The Bridgeport evening farmer. [volume] (Bridgeport, Conn.) 1866-1917, 1916-01-28
The EIGHT
HOUR DAY

(From the RAILROAD Employer
r The Railroad Employee, speaking
of the announced intention of the
-four national brotherhood organiza-
tons representing the railroad train
and engine service, to demand for
their membership an eight-hour work
day. says:
because the employees organiza-
lions are to make demand upon
the corporations for an eight hour
day, does not in our opinion, imply
the summary tieing up of traffic on
the 45s railroads of the United States,
or even the severance of an under
standing between the organizations
and the managements, which it has
taken more than thirty years, not
without sacrifice ON either side, to
upbuild.
1.-The eight hour day as its provi-
sions would apply to every class of
train and engine service, is at best
ia highly complicated problem, and
we doubt If either the leaders of the
employees organizations formulating
these demands, or the railroad man
ayers can, at this early stage, sat
isfactorily explain what it would
mean in either schedule arrangements
or company revenue were the shorter
work day to obtain; nor is there to
our understanding, any guarantee IN
sight that the eight hour day, as ap-
piled toCroad service, would prove as
generally satisfactory to the en-
ployees as the present existing ar
rangements governing TINS class OF
railroad employment.
"And there are other phases bear
ing on the situation which, IN our
opinion, will warrant the most
thoughtful and painstaking cons1d-
Grafton by both sides, in which class
prejudice or political expediencyi
should play no part, with the thought
ever in mind that in the final analysis
the American public viii render a
verdict on the merits OF the contro-
versy from which there can De no aP-
peal.
1--WE had hoped to live to see the
dav in the railroad life of this coun-
try when questions, such as TINS
would be solved by reason and JUS
Ftice rather than by force or political
necessity, and this does not imply
that we are advocates of peace at the
price of honor.
Admitting the unquestioned right
of the wage Garner to leave his en-
ployment, and conceding that this is
the only available weapon at his COM
rnand to employ as a last resort when
right as he may see it is denied him,
we are entirely in accord with the
expression of man whom we con-
slider among the ab1est students of the
labor problem in America, who Is
himself an active member of one Of
the big railroad brotherhoods, that 1t
is better to argue for year. than
to strike a minute rather than in
sympathy with the reported state
ment of another leader that the
membership of his organization must
be prepared to strike in order to Sc
cure the eight hour day.
s.The >greatest element of danger,
therefore, that presents itself in the
Forthcoming controversy, as we see
it. is the action and influence of GER
side and sundry railroad officials on
the. other, who have never paruc1pat-
ed in a real strike, and consequently
have no conception of what indus
trial warfare fought to the finish
really means; of the misery and pr1-
walton that inevitably follow in Its
wake, not to mention the engendered
hatreds that a generation cannot eff
face
May we not hope in the present
instance that wisdom tempered with
understanding will in the end pre-
vaiI?''