Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1921-04-21
RAIL SHUTDONNS
LAID To CONSP|R Tracy
Of CAPITAL GROUP

Ut CAPIlAL 6RUUP
| CHICAGO, April discharges that
Capital combine" headed by IL
New York financial institutions in
augurated a policy of nationwide
shut downs, was made today before
| the United States railroad labor
board by w. Jett Lauck. economist
for the unions which are fighting
any reduction in hearings before the
United States RAILROAD labor board.
| Mr.. Lauck named about 100 men,
who, through interlocking director
ships, he claimed, conferred in these
dozen institutions control Of the ma
jority of the couuntry's important
railroads and of basis raw mate
rails. He charged that:
This inter-related capital group
deliberately Debated the farmers and
then undertook by precipitating in
dustrial stagnation, to deflate la
| bor."
The railroads, he asserted. were
the chosen vehicle for this labor
| drive. Layoffs of repair men on
railroads in recent months, he charg-
| ed, were made deliberately, while
| much of the repair work was let to
outside companies who charged the
roads about twice what the same re-
pairs would have cost in their own
shops. One purpose, he said, was to
get this portion of railroad labor out
! OF government jurisdiction by fore
ing 1t to work for the outside con-
Germs. These concerns, he said, were
! largely under this same financial
control s/the roads.
The document that Mr.. Lauck pre-
sented made about $4,000 words.
It was prepared by the American
search, railway employees depart
ment and entitled, Human Stand
ards and Railroad Policy"
The dozen New York financial in
situations as named were:
| Institutions Named
Mutual Life Insurance company,
First National Bank.
Equitable Trust Co.
j. 2. Morgan and Co.
Guaranty Trust Co.
| Equitable Life Assurance Society
of United States
| American Surety Co.
National Surety Co.
Mechanics 6; Metals National bank.
|, National City bank.
| New York Trust Co
| Chase National bank.
Mr.. Lauck charged that these
banks hadA directors in 90 class one
railroads, and in 20 railroad equip
ment companies, that their director
SHIPS reached "a coal railroads and
coal companies, and that through
| Qn-bankine directors this alleged
q hi
terlocked.
In presenting the report of Mr..
Lauck gave this summary of its con-
tents:
"The evidence shows there is a
capital combine consisting of the
major banks, the railroads and the
industries controlling basic mate
rails, and that this combine has and
exercises a power over the economic
destiny of the United States. IT
shows that within the identical capt.
talist group lies the power to adj
just or misadjust relative prices in
a manner that will stimulate or sup
press industrial activity. 1t points
out that this focal capitalist group
has deliberately maintained high
! prices of steel. coal, cement and in
! terests, have refused to place the Or
ders for plant maintenance or even
the orders necessary to prevent plant
/
"The exhibit shows that the great
er factors in American industry, the
railway equipment producers, the
railway repair works. the steel in
terests, the coal, cement and other
basic material producers all are
| closely bound together by inter-cap-
ital relations and interloc1Iing direc-
torates, coming to focus in the house
| of Morgan.
1.-The railway employees make no
issue as to the propriety of a CEN
| tralized system of economic control.
The point of the exhibit is its chal-
lenge of the unconscionable misuse
which the great combine has made
of its power. The employees call at
tention to the national responsible
| ty which the possession of such pow
| err entails and note that this respon-
| sibility in the case of the railway in
! dustry has been recognized and writ
ten into the federal laws of the
United States, and the employees spe-
officially point out that this respon-
i sibilitv is being unscrupuously
| evaded
Roads Plead Poverty
THE railroads are pleading pow
erty. The banks are making unprec-
edented profits and declaring unprec-
edented dividends and the same ap-
plies to steel coal. railway equip
ment and similarly situated concerns
1.-The capital combine, in preparing to
lprecipitate unemployment, adopted
the policy that the railroads should
do first Railway improveme nt
programs were deferred; railway
maintenance was reduced below min
! imum legal requirement.
1.-THE report brings into clear re-
lief the fact that there is no foun-
dation for opinion which the en-
ployers publicity machinery would
Ipopularize that the railways and the
other great industries are the victims
of some misfortune of the times.
"Tne industrial paralysis which
has staggered America is capital on
strike against society," And capital,
nationally and internationally organ
lied and concentrated, takes the
stand that the capital strike shall
lgo on until labor comes to its knees
land consents to sweeping reductions
of wages, and also consents to sur
render it's right to bargain collec'
lively on a scale co-eXtensive with
the organization Of the employers.
Taking up first the lay-off charges,
the report presented by Mr.. LaucE
said that railroad shop lay-offs. in
complete, in the past nine months
were more than 100000.
A letter from Ration, N. M, Of
March II, last. charged that on the
Santa Fe, in January, after six ma
chinists had been laid off, the re-
naming machinists were worked
overtime 1,216 hours in that month.
ExamDleS of what the reDOrt call