The Ocala banner., 1922-08-25
BOTH SIDES OF THE STRIKE
SITUATION

way Who received the fatted calf and
the fine new clothes in the parable.
while the faithful son who stayed at
home and tended to business went
without any extras in the way of feast
ing and raiment. Is this Biblical pre-
cedent to be followed in ending in
dustrial Quarrels today, queries one Of
cur editors? For. as he sees it, this
seniority issue, which was the sole
remaining point of controversy by
the third week of the rail strike, is
simply the question whether the fat.
ted calf is to be killed for the prodi-
gals and the faithful ones rewarded
with the crumbs that fall from the
table When President Harding Of
fereG his plan Of settlement on the
last day Of July, it will be remember
ed, ii was accepted in whole by the
strikers; but the railroad executives,
while accepting the proposals to leave
all other points to the Railroad Labor
Board, baked at the condition thus
woIded by the President: "all en-
plOyees now on strike to be returned
to work and to their former positions
with seniority and other rights unim-
| paired" The practically unanimous
decision of the railroad executives in
| the country was that they would rath-
er see the strike go on indefinitely
than consider any settlement which
did not provide protection in their
preseny employment, both to the loyal
employees who remained in the ser
vice and to the new employees enter
ing it, Seniority having become the
crucial issue in the strike, in spite
OF the fact that it had nothing to do
with the original strike demands--a
point on which our editors generally
agree-it behooves us to show from
their editorial comment why it mat
| ters so emphatically. The question is:
does a returning striker retain his po-
sition n the railroad organization just
as if he had come back from a vaca-
ton, or does he begin all over again as
tho he were being hired for the first
time? The strikers hold the first
view; the railroad executives the
second, and each finds considerable
new spaper support.
i AS far as the railroad shopmen are
concerned, we read in the press dis
patches. seniority means that the
wcrkmen who have been longest in
| the employ of the railroad are given
the choice of the better positions
that when reductions in the working
forces are made, Junior men are laid
OF first and the senior men last; and,
THAT after men have been laid off in
slack seasons they are taken back
in the order of seniority, and no new
labor is employed until former en-
ployees, who so wish, have been re-
turned to their positions.
The practical bearing of the point
at issue is thus impartially explained
by the Boston Herald
The railroad employers say that
| for the strikers to win this seniority
victory would be more damaging to
! the situation in all the future than
was the passage of the Adamson law
and very much like it in general eff
feet. 1t would be breaking faith with
the men who remained with the roads,
and with those who have accepted
positions under the new deal A ma
chinist, for example, in a settled po
sition in Brockton, attracted by the
better opportunities of the railroad
shops threw up his job and went to
Billerica to take a position with the
railroad, accepting the statement of
the operators that it would be per
manent. New. if the returning strik-
ers go in above him in rank anu au-
thority, they would make life pretty
] miserable for him in the first place,
and he would have lost his Brockton
80 il. the second. The next strike
would. 6nd him remembering this. dis
trustlal Of any promises. Much the
same applies TO the loyal men With
old associates back, they would de
rive no industrial advantage from hav-
( ing stood by the ship.
The employees reply that the
+ seniority system is the keynoee Of
the arch; that upon it everything in
their career depends. Even so small
matter as 3 railroad pass, but Of
some sentimental value, is rated on
the seniority system. A man who has
been employed certain time has