Fitzgerald leader enterprise and press. (Fitzgerald, Ben Hill County, Ga.) 1921-1964, 1922-05-04

NAH ou CACCutlFSS ttSuIylng before
the Senate Committee on Interstate
Commerce laid great stress on the
abolition Of piece-work during Federal
control of roilroads, claiming that the
maintenance costs were largely in
creased thereby.
'Testifying before the same commit
tee on, February 2, 1922, William G..
McAdoo, former director general of
the Railroad Administration, said:
"Piece-work was abolished only af-
ter an extensive investigation cover
ing period of months, in which CO IN
parison of the results Obtained in a
region working daywork with reg
ion working piece work had shown.
Disadvantages of Piece-wokr
l There was no advantage from an
efficiency standpoint in piece-work
over day work in locomotive shops.
2 That locomotive maintenance
costs per 1000 pounds of tractive pow
er mile were Greater in the region
working piece work than they were
in the region working day work.
8 That it was not possible under
the piece system to avoid large pay
ments to workmen for work which
was not performed. In fact, on the
Pennsylvania railroad, it was found
that the officials had voluntarily ov-
/ Il. &c
more than $2,50O,000.
No substantial difference iris the
general condition of equipment was
found in the piece-work region as
compared with the day-work region
on roads where work was properly su-
pervised and high standard of main
tenance required"
Mr.. McAdoo testified that less than
10 per cent of all employees in the
maintenance of equipment department
were at any time, during Federal con-
troll, working on the plece-work sys-
TEN; therefore authorizing it to be
discontinued, he declared, could not
have seriously affected maintenance
costs either during or since Federal
control.
For the information of Congress, MI
McAdoo submitted the official reports
of the Investigations and recommen-
dations upon which he authorized alb
clifton of piece-work.
Railroads Padded Payrolls
Under date of December TO-, Frank
McManamy, assistant director of the
Bureau of Operations of the Railroad
Administration reported that the Penn
sylvania Railroad was deliberately
overpaying their piece-worxers to the
extent of millions of dollars" and that
1t was impossible to persuade the
managers of the road to discontinue
this practice.
The Pennsylvania Railroad Official
the report continues, "were evidently
not satisfied with increases granted to
their mechanics of more than 90 per
cent above the average rate on Deem
Der 81, 1917, therefore without author
ization they increased it to more than
100 per cent.
The report further declares that
we have, within the past few days, OBJ
tanned information which leads us to
believe that other lines have adopted
the same method of payment. I under
stand the Baltimore and Ohio has ov-
er paid their piece-workers. The Phil
adelphia and Reading during the first
two weeks of August overpaid their
piece workers to the amount of $780,
OO0"
In report dated December 4, 1918,
Mr.. McManamy reported the result of
an investigation undertaken at the re-
quest of the Board of Wages and
working conditions into the practices
and results of piece-work.
High Cost Of Plece-Work
In the Northwestern region, where
mechanics were paid 1Oc more Der
hour, and where day-work prevailed,
the cost of maintenance was material
ly lower than in the Allegheny region,
where piecework was in effect.
From this" the report adds, " it
would appear that SO far as cost of
maintenance is concerned, the advan-
tage is with the daywork plan"
In supplementary report on piece
work over-payments, Mr.. McManamy
said:
1T is fact that at every where we
have conducted an investigation or
made a check we have found that
payment is regularly made for large
quantities of work which has not been
performed, also that much of the work
is not well performea.
On the Boston and Albany we
found that some work was paid for
las high as four times. Particular ref
erence is made to one case where the
workers put in time slips and received
pay for removing and applying 900
tlues in a boiler which only contained
zoz. Such practices as this could not
be overlooked by the officials when
they are SO glaringly wrong and ap-
parently very little effort was made by
the men to conceal their duplication of
charges, because in numerous cases