The Leader, enterprise and press. (Fitzgerald, Ga.) 1915-1921, 1916-05-31

change their division points under
an 8-hOur day schedule is absurd.
for the reason that the average
running time on a short division
must be II IL miles an hour lust
the same as it would be on long
division of over 100 miles. If a
train could not average 121-2
miles an hour on $50 mile di-
vision, it would not average r.
IL miles an hour on less than
a 100 mile division.
Railway freight train crews do
their work by the piece, and what
they are paid to do is to move a
train at least 100 miles in a given
number of hours. If they should
perform this duty in less than
eight hours and did not succeed in
moving train 100 miles in eight
hours, then they would go into
overtime and would be paid &C
cordingly.
If the train crews demanded an
8-horrr day on the basis of wage
worker in factory meaning to
quit work at the end of eight
hours regardless of where they
may be at the time, the railroads
could very properly maintain that
it could not be granted without
changing every terminal so that
all divisions would be exactly 100
miles.
Railroad men regard the short
er work day in exactly the same
way other men have considered
it. They have had opportunity to
know for themselves the advan-
tages that follow a reduction in
the number of hours of work
they remember when there was
no limit to the hours and they
know how they paid the penalty ;
they realize that with the endless
day they were not as we'll off as
they are now with the 1O-hour
day, and with the lessons of years
to prove it, they stand for the
shorter work days as humane,
Just proposition which thew con-
'istently demand on the ground
that 8 hours service at time is
all the man can give with fairness
to himself if he is to retain his
mental and physical health, en-
JOY a part of his time to his own
advantage and that of his family,
to remain alert and active, the
better to perform service and to
have some hope of remaining a
wage worker several years more
than he knows he now has.
Freight cars have grown in
length from % to so feet in the
last twenty years and where for
merly it took "a loads to make a
train, it now requires 50 to 100
cars. One crew is now doing the
work that formerly was done by
three or four crews and this one
crew does not receive pay COM
mensurate with the increased
work.
Statistics show that it costs the
railroads for wages to locomotive
engineers and hremen, 65c for
each one thousand tons carried
one mile in 1890, while in 1918
one thousand tons were trans
ported one mile for only $50, a
decrease of cost to the railroads
for these employees alone Of more
than 50 per cent. While there
has been some slight increase in
wages during that period, it has
not been III accordance with the
decrease in operation cost to the
railroads or to the increased work
made necessary by extremely
long and heavier trains.
A statement issued by the Ex-
ecutive Committee of the Asso-
citation of Western Railways,
April 2Srd, 1916, declares that the
railroads received in the year
1890, Sl.65 per freight train per
mile, and in 1914 the earnings per
freight train per mile were 1881,
or an increase of 100 per cent.
Freight train crews are produc-
ing double the revenue for the
railroads according to this state
ment by the roads themselves.