Paragould soliphone. (Paragould, Ark.) 1918-1950, 1922-06-23
.SAYSSTRIKE
WOULD NJURE
LABOR UNIONS
Chairman Of Labor Board
Issues Warning in Reply
to Leaders - Wanting
Railway Peace.

ship is predicted to follow the threat
ened walkout on which strike vote
is being taken by nine railroad labor
organizations in a letter from Ben
w. Hooper, chairman of the Rail-
road Labor Board, to the union
leaders yesterday
Answering letter from the un-
ion chiefs to the board, which de-
clared the executives will authorize
a strike if the employees demand it,
Chairman Hooper made categorical
reply to the fierce assaults on the
board for which, he said, there is
no ground.
with the degree of friendly in
terest that 1 feel in these organiza-
tions and with the recognition l ac-
cord to their great service to their
membership, | am hopeful that they
will not adopt course that will
ganizations and unfortunate to the
men composing them wrote Mr..
Hooper.
1T is regrettable that such a
step is contemplated at time when
the country is just entering upon
an era of more stable industrial con-
ditions that gives promise of an en-
larged degree of prosperity to rail
way employees"
Willing to Co-operate.
Although Chairman Hooper said
in his letter which was addressed
TO B. W. Jewell, president of the
Railway Employees Department of the
American Federation of Labor, that
he feels no reply is required to the
| unions strike avowal, he expressed
"a willingness to go beyond the
strict limits of my official author
| ity in the interest of railway peace"
He said he feels it his duty to reply
because the threatened strike con
tains such possibilities of loss and
detriment" to the strikers. The
chairman adds that a strike vote
should not be taken on any misun
Outstanding of the action or attitude
of the board, but said the union
chiefs letter manifests "a striking
distorted conception of what the
board has done and why it did it,
Several statements are pointed out
as distortions
Your statement that the boards
last decision states openly that pres
sure of circumstances is such that
the board was unable to determine
just and reasonable wages is not
correct" the letter said. ''The deci-
sion contains no such statement
and none that can be fairly so con
strued.
"Your statement that the board
failed to take into consideration the
principle that even the lowest paid
railway employees, such as section
men and laborers, should receive at
least living wage is utterly base
| less
Mr.. Hooper then attacks the "con-
| tinual isolation and accentuation" of
the minimum 23-cent rate for COM
mon labor which, he said, is made
| misleading by the union men.
Wages Above Level.
The 23-cent rate, he says, is found
on few roads, mostly in the South
where the cost of living lis unusually
low, and where the men are fur
nished free living quarters. lie
points out that this low paid class
of common labor in 1915 received
but Is cents an hour and in 1917
| 1873 cents, increases of 118 and
69.4 per cent, respectively. The
average pay of the section hand, the
chairman adds, will under the July
| l reduction, still be 1877 higher
than in 1915.
| Wages of other employees, also, he
adds, ARE very considerably larger
than in 1917 or in 1915.
/ Surely the leaders of these rail-
way labor organizations cannot ex-
pect to win the approval of the
people of the United States by a
| iiSiu, uAy " tHC
inevitable process of REIMBURSEMENT
which has been in progress for the
past year" the letter continues.
IF the public is satisfied. that the
railway employees have been even
more than fairly dealt with, by com
parison with similar labor, and in
view of the conditions surrounding
that they shall be treated as abso-
|lutely immune from the operation
of the economic processes through
which everybody else must pass.
THE fact cannot be overlooked
that the policy of the leaders of the
employees seems to be to accept no
reduction, however slight"
The letter concludes by citing the
case of the stationary firemen and
oilers, who are taking strike vote,
and whose pay was reduced two
cents am hour. Their wages still
would be 100 to 1899 per cent over
those of 1915, the letter said, 'an
enormous increase over the com
pensation they received before the