Montana labor news., 1938-09-01
Railroad Union Officers
Defend Their Refusal
To Accept Reduction

Under mediation proceedings the
discussion between the Mediation
Board and the representatives of the
Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen
are required to be secret and con-
fidential, and only for this reason
we cannot divulge to you from day
to day any of the discussions or pro-
ceedings had with the Mediation
Board, and it is equally true that
the representatives of the railroad
management are bound by the same
rules and restrictions.
However, during the time that
these proceedings are going on it has
come to our notice that, undoubtedly
upon the initiative of the railroads
and for the purpose of affecting pub
lie opinion, various news releases
have been issued and given publicity
in the press of the country. 1t will
not be possible for us to answer all
of the vicious and false propaganda
that has been and is being constantly
dished out to the press, and in some
instances issued in the pay envelopes
of the employees of the railroads, as
these gentlemen 60 blindly on their
way in an effort to take from your
pockets and the pockets of the rail
road workers the money which right
fully belongs to you and which we
do not propose to give them at the
behest of their bosses, the Wall Street
bankers, who would be the chief
beneficiaries of a wage cut.
There has been called to our at
tention a press release issued by
Samuel 0. Dunn, editor of the Rail
way Age, which will undoubtedly
appear in many of the newspapers
of the country, in which he urges
the workers to take a wage cut. This
statement in the first sentence of
the first paragraph starts out with
a falsehood, and the entire article is
filled with misinformation and false
statements which the railroad work
ers must combat at every opportuni-
ty. He states that the railroad work
ers are receiving higher incomes
than they ever received before"
when, as a matter of fact, the wages
received by the railroad workers to-
day, are in most instances barely
sufficient to give them a decent liv-
ing. The philosophy of Mr.. Dunn,
as well as the railroad moguls, is in
direct conflict with the position of
President Roosevelt and every for
ward Hooking and patriotic Ameri-
can. It is the position of the wage
cutters that wages must be slashed
in order to bring about prosperity.
Nothing could be further from the
truth. Mr.. Dunn says, eff the main
tenance of the present railway wages
is in the public interest they should
be maintained" and we fully agree
with that principle. 1t is in the pub
lie interest that the railroad workers
should be given a living wage. 1t is
in the public interest that the men
who work upon the railroads should
not be constantly subjected to the
uncertainty and insecurity which has
always bounded them in recent
years.
Men who are under-paid, under
fed and under-clothed cannot render
a service which enables the railroads
to function and the public.
During our discussions of this matter
with the members of the Carriers
Joint Conference Committee we re-
peatedly challenged them to make
the statement that the railroad work.
ers were receiving more than a bare
living wage, and not once during the
entire series of conferences did a
single one of the committee assert
that these men were being paid more
than a bare living wage. 1t is time
that the public who is interested in
railroad service and to whom the
Continued on Page l2)