The Alaska citizen., 1916-10-09
Trainmen Set Forth Their Side of Story This is What Was Put Up To Wilson


 received in Fairbanks setting forth the reasons for the threatened rail way trMnmen's strike which was avert ed by the passage of the Adamson eight-hour law. The pamphlet is issued by the Transportation Broth erhood's Publicity Bureau in New York. and sets forth clearly the contentious of the trainmen. It is entitled "A Most Reasonable De mand" and goes on to say that the Wages of Railroad Employees are Spent with the Merchant and Farm CT Instead of Going to Wall Street" The following are the contents of the pamphlet:
 Railway freight train service em- ployees have submitted 10 the rail roads d demand for a shorter work day. They are entitled to relief from the long and arduous labor to perform.
 Their condition has not been i'm proved as compared with wage work CTS in other industries.
 Railroad train crews are not paid a fixed salary. They are piece work CTS and are paid only when they move freight from one end of a di- vision to another.
 The present schedules of pay are miles or less in 10 hours or less. The men now ask the railroads for a revised schedule providing for the moving of train 100 miles in s hours "or less"
 The words "or less" always appear in schedules of train crew pay for practically the same reason that rail road freight rates are based on 100 pounds or less If a train crew loo miles in less than the time speci- fled in the pay schedule. the crew is paid the minimum rate for a days work just the same as the railroad company collects for 100 pounds on < package, even though it would ac- tually weigh only 10 pounds. They have performed their service of talk ing the train loo miles which is the piece work they are paid to do. n l. l. i,,;,
 If locomotives are loaded down with a great number of cars so that they will barely move over the road, meeting with all sorts of delays by reason of the long and heavy trains and do not make an average of 12R miles per hour. then the employees expect to secure overtime or time and a half (after the expiration of the $ hours work. just the same as any other wage earner gets.) If the railroads add tonnage sufficient to delay the movement of train and make less than an average speed of 12l2 miles per hour, they, of course. should receive more reve- nue, and in consequence should pay the train crews for overtime. The railroads should not ask the em- ployees to work overtime in order to increase the revenues of the roads unless they are willing to pay the employee in addition to the regular rate for this overtime which was used to produce additional revenue.
 In figuring wages for all railroad train crews, 100 miles is the arbi- trary basis for the normal days work division.
 Under the schedules of pay for which the men are now asking, it will be necessary for the railroads to move their freight trains an aver age of 1212 miles per hour instead oI l0 miles per hour. as at present, in order to avoid the payment of over tlme to the train crew.
 If division is 100 miles long. overtime would begin after hours; i; if 125 miles long, after 10 hours; if 150 miles long, after 12 hours. and so on. The number of hours when overtime would begin is arrived at by simply dividing the number of miles by 12R.
 Any talk Of the roads having to change their division points under an e-hour day schedule is absurd. for the reason that the average run ming time on a short division must be 1212 miles an hour just the same as il would be on long division of over loo miles. If a train would not average 1212 miles an hour on a l5Omile division. it would not aver age 12l2 miles an hour on less than Il l00-mile division.
 Railway freight train crews do their work by the piece, and what they are paid to do is to move a train at least 100 miles in a given number of hours. If they should perform this duty in less than the eight hours, then they would be paid a days wages, or if they worked a day of eight hours and did not sue ceed in moving a train 100 miles in eight hours, then they would go into overtime and would be paid accord ingly.
 If the train crews demanded an 8-hour day on the basis of wage