The copper era and Morenci leader., 1921-02-25
LABOR RULES
 BURDEN COSTS
 OF R. R. SERVICE
U. s. Railroad Labor Board Asked to Stop Payments for
 Work Not Done.
WOULD SAVE s30O,0O0,000
Lower Cost of Service Can Be Secured Only by Cutting Expense,
 Atterbury Says.

Atterbury Says.
 Urging emergency action by the United States Railroad Labor Board to end gross waste and inefficfency" prevailing under present working rules and conditions, General w. w. Alter bury. vice president of the Pennsyl- vania railroad, in a statement to tho card in session at Chicago said in part:
 Many railroads are not now earning, and with present operating costs and | t!'atlfc 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 met messenger rates, or by reduction in 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 reduction in operating expenses, and not by further advance of rates.
 The National Agreements, rules and working conditions forced on the rail roads as war measures cause gross waste and inefficlency.
 Would Save $500, 900, 900
 estimate that the elimination of this waste would reduce railway op- erating expenses at least $3OO,000,00O. It 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 raii- way operation 60 as to insure eventual. iy reduction in ratss. Ultimately . adjustment 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 ifreparabks . When wages have been too low the harm done has been offset by retroac- tive increases. Losses of railway net operating income are irreparabie. You cannot make retroactive tomorrow the savings that should have been made today.
 The hoard cannot possibly write the rules and working conditions of every railroad in this country and adjust them equitably to varying geograph- teal, operating and social conditions.
 It rests entirely with the board to determine whether this whole situa- ton shall drift into chaos, and or derly procedure become impossible ex- cept at the price of railroad bank ruptcy, financial shock and still wider unemployment.
 The Labor Board can prevent this catastrophe by declaring that the Ma tonaI agreements, rules and working conditions coming over from the war period arc terminated at once; that the question of reasonable and eco nomical rules and working conditions shall be remanded to negotiations be- tween each carrier and its own em- bot fD, oy, negotiations, the agreements, rules, and working conditions in effect on each railroad as of December S1, 1917, shall be re-established~
 If the board will do this, the Labor Committee of the Association of Rail- way Executives will urge upon ev- cry railroad company party to De cision No. ?. that no proposal for the reduction of basic wages shall be made within the next succeeding nine ty days This will afford an oppor- tunity to gauge the economies which can be 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
 The course which we are recom- mending is not only imperative but equitable.
 The War Labor Board declared that the war period was an interregnum, to be used neither by employer nor em- ployee for the purpose of betterins GOT impairing the position of either.
 To perpetuate as the normal rules and working conditions on the rail roads,. the extraordinary provisions ot the war period is q distinct violation nt all promises, :. The war. has: now been over more than two years The time has cone when, if the railways are to be efficiently and economically operated, in accordance with the pro- visions of the Transportation act, nor nal conditions of employment and Of working conditions must be restored and increased efficiency nf I1hor be ( seurad-