Albuquerque morning journal. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1903-1926, 1921-04-20

worked overtime i,2lb hours III
that month.
Examples Of what the report
called the lay-off policy" were
instanced from indianapolis, Los
Angeles, Nashville, Oswego, N. y,
Horton, Kans., Du Buois, Pa, and
Ottumwa, Iowa.
Men Walking About IDLE.
4 report from Oswego, n. Y,
charged that lin March. 1919 the
shop here was fu,l o. steel flat cars
Chat was under government con-
troll and the foreman only had
about twenty-four men cutting
them down. The rest of the men
were walking about doing nothing at
all and drawing their pay, but there
was no lay off then. The govern
ment was paying for it, and not
the n. Y. c. Now we have all
kinds of work and we are laid off. a"
1t was charged that in January
at Winston Salem a foreman on the
Norfolk and Western was caught
pulling tags off bad order cars,
while at Bmefields on the same
line foremen We're alleged to have
orders not to have defective equip
ment repaired.
An Eckman, w Va. letter from
Il railroad worker read: There is
pulled out of here every day cars
with no brakes at ALL"
Operated Defective Cars.
The report carried a statement
charging the Baltimore and Ohio
Railroad company with laying off
car mechanics while ears are de-.
liberately run with cracked plates,
cracked wheels, broken truck
frames and twelve other spe-
cific kinds Of breaks.
by far the most illuminating
fact" said the report, 'in any at
tempt to estimate that lies back Of
these railroad layoffs, is the fact
that practically all of the larger
systems have been contracting with
outside concerns for repair Of hun
dreds of locomotives and thousands
of freight cars which would norm
ally be repaired in their own shops
and yards"
Repair Bills Exorbitant.
Figures were presented which
Mr.. Lauck said showed that the
total excess cost of equipment re-
pairs made under contract by out
side concerns has been sufficient
to have paid all the shop employees
laid off throughout the country
for full time work. 1t was charged
that the average price charged by
Baldwin Locomotive works was
approximately four times the cost
of similar work done in railroad
shops. This was for specific list
of repair jobs done apparently in
1920. The report here, however,
estimated that il all the locomotive
repair work in the country were
done by outside concerns the COST
of the railroads would be about
doubled. 1t gave the present ma.
tional locomotive repair bill as a
charged that many large repair
concerns added 80 to 1876 per cent
to the labor costs for overhead.
The concerns adding the high over
head were alleged to belong to
1.-THE railroad combine" through in
terlocking directors.
The report alleged that the New
York Central paid the Merchants
Dispatch and Transportation COM
pany Of Rochester, N. Y, an aver
age of $137 for repairs for labor
per car which actually cost the
Merchants company SCI car in
November 1920. Tables of fig
ures were presented giving alleged
repair jobs car by car. This repair
the report said, was
distinctly a New York Central
adding that President
Smith of the New York Central
was until recently president of this
when he resigned in ia
vor of his son.
Personnel of Combine.
In detailing the composition of
the alleged banking combine in
control of the railroads, the report
said that the Vanderbilt director
ships were not included. 1t said
that among the IL banks, the
Guaranty Trust company held the
largest number Of railroad direc-
torships with so, while the Nation
al City bank had 48.
The report covered again the
statements made earlier in the
present hearing by Mr.. B. NJ. Jew
ell, for the employees, that 25 we'll
known railroad men held 1913 rail.
'oad directorships, in 1920, on 9J
class one roads, covering so per
cent of the country's steam trans
oortation. Naming these men
again, the report said that num-
ger of them belong to the inner
banking circle cantering around
he house of Morgan and the Ma
ion City bank"
Basic Raw Materials.
Basic raw materials were divid-
sd by the report into two classes
products and mineral
products. The effect of the fall of
he agricultural 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 tenn
oorary manufacturing depression.
+ mineral raw materials had fall
IN, the report declared, industry
would have been stimulater. It'll
declared that the financial COM
Dine" controlled the production Of
mineral raw materials. Steel ce-
nent and coal were specifically
mentioned, as among the mineral
The report charged
hat "the combine is holding up
he prices of steel and other rail- |