The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1921-10-14
PLAN PRESENTED
follower RATES
FARM PRODUCTS
Immediate Reduction of Freight
Rates Is Proposal.
High Railroad Officials An
nounce New Scheme Today.
TO TRY IT 60 TO 90 DAYS
Both Employers and Employees
Try to Adjust Dispute.
Heads of Railway Unions Draw
Plans for Strike.
70 TRY IT 60 TO 90 DAYS
Both Employers and Employees
Try to Adjust Dispute.

ton of freight rates on agricultural
products for a trial period of from
sixty to ninety days, pending further
wage reductions. was one Of the
proposals presented to high railroad
officers at the conference of the As
tsociation of Railway Executives today.
| Chicago. Oct 14-Warren S. Stone,
grand chief of the Brotherhood of Lo-
| connective Engineers, today requested
| a conference with the railroad execu-
tives in session here on behalf of the
| six big railroad unions which have
voted to strike.
| Officers of sixteen railroad unions
went in session shortly before noon at
| one hotel while more than 100 rail-
road presidents were meeting at an
! other.
! The railroad presidents notified Mr..
| Stone by telephone that his letter
| would be considered at their meeting.
| When the road executives met at II
| o'clock it was understood they would
vote to ask the United States railroad
| labor board for further wage reduc-
tfons, promising to pass all future
| cuts along to the public in lower
! freight and passenger rates.
Crisis Rendered More Acute.
The railroad crisis was rendered
more acute this morning when the
labor board handed down a decision
pfecework. The railroad presidents
were jubilant, while union leaders
feared the effect on their men, more
than 80 per cent of whom have al
ready voted to strike rather than ac-
cept further wage reductions or rules
which they oppose.
The, executives, among whom were
score of leading railroad officers,
expected to conclude their discussion
in one day, taking swift action on the
wage and rate reductions. The initi-
ative in asking reductions would be
taken by the individual roads, accord
ing to those in attendance, rather
than by the association. Varying
conditions in different parts of the
country would necessitate different
rates of wage reductions, they said,
altho groups of roads in similar re-
gions might act together.
To Ask Wage Reduction.
Application for wage reductions will
be made to the United States railroad
labor board and for freight and pas
senger rate reductions to the inter-
state commerce commission. None of
the brotherhood chiefs would deny or
confirm reports that October 80 had
been tentatively decided on to begin
calling out employees on so-called hos
tile railroads. Progress was tempo
rarily halted in the brotherhood dis
cussion pending the reply of the ex-
ecutives to the brotherhood request
for a conference.
Meanwhile the remaining groups,
including maintenance of way, signal
men, clerks, firemen and oilers, and
other railroad unions met to discuss
the situation. None of them would
intimate what their action might be.
Shopmen Nearer Strike.
With the removal of the piece work
ban by the labor board the shopmen
were brought one step nearer a strike.
In August members of the six unions
affiliated with the railway employees
department of the American Fedora
ton of Labor voted to strike as a re-
suit of the July L wage reduction.
The call was held up pending an
nouncenent by the board of it's rules
decision Today's decision permitting
the roads to negotiate for piecework
was accepted as a defeat by the shop
men, who have opposed piece work
strenuously.
An increasing menace beclouded the
railroad horizon here today as execu-
tives of the nation assembled to dis
cuss the situation. Every indication
pointed to an unyielding attitude on
the part of both the railroads and
their employees, and eventual media
ton by the federal government to ad-
just the dispute was foreseen by many
observers.
The heads of the various railway
unions, at a series Of conferences here
QuTlng the past WO6ks nave IRA w II
careful plans for strike and, accord
ing to apparently authentic reports,
have fixed October 80 as the date for
the walkout. No official announce
ment of this date, however, has been
made.
Prepare Revised Schedule.
Executives of the leading railroads
of the country, on the other hand. are
said to have prepared q revised scale
of freight and passenger tariffs that
will reduce the cost of transportation,
the reductions being predicated solely
upon further contemplated cuts in the
wages of employees. This new scale of
rates, it is expected, will be presented
and probably adopted at a meeting of
the executives which opened here to-
day.
It is expected the railway unions
will present to the gathering of the
Association of American Railway Ex-
ecutives an ultiInatum of strike
against wage reductions ordered by
the United States railway labor board
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