The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1921-03-29
INDUSTRIAL TRAFFIC LEAGUE
IS NOT ALLOWED TO ENTER
Statement of Case by
w. Jett Lauck Says
Railroads are Inemci-
emily Managed an d
are Deliberately TAX
ing Advantage o f
Temporary Depres-
sion to. Destroy HUI
man Standards.

Chicago, March 29.-The United
States Railroad Labor Board today
declined to admit the National In
dustrial Traffic League to the rules
case now before the board
Hearing of the petitioner would
not be helpful and would not be in
the public interest" said the board
The decision also argued that to
admit this organization as party
contestant would result in opening
the gates to dozens of similar bodies
and perhaps prolong the hearing for
a year.
The root Of the railroad difficulty
is not in national agreements but in
the inadequacies of management, de-
clared w. Jett Lauck, consulting econ
omist of the Railroad Labor organi-
2ations-in beginning presentation to-
day of railroad labor exhibits before
the United States Railroad Labor
Board
"ConservativelY stated, if railroad
management was characterized by
reasonable efficiency and had avail
able for its use a proper amount of
capital or credit, labor costs would
have shown radical decline under
national agreements" Mr.. Lauck de-
clared and savings in operating eX-
penses of at least one billion dollars
annually, would be made or almost
three million dollars day. We shall
demonstrate this fact concretely by
reports and analysis which we have
had from railroad engineers and eX.
perts
by the series of exhibits which
am about to present, we shall estab-
lish the following facts: One-The
policy of establishing national agree
ments or uniform rates of pay and
working conditions is in conformity
with custom and precedent in the
transportation industry and in ac-
cordance with the best public policy,
as shown by the awards of boards
of arbitration and the acts and rec
concentrations of other official orders
during the pre-war period.
'Two-ln other leading industries
of this country collective bargaining
on national scale, and national
agreements as to working conditions
and relations have been found to be
the best means of stabilizing condi-
tions promoting industrial peace and
accelerating production.
'Three-That in Great Britain these
facts have become so clearly recog-
uized by both employees and employ
ers that national agreements and en-
couraged by the federated industries
and the federation of trades unions
as whole, and the effort is being ex-
erted to make them compulsory upon
all employees and employers in a Civ
en- industry.
'Four-That the former railroad
administration, in entering into ma
tional agreements therefore, merely
recognized tendency which had al
most reached complete development
prior to the war and which was sane
toned by enlightened opinion both
within and without the transporta-
tion industry.
"Five-That the representatives of
the railroads have given their sane
tion to national rates of pay and to
working conditions of engine and
train crews.
"SiX-We shall further show that
the arguments of the railroads are the
same which have been urged in all
past years to prevent the establish
ment of human standards in industry,
and shall demonstrate that the rail
roads are now consciously and delib-
erately taking advantage of tempo.
rary industrial depression to destroy
human standards which are sane.
toned by the thought and practice
of the leading industrial nations of
the world"