The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1923-02-22

The Herald, at the request of the
railroad men is publishing herewith
a synopsis of an article which ap-
peared in an issue of the Minneapolis
Daily Star. written by Basil M. Manly,
director of the Peoples Legislative
Service:
The Senate committee on Interstate
commerce has now furnished us with
the answers to these two questions IN
the form of a series of tables covering
24O pages of Volume V of its hear
ings on railroad revenues and expens-
es. These tables show for 81 rail-
roads, large and small, the. salaries
of all officials receiving more than
$4,000 per year, and the amount OF
increase or decrease in those salaries
between March, 1920, when the roads
were returned to private ownership,
and July 1, 1921, when the big slash
was made. They show also what the
salaries were in 1914, 1917, in 1920.
and during the first six months OF
1921. Many important roads, such as
the D. l.. & w. Lehigh Valley, South
ern and Union Pacific failed to report,
but nevertheless the reports are suf-
ficently numerous to be representa-
tive.
One would naturally expect that
those roads which were most insistent
on wage-cutting in the interests OF
economy would be the ones which
had cut salaries most severely, but
these statistics show just the oppo-
site. The "hard-boiled" roads boosted
the high salaries and left them up,
while the roads which have been lib
eral in their wage negotiations have
shown a readiness to reduce salaries
along with wages. The Delaware and
Hudson and the Southern Pacific, for
example, which have been leaders In
wage slashing propaganda, boosted
the salaries of high executives and for
got to cut them down when the wage
cuts came. The Baltimore and Ohio,
on the other hand, which has shown
a disposition to deal with its men on
a reasonable basis, gave few of its
high salaried executives any increas-
es following the return to private
management, but cut many salaries
when they demanded that their men
accept wage cuts, the president, Dan
iel Willard. leading the procession
with reduction of $500 in his $751;
900 salary.
- Taking all the roads together, we
find that out of the rs which report
ed salary increases or decreases for
railroad presidents and chairmen of
boards of directors, 40 made no chang
es in the salaries of these chief exc
cutive officers during the period when
they were clamoring for wage reduc-
tions. Eight of the roads first in
creased these top salaries and later
reduced them, while nine made reduc-
tons without having made any in
creases. Twenty however, increased
the salaries of these presidents and
board chairmen, most of whom were
getting $4,000 year or more, and
then failed to reduce them when they
were cutting wages all along the line.
3 1t may be, of course, that salary re-
auctions on these roads required the
approval of the presidents. Among
these presidents who failed to demand
reductions of their own wages ap-
pear many who have been making
the welkin ring with denunciations of
railroad workers for demanding a
living wage. The motto of these ex-
ecutives evidently "eGt all you can
and hold fast to what you get"
'The biggest single salary received
by any of the railroad executives is
the 100000 of julius Kruttschnitt,