The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-03-21
Bill Sikes Finds Some Good Stories Along A. B. GA. in Territory Which Has Been Handicapped
 Recently in Its Train Service

many a business man has said just about what Sheehan wrote a year ago
 PUBLIC MUST PAY
 Everywhere l go. the question Is propounded, Who pays the freight with all this back time, upset wage cost and reduced efficiency" It is no longer a fight between capital and la bor, with old Man Public sitting in the background rubbing his shins after each fracas Old Man Public Is waking up and the traffic man or labor leader who fails to note that Is riding for 8 fall. Recently R had true story from conductor, who we will call Bow man, to this effect; a car inspector l found a car in a train with a brake beam in such condition that he could have fixed it in 10 minutes. He called on the yardmasterl to cut that car out of the train because it was car re> pairers job to put on the bolt. Now, who pays for that? Another case thaL we uld make Milton II. Smith turn ovel l in his grave-an engine had a slight defect to develop after it was set down to carry out the fast train. It could have been fixed in 10 minutes, but un- der the rules it took three men to do that little job, because under the rules each craft must do it's own work, and the train left 55 minutes late. Now, who is to blame for that? Will MT. Mapother long stand for such? Can Mapother help himself with the labor board and agreements hanging over his head?
 Time was when a travelling man could work all day, catch a sleeper for $2 and make the nextNcity. Now it takes just $4.05 of the good coin of the IY1 Fn, txr. f1 rfd ham to Nashville. Who pays for that? Is not that loaded in the price to his customer, and does not the burden fall on you and me? Is this $4.05 rate the result of inefficiency in railroad oper- ation that my railroad friends tell me is the case? Must we pay double foA sleepers because it takes three men 55 minutes to make a minor repair that in the old days gould be made by one man in 10?
 An engineer gave me another story. and 1t is true. A car broke down and was set out some distance from Nash vile. Car repairers were sent to that point and worked four hours repair- ing that car. They got time and a half from the moment they left Nash vile until they got back, and turned in bill for $64 for a job that my en. gireer frined said could be done for less than $S. Now if the men in the ranks of labor will give out inf orma tion of this nature, what must be the multiplied instances that he knows of Who pays that bill of $64? Is not Old Man Public paying it now with the freight rates that have practically paralyzed business? Is Jumper ever going to move for building bungalows when carpenter gets more pay than bank cashier or college professor? How can Old Man Public build the houses he so sorely needs when every labor cost is so high? Have not freight rates reached the point where a re- auction must come or business lag? And, finally, why is it that even now, with the reduced scale on the Atlanta, Birmingham and Atlantic. that the pay equals approximately that of the Louisville and Nashville? Somebody please turn on the light for the bene- Iit or BILL SYKES