New-York tribune., 1921-06-01
Engine service Hardest
Hit by Scale Effective
July /, but All Classes
Will Suffer Reduction
Decision Points to {
Lower Living Cost
Trade Depression Called
Proble III Workers
Must Aid in Solving
Special Dispotch to The Trtbu,.e

S1liOA0Os May o1.-lHe United
States Railroad Labor Board has de-
cided on an average reduction of ~
per cent in the wages of various
classes of employees on 104 rail
roads. The board announced it's de-
cision tonight. The ruling, it is
estimated, will take $4Oo, 100000 a
year off the pay rolls of the railroads.
The reduction becomes effective July
1. 1t is on this date that the national
working agreements will be abro-
gated.
Men classed as engine service en-
ployees will suffer the greatest re-
duction in wages under the. decision,
Some Cut 64 Gents q Day
Freight engineers, motormen, fire.
men and helpers will find their pay
envelope has been trimmed at the
rate Of 64 cents a day. Passenger
engineers will he reduced 48 cents
day and firemen will suffer a similar
cut.
While to-day's decision affects only
1o4 roads, It eventually will apply
to every line in the country. One
hundred roads whose requests for re-
ductions were flied since April Is,
when the hearings started, will pre-
sent their eases 20 the board starting
June 6.
Some of the roads sought cuts in
common labor only; others included
other groups, and some have asked
wage siashes for all classes, There is
no uniformity about the cases in this
respect. But the boards decision sets
up new uniform scales for ali groups
OF employees, from track repairers to
engineers and conductors. and tells
each company involved to apply the
new scales to the special groups whose
pay 1t has asked to be reduced.
The next step is expected to be a
move on the part of the roads indt-
vidually to have all the new schedules
applied to them. When this is done il
will lop $400,0G0,000 off the yearly paw
roll, according to the boards memo
randum.
Part Of Increase Remains
Thus it does not wipe out all che
increases granted by the board last
year, when S600,0o0,000 was added to
the annual pay sheets by the wage ad-
vance effective May /, 1920. However.
it completely wipes out the advances
given section iaborers.
Some of the railway executives reg
istered disappointment to-day because
the finding did not sponge off last
years increases entirely. But, it wac
saving of 100000 year might be
accomplished by abrogation of the ma
tionai working agreements, which event
Is set for July l, and this added to
the potential $400,000,00o slash totals
$700,000,000 year, which it is believed
will go long way toward putting
the transportation system back on its
pins.
Union officials withheld comment,
pending study of the decision.
Reduced costs of living and reduced
wages in other industries were the
major factors on which the wage cuts
were based by the board. The decision
points out that the adjustment period
has produced conditions "in whose bur
dens all have to share
1t says the wage problem with which
it dealt is an "economic one" and
should not be regarded as "a struggle
between capital and labor or the mar
agements and the employees"
In q supplemental memorandum. the
board points out that during govern
ployees were increased from an
average of S78 month in December.
1917, to s116 in January, 1920, or about
20 per cent The boards decision last
year. effective May /, 1920, increased
wages % per cent, or TO an average of q
S141 a month After this increase tbs
workers, according to the findings,
were receiving an average increase OF
81 per cent more than they were get
ting before Federal control and about
10 per cent of the number, chiefly the
lower paid unskilled workers, had re-
ceived increases in excess of 100 per
cent. The board estimates that the
cuts Of IL per cent would mean ar
average monthly wage of about s125
for all employees, but such an average
means, of course, that while some
workers would earn a sum consider
ably in excess of this, many thousands
would fall far short of that figure"
Living Is Cheaper, Board Declares
In its decision the board sets forth
some Of the conclusions on which II
acted, as follows:
at finds that since the rendition OF
its decision No. 2 CAST years wage
increase) there has been "a decrease
in the cost of living. What that de-
crease has been IL is impossible to
state with mathematical accuracy, or
even what the general average for
the United States has been up to and
on any given das-S. TIE machinery
for procuring and stating with accu-
racy the data to fix this is by nc means
perfect, The decreases vary greatly
according to the locality, and affect
different persons in different degrees.
In the cities the general decreases IN
some lines have been Offset to some ex-
tent by the high rents. In some of the
items in the cost OF Living the fall in
prices has been great, in others much
less.
"The board also finds that the scale
OF wages for similar kinds of WORK In