The New York herald., 1921-05-19
THURSDAY. MAY 10. 1921.
The Pace Quickening Toward
Common Sense Costs.

common sense NOSIS.
The advance notice from the United
States Railroad Labor Board that ii
Is going to announce officially or June
q readjustment of wages of common
labor employed by the carriers is big
with Importance to the overhdrdened
and all but collapsing roads. The
forecast by the board that all railway
wages will be similarly readjusted in
the near future Is of still bigger mo-
ment not merely to the American rail-
way system but to the whole country.
For the Industries Of this nation can
not operate fully and its business
cannot move freely under oppressive
traffic rates.
A national transportation bill OF six
billions of dollars year is an annual
average of nearly $50 to every man,
woman and child In the United States.
1t is an annual average, 10 round
numbers, Of $500 to every family In
the United States. Such tax is q
vastly heavier load than the American
public can teTry In its graphing with
after war conditions on top Of all the
other burdens 1t has shouldered since
the United States took up arms.
But the American transportation
bills cannot be reduced until the wage
bills of the railroads are reduced.
The railway payrolls we're running
Just before the close OF 1920 at the
rate Of some four billions OF dollars
q year. This payroll charge Is a full
billion of dollars year more than
the American publlc's total trans
portation blu was shortly before
the war;
Not only to relieve the railroads but
to relieve the industry and business Of
the country there must be general
readjustment of all railway labor
costs, which are devouring more than
the former normal receipts Of the car
riers, so that there may be a read
iustment of traffic rates in classified
tions where the transportation costs
kill the business for the railroads.
or course when an excessive rate
chokes off traffic IL correspondingly
chokes Off at the same time the busl-
ness Of the shipper. whether farmer,
4 lumberman, q miner or manufac-
turer. IL commodities cannot stand
the transportation cost Of getting to
market the producer cannot sell the
very things upon which depend the
support of his business and the Jobs
" its employees.
But. great as Is the Importance Of
the railway wage readjustment in
it's direct results TO the carriers and
TO the public, there is due to follow
result Of even more stupendous mo-
ment In the indirect bearing Of the
reduction of operating costs. The
American railway system, taken as
one Industrial agency. Is by far the
largest employer in the whole United
States. When this greatest wage payer
IN the country. with approximately
100000 names on the payrolls, be
gins a huge wage readjustment. under
the supervision and by the decision
OF the United States Government
Itself, to start transportatlon oper
ating costs back to normal, there Is
no sha low of excuse for any other
Industry to delay longer following
this overshadowing example.
THE NEW YORK HERALD speaks oi
this railway wage readjustment being
only q beginning, because there must
be others following on its heels II
regular order just as the increases
came. AS the railroads and other
industries climbed the spiral stair
way In the avicious circle" Of wage
and price increases step by step they
cannot lenp Off the top clear to the
ground without crash and disaster
But they must get down.
When wage scales have gone up 15C
per cent. like the United States Steel
Corporations. and 40 per cent. like
some Of the railroad wages, they may
come down 20 per cent. one time, 15
per cent another time and 10 per
cent still another time; but since
the only way to get down again is
10 get down. the steps back must be
repeated until the readjustment
reaches the journeys end at the old
normal or what becomes, under the
modern conditions, the new normal.
& But from the very start this has
been feat which required pulling
together In common cause. The
copper Industry alone, acting dras.
fically and almost Immediately ar
ter the war with cuts in costs and