New-York tribune., 1918-05-13
The Brotherhoods Disarmed

The Railroad Wage Commission
(Franklin X. Lane, chairman), which
has Just recommended to the Director
General of Railroads an increase of
$300,0O0 900 in the annual payroll of
the carriers, the distribution to begin at
the bottom first of all asked itself this
question::
"What wages should man justly re-
ceive?"
Then it found that this was perhaps
the "profoundest of all human ques-
tions,' and abandoned the search for
1.-The ultimate answer" Instead, it re-
solved to be practically altruistic, which
was the wisest thing to do.
1t could not say what in a given case
was just wage. 1t could not say what
under all the complex circumstances of
case would be a living wage. But it
could say what was not living wage.
Starting at the bottom, it found that
"the greatest number of employees on all
the roads, fell into the class receiving
between $50 and S65 per month" That
is to say, 1868 employees were receiv
ing an average of less than $14.50
week. This obviously was not living
wage. On the next higher plane were
312,76l employees receiving an average
of SIG a week. Nor is that living
wage.
The question was not whether some
thing should be done to relieve those
classes in railroad employment who, by
reason of being unorganized, had been
unable during two years of rising war
prices to get their wages raised. The
question was how they should be raised
in relation to the wages being paid on
the higher planes to the employees who
had been able to get more pay on threat
of tying up the country's transportation
system in war time.
Said the commission: "The govern
ment now enjoys this position Of distinc-
tion-that it is not yielding to threats;
it is not compelled to course by fear of
any unpatriot,c outburst; it is not MAX
ing concessions to avoid disaster"
Repeatedly the railroads, while in pri-
vate hands, had yielded to threats and
had raised the pay of the brotherhoods,
who had the power to bring about a ma
tional disaster. Once, at least, the rail
roads were moved to raise the pay of the
brotherhoods in order to avoid "an un-
patriotic outburst." We need not now
pass judgment on that performance.
The threat was hideous; but we have
never believed that the men would have
carried it out. We prefer to believe that
any serious attempt to inflict the disas-
ter would have wrecked the brother
hoods from within. What we are now
concerned with is the plight Of those
who, because they had not the power to
bring about a national calamity within
while weswere facing powerful enemy
without, went on receiving $14 to SIG a
week, with the cost of living rising every
day.
The powerful organizations at the top
never demanded that those at the bottom
should receive living wage. Altruism
was never part of their doctrine. The
more they got for themselves the less
shcre was for the weak at the bottom.
There is high authority" writes the
wage Commission, "for saying that Ito
him that hath shall be given, but from
MN that hath not shall be taken away
even that which he hath This dictum
as to the way of the world we take to
have been the recognition of fact and
not the Endorsement of an ideal"
However, the way of the world is
largely habit and may be broken. The
Wage Commission proposes that to him
that hath least shall be given most
while to him that hath most shall he
given least. 1t recommends that the an
nual payroll be increased $500, 900 600
and that the distribution of this sum bs
made by scale ranging from 43 per
cent down to 41a per cent.
Now comes the great matter. The
scale is to be inverted. 1t is As per cent
at the bottom and Az per cent at the
top. The man who receives only from
! $l4 to $16 week is to have 43 per cent
more. The man on the next plane above
- to receive only Al per cent more; and
so 1t is graduated until the man who re-
ceives $74 week shall have only Az per
cent more. The man who receives al
ready as much as SIS a week shall have
nothing more--not that he might not
justly deserve it, as the world gees, but
bscause those lower down deserve SO