New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1921-04-20

sion of such power entails, and note
the railway industry has been recor-
nisad and written into tho Federal
laws OF the United States. and tho en-
ployees specifically point out that this
responsibility is being unscrupulously
evaded.
THE railroads are pleading poverty
The banks are making unprecedented
profits and declaring unprecedented
dividends and the same applies to steel,
coal. railway equipment and similarly
situated concerns. The capital coin
o, n,ne e., IN preparing to prccipitate unem-
plooyment, adopted the policy that the
railroads should DO 1T first Railway
Improvement programs were deferred;
railway maintenance was reduced be-
low minimum legal requirement.
The report brings into clear relief
the fact that there is no foundation for
the opinion. which the employers pub
licisy machinery would popularize, that
the railways and the other great indus
tries are the victims of some misfortune
of The times.
"Thc industrial paralysis which has
staggered America is capital on strike
against society And capital, national
~ and internationally organized and
capital strike shall go on until labor
comes to its knees and consents to
sweeping reductions of wages and also
consents to surrender its right to bar
gain collectively on a scale co-exten-
sive with the organization of the en-
pioyers."
Discusses Lay-Offs
Taking up first the lay-off charges,
tf i
that railroad shop lay-offs, incomplete,
in the last nine months wero more
than 100000
"By far the most illuminating fact"
said the report, "in any attempt to
estimate what lies back of these rail
road layoffs, is the fact that practi-
cally all of the larger systems have
been contracting with outside concerns
for repair of hundreds of locomotives
and thousands of freight cars which
would normally be repaired in their
own shops and yards
The report charged that the roads
new policy is to subcontract in order
to remove from government control
many of their men. Numerous repair
companies, many of them said to be
new concerns, were named as taking
over railroad repairs
1.
Lauck said showed that the total excess
cost of equipment repairs made under
contract by outside concerns has been
sufficient to have paid all the shop en-
ployees laid off throughout the coun-
try for ull-time work
In detailing the composition of the
alleged banking combine in control of
the railroads the report said that the
Vanderbilt directorships were not in
cluded. 1t said that among the twelve
banks the Guaranty Trust Company
held the largest number of railroad d-
rectorships with fifty, while the Ma
tional City Bank had forty eight
The report covered again the state
ments made earlier in the present hear
ing by B. NJ. Jewell, for the employees,
that twenty-five we'll known railroad
men held 1913 railroad diroctorships in
1920 on ninety-nine Class l roads,
covering 80 per cent of the country's
men again, the report said that a num-
Der of them "belong to the inner<bank-
ing circle centering around the house
of Morgan and the National City
Bank"
Basic raw materials were divided by
the report into two classes, agricul-
tural products and mineral products
The effect Of the fall of the agricul-
tural class. the report asserted, had
been to spread loss among farmers and
to afford an excuse for sharp reduction
in wages, and finally to cause tempo
rary manufacturing depression If min
eral raw materials had fallen, the re-
port declared, industry would have been
stimulated. 1t declared that the "finan-
cial combine" controlled the production
of mineral raw materials. Steel cement
and coal were specifically mentioned as
among the mineral materials. The re-
port charged that "the combine is hold
ing up the prices of steel and other
railway supplies with view of ac-
centuating the depression and then per-
suading the public that the railways