The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1921-10-28
RETURN TO SANITY.

It has been generally believed that
there would be no tie-up of transpor-
tation at this time and public opinion
has been justified. The threatened
strike by the members of the railroad
brotherhoods has been called off.
If the action of the brotherhood
chiefs in resembling the strike order
be due to the efforts of the railway
labor board, then the creation of that
board has been justified. But without
The backing which it received from
the public and the authorities at
Washington it might have been pow
erless to avert the strike.
The country has been confronted by
transportation tie-ups before, when
business was rushing at top speed.
We have had them in the dead of VIII
ter when a fuel shortage threatened
suffering to millions. We have had
them in good times and bad, and when
wages were high and when wages
were low. Back of all of these dls-
turbanees has lurked an utter disre-
gard of the public.
The country was facing the prospect
Of transportation paralysis with at
tendant prostration of industry, stop
page of production and inconvenience
and suffering for millions. We have
had these crises before, but this time
the action of the brotherhood and
union leaders took on a more mem
aeing aspect. 1t was in open defiance
to the government, for it was in reply
to the - per- cent wage cut author
lied by the United States railway la
Dor board, a duly constituted branch
of one of the nationls executive de-
partments.
The strike call came at a time
when such action would appear to be
the height of folly. Millions of IN
employed and hundreds of thousands
of trained workers stood ready to take
the places of the men who left their
jobs OF course it has been suggested
that the strike move was not so much
! a protest against the July wage reduc-
ton as an attempt to fOresta11 other
! cuts. Nevertheless, the strike vote
was started several weeks ago, long
/ before there was even a suggestion re-
| garding further wage reductions.
The brotherhood chiefs Offered three
ways out: First, a grant of their de-
mands in full, including restoration of
1.-THE IL per cent wage reduction al
ready approved by the labor board
and in operation on the roads; in eth
Yer words, full surrender Of the rail-
| road managers and the government
| Second, government ownership. Third
if neither of these alternatives were
conceded to them the public must take
the consequences of strike, with its
danger of widespread suffering and
famine.
Any of the three would be at the
expense of the 5000 security hold
ers, and the last was intended to bring
l-discomfort and distress to all the pee.
pie.
What the railroad labor leaders de,
mand is that railway wages be KEEP
at the top notch to which they were
forcibly projected by the labor boa-t
in July, 1920. at the height of tht
Speculation and high prices of tina
period. These wages, so raised, wer'
much beyond the level accorded a
that time to all other industries, e:l
cept, perhaps, those in the building
trade. At about the time that thes
4 wage increases were ordered, the in
flation balloon had begun to collapse
and the long period of shrinkag
which has taken place since, with It
accompaniment of heavy losses ant
severe industrial depression, has seel
prices and wages in many direction
decline drastically. The whole couE
try today is suffering from the result
of readjustment, but disregarding this
the railroad labor leaders insisted. n
matter what may happen to others
that railroad labor shall still be main
4 tanned in the luxury Of boom times.