Norwich bulletin., 1919-07-30
ROAD WILL EMPLOY OUTSIDE HELP

The offer of the shore Line E.ee- tric, Railway Company tc rs-lHsts te at the old wage rates, all those of Is striking employees who reported fos duty before 6 D. m. Tuesday. met VILE no response. As far as could bs learned. not single man reported nnion .9r nu'g ofscIais ai slased I rnesdSy @ n.ena that it is their belisS that none Of the strikers on the Kew London division had deserted their ranks They it : timated that it might be possible tiiil few of the strikers on the Saybrooh division decided to accept the offer of re-ins tatement and return to work dt their old wages. When asked Tues day night how the strike situa ton of the international officers, said, -Our front line trenches are still intact
 The strike is now entering its third week. during which period not a car has moved over the rails of the Shore Line system
 The road officials have announced their intention of bringing in outside help to man the cars but there was no announcement as to just when an effort will be made to move the cars from the barns and re-establish ser vice.
 The company has accepted the re- fusal of the striking employees to ac- cept the reinstatement offer as an
  employment elswhere or do not in- tend to resume their work wiSi the company.
 Tuesday night R. w Perkins. prssi- dent of the road issued the following statement:
 We know of no way in which a business can be continuously operated at loss. It is impossible to pay out $110.00 for every s1oe.oo that is col lected, and there must be a. stream
 
 large as the one going out of it or the reservoir runs dry, and that is today the condition of The Shore Line Elec- tric Railway Company, and that is why we have been unable to respond to the demands of our men for increased wage.
 We believe that this community should, in it's transportation service, receive the benefit of the law of sup ply and demand in connection with the wage rate it pays for transpcrta- tion, and we believe that there are plenty of men in this commuaity who are ready and willing to work for the wage that we are able to pay. If we are mistaken in this belief, then eastern Connecticut has a still bigger problem confronting it; namely the abandonment of all those lines that cannot take care of themselves.
 We believe it is to the interest of the merchants and manufacturers, and lo the puDllc ln general, that the pro- perty should continue operations as a whole, but it needs no argument to prove that this cannot be done if the owners of the property must, in order to do it. meet a deficit of thousands of dollars per year Our loss for the six months just passed, exclusive of any return to the owners of the Shore Line, is in excess of $173, 3,e00.00, and that loss must be met by increa ased revenue, and any increase of wage add ed to this must become a direct tax upon the car riders, and we have seen no indication that they are ready to meet this increased tax and, even IT we would see prospects of an in crease of gross earnings, we would not dare to agree to pay out the money until we were sure of collecting it.
 If, then, the property is to be operat- ed as whole, it must be at the old wage rate, and we trust that our pat rons are now sufficiently familiar with the facts to recognize the difficulties under which we are laboring. and ap- preciate the fact that they are, them selves, partners in this enterprise, and very important partners for they fur nish the revenue that permits the op- eration, the capital contributed by the owners receiving no recognition what ever at the present time and the prop- erty created by that capital has been devoted to the uses of the public with out any recognition Can we go furth- CT than to devote the property to pub- lie uses without revenue?
 R. w. PERKINS President.
 MT. Rooney issued the following statement Tuesday night
 In statement on Tuesday MT. Perkins said that he has repeatedly stated that the contract of 1918 did not provide for the matter of wages and applied only to grievances as the wages were absolutely fixed We have showed this clause to various at torneys, one of whom was ex-Attor- General w. A. King who upon reading the clause of arbitration stated that the clause covered our contention.
 We also note that in MT. Perkins letter to the Editor of The Bulletin ing our query as to whether he would stand on his own proposition when the matter of date of the award was the only obstacle between us and a settlement.
 MT. Perkins also states that the position we have taken is that we will not arbitrate unless we are absolutely sure before we go into arbitration that the decision is to be in our fa- no right to question the honesty and integrity of both Mir. Taft and Mr Manly of the war labor board in their selection of the third man for the ar bitration committee. Were we to try to influence them in their choice we feel sure that they would promptly expose us. However. Mir. Perkins in- we should not accept any of the pro position> of the arbitration other