Show making strikes unlawful solution of problem for public utilities in Regu regulation ladon of wages As well As rates by OSCAR S STRAUS chairman new york public service Com Comm nuMion Won all employees of public service corporations ato are servants of the public just as soldiers and sailors and postal gostaf clerks and school schoolteachers teachers are servants of the public they must bo be protected in the matter of wages and working conditions by public regulation but as their employment is not a private employment and ana as a strike by them is of necessity a strike against the public the public must safeguard itself by legislation curtailing the right of concerted action in the case of employees of public service corporations in curtailing the right of strike or concerted action in the interest of the public tho the same public should not object to accord exceptional tr provisions ovi and wages to public service employees and to pay when necessary increased rates for services rendered the industrial problem in public service utilities subjects the welfare and necessities of the whole people within the areas affected to the mercy or perhaps it is better to say to the arbitrary power of two comparatively small groups the operators and the employees these groups although small are year by year becoming more compact and more powerful so powerful indeed that wi unregulated regulated they constitute a direct menace to the state now in the past thirty years we have mado made very considerable i progress in placing one of these groups under public control the men who operate railways and public utilities are arc being put more and more under public restraint and government control it is time we 11 did the same thing to the other group the employees public service corporations are monopolies and enil endowed owed with rights as well as with the duty to serve the public they are dedicated to public interests owned by private capital but controlled and regulated by the public in order that these public service monopolies may be compelled to serve the public their employees must alap be made to recognize their duty to the public and they should not be permitted to paralyze the operation of public utilities in return they should be accorded special wages and ana conditions of service I 1 lay stress upon the right of the employee of a public service corporation to exceptional wages and conditions in favoring the regulation of wages as well as rates I 1 of course believe that the human element clement the wages of the men and their conditions of employment should be paramount rates bates should always he be subordinate to wages and not wages as now subordinate to rates |