New Britain herald., 1922-08-14
sion there can be no such thing ss ar

sion there can be no such thing as ar
 bitration.
 The seniority question" not an
 original point of disagreement, is the
 bone of contention now, and, 1t ap-
 pears will continue 10 so be, Rail- ] roads, in an attempt to break the i strike took on workmen in the shops
 promising steady jobs and advance
 ment 10 the right men. This means,
 also, that the oldest employees will i have the right 10 pick out their as- sisnments naturally taking the most desirable ones. Striking repair men might go back, providing the rail- roads could be made 10 break a prom ise already made 10 the new workmen, | and new promise made extending seniority rights 10 the strikers, whom the operators consider have forfeited their positions in the seniority lists by striking The rub is that the railroads 1 will not consider the plan and the shopmen will not consider anything else, Public sentiment appears to be backing the railroads on the seniority question at least.
 The decision to fight 1t out, which has been reached, will call for addi- tional efforts on the part of railroad
 labor to enforce the demands, all though those demands might change somewhat when time comes fAr an- other conference. The roads, in their statements, claim that they are re- filling the shops with workmen and that they will have, within a short time, well-traned crews of repair men. If this is so, and were there no other elements to consider, the crisis has been safely passed. But the unions have other tools to fight with and may call them into play in order 10 gain their wishes. By calling out other railroad labor organizations the fight may be made the harder for the roads.
 There are a total of Is railroad la Dor groups, the most important of which is probably the engineer group. Six of the groups are now out, there are ten more units which may be em- ployed singly or in mass to help out their brothers. While the shopmen may be beaten, if you believe the road managers, there is long way to go before railroad troubles are over Trained engineers are not to be made in moment. despite the eagerness that might be displayed by recruits for the jobs.
 In our complicated scheme of exist ence we have demanded much from the railroads. There were on May 1 total of 1,62S,22S employees on the payrolls of the class one roads, com prising about 95 per cent of our rail- roads. They received a total pay of s2fs,672.o2s per month. There are approximately 69,000 locomotives 2,35o poo freight cars and 56,ooo pas senger cars in, the United States. It costs about s5,000, 0,000,000 a year to operate the roads
 Without the services of the roads we should be hopelessy lost, our life, social and economic would go to pieces. Transportation tieups vitally affect every one of us. whether we realize it or not. Inasmuch as the citi- zen of this country has so much at stake in the continuance of the rail- | road he should take the strike situa- tion thoroughly to heart and attempt an adjustment of it by bringing what sentiment he can command to bear. | Other classes of labor, in common with the average man, will suffer through a strike, other classes of labor may bring influence to bear. The strike should not come, the general strike that is The fact that we were en- tering upon a wave of prosperity and , this debars it does not necessarily call for the cessation of hostilities, but the fact that ue may actually starve and freeze next winter certainly should.