Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1921-06-02
HOW TO MAKE A DOLLAR
GET BACK ITS OLD VALUE

A. Soon as More Work 10 Done for
Hundred Cents on the Railroads and
Elsewhere Business VIII Improve
TNHERE Is more involved in the reduction
l. Of the wages Of railroad men than q
saving Of S400, 900 900 a year to the rail-
roads.
That saving is considerable, but the rail.
road presidents say that IL IL not enough.
Wages were raised 5000, 900, 900 year ago.
The roads win be required to continue to
pay $200, ,0O0, 900 Of this amount under the
new award.
They will be relieved on July 1, however,
Of the burden Of the so called national agree
ments, under which unskilled labor has in
some instances been drawing $s7 a week
and under which the sums paid to me-
cbancs have been doubled and trebled and
even quadrupled under tho operation of q
rule which required three men to do what
under the old rule one man was accustomed
to do.
There will be immense savings when the
old custom 10 restored. These savings. COM
bined with the reduction in tho rate of pay,
will relieve the railroads. But whether they
will relieve them to such an extent that
there can be a reduction in freight and pas
senger rates 10 not yet known.
1t is a reduction in rates which the public
wants and should get as soon as possible
with safety to the stability Of the roads.
The abrogation Of the national agreements
and the reduction in wages are the result Of
an effort to adjust the railroads to the
changed economic condition Of the country.
Money was plentiful and prices were high
during the war. 1t was necessary to raise
the wages of the railroad men in order to
enable them to live according to their usual
standard, and it was necessary to increase
h. md enable
the roads TO pay the increased wages. But
the rates were not raised enough to meet
the increased wage bill.
Yet the high rates are one of the many
influences that are discouragng business at
the present time. The demand for com.
modities Is slack because there is widespread
unemployment. The cost of shipment is
one factor so affecting prices that merchants
are buying only what they need to supply
the immediate demands Of their customers.
Although the freight on a suit OF clothes
or on a pair Of shoes is not large, when 1t Is
known that freight has to be paid on every
article that enters into the manufacture Of
a pair Of shoes and q suit Of clothes, as we'll
as heavily increased railroad fares for the
salesman who travels about the country sell
ing the goods and for the buyer who pur-
chases the raw materials, it will be seen that
the railroad bill paid by every consumer is
a considerable item in the ultimate cost.
The railroad bill is large item in the
cost Of the heavier commodities On hard
coal, for example, the freight from the mines
in this State to Maine is more than S6
ton. The freight on a motorcar from De-
troit to Seattle is 5000. The freight on steel
from Pittsburgh to this city adds so much
to the cost Of a building that men contem-
plating enlarging. their plants or putting up
new structures to be rented have been post
poning their enterprises.
All this keeps men out of work and reacts
unfavorably upon every business man en-
gagged in meeting the demands Of the people
for food and clothing and household furnish
ings and all the many articles which people
in ordinary times are in the habit of buying
II the railroad workers consider only
themselves they will object to the reduction
in their wages. II they take a larger view
they will accept They will conclude that
It Is better for them to have work at any
wage than to be thrown out of employment.
which already has befalen many railroad
employees.
The owners of the railroads have accepted
reduced dividends on their holdings. They
have reduced the pay Of the high officials
and they have been making such economies
as were possible in order to be able to con-
tinue the operation of trains. They have
thus shown their willingness to do their
part toward the necessary readjustment OF
business conditions to the changed economic
condition Of the country.
But restoration of business activity will
lag il labor in the mass insists on the con
tinuance in any form of the conditions which
were brought about by the national agree
ments on the railroads Those agreements
were made without proper consideration for
economy. Such policy reacts upon the
men who follow it.
Only by a concerted effort 10 mako a
dollar buy more than it is now buying can
normal conditions return. A dollar will buy
more as soon as men do more work for Q
hundred cents. whether they be executives
of the railroads or engine drivers or shop