Year: 1877

The Wrong Remedy.


Ehere is no Disgusting the fact that
the public sympathy is with the en-
Moyees of the Baltimore and Ohio
Railroad who are trying to prevent
further reduction of their wages
by preventing the running of freight
trains. If the statements made by
the Striking firemen as to their in
sutilcient compensation is correct
land we have no reason to doubt
theip), they certainly have reason
- cpmplain of the system adopted
hy the Company which prevents
theIn from working more than two
l0sfonr days in the week, and throws
on them the burden of paying their
boarding at the terminus ofthes sdis
'vfsesl ) TIL they hive a ehauee to
bring train back to the starting
point where they have their homes.
1he fireman who makes the trip
from Baltimore to Martinsburg, and
remains there two days at his own
expense before he can get back to
Baltimore, has not earned dollar
over and above his expenses during
his three days running and waiting.
A system like this is certainly calcu-
lated to breed discomfort among train
men, and to impress them with the
conviction that they are not justly
dealt with.


When we come to investigate the
underlying cause Of this apparent
injustice to the iiremen on the freight
engines, we find no reason for charg-
ing the Company with a disposition
to oppress its employees. In f ct, the
whole trouble proceeds from a laud-
able effort on the part Of the COmpa
ny to keep more men in its employ
than are necessary for the moving Of
its trains during the present season
Of depression in business. The man
ayers Of the road supposed that it
would be better to give the firemen
a chance to make three or four trips
week than to dischage them en-
tirely. 1t happened that the pract-
ical effect of dividing work among
six hundred men that could have
been performed by two hundred
dissatisfied all Of them, and precip-
itated the present unfortunate strike.
But in presenting their case to the
public, the strikers mus not lose
sight Of the fact that they were Obli-
ged to wait at the ends of divisions
for day or two before making the
return trip simply because there were
no trains for them to bring back.


The decline in business IS some
thing over which the Baltimore and
Ohio Railroad Company has no con-
troll. 1t would be to its interest to
keep all its freight engines i'll con-
stant motion, and to allow the fire
men to make full trip every day in
the week if there was sufficient freight
to be moved to justify the working
of the road to its full capacity; bat
the company cannot afford to keep
its rolling stock in motion merely
for the sake Of giving its employees
an opportunity to earn reasonable
wages. 1t has tried to do something
in the way of philanthropy by cut
ting down wages and dividing up the
work of moving its trains among a
great many people in order to keep
them in its service but the attempt
has been a failure, and the strike that
is now destroying its business and
wasting its resources can be traced
to this well meant endeavOr to di-
vide the labor and wages of one EN-
ployee among three. Whether this
last reduction in the pay of the fire.
men is enforced or not the inevitable
result of the strike will be the dis
charge of every man whose services
can be dispensed with. Unless there
is some improvement in business
these unfortunate strikers may in
the end regret that they did not sub
NIT to what seemed to them a most
unjust reduction in their pay rather
than bring Oh crisis which deprived
them of all means of earning a living.


AS we have already said, the stri-
kers have the public sympathy on
their side. The average man and
woman take IA purely sentimental
view of the struggle between the en-
ployer and the employed, and are
prone to regard the former as a grasp
ing and eXacting tyrant. When it is
Il corporation that seeks to put down
or keep down the wages OF its en-
plOyes the familiar maxim that cor
poratiOns have no souls" fifty eX-
presses the popular condemnation of
its conduct. People read the touch
ing narratives of the poverty, the
perils and the fOrbearance of the long
suffering firemen who are now on a
Gtl'i l[p and tbnV fort n Wi h pDppl D1p