Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1921-10-28
THE THREATENED RAILROAD
STRIKE

1t appears that we are to have a
countrywide railroad strike; an at
tempt is to be made to so paralyze the
transportation system that the rail-
road managers and the public will be
glad to throw up both hands and give
in to the strikers.
Without attempting to decide as to
how much or how little railroad en-
ployees shall receive, we may at a
glance get a comprehensive view of a
condition which must be remedied.
Wages were boosted during the war
and likewise freight and passenger
rates out of which all the wages must
be paid. Rates and wages bear a vital
relation to each other in that the
charge to the public must be governed
by the size of the wage list.
The public has been and is now de-
handing a reduction in rates. Corn is
bringing about 30 per cent of the war
time price, while the cost of shipping
it by rail is higher than when it sold
at $500 per bushel. The price Of
wheat has reached the pre-war level,
while the cost of transporting it to
market is higher than when wheat
sold highest. The farmers wage is
what he can get out of his products
after growing and shipping expenses
are paid. His wage as a grain grower
has been reduced 100 to $50 per cent
and he demands that the railroads also
reduce wages and freights and thus be
able to reduce transportation costs for
his products, and it thus comes about
that farmers who are a hundred times
more numerous than railroad en-
ployees, are entirely out of sympathy
with the strike idea to prevent a re-
duction in transportation costs. The
farmers are not alone in this senti-
ment. Thousands of men who are out
of employment believe and not without
reason, that an adjustment of trans
portation costs would stimulate in
dustrial activities and business in gen.
eral so that the number of unem-
ployed would be materially diminished.
This condition brings public senti-
ment in opposition to the strike pro-
gram anu II Will DS u1lnCu1I W Ol4AS
the strike to a successful conclusion
for the strikers, with public sentiment
| against the strikers, and for that rea-
son, if one other, it does not appear
to be a favorable time to go on strike.
From an apparently authoritative
source the statement comes that, TAX
ing the country over, there is nov one
unemployed railroad worker for every
one actually employed, a condition
brought about by the general slow
down in business and the efforts of
the railroads to economic enough to
prevent insolvency.
If an adjustment could be brought
about to lower shipping and travelling
costs, to a point to induce more travel
ing and more shipping, that would call
for an increased number of workers
and reduce unemployment. Nearly
everybody from government officials
down, excepting the labor unions have
formed the opinion that reduction in
the railroad wage list is the solution
of a vital problem.
Many workers in other lines insist
that railroad employees have special
benefits and privileges enjoyed by few
others. They and their families enjoy
free transportation, a very large item.
They are in line for a pension when
the age limit is reached and are thus
insured against want in old age, and
free transportation goes along with the
pensions. No other classes have all of
the special benefits ~railroaders are
heir to an dthese benefits are an addi-
ton to their wages of considerable
Importance.
There is still another question to be
we'll weighed by intending strikers,
and that is the possibility of prevent
ing former workers, now unemployed,
from manning some of the trains. If
they cannot be held back, the strike
will be a failure.
A railroad strike which interferes
with the movement of food, fuel and
the mails, seriously interferes with the
general public, including members OF
unions who do not happen to be rail-
road employees, and when they are
interfered with, they too, will be out
of sympathy with the strikers.-Elmer
Times.