Evening star., 1938-07-25

road ml!eabe IN
the hands of court receivers is the
highest in our history. No single fac
tor is the cause of all this, but a COM
bination of many factors. In an effort
to throw some light on the question,
this correspondent happened to men,
ton in these dispatches a few weeks
ago the railroad wage situation, de-
claring that an Interstate Commerce
Commission report showed work not
done" amounting to many millions OF
dollars a year.
Promptly the organ of the railroad
brotherhOods let loose a torrent OF
abuse upon the head of the writer,
declaring him in the pay OF the rail-
roads and that what was written
could only be paid propaganda. This,
however, is the customary answer OF
the lobby groups in Washington to
anybody who disagrees with them.
It's an old, old technique designed to
brow-beat or intimidate critics.
Union of Best Type.
The railroad brotherhoodS them
selves, on the other hand, are fine
union organization, perhaps the finest
type of labor union in the world.
Admiration for them has been re-
peatedly expressed in these dispatches.
Likewise, as far back as 1922, long
before the Wagner Act or the present
Railroad Mediation Act was passed
bv Congress, this correspondent was
defending the right Of collective bar
gaining by the railroad workers and
was disputing the point of view of
Gen. Atterbury, president of the Penn
svlvania, as to the right of workmen
to be represented by spokesmen OF
their own choosing. But basic SYM
pathy for the railroad workers by one
correspondent is not important, and 1t
Is mentioned only to point out that,
in a public relations sense, the agents
Of the railroad brotherhoods in Wash
tngton are about as tactless as some
of the steel barons in attempting to
exert pressure on newspapers and
newspaper men.
The only thing that is important
Is the facts. If a misstatement of
fact ever occurs in these dispatches
on any important subject, this writer
Is eager to acknowledge error and to
set forth the correction. There's no
good reason for not doing 1t. None
of us is infallible, and in the multi
tude Of questions confronting Wash
,ngton writer 1t would be phenomenal
Il occasionally the statistics which he
reprints from other sources were not
open to question.
Wage Policy Hit.
But what are the facts about "work
not done?" will the railroad brother
hood agents enlighten the public on
this phase as used in the Interstate
Commerce Commission reports? A
discussion of the subject becomes
timely because the railroad executives
and the railroad brotherhoods now are
In the midst of series of conferences
on railroad wage scales and their re-
duction. Nobody likes to see wage re-
ductions 1t is bad economics and
bad for nations morale. What is
more essential is wage equalization,
and this correspondent had the temer-
ity last autumn to mention that in the
face of decline in freight revenues
the railroad brotherhoods were mis-
taken in forcing big wage in
crease. which IN turn forced out of
employment many railroad workers in
the lower income groups, though pro-
tecting the men with seniority rights.
However this may be, whether John
l., Lewis is right in his theory that
only vertical union will protect the
men IN the lower wage brackets from
such tactics, or whether the railroad
brotherhoods will develop statesman
ship and bring about equalization not
only from the point Of view of the men
but also of the owners of the railroads,
this aspect must be subordinated now
to a discussion of what is meant by
work not done"
My attention was first attracted to
the phrase by an article appearing in
the New York Times on May % last
by Elisha NJ Friedman. who so far
as know is an independent economist
and not connected with railroads.
But even if he were his figures are
so startling as to demand an answer.
He wrote:
The wage increases of S320,00O, 900
plus payment for work not done of
.Sl98S23.l40 equals about $500 900,
which sum is equivalent almost to the
annual interest charges of the rail-
roads"
The New York Times editorially
commented thus:
AS Elisha M. Friedman points out