The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1921-04-09
RAILROADS IN BAD.

railway managers have started some.
thing that they now wish they hadn IT,
It was all very well for General AT.
terbury to go clustering before the
Railroad Labor Board and command it
forthwith to abrogate national work
ing agreements and make slashing cuts
in tho wages Of workers, and If the
board had been frightened and com.
piled with his demands everything
would have come out lovely for the
railroads.
But the board refused to be i'm
pressed by the swashbuckling tactics
of the general. It insisted that no
action should be taken until all the
facts involved in the controversy had
been reviewed, thus enabling the public
to judge whether or not there is any
merit in the position taken by the
open shop crowd.
It is the presentation Of these facts
that is disturbing the railway man
ayers. Their propaganda bureaus are
working overtime turning out flood
of misinformation to counterfeit them,
but to no practical purpose. The pub.
licity sharks are lying a little more
clumsily than heretofore, and, there.
fore, less effectively. There is marked
change in public sentiment, and before
the issue is determined the railroads
will doubtless realize that they have
reached the end of their tether.
Illustrative Of the rapid spread Of
knowledge was the reputation and de.
ANNEXATION Of the Cummins-Esch bill
by the Ohio general assembly. Less
than six months ago it was unpopular
and impolitic to criticize this law in
Ohio. President Harding had declared
that it was being misrepresented and
in practice would be found to be a
sane, constructive plan for the reor-
ganization Of the railroads Very few
persons can now be found who still
hold to that belief. The failure Of
the transportation act is so complete
and irremediable that it is generally
recognized as a cheat and fraud.
Senator Cummins alone contends that
additional legislation is unnecessary.
He thinks efficient and economical
management is the solution of the
railroad difficulty. He is going to have
an investigation to determine if pos
sible why the railroads are ON the
brink Of bankruptcy. With the pride
OF authorship, he wants the public to
believe that his masterpiece is the last
word in legislative wisdom, but the
facts are all against him. The rail
roads have gone from bad to worse
under its operation, and nobody in
congress can think of anything that
should be done to relieve the situation
end at the same time continue private
control Of transportation.
When pronounced conservatives like
Senator Calder Of New York declare
that public ownership seems to be the
way out, as he recently did, it may be
taken for granted that the days of
private control are Numbered. It will
be supplanted by government control
not because those who rule are con.
verified to the principle, but because
private management is a hopeless
failure.
It has been stated that the strategy
OF the railway managers in attacking
working agreements and wages was to
divert attention from their own in
competency. They had to blame some
body for a condition 50 obviously bad
that it could not be disregarded. They
couldn't blame the government, which
had emptied its treasury for, the ben.
eft of the railroads, and they cou1dn Il
blame the Interstate Commerce Com.
mission, which had granted rate in
creases higher than any railroad man
had ever dreamed it would be possible
to secure. The managers had obtained
tile maximum Of their demands, and
stall things were not being helped.
So they jumped on the workers AMI
endeavored to make them scapegoats
For day or two the public was mis-
led, but now every man and woman
who reads and knows what he is read
ing is satisfied that management, and
. not workers, are responsible for thu
. injury that has been done and more il
right.
Against the charges Of railroad at
H torneys that national agreements have
in few instances been responsible 70,
j. slight inequities, the workers havs dem
+ onstrated that during period 81 eigh'
years covered by working sgrsensss'
& there has not been one authorized
strike. Prior. to 1912. before the. rail