Jasper County Democrat, Volume 22, Number 57, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 October 1919 — Wage Flamers Should Be Represented on Railroad Boards of Directors [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Wage Flamers Should Be Represented on Railroad Boards of Directors

By Senator ALBERT B.

.CUMMINS of lowa

The permanent railroad policy bill submitted to the senate by the interstate commerce committee has these major features: Provisions for termination of government control of the railroads; their return to private ownership and operation under rigid federal control and consolidation into region systems; prohibition of strikes and lockouts of employees; joint committee on wages; representation of employees on boards of directors. My personal opinion is that the wage earner should be represented on the boards of directors of the rail-

roads. Every member of this committee believes that the classified personnel should participate in the management of the railroads. By including their spokesmen among the directors their peculiar problems could be worked out by those most concerned and best informed. If this were done I believe most of their controversies would be adjusted before they reached the point of publicity. The measure contains none of the fundamentals of the Plumb plan The Plumb plan is the soviet principle, with very little concealment. The soviet society is one in which the wage-earning class of a given industry or community exercise complete control over that industry or community. The program of the railroad brotherhoods looks to the control of the transportation industry by its wage-earning personnel. Our industrial civilization is founded on the relationship between employer and employee, and I do not believe it can be succeeded by any other. The plan of the brotherhoods would destroy that relationship so far as the railroads are concerned, and we cannot assume that it would be attempted only in that industry.