The Connecticut labor news., 1922-02-03
Because likeness Didn't Increase When Traf- fic Fell Off, Proves Their Point to Own Satisfaction at Least.

The steady increase during the last few weeks i'll the number of cars loaded with revenue freight, together with the decrease in the number of idle freight cars, is not only a healthy sign for better business but promises to be one of the most important factors i'll solving present labor difficulties, i'll the opinion of local railroad executives in propagan- da issued to the gullible public this week. On Dec. 3l, 1921, the reports say, car loadings totaled 531 ,O34; on Jan. 7, 1922, they mounted to 6O5, ,992, and the follow ing week they reached 720,877, which was at the same time 5,022 cars more than for the corresponding period in 1921.
 An interesting aspect of the car fig ures is what officials have termed the unbalanced relationship" existing be- tween the increased freight movement and the widespread unemployment i'll the country According to Bird s. Coler, Commissioner of Charities of New York, unemployment increased i'll December, and the turn of the year found no di- intuition. As far as this concerns the transportation and allied industries it simply proves, executives state, the fu- tility of the claim of labor that it can- not be called upon to defate.
 Labor has dehated," Robert s. Blink erd, assistant to the Chairman of the Association of Railway Executives, ex- plained recently in commenting on this situation but 1t won't admit 1t. Its fight to maintain the increase of he pre- war era was conducted along lines which proved to be determental not only to itself and the employer, but to the con- stunning public as well. As a result labor has taken more def1ation through unem- ployment than would have been necessary if 1t had accepted the logical and inevit- able scaling down of wages which was going on in every industry and which the railroads also had to experience"
 This" MT. Binkerd continued 'dem- onstrates how bankrupt and stupid post war labor leadership has been. If the employer had been permitted to produce goods at prices which the public could consume, more goods would now be con- stunned, and more men would be receiving larger aggregate payment in wages.
 The big things which have held up the cost of living have been railway la bor, building trade labor, the miners and all of the other highly organized forums of labor. The railroads have been elect ed by public pressure to dent the vicious circle of high labor costs, simply because transportation affects every person so di- rectly This explains our insistent fight to gain these ends, and If we succeed, others obviously must follow.
 "The recent action of the railroads and the train service unions in subscribing to the suggestion of Secretary Hoover to hold regional conferences to attempt an amicable settlement of disputes might mean the turning point in the present labor dilemma For, despite all the con- troversies which now obscure the hope for a greater cooperative spirit, railway executives are looking forward again to the day when the loyalty and devotion of their employees to their company and their work will be the outstanding character istic of the American railroad man.
 It would be sad mistake, in the opin- ion of the official, for the employees to believe that there is any insuperable con- fict between an adequate compensation for railroad capital and decent stand ard of living for railroad labor. Seen in their right relations" he added, 'the restoration of the earning power of the carriers is just as important to railroad labor as it is to railroad management, or to the public whom the railroads serve.'