Denver labor bulletin., 1918-02-09
LOWLY TRACKMAN GIVEN
A HEARING BY WASH
INGTON AUTHORITIES.
General Readjustment of Pay for
All Railroad Employees Being
'Considered;. Secretary Will
sons Reorganization of
Labor Department.
BY LAURENCE TODD
Especial Representative The Denver Labor
Hnllctlnl

Bullctin.l
WASHINGTON, Feb 4.-Testimouy
given 10 the railroad wage board last
week by representatives Of the Broth
erhood Of Maintenance Of Way En-
ployes, an independent union Of some
% 900 members, who are asking eight
hours and q living wage Of S2.25
day minimum for section hands,
showed that thousands Of section
hands on the roads IN the south are
getting Sl.35 20 Sl.5O a day. And
they work ten hours.
Section foremen get as little as $50
a month, altho they must be skilled
mechanics, and must hold themselves
ready to 20 out on the track at any
moment, day or night, particularly
when storms are the worst, and stay
out until traffic IS running safely.
Section hands must hold themselves
within call, day and night, in the same
way.
These men are beginning to organ
ize. and they have asked the govern
ment for more pay and shorter hours.
They will probably get both. II was
shown that on some of the lines the
section hands and bridge repair gangs
are only about half their normal
strength. just now when they are
needed most The men have left the
road for better paid jobs in war in
dustries or on farms. The government
will have to coax them back to the
railroad with big increase in pay.
shop Crafts Expect Raise.
When the section gangs. the bridge
men, the telcgraphers, freight clerks
and other railroad employees have been
given the increased wages that they
have needed for years past, the rail-
road wage board will have to give an
increase to the well-organized groups
tho federated shop crafts, the
switchmcn and the train crews.
The shop crafts will be heard Feb
ruary II, but their international Off
GERS are already here, listening to the
testimony Of the other unions that de-
mand more pay. Their recent action
at Kansas City, where they agreed
upon joint demand for a standard
wage of Sc n day and eight hours, to
be applied to western traffic territory,
will probably be duplicated at Pitts
burgh this coming week, when the
northeastern district meeting will be
held. The original plan had been for
n standard S5 wage, but at Kansas
City il was decided that the cost of
living had gone up so rapidly-in-
creasing 30 per cent since l9l4-that
SO was the least that skilled work
man could be expected to live and
support his family on.
Bolshcviki Gain Strength.
Revolutionary strikes in Austria
have been followed by still more inn
portant revolutionary strikes in Ger
many. Bolshevikism is gathering
force in both empires. Today's dis
patches show that the same class war
fare is reaching over thru Finland
into Sweden and Norway and Den
mark. Arthur Henderson, conserva-
tive British labor leader, says that un-
less the British government adopts
more reasonable attitude in its deal
ings with the .shipbuilding crafts, it
will "bring this country to the verge
of industrial revolution
In view of these signs of unrest in
Europe, the insistcncc of the anti-labor
crowd known as the national indus
trial conference board. in refusing to
deal with unions in the big war con-
tract shops, is causing more and more
anger and protest among union work
ers in the eastern states. Like the
Bourbons, these employers never learn
anything. Even the White House is
disgustcd.
New Conference Council.
Secretary of Labor Wilson has just
decided to make one more attempt
to bring order out of chaos in the re-
lations between workers and employ
crs during the war. He has taken
the advice of John Lind's committee,
known MS the advisory council on Ia
Dor, and has agreed to create new
conference, or council, to be made up
of five employers, five spokesmen of
the employees and two spokesmen for
the public, to be chosen by the other
ten. These twelve men are to hold ian
early conference with the view Of
reaching agreements on principles
and policies which should govern their
relations" Samuel Gompers has been
asked to name the labor members, and
Magnus Alexander, of the employers
combine, to name the five employers.