Arizona republican., 1918-02-14
Two Conflictinu Statements

Two statements have been made before the Rail- way wage commission lately which in a large ure offset each other One was made by w G. Lee, head the Brotherhood of Trainmen, and the other by Timothy Shea. acting head of the enginemen, firemen and hosters MT. Lee complained that there was concerted effort, directed from Wall street. to traffic that the enforced experiment which the government is making in the direction of the railways would be a failure; that the trainmen and other employees acting under these instructions fooling away their time
 Mir. Shea complained that the engineers and fire men under the stress of circumstances were worked hours and harder than He drew painful contrast between the present when the fireman must be constantly feeding the locomotive for 16 hours at stretch with those happy days of yore when he had time to ske off his boots and curl up his bench at the left of the cab and go to sleep.
 Mr. Shea's relation a plea for shorter hours, that is, lawful hours, and higher wages There doubt to that there is no doubt that the plea should be heard and granted if his description of conditions is
 As to what MT. Lee wants is not quite clear It not clear to the commission, and the commission displayed some skepticsm to his statements. Evi- dently the commission attached importance to them
 It is well known that the transportation business of the whole country is in far shape than it ever before in all the history of railroadng The unusual weather has been factor, and another has been the exgency. But the that priority shipments themselves suffering indicates unskifulness of direction which would attribute to the machinery rather than to the railway arrangements, which only part of the machinery
 Mir. Lee states that the railway managers are trying to foresall government ownership by proving it a failure. But they should have motive for that. They have less reason to be apprehensve
 
 years In the government ownership talk of the last twenty years, of which there has been so much no authoritative voice raised one side the other. On side had only the voices of the demagogue and the dreamer. On the other, the voice of the advocate of vested rights. Between them they made great deal of noise, which might have confused and alarmed the railway who could not know precisely where they stood.
 Now they have incidentally learned from con- gress that government ownership is not contem- plated desired. The adminstration has specifically disavowed any government ownership pan Such disavowal made at the time of the taking over of the railways and has since been repeated
 Little objection made by the railways to submitting to government direction. Only one rail- way head we believe regarded that direction with disfavor and his objection was not to any hardship the railways would endure. He feared rather, it would be interference with such a degree of efficiency as then existed. We regret to say that nothing has since occurred to prove that his fears were not well founded
 But generally, railway heads welcomed the sumption of government responsibility, some will ngly others almost enthusiastically promised them relief from the consequences the babel at Washington, the utter lack of coordination, the raucus conflicting orders which being given out from a myriad of sources orders from the de- parment orders from the fuel administration orders from administrations orders from this board