Evening star., 1955-07-03
The Present

Capital Transit's troubles came to
a crisis last week. The company
said it could not pay another penny
an hour to its employees. and the
union said its men would not work
without a raise. Close observers
were convinced that both sides
meant what they said.
They did mean it. Forty minutes
after the contract expired at mid
night Thursday the walkout was
ordered.
The week was spent in "nego-
tiating' sessions. A Federal media
tor tried his hand and got nowhere.
Then the District Commissioners
tried repeatedly to change the
minds Of both sides. The Board Of
Trade and the Merchants and
Manufacturers Association tried to
find a compromise. Congressional
committees talked to the principals
and Senators debated the strike
issues on the floor.
But neither side gave way.
The Arguments
Here is what they argued:
The union said they had earned
a raise and that Capital Transit
could afford to give one. The COM
pany bad been fooling the public
about its finances, union officials
said. CTC was not limping along,
but actually had made more than
81 million last year. It was bit
of tricky bookkeeping that showed
the smaller sums, it was charged.
Furthermore, the union said, If the
company has case. let 1t take it
to an impartial arbitrator. The
union would accept any decision.
And behind the scenes, union men
indicated they would not hold out
for the full 25-centS- -plus-fringe-
benefits package.
The company said it had no
money to offer and therefore could
not make a counter-proposal. The
package would cost 81 million a
year, j. A. B. Broadwater, company
president, said. And the company
didn't have that money. Arbitra-
ton is out because (the company
said> an arbitrator always gives
something to union and always
ignores an inability-to-pay plea.
Peoee Efforts
The principal efforts to get the
two sides to meet somewhere in
the middle were these:
o First. induce the union to wait
at least 80 days before striking.
In that period something might
turn up.
. Second, get the company to
make some small offer. enough to
encourage workers to stay on the
job.
The union said it would need q
substantial show of good faith be-
fore it would extend the strike
deadline.
The company said it could only
ask the union to wait six months,
see how the proposed fare raise
affected revenues and then resume
talks about raises.
This failure of the company to
talk compromise even behind the
scenes led many persons to feel the
company welcomed a strike-that
Mr.. Wolfson believed a strangled
city would be ready to grant the
company financial concessions or
would buy the company outright.
at a fat profit to Mr.. Wolfson. But
company spokesmen denied vigor-
ously that any such thing was on
his mind.
The financier himself was in Cali
fornia. however, answering no
phone calls, so no one knew what
was on his mind.
The First Breok
The first slight break in the COM
pany's stand came Wednesday
when Mr.. Broadwater offered to
set aside for q raise any money
realized from a cut in earnings tax
or from an increase in school fare.
The union said 1t would not accept
any such contingent offer.
So the strike began.
Traffic jammed downtown streets,
but cars did get through, and peo-
pie did get to work. The shutdown
was losing money for merchants at
a rate Of IS million to $40 million a
month. The company was losing
at the rate Of $4,000 a month.
union members at a rate Of 81 mil
lion a month and the District at
5000, 900 q month in taxes.
The talk about losses per month