The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1922-08-02
TO PROTECT EN-
Santa Fe Issues Statement Con-
corning Seniority Rights.
Employees Given Additional As
surance in Bulletin To-day.

The rejection Monday by the rail-
way executives of President Harding's
plan to settle the shipments strike
was given emphasis this morning by
the Santa Fe when the following notice
to employees was issued:
Topeka, August 2. 1922.
ITO All Employees:
That there may not be any doubt
on your part on question of seniority,
this te again assure you that the
seniority of all men now in the service
of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa F'e
Railway company will be fully pro-
Wv. K. ETTER, General Manager"
Statement by Deveny.
A statement posted on the bulletin
boards of the Topeka shops by w. u.
Deveny, superintendent, is a Dit
stronger. 1t reads:
ITO All Employees: Seniority and
all other rights of all employees who
remained in the service July 1, as well
as that of those who have entered the
service since that date, will be fully
protected
Text of Presidents Proposal.
The Santa Fe also is placing in the
hands of employees the full text of the
Harding proposal and the reply OF the
executives. as follows:
Resolved: ID That we accept the first
accommodation OF the president, reading
First, railway managers and workmen
ali decisions of the H FaiIroad labor Board
and to faithfully carry out SUCH decisions
standing that this is not intended to pre-
clude' any party to controversy from
proceeding by legal action to question the
validity of any order of the board on the
ground that the Jurisdiction and authority
to make the order was not conferred by
the statutes creating the board and defin-
S2J That we accept the second propo-
sal Of the president reading ding as follows .,
lawsuits growing out of the strike, and
railroad labor board decisions which have
in the exercIss-ef recognized rights by
either party to the railroad labor board
the strike is first called off and the repre-
sentatives of the strikers pledge themselves
and the strikers against violence in any
form against the men now at work and
the property of the carriers, since other
wise it would be impossible to consider the
measure necessary TO protect such per-
sons and property from the violence ana
intimidation of the character resorted TO
in many localities since the strike was
IS That 1T is impossible to agree to
the first sentence of the third proposal OF
the president, the whole of which reads as
Third, all employees on strike to be re-
turned to work and to their former posi-
tons with seniority and other rights un-
impaired; The rePresentt;atives OF the lear car
izations, especially agree that there Will
be no discrimination by either party
against the employees who did or did not
strike
The railroad executives and managers
ment in his letter that it is wholly nm
thinkable that the railroad board can be
made a useful agency of the government
in maintaining industrial peace in the rail-
way service, unless employers and workers
are both prompt and unquestiontng In
their acceptance Of its decisions. | think
it is more desirable than 1 know how to
express to have established the unchal-
ienged authority of the railroad labor
which are necessary to bring about the
recognition of suitable authority to decide
and end such disputes as menace the con-
tinuity of transportation"
BY this language the president has ex-
policy which we advocate. But the deci-
sions of the railroad labor board were
omq Gd Rs sH Shop
Crafts; the strike was called to take ef-
feet July /. 1922, and even the summons
of the board to appear with the railroad
executives before the labor board after the
strike was called and before it took effect,
was contemptuously ignored by the leaders
hearing. Thereupon it became the plain
duty of the railroads actively and vigor-
ousiy to undertake to sphold the orderly
processes for the adjustment OF industrial
disputes contemplated by the statute
by the decisions of that board, against
which the strike in question was directed,
and at the same time continue 10 the DesI
of their ability to discharge their duty
to the public as common carriers.
Many men in the service refused to Join
the strike and in so doing were assured of
the seniority rights accruing to them and
of the permanence of their positions. On
some important lines so per cent or more
refused to join the strike. To these oldA
loyal employees have been added thousands
of new men, who were employed and could
be secured only upon denn1te promise
that their services would be retained re-
gardless of the settlement of the strike,
with all the rights appertaining to such
employment, including that of seniority I'M
der the working rules and regulations
previously approved by the railroad labor
board. We especially point out that re-
fusal to old men who remained in the
service and to the new men who accepted
service, of the rights of seniority incident
to their employment would have Just the
opposite effect to that desired by the
president and would most seriously dis
credit the labor board. The board itself
prescribed the rules of seniority under
which the men referred to have secured
their seniority rights, and the railroad
companies have neither the legal nor moral
right to deprive these men of those rights.
BY public utterances since the strike be-
gan the board has recognized and empha-
sized these rights, and to deny them now
would, instead Of upholding the authority
of the labor board. overthrow its rules and
discredit its authority.
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