The daily star-mirror. (Moscow, Idaho) 1911-1939, 1921-08-29

attempted to write or was strongly
influenced by his desire to be lined
up with the railroad bOndholders
You say the railroad men used Tex
tortion and intimidation of various
kinds to secure a raise in wages far
, out of proportion" which statement
alone shows your absolute ignorance
on the subject of which you attempt
to write.
| will compare the wage of some of
those men you charge with extortion
with those paid the printers in your
own establishment. The highest rate
of pay ever paid these train men
refer to was $4,000 for a 80 day
month. They were compelled to be
away from home 440 out of every 720
hours Ca 80 day month";. They ate
so out of every 80 meals away from
home and compelled to have a room
away from home 10 nights out OF
every 30. The least any meal could
me secured for during war time was
so cents, which made $500 they had
to pay for meals and 10 nights room
rent at rs cents night made $3.50 for
room rent or a total of $3.50 they
had to pay for away from home ex-
penses, leaving them $129.50 for the
upkeep of their home and family.
These men in order to earn that
$129.50 had to work $50 hours a
month, night work, in all kinds of
weather, so you see these men were
paid the enormous sum of AZ cents
an hour with which to clothe and
feed their families and still you think
they were not justified in using some
method to get that prince1y sum.
Your printers are being paid $3.50
per week Of 4S hours, or $4,000 for
a 80 day month of 2O8 hours work,
compared with the $50 hours these
trainmen had to work, besides being
away from their home 440 out of
every 72O hours. Should your prtn-
tiers have worked the same number of
hours as these trainmen at their rate
of pay they would have received
$195.OO and still we readers of your
paper are not calling them highway
robbers.
You hear of some railroad men re-
ceiving large pay checks, but did you
ever ask them the number of hours
they worked to get those checks? If
you were compelled to work 16 out
Of every "a hours at the Star-Mirror
wouldn't you expect Mr.. LAmphere to
give you more money than you would
for 8 hours? You might not be worth
it but nexer the less you would ex-
pect it.
The city of Moscow paid their COM
mon labor during the war $500 per
lay or SO cents per hour. Should
;hese trainmen have quit at the end
II their hours they would have
49, 16 to take home after paying their
Dad expense, but are the citizens OF |
Moscow saying these men were using
,xtortion and intimidation just be-
;ause the taxes were little higher. |
/ do not believe 1t is the policy of |
our paper to knowingly misrepre-
ent any matter editorially, but it is
through ignorance on the question
hat such charges are made, when In
eality the men were, for some time
fter the start Of the war, working
Or less than common labor and TAX
1g the chance every time they start
on their runs Of coming home
linus a leg or arm or fingers and in
,me cases never coming home to
leir loved ones alive. The men were
lerely trying to get a wage that
ould enable them to live respectfully
nd the railroads were not as willing
treat their employees as fairly as
II. Lamphere was willing to treat
Is printers and employees, so conse-