The Sunday telegram. [volume] (Clarksburg, W. Va.) 1914-1927, 1916-04-09
(snbmitted by Roy E. Hale.

20 secure increased wages.
This Is not true, as the employees
composing the four brotherhoods
want shorter hours. They want their
working day to be as near eight hours
as It can be made.
) To any reasonable person It will be
apparent that 1t will he useless to &C.
cure an eight-hour day unless there
~ some penalty attached for over
time. In all the trades where the
eight-hour day obtains, there is an
extra charge for overtime: otherwise,
there would be no eight-hour day.
the work would go on at the same
rate per hour Just asIlong as the en-
ployeS AIRED TO York the nm.
1elas been ramply demonstrated
that eight hours hard work is enough
for any man and any hour he
works over eight. simply draw on his
reserve energy and vitality, shorten
ing his life and his available work
Ing years. It has also been proved
that q man working eight hours is
more efacient, does better work and
IN every way Is better citizen than
q man working longer hours.
The railroad train service en-
ployes, in asking the railroad COM
panies for an eight-hour day, also
ask for time and one half for over
time. but this extra rate is merely a
penalty" upon the railways and is
considered an effective method for
preventing overtime. Overtime" is
commonly called blood money" and
saps the very life out Of the employees.
We trust that the public will consid-
er the fact that 1t is the Overtime"
and exposure that are wearing out"
the employees and prompts many en-
ployers to set their employees age
limit at 81 to IS. In other vocations
man can work at least thirty years
note the difference in railway work.
Considered in this way the railway
employees could, in exact justice, ask
for vice their present rate of pay.
b. mployes are not seeking the
increase" but desire bet
I. conditions.
..iyslcal and mental strain on
train service employees. compelled to
work long hours. is beyond compre-
pension by the average mind. Virtual
ly all the accident and old-line in
surance companies classify railroad
ing as extra hazardous. many of them
refusing to insure railway employees
on account of the great risk of loss.
and where these employees are injured
there is a definite limit set on the
amount of the risk and an extra
charge is made to the insured.
In reality. the railway employe re-
ceives less hourly rate of compensa-
ton than almost any other trade. A
hod-carrier receives $3.50 for eight
hours-or about ffty-six cents an
hour. The highest paid train con-
If the hod-carrier worked as many
hours as the railway conductor he
would draw larger salary and could
then be named by the railways as the
"aristocrat of the labor world"
II the railways complain that time
and-a-half" means in some instances
an increase, let them avoid the in
crease by avoiding the overtime, for
that is the desire and purpose Of the
employees.
The railways claim there was an in
crease in wages to the men. of between
thirty and forty-two per cent from
1903 to 1914. This is partly true, but
the price Of living and the additional
work required OF the employees has
more than Offset 1t. 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 en-
ployes. who work in the irregular
freight service and are allowed to
work the day II sufficient freight ship
ments come to hand. but who lose the
days work II the business does not
come-these irregular freight SER
vice" employees gained almost nothing,
but were crowded back to an hourly
compensation. instead OF mileage bas-
is. by excessively long trains; or. in
other words, the railways. to recover
the 1903 to 1914 wage increase, gave
each of their regular freight crews
two trains to handle instead Of one,
and this not only deprived other crews
of 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 sixteen
hours and merely allow them the eight
hours rest, anywhere, and then con-
tinue on with this freight drag" as it
is called by both officials and en-
ployes.
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 handled one, and many other
duties added.
There are some railways that re-
ouire the full sixteen hours work, at
all times. from their employees, and
1t seems that the only reasonable and
humane solution for this practice must
be the present movement. The rail-
ways declare that the employees are
demanding a s10o,000,0O0 increase, but
admit that upon many lines and in
many places there will be but little
change. There may be some inconsid-
cradle increase, but nothing like what
the officials claim. and in the light OF
past experience the employees easily
can predict from what source the rail-
ways will quickly recoup themselves;
additional duties for employees is al
ways fertile field for retrenchment.
But II the employees win what they
ask for, the public will soon find them
an improved class Of workers and
citizens and along with this tho n,h