terminals if they really wish to do so.
In some few cases there may be cou-
pie of hours overtime.
When an engineer has drawn a check
for $2G' and a conductor a check for
s;247 for month s work, the railway
may call attention to this, but neglect
to say that these men worked Is hours
and % minutes every day in the month
and secured most Of their sleep in a
box car "caboose' out along the linz
and later when these men lay off to re-
dwindle and soon these men are broken
down and are dumped on the "scrap
heap with the other old machinery,
and may be taken in by some kindly
relative or perhaps find room in some
distant ''home'' maintained by the
employees organizations. Thus they
conclude their days-these soldiers Of
the great transportation army, these
men who have safely transported count
less numbers of passengers and end
less trains of freight. Though the en-
gines and cars become larger and yet
larger, and though the trains become
even longer, and though the hours of
service become more intensely fierce,
the railway employee still measures up
to his work.
In the great railway yards the swift
Gilman whose tired feet strike the en-
CINE "footboard or the cinders all
day, or night, or the man in the "cab -
who pulls and throws the levers back
and forth all day or night, working