The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1922-08-26

PRIOR 11eH UPON pOs1tlOnS OF. employ
ment, any promises Of the railway
executives to destroy that prior lien
should be held void as lawless It
tempt to destroy valuable private
rights and to disregard the public
right to efficient public utility serv-
ice. %3t.st* : j. p
1T has been repeatedly threat
ened and the threat has been re-
peatedly carried out by the leading
railroads Of the country that, when
the wages and working conditions
established by the Labor Board for
the shop craft men do not meet with
the approval Of the railroads, they
may discharge all tho employees at
fected and contract out their work
to private contractors who will put
into force lower wages and less IA
vorable working conditions.
String to Promise.
1.-The executives may reply that
they have agreed to accept the va
lidity' Of labor board decisions con-
demning this practice. But they ac-
copied with the understanding THAT
they might bring law suits to ques-
ton the validity Of such decisions.
Then il the decisions are held illegal
or only advisory it is clear that
the executives will obey them or
not as they choose
THE fact that the arrangements
do not agree to furnish work, al
though they ask that the men agree
to accept work offered, gives an
other evidence that the railroad ex-
executives have not yet seen the
fairnss Of treating men with at least
the same consideration that they give
to dollars. More than half the money
invested in railways is represented
by securities bearing fixed rates of
interest. Compensation for this
money investment must be regular
ly paid. The bondholders cannot be
discharged in slack times.
If there are surplus funds which
cannot be used profitably in the op-
erations the executives must invest
them in other enterprises to keep
them working or else pay for idle
money. But If there Is a surplus of
railway employees in slack times the
executives accept no responsibility
for continuous compensation for la
Dor investments. On the contrary
they insist upon the right Of arbi-
trary discharge, the right to cut men
off from earning their living in the
service in which they have invested
their lives.
Whose Investment?
ITO give some idea of the COM
parative size Of the labor investment,
and the money investment in the
transportation industry, let US cap
italize the money value of railway
employe, which on the basis of av-
erage earnings of $500, capitalized
at five per cent. would be $4,000.
This would mean that two million
railway employees represent a labor
investment translated into terms Of
dollars of at least $60,o00,000,000.
1.-THE tentative valuation Of the in
terstate commerce commission indi-
Gates that the actual money invest
ment in the railways is far less than
18,000,000,O0O ~
Wherefore, to speak in terms Of
money, the railway executives are
claiming that the $18,00O,000, 900 in
the transportation industry which
they represent, shall receive superior
and prior consideration to that given
to the $6o,ooo,ooo,ooo represented by
the organized employees; and that,
by authority from this minority
money investment, they should be
permitted, with the sanction of law,
to destroy the sixty billion dollar la
Dor investment, and to punish the
labor investors for their refusal to
continue to subordinate their inter-
ests to the money investors and to
submit to the arbitrary dictation and
control of their majority interest in
the transportation industry by the
minority Interest,""