The Brunswick news. [volume] (Brunswick, Ga.) 1906-2016, 1922-07-23
SOME FACTS ABOUT THE RAIL
STRIKE.

volved in the railroad strike are uu
usually clear cut and undisputed
! There, is, and. there Las been, no rea
son why the public should become cor
fused in the matter Judging, how
ever, from current comment. there
are not few who insist upon seeing
as through a glass, darby"
Even the Chief Executive appears t.
be laboring under some misapprehen
sion. And more recently Mr.. Jewel
has taken advantage of the opening
afforded him by the Presidents procla
nation to address to the President
and to the public-a message shot
through with half truths. evasions and
positive misstatements of fact
In order to make it certain that a
perfectly plain issue may not become
beclouded by such tactics and by the
muddled thinking of some who ought
to kno wDetter, it is we'll once more
briefly to summarize the facts of the
situation.
As to wages, the Labor Board, ere
ated by Congress to settle disputes. af-
ter hearing all that the unions had to
say and after careful study of al. per
tinent facts of the situation, decided
that it was just to the men and only
fair to the public that on and after
July l shop wages be reduced about
10 per cent. Such a reduction was put
into effect. The unions demand a
restoration of the old scale. They are
striking, not against the roads but
against branch of the Federal Gov
ernment.
The evidence which convinced
the Board that wages should come
down Is irrefutable. Rates of pay on
the roads were far and away above
those paid by outside concerns for sim
liar work. Even after the July l re-
duetion, wages are well above the gen
eral level. Moreover, due to the de-
crease in living costs, the purchasing
power of rail wages even now is above
chat of the peak in 1920. Retail prices
have fallen more than have rail wages.
No denial of these facts is even at
tempted.
The whole case OF the men as far
as it relates to wages rests upon the
that wages allowed under
the recest ruling of the Board do not
afford the basis for an American stan
dard of living" What Mr.. Jewell and
his cohorts demand is that railroad
shopmen must have food, shelter,
and other comforts in
far exceeding those the rest
Of us can hope for.
Production of the good things of life
is limited, and nothing is more GER
tain than that there has never been,
is not now and will moi in the near
future, enough to go around on the law
ish scale the shopmen demand.
The demand of the shipment with
respect to working conditions is equal
ly preposterous. AS everyone knows
TO his sorrow, there was a veritable
orgy of working restrictions of the
most efficiency killing type during the
days of public control.
n
enough in all conscience about restor-
ing normal working conditions. To
allow them to start drifting back to
those existing under the old national
agreements" would be crime against
the public. Mr.. Jewell and the rest
know perfectly well that their posi-
tons on the roads-if they can still be
sa to have any-are far more hedged
about with protective" rules than any
i'll outside industry.
AS to the outside contracting prac-
tice, that is the noblest Roman of
them all. Mr.. Jewell knows, and Pres
ident Harding ought TO know. that not
only the few roads that have been or
dered to desist, but a great many more
before the strike began, offered as the
price Of peace to waive what they con-
sidefed their rights in this mattre and
agreed to cease the practice. So, like
wise, with the rest of the hundred or
so cases of alleged defiance" on the
part of the roads.
The plain fact is that in very few
if any instances have the carriers fail
ed in good faith to abide by the rul-
ings of the Labor Board. If the unions
are sincere in much of what they say,
why do they not confine their strike
to those roads which refuse to obey
the Board?
THE TARIFF BILLS