The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1921-06-27
FOUR HUNDRED MILLIONS IN
WAGES SAVED TO ROADS BY
CUT EFFECTIVE ON JULY |
Addendum to Wage Re-
duction Order of June
| Adds Practically All
Roads In the CT a s S
One Districta an d
Makes the Saving Ap-
ply to All of Them.

Chicago, June 27.-The new wage
decision OF the United States Railroad
Labor board will make reality of
the estimated $400,0O0,000 annual say
ings expected when the boards 12 per
cent cut effective July l, is applied
to all employees on all railroads
known as Glass One carriers. The
decision, drawn up as an addendum
to the wage reduction order of June l
adds practically every railroad in the
Class One district to the 104 roads to
make the II per cent reduction.
When the reduction order was is
sued, it was estimated that if applied
to all employees on all Glass One rail
roads, it would lop approximately
$400,000,0 900 from the country's rail
road labor bill. The new decision will
make this cut possible by ordering re-
duced wages for all employees not in
cluded in the original case and also
by including employees on roads which
were not parties to the first hearing.
Immediately following the an
nouncement of the boards wage cut
en- June l, roads from every section
of the country poured in their appli-
cation to the labor board for author
ity to make similar reductions A
hearing set for June 1S included
total of l64 rounds and in the next
two weeks 81 more submissions were
made and included in a hearing for
June 20. A few roads which had not
not included in hearing for June 10.
The roads which had not included all
classes OF employees in their first Pc
titions for reductions, came in with
the remaining classes in the last hear
ings.
Many of the roads which asked re-
ductions for only part of their en-
ployes at the original hearing in May
came back with applications to cover
all employees at these two later hear
ings. Virtually every railroad in the
country affected by the labor boards
S600,000,000 wage award for July,
1920, was included in one or more of
tho three hearings.
Following the IL per cent reduc-
tion, which was generally unsatisfac-
tory to the roads, the carriers re-
turned to the board with added in
sistence that the 1920 wage award be
wiped out. The board, however, was
not inclined to change it's scale of re.
ductions determined in the June
decision and merely added to that de-
cision employees involved in the subse-
quent hearings.
At the two June hearings the roads,
for the most part, contented them
selves with reiterating the evidence
presented The evidence consistd
of cost Of living statistics and COM
parison Of railroad wages with those
in outside industries The employees
took up other factors laid down by
the transportation act to be consid-
cred in the determination of just and
reasonable wages Hazards of en-
ployment, the living wage and sim
liar lines of evidence, were introduced
in an effort to prevent any cut in
wages.
While no definite returns have been
announced from the referendum being
taken by all the railroad unions on
acceptance or rejection of the IL per
cent cut, it was expected that confer
ences here on July l would agree to
accept the boards decision without
intarruntion of traffic