Evening star., 1938-06-14

wages SO as to get sSs s
out of the red, but -,
the railroad un-
ions say this must not be done and
no Government funds can be forth
coming if any such plan is contem-
plated, So Congress, being afraid of
the railroad brotherhoods and the lat
ter already having received assurance
from President Roosevelt that no wage
reductions are necessary, nothing is
done.
Last-minute efforts to get something
done for the railroads have been made
but the solution of the whole problem
is not forthcoming. Possibly it lies in
letting the railroad brotherhoods have
their way, keep their wages from being
cut, and letting the holders of railroad
securities get their interest payments
from the Government. This would be
q subsidy which is quite in line with
New Deal philosophy as it applies to
other groups of citizens. But in this
instance the subsidy is inevitable be-
cause the President and the Congress
want wages subsidized. The only ques-
tion is where the money is to come
from and presumably the source might
be the same one from which farmers
payments and other spending pro-
grams are to come-out of the dim
and distant earnings of taxpayers of
future generations
S19S, 100000 Payment.
After all, there is really little diff
ference between paying farmers for
not planting corn and paying railroad
workers for work not done. Accord
ing to one of the Interstate Commerce
Commission reports, the payments in
the year 1887 by the railroads to their
employees for work not done amounted
to about S198,00O,000 The wage in
creases of 1885 and 1887 added $780,
100000 per year to the pay roll costs
so that the total subsidy which the
railroads have been compelled to pay
amounts to about S5l8,000,000 year
or enough to cover the total interest
charges for the railroads and pull
most of them out of receiverships.
Now it could be conceded that the
railroad employees deserve these in
creases, but it cannot be conceded
that capital will continue to be sup
piled for any business which borroWs
at fixed interest charge and then
doesn't pay the interest on its bonds.
The wage increases and the payments
for work not done are directly and
indirectly the responsibility of the
Federal Government so that the sub
sidy to pay for them can, as logically
as farm subsidy, come out of the
Federal Treasury.
Some of the leaders of the railroad
brotherhoods have been talking about
Government ownership of the rail-
roads, which means, of course, that
there will be bigger and better sub
sides to be paid out of general tax
alton
In the last "a hours all sorts of
efforts have been made to get some
kind of compromise worked out but
each time the railway labor executives
have held the veto and what they say
Is done. The Misunderstanding to
no small extent the many educational
institutions, savings banks, hospitals
and life insurance companies-have
nobody here to represent them, GER
tainly nobody in the White House, so
the drift of the railroad situation is
bound to be worse rather than better.
The courage to tackle the whole prob
lem on an economic basis Is lacking
because politics holds sway.
Old Standards in Use.
Work not done" is one of the
abuses of the whole railroad operation.
Laws requiring that payment be made
on the basis of 100 miles as a days
work, standard adopted so years
ago when trains were very slow, are
still in existence They are to be
found alongside series of uneco-
nomic practices which cannot be
estimated as to cost. Thus, the rules
require that two men must do the
work of one on Diesel engine cabs.
Then there are additional wages due
to full crew. laws and limitations
on length Of freight trains in certain
States, and technical regulations
such as paying a full days pay to
workers for the IL minutes required
to take an empty train out of the
terminal at the Pennsylvania Station
in New York to the yards about 3 or
Z miles away.
Similar uneconomic rulings require
that gasoline car run on railroad
tracks should have four or five men,
whereas gasoline car run on ordinary
highways is usually operated by one
man.
Under circumstances like these, with
political power supreme and Con-
gress afraid to tackle questions of
this kind, the subsidy method is
perhaps the political way out-at least
for the time being, until the Ameri-
can people discover the meaning of
group pressure and organize a peo-
pies bloc.
(Copyright, 193S.)