Daily Kennebec journal., 1922-08-23
Factors in Strike
(Continued from PAGE One)

pending industrial boom which would
put the railroads, with their thous-
ands of bad order cars, more than ever
in need Of their old repair rorces.
This wage increase will put con
siderable fire into the veins of rail-
road labor" declared David Williams,
secretary OF the eastern strike com
mittee. The railroad men will find it
hard to understand why he should get
s2.75 a day when he could get 81 for
the same work in the steel mills.
IF the railroads don't settle with
cult for them to hold the unskilled
crafts in line
Rail heads refrained from discussion
of the possible effect of the steel COM
panies move on rail strike negotla-
| tions. They we're. nevertheless quick
to offer numerous reasons why the
steel interests should grant their men
a raise at this critical state.
One was that some Of the steel cor
poration bankers. who also are large
investors in railroads, took such means
of making untenabe the position
steadfastly maintained by the eastern
! die hards' headed by l.. +. Loree,
that the strike be allowed to continue
as finish fight rather than it be
settled by returning seniority rights
to the strikers.
In other quarters the raise TO steel
men was interpreted an attempt to
forestall shortage of labor when
coal mines get into full action again,
and roads are called upon to take up
the additional burden of record crop
might bring the wage question back TO
| complicate the strike which now has
smmered down 10 battle over senior
ty rights.
Although Mr.. Loree today disclaim-
cd any intention of putting the brakes
on strike negotiations. after declaring
| that this talk of peace is all bunk.
other members of the eastern presi
| dents conference Voicing similar
views indicated clearly that they Will
enter tomorrows conference as a
I tion of seniority.
| Despite continued assertions Of raj!
chiefs that they Will enter the confer
cnce tomorrow without having before
i them any definite proposal as result
. of their executive committees two
1 day conference with the Big Five last
week, reports persist in labor circles
! that several such proposals were laid
before the carrier representatives
, In each case full restoration of
seniority was said TO have been tho
outstanding feature. One such plan,
revealed in labor sources, tonight was
said to have been written by Sccre-
! tary of Commerce Hoover and an
official of the Brotherhood of Engi-
neers, containing provisions similar
I to President Harding's last proposal,
/ cloaked in new words.
! Wages. working conditions and
farming out of shop work would be
referred to the Railroad Labor
! Board for adjudication. according TO
this plan, it was said.
On the seniority question. strikers
would return with full rights as of
| July l. Loyal employees would retain
former rights plus rights since July
! l. New men. taken on since the
strike was called. would have rights
dating from July ]. Under this plan
! the strikers would lose seniority
rights for only the eight weeks the
strike now has been in progress.
Most of the 14S railroad men who
will attend the meeting at the Yale
Club tomorrow arrived in the city
tonight and straightaWay began seV
eral informal caucuses in an effort to
line up votes for the balloting tomor-
and in small groups. and those in at
tendance declined to give any indica
tion of results.
Meantime. labor headquarters
again became active with the arrival
of officials OF the II shop crafts units
who preceded the big FIVE leaders
into the city. Warren s. stone.
president of the brotherhood of Lo-
connective Engineers and B. F. Jewell,
president of the shop crafts organ
ization. are expected to arrive to-
! morrow, to lay plans for the broth
erhood's resumption Of sessions with
an executive committee OF the asso-
citation, probably on Thursday.