Norwich bulletin., 1920-11-30
TO SAVE RAILROADS AND
 INDUSTRIES FROM RUIN

Boston, Nov. 29.-Fundamental change in the administration of the nati7c's rail roads were urged toe ay by Federal Judge w. A. Anderson in an address at con- ference called by the joint New England commission on foreign and domestic com merce to take steps toward united action to induce the interstate commerce com mission to save the railroads and indus tries from ruin," threatened, by the al- legged financial condition of the roads.
 Judge Anderson denounced "the absurd scheme of paying the same scale of wages all over the country, regardless of living conditions and of the amount of work re. quired. 10 all men holding a job carrying the same name" He urged that standard wages be abandoned 'in the interest of the workingmen themselves and charac- terized as absurd the labor unions pro- posal to obtain star dar1ization of Wcrk- ing conditions.
 Labor must alter it's policy in this matter" he said. Tor the public must compel the railroad labor board to alter it. It is menace to the public inter ests"
 Judge Anderson who is a former mem Der of the interstate commerce con,mis- sion and of the Massachusetts public ser vice commission, told the conference that ''railroading has been unbusinessl,ke be cause the bookkeeping of the railroads lis the most elaborate and expensive and at the same time the most inadequate te and generally the worst used in any gi eat business in the world"
 SThere is no real cost accounting in railroad bookkeeping" Judge Anderson continued "It follows that most of our railroad men don't know when they are getting new dollar for an old one" {"
 They never will until a radical change in the bookkeeping methods under which maintenance and depreciation, including obsolescence, are charged into annual ex- pense accounts by units. These are but illustrative defects in a system generally bad"
 Judge Anderson said that although he was mo advocate of general reduction of railroad wages or a return to the wicked exploitation of ante-bellum times" he was convinced that the present system is un- just, both to the ra:lroad-using public and because of general discrimination to wage earners themselves"
 "The official standardization of wages q he said, lon a mere money basis. that is
 regardless of money purchasing power in various sections, and of the quantity and quality of service required of such es- 1 ployes as station agents and freight 1 handlers in large overworked sections. 2s compared With small StatlonS In which l the business is limited to two or three i hours day. cannot be justified. This utterly unsound and uni ist stanGardiza- tiona hits northern New England very heavily. It is in my opinion the plain duty of all charged with responsibility for
 this situation to deal with it,sand at once before further financial disaster ensues 1 "As friend of the wage earners ] venture to suggest that they should CO., operate with the railroad managers ir eliminating the cress discriminations which now exist an,cng. wage earners, ac- i cruing from tile utter disregard of the 1 purchs sing power of money in different
 sections ard from tie vital differences il ! the time and labor requirements, of jobs bearing the same rarre." 7.
 He added that If 8 remedial adjust