Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1920-07-21
Brotherhood Officials Make No Attempt to Conceal
 Disappointment ROADS PLAN TO GET
 MONEY FROM PUBLIC
IS Per Cent Advance In Freight Rates Is Asked to Meet the In- crease in Pay-Ya Yardmen's
 Boost Largest

Chicago, July 20a-Whether the specter of a nation wide railway strike has been laid bg the $500 .000,- coo wage increase granted today to more than 1900 ,ood railroad em- ployes tonight remained an uncer- ] tainty.
 Brotherhood officials, Safter all-day conferences, made no attempt to con- ceal their disappointment that they did not get all of the billion dollar increase they asked. The belief grew, however. in the absence of any talk of an immediate strike, that the union officials would submit the award, probably without fecommen- dation, to referendum of the men. A decision on this point was promised tomorrow by w. G. Lee of Cleveland, grand president of the Brotherhood of Railway Trainmen.
 Railroad representatives accepted the award philosophically and imme- dately set about plans fors passing the $600,000,000 addition to their wage budget along to the ultimate con- sumer--in this case the man who pays the freight. Armed with relia- ble advance knowledge as ito what the award would provide, the rail- roads had their figures ready. Judge R. M. Barton, chairman of the Unit ed States Railway Labor Board, had hardly handed down his decsi~n when E. T. Winter, representing the more than 400 railroads involved, an- nounced that the roads would need an increase of IS per cent ih freight rates to meet the wage boosts
 The interstate commerce eommis- sion will be asked to spread Athe in- crease over both freight and passen- ! ger rates.
 The $6o0. 100000 award repXesents \. Fl per cent increase in the bay of the railroad men. For the fir4 time in history the roads pay roll0 this year will pass the three billiot dol- lar mark. MT. Winter estimatB the 1920 pay rolls at $3,344 .000, ,O00, 3nors than double the $1,46S, ,576,394 Npaid in 1916.
 Yard Men Lead.
 
 active to May 1, with provision hAts { back pay for three months falls 10 August |, when $150,O00,O0 is to distributed in addition to the red lar pay. Yard service engineers, ffp men and helpers, who received a hourly increase of IS cents, will get the biggest back pay checks.
 In it's decision the board followed the broad, general policy laid down by the Lane commission, appointed in 1918, that the man who received the least should get the most. On percentage basis, the biggest increases went to the unskilled and semi-skill-ss ed labor, while the conductors. engi- neers and shop crafts, the so-called "aristocracy of the road" received smaller percentages.
 hTe one notable exception to this general rule was the yAyd service men. whose IS cents an hour increase topped all others. Here, the board explained, the deciding factors were the extreme hazard to life and limb and the degree of skill required.
 Today's award, if it is acceptable by ethe men, will bring to close, II least for the present, the board bee }lieves, the seemingly endless cycle of wage demands from the railway workers. Starting with the demanda of 1916, which were met for time 1 by passage of the Adamson law there has been an almost continuous procession of rail unions before var ious government boards and commis- sions, all demanding changes in pay. Distribution. NJ l When the government took control of the roads in December, 1917. it found pending requests from many Z unions for more money. The Lane commission responded with gradu- ated scale, ranging from a 48 per < cent increase for the poorer paid men, to nothing for those getting above $249 month. A series of ad- Il ljustments followed. Less than year later, in January 1919, director- general McAdoo received request from the shop crafts asking that he < add another $80O,O00,000 to the wage budget to meet the rising cost of liv- ling. The request hung fire many months. In August of last year. President Wilson appealed to the men , to wait and give the government chance to reduce the cost of living. They waited until this year. then pressed their requests again. I Again the matter was deferred, as federal control of the roads was about to end. In February congress- passed the transportation bill provid- ling new machinery in the labor board to deal with the case, but it was not until the board was appointed orl Z April 15 that work was begun. M
 An analysis of the decision showe |that the $60O,000, 900 increase will ges Ito the larges classes of empIoyes ms substantially the following basis:
 Railway clerks and freight hand-sI Hers, $12S,00O,000. ssH | Maintenance of way enaplo | Do N{21Yt