Great Falls tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1921-current, 1921-05-05
LIFE CONSTANT
STRUGGLE FOR
TO|LER, IS PLEA
Odds Always Against
Unskilled, Rail Labor
Board Is Advised.
Profits Real Cause of
High Prices, Public De-
.ceived, Says Witness.

Chicago, May 4-Pleading that life
is constant struggle, with the odds
always against them," for the unskilled
labor on the railroads, George Easily
vice president Of the Brotherhood OF
Railway and Steamship Clerks, Freight
Handlers and Station Employees, Wed
nesday urged the railroad labor board
to refuse any wage reduction at this
time.
Capital never had gone hungry" Mr..
Easily said. Capital is never out of
a job unless it wants to be. Capital
can even live on itself and never know
what distress means.
Human Beings Cause.
I'VE are here pleading the cause of
human beings who need food. clothing
and shelter every day Of the year.
To them, the specter Of unemployment
is ghost that is never laid. To
them, life is constant struggle, with
the odds always against them. To
them "a difference Of few cents an
hour is the difference between bare
existence and decent living"
Mr.. Easily declared that the public
had been deceived when it was told that
high wages were the cause of high
prices. w.. ss..>,s @-e.4 5s.ss-
Schwab Malieaed.
"a few days ago the chamber of
commerce wanted to know what was
the matter with business, so it sent
for Mr.. Schwab," Mr.. Easily continued.
The philanthropic gentleman who
heads the Bethlehem Steel Co.-that
marvelously good man who receives a
new certificate Of virtue every 90 days
and who accepts medals and crosses
from European monarchs and double
crosses American labor-answered the
call and said that high labor costs were
to blame and that wages in all lines
must come down.
1T never occurs to Mr.. Schwab to
suggest that profits come down. Mr..
Schwab did not tell the public that
after the wage increases had been paid.
the price of finished steel was only Al
per cent higher in 1917 than it was
three years before the war, while the
increase in net profits per ton Of the
finished product was 22O per cent"
Ask Decent Living.
All that his organization asked. Mr..
Easily said, was a steady job, under
fair conditions, at a decent living
wage.
Closing the unions argument. r. f.
Cradle, of the Maintenance of Way
employees, declared that the members
OF his organization were the lowest
paid group of the railway workers.
Confronted with financial difficult
ties. harrassed by heritage of mis-
management and dominated by an inef-
ficient and short-sighted policy, the
railroads seek to better their fiscal con-
dition by reducing the wages Of the
lowest paid of all their employees" Mr..
Cradle said.
Minimum Wage Urge.
He asked that the labor board estab-
lish minimum subsistence schedule of
~ 800 a year for a family Of five. at
the same time reading telegram from
Brookhaven, Mississippi. that the Mis-
sissippi Central had announced a cut
in section mems wages Of Is cents an
hour for 1Ohour day.
w. ]. Lauck. economist for the un-
ions. occupied most of the day in pre-
senting number of exhibits in ali Of
which the plea for an American stand
ard of living was stressed. He CON
cluded his presentation by an analysis
OF figures presented by the railroads,
intended to show reductions in the cost
" nVlng and the wages OF outside la
Dor.
Carriers Exhibits Hit.
In his analysis, Mr.. Lauck pointed
out what he called defects" in the
carriers exhibits, calling attention to
the fact that they did not take into
the number of hours
worked per day and declaring that only
nasic industries should be used in any
fair comparison.
Ills conclusions. he said, were that
In the railroads testimony did not afford
"a sufficient or fair basis for compar-
ing rates paid in outside basic indus
tries and that they should be ''reject-
ca almost in entirety AZ euidence ];