Daily capital journal. (Salem, Oregon) 1903-1919, 1916-04-01
A THREATENING CLOUD IN INDUSTRIAL SKY


There is little cloud in the sky at present larger
than mans hand so to speak, but which has in 1t the
seeds of an industrial cyclone In the midst OF the pros
perty brought about by the European war; nothing mas
so far arisen to check the business boom.
While may be possible the impending trouble may be-
avoided it does not look that way The cloud has drtted
up over the eastern skies from the demands OF the bothe
hoods of tanmen and railroad engineers for an eight
hour day. and time and half for overtime. 1t is claimed
this affects about 100000 and 480 roads. Under ex
stng arguments railroad men work ten hours Tor day
work with another arrangement by which freight train
men get full pay for running 100 miles, and tins Whetherl
it takes hours not with extra pay for mileage over
that distance
The demands of the men have been submitted to the
roads and the roads have refused to allow them The
next move will probably be arbitration.
The railroads claim that their arrangements have been
made on the basis of hour day. and certain distances
fixed to be made in that time. Owing to this they have
built their terminals and round houses and If the new ar
rangement is made these will all have to be eaanged at
considerable expense.
They point out too. that railroad work is necessarily
widely different in regard hours worked from any other
trade or occupation That the hours on freight runs are
decided largely by circumstances over when nelther the
the roads have control They depend on he num-
her of stops the length Of the stops the amount OF freight
handled and other things that make mpossDe TO tell
how many hours given run will take They also point
out that the time and half for over time would ADD
burden to the roads that would swamp them'
Another thing is that out OF the l6SOOOO railroad en-
Moves in the United States 09000 l8 per cent are
ranmen and these draw in wages e cent OF the total
wage The earnings of the roads In l9l4 were SOl UOO
OOO and the amount paid out in wages was SlZOOOOoo
or about 40 per cent. 49,
The railroads under laws cannot raise rates With
out the consent of the railroad commissions and so are
up against proposition of paying out $lOOOOOOOO extra
wages without having anyway Of increasing their
revenues to meet the demand 1t follows then that II
these demands are granted it will be up to the pubic to
nen the roads to raise rates enough to meet tins new
charge in other words the public will have to agree to pay
the extra charge itself.
Still another proposition that comes into the dispute is
that railroad men generally paid higher wages than
almost any other This raise in wages, II 1t Is granted
must large part of it from the pockets OF other
aborers who are earning far less than the tranmen
Higher railroad rates means higher cost OF hVlng, ana
as the aborer no matter what his calling has to eat and
wear clothing he eventually pays all the bills; for while
it looks as though large companies with immense amounts
of freight would pay large portion OF the ralload
freight bills they do not do for they pass the teght
along to the consumer Of their products.
So it will be seen the dispute is not entirely one be-
tween the railroads and their employees but one between
the 100000 ainmen and the balance of the lOOOOQOOO
citizens of this country who will have the bill to pay
1t is sincerely hoped the matter will be adjusted IN
friendly way for strike would simply paIayZe business
and bring on condition that would be unbea9oe Ihe
country cannot afford it can the ranmen afford IT,
The public has rights the anmen are bound to respect
and If they do not but bring disaster on the country they
will have struck labor blow from which 1t will take 1t
wears to recover for unless the anmen submit their de
mands to arbitration which they say in advance they w
not they will array public sentiment against them, ana
eventually lose out; and at the same time lose the