The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1922-11-11
RAILROAD LABOR BOARD
ENDORSES PAGAN
ETHICS OF INDUSTRY

IN. c. w. G. Dept. of Social Action.)
Detailed examination of the text of
the Railroad Labor Boards denial of
the right of unskilled labor to living
wage reveals that in the opinion of
the majority of the Board the chief
point in determining just and reason
able wages for railroad labor is how
much other employers are paying for
similar labor. 1t was only because
other employers have had to raise
wages, particularly the U. S. Steel
Corporation, that the Railroad Labor
Board decided to order the railroads
to pay matter of sixteen cents day
more to common labor. The decision
is the more serious because of the in
duence the Railroad Labor Board has
on public opinion and the official ap-
prevail it gives, as a governmental
body, to what the Bishops Program of
Social Reconstruction calls pagan
ethics of industry"
In excusing itself for not accepting
the doctrine of the living wage, the
Board says that it is impossible to
learn what is living wage and that
il forty cents an hour were paid as a
minimum to common labor on the
railroads and the present proportional
increases continued, the railroads
could not pay interest. 1t is know from
other sources, however, that the Board
made no attempt to find out what a
living wage is. 1t even refused to
accept the figures of an employers or
ganization, the National Industrial
Conference Board, on the cost of liv.
ing in workingmen's families.
The Board said that the railroads
could not pay interest if they paid
section men minimum of 1884 a day
| and proportional increases to other
employees. 1t was not asked to order
the railroads to pay other railroad
men proportional increases. 1t was
only asked to order the railroads to
pay at least family living wage to
every man they employ
If the railroad managers cannot pay
interest, when they are forced to give
their employees at least living wage
| it is either because interest charges
| are too high, or the managers are in.
| efficient, or both. In any case, com
mon labor ought not to suffer. 1t is
| known that some railroads are bonded
| excessively. 1t is also known from an
authoritative report of industrial engi
neers that in six large industries the
waste is from % per cent to So per
| cent, and that from half to 81 per cent
of the waste is due to management
1t appears certain that if railroad EN-
ployes were paid at least living
wage, the management could reduce
it's ineficiency and still pay interest
on the excessive bond issues.
/ But even if the stock and bond
holders would have to do without in
terest and dividends, railroad men
just as all other classes of workers
ought to get at least living wage
The Bishops Program of Social Re
construction in its closing passage
says that "the employer has a right
to get reasonable living out of his
business, but he has no right to inter
est on his investment until his EN-
ployees have obtained at least living
wages. This is the human and Chris
tan, in contrast to the purely com
mercial and pagan, ethics of industry
/ Where the paganism of such a disre
gard for the living wage comes in, is
in its contempt for the dignity of q
human being. Returns on property
are placed above the decent comfort
and normal existence of the men who
work. This puts property and money
returns on property above human la
Dor and above enough money to the
men who labor to support themselves
and their families in decent comfort
There is more worth than that to hu
man nature and to deny it is to accept
the pagan outlook upon life. 1t is tc
accept materialism..