The herald and news. [volume] (Newberry S.C.) 1903-1937, 1916-07-18
Impressive Statement


as switch tenders, crossing tenders,
and watchmen. These were receiV-
ing in 1912 an average Of $40 per
day, which was actually 6 cents a
day less than they had been receiV-
ing ten years earlier.
At that time there were 4S,201 con-
ductors with whom the statistics
dealt. The conductors, therefore,
were only a slightly more numer-
Gus class than the tenders and watch
men; yet, while the conductors had
had their wages raised from 1888 to
S4.29 per day, the less fortunate
class Of tenders and watchmen had
to stand reduction from S1.76 to
S1.70 per day.
If the cost of living has been stead
lily advancing for conductors, so as to
justify an increase of 27 per cent in
their wages, it seems difficult to eX-
plain why that same cost of living
should have fallen sufficiently to war
rant decrease of per cent in the
wages of switch tenders, crossing
tenders, and watchmen.
Take the single classification OF
general office clerks. There were
S7,106 of these according to the Of
fetal report A much larger number
than of either engineers, fremen, or
conductors.
These general office clerks were
paid an average of s2.21 per day in
1903, and of $3.50 in 1912; an in
crease Of only 13 per cent in the ten
year period.
General office clerks, without ex-
ception, are compelled to live in
cities, where cost of living is high.
Engineers Better Off
Engineers, on the other hand, are
distributed between large towns and
small towns; on the average, their
living circumstances ought to make
their expenses average considerably
less than those of office clerks, yet
the statistics show that engineers
have received in the ten-year period
an increase of "a per cent in their
wages, making them average exactly
$5 per day, while general office
clerks have received an increase Of
only 13 per cent, making them aver
age $3.50 per day.
One of the worst underpaid classi-
fcations of railway employees is that
of the station agents. There are just
about 10000 of these in the country,
or nearly as many as the number Of
conductors.
In 1903 station agents averaged
$1.SO day, and in 1912 they had
been raised to only 1920 day, while
in that same time conductors had
advanced from 1888 to $4.20.
That is, the station agent in 1872
was getting just about half the wages
of the conductor, and in ten years he
had had an average increase Of II
per cent, while the conductors ini-
crease had been 81 per cent.
Here are two of the most numer-
Gus classes Of railway employees:
Trainmen, other than engineers,
dremen, and conductors, numbered
136,S09, while trackmen numbered
337,451. The statistics show that the
trackmen were getting in 1903 an
average of s1.31 per day, and in 1912
an average of $3.50 per day, an in
crease of Il per cent.
What Others Got
On the other hand, the classifica-
tion of other trainmen was getting in
1903 $2.17 per day, and in 1912, S2.96
per day, an increase Of 36 per cent.
In percentage, this is the largest ad-
vance received by any single class Of
railway employees during this decade.
A general survey of wage condi-
tions in the railway service and in
other industries, it is believed, would
show that in the last fifteen years
the highly organized and favored
classes Of railway wage earners have
had their incomes increased more
than almost any other class of work
ers in the country, while the much
more numerous, but less effectively
organized classes of railway workers
have probably received rather less
increases than other industrial work
ers in general.
In view of the strong feeling that
fhese most fortunate cIassos of fbo
railway employees are now making
excessive and unreasonable demands,
attention is now bring called as
never before to these general dis
crepancies. There is a strong dis
position to inaugurate a general and
sweeping investigation of the whole
question of railway wages with a
view to establishing some sort of pub
lie regulation not unlike that already
applied to railroad rates, in the in