The Brookings register. [volume] (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1903-1971, 1920-11-18
THE NATIONAL CAPITAL
BV l. f Jones

ployerS and employees in railroad OPP
GRAFTON, has attracted a good deal Of
comment in Washington. When war
darkened the c0untry's horizon, Nj.
Willard was one of the first railroad
presidents summoned to Washington,
his great services to his country
have made of him a character whose
Judgment of opinions carry unusual
weight. In discussing the work per-
formed by the railroad board. NJ.
Willard reminds us that it is APP
pointed by the president and confirmed
by the senate, just as the members of
the United States supreme court.
Three of the members are nominated
by the railroad companies, three by
the railway employees, and three by
the president himself as representing
in a larger way the public interest.
The transportation act says that 1t
tablish rates of pay and standards
of working conditions which in the
opinion Of the board are just and
reasonable, and in determining the
business and reasonableness of such
rates the board shall take into con-
sideration among other things; the
scale Of wages paid for similar kinds
of work in other industries; the rela-
ton between wages and the cost of
living; the hazards of the employ
ment; the training and skill required
the degree of responsibility; the char
acter and regularity of the employ
ment; and inequalities Of increases
in wages or of treatment, the result
Of previous wage orders or adjust
ments.
Mr.. Willard says: ut may fairly
be said that congress by this act has
made a preferred class of the railway
workers, because so far as | know
this is the first time that congress
has eve said that any particular class
Of the people should be given at all
times and under all circumstances just
and reasonable wages and just and
reasonable working conditions
OF course it may be said that con-
gress did not do this primarily in the
interest Of the workers, nor would
congress have been justified in doing
so. Congress acted only as it had TO
act in the interests Of the nation as
a whole. Congress acted with a full
--,l;,,t;N, &c thn INN nTt n 700 nf on
uninterrupted transportation system
in a country such as ours, but being
unwilling to deprive the workers OF
their right to strike, it ought TO pro-
vide machinery which would make it
unnecessary under any circumstances
for the men to stop work in order to
obtain just and reasonable treatment.
The progress Of events appears to in
dicate that as this labor law comes
TO be better understood by the railway
workers as a whole they will realize
that they have indeed been made a
preferred class, and Mr.. Willard adds
in expressing the belief that we VIII
be free from railway strikes in the
future; not, however, because the men
have been forbidden to strike, for |
repeat, there is nothing in the law
which limits the right of the railway
workers to strike if they want to do
so, but simply because the law pro
vides a way by which they can obtain
without striking everything that they
could reasonably expect to obtain II
they did strike"
In the only award so far announced
by the labor board it was stated that
the effect of the higher wages then
allowed would mean an aggregate in
crease in wages to all of the railway
workers of approximately $500, 600 900
per year.
"All the world knows that this is
the day of petroleum, but what is the
time o. day? Does the clock mark
forenoon, high noon, or afternOon?'
Thus. an engineering firm expresses
it's cryptic fo%rebodings concerning pc
troleum. Within a few years coal and
wood as fuel have found a powerful
competitor in the oil fields. Our OIL
burning war ships and merchant fleets
have Joined the procession. led by the
automotive industry in trying to burn
I'D the oil that men are bringing out
of the bowels of the earth. Of course,
if S natural that there are many qucS
lions concerning the reasons for the
constantly rising prices in the com
modify: but strange enough the an
swers are far from satisfying.
The engineering report referred 10
above says that after every effort mas
beer exhausted to secure petroleum.
that the results are that there is
scarcely more than enough to relieve
the current s~tringency. What re-
mains underground" continues the re
port, is mot a reserve, but in def
ance of the widest extravaganza OF
effort to get it out"
The truth of this statement can
hardly be questioned, but in this day
of regulating public utilities, and safe