New-York tribune., 1920-05-17
100000 Families in
Want, Rail Men Assert
Dependents Lack Proper Food
and Clothing, Men Assert in
Plea for Early Wage Advance

CHICAGO, May 16.-The families of
nearly one million railroad employees
m the United States are underfed and
nearly million and half families are
underclothed because of inadequate
wages, the heads of seventeen rail
road unions and brotherhoods de-
clared in a statement issued here to-
day The declaration, made public on
the eve Of the transfer to this city
of the hearings of the Railroad Labor
Board, reiterated the demand of the
. railwaymen for higher wages as the
only means Of checking unrest and pre-
venting the complete breakdown Of
transportation systems.
The statement said that unless condi-
tions were relieved, discipline could
not be maintained, wage agreements
could not be kept and the trend of
workers away from the roads to in
dustries paying higher wages could
not be curbed. The statement read:
THE country is face to face with
the menace of breakdown in trans
portation service. Already the eff
cheney and safety of the service have
been seriously impaired by the action
of thousands of employees who VOL
UNFAIRLY have quit to find higher
wages elsewhere The car shortage
now threatening to stop the wheels Of
all industry in the country is one Of
the first effects traceable to the fail
+ ure to provide the railway workers with
living wage. Moreover, railroad
travel is becoming hazardous by reason
in the number of track walkers whose
duty it is to guard the roads against
causes Of wrecks and other accidents,
Speedy Action Desired
LAS the chosen representatives Of the
two million railroad workers, we have
every confidence that the decision of
the Railroad Labor Board in the wage
question with which it is now engaged
will be equitable and just and arrived
at with all possible speed.
"Of the whole army of wage workers
IN the transportation industry in the
United States to-day 44 per cent o1
their families are underfed, 50 per CEN
their families are underfed, SO per cen
them are overcrowded or inadequately
housed. On the basis of what is &C
cepted as the most accurate estimate
of bare subsistence level of earnings
which is $l,700 year, 83 per cent O.
the country's railway workers are at
tempting to maintain their families
below bare subsistence level. Nor,
than 100000 railway employees do no
below which figure nearly three-quar
; ters of the families are undernour
ished and -eighths are underclad I'd
Under such conditions as we hav
here outlined it should not be surpris
ing that officials of the various organ
lzations of railway employees shoul
ind 1t difficult TO maintain 100 per cen
discipline within their ranks. Neithe
{ should II De strange that men are leav
: ing the railway service and that othe
men cast respect for wage agreement
TO the winds in an effort to keep thei
1amllles above the level of pauperisn
ohrest IN the ranks is naturally in
creaslng, and increasing at an alarmin
rate. ''' -
"A living wage is the only practi
cable answer to the present industrial
] situation. 1t is the only possibl
answer IN terms of citizenship. An
other answer will only POSTPONE tn
settlement until conditions render
real solution more difficult"