The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1916-07-01

Lyceum theater in Pittsburgh, Frank
P. Walsh, chairman of the committee
on industrial relations, said:
II hold that the eight-hour day is
so incontestably right that the de-
mand for it is not a subject for arbi-
tration. 1t should be taken as mat
ter of inalienable right through the
economic power of the workers. Not
only should no man be compelled to
work more than eight hours a day.
but no man should be permitted to
work more than eight hours a day
except with the consent of his fellow
workers and under conditions which
they impose, by their collective bar
gaining power, to see that the one
man does not invade and imperil the
rights of his fellows
II hold further,'' continued Mr..
Walsh, that the right of workers to
collective bargaining and the right Of
every worker to be protected by his
fellow workers from arbitrary dis
charge are also the inalienable rights
of modern industry and theys also are
not subjects for arbitration"
"What the Railroad Brotherhoods
are demanding" said Mr.. Walsh, 'is
that instead Of a ten-hour day they
be given an eight-hour day, G. if the
railroads won't grant that, then that
they be given time and one-half for
time over the eight-hour limit.
'The railroads say that this is
merely demand for wages to be in
creased. Suppose that the Brother
hoods demanded without any alter
native that they be given the eight
hour day (Which every principle of
humanity and human efficiency says
is long enough for exacting, risky and
vigilant labor) and that the railway
employees lie returned to their homes
at the end of each days work without
expense to them, as most other en-
ployes are. What a howl would then
go up from the railroads as to the ex-
horbitant cost that would mean to
them. If these righteous demands of
the railway employees have become
only demands for increased wages it
is because the railroads themselves
have made that the alternative.
Bear in mind that the great ma
tority of railroad employees are a
great part of their time away from
their home cities. They have to pay
their own expenses for lodging, food,
etc.. and that comes out Of their
wages. What are these wages? They
will average, it is claimed, $1,242 a
year. That is perhaps 800 or more
too high, inasmuch as it takes into
account the higher average of the
$4,000 passenger conductors, engi-
neers and others who are not in
volved in this controversy. But sup
pose it is $1,242 year. The daily
average wage for trainmen is 1878
for a ten-hour day, or p cents an
hour. To make $1,242 a year at 27
cents an hour means that man must
work 1900 hours in the year, and
that means the equivalent Of 46O ten
hour days, or 265 days of more than
IL hours labor each. The way it
actually works itself out is that for
many, many days of the year the men
who run your trains, and who keep
the tracks safe and into whose hands
the lives Of all the rest are placed,
and safely placed where the greed or
cheapness Of the financial manage
ment does not intervene, those men
must work to the point of exhaustion
for sixteen or more hours out of the
twenty-four.
1--WE have been told by the rail-
roads that there have already been
considerable percentages Of wage in
crease to the train operatives in the
PAST few years. A percentage of
wage increase depends on what you
start with. If you start with such a
miserably low wage that q man and
his wife md children cannot live on
it, even with the practice of the
strictest economy, then it takes but
precious little increase to make a
good percentage showing. And not
only that, but such increases as have
been granted have been absorbed by
the lengthening Of trains and the
greater amount of work put upon the
men. And every one knows to his
dismay how the greater cost of living
has increased and has lessened the
actual value Of the wages received.
Let the wages he placed on fair and
respectable basis to start with and
then it will be time enough and fair
enough to talk about percentages of
wage Increases
Mr.. Walsh gave the figures to
prove that never in the history of the
country has the railroad business
been so profitable as in the past year.
A report for the eight months ending
February 20 and covering all the rail
roads having operating expenses OF
one million dollars or more year
(and this includes SS per cent of all
the railroad mileage in the country
has just been completed by the Inter.
state Commerce Commission. Those
official statistics show that the net
revenue of the railroads, above ex.
penses of operation, wages, deprecia.
ton charges, taxes and every Other
possible charge was 7,653,866
That vast sum was profits, to be dis
tributed as dividends, surplus or any
other form Of velvet that the direc
tors chose to make.
1.-THE profits for those eight months
from July 1, 1915, to March L. 1915
were about so per cent larger thar
for the corresponding eight month.
of 1914-1915-yet the profits TO-
: these other eight months were larg,
enough, heaven knows. For the eigh
months of 1914-15 the profits fol
every mile of road operated wer,
$1,116. Yet for the eight months o.