The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-04-08
GIVES ATTITUDE
 OF RAILROAD MEN
Morris Contends Roads Can Easily Grant Demands Recently Made
 by Employees

To the Editor of The Age-Herald: note in your Sundays issue that there are "dire predictions that there will be railroad strike. You have had other references to the same thing recently. You deplore this, with the intimation that the railroad employees should desist- and you only give as reason that pros perty is oozng over the country. Permit me to say, as representative of the Brotherhood of Railway Conduc- tors that the railroad men have not pre- dicted any strike. They do not believe in strikes The railroad employees have cer- tain rights, and whe nthey do not get these they come in a business like way, through their regular constituted repre- sentatives, and make them known to the proper authorities and thus insist on set ting differences
 It has been repeatedly affirmed by rail- way officials that, if the demand by the transportation brotherhoods for an eight hour day was granted, it would cost the loads s100,OOO, 600 annually. The four em- ployes' organizations involved have chal- lenged this statement, but the officials have never yet presented any detailed figures to prove how they arrive at that exact sum- They simply make it at 500 0OO, 900 and let it go at that.
 An evidence of the fact that railway officials know it would not mean any con siderable increase of wages to the men, the Missouri Kansas and Texas Railway company, in a letter addressed to its tr 4nmen enginemen, yardmen and host lers, signed by w. A. Webb, chief oper- ating officer, states
 The feature of payment of t.-,e and one-half for overtime would cause the railroads to avoid all overtirs Nayment possible overtime now amounts to more than z per cent of the total wages of the train and enginemen. consequently the average pay of employees in that serv- ice is 1O7 per cent of what it world be were no overtime earned. It is true you would earn minimum days pay in some ir rstances in two hours less time than at present but the likelihood of your earn ing in excess of minimum days pay would be remote"
 The contention in favor of an eight-hour day has all along been that if penalty was fixed on the use of overtime the rail- roads would see to it that there would be little or no overtime.
 The railroad officials also contend that it would be impossible to reduce the run ming time so that division would be cov- CT ed in eight hours.
 During the recent arbitration case be- tween western railroads and their engi- neers and firemen, the railroads presented elaborate exhibits which showed that the average time of IS per cent of through or irregular freight service on all rail- roads west of the Mississippi river in Oc- tober, 1913, between terminals 112 miles apart, was hours and "A minutes. Trans portation employees, therefore, in almost four-ffths of the through or irregular freight service in the west which consti- tuted about three-fifths of all freight train mileage, to produce their 100 miles, the standard for a days pay, within hours and 30 minutes. It would follow, accord ing to these sworn statements of the rail- roads, that on slightly less than half of the freight traffic Of the west the adop- tion of the eight-hour day would require TO additional labor outlay. Additional outlay would probably be necessary for the adoption of an eight-hour day on only one-f1fth of the through freight service in the west. No overtime at an advance of 50 per cent over regular rates, however, would be paid as the traffic would prob ably be sent over the heavier divisions in lighter trains at speed of 123a miles an hour, the increase in the total pay roll of the western railroads would be very small.
 These sworn statements prove the in- sincerity of the figures now being used by the railroad officials in an attempt to prejudice the public against the fair and reasonable demand for an eight-hour day for train service employees.
 In their statments issued to the public, the railways give list of a dozen or so engineers and conductors who receive fancy pay These men, by reason of cer- tain choice limited passenger runs, are held up as examples of what train serv- ice men receive. The public is led to be- lieve that the pay received by these few men is indicative of the pay of the aver age train service man. As a matter, of fact, they are exceptiona! cases and are not fair examples of what the. train service men receive. The present eight hour day movement does not embrace the r;. ssenger train crews-only freight men, therefore, it is not proper to use any pas senger service men as illustrations of pay received by the men embraced in the pres ent eight-hour day movement {.
 As the railway officials insist on holding up these exceptional wages as examples of train crew pay, it would be only fair and just to use the salaries and ''contri- buttons" made by the Rock Island rail-
 
 way to it's officers, as fair and typical examples Of what the officials receive on American railroads.
 A careful tabulation from the interstate commerce commission report No. 6S34. which can be had by writing either com gressman or senator. would be of interest to anyone who is interested in the eight hour movement. This report shows that officials of the Rock Island System alone received in excess of their salaries an aggregate sum of s1. 1.4s1, 750.
 From the above report of the United States interstate commerce commission. it is plain that railroad pay rolls do not always show what the officials actually receive There is no question as to the railroads ability to meet the demands for an eight-hour day if the funds which in the past have been diverted from their proper uses, are allowed to remain in the treasuries of the railroads to meet the necessary expenditurs of running rail- roads as business institutions.
 M. D. MORRIS, State Legislative Representative Order
 Railway Conductors.
 Birmingham. Apri, 5, 1916. No. 2415 rxsf