The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1927-07-19
BIO. Willard Shows His Hands

wonderful progress" of the B. & o.
Plan. Dan Willard was held up as
the ideal type of railroad executive;
as the personification of the worker
employer cooperation plan.
What Means Cooperation?
Willard in his speech says that he
began to examine his methods, when
the shipments strike began; and that
this led to the B. & 0. Plan. But
what he fails to mention is that there
would have been no strike, if the rail-
way companies had not cut the shop
mems wages repeatedly to a point Of
desperation. Cooperation was entered
into by the machinists, only after Of
fetal bungling and treachery had
weakened the unions and rendered
them helpless. And instead of adopt
ing measures to strengthen the unions
through organization drives and ANAL
gamation, the union officials bound
the union with cords of steel and de-
livered it over bodily to the companies,
as the price for union recognition and
continued per capita into the Grand
Lodge.
There have been no benefits from
this so-called scheme of cooperation.
No special wage increases, no special
betterment of shop conditions. But
rather, improved profits for the COM
pany. The plan has been one-sided,
of benefit to the company, with the
workers making suggestions for i'm
provement in equipment and elimina-
ton of waste.
Why the Drive On the 8-Hour Day?
Q Five of the nine signers of the
report for the ten-hour day are from
railways that are in the list of the
25 corporations with the largest pro-
fits in 1926. These are the PennsyI-
vania R. R., New York Central, Union
Pacific, Baltimore and Ohio, and St.
Paul R. r.
(2) Railroad dividends for 1926, ac-
cording to the u. S. Department of
Commerce figures, were $3.50, $4,000,
which surpassed all previous records.
(3) The average wage of railway
employees paid on an hourly basis for
1926 was under $1,000.
In the face of large profits, and a
low wage, why the drive for the ten
hour day? The answer is simple. The
railway companies wish to increase
their profits, and this is one of the
means of doing it. On the basis of
struggle between the workers and the
employers, it is easily understood. But
when one has faith in Dan Willard
and his cooperation plan, it cannot be
explained, for it is contradictory to
the basis of the cooperation plan. The
trade union officials supporting the
B. & 0. plan, especially the officials
of the l. A. of NJ. are confronted with
two possibilities-(1) to renounce the
worker-employer cooperation plan,
and enter into struggles to better con-
ditions, or (2) to help Willard and the
other officials to force the plan down
the Threats of the membership. The
officialdom of the I. A. of M. is weak
and passive toward the employers. On
ly the active resistance of the men,
bership to the introduction of the ten
hour day will defeat the plan.
But Wizards action shows that he
used the B. & o. plan to rope the I.
A. of M. members in for the financial
gain of his company, and that he
would throw over the plan and adopt
open warfare when it was advanta-
geous to him. He shows that the B.
& 0. plan is plan for the B. & o.
Company, and not for the workers.
An immediate task for the progress
sive elements in the I. A. of M. is to
conduct nationwide campaign
against the Baltimore and Ohio Plan,
linking it up with Wizards advocacy
of the ten-hour day.