The Harrison times., 1916-07-15

| OF fkEfN>4 4biiGl o~tltllf AtA Au' iAtA'A'
state Commerce Commission NGs no'
created for the purpose of passing Up
on such questions. The Commission
now has charge Of about eight hund'
red railroads, comprising 247,uct
miles of track and operated 10y ,G9j,'
eco employees. Is anyone so foolish
as 10 suppose that Congress Is going "a
add TO their present duties the settle.
ment Of labor Disputes
In the arbitration of the Western
controversy il was just FIVE month,
and ten days from the time the CON-
mittee went into session until the
award was signed up. Who Is going
10 attend 10 the business of the |. {. {.
while they spend five months and ten
days in an effort 10 detecmine whe-
ther or not We shall have a shorter
work day.
For the purpJse OF comparison and
no other We would ike to call your al
tention to the fact that the railroad
companies pay many OF their Office
clerks Sl2j per month for eight hours
work twenty six days per month. If
you will figure that up YOU will find
that it amounts TO Zoe per hour.
The highest paid employee in train
serviceiS the engineer and there is not
an engineer in this country that gets
more than 56c per hour so the only
difference in their pay checks is in the
difference in the numberofhours they
work.
If these same companies were 10
force their day clerks to work sixteen
hours it would meet your immediate
condemnation, Yet the conductor and
engineer with perhaps sl00,000worth
OF property and scores of lives in their
charge have to work twelve. fourteen
and sixteen hours for a less rate than
the Office clerk. We do not know
what the result of the present con-
traverSy will be but the principle Is
right and will eventually prevail.
The printing press and the public
school has forever put the American
workingman where he can never more
be handled Ike dumb driven cattle
that have nothing TO say about the
conditions under which they shall
work.
We have not the millions to spend
in publicity that the railroads have
but 400,0 men are standing firm for
for their rightto better working con-
dition. Stone and Garretson. Garter
and Lee are not demacogues but clear
eyed level headed business men with
a love for humanity in their hearts
and if this country Is plunged mo the
most diSasterous industrial warfare
the country has ever seen il will he
upon the heads OF the railway man
ayers and not theirs.
In the New York New Haven and
Hartford railroad scandal il was prov
en- that S200,000,GO0 mysteriously
disappeared from its treasury. Now
Mr.. Eliot says Let the dead past bury
It's dead, and forgetting the things
that are behind let lis all look forward
TO better day" That $200,0OO,0OO
represents many arduous hours Of toll
for the men in the cab and in the ga
boose and Mr.. Eliot asks those men
to forget all about that and to 60 on
working some more 10 hour trips that
the Golfers of the New Haven may
again be filed.
What has been said of the New Ha-
ven may be said of the Rock Island,
the Frisco, the Missouri Pacific and
many Others. Are men who get out
upon the rail in the dark and in the
storm taking their very life in their
hands, working until exhausted, are
they always going TO be the goat?
The safety OF the travelling public
is in the hands of the railroad men of
America. Is it more important to
you that all of these men should
be fresh and fit for duty or that they
should be worn with toll that the
railroad magnates may reap larger
dividends? The people are the jury
in this case, what is your verdict?