The Connecticut labor news., 1922-06-23
FITZGERALD SHOWS LABOR BOARD FALLS
 FOR RAILROAD END
Calls Department Statistics '"Theory'' But Uses Them to Slash
 Wages.

Cincinnati, O., June 23.-lf newspaper reports concerning the decision soon to be handed down by the Labor Board can be relied upon, the board IS about to dem ! onstrate anew its complete responsive ness to the railway owners, says a state ment of E. H. Fitzgerald, grand presi , dent Brotherhood of Railway and Steamship Clerks, Freight Handlers Ex press and Station Employees.
 Wage cuts of several cents per hour are forecasted i'll the newspaper reports; 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 establishment of just and reas enable" wage rates.
 The Transportation Act specifies sev en Irrelevant cumStanceS" which are to be considered in the fixing of just and has gone beyond the provisions of the act in one part of it's decision to provide basis for wage reductions, while at the same time 1t refuses to consider the most important of the factors specifically named in the act.
 The law states clearly that the relation between wages and living costs shall be considered in the fixing of railway wages. The board has evaded this man date of Congress- 1t has side-stepped the primary requirement under which 1t should operate. In extenuation of this policy, the claim is made that no stand ard exists by which the adequacy of wages may be measured
 The United States Department of La bor has set up such a standard; that standard and the cost of living according to that standard, were introduced as evi- denCe in the hearings in Chicago. The wages fixed by the board in its latest de ClSlOn are III some cases less than half of the 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 stand ards of living theoretical" In another part of the same decision the Depart ment of Labor figures on changes in the cost of living since 1917 are utilized The whole argument on the relation be- tween wages and the cost of living dur ing the last five years IS based upon the figures of the United States Department of Labor. It is characteristic of the board that it should have based the De- partment of Labor figures where they seemed to justify a wage cut, and dis missed the department as 'theOretiCal" wherever its testimony favored the workers.
 
 to show that the wages paid railway clerks and freight handlers are below those paid in outside industries. The wages of government clerks, fixed by Congress, are from eight per cent to 40 per cent above the wages of railway clerks, doing almost exactly the same kind of work. Over 76 per cent of the railroad clerks are paid an average of S1413 per year at the present time. Gov ernment clerks of the same degree of skill, and doing relatively the same kind of work, are paid an average of $162O per year. The wages of the government "just and reasonable" The reduction now proposed would further widen the gap between the wages fixed by Congress 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 1t has failed completely to realize that it is dealing with human lives. Its de cision reads like a trade journal report on the price of barbed wire. There is an almost paternal solicitude for the roads, 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 entered the minds of the ma jority members of the board. The real question is, what kind of lives are these workers going to live under the wages fixed? The board has resolutelv refused 10 an swer or even consider that question. | Facilities and sinking funds move | them to the depths of their being. Human questions-food, clothing, housing, education-these are of sec ondary importance to the ,abor 1 Board. It means nothing to them | that thousands of women and chil- | dren dependent upon them. must un- der the new decision, skimp even | more than before upon the physical l necessities of life. Of vastly greater | significance is it that unless the work CTS cooperate in a policy to allow liberal profits to the railway owners | there must be a skinping in lubricat- l ing oils for the engines. and crushed 1 rock for the road beds Ii is con-