The Penn's Grove record., 1921-05-20
LABOR RULES
BURDEN COSTS
AOF R, R. SERVICE
u S. Railroad Labor Boaro
Asked to Stop Payments for
Work Not Done.
WOULD SAVE $500, 900
Lo1er Cost of Service Can Be Secured
Only by Cutting Expense,
Atterbury Says.

United States Railroad Labor Board
10 end gross waste and inefIiciency''
prevailing under present working rules
and conditions, General W. w. After.
bury, vice president of the Pennsyi
Vania railroad. in a statement to the
board in session at Chicago said in
part:
MBny railroads are net pow earning.
and with present operating tcsts ard
traffic have no prospect of earning
even their bare operating expenses
leaving them without any net return
and unable to meet their fixed charges.
The emergency presented can be me-
either by an advance in freight and
passenger rates, or by a reduction III
operating expenses.
With declining prices and wages in
industry and agriculture, the country
demands that the soIVency of the rail
roads must be assured by a reduction
in operating expenses, and not by a
further advance of rates.
The National Agreements, rules and
wogking conditions forced on the rail
roads as war measures cause gross
waste and ineftciency.
Would Save $500, 100000
| estimate that the elimination of
this waste would reduce railway OPP
erfnng expenses at least $500 100000
1t would be far better to save this sum
by restoring conditions of efficient and
economical operation than TO reduce
wages.
We believe that as the wages of rail
road employees were the last to go up
they should also be the last to come
down, but we do insist that for an am
pie wage an honest days work shall
be given. The public has the right to
insist that this must be obtained.
The public has also the right to ex-
pect that the railway executives. with
the cooperation of the regulatory
bodies and the employees. will as rap
idly as possible reduce the cost of rail
Nay operation so as to insure eventual
Iy reduction in rates. Ultimately a
REIMBURSEMENT of basic wages will be
required. Meantime it is TO the inter-
estS of all concerned, including labor.
that the rules and working conditions
shall be made conducive TO the highest
efficiency in output per man.
Losses in Income ~IrreparabIe
When wages have been too low the
harm done has been offset by retroac-
tive increases. Losses of railway net
operating income are ~irreparable. You
cannot make retroactive tomorrow the
savings that should lave been made
toby.
The board cannon possibly write the
rules and working conditions of every
railroad in this country and adjust
themA equitahly to varying geograph-
ical. operating and social conditions.
If rests entirely with the board to
determine whether this whole situa-
tion shall drift into chaos. and or
DERBY procedure become impossible eX-
cept at the price of railroad bank
ruptcv, financial shock and still wider
unemployment.
The Labor Board can prevent this
catastrophe by declaring that the Ma
tional agreements, rules and working
conditions coming over from the war
period are terminated at once; that
the question of reasonable and eco
nomiCal rules and working conditions
shall be remanded to negotiations be
tweeS each carrier and its own en-
plOvpes: and that as the basis for such
negotiations. the agreements, rules
and working conditions in effect on
each railroad as of December, 81, 1917,
shall be re-eStabliShed.
If the board will do this, the Labor
Committee of the Association of Rail
wav Executives will urge upon ev-
erv railroad company a party to De
cision No. ,, that no proposal for
tha reduction of basic wages shall be
made within the neXt succeeding nine
~ DAYS. This will afford an oppor-
+unfv to gauge the economies which
can he accomplished through more
efficient rules and working conditions.
It also will afford additional time
IN which to realize the benefits of a
further decline in the cost of living.
Relief imperative and Equitable
h course which we are recon
mending is not only imperative but
equitable.
The War Labor Board declared that
the war period was an in~terregnum. to
no used neither by employer nor EN-
nIovee for the purpose of lettering
or iHsairing the position Of either.
To perpetuate as the normal rules
ond working conditions on the rail
roads. the extraordinary provisions of
The war period is a distinct violation
of all promises. The war has now
been over more than tive years. The
+im. has come when, if the railways
ar. 10 Re efficiently and economically
on.Tsted. in accordance with the pro-
u%;sions of the Transportation act, nor
va, conditions Of employment and OF
.orxina conditions must be restored
IA increased efficiency of labor be
eeeured,