Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1921-05-05
WAGE REDUCTIONS

RAILROAD WAGE REDUCTIONS
Statistics compiled by the Inter-
state Commerce Commission and the
Bureau of Railway Economics fur
nish data on which to base conclus-
ions relative to the wages paid to
railroad employees, and the proposed
reductions which are now the sub
ject of controversy. That the actual
merits of this controversy should be
involved in obscurity is inevitable.
The dust kicked up by the charges
and counter-charges of the converse
tionalists has sconfusing smoke
screen effect on the real merits of
the issue.
This confusion the official figures
of the two government bodies do
much TO dispell. In studying them,
however, two things should be borne
in mind. In the first place, there
has been no suggestion of reduc-
ton of wage rates as applied to train
crews. The railroads, and the public
for that matter, seem to recognize
that engineers, firemen, conductors
and trainmen incur such extra haz-
ards in their work and are shoulder
ed with such heavy responsibility in
the matter of protecting the lives
and limbs of passengers, that all
four Of them are in a class by them
selves. That these dangers and spe-
cial responsibilities should be re-
Elected in their wage rates is but
fair to them and to the public 1t is
of the highest public interest, OF
course, that these employees should
be men of demonstrated skill and of
responsible personal character.
So far as has been revealed, the
most that has been suggested with
reference to changes in the pay OF
these men has been the way of elm
mating certain time-charge allow
ances made under the national code
of railroad labor rules adopted in the
stress of war, and made blanket
order by Mr.. McAdoo at time when
that gentleman was giving enthusi-
astic expression to the magnitude
and far-reaching political value Of
the railroad vote. That gross iniqui-
ties have grown up under the ap-
plication of this McAdoodling code
of political practice is beyond ques-
ton. Elimination of mere abuses of
this sort is not in the least involved
in the question of wage rates for
work actually done. The McAdoodle
payments were for work not done.
Naturally there would be desire to
cut this purely eleemosynary contri-
button from. the railroad expense ac-
count, once peace were restored and
political campaign exigencies elm
mated
The trainmen's wages, as such,
have not been even suggested as
coming with the scope of proposed
cuts. And the other thing to be
borne in mind, in considering the
government wage figures, is that
none of the proposed reductions ex-
coed % per cent, while the greater
part of them represent only 20 per
cent of the highest peak reached
after the heavy wage increase grant
ed by the Railroad Labor Board on
July 20, 1920. This is interesting
in connection with actual percent
ages of wage increase between 1917
and the present day. For instance,
the increase in the pay of clerks in
that interval was 50 per cent; of
air-brake inspectors, 116 pei. cent;
car inspectors, 116 per cent; car re-
pairers, 113 per cent; unskilled
labor, 9S per cent; section men, 102
per cent; telegraphers, 10S per cent:
station agents, 80 per cent; station
service employees, ITO per cent.
And so on, throughout the entire
list of 33 groups of employees, the
lowest percentage Of increase being
54 per cent in the case Of the station
master assistants, and the highest
10 per cent, in the case of road
freight engineers. AS to the actual
amounts paid to the different groups
of employs, the figures of the inter-
state Commerce Commission are mis-
leading in that they take no account
of employees who worked only part
time. They simply give the average
amounts actually paid, to those who
worked full time, as well as the far
smaller totals of those who worked
only part time.
And as they stand, these wage
are far from suggesting starvation
hire. On the contrary, they reveal
that the 20 or % per cent reductions
now proposed would still leave
the railroad employees in all groups
particularly well-paid lot of men.
AS matter of fact, with the 20 to
% per cent deduction, they would
still be from so to 100 per cent bet
ter off in the matter of pay than
they were in 1917.