The Winslow mail., 1922-06-30

further basis Of your action the the
ory that labor cannot be completely
freed from the economic laws which
likewise affect the earnings of cap
ital. Clearly this means nothing
more or less than the treatment of
labor as a commodity whose value
fuctuates according to the demand
for and supply of labor.
Your decisions are related to the
period when intense employment
had so increased the supply and di-
minished the demand for labor that
wage rates were at an artificially
low level, consequently your open
permission to pay higher wages
whenever the socalled labor mark
ct compels" unleases the law of sup
ply and demand, making an end to
the orderly wage structure which
has been developed in recent years
as stabilizing force in the industry.
Railroad employees must once again
look to such influence as they can
WELD in the labor market for escape
from the unjust wages which you
have sanctioned.
In adopting these two principles
as the basis for your decisions you
lave failed to take into considera-
ion the principle that even the low
est paid railway employees, such as
section men and laborers, should re
ceive at least living wage
AS consequence, your decisions
degrade these classes Of employees
below level of bare animal sub
sistence, and reduce the earning ca
pacity of the employees of the high
er grades of occupation below a
standard of healthful and decent liv-
,ng.
Your acceptance of the first claim
Of profits, your conforming to the
commodity theory of wages, your re-
lection of the principle that the low
est paid worker must receive at
least enough to sustain his family
render your decisions a clear viola
lion of the labor provisions of the
transportation Act
The right to at least live is fund
amental, but your decisions deprive
a large number of railway workers
of even this elementary right Men
N America cannot be expected to
work for public utilities only to see
their children undernourished and
doomed to a premature death, if they
do survive the almost intolerable
conditions imposed by your decision,
to be destined to go through life
without an education or the oppor-
tunity to realize healthy and de-
cent existence. Neither can they be
expected to accept as the fruit of
their labor poverty, or life cycle
for themselves and their families
which embraces the costant appre-
hensfon of passing from a bare sub
sistance to actual pauperism, with
the stigma of the Potter's Field as
the ultimate goal. And yet, your
decisions sentence thousands-even
hundreds of thousands of railway
workers-to these conditions, al
though representatives from among
them, together with their wives and
little children, appearing before you
and in their simple and straightfor-
ward way gave indisputable testi-
mony of these pitiable conditions,
which was later buttressed and rem
dered impregnable by documentary
testimony based on the results of
the studies of authoritative econo-
mists, public health officials, and
public agencies, such as the Child
ren's Bureau of the Federal Govern
ment. But you have given no heed
% the cry of the children Human
ity, supported by enlightened public
opinion, and by the statements of
disinterested students and agencies
who love and serve humanity, made
it's appeal in vain. You evidently
considered it your function to put
aside all such considerations and to
make sure that the rates of pay of
railroad workers of the lower grades
should be fixed to correspond to
those established in private indus
try by the relentless, unhampered
and selfish forces of supply and de-
mand
You state in your most recent de-
cision that you have not violated
human standards. We are unable to
reconcile this statement with your
action in basing the rates of pay
provided for all your decisions upon
a minimum rate of % cents an hour,
$184 a day, or $563.00 a year. HUI
man standards cannot be adequately
sustained on such a basis of COM
pensation.
Your further statement that you
will give consideration to the living
wage principle when the railroad
properties are financially rehabili-
tated is no more reasSuring. You
thus give further confirmation of the
fact that your entire attitude is one
of subordination of human rights
and standard of property rights.
Moreover, the necessity of living can
not be deferred The Congress of
the people of our country do not ex-
pect railway employees to be expos
ed to poverty, starvation and suffer-
ing, pending the time when the rail
road bankers have rehabilitated the
railroad property at the expense of
the public and of the railway en-
ployes. In this connection we are
also reminded of the fact that in
May, 1920, when the volume of traf-
fic of the railroads was unprecedent-
ed, you refused to give consideration
to our requests for a living wage