The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1922-04-22
GAMBLING
EF:CAUSE0F
= H.
!: RAILROAD A Grief
Railroad Employees. Tell Senate
Committee Why Roads Face
Bankruptcy or Control.
CONTINUED from page ~
flagmen and gatemer can earn only
$&1O24.

flagmen and gatemer can earn only
$81O.84.
Their Average Earnings. :
Here" said Mr. Lauck, "is
total Of over 100000 employees. about
one-quarter of all railroad employees,
whose average earnings run between
$50 and $1,000 per year, and for
the largest group-section men
average only 1925 per year. More
over, the earning of these amounts
per year depends on absolutely con-
'tinuous employment without loss of
time through sickness, accident or
other cause, a condition which Of
course is almost utterly impossible.
Instead of seeking further to re-
duce the wages Of men now inade-
quately paid Mr.. Lauck said the
railroad executives should at least
first make some effort to economic
their: OUTLAWS for fuel. supplies and
equipment, a conservative estimate
of the possible annual saving in that
direction being $1,000,0O0,000, on
the basis of 1920 prices.
High Price of Fuel.
"There never has been and is not
now any public protest on the part
of railway management against ex-
cessive prices for steel tails, coal,
Or other materials and supplies"
said Mr.. Lauck. "Although in 1920
their fuel bill at prices then pre-
vailing was $700,O0O.OO0, and their
cost of supplies and materials was
s2,O00,O00,000, there was no pro-
test. The indefensible prices Of ma
terials, fuel and supplies were ac-
cepted, but most determined drive
was made in 1921, and has been
growing in strength ever since, to
reduce railroad wages.
This seemingly inconsistent at
titude on the part of theh railroad
executives-to accept exorbitant
prices for fuel, materials and sup
plies on the one hand. and to at
tempt, on the other. to debate rail-
road labor without regard to human
standards or adequateness Of com
pensation-would be inexplicable
were it not for the results of Off
cial and private investigations as tc
the control of credit in this country
and the relations between large pro.
ducers of fuel, iron and steel and
other basic railroad materials, and
certain groups of private banking
houses and financial institutions. Il
has been shown that the control Of
railroads, manufacturing and mining
finances and credit centers in q
small inner. group of New York
bankers and financiers Of which the
banking house Of j. P. Morgan &
Co. is the apex. This same GROUP
not only controls the railroads. but
also the anthracite coal industry
the dominant operations in the soft
coal industry. the United States Stee
corporation, and railway locomotive
building and equipment manufac.
turing concerns. 1t also controls and
directs the Association of Railway
Executives and through the:mena-
bers Of this organization gives ex-
preston to its public policies and
propaganda"
Big Rail Combine.
Mr.. Lauck presented an exhibit
which he said presented primary
evidence of an NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.
way-and-banking combination in
control of national railroad policy
and ''indubitable evidence of the in
tention and design of this combina.
ton with respect to the intensified
ton of general unemployment"
1T shows" said Mr. Lauck, that
there is a capital and credit combine
consisting of the major banks, the
railroads and the Industries CONTROL.
ing basic materials and that this
combine has and exercises a power
over the economic destiny of the
United States. 1t shows that this in.
ter-related capital group deliberate.
ly Debated the farmers and then un-
dertook to debate labor. 1t shows
that within one and the same cap.
italist group lies the power to ad.
just or misadjust relative prices ir
a manner that will stimulate OF
suppress industrial activity. 1t i:
pointed out that this local capitalist
Or credit group has deliberately
maintained high prices of steel, coal
cement and other basic materials
and that the railroads, financed by
the same interests, have refused t.
place orders for plant maintenance
or even the orders necessary to pre-.
vent plant and equipment deterior.
alton. The consequences of the gen.
eral policy practised by every branch
of the giant combination in ulti.
mate control of capital and credit
beginning with the. construction o.
bank credit itself. has, in addition
to the fundamental causes of de-
preston clamped q brake, so tt
speak, upon all industry and ha!
intensified unemployment, designed
in the general policy Of he~capita
| com bination.. :.
How They Interlock.
1.-THE exhibit shows that the great
err: factors in American industry, tn,
railway equipment producers. tn
railway repair works, the steel in
terests, the coal. cement and othe
basic material producers, are al
closely bound together by inter-cap
ital relations and tnterlocking direc
torates, coming to 3 focus in tn
banking house of Morgan & Co.
and that the determination of thei
major policies centers in and is con
trolled by a number of men scarcel
larger than. 60 to make up the ad
ministrative and executive staff o
the Federal govern r.. This gen
eral statement is supported by docu