Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1921-02-03
REDUCE WAGES Or
SCRAP A., B. & A.,
ASSERTSB.L. BUGG
7 Transcript of Proceedings
at Wage Conference Of
Road Officials and Men Is
Given Out

simultaneously with the statement
Wednesday by Colonel B. l.. Bugg,
president of the A, B. & A. railroad,
that wages will have to be reduced or
the road will go to the scrapheap,
there was given out to the press a
transcript of the proceedings at the
conference held Tuesday between Of
ficials of the road and the represen-
tatives of employees.
This conference led to no settle
.ment of the wage dispute. The up
shot of it was that both sides agreed
to submit the dispute to the railroad
labor board, meeting February lU.
But there were brought out at the
conference various interesting and
important points which were part OF
the proceedings furnished the news
papers Wednesday.
Among these were: The position
of the employees, as stated by their
spokesman, E P. Curtis, vice pres1-
dent of the Order of Railway Con-
ductors; the position of the road, as
stated by Colonel Bugg; discussion
as to costs of operations; discussion
as to the proposal that the road go
into a receivership, and discussion
as to whether the two sides would
abide by the decision of the labor
board, whatever it might be.
Employees Position
The transcript of the proceedings
showed that the conference opened
with a statement by Mr.. GURUS Oh
the position of the employees, Whlch
might be summed up in the following
quotation:
Mr.. Curtis: "They are pretty flrm
In the belief that they should not
be subjected to reduction IN wages
at this time. They base that con-
yictlon upon the fact that employees
OF practically all of the railroads IN
the neighborhood who are perform
ing substantially like service are re-
ceiving the standard rates OF pay. :
The employees are of the pellel
that the time has not yet arrlVeu
for the railroads to expect the EN-
p,oyes to accept reduction IN Wdses.
The present scale has not peem +as
affect A. wear yet. The new raI
have not vet had time to fully oe-
yeIon what increased income Will pe
derived from them by the ram od L:,
Nobody can say whether lhere W.. W.
1fya an Improvement or not 49,
is an Improvement. why reuuS .
I, wages would not be justlflea. u !
,i,are is a continued depression anu
,,ownward trend of prices, propaply
we emploves will have to meet re.
.,,ctions in wages upon a basis tnat
, III necessitate figuring out 70 Jus :,
chat extent wages shall be reouCeu.
In round figures declared Colo,
~ Bugg in his his statement aoed now is
losing one million dollars a year
and this loss is only on oT r
oneration expenses and taxaIlon' -
;s ont of the question 1or US -
ask for increased freight or 20
ger rates. If they were gIan.eul i p
1Ie would travel over otner llneS.
rev wonld ship their freight over
the lines of our competitors.
Couldn't Find Buyer
.1r we offered the road for SAFE
20 Ico1,ldn't even find prospective
1,',Irchaser. No one wants to buy
,,ronertv that is losing $1,OOO,0OO an
puaIlv. Our only hope is to cut our
onerating expenses. Our pay roll hds
Increased almost three-fold for eaGn n
employe since the war began. II
the reduction we ask for IS granleu,
we can continue operation. If 1t IS
refused, right at this time, l see
nothing for the owners Oft of the eap PROP OPT
erty to do but get what they can OUT
of it by scrapping the whole tnlns'
$50 you see the controversy be-
tween the A., B. & A. on the one
hand and it's employees and the, In
a.. ~ 0T
ternationa1 Brotherhoods, members
of the American Federation of Labor,
on the other, concerns the people
of Georgia to far greater degree
than merely their interests in the
wage troubles involving public IA
ciIify. however important that may
be.
."The officers of the railway COM
pany have stated that unless the
road can get on lower wage leVel
it cannot much longer continue TO
operate and perform its function as
public carrier.