Payette enterprise. (Payette, Canyon Co., Idaho) 1909-1935, 1921-06-09
BIG WAGE BOOST RESULTS
Why TRANSPORTATION costs are AT.
Reduction July I Seem Inevitable
Public Has Been Mulcted--
Strikers Lose In New York
Living Costs High

New York, May 27.-With the de
cision of the railroad Labor Board
at Chicago, tht wages Of railroad
emploes will be cut July 1 and the
winning Of the strike of the porters
and drivers in the butter and egg
trade of New York, the following
editorial from the New York Herald
under the title of Rail Wage Cost
TO the Pubic is pertinent:
=" The American public pays the
freight and one thing that ought to
be made lcear to this freight paying
public is yhere its money goes and
in what proportion. The transporta-
ton bills OF the country went up
from some three and a half billions
of dollars a pear in 1915, before
Government operation OF the rail-
rods, to more than six billions of
dollars year In 1920, when tho
experiment of Government operation
had closed in failure and disaster.
How Wages SCARED
Railroad wages went up so fast
and so far, while the traffic charges
were taking tyo and a half billions
of dollars year more out of the
pockets of the American public, that
virtually the whole two and a half
billions became an extra labor charge
agains the public.
ut does not tell the whole story
to put railway payrolls, including
swithing and terminal companies, at
SO, 742,4S6, 1886 for 1920, because
the 1920 wage boost was not in eff
feet during the whole of last year. |
For the greater part of that year,
while the new scale was in operation |
The railroad payrolls were running al
he rate Of approximately four bill. |
los of dollars year. julius
figures, based on
'ull year, are s3,9SO,OOO,O00.
Now, for 1916, before the Adam
ION law was slapped upon the roads,
md before Government operation
acked the railroad payrolls sky
Ugh, the labor bill of the carriers
vas s1,46S,57S,000 a year, with
witching and terminal figures not
valuable. If these figures added an,
Their $32,000,000 to the total, and
robably they did not, he payroll
hen was billio and half of dol,
ar.
Before the Adamson law and
government operation ripped open
be public's pocket the billion and a l
If year railroad payroll was, an g
verage of SIS year to every man, :
oman and child in the country. 1t 1
as an average of SIS a. year 10 {
very fmily in the country.
The Big Difference O
The difference between four bill. +
ons of dollars year and billion e
Id half dollars a year is two and s
half billions of dollars year. Il
Two and a hlf billions of dol, o
RS year-the wage increases =,
average of s25 year to every f.
an, woman and child in the coun- h
y. 1t is an average Of 1925 a year n
every family in the country. a.
-Four billions of dollars a year.
topnotch railway payroll-is an d;
erage of $40 a year to every m II, 81
'man and child in the country. Is
What the Adamson law and Gov. o or
nment operation did to the Ameri- Sc
n public, then, in plain arithmetic, ia
S to increase the average Ameri> pr
family's assessment for railway ~. ~
ge from SIS year to 5000 of
ar. They took an extra S125 a CT
'r out of every family in the Unit. CT
States to put into the pay en- Vi
oeps Of the railway workers. That Inn
cost of living for you!' ca,