The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1922-10-13
LABOR BOARDS SCALP
NECESSARY TO CURE
ILLS OF RAILROADS
CONTINUED ON Page one.J


Because of all this, together with
the increased prices for supplies (next
to the farmers. the railways are by far
the largest and most varied buyers of
commodities in the wnoIe country-or
the worldly, the cost of operating
American railways was swollen by bill
lions of dollars every year-last year
it was $2,352. 682, 209 more than in
1915; and this vast increase can no
longer be met by the public treasury,
but must come from railway earnings.
The railway wage bill alone was
greater in 1920 than the total railway
earnings in 1916 or any previous year.
The average railway wage is now $50
percent higher than it was five years
ago. From 1916 to 1920 the increase
in wages of railway labor aggregated
1926, 422,954; the railway wage bill
for 1920 was $I,451, 650.886 more than
the entire cost of operating all the
railways in America only six years be-
fore. These figures, which | have dug
out of the official records of the inter-
state commerce commission, throw
light on the whole railway situation
from wages to rates, from roadbed to
equipment, from discipline to service.
THE labor board in an attempt to
handle this complicated situation oil
standardized rules, wages and what
not, issued many orders to the railway
companies, who often ignored the or
ders and flouted the board. The board
increased railway wages and the rail-
way managers protested, but yielded.
Then the board cut the wages OF GER
tain class of employees and that class
struck. The boaro Illuminated and de-
nouneed and ordered-the men refused
to obey and flou. ed the board just as
the railway executives had dlsoDeyed
and flouted the board.
Labor Board Failure
"Thus has been demonstrated the
failure of this artificial, arbitrary and
mechanical device, the labor board.
which was thrust into uneconomic, i'm
practicable and low-created conditions.
An agency of government has been
defied successfully; and, as a neces-
sary and inevitable result, respect for
all government has been impaired to
that extent The labor board did not
prevent the strike; it did not settle
the strike it could not possibly do
either. On the contrary, it was the
action of the board that preclp1tated
the strike.
And now what has happened? On
some roads practically full equipment
made up of old and new men have
been employed and these roads refuse
to recognize the strikers as such. On
many roads the strike has been settled
or is in progress Of settlement. How?
By the men themselves and their en-
ployers, as always must be the case
in the end where people have free gov
eminent But for governmental inter-
ference, conditions would not have
been created which made such indus
trial disturbances certain. 1t all be-
gan with the Adamson law, which
made inevitable in the end what has
happened.
Conditions Differ
Moreover, where the strike has
been amicably settled. the men and
managers of each road separately have
reached separate. agreements as to
each road separately. This also is
normal, natural and plain common
sense. The conditions and require
ments on one line may be and general
ly are totally different from those on
another line.
IF railway employees in Indiana and
their families are contented and hap
arranged directly between the men
and managers, why should they be
compelled to suffer until men and
managers in Maine and California also
adjust their differences?
Idea of Uniform Pay Unsound
THE idea of uniform rules and wage
scales upon all railway lines every
where is fundamentally unsound in
theory and ruinous in practice. And
it is immoral and tyrannical to force
satisfied men to quit work because
other men are dissatisfied in a section
Of the country 1000 miles distant
What is the plain lesson from ali
this? 1t is to begin the undoing of the
Sitting mass of artificial. arbitrary, I'm.
economic and impractical restrictions
which paternalistic and unwise legisla-
ton has wound about industry and
business, and begin that return to
sound principles by abolishing the lab.
or board and the standardized rules
and scales which that board was ere
ated to administer. Get rid of the
whole complex. impractical, unbusi
nesslike and immoral mess.
Leave to railway workers and rail
way managers of each line the making
OF their rules and wage scales by mn
tual agreement. We have had more
railway trouble since the government
undertook to fix every hing every
where by standardizing law and rur
everything everywhere by standardiz
ing ukase, than has occurred for
generation. The Adamson law wage
yard-stick, Government operation, TIL
McAdoo national agreements, the lab
or board and its futile orders hav'
been successive logical steps towar;
sure disaster, Statutes cannot repea
economic law: legislation cannot regu
late human nature
Ideal Methods
Mutual conference and agreemen
between railway managers and men oil
each line. assisted by the Irresistible
moral force OF public opinion and
when necessary. the action of our a.
ready established courts of justice Z
maintain order and to safeguard lif
and property these are the idea
methods of preventing and endin
strikes; and these are the best metz
DDS possible under our institutions @
orderly freedom. Moreover, they ar
the only methods that ever have work
ed thus far PRAY God the America