Omaha daily bee., 1919-08-26
The Victorious Defeated
From the New York Times.

In the statement made on August by the
heads of the four brotherhoods of railroad EN-.
ployes demanding federal management Of rail
roads, they said that :. ~ 3
Labor faces a persis.ently serious situation
due to the cost of living and the impossibty
of wages keeping pace with the depreciation
of money. No fundamental changes are being
advanced to save workers from continual
defeat in the economic struggle of life. The
railroad employees are in no mood to brook
the return of the lines to their former control,
since all the plans suggested for this settle
ment OF the problems leave labor essentially
where it has stood and where it is determined
not to stand. ="
The figures laid before the house Of repre-
sentatives by the general manager of the Penn
sylvania railroad show that in Is states freight
engineers now get 81, 704 year, passenger en-
gineers $3.50, freight conductors, $3,76s, pas
senger conductors 1896. The governor OF
the great state of Texas gets $4,000 year, the
governor of Nebraska $780, the governors OF
Tennessee, Wyoming, Delaware and Arizona
$4,000, the governors of Rhode Island, North
Carolina, South Dakota and Vermont $4,000.
These, it may be said, are political Offices and
honors not usually held by men who have no
other resources than their official salaries.
Then compare the pay of these prosperous rail-
way men with the average income Of clergy
men. physicians, lawyers, college professors.
These, as rule, have had long and expen-
have certain social convention to maintain.
They have to have books. Some of them have
to have expensive professional apparatus. The
great majority of them would regard the pay
of these gentlemen who complain of continual
defeat in the economic struggle as a Fortuna
tus prosperity, golden. impossible dream.
We will leave it to the school teachers and
the clergymen to agree, if they can, which is
the worst paid profession. 1t is believed that
the average clerical income is 5000 year.
Passing poor on this, the clergyman is called
upon to help all sorts of people, causes" and
organizations. He has to educate his children.
He has to try to keep respectable and not too
threadbare appearance before the world. The
average school principal, let alone the hundreds
of thousands Of men and women who have
charge Of elementary education the most vital
of all, who perform in the state function as
momentous as any, must deem the pay of these
railroad men an unattai1able fortune. To most
of them it would mean not only comfort but,
in the course of few years, competence
The public hears great deal about the fat
fees of few famous lawyers and physicians
1t forgets the modest, the narrow income of
the ma jority in these professions. We have
seen the average income sof members of these
two professions reckoned at $1,000 year. By
what long, irregular hours that sum is earned
in the case of country doctors most people in
cities have scant perception.
These railway conductors and engineers,
shrewd, intelligent and forehanded men, must
feel that to call them continually defeated in
the economic struggle of life is misrepresenta-
ton of fact Their labor is well rewarded
They are victorious in the economic struggle.
AS an argument for administration of the rail-
roads by the government and the employees,
these gentlemen, self-respecting and respected
class, cannot regard themselves as convincing.