The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1916-08-07
A NATIONAL PROBLEM.

| heads with all the railroads of the
country over questions of hours of
work and pay, will be a strike vote"
that is. a vote giving the officials of
the brotherhoods, who are handling
the employees end of the negotiations
with the railway officials. the author
| ity to present strike ultimatlim to
the railroads if the demands of the
employees are not met, and to call such
strike in the event that no basis can
be reached on which a compromise,
or a settlement of the matters in dis
pute between the brotherhCods and
the railroads might be effected.
This will clothe the officials of the
brotherhoods with tremendous
power, an authority that is, indeed. of
vital concern to the welfare of the
people Of the entire country. to the
prosperity and perhaps the domestic
peace and order OF the whola nation.
There is no need to dilate oil the
sorry and disastrous developments
that would be certain to result from
nationwide strike on .he part of
the railroad employees who are directly
concerned with the operations of the
freight and passenger trains of the ma
ton; of the manner in which such a
strike would paralyze our industries
and our internal commerce, and our
export trade, as we'll; and of the suf-
tering that would ensue amons the
multitudes who are not even actively
engaged in any end of the railroad
business, though it be the largest in
dustry in the nation, and the one that
gives work to more people than any
of our other industries.
All of these possibilities that are
probabilities in the event of such a
strike are patent to every one.
So the power that the strike vote
would give to the officials of the
brotherhoods is an enormous one, as
tremendous a one in the extent of its
qualifications as was ever placed in
the hands of a few men. And it as
suredly behooves them to use it with
wise discretion.
1t would seem, and great is the pity,
that these brotherhood officials are
not in such a mood that they will use
their discretion wisely, unless their
|
they discontinued their direct negotia-
tons with the railroad officials a
month or so ago, and in order to sup
nit to the rank and file of the broth
erhoods the strike vote" and kindred
propositions.
d, The evidence on which this sugges-
ton is based is their refusal to accept
the proposal of the railroad officials
to arbitrate the differences in ques-
ton or to submit them to the inter-
state commerce commission for a fed
eral inquiry and determination.
And it was this emphatic refusal of
the officials of the brotherhoods that
has seemingly turned the sentiments
of the people on the side lines, and
who are so intensely interested in a
peaceful solution or adjudication of
these railroad labor troubles, into
channels that are favorable to the po-
sition that has been assumed by the
railroads.
There appears to be absolute JUS
tice as well as fairness in this proposal
of the railroads to submit this matter
to federal inquiry. If the ordinary
methods of arbitration are not avail
able.
The railroads are admitted on all
sides today to be in the public ser
vice, a most desirable part of it,
even though they may be owned pri-
vately. Their regulation by public
authority is pretty close to the abso-
Lutte, but, SO far, only in respect to the
questions of rates that the railroads
shall charge for their freight and pas
senger service. and in other matters
relating to many fields of railroad OPP
J Grafton.
There is public regulation of these
public service corporations which is
absolute as to what the railroads may
take in, but there Is no public regula-
ton as yet as to what they may be
compelled to pay out.
If the railroads are admittedly in
the public service. are not their en-
ployes also in the public service?
And is it not unanswerably logical
that IL public authority has ar
bitrary Jurisdiction over what the rail-
roads may charge for their wares
their revenues. public authority should
also have the decision in respect to
the demands that the railroad en-
ployes. also in the public service, may
make on these revenues?
Because labor is the most expensive
item by far in the cost of railroad op-
Grafton, it certainly seems to follow
that there is a most intimate relation
between the rates that the railroads
are permitted to charge. their only
. source of revenue. and the wages thai
they may have to pay to their en-
, ployes.
Z Rates and payrolls are twins in the
railroad world. They go hand in glove
, together.
r And so, the position of the broth.