The Connecticut labor news., 1922-03-24

submissions asking reductions, repre-
scnt>tivcs OF the employees to follow
i'll making their presentations and
arguments on proposed wage i'll
cIcasts and against further lowerin :,
OF pay schedules fixed by the board
as lust and reasonable Therefore
the case now being heard affects ma
chinists, blaCksniths, boQcrmakcrS,
sheet metal workers, electricians, and
carmen. Other classes will be heard
in the following order, each separ-
ately: Maintenance Of way, clerks,
signalmcn, dispatchers, stationary
fircmen and oilers, supervisors OF me
chanics, photographers,
The western roads are asking that
cut OF o12 cents an hour be applied
to all skilled shop employees, or from
II cents to 672 cents an hour, and
from "a cents an hour now paid help
crs, TO 40 cents, or ID cents an hour
less. Car departments, from II to so
cents, p cents an hour cut Eastern
roads, in most part, ask for the right
TO establish rates OF O2 10 so cents
an hour for all mechanics, and helpers
40 to 12 cents. In the southeastern
territory the wages proposed by the
carriers would be on a split rate basis
OF 90 and % cents all hour Tor Jour
ncymen, a cut OF IL and ii cents, and
for helpers, s. cents an hour, except
ING for machine operators, who would
get 40 cents.
During the session Board Member
n. O. Wharton greatly embarrassed
Mr.. Higgins, spokesman for western
roads, by asking what the proposed
wage reductions would mean to the
carriers and what they would do with
the saving if they got it. Mr.. Higgins
intimated that this was none Of the
business of the empolyes nor Of the
public Admissions made by him, as
they appear in the official record,
which promise to have d most i'm
portant bearing on the hearing, are
told in part in another column. Mr.
Higgins was put in such slippery
hole that he experienced great diff
Guilty in climbing out and lost much
of the force OF his argument for wage
cut at the bottom Of the hole.
Carrier representatives, though he
peatedly questioned, would not say
what the proposed cut would mean to
their several roads, There was at
least tacit admission OF the employees
CHAR &c llldl lllc SNlCuCt'I vi w dSI NulS
had been prepared by small COM
mittee Of the Association OF Railway
Executives and then handed to their
hired men TO execute without permits
sion to change a single figure.
In a battle Of words Mr.. Walbcr
Of the eastern roads lost his custom
airy poisc and charged that officials OF
the labor organizations had prevent
ed the employees from negotiating
agreements When asked by Presi-
dent B. NJ Jewell of the Railway
Employees Department and President
J. A. Franklin OF the Boilerrnakcrs to
cite single instance of this kind he
was unable to do so,
Secrecy Surrounds Exhibits.
Noluminous exhibits were intro
duced by Messrs. Higgins and Wal
Der purporting to show a disparity in
wages paid railroad shop employees
and so-called analogous workers in
outside plants. Perhaps statistics
would have more weight as evidence
and be of smaller bulk if they had
been collected and compiled by par
ties less intimately interested than the
railroad officials and their agents.
Upon being asked for names Of
firms canvassed and what proportion
OF such outside wages had been cs-
tablshcd by negotiations with en-
pIoyes or by the dictum Of plant own
ers, the invariable reply was that the
data collectors sent out by the car
riers had promised not to divulge the
source OF information.