Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1916-05-10
ROADS APPEALING
TO THE FARMERS
ON wage Raise
II Demands Are Granted Farmers
Will Have To Pay Big Part
Of increase

Washington, D. C.-Thcu3h farm
ers usually feel little interest in
railway labor disputes and are dis
posed to think that such troubles are
remote from them and cannot touch
them directly. In the pending ques-
tion between the Brotherhoods OF
freight trainmen and the railways or
the country the railways evidently
are making special effort to inform
the farmers on the points involved
and to enlist their attention.
1t is argued by the railroad man
ayers that the final disposition Of the
dispute will be made by public sentl-
ment. They reason that the farmer,
when it comes to a final SHOW
down." really controls not only the
political power but the sentiment OF
nearly all the states. Therefore, they
ale trying to appeal to his horse
sense. They are sending out good
deal of literature directed especially
to the farmers-probably the first
time such course has Eeen taken
in any great labor struggle. They
say they are convinced of the gene
raj public's confidence in the horse
sense, the insight and the fairness OF
the American farmer, and that, there
fore, his influence must be powerful.
High Wages Now Paid
They are dwelling especially on the
argument that the freight trainmen
already are the highest paid laborers
in the world They submit figures to
show that in many instances freight
train employees earn from $500 a
month for the trainmen, or brake
man" as they used to be called, to
S25O.0O a month for engineers, work
inig from 90 to % days month.
They are asking farmers to inquire
into the facts and convince them
selves that most of the talk of ex-
cessive hours of labor on railways is
empty and contradicted by the facts
More than sixteen hours of continu-
GUS work in railway service is for
hidden by law. The instances OF
men kept on duty so long as siXeen
hours are a very small fractional per-
centage of the total employment;
they become less every year, and al
most invariably are due to accident
or some unusual weather conditions.
The managers of the railway COM
panies point out that the
farmer, himself accustomed to
from twelve to fourteen hours
day of steady work and
rarely earns in year as much cash
money as trainma4 on duty from
ten to twelve hours, and never con.
tinuously at work, can earn, resting
from labor from one-fourth to one
third of his time. In the south it IS
a familiar maxim that "it takes thir-
teen months to make a cotton crop"
The man who raises ten bales OF cot
ton gets for it in money from S45O.OO
to $4,000, and from this must pay
his living expenses, fertilizer bills
and labor. The trainmen are said
to average sS000O a year, this being
the estimate of the brotherhood lead
ers themselves, and the engineers
drav. from S1,50000 to S2,50OOO a
year, the conductors and firemen
earning wages betweea those of the
trainmen and engineers.
Farmer VitaIIy Interested
Aside from the question of justice,
it is pointed out that the farmers
direct interest in the matter is that
his welfare demands freight traffic
adequate to the needs of the country,
and that whatever Injuries the rail-
roads or hampers their operation or
prevents their development is direct
injury to him. If the trouble should
develop a general strike Of the freight
train employees, resulting in a tie
I'D of traffic, the farmer would be un-
able to ship out what he raises or
to get in what he wants. He will be
asked to consider whether the rail-
roads should be crippled by being
compelled to pay 25 per cent increase
in wages to men already receiving
far more than the average prosper
Gus farmer, with resulting injury to
the farmer himself-and if the rail-
roads are compelled TO grant the in
crease and have to raise their freight
rates. the farmer will have to pay
big part Of the increase.