New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1916-09-09
THE. RAILROAD WAGE PROBLEM
An Interesting Effort Plain Buying and Sn
Values in Fields of Economic Exchange-Rates
Should Depend on Quality Of Service.

until Monday morning. on his own inltIa-
tive he telephones the consignee to suggest
that the package be called for at once. No
railway "code" invites such cooperation from
its employees. Yet how better could any cor
poration win its way into public favor?
A trainman helps yoI with your luggage,
looks up connection for you, and even dogs
your steps to hand you a forgotten book or
umbrella. This is service par excellence,
which arouses real expression Of gratitude
roth to individual and, even if often unsaid,
70 the corporation itself.
To perform this type of'service takes men
out of the "machine' class. Their price be-
comes, not that of iron and steel but that Of
trained intelligence. Men who can render
such service as other business men to-day
coyet as never before great light has
come to them. They have seen that sit is
not what you pay, but what you get for it
that counts"
Can labor do anything to instl into its
cohorts this vital idea Of service, so widely
recognized in merchandising, yet apparently
so little recognized in railroading?
Has it done anything of the sort in the
past? Have Mr. Gompers. Mr.. Haywood, and
the other labor leaders, who entreat my sym
pathy for their various causes. ever urged
their union associates 20 consider the dis
tinction between my friend, the suburban
station agent, who went out of his way to
create good will for his employers, and the
thousands of other employees, who, as one of
them once told me, "have to work somewhere
and it might as we'll be here? Has it ever
occurred to any of these "organzers" that the
man trained TO give his employer more than
is asked might be worth even more per day
than they, themselves suggest be asked?
have never seen labor make a demand on
capital based purely on the fact that it de-
serves better wages because through its own
effort the value Of its services has increased
have never seen labor reason with capital
that it is intrinsicaly worth more because it
has made itself more courteous. more efficient
or more trustworthy. Always it is the cry of
Increased cost of living that hackneyed,
"stick-beat-dog dog-bite-pig" sort of argu-
ment. the lame excuse of the man who has
failed and hastens to put it on anybody but
himself
If labor has improved its value, indvid-
ually or collectively why does it not come
out fatty and say so?
Did not even Congress ignore this point +?
Who among the Congressman who voted
these men ten hours pay for eight hours
work buy that way themselves? Is it a
mahogany box with vibrating mechanism
that they have in their homes, or a phono-
graph? Is it a gasolene engine on wheels
that they ride about in, or an automobile ?
Is it a lens and a siver-coated piece Of CELIA
tine that snaps their daughters in front of
the White House, or a kodak? Does not every
one of these men recognize that these things
are bought not for what they are, but for
what they will do? Are not the pleasure
of the music the ease and comfort of travel,
the joy Of taking the picture, all symbols of
modern service? May not the same idea be
applied to the purchase of men to operate
railway? / think so.
What have the railways done, and what
are they planning to do. to increase the
value of their service to the public? Will
they in future guarantee greater degree
of train regularity, and therefore merit
greater public confidence? VIII they in
crease their precaution against accidents
viii they provide still greater comforts for
passengers, still greater service to shippers
in hauling freight?
What has labor done, and what is il plan
ming to do, TO increase the value Of its ser
vice? Will membership in a union or broth
erhood hereafter imply a greater desire on
the part of an employe to maintain high
standard Of courtesy, efficiency and trust
worthiness, thereby making his individual
services increasingly indispensable to his
employer Will labor take a steadfast in
terest in the desire Of capital to render the
public remunera,iye type Of service and
cooperate by making its own contact with
the railways customers the actual means of
inducing greater confidence and good Willy
h. NJ. HUNT.
Rye, N. y, Sept. &. 1915,