New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1921-08-07

In no department of railroad opera
ticn and maintenance have the nation
81 agreements made by the late rail-
road administration had SO important
an effect as on costs of operating car
and locomotive repair shops. Condi-
tons OF work and wage scales diff
fered widely in different parts of the
country and as between different rail
roads. Standardizing conditions was
largely a process of giving all roads
the highest wages for any particular
piece of work and the working con-
ditions which were most favorable to
employees. 1t was acknowledged by
many railroad men that prior to gov
eminent operation employees of rail-
roads in the mechanical department
were underpaid and in many eases
worked under conditions which were
less favorable than those in other in
dustries employing the same class of
labor.
Piece work had been tried out cx-
tersiveIy. 1t had worked successfully
In most of the instances where 1t was
honestly and inteiligently applied. 1t
had been failure where short-sighted
railroad arrangements had attempted
to use it as lever to get more work
out of employees without giving them
n corresponding increase in pay. The
open shop had been the rule In rail-
road work in the mechanical depart
ment. Where piece work was not in
effect wage scales lower than those in
other industries employing mechanics
resulted in bringing low grade quail
ity Of mechanics into railroad shops.
TheEe was a wide variation in the cost
of doing the same classes of work and
this variation was due not only to the
variation in wage scales, but to diff
ferences in the ability of different
managers.
Less Cooperation
There was less cooperation and IN
derstanding between the executive and
accounting departments and the me-
chanical department than between the
executive and accounting departments
and any other railroad department..
Prom otion from the mechanical to ex-
ecutive Offices was extremely rare, and
in general there was an adherence
in the mechanical department to rule
of-thumb methods that would not have
been tolerated in other departments Of
railroads or in manufacturing concerns
doing a business similar to that of the
large car and locomotive shops of the
railroads.
There were notable exceptions to
this rule, but, in general, conditions
in railroad mechanical departments
the railroad administration, there
fore, simply made an increase in
skilled mechanics wages 1t would have
come as blessing in disguise to the
roads. At least, this is the opinion Of
able railroad mechanical officers who
had been for years trying to impress
on their own executives the impor-
lance of the work of the mechanical
department and the economy of en-
ploying skilled mechanics, even at
higher wage scales than were GUS
tomary in railroad shops. Recent in
vestigations of costs of repairs of
equipment have clearly demonstrated
the correctness of this contention.
When the railroads recently began to
make an analysis of their cost of re-
pairs, both or locomotives and on cars,
they demonstrated to themselves how
large proportion OF total operating
expenses was due to the necessity for
upkeep of equipment. Disregarding
the Interstate Commerce Commission
classification of expenses, and assign
ing to the mechanical department. all OF
the costs properly belonging to it, ii
was found that the amount assigned
10 maintenance OF equipment did not
begin to cover the entire expenditure
over which the mechanical department
had the control.
Practical Example
A practical demonstration of this
fact was given some years ago, when
the Western Maryland, comparatively
short road, consisting of single main
track running from the Pittsburgh dis.
trict southwest to Baltimore and tap
ping the West Virginia coal fields, was
converted from an insolvent to a pros.
porous property. The road was run.
ai,,es 4 Il Ii =.