Catoctin clarion. [volume] (Mechanicstown, Md.) 1871-1940, 1922-08-10
ROADS Stand BY
LOYAL EMPLOYEES
Tell President Harding Old and
New Men Must Be Protected
In Strike Settlement.
NOT A MATTER OF CHOICE
Faithful Employees Eve Both Legal
And Moral Rights TO Seniority
And Other Benefits.

And Moral Rights TO Seniority
And Other Benefits.
New York.-The keynote Of the re-
ply made by railway executives repre-
senting more than $50 Class Rail
roads of the United States to the prop.
osition Of President Harding, that all
strikers be returned to their work and
their former positions with seniority
and other rights unimpaired," lies in
the last paragraph from their reply
to the President as follows:
ut is submitted that the striking
former employees cannot be given
preference to employees at present In
the service without doing violence to
every principle of right and justice
involved in this matter, and without
the grossest breach Of faith on the
part Of the railroads to the men at
present in their service.
Under these circumstances. 1t be
comes apparent that the railroads can
not consider any settlement OF the
present strike which does not provide
protection In their present employment
both to the loyal employees who re-
manned In the ser ice and to the new
employees entering it,
The executives had accepted the
first two conditions proposed by the
President, namely, that both employ
ers and employees accept the decisions
Of the Labor Board, and that all law
suits growing out of the strike be
withdrawn; and in relation to the
.hird condition spoke not only as
quoted above, but also as follows:
Agree With The President
1.-THE railroad executives and man.
ayers agree entirely with the Presi.
dents statement in his letter that 1t is
wholly unthinkable that the Railroad
Labor Board can be made useful
agency Of the Government in maintain.
ing industrial peace in the railway
service unless employers and workers
are both prompt and unquestioning in
their acceptance Of its decisions.
Many men in the service refused to
Join the strike and In 30 doing were
assured of the seniority rights accru'
ing to them and Of the permanence
Of their positions. On some important
lines SO per cent or more refused to
Join the strike. To these old loyal EN-
ployees have been added thousands
of new men who were employed and
could be secured only upon a definite
promise that their services would be
retained regardless of the settlement
Of the strike, with all the rights ap
pertaining to such employment includ
ing that Of seniority under the working
rules and regulations previously APP
proved by the Railroad Labor Board
Gust The Opposite Effect"
I'VE especially point out that a re
fusal to the old men who remained in
the service and to the new men who
accepted service Of the rights Of senior
ity incident to their employment would
have just the opposite effect to that de
sired by the President, and would most
seriously discredit the Labor Board.
THE board itself prescribed the
rules of seniority under which the men
referred to have secured their senior
ity rights, and the railroad companies
have neither the legal nor moral right
to deprive these men Of those rights.
BY public utterances since the strike
began the board has recognized and
emphasized these rights, and to deny
them now would, instead Of upholding
the authority Of the Labor Board, over
throw It's rules and discredit its au
thority.
THE Chairman of the Labor Board
at the time the strike was called made
the following public statement:
Upon one question the striking en-
ployees should not be deceived. Their
leader has said that the strikers are
no longer employees of the railways,
and they have thus automatic
abandoned all the rights they possess
under their agreements and under the
decisions Of the board. including their
seniority. This is not the boards &C
tion. 1t is their own.
MANY carriers are giving their for
mer employees the opportunity to re-
enter the service within a limited time.
II must be understood now that men
who remained In the service and those
who are now entering 1t will have
rights Of seniority that the board could
not ignore"
What The Proposed Plan Means
1T must be understood that any pro
posal that employees now on strike
shall be permitted to return to the
service, without impairment to their
seniority, is merely another way Of
suggesting that those men who took
employment in this crisis in good faith,
relying on the promises of the rail
roads to protect them in their posi-
tions, these promises being justified by
the authoritative utterances of the
Labor Board, and thus have made pos
sible the continued operation of the
railroads, shall now be sacrificed in
favor of men now on strike, who not
only brought about the crisis, but, by
their own action and declaration, are
no longer employees of the railways,
under the jurisdiction of the United
States Railroad Labor Board, or sub
ject to the application Of the Trans
portation act.
"In addition to the necessity of I'D.
holding the Labor Board, and main
tanning the pledges made by the rail
roads to the men now at work, there
IL the practical effect on the super
visory officers Of a violation OF the
- Il