The Butler County press. [volume] (Hamilton, Ohio) 1900-1946, 1938-11-04
CAPITAL HICHLICHTS
Wage Hour Bill Indicates America
Has Decided Future Progress Must
Cover All - Bankrupt Company
Union Wins Pennsylvania Rail-
road Shops Election.
BY GEORGE L. KNAPP

w dSLliIS COil, ~. ~. NAilANof
teen persons out of twenty who think
of it at all-and this is something that
comes home to nearly everyone-had |
feeling Of satisfaction and progress
when the wage-hour bill went into eff
feet. At least 100000 workers have
their wages raised from this day
forth; and twice as many have their
work week shortened Child labor un-
der IA years is barred in most occupa-
tions and guarded from then till 16
years.
1t is as if the American people had
decided that future progress must help
everybody. The whole field Of labor is
not covered-far from it, but within
these rather narrow bounds, the
weaker members of society will not be
thrown in the ditch to let the so-called
car of progress cross over them. Be-
fore long, those boundaries will be
widened.
Of course there is growing, snarl-
ing, pinching on some parts Of the
line. The tobacco stemmeries of Win
| ston- Salem, for instance, say they
can't and won't pay anybody 25 cents
an hour to stem tobacco; they'll get
machines. / have handled many hum
dreds of stemmers' pay envelopes in
that very town; and quarters
of them ran from SO to Sc week
Decent relief would be pleasant by
comparison.
j A company union which was taken
to bankruptcy court last summer on
$51 printing bill has won in an cleo
tion the right to bargain collectively
for the shopmen of the Pennsylvania
Railroad.
This union is called the Brotherhood
Of Railroad Shop Crafts. How many
members it had before this election
came up no one seems to know; esti-
mates ran from 5000 to 10000 But
in the election just certified by the Ma
tional Mediation Board, 32,376 men
were declared eligible to vote, and
1908 of them voted for the Brother
hood of Railroad Shop Crafts. Seven
craft unions of the A. F. of L. were
lined up against the Brotherhood; and
not one got majority in its own craft.
Explanation 1t isn't made, yet. 1t
is literally true that last August, the
union was hailed into court for not
paying a $51 bill; and in September
and October, it makes clean sweep
on the road with the biggest shops in
America.
The B. R. S. C. will be right at home
1t is the company's child. Its birth
was due to the shopmen's strike 1e
years ago-the last big strike in the
\ railroad field w. W. Atterbury, pres.
ident of the Pennsy, cut off 80 per cent
of the railroads force within a very
short time after the roads were turned
j back to owners from the war period o1
government control. The B. r. S. G
u was formed before or during the
a strike; and most of it's members have
been on the Pennsy ever since.
Incidentally, when the government
K turned back the roads to their "own.
o ers" !" it guaranteed them To certain net
e income for six months. They fired g
t lot of theif own men, let repairs to out
0 side shops for what they thought the
traffic would bear-and the l. c. C
found the Pennsylvania letting out en-
: gines to be repaired at more thar
S $4,000 apiece when the same engines
e with the same repairs in the Pennsy':
= own shops cost less than $4,000.