The Glasgow courier. [volume] (Glasgow, Mont.) 1913-current, 1921-05-27
Some of the Hadicaps.

Washington, May 24.-(Special Cor
r~espondence) - Farmers and other
shippers of goods on railroads will
be interested in the details of some
of the rules and regulations by mean
of which the Government Director of
Railroads, under the Wilson admins
t~ration, compelled the roads, and,
therefore, the shippers, to pay either
excessively for work, or for work not
done at all. Here are a few instances
taken from the testimony of Julius
Kruttschnitt. of the Southern Pacific
System, at the recent hearings before
the Senate Interstate Commerce Com
mitee:
I. The Pere Marquette Railway was
compelled to pay S9,364 in back pay
to four employees because their titles
under these agreements were charged
by a decision and the volume of their
work remained the same.
"2. A car repairer on the Virginian
Railway was paid $1,000 for work he
never did. He was laid off with other
employees because there was no work
for him to do. When he became en-
titled under his seniority rights to
be reemployed, he received back pay
and overtime. '
"3. The Shop Agreement provides
that when employees are required to
check in and out on their own time
they will be paid for one hour extra
at the close of each week, no matter
how few hours they may have work
ed. This rule in the first six months
of 1920 cost the railways $4,000, 900,
or at the rate of s13,000,0 900 a year.
81. On the Chesapeake & Ohio Rail-
road piecework car %repairers decreas-
ed Ala per cent and airbrake repair
ers 1874 per cent in efficiency under a
guarantee of a fixed rate per hour.
"5. On the abolition of piece work
on the Union Pacific Railroad in the
wheel shop at Omaha, Nebr., the time
required for the same work was in
creased 31.9 per cent and the output
was cut down "a per cent; and in a
coach-cleaning yard at Denver the
time required was increased 1888 per
cent and the output decreased % per
cent.
"6. An employee of the Southern
Pacific Tucson shops was paid $5O.O5
for three days work because he was
sent pa miles to repair a gas engine,
45R hours being punitive overtime,
most Of which was spent in travelling
or waiting. AS a result Of several
emergencies of this kind he was al.
lowed 37712 hours in a 23-day work.
1ng month, earning $272.16, and a pipe
filter from the same shop was allow
ed 391 hours in a 23-day month, earn
ing S281.52 mostly punitive and
doble time allowed while travelling in
addition to his expenses.
, "7 A conspicuous example of ri
diculously high c~ompensatin to I'M
skilled labor is that of a gang of men
on the Southern Pacific who place
blue-flag signals on trains in yards
and who couple and uncouple steam
and air hose. When any of these men
we're absent a cleaners We're used
as substitutes, the classification of
these being changed by the Director
General from watchmen with labor
ers' pay to car men and back pay
awarded to January /, 1918. The gang
consisted of Is men, all unskilled,. and
they were given back pay during Fed
eral control of $14,436.
"S On Southern Pacific, employees
whose sole duty was to keep watch on
stationary engines and to stop the
engine in case anything went wrong
were reclassified by Director General
as electrical workers, one man on
the Salt Lake division being given
back pay of $2,381, another $1,000,
another $1,000, another $1,000, and
six others amounts varying from
$500 to 81 1900"
Boston Transcript - If there had
been no armistice the Allies would
have been in the Ruhr some two and