Willmar tribune. [volume] (Willmar, Minn.) 1895-1931, 1922-06-28
he Committee replying to DR.. Warne

sThe fact that the railroads got
more during the period up to the first
Of September, 1920, than they have
ever had il an average Of any .threA
years, is so well known that it makes
il almost Uncomfortable to me that the
truth would not be present in the
minds Of all men. Sc.
4 Il can hardly believe that the Rail-
road Labor Board was so unintelii-
gent as. to be misIed as to these facts"
DR.. Warne replied: $50 far as my
observation .goes---and have very.
closely scanned publications during.
the last few years on these subjects
these facts have never been pre-
sented to the public by anybody, and
l doubt whether the Railroad Labor.
Board knows Of these facts.
"For example, how many people
know that, according to the showing
the railroads themselves made, they
made more money after the Increase in
wages granted to the employees by the
Railroad Labor Board in June OF 1920
than they did before?"
Why Roads Concealed the Truth
Referring to the fact that Mr.. Eli
OFT had suppressed the immense sums
received by the railroads from the
government, DR.. Warne said:
"Why did not he include the money
received from the government? The
representations of the roads would
have been absolutely and entirely diff
ferent, and the impression on the pub
lie would have been entirely and alb
sOlutely different if the roads had in
cluded in their revenues the money
received from the government in the
way of rental and guaranty, and if they
had excluded from their statements
concerning the amount paid in wages
the sums which they gave to their gen
eral and division officers.
''The roads could not have made the
impression that they did make on the
public if they had embodied in their
tables those two things. But they have
entirely misrepresented them. PIX
Incidentally DR.. Warne exposed an
other Of the railroads favorite bits of
propaganda.
Labor's Share of the Dollar
In all the literature issued by the
railroads, great emphasis is laid on
the proportion Of each dollar that goes
to labor, and the point is made that as
labor proportion of the dollar in
creases the dividends Or profits Of the
capital invested must necessarily de
crease.
+ In the first place, DR.. Warne point
ed out that Mr.. Elliott had iuggIed his
figures so as to make the worst pos
sibIe showing for labor. Instead of
receiving 53.6 cents out Of each dollar
in 1918, as claimed by Mr.. Elliott, la
Dor received only 50.7. In 1919 it re-
ceived sos, instead of 553, and in 1920
53.6 instead of 800. These are impor-
tant discrepancies because a. few cents
out of each dollar received by the
railroads of this country would make
a staggering total. =
But the most interesting point made
BY Or. Warne was that as labor's
share Of the dollar increased, the rec
ords on file with the Interstate Com
merce Commission showed that cap
tails profits also increased.
For illustration, in 1915 labor re-
ceived Ais cents out of every dollar
! of revenue, and in 1913 it received 431
cents.
According to the railroad propagan-
dists, the profits of capital should have
been less in 1913 than in 1915. But the
exact opposite was the case. With
labor receiving 16 cents more out Of
every dollar in 1918 than in. 1915, the.
capital invested in railroads received
$104 ,5I5, 602 more in 1913 than in 1915.
Again, for the year 1917 labor re-
| ceived 43.3 cents out Of every dollar,
compared with AIS in 1315, and yet
II 1917 when !ab): was getting is
cents more out Of each dollar Of rev
enue, capital received S25v, 900, 937
| more than in 1915. " IS
Juggling the average" Wage
To still further confuse the public
as to the wa ges of labor, DR.. Warne
pointed out that the roads included in
all their statements Of pay roll ex-
penditures the great sums which they
paid to their general and division Off
GERS. He commended that these sums
| should not be incldded in the total
paid the workers.
He also exposed the method by.
which the railroads computed the "av-
erage" wage of the workers.
He showed from official statistics
that the number Of men employed on
the railroads varied greatly during
any normal year.
Taking advantage of this fact, the
railroads divided the total amount
paid in compensation-incl Guiding the
big salaries of presidents, attorneys.
general managers, etc.-by the mini
mum number of employees on the pay
roll at any time during given period.
tBy this method the average wage
was tremendously increased.
DR.. .Warne pointed out that in one
instance the railroads had succeeded