The Washington times., 1921-04-04
RAIL MEN SEEK
.HAR|D|NC'S EAR
Sixteen Road Unions Feel He
Is Getting Only Capitalists
Side of Dispute.
By NORMAN HAPGOOD.

By NORMAN HAPGOOD.
A new move will be made in the
labor situation today. The sixteen
craft unions, plus the maintenance
men, will send sizzling hot telegram
from Chicago to President Harding
most urgently requesting that he see
q committee representing the men.
If he accedes to the request the COM
mittee will reach Washington Thurs
day.
SEEING ONLY ONE LIFE.
The purpose is to get the point Of
view of the men before the President
as far as possible ahead of the meet
ing of Congress and before any fur
tber steps are taken toward commit
ting the administration on the rail-
road policy to be favored.
Unless the situation changes sud
denly, which does not seem likely,
this telegram will foreshadow the
line Of argument to be taken at the
meeting. IL the meeting is granted.
The men feel that the administra-
tion IL seeing many representatives
OF capital and few or none of labor.
They feel that great deal or
thought is given to the predicament
OF the roads and no thought whatever
to the predicament of the men.
Their proposition will be nat
argument that unskilled labor has
right to a wage that means decent
American standard of living. They
challenge any statement that the
present wage does more than give
| such q standard.
They accept as the standard the
figures of the Department of Labor.
and they welcome any investigation
to show that the lower grades of
labor. which they believe are par
ticularly aimed at by the railroad
managers at present, are able to live,
under the Department of Labor stan
dard. on any less wages than they
have
AN APPEAL TO FIGURES.
The refusal OF the President to
bring about a meeting between the
road managers and the men on a ma
tional scale was not responsible for
| this decision, although IL has had a
tendency to confirm 1t. 1t has been in
process of formation for several days.
1t is based simply on an appeal to
| figures, including a denial that the
| cost of living has shown essential
decrease and ii drives straight at the
question of what is an American
standard of living.
Perhaps a fair way to get down to
what the laborers are really thinking
is to cite from a recent speech by
scholar of nation wide fame. Profess
sor Frederick A. Cleveland is known
as an exact student OF economics. He
says:
1.-THE losses to capital in the
period Immediately following the
Civil War were greater than the cost
of the war-the loss and waste to
the non-members, the workers. has
far exceeded the losses to the dollar
aristocracy-the less in working
force due to lack of good will, the
cost of the human turnover. inani-
tion. disloyalty. opposition to disci
pline and sabotage in industries man
aged on a basis which has ignored
good will cannot be estimated"
But it's results can be stated. Pro-
fessor Cleveland states them thus:
"Sixty-five per cent of all the
wealth in the hands OF two per cent
of the people. Only thirty-fve per
cent OF the people who have a
ratable share and those largely farm
ers. Sixty-fve million people in this
the most productive of all countries,
are Within a few days of the bread
line"
The argument behind the appeal of
the workers is that capital has got to
find an answer to that situation, or
give up some OF the key industries.
As a matter of fact the answer can
not be found in the railroads alone.
1t is impossible to separate the rail-
road problem from the coal mining
problem. An attempted solution that
does not include both is not more
than skin deep.
Look at some OF the figures. On
the roads north OF the Potomac and
the Ohio and east of Chicago, 40 per
cent of the business of the roads is
coal.
HITS THEM BOTH WAYS.
1t Is the most profitable part of the
traffic. 1t is almost the only part
where efficiency prevails. One de-
rick sometimes picks up a hundred
tons and drops It into the hold OF a
steamer. One train sometimes car
ries $500 tons.
Who uses the coal? The house
holder very little OF it The railroads
themselves use from IS to 35 per cent
of it Therefore the coal situation
hits them both ways.
Coal at the mouth of the pit today
costs two to three times as much as
II did before the war. That hits the
loads. Coal is not moving. and that
hits them still harder.
1t Is a bad joke on supply and de-
mand that, though coal is not movily
the prices remain two or three times
the pre-war price. 1t remains a first
mortgage on the welfare of US all.
The miners a good deal OF the time
lately have been working less than
twenty hours a week. That idleness
ruins the railroads and ruins tho rest
of us. 1t ruins the railroad en-
ployes.
There is only one answer to the
railroad problem and the rest is
chsrlatanry. Wages per day mean
nothing. 1t 10 earning per year that
count.
Until the mines and the railroads
guarantee regularity of employment
THAR families will ren,aip and tho