Jasper County Democrat, Volume 22, Number 43, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 August 1919 — UNWISE TO RAISE THE RATES To Provide Higher Pay of R. R. Employes, Says President. [ARTICLE]

UNWISE TO RAISE THE RATES

To Provide Higher Pay of R. R. Employes, Says President.

Washington, D. C., August 25. Postponement of the settlement of wage demands until normal economic conditions are restored was announced today by President Wilson as the policy which the administration will pursue In dealing with such questions, particularly those affecting railroad workers. The president announced also that it was neither wise nour feasible at this time, when the most important question before the country is a return to a normal price level, to attempt to Increase freight rates to provide funds for higher wages. “We ought to postpone questions of this sort until we have had the opportunity for certain calculation as to bhe relations between wages and the cost of living,” the president declared in a statement to the public explaining his decision as to wage. "It is the duty of every citizen to insist upon a truce in such contests until intelligent settlements can be made, and made by peace and effective common counsel. I appeal to my fellow citizens of every employment to co-operate in insisting upon and maintaining such a truce.” Mr. Wilson’s statement was issued in connection with the direction of himself and Director General Hines on demands by railway shopmen for a 25% advance in wages, but the general policy pronounced covers also the wage demands of other hundreds of thousands of railway workers, which are pending before the director general or about to be presented. It is to be expected that other unions trying to obtain more pay will be asked, as the ehopmen, to play their part with other citizens in reducing the cost of living by foregoing a temporary advantage which would add to the transportation costs. The decision of the president and the director general was announced to a committee of 100, representing the shopmen. In reply to their demands for a 25% increase, the shopmen were asked to accept an adjustment of their pay to be on basis of 16 hours’ pay for 8 hours’* work, which they contend was given other employes and. denied them when the Adamson law became effective. This means an "advance of the basis pay from 68 cents to 72 cents an hour, whereas an increase of 17 cents to 85 cents an hour was demanded.

In view of the delay of the railway administration board on wages and working conditions in reporting on the demands of the shopmen, Director General Hines recommended that the new rate of pay be. made retroactive from May 1 although the board’s report was made July 16, the days of report generally being taken as the retroactive date. Under the new scale of wages, machinists, tool makers, boiler makers, blacksmiths, sheet metal workers and electricians, all of whom now receive 68 cents an hour, will receive 72 cents, helpers will receive 49 cents an hour instead of the present wage of 45 cents. Acting President Jewell of the railway employes department of the American Federation of Labor and his advisors said they would communicate the decision to the union locals for acceptance or rejection. A strike vote completed yesterday but not yet tabulated, was on the

question whether the men should quit work to enforce the consider' ation of their demands by the railway administration instead of by a congressional committee as first suggested. As this plan was abandoned, the vote, which with its result, Is. non-effective, and the shopmen now have an entirely new question before them. This question, they were asked by President Wilson, through their committee, to consider “in a new light’’ Mr. Hines’ recommendation to the president as to the amount of Increase to be given, went exhaustively into the reasons advanced by the shopmen as to the necessity for more pay. He showed that the average increase In shopmen’s earnings was in excess of the total increase in the cost of living from July 1, 1815, and August 1, 1919, due to the fact that standardization adopted at the request of the employes had given thousands a higher classification and higher pay than they previously enjoyed. Wages paid for similar work in shipyards, which workers the shopmen have cited as higher paid, Mr. Hines said, were higher because the woirk was temporary and carried on under great pressure, and also the workmen were forced to live in congested districts where living was extremely high, while railway shopmen generally have the advantage of small or semi-rural communities. Private industry, the director general found, were paying about 3 cents an hour more than the railway administration, which difference will be equalized under the 4 cent advance. In addition to the 4 cents an hour increase for most of the shopmem, the director general ordered that all freight car repairmen receive 65 cents an hour, Instead of 63 cents for steel car repairers and 58 cents for wood car repairers and that car inspectors should receive 67 cents Instead of 58 cents, with the exception! in both classes that that increase for men employed at outlying points, where the work is not continuous, shall be 4 cents an hour.