Arizona republican., 1920-07-20
CLAIMS RAISES AVERAGING 5O-6O PER CENT OF SUMS ASKED IS NOT SUFFICIENT
Rejection of Award, Totalling $5O0,000000 Probable, Brotherhood Leaders Declare Strike Question Will Be Submitted to Vote of Membership
LRepubIIcan A. ?. Leased wIre1

CHICAGO, July 1s.-The railway labor board, created under the Esch- Cummins transportation act will hand down. at S:3o a. m. tomorrow. it's first award, increasing the pay Of virtually all the 100000 railroad em- ployes.
 Tonight, reports from reliable quar- ters indicated the award would aver age from 50 to 60 per cent of the amount asked by the men, or between $500, 600. 900 and s6oo.o0o,ooo of the bil- lion dollar total they sought.
 Judge R. M. Barton; chairman, ad- mitted that is not far off," when shown the report.
 Whether an award on the basis re- ported would be acceptable to the men, no union officer tonight was prepared to say. Nearly 900 brotherhood chair men and executives assembled today to discuss union affairs and adjourned until tomorrow.
 General Strike Possible
 A feeling of pessism was evident when union leaders met and privately they did not hesitate to declare a gen eral strike was a possibility. Tonight, however. it was virtually certain that the union chiefs themselves wo1ld not call strike but would submit the question of accepting or rejecting the boards award to a referendum.
 The labor board today began in-
 
 fees last night, when some one
 broke in and stole, among ether
 things, copy of the award. Two
 copies had been prepared, one for
 the boards files and the other for
 the printer. 1t was the former
 which was stolen. The printed
 decision covers 20 pages, making
 about 5000 words.
 While an air of doubt hung over the railroad situation here. it was am nounced from Philadelphia that the Pennsylvania railroad planned a 10 per cent reduction in it's working force this week. The roads announcement said that in the eastern region, be- tween 10000 and 12,oo0 workers would be laid off.
 J. G. Rogers. vice-president of the northwestern region at Chicago, said that the reduction applied only to the eastern region, but that reduction in this territory was under consideration
 From the office of the Southwestern region in St. Louis it was learned no reduction in working force was con- templated.
 The reports from. Chicago that the railroad organizations would probably reject the proposed award affected Wall street, transportation shares averaging one point decline.
 Watch Conference Results
 The most closely watched conference of rail leaders today was that of the big five" group, comprising the Brotherhood of Railway Engineers. Bremen. Conductors. Trainmen and Switchmen. The representatives of six federated shop crafts, including the blacksmiths, boiler makers, car penters and electricians. also were in session while leaders of the mainte- nance employes-clerks, freight hand lers, laborers, met in several confer ences.
 There is nothing to be said yet" said w. S. Stone, grand chief of the enginemen. We are here to receive the awards of the railroad wage board tomorrow. None of us know what the award will be. We are talking things over today"
 Immediately after announcement of the award tomorrow. the grand neil of the brotherhoods will he called. It will be the first session in more than a year. Sixteen groups of rail workers will be represented They will act upon the award, section by section.
 At the general meeting of union heads today, Peter Kilduff, chairman of the engineers union of the Rock Island system. wa9 elected chairman. Credentials of all union representa- tives were carefully examined before they were allowed to enter. Secrecy shrouded the meeting.
 The only union leader here who was out spoken concerning the situation was -. E-- 11eDeTilhB, president or the Switchmen's union of North America. He declared the unions were not bound to accept the awards. Asserting that he should not like to see a general strike. called" he said that with tha switchmen asking a 60 per cent in- crease, "a compromise would hardly be acceptable.
 Hints Strike
 "If the award is not sufficient to assure us a decent living, we will take concerted action" he said.
 While the recognized brotherhood chiefs were in session, another group representing the new rail unions, or ganized during the rail strike in Aprl, met under the leadership of John Cru nau. president of the Chicago Yard mems association, to formulate plans