The Elk Mountain pilot., 1922-06-29
LABoR,s VIEW OF DECISION

way anu OtedInSnlp OicrkS, rIelEHt
Handlers, Express and Station EN-
ployes:
Cincinnati, Ohio, June 16, 1922.
If newspaper reports concerning the
decision soon to be handed down by
the Labor Board can be relied upon,
the Board is about to demonstrate
anew its complete responsiveness to
the railway owners
Wage cuts of several cents per
hour are forecasted in the newspaper
-eports; in the face of the evidence
introduced during the hearings it
seems impossible to reconcile such
reductions with the clause in the
Transportation Act calling for the es-
tablishment of "just and reasonable"
wage rates.
The Transportation Act specifies
seven relevant circumstances" which
are to be considered in the fixing of
just and reasonable wages The La
Dor Board has gone beyond the pro-
visions of the Act in one part Of its
decision to provid= has;x for wage
reductions, while at the same time it
refuses to consider the most impor-
tant of the factors specifically named
in the Act.
The law states clearly that the re-
lation between wages and living costs
shall be considered in the fixing of
railway wages. The Board has evaded
this mandate of Congress-; it has side
stepped the primary requirement un-
der which it should operate. In ex-
tenuation of this policy, the claim is
made that no standard exists by
which the adequacy of wages may be
measured.
The United States Department of
Labor has set up such a standard;
that standard, and the cost of living
according to that standard, were in
troduced as evidence in the hearings
in Chicago. The wages fixed by the
Board in its latest decision are in
amount needed to provide the mini
mum standard of living endorsed by
the Department of Labor. The Labor
Board defends it's action by calling
such standards of living "theoreticar.
In another part of the same decision
the Department of Labor figures on
changes in the cost of living since
1917 are utilized. The whole argu-
ment on the relation between wages
and the cost of living during the last
five years is based upon the figures of
the United States Department of La
boz. 1t is Characteristic of the Board
that it should have used the Depart
ment of Labor figures where they
seemed to justify wage cut, and dis
missed the Department as "theoreti-
cal" wherever its testimony favored
TIE workers.
Evidence was brought before the
Board to show that the wages paid
railway clerks and freight handlers
are below those paid in outside indus
tries. The wages Of government
clerks, fixed by Congress, are from
$50 to 4090 above the wages of rail-
way clerks, doing almost exactly the
same kind of work. Over 1879 of the
railway clerks are paid an average Of
81, 1,413.00 per year at the present
time. Government clerks of the same
'egree of skill, ard doing relatively
the same kind of work, are paid an
average of s1,62ooo per year. The
wages of the government clerks are
what Congress itself considers "just
and reasonable" The reduction now
proposed would further widen the
gap between the wages fixed by Con-
gress and those set by the Labor
Board for the same kind of work.
The strongest Indictment that can
be brought against the Labor Board
IS that it hes failed completely to
realize that it is dealing with human
lives. Its decision reads like a trade
journal report on the price of barbed
wire. There is an almost pater-
nal solicitude for the maintenance
of the property of the railroads, and
sincere regret because profits have
not been greater. The skimping of
railway facilities has moved the
Board to sympathetic action.
But nowhere is there any evidence
that the real wage question has en-
, teerd the minds of the majority men,
bers of the Board The real question
is, what kind of lives are these work.
ers going to live under the wages
fixed? The Board has resolutely re-
, fused to answer or even consider that
question. Facilities and sinking funds
. move them to the depths of their be-
| ing. Human questions-food, cloth
ing, housing, education-these are of