New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1916-11-15
The New Railroad Strike Threat


When Congress passed the Adamson
eight-hour law the four railroad brother
hoods seemed TO be thoroughly satisfied
with it. They are much less satisfied with
il to-day.
1t began to dawn on the brotherhood
leaders more than a month ago that the
law gave them a good deal less than they
thought it did. 1t was rushed through
without careful consideration, and some Of
its implications evidently escaped notice.
In a circular letter sent out to local unions
three or four weeks before the election, the
admission was made that the brotherhood
authorities did not know just what was
meant by the language which prescribed
an eight-hour basis of wages.
Section | of the law said: "That begin
ming January I, 1917, eight hours SHALL
in contracts for labor and service, be
deemed a days work and the measure or
standard Of days work for the purpose
Of reckoning the compensation for services
of all employees who are now or may here
after be employed by any common carrier.
or railroad" Railroads independently
owned and operated not exceeding 100
miles in length, electric street railroads
and electric interurban railroads were
specifically exempted from the laws opera
ton.
At the time the law was passed the rail-
road companies were paying their operat-
ing employees on a double basis. To earn
days pay the empoye either worked ten
hours or made a run of one hundred miles.
In asserting its power to regulate hours
and wages Congress required the railroads
to pay the same amount for eight hours
work as is now paid for ten hours work.
Nothing was said about retaining the
mileage basis of payment. Moreover, it is
a not unnatural assumption that if Con-
gress had intended to retain that alterna-
tive method, it would have felt compelled
logically, to reduce the mileage run per
day in exactly the same proportion as it
reduced the working hours per day. In
other words, it would have prescribed
eighty miles as the equivalent of days
work, instead Of one hundred miles.
The railroad brotherhoods do not now
contend that in default of action by Con-
gress the railroads should voluntarily re-
duce the mileage equivalent from one hun
dred miles to eighty miles. But they do
not want TO surrender the mileage basis of
pay. In their conferences with the rail-
road managers the representatives of the
four brotherhoods are again threatening to
strike unless the companies will concede
that a run of one hundred miles is to be
reckoned as a days work. They are also
threatening a deadlock and tie-up unless
the companies agree to drop all proceed
ings undertaken with view of testing the
Adamson laws constitutionality.
So the railroad situation has clouded
over again in spite of the very liberal con-
cessions which Congress made to the rail-
road unions. The brotherhood workers,
having been the special benefciaries of the
Adamson law, ought to be the last persons
in the world to object to proceedings to
test its constitutionality They ought TO be
the first persons in the world TO accept the
results of the policy of regulating hours
and wages on which Congress embarked at
their behest and in their interest. But the
unions are evidently unwilling to give the
Adamson law any trial at all unless they
are TO be permitted in advance to amend
and extend il by one-sided Interpretation
Such a demand is absolutely illogical
Yet it is natural SO long as the govern
ment permits the companies and The men
to quarrel over questions of hours and
wages, each side will employ all the
weapons at its disposal to force conces-
sions from the other. The discomforts
and suffering resulting to the public from
policy of industrial civil war, from
strikes, hold-ups and violence, will not
greatly concern either interest.
The true solution Of the difficulty is TO
vest the regulation Of hours and wages
completely in the Federal government. The
Interstate Commerce Commission has al d.
ready taken control of the revenues of the
railroads. II controls their rates and earn
ing power. II ought to assume the cor