The Washington herald., 1921-08-01
WAGE CUT, REAL VALUATION
CALLED RAILROAD SOLUTION
Rep. Black Writes Herald
Ur ging Congressional
Action as Aid to Revivi-
fication of Industry.

To the Editor, The Washington Herald:
Many remedies have been suggest
ed for the help of agriculture in
its present plight. and for the re-
vivaI of business from the stagna-
tion which envelops ii. Some OF
these suggestions have been good.
some Nad and others Indifferent. But
there Is one thing which, IL done.
everybody agrees would help the sit
uation, and that thing is a reduc-
ton in freight rates.
do not mean a radical and un-
reasonable reduction. but real suo-
stantial one, taking into considera-
tion the changed economic condi-
tions which now prevail. At time
when the purchasing power OF
bushel of wheat, a bushel of corn,
a pound of cotton at today's prices
payable at the farm when expressed
in prices of the things the farmer
needs and buys, is lower than X
has been at any time within the
last twenty-five years, it is abso-
lutely inexcusable that freight rates
should remain at the level where
they were fixed by the Interstate
Commerce Commission in August.
1920.
Natural Questions.
When a situation arises like this
freight rate question, We naturally
ask:
1. What is it? 2. Why is 1t? 8.
What can be done about it?
Now as to question No. /, What
is il? The average receipt per ton
mile on class 1 railways was OILS
in 1917. The corresponding average
at the present time Is approx
mately 1.22. indicating an increase
of nearly 70 per cent since 1917.
or. to express 1t in figures. the op-
Grating revenues of the railroads for
the year ending December 81. 1916.
was s3.596.sS5.76s, and for the year
ending December 81, 1920. was
360.195,790.
2.~why this increase? The short
answer to that is: Increase in oper-
ating expenses. By far the largest
item in this increase has been the
increase of wages to employees. In
1917 the increase to employees
amounted to an aggregate sum of
270,905.74s; in 1918 there was a
further increase amounting to ss74,-
331.209: in 1919, a further increase
amounting to s22s.315.os1: and IN
1920 a still further increase amount
ing to sS55.0s7.919. Therefore, at
the end of 1920 the railroads found
themselves with a payroll Of more
than $4,000. .o08. 900 greater than at
the beginning of 1917. and, indeed.
their aggregate payroll of s3.742.-
4S6.s35 for 1920 was s146,0Q0, 900
more than the entire operating rev.
enues of the railroads in the year
ending December 81. 1916.
Another wage Cut.
Of course. with an increase in pay
roll of such gigantic proportions,
and also other increased items of
expense such as increased cost Of
coal and steel. the Director General
during government operation and
the Interstate Commerce Commits
sion after the roads were returned
to private control, had to increase
rates.
8. What can be done about it?
The remedy is very simple, but not
easy Of application. 1t is: Reduce
the operating expenses And 1t is
at this point that government regu-
lhC ueClSlOn
of the Railroad Labor Board which
ordered a reduction in employees
wages averaging IL per cent, was
wholly inadequate to meet the situa-
tion. Under that decision the higher
paid employees were only reduced an
average of per cent
When we consider that the aver
age monthly wage rate of freight
engineers Oocal freight) in 1917 was
s176.64, while in January, 1920. this
had increased to S239.16. which was
further increased by the wage
award o fthe Railroad Labor Board
in July retroactive to May /. 1920
to S275.s9: when We consider further
that the corresponding averages for
passenger engineers were s1S5.93 in
1917. S253.13 in 1920 and S2SSS2 after
the 1920 wage award, we are bound
to feel. 1t seems to me. that Z per
cent decrease in the wages of these
higher paid employees is not enough
to harmonize with changed economic
conditions which we now face.
Congress May Act.
1 would be the last man in the
world to want to do the railroad
employees an Injustice but do earn
estly feel that this decision of the
Railroad Labor Board does not
place upon them their fair part OF
the decline which has occurred in
prices. I hesitate to advocate con-
gressional interference with a
board which Congress itself has es-
tablished, yet after all the board is
the creature of Congress, and The
important thing is to see that the
people get some relief from tn.
present impossible situation. There
fore, il the Railroad Labor Board
does not show a keener apprecia-
tion of the situation from the pub
lies standpoint than it has thus far
shown in it's decisions, Congress
will be compelled to amend the law
in a way that will give the people
some relief.
Another thing which / think is OF
vital Importance in arriving Ut q
lust solution of the freight rate
problem is TO speed up, the compile